Senran Kagura: Bon Appetit Full Course - Review

 

As of late I just can't get enough of my PS vita, this mostly due to there not being a lot of new release titles that have piqued my interest on PlayStation 4, and XBOX One (apart from Resident Evil The Village and the new Nier game). The Senran Kagura ecchi video game series is one that has peaked my interest a few times. Outside of it's obvious draw it is also boosts great video game mechanics and was curious to see if that was true.

I have just finished consuming a Rib Burger from our local Mace. They are pretty tasty, a large percentage of the rib patties are made of actual meat, the sauce they use is sweet and tasty and the buns are pretty good too. While they are not the best burgers in the world they are pretty good and are great for a snack. Playing Senran Kagura Bon Appetit Full Course I found myself asking were the ingredients good enough to conjure a tasty snack or would I left with regret and an empty stomach?

Story 

The game was developed by Meterorise and published by Marvelous Entertainment. The story is about Hanzo, a food obsessed man who has set up a competition so contestants will create a Super Dish he can try. Sadly, this does not really encourage anyone to enter, so time to up the ante. What better way to do that than by giving a special prize in the form of a Secret Ninja Art Scroll that can grant any wish?

Enter twenty-two shinobi girls, all wanting to try their skills out to try and win the ultimate prize. My favorite characters are; Yomi, who has love affair with beansprouts, Asuka, who needs big, thick sushi rolls, Haruka, whose wish is to have a harem of busty women, and Mirari, who desperately wants to be taken seriously and not seen as a child. 

Overall the story is fun, silly and never takes itself seriously, and sexual innuendo a plenty.

Visuals

The anime visuals and are amazing, colorful, fun and very naughty. The in games visuals vary, the kitchens you are in look great, piles of tasty looking ingredients behind the contestants. The characters themselves are lower in quality but not exactly the end of the world. Some outfits look a little better rendered than others, that being said you always know what you are looking at.

Overall the visuals are pretty quality especially when you take into account that it is on a hand held console.

Music 

The soundtrack has that fun up beat anime sounds which is so infectious it is hard not to sing and dance along with the songs. The music is created by Japanese composers; Akihi Motoyama and Mutsumi Ishimura who have worked on the Senran Series along with Hyperdimension Neptunia U.

There are over thirty tracks compacted into almost ninety minutes, my favorite tracks are; 'Secret Ninja Art Of Love', 'Special Gift For A Special Lesson', 'It's Your Big Sis, Yagu!',  'I Devote Myself To Beansprouts',  'I'll Sucker Down My Octopus Balls Right Here' and '3 Minutes Of Hustle And Bustle Cooking'. Overall the soundtrack (like the rest of the game) is a lot of fun and provides some great listening.

Gameplay

Senran Kagura is a rhythm game, five rounds for each character you choose and three courses in each. There are two bars - one that measures quality and the other than impacts how big each dish will turn out. Each round you win removes a little more clothing from your opponent until they are naked (with cream or white light covering the naughty bits).

There are three difficulty modes; Easy, Normal and Hard and trust me when I say there is a marked increase in difficulty between them.

There are three game modes; Story, Arcade and Freemode. Outside of this there is library where you can unlock content as you progress through the game, and the Dressing Room where you can try on all the new outfits unlocked (there are lots).

Overall it is hard to criticize the gameplay, the mechanics are solid and fun, and there is lots of replay value.

Final Thoughts

So, after twelve hours how did I feel? Really happy! The stories were fun and silly, the visuals were looked really good, the music so was so catchy and fun, and the gameplay was really good. Overall this one gets a 4 out of 5

Bubble Bobble Universe - Review

 

As a kid one of the first games I played on a games console was Bubble Bobble. It had cute baby dinosaurs that could blow bubbles to trap enemies, eat cake and sweets. Each level was quite short, but don't let that fool you though, they are not easy and get tough, really tough, if I am honest I have never been able to complete it. Pursing the shelves of CEX the other day I came across Puzzle Bobble Universe one of the shoots of the original and thought for €10 why not?

Sherbet Fountain, does anyone remember these from their childhood? Small yellow tube, filled with  lemon-flavored cocaine-esque powder, with a black stick of licorice use to pull it out. It was kind of fun to eat and tasty not like lemon but something else.  I tried it in my late teens and you know what I discovered?  It tasted terrible, was a pain to eat, and the packet seemed to just fall apart. Playing Bubble Bobble Universe I found myself asking was it like the Sherbet Fountain I remember enjoying as a child or the one I tried as a teen?

Story

The story is that some bad guys have imprisoned your dragon friends, your mission is to play some crazy bubble game, unlock keys and free your friends and that is all she wrote.

There is no story, it would have been nice but not truly necessary for a puzzle game. 

Visuals

The visuals are cute and colorful but are in need of much work, and the background of each level differs little from the next. They feel quite flat, I don't mean the 3D version I mean the standard visuals which were disappointing. 

Overall the visuals are underwhelming and lackluster, and while the 3DS is unable to provide top-of-the-line graphics they can certainly do better than what this game offered.

Music

The music in the game like the visuals is quite underwhelming. The first couple of songs seems fun and upbeat but as the music progresses each track seems to be quite derivative. This seemed unusual as the creator Japanese composer Jun 'Setzer' Kadoma has a rich body of work creating; 'Final Fantasy Life Of Ishgard', 'High School Of The Dead' and 'Beyond The Entity'. 

The soundtrack is just shy of thirty minutes. It's hard not to be harsh but there really was nothing standout about the soundtrack. Overall disappointing. 

Gameplay

There are two modes, story, and challenge mode. Each area is divided into ten stages, each one can be completed in anywhere from thirty seconds to around three minutes. You need to match three or more enemies together to make them disappear, and this is done by firing bubbles at them. Think columns but with a bubble canon.

When firing bubbles off you have a little line like a dot scope or the ones you used on Mini Clips Pool Game, meaning you can bounce bubbles off of walls to position them in the best place. It is not as accurate as it could be but isn't bad. For every few bubble enemies cleared you to unlock a special ability, such as changing the enemies bubbles in an area to the same type or creating a bubble that will match with any other. 

There are over eight levels but you will fly through them very quickly. Once you are finished there you can move onto the challenge mode which really just feels like a free play, not bad but nothing exciting.

Overall the gameplay is the strongest element of the game but still is a little underwhelming even when you have the boss stages which are very meh. 

Final Thoughts

So, after four hours how did I feel? Like I could have spent them better. The story just is not there, the visuals and music are very underwhelming, the gameplay is the strongest part of the game and even that was disappointing. All in all a very poor experience, this one gets a 1 out of 5 

Retro City Rampage DX - Review

 

I have had a hankering to play GTA 2 again for a while. It wasn't available to download on the PS Vita so I opted to download something that reminded me of it, Retro City Rampage DX. The game has the same top down crazy feel and thought why not download it and give it a go.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love crisps, all different varieties. My love of crisps started during my childhood when bags used to cost 10p or 20p (yeah, yeah, I'm old). One of the many crisps I sampled were Wheat Crunchies Crispy Bacon, they taste exactly as the name suggests. I decided to take a trip down memory lane and try them again recently, and I don't know if the flavor has changed but they were not good. Barely tasted of bacon and the textures was like the end of an over cooked garlic baguette. Playing Retro City Rampage I found myself asking should some snacks stay as a buzz of positive nostalgia or are they as strong as ever and the reason retro is so popular?

Story

You are 'player', that's the name of your character, no joke. Let's say he may have fractured a law or two in his time (and continues to do so), so it might be strange finding him helping save the world, universe and time as we know it. You are tasked with helping Doc Brown fix the DeLorean, wait, no, I can't say that and is it not based on 'real character, fictional or otherwise', but that is the story.  The game pays homage to many films, movies, games, and general pop culture. There are lots of side missions to partake in, similar to the first two Grand Theft Auto games they are usually quite silly and fun and take only a couple of minutes to finish.

Overall I have very mixed feelings about the story, in one hand paying homage and parodying can be quite flattering and honoring what came before. That being said, where is the line between that and extensively borrowing or outright copying?

Visuals

The visuals are deliciously retro, with great modern pixel art. It can be easy nowadays going with a retro art style and make people and some objects almost unrecognizable and pass it off as being retro. This is not the case with Retro City Rampage DX, the visuals are detailed, colourful and a lot of fun. Rather than just featuring cityscapes there is also a nice pier area and an army base.

Overall the visuals really spoke to my inner child and managed to keep with retro aesthetics while bringing them to the next level and making them look fresh.

Music

The music used in Retro City Rampage DX is definitively retro and certainly brought back memories of older 8-bit and 16-bit music, which I love. The music is composed by American composers; Leonard J. Paul (Corporation, Beep), Jake Kaufman (Saturday Morning RPG, Mighty Switch Force, Double Dragon Neon), and Matthew Creamer (Shakedown Hawaii and The Arrival).

The soundtrack is just shy of an hour and features some really cool retro tracks including; Side Girl Revenge, Karrage, Politeness and Friendship. Overall it is a fun soundtrack that is great to listen while travelling around the world of Retro City Rampage DX.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to early Grand Theft Auto games, stealing cars, running people down. Now I know what you are saying they are all like that, yes, but the newer ones have a lot more to them then that. The earlier ones were all about stealing cars and mowing people down.

While the games shines when it comes to driving and moving down people a lot of the controls feel a little clunky. The character you control has Mario's jump ability which is a great way to take out enemies when you are not shooting or flattening them. The issue can be control and depth perception, this can mean you easily miss enemies and when it come to shooting it feels limited and the aim could use more movement points than it does. 

The side missions are short and very basic fetch quests for the most part. 

The final boss was pretty fun, and even allows you to view it with the old school red and green 3-D glasses. 

Overall the gameplay is okay but certainly feels like the controls could have used a tune up, and as Retro City Rampage DX is the upgraded version I would not have liked to play it in the original release form.

Final Thoughts

So, after ten hours of playing how did I feel? Meh. The story relies on pop culture way too much and feels less like a parody and more like a cheap copy of other things I have watched or played. The visuals and soundtrack are the strongest elements of the game, and really give a great retro sound and feel. The gameplay has it's moments but some clunky controls stop it from being all it can be. Overall this one gets a 2 out of 5

Resident Evil The Village

 

I have always enjoyed the Resident Evil games, and while I am not a mega fan I do like playing them. I really love Resident Evil Bio-Hazard, it had a very different style to other games in the series, but this was not a bad thing. Naturally, I was very excited to play Resident Evil The Village which once again follows Ethan Winters.

Back to crisps again :-) Pringles have many great flavors one of my preferred is Prawn Cocktail (Noll's too), I like to jazz it up sometimes by dipping them in Dorito's Hot Salsa. I know two snack brands working together, it will never work! But it does, it really does. Prawn cocktail combined with a little heat creates something special. Playing Resident Evil The Village I found myself asking was this the perfect combination?

Story

Ethan Winters has had a tough life and after the events of Resident Evil Bio Hazard it seems his life is finally coming together. He has been trained and taken care of by Chris Redfield, he has his wife and baby girl Rose. So you can imagine when that all gets ripped away in the opening of the game it is a tough pill to swallow for Ethan, but at least it won't get any worse, right, right? Wrong, for poor Ethan things are going to get much worse and he will have to fight to protect his family but at what cost?

The characters in the game (no spoilers) are amazingly, the four lords are really interesting all with their own interests and back stories. Facing each of them is a vastly different experience and often very unnerving. The story is fantastic throughout, the ending and post credits are amazing. Overall, the story can be summed up in one word - yes.

Visuals

The visuals in this game are out of this world and the best I have seen on the PlayStation 4 to date, I can't even imaging how good it looks on the PlayStation 5 (I know I could check it on YouTube but its not the same as actually playing it and seeing it that way). The area in and around the village itself and castle is covered in trees and over grown wilderness. The village itself feels very old, and has certainly seen better days, there is death everywhere. 

One of my favorite areas was the second lords house, which is a cross between a quaint mansion and a back street clinic run by a serial killer. Everything is designed to make you feel uncomfortable, which in itself means you will become accustomed to it, but wait the developers can't have that and create a new hell to make your skin crawl.

Overall it is hard to find fault with the visuals and is worth playing for this element alone.

Music

To say the music used in the game is unnerving is an understatement. Some tracks feature a constant and consistent spine chilling sound, while others build and build, heart racing hoping whatever is coming to get you just gets on it. The music is composed by; Shusaku Uchiyama (Resident Evil 2, 4, Devil May Cry 4, Mega Man 8), Marcin Przybylowicz (Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Vanishing Of Ethan Carter), Nao Sato (Monster Hunter Rise, Resident Evil Biohazard) and Brian D'Olivira (Shadow of The Tomb Raider, Tearaway, Papo and Yo).

The soundtrack runs a little over an hour, which is surprising and seems like it is longer but in reality this is just a great show of composers working well together. It is hard to pick my favorite tracks, a few of them would be; Village Of Shadows, The Duke, Blood Thirsty, She's Not Here, Out Of Control, Acid Rain, The Final Movement, Rose (hearing this piece again actually made me well up), and Yearning For Dark Shadows.

Overall a phenomenal and well put together soundtrack, and certainly one of the more memorable one for me in recent times.

Gameplay

The first and most important thing to say about the gameplay in Resident Evil The Village is that it is solid. Ethan's movements feel fluid, the weapons mechanics work really well, and the enemies offer a good challenge without feeling frustrating. 

Like with all Resident Evil games your weapons can be upgraded by the games merchant called 'The Duke', an extremely interesting character. Most weapons also have extra parts that can be added to them, these can be found in the world and some purchased from The Duke. Lei is the currency in the game and can be found in many places -  in breakable objects, dropped by enemies and higher value items can be traded to The Duke for them. Crafting is another fun element, this can really help later in the game. Materials can be found scattered throughout the world so it makes sense to search everywhere possible.

There are four lords, and each has their own area, without giving anything too much away you will need to defeat each one of them. The battles with them are intense and no two feel the same, with some boss battles there can be sometimes this feeling of dread, for me Resident Evil The Village had me excited to see what the next one would throw at me.

There are collectibles scattered throughout the world, some given insight as to what has happened in the village, others can be sold for a considerable amount.

Similar to the other Resident Evil games there are a number of puzzles in the game, none of them are particularly taxing. In one set there were fun labyrinths which are dioramas of game areas, where you you have to place a ball in it and tilt it to get to the exit. The reward for completing them is pretty good, but the real reward is getting to solve and complete it.

Overall the gameplay is very solid with no issues of note, there is also a lot of replay value as new modes open, and you have the chance of unlocking new weapons, and infinite ammo, and more.

Final Thoughts

So, after just shy of twelve hours of playing how did I feel? Happy, sad, and many other emotions. I wanted to know even more about the characters in game as they intrigued me so much. I felt sad for Ethan throughout the game, constantly struggling but never giving up. The story was amazing and made me so excited for the next installment in the series. The visuals were stunning and shows that the PlayStation 4 still has plenty of life left in it. The soundtrack was phenomenal and easily my favorite of the year thus far. Overall a masterpiece of a game that cannot be passed up on this one gets top marks 5 out of 5