Ok, I have to ask, did they choose to greatly simplify the mechanics from OG Riders because of the Wii's motion controls, or because people complained about said mechanics after the first game?

Zero Gravity feels like it's on autopilot for the most part, almost braindead. Riders' gameplay wasn't super polished or anything, but drifting, boosting and air management felt pretty good to master. All of those are thrown out the window here in favor of gravity mechanics that seem like they open crazy possibilities on the surface, but don't add much at the end of the day. Stopping everything to reposition yourself in a sharp turn doesn't feel nearly as good as keeping up speed with a tight drift. (I was gonna say "At least it looks pretty cool" but I'm not too sure about that either. It loses its luster after the 30th time you have to use it.)

Track variety isn't much better when compared to the original; honestly, it's a bit worse. The water track is the only one that stood out to me, everything else felt kind of samey. It doesn't help that there are certain parts of the story mode where you're racing by yourself, making these tracks feel even more barren than they would otherwise.

The story is pretty inconsequential again, but the presentation did get an upgrade across the board; in-game models and CG cutscenes all look much better, and the soundtrack is sick. Catch Me If You Can and Ungravitify are super catchy, stage themes weren't bad either, Gigan Rocks being my favorite, and it has one of the best Main Menu themes in any game ever, instantly recognizable and iconic.

It's a shame. Riders had a lot of potential with its gameplay system, and I hoped that Zero Gravity would expand on those ideas, but instead it feels like they got cold feet.

Don’t know if I’m quite as taken with this as the fanbase at large is, but it’s easy to see why it’s such a favorite; for all the fine-tuning around the progression system and the changes to the weapon lineup, it’s the big narrative moments that make this such a strong experience. With some hindsight, a real strength of the Zero sub-series is that they flow pretty naturally together when played back-to-back, meaning that all the unresolved tension of 1 and 2 are given a game’s worth of space to play out here. It can be hard to think of a portable game as ever really being “AAA,” but Inti Creates plays out these moments with such conviction that the betrayals and revelations about the characters land with some real weight, despite the tinny bombast that it’s been presented with.

Nowhere near good enough to comment on some of its deeper changes, (like, I assume the recoil rod is something you can get a huge amount of value out of if you’re a fiend- I am not that person) but structurally, it’s a massive improvement over the other titles, mainly for the fact that it bolsters the midgame by having you rematch against three bosses from the prior games, and cuts down the finale to two levels, giving the action some real momentum at a time when things would normally start to drag down into their most familiar. Combined with the strong narrative elements, and it's the entry that's the most exciting to just casually play through- compelling even as your letter grade starts to nosedive.

Despite the months-long break between playing the first two games and now this, there’s still a bit of series fatigue that’s no doubt cooled my impressions on this, but it’s undeniably satisfying seeing an entry smartly build on and improve its predecessor's foundations.

I got DDP Resurrection because I watched a review for a switch release of DDP DOJ, and then bought the wrong game. This game feels so WILD, you're pushed to be super aggressive, something the generous auto-bomb system seems to hint at... in the few stages I tried to learn (just 1-1 and 1-2) it felt like you had to be really preventative, like quickly managing all the escalating risks that would fly onto the screen - on top of the actual bullet avoidance. Being able to hyper your way out of a situation or to play it safe felt really cool.

I appreciate all the thought that goes into the design, the subtle ways in which bullet patterns escalate and build on each other, the fun of learning stages and then pulling the whole thing off in the end.

Of all things, shmups remind me the most of being a kid and trying to memorize songs on the piano, working through harder sections one at a time to try and pull the whole thing off ("Playing for Survival") and then going back and actually working in personal flair/expression ("Playing for Score"). Sort of like with shmups, I never really got too much into that hobby as a 'soloist' beyond playing in orchestra/band. And I don't think shmups and playing music are really that alike, but there does seem to be something similar in how you have to train/learn at both, and the way in which stuff that feels impossible slowly becomes possible.

Actually, it's hard not to try and compare shmups to many things in life! They (like other arcade games) really distill the whole difficulty/learning thing down to some pure essence. But in particular, these bullet hell shmups feel like they're compressing that essence even further - it's an interesting design space to learn from and experience.

noticeable step down from the original. while it adds more characters and refines the combat a bit, it takes zero advantage of what made the original game distinct and compelling - the ability to move around the naruto setting with the speed and agility often presented in the source material. in the first game, there were a ton of wide open areas with challenges focuses on nimble platforming, but this game largely replaces that with narrow corridors and the worst fucking goof-troop style "puzzles" i have ever played. i would not recommend this to anyone but someone trying to explore every game tied to the IP.

(Completed meaning I watched a full playthrough, am working through the game itself rn though)

I make it my business to play strange games, yet Discipline, a Japan-exclusive WiiWare game that's a mix between a pet simulator and a stealth game stands above the rest in it's unabashed strangeness and even braveness tackling a less than pretty thematic.

It's a game by Kazutoshi Iida (Doshin the Giant, Aquanaut's Holiday, Tail of the Sun), all pretty strange, surreal and somewhat unnerving games. While not strictly a horror game, Discipline has you going through a medical operation, where you are eaten by a giant shark-like beast and whisked off to an experimental prison in order to save your ill sister (according to this article you're doing it to rake up the fund for her surgery) That's at least what I can make out of the setup of the game. You are put in prison with a bunch of weirdos, and you have to use an uhh interestingly shaped living device that takes water from your body, mixes it around, and by some literal alchemy turns it into something you shoot at objects in your prison cell to fulfill your cellmates wants and needs (it opens stuff like toilets or pulls down beds, opens up food trays). I couldn't make this up if I tried. Eventually if you fulfill a bunch of their needs they (literally) break, and the device takes up their karma. That's the setup.

Now the game, like I've hinted at, is somewhat of a pet simulator; you have to keep an eye on the gauges of each of your inmates desires (stuff like hunger, tiredness, etc.) because if one of them goes into the red, then they could very well do something crazy that will land you in solitary confinement (luckily, it's not really game over, it's just annoying). Add on top of this that there is guards patrolling, and if they see you using your device you will get a mark, 3 marks and you are in solitary confinement. That's the stealth part of the game.

This game is sadly, as Wiiware (and on top of that as a Japan-exclusive) lost to obscurity a little bit. I actually don't mind it's obscure status, because it's a very niche game by it's nature. Vinny from Vinesauce played it though, which is one of the few english speaking videos I could find on it, and it's main claim to fame. One win for surreal and honest videogames with prison, and maybe subliminal healthcare system messages. Sadly it's also one loss for preservation, but I speculate it's a bit of a personal work for Iida so I don't know if he would really want it to be for sale again, so we will have to respect that if it is the case (such is pure speculation though). Anyway, it's become an extremely personal work for me.

Spectacular. A completely succinct package where each level is a masterclass in this series' philosophy. I'm neutral on a submachine gun being your default gun (other weaponry can be unlocked later), but that riot shield being yr primary form of cover is a small stroke of genius. It doesn't function any different, it just allows this illusion of free flowing throughout each level, bobbing in & out to pop baddies.

My only hang-up is that thee bonus mission - exclusive to this PS2 port - drops thee ball about half way thru. That initial trawl thru thee vender-riddled streets, icing off in a freezer, fending off against a camouflaged tank - all sincerely highlight moments that would have fit nicely into any other game in thee series. Frantically flailing my reticle around in hopes of popping a leak in boat while weaving in & out of missiles is not my idea of a slick send off to thee mission though. Additional mini game inclusions, however, are something that I would never turn down. Wreaking havoc to media store stock, or firing up a staircase ala MGS1 was a rush of warm blood to my head. Do not miss this.

Part of my Light/Rail Shooter list.