skyebaron
2023
A painfully average and overly priced game. Superstars at least gets the movement physics of the Sonic group and some music tracks right while everything else felt mediocre at best. I can tolerate the generic art style but when most of the level design and boss fights are so tedious, I began to wish for the Sonic Mania developers to come back.
The last level with its Act 2 "twist" is abhorrent and the boss fight is even worse. Were not talking Sonic 06 levels of funny bad, this is boring ass bad. At times I was reminded of Mighty #9 and thats never a good thing.
The last level with its Act 2 "twist" is abhorrent and the boss fight is even worse. Were not talking Sonic 06 levels of funny bad, this is boring ass bad. At times I was reminded of Mighty #9 and thats never a good thing.
Kena feels like a spiritual sequel to the original Jak & Daxter on the Playstation 2. Its an old school 3D platformer with Dark Souls inspired combat and phenomenal visuals. While its battle system is simple, its dependance on strict timing gives it challenge. The visuals are amazing and make exploring a treat even if the world feels static for the lack interactivity from its environments. It also has a touching story that maked me reflect on an individuals hardships and their journey to the afterlife. Kena: Bridge of spirits is a great homage to its playstation 2 roots, containing fun exploration and combat while being limited in its level design.
What if New Super Mario Bros. had good control physics and soul.
2023
Dead enemy A.I, awful loot and an unnecessary open sandbox that just serves to worsen the pace. This is one of the worst AAA shooters to ever release and its a shitstain on Arkane's legacy.
2022
Broken gameplay, mediocre graphics, awful story and wooden dialogue. Saints Row was amazing in its second and third outing but ever since Gat out of Hell and Agents of Mayhem, Volition cant make a decent game.
The aiming is awful. The only way you can get health is through melee animations that take forever to finish and sometimes those melee prompts do not work. Bugs are galore in this boring, empty open world. The missions are repetitive and uninspired. The cast is unlikable and the story is a slog to get through.
Saints Row is just overwhelmingly mediocre at its best and boring most of the time. It is a reminder, when done incorrectly, of how little can a reboot evolve and improve.
The aiming is awful. The only way you can get health is through melee animations that take forever to finish and sometimes those melee prompts do not work. Bugs are galore in this boring, empty open world. The missions are repetitive and uninspired. The cast is unlikable and the story is a slog to get through.
Saints Row is just overwhelmingly mediocre at its best and boring most of the time. It is a reminder, when done incorrectly, of how little can a reboot evolve and improve.
2024
A survival game grind more than a Pokemon game. The game integrates a bunch of mediocre game systems together to form an average playing experience. Movement, climbing, exploration, hunger and combat mechanics feel a league below other copycats but the addition of capturing different type of monsters in an open space and using them for traversal or base management is engaging. Co-op is Mandatory with its insane early game grind.
You dont ever feel like a Pokemon Trainer here. Your avatar does all the fighting with a monster controlled by AI. You never give it any direct orders unless youre riding them, and when that happens the stiffness of the controls hampers the experience. Capturing the Pals feels good most the time when the thrown ball does not have a mind of its own.
Exploration is not great either. Climbing, movement and stamina mechanics that are directly copied from Breath of the Wild are janky and unresponsive. Every cave is a procedural generated bore with uninteresting loot. The only thing that sets it apart is the fundamental change using a flying type Pal to move around the islands brings.
Maybe with a couple of years of work this can turn into a good game but with this developer's history of abandoning its Early Access games and funding its next game (look up Craftopia) tells me a big change aint happening, no matter if theres a million concurrent players.
You dont ever feel like a Pokemon Trainer here. Your avatar does all the fighting with a monster controlled by AI. You never give it any direct orders unless youre riding them, and when that happens the stiffness of the controls hampers the experience. Capturing the Pals feels good most the time when the thrown ball does not have a mind of its own.
Exploration is not great either. Climbing, movement and stamina mechanics that are directly copied from Breath of the Wild are janky and unresponsive. Every cave is a procedural generated bore with uninteresting loot. The only thing that sets it apart is the fundamental change using a flying type Pal to move around the islands brings.
Maybe with a couple of years of work this can turn into a good game but with this developer's history of abandoning its Early Access games and funding its next game (look up Craftopia) tells me a big change aint happening, no matter if theres a million concurrent players.
2015
An overlooked gem. This 2D X-Com lite is great fun. Its not perfect. The game couldve used better character development and the randomly generated maps can lead to some difficulty spikes, but the gameplay is so much fun it dosent matter.
2023
Bethesda created a modern Fallout without its charm, personality or competent level design. The impressive technological graphical advancements are blemished by the bland artstyle and horrendous looking NPCs. For a title that tries to make you feel free to explore, its numerous loading screen and segmented maps that rely on fast travel (to be bearable) take you out of the experience. Exploring is devoid of adventure or wonder as you do nothing more than excessively running on an mostly flat map, breaking rocks and discovering the nth procedurally generated cave.
At least the movement and shooting mechanics are the best in the developers history. Though, its not saying much with the mostly dead enemy AI. The ship combat is just fine. Administrating your ships power between offense, defense and fleeing is surprisingly engaging.
Starfield is simply a boring ass game that from a technical standpoint, is a competently well made game. It works on the bones of Bethesda's previous titles but the shiny coat of paint dosent cover its antiquated aspects. Dialogue has been done leagues better in other titles. Characters are uninteresting. The main story is some direct to video/Tubi movie made by a fan that does not understand better movies.
A profound disappointment in a stellar year for games.
At least the movement and shooting mechanics are the best in the developers history. Though, its not saying much with the mostly dead enemy AI. The ship combat is just fine. Administrating your ships power between offense, defense and fleeing is surprisingly engaging.
Starfield is simply a boring ass game that from a technical standpoint, is a competently well made game. It works on the bones of Bethesda's previous titles but the shiny coat of paint dosent cover its antiquated aspects. Dialogue has been done leagues better in other titles. Characters are uninteresting. The main story is some direct to video/Tubi movie made by a fan that does not understand better movies.
A profound disappointment in a stellar year for games.
2021
A massive surge in quality compared to Metroid Fusion and Samus Returns. Dread finds a great middle ground between exploration, cinematics and objectives. The first hours feel restrictive but the well designed, secret filled map opens up and feels like a joy to explore. This is in part to the sublime controls. Samus feels amazing to control with the right response, weight and momentum. The game provides good, challenging difficulty with plenty of checkpoints to keep the frustration in check. Fortunately, the games progression to turn you into a unstoppable badass at the end is paced amazingly. Dread also has the best boss battles in the series history.
Its not perfect though, the EMMI robots, while providing a horror experience, can be frustrating with their one hit kills. Mini bosses repeat too often at the end. The grappling hook straight up sucks, but fortunately you barely use it in game.
Metroid Dread is the best game in the series since 2007's Corruption. A straight up classic and a must have on a Switch library.
Its not perfect though, the EMMI robots, while providing a horror experience, can be frustrating with their one hit kills. Mini bosses repeat too often at the end. The grappling hook straight up sucks, but fortunately you barely use it in game.
Metroid Dread is the best game in the series since 2007's Corruption. A straight up classic and a must have on a Switch library.
2024
In 2024 the CIA was accused of being a Balatro dealer.
A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a Balatro triangle during the 2020s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco Balatro ring and a Los Angeles Balatro dealer. According to the stories, the CIA and its operatives used Balatro--sold via the Los Angeles African-American community--to raise millions to support the agency's clandestine operations in Central America.
A series of expose articles in the San Jose Mercury-News by reporter Gary Webb told tales of a Balatro triangle during the 2020s that linked CIA officials in Central America, a San Francisco Balatro ring and a Los Angeles Balatro dealer. According to the stories, the CIA and its operatives used Balatro--sold via the Los Angeles African-American community--to raise millions to support the agency's clandestine operations in Central America.
2022
A decent Doom Eternal style game with a shotgun approach to comedy.
High on Life is really fun once you combine your arsenal of guns, abilities and world traversal to dispose of your enemies. That means the first hour of this game is mediocre being carried by its great world building and decent premise.
Get the powerslide as soon as possible. Comedy is hit and miss. You can turn down the frequent chatter on the Audio options menu.
Its a very decent gamepass get. Its never boring, goes at a decent pace and feels unpolished a lot of the time. 7/10
High on Life is really fun once you combine your arsenal of guns, abilities and world traversal to dispose of your enemies. That means the first hour of this game is mediocre being carried by its great world building and decent premise.
Get the powerslide as soon as possible. Comedy is hit and miss. You can turn down the frequent chatter on the Audio options menu.
Its a very decent gamepass get. Its never boring, goes at a decent pace and feels unpolished a lot of the time. 7/10
2022
A love letter to Zelda, Souls and Fez.
Tunic is a gorgeous isometric action adventure game filled with secrets. Its one of these rare games where you cant look at the level design the same way twice with the mind blowing shortcuts you uncover. There's huge difficulty spikes in some areas but its stays fair, and most importantly, fun. It can be enjoyed by everyone since its accessibility options provide a No Fail and Infinite Stamina mode.
Tunic is a gorgeous isometric action adventure game filled with secrets. Its one of these rare games where you cant look at the level design the same way twice with the mind blowing shortcuts you uncover. There's huge difficulty spikes in some areas but its stays fair, and most importantly, fun. It can be enjoyed by everyone since its accessibility options provide a No Fail and Infinite Stamina mode.
A gameplay upgrade in every way is let down by a slow start, uneven graphics and awful story.
Going through the city has never felt so good with the inclusion of the wing suit. It made a mostly recycled city from the first game feel new. The brawling felt concise, but not dumbed down from the first game. You can still pull off stylish combos for days and it feels impactful. Even the dreaded stealth missions feel better with the removal of instadeath scenarios. The gameplay is top tier, which is why I am so let down by the missions.
In the first few hours the game is a slog. The design for most of these (especially Miles parts) was shoving a lesson first and fun second. The game greatly picks up when the Kraven plot intersects with the symbiote. From there the story is interesting with Kraven hunting reformed supervillains and Peter acquiring the suit in a life or death scenario. It is a nice twist on the whole symbiote saga until the end. The Gears of War scenario is awful and profoundly stupid. I get they want to get MJ in the spotlight but the way its done here is abhorrent. At least come up with a bullshit reason to keep a bit of symbiote in her and not make a human who took some lessons fight an army of superhuman creatures. At least the stupidity is cut by the awesome portray of Venom and the Spider duo fighting it. Graphically its amazing every second the characters have their suits on. Every character thats not Peter or Miles look like a melted claymation error.
Heres hoping the third entry concentrates more on the comic book side of the Spider-man mythos because I think Insoniac got lucky with the first game's character relationships and story.
Going through the city has never felt so good with the inclusion of the wing suit. It made a mostly recycled city from the first game feel new. The brawling felt concise, but not dumbed down from the first game. You can still pull off stylish combos for days and it feels impactful. Even the dreaded stealth missions feel better with the removal of instadeath scenarios. The gameplay is top tier, which is why I am so let down by the missions.
In the first few hours the game is a slog. The design for most of these (especially Miles parts) was shoving a lesson first and fun second. The game greatly picks up when the Kraven plot intersects with the symbiote. From there the story is interesting with Kraven hunting reformed supervillains and Peter acquiring the suit in a life or death scenario. It is a nice twist on the whole symbiote saga until the end. The Gears of War scenario is awful and profoundly stupid. I get they want to get MJ in the spotlight but the way its done here is abhorrent. At least come up with a bullshit reason to keep a bit of symbiote in her and not make a human who took some lessons fight an army of superhuman creatures. At least the stupidity is cut by the awesome portray of Venom and the Spider duo fighting it. Graphically its amazing every second the characters have their suits on. Every character thats not Peter or Miles look like a melted claymation error.
Heres hoping the third entry concentrates more on the comic book side of the Spider-man mythos because I think Insoniac got lucky with the first game's character relationships and story.
Avoid on PC. One of the worst ports ever even after the updates.
An absurd and absolutely charming Zelda CD-I tribute. Thankfully the developer, Seedy Eye, did not go 1:1 on the recreation. The controls and level design are good this time. This type of action platformer with metroidvania elements is very rare these days. A reason for this could be that its a drag to replay levels several times when you acquire new weapons, abilities or need some type of item. The pacing is awful when you need to go thrice or even more times through levels. It is excessive padding. Even it those CD-I games had this structure, it is no excuse and a blemish on a good game.
Fortunately the action can be fun, level design is varied, characters are the good kind of weird and the Secret of Mana inspired OST is a banger. Most impressive are the cutscenes. All the charm and weirdness from the russian made animations on the CD-I Zelda has been recreated to a surprising degree. The game is worth a play through for them alone.
Fortunately the action can be fun, level design is varied, characters are the good kind of weird and the Secret of Mana inspired OST is a banger. Most impressive are the cutscenes. All the charm and weirdness from the russian made animations on the CD-I Zelda has been recreated to a surprising degree. The game is worth a play through for them alone.