Game #883: Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection

  Street Fighter's Alright Collection.

 Dude, I love Street Fighter. I can vividly remember LOVING the hell out of a bootleg family conversion of Street Fighter II. Years later, as a teen, I'd come across a bootleg copy of Street Fighter Zero II on a flea market, which would rekindle my love for the series. Heck, as of today, Street Fighter III remains one of my favorite fighting games of all times, the animation is superb and the Parry is the best mechanic ever added to a fighting game, having to tap forward, and thus forgoing the ability to block in coming damage for a change at avoiding chip damage or getting an opening on your enemy is PURE brilliance. And it's because I hold so much love for the series that I can't help but feel like Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection could've been so much more.

 The game features 12 games. The first six are made up of Street Fighter 1, which is absolute garbage but a neat addition to a compendium like this, as well as five versions of Street Fighter II, vanilla, Championship, Turbo, Super, Super Turbo. Then we get Alpha 1, 2 and 3, as well as the three versions of Street Fighter III. It's a decent offering, although I would've quite liked Street Fighter IV thrown in here, but I guess having all versions of SFIV would've taken too much space, plus, the PS4 version of USFIV was poorly received. 

 So where does this collection come apart? Two words: Arcade Perfect. These are perfect conversions of the Arcade versions of these games, which is great for Arcade pundits, but... Most of these games received fantastic console ports with a bevy of additions that are sorely missed. There are 0 extra modes, no Survival, no Varial Battle, no Training, nothing but Arcade Ladder or VS player. And online, if you're into that. Street Fighter Alpha 2 had an upgrade, Alpha 2 Gold, that added Cammy, but that version of Alpha 2 isn't here. Alpha 3 is fantastic, but the console port added the missing SF II characters, like Guile and Blanka as well as a few others, but they are nowhere to be seen. Heck, even the PSP had the Alpha 3 Upper that included the bonus characters from the PS1/DC port, as well as the GBA bonus characters as well as Ingrid from Fighting jam. All the bonus unlockable colors from Street Fighter III? Tough luck.

 It's not just that, the games didn't even get tweaked just for convenience sake, having to go through dumb codes to pick the bosses in Alpha 1 is so dumb and archaic, was it too hard to add new slots to the character select screen? The fact that you can't map all three Punch and all three Kick buttons to a single button is downright offensive, considering pretty much every single Street Fighter home port had that option to make up for the joystick's button arrangement. Options for each game are very limited as well, you can only change the difficulty and sometime increase or decrease the damage or speed multipliers. You can't fiddle around with amount of rounds or time per round, which is frankly quite disappointing.

 And, by the by, the Switch is the least ideal console to play this game. The joycons just aren't up to snuff. Trust me, I've played the GBA and PSP versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3, I'm used to less than optimal controls, but the Joycons are easily the worst. I love having so many versions of Street Fighter on the go, and I can put up with these controls, but dang if they aren't wonky, I never struggled so hard getting super moves to go out.

 It's not all bad, y'know? The game offers a fairly extensive gallery, filled with art and information about every game and every single fighter, including being able to see the sprites for each of the characters' super moves. If it was up to me I'd have given access to the full sprite sheet for each character, but it's still a neat extra.

 Here's the thing... this is an average collection of a TON of great games. If you are into the competitive scene and grew up with Street Fighter on the Arcades, then this is everything you'd want and then some. But while I played a bit of Street Fighters on the Arcades, most of my experiences with the franchise came through the fantastic console ports. And while you could argue that the point of the collection was to bring Arcade Perfect ports to the consoles, I'd argue that they could've easily fit some of the console conversions in this pack. So, yeah, it's alright, and if I ever want Street Fighter III on the go I can simply pop this cart on my Switch and enjoy, but I think I'll stick with the PS2 ports otherwise.

7.0

Game #882: Sayonara Wild Hearts

 The coolest, most badass 70's infused acid-trip.

 What is Sayonara Wild Hearts? It's hard to explain, but it's kind of a on-rails runner in which stuff happens at the beat of whichever song is playing. It's also a story about heartbreak, self love and a bunch of other stuff that's hidden beneath it's very stylish aesthetics.

 In the game, the nameless heroine is constantly moving forward, so you have to move from side to side in order to dodge obstacles, enemies or projectiles. Every now and then you'll also get a few button prompts to act, once again, at the beat of the song. The game is INCREDIBLY cool, the aesthetics are simple, but the animations and the things the protagonist must go through are nothing short of jaw-dropping.

 Clearly there's a big emphasis on music, and thankfully, the soundtrack is fantastic. Both me and my girlfriend wound up hearing the OST after finishing the game, it's that good.

 The game is on the short side, we finished it in about two hours, but it's really fun, and it's entertaining as a spectator, which is how I spent 95% of the playthrough as my girlfriend handled the game, because everything looks SO cool, and the implied narrative is honestly very endearing.

8.0

Game #881: Donut County

  Donut try this at home.

 As a fan of Katamari Damacy, to say that Donut County was a big blimp on my radar would be an understatement. Thanks to the people at Iam8bit, I've finally been able to get a physical copy of the game, the way games are meant to be preserved.

 The premise is fun. You play as a small hole that grows into a bigger hole as it sucks stuff in. You move around on the floor, trying to get stuff to fall in you. So it's kind of a puzzle, you have to figure the right order in which to suck stuff in, so that you get larger and can fit even larger stuff in. 

 Unlike Katamari, there's no time limit, so it's much more laid back, which I liked. There are a few other puzzle elements every now and then, like the addition of a catapult that lets you shoot stuff upward, which must be used in order to clear certain levels. There's pretty much no lose state, except maybe in the last level, so you can just take your time and mess around until you figure things out, not like it's hard to anyways.

 The game is short, it felt like it lasted about 1:30 hours, but, hey, it's a very fun time. The plot is dumb, in a good way, and the gameplay is relaxingly fun. Anyone up for a chill, simple game will be right at home with this one.

 7.0

Game #880: Trap Gunner

 I guess you could say that... it's a trap.

 Back in the day I used to purchase videogame magazines. It was in an issue of either Xpert Gamer or Gamepro that featured a guide for Trap Gunner, and it had a section that featured all the playable characters, and man, the Ninja looked so cool! Everyone looked cool!. I spent years wishing I could play the game until I forgot about it. And now, years later, I finally got to play it. It was OK.

 Alright, so here's the thing with Trap Gunner, just like games like Twisted Metal, it's supposed to be played against other people, and playing by yourself just isn't very fun because matches can go on for a long time, and it's not like you can have a trash-talking back and forth with the AI.

 Regardless, what is Trap Gunner? It's a one-on-one versus game. You play as either of six characters, 9 if you unlock the bonus characters, and must shoot down your enemy, using traps to deal big damage or your pea shooter to help you. The game seems more complicated than it really is, but it features a serviceable, fully voiced video tutorial to put you up to speed.

 Each character has many elements that set them apart from the others. Their starting trap set is different, they have different projectiles that deal different amounts of damage, have different sized clips as well as speeds. Even their walking speed can be different. My favorite trap was the Mine, because it's very simple to use, so the Ninja I liked so much back then was a perfect fit, since he starts with 3 mines. On the other hand, keep in mind that your basic, infinite projectile weapon turns into a melee attack when an enemy is close to you, a melee attack with different speed and properties than your main gun.

 Your basic gun deals pathetic amounts of damage, so it's best used as a keepaway tool... or to make an enemy botch their attempts at disarming a trap. There are many traps: Mines, bombs that can't explode on their own, detonators(Detonated with the X button and can trigger mines and bombs in its vicinity), gas traps, force-push traps and pitfall traps, and the beauty of it is that you can combine traps. For example, surround a mine with bombs to deal massive damage. Or use a force-push trap to push an enemy into a mine. It's not like there are a million different combinations, but you can have some fun.

 The game is played in split-screen, even against the CPU, so you can see their part of the screen to aid yourself. Holding down the Triangle button slows you down to a crawl, but allows you to see enemy traps... and disarm them. Disarming a trap involves simple button inputs, and if you get it right you get a bit of health back and the enemy loses the trap, since they normally restock after an enemy sets them off. However, if you fail the inputs, or if you get attacked when you are doing the disarming, the trap will trigger.

 To keep you on the move, the game will regularly spawn traps or power ups on designated spots on the map, and you can tell that something has spawned because the spot will blink on the mini-map. It can also lead into strategizing, since you might want to set up traps for the enemy to trigger when trying to get more traps or trap stocks. Eventually, The Unit will spawn, an enemy tracking, plasma-sphere that deals a ton of damage, and it usually turns into a scramble to get The Unit before the enemy does. And if they do, trying to knock them down so that it breaks.

 I'm glad to have finally played the game, even if it wasn't everything younger me expected. That said, call it a hunch, but I've a feeling this game can be quite fun when played with somebody else.

 6.0 

Game #879: Naruto Shippuden Dragon Blade Chronicles

  Naruto, prankster, ninja, jinchuriki and... dragon slayer.

 I don't know who came up with the idea behind Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles, but this is an idea that could've resulted in something disastrous. Naruto wielding a sword and fighting dragons? First, why? Second, WHY? Well, the truth is that this isn't a very good game. But it does have its charm, believe it or not.

 What is the charm? Despite the story feeling like just more of your dumb filler episodes, every character involved gets redesigned to use armor bits.... and I really like the new designs! Honestly, I think the armor bits make everyone look rather cool, heck, Naruto, Sakura and Sai got full redesigns and not just armor added to their outfits. When Shippuden came out everyone got simplified, boring redesigns, these new designs makes everyone look more interesting, like Neji. Even the Akatsuki and Team Taka got new duds! This also made it disappointing that only Sasuke and Naruto are playable, the rest of the characters barely appearing in the game. Heck, Sai gets sent away to 'spy' on the Akatsuki, not being seen again until the end of the game, even if he gets a few audio bits talking with Kakashi.

 Other bits I liked: You can use the Gamecube controller to play, and the game features a completely unnecessary Naruto VS Sasuke 2 Player mode! I also found it interesting how there's no Normal difficulty, it's either Easy or Hard, no in-between. Why? Same reason this game exists: Nobody knows.

 The game itself is a very linear action game in which you play as Naruto, and a very few times as Sasuke, as you try to defeat the five elemental dragons. The game is 3 hours short, maybe shorter. It took me just shy of five hours to beat the game because.... in order to extend the game's life, the game hides a few upgrades behind gates that can only be broken on your second visit through a level, something you can only do once you get to the final level, and you can't just get the upgrades and turn tail, oh no, you have to finish the stage again and fight the boss again. Pretty lame way to extend the game, and sure, it's optional, but the completionist inside me just had to scratch that itch.

 The second fight against the Lightning Dragon is absolutely insane. In the first fight you can call in Rock Lee to make him approach. But without Rock Lee there was no way to dissipate the fog. GameFaqs has no FAQs, nobody asked about the fight, and nobody recorded the rematch. What you actually have to do is spam Rasengan until the fog clears. This fight took me almost an hour because I just couldn't figure out what to do, and there's absolutely no hint about using the Rasengan.

 I got a bit ahead of myself there! The game is simple to a fault, you mash the A button to repeat the same combo over and over again. Hopefully you explore a bit(Not like there's much to explore) and find Ninja Scrolls that allow you to use Jutsus after the third hit, as well as the scrolls that extend you basic 3 hit combo. That said, even after getting every possible skill the combat remains dull, there isn't much in the way of creativity and the combat never evolves. You can change the nature of the Dragon Blade, but why would you? The benefits it confers you are meaningless. The Lightning blade may paralyze the enemy. The Fire blade might put them on fire. The other three I've no idea. Enemy waves are seemingly endless, and there's no reward for defeating them besides health and chakra restoratives, so eventually I just started avoiding them unless fighting them was an absolute necessity to progress.

 Besides the Ninja scrolls you can also find Health and Chakra upgrades as well as new Jutsu. You can equip four jutsu at a time, each one assigned to a different direction on the D-Pad. Just by telling you that you can realize how uncomfortable that is. With the gamecube controller you attack with the A button, and must now use your movement-thumb to use a Jutsu. It's even worse with the Wiimote. Sure, you can remap the buttons, but no configuration is good enough. The C-Stick would've been a better choice. But here's the thing... there's no depth, no fun to be had. It's not like you can use a Jutsu to pop the enemy into the air and continue your combo, or Jutsu with different properties for different situations, there's nothing here.

 The story is so damn intrusive. You can't go two steps without triggering a game-stopping conversation. The cutscenes are lifeless AND boring, not a good combination. But the worst part about it? You can't skip dialogue. You can skip ENTIRE conversations or cutscenes, which is the bare minimum, but you can't read the dialogue at your own pace, instead you have to wait for the characters to say every single line if you want to know what's going on. By the by, it's not very interesting, feel free to skip it. This isn't the anime, I want to play, not watch. And the script is pure filler, without any real character development or consequences, which means the game's plot DOESN'T MATTER, so don't shove it down my throat.

 Since I'm at it, words can't describe how boring the ending is. Characters go on and on about pointless drivel or take an exceedingly long time to explain things that you already know. Jesus Christ, just get to the point already. And your reward for finishing the game? A Dragon Rasengan Jutsu and a hideous red and yellow recolor for Naruto.

 The final nail in the game's coffin is its performance. The game slows down to a crawl ALL the time. The game isn't particularly good looking, nor does it feel like it should tax the Wii that much, and yet, even having enemies spawn far away from you, not even appearing on the screen, can make the game's framerate drop into the low 10s. I'm not exaggerating, this game runs incredibly poorly.

 So, Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles is pretty bad. Boring combat, even duller story that interrupts the game all the time and a massive amount of slowdown makes for a poor showing, even for a licensed game. The one thing I'll commend them for is giving every character involved a redesign, but as amusing as it is to see everyone wearing something different, it can't make up for what a terrible game this is.

3.0

Game #878: Dragon's Lair 3D - Return to the Lair

 No animated eye-candy in this one.

 So, I've something I gotta admit... I never played the original Dragon's Lair, something I'm quite ashamed of, but I just haven't had the chance. And yet, I decided to take the plunge with Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair. It looked decent, and it was my chance to experience a slice of the Dragon's Lair franchise.

 Unlike the original game, this is a very linear adventure game in which you take direct control of Dirk the Daring. You can jump, slice with your sword, use a crossbow or even use magic items, such as a hovering wings or a magical armor that protects Dirk from heat. That sounds very different, and it is. Even the plot has changed, into a weird amalgamation of the first two games, taking bits and pieces from the plots of both games. The only animated footage you get is the intro, which I found quite disappointing as I had hoped it'd used cutscenes from the original game.

 Something that hasn't changed, however, is that Dirk must deal with a ton of one-hit kills, to the point of annoyance. There are plenty of murderous traps that there simply is no way for you to know they are there until you fell for them at least once. There's a particular nasty one near the end of the game, in which just try to open this mundane looking door ends with Dirk dying. It's not funny because the game recycles the same death animation over and over again. It really turns a somewhat average platforming game into a dull trial-and-error-athon..

 The game has some... interesting design choices. For instance, you must sheathe your weapons if you want to cling to any surface, so if you want to do some platforming you'd best sheathe your weapons. It's not too bad, but my biggest gripe with the controls concerns jumping, for you see, you can't jump immediately after jumping, despite Dirk already breaking into a run. There's a platform almost-puzzle section in which you must jump from platform to platform, avoiding fireballs that can kill you if they touch you, and for the longest time I thought my Joystick was giving out on me. It wasn't, I realized that you couldn't jump immediately after landing. The section was still annoying because Dirk running jumps went too far, but once I understood how things worked I finally managed to clear this section.

 I liked the graphics. Dirk and his enemies feature a very simple look, with an equally simple cell-shading applied to the models, but this simplicity makes characters look like their 2-D counterparts. Well, this applies to Dirk and a few key enemies, since I don't know if some of the common enemies actually appeared in the original.

 Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair is almost good. I'm not gonna lie, there are some very decent and exciting sections in the game, so when everything manages to gel together, it can be decent fun. That said, most of the time is spent falling victim to numerous traps you simply didn't know where coming, and some boss fights can be downright frustrating, requiring strategies that make it feel as if you are cheesing the game and not playing properly.

 4.0

Game #877: Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night(Playstation 4)

 At least it ain't an oil stain, those are nasty.

  Man, this game couldn't catch a breath! While most people would agree that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is, at its core, a good game, it received a lot of complaints, mostly from players, regarding its performance. They said that the Switch version was unplayable, which was a flat-out lie as I finished the game on that console, and trust me, it's VERY playable even if it didn't have a tip-top performance. I read that performance on PS4Pro and XOneS was just as bad, with as many crashes and... that's a lie too, as I played the game on the basic PS4 and, lemme tell you, it was a fun, fun time.

 Since I already talked about the game at length on the Switch entry, and the game remains pretty much the same, I'll delve into the little things I noticed on my second playthrough. But first, I'll start with the performance... The game is beautiful, and it plays great. Back in the Switch version I got used to saving before talking to any NPC, to protect myself from crashes, but after a lot of paranoia induced saving I realized that... it isn't an issue on this version. I read that the PS4 version also crashed when reading books or talking to NPCs, but that was NEVER an issue on my playthrough. And I played the unpatched version. There are a few frame drops here and there, sometimes in areas that aren't even graphically intensive, or during moments that don't even have a lot of things moving around at the same time, but they aren't intrusive or detrimental to the player, at all. I'll admit that the game crashed one time in the final area, the Ice Tomb, but it was a single crash, a stark comparison to the crash-prone Switch version. This is the best way to experience the game, no ifs or buts, although I still think that a handheld console feels better for this genre. 

 One feature I really hated is that accessories and hats show on Miriam's model. This wouldn't be an issue if I didn't want stat boosts... without looking ridiculous. Like the stone mask, it has some pretty good stat bonuses... but Miriam looks hideous wearing it. In these games I usually use accessories to boost my Luck, and thus get better goodies, but I hated having to use that Santa Claus hat for so long since Miriam looked dumb. At least the ribbon, later in the game, conferred better stats and didn't look as silly. Miriam has a great visual design, and these 'funny' accessories kinda detract from how good she looks.

 The game is still fantastic, I still think it's one of the best, and largest, Metroidvanias Koji Igarashi ever made, however, on this second playthrough there were two areas that rubbed me the wrong way. Firstly, the underwater section. You get two means to traverse these parts: First, with an optional Soul that lets you shoot water stream jets to propel yourself in the opposite direction. It's imprecise and not a fun way to move around underwater. Then you get a Passive ability that lets you sink and walk underwater.... but you move at the speed of molasses, making it impossible to dodge the underwater obstacles. The worst part about it is that you can't mix both means of traversal, either you toggle the Sink ability On or Off, because if it's on, you can't use the water jets. I was so happy the moment I was done with the underwater caverns.

 The other area that feels a bit week is the penultimate environment, the Den of Behemoths. Firstly, it has got a very uninspired theme: Giant versions of enemies you've already fought, while traversing through enlarged areas you've already explored, The Garden of Silence specifically. But each zone of this area is so massive in size that exploring it becomes a chore. It's the only zone I didn't bother to fully explore, because it was so boring, and due to its size, it could be a bit hard to figure out how to get into some of its nooks and crannies. Enemies in this Zone also have a particularly low Shard drop-rate, which made it even more of a bore. Add to that the fact that, for a Metroidvania, this is a rather lengthy game, so by the time you arrive to this area you might be starting to feel a bit burned out, so the fact that it's made of enlarged-recycled stuff kinda kills the momentum. Luckily, the are ends on a high note, with a fun boss fight against the Gambler, and then the game picks up back again with the Ice Tomb. Still, I think Bloodstained would be a better game if the entire Den of Behemoths got cut, and this is a hill I'd die on.

 I know, I know, most of this entry is made up of criticism, but the original Switch entry is pretty much all praise, and I stand by it, the game is an absolute blast, and as I said above, I think this is one of Igarashi's finest. I'd easily place this game on the top echelons of the genre, beneath only Portrait of Ruin, Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow. The developers put the huge amount of money they collected to good use, and it really shows that this was a passion project for Iga and his team, and I just can't wait for them to apply everything they learned making this game on a sequel.

 8.5