Game #942: Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles

  Continuing the trend of games based off series' I haven't seen yet....

 I first learned about Zatch Bell! through the GBA games, back in my Emulation days, and it was a quirky fighter in which people used... marionettes, what they looked like at the time, to fight each other. I'd learn more about the franchise as years went by, but due to my memories with the GBA original I have a sort of soft spot for the license, which is why here I am play Zatch Bell!: Mamodo Battles.

 It's not very good.... You can immediately tell it was made by Eighting because it feels like their other fighters, like Bloody Roar, Bleach: Heat the Soul or the Naruto Clash of the Ninja series. While it does feel like those, it's much simplified. You get a single attack button that performs a single attack string, as well as a special move button that you can pair up with different directions for different results. To be fair, the basic attack can be coupled with a direction to sometimes get a different attack, but it's still not much to play around with.

 There's a Story Mode, but it's not very good. It doesn't tell the story of the series, although there are some character interactions that I think that are based on the ones from the original show though. In this mode you must visit different locations hoping to trigger a battle, hoping, because you just might trigger a 'There's nobody here' waste of time event. Once you get bored with that you've got Time Attack, Practice and VS. And that's it. You can use points obtained in these modes to 'develop' a character and raise its parameters, but why would you if you need these points to unlock other characters?

 Oof, unlocking characters is a mess. You can unlock most of them through Zatch's story mode, but afterwards you'll be missing five. One randomly appears when going through Time Attack, and you must defeat it to unlock it. The other four.... are unlocked by collecting every card in the game. Look, I managed to do it in about 3 hours, but it wasn't fun. I had to repeat Time Attack over and over again to amass points and then use points to RANDOMLY collect cards... cards of which you might get repeats, just to pad the game further. And all in all, there's a measly 14 playable characters, with two of them being clones. And if you're mean enough, you could consider Zatch and Zeno clones, but at least they have a different basic Attack string and their human/mamodo team-up attack is different. Their Specials and Supers are the same though. The worst part about this endeavor is that so few people care about this game that there's erroneous information on how to unlock things. Supposedly getting cards unlocks stages, but in practice I randomly unlocked a few by going through Time Attack, and even after collecting every card I didn't get new stages through them.

 Eighting's fighting games tend to be very simple, and I'm OK with that because they are button-mashing fun. But Mamodo Battles feels so limited that it just isn't fun. Coupled with just how insanely boring it was to unlock every character.... Yeah, I'll stick with the GBA cart.

 3.0

Game #941: Bodycount

  It's not a dating game.

 Made by the same people that developed Black, Bodycount is a sort of spiritual successor to the former. Dumb barely-there plot, dumb cliffhanger ending and, best of all, the same satisfying first-person gunplay that made Black so damn good.

 Alright, so it's not identical. Aiming down your iron-sights roots you to the spot and now the left-analog stick is used to lean in any direction. Health bars are a thing of the past, we're following modern trends which means that regenerating health is a thing now. Oh, and enemies know how to use grenades now. I won't lie, at first I wasn't really feeling it, but it slowly won me over, as the game turned out every bit as bombastic as Black, with very exciting shootouts, not to mention, they absolutely nailed the feedback from handling guns which makes it oh, so satisfying.

 A new addition to the game are powers. When you shoot down enemies they may drop blue pick ups which refill your OBS gauge, and with this gauge you can activate different powers: Temporary invincibility, enhanced firepower, Radar and/OR an airstrike. That's right, you can mix some of these, provided they don't use the entire gauge. It's a welcome addition, and one you'll need since fights later in the game get super tough.

 Melee is a thing, but it's very delayed from when you first press the button and it barely deals any damage, making it useless. Alongside grenades, you also get a separate stock of landmines, which are good to keep a perimeter. Another interesting bit, the game has a faction theme to it, in which various factions are at war with each other, so you'll often show the fray as a separate one-man faction that will cause further chaos. It's an interesting premise for sure, since you could very well be a coward and let them take each other out... but why would you, when mowing down enemies is so much fun!

 There were a few small issues with the game, though. For example, the framerate will often times take a dive when it gets to hectic, more often than I would've liked. The game is made up of short missions, which is fine, except that many missions either reuse environments wholesale or borrow parts of them, which was a bit disappointing. At least enemy placement was different.

 Bodycount is definitely a keeper and a worthy successor to Black. In my case, it took me a few missions to really 'get' it, but once I did I started having a blast.

 8.0

Game #940: Capcom Fighting Evolution

 ...or how Capcom made their own Mugen game and sold it.

 As good as Capcom All-Stars was looking, Capcom decided to can the project. But since they had spent a lot of money on it.... they decided to spend as little money as possible and try to get some money back, that's how the lazy hack-job that is Capcom Fighting Evolution was born. They set out to make the most shameless cash-grab possible, and they succeeded, at the time, until EA would come out with their FIFA Legacy Editions.

 The game was made on the cheap, so it brings back sprites and mechanics from other games. You get four characters from Street Fighter II(Using either CVS or SFAlpha sprites), four from SF III, four from Darkstalkers, four from SFAlpha and four from Warzard, alongside Pyron who is acting as an unlockable and final boss, for whatever reason, and Shin Akuma as the bonus unlockable boss. They made one new sprite set, the one for Ingrid, and her animations are super cute, so she is wasted in this game. So... that's a total of 23 characters. It's a crossover game, made on a five dollar budget... with a scant 23 characters. Really? Ken Masters? Nowhere to be seen. Morrigan Aesland? Nowhere to be seen. Dude, this is an asset recycle extravaganza, it should've had at least 40 characters, there's no excuse. Want to be lazy, be lazy, but at least give me something.

 Oh, and characters don't REALLY play like they used to. I mean, it may be nitpicky, but some of them.... got gutted. SFIII characters get all three supers and a generic two-stock energy bar, instead of having to pick one between three. And SFAlpha characters have Custom Combo AND their supers by default. As for how the game plays.... you pick two characters and you can tag between them after a round. Rival Schools style, but with no tag attacks or assists or anything interesting, it's as boring as it gets. Other Capcom VS games are super hype, with energetic announcers, flashy menus and HUDs.... nothing like that over here, it's a lifeless MUGEN clone. And modes? Arcade, VS and Training, that's all you get. Not even in-game movelists, is this the PS1 era of fighting games?

 Capcom has often times recycled assets, but most of the time it's not too bad. Some could argue that some of Darkstalkers' sprites clashed against the new sprites in CVS 2, but I didn't think it was too bad. But just imagine Street Fighter III sprites next to Darkstalkers'. It's not a pretty sight. Then picture Street Fighter Alpha sprites next to Warzard's monsters. It doesn't work, the art styles don't mesh well at all. And the background art? Oh my god, it's hideous. The backgrounds look washed out, and the cherry on top is that they used official art or sprites for character cameos, one stage even uses a Dee-Jay official art piece that clashes next to the other recycled art assets due to the different coloring style. And these backgrounds feature very minimalistic animation that actually works against them, making them look very unappealing.

 About the only thing I can praise, besides Ingrid's sprite, are the ending, using what looks to be Udon's art to present a full comic-book-style page per character. Not the most detailed endings ever, but they are pretty to look at.

 There's not much to say about this travesty. It's boring, lazy and worst of all... forgettable.

3.0

Game #939: Sonic and the Black Knight

  Am I.... am I to become a Sonic apologist?

 One day everything was fine, and the next it felt as if I had woken up in an alternate dimension where nothing made sense. Case in point, Sonic and the Black Knight is considered another 3-D Sonic mess.... but I liked it. Look, while growing up I was a Nintendo kid, and I always gave Sonic chances, I gave it so many chances, and I never really liked it.... Until this bizarro-year hit anyways.

 So, of course, amazing soundtrack and a brilliant, catchy theme song, as per usual with 3-D Sonic games. The game starts with an awesome pre-rendered cutscene showing how Sonic gets summoned into King Arthur's world only for the game to then rely mostly on conservatively animated cutouts. At least they are well drawn. Like Naruto Dragon Blade before it, Black Knight arms Sonic and his friends with new cool armored designs and blades. No, really, I love this armored look everyone gets, I'm an edgy boy, sue me! Tails and Amy don't get armored redesigns, but at least they are redesigned, since everyone in this world takes up after an Arthurian character, for example, Knuckles is Percival and Amy is the Lady in the Lake. Oh, and despite it being an E for Everyone game.... Knuckles tries to kill himself. I'm not kidding.

 The gameplay is very unusual for a Sonic game. Rings aren't really rings, but rather, you get 'rings' by grabbing fairies or breaking stuff, and if you get hit, they don't fall to the ground, you just get a certain amount substracted from your total. It's also super linear, Sonic runs forward, and if you want to go backwards Sonic will slowly walk backwards, although you can help him by jumping backwards. So in a way, it's like a runner game. You hold up on the analog stick and watch Sonic follow a predetermined road, while moving from side to side, jumping around or... slashing with your sword. There's no homing attack and no spin dash, Sonic's only means of offence is his sword. It's not your average Sonic game, that's for sure.

 Alright, so first point of contention.... Waggle is the name of the game. In order to attack, you have to waggle the controller. There's no need for precision in this game, so it's not too bad, and your inputs are read quite well I think. I played the game in one sitting, about 4:30 hours in all, and my arm got a bit tired by the end. Speaking of this.... boss battles against Sonic's buddies are stupidly easy, just waggle waggle waggle until you win. The other two big bosses, however.... they are a pain in the butt, requiring good reflexes. I won't lie, I gave up on the true final boss because I'm 90% sure I was waggling with the right timing but the game was pulling my leg. And that's fine, I had seen everything in the game but the ending, for which I could simply rely on Youtube, so no skin off my back.

 The game is made up of multiple short missions, like super short, a 'lengthy' stage in the game means 3 minutes long. While that's a design I prefer on handheld games, I think it works well in this game. On that note, the get to the goal and slaughtering enemies missions are fine, but the ring-giving missions are so boring and there were a few too many of those. You have to be careful not to scare a civilian, you also have to be careful to arrive with at last 20 rings, and then you have to correctly perform a Simon Says minigame to give them rings. It's so dumb and boring. The game is at its best when its dumb and flashy. Through most of the story mode you play as Sonic, but eventually you can unlock Shadow/Lancelot, Knuckles/Gawain and Blaze/Percival. I would've liked Silver to be playable in Adventure mode, but hey, at least you can unlock his Knight form for the Battle multiplayer mode, so not too shabby. And yes, there's a simple battle mode that can be played with up to four players, not only is it not a bad extra, but there's a good amount of characters you can unlock.

 Unexpectedly, the game looks REALLY good. The environments are quite pretty to look at, the framerate is pretty stable and there are some nice details, like being able to cut down grass with your sword if you swing when standing around grass strands.  

 I can understand why this game was so poorly received, I really can. The gameplay is shallow and repetitive, and the fact that you move on rails makes it feel almost like it plays itself. So I get it, I understand why 'professional critics' hated it, they wanted a deep narrative or somethin'. But just as much as I enjoy games with a deep narrative, like Phoenix Wright, or games with tons of gameplay depth, like Devil May Cry.... I also enjoy my flashy style-over-substance Arcade-like games, and that's what this game is. The shortness of the stages, the simple pick-up-and-play mechanics that keep you constantly on the move, the gimmicky waggling... I had a lot of fun with this game. It's a game I where can simply turn off my brain and have fun slashing things around while moving at high speeds and enjoying the     of speed.

 Yeah, it's not a game for everyone, not even necessarily for Sonic fans considering how different it plays to 'real' Sonic games. But for someone who adores Arcade-like games? This one was just up my alley. There were a few poorly designed stages in the 'Crystal Caves' world, and I'd ax the ring-giving missions, but otherwise, most of the time I spent with the game was well worth it. I think I'm gonna try to get my hands on Sonic 2006 just so that I can speak ill of Sonic again. I hate saying good things about it.

 6.0

Game #938: Black

  I prefer yellow.

 Every bit of praise Black gets is fully and completely deserved, it's one of the best First Person Shooters I've played on the system and one that holds up incredibly well.

 On first glance it looks like a Call of Duty clone, with it's militaristic setting and the awful first-person cutscenes in-between levels. But as soon as you start playing the game you'll quickly realize that this is pure Arcade bliss. While the 2-weapon limit and iron-sights aiming are here, there's no such thing as regenerating health, having to rely on enemy drops or conserving med kits. There is a serious narrative in here... but can't say I cared, I just wanted to shoot down baddies cause it felt SO good.

 And really, that's where the game shines, its feel. Shooting every kind of weapon feels great thanks to the audio visual feedback. The shooting sounds great, the recoil is just right, the enemy crumple animations are on-point and the rumble is just as strong as it needs to. I can't stress enough just how great shooting down enemies feel, and this is what makes the game SO good.

 To top it off, the levels are pretty bombastic, featuring a highly destructible environment and very intense shootouts. It's funny, because your walking speed is pretty slow and there's no sprinting, but once the shooting starts the game suddenly feels very quick-paced, despite how slow you actually move. And I loved it so much. It really does feel like an arcade shooter, with simple mechanics, very fast paced, and tons of chaos everywhere.

 My main gripe falls with the objective system, on every level you have a 'main objective', which is usually just moving forward and shooting down everything, and having to complete at least 3 out of 12 side objectives. Side objectives are nothing involved, more akin to a scavenger hunt, having to find silly collectibles or destroy safes or stuff like that. To be honest, I always cleared more side objectives than needed, and I didn't feel like I was going too out of my way for them, but they do feel like an unnecessary condition to finishing a level. AS for the main objectives, sometimes it might be hard figuring out what to do. Like on the seventh stage, it says to destroy a couple of doors. And you shoot explosive rounds and nothing happens, so you start exploring and nothing. Defeated, you throw grenades at the door.... and it breaks. Most destructible stuff shows wear as you shoot it down, it would've been nice if these doors did so too!

 The game lasts 4 hours, which made me a bit sad because it was so good, but it probably ends right where it needs to, and the short length of every mission makes it quite replayable.

 Yeah, Black is definitely a good one. I feel like the greatest games are the ones that manage to make their core gameplay feel great, and this one succeeded in that regard. I'd go as far as to call it one of the best FPSs on the system.

 8.5

Game #937: Avatar - The Last Airbender(Playstation 2)

  No, I still haven't seen the show.

 A few years ago, something bit me and I decided to play every single Avatar game in existence. And while I managed to get most of them(Still missing the PSP and Wii movie-adaptation game) I've been playing them very sparsely. Here we are with Avatar: The Last Airbender for PS2, a game that follows its own original story using the characters from the show.

 Among the first Avatar games, this one is probably one of the better ones. It's a very linear action game with RPG elements, not unlike LOTR: War in the North which I just finished a few days ago! You control a party of four: Aang, Katara, Sokka and.... Haru, you can swap characters at any time but the CPU will play as the other three, doing a subpar but tolerable job with them. They aren't much help, but hey, at least they won't get themselves killed and CPU Katara keeps the healing coming regularly. Experience points are shared between all four, so they all level up at the same time, each level up comes with a new move or an upgrade for an already learned move. You can outfit your characters with different equipment pieces, but there's a definite 'best set' for each character that you can unlock if you delve into the optional content. 

 Speaking of side content, if you're interested in that... make sure to do every optional thing before tackling the main story missions, because there are points of no return, and once a chapter is finished there's no going back, and you definitely don't want to miss out on ultimate equipment pieces. Or miss out on them, it's not like the game is hard, and once Aang learns his final offensive super move the game becomes a cakewalk. Just spam the move and watch enemies and bosses fall apart.

 The game looks a bit bland and it has a certain feeling of cheapness to it, but damn if the cell-shaded character models don't look really nice, they are super expressive too, during cutscenes characters' faces deform and go out-of-model frequently to highlight their emotions which I felt was pretty neat for a licensed PS2 game. On the other hand, the game soft-locked once on me, and that wasn't very nice.

  I'd say I had an overall positive experience with the game. It's not a deep game and it doesn't do anything special, but it's a fun time all the same.

 6.0

Game #936: MDK

  Most Definitely Kool.

 While I played the sequel to MDK I had never played the original, and after seeing Digital Foundry shilling it very hard a few years ago it piqued my interest, so here I am.

 Where MDK really shines is in its simplicity, you are a guy who runs and guns with his arm chaingun and sometimes stops to snipe down enemies with his sniper helmet/gun/thing. That's it. That's the game. It's a collection of arenas in which you must defeat tons of enemies, sometimes stopping to clear very simple puzzles. And you can tell this game began its life on PC because strafing and shooting is the name of the game here. There are small hints of humor here and there, but nothing as in your face as the sequel. Heck, in order to open many barriers you need the 'world smallest nuke', and that's exactly what it is, a miniature nuclear bomb.

 What I liked about the game is how fast paced it is, you zip around the environments while strafing and even gliding around. That said, I felt the first stages were really boring, because the game pits you against many enemy generators at the same time, so it feels like an eternity before you take them down while also dealing with the respawning enemies. Thankfully, the game eases up on these as it goes on, and you get more means to deal with them, such as bombs or other sub weapons.

 The visual style is very unique too. As previously mentioned, the game is made up of variously interconnected areas, and they are very simple in design... and sometimes very trippy. The entire second stage looks like a bad LSD trip. Adding to this, the main character, unlike every thing else in the game, is a 2-D sprite, which only adds to the overall uniqueness... plus, I love when games mix 2-D sprites with 3-D elements, so to me, it's also quite endearing. All that said, this PS1 version suffers rom a LOT of slowdown, it can get pretty bad to be honest... but, for a game of this kind... it doesn't necessarily detract from it. It's not like you need pinpoint accuracy when Kurt, the main character, auto aims, or like dodging projectiles is a matter of keen reflexes, so it's not as bad as it sounds, trust me.

 Overall, it was a fun experience, but not an overly memorable one. I'd hesitate to call it a classic, but I'm happy it's part of my collection now.

 7.0

Game #935: The Lord of the Rings - War in the North

  And they still refuse to adapt Tom Bombadil into any other media.

 EA really killed it back in the PS2 generation with their LOTR games, didn't they? The movies ran their course, but hey, EA loves money, so they kept milking the license. Thankfully, The Lord of the Rings: War in the North turned out quite right. It's missing some of the snappy gameplay from the previous generation's releases, but it has other things going for it.

 The game takes after the movies, for good or bad, so character cameos and the world itself is based around Peter Jackson's vision, even the voice cast did their best to imitate how the original actors sounded. You play as another fellowship, made up of a Dundain ranger, an Elven loremaster and a Dwarf, erm, 'champion', as their adventure helps divest Sauron's attention from the fateful nine. It's a short game, lasting about 12 hours, but short considering it takes place parallel to all three movies... and while the script is decent, it does an awful job of simulating or implying passage of time, as the game feels all too short as to take place throughout the entirety of Frodo's adventure. Nitpicky? Maybe, but as a fan it was a bit jarring. On the other hand, the game introduces Radagast to Peter Jackson's world, so that's cool, and the developers loved throwing tons of Middle Earth trivia if you talk with NPCs and bury yourself deep in the dialogue trees. We even get to fight Barrow-Wights! Only thing it was missing was Tom Bombadil.

 I don't usually go out of my way to praise how a game looks, particularly on generations beyond PS2 since PS3 and PS4 tend to look relatively good, but this game was rather pretty. The human and elven faces are plastic-y and very artificial, but other creatures and the bearded dwarves, since it hides most of their faces, look fantastic. Try if you want to play around with the very limited character editor, I bet you won't find a single decent face. The environments in particular are pure eye candy, and the armors are very detailed, not to mention that your equipment reflects on all three playable characters, and each character gets a lot of different equipment pieces. Even if you play by yourself, the game does have local co-op, your CPU allies will regularly update their equipment, so you'll also get to see them get upgrades. The frame-rate holds steady enough most of the time, but if it gets too hectic it might take a few dips.

 The game is a beat'em up with RPG elements. Sure, different equipment pieces with different stats, including a durability stat to keep you returning to the blacksmith to get your stuff fixed, experience points, stat points, skill points and skill trees, and, heck, you even get optional side quests... but let's be honest, this is more of a beat'em up than anything else. You have a weak attack, a strong attack, three active skills that run on mana and cool down, a evasive roll, a defense stance and a means to attack from afar(The human gets a bow, the Dwarf a crossbow and the Elf magic blasts). Some sort of targeting system would've been nice, as some enemies are rather nimble, so you'll have to manually move the camera as you dodge or they dodge attacks, which can be cumbersome during some of the more intense fights.

 It's not the most involved combat system ever, and it's a bit sloppy to be honest. Some enemies are too aggressive to the point that after every dodge you'll only be able to get a few slashes in before you have to dodge again, and I think some of the hit boxes for enemy attacks are very suspect... but it works well enough for what it means to do, plus, you can carry tons of HP and Mana potions to make up for any shenanigans, and if that wasn't enough, you can revive your allies or they can revive you, as long as all three of you aren't dead you won't lose. Heck, the Ranger has an ability that turns him invisible, you can turn invisible and quickly revive your teammates. 

 I really, really liked War in the North. It's not the most innovative or deep action game out there, but the game never meant to be. It's a fun stroll through the world of Middle Earth, and you get to bash enemies ripped straight out of, or inspired by, Peter Jackson's interpretation. Plus, what it lacks in substance it makes up for in style, the game is very pretty so exploring its world is always fun, and I love how different equipment pieces actually change how the character looks. All in all, I had a good time with this one.

 8.0

Game #934: Robots

  I can be more than a robot~♫(Makes more sense in Spanish, I promise)

 I'll be 100% honest... I never watched Robots, not entirely, and yet... I kinda like it. I first came across the movie one day when zapping through channels, and the movie was close to its end... and then it ended and this catchy 'Yo puedo ser mas que un Robot' song started playing, a song exclusive to the Latin American localization. I'd eventually start catching the movie earlier and earlier, but I don't think I ever watched it from beginning to end, regardless, I think I like it, so I had to get the game.

 From what I've seen of the movie, the game follows the plot and aids the narrative by using short clips from the movie, albeit with new narration to link together every stage. The game is your average platformer, or rather, would be if it had stuck to that. For starters, the jumping and the three-hit combo feel really nice, which is something that many third-rate platformers have trouble getting right. There are a few puzzle elements here and there, so you get various tools, such as a magnet beam or an electro beam, but most of the puzzles only require the basic scrap shooter most of the time. There are a few sections in which you'll drive inside a ball, and it's halfway decent, so no complaints there.

 The game's main issue is.... it's kinda boring. If it was an average platformer, get from A to B, I think it would've fared better, but most levels task you with collecting X amount, usually 16, of something, usually blueprints. But it's not very fun, y'know? You can purchase an upgrade that highlights mandatory items when in first person, and it helps, but it's still a bit boring, there's too much stuff to collect and levels end up feeling needlessly bloated.

 It's alright, y'know? It gets some things right, which is pretty neat, but it also gets a few things wrong which made the game a bit boring. If you enjoyed the movie, you might get a few kicks outta this one.

 5.5

Game #933: Roswell Conspiracies - Aliens, Myths & Legends

 Tonight we present: The mystery of the PS1 game nobody seems to know about.

 I think that Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths & Legends is one of the most underrated TV Series ever made. I tend to hate IPs that contain aliens, and this series made it so that every monster was actually an alien. And I loved it. While most of the show followed the typical monster of the week formula it actually had an overarching plot that had a proper beginning, middle and end. Anyways, I love this show, and I think it's incredibly underrated, so I had to get the game, y'know, a little piece of memorabilia to remember the show by that's tied to my biggest hobby.

 Well... it's kind of a mixed bag. It's a very rudimentary third-person shooter, you can aim in first-person, although it's barely required, you can strafe and you get a small assortment of weapons with limitless ammunition, however, you're usually limited to up to two different guns per stage. Heck, all the medikits you collect? They are gone by the next stage, so just use them freely.... provided you need them, because Nick will regenerate a large portion of the damage he incurs. It's surprisingly decent, y'know, for a licensed game of the PS1/N64 era.

 You won't be just shooting your way through the game, sometimes you have to find items in order to operate certain mechanisms, or complete very simple puzzles. At most the game will require you to go into your inventory and 'Combine' two key items. At most. You can't jump and you take fall damage, so taking a page from Tomb Raider, you have to slowly inch towards the edge of a ledge and press the action button to slowly climb down. Taking a page from nowhere, because it's a dumb idea, defeated enemies are only 'incapacitated', you actually have to press the action button over their collapsed body to capture them, else they'll get up again after a short while. It's not TOO annoying, and the game is easy enough so that you can simply 'capture' an enemy while another one is shooting at you, but it's a needless inconvenience. As easy as it is, don't get too cocky, as there are no checkpoints and death means restarting the entire stage.

 The game really falls apart in its presentation and use of license. What little music there is is usually kept for bosses or cutscenes, as most of the game you'll be hearing ambience noises. It seems they had trouble programming voices into cutscenes, because the only dialogue you ever get is inside the inventory, going into your 'messages' which are just small voice notes of Nick talking to.... himself? Not only is there no dialogue, what little story there is is kept to the mission briefings, which are small text-boxes giving you some context on what you're doing. That's it. The series had an endearing cast of characters, but we only get Nick, and Sh'lainn, who should have been playable only appears on about three missions. Of course, she doesn't even talk, so it's just her 3-D model doing stuff. Lame.

 I love the show. I wanted to have a little bit of the show within this game. And sure, I'm playing as a fairly acceptable rendition of Nick Logan, and sure, I'm fighting lycanthropes and banshees... but that's not enough. Why not splice in some animated scenes from the show? Since the mechanics are so simple, why isn't Sh'lainn playable? Why not at least have other allies showing up? Why not have a proper story? It's not an awfully terrible game, but as a fan of the show... it does nothing for me.

 On another note, the back cover promises a firing range and a training level... but those don't exist. The game also starts getting a bit wonky by end, there's an AWFUL turret section in which you must defend Sh'lainne, but controls aren't precise enough and you need pinpoint accuracy and good memory to shoot everyone down before Sh'lainn goes down, it's downright unfair. The game doesn't have good bosses, but the final boss takes the cake. You get a super powered armor, and you'd think it will be a fun fight, but said powered armor is as tough as paper, the best strategy is running around in circles hoping that the energy beams that appear from above hit it enough times. Lame.

 Y'know, as baby's first third person shooter... it's serviceable. There's nothing particularly broken about the game, sans for a few sloppy stages by the end of the game. However, I adore the show. I wanted a game based on the show, but you could change the graphics without altering anything else and nobody would know on which show it was based on, because there's not a story to be told here, there are no fun character interactions here, there's nothing but a barebones third person shooter that wasted a fantastic license.

 5.5

Game #932: Dusk Diver

 Diving does feel better at dusk.

 I had a waning interest in Dusk Diver. First I was interested in it, then I was it, then I was again and finally purchased it, because, hey, I love me some beat'em ups.

 You play as Yumo, a girl with the ability to borrow powers from gods and enter another dimension, which she has to do in order to beat up barely threatening enemies. It's a bit Yakuza-ish in that you spend a large portion of the game wandering around the streets of Ximending, but you don't trigger random encounters. That said, the city is basically dead with little to nothing to do. You have to gather 'Dragon Vein Shards' every chapter since the game won't allow you to continue with the story until you get your quota. The game has a total of 153 shards, but I think you only need about 30 of them to clear the game, and by the time I finished the game I had over 60 of them, so it's not TOO bad. If you track every side quest, you'll eventually unlock a Tao Master you can pay some money for him to mark all the new shards on your map, which is rather useful as not to waste time running around the empty streets(activity-wise) searching for them.

 After you are done dilly-dallying, you'll be ready to enter the alternate world of Chaos Beasts, and then the game really begins. This is a beat'em up, through and through, you have a weak attack combo string, a strong attack button to end your weak attacks with, a super mode, and a button that lets you call in one of the gods to assist with an attack. It's quite basic, but serviceable. That said, enemy waves are too large, and enemies can soak up TOO much damage, so the game quickly turns into a repetitive, boring and mindless button masher. Heck, the Weak-Weak-Weak-Weak-Strongx10 attack string is easily the best in the game, so it's the one you'll be using the most to chip at the enemies' health bars, while occasionally summoning an ally. Even when your strength is maxed out enemies still soak up too much damage, the game truly becomes a bore. It's not even challenging.

 You can get skillpoints by finishing missions with a good score(Completely dependent on the time it took you to finish it) or by collecting shards, and then, while you are in the human dimension, you can spend them to enhance your stats. It's a decent system all in all.

 I played the game entirely in handheld mode, and... it looked a bit too blurry, and there was some slowdown every now and then, but the game is playable.

 Dusk Diver wasn't a horrible game, but it's downright mediocre. It had decent ideas, I liked the protagonist's design, I think having a human world separate from the other dimension could've worked if the hub city had something worthwhile and fun to do... but the combat system needed some tweaking, more moves, and take away health from the enemies or make their quantity lower, as the game only got increasingly boring.

 5.0

Game #931: Soul Blade

 Before Calibur, whatever the hell that means, we had Blade!

 I give a lot of praise to Capcom's PS1 fighters, but maybe I've been sleeping on Namco, because Soul Blade is the complete package. Top-notch gameplay and loads of content make this one one of the better fighters on the original PS1.

 Let's start with the epic opening video, fantastic song and fantastic visuals that really pump you up for what's to come. Then the menu comes up: Arcade, Edge Master(Single player baby!), Survival, Training and Team battle. The game has 10 fighters, each fighter has 3 costumes and two different colors for two of those, y'see what's up Soul Calibur 6? Playing through Edge Master you can unlock 7 extra weapons for each fighter. You can unlock a few characters too. Soul Edge, a Cervantes clone, Seung Mina's father, a Hwang Clone, as well as bonus costume-versions of Siegfried(Siefried!, who is basically Nightmare) and Sophitia, with Sophitia!(No armor) and Sophitia!!, which is basically a bathing suit. Not bad for a fighting game of its era!

 Beating the game ends with an in-engine cutscene that features invisible QTEs that actually change how the ending plays out. Your mileage may vary on these, and you'll probably have to look up on a guide how to get the good endings. Edge Master features special matches for every character, you have to fight enemies under different, unfair conditions, and you unlock weapons with special properties for your efforts. You can then use these weapons in Versus mode, pretty cool! Plus, Edge Master features a new, different, text-and-images based endings for every character.

 The game plays pretty smoothly, although there's a caveat for looking so good... the framerate has some drops every now and then, depends on the stage mostly. You have have four main buttons: Vertical and horizontal slashes, a kick and a guard button, and you can also parry attacks and even use powerful moves that cost weapon durability. That's a new one, in this game your weapons can break leaving you with your fists, and now blocking makes you incur damage. So while the game feels very familiar, you'll even recognize moves from modern installments of Soul Calibur, the durability gauge gives it something that now other game in the series has, and that alone makes it interesting.

 Soul Blade offers so much content alongside very tight gameplay, making it an easy choice for anyone that likes fighting games. 3-D fighters of this era tend to feel a bit clunky, but this one is pretty darn smooth, to the point that it almost feels like a modern fighter using and old coat of paint. I like it.

8.5

Game #930: Star Gladiator Episode I - Final Crusade

  Now THIS is how you make a Star Wars fighting game.

 Star Gladiator Episode I - Final Crusade is the Star Wars game Masters of Teras Kasi wanted to be, and.... I also think it might be one of Capcom's hidden gems. Pretty much nobody talks about Star Gladiator, or its sequel Plasma Sword, anymore... and it's a shame, because I thought it was pretty dope!

 I'm not being facetious, this game wears its inspiration on its sleeve, the main character, Hayato, is pretty much Luke, Bilstein, the big bad, is pretty much Darth Vader, we even get a girl with a weird-twin-tailed haircut, a loveable rogue and a Chewbacca wannabe. There are 9 basic characters and 3 unlockable characters for a total of 12. Hayato, June and Gerelt are the only 'normal' characters, the rest are all alien weirdos... including a double-edged spear-thing wielding alien Kappa. I am not making this up, this game's roster is all kinds of weird, for good or bad.

 What really struck my fancy was how much fun it felt to play. The game uses a combination of five-button attack strings as well as special moves. It also borrows Soul Calibur's(Blade, at the time) control scheme, having a vertical slash, horizontal slash, kick and even a block button, and, why not, even ring outs. Heck, most characters fight using some kind of bladed-laser weapon. Regardless, it's pretty fast, and the actions flows very smoothly. The five-attack strings system is particularly interesting, and it's not like you need to commit to the full string, you can just stop pressing buttons if your enemy dodged or blocked. This simplicity makes it very easy to just pick up and play, and, if you ask me, it's a much better alternative to modern day's autocombos.

 On another note, the loading times are really fast, surprising for a Capcom PS1 fighter, and the graphics aren't half bad either. It is no Tekken 3, but it gets the job done, and some stages even have 3-D objects moving in the background, without hampering the framerate. Impressive!

 Where the game takes a hit is in its content, or lack there off. Only Arcade, Team Battle, Training and Versus available, and characters don't even have endings. Well, they do, if you fulfill special conditions, but all you get is a boring text-scroll.

 Far from Capcom's best effort on the console, heck, it ain't even their best 3-D fighter on the PS1, but this game has certain charm coupled with a solid fighting system that makes it memorable and quite fun. That said, the character roster IS weird, which is probably one of the biggest reasons the series fell into obscurity nowadays.

 7.0

Game #929: Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

  Wait a minute.... did I just enjoy a Sonic game!?

 I've played my fair share of Sonic games, I mean, I grew up with Nintendo, and during the PS2 era I was chomping at the bit to try the Sonic Adventure games. Years down the line I'd finally manage to play Adventure 1 through the PC port and it was mediocre. Still, I wanted to play the second game, but it was only ported to the Gamecube. Years went by, I tried a few more Sonic games, like Sonic Heroes, and slowly but surely I realized.... Sonic isn't very good. While I waited for this game to arrive, I was watching ProJared's review, and even though I didn't play the game... everything sounded about what I'd expect of a 3-D Sonic game. Then I watched a 50 minute defense of the game that did little to convince me otherwise, as most of his points were 'git gud'. Well, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle finally arrived and I just finished it 100%.... and I liked it.

 First of all, the music is amazing. I'll always praise 3D Sonic's soundtrack, and this is no exception. On the other hand, the game looks ugly. It's super colorful, which I adored, but the animations, man, they are awful. It's hard not to cringe and laugh at some of the expressions and movements characters make. And Eggman's running animation is absolutely dreadful, Xbox's Shrek kind of bad. And the story? It's not too bad, but the dialogue is terrible and characters cut between each others lines. But hey, this is the game that introduced Sonic's very own Vegeta, Shadow, so that's alright. It's not a pretty sight... but it makes it kinda funny, so, in a way, it's almost enjoyable.

 The game is divided into two campaigns: Hero, featuring Sonic, Tails and Knuckles and Dark, featuring Shadow, Eggman and Rouge. Hero's campaign is lengthier and features mostly Sonic levels, which made it more fun, while Dark has about 3 stages less and there are way too many Eggman stages.

 I thought I was gonna hate having three different half-baked gameplay styles, and they sound awful on paper. Sonic and Shadow get speed stages, Knuckles and Rouge get scavenger's hunts and Eggman and Tails are shoot'em ups... but they kinda won me over. Pretty much every Sonic and Shadow stage is fun, except maybe Sonic's final stage that had a few frustrating bits. I thought I would hate Knuckles/Rouge stages, since you have to find three items(Usually gems) using a hot 'n cold radar, a radar that only highlights the gems in order, so you might pass next to another gem but the radar won't tell you. I bet this sounds awful, it sounded awful to me... but I wound up liking these stages, not gonna lie. They are smaller than Sonic's, so prancing around isn't much of a hassle, and there's a lot of verticality to traverse via Knuckles' and Rouge's gliding. Eggman/Tails' stages are definitely the most boring, they are too long and too simple and too slow paced. They ride a mech and you hold down B to target enemies, let go, and continue on your merry way. That said, they become more tolerable as you unlock upgrades like gliding that makes you feel as if you were moving faster.

 Beating the game should take between 5-7 hours... but you have a Stage select feature... because every level can be replayed but under a different objective, every stage having about 4 different objectives, like collecting 100 rings or the such. I didn't like the game so much as to spend time replaying these bonus objectives, but hey, it's a nice addition for people that like the game.

 As with pretty much every other 3-D Sonic game I've ever played, characters are super slippery and the camera can be a pain in the rear... but, y'know what? I didn't die as much as I did on Sonic Heroes due to sloppy movement. I think that, while slippery, it's not as bad as it would get in future games. Having better level design probably helped too.

 Overall I had a lot of fun with the game. 3-D Sonic games get a bad rep, deservedly so, but Sonic Adventure 2 feels as tight as a 3-D Sonic game can get. Some parts are better than others, no doubt, but I'd say the highs overweigh the lows.

 7.5

Game #928: Smashing Drive

  Not a Smash Bros. spinoff

 I first heard about Smashing Drive from a vid by Stop Skeletons from Fighting that covered the impressive GBA port, and for whatever reason, I was left with a positive impression of the game. Years(Maybe a year?) later I found it up for sale on my local Ebay analogue and I purchased it. While I waited for the game to arrive, I looked up some reviews and.... the game definitely didn't have a positive reception. I was expecting the worst.

 But joke's on everyone else, because I love Arcade games, and this is a prime and proper Arcade racer. While some people like to compare Crazy Taxi to this game, they are nothing alike. Smashing Drive is a pseudo one-on-one racer. Pseudo, because you are racing against another Taxi and against time, because you must reach the checkpoints in time if you don't want to lose because you ran out of time. Hilariously enough, the game lets you continue as long as you make it to the finish line, even if the other Taxi won.... however, you won't unlock the next tracks if you lose, so if the other Taxi gets too far ahead, just push the breaks and wait for time to run out.

 The game can be tough until you know what you're doing. If you just drive avoiding traffic and obstacles, the AI enemy will beat you and you'll run out of time. You have to be on the lookout for shortcuts, most of them are highlighted with green arrows, the rest you'll get hints, like a big arrow on top telling you to turn to the right even though there's a building there, since you'll probably break through its door. Lemme tell you, these hidden shortcuts are the best because they go insane, you might even drive down an elevator shaft, it's ridiculous and exciting and so much fun. These shortcuts also lead you to power ups, like Turbos, 4X4 wheels or a battering ram to destroy incoming traffic that will make it even easier to push ahead.

 It's a very simple game. Accelerator, Break and Horn are your only buttons, and you get four different shifts, AKA, four collections of three tracks. Actually, I can't remember if the last shift was three races long or just one race long, but it's the most fun in the game since you have to make it to the Liberty Statue. Regardless, you can probably clear the game in under an hour. It's short and sweet. It's also got a multiplayer mode I couldn't care to try as well as a Survival mode.

 I was expecting the worst, but I had a blast with Smashing Drive. It's simple, but fun and straight to the point, there's a lot of flash and little substance, but a great way to waste some time.

7.0

Game #927: Star Wars - Masters of Teras Kasi

 Masters of trash krap.

 Many people will tell you how Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi is one of the worst games ever made.... but most fail to explain just why it's so bad. Well, here I am. I came at the game with an open mind, since I didn't know why it was bad, just that it was bad, and the game was worse than I could've expected.

 The game tries to copy Tekken by having four attack buttons, one attached to each limb, as well as the ability to sidestep. Alongside that, most characters are able to holster or store their weapons, which changes their moveset, and I bet that sounds pretty cool. You also get an energy bar to perform super moves with. So far, so good.

 And then you play the game.... and the controls are incredibly unresponsive. Getting attack strings to come out is a struggle, there doesn't seem to be an appropriate timing, meaning you'll spend most of the time clunkily extending your limbs with no follow up. Heck, rolling, standing up or attacking after touching the ground is yet another struggle, since your character seems to get up whenever he or she feels like it. The controls are so bad that they make the game almost unplayable.

 The game features 8 characters as its base roster: Han Solo, Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, a Tusken Rider named Hoare and another alien and a new character, a fighter that knows 'Teras Kasi'. unlocking characters is a pain in the rear, because it has to be done in the hardest difficulty setting. I just spammed Up+Triangle with most characters, lowered the rounds to 1 and set the time limit at 30, and somehow I unlocked most characters. You can unlock Darth Vader, a Storm Trooper, Slave Leia and, best of all, friggin' Mara Jade who sports a purple lightsaber. I absolutely love the fact that Mara Jade is in this game, as she is one of the best things to have come out of the extended universe.

 On the other hand, most characters are clone-ish or share plenty of moves. But, hey, Mara Jade is in!

 Overall? It's one of the worst fighters on the PS1 due to how poor the controls are. The idea behind the game isn't terrible, the character roster is tolerable and it doesn't look or sound too bad, but the controls just make it a chore.

 2.0

Game #926: Injustice 2 - Legendary Edition

  Another entry in the Batjustice series of Batman fighting games featuring a few other DC licenses.

 Oh boy, do I have some strong opinions about Injustice 2: Legendary Edition. Spoilers: It's a pretty good fighter, but that doesn't mean I don't have a ton of grievances with it, a few personal, a few slightly more objective.

 I'll start with the fact that this is a Batman game first and foremost. When I was younger I used to love Batman, until every writer under the sun started overpowering him and DC Comics started shoving him everywhere, even had Batman-themed events(Metal Nights...). This game features a whopping 38 characters, which is pretty cool... except for the fact that 10 of these characters come from Batman. And none of them are my boy, Nightwing. We get Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Batman, Red Hood, The Joker, Deadshot, Poison Ivy, Robin(Damian), Scarecrow and Bane. Either Harley Quinn or Catwoman could've served the same purpose, Deadshot is here instead of Deathstroke(Who is actually a Titans villain), and why are Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and Bane here? Any other villain could've taken their places. And the Joker is dead in this universe, but they justified his appearance by having Harley hallucinate him this one time in the story mode. Ah, but we can't bring back Nightwing, oh no. I always found Superman boring, but he is the other DC Comics staple, and he only gets 4 characters, and I'm being generous by counting Darkseid as a Superman character. At least I appreciate having Black Manta around, we needed an Aquaman villain, and I liked Atrocitus... but not at the cost of Sinestro. And yes, you can turn Robin into Nightwing with the right items, but that means A) Getting lucky and getting the items and B) He still has Damian's face and voice.

 Since I'm talking about the roster, just like MK11 did after this game, there are too many guests. I loved Injustice's Scorpion, so I love Injustice 2's Sub-Zero.... but why Raiden? Why? Who wanted a Super Hero-ed Raiden? No, really, who? I want names. Alongside them, we get Hellboy and the Ninja Turtles. Look, I love the Ninja Turtles, but I don't think they fit this game... and they had three crossovers with Batman in the comics!

 As for the story.... I have a few bones to pick with it. No more Alternate Dimension shenanigans, that's good. Buuut, this follows the previous game, which means that about half of the heroes in this game are villains. Superman and Wonder Woman, two of DC's trinity, are villains. Even Aquaman is almost as much of a prick as he was on Flashpoint. Needless to say, coming into this game means accepting the fact that more than a few heroes are evil, y'know, just so that Batman can defeat them and prove he is the bestest ever. And yes, there's plenty of Batman love, he gets three chapters, two of them are his alone, and the other one he shares with Superman. He is the only character that gets these many chapters, with Superman trailing behind at two, one shared with the Bat himself. Luckily, at the end of the story mode you can pick either Team Batman or Team Superman, which leads to two different endings.... but Batman is clearly the good guy and Superman is strictly the bad guy. Because this is secretly another Batman game. Oh, and Batman's first chapter retcons part of the Injustice comics, that wasn't very nice of them. As for the story itself, I enjoyed it, and it's as cinematic as their outings with Mortal Kombat X and 11, so it's quite an audiovisual treat that almost feels like a movie. I just wish that it wasn't yet another "Batman is the best ever" story.

 Firstly, this game isn't as bad as Mortal Kombat 11. They tried their hardest to turn the game into a service, so there's a currency that's hard to amass but you can buy with real money which is used to buy color palettes for your characters, and they are quite expensive. There's a pretty in-depth customization system that actually alters the stats of your characters, and in a few cases, might alter some of their moves. These pieces are Head, Arms, Torso, Legs and Feet, and they do change how the character looks. Which is pretty cool.... except that these pieces are random, so it's not like you can directly get what you want for the character that you like. And as cool as it is to customize a character's appearance... I'd much rather get real alternate costumes, like the original Injustice. So yeah, customizing your character IS fun, but you need to play the game a lot to get loot boxes, you also need to play with the character a lot to level him up and allow him to equip the loot and you also need to get lucky enough to get the pieces you want for the character you want. Not such a good feature now, eh? And you can only have 3 Loadouts at first, your character needs to reach level 10 first, which could take about an hour, to unlock a fourth loadout slot.... which is a must if you want to have all four Ninja Turtles readily available. Lame.

 Surprisingly for a Netherrealms game... there's not a whole lot of Single Player content. You get the story mode, a pretty in-depth tutorial, single VS CPU and 'Multiverse' challenges that change every day. There's no Arcade Ladder with individual character endings, nor is there a mission mode with silly challenges. The Training menus does have individual character lessons and trials, but it's not the same. Clearly they wanted this game to be a service, for you to play online and aim to get more lootboxes and the whole nine yards.

 Luckily, the game is pretty fun to play, returning characters play a lot like they did in the first Injustice, so you might even recognize some animations, poor Hal Jordan really needed new kick animations.... Interactive background items are still a thing, and you still block by holding back. There are three attack buttons, and a fourth button that does something different for each character, just like in the original. Overall? It's a fun alternative to Mortal Kombat. It looks similar, but plays differently enough.

 There's a lot I would've changed with this game. Remove customization or make it simpler to acquire what I want, add alternate costumes for everyone not just a few(Like Flash/Reverse Flash) but above all, make it less Batman-centric, and have it span more licenses than just the tired old Bat. Also, I'd bring Nightwing back. Still, I like the overall game, it is fun to play and it does have some cool renditions of many DC characters, many that have never been in a game before(or after!).

 7.5

Game #925: Soul Calibur VI

  The only way forward is... going backwards?

 Unpopular opinion... I actually really liked Soul Calibur V. I love it when fighting games actually develop their world and characters. Street Fighter III, Garou, Tekken 3... I love generational updates, so I loved Soul Calibur V. It was pretty fun to play too! Sadly, I'm in the minority when it comes to this, as most fans want the originals and the originals only, it's the reason Marvel and DC comics will never evolve their characters and offer better narratives. But I digress, as I'm wont to do, since fans weren't so keen on SC V's update, Soul Calibur VI acts as a remake and reboot of Soul Calibur II, one of the most beloved entries in the series.  

 While it's missing basic modes such as Survival, the game makes up for that with at least two rather lengthy single player modes, one focused on individual sub-stories for each character, as well as a 20-chapter long 'main narrative' focused on Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua, as well as another mode focusing on your created character. As lengthy as they are, I'll admit that they aren't particularly good. The story mode has every hero fighting pretty much generic characters, with fights being interspersed with voiced text and surprisingly decent character portraits. The thing is... some are really uninspired and the dialogue is dull, for example, Xianghua's story has her fight the SAME generic character throughout every chapter. The character creator is as good as it's always been, allowing you to create some pretty cool looking, or weird if you're into that, characters, although I think it could've used a few more clothing pieces, as well as less gender-exclusive clothes.

 The character roster is pretty decent, if you don't mind a few cuts. The character roster is almost exactly like the one from Soul Calibur 2, but the three bonus characters(Lizardman, Berserker and Assassin) got cut, as well as Necrid and Charade, but most importantly... my boy Yun Seong was cut completely. Which is baffling, as he was a SCII newcomer and the game's Korean representative. On the other hand, everyone else is back, Siegried is now a separate entity from Nightmare and we get two new additions, Groh, Zwei's stand-in without a stand, and Azwael, another guy with mystic blue/red weapons. The guest character is Geralt, from The Witcher, and his moveset is brilliant. All in all, it's a decent 21-character roster, although a bit smaller than what we have gotten used to. Of course, you can get more characters by buying them, but that's cheating. Oh, and Tira, the first DLC character, can be fought in the single player mode.... and you'll fight against her style multiple times, which goes to show you that she was just ripped out of the game and sold for profit. Lame.

 On another note, they went full-cake with the female character designs. Taki's nipples have never protruded so much and that was pretty much her trademark, Sophitia and Ivy are more voluptuous and thicker than ever and Seong Mina is rocking the underboob with a costume that makes little to no sense. Make of this what you will, but I think the female heroes have looked better before, but hey, it's a Japanese game, you can't expect better. On another note, this might be a first for the series, but characters don't have alternate costumes, just a simple alternate recolor. Sure, you can customize pretty much every character in the game... but that's just... why? It's not a particularly large roster, they could've done something. On another note, just like Tekken 7, the overall visual presentation is a bit lacking, heck, I think they might've ripped the models out of SC V and just gave them new costumes and called it a day. The lightning is a bit better since it's a bit more natural, but that's it. Some shoulders and breasts and pecs have a few rough edges on them too instead of being perfectly round.

 The gameplay is a step-up from SCV, and that's great since SCV was already a great game. In my opinion, it doesn't feel as good as SCII, but no other game in the series did. At least, it's still very speedy and simple, with a high skill ceiling. Super Moves make a return from SCV, which I'm quite happy for, and now characters can do a 'Soul Charge' by spending an energy gauge, and in a few cases, characters change their appearance when doing this move. Your weapon will catch fire at the very least. There's a new Rock-Paper-Scissors move that is more spectacle than fun, but you can block or sidestep it if you'd rather opt-out of the gamble. To be honest, eventually I started to get a bit bored of these encounters, and it kinda sucks that a few characters can trigger them from basic combos(Like Mitsurugi's BBB).

 Overall, I liked this entry at least as much as I liked Soul Calibur V, which is a good thing since it was a step in the right direction. On the other hand, it feels like a few corners were cut with this game, both in its overall presentation and roster, which makes sense as it was probably a lower-budget effort from Namco since Soul Calibur isn't as popular as it used to. That said, gameplay is top-notch, the game is super speedy which is something I really enjoyed. As a fan of characters that can transform, the new Soul Charge felt like a great addition, however, the new rock-paper-scissors thingie just didn't hit the right note for me.

 7.5

Review #924: Darksiders II - Deathinitive Edition(Switch)

  No rest for the wicked...or the dead.

 Well, my feelings on Darksiders II - Deathinitive Edition are pretty much exactly the same as they were back when I first played the original release on PS3... but with a few caveats.

 In short, Darksiders is now an action RPG, there's loot, equipment, level ups, skillpoints the whole nine yards. You even get sidequests if you are interested... or if you care about them, because just like it was in the original release, there are no hints or marking leading you towards your side-quests, so good luck finding them.

 This time around I was able to better appreciate the puzzles in the game, the Split ability sounds super basic, since it basically splits Death in two, but they found some rather clever uses for this ability. They reused a few Portal puzzles from the first game, but they also increased the complexity of some of them, which was pretty neat.

 While I can dig the genre shift, I think this game's setting isn't as good as Darksider's one post apocalyptic one. You spend too long on the first two areas of the game, which are very mystical in appearance, full of green and white tones and... I found them kinda boring. You visit small pieces of the Angel and Demon worlds later on, but by then it's a little bit too late to add more variety. On the other hand, I like how they expanded on the world of Darksiders, and Death is a pretty cool character and seeing the lengths he'd go to save his brother was nothing short of endearing.

 This game includes all three DLC campaigns, they are slowly unlocked as you defeat major bosses, and you can play them from the main menu as their own, stand-alone, thingies. I won't lie, these campaigns are mediocre at best, featuring next to no story, but a small slew of puzzles as well as new enemies and environments. They add nothing to the game, but having the complete package is nice.

 And here's when it gets ugly... Darksiders 1 on the Switch was a brilliant port of a brilliant game, this port, however, feels pretty sloppy. There's no quality/performance toggle, which was a bit disappointing, and the framerate is locked at 30 with some dips... and the game, at least on handheld mode, can look downright blurry at times. And don't even let me get started on the few crashes I endured, as well as many soft-locks in the Earth chapter, but these were fixed by going back into the Switch's dashboard and continuing the game. There's also a very pervasive audio glitch, which makes most cutscenes play with the music and voice overs intact, but missing sounds, which is completely baffling.

 All in all, an acceptable port of a great game. It's a bit disappointing that this port wasn't as good as the one DS 1 got, but hey, the game is playable and it's still a really good one.

 8.0

Game #923: Final Fantasy IX(Switch)

 No Black Mages were harmed in the porting of this game... I think.

 So I've a little secret.... while I turned into a massive Final Fantasy fan after playing 7... Final Fantasy IX never really did it for me. After FFVII and FFVIII this new artstyle didn't really do it for me. I wanted to play it because, hey, it was Final Fantasy, but I wasn't as excited as I was about VIII before it released. I started playing it once, got about as far as Lindblum and never touched the game again.... until this new rerelease on Switch.

 Alright, so a few years later... I still don't like the artstyle they went with. I know it has its fans and what not, but this is not my cup of tea. On that note, this rerelease updated the character models, so it looks as good, if not better, than the FFVIII rerelease. I also failed to care about these characters, except for Vivi, who I think is one of the best characters in the series. Steiner's arc was interesting, but I think they could've done more to show him developing.

 On the other hand, the gameplay is definitely a step up from FFVIII, not like that's saying much. We're back to character jobs, although you can't change them. Zidane is the thief, Steiner is the warrior, Amarant is the monk, etc, every character has a specific role and unique skills only they can learn. Throughout the brunt of the game you can't even pick your party, so you'll probably get to try every character sans Amarant who I don't remember being mandatory at any point in the game.

 Every piece of equipment, meaning armor, weapons or accessories, have a few skills that can be learned by specific characters if worn enough, since you earn XP and AP after every battle. In theory, it sounds really neat, find new equipment, equip it, battle enemies, and earn skills.... but in practice, it's a grindfest almost as bad as FFVIII's magic drawing. Alright, so your characters don't REALLY need to learn every single skill, but enemy encounters drop about 1-2 AP per battle, so you're looking at farming random encounters. Thank god this re-release has a 3X Speed option.

 Besides battle skills, you also learn passive skills, and this is one of the coolest things about the game, for characters can earn ability slots and then you can customize your characters with various passive buffs, such as permanent Haste or Regen, or immunity to poison or other afflictions. I thought this was REALLY cool, but once again, a grindfest. Ability slots are earned by leveling up, and these passive skills are learned like any other skill, defeating a ton of enemies.... so... it's a really good system, but man, it is a rather hefty time investment.

 This is touted as being the easiest PS1 Final Fantasy, but I don't agree with that. There are way too many basic enemies that have instant-death spells, or means to kill you instantly, such as the new 'heat' status that kills you if you had an action lined up when your character got afflicted with it. Plus, since your party now increased to four members, enemies have larger health pools, so random battles take longer to get through without spending mana.

 I wasn't too much of a fan of the mini-games. Alright, as much as I love FFVII, I'll admit that the snowboarding mini-game sucks, alright? I admit it, it's boring and sloppy. But it's a single instance, the other mini-games are fun, decent or at least not a pain to get through. This game, however.... there's a very annoying 'swinging cage' event that's hard to understand what you REALLY need to do and if it's working at all. I had to look it up, and of course, I wasn't the only person having trouble with this thing, and even after I read what I had to do, it still took WAY too long to complete. And then there's the hot-and-cold mini game in which you must mash the A button as long as the enemy has its back turned on you. Under a time limit. And what about the card game? Even if you try ignoring it, at one point Zidane MUST register for a tournament and you MUST win at least two duels. I didn't care about the card game, I didn't want to learn how to play it, so forcing this on the player sucked.

 This rerelease comes with built-in cheats, such as learning every skill without needing so much ap, having all your attacks deal 9999 damage, instant turns+healing, 3X speed.... so as tedious as the game can be, there are ways to make it a more lenient and fun experience if you care about the story.

 Final Fantasy IX is definitely not a bad game, but sadly, it didn't really hit the right notes for me. I can appreciate the game for what it is, but I doubt I'll be replaying it any time soon. I'm glad I finally scratched it off my bucket list though.

 7.5

Game #922: Shakedown Hawaii

  Maybe I should charge per view?

 Shakedown Hawaii is a delicious 16-bit like rendition of GTA, but unlike the classic GTA games, this one actually plays amazingly well. 

 It's a 2-D sandbox that feels straight out of a high-end 2-D PC game, you can hijack any vehicle, there are tons of buildings you can get inside of, you can purchase a small assortment of clothes and haircuts for any of the three playable characters and there are a ton of weapons to play around with, from your basic guns and shotguns to even a pair of scissors you can use to cut the hair of your helpless victims. And there's a very high degree of destruction allowed, pretty much anything that isn't a building can be destroyed or burned down. Amazing.

 The entire game runs on humor, so no gritty crime drama here. You play as a veteran property CEO and it's your job to cut expenses as much as possible, while maximizing profits. It's basically a parody on capitalism to the point of ridiculousness, and it does have its moments. There are a ton of missions to go through, and there's a lot of variety. From shootouts in the jungle, to speedboat escapes to stealing vans.... there's a lot to do and the game does a decent job at keeping it fresh.

 Well, this is the only 2D GTA/GTA-Clone I've ever liked. The gameplay is super simple but fun, and since you can pretty much destroy everything, it's highly satisfying. It's also a perfect fit for the Switch, since the game works great in short bursts.

 8.0

Game #921: Darksiders - Warmastered Edition(Switch)

  Warmastered, sure, let's go with that.

 I'm always scared before replaying any of my favorite games. What if it ain't as good as I thought? What if it doesn't hold up? Well, most of the time I've worried about nothing, and such holds true for Darksiders: Warmastered Edition.

 There's not much left to add to the original blog entry, this is The Legend of Zelda but gritty and dark and violent and incredibly cool. It also fixes one of my biggest issues with most Zelda games: Worthless combat, because slaying enemies rewards you with souls that you can then spend on upgrades.

 This Switch port looks better than the PS3 original, and it can be played in two different ways: Performance, which tries to maintain 60fps or Quality, which tries to maintain 30fps while boasting a better resolution. I played in both modes and both are pretty good, eventually I settled for 60fps because it felt better.

 The game crashed on me one time, which is acceptable, and for whatever reason, when I was nearing the end of the game, during the backtracking quest to complete the Armageddon Sword the game started stuttering pretty often. Maybe it was because I had the Abyssal Armor and the Mask of Truth equipped? I dunno, but the game had played perfectly up until then. Maybe memory was leaking and I should've turned off the game? Maybe, since I was running as quickly as possible from place to place the game didn't have enough time to load? It wasn't a deal breaker by any means, just very weird.

 On another note, I had a few issues with the game that returned from the very original release. Firstly, input delay. You'll notice that War takes a fraction of a second after you press a button before attacking or jumping, which can make you fall and take damage a few times. And.... the beam puzzle. The puzzles in the game are pretty easy and fun... but the Beam-puzzle near the end of the game is a bit too boring and long-winded. It goes on and on and on and you just want to get on with it. Lastly, finding all 8 pieces of the Armageddon Blade, while it is needless backtracking fluff, wasn't too bad, most pieces are out in the open and you can pick them up without much hassle.

 What can I say? Darksiders is still one of my favorite games ever made. It's a fantastic blend of fun combat mechanics, interesting puzzles, competent platforming and a very captivating lore and setting... and it works really well. I just wish that Strife will get his proper solo outing as well as a new game that finally pushes the story forward, it's amazing how we're 4 games and 2 remasters deep and no game has moved the story forward.

9.5