Review #346: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(SNES)

 This was a nice surprise.

 Alright, so I suspected that this one was gonna be the best of the bunch, but not by a wide margin, and boy was I wrong! Not only is it better than the NES and Genesis versions, it's actually a very competent fighting game on its own right.

 The game offers 4 different modes, Story Mode, in which you take one of the four turtles through the different enemies on your quest to save Splinter and April, this mode actually features a few intermissions between stages which are a nice touch for a story mode. Tournament Mode is actually this game's Arcade Mode, you take any of the 10 available characters and beat up the rest, VS Player, which is pretty much self explanatory and Watch, in case you wanted to watch two CPUs go at it. It could've benefited from a practice mode, but that kinda wasn't the norm at the time, so it's easily forgiven.

 The game is played with four buttons, weak punch, weak kick and their strong variations. Each of the 10 playable characters, as well as the two secret bosses, play fairly different from each other, with different special moves and inputs. There's also an energy gauge that is constantly decreasing, but you can fill it up by staying on the offensive, whether your hits land or get blocked, they will add up to the gauge, and once filled you can press Strong Punch together with Strong Kick to use a desperation move that deals a ridiculous amount of damage, if it hits. All in all, the game is top notch as far as mechanics go, there's enough leeway to pull of simple combos, and not everything combos into everything, so button mashing isn't encouraged. It's certainly above most Street Fighter II clones of the era.

 The character roster is made up of all four turtles, Shredder, Rat King and Chrome Dome from the awful 1987 series, as well as Wingnut, War, Armaggon and Karai from the Archie comics, and as per usual, Konami also saw fit to introduce an original character, this time in the form of the skimpy-clad ninja Aska. It also bears mentioning that the game looks fantastic, while the stages are a bit dull, the character sprites are gorgeous and characters look badass, for lack of a better word. Take the turtles, while their looks and color scheme comes from the awful cartoon, they've been redesigned to look beefy and muscular, which works wonders and kinda reminded me from their Mirage counterparts.

 The Genesis version of Tournament Fighters was terrible. The NES version was good considering the console it was released on. But Tournament Fighters on the SNES is good, period. Most of my gripes with it can be attributed to its age: It lacks depth, the character roster is rather small, it lacks basic modes like Practice. Regardless, this game can be entertaining for both TMNT fans and fighting game aficionados, and I dare say that the game offers just the least amount of depth needed to be played at a competitive level, if you are so inclined.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #345: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(Genesis)

 Jesus Christ!

 Back in the day Street Fighter II was kind of a big deal, so much so that almost every company in existence saw profits to be made and wanted in on the fighting game craze that was sweeping the arcades. The end result is that nowadays you can find dozens upon dozens of Street Fighter II clones between the SNES and Genesis consoles, and most of them haven't aged very well. And, if you ask me, most of them weren't very good at the time of their release either.

 There's 4 different modes to partake in on the Genesis version of Tournament Fighters: Arcade Mode, in which you must fight all 8 combatants + 3 bosses, Tournament Mode, which is actually a survival mode in which you try to survive as many fights as you can on one life bar, VS 2 Player and Training Mode, which is actually a single, normal round against a CPU opponent of your choosing. The eight playable characters are comprised of the four turtles, Casey Jones, April O'Neil, Ray Fillet and series newcomer, Sysyphus, while the unplayable bosses are a random Triceraton, Krang and Karai. For the era, it's a decent character roster, and all eight characters are pretty different from each other, which is always a plus.

 Controls are made up of a Punch button, a Kick button and a Taunt button. Each character has a plethora of different normal attacks, depending on which direction you hold when performing the attacks, as well as four different special moves and a desperation move, only usable when your health bar is flashing. The Taunt plays a rather interesting role in this game, as it will heal you a little bit each time you use it, and it's also used to perform the Desperation move as well as some specials with some characters. One thing to keep in mind is that the animation is terrible due to a severe lack of animation frames, some attacks, like most crouching kicks, are single-frame affairs.

 If you don't have someone to play this game with, you are in for a pretty rude awakening once you select Arcade Mode, because the AI is relentless. You can turn down the difficulty in the Options menu, but as, if, you win fights, the opponents will get harder, and the continues are limited... which makes for a pretty irritating game.

 Tournament Fighters on the Genesis is a sub-par fighter at best and a frustrating mess at worst. Unless you've someone else to play with, there's no fun to be had with it, and if you do have people to play with... why would you subject them to this game? Even the Genesis has a pretty decent port of Street Fighter II. It's sad to say so, but this game exists today merely as a curiosity, something to check out once or twice if you are into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and then forget.
 1.0 out of 10

Review #344: Silent Hill

 I'd look for a new vacation spot.

 This is it, this is the game that kickstarted the entire Silent Hill franchise, a survival horror series of games that focused on psychological horror over its more action-y rival, Resident Evil.

 Taking the role of Harry Mason, it's up to the player to find Cheryl, his daughter, after an accidental car crash into the town of Silent Hill. On his quest, Harry will come across a few of its inhabitants, all of whom have their own skeletons on their closets. To be perfectly honest, I found the story to be the game's weakest link, firstly, it's told in a very fragmented way, it's up to the player to piece together the events and how they correlate with each other, and secondly, because I didn't find the themes all too engrossing. That said, the environments and creatures are very well put together, it's a honest-to-goodness creepy game, even when taking into account just how much they have aged.

 The one thing that keeps being repeated over and over whenever someone talks about this game is how they turned the Playstation's weaknesses into strengths. And to be fair, they are a hundred percent correct. It's both oppressive and unnerving, being constantly surrounded by either fog or darkness, with only the aid of your radio, alerting you of nearby enemies, and your flashlight trying to explore the town of Silent Hill and its locales. Frankly, among the classic games, this is the one that has the best flashlight system, because you really do need the flashlight to explore your surroundings with ease, but the flashlight alerts nearby enemies, so you have to pick whether it's light you want or try to sneak by... Kinda. At least when it comes to the normal difficulty, the game is kinda easy. Most of the time, the best strategy is just to enter every room with your light turned off, kill everything in sight, and then turn it on and explore for supplies. It kinda kills the tension a bit once you figure out a working strategy. Not that it will help you on outdoor areas, as enemies are relentless and fast, you will either have to learn the particular tells of the different types of enemies in order to avoid their assaults or try to fight your way through.

 The controls work fairly well, while it uses the traditional 'tank' controls, the camera offers a mixture of locked camera angles, when the game wants you to look at something, and a loose camera that you can set behind your back by tapping or holding L2. It works really well. Unlike Resident Evil, Harry Mason is a decent fight, he can strafe, or shoot while walking backwards, and he is also a fairly decent close-rang fighter, melee weapons are a fair alternative. That said, there's a limited capacity for ammo, so you are encouraged to use your gun, lest all that ammo goes to waste.

 I hate to admit it, but most of the puzzles in the game gave me some trouble. I might've had to consult a FAQ once or twice... or even a couple more times, but I'm not admitting to anything. If you like to explore everything before moving forwards, like I do, it probably won't be an issue, but there's a lot of side information, and a sidequest of sorts, to find in order to obtain more pieces of the puzzle regarding the town's mystery, as well as the only way to earn the good endings. And, heck, rewarding is oftentimes rewarded, although supplies are a bit harder to find than in Silent Hill 2.

 I loved my time with Silent Hill. Sure, it's easily got the worst story among the classic games, and while everything in the game works decently, it's a bit clunkier, as it's to be expected. However, thanks to the Playstation's limitations, I think the flashlight mechanics work much better in this game, and the fog and darkness surrounding the player work even better than in subsequent games. Silent Hill is a classic, and age has got nothing on it.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #343: P.T.

 The most overrated glorified demo of all time.

 P.T is exactly what its name stands for; a playable teaser. This is by no means a demo, which you can clearly tell due to its relatively short length and small scope. It's also a... piece of software that's been overblown and overhyped to unexpectedly high levels, even having been featured on a few 'Best games of 2015' lists. I call shenanigans on the whole thing. It's way too short, way to simple, way too scripted to be competing against full games. It's also not as scary as they would lead you to believe.

 This is a first person horror-adventure game, it takes place inside a house, inside a very specific corridor inside a house. You will cycle throughout this same corridor time and time again as you solve different 'puzzles' and then are allowed to proceed towards the next cycle. My first issue comes with the puzzles, they are very silly. This one time I died because I looked at a phone. That's right, you trigger one of the death sequences by looking at a phone then the game doesn't want you to look at the phone.

 This holds true to how the game progresses as well. If you fail to examine the items the game wants you to examine on a particular cycle, you will cycle back to the same cycle, so to speak, until you finally figure out what inconspicuous things you were supposed to look at. It also means that the horror element quickly dries out. There's this one neat little moment when you look at a writing the wall, look away, and look back, and now a letter is gone. It was brilliant, but... you are supposed to look away and look back at it, look away and look back at it again letter by letter, it quickly stops being scary, or neat, and reminds you that you are playing a videogame. That isn't scary. Or the umpteenth time you trigger the crazy ghost lady on the corridor because you are trying to figure out what trivial dumb little thing you are supposed to do to proceed. Where's the horror in an all of these things? And getting the ending is so convoluted that it isn't even funny. The 'game' turns repetitive pretty fast.

 If there's one thing to praise, it's the ambiance. While I didn't feel scared at any time, and I don't think a single jump scare made me jump, the creepy imagery was on point. I always thought Silent Hill 4's premise was genius, and this game kinda builds up on it: you are locked inside a house, and it gets progressively corrupted as you advance. It was a fantastic concept then, and it still is now. Sound design was top notch again, and what little voice acting there is in here, it's very convincing

 I guess it could be argued that it's unfair for me to compare it with full retail games, that I shouldn't expect more out of a 'playable teaser'. And I'd be inclined to agree, but as I stated on the opening paragraph, P.T. has been compared, favorably, to full games on numerous 'Best of' lists. And I tell ya, it's very, very overrated. The fantastic atmosphere they managed to craft with the presentation is quickly lost to the frustration of having to follow convoluted steps, or 'gamey' solutions to the puzzles. No, I did not enjoy P.T., I could see its now lost potential, but P.T. itself is very lackluster. As a teaser it's fantastic, as a demo it's laughable and as a game it's little more than a corridor simulator.
 4.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Silent Hill

 And now for something completely different....

 Wow. Just, wow. First thing that happens when you put in the disc, is the opening sequence, and, damn, that theme song is phenomenal, no wonder most people use it on videos discussing the franchise. But then there's the introduction itself, upon entering the narrow corridor, as it turns darker and you meet your first enemies? Pure genius. Not only is it a fantastic introduction, probably my favorite in the series, but it also clearly showcases that it's gonna be a very different game than Resident Evil.

 In short, I'm loving Silent Hill 1.

Review #342: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(NES)

 We need a modern TMNT fighting game!

 The story behind Tournament Fighters is a bit interesting, as it was a TMNT fighting game released on three different consoles, with different mechanics and character rosters. As a matter of fact, a fourth Gameboy version was planned, but never released, and each different turtle would star on each different console's cover, Leonardo being the NES' mascot. As Expected, the NES version is the most limited version of the bunch, while Virtua Fighter is proof that you can make an in-depth fighter with only two buttons, the NES was a more rudimentary machine, so the lack of depth is understandable.

 The game offers four different game modes: Story Mode, in which you play as any of the four different turtles and fight your way through the six opponents, ending with Shredder. The ending for each turtle is almost the same, so it's not worth it to play it again with the other characters, but at least it's something. VS Player and VS CPU are self explanatory, and then there's Tournament Mode in which you pit four fighters, CPU or Players, towards the top, it's very simple, but, you know, considering it's a NES game, it's rather a welcome mode.

 There's a total of four stages and seven characters: The mandatory four turtles, Casey Jones, Hothead and Shredder. All four turtles shame the basic sprites and moves, with only their throws and one-two different special moves to set them apart, and, amusingly, they all fight with their bare fists instead of their weapons. Movesets are very limited, there's punch, kick and both crouching and jumping versions of each, blocking is done by holding back on the joystick and throwing by pressing punch and a direction on the digital pad next to the enemy. Each character also has one or two different special moves, and periodically a flying screen with Splinter's head will pop in and drop a ball, grabbing the ball will allow the fighter that picked it up to perform their ultra move.

 There's no combo system, and for all intents and purposes, all characters might as well play the same, but, y'know, considering the console, it's completely and totally understandable, so it's unfair to look at this game from a 'competitive' viewpoint. And all things considered, the game is fun. Combat might be simple, but there's certain fun to be had in its simplicity, and it helps that the presentation is gorgeous, so what it lacks in substance it makes up in style, and in this case, it works. The character balance is a bit iffy, Hothead moves cover a lot of ground and deal a lot of damage, and Shredder has some of the best specials in the game.

 As with most fighters of this era, the AI is cheap, but exploitable, so fighting the CPU is a matter of learning how to force them onto certain patterns and abuse them. For whatever reason, you can't have Hothead mirror matches, but, there's an exploit to fight a Hothead CPU as Hothead, if you are so inclined.

 When stacked up against other fighting games, modern and past, the game falls flat on its face. But if you manage to look at it with a non-competitive viewpoint, the game isn't half bad. All of its shortcomings can be attributed to its age: It's a fighter that's played on a two-button joystick that was released on a very archaic machine. Konami did the best they could with the tools they had at the era(Well, considering the SNES and Genesis were out at the time, the best they could on the console) It's a fun little game that could keep you occupied for 10-30 minutes.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #341: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutants in Manhattan

 Sometimes I think people don't 'get' Platinum Games' games.

 Mutants in Manhattan is the latest TMNT game to be released, and it received a somewhat lukewarm reception. Now, I admit that I'm a TMNT fan, but after playing through the game I simply can't agree with some of the criticism levered against the game. It made me think, and realize, that people sometimes don't 'get' Platinum Games' games. Look at all the flak Revengeance got over the lack of a block button, a feature it didn't need, even a few critics didn't seem to 'get' Vanquish, which I felt was pretty dope, even God Hand was the target of some undeserved criticism.

 The game is heavily inspired on the newest IDW comics, which I felt was a brilliant decision. While the designs aren't exactly the same, for example, in these comics the four turtles have different types of arm-guards, yet in the game only Leo has any sort of of arm-guards, however, they managed to give them different belts and their masks have different lengths and shapes, which are beautiful details that set them apart. April's take is different as well, she seems to be a young adult here, while in the comics she is portrayed as a teenager. Basically, this incarnation of the turtles most closely resemble the comics, but it's not set in that universe. The voice cast is entirely different from any other version of the turtles as well, and everyone did a fantastic job as their characters, this might probably be my favorite version of Leo, and I love how they brought back Mirage comics' Raphael's 'Crud!' exclamation. If I haven't made it clear yet, if you love the comic book versions of the characters, you will absolutely adore the presentation, I know I did. This is the version of the turtles I've been waiting for ever since I discovered the comics. These are the turtles we deserve in videogame form. As for the plot itself, it's a simple 'Krang and Shredder have teamed up and are up to no good', it's a very simple set up, that's far from engrossing, but it's all the story a game like this needs. There're cutscenes before and after each level, and I felt they were fantastic, while the story wasn't all that interesting, I loved seeing the turtles interact with the other characters, like Splinter, April, Slash, Bebop, etc.

 The game is... I guess an 'objective-based beat'em up' sums it up. There's 9 'missions', that take place in about 4 different environments, but each time an environment is reused, it's slightly altered. There're the rooftops and the story rooftops, the sewers and the sewers with fast-moving water, the streets and the ruined streets, etc. Each environment is a medium sized stage that can be somewhat freely explored. 'Somewhat' because your objectives are always clearly defined, and while you can find a couple of items and a few collectibles, there aren't tangible rewards for your efforts. Free items are nice, but you can always enter the sewers and buy more from Splinter, and the collectibles are boring covers from the IDW comics. There's no costumes, skills or anything worthwhile to be found. Interestingly, the objectives on each stage are randomized, however, they always revolve around beating up bad guys. Objectives can range from: Beating all the bad guys, defeating all the bad guys without being seen, protecting an object by... defeating all the bad guys, defusing bombs/recovering data in which one or more turtle must hold circle over an object while the others... beat up the bad guys or even taking objects from one point from another... while under barrage from enemies, so a few of the turtles will have to beat up a few villains. It's an interesting idea that do make subsequent playthroughs retain some of the freshness, but at the end of the day all you are really doing is beating up enemies. Which is fine, really, since this is a beat'em up.

 After you finish 5 or 6 missions April will home-in on the boss' location, and you can finally go fight them. Boss fights were my favorite part of the game, they are tough, they are long and they are fun. On Normal they've 7 life bars each, but depending on the difficulty setting the number may increase or decrease. While you have the numerical advantage on these fights, bosses pack quite a punch and their attacks cover very wide areas, so you will have to make the most of the dodge/block/parry systems to pull through. The first 4 bosses are a bit easy, but after you get to Armaggon, they really pick up. I've heard a lot of people claiming that these are 'obscenely hard', but they really aren't. I gave Michelangelo and Donnie support movesets, while I gave a balanced amount of deffensive and ofensive moves on Leo and kept Raph with an exclusively offensive moveset. I played most of the time as Leo, and if you learn how to block, dodge and parry, the battles become exhilarating. The 'life' system works on the player's favor, every time a turtle loses all its health, he retrieves to his shell and has 9-4 seconds(Depending on how many times he reached this state already) for another turtle to revive him, if none makes it in time, they are sent to the lair to eat pizza and recover. As long as at least one turtle remains out of the lair, you don't lose. And assuming that you do lose, there's 3 continues per level, and while you have to start the boss from the start, it's not overly punishing. At least on the normal difficulty setting, the challenge is just right.

 The combat system works like most of Platinum Games', there's a weak and a strong attack for offense, and R2 is used for defensive purposes. Tapping R2 produces a dodge, holding R2 lets you bock, and either tapping or letting go off R2 at the exact moment you get hit will produce a parry. While blocking prevents all damage, holding R2 for too long will make your turtle dizzy and open for attack. If you are playing solo, L2 is used to swap turtles or issue commands to the CPU allies. I had the turtles on 'All out' and they didn't hamper me at all. They could hold their own against normal enemies and bosses, would do an acceptable job covering me if I chose to defuse bombs and reviving me when I lost all my health. Each turtle can equip four different special moves, used by holding one of the shoulder buttons and pressing any of the four face buttons on the controller. They range from offensive attacks, like an area-hitting spinning attack, combo attacks that can be strengthened if another turtle uses the same move close to you, flying kicks, to support moves, like barriers, healing circles, or temporary buffs. I found that equipping Mikey and Donnie with support moves, since their exclusive moves are already leaning towards support, worked really well, and since Leo was my favorite, I gave him a healing circle move, Turtle Time(Slowdown) which I switched to Invincibility after I unlocked hit, and two offensive moves while Raph would support with damage as well.

 There's around 18-20 different special moves that can be equipped and upgraded. Defeating each boss will also unlock new moves for purchase. While special moves looked visually different I don't think there's much incentive for experimentation after you find moves that you like. The thing is, this is not a combo-based game, so it's not like you have juggling moves, or stunning moves, etc, all moves are simply different ways of dealing damage. The damage, area of effect and cooldown on each might be different, but the end result is somewhat the same. You can further customize each turtle by equipping charms on them, which can be enhanced by using different scavenge found after finishing a level. The amount of slots for equipping charms varied depending on the difficulty setting, the higher the difficulty, the more slots you get.

 While some my consider it inconsequential, I think the lack of offline multiplayer is a huge missed opportunity. It's not like the graphics are particularly intensive, the framerate is stuck at 30, and the other turtles fight alongside you at all times, so it's a bit baffling. There's online Co-op, at least, but it's not the same. There's also 'secret bosses', which are actually alternate bosses, on every stage, popular consensus is that triggering them is absolutely random, and getting high scores or playing on higher difficulty settings may, or may not, increase your chance of fighting them. It's not as cool as it sounds, since you simply get the same bosses from other levels, like instead of fighting Bebop on stage 1, you fight Karai, stage 5's boss. but at least you get new cutscenes, and there's an exclusive 'alternate boss' in the form of Super Shredder, which can't be fought normally.

 I liked Mutants in Manhattan a lot, it's not the best TMNT game out there, and it's far from Platinum Games' best efforts, but to call it mediocre is to do it a disservice, but I will agree that it's a game best enjoyed by fans of the franchise, particularly by fans of the comics, since the misguided fans from the terrible 1987 show won't give anything that isn't 'light-hearted' and 'funny' a chance. Reviewers saying stuff like 'go play the Konami arcade games instead' are delusional and misguided by nostalgia, since, if they found this game repetitive, they wouldn't last more than two minutes playing those beat'em ups. For shame, people, for shame.
 7.0 out of 10