Review #756: Power Rangers - Dino Thunder

 Feels like ancient software that should've gone the way of the Dinosaurs.

 I don't know how, but Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance keep finding ways of letting me down, just when I think I've seen every way these games can suck.... they find new ones. Case in point, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, yet another platforming beat'em up game.

 In this game you play as the Red, Yellow and Blue Rangers while taking orders from a non-playable Black Ranger as well as sporadic appearances of an unplayable White Ranger. Lame. All three characters are virtually identical, with only their weapon attack animations being different, but behaving pretty much the same way. Each stage has you playing as a different member of the trio, and there's about 5 stages per character, for a total of 15 or so stages, making it relatively lengthy for a Power Rangers game.

 The game looks like the successor to the Ninja Storm game, featuring similar large, ugly digitized sprites and stiff gameplay. B is your basic three hit combo, B+UP is a weapon attack and B+Down is another weapon attack. You can collect coins on every stage, and for every 10 coins you can use your Super Move with the R button. Combat feels clunkier than in Ninja Storm, at first I was having trouble getting the 3-hit combo to come out and couldn't figure out what was going on.... turns you have to mash the B button really fast for it to come out, regardless, your best attacks are the weapon attacks and flying kicks, since they deal more damage than the useless 3 hit combo.

 Remember all those crappy Spider-man games on the GBA and DS? Remember what made them so bad? Well, this game follows that formula to a tee, being a scavenger hunt on mazelike levels. On the plus side, while you don't have a radar, the game reuses the same 5 levels over and over again, so eventually you'll learn the layout by heart and thus won't get lost... much. On the other side, the game reuses the same levels, with the same layouts, although with the objects of your hunt hidden in different places, over and over again, making for a very boring and repetitive game, pretty much what we've learnt to expect from these licensed snorefests. The Factory level is particularly bland, because falling down into the many, many pits will loops you back to the beginning of the stage. LAME.

 Zord Battles, of course, are a thing. This time around you pick from six different arms, 1 on each side, I mean, d'oh, and then do battle against enemies by tapping A or B to use your different arms. You might double tap left to back dash or hold back to block every now and then, but they are simple and not too awful. There are also 4 'connect the maze' minigames that are incredibly annoying because your character icon moves VERY slowly and the maze swaps tiles around randomly, or randomly takes time away from the timer, or other types of different bullcrap that turn these puzzles into annoyances. Clearing these puzzles is the only way to unlock new arms for your Zord.

 Power Rangers - Dino Thunders is clunky, poorly designed and boring, so... moving over....
 3.0 out of 10

Review #755: Power Rangers - S.P.D.

 It took a while, but here we are, the Tolerable Rangers!

 I was losing hope for the handheld Power Ranger games, but lo and behold, PowerRangers S.P.D. is actually quite serviceable. Once again, this is a beat'em up/platformer hybrid in which you save the Earth as the Power Rangers.

 This game is actually rather long when compared to the previous two games I played, being made up of 8 stages with many sub-stages each. This actually became somewhat of a negative by the time I reached stage 7, since I just wanted the game to end because it became so repetitive. In what's a change from the formula, every sub-stage has a designated Ranger, so you can't swap between them. The Red Ranger can wall jump and his super move lets him go through walls and enemies, the Blue and Green Rangers can double jump, the Blue Ranger's super move is a crystal wall that blocks projectiles and damages enemies on contact while the Green Ranger's super move is a radar, a necessity since his stages are timed scavenger hunts, lastly, the Yellow and Pink Rangers can roll in order to avoid incoming damage, the Yellow Ranger's super creates shadow doubles of her, making her the best combat character and most fun character to use, while the Pink Ranger can perform a Super Punch, which deals a lot of damage but you'll mostly use it to break walls. Lastly, you get to play as the Shadow Ranger for the final two sub-stages, and he can double jump, wall jump and roll, as well as being stronger than the others. A few sub stages are simple vehicle sections which are unobtrusive at best.

 The game is pretty much what you'd expect: Move from left to right, unless you are the Green Ranger, mashing B to defeat enemies and pressing A every now and then to jump. R uses your Super Move, which is tied to a gauge that refills over time. It what can only be seen as a poor design choice, sometimes you'll find yourself waiting for the gauge to fill so that you can go over an obstacle that requires your super. The overall gameplay is serviceable, but by the end enemies felt a bit too tanky, and you attack combo was a bit too long and boring, so I was hoping for the game to end soon and just skipping as many enemies as I could.

 You don't get Zord battles until the fourth stage, and thankfully they are not too bad. B kicks, A punches and the collision detection is a bit suspect at times, but they are not too hard and they are not too time consuming. This game might have the best Zord battles yet, but it isn't saying much all things considered.

 It's tolerable, serviceable even, but it's still nothing more than a lackluster licensed game. At least there's some fun to be had here until the repetitiveness sets in.
 4.5 out of 10

Review #754: Power Rangers - Time Force/Power Rangers - Ninja Storm

 Twice the Rangers, twice the suck.

 Sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder why I subject myself to such terrible games. Well, this time it's because of nostalgia, as I used to play these games and actually enjoy them. In this case we've got a two-in-one deal, featuring Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Power Rangers Time Force, both bland beat'em ups in their own way.

 Power Rangers - Ninja Storm

 This is one ugly beat'em up, featuring large, ugly digitized sprites that move as stiffly as they look. You have three campaigns to choose from: The Red, Yellow and Blue ranger trio, the Magenta and Deep Blue ranger duo and the Green ranger lonesome, although each campaign is made up of the same 5 stages. Rangers are pretty much identical between each other, the Crimson/Deep Blue Rangers can charge their Super attacks and basic attacks, the main trio have alternate super moves(The Red Ranger has an aerial alternate super, the Yellow Ranger has a sliding super and I wasn't able to figure out how to pull the Blue Ranger's alternate) and the Green Ranger has.... nothing. In each campaign you can swap rangers with the select button, but all characters have the same animations, sprites and stats, only differing on their super moves. Oh, and the Crimson/Deep Blue duo having electricity on their basic attacks.

 B is your standard attack or projectile, but in order to swap weapons you have to find and collect the weapon power up, but why would you? As grabbing the same weapon icon(Sword or gun) will power it up, up to level three. I don't know how the projectile weapon evolves, since I didn't care about them, but the sword goes up to level 3, and each level unlocks a new attack, turning your basic slash into a three hit combo. You have alternate combos, such as B-B+Up which pops up your enemies and B-B-B+Side which throws them forward, but they are pretty useless. I guess B+Side ender is useful to knock down a wave of enemies if they are encroaching towards you. A special gauge fills over time, and once full you can press R for your super move. A jumps and L blocks.

 Combat is fairly dull and unsatisfying. Bosses have mercy invincibility, so the one enemy that would make sense to use your three hit combo is immune to it. That said, it's easy to get bosses into a attack-block pattern, and if they get out of it, getting them into it again is fairly simple. As per usual, we've got Zord battles after every boss, and, as per usual, they are the worst part about the game. They are slow, boring and very time consuming, because they are a tug-o-war. You have to be on the look out for button prompts(QTES!) and press either B or A, depending on which button appeared, and hold down a direction on the DPAD, depending on which side of the screen said prompt came from. It's dumb, it's boring, and it can take way too long since it's a tug o' war.

 As a whole it's one boring way to spend your time in. There are better games and even better licensed games on the console.

 3.5 out of 10

 Power Rangers -Time Force

 Let me start off by saying that I LOVED the way this game started in, the Red Ranger gets murdered and your navigator nonchalantly tells you not to worry since you can 'find a replacement for him on the next stage'. Once that hooplah is over, the game starts and it's just another boring beat'em up with ugly, lazy digitized sprites. The game is five stages long, but this time around you get all five rangers at once, can swap between them by pressing Select and each Ranger gets their own health and energy gauges, as well as their own stats, but everything else is identical between them.

 B is your basic attack and A jumps. If you find the Sword and Gun icon on every stage you'll be able to use said weapons, R for the Sword and L for the gun, but they spend energy from the energy gauge, energy better spent with you screen-clearing super attack by holding down the B button. If you find the Quantum Ranger icon you can play as him until he dies or you beat the stage's boss, but be careful, just pressing the select button will lock you out of the character until you find the Quantum icon again. I understand they didn't want you to swap characters as not to save him for bosses or tough areas, but just pressing select takes him away from you! I just wanted to check his stats!

 The game is very slippery, and combat feels unresponsive and wonky, it's not a fun game to play. Level feel carelessly slapped together, featuring those loveable leaps of faiths towards the unknown. By stage 3 I figured that defeating enemies was just a formality, and most of the time just avoiding them and running towards the end of the stage was more fun than mindlessly mashing B. As per usual, after each boss you have a Zord Battle, thankfully, this is the first Power Rangers game that kept the basic gameplay for those, and no crappy minigames. That said, it's just about mashing B to fill your energy gauge, once that's done you'll automatically defeat the boss.

 Time Force is even more boring than Ninja Storm, but also feels worse to play. At least it has the best Zord Battles in a Power Ranger game I've played yet.... which isn't saying much all things considered, and they are still pretty bad, just not as bad as the other Power Rangers games had them.

 3.0 out of 10

 They are a bland couple of games, they really are. There's absolutely no reason to care for these games unless you've some weird sort of emotional or nostalgic attachment to any of these games, like I do.

 3.5 out of 10

Review #753: The Scorpion King - Sword of Osiris

 And this is why WayForward are the kings of licensed games.

 Long, long ago, the Mummy movies, starring Brendan Fraser, were pretty famous and thus a spinoff, the Scorpion King was born. In case you couldn't tell what the Rock was cooking, because the movie was pretty mediocre, the movie received a couple of licensed games in order to cash in on the Rock's rising popularity, The Scorpion King - Sword of Osiris being the Gameboy's version, developed by mainstream videogame developer darling WayForward.

 I don't know if the game follows the plot from the movie, and I really don't care because it doesn't really matter. Mathayus' sweetheart, Cassandra, gets taken away by the baddies, so he is out to rescue her and save the world, and restoring a magical gauntlet and obtaining the mythical Sword of Osiris in the process. The game is made up of seven stages, and you can play as both Mathayus AND Cassandra, although the latter is only available on the game's intro and through cheats. The game runs on passwords, which kinda suck, but at least they are only four pictures long.

 The game is a fast-paced 2-D action/platformer game in which you'll jump and slash your way to the end. Mathayus has access to two weapons(technically three), a two-handed sword and two hook swords, a dagger and a kick in the case of Cassandra, and the difference between both is merely about range, speed and strength: The Sword/Dagger is much stronger, but has less reach and a bit slower, while the Hook Swords/Kick have more range, come out quicker and hit overhead. I was just fine with the broad sword for most of the game, but a few flying enemies were better dealt with using the hookswords, so swapping weapons has its sparse uses. Both weapons have charge attacks(Hold B and then push different directions) but those moves are incredibly situational, so I only used them because I wanted to try them out, not because they'd be the optimal response to an enemy.

 As you defeat bosses, one per stage, you'll unlock gem slots on your gauntlet. Gems can be obtained from fallen enemies and they boost your stats. The first gem you find powers up your weapons, engulfing them in fire, the second level adds a rotating, defensive flame around your characters, etc. There are four different levels for gem power, but gems can be hard to come by and getting hit means you lose one gem level, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I wasn't good enough to manage to keep a level 3 gem buff long enough to see how the fourth level worked.

 The Scorpion King on the Gameboy Advance is a fairly solid offering for people looking to get their action-platform fix. Gameplay is snappy and there's nothing particularly bad about it, maybe how forgettable it can be due to the unremarkable licensed its based on. Regardless, the game does have its staying power. I first tried it out during the Advance Emulation heyday, before I even know what WayfForward was, and I never forgot about this game because of how great a first impression made thanks to how fun it was to play.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #752: Castlevania - Circle of the Moon

 But what about the square of the moon? And the triangle of the moon?

 As someone that loved Symphony of the Night, I was hyped about Castlevania: Circle of the Moon before I even had a Gameboy Advance. I knew I as gonna get one, and as soon as the game was announce I kept tabs on it. As much as the early dial-up connections of the early 00's allowed anyways. But the economy took a dive, games became too much of an expensive luxury, and the fact that I never even saw the box in my country meant I never got to play the game. Eventually I would get to try it out via Emulation, but I never properly finished it, much less own it. I own it now, and finally I have beaten every Metroidvania Castlevania, and this collection is complete.

 You play as Nathan Graves, the inheritor of the famed Vampire Killer, although this game takes place in an alternate timeline, so no pesky Belmonts. Nathan, Hugh and their master, who is also Hugh's father, get trapped inside Drac's castle, their Master is MIA and Hugh is out to prove he ought to be the inheritor of the Whip, so Nathan is basically left to his own devices in order to rescue his master and defeat Dracula. Story has never been Castlevania's strongest suit, so it doesn't really matter what the excuse is, what matters is that this was the first Metroidvania style Castlevania on the Gameboy Advance, and it delivered just that. The Castle is pretty large, although the game could've used more Teleportation rooms, since you'll have to do a lot of backtracking on foot, but in a way, it's better that way, since this game is tough, and any extra level you can grind will help.

 At the start, Nate can only jump, slide, use a subweapon, attack with his whip or twirl it around for minimal damage(but works great as a defense against projectiles!), but as you go through the castle and defeat bosses you'll earn new abilities to let you go through obstacles, such as running, double jumping or pushing blocks. As far as equipment goes, Nathan only wields the Vampire Killer but you can equip an armor as well as two accessories, provided you get them from enemy drops. There isn't a shop in this game, so any healing item or equipment piece is entirely tied to how lucky you are. To compliment his basic moveset, you can also use any of the heart-consuming subweapons the series is know for, such as the dagger, the holy water, the cross, the stopwatch or the ax.

 There's one other tool in Nathan's repertoire, and that too is tied to luck, and these are Cards. A few enemies have a very small chance(It goes as high as about 1.4% chance! on a few monsters) of dropping a card. By themselves cards are useless, but if you combine cards you can get different effects. There are twenty cards, divided in two sets of 10, and you must combine two cards between sets. You can get all sorts of neat effects, such as turning your whip into an elemental whip, passive stat boots, access to Item Crash or even turn your whip into a flippin' sword. The card system, named DSS, is paramount to maximizing your survival in this game, which makes it almost criminal that every card is found by chance, and there's no way of telling if an enemy can drop a card or not besides aimless grinding. At least you'll get experience points, I guess.

 Blasphemous might've tried this whole "hard metroidvania" thing, but it ain't even half as hard as this game. I'd say Circle of the Moon sits neatly between Blasphemous and Castlevania - Order of Ecclesia. Enemies deal massive damage, bosses can tank a lot of damage, save spots are few, healing can be incredibly hard to come by and enemy drops, which make up your equipment and access to hard, can be very stingy. It doesn't feel too unfair, but some of the enemy placement can be very tricky, and some enemy patterns, like the darned Dark Armors, can be pretty tough to avoid even when you figure out the best strategy to take them out. I know the game received criticism for how dark it looked, but even with the GBA SP's backlit screen some enemy projectiles sort of blend into the background, Camilla's purple projectiles being a prime example of this.

 Overall, I think it's pretty fun. The DSS system is fun to tinker with and discover new abilities, the graphics are pretty good and the Castle feels well designed, even if it could've used more teleportation rooms. Nathan feels heavier than other protagonists in the series, he can't move as fast or even take a backstep, but exploring the castle is fun, and it's pretty large too. Konami would add a ton of features, enhancements and tweaks to the formula on subsequent games, but Circle of the Moon feels like a very solid first step.

 I think this might very well be the weakest Metroidvania on Nintendo's handheld systems, but even then it's a great game. It's definitely got a much more appealing style than Harmony of Dissonance, but that game played a bit better, even if it looked worse. It feels a bit stiff when compared with the other Castleroids, a bit slow and limited, but if you enjoy the genre there's no going wrong with this one, provided you are up to the challenge.
 8.0 out of 10

Review #751: Gunstar Super Heroes

 It ain't jump and shoot, it's SUPER jump and shoot..

 While Treasure seems to be resting on its laurels during the current generation of videogames, they sure were prolific on the Gameboy Advance. I've already covered a few of their games here, but one that avoided me for a while was Gunstar Super Heroes, a sequel to a beloved Sega Genesis classic.

 I'll be the first to admit that I never finished Gunstar Heroes, truth be told, I never found it much fun. Regardless, this game seems to be a sequel to said game, although you might be forgiven for thinking it's a reboot since it borrows so many ideas, stages and concepts from the original game. Characters were given personalities, and there's a plot about collecting 4 different gems, but they are just window dressing. In the game you can play as either Blue or Red, both are pretty much identical except for the fact that their slides look different and they each have a different weapon. Remember how the original had about 4 different types of guns? Well, Blue and Red share two of those weapons(The homing beam and the explosive rounds), but they each get a unique type: Red gets the machine gun while Blue gets the laser beam. That aside, there are 3 different difficulty settings per character, as well as 6 different missions shared between characters. The game is very short, but very tough, I only just managed to beat the game on Easy, finishing Normal would require a bit more time investment, learning patterns and what not, and I just didn't want to bother. I didn't really need to either, I got more than my fill of the game on Easy and I really enjoyed my time with it, but it's not a game I'd care getting good at.

 The game offers a ton of mobility and techniques to style on your enemies. A is your jump button, but couple it with Down on the D-Pad and you'll perform an offensive slide, tap A on the air to produce a flying kick, press Up on the D-Pad with A to perform a Shoryuken or tap down and A while on the air to stomp on the ground. You can even link a slide into a Shoryuken into a stomp, it's pretty smooth, simple and quite stylish, although being careless with these will only result in you getting hurt. L button toggles between your three guns, B lets you move and shoot while R will shoot while locking you in place, in case you need precision aiming. Each weapon also gets a gauge that fills as you kill enemies, once filled you can double tap R to use a super version of your shot. Lastly, tapping the B button instead of holding it down will let you use melee attacks. Training yourself to shoot with B or R depending on the situation takes a while, but there's no denying that your moveset is pretty neat, and it makes for a very stylish game.

 Level design is... well, your mileage may vary on these. Most stages have at least some sort of vehicle section, be it an overhead helicopter stage or a stage in which you roll a ship around the screen while evading missile and shooting down enemies. Can't say I enjoyed those, the game is definitely at its best when you are on the ground, running, jumping, styling and shooting. Stage 4 also has a bizarre board-minigame thing that feels more like a waste of time than a challenge. I really, really could've done without that section. While there are no traditional checkpoints, each stage has multiple sections, and if you die you can restart from another section, with the small caveat that you spawn with whatever health you had when you reached that checkpoint. If its too low, you can just replay the previous section, or sections, and try to arrive with more health. It's an interesting system to be sure.

 Gunstar Super Heroes is a bit of a mixed bag. The gameplay is brilliant, your moveset is fun... but I think they went a bit too hard on unnecessary vehicle sections that actually took a bit away from the game. And it's a bit of a shame, because if it had had more on-foot sections the game could've been a little gem. Regardless, it's a fun game, but not without a few dull moments.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #750: Final Fantasy VII & Final Fantasy VIII Remastered - Twin Pack

 The forever fantasy.

 Hi! My name is Ignacio and thanks to Final Fantasy VII & Final Fantasy VIII Remastered: Twin Pack I can play my favorite game of all time anywhere, anytime. I mean, geeze, one of my first blog posts was about how great Final Fantasy VII still was, and I stand by those words to this very day. To be honest, while I'm sure most people that were gaming in the late 90s probably built stronger bonds with Final Fantasy VII and VIII than IX, there's no good reason as to why FF IX isn't on this card. I'm not too bothered about it since IX was my least liked PS era Final Fantasy, probably because while I played VII and VIII on PC no such port existed for IX, and by the time I got a PS2 and finally got to play IX there were many other fantastic games demanding my attention so I never spent too much time with it.

 Final Fantasy VII

 Still a classic, still amazing. I swear, while it looks crude by today's standards, hidden beneath its looks lies the best JRPG of all time, with brilliantly simple mechanics as well as a fantastic plot that thrives despite its poor translation. On a more personal note, whenever I wasn't playing the game I was visualizing in my mind what came after whatever part in the game I was in, and, lo and behold, I knew the game by heart. It's music transported me to my childhood, and by the end I wished the game had more songs so that it would unearth even more feelings of nostalgia. It's amazing.

 The plot follows Cloud Strife, Ex-Soldier First Class, as he finds himself helping AVALANCHE, a terrorist group that is opposing Shinra and their life-draining Reactors that are on the brink of killing the planet. It's not too soon before Sephiroth, Ex-Soldier First Class, re-emerges from Cloud's past, him too seeking to destroy the world, and thus begins Cloud's quest to save the world... and recover his memory. Yeah, it's the brooding amnesiac hero trope, but this game did it first and, arguably, did it best. There's a lot more to the story than that, and this being my 600th playthrough, I started noticing a ton of little details that foreshadow the plot twists oh so exquisitely. Every character in the game gets their own chance to shine and their own development, even the two optional characters get their moments, albeit being optional as well, which helps make you fall in love with everyone. The game also has a ton of very progressive ideas that were pretty much ahead of their time, such as giving you control during cutscenes in which you can't do anything to stop what's happening, building an atmosphere of futility and powerlessness which is nothing short of impressive for a game of its era. For what it's worth, while the translation is still a bit iffy, they fixed a few of the more glaring typos and errors.

 Gameplay is pure turn-based battling bliss. The game uses Square's trademark ATB system, in which your turns come once your ATB bar fills, and then you can: Attack, Defend, use magic, use items or use special commands. Taking damage builds on your limit bar, once full your basic attack becomes a Limit Break, a powerful attack that deals massive damage or has some sort of beneficial effect on your team. Characters have at least 4 different limit breaks each.

 But where the game truly shines is with the Materia system. It's so simple, but so much fun. Basically, Materia comes in different forms: Spells, Commands, Summons, Passive abilities, and depending on what weapon and armor you have equipped is how many Materia slots you get, and some slots may even be linked allowing you to couple Materia together for added effects, for example, put FIRE and MAGIC COUNTER linked and you'll counter attacks with Fire, put Fire Materia linked with ALL and you'll get to attack every enemy with fire. You also have to keep in mind that most Materia will put a handicap on your health and strength, while raising your MP and magic power, so you shouldn't just put every single Materia you've got on a single character. It's fun and it's simple, allowing for different strategies built on very simple rules. I love it. It also helps you build your party however way you want. Want someone who is strictly devoted to healing? Just put Healing Materia on said character, or, if you like, give everyone a Cure Materia so that everyone can serve as a healer!

 Alright, so the game is brilliant, what about this port? Well, the pre-rendered backgrounds during the exploration parts of the game are quite blurry, disappointingly so. Some backgrounds look as if they were smeared with oil. Speaking of visuals, you can't stretch the screen, so you'll have to make do with a black frame around the screen. The game also introduces three cheats: L3 for 3X speed, R3 for instant healing/turn/MP restore/full limit break and L3+R3 for no encounters. They are really quite useful. A few optional bosses will murder you even if you use the R3 cheat, but you'll probably be able to cruise through the parts that matter without much hassle. L3 is brilliant to cover long distances, and you can toggle both cheats together which makes grinding quite fast, and thus, quite useful. I read a lot about crashes and them being linked to the cheats, but while I didn't use them too much, my game never crashed. At all.

 Final Fantasy VII on the Switch is a great port of a great game. I wish the backgrounds were sharper, but I'll grant it that the new cheats make it quite convenient for casual playthroughs. Plus, when all is said and done, I can play my favorite game of all time on the go, so I'm all over the moon for this tiny little cart.
 10 out of 10

 Final Fantasy VIII

 Final Fantasy VIII is... it's a game alright. While back in the day I loved this game, I loved it so much I had a hard time deciding whether I liked this game or VII the most. But, as luck would have it, I replayed it a few years ago and.... I kinda, sorta, maybe hated it. Everything I wrote on this blog back then remains true, I don't like this game and I think the made a ton of poor design choices, so there's that.

 I won't go over the game again, since it'd be me just copy/pasting what I wrote back in the day, suffice to say that the things that make this game so annoying to play are: The fact that you can't skip the lengthy tutorials and you can't even trigger the X3 speed cheat on them. The fact that leveling up is pretty much useless since enemies level up with you. But worst of all, the Junctioning system. You don't have magic in this game perse, instead, you have to 'draw' them from enemies in order to stock on magic, up to 100 different casts of magic per character. But the game has no equipment, instead, you have to junction magic to your stats, and how much of a boost you get is entirely dependent on the quantity of stocked junctioned magic you've got. So you are caught in a bind, since you won't want to use magic since you want to improve your stats. Plus, drawing magic takes forever, since at most you'll get 9 casts on a draw. At most. In other words, you'll spend countless turns and in turn waste time drawing magic with all three party members, and magic you won't be using since you'll be tying it to your stats. It's horrible! The encounter rate also seems higher than FF VII's.

 At least, X3 Speed and the R3 cheat make grinding for magic a bit more tolerable, but only a bit. The R3 cheat is more powerful than in FFVII, since your ATB bar is filled ALL the time, which means, basically, infinite turns. So, y'know, drawing magic takes less time than before. And, to be honest, it does help the game, because I do think that, despite how soap opera-ish some of the plot twists are, I think the story itself is quite entertaining, and Squall and Rinoa's love story is quite engaging, so when the annoying game mechanics are made less annoying you can spend more time enjoying what's really good about the game, namely, its story.

 Besides the cheats, Final Fantasy VIII also got another enhancement: New character models. Characters now look almost PS2-quality-like, almost, they are quite pretty and look much more faithful to the official art, even if a few idiots want to cry about Rinoa's cleavage. That said, it suffers from the same problem as FFVII's port: extremely blurry backgrounds.

 All in all, Final Fantasy VIII is one of the Final Fantasies that have aged the worst, but this port did a few things to make it more tolerable. Honestly, I'd even go as far as saying that this might be the best way to play the game.
 5.0 out of 10

 Overall? Twin Pack is a fantastic package made up of two classic games.... even if one has aged like milk. While I absolutely think this pack should've included IX, I'll also tell you that this cart is worth it for FF VII alone, so I don't cry myself to sleep over it. If anything this collection is quite convenient, you can take it on the go with you, and you also get some neat Speed enhancements and battle enhancements to make the games enjoyable on a more casual level, which works great for games like these where plot comes before the gameplay. Luckily, Final Fantasy VII also delivered on gameplay.
 10 out of 10