Review #687: 64 Memories - Mortal Kombat 4

 Unpopular opinion: Mortal Kombat 4 is actually good.

 Part I: The Flashback
 Well, I already talked about it in the Rampage World Tour review, but I got Mortal Kombat 4 the very same day I got that game, so it makes sense to pair them up. I adored this game as a child, probably one of the games I played the most with my father, although I don't think my friends were quite into it as I was.

 Part II: The Review
 I know it's rich coming from someone who thinks Mortal Kombat didn't get good until the reboot, but I think 4 is the exception. I mean, it's not great, not by a long shot, but I think it's the most fun Mortal Kombat could get back then. The dial-a-combos thing seems to be universal between all characters this time around, which I think in a game like Mortal Kombat is kinda better. In Tekken it's simple to figure out moves since each button is a limb, but when you have 'High' and 'Low' punches and kicks, it doesn't make much sense how dial-a-combos work. Regardless, as per usual with the franchise back then, it's the super moves that set each character apart. That and the newly implemented weapon mechanic, in which every character has his/her own weapon. Some are undeniably betters than others, but if you can knock it off you opponents' hands you can then pick it up for yourself. Some stages also have stage-weapons, such as rocks, and this are massively overpowered, but easy to sidestep.

 The fights go about pretty fast, which I like, although there's a certain slippery quality to the physics that I kinda enjoy. Sometimes attacks will go through other attacks, or some super moves when comboed into won't look as right as they should when connecting(or missing!), but it's not too bad. I love how crass the 'MAXIMUM DAMAGE' mechanic is, whenever you deal up to 45ish% of damage to your opponent, the game will just push you back into the ground, allowing the enemy a respite and making infinite combos impossible. It's so inelegant that I can't help but smile at how ridiculous it is, despite getting the job done! Since the Nintendo 64 wasn't too hot as far as available storage on the cart goes, all the cutscenes were remade in engine, which is kinda endearing, but on the upside, the Nintendo 64 version has NO LOADING TIMES, which makes the PS1 version obsolete by a landslide. That said, having no in-game movelist is unforgivable.

 I really like Mortal Kombat 4. It's a very clear case of style over substance, but if you don't mind turning off your brain for a spell, it can be quite entertaining for a retro fighter. I'd take any newer Mortal Kombat entry over this one, yes, even despite how much nickel-and-diming Warner Brothers is trying to get out of the series, but as far as the older entries go? This one's my jam.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #686: 64 Memories - Rampage World Tour

 No, that's not King Kong.

 Part I: The Flashback
 So me, a kid with a Nintendo 64, had friends, also kids and also with Nintendo 64s, and this one day a buddy told me about this game he rented in which you played as a giant monster, climbed on walls and leveled a city, you'd also drink a liquid of sorts and turn into a giant bat. It doesn't matter who you are, if you were 10 or so, that would sound AMAZING. And so I'd tell my parents about this game and how I HAD to own it. And eventually, I did. My father came home one day with two carts, which was very weird since whenever they bought me a game it would be brand new. Now, he said that he threw the box and manual away, pretty weird, but I'll always think he simply purchased them as used games but didn't want to tell me, since my mother used to have this weird negative bias against used stuff. One of those carts was Mortal Kombat 4, and the other one, Rampage World Tour, the game I had been longing for. I think I liked it quite a bit, and I remember taking turns with my sister when taking the chemicals that would turn your monster into VERN, the giant bat-creature.

 Bonus flashback, a few years ago I played Rampage 2 - Universal Tour. It was awful, but I suspected, based on memory alone, that it was worse than the first game for the simple fact that I could very easily tell that a lot of features where removed and the new additions(Different stats, more monsters, super move) were but fluff that didn't help the game in any way. And I was right. I popped in the cart, to make sure it was working, and expecting to get bored soon, but what happened was that I played the entire game all the way to the end. Just like that. On the very same day it arrived. Don't get me wrong, it's not a good game, but it's much better than the sequel.

 Part II: The Review
 Based off an Arcade game of the same game, Rampage sees you taking control of any of three monsters, Lizzie the giant Lizard, George the giant Gorilla and Ralph the Giant Wolf, as they lay to waste the entire world. All three monsters are pretty much identical, what changes are their favorite food and favorite item, which only changes which items heals them the most and grants them the most points. The game takes place on a 2-D field, and you can climb on either side of any building, as you punch and kick their walls down. You could also simply get to the top, and start smashing it with downward jumps or downward punches. If you're not in a hurry, it's better to hit them on the sides to uncover items for health, power ups(FIRE BREATH!) or even silly interactions(Soap makes your monster spew a bubble).

 Cities are sprawling with people, either inside buildings or running across the streets, and you can eat them for points. Or kick them into a bloody splatter. The game is 129 short stages long, with a few secret levels, and your objective on each stage is to destroy every building. But the police and the army won't make it easy for you, so you'll have to deal with an endless petering of bullets and lasers. Bullets are tiny and fast, so it's pretty much impossible to avoid damage, thank god for what appears to be infinite lives. There is a main objective, believe it or not, bring down every SCUMM facility around the world, and you can alter how you travel by finding flags inside buildings and hitting them until you see the country you want to travel to. SCUMM stages also feature the purple waste that turns you into the flying bat-creature VERN, make you overpowered and invulnerable. Only one player can drink the power up, so in a three player game you might have to duke it out for the right to turn into VERN.

 The game's sequel actually took some features out of the game, like the VERN transformation and the ability to jump on to space ships or tanks, in order to use their firepower for your benefit. That said, it's still a very simple, repetitive game, and by stage 20 you'll have seen EVERYTHING the game has to offer. Honestly, unless you're into pick-up-and-play games, just steer clear off Rampage World Tour. But if you can't, skip the sequels and get the original(Well, technically, the arcade game is the original), it's the best one.
 4.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - The Black Order Free Update #1

  As usual, Cyclops can't help himself from leading, so lead the DLC he does.

 The new Free DLC of things that should've been in the game from the get go just released and it kinda misses its mark. Colossus and Cyclops are brilliant new additions to the cast, both being pretty fun to use and can even synergize with each other on 3 of their skills, which instantly makes pairing them a great idea. What isn't so great is the way to unlock things.

 A new rift was added, with 10 new challenges, which sounds neat, but just like the Rifts before them, they are made up of recycled boss fights, locations and enemies, so you'll be replaying stuff you've already played. Worse of all, unlocking the new costumes is a pain in the butt, since these are some of the hardest challenges in the game, some even having a level 94 requirement. NINETY FOUR!!! For a flippin' Ms. Marvel costume! Spider-man's costume requires perfecting the entire grid. Thanks, but no thanks. Regardless, a 94 level requirement implies having played the game on the four previous difficulty settings, which means, like me, you'll have gone through the game and the various rifts over and over again, so having replay things I've already played(Even if not under the conditions the new challenges place on you) all these things countless times, so excuse me if I'm not exited at the idea of having to play the Ultron/Ant-man fight again.

 Basically, the new content is neat, Cyke and Colossus are fine, but the new rift is more tedious and annoying than fun. A better idea would've been a Rift tailored around leveling up your two new characters, so that they hit level 60 or so by the time you are done with the rift. As it stands, costumes are bonus content for people that have played the game at least three different times and don't care about repeating stuff under new restrictions and limits.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #685: Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition

 This one being the guiltiest one of them all.

 I've liked Guilty Gear ever since I first saw an ad for it on a Gamepro magazine. I wouldn't get to play it until much later, and it'd be the sequel Guilty Gear X, when I managed to get my hands on the PC port. Which wouldn't run well on my PC, since apparently it couldn't deal with GG's giant sprites, so I'd get invisible character sprites and/or flickering. Regardless, it was love at first sight and I'd eventually make my way back to the very first game as well as play most of the sequels that came out. Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition reunites both the very first game, as well as the final iteration of the XX series(I guess Xrd was too much for the Switch to handle?) in one small and disappointing package.

 Let's start with the extras, first of all, the game's cover is terrible. An odd complaint, maybe, but Guilty Gear has always had brilliant hand-drawn cover art by the creator himself. This cover is as generic anime as it can get. Then there's the artbook, which contains mostly black-and-white background art as well as some early designs for Bedman and Ephelt. Lame. It's hard not feel as if ArkSys didn't much care about this game, they were probably too busy scamming people with Blazblue Cross Tag. That said, even if they didn't care about it, Guilty Gear is still a fantastic fighting game series, and the games speak for themselves, window-dressing be damned.

 I've been on the lookout for Guilty Gear since I really wanted to own the game again, so I'm glad that Guilty Gear finally saw a rerelease. As far as fighting games go, even for its era,  Guilty Gear is pretty barebones. There's Arcade Mode, VS Player and Training mode, and that's that, there isn't even a difficulty setting option. Unlocking Testament and Justice isn't too bad, since it simply requires beating the game once, but Baiken is a whole 'nother story, requiring beating the game using no continues. And it's harsh, man! The CPU loves to abuse the Instakill mechanic, which was in a very early infancy for this game.

 The game is a bit rough, but I like the gritty sprites and subdued color palette. The core of what makes anime fighters tick was set in place with this game, with dashing, air-dashing and even air-combos being in vogue. Which Capcom did first, true, but Guilty Gear is much faster than anything they had done at the time. All in all, it's a good game, but every iteration that came afterwards would improve upon it. That said, no other game in the franchise looks like this one, so it's worth a look or two.

 Accent Core Plus R is a much better package, and easily worth the price of admission alone. It's got modes up the wazzoo(Arcade, Story, Survival, M.O.M, Mission, Training, VS Player and CPU as well as Team VS). It's also got way more characters than the original release, and you can pretty much double the roster with the unlockable EX versions of every character, which changes a few of their moves and properties. For instance, when I first played Accent Core on the PS2, after a few years of abstinence from the franchise, I was surprised to see my boy's, Ky Kiske, forward+HS changed. Using his EX version restores that move(At the cost of losing the Shoryuken's follow-up, but then again, my Ky never had that in the first place!).

 While it's true that the series got very complex by the time of Accent Core, with a lot of different mechanics I don't even dare get into, there's still a lot of fun to be had by mashing buttons, honestly! The games are so fast paced that it's very easy to make simple combos just by mashing, so I'm pretty sure anyone can have fun with the game. On another note, and this holds true for both games, playing with the joycons doesn't feel very good, the buttons don't work as well as a digital pad, and I've never been a fan of Nintendo's analog sticks, although I settled with the latter since I had no other choice, so it'd be better if you invested in other joysticks if you want to take the game seriously.

 I liked Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition, but that's because I've always like the franchise. For a anniversary rerelease, this package leaves a lot to be desired, with a very underwhelming presentation and extras. ArkSys could and should've done better.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #684: Fire Emblem - Three Houses

 Four routes, one cart. Nintendo has learned.

 I was not planning on purchasing Fire Emblem - Three Houses this early, heck, while I own Awakening I never got to play it, and after the three routes-two(threeish) games shenanigans with Fates, I lost pretty much any interest I had in delving into the series. And then the timeskip trailer hit E3, and boy, oh, boy, Nintendo had me by the wallet. This latest installment in the long running strategy-RPG franchise has made a bunch of changes to its tried and true formula, adding various social mechanics, similar to the ones in Persona, as well as ditching the rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle.

 You take the role of the resident mute hero Byleth, male or female, a mercenary of few emotions that fights alongside his father. As luck would have it, he comes across the three future leaders of the divided country they live in. One thing leads to another and Byleth ends up becoming the professor of one of the three houses, and what follows is a story of warfare and political intrigue. If there's one complaint to be made it's that you are forced to pick your route pretty early in the game, before you get to know any of the characters that make up each house. As for me, I picked the Blue Lions and I was enamored with seeing how Nintendo played with their Heroic Lord tropes, and watching him turn into the psycho the trailer showed us. Afterwards I read TVTropes to get details on the characters I didn't get to interact with as well as the story revealed in the other three routes. Let me tell you, the story and characters are fantastic, the game does a fantastic job of portraying grey vs gray vs a pretty light shade of grey morality, while you can argue that one of the three Lords is much less morally ambiguous than the other two, I found myself surprised at playing a Nintendo game that had these many morally questionable characters. That said, whichever side of the battle you pick will eventually get redeemed, probably thanks to Byleth's influence on the Lord. On another note, the game is quite effective at making you get attached to the entire cast of characters, making it all the more tragic when you have to face them in battle, maybe even murdering them, after the timeskip. Regardless of whichever route you pick, the story is tragic and there's no "good ending" route, so steel yourself for the ride. On another note, most routes are 22 chapters long(For whichever reason the Black Eagles route is only 18) and it should take you about 40 hours on your first playthrough, probably less if you picked the Eagles. Since a single playthrough won't give you the whole picture, it's highly recommended that you play the other routes or read about them, because the plot can be quite interesting.

 Each chapter in the game takes place throughout an in.game month. At the start of each weak you'll be able to instruct your students(Basically, train their skills) and at the end of each week you'll get a day off, in which you can set out into a free battle, explore the academy in order to interact with other characters or take a few students into a seminar to increase their skills. You could also skip the day if you're boring and would rather just try to progress through the story.

 But you shouldn't skip those days. As for me, I'd usually set out to battle on two days, and explore the academy on the other two, alternating between them. Exploring the Academy lets you spend a set amount of time by partaking in activities(such as eating with a few of your allies, or joining together for choir singing). Talking with characters or giving them gifts won't reduce your activity time, but will let you increase Byleth's affinity with said characters. Byleth isn't the only character that can increase his affinity with the other character, which is why Choir and Dinner lets you pick two characters, so that you can raise affinity between those pairs as well. Raising affinity between characters is important because it'll unlock support conversations between them, giving the player more information about their personalities and motivations, as well as giving small stat boosts to the paired characters. Pretty much every character in a house has support conversations with each other, but if you play your cards right you can actually recruit characters from the other houses into your own, at least before the timeskip. And believe it or not, while they won't appear in the story cutscenes, they get unique support conversations with characters outside their house as well as unique dialogue during the timeskip to justify why they are with you and not their original house. Pretty neat!

 That said, recruiting characters from other houses is a bit tough, since they require Byleth having a pair of decent levels on specific weapons, skills or a stat. While having extra characters is nice, and not having to murder them after the timeskip feels great, it's better if you stick to the characters of your chosen house since they are the ones you'll be seeing the most of. On another note, Byleth is the only character capable of S-Ranking a relationship, which means Byleth 'marries' that character, which I bet is great news for shipping fanatics. Previous games let you marry other characters with, well, other characters, but Byleth is the only casanova(Casanovo in the female's case?) in this one.

 As for free battles, they are simple battles you can play in order to grind for levels or money. Every now and then, provided the right characters have joined your house, you'll be able to play 'Paralogue' missions, which are free battles that come with a few story tidbits pertaining a few specific characters. Usually they have some great rewards, so it's best you do them. Heck, a character in the Blue Lions route can die if you don't clear his Paralogue Mission before you hit the time limit. Usually you've got plenty of months before the paralogue mission goes away, so don't fret too much if you find yourself swamped with other priorities on a given month. That said, there's a limit to how many times you can fight Free Battles on your day off, although Normal Mode usually has a few maps that don't consume activity points, in case you really need to grind some levels. But you shouldn't. I played in Normal, with the Casual setting on, since I'm not a fan of having characters die permanently, and I didn't have much trouble with the game. Byleth just tanked(Or rather, avoided) everything and anything that came his way and pretty much killed any unit in a single turn.

 Battling is pretty simple, you pick any 12 or so units to form a team, and then take turns with the enemy to move your characters around and do battle. Characters don't take turns, rather, it's between you and the CPU, so you can move your characters in any order and do everything you can during yours. Each turn you can move every unit once, and only once, unless you have a Dancer, a special class that can only be unlocked through a special event that can dance to give a unit another turn. Unlike other strategy RPGs you don't get to move after attacking, which means that if you attack with a unit, without moving, its turn ends just like that, so positioning is a bit more strict and important. Seems that after Breath of the Wild Nintendo took a liking to Weapon durability, so every attack will reduce your weapons' durability by one, and special moves will consume more durability, as opposed to mana. Broken weapons can still be used, but they'll deal negligible damage, luckily every character can carry a bunch of items, so just carry multiple weapons with each character and you'll be good to go. On another note, visiting the Marketplace, which can be done at pretty much any time, lets you fix your weapons or buy new ones. Considering the items used to repair weapons can also be used to upgrade weapons you just might find more value into buying new weapons altogether.

 Class progression is done through skills, skills are passive traits, such as "Bow", "Horse Riding", "Heavy Armor" and characters raise these stats by studying during the week(You set goals, which translate to either one or two stats you want them to train) and/or by giving them personal lessons at the start of the week and, lastly, by fighting. For instance, if a character class has them riding a horse, every time they attack an enemy they will get points on the proficiency skill of the weapon they used and Horseriding. As characters increase in levels and train their skills they'll get the chance to take a certification and change classes. Classes are divided into tiers(Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Master) and every tier but Beginner also require using a Seal to attempt. And yes, characters may fail the exam, but you can save before taking the exam and try again another week(The result of the exam is set before the week starts, so no save scumming!).

 Honestly, Fire Emblem - Three Houses is amazing. The story is great, and the gameplay is fun, the developers managed to create a simple gameplay loop(Teaching, Socializing, Battling week by week) that's fun and rewarding while helping you grow attached to the characters. I enjoyed how dark the story and the lead characters could get, which really threw me for a loop since I wasn't expecting this amount of moral ambiguity from a flippin' Nintendo game. This is the first Fire Emblem game I ever got to play, and I must say, I'm impressed. Also, slightly scared since I know the other games are quite different from this one. Regardless, Nintendo managed to score another hit on their hybrid console.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #683: 64 Memories - Mortal Kombat Trilogy

 2 years later I still hate classic Mortal Kombat.

 Part I: The Flashback
 It's no secret that I think Mortal Kombat didn't get 'good' until its ninth iteration. That said, I played Mortal Kombat 2, Trilogy and 4 a bunch o' times with my father and friends, so back then quality never really mattered. As far as Mortal Kombat Trilogy goes, while it wasn't among my very first games, I'm sure I got it pretty early on. Y'know how kids are dumb and irrational? One time I got mad at my parents, for whatever silly reason, and started peeling off the cart's sticker. Sure, that'll show'em

 Part II: The Review
 Basically, I feel exactly like I did back when I played the PS1 version. The gameplay is simply too barebones to be any fun. There are only two things that set apart every character: Their special moves and their dial-a-combos. Back when I reviewed the PS1 version I actually found Dial-a-combos somewhat fun, even if you'd eventually just default to learning a few of those. This time around? I think the N64 pad just isn't suited for fighting games, and I dropped my dial-a-combos pretty frequently which wasn't much fun.

 The difficulty setting is high up to the point of unfairness and mitigating any fun you could have on your own. 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 I remember being decent fun, but you need another player, lest you get stuck on the character select screen. Game design at its finest. The N64 version has ZERO load times, which works wonders in this version's favor, but its missing a few characters from the PS1 version(Unmasked Sub-Zero, Human Smoke, Retro Fighters, Goro, Kintaro) which is kinda lame. Instead of the female Chameleon, we get the male ninja Khameleon, who is much cooler since he ain't wearing a glorified thong bikini.

 I'm sorry I can't hide my contempt for the game, but I've never found classic Mortal Kombat much fun, at least after I grew up. The gameplay is pretty barebones and digitized graphics were dated since their inception. I'm glad I can revisit my childhood games, and I don't think Mortal Kombat Trilogy is terrible, but this is not what I look for in a fighting game. On another note, I wouldn't be able to tell you which version is better. The PS1 version has more characters and a joystick better suited for fighting games, while the N64 version lacks loading times which is a HUGE boon, and it's also got 3 on 3 fights.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #682: 64 Memories - Cruis'n World

 Bigger. Better. Faster. The framerate still tanks though.

 Part I: The Flashback
 Nothing to see here! I played the first Cruis'n earlier this year, so, if you wish, consider this the unofficial fifth part of 'Unfulfilled Dreams' or something.

 Part II: The Review
 Cruis'n USA but better, that's how I'd describe Cruis'n World. It follows the same formula of racing from checkpoint to checkpoint before time runs out, but instead of being confined to USA, you get to explore multiple countries.... although Cruise the World ends, fittingly, in USA, capping the whole ordeal with a track in New York and another one in Florida. Beating Cruise The World also unlocks a 14th track, the Moon. Needless to say, going outside USA worked wonders for the game, as there's a ton of variety in the tracks. For instance, I was particularly fond of Egypt and China, not to mention that Kenya's interweaving roads were fun to race through. The CPU feels tougher in this game, even on the easiest difficulty setting I found myself retrying a few tracks. The game is pretty fun, and I'm pretty terrible at racing games, so I didn't mind, and the fact that you can progress through the game as long as you make it at least to the third place made it pretty lenient.

 There's a new racing mode, 'Championship', in which you can play more traditional lap-based races, which simply loop the existing tracks. There's also a practice mode. The game can be played with up to four players, which is pretty neat. What's not so good is that the framerate is still pretty bad. It feels more stable than it was in USA, but if the screen gets too crowded you'll find yourself driving underwater. Colliding against other cars is pure jank, and it never works quite as you'd expect, so just try to avoid collisions. Lastly, you can now perform tricks by double tapping the A button and holding different direction on the analog stick before a jump. It adds a couple of seconds to the timer and it adds little of value to the game, but it's there if you're feeling fancy.

 It's good. It's really good. As a matter of fact, it's better than the first game, thanks to its expanded car roster and more varied racing tracks. The soundtrack isn't as good as the first game's and I think crashes worked a little bit better, if more inconsistent, in that one too, but as far as raw gameplay goes, this one is cruise you want to take.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #681: 64 Memories - Goemon's Great Adventure

 Goemon's final adventure... overseas.

 Part I: The Flashback
 The final entry in 'unfulfilled dreams' is Goemon's Great Adventure. As much as I loved Mystical Ninja back in the day, I'm quite sure that I didn't feel like I needed this game as much as the previous three. Although that's not giving it enough credit, as soon as I discovered that emulating the Nintendo 64 was a possibility, this was the very first N64 rom I downloaded. I think that finding out it was a 2-D sidescroller kinda tainted my perception of the game. While I'd learn to love 2-D games again, I grew up with a NES after all, a few years later, by this time I was enjoying 3-D adventures a whole lot more.

 Part II: The Review
 While this game is quite different from Mystical Ninja, if you had known anything about the series back then, you'd have known that this game went back to Goemon's 2-D roots. Heck, there're are a lot of returning characters in the game, sadly, only a handful could be recognized by western folk, considering this only the fourth Goemon game that made it outside Japan. And the final one. In a nutshell, this is a 2-D platforming/adventure game in which you play as Goemon and his friends as they try to stop the evil Bismaru and his evil ghost cohorts. The game is divided into five chapters, each one having a different map overworld, although you can return to previous maps, with a bunch of different stages as well as a town that you can visit and revisit at any time once unlocked. And you'll have to return to previously cleared stages since a few of them offer alternate paths that may open up other stages.

 A jumps and B attacks, while any of the C-buttons can be used for your yen-consuming proyectile attacks, for instance, Goemon can shoot Zenny while Sasuke shoots bomb. Z is used to crouch, and R varies depending on the character, Yae can use it to turn into a mermaid while underwater, while Goemon can use his hookshot-pipe. Each character has a few unique attributes, and you do a bit of research since there are a lot of different moves the game won't tell you about. Holding Z+A performs a stealthy run, B can be held to dash while in towns, Ebisumaru can perform a butt-stomp to jump higher while Goemon can double jump. Heck, you'd best learn how to correctly swing on poles too(Start rolling, and then hold the analog stick TOWARDS the place you want to jump to). Sometimes a specific character will be required to continue or go through an alternate path, in most cases you'll find a character-change platform nearby so that you can swap characters. The game can be played in multiplayer, and you gain access to even more moves, like piggybacking another character or being able to ride tanks.

 The game is quite fun, although sometimes I felt like the game was built around Goemon. Maybe I just got comfortable with Goemon's double jumps, but a few jumps felt a bit too tight when I had to use other characters. It's also kinda tough. Characters can only take up to three hits before going down, although you can go into town and purchase a reviving item or armor(Up to 3 more hitpoints). Killing enemies will reward you with Yen, Health or weapon upgrades. The latter increase the damage and range of your basic attack, up to three levels of power(Bronze, Silver, Gold), but getting hit not only takes up a health point, but your weapon also goes down one level! Money is fairly important since it will increase your chance of survival, as well as being required for a few sidequests. so most of the time I avoided using anything besides the basic attack, as its the only means of defeating an enemy that makes them drop anything.

 As you play through the game you'll learn to love towns. Not only can you purchase much needed supplies, but it's also one of the only two places where you can save your game, the other one being after defeating a boss. A few times throughout the adventure you'll find yourself talking with NPCs in order to unlock new skills for your characters or to engage in simple sidequests to earn Entry Passes. You need Entry Passes to unlock the gates that guard the final stage of each chapter. I don't think you have to do much sidequesting, while I was a bit of a completionist, seeking every NPC worth an Entry Pass I could, every single time I went to a gate I was able to open it up with a ton of passes to spare. That said, there are 44 Entry passes in all, and if you collect all of them you'll be able to wear alternate costumes with each character as well as unlock a 4 player mode. Pretty spiffy if you ask me. Plus, most Entry Passes are simply earned by clearing a stage, stages with multiple routes have one for each exit, so you don't have to stray far off the beaten path in order to get the bare minimum.

 Just like Mystical Ninja, the giant robot Impact returns, alongside his girlfriend, Ms. Impact. After every Castle stage you'll fight a boss, and after defeating the boss you'll have to fight a giant boss. They have been made simpler than in Mystical Ninja, the hook is gone, now you can throw a baton to Ms. Impact to switch to her(or vice versa). While you have a few different punches and kicks, you'll want to input the C-button combination for the rapid punch every time you can, and once the gauge fills, the C-button combination for the Beam super. Simple and repetitive, yes, but they are a nice way of capping each chapter. Impact's song, however, is gone.

 The game is a bit tough to be sure, three hits and you're out is kinda harsh, and the game is rather stingy with checkpoints, plus, it runs on a life system. However, it's pretty fun, and once you get the swing of things you'll be able to clear stages without getting hit too much. A few stages might take a few tries before you get used to its obstacles, but I never needed to 'take a break' or what have ya, since the game has snappy, quick gameplay and is quite entertaining,

 While I was reading how many people considered this game better than Mystical Ninja, at first, I was insulted. You couldn't top my childhood memories of the game, you simply couldn't. But after finishing the game? I sorta agree. I don't think it's THAT much better, I really enjoyed the open-worldish adventure aspect of the previous game, and the OST was brilliant, oozing a ton of personality and charm. This game has no theme song, and while the humor is still here, I didn't find it AS funny as the first game. But the gameplay aspect feels a bit better, it's reminiscent of an Arcade action-platform game, with fast-paced gameplay and various one-time gimmicks and obstacles that are fun to tackle. It's pretty good, but it's also got a different flavor from the previous game, but anyone up for an old-school 2-D platform game would do well to give it a look.
 7.5 out of 10

The DLC Report: Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid Season 1 Lord Zedd

 Season 1 is over, and what've we got?

 With Lord Zedd's release, Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid is finally what it should've been from the start. 15 characters, including a Blue ranger, a decent Story-Mode, voices(including actors from the original show) and even spark hit effects when getting hit. Now THIS is a release I can get behind, which will make Limited Game Run's release all the more worth it.

 Lord Zedd is a fun character to use, he has great reach, and is easy to combo with. His super involved a Putty running from behind an enemy's back which can be a great mind-game tool. And, for a change, he's actually got a pretty decent gold-colored alt, which makes my Gold Team(Jason, Trey and Zedd) complete.

 Whether you purchased the DLC or not, the game also got patched with a bevy of balance changes, a few involving comboing and magic-series, which gives the game a slightly different feel with a few characters, nothing us casuals should get concerned with, however. It also includes the conclusion to the Story Mode. It has brand new cutscenes, and the conclusion is satisfying even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That said, the game pits you as and against Mighty Morphin' Pink Ranger and Lord Drakkon Evo II, y'know, paid DLC skins, which is rather lame of the developers. I'm a sucker and I pre-ordered the complete edition so I actually own those costumes, but I can't help but feeling like it's rather lame.

 All in all, Battle for the Grid is finally on the state it should've been released in. The game is fun, there's finally a decent amount of characters(Even if it panders WAY TOO MUCH to Mighty Morphin' fans) and you can get quite a bit of mileage out of the Story Mode. For future updates, I hope we get more Options(like a flippin' difficulty setting) and more color palettes for each character.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #680: The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors

 At least the title makes sense this time around.

 Picture a young me. A very young young me. There I was, going through a newly found fountain of games via SNES emulation, and thus, I came across this thing called ' The Ninja Warriors Once again'. It was weird, man, a single-plane beat'em up in which you played as cyborg ninjas, well, only the red kunoichi looked anything like a Ninja. But it was loads of fun, yo! And now, Tengo Project decided to remaster the game for modern consoles. And it's glorious. The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors is a brilliant remake that's ought to be played by anyone that loves retro games.

 As previously stated, this is a single-plane beat'em up game, which can get a while getting used to, as well as to how slow your basic movement speed is. It's not like most beat'em ups, that's for sure. In the original game you could play as three different Ninja robots, the blue Ninja, the Red Kunoichi or the grey scythes-for-arms thing. This remaster adds two new characters, the petite, large-breasted Yaksha and the massive metal mountain, that can change into a gun-on-legs mode, Raiden. Using these two new characters is a bit of a bummer since you need to clear the game twice, but they are completely different from the other three, so they are quite worth it. As a matter of fact, all five characters are incredibly different from each other, and each one has their own learning curve and strategies. Like, I got the hang of the blue guy pretty easily, and I can clear the game just fine with him, while I still struggle with the other four. Thankfully we get infinite continues, limited only by a checkpoint system, and you can change characters on death.

 The game is tough but fair. Well, for the most part. 90% of the game is a blast, but the final boss is incredibly cheap since he can't be harmed directly, but rather, you have to throw enemies against it. I died a couple of times with my blue guy until I learned that I could angle his up-throws by using diagonal-up-left and diagonal-up-right on the digital pad. And that brings me to another issue, while you only have a single attack button, character movesets are very large.. but there's no in-game moveset list. I swear, every time I picked up the game I learned a new move with my blue by. Or take Yaksha, if you jump and kick she'll perform a flying kick, but if you try to experiment you'll learn that if you press Down+Attack after landing the flying kick, she'll follow up with another kick. But only if you press down+kick. And I learned this by chance, since nowhere in the game can you find this stuff out, which is very disappointing considering how much potential each character has! Heck, I'm still not sure exactly how I'm making Raiden turn around or turn into his robot mode.

 But really, despite only having two buttons(Three if you count the super move) each character has a ton of tools to their disposal. For instance, let's talk about my boy, the blue ninja. The attack button performs a simple punch-into-nunchaku combo BUT if you have energy on your energy gauge, you can press up+attack before he takes out his nunchaku to deliver a powerful shockwave attack. You can also tap down+attack before the nunchaku comes out to perform a kick. Attacking while crouched performs a pretty different attack string that ends with a kick. Holding up on the direcional pad will let you use energy-consuming moves, this is true for every character, in the case of Ninja, he can use powerful nunchaku attacks until his gauge runs out. Down+Jump will make Ninja perform a downward elbow attack, but you can also tap Jump to dash forward, if you don't press anything, Ninja will attack with his elbow when he comes into contact with an enemy, or you can press Attack to deliver a kick. Dashing is a great way to close-in and grab the enemy. Up+Jump makes ninja hover, coupling this with Attack+any direction will make Ninja spin-attack in said direction. Then you've also got three different throws depending on where you hold when throwing a grabbed enemy. Lastly, when the energy gauge is full you can use a third button to perform a screen-covering super move. This is just a single character, but everyone else has a moveset comparable to his, and I'm not even mentioning how you can combo-into a few of his attacks. And there are probably moves that I haven't discovered yet. And this is exactly why the game NEEDS an in-game movelist.

 The game is incredibly fun because of just how much you can do. At times enemies can feel endless, but most of those can be offed in a single hit. Regardless, if you mean to beat the game you'll have to learn how to juggle fighting multiple enemies on a single lane at the same time. Honestly, it's a lot of fun. After finishing the game with my boy I immediately took out Yaksha for a spin, and had just as much fun discovering how she played, and I had to change my entire playstyle to fit hers! Kunoichi was pretty fun to use as well, while Kamaitachi didn't really gel with me, I'm usually not much of a fan of glass cannons. The game is 8 stages short, and they are pretty short, but the game is highly replayable.

 One area in which the developers deserve a ton of praise is on the sprites, as both new characters looked straight out of the original. In an era where 16-bit sprites are ignored in favor of 8-bit sprites or 3-D models, the new spritework is simply brilliant. A few of Yaksha's hook-attacks look a bit too fluid and modern, but I think it actually adds to her less-than-human movement. This game is a pleasure to look at, and it has been redesigned to look great in widescreen, with no screen-crunching or compromises, at least not as far as I could see. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't gonna play this game right now, but I took it out for a spin, since I wanted to try it out, but it hooked me until its end!

 Besides the main single-player mode, beating the game unlocks a Hard mode, which I'll admit I didn't try since I really don't care about bragging rights. There's a new mode, which was one of the things I was looking forwards the most with this remaster: Multiplayer. But it sucks! Both the energy gauge as well as the health bar is shared, which, you know, kinda sucks when the game is rather tough since playing with a less skilled player means that you have to be extra careful as not to get hit to make up for their mistakes, and it also means that both players will be fighting for the energy gauge. I'm glad the main game is so much fun, because it made the disappointment of the multiplayer mode not hurt as much. As much. While hardly a long game, being able to save midway through a run would've been a welcome addition, as it stands, once you decide to play the game you are in it for the long-haul.

 Well, The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors succeeds with flying colors as a remaster. It's the same game it used to be but with more content. And I love that they put effort into adding more stuff to a SNES game. It helps that the gameplay is SO good. That said, one has to admit that it falls short in a few areas, like the new multiplayer mode or the lack of a movelist. The game great, so it's not too hard to look past that, but it feels like a bit of wasted potential to make the game even greater. Regardless, I hope we get more SNES remasters done this way. The right way.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #679: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - The Black Order

 Jokes galore. Marvel, it's time to stop.

 A few years ago I went through the first three Ultimate Alliance games(X-men Legends 1 and 2 are part of the series) and discover that they hadn't aged all too well. Well, it's back in the form of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - The Black Order, a diablo-lite dungeon crawler featuring the most popular  characters from the Marvel Universe in the modern era. Developed by a Japanese company, Tecmo-Koei, it's a different flavor from what we were used to.

 Just like MUA 2 adapter, fairly loosely, the 'Civil War' storyline, The Black Order is an adaptation of Infinity War, albeit a fresh new take. While it borrows a lot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the unnecessarily large amounts of childish humor, it also adds a ton of characters that haven't made the jump into the big screen, like the Inhumans or even Thane, Thanos' son. The game features gorgeous cutscenes, and the art-direction they went with is just perfect, it's a shame the game can't stay serious for longer than three seconds. On another note, the game is made up of 10 chapters, each one focusing on a different series or world from the Marvel Universe, so there's a lot of variety and familiar faces, comic book dorks like me are in for a treat.

 Like in previous games, you'll play as a 4-man team made up from a 36-character roster. The character selection is great, even if it features mostly popular characters, and has the most amount of characters in the series yet. That said, costumes were cut entirely, replaced by simple, and somewhat lame, recolors. Each character gets a single unlockable recolor, which is rather lame, but we were promised free costumes through updates, so I guess that's somethin'.

 Characters get a weak attack combo string as well as a strong attack that can be used to finish you weak attack combo at any moment. This strong attack is always the same, no matter when you link it, which is rather boring, but nothing that makes or breaks the game. Each character also has 4 energy-consuming super moves. A few super moves can synergize with other characters' super moves in order to deal more damage. In Single Player you can hold down the Z button to have the nearest CPU use a compatible move, if they have any, at the same time. You can level up these super moves up to three times each, but by level 55 you'll have all of them maxed. Lastly, besides your Health and your Energy bar, you've also got a third gauge, filled by dealing and receiving damage, which lets you use an Extreme attack. Lastly, the L button can be used to either block or dodge incoming attacks.

 The most controversial addition to the game is the 'stagger' gauge. Every boss, as well as a bunch of enemy types will feature a purple gauge below their health bar. If you want to deal anything besides chip damage, you'll have to deplete their stagger gauge, so that they'll get stunned and receive extra damage. Failing to capitalize on the stagger gauge will make the game harder on you than it should, as for me, I never had much trouble since my team had at least two great stagger-breakers with Psylocke and Iron Fist, not to mention that Star-Lord can pretty much synergize with anyone, which also deals extra damage to the stagger gauge. Yes, different characters have different styles, some may have great crowd-control super moves but also lack any efficient stagger-damage moves.

 The RPG mechanics have found themselves a bit diluted this time around, so you might as well consider this game a beat'em up with RPG mechanics. Characters level up and get stat bonuses, but equipment is the gone, so the only real customization you can do is with ISO-8 Crystals, objects that can be found defeating enemies or breaking stuff, that can be equipped on your characters for various passive buffs. There's also an Alliance Upgrade Grid, which has a ton of passive bonuses, but require leveling up characters to use. If you stick to a single team of characters you might be lucky to fill a single hexagon on the grid, for you see, Enhancement Points, the currency used in this menu, is earned when characters level up, and once they reach 70 they only start doling out 1 EP per level up. That said....

 The game has been accused of being a bit on the tough side. Can't say I relate! Full disclosure, I went against my principles and purchased the season pass which gave me early access to a level 20 Deadpool. But I never felt like I was relying on him, and my levels evened out pretty quickly. By the time I reached the Dormamu fight all my characters were pretty evened when it came to levels, and I defeated him just fine. As long as you don't ignore the Stagger gauge and make proper use of dodges you can do just fine. I was having so much fun with the game, that every time I unlocked new Infinity Ridge challenges I would stop my progress to clear them. These things even reward you with XP cubes that you can then use to get free XP. I'll admit that a few of the final challenges, including the ones that unlock the 36th character were very darn tough, so tough that I cheesed them by using XP cubes to level up my characters when they were near death, which instantly refilled their health and energy gauges. But as far as the main game goes, I didn't have much trouble on the normal difficulty setting.

 While the game can definitely get pretty repetitive, I mean, characters have pretty limited movesets and the game encourages you to stick to one team, or so I've been led to believe due to the many complaints regarding the difficulty, I had a lot of fun. The game looks fantastic, it's very colorful and very stylized, with cartoony, but detailed character models that are a pleasure to look at. And you get to visit a lot of different locales from the Marvel universe, as well as fight a ton of well known villains. Beating up baddies also felt pretty rewarding, and felt good. It was always pretty neat to clear room full of enemies by spamming my best crowd-clearing super moves.

 If I can praise the game somehow, it's by saying this: As soon as I finished the game I did the same thing I did with my two favorite games I played this year, Dead Cells and Devil May Cry V, I just played it again. I went into the newly unlocked difficulty setting and set out to unlock more colors and the tougher Infinity Ridge challenges. I also took the 36th character, who comes unlocked at level 80, and used him to level up my weaker characters as to get more Enhancement points to get more passive buffs for my main team. And I had a ton of fun doing so. The game's futures is paved with both free DLC(Colossus and Cyclops as well as costumes) and paid DLC(Fantastic four and Marvel knights themed) and I can't wait to give them a try. Nintendo got themselves a solid exclusive with Ultimate Alliance 3, and this game is exactly what we should expect from modern-day licensed videogames.
 8.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Samurai Shodown DLC #1 - Rimururu

 You win this round, SNK.

 I'm gonna be completely honest here, I thought SNK was going to go the lazy route and make her nigh identical to Nakoruru. I mean, it's not such a crazy idea, by Samurai Shodown V SNK/Playmore had gone completely mad and started reusing and recycling sprites like crazy, Genjuro and Ukyo even got their own personal headswaps, while Haomaru had a black, evil clone. But Nakoruru? Not only did she have her sister Rimururu as a headswap, there was also Rera. But I digress, I thought SNK was gonna be cheap but they delivered, as Rimururu is completely different from Nakoruru, sharing only their weapon.

 Rimururu is a fun character to play, she's got a lot of projectiles and ways to use her ice crystal. Her moveset is a very neat addition to the game, even though I'm not a fan of genki girl/boy type characters.

 7.5 out of 10

Review #678: 64 Memories - Snowboard Kids 2

 To be fair, it's not always 'snow'boarding in this one.

 Part I: The Flashback
 Snowboard Kids 2 is part three of the four-part 'unfulfilled dreams' saga, which means that it's yet another sequel I never got to play to a game I loved. The only information I had on this game came from a one-page spread ad on Gamepro as well as their review, but it was enough to know that I needed this game in my life. And yet, now I managed to satiate that need.

 Part II: The Review
 It's pretty much Snowboard Kids 1 but with more stuff. No, really. Every character but Shinobin(The secret character) returns, joined by another four characters, for a total of nine. Although three of the new characters can only be played in Battle Mode(The multiplayer Mode, although a single player can play against three CPUS). The weapons and items from the first game return, joined by a Tornado projectile, a second Turbo Item as well as a Wing item that gives you more air when jumping. Instead of six courses, there are 15(With four repeats, for a total of 11 different tracks). It's the same, but more of it. And that's OK with me when the original game was so good!

 But the developers weren't content with simply adding stuff, there are a couple of minor additions that make the game, as a whole, better. Let's start with the new Story Mode, a 12-course mode in which you get short, comedic cutscenes before and after each race. There are also 3 bosses waiting to be defeated. In this mode you can also find the 'Trick' and 'Shoot' minigames from the first game, as well as purchase new boards or change their paintjob, just like in the first game! Every character has four different costumes, which is really neat.

 The first game was mostly about snowboarding, with a forest stage and a dessert stage, but Snowboard Kids 2 upped the ante with even more themes, as you'll race down a jungle, a giant house(Actually, the story-mode cutscenes shows that it's actually the characters who grow down in size), a halloween-themed track and even a giant space ship! And you'll race to the tune of a fantastic soundtrack, just like the first game, but, having more stages, means that there's also more music.

 There were a couple of other tweaks to change how the game plays, now tricks are much simpler to pull off: Hold the analog stick towards a direction and let go of A before a jump.. or mash the A button to spin even more times for even more money. Also remember to mash the C-buttons in tandem to perform grabs and score even more money. The other tweak went into the game being, as a whole, less punishing. Hitting an item box with no money will no longer trip you, and getting hit with powers like the Snowman or the Icicle seem to last less than before. The parachute is still a bastard though, and that's the way it should be.

 While I've got a massive amount of nostalgia towards the first game, Snowboard Kids 2 is easily the better game, with more content and more variety alongside the same fantastic gameplay from the first iteration. I'll admit that little has changed between both games, but there's no need to fix what ain't broken. Plus, a controller pack is no longer required.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #677: 64 Memories - Banjo-Tooie

 Everything's a Metroidvania if you try hard enough.

 Part I: The Flashback

 Part 2 of the 'unfulfilled dreams' saga, as hard as I hunted for this game, it was yet another no-show in my city. Couldn't find it up for rental, couldn't even find it up for purchase. Luckily, I can no finally claim to have played and beaten Banjo-Tooie.

 Part II: The Review

 Banjo-Kazooie was a masterclass in platform-collectathon games, every single move had its use, every level had a fair amount of things to collect and every step of the hunt felt rewarding. But, fitting for its era, Banjo-Tooie went bigger, and bigger isn't always better. It probably was, at the time, though.

 Something I really liked about Banjo-Kazooie was how you could pretty much finish every level when you got there, no need to go back to the hub like Mario 64. Two levels didn't fit the bill, but they were the exception, not the rule. In Banjo-Tooie, such is not the case. The game's world has gone massive, so much so that you'll need to use the new teleporters spread throughout the Isle O' Hags, the game's main 'world' to move around. Each sub-world also has its own set of teleporters, and soon enough you'll learn to love them. Heck, a few sub-world are interconnected between each other, and you can also unlock a train to travel between a few worlds.

 You could make a pretty good case for Banjo-Tooie being a Metroidvania. Every level has about 3 moves that Banjo and/or Kazooie can learn, so you'll constantly find yourself backtracking to previous worlds to clear obstacles that you couldn't before. It was a touch annoying having no way to know if I had done everything I could in a level or not, so by the end I had a FAQ closeby so that I knew when I was clear to move on and return when I had new moves. This means that the game has more emphasis on puzzles rather than platforming, as a matter of fact, the last three levels were so complex that said FAQ became my best friend. I mean, the final world has many Jiggies, your main collectible, that require Banjo and Kazooie being separated.

 Banjo and Kazooie retain every move they had in the previous game, so in Tooie they only obtain new moves, making for a massive amount of abilities by the end of the game. They go from different shooting-egg ammo types, to letting Banjo cling onto edges. The biggest game changer is the ability to separate Banjo from Kazooie, and each character also gets to earn moves that they can only use while on their lonesome. Each level also features Wumba, a new character that'll transform Banjo and Kazooie into something else, be it a Dinosaur or a car, while Mumbo, who is out of his transforming-job, becomes playable... albeit at a very limited capability, he is only used to trigger very specific Mumbo-pads. The most use you'll get out of Mumbo is in level 1, when he can control a giant stone statue.

 Banjo-Tooie is a very different game from Banjo-Kazooie, even if it shares the same foundation. I still found the game to be great fun, but I much preferred the simplicity from Banjo-Kazooie. A few collectible jiggies require completing objectives in multiple worlds, as a matter of fact, in some ways, the game feels a bit less rewarding, since sometimes fulfilling an objective won't have an immediate reward. I think the developers knew that this was more of a thinking game than the first one, so you can very easily unlock cheats to prevent fall damage and to grant Banjo regenerating health.

 Mind you, the game has the same sense of humor from the first game, and it's as beautiful as ever. The new worlds are very colorful and fun to explore, and there's always a new silly transformation to look forwards to. The gameplay is as tight as ever, controls are responsive, and even simple things like flying around feels great. That said, there's something to be said for a game that pretty much requires a guide to get the most fun out of it. A few levels, like Grunty's factory, had me exploring for over an hour before I collected a SINGLE jiggy. Everything after the Prehistoric world just ends up feeling quite overwhelming, with many different places to explore and poor guidance. Worlds are simply too large for their own good.

 Banjo-Tooie is another Nintendo 64 classic, no doubt about it, but I don't think it's as good as Banjo-Kazooie, although not by a margin. I'm sure that there's an audience that'll like this more convoluted approach to the game, but it loses a bit of the magic that made the first game so special. Still, I can't complain, as Rare managed to deliver yet another knockout on the N64. And as great as I think the game is, I still think that a simpler approach would've been better.

 8.0 out of 10