Review #552: Disney Infinity 2.0

 Create your own fun.... or have none.

The cover is as boring as the game without the online servers!

 Well, after playing Disney Infinity I can safely say... that I understand why they went under so fast. Welcome to Disney's second foray into the toys-to-life craze that Skylanders started. The big addition are Marvel characters and a few tweaks to the toybox mode. Is it worth it? No, not now.

 Here's Infinity's biggest pratfall, one that should've been addressed here, one that should've been addressed on their third and final game: This is not a game, this is an investment. Firstly, unless you buy one of the three 'Playsets' there won't be any story mode content for you to play. And there're only three of them: Avengers, Spider-man and Guardians of the Galaxy. If you have no playset, you have no pre-made content for you to play. Infinity 1 had even more playsets, but none of them are compatible with Infinity 2.0. Why? Nobody knows, but that means that there's very little premade content for you to play. And the cherry on top? Only select characters can play playsets. Only the Guardians may play their playset, only the Avengers may play theirs, etc. New characters like Stitch and Malificient? Too bad, no story content for them. There're a few 'minigame' hexagon toys that you can buy, but... it's pure luck since they came in blind packs. Now a days you can just buy them off ebay, but it still, you have to pony up more cash if you want actual content to play.

Even the Hulk can ride vehicles!

 Alright, so if there's no content, what can you do? Create your own in the game's signature 'Toybox' mode. Here you can select from various pieces and create your own world, your own minigames, like racing, your own battle arenas, etc, etc. The tools are relatively in-depth, allowing you to connect a few objects via trigger-logic and what not, but you have to sit through various explanations or read online to get the full gist of it. Back in the day you could download other Toyboxes, some made by Disney itself, but the Servers are gone. There're a few quick templates you can generate to get you started, but it's still quite boring. Plus, most stuff in the Editor must be purchased with sparks, and grinding for sparks can take a while, it's easier if you go through playsets... but there're only three of them, and you can only use so many characters on those. So, yeah, the Toybox can be a source of fun if you like playing things you created, but otherwise? There's none to be had here, you can't even share your creations with others!

 As for the Playsets, they are well made, open-worldish adventures with quite a few missions each. The worlds are fairly large, the missions are entertaining and the cutscenes are neat. It's a shame only select characters can play these. Characters also act as lives, if you die on these, you can simply put another toy and continue until your previous character recuperates.

Donald duck has no playset. Have fun figuring out what to do with him.

 I think what hurts the most is how good the base mechanics are. Characters are similar, but have their own quirks. Some can fly, and boy is it fun to fly around as Iron-man! Others can climb on walls or what have you. Each character is also able to carry objects, like enemies, guns, wands, etc or get on various vehicles, from cars to helicopters, and have simple parkour abilities that make traversing the environment a blast. Each character also has their own exclusive skill tree, in which you can spend points upon leveling up to tailor characters to your liking. It also helps that the toys themselves are very high quality and look great, it's a shame not many of them get story-content to play. And that's why Skylanders is infinitely better: you have proper stages and levels to play through, your fun doesn't depend on wasting time toiling with an editor.

 Lastly, the game runs very poorly on the PS3. Toyboxes begin to underperform faster than I would've liked, so build complex worlds at your peril. Playsets suffer too, sometimes sound may lag behind because the PS3 struggles to process everything that's happening. It's no Xenoverse(Ps3), but boy does it struggle. At the end of the day, I'd advise people to stay clear of Infinity, only purchase it if you want an excuse to buy the toys, because they are very cheap now a days, and they make for great decor.
 4.5 out of 10

Now Playing: Tomb Raider II

 Now with less tombs.

Those breasts look weird.

 Tomb Raider II was my first Tomb Raider game, and one I liked even more than the third one, although I clearly remember thinking The Last Revelation was the best one. Before playing it again, I learnt that the game is considered to be very hard, making for an uphill climb all the way until Chronicles, when it gets easier. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I just got through the first level and had little to no problems.

 The ability to save anywhere, something that made the PC version so much better, is present here which is a godsend. And boy, am I gonna miss it when it's gone in 3. It's kinda awe inspiring just how much better this game looks. The controls have been tweaked a bit, and I keep accidentally wasting flares when I want to sidestep!

Review #551: Enter the Matrix

 No, do not go inside, stay out! TAKE THE BLUE PILL!

The cover doesn't look as good as they thought, I bet.

 Enter the Matrix was a very ambitious third-person shooter that did something to stand out among other licensed games: The Wachowski sisters(Then brothers) wrote the script for the game, and, alongside the cast and crew from the movies, filmed exclusive scenes for this game. If that doesn't give it brownie points I don't know what will.

 The story takes place at the same time as Matrix Reloaded(Matrix 2), but follows Ghost and Niobe as they work behind the scenes, and a few times alongside Morpheus and his crew. Neo makes but a few, unvoiced appearances. The story itself is nothing to write home about, but the 40 or so minutes of exclusive footage were, and still are, a fantastic treat for fans. Ghost and Niobe have pretty much the same stages, but there're a few variations here and there, Ghost even gets to spar against Trinity. Still, these differences aren't enough to make two playthroughs worth it, so playing as just one character will suffice for most people. There're plenty of audiovisual bugs all the way throughout, there's an audio glitch exclusive to the PS2 version that makes dialogue and sound play twice at different speeds, which is very grating to the ears, and thankfully, not too common.

Melee combat is the best thing about this game.

 There's no way to hide it, this game is an obvious beta. Besides the audiovisual bugs, you'll notice how janky the entire game feels. Melee combat consists of characters flailing their limbs about, which is hilarious, running and climbing animations are awful, and things like targeting enemies with guns being very awkward, as guns are very inaccurate. Stage transitions can be weird, some stages may even last a few seconds and consist from going from a door to another.... This is not a well made game, but the publisher is to blame as they rush development. Not to worry, as Shiny would redeem themselves a few years later with Path of Neo.

 As far as melee combat goes, looking so hilariously bad actually makes it pretty entertaining. You have punches, kicks, disarms, throws, counters and a few other neat manouvers. The animations for the attacks are almost good, you can tell that with a few polishing it could've been great, and removing some of the jankiness, like kicking a fallen enemy making him fly backwards a ridiculously long distance, or how hitting dying enemies makes them get back on their feet. It's a mess, but it's a fun mess. You can take out your guns at any time, but they lack oomph and their accuracy is suspect, so I didn't use them too much, and when I did, I wasn't having as much fun as I was with the flailing limbs. It's probably one of the first games to feature regenerating health.... and it also has medkits, which makes dying very hard. You also have a recharging focus gauge to use bullet time, which makes dodging stuff and delivering pain very simple.

Focus makes dodging bullets and shooting enemies all too easy.

 There're a few dumb racing segments, in which you'll drive as Niobe or shoot as Ghost. It's more fun shooting as Ghost, but Niobe is such a poor driver that she may cost you the stage, since some enemies are indestructible and shooting at them does nothing, so you depend on Niobe pulling through. A few other stages consist on running away from agents, since they are too tough to take down, and this can range from fun to dumb. If Agent Smith catches you it's possible to get stuck in a loop in which you can't get away from his grabs until he kills you. A few other stages even have infinitely spawning enemies, so you might as well just run anyways.

 And the level design isn't very good. Some stages go on and on, and they reuse assets within themselves oh so much that it feels like you are going in circles or through identical passages. The camera can be a big pain in the butt, a few times you are expected to go down a few levels, but unless you enter the awkward first person camera mode, there's no way to check below if there's a platform. A lot of times the camera will zoom in on awkward angles for no reason what so ever. Don't even let me get started on overhead cables, twice your character will need to grab from cables above in order to cross chasms, but it always feels unsafe since you can't jump in place, but rather, do a forward jump and if you don't angle it right, you will fall to your doom.

Or you can use your focus on 1-on-1 fights, your choice.

 There's also the then-praised hacking mini-game, through which you can use cheats or unlock halfway finished stuff, like a fighting minigame or art and extras. Honestly? Too much of a drag, and you must go through it every time you want to use these 'rewards' again. I didn't care for it.

 There's a certain 'The Room'-like quality to it that makes the game enjoyable in all the wrong ways. It's poorly designed, looks awful, is glitchy and, clearly, is unfinished but there's a little bit of fun to be had when flailing your limbs against other flailing limbs. I can also appreciate how they went with side characters instead of Neo, which helped make the side cast more endearing, and the fact that they filmed stuff just for this game is something to be commended. It IS a bad game, but if you like so-bad-it's-good games, you might get a kick out of it.
 3.5 out of 10

Review #550: InFamous - Second Son

  If we're gonna keep making the Good ending canon might as well call it Famous.

Now with smoke powers. Which behave pretty much exactly like electricity did.

 InFamous was one of the three big successors on the PS3, running alongside Resistance and Uncharted. Uncharted went for realism(Kinda), Resistance went after a sci-fi war setting and InFamous went with the super hero genre. The first game was alright, but it wasn't until inFamous 2 that the franchise hit it big. A new generation of consoles later and inFamous returns to hit the scene, with a new protagonist, smooth framerate and a new... nothing else, really.

 Remember Cole? Not many people do, but after his sacrifice only a few Conduits survived. Delsin Rowe, the new protagonist, soon discovers that he is a conduit too, with the power to copy other powers, which makes him a prime candidate for the DUP forces to capture him, like they do with other Conduits. Not that it matters, since Augustine, head of the DUP, and a very sadistic lass that uses Conduit powers to capture other Conduits, is trying to capture three escaped Conduits, even if she has to torture Delsin's entire tribe. So now Delsin, and his normie brother Reggie, join together to copy Augustine's powers in order to save their tribe from the effects of Augustine's powers. I actually really liked the story and the characters. Delsin is a bit of a prick, a delinquent that usually gets into trouble, a stark contrast with his cop brother Reggie, and they butt heads a lot, which makes their relationship quite endearing. It's interesting, because I think neither character would be all that interesting by themselves, but together? You want to see them interact and follow their journey. Secondary characters, like Fetch, are a bit 'safe', displaying somewhat cliched personalities you've already seen before, but they are decently written.

Enemy DUP forces are armed with with Concrete power, but they are no match for smoke.

 The game plays a lot like Infamous 2, maybe a bit too much like it. It's a big, open-world game that has you doing heroics, or villainous deeds, as you hone your powers. If you played any InFamous installment before, you'll be right at home here. Square does melee attacks, R2 can be used to shoot your weakest proyectile power, R1 is your missile equivalent, L2 aims, the touchpad is used to drain sources for energy(ammo), regenerating health, yadda yadda. Even the way you traverse the world is the same, with X doubling as a jump or a hovering power, with the added skill of being able to climb almost any surface by just mashing X button against a wall until Delsin gets to the top. It's pretty much the same game it's been since InFamous 1. The Karma system is pretty much the same, kill civilians, or surrendered enemies, to increase your bad Karma, or restrain enemies instead of killing them to earn good karma. Higher levels of Karma unlock the ability to purchase new karma-appropriate enhancements by spending collectible blast shards, same old, same old.

 That said, the game has expanded in one area. Delsin can copy powers, and unlike Cole who only got to merge a few Ice or Lava powers with his Electricity, Delsin gets entire new movesets. You start with Smoke, which you can recharge by draining any smoke source, and the power works exactly like Cole's electricity, but with Smoke. Instead of EMP grenades you get a smoke grenade, the electricity 'shotgun' is done with smoke, etc etc. Buut then you'll unlock Neon, recharged by draining Neon from sources such as Neon signs, which is a slower power but with sniping capabilities, and gives you the ability to run at lightspeed. Video can be recharged from antenas, and gives you slower, but stronger, melee attacks, better aerial traversal powers(Delsin grows wings!) and machine-gun like proyectiles. The last power, which people treat as a spoiler but is oh so obvious, is Concrete, which... sucks. You get it in the very last story mission, and if you've already done all the side content... there's no use for it and very few ways to drain it. I bet all these powers sound great, and they kinda are, but... there's no easy way to switch between powers besides finding a source and draining it. It can be a bit annoying when you want a particular power but there's no source nearby, so more often than not, you will not have the power you'd like for the appropriate situation.

 Impressive drawdistance and smooth framerate makes it a treat to explore.

 The game offers about 20 different story missions, but they go by very fast. The side content is a bit more meaty, with two islands divided in about 13 different zones that you can liberate from the DUP. Liberating a city means doing every single mission, and collecting every blast shard, in it and then doing the DUP Showdown mission. Blast Shards appear on the map as soon as you defeat the DUP SUV in the city, so they are very simple to collect. As for the side missions, they are very repetitive. You'll be doing a lot of graffiti art, using the Dual Shock 4's motion sensors, finding 'hidden Agents', destroying cameras and hidden cameras and not much else. There are about 6 different mission types that you'll be repeating over and over and over again. Then there are about 10 different Karma missions, 5 evil and 5 good, that don't help liberate the city but help you raise your Karma gauge, and this are simple things like pressing triangle to save injured civilians or killing protesters.

 When it boils down to it, InFamous Second Son is slightly disappointing. Besides the new cast of characters, might as well play inFamous 2 and you'd play pretty much the same exact game. The repetitive side content didn't bother me too much because the game itself, like Infamous 2 before it, is a blast to play, and traversing the city with all your powers is so much fun. It's a shame the game is so short, which makes the lackluster side-content stand out so much more.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Enter the Matrix

 It's very glitchy inside the Matrix.

Two pills, one game/

 Enter the Matrix is a game I used to... love when I was younger. I don't remember if I knew about how badly it scored, but man, I had a blast with it. I just began a playthrough as Niobe, although I plan on doing both characters, and boy, is it janky!

 Movement is very spotty, it's impossible to move precisely, and the running animation is way too exaggerated. Combat is a mixed bag, animations are very smooth, but the feedback isn't very convincing... although it's still fun in a 'this is so bad it's good' kinda way. Shooting is just lame though. Oh, and the double-audio-at-different-speeds PS2 glitch is sublime.

 Basically, I know the game is bad, but I'm having a weird kind of fun with it. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's just so bad it's good, I dunno yet!

Review #549: Tomb Raider Legend

 Still no tombs to be found, but at least there's a legend or two!

Oh, this Lara is pretty badass alright.

 After the spectacular failure that Angel of Darkness was, mostly due to Eidos poor planning, Core Design got the boot from their prized Tomb Raider and Crystal Dynamics was brought in. Legend would mark the beginning of their new trilogy.

 In a strange twist, Legend's continuity takes quite a few pointers from the movies. Missing parent? Check. Yesmen under her command and in continuous contact thanks to headsets? Check. Even Croft manor was modeled after its movie counterpart! I liked this somewhat new direction, and Crystal Dynamics managed to make a sort-of-interesting tale. That said, the supporting cast wasn't very interesting. Lara's henchmen were lame and the villains tried too hard, but at least Lara had a very charming personality, plenty of snark and badass one-liners.

Puzzles are simple, but entertaining.

 Gun-toting action, environmental puzzles and platforming puzzles are all here and accounted for, with a bigger emphasis on the shooting. It's a more action-based take on Tomb Raider anniversary, trading the more complex puzzles for shooting-bike segments. The game itself plays pretty much like Anniversary, but without the Rage mechanic. L1 will automatically lock-on to the nearest baddie and R1 is your trigger finger. R3 lets you aim in first person. Lara always carries her unlimited-ammo dual pistols and can carry a single alternate gun, which is usually a shotgun, automatic rifle or a SMG. She can also carry up to three medikits, but enemies drop them pretty regularly and reloading a checkpoint completely refills Lara's health. Shootouts are fun, Lara is very acrobatic and these encounters are very fast-paced.

 The platforming is, for the most part, pretty entertaining. There're a lot of exciting segments in which Lara must jump from edge to edge, on platforms, columns or use her rope to hang-on to grappling points. There're a very few segments in which the camera might get in your way, but it works pretty well most of the time. There's a single QTE segment on every stage(Except one) and they are as unnecessary as QTEs have always been, but at least they are mercifully short. The horrid 'press triangle not to fall' mechanic is here too, sometimes upon grabbing onto something Lara will lose her grip and you must press triangle not to fall. It's a dumb mechanic.

As graceful as ever.

 While environmental puzzles are fewer, smaller and simpler than in Anniversary, there're still plenty of hidden relics to find which will reward the player with unlockable costumes, of which there are even more than there were on Anniversary. It's also a shorter game, clocking under 6 hours on my first playthrough.

 While most of the game is pretty darn great, you should be warned that the game is rife with glitches and bugs. There's a very famous bug in the Sea Serpent stage which can render the boss battle unwinnable unless you reset the stage. On the first snow stage, after activating the Tesla Machine, the broken doors might become impossible to traverse, which means there's no way back up unless you've got an earlier save or restart the stage. These are but a couple, there're more, and I came across the Tesla Machine one, so everyone will probably have their progress momentarily halted on a different glitch at some point on their playthrough.

Shooting mechanics are very simple, but work well.

 I liked Legend quite a bit. The more purer third-person shooting, without the Rage mechanic, was fun and the bike stages were relatively decent, but something about the smaller puzzles didn't feel quite right in a Tomb Raider game. All the bugs and glitches are quite annoying too. All in all, Legend is pretty good, but I think Anniversary has a better mix of Puzzles, platforming and shooting which make it the superior game.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #548: Prince of Persia - The Fallen King

 The only thing that fell here was the Prince.

Sure, making a sequel aimed at kids is gonna sell well.

 I was wary when I approached Forgotten Sands on the DS, for I knew it was a stylus-only gimmick game that improved upon The Fallen King, but it wound up being pretty darn good, so I was cautiously optimistic when it came to The Fallen King. Sadly, all optimism was crushed very early into this game, for it's the Prince's most boring adventure yet.

 The game is set after Prince of Persia(2008)'s DLC's non-ending, with the Prince setting out to gather help in order to defeat Ahriman. Early into the game he comes across Zal, a mysterious wizard that's trying to defeat the land's King, for he has fallen under Ahriman's corruption and now threatens the world. This unlikely duo will travel together throughout 6 different worlds, and about 40 stages, combining their abilities in order to progress. The premise isn't too bad, but the delivery is dumb. And that's probably because, as you can see on the cover, they went for a very childish direction that's present in both the art and the script. Underwhelming, disappointing and senseless, why would you make a sequel to a game that was aimed at teenages and above but now shift the target audience? It alienates both audiences, children won't have played the previous game and the older demographic won't care about this one. Truly idiotic.

Oh, this grapple-blocks will be something you'll get used to seeing over and over and over and over again.

 But whatever, games aimed at children can be good games in their own right... this isn't one of those though. Firstly, the controls, everything is done with the stylus. Tap to walk, tap to jump, tap to attack, tap to slide upwards or downwards a wall, tap(and hold) to block... it's a lot of actions tied to tapping, and the game does a wonky job of recognizing what you want to do. The acrobatics just aren't very fun when the Prince isn't doing exactly what you want to do, and expect most deaths to come from sloppy responses to your inputs. Not that it matters, since stages in this game are BORING, it's incredible how they managed to make platforming in Prince of Persia boring, but they did so.

 It probably has to do with the fact that there's very little creativity in them. Most of it went to the puzzles, which are mostly done in the form of obstacles that Zal must clear for the Prince. Simply hold any button and tap to make Zal shoot energy, or rub against surfaces to put out fires, or turn on portals, etc, etc. Zal's powers should've added more depth to the game, but they don't. You'll have used so many grappling points by the game's end that it stopped being fun, and having to rub on stuff wears out its welcome pretty early into the adventure.

Twice the enemies, double the snorefest.

 What also adds to the tedium is how slow progress is. In every world, midway through a stage Zal will get corrupted and you'll be kicked out of the stage and forced to replay an older stage in order to rescue him and earn a new power. Sure, you'll be able to clear a few obstacles that you couldn't before, but it sucks having to replay a stage and then having to redo part of the staged you were kicked out of. Big, Yellow doors also hide health upgrades behind them and they require a ton of coins, so you'll probably have to replay a stage or two at some point if you want every health upgrade. The game isn't fun, and making the player have to retread old ground is not a good thing.

 Controls? Mediocre leaning to poor. Platforming? Boring with slightly unresponsive controls to boot. Puzzles? Equally so. What about the combat? Boring too. Just tap on yellow guys to defeat them, block red guys' attacks and then counter-slash them, tap on black enemies to push/defeat them with Zal. Later on you'll face bigger monsters that require both Zal and the Prince's abilities to defeat but they just act as time sinks. Wait for the Mole-monster to slam three times against the ground then freeze him, with Zal, and then slash him, twice, in order to defeat him. Tap on the flying eye to shoot at him with Zal until he falls over and then slash him with the prince, twice. Wait for the Wizard to shoot the fire ball and then shoot at him with Zal to deflect the fire ball so that you can slash him with the Prince, twice. These battles aren't fun, they're just boring. Just like the rest of the game.

The combat looks dynamic on screenshots but is anything but.

 Prince of Persia - The Fallen King is a bland, boring game that fails to provide anything of interest for fans of the franchise. If you want something like this but that is actually decent, go with Forgotten Sands on the DS, which follows the same stylus-gimmick but to a better result. If you want Prince on the go, the PSP's got you covered. Just avoid this one.
 3.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tomb Raider Legend

 Well... it's a catchier title than 'reboot' or 'now with a new developer'.

Looking kinda villainous there, Lara.

 Well, since the Uruguayan customs screwed up again and messed up the package, I'm rushing through Tomb Raider Legend to make sure the game is completely functional.

 I've played the first few levels, and the game is pretty dope. It's pretty much exactly like Anniversary but with less puzzles and platforming and more shooting. The bike sequence(s?) also add up to the fact, and how alternate weapons work: You can carry up to one other weapon and seamlessly pick them up from fallen enemies.

 It's good, really good. Different from previous Tomb Raider games, since the emphasis is on the action and not the exploring, but it's very enjoyable.

Review #547: Tomb Raider Anniversary

 Double the bits, double the breast size.

Now with extra polygons.

 Tomb Raider was a great game, but let´s be honest here, even by the PS2 era´s standards it had aged a lot, requiring a more retro-taste to be enjoyed. But Crystal Dynamics had proven themselves with Tomb Raider Legends, and thus they were tasked with remaking the first game. The end result is surprisingly good, despite its flaws.

 The story is pretty much the same as it was on the first game, Lara is enticed into helping NATLA find some Atlantean relics, gets double-crossed and then finishes the job by herself. One thing I would have wanted from the original was a bit more story, and in Anniversary we get that. There are more cutscenes that flesh out Larson and Phillip, the first two bosses, and even Lara gets more time to showcase her personality. She is a bit more of an unwilling hero in this game, showing doubt when it comes to finishing off her enemies, but it kinda works considering how most enemies in this game were, and still are in the remake, animals.

Mummies don´t explode upon death this time around.

 Alright, first of all... this is not a 1:1 remake, almost everything has changed, kinda. You will recognize a ton of elements, stages, objects and the such, except that  they look gorgeous now, but most puzzles are entirely different. Take the gods´ keys level, where you have to visit various rooms named after gods, like Thor, and get four keys to open a door at the bottom. That is still here, even the electric-orb room is back... but the way you clear the puzzles is completely different, even if you have the same end goal of getting artifacts. Everything is familiar... but it is also different. Relying too much on your knowledge from the previous game might even bite you in the back, take the three-cogs puzzle near the beginning of the game... I spent hours fumbling about searching for the third cog, since in the original you needed to place all three cogs in order to operate the mechanism... but now you need to get two cogs, put them in place, navigate the newly operational machinery in order to finally get the final cog! I found the new puzzles to be, on the whole, fairer, more sensible and more fun... even if at a few times I was lost on where to go next.

 Combat is easily the game´s blandest mechanic. R1 shoots your infinite-ammo guns, L1 locks on an enemy, you can toggle first-person, static aiming with the right analog stick,  X jumps and circle dodges. There are ammo-consuming Shotgun, Uzis and Magnums but they are useless, or rather, unnecessary. Firstly, every single human boss is a simple QTE section. Remember Larrson and Phillip? QTEs. Remember when you had to get your equipment back from the three stooges? QTEs. Then there´re the beast bosses, like the giant T-Rex, in which case you shoot to enrage them, then dodge their incoming attack and use the ´dodge-and-shoot mechanic´ to cause damage. So, y´see, other guns only make the rage bar fill faster, not do more actual damage, which makes other weapons unnecessary.

 Combat is a bit bland, but it´s not too bad.

 Normal enemies are just as lame, you just shoot at them until they die or get enraged, in which case the ´dodge-and-shoot´ mechanic instantly kill them. It is basically a QTE, since when enraged enemies and bosses charge and you the screen gets a red tint, indicating that you must dodge with circle, and then, in slow motion, two crosshairs will slowly home in over the enemy, once they merge together and turn red you press R1 and BOOM, you just killed the enemy or caused damage to the boss. Optional weapons have silly ammo caps too, and there is a surplus of ammo encouraging their use, but you don´t need to.

 The platforming fares much better, and it did some thing a few months before Uncharted 1 hit the scene. The whole climbing over various ledges and jumping from ledge to ledge? Tomb Raider Anniversary did it first. It is not perfect though, in order to reach some ledges you have to press and hold X to perform a longer, higher jump, which is silly since there is not a single time you´ll want a shorter jump. It is just a way to kill you more often since you forgot to hold the X button. Some times Lara will even lose her balance upon reaching a ledge, so you have to press triangle in order to get her to get a grip before she falls to her death, which is dumb. Dropping off platforms in order to cling to the edge, seems to be a gamble at times, since sometimes she will refuse to grab on to the edge and just fall to her doom. Back to ripping on Uncharted, Anniversary had Lara using a rope to pull objects, swing on hooks and all that hooplah over 10 years before Uncharted 4 arrived. And it works great.

 At least QTEs are only used on a few boss battles

 The games deserves to be commended on all the extras it has. You can search for hidden artifacts, in order to unlock cheats, or find relics in order to unlock many costumes... which sadly can only be worn on replays and not an entire playthrough. The Croft Manor returns, and now it is its own entire level, with tons of puzzles that almost feels like a mini-metroidvania, as you find your guns and the rope in order to access new keys and objects. It is short, but very fun.

 While the game is very easy, you will die a lot. It is easy because dying refills your entire life bar, so it is not weird to reach the final stage with over 70 healing items, and the checkpoints are very generous. What will kill you are the many jumps. You will die a ton of times while figuring out where to jump to next, figuring out if that was a length that Lara could jump or not, double checking if maybe you forgot to hold X and that is why she did not make it or even because the camera is not very good when clinging on ledges. Sometimes you will have to remember that there was a ledge or platform behind you, since you lose all 360 degrees of camera control when clinging. This also happens on a few columns, in which it´s impossible to turn the camera to the right angle for the jump. The game is fun, puzzles are entertaining, controls are smooth, movement is smooth so even though I died countless times, I was not getting frustrated... if only the loading times were not so lengthy. On their own, they´re OK, but taking into account just how easy it is to die... all the time you spend waiting for the stage to reload starts becoming increasingly annoying.

Combat is just spectacle to add spice to the adventure

 Tomb Raider is really good despite its shortcomings. It speaks volumes of its quality when you are willing to endure so many loading screens, brought upon from various deserved and undeserved deaths. Levels are large and fun to explore as you solve the many, many puzzles. Combat is lame, but it is far from being bad, and it helps add some action to the adventure, even though it is very clear that the focus is on the explorations.

 For my part, if I ever feel like revisiting Tomb Raider I will stick to this remake. The story is more polished, levels are better and the puzzles are more engaging. Being such a different game also makes it so that it does not replace the original game, but rather, stands beside it. This is not a replacement, but a modern take on an aging game. And it is a great one.
 8.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tomb Raider Anniversary

 Moving sideways instead of onwards.

Lara is sporting more polygons than before, praise the gods.

 Well, I could've continued with Tomb Raider 2, but instead I'm skipping all the way into Crystal Design's second Tomb Raider game, the remake, since I feel I'll be able to better compare both games this way.

 I started the 'Lara's Home' mode, because that's always been the best mode, and was pleasantly surprised with how it was it's own fully fledged level, with puzzles and what not. I also played a bit of the first level.

 The game seems very good, although Lara seems a bit too loosey-goosey for my tastes. It's like playing Uncharted but with no traction. Lara's moveset is smaller, which is a good thing, as jump distances won't be so hard to judge.. I hope. Although the game seems rather fun, hopefully there'll be less animals to kill and more real threats.

Month Overview: March 2018

 Tally:
Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands(Wii) 8.5
Galactic Wrestling - Featuring Ultimate MUSCLE 8.0
Disaster Report 6.0
Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands(PS3) 8.5
Grandia Xtreme 4.0
Prince of Persia(2008) 8.0
Nightmare Creatures II 3.0
Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End 9.0
Samurai Shodown Anthology 8.0
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto 6.0
Ape Escape 2 9.0
The King of Fighters Collection - The Orochi Saga  8.0
The King of Fighters '99 8.5
The King of Fighters 00/01 9.0
The King of Fighters 02/03 8.5
Tomb Raider 6.5


 That's a ton of games, yo! Busy month was busy, but I managed to knock quite a few games out of my backlog. Many great games too, with the occasional stinker. Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm was a personal disappointment, since it was one of the few games out of 'current-gen' that I really wanted to play, but it felt like a game developed by people that were tired of making Naruto games and just wanted to get it done and over with. I also cleared about 80% of the King of Fighters Saga, now I'm only missing XV. King of Fighters is great, yo!

 Runner-up:

 It was tough picking from both games, but at the end of the day, the game of March 2018 had better game design, even if I enjoyed both games immensely. Ape Escape 2 is quite a little gem, one of the quirkiest platformers out there, with tight controls and a great premise coupled with great level design and gameplay.

 Game of March 2018:

 Uncharted 4 may not be my favorite Uncharted game, but it's a close second. It's a technical masterpiece on a graphical level, and the gameplay is top-notch. Naughty Dog once again proved that they are on top of their game.

Review #546: Tomb Raider

 She's definitely too old for this crap.

Her breasts are not what's big in her... it's her head.

 Ah! Tomb Raider, a classic among action-adventure games that brought forwards videogame's first sex symbol and first recognizable female heroine. It was subject to rave reviews, but time has passed, and maybe this tomb is not worth raiding...

 Lara, raider extraordinaire gets tasked with retrieving an old artifact and thus Lara's international adventure begins. An adventure light on story elements, although they're there, in which Lara proceeds to uncover the secrets of a legendary city. It's a simple set-up that worked wonders at the time, although I think a bit more story would've helped. Still, for a game of its era, it's too be expected.

Stages are fairly complex and feature a lot of platforms and locked doors.

 Lara is a contradictory mixture of nimble and stiff. She's got all kinds of moves, even some that you don't even need to use or are taught how to do, like jumping, running jump, turn-around-roll, diving jump, grabbing jumps(To cling to a wall or crack), jumping backwards, dropping backwards while holding out her hands to cling onto something.... there're a lot of moves and there's a lot of platforming involved. When the platforming gets going, it's pretty good, but the game loves to place ambiguous lengths, that kill you if you fail the jump, and it gets a while before you get the hang of running jumps and simple jumps, since misjudging a distance my get you killed if you over-shoot it. Running jumps are particularly nasty, you need to walk until Lara hits the edge of the platform, then take a backstep and then, and only then, are you guaranteed that Lara will make the running jump correctly.

 It's a bit more cumbersome, although the game was made with this precision in mind, since you've got tank controls, which don't get in the way of the platforming too much, but will annoy you during shootouts. Trying to pick up items can be a bit finicky too, since you need to be at just the right distance. Some of the jumps in the game are just evil, and the controls responsiveness can be debatable at times. Some of the traps are just nasty and you won't know they are there until you trigger them. It gets particularly bad when you learn that save crystals are placed at designated areas and are a one time use only. Their distribution is questionable as well, levels are very lengthy and you might come across a surplus of unnecessary savespots... or be forced to finish multiple tough sections back-to-back before being allowed to save again. The game starts off easy enough, but the last few levels are brutal.

The first stages are easy, just wait until you hit stage 6...

 Combat was a huge point of contention for me, firstly, most enemies are just plain, ol' boring animals. It feels more like a animal hunter than a tomb raider, and it doesn't help that enemies are bullet sponges that just charge at you. Lara automatically aims at the nearest animal, but dodging is pretty tough. I just relied on side jumps and back-jumps... which won't help you on some of the less spacious areas. Some of the combat scenarios are just unfair, so much so that you should exploit the AI by hiding somewhere they can't see you or reach you and shoot away. The few human enemies, who actually sport guns, are a bit tougher since they can shoot from afar, and since the dodging is so bland... it feels as if its luck if you'll get hit or not. Luckily you can find limited ammo for Uzis, Magnums and a Shotgun to even the odds, as well as collect medikits to heal yourself. Regardless, the combat won't be your main source of death, besides a few instances of not expecting to get ambushed in enclosed arenas without your guns out.

 The toughest enemy you'll face is, probably, the camera. Many a times it won't pick the best angles for your jumps, which kinda sucks. L1 can be used to look in first person, albeit Lara can't move in this mode, but it won't be of much help. It's not a terrible camera, but it's far from optimal.

For whatever reason, Lara's in-game model has no ponytail.

 Yeesh... Tomb Raider 1 hasn't aged very well. Regardless, as unfair, as clunky and as stiff as it could get... it can also be quite fun. Having so many moves at your disposal is quite amusing, and lent itself to some very exciting platforming segments for its era. I can appreciate what the game meant, but you have to make a few of concessions to enjoy it in this day and age.
 6.5 out of 10

Review #545: The King of Fighters 02/03

 The King tags into the battlefield.

 There's no stopping the King o' Fighters, and thus now we get the next two installments, 2002, being a 'dream match' just like '98 and 2003, the harbringer of the new Ash Saga. Both games are very different in mechanics, which makes it a rather interesting package. One harkens to the old KoF games, while the other one is a step into the future.

 First up is The King of Fighters 2002, a celebratory game of the NESTS saga, bundling up characters past and present, even dead characters return. Sadly, the roster is quite lacking. We get Yashiro, Shermie and Chris again, as well as a few old faces, but... it's missing characters like Ling and Jhun. How can you celebrate NESTS when you're missing some of its iconic characters? I was quite disappointed with the cast. For whatever reason they also did away with the neat Striker system, going back to the 3 on 3 team format, which once again, is a disappointment. There was no need to regress the series' evolution, specially considering that Striker fights were already 3 on 3, but with an added mechanic.

 Modes are: Team, Team VS Player, Single, Single VS Player, Practice and Challenge. Challenge is a set of Survival mode, 40 time challenges and Team and Single survival modes. In these modes you can unlock 4 bonus characters, but be warned, they are tough unlocks! All in all, 2002 is a disappointing celebration to what I feel is the best saga in the franchise. Further down the line a much better release, The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited March would be released that would get a much better character roster, so there's no need to bother with this one...

 ...if only it didn't come bundled with The King of Fighters 2003. The 3-on-3 battles return with a twist, now you can tag in-and-out with either partner in the midst of battle. It's a great addition, and something new to mark the introduction of the Ash Saga. We get fantastic new characters, like Ash(Fight me, he is my favorite charge character), Shen Woo, Duo Lon, Adelheid and also introduces great characters from Garou, like Tizoc and Gato. Terry gets his fantastic Garou redesign as well! There're a few neat things, like whoever character you picked first in the character select screen becomes the 'leader' and gains access to an exclusive 2-gauge super move.

 The Modes are Tag, Tag VS Player, Team, Team VS Player, Single, Single VS Player, Practice and Survival. The King of Fighters 2003 was a top-notch addition to the series, although sadly the tag mechanics would get ditched in XII. Besides, as much as I enjoy 2003, the next game, XI, has a much better character roster, like seriously, where's Kula?, and perfected the Tag mechanics.

 All in all, The King of Fighters 02/03 is a neat package, although 2002 is a bit disappointing and 2003 would be surpassed by XI. Not a bad purchase at all, I mean it's friggin' The King of Fighters, but there're better alternatives to both games available.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #544: The King of Fighters '00/'01

 How many Kings of Fighters have we got already?

Should've just made original art. Meshing both artworks together made for an ugly result.

 Not as meat as the Orochi collection, this 2-disc monster includes KoF 2000 and 2001, the last game made by SNK as we knew them and the first one developed by Playmore. Back in the day these games were subject to poor reviews, mostly citing the ugly graphics, because paid reviewers always seemed to value graphics over substance.

 Both games offer the same modes: Team Arcade, Team VS Player, Single Arcade, Single VS Player, Practice and Party Mode, which is a Survival mode in which you recover health as you land hits, but also start to gradually lose health once a timer reaches zero. It's the bare minimum, but by this stage that's what we've come to expect from SNK. At least there're tons upon tons of playable characters.

Ralf and Terry won't ever miss a KoF.

 The King of Fighters 2000 is one of my favorite entries in the entire series. It plays pretty much exactly like '99, which means the Striker system that I liked so much, and it introduces a bunch of great new characters like Vanessa, Seth and Lee. But the main attractions are Strikers, whichever character gets stuck on the fourth position becomes the Striker, but this time around there're plenty of alternate strikers, mostly drawing from older SNK games or even unused character designs! The soundtrack in this game is glorious and it has ZERO load times. Thank the gods!

 The King of Fighters 2001 is not as good, but it's not bad either. Unpopular opinion, I actually adore the art for this game. This game concludes the NESTS saga that I liked so much, and it also brought changes to the Striker formula, now you can sacrifice playable characters in order to have a smaller energy gauge to fill as well as more than one striker. I guess that change is alright, although I didn't particularly care for it. On the other hand, Strikers now cost an energy bar to use, which I didn't like. At all. The new characters are relatively bland, Angel is one of the worst designs in the franchise, Maylee is forgettable, K9999... got retconned out of existence and Foxy is alright. No load times here either!

Some things never change. Like Chang's sprite.

 I guess you could say that both games are just more of the same, and I wouldn't blame you for it, but I've a lot of love for the NESTS saga and 2000 is easily one of the most polished and enjoyable games in the KoF franchise. The sad truth is that there's no real reason to own this version over an easily emulated rom, but if you want to own legit copies, this one is as good as having an arcade machine.
 9.0 out of 10

Review #543: The King of Fighters '99

 The King of Fighters gets awesome.

Meet K'. He defines badassery.

 As I previously claimed, King of Fighters '99 was the game that made a fan of the series, and getting to revisit that game again... well, now I remember why.

 Before starting out you should know that KoF '99 on the PS1 is a very skimpy offering. Team VS Player, Team Arcade, Single Arcade, Single VS, Practice and Survival are all you get, alongside an art gallery. That's it. I was also disappointed to find that there was no move-list while ingame, which hurts a lot. On the plus side '99 introduced class into the series, the new characters K', Maxima, Whip, Jhun... they are all great new additions that look incredible. Well, Bao is a stinker, but 1 out of 8ish is nothing. A few returning characters, like Kyo, Ralf and Clark got new duds and they look great too, '99 did a great job at making characters look fantastic. I'd argue that this game was the one that set the standard for what to expect out of new characters coming forward.

Kryzalid is not as bad as previous SNK bosses.

 Extra and Advance modes where done with, now it plays exclusively like 'Advance' but with a few tweaks. Teams are made up of four members now, the fourth member taking the 'Striker' function, a character you can summon to perform an attack and leave. You start with 3 stocks and get a new one every time you lose. Dodges, knock-back attack and all that hoopla remains the same, but why fix what ain't broken? This is the best King of Fighters has been yet, and we haven't even gotten into Tagging yet!

 As great as this game is, the PS1 version came with a huge drawback: Loading times. There're somewhat lengthy, albeit not too intrusive, loading screens before each round, understandably since characters change, and it's something you'll have to deal with if you want to enjoy The King of Fighters on PS1. In my opinion, it's not too bad, although the seamless play of the Arcade version makes it the superior choice.

Ralf and Clark finally get different clothes!

 The King of Fighters '99 is a top-notch fighting game, and it's a great addition to anyone's PS1 library. That said, this is not the game at its best, the loading times do put a bit of a dampener on gameplay, but I think it's something you can learn to live with.

 8.5 out of 10

Review #542: The King of Fighters Collection - The Orochi Saga

 A bundle of fighting game nostalgia.

Stylish... the way KoF ought to be!

 Welcome to The Orochi Saga, a collection of five different games: King of Fighters 94, 95, 96, 97 and fan-favorite 98. As with other SNK collections, these are Arcade Ports with very few bells and whistles, the standard bonus art, as well as 'challenges' and bonus arranged music.

 A thing to keep in mind is that, being arcade ports, the difficulty can be rather high, even on the easiest setting. Continuing doesn't even grant you the 'Service' SNK games were known for! Modes are also very lacking, each game has only Arcade, VS Player and a new, somewhat limited, training mode. 'Challenges' are played on KoF 98 and they are silly stuff, like not being able to see the enemies' life bars. The games run relatively well, although the initial loading times are rather lengthy, luckily there's very little in-game loading, the worst culprit being '97. Lastly, controls feel a bit unresponsive on a few games, since they require very precise inputs, you can't just do the shoryuken motion with Right, Down, Down-Right, Right+Punch, you gotta end it exactly at down-right.

Fatal Fury veterans reunite on the battlefield.

 '94  was the very first King of Fighters(Well, technically, Fatal Fury was the first one) and it introduced the staple 3 vs 3 team matches. There's no arrange team so you gotta play as pre-selected teams. Your energy bar fills very slowly when you get hit, so you have to charge it by holding down a couple of buttons, and there's also a dodge move and a knock back move. Seeing these old sprites has its charm, but 94 is not a game you'll spend much time on.

 '95 is pretty much more of the same, but now you can select any three characters and play as a custom team. It also introduced Iori Yagami, the series break-out character. If you liked '94 you'll like '95 even more.

 Poor Sports-Team, only two appearances in over 10 games! And you can own both of them with this disc!

 '96 was the series's first major face-lift. Sure, a lot of sprites were redrawn in '95, but not as many. Sprites are much better, and characters look more badass than ever before... except Benimaru, who lost his neck. The dodge move turned into a dodge. All things considered, '96 was a great game, a great roster and an overarching story that began in 95 and promised to continue the next year...

 '97 shakes things up, now you can play in either Advance or Extra Mode. Extra mode plays pretty much like previous games, but Advance gives you a more streamlined energy gauge, one that charges as you hit and get hit. Since energy stocks are a thing now, you can be more strategic with your team, you may want a character to build up energy stocks for other to use. I liked 97 a ton, and it looked like the series was only improving.

Yamazaki's crazy streak continues in King of Fighters.

 '98 is the final game in the disc, and is one of the most beloved KoF games. Can't say I share the sentiment, since my heart belongs to the NESTS saga, and even Ash's saga was more entertaining that the Orochi one. Regardless, this is a Dream game, it plays just like '97 but brings back almost every playable character from previous years. Honestly, there're better versions of 98 available, even on the PS2, but this is probably the more affordable one. Although this version comes with a nasty but tolerable, audio bug in which the announcer will say 'winner' or 'perfect', depending on how the last round ending, when announcing the start of a new round.

 Orochi Saga was... something I didn't expect to like as much as I did. I didn't care much about KoF until K' brought the NESTS saga, but these first games were quite enjoyable, if to a lesser degree than what is to come. Minor shortcomings aside, this is a great collection to own if you're a fan of King of Fighters.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #541: Ape Escape 2

 Worth going bananas for.

Just a taste of what's to come!

 Ape Escape is one of Sony's most untapped franchises, heck, look at the box, this one was published by Ubisoft instead of Sony themselves, and it's one of the few games that we actually got overseas. What is Ape Escape? They are platform games with a twist, or two, firstly, the collectibles are monkeys and secondly, the games make extensive use of both analog sticks.

 Jimmy, the protagonist, messes up which causes Specter, the evil albino monkey, to regain power and thus empower and control other monkeys, 300 in all. Now the monkeys are going bananas all over the world and it's up to Jimmy to catch them all again. To say that the game doesn't take itself seriously is an understatement, heck, monkeys can be found wearing the most ridiculous costumes and doing ridiculous stuff. Nothing was laugh-out-loud funny, but it's endearing nonetheless.

Stages are beautiful and fun to explore. You'll have to use your gadgets in order to clear them.

 The game is divided into 20 or so small stages, and each one has a its own amount of monkeys to catch. You don't need to catch every monkey in order to proceed, but you do need to collect every monkey in order to fight the true final boss and unlock Spike, Ape Escape 1's protagonist, as a playable character. He plays just like Jimmy but has no cutscenes and has access to all gadgets from the get-go. One tiny issue I had is that the game forces you out of a stage as soon as you captured the minimum amount of monkeys required to proceed, as a completionist like myself this was a bit annoying since it meant having to return to the stage and retread old ground. And just wait until you find out that you are not really done, defeating the (fake)final boss unlocks the final gadget... and 1-2 monkeys on every previous stage, so I did every stage about 3 times. Heck, sometimes stages have monkeys that can't be caught since you haven't gotten the right gadget yet! The game is a blast so I didn't mind it too much, but it would've been nice being able to exit the stage whenever I felt like.

 Controls are fairly intuitive, the left analog stick moves Jimmy around and the right analog stick uses your equipped gadget. The net, used to catch monkeys, works just like the energy baton: move the right analog stick wherever you want to attack. You spin the right analog stick in order to use the gyro copter or the running wheel, or you tilt backwards in order to use the bananarang, etc. There're about 10 gadgets, and they can be put on any face button for quick access. Sadly, as you can tell, there're many more gadgets than buttons, so expect to return to the gadget equip screen fairly often. It's just a button press away, Select, but I can see it annoying a few people. Lastly, R1 and R2 jump, L1 is used to position the camera behind you, L2 goes into first person and pressing both analog sticks lets Jimmy crawl on the ground, for stealth purposes or dodging.

Bonus character Spike plays just like Jimmy but has his own voice clips.

 Since both analog sticks are used for gameplay the camera can be a bit finicky, but the L1 button works well enough most of the time. The camera during boss battles can be worse though, since it's easy to lose focus on a few bosses. Regardless, during normal gameplay you can manage just fine with the L1 button.

 Peppered through every stage, and hidden inside enemies, are coins which can be collected and spent on a Gatcha machine in order to unlock a huge plethora of extras, including three minigames. It's way more addictive than it has any right to be.

Stealth is not mandatory, but you might skip on the monkeys' shenanigans if you alert them.

 Ape Escape 2 is one of the finest platform games on the PS2. The gameplay is great fun, thanks to its fun mechanics as well as great level design. It's a bit on the easy side, but there's a lot of monkeys to collect, a lot of stages to traverse and a lot of silly extras to unlock.
 9.0 out of 10