Review #697: Resident Evil 2(2019)

 In which Capcom finally made a proper horror game.

 When it comes to Resident Evil I find myself in a very peculiar place, as I happen to enjoy both classic and modern styles. While a chunk of the fanbase got disenchanted with the franchise as it veered more and more into the 'action' territory, I didn't really mind. Heck, I'd argue that the only real 'horror' game was the very first, as subsequent games had ammo to spare and explosions up the wazoo. Regardless, ever since Revelations Capcom has tried to go more and more horrory with their games, and Resident Evil 2 might be their first horror Resident Evil since 1/Remake. Ammo is scared, enemies are tough and you're better of turning tail and running through.

 More than a remake, this is a reimagining. While it follows the same plot from Resident Evil 2, Leon a rookie cop on his first day of duty and Claire Redfield searching for his brother, and how they arrive into Raccoon City only to find it infested with zombies.... it takes quite a few liberties with the plot. Some things were removed, some things where shuffled around and some things were added. As is to be expected of a game of this era, the writing is much better, the script is better, and it's much more cinematic than it ever was. The Scenario A/B feature from the original is still here, with some caveats. A and B scenarios for both characters don't actually change the story. For instance, and without spoiling too much, during Claire B, a certain character would get infected with the new G-Virus, but that wouldn't happen during her A scenario. In this game the story of either character is exactly the same, but the puzzles and item locations are shuffled appropriately, so it still works. Losing the alternate story bits is kinda disappointing, but at least we get a single, solid storyline while also getting alternate ways of playing the game.

 All four scenarios are pretty similar between each other, although both Leon and Claire are privy to different weapons, a different cast of secondary characters as well as slightly different puzzles. Each run should take about 5 hours to complete on your first time through, although the game rewards you with infinite-ammo weapons by beating it in under 3. Scenario B is a bit shorter, but it's much tougher, with less places to save your game, the constant presence of Mr. X stalking you and a new weapon(different for each character) that uses a different type of ammo from your other guns, so you might have to shuffle your armament a bit more to survive. There are three difficulty settings, the Standard difficulty is pretty alright for a survival horror game. I found myself reloading whenever I felt I could've done something more effectively, I got a few honest game overs, but by the end I had healing items and ammo to spare, although, to be fair, I was being pretty darn stingy with my ammo. I also tried the easier difficulty setting, 'Assisted', which grants you an assisted aim, which can be kinda annoying when you want to target a specific part of the zombie, as well as regenerating health, making healing items pretty much obsolete as long as you can avoid damage. Honestly, it's pretty decent for more leisurely runs, although the assisted aim kinda sucks.

 Gameplay is pretty much what you'd expect, fixed camera angles have been changed for a behind-the-shoulder camera, and now you can walk while aiming, instead of rooting you to the ground. Controls in the game feel great, characters have this nice weight to their movement and even dashing, by pressing L3, is pretty slow, so it's not like you can just zip through enemies. Aiming while moving decreases your precision, but as long as the enemy is withing your sights you're free to take the gamble. Landing shots and handling weapons in the game feels great thanks to how weighty everything feels. Enemies in this game are pretty much bullet sponges, and you can never trust a zombie to be dead unless its head pops, so a lot of time it's a good idea to try to move around them or just pop in a few shots to down them or distract them and move around them. Eventually the game introduces other nasties, like the Lickers, which are blind so you can only walk around them lest you alert them to your presence.

 The knife sub-weapon has been nerfed and buffed at the same time. It breaks with use, and deals pitiful damage, however... if an enemy grabs you, you can press the L1 button to counterattack, before you get hit, and stab the knife into them. If you want your knife back, however, you'll have to down or kill the enemy before it'll let you retrieve it. You can also equip grenades as a sub weapon, and use those instead of the knives. Naturally, you can't retrieve those. As a whole, the gameplay works pretty darn well. Enemies can soak up a ton of damage, but you don't need, and are not expected, to kill them all, so just kill the ones you need, distract the ones you can, or just trade a little bit of health in order to conserve bullets for other unavoidable threats. Anything goes as long as it works.

 That said, your biggest enemy will be your inventory, as you start with a pitiful amount of space that you'll have to juggle in order to carry key items, something to defend yourself with, ammo and pick up items you come across. Item Boxes, which are magically interconnected between each other, are rather plentiful, so you'll have to learn how to deal with your inventory. As you go through the game, you'll more than double your inventory space, so it stops being a problem later on. The game has made the map more useful than it's ever been. You can access it at the tap of a button, and it will tell you if a room has any item left to find or if there's anything left to solve by its color, a red room means you still haven't done everything while a blue room is a room that has nothing left for you. Trying to open doors will also make marks on the map appear which shows which key you'd need to open the door with, which is pretty darn neat and makes pixel-hunting a thing of the past. That said, be sure to press 'Examine' with every single key item you come across, as many hide their true purposes behind this menu screen!

 As for the rest of the game... it's classic survival horror stuff: Medium-sized areas full of puzzles to solve, key items to collect and shortcuts to open-up. The puzzles were pretty fun to solve, none were too obscure or hard to figure out. The game also lets you know when a key item has served its purpose, so that you can discard it and stop wondering if there's something else you need it for. I think part of the reason I think survival horror gameplay is so good is because it's pretty much a Metroidvania, only instead of abilities you find objects that you can then use on places you may have come across before. It's a fun progression system, and seeing how pretty much every new room you come across has SOMETHING to find or solve, makes exploration very rewarding all the time.

 On the other hand, one thing I didn't enjoy, but one thing that had to come back because the classic had it, is Mr. X. I know that part of the horror is that he can pop up anytime, anywhere, and this time around he even pops up in A scenarios, but it's pretty annoying having figured out a puzzle or the way through, only to have him appear in front of you, forcing you to run away until he gets lost so that you can then try to make you way back to where you were trying to get to. It feels like a very annoying waste of time. I understand, it's part of the scares, yadda, yadda, but I really hate having my time wasted.

 Beating the A scenarios unlocks the B scenarios for the other character. Beating at least one A and one B scenario unlocks Hunk, in which you have to backtrack from the sewers up to the Police HQ's entrance with a finite amount of ammo and health-restoring items. Manage to beat Hunk and you'll unlock TOFU, yet another mode with another character, and you can unlock other skins for TOFU. Besides, you can also unlock costumes for Leon and Claire, as well as weapons with infinite ammo, if you are good enough. The short length of the campaign, as well as all this goodies makes the game highly replayable.

 I think Capcom has done it. I think they found their perfect blend of horror and action that'll keep most people happy. It's not as actiony as 6 got, since ammo feels more scarce as it won't 'randomly' drop out of enemies and it doesn't have melee attacks or crazy QTE dodges, no punching rocks either. But it's also not as quaint as to have tank controls or fixed camera angles, which mind you I actually like those. I'll admit that the game managed to pull a few jump-scares on me that I didn't see coming. All in all, I loved Capcom's new take on Resident Evil 2. I'm a bit more of a fan of how Mikami evolved the formula with The Evil Withing, but I think this works perfectly for Resident Evil.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #696: Tearaway Unfolded

 Length matters.

 Tearaway was one of those few, quirky titles that made owning a Vita worth it. I wasn't much of a fan, but I appreciated the game for what it was. Tearaway Unfolded is an enhanced port for the PS4. There's a lot of misinformation on just what Unfolded is, some call it an enhanced remake, some say it's a sequel and some say it's just a port. The truth is somewhere in-between. A lot, and I do mean a LOT has changed, and a lot of fat has been added, making the game feel quite bloated at times. You might even say that a few things got removed entirely since it changed that much. So, it's not quite 'just a port' or an 'enhanced port' on the basis that so much is different, but it's not different enough as to fall under the "sequel" category. It's something in-between.

 The story is a story about a story. Really. You play as yourself as you help Iota or Atoi, depends on the chosen gender, a message turned messenger who is trying to make their way towards you. But life ain't easy and the mysterious storytellers don't like a simple narrative, so they'll constantly get in your way, in order to prolong the story and add more hardships. Just like with the Vita game, the best part about the game is how you can interact with the world. Often you'll get asked to draw something, and said something will be instantly reflected in the world around you. Something as simple as giving someone a mouth or a pair of eyes, or as extensive as designing the clouds above you. It's endlessly charming, and the fact that the drawing mechanics are so rustic and don't allow for graceful strokes makes everything your creations look like a toddler's scribble, and that is a good thing. The visuals certainly got a boost in quality, everything looks made out of paper, and it's beautiful. There are a few really smart uses of this aesthetics that'll make you go ´Ah! That's smart' as a simple smile draws upon your face. It's a charming game, no doubt about it.

 The game is a simple adventure-platform game, there's a very linear road you must traverse, but this version of Tearaway has made everything bigger. A ton of new, wide, open areas have been added, filled with simple sidemissions to perform. Which is nice and dandy, but they only reward you with confetti paper, the game's currency. But even if you avoid these sidemissions, and why wouldn't you if they are so dull, you'll be swimming in confetti. In fact, your movement speed is pretty slow, so going through this larger areas also becomes a bit of a chore. I mean, if you enjoy the game, there's plenty of stuff to do, but if it's not your cup of tea? Oh boy....

 You see, the game goes on and on and on and on and on and on. When it looks like it's about to end, and it should, it gets stretched. This happens a lot of times, killing any kinda of climax the story could've gotten. It's ridiculous how stretched the game feels. The Vita version was much shorter, but its brevity went hand in hand with how limited the gameplay was. The game is far too long for its own good.

 As for the gameplay, its pretty basic. Your messenger can jump, roll and grab/throw stuff. You, the player, can blow wind to affect the environment, or receive objects from your messenger to throw them towards places the messenger can't reach. There are way too many controller gimmicks involved, aiming with the gyroscopic controls, blowing/tapping on the touchpad or drawing with the touchpad itself, which, at least in my opinion, wear out their welcome pretty quickly. Also, try not to play with the joystick too much, since you may need to recalibrate the gyroscope.

 Combat is dull, and it's also pretty frequent. The messenger can't do much by itself, so you have to find something you can throw towards your enemy. Or you may pick up an enemy and use it as a projectile itself. The game later introduces various enemy types, some you have to roll into first, some you have to direct with the controller's LED light towards their doom, others you have to throw off balance by blowing wind.... It's a bit surprising how involved combat is, to the game's detriment. Honestly, given the game's setting and aesthetics, combat shouldn't be as prevalent or as complex as it is, both of those actually made combat turn quite wearisome halfway through. It's not even hard, and even if it were, death is but a slap on the wrist, but there are so many mechanics I couldn't care about involved! Combat became something I had to suffer in order to progress.

 Platforming was a bit better, if only because they could get more creative with it. Blowing wind in different directions to create platforms out of paper, shining a light on the environment, carrying a pumpkin-head to create a scarecrow, etc. That said, the controls aren't the best, and the camera can freak out on you at times, getting stuck behind object it shouldn't, although most of the time you can rotate it around you. Collision detection can be a bit spotty, or maybe it's the level design, but if you move too fast the game might kill you as the scenery in front of you unfolds. Sometimes you won't even be able to tell what killed you, for example, near the end of the game, there's a section in which you roll into a ball inside a paper cage. It's possible for your character to somehow slip through the cracks and just die. That said, there are too very, VERY annoying flying paper plane sections that fail to convey just how you are supposed to control the plane, and we somehow got through both sections without properly understanding how we were doing what we were doing. On another note, a ton of the neat gimmicks with the camera and microphone got lost, but I think you can do a few similar things with the companion app, I couldn't be bothered to download it and preferred to play the game as is.

 Tearaway Unfolded is a perfect example of why bigger isn't always better. All the added chapters and expanded areas only extend a game that doesn't benefit from the added fat, quite the opposite, it makes it boring. There's a lot of great ideas and charming little details with the paper aesthetics, it's a shame the gameplay isn't up to snuff. Stick to the original.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #695: Untitled Goose Game

 Also known as the irritating Goose.

 Untitled Goose Game is a weird one, it's a new indie stealth game in which you play as a goose and your objective is to annoy humans. It's as silly and as fun as it sounds, all it took for me to buy the game was watching the trailer and seeing the horrendous things you could do to the nerdy kid. It was amazing.

 There's no real story to the game, you play as a goose that one day decides, 'hey, let's go bother some people' and so it does. The game is divided in about 5-6 different interconnected sections, and each section has their own list of goals. You don't need to clear every goal before you're allowed to proceed, but trying to do everything is always fun. The game is quite short, probably lasts about an hour, but it's a very fun hour. Clearing the game rewards you with new, tougher objectives, as well as having the entire game open for you to explore as you like from the get-go.

 As the Goose you've got two very important abilities that will let you vex the hell out of every human that comes your way: Honking and Grabbing(with your beak). Honking can help you distract humans, call their attention or, sometimes, scaring them. Grabbing is how you'll do most of your bothering, as you can grab pretty much everything you see. You can also crawl, in order to grab a few smaller objects, as well as flap your wings which does little more than show the world how badass the Goose is.

 It sounds so simple, and it is, but it's a very charming game. It's impossible not to giggle as you untie the kids shoes, so that he trips and drops his glasses, when you scare him, so that you can take his glasses away and swap them for another pair. The Goose is 2019's nastiest villain, and it's amazing. A lot of humor and charm comes from its premise alone, but you'll find yourself interacting with stuff just to see what chaos you can cause. It's simple, it's fun.

 Untitled Goose Game is no the best game you'll ever play, nor the deepest, but it's a funny romp from beginning to end, and easily worth it's price of admission.
 7.5 out of 10

The DLC Report: Samurai Shodown DLC #2 - Shizumaru

 No, he is not a tiny Kenshin Himura.

 While I've always hated children characters in videogames, I've always been rather fond of Shizumaru, must be his accidental resemblance to Rurouni Kenshin's Kenshin. He is also one of those classic Samurai Shodown characters that got snubbed for the reboot. Regardless, he is back, and for free!

 I really liked Shizumaru, he translated very well into the reboot. He's got his Haomaru-inspired shoryuken as well as his trademarked reflector, making for a pretty decent rushdown character. His rage move is amazing, and he looks really cool when he pulls it off.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #694: Megaman 11

 Alright Man strikes again.

 I grew up with Megaman 3, so trust me, I love Megaman. I prefer X, Zero and ZX, but I'm always up for some classic Megaman. While Megaman saw two NES-style revivals with 9 and 10, Megaman 11 makes graphics 3-D, while gameplay remains firmly in 2-D, it's like a prettier version of PSP's Megaman Powered up.

 Mighty No.9 received a lot of flak for its story, but Megaman 11 isn't far behind. The story has Willy having a flashback dream to an invention from his past, the double gear, and so he builds it again in the present day. As luck would have it, Professor Light kept Willy's original version and installs it in Megaman, because why the hell not, so that he can tackle all eight robot masters. The dialogue is absolutely cringeworthy, with a ton of dumb puns that seemed ripped straight out of Mighty No.9. The game has 10 stages plus the annoying, but mandatory, boss gauntlet as well as a final battle with Willy. The game, on the normal difficulty setting, took me close to four hours, although I spent an entire hour on the dreadful ice level. There are a few bonus challenges, if you are so inclined, but disappointingly no unlockable bonus characters. You do, however, unlock infinite use of subweapons and the gear system, so you can just cruise through the game on repeated playthroughs. On the other hand, the game features 4 different difficulty settings, two below the Normal difficulty setting, so it definitely accommodates for more casual players, which is always good in my book. As for the normal difficulty.... it's tough, man. I cursed a lot, but the game is fairly fair, for the most part, so those looking for a challenge are in luck.

 Gameplay is standard Megaman: Jump and Shoot, defeat bosses to earn their weapon, each boss being weak to a specific weapon. New to the series is the double gear mechanic. L button uses the Speed Gear and R button uses the Power Gear. Both abilities share the same small gauge, so you can' use them any time you want. Ideally, you'll be tapping in and out of either gear, so as not to fill the gauge and overheat, since when you overheat you have to wait until the entire gauge goes back to 0 before you can use either again. Power makes your shots stronger, also strengthening your subweapons, while Speed makes everything move slowly. Honestly, Speed is much, much better and more versatile, since you can use it to aid you with platforming or avoiding enemy attacks, while Power Gear seems very situational. Like, it actually works against you if you use the basic Mega Buster, since the powered-up chargeshot makes Megaman root to the ground for a little while as he fires off two shots, 90% of the time you're better off using Speed Gear. On another note, I love the fact that earned boss weapons now change Megaman's helmet and buster! It's a small little detail, but I adore it.

 If the going gets tough, and it gets tough, you can always visit the shop to spend bolts on chips to make Megaman better and stronger. Initially I thought that chips became available as you defeated bosses, but that's not the case, it's all about fulfilling certain, hidden conditions. For example, you can purchase a 'spike-resistor'(One time use!) after falling into spikes one time. Not only can you buy chips that make you stronger(Move at normal speed while under Speed Gear, larger shots, less slipping on ice) but you can also buy extra lives, up to 9, and even healing items, also up to 9. It doesn't matter how hard it gets, you can buy your way through your problems! Bolts are pretty generous, so I never found myself grinding for bolts, although, to be fair, I must've retried most stages twice, so that might account for why I had bolts to spare. But then again, if I had to retry stages it means that I needed the extra help, so it all works out in the end!

 Level design is fine, for the most part. Most of my deaths felt fair, I couldn't deal with the obstacle in the proper manner so I got damaged in return. That said, the Ice level is downright awful. Even with the chip that makes Megaman less slippery he still slips a bit. Then there are also platforming sections with air currents that might mess up your jumps. I was 2:30 hours into the game, by the time I finished it I had 3:30 on the clock. This stage is a mess, and feels very unfair. I spent over 15 lives on this single stage, no other level in the game was this hard, heck, it's the only stage I had to attempt more than twice. And it's nasty, because the more you try, the angrier you get and the sloppier you become, which is horrible considering Megaman's movement is already sloppy due to the ice! Luckily, once you are done with Tundraman, the worst is left behind. Bounce Man's level can also be a bit annoying, but not because of unfair deaths, but because sometimes getting the bounce right can be a bit tough. On one final note, I almost felt like boss weaknesses didn't really feel like weaknesses. On a few times it was even hard to tell if I was actually dealing extra damage. Previous games, games like Megaman X, would add alternate animations when bosses got hurt with their weaknesses, heck, I seem to remember classic Megaman would make the damage animation a bit longer if hit with their weakness, but, for whatever reason, this game wasn't giving proper audiovisual feedback that the boss was hit with its weakness.

 I've seen a ton of praise thrown Megaman 11's way, but... I mean, it is good, y'know? It's a fun time, it really is.... but it's nothing special. Most of the game is really fun, tough but fair, and it has a very cute art style, even if the dialogue is horrible. However, I just can't help but feel like something's missing. Challenge rooms are fun 'n all, but look a Megaman Powered Up, it came with playable bosses, playable characters(Protoman, Roll, alternate versions of Megaman), as well as two ways to play the game(Original and Arrange) as well as challenges! And it was a simple handheld game! Megaman 9 and 10 made Protoman and Bass playable, even if by DLC. Basically, I think it's a decent game, but I would've liked to see more content and more fun stuff. The Gear system is a decent addition, yes, but it works mostly as a get-out-of-jail-free card and Power feels like a handicap when compared to Speed. Hopefully the next Megaman can try a few more things. More characters, game-changing chips(Sacrifice the charge shot for doubled shooting speed, add a second jump but lose the ability to restore your health with pick ups, let Megaman get a second-charge level or store his chargeshot, etc), but then again, hopefully the next Megaman we get is X9!
 6.5 out of 10

Review #693: Lost Sphear

 But not lost in translation.

 Lost Sphear is Tokyo RPG Factory's second attempt at bringing classic Squaresoft styled JRPGs into the modern day. It's a bit of a mixed bag, featuring a ton of needless mechanics couples with very shallow characters, as well as an uninteresting plot that goes on and on and on...

 The plot follows Kanata, your unassuming generic JRPG protagonists that goes out fishing with his friends only to return to find his village 'lost', yeah, kinda like Tales of Phantasia. Not to fret, as Kanata soon discovers that he has the ability to collect memories, from people, books or fallen monsters, and 'recover' whatever or whoever got 'lost'. And thus Kanata's journey begins to save his planet from total disappearance. Characters are fairly uninteresting, although I found that Van and Kanata get quite a bit of development together, making for a few endearing interactions between both of them, the rest of the characters don't fare much better. The dialogue is fairly cringy, and it only gets worse as the game goes on, and some characters that pull some pretty shady stuff, like turning a certain civilian into a brainwashed cyborg get away with it scott-free, as a matter of fact, a ton of dubious characters are forgiven pretty darn easily, making for a rather unsatisfying narrative. 2/3rds into the game, it pulls a fast one on you and plays the credits. It's so sneaky that some people refer to this final third as the 'post-game', but it's a lie, it's part of the game and brings closure to a TON of dangling threads. And while it ties said threads and provides more twists to the story, its only to the game's detriment, since this final part of the game drags on for what feels like forever. The plot should've ended by the time the credits rolled, because the plot got very uninteresting by this time, and I was growing tired of all the 'we can't lose hope!' and 'Kanata is everyone's hope!' shtick.

 As for the gameplay, it follows the tried and true SNES JRPG formula of going through towns and dungeons while engaging in turn-based battles. Fun stuff. It's also got an overworld, when was the last time we saw one of those? It gets bonus points for that alone. As per tradition, you eventually get a boat and an airship to travel through continents and what not. While going through the overworld you may come across 'lost' areas, so you may have to find a specific spot to raise an Artifact, out of your collected memories, which restores the lost area and grants bonus passive abilities to your party. Things such as periodic damage to the enemy party, including bosses, bonus experience points, halve the cost of magic by removing your ability to deal critical hits, etc. It's a surprisingly fun way to strengthen your party, or cripple it if you choose to build the terrible 'Paragon' artifact, while tying it to the whole 'restoration' part of the plot. Not that it does such a good job at that though, later in the game a few characters get 'Lost' and good guy Kanata and the party decide that there simply isn't time to restore them, when it'd take a few minutes at most. As a matter of fact, Kanata only brings them back because the plot demands it, and you can't restore them before that even though there's no good reason as to why Kanata would downright ignore a couple of persons while you go around the overworld restoring stuff.

 Before getting into battles you may want to equip your characters with weapons and abilities, but that opens a new can of worms. In a few words... the game can very easily become a grindfest. Restoring the world around you, including a few plot-mandatory restorations, requires memories. Which, fair enough, you get from defeating enemies.... problem is, buying spells for your characters ALSO require trading memories at various different shops. There's a ton of different memories, so it's impossible to remember which enemies may drop what memories, and a few memories are exclusive to the overworld, so you have to enter and exit the overworld to recollect them. If you want specific, useful artifacts, you will need specific memories. There's an in-game enemy glossary that shows you what memories each monster drops, but that means finding said enemy and then remembering where they are. It's a needless annoyance, to be honest, so you probably won't get to customize everyone as much as you'd like. Besides the spells, you can also buy 'counter' spells or side effects to your spells, which is pretty neat and deep, but unless you grind for memories you won't be getting much mileage out of it.

 Then comes equipment.... the entire equipment system is weird. Money is rather hard to come by, but upgrading weapons gets pretty expensive pretty fast, meaning that you'll probably be focusing on four out of the eight different characters. Word to the wise, Dianto is a mandatory character for two boss battles, and Locke is required for another mandatory battle, so try not to neglect them. I was able to do just fine with my fully upgraded Kanata and having them equipped with base level equipment, but it was unnecessarily tough, more on this later. Regardless, here's the best tip I can give you: The best armor in the game is the initial 'Noble Cloak' characters start with. It's pathetic at first, but keep them and upgrade them every chance you get and you'll end up with the best armor in the game. Also, another tip, look up on the internet which are the best weapons for each character, upgrading is TOO expensive to focus on more than four characters or to waste upgrade materials on weapons that are better left ignored. For example, Lumina's best weapon is the Mech Tekko, the second weapon she gets. Honestly, upgrading is very weird in this way, and it's a bit flabbergasting as to why they made it such a money sink when money is so hard to come by in the game. Plus, there are very few healing spells, and besides the mana cost they also have a cooldown, making them fairly unreliable, so you need items which are also pretty expensive. Particularly the revives, which are pretty much a necessity since so many bosses have INSTANT-KILL attacks.

 On the other hand, battles are relatively fun. There are no random encounters, so you can try to avoid enemy mobs if you want, but you shouldn't since extra money and memories never hurt anybody. Positioning is very important, having your characters close together or lined up could mean getting multiple characters hurt from a single enemy attack. On each turn you can either attack, use a spell or an item, and each option lets you reposition your character. Long-range characters, such as Van or Luke are pretty neat, since they can shoot in a straight line and pierce through every enemy on their line of fire. As said before, spells also have a cooldown, a set number of turns you must wait before you can use them again, so you can't just use spells willynilly. As for turns, the game uses Square's classic ATB system, wherein enemies can attack while you pick your actions, and every character and enemy having their own speeds when it comes to getting their turns. Landing hits, or getting hit, charges your momentum gauge. Momentum can be use to add extra damage to your attacks or add effects to your spells, provided you bought said added effect with memories. Momentum is a neat idea, I just wish I could've gotten more out of it.

 There's yet another mechanic: Vulcosuits. Each character gets his own Vulcosuit, a mech, and you can get them on and off them by pressing the L button on their turn. Vulcosuits raise a characters stats, but they are fairly limited. Each Vulcosuit can only do three things: Spells, their unique ability or use an item. Abilities usually take about 8 turns to cooldown, so most of the time you can only use spells, and you also draw from a shared pool of Vulcopoints, which can only be restored with a few rare items or by sleeping in an inn. Vulcosuits can give you a little edge during boss battles, but not always. For instance, I felt that having Sherra, the game's designated healer, in a Vulcosuit was just stealing Vulcopoints away from Van and Lumina, two characters with a ton of DPS that made better use of them.

 While random battles are usually rather fun, bosses are not. Most of them are fairly cheap, being able to pretty easily kill your characters, a few having egregious one-hit kill attacks. During the 'post-game' there's this boss that you have to fight with Kanata, Dianto and Locke. Not only where my Dianto and Locke underequipped, but this boss had a bad-breath attack, not unlike Final Fantasy's Malboro's, that would cause all sorts of negative status effects on my party. One time it turned Dianto into a rooster, froze Kanata and confused Locke, so I had to wait as the boss slowly murdered Locke and Dianto while I could do nothing about it. Things like these made a few bosses feel luck-based, one time I'd get murdered without a single sliver of hope, and then I'd try again and kill them without much hassle. This is not good game design, and made the difficulty feel very artificial. Shin Megami Tensei this is not.

 Lost Sphear feels like a very generic SNES JRPG, which is the highest praise I can give it. It sticks to very classic and aged tropes, but those are the best parts about the game. Sadly, the plot has more lows than highs, and I wish characters would've received more depth, while others getting the comeuppance they deserved. On the other hand, where it chose to innovate, with all the unnecessary mechanics that just makes the game a bit overwhelming just doesn't help, specially when getting the most out of said mechanics involves wasting time grinding for memories or money. I know one could do a lot worse than Lost Sphear, and for a short while I had fun playing through a SNES-style JRPG, but the game simply falls into too many pitfalls that prevent it from reaching the quality of the classics it so closely tried to emulate.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #692: Astral Chain

 Off the chain.

 I'm really starting to enjoy this pseudo partnership between Platinum Games and Nintendo. Astral Chain is their latest join venture, and yet again, Platinum Games manage to impress with a fantastic new action game, featuring their trademark gameplay alongside Nintendo's budget.

 The game has you playing as either Howard twin, you can pick either the male or the female twin, and whoever you didn't pick gets voiced lines, the name 'Akira' and a personality, since the main character is pretty much a mute. Much noise was made about customization, but its actually pretty lame.You get a few haircuts, most which you can then find other NPCs wearing, and as far as costume pieces go... its pretty limited. You'll be able to find things such as different glasses or silly accessories, but there's little in the way of actual clothes. Most of the time you'll be limited to preset color palettes, but you can unlock custom colors. Whichever the case, don't come at the game expecting a decent amount of customization or you'll be sorely disappointed.

 Both twins followed their father's footsteps and became police officers in a bleak, cyberpunkish futuristic world. Think Ghost in the Shell meets Evangelion as far as the setting and the story go. Pretty early on they get assigned to their father's division, NEURON, and outfitted with a Legion, a Chimera from the Astral Plane that was subdued with an Astral Chain, and thus their job becomes saving people from Chimeras and their otherworldly corruption. The game takes place throughout 11 different chapters, and it's quite long for a Platinum game, it took me 20 hours to beat it, being more or less complete. 'Cause you see, there are a ton of sidequests throughout each chapter, which aren't required to finish the game, but why wouldn't you? Getting extra goodies is always a good thing!

 One thing to keep in mind is that the game has a very slow beginning, it doesn't get good until the third chapter, and by then I had already spent over two hours. I thought the attack animations were lame, the roll sucked and there wasn't much to the Legion. But then chapter 2 ended, and by the time chapter 3 starts you get new fancy attack and dodging animations as well as get the ability to change between Legions(You get one per chapter, so you slowly start collecting them) between five different types, each one with unique attacks and special abilities, both for fighting and puzzle solving. You also get the ability to upgrade legions with experience points, equip them with Skills as well as passive skills and even get a third weapon type for your playable character. Heck, on the second-to-last chapter you unlock a Super Mode, so it's not until chapter 10 that you get everything. Needless to say, it takes a while, but when it gets good, it gets GOOD.

 When approaching Astral Chain do not come at it expecting the next Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, this is neither, but rather, its own brand of action game. It's not about stylish combos, so don't let the 30 FPS cap scare you, but rather about dealing with huge enemies and crowds of enemies alongside your Legion. Controls can feel a bit weird at times, since your main attack buttons are the shoulder buttons. Tapping ZR performs your basic attack combo, while ZL is used to manipulate your legion. Holding ZL lets you move your Legion around with the right analog stick, so that you can position it towards whichever enemy you want it to attack. You can also hold ZL and press either X or Y to use whichever two skills your Legion has equipped. Holding ZL and pressing ZR lets your legion pull you towards it by the chain, which can work as an evasive maneuver, a weak attack or as means to cross some chasms.

 Most fights in the game rely in correctly positioning both yourself and your legion. You'll want to spread out your legion to keep other enemies busy or to assist you with the baddie you're fighting at the moment. There are a few other techniques you can use to aid you, just as tying both ends of the Astral chain(You and your legion) around an enemy to stun it for a few seconds. You can also press ZL whenever a bright circle shines around your character, signaling a chance for a Synced attack. Legions can be outfitted with abilities found from fallen enemies, as well as upgraded with experience points obtained from defeating enemies. Your character can increase his maximum HP by scoring high after each mission and increasing rank,  and you can enhance your weapons by spending money and resources whenever you're at the Police HQ. Speaking of weapons, your X-Baton can change forms at any moment, even mid-combo, between a weak but long ranged gun, the all-around X-Baton or the slow, but powerful, Gladius mode.

 Depending on the difficulty setting, you may also get a few revives, but you shouldn't worry too much since you can take a ton of healing items with you. Avoiding damage is a bit tough, since the roll seems to be very stingy with invincibility frames, so its easy to dodge into another attack. You can either try to perform perfect dodges(Press B at the right moment) or be more predictive and try to gain distance with the enemy before it unleashes its attack. One small annoyance is maintenance, after each fight you have to go into a maintenance mini-game in which you clear corruption off of your Legions, all five of them. It's not really mandatory, but if you skip it they'll be slower in battle. It's a pretty dull waste of time that you simply have to engage in for whatever reason. It's not fun, it's not endearing, it's just a waste of time.

 On the other hand, each Legion is quite different from one another. For starters, you can equip every Legion with a different color-set, which is pretty neat, but they also have different abilities in battle and for puzzling, heck, every Legion has a unique function with the L button: Sword lets you cut energy beams, Arrow lets you shoot with third-person aiming, Arm lets you wear it(Which grants you a multi-punching JoJo ORA attack, as well as levitating over the ground), Beast lets you ride it and Axe puts a protective aura around you, protecting you from attacks or environmental hazards such as poison or fire. There's more to it than that, for example, Arm will be pushing blocks or platforms around, as well as opening jammed doors, Beast can track scents or dig through rubble and Axe can destroy barriers, so you'll find yourself switch between your legions if only to progress through the more puzzle-oriented sections.

 As you can tell, this is not a hack-and-slash like Devil May Cry, since puzzle elements are quite prevalent in how you traverse the world. As a matter of fact, most missions start you off investigating a situation, so you'll talk with NPCs to gather information or examine the aftermath of whatever disaster just occurred. Beginnings can be a bit on the slow side, with sidequests themed around being a good cop and reuniting a girl with her mother or capturing a graffiti artist, but once the action begins it doesn't let up until you finish the chapter. You can replay chapters if you examine the PC on the Police HQ, and you're actually encouraged to, since many early chapters require Legions you won't get until much later in the game if you want to do side missions. And many of these side-missions feature unique one-time bosses that you won't get to fight otherwise! It's quite a complete game, with tons to do and find.

 No, it's not the next evolution of hack-and-slash games, but it's not what it wants to be either. Astral Chain does its own thing, and does it extremely well. It's a fantastic action game, with a ton of fun ideas and mechanics, exactly what one would expect out of Platinum Games.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #691: Yoshi's Crafted World

 Can you please get out of my way!?

 I was pretty critical of Kirby's Epic Yarn, it simply wasn't much fun and it wasn't just because it was 'too easy', it simply was far too bland, and it was its art-design that actually pulled the game's weight. Yoshi's Crafted World is Yoshi's second wooly adventure and Nintendo's third take with the formula.

 The game follows the usual team of colored Yoshis as they set out to collect 5 wish-fulfilling gems that got themselves spread throughout the wooly land. You can play as any of the 8 Yoshis, all of them identical in abilities, and even join up with another player. Each level has a certain amount of hidden Flowers that you can collect, but collect them you must, as certain characters will gate you from proceeding into another section of the world map until you've collected a certain amount of Flowers. They are pretty easy to find, so you'll probably find yourself with flowers to spare, although the secret post-game levels require a much higher amount of them. The game has a ton of replayability, if you don't mind replaying levels, since after you finish most stages you can play them again backwards while trying to find all the missing Poochies. A few NPCs will also ask you to replay levels and search for specific items. As for me, I was content with just playing through the game straight and not bothering with these side activities. You can also collect coins on each stage, which you can then use on various gacha machines spread throughout  the game to collect various outfits that serve as extra hit points. Costumes are fairly uninspired, there are a lot of differently colored boxes and handcrafted cars or boats. And, if you ask me, they look kinda silly.

 Just like Kirby's Epic Yarn, the entire game looks adorable. Everything looks as if it was made with various materials, just as cardboard, wool or even egg-carton. The Yoshi's themselves are made out of wool, and whenever a boss is introduced, you get a pretty neat stop-motion like cutscene as it gets assembled. The game is truly a sight to behold. As with most of Nintendo's cutest looking games, its also quite easy and very hard to lose, and you can even play in a 'super' mode that makes Yoshi invincible and grants him wings and a fiery breath.

 Gameplay is fairly standard for a Yoshi game, which is actually a plus. One of my main gripes with Kirby's Epic Yarn was how little it resembled a Kirby game. But Yoshi's Crafted World is a Yoshi game with wooly aesthetics. You get three buttons: Jump, Tongue and Shoot. Jump is pretty self explanatory, but you can press Jump again to make Yoshi flutter his legs and try to keep his altitude. As a matter of fact, it's quite easy to maintain your altitude by timing your flutters and just avoid a lot of obstacles. The tongue button lets you eat your enemies and turn them into eggs, although some enemies can't be eaten and instead can be shot out. Lastly, shooting eggs is pretty simple, since you can just aim with the analogue stick towards where you want it to go. Eggs can be used to collect coins and flowers from afar, or just to defeat enemies. You'll also have to keep your eyes peeled, since there are plenty of hidden coins and even collectibles on the foreground and background. The game is usually smart enough to aim towards the background/foregrounds when you move the reticule next to an interactive object. It's pretty simple, but it works well.

 Two-player mode has its ups and downs. While two Yoshi's on-screen at the same time doesn't seem like it would get cramped, it can get downright chaotic. Yoshi's collide with each other, so you might get in the other's way. You may try to eat something or someone, but instead hit your ally Yoshi, which you can then use as a projectile, useful, at the cost of depriving him from his eggs! Way too many times me and my Sister would accidentally cost the other one his or her eggs. There's a brief amount of time to collect them from the floor, but more often than not you'll forget that you just lost your eggs. When jumping you might also bump into the other player and get on his back, which can mess up your jumps. Plus, the Yoshi on the bottom gets to control movement, while the other one shoots, which is rather boring. On the plus side, carried Yoshis get infinite eggs. I would've loved the option to turn off most of this features, particularly the carrying one.

 I'm not gonna lie, most of the fun with Yoshi's Crafted World comes from its artistic beauty. As far as gameplay goes, while it has a strong foundation, its pretty basic and the challenges are very simple. There are a few interesting change of paces every now and then, such as a race in which you must switch lanes with a car to avoid shadows, but nothing quite as memorable.as its artstyle. That said, it can be a fun time even in multiplayer once you learn to accept its shortcomings.
 6.5 out of 10

The DLC Report: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC #3 - Banjo Kazooie

 Guess this is as close as Banjo-Fourie we'll get?

 Not even gonna try to keep the suspense, Banjo-Kazooie is the best DLC fighter so far. Their moves are an accurante representation of how he moved in the first two games, which is pretty sweet in its own right, but Banjo's also one tough customer. While Hero and Joker came with their own gimmicks, like the Persona gauge or the Random skill selector, but Banjo-Kanzooie are pretty straight-forward, unless you want to consider his limited Golden-Feather a gimmick.

 As for Banjo-Kazooie's stage, Spiral Mountain actually has a gimmick: Periodically it'll turn  around on its edge, changing the arena, such as turning the bridge to Gruntilda's lair into part of the arena or not. It's a simple stage, but darn if it isn't nice to look at Banjo's starting area in full HD, you can even see pick ups such as the 1-Up or an extra honeycomb in the distance.

 Banjo-Kazooie are a perfect pick for Smash, and they are incredibly fun to use. I doubt upcoming DLC characers will be as great as them, but I'm always up for surprises.
10 out of 10

Review #690: Wild Guns Reloaded

 KEEP THESE SNES REMAKES COMIN'!!

 The SNES is my favorite console that I never had, so every SNES remake that comes my way is more than welcome. Wild Guns Reloaded was Tengo Project's first SNES revival, and boy, oh boy, is it a doozy. Just like Ninja Warriors Again, which actually came after this one, this game looks and feels just like the SNES original, albeit with new addition that feel as if they had always belonged. 16-bit quality sprites of this caliber is something of a rarity nowadays, so you'd better believe it was love at first sight.

 What is Wild Guns Reloaded? Basically, a shooting gallery. You are stuck on a 2-D plane, and you can move your character left or right, jump or roll, in order to avoid enemy fire. Moving around also moves a targeting reticule, so that you can shoot into the background. The objective, as if it wasn't obvious, is to defeat enemies without getting hit, as one hit equals death. You may also come across other weapons, with limited ammo, as well as a P-Gun downgrade that deals zero damage but has 50 bullets for you to burn through. You've also got a screen-covering grenade, limited quantities of course, as well as a gauge that fills as you defeat enemies, and once full increases your fire power for a spell. Holding down the shoot button will make your character root in place, so you have to be careful. Dodging is done by pressing Attack+Jump, but dodging may just put you right in front of another bullet, so you can't just attack willynilly.

 Other abilities in your arsenal are the lasso and, well, turning dynamite against your enemies. Continuously tapping the attack button will make your character shoot a stunning attack, deals no damage but freezes the enemy for a very short while on the spot. As for dynamite, frequently you'll find enemies throwing dynamite at your feet. You can grab these sticks and throw them right back at their owner for massive damage.

Progression in the game is pretty formulaic, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There are six different stages in the game, an introductory stage, then you get to choose in which order you play the next 4, and then the final sixth stage. Playing in hard swaps two of the four selectable stages with the new ones. Most stages are made up of three sections. In the first two you have to survive about a minute, every enemy slain shaves off a second from the timer, until a mini boss appears. Then, the last third section is made up of the main boss, usually a giant machine-like enemy of sorts. It's pretty fun and fast-paced.

 The game has four playable characters, each one comes with four different color palettes(To accommodate up to four players using the same character) and you can unlock another four per character by beating the game with them, on any difficulty setting. The two returning characters are pretty much clones of each other, but the two new characters offer new playstyles. There's a new grenadier woman that than lob multiple grenades by charging her attack. This means she has no rapid fire, but can ostensibly cover more ground with a single attack. The other character is a dog and his flying drone. He is the only character that can move while shooting, making him a bit of an easy mode. The drone gets a huge aiming reticule and autoaims towards any enemy inside said reticule.

 The game is tough, like, really, really tough. As if you didn't die in one hit, continues are limited. There's a new 'Training Mode' that grants you infinite lives, thank you very much, but it can only be played solo. It's a shame, because multiplayer mode has shared lives, so you won't be able to enjoy the entire game with other players unless everyone of you gets good. Good luck. This version boasts two new levels, but they are hidden inside the Hard difficulty setting, rather lame if you ask me, since I doubt many people will get to experience them.

 Wild Guns Reloaded is really good. It's fast paced, oldschool arcade action with SNES aesthetics. I love it. While I'm not particularly fond of the genre, and I think the game might be a tad too challenging for its own good, I'm all up for SNES remakes. It's a fun time for as long as it lasts, and I can't help but admire the fact that they took their time to actually add stuff to the game, stuff that doesn't feel out of place and actually adds to the game, just like they did with Ninja Warriors Again.
7.0 out of 10

Review #689: Quest - Brian's Journey

 Can you redeem the unredeemable?

 I've always known that Quest 64 had a Spelunker-like spin off on the Gameboy.... but it wasn't until very recently that I learned that it actually had TWO games on the Gameboy, the other one being Quest - Brian's Journey, an official 8-bit demake of the original game! This game is more than an interesting curiosity, as it adds a lot of story and quality of life fixes that makes it a superior game, even if it has a few flaws of its own.

 The game follows the exact same story from the Nintendo 64 game, although now we get proper dialogue and cutscenes(Even if most are little more than text). Honestly, Brian gets to speak and interact with other characters, and some things have been tweaked a little(We see Solvaring stealing the jewel, and you get to clash with Leonardo and travel alongside him and Fiora for a bit), heck, we actually get explanations for some of the things that happen, making the game have an actual story. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that this was the original script they had for the N64 game, but they didn't have the resources and know-how to implement it on the newer hardware. Characters like Lavar, that one guy from the desert's hidden city, actually plays a pivotal role in the story, being the one who steals the Eletale Book, and there's an explanation as to why Leonardo appears in Beige's castle.

 I was so amused by all the changes that I'll mention a few: Now you do the Ice Cavern dungeon before doing Cull Hazard and getting the Wind orb, however, after getting the Wind Orb you're teleported back to Epona how then teleports you to the Water Orb's whereabouts. Killiac, that Viking guy, became a boss when you first board the ship, who tries to board you, but then gets chummy with Brian and actually helps him during the end of the game. Cull Hazard features a new Dragon miniboss who must be fought twice, once when going for the Wind orb and another one when you're forced to backtrack. Shilf, the Limelin Town's ruins' boss is now fought during said backtracking segment, however, you face her in the desert's hidden town, which now became part of the main plot instead of just a bonus area. Lavar, the guy from the desert, is now a boss that is fought twice, once inside the Ruins(Taking Shilf's place) and another one when you first enter Beige's castle. Fargo is now fought in the Ruins after defeating Lavar, there's no Volcano boss. The biggest change is also the worst. After entering Beige's castle you're taken back to Melrode Town, the very first town, and after Leonardo and Fiora join you(They don't fight, they are just there to talk with Brian) you're forced to backtrack all the way into the desert's hidden city, y'know, the one place where there's no Wings item to take you. You'll either have to do the Volcano or the Ruins dungeon again, neither which is particularly short. And afterwards you have to go to Dondoran, only to be told to return to Cull Hazard so that you can then return to Dondoran again. It's a complete waste of time and it happens right next to the end of the game, which kinda kills the momentum the plot had been gaining. To be fair, seeing various NPCs you've interacted with throughout the game lend Brian a hand is kinda heartwarming, but not worth it. Backtracking is never fun, unless it's a Metroidvania. It doesn't help that the encounter rate is through the roof, and while you can get lucky enough to get the Warrior's Badge through the lottery(Or, y'know, reload a savefile until you win) to lower the encounter rate, it doesn't make it any more palatable.

 Fighting works just like it did in the Nintendo 64 game, you take turns with the enemy, casting spells by mixing the four elements: Fire, Earth, Water and Wind. Using spells now makes more sense, as in, if you want to use healing magic you need to level up both water and earth, which makes sense and I think this was the way they thought up the system for the Nintendo 64 version, but either run out of time or thought it'd be too complex? Regardless, it's a welcome change, I think. There's still a lot of different spells, although I just stuck with Wind Cutter Level 3, Healing and the basic level 1 spells. By the end of the game I started experiment with the Avalanche Spell, and it's just as broken as it's always been. That said, Magic Barrier and Spirit Armor tend to miss, so you can't abuse them any more. Which kinda sucks, because while the game is rather easy, the final boss can kill you in two hits, so you're expected to use those spells while you try to sneak in Wind Cutter Level 3. Not gonna lie, the final boss is nigh impossible, and very luck-based. It's a shame, because most of the game is pretty fair, specially once you learn to recognize the tough enemies.

 Leveling up is very similar to how it worked on the N64 game. Getting hit raises your defense, using magic raises your mana, using your staff raises your HP and your agility(how much you can walk on your turn) by running our. I'm not sure how you raise your staff's attack power, but I think it has to do with how many elemental levels you have. As per the original game, winning fights nets you elemental experience, and once you reach 100% you can raise the level of one of your four elemental magics. You can also find spirits spread around dungeons and towns which give you a free elemental level. A very neat touch is how most spirits are hidden exactly where they were in the original game. You now longer restore mana by walking, but rather you gain one mana for each turn that passes. As for me, most of the game I alternated between a physical staff attack and a simple magic spell in order to keep my stats evenly raised. Sometimes, when I wanted a few quick mana levels I'd spam Level Cutter 3 against normal enemies. By the end of the game I had 250 HP and 140 MP, and even then, the final boss could cream me in TWO hits. Absolutely insane.


 Enemies drop items now, but your inventory caps at 20. What really sucks is that you can't discard items, so if you want to grab something from a chest your best bet is to use a healing item to make room. Either that or enter a random encounter so that you can waste one of your useless battle items. It doesn't help that there aren't any item descriptions, so sometimes you'll have to Save, which you can do pretty much anywhere, anytime, use the item to see what it does, and then reload. Spells, much like items, also lack in-game descriptions, forcing you to trying them out. A new item are Spirit Stones, which you may find in chests or from defeated enemies, which you can then use in Limelin town to play the lottery. There are 10 possible items, but there are three you'll want: Warrior's Staff, for more power, Warrior's Cape(Probably increases your defense?) and Warrior's badge which decreases the encounter rate(Barely noticeable, go for the cape!). Spirit stones are too rare and precious to waste on a loss, so save before playing the lottery until you win. You have to wait FIVE minutes after purchasing a ticket, and once the pigeon comes to tell you if you won or lost, you then have to return to the monastery and find the postbox to claim your item, in case you won. And nobody tells you about this.

 While it's not a 1:1 demake, it's pretty close. Most towns look pretty similar to its 3-D counterpart, although dungeons have been changed the most. Some are easier to navigate, some are slightly less annoying to navigate, but I'd say that all in all, it's a better designed game. It's still easy to get lost in a few dungeons, albeit for different reasons: Every corridor looks the same and sometimes it can be hard to notice if you are treading old ground. On another note, I love hearing this 8-bit renditions of the original game's soundtrack.

 Well, I'm glad I played Quest - Brian's Journey. This feels like the game they wanted to make but couldn't. It's still not great, not by a longshot, but you can tell that either they listened to criticism or had an easier time programming this version. I think that it's fair to say that the Imageneer really believed in their vision, and that that's why they didn't just give up due to poor reviews.
6.5 out of 10

Review #688: 64 Memories - Cruis'n Exotica

 The cruise never ends. Until it did, with this latest entry.

 Part I: The Flashback
 ... well, this is the first time I ever played the franchise, so I've nothing to say to preface Cruis'n Exotica.

 Part II: The Review
 It's the best one yet! After Cruis'n World took us around the world, there was only one way Exotica could go: By taking us... around the world again. But we've also get to visit the underwater city of Atlantis, and instead of going around the moon, we go up to mars. Yeah, the theme around this one isn't great, but the 12 tracks in this game are fantastic, easily the best selection yet. I mean, any semblance of reality was thrown out the window, but wet get colorful, fun tracks that are fun to go through. On another note, the car roster saw its size pumped up to 28, and they are unlocked just by playing the main mode, so every time you play, win or lose, it feels like you're working towards something, making it a very rewarding endeavor. Beating the Exotica mode unlocks two filters, Wacky and Insane, that make the game play like one crazy acid trip.

 This game plays JUST like Cruis'n World, which means it includes the unnecessary 'trick' system, although, to be honest, it's a bit more useful here since you can double tap A and flip off of another car. That said, with Exotica they fixed something they should've fixed a long time ago: The framerate. Most of the time the game plays like silk, at a steady 30FPS. A few tracks can see a few drops when it gets crowded with cars and effects(Such as smoke or water in the distance), but nowhere near as bad as the first two games where. This makes this game the superior Cruis'n experience, it feels great to play it. Heck, colliding with other cars works much better than it did before, no more weird stiffness.

 As for modes, there are three of them. Cruis'n Challenge has you taking 12 different stages, in any order that you want, each stage being made up of two point A-to-B races(They take up one track and split it into two smaller tracks, just for this mode), one 3-lap race and a drag race that rewards you with turbos that you can then use in any other mode. Cruis'n Freestyle lets you race on any of the 12 tracks in the point A-to-B format. Lastly, Cruis'n Exotica is the traditional story mode that has you playing the 12 tracks in order, you have to place 1st in order to progress and continues are limited, but it's not too hard.

 Man, I'm glad I gave the Cruis'n series a try, because they became some of my favorite games ever. Cruis'n Exotica fixes the biggest problem the series had been dragging behind since the first game, its framerate, while keeping everything that made it so good intact. The theme may be all over the place, but it's hard to care when the game is this good. It's a shame the series ended here, but I'm gonna be giving the Fast & Furious/Cruis'n-in-name-only Wii game a try sometime down the line.
 9.5 out of 10