Project X Zone 2: Brave New World - Review

Despite not using my Nintendo 3DS very much, I do really like it, I just have difficulties finding games I really want to play on it.  Well over a year ago I saw Project X Zone 2: Brave New World in GameStop, I checked out the back of the box, liked the style, and the idea of playing a game with a multitude of characters from different game series. I went home checked out a little more about it, and then finally decided to buy it.  It has taken me a long time to finish the game, but I finally got there, so here's my review of Project X Zone 2: Brave New World.


Who loves peanut butter?! I really love it, it's tasty and works well in chocolate, biscuits, cakes, doughnuts, and sandwiches.  One of my favorite ways to enjoy it is between two slices of bread, sometime I might even toast the bread depending on my mood.  Throw in a large mug of milk, and I feel like happy little kid again.  Admittedly it's rather simple, but it is great comfort food.  Playing Project X Zone 2: Brave New World I found myself asking was this a simple tasty sandwich with milk or was it just simple?

Story

The game takes characters from Capcom, Sega, and Bandai and has them working together to help stop the destructions of their worlds.  The mission is simple, stop the bad guys summoning an ultimate evil.  There are characters from: Resident Evil, Megaman, Strider, Darkstalkers, Virtua Fighter, Resonance of Fate, Streets of Rage, God Eater 2, Tekken, Soul Caliber V, and .hack// to name just a few.  The characters are mostly arranged into teams of two, my favorites were Xiaomu/Reiji, Phoenix Wright/Maya, Kiru/Majima, Dante/Vergil, and Sheath/Saya.

The story, while good feels a little more complicated at times than it needs to be, but for the most part, this wasn't really an issue for me as there was so much great dialogue between the characters.  There are jokes about other games, nods to the player, plenty of sexual innuendos, and just generally funny conversations.  The only thing that initially threw me off were some of the in-jokes, that you would only fully appreciate if you had played all the games the characters were from, but as time went on it just made me want to go out and play those games.  Overall though, a good story, with lots of fun dialogue.

Visuals

Handheld games sometimes suffer from poor visuals, this is certainly not the case with Project X Zone 2: Brave New World.  When you are organising your characters on the field of battle they are in a chibi/8-bit style which looks really good, the designers picked a style that suited the 3DS perfectly.  The conversations between characters are displayed well and gave a really dynamic feel, unlike some games that can feel quite static during dialogue sequences.  The animation sequences when pulling off a special attack look fantastic, and I never grew tired of seeing them.  One of the coolest things for me was the Dragonturtle MK 1, a mobile base that contains absolutely everything, including a games room!  

Overall I can't fault the visuals in the game, for me I really like when game designers push a console to its limits, but without overstepping and creating a visual mess.  I kept this section rather short, not due to laziness but more because one of the best parts of the game is the visuals themselves and didn't want to spoil anything.

Music

Being honest I don't think I have ever listened to a single video game soundtrack that contained such a colossal number of composers, arrangers, performers, and lyricists.  To have such a talented number of artists working on one game is amazing, and while sometimes 'too many cooks spoil the broth' this certainly not one of those times.  To me, music is just as important a part of a game as the story, visuals and the gameplay itself, if you don't feel the same way you may want to skip this section. Below is a list of all the people who helped create the soundtrack:

Chikayo Fukuda, a Japanese composer, lyricist, and arranger, her works include: .hack// and, Naruto TV Series,  along with the video games Asura's Wrath and LieN.

Yuki Kajiru, a Japanese composer, she is also part of a duo with Chiaki Ishikawa called See-Saw, and another with Yuuka Nanri called FictionJunction.  She has worked on a number of anime series including: Kubikiri Cycle, Sword Art Online, Reservoir Chronicle: Tsubasa and Noir.

Yoko Shimomura, a Japanese composer, lyricist, arranger, and performer, her works include: Street Fighter 2, Kingdom Hearts, and Xenoblade.

Masami Ueda, a Japanese composer, and arranger, he has worked on a number of video game series including: Biohazard Series, Devil May Cry Series, and Bayonetta 2.

Thomas Parisch, a German composer, and arranger, his works include: Resident Evil 6 Biohazard

and the anime series Prison School.

Laurent Zilani, a French composer, and arranger who worked on Resident Evil 6 Biohazard.

Kinuyo Yamashita, a Japanese composer, and arranger, who has featured on Video Games Live along with having worked on Castlevania 20th Anniversary Music Collection and Megaman X3.

Maskazu Sugimori, a Japanese composer, and arranger who has worked on a number of awesome video game titles including Ghost Trick, Vanquish, and the Gyakuten Saiban series (Phoneix Wright Ace Attorney).

Kohei Tanaka, a Japanese composer, arranger, and performer who has worked a number of anime series, and games including Sakura Wars, One Piece Music & Song Collection, Hayate The Combat Butler, Sega Saturn History: Saturn Was Young, and Gravity Rush 2.

Hidenori Shoji, a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist, and performer whose works includes Yakuza 3, Code of the Joker and Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Japanese composer, arranger, performer, lyricist and programmer who has worked on a number of video game titles including Outrun, Virtua Fighter 1, 2, Virtua Fighter Kids, 

Burning Rangers, and Shenmue.

Yuzo Koshiro, a Japanese composer, arranger, lyricist and performer who has worked on both video games and anime including Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage), Perfect Collection Ys Heaven's Sanctuary, 7th Dragon, and Misty Blue.

Rio Hamamoto, a Japanese composer, arranger, and performer who has worked on a number of video game titles including Soulcalibur 2, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken 7 and Ace Combat Assault Horizon.

Akhiro Namba, a Japanese composer, performer, and lyricist who worked on the God Eater Series.

Hiroyuki Kawada, a Japanese composer, and arranger whose works include Tekken 3, The Legend Of Valkyrie, and Beep Special Project.

Takuya Hanaoka, a Japanese composer and arranger who worked on the first Project X Zone, along with Shining Force Resurrection of The Dark Dragon, and Super Robot Wars.

The soundtrack contains eighty-six tracks and over fours hours of music.  It is really good, I wanted to buy a physical copy of the soundtrack, but I had to settle for a digital download.  There are so many great tracks, my favorites include:

Brave New World

Objection! 2001

You Will Know Our Names

Funk Goes On

Pressing Pursuit

Stair Of Time

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Opening

Burning

Volcanic Rim Stage - Oceania

Theme Of Ryu

Gentle Hands

Ride On Sea

Feast of the Damned

New World Project

Evil Profusion 

Faster Than A Howling Wind

Accelerating Chaos

Ship Battle

Sega Saturn - Shiro

Vengeful Beauty

Angels With Burning Hearts

Engage The Enemy

Gameplay

Onto the peanut butter that makes up this sandwich! The game is best described as tactical, turn-based, roleplaying game.  The game is not timed so you have all the time you need to plan before attacking.  Once you make your move you will go into a classic fighting game view which has you pulling off simple combos to do the most damage to an enemy. In most cases you will have two characters working together on screen to defeat one enemy, it might sound unbalanced but it actually works perfectly especially considering the health bar of some enemies.  If you are in close proximity to other characters you can call on them for help which can use to carry out powerful cross attacks.  Once your XP bar builds up high enough you can pull over powerful attacks that will kill a lot of enemies, and in other cases severely damage them.  Then onto the enemies turn, this times things play out a little different, when an enemy tries to attack you can defend, full defend or counter them.  Of course, this is only possible if you have enough XP, and even if you do some enemies are able to ignore this. This, for the most part, is how the game plays out, with the exception of a fewer protect your territory missions.

At the end of each mission, you can spend some time shopping for weapons, equipment, and items, arranging your teams, and leveling up your characters.  This is a big part of the game, as you can decide which moves to level up, in the early stages I put a lot of focus on improving the character basic attacks, and later focussed on their special attacks.  Overall I found the system simple, and fun to use.  

The game itself also has another element, skills.  These can be used before moving a character, some of them allow you to move more spaces, enhance the attack, and defense of characters, along with a multitude of others.  The strange thing is with the exception of the last few missions I didn't need to use them.  I only died half a dozen times in the game, so overall I felt they were kind of unnecessary.

Most missions went okay with the exception of the last one, it took me a few tries to complete, and in the end, it took me over three hours to finish.  

Overall some really good, fun gameplay with little to complain about.

Final Thoughts

So after over fifty hours how did I feel? A mixture of happy, and sad.  Happy because after a long time of playing I finally finished it, but sad because I finished it.  The story might be overly complicated at times, but the visuals were great, and I really like the gameplay.  I am sad it's over but I had a great time with it, and might even play it again in the future.  This one gets a solid 4 out of 5

As you can see below I have a new addition to my review, it's a happy monkey, created by my better half - thanks, Nolls.  If I liked a game you will see him, if I the game was meh or didn't like a game you will see one of his friends.

Bloodborne - Review

Well, it's been a while since I last did a review, this is due to a few reasons; I have been sick for over a week, visited London and made some new friends (shoutout to Katie and Ger), and have been slowly working my way through Bloodborne.  Anyone who plays a lot of games knows that it can be quite expensive.  I would love to buy all my games brand new, the moment they are released, but unless you have a ton of loose cash it's just not possible.  What's a gamer to do?  You need to be smart, buy second hand, share games between friends, or even go halves on a game, this is exactly what Siniša, and I decided to do with Bloodborne.


I'm not a big breakfast person, but every now and then I fancy something like a bacon sandwich, mini breakfast, or even some cereal.  On occasion, I even feel like having porridge.  The thing about porridge is that it is hard to eat, even a small amount fills you quickly, and can rest heavily on your stomach.  It's doesn't look very appealing either, dress it up any way you like it's still not going to look very enticing.  Finishing a bowl, while challenging can be quite nice, and there is a feeling of fulfilment.  Playing Bloodborne I found myself asking was I really in the mood for porridge, and did I feel fulfilled?

Story


What's the one thing none of us want to wake up to?  A creepy old guy in a wheelchair looking at you?  That's pretty bad, but imagine you are on a less than clean medical table, you are having a blood transfusion, and you are seeing demons.  It's clearly time to stop drinking and get off the drugs. It turns out you are now a demon hunter of sorts and need to, well, kill demons.


The story is really hidden, you are given small tit bits, here and there but nothing major.  According to the writer this was purposefully done, and all the answers are in the game you just need to piece it together.  I needed to check a few forums, and got the answers I was looking for, it sounded quite interesting.  Now don't get me wrong I don't need my hand held through a story but the way it was told in Bloodborne just felt lazy.  Some people seemed to really like the way it was hidden and cryptic,  but it didn't do it for me, which is a shame because after checking online it seemed that story itself was quite interesting.

Visuals


The visuals in the game are amazing and are really where it shines.  The town of Yarhnam is bleak, and devoid of all hope, the enemies are terrifying and are straight out of a horror movie.  There are of course your crazy townsfolk, but for me something that constantly freaked me out were the carrion crows.  They are really large crows, that look like they have been bitten in half, and often only make their presence know once you step on them.  There are some really great looking bosses, two of my favourites with Mergo's Wet Nurse, and Vicar Amelie.  Mergo's Wet Nurse looked liked the Grimm Reaper, but with multiple arms each with scythes in them. Vicar Amelie looks like a beast, but unlike the others it looks like she is pain, huge amounts of hair, and horns on her head.  While almost everything is dark there was one area of serenity, the Hunter's Dream.  It is your home base, and is a beautiful garden/graveyard.  The picture above shows the Messengers who you can buy weapons, and items from.


There are number of complaints I had with this game, but when it comes to the design, and overall look of it I had nothing but praise for it.


Music


The soundtrack suits the game perfectly, it is dark, eerie, and there is a real unsettling feeling throughout.  There is harsh uses of stringed instruments, and there is a choir who are featured heavily, especially during boss battles.  The score was crafted by a slew of artists including:

Ryan Amon, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, he has worked on;  Assassins Creed Unity, Elysium, and Blackhat.

Tsukasa Saitoh, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who has worked on a number of titles including; the Armored Core Series, Eternal Ring, and Kings Field IV.

Yuka Kitamura, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who's works include; DarkSouls II and III, and Armored Core: Verdict Day.

Nobuyoshi Suzuki, a Japanese Video Game Composer, who worked on; Super Mario Oddessy, and Dark Souls III.

Cris Velasco,  an American Composer, who worked on a number of big titles including;  Overwatch, Injustice: Gods Among Us, God of War, Borderlands 1 and 2, and lots more.

Michael Wandmacher, an American Movie and Video Game Composer, who has a really varied background, his works include; Underworld: Blood Wars, Ben 10: Alien Swarm, Tokyo Pig, Twisted Metal.

The original soundtrack runs at just over ninety minutes, it a great score with many chilling pieces, my favourites included: 'Omen', 'Bloodstained Beast', 'Hail The Nightmare', and 'Darkbeast'.

Gameplay


Onto the blood chunks that is the gameplay!  The game starts with you designing your character, there are quite a lot of options which is really fun, in the end I settled on a professor look, and called him Professor Tim.  There are different back stories you can choose for your character, which all effect your initial stats, my favourite was called 'waste of skin', the description was 'you should never have been born'.


Bloodborne had one of the best save areas in a game, the Hunter's Dream was a nice tranquil place, despite all the graves.  It has a storage area which was really great, anytime you collect too many excess items they automatically get transferred there.  When you are in the Hunter's Dream you can purchase items, weapons, and armor, along with levelling up.  The currency in the game is blood echoes, they are used for everything, at times this can be tough as you need to sacrifice levelling up to ensure you have enough healing vials, or other items.


The are a multitude of weapons in the game, but being honest I only found a few that were worthwhile, most notably the Axe, which I found to be Axe-tastic!  It has two modes, one handed (close range), and two handed (long range), and could be changed at a moments notice depending on the enemy you had to take on.  The combat as a whole is similar to Dark Souls, roll, roll, roll some more, and occasionally hit an enemy.  The targeting had a lot to be desired, and I found on a number of occasions my weapon did not make contact.  The armor was very underwhelming in the game, and did not get much better which was a little disappointing.


The gameplay focuses on you working your way to the next boss, some were okay, others were bordering on the ridiculous.  The two most straight forward to me were, The One Reborn and Amelia, mostly due to the fact that by careful dodging, and not being afraid to hack at an enemy they were easily beatable.  Then you had bosses like Blood Starved Beast, everything would be going fine, dodging out the way, taking cover, using antidotes, and then all of sudden you just can't get away from him, the difficulty kept spiking like crazy.  Being honest the bosses in the game nearly made me walk away from it a few times, sometimes it felt like you won due to skill, other times luck.


The gameplay for the most part was good enough, but some poor weapons, and armor, some frustrating boss fights, and poor targeting stopped it being all it could be.




Final Thoughts

So after forty hours plus how did I feel? Conflicted.  The visuals and music were impressive, the story was valed for the most part, the gameplay, and difficulty spiking varried between fun, and frustrating.  So many reviewers game it ten out of ten, and being honest I really can't see why because it has multiple issues.  I struggled scoring this game, but in the end, I can only give it 3 out of 5

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Review

It seems like it's been ages since I last did a review, my time has mostly been taken up playing The Long Dark.  It's basically a hardcore survival game, failing to pay attention at any point can quickly lead to your demise.  I had put about twenty-five hours into the story when I found out there are still three episodes to be released.  The Long Dark can be really grueling and I have to wait a while for the remaining episodes to be released, so I wanted to change gears and play something a bit more fun and quicker paced - enter Wolfenstein II The New Colossus.


Chicken Balls!  They are chunks of chicken covered in batter, you can eat them as they are or with a dipping sauce, maybe sweet and sour or curry.  They are not healthy, or good for you in any way, eat one too many and you will regret it.  That being said, there are bad quality versions of chicken balls, sometimes they are almost wet there is so much oil on them, or the chicken can be really tough or stringy.  Basically, you need to choose wisely as to where you purchase your balls from and ensure you do not devour too many of them.  Playing Wolfenstein II The New Colossus I found myself asking was I eating good chicken balls and had I chosen the restaurant wisely? 

Story

I'll be honest, I have never really played any of the Wolfenstein games but the New Colossus, in particular, seemed like a lot of fun, so I thought why not.  The games start off with, 'previously on the New Order' (the last installment), as someone new to the series I really appreciated this.  

You play as Terror-Billy, scourage of the Nazi's, killer of killers.  As we all know every hero needs a back story and Billy's is pretty sad, who had an abusive, cruel father, who is not only mean to you and your mother but also the dog too.  The start of the game sees you being rescued from your last battle, which although you won, it seems you were not left unscathed.  Confined to a wheelchair, you have to find a way to continue battling the Nazi's, who have won the war and now control America, along with the world.  There are plenty of enemies to kill, but your primary concern is taking down the Nazi Commander Frau Engel, who is just lovely.

The story has plenty of twists, and turns, and certainly is outlandish at times but this is not a bad thing.  There are only two complaints I really had, firstly the early part of the game feels really slow paced, and secondly, you would think if you took over a Nazi-controlled submarine you would not wait five months to search it properly, you know in case there were Nazi's still onboard hidden somewhere.  Overall though a pretty solid story.

Visuals

Many people have raved about the visual effects in the game, and I have to say I can understand why.  The lighting effects used in the game look really good and help create a more realistic environment.  Visually getting to see New York after the detonation of an atomic bomb was really powerful, decayed bodies, and buildings, no signs of life, all helped provide a very grim backdrop.  Then there was Billy's home, which while in serious need of a paint job it has been left largely unscathed by the war, it's also at this point in the game you get to see some powerful flashbacks, which look great, if not very sad.

There was a few smaller stand out visuals that deserve a shoutout including, the weird lizard looking suit Billy wears during the game, takedowns on enemies, that are bloody and brutal, seeing a monkey, crossed with a cat sitting in an old TV was pretty funny and bizarre.  I also liked the inclusion of the concept art, these were collectibles in the game that look really cool.  Overall some great visuals that would be better appreciated on a 4K TV, which I/we will get this year.

Music

The music keeps its head down for the most part, and only really appears during battle sequences.  There are subtle guitar pieces played on occasion, which contrasts greatly with the intense, adrenaline-fuelled battle music.  This score was put together by:

Mick Gordon, an Australian composer who has worked on a number of diverse game titles including; Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom (2016) Dead Space 3, Killer Instinct and Need for Speed: The Run.

The score runs just shy of ninety minutes, and while it's not necessarily bad, it does feel a little underwhelming and is a far cry from Gordon's work on Doom.  Listening to the score again just made me want to replay Doom for the awesome score.  There were a few pieces that stood out for me; 'Main Theme', 'Ausmer', 'Escape', and 'All Combat Themes'.  Overall not bad, but certainly not great.

Gameplay

Onto the balls, of chicken!  I have played more than a few games in my life and I can tell you that starting off in a wheel shooting Nazi's was a first for me.  While there were wheelie good things (sorry I couldn't help it) in the game, one thing that struck me as out of place was the stealth option. Why in a largely balls out shooter would you include stealth, while it is optional, in some cases you kind of have no choice, for me, it just ruined the experience a little.  The tiny subtitles used were annoying as the game naturally has a lot of German dialogue.  Billy's monologuing throughout the game was jarring, a bit weird and a little unnecessary.

When it comes to shooting there is a lot of fun to be had, and that's before you throw in the fact that you can dual wield weapons.  My favorite weapons were the hatchet and schockhammer, the hatchet can be used for stealth, bloody frontal takedowns, or can be thrown from a distance.  The schockhammer is an automatic shotgun that is powerful as hell, and few enemies stand a chance if you dual wield them.  With the exception of the hatchet, all weapons can be upgraded by finding kits in the game, they were all pretty good and worthwhile.  There are perks in the game, all you need to do to get them is kill enemies in a certain way, or with a certain weapon, this pushes you to play differently if you really want a particular perk.  

There are two areas that I really enjoyed playing, the first was in New Orleans which when you get to ride a Panzerhund, a large robotic, dog/tiger like thing that breathes fire.  The courtroom level was awesome, there is so much carnage, and enemies to kill it's crazy, I had a lot of fun playing it even though I died a number of times.

Overall some solid gameplay, with a few minor issues and one major one.

Final Thoughts

After fifteen hours how did I feel?  Pretty good, some good story, great visuals, and some really good gameplay, with a slightly underwhelming soundtrack.  While I can't fault the game too much there was something that didn't blow me away.  Perhaps it was because playing it I kept thinking of Doom 2016, it has great visuals, and gameplay, but didn't get bogged down in the story as it knew what it was, a balls-out action shooter.  Maybe I felt there was too much story for this type of game, or maybe I just wanted to play Doom again.  That all being said I give this one 4 out of 5

Double Dragon IV 2017 - Review

Here we are again, and time for another review.  My first introduction to Double Dragon was on the Sega Master System, which was fantastic.  I remember the game fondly for a few reasons; it was the first beat em' up game I ever played, my Dad and I played this game a lot together which was a great experience, and I tried my first ever cheat that my Dad managed to find, we kept dying near the end, and if you perform about thirty leaping kicks on Mission 4 you get infinite credits.  It was, and still is a classic, naturally, I was excited about playing the new version of Double Dragon IV.


Ever tried cheese strings?  They are basically sticks of cheese like material that you can peel, and create strings from.  When I was a child this sounded so cool, cheese is good for you but tasted bad (I have a very different opinion on this subject now) and you can make strings from it.  After badgering my Mum she got us some, well, the disappoint was instant, they tasted awful, and it wasn't that easy to pull apart and make strings.  Playing Double Dragon IV I found myself asking was this a cool sounding idea that was disappointing, or a cool sounding idea that ended up being equally as cool.

Story

As with Kunio-Kun (River City Melee), Double Dragon turned thirty last year, and Arc System Works decided to remake Double Dragon IV.  While I played the original Double Dragon, I have never played the other games in the series, I really need to remedy that.  Lucky enough the instruction booklet that came with the game covered the back story for the whole series, which was pretty cool.


The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, violence ravages the lands, there is only one glimmer of hope, two brothers, Billy and Jimmy, know as the Double Dragon.  After overcoming the power of the Gensasuken technique, Billy and Jimmy set up Sosetsuken dojos across the US to preserve peace. On the way to San Fransisco they are attacked by a new enemy called The Renegades, as if that wasn't bad enough Marian (their mutual love interest, not sure how that works) is kidnapped, again, which seems to reoccur throughout the series.


The story is beyond cheese, in fact less than cheese, more like cheese strings.  Once you have beaten the final bosses, who have been trying to kill you the whole game and in the final battle keep shooting at you, you decide to spare them.  One of them asks, why would you spare us after we tried to kill you, side note, these girls are so bad they have taken over Japan, response, 'we don't use the art of Sosetsuken to kill'.  The sisters then decide they want to try and change, and be better people, WTF? No, no, no, it's all so wrong.

Visuals

Arc System Works decided to go old school with the visuals and gave it all an 8-Bit look.  Unlike River City Melee, no risks were taken visually, which was a shame as I would have expected them to do something.  The game is not the most exciting, but there were a few levels that stood out for me.  Mission 5 features some docked ships, and the sun rising behind them look really cool, along with Alcatraz also being visible in the background. The start of Mission 9 (seen in the picture above), went for a bright lights, big city feel, which I liked.  Mission 12 and the final boss fight is set on a beach, which was quite picturesque.  Overall the visuals were bland, and uninspired.


Music 

The score has a classic 80's, early 90's beat em' up sound, which for the most part sounded good enough.  Double Dragon IV 2017 managed to bring in  Kazunaka Yamane, who was the composer for the series.


The score runs at little over forty-five minutes, while there was not really a lot of stand out tracks my favourites were; 'Main Theme', 'Theme of Jake', 'Themes of William and Linda' and 'Themes of Abobo and Chin'. 

Gameplay

Double Dragon IV offers three game modes, Story, Duel, and Tower.  The Tower mode features
one-hundred floors that you can battle through,  I cleared about twenty-five of them before getting bored.


The combat can be pretty brutal, one wrong move and enemies will end up playing pass the parcel with you.  The fighting moves were nothing too exciting with the exception of two; spinning headbutt, which sees you character spinning through the air, and the cyclone kick, which makes you spin up into the air like an open cork screw.


The enemies vary quite a bit, most of which are okay but there are a few annoying ones.  There is Burnov, he is wears a welders mask and enjoy using his fingers as a weapon (that's not a misprint). There is Abobo who apparently used to be a football player, he charges you, and then throws you over his head.  Of course I couldn't forget Roper, he likes to throw things at you boomerang style, annoying as hell.  There were a few occasions where enemies were completely hidden off screen and then suprised you by kicing you in the face, which sucked.  There were also enemies who would wait at the top of a ladder waiting to hit you, this seemed quite an unfair advantage as there was no way to counter it.


Jumping. Jumping. Jumping!!! Jumping was pretty bad and very rigid, but I learnt to live with it, that was until the later stages.  All of a sudden I'm playing Prince of Persia, dodging traps, jumping from one platform to another, and with the jump being so bad I lost quite a few lives.


Overall the gameplay was okay, but the jumping and traps later in the game really soured things for me.



Final Thoughts

How did I feel after little over three hours?  Disappointed.  There was nothing daring or exciting about it, the story was weak, the visuals were only okay, the music...next, and then the gameplay, the real core of any game could have been good, but instead was only okay due to the jumping.  There were two positives for me out of the experience; one I didn't get the special edition, two I got to try River City Melee.  This one gets a low 2 out of 5

River City Melee Battle Royal SP - Review

A few months ago I was looking through an email from Limited Run, for those of you who are not aware of them, they print a limited number of physical games that ordinarily would be only available as a digital download.  They were about to release two games, River City Melee Battle Royal SP (part of Kunio-Kun Series) and Double Dragon IV.   I really wanted the Special Edition of Double Dragon IV as it came with the soundtrack, alas even though I logged in a mere fifteen minutes after it went on sale they had sold out.  As I had already planned to spend that money I didn't want to waste it, so I bought River City Melee and Double Dragon.  I had never played a River City Melee game up to this point but it seemed fun, and I thought why not.


Who remembers Bernard Matthews Mini Kievs?  They were so tasty, small balls of turkey in bread crumbs, filled with garlic sauce.  Thinking of them always reminds me of my childhood, when I was first presented with them I was skeptical, but very quickly I learned to love them.  Playing River City Melee Battle Royal SP I found myself asking, was I right in my initial skepticism, or was this something I could learn to love?

Story

The Japanese Video Games Series, Kunio-Kun turned thirty last year, in honor of that Arc System Works (who now owns all the rights to the series) released River City Melee Battle Royal SP.  In all honesty, while the name River City Melee rang a bell with me, I had never played one of the games, this is most likely as I grew up as a child of Sega rather than Nintendo.

Like with many of the old-school style games the story is relatively simple.  A mysterious gang is going around attacking students and other gangs.  While this is all happening, students/teams/gangs are informed about an upcoming fighting tournament.  Twenty-five teams enter in the hope of being crowned the winner, along with figuring out if the mysterious gang is somehow related to the tournament.

While the story is simple, I liked that each team had its own backstory, so each time I played it through I got something a little different.  It may not be the most exciting story, but it is fun.

Visuals

The visuals are quite interesting, if for no other reason than their contrast of old versus new.  The backgrounds in each of the stages have a modern feel, they look clean and fresh, which is why they are in such contrast with the 8-bit style characters.  While it's not for everyone I really liked it, even though on occasion I ended up paying attention to the background more than I should have, to my own demise. 

There were some interesting level designs including the; football pitch, factory, and school gym.  The football pitch offers a crowd of cheering fans, along with a goalkeeper who you can try and score goals against, while you try to battle enemies.   The factory had two nice touches, conveyor belts, which looked good and could make combat tougher, but also an item/weapon dispenser which really helped shake things up.  The school gym stage was a little awkward as it could be difficult to gauge where the edge was, and if you were unlucky, would fall off.  What made it fun was in the lower right corner under the stage you could see Scott Pilgrim.  Overall, visually, it was a pretty good, and a lot of fun.

Music

The score is upbeat, fun, and a little cheesy, none of which are bad things in my opinion.  It's strange, sometimes in games, I don't realise how much music they actually contain until I sit back and listen to it all afterward.  This is definitely true of River City Melee Battle Royal SP.  The composer for the score is, Kazuo Sawa, who is a Japanese Video Game Composer, he has been in the industry for many years, and has helped create the sound for the Kunio-Kun series, along with the Sound of World Populous.

The soundtrack features forty-eight tracks, and about an hour of music, there were many catchy tunes, and the only really annoying sound was the one used when dialogue was being typed on the screen, very piercing.  My favorites pieces included:

Like A Work Horse

Last Straight Course

Awards Ceremony

Continuing Universe

Daisetsuzan School Theme

Funky's Theme

Happy Ending

Mysterious Gang

Nervous Competition 

Preparation 

Passionate Fight

Rantov March

Run Together

Ultra Niekketsu

Super Shoot

Gameplay

Onto the breaded turkey!  I won't lie my first impressions of the combat was not great, and even when I played it on Beginner difficulty it seemed challenging.  The problem was that I was thinking of it in terms of a fighting game that required skill, but when it comes down to it River City is pure button bashing.  Find one or two moves that work, and go to town.  In fairness, there is a little more to it than that but that is the crux of it.  

There are twenty-five teams, made up of five characters, different characters have different special moves.  One of my favorites moves had to be the Mach Punch, it was fast, and effective against multiple enemies.   The key to success is to go into each fight guns blazing, get as many hits in as you can, more hits, means more points. There are also items and weapons on each stage, which can really help turn the tide of the battle.  While you can get knocked out first, you could still end up finishing with more points that then other players.  Once three rounds have been completed whoever has the most points win. 

The game has a lot of charm, one example of this is during dialogue sequences.  Little emotions are displayed on and sometimes around characters, for example, if the character is angry they have flames around them, circular swirls next to their head indicates confusion, and red expanding cross next to their head indicates irritation.  This is something seen in many Japanese games, anime, and manga.

Once I got used to the gameplay style I really got into it and ended playing it through multiple times.

Final Thoughts

So, after five hours how did I feel?  Really good.  Initially, I felt a little skeptical, especially after my first playthrough, but after playing it a few times I got a lot more into it.  Overall a great game that has inspired me to go back and check out some of the other titles in the series.  While I was back, and forth a few times on how to score the game I finally settled on giving it 4 out of 5

Gravity Rush 2 - Review

Well, here we are again, time for another review, but first some backstory.  I remember playing Gravity Rush (also known as Gravity Daze in Japan) on the PS Vita when it was first released back in 2012.  I was working in HMV at the time and hadn't yet committed to getting a PS Vita,  I played it a few times on my lunch break and really enjoyed it.  I eventually got one, and Gravity Rush was the first game I bought with it.  Strangely enough, when Gravity Rush 2 was announced for PlayStation 4 it was one of the things that prompted me to buy one.  It might be a bit late, but I finally got around to playing it.


Any fans of red velvet cupcakes in the house?  Me, me, me, me!  They are soft, sweet, and they look awesome.  Unfortunately, with the popularity of red velvet cupcakes everywhere is making them, and some of them taste bad.  The sponge is sometimes too dry, or there is so much sugar in them you can taste the granules, or the cream on top just doesn't taste good, and if you are really unlucky all three.  So, naturally finding a high-quality red velvet cupcake can be tough.  Playing Gravity Rush 2 I found myself asking, did it have the right combination of ingredients, or was this a dry, sugary, mess?

Story


The original game had you playing as Kat, a girl who had lost her memory and has the ability to control gravity, with the help of her cat Dusty.  Gravity Rush 2 sees Kat transported to a new world after falling through a gravity rift in Heskville, her hometown.  Unsure of her new surroundings, and having lost her gravity-controlling powers that had made her the Gravity Queen, she is forced to work mining gems.  She's not the only one forced into slave labor, it seems everyone is, with the exception of the upper echelon. This, of course, is only the start of her journey, and things get pretty interesting fast.


The story answers many questions from the original game, along with asking, and answering some new ones.   The sidequests, while at times could be fun, felt a little samey, and were simply a distraction from the main story.  The pacing overall in Gravity Rush 2 was pretty good, with exception of a few minor bumps. 






Visuals

The art style used in the game is beautiful, from the towns to the character designs they all look so good.  The way Kat's long hair moves when she is moving around looks realistic, but also very artistic at the same time.  Her cat Dusty has a great design that makes him look like he is part of the night sky.  Story panels are used to help narrate what's going, they look really good and is a lot more exciting then it may sound.  Without a doubt, my favorite area in the game was Jirga Para Lhao, a set of floating islands that are spread out vertically and horizontally.  They feature marketplaces, government buildings, a high-security fort and mansions high above the clouds.  The town feels alive, full of different people, all going about their daily lives.  Overall a visual spectacle and one of the biggest positives about the game.


Music


The score features an array of instruments, with a particular focus on; piano, strings, brass, flute, and percussion.  The opening track features a crescendo of brass and strings that help create an intense yet upbeat sound.  Similar to the original score, Gravity Rush 2, has a distinct anime sound, which isn't surprising as the composer comes from an anime background:


Kohei Tanaka has worked on a number of anime series, and movies, along with some video game titles.  Some of his works include; Pokemon The Movie, Angelic Layer, Dragonball, One Piece, The Cursed Holy Sword, Gravity Rush, Sakura Wars and Resonance of Fate.


The soundtrack runs for over three hours, has seventy-three tracks and spans four CDs.  While I felt it was good, I did not feel it was as good as the original Gravity Rush score. My favorite pieces included:

Requiem
Banga Ambient 1
Suspense
Mining for Ore 1
Storm and Triumph (Full Version)
Forbidden Zone
Frustration
Night Gale
Fort Bismalia
Endestria (Abandoned Version)
A Cue Aun Tu Oi/A Red Apple (Original Version)
Queen of Electromagnetic Force
Despair

Special shout to Kat's version of  'A Cue Aun Tu Oi/A Red Apple', that I found to be really good and quite endearing.  Overall a good score, that in time may hold the same place for me as the original.

Gameplay


Onto the red velvety sponge that is the gameplay.  Straight off the bat I wanted to talk about the combat, and gravity control, these have both been refined versus the original, and that is certainly not a bad thing.  There is an ability called 'stasis field', this basically allows you draw items towards you and then fires them at enemies, which can be really devastating. The gravity kick and standard combat kicks feel smoother and more accurate too.  There are different combat styles this time around, including Lunar, and Jupiter.  Lunar allows you to jump further, and faster without having to use your gravity gauge.  Jupiter lets you kick harder and stronger, along with giving you the ability to create a ball of debris that can be really handy during boss fights.  While they are fun to use, switching between them using the touchpad is not, sometimes it fails to recognise the correct style or does nothing, on occasion, this disturbed the flow of combat.


Similar to the original game you can upgrade your abilities, these can be improved further by using talisman you find while mining.  If I'm being honest I didn't find them that helpful, you can combine different types together, fuse two of the same together or recycle them, overall it just felt unneeded as the skill tree did all you really needed.


The Nevi are your main enemies, basically purple goo with one or more weak spots that are always easy to see.  There are some new additions to the Nevi army, including a few that are really well armored.  Now, don't get me wrong a good boss fight can be a lot of fun, but near the end of the game it is wall to wall bosses fights, by the time I finished, I had grown weary of them.


The game has notifications, some of them let you know about new missions, others about new outfits and downloadable content, some regarding online challenges.  They never stopped coming, if I got that many notifications on my phone I would turn it off, and put it in a drawer.


Overall though some great gameplay, with only really a few minor issues.



Final Thoughts

After nearly twenty hours how did I feel?  Pretty good, with a few minor exceptions it did everything I would want from a sequel, larger world, and story, improved gameplay, and visuals, what more could I ask for?  The side missions for me were one of the bigger problems I had as they just felt a little too, meh, for those of them that were good there were really good.  Overall it was a great game that wasn't a hard to score, this one gets 4 out of 5

Shadow Complex Remastered - Review

The other day I was searching through the PlayStation Store, looking to burn some of my hard earned cash, and I came across a game I had almost forgotten about - Shadow Complex.  I had played the first hour or so on someone else's console a good few years back, before it had been remastered.  I always wanted to try it again and for under €5 I couldn't pass on the chance.


Pizza's are awesome, so many toppings, so much choice, no matter what kind of mood you are in it's hard to say no to having one. I like anything with a lot of meat on it (wahey!), but sometimes I like a simple cheese pizza.  It's not the most adventurous pizza but still pretty tasty and it's great if you can't decide what you want.  There are some cheese pizzas that have four, six and even eight different kinds of cheese.  While sometimes variety can be nice, for me any more than four kinds of cheese is too much for me.  Playing Shadow Complex Remastered I found myself asking, did it have the right amount of cheese or was it too cheesy for me?

Story

Enter Jason Fleming, aka Nathan Drake, aka Nolan North, underachiever, and slight disappointment to his dad.  After meeting Claire, and going on a few dates she decides to take him out to the wilderness on a hike, what could go wrong?  Nothing, nothing at all, apart from stumbling onto a secret base controlled by a James Bond-like villain.  Claire gets captured (a lot) and it's Jason's mission to infiltrate the base and save her (multiple times).

Unlike Uncharted, that comes across as charming and a little cheesy Shadow Complex is super cheesy and not in a good way.  Everything is very cliche and the story itself is pretty weak, which is surprising as it is based on books by Orson Scott Card that sound really interesting.  An example of the cliches littered throughout the game is the line Jason uses after confronting the villain, 'Who are you?', 'I'm no one and everyone'.  My eyes rolled so heavily I almost caught sight of my own brain.  To put a ribbon on this puppy, the story is not great.

Visuals

There are good and bad things when it comes to the visuals in the game.  The cut sequences look bad, which is a shame as it was supposed to be remastered.  Jason's face looks like a swollen potato with a face drawn on it and character movements often look clunky.  The areas you explore are mostly inside the enemy base, after a time I found them a little dull, save for a few areas, like where the armored suit is being kept or when you go outside and get to experience nature.  That all being said there are some really cool things too, the mech suits the enemy have are impressive, silent takedowns look good and the torch lighting effects look really good especially when being used in the ventilation system. 

It's not the worst looking game by any stretch of the imagination but is definitely not the most inspiring or interesting either.

Music

The score features a big orchestra style sound that is present throughout the game, as a whole though I never really took notice of it in the way I do in other games.  Being honest though, with the style of game it is there is no great need for it.  The two creators and composers of the score are:

Josh Aker, who is a video game composer for Chair Entertainment, his works include; Infinity Blade 1,2 3, and Undertow.

Isreal Curtis, who is a composer, in honesty I could not find a lot on him, his works include; Jerk Theory, A Dog's Tale, and Vampired.

Additionally, Shaun Barrowes, a pop artist who released an album called Big Bang Theory has a song that is used in the end credits called 'Light of Day/Dark of Night' which is pretty good.

The score comes in at just over forty-five minutes,  the soundtrack is okay but definitely not the most exciting, my favorite pieces included;  'Shadow Complex Main Theme' and 'Light of the Day/Dark of the Night'. 

Gameplay

Onto the pizza!  The gameplay is very similar to Metroid, for those of you who don't know what that is, shame on you.  Exploration is the name of the game, in the early parts you will run into obstacles you can't overcome, that is until later when you unlock new weapons and items. The first item you get is a torch which can be used to identify obstacles and what you need to get past them, it also doubles up as a torch.

The game gives you a handgun to start with later gets swapped out for better guns as you progress.  Once you start using the assault rifles enemies become a little easier to deal with.  Every now and then you will get the chance to operate a turret, this will change your perspective and allows to you really unload on enemies.

While you will obtain many items my favorites were; friction 'damn-pner', which lets you run so fast you can kill enemies, smash through obstacles and run up walls.  The grenades/missiles, which to me both seemed as powerful as each other were both really handy.

When traversing through the game you can listen in on enemy conversations which can be funny at times, especially the one in the mess hall discussing the difference between liberation and conquering.  

Final Thoughts

After little over five hours, how did I feel?  Not bad but not great either.  The story is pretty weak. The visuals have a lot to be desired, which is really disappointing for a game that was supposed to be remastered.  The music is present but underwhelming.  The strongest part of the game is the gameplay itself which was pretty fun.  This one was little tough to score but I finally decided that this one gets 3 out of 5