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

Game #1219: Ephemeral Fantasia

 Just make this week end! 

 Well, another one for the bucket list. I knew about Ephemeral Fantasia from a gaming magazine back in the day, and had always wanted to play it... and, well, let's just say that there's a reason Konami isn't known for their RPGs, Suikoden aside.

 The premise behind this game is actually pretty interesting, as much like their very own Shadows of Destiny before it, this game is all about a Time Travelling, a 5-day time loop in this case, and instead of it being an adventure game... it's a turn-based JRPG. You play as the mute hero Mouse, and we know just how much I like personality-less mute heroes. Each day is divided into four 6-hour blocks, although there are events that happen only at a certain time, at a certain day. Thankfully, you can hold down Triangle to fast-forward any cutscene, something you'll be doing often with certain repeated events as you loop through the week.

 So... where to start with? How about the weirdly tight schedule for events? You see, the entire world is open to you pretty much from the get-go, barring some places that may require a certain party member, you can go anywhere. But the entire island is a labyrinth, and you must slowly piece the map by being lucky enough to find map pieces. And even then, it can be hard to know where the landmark you want is. And then you have to get there in time, some events only happen a certain day at a certain time. Get there too late and you ruined the entire week. There's no LOAD option while in-game, and you can't return to the main menu, so you have to get off your butt and restart the entire console if you'd rather return to a previous save-file instead of killing yourself to re-start the loop. If you get there too early... well, run around in circles and grind, money is hard to come by.

 The game doesn't even offer you much in the way of guidance or hints, playing this game without a guide is an exercise in frustration. This would be acceptable if this was a NES RPG, the standards were lower back then, but by the time the game released... they should've known better. Even something as basic as improving a character's weapon is made annoying, since every character has a very specific blacksmith that can upgrade their weapon, and they aren't highlighted in the map, so you better remember where these stores are.

 And as interesting as the overall plot is, it's not without issues. Most of the party members you can recruit feel like they join your team completely at random. Usually on RPGs, you can tell which characters will join since they have designs that stand out. Nobody stands out in this game, most character designs are forgettable, except, maybe, Rummy, Baltoth and Mouse's friends. And then there's this very dated scenario, and I'd argue that it was dated even when the game released as I despise Japanese 'perverted sexual harasser old men' humor, like Master Roshi, in which you have to 'lend' a female party member to an old guy, KNOWING he will try to touch them, to progress through the plot. And this old guy joins your party. It's baffling how stupid the whole ordeal is,

 And if you think exploring the town is a chore, then you haven't even reached the dungeons. Every single dungeon is a maze, full of forks and roads. And with an obnoxiously high encounter rate. I don't remember the last time I played through dungeons that were THIS poorly designed. Once again, using a guide can help, but even then you might get lost. Any of the very frequent random encounters may throw you off your route.

 And it's not just the labyrinthic design, as some have other issues. For instance, there's this very lengthy maze that you must traverse as Mouse alone, and every random encounter has AT LEAST 3 enemies, sometimes UP TO 8. And I'm pretty sure Mouse can't learn AoE attacks, so you are stuck fighting what feels like endless random encounters. I almost gave up on the game here. Here I realized that without a guide, there's no way to enjoy this game. Then, a later dungeon, has a giant spiral you must go through, and it doesn't end. Coupled with the random encounters, it takes like a full hour to go up and down through it. And there's no 'quick escape' spell. There are some items, if you happen to find them, that temporarily reduce the encounter rate, but it's still not good enough. I almost gave up on the game here. 

 Eventually, I got to the very last stretch of the game. After exploring the last dungeon, and going through this extremely lengthy route only to get to an item.... I decided I was done with it. No way I was walking back all the way I came through, enduring the endless enemy encounters. Nah, the game wasn't worth it, I played 90% of the game and I hated it. And don't even let me get started on the camera. There are three camera angles: Too close to be of any use, slightly farther but still not very useful, or even more farther but over-the-top, which is the one you'll use the most. It's almost funny just how poorly designed this game is.

 A halfway decent plot just can't make such a poorly made game any tolerable. I have played games with a guide in hand before, and managed to enjoy them, heck, after going through Simon's Quest with a guide... I thought the game was fun. But the game just isn't much fun most of the time, and if this game had released 15 years before it could've been acceptable. But nah, this game has absolutely no excuse being this bad.

 2.0

Game #1218: Capcom Fighting Collection

Up for another version of Street Fighter II on Switch?

 I'm quite happy that Capcom has been doing well with their classic re-releases, because they have an incredible library of games that I'd very much like to own. Capcom Fighting Collection is their latest release, and while half of its library is made up of DarkStalkers, it has the first ever, I think, home port of Warzard/Red Earth, a game I LOVE.

 Much like with their Street Fighter Collection before, these are slightly tweakable Arcade Roms, which is disappointing. For instance, no version of DarkStalkers has the full 18 character roster, unlike the PS1, PS2 and PSP console releases. Other games, like Cyberbots, had bonus characters on their console releases which, sadly, aren't here, so no Cyber-Akuma for anyone. This also means that you get nothing besides Online Play, Arcade Ladder and a Training Mode. That said, you can play around with damage/handicap values, number of rounds, make secret characters easier to select(Not that the game tells you how it works), etc.

 Onto the games!

 Darkstalkers: Has aged pretty well, it features 10 characters, 12 counting the bosses. It was pretty fast-paced, which I didn't remember. All the characters are freaks or monsters of different kinds, which, you know, can somewhat get in the way of finding YOUR character. If you like sexy girls you are in luck, however, as the females are pretty much human-like. Bishamon can kill opponents by cutting them in half, which was pretty neat. Another thing that I found surprising was that Super moves have no freeze-frame or fanfare. Overall? I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I've always been so used to DarkStalkers 3 on PS1 that I felt previous iterations, considering every subsequent entry expands on the previous one, wouldn't be as enjoyable, but I was wrong.

 NightWarriors: Darkstalkers Revenge: Two new characters, Donovan and Hsien-Ko, plus, the bosses from DS are now playable by default. Now the Special Gauge behaves more like a Super gauge, you can stock it and what not, and use it on EX or Super moves when you wish. All the stages from the previous game return, albeit recolored, which is kinda lazy, and the default(weak punch) colors for every returning character was changed, sorta like Street Fighter Turbo did, but at least you can find their older colors. Oh, and it has the same endings for returning characters. All in all, it's Darkstalkers 1 but slightly better.

 Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire: 4 new characters: Baby Bonnie Hood, Q-Bee, Lillith and Jedah. The last two I love and are among my favorite fighting game characters EVER. However, it removes Donovan, Pyron and Huitzil, which is rather baffling. Very similar to the previous game, but now you fight with a double lifebar instead of having rounds, and you can use Super Stocks on DF powers, some characters having access to two different DFs, that grant them extra abilities for a short while.

 Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge: No Jedah, Q-Bee, Lillith or BBH... but Donovan, Huitzil and Pyron are back. DFs were removed. Endings are just a text scroll. In Japanese. As you can tell... I didn't really care about this one, as it's missing my favorite characters in the series.

 Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire:  Has Donovan, Pyron and Huitzil, as well as Jedah, BBH, Q-Bee and Lillith... but no Sasquatch, Rikuo or Talbain. No endings. Yeah, not much else to say about it. If I had to play VH2 or VS2 I'd go with this one, since I can play as Jedah and Lillith. I sorta miss Talbain, tho.

 Cyberbots Full Metal Madness: This one features 6 different pilots, which is basically 6 different arcade routes, as well as 4 robot lines with 3 variations each. That's a grand total of 12 characters, 16 counting the bosses. Gameplay is a bit different from the previous games, as this one has 2 attack buttons as well as a Weapon buttons for offense. One of the fun bits about this game is that enemies can lose limbs, and therefore, access to certain moves, until they pick it up again. It's an interesting game, but it's no Gundam Battle Assault. That said, this is the game from which Jin Saotome, of MvC fame, originated!

 Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo: Has 11 characters, as well as 3 secret characters, all of them brought from DarkStalkers and Street Fighter... as well as one from Cyberbots. They have been super-deformed, so as too look cutesy. It's a competitive take on Tetris. It's decent, but not my cup of tea.

 Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix: Taking the very same style, as well as a few sprites, from SPFIIT, this one is a traditional fighting game, albeit much simplified and cute-ified. Characters range from Warzard, DS, SF II, Alpha and 3. You get three atack buttons: Punch, Kick and Strong. Strong is sort of a special button, as you can use different moves by holding down a direction on the dpad, and charge them. For a ton of Super and Strong moves, the characters will do wacky staff, such as cosplay other Capcom characters(Felicia dresses up as many DS characters, as well as Megaman!) or dress up in different costumes, like Ken turning into a Cowboy or Sakura into a cheerleader. Landing attacks, or getting attacked, makes the victim drop gems that can be picked up by any combatant, and these gems power up your special moves! As cute as this game is... Dan's ending has Sakura call his moves retarded!

 Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition: A version of the PS2 release of SFII. You can play as any version, from any of SF II's major iterations, of every character. Arcade Route defaults you on Super Turbo opponents, however. It's... well, it's another version of Street Fighter II. Probably the most interesting one, but, another version nontheless.

 Red Earth: I have always LOVED this one, always used to download the rom on every new Computer I got. I liked it that much. It only has four playable characters.... because this is an RPG/Fighting hybrid. You take one of your four characters and battle 8 boss-opponent-monsters on 1 on 1 fights, leveling your character as you go along, thus getting new moves and increased stats.

 While most of the games in this collection are DarkStalkers, in a way, I think this is a better set of games that the one in Street Fighter Collection. Mind you, Apha and 3 are brilliant games, but eventually you can get tired of so many iterative games. This one has much more variety, which is a huge advantage, plus, the difficulty settings for these games are much more accessible, read, less CHEAP and unfair. Hyper SF II is still pretty bad about it, however, with the AI downright cheating. Regardless, I think this is a fantastic collection of games, and I hope Capcom keeps doing this with their old games. Now, even if it's just an emulator running roms, I hope Rival Schools and its sequel are next!

 8.5

Game #1217: Chocobo GP

Chocobo is one mean salesman.

 Chocobo Racing on PS1 was pretty darn decent, so I was rather hyped about Chocobo GP. The good news? It's pretty good, I'd say that it's even better than the original. As for the bad news... It's one of the greediest games Square has ever released, which is rather jarring considering this is a mascot racer of all things.

 Considering it's a third-party Switch exclusive, the game looks very pretty. Add to that a super catchy theme song and you've got quite a stunner. It also features a relatively large roster of characters to play with, including Terra, Steiner and Vivi. Remember how neat it was to be able to unlock Squall, Cloud and Aya Brea in the original? Well, if you've got money you can get Squall and Cloud again, because they are part of the insidious money-grabbing practices Square ingrained in the game.

 Y'see, there are three types of currencies: Tickets, which you can slowly earn, albeit less slowly if you patch the game, that can be used to buy some characters, vehicles and colors. Then there are Coins, which can only be earned by playing offline, so if you aren't paying Nintendo's monthly subscription you won't be playing as Squall any time soon. Lame. And then there are Crystals, that cost real money, and these is how you purchase season tickets. And yes, of course, some characters are locked behind crystals. Cloud can't even be obtained nowadays, as he was a Mythril crystal exclusive.

 Thankfully, the core game is actually pretty decent. There are two Speed types for every mode: Beginner and Master, so even if you suck at mascot racers you still stand a chance. For modes you get Online GPs, Free VS CPU/Local Players racing, Series(Basically, Grand Prixes), Time Trial and, lastly, Story Mode. Story Mode is pretty neat, reminiscent of the original's story, although it feels as if Chocobo takes a backseat to the Moogle, Atla. The story is very infantile, so it probably won't be very funny to anyone older than 10, but hey, I appreciate its inclusion. It sort of works like a tutorial as well, as it slowly explains how different power ups work and what not.... but if you've been reading the Loading Screen tips you'll probably know about them way before the Story Mode.

 The game plays pretty much like any mascot racer post Mario Kart 64, with drifting letting you charge micro-turbos to gain an edge on the competition. You can also gain mini-turbos by jump right a you leave a ramp, much like mascot racers post Mario Kart Wii. You also have to be on the lookout for Magicite Crystals, which are your power-ups. Fire Balls, Water traps, tornadoes, etc. If you are falling behind, you can even turn into Bahamut for a short while, much like Mario Kart's Bullet Bills. Originality is not this game's forte. You have three different magicite slots, if you are lucky and get more of the same spell you'll power it up, up to two times, or you can have another spell in the backburn. Lastly, there's a feather gauge that slowly fills up, once full you can spend it on your character's unique ability. Chocobo gets invulnerability and extra speed for a little while, Ifrit shoots forward a giant flame wall, Fat Chocobo becomes invisible, etc. Not every character's ability is as good as the others, but at least it's got something original going for it.

 The game features 11 basic tracks, but most of them have some sort of variation(Long, Speed, Technical) that repurposes assets to make different courses. It's a bit lacking if compared to other mascot racers, but it gets the job done, it's an acceptable amount of tracks. You can customize racers with different vehicles, that actually change how the mode looks, as well as the color of their vehicle, which is rather neat, although earning enough tickets to purchase everything will take a long, long while. Even after patching the game.

 The worst bit about Chocobo GP is that it's actually really fun to play. It's not the best mascot racer, but the driving feels solid, and while it's lacking in originality, everything it does it does relatively well. But the game could've used more tracks, and the whole microtransaction business ranges from slimy to downright nasty.

 7.0

Game #1216: Layton's Mystery Journey - Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy Deluxe Edition

 Puzzles are meant for solving, just watch the anime.

 And now, I am definitely done with the Layton series, as Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy Deluxe Edition(The title is such a handful!) pretty much condemned the Layton series'. 

 Katrielle's adventure is a bit of a soft-reboot for the series, as it takes place much later after the third Layton game, featuring his daughter as the main protagonist. The Professor and Luke are completely gone, and it's framed as a mystery... that is never addressed in the game. If you want to know what happened with Layton, well, better watch the anime. Katrielle's team is made up of herself, of course, as well as Ernest Greeves, a wet-blanket of a character that is deeply in love with her as well as a talking dog, Sherl. Who is this dog? Why can some people understand him? Once again, it's framed as a another mystery, but it's never addressed again after the introductory cutscene. It feels very unsatisfying.

 I've never much cared for Layton's gameplay, as I never cared about the riddles, it was the plot of each game that really intrigued me and kept me invested. Well... Katrielle's adventure is way more light-hearted than the ones in the previous game, and instead of having one big mystery for Kat to solve, you get 12 different cases. For case 12 every character that you met, the 'Millionaires' from the game's title, reappear, but very little that happened in previous cases is pertinent to this reunion. It's rather unfulfilling, and the low stakes of most, sans 2, cases just makes it all the lamer. 80% of the cases are very predictable, so you'll have figured them out before Katrielle herself. Although I think some might prefer this, as in previous Layton games it was pretty much impossible to figure out the solutions. I mean, hypnotic gas, need I say more? Regardless, I felt previous Layton games featured a more interesting plot, and the character were much more endearing. Kat's alright, but she feels like a mixture between Luke and Emma, while I couldn't care less about Ernest and Sherl.

 It's not all doom and gloom. I liked how you can purchase new outfits for Katrielle using in-game currency. It's a bit stereotypical, y'know, it's a girl therefore clothes, but I'm always up for character customization, so I'll take it. It's a bit lengthier than previous Layton games, and it has 180 different puzzles to solve out of the box, plus, it features just as many side-diversions as the previous iterations. Collecting useless items by exploring the backgrounds, a mini-game in which you must plan a 5-course meal for an NPC according to their tastes, one in which you must plan a route for shoppers so that they buy everything and one in which you make a route for Sherl the dog as he tries to get to the end of a maze. The game supports the touchscreen, which is really nice, but a finger is no stylus!

 The game itself is your standard Layton fare, follow a story solving puzzles as you go from place to place. You can click on objects on the background to find puzzles, hint coins or collectibles, etc etc. That said... this one is easily the easiest game in the franchise. By far. I must've used the guide 10 times or less, which is surprising as all the other Layton games owned me so hard. That said, there's a rather large amount of 'trick question' puzzles that don't always feel very... logical, and you can only come to the right answer by using hint coins and getting hints. Apparently, the 3DS release was worse in this aspect, as a lot of puzzles were replaced with other ones for this release.

 I.. I won't type this game's title again, it's just too long. Suffice to say, I get what they were going for with Mystery Journey, I do, but I don't think it worked very well. It's as charming as any other game in the series, and it looks BEAUTIFUL, but while Katrielle was alright her supporting cast just wasn't up to par. The plot just didn't do it for me, and in a series that I play for its story.... yeah, this is one Layton game I didn't like too much. I also have issues with the revelation at the end of the game.

 5.0

Game #1215: Dodgeball Academia

 Ah! Smashing kids' faces with balls, my favorite.

 There have been many Dodgeball games released, and the ones I've played have all been pretty good. But Dodgeball Academia is something else entirely, while it looks like a Dodgeball game... it's actually an RPG. XP, equipment, sidequests, it's all here baby, but instead of turn-based combat we get Dodgeball! And it's amazing.

 The game is, admittedly, a bit lacking in modes. Story Mode and Versus, that's all you get. And, disappointingly, Versus can't be played against CPUs. And it's a huge loss, because you can customize matches with special balls(Such as Fire or Ice balls, which hit with the corresponding elements, among others), special obstacles, such as CARS that you must avoid or what have you. Compounding to this is the fact the there isn't much of a post-game. You finish the game and that's it. No free battles, no nothing. And since I'm at it, the Story Mode has a rather neat variety of unique characters, but... many of them are unplayable. You gain access to six different characters throughout Story Mode, and upon finishing it you unlock another two for Versus Mode. But many cool looking characters remain unplayable, and they even get unique moves. And it's an issue 'cause the full character roster is so endearing!

 The first thing you'll notice, upon booting up the game, is how GORGEOUS it looks. Characters are made to look and animate like modern cartoons, and these sprites are laid over 3-D backgrounds. It's very colorful, and incredibly charming. The story is very silly and it's pretty much played for laughs, at some point you even have to duke it out against a cult of Cubeball believers, and you even get to use cube-shaped balls. Are they even balls at that point? The entire game is set inside the Academy, giving it a cozy feel. On every chapter you'll be visiting different parts of the Campus to deal with whatever issue arose that day. There are sidequests too, clearly designated on the mini-map by blue icons.

 Moving around the academy is very fun because you can press A to roll around, making you go faster. Just moving around feels very satisfying thanks to the rolling! The campus has various chests that you need to open, by throwing a ball at them, and they can contain healing items, equipment or items that permanently boost one of your stats, so exploration is well rewarded. The game borrows a bit from Pokemon, in that walking in front, or near, other dodgeballers(They are highlighted with a red exclamation mark, so that you can try to avoid them) will make them walk towards you and start a battle. A dodgeball battle. Your health isn't replenished from battle to battle, but you can use items or go to the Infirmary and get healed for free.

 Regardless if you are facing enemies on Story Mode or playing against another player, matches are fought 3 on 3. Although Story Mode sometimes pits you against a single, but extra strong, player, or against more than 3 opponents, however, you'll always have a 3-man team at most. You move all three characters at the same time, but you can change who is in the lead with the ZL button. 

 Battles are pretty much like dodgeball, the field is divided in two halves, one for your team and another one for the other time. You can cross the line, but you'll be forced to slowly run backwards towards your field, limiting your options, until you get back to your field. The objective is to deplete every opponents' healthbar by smashing their heads in with balls. Matches can have up to five balls on the field at once, and you can carry all of them if you want, however, hoarding balls will cause them to shine red, eventually exploding and hurting you. Plus, you can only use the FOCUS ability if all the balls aren't on your court.

 You can jump/dodge(Depending on the character), throw the balls or attempt to grab it or counterattack, depending on the character. This is one of the best things about the game, how they managed to give every character very different movesets. For instance, pressing the A button as some characters, like Otto or Ballooney, will have them attempt to catch the ball and keep it for themselves. Maya, however, will kick if you press A, acting as a counterattack. There's another character that also has a counter, but hers works by LETTING go of the button, as she charges a swing with her bat!

 Characters have different Focus abilities too. For instance, Otto will charge the Super meter as long as you hold down the X button. However, holding it down for a while as Ballooney will restore a bit of health to his entire team. Maya, instead, increases the team's attack power. Alongside this, every character has a different super shot too, usable only when the Super gauge is full. Each character has their own Super gauge, so you can stock them waiting for the right moment. For example, Otto will shoot a giant fireball, Ballooney will create a healing pool, but Maya needs to have the most balls at hand since she gets one thunder per carried ball.

 It gets even more interesting in Story Mode, since you can equip characters with two different items to better suit them for your playstyle, from simple stat boots, to stat boots depending on conditions(X% amount of health left, last player standing, health reduced to 1, etc) to Life Steal on hit among others. What's more, as your characters level up, they start getting passive upgrades. At first Otto has Fire on his charged shot, but eventually you can gain the fire effect on your basic attacks. Or even getting stronger if he is the last player standing, etc. You can change the pre-set level of characters when doing offline Versus matches too!

 One thing I'd like to mention... the game removes party members twice, and at both points their equipped items get unequipped, which drove me bonkers.

 That aside, if you couldn't tell... I loved this game. It does a LOT with very little, as the Academia isn't very large, however, every new chapter features a new wacky situation to solve. While there are few playable characters, they gave all of them different toolsets to differentiate them. It gave Flash Game vibes, in a good way, the cozy way, while also playing like a proper console game. It's honestly, fantastic, and I loved every second, so much so that I didn't avoid a single Encounter. If anything, not having offline VS CPU sucks, and having so many of the unique characters being unplayable is downright criminal considering how charming the entire cast of the game is!

 9.0

Game #1214: Hotshot Racing

 Care to go for a ride, hotshot?

 It may look like Horizon Chase Turbo, but Hotshot Racing is a very different retro-style racing game. I didn't really know what I was getting into, but eventually everything clicked... this game is very similar to Ridge Racer! And it just so happens that I love Ridge Racer.

 The game has a very simple graphic style that is made up of simple shapes and very solid, strong colors, that gives it a very striking look, almost as if it was made of voxels, but sharper. The game is very colorful, if anything, I'd say it looked like the classic Ridge Racer games, particularly the first two, before the series went emo with Rage Racer...

 ...but gameplay feels more akin to modern Ridge Racer. There's slipstreaming, by driving behind racers, as well as a lot of drifting, and both of these maneuvers fill your Boost gauge, which can hold up to four stocks of boost. The one thing I noticed is that the game feels a bit slippery, which is a bit closer to early Ridge Racer games. Still, I got used to it, and had a blast drifting around.

 One thing to get in mind is that the game is aggressively beginner unfriendly. Something that I didn't like very much was having to drive through checkpoints under a time limit, otherwise you lose and drop out. I very quickly adapted as I realized how similar it was to Ridge Racer, but my girlfriend did not, and if she fell behind she'd be stuck just watching me play. 

 On the other hand, the game does offer some rather interesting multiplayer modes, like Cops and Robbers, in which the robbers, as they lose, turn to Cops, and if all robbers are gone the cops win! Another one in which you can drop barrels behind you and a twist on Elimination races, in which if your speed drops you explode.

 The game's main mode is, of course, Grand Prix, featuring 5 Grand Prixes of 4 tracks each. Each GP can be played in three difficulty settings. Normal is very Rubber Bandy in your favor, you can make big mistakes but eventually will catch up anyways. On Hard expect to drive behind most racers throughout most of the race! As for Expert, I didn't really try it. Speaking of beginner unfriendly, you can't restart a race in GP mode, if you select Retry it's back to the very first course. That's just cruel!

 Vehicles are interesting in this game, because they are tied to different racers. There are about 10 different racers, and each one has their own four cars, each one favoring a different style, such as 'Balanced', 'Speed', 'drift', etc. Each Vehicle can be customized, aesthetically only, with different parts and paintjobs, and you unlock these by using the car itself and completing different objectives, such as drifting X amount of seconds, finishing a GP, etc. It's a really neat way of unlocking stuff, and I loved customizing the cars I loved. Oh! And each racer has their own incredibly cheesy GP ending.

 The game feels short, but I think that has to do with how fast it is. You really will zip through tracks very quickly. On another note... I didn't really mind it, because I drive in Automatic, but I found a lot of complaints around controls, as it seems having shift down and up on L/R and Accelerate/Break on ZR/ZL doesn't feel good. I wouldn't know, but I do know that you can't customize the control settings, and this was an issue when I played Ganryu 2 a few weeks ago.

 Hotshot Racing was my Ridge Racer fix of the 2022. While I've been comparing this game to RR throughout the entire entry, it was done as praise, 'cause there's no shame in playing like the best. Hotshot is a fantastic little racer, with a small but solid set of mechanics that make it a blast to take on its challenge. 

 8.0