Game #1226: AirBlade

 I believe I can fly.

 During the PS2 era, if you wanted to compete against Tony Hawk in the Skating department you had to do something to stand out. So, with AirBlade, they gave players a hoverboard.

 Something I found very amusing, is that since you're floating over the street, you can't bail your tricks, so you can just spam flips. The only way to bail a combo is by touching a wall as you perform a flip or a grab. Don't get too excited about flying, though, as you are basically hovering at street level at all times, the AirBlade, your board, only comes into play thanks to its boosting abilities. Basically, you perform tricks in order to build your boost gauge, and then you can use R2 to boost or hold down X to perform a high jump, both actions consuming energy from the gauge. Eventually, you'll have to decide whether the right way to approach an objective is to boost or to high jump. It gets kinda annoying. 

 Controls are pretty similar to Tony Hawk, but worse. Turning is very sensitive and wonky, I suggest using the directional pad as the analog stick is simply too sensitive. You jump with X, but you can't charge it, which really threw me off. Grabs is done with Circle, Flips with Square and grinding with Triangle, just like in Tony Hawk. That said, circle also works to grab poles, in order to vault, which is necessary in a few stages. While it copies the control layout from the best, sadly, movement doesn't feel very good overall. It's even hard to aim your jumps sometimes.

 The game has a decent amount of modes: Free Running, Multiplayer, Score-based, Story Mode and, if you manage to finish the Story Mode, an unlockable Stunt Mode that plays like Classic Tony Hawk, meaning, multiple objectives under a time limit.

 Story Mode is the game's meat and potatoes, and it's kinda annoying at first, but I learned to like it, as it's very arcadey. Basically, the game never lets up. You start a level under a 5 minute limit, and you are told to do something. As soon as you do it, the next objective pops up. One after another, until, finally, you perform one final stunt and finish the stage. Fulfilling objectives adds 15 seconds to the timer.

 The worst part about the whole ordeal, is that you receive very little guidance beyond an arrow that directs you towards your objective. Sometimes, most of the time, how you need to get somewhere isn't very obvious, which is annoying. It was probably done on purpose, as the game is only five stages short. And if the time runs out... it's back to the very first objective. I can understand how it could annoy some people, but I found it very Arcade-like, and thus, I eventually started enjoying it, at least once I finally understood how to do everything the game tasked me with, at least until...

 ...I got to the last level. It has bottomless pits that end your run. I gave up here. Look, the Arcadey nature of the game helped me tolerate its control issues, but this was simply too much.

 AirBlade is serviceable, but only just barely. Honestly, if the movement was a bit tighter and more precise, the game could've been more enjoyable. I think the idea behind the game was pretty solid, I enjoyed the objective-to-objective gameplay, but the game needed more work where it really mattered.

5.0

Game #1225: DNF Duel

  No Korean popstars in this one.

 ArkSys has had no chill this generation with their fighting games, kinda like they didn't back in the PS2 era with all their HD-sprite based fighters. DNF: Duel is the latest license to get the ArkSys animu fighter treatment, and it might be their most original fighting game yet.

 This one is most similar to Grand Blue Fantasy VS, their other fighter based on another RPG game. The game is slower paced than you might expect, no aerial dash in this one, but it gets the job done. You get a weak attack and a medium attack, but your other two attack buttons are more interesting. The Strong attack button and the MP button produce different attacks depending on whether you are in the air, press it by itself, when crouching, when holding back or forward the opponent, which nets you a ton of different moves on these two buttons. You can input MP attacks by using traditional, simple, quarter-circle motion inputs, which makes them consume less MP.

 Things get a bit more unique when it comes to MP and grey health. Your basic attacks don't deal as much damage as they would on your fighting basic game, they deal a small amount of red, non-recoverable damage to their health bar, as well as a bit more in white damage, which an opponent will slowly regenerate as long as they don't take damage. The only way to take away their white, recoverable health is by landing an MP attack. Mind you, if an opponent only has white health left, they will die, so it's not like you have to end a match on a MP attack, this only makes it so that they can't recover some of their missing health.

 MP starts capped at 100, and it slowly regenerates during battle. Certain actions, such as landing non-MP attacks will make it recharge faster. If you over-spend your mana, the delay before it starts filling up again will be slightly longer. As you take damage, your MP cap will increase, but it resets back to 100 on a new round.

 Something I really loved is that even though this is quite clearly a more streamlined fighting game, easy to pick up for people that don't tend to play fighting games... there are no auto-combos. I've hated auto-combos ever since P4 arena first introduced them, in a way you couldn't toggle off, so I'm so happy they are gone. In this game, you can also block either by holding back against your opponent... or by holding down the R2 button, which is curious for a Japanese fighter. Pressing R2 and either left or right will produce a dodge. When you are low on health, you get a single stock of an Awakening move, performed by pressing L2, which is basically a cinematic comeback attack that deals a ton of damage if you land it.

 The game has a roster of 16 characters, which is pretty surprising from ArkSys, this is their largest base-game roster next to Dragon Ball FighterZ 21. Each character gets 8 different colors. As for the character designs... some are hit or miss, they are based on a Korean MMORPG, so of course they feel a bit overdone. That said, some of the proportions are kinda whack. There are 3 white haired, lanky guys that tower over most of the other characters. Are they supposed to be giants or something? And the Dragon Knight looks like she is many sizes too small, she looks to be about as old as, say, Striker, but she looks way smaller. She is as small as the child-characters, while having proportions of a young adult. She looks really jarring next to pretty much anyone else.

 As for modes, it offers the now trademark ArkSys in-depth tutorial mode, as well as a Training Mode, Free Battle, Story Mode, Arcade Mode and Survival Mode. Survival Mode is interesting 'cause you can buy enhancements, such as more Attack Power or healing in between rounds. Story Mode... was such a drag, it takes forever, and you can't skip the scenes. It may be a Korean license, but the story is as asinine as the worst anime drivel you can find.

 I liked DNF Duel, but I didn't find it any better than ArkSys other attempts. I will praise it for being rather different to their other fighting games, which is worth mentioning considering how samey their games can feel. That said, the slower pace simply didn't appeal to me, but I can appreciate the game for what it is.

 7.0

Game #1224: Fullmetal Alchemist 2 - Curse of the Crimson Elixir

 An arm and a leg wasn't enough.

 Seems Squeenix wasn't quite done with the Fullmetal Alchemist license, as we eventually got Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir. It's sort of a sequel to the previous game, building upon its foundations, in order to produce an overall better game.

 Just like the previous game, this one features original animated footage, which is fantastic, and it also features the cast from the dub reprising their roles. That said, the script does something a bit different, as the first half of the game covers the manga storyline, from the Elric Brothers' introduction up to their encounter with Scar. That said, you'll notice small changes and additions, which all build up to the game's second half, which tackles a wholly original plot. This game's story isn't as interesting as the one from the previous game, but it gets the job done.

 The presentation has seen a big overhaul. For starters, the entire game is fully voiced, as opposed to the original game that had plenty of text-only dialogue. The visuals were touched up to, now featuring very colorful cell-shaded graphics, which makes the old game seem muted and lifeless in comparison.

 Beyond that, the game has seen little improvements. The basic gameplay remains the same: Jump, attack, dodge and Alchemy works pretty much exactly the same, except that every transmutable object only gets one possible transmutation. Just like before, you can equip accessories on both brothers to strengthen their stats, and leveling up gives you stat points to distribute on their different stats.

 Combat has been tweaked and somewhat enhanced. Now your basic Square combo can be ended by pressing either triangle or circle a couple of times, to produce attack combos. The differences between combos aren't too important in the grand scheme of things, but they add some diversity in how you do things. Enemies might be weaker to alchemy, so ending a combo with circle, which ends on a transmuted spike from the ground, would deal more damage. It covers more ground too, so it's better to deal with multiple opponents. Faster enemies might be better dealt with using the triangle button ender.

 In the previous game, you could happen upon objects that could be changed into a Sword, a Dagger or a Lance.... now Ed gets four different styles he can change with at any time: Punches, Sword, Lance or Hammer. Once again, if you like a particular weapon you can stick with it throughout the entire game, but they have different attack speeds and lengths, so you can shake things up if you wish. Another addition, pressing Dodge right before getting hit will produce a powerful counterattack.

 Alphonse, once again, is an AI ally, and he works pretty much exactly like before. Press R1 to have him attack, press R1 when close to him for a tackle. In combat he is pretty useless, but at least he can tank some hits.

 The game is shorter than the original, about three hours shorter give or take, but at least it doesn't reuse environments. On the other hand, sometimes level design can be a bit... questionable. Stage 2 had at least two instances of ladders with enemies on top, and they kick you as SOON as you land, making it a chance based on pure luck whether you manage to make it on top of the platform or not. There were a couple of bosses that seem just too hard when compared to ANYTHING else in the game, even the final boss.

 While it's a better game in some respects, honestly, some of the additions don't amount to much. It's still a decent time for anyone invested in the license, but it won't make it any new fans.

 6.0

Game #1223: Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel

 This one doesn't cost an arm and a leg. 

 Good anime series will, inevitably, get mediocre videogames, thus it has always been. Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel was another such game, released at the height of Fullmetal Alchemist's popularity, during the original anime's run.

 In a few words, it's a linear beat'em up, spliced with a few minutes of completely original animation made just for this game. The cast from the English dub reprise their roles, which is probably pretty cool if you enjoy the dub. I watched the show in Japanese, so I can't say I cared about the dub.

 In the game you play as Edward, you can punch and kick with the square button, jump, or use alchemy. There are two levels to alchemy, tap the circle button to create a wall, for defense or as a platform to stand on, or hold it down for a while to produce spikes. Peppered through the environment are various items, highlighted by a circle, that can be transmuted into weapons. From stationary cannons and miniguns, to weapons such as lances or swords. There are other types of transmutations, but for the most part, they are there to help you deal damage. You can't really select what to transmute elements into, so a barrel will always turn into a Katana, a lamp post will always turn into a sword for Al. That said, some elements can be transmuted into any of two different objects.

 While you are restricted to playing as Ed, his brother Alphonse will follow you around, sometimes deciding to attack enemies. If he is far away, you can press R1 to call him over, and if he is next to you, you can press R1 to have him perform a tackle, which might be the only way to expose a few enemies' weakpoints. Al's AI is kinda clunky, he makes his way towards you very slowly, and aiming his tackle is not as intuitive as it should.

 Defeating enemies earns you XP, and leveling up lets you assign stat points to both Ed and Al's stats. You can also find equipment, which you can then equip on both characters in order to raise their stats, or usable items to heal any of the brothers with.

 The gameplay, overall, is passable, but it feels rather slow. Edward's movement speed is very slow, turning stationary weapons takes forever, and waiting for enemies to stand up after you knock them down, in order to attack them again, also takes a little longer than I would've liked. Y'know, it gets the job done, but the game is absolutely nothing special. Move from place to place, defeating every enemy in the way, using very basic combo attacks and every now and then using items and weapons. Plus, some environments are reused, so sometimes you even have to go through stages you've already gone through, a few times, even the enemy placement is identical.

 On the other hand, the game has a very early PS2 charm to it. Very basic, rudimentary character models, a very minimalist sound design and some environments that are needlessly large. It's not a good looking game, you may even call it boring, but I find it rather charming, though I admit I'm probably alone in that one.

 Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel wouldn't be a game I'd recommend unless you liked the franchise. But for fans, I think it's alright. The gameplay is passable, but the addition of original anime footage makes it worth a look, and, in all honesty, the script feels like a well done filler episode, not as good as the main plot(Even though you could argue the second half of this anime was 100% filler), but not as weak as the worst filler episodes.

 6.0

Game #1222: Star Wars Republic Commando

 No clones were harmed in the making of this game.... I think 

 For the longest time, I considered Star Wars: Republic Commando to be one of the finest Star Wars games out there. I used to play this game on PC a LOT back in the day, and finding out that it only released on Xbox, when it came to consoles, was heart breaking. But alas, the game got a Switch rerelease, and I finally get to own a copy of it.

 Republic Command is a very interesting Star Wars game because you don't play as a Jedi, nay, you play as one of the clones in the Clone army, a squad leader at that, and you get to command your four-man team in a series of deadly missions. So you could say that this is a squad-based first person shooter, but your squad is made up of AI allies that you lead into the fray.

 The game offers a very simplified command input system. Objects that can be interacted with have an icon over them, press X and the nearest squad mate will get to it, as long as they are free. While each member of your squad has a very distinct personality, when it comes to tasks they are all the same. Some tasks, such as activating computers or setting up bombs you can do yourself, and have your allies protect you, but considering these tasks take 10-20 seconds... it's more fun if you send one of them to do it for you while you partake in the firefights. You also get four general orders: Regroup, Offensive Approach, Cover an Area or Cancel Orders.

 You are equipped with an assault rifle that can use two attachments, one turns it into a powerful grenade launcher and another one into a sniper rifle. There's a fourth weapon, a very useless gun that recharges slowly, but it's pretty much a last resort. You can also use very powerful melee hits. These makes armament feel rather limited at times. To be fair, you get a free weapon slot that you can use on either a Shotgun, Machinegun, Crossbow, Minigun, Railgun and a laser gun, but there's no guarantee you'll find more ammo for these guns. The first mission, for instance, only features the Laser gun, but thankfully, the next two missions have more variety(Although you won't find the laser gun again).

 The game is relatively fun, but... when the game starts spawning spongy enemies it starts getting a bit dull, When you find yourself wasting most of your ammo on two enemies... it can get rather boring. The whole hacking and placing bombs also gets rather monotonous after a while. It's definitely not the most exciting game out there, but hey, the concept of a clone squad is pretty neat, and I really liked the characters.

 The Switch port runs rather smoothly, which was very welcome... but it did crash once. And there's this weird right analog stick bug, which I think only happens on certain rooms, in which your aim will be forced to the ground, and then you won't be able to turn left, only right. Exciting the room fixes it, but it's a very weird bug. It was the most frequent during the second mission, but nothing too intrusive, 

 I also came a few bugs. One time, one squadmate was alive, but it showed up as dead so it couldn't do anything, thankfully, the stage exit was close by, so it wasn't too much trouble. Similarly, one time a squad mate got stuck on a box. I killed him and revived him to no avail. And another time.... a squad mate didn't follow me, and I realized when we were miles and miles apart. He wasn't even stuck on an order, he simply didn't budge.

 Republic Command is a fine game, but nothing to write home about. It's a game that has certainly seen better days, but I wouldn't write it off completely, as I think it had some very interesting ideas and characters that are worth a look for people that enjoy Star Wars.

7.0

Game #1221: WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain

  Do not pursue Brock Lesnar!

 While I had played a few wrestling games before, WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain was the first one I really enjoyed. It was a blast, it was fun to play and the season mode was brilliant, I remember I quickly developed hatred towards Brock Lesnard, as he was always up for a tussle and he was a pain in the butt to fight as Rey Mysterio. But it was thanks to this mode and the story that could be told that the game became so memorable for me.

 One of the best things about the game is just how many types of matches it has. Tag Team, Cage Match, Ladder Match, Table Match, Elimination, First Blood, Survival, etc... as well as the, um, exciting bra & panties match in which two divas have to undress each other. But then there's THE best part about the game, Season mode. Here you follow the career of whichever wrestler you pick. In this mode you go from dumb storyline to dumb storyline, full of betrayal and ridiculously cheesy, but endearing, moments. You even get to make choices from time to time. This mode is a lot of fun, I didn't even reload when I lost some matches because it added flavor to whatever story I was a part of. This mode was incredibly addictive, I just couldn't put the controller down. And you also gain XP after matches, letting you level up your stats.

 Gameplay is a bit clunkier than I remember, mostly in the movement department, but it gets the job done. You get a button to perform strikes with and another one to pull off grabs, depending on the direction you use on the analog stick you'll produce different strikes and grabs. You can damage individual parts of an opponent's body, slowly weakening them. There's also a super move, that you build up by laying the smackdown on your rivals. L1 and L2 can be used to counter strikes or grabs, and I'd lie if I said that I knew the timing, so I just mashed. If there's one thing I didn't like is that there are weight divisions, and characters such as Rey Mysterio can't lift a few wrestlers, which was very annoying as it limited my moveset.

 WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain was very well received at the time of its release.... and I agree. I had never cared about wrestling until this game. And while some parts of it have aged a bit, the pure cheese and charm this game offers still makes it a fun time. 

 8.5

Game #1220: Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

 They should've called this one 'Funky Edition'. 

 Donkey Kong Country Returns was pretty darn good, so naturally, a sequel had to follow, enter, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Instead of aping the original Country saga, which gave players a new Kong duo per entry, Tropical Freeze instead opted to expand on the original.

 The core of the game remains the same, 2-D platforming action, every stage feeling very different from the next, except maybe the flying stages, and each stage is filled with bonus stages and things to collect, some stages even have hidden exits that open up secret stages. The game is divided into 6 worlds, most worlds have 6 stages and a boss, 4 stages on world 1 and 8 on world 6, as well as three hidden stages, two that can be accessed by finding the hidden exists and one that is unlocked if you find every KONG letter on every stage of the world. While the total stage count is a bit shorter than your average Super Mario entry, stages in this game are rather lengthy and creative, so it evens out.

 The game does away with motion controls, praise the lord, but it does have another control issue... swimming stages. Turning around while swimming feels delayed and clunky, which made swimming stages feel unfair. The game is very generous with lives, by world 2 I was hoarding 80 of those, and while the game is tough, it never felt unfair... except for the swimming stages. And there's an entire world built around swimming stages. These felt like the game's lowest point. I think running out of oxygen was a complaint among players, but I don't think I ever died due to oxygen cost, but due to poor controls? I did get a lot of those.

 Basic controls and movement remains the same as Returns, but joining Diddy are Dixie and Cranky Kong. Much like Returns, and unlike the original Country series, unless you are playing in two player mode, the other Kongs are just tools for Donkey Kong, and you can only play as him, which I find disappointing, but it is what it is. Each Kong offers different abilities for DK to use. Diddy gives Donkey a small hovering ability thanks to his jetpack, Dixie twirls her pigtails offering him a hover+ a higher jump and Cranky lets DK bounce over spikes and spikey enemies. Every Kong also gives him a benefit while under water, Dixie and Diddy offer him boosts(Diddy's a bit faster) and cranky offers some offensive staff swipes. There's also a new SUPER gauge, that when full, lets you use a super move that turns every enemy into a something. Dixie turns them into yellow hearts that either restore your hit points or adds armor(Bonus hits over the 4-hit maximum), Diddy turns them into extra lives and Cranky into money. Yeah, for all intents and purposes... Dixie is the best partner in the game. Very rarely is Diddy's hovering ability better than Dixie's high floating jump, being able to reinforce your health bar is much more useful than bonus lives, which are already plentiful, or money, which is also rather plentiful. The only other way to extend your hit points is by using money to purchase one-time use extra hearts before a level starts. And Dixie's abilities even stack with that item, making her ability even better. So, in the end, Diddy feels pretty much useless, in comparison, while Cranky is situational at best. I think the better idea would've been to give Dixie just a high jump without the hoover, so that picking between her and Diddy actually made sense.

 The one thing I kinda didn't like, was that checkpoints, as welcome as they are... usually don't have Kong barrels around, so you restart without a helping Kong and must go through the rest of the stage as Donkey Kong alone. It's, in a way, rather harsh. Mind you, the entire game can be completed as Donkey Kong along, except, maybe, some of the introductory stages that slowly teach you about each Kong, so they aren't necessary per say, but still.

 This Switch port adds Funky Mode. You can only pick Funky Mode when creating a new file, so if you pick Normal Mode you can't just switch to Funky without starting a new file. Funky Mode is the Easy Mode of the game, in this mode you get 5 hearts by default instead of only two. And you can also opt to play as Funky instead of Donkey Kong. Funky Kong has all the benefits of all 3 Kongs built into him, and you don't lose them upon taking two hits of damage. He also gets infinite oxygen while underwater. If you ever thought the game was too hard, Funky Kong is the answer.

 Tropical Freeze is yet another excellent Donkey Kong entry. It's not without its flaws, but I'm really enjoying what Retro Studios is doing with the franchise.

 8.5