Gundam Versus Impressions Part 4(Z, Iron Blooded Orphans)

Hyaku Shiki

 Maybe it's a bit stronger than it used to be, since it's now a 400 cost instead of 2000, but this suit is pretty much exactly the same as it was in Extreme VS. That means that Hyaku Shiki covers pretty much every base, a bazooka shot, a gerobi, beam rifle(With cartridges instead of waiting for it to recharge) and pretty decent melee. It helps that it's my favorite design in Gundam.

Zeta Gundam

 I think the shield-recoil shot has been changed, and now, assuming it did, is an area-of-effect stun blast. Other than that, it's the same exact suit that it used to be, but it got bumped up to 500... which probably isn't its best fit since it doesn't have all that many different tools to work with.

Super Gundam

 Another unit that hasn't changed much, if at all, the Super Gundam is a fantastic suit, with good melee and a decent amount of projectile weapons.... and then you turn on the Super Mode in which case it becomes a long-range monster, with quick gerobis and strong beam attacks, not to mention a devastating flurry of missiles. I love it.

Gundam Mk II

 A very basic mobile suit, it has a standard beam rifle(cartridge based) and decent melee, but it feels a bit lacking and boring. The blade-beam projectile is strong, but it doesn't manage to make it stand out among other suits.

NEW Nemo

 Quick question: Who asked for the Nemo? It's one of the weakest 200 cost units I've tried yet, with a pathetic beam rifle and pathetic melee attacks. It has a neat side-step attack in which the Nemo mounts a flier and shoots three times, as well as a sticky glue that might make it useful as a support unit, but other than that.... it's terrible.

NEW Methuss

 I used to love this guy back when I first played Gundam Z VS Gundam. This boy can heal himself and resupply ammo, he's kinda fun to use but his close-ranged attacks leave a lot to be desired. Probably one of the weakest 200 units I've tried, but I guess his healing abilities make up for it.

NEW Rick Dias

 The Rick Dias is one of the most iconic suits in the franchise, it's surprising it took him this long to get in! He's a great all-around unit that works well at any range, although its low 200 cost means he is better suited for support. I loved his behind-the-back shot with the turrets on his back!

NEW Marasai

 I've always found the Marasai an interesting unit because it looks like a Samurai Zaku, and that's badass. This guy is very fast, with a bunch of fantastic long-range tools to zone his enemies. Plus, a manual reload makes him pretty darn useful. I liked him a lot, although I think they should've made him a tougher close-range unit.

NEW Gabthley

 This fellow looks like a long-range specialist, but its actually an all-around type. He's got good melee, good beams and a decent gerobi attack. His fast melee makes him a pest you don't want getting close to you. Its also got a MA mode to close in on faster.

Gabthley

 Looks can be deceiving! The guy looks like a fast attacker, he's got a MA mode 'n everything, but this one is very slow. Slow projectiles and slow attacks makes for a bulky tank. Can't say I liked him too much.

The O

 I liked this guy back in Extreme VS, but... he feels so weak in this one. His long-distance and mid-range tools feel very weak, and his melee is average at best. To top it off, his super move blows.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Iron Blooded Orphans

NEW Gundam Kimaris Trooper

 This guy looks really dumb, so I didn't really want to play as him, however, he proved himself a very fun close-range unit to use. His bullets are pathetic, but his got a few nifty close range attack as well as a forward flight-bullet hail attack that's pretty good to close distances. Probably one of my favorite new units.

NEW Gundam Barbatos

 Another suit that took me by surprise, this puppy shoots missiles from his giant club, the same giant club he swings around with reckless abandon. It's glorious. He also has a Katana it can throw against his enemies, use it on his Super Move or on his Forward+Attack attack string. While his mid-range missiles are pretty dope, this guy is built for close range, he's got a swift dash as well as a few neat command-special moves with his club.

Bonus: Mobile Suit Gundam

Gundam RX-78

 Plays exactly like he has played before: The beam rifle, the hyper hammer, the bazooka, Final Shooting... everything is here and accounted for. There's nothing much else to say about it, probably the best unit to start playing the game with.

Review #607: Super Bomberman R

 Patches do make the game.

 Super Bomberman R was released to coincide with the oddly selected 33rd anniversary of the series. It was also released the 3rd of March. It received a somewhat lukewarm reception, but despite review scores, it managed to sell pretty well, So well in fact that the game received numerous patches with free content. Before you boot up the game, do yourself a favor and download the patches, they are worth it.

 The game is a bit light on content. Story mode is made up of 6 worlds with 8 stages and 2 bosses each, which you could probably finish in under two hours. Well, eventually, as the game is tough as nails, don't be ashamed to play on Easy, I did. Stages play like your oldschool Bomberman mazes in which you must defeat every enemy while destroy blocks with your bombs to make progress. Some stages add some variety, like switches, springs or having to collect keys while enemies respawn continuously.  There's also a VS mode with up to eight different players or AI enemies. You can customize the rules a bit, how many rounds, how many opponents, whether you get to keep playing after you are killed, etc. The AI is brutal on this mode, so be warned. Furthermore, you can't play against AI bots using special characters(Such as Simon, Goemon or Snake) instead being limited to the Bomberman brothers. Lame. Downloading the updates adds Grand Prix which lets you play in Team Matches and with bonus objectives, such as king of the hill, collecting crystals or saving civilians. Finally, the free patches also add a seventh stage to the Story mode. Neat.

 Yeah, the game is a bit light on playable content, but if you download the updates, well, they make up for it in fanservice. The good kind. There are tons of different playable characters, each with their own special abilities, based on Konami's properties. Jehuty and Anubis, from Zone of the Enders, Bill and Lance, from Contra, Alucard, Simon and Dracula, from Castlevani even Pyramid Head made it in, with a devastating ability that murders anyone on his path but decreases his speed considerably. If you've ever liked Konami, there'll be something for you here.

 As for the game itself... it's Bomberman. It's you against at least 3 other opponents, trying to hit each other with your bombs. Stages are made out of grids, with a few unbreakable objects and destructible onjes that hide power ups, to the amount of bombs and the length of your fire power to more practical abilities, such as punching or kicking bombs. How much fun you'll have depends on how much you like Bomberman and how many friends you've got that also enjoy Bomberman. As for me? Both Single Player and Multiplayer modes bored me to tears. It sucks that unlocking characters, stages and customization items takes so much time, with characters costing between 1000 and 5000 coins each, while clearing a world nets you about 500 coins and winning a multiplayer battle about 150. It's gonna be a long, loooong grind, my friend.

 I wish I could call Super Bomberman R a winner, but maybe I've outgrown the franchise. I vividly remember growing up with classic Bomberman on the NES, and enjoyed the hell out of Bomberman 64. But this game lacks a strong single player mode, and I've never been too much of a fan of the Multiplayer. That said, it was nice getting to see Goemon, Jehuty and Anubis again. For what it's worth, there's nothing really wrong about the game, everything plays as well as it should, I just wish the was more meat to these bones.
 5.5 out of 10

Review #606: 64 Memories - Banjo-Kazooie

 Not a music/rhythm game.

Part 1: The Flashback

 I used to love this game, yo! I can clearly remember that we rented this game at least twice before I finally got my own copy, and boy oh, boy was it swell. I played this game oh so many times that I dare say I knew it by heart. Not so much now, I actually had to look up the locations of a few things!
 I don't know if I knew it then, but Banjo-Kazooie was easily one of my favorite N64 games, and I'm oh so happy to report that the game has held up spectacularly.

Part 2: The Review
 Super Mario 64 established what a 3-D platformer should and could be for its era, but Banjo-Kazooie built upon it to cement what a 3-D platformer collect-a-thon is. You have an overworld Hub and 9 levels, each with 10 Jigsaw Pieces, 100 Musical Notes, 5 Ginjos, 2 Honeycomb pieces and a Witch Switch that unlocks a Jigsaw Piece on the overworld. Not to mention the plethora of extra moves, supplies and Mumbo Tokens left to collect. Yup, you've got your work cut-out for you.

 Thankfully, most of the time it's pretty easy to figure out what you have to do on each level to collect the jigsaw pieces, and you don't have to go too far out of your way to collect every musical note.  Progression is locked behind both of those, the pieces being required to unlock new worlds and the musical notes are needed to open gates on the overworld. You need about 810 notes out of 900 and 94 jigsaw pieces out of 100 in order to beat the game... but if you collect everything you'll have access to nifty, but pretty much unnecessary by that point, upgrades.

 Banjo and Kazooie travel together, Banjo being a bear that carries Kazooie, a bird, on his backpack. One of the coolest things about the game is how they both work together. Pressing A makes Banjo jump, but pressing A again makes Kazooie flap her wings to help him gain air.  Banjo can attack by swiping or rolling, but Kazooie can shoot(or fart) eggs or use her wings to shield Banjo, as long as your Golden Feather supplies last. There are a ton of different moves for the pair, including free-form flying around levels, if you find a flight-pad and the now-mandatory ground pound, and every single ability has its uses, not a single one goes unused.

 One thing that did leave a bit to be desired were transformations. By collecting Mumbo Tokens and entering Mumbo's hut in a level, Mumbo will transform you into something: A Termite on World 1, an Alligator on World 4, a Morse on World 5, a Pumpkin on World 7 and, finally, a Bee on World 9. These transformations will be required, mostly, for a single Jigsaw piece on a level. Which is a waste! The Termite, the Pumpkin and the Morse only have the ability to jump, at least the Alligator lets you bite and the Bee lets you fly. Transformations could've added so much more to the game than simply access to a very few Jigsaw Pieces that only require you getting there in a transformed state.

 Controls are, for the most part, pretty tight, but they can be a bit lacking when it comes to flying around the stages. Aiming the 'Beak Bomb' attack can be particularly finicky. The camera is pretty good of its era, sometimes I wished I could get full 360 degrees of movement, as opposed to 90 degree shifts, but you can work with it.  A bigger annoyance would be dying on a level, which makes you lose all your collected musical notes for the level. On the flipside, and this was a huge deal back in the day, collecting a Jigsaw Piece doesn't boot you back to the overworld, unlike Super Mario 64.

 One of the best things about the game is that you can completely finish 7 levels on your first attempt. Freezeezy Peak and Gobi's Dessert require having an unlockable move found on each other before you can finish them, but you can simply enter either level, find the unlockable move, travel to the other level and finish it, and then return with the OTHER unlockable move to the first level you visited. I kinda wish all levels could've been finished on your first go, but it's alright. Stages are pretty well designed, but Level 8, Rusty Bucket Bay, is a bit unnecessarily tough, with a large body of water that depletes your oxygen a bit too quickly and moving engines from which Banjo slips too easily. There's also an Event near the end of the game, 'Grunty's Furnace Fun', which is all kinds of annoying, featuring questions that have different answers for every playthrough, and the only way to figure out the answers, besides trial and error, is to find an NPC on the overworld and talk to it multiple times. Annoying. 'Grunty's Furnace Fun' comes right before the game's climax, putting a huge damper on what had been an excellent game until now.

 Banjo-Kazooie is easily the best game I've replayed for this Nintendo 64 series. Its designed has aged like a fine wine, with but the tiniest of blemishes here and there. Banjo-Kazooie is one of those games that needs to be on any Nintendo 64 collector's shelf.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #605: 64 Memories - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

 He also hunts tribal men, giant mosquitoes and, in Europe, robots.

Part 1: The Flashback
 I rented the game once, I mean who wouldn't? Look at that epic cover!, and that one time was enough to hate it. That's right, I hated Turok and I hated its controls. I could never figure out why the game received such high praises.
 Not that that would stop me from owning every single Turok game that came afterwards. I just settled for accepting that Turok 1 had bad controls and thus I'd never be able to like it, unlike its successors.
 As a final memory, I think Turok was one of the games that were talked about the most in the magazines I purchased. Cheats, walkthroughs, what have you. Maybe I just hold clearer memories of it since it was a game I didn't like yet... kinda wanted to?

Part 2: The Review
 Turok's blade is not as sharp as it used to be. This was the first first-person shooter released on the Nintendo 64 and despite the technology being so young, managed to be pretty darn good. Sadly, age has caught up with it. Let's start with the controls: You use the analog stick to aim and the C-buttons to move around. It's suboptimal, but you can get used to it and it actually works pretty well.

 Sadly, the problems arise with the game design. Turok followed a trend many other FPS of the era loved: Platforming. It doesn't work very well, and the game is filled with obnoxious jumps. No lie, it's easier to die from falling to your death than to your enemies. Not that they aren't trying, while their AI can be questionable at times, letting you hit them as they stand motionless in front of you, most enemies respawn pretty frequently, sometimes it takes but a few seconds for them to respawn right in front of your nose. Add to this that the game features rather large maze-like levels in which you have to find stuff... and it becomes grating. Having to keep an eye on your constantly dwindling resources due to unlimited enemies as you brave bottomless pits... it can be quite an ordeal.

 The game is a bit more open ended than other FPS of its time, seeing how you can return to any previously visited stage and, depending on how you obtain the keys, even visit stages in different orders. The first stage has five keys to find, three that open up level 2 and two keys for level 3. At the end of the stage you'll happen upon the Portal Hub, a stone circle upon which you can use your keys to open up portals for other levels. While I think you could finish the game without needing to clear every stage, each level has a fourth secret: A piece of the Chronoceptor, the most powerful weapon in the game, so you might be tempted into visiting every stage!

 I can tell how good the game was for its era, I mean, I played up to level 5 in one sitting because of how much fun I was having, but by the second half of the game I was ready to call it quits. Level design is just too obnoxious, searching for all the keys is more of an annoyance than anything else thanks to respawning enemies and unforgiving platforming. Some of the keys are just impossible to find without a guide, as early as level 2 you're expected to fall below a seemingly bottomless pit on order to find a key and, later through the level, another Chronoceptor piece. I'll admit I turned on the invincibility cheat midway through level 5, when I got tired of aimlessly going in circles looking for the way through while endless waves of enemies costed me my ammo.

 It's true, there's a lot of fog in the game, but most of the time it wasn't too bothersome. I think I wasn't bothered by it up until level 5, when I just wanted to go through the goddamn level and would've liked being able to see a few more meters in front of me, as to better traverse the level. There was also an oversight with ammo types, the Shotgun and the bow feature two types each(Arrows and explosive arrows, pellets and explosive pellets) but you are forced to spend the secondary ammo before you can use your normal ammo, which sucks since you'd probably want to save up your explosive ammo for bosses. On the flip side, the game features instant loading, even going from huge level to huge level is seamless.

 If something came out of playing Turok is that now I can understand why it was such a beloved title. The game has all the markings of a great 90s first person shooter, and for a time, I had quite some fun with the game. Sadly, it's aged(And still aging...) design makes it a bit of a chore to play. Casuals be forewarned, this one is for people that are into retro games only.
 4.0 out of 10

Review #604: 64 Memories - ClayFighters 63 1/3

 Even they knew they were a few megabits short.

Part 1: The Flashback
  I think that we might've rented the game once or twice before buying it, but I'm not too sure. Regardless, it was one of the earlier games I got. I remember enjoying the game and its look and characters, at first, but by the time I was outgrowing the console I thought it was one of the weaker fighting games I owned.
 Which doesn't mean much considering I used to ADORE fighting games, but whatever. I had a few good times with my father and a couple of friends playing this one.

Part 2: The Review
 The third installment in the short lived ClayFighter series of fighting games, 63 1/3 was their first jump into the fifth generation of videogame consoles.  It's a simple fighting game with ridiculously good graphics that's more eye candy than anything else.

 The game is as simple as you can get, upon turning on the console you can only select Game Start or options. There are no extra modes, like time attack, just Arcade VS and VS Player. The character roster is made up of 9 characters and 3 bonus characters which you can access with codes. If it's worth anything to you, 16-bit heroes Boogerman and Earthworm Jim are playable characters. Beating the game on easy earns you an encouragement to try harder difficulties, and these harder difficulties only reward you with text endings. Lame.

 The game's most noteworthy feature is its graphics. Character sprites were made from clay figures, and they look fantastic. I've never been a fan of digitalized sprites, being more of a pixel-purist, but these sprites look fantastic, Mortal Kombat wishes it looked this good. That said, a few animations could've used more frames. While fights take place on a 2-D plane, you can move on the Z-axis with the R and L buttons, which doesn't work as a sidestep, but you can use it to line up your enemy against a window or a door so that your next hit is a stage-transition. Yes, stage-transitions are a thing, and you could move from one end of Clayfighter's world to the other, since stages are interconnected in various ways, heck, some feature transitions to more than a single place, depending on where you enemy lands. I'd lie if I said that how the game handled stage transitions wasn't incredibly cool.

 Sadly. aesthetics are the only thing worth writing about ClayFighters 63 1/3. You have six attack buttons(A, B and the C-buttons), but controls are very unresponsive. It feels as if some inputs are 'queued up', so hopefully you are not much of a masher.  That said, I think you can have a bit of casual fun with the game as long as you don't take it too seriously. You've got your Special attacks and even energy-gauge consuming Super moves. As a whole, the game is about as good as the upper echelons of the less than average Street Fighter clones.

 The poor reputation ClayFighter games have is well deserved, absolutely, but I'm willing to give 63 1/3 a pass because you can get it for fairly cheap and the game is worth a look if only to see how good claymation sprites can be.
4.0 out of 10

Review #603: 64 Memories - Starshot - Space Circus Fever

 Come one, come all, our next attraction: a bad, baaaaaaad game.

Part 1: The Flashback.
 I had read about Starshot in a few numbers of a Spanish Nintendo 64 magazine called.... 64 Magazine(I'm not kidding) and boy did it capture my interest. That issue featured a few screenshots of the game alongside Banjo Kazooie and Gex, two games I liked, so it instantly won my approval.
 Fast forward a few month(maybe a year?) later, it was at night-time, inside a Shopping Center where I came upon the game inside a Computer Tech Store. And somehow I got my parents to purchase it for me right then and there.

 I loved Starshot. I remember how marveled I was at how far you could zoom-out the camera. The diverse worlds you could explore, the ability to fly, move around your shots and the cast of characters... I don't exactly remember how much I loved the game, but whether I did or not, I found it one of the most memorable games of my childhood. This was probably helped by its terrible cliffhanger ending, I just couldn't believe it, maybe I missed a few collectibles? But I hadn't. The game ends just like that. Worst Ending in a videogame ever. I still remembered it fondly, yes, even the part about its disappointing ending, which years later I would learn was the only ending.

Part 2: The Review
 It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Among every single disappointment I had with replaying Nintendo 64 games this one is the one that hurt the most. Let's start with the biggest culprit, our well known friend 'Camera issues'. It's incredible how many N64 games have camera issues, but this one is one of the worst offenders. Sometimes it can get stuck behind walls, and while you can manually move the camera around, zoom in and out, it seems like the camera slowly returns to its default position, which is terrible since it's too zoomed in and hardly a good fit for platforming and exploring.

 I got far ahead of myself, let me set up the game: You play as Starshot the Star Juggler, a member of the Space Circus. While trying to perform in the planet Tensuns, Virtua Circus arrives first to stop you. Hijinx ensues, and now you have to travel four different planets in order to find attractions for your circus: A machine that always malfunctions(Push it forwards and it moves backwards!), a Ghost dog, a bird that lays eggs that hatch into anything and, finally, the last surviving earthling. If you couldn't tell by now, humor is a large part of the game, and easily the element that has aged the best. Games that try to be funny tend to end up as either unfunny or lame, but Space Circus is honestly funny. The diverse characters and enemies that populate the different planets are fairly amusing to behold, I always looked forwards to what came next because of it.

 While most of the game is spent trying to awkwardly jump from platform to platform, thank god for infinite lives, Starshot can shoot stars to defend himself. If you tap the B button your shots will fly in a straight line, but if you hold down the B button... you can actually move your shot around, a few puzzles in the game make use of this feature. This is Starshot's only means of defense, and if you run out of ammo, incredibly easy since your reserves cap out at 50. That said, whenever you respawn on a checkpoint you are restored 25 shots, so, sometimes, it's a good idea to just kill yourself when you reach a checkpoint and thus restock your ammo. That said, flying around spends rocket energy, which caps at 40, and if you die lose all your flying energy stock. Starshot has a three-tiered Jump, like Mario, but instead of needing to time your jumps you can just hold down the A button and Starshot will automatically jump higher, up to three times, and then keep jumping at full height as long as you hold down A. You can also fly around by collecting Rocket Energy, these pickups tend to be pretty scarce, but if you manage to hold on to your flying energy you can fly pretty much anywhere at any time.

 Blue stars restock your ammo, Yellow rockets fill your flying energy stock, green Starshot heads restore your hit points and then there are the... red triangles, or Mega Fuel. The game tells you to find them and collect them, but they are very easy to find, and you only need 100 to finish the game. They are so plentiful that I had the 100 mega fuel I needed by world 3, Primitron, and went on collecting Mega Fuel just for kicks. You don't need more than 100, there are not alternate endings, so don't bother. That said, you can travel back to any planet you've already visited, if you want to search for more or just play around.

 The wonky camera and poor framerate may make the platforming terrible, but what really brings down the game is poor level design. The creatures and enemies are interesting, the humor is great, and the planets have personality... but they are poorly designed. Just to name a few, planet 2: Killer Expo features a mazelike part of the level in which missiles are constantly following you. The only way to get rid of them? Throw yourself into the water...which has the potential of taking you back to the first part of the maze It's ridiculous. Might as well just let it kill you and respawn on a checkpoint nearby. Planet 3, Primitron(Actually, the last four levels can be played in any order), you have to guide tiny robots into fixing trees, which is incredibly annoying since they seem to want to run anywhere but towards the tree while avoiding incoming air-traffic that you can't even see coming. The last part of the level has a section in which you must bend trees and use them as catapults(Hey, it's a funny, creative game!) but the last tree is VERY particular as to where you have to stand on to avoid being thrown into the lava, which instantly kills you. I actually went online to find a video since I didn't know how to proceed, and found out that what I was doing was the right path, I just needed to stand in a very specific part of the tree. Lame.

 Levels are a bit too large for their own good too. Planet Earth is a decimated wasteland, which sounds great on paper, but the level is too large for no good reason. There are no hidden worthwhile collectibles, so there's no need to explore so there's no need for it to be so large. Holding Z and pressing Starts brings up your objective and where to find it, so if you ever get lost on the big planets, just  bring out the map. Ultima Crash, a planet filled with ghosts from people that crashed their ships there, and TechnoMummy, a planet that houses a Museum of old technology are fantastic concepts for levels, but large parts of these levels are a confusing mess of stretch walkways over empty space. These concepts hold so much potential, but in their attempt at making a large level they forgot to make exploration fun.

 Writing about Starshot Space Circus Fever hurt, because I know that I enjoyed the game when I was younger. What's more, I could find a ton of great, original ideas in the game, just poorly implemented. It almost hurts to play it too, since you can see what they wanted, you can practically envision what it could've been. If you really want to play Starshot, I recommend the PC version, better graphics and framerate, but I also saw a few fixes, the trees in Primitron are much more forgiving(They made the landing zones in the jungle larger) so it seems like the best version of the game.
 3.0 out of 10

Review #602: Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers

 And, hopefully, the final stand-alone rerelease.

 Street Fighter II is more than 'just' a game. It's a classic. It's a trendsetter. It's a flippin' legend. It's also incredibly dated. Ultra Street Fighter II is one last update of this timeless classic, with new characters and the fancy HD sprites from Street Fighter II HD Remix and little else new. This is Capcom at their laziest, and trust me, they are lazy.

 Booting up the game presents you with a few options: Arcade Mode, a 12-man ladder fight with an ending for each character at the end, Offline and Online VS, 'Buddy Battle', in which you and another Player or a CPU team up to take down a single opponent, which could've been neat, but you can't even opt to be the single fighter against two opponents. Way of the Hado, a horrible first-person mode in which you use motion control to perform Hadokens, Shoryukens and Tatsumaki-senpukyakuus against Bison's soldiers. Training Mode, which is self explanatory, and, finally, a Sprite edit mode, in which you can create custom colors for your fighters. Admittedly, Sprite edit is a nice addition, but SF II sprites are pretty basic, so you can'd do much with them, and the game places some odd limits in an effort to prevent things like 'Nude Cammy'. I thought I'd enjoy this mode, I usually like tinkering with color palettes in fighting games when allowed, but this time it felt... lacking. There's one final option in the menu, an art collection, which contains various artbooks. To be fair, these images are VERY high quality, although most of the artists have a strange fixation on Chun-Li and her nipples.

 I remember when SFIIHDRemix was released that I longed for a way to own the game physically, since the new sprites looked fantastic. This cart is exactly what I've always wanted... but you should be careful with what you wish for. Firstly, you can change between the old and new graphics on the options menu, so if you are a purist you can simply toggle the new graphics off. Secondly, the more you look at these new graphics the more you'll notice how they are not as good as they look in stills. The art direction is fantastic, muscles look big, faces look badass and what not, but as good as the game looks in screenshots, the animations are a bit choppy anyways since they have the same amount of frames as the old graphics. As a matter of fact, these new, better-defined sprites make the lack of frames even more noticeable than before.

 Another issue is that sometimes proportions look off. Fei-Long's head is too big for his body, a problem share with Cammy when she crouches. Or Dhalsim's dancing victory animation, his legs alternate between being shadowed from one frame to the next, which looks very jarring. The proportions issue is also present on a few backgrounds, like Chun-Li's stage. The art looks great in pictures, but looses a lot of its luster when animated. While you can swap between old and new graphics when playing, you only get the HD endings.

 The two new characters are a scam. New characters on this old game sounded too good to be true, and it was. Capcom was too cheap to hire new pixel-artists, so they just repurposed Ken, Ryu and Akuma's frames to create Violent Ken and Evil Ryu. Violent Ken and Evil Ryu's winposes are just reused frames from their attack animations, one of V.Ken's worst is the one in which he stands mid-Shoryuken, looking as constipated as constipated can be. They don't have a single new animation, Violent Ken's teleport uses Akuma's teleport sprites and E.Ryu's Shin Goku Satsu uses Akuma's sprites too. As I said, this is Capcom at their laziest. Since Akuma has always been deemed too overpowered for competitive play, there's a new, nerfed version of Akuma... and a hidden Shin Akuma version that plays like his Boss incarnation. They share the same sprites, naturally.

 As for the game itself, it has been entirely rebalanced... but Violent Ken seems to dominate competitive play since he is just too good. I couldn't begin to get into the nitty gritty of how each character has changed, but if you enjoy Street Fighter II you'll be right at home here. Sadly, the joycons are not an optimal way to play the game. I settled for using the four buttons as opposed to the analogue stick, but both options were unreliable for performing special moves.

 If I were to speak about Street Fighter II's qualities it'd be an easy 8. The game is very old, but darn it if it isn't still a great game. Sadly, this port does it no justice. For today's standards this release is lacking meat. There's a reason Street Fighter II's most modern rereleases are either budget-priced or compiled with other games, because a re-re-re-release of an older game as it was just doesn't fly anymore. And they tried to mask how lazy the port was with the new characters, but they are the laziest additions the series has ever seen, even lazier than Decapre, at least she had different inputs from Cammy and wore a mask.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #601: Pokken Tournament DX

 The king of the Iron Pokemon Tournament begins.

 Often times called Tekken with Pokemon, the more you play the game the more you realize just how far off that comparison is. This is a one-on-one arena based fighting game in which you can play as any of 21 Pokemon. It certainly is unique, and Pokemon have never looked this good before. Also, everyone got pecs. Machamp? Pecs. Charizard? Pecs. Mewtwo? Pecs. Everyone gets pecs and muscles.

 Upon booting up the game you'll be disappointed to learn just how few modes the game offers. The main mode is Ferrum League, a repetitive ordeal in which you fight random sets of five fighters trying to climb the ranks so that you can enter a tournament, come out first and the fight the league champion... so that you can increase your League category and do everything all over, from League C up to League S. Occasionally hints of a storyline pop up here and then, concerning a corrupted Mewtwo. It's nothing special, really, what little story there is is told via simple character cut-outs between your ally-commentator and other NPCs anime cut-outs. Boring. After you're done with the storyline you can continue to fight in these leagues in order to fulfill special objectives and unlock cosmetics for your in-game anime cut-out avatar. You've also got daily fights which reward you with free level ups(More on this later), Offline and Online battles, both 1-on-1 and 3-vs-3 Team Matches, a-la-classic King of Fighters. As for offline battles, you can play in both split screen, with halved framerate, or on a single screen, which works relatively well considering this is an arena fighter, so the camera tends to be behind a combatant's back. Lastly there's a serviceable training mode that teaches you a few simple combos with each character, and let's you go over a character's entire moveset, so you can get a basic taste of how they play. Fighting in any mode(except training) gives your Pokemon experience points and upon leveling up you can increase your Strength, Defense, Synergy or Support stats. It's unclear on which modes these stats works, but the increases are negligible on the long run(For example, pumping all 98 points on your Strength Stat only gives you about an 8% increase) so they are not gamebreakers.

 Let's get this out of the way first: The 21 characters roster had no chance of ever satisfying fans since the games have over 700 different creatures. Hopefully one or two of your favorites made it in, in my case, I had Scizor, Blaziken and Mewtwo so I can't complain, but man, would I have loved Typhlosion or Tyranitar! Not having shiny colors as alternate color palettes was a huge missed opportunity. The game comes with a very annoying commentator talking over the fights and suggesting the dumbest strategies, luckily, you can just turn her off in the options menu. I did. My last complaining lies with the Ferrum League: Many goals require you using a specific Pokemon, but there's no easy way to switch characters while in the Ferrum League: You have to exit the mode itself, go into 'My Town' and navigate a few menus to change your partner pokemon. Lame.

 Luckily, gameplay is where the game truly shines. Forget all about Tekken, besides a few animations(Pikachu performing the Electric Wind God is a sight to behold) the game is nothing like Tekken, physics and mechanics are entirely different. Fights take place inside circular arenas of varying radius and shapes: Some are tight perfect circles, while others are a bit more like an ellipse. And this matters, because fights alternate between two phases: Duel and Field. During Field phase both characters get 360 degrees of movement, the camera is situated behind your back and most of your attacks in this phase have long-range or mid-range properties Hitting an enemy with specific attacks(Usually A+Back or a full homing melee combo) will switch combatants into Duel phase, which shifts the camera to the side, looking more like a traditional 2-D fighter, and your attacks become suited for close range combat. After a certain amount of damage is dealt, fighters revert to Field phase. Some characters are fantastic for Field Phase but are horrible in Duel Phase, like Gengar, other have great Duel Phases but suck at Field Phase, like Garchomp and others are decent at both, like Scizor.

 Regardless of Phase, you get three different attack buttons: A weak attack, that doubles as your main projectile attack in Field Phase, a strong attack, that doubles as homing-melee attack during Field Phase and a Special attack that behaves similarly in both Field and Duel Phase(Keyword: Similarly, some attacks may be shared, others may not). Any of the three attack buttons can be coupled with different directions on the digital pad to perform different attacks. I'm happy to say that every Pokemon is delightfully unique, even both Pikachus play very differently. It doesn't stop at their moveset, even their HP gauges and how fast they charge Synergy and Support gauges is different. Take Pikachu, he can easily enter Synergy Burst twice on a single round, but you'll probably never get to use it on a first round with Mewtwo. There're are a lot of different elements to keep in mind when it comes to picking your Pokemon.

 But what are the Synergy and Support gauges? Well, the Synergy Gauge increases as you deal and take damage, once full you can tap L and R to enter Burst mode for a short while : It makes you faster, stronger and may change the properties of a few of your moves, if the character has a Mega-Evolution they'll turn into it while in this mode. You also get to use you Super Move, by tapping L+R again, but if you miss or get interrupted you lose it until you enter Burst mode again, so be careful. As for support, there're various pairs of Support Pokemon you can pick before a fight, they may support you with an attack, a debuff or a buff. You can change between both support Pokemon before each round. The gauge for Support Pokemon increases by itself as time passes.

  Unusually, for a Japanese fighting game, you block by holding the R button. Weak Attack+Jump is a grab attack, that goes through grabs(But can be teched!) and Strong Attack+Special attack is your counter. Counters work a bit like Focus Attacks form Street Fighter IV, you can charge them for a while and you get a bit of super Armor while you charge. Each character's counter is different, some may even allow you to combo after it...

 It sounds like a lot to get your head over, and it kinda is, but getting used to the Phases took me less time than I thought it would. That said, while Pokemon games tend to be very casual at a surface level, this game is anything but. Button mashing will not work in this game. Someone who knows what they are doing will absolutely wreck newcomers, and there's no reliable comeback mechanic to save yourself. The combo system isn't very friendly either, which makes me wonder just how much fun casual players can get out of the game. If you've got more than a passing interest in fighting games, Pokken is worth a look, it does its own thing while having strong foundations on the tried and true. That said, a few more modes wouldn't hurt, adding  cosmetic customization to the Pokemon instead of a 2-D avatar would go a long way and trying to pump an extra five characters wouldn't hurt.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #600: 64 Memories - Buck Bumble

 A bee game.

Part 1: The Flashback
 Flying Dragon 64 was one of my most wanted N64 games ever, but Buck Bumble was my most wanted game ever, so it's only fitting that it's my big #600. Something about the character and so much yellow(I love yellow.) instantly captured my eye, and every screenshot, every description only fueled my need. I longed for the game so much so that even mediocre reviews couldn't deter me. I needed this game.
 But alas, it was not meant to be, I couldn't even find a copy to rent. Until now.

Part 2: The Review
 By now I've already accepted the harsh reality: Nintendo 64 games haven't aged very well. Poor framerates and bad control design are very prevalent, and Buck Bumble is not exception.... but it's still fun. This is a third person shooter in which you play as a cyborg bumble bee, armed to the teeth with various fire arms, from machine guns to rocket launchers, ready to lay waste on other cybernetic insects and arachnids.

 You play as the eponymous hero Buck Bumble as he is sent out by the powers that be to stop a herd of cybernetic insects. The game is 19 stages long, most which are fairly short, in which you have to fulfill different objectives: Defeat a boss, destroy something, collect something, etc etc. The game is played entirely in third person, with the camera situated firmly upon Buck's back. Stages can be tough... until you learn that unless you really need to, it's better to avoid enemies and move forwards rather than killing everything in your path. A few stages will have you searching for keys, which enemies might be carrying, or doors that require exterminating every enemy in the room, save for those instances, you're better off just avoiding enemies and finding whatever you need to destroy in order to progress.... which, could be enemies, but I digress.

 Moving around takes a bit to get used to, but once you get the hang of it... it feels really nice. Buck flies forward by default, and you can hold A to accelerate or B to hover on the spot. As long as you don't hit any slope you'll be fine, and if you do... well, Buck seems to have a few issues getting out of them. But, believe me, once you get the hang of it zooming around the stage becomes a blast. The game desperately needed the ability to strafe, avoiding incoming damage and retaliating is needlessly complicated due to the lack of it. That said, spread throughout every level are multiple flowers with healing nectar droplets hanging from them that will restore your life, so it never feels too overwhelming.

 The worst part about the game is its horribly outdated life system. Levels don't have checkpoints, so if you die it's back to the beginning of the stage.... which begs the question, why have lives at all? And, if you run out of lives... it's game over. Your life bar doesn't replenish between levels either. Let me let you in on a little secret... if you lose a life, just pause the game, select quit and reload your savefile. That's why the life system is dumb, bypassing it is so simple. The other biggest hurdle is trying to gain altitude without moving forwards, which is easy once you learn that you can just hold A+B+Up and gain altitude.




 While I wished for this game when I was younger, I kept my expectations at bay when I gave the game a try. But boy, oh boy, was the game a surprising delight. Mind you, the game is nothing to write home about, but there's quite a bit of fun to be had with this cart. A nice amount of weapons, decent amount of stages, a very original premise and decent, but aged, game mechanics.... I approve of this game. Past Me would've liked this one.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #599: Fire Emblem Warriors

 Warriors games never go out of style.

 I was worried. Hyrule Warriors was, in my opinion, absolutely dreadful and went against most things I loved out of the Warriors series, so another Warriors spin-off based off another Nintendo property wasn't very promising. A forum-conversation later, I was told that Fire Emblem Warriors did away with a lot of the 'novelties' Hyrule Warriors brought to the table, and boy, oh boy, was FEW worth it!

 The main story mode follows newcomer siblings Rowan and Lianne as they escape from an assault and... find themselves crossing over to the worlds of other Fire Emblem games...? Yeah, the story is dumb. It's 21 stages long and will ease you into the game. Then you've got History Mode, of which there are 5 maps with a ton of stages each(Wouldn't be surprised if each map had 20 objectives each). Apparently, these maps follow missions from a few games in the series.  As for the character roster, there are 23 playable characters, and, sadly, they don't cover many series. Awakening and Fates are in, because of course, as they are the newest games, Shadow Dragon is in as well, because you gotta have Marth, and then there's a single representative for the final 3DS FE game as well as a representative from The Blazing Blade. Their excuses? If they covered many series they'd have to have many protagonist which meant many Sword users. The reality? Most characters are sword users.

 As for gameplay, it's you against thousand of units, as per usual. In this game, on most stages, you can take four different characters on missions, and freely switch between them at any time. You can pre-set how their AI will behave during battle(It's pretty rudimentary, but it's good enough) although you can pause at any minute and issue direct orders such as 'Guard' this, 'Get' there or 'Fight' this). When the game gets going, don't be surprised if you find yourself frantically switching between characters in order to cover more ground, more quickly. It works great and was much better implemented than in Hyrule Warriors. A new mechanics lets you pair up units, which then allows you to summon the paired character for a guard-breaking assist, collaborate on your Super/Musou attack or have him help you by blocking incoming attacks every now and then. You can freely switch between paired characters and unpair them at any time.

 Besides said new additions, the core of the game remains like any other modern Warriors game, an evading dash instead of a jump button, weak attacks, strong attacks and super moves, they are all here. Defeating enemy generals yields materials which you can then spend on upgrading your character stats. Longer attack combos, being able to equip better weapons, more Super/Musou stocks and even Class Promotion. Class Promotions grant a massive boost to your stats as well as unlocking a new costume for your characters.

 The game is fast and frenetic, there's very little downtime when you play Fire Emblem Warriors... which is exactly what I expect out of these games. The game falls a bit short in the character roster department. Not only is the variety of games covered disappointing, but there are only 23 playable characters and there're many clones. Both archers have pretty much the same exact moveset, and you can find similarities between more than a few others. Having only 23 characters makes that pretty lackluster. There're 9 DLC characters, and, guess what? Even they have a few cloned movesets. DLC characters suck, but DLC clones? How low will Tecmo-Koei fall? On another note, the game might've gone a bit too far with damage sponges. An issue with some of the stages in History Modes that have you fighting against 'Shadow Enemies'. These bastards aren't particularly tough to defeat, but each one can take a solid couple of minutes or more to defeat since you can barely scrape away at their health. This can make some of the latter levels somewhat boring.

 I don't know if I'd say that Fire Emblem Warriors ranks among the best Musou games, but it easily cracks Top 15 for me. The action is fast and furious, the upgrade system is fun and I liked being able to have control of how my CPU generals behave. I would've liked more characters and a bit more variety on the movesets, but otherwise? Top-notch.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #598: Puyo Puyo Tetris

 The biggest crossover event since Space Jam.

 You've heard of Tetris. You've played it too. If you said otherwise, you are lying. As for Puyo Puyo, you might've heard of it and you might have played it, although, maybe, under another title, such as Eggman's Mean Bean Machine. Regardless, someone at Sega thought that it'd be a great idea to mix both puzzle games. Was it? Maybe. But regardless of how you feel about the mixture you're free to play either game separately, so you're basically getting two games in one!

 There're a ton of different modes. The 'big one' being the Story mode, comprised of 14 acts and about 10 stages each. Honestly, the story is childish and dumb, I gave up on it midway through Act 2 and just skipped all the dialogue. Stages cover various different goals and objectives, like clearing certain amount of lines before scoring a certain amount of points, clearing a certain amount of lines under a time limit, defeating your opponent, etc. Some stages can be a bit tough, but it seems like the game takes it easy on you if you fail enough times. I might be wrong. There're VS Modes, against players or AIs, and do be warned, AIs in Versus mode are tough, there's Swap mode in which you battle a certain opponent alternating between Puyo Puyo and Tetris boards, Big Bang, in which you must solve how to clear pre-set structures with falling Puyos or Tetrominoes, Fusion mode, in which you dealth with Puyos and Tetrominoes at the same time, Party Mode, which adds power-ups and, lastly, endless versions of Tetris and Puyo Puyo, either against opponents or on your lonesome. Clearly, there are a lot of ways to play the game, and there are plenty of unlockables, like different skins for Puyos and Tetrominoes, to sweeten the deal.

 You know how Tetris plays, you just do, so I'll just skip over and talk about puyo puyo. Basically,  pairs of bubbles, which may or may not have the same color, drop from above and you can spin them to either let'em down horizontally or vertically. Every time four or more of them touch they 'pop' and you score points. Obviously, in order to score the most points you should try to aim for chains, so that when some Puyos clear, the ones that fall pop other Puyos. As for the mixed mode, the game alternates between pushing Puyos and Tetrominoes. You can't make lines with Puyos and Tetrominoes, but Tetrominoes push Puyos out of their way... which somehow means that the puyos end up being on top of whichever piece you just dropped.

 I'm not the biggest fan of puzzle games, but Puyo Puyo Tetris was a great way to get my fix of Tetris. I suck at Puyo Puyo, and don't care much for it, so I didn't enjoy the mixed modes as much, but hey, I'm sure that fans of both games will get their kicks out of it. The multiple skins, or looks, for the pieces add a nice touch of variety, and there's a meaty offering of modes for those that just can't get enough of either game. As for me? I'm just fine enjoying the Endurance Tetris Mode!
 8.0 out of 10.