Review #814: Ridge Racer Revolution

 Oh, here's the second track!... but where are the rest??

 Well... it's more Ridge Racer. Ridge Racer Revolution is little more than an upgraded version of the original, to the point that it's almost ridiculous how small this thing is. That said, it's still fun as hell, and pretty much every change they did was for the better. Except for the soundtrack.

 Once again, one track and one track only is all that you get, but you get six different tweaks: Beginner, Mid and Expert versions, as well as unlockable mirrors of each. Each different level adds a new part to the track, so after playing the beginner course you'll have played 80% of the game. Each track can be played in either Race(3 laps), Time Trial(VS CPU) or in an endless Free Run mode. It's a better set up than the original, that's for sure, and I appreciate how every version of the track adds something on top of the other, unlike the original in which some variations only upped the max speed. I'd also like to mention that this new track is more detailed and more fun to race in than the one in the original, so bonus points for that. It's also a bit more challenging. And, y'know, despite it only being one track, it has a nice assortment of pieces and panoramas to make it interesting to look at and race on. The graphics as a whole are a bit better, but on the other hand, the soundtrack isn't as amazing. It's still a really good soundtrack, like 9/10 instead of the original's 10/10.

 There's a multiplayer mode now.... if you own two Playstations, two copies of Ridge Racer Revolution and the fabled link cable, so it might as well not be there at all. There's still no analog support, and, once again, the brunt of the playable vehicles are hidden behind a brief Galaga 88 loading minigame. There's a cheat to automatically destroy them all this time around, which is welcome.

 And that's pretty much it. Same fantastic gameplay, a slightly better set-up and another single, but more entertaining, course to race through. It's still far from being a good product in this day and age, but I'm more comfortable vouching for this one since it feels like it has slightly more content than the original. And once again, scoring the game is tough, because as far as gameplay is concerned, it checks all boxes, but there simply isn't enough content here to justify a purchase.
 4.0 out of 10

Review #813: WWF WrestleMania - The Arcade Game

 Mortal Kombat gone Wrestling.

 I've never been much of a fan of digitalized sprites, however, WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game looked so weird that it intrigued me, so of course, I went ahead and got both it and its sequel. What makes it so weird is that this game isn't your average fighting game, it's more akin to Mortal Kombat, with life bars and a block button, as well as a very similar sense of humor. Undertaker can summon ghosts, Bam Bam Bugalow can throw fire punches and Ramon Razor can turn his arms into deadly blades. It's a weird game, alright?

 This is a straight up port of the Arcade original, without any bells and whistles. You get 8 wrestlers: The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Yokozuna, Bam Bam Bugalow, Lex Luger, Ramon Razor and Doink. Wrestling wasn't a thing over here, even though curiously enough, Hulk Hogan was a household name, so... I could barely recognize anyone besides The Undertaker, so the roster might resonate a bit more with American households, or people big into wrestling during the 90's. Single Player Mode is made up of two Arcade Ladders, but you can also play Co-Op and Deathmatch with another player. It's... it's quite lacking. And the Arcade Ladder is quite annoying, one of them starts off with 1 on 1 matches, but then you have two one VS two matches and ends on a one VS three match, while the other ladder is even worse, starting off with one VS two matches, then two one VS three matches and ends with a fight against all 8 characters. It's tough and it's unfair and I recommend turning off blocking for this mode.

 The game has a very Mortal Kombat five-button setup: Punch, Kick, Super Punch, Super Kick and Block. Punch+Kick makes your wrestler run, while S. Punch+ S. Kick allows you to grab opponents... with a specific few characters. Other universal inputs are forward-forward-S. punch to get your enemy in a headlock, back-back-S. punch to throw your enemy towards the rope and back-back-punch to throw your enemy into the ground. You can also get out of the ring and get on top of the torn buckles to produce jumping attacks. There's a combo gauge that lets you use Super Moves, but the instruction booklet is no help and there's no in-game moveset, and I couldn't care enough to google them, so I wasn't able to pull off any of them. Even so, controls didn't seem very responsive, and the fighting system was a bit clunky, so I didn't have much fun. That said, I'm sure it's better against other players, since the CPU just isn't fun to fight in this game, they react to fast to your head-locks, producing reversals before you can try to figure out what input combination works with the Wrestler you picked.

 I'm pretty sure this game has a small cult following behind it, but sadly, I just didn't enjoy it much. Combat in the game is bit wonky and unresponsive, although not altogether bad, just subpar, and playing solo is more of a chore than anything. I give them props for the idea, however, and while I wasn't so fond of the end product, I'm glad that such a weird idea can live on as a game.
 3.0 out of 10

Review #812: Ridge Racer

 It's RIIIIDGEEEE RACEEEEEEEEEER! ....but where's the rest of the game?

 So, last year I decided to give Ridge Racer a try which meant I bought a ton of Ridge Racer games. I decided to start with 7, and spoilers, it's pretty darn fun, but the original piqued my curiosity so I started it shortly after. And I was done with it 2 hours later.

 The game offers a single track with 7 variations. Beginner, which has a slow max speed and a 2 lap race, Mid, which raises the max speed and makes it into a 3 lap race, Expert, which once again raises the top speed and adds another very sinuous part to the track and Time Trial which raises the top speed even further but turns it into a race against a single AI opponent. Getting first place on all four variations will unlock mirrored versions of each. And... yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just a simple racing game against 11 racers, while trying to make it onto checkpoints too since you can lose if the Time limit expires, even before anyone reaches the finish line. There isn't even a multiplayer mode, this is a single player racing game. You get 4 cars to start with and can unlock another 8 by... beating the Galaxian minigame upon start up. The game is so small that it's completely loaded into memory while the brief Galaxian minigame runs, and once that's done you can swap out the CD with a Music CD to play your own tracks, which doesn't work very well and... why would you? This game's soundtrack is AMAZING. As for the graphics... it's pretty rough and undetailed, pretty telling of a very, very early PS1 game.

 The game's main mechanic is its drifting, you have to let go off the accelerator, or make a short break, turn your car and then go full throttle. The instruction booklet is of little help, but Ridge Racer 7 prepared me a bit better for it. When drifting you have to be quick to straighten your car, lest you take a massive loss of speed. It feels slippery, car-on-car collision doesn't feel quite right and the lack of analog support is harsh.... but I can't deny the game's charm. This single track was a load of fun, and I had so much fun during my 2-2.5 hours with the game, as I very slowly got better at drifting and actually managed to score first places! Having a banging soundtrack helped so much to keep me invested in the game, no lie.

 It's very hard to score Ridge Racer because while it's oh so very barebones... it's also pure bliss. It's a fun game to play, it's a fun course to race in and working out how to drift was fun. I mean, I was, heck, still am terrible at the game, but I had so much fun losing over and over again. That said, since I already played RR 7, and I know RR 4 has a very simple(and even more barebones!) remake of this game.... I just can't recommend it in good faith. It is a fun time, I think it's worth a look, but I don't think it's a game that deserves to be paid for in this day and age. And I'm telling you already, there's no way this game is making it into my "Worst of 2020" because, at its core, it's REALLY good.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #811: Ultra Street Fighter IV

 Greatness born out of laziness.

 I loved Street Fighter X Tekken, despite its garbage DLC practices which played a huge part of why the game bombed so hard. But if Capcom knows one thing it's how to be lazy and sell you a recycled product, so they grabbed all the Street Fighter assets, Rolento, Poison, Hugo, Elena as well as its six stages, they also repurposed Cammy's model to make Decapre and then resold Super Street Fighter IV AE as Ultra Street Fighter IV. Love it or hate it, Street Fighter IV rekindled the mainstream interest in Fighting games, making it a legendary game alongside Street Fighter II. This game came out at a time I was falling out of love with the Fighting genre, no longer watching every Evo and every other Tournament that came out, so I ended up skipping Ultra.

 Truth be told, there are more novelties to the game other than the new characters and stages. Now you can pick a third option when picking your Ultra: W Ultra Combo Double, which nets your character access to both Ultras, albeit a bit weakened to make up for the added tools. There's a new focus attack, Red Focus, which can tank any amount of hits instead of only one. Lastly, there's delayed wake up, to play tricks with your opponent. Nothing to mindboggling, but they are good additions. There are no new offline modes, which kinda suck considering Street Fighter IV was already pretty lacking there, but now you can play Versus matches with Edition Select, letting you pick any SF 4 version of whichever character you like. If you download the free dlc, you also get wacky Omega versions to pick from.

 Included with this game was every piece of DLC released up to that day, this means veteran characters get 3 DLC costumes, Super and AE characters get 2 DLC costumes and the newbies get none. You still need a Street Fighter IV savefile if you want access to colors 11 and 12 for the pre-AE characters, something I found out since my PS3's HDD got murdered a few years ago and didn't have a SFIV save file. Oh, and the last nine new characters(AE plus Ultra's new comers) still don't have Trials, which is ridiculous since they shouldn't be hard to implement, nor do they get Rival cutscenes, making them stand out from the rest of the roster. Remember how every iteration of Street Fighter IV up to now came with very beefy instruction manuals? Nope, not this time, Capcom had to follow their time-honed tradition of cutting corners.

 As far as the new characters go.... I really didn't care about the SF X T newcomers. I guess Hugo is so huge he is fun to fight, but that's it. Surprisingly, I really, really liked Decapre, the lazy model repurpose. She's like a much cooler version of Cammy and isn't wearing a glorified bathing suit.

 While I've got nothing but criticisms about Ultra Street Fighter IV as a product, there's no denying that underneath it all you've got Super Street Fighter IV, a classic through and through. The game is an absolute blast to play, it's always been. That said, I understand why I skipped this game back in the day, I didn't really care about the new characters and the new gameplay mechanics were but a few small nuances to an already spectacular set of mechanics so I never saw any need to get the new update. That said, anyone who is this late in getting into Street Fighter IV should undoubtedly pick up this final version, and someone that never made the jump from Super to AE might find 9 new characters a much more enticing offer.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #810: Blazing Chrome

 Part Contra, part Metal Slug, all metal.

 Believe it or not, I actually kinda like Contra, even though the only games I owned were Contra Force(I know), Alien Wars on the Gameboy and Shattered Soldier. That said, I'm always up for some Metal Slug. Blazing Chrome borrows a little from Metal Slug and a lot from Contra to produce an original 2-D shooter for a modern audience ironically borrowing very '80s aesthetics.

 At the beginning of the game you can only pick between Doyle, a robot punk, and Mavra, a human soldier, who must then go through 6 stages to fight the invading aliens. The first four stages can be played in any order, while the last two must be played one after the other. The game took me little less than an hour to complete on the Easy setting, which is a bit short but is just fine for a game like this, lasts just enough not to get boring. Beating the game unlocks a Boss Rush(Who plays those anymore?), Mirror mode(Move left to right instead of right to left) and Raijin and Suhaila as playable characters, which is a fair amount of extras. If you are braver and better than me, you can finish the game on Normal an unlock Hardcore difficulty.  It's a nice assortment of extras, and the fact that there's an easy mode so that terribads like me can brute force their way through the game is pretty nice. The game can also be played with another player in tow.

 Doyle and Mavra play exactly like you'd expect, being able to jump and shoot their infinite ammo assault rifles, as well as lay down into a prone position and roll from it(By pressing Jump while crouching). Tapping the shoot button next to an enemy will produce a melee attack, just like in Metal Slug. Lastly, you can hold down the R button to root yourself where you stand so that you can aim anywhere without moving. One touch is one death in this game, so learning how to deal with the enemies coming your way is paramount to your victory. To help you achieve that you can arm both heroes with more powerful weaponry: The Laser whip that deals a constant amount of damage as it hits enemies, a Grenade gun that's very slow but deals a ton of damage and the Laser gun that can be charged for more powerful shots. Once you get a weapon its yours to keep and switch between the others, but if you die while you have one of these optional weapons equipped...it's gone until you find it again. You'll also lose your weapons when you use a Continue. There's another type of power up: The bot. They are little assist drones that either speed you up, grant you two extra hits or grant you more speed.

 That's all fine and dandy... until you unlock Raijin and Suhaila, because these two offer a completely different playstyle. Instead of a basic, unlimited assault rifle they get short range sword/arm slices, and they can't equip other weapons.... but they can charge up their basic attack into a powerful, piercing wave that goes through every enemy in its path. They also get an aerial dash. They have their own benefits and drawbacks when compared to the original two characters, but having characters that play so unlike the others is a pretty great bonus.

 The stages themselves offer a nice amount of variety. Besides the usual run and gun you also get Contra inspired bike segments, as well as the occasional armored mechs you can pilot, which are a bit more Megaman X than Metal Slug to be honest. A few times I wished the game tried being a bit more original with the things it did, but at least what it did it did well, and considering the official Contra game we received was so lackluster.... I'll gladly take a great homage.

 Blazing Chrome is a great option for anyone that enjoys these 2-D run and gun games. It lasts as long as it should and the extras are a nice cherry on top. The Switch version of the game is lacking a few effects, like the bullet casings dropping from your gun, but it plays quite well. I read that the fifth stage had some slowdown but either I didn't notice it or it got fixed for the limited physical release. Regardless, I'm sure a little slowdown isn't enough to dampen this fantastic game.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #809: Oddworld Abe's Oddysee - New 'n' Tasty(Vita)

 What's old is tasty again.

 Alright, so I wasn't the biggest of Oddworld's fans when I decided to purchase Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New 'n' Tasty!, y'see, I used to own the original version on PC and I didn't really like it. However, Limited Run Games had just started and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity to own a limited release game I was somewhat familiar with.

 Oddworld is a 2-D cinematic puzzle platformer kinda game. You play as Abe, a creature known as a Mudokon, who finds out the company he is slaved to is planning to produce a new kind of treat, a treat made out of Mudokon. As soon as he finds out, the game starts with Abe setting out to free his kind, all 300 of them. If anything, the world of Oddworld is very odd, there are all sort of ugly-cute creatures populating its world. Most of them want to hurt you. While it plays strictly in 2-D, the entire game has been remade in 3-D, for good or bad. A few details were lost in translation, but overall, it looks decent enough. I never got too far in the original, but for what little I did... it seemed quite faithful, although the screen-by-screen format of the original was traded for a camera that scrolls alongside Abe. Plus, I've read the developers admitting to changing a few of the puzzles, so it's not a 1:1 conversion, even if it feels quite similar, and, while the puzzles may have changed, the overall plot and Abe's adventure didn't really change, so it's like a slightly different take on the same game.

 Abe can sneak, run, jump and climb on to ledges in order to move through the environment. I felt like a few jumps required pixel perfect timing, but it might've been due to the framerate. That said, prepare to die quite a few times since you didn't jump at the right spot. Some stages, particularly the ones that have you riding the Enum, can be particularly bad about it, since they have a lot of jumps between checkpoints. Along the way you'll also find a few items you can throw, such as meat to distract a few aliens or grenades to, well, kill them. Grenades are a bit more interesting since you have to cook them before you shoot them, since you'll want to kill plenty of floating enemies with them, enemies that will prevent you from chanting.

 Chanting is Abe's other main ability, which he can use to open up portals for his people to escape and to open up secret areas or.... to possess enemy Sligs, the yellow aliens that carry machine guns. As a Slig you can communicate with other Sligs, to open up areas and what not, as well as to kill other Sligs. Although, if there are Mudokons nearby, you might want to order them to stand down before any shootout begins, lest they die in the crossfire.

 Another big part of the game is communication. Abe has access to four different 'words' he can use to communicate with fellow Mudokons: "Hello" and "Hello All", which will make any Mudokon on the screen pay attention to you, and "Follow me", in order to make them follow you, or "Wait" to have them wait. The game's main objective, besides getting to the end, is rescuing all 300 Mudokons, and if you want the best ending, you'll have to safely guide them into portals. Which is easier said than done, since Sligs are very trigger happy if you don't do things the right way. Holding the Triangle button will change your words into other sounds, such as whistling and, well, farting, which are mostly used to clear Simon-says puzzles.

 While I think the game as a whole is alright, I mean, these slow-paced platformers really aren't my cup of tea, at least the Vita version is a bit buggy. The game soft-locked twice when using the main elevator on the very first stage, since the assets didn't load when the elevator stopped so I had to reset the game. Another time, when I got to the Scrabanian temple, the game got semi-stuck on the loading screen, so the audio for the cutscene played while the loading screen flashed over the previous level. When the 'cutscene' 'stopped' it didn't load, so I had to reset. Oh, and the final Zulag stages? It felt like the game would get locked every two loading screens, it wasn't even funny.  At least the game autosaves very frequently, so I never lost much more than a few seconds worth of progress. Speaking of the game's performance, framerate on the Vita isn't so hot either, but it's playable.

 It's alright. I mean, I really dug the world of Oddworld, it has a lot of interesting creatures inhabiting its world. The game's premise is very interesting as well. That said, I've never been too big on these slow-paced platformers, so I know I'm not able to appreciate it as much as other people. As far as the performance of the game, I wasn't too mad at the frequent freezes because the auto save is so generous so I never lost much progress. All in all, as someone that barely scratched the surface of the original, this felt like a decent remake and a decent game.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #808: Mortal Kombat(Vita)

 Vitality!

 Mortal Kombat is, in my opinion, the most important game in the franchise because it's when the series finally got really good. Like REALLY really good. Abandoning most of the silly element from the 3-D era of Mortal Kombat, they went back to their 2-D roots with a sequel reboot, one that was billed as one instead of the Final Fantasy VII Remake switcheroo, that did everything right and put Mortal Kombat back on everyone's radar... for a good reason.

 Let's get the elephant out of the room first, this Mortal Kombat never looked good. The character models were ugly, the faces, the figures, everything. Males, like Liu Kang have the most awful faces and weird looking arms, while the females have bodies with huge shoulders and tiny waists alongside the same giant breasts on every single lady in the cast. Their heads are really weird, like they have too much depth, and Kitana is one of the ugliest characters ever made. And while Netherealms Studios finally started getting good at animating... there are still some very, very ugly animations in here. There are some very good ones, but some truly awful ones.  It was an ugly game, and on Vita it looks like a very sharp Playstation 2 game. I had to check, so I ran Tekken 5 on the PS2 and it looks miles better than this game, from the models' complexity to the textures.... this is not a good looking game. And I can live with that, because the game excels everywhere else. To make up for that we get about 13 new costumes, mostly retro costumes for the Ninjas and female Ninjas, as well as an entire new 200-floor challenge tower as well as new Test your Swipe and Test your Balance minigames that use the Vita's features. Test your Swipe is particularly amazing because it's a Fruit Ninja clone but with heads instead of fruit! Its only shortcoming is the fact that it always plays the same, the same power ups and bombs will show up at whatever time they first showed up, so it ends up being very predictable instead of random, which would've been WAY more fun.

 While the game is missing VS CPU, there's an enormous wealth of content to go through. First, the Story mode. It's a bit gimped by the fact that it's divided into character, so, for instance, you play as Johnnie Cage first for four fights, then as Sonya for four fights, then as Cyrax for four fights, and so on, this means that a character loses most of their relevance after their chapter, and the story only pushes forward from the viewpoint whatever character you are playing as. I also disagree with Sub-Zero's fate, stop doing my boy dirty, yo! It uses cutscenes from the console game, so these look really good... even if it can be a bit jarring when it switches to the Vita graphics. Then you've got the Arcade Ladder mode, as well as a Tag Arcade ladder, because this game also had a pretty neat, if barebones, tag mode! Lastly, you get a 200-floor challenge tower, as well as a new, bonus, 200-floor challenge tower. The new tower puts the spotlight on the DLC characters and on the Vita's features, so expect a lot of tilting, touching, swiping and shaking. I tend to hate everything that isn't a button input, but since this is a bonus, I'm perfectly OK with it. The bonus towers did have a few too many fights against Shao Khan which I didn't really enjoy since they are very unfair, and when you are forced to use him... he feels so clunky and you can't really spam moves like CPU SK can. The new tower also has you playing as Tremor one time, and fighting him another... and it kinda sucks that they didn't turn him into a new bonus fighter for the Vita.

 The game was fantastic back then, and it still does. You have four attack buttons: Left and Right punch, as well as Left and Right Kick, although the game calls them Forward and Back because a character's stance can change. There's also a block button. The game uses a mixture of pre-set attack strings, like Tekken, but also uses input special moves, like Street Fighter, and it works really well. You have a three-tier energy gauge that you can use to pull of EX special moves, with extra damage and/or effects or Kombo breakers to break away from your opponent. You could also use all three tiers to perform a brutal X-Ray moves that remove a huge chunk of health... if they land. That said, on hindsight, I was into this game back when I was really into the FGC and would watch every single tournament of every single game, and not just EVO. Regardless, knowing how competitive tournaments used play, as well has having played the game extensively back in the day, I can clearly see that the game can very easily turn into a keep away game, because most characters have at least one projectile, and they are very easy to spam and not many ways to go through them.

 Mortal Kombat is a pretty decent purchase for the Vita. The graphics took a huge hit, but it plays just as well as its big console counterpart, plus, the exclusive extra content is really nice. Far from the best Fighter of its era, but even all these years later, Mortal Kombat 9 is still a fantastic fighting game that makes up for its shortcomings with a meaty amount of content. It's not a fighting game that you play just for its gameplay, but one that you play for its lore, for its story mode, for all the silly challenges you can find on the Challenge Towers. It's the whole package and then some.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #807: Dark Void

 Nolan North strikes again.

 During the HD era, under Keiji Inafune's misguided approach, Capcom tried outsourcing their games to Western developers, as well as publishing a few titles overseas, like Remember Me and Dark Void. Most of these endeavors failed miserably, which is kind of a shame, because what I've played so far... wasn't so bad.

 Dark Void takes place sometime before the second World War, and pits you as Will, pilot for hire. The client is Ava, a long lost flame, and what was supposed to be just another flight through the Bermuda's Triangle ends with Ava and Will stuck somewhere outside America. No, this isn't Kansas anymore. In these new world natives worship the Watchers, robotic enemies that Will doesn't take too kindly too, and soon finds himself embroiled in a war between a Resistance group and the Watcher trying to enslave humanity by substituting humans, such as the president of France, with their own brethren doubles. All of these while fighting over the Dark Void, a place so high you can't see below the clouds, not to worry, as Will comes equipped with a jetpack! Y'know what? I liked the setting. I liked the plot. It's nothing new or fresh, but it's decent. That said, the plot does have a few elements that aren't properly explained. As a matter of fact, the tool tips during loading screens give away a lot of plot points before they actually happen, and in a way, it's the only explanation you'll get about certain things. The soundtrack is absolutely beautiful, it's very 80's and very grandiose, really fits the overall theme and setting.

 At its core, the game is your average modern third-person shooter. Heavy on taking cover and your always trusty regenerating. There are only six different guns in the game, which is a bit skimpy, and you can upgrade all six up to two times by finding techpoints from hidden enemies or stashed away in secret locations. The weaponry felt a bit boring. You have the assault rifle, which was the first weapon I upgraded and never regretted it since it became so useful, a magnetic gun that makes enemies float for a bit, a "Desintegrator" which is a cross between a shotgun and a rocket launcher, with very little ammo capacity, a sniper rifle, an alien assault rifle and a continuous-energy gun. You can also melee enemies with the circle button, which is an instant kill on most enemies, but it initiates an overly-long animated sequence during which you can still get hurt and killed, plus, it wasn't very responsive. Sometimes I'd just mash circle in front of an enemy and it wouldn't trigger.

 And then you get the jetpack and things get more interesting. At first you can only use it to double jump-into-hover, which did open up a few more alternatives in battle. By this time you'll also get introduced into the vertical-cover system, which seriously didn't get enough use in the game, basically, you can take cover from below or above certain objects and/or rock formations, something that enemies can do as well. It's a bit gimmicky, yes, but it's a rather interesting idea, and it was relatively well pulled off, I mean, as I said before, I wish the game would have had more of these sections. If anything, I was annoyed at the fact that sometimes Will would lose his grip when jumping above/below levels and you'd have to mash a button. QTEs are (almost)never fun.

 And then you enter Episode 2 and get introduced to the Jetpack, by pressing triangle you'll turn you jump into a forward-propelled flight. And you get full freedom of movement when using it, which is why most shootouts thereafter take place in very open arenas. You'll also get some intense dogfights against enemy ships, which you can hijack... after a QTE. A few times I'd initiate the dull sequence only for the enemy ship to crash onto a wall and KILL me. If you've got allies, you can also seamlessly get into or out of their ships, no QTE required. These aerial shootouts were a bit tough until I realized that you are expected to pull evasive maneuvers by hold R3 and using both analog sticks to barrel rolls and the such.... and until I realized the jetpack has infinite missiles with L2. You're welcome.

 Dark Void is fun. It's nothing to write home about, that's for sure, and it's hard not to praise it for trying to do something different. If anything, I think the slow-paced vertical cover system clashes a bit with the more fast paced free-flying system of the Jetpack, because one is pretty much the antithesis of the other, which is probably why the vertical-cover segments were so scarse after the first episode. Regardless, it's a fun, if short, time.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #806: Ray Gigant

 Does wonders for my gigantphobia.

 Part anime, part visual novel, part Evangelion and part first-person dungeon crawler, that's Ray Gigant in a nutshell. This is one of those games that not many people talk about, heck, there are no guides you can reference and discussion on both GameFaqs and Steam is pretty much dead.

 The game is made up of 19 chapter, in a world were giant enemies, Gigants, have appeared. The only people fit to fight them are teenagers, because Japan, and they come in two varieties: Originals and copies. The originals are the three chosen by the Yorigami, gods in artifact form, Ichiya, Kyle and Nil. Copies are other teens that exhibit the strength to wield weaker copies of the Yorigamis. The first six chapters you'll play as Ichiya, as he adapts to his school life as a Gigant exterminator. The next six you play as Kyle and his group of pricks, while Ichiya and his buddies take a supportive role as hostages. This was the part of the game I hated the most, because Kyle and his friends are incredibly unlikeable and I couldn't wait for this chapter to end, although his party becomes a bit more tolerable by the end. The next four chapters follow Nil and her island life with her sisters, and the reason her part is so short is probably because she is a mage and thus better suited in a support role. The next three chapters have Ichiya, Kyle and Nil, y'know, the guys on the game's cover, team up in order to fight Gigants. Overall, the story is not bad, but it's pretty forgettable. It has a few Evangelion tropes here and there but they do their own thing with them. All the story bits are very visual novel-like, lots of reading, decisions that amount to nothing and anime portraits galore. The game takes about 20 hours to complete, and upon completion you unlock God Mode, New Game+, Hard Mode and... you also unlock a new boss and ending for New Game+. I liked the story enough to want to see it, but not enough to want to play through the game again, sadly, since nobody knows this game there's no Youtube videos covering the extra bit. Lame!

 When characters stop talking you'll be able to enter a dungeon. For the most part, the game is divided into pairs of chapters: The first chapter you'll go through a multi-leveled dungeon and fight a smaller, Gigant Type-II enemy, and the next chapter you'll enter a short dimensional rift-dungeon and then fight a proper giant Gigant Type-I enemy. Dungeons start off simple enough, but by the end there will be one-way corridors, ladders that go up and down, teleporters and hidden walls. The latter are particularly annoying because some of them are needed to progress, and there are no hints besides leveling up a characters Technique skill enough. For the most part I was able to use my intuition and find them by myself, but still. The final dungeon is incredibly bad, because it mixes every single type of trap and annoyance, in addition to a few floors in which you can't track your position on the map. So... yeah, I'd say most of the game is quite fair, but the Final Dungeon was more annoying than anything

 Random encounters are not random encounters, because you can see them on the map and they remain static. They come in three colors: Blue, Yellow and Red, signifying their AP Cost, blue means its halved, yellow is normal and red is double the cost. AP is what governs your actions. Each party member can take up to five different actions per turn, however, they all share the same 100-max AP pool. AP can be regained depending on which actions the enemies did on their turn, as well as when your characters use the Wait command, which can only be done once per turn. Your HP is restored to full after each fight, but you can only revive characters by exiting the dungeon. Talking about HP, there's Parasite Mode to contend with. Whenever a battle goes on for more than one round you'll build your drive by 10%, once it's full your attacks will no longer cost AP but will start costing HP. This builds over different encounters too, and there are three ways to bring it down: Entering Parasite Mode, Using Slash Beat Mode or using a Skill Seed. Once all three main characters converge you'll be able to freely enter Parasite Mode at will with the L button. Slash Beat Mode is the final ability which can be used when your SP is at 50 or at 100. SP builds by 1 after each fight or by action taken during boss fights, you can the press the R button to enter a rhythm minigame mode in order to deal tons of damage.

 At first you can only have 3 different battle skills per character, but after the first chapter you'll be able to have 2 sets of three different skills. One skill has to deal damage, one has to be defensive and the other one can be anything you like. There's a decent variety of skills, different elements and enemy types(Undead, Aquatic, Flying) to contend with, although having a basic, non-elemental attack command is always useful... as long as your equipped weapon isn't weak against a certain type. It sounds very deep, but the game is very easy. On another note, you do not need to waste resources on your non-Yorigami party members, because they won't be selectable after Ichiya, Kyle and Nil join up. For Ichiya, I beat his chapters just fine, with Kyle I had to give a few level ups to his pal, Conner, in order to tank some hits and heal the party with scones during his final battle, and as for Nil... I didn't need to level up the others. That said, you could probably have an easier time if you leveled up the other party members, I just didn't feel like it was worth it.

 Leveling up and getting equipment is very weird. After each battle you'll get Materia, Breed and maybe Force. Materias are used to level up a characters item box, be it their weapon, armor or item(which works as a limitless battle skill) boxes, then you can use a Breed on that item box to get an equipment piece or item that matches the box's level. Force is a bit rarer and is used to unlock skills, both passive as well as battle skills. The last kind of item are the Seeds, which can be found exclusively on item boxes or from bosses, and these are used to level up a character in either: Power(Health, defense and strength), Magic(Magic defense and power) and Technique(Speed and... hidden wall hints). At first every character caps at level 15, but you'll unlock level 99 during the final chapters, not that is necessary. I had Kyle and Nil at a comfortable level 40 and 30, while I had Ichiya with 70 levels on Power, wrecking and decimating everything. I level up the other characters' boxes up to level 20, but kept Ichiya's beyond level 40 and that was enough to beat the game quite comfortably.

 While animation during battles is quite minimal, the sprites are quite gorgeous, so even though it's barely animated it still looks very good. The static character portraits look quite pleasant as well. That said, when you use Slash Beat Mode you'll get a very brief, but very good looking anime cutscene in which your Yorigami turns into their Kamibito form. On the other hand, the dungeons are very rudimentary and reuse a lot of assets, which makes them feel like an afterthought.

 I'd say Ray Gigant is a decent way to pass the time when you've nothing better to play. The story is decent enough to keep you interested and the gameplay is quite serviceable. That said, it's understandable why the game never managed to get a following, from its mostly digital release(Unless you got your LGR copy, like myself) to its more niche visual novely appeal.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #805: Ape Escape

 Worth going ape for.

 Ape Escape was more than just another platform-collectathon game, it was a proof of concept of what could be done with a second analog stick. Gimmicky as it may have been, its design was strong enough to produce a series. While I played Ape Escape 2 in my younger years it's never too late to revisit the classics.

 In the game you play as Spike, a boy who sets out to capture Specter, a white monkey that has brainwashed his best friend Jake as well as a ton of monkeys who are now doing his bidding. Surprisingly, the game has a time travelling theme, though the levels barely reflect that. Be that as it may, the game is made up of 6 worlds with 3 stages each, as well as a final world with a single stage, each one having a different amount of Monkeys and Specter Coins to capture and collect. The latter are used to unlock minigames, although only 40 of them are needed. The three minigames can be played in multiplayer, and a surprising amount of attention went into them: Ski Boys is a racing skiing minigame that has multiple characters and tracks, Specter Boxing is a boxing match between two monkey, and, finally, Galaxy Monkey, an asteroids clone. Same as with the main game, all minigames involve using both analog sticks. All in all, it's a very meaty game. If there's anything to complain about is that it goes the Mario 64 route of exiting you from levels before you got 100% of the collectibles, so you'll be making two trips at bare minimum if you are willing to complete the game.

 As mentioned before, the game's main selling point is its heavy use of both analog sticks. The left analog stick is used to move around, R1/R2 is used to jump, L1 sets the camera behind you, although you can use the directional pad to move it around, the face buttons are used to select your gadgets while the right analog stick actually uses the selected gadget. There are four face buttons and 8 gadgets, so expect to visit the gadget menu quite often, although it's not too bad, just a press of the select button. Gadgets are earned as you play through the game, and these tools are your keys to capturing every monkey. Monkeys can only be capture with the net, but it's so slow that it's not a bad idea to first knock them out with the baton before going in for the capture. Other gadgets include a Radar, a Hoola Hoop that must be spun in order to boost your speed, a helicopter-rod to reach high places, an RC cart  and even a slingshot.

 The game is quite fun, and the game makes decent use of its gadgets. That said, and it might be unfair, but I think the sequel does everything this game does but better, heck, a lot of the gadgets are reused and, in my opinion, put to better use. For instance, the Hoola Hoop's use in this game is quite scarce, while the second game made it mandatory to go over inclined surfaces. And remember, I'm not saying this game is bad, au contraire, it's just that the sequel would expand and polish everything this one did.

 As fun as the game is, I felt like the camera was a teenie tiny too zoomed in for my liking, and the framerate can get laughably low at times. Thankfully, the latter never got in the way, it's just a minor inconvenience. I found the game's overall look to feel very Nintendo 64ish, even if the rough, sharp graphics are undeniably Playstation's, so I'd say the presentation is pretty darn great. Colorful, fun and very endearing.

 Ape Escape's biggest problem is its own sequel, it does what this game does but so much better, it probably helps that they recycled many stage themes and gadgets in that game. That said, Ape Escape is still a top-notch platform/collectathon game that managed to build a fantastic game out of a gimmick.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #804: Remember Me

 Ironically forgotten by time.

 Ever since I finished Final Fantasy VII Remake I've been itching for a linear action game, the likes we don't really see anymore but FFVIIR reminded me of. Well, there was this little game nobody remembered, published by Capcom but developed by Dontnod, of Life is Strange's fame, called Remember Me. This is a very linear beat'em up with a very pervasive narrative and the mandatory parkour then-modern games made mandatory since Uncharted.

 You play as Nilin, a Memory Hunter that peculiarly got her memory stolen from her, but a mysterious character named Edge aids her in recovering her memories and finishing what she started: The dismantling of Memorize, the company that has turned memories into a currency that people sell, delete, change or trade at will. I found the story itself OK, and a few reveals later down the line felt a bit half baked, but it's alright. That said, the story had a bit more potential that wasn't explored. For instance, throughout the game Nilin will remix the memory of some people, like turning an enemy into an ally by altering their memories so that their significant other was murdered by Memorize. This character never finds out  their lover is actually alive and that their new ally, Nilin, actually tempered with their memories, how great a plot point could it have been? That aside, I enjoyed the world of New Paris, it's very Cyberpunk, with androids co-existing with civilians, while the lower class people have to be wary of Leepers, broken people that abused their memories too much. Plus, I enjoyed the fact that Nilin is kind of an anti hero, the way she manipulates peoples' minds is all sorts of screwed up!

 The narrative is a big part of the game, so if you hate it when your action games have forced walking segments.... look elsewhere, as calls between Nilin and Edge are fairly frequent. There are also a very few, very simple puzzles to solve, most of them involve using the Spammer, a digital weapon attached to Nilin's arm that works like a machinegun and runs on a gauge that refills over time. You'll have to find switches to shoot with it, objects to pull and push and, sometimes, take away the 'energy' from a machine and put it in another. It's all fairly basic and easy to figure out. On the other hand, there are a few story segments, four in all, in which you remix a person's memory, this involved a small fragment of memory that you have to remove or push forward, searching for memory glitches, which are things you can affect and alter in order to change how that memory works, the objective being finding the glitch combination that'll alter the memory in the way the game tells you to. It's not hard at all, although, to be honest, I felt they were a bit dull, I mean, I didn't care too much about these segments, although I enjoyed the concept of the Hero manipulating a character's memories.

 Movement in the game is fairly stiff, which makes the parkour climbing bits a bit spotty. A few times my jumps should've made it onto a ledge, but they simply didn't. Other times, the game auto corrected my jump while I was on the air which looked SO weird. Once again, where to go is quite obvious most of the time. That said, exploring is in your best interest, since you can find permanent upgrades to your health or your focus.

 Combat feels like a stiffer version of Batman Arkham's, tap the attack button to attack enemies, while being on the lookout for Red exclamation marks, in which case, press X to dodge. It's got a twist, however, as you can create combos using the Square and Triangle buttons. Initially, you start of with a 3-square hit combo, but as you go through the game you'll unlock a five hit combo, a six hit combo and an 8 hit combo, these latter three also using the triangle input. Defeating enemies earns you PMP points, which can then be used to unlock different combo attacks, called Pressens, that are pre-set to either Square or Triangle. Every attack deals the same damage, so it's about cosmetics... and typing. There are four types of Pressens: Power, which deal extra damage, Healing, that heal you, Cooldown, that reduce the cooldown on your Super attacks and Chain that takes the type of the attack that came before it but potentiated. It's a very interesting system, but I think it would've been even better if we could customize the inputs of the combos themselves, like, getting a three hit combo and not a 'three square combo'. I understand why this was done, it's a limitation, since a Pressen can only be in one combo at a time, so sometimes you'll have to pick whether to keep your trusty 3-hit combo or use those inputs for the longer combos, at least until you level up and can get a new Pressen.

 Throughout the game you'll also unlock 5 different S-Pressens, or Super moves. Each super move consume a Focus slot, which refills as you take and land hits, as well as its own cooldown. Cooldown Pressens will reduce the cooldown on every S-Pressen that are in cooldown period. It's a decent system, but... some fight rely on you using super moves, which sucks because it means there's a lot of cooldown waiting between your moves. For instance, the only way you can deal damage to the first boss is by using the Rage super move, that means that you have to use the super, and then.... use your combos as he blocks them in an attempt to reduce the cooldown on the super so that you can use it again. At first I couldn't believe so much of the fight was just waiting, but that was how you were supposed to fight him. Robot enemies are introduce later in the game, and they can only be hit with the Spammer, and every now and then they'll pop a barrier.... so more waiting for the barrier to go down. There were a lot of instances in which battles required some kind of waiting or trying to reduce the cooldown on you super moves, which I felt didn't jive very well. Heck, aiming with the spammer at enemies is sometimes a bit annoying, as it can be hard to get the lock-on to focus on the enemies that you need it to. Later in the game force-field enemies are introduced, which take health away from you on every hit that you land on them. This means that as soon as they are introduced you have to dedicate an entire combo string to healing pressens, otherwise you'll be fighting them at a loss, which was SO dumb. Eventually you get a Super move that can instakill any single enemy, but still.... I shouldn't be forced to retool how my combos work just for a single enemy type, I think that goes against the creative premise behind building your own combos. Oh, and by the by, every boss ends with a QTE. At least they are not too long, but still.

 Besides how janky and stiff both combat and exploration feels, I had the game crash on me once, and from what I could gather, it seems crashes are not a rare occurrence with the game. And chapter 5 has a song track SO bad I thought my disc was faulty, so I searched for a let's play and... nope, it's just that bad.

 They had a vision, they had the budget, but I don't think they had quite the technical know-how to produce the game they wanted. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game, and it has some very neat ideas, but it feels like it was a few tweaks away from being a more memorable game.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #803: Freedom Wars

 Forever prisoner of the Vita.

 The Vita might not have had a Monster Hunter to call its own, but it sure as hell had a lot of clones, and Freedom Wars was one of the last ones to hit this underrated handheld. Think of Gods Eater meets Attack on Titan with a speck of Danganronpa, in the form of a dystopic bear mascot and you've got Freedom Wars.

 The story is set in a world in which resources are scarce, and if you're not very bright you're a Sinner who must prove its worth to its Panopticon by defeating giant monsters, called Abductors, as well as Sinners from other Panopticons. The story is kind of a mixed bag, you play as a mute amnesiac hero who slowly climbs through the ranks, gaining access to tougher missions. There's a very plain supporting cast that gets some lines here and there, and there's a bigger overarching plot regarding a mysterious waif that warns you about your destiny as her chosen one. It's not very interesting, and at times, the plot gets in the way of the game. Plenty of times before unlocking more missions you'll have to go through a ton of "Go X and speak to Y" sections that drag on for a bit too long, doesn't help that the dialogue isn't very interesting nor is the story. The setting fares a bit better, thankfully, since as a Sinner you have to earn points in order to earn more rights. Initially if you try to even walk more than 5 seconds straight you'll get a penalty in the form of added years to your sentence, and yes, it's kind of annoying, but missions are very generous with the years they take off from your sentence.

 The game plays as you'd expect: Take on missions fighting giant enemies, harvest their parts and use them to craft better equipment and then set out on harder missions. It's a satisfying gameplay loop that has proved its worth countless times already. You can take up to two different weapons with you, with could be a gun and a sword, two swords, or two guns, anything is fair game as well as a few combat items, such as health packs or grenades. You can also pick up to three different NPCs to aid you in missions, they are not completely idiotic, and if anything, they are decent bait and will regularly try to revive you before you waste a continue, plus, their deaths don't remove continues. Lastly, both you and your party have 'accessories', which are androids that you can customize who'll check that you're not breaking rules, but in combat can be customized to carry a single weapon of your choice, and, unlike other party members, they will always put reviving their Sinner as their priority.

 Every Sinner also comes equipped with a Thorn tool, of which there are three varieties: Binding, which is better at bringing abductors down, Healing, which can be used to heal other Sinners and Shield, that can be used to cover yourself as well as your allies. The thorn looks like a thorny vine gripped on your wrist, and you can use it to climb on top of Abductors or to cling on to any wall or floor. Once you get the hang of it, you can use the thorn to quickly zip around the battlefield, and it's quite fun to be honest. Instead of jumping onto an enemy, which can be useful to sever their arms, you could also use the thorn to drag them down in order to gain a few seconds worth of free hits. The more you drag them down the more resistance enemies get to the feature, but the other sinners can cast their thorns as well in order to help you.

 There's not much enemy variety, which kinda sucks. There are both biped and quadriped abductors and artillery abductors, and the game tries to add variety by equipping them with various sorts of weapon pods: Missiles, Grenades, Lasers, Shields and Miniguns, but in the end, they all work quite the same, except maybe when they come equipped with Shields, in which case you must sever those pods first if you want to inflict any damage. Afterwards, you'll fight Flying Tiger abductors, Spider abductors and, during the post game, a guest from Soul Sacrifice. And that's it. Probably, in order to add some sort of variety, they added a few different mission types, such as rescuing civilians, some which may be found inside the Abductors' bodies, in which case you can opt to either slay the Abductor or just focusing on severing the cage and rescuing the civilian, as well as missions in which you only fight other Sinners.... which are the most annoying kind of enemy to fight with Heavy Weapons, since its slow, deliberate attacks are better suited for larger targets. Thankfully, allied Sinners are really good at fighting enemy sinners. There are also some boring stealth missions, which are incredibly easy and incredibly boring. Oh, and the pick-up civilian button is the same as the pick up item button which is the same as the USE item button, which was as annoying as it sounds. Eventually I settle for bringing an open slot on my item pouch I could default to when I didn't need to use healing or to having Heat blades on my inventory, which are used to sever limbs and wouldn't go to waste if I pressed circle while standing on the ground.

 The upgrade system is, quite honestly, completely outta whack. First you need to create Weapon Facilities, since a facility can only work on a single item at a time. There are also Munition, Augmentation and Hospital facilities, and there are about 16 slots I think, and once again, each facility can only work on one request at a time. After you select what weapon you want to craft or upgrade you have to... wait. That's right, the game could have you wait anything from 10 to 22 minutes. What were they thinking? If you have time management civilians rescued you can use them to speed up the process, but still. At least the time counter goes down while the Vita is suspended, but this system is completely idiotic. Why do I have to wait before I can use my new weapon or my upgraded weapon? If I didn't have to partake in the dumb "Go X to progress the story" segments I'd just turn off the Vita for a spell and then return to the game, which is such a horrible design choice. And don't even let me get started on how hard it is to figure out what you need to kill in order to get the material you need. Sometimes it'll be called something like "Carapace: Marksman mk2", which means that now you know you need to kill a Marksman mk2.... but which mission had those? Who knows, screw you. And then you'll get something like "Synthetic generator" which doesn't even begin to clue you in on what you need to kill.

 All in all, Freedom Wars is not half bad, but I think it's far from the best Monster Hunter clones the Vita has to offer. After I finished the Story I played a few post-story missions before concluding that my time with the game had ran out and it had nothing left to offer me. I think zipping around monsters and buildings with the Thorn was pretty fun, and the combat itself is quite decent, but the game could've used more variety and better designs choices when it came to everything else.
 6.0 out of 10

Review #802: TimeShift

 Ironically forgotten by time.

 Last year I made a thread asking for a very specific kind of game, games like Dungeon Siege or Half-Life 2, in which you are always moving forward, and always in control, y'know, a game that feels like one big whole. This first-person shooter, TimeShift, was recommended, and right after the third stage I knew... I knew that it definitely wasn't what I wanted. That said, I'm not disappointed in my purchase, because despite it being another grey fps in a grey-and-brown world it has a few original mechanics and ideas that make it rather fun.

 The plot of the game was hard to follow, but you play as a mute scientist wronged by another scientist named Krone. Both were working on Time-shifting suits, the Alpha and the Beta suit, and for an undisclosed reason Krone betrays you and steals the Alpha suit. Now you get the Beta suit and track him through time in an effort to stop him destroying the lab and killing everyone. Kinda. You travel to a very futuristic looking 1939 and assist a resistance group in stopping the new Krone world order. Throughout the game you'll get flashbacks to before the big betrayal, but nothing of worth is told, it's pure fat. The game is 24 missions long, which is pretty decent, sadly, multiplayer was online only, so no offline versus.

 At first glance, this is just your every day modern FPS, with regenerating health and a three-gun limit, which is one more gun than most modern fps. Every gun has an alternate fire, which is a pretty neat throwback to classic FPSs and melee doesn't instantly kill your enemy, so it's more like a last resort kind of tool. What set this game apart is the ability to Slow, Pause and Rewind time, thanks to your suit. There's a blue gauge shared by all three abilities that dictates when and for how long you can use these abilities, and it regenerates over time. I think that it refills a bit faster when you're getting hit, but it might've felt like that. Using these time abilities is paramount for your survival, because despite having this amazing suit you are quite fragile, and triggering any time ability will also boost your regeneration speed.

 The suit will autoselect the most 'appropriate' power for the situation you're in, so that you can just press L1 to activate, but if you disagree, just hold L1 and press the designated face button. For the most part, it'll default to Slow, it will go towards Pause when dangerously low on health and will select Rewind if a grenade is coming your way. Pause and Rewind may seem similar, but they have different uses, Slow actually makes you faster and lasts way longer than Pause which is why it makes it so useful when you need to retreat for cover, as it'll give you ample time compared to pause. Pause is better when fighting smaller groups of enemies or when fighting enemies that can also slow down time or teleport. Rewind was my least used ability in combat, and only used it because the game defaulted to it sometimes.

 Another way you can toy with your powers is by pausing time and stealing the weapons from your enemies' hands. Or you can just shoot them out of their hands too if that's your approach. Enemies explode in satisfying chunks of blood after being pelted with bullets while in Time Pause which never ceases to be fun. Most enemies are immune to headshots, justified by helmets, and was probably done to compensate for your time controlling prowess. There's a fair amount of different weaponry in the game, my favorites where the Shotgun, which felt so good, and the machinegun that had a flamethrower alternate fire. While your character is frailer than a CoD protagonist, the game feels more close to games like Painkiller and Doom, with fast paced shooting mechanics that feel nice... but as a whole feels a bit weird, since the gameplay almost makes you want to start circle-strafing everyone to death, but that will only get you killed in seconds flat.

 There are a few simple puzzles in the game that task you with using your time powers, they are pretty simple and the game usually defaults the right power, so you can easily figure out what it entails. That said, there are smart uses of your powers, such as two levers needing to be pulled at the same time, so you slowdown time and run to the other lever and pull it. Or use Rewind to make a turbine blow you upwards instead of vacuuming the air. Or pause/slow down time in order to cross through a board balancing on a pivot. They are not hard to figure out, but they make sense for your powers, which is pretty neat. I had a few iffy moments with some of the platforming elements, but nothing game breaking.

 While it wasn't anywhere near close to what I wanted, TimeShift was very fun in its own right. Time Shifting was well implemented, and easily sets it apart from other games.... although it seems that that just wasn't enough to stand out when your game looked like every other grey-and-brown shooter of its era.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #801: Call of Duty Black Ops - Declassified

 There's a reason this game got declassified.

 I'm not a Call of Duty, I'm really not into the whole 'realistic military shooter' genre, as I find it quite dull. But maaaan, Black Ops was something else, it offered so many neat extras, like the fantastic zombies mode and the top-down shooter secret mini-game, it felt like an altogether fun game. And color me surprised, the campaign wound up being so interesting thanks to the plot twist! It wasn't your average military shooter, and that's why it was so good. Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified is a spin-off set between Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 2, exclusive for the VITA, by the creators of Resistance Burning Skies, which wound up being much better than reviews led me to believe...sadly, this is not the case.

 The game's story mode is not an story mode, but a mode called 'Operations', being made up of 11 6-minute missions. Since this is a handheld game, bite-sized missions was probably the right idea, but the execution is not, as it ends up feeling very disjointed. Basically, you'll play as either Frank Woods or Alex Mason, the final mission being played as an undisclosed agent, and every mission is pretty much "This is why Alex/Frank is so awesome". I think the correct approach would've been a proper story campaign, although divided into 6-minute chunks. Then there's Time Trial, in which you get about 6 missions of running around shooting at dull cardboard cutouts. The last Single Player offering is Hostiles, which is an endless wave survivor mode which isn't half bad. That said, when it's all said and done, you're looking at about 3 hours worth of Single player content, which just doesn't cut the mustard. Hostiles does have some longevity, but it's not random enough and you can't even select your initial load out, and while Operations is made in a way to be replayed to get better times... why would you? There are no rewards. The game used to have Multiplayer, but it's pretty much dead.

 The basic gameplay is pretty good, they managed to capture how CoD feels, you've got your 2 weapon maximum, your iron sights to aim, regenerating health, etc. Melee and grenades are relegated to the touch screen, which works pretty decently. It's not a perfect solution, but it works. Sprinting is automatic by default, but you can change it to pressing down on the DPad, which works really well due to the analogs placement, that said, I think it's better to turn it off because movement feels very slippery as it is.

 Alright, so while the basic gameplay nailed how CoD works... the rest of the game didn't. The AI is relentless, as soon as you kill any CPU, all of them will automatically know where you are, and they are incredibly aggressive, they'll empty their entire clips onto the walls you are hiding behind just because. They don't attempt to flank you or find you, except in hostiles mode, they'll just shoot and shoot and shoot. Sometimes they'll crouch behind cover and.... start shooting against the wall that's right in front of them trying to... reach you? They are dumb, but deadly. This also means that most missions in Operations Mode will play out exactly the same because the CPUs will always be more or less on the same exact places, trying to empty their clips on you or your cover. In Hostiles the enemy is actively trying to find you, so they behave much better there.

 Black Ops on Vita is not terrible, but it's very forgettable. There's not enough Single Player content for someone playing on the go, and what little content there isn't particularly good. Considering that they managed to capture the feeling of CoD, ignoring the terrible AI, maybe the game fared better in Multiplayer, but considering that's no longer a selling point.... the game just isn't up to snuff, which is kinda pathetic considering how decent the DS CoD games were, at least the one played.
 4.0 out of 10