Review #546: Tomb Raider

 She's definitely too old for this crap.

Her breasts are not what's big in her... it's her head.

 Ah! Tomb Raider, a classic among action-adventure games that brought forwards videogame's first sex symbol and first recognizable female heroine. It was subject to rave reviews, but time has passed, and maybe this tomb is not worth raiding...

 Lara, raider extraordinaire gets tasked with retrieving an old artifact and thus Lara's international adventure begins. An adventure light on story elements, although they're there, in which Lara proceeds to uncover the secrets of a legendary city. It's a simple set-up that worked wonders at the time, although I think a bit more story would've helped. Still, for a game of its era, it's too be expected.

Stages are fairly complex and feature a lot of platforms and locked doors.

 Lara is a contradictory mixture of nimble and stiff. She's got all kinds of moves, even some that you don't even need to use or are taught how to do, like jumping, running jump, turn-around-roll, diving jump, grabbing jumps(To cling to a wall or crack), jumping backwards, dropping backwards while holding out her hands to cling onto something.... there're a lot of moves and there's a lot of platforming involved. When the platforming gets going, it's pretty good, but the game loves to place ambiguous lengths, that kill you if you fail the jump, and it gets a while before you get the hang of running jumps and simple jumps, since misjudging a distance my get you killed if you over-shoot it. Running jumps are particularly nasty, you need to walk until Lara hits the edge of the platform, then take a backstep and then, and only then, are you guaranteed that Lara will make the running jump correctly.

 It's a bit more cumbersome, although the game was made with this precision in mind, since you've got tank controls, which don't get in the way of the platforming too much, but will annoy you during shootouts. Trying to pick up items can be a bit finicky too, since you need to be at just the right distance. Some of the jumps in the game are just evil, and the controls responsiveness can be debatable at times. Some of the traps are just nasty and you won't know they are there until you trigger them. It gets particularly bad when you learn that save crystals are placed at designated areas and are a one time use only. Their distribution is questionable as well, levels are very lengthy and you might come across a surplus of unnecessary savespots... or be forced to finish multiple tough sections back-to-back before being allowed to save again. The game starts off easy enough, but the last few levels are brutal.

The first stages are easy, just wait until you hit stage 6...

 Combat was a huge point of contention for me, firstly, most enemies are just plain, ol' boring animals. It feels more like a animal hunter than a tomb raider, and it doesn't help that enemies are bullet sponges that just charge at you. Lara automatically aims at the nearest animal, but dodging is pretty tough. I just relied on side jumps and back-jumps... which won't help you on some of the less spacious areas. Some of the combat scenarios are just unfair, so much so that you should exploit the AI by hiding somewhere they can't see you or reach you and shoot away. The few human enemies, who actually sport guns, are a bit tougher since they can shoot from afar, and since the dodging is so bland... it feels as if its luck if you'll get hit or not. Luckily you can find limited ammo for Uzis, Magnums and a Shotgun to even the odds, as well as collect medikits to heal yourself. Regardless, the combat won't be your main source of death, besides a few instances of not expecting to get ambushed in enclosed arenas without your guns out.

 The toughest enemy you'll face is, probably, the camera. Many a times it won't pick the best angles for your jumps, which kinda sucks. L1 can be used to look in first person, albeit Lara can't move in this mode, but it won't be of much help. It's not a terrible camera, but it's far from optimal.

For whatever reason, Lara's in-game model has no ponytail.

 Yeesh... Tomb Raider 1 hasn't aged very well. Regardless, as unfair, as clunky and as stiff as it could get... it can also be quite fun. Having so many moves at your disposal is quite amusing, and lent itself to some very exciting platforming segments for its era. I can appreciate what the game meant, but you have to make a few of concessions to enjoy it in this day and age.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #545: The King of Fighters 02/03

 The King tags into the battlefield.

 There's no stopping the King o' Fighters, and thus now we get the next two installments, 2002, being a 'dream match' just like '98 and 2003, the harbringer of the new Ash Saga. Both games are very different in mechanics, which makes it a rather interesting package. One harkens to the old KoF games, while the other one is a step into the future.

 First up is The King of Fighters 2002, a celebratory game of the NESTS saga, bundling up characters past and present, even dead characters return. Sadly, the roster is quite lacking. We get Yashiro, Shermie and Chris again, as well as a few old faces, but... it's missing characters like Ling and Jhun. How can you celebrate NESTS when you're missing some of its iconic characters? I was quite disappointed with the cast. For whatever reason they also did away with the neat Striker system, going back to the 3 on 3 team format, which once again, is a disappointment. There was no need to regress the series' evolution, specially considering that Striker fights were already 3 on 3, but with an added mechanic.

 Modes are: Team, Team VS Player, Single, Single VS Player, Practice and Challenge. Challenge is a set of Survival mode, 40 time challenges and Team and Single survival modes. In these modes you can unlock 4 bonus characters, but be warned, they are tough unlocks! All in all, 2002 is a disappointing celebration to what I feel is the best saga in the franchise. Further down the line a much better release, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited March would be released that would get a much better character roster, so there's no need to bother with this one...

 ...if only it didn't come bundled with The King of Fighters 2003. The 3-on-3 battles return with a twist, now you can tag in-and-out with either partner in the midst of battle. It's a great addition, and something new to mark the introduction of the Ash Saga. We get fantastic new characters, like Ash(Fight me, he is my favorite charge character), Shen Woo, Duo Lon, Adelheid and also introduces great characters from Garou, like Tizoc and Gato. Terry gets his fantastic Garou redesign as well! There're a few neat things, like whoever character you picked first in the character select screen becomes the 'leader' and gains access to an exclusive 2-gauge super move.

 The Modes are Tag, Tag VS Player, Team, Team VS Player, Single, Single VS Player, Practice and Survival. The King of Fighters 2003 was a top-notch addition to the series, although sadly the tag mechanics would get ditched in XII. Besides, as much as I enjoy 2003, the next game, XI, has a much better character roster, like seriously, where's Kula?, and perfected the Tag mechanics.

 All in all, The King of Fighters 02/03 is a neat package, although 2002 is a bit disappointing and 2003 would be surpassed by XI. Not a bad purchase at all, I mean it's friggin' The King of Fighters, but there're better alternatives to both games available.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #544: The King of Fighters '00/'01

 How many Kings of Fighters have we got already?

Should've just made original art. Meshing both artworks together made for an ugly result.

 Not as meat as the Orochi collection, this 2-disc monster includes KoF 2000 and 2001, the last game made by SNK as we knew them and the first one developed by Playmore. Back in the day these games were subject to poor reviews, mostly citing the ugly graphics, because paid reviewers always seemed to value graphics over substance.

 Both games offer the same modes: Team Arcade, Team VS Player, Single Arcade, Single VS Player, Practice and Party Mode, which is a Survival mode in which you recover health as you land hits, but also start to gradually lose health once a timer reaches zero. It's the bare minimum, but by this stage that's what we've come to expect from SNK. At least there're tons upon tons of playable characters.

Ralf and Terry won't ever miss a KoF.

 The King of Fighters 2000 is one of my favorite entries in the entire series. It plays pretty much exactly like '99, which means the Striker system that I liked so much, and it introduces a bunch of great new characters like Vanessa, Seth and Lee. But the main attractions are Strikers, whichever character gets stuck on the fourth position becomes the Striker, but this time around there're plenty of alternate strikers, mostly drawing from older SNK games or even unused character designs! The soundtrack in this game is glorious and it has ZERO load times. Thank the gods!

 The King of Fighters 2001 is not as good, but it's not bad either. Unpopular opinion, I actually adore the art for this game. This game concludes the NESTS saga that I liked so much, and it also brought changes to the Striker formula, now you can sacrifice playable characters in order to have a smaller energy gauge to fill as well as more than one striker. I guess that change is alright, although I didn't particularly care for it. On the other hand, Strikers now cost an energy bar to use, which I didn't like. At all. The new characters are relatively bland, Angel is one of the worst designs in the franchise, Maylee is forgettable, K9999... got retconned out of existence and Foxy is alright. No load times here either!

Some things never change. Like Chang's sprite.

 I guess you could say that both games are just more of the same, and I wouldn't blame you for it, but I've a lot of love for the NESTS saga and 2000 is easily one of the most polished and enjoyable games in the KoF franchise. The sad truth is that there's no real reason to own this version over an easily emulated rom, but if you want to own legit copies, this one is as good as having an arcade machine.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #543: The King of Fighters '99

 The King of Fighters gets awesome.

Meet K'. He defines badassery.

 As I previously claimed, King of Fighters '99 was the game that made a fan of the series, and getting to revisit that game again... well, now I remember why.

 Before starting out you should know that KoF '99 on the PS1 is a very skimpy offering. Team VS Player, Team Arcade, Single Arcade, Single VS, Practice and Survival are all you get, alongside an art gallery. That's it. I was also disappointed to find that there was no move-list while ingame, which hurts a lot. On the plus side '99 introduced class into the series, the new characters K', Maxima, Whip, Jhun... they are all great new additions that look incredible. Well, Bao is a stinker, but 1 out of 8ish is nothing. A few returning characters, like Kyo, Ralf and Clark got new duds and they look great too, '99 did a great job at making characters look fantastic. I'd argue that this game was the one that set the standard for what to expect out of new characters coming forward.

Kryzalid is not as bad as previous SNK bosses.

 Extra and Advance modes where done with, now it plays exclusively like 'Advance' but with a few tweaks. Teams are made up of four members now, the fourth member taking the 'Striker' function, a character you can summon to perform an attack and leave. You start with 3 stocks and get a new one every time you lose. Dodges, knock-back attack and all that hoopla remains the same, but why fix what ain't broken? This is the best King of Fighters has been yet, and we haven't even gotten into Tagging yet!

 As great as this game is, the PS1 version came with a huge drawback: Loading times. There're somewhat lengthy, albeit not too intrusive, loading screens before each round, understandably since characters change, and it's something you'll have to deal with if you want to enjoy The King of Fighters on PS1. In my opinion, it's not too bad, although the seamless play of the Arcade version makes it the superior choice.

Ralf and Clark finally get different clothes!

 The King of Fighters '99 is a top-notch fighting game, and it's a great addition to anyone's PS1 library. That said, this is not the game at its best, the loading times do put a bit of a dampener on gameplay, but I think it's something you can learn to live with.

 8.5 out of 10

Review #542: The King of Fighters Collection - The Orochi Saga

 A bundle of fighting game nostalgia.

Stylish... the way KoF ought to be!

 Welcome to The Orochi Saga, a collection of five different games: King of Fighters 94, 95, 96, 97 and fan-favorite 98. As with other SNK collections, these are Arcade Ports with very few bells and whistles, the standard bonus art, as well as 'challenges' and bonus arranged music.

 A thing to keep in mind is that, being arcade ports, the difficulty can be rather high, even on the easiest setting. Continuing doesn't even grant you the 'Service' SNK games were known for! Modes are also very lacking, each game has only Arcade, VS Player and a new, somewhat limited, training mode. 'Challenges' are played on KoF 98 and they are silly stuff, like not being able to see the enemies' life bars. The games run relatively well, although the initial loading times are rather lengthy, luckily there's very little in-game loading, the worst culprit being '97. Lastly, controls feel a bit unresponsive on a few games, since they require very precise inputs, you can't just do the shoryuken motion with Right, Down, Down-Right, Right+Punch, you gotta end it exactly at down-right.

Fatal Fury veterans reunite on the battlefield.

 '94  was the very first King of Fighters(Well, technically, Fatal Fury was the first one) and it introduced the staple 3 vs 3 team matches. There's no arrange team so you gotta play as pre-selected teams. Your energy bar fills very slowly when you get hit, so you have to charge it by holding down a couple of buttons, and there's also a dodge move and a knock back move. Seeing these old sprites has its charm, but 94 is not a game you'll spend much time on.

 '95 is pretty much more of the same, but now you can select any three characters and play as a custom team. It also introduced Iori Yagami, the series break-out character. If you liked '94 you'll like '95 even more.

 Poor Sports-Team, only two appearances in over 10 games! And you can own both of them with this disc!

 '96 was the series's first major face-lift. Sure, a lot of sprites were redrawn in '95, but not as many. Sprites are much better, and characters look more badass than ever before... except Benimaru, who lost his neck. The dodge move turned into a dodge. All things considered, '96 was a great game, a great roster and an overarching story that began in 95 and promised to continue the next year...

 '97 shakes things up, now you can play in either Advance or Extra Mode. Extra mode plays pretty much like previous games, but Advance gives you a more streamlined energy gauge, one that charges as you hit and get hit. Since energy stocks are a thing now, you can be more strategic with your team, you may want a character to build up energy stocks for other to use. I liked 97 a ton, and it looked like the series was only improving.

Yamazaki's crazy streak continues in King of Fighters.

 '98 is the final game in the disc, and is one of the most beloved KoF games. Can't say I share the sentiment, since my heart belongs to the NESTS saga, and even Ash's saga was more entertaining that the Orochi one. Regardless, this is a Dream game, it plays just like '97 but brings back almost every playable character from previous years. Honestly, there're better versions of 98 available, even on the PS2, but this is probably the more affordable one. Although this version comes with a nasty but tolerable, audio bug in which the announcer will say 'winner' or 'perfect', depending on how the last round ending, when announcing the start of a new round.

 Orochi Saga was... something I didn't expect to like as much as I did. I didn't care much about KoF until K' brought the NESTS saga, but these first games were quite enjoyable, if to a lesser degree than what is to come. Minor shortcomings aside, this is a great collection to own if you're a fan of King of Fighters.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #541: Ape Escape 2

 Worth going bananas for.

Just a taste of what's to come!

 Ape Escape is one of Sony's most untapped franchises, heck, look at the box, this one was published by Ubisoft instead of Sony themselves, and it's one of the few games that we actually got overseas. What is Ape Escape? They are platform games with a twist, or two, firstly, the collectibles are monkeys and secondly, the games make extensive use of both analog sticks.

 Jimmy, the protagonist, messes up which causes Specter, the evil albino monkey, to regain power and thus empower and control other monkeys, 300 in all. Now the monkeys are going bananas all over the world and it's up to Jimmy to catch them all again. To say that the game doesn't take itself seriously is an understatement, heck, monkeys can be found wearing the most ridiculous costumes and doing ridiculous stuff. Nothing was laugh-out-loud funny, but it's endearing nonetheless.

Stages are beautiful and fun to explore. You'll have to use your gadgets in order to clear them.

 The game is divided into 20 or so small stages, and each one has a its own amount of monkeys to catch. You don't need to catch every monkey in order to proceed, but you do need to collect every monkey in order to fight the true final boss and unlock Spike, Ape Escape 1's protagonist, as a playable character. He plays just like Jimmy but has no cutscenes and has access to all gadgets from the get-go. One tiny issue I had is that the game forces you out of a stage as soon as you captured the minimum amount of monkeys required to proceed, as a completionist like myself this was a bit annoying since it meant having to return to the stage and retread old ground. And just wait until you find out that you are not really done, defeating the (fake)final boss unlocks the final gadget... and 1-2 monkeys on every previous stage, so I did every stage about 3 times. Heck, sometimes stages have monkeys that can't be caught since you haven't gotten the right gadget yet! The game is a blast so I didn't mind it too much, but it would've been nice being able to exit the stage whenever I felt like.

 Controls are fairly intuitive, the left analog stick moves Jimmy around and the right analog stick uses your equipped gadget. The net, used to catch monkeys, works just like the energy baton: move the right analog stick wherever you want to attack. You spin the right analog stick in order to use the gyro copter or the running wheel, or you tilt backwards in order to use the bananarang, etc. There're about 10 gadgets, and they can be put on any face button for quick access. Sadly, as you can tell, there're many more gadgets than buttons, so expect to return to the gadget equip screen fairly often. It's just a button press away, Select, but I can see it annoying a few people. Lastly, R1 and R2 jump, L1 is used to position the camera behind you, L2 goes into first person and pressing both analog sticks lets Jimmy crawl on the ground, for stealth purposes or dodging.

Bonus character Spike plays just like Jimmy but has his own voice clips.

 Since both analog sticks are used for gameplay the camera can be a bit finicky, but the L1 button works well enough most of the time. The camera during boss battles can be worse though, since it's easy to lose focus on a few bosses. Regardless, during normal gameplay you can manage just fine with the L1 button.

 Peppered through every stage, and hidden inside enemies, are coins which can be collected and spent on a Gatcha machine in order to unlock a huge plethora of extras, including three minigames. It's way more addictive than it has any right to be.

Stealth is not mandatory, but you might skip on the monkeys' shenanigans if you alert them.

 Ape Escape 2 is one of the finest platform games on the PS2. The gameplay is great fun, thanks to its fun mechanics as well as great level design. It's a bit on the easy side, but there's a lot of monkeys to collect, a lot of stages to traverse and a lot of silly extras to unlock.
 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: inFamous - Second Son & Ape Escape 2

 Second son, third game.

 So... I just meant to install this game, but turns out there was no install so I kinda started playing it...
 My very first impression was... not good. I got control of Delsin and quickly found out that Water kills you instantly, which I thought was lame. Then I discovered that Delsin couldn't climb quite as efficiently as Cole, which was also disappointing.

 But I kept on playing, I'm up to the part in which you rescue the bus full of people and I'm enjoying the game a lot. It's very smooth, and I just hope that traversing the environment is as fun as it was on the previous games.

 I'm rather fond of Delsin too, I heard he was an unlikable protagonist... but nothing he's don was particularly douchebaggy, instead he's acting as I'd expect a trouble-child would after obtaining powers. I'm loving his banter with his brother!

The game is great, but the cover isn't very descriptive...

 Well, since the Uruguayan customs suck and every time a package gets retained it means they will handle it like garbage... I'm rushing Ape Escape 2 since I want to make sure the disc is OK, considering the box got crushed and the splinters scratched the disc.

 I'm somewhere near the end of the game, I kinda binged through the game, and I'm adoring it. I remember liking this game a lot back when I was younger, but right now I'm loving every second. As a matter of fact I'm catching every single monkey. I love this game.

Review #540: Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto

 Naruto's most disappointing Storm yet.

Hideous cover. Should've kept the old one.

 CyberConnect 2 is a company that usually gets a lot of flak for being lazy and... this game isn't helping their case. A disappointing game bundled with its disappointing DLC, Ultimate Ninja Storm is anything but a fitting end to the series that promised so much.

 Well, Story mode has changed a bit, now being split in an episode-based Story Mode and an Adventure Mode that takes place after the story. The Story mode follows the final parts of Naruto's story, which sees Naruto fighting deities and finally reuniting with Sasuke. Story mode had usually been a highlight in the franchise but they managed to ruin it. About 3/4ths of the story is told through ugly anime stills, usually featuring off-model characters, instead of the beautiful 3-D cutscenes CC2 was known for. It's incredibly offputting and cheap, and they only stopped using them because the anime hadn't gone that far into the manga. Losing the ability to freely roam around is also missed, this episode structure feels very disjointed. As for the adventure mode, there're three chapters, one for Naruto, one for Shikamaru and a final one for Gaara, they are silly scenarios that will barely hold your interest, but they have various sidequests and things to do, so there's no shortage of content here... it's a shame most of it is rather dull and repetitive, 'Go find X thing for me', 'Pick up Y things' or win simple fights. Boruto gets his own Story Mode which is a return to form for the series, featuring Adventure Mode's free roam as well as the gorgeous cutscenes from story mode, it's a shame Boruto's movie, the story it covers, isn't very interesting. Rounding up the package are the usual VS and online VS modes you've come to expect.

The particle effects are much nicer, but it doesn't look all that much better than it used to.

 If story mode wasn't disappointing enough, the character roster sure is. There're only 13 new characters, mostly made up of new forms of Naruto, Sasuke, Obito and Madara. They have different animations and models, true, but being just new forms makes them rather dull. What's most disappointing is how many characters we're missing, like the mist swordsmen or a few reanimated enemies, many which already had character models and animations from Ultimate Storm 3. Road to Boruto is even MORE disappointing, there're many enemies with animations and movesets that are simply unplayable, instead we get a total of THREE Borutos(Which share a lot of moves), TWO Saradas(Which share a ton of moves) and new versions of adult Naruto and Sasuke... which are reused character models that share some animations with their previous versions. All of that and not a single playable Boruto villain. To call the character roster underwhelming is an understatement. At least the game includes the Sound Ninja DLC, which should've been part of the roster since the first game. To add insult to injury, 90% of the DLC costumes, thankfully also included, return from Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and quite a few costumes remain Story mode exclusive. Cyber Connect 2? More like Cutting Corners 2 much.

 Gameplay is basically the same as usual, but with a few novelties. The system from Revolution is gone, thankfully, so now you can Awaken or use Ultimate Justsu at will. A good new addition is that you can customize which Jutsu and Ultimate Jutsu to use with a few characters, which should've been a great idea but is very limiting, for instance, Minato can't use Reanimated Minato's awakening or ultimate jutsu, which sucks since reanimated characters are ugly, but Reanimated Minato can use any of Minato's skills(Sans awakening). That's a great idea executed halfway decently. A good addition is tagging, by using the right analog stick you can switch between any of up to three characters, all of them sharing a single life bar. Lastly, there's chakra counter, by shortening, for a short while, your maximum chakra you can repel any attack directed your way, if you time it right. There're some framerate issues here and there, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. Still, this game looks almost exactly as it looked on the PS3, the particles are better, and still only runs at a barely stable 30 fps. What the hell? Take away tagging and this game could've perfectly run on a PS3. So the money didn't go into making new characters, didn't go into a decent story mode and didn't go into enhancing production values, so where was it spent? Only CyberConnect 2 knows.

Road to Boruto's DLC is one of the most lackluster DLCs I've ever seen.

 If you've been playing the series sporadically, skipping a game here and there, or if this is your first Ultimate Ninja Storm game, you might think it's a very good game. But us who have been here since the start(Or Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 in my case) know just how badly CyberConnect2 cut corners with this one. This game was gonna bring closure to the franchise, this was supposed to be the best Naruto game, the ULTIMATE Ultimate Ninja Storm. But CyberConnect 2 managed to disappoint and tried to demonstrate why so many people call them lazy.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #539: Samurai Shodown Anthology

 A history lesson of 2-D Samurai.

The art is absolutely badass.

 Samurai Shodown's one of the most famous and unknown fighting games around. It's unknown because not many people know about it, surprisingly, and the fact that the latter titles in the series were bland dug its grave even deeper, but it's also famous because those of us that love fighting games recognize it as the first 2-D fighting game in which characters almost exclusively employ weapons.

 Anthology is quite the package, featuring almost the entirety of the series' 2-D run with Samurai Shodown I, II, III, IV, V and VI. Not only are you getting fantastic arcade perfect renditions of all six games, you also get a few bells and whistles like art galleries and the amazing color-edit mode, with which you can edit a character's color palette! The cherry on top is getting to see how the series evolved, changed and, eventually, started to decline. 

It's amazing how great the series looks by the sixth installment.

 Samurai Shodown 1 is very dated by today's standards, featuring stiff movement and somewhat ugly sprites. There's two slash buttons and two kick buttons, and pressing both buttons of either type produces a strong version, for a total of 6 different basic moves. There're also special moves that you can perform by inputting different directions on the directional pad. Samurai Shodwown is, unlike other fighters, centered around landing hits and looking for openings as opposed to trying to link together long combos. As it stands, the game isn't particularly bad, but every other game leaves it in the dust.

 Samurai Shodown 2 is a huge improvement, sprites are pretty and the game feels much more smooth. It also introduces super moves that you can perform when you are in Rage Mode. It's aged much better than the previous game and remains quite playable to this day.

The sixth game has a handful of new characters... and they are quite good designs.

 The game looked better before, but as of Samurai Shodown III it's gorgeous. Every sprite has been beautifully redrawn, and this is the style that subsequent games will follow. III introduces SLASH and BUST versions of every character, basically, each character gets two different movesets, some characters being more pronounced than others. Controls have been changed, now there're three different types of slashes(Weak, Medium and Strong) as well as a single kick button. Samurai Shodown III feels great t play, and in my opinion, is one of the better games in this anthology.

 Samurai Shodown IV is more of the same, but III was so good that this is a good thing. The character roster has seen some changes, quite a few characters are gone... but a handful of new ones are introduces, including Kazuki Kazama, my favorite character in the franchise. These last two games would be the peak of the franchise, because...

Over 40 playable characters, trust me, there's fun to be had even if you prefer the older games.

 Samurai Shodown V comes next, and... it's not pretty. Well, it looks pretty, but the end result isn't. Firstly, this is the original release of V, which is lacking blood effects and fatalities, something that would be addressed in V Special, which sadly is missing from this anthology. Controls have changed again, we've lost the dedicated Strong slash button, which sucks since now you have to resort to using both slash buttons again, and instead got a 'special' button that works as a jumping dodge. What a lame addition. Slash/Bust versions of each characters are gone. On the plus side, I enjoyed the new characters like Enja and Suija, as well as Nobuhiro Watsuki's original designs. V is not a bad game, but it's not a step in the right direction.

 Finally there's Samurai Shodown VI and your mileage may vary on this one. This is a dream game that pits all characters in a festival, so no blood effects or fatalities. Every single character that was ever playable in the series returns, and if he hasn't been seen since the second game he also gets a brand new sprite. All returning sprites have been brightened up a bit, making for a far more cheerful game. Controls are back to the III-IV, which is a huge plus. Sadly, the game feels a tad slow, and while I love having all these many characters I can't shake off the feeling of wanting to be playing III or IV instead. VI was a good game to end the series on, but not the best it's been.

CPU-Enja is quite the bastard, he can shave off a half of your health bar in a single combo.

 If you've ever enjoyed a Samurai Shodown game, or if you've a passing interest in the series, this disc comes highly recommended. You get the entire(mostly) history of the numbered series in one tight, neat package. That said, be warned that the first four games are VERY difficult, even on the easiest difficulty setting. These ports are arcade-perfect, so they mimic that quarter-muncher, unfair difficulty. Still, every game has a dedicated practice mode and a Versus 2P mode, so you can get your kicks there.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #538: Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End

 Drake returns... both of them.

Don't cry because it's over, be happy that it didn't end like Dexter.

 Of course Sony wasn't going to just let Uncharted run its course on the PS3, so they brought their moneymaker onto the PS4... and it's glorious. Naughty Dog once again brought their A game in order to prove that if someone can make the most out of Sony's hardware it's them.

 Picking off a few years after Uncharted 3, Nathan and ELena have been married for a while now, leading a normal, mundane life. That is until Naughty Dog decides to alter Uncharted's canon once again, turns out that Nathan had a long-lost brother that he thought was dead, who also taught him how to use the Rope tool, a tool which he gets just use in this game and this game only. But that's OK, we should be used to Uncharted's flimsy plot-devices since the writing is as sharp as ever. The story is very interesting all the way throughout, and the franchise's staple conversations are kept in and are as good as ever. That said, you shouldn't come into Uncharted 4 expecting an fresh, original story because that's never been Uncharted's style, this is an action movie-style plot through and through, with most plot twists being unsurprising or predictable... but at least they are well written, so it's fun seeing everything unravel.

A lot of familiar faces return to send off Uncharted as we knew it.

 Not much has changed, for good or bad. Nathan and his AI-controlled buddies are as nimble and athletic as ever, being able to climb, cling onto or vault on various surfaces and objects. There'll be a lot of climbing and parkouring around, as per usual, and this game introduces a rope into your move repertoire. L1 can be used to throw your rope towards designated poles or objects in order to swing around... or climb up or down the rope. Heck, sometimes you'll have to tie objects with your rope and then pull them towards you. The rope is more than just a gimmick and made for some fun new platforming sections.

 Another change is the addition of bigger areas, which, as a consequence, also meant the addition of vehicles. There're a few instances in the game in which you'll have to traverse long distances by car or boat. These control well, and I admit that there were some very entertaining puzzles involving the car's winch, but I don't think I'm a fan of these open areas. The game works better when it's a linear adventure, these vehicle sections felt like they made the narrative fall into a lull. Sure, you can explore and find secret collectibles, but... why bother? Rewards aren't tangible, hell, the reward in Uncharted is to follow the story, not to go out of your way for little trinkets. Still, I appreciate the idea of bigger areas, I just think they don't fit the game very well.

It's not even funny how great the game looks.

 Combat has changed even less, in close quarters Nate can punch, dodge or mash triangle when he falls victim to a grab. Gunplay is pretty much exactly the same as before, so there's nothing to add on that front. If anything, I felt shootouts were much fairer than in previous games, presumably because normal enemies aren't as much of damage sponges as they used to be. Plus, stealth works better here than in any other Uncharted game, with the addition of tall grass in order to hide... or hide bodies with stealth kills.

 As a whole, the game manages to capture most of the action and excitement that made the series so special but... the bar has simply been raised TOO high by previous games. Shootouts, chases, escaping falling buildings are all very exciting, and the phenomenal graphics makes everything look amazing but it's missing such unique, epic set-pieces as the train battle from Uncharted 2 or the sinking ship from Uncharted 3. I didn't feel as if I was doing anything that I hadn't done in a previous Uncharted game, even if it looked better than ever before.

Everything is better with aerial punches.

 Uncharted 4 is everything it needed to be and everything it should've been for Uncharted's first foray into the PS4. It's also a fitting end to the franchise that basically defined the PS3. I think we should all take a moment to appreciate just how much the franchise has evolved from that crappy little PS3 game that had imprecise controls, unfair combat and stupid QTEs to the brilliant bar-setter it became.

 9.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tomb Raider & Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto

 A beauty and a beast.

She's got a big pair of guns.

 I'm loving what little I've played so far, and this can't be nostalgia speaking since I never played much of this one! I first started with Tomb Raider 2 and got all the way up to the Last Revelation before I finally came across TR 1... and it was a DOS game that was having trouble running on my then-modern PC. And when I finally got it running it looked like garbage, so it never manage to arrest my attention.
 But I got to the third level already and I'm enjoying it quite a bit, despite its clunky controls. It's fun, environments are interesting and the game manages to rope you into the adventure quite strongly

Ugh, what an ugly cover.

 What a disappointment. I'm about 25% through the Story Mode and... I can't help but feel like this is the laziest game CC2 has ever made. The story is, at least so far, told through horrible anime stills, a lot that feature characters looking off-model. As for new characters, there's mostly new forms of Naruto, Sasuke, Obito and Madara, while we are still missing a bunch of characters like the mist swordsmen. As a matter of fact, just like Ultimate ninja Storm 3, this game has a ton of unplayable NPCs that should've been playable. The Road to Boruto additions are even worse, who needed 2 Saradas and three Borutos? Give me the villains, please.
 This is a horrible way to end the series.

Now Playing: Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End

 At least Elena and Nate didn't break up again.

Don't look sad, you can join Crash and Jak on the 'Characters Naughty Dog forgot about' club.

 Well... Uncharted has seen worse retcons. Remember how careless Sully was in Uncharted 1 yet became Nate's father figure in 3? Well, now we've got to believe that Nate had this long thought dead brother that he loved oh so much, yet never, EVER mentioned in previous games. Also, he was a pro at using the rope yet never used it before this game. Whatever, we've seen worse in the franchise.

 What can I say? It's the same Uncharted as always. I'm liking the framerate, which is very smooth and while I'm sure it's above 30 fps... something tells me it doesn't reach 60. Still, some scenes, under certain lightning, felt quite photorealistic, so kudos on that. Melee combat has been redesigned AGAIN and it's quite decent, probably the best one since 2.

 All in all, the game's very promising.

Review #537: Nightmare Creatures II

 A nightmarish sequel nobody wanted.

Wallace is one ugly freak. I love it.

 Nightmare Creatures was a mediocre game that I think nobody wanted a sequel to. Heck, even when I was younger and enjoyed it quite a deal more I didn't even wish for a sequel. But it didn't matter, Nightmare Creatures II was made, and for every step forward it takes a stumble backwards.

 You're Wallace, a disfigured, bandaged freak that was abducted while young by Adam Crowley, who for one reason or another revived, and experimented upon. And sometime before getting abducted it seems he was also part of 'The Circle', whatever that was. What little story there is doesn't make much sense, but credit where credit is due: Character design is fantastic, Wallace stands out among other protagonists because of how ugly he is, while the rest of the monsters are no slouches either, looking very creepy and nasty.

Remember these guys? Of course they had to return!

 The game is made up of two different components: Combat and exploration, which will inevitably remind people of Spawn the Eternal, which is not good. Exploration can be reduced to running around dull-looking levels, searching for key items(Dynamite, Keys, Pliers) and then the barrier on which to use them. There're a few scary platforming sections too, scary because it feels as if you can't trust Wallace jump arc, but I never died to a bottomless pit. There're a few sparse Save Points peppered throughout every stage to make your life easier, although a few more of these would've been welcome. Thankfully, the dumb 'adrenaline' mechanic is gone in this game.

 Eventually you'll run into monsters and Wallace will enter combat mode. Square is a horizontal slash and X is a vertical slash. Remember how many combos Nadia and Ignatius had in the first game? Wallace has... less than either of them. XX ,Square Square, X Square Square and Square X X are the only combos in the game. Weapon upgrades are gone too, but you can find items to help Wallace in combat, like a fiery axe or explore gun ammo. There're new fatalities to kill enemies faster, but... they are cute at first, but overstay their welcome pretty fast. There's a single fatality type for each enemy time, so they grow repetitive, and they are so slow that you'll just want to move on. Plus, the game repositions Wallace and the enemy when you execute this... which can potentially ruin your game. On stage 2 a fatality got me through an invisible wall, which got me stuck and forced me to reset the game.

Bosses are strangely static in this game.

 Despite how boring and clunky everything in the game is, its biggest setback is its unfair difficulty level, even on the lowest difficulty setting. You start out with 5 continues and no way to get more. You'll lose most of them figuring out that you have to wait until the big yellow monster growls before you can hurt him or to wait for the knife-beast to lick his knife else he will break your combo, and then you'll lose the rest of your continues trying to dodge attacks in cramped environments with crappy camera angles you can't rotate. Combos feel somewhat unresponsive, sometimes Wallace takes too long to enter combat mode and monsters are boring to engage.... it's not a fun game.

 It's also buggy, the item wheel got stuck twice on my playthrough, forcing me to restart the game. Then there was also that time I got through an invisible barrier... Don't even let me get started on how finicky the game is to decide when Wallace will climb a wall, turns out sometimes you simply must jump, or press Square, on juuuust the right angle.

Dismembering foes doesn't feel half as great as it did in the previous game.

 Sloppy, buggy, boring... the game has a fantastic art-direction, and looks great... but falls apart on anything that matters. If you liked Nightmare Creatures you might want to give this one a look since you're already used to mediocrity, everyone else just avoid it.
 3.0 out of 10

Archile's Grab-bag> Final Package o' 2018 Edition

 Another box meant another opening.

  Maybe one of them wasn't a box.

 Gotta grab ye trusty ole knife...

 Rime: Um... I don't know much about it, and I was kinda convinced into purchasing it, so... yeah...

 Mortal Kombat XL: Of course I had to try Mortal Kombat XL at some point, since I've followed the series ever since I can remember.

 Gundam Versus: It's not Maxi Boost, it's got even less mobile suits than Maxi Boost... but it'll have to do for the time being.

 Infamous Second Son: While I wasn't the biggest fan of Infamous 1, Infamous 2 quickly became one of my favorite games on the PS3. Hopefully Second Son is just as good.

 Samurai Shodown Anthology: I do own this game on the Wii, but fighting games are a better fit on the PS2. For whatever reason the game has jumped in price, but Amazon's got it on the cheap.

 Battle Chasers Nightwar: Joe Madureira is one of my favorite artists out there, and hopefully this game does justice to his art.

 King of Fighters XIV: I love King of Fighters, and this one has been on my radar for a long, looooooong while. It's a bit sad that they did away with their phenomenal 2-D sprites, but it's understandable, since this way they can churn out even more characters.

 Doom: Classic FPS are dope, and Doom should be no exception. What I know of Doom is that it's one of those games that refuse to sport a subtitle and thus became one of those annoying games that are named exactly the same as another game of the same franchise and the fact that melee-kills look repetitive. Not a good first impression.

 Rise of the Tomb Raider: I adored the PS3 reboot and was bummed out that the sequel, while having being released on the X360, wouldn't make it to the PS3. But it matters no longer!

 The Evil Within 2: The Evil Within is one of my favorite videogames ever, and might just be my favorite survival horror game ever. I know little to nothing about the sequel, so this October I might be in for a treat.

 Life is Strange: Few games are as overhyped as this one, so naturally I fell victim to the hype and here I am.

 The Order 1886: I've loved this game ever since it was revealed to the public and was utterly disappointed when reviews came out. I will give it a chance, though, since I want to believe that I can enjoy this game. And if its length is its major weak point... that might not be too bad.

 Tekken 7: While Lucky Chloe is the worst thing to happen to this series, after Tekken Revolution and their new focus on fanservice which extends to the horrible designs of characters like Josie Rizal, I'm a huge Tekken nut and couldn't miss out on the latest installment. Tekken 7 seems like a major shift, which left the fanbase a bit divided... So I'm a bit hopeful about it, considering I enjoyed Tekken 4 so much because of how much it changed.

 Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Road to Boruto: I wasn't missing out on the final Ninja Storm game, oh no. I'm a bit disappointed that the series ended here, we were still missing a handful of characters, like some of the Mist Swordsmen or characters from the movies, but oh well!

 The King of Fighters Collection - The Orochi Saga: As much as I like King of Fighters... I wasn't much of a fan of anything pre-99, and thus, pre K'. In my opinion these first few games just can't hold a candle to what comes after it.

 Resident Evil VII Biohazard Gold Edition: No, this is not a return to their roots because Resident Evil was always an action game first and a horror game second. That said, I've grown more accepting of the first person view and am ready to give it a chance.