Game #902: Stick it to the Man!

 A hero with sticky fingers.

 So, I'm not exactly sure how I came around Stick it to the Man! but man, am I glad I did. When I first saw the trailer, after I read its enigmatic title, the first thing that came to mind was Psychonauts, and the resemblance only intensified the more I played it. It's a wacky point-and-clickish adventure game, like Monkey Island with light platforming elements, and it works so well. 

 You play as Ray, a well meaning idiot with a severe case of a giant pink spaghetti arm coming out of his head. You aim the arm around with the right analog stick, and you can use this arm to read characters' minds. This also translates into, sometimes, having their thoughts turn into stickers that you can grab and then use elsewhere. What you can grab is quite clearly signaled by its thick, white outline-it is a sticker after all! And where you can try to use stickers is clearly designated with a semi translucid white aura around it, and there's no penalty for trying stickers on places until they work. What this amounts to is a very simple game, so even if there are some puzzles that make no sense at all(Using glue on a trampoline so that a conjoined-triplet wrestler brothers jump on it and lose their... fake legs... so that you can then take these REAL peg-legs to a ghost) it doesn't feel too bad because you know what can be interacted with.

 Up to chapter 5 the game is really good and fun, but most of the next five chapters feature very large environments.... which makes the game MUCH more fun. The large, exploratory levels in which it takes you a while to interact with everyone and everything as you slowly piece together what you should be doing were my favorite parts in the game. The game is on the short side, which is a shame because it leaves you wanting more. If anything, I thought the small enemy-chase puzzles were a bit dull, you have to figure out how to avoid enemies, sometimes mind-reading one of them to get a ZZZ or RAY'SFACE stickers to help you distract enemies.

 Lastly, I want to commend the game on its art-style, the game looks beautiful, the art is super high quality, cartoony and very, very unique. To add to the fantastic quality of the art itself, they made every character as well as a few objects look like paper cut-outs, which makes the game look absolutely gorgeous, as well as add something of a surreal atmosphere to the world of the game itself. The funny script compliments its looks quite nicely, and I chuckled out loud a few times.

 I came at Stick it to the Man! expecting a good time, but in the end I got that and then some. It's pretty, it's funny and above all it's fun. I think the developers managed to make a point-and-click adventure that feels very modernized, everything is fast and snappy, and you don't need to pixel-hunt for items or try to use a ginormous amount of items on every single thing or character that comes your way, which I appreciated. All in all, I'm so glad I came upon this game.

8.0

Game #901: Cruis'n Velocity

 This is not Cruisn'

 It's sad how the Cruis'n franchise became nothing but a brand to slap on games in order to sell them after the Nintendo 64 came and went. Cruis'n Velocity was the final, I believe, victim to this. This game feels nothing like Cruis'n and should be avoided like the plague.

 Firstly, it's one of the GBA's surprisingly many 3-D games. But in this case, it looks really bad. There's some ugly, weird warping on the walls surrounding you. Oh, and the framerate is awful, it's like the game only runs at a decent pace when there are no racers close to you.

 There are 14 tracks, but these are proper tracks. In Cruis'n the objective is to get from A to B, this game is just a poor 3-lap racing game. One that looks and runs like garbage. There's a nice amount of cars, however, so props for that... I guess? You can use manual or automatic transmission, thankfully, but taking corners in this game is a proper pain because it's so hard not to spin out of control. Oh, and pray you don't hit another car, because they will get boosted in front of you while you lose all your speed.

 It's not a good start for my GBA this year, because this game was proper garbage. 

1.5

Game #900: Borderlands 3

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 I've loved Borderlands ever since the first game, so to say that expectations were high for Borderlands 3 is an understatement. Randy Pitchford is a highly controversial guy, Borderlands 2 was quite probably made with Aliens: Colonial Marines money and 2K Games isn't the best publisher around, but I had high hopes for the game. And, thankfully, it met most of them.

 First the story.... it's not written by Anthony Burch, the guy that pretty much gave Borderlands a personality. The new group of Vault Hunters are now fighting against the Calypso Twins, a sibling duo of Streamers that want to find a Vault. Live Streamers are dumb(Sorry) so I think the premise had some potential, but I think they didn't make the most of it. Troy, the male twin, was actually rather compelling, since he is a parasite, quite literally needing his twin sister to survive.. but he gets his own development making him a much more interesting villain than his sister. The story has a very Girl Power vibe that I can't say I enjoyed. Everyone is a Siren now, characters you new as well as new characters, Sirens for everyone. Y'know how Sirens were the rarest beings in the universe? Not so much now. Look, Borderlands has been very woke since Borderlands 2, but it felt natural. Anthony Burch decided that most people in Pandora were gay, and it was an interesting choice that he pulled off very well, regardless of how you feel about him. Both male and female characters were given the same importance. It was done well, it didn't feel forced. In this game, the only NPCs with any real importance to the plot are female. Lilith returns as the leader of the good guys, Tannis gets upgraded to second-in command, there's a new kid Ava that Maya is training, Ellie has a ton of speaking parts, etc etc. Not to say that there aren't relevant male characters in the game, just that they are never as useful, powerful or as smart as the girls, and they don't get as much screen time. Make of that what you will, in my case, I thought it was too forced. That said, let's be honest, I never played these games for their story. BLands 2's Handsome Jack, as well as the added personalities to the original Vault Hunters were just icing on an already delicious cake.

 I also didn't like how the game added even more scenes to the first game's vault hunters while somewhat ignoring the rest of the cast. Mordekai and Brick make a few appearances, obviously Lilith plays a huge part in the plot.... but where's Axton? Salvador? Gaige? Krieg makes a small appearance through audio logs, while Maya and Zer0 get a few scenes. While I didn't like the Pre-Sequel all that much, I wouldn't have minded seeing its surviving vault hunters return, namely Athena and Jack. To be fair, Aurelia makes a decent, memorable appearance which I felt was very appropriate and satisfying. I don't know, the Pre-Sequel ended on a somewhat promising scene featuring all the good guys together and I would've liked to see them all return.

 The game plays pretty much exactly like Borderlands 2 but with some interesting tweaks. For instance, every vault hunter has access to THREE different possible Action Skills, and every character's works a bit differently. My boy, Zane, for instance, can forgo grenades altogether and equip another action skill. As you put points on every skill tree you'll also gain access to secondary effects you can equip to your action skill. For instance, Amara's could potentially change her action skill entirely. Honestly, this was pure brilliance, as it makes developing your characters even more rewarding. On another note, I am playing the base game, while I've always played the Complete Edition of every Borderlands game, so the 50 level cap hurts, so many abilities I could not mix together. Made me realize how dumb this arbitrary cap is, because with every Borderlands game they up the cap with every piece of DLC they release, so why not remove it from the get go? Makes no sense.

 Other new gameplay additions are the ability to see your feet(Hey! It's cool!), climbing on top of objects by pressing X near the border of whatever you want to climb on top to, an offensive slide by crouching while sprinting, and the pre-sequel's slam attack that isn't half as useful without moon gravity. On another note, the game has an entire section played with moon gravity, but without the dumb Oxygen limit, that shows how good the Pre-Sequel could have been.

 There was much hoopla around how you'd be travelling planets in Borderlands 3, but in practice, they are just different maps. While Pandora was a desert world it wasn't quite lacking in variety since they always found excuses to have you go through different environments, so, in my opinion, this adds nothing to the game. On the other hand, every map has multiple mini-objectives, finding info-pedestals, finding dead claptraps, climbing towers... and they reward you with a hefty XP bonus, and sometimes rare guns, so it rewards exploration.

 There were some smaller tweaks too, that while not very impactful on the game, were fun additions nonetheless. Firstly, there's dismemberment, enemies will now lose body parts in gratifying explosions of blood depending on where you shot them when you killed them. And then.... you can find and equip different paintjobs on your guns! It sounds lame, but it's actually really neat, having gold and/or rainbow colored guns is SO cool.

 Surprisingly for a game that boasts so many guns, I felt like I was using the same kind of guns throughout most of the game. Every time I found a better assault rifle, it simply was the same rifle I was already using but with better stats. On the other hand, when I found new stuff... boy was it interesting! You can find elemental guns with TWO elements, and you can toggle between them at will! There are new guns that don't have clips, BUT they overheat after a while. There are guns that work like grenades when you reload them. There's fun new stuff, there definitely is, but after I entered the final stretch of the game(Say... the last 5-6 story missions) it felt like the fun new stuff had run out and I was stuck with the more mundane guns.

 The game did fall short in other aspects, namely... performance. Split-screen has lag when going through menus, and the inventory screen messes up the item icons when you equip or unequip something, which is just ridiculous. Some quests got bugged so I had to exit-and-re-enter the area to refresh them, and I came across an annoying sound bug at least twice that required closing and reopening the game. The game could've really used a little more time in the oven. I was also a bit let down by the graphics. I'll never put graphics on a pedestal, but it really didn't feel like a 'new' game.

 And that's the thing with Borderlands 3, for as much as I enjoy Borderlands as a whole, and as much as I appreciated the new bells and whistles.... it does little to differentiate itself from Borderlands 2. At the end of the day I felt like I was playing more Borderlands 2, which isn't a bad thing considering it's one of my favorite games ever, but I won't lie, I was expecting something more. But hey, I got my hands on a shotgun that fired circular saws, you can't beat that. I hope they release a 'Complete' version soon with all the extra maps, skill trees and higher level cap, maybe the extra content will make me like the game more, since a higher level caps means more skills to stuff into my character, as well as more chances to get crazy dumb guns.

 8.5

Game #899: Sonic Advance

 You had to be there, but Sonic on Nintendo's consoles was mindblowing. Life changing.

 From bitter rivals to co-existing on the same console, Sonic Advance was something earth shattering if you were a 90's kid. And it was more than just 'Sonic on Nintendo', as the game was pretty good on its own right, to the point that I think it's sort of a GBA classic, and I played it a lot back when I was into GBA emulation, since getting the proper carts was a bit complicated back then, being at the mercy of whatever our stores decided to import.

 Sonic Advance is not your average Sonic game. It features a completely new artstyle, and, if you ask me, these new sprites are fantastic. Characters look very thin and athletic, which works for a game based on speed. Taking notes from Sonic's Dreamcast outings, you get four playable charactes: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy, each one having their own unique attributes. Sonic has an aerial bump-thing attack, Tails can fly, Knuckles can glide and climb on walls and Amy... Amy is entirely unique. Amy usually represents the easiest difficulty setting on Sonic games, but in this game she's actually the hardest character to play as. She can't curl into a ball neither on the ground nor on the air, making her exponentially more vulnerable than the other blokes, and her aerial hammer attacks are nothing to write home about. Going through steep slopes without speed requires using her crouching-jump thing, since she can't perform a spin-dash. Amy aside, the other character actually get the offensive spin-dash, aerial spin attacks and.... on-the-ground 3-hit combos(2 in the case of Tails and Amy). These combo attacks are useless in this game, since momentum is important and enemies are designed around hitting them while moving, but when I was younger I thought this close-quarters attacks were awesome.

 The game is set up like classic Sonic games, you get about 8-9 different worlds, each one(Sans the final levels) being comprised of two acts, the second act ending on a boss fight against Eggman. While the game is strictly 2-D, every stage has many higher and lower levels, making for various routes. Hidden in each world is a Spring that can take you to a somewhat dull bonus round where you can aim to obtain a Chaos Emerald. You need all Emeralds to unlock the true final level. Every character plays through the same levels, but their different abilities do play a part in making every campaign feel slightly different. A normal playthrough of the game, which means not hunting for the Emeralds, will take you about 1 hour per character.

 I think most of the game is well designed, but not all levels are winners. The first Ice stage is painfully slow if you can't evade the underwater water routes, and these are anything but fun. Cosmic Angel Zone 1 is incredibly long and boring, taking about 12 minutes to complete, and some parts feel like they loop around each other until you figure out the right way, which isn't very fun when working against the clock. Those particular levels aside, I feel like some hazards are impossible to predict unless you know that they are coming, and some enemies are placed in spots where their attacks are hard to avoid as you approach them without knowing that they are there. An example of this would be an enemy throwing projectiles downwards, but you have to approach the platform they are hovering over through a bumper on the ground. Since it's a game built around speed, you'll try to get onto the platform as soon as it comes into view, only to get hit by a projectile you didn't know was coming because there was no way to know there was an enemy throwing things below. It's that kind of thing that kinda gets in the way of the game's main focus: Speedy platforming. And I think the devs knew that, which is why getting Chaos Emeralds relies on exploration and not amassing Rings.

 The game has a few extras. Time Attack and a Multiplayer VS mode, as well as a raising-sim thing, Chao Garden, in which you feed Chao-chaos with fruit and things and... I didn't really care for it. But I remember when I was younger I thought it was kinda neat, so there's that.

 I don't think Sonic Advance has aged the best, or maybe, I think that scores were a bit overblown at the time. However, I still believe that this is a game that every Gameboy Advance aficionado should have, because in my eyes, this game is one of the GBA's most emblematic game, and it's pretty good to boot.

 7.5

Game #898: Guilty Gear Xrd - Rev 2

 Rev up and let it rip.

 I fell in love with Guilty Gear before I even played it, as coming across its beautiful hand-drawn art ads on magazines, Gamepro in particular, was enough for my teenage self to know it was something I Wanted to play. Eventually I played Guilty Gear X on PC, and afterwards I followed the series with keen interest. I remember I was extremely excited for XX, and Xrd looked like a thing of beauty.... but, sadly, Xrd hasn't been my cup of tea. Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is, quite likely, the final instalment of the Xrd series, featuring two new playable characters and a few balancing changes...

 As far as modes go, it's exactly like the original Revelator which I've already covered. I think it has a few bonus Story Mode episodes, but as I've previously said... I don't really like GG Xrd's approach to story telling. It's hard to keep invested when there's no gameplay, and while I enjoy visual novel-styled games, such as Danganronpa and Phoenix Wright, Guilty Gear became a bit TOO anime for my taste, almost as bad as Blazblue.

 The two new characters are Answer and Baiken, two very technical characters which is an interesting choice for an update. Answer's design is alright, but nothing special, and he is yet another character that shares the 'overly talkative win quotes' trait that so many characters in the game have. I used to really like Baiken, she used to be really cool, and at first glance she looks even more badass now... but her entire design revolves around boobs, to the point that she has a ridiculously dumb walking animation. She was never this voluptuous before, and she used to be a 'serious' character, so this is nothing short of disappointing. And this is pretty much why Xrd never managed to entice me like Guilty Gear and Guilty Gear X, it's too anime, there's too much dumb fanservice, it feels like Blazblue 2.0, and it wasn't like this before, and I sure as hell don't like it. Thankfully, Guilty Gear -STRIVE- seems to be looking a bit more reigned in, as far as anime influences go, although Giovana, who is a fantastic new design, seems to have been given a dumb neutral stance, like Blazblue's Bullet.

 A plus to the game is the inclusion of the previous game's DLC, namely Kum and Dizzy. Dizzy plays pretty much exactly like she did before, while Kum is a very interesting take on the Shoto character. This also means that the character roster has grown to a respectable 25, and it's a more than fair way to end this chapter in Guilty Gear.

 Well, what can I say? It's the end of Guilty Gear Xrd. While the graphics were amazing from the very first entry, I gotta say that the new anime/Blazblue art-direction really missed the mark with me, which tainted my overall experience with it. The fact that I feel they ruined Ky Kiske, my favorite character didn't help either, although I'm more than happy with his new look in STRIVE. Personal taste aside, I won't deny that Xrd was top-notch where it really mattered: The gameplay, as it managed to play just as well as the classic games, sacrificing nothing, save for some complexity, in its change to 3-D.

8.0

Game #897: Mortal Kombat 11 - Aftermath Kollection

 Can't wait until 'games as a service' gets a fatality.

 What a disappointing way to start off 2021. I had nothing but praise to say about Mortal Kombat XL, but with Mortal Kombat 11 Netherrealm Studio went the way of the money, turning this 'game' into more of a live service than anything else... It's sad, because I was gonna play Netherrealm Studios games in order, but sin MKXL impressed me so much I skipped over Injustice 2....

 So, I'll start with the ugly truth, everything in the game is locked behind online verification. Well, not everything, but you can't unlock costumes or customization pieces without logging in online. This means that, if like me, you avoid the online service, because a game should be be completely available offline, then you're out of luck. You'll NEVER unlock any other skin, and characters don't get default alternate costumes, just colors. This means that you'll be stuck with the lame revenant versions of Liu Kang, Kitana, Kaval and Kung Lao, even though you use their human forms in the Story Mode. This was absolutely idiotic. The Krypt, where you'd unlock extra content. The Krypt, which was SO good in the previous game? Online only. Get wrecked. Customizing characters is temporary until you log in online. Warner Brothers massive greed cripples this game. As soon as the PS4 servers go down, you'll be left with half a game, that's the honest to goodness truth. They are so greedy, that you can buy access to Frost in case you can't be bothered to play until chapter 4, or in case you make a mistake and think she has to be purchased separately. What a joke.

 Well then, let's get into the story mode. I really like what they did to Sonya, she was extremely unlikeable in the previous game, but in this one? I dug her. A lot. Ronda Rousey makes for a decent Sonya. That said, she and Johnny Cage make it until half of the game, and then they get benched never to be seen in the story mode again. Why? Who knows, they must've forgotten about them. Present(OH boy) Johnny gets shot in the knee, but hey, Cassie gets shot in the shoulder and she's perfectly fine later.  Hopefully you don't mind time travelling shenanigans, because just like they did with Mortal Kombat 9 and Injustice(Kinda, alternate timelines count. Kinda), there's alternate timelines involved. The Elder God Kronika decides to mess with time, so she recruits enemies from the past, but in turn, this also brings back heroes from the past. So we have present day Evil Liu Kang facing past Good guy Liu Kang. Kronika's powers never make much sense, she can do some things, but she can't do others, and... it's not ver clear. Heck, near the end of the game, Raiden defeats an enemy that can turn into sand and teleport by.... tying him with the chain of an anchor? What? He could've easily slipped through. Jacqui and Cassie return, but.... not having Takeda and Kung Jin return makes them kinda stand out. You've got these two rookies fighting the veterans? It made more sense when they were a four-man team. And this is coming from someone who loves Cassie. Speaking of Cassie, I liked how she remained relevant throughout the entire game, I really like her.

 The story has a ton of very sappy and very cheesy, almost cringy, moments, and some of the voice acting isn't up to snuff, sadly. I hated how Frost, one of my favorite characters of the PS2 era, got turned into a Cyborg, and worst of all, it isn't even Sub-Zero who defeats her. Some characters share chapters, and you can pick between either of them on any of the chapter's fights, which is a really neat idea and does away with some of the limitations of having one chapter per character. That said.. Scorpion and Sub-Zero share a chapter, but then Scorpion gets his own chapter, so Subby gets screwed. Likewise with Liu Kang and Kung Lao, they share a chapter, but then later on Liu gets his own chapter.

 I'll say this about the story, it has some very cool moments, and the fact that the graphics are SO DARN GOOD only makes them better. Heck, this game features some of the best designs these characters have ever had. Erron Black looked kinda goofy in XL, but he looks badass in this one. That said, it also has a lot of dumb, dull very, VERY low moments. The ending was sappy and very unsatisfying. I don't know, I like the story modes Netherrealm has produced for their fighters, but I think this one is the worst one so far. It's too uneven, and they added so many moments trying to be 'emotional' that it doesn't feel like the Mortal Kombat we were used to.

 The graphics? Amazing. The character designs? The best in the series. And yet... I don't think the animations are any better... as a matter of fact, I think this game has jankier animations than XL. Y'know, I think maybe exactly because the graphics are so good that it's so much easier to see the jank and how unnaturally so many characters move sometimes. It's a bit disappointing because Netherrealm had been doing steady progress on their animations. That said, while the in-game animations are a bit janky, their cinematic animations, y'know, like the ones in the fatalities? Those ones are really good.

 So, onto the gameplay... Character variations are gone, because now you get different 'slots' to customize your characters with different moves. I... can't say I'm a fan. The fact that I get a handicapped customization system because I refuse to go online is part of the reason, but it's also because I've always preferred having pre-set moves, y'know? I feel like fighting games should be clear with what each character can do and can't do. And this goes against that.

 The fighting has changed a lot, for good or bad. Now there's no proper energy gauge, you get two two-tiered gauges, one for defensive maneuvers, such as falling to the ground faster or wake-up attacks, and another one to enhance your offensive attacks. These gauges fill over time and not by landing hits, which... is different. EX attacks no longer exist, now we get 'amplified' attacks, which are pretty much exactly the same, except that now you must press R1 at the right time to enhance your special move. Not all moves can be amplified, but you can also amplify stage interactions. X-Ray attacks are now called Fatal Blows, they can only be done once in a match, and can only be used once you hit the 30% health threshold. There are other new techniques, like the small hop that can be turned into new overhead attacks, and flawless blocking, by blocking at the right time in order to reduce incoming damage. I wouldn't say the game plays better or worse than XL, but I'll commend them for doing something new, I can appreciate it when developers try changing things instead of reskining their old games, something all too common with fighting games. Plus, the fact that they added all sorts of defensive and offensive options proves that they weren't just trying to streamline everything for a casual audience, but rather, add more depth to the game.

 Another thing I want to give props to the game is for how deep the tutorial mode is. It goes over every mechanic in the game, you also get individual tutorials for each character. But best of all, it also includes frame data and tells you how to read recovery/wind up frames, how safe and unsafe attacks work, the whole 9 yards. It really goes beyond what most tutorials go, giving ArkSys and their tutorials a run for their money.

 And then comes the... Aftermath. The add on DLC that includes a new campaign as well as new characters. Fujin? I love him, and he looks better than ever. Sheeva, Shang Tsung and Nightwolf? Great additions. Sindel? Eh, I've never liked her much, but I think she's iconic to the franchise. And then there's... Spawn? What... why? The Joker?.... WHAT? Robocop?.... this is just silly. Terminator? Alright, whoever is in charge of the DLC characters is fired. I can't be the only person who is tired of these 'guest' characters. Mortal Kombat has a deceptively deep lore and a large pool of characters to pick from, and we get comic book guests? Movie guests? Jesus Christ, give me back Kenshi, Smoke, Takeda, Tanya, Ermac, Reptile... heck, I'd even take Havik.

 As for the story.... I hope you REALLY like time travelling shenanigans, because now Liu Kang sends Shang Tsung, Nightwolf and Fujin back in time. It really does feel like filler, as the first game had a proper conclusion, not a satisfying one, but a conclusion nonetheless. This only adds extra steps to the end. It does have a fair share of cool moments, I'll give it that, and as someone who really likes Fujin they did my boy justice, as now I like him more than ever.

 Well, I gave up and logged in online, unlocked a bunch of costumes but I won't get anything for the stuff I've already done unless I do it again. No thank you. The Krypt is a sham, rewards are filled with useless garbage, like dumb icons or 'forge items' to pad out the whole thing and prevent you from getting the stuff you actually want... and now I'll have to download the patch every single time I want to play the game after I uninstall it. FUN!

 Well... this is a disappointment. I mean, you can tell that there was a lot of money behind this project, and Netherrealm Studios cared about the game, they really did. But the pervasive online elements to turn this game into a live service just sours the entire experience. The story mode also left something to be desired, I mean, I'm not looking for the best script ever written, not from Mortal Kombat anyways, but this game's plot was hit or miss.

 7.5