Review #749: Yoshi's New Island

 Can we get back to the old one?

 I am a HUGE Yoshi Island fan, after I got to play that game on the Gameboy Advance I absolutely fell in love with it. I've fond memories of waking up before highschool and always managing to play a few stages before having to leave. That said, every subsequent Yoshi game I've played afterwards never managed to capture that spark again. Sadly, Yoshi's New Island is no exception.

 The story is basically a good ending override for Yoshi's Island, turns out the Stork messed up and brought the babies to the wrong couple... and then it loses the babies again, so the Yoshi's set out to get the babies to Stork, while defeating baby Bowser, again. It's lazy, it's just your every day Nintendo plot shenanigans. The game is made up of 6 worlds, with 8 stages each as well as a hidden stage on each world. A ton of levels borrow ideas or concepts from the original game, which is both cute and somewhat lazy. On the other hand, while the game is a 2-D platforming game, it uses beautiful 3-D graphics that are textured to look as if they were painted by pencils, it's very pretty... except for the fact that the Yoshis have no legs. That's right, their shoes just float over their torsos, which looks very weird and wasn't a very good artistic choice. It worked on the SNES, but it doesn't work quite as well in 3-D.

 The Yoshis keep the same moves they've had since their initial outing: A jump that ends with a flutter for extra air, a butt-stomp, eating enemies to turn them into eggs(Or spit them back out) and shooting said eggs. It's a moveset that works and has worked for years and years. The game can be played with either the digital pad or the analog stick, but it's my recommendation to stick with the DPad, since using the analog stick made me perform a butt-stomp many times I didn't really want to, sometimes costing me a life. New to the game are Giant Shyguys that, when eaten, turn into Giant Eggs that demolish everything on their path, as well as Giant Metal Shyguys that turn into tougher, heavier Giant Metal Eggs that have the added benefit of sinking Yoshi below water, as long as you don't shoot them that is. It's tough to consider it a new game mechanic, since Giant Shyguys are pretty rare. They also added an unnecessarily large amount of vehicle sections, and these are pretty bland because they use gyroscopic controls exclusively.

 Game progression is pretty much exactly like the original Yoshi's Island, each level having 5 hidden Flowers, 20 hidden Red Coins and 30 mini stars to collect. Your objective on each level is to take Baby Mario from beginning to end, and getting hit makes Baby Mario float on a bubble, and you must touch the bubble before 10 seconds pass, else he gets taken away and you lose a life. Recovering Baby Mario is pretty easy most of the time, so your deaths will come from falling down bottomless pits. Stage design is decent most of the time, obstacles don't feel unfair and while it borrows a lot of ideas from the original game, it has a few original things of its own, like a giant Chomp-Chomp chasing you. That said, getting all Red Coins and Flowers does feel unfair sometimes, as either might be hidden behind tricks and puzzles that require previous knowledge of them being there, as a single 'error' progressing through the stage might lock them behind walls or the such, requiring a stage restart. Heck, some coins will only spawn if you land on a specific platform. It feels a bit unfair, y'know?

 Yoshi's New Island is an alright sequel to a timeless classic, it had a lot to live up to, and it failed to hit some marks. I think that trying to rely so much on nostalgia hit them in the back as it ends up feeling like a pale imitation of something that was great. The few new mechanics they added either went underused, like giant eggs, or were cumbersome and too prevalent, namely the gyroscopic sections. Regardless, the basic gameplay remains strong, and level design is pretty decent, so it's not a bad game by any means, it simply couldn't measure up to the original, while doing little to stand out from it. Thunder God Lakitu is pretty epic though.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #748: Blasphemous

 A sinful delight.

 I'll be the first to tell you that I absolutely hate the Souls series and how popular it got, but Blasphemous really is something else. Sparse savepoints that respawn every enemy and refill your limited health vials, an interconnected world, lore and story that can only be discovered by examining items, tough as nails.... it's all here, but in sacrilegious 2-D.

 You are the Penitent One, the last survivor of a coven that had taken a vow of silence, and he sets out to cleanse the curse of The Miracle that has befallen Cvstodia. This means taking a journey through a twisted take on religious concepts, taking down sinner and saint alike. It's pretty good. The graphics are grotesque and violent, making for a very grim environment, the art itself is very crude and rough, think later DOS games, which adds yet another layer of bleakness to the whole ordeal. The game is pretty much a Metroidvania, even more so than the Souls series themselves, since as you go through the game not only will you open up paths that connect different zones together, but you'll also earn Relics that allow you to cross obstacles that you couldn't before, such as making platforms made out of blood appear or making roots grow from designated places in order to reach higher ground. Beating the game unlocks alternate color palettes for our hero.

 The Penitent One can Slash, Jump, Dash/Dodge, Parry, cast Magic('Prayers') and cling onto wooden walls with his sword. As you play through the game you'll find dozens of items that'll boost your stats(Mostly different forms of defense), Prayers, empty vials, that can be made usable again on blood fountains, increasing the amount of health vials you can carry. There are also Health and Mana upgrades waiting to be found, not to mention the aforementioned Relics that will let you explore hidden areas and alternate routes. Defeating enemies grant you experience points that can be used to purchase new skills for your sword, the Mea Culpa.

 The game is tough, there's a fun mixture of tough enemies, tougher bosses and tight platforming challenges, mostly involving spikes that kill you on contact. At the beginning of the game you have a measly two health vials to rely upon, which can only be filled by finding a save point or an even rarer blood fountain. That said, dying in the game is a bit more motivating that in Souls game. Sure, you get a penalty on your maximum mana and you gain less experience points until you find the 'Guilt' you left on the place you died, but if you get back there and collect your guilt, you'll get a free health and mana restore, pushing you forward to deal with whatever challenge killed you last! This holds true for bosses, your Guilt acting as a free health restore, one that has no recovery frames unlike using a health vial. You could also pay with a few experience points at a Guilt Statue to have your guilt restored... but why would you, if getting the best ending involves destroying every Guilt Statue and using the Pure Bead to explore its remains?

 While it borrows a lot from the Souls games, I think this game is more akin to Castlevania, specifically Order of Ecclesia. It's tough but fair, but it still felt easier than Order of Ecclesia. Shanoa had a lot of Glyphs to play around with, but mastering the parry will get you everywhere in this game. There's a single difficulty spike midway through the game when you have to face a double boss, but the rest of the game is fairly consistent with the difficulty. Heck, I'd say that the double bosses were tougher than the final boss in the game! That said, the game is a blast, I loved exploring the desolate world of Cvstodia, and combat is fast and flashy making it fun to backtrack to previous areas in search of goodies I couldn't reach before.

 Despite how good the game is, it does have a few bugs and glitches here and there. Worst of all bein the dash cancel. It seems that getting hit during a specific frame of you dash will prevent you from dashing until you exit the screen. This was the worst glitch by far, and also the rare, I only found a single user complaining about it, and it only happened to me about 5-6 times.... during my attempts at the double bosses, seems those guys had a knack for hitting me at just the right frame, which is probably why I found that fight the hardest, since every single time I tried the fight I wound up not being able to dash. There's also a bug that makes part of the map reveal themselves, which is a bit annoying since an uncovered map helps you figure out which areas you couldn't reach before. A fun one, if you enter a menu while clinging to the edge of a platform, upon exiting the menus you'll be stuck on air. Just enter another menus and exit to fix it. Lastly, near the end of the game I came upon two seemingly endless loading screens that forced me to exit the game.

 As far as I'm concerned, Blasphemous hits all the right notes that makes for a great Metroidvania game. The game is large enough to keep you busy for about 10 hours without growing old, and slaying enemies feels snappy and satisfying so as not to get old. The gameplay itself is so much fun that dying doesn't become tedious either. All in all, it's a great game, and I can't wait for the free DLC. Konami might be done with the genre, but as long as games like Dead Cells and Blasphemous keep the torch alive there's nothing to worry about.
8.5 out of 10

Review #747: Dragon Ball Z - Kakarot

 Dragon Bug Z

 Dragon Ball Z is back, in form of an RPG! CyberConnect2, better known for their Naruto games as well as their epic Asura's Wrath aimed to bring their love for the ridiculous with Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, a complete retelling of the Z series. It hits most of the right notes, even if it falls short in more than a few ways.

 Believe it or not, Kakarot covers the entire Dragon Ball Z storyline, a bit of a rarity among Dragon Ball Z games, since first iterations tend to only cover up to Namek or Cell. A few things were cut, a ton of things were added, in the form of sidequests, and a few things were tweaked to flow a bit better for the game, for example, now all Z warriors face the Saibamen at once, instead of going one by one. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed, since I expected Naruto Ninja Storm levels of epic cutscenes, but it seems like most of the time they went for a more faithful approach. Mind you, when it's good, it's GOOD, Vegeto VS Buu is gorgeous, and Vegeta's last ditch effort against Cell is amazing, but most of the time they weren't flexing their creative muscle. A few other scenes went for a mixture of faithfulness and CC2's originality, such as Vegeta's last resort against Fat Buu, leaving in some key frames from the manga, but also using the power of the PS4 to add a lot of visual eyecandy for players to drool at. That said, a few other scenes left me a bit disappointed, Gohan is my favorite character in the series, and I was disappointed at how little flair they added to his face-off against Buu, leaving out the amazing pummeling Gohan laid on Buu. Most of the game follows a very simple structure, with marks guiding you from objective to objective, but you can take your time to get anywhere, either to take in some sidequests or just to explore for collectibles.

 While the game is named Kakarot, it seems CC2 didn't realize that Gohan is the actual protagonist of the Z series, so most of the time is spent playing as Gohan. Heck, intermissions between sagas are all about Gohan, as a result, Goku was way behind Vegeta and Gohan in levels. That said, you'll get to play as Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, Vegeto and Gotenks. Disappointingly, Vegeto and Gotenks only get one fight each, which sucks since Vegeto is my other favorite character. Characters go through a ton of wardrobe changes throughout the game, and it kinda sucks that you can't change their clothes. After finishing the game you can unlock Trunks to use in the present, but you can't change any of the characters' clothes, so Vegeta is stuck with his Cell attire even though you just defeated Buu.

 Each character can be leveled up, and you can invest various kinds of currency and points to unlock new super moves or passive abilities. You can use a party of up to three different characters, and while only five characters can be played with, you can use the entire cast of Z warriors as party members, and they get their own skill trees, that said, most of the time it's better to just have your party made up of playable characters, since they earn more XP than benched characters, and those are the ones you can actually play with. Speaking of party members, your AI allies are completely braindead, but having party members is better than not, since they may occasionally help you get out of a tough spot, as well as letting you use a couple of their super moves at will, after they recharge anyways.

 The game is an RPG through-and-through, its world being divided into various different medium-sized zones, filled with references and landmarks from the world of Dragon Ball Z. You can freely fly around, searching for battle encounters, which you can touch in order to trigger a battle, burst through them, if your level is high enough, earning the experience points and skipping the battle or just avoid them, collect materials, food(Collecting fruit, hunting wildlife or fishing for fish) and Z Orbs... because this is an open-worldish modern game, so of course it's got to have mandatory item gathering. Food can be used to cook meals and earn small, permanent stat upgrades, material can be used to develop a training machine, build vehicles(Goku and Picollo learn to drive after all!) as well as used to complete some quests. Z Orbs are used to upgrade your characters and learn new skills, collecting them might seem a necessity at first, but after a while battles become very generous with them, so as not have you wasting time flying around for them. As with most Dragon Ball games, collecting the Dragon Balls is a thing, and as per usual, it's very annoying. You have to go from area to area, going through lengthy loading times, get all seven, make a wish, and then wait 20 minutes for them to reappear. Thankfully, quests exclusive to the Dragon Balls are few.

 Fighting is fairly simple, as per usual with CC2's games. You have an attack button, a ki proyectile attack button, a dodge and a block. Holding L1 turns all four face buttons into your four equipped super moves, the directional pad turns them into your four equipped items, R1 turns them into your allies' super moves, while L1+R1 is turns them into your equipped transformations. Tapping L3 lets you burst towards your opponent, tapping block(L2) at the right time before getting hit lets you teleport behind your opponent. Controls are deceptively complex for such a simple game, and getting used to how everything works can get a while, but once your brain adapts you'll end up with a very smooth and fun combat system, even if it's not very deep. There are no fancy juggles, no cancelling normal attacks into supers, just mashing and mashing... but it sure is pretty, and for this game, it works well.

 The combat itself is alright, but nothing worth writing home about. While it gets the job and, and it's quite flashy and colorful thanks to its gorgeous graphics and relatively smooth framerate, there are a few chinks here and there that can make it a bit dull at time. For instance, enemies love entering their red auras, which grants them super armor as they charge a homing attack. Eventually you'll learn how to avoid them, but they are still pretty annoying. A few bosses can be quite annoying since they love to spam their super armor modes, Nappa and Recoome are particularly bad with this, constantly entering their super armored mode, going through your attacks while pummeling you down for size. It doesn't feel fair or fun. Thankfully, other bosses don't spam their super armor so much.

 Throughout each Saga(Saiyans, Namek, Cell and Buu) as well as between them you can undertake sidequests from other NPCs, most of them being popular and forgotten characters from the world of Dragon Ball, and a few of these sidequests are meant to explain the whys and hows of other events, for example, you can revive the Ginyu Force and turn them into good guys... and they'll take Gohan under their wing, having him learn poses... which he'll later use as Saiyaman! There's a nice amount of sidequests to do, you can also build a couple of cars and race, and then there are Villainous Enemies and Super Villainous Enemies, special high-level encounters that will appear on certain zones. As a whole, it took me about 30 hours to finish the game, although I couldn't really complete it because....

 ....the game is riddled with bugs. There was a whole slew of sidequests I just wasn't able to finish because either the items I had to collect wouldn't spawn or I couldn't interact with the NPC. I couldn't finish Yamucha's quest as kid Gohan, I couldn't collect the bananas for Kaio-sama's monkey, the enemies I needed to defeat to collect parts for Dr. Briefs wouldn't spawn, the items Eighter asked me to collect just weren't there and... and I couldn't interact with Bulma during the epilogue, which means I couldn't unlock the Time Machine or Trunks. There's a fairly common bug that will make the Super Villainous Radditz/Nappa battle impossible to do, oh, and one of Gohan's Supers, Super Rapid Ki Attack Wave just wouldn't work until I got to the timeskip and he grew up. If you revive an enemy with the Dragon Balls but he's also a part of a Villanous Battle you haven't finished yet, well, you won't be able to interact with him until you beat the encounter, or run away from it. And, by the by, your joystick isn't broken, vibration can be turned on or off, but it won't work either way. I loved the game, but dammit, I wasn't able to finish a ton of sidequests even though I really wanted to. And Trunks is my third favorite character and I couldn't unlock him because of a bug. I couldn't even get the Time Machine in order to attempt to trigger broken sidequests again for a second try at them.

 The other big problem with the game are the loading times. They are frequent and they are lengthy. How frequent? Well, some parts of the story mode might have a loading screen for just two lines of dialogue since the scene took place in another area. That means: The initial loading screen when entering an area to talk with the NPC that moves the story along, another loading screen to load the next lines of dialogue(which took part in another zone) and then ANOTHER loading screen to return to where you were. And they are quite long!

 I'll admit that the game's problems are fairly glaring and it could've ruined this game.... but this is a Dragon Ball Z game that covers the entire storyline from the manga, is fun in its simplicity and kept a lot of attention to detail. And, truth be told, I can deal with the sidequests being impossible to complete since, at least, the main story works just fine, and that's the part of this game that matters the most. People not interested in the license might not want to deal with the hassle, but fans of the series such as myself should be able to put up with its shortcomings and experience a complete, playable Dragon Ball Z in beautiful 3-D.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #746: Avatar - The Last Airbender(Nintendo DS)

 Ain't no stopping this licensed-game bender any time soon!

 Avatar The Last Airbender released on multiple platforms, each major line(PS2/Xbox/Gamecube, PSP, DS, Advance) getting their own version. The Gameboy Advance entry was a delightful puzzle game, but the DS? Oh boy, the DS got an RPG! It's not as complex or as involved as your Final Fantasy, but we've got dungeons, herb mixing, real-time battles, experience points, the whole shebang!

 While I haven't seen the series(yet) I did the least amount of research required to figure out that this game follows its own original story set between Season 1 and 2, and it follows Aang, Katara, Sokka and.... and Haru, which I even I know isn't a series regular, as they seek to stop the rise of the machines that are laying waste around the world. The game takes about 12 hours to complete, and is divided into chapters, each chapter taking place in its own map. There are sidequests to be found if you search deep enough, which will reward you with bonus stats or even bonus special moves.

 The basic gameplay loop is very simple, at the start of most chapters you'll want to make your way into the chapter's town in order to speak with NPCs and figure out where you really wanna go, and then it's just getting from designated area to designated area. Along the way you may come across enemies, touch them and you'll initiate a battle which takes place in real time. Y is your basic attack, X uses chi-special moves(Chi refills over time, but depending on which special move you used last it may take longer), B blocks and Y is a bender-styled defensive move, such as Aang flying or Katara covering herself in ice. You can swap characters at any time, but the CPU will take over whichever three characters you aren't using.

 The AI is pretty dumb. Rogue Galaxy kinda dumb. They love getting themselves killed, and there's nothing you can do about it. Healing items are hard to come by, particularly at the beginning of the game, and there are no Inns or places in which you can fully recover, so you'll be relying on dying and continuing, since every character gets healed up to a third of their total maximum health. This worked quite well for me, since CPUs are only useful as meat shields, taking attention away from you, and they don't even use their special moves. I played most of the game as Aang, but I switched over to Haru every now and then, or Katara if only to revive fallen allies. You see, Aang has a three hit combo and Haru has a two hit combo, making them actually fun to use, while Sokka is stuck to single hits with his club and Katara attacks with a weak little projectile. In what's an ironic twist of fate, Katara is actually useful during some of the poorly designed boss fights in which attacking from afar is actually the best way to approach battles. Look, fighting normal enemies is alright, it's pretty fun actually, but some of the boss fights are very poorly designed, like the very first boss that can pretty much go through your attacks and has a very generous range on his attacks.

 Most times you finish an encounter, the enemy will drop a minuscule amount of money or, perhaps better, a healing item. But you have to be careful, as you have a very limited inventory capacity. Thankfully, you can rely on your infinite continues in order to save up on healing items. Learning Herb combinations is paramount to maximizing your inventory space. Lastly, the game features 2-D sprites running over 3-D background, which isn't too bad, but the camera can be a bit bad sometimes, particularly on the one mandatory stealth segment.

 As a whole, Avatar the Last Airbender is pretty fun. It has a few very annoying moments that stand out, mostly a few boss fights, but the rest of the game is pretty decent. I'm just surprised they managed to make such a decent RPG out of Avatar. Hopefully the sequel has better bosses and makes Sokka and Katara more fun to play as.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #745: Gunvolt Chronicles - Luminous Avenger iX

 How much anime is too much anime?

 Early last year I finally got to play Gunvolt, and I wound up liking it a whole lot. The Megaman X successor that we never got, if you will. Gunvolt Chronicles - Luminous Avenger iX is an spinoff centering around Gunvolt's rival, Copen, featuring the same 2-D jump-and-shoot gameplay it so well mastered.

 The story is... hot anime garbage, as per usual. I didn't care about it and just read the dialogue out of guilt of actually not reading it. But it's bad and you can barely follow what's going on even if you cared about it. Dude, I like JRPGs, I'm all in for convoluted anime plots, but this is garbage. This game also follows the trend of sexualizing lolis, which is weird, but now Lola even gets to wear a metal thong bikini because why the heck not? Kohaku who's 10 at most also wears risque clothing. I know there's an audience for this kind of stuff, but I ain't it, and it clashes a lot with how the rest of the badass character designs are. If you like this stuff, good for you, if you don't, you can ignore it since it really doesn't get in the way of its fantastic gameplay.

 There's only a single playable character in the game, Copen, which kinda sucks since after Gunvolt 2's two playable characters this feels like a huge step down, particularly because this games are incredibly short, Luminous Avenger iX being no exception. Luckily, I loved Copen's gameplay and how he looks, and he plays pretty much exactly like he did in Gunvolt 2. Copen can jump and shoot, of course, but his gameplay is built around Bullits, which starts at 3. As long as you have bullits, you'll dodge most incoming damage, at the cost of one Bullit per hit, but you can also spend them to dash on the air. Dashing is the name of the game with Copen, if you dash into an enemy you'll recover the Bullit and proceed to lock-on to them, making all your basic attacks land right on them, even if you aim on the opposite direction. While Bullits recharge very slowly through time, you can also double tap down on the dpad to take a few seconds and recharge your stock, do it on the air and Copen will stomp downwards, reloading in the process.

 Every time you defeat a boss you'll get a new sub-weapon, and just like Megaman, every enemy is weak to a specific weapon. Not that it matters, I fell in love with the twin saws, and proceeded to spam them on every boss until the end of the game, doing just fine. There's a nice risk and reward system going on with the game. Landing hits and defeating enemies, without getting hit, increases your Kudos, get to a 1000 kudos and you'll enter Overdrive, until you get hit, enhancing all your abilities. Now, if you use your Super Attack you'll lose all your kudos, if you touch a checkpoint you will earn your kudos points, but it'll reset back to zero... so you'll have to juggle keeping overdrive, maximizing your points or just securing your progress in case you die, which is a pretty neat idea. Before each stage you can change how the Kudos System works, which is basically the difficulty setting: Get hit once and lose your points, get hit thrice and lose your points or never lose your points upon getting hit. Stages remain the same, boss patterns remain the same, it just changes how easily you can get and keep OverDrive mode going, which does make a difference in the long run. If the game ever gets too hard, you can replay any stage in order to get more experience points, leveling up increases your maximum health, as well as money to buy enhancements with.

 The game received a improvements over the Gunvolt mechanics that makes it quite better, and I hope they keep them for future games. Firstly, stage dialogue has been kept to a minimum, and when your NPC ally does speak to you, which you can turn off, the text bubble will only occupy a fraction of the screen on the side, much less invasive than previous games. And then there's the customization, no longer do you have to beat a stage in order to unlock missions which have you replaying the stage and then having to gather materials, oh no, screw that noise, now there's a set amount of abilities you can purchase with money found on every stage. Much simpler, less annoying, much better.

 I liked Luminous Avenger iX, I've liked Copen over Gunvolt ever since we got to play as him and the few tweaks to the formula really make it a much better experience. Sadly, while Copen is a blast to play, the game is incredibly short(2:40 hours, 3:20 or so after clearing the bonus stages) and there isn't a second playable character, bonus alternate colors for Copen or any other fun stuff for players to unlock. As it stands, it's just as good as the previous games.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #744: Shovel Knight Treasure Trove

 It really is a treasure trove.

 Shovel Knight Treasure Trove is Shovel Knight's fully kickstarted form. Every promised campaign and extra is here, no download required. It's a NES-inspired 2-D platforming indie darling that managed to dig its way into everyone's hearts. And there's a good reason for that! The entire game follows to a tee the better examples of timeless game design from yesteryear. There are four different playable characters, with their own stories and, sometimes, levels and bosses, as well as an interesting fighting game extra.

Now, onto the different pieces that make up Treasure Trove:

Shovel of Hope

 The centerpiece of this pack, and also the first game released, Shovel of Hope follows Shovel Knight as he Shovels his way through the Knights of No Quarter in order to rescue his comrade-in-arms-dash-love-interest the Shield Knight. The game is a fantastic 2D platform game that borrows from Megaman, Castlevania and a bit from Ducktales, although the developers would claim the pogo-jumping came from The Legend of Zelda II.

 Jump and attack, that's all you get, that's all you need. Kinda. While slashing is Shovel Knight's basic attack, his true calling is pogo jumping, by tapping down on the d-pad while on air, the Knight will aim his Shovel downward and bounce off anything that can be hit, be it an enemy or a treasure-holding object. If you are thorough, you'll be amassing a small fortune on your travels, as well as finding Relics that you can equip. Relics behave like sub weapons from Castlevania, hold Up+Attack to use them, and they consume a limited resource, mana. Unlike sub-weapons, once you find a relic you can keep it forever. Relics work in a variety of different ways, such as a sword that allows for an aerial dash, a straight-forward fireball or a gauntlet that punches through rocks, but truth be told, I spent most of the time using the Locket that granted invincibility for a few seconds.

 Treasure is incredibly important in Shovel Knight, since money is how you can purchase these relics once you find them. You can also use money to buy health and magic upgrades, new armors and even shovel upgrades. Thankfully, potions are completely free, but you have to purchase both vials first! Since money is so precious, and lives are unlimited, if you die you'll lose a bit of money, and in pure Souls fashion, you can get it back if you get back to where you lost it.... provided you can reach all the floating bags of money. Too add to the fun, you can actually destroy checkpoints in order to get some extra money.

 The game is not hard, not hard at all, as the game provides ample tools for less skilled players to get through, such as a two-potion set that can either grant you 10 seconds of invincibility or completely heal you and your magic, as well as the aforementioned locket of invincibility that consumes a modicum of mana to use. Worst case scenario, you could always use cheats for invulnerability. It's four hours long, has a decent co-op mode and, if you're bored, it also comes with a Body Swap mode, letting you change the gender and/or pronouns of every main character in the game, yes, alternate sprites for almost everyone!

 Shovel Knight - Shovel of Hope is an absolute treasure of a game, it's very fun and very simple, it's not too hard, but not too easy either. No game mechanic wears out its welcome, and even when obnoxiously dying multiple times to the same obstacle.... I couldn't stop having fun, heck, I finished the game in one sitting. It's that good.
 9.0 out of 10

Plague of Shadows

 In Plague of Shadows you get to play as the Plague Knight, and he is completely different from Shovel Knight. He has his own story mode, although he plays through the same levels and most bosses from Shovel Knight's campaign. It's difficult to pinpoint just how his story makes sense in relation to Shovel of Hope, but it doesn't matter, the Plague Knight is quirky like that.

 Forget the shovel, it's all about bombs here. Plague Knight can customize his bombs by changing the casing, power and/or the fuse, so you can create all sorts of silly things, like bombs that explore or contact, homing bombs, bombs that grow stronger if you shoot them at the same area, etc. While I stuck to homing bombs with the initial gunpowder for most of the game, a few situations lend themselves to trying out different things. Instead of Relics, Plague Knight gets Arcana, which are spells that run on mana gauge that refills by itself pretty quickly. Arcana are a bit more interesting than relics, since they complement Plague Knight really well. There's an Arcana that works as an extra jump, one that places a platform below you for a few seconds, one that grants Plague Knight's bombs life-sapping properties(A life-saver for boss fights!) and the such. It's very different from Shovel Knight, and it doesn't stop here...

 Plague Knight is a very different beast from Shovel Knight in how he moves too. He has no pogo jumping, instead he has a pathetic double jump and bursting, which can also be customized just like his bombs. By holding down the attack button and letting go, Plague Knight will burst himself upwards and forwards, which is his main means of traversal. It's also your best way to approach enemies, since raining down bombs from above is the fundamental basis of his combat. On the ground you are vulnerable, but master aerial combat and a whole new world of options will open up. As for me, I was fond of the slow-decent burst, that made Plague Knight gently hover downwards, giving me extra attack time, at the cost of not being able to prime another burst. Nothing the platform relic couldn't cover!

 Plague Knight has often times been called the hardest campaign, and it is... for the first few levels, before you find a bomb/burst set-up that works for you and get used to playing as the Plague Knight. As soon as I got to the second Quadrant of the map, I was having a blast cruising through stages in manners the stiff Shovel Knight could've never done, and murdering bosses in a few seconds flat with my brutal homing bombs+hovering Plague Knight combo. Give it a few stages until you get the hang of him, and his campaign turns even easier than Shovel Knight's.

 New additions to the game are Plague Coins, green coins hidden in every level, which are necessary to expand Mona's shop, the shop in which you can purchase bomb parts, as well as necessary to gain access to Plague Knight's armors. There are also Tonics that grant you bonus health points... until you die, which can make some of the early bosses are bit more manageable.

 I really liked Plague Knight's campaign, he felt sort of like a Richter Mode, featuring a more nimble, but more gimmicky character that could easily get through harder obstacles, but also had a bit of a learning curve if you didn't want to die against bosses. I think... I think once I fully grasped the Plague Knight, I started liking his campaign a bit more than Shovel Knight's, it felt like I was using more relics to find the ones that worked for different situations instead of always relying on the same invincibility locket, and the platforming challenges built around his wackier, more uncontrollable movement were pretty fun.
 9.0 out of 10

Specter of Torment

 I hated Specter of Torment at first, I really wasn't feeling Specter Knight's style... until it clicked. Specter's game is the most plot-driven campaign in the game, following Specter Knight's torment under the enchantress as he builds the Order of No Quarter for her, and we even get to delve into his past through a few stages that take place when Specter was still a living human.

 Shovel Knight is the most nimble and lethal Knight yet, he can wall run and jump from walls, but his true call to fame is his aerial slashing, depending on your position relative to the enemy or object(Below or above it), Specter Knight will slash through that thing. And that is how his platforming challenges are built on, proper use of his aerial slash to cross chasms and what not. It's quite fun, once you understand it. Some big enemies and a few objects actually make the Specter Knight bounce from them, so you also have to keep that in mind, as sometimes bouncing is part of the platforming and bouncing can help you keep your attacks coming from the air. Specter can also grind on some rails, but it goes mostly underused....although there's an armor that lets you grind at will.

 Relics take the form of Curios in this campaign, and they run on Specter Knight's darkness gauge, which can be refilled by landing multiple hits on enemies. There are 100 red Skull coins to collect in the game, and these can be traded for said curios. In what's a fun little idea, every time you buy a Curio you have to go through a very short challenge stage in order to learn how to use it, which is a brilliant way to get you to try out everyone of them! You can then spend money in order to upgrade them, which was also a neat idea. In order to upgrade your Health and Darkness gauges you must find Wisp chests, one for every level, which is a nice incentive to explore.

 The world map is gone, Specter gets his HUB town and from there you need to talk to the Mirror Guardian in order to travel directly to any stage. Stage layouts have been completely redesigned around Specter Knight, which also makes sense since this is a prequel and this'd be the stages before the Order of No Quarter was created. Boss patterns have also changed to varying degrees between characters, the Black Knight now fights alongside his trusty Turtle companion, for example. As a whole, it took me about three hours to finish the game, making it the shortest campaign by an hour, but it's every bit as fun as everything that came before it.

 I think Specter of Torment is supposed to be easier to get the handle of than Plague of Shadows, but in my case, it was the other way around. That said, once you get the hang of Specter, this campaign becomes yet another winner addition to Shovel Knight.

 9.0 out of 10

King of Cards

 The final campaign follows King Knight in King of Cards. It features a completely new card minigame, Joustus, not unlike The Witcher's Gwent as well as new layouts for the previous levels, as well as completely new gameplay mechanics for the King Knight, which goes to show that they really wanted to end with a bang. And it worked!

 As a huge Wario fanboy, King Knight's greedy adventures are just up my alley, and he takes after the dastardly villain by also having a should bash as his main mode of attack. It's more than just a bash though, this daintily Knight will spin into the air like a top upon hitting a wall or an enemy, and then landing on top of an object or an enemy will let him bounce off of them, as well as letting him do the Shoulder Bash again. And they built a ton of different challenges around this very simple mechanic. Sometimes you'll have to roll(Tap B again after should bashing) onto enemies, since producing a spin jump will force you into an state that will break the ground below you into a pit or spikes. Sometimes you'll have to work to earn your Shoulder Bash again in order to keep the King from falling into a pit, sometimes you'll have to rely on the bash to get to a platform without jumping, since the ceiling is lethal, etc. It's brilliant game design, like every campaign before it. And unlike the Specter Knight, whom I hated at first, I loved King Knight from the very first time I shoulder bashed an enemy.

 King Knight's relics come in the form of Heirlooms, and once again you must spend a special type of collectible in order to get them, Medals. There are three Medals per stage, as well as a few Joustus-exclusive medals. Just like Specter before it, you get to try out most Heirlooms when you get them through a small challenge stage that shows you various ways in which you can use them. Heirlooms consume Vigor, which works just like Shovel Knight's, only being able to replenish it by finding mana potions from fallen enemies. There are also Royal Decrees, which are cheat-like advantages that you can use one time per stage, as well as Cheats you can purchase to use in Joustus duels.

 The World map returns, but it's much larger than in Plague of Storms or Shovel of Hope, because the stages have been divided into many smaller stages. It's a different take on the previous formula, and this also means that there's no longer a boss at the end of every level, but rather, a boss at the end of every world. That said, there are roaming bosses on the world map that you can avoid or fight. While every stage got completely redesigned, the bosses use their new Specter of Torment patterns. Taking a page from Super Mario World, many stages now have hidden exits that open up routes to different stages. Your mileage may vary on this, while stages are quite shorter, I've never been a fan of having to replay stuff just because the game deems it mandatory.

 This is the part of the review in which I write about how much I hate card minigames, like the ones in Final Fantasy VIII and The Witcher.... but after I opened up the fourth and final world, I realized that there were still heirlooms to collect and Vigor upgrades to purchase, so I did what I had to do. Went back to previous world's Joustus houses and cleared them all. I'm still not a fan of card games, but I kinda sorta had fun with this one. There are a ton of different opponents to fight, the ones from the Joustus houses(1 per world), the ones that reside in your ship/Hub town and the Wandering bosses, that once defeated will board your ship and you can challenge them to the game. So if you enjoyed the card game, there are plenty of opponents to fight, with different gimmicks and the like. Overall, it took me about 8 hours to finish this campaign, making it the longest by a landslide. That said, as per usual, I was very thorough, returning to open up every alternate route and fight Joustus battles, so a more laid back playthrough should be shorter.

 Fantastic, King of Cards is just fantastic, and I think it might've been my favorite campaign. It's a bit hard to pinpoint just when it takes place, probably a prequel to the prequel(Specter), but it doesn't really matter since the story in this campaign is just means to an end. I adored King Knight's gameplay, and loved how many different, creative challenges they built around the King's movement style. 

 9.0 out of 10

Amiibo

 Sony fans get to fight Kratos and don an armor that gives Shovel Knight a three-hit combo. Microsoft fans get to fight the Battletoads and go through a Battletoads-inspired stage, and then they get an armor that lets Shovel Knight do a shoulder bash. Nintendo fans get to spend more money on Amiibos.

 Unfairness aside, amiibos grant each of the four playable characters new costumes, which can also be used in Showdown, Fairy Companions(Absolutely useless) and, in the case of Shovel of Hope, a Custom Knight mode, which gives the game RPG mechanics: Instead of buying and finding upgrades and relics, you get them as you level up. But it's more than that! You get exclusive relics(More like alternate takes on existing relics, like shooting the Fist Gauntlet like a projectile), alternate color palettes you can swap between at any time, special effects(Like the shiny stars!), health and vigor upgrades and even different actions for holding down the down button. It's a fun twist on Shovel of Hope's campaign.

Shovel Knight Showdown

 And, to tie a bow around this masterful collection of games and wrap it up, we get Shovel Knight Showdown, a 4-man fighting game using the world and characters from Shovel Knight, it features a grand total of 20 characters, including Shovel Knight and the Knights of No-Quarter, the Wandering Warriors and a few surprises.

 The game offers a decent amount of modes, including a Story mode, with a unique opening and ending for each character, Battle Mode(Death Match or collecting gems as well as a random Chester's Choice), Hit the Targets and, lastly, Practice. There are a TON of things to unlock: Extra color palettes, extra characters, extra stages and even a few costumes! There's no shortage of stuff here to get.... although you could always cheat and get everything with a button input. No judging!

 Most movesets are built around four buttons: Attack, Special(Usually, but not always, a projectile), Jump and Parry. It's not a Smash like movesets, your attacks never change with inputs, however, characters have very different playstyles. Tinker Knight's special has him mount his gear, play special again and he'll drop it and fly for a few seconds. Shield Knight can shoot her shield, and then attack with fisticuffs before it returns, Shovel Knight keeps his pogo jumping, etc. Characters are very simple, but every character feels very different. Health is based on a four-hit lifebar, and you get mercy invincibility upon getting hit.

 The game is very fast paced, but probably due to the limited color palette they went with, at times it became hard to make sense of what was going on. As a whole, the game is a decent extra, a decent time waster, but it's easily the weakest link in the Shovel Knight saga. Honestly, I like this game being here, I think it's a great addition, it's just that I don't think it would work just quite as well by itself.
 6.5 out of 10

 Shovel Knight is amazing. While I'm kinda sad I got to play it so late in its life, I'm also quite glad I get to keep the entire game in a single cart and experience the entirety that Shovel Knight has to offer in one go. Every single campaign in this cart has ton of brilliant showcases of great game design, and it's nothing short of amazing just how well everything turned out.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #743: Power Rangers MegaForce

 POWER RANGERS, MEGAFORCE!.... doesn't work all that well without the music, huh.

 As not to stop this Power Ranger gravy-train going, here we have Power Rangers Megaforce. I'm not familiar with either the original Sentai version nor the American Ranger adaptation, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter.

 Unlike Power Rangers Samurai, this game has more meat to itself, being made up of five chapters with five stages each, as well as 10 unlockable stages, so it should clock you about 4:30 hours. However, if you hate the game, that probably won't be a selling point. You get to play as all five Rangers and swap between them at will, as well as take control of Robo Knight in a few stages. Beating the game unlocks Might Morphin' skins for the main cast, which is a pretty neat bonus. On another note, the game is fully voice-acted, which is surprising for a low budget game like this one, but on the flip side, during stages the Power Rangers will refuse to shut up, often times repeating lines and cutting each other off. It's ridiculous how bad it is, or how nonsensical it gets with the Red Ranger claiming he can hear the birds every few seconds. They also LOVE to state the obvious, like telling you that if you destroy a box you can see what's inside. Every. Single. Time. A box enters your view.

 The game is a simple go-to-the-right beat'em up, the standard fare for Power Rangers. You attack with the A button and use you useless blaster with B. L and R are used to change characters, but you can also tap their heads on the bottom screen. X allows you to use 2 cards and enter a Super Mode for a short time, while the cards themselves are used with the touchscreen. The cards are very weird, in that you find them throughout the game, but only a few of them are actually usable, only five of them actually. You can also scan real cards for in-game bonuses, but they are not necessary, thankfully. While all Rangers are basically the same, they have different attack combos and stats, so at least they look different, and play slightly different between each other. The Yellow Ranger is a bit weak, but covers wide areas, the Pink Ranger is great against single enemies and the Blue Ranger sucks.

 While the game is a simple masher, it tries to shake things up by frequently stopping you on your tracks and force some kind of goal upon you. "Defeat every enemy", "Survive for a minute", "Collect every Medal", etc. These are repeated so often throughout the game that in an attempt to shake things up... it actually becomes fairly repetitive. Besides, there are, what, four different types of stage themes: Factory, Jungle, Ice Cave and Streets, and every single stage might be same for all that they are. As per usual, Zord battle stages are horrible, in these case, they are slow-paced battles in which you either perform a simple attack combo, shoot a projectile or block.

 For such a rudimentary looking game, it sure has framerate issues! And you can tell it's a matter of optimization, since later in the game it gets really crowded... yet sometimes the framerate will be smooth, but then there'll be like only three enemies on-screen and the framerate will dip. On another note, the stage-select menu is painfully slow, it will take a while for you to get from stage 1-1 to 5-7.

 Power Rangers MegaForce is exactly what Power Ranger have been getting on handhelds since like forever, a barebones beat'em up with awful MegaZord battles.
2.0 out of 10

Review #742: Super Duper Sumos

 It's about time I cover this abomination.

 If you're unlucky, you may remember an ages-old tv show about butt-obsessed Sumos called Super Duper Sumos. If you're even unluckier, you'll remember that it managed to get its very own Gameboy Advance game. And, as a lover of all things weird, here I am giving this thing a try!

 The game is six stages short, and as far as I could tell, follows an original episode-divided story, each 'stage' begins either with the Sumos planning to do something, and then Evil Inc. botching things up for them or with Evil Inc. talking about their new plan, before you are thrust into your Sumo's thongs. You can play as any of the three Sumos, but they are pretty much identical. One may be stronger than the others, one might be faster, but the only real difference is the super move. The game is quite pretty, the animation might not be anything worth writing home about, but the characters sprites are a good representation of their animated counterparts.

 The game is your average beat'em up, move from left to right while defeating enemies. B attacks, A jumps, R runs and L uses your super move, which you charge by picking up purple energy from fallen enemies. You can pick up enemies and throw them against each other, and you'll come across weapons every now and then. As you go through the game you'll unlock new moves, but your basic B attack and A jump is everything you really need. The later moves that enter your repertoire are a sliding attack, a belly tackle, a ballerina spin-dodge and, finally, a flying butt-tackle. It's pretty silly.

 The game is what it is, an average beat'em up game. The show's premise is completely idiotic, but the game is a decent time for anyone that enjoys beat'em ups.
6.0 out of 10

Review #741: Power Rangers Samurai(Nintendo DS)

 Leave no lone ranger left behind.

 Let me tell you about my two favorite Sentai series, they are Gekiranger and Shinkenger. Lucky for me, it seems like the American version, Power Rangers Samurai, was popular enough to warrant a few games, this here being the DS version. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a Power Rangers game, no more, no less.

 The game covers, I think, the first season of the American adaptation of Shinkenger, basically, it goes over the Rangers recruiting the Gold Ranger and ends with the Red Ranger dueling the Demon Dekar. It's 10 missions short, the game lasts 2 hours and there's nothing to unlock, not by traditional means anyways. Every unlock is tied to a password and not to a collectible or feat, and among these extras are Mega versions of the rangers. They look different, but they play exactly the same, and it seems like they even have the same stats as their basic versions, but at least they look different. The five original rangers play exactly the same but with different stats, the only thing setting them apart is their Strong special move, once the Gold Ranger joins, on mission 7 or so, he plays exactly the same, but has different animations and special moves, making him extra special. By the by, the Gold Shinkenger is one of my favorite rangers of all time since he fights with his very unique Iaido-sheathing style, and his in-game animations accurately captured his fighting style, which is something I adored.

 Gameplay is very simple, you get a 3-hit weak attack combo, a strong attack that changes properties depending on when you use it during your weak attack string, a jump, a block and two special moves, done by pressing Block plus either strong or weak attack, that consume energy. The only difference between characters, besides their stats, is their Block+Strong special moves. Stages are your standard left to right 2-D beat'em up, although you can swap characters on designated spots. There are collectible discs waiting to be found, usually gated behind barriers only a specific Ranger can break, but they appear to add nothing but points to your total. There's a dumb touchscreen minigame before each mission, get it right and you get unlimited energy for a few seconds. There's also a disc on the bottom screen that you can spin around, keep it spinning and you'll be stronger and your attack string will extend to five. It's pretty dumb. Each stage ends with a boss battle, which then turns into a Megazord battle.

 There's something that most Ranger games get wrong every single time: Zord battles. Instead of making these battles an extension of the main game, they always try to turn it into a minigame of sorts, and they always fail spectacularly, being the worst part about most Ranger games. This game is no exception. Firstly, a dumb minigame before each battle, get it wrong and you lose half your health bar. Fun times. As for the battle itself, you have to use the touchscreen to slide across a disc in order to spin it a fill a gauge. Once full you have to touch the Attack button with proper timing in order to deal damage. When the enemy fills their gauge, you have to block, which is done by touching the BLOCK buttons on the touchscreen. These battles are lame, and are needlessly boring.

 Power Rangers Samurai is your average, run of the mill Power Rangers game that have been plaguing the handhelds since times immemorial. It's not bad. It's not good either. It's just a shelf filler. Fans of the franchise, like me, might get a few kicks out of it, everyone else shouldn't even bother.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #740: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

 The miracle maker

 Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask marks an important moment for the series, the moment it went 3-D. Graphics never mattered for games like the Layton series, but trust me, the new dimension breathes new life into its world, and it's gonna be hard to go back.

 The story picks up sometime after The Last Specter, with Layton travelling alongside Emmy and Luke. Their dynamic is as engaging as ever, although I felt like Luke and Emmy took a backseat to Layton and his antics. And there's a good reason for that, since this game delves even deeper into Layton's younger years, long before he met Claire. Half of the games chapters are spent with Layton joining up with people from his past as he tries to uncover the mystery behind the Masked gentlemen, while the other half of the chapters retell how Layton lost his best friend and drifted apart from his other friends. It's an interesting narrative, although I can't help but feel like I would've liked to see more of Emmy and Luke. This is the longest Layton game yet, although it only contains 150 puzzles. There are also 364 downloadable puzzles, but they are divided into 20 or so different types of puzzles.

 As mentioned before, the new graphics are gorgeous, featuring well-made, colorful character models against beautiful hand-drawn environments made up of multiple layers for an added feel of depth. The backgrounds and characters are very sharp, making it a pleasure to look at. The exploration interface has been tweaked for the better, now you enter and exit examination mode, while you travel between areas by tapping on the bottom screen. It's very simple and intuitive. Sadly, the Puzzle interface has been made a bit less helpful. Puzzles now default to the "submit" section on the bottom screen, while the upper screen holds an image that, most of the time, must be examined to solve the puzzle or riddle. So where's the actual text for the riddles? Well, you have to tap a button to display it or hide it. And it might be a while before you notice that you can place it on the upper or lower screen. Regardless, no place feels comfortable. Put it up, in order to take notes as you read and you'll miss out on the image. Put it on the bottom screen and you can't take notes. It really highlights the elegant simplicity of how the previous games managed to place everything you needed in a comfortable, accessible way. It's not something you can't get used to, but it's something that worked much better in previous games.

 The puzzles themselves felt a bit more forgettable than the ones from previous offerings. I can't exactly speak for everyone, but I felt like these puzzles weren't very memorable. Sometimes, after you successfully clear a puzzle, there won't be an explanation for the solution, which means that you could get the answer by accident and not get a proper explanation on how you were supposed to figure it out. It's rare, but it's something that put me off the few instances it happened. The final past-chapter is a mini dungeon-like minigame that has no place in Layton. You must dig for puzzles and coins, while dealing with simple boulder-pushing puzzles. What makes it unbearable is that pretty much every time you enter a new room, Young Layton and his pal Randall will take a few seconds to state the obvious. I just wanted this entire chapter to end.

 As for the minigames, we have a Robot-grid movement puzzle set that was alright, a Shop minigame in which you must arrange items following a set of rules in order to get a customer to buy everything, which was incredibly fun, and, lastly a Rabbit Theater minigame, that has a dumb rabbit-petting system in order to teach the rabbit tricks so that you can then pick for him to use in a play. It was pretty boring.

 Layton's jump into 3-D was a total success, the game is gorgeous, and despite it being a launch game in Japan, it still is one of the best looking games in the system, from both an artistic side and a technical side. That said, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask feels like one of the weakest entries yet, with forgettable puzzles and a poor puzzle UI when compared to previous games. Come what may, I'm rooting for Azran Legacy to make the most from this new engine while tweaking what didn't work from this one. Reception for that game was mixed, but....
 6.5 out of 10

Review #739: Professor Layton and the Last Specter

 Ain't no stopping the Layton steam train!

 I thought that Unwound Future couldn't be topped. I also expected that a prequel series would fail to match the previous games. Turns out I was wrong, Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a fantastic follow up to Unwound Future, and may very well be a contender for best Layton game.

 Set years before the original series, The Last Specter deals with Layton and Luke's first meeting. A giant specter is wrecking havoc in Luke's hometown, and his father Clark, a good friend of the professor, asks Layton for help. In what's a completely different set up from previous games, Luke is a precocious child that spends most of his time shut inside his own room and Layton has to slowly earn his trust. It's actually quite endearing. I always liked Flora, but Level 5 didn't know what to do with her, so now we've got Emmy, the professor's current assistant, and she's great. She's not as bright as Layton, and probably not as bright as Luke would eventually become, but she's the muscle of the group. The three of them make for a fantastic group of characters, and throughout the course of the game I grew quite fond of their dynamic. They also added more flavor text to items you can examine on the environments, always leading to all three characters interacting with each other. Charming! Overall, I think the story is not as interesting or as good as the one in the previous game, but they made up for that by giving us a more interesting cast.

 The game features the most amount of puzzles in a Layton game yet, at 170, two more than Unwound Future. Ironically, the storyline felt shorter than previous games, the previous game was at least an hour longer. The minigames felt a bit uninspired this time around. The train mini-game is an alternate take on the toy car from Unwound Future, the Fish Tank is very similar to the Parrot minigame and the new Puppet Theater works exactly like the previous game's sticker book but with verbs instead of stickers. It doesn't work as well either, since many verbs could work well enough with the context you're provided, such as 'moved' or 'placed', 'covered' and 'wrapped', etc.

 There is, however, one extra that makes up for that. An extra that was cut from the European version(Bastards!). Said extra is.... London Life! It's a 2-D slice-of-life game, not unlike Animal Crossing, in which you create a simple 2-D avatar and take on simple requests from civilians. Civilians being characters from every previous game in the series! Your objective is to amass Wealth and Happiness, the former being your means to buy objects to decorate your room with as well as clothes or what have you, the latter being a health-gauge of sorts, since scary stuff like touching bats or picking up a bug instead of a flower saps your happiness.

 Every time you go to sleep in your bed you advance time, and every in-game day you get new quests from civilians to fulfill. They start repeating eventually, but they are simple so as not to become too tedious. You can also do all sorts of jobs and activities to get money, like Taxi Driving, Bus Driving, getting luggage to the correct rooms in a hotel, juggling and a few others. It's not a '100 hour rpg' as they call it, but it's a surprisingly fun time waster. And it really adds up to the game, you could easily lose a few hours in this little "extra".

 Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a fantastic entry into the series, one of the best actually. Being the beginning of a prequel trilogy means that you don't need to have played any previous game in the series to get the most out of the story, it has the largest amount of puzzles in the series and it also has an extra that could pretty much be its own game, and it has nothing to do with puzzles or riddles, so it's pretty much like having two great games in a single cart. Know what? I'm no longer doubtful, this IS the best Layton game yet.
 8.0 out of 10