Review #624: Yakuza 2

 The Dragon of Dojima soars again.

 Yakuza was great despite its glaring flaws. Yakuza 2 takes everything that worked about the previous game, polishes the combat and makes everything bigger, badder and better, turning it into one of the PS2's most unsung games.

 You still play as Kiryu Kazuma, however, he is more of a passenger in the game's plot this time around... which is for the better, as Kiryu is supposed to be a power fantasy, a badass titan with a heart of gold that's ready to punch through any goon that stands in his way. After the first game, the new head of the Tojo family is fumbling his job and is eventually murdered by the Omi family, what follows is Kiryu getting embroiled in the Tojo affairs once again. He will cross paths with Sayama, a female cop tasked with protecting him, a chance she takes in order to discover just how the Tojo are involved with her disappeared parents, and Goda Ryuji, the Dragon of Goda, a man with tall ambitions which include conquering the Tojo. I wouldn't call the story better than the one in the first game, because it isn't, but I found it to be much better written. Sayama, Ryuji as well as the rest of the new characters, like Kawara, are more and better developed than the cast from the first game, which leads to more poignant scenes and making you empathize more with the cast. I also found Kazuma taking a more Mad Max role in the story a very interesting way to tell the story... but one that makes sense for the character. He is a gentle giant helping everyone he comes across, he is supposed to eternally stand for justice and honor, he is a character that won't grow or change, but dammit, he will help everyone around him accomplish their goals or change their hearts.

 The brunt of the game remains pretty much the same as it was in Yakuza 1, being a story-driven beat'em up set in the open streets of Kamurcho, as you leisurely progress through the story or invest your time on sidequests. And boy oh boy, are there even more sidequests this time around! Joining Kamurcho are two new districts, smaller in size but with a decent amount of sidequests and side activities each. Sadly, you're stuck into whichever district the chapter you're playing demands, but once you hit chapter 16 you're free to visit any district at your leisure, provided you can pay the Taxi fare! Since this game only adds to the activities from the previous game, the cities of Kamurocho, Sotenbori and Shinseicho feel very alive, full of colorful characters and sidequests just begging to be found. I recommend cruising around the cities every time you start a new chapter, so that you may come across them, and, at worst, you'll partake in some random encounters with thugs, and level up, or find keys for the 60+ lockers. If you are into wasting time, joining the batting cages, cranes and slots from Yakuza 1 we get Mahjong, Shogi, Bowling, Golfing and even a silly, but surprisingly fun, first person sword-and-slingshot fighting mini game!

 Combat remains pretty much the same, but polished to a sheen. There are more uses for your Heat gauge, thanks to new abilities such as Heat Counters and powerful Heat actions against gun-tooting thugs, plus, now you can increase your maximum amount of stored heat by watching videos at Sotenbori's video booths! The biggest change of all is that now you can hit different directions mid-combo from the get-go, making combat feel much smoother and not forcing you to hit empty air once you began your string. It's still not perfect, but now I didn't feel like the game was unfair... although it makes up for that by having thugs being even more aggressive, so you'll have to learn how to better manage multiple opponents in a fight. Boss battles now come with Quick Time Events, but, surprisingly, I didn't hate them too much, probably because they are so exciting and don't wear out their welcome. It's not like God of War where even normal mooks might've required QTEs, these are relegated to big, tough bosses.

 Yakuza 2 is fantastic. It's a long, beefy game with a ton of content, optional and mandatory. The main story is lengthy, but not boring, and should keep you busy for a while. The combat is simple, but satisfying thanks to how visceral it is. Returning players might be a bit peeved having to unlock many abilities that they already unlocked in the first game, but getting to see how the whole story pans out is worth it, and getting Kiryu to tip-top shape again and curb-stomp every fool is worth it. Well, onward to Yakuza 3 it is!
 8.5 out of 10

Review #623: Obscure

 Yep, this is one of the PS2's most obscure titles.

 So, you pop in the disc, go through the introductions, start the game and... Sum 41's 'Still Waiting' starts as you are introduced to the students you'll be playing as. Feeling a mixture of bemusement and interest, I soldiered on and got rewarded with one of the PS2's most unknown and engaging Survival Horror games. It's no Silent Hill, but it's pretty darn great.

 The game pits you as any of five students stuck at Leafmore High. As a matter of fact, the game offers a fantastic prologue that reminded me of Silent Hill's introduction, very neat. The dialogue is terrible and the story is very cookie-cutter... but that's exactly the style they were going for, trying to ape movies such as 'Scream' and 'The Faculty', and they aced it. On the other hand, the game knows how to keep the atmosphere tense, with both ominous choirs and fleshy monsters hiding in the darkness. One of the game's novelties, at the time, was its co-op element. The entire game can be played with two players, or just you and a CPU ally... or just you, if you feel so inclined. Each character has a perk that helps in various ways. Kenny can sprint, which sounds really useful, but if you are going to play as a duo that means leaving your partner behind! Josh can tell if there are items waiting to be found in the area, Ashley is good at healing and can guide you to your next objective, Ashley deals more damage and has a special double attack(Which makes her the best character in the game!).

The abilities aren't game-breaking, just offering a bit of help with how you tackle the game. I managed with a team of Josh and Ashley just fine. And there's a reason as to why abilities aren't mandatory... anyone can die. You read that right, your playable characters can die, and it's not a game over until all five students bite the dust, so you can ostensibly make it to the end with just one character left. It's a pretty neat mechanic that added a lot of tension to the game, I forced myself to restart just because I wouldn't allow anyone to die. Plus, you can use characters as extra health, the game allows you to fast travel back to 'Gathering Spots', where you can swap characters if someone isn't carrying their weight. I played the entire game with the AI and it's... serviceable. At times, when I breaking windows with my bat, the AI would shoot a second later with the gun wasting bullets, which wasn't very nice, and it seems like the CPU isn't fond of 'boosting', a mechanic used to weaken enemies, so I had keep at it... but the game is entirely playable like this, just give them a gun and let them provide back up, ammo is pretty plentiful.

 The entire game is set in Leafmore High, and as you progress through the story you'll gain  keys to access other areas, so there might be a bit of backtracking involved every now and then, nothing that Resident Evil aficionados aren't used to by now. For a first in Survival Horror puzzles make sense. Got a scribbled paper? Break a window and examine it under the light. A padlock is blocking your way? Get some pliers and bust it open.

 Combat in the game is a bit janky, if you're going to use melee weapons it seems like there's no way to avoid incoming damage. The game is pretty generous with bullets, even if it doesn't seem so, so eventually I just stuck to using a gun while my CPU ally would use a melee weapon, although by the latter parts of the game I had as both sporting guns. And you'd better, since evading enemies is pretty much impossible.. A big part of the game is 'boosting', magically making your flashlight brighter, thus weakening enemies. It overheats, so you can't do it all the time. This could mean the difference between three bullets and a single one, so it ends up being a big part of your fights. You can tape guns(and shotguns) together with flashlights, but you might want to wait, since tape runs out and you can't disassemble your creating, so don't go trigger happy with sticking everything together, might want to save the better flashlights for the stronger weapons. Healing items are sparse, but I had over 10 in excess by the end of the game. What is lacking, however, are Saving Discs, used to save the game, so think very carefully before you use one. Item management is done in real time, so if you want to heal or change weapons... well, hopefully you learnt how to navigate the menus by then. You can even toggle the CPU's weapon on the fly pressing down on the directional pad. Am I a fan of real-time item management? No... but I think it kinda works in this game's favor in order to make things even more frantic and dire, since losing a playable character is a very real possibility.

  The game lasts a solid 5-6 hours, and upon completion you unlock a new game+ with bonus weapons and alternate costumes for the characters that survived your first playthrough. Obscure was wonderful, I loved every minute of it. Sure, it's not as deep as Silent Hill, or as tight as Resident Evil, but it offers a neat twist on the formula with the 'anyone-can-die' mechanic, in addition to how well they pulled off the Highschool setting and the whole 90s campy horror flick vibe. Obscure is every bit worth tracking before its price goes even higher.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #622: Yakuza

 Just when I thought I had played everything worth playing on the PS2!

 So... a few years ago I got my hands on Yakuza 4 and I fell in love with the crime drama soap opera as well as all the silly humor that peered its head between the story missions. I almost platinum'd the game, even going so far as to defeat the Amon brothers and, surprisingly even to myself, got the Trophy for the hostess mini-game. One of the trophies required watching the recaps of the previous games, and let me tell you, they completely sold me on the franchise. I was gonna play them all. Time passes and Yakuza 5's demo hits the PSN store. It's great, of course, but a certain piece of news comes to me: Digital only. Disappointed, I completely forgot about the Yakuza franchise. But the franchise caught on and every game since has gotten a physical release, and here I am fixing errors past: Not playing through the entire series.

 In this first game you play as Kiryu, an ex-Yakuza who took the fall for killing his own leader, something he did in order to protect his best friend, and actual murderer, Nishiki. Ten years go by and Kazuma Kiryu is out of prison and back to the city of Kamurocho, but while the city hasn't changed the people sure have. Nishsiki is now a ruthless leader of his own group(Or 'family' as they call them) and their best friend, and Kazuma's love interest, Yumi is nowhere to be seen. Just so happens that the Tojo family has been robbed of 10 billion Yen and a young girl, Haruka, is looking for her mom. All these seemingly unconnected events and people come together to make for one fantastic and over-the-top soap opera that's as thrilling as it is exciting. You'll find yourself making your own guesses as to how it all pans out because it's just so interesting! And that's just the main story, you're free to tackle any of 70 side-quests that have their own mini scripts, often delving into the ridiculous. In a good way. The bland voice acting does help add a bit of personality to the game, because it feels like a proper dubbed Asian crime flick. Speaking of the voice acting, they had some really great talent, like Mark Hamill and Eliza Dushku, but even their performances left a lot to be desired.

 The game takes place in the city of Kamurocho, a city filled with side activities. Sure, you can meander about hoping to come across the various sidequests, but you can also search for the 48 locker keys, each locker hiding a goodie for you. You could go to the massage parlor and engage in a silly minigame, you could go visit the hostess bars and try to seduce them or why not hit the batting cages? But, maybe, the crane at the arcade is more up your alley. Busting skulls will be the thing you'll be doing the most, but dammit if they didn't go the extra mile to sell you on the city of Kamurcho! It all adds up to make Kamurocho feel alive, and like a proper district infested by Yakuza and gangs. 10+ for effort.

 The brunt of the game is like so: You watch a long-winded, but awfully interesting, set of cutscenes and get tasked with a goal, such as 'Feed the dog'(Seriously, it makes sense in context) and then... you are free to run throughout Kamurocho. Want to follow the story? Just follow the pink arrow on the radar below. But maybe you want to go to any of the shops and restock on healing items, or maybe weapons, you can do so too! As a matter of fact, I suggest you take frequent walks in-between chapters through Kamurocho in order to try to find side-quests, they really do help fleshing out the city and showing you just how much of a goodie-two-shoes Kazuma is. That said, do be careful, as random encounters are out and about. After a while you'll learn to recognize which NPCs will trigger a fight if you walk close to them, so you can avoid them. At times the encounter rate can be a bit too high, but that's mostly during the last chapters of the game, since each chapter has a level cap, and once you hit it enemies will stop spawning. You can, however, equip a lucky bracelet if it gets too annoying. I don't recommend it, however, as leveling up allows you to develop Kazuma in any of three ways: More Health, better Heat consumption or more moves. You can, eventually, get every area to level 10, but you are free to prioritize however you like. I always kept my Health at the highest level while Heat was a close second, for instance.

 Exploring isn't the only thing you'll be doing, as pretty much any problem can be fixed with Kazuma's fists. Square is your weak four-hit combo string and triangle is a strong attack that can be used to end your combos with. Circle can be used to grab enemies, X is a dodge and R1 can be used to target enemies. You can also pick up weapons from the floor, from pipes to road cones, anything is a weapons in Kazuma's hands... or your enemies'. Landing attacks and keeping on the offensive increases and maintains your Heat gauge. At first you can only use it to deliver powerful Heat attacks by grabbing enemies next to a wall, but as you develop Kazuma's stats you'll gain access to a few more Heat actions, such as Heat attacks on downed enemies or while holding weapons, or even an increase or two to Kazuma's strenght while the gauge is full.

 Look, I loved the game, but one thing is true: Combat is kinda wonky. R1 targeting doesn't work very well and it's easy for Kazuma to lose the target(Although I think it was done on purpose? Since it happens whenever you dodge. Regardless, it's a poor design choice) so often times you'll be having to let go off the targeting, reposition yourself and then press R1 again. Not that that's too easy, since the camera is terrible and you can't move it around with the shoulder buttons or the right analog stick, so mostly you'll be moving around hoping the camera lets you see that one guy that is shooting at you from afar or press the L2 button to shift the camera behind Kazuma's back. Neither option works very well, especially considering that Kazuma's back will be blocking your view from incoming attacks! And once you start your attack string you are committed to punching in that direction, since Kazuma has a one track mind. You can, however, unlock an attack that lets you kick in the opposite direction you are attacking from, but it's not the end all be all to this issue as it requires enemies being at the right distance.

 One tiny issue that my get on people's nerves are the loading times. They are not too long, but they are frequent. Navigating Kamurocho is through fixed-camera angles, and while they aren't intrusive, it takes one or two seconds to load different areas. Add to that that random encounters require a loading screen before and after the fact, so it can get a bit grating when you hit the last parts of the game and there seems to be a miscreant on every corner waiting to get their due.

 I can wholeheartedly recommend Yakuza on the PS2. It's a fantastic action/beat'em up game that while a bit repetitive and clunky in execution has a lot of heart. The script is brilliant and knows the perfect way to deliver both heavy-handed and silly stuff without generating any mood whiplash. Everything flows well together, so much so that it's easy to forgive its shortcomings when it comes to the combat. Yakuza was a fantastic gem in the rough, and I can't wait to delve into the sequels.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #621: Horizon Zero Dawn - Complete Edition

 Also known as Robot Hunter.

 Now this came completely out of the left field! Known for their gritty and bleak Killzone games, Guerilla Games wanted to do something different: An adventure game that blurred the lines with the RPG genre, and on their first ever endeavor of this kind... they aced it with flying colors. Horizon Zero Dawn is an excellent piece of software that shows that taking risks can pay off exceedingly well.

 The game takes place on a post-apocalyptic world, men and women live in tribes, armed with nothing but spears and arrows, fighting against machines that roam the lands. You take control of Aloy, the motherless, raised as an outcast by an outcast, who sets out to prove her worth and discover who her mother was. But it's not as simple as that, as the secret behind her birth takes her through ruins of the ancient world. Our modern world. Finding out what happened to the world that made it devolve into a savage land, and why the machines are out for blood is a very interesting adventure. The story is well told, although to get the most of it you'll have to go through those annoying, but by today's standards unavoidable, audio and data logs. The entire game took me over 40 hours to complete, but I was a very busy bee, collecting every collectible peppered throughout the lands, fulfilling every side-quest I came upon and, of course, finishing the on-disc expansion, the Frozen Wilds, which is very, very worth your while.

 As Aloy you're free to pretty much do everything at your pace. After the 5 or so first hours of the game you'll be given free access to every zone in the game. Want to find every collectible before doing the main story? Go ahead. I was level 29 before I got over the second, and last, 'big' barrier in the game world. Although I took a detour into the Frozen Wilds expansion. Word to the wise, if the Frozen Wilds are too tough don't be afraid to lower the difficulty setting, the DLC expansion is tougher than anything you'll find on the main game... but it also features the strongest weapons in the game and one of the most useful outfits, one that heals you as time passes. If you choose to do the DLC first, which why wouldn't you since it's set before the game's ending, you'll end up overlevelled and overpowered for the rest of the campaign... not that that's saying much, levelling up only increases your HP by 10 and the skill trees are more utilities than anything else. Weapon power rarely goes up by much, so even the strongest weapons won't do much for you if you go into a tussle poorly prepared.

 Combat is fairly fun, mostly focused on Aloy's bows and other means of long-range weaponry, like trip-wires or sling-shots. You'll notice that weapons, in shops, barely change their attack power, but the reason you'll want to invest in other weapons is due to elemental ammo. Not every bow can fire the same arrows, and elemental damage is one of the ways you can deal with robot enemies. The other is hitting their weakspots, which you can find out by using Aloy's piece of ancient technology, the Focus, which highlights where your arrows will hit the hardest. Elemental damage comes in three forms: Fire, which deals damage over time, electricity, which stuns enemies and ice, which slows them down and makes every hit do critical damage, lastly there's Tear, which does minimal damage but shaves off armor pieces and weaponry from enemies, which can turn them into a bit of a crutch. Combat is way more fun than it deserves to be, and it feels nice noticing how you learn from every machine so that you can turn them into scrap faster. Aloy also comes with a spear, weak and strong attacks, meant for the smaller robots, but I had a ton of fun trying to sneak in a few hits with it, I've always been a bit of a melee fan after all!

 A large part of the game is crafting, everything and anything from plants lying in the wilds to scrap left by fallen enemies is up for grabs. You have to keep in mind that inventory space is limited, so you just can't carry everything and anything you want, and tons of things have all sorts of purposes, from crafting upgrades for your ammo pouches to crafting the very arrows you use to fight and even to barter with merchants and get snazzy outfits. There are a few skills on the skill tree that will help you with this, enlarging the amount of resources you can carry or even letting you dismantle stuff into metal scraps, the most basic form of currency in the game and also one of the two basic elements to craft arrows. Another type of pick up are modifications, items that can be ingrained into your outfits and bows to give them passive abilities, such as higher damage or better resistance to elements.

 I will admit that after I hit the level 60 cap the combat turned a bit aimless. I didn't require more materials if I wasn't wasting arrows on enemies, and I didn't need the experience points. As far as equipment was concerned, I had settled on a decent pair of bows(The ones from the DLC) and I didn't need anything else, so I would just fast-travel to every location and progress through the story. Mind you, this was around the 39 hour mark, every hour before that I was having a ton of fun fighting enemies just because, tackling huge beasts because they looked mean and I was thirsty for blo... oil. But hitting the level cap meant that fights outside sidequests or quests was meaningless. Even though you'd have completed all the skill trees by then, I think upping the maximum level to 99 would have helped with this. At level 60 you have enough HP to get into fights carelessly, so I doubt even more HP would've made any difference.

 There's a reason Horizon has often been placed among the PS4's finest, because it is a damn great game. It's a great mix styles, adventuring, RPGing and even a bit of Monster Huntering, and it all works so well. The pseudo-sci fi story was a real treat, and discovering the secrets this world held was pure joy. That's not to say it's perfect, as a few tiny improvements could've helped make it even better, like more weapons with a more marked difference in power or upping the level cap so that combat never loses its meaning. Regardless, Horizon is a fun time for anyone willing to give it a try. Oh, and kid Aloy is totes adorbs.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #620: Travis Strikes Again - No More Heroes

 B...but Travis' story was supposed to be over! Suda, whatchoo doin' !?

 It's no secret that Goichi Suda is by far my favorite video-game director, nobody gets the perfect mix of bizarre and surreal just like him. That said, I was a bit scared when Travis Strikes Again was announced since Suda 51 had claimed that Travis' story was over so it felt like they were milking the license for all it was worth, and once reviews came in they pretty much confirmed my fears, not that that would stop me from getting the game. Thankfully, critics get it wrong, once again, as Travis Strikes again is pretty dope... if you're the right audience. And I am the right audience.

 The plot sees Travis attacked by Badman, Badgirl's father, who wants revenge for her murder, but things are never that simple in the assassin world, so both Travis and Badman get sucked into Travis' game console: The Death Drive Mk II. Now both assassins team up to gather the six Death Balls and get their wish granted. Yeah. The story is every bit as good as you'd expect any Suda 51 script to be, although it's lacking on the subtext it's oozing in bizarre. Every Death Ball is a different 'game', and in order to get them you have to go through DOS visual-novel styled story sequences that feature cameos from a ton of characters from Suda's games: Diabolical Pitch, Killer7(In the intro!), Silver Case: the 25th Ward and even Mondo Zappa! As a matter of fact, Shadows of the Damned gets an entire level dedicated to them and it is GLORIOUS. Each of the six games have their own unique boss, and everyone is PURE Suda 51's brand of punk rock. Travis' dialogue is as sharp as ever, even if both Badman and Travis share most of the dialogue(You can play as either character... or both in Co-op). It's a bit too good to be true, and it is. This is a low-budget game, so 95% of the brilliant dialogue is text only, even though the legendary Robin Atkin Downes reprises his role as Travis he only gets to spew a very few lines. It's very disappointing, specially since the voice acting was a BIG part of why I liked Travis so much, but the dialogue is so up to par that I was reading it in Robin's voice.

 Basic gameplay is very simple and both characters play pretty much exactly the same, with Travis being stronger but slower and Badman weaker but faster(And has a better HP growth). There's a weak rush attack in which you simply hold down the button and your character will endlessly slash and dice in front of him. There's a strong attack, a jump button and an evasive roll. This game plays nothing like previous No More Heroes, there's no hidden depth to the combat nor anything, what you see is what you get, but it's meant to be this way. Combat is shallow and slippery, sometimes it feels like it's impossible not to take damage, but it doesn't matter since you are supposed to be able to tank the damage. Heck, the camera is a bit weird, a bit angled from the top most of the time, so it's possible to get hit from enemies off screen. This is not a game you want to master, but one you play just for kicks. You have to mind your energy gauge, however, since your weapon can run out of gas, so you need to find openings to charge your weapon. There's also a Super Gauge that's charged by landing attacks that lets you use power full area-clearing super moves.

 ...but it's not like it's completely devoid of any gimmick, hidden throughout every level are various skill chips, named after Gundams, that can be equipped on your character in order to use powerful skills. There're a few exclusive skills for Travis and Badman, but most chips can be equipped by either character, up to four of them. Don't expect too much out of them, these are not for producing massive combos, but to add variety to the mayhem. There's a skill that lets you telekinetically push an enemy, lay down a skull turret, dash, shoot lightning(One of my favorites), lay down a healing circle or have a massive satellite beam shoot down on the arena. Skills run on an individual cooldown system, so it's just a matter of waiting. I wish there was a little more to chips, but I just stuck with a few of the first chips I found since they were so much better than anything that came later because besides dealing damage they also stunned the enemy, but that didn't stop me from trying out a few newer chips.

 Each 'game' has its own Theme. There's a top-down level in which you must hit switches to rotate tiles and make your way to a mansion. A murder-mystery one in which you must enter sub-stages to collect donuts and coffee to interact with a dead man, one in which you must race against other racers by going through simple motions to shift gears quickly and win, etc. I enjoyed the different themes, but I wish stages were shorter, since are way too long for their own good, trimming about 20 minutes on each would've helped the game be more palatable. On another note, the game takes about 30 seconds to boot up, so don't get scared about your switch crashing.

 There are a few unlockables on each stage, besides the skill chips. You can get Azteca Coins as well as money which you can then spend to buy shirts. Sadly, the selection is very unappealing and pandering, most shirts turn into walking adverts for other indie titles such as Hotline Miami or Brawlhalla. I understand that Suda was inspired by Hotline Miami, so he probably wanted to pay tribute to the indie scene, but it feels a bit lame. I would've like more colors for shirts, heck, there's a single orange shirt! It's also kinda disappointing since you could customize Travis' jacket and pants too in previous games, being cut short to just the shirt is a rather large step backwards.

 When you play a game by Suda 51 or Grasshopper Manufacture you're never expecting the finest gameplay, and this is no exception. What you get, however, is a surreal, endearing experience that other studios just can't capture, and, once again, Travis Strikes Again is no exception. The game is very lacking in mass appeal, graphics are nothing to write home about, gameplay is unimpressive and the stages start off interesting but dull throughout their excessive length. But, but, every other part about the game oozes Suda 51. Bosses are a pleasure to meet, dialogue is as bizarre as you'd expect and every stage feels like something out of an LSD trip. It's amazing. There is an audience for this game, a very limited one, but it's there and if you're looking for something out the ordinary, this is anything but.

 Plus, No More Heroes 3 confirmed. Punk is not Dead.

7.5 out of 10

Review #619: Azure Striker Gunvolt - Striker Pack

 Blue Bomber Megaman called, he'd like to have a word with Inti-Creates.

 Are you missing the Megaman Zero games? You're in luck! Megaman Zero's developer, Inti-Creates, decided to create their own 2-D sidescroller jump-and-shoot action game, Azure Strike Gunvolt. It is a ripoff, it is, but Inti-Creates know what they are doing after spending years developing 2-D Megaman games for the GBA and the Nintendo DS. Striker Pack on the Nintendo Switch is a compilation of the first two games.

 The story is a whole lot of anime nonsense, the first game has Gunvolt rescuing a futuristic Japanese Idol songstress from a group of... 8 villains, while the second game has Gunvolt and his rival Copen take different routes at stopping another set of 8 villains. It's not entirely like Megaman, bosses in these games are called Adepts, being with super powers like Gunvolt, and Gunvolt doesn't earn powers from defeating enemies. As a matter of fact, in Gunvolt 1 you can take out 6 of the 8 adepts in any order that you want, the other ones being preset, while in Gunvolt 2 you only get a pick of 4 out of the 8. The games are fairly short, and finishing each should take about 5 hours or so. Both games are pretty much identical, save for the second playable character in 2, so everything I'll say is true for the duology.

 Jump and shoot, that's the name of the game, but it does offer its own twists and mechanics to set it apart from the other blue bomber. Gunvolt, GV for short, can be equipped with five different items to boost his stats or grant him abilities such as dashing on the air, as well as equipping up to four different super moves that run on a 3-stock meter, which refills as you dole out damage. GV, by himself, can jump, dash, shoot and walljump, but his Adept ability, or his Septima, is the FlashField. By shooting at enemies you can 'tag' them, and then you can use FlashField to electrocute them. You can tag multiple enemies at the same time, and using Flashfield to take out multiple enemies becomes the name of the game. There's another mechanic, Pervasion, which makes you invulnerable as long as you aren't using your Flashfield. Sounds too good to be true, and it is, Flashfield runs on an energy gauge that refills slowly over time or instantly if you double tap down on the control pad. Dodging attacks by Prevasion costs you energy from this gauge, and if you run out you have to wait for a while before you can use Prevasion and Flashfield again.

 It's all very fun, Gunvolt is built for speed, and the mechanics help in making stages fun to go through. Prevasion sounds like it'd make the game too easy, but it isn't and if you rely on it, as opposed to manually doing everything, costs you points, which in turn hurt your rank and in turn means less rewards after finishing a stage. And you want rewards so that you can synthesize equipment pieces. One BIG flaw with the games is the Challenge system. Challenges are small goals that you can complete to earn materials for synthezing, the problem being... Challenges are on a per-stage basis and they only open up after you finish a stage. And every time you clear a few challenges others pop up, basically, meaning that you must reply every stage a handful of times to clear every challenge. It's quite dumb, and it meant that I relied on very few pieces on equipment on each game since I wasn't too keen on replaying the same stages over and over again. The games are a blast to play, they really are, but I'm not one for unnecessary padding.

 The second game adds Copen as a playable character, and he is pretty darn fun. He can only tag one enemy at a time, and he does so by dashing into them. Once tagged, his bullets will zone in on the tagged enemy, and his EX weapons will shoot directly towards them. EX weapons! Taking yet another page from Megaman, Copen gets a new EX Weapon every time he defeats a boss. These weapons consume energy from a limitless energy gauge that runs on cooldown. His prevasion is tied to dashing, both share a 3-stock gauge, both evading damage with prevasion and dashing consumes a stock, however, landing your dash and thus tagging an enemy instantly refills it. You can also double tap down on the control pad to instantly refill  your stocks. Copen has equipment too, but it's tied to a numbered limit rather than a five-piece limit, and while he has all this funky EX-Weapons, he only has two supers, which run on cooldown, one that heals him and another one that deals damage. Copen is an absolute treat to play, but he is certainly stronger than Gunvolt, expect to score a ton of As and Ss when playing as him!

 The games are relatively challenging, but all in all, they are easier than Megaman X. Gunvolt 1 is certainly harder than the second one, but infinite lives makes retrying a zinch. Plus, whenever you die there's a small chance you'll get a full revive and a buff(Limitless Flashfield) to boot, at the cost of your rank. There's no excuse for not beating these games. That said, you might be hardpressed to aim for the true endings. Gunvolt 1 requires you finding seven hidden jewels, which probably will require you to replay stages. It's a bit annoying, but stages go by fast and you can take the chance to finish a few challenges, plus, you get to fight the true final boss and unlock 5 Gauntlet stages, remixed sections with tougher enemies and bosses! In Gunvolt 2, in order to fight the final boss you simply need to finish the game with both characters and then replay their last stages. The true ending, however, requires you finishing 80% of the challenges with both characters. No thanks. They are easy, but you're not gonna make me replay every stage upwards of three times, no way. That said, both Copen and Gunvolt share every boss, but only half of the stages, having a nice amount of unique ones each.

 The game's most pervasive flaw is how the script is designed. Dialogue plays as you go through a stage and even while fighting bosses. This huge letters alongside some obnoxiously large portrait show up whenever characters, usually Gunvolt/Copen and the boss, talk with each other. And this CAN obscure the screen and whatever is going on. Dialogue is in Japanese, so it's not like you can just trust your ears(Although, to be fair, Gunvolt 1 has an English voice over option... but the script was mangled, so it's better to go with subs) to know what they are talking about. Gunvolt 1 offers the option to toggle these annoyances On and Off with the X button, and you can select to turn dialogue off before starting a Stage in Gunvolt 2. My advice? The script is horrible and uninteresting, turn it off all the way and just enjoy the game. Another minor gripe comes with Gunvolts supers, you have to press R3 to use them, but it's incredibly easy to tilt the analog and use the wrong super move. It can be annoying when you're trying to use a healing super and waste the stock, but you can learn to cope with it.

 Forget about Mighty Number 9 and Megaman 11, Megaman never went away, he simply changed into Azure Strike Gunvolt! If you are up for some bite-sized 2-D Sidescrolling actiong, Striker Pack delivers in spades. Even if you take into account the fact that it's two games in one, the entire package is a bit on the short side, relying unashamed padding to lengthen the experience. That aside, Striker Gunvolt is everything fans of the Blue Bomber would want and then some.... provided you can stomach the whole generic animu designs and script.
8.0 out of 10