Review #276: Batman Arkham Origins - Blackgate

 Whoops.

 The Arkham games have been great examples of how to bring Metroidvania games into the 3D realm, and after the phenomenal Arkham City, Warner knew that they had a goldmine on their hands, so they did anything a videogame company would do: Milk the hell out of it. While Home Console players got a half-baked 'Arkham Origins' game, on which Warner decided to focus on the DLC instead of the game-breaking bugs, and Handheld Console gamers got Blackgate, a 2-5D metroidvania not unlike Metroid itself.

 Blackgate takes place after Arkham Origins, after frustrating Catwoman's theft, Batman goes to the Blackgate penitentiary to foil a criminal take over. The Penguin, The Joker and Black Mask have taken over different sections of Blackgate, aided only by Catwoman, on a informer's role, it's up to Batman to rescue the hostages and catch the baddies. Again, It's a simple, straightforward story, with a few surprising appearances from other villain from the Batman mythos. For a handheld spin-off, it gets the job done. At least it doesn't pretend to have a rookie Batman take on the likes of Deathstroke and Lady Shiva, y'know, two characters that have defeated an experienced Batman, on a SINGLE night. And win. Still, the best part about the story is how they never explain just what the hell are Waynetech boxes doing in Blackgate, much less just why the hell do they contain 'Bat' items, like the Batclaw. The story is told through 2-D animated stills... and they are incredibly blurry and pixelated, symptoms of bad compression. And the art is very inconsistent. ranging from bad to, surprisingly, really good, it depends on the scene really.

 The game plays on a 2-D plane, although, occasionally, you get to move onto the foreground, plus, some roads twist and bend, which I felt was a neat twist on the strictly 2-D Metroidvanias. And the bottom screen houses the map, which is a godsend for Metroidvania games... if only the map was any good. Areas can have dozens of vents, or twists and bends, but the map doesn't make it very clear at all, so you'll have to rely on your memory as well. It took me little over 7:00 to get absolutely everything, and there's a ton of secrets to find, which is nice, although most of the collectibles unlock concept art. As for these collectibles, they come in two flavors: Cases and Waynetech boxes. Cases are actually Detective Cases, you must find, and examine, different objects to complete them, as for the Waynetech boxes they contain upgrades to your combat capabilities or Batsuit pieces. There's about 5 different Batsuits, and instead of being merely cosmetic, they grant you different abilities. You start with 1 of them, you can unlock another by finding its five pieces(Curiously, the one that grants you invincibility!), as for the other three, you can find four pieces of each, but which one you complete, and earn, on your playthrough depends on which villain you take out last!

 Now then, as with any Metroidvania, there's gonna be a lot of backtracking, but as you advance through the game you'll earn new gadgets that allow you access to previously inaccessible areas. Once you get the Explosive Gel you'll be able to destroy fragile walls, and once you get its upgrade, the sticky gel, you'll be able to deactivate certain mechanisms, just to name an example. And that's fine, that's the nature of the genre. And a nice little touch, is a that depending on which villain you take out last, certain events near the end of the game will change... not that it matters, since the three variations amount to an scavenge hunt throughout the game's 5 areas. Which is a drag, although at least the game tells you where to go, not that it makes it any less tedious. It's one thing to backtrack out of your own volition, searching for power ups or unlockables, that's actually fun, but when the game forces you to backtrack, just because, it gets really annoying. Oh, and be careful, try to tackle the Penguin first, at least play his area until you are forced to get into the lighthouse, as I've read about a common gamebreaking glitch that sometimes triggers if you do BlackMask and/or the Joker first. But I did ran across a glitch that made it so that I couldn't use the Batclaw to pull vents, forcing me to reload checkpoints or exit and re-enter an area to fix it. I also read about some rooms not loading properly, albeit I didn't run across it.... Yes, you could say that this game is a bit buggy.

 As for the combat, they tried to bring Arkham's trademark free-flowing combat, but it doesn't work quite as well. Sometimes, Batman's attack range seems a bit inconsistent, he may just punch the air even if you were aiming at an standing enemy. And the counters didn't seem to register properly, so I just started mashing it, and it worked fine. And I don't know if it was just me, but I had a hard time with the game's three major bosses(The Penguin, The Joker and Blackmask), I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to resort to guides for The Penguin and The Joker, since I didn't know just what the hell I was doing wrong, and, in my opinion, the game could've given out more hints on just what the hell you had to do. Pro tip: Even though the Joker will dodge your kicks if you try to zip-line against him, you have to dodge his attacks just before he hits you, with the zip-line, and the use it again, because for whatever reason he won't dodge the kick now. As for The Penguin, you can actually use the Batclaw to defeat his henchmen.

 Batman Arkham Origins - Blackgate is a very, very flawed game, but I had fun playing it. As a matter of fact, I kinda binged almost four hours straight until I finished it. I think the fact that I love Metroidvanias had a lot to do with it And in turn, since the game plays, on a 2-D plane, it's far closer to Metroid than its big brother on Home Consoles. Fans of the Arkham series are not necessarily gonna enjoy this one, but Metroidvania fans just might find something to occupy their time with.
 5.5 out of 10

Archile's Grab Bag - We are halfway there Edition

 

 A new package must be opened, because opening packages is fun.

 Resident Evil - Code Veronica X: Back when I was younger, this was the Resident Evil I got the closest to finishing. I got to play as Chris 'n everything. I'm still not a fan of the genre, but I had to take it for a ride.

 Chrono Trigger: I've been meaning to buy Chrono Trigger for a while now, the game's reputation speaks for itself. It's funny when people complain about the retranslation, since this one is closer to the Japanese script than the Wooley-fied SNES original.

 Spy Fiction: A game made by Swery 65? I gotta get in on it. The game looks like a Metal Gear Solid 2 knock off, but as long as it has Swery 65's flavor, I'll let it go.

 Rogue Galaxy: While I've never been particularly interested in this one, I ached to play some RPGS I hadn't played before, and this one sprung to mind. And after looking at some gameplay, this one might be really good.

 Final Fantasy Anthology: I couldn't care less about Final Fantasy V, but I've been meaning to own some sort of copy of Final Fantasy VI, so this one seemed right up my alley. Even when I was huge on Final Fantasy, when I discovered the SNES classic and during the era of fan translations, which was the only way to play FF V in English at the time, FF V never caught my eye. But Final Fantasy VI? This game was amazing, when I was younger, often times I would rank it up with 7.

 Chocobo Racing: 'Not huge on racing games' yadda yadda. Chocobo Racing has always piqued my curiosity, back in the day, I'd see ads on magazines for it, so I've always wanted to play it. Later I would discover that you can actually play as Squall and Cloud! Ah well, looks like a Mario Kart 64 clone.

Now Playing: Batman Arkham Origins - Blackgate

 A bit of a mess isn't it?

 So I've been doing steady progress in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and am now busy farming the Lagiacrus for the full set, and fearing that I may get tired of it, I decided I'm gonna take another game with me on vacations, but since I'm fairly impatient... I started it now, you know, took it for a test drive.

 And... It's alrightish but buggy and very very flawed. Countering doesn't seem as responsive as it is on the big consoles, nothing that mashing the X button doesn't fix, and Batman's range is fairly inconsistent, he may fly towards an enemy with a kick or... just punch the air. And then there's the glitches, the Batclaw sometimes will fail to work properly, so you have to either exit-and reenter the area, or in some cases, like Penguin's getaway or the area where you find the Batclaw itself, reload the entire checkpoint.

 What I liked:
- The same combat from the console games.
- 2-5D Metroivania, baby!
- Tons of stuff to find.

What I didn't like:
- Some of the collectibles are a bit of a pain in the butt, you have to use detective mode and scavenge the area with the left analog stick. Basically, every time the camera angle changes, I force myself to do it, since OCD and all that fun stuff.
- Countering attacks feels unresponsive, Batman's attack range is inconsistent.
- Annoying bugs.
- Low quality cinematics. Alright, you are gonna use 2D art, fine, I can roll with it. But the art is fairly inconsistent, sometimes it looks good, others... not so much. But the real kicker is how badly compressed this cinematics are! They are very pixelated and blurry, feels like I'm watching Ps1 cinematics, goddamn!
- What the hell are Waynetech stashes doing in Blackgate Prison? And why the hell do they contain the precise gadgets that Batman needs? Like, seriously.

The Worst Youtuber: DarksydePhil

 So I was itching to write something, anything, so... why not write about DSP, a youtuber that I dislike the more I hear about him. So, where to start?

 Bullshit thrown his way

 Before I get into what makes him such an awful, awful person and Youtuber, I might as well start with some of the crap people give him, unjustly(unbelievably) so. So, a lot of people rag on him for being bad at games, or even blaming them for his own mistakes. So what? How does sucking at games, or getting angry at them make him a terrible person? They don't. It's not rare to find comments like 'You ruined 'X game', kill yourself' and the such. It's funny, because a ton of people give him crap for saying stuff like that to his critics, yet they say the same shit back to him. Hypocrites much? There're plenty of  people arguing with some of the 'critics', and they get downright insulted for thinking differently. Case in point:

 If you are gonna call out Phil for not being able to take criticism or what have you, ya better not do it as well. If you are gonna call out Phil for being an asshole, you'd better not be one yourself.

 Then there are the people that assume that just because Phil laughs at people, in a videogame, dying, he is an asshole. It's just a videogame. If you play GTA and start killing grannies(Them GTA III old ladies!) and laughing about it, does that make you a psycho? A potential murderer? Phil's humor is terrible, true enough, but implying that because he makes light of a situation, in a videogame, means he'd be the same in real life is just flimsy.

 And that's about the only things one can defend Phil about. But what makes him so terrible? Well...

 He's a self-centered lying hypocrite. Where to start... How about his infamous 'Five Nights at Freddy's' playthrough, which he ended saying 'This game is terrible, don't be sheep, listen to me and don't be sheep', which I paraphrased a bit, but I assure you that was his message. Basically, if you like a popular game, for whatever reason, you're wrong, you are a sheep that fell for the hype. So you should listen to Phil, he knows better! There're more instances of this self-centered righteousness of his', like the whole Earthbound/Minecraft debacle. 'People just can't appreciate good games anymore', because they'd rather watch Minecraft than watch Earthbound. Maybe people would rather play Earthbound themselves? And remember when Nintendo started taking a cut from playthroughs? Suddenly he was the voice of the people, something that only affected Let's Players, and not 'the common gamer', as he likes to call himself, but you should listen to Phil and avoid Nintendo!

 As for the hypocrisy, no better example than his whole rant against advance copies. But the second he learns that he can get in on it, he starts putting excuses like 'this is not and ideal world so I can campaign for what's right' and 'I did it to save the business'. What? Please, DSP, you were salty that you thought you couldn't get advance copies and get early views. But one of his most disgusting displays of hypocrisy came with Injustice: Gods Among Us(Great game, by the by), when he came upon a player with over 1000 matches and started calling him a no-life loser. DSP, please remind everyone what your 'job' is. When he was later questioned about it, instead of saying that he was sorry, he tried to explain why it was OK for him to be an ass.

 As for the lying, there's a very funny 'episode'... DSP called out his ex-friends John Rambo and Howard, how if you have a problem with somebody you should be a man about it and tell it to their faces... Well, this exploded on his face. Rambo and Howard, out of respect, cut all ties with DSP since he was, honestly, a lying douchebag and an all-around crappy friend, but spoke no ill of him... until DSP had to make that video calling them out. And they answered. Over an hour long podcast calling out DSP on his greedy, lying douchebaggery. And you could argue that it's word against word, but everything that John and Howard said is on point with what we know about Phil. How he'll often say things and then say that he didn't mean it, how it was 'in the heat of the moment', like that time he said an interviewer said something he did not, and when it was discovered, Phil excused himself. Pf.

 Other Youtubers/Streamers. Easily one of the things that bother me about Phil the most, he's often said how he 'doesn't watch other Youtubers/Streamers'. Yet every. Single. Chance. He. Gets. He'll compare himself to 'Other Youtubers/Streamers'. And always in a possible light. 'I don't want to be like other Youtubers that constantly beg for donations and subscriptions'. Which is funny, because, and I'll admit that I'm not huge on watching stream or Let's Plays, DSP is the ONLY Streamer/Youtuber I know that speaks so much about views. How X playthrough didn't get enough views, how the views on a playthrough dropped, etc, etc. DSP is the only Youtuber/Streamer I know that can't help himself but speak about 'Views'. And the cherry on top? Recently he made himself a Patreon, so he is constantly, constantly suggesting his viewers to donate, 'as little as a dollar per month', 'if all my fans gave me just a dollar', 'even a dollar helps'. Most Youtubers I follow, IF they mention Patreon outside the video description, will either make a single video talking about their Patreon or mention it AFTER the video ended. Not DSP, every pre-stream(Which translates into many Youtube videos) he has to remind everyone about his patreon. And how he could really use 'a dallah'. He constantly reminds everyone how it's the other Youtubers/Streamers that beg for subs and donations, but DSP is the only one I know that does it. Disgusting. And don't even let me get into his numerous guilt trips. I'm willing to entertain the idea that he doesn't realize that he does it, but there's at least a couple of instances where he mentioned how 'before fans would talk about my playthroughs and tell other people about them', y'know, when 'views were higher'.

 And speaking of how he compares himself with 'Other Youtubers/Streamers', he loves to mention how they are all entertainers, while DSP wants to be the 'common gamer' and 'maximum truth'. That's fine, but then why the hell does he play a character, as he claims, on his playthroughs? Supposedly all his rage and anger are just to entertain. Well, then you are giving the wrong impression about a game, what, the controls don't work since 'there was nothing I could do!', 'I DIDN'T PRESS ANYTHING', etc? You can't have it both ways, you silly ass. Playing a character is part of 'being an entertainer', as he likes to call the 'other Youtubers/Streamers'.

 His Humor. All right, so this is pretty subjective, but seeing the amount of hate that he gets, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who finds him completely unfunny. His humor consists on burping in front of the microphone, classy. Or making crude remarks about every single female character that appears on screen 'look at them titties' or stuff of the same ilk. It's not funny. He is a grown man using teenage-like humor and failing at it.

 Basically, DSP is not a nice guy and he deserves almost all the hate that he gets. Some of the 'haters' go a bit too far, like trolling him on his streams and what have you, but make no mistake, DSP is not a guy you want to root for.

Now Playing: Earth Defense Force 2025

EDF! EDF! EDF!

 So, Earth Defense Force USA was my introduction to the series, and it turns out fans consider it a 'bad EDF game'. Well, I just started this game on co-op, and what can I say, I think I liked the other one a teeny bit more.

 So, I'm playing the Fencer, I would've gone with the flying class, like I did in the other game, but I think the class looks ridiculous in this one, so I opted for the badass guy in a suit, plus, I knew it had melee weapons... and well, it's slow as molasses. My sister is co-oping as the Ranger, and I need to equip the hammer with the dash in order to keep up! Now that I think about it, characters definitely seem 'deeper' than in EDF USA.

 What I liked:
- The different classes, different weapons, how you can have different load-outs
- The idea behind the game.
- Couch co-op.
- Gameplay is fun, very arcadey, which I enjoy a lot.

What I didn't like:
- Performance issues galore. The framerate dips. Constantly. I wonder if its better in Single player?
- Loading times are long.

Review #275: Castlevania Chronicles

 Because sometimes, just sometimes, games hate your guts.

 Castlevania Chronicles is the remake of a remake. Sort of. Y'see, Castlevania for the X86000 was sort of a remake of Castlevania NES. Sort of. Castlevania Chronicles is a compilation of both the original X86000 game and its remake.

 You see, Castlevania X86000 was brutal. It IS brutal, and it is available in all of its original glory as 'Original Mode'. But the game is incredibly hard, due to enemy placement, stiff movement and the amount of damage you take. 'Arrange Mode' is the remake, which not only offers a new sprite for both Simon and Dracula, but it allows you to customize the difficulty setting: Easy, so that you can cruise through the game, Normal, which is about as hard as Rondo of Blood and Hard which is almost as hard as the original game on the X86000. But you can further customize the challenge by disabling the timer or upping your life stock to 5. If you ask me, 'Arrange Mode' is the best way to experience the game, Original is way too hard and the pay off isn't worth it. And that's about all the differences between both versions, from now on, everything refers to both games.

 Chronicles is what I like to call a Classicvania, a 2-D sidescrolling platform game. Simon, the hero, can jump, attack with his whip or use sub-weapons on his way to Dracula's abode. It sounds simple and it is simple, X jumps, Square attacks. Unlike most Classicvanias, you can actually adjust your jump trajectory mid-air, as well as whip downwards from the air. But that's as agile as Simon gets, y'see, the game is ridden with ladders, which you climb up or down by holding, well, up or down on the D-Pad. While on stairs you can't jump off them, so you are basically a very slow, huge target for mobile enemies. Even better, holding up and pressing square uses your sub-weapons, so its entirely possible to mess up and consume your sub weapon energy by accident. And like a ton of vintage platform games, there's quite a few pixel-perfect jumps standing between and Dracula, so good luck.

 To add insult to injury, level design isn't the best. Sometimes. particularly on vertically scrolling levels, enemies will pop up from the sides without even giving you a chance to dodge them, and there's a few obstacles that will catch you off guard the first time. The funny thing, all of these will either drive you away or, if you are an oldschool gamer, entice you to try it out. Yes, the game is Nintendo-hard, and if that's your jam, this is your game.

 When it comes down to it, Castlevania Chronicles is a good, but dated game. It's definitely not a game for everyone, and not worth the high price it commands now a days. But hey, you can buy it off PSN if you are feeling for a hardcore, oldschool platform game. And if you are just curious, there's always easy mode.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #274: Dragon Ball Z Extreme Butoden

 'nother year, 'nother Dragon Ball game.

 Every console, but the Vita it seems, must have a Dragon Ball game sometime during its lifetime, and now it's the 3DS' turn, at least outside Japan. It's ArkSys', of Blazblue and Guilty Gear fame, turn with the franchise, after their SuperSonic Warriors release, to develop the latest entry in the 'Butoden' fighting games.

 The game offers a purely offline experience, although Japan got an update with a Training and Online Modes, but seeing how it's been a couple of months since its release... It's safe to say we ain't getting it any time soon. As for the modes, there's Z Story, a 8-part story mode made up of 10 fights each, seven of the eight chapters follows a different 'What if' scenario, the 8th being a loose, and bland, retelling of the major story arcs of the series. Then there's 'Adventure Mode', which is an all-new what-if story... which is pretty boring. Fights in Adventure Mode have different goals to complete in order to unlock assist characters. Lastly there's 'Extreme World Tournament' which... isn't a Tournament mode at all, but rather another 'story'-type mode, fights are always the same! Lastly there's VS CPU or local Players. It's pretty barebones, but for a portable fighter I guess it's alright, although the absence of a Training Mode is unforgivable.

 First lemme get this out of the way: The game falls on the same pitfall most bad licensed fighters do: It's balanced according to the series, rather than strive for a balanced character roster. This means that, say, Raditz or Kuririn are gonna have a baaaaaaaaad time against characters like Beerus or Super Saiyan God Goku. It tries to make up for it by having the tired 'Dragon Power' system, allowing you to make a team of up to 3 playable characters, or 1-2 playable characters and up to 4 assist characters, as long as the sum of the 'Dragon power' of your team doesn't exceed 35. You could fight battles one-on-one, but the game encourages using Assist characters, as a matter of fact, certain characters have moves than are uncombo-eable, as far as I noticed, unless you use assists, which I think is a terrible design choice for a fighting game.

 Characters play more or less the same when it comes to normals. Y is Weak attack, X Strong attack, A varies depending on the character and B is used for dodging. Holding the L button and pressing Y or X lets you use Ki-consuming special moves, while R is used for dashing/canceling at the cost of some Ki. In a bizarre twist, ultimate moves are actually combos. Y-Y-Y-Y-X-A is how you use them. Lastly, characters share the same 'combos', while they have different properties, they are all executed the same. Which is to say, X-A is a blast attack, Y-Y-Y-Y-Y knocks back, Y-Y-X is a knock up, etc. To be honest, I felt the mechanics where a bit limited, and some movesets where a bit uninspired. I did like the fast speed of the overall game, and it does feel different from all the other ArkSys fighters, which is I complaint I usually have with their games: They all feel the same!

  Then we come to the character roster. Dragon Ball fans are so spoiled that they will usually whine if there's less than 60 characters. Listen, animating 2D sprites is hard, much harder than animating 3D models, so a 2-D fighter having a small character roster is more than understandable. Extreme Butoden features 25 characters, which is more than what most new 2-D fighters offer. That said, there's plenty of clones. Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, Super Saiyan God Goku and Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku are basically the same character, barring the special moves. And Goku shares some moves with Adult Gohan, with whom he shares a body, as well as Bardok, with whom he shares a head. And what's up with having four Gokus? And why have Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku if they wouldn't give us playable  Gold Frieza or Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta? Since different forms are basically clones, it makes you wonder. And what's up with Bardock? Why give him a spot over more important characters like, say, Vegeto, Yamcha or Tien? Basically, I don't have a problem with the size, or even the clones, but rather some of their picks.

 The graphics are, easily, the game's biggest selling point, sprites are beautiful, and are better animated than even some of ArkSys own Blazblue sprites. If you've followed the Butoden series since the SNES games, you might even notice some familiar moves, like Piccolo and Teen Gohan's fast speed aerial kicks! And while theres 'only' 25 playable characters, they made animated sprites for over 100 characters, and they all look amazing.

 Alright, so Extreme Butoden is hardly a game to write home about, but, BUT I think it's a more than decent foundation for a second game/update. I believe that the game suffered mostly due to the developer playing it to the 3DS' strengths, which is the reason we got simple, limited combat mechanics. I'd like to see an update for the game, but on home consoles,  with the added benefit of real joysticks, and we could get some more characters. It could've also used real different modes, like a Survival mode or a true Tournament Mode.
 5.5 out of 10