Month Overview: December

Games finished in December:

Dragon Ball Z - Tenkaichi Tag-Team               8.0
Gran Turismo                                                     5.0
Pursuit Force                                                      9.5
Project X Zone                                                   4.5
Pursuit Force - Extreme Justice                         9.0
Rengoku - The Tower of Purgatory                   6.0
Spectral VS Generation                                      6.0
Rengoku 2 - The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N.      8.0
Parasite Eve                                                        9.0
Crazy Taxi                                                          7.5
Capcom Classics Collection vol. 2                     8.0
Me & My Katamari                                            8.5
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max                                9.5
Jumping Flash! 2                                                8.0

 I... definitely played a little bit of everything this month, a ton of great games, and... Project X Zone, man was that game misguided. I'm cutting this month short since I'm pretty sure I won't be finishing Guilty Gear, Naruto or Dungeon Explorer( Oh god, this game...) before December ends, and the first part of the super prestigious Archile's End of the Year Awards are coming later tonight so... yeah.


 Game of December:

 Pursuit Force - Extreme Justice was an excellent sequel, but there was something about the first one that Extreme Justice couldn't match. Pursuit Force is one of those games that feel as if they were made for me, an arcade game full of action and explosions, alongside fun mechanics that make it a pretty unforgettable game. Pursuit Force is a must have on anyone's PSP library.

 Runner-up:

 Parasite Eve was just... amazing. I had played PE II before, but I wasn't too fond of it, regardless, I've been wanting to replay it, alongside its prequel, for a while now. Parasite Eve is a much superior game to PE II, with a likable protagonist, an fun battle system and an interesting story. It's a game that reminded me of how good SquareSoft used to be, before they started to make terrible games and thrive on fan service. Oh, how times change...

Now Playing: Guilty Gear Judgment.... and Naruto Shippuden - Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst

 Heaven or hell.... Round 1, FIGHT!

 Guilty Gear is awesome. I've loved it ever since I played X back in the day, and eventually wound up playing the first GG, X2, X2 #Reload, X2 Accent Core Plus, GBA and now... Judgment.
 Judgment... is fine. It's a fine game, I like how they reworked the characters to fit a beat'em up game, it ain't perfect, but it's good enough. I'm up to level 3, and I'm not seeing a whole lot of enemy variation, but it's alright.

 On the other hand, the game also includes X2 #Reload, sans Story-Mode, so even if Judgment ain't your thing, you can't say not to X2 #Reload, you simply can't.

 Anyways, thing is, Dungeon Explorer was my 'off game', the one I played when I was bored and wanted a quick gaming fix, but... it ain't very good, I think it  completely burned me out already, after 6 hours of gameplay. No bueno. Anyways, a couple o' days ago I also began...

 I've mixed feelings about it, somewhat. Y'see, the game feels faster? I may be crazy, but I think it feels faster, and that's good. What ain't good is how they cheaped out with the roster. Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 added a ton of new characters(over Storm 1), Generations just added a few new ones and brought back the child versions(They just ported the Storm 1 characters). Storm 3 adds about 10 new characters... but I heard that you fight the Dead Kages in Story Mode, yet they wouldn't become playable until Revolution. That's not cool, specially since they removed one combo from every character. Why? No, really, why would they do that? So that they could make more characters? Then why not have the Dead Kages playable? Oh, and the DLC costumes? They are terrible. They expected you to pay for Madara(Alive), they just cleaned his skin, for Itachi and Kisame with... hats. Really? They wanted money for that? And what about the terrible, terrible Naruto and Sasuke costumes? And why did they give every female a swimsuit? Are they really that desperate for money that they have to appeal to the lowest common denominator? And Revolution would get even worse with this....

 However, the Story Mode is awesome. It takes place during the time in which the story began getting a bit... worse, but so far it's still tolerable. The cutscenes are awesome as they were on Storm 2. However, as much as I'm loving it, sometimes it feels as if there's too much talking. They even tried to spice it up by adding fights that didn't happen in the manga, but still...

 Ah well, all in all, it's already better than Generations. I think.

Review #191: Jumping Flash! 2

 Hope y'ain't got vertigo!

 Jumping Flash! 2 is truly one of a kind. Well, 'three of', since it's kind of a sequel and it had a sequel itself. But I digress, Jumping Flash! 2 is a first-person platforming game... and it's so good.

 There's two main modes: Adventure and Time Attack, both are pretty much self explanatory. The game is made up of 6 worlds, with 3 stages each, 2 platforming stages and 1 boss stage each(except the sixth world that trades a platforming stage for a second boss). The objective of each level is to find 4 MuuMuus, squid-like aliens, and reach the exit. The game is a bit on the short side, you could probably beat the game in under 2 hours, but finishing the game unlocks "Extra" mode, which rearranges every stage. This mode is completely worth it, new cinematics and harder bosses, it almost feels like an entirely new set of stages. Furthermore, there's 12 performance medals to earn(Think of them as achievements), getting all 12 of them unlocks Hyper Mode, which buffs Robbit and re-rearranges the levels. The main game might be a bit short and easy, but the extra modes more than makes up for it.

 As stated before, this is a first-person platforming game. Robbit is a robot rabbit(Hence, Robbit) that can triple jump(increased to six in Hyper mode), shoot lasers, shoot fireworks, dash(Hyper Mode only, with L1) and do a ground pound(With triangle, Hyper Mode only). The first person perspective is pretty easy to get used to, as soon as you do a second jump in the air, Robbit's view will automatically turn down to his feet, allowing you to see where you are gonna land, with aid of your shadow. To be honest, sometimes I would've preferred if the camera panned down as soon as you jumped for the first time, but it isn't too bad. Defeating enemies can be done by jumping on top of them, shooting them with your weak lasers or using Fireworks. Fireworks can be found throughout each level or are sometimes dropped behind by killed enemies, you can carry up to three of the them at the same time and they work as alternate weapons, they are best saved up for the bosses, at least in Extra Mode.

 One thing that can take a while to get used to is that Robbit can't just double and triple jump just whenever you want, there's a gauge at the right of the screen that rises to the top and then goes back down, as long as the yellow bar is still in the gauge, you can perform another jump. It takes a while to get used to it, I actually got over 4 game overs in stage 1-2(That's more than 8 lives) due to it, but after you get the hang of the controls, the game becomes very breezy. Levels have a time limit, but it never cost me a life, which means that it's pretty lenient. One small issue I had was that sometimes Robbit would be obstructed by corners of buildings just outside the field of view, strafing would've been a nice addition, but it isn't too cumbersome.

 This isn't one of Playstation's best looking games, but it's pretty colorful, and happy. Seriously, the enemies are very cute-ish, as is Robbit itself. The levels are pretty well designed, and they were fun to explore as you jumped around as well. After getting the hang of the controls, and being able to gracefully go from place to place, I was marveled at how the game looked and felt, this worlds are places you want to explore. At least the open areas. There's a couple of  closed-corridor levels that aren't as fun as the rest. As for the music, very upbeat and cheery. Hardly classics, but they feel straight out of the SNES platforming games, and that's a good thing.

 Jumping Flash! 2 is a first person platforming game. With no analog support. Conceived during the PS1 era. And it works. It's original and it's fun to play, it may be a bit too easy, but it's a great platforming game.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Jumping Flash 2

 Mon dieu!

 Here's the skinny: Dungeon Explorer on the PSP is very dull, very boring, I just... needed to play something different. Jumping Flash 2 is different, a good different.

 It's a first person platforming game(Really!), and it's really fun. It also seems... hard? I got over 4 on level 1-2. OVER. FOUR. GAME. OVERS. That's about 8 lives. I think it was just me getting a hang of the game and how the jumps work, you can't just jump whenever you want, you have to keep in mind a gauge at the right that shows you when you can jump. Anyways, after getting over that hurdle, I haven't died since. The bosses are disappointingly easy. Also, every now and then I get stuck on corners, some kind of strafing option would've been nice...

 Still, gotta give it props, it's a first person platform game, on the PS1, before the Dual Shock was introduced... and it works pretty damn well!

Now Playing: Dungeon Explorer - Warriors of Ancient Arts

 Eh...

 So, here's the deal, I loved Dungeon Explorer on the DS, heck, it was my favorite DS game for a while. I spent hours upon hours building my fighter, and I created to alternate classes/characters as well. And for the longest time, I ached to play the PSP version, which at the time, looked much better.

 First thing that rubbed me the wrong way: The female playable characters are completely fanservicey, they have the hugest cleavages, and most of them have at least one naked buttock. They look so silly. Then I began the game, and the gameplay is... it's fine, nothing special. I was immediately reminded of the Dungeon Explorer DS' palette, where you could assign items or skills. One thing I'm not liking is how much your attacks miss, at least at this level, it's not uncommon for an entire 5-hit string to miss completely. I even died on my first mission! But to be fair, I wasn't paying attention to my life bar.

 At the moment, I'm unimpressed, buuuut I have high hopes that it will grow on me. Dungeon Explorer DS looked terrible, and the combat was simple to a fault, yet I fell completely in love with it, so maybe, maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe I will grow to love it. I also have to keep in mind that I'm dead tired and my stomach is aching from all the Christmas food, so I'm gonna keep a positive outlook on it.

Review #190: Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max

 Get ready fighters, Go for broke!

 This is the second port of SF Alpha 3 I played this year, the third version I've bought(GBA, PS2, PSP) and the fifth I've played(Arcade, PS1, PS2, GBA and PSP). It's a game I've played over and over throughout the years, and it still hasn't gotten old, in fact, this may be the best version yet.

 The first thing that you'll notice after pressing start, is that the game has a TON of modes. The classic Arcade Mode(Console Version, meaning you can retry the last fight), the return of World Tour(A fan favorite that hasn't been seen since the PS1 version!), Survival, Variable Battle(Tag-team! Sadly, only 2 vs 1), Dramatic Battle( The player and a CPU VS 1 CPU at the same time, the opponents are randomized this time!), Reverse Dramatic Battle(You VS 2 CPUS), Training, Free Battle(Normal, Team, Variable, Dramatic and Reverse Dramatic), VS 100 Kumite(Even if you lose, the ladder keeps on going, the objective is to see how many you can defeat of 100 opponents), Final Battle(Skip directly to Boss Bison... or boss Akuma) and lastly, Network Battle. Did I mention that it's a ton of modes? No other port of this game has had so many ways to play the game.

 I've already talked about how SF Alpha 3 plays, but needless to say, everything is here, all the ISMs, all the modes(Mazi, Saykio, etc), all the endings. This port has the most characters yet, having all the PS1 additions, the GBA newcomers(Eagle, Yun, Maki) and a 'new' character, Ingrid(She's from a cancelled Capcom Fighting game, but her first real debut was Capcom's Fighting Jam). She... doesn't really fit Street Fighter, she feels right out of King of Fighters, heck, she's a bit of an Athena clone. She also seems a bit overpowered, but that's just my estimation. One thing that really bothers me, and hasn't been addressed ever, is that there's no in-game movelist. To add insult to injury some characters don't have access to all of their moves on each ISM, which can make it even more annoying. This time around, there's no excuse, I'm pretty sure the Japanese version had an in-game movelest. Another issue is that the PSP's directional pad and analog nub aren't the best, you can turn on "easy motion" to add leniency to the input recognition, but it's not perfect.

 The game looks very crisp on the PSP's screen, and every frame has been kept intact. As for the sprites themselves, they are pretty much timeless, animation isn't the best in the Street Fighter series, but it's still really good, and the bulky, colorful, anime-ish style looks fantastic. The Music is just phenomenal, the soundtrack is just perfect, I've played the game over and over again, and I still love the music.

 This is straight-up the best version of one of the best fighting games ever created. There's a ton of modes ensuring that you won't get tired of the game any time soon, a ton of characters, and a ton of ways to play with each character thanks to the three different ISMs and Modes. Not to mention World Tour Mode and the fact that you can pretty much create your own ISM as you develop your fighter. The controls aren't the best, true, but you can adapt. If you like fighting games, own a PSP or both, you need this game.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #189: Me & My Katamari

 It never stops rolling.

 Me & My Katamari was the first handheld version of the Katamari series. Made from the ground-up for the PSP, Me & My Katamari is a game that rises above its limitations to become even better than the first, and here's why.

 The King of all Cosmos, alongside his Queen and his son, the Prince, is on vacation, but as it usually is with the King, he manages to destroy all the tropical Islands, so now he sends his son to rebuild the many different Islands. Of course, that's as easy as rolling a Katamari and gathering as much stuff as possible, so that the King can turn it into an Island with his powers.

 The first hurdle you had to jump on the PS2 version were the controls, that hurdle is back, but this time around it's a bit higher. To roll the Katamari you must use either the analog nub or the directional pads in conjunction with the four face buttons on the PSP. Getting used to them will get a while, and even when you get the hang of them, they don't feel as good as the PS2 version, mind you, they are not terrible by any means and they are more than functional, but nothing beats two analog sticks.

 The rest of the game plays the same, gather up stuff, by rolling over it, and get your Katamari bigger, so that you can roll bigger stuff, before the time runs out, do especially good and you'll unlock the "Eternal" stages, which allow you to play without a time limit, and on your travels you'll come around presents, which unlock accessories, and cousins, which, well, unlock them. This time around you can play and customize the different cousins, they all play the same, but it's a nice touch, the Yellow cousins are the best! Oh, and beating the game unlocks a 2D mini-level of Katamari, very cool.

 The first game in the series sometimes had special stars, that required you getting the biggest or a certain object or the like, these are gone, The animals make ask you to gather "cold", "cool", "cute" or even "shiny" stuff, but at the end of the level, the only thing that really matters for your score is how big your Katamari got. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way, these is just the purest Katamari experience, and since it's supposed to be played on the go, you don't have to think much about it, just roll your Katamari and gather stuff! The game has about 5 different stages, which correspond to the size of the Katamari, but depending on the time of the day said 'stage' takes part, is which objects will be available and where. All in all, there's more stages than on the first Katamari game, they are bigger and more fun to explore.

 The game looks really good, I'd say about as good as the first game, but the frame-rate can suffer a bit at times. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing, featuring the songs from the first game, plus a couple of new ones. The soundtrack is as quirky and bedazzlingly hypnotic, I found myself humming the theme song more than once.

  I do think that it's slightly superior to the first game. The controls aren't as precise, and don't feel as good, but that's the PSP's fault. There's more levels than on the first Katamari, and they got a bit more creative this time around, and it has little enhancements like playing as the different cousins, even if they are the same as the Prince, or letting you pick which song will play on each level. I also liked that the more involved challenges from the first game are gone, they add variety and are better for a Console game, but if I wanna have Katamari on the go, this is how I want it.
 8.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Me & My Katamari

 I wanna wad you into my liiiiife

 I'm on a PSP.... roll this month. So, Me & My Katamari, it's good. The controls are very.... awkward, but I think I got the hang of it already. The levels are much better than the first Katamari's, I'm on level... 5ish? And I'm already rolling giant monsters into my Katamari. Instant Gratification. There's a lot of reused assets, not that I really mind since it creates some consistency between the game, plus, I've also seen a ton of new Katamari fodder. I mean, objects.

 So, yeah, it's fun, but I'm not completely sold on the controls, plus, I think the analog's texture is etching itself on my thumb. Ouch.

Review #188: Gladiator Begins

 I am Spartacus!

 Where do I begin with Gladiator Begins? It's a rather peculiar fighting-slash-action-slash-Gladiator sim game in which you rise from slave to riches as you slay your way to the top of the gladiatorial ranks, and maybe eventually earn your freedom.

 There's only two modes: Story and Exhibition. Exhibition mode let's you battle against other players or CPUs, and while you can pick your character as 'random', you need a Story Mode save file in order to even access this mode. Story Mode is the real meat of the game, you are a slave bought by Margelius, your owner, and receive training in the ways of the Gladiator. As you play the game you'll interact with a number of NPCs, Gladiators, Patrons and some other high-ranking Romans. The story is surprisingly interesting, and there are a number of different sub plots of which you can follow through to the end, each one having a different ending. The characters and drama can be very cheesy, but it is interesting, Giulianus' rivalry was very over the top, but I was always looking forward to fighting him again and seeing what he'd say!

 At the start of the game you are allowed to create your Gladiator, it's a very limited character creator, but it's sufficient. Soon after, the game begins, and it follows a routine: Each day you begin at the Ludos, where you can save your game, allocate stat points in Strength, Endurance or Stamina, set up your four skills on the four face buttons and level them up if you want or set a nickname. After you are done with that, you are off to an arena, for the first few days, you'll won't be able to pick an arena, but after you reach 2nd rank, you'll be able to pick which arena to visit, each arena being owned by a different patron, so if you want a certain route/ending, you should make most of your visits to their arena. Each arena allows you to visit the armorer in order to buy, sell or refine equipment. There's a lot of pieces of equipment to put on your Gladiator, and you can also earn it after each fight. Every day there's a different set of  'battles' available, and there's decent variety: Team Battle, Survival, 1 on 1 duel, 2 on 2, Battle Royale and 'War', which are special scenarios. There's decent variety, but at the end of the day, you'll be doing the same thing: Battling arenas inside the ring!... most of the time.

 Battling is fairly interesting, each of the four face buttons attack a different limb, triangle attacks the head, square and circle attack the arms and X attacks the legs. You don't damage limbs, but focusing your attack on a limb will make their armor, or even their weapons fall, allowing you do deal damage by hitting those limbs. These holds true for the player as well, the CPU can remove your armor or weapons, but you can pick them up from the floor, heck, you can pick up their weapons and equipment... but they can do so as well. Holding the L button allows you to use whichever four Special Attacks you equipped on your gladiator, but these consume Stamina, which you have to keep in mind unless you want to be left open up for an attack while exhausted. Battling is very simple, and not very deep, but I liked it. It's a very repetitive game, but for some reason, I never got bored. It does have problem in the form of the camera, you can only rotate it by holding R and then using the face buttons, which is very cumbersome,  but pressing the X button while holding R makes the camera instantly move to your back, which was more than enough, as cumbersome as it was, the camera never cost me a match.

 There's four different styles: Single Weapon, Weapon and Shield, Dual Weapons and Pugilist. Each style is leveled up by using it(So even if you are using, say, two swords, you can drop one and instantly switch to single weapon style), which in turn unlocks more special moves for that style. The game is fairly meaty, there's a lot of stuff to do, and the four different routes ensure that replay value is fairly high. However, there is no "new game+", loading a clear file allows you to start anew on Normal or Hard, it would've been nice to be allowed to continue strengthening your gladiator. Another thing to keep in mind, is that there isn't much to do but fight, fight and fight, and for all intents and purposes, all arenas might as well be same. Loading times can be a bit intrusive at times, but you can install the game, and I suggest you do.

 The game looks amazing, character models are very detailed and look fantastic, the animations are fairly smooth as well. Some of the armor pieces don't look very convincing, but it didn't bother me much, plus, I could just cherry pick the ones I liked. The music is nothing special, but it's very fitting of the setting, it's the kind of music you'd expect on a Gladiator movie or series. Epecial mention goes to the sound effects, landing blows feels very satisfying.

 Gladiator begins is a fantastic game for the PSP, but I'm not sure if it's for everyone. There really isn't anything else to do but fight in enclosed arenas, and all fights boil down to either be the last man standing or surviving for a set amount of time. But if that sounds like your kind of game, by all means, it's worth it.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Gladiator Begins

 Somehow, I doubt I'll finish it before the year ends...

 I've already clocked a fair amount of time in this one, but better late than never! It's really fun. It's simple, but fun. One would've thought that with such a simple combat system and repetitive scenarios it would get old fast, but it doesn't, it's fun. The load times however, are not, you could always install the game though.

 My dual sword-wielding Thracian gladiator is already 'Gold level' so I can choose my arenas. I love how you get to meet all these politicians, owners and other Gladiators, they are so cheesy, but it's somewhat charming. I also can't seem to please the audience ever since I became a Gold-tier Gladiator, I'm gonna have to try changing my nickname.

Review #187: Capcom Classics Collection vol. 2

 Classic Arcade action!

 I'm a huge fan of Arcade games, as I have previously stated, which made this a collection I needed to own. It contains 20 games, of which I will sum-up how I felt about each of them.

 Something that holds true for each game is that you can unlock Art, Tips and Music from each game just by playing it. The requirements for each unlock are fairly easy, usually it entails achieving a certain highscore(Fairly easy), finishing the game(Varies) and defeating the boss located midway through each game. The art collection for each game is decent, although the quality isn't the best. You can also unlock cheats(Usually invulnerability) by playing the special Capcom-themed quiz game. A fantastic feature is that you can save your progress at any time on every game. There's also an special Street Fighter II tutorial vid, which is pretty decent, but it doesn't give you a chance to try out the lessons as you learn them, still, a nice extra.

 One thing to keep in mind is that all of these games were made to suck the quarters out of you. These are very challenging games, and very unfair, some more than others. This is somewhat mitigated by the ability to play with another player and use infinite continues, but some games run on a checkpoint system, still, you can just unlock the Invulnerability cheat, which is rather nice since it allows you to experience the whole game. The game doesn't allow you to tweak much of each game, you can choose difficulty, and sometimes mess with how many lives you get per 'credit' or when you get extra lives. It's fairly skimpy on options, and it could've allowed you to mess with the dip switches, but no big loss. As for the games:

 Black Tiger: You are a warrior and you must explore somewhat large levels, climbing and jumping. Control is a bit stiff, particularly the jumping which is based on momentum. You can collect money and use it to buy better weapons and other power ups at shops, which appear randomly when rescuing old men. It's very cheap, enemies spawn all the time and in large quantities, but the bosses, in contrast, are very easy, just figure out the pattern and attack their weak points. It seems to be a sort of predecessor to Ghosts and Goblins since Red Arremeer appears both as a boss and an enemy. All in all, it's pretty dull.
3/10

 Street Fighter: Bad. Very, very bad, but it's nice to have as a curiosity. Sprites are bad, the animation is bad, the controls are unresponsive and the movement is awkward, the music and voice clips are bad. It's a bad game, very, very bad. But it's nice to have as part of the collection, it is part of Street Fighter history after all.
1/10

 Strider: A challenging action game in which you play as the famous Strider Hiryu. It's a classic for a reason, while it can get frustrating. Really, really frustrating. The filled with memorable moments, like riding atop dinosaurs only to have a robot dino-creature maul your ride to death. Or when dinosaurs and a mechanical gorilla try to sandwich you. Or when you storm a battleship and escape will it explodes.... it's a fun game, when it isn't frustrating you. I found the controls to be a bit stiff, particularly the jumping, but you can have infinite continues, so it evens out.
8/10

 Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: The final revision of Street Fighter II, I've already talked about it on my blog, but it's a great game and has aged most gracefully. On the other hand, this is probably isn't the ideal version to own, since you can't tweak much(Like number of rounds or the timer). Regardless, it is a phenomenal game and this game alone makes the whole collection worth it.
10/10

 The Speed Rumbler: This one's a bit weird, and I had never played it before. You play as Super Joe as he attempts to rescue his friends from the bad guys, very deep stuff. You start of in a Car, but you can exit from it whenever you want, ideally when it's about to explode, since Super Joe can only take one hit. It's somewhat charming and simple, but not something I'd want to spend much time with.
 4/10

 Tiger Road: You play as a Monk as you go around defeating all manners of martial artists. It's a simple game, and while I couldn't care less about the character sprites, I really liked the backgrounds. All stages play about the same, you go from one exit to another, defeating enemies, if you like, until you reach the sub-boss and the boss of each area. It's decent.
 5/10

 Quiz & Dragons: A board-game/quiz game hybrid, if you play the original version you might not enjoy it too much, seeing how many questions are rather outdated... however, this collection features an updated question-set based on Capcom trivia, this is the version that you want to play, it's ten times as fun.
 3/10 Original
 7/10 Update

 1941: Fairly entertaining shooter, you are a ship on a vertical playing field trying to blow up all the other ships. And tanks. And eventually moving walls filled with guns. It's a bit of a bullet hell, but it's fairly easy, still, quite enjoyable for what it is.
7/10

 Avengers: Not related to Marvel's Avengers, it's a top-down brawler in which you play as some dude trying to rescue girls, and he does so by punching and kicking everyone. I came across some Kunai once too. It's repetitive, simple and a bit dull, but it's a bit of fun. Plus, it's a tad better in multiplayer.
 4/10

 Block Block: An arkanoid clone. I felt like the controller was a wee bit too sensitive. There's not much else to say about it, it's an Arkanoid clone.
 6/10

 Varth: Another vertical shooter, it's very similar to 1941, but much prettier and harder. The backdrops look phenomenal, and this time around, you die in one hit! Definitely worth checking out if you liked 1941.
 7/10

 Eco Fighters: Another shooter, a horizontal one this time around, and my favorite of the bunch. This time around you control two things at the same time, your ship, and an arm that you can spin around with two other buttons. You can also carry two weapons at a time, one on your arm and one on your ship. It takes a while to get used to controlling the arm, but it's worth it. All in all, looks amazing and it's fairly original.
8/10

 Last Duel: A vertical shooter, what makes this one different from the others is that there are two alternating types of stages, in some you drive a Car and in others you fly a ship. Maybe I was burned out from so many other shooters, them not being a genre I like a lot, but I didn't like it much. The car stages were decent, but the ship ones were so slow...
 4/10

 Side Arms: The last shooter in the Collection, this time around you play as a robot, but it's still very much on rails, allowing you to move around the course to dodge shots, pretty much like the others. Stages are a bit uninspired, and enemies and bosses get recycled throughout the entire game, heck, one of the 3-4 bosses is fought over five times. OVER. FIVE. TIMES.. The main feature is that you get 5 different weapons that you can power up. I didn't care for the gameplay or its lackluster graphics, but the music is nothing short of amazing. At the end of the day, you will remember this one for the music and nothing else. It's not absolutely terrible, just unremarkable, generic and uninspired.
 3/10

 Mega Twins: A cutesy adventure game in which you play as a young swordsman, slashing your way through enemies. It's fun and very colorful, the music is really good as well, but some of the sounds, particularly the "Low health" and "Magic charged" beeps, can get very irritating. A bit on the short side, but very fun.
 7/10

 Three Wonders: Three mini-games in one,  Midnight Wanderers is the 'Action game', It's just an average jump and gun game, nothing spectacular, but entertaining for what it is. Chariot is a horizontal shooter in which you play as the same character from Midnight Wanderers, except that his time they are on a Hang glider. Your melee is tied to your tail, which is also tied to yous Special shots, which is kinda interesting. I liked it, it's quite exciting and fun to play. Don't Pull is the last game, a puzzle game, you play as a cutesy bunny and must defeat enemies by smashing them with blocks that you can push. I didn't really care for this last one.
7/10

 Captain Commando: I love this one. Looks great, the music is good and it has everything a good beat'em up needs. There's a lot of variety when it comes to normal moves(Two normal combos for each character, Neutral A and forward+A), a huge amount of jumping attacks(Jump+A, Jump+Down+A, Running Jump+A, neutral Jump A, etc), it also has every trope covered, every enemy in the book is here, the gang banger, the dominatrix, the ninja, oh and it also has a surfing stage! Not to mention the attention to detail, there's many dying animations, both for the player characters and the enemies, and other minutiae like a different fallen sprite when falling against a wall. I love this one, and I don't understand why it never got popular.
 9/10

 The King of Dragons: This one is, probably, the simplest beat'em up in this collection. Really, there aren't even combos by mashing the A button, no hidden moves, no nothing. But it is an original beat'em up, it's styled after Dungeon and Dragons and the like, you pick from a class(Warrior, Cleric, Archer, Wizard and Dwarf) and beat up on enemies like Orcs, Minotaurs and Dragon Riders. One cool little touch, is that by amassing points you earn level ups, which means more HP per life! You'll also come across different weapons that change how the weapon sprite looks. As simple as it is, it's quite fun, and worth playing through at least once.
 8/10

 Knights of the Round: One of my favorite beat'em ups ever created. Set in the world of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table... kinda, you can choose between Percival, Lancelot and Arthur. What sets this one apart is the large(For a beat'em up) amount of moves per character, not only do they look different but they have different uses, for example, Arthur has a very slow, very powerful slice, while Lancelot gets a swift flash kick. Another gimmick, which I love, is that as you earn points you level up, which changes the sprite of your character! Arthur and Lancelot get more armor and bigger swords, while Percival gets... bald, and a bit of armor. It's very neat. Then there's defending and parrying. Yes, parrying, on a beat'em up! You've so many options, that this is one of the few Arcade beat'em ups that actually feel fair. You can also hit big chests or food items to divide them into smaller items, allowing you to share the booty... or keep it to yourself, it's worth more that way! This game, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty much perfect. Perhaps the last boss is a bit disappointing, being a headswap from a previous boss, but I still enjoy it to this day.
 10/10

 Magic Sword: An action side-scroller in which you play as a barbarian. Your objective is to climb a tower, and as you go along you must collect keys to open doors and unlock CPU allies. You'll also get stronger weapons after defeating each boss. I like it, it's simple, fun and action packed. The screen will get swarmed with enemies, but it doesn't feel too unfair.
 9/10

 Personally, I think this collection could've used more variety. There's too many shooters, which I don't particularly like, and not enough beat'em ups! I understand the reason for the lack of Final Fight, the first one was on the first collection, and the rest were console exclusives, plus, a ton of other Capcom Beat'em ups were licensed, but what about Battle Circuit? What about Cyber-bots? Regardless, it's a nice amount of games, and even though I might've been hard on some, you've to keep in mind they were different times, and these games wanted your money. Badly.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #186: Crazy Taxi

 YA YA YA YA YA YA YA!

 I love Crazy Taxi. It's one of Sega's finest Arcade Games, in which you play as a, ahem, Crazy Taxi... driver, and you must take different passengers to their desired destinations. It's an Arcade game through and through, which means it's fast paced, and the physics go through the window in favor of fun.

 The game has three modes: Original, Arcade and Crazy Box. Original and Arcade are basically the same game but in different towns. You can play either under the Arcade rules, in which you start with one minute-time to get your fare, but successfully driving a passenger to his destination gains you more time, or under set 3,5 or 10 minute runs. Furthermore, there's the 'Expert' and 'another day' variations unlocked by holding L1+R1 or simply L1 while choosing your ride. Crazy Box is a 'mission mode' of sorts that houses many different objectives, like knocking down all the bowling pins on the road, or popping every balloon on a field, etc. It's a fun little diversion, but it ain't much more than that. It also unlocks alternate cars for all four drivers.

  Gameplays is incredibly simple: You drive around town, look for people with dollar signs over their heads(Green, Yellow, Orange and Red, signifying how challenging the route is), stop nearby and drive them to their destination, there's no map, but an arrow on top of the screen aids you in getting to your mark. That's all there is to the game, really, but there's genius in its simplicity, going around the town is so much fun, no in small part thanks to the physics that makes everything feel very light, yet the collisions are satisfying... not that you'd want to collide, since you earn bonus money(Points) for 'near missing' other cars.

 To be fair, the game can get a bit dull after repeated sessions. The controls are something I didn't really like either, accelerating and breaking is just fine, but in order to go in reverse, you have to switch gears, which I thought was annoying. There really is no point to shifting gears in a game like this, and even then, X puts you in Reverse while Circle puts you back driving forward... it should've been just one button. I never really got a hang of it, even after mastering the Crazy Drift(Shift gears while drifting).

 The graphics are... kinda bad, and while I usually wouldn't care, there's no excuse for the framerate drops every now and then. They aren't very common, but with graphics this simple, this shouldn't be an issue. The music is comprised of Punk-rock music, mostly by the Offspring, they suit the game so well that I have a hard time imagining Crazy Taxi with any other soundtrack!

 As much as I love Crazy Taxi, there's no denying that the game gets boring after a while. The game could've used a little more variety as well, both towns look and feel very similar. Still, it's a decent game to pass the time.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #185: Parasite Eve

 Back when SquareSoft could do no wrong...

 Back before SquareSoft merged with Enix, it seemed like no matter what they did, Fighters(Bushido Blade), Shooters(Einhander), Adventure(Musashi) or RPGS, they did it right. Mind you, I'm not blaming Enix, I'm just saying that Square has changed for the worst, just look at what they did to Aya in The Third Birthday and having her clothes break just because Japan. But I digress, Parasite Eve is an awesome blend of RPG with Survival Horror, with a great protagonist and an original take on the "virus outbreak" trope.

 I mentioned this Aya character in the paragraph above, she's Aya Brea the protagonist of the Parasite Eve, a Police Officer who has been blessed(Or cursed, depending on how you see it) with special powers, stemming from her evolving Mitochondria cells. At the game's start, while attending a theater play, the main actress morphs into a hideous monster and everyone but Aya burns to death. Instead of having human zombies, your main enemies are mutated animals, thanks to the evolved Mitochondria that Eve, the main villain, is spreading around. I liked the story, I liked the characters, Aya Brea is a no-nonsense badass with a bit of an attitude, her partner, Daniel, is a single dad who tries to balance the police life with raising a child, and most of the other named officers are relatively memorable. The dialogue was fairly good too, for the time, and I really dig how the game takes place in the present day(...of 1997).

 The game is very linear, with just one optional area, but you are allowed to go back to previous dungeons every now and then. The game plays, when out of combat, like other Survival Horror games of the past, you go around pre-rendered backgrounds, looking for keys to open doors. You have a limited inventory capacity, but it increases as you level up, it is an RPG after all! You can store excess items at opened chests and retrieve them later, or at the Police Precinct, however, one big issue I had is that keys will bother you all the way to the end of the game. Even after opening every door they can open, you cannot remove them from your inventory inside dungeons, you can't even place them on chests, your only choice is to leave them at the Precinct's storage, but they'll occupy a slot in there until the end of the game. Not. Cool. Throughout the game, you'll come across a wide variety of armor and weapons(Guns, Machine Guns, Rifles, Shotguns, Grenade Launchers and a Rocket Launcher), and they may come with special skills, like Fire or Cold bullets, or armors that automatically use healing items in your inventory when low on health. There are also items that can be used to power up their stats. Y'see, there are 'tools' in the game that can be used to destroy a weapon and take their skills OR bonus stats and apply them to another gun, this way you can take every power up you've used onto a new, better gun, which was pretty interesting.

 The game is an RPG first and foremost, while most of the game plays like a Survival Horror, enemies come in random encounters. Kinda. There are certain, particular spots in each area that spawn monsters, the first time around you can't avoid it, but each time you return to the area, there's a chance that the monsters might respawn, and with each respawn, that chance lowers down to a minimum of 20% I believe. Battles make use of the Active Time Bar that Square was so fond of back in the day, while you wait for it to charge, all you can do is run around the area... which also allows you to dodge enemy attacks in real time. Once the ATB fills, you can either press Triangle to use a Parasite Spell or an item, or use X to attack with your weapon. Different weapons have different skills, as previously mentioned, some might allow you to shoot up to five bullets in one turn, or maybe only one(I found that three bullets was the most convenient, as they get weaker the more shots they allow), and they also have different ranges, if an enemy gets out of range, your shots will miss. Lastly, Parasite Spells make use of a gauge that refills automatically, but the more spells you use, the slower it takes for the bar to recharge.... but you can bypass it by switching armors on one of your turn, resetting the recharge rate! I loved, adored the combat, I found myself fighting not to grind, but for the fun of it!

 Defeating enemies nets you items and experience. At first I was trying to Tonfa my way through the game, but then I noticed that it was doing too little damage and bullets were plentiful. I never, ever found myself lacking ammo, and every gun shares the same ammo(Except the Rocket Launcher), so you can just go guns blazing. Every time you level up, all your stats level up, but you also get Bonus Points that can be used to enhance your ATB recharge rate, backpack storage or enhance your weapons. Lastly, there's a new game plus, you are allowed to carry over your BPs and one of your guns, besides enemies getting stronger, you also unlock the 100 floor dungeon Chryseler Building, that houses the secret boss and true ending. I thought it was a rather cheap way of making you play through the whole game again, but the core game is so satisfying that I didn't mind it.

 The presentation holds up even to this day. The pre-rendered backgrounds aren't very original, nothing really 'awed' me, which is not to say that I didn't like the environments. I think it has to do with the fact that they are trying to be 'realistic'? Character models and special effects are relatively good, human characters are a bit simple, but well defined, and enemies look great. The CG cutscenes awesome, some of the awe factor has been lost, but they are still quite creepy and unsettling. The music was pretty nice as well, very foreboding and mysterious during exploration, while a bit more upbeat during battles.

 Bottom line is: I loved Parasite Eve, it's a great game, with an original combat mechanic, a great story and memorable characters. I'm not sure if it's the right game for someone interested only in Survival Horror games, but as an RPG it's pretty unique as well, when was the last time you were a police officer exploring realistic buildings and environments on an RPG? Exactly.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #184: Rengoku 2 - The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N.

 Remember Rengoku? It's back, and it's better than ever!

 Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory had a great concept but a rather lackluster execution. True, I did have fun with it, but I feel it was the kind of game that would only appeal to a certain demographic. Rengoku 2 is a more polished game, and what Rengoku 1 could've been.

 As with the previous game, Rengoku is a Rogue-like, a genre in which you go through different, randomly generated rooms, and is usually a challenging game. This game seems to be a Sequel-dash-pseudo reboot of the first game, you play as an ADAM, an android that has developed a consciousness, and finds itself compelled to ascend through the tower he is in. The game could be a reboot or take place right after the first game took place, those who played that game will understand why either possibility is plausible. Regardless, this time around the story has received more backstory, further developing on the playable character and the eight different bosses, plus, a supporting cast found in the ADAM's memories. The story is fairly cliched, and I never found myself invested in it, but it's leagues above the first game's.

 As far as gameplay goes, it remains mostly the same. You go through randomly generated floors defeating other Androids, which may drop parts, which you can then equip on your chest and limbs for a total of five parts: Head, Chest, Left Arm, Right Arm and Legs. Each floor has a Terminal that is the only place where you can requip your ADAM, enhance it with Elixir Skin, which is dropped by enemies or obtained by recycling spare parts, and save your game. Dying in the game means dropping all your equipped weapons and dropping back to floor 1... but this time around, there are 8 different warps on the first floor, so you can simply jump right back to the floor you were in and attempt to retrieve your weaponry. As for new features, you can now switch between your different slotted weapons by tapping select and going into the weapons menu, and by pressing different limbs in succession you can use combos. Oh! And now there's four "challenge rooms" on each floor which you must clear in order to open up the Warp point to the floor's boss. Bosses are now much more varied and come in different shapes than before, plus, the game as a whole felt more challenging than the first. Lastly, the game now allows you to use the Analog stick for movement, which I yearned for during the first game... turns out the digital pad works much better for this game, go figure! Movement also feels a but looser, I found myself rolling and sidestepping accidentally more times than I could count, but it never cost me my life, still, a bit bothersome when trying to cross doors.

 As you trek through the first two floors you'll come across familiar weaponry, but as soon as you hit floor 3 you'll come across new weapons. In Rengoku's review I said that it had a ton of weapons... I was wrong, the quantity of weaponry in this game dwarfs the one found in the same game by a large margin, and there's all sort of new, fun weapons to try, like the Zero Shift, which teleports you right behind your enemy, Zone of the Enders 2 style! While the first game was very lifeless as far as floors went, this time around there's more interactive objects, accelerator pads, rising columns and more variety in the architecture. Beating the game unlocks H.E.A.V.E.N. a 100 floor monster dungeon that starts you with no weapons, and dropped weapons equip automatically, and once you deplete the ammo, they are gone for good. A much better post-game feature than having to replay the whole game, although it would've been nice to be able to save on any part of HEAVEN, since it is a portable game and all....

 Rengoku was not a good looking game, but Rengoku 2? It finally does the art direction justice, and the floors now offer different themes, unlike the rather monotonous first game. The music isn't as fast-paced as the first game's, this time they went for more somber tunes, but they work well enough.

 Rengoku 2 is the kind of game that makes the previous game obsolete. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from playing the first game that you can't get from playing this one. Basically the same story, but with better gameplay and better graphics.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Parasite Eve

 SO GOOD.

 Remember when Japanese heroines didn't need to get their clothes torn, or the camera through their legs to be cool? Parasite Eve 1 and 2 remember, before they sexualized the hell out of Aya Brea in PE 3, but sadly, that seems the only way Japan knows how to roll these days....

 But I digress, I had played PE 2 before, but not PE 1, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I love the game, I love how it looks, I love how it sounds, I love how it plays. The cut-scenes remain impressive to this day, managing to convey creepiness in a very convincing manner, the Rat-morphing transformation is so good it even left me a bit awe struck. The music? Hot damn. But the gameplay is amazing. It reminds me of Quest 64, a game that was panned by critics but which I adore, although I didn't get to use Parasite powers since I feared it could lock me out of the best ending, I seemed to remember something like that, but turns out I was wrong.

 I finished the first day, and I can't way to play the rest, so far, it's awesome. I kept thinking to myself "This is SO good. This is SO good." as I went through the theater and sewers, man, is this game good.

Review #183: Spectral VS Generation

 Yet another PSP fighter falls upon my lap.

 Spectral VS Generation is a 2D one on one fighting game featuring characters from both "Generation" and "Spectral" franchises... of which I'm unacquainted with either. Which also means I'm not invested on the franchises, so I'm looking at the game purely as a fighter and not as a form of fan service.

 There's no real backstory to the game, there's a 4 paragraph intro on the instruction booklet, but it's just fluff for the setting. Each character also has their own ending after finishing Arcade Mode, but I guess they only make sense if you are familiar with the cast. Regardless, as far as modes go, the game covers only the bare essentials: Arcade, VS(Com and Player), Survival and Training. The character roster is made up of 10 unique characters and 2 hidden alternate versions of other characters, while many would scoff at that number, as long as a fighter has at least 8 characters, I'm OK with it, plus, all 10 of them are very different from each other(Even if it seems like all of them have at least one Recca type move), the two secret alternate version also feature different moves, even if most of the animations are shared with their normal counterparts.

 One thing I really likes was how fast the game moves, there's dashing, air dashing and super jumps for movement, and you get four different attacks: Kick, Light, Medium and Heavy. It also has it's own mechanics: Chaos Breaking, by pressing Light and Medium attacks, which is a Guard Break move, but there's also Return Breaking, which is done when your guard is broken with a CB, in which you press Light and Medium attacks just after getting CB'd allowing you to recover from the guard break immediately, rounding up the normal techniques is Chaos Counter, done by pressing Heavy plus Kick, which is a counter move. Then there's Sword Devil Combination, done by pressing Medium plus Heavy, which pops your enemy up into the air, and then pressing a specific button combination unleashes a devastating flurry of attacks. Each character also has a specific special attack that can be turned into a Seal of Time, by pressing Light, Medium and Heavy at the same time during the attack, afterwards your enemy will be slowed down by a short period of time. Lastly, there's Aura Burst, you can set it to Auto or Manual, both have their advantages and disadvantages, for instance, Auto can only be done once per round, while manual gives you unlimited uses, as long as you have gauges, and grants you enhanced defense, guard breaking properties to your normals and maxes your energy gauge. That's a lot of mechanics for a game like this!

 It's pretty clear that the game wasn't shoddily put together, the game is fun to play, and it has a lot of nuances that make it fairly interesting... at a casual level. Y'see, the game can get pretty dang unbalanced, there's a ton of videos online showcasing the huge amount of infinites present in the game, so this is probably not the game to get if you aim to play at a high level. Plus, it was kinda forgotten by time, and it was only released on PS2 and PSP. Which is a shame, since the core gameplay is fairly good, pretty reminiscent of DarkStalkers, but with less monsters and more anime.

 The game is absolutely gorgeous, graphics are very bright and well animated. The style in which the sprites where drawn is very similar to DarkStalkers, something about the coloring and proportions, but the animation isn't quite as wild. All in all, very Capcom-ish, the stages could've used some more livening up, but the characters are great. Music is pretty good, I don't know if it comes from games in the franchise, but considering how good it is, it might as well be!

 This is usually the paragraph where I talk about how the PSP has much better Fighting game offerings... but in this case, I will suggest giving Spectral VS Generation a try. While it lacks modes, characters and better balancing... it also isn't yet another entry in an established IP, and seeing how few original fighting games have come out since the PS2 era... it's very refreshing. And as long as you don't get super competitive about it, the gameplay is rather good!
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Spectral VS Generation

 Name of the year.

 I decided to take a little break from Rengoku 2(It's really good by the by!), so I kinda pop'd this disc(Erm, UMD) into the PSP and gave it a whirl. It's pretty alright, it's kinda fast paced, which I liked, but doesn't even touch DarkStalkers 3 when it comes to Speed(But then again, I play on Turbo...). I didn't bring up DarkStalkers 3 just because, the style they used on the sprites is very DS3-like, very colorful characters, and the animation is pretty similar as well, but not as good.

 The gameplay is pretty fun, at least on a casual level, turns out the game is full of infinites and the such, which explains why this game had no competitive scene. Ah well, it's decent I guess, and the characters look alright-ish, they remind me of Asura's Buster on the Arcades, another Fighter that used similar sprites to the ones in DS 3.

Now Playing: Rengoku II - The Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N.

 Now THIS is a Sequel.

 Rengoku was way more fun than it deserved to be. Probably thanks to the novelty of customizing an android in crazy ways, the magnum on the head being one of the most iconic pieces(No wonder it's featured in both games' intros!). Rengoku 2 feels like a proper sequel. I just finished the first floor, and already I've seen more objects and more variety in the environments, pretty neat. So far, I've only found the same weapons from the same game... actually, Mars dropped a new weapon, but the game has received a total face lift, and it looks great.

 Another thing that got a face lift was the combat, now you can produce combos by tapping different buttons(Limbs) to attack, it's still not even close to Dynasty Warriors' combo level, but it's appreciated. The first boss, Mars, also featured a completely unique body frame, unlike the first game's bosses, which... I'm not sure how much I like. I mean, it's nice that they made bosses more unique, but something about enemies being JUST like ADAM was very interesting. Which reminds me, Mars was the first game's first boss, and he is back? The opening made it seem as if it continues right where the other game left off... which means that the cycle continues! Adam is taking part of another cycle, climbing the same tower again! Cheap? Yes. Lazy? Definitely. But it also has some kind of charm, maybe how it follows the first game's continuity? I dunno, it kinda makes sense.

 Honestly, Rengoku 2 feels great. I very much doubt the gameplay is gonna change during the course of the seven floors I've left, but it's already a superior game than the first one, even if it feels like a bit of a ... reboot, and since ADAM might be fighting through another cycle, it might as well be one. Rengoku 2 is what Rengoku 1 could've been.

Review #182: Rengoku - The Tower of Purgatory

 Why would you go the Ghosts and Goblins route? Whyyyy!?

 I love hack and slash games. I love Rogue-likes. I love dungeon crawlers. Rengoku is a game that mixes the three genres into a very curious game. It lacks ambition and polish, but it's actually kinda good.

 The Story is fairly weird, but you play as ADAM, a robot, that finds itself inside a Tower, and is compelled to climb to the top. On each floor Adam will meet another sentient robot and share some words, slowly exposing the game's narrative. It's not the most engaging or original of stories, it's not even the kind of story that moves you to push onward, and the dialogues are laughable, but for this kind of game, I think that's alright. Plus, the art direction is amazing, and every time you defeat a boss you unlock a ton of badass concept art, and this art is actually worth it. These androids are hybrids of weapons, such as guns or swords(Some had magnums out of their heads! Heck, some have CANNON HEADS. BADASS.) and some very demonic looking details, the art direction is truly awe inspiring.

 The core gameplay is fairly simple and disappointingly repetitive. You must visit each room of each floor at least once and defeat all the androids in each room. Once all rooms have been visited, a Warp Points opens up allowing you to tackle the next boss and so on for eight floors. All floors look basically the same, the only thing that changes are the colors. The rooms too have nothing distinctive about them, and you'll see many repeated shapes, probably due to the fact that floors are randomly generated on each playthrough. You can grind, if you so wish, by traveling around, as androids will occasionally respawn. There's no puzzles, no intricate level design with multiple floors or objects, just corridors and 4 by 4 rooms with up to three different enemies and sometimes boxes.

 And despite all that, the gameplay manages to pull the game forward. Y'see, you can customize Adam with different body parts(Left Arm, Right Arm, Head, Chest and Legs) and there's a ton of different weapons. You can have a Blade on your arm, a Saw on your head, a cannon on your other arm and a flame thrower on your chest. These weapons are loot, randomly dropped by fallen enemies, ingeniously, the parts they may drop are the parts they were using against you, these robots are just like you, and you grow stronger as you defeat them. The system is gets a lot more involved, you can have up to six slots on each body port, and you can equip as many weapons as you have slots, some weapons occupying a different amount of slots. Plus, you can't switch weapons, ADAM automatically goes to the next weapon after it runs out of ammo/energy, so there's strategy involved in how you want to set-up your setup. Even more interestingly, there's different types of damage(Heat/Quantum/Impact/Bullet and a few others), and using a type to defeat enemies makes it grow stronger, not to mention that you have to keep in mind that weapons over heat, and different weapons over heat at different rates, over heating a weapon means you have to wait until it cools down before you can use that weapon again. It's a very fun and engaging system, I had a blast coming up with a setup that suited my style and trying out new weapons.

 Enemy drops are random, but you can increase your chances by attacking them after they lose all their HP, called "Overkilling", it doesn't guarantee a drop, but it increases the chances, sometimes you might even get more than one drop! All enemies drop "Elixir Skin", and you can sell weapons at Terminals for more Elixir Skin, this currency is used to upgrade the various defensive capabilities of ADAM, as well as buying more weapon slots for your body parts. As fun as customizing ADAM is, the combat system is very simple, if at times sloppy. Movement is done with the digital pad, and you can lock on with the L button, the camera was never much of an issue, as you can set it behind ADAM by tapping the R button. Still, there's no real "combo" system, which makes the combat very plain. Still, the different weapons made is somewhat fun, just don't expect a deep action game. There's not much strategy involved either, I only had to switch my equipment to meet my needs on the last boss, otherwise I had no trouble just going with my custom setup.

 The game is a bit on the easy side, however, it is a bit punishing. On each floor there's a single Terminal, which is the only place where you can save your game, upgrade ADAM or customize him. It will also restore all your HP and ammo. As forgiving as that sounds, every time you enter a new room, all doors will lock, and you won't be able to go back, or forward, until every android has been killed, this is a non-issue if you decide to grind, as the next time you go through a room, you can justa void the androids and head straight for the doors. Regardless, if you die outside of a Boss room, you will lose all your equipped weapons and get dropped back to floor 1. This means that you have to return to the room in question if you want to retrieve your weapons, unless you die on your way, in which case they are gone for good. I was fine with this, except for the fact that you are dropped back to floor 1. You don't even have to explore the floors again, just hit the elevators, which is an annoyance since it's very time consuming due to the load times. They should've just started you back on the floor you died, since there's absolutely NO DANGER what so ever when going up through the floors, which is very puzzling as to why they did it... maybe, originally, they planned for the elevators to be outside the terminals? I don't know, but it's a very poor design choice. Speaking of poor design choices, the game lasts about three hours... but then you have to play the whole game again, just a bit harder, in order to fight the real last boss and earn the ending. I liked the game, but not THAT much.

 I'm gonna be blunt here, the graphics just aren't up to snuff. It's really cool how every equipment piece changes the character's appearance, but when you compare the in-game characters to the artwork, they are just so disappointing. After defeating a boss, and checking the concept art, you'll see just how little resemblance the in-game models have to the fantastic artwork. Plus, the corridors all look the same, with nothing remarkable about them. This is not a good looking game. The soundtrack offers very simple beats, but at least they are very fitting, it's loud, it fits this post-apocalyptic world of fighting robots.

 I had more fun with Rengoku than I should have, the game is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Unpolished combat, bland and repetitive level design, questionable design choices... but the concept behind the game the game shows promise, hopefully Rengoku 2 can do more with it. Rengoku is fun, just nothing worth writing home about.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Rengoku - The Tower of Purgatory

 It's good. GOOOOOD.

 I love me some Rogue-like games every now and then, and for some reason I was drawn towards Rengoku. For some reason, since I don't really like games where you play as robots. Or animals. Or non-human looking things. But something about it, maybe the fact that this androids look more like demons? I dunno, but something about it made me gravitate towards it.... And after I purchased both Rengoku and Rengoku 2, I learned that both had received a rather... lukewarm reception.

 But fret not, I just defeated the second boss and I'm loving the game. I love the weapons, I love how your character looks, I love equipping different weapons and trying them out, I love having the ability to set-up back weaponry for when my ammo/energy runs out. I am enjoying this game, a lot. I was about to start Parasite Eve 1 actually, but I opted for this one on a whim, and I am most definitely not disappointed.