Review #758: Godzilla - Domination!

 They don't call him the King of All Monsters for nothin'

 Remember Destroy All Monsters Melee? Well, not content with crafting a then-well received Godzilla game, Atari tasked WayForward with creating a handheld version of that game, and thus Godzilla Domination! was born. With this game, WayForward opted to take inspiration from the King of the Monsters, no, not Godzilla, but rather the old Neo Geo classics, the first game in particular. So what we've got here is a 4-man arena fighting game featuring 6 characters from the world of Godzilla.

 I'm not gonna lie, the game feels more than a bit barebones. There's a very basic Story Mode that ends with you fighting a gigantic Mecha Gidorah, a VS Player Mode and a VS CPU mode. You can have up to four different monsters fight on the same battle, and can divide players and CPUs in teams if you so wish it. The six characters are fairly different from one another, even MechaGodzilla and Godzilla, but movesets are very basic: A and B are different attacks, L blocks and R jumps. You also have to aerial attacks, pressing either A or B on the air, as well as two different charge attacks, with either B or A, and no, you can't attack with the other button you're not charging an attack with, so if you begin a charge you are forcefully committed to it.

 You also get super moves. By landing charged attacks or destroying buildings around you, by stepping over them, you'll build your three-tiered Rage gauge. There are three levels of Rage moves, performed with either L+R, A+B or A+B on the air. First issue: Commands are not universal between characters, this means that while L+R may be Godzilla's level 1 Rage Attack, it's actually King Gidorah's level 2 Rage attack, which is kinda annoying when switching from character to character. The second big issue with Rage attacks is that in what's actually quite surprising from a WayForward game.... getting these attacks to come out can be a hassle, controls just don't feel responsive enough, I often times found myself mashing L+R together in frustration waiting for my attack to come out.

 Godzilla Damnation! is a decent time, but it's nothing special. With a paltry 6 characters and a very limited moveset for each character you'll be done with the game after a few hours. Fans of Godzilla might get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters in gorgeous 2-D, but even then these are far from WayForward's Rob Buchanan's best work.
 5.0 out of 10

Review #757: Power Rangers - Wild Force

 At last, a wild Power Rangers game appeared.

 So... Power Rangers Wild Force is one of the two Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance that actually inspired me playing every Power Rangers game on handhelds, and there's a good reason for that, I actually remembered playing through both games when I was younger and actually enjoying them quite a bit. As these games arrived, I gave them a quick try, and figured out that Wild Force would be the worst one of the bunch, so I left it for last... turns out it just might be the best Rangers game on the Gameboy Advance.

 This one is a bit different from the others, it is a beat'em up albeit on an isometric viewpoint and it uses ugly pseudo 3-D graphics, I mean, the running animation is... something. The game is made up of about 8 stages, but twice you are allowed to pick divergent paths, so there's actually a few more stages, it's just that you can't play every stage on one playthrough. The game is very basic, A jumps, which is useless in this game, B is your basic attack string, L summons a fellow Ranger for a double attack and R uses a weapon attack, a Ranger's final attack on his basic combo string actually, unless you're the Black Ranger, in which case he'll pick up an enemy and throw him. Why he gets to be unique is beyond me. Each stage is made up of various square areas, and after you defeat every enemy in an area you can move to an adjacent area, the objective being to get to the area square that houses the boss. It's usually very obvious just where the boss is, and there doesn't seem to be any reason to clear every area or to explore outside whatever route you figure is quicker. There are barely more than 2 basic enemy types in the entire game, so every single stage plays out the same, it's just that the backdrop on which you are standing changes. Lazy? Definitely. Repetitive? In concept, yes, but the game is short enough as not to wear out its welcome.

 All five Rangers play basically the same, but with different stats. Before you attempt each stage you can pick a team of four, which is hilarious because there are only five characters, regardless, the first Ranger you pick is the one you'll play as, and the other three are the Rangers you'll cycle from as you use your Summon attacks, each ranger having a different super. Midway through the game, the Silver Ranger joins your ranks, and he has the same summon assist as the Blue Ranger, but he has the best stats among all characters.

 You know the drill by now, every boss ends with a Zord battle, thankfully, these Zord battles are alright, which is the best case scenario when it comes to these games. A and R are different attacks, B blocks and after you fill your energy gauge, a A-button-pressing minigame ensues that deals plenty of damage if you don't miss any input. If the enemy fills their own gauge, you'll play the same minigame but in order to block incoming damage. In what was a strange twist, I actually started to long for the Zord battles, 'cause you see, there are 7 Zords in the game, and which Zords you can use depend on which orbs you get, orbs being awarded every time you beat a stage. Since the Zord battles are quite alright, and every stage has an Orb as a reward, I started to look forward to every new Zord I could use! That said, since you have two forks during the game, you won't be able to use every Zord on a single playthrough, and depending on which routes you pick, sometimes you won't even get a new Zord upon finishing a stage, but it doesn't matter, it was still fun to get new Zords and trying them out.

 Power Rangers - Wild Force is yet another lazy, sub-par beat'em up game on the system, but for my money, it's the best one. While I had some fun with it, it's not hard to realize just how repetitive the concept is, so your mileage may vary on it. Anyway, I'm glad I'm done with Power Rangers games on the Gameboy Advance!
 4.5 out of 10

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