Archile's Grab-bag: Xrd Edition

  As I usually say... ' I don't often do these for this kind of small packages but...' Xrd is a game I've been looking forward for a while now, so it deserves one of these.

  Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja 4: I stopped liking Naruto after about... the Pain Saga, in my opinion it got worse and worse and worse, the Ninja War was particularly bad. That said, back when it had finished I was hyped, I get hyped very easily, and I kinda bought this. Right now, said hype is gone so I'm left wondering.... Why did I ever care about this?

 Guilty Gear Xrd - Sign: My first foray into the GG series was with X on the PC. The first time I had heard about it was on ads on Xpert Gamer and Gamepro Magazines. Thing is, I was sold on the art style of both games, and when I tried playing X on my PC... the sprites would flicker, if not outright disappear. My PC wasn't good enough, so X was one of the major reasons I upgraded my PC. I spent countless hours on the series, I would later continue onto the XX series on the PS2, and eventually went back to Guilty Gear on the PSOne. Needless to say, Guilty Gear is a fighting game franchise I'm very fond of, and this game is one I've been looking for ever since I heard about it. Sure, they ruined Ky, they added characters that look straight out of Blazblue( Ephelt? The naked last-boss chick? Really? I don't want Blazblue on my Guilty Gear, Blazblue is a terrible fan-service driven series(At least the gameplay is ace) but the gameplay seems pure Guilty Gear. And it looks, visually, amazingn.

Review #202: Retro Game Challenge

 This one's a real charmer!

 Y'know about the fantastic Game Center CX, right? Y'don't? You are missing out. It's a video-game themed show starring comedian Arino as he is challenged with beating certain games, sometimes under certain conditions, it's also filled with visits to Arcades, game developers and with interviews to said devs. It's a pretty funny show. For some reason, someone thought it'd be a good idea to make a game out of it. Whoever that guy is, give'im a medal.

 In this game Arino is the bad guy and the sidekick. At the same time. Arino's role as the villain has him becoming the 'Game Master', a disembodied head that takes you back in time to 1985 and tasks you with fulfilling certain challenges on certain games. However, the place in 1985 to where you are taken to is kid Arino's home, and him being a good sport, lets you play his videogames. As you clear the four challenges per game, the story moves forward by months of years until a 'new game' gets released, it's a pretty neat set-up.

  The game really goes out of its way to sell you on its premise. For instance, every time you press 'continue' on the main menu, you'll be taken to Arino's room, where you'll see both your avatar and Arino slowly walk in front of the Famicon look-alike and sit down to play. As the in-game time moves forward, by clearing challenges, issues of the videogame magazine 'GameFan' get released, and Arino being a nice kid, lets you read them. These issues contain 'fake' interviews to 'fake' game developers, 'fake' previews and reviews of games, notes from the 'fake' editors and even cheats for the games in the game! Not only that, each game has a 'fake' cartridge mock-up, alongside a 'fake' instruction booklet. It's a very charming game. Furthermore, whenever you play a game, it's played on the DS's top screen, while you see both Arino and your Avatar play below, with Arino egging you on as you play. You can also press R+X at any time to 'look below', allowing you to look up on the magazines, or on the in-game note pad for cheats or tips on how to get through a certain part. It's these little details and small touches that really sell you on the game.

 The game selection tries to ape other popular games. There's:

 Cosmic Gate: A Galaga/Space Invaders homage, it's pretty fun. Has 64 stages, but there are numerous warps to jump around faster.

 Haggle Man 1 & 2: In Haggle Man you play as a Ninja Robot that must stomp on every enemy of each stage to clear it. You can go inside doors to flip them, and every door of the same color as the one you went in will flip alongside you, killing every enemy that's standing in front of them. Haggle Man 2 is the same game, but more refined, enemies are harder, stages are larger and other tweaks. Both of them are pretty good. Haggle Man has 8 stages and Haggle Man 2 has 9... but you must go through each game twice in order to 'complete' them, in the same vein as games like Ghost and Goblins which would make you play through the game again, this time harder, in order to attain the true ending. Cheap!

 Rally King & Rally King SP: Top Down racers, I didn't like them very much. Making the car turn feels pretty stiff, luckily there are cheats to make the other racers disappear and make yourself invulnerable! Both of them have 4 tracks. Rally King SP is based on the many 'promotional' Famicom re-releases that would slightly tweak the game, often times for promotional purposes. Easily the worst games of the bunch.

 Star Prince: A vertical shooter, it's pretty fun. There's many different weapons that you can outfit you ship with, and later down the road, Arino gets a 'turbo controller', letting you use Y to rapid fire. It has four stages, but just like Haggle-Man, you must go through it twice in order to 'complete' it.

 Guadia Quest: A bite-sized RPG styled after Dragon Quest. You play as three characters, that must save the kingdom. It has a little gimmick in the form of Guadias, monsters that you can recruit to aid your heros. Probably among my favorites, it tries a bit too hard to be like RPGs of olde... which means a lot of grinding is involved, even Game Master Arino mentions it. Even the damned magazines lampoons it!

 Haggle Man 3: A Ninja Gaiden-meets-Metroidvania game. It's the best of the bunch. It probably plays on the 'darker and edgier' trope, as the cutesy Haggle Man characters have been badassified, and the gameplay is much better. Sadly, it's only three stages long, but they are pretty lengthy, and at times a bit labyrinthic. It also has grinding in the form of nuts, the game main's currency, since the mandatory items that you need to advance must be bought.

 It's a pretty decent game selection, with a little bit of everything. You've your shooters, your racer, and RPG and some platforming for good measure, it's everything 80s! The game progresses in a very linear manner, Game Master Arino will send out the challenges one by one... which can be a bit annoying, as you have to start from scratch(Except in Guadia Quest, one of the only two games that allow saving.) each time, even if you could've cleared the new challenge on your previous run through the game. It's specially annoying in the Haggle Man 3 challenges, since the levels are kinda long, and having your progress deleted is a bit annoying(Haggle Man 3 only saves when you clear a stage). There's four challenges per game, and after you finish the last one, Haggle Man 3, Arino challenges to beat all 8 games... but you can use cheats to aid you. Besides Story Mode, there's also Free Play, which does away with Kid Arino's shouts, and the progress in the games in these mode is kept separate from Story Mode, plus it keeps track of more minutiae, like how many times you pressed A or B buttons!

 The game tries to emulate NES/Famicom games, so naturally it doesn't really look as good as it could. That said, it looks better than any NES/Famicom game of the era, thanks to the wider variety of colors available and smoother animations, plus, no flickering! The music is not particularly memorable, but it fits each game pretty well.

 Retro Game Challenge is a real gem of a game. It has an original premise, a huge amount of charm a and the execution is top-notch, at times a bit too good, there was no need to emulate the tedious grinding a lot of NES demanded! Sadly, it didn't do too well over here, which made Game Center CX2 a Japan exclusive. Woe is us.
 8.5 out of 10.

Now Playing: Mega Man X - Command Mission

 It's pretty dope!

 On my way through Chapter 2, and the game is pretty good. 'But duuude, what 'bout the Mega Man-athon?', well, 'dude', I'm gonna marathon the Sidescrollers, this is an RPG, plus, this game is a bit hard to place in the Mega Man timeline, taking into account X's redesign, it probably takes place after X8 but before the Elf Wars. Speaking of the redesign, X looks badass. The new enemy Robot Masters look badass as well, it makes me wish we could've gotten a sprite of this new X, as in having a Mega Man X9 with this sprite or something. And how cool would've been if Axl and Zero got the badassification as well?

 Still, I like the mechanics, I like customizing each character with Force Metals, the Hyper Modes, the Unique special attacks and the side-arms mechanics. The Encounter Rate seems a bit... random, sometimes you'll get a Random Encounter seconds after the last one, yet at times it can take a while. One thing I'm really digging is that Status Effects appear pretty early in the game. I played, what, 2 hours? And enemies are already attacking X, who is my only party member at the moment, with Poison and Blind! It's cool little RPG, I like it.

Month Overview: January 2015

 Games finished in January 2015:
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst      8.0
Guilty Gear Judgment                                                       8.0
Power Stone Collection                                                     8.0
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution       7.0
LocoRoco                                                                          7.0 
Patapon                                                                             N/A
Super Mario 3D Land                                                        8.5
Lunar - Silver Star Harmony                                             8.5
Evolution Worlds                                                              3.5
All Kamen Rider Generation 2                                          7.5
Bit.Trip Complete                                                               7.0



 It was a decent month, mostly games I liked or had fun with. Evolution was a total letdown! I had been aching to play it for so long... And finally, finally I can say that I finished Lunar - Silver Star properly, a game I started over 5 times on the PS1, heh! AND KAMEN RIDER GENERATION 2 WAS BADASS. BADASS. For some reason, I also played... rhythm games, and Patapon totally broke me, I had never felt so defeated before, not in recent memory anyways. I might, MIGHT give it another go later down the road, something about leaving a game unfinished doesn't sit well with me.


 Game of January 2015:

 This game is an improvement on almost every front of the PS1 version... yet I found myself wanting to play the PS1 version again. It's quite obviously nostalgia, but... I can't fight it. Still, Lunar 1 was a fairly solid RPG, but Lunar 2 will forever be number one in my heart, I just liked the cast a whole lot more. But then again, Dragon Master Alex is badass.

 Runner-up:

 I loved All Kamen Rider Generation 2. I wanted to give it an 8.5, but the game just isn't deep enough.... it's hard to explain, I loved the game, but I know that it's far from being a great beat'em up. Still, it's my blog, so I should be able to do whatever I want.... Ah, whatever. I kept playing this game long after I finished it, and I still find myself longing to play it again right now. It's just so much fun, you get so many riders, even if at their core they all play the same, and having an ally rider of your choice alongside you.... I dunno, I just love this game.

Review #201: Bit.Trip Complete

 Run, Forrest, run!

 The Bit.Trip series is often regarded as one of WiiWare's premiere titles, it's made up of six very different games(Except one of them), but all of them follow a storyline and are developed around chiptune music. Yes, Music, you might even consider them rhythm games and you wouldn't be too far off. But that's not everything that these games are, these are arcadey games through and through, with a very minimalist aesthetic and a difficulty curve that harkens to the NES era.

 'Complete' is a physical rerelease of all six games bundled in one disc. This isn't just a compilation, it also includes a bevy of unlockables, art, letters(That basically explain the story behind each game and how it ties up to the gameplay and music, very cool.), videos and music. Speaking of music, packaged alongside each copy is a disc with the soundtrack. Futhermore, now there are three difficulty settings per game, which makes most games more lenient without turning them into a cakewalk, and 20 tough-as-nails challenges for each of the six games.

 All six games share a couple of mechanics between each other. For instance, every game but Runner and Fate feature 'levels', scoring points will make you go up a level, while missing beats will make you lose points. The higher you go, the more hectic the visuals will get, and the better the music will get(which is a huge motivator to do well, since the music is pretty dang amazing), which, at least in my case, made it harder to discern the next patterns... which is, probably, while going into the lowest level, Nether, makes everything go black and white, allowing you to get a better focus in order to avoid a game over. And avoid a game over you'll want, only one game has checkpoints, die in any other game and it's back to the beginning of the stage, and stages are particularly long, to make up for their scant quantity(Usually 3). One little thing I enjoyed was that a lot of bosses are throwbacks to other games, like Arkanoid, Missile Command or even Pacman!

 As previously mentioned, the games have a very minimalist aesthetic. Every game but Runner and Fate have a very simple look, using simple geometrical shapes made up of very few pixels, not unlike something you'd find on an Atari, but more colorful, with fancier, but not by much, backgrounds. Runner and Fate have more complex forms involved, and use way more colors. The music is excellent in every single game, with various simple themes to convey the story each game wants to tell. The way the beats of the music are tied to the gameplay is very pleasing, makes you want to do good in the games to get the most of it!.

 Bit.Trip Beat: The first game, you control a paddle on the left side of the screen, and your object is to bounce off the oncoming bits. This game is played with motion controls, something I wasn't particularly fond of, but I managed to find a somewhat precise way of holding the Wiimote by using my fingers. This is probably one of my favorites... and, in my opinion, the hardest game of the bunch, still, it's incredibly addicting and oftentimes hypnotic! There's three very long stages, and bit patterns eventually get devilishly hard. Can be played with up to four players, but the paddles start getting shorter, two players is just the right amount of players if you want to have an easier time!

 Bit.Trip Core: This time around you shoot beams. Using the directional pad you can choose to shoot a beam up, down, left or right, and try to hit the bits as they move onto the beam sweet spots. It was fairly fun and challenging, while the gameplay is completely different, it's still similar to Beat's.

 Bit.Trip Void: In this one you play as a black circle, moving around with the analog stick, you must collect the black bits and avoid the white ones. Collecting beats makes you grow bigger, but you can press the A button to collect your points and shrink back. Why wouldn't you shrink all the time? Because the bigger you get, the more points you'll get, so you'll want to put off shrinking as much as you can, since touching a white beat will not only get you closer yo going down a level, but will revert you back to your original size and you'll lose the points you had amassed! Supposedly this game had checkpoints, but they didn't work for me, every time I'd use a continue I'd still start back at the first segment of the stage I was playing.

 Bit.Trip Runner: Easily the most complex game, both in looks and in gameplay. It plays like the endless runners you'd find in many App games, that the screen scrolls automatically to the right and the only thing you have to do is jump. Except that in this game you must also Slide, block or even kick different obstacles while trying to collect gold pieces. This game is way longer than the others, but the three stages are divided in 12 sections(Thank god!). This game is almost as hard as beat... but not as satisfying. I mean, the first two worlds are excellent, I must've retried the first boss over fifteen times and I wouldn't give up because of how much fun I was having. But the last two stages of Level 3? They felt cheap and I just started getting frustrated and annoying, they were just hard and cheap without being fun. Still, it's only two sections in 36, and that's not counting the secret levels! One of the best games in the series. There's no 'levels' in this one, if you touch any one obstacle is back to the beginning of the segment!

 Bit.Trip Fate: The bleakest game in the series, it's also the easiest and the least fun. This time around, it's a sort of on-rails shooter. The stage scrolls automatically, very slowly, but you are free to move over a 'wave'. It's an... interesting mechanic, you are free to dodge, while restricted to the wave. You shoot by aiming with the Wiimote and pressing the A button. There's 6 levels in this one, but they are fairly short.

 Bit.Trip Flux: The series had reinvented itself four times already, what would it do for the last installment? Fittingly, it closes the circle by being just like Beat, but this time around the paddle is on the right side of the screen. There are other differences, there's new Round bits, or Avoid Bits that you must, well, avoid, and all bits are white in color this time around. Oh, and there's checkpoints, which make it much more accessible than Beat, which is not to say that it's easy, some patterns are waaay harder than Beat, but the checkpoints make it more tolerable.

 While I love Arcadey games, these certainly aren't my type of games. That said, the Bit.Trip games were a fun little adventure that took me through Commander Video's life. Sadly, the high difficulty and the retro aesthetic makes it a bit hard to recommend to most people, but if you are even slightly interested in the premise, it's worth a look, just be prepared for a challenge. And do totally delve into the unlockable 'Letters', the backstory behind each entry is too engrossing to pass out on!
 7.0 out of 10.

Review #200: All Kamen Rider Generation 2

 HENSHIN!

 It's been almost three years since I played and finished All Kamen Rider Generation on the DS, time sure does fly by! AKRG2 was released simultaneously on both the DS and the PSP, but for reasons known only to me, I opted for the PSP version. One would think that the DS version, being the lead platform, would be the superior version, but you'd be surprised.

 The game has a story. But it's also in Japanese, so I've no idea what it's all about, but hey, over 57 Kamen Riders get united in one game to kick butt, do you really need to know why? The game is divided into 6 Worlds, with 5 to 7 stages each, and an unlockable 'Another' world with about 10 more stages. It sounds like a lot, but stages are pretty short, I finished the initial 6 worlds in 3 hours, but clearing the 'Another World' lengthens the game, even if there's nothing new to see. Still, for this type of game, the length is alright, it ends just before it gets boring. Each stage can also be replayed on 5 different difficulty settings for added replayability. Just as with the previous game, each stage has a mission, but this time around character unlocks aren't tied to the fulfillment of these, so if you can't read Japanese(Or find a translation), it's no biggie. The previous game had some run 'n jump stages that scrolled to right automatically, which have been removed... mostly. For some reason, there's only two of these in the entire game, which makes you wonder why even bother? They aren't very fun anyways.

 All 28 Riders from the last game are back, and each one has at least one new attack. There's 29 new characters for a total of 57. The core of the game remains the same, you, alongside a partner Rider of your choice, go through each stage killing every single enemy that stands in your way. There's a new mechanic, which I like to call jump cancel, by jumping mid-combo your Rider will dash forward, allowing you to start your attack chain anew, it's fairly simple, but it's fun to execute. It's a fairly brainless, uncomplicated game, every character plays basically the same, but there's so many of them, and it's so much fun to play as your favorite Riders! 

While I appreciate how they blended the different forms of each Rider on their special attacks, I wish every Rider got the same treatment as the then-new Riders. OOO, W and Fourze have complete form changes, with new weak combos and entirely different special attacks, as a matter of fact, Fourze can customize his four special moves from a rather wide variety of options.

 I though All Kamen Rider Generation was gorgeous. I was wrong. The game looks a hundred times better on the PSP, the sprites look much crisper and better defined, while the backgrounds are smoother. The difference is almost like night and day. Almost. While the DS version suffers from slowdown every now and then, there's none to be found on the PSP. The DS does have its advantages, however, since the PSP is a disc-based console... there are load times. Engaging in the 'form change' menu for OOO, W or Fourze will make you go through two loading screens, they last 3 seconds at most, but they can get a bit annoying. Using Super Moves also requires going through two loading screens, problems that the DS version does not have. It's not a deal breaker, but it's something to keep in mind.

 Graphics in the game are amazing. The 3D backgrounds are rather bland, but a huge step up from the barren stages from AKRG 1, but where the game really shines is in the characters. Sprites are very well animated, and look amazing in motion. You get to look at your favorite Riders, fighting recognizable enemies in glorious 2D. And on the PSP, it looks phenomenal. The music isn't anything special, but for a licensed game like this, it's alright, but would it have killed them to include music from the shows? Voice Acting is done by different actors than those from the shows, which is a tad disappointing, and for some reason, they don't sound very good.

 While the gameplay received mostly small tweaks, it still feels like a better game than its predecessor. More moves on each character, the new jump-cancel mechanic makes creating combos a possibility, more stages and more appealing backgrounds, and over 50 characters. It kinda makes the old game obsolete. Still, what you see is what you get, this is a beat'em up, if you don't like the genre, you'd better look elsewhere.

 7.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Bit.Trip Complete & All Kamen Rider Generations 2

 It's... it's different.

 Let it not be said that I abandoned the Wii! After cementing what I already knew with Patapon, that I've no rhythm nor can I keep a beat, here I am playing a Rhythm game! I hate myself. It's hard to say how I feel about it, I just beat 'Beat', after countless retries. There's something hypnotic about it, once you get in the 'zone' and your arms begin reacting by themselves. I like it. What I could've done without were the motion controls, but oh well.

 I liked All Kamen Rider Generations 1, it was simple to a fault, and while every Kamen Rider was basically the same, there were loads of characters. Now there are even more, and I can already see new animations in Kamen Rider Knight. Oh! And the older characters? Everyone got at least one new move, which is kinda neat, but the characters work more or less the same. BUT WHO CARES, THERE'S MORE RIDERS! I played the last one on the DS, but I jumped ship on this one, the good? Sprites and backgrounds look much sharper, and I haven't come across any slowdown whatsoever. What's not so good? Load times. Characters with menu-based forms, like OOO and W, bring up loading screens during gameplay. Heck, even engaging in Super Moves brings up a loading screen. And while the music sounds pretty good, the voice samples sound terrible.
Sadly, as much as I'm loving the new characters(KAMEN RIDER KNIGHT! SHADOW MOON(Eventually), IXA!!!!!), and the new moves(KIVA'S THREE KICK COMBO IS BADASS), it feels just like the first one, heck, the stages feel the same. In a way, it feels more like an expansion than a sequel, but then again, I only finished the first World.