1999
Thanks to @Appljous for letting me play on his copy of the game and also making me realise how much I wanna kill Kirby.
Fighting games are…interesting, to say the least. They’re an opportunity to not only bring lots of characters together, but to bring people together too. There are always some really fun opportunities which come out of fighting games, and lots and I mean lots of button mashing. For many, their first foray into fighting games was most likely smash bros. One of the most well known fighting games on the planet. But before there were a total of 82 fighters, with franchises from all over, there were only 12, on a little console known as the Nintendo 64. The game came together once Sakurai was interested in making a 3D fighting game for the console with, drumroll, Nintendo characters. He made a demo with Mario, donkey kong, samus, and fox and the reception was very positive with the game eventually being green lit. So let’s take a look at it!
So to begin with you have a few options, you can either play single player or multiplayer. Now before you ask, no, the single player mode is not for the loners. If anything, it’s actually quite an important mode. But we’ll get onto that later. You have the choice of 6 characters to begin with Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. All from their respective franchises. As you play the single player however, you have the opportunity to unlock 4 more characters: Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff. The thing about the bonus characters is that, well they make sense how they got into the game. Luigi and Jigglypuff are both basically copies of Mario and Kirby respectively. The only 2 outliers are Ness and Captain Falcon. Though Captain Falcon feels like he took some liberties from Samus whilst Ness is just…well Ness. But how do you unlock these characters?
The single player mode of course! This is a journey whereby you choose between your fighters and go through a set of fights and bonus stages. The fights are all with certain characters on their respective stages (the stages include: peach’s castle, Kongo jungle, hyrule castle, super happy tree, dream land, and saffron city, however you can unlock mushroom kingdom as a brand new stage). You even have 2 bonus rounds: break the targets and board the platforms. They are both what they say on the tin and can change depending on the character - a complete difference to the actual single player mode. The problem is that…the single player mode always has the same stages in the same order with barely any changes (unless you changed the difficulty or amount of stocks). The multiplayer mode is also what it says on the tin, being a fun mode to play against friends until one of you plays as Kirby.
So, how is smash bros? It’s actually pretty fun. Later entries would obviously improve or unimprove certain mechanics. Overall, this is still a really fun fighting game with some really interesting mechanics and it’s still aged pretty well (we don’t talk about Kirby). Also a huge thank you to the smash remix discord server. Ya’ll gave me some really good strategies and, eventually, I do promise to play smash remix.
Good first try, strange stages, great character selection, fuck Kirby
Fighting games are…interesting, to say the least. They’re an opportunity to not only bring lots of characters together, but to bring people together too. There are always some really fun opportunities which come out of fighting games, and lots and I mean lots of button mashing. For many, their first foray into fighting games was most likely smash bros. One of the most well known fighting games on the planet. But before there were a total of 82 fighters, with franchises from all over, there were only 12, on a little console known as the Nintendo 64. The game came together once Sakurai was interested in making a 3D fighting game for the console with, drumroll, Nintendo characters. He made a demo with Mario, donkey kong, samus, and fox and the reception was very positive with the game eventually being green lit. So let’s take a look at it!
So to begin with you have a few options, you can either play single player or multiplayer. Now before you ask, no, the single player mode is not for the loners. If anything, it’s actually quite an important mode. But we’ll get onto that later. You have the choice of 6 characters to begin with Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. All from their respective franchises. As you play the single player however, you have the opportunity to unlock 4 more characters: Luigi, Ness, Captain Falcon, and Jigglypuff. The thing about the bonus characters is that, well they make sense how they got into the game. Luigi and Jigglypuff are both basically copies of Mario and Kirby respectively. The only 2 outliers are Ness and Captain Falcon. Though Captain Falcon feels like he took some liberties from Samus whilst Ness is just…well Ness. But how do you unlock these characters?
The single player mode of course! This is a journey whereby you choose between your fighters and go through a set of fights and bonus stages. The fights are all with certain characters on their respective stages (the stages include: peach’s castle, Kongo jungle, hyrule castle, super happy tree, dream land, and saffron city, however you can unlock mushroom kingdom as a brand new stage). You even have 2 bonus rounds: break the targets and board the platforms. They are both what they say on the tin and can change depending on the character - a complete difference to the actual single player mode. The problem is that…the single player mode always has the same stages in the same order with barely any changes (unless you changed the difficulty or amount of stocks). The multiplayer mode is also what it says on the tin, being a fun mode to play against friends until one of you plays as Kirby.
So, how is smash bros? It’s actually pretty fun. Later entries would obviously improve or unimprove certain mechanics. Overall, this is still a really fun fighting game with some really interesting mechanics and it’s still aged pretty well (we don’t talk about Kirby). Also a huge thank you to the smash remix discord server. Ya’ll gave me some really good strategies and, eventually, I do promise to play smash remix.
Good first try, strange stages, great character selection, fuck Kirby
2014
Alright then. So I was in my computing class and we were about to get underway with the lesson. Slowly everyone came in one by one and sat down at their computer and turned it on. I was funnily enough the first one there and had already turned everything off. By the time I turned chrome on however…there was an error. The Wi-Fi in the school had completely gone down. Everyone in the class was confused and so was our teacher. As soon as he saw the Wi-Fi was down he went out the classroom and left us to it. So it was just us. 18 kids in a classroom seeing the same ‘there is no internet connection’ and the same…dinosaur. Immediately, someone in the class looked at me and knew exactly what we needed to do. He gathered the other boys in the class and all at the same time…we pressed the space bar. The small pixelated dino jumped and that’s when it began. We set up a mini tournament right there and then and so we all tried to get as far as we could. After 5 minutes, I’d already made it to a high score of around 2000 whilst the person next to me, who was essentially my rival at this point, was at around 2100. No one even came close to where we were. We had almost got down everything about the game and could easily predict when we needed to jump and when we didn’t, even out the corner of our eye. Eventually, however, our teacher returned and announced that the Wi-Fi would be turned back on soon. Surprisingly, he was actually impressed with what were able to do in the game, and by the time the lesson finally continued to how it was supposed to be. We were all very very satisfied.
Dino, jumping, no internet, fuck them pterodactyls
Dino, jumping, no internet, fuck them pterodactyls
2004
Hm, it seems as though I haven’t played enough fps games…well I guess another doom game wouldn’t hurt. And anyway, I have ps plus and they always put some of the best games on their subscription service, just like Microsoft. I’m sure this is not just gonna be a pretty pissy version of half-life with a few things from doom shoved in there. Unfortunately, it was a pretty pissy version of half-life with a few things from doom shoved in there.
You play as ‘marine’ as you are forced to go through a research facility and destroy the demons from hell. It’s basically doom 1 again but with a hd lick of paint and…yeah. In fact, if you really broke it down…it’s basically half-life. You go through a big research facility, help certain scientists to proceed, and then have to go into hell to destroy the final set of demons. It’s not interesting in the slightest and it comes across as just ‘ooo what if we tried to do what half-life was doing’ and ‘let’s make the next big revolutionary fps game’ but it just doesn’t work in the slightest. Nothing about the plot screams ‘revolutionary’ and only feels like a very very big copy. Oh well maybe the gameplay can scratch my good fps gameplay itch…never mind.
So you have most of the weapons you had from the original doom games. You have the classic pistol, machine gun, shotgun, Chaingun, chainsaw, plasma gun, rocket launcher, and the bfg. And we have grenades as well I guess. The weapons aren’t necessarily bad but like, let me explain it simply. So in the original doom games, you would be stuck with the pistol if you died at points. Now, even with the pistol, it was still a pretty good weapon. In doom 3? If you even kill one enemy with the pistol after a few levels I’d be impressed. The game just makes the earlier weapons feel completely unusable and pushes you to use more beefier weapons which is great and all…but the ammo runs out very very quickly. So whether you like it or not, you are gonna have to use some earlier weapons.
The level design also feels very uninteresting. Remember the differently coloured keys you got in the earlier doom games which would open up doors to new areas? They stuck out quite a lot when you were playing and felt just as important as your weapons and health/armour upgrades. What’s the more ‘realistic’ replacement for those? The most basic pieces of dog shit I’ve ever seen. You now have these crappy little entry passes which are the same coloured and don’t stick out like they used to. They aren’t even put in interesting places, they are, 80% of the time, put on a control panel next to a body and it just feels…lazy. When you were playing the original doom games they would be given to you in an interesting place which you usually had to solve a small ish puzzle to get to. Here it’s just, blast a few enemies and it’s right there. Earlier doom games had smart levels, doom 3 has the dumbest things I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting through. It’s not even like it didn’t have the potential to have some good level design. There was one level which actually really felt like a classic doom level. Whereby there was a berserk orb and everything. But after that small glimpse of hope. The game just began falling very very flat.
By the time I got half-way through, I was already getting extremely bored of the same old gameplay and shitty story beats. The only thing I can truly say is pretty good about the game is the lighting. For an original Xbox game it does have some impressive lighting. But, lighting is not gonna carry the shitty gameplay, weak and boring plot, basic music (if there even is any), and repetitive enemy designs that just make me lose it. They could’ve done something really good and they just decided to piss on what was a great and meaningful franchise.
Terrible story, ok ish gameplay for a little while, barely any music that sticks out, good lighting?, repetitive enemy design, no interesting mechanics, fuck those skeleton pieces of shit
You play as ‘marine’ as you are forced to go through a research facility and destroy the demons from hell. It’s basically doom 1 again but with a hd lick of paint and…yeah. In fact, if you really broke it down…it’s basically half-life. You go through a big research facility, help certain scientists to proceed, and then have to go into hell to destroy the final set of demons. It’s not interesting in the slightest and it comes across as just ‘ooo what if we tried to do what half-life was doing’ and ‘let’s make the next big revolutionary fps game’ but it just doesn’t work in the slightest. Nothing about the plot screams ‘revolutionary’ and only feels like a very very big copy. Oh well maybe the gameplay can scratch my good fps gameplay itch…never mind.
So you have most of the weapons you had from the original doom games. You have the classic pistol, machine gun, shotgun, Chaingun, chainsaw, plasma gun, rocket launcher, and the bfg. And we have grenades as well I guess. The weapons aren’t necessarily bad but like, let me explain it simply. So in the original doom games, you would be stuck with the pistol if you died at points. Now, even with the pistol, it was still a pretty good weapon. In doom 3? If you even kill one enemy with the pistol after a few levels I’d be impressed. The game just makes the earlier weapons feel completely unusable and pushes you to use more beefier weapons which is great and all…but the ammo runs out very very quickly. So whether you like it or not, you are gonna have to use some earlier weapons.
The level design also feels very uninteresting. Remember the differently coloured keys you got in the earlier doom games which would open up doors to new areas? They stuck out quite a lot when you were playing and felt just as important as your weapons and health/armour upgrades. What’s the more ‘realistic’ replacement for those? The most basic pieces of dog shit I’ve ever seen. You now have these crappy little entry passes which are the same coloured and don’t stick out like they used to. They aren’t even put in interesting places, they are, 80% of the time, put on a control panel next to a body and it just feels…lazy. When you were playing the original doom games they would be given to you in an interesting place which you usually had to solve a small ish puzzle to get to. Here it’s just, blast a few enemies and it’s right there. Earlier doom games had smart levels, doom 3 has the dumbest things I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting through. It’s not even like it didn’t have the potential to have some good level design. There was one level which actually really felt like a classic doom level. Whereby there was a berserk orb and everything. But after that small glimpse of hope. The game just began falling very very flat.
By the time I got half-way through, I was already getting extremely bored of the same old gameplay and shitty story beats. The only thing I can truly say is pretty good about the game is the lighting. For an original Xbox game it does have some impressive lighting. But, lighting is not gonna carry the shitty gameplay, weak and boring plot, basic music (if there even is any), and repetitive enemy designs that just make me lose it. They could’ve done something really good and they just decided to piss on what was a great and meaningful franchise.
Terrible story, ok ish gameplay for a little while, barely any music that sticks out, good lighting?, repetitive enemy design, no interesting mechanics, fuck those skeleton pieces of shit
2008
Finally, after years of looking around I’ve found it. A rhythm game I really like. And not only that, my 25th game that I’ve given 5 stars to. And oh man what a deserving game. Patapon 2 is the sequel to patapon, a little rhythm game originally released on the psp. However, when the developers realised that the first game didn’t have the best replay value they decided to create a sequel. Well, I guess it’s a sequel? I’ll try and explain why it confuses me a bit later on.
The plot picks up right after the first game…and then proceeds to go through most things from the first game once again. But that’s not a problem, trust me it isn’t. So after the patapons set sail to find new lands, they got into a crash and had to somehow get together and fight off a new enemy known as karmen and later on even more different enemy tribes. This makes it a little more varied from the first game where you were fighting the same type of enemy most of the time.
Gameplay is highly improved from the first game. For starters, you can get into fever mode a hell of a lot easier. And you can keep it easier. You see when you start to flail a tiny bit and miss the beat, instead of putting you out of fever, it’ll give you a warning. This helps a lot more as you’re now more likely to hold onto fever for a longer amount of time and decimate the enemies. Making allies is now much different, you get a certain amount of slots for the type of pons you want and you can develop them into looking like the different types from the first game. And that reminds me, THERE ARE NEW UNITS TO MESS WITH!!! These include the robopon, mahopon, and the hero patapon. The hero patapon allows you to use an online feature known as the patagate. You can connect with your friends and try to bring a boss egg to the finish whilst battling those same bosses. You can get lots of cool stuff by doing these.
So, what do I think of patapon 2? It definitely feels more like a finished product then the first game did. Whilst the first game felt like a very simple first draft, the second felt like a much more finished and all out smoothed package that just doesn’t disappoint. Even though this has been the only rhythm game I’ve enjoyed so far, I’ll definitely try to get into others. As much as I would love to play patapon 3, from the things I’ve heard, I probably won’t be able to enjoy it as much as this game which is honestly a real shame. But oh well, here’s to the eventual success of the kickstarter game ratatan.
Much better gameplay, story is basically the same, music is still excellent, new hero character is cool, pon pon pata pon!
The plot picks up right after the first game…and then proceeds to go through most things from the first game once again. But that’s not a problem, trust me it isn’t. So after the patapons set sail to find new lands, they got into a crash and had to somehow get together and fight off a new enemy known as karmen and later on even more different enemy tribes. This makes it a little more varied from the first game where you were fighting the same type of enemy most of the time.
Gameplay is highly improved from the first game. For starters, you can get into fever mode a hell of a lot easier. And you can keep it easier. You see when you start to flail a tiny bit and miss the beat, instead of putting you out of fever, it’ll give you a warning. This helps a lot more as you’re now more likely to hold onto fever for a longer amount of time and decimate the enemies. Making allies is now much different, you get a certain amount of slots for the type of pons you want and you can develop them into looking like the different types from the first game. And that reminds me, THERE ARE NEW UNITS TO MESS WITH!!! These include the robopon, mahopon, and the hero patapon. The hero patapon allows you to use an online feature known as the patagate. You can connect with your friends and try to bring a boss egg to the finish whilst battling those same bosses. You can get lots of cool stuff by doing these.
So, what do I think of patapon 2? It definitely feels more like a finished product then the first game did. Whilst the first game felt like a very simple first draft, the second felt like a much more finished and all out smoothed package that just doesn’t disappoint. Even though this has been the only rhythm game I’ve enjoyed so far, I’ll definitely try to get into others. As much as I would love to play patapon 3, from the things I’ve heard, I probably won’t be able to enjoy it as much as this game which is honestly a real shame. But oh well, here’s to the eventual success of the kickstarter game ratatan.
Much better gameplay, story is basically the same, music is still excellent, new hero character is cool, pon pon pata pon!
2017
“We do not know space. We do not see it, we do not hear it, we do not feel it. We are standing in the middle of it, we ourselves are part of it, but we know nothing about it.”
~M.C. Escher
When games are popular, they are always gonna get a sequel. It’s a widely disputed thing in not only gaming, but media as a whole whether or not the sequel is better than its predecessor. A form of sequels which is usually almost tossed aside, are mobile game sequels. Some are seen as cash grabs, others are genuinely seen as improvements on what the original was trying to do. Good examples of mobile sequels are angry birds 2, plants vs zombies 2, and every single sequel in the bloons td series. Sometimes these types of sequels are kinda hit or miss. But surely a game like monument valley deserved a sequel right? Well three years after the original, we finally got it. So without further ado, let’s get into the game shall we?
You play as Ro, a mother with her little daughter who aren’t returning geometry, but are instead creating it. Ro has to teach her daughter how to create the monuments with her but it’s clear she worries about her. So, during the middle of the game, she has to send her away so she can ‘grow up’. And that’s where the story splits and you play as both Ro and her daughter. Talk about a sad split huh? Anyway before we continue the final bits of the story, let’s now get onto the gameplay of the game.
The gameplay of monument valley II is basically the same as the first game. You are tasked with guiding Ro from one side of the monuments to the other. You do this by moving the monuments in certain ways and changing the perspective completely. In some levels, you’ll even control both Ro and her daughter separately which steps up the puzzle solving a little more. It ends up leading to some more well-designed puzzles that feel different and more unique to the first games. The environments also feel a lot more vibrant and also seem a lot bigger in terms of scope. Overall, whilst not being too different to the gameplay of the first game, it feels as thought they definitely took a step in the right direction and cooked up something very pleasing.
Back to the story, you then play as Ro and her daughter separately in a set of levels until they slowly but surely come closer together and finally reunite after so long. It’s revealed that Ro’s own mother abandoned her years ago to ‘grow up’ and it almost hits quite a bit. You know what also hits like a truck? When they reunite. I played this game with my family a few years ago and this bit always kind of hit me. It feels kind of tame now that I replay it but this was still a pretty big thing for me. But that was the story. Overall, it’s a pretty good story but it’s not absolutely brilliant. They don’t really go too far with a plot and I’d kinda wished they’d maybe expanded on it a little.
For a sequel to one of my favourite mobile games it still holds up. This game definitely has a much more ambitious plot to the first game but I feel that if they’d concentrated more on the gameplay side of things or even the story side of things this could’ve been a much better and much bigger game then it’s predecessor. But still, this game holds up very well and I advise people to play it after the first game.
Good sequel, similar gameplay, tiny bit more ambitious story, emotional characters, more shapes
~M.C. Escher
When games are popular, they are always gonna get a sequel. It’s a widely disputed thing in not only gaming, but media as a whole whether or not the sequel is better than its predecessor. A form of sequels which is usually almost tossed aside, are mobile game sequels. Some are seen as cash grabs, others are genuinely seen as improvements on what the original was trying to do. Good examples of mobile sequels are angry birds 2, plants vs zombies 2, and every single sequel in the bloons td series. Sometimes these types of sequels are kinda hit or miss. But surely a game like monument valley deserved a sequel right? Well three years after the original, we finally got it. So without further ado, let’s get into the game shall we?
You play as Ro, a mother with her little daughter who aren’t returning geometry, but are instead creating it. Ro has to teach her daughter how to create the monuments with her but it’s clear she worries about her. So, during the middle of the game, she has to send her away so she can ‘grow up’. And that’s where the story splits and you play as both Ro and her daughter. Talk about a sad split huh? Anyway before we continue the final bits of the story, let’s now get onto the gameplay of the game.
The gameplay of monument valley II is basically the same as the first game. You are tasked with guiding Ro from one side of the monuments to the other. You do this by moving the monuments in certain ways and changing the perspective completely. In some levels, you’ll even control both Ro and her daughter separately which steps up the puzzle solving a little more. It ends up leading to some more well-designed puzzles that feel different and more unique to the first games. The environments also feel a lot more vibrant and also seem a lot bigger in terms of scope. Overall, whilst not being too different to the gameplay of the first game, it feels as thought they definitely took a step in the right direction and cooked up something very pleasing.
Back to the story, you then play as Ro and her daughter separately in a set of levels until they slowly but surely come closer together and finally reunite after so long. It’s revealed that Ro’s own mother abandoned her years ago to ‘grow up’ and it almost hits quite a bit. You know what also hits like a truck? When they reunite. I played this game with my family a few years ago and this bit always kind of hit me. It feels kind of tame now that I replay it but this was still a pretty big thing for me. But that was the story. Overall, it’s a pretty good story but it’s not absolutely brilliant. They don’t really go too far with a plot and I’d kinda wished they’d maybe expanded on it a little.
For a sequel to one of my favourite mobile games it still holds up. This game definitely has a much more ambitious plot to the first game but I feel that if they’d concentrated more on the gameplay side of things or even the story side of things this could’ve been a much better and much bigger game then it’s predecessor. But still, this game holds up very well and I advise people to play it after the first game.
Good sequel, similar gameplay, tiny bit more ambitious story, emotional characters, more shapes
As a wise man once said, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…just lightly modify it to your taste. Doom was an extremely popular game that basically invented the first person shooter. So of course a year later there was gonna be a sequel. But would this sequel live up to the original?
Definitely
You play as doomguy yet again on his mission to defeat the same demons you fought in the first game. Your mission is to save earth and destroy hell once and for all. The plot is pretty standard just like its predecessor but it works for what the game is going for. It’s also set in a continuous sequence of linked levels unlike the first game where you have three different chapters. Now onto the gameplay…
The gameplay is similar to the first game. There aren’t many graphical improvements or anything but there are a few added additions. For starters, the levels are much bigger and a lot more ambitious than the previous game. There are some new enemies and with them comes a new weapons. The new enemies can be pretty tough and overall they are really cool additions. The new weapon is the super shotgun and oh man, is it super. You can now shoot two barrels at once and it works excellently against the tougher enemies. You also have a new power up known as the megasphere which improves your health and armour to the maximum of 200%. Overall the game has some neat additions that do make it stand out to the original doom and it works really well.
So…is doom II a good sequel? It sure is. Coming from the original doom it’s quite the improvement. The new levels are very ambitious and the new additions are fun to use. The gunplay is still as fast and fun as it always was with that gripping level of brutality. The music is also as hardcore as ever. Like come on, you can’t have doom without metal music (we don’t talk about the ps1 port even though it works kinda well).
Great sequel, ambitious levels, cool additions, still fun gunplay, music will always be hardcore, fan made levels are kinda ambitious
Definitely
You play as doomguy yet again on his mission to defeat the same demons you fought in the first game. Your mission is to save earth and destroy hell once and for all. The plot is pretty standard just like its predecessor but it works for what the game is going for. It’s also set in a continuous sequence of linked levels unlike the first game where you have three different chapters. Now onto the gameplay…
The gameplay is similar to the first game. There aren’t many graphical improvements or anything but there are a few added additions. For starters, the levels are much bigger and a lot more ambitious than the previous game. There are some new enemies and with them comes a new weapons. The new enemies can be pretty tough and overall they are really cool additions. The new weapon is the super shotgun and oh man, is it super. You can now shoot two barrels at once and it works excellently against the tougher enemies. You also have a new power up known as the megasphere which improves your health and armour to the maximum of 200%. Overall the game has some neat additions that do make it stand out to the original doom and it works really well.
So…is doom II a good sequel? It sure is. Coming from the original doom it’s quite the improvement. The new levels are very ambitious and the new additions are fun to use. The gunplay is still as fast and fun as it always was with that gripping level of brutality. The music is also as hardcore as ever. Like come on, you can’t have doom without metal music (we don’t talk about the ps1 port even though it works kinda well).
Great sequel, ambitious levels, cool additions, still fun gunplay, music will always be hardcore, fan made levels are kinda ambitious
2023
I’m not angry Nintendo, just disappointed.
What can I say? I tuned into the Nintendo direct and I saw the original snes f-zero gameplay. I started to get excited. My heart pounding like a fat clock. Finally, just finally, we were gonna get the next big f-zero game. I could finally enjoy a new big f-zero game. I couldn’t actually bel-
multiple cars appear
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
F-zero 99! Why. You got rid of super Mario bros. 35. And what is your response to not only that, but a possible new f-zero game? This. Who thought that the first thing f-zero fans needed was not only a tease, but a new game in the Tetris 99 style. Oh well surely it can’t be that bad, besides, I did give this game 3.5 stars so surely there has to be some redemption for this game. Let’s just get into the gameplay because I wasn’t planning on reviewing this game but I needed to get my anger out somehow.
The gameplay is…actually alright. Like there are worse battle royale style games and I do kinda like what they tried here. You are pitted against 99 people all on different tracks from the original f-zero. You can speed up however it also means you lose some health at the same time. So if you’re likely to bump into things you’re probably better just waiting for the other way to boost…which leads me onto my next bit of gameplay. The other way to speed is to collect these little yellow things that come off of other cars when they bump into each other. You can then ‘super boost’ which allows you to go onto a second track above and speed about opponents. You can also spin to move others out the way too.
There are also the team mode and grand prix events but those are pretty standard. They can get pretty hectic and the Grand Prix mode is pretty fun. It’s cool how it almost takes on those classic racer tropes where you have to finish in a certain place or above to keep going. Overall, it feels like they did put quite a bit of time into this. You can also unlock new cars. These only come from doing specific things like playing 5 or more games of 99, or getting a number 1, and so on. You can also unlock banners and badgers for your car in a similar fashion but if you ask me…these aren’t nearly as cool.
I think the real problem is that…this is the next f-zero game. Whether you want to accept that fact or not, the bottom line is, this will probably be the only new f-zero game for the foreseeable future, and if you ask me…that kinda sucks. Granted, this game isn’t bad, hell I enjoyed quite a lot of my time with this game. But the problem is that it’s always gonna be looked down upon and never classed as a true f-zero gx successor. In a few years time, this game will probably be shut down and it would make sense. So for when that day comes…this game was simply a weird mark on history that tried to bring back a dormant franchise…and only ended up annoying or angering quite a few people.
Decent battle royale, quirky gameplay mechanics, cool cars, I still hate turning
What can I say? I tuned into the Nintendo direct and I saw the original snes f-zero gameplay. I started to get excited. My heart pounding like a fat clock. Finally, just finally, we were gonna get the next big f-zero game. I could finally enjoy a new big f-zero game. I couldn’t actually bel-
multiple cars appear
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
F-zero 99! Why. You got rid of super Mario bros. 35. And what is your response to not only that, but a possible new f-zero game? This. Who thought that the first thing f-zero fans needed was not only a tease, but a new game in the Tetris 99 style. Oh well surely it can’t be that bad, besides, I did give this game 3.5 stars so surely there has to be some redemption for this game. Let’s just get into the gameplay because I wasn’t planning on reviewing this game but I needed to get my anger out somehow.
The gameplay is…actually alright. Like there are worse battle royale style games and I do kinda like what they tried here. You are pitted against 99 people all on different tracks from the original f-zero. You can speed up however it also means you lose some health at the same time. So if you’re likely to bump into things you’re probably better just waiting for the other way to boost…which leads me onto my next bit of gameplay. The other way to speed is to collect these little yellow things that come off of other cars when they bump into each other. You can then ‘super boost’ which allows you to go onto a second track above and speed about opponents. You can also spin to move others out the way too.
There are also the team mode and grand prix events but those are pretty standard. They can get pretty hectic and the Grand Prix mode is pretty fun. It’s cool how it almost takes on those classic racer tropes where you have to finish in a certain place or above to keep going. Overall, it feels like they did put quite a bit of time into this. You can also unlock new cars. These only come from doing specific things like playing 5 or more games of 99, or getting a number 1, and so on. You can also unlock banners and badgers for your car in a similar fashion but if you ask me…these aren’t nearly as cool.
I think the real problem is that…this is the next f-zero game. Whether you want to accept that fact or not, the bottom line is, this will probably be the only new f-zero game for the foreseeable future, and if you ask me…that kinda sucks. Granted, this game isn’t bad, hell I enjoyed quite a lot of my time with this game. But the problem is that it’s always gonna be looked down upon and never classed as a true f-zero gx successor. In a few years time, this game will probably be shut down and it would make sense. So for when that day comes…this game was simply a weird mark on history that tried to bring back a dormant franchise…and only ended up annoying or angering quite a few people.
Decent battle royale, quirky gameplay mechanics, cool cars, I still hate turning
1998
When I walked into my science lesson the other day, they were talking about how radioactive decay can affect and make an unstable atomic nucleus. When they mentioned that half-life was involved, I eagerly put my hand up. The teacher, quite surprised I actually cared about the subject, let me ask the question.
“Surely half-life can only happen twice?”
Well before we got the great game that was, half-life 2, and then nothing after it except for 2 episodes. We got half-life, the original fps adventure all the way on pc. It was developed by valve, a company formed from ex-Microsoft workers. They thought: ‘well why don’t we just make a game company and make some of the most critically acclaimed games of all time’. And that’s exactly what they did. Unfortunately, due to a freak accident, they lost that ability to count over 2. So that was a mini history lesson about half-life and its creators. But the real question is, 25 years later, does it still hold up?
You play as Gordon freeman. Just an average scientist going to his day work. That is until he does an experiment and it goes terribly wrong. He accidentally ends up creating a portal to another dimension known as xen, which then unleashes its creatures. Gordon is forced to try and find a way to close the portal and get out unharmed. However things get more dangerous once the HECU get involved. They are forced to kill every single black mesa employee and any xen creatures they find, in an attempt to cover up the incident. The story is pretty simple for what it is but I also quite like how simple it is. With Gordon eventually finding that the portal is being forced open by a creature from the other side. But before we tackle what happens near the ending, let’s talk about the gameplay.
The gameplay is pretty similar to most standard fps games. You cover and shoot, picking up health upgrades and armour upgrades on your way. You also have quite the arsenal. For a simple day to day scientist he sure knows his way around a gun or two. The weapon selection includes: the classic crowbar, pistol, shotgun, submachine gun, hornet gun, and others. There are quite a wide range of weapons and they each function in different ways. The weapons also get more powerful as you go along. The weapons feel pretty weak once you get to later parts of the game but are still very usable. There are also parkour sections and puzzle sections. These puzzles aren’t too mind blowing, mainly just being using boxing to build a staircase up to an area, navigating conveyor belts, and things such as that. Later on you even get a little extra manoeuvrability with the fact you can long jump. The gameplay is pretty simple but also has that slight level of complexity which makes it so interesting.
After everything, Gordon finally goes into xen. The world where all of the creatures have been coming out of. It’s almost a miserable world yet it’s also quite interesting at the same time. It has hev suits from previous researchers. It kind of adds to that cold atmosphere that it’s trying to set up. After that though, Gordon finally tackles his final xen monster and then, it’s over, it’s finally over…or so we thought. A mysterious man who has been following you through out finally reveals himself. His name is G-Man. He gives him a choice: to come work with him or be teleported to a bunch of alien soldiers where he dies. If it was me I would’ve let Gordon die because I’m silly like that but…everyone knows the canon ending is that Gordon accepts G-Man’s offer.
And that’s half-life! It still holds up pretty well today and it still has the same level of respect it did all those years ago. Sure there are some parts that make me question the design but it’s still excellently put together and you can tell. If you ask me, it’s a shame that half-life 3 may never happen. This is clearly a series with lots and lots of love put into it and it’s almost a shame that they won’t continue it any further. But I still find it respectable that even today, they clearly care about half-life, and so does the community. I’m so happy to have finally tried one of the most respected fps games of all time.
Great story, good gameplay, wonderful level design…most of the time, excellent weapon selection, great 90’s vibe, I’m sorry to all the scientists and security that died due to my silly ass
“Surely half-life can only happen twice?”
Well before we got the great game that was, half-life 2, and then nothing after it except for 2 episodes. We got half-life, the original fps adventure all the way on pc. It was developed by valve, a company formed from ex-Microsoft workers. They thought: ‘well why don’t we just make a game company and make some of the most critically acclaimed games of all time’. And that’s exactly what they did. Unfortunately, due to a freak accident, they lost that ability to count over 2. So that was a mini history lesson about half-life and its creators. But the real question is, 25 years later, does it still hold up?
You play as Gordon freeman. Just an average scientist going to his day work. That is until he does an experiment and it goes terribly wrong. He accidentally ends up creating a portal to another dimension known as xen, which then unleashes its creatures. Gordon is forced to try and find a way to close the portal and get out unharmed. However things get more dangerous once the HECU get involved. They are forced to kill every single black mesa employee and any xen creatures they find, in an attempt to cover up the incident. The story is pretty simple for what it is but I also quite like how simple it is. With Gordon eventually finding that the portal is being forced open by a creature from the other side. But before we tackle what happens near the ending, let’s talk about the gameplay.
The gameplay is pretty similar to most standard fps games. You cover and shoot, picking up health upgrades and armour upgrades on your way. You also have quite the arsenal. For a simple day to day scientist he sure knows his way around a gun or two. The weapon selection includes: the classic crowbar, pistol, shotgun, submachine gun, hornet gun, and others. There are quite a wide range of weapons and they each function in different ways. The weapons also get more powerful as you go along. The weapons feel pretty weak once you get to later parts of the game but are still very usable. There are also parkour sections and puzzle sections. These puzzles aren’t too mind blowing, mainly just being using boxing to build a staircase up to an area, navigating conveyor belts, and things such as that. Later on you even get a little extra manoeuvrability with the fact you can long jump. The gameplay is pretty simple but also has that slight level of complexity which makes it so interesting.
After everything, Gordon finally goes into xen. The world where all of the creatures have been coming out of. It’s almost a miserable world yet it’s also quite interesting at the same time. It has hev suits from previous researchers. It kind of adds to that cold atmosphere that it’s trying to set up. After that though, Gordon finally tackles his final xen monster and then, it’s over, it’s finally over…or so we thought. A mysterious man who has been following you through out finally reveals himself. His name is G-Man. He gives him a choice: to come work with him or be teleported to a bunch of alien soldiers where he dies. If it was me I would’ve let Gordon die because I’m silly like that but…everyone knows the canon ending is that Gordon accepts G-Man’s offer.
And that’s half-life! It still holds up pretty well today and it still has the same level of respect it did all those years ago. Sure there are some parts that make me question the design but it’s still excellently put together and you can tell. If you ask me, it’s a shame that half-life 3 may never happen. This is clearly a series with lots and lots of love put into it and it’s almost a shame that they won’t continue it any further. But I still find it respectable that even today, they clearly care about half-life, and so does the community. I’m so happy to have finally tried one of the most respected fps games of all time.
Great story, good gameplay, wonderful level design…most of the time, excellent weapon selection, great 90’s vibe, I’m sorry to all the scientists and security that died due to my silly ass
1998
Gran turismo, if you ask me, is the definition of someone who dedicates their lives to cars. That’s probably why you like the games, unless you genuinely like them just to have fun. Ridge racer type 4 however, is the only game I know that when I play it, I can feel that it has a sex life. The music, the controls, the visuals, like the lead singer of prince once said: ‘I’m gonna party like it’s 1999’ and that’s exactly what I did.
In the Grand Prix mode you have the option to select which racing team you want to be a part of and which manufacturer you want for your car. The racing teams also double up as your difficulty options but that’s not all, they also have story. What I like about type 4 is that it doesn’t try to go for a really immersive story, all it really is is you driving for someone as your hear about their life and almost get closer to them. It almost makes you want to win and support them with everything possible. They’ll either applaud you for doing well in a race or criticise you for not performing up to standards. The different leads all feel full of life and are one of the best aspects of this mode. You also get the choice between drift cars or grip cars which changes the handling of how you drive. The tracks are also very similar throughout with different routes that appear as you return to them later. The Grand Prix mode is the best mode of the entire game and it really shows.
The music is just the chefs kiss of the entire game. Never have I gone into a game and been absolutely blown away by an absolutely stellar techno soundtrack. It was the 90’s so it does make some sense but oh man is it amazing. From the groovy saxophone of ‘Pearl blue soul’ to the more chilled and relaxed ‘move me’ there really is something for everyone in this soundtrack and it all works really well as you’re driving. It almost compliments each other excellently. And even the menu themes are an absolute bop.
There are a few other modes like time attack where you can use cars you’ve unlocked in the gran prix mode and even extra trial where you test your speed against a super fast opponent with any car you unlocked throughout the Grand Prix mode. You can even edit what your car looks like in the garage mode where you can check out the cars you’ve unlocked and play around with the customisation options.
So yes, ridge racer type 4 is my first proper racing game and…I feel it’s gonna be hard to top. There’s a reason I’ve given this game 5 stars and it’s because it was an absolute joy to play and it’s gonna really set my standards for other racing games. I am hoping to try the gran turismo games and maybe give the wipeout games a go if I can, as they are supposed to have a stellar soundtrack. But for now, ridge racer type 4 will probably hold the crown as my favourite racing game of all time.
Bopping soundtrack, excellent gameplay, great Grand Prix modes, stories were wonderful, and the pac-man car
In the Grand Prix mode you have the option to select which racing team you want to be a part of and which manufacturer you want for your car. The racing teams also double up as your difficulty options but that’s not all, they also have story. What I like about type 4 is that it doesn’t try to go for a really immersive story, all it really is is you driving for someone as your hear about their life and almost get closer to them. It almost makes you want to win and support them with everything possible. They’ll either applaud you for doing well in a race or criticise you for not performing up to standards. The different leads all feel full of life and are one of the best aspects of this mode. You also get the choice between drift cars or grip cars which changes the handling of how you drive. The tracks are also very similar throughout with different routes that appear as you return to them later. The Grand Prix mode is the best mode of the entire game and it really shows.
The music is just the chefs kiss of the entire game. Never have I gone into a game and been absolutely blown away by an absolutely stellar techno soundtrack. It was the 90’s so it does make some sense but oh man is it amazing. From the groovy saxophone of ‘Pearl blue soul’ to the more chilled and relaxed ‘move me’ there really is something for everyone in this soundtrack and it all works really well as you’re driving. It almost compliments each other excellently. And even the menu themes are an absolute bop.
There are a few other modes like time attack where you can use cars you’ve unlocked in the gran prix mode and even extra trial where you test your speed against a super fast opponent with any car you unlocked throughout the Grand Prix mode. You can even edit what your car looks like in the garage mode where you can check out the cars you’ve unlocked and play around with the customisation options.
So yes, ridge racer type 4 is my first proper racing game and…I feel it’s gonna be hard to top. There’s a reason I’ve given this game 5 stars and it’s because it was an absolute joy to play and it’s gonna really set my standards for other racing games. I am hoping to try the gran turismo games and maybe give the wipeout games a go if I can, as they are supposed to have a stellar soundtrack. But for now, ridge racer type 4 will probably hold the crown as my favourite racing game of all time.
Bopping soundtrack, excellent gameplay, great Grand Prix modes, stories were wonderful, and the pac-man car
This review contains spoilers
There have been a lot of critically acclaimed games over the years. Like every single year definitely has one very well liked game from reviewers from all around the world. However, some don’t always stand the test of time. Games like bioshock infinite, the original legend of Zelda, and even some original RPGs don’t get the acclaim they once did. I find it almost admirable if a game can somehow stand the test of time and still be respected even now. One of these games, that I believe aged very well and stood the test of time, was the last of us. Released in 2013 as the ps3 era was slowly coming to an end, naughty dog wanted to expand on the ideas they had pushed in the uncharted games. An all round more serious adventure with some dark themes. Even if the uncharted games scraped on these themes they never fully dived into them, but the last of us was where that changed. They went full in with a darker and more horrific world. A world with almost no hope left. So why do people find this game to be overrated?
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much
The last of us:
You play as Joel. A standard guy who, after losing his only daughter, has been forced into a rough and violent world full of zombies. Your job is to take care of Ellie, who you find out to be immune to the virus that infected so many people and created the zombies. But this isn’t just some cakewalk, oh no, we all know how teenagers act when they want to be controlled, and as one I should know. Your journey takes you throughout America as you try to find a group called the fireflies who will hopefully create a cure using Ellie’s immunity. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. We haven’t even talked about the gameplay!
Compared to something like uncharted where you’re basically handed guns whenever you need them, the last of us takes a very different approach. You have the ability to craft items such as shivs, Molotov cocktails (make as many as you can), nail bombs, smoke bombs, and even melee weapons. These all require certain crafting items, and they don’t come up all the time. Weapon ammo is also not as wildly available as it is in the uncharted games. You feel as though every shot counts and believe me, it does. Stealth gameplay is encouraged but not necessary as you could shoot your way through fights but risk having barely any ammo left for the next fight. It makes you take consideration of what you should do with everything you have. The whole idea is that ‘this is a lot more hardcore than uncharted’ and it works. Unlike something like bioshock infinite where you’re killing really innocent people and get no reparations for it, the last of us definitely paints it more as you’re killing people who are just as bad as you are.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Back to the story, as I was saying about the story, you will meet a cool cast of characters. Tess, Bill (the best one), Tommy, Henry and his younger brother Sam. You’ll also find some villains like David and Marlene. The characters are all excellently written and almost show how the world is affecting other people. For example Bill has become almost rude to others that meddle with his stuff because he hasn’t had much interaction with others in a long time and there’s an almost quiet sadness that’s he’s desperate to be with people. Henry and Sam are two characters that were dealt a very bad hand and in the end they ended up both succumbing to the world they were forced into. Even David is written excellently well. Someone who is painted to be quite friendly ends up becoming a very dark and evil person who tries to manipulate Ellie into getting what he wants.
Eventually, the pair finally arrive at Salt Lake City. After so much, they’ve finally arrived to find the fireflies. However, it isn’t as great as Joel first thought. To get the vaccine they need to kill Ellie.
The whole story has been you going along the journey of these unlikely strangers who were brought together. They seemed to hate each other but eventually they became extremely close. At the start of the game Ellie was the one talking a lot about her life and her passion for certain things, but nearing the end, joel was able to open up about his life. It’s a beautiful journey of how, if you can move on from your past and truly find the light, you’ll be able to enjoy life to the fullest. Joel ends up saving Ellie, not because it’s being selfish as such, but because he felt like Ellie had almost become his daughter. But it does make you think…
…Can you really blame him?
Left behind:
A year later, a dlc known as ‘left behind’ would release. The story is set during the part where Joel gets fatally hurt and is forced to rest. However, just before this, Ellie was forced to find some medicine for Joel so he could survive, so she came to an abandoned shopping centre (I’m not calling it a mall because I’m British and I think mall is kind of weird for a word). As she wanders through, she remembers a friend of hers named Riley.
Gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the base game, only this time you’re playing as Ellie instead of Joel. For the shopping centre sections, it plays almost like the base game, though you do have the new funky feature of getting hunters and infected to fight each other so uhh…that’s cool. You’ve also got to work with Ellie’s lack of that much manoeuvrability unlike Joel. The Riley sections are pretty much linear lines with optional fun things to do. For a dlc it’s not the most mind blowing but to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be.
The story ends with Ellie and Riley kissing each other and then getting chased by a horde of infected. They both get bit and the tragedy is that they promise to stay with each other until they turn…but we all know Ellie is immune. It’s kind of heartbreaking when you think about it and it only makes more sense why Ellie still, even in the main game, talks about her and cares about her. Back to Joel, Ellie finds something to treat Joel’s injury and then that ends the dlc!
There can’t possibly be anything else…oh wait…THIS GAME HAS ONLINE MULTIPLAYER???
Factions:
Out of every single multiplayer game I’ve played, how the fuck is this one the most addicting and fun?
‘Factions mp’ is the multiplayer mode in the last of us and believe me, it’s excellent. You have the job of surviving 12 weeks either as the fireflies or the hunters. You go into matches to get supplies so you can keep your clan healthy and even get more members. There are even some nice boosters you can get if you do well and complete some challenges.
You have three modes: supply raid, survivors (you will likely not win in this mode), and interrogation (the best one). Supply raid is just a standard game where you have 4 on each team. If you die then you’ll be revived as long as you have a respawn. Each team gets 20 and they can run out very fast if you’re really shit. Survivors is basically like supply raid but you get no respawns but get better rewards. And finally there’s interrogation, if you get a player from the opposing team in a ‘downed’ state then you can interrogate them. If you interrogate 5 then you’ll be able to gain access to their lockbox. But be warned. The opposing team will set traps around it and guard it with their lives.
The mechanics also carry over from the base game with you even being able to spend ‘parts’ on things like armour and upgrades to your guns and even ammo. There are even some abilities that you can have which help you out in certain places during the matches.
Conclusion:
The last of us definitely isn’t for everyone. And I can see why some people have begun to not like it as much as they once did. There are definitely many other games that people can have fun times with but that’s not what the last of us is asking you to do, unless you play the multiplayer. The last of us isn’t about the payoff, it’s more about the journey. You either like it or you don’t, there’s no in between. But I think we should all respect how excellently written the game is and even now, it has aged a lot better than some games during its time…looking at you bioshock infinite.
Masterpiece, excellent music, great gameplay, really really good story, well written story and characters, decent dlc, multiplayer is excellent, I miss Bill so much
2009
For a game called ‘easy piano’, it’s actually pretty difficult and annoying.
You may be asking yourself right now: ‘whu, what the fuck is this game?’ And believe me, I’ve been trying to answer that exact same question. This is easy piano, imagine guitar hero but you get rid of the whole ‘cool’ factor and play imagine by John Lennon. I happened to get this game from a family friends car boot sale, and they were questioning it just the same as I was. But to be fair to this game, it actually isn’t that bad…just strange.
In easy piano you have a little plastic piano thing that you push into the gba slot and you can use like a normal piano…kinda. You get 3 main things to do: practice, actually perform a song or make your own music. Practicing is just standard practicing and there isn’t that much to it. Performing the songs is where it’s at…well the selection of 35 songs. There’s mainly classical tracks but there’s quite a few ‘pop’ songs. I mean if they want to class enjoy the silence as a ‘pop’ song then alright I guess…makes you wonder if they even heard the album it was on. Making your own songs kind of exists, the interface is kind of annoying to use and yet it’s kind of simple? But don’t expect to be the next Erik Satie.
The plastic piano you get with it feels kind of useless. Like it’s a bitch to use and you have to put these coloured stickers on it that easily come off and that annoys the hell out of me when I’m using it. And even then, you can play each song using your stylus on the touch screen…so what’s the point of having this piece of plastic when I can just use the touchscreen? I mean I guess it allows actual piano players to feel more comfortable but like, the main selling point is that this is gonna ease you into playing a piano, so to have the option to just not use it like a normal piano kinda defeats the purpose.
Also for some very strange reason, they allow you to customise the type of costume you wear, the type of keyboard and where you’re playing the song for no reason. I guess it is trying to make it a little more fun, but it is super funny to play a shitty piano cover of bohemian rhapsody at what looks like Glastonbury.
For a guitar hero knock off it’s actually not all the bad. Sure you do question a lot of things about it but overall it isn’t that bad. Like I’ve played far worse games and this at least does try to do a lot, even if in some departments it fell flat. You bought this game to play every breath you take by the police at Glastonbury, and you came out wondering how the hell they spelt gymnopedie wrong.
I’m so sorry Mr. Satie
Strange, decent song selection, cannot spell for some reason, woman has the worst smile I’ve ever seen
You may be asking yourself right now: ‘whu, what the fuck is this game?’ And believe me, I’ve been trying to answer that exact same question. This is easy piano, imagine guitar hero but you get rid of the whole ‘cool’ factor and play imagine by John Lennon. I happened to get this game from a family friends car boot sale, and they were questioning it just the same as I was. But to be fair to this game, it actually isn’t that bad…just strange.
In easy piano you have a little plastic piano thing that you push into the gba slot and you can use like a normal piano…kinda. You get 3 main things to do: practice, actually perform a song or make your own music. Practicing is just standard practicing and there isn’t that much to it. Performing the songs is where it’s at…well the selection of 35 songs. There’s mainly classical tracks but there’s quite a few ‘pop’ songs. I mean if they want to class enjoy the silence as a ‘pop’ song then alright I guess…makes you wonder if they even heard the album it was on. Making your own songs kind of exists, the interface is kind of annoying to use and yet it’s kind of simple? But don’t expect to be the next Erik Satie.
The plastic piano you get with it feels kind of useless. Like it’s a bitch to use and you have to put these coloured stickers on it that easily come off and that annoys the hell out of me when I’m using it. And even then, you can play each song using your stylus on the touch screen…so what’s the point of having this piece of plastic when I can just use the touchscreen? I mean I guess it allows actual piano players to feel more comfortable but like, the main selling point is that this is gonna ease you into playing a piano, so to have the option to just not use it like a normal piano kinda defeats the purpose.
Also for some very strange reason, they allow you to customise the type of costume you wear, the type of keyboard and where you’re playing the song for no reason. I guess it is trying to make it a little more fun, but it is super funny to play a shitty piano cover of bohemian rhapsody at what looks like Glastonbury.
For a guitar hero knock off it’s actually not all the bad. Sure you do question a lot of things about it but overall it isn’t that bad. Like I’ve played far worse games and this at least does try to do a lot, even if in some departments it fell flat. You bought this game to play every breath you take by the police at Glastonbury, and you came out wondering how the hell they spelt gymnopedie wrong.
I’m so sorry Mr. Satie
Strange, decent song selection, cannot spell for some reason, woman has the worst smile I’ve ever seen
2007
I’ve always been terrible at rhythm games. I’ve sort of stayed away from them because I know I’m terrible at them. I absolutely adore music, but rhythm games have always been my weak point. I mean you’re looking at the guy that can’t usually hear the bass in a song so I wouldn’t really see myself as someone who can find the beat to something. But patapon is special…well the sequels anyway.
You guide the patapons on their quest to find earthend. You play as their god known as the ‘Almighty patapon’. And that’s kind of all there is to it…not the most exciting story but why should it be?
Gameplay is a mixture of rhythm and strategy. You’ll have to put in different command using the face buttons and time it to the beat, if you time it well then you’ll go into a ‘fever’ where your attack and defence increases…but good luck keeping that fever. Pon is used with the circle button, pata is used with the square button, Chaka is used with the triangle button, and don is used with the x button. If you time the drums to the beat then you’ll be able to do different command such as charge, attack, defend, and others. You’ll also be able to gain more troops with the more items you gather as you fight. In the game there are around about 40 missions so if you know what you’re doing the game is pretty short.
For the first game in its series, patapon feels like a rough draft for what could be an absolutely brilliant game. Patapon 2 would improve on all of it drastically but I’ve got a review lined up for that game in the near future.
Rough draft, excellent music, fever is hard to hold onto, adorable art, pata pata pata pon!
You guide the patapons on their quest to find earthend. You play as their god known as the ‘Almighty patapon’. And that’s kind of all there is to it…not the most exciting story but why should it be?
Gameplay is a mixture of rhythm and strategy. You’ll have to put in different command using the face buttons and time it to the beat, if you time it well then you’ll go into a ‘fever’ where your attack and defence increases…but good luck keeping that fever. Pon is used with the circle button, pata is used with the square button, Chaka is used with the triangle button, and don is used with the x button. If you time the drums to the beat then you’ll be able to do different command such as charge, attack, defend, and others. You’ll also be able to gain more troops with the more items you gather as you fight. In the game there are around about 40 missions so if you know what you’re doing the game is pretty short.
For the first game in its series, patapon feels like a rough draft for what could be an absolutely brilliant game. Patapon 2 would improve on all of it drastically but I’ve got a review lined up for that game in the near future.
Rough draft, excellent music, fever is hard to hold onto, adorable art, pata pata pata pon!
So this is what Florida is like!
When it comes to the resident evil franchise I’ve never properly played a game in it. Sure I’ve played a few seconds of the original and even got pretty far into code Veronica before just getting fed up with its shit, but I’ve never properly sat down and put all my attention into a resident evil game. So when I heard the 8th game, village, was £18 at my nearest cex, to say I was tempted was an understatement, but I knew that if I wanted to play it I would have to first finish the game before it: biohazard. And I can’t lie…for the first 2 parts of the game…it’s really good. But I’ll get onto my opinions after I’ve gone through the story and the gameplay.
So what’s this resident evil crap all about? Well you play as Ethan winters after receiving an email from his wife who he assumed was dead. His lead takes him to an old house previously owned by the baker family, which he soon discovers…are still lived in by the baker family. After finding Mia who definitely has something wrong with her, you then get taken by the baker family who must perfectly describe every American family ever! But before we continue the story…let’s get into the gameplay.
The gameplay takes cues from previous resident evil games and improves on them pretty well. You have a limited inventory and you have to manage what you need and what you don’t need with some of your weapons taking up 2 slots. You’ll also have healing items which can be crafted alongside ammo which brings me onto my next gameplay point. Crafting is a pretty big part of the game. You have the opportunity to either craft something like ammo to go on the offence or you can craft something that will heal you. The thing about this is both use similar items so it’s either one or the other. You’ll also have to manage when you use your items. In most games that would come off as an annoying mechanic but in biohazard it actually doesn’t. If anything it only adds to how desperate the protagonist actually feels so to see that get reflected in the gameplay is pretty excellent.
Anyway back to the story…so after a while you’ll end up going into the basement and finding these weird creatures simply known as the ‘molded’. Not only that but the bakers also seem to have regenerative properties. But after you’ve properly killed the father, Jack baker (I refuse to not believe that this was not some sort of reference to the shining), and killed the mother, Marguerite Baker, you finally have to face up to the son, Lucas baker.
Lucas has my favourite section in the entire game. He makes you go through these saw like challenges to get to your wife and Zoe (the only one who’s been helping you) and these challenges are brutal and very clever. And also Lucas is just an absolute maniac and oh man I love this section so much. After you finally get through it and make the serum you’re forced to fight a very weird form of Jack baker. But after hitting him with the serum you have to choose who you save: Zoe or Mia?
Have you ever watched the worlds end? The comedy film by talented director Edgar wright? The film is actually really excellent for the first 20 minutes or so and has some of the best writing in any of his films, but then the entire film changes as soon as the characters go into the bathroom and it only seems to go downhill from there…well the same applies to resident evil 7. As soon as you get the choice of who to save the game only seems to go downhill. It turns out that the thing infecting the bakers and creating those creatures was a little girl named Eveline…yeah ok. And you end up basically having to kill her, “but it’s ok! She turns into an elderly lady so that means it’s ok!”. I found the whole plot twist to be pretty lame and would’ve just preferred it to be something that connected it further into the resident evil games. And the choice I was talking about earlier was also pretty stupid in my opinion. Like the first time around I chose to save Mia but like…why wouldn’t I? You’ve just met Zoe when like you’ve known Mia for a long time in the story so to me it wouldn’t make much sense if you chose Zoe over Mia.
Resident evil 7 isn’t bad. If anything it’s a great return to a franchise which starting to sour for many. But of course there were some really silly decisions in the story for me which made me take it less seriously. The soundtrack is really nice as well, I did really adore the ambience and the nods to previous resident evil games were nice. But whether this is the best horror game I’ve ever played is debatable and definitely not the best in this franchise. Who knows, maybe village might up what biohazard did but who knows. Also just quickly: I like how for the sub heading of this game they made it the actually name of resident evil in Japan: biohazard. That sun heading also kind of makes sense. I also like how they swapped it around for the Japanese version so uhh…yeah…
Great story up until the boat, really good gameplay, nice ambience, Lucas’s section was the best part, “kiss my ass”
When it comes to the resident evil franchise I’ve never properly played a game in it. Sure I’ve played a few seconds of the original and even got pretty far into code Veronica before just getting fed up with its shit, but I’ve never properly sat down and put all my attention into a resident evil game. So when I heard the 8th game, village, was £18 at my nearest cex, to say I was tempted was an understatement, but I knew that if I wanted to play it I would have to first finish the game before it: biohazard. And I can’t lie…for the first 2 parts of the game…it’s really good. But I’ll get onto my opinions after I’ve gone through the story and the gameplay.
So what’s this resident evil crap all about? Well you play as Ethan winters after receiving an email from his wife who he assumed was dead. His lead takes him to an old house previously owned by the baker family, which he soon discovers…are still lived in by the baker family. After finding Mia who definitely has something wrong with her, you then get taken by the baker family who must perfectly describe every American family ever! But before we continue the story…let’s get into the gameplay.
The gameplay takes cues from previous resident evil games and improves on them pretty well. You have a limited inventory and you have to manage what you need and what you don’t need with some of your weapons taking up 2 slots. You’ll also have healing items which can be crafted alongside ammo which brings me onto my next gameplay point. Crafting is a pretty big part of the game. You have the opportunity to either craft something like ammo to go on the offence or you can craft something that will heal you. The thing about this is both use similar items so it’s either one or the other. You’ll also have to manage when you use your items. In most games that would come off as an annoying mechanic but in biohazard it actually doesn’t. If anything it only adds to how desperate the protagonist actually feels so to see that get reflected in the gameplay is pretty excellent.
Anyway back to the story…so after a while you’ll end up going into the basement and finding these weird creatures simply known as the ‘molded’. Not only that but the bakers also seem to have regenerative properties. But after you’ve properly killed the father, Jack baker (I refuse to not believe that this was not some sort of reference to the shining), and killed the mother, Marguerite Baker, you finally have to face up to the son, Lucas baker.
Lucas has my favourite section in the entire game. He makes you go through these saw like challenges to get to your wife and Zoe (the only one who’s been helping you) and these challenges are brutal and very clever. And also Lucas is just an absolute maniac and oh man I love this section so much. After you finally get through it and make the serum you’re forced to fight a very weird form of Jack baker. But after hitting him with the serum you have to choose who you save: Zoe or Mia?
Have you ever watched the worlds end? The comedy film by talented director Edgar wright? The film is actually really excellent for the first 20 minutes or so and has some of the best writing in any of his films, but then the entire film changes as soon as the characters go into the bathroom and it only seems to go downhill from there…well the same applies to resident evil 7. As soon as you get the choice of who to save the game only seems to go downhill. It turns out that the thing infecting the bakers and creating those creatures was a little girl named Eveline…yeah ok. And you end up basically having to kill her, “but it’s ok! She turns into an elderly lady so that means it’s ok!”. I found the whole plot twist to be pretty lame and would’ve just preferred it to be something that connected it further into the resident evil games. And the choice I was talking about earlier was also pretty stupid in my opinion. Like the first time around I chose to save Mia but like…why wouldn’t I? You’ve just met Zoe when like you’ve known Mia for a long time in the story so to me it wouldn’t make much sense if you chose Zoe over Mia.
Resident evil 7 isn’t bad. If anything it’s a great return to a franchise which starting to sour for many. But of course there were some really silly decisions in the story for me which made me take it less seriously. The soundtrack is really nice as well, I did really adore the ambience and the nods to previous resident evil games were nice. But whether this is the best horror game I’ve ever played is debatable and definitely not the best in this franchise. Who knows, maybe village might up what biohazard did but who knows. Also just quickly: I like how for the sub heading of this game they made it the actually name of resident evil in Japan: biohazard. That sun heading also kind of makes sense. I also like how they swapped it around for the Japanese version so uhh…yeah…
Great story up until the boat, really good gameplay, nice ambience, Lucas’s section was the best part, “kiss my ass”
2020
Sometimes consoles need the perfect game to launch with. Some consoles have done this perfectly, the NES and SNES all had a 2D Mario game to launch the platforms with. So when the ps5 was on the horizon in 2020, Sony needed the perfect game to launch with out of the box. So they thought: ‘why not take a few notes from what Nintendo did all those years ago and launch with a platformer? They had already confirmed a new ratchet game was in the works but it was at least a year after the ps5 would launch so they had to come up with something. ‘Hmm…why don’t we use that Astro bot guy?’. That question would then birth a surprising legend.
Astro’s playroom feels like your average tech demo with a heart and soul, and oh man, what a heart and soul it has. You play as Astro, a little robot on his quest to retrieve every single past PlayStation console and defeat the ps1 tech demo dinosaur…and that’s kind of all there is to it. there isn’t some big plot but why should there be? When you break it down it’s a simple tech demo…its main punch comes from its environments and simple gameplay.
The gameplay is like most 3D platformers. You can jump, punch, and use lasers on your legs to get over gaps…just like every 3D platformer! There are 4 main levels in the game: memory meadow, a level based around the ps1 era with a windy and cloudy environment. SSD speedway, a level based around how fast the SSD is! It’s based around the ps2 era and features a space-like environment. Cooling springs, a level based on the big ass fan that you can’t see on the ps5. It’s based around the ps3 era and features a beach and summer vibe to it. And finally the GPU jungle, a level based around the graphics card. It’s based on the ps4 era and has a jungle environment to it. Each level tries to make itself different to the last and it’s an excellent nostalgia trip.
What else can I really say? Astro’s playroom is a quirky little tech demo with tons of love and heart. For a simple game that’s meant to show off the ps5 it’s absolutely excellent and became my most played ps5 game for a time. It’s definitely a game that, if you’ve picked up a ps5, you should definitely try because it’s an excellent demo to show the ps5.
Great tech demo, lovely little gameplay, adorable references, some weird ass frog
Astro’s playroom feels like your average tech demo with a heart and soul, and oh man, what a heart and soul it has. You play as Astro, a little robot on his quest to retrieve every single past PlayStation console and defeat the ps1 tech demo dinosaur…and that’s kind of all there is to it. there isn’t some big plot but why should there be? When you break it down it’s a simple tech demo…its main punch comes from its environments and simple gameplay.
The gameplay is like most 3D platformers. You can jump, punch, and use lasers on your legs to get over gaps…just like every 3D platformer! There are 4 main levels in the game: memory meadow, a level based around the ps1 era with a windy and cloudy environment. SSD speedway, a level based around how fast the SSD is! It’s based around the ps2 era and features a space-like environment. Cooling springs, a level based on the big ass fan that you can’t see on the ps5. It’s based around the ps3 era and features a beach and summer vibe to it. And finally the GPU jungle, a level based around the graphics card. It’s based on the ps4 era and has a jungle environment to it. Each level tries to make itself different to the last and it’s an excellent nostalgia trip.
What else can I really say? Astro’s playroom is a quirky little tech demo with tons of love and heart. For a simple game that’s meant to show off the ps5 it’s absolutely excellent and became my most played ps5 game for a time. It’s definitely a game that, if you’ve picked up a ps5, you should definitely try because it’s an excellent demo to show the ps5.
Great tech demo, lovely little gameplay, adorable references, some weird ass frog
1993
And on the 7th day, god gave us the resources to make sure doom was on every single thing with a screen and buttons because he’s just chill like that.
Doom definitely lives in one of those sorts of times where it has become so respected, some people just can’t live without it. It stands alongside games like final fantasy VII, Super Mario bros., and Tetris to become one of the most beloved titles of all time, a title that wouldn’t have had such a sick ass name of it wasn’t for Ethan Hunt from mission impossible himself. It’s certainly the game that truly coined the term first person shooter, and a game that has inspired countless after it.
You play as doom guy (or doom slayer or whatever the hell you want to call him) as he is posted on Mars and is forced to fight off a bunch of demons. It has a bit more to it but I can’t really be bothered to get into it. The game consists of 3 episodes, and an extra fourth episode, which are filled with simple levels with enemies and secrets to find and shoot.
Gameplay is pretty simple but it makes sense. You go around these simple maps, hunting down aliens and finding keys to open up new areas until eventually you make your way to the end. It’s pretty simple honestly but it definitely set the staple for how other fps games would work and build off it. They had quite little to work with so it makes sense why it seems so minimal. The music also works well with the levels. Some of it makes it seem so liminal and I think it works wonders with what the plot is trying to go for and meshes so well. My only complaint would probably be the lack of enemy and level variety. Most of it seems very similar and it kind of lowers it for me. It’s still a good game but it just slightly misses that variety that could’ve made it excellent.
So does doom still hold up? Surprisingly yes. It’s still an excellent precursor to most fps games and can still be enjoyed today. There are a few parts that stop it from being a masterpiece in my eyes, but it’s still a really solid game.
Good gameplay, excellent ambience, decent weapons, them bosses…
Doom definitely lives in one of those sorts of times where it has become so respected, some people just can’t live without it. It stands alongside games like final fantasy VII, Super Mario bros., and Tetris to become one of the most beloved titles of all time, a title that wouldn’t have had such a sick ass name of it wasn’t for Ethan Hunt from mission impossible himself. It’s certainly the game that truly coined the term first person shooter, and a game that has inspired countless after it.
You play as doom guy (or doom slayer or whatever the hell you want to call him) as he is posted on Mars and is forced to fight off a bunch of demons. It has a bit more to it but I can’t really be bothered to get into it. The game consists of 3 episodes, and an extra fourth episode, which are filled with simple levels with enemies and secrets to find and shoot.
Gameplay is pretty simple but it makes sense. You go around these simple maps, hunting down aliens and finding keys to open up new areas until eventually you make your way to the end. It’s pretty simple honestly but it definitely set the staple for how other fps games would work and build off it. They had quite little to work with so it makes sense why it seems so minimal. The music also works well with the levels. Some of it makes it seem so liminal and I think it works wonders with what the plot is trying to go for and meshes so well. My only complaint would probably be the lack of enemy and level variety. Most of it seems very similar and it kind of lowers it for me. It’s still a good game but it just slightly misses that variety that could’ve made it excellent.
So does doom still hold up? Surprisingly yes. It’s still an excellent precursor to most fps games and can still be enjoyed today. There are a few parts that stop it from being a masterpiece in my eyes, but it’s still a really solid game.
Good gameplay, excellent ambience, decent weapons, them bosses…