Month Overview: September 2016

 Tally:
Borderlands - Triple Pack                                              10






 Yeah.... not a whole lot happened in September, so... yeah...

Game of September:

 Yeah.... It kinda was the default, and only, choice...

Review #349: Borderlands - Triple Pack

 Talk about bang for your buck!

 I've talked, and reviewed, about the Borderlands franchise numerous times already, and long story short, I love it. For the few who are not in the know, Bordelands games marry the first person shooter with the RPG genre to a fantastic result. You get to accept numerous quests and sidequests, traverse large environments, and loot chests for thousands of different randomly generated weapons, with different stats(Firepower, fire rate, accuracy, reload time, etc).

 Borderlands Triple Pack is a phenomenal package that includes all three games and their DLC, which translates into over a hundred hours worth of gameplay. The game comes divided in 2 discs: A gameplay disc, which is used to play any of the three games, and an Expansion Disc which includes all the DLC pieces. There's one complaint to be made here: Every single DLC piece has to be installed on its own. When it comes to Borderlands 1, which only has 4 DLC pieces, it's alright, but Borderlands 2's DLC is made up of almost 20 different installs. If you bough this package, you will, more probably than not, want to install every piece of DLC and not cherry-pick them, which makes having to install the DLCs piece by piece very annoying.

 As a huge fan of Borderlands 2, and a huge critic of digital-only media, I was pretty excited for this bundle... as we finally get all the missing DLC from Borderlands 2- GOTY edition! This means that you can finally reach level 70, and the five headhunter packs! The Headhunter Packs last about an hour each, which is alright, most missions and environments are fun to explore and tackle, and more Borderlands 2 content is always welcome. Always.

 Then there's Bordelands - The Pre-Sequel. It's... good, but it falls short of Borderlands 2 excellence. It's made all the more egregious due to the fact that it's basically Borderlands 2 in Space, the fact that it was born out of a DLC for Borderlands 2 shows very clearly. You get four new classes, plus two extra DLC classes, which have some rather interesting skill trees, heck, as a matter of fact, these characters are more distinct than the ones from Borderlands 1 and 2, so that's a plus. And as any of these characters you are to help Handsome Jack save Pandora.

 Taking place in Space means new moon-like gravity physics which... take a bit getting used to. To be honest, I didn't really like the new floaty feel to the game, it adds nothing to the combat as far as I was concerned, and most of the new environment have plenty of botomless pits, so valuable enemy drops tend to drop on them thanks to these new physics. However, I will admit that the new moon-jumps made traversing the environments much more fun. Depending on when you press the jump button after jumping the first time will produce different jumps, such as a high jump, a long jump or even initiate a slow decent. What can I say, jumping around and making my way through the environments with these new jumps was fun. There's also a new Butt-stomp(Holding Crouch after a high jump) that deals damage around your landing area, and you can equip items to add elemental damage to it.

 And, since it's set in Space, there's also a new gauge, an Oxygen gauge. And it's annoying! If the gauge hits 0 you'll start losing health constantly and lose access to your moon-jumps until you find an O2 source. To be fair, I never died due to a lack of oxygen, Oxygen sources are common and enemies love dropping O2 canisters... but just knowing that I had to keep O2 in mind was annoying. It's hard to explain why, but it did put a damper on my experience with the game. And that's my main issue with the game: The game is Borderlands 2 but with a new annoying gauge that I have to keep track of!

 As far as the story goes... I found the new NPCs to be annoying, particularly Jannis Springs, and the returning characters, Handsome Jack, Roland, Moxxi and Lilith lack the spark they had in Borderlands 2. THAT SAID, I did like the overall theme of the story: The bad guys aren't entirely bad, and the good guys aren't entirely good, it's an interesting premise, and they pulled it off very well. The Side-Quests were a bit boring as well, it's hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I wasn't having as much fun clearing them as I did whenever I found new tasks in Borderlands 2. Heck, the environments lack diversity, and after a while the Moon gets very samey and dull, not to mention the frequent botomless pits that plague these maps.

 Lastly, the game removed the Slak element, but introduces the Cryo element, which as you might've deduced already, means that you freeze enemies, or be frozen yourself, and frozen enemies become subject to Critical hits as well as the inability to move for a short while. Cryo I approve of, and it'd be nice to see it return in Borderlands 3. There's also a new type of weapon, Laser, which is interesting, but seeing how you can only equip four weapons at a time and there's already a surplus of weapon types... Let's just say that I get too familiar with them beyond what was necessary.

 While Borderlands - The Pre-sequel feels closer to Borderlands 2 than 1, I'm still sure that it's the weakest game in the franchise. All the new jumps make exploring much more fun than before, but it has the weakest environments and the duller missions. And I really, really could've done without the O2 gauge. Still, it is a Borderlands game, so it is a good game, but not as good as the others in the series.

 Borderlands - Triple Pack is a no-brainer, two fantastic games and a good game for the price of one. Not to mention the fact that all these games together will keep you busy for a loooooooooong while.
 10 out of 10

Now Playing: Disgaea 2, Borderlands - The Pre-Sequel, Shin Megami Tensei IV

 Well, slow month I guess? So big-ish update:

 Disgaea 2 is boring. I dunno, maybe I've fallen of the Strategy-RPG bandwagon or sumthin', but I just can't get into the game. The characters are boring stereotypes, getting skills is a slog... I dunno. To think that Disgaea 1 was my favorite videogame for a while! But when I played through Disgaea 3 I could feel that the magic was gone. Ah well, I'm midway through chapter 4, I just want to get done with this game.

 Now we are cooking! Finally I got to go through everything Borderlands 2 had to offer. But that's not the main catch with this pack, it's The Pre-Sequel where it's at! And... I'm not liking it too much. It's Borderlands 2 + floaty physics, which I've never liked + having to keep track of the oxygen gauge. Also, I can't stand the new characters. Janis is annoying, the mayor was dull, I didn't need to see Moxxi's 'other side', etc. Yeah, it's a bit disappointing, but I wasn't expecting much out of it anyways.

 I'm a bit of a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei serie, and Nocturne, AKA Shin Megami Tensei III, was amazing, so I was expecting a lot out of SMT IV. It's too early to emit a a precise judgement, but I'm liking it, and it's challenging from the start to boot! That's the SMT I like! Although the penalty for dying seems a bit too forgiving, since you can cheat death with money. Regardless, demons can be proper jerks when it comes to joining your side.
 My only complaint with SMT IV would be the presentation, the 3DS can do so much better than static sprites for enemies, and the first-person perspective during battles is a bit boring. I could excuse it in Soul Hackers since it was an older game, but I kinda expected a bit more from a post-Nocturne game.

Month Overview: August 2016

 Tally:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutants in Manhattan                  7.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(NES)          5.0
P.T.                                                                                                   4.0
Silent Hill                                  8.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(GEN)   1.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters(SNES) 7.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(Arcade)                  4.0
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game          4.5


 Well, that was an uneventful Ninja Turtle Month! I played most of the games I set out to play, but time just went flying by and 'fore I knew it, August was over!


 Game of August:

 In hindsight, I might've been a tad too generous with Silent Hill 1. I mean, I love the game, but I'm pretty sure every subsequent game, at least Team Silent entries, completely blew this one out of the park. That said, I can appreciate the origins of some of the franchise's staples, like the flashlight and the open world-ish exploration of the town. There's a lot to like in Silent Hill 1, and it's impressive just how much it stood the test of time.

 Runner-up:

  Man, this game got so much undue flak! From people claiming that the hideously aged beat'em ups from Konami were better than this, to people not 'getting' the game. It's short, it's repetitive, but it's what someone should expect from a modern day beat'em up. The boss fights were absolutely frantic which made them oh so much fun to play, and the exploration was way more fun than it had any right to be. I also enjoyed being able to customize each turtle to fit different roles. Honestly, I got most of what I wanted from this game, and it's definitely one of the better TMNT games, not that that is saying much.

Review #348: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game

 Turtle soup.

 Usually, Arcade Games had to be gimped in order to be ported to home consoles, even the SNES suffered from this, Final Fight's SNES port lost a character and a couple of levels, not to mention the mandatory graphical downgrade. Interestingly, TMNT's NES port actually features extra content not found in the arcade version, as well as a couple of tweaks that make it more than a simple port.

 The story and gameplay remain the same, Splinter and April have been kidnapped and you, as one of the four turtles, must treck through Manhattan in order to rescue them. You can punch, jump and jump-kick your way through the game, featuring very simple mechanics. But the first thing that you'll notice is that this time around attacks actually have some weight behind them, attacks feel more meaty and less floaty than on the Arcade version, which does make a rather noticeable difference on how the game feels. And this time around you can actually pick your character, so now I can actually choose to be Leonardo instead of being forced to play as Leonardo.

 While graphical fidelity has been lost, as expected, the game more than makes up for that in the form of a couple of new levels and new bosses. Every common enemy type made it in, and while they come in fewer numbers, they feel a bit tougher. If you are playing by yourself you will need to get good at the game, continues are limited, and losing all your lives means going back to the start of the level. To be honest, I think the game hasn't aged very well, and 'getting good' at it isn't very worth it.

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - The Arcade Game manages to be a slightly better game than the Arcade original thanks to the improved physics and the extra levels, but it's still a rather dull game that's best enjoyed by hardcore fans of the Turtles or beat'em up games.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #347: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(Arcade)

 I still don't like it.

 Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games have carved themselves a spot in many a gamer's heart, so much so that it's not unusual to have people call them the 'TMNT videogames' golden age', since, apparently, these games were the best TMNT games ever made. Ever. Sadly, at least the first entry, is not.

 Shredder and Krang, the most useless pair of villains to ever set foot on TV, kidnap Splinter and April O'Neal, so the turtles must rescue them. That's the story, and frankly, that's all this game needs. As a beat'em up and as an Arcade game, narrative is something that matter very little, what's really important is getting players bashing skulls as soon as possible. My first issue comes with the different turtles, all of them have slightly different attributes(Donnie is strong but slow, Mikey is fast, etc), but the only way to pick a turtle is to pick a side on the Arcade Cabinet. Most emulated versions will default you as Leonardo, since you'll more probably than not be Player 1, but there's bound to be a workaround. Regardless, it's annoying, most games of the era let you select a character from a menu, or switch characters upon respawning, so Konami's system is inexcusable.

 What really set this game apart from the rest was its four player gimmick back in the day. The problem is that this game isn't very fun if you are by yourself. There's two different actions: Jump and Attack, and that's all you'll ever do in the game. While enemies come equipped with different weapons, only the ones that wield a lance require a different approach to take down. Even bosses, once you find a way to exploit their AI, it's all over for them. There's no weapons to pick up to break the monotony, although you can interact with a very few objects that serve as projectiles every now and then. Every single beat'em up game is repetitive in nature, which is why one of the most important things is making the attacks feel crunchy, you want the player to feel rewarded when he lands blows. Sadly, TMNT, and most of Konami's beat'em ups, fail at this, movement is very floaty, attacks lack oomph, and while the game is rather pleasing to the eyes, the feedback from your attacks lacks weight. Basically, if you don't have other people to play the game with, and if they don't manage to remain invested in the game, you'd rather stay away from this game.

 Honestly, barring a few exceptions, I've never been much of a fan of Konami's beat'em ups, but if there's something worth praising, it's the use of the license. While I've made my views on the awful TMNT show from the 80s pretty clear, this game managed to capture its style perfectly. The turtles,  Splinter, April, Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder, Krang, the Foot and the Mousers look exactly like they should. Even the stages look as backgrounds that could've been part of the show, heck, the sewers look just like they did in the series. Sadly, I don't think there're reasons to come back to this game for most people. There's better TMNT games on the PS2, on the DS and now even on current gen consoles. And, y'know, Battle Nexus on PS2 is alright and has a port of this very game.... But if what you are looking for is a TMNT beat'em up done right, there's Ubisoft's GBA game, which was fantastic.
 4.0 out of 10

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

Month Overview: July 2016

 Tally:
Earth Defense Force 2025                                              7.0
Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale                8.0
Liberation Maiden                                                          7.0
Kid Icarus - Of Myths and Monsters                              4.5
Silent Hill 2                                                                     8.5
The Legend of Legacy                                                    5.0
Hot Pixel                                                                         6.0
Stella Glow                                                                     8.0
One Piece - Pirate Warriors 3                         8.5

 July was an annoying month because exams, nobody likes exams, but somehow I managed to play a sizeable amount of games. It probably has to do with my should-be-patented microbreak-study system that involves me trying to distance myself from what I just read and then try to see how much I truly remember. Or stuff.


Game of July:

 Pirate Warriors, man. It's probably one of my favorite Warriors/Musou games. Firstly, it looks amazing, it's not the first Musou game to use cell-shaded graphics, Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 for example, but One Piece's incredibly varied and distinct character designs couple with the very colorful cell shading make for one hell of a showpiece that looks unlike any other Warriors games. There's also the tiny details, like Logia users entering their Elemental forms, which look fantastic, and the shading trying to emulate pencil lines? Pure genius.
 Its beauty isn't just skin deep, it's one of the faster paced games in the franchise, movesets are very varied, with different uses( Crowd clearing, Kizuna-gauge builders, boss bashing') so repeating the same move over and over again is not only boring, but not as rewarding. I also liked how characters had very different tools. Luffy was a fantastic crowd clearing character, Sabo, my main squeeze, was more balanced, having a bunch of different uses while Enel was bad at crowd-clearing(At least until you unlocked his second special) but was a beast when dealing with tough enemies, then there was Blackbeard who could place 'traps' around his surrounding, or Nami that could zap enemies after comboing them.
 I could go on and on, but I loved Pirate Warriors 3. As much as I like One Piece's story, and as much as I think they did a good job covering all of it, as condensed as it is, it lacks the... impact? depth? emotion? etc of games like Dynasty Warriors 8. I also wasn't much of a fan of having bosses with three-tiered life bars, it was a bit boring and annoying having to wait for them to get up before I could start damaging them again. Or the Limit Break system... but all these gripes did little to diminish the amount of fun I got out of Pirate Warriors 3.

 Runner-up:

 Silent Hill 2 is something special. I can't stress enough how awe inspiring the amount of care that went into every facet of this game is. How the monster design, how the environment design and how the gameplay was tied around the main character's personality. Admittedly, a couple of the riddles were a bit too tough for me, and while I have no problems with easy games, as a Survival Horror game it could've been a bit more sparing with healing items and bullets, but it's easy to forgive its few shortcomings when you are so engrossed in the game's setting and story.

Ninja Turtles Month 2016

 So, this year TMNT Month will be... on August! Ideally, I'll be playing:

 Mutants in Manhattan is the one I wanna play the most, I've read the mediocre reviews et all, and I'll admit I was a bit overhyped about this one, but I don't care, it's TMNT, made by Platinum Games and inspired, on the most part, on the IDW comics. Basically, THE TMNT game I've always wanted.

 I'll be skipping TMNT 1 on the NES entirely and jumping straight to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - The Arcade Game, since, honestly, TMNT 1 looks too archaic for my tastes. Maybe on TMNT Month 2017. Regardless, I played the Arcade original, but never touched this port, so it might be interesting. Or disappointing. Or both!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 - Manhattan Project is the TMNT game I grew up playing bck in the day. I loved, adored it and spent countless hours beating it over and over and over and over again. This is, probably, the reason I love beat'em ups so much.

 Tournament Fighters will mark the end of my TMNT adventure on the NES this year. This was the other TMNT game I grew up with, and another game I spent countless hours replaying. I guess my taste for beat'em ups and fighting games has been cultivated since my wee years thanks to the Ninja Turtles!

 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV -Turtles in Time heralds the beginning of the two SNES games and, once again, I'm familiar with the Arcade original, but everyone considers this one a much improved sequel, so it's high time I gave it a try.

 I did play a little tiny bit of Tournament Fighters on the SNES sometime in my life, but I quickly dismissed it as another terrible SNES Street Fighter 2 clone that were all the rage back in the day. But duty calls, and I will give it another chance, but I'm not expecting to change my mind about it.

 Hyperstone Heist is the Genesis' own TMNT 2(Arcade) port, to rival TMNT IV on the SNES. I don't remember the specifics, but I think this game was a slightly remixed version or something like that? Ah well, all will be made cleared later during August!

 And then we've got the last version of Tournament Fighters. I kinda miss how back in the day three different games could have the same name, on different consoles and be different games. But I digress, I've also played a few seconds of this version and dismissed it as an even worse Street Fighter II clone. While I skipped the SNES/Genesis generation(I went straight from NES to N64!) I've always been a Nintendo fanboy at heart, so I'm pretty sure this one will be the one I like the least. It may stand a chance against Tournament Fighters on the NES, but that one has nostalgia on its side, so we'll see.

 Lastly, although I'm considering making them the first games after Mutant in Manhattan, there're the two Arcade Games. I think it makes sense to play them first since they came out first, but I fear the ports not being 'arcade perfect' my rub me the wrong way. Regardless, as recently as 2 years ago I replayed both of them as part of the PS2 games, and, frankly, they don't hold up to well. I think Konami's beat'em ups have aged the worst, games like The Simpsons The Arcade Game and the X-Men game, largely due to how they feel like reskins of each other. Not only that, but one of the things that matters the most, in my opinion, when it comes to beat'em ups, is making the bashing satisfying, since it's the only thing you'll be doing, but Konami's Arcade beat'em ups lack a gratifying feedback from your attacks, it's as if your characters are punching or slashing air, and everything lacks weight and feels very floaty.
 And mind you, these are games that I played and loved when I was younger and had trouble reaching the Arcade's button panel! But as an aficionado of the genre, Konami's Arcade beat'em ups just don't feel very satisfying, so I'm pretty sure I won't like them too much.



 Ideally, that's the schedule for this year, which will leave: Smash-up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1(NES), Out of the Shadows and the two-three Gameboy games for the next year. All these games are rather short, so I might be finishing them at a rate of one per day, if not more,

Review #340: One Piece - Pirate Warriors 3

 Gomu gomu no Musou.

 Pirate Warriors is an interesting mix, being a junction of some of Japan's most beloved franchises, Musou and One Piece, yet franchises that have had a mixed reception over seas. Which is a shame, since Musou/Warriors is one of the most cathartic videogame franchises out there, and One Piece is one of the best shonen manga ever written, one that remains consistent unlike its peers, Bleach and Naruto, alongside the fantastic JoJo.

 The game has three different modes: Legend, Free and Dream. Legend is a 22-stage long campaign that covers the entirety of One Piece, from the East Blue saga to the Punk Hazard saga, alongside a bonus chapter with an alternate take on the Dresrossa arc. One Piece is a massive story, so suffice to say, what's presented here is fairly compressed, they crammed entire arcs into single stages, almost every secondary character got cut, but it's a more or less decent retelling of the whole story, even if it glosses over details. While some things could've been explained better, like Whitebeard's relationship with his men and Ace, I think even people not versed in One Piece lore will be able to follow the story. This mode features some phenomenal cutscenes that showcase key moments, as well as comic-book styled, low budget cutscenes to bridge in the gap between stages. For Warriors games, the campaign is rather short, clocking about 11 hours, but every stage is unique, so in a way, they trimmed off all the excess fat.  Free is Legend mode, but you can pick any character instead of being limited to the Mugiwaras or temporary allies. Lastly there's Dream Mode, with an unlockable Nightmare mode, that is made up of a series of simple Stages free of any kind of story, just you, your army, and the enemy army.

 If you've ever played a Dynasty Warriors game, you know the deal, mash Square(weak attack) interspersed with Triangle(Strong attack) to produce combos and kill thousands upon thousands of enemies. It's a very simple, very repetitive approach, but I find it immensely entertaining. In this game in particular I found myself racking up thousands of kills one every stage, so it might have some of the most densely populated stages in Warriors history. As for this game particulars, it follows Dynasty Warriors Gundam blueprint, having areas that produce enemies indefinitely until you capture them by killing hundreds of enemies while inside said area. There's also a 'Kizuna Rush', by killing enemies without getting hit you'll fill a gauge, once you increase its level it can decrease even if you get hit. The higher the level, the more damage your allies will do when you perform Kizuna attacks, which consist of simply tapping Square or Triangle after you finish your attack string, and it will summon your ally to perform an attack of their own. Filling the gauge's level to its maximum will allow you to enter Kizuna Drive, your attacks will get stronger, and in the case of some characters, they'll change modes(Like Luffy's gear second or Sanji's Diable Jambe), and Kizuna attacks will get even stronger. This mode only lasts for a while, and depending on when you cancel it, if you let it deplete or if you end it with a super attack, is how many levels you'll be set back on the gauge.

 One thing to keep in mind, mostly in Legend Mode, is that the AI needs help constantly. Whenever a 'X is attempting to flee', you must stop everything you are doing and rush to their aid immediately, sans you want to redo the entire, long stage again. It can get annoying having to stop pounding bosses or what have you and having to run across the entire stage just to heal them, no other Warriors game has had such needy allies, and the penalty for losing allies wasn't this steep, unless they were the mission's VIP.

 One thing I didn't particularly like was the upgrading system. Personally defeating enemy generals will reward you with their own unique coins, and this coins are used to increase each character's individual stats. If you only main a few characters, you'll get enough coins to upgrade them without having to go out of your way to grind for them, but if you plan on maxing every character, well, I hope you've a lot of time on your hands. But the real kicker are the Gold, or rare coins, which must be earned by doing specific tasks, usually attached to special missions in Legend Mode. You will have to go out of your way for these, and they are required if you plan on 'Limit Breaking' your character, allowing him or her to go beyond level 50.

 Another thing I didn't really like was how long it took to fully develop a character, it takes a while for a character to earn its full moveset, at around level 30 you'll get most of a character moves, but you'll get your final attacks at level 63, so 'Limit Breaking' is a requirement, which means you'll have to hunt for the gold coins. Mind you, the game isn't impossible if you don't grind for the coins, even Nightmare Mode can be finished with a level 50 character if you're careful, but I felt like they could've done a better job with the leveling and upgrading system.

 Worth mentioning, the game looks fantastic. The cell-shaded, colorful graphics add a ton of life to it. As a matter if fact, I'd call this one of the better looking Warriors games.

 I had a blast with Pirate Warriors 3, it's probably one of the better Warriors games out there. One Piece's zany cast of characters, with their ridiculous attacks and powers lend themselves to a Musou game perfectly. There's a lot to like here, whether you are Warriors fan, a One Piece fan or both. For future installments, I'd like to see a more streamlined upgrading system, if anything, at least have the moveset expand at lower levels, because it's the different attack strings and what you can do with them that make the franchise so good.
 8.5 out of 10