Review #746: Avatar - The Last Airbender(Nintendo DS)

 Ain't no stopping this licensed-game bender any time soon!

 Avatar The Last Airbender released on multiple platforms, each major line(PS2/Xbox/Gamecube, PSP, DS, Advance) getting their own version. The Gameboy Advance entry was a delightful puzzle game, but the DS? Oh boy, the DS got an RPG! It's not as complex or as involved as your Final Fantasy, but we've got dungeons, herb mixing, real-time battles, experience points, the whole shebang!

 While I haven't seen the series(yet) I did the least amount of research required to figure out that this game follows its own original story set between Season 1 and 2, and it follows Aang, Katara, Sokka and.... and Haru, which I even I know isn't a series regular, as they seek to stop the rise of the machines that are laying waste around the world. The game takes about 12 hours to complete, and is divided into chapters, each chapter taking place in its own map. There are sidequests to be found if you search deep enough, which will reward you with bonus stats or even bonus special moves.

 The basic gameplay loop is very simple, at the start of most chapters you'll want to make your way into the chapter's town in order to speak with NPCs and figure out where you really wanna go, and then it's just getting from designated area to designated area. Along the way you may come across enemies, touch them and you'll initiate a battle which takes place in real time. Y is your basic attack, X uses chi-special moves(Chi refills over time, but depending on which special move you used last it may take longer), B blocks and Y is a bender-styled defensive move, such as Aang flying or Katara covering herself in ice. You can swap characters at any time, but the CPU will take over whichever three characters you aren't using.

 The AI is pretty dumb. Rogue Galaxy kinda dumb. They love getting themselves killed, and there's nothing you can do about it. Healing items are hard to come by, particularly at the beginning of the game, and there are no Inns or places in which you can fully recover, so you'll be relying on dying and continuing, since every character gets healed up to a third of their total maximum health. This worked quite well for me, since CPUs are only useful as meat shields, taking attention away from you, and they don't even use their special moves. I played most of the game as Aang, but I switched over to Haru every now and then, or Katara if only to revive fallen allies. You see, Aang has a three hit combo and Haru has a two hit combo, making them actually fun to use, while Sokka is stuck to single hits with his club and Katara attacks with a weak little projectile. In what's an ironic twist of fate, Katara is actually useful during some of the poorly designed boss fights in which attacking from afar is actually the best way to approach battles. Look, fighting normal enemies is alright, it's pretty fun actually, but some of the boss fights are very poorly designed, like the very first boss that can pretty much go through your attacks and has a very generous range on his attacks.

 Most times you finish an encounter, the enemy will drop a minuscule amount of money or, perhaps better, a healing item. But you have to be careful, as you have a very limited inventory capacity. Thankfully, you can rely on your infinite continues in order to save up on healing items. Learning Herb combinations is paramount to maximizing your inventory space. Lastly, the game features 2-D sprites running over 3-D background, which isn't too bad, but the camera can be a bit bad sometimes, particularly on the one mandatory stealth segment.

 As a whole, Avatar the Last Airbender is pretty fun. It has a few very annoying moments that stand out, mostly a few boss fights, but the rest of the game is pretty decent. I'm just surprised they managed to make such a decent RPG out of Avatar. Hopefully the sequel has better bosses and makes Sokka and Katara more fun to play as.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #745: Gunvolt Chronicles - Luminous Avenger iX

 How much anime is too much anime?

 Early last year I finally got to play Gunvolt, and I wound up liking it a whole lot. The Megaman X successor that we never got, if you will. Gunvolt Chronicles - Luminous Avenger iX is an spinoff centering around Gunvolt's rival, Copen, featuring the same 2-D jump-and-shoot gameplay it so well mastered.

 The story is... hot anime garbage, as per usual. I didn't care about it and just read the dialogue out of guilt of actually not reading it. But it's bad and you can barely follow what's going on even if you cared about it. Dude, I like JRPGs, I'm all in for convoluted anime plots, but this is garbage. This game also follows the trend of sexualizing lolis, which is weird, but now Lola even gets to wear a metal thong bikini because why the heck not? Kohaku who's 10 at most also wears risque clothing. I know there's an audience for this kind of stuff, but I ain't it, and it clashes a lot with how the rest of the badass character designs are. If you like this stuff, good for you, if you don't, you can ignore it since it really doesn't get in the way of its fantastic gameplay.

 There's only a single playable character in the game, Copen, which kinda sucks since after Gunvolt 2's two playable characters this feels like a huge step down, particularly because this games are incredibly short, Luminous Avenger iX being no exception. Luckily, I loved Copen's gameplay and how he looks, and he plays pretty much exactly like he did in Gunvolt 2. Copen can jump and shoot, of course, but his gameplay is built around Bullits, which starts at 3. As long as you have bullits, you'll dodge most incoming damage, at the cost of one Bullit per hit, but you can also spend them to dash on the air. Dashing is the name of the game with Copen, if you dash into an enemy you'll recover the Bullit and proceed to lock-on to them, making all your basic attacks land right on them, even if you aim on the opposite direction. While Bullits recharge very slowly through time, you can also double tap down on the dpad to take a few seconds and recharge your stock, do it on the air and Copen will stomp downwards, reloading in the process.

 Every time you defeat a boss you'll get a new sub-weapon, and just like Megaman, every enemy is weak to a specific weapon. Not that it matters, I fell in love with the twin saws, and proceeded to spam them on every boss until the end of the game, doing just fine. There's a nice risk and reward system going on with the game. Landing hits and defeating enemies, without getting hit, increases your Kudos, get to a 1000 kudos and you'll enter Overdrive, until you get hit, enhancing all your abilities. Now, if you use your Super Attack you'll lose all your kudos, if you touch a checkpoint you will earn your kudos points, but it'll reset back to zero... so you'll have to juggle keeping overdrive, maximizing your points or just securing your progress in case you die, which is a pretty neat idea. Before each stage you can change how the Kudos System works, which is basically the difficulty setting: Get hit once and lose your points, get hit thrice and lose your points or never lose your points upon getting hit. Stages remain the same, boss patterns remain the same, it just changes how easily you can get and keep OverDrive mode going, which does make a difference in the long run. If the game ever gets too hard, you can replay any stage in order to get more experience points, leveling up increases your maximum health, as well as money to buy enhancements with.

 The game received a improvements over the Gunvolt mechanics that makes it quite better, and I hope they keep them for future games. Firstly, stage dialogue has been kept to a minimum, and when your NPC ally does speak to you, which you can turn off, the text bubble will only occupy a fraction of the screen on the side, much less invasive than previous games. And then there's the customization, no longer do you have to beat a stage in order to unlock missions which have you replaying the stage and then having to gather materials, oh no, screw that noise, now there's a set amount of abilities you can purchase with money found on every stage. Much simpler, less annoying, much better.

 I liked Luminous Avenger iX, I've liked Copen over Gunvolt ever since we got to play as him and the few tweaks to the formula really make it a much better experience. Sadly, while Copen is a blast to play, the game is incredibly short(2:40 hours, 3:20 or so after clearing the bonus stages) and there isn't a second playable character, bonus alternate colors for Copen or any other fun stuff for players to unlock. As it stands, it's just as good as the previous games.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #744: Shovel Knight Treasure Trove

 It really is a treasure trove.

 Shovel Knight Treasure Trove is Shovel Knight's fully kickstarted form. Every promised campaign and extra is here, no download required. It's a NES-inspired 2-D platforming indie darling that managed to dig its way into everyone's hearts. And there's a good reason for that! The entire game follows to a tee the better examples of timeless game design from yesteryear. There are four different playable characters, with their own stories and, sometimes, levels and bosses, as well as an interesting fighting game extra.

Now, onto the different pieces that make up Treasure Trove:

Shovel of Hope

 The centerpiece of this pack, and also the first game released, Shovel of Hope follows Shovel Knight as he Shovels his way through the Knights of No Quarter in order to rescue his comrade-in-arms-dash-love-interest the Shield Knight. The game is a fantastic 2D platform game that borrows from Megaman, Castlevania and a bit from Ducktales, although the developers would claim the pogo-jumping came from The Legend of Zelda II.

 Jump and attack, that's all you get, that's all you need. Kinda. While slashing is Shovel Knight's basic attack, his true calling is pogo jumping, by tapping down on the d-pad while on air, the Knight will aim his Shovel downward and bounce off anything that can be hit, be it an enemy or a treasure-holding object. If you are thorough, you'll be amassing a small fortune on your travels, as well as finding Relics that you can equip. Relics behave like sub weapons from Castlevania, hold Up+Attack to use them, and they consume a limited resource, mana. Unlike sub-weapons, once you find a relic you can keep it forever. Relics work in a variety of different ways, such as a sword that allows for an aerial dash, a straight-forward fireball or a gauntlet that punches through rocks, but truth be told, I spent most of the time using the Locket that granted invincibility for a few seconds.

 Treasure is incredibly important in Shovel Knight, since money is how you can purchase these relics once you find them. You can also use money to buy health and magic upgrades, new armors and even shovel upgrades. Thankfully, potions are completely free, but you have to purchase both vials first! Since money is so precious, and lives are unlimited, if you die you'll lose a bit of money, and in pure Souls fashion, you can get it back if you get back to where you lost it.... provided you can reach all the floating bags of money. Too add to the fun, you can actually destroy checkpoints in order to get some extra money.

 The game is not hard, not hard at all, as the game provides ample tools for less skilled players to get through, such as a two-potion set that can either grant you 10 seconds of invincibility or completely heal you and your magic, as well as the aforementioned locket of invincibility that consumes a modicum of mana to use. Worst case scenario, you could always use cheats for invulnerability. It's four hours long, has a decent co-op mode and, if you're bored, it also comes with a Body Swap mode, letting you change the gender and/or pronouns of every main character in the game, yes, alternate sprites for almost everyone!

 Shovel Knight - Shovel of Hope is an absolute treasure of a game, it's very fun and very simple, it's not too hard, but not too easy either. No game mechanic wears out its welcome, and even when obnoxiously dying multiple times to the same obstacle.... I couldn't stop having fun, heck, I finished the game in one sitting. It's that good.
 9.0 out of 10

Plague of Shadows

 In Plague of Shadows you get to play as the Plague Knight, and he is completely different from Shovel Knight. He has his own story mode, although he plays through the same levels and most bosses from Shovel Knight's campaign. It's difficult to pinpoint just how his story makes sense in relation to Shovel of Hope, but it doesn't matter, the Plague Knight is quirky like that.

 Forget the shovel, it's all about bombs here. Plague Knight can customize his bombs by changing the casing, power and/or the fuse, so you can create all sorts of silly things, like bombs that explore or contact, homing bombs, bombs that grow stronger if you shoot them at the same area, etc. While I stuck to homing bombs with the initial gunpowder for most of the game, a few situations lend themselves to trying out different things. Instead of Relics, Plague Knight gets Arcana, which are spells that run on mana gauge that refills by itself pretty quickly. Arcana are a bit more interesting than relics, since they complement Plague Knight really well. There's an Arcana that works as an extra jump, one that places a platform below you for a few seconds, one that grants Plague Knight's bombs life-sapping properties(A life-saver for boss fights!) and the such. It's very different from Shovel Knight, and it doesn't stop here...

 Plague Knight is a very different beast from Shovel Knight in how he moves too. He has no pogo jumping, instead he has a pathetic double jump and bursting, which can also be customized just like his bombs. By holding down the attack button and letting go, Plague Knight will burst himself upwards and forwards, which is his main means of traversal. It's also your best way to approach enemies, since raining down bombs from above is the fundamental basis of his combat. On the ground you are vulnerable, but master aerial combat and a whole new world of options will open up. As for me, I was fond of the slow-decent burst, that made Plague Knight gently hover downwards, giving me extra attack time, at the cost of not being able to prime another burst. Nothing the platform relic couldn't cover!

 Plague Knight has often times been called the hardest campaign, and it is... for the first few levels, before you find a bomb/burst set-up that works for you and get used to playing as the Plague Knight. As soon as I got to the second Quadrant of the map, I was having a blast cruising through stages in manners the stiff Shovel Knight could've never done, and murdering bosses in a few seconds flat with my brutal homing bombs+hovering Plague Knight combo. Give it a few stages until you get the hang of him, and his campaign turns even easier than Shovel Knight's.

 New additions to the game are Plague Coins, green coins hidden in every level, which are necessary to expand Mona's shop, the shop in which you can purchase bomb parts, as well as necessary to gain access to Plague Knight's armors. There are also Tonics that grant you bonus health points... until you die, which can make some of the early bosses are bit more manageable.

 I really liked Plague Knight's campaign, he felt sort of like a Richter Mode, featuring a more nimble, but more gimmicky character that could easily get through harder obstacles, but also had a bit of a learning curve if you didn't want to die against bosses. I think... I think once I fully grasped the Plague Knight, I started liking his campaign a bit more than Shovel Knight's, it felt like I was using more relics to find the ones that worked for different situations instead of always relying on the same invincibility locket, and the platforming challenges built around his wackier, more uncontrollable movement were pretty fun.
 9.0 out of 10

Specter of Torment

 I hated Specter of Torment at first, I really wasn't feeling Specter Knight's style... until it clicked. Specter's game is the most plot-driven campaign in the game, following Specter Knight's torment under the enchantress as he builds the Order of No Quarter for her, and we even get to delve into his past through a few stages that take place when Specter was still a living human.

 Shovel Knight is the most nimble and lethal Knight yet, he can wall run and jump from walls, but his true call to fame is his aerial slashing, depending on your position relative to the enemy or object(Below or above it), Specter Knight will slash through that thing. And that is how his platforming challenges are built on, proper use of his aerial slash to cross chasms and what not. It's quite fun, once you understand it. Some big enemies and a few objects actually make the Specter Knight bounce from them, so you also have to keep that in mind, as sometimes bouncing is part of the platforming and bouncing can help you keep your attacks coming from the air. Specter can also grind on some rails, but it goes mostly underused....although there's an armor that lets you grind at will.

 Relics take the form of Curios in this campaign, and they run on Specter Knight's darkness gauge, which can be refilled by landing multiple hits on enemies. There are 100 red Skull coins to collect in the game, and these can be traded for said curios. In what's a fun little idea, every time you buy a Curio you have to go through a very short challenge stage in order to learn how to use it, which is a brilliant way to get you to try out everyone of them! You can then spend money in order to upgrade them, which was also a neat idea. In order to upgrade your Health and Darkness gauges you must find Wisp chests, one for every level, which is a nice incentive to explore.

 The world map is gone, Specter gets his HUB town and from there you need to talk to the Mirror Guardian in order to travel directly to any stage. Stage layouts have been completely redesigned around Specter Knight, which also makes sense since this is a prequel and this'd be the stages before the Order of No Quarter was created. Boss patterns have also changed to varying degrees between characters, the Black Knight now fights alongside his trusty Turtle companion, for example. As a whole, it took me about three hours to finish the game, making it the shortest campaign by an hour, but it's every bit as fun as everything that came before it.

 I think Specter of Torment is supposed to be easier to get the handle of than Plague of Shadows, but in my case, it was the other way around. That said, once you get the hang of Specter, this campaign becomes yet another winner addition to Shovel Knight.

 9.0 out of 10

King of Cards

 The final campaign follows King Knight in King of Cards. It features a completely new card minigame, Joustus, not unlike The Witcher's Gwent as well as new layouts for the previous levels, as well as completely new gameplay mechanics for the King Knight, which goes to show that they really wanted to end with a bang. And it worked!

 As a huge Wario fanboy, King Knight's greedy adventures are just up my alley, and he takes after the dastardly villain by also having a should bash as his main mode of attack. It's more than just a bash though, this daintily Knight will spin into the air like a top upon hitting a wall or an enemy, and then landing on top of an object or an enemy will let him bounce off of them, as well as letting him do the Shoulder Bash again. And they built a ton of different challenges around this very simple mechanic. Sometimes you'll have to roll(Tap B again after should bashing) onto enemies, since producing a spin jump will force you into an state that will break the ground below you into a pit or spikes. Sometimes you'll have to work to earn your Shoulder Bash again in order to keep the King from falling into a pit, sometimes you'll have to rely on the bash to get to a platform without jumping, since the ceiling is lethal, etc. It's brilliant game design, like every campaign before it. And unlike the Specter Knight, whom I hated at first, I loved King Knight from the very first time I shoulder bashed an enemy.

 King Knight's relics come in the form of Heirlooms, and once again you must spend a special type of collectible in order to get them, Medals. There are three Medals per stage, as well as a few Joustus-exclusive medals. Just like Specter before it, you get to try out most Heirlooms when you get them through a small challenge stage that shows you various ways in which you can use them. Heirlooms consume Vigor, which works just like Shovel Knight's, only being able to replenish it by finding mana potions from fallen enemies. There are also Royal Decrees, which are cheat-like advantages that you can use one time per stage, as well as Cheats you can purchase to use in Joustus duels.

 The World map returns, but it's much larger than in Plague of Storms or Shovel of Hope, because the stages have been divided into many smaller stages. It's a different take on the previous formula, and this also means that there's no longer a boss at the end of every level, but rather, a boss at the end of every world. That said, there are roaming bosses on the world map that you can avoid or fight. While every stage got completely redesigned, the bosses use their new Specter of Torment patterns. Taking a page from Super Mario World, many stages now have hidden exits that open up routes to different stages. Your mileage may vary on this, while stages are quite shorter, I've never been a fan of having to replay stuff just because the game deems it mandatory.

 This is the part of the review in which I write about how much I hate card minigames, like the ones in Final Fantasy VIII and The Witcher.... but after I opened up the fourth and final world, I realized that there were still heirlooms to collect and Vigor upgrades to purchase, so I did what I had to do. Went back to previous world's Joustus houses and cleared them all. I'm still not a fan of card games, but I kinda sorta had fun with this one. There are a ton of different opponents to fight, the ones from the Joustus houses(1 per world), the ones that reside in your ship/Hub town and the Wandering bosses, that once defeated will board your ship and you can challenge them to the game. So if you enjoyed the card game, there are plenty of opponents to fight, with different gimmicks and the like. Overall, it took me about 8 hours to finish this campaign, making it the longest by a landslide. That said, as per usual, I was very thorough, returning to open up every alternate route and fight Joustus battles, so a more laid back playthrough should be shorter.

 Fantastic, King of Cards is just fantastic, and I think it might've been my favorite campaign. It's a bit hard to pinpoint just when it takes place, probably a prequel to the prequel(Specter), but it doesn't really matter since the story in this campaign is just means to an end. I adored King Knight's gameplay, and loved how many different, creative challenges they built around the King's movement style. 

 9.0 out of 10

Amiibo

 Sony fans get to fight Kratos and don an armor that gives Shovel Knight a three-hit combo. Microsoft fans get to fight the Battletoads and go through a Battletoads-inspired stage, and then they get an armor that lets Shovel Knight do a shoulder bash. Nintendo fans get to spend more money on Amiibos.

 Unfairness aside, amiibos grant each of the four playable characters new costumes, which can also be used in Showdown, Fairy Companions(Absolutely useless) and, in the case of Shovel of Hope, a Custom Knight mode, which gives the game RPG mechanics: Instead of buying and finding upgrades and relics, you get them as you level up. But it's more than that! You get exclusive relics(More like alternate takes on existing relics, like shooting the Fist Gauntlet like a projectile), alternate color palettes you can swap between at any time, special effects(Like the shiny stars!), health and vigor upgrades and even different actions for holding down the down button. It's a fun twist on Shovel of Hope's campaign.

Shovel Knight Showdown

 And, to tie a bow around this masterful collection of games and wrap it up, we get Shovel Knight Showdown, a 4-man fighting game using the world and characters from Shovel Knight, it features a grand total of 20 characters, including Shovel Knight and the Knights of No-Quarter, the Wandering Warriors and a few surprises.

 The game offers a decent amount of modes, including a Story mode, with a unique opening and ending for each character, Battle Mode(Death Match or collecting gems as well as a random Chester's Choice), Hit the Targets and, lastly, Practice. There are a TON of things to unlock: Extra color palettes, extra characters, extra stages and even a few costumes! There's no shortage of stuff here to get.... although you could always cheat and get everything with a button input. No judging!

 Most movesets are built around four buttons: Attack, Special(Usually, but not always, a projectile), Jump and Parry. It's not a Smash like movesets, your attacks never change with inputs, however, characters have very different playstyles. Tinker Knight's special has him mount his gear, play special again and he'll drop it and fly for a few seconds. Shield Knight can shoot her shield, and then attack with fisticuffs before it returns, Shovel Knight keeps his pogo jumping, etc. Characters are very simple, but every character feels very different. Health is based on a four-hit lifebar, and you get mercy invincibility upon getting hit.

 The game is very fast paced, but probably due to the limited color palette they went with, at times it became hard to make sense of what was going on. As a whole, the game is a decent extra, a decent time waster, but it's easily the weakest link in the Shovel Knight saga. Honestly, I like this game being here, I think it's a great addition, it's just that I don't think it would work just quite as well by itself.
 6.5 out of 10

 Shovel Knight is amazing. While I'm kinda sad I got to play it so late in its life, I'm also quite glad I get to keep the entire game in a single cart and experience the entirety that Shovel Knight has to offer in one go. Every single campaign in this cart has ton of brilliant showcases of great game design, and it's nothing short of amazing just how well everything turned out.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #743: Power Rangers MegaForce

 POWER RANGERS, MEGAFORCE!.... doesn't work all that well without the music, huh.

 As not to stop this Power Ranger gravy-train going, here we have Power Rangers Megaforce. I'm not familiar with either the original Sentai version nor the American Ranger adaptation, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter.

 Unlike Power Rangers Samurai, this game has more meat to itself, being made up of five chapters with five stages each, as well as 10 unlockable stages, so it should clock you about 4:30 hours. However, if you hate the game, that probably won't be a selling point. You get to play as all five Rangers and swap between them at will, as well as take control of Robo Knight in a few stages. Beating the game unlocks Might Morphin' skins for the main cast, which is a pretty neat bonus. On another note, the game is fully voice-acted, which is surprising for a low budget game like this one, but on the flip side, during stages the Power Rangers will refuse to shut up, often times repeating lines and cutting each other off. It's ridiculous how bad it is, or how nonsensical it gets with the Red Ranger claiming he can hear the birds every few seconds. They also LOVE to state the obvious, like telling you that if you destroy a box you can see what's inside. Every. Single. Time. A box enters your view.

 The game is a simple go-to-the-right beat'em up, the standard fare for Power Rangers. You attack with the A button and use you useless blaster with B. L and R are used to change characters, but you can also tap their heads on the bottom screen. X allows you to use 2 cards and enter a Super Mode for a short time, while the cards themselves are used with the touchscreen. The cards are very weird, in that you find them throughout the game, but only a few of them are actually usable, only five of them actually. You can also scan real cards for in-game bonuses, but they are not necessary, thankfully. While all Rangers are basically the same, they have different attack combos and stats, so at least they look different, and play slightly different between each other. The Yellow Ranger is a bit weak, but covers wide areas, the Pink Ranger is great against single enemies and the Blue Ranger sucks.

 While the game is a simple masher, it tries to shake things up by frequently stopping you on your tracks and force some kind of goal upon you. "Defeat every enemy", "Survive for a minute", "Collect every Medal", etc. These are repeated so often throughout the game that in an attempt to shake things up... it actually becomes fairly repetitive. Besides, there are, what, four different types of stage themes: Factory, Jungle, Ice Cave and Streets, and every single stage might be same for all that they are. As per usual, Zord battle stages are horrible, in these case, they are slow-paced battles in which you either perform a simple attack combo, shoot a projectile or block.

 For such a rudimentary looking game, it sure has framerate issues! And you can tell it's a matter of optimization, since later in the game it gets really crowded... yet sometimes the framerate will be smooth, but then there'll be like only three enemies on-screen and the framerate will dip. On another note, the stage-select menu is painfully slow, it will take a while for you to get from stage 1-1 to 5-7.

 Power Rangers MegaForce is exactly what Power Ranger have been getting on handhelds since like forever, a barebones beat'em up with awful MegaZord battles.
2.0 out of 10

Review #742: Super Duper Sumos

 It's about time I cover this abomination.

 If you're unlucky, you may remember an ages-old tv show about butt-obsessed Sumos called Super Duper Sumos. If you're even unluckier, you'll remember that it managed to get its very own Gameboy Advance game. And, as a lover of all things weird, here I am giving this thing a try!

 The game is six stages short, and as far as I could tell, follows an original episode-divided story, each 'stage' begins either with the Sumos planning to do something, and then Evil Inc. botching things up for them or with Evil Inc. talking about their new plan, before you are thrust into your Sumo's thongs. You can play as any of the three Sumos, but they are pretty much identical. One may be stronger than the others, one might be faster, but the only real difference is the super move. The game is quite pretty, the animation might not be anything worth writing home about, but the characters sprites are a good representation of their animated counterparts.

 The game is your average beat'em up, move from left to right while defeating enemies. B attacks, A jumps, R runs and L uses your super move, which you charge by picking up purple energy from fallen enemies. You can pick up enemies and throw them against each other, and you'll come across weapons every now and then. As you go through the game you'll unlock new moves, but your basic B attack and A jump is everything you really need. The later moves that enter your repertoire are a sliding attack, a belly tackle, a ballerina spin-dodge and, finally, a flying butt-tackle. It's pretty silly.

 The game is what it is, an average beat'em up game. The show's premise is completely idiotic, but the game is a decent time for anyone that enjoys beat'em ups.
6.0 out of 10

Review #741: Power Rangers Samurai(Nintendo DS)

 Leave no lone ranger left behind.

 Let me tell you about my two favorite Sentai series, they are Gekiranger and Shinkenger. Lucky for me, it seems like the American version, Power Rangers Samurai, was popular enough to warrant a few games, this here being the DS version. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a Power Rangers game, no more, no less.

 The game covers, I think, the first season of the American adaptation of Shinkenger, basically, it goes over the Rangers recruiting the Gold Ranger and ends with the Red Ranger dueling the Demon Dekar. It's 10 missions short, the game lasts 2 hours and there's nothing to unlock, not by traditional means anyways. Every unlock is tied to a password and not to a collectible or feat, and among these extras are Mega versions of the rangers. They look different, but they play exactly the same, and it seems like they even have the same stats as their basic versions, but at least they look different. The five original rangers play exactly the same but with different stats, the only thing setting them apart is their Strong special move, once the Gold Ranger joins, on mission 7 or so, he plays exactly the same, but has different animations and special moves, making him extra special. By the by, the Gold Shinkenger is one of my favorite rangers of all time since he fights with his very unique Iaido-sheathing style, and his in-game animations accurately captured his fighting style, which is something I adored.

 Gameplay is very simple, you get a 3-hit weak attack combo, a strong attack that changes properties depending on when you use it during your weak attack string, a jump, a block and two special moves, done by pressing Block plus either strong or weak attack, that consume energy. The only difference between characters, besides their stats, is their Block+Strong special moves. Stages are your standard left to right 2-D beat'em up, although you can swap characters on designated spots. There are collectible discs waiting to be found, usually gated behind barriers only a specific Ranger can break, but they appear to add nothing but points to your total. There's a dumb touchscreen minigame before each mission, get it right and you get unlimited energy for a few seconds. There's also a disc on the bottom screen that you can spin around, keep it spinning and you'll be stronger and your attack string will extend to five. It's pretty dumb. Each stage ends with a boss battle, which then turns into a Megazord battle.

 There's something that most Ranger games get wrong every single time: Zord battles. Instead of making these battles an extension of the main game, they always try to turn it into a minigame of sorts, and they always fail spectacularly, being the worst part about most Ranger games. This game is no exception. Firstly, a dumb minigame before each battle, get it wrong and you lose half your health bar. Fun times. As for the battle itself, you have to use the touchscreen to slide across a disc in order to spin it a fill a gauge. Once full you have to touch the Attack button with proper timing in order to deal damage. When the enemy fills their gauge, you have to block, which is done by touching the BLOCK buttons on the touchscreen. These battles are lame, and are needlessly boring.

 Power Rangers Samurai is your average, run of the mill Power Rangers game that have been plaguing the handhelds since times immemorial. It's not bad. It's not good either. It's just a shelf filler. Fans of the franchise, like me, might get a few kicks out of it, everyone else shouldn't even bother.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #740: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

 The miracle maker

 Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask marks an important moment for the series, the moment it went 3-D. Graphics never mattered for games like the Layton series, but trust me, the new dimension breathes new life into its world, and it's gonna be hard to go back.

 The story picks up sometime after The Last Specter, with Layton travelling alongside Emmy and Luke. Their dynamic is as engaging as ever, although I felt like Luke and Emmy took a backseat to Layton and his antics. And there's a good reason for that, since this game delves even deeper into Layton's younger years, long before he met Claire. Half of the games chapters are spent with Layton joining up with people from his past as he tries to uncover the mystery behind the Masked gentlemen, while the other half of the chapters retell how Layton lost his best friend and drifted apart from his other friends. It's an interesting narrative, although I can't help but feel like I would've liked to see more of Emmy and Luke. This is the longest Layton game yet, although it only contains 150 puzzles. There are also 364 downloadable puzzles, but they are divided into 20 or so different types of puzzles.

 As mentioned before, the new graphics are gorgeous, featuring well-made, colorful character models against beautiful hand-drawn environments made up of multiple layers for an added feel of depth. The backgrounds and characters are very sharp, making it a pleasure to look at. The exploration interface has been tweaked for the better, now you enter and exit examination mode, while you travel between areas by tapping on the bottom screen. It's very simple and intuitive. Sadly, the Puzzle interface has been made a bit less helpful. Puzzles now default to the "submit" section on the bottom screen, while the upper screen holds an image that, most of the time, must be examined to solve the puzzle or riddle. So where's the actual text for the riddles? Well, you have to tap a button to display it or hide it. And it might be a while before you notice that you can place it on the upper or lower screen. Regardless, no place feels comfortable. Put it up, in order to take notes as you read and you'll miss out on the image. Put it on the bottom screen and you can't take notes. It really highlights the elegant simplicity of how the previous games managed to place everything you needed in a comfortable, accessible way. It's not something you can't get used to, but it's something that worked much better in previous games.

 The puzzles themselves felt a bit more forgettable than the ones from previous offerings. I can't exactly speak for everyone, but I felt like these puzzles weren't very memorable. Sometimes, after you successfully clear a puzzle, there won't be an explanation for the solution, which means that you could get the answer by accident and not get a proper explanation on how you were supposed to figure it out. It's rare, but it's something that put me off the few instances it happened. The final past-chapter is a mini dungeon-like minigame that has no place in Layton. You must dig for puzzles and coins, while dealing with simple boulder-pushing puzzles. What makes it unbearable is that pretty much every time you enter a new room, Young Layton and his pal Randall will take a few seconds to state the obvious. I just wanted this entire chapter to end.

 As for the minigames, we have a Robot-grid movement puzzle set that was alright, a Shop minigame in which you must arrange items following a set of rules in order to get a customer to buy everything, which was incredibly fun, and, lastly a Rabbit Theater minigame, that has a dumb rabbit-petting system in order to teach the rabbit tricks so that you can then pick for him to use in a play. It was pretty boring.

 Layton's jump into 3-D was a total success, the game is gorgeous, and despite it being a launch game in Japan, it still is one of the best looking games in the system, from both an artistic side and a technical side. That said, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask feels like one of the weakest entries yet, with forgettable puzzles and a poor puzzle UI when compared to previous games. Come what may, I'm rooting for Azran Legacy to make the most from this new engine while tweaking what didn't work from this one. Reception for that game was mixed, but....
 6.5 out of 10

Review #739: Professor Layton and the Last Specter

 Ain't no stopping the Layton steam train!

 I thought that Unwound Future couldn't be topped. I also expected that a prequel series would fail to match the previous games. Turns out I was wrong, Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a fantastic follow up to Unwound Future, and may very well be a contender for best Layton game.

 Set years before the original series, The Last Specter deals with Layton and Luke's first meeting. A giant specter is wrecking havoc in Luke's hometown, and his father Clark, a good friend of the professor, asks Layton for help. In what's a completely different set up from previous games, Luke is a precocious child that spends most of his time shut inside his own room and Layton has to slowly earn his trust. It's actually quite endearing. I always liked Flora, but Level 5 didn't know what to do with her, so now we've got Emmy, the professor's current assistant, and she's great. She's not as bright as Layton, and probably not as bright as Luke would eventually become, but she's the muscle of the group. The three of them make for a fantastic group of characters, and throughout the course of the game I grew quite fond of their dynamic. They also added more flavor text to items you can examine on the environments, always leading to all three characters interacting with each other. Charming! Overall, I think the story is not as interesting or as good as the one in the previous game, but they made up for that by giving us a more interesting cast.

 The game features the most amount of puzzles in a Layton game yet, at 170, two more than Unwound Future. Ironically, the storyline felt shorter than previous games, the previous game was at least an hour longer. The minigames felt a bit uninspired this time around. The train mini-game is an alternate take on the toy car from Unwound Future, the Fish Tank is very similar to the Parrot minigame and the new Puppet Theater works exactly like the previous game's sticker book but with verbs instead of stickers. It doesn't work as well either, since many verbs could work well enough with the context you're provided, such as 'moved' or 'placed', 'covered' and 'wrapped', etc.

 There is, however, one extra that makes up for that. An extra that was cut from the European version(Bastards!). Said extra is.... London Life! It's a 2-D slice-of-life game, not unlike Animal Crossing, in which you create a simple 2-D avatar and take on simple requests from civilians. Civilians being characters from every previous game in the series! Your objective is to amass Wealth and Happiness, the former being your means to buy objects to decorate your room with as well as clothes or what have you, the latter being a health-gauge of sorts, since scary stuff like touching bats or picking up a bug instead of a flower saps your happiness.

 Every time you go to sleep in your bed you advance time, and every in-game day you get new quests from civilians to fulfill. They start repeating eventually, but they are simple so as not to become too tedious. You can also do all sorts of jobs and activities to get money, like Taxi Driving, Bus Driving, getting luggage to the correct rooms in a hotel, juggling and a few others. It's not a '100 hour rpg' as they call it, but it's a surprisingly fun time waster. And it really adds up to the game, you could easily lose a few hours in this little "extra".

 Professor Layton and the Last Specter is a fantastic entry into the series, one of the best actually. Being the beginning of a prequel trilogy means that you don't need to have played any previous game in the series to get the most out of the story, it has the largest amount of puzzles in the series and it also has an extra that could pretty much be its own game, and it has nothing to do with puzzles or riddles, so it's pretty much like having two great games in a single cart. Know what? I'm no longer doubtful, this IS the best Layton game yet.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #738: Konami Collector's Series - Arcade Advanced

 These games offer no-quarter!

 Not looking to be left out of the rerelease fever, Konami brought a few of their Arcade classics to the GBA with Konami Collector's Series - Arcade Advanced. It's a six-game compilation that features a couple of true classics as well as a few forgotten little games.

 The games are presented as is, with no way to tweak the difficulty, amount of lives or continues which... really sucks. Arcade games were designed with one thing in mind and one thing only: Take your quarters, and they really gave no-quarter when doing so, so that makes these games feel quite cheap and getting far on any game will require quite a bit trial-and-error alongside having to learn how they work in-and-out.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu

 Yier Ar Kung-Fu is a very simple, very cheap 1 on 1 fighting game in which you, as Oolong ,must fight various martial artists and their individual styles, some even use projectiles. There are plenty of moves you can use with A and B, while inputting different directions on the d-pad, but it's mostly a masher. Might be nostalgia, but I liked it a lot and had a lot of fun playing it.

 This game was the reason I bought this cart, and I don't regret it one bit.
7.0 out of 10

Rush'n Attack

 Rush'n Attack is a sidescrolling action game in which you must move from left to right while killing endless amounts of enemy waves with your knife. Defeating blue enemies will grant you weapons such as a bazooka or a flamethrower which can make easy work of enemies.

 Simple, to the point, surprisingly fun.
6.0 out of 10

Gyruss

 I was ready to hate this game, because I dislike shooters, but lo and behold, it wound it up being quite fun! Think Galaxian but on a cylinder.You can roll all over the screen while enemies take turns coming towards you with their attacks. It's quite a decent time waster.

 6.0 out of 10

Time Pilot

 Time Pilot plays a bit like Asteroids, with the whole 360 degree turn-movement, but you have to bring down enemy planes instead of rocks and rescue allies. It's hard to the point of cheapness, where it feels like enemy bombs track you, but the difficulty is also what makes it exciting.

5.0 out of 10

Scramble

 This was the game I liked the least on this collection, but it's still rather fun, for what it is, a sidescrolling shooter in which you play as an invader and must bring down ships and towers with bombs and lasers. As straightforward as it gets.
 5.0 out of 10

Frogger

 You can fight me on this, but Frogger is an all-time classic and it's fun to this day. You must help frogs cross streets and rivers to make it to the pond at the end of the screen. It's as simple as that, except that you must avoid traffic and cross the river by jumping over logs and turtles. The biggest issue is the purple frog bonus, since it's hard to see on the GBA's screen, making it for a handicap instead of a bonus!
 7.5 out of 10

 That's all fine and dandy, but what if I told you that the game houses a few bonuses and secrets? Using the Konami code on any game will produce different results. Rush'n Attack and Time Pilot get a few new levels, which is OK I guess, but Gyruss gets a bonus X level with slightly enhanced graphics. Pretty nifty, right? Yie Ar Kung-Fu gets bonus characters for the multiplayer mode, which is fine, but I can't play it by myself. But what about Scramble and Frogger? Well...

 Complete and total graphical overhauls. This is quite probably one of the best looking Frogger versions out there, and it's almost criminal that it's hidden behind a code so that a lot of people won't find out that their games contain this neat little extras. Having clearer graphics, different ships and an easier to read HUD makes Scramble a bit more fun, and the new graphics make Frogger seem like a new game. These extras should've been extra options on the menu!

 Konami Collector's Series - Arcade Advanced is a decent way to pass the time, and the Konami-Code extras are brilliant, but Arcade games shouldn't be rereleased without infinite continues. I wish the game would've had less shooters, and maybe put Castlevania Arcade instead of Time Patrol, but Frogger is worth the price of admission alone, and the other games are worth a look or two.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #737: Capcom Classics - Mini Mix

 I would never say no to Capcom classics.

 About a decade ago Capcom saw fit to release their two-volume Capcom Classics collections on the PS2, PSP and the like, but not being one to leave the GBA hanging(or to say no to easy money), Capcom also released Capcom Classics Mini Mix on the GBA, but instead of containing their cheap Arcade games, it instead contained a few of their cheap NES games! Yes, this games are tough because this was the norm at the time, and the games contained in this cart are straight-up ports, no bells and whistles, no savestates, no cheats, nothing to make the experience any more pleasant in our modern times. Included in this game we get: Mighty Final Fight, Strider and Bionic Commando, classics of the yesteryear in every sense of the word, but they certainly show their age.

Mighty Final Fight

 While I grew up with a NES of sorts, I never played this game, nor the other two for that matter, but I remember the day I discovered this game existed. It was one of my first goes at NES emulation, and I couldn't believe that Final Fight had a NES version I didn't know about!

 This is a 5-stage alternate take on Final Fight. Cody, Guy and Haggar team up to rescue Jessica, throughout 5 stages that may share a few similar backdrops to the Arcade game, but very different all in all. There's no multiplayer, not even on the NES original, but now we've got a few barebones RPG elements, namely, the fact that characters level up as you defeat enemies, enlarging their lifebar and getting new moves.

 Each character plays slightly different from one another, which is surprising, even more so the fact that by the end of the game these versions of the characters have more moves than their arcade counterparts! Sadly, there are no weapons to be found, well, except on a single stage, but it's not too bad.

 While games during this era were unfairly hard, Mighty Final Fight feels pretty fair. That said, it's a bit boring, since enemies take too long too kill. About 4-5 full combos each, at least when playing as Guy. Once I lost all my lives by level 5 I quickly swapped to Cody and it felt like he was a bit stronger, even if his left-right+A+A+A+A attack wasn't as useful as Guy's.
 7.0 out of 10


Strider(NES)

 I don't care what anybody says, this is a Metroidvania. Kinda. This game plays nothing like the Arcade original, which was pretty off putting at first, I mean, after 'finishing' the first level I was dumbfounded to figure out that I actually had to walk all the way back to the start of the level. And it turns out that you'll visit Stage 1 a few more times throughout your playthrough. And it sounds kinda annoying until you make peace with the fact that this is a Metroidvania.

 That's right, a big part of the game is exploring levels, as you unlock them, finding abilities or keys that will let you advance further on other stages. You might want a guide in tow to cut on your stage visits, but it's not necessary since you can figure out everything on your own. As for basic gameplay, A jumps and B attacks, simple, but you also have access to ninja spells to aid you in battle or heal you, which use energy from your energy points. After rescuing or finding certain NPCs you'll also get levelled up, increasing your HP and EP. Pretty nifty, and pretty interesting, since this makes sure that you'll always be as strong as you need to for the next part of the game.

 It's a bit on the short-side, but long enough that you'll want to take a break, luckily we get a password system. Savestates would've been neat, but what can you do? The only thing that keeps this game from greatness is how spotty the platforming is. Triangle-jumping is a pain in the butt, jumping out of platforms sometimes doesn't work very well, and sometimes touching a piece of a go-through platform will ruin your jump. In the end, jumping and THEN moving sideways seemed to work best.
 7.5 out of 10


Bionic Commando(NES)

 Call me a heretic if you want, I didn't like Bionic Commando. Mind you, not being able to jump and having to rely on the hook for any and every vertical movement you want to perform was actually really fun, but the game is a bit unnecessarily tough, and leveling up, which grants you bonus hit points, takes too long. Doesn't help the fact that it's about as long as Strider, but harder, and with not a single way to save the game, not even a password system.

 The game's charm comes in the way of how you tackle the levels, for you see, you get an overworld and you could visit any stage in any order that you want, but there's actually a proper order that'll guarantee you getting the items and weapons on your first, and hopefully only, visit. This entire system is pretty novel, so I'll give it props for that.

 All in all, I think it can be enjoyed by people that haven't outgrown their retro roots. As for me? I think the only way I'd enjoy this game would be with either savestates or at least unlimited lives or continues, as not to make the grinding process such a chore and, well, a grind. Regardless, I think the stage-layout is pretty original, and the hook is fun to use. That said, it's hard to have fun with it when enemies keep dropping down on top of your head as you try to make progress, making you take unfair damage.
 5.0 out of 10

 Capcom Classics - Mini Mix on the Gameboy Advance is a fun little collection of games. They are pretty old so your mileage may vary on how much you enjoy each game, but there's sure to be at least something here that you'll enjoy.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #736: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

 Gentlemen don't make a scene, so I'm not the one that's crying, it's you!

 It's been quite a ride, but here we are, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future marks the conclusion of the first Layton trilogy, as being the final game, chronologically speaking, that features Layton as the main character. While you don't need to play the previous games in order to enjoy Unwound Future, the emotional payoff is much more touching if you did.

 A letter from Luke arrives, which sets out Layton and Luke on their newest adventure. Luke, you say? The letter comes from Luke alright, but from Luke 10 years into the future! After witnessing a time-travelling experiment go awry, eventually Luke and Layton find their way into the future, and they team up with future Luke in order to solve the mystery of future London. Ironically, for a game set in the future, this game also delves back into Layton's past and how this gentleman came to be. This game has got the best narrative in the series, at least in the first trilogy, and it's hard not to tear up during the epilogue. On another note, the game has about 168 puzzles, making it the meatiest Layton yet! It also feels like it had the highest budget as well, since it features many more animated cutscenes as well as voice acting than the previous games, both looking and sounding better than ever.

 Honestly, the game plays exactly the same as before. You explore different areas, interacting with NPCs in order to trigger new puzzles and riddles to solve. You can tap around the environments to search for hint coins or hidden puzzles. It's a decent assortment of the lot, can't say I preferred them or disliked them over the ones in previous games. As for this game's exclusive minigames there are three: Toy Car Driving, in which you must plan out a route for a car in order to collect everything on the road, Parrot Delivery Service, in which you must produce platforms for a parrot to bounce over in order to reach someone and, lastly, a Sticker Book, in which you tell a story by placing the appropriate stickers over it. These were probably the best minigames in the series yet, I found the sticker books particularly endearing. But then again, I suck at puzzle games and those were quite simple to figure out.

 I'm not the biggest puzzle fan, so I fear Professor Layton will never hit the right notes with me. That said, I adored this final game's story, I found it very interesting and I found myself more emotionally invested in Layton and Luke than with their previous ordeals. Layton definitely deserves all the praise it gets.
 8.0 out of 10