Game #1275: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 Xenoblade 2's harem ending CONFIRMED

 Y'know, I've been here from the start, since the very first Xenoblade game released on Wii, and the struggle to get it overseas since it was a Gamestop exclusive. Xenoblade X is a Wii U exclusive, so until it gets a port, fat chance I'm playing that one. And then Xenoblade 2 came out, which for as many things it got right it also featured one of the most annoying main characters ever made as well as stupid amounts of fanservice. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is out and it seems they learned from XC 3, as not only did they remove the fanservice, but they also got what's probably the best cast of characters yet and some of the most fun game mechanics in the series, for what is probably the best game in the franchise yet.

 Well, the basics remain the same as with the rest of the games in the franchise, you get a HUGE world to explore, filled with sidequests, monsters and special monsters to battle. It borrows a lot from MMORPGs, as combat takes place in real time, with you character automatically performing basic attacks and you being able to pick the special attacks and reposition them around the battlefield. Roaming through the huge lands are enemies too strong for you to handle at first, so you have to avoid triggering them, etc. If you've played Xenoablade before, you get the gist of it. It's a huge game, same as it always been, and it does feel bloated at times, by hour 70 I was already feeling a bit burned out.

 The story I felt was very engrossing, it involves 3 characters from Keves and another 3 from Agnus, two warring kingdoms, who have to make fast friends in order to survive since now both kingdoms are after them... and along the way discover that there might be yet another force pulling the strings. It's much more involved than that, as people here live only 10 years and are born in factories, so to speak. Regardless, the story was super interesting, as well as a bit tragic, and all 6 party members were very likeable, a far cry from annoying children like Rex in XB2. What's even better, the fanservice has been turned down to a minimum, which is fantastic as the female characters don't look stupid anymore. The plot was very interesting, and it has a ton of little character moments here and there to make you fall in love with the heroes. Oh! And it ties together Xenoblade 1 and 2, not that you need to play those before, so if you been playing these games since the start you'll get even more out of it.

 Combat has changed plenty, Blades are a thing of the past, and now you control a six-member party at al times, with a seventh spot for Heroes, characters that join you but feature a much reduced move pool. Combat takes place in real time, as per usual, and the AI controls the other six characters, although you can swap at any time which character you are playing as. Each character has access to seven different skills, X, Y and B are allocated to class-specific skills, the A button is your super special move and the UP, RIGHT and DOWN buttons trigger learned skills. Oh, but you see, in these game there are Classes, a whole bunch of them, divided in three categories: Healer, Attacker and Defender, and each class has their own set of 5 skills. As you level up these classes you can master some of these skills so that you can then equip them on the UP, RIGHT and DOWN buttons on another other class. It's a brilliant system that incentivizes you to have everyone try every class, plus, getting a class to level 10 unlocks it as a costume. To be fair, costumes are rather lame most of the time, as they only change the upper torso of a character, and some of these don't fit very well on some characters, heck, some are quite clearly designed for breasts, but they didn't bother removing the crevices and folds of clothes on the chest, so the boys look as if they had very, very flat chests when wearing some of them.

 How battles progress is pretty identical to previous games, in this game, positioning is important as different skills have better damage output depending on your position relative to the enemy. The same status effects as before are here: Break, Topple and Daze, but now you can finish a Topple chain with a Launch instead. Don't worry if these make no sense, they are just a way to incapacitate enemies for a little while. There's a new feature, CHAIN attacks, as you fight you fill a gauge, which fills faster if you use the status effects, and once full you can land special moves back-to-back on enemies, and it feels like a mini-game that you have to try to keep going by selecting the right attacks.

 But it doesn't end there, remember how characters from warring factions join up? Well, characters got paired in twos, and due to a certain story bit, they can INTERLINK together... which translates into fusing into a giant mecha-looking thing for a short while. These forms are very powerful and look amazing. Each pair of characters has access to two different forms, and you can switch form mid battle. This adds another neat wrinkle into the combat, as well as much spectacle!

 Combat has two small issues. One is, just like with previous games, due to the nature of the game and how it plays like a MMORPG... enemies can simply take too much damage. When I was in the level 90s, it took me more than a couple of attacks to defeat level 50 enemies. Eventually I turned down the difficulty to easy because I was spending too much time fighting enemies there was absolutely no chance they'd even get any of my characters killed. It felt like a waste of time, and the game is already long enough. And tied to this... I hit level 60 when I was on chapter 2. It's incredibly easy to over level yourself if you, like me, need to explore every nook and cranny in the game. By chapter 5 I was already on mid 90s but the story missions were barely reaching level 50. Barely. But this is tied to another issue... the XP you obtain is relative to the level difference between enemies and yourself, fair enough, but this is also tied to Class XP. If I wanted, and I wanted, everyone to obtain a new class and then level them up to 10... it meant I had to defeat stronger enemies than I had access to.... which means I had to explore and seek out harder enemies, which in turn overleveled me even more. And between explorations and the in-game mechanics that can boost experience points earned with a 700 multiplier...  it's way too hard no to accidentally overlevel yourself and screw yourself with class upgrading. And nothing in the game tells you about how earning classes works and how it's tied to Class Experience, which is ALSO tied to the level difference between you and your enemies.

 And since I'm at it, the tutorial is incredibly invasive. It forces you to go into menus, and has to have text pop up to FORCE you and tell you step by step how to do something as basic as equipping and item. There's no good reason as to why I'm not able to just skip the tutorial lesson if it's so stupid. And it forces you to equip items maybe you didn't mean to, and then exit the menu only to go back and equip it again. Ridiculous.

 But I don't want to end on a sour note, I really don't, because despite those issues.... the game is brilliant. The story was great, and combat is a lot of fun. Plus, I don't understand how they managed to cram such a massive game inside a tiny little cart, so many cutscenes, a world so large, and so much variety in environments and enemies and NPCs... it's a HUGE game, for good or bad, and I think it might be the best Xenoblade out there. It has fantastic combat and a fantastic story, with a few minor issues, but nothing too bad. 

 9.0

Game #1274: God of War(2018)

 Now you can call him daddy.

 Took me a while, but I finally decided to try God of War(2018) and check out how Kratos' story continued. I've always been somewhat taken aback by how people quickly forgot just how well crafted Kratos' and his descent to villainy was, being a perfect tragic protagonist, since, much like I thought before playing the games, thought Kratos was just an angry guy. Well, can't say he is an angry guy anymore!

 The story picks up hundreds of years after God of War III, Kratos now lives in Midgard and has a new son, and the entire game is about them fulfilling Faye's, Kratos' new wife and Atreus' mother, last wishes: Having her ashes spread from the highest mountain in the nine realms. Of course, there are more wrinkles to the story, as nordic gods come a-knocking, quite literally, to Kratos' door and they want a piece of him too. Kratos' new focused, calmer demeanor feels like a direct progression of how his character would grow if he decided to change after all the rampage, and his relationship with Atreus, a son he barely knows, was interesting to witness. Some things were a bit dumb, like how Atreus thinking he was a mortal when he was a god made him sick, how does that make sense? And his personality shift midway through was done too abruptly, but overall, I'd say it was enjoyable. That said, the game was clearly made as critic bait, so there's a ton of ill-fitting Marvel humor in here. All the humor that comes from Kratos' and Atreus' interactions makes sense, but the rest? There's a dwarf that starts gagging when he sees or thinks about gross stuff, completely out of place.

 Back in the day, everyone wanted to be God of War, now God of War wants to be everyone else. The original game, while not as deep as other hack and slash games such as Devil May Cry, kept things simple, bloody and mashy, and thus, spawned a ton of games that wanted to ape it, such as Conan, Dante's Inferno or Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. It had an identity of its own. That identity is now gone, this is the game-est game out there. Now we've got RPG elements, different armor and equipment pieces, a weighty combat system in which you attack with the shoulder buttons like modern Souls-inspired games, it's open world-ish, so you get a checklist of of things to collect and chests to open, to open for materials so that you can craft more equipment, etc.

 Thankfully, the combat is decent. At first you can only fight with the Leviathan Ax and your fist/shield combo. The Leviathan Ax can be thrown and retrieved as will and deals plenty of damage, while your fists deal more stun damage, and filling an enemy's Stun Gauge lets you perform a brutal maneuver that usually kills them. You can press Square to have Atreus pepper the enemy you are aiming at with elemental arrows(Shock or Light), or have him summon a phantom being to help you. As for you, you can equip two different Runic Attacks on your ax, and there's a wide variety of them. Sadly, the combat is a bit... limited. The third-person, over the should camera isn't the best, when an enemy is coming from behind, all you get is a tiny red marker and Atreus screaming 'behind you'. Enemies are way more nimble than you, and it kind sucks, particularly when fighting bosses such as the Valkyries, who very easily break your lock.

 The attacks you can learn for the ax are rather limited too, usually being about holding down a button instead of mashing it. You have a single unique attack string, R1 R1 R1 and R2 and that's it.... and just as you start getting a bit tired of the Ax, Kratos retrieves his Blade of Chaos. Most of the original combos returns, and thanks to its wider attack angles, its a much more fun weapon to use than the ax, albeit slightly weaker. You can swap weapons at any time too! The combat is nothing special, but once you have access to both weapons it becomes much more enjoyable. That said, Spartan Rage is done with L3+R3, as per usual, L3 is dash and R3 is locking on... I can't count the times I accidentally triggered Spartan Rage, when all I meant was to target the enemy that broke my lock and dash towards it.

 Rounding up your abilities, you have a dodge, which is used to avoid red, unblockable attacks, and a shield that can block or parry yellow attacks. Spartan Rage is back, but it's kinda weak, however, it regenerates your health, so it's still a mechanic you'll rely on for tough bosses. I'll give it this, God of War has always been about spectacle, and this game is no exception. Some of the boss battles are amazing, featuring arena transitions and what not, plus, they removed QTEs, THANK YOU. This is how you can tell that even though it's quite different from the previous games... the people involved knew what God of War was all about. Kratos is true to himself, the Blades of Chaos retain their combos, and they exceeded the previous games in spectacle.

 As for the rest of the game, it opens up once you finally get into a boat, and this will be your main means of traversing the nine realms. You are free to explore the many islands for optional sidequests and optional loot, and why not do it, more loot means more upgrades. The really good upgrades are usually hidden behind puzzles, some more irritating than others, as its usually a matter of finding devilishly hidden statues or switches to to select the right runes. These really wore out their welcome, and I had to look up online just where some of these were hidden. Challenging in the wrong way.

 Another small issue... the map isn't very good. How some areas connect isn't clearly explained, and the checklists could've been done better too. For a game like this, built around exploration, built around getting upgrades that let you clear obstacles you couldn't before... the map should've been done better.

 Assuming you aren't tired of all the bazillion other games that do the things this one does too.... God of War is a great choice. It's disappointing seeing how God of War, as a game, lost all of its personality to become another part of the whole homogeneous mass of modern adventure games, but at least it does everything it tries to do really well, despite a few shortcomings.

 8.0

Game #1273: No More Heroes III(Playstation 4)

 Travis takes another stroll outside Nintendo.

 I've already written about No More Heroes III back when it first released on the Switch, so I'll try to keep things relevant only to this new release as a port, as there's no reason to tread old ground!

 First and foremost, the game runs beautiful. I only noticed a few framerate drops in a few battles, but overall, in and out of battles, the game runs really well. And I'll make it short, THIS is the ideal way to play the game, not the Switch original, as much as it hurts me considering how much I love the Switch and how this used to be an exclusive. The overworld is as barren as always, but dude, I found a new appreciation for how pretty it can look. I actually enjoyed riding the bike, or just walking from place to place, since Santa Destroy and the other mini-cities are kinda nice to look at.

 The mission cleared jingle is fantastic, could never get tired of it... and while this is clearly a Switch game, as the graphics weren't touched up, it looks BEAUTIFUL, which speaks volumes of the game's art direction. And with the smoother framerate, it's much easier to appreciate.

 Being separated from all my expectations and the hype... I like the game now more than I did before. Losing some customization options and not having different Beam Katanas is still disappointing... but not as much as I felt it was before. The combat is super satisfying, despite how simple it is, so I loved slashing and slicing every alien to bits. What's more, I was hooked right from the start, once again, I couldn't just stop and drop the controller, once I got into the No More Heroes III, there was no stopping it.

 That said, I also noticed some design elements that weren't very good, for instance, I finished the original not knowing how to unlock the missing alien battle(Defense) missions... well, you have to return to previously cleared battle icons on the map and maybe, depending on your story progression, a new mission icon will be on the floor next to the original. This is dumb, and nothing in the game tells you that this is how you find the other fights. And it's surprising, because so much of the overworld is empty, they could've peppered these icons throughout the city and have them pop up, in a different color(showing that you haven't attempted them yet) as you defeat bosses. It's a very minor thing, but hey, it's something that should've been done better. And Suda 51 did it better before, by having a list to select these missions from in NMH1.

 Yeah, No More Heroes III is fantastic. And this version runs better, so it was easier to appreciate, this time around I found pretty much every collectible and even found sidequests I didn't know existed in the original. So yeah, there's never been a better time to play No More Heroes III.

 9.0

Game #1272: Conan

 Say what you will, Conan wears a skirt.

 So, yeah, another PS3 hack and slash game I missed back in the day, here we have Conan. In a few words, it's another take on the God of War formula, but with more boobs. Funny story, this one has been really hard to find, either it wasn't complete in box or it was way too expensive... a few weeks ago I found it, complete in box, for dirt cheap.

 Conan, a hack and slash action game, wears its God of War inspiration quite close to its heart. Weak and strong attacks, alongside a grab button, insane amounts of QTEs(Even to open doors), red orbs for Experience points, Green Orbs for Health and Blue orbs for magic. And to keep things similar, the right analog stick is used to dodge. Remember how Kratos had a sex-minigame per game? Well, Conan can rescue topless women who'll reward him with red orbs, the cringiest one-liners("Where are my clothes?", "CRUSH ME WITH YOUR LOVE") and a 'sexy' get up animation that looks very dumb. Conan the Barbarian is known for being a bit mysoginistic(Which makes sense considering it's a barbaric world), but this adds nothing to the game and looks dumb, they could've added some topless enemies or NPCs walking around and it would've had the same effect but not look as dumb.

 It's not entirely devoid of any originality, for instance, Conan has three movesets: One handed Sword(With or without shield), Two handed Sword and Two Swords, and every style has its own strengths and weaknesses. It's a pretty neat idea, however, you always start each level with a single sword, and you can't use the other styles until you find another weapon from a fallen enemy, which can be a bit annoying if, like me, you tended to ignore the one-handed style. There's another wrinkle to combat, the Song of Death, by landing hits and not getting hit you'll fill a yellow bar, once full you gain extra power and speed for a while, and this too is affected by your weapons, dual blades will fill it very quickly due to its swift combos, while using a two-handed blade will mean you likely won't trigger it.

 The issue with combat is that it can be sorta clunky. It's not too bad, and it works decently, however, whenever you initiate an attack, Conan will slide next to the closest enemy you are aiming towards, and this is an issue with slower attacks because enemies will jab you out of your attack. Using the two-handed style can sometimes be a pain in the rear because of this unpredictable slide. Eventually, when handling enemies, you have to take into account, when initiating attacks, that the distance between you and your enemy is not what it actually looks like, so, maybe, you have to start attacking further away from the enemy so as not to initiate the slide. It looks silly and it's not much fun. Plus, eventually the game introduces a few enemies who'll just jump out of hitstun and attack you through your combo. It got so bad that I just started relying on the two-handed spinning sword boomerang(physics be damned) attack just to be safe.

 Mind you, it's not all bad, the game IS fun despite its flaws. When the combat works well, dodging and attacking is satisfying, plus, you can dismember your enemies which looks really cool. You can also explore around to find upgrades to your health and mana bars, as well as bonus red orbs to purchase more moves. It is a fun hack and slash, it's just flawed.

 As a God of War clone, it's also got QTE's up the wazoo, which aren't much fan when failing them restores HP to the boss. I read on TVTropes that the final boss is considered challenging... he's not, he really isn't. It may seem a bit luck based since your hitstun is kinda egregious, but you can get through it if you play it smart...and boring, spamming safe, area-clearing attacks like the aforementioned boomerang blade.

 Was Conan worth the chase? I dunno, in some ways yes, in others it wasn't. I will say that the good overweighs the bad, but it's not worth going out of your way to get this one.

 6.5

Game #1271: The Touryst

 I need some vacations.

 Ever since that fateful day in which The Touryst was revealed in a Nintendo Direct I knew that I had to play that game. It reminded me of the simple Flash games I used to play in my youth, in particular, a set of four games set in the Cartoon Network Universe set in a beach resort. And it came out, but a physical copy never materialized. And I waited. And waited. And waited, and thus, 2 years went by, but I never forgot about this game. Enter Super Rare Games, finally, a physical release. And here we are now.

 In many ways, this is the game I expected it to be. It's a super simple adventure, in which you go from small island to small island, solving very simple and silly quests. Sometimes it's as easy as helping a DJ pull off a party, by turning on the lights on the dancefloor and what not, in another case you have to bring fruit to a smoothie shop, and there are also some quests that span multiple islands, in which you have to take photos of people and places. Other quests are mini-games of various sorts, like doing pull ups, surfing or playing some arcade games. There's an Arkanoid clone and a Bomb Jack clone among those, which were pretty neat. Basically, there are plenty of small side-activities to partake in, which all adds up to a very chill and relaxing vibe.

 ...until the platforming starts. Most of the game is a load of fun, even some of the more lackluster minigames, however, despite this laid back atmosphere it's going for... the platforming challenges can be brutal. Honestly, some of these require pixel-perfect precision, if you don't jump at the last possible time you won't make it. And platforming challenges don't have checkpoints, mess up and it's back to the start. Early in the game a room had me stumped, you actually had to perform a running side jump. It felt so awkward that I thought I was doing an exploit, but nope, that's how you are supposed to proceed. There's another segment, in which I was stuck for about an hour, in which you have to jump on top of 8 spheres, problem is... perspective. Gauging your position and distance to every orb is impossibly tough due to the perspective. I hated the game at that point, thankfully, there wasn't anything as unfairly challenging afterwards.

 There were another bits that were a bit tedious, like the quests that involve swapping shirts, as you have to return to the same Island every time you need to change a shirt to trigger something. This could've bene easily solved by letting you carry all your shirts. Plus, buying every shirt would give a meaning to all the money you amass throughout the entire game, as after you buy the final ability, the double jump, money loses every meaning and purpose.... which is dumb, considering rewards for quests is always money. And this happens very early in the game. Letting you buy shirts, or rewarding the player with other shirts would've solved this pretty easily. Another issue was the camera, it's controlled entirely by the player. I think some degree of automatic turn towards the back after a few seconds would've been ideal.

 The Touryst is alright. It's not as amazing as I had hoped it would've been, but it did scratch the itch I was feeling, and I did enjoy most of the game. The pixelated, voxel graphical style is delightful, and they managed to make every place you visit a treat. If they ever make a sequel, I hope they ease up on the platforming, make quests more rewarding and add some sort of customization. For such a chill game about, well, a tourist, their gender and race doesn't matter in the slightest, so being able to customize your character would be perfect, and you could get more clothes as rewards, or heck, let you buy more clothes to give use to all the money you get. Heck, they could reward you with decorations for a hotel room of yours or something. What I mean to say is that the game is decent, but rough around its edges, and I feel that its premise holds a lot of promise for something better.

 6.0

Game #1270: Strider(2014)

 As related to Aragorn as The Rings of Power is related to Middle Earth. 

 While I don't much care about the original, Strider 2 is one of my favorite games on the original PS1, and considering how much I like Metroidvanias I've always been somewhat interested in Strider for the HD consoles, however, it being download only made me forget about it... until I learned that it had a physical release in Japan that is fully translated, hence, here we are.

 Unlike the previous Arcade Games, this is a 2.5 D Metroidvania in which you are thrust into the enemy base, conveniently divided into about 10 areas, and allowed to explore... as far as your abilities allow. Strider's abilities start fairly basic, jump, slash and cling and climb walls, but you'll eventually unlock a second jump, a catapult move that works as a third jump, a charged attack, the ability to throw Kunai and different types of swords to open doors with! If you search hard enough, you can even find costumes, which even though they are simple recolors, they are really cool, you can even make Strider look like Warzard's Kenji!

 Combat is a bit lackluster, for starters, you can't use the DPAD for movement, and the analog stick doesn't feel very good for this kind of game, particularly considering how fast everything is. Pretty much every enemy drops health, and stages are peppered with health capsules, and there's a reason for that, enemies will shower you with bullets to the point that it's impossible not to take damage, that said, as long as you kill them quickly, you'll get back any lost health. It's a bit brutal at first, when your health bar is short, but if you find the Health Extensions you'll be OK.

 There are a few other tools to aid you, for instance, an energy gauge. As you explore through the game you'll earn abilities that use energy from this gauge, such as summoning an Eagle or a Wolf for an attack, or even better, the Satellites. The Satellites are incredibly overpowered, and will allow you to easily defeat every single boss in the game as long as you mash hard and fast, while learning most of their patterns. Landing hits without getting hit also fills a third gauge, that once full will make you faster and stronger for a little while.

 Then there are the Sword/Cypher variations that you'll also find through the game. There are four types, Reflective, Explosive, Ice and Boomerang. Each one has a different property, and you can also unlock enhancements of these for other moves, for example, Ice Kunai and Reflective Kunai, or add explosions to the catapult jump! One small issue... you'll find enemies sporting colored shields, and you can only break these shields with the appropriate Sword, fair enough, right? Well, you swap swords with the DPad, and when fighting enemies with different shield types swapping weapon type in the midst of battle feels very cumbersome.

 The exploration is alright, using Strider tools feels nice enough, and once you get the third jump/catapult vault it gets better(If you find the reflect ability for the catapult it's EVEN better), however, I always hate it when Metroidvanias don't have a decent Map system, and this is yet another example of an inefficient map. For starters, the map is divided into zones, that alone makes it unnecessarily tough to figure out how each zone connects with each other, since you can't be sure if the 'global map' shows two zones touching each other if you can make it from one to the other. The map also fails to properly convey the limits of each are, I remember at least one zone that looked as if it was incomplete, but there's an invisible border if you try to jump of the edge. The map also doesn't tell you where a zone ends, so you might think you are entering new areas... only to find out it was simply a zone's exit and you had been there before. Where the Panther pads and Eagle pads take you isn't shown on the map either, so you have to take the gamble. I liked the game enough as to want to get every collectible, but once I figured out that I'd have to chance my way through the maps I gave up on it. Oh! And they added two planes to certain areas who knows why, it only helps to confuse you further.

 Strider is alright, it was a fun time, but the whole map thing is unacceptable. In a game about exploration, making it easy for the player to plan their routes and what not is key for making backtracking fun. And while you can get used to the analog controls, it's suboptimal for this kind of game, really. Regardless, I don't want to end on a sour note considering the game is actually pretty decent, and slashing enemies to death was pretty dope.

 6.5

Game #1269: Dead or Alive 5+

 Here we go again, yet another version of Dead or Alive 5.

 Seems I really must like Dead or Alive 5, because this is like the fourth version of this game I have bought. Dead or Alive 5+ was the Vita port of the game, although not everything is a plus.

 For starters, 90% of the original game is in the cart, however, Tag Battles were removed completely... except on Story Mode. Which is curious, these fights run well, the loading times before aren't too bad either, so I'm not sure why they removed free tag battles. Everything else, all the survival courses, Time attack, Arcade Ladder, Free battles, the tutorial... all of them are here and accounted for. There's a new mode, Touch Fight, which is super dumb, it's in first person and you tap and flick the screen to damage your enemy. The tutorial mode was souped up, now offering a ton of different lessons on every single mechanic, as well as combo-challenges for each character.

 The gameplay is as fast and satisfying as the original release, DoA is truly a spectacle, with some fantastic animations and feedback for when you land your hits. It IS a button masher, but that's always been the appeal of the series. Well, that and.... boobs. Yeah, the fanservice is excessive, what can ya do? The game plays great, and this is the entry that introduced Mila to the franchise, so I won't complain too much. The graphics are very crisp, it really is a looker, and they even kept in how the fighters would get sweaty and dirty, doesn't look as good as it does on PS3 but it's a nice detail. The audio quality, when it comes to story mode at least, isn't so good, but it doesn't get in the way of the game, plus... that story mode is terrible.

 No, really, I remembered it being bad, but not just how incomprehensible it was. Characters randomly meet in random countries, they fight because some stupid reason, and then your character has travelled to another country and comes across another character.... it's really dumb.

 This port does have one BIG plus when compared to the original... everyone comes unlocked by default, including Alpha-152. Unlock Alpha-152 was just cruel, but here she is unlocked from the get-go. Costumes, however, must be unlocked.

 Dead or Alive 5+ is yet another fantastic port for the Vita. Runs very smoothly, retains pretty much everything from the original game, even if it's missing tag battles, and looks and plays really well. About the only thing it has going against it is that DoA 5 received two further updated... which is a moot point considering this is the only version available on Vita, and for what it is, it's a lot of fun.

 8.0

Game #1268: Wanted Weapons of Fate

  I'd want more licensed games like this, sure.

 Wanted was a fairly interesting, albeit unnecessarily vulgar comic book that spawned a movie I never watched, which in turn, spawned this game, Wanted: Weapons of Fate. It's a third-person shooter that follows its own story, I guess judging from the fact that Angelina Jolie isn't in the game, but quite clearly takes after the way the movie reimagined the world of Wanted.

 The game is a fairly standard cover-based third person shooter, there are no puzzles to solve, only enemies to kill. At most a puzzle in this game might be figuring out how to get closer to an enemy... by pushing a box as you use it as cover. There are some turret and sniping sections to add some variety, but they are nothing to write home about. Oh! There are also some rather fun ideas on the QTE craze of the era, as instead of pressing buttons, the game goes through brief moments of slowdown in which you must shoot down enemies, projectiles or both. The first time this happened it caught me by surprise, as I didn't know these segments were in the game, but I wound up enjoying them.

 While it starts off fairly by-the-book, y'know, blind-fire, moving from cover to cover, as you go through the game you unlock the Adrenaline mechanic. Adrenaline makes everything fun! Slowly unlocked as you through the game as well, you can use adrenaline to use any of two abilities: Curving shots, which lets you shoot bullets that travel in an arc, as well as to use a quick-shift, which slows down time as you move from cover to cover, allowing you to land some free shots. These two abilities are a blast, particularly the curve shots, and they are very simple and satisfying to pull off. What's better, as long as you kill stuff, you regain the adrenaline that you spent, allowing you to chain your abilities! It feels great.

 That said... as fun as the gameplay is.... it's rather barebones. It's a very short game, clocking in at about 4 hours give or take, and you only get two different guns: A Pistol(Dual pistols in the flashback stages) and dual automatic pistols, and you only get to swap between both at will during the final stage. It's kind of lame. There's not much in the way of enemy variety either, in the latter third of the game some enemies that you must mash Circle fast, while holding down a direction on the Analog Stick are introduced, but aside from that, it's mostly enemies with guns. Grenades if you are unlucky.

 Wanted: Weapons of Fate is alright. It does a lot of things really well, but there simply isn't enough game here to keep you busy for long. After a while, every environment starts blending together, and while the plot isn't too bad, the dialogue is as cringy as it was in the original comic book.

6.5

Game #1267: The Amazing Spider-man(3DS)

 The tridimensional Spider-man

 It's been a few years since I went over every different console Spider-man videogame, hasn't it? Well, for whatever reason I felt like taking a stab at The Amazing Spider-man on the Nintendo 3DS, a port of the PS3/X360 game of the same name. It's pretty much a direct port, albeit with one key different: The open-world was removed, so it's a linear take on the same game, which makes it feel like the older PS1 Spidey games.

 Well... it's not very good. Instead of an open world, we get a weird "Vigilante Mode" that feels like a mobile game, running on percentage for odds and an energy meter. There are no microtransactions in the game, but this feels so out of place, and it's the only way you can unlock one of Spidey's costumes.

 From what I can tell, the main story of the game is pretty much identical to the Console game, but now there's a mission map from which you can pick between random optional mini-missions, which take the place of random crime activity, as well as the story missions.  Loading times are a bit on the lengthy side, and so are some of the cutscenes, which kinda work against it in the handheld medium.

 The game feels as if it barely works. Combat is identical to the one in the console game, but now it feels janky. Some 'signature moves' take so long that they reset your combo-meter, which sucks since the combo meter increases your strength. The fighting just feels wonky. Plus, to dodge you have to press a button on the touch-screen. And how am I supposed to deal with the goo-spitting enemies? They love to stand on the green goo, which hurts you, and you can't pull them with your web, so what gives? They were a major annoyance, and I don't remember having issues like this with the original console version of the game.

 That said, when the combat works, it's actually fun, since it borrows from Batman Arkham, and when it's at its best, it's quite fun. Plus, even though the character models have been majorly simplified, some of the attack animations are still pretty dope.

 Then there's the exploration, in the small 3DS' screen, everything feels cramped. Once again, I never had any issue with the original game, but here I got lost multiple times, and many times I didn't know where to go. Not having a second analog stick sucks, since you use the DPAD to move the camera, making moving and exploring with the camera at the same time impossible. Crawling on the ceiling feels very awkward too. Too cramped, the camera isn't very useful, etc.

 Not to mention how glitchy it is. One time I fell through the ground, thankfully, I was able to web swing out of it. The camera sometimes bugs out during combat. For instance, one time while in the sewers, I couldn't turn the camera around until I entered and finished a fight, which was a major annoyance. Then there are also interactive spots in which you must hold down X , aim at them and let go, but sometimes the game won't register it. There's a mission in which you must create webbing between cables like this, once I reached the second set of cables... It wouldn't work, I thought I was skipping something, but after trying from a bunch of different angles and distances... it worked. The second fight against Rhino is a major offender, because the camera loves to glitch up to the ceiling, and you also have to create webbings on the fly, and most of the time the game won't register it.

 This game on this console just didn't sit right, nor did it work very well. I remember actually liking this game on PS3, but this version was terrible. No wonder they did something completely different for the sequel.

 2.5

Game #1266: Marvel Super Hero Squad - The Infinity Gauntlet

 The gauntlet of dullness.

 I was never, ever interested in Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, however, the seller was selling it alongside the infinitely superior game Wet, so I wound up with this one too. I kinda wish I hadn't.

 The game is based off of a children's Marvel show, so of course, this is a dumb licensed game for children. I did some digging, and it turns out there was a Marvel Super Hero Squad game before, and this previous game actually had more characters than this one. Which is absolutely ridiculous considering Captain America is DLC. Mother truckin' Captain America is DLC, let that sink in. So we are already starting off on the wrong foot, the playable character roster is SMALLER than the one in the previous game, and about half of the roster is DLC.

 In short, the game is a linear beat'em up made up of 12 stages, on each stage you play as a different duo of pre-selected characters that play basically the same. Three hit combo, a charged attack and a ranged attack. Some characters have different skills, such as 'animal factor', but all this means is that they can interact with different elements in the environment. That sucks! This is a Marvel Super Heroes game, playing as my favorite characters should've been an imperative, instead, you are forced to play as a specific couple of characters. You can replay any stage in Free Play, but... you still can't pick the characters you take on each level. Lame.

 The game feels super janky. Movement feels as janky as it looks, and the feedback from your attacks doesn't feel satisfying at all. It's a mindless masher, and mashing buttons doesn't feel good. It doesn't help just how cheap everything feels, as if it was a mobile game ported to the PS3.

 Each character has three challenges, like finding X amount of something, or using that character to defeat X amount of an enemy type, and these challenges unlock costumes and maps for the Multiplayer minigame mode. Sounds neat, doesn't it? Well, the costumes can only be used in Challenge Mode, not in Story Mode. Seriously?

 Boring. Annoying. Plays like garbage, and has genius ideas such as charging for a character as intrinsical to the modern Marvel universe as is Captain America or not letting you pick which characters you want to play as. Turns out we found it, the definite bottom of the barrel.

 2.0

Game #1265: Snipperclips Plus - Cut it out, together!

 I hate papercuts!

 Right out of Horroctober, it's time for something more wholesome, something like Snipperclips Plus: Cut it out, Together! This is a very creative puzzle game in which you, and up to three other players, play as pieces of paper that can cut each other up, in order to turn each other into different shapes.

 The game offers 3 modes, World Mode, which is meant for 1-2 players, Party Mode, meant for 3-4 and Blitz Mode, for 3-4 players too. World Mode is the game's main mode, made up of 5 worlds with 15 puzzles each, and yes, that's a lot of puzzles. While it's meant to be played by two players, if you are by yourself you can press X to swap to the other character, and you can hold down L or R to keep it spinning while not under your control, what's more, whether you are crouching or stretching your legs, the character will remain in that position after you switch. Party Mode is meant for at least three players, as these puzzles involve 4 paper characters. It has its own set of puzzles, as and beating worlds in World Mode unlocks more puzzles. It's not as lengthy as world mode, but hey, it's got enough. The final mode, Blitz Mode, is made up of six multiplayer minigames. There's also Stamp Mode, which is just there to fool around and paint by stamping colors. 

 There's a lot of variety when it comes to the puzzles. The two most recurring puzzle types involve cutting around a purple paper, or cutting each other to fit inside an outline. Even though they repeat regularly among worlds, the shapes keep changing, so it always feels interesting. Then there's the rest of the levels... sometimes you might have to carry a ball and dunk it into a net, carry a pencil to a sharpener, or turn yourself into a shape that can operate a cog. Or maybe, cut a paper as to carry acid and defeat a virus. There's another one in which players have to turn themselves into stick-like shapes in order to raise a pillar from the ground by using the spikes on its two sides! There are a lot of creative puzzles, and even though there are 75 of them... I was left wanting even more. Finishing the game lets you replay various levels with each player having a different default shape than the standard bullet shape, just to make things harder.

 But I haven't even written about how the game is played! Basically, either 2 or 4 bullet-shaped paper characters are in play at all times, and you can make characters overlap each other, the overlapping is highlighted in green, and if you press A... you'll cut the overlap from the other player. The objective is to cut each other into the shapes that will best help you solve the puzzles. You can regenerate by holding down Y, and characters can rotate their bodies with L and R. It's very simple to understand, and there's so much you can do with so little!

 The worst part about the game is, probably, that some levels can be downright tedious if you are playing by yourself. Some things are just hard to accomplish without another player, and can make some challenges more challenging than they should be.

 I'm pretty sure that Snipperclips was one of the first games released on the Switch, and it holds up marvelously. It's really fun, and managed to do a lot with its premise. So much so, that I wish the game came with even more levels, 'cause there's more juice waiting to be squeezed out of this orange.

 7.5