Game #850: Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS - MaxiBoost ON

 It's been a long, long, long wait.

 It's been over four years since Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS Full Boost first release, and I know I'm not the only one who was begging for a port of Mobile Suit Gundam Ectreme VS MaxiBoost ON, and somehow, someone up there in Bandai-Namco's offices listened, and it's finally here. We had to sit through the awfully misguided Extreme VS Force, and the weird consolation prize that was Gundam Versus, but right now, it doesn't matter, because MaxiBoost is here and it's everything I wanted and hoped for.

 I've already written at length about why I love this game so much, and at its core it hasn't really changed, so... yeah, it's still amazing. On the other hand, I LOVE finally getting to play the game with English menus, this is everything I've ever wanted since Gundam VS Zeta Gundam on PS2.

 The Burst has system yet again, now it's divided into three kinds: Shooting, Defensive and Physical offense. To be perfectly honest, I don't really care too much about this change, and I don't think it really changes how you approach the game, but it does make it so that now you know how to play your defensive game when the opponent engages its burst.

 At first I was gonna complain that I missed vanilla Extreme's Single Player bosses... but they are still here. If you beat a route without using continues and reaching 600.000 points you can then fight a boss from the original or from Full Boost, which is pretty neat. That said, MaxiBoost's new boss(Singular, since it's the same for all routes) is rather lame in comparison!

 The 1000 cost units got bumped to 1500, which is an interesting change, and I welcome it. The single player Mission Mode is pretty much on par with what came before, but instead of upgrading your Mobile Suits you can equip them with passive abilities to enhance their performance.

 The game has over 183 mobile suits to play as, you simply can't top this. Full Boost introduces the lame clones, such as Lunamaria's Impulse for Shinn's Impulse, and most of these clones are pretty much identical but with lower or higher stats, which is really lame. That said, I welcome the ones that at least look different, like the orange Destiny, Kamille's Gundam MK II(which is black and lacks the Super mode) or even the orange Gaia which lacks the ability to change into the dog form at will, but suits like Lacus' Infinite Justice and Lunamaria's Impulse are just lazy and boring. That said, there are like 20 clone suits at most, and even less of the worthless type, so there are at least 150 unique suits.

 This is a Playstation 3 game and it shows. I didn't give Gundam Versus enough credit last year, because that game looked quite better than this one. That said, the PS3 versions of Extreme VS had some slowdown here and there, but this version runs at a smooth 60 FPS, even split-screen multiplayer maintains a steady 60fps. And while Extreme Versus looks 'better' as far as the quality of the 3-D models, I prefer this pseudo cell-shaded look. It's a more colorful game, and I think it suits it better.

 Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS - MaxiBoost ON is the culmination of the Extreme VS series, and the wait was worth it, painful, but worth it. This might very well be my favorite game on the console.

 10

Game #849: Aggressive Inline

 As Tony Hawk as you can get without being Tony Hawk.

 I purchased Aggressive Inline back in the day because, I think, Gamespot's review convinced me that it was the next big thing. The game was alright, but it was no Tony Hawk, that's for sure. And that's pretty much my opinion right now, the game is decent, but it ain't the Birdman itself.

 The game follows Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 blueprint, although, to be fair, this game released first. Still, considering the released the same year, it was probably a coincidence. I felt like removing the timer and adding mission giving NPCs was a step in the right direction, so the fact that this game does that is a pretty good thing in my book...

 ... Except that the timer isn't really gone. While there's not a ticking clock breathing down your neck, you do have a JUICE gauge that you need to keep full, by performing tricks or collecting Juice boxes from the environment, lest you want a game over. It's an incredibly dumb mechanic, and sometimes, when searching for stuff or when I got too invested in a certain objective I lost track of it. You can get back into the game for 100000 points, but this mechanic shouldn't be here.

 Only 7 levels, but they are decent. Factory was the only stage I really hated. Each stage has a Key and a Upgrade. The Key opens up a section in another level, while the upgrade adds a major buff to one of your techniques, such as SPIN, FAKE or JUMP. You also upgrade your stats by performing actions associated with them. Want to enhance you grind? Do a lot of grinds and land the combos. In my opinion it takes a little too long to level up your stats, and every character must be leveled up separately. They start off with abysmal stats.

 Basic gameplay is where ultimately the game comes up short when compared to the Hawk. Flips and Tricks are both done with the square button, to pull a flip instead of a grab you need to press to directions on the pad before tapping square. Needless to say, it doesn't work as well as giving each action a separate button. On the flip side, the Circle button is context sensitive, and can be used to vault over walls or swing from poles. It's a really good idea, but it shouldn't have to had cost us dedicated buttons for flips and grabs.

 But the biggest problem are the manuals. C'mon, don't lie to me or yourself, when you play Tony Hawk, you mash Up and Down like there's no tomorrow. You just do. Here, coming out of a Revert(Cess in this game) and mashing Up and Down will just end your combo on a whimper. You must actually time Up - Down or Down- Up as as soon as the Cess animation ends. Do it sooner or later, or press a third direction on the pad, and your manual won't come out. It's not impossible to get the hang of it, by the last levels I was able to link 5 cesses or more on a single combo semi consistently, but it's still not ideal and it kinda ruins the flow of the game.

 Besides that, there's a general sense of lack of polish that permeates through the game. Sometimes you'll try to jump of a ramp or quarter pipe, but your jump won't come out just right and stuff like that.

 All that said, the soundtrack is glorious. It has a few rap songs I didn't really like, but most of it is rock and pop punk, and there's a lot of music I listen to while I work nowadays!

 Aggressive Inline did its best to copy Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and for the most part, the got it quite right. The game itself is good enough, even if lacking a bit in polish, and the goals per level are quite decent, but the things they changed in an effort to be different actually hurt it in the end. They should've gone full rip-off, because at least then we'd have an excellent clone instead of a decent imitator.

 6.5

Game #848: Spongebob Squarepants - Battle for Bikini Bottom

 Sink or swim? I'd rather sink with this game.

 Last year I heard a lot of good things about Spongebob videogames so I decided to take the plunge and bought a whole lot of them, including this one here Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom. And mind you, I was never too big of a fan of Spongebob, as a matter of fact, I outgrew it pretty much after it's first season and hated it afterwards.

 It's REALLY good, like really good. Movement feels slippery and cheap, y'know, like those quick 'n' dirty low budget platformers that tend to plague every console, however, the game plays really well.

 The characters and world of Spongebob translated very well into this simple 3-D models, probably because the art style itself is very simple. It's fun seeing all the different gestures Spongebob and his friends pull off.

 It's hard for me to explain why it's so good, because the puzzles aren't particularly imaginative and the platforming challenges aren't particularly exciting, however, everything works well and the game is just fun to play.

 The game's biggest flaw are the bosses, they take too long to complete because their patterns are lengthy, but they aren't hard at all, they are just boring.

 I liked how Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy have different abilities, so it makes sense why you can only swap to a specific character during levels. I found Sandy to be my favorite character because of here ever useful gliding ability, plus, her basic attack is a Karate chop. Patrick was probably my least liked, his basic attack, a belly bash, had a short range, and lifting/throwing melons wasn't my cup of tea.

 Not every level is a winner. There's a stage with a lot of sneaking required, which isn't too bad, but it has this Museum stage... at first, Barnacle Boy won't talk to you unless you go in as Spongebob, but the platforming challenge inside is impossible... unless you're playing as Sandy. I was stuck for son long attempting impossible jumps until I decided to look online and it turned out I should've been using Sandy all along. Still, to be fair, most Platforming games have at least one or two annoying stages or parts.

 Gold Spatulas are the main collectible, but there are also Shiny Things. Literal shiny things. These are a form of currency that can be used to open up routes to Golden Spatulas, purchase Golden Spatulas from Mr. Krabs and open up the theater, which I don't know what it does(Might look it up!) since it requires an obscene 40000 shiny things. Needless to say, grinding levels for this isn't my idea of fun.

 I hate to say it, but Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is REALLY good. And this is coming from someone that cares very little, if at all, about the character. Sure, it has that cheap-feeling slippery movement that is pretty much a trademark from low budget, low effort platformers, but it actually plays really well, it's easy to tell that the people that made this game cared.

8.0

Game #847: Naruto: Ninja Council 3

 Hot ninja garbage!

 Way before I got into the Naruto anime, I played Naruto Ninja Council 2 on the GBA, back before it even got translated. I remember this mysterious unlockable character named 'Rock Lee' and I couldn't wait to see how he looked like. I liked the game a lot, so much so that I purchased it after it got localized and even started a FAQ for it, not that a beat'em up needs a FAQ. Naruto Ninja Council 3 was Naruto's first Nintendo DS game, and it's also a sequel to Ninja Council 2, using the same graphics and everything. It also sucks.

 There's no story, just a 7x7 grid made out of 49 missions. And it's dumb stuff like 'break 10 rocks' or 'defeat 10 bats', capture 10 flags before the opponent. It's idiotic and mindless. Maybe it's more fun in multiplayer. You can unlock 13 other missions.

 The controls take a while getting used to, it's so weird having B as the run button and not the jump button, since usually the attack button, Y in this case, is next to the jump button, A, but not so here. I keep running when I mean to jump. The wall jump is very clunky. Using touch buttons for the super moves is uncomfortable and dumb. And they also require touch minigames to work, and sometimes, even blowing into the mic. What the hell??

 In the game's defense... there are a lot of playable characters, 27 in all. And I've always liked these sprites, I thought Ninja Council 2 looked great, and this is no exception.

 Stages are one huge multi-leveled map, which makes gameplay dumb, because you are usually searching for stuff. Sometimes your target actively avoids you, which makes it a chore. You are given a radar on the bottom screen, but it only highlights enemy bosses, and since it's a radar and not a proper map, it's not very helpful. There's a new High Jump, Up+A to help you reach the higher parts of a stage, but platforms usually stop you on your way to the top.

 After clearing each mission you get nuggets of infinite wisdom such as 'hitting an stationary enemy is easier than hitting a moving enemy'. Thank you, captain obvious. Other times you get useless advice, for example, in a mission you have to defeat two giant spiders, and after you beat it, the piece of advice is "Defeat the smaller spiders first". Don't. It's a waste of time and they don't get in your way. What the hell????

 There are a few missions about defeat a certain amount of a certain enemy. This missions seem impossible at first... You are expected to use a screen-clearing super move, like Naruto's Toad Blade or Sasuke's Phoenix Flower, to supposedly defeat about 8 enemies a pop. It's ridiculously dumb, you have to constantly spam this move, even when no enemies are on-screen, in order to clear missions.

 It's bad. The mission structure with no plot is already a poor idea by itself, but the fact that so many missions are boring, like collecting banners, or dumb for the license, such as defeating X amount of animals, is the final nail in its coffin. Level design ranges from abysmal to just plain annoying as a million different things  hit you and your opponent, be it rocks or bats. The character variety is nice, but what's the use if the game sucks? Honestly, this is one of the worst Naruto games I've played next to Powerful Shippuden, and that's just shameful considering how much I liked Ninja Council 2.

 2.5

Game #846: Super Scribblenauts

 Who said you can't play god?

Tons of bite-sized stages. Most can be solved as soon as you type the correct word. You get a playable avatar, Max(Although you can use a few alternate skins), and you can move him around with the stylus or the D-Pad, but most of the stages end as soon as you write the right word to produce the required object.

 It's amazing how many words and adjectives the game recognizes. There's so much you can create it's incredible. You can type words either letter by letter, on the touchscreen, or by writing every letter with the stylus, but it isn't very accurate.

 The are so many fun interactions and things you can do that it's even disappointing that we don't get bigger and larger stages. Things like creating a "Small Good Cthulhu" and give him a Katana to fight a "Evil Giant God". You can create things like jetpacks, excavators or other vehicles and/or accessories and have your very own created characters use them!

 I can't stress enough how many fun things you can create, like a 'Suicidal doctor', or a 'zombie spotted robot'. Most stages can be solved with multiple different solutions, for instance, there are many ways you could jump over a hill. A 'trampoline', a 'jetpack' or maybe a 'plane'. Some stages actually require being beaten 3 times using different words for 100% completion.

 The "Press Start" screen is actually a small playground you can toy around with. There's also a stage creator.

 There are about 120 levels, and some of the final levels are a bit tough.

 All in all, it was pretty fun. I just wish it had bigger, larger and longer stages I could play around with. I think the gameplay has potential for bigger and more ambitious things. That said, what we have here is fantastic, and that's why I wish we could have more of it.

 8.0

Game #845: Trick'N Snowboarder

 Snowboardin' zombies.

 Let's get this out of the way first: You can unlock Resident Evil 2 characters, namely Leon, Claire and a Zombie cop, in Trick 'n Snowboarder. That should've already sold you on the game.

 Tony Hawk this is not, but as soon as I could I mapped X to jump, Square to flips and Circle to grabs, because that's the correct scheme for x-treme sports videogames that involve boards. R1 and L1 are used to spin on the air, for tricks, or to help you turn while snowboarding down. Overall, it felt a bit clunky and stiff, but I got used to it and started having fun.

 The game is pretty arcadey, which is why I wound up enjoying it so much. It's all about scoring points by tricks, and most of the time it's you against the slope, but there is a multiplayer mode. There's also a Story Mode, which has you performing tricks on specific parts of every stage as well as snowboard against 'rivals' and a free mode to snowboard to your heart's content.

 There's a very lame create-a-character mode, and you enhance you stats by going through story mode. You can unlock unique characters seemingly at random by playing the Story Mode. They look pretty neat, the 2-D artwork of these characters is top notch.

 There's a small but serviceable amount of tracks. The story mode can be beaten in under an hour, but considering characters unlock at random... that's for the best.

 The framerate can take a dive, specially in Story Mode whenever you get the 'trick cam'.

 The game is quite fun to play, but not as good as the Tony Hawk games. And maybe that's an unfair comparison, but the game is similar enough to warrant the comparison, 'sides, I'm pretty sure Activision had a Snowboarding Tony Hawk clone. Still, the game can stand on its own two feet, and the Resident Evil 2 characters are a neat curiosity.

 7.0

Game #844: Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Grand Theft Carriage.

 Do you like Assassin's Creed? You're in luck, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is pretty much identical to every other game in the series!

 There are two protagonists, the twins Jacob and Evie Frye, and while I was a bit put off by Jacob's lame one-liners, I really liked how the played off each other. You can play as any character for every non-story part in the game. Both characters share money XP, but have different equipment and 3 exclusive skills each: Woke Ubisoft decided that Jacob, the man, had to have the strength/combat based upgrades, while Evie gets the stealth ones, because she's a woman. To be honest, both characters are practically identical so not to worry.

 The game finally went GTA, you can hijack carriages and drive around, and you can even cause some light destruction around the city. The police will come after you, however.

 The controls are a bit weird, more limiting, probably to help with how inaccurate movement could get sometimes. I always tolerated it because it felt like a byproduct of the freedom you had in climbing pretty much anywhere, well, the new tweaks are unnecessary and to the game's detriment. Holding R2 enters parkour mode, and holding X will move you upwards and O will move you downward, just like Unity, except that now you can't press X to jump any time. This means that if you are on a ledge and you want to go below, to a pool of water for example, pressing X will result in Jacob and Evie staying rooted to their place. The water is below, even if you want to jump down instead of dropping down, so you have to press O. It's counter intuitive to how we've been playing Assassin's Creed, so it produces more issues than the ones it solves.

 Equipment has been limited a bit, now you can customize wrist guards, belts and outfits. It's alright I think, while I miss the larger variety in pieces and clothes from Unity, you also don't have as many pieces that turn obsolete because their stats are atrocious and you should be wearing something with better stat increases.

 1880's London is smaller than the piece of France we got in Unity... but I actually like it this way, Unity was a bit TOO big. As a result, this piece of England feels a bit more dense. Sure, at the end of the day it's just a lot of busywork, collect the flowers, collect the posters, find the chests, yadda yadda, but I like the mini dopamine-rushes. Lockpicking is no longer a mini game, praise the gods.

 I'm not too fond of the Experience system. You only earn XP by doing missions or doing actions that unlock perks. For example, only your first 120 assassinations will give you any XP, afterwards you won't get more XP from simply assassinating enemies. The perk system, however, is kinda neat. Performing a certain task a certain amount of times will give you a small, passive enhancement to an ability related to said action. For example, use sub-weapons mid-combo 75 times to get a damage boost on sub-weapons mid combo.

 I hated how they gated progress in this one. Basically, higher level enemies can take an ungodly amount of punishment, to the point that it seems like their final third of health lasts forever. They can also break your attacks mid combo with an attack that is impossible to dodge unless you guess it's coming and preemptively press circle to dodge. And while you can unlock high level equipment as you explore the city, equipment now has level requirements.

 That said, I am a hard-headed explorer, so I toughed it out and managed to outcheese some harder level missions by using subweapons and stealth, and thus was ready to continue the game at level 8. I hadn't even gotten the dart rope!

 The dart rope works similarly to Batman's grappling hook in Arkham City but worse. It's hard to gauge the correct distance when using it on foot, and a lot of times pressing L1 just had Jacob use the rope behind him, behind where I wanted to go. That said, when it works it's a neat new way to explore the city, it gives you a lot of horizontal freedom when scaling.

 Present day parts are still only cutscenes. I can only ever be so thankful.

 Bugs and glitches, oh boy, boys and glitches. People said Unity was buggy? I played both games unpatched and this one was way worse. Evie was invisible in a few cutscenes that involved Greene, and he himself was duplicated in another cutscenes, not to mention the many bugs and glitches mid missions that forced me to restart a mission. The Hypnotist's mission was particularly bad, I had to restart like 3-4 times because something would go wrong, like the Hypnotist entering an alert state while in the carriage so I couldn't get him out to the fact that the mission doesn't tell you that if you knock him out it's game over. The game crashed twice, Blue screen of death kind of crash. Honestly, this made Unity look like high art.

 There's an entire zone dedicated to World War I. A portal stealthily appears after Chapter 6 at the right edge of the Thames. If I didn't know that this part existed I could've easily missed it, which is really dumb. You don't get a single hint or notice that something appeared over there.

 Syndicate is alright. Honestly, it's just another Assassin's Creed game, you know what you're getting. It's a safe, fun way to spend some time, but it's very forgettable. Unity was simply more ambitious and more interesting, which is disappointing considering how I love this era's wardrobes. At least we finally get a female Assassin tied to a more than decent game. Aveline deserved better.

7.0

Game #843: Elite Beat Agents

 Has there ever been someone with less rhythm than me? I think not!

 Elite Beat Agents is really hard man, even on the easiest difficulty setting, at least for someone like me who was born with no sense of rhythm whatsoever. It's really fun though, I can see why the game exploded in popularity.

 This is the game that made the "Tap/press the numbered buttons to the beat of a song" genre popular. And it's very addictive and fun, so I can fully understand why it became so popular. That said, as popular as it got, it's a bit weird why Nintendo never capitalized on their popularity.

 The game has covers of famous songs, but they are good covers. There are comic book vignettes before, during and after each song, and they are hilarious. Each stage has a song and a plot in which the Elite Beat Agents must help someone with some ridiculous task, such as a mother affect the weather itself in order to get a sunny day for her son, or a cat having to rescue a baby. Not only are the stories hilarious, the songs on the background make them so much more fun!

 The game has 19 songs, and I think I liked all of them. Each difficulty setting has a different Agent, which is just a cosmetic thing, but I think it's a nice little touch.

 8.0

Game #842: Lunar Knights

 Take me to the moon.

 Lunar Knights is yet another fun handheld Konami game, I mean, most of their GBA and DS games I played were pretty darn good and Lunar Knights is no exception.

 I liked the game's 2-D sprites, they are simple and undetailed but look neat. I hated Aaron's character design, however. Aaron and Lucian are pretty much Naruto and Sasuke rip offs. I know that Django, the Solar boy, used to be the protagonist, so I find it weird how Lucian, the moon dude, is more of a protagonist here. Oh, and in the original, Japanese version of the game, Aaron is called Django, but the localization just renamed everyone because why not.

 While I enjoyed the action and RPG elements of the game, I can't say I was any fond of the stealth sections. Thankfully, stealth is pretty much optional. I hate having to blow on the microphone to whistle and draw an enemy towards the sound. Oh, and falling down a bottomless pits is an instant game over, that sucks!!

 I liked the idea of playing as a duo of characters, but I stuck with Lucian most of the time since I liked his sword and simple Y 3-hit combo. I kept Aaron as a back-up, mostly, since he relies on guns and ranged combat, and can't attack if his energy meter is depleted, unlike Lucian. Thankfully, both characters earn experience points whenever you kill something. But, y'know what? The game offers an interesting variety of enemies that are better tackled with an specific hero, and as soon as both characters team up bosses start having gimmicks that revolve around switching characters.

 You may not know it from reading the title, but this is actually Solar Boy Django's fourth game, albeit it's more of a prequel. Was this game good enough to make me want to delve deeper into the franchise?.. I don't think so, not anytime soon. Plus, this game is pretty much self-contained.

 There's a surprisingly large amount of stuff to do! Beating a level is fine and dandy, but speaking to NPCs may sometimes unlock sidequests on previously explored stages. What's more, as you defeat bosses you unlock elemental spirits to coat your weapons with as well as the ability to visit a NPC and change the climate. Changing the climate may unlock alternate roads on stages towards goodies, while revisiting previously played stages with new elemental spirits may allow you to open up new roads, which might reward you with a few goodies... or entirely new dungeons. These optional dungeons is how you obtain Lucian's alternate weapons.

 There's quite a few things to like about Lunar Knights, and it's yet another fun handheld game by Konami. Man, Konami really had some golden franchises and solid titles back in the day, it makes it all the more depressing how they decided to shift their focus into Pachinko and Mobile.

 7.0

Game #841: Dead or Alive

 The origin of breast physics with minds of their own.

 Y'know, I played Dead or Alive, this one, way after I played Dead or Alive 2. It was really good, it is really good.

 The game has a 10-character roster made up of the series' classics, characters that never left the series, except for Bayman who disappeared on vanilla DoA 2. I like how the characters' designs hadn't been finalized by then, so we have things like brown-haired Tina and red-haired Zack. Heck, one of Ayane's costumes has her with pink hair. This game also started the trend of having their females have dozens of costumes while the males get scraps. Every lass has 14 costumes while every lad gets a measly 5.

 I really liked the bonus costumes, a lot of them are lazy repaints, but there are a ton of very cool looking costumes that never returned to the series.

 The game looks really good for a PS1 game, having 3-D models that are almost as soft as what you'd expect out of the Nintendo 64. I'd say they are a happy medium between Tekken 3's detailed, blocky models and Tobal's more simple but softer models. The breast physics are as dumb as you'd expect, with every breast having a mind of their own.

 Characters have a ton of familiar moves, I love how I felt right at home with this game. It goes to show just how great the gameplay was, because it has barely changed. Based off of Virtua Fighter, one punch button, one kick button and one guard button is all you need. It also has the very abusable counter move, back+guard, which adds a lot of almost cinematic flair to the fights.

 The PS1 has a ton of fighting games, a lot of great ones, a lot of bad ones, but Dead or Alive easily falls into the former. Gameplay is simple, fast and responsive, everything I look for in a fighter, but you also get a nice amount of content.

8.5

Game #840: Onrush

 It's not about rushing forward, but rather, rush through everyone else.

 The soundtrack is glorious, although the female narrator is so cringe inducing, poor lass was handled one of the most tryhard and dumb scripts ever made.

 If you want to customize your character and vehicle with new skins, oh boy, Onrush pulls a fast one on all of us offline warriors, because you NEED to go online to access the in-game store. LAME. To be fair, you can unlock a few paintjobs(Which actually change the vehicles' 3-D model) and what not, but I'm not sure of what you need to do in order to unlock them.

 I love how this isn't a racing game proper, oh no, it's a team based battle game with driving. You'll either have to amass points by using turbo and wrecking fodder vehicles as well as enemy team vehicles, go through gates to add seconds to your team's timer, and whichever team's timer runs out first loses, or "Switch", where you get 3 'switches' and on each switch, which happens after you crash, you can pick between a different set of two vehicles, losing all your Switches isn't a game over, you are simply stuck with two vehicles per respawn, the team that runs out of switches loses though. There's a fun take on king of the hill too. Your Buggy or Dirt Bike will get wrecked frequently, but you can respawn unlimited items in a few seconds. It's fast paced, it's arcadey and I really liked it.

 The game is definitely meant to be played with other people, which is why it sucks so hard how there's no offline multiplayer. The single player mode is lengthy enough, but it feels quite limiting, heck, most stages only let you pick between specific vehicles. Some sort of offline 'quickplay' on any game type would've done wonders for the Single Player content. Plus, it being a Team VS Team game means you are at the mercy of your AI allies.

 Lemme tell you what really blows about single player: Some events are Tournaments, made up of multiple sub-events. If you lose a sub-event, tough luck, gotta start from the beginning. But you can pause mid-race and pick "Restart" to restart the sub-event if it ain't going your way. The fun part? You can't pause the game when you are respawning(4 seconds long) or when you are forced to watch the replay of your death BEFORE the four second timer, so if you lose while you're respawning.... Sucks to be you. Hopefully you didn't lose on the last event.

 Having played the game strictly in single player, I got a bit tired by the time I reached the fifth(out of six) set of events. I had already played every mode, driven on every stage(And the new snow climate wasn't enough to make them feel any fresher) and I wasn't unlocking new vehicle skins to keep me interested. I only finished the game out of a misguided sense of completion for completion's sake.

 If you plan to play online, it's probably a great choice, but I'd think twice about getting the game just to play it offline. I had my fun, yes, but this game needed a offline multiplayer option.

7.0

Game #839: Marvel VS Capcom Infinite

 Should've saved this title for MvC 8.

 Marvel VS Capcom Infinite has a bad rep, but here and now I'm about to defend this game from scorned X-men fans, because dammit, it's a good game!

 Alright, so I really dug the new gameplay, not as much as MvC 3 mind you, but still. Which is quite curious considering I prefer MvC's 2 vs 2 over MvC 2's 3 vs 3, but whatever. Making combos is a zinch, and landing hits feels really good.

 I also dug the story mode, which received a lot of criticism, but I disagree and disavow it. It's short and dumb, just the way it should. I kept chuckling at how ridiculous and dumb the plot could get.

 The graphics are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be, and I really dug how beefy and chunky characters like Captain America and Black Panther looked. That said, some of the more human faces can look downright weird, like Dante's and Morrigan's. And as much as I dug these thick heroes, Haggar just doesn't look right. Still, I'll be the first to admit that the game should've gone for a cellshaded look, as this realistic style makes characters like Arthur and X stand out like sore thumbs.

 The roster is a huge mixed bag. Most people HATED this game because it didn't have the X-Men, which I think is ridiculous, and the Marvel side of this game is fine. The Capcom side however.... felt boring and safe. It doesn't help the fact that most characters return from MvC 3 and are pretty much identical to how they used to be. To add insult to injury, the game has a 30 character roster, less than base MvC 3, and even if you factor in the DLC characters we'd still be 2 characters short(if we take into account Shuma and Jill, otherwise they'd be matched). Although I'll admit that even though a lot of animations are recycled, most characters have at least one new move. All that said, I got to play as Jedah in 3-D, so I'm pretty satisfied, overall.

 I thought it was good, I thought it was fun. It's definitely not the best in the series, but it's still a fun time.

7.5

Review #838: Judgment

 I declare it guilty of being amazing.

 Judgment is Yakuza. It's a game that I'd hesitate to call a spin off, because, while it's an open-world beat'em up game, that is set in the very same town of Kamurocho, using the same engine and pretty much the same combat mechanics... it features none of the characters from Yakuza. Sure, the clan Tojo is here, and you might recognize a few very minor characters(ONO MICHIO-SAN!), this game is about an entirely different set of characters and a whole new set of problems.

 You play as Takayuki Yagami, a detective that used to be a lawyer... until the man he defended wound up murdering his girlfriend one month after Yagami managed to prove his innocence. Disillusioned with his own job and under a great amount of guilt, he left his profession to become a lawyer. This makes for an incredibly interesting main character. And it doesn't stop there, throughout this lengthy game Takayuki manages to surround himself with an endearing cast of characters that join him. There's Kaito, his partner in crime and an ex-Yakuza who is the muscles to Yagami's brains, there's Sugiwara, an ex-thief who has his own reasons for joining Yagami, Higashi, a Yakuza that respects Kaito, not to mention Hoshino, a rookie lawyer from Yagami's former firm, as well as Saori, another lawyer from the same firm. Every character gets his and her own time to shine, and since Yagami is not a Supreme God of Destruction, unlike Kazuma and most protagonists from the series, every character feels important. And it also made me wish I could play as the others! Look, I really liked Yagami, but his friends are just as great. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the villains, and they are a nice assortment of threatening bastards and dirty weasels.

 As for the game's plot, it begins with Yagami having to find evidence for a lawyer in order to defend a Yakuza in court from a murder he didn't commit. A murder that happens to be last in a series of brutal assassinations that leaves victims without their eyes. This game was made by the Yakuza team, so of course it ain't as simple as that, and the story pulls all sorts of twists and turns. To be honest, I think this is one of the best stories that have come out of the series, and the fact that we have an entire new set of characters and backgrounds means that they could explore narratives they couldn't with Kiryu and company, making for a very fresh story inside Kamurocho. I'll admit that anyone that has played Yakuza before will have an easy time figuring out which characters have are covered in plot armor and their "deadly wounds" are just for drama, but it's still a very intense and emotional story, I swear, it has a ton very powerful scenes that made the story so great. And it seems Sega of America had a lot of faith in the game's script, because they localized it twice! For the first time since Yakuza 1, you can play the game with a rather colorful dub... or you could go traditional, with the Japanese voice overs, and a more faithful set of subtitles. Necessary? Absolutely not. But it shows that even Sega of America put their A game with Judgment.

 As for the game... it's Yakuza. The entire game takes place in the city of Kamurocho, in which you have the ability to freely roam around, interacting with different minigames or stores, as well as battling thugs who don't know any better. There are a ton of sidequests you can partake in, as well as interact with specially designated NPCs that you can befriend by following their usually silly mini-story. Most of the mini-games from previous games return, however, it seems that the budget was either lower than usual or the famous actor that plays the main character was too expensive, because the hostess bars are gone as well as the Karaoke mini-game, the latter one actually stings a bit since Karaoke's been one of the best parts about Yakuza. I'll die on that hill. As for the Arcade machines, Virtual-On was replaced with Fighting Vipers.

 Takayuki is an interesting fighter because he has two styles he can switch between: Crane and Tiger. Crane is built around fight crowds while Tiger works great for single enemies. And, y'know, at first that's true, but for whatever reason Tiger has a lot of unlockable moves, while Crane has none, thus Tiger becomes way more powerful and way more useful, with Tiger you can even unlock a very powerful, timing based attack('Flux') in which you let go of the attack button at the right time for massive damage. There's a Heat gauge, now called EX, that builds as you land and receive damage, which can be used to pull off EX moves(Super moves) or enter EX Mode, in which you can dodge-cancel your attacks, as well as become faster and stronger. With a few upgrades in tow you can also get brutal Triangle-mashing attacks for both styles. One thing to keep in mind, although only for random fights that happen outside of the main story and side story missions, is that Takayuki follows the law, so if you take too long in a fight the police will come and arrest you! I played the entire game in normal and the police never came, but it is something to be wary of. Overall, I'd say the combat is a step forward within the Dragon Engine, Takayuki is very nimble and flashy, which can take a bit of time getting used to since Kiryu was more straightforward with his fighting style, but once you get used to Tak's animations it becomes as fun, and I'd say even more fun, as always. If there's something to complain about is that enemies have a knack for blocking your attacks mid-combo, making your attacks bounce off and leaving you open for their counterattack, which isn't very nice.

 Mortal Wounds is a gimmick that will probably annoy a few people, I didn't care too much about it to be honest. Y'see, Yagami is no Kiryu, thus getting hit by a boss' super move or by a gun(Even if shot by a common enemy) will reduce Yagami's maximum life points, and there are only two ways to heal this damage: Using a medikit, which is rare and/or expensive, or going to the underground doctor for a check-up, which is slightly less expensive. I felt like this mechanic added nothing to the game, although I'll admit it made me learn to respect a boss once it entered it's powered up phase, but I also didn't feel like it was too annoying. That said, I'm a bit of a completionist so I had money to spare most of the time and if I was unlucky I'd have to visit the doctor every time I started a new chapter, since I probably got a few mortal wounds on the previous chapter's boss.

 Side content is when the game falters a bit. As per usual, side stories is where most of the silly, ridiculous and sometimes slightly offensive humor resides and... they are fine. I laughed out lough a couple of times. But... Takayuki is a detective, and they had to build that into the game. Moments in which you have to examine crime scenes or whatever are fun. Moments in which you have to present evidence or find a person that matches a description? All of them are fun and make sense. You even get a nifty little drone you can fly around, fly in races or sometimes use it to take photo-evidence from places you can't reach. And all of this is fine. But, and it's a huge but, the game has an excruciating amount of poorly made tailing sections. They are SO slow. A few days ago I complained about Ghost of Tsushima's, but boy, I didn't know how good I had it. So, not only are they slow and boring, but it's also ridiculous how dumb they are, you can pretty much run up to your objective's face and as long as the gauge above the screen isn't full they won't recognize you. They are so silly too, because your objective will sometimes walk around in a circle around a block because why not waste your time, or sometimes you'll go through a huge chunk of Kamurocho, slowly walking behind them, only to end up close to were you started. Man, I HATED tailing missions. There's a new lockpicking minigame, which is actually fun, but there's also a mini-game of... sorts in which, sometimes, when approaching a door, it will be locked, and you have to pick the right key. There's no penalty for picking the wrong key besides wasting time, and there's no thought process behind picking the right key. It's just there because I don't know.

 As good as the combat in this game is... man, it's the story that really makes it stand out. It was so amazing that every time a new development happened I forgot all about the horrible tailing missions. If this game didn't have those segments this could've easily become my favorite game in the series. Still, what this game manages to prove, as if Binary Domain didn't already, that the Ryu Ga Gotoku Team are still capable of producing exciting and interesting stories outside their comfort zone. And yes, you could argue that this game still features Yakuza, and it does, but trust me, it's a very different tale.
 8.5 out of 10