Review #767: Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

 A broken mirror is the least of Kirby's problems....

 While I've played my fair share of Kirby games I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a fan, however, the first Kirby game on the Gameboy Advance, Nightmare in Dreamland, is one fantastic game so I had high expectations for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. Sadly, the game pretty much fell short in every way.

 A Dark MetaKnight has appeared and divided Kirby into four Kirbys, so now they team up to figure out what's wrong. What's wrong is that MetaKnight has destroyed the eponymous Amazing Mirror, so they have to collect every shard and right what's wrong. The game looks and plays a lot like Nightmare in Dreamland, which is a good thing, since I've always considered that game to be one of the best looking games on the system. That said, this isn't just another 2-D platformer, oh no, this is a Metroidvania, a series of large zones interconnected between each other. I love Metroidvanias, so surely this game would be great, right? Well.... it gets a lot of things wrong.....

 The first thing that you'll notice upon starting the game is that there are three other Kirbies around you, but they are dumb and controlled by the AI. As you go through the game you'll be able to occasionally come in contact with them, albeit they aren't much help, or you can summon them by calling them on the phone, which is only ever useful to clear a few obstacles or to get yourself a quick heal during boss battles. Bosses aren't particularly tough, but they were made with 4 players in mind, so they are a bit of damage sponges. Boring damage sponges at that. Your allies aren't particularly useful, but hey! One of them might drop in wielding a power which you can then steal from them as soon as they get hit.

 Kirby's abilities remain the same, suck in enemies and eat them to steal their powers. I'm pretty sure that Super Jump was the only power that got the axe, but now we have Cupid, Missile, Magic(Just a one-time random support spell), Chef and Smash, which is Smash Bros.-lite moveset for Kirby. Sword, Fighter and Hammer have movesets now, so different directions on the digital pad + B produces different effects. There are three new minigames you can play with Players or the CPU, and they are pretty decent. There is no bonus Meta Knight mode to unlock, but beating the game unlocks the Master Sword, a power that can destroy any block and has different moves from the basic Sword.

 So now onto what doesn't work... Well, anything that's Metroidvania like. Where should I start from? The map of each area, provided you can actually find it, is pretty much useless. Some "roads" are arrowed, but even then sometimes you might be able to return from where you came from, other times the door behind you just disappears because screw you, this wasn't the exit you wanted to take but the game doesn't care, it's the long way back for you. There are not enough transporters in the game, getting anywhere takes too much time. Oh, and sometimes you need a specific power up to get to alternate routes or chests, which is usually either the hammer, missile or fire dash, so you have to remember what power you need, where the room is and where to get the damned power in the first place. And pray to god that you don't lose the power on the way, because if you get hit you lose your power and if you can't catch it in time it's gone for good. Imagine if this was Symphony of the Night and getting hit could cost you the Double Jump or your Mist Form? Unbelievable. Word of advise" A+B+START+SELECT is how you Reset in the game, because there's no other way to return to the main menu in case you wanted to try a new color or somethin'.

 Alternate colors for Kirby and extra hit points are the only real rewards in the game, but most chests you'll find either have worthless lives, worthless because the life counter resets every time you start the game or healing items you use on the spot. And there's no way to tell what each chest has, sometimes you'll go through hoops in order to get to a chest that only contained a healing items, while others you might find a new color for Kirby on a chest lying just in front of you. It's really dumb. The game has 9 main zones, and each Zone has a Boss as well as multiple "Goal" zones. Goal Zones are zones that force you into a minigame to earn worthless lives and then pop you back into the game nexus. Hopefully you had the map and could avoid the Goal, otherwise you might have to walk a long way back to the area you were exploring because if you enter a Goal you can't go back to the room that came before. It sucks.

 Kirby & the Amazing Mirror was disappointing to say the least. I've been meaning to play this game for years now, but it wound up being a horrible Metroidvania and one of the worst Kirby games I've ever played. That said, I hope the ability to change Kirby's colors returns in future games.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #766: Motocross Maniacs Advance

 She's a maniac, maniac!

 Man, Konami was really betting it on the Gameboy Advance back in the day, they developed a ton of games for the little handheld that could. Case in point, Motocross Maniacs Advance, another game I used to play through Emulation, although I never invested much time on it. This game is kinda weird to be honest, it's a horizontal 2-D racing game over all sorts of crazy tracks with multiple routes and levels with a bit of Mario Kart throw in for good measure.

 The game has four main modes: Championship, made up of six different Cups, although with a few repeated tracks between them. Attack Mode, made up of Time Attack and Point Attack. Action Mode, the minigame sub menu which has Bomb Tag, which works like Konami Krazy Racer's bomb chaser, basically, an elimination round in which you must pass a bomb between racers and whoever has it when the timer runs out loses, rinse and repeat until there's a single survivor, Hidden Lab, in which you run on a conveyor belt avoiding obstacles and gathering coins, pretty boring, and Zombie, in which you must use Nitros to defeat monsters. Lastly, there's multiplayer via link cable. There are 13 different tracks as well as 8 racers, with 2 secret racers unlocked by finishing every Cup.

 A is your accelerator, and you can hold back on the dpad in order to perform wheelies or tricks while on air, B is your Nitro, which is a key mechanic in the game in order to gain air and access to other routes aside from the one at ground level. R is your break and L uses whatever item you've got on stock, from missiles and mines, to shields and thunders. There are two elements you must keep track of at every time: Your Nitros and your fuel, both which can be collected on the track alongside your items. Running out of gas loses you the race, and running out of Nitro, well, sucks, because you won't be able to drive swiftly over certain obstacles or reach other routes. Items always spawn at set locations, so as long as you learn where the Nitros and Fuel cans are on the course you should be just fine.

 The game is fine for a short while, but there's not much meat to these bones, once you beat every cup and unlock the bonus racers there's little to keep you coming back for more unless you've got other humans to play the game with. It's over before you know it, but at least it's fun while it lasts.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #765: X-Men - The Official Game

 Everybody is someone's X.

 Trying to understand how the game's boxart, which clearly shows a three because it's based off the third X-Men movie relates to the official title, as official as Wikipedia and Gamefaqs gets, is an exercise in frustration, so I'll just call it X-Men: The Official Game. This is the last, at this time, WayForward game I own and, sadly, might not have been the best way to end my WayForward adventure in.

 The game doesn't follow the plot of the movie at all. I mean, I haven't seen the movie, but I know it's all about Phoenix, but this game is about Wolverine, NightCrawler, Colossus and Iceman teaming up to find 'parts' to repair Cerebro, and for some reason or another, end up doing battle with Sabertooth, Mystique, Multiple Man and others. The plot isn't interesting nor does it make much sense, but the character cutouts used for dialogue are pretty and the spritework is decent, if unremarkable for WayForward's standards.

 This is a 2-D action/platform game that feels very stiff and dull. The game is somewhat reminiscent of an old Gameboy Color game in which you played as a X-Men team led by Wolverine. A jumps and tapping B performs a two hit combo. After pressing B once you can then tap Up, Down, Back or A for different second attacks, although most of the time you'll find what works for each character and never switch it up. There's no reason to use the B - Up attacks because there's no point to throwing enemies upwards, so with most characters I was content with just B - Down. B - A destroys blocks beneath you, if you are Colossus, so that got a bit of use from me, but most of the time B - Down felt like the best move with every character. The L button is used to switch between characters, each one having their own health and rage bars. Rage is built by defeating enemies or collecting blue power ups, and you can tap R to deal extra damage for as long as your rage gauge lasts. It's... it's a weird mechanic because I really don't understand why it's there. It's so generic too, characters just flash red for no reason. I mean, it makes sense for Wolverine to have a rage gauge, but the other characters? Night Crawler? Colossus? It doesn't make sense for them. They should've gone with Super Attacks instead of this half baked extra damage timed mode.

 Characters have slight differences between each other, Colossus can't jump as high and feels slower than the others, but can store up to four Rage bars as well as destroy weakened walls, NightCrawler's B - A is a teleport, but you must quickly hold Up or Down after pressing A if you want to teleport anywhere besides in front of you, but not too fast, lest you accidentally pull off a B - Up or B - Down. Wolverine has regenerating health, be it if he is your chosen character or not and Iceman... Iceman has nothing. His B - A covers a slightly longer range than other characters' attacks? I dunno. The whole thing feels very half baked as well, the most you could get through Colossus and NightCrawler's abilities are restorative items you don't really need because the game is quite easy. And it's so weird how Iceman gets nothing, and the most Wolverine gets is regenerating health. How about letting Wolverine climb on walls with his claws? Or giving Iceman proper projectile attacks but turning him into a glass cannon?

 As uninspired and poorly thought-out as it feels the game also has a few quirks that make it's even more insipid. For instance, the jumping distance is proportional to how long you press the A button, but on a few occasions it feels like you have to hold the button down for what feels like too long, it's very awkward. It's not the only game that does this, but it's the only game in recent memory that had me holding down the button for so long in order to get the highest jump. The combat is very clunky too, the collision detection doesn't feel quite right, enemies can take up too much damage and they get too much mercy invincibility. It's NOT a hard game, but enemies take too long to kill in a game that is already quite boring, I wouldn't blame you if you resorted to spamming NightCrawler's teleport in order to quickly zip through stages. The only challenging part in the game is the final boss, since you have to endure a long stage filled to the brim with annoying flying pests that pester you with lasers.

 It sucks but.... X-Men: The Official game sucks. It's boring, it's clunky and it has a lot of ideas that aren't properly explored or developed. It's neat having different attributes on each characters, but they don't get much use. The different combo enders sounds like a good idea, but the implementation is clunky and defeating enemies a boring chore. Overall? It's not very good....

 3.0 out of 10

Review #764: Shining Soul II

 Shine bright like a diamond.

 Alright, this is yet another 'old GBA games I used to emulate a lot back in the day', 'cause, y'see, Shining Soul II is amazing. I mean, I've more memories of the first game since it came out before and thus I got to play it more, but I never finished either game, until now.

 This is a dungeon crawler RPG like Diablo but with anime flair. When starting a new game you can choose your character class from between 8 different possibilities, were-animal creatures and humans round up the cast, fulfilling traditional classes such as Knight, Brawler, Mage, etc. Gender and Race are predefined per class, but you get about 8 different color palettes to pick from. The story... is pretty boring, pretty dull and actually takes away from the game. There are countless inane lines of dialogue that you can't fast forward, so even if you read the entire dialogue box, you still have to wait a few seconds before you can press the A button, which is incredibly annoying, I mean, the ending cutscene went on and on and on and on and on and I just wanted to unlock the new difficulty setting and character class. It's no stretch to say that the game is a bit hard so you might grind a few levels or stronger equipment by going back to previous dungeons.... except that the unskippable cutscenes and dialogue will play every time you re-enter the dungeon, which was a very sore spot when it came to playing the game. There's no good reason to have the same exact dialogue play out by bosses you already killed when you revisit an older dungeon. There are no excuses, this was an incredibly poor design choice, and the worst thing about the game by far.

 If you've ever played a loot-based dungeon crawler then you'll know exactly how this game plays. You run around dungeons defeating enemies who may or may not drop loot, some which you'll be able to equip right away, some which might require a trip back to town or an identifying scroll in order to use them. You'll need copious amounts of healing items if you aim to survive, and you could always use Wings to teleport back to town before continuing from the dungeon floor you just came from. Death, at least on the normal difficulty, seems like a slap on the wrist, a piece of equipped armor and any gold you might be carrying will drop, but upon respawning back on town an Angel will just fly you over the floor you were killed on, and you can just pick up whatever you left, dead monsters don't even respawn, so with enough patience you can get through any dungeon, although running out of money on a boss might be a problem.

 The A button attacks, which can be charged, and the B buttons uses whatever item you have selected. You have two quick menus, R for weapons/spells and L for items, so you can quickly swap between whatever item you want to use, or weapons/spells if you want to try something different. And it's also kind of a necessity, because entering any menu is done in real time, so you could get killed while examining your loot. Leveling up grants you a Skillpoint, to spend on mostly passive stats, I played with the Knight so it might not hold water for the other classes, and 4 stats points to increase your stats. There doesn't seem to be a way to respec your character, so you'll have to live with your choices. Saving the game returns you to the main menus, which was a very weird design choice, but the worst part about it is that every single time you save your game, the game will remind you of your return to the menu through an annoying amount of unskippable dialogue boxes. I'm level 41 already, I know how the save feature works, stop patronizing me!

 The game is pretty rudimentary, with its lack of Active skills or even color-coded loot rarity, but it's very addictive and very fun, despite the dialogue-related issues. I kept replaying older dungeons, yet I was having a lot of fun. The game is also pretty lengthy, it has 10 main dungeons, but about 10 more optional areas that open up through side quests, of which there's a hearty amount, even if you have to talk to every NPC after every dungeon if you hope not to miss any of them. All in all, it's a fun, replayable loot-RPG.

 I adored this game, it's very fun, and had it not had all those unskippable and repeating dialogue scenes it could've been an easy 9. As it stands, it's a game that's incredibly fun as long as you can put up with an absurd downtime every time a cutscene plays when you play new and old levels alike.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #763: Life is Strange

 Not a 'Blue is the Warmest Color" spinoff.

 Back in the day, I used to love graphic adventure games such as Monkey Island, but nowadays the genre is mostly dead, living on through games like the Telltales series' or Life is Strange, with a bigger emphasis on dialogue and choices rather than on crafty or ridiculous puzzles. Life is Strange was kind of popular back when it first released, and while it hasn't held the popularity it once had, it's still fondly remembered.

 In the game you play as Max Caulfield, a mousy university student who one day discovers she has the power to rewind time when her estranged ex-best friend, Chloe Sullivan, gets shot by the resident psycho-jock Nathan. What follows is a quasi murder-mystery story in which Max and Chloe team up to discover what happened to  Rachel Amber, Chloe's friend after Max left town. I liked the story, I liked a lot of characters and hated others that we were supposed to hate. That said, I think that they wrote too many characters like dorks or geeks, like Chloe herself, who is supposed to be a rebel but calls Max "Super Max", which felt somewhat out of character from what I expected from her. All five chapters have multiple choices, some are big, some are small, regardless, you could always Rewind time and see which outcome you like the most, provided it won't pay off in latter chapters. I felt like the fifth chapter got a bit silly when it came to the chapter's villain, with his dialogue coming off borderline campy, but it totally made up for that with one trippy dream-sequence. Plus, despite my dislike for some of his dialogue, I thought the fifth chapter was really good.

 The game is very well voice acted, however, even though I'm a staunch defender of gameplay over graphics, this is a game in which the story IS the game, and it takes a while getting used to the lifeless PS2-looking character models aimlessly flapping their lips as well acted dialogue comes out. It can make a few emotional scenes turn out unintentionally funny. On the other hand, the soundtrack is glorious.

 Besides making decisions every now and then, the game has a few light puzzle elements. Things such as asking questions that anger characters, so that you can rewind back time and ask them about this new piece of information before they became uncooperative. Other times you might have to get into a certain spot and then rewind time, because Max stays still but the world around her goes back in time. Save for this one puzzle on the shack, they are pretty easy to figure out.

 Can't say I was a huge fan of the game, but I like Max and I liked her powers, I think the Rewind power is a neat twist on these games built around making decisions. Most characters were interesting, and making choices was actually rather fun, so kudos for making players get engrossed on their decisions and what they could affect in future chapters.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #762: Marvel's The Invincible Iron Man

 See? You can make a good Iron Man game.

 Iron Man has had it rough as far as the videogame world is concerned. While he has had some playable appearances on some truly great game, his self titled games have fared much worse, Iron Man 2 being one of the worst games I've ever played in my life, and I only played the demo. Thankfully, Marvel's The Invincible Iron Man for the Gameboy Advance proved that you could make a decent game out of the tin can hero.

 The game is made up of 8 stages, a few with minibosses, and 2 proper boss stages. It's not too short, but it's not lengthy either. The game has a few cutscenes and they use gorgeous 2-D art that must belong to a Comicbook, because it's just too good. As for the game itself, it's a 2-D sidescroller platform/shooter, like Contra or Metal Slug, but a bit easier provided you are careful.

 Iron Man can jump and double jump with the A button, tackle/dash with R button, although only once while on the air, shoot with the B button, and he can also charge his shots, and lastly, he can use the Uni-Beam or a area-clearing attack with the L button. These latter two super moves cost orbs, the uni-beam costs 1 orb and the AOE burst costs 2 orbs. I found that the screen-clearing move was much more useful and no situation really needed the uni-beam, save for the last boss, so I just hoarded orbs for when I needed the burst.

 The game has this weird limitation where your basic and charged shots consume energy from a gauge that refills over time at a very slow pace, although you'll find red orbs throughout the levels that will charge it a bit. This means that shooting willy nilly will come back to bite you in the back when you get swarmed by enemies and must rely on a slow stream of weak energy shots since you're out of energy. But in a way, this also teaches you to be careful. The game can be challenging if you're not careful and mindful of your energy gauge, which I know sounds like a hassle, but it's not too bad.

 If anything, this game proves that you can make a decent Iron Man game. It plays fine, it looks great and makes good use of the license.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #761: Daredevil

 It can't be worse than the move, now could it?

 Back in the day, every crappy movie deserved a crappy licensed game, and Daredevil ought not be the exception. Thankfully, it's actually a pretty decent beat'em up that reminded me a lot of old Genesis games, thanks to how it looks and plays.

 I'm not sure if the game is a retelling of the movie or a follow up or what have you, but it ends just like the movie. Sorta. The game both begins and ends with different showcases of movie stills that make no sense, at first I wasn't sure if the game was telling me that the movie took place before the game or whatever, and after I finished it and got the ending reel... I was just as confused. When it boils down to it, it's a 23 stage long beat'em up that'll have you facing bosses from the movie, such as Elektra and Bullseye, as well as other enemies exclusive to this game, like Echo and a green... troll-thing. There are a ton of extras to unlock, such as Daredevil's original yellow costume as well as Elektra, Bullseye and Kingpin's comic sprites instead of their movie-inspired ones, which is pretty neat. The entire game runs on passwords, so I just found the Master Password and played the entire game as Yellow Daredevil. Sue me.

 A jumps, B is your standard three-hit combo, R attacks with your billy club and pressing R after a two-hit B combo will end the string with a club attack, double tapping either side and pressing B performs a sliding kick. Daredevil also gets a double jump, and the L button allows you to tap into his senses to reveal hidden power ups, be it health restoring items, temporary double damage, temporary invincibility or temporarily turning your club into a projectile that stuns enemies. Different enemies are more vulnerable either to punches or club attacks, and sometimes, in order to better deal with waves of enemies, it's important to figure out how best to deal with the situation at hand.

 Most of the levels and challenges are your standard beat'em up/platformer hybrid fare, and stages aren't too bad, every now and then mixing up things with vertical movements in order to progress as opposed to a straight zip line from left to right, not that the game is lacking on those type of stages either. That said, bosses are very poorly designed, particularly Elektra, the first boss, since plenty of times there seems to be no way to defeat them but to take damage. Elektra took me out 3-4 times, so I gave up and looked up how to defeat her... and the game's only guide tells you that you need to get hit in order to beat her. Eventually I retried her fight again, since I wanted to see how her movie sprite looked, and I defeated her on my first try... even though I had to get hit in order to do it.

 Considering this is pretty much Daredevil's only videogame, I'd say he got off pretty leniently, since this is actually a pretty decent, albeit unremarkable beat'em up. Plenty of things could've been better, but they could've done so much worse, just look at the poor Power Rangers, so I'll gladly take what we got with this game.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #760: Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie

 Time for another Mickey and Minnie dressup game.

 Last year I finally got around to beating Magical Quest 1, and next on the copping block we've got Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie. Sure, the title is a handful, but the game is a neat follow up to the previous game. It's not better, it's not worse, it's just another set of 6 levels alongside a new set of costumes, albeit with the same strong gameplay the previous game brought.

 The story this time is a bit less magical and a bit less surreal, Mickey and Minnie arrive to the circus, to meet up with their pals, but something or someone is wreckinghavoc, so Mickey and Minnie team up to stop whoever is doing it. It's a six stage short platformer that is as hard as it is easy. What I mean to say, is that the game can be a bit challenging, but the Save option is very generous, completely refilling your health upon loading. That said, a Reset feature would've been nice, since sometimes I was sure I could do better, and wanted to do better, but had to reset the whole system to reload my save. Just like the previous game, you start off with three hearts, but if you explore the different stages you can permanently increase your health bar. Lastly, you can pick between Mickey and Minnie before you start the game, but they are pretty much identical.

  Just like the previous game, we've got three costumes to play with, but they are new costumes. Mickey's normal attire let's him grab stunned enemies or certain blocks and shoot them forward. The first costume you get, the Sweeper costume, lets you suck in enemies or certain objects, and it can be useful to put off fires. The Safari costume is an alternate take on the previous game's Climber, armed with just a hook, Mickey and Minnie can climb on walls, swing on floating spheres or slide down vines with it, this is the most versatile costume and you'll get a lot of use out of it. Lastly, the bouncing cowboy lets you shoot corks with your gun, which is quite useful for bosses. I found myself swapping costumes quite frequently, unlike the first game, and I think they made a better use out of them. That said, the Sweeper Costume felt a bit of an afterthought, anything it can do, the Cowboy costume can do better, so unless the situation explicitly demands the Sweeper costume, you probably won't use it much. That said, sucking in enemies turns them into coins, so if you want to get the most out of the secret shops this costume might be your best bet. 

 I liked this game as much as the first one. The platforming sections are slightly challenging, but fair, the costume system is quite fun and the game looks great to boot. There were a pair of leaps of faith during the game, but I think it might be because the GBA's screen is smaller than a TV's resolution, so maybe it's the GBA's fault, maybe. Regardless, since I can only remember two of them, I'm pretty sure it's not too bad. All in all, it's another great Disney game by Capcom.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #759: Konami Krazy Racers

 No, this is not another Mortal Kombat Spinoff.

 Konami Krazy Racers is one of those GBA games I had always wanted to own. I remember during my early highschool years that one guy who was younger than me owned this game, and during recess he'd lent it to me, or I'd just watch him play it. While I recognized Goemon, I didn't recognize Ninja or Dracula, so I thought it was "just" a Racing game, failing to realize that it's actually a Konami all-stars mascot racer! As the years would come to pass, I'd never fail to get a ROM of this game every time I got back into GBA Emulation, I really liked this game. And what'd you know? It's held up remarkably well!

 The game is made up of 16 tracks and 8 Racers, as well as 4 unlockable, secret racers. As per usual, tracks are divided in groups of four under the main, Grand Prix mode, called, erm, Krazy GP in this game. Besides the main GP mode you get Time Attack, Free Run(VS Cpu), VS player and Mini Battle, which is made up of two modes: Chicken Race, in which you tap B to break right before the finish run and Bomb Chaser in which you pass a bomb around to explode the unlucky sap who gets it. There's a gimmick to this game, licenses, which limit which GPs you can play. At first you can only play a single GP, and after you beat it, you can take a B License test to unlock the next to GPs, beat said GPs and you unlock the A License test, which unlocks the final GP. There's a final S License test that I wasn't able to finish, but I'm pretty sure it's just there for bragging rights. One important thing to remember is to SAVE, the game won't autosave for you, so remember to always SAVE YOUR GAME. I forgot to save the final two secret characters and raged for a bit until I calmed down and went back to get them, thankfully I discovered that you didn't need to finish the GP they are hidden in, just collect the crystal.

 The game is exactly what you think it is: A Mario Kart clone, but it's one of the few good ones. You drive laps around a track, collecting item boxes(red and blue bells) in order to use power ups to get up to the first place. You've got missiles, homing missiles, a thunder that hits everyone, the whole 9 yards. Red bells always contain offensive items, while the blue bells contain Turbos, you can store up to three turbos, but red bells don't stack, that said, there's a Shop in the main menu in which you can spend coins collected through racing in order to equip more uses or specific weapons. Equipping this modifiers doesn't guarantee that you'll get the item, but if you do happen to get the item you'll get extra uses out of it.

 The game plays just fine, and it feels almost as tight as Mario Kart. One thing that really threw me off is that the R jump does not turn into a drift, there's no drifting in this game, so taking curves is all about breaking and letting go off the accelerator.

 If there's anything to complain about is that they should've added a bit more fanservice. Goemon and Ebisumaru make perfect sense, the Vic Viper and Moai head are brilliant additions, but why is Grey Fox here without the more recognizable Solid Snake? Why do we get a generic rendition of Dracula instead or alongside of a more recognizable Belmont? I mean, don't get me wrong, Dracula is the recurring enemy, but his design always changes and this version didn't remind me of any of his past incarnations. Tracks too felt a bit generic, the Goemon tracks had its music and the backdrops reminded me of Goemon, heck, on stage changes time of the day like Mystical Ninja 64... but what about the Castle tracks? They have Castlevania's music and sometimes a few bats appear, but where are the torches? Where are the Castlevania references? Same goes for Cyber Base 1 and 2, they get Metal Gear Solid's music and there are mines on the floor, but no cardboard crates? No cameras? Nothing to make me think of Metal Gear? The same goes for the Baseball stage, they should've made it less generic and more Powerful Pro Yakyu.

 Yeah, it's a good one. I've played a fair share of loosey, slippery mascot racers, but Konami Krazy Racers is one the few ones that really manage to play as well as Mario Kart. I think they could've leaned a bit more on the franchises they paid tribute to with this game, but at least the overall package is well made.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #758: Godzilla - Domination!

 They don't call him the King of All Monsters for nothin'

 Remember Destroy All Monsters Melee? Well, not content with crafting a then-well received Godzilla game, Atari tasked WayForward with creating a handheld version of that game, and thus Godzilla Domination! was born. With this game, WayForward opted to take inspiration from the King of the Monsters, no, not Godzilla, but rather the old Neo Geo classics, the first game in particular. So what we've got here is a 4-man arena fighting game featuring 6 characters from the world of Godzilla.

 I'm not gonna lie, the game feels more than a bit barebones. There's a very basic Story Mode that ends with you fighting a gigantic Mecha Gidorah, a VS Player Mode and a VS CPU mode. You can have up to four different monsters fight on the same battle, and can divide players and CPUs in teams if you so wish it. The six characters are fairly different from one another, even MechaGodzilla and Godzilla, but movesets are very basic: A and B are different attacks, L blocks and R jumps. You also have to aerial attacks, pressing either A or B on the air, as well as two different charge attacks, with either B or A, and no, you can't attack with the other button you're not charging an attack with, so if you begin a charge you are forcefully committed to it.

 You also get super moves. By landing charged attacks or destroying buildings around you, by stepping over them, you'll build your three-tiered Rage gauge. There are three levels of Rage moves, performed with either L+R, A+B or A+B on the air. First issue: Commands are not universal between characters, this means that while L+R may be Godzilla's level 1 Rage Attack, it's actually King Gidorah's level 2 Rage attack, which is kinda annoying when switching from character to character. The second big issue with Rage attacks is that in what's actually quite surprising from a WayForward game.... getting these attacks to come out can be a hassle, controls just don't feel responsive enough, I often times found myself mashing L+R together in frustration waiting for my attack to come out.

 Godzilla Damnation! is a decent time, but it's nothing special. With a paltry 6 characters and a very limited moveset for each character you'll be done with the game after a few hours. Fans of Godzilla might get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters in gorgeous 2-D, but even then these are far from WayForward's Rob Buchanan's best work.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #757: Power Rangers - Wild Force

 At last, a wild Power Rangers game appeared.

 So... Power Rangers Wild Force is one of the two Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance that actually inspired me playing every Power Rangers game on handhelds, and there's a good reason for that, I actually remembered playing through both games when I was younger and actually enjoying them quite a bit. As these games arrived, I gave them a quick try, and figured out that Wild Force would be the worst one of the bunch, so I left it for last... turns out it just might be the best Rangers game on the Gameboy Advance.

 This one is a bit different from the others, it is a beat'em up albeit on an isometric viewpoint and it uses ugly pseudo 3-D graphics, I mean, the running animation is... something. The game is made up of about 8 stages, but twice you are allowed to pick divergent paths, so there's actually a few more stages, it's just that you can't play every stage on one playthrough. The game is very basic, A jumps, which is useless in this game, B is your basic attack string, L summons a fellow Ranger for a double attack and R uses a weapon attack, a Ranger's final attack on his basic combo string actually, unless you're the Black Ranger, in which case he'll pick up an enemy and throw him. Why he gets to be unique is beyond me. Each stage is made up of various square areas, and after you defeat every enemy in an area you can move to an adjacent area, the objective being to get to the area square that houses the boss. It's usually very obvious just where the boss is, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to clear every area or to explore outside whatever route you figure is quicker. There are barely more than 2 basic enemy types in the entire game, so every single stage plays out the same, it's just that the backdrop on which you are standing changes. Lazy? Definitely. Repetitive? In concept, yes, but the game is short enough as not to wear out its welcome.

 All five Rangers play basically the same, but with different stats. Before you attempt each stage you can pick a team of four, which is hilarious because there are only five characters, regardless, the first Ranger you pick is the one you'll play as, and the other three are the Rangers you'll cycle from as you use your Summon attacks, each ranger having a different super. Midway through the game, the Silver Ranger joins your ranks, and he has the same summon assist as the Blue Ranger, but he has the best stats among all characters.

 You know the drill by now, every boss ends with a Zord battle, thankfully, these Zord battles are alright, which is the best case scenario when it comes to these games. A and R are different attacks, B blocks and after you fill your energy gauge, a A-button-pressing minigame ensues that deals plenty of damage if you don't miss any input. If the enemy fills their own gauge, you'll play the same minigame but in order to block incoming damage. In what was a strange twist, I actually started to long for the Zord battles, 'cause you see, there are 7 Zords in the game, and which Zords you can use depend on which orbs you get, orbs being awarded every time you beat a stage. Since the Zord battles are quite alright, and every stage has an Orb as a reward, I started to look forward to every new Zord I could use! That said, since you have two forks during the game, you won't be able to use every Zord on a single playthrough, and depending on which routes you pick, sometimes you won't even get a new Zord upon finishing a stage, but it doesn't matter, it was still fun to get new Zords and trying them out.

 Power Rangers - Wild Force is yet another lazy, sub-par beat'em up game on the system, but for my money, it's the best one. While I had some fun with it, it's not hard to realize just how repetitive the concept is, so your mileage may vary on it. Anyway, I'm glad I'm done with Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance!
 4.5 out of 10

Review #756: Power Rangers - Dino Thunder

 Feels like ancient software that should've gone the way of the Dinosaurs.

 I don't know how, but Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance keep finding ways of letting me down, just when I think I've seen every way these games can suck.... they find new ones. Case in point, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, yet another platforming beat'em up game.

 In this game you play as the Red, Yellow and Blue Rangers while taking orders from a non-playable Black Ranger as well as sporadic appearances of an unplayable White Ranger. Lame. All three characters are virtually identical, with only their weapon attack animations being different, but behaving pretty much the same way. Each stage has you playing as a different member of the trio, and there's about 5 stages per character, for a total of 15 or so stages, making it relatively lengthy for a Power Rangers game.

 The game looks like the successor to the Ninja Storm game, featuring similar large, ugly digitized sprites and stiff gameplay. B is your basic three hit combo, B+UP is a weapon attack and B+Down is another weapon attack. You can collect coins on every stage, and for every 10 coins you can use your Super Move with the R button. Combat feels clunkier than in Ninja Storm, at first I was having trouble getting the 3-hit combo to come out and couldn't figure out what was going on.... turns you have to mash the B button really fast for it to come out, regardless, your best attacks are the weapon attacks and flying kicks, since they deal more damage than the useless 3 hit combo.

 Remember all those crappy Spider-man games on the GBA and DS? Remember what made them so bad? Well, this game follows that formula to a tee, being a scavenger hunt on mazelike levels. On the plus side, while you don't have a radar, the game reuses the same 5 levels over and over again, so eventually you'll learn the layout by heart and thus won't get lost... much. On the other side, the game reuses the same levels, with the same layouts, although with the objects of your hunt hidden in different places, over and over again, making for a very boring and repetitive game, pretty much what we've learnt to expect from these licensed snorefests. The Factory level is particularly bland, because falling down into the many, many pits will loops you back to the beginning of the stage. LAME.

 Zord Battles, of course, are a thing. This time around you pick from six different arms, 1 on each side, I mean, d'oh, and then do battle against enemies by tapping A or B to use your different arms. You might double tap left to back dash or hold back to block every now and then, but they are simple and not too awful. There are also 4 'connect the maze' minigames that are incredibly annoying because your character icon moves VERY slowly and the maze swaps tiles around randomly, or randomly takes time away from the timer, or other types of different bullcrap that turn these puzzles into annoyances. Clearing these puzzles is the only way to unlock new arms for your Zord.

 Power Rangers - Dino Thunders is clunky, poorly designed and boring, so... moving over....
 3.0 out of 10

Review #755: Power Rangers - S.P.D.

 It took a while, but here we are, the Tolerable Rangers!

 I was losing hope for the handheld Power Ranger games, but lo and behold, PowerRangers S.P.D. is actually quite serviceable. Once again, this is a beat'em up/platformer hybrid in which you save the Earth as the Power Rangers.

 This game is actually rather long when compared to the previous two games I played, being made up of 8 stages with many sub-stages each. This actually became somewhat of a negative by the time I reached stage 7, since I just wanted the game to end because it became so repetitive. In what's a change from the formula, every sub-stage has a designated Ranger, so you can't swap between them. The Red Ranger can wall jump and his super move lets him go through walls and enemies, the Blue and Green Rangers can double jump, the Blue Ranger's super move is a crystal wall that blocks projectiles and damages enemies on contact while the Green Ranger's super move is a radar, a necessity since his stages are timed scavenger hunts, lastly, the Yellow and Pink Rangers can roll in order to avoid incoming damage, the Yellow Ranger's super creates shadow doubles of her, making her the best combat character and most fun character to use, while the Pink Ranger can perform a Super Punch, which deals a lot of damage but you'll mostly use it to break walls. Lastly, you get to play as the Shadow Ranger for the final two sub-stages, and he can double jump, wall jump and roll, as well as being stronger than the others. A few sub stages are simple vehicle sections which are unobtrusive at best.

 The game is pretty much what you'd expect: Move from left to right, unless you are the Green Ranger, mashing B to defeat enemies and pressing A every now and then to jump. R uses your Super Move, which is tied to a gauge that refills over time. It what can only be seen as a poor design choice, sometimes you'll find yourself waiting for the gauge to fill so that you can go over an obstacle that requires your super. The overall gameplay is serviceable, but by the end enemies felt a bit too tanky, and you attack combo was a bit too long and boring, so I was hoping for the game to end soon and just skipping as many enemies as I could.

 You don't get Zord battles until the fourth stage, and thankfully they are not too bad. B kicks, A punches and the collision detection is a bit suspect at times, but they are not too hard and they are not too time consuming. This game might have the best Zord battles yet, but it isn't saying much all things considered.

 It's tolerable, serviceable even, but it's still nothing more than a lackluster licensed game. At least there's some fun to be had here until the repetitiveness sets in.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #754: Power Rangers - Time Force/Power Rangers - Ninja Storm

 Twice the Rangers, twice the suck.

 Sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder why I subject myself to such terrible games. Well, this time it's because of nostalgia, as I used to play these games and actually enjoy them. In this case we've got a two-in-one deal, featuring Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Power Rangers Time Force, both bland beat'em ups in their own way.

 Power Rangers - Ninja Storm

 This is one ugly beat'em up, featuring large, ugly digitized sprites that move as stiffly as they look. You have three campaigns to choose from: The Red, Yellow and Blue ranger trio, the Magenta and Deep Blue ranger duo and the Green ranger lonesome, although each campaign is made up of the same 5 stages. Rangers are pretty much identical between each other, the Crimson/Deep Blue Rangers can charge their Super attacks and basic attacks, the main trio have alternate super moves(The Red Ranger has an aerial alternate super, the Yellow Ranger has a sliding super and I wasn't able to figure out how to pull the Blue Ranger's alternate) and the Green Ranger has.... nothing. In each campaign you can swap rangers with the select button, but all characters have the same animations, sprites and stats, only differing on their super moves. Oh, and the Crimson/Deep Blue duo having electricity on their basic attacks.

 B is your standard attack or projectile, but in order to swap weapons you have to find and collect the weapon power up, but why would you? As grabbing the same weapon icon(Sword or gun) will power it up, up to level three. I don't know how the projectile weapon evolves, since I didn't care about them, but the sword goes up to level 3, and each level unlocks a new attack, turning your basic slash into a three hit combo. You have alternate combos, such as B-B+Up which pops up your enemies and B-B-B+Side which throws them forward, but they are pretty useless. I guess B+Side ender is useful to knock down a wave of enemies if they are encroaching towards you. A special gauge fills over time, and once full you can press R for your super move. A jumps and L blocks.

 Combat is fairly dull and unsatisfying. Bosses have mercy invincibility, so the one enemy that would make sense to use your three hit combo is immune to it. That said, it's easy to get bosses into a attack-block pattern, and if they get out of it, getting them into it again is fairly simple. As per usual, we've got Zord battles after every boss, and, as per usual, they are the worst part about the game. They are slow, boring and very time consuming, because they are a tug-o-war. You have to be on the look out for button prompts(QTES!) and press either B or A, depending on which button appeared, and hold down a direction on the DPAD, depending on which side of the screen said prompt came from. It's dumb, it's boring, and it can take way too long since it's a tug o' war.

 As a whole it's one boring way to spend your time in. There are better games and even better licensed games on the console.

 3.5 out of 10

 Power Rangers -Time Force

 Let me start off by saying that I LOVED the way this game started in, the Red Ranger gets murdered and your navigator nonchalantly tells you not to worry since you can 'find a replacement for him on the next stage'. Once that hooplah is over, the game starts and it's just another boring beat'em up with ugly, lazy digitized sprites. The game is five stages long, but this time around you get all five rangers at once, can swap between them by pressing Select and each Ranger gets their own health and energy gauges, as well as their own stats, but everything else is identical between them.

 B is your basic attack and A jumps. If you find the Sword and Gun icon on every stage you'll be able to use said weapons, R for the Sword and L for the gun, but they spend energy from the energy gauge, energy better spent with you screen-clearing super attack by holding down the B button. If you find the Quantum Ranger icon you can play as him until he dies or you beat the stage's boss, but be careful, just pressing the select button will lock you out of the character until you find the Quantum icon again. I understand they didn't want you to swap characters as not to save him for bosses or tough areas, but just pressing select takes him away from you! I just wanted to check his stats!

 The game is very slippery, and combat feels unresponsive and wonky, it's not a fun game to play. Level feel carelessly slapped together, featuring those loveable leaps of faiths towards the unknown. By stage 3 I figured that defeating enemies was just a formality, and most of the time just avoiding them and running towards the end of the stage was more fun than mindlessly mashing B. As per usual, after each boss you have a Zord Battle, thankfully, this is the first Power Rangers game that kept the basic gameplay for those, and no crappy minigames. That said, it's just about mashing B to fill your energy gauge, once that's done you'll automatically defeat the boss.

 Time Force is even more boring than Ninja Storm, but also feels worse to play. At least it has the best Zord Battles in a Power Ranger game I've played yet.... which isn't saying much all things considered, and they are still pretty bad, just not as bad as the other Power Rangers games had them.

 3.0 out of 10

 They are a bland couple of games, they really are. There's absolutely no reason to care for these games unless you've some weird sort of emotional or nostalgic attachment to any of these games, like I do.

 3.5 out of 10

Review #753: The Scorpion King - Sword of Osiris

 And this is why WayForward are the kings of licensed games.

 Long, long ago, the Mummy movies, starring Brendan Fraser, were pretty famous and thus a spinoff, the Scorpion King was born. In case you couldn't tell what the Rock was cooking, because the movie was pretty mediocre, the movie received a couple of licensed games in order to cash in on the Rock's rising popularity, The Scorpion King - Sword of Osiris being the Gameboy's version, developed by mainstream videogame developer darling WayForward.

 I don't know if the game follows the plot from the movie, and I really don't care because it doesn't really matter. Mathayus' sweetheart, Cassandra, gets taken away by the baddies, so he is out to rescue her and save the world, and restoring a magical gauntlet and obtaining the mythical Sword of Osiris in the process. The game is made up of seven stages, and you can play as both Mathayus AND Cassandra, although the latter is only available on the game's intro and through cheats. The game runs on passwords, which kinda suck, but at least they are only four pictures long.

 The game is a fast-paced 2-D action/platformer game in which you'll jump and slash your way to the end. Mathayus has access to two weapons(technically three), a two-handed sword and two hook swords, a dagger and a kick in the case of Cassandra, and the difference between both is merely about range, speed and strength: The Sword/Dagger is much stronger, but has less reach and a bit slower, while the Hook Swords/Kick have more range, come out quicker and hit overhead. I was just fine with the broad sword for most of the game, but a few flying enemies were better dealt with using the hookswords, so swapping weapons has its sparse uses. Both weapons have charge attacks(Hold B and then push different directions) but those moves are incredibly situational, so I only used them because I wanted to try them out, not because they'd be the optimal response to an enemy.

 As you defeat bosses, one per stage, you'll unlock gem slots on your gauntlet. Gems can be obtained from fallen enemies and they boost your stats. The first gem you find powers up your weapons, engulfing them in fire, the second level adds a rotating, defensive flame around your characters, etc. There are four different levels for gem power, but gems can be hard to come by and getting hit means you lose one gem level, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I wasn't good enough to manage to keep a level 3 gem buff long enough to see how the fourth level worked.

 The Scorpion King on the Gameboy Advance is a fairly solid offering for people looking to get their action-platform fix. Gameplay is snappy and there's nothing particularly bad about it, maybe how forgettable it can be due to the unremarkable licensed its based on. Regardless, the game does have its staying power. I first tried it out during the Advance Emulation heyday, before I even know what WayfForward was, and I never forgot about this game because of how great a first impression made thanks to how fun it was to play.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #752: Castlevania - Circle of the Moon

 But what about the square of the moon? And the triangle of the moon?

 As someone that loved Symphony of the Night, I was hyped about Castlevania: Circle of the Moon before I even had a Gameboy Advance. I knew I as gonna get one, and as soon as the game was announce I kept tabs on it. As much as the early dial-up connections of the early 00's allowed anyways. But the economy took a dive, games became too much of an expensive luxury, and the fact that I never even saw the box in my country meant I never got to play the game. Eventually I would get to try it out via Emulation, but I never properly finished it, much less own it. I own it now, and finally I have beaten every Metroidvania Castlevania, and this collection is complete.

 You play as Nathan Graves, the inheritor of the famed Vampire Killer, although this game takes place in an alternate timeline, so no pesky Belmonts. Nathan, Hugh and their master, who is also Hugh's father, get trapped inside Drac's castle, their Master is MIA and Hugh is out to prove he ought to be the inheritor of the Whip, so Nathan is basically left to his own devices in order to rescue his master and defeat Dracula. Story has never been Castlevania's strongest suit, so it doesn't really matter what the excuse is, what matters is that this was the first Metroidvania style Castlevania on the Gameboy Advance, and it delivered just that. The Castle is pretty large, although the game could've used more Teleportation rooms, since you'll have to do a lot of backtracking on foot, but in a way, it's better that way, since this game is tough, and any extra level you can grind will help.

 At the start, Nate can only jump, slide, use a subweapon, attack with his whip or twirl it around for minimal damage(but works great as a defense against projectiles!), but as you go through the castle and defeat bosses you'll earn new abilities to let you go through obstacles, such as running, double jumping or pushing blocks. As far as equipment goes, Nathan only wields the Vampire Killer but you can equip an armor as well as two accessories, provided you get them from enemy drops. There isn't a shop in this game, so any healing item or equipment piece is entirely tied to how lucky you are. To compliment his basic moveset, you can also use any of the heart-consuming subweapons the series is know for, such as the dagger, the holy water, the cross, the stopwatch or the ax.

 There's one other tool in Nathan's repertoire, and that too is tied to luck, and these are Cards. A few enemies have a very small chance(It goes as high as about 1.4% chance! on a few monsters) of dropping a card. By themselves cards are useless, but if you combine cards you can get different effects. There are twenty cards, divided in two sets of 10, and you must combine two cards between sets. You can get all sorts of neat effects, such as turning your whip into an elemental whip, passive stat boots, access to Item Crash or even turn your whip into a flippin' sword. The card system, named DSS, is paramount to maximizing your survival in this game, which makes it almost criminal that every card is found by chance, and there's no way of telling if an enemy can drop a card or not besides aimless grinding. At least you'll get experience points, I guess.

 Blasphemous might've tried this whole "hard metroidvania" thing, but it ain't even half as hard as this game. I'd say Circle of the Moon sits neatly between Blasphemous and Castlevania - Order of Ecclesia. Enemies deal massive damage, bosses can tank a lot of damage, save spots are few, healing can be incredibly hard to come by and enemy drops, which make up your equipment and access to hard, can be very stingy. It doesn't feel too unfair, but some of the enemy placement can be very tricky, and some enemy patterns, like the darned Dark Armors, can be pretty tough to avoid even when you figure out the best strategy to take them out. I know the game received criticism for how dark it looked, but even with the GBA SP's backlit screen some enemy projectiles sort of blend into the background, Camilla's purple projectiles being a prime example of this.

 Overall, I think it's pretty fun. The DSS system is fun to tinker with and discover new abilities, the graphics are pretty good and the Castle feels well designed, even if it could've used more teleportation rooms. Nathan feels heavier than other protagonists in the series, he can't move as fast or even take a backstep, but exploring the castle is fun, and it's pretty large too. Konami would add a ton of features, enhancements and tweaks to the formula on subsequent games, but Circle of the Moon feels like a very solid first step.

 I think this might very well be the weakest Metroidvania on Nintendo's handheld systems, but even then it's a great game. It's definitely got a much more appealing style than Harmony of Dissonance, but that game played a bit better, even if it looked worse. It feels a bit stiff when compared with the other Castleroids, a bit slow and limited, but if you enjoy the genre there's no going wrong with this one, provided you are up to the challenge.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #751: Gunstar Super Heroes

 It ain't jump and shoot, it's SUPER jump and shoot..

 While Treasure seems to be resting on its laurels during the current generation of videogames, they sure were prolific on the Gameboy Advance. I've already covered a few of their games here, but one that avoided me for a while was Gunstar Super Heroes, a sequel to a beloved Sega Genesis classic.

 I'll be the first to admit that I never finished Gunstar Heroes, truth be told, I never found it much fun. Regardless, this game seems to be a sequel to said game, although you might be forgiven for thinking it's a reboot since it borrows so many ideas, stages and concepts from the original game. Characters were given personalities, and there's a plot about collecting 4 different gems, but they are just window dressing. In the game you can play as either Blue or Red, both are pretty much identical except for the fact that their slides look different and they each have a different weapon. Remember how the original had about 4 different types of guns? Well, Blue and Red share two of those weapons(The homing beam and the explosive rounds), but they each get a unique type: Red gets the machine gun while Blue gets the laser beam. That aside, there are 3 different difficulty settings per character, as well as 6 different missions shared between characters. The game is very short, but very tough, I only just managed to beat the game on Easy, finishing Normal would require a bit more time investment, learning patterns and what not, and I just didn't want to bother. I didn't really need to either, I got more than my fill of the game on Easy and I really enjoyed my time with it, but it's not a game I'd care getting good at.

 The game offers a ton of mobility and techniques to style on your enemies. A is your jump button, but couple it with Down on the D-Pad and you'll perform an offensive slide, tap A on the air to produce a flying kick, press Up on the D-Pad with A to perform a Shoryuken or tap down and A while on the air to stomp on the ground. You can even link a slide into a Shoryuken into a stomp, it's pretty smooth, simple and quite stylish, although being careless with these will only result in you getting hurt. L button toggles between your three guns, B lets you move and shoot while R will shoot while locking you in place, in case you need precision aiming. Each weapon also gets a gauge that fills as you kill enemies, once filled you can double tap R to use a super version of your shot. Lastly, tapping the B button instead of holding it down will let you use melee attacks. Training yourself to shoot with B or R depending on the situation takes a while, but there's no denying that your moveset is pretty neat, and it makes for a very stylish game.

 Level design is... well, your mileage may vary on these. Most stages have at least some sort of vehicle section, be it an overhead helicopter stage or a stage in which you roll a ship around the screen while evading missile and shooting down enemies. Can't say I enjoyed those, the game is definitely at its best when you are on the ground, running, jumping, styling and shooting. Stage 4 also has a bizarre board-minigame thing that feels more like a waste of time than a challenge. I really, really could've done without that section. While there are no traditional checkpoints, each stage has multiple sections, and if you die you can restart from another section, with the small caveat that you spawn with whatever health you had when you reached that checkpoint. If its too low, you can just replay the previous section, or sections, and try to arrive with more health. It's an interesting system to be sure.

 Gunstar Super Heroes is a bit of a mixed bag. The gameplay is brilliant, your moveset is fun... but I think they went a bit too hard on unnecessary vehicle sections that actually took a bit away from the game. And it's a bit of a shame, because if it had had more on-foot sections the game could've been a little gem. Regardless, it's a fun game, but not without a few dull moments.
 7.5 out of 10