The DLC Report: Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid Season 1 Lord Zedd

 Season 1 is over, and what've we got?

 With Lord Zedd's release, Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid is finally what it should've been from the start. 15 characters, including a Blue ranger, a decent Story-Mode, voices(including actors from the original show) and even spark hit effects when getting hit. Now THIS is a release I can get behind, which will make Limited Game Run's release all the more worth it.

 Lord Zedd is a fun character to use, he has great reach, and is easy to combo with. His super involved a Putty running from behind an enemy's back which can be a great mind-game tool. And, for a change, he's actually got a pretty decent gold-colored alt, which makes my Gold Team(Jason, Trey and Zedd) complete.

 Whether you purchased the DLC or not, the game also got patched with a bevy of balance changes, a few involving comboing and magic-series, which gives the game a slightly different feel with a few characters, nothing us casuals should get concerned with, however. It also includes the conclusion to the Story Mode. It has brand new cutscenes, and the conclusion is satisfying even if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. That said, the game pits you as and against Mighty Morphin' Pink Ranger and Lord Drakkon Evo II, y'know, paid DLC skins, which is rather lame of the developers. I'm a sucker and I pre-ordered the complete edition so I actually own those costumes, but I can't help but feeling like it's rather lame.

 All in all, Battle for the Grid is finally on the state it should've been released in. The game is fun, there's finally a decent amount of characters(Even if it panders WAY TOO MUCH to Mighty Morphin' fans) and you can get quite a bit of mileage out of the Story Mode. For future updates, I hope we get more Options(like a flippin' difficulty setting) and more color palettes for each character.

 8.0 out of 10

Review #680: The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors

 At least the title makes sense this time around.

 Picture a young me. A very young young me. There I was, going through a newly found fountain of games via SNES emulation, and thus, I came across this thing called ' The Ninja Warriors Once again'. It was weird, man, a single-plane beat'em up in which you played as cyborg ninjas, well, only the red kunoichi looked anything like a Ninja. But it was loads of fun, yo! And now, Tengo Project decided to remaster the game for modern consoles. And it's glorious. The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors is a brilliant remake that's ought to be played by anyone that loves retro games.

 As previously stated, this is a single-plane beat'em up game, which can get a while getting used to, as well as to how slow your basic movement speed is. It's not like most beat'em ups, that's for sure. In the original game you could play as three different Ninja robots, the blue Ninja, the Red Kunoichi or the grey scythes-for-arms thing. This remaster adds two new characters, the petite, large-breasted Yaksha and the massive metal mountain, that can change into a gun-on-legs mode, Raiden. Using these two new characters is a bit of a bummer since you need to clear the game twice, but they are completely different from the other three, so they are quite worth it. As a matter of fact, all five characters are incredibly different from each other, and each one has their own learning curve and strategies. Like, I got the hang of the blue guy pretty easily, and I can clear the game just fine with him, while I still struggle with the other four. Thankfully we get infinite continues, limited only by a checkpoint system, and you can change characters on death.

 The game is tough but fair. Well, for the most part. 90% of the game is a blast, but the final boss is incredibly cheap since he can't be harmed directly, but rather, you have to throw enemies against it. I died a couple of times with my blue guy until I learned that I could angle his up-throws by using diagonal-up-left and diagonal-up-right on the digital pad. And that brings me to another issue, while you only have a single attack button, character movesets are very large.. but there's no in-game moveset list. I swear, every time I picked up the game I learned a new move with my blue by. Or take Yaksha, if you jump and kick she'll perform a flying kick, but if you try to experiment you'll learn that if you press Down+Attack after landing the flying kick, she'll follow up with another kick. But only if you press down+kick. And I learned this by chance, since nowhere in the game can you find this stuff out, which is very disappointing considering how much potential each character has! Heck, I'm still not sure exactly how I'm making Raiden turn around or turn into his robot mode.

 But really, despite only having two buttons(Three if you count the super move) each character has a ton of tools to their disposal. For instance, let's talk about my boy, the blue ninja. The attack button performs a simple punch-into-nunchaku combo BUT if you have energy on your energy gauge, you can press up+attack before he takes out his nunchaku to deliver a powerful shockwave attack. You can also tap down+attack before the nunchaku comes out to perform a kick. Attacking while crouched performs a pretty different attack string that ends with a kick. Holding up on the direcional pad will let you use energy-consuming moves, this is true for every character, in the case of Ninja, he can use powerful nunchaku attacks until his gauge runs out. Down+Jump will make Ninja perform a downward elbow attack, but you can also tap Jump to dash forward, if you don't press anything, Ninja will attack with his elbow when he comes into contact with an enemy, or you can press Attack to deliver a kick. Dashing is a great way to close-in and grab the enemy. Up+Jump makes ninja hover, coupling this with Attack+any direction will make Ninja spin-attack in said direction. Then you've also got three different throws depending on where you hold when throwing a grabbed enemy. Lastly, when the energy gauge is full you can use a third button to perform a screen-covering super move. This is just a single character, but everyone else has a moveset comparable to his, and I'm not even mentioning how you can combo-into a few of his attacks. And there are probably moves that I haven't discovered yet. And this is exactly why the game NEEDS an in-game movelist.

 The game is incredibly fun because of just how much you can do. At times enemies can feel endless, but most of those can be offed in a single hit. Regardless, if you mean to beat the game you'll have to learn how to juggle fighting multiple enemies on a single lane at the same time. Honestly, it's a lot of fun. After finishing the game with my boy I immediately took out Yaksha for a spin, and had just as much fun discovering how she played, and I had to change my entire playstyle to fit hers! Kunoichi was pretty fun to use as well, while Kamaitachi didn't really gel with me, I'm usually not much of a fan of glass cannons. The game is 8 stages short, and they are pretty short, but the game is highly replayable.

 One area in which the developers deserve a ton of praise is on the sprites, as both new characters looked straight out of the original. In an era where 16-bit sprites are ignored in favor of 8-bit sprites or 3-D models, the new spritework is simply brilliant. A few of Yaksha's hook-attacks look a bit too fluid and modern, but I think it actually adds to her less-than-human movement. This game is a pleasure to look at, and it has been redesigned to look great in widescreen, with no screen-crunching or compromises, at least not as far as I could see. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't gonna play this game right now, but I took it out for a spin, since I wanted to try it out, but it hooked me until its end!

 Besides the main single-player mode, beating the game unlocks a Hard mode, which I'll admit I didn't try since I really don't care about bragging rights. There's a new mode, which was one of the things I was looking forwards the most with this remaster: Multiplayer. But it sucks! Both the energy gauge as well as the health bar is shared, which, you know, kinda sucks when the game is rather tough since playing with a less skilled player means that you have to be extra careful as not to get hit to make up for their mistakes, and it also means that both players will be fighting for the energy gauge. I'm glad the main game is so much fun, because it made the disappointment of the multiplayer mode not hurt as much. As much. While hardly a long game, being able to save midway through a run would've been a welcome addition, as it stands, once you decide to play the game you are in it for the long-haul.

 Well, The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors succeeds with flying colors as a remaster. It's the same game it used to be but with more content. And I love that they put effort into adding more stuff to a SNES game. It helps that the gameplay is SO good. That said, one has to admit that it falls short in a few areas, like the new multiplayer mode or the lack of a movelist. The game great, so it's not too hard to look past that, but it feels like a bit of wasted potential to make the game even greater. Regardless, I hope we get more SNES remasters done this way. The right way.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #679: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - The Black Order

 Jokes galore. Marvel, it's time to stop.

 A few years ago I went through the first three Ultimate Alliance games(X-men Legends 1 and 2 are part of the series) and discover that they hadn't aged all too well. Well, it's back in the form of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 - The Black Order, a diablo-lite dungeon crawler featuring the most popular  characters from the Marvel Universe in the modern era. Developed by a Japanese company, Tecmo-Koei, it's a different flavor from what we were used to.

 Just like MUA 2 adapter, fairly loosely, the 'Civil War' storyline, The Black Order is an adaptation of Infinity War, albeit a fresh new take. While it borrows a lot from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the unnecessarily large amounts of childish humor, it also adds a ton of characters that haven't made the jump into the big screen, like the Inhumans or even Thane, Thanos' son. The game features gorgeous cutscenes, and the art-direction they went with is just perfect, it's a shame the game can't stay serious for longer than three seconds. On another note, the game is made up of 10 chapters, each one focusing on a different series or world from the Marvel Universe, so there's a lot of variety and familiar faces, comic book dorks like me are in for a treat.

 Like in previous games, you'll play as a 4-man team made up from a 36-character roster. The character selection is great, even if it features mostly popular characters, and has the most amount of characters in the series yet. That said, costumes were cut entirely, replaced by simple, and somewhat lame, recolors. Each character gets a single unlockable recolor, which is rather lame, but we were promised free costumes through updates, so I guess that's somethin'.

 Characters get a weak attack combo string as well as a strong attack that can be used to finish you weak attack combo at any moment. This strong attack is always the same, no matter when you link it, which is rather boring, but nothing that makes or breaks the game. Each character also has 4 energy-consuming super moves. A few super moves can synergize with other characters' super moves in order to deal more damage. In Single Player you can hold down the Z button to have the nearest CPU use a compatible move, if they have any, at the same time. You can level up these super moves up to three times each, but by level 55 you'll have all of them maxed. Lastly, besides your Health and your Energy bar, you've also got a third gauge, filled by dealing and receiving damage, which lets you use an Extreme attack. Lastly, the L button can be used to either block or dodge incoming attacks.

 The most controversial addition to the game is the 'stagger' gauge. Every boss, as well as a bunch of enemy types will feature a purple gauge below their health bar. If you want to deal anything besides chip damage, you'll have to deplete their stagger gauge, so that they'll get stunned and receive extra damage. Failing to capitalize on the stagger gauge will make the game harder on you than it should, as for me, I never had much trouble since my team had at least two great stagger-breakers with Psylocke and Iron Fist, not to mention that Star-Lord can pretty much synergize with anyone, which also deals extra damage to the stagger gauge. Yes, different characters have different styles, some may have great crowd-control super moves but also lack any efficient stagger-damage moves.

 The RPG mechanics have found themselves a bit diluted this time around, so you might as well consider this game a beat'em up with RPG mechanics. Characters level up and get stat bonuses, but equipment is the gone, so the only real customization you can do is with ISO-8 Crystals, objects that can be found defeating enemies or breaking stuff, that can be equipped on your characters for various passive buffs. There's also an Alliance Upgrade Grid, which has a ton of passive bonuses, but require leveling up characters to use. If you stick to a single team of characters you might be lucky to fill a single hexagon on the grid, for you see, Enhancement Points, the currency used in this menu, is earned when characters level up, and once they reach 70 they only start doling out 1 EP per level up. That said....

 The game has been accused of being a bit on the tough side. Can't say I relate! Full disclosure, I went against my principles and purchased the season pass which gave me early access to a level 20 Deadpool. But I never felt like I was relying on him, and my levels evened out pretty quickly. By the time I reached the Dormamu fight all my characters were pretty evened when it came to levels, and I defeated him just fine. As long as you don't ignore the Stagger gauge and make proper use of dodges you can do just fine. I was having so much fun with the game, that every time I unlocked new Infinity Ridge challenges I would stop my progress to clear them. These things even reward you with XP cubes that you can then use to get free XP. I'll admit that a few of the final challenges, including the ones that unlock the 36th character were very darn tough, so tough that I cheesed them by using XP cubes to level up my characters when they were near death, which instantly refilled their health and energy gauges. But as far as the main game goes, I didn't have much trouble on the normal difficulty setting.

 While the game can definitely get pretty repetitive, I mean, characters have pretty limited movesets and the game encourages you to stick to one team, or so I've been led to believe due to the many complaints regarding the difficulty, I had a lot of fun. The game looks fantastic, it's very colorful and very stylized, with cartoony, but detailed character models that are a pleasure to look at. And you get to visit a lot of different locales from the Marvel universe, as well as fight a ton of well known villains. Beating up baddies also felt pretty rewarding, and felt good. It was always pretty neat to clear room full of enemies by spamming my best crowd-clearing super moves.

 If I can praise the game somehow, it's by saying this: As soon as I finished the game I did the same thing I did with my two favorite games I played this year, Dead Cells and Devil May Cry V, I just played it again. I went into the newly unlocked difficulty setting and set out to unlock more colors and the tougher Infinity Ridge challenges. I also took the 36th character, who comes unlocked at level 80, and used him to level up my weaker characters as to get more Enhancement points to get more passive buffs for my main team. And I had a ton of fun doing so. The game's futures is paved with both free DLC(Colossus and Cyclops as well as costumes) and paid DLC(Fantastic four and Marvel knights themed) and I can't wait to give them a try. Nintendo got themselves a solid exclusive with Ultimate Alliance 3, and this game is exactly what we should expect from modern-day licensed videogames.
 8.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Samurai Shodown DLC #1 - Rimururu

 You win this round, SNK.

 I'm gonna be completely honest here, I thought SNK was going to go the lazy route and make her nigh identical to Nakoruru. I mean, it's not such a crazy idea, by Samurai Shodown V SNK/Playmore had gone completely mad and started reusing and recycling sprites like crazy, Genjuro and Ukyo even got their own personal headswaps, while Haomaru had a black, evil clone. But Nakoruru? Not only did she have her sister Rimururu as a headswap, there was also Rera. But I digress, I thought SNK was gonna be cheap but they delivered, as Rimururu is completely different from Nakoruru, sharing only their weapon.

 Rimururu is a fun character to play, she's got a lot of projectiles and ways to use her ice crystal. Her moveset is a very neat addition to the game, even though I'm not a fan of genki girl/boy type characters.

 7.5 out of 10

Review #678: 64 Memories - Snowboard Kids 2

 To be fair, it's not always 'snow'boarding in this one.

 Part I: The Flashback
 Snowboard Kids 2 is part three of the four-part 'unfulfilled dreams' saga, which means that it's yet another sequel I never got to play to a game I loved. The only information I had on this game came from a one-page spread ad on Gamepro as well as their review, but it was enough to know that I needed this game in my life. And yet, now I managed to satiate that need.

 Part II: The Review
 It's pretty much Snowboard Kids 1 but with more stuff. No, really. Every character but Shinobin(The secret character) returns, joined by another four characters, for a total of nine. Although three of the new characters can only be played in Battle Mode(The multiplayer Mode, although a single player can play against three CPUS). The weapons and items from the first game return, joined by a Tornado projectile, a second Turbo Item as well as a Wing item that gives you more air when jumping. Instead of six courses, there are 15(With four repeats, for a total of 11 different tracks). It's the same, but more of it. And that's OK with me when the original game was so good!

 But the developers weren't content with simply adding stuff, there are a couple of minor additions that make the game, as a whole, better. Let's start with the new Story Mode, a 12-course mode in which you get short, comedic cutscenes before and after each race. There are also 3 bosses waiting to be defeated. In this mode you can also find the 'Trick' and 'Shoot' minigames from the first game, as well as purchase new boards or change their paintjob, just like in the first game! Every character has four different costumes, which is really neat.

 The first game was mostly about snowboarding, with a forest stage and a dessert stage, but Snowboard Kids 2 upped the ante with even more themes, as you'll race down a jungle, a giant house(Actually, the story-mode cutscenes shows that it's actually the characters who grow down in size), a halloween-themed track and even a giant space ship! And you'll race to the tune of a fantastic soundtrack, just like the first game, but, having more stages, means that there's also more music.

 There were a couple of other tweaks to change how the game plays, now tricks are much simpler to pull off: Hold the analog stick towards a direction and let go of A before a jump.. or mash the A button to spin even more times for even more money. Also remember to mash the C-buttons in tandem to perform grabs and score even more money. The other tweak went into the game being, as a whole, less punishing. Hitting an item box with no money will no longer trip you, and getting hit with powers like the Snowman or the Icicle seem to last less than before. The parachute is still a bastard though, and that's the way it should be.

 While I've got a massive amount of nostalgia towards the first game, Snowboard Kids 2 is easily the better game, with more content and more variety alongside the same fantastic gameplay from the first iteration. I'll admit that little has changed between both games, but there's no need to fix what ain't broken. Plus, a controller pack is no longer required.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #677: 64 Memories - Banjo-Tooie

 Everything's a Metroidvania if you try hard enough.

 Part I: The Flashback

 Part 2 of the 'unfulfilled dreams' saga, as hard as I hunted for this game, it was yet another no-show in my city. Couldn't find it up for rental, couldn't even find it up for purchase. Luckily, I can no finally claim to have played and beaten Banjo-Tooie.

 Part II: The Review

 Banjo-Kazooie was a masterclass in platform-collectathon games, every single move had its use, every level had a fair amount of things to collect and every step of the hunt felt rewarding. But, fitting for its era, Banjo-Tooie went bigger, and bigger isn't always better. It probably was, at the time, though.

 Something I really liked about Banjo-Kazooie was how you could pretty much finish every level when you got there, no need to go back to the hub like Mario 64. Two levels didn't fit the bill, but they were the exception, not the rule. In Banjo-Tooie, such is not the case. The game's world has gone massive, so much so that you'll need to use the new teleporters spread throughout the Isle O' Hags, the game's main 'world' to move around. Each sub-world also has its own set of teleporters, and soon enough you'll learn to love them. Heck, a few sub-world are interconnected between each other, and you can also unlock a train to travel between a few worlds.

 You could make a pretty good case for Banjo-Tooie being a Metroidvania. Every level has about 3 moves that Banjo and/or Kazooie can learn, so you'll constantly find yourself backtracking to previous worlds to clear obstacles that you couldn't before. It was a touch annoying having no way to know if I had done everything I could in a level or not, so by the end I had a FAQ closeby so that I knew when I was clear to move on and return when I had new moves. This means that the game has more emphasis on puzzles rather than platforming, as a matter of fact, the last three levels were so complex that said FAQ became my best friend. I mean, the final world has many Jiggies, your main collectible, that require Banjo and Kazooie being separated.

 Banjo and Kazooie retain every move they had in the previous game, so in Tooie they only obtain new moves, making for a massive amount of abilities by the end of the game. They go from different shooting-egg ammo types, to letting Banjo cling onto edges. The biggest game changer is the ability to separate Banjo from Kazooie, and each character also gets to earn moves that they can only use while on their lonesome. Each level also features Wumba, a new character that'll transform Banjo and Kazooie into something else, be it a Dinosaur or a car, while Mumbo, who is out of his transforming-job, becomes playable... albeit at a very limited capability, he is only used to trigger very specific Mumbo-pads. The most use you'll get out of Mumbo is in level 1, when he can control a giant stone statue.

 Banjo-Tooie is a very different game from Banjo-Kazooie, even if it shares the same foundation. I still found the game to be great fun, but I much preferred the simplicity from Banjo-Kazooie. A few collectible jiggies require completing objectives in multiple worlds, as a matter of fact, in some ways, the game feels a bit less rewarding, since sometimes fulfilling an objective won't have an immediate reward. I think the developers knew that this was more of a thinking game than the first one, so you can very easily unlock cheats to prevent fall damage and to grant Banjo regenerating health.

 Mind you, the game has the same sense of humor from the first game, and it's as beautiful as ever. The new worlds are very colorful and fun to explore, and there's always a new silly transformation to look forwards to. The gameplay is as tight as ever, controls are responsive, and even simple things like flying around feels great. That said, there's something to be said for a game that pretty much requires a guide to get the most fun out of it. A few levels, like Grunty's factory, had me exploring for over an hour before I collected a SINGLE jiggy. Everything after the Prehistoric world just ends up feeling quite overwhelming, with many different places to explore and poor guidance. Worlds are simply too large for their own good.

 Banjo-Tooie is another Nintendo 64 classic, no doubt about it, but I don't think it's as good as Banjo-Kazooie, although not by a margin. I'm sure that there's an audience that'll like this more convoluted approach to the game, but it loses a bit of the magic that made the first game so special. Still, I can't complain, as Rare managed to deliver yet another knockout on the N64. And as great as I think the game is, I still think that a simpler approach would've been better.

 8.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC #2 - Hero

 Another heroic mime joins the party!

 Yes, another Swordsman joins the cast. But hero is a bit more unique than the average Smash anime sword-user, y'see, he doesn't have counter, praise the sun!

 The Hero is alright. I love the fact that he has four different looks based off four different Dragon Quest games. Plus, I think he is a perfect pick for Smash, alongside Banjo, not only did the first Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior games defined the Famicom era in Japan, but Dragon Quest itself is a bit of a big deal in the world of gaming, at least in Japan. Heck, while Dragon Quest jumped ship after V, it eventually returned to the Nintendo DS, with a new instalment(Dragon Quest IX is one of the best JRPGs on the Nintendo DS, you can fight me on this, but, trust me, this is not a hill you want to die on) as well as remakes of a few of the classics. The Hero deserves this place in Smash, which makes him a stellar pick for a newcomer.

 That said, can't say I'm much of a fan of the execution. A ton of his basic attacks seem ripped straight out of Roy and Link's movesets. It also drives me bonkers how every anime-swordsman(Joker, Shulk, Cloud, FE Lords, Hero) have different proportions, it looks so weird! On another note, I like the MP mechanic, but his Down+B is a bit hard to pull off, since you have to take your eyes off the action in order to see what the RNG god picked for you, and then scroll towards your desired spell. That said, his Side+B looks amazing and has fantastic KOing potential.

 All in all, while I didn't find his playstyle all that fun or original, the Hero is a great addition to the cast in virtue of his reputation alone. I love how many different skins he has, so there's bound to be a Hero that catches your fancy, in my case, Eight's my boy. We are down two characters out of five, and so far, both characters were good inclusions due to who they are and not because of their gameplay. Hilariously enough, it's the other way around with the Piranha Plant, a poor choice... but is so much fun to play. Regardless, Banjo-Kazooie are looking like a real winner and they can't come out soon enough.
 7.0 out of 10