Glen-i Posted July 3, 2021 Posted July 3, 2021 3 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Yeah... I would never subject myself to that torture of 100% completion ever again. I feel like that's a snipe at me. At least I was smart enough to use a guide for blue coins this time.
nekunando Posted July 3, 2021 Posted July 3, 2021 16 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Yeah... I would never subject myself to that torture of 100% completion ever again. I don't think I ever took my shine count past 100 on the Gamecube so I started seeing this as something of a one time only deal! Given that I'd played and was largely frustrated with Super Mario Sunshine only a couple of years ago when I quickly blasted through it again, I was surprised that I began to appreciate it more this time around. Well, I did until I needed to go after the remaining blue coins! I also used a guide for them, like @Glen-i, as many of them are far too well hidden and I feel like I could have played the game for the rest of my life and never found them all by myself. With that done, there's now a little desire to get the other two games on 3D Allstars to 100%, just like their original counterparts. Sunshine was, however, the only 3D Mario I hadn't fully completed so I'm glad that's no longer the case, at least 1 2
Cube Posted July 4, 2021 Author Posted July 4, 2021 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts The biggest crime of Nuts & Bolts isn’t anything to do with Nuts & Bolts, but more that there wasn’t a Banjo-Threeie prior to its release. Even though it was clear that it was not a platformer, a lot of reviewers held this against the game instead of reviewing it based on what the game actually is. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is about building vehicles and contraptions to complete challenges. Building the vehicles is a lot of fun and is designed to be easy to work. Slap some stuff together and it’ll probably move. There is some physics involved, but unless you massively weigh down one side, your vehicle likely won’t topple over. You start off with wheels and engines, and add other parts like propellers (for water and air usage), floaters, wings, weapons and all sorts of other gadgets like springs, detachers and a self destruct. There’s a good mix of parts which are useful for challenges, some that are just for fun and some which are just to add a bit of visual flair (like the objects gained from “Stop 'n' Swop” (which involves collecting items in Banjo-Kazooie). This means all sorts of vehicles can be made, and you can create some unique ideas to try and “cheat” the challenges. There are some Jinjo challenges which require you to hit a certain speed. My vehicle of choice for this was a seat with a spring on it. For some challenges you’ll modify your vehicle a bit after each attempt (one thing to note is doing this is now much better due to the incredibly short load times on the Xbox Series). Each level consists of 5 or 6 acts, each with multiple challenges. Notes hidden in the level are just one set, so you can collect them in any act. Banjo characters will have different costumes in each level and “act out” other roles -the Banjo humour is very much alive and well. The hub world, Showdown Town, takes a different approach. Here you just have the standard trolley, which gets upgraded as you defeat bosses. Navigating Showdown Town is more of a vehicle platformer, and has you hunting for crates containing more parts. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts gets overlooked because of what it’s not, but it’s definitely worth a look. Rare Replay I’m playing through the Rare Replay games at the moment, and they’ll all get their own write-ups, but I think the presentation of the compilation itself deserves a mention. From the moment it starts off with a musical number, it’s clear that Rare Replay is made with a lot of love. The menus have a wonderful style, with each game getting it’s own music for its own parts of the menu (including games which don’t have any music in game), all with their own styles with lots of animation happening. There are a load of videos to unlock with behind the scenes looks, talks about cancelled games and also some music from cancelled games. Each non-widescreen game comes with a lovely border (unique for each game) that you can turn off if you want. Interestingly, Jet Force Gemini has a border, but then fills up the screen when you select widescreen from the in-game options (when you do this in Donkey Kong 64 on Wii U, you just get a squished image). Each game will have its own sets of milestones, which consists of achievements. This gives some goals to aim for in the older score-based games, although some can be a bit grindy. Games that have been previously available on the Xbox 360 (Banjo, Perfect Dark and the 360-era games) will boot up those versions, so the “milestones” are to get a certain number of gamescore. My only issue with the milestones that require gamerscore is that the number isn’t tailored to each game. I think Rare should have selected a number of achievements and used that as the basis of the gamescore requirement. The 750 score in Perfect Dark Zero, for example, requires a lot of grinding in multiplayer (you can do it in local multiplayer, but it’s still a lot of grinding). The games that were released before the N64 have a number of extra features. You can turn a CRT filter on to make the games look hideous. That said, the CRT filter is one of the best ones I’ve seen, as it “warps” the screen and has more realistic scanlines. They also feature a rewind mode, allowing you to correct any mistakes, as well as cheats like infinite lives. This allows you to experience some more frustrating games with a bit less exhaustion. They also have “Snapshots” - 5 challenges which start you off in a particular area, sometimes with some gameplay tweaks. These add some extra life in some games you may never touch. I think it’s a shame that they couldn’t create some of these for anything N64 onwards, but I understand the extra difficulty in doing so. Jatpac I’ve played this one before, within Donkey Kong 64. However, I only played it in the way required to get the Rare Coin and then moved on. It was just an obstacle in DK64 and I didn’t really look into it for its own merits. Playing it through Rare Replay, and I’ve realised that Jetpac is probably among my favourite classic score-based arcade games. Your goal is simple to understand without needing further instructions: collect parts of the rocket, fill it with fuel, and avoid being hit by enemies. Once you fill the rocket up, you step inside and move to the next screen and repeat (although for the next three levels you just fuel your rocket, then get a new one to build every 4th screen). The player movement is incredibly smooth, which helps to make it really good fun. Each screen will also have a different enemy type which move in different ways, but you only get one type per screen which makes predicting how enemies will move something fairly easy. Jetpac is a classic which is overlooked. I think it’s especially impressive that this was limited to home computer restraints, and not the beefier arcade cabinets at the time. Completion: Complete all four rockets, plus all Snapshots. Lunar Jetman The sequel to Jetpac. It adds a lot more mechanics to it and is all the worse for it. The main flying and shooting is the same as Jetpac and still feels great, but then you notice that your fuel goes down quickly and there’s a time limit, as well as arrows pointing towards your truck and an alien base, and a bomb nearby your truck. After failing to understand what you’re supposed to do, I ended up checking the digital manual. The goal of the game is to blow up enemy turrets (the “alien base” arrow points towards these). To do this, you have to pick up a bomb and fly it to the base and let go from a good enough altitude for it to blow. However, your limited fuel is a big problem - you don’t have enough to fly to your enemy base. This is where your truck comes in, you can place the bomb on it and drive towards the base. You are also invincible while in the truck. Along the way will be lots of craters, which your truck can’t drive over. You’ll need to exit the truck, pick up a platform (by pressing “pick up” on your truck) and drop it over the gap. You can also grab a turret for your gun, but as you need to take the bomb, this is only useful to blast some enemies for points for a bit before moving on. There’s also a teleporter, which mainly just gets in the way. There are loads of different types of enemies that bombard you. They all chase you in different ways, either that move past the screen or some that stalk you to attack when you leave the truck, or chase you in other ways. The complexity of Lunar Jetman makes the game far less fun than Jetpac, and is not something I’d want to play again. Completion: Reach level 10, plus all Snapshots. Atic Atac A maze-like dungeon crawler, Atic Atac starts off with letting you pick your class (each have a slightly different attack and use different shortcuts). You then start right by the exit: except the door is locked. The ultimate goal: find three pieces of the golden key, hidden somewhere in the dungeon. You explore a room at a time. Rooms will consist of normal doors, trap doors and locked doors. Normal and trap doors open and close at random, so you will need to survive in the room until the door you want opens and you can move on. Locked doors will need one of the four coloured keys to unlock, but once unlocked will remain open. You can only hold three items at a time, so once you locate the four keys you will have to juggle them, make sure to remember where you dropped them. Initially, moving around is extremely confusing as a lot of rooms look similar. Over time, you’ll be able to form a rough image in your head of the layout. Atic Atac is not overly large, and the map is the same each time you play. You will also pick up on certain elements to recognise different rooms and ways around the map. The keys, however (the three of the colour ones and the three parts of the golden key), will appear in different locations, so you’ll have to work out a different route each time you play. One key is always in the same place, which gives you something to try and work to (but may not be accessible without other keys) The biggest flaw I think this game has is the health meter. It’s visualised by a cooked chicken (representing hunger) and will drain at a fairly quick rate, and touching an enemy will drain it at a high speed. Eating food that randomly spawns in certain rooms will replenish this. The big flaw is that you can search one area only to find nothing useful, and lots of time can be wasted waiting for doors to randomly open. I do wish there was a “no hunger drain” cheat for something lesser than just “infinite lives” as I feel like it would still be a good challenge (and a fairer one). That said, the core gameplay is good fun, and the visuals are surprisingly nice for its era. Completion: Escaped with all three classics, plus Snapshots. Sabre Wulf Another maze game. Here you have to find four pieces of an amulet hidden throughout a very vast map, with lots of twisting passages. This is not a map you’ll learn, so you’ll mainly just pick random directions until you find what you need. Then you need to head to the centre of the map. Everything in the jungle is out to get you, and you only have a piddly sword. Most enemies can be vanquished easily, but larger ones you’ll need to dodge (or have to lose a life if you need to get past them). There are also villagers that you can block by fighting, but you’ll need to back up on yourself to get past them. Orchids will sprout up, each with different abilities. Two of these are detrimental, such as knocking you down or reversing your directions, while others will make you invincible (but either slow you down or speed you up). The white one will reset any effects. Sabre Wulf isn’t a bad game, but is still a fairly frustrating one. The snapshots are tailored well and show how fun some of the gameplay can be, but it feels more like blindly stumbling around rather than the working out and planning of Atic Atac. Completion: Finished the maze and completed the Snapshots Underwurlde Underwurlde received lots of glowing reviews when it came out. Sometimes even if you dislike an older game, you can still see why it was great at the time. With Underwurlde, I just can’t see it at all. This is another maze-like game. There are 600 squares so without a guide there is little hope. You need to find three guardians and kill them, but each one needs a different weapon to defeat it, so you’ll need to find them first. Then you have to reach one of the exits at the top of the map (or you can always head down to kill more enemies for points. The biggest issue with Underwurlde are the controls. The jumping in this game is not a controlled jump. You’re turned into some kind of frog-like thing and you leap in a massic arc across half the screen. As the screen doesn’t scroll, this means some jumps are completely blind, and any large fall will kill you. In the castle area of the map, you need to jump upwards, so you’ll often try to position yourself for a precise jump, however if you go too close to the edge, Sabreman will jump downwards. Moving around is incredibly frustrating. There are also a ton of enemies flying about. Before you get your first weapon, you can’t defeat them. At first it seems lucky that enemies don’t damage you, however they instead knock you around, causing you to fall and die. There are sections where you’re riding a bubble upwards, being hounded by loads of respawning enemies and one touch will knock you down. To make matters worse, your weapon fires in random directions (they roughly go the way you're facing, but will go upwards and downward on their own). There's a good reason why there is an option for “no enemies” in the cheats. In the cavern area, Sabreman will latch himself to a rope. You can shimmy downwards and move left and right a bit. If an enemy hits you, or you bash into the side of a platform, you’ll fall and die. Sometimes a stalactite will fall down so you’ll have to swing sideways to dodge. Sometimes this happens the moment you latch to the ceiling, so it’s an instant unavoidable death. Underwurlde is a game filled with cheap deaths, terrible controls, platforming into areas blindly and all while trying to navigate an overly large maze. A truly terrible game. Completion: Escaped the maze and completed the snapshots. 1 2
Jonnas Posted July 4, 2021 Posted July 4, 2021 On 03/07/2021 at 9:10 AM, nekunando said: I don't think I ever took my shine count past 100 on the Gamecube so I started seeing this as something of a one time only deal! I know that, without a guide, I managed to get my Shine count up to 117. Over the next few years, I'd occasionally revisit Sunshine (because it's just fun to play around with it. One of the smoothest Marios to control), which eventually got me to 118. Like you, I truly could not have done the rest without a guide. I did find all the Blue Coins in Pinna Park by myself, but that's about it.
Cube Posted July 5, 2021 Author Posted July 5, 2021 Some more Rare Replay. Knight Lore For a Spectrum game, the third in the series of Sabreman games looks lovely due to its isometric graphics. Objects are lovingly chunky and there’s a real charm to how it looks. The core idea is also great: Sabreman is cursed, and each night turns into a Werewulf. If the curse isn’t fixed within 40 days, then he will permanently become a werewulf and you will lose the game. To fix the curse, you need to find items and throw them into a cauldron. Unfortunately, those are the main good things about the game. It’s a slow, boring affair. The map isn’t as bad as the previous two games, and is a size you can learn, but walking is extremely slow and platforming is tedious. The isometric view makes it extremely difficult to judge jumps, especially when some platforms are higher than you’d expect. You have to dodge obstacles (which again, due to the view, can be difficult to judge) and sometimes you have multiple moving objects on one screen, but they aren’t in sync with each other, so you may have to wait a while for an opportunity to appear. What doesn’t help this is that every 30 seconds, you transform, which has a long animation while everything else still moves, so you can miss opportunities due to this. Some rooms also require you to be in a certain form to bypass the obstacle. You’ll need to find items based on what the cauldron in the centre of the map wants. It shows you them one at a time (although it works on a loop, so a guide can show you what is coming up).You will also need to find extra items in order to bypass some rooms, as you will need to drop items to use as additional platforms. Everything just makes Knight Lore a fairly tedious experience, although nowhere near as frustrating as Underwurlde. Completion: Cured Sabreman and completed the snapshots. Gunfright Another isometric game, this one is a wild west game where you have to find outlaws and gun them down. It’s initially quite confusing as to what you’re supposed to do and how the game’s mechanics work, but once you have that down, it’s quite a fun experience. Gunfright is essentially a game of hide-and-seek. There’s a bandit hiding in the town, and you need to find them. Some townsfolk will point you in the right direction, so you can narrow it down (of course, the bandits also move around, so keep that in mind). There are also lots of civilians walking around. These civilians are all deadly and will kill you instantly if they walk into you (because games of this era need loads of things that can kill you). The game has a “marketplace” of sorts. In the bottom right, you’ll see prices for bullets, horses and fines. There’s no shop as such, you’ll just get charged that amount when appropriate. You have six bullets in your gun, and once you shoot all six you’ll be instantly charged for a reload. Horses you “buy” by finding them on a map. These look hilarious when you use them, as it looks like a wooden frame that you’re holding up and running around with. I love how ridiculous it looks. If you kill civilians, either by shooting them or trampling them with a horse, you’ll be instantly charged the “fine”. Money is the main score of the game, and the best way to get money is to kill bandits. There are 20 in the game, each appearing one at a time. Once you find one in the game, you shoot them to initiate a duel. Duels are done in a first person perspective. Your opponent will move around the screen while you control a cursor. Moving your cursor will count as a “draw” and your opponent will start shooting, so you have to aim quickly. You can also wait for your opponent to announce “draw” as he will stop moving. It’s a really good system, one that seems quite fair and smooth. While that’s all there is to the game, it’s still a pretty fun game, with some really nice (at the time) graphics. As there is no depth, the isometric view doesn’t come with the same problems as Knight Lore, and it works well with the gameplay. Completion: Defeated all 20 bandits and completed the snapshots. Slalom All about skiing. I’ll admit to using the rewind feature a lot to play though this. Without it, Slalom would be an incredibly frustrating experience. In Slalom, you have to get to the bottom of the slope before the time runs out. There are opponents, but they’re just there to get in your way. There will also be trees, snowmen and kids sledding uphill to avoid. Some parts of this required a lot of luck as you have to avoid obstacles as well as the other skiers who can block gaps at the worst time. You also have to make sure you go through the slalom flags - miss a flag and you’ll slow down. There’s also a trick system when doing jumps, but it’s best to avoid jumps as it will slow you down. If you do more than a couple of small mess ups, you will likely not make it in time. Each mountain has 9 slopes that you work through. In order to progress to the next slope, you have to finish in time. If you don’t, you go straight to the main menu. No second attempt or extra lives, just back to the main menu to start from the beginning. You need a perfect run to see all the tracks in the game. With the Rare Replay features, I instead had fun seeing how long I could go without needing a rewind, so I could try weaving through loads of moving objects without the frustration of having to redo everything if I hit a single one of them. The challenges also proved to be a lot of fun, as these don’t have the rewind but are quick to try again. Slalom is a game which wasn’t a great game for its time, but has been turned into something that can be enjoyed due to the extra features of Rare Replay. Completion: Finished all 27 slopes and all snapshots. 1 3
Dcubed Posted July 5, 2021 Posted July 5, 2021 (edited) Worth noting the context behind Slalom though… it debuted as an arcade game on the Nintendo VS System (essentially a NES in an arcade cabinet); which explains its rather unforgiving game design. Fun fact, Slalom was the first western developed game for a Nintendo console! And also Rare’s first ever game, post Ultimate Play The Game (It was the reverse engineering project that landed Rare with a NES console license; and turned them into a console game maker!). Also David Wise’s first soundtrack too! It’s brutally difficult (as was the style at the time), but it’s a super technically impressive game for its time. Also it solidified what would go on to be Rare’s love, and obsession, for alliteration in their level names Edited July 5, 2021 by Dcubed 1 1
Cube Posted July 6, 2021 Author Posted July 6, 2021 RC Pro-Am A racing game with a very impressive sense of speed and some really nice chunky graphics. It reminds me a lot of Micro Machines, which is impressive as RC Pro-Am came out a few years earlier. The controls get some getting used to as you use left and right to turn. This makes sense in writing but can sometimes be disorientating in the isometric view, where pointing in the direction you want to travel would be more intuitive. Once you get used to it, you’ll be blasting through the tracks. Dotted along the tracks are missiles, bombs and upgrades. Collecting a missile or bomb will change your whole stock into that type, which can be annoying if you want the other item. Upgrades will speed up your car permanently, and collecting them all slows down the rate the other cars can upgrade, which is important as if you let them upgrade, all of them will be unbeatable. The game is fairly generous in that you only need to place 3rd (out of 4) to progress. Doing this is still difficult, and sometimes getting first place is an impossibility as the AI racers can outright cheat, zooming ahead while you’re at the highest possible speed in the game. Luckily they don’t use weapons against you. In the last race, I had around 80 bombs, so I used them every time an opponent came close. Due to the AI cheating, I ended up using around 70 of these in this one race alone to keep them at bay. Still, as 3rd place is the main requirement, RC Pro-Am is still a fun racing game due to its sense of speed. Completion is getting 3rd or better on all tracks, then the snapshots. The ones for RC Pro-Am have been the hardest so far, with one where you have to hit 5 opponents with missiles (the east part) and then win the race (which is mainly hoping you get lucky with the AI), and one where you start more than a lap behind, where you need to complete 9 perfect laps without touching the sides or slowing down to catch up and win. Cobra Triangle A speeboard shooting game, Cobra Triangle is possibly the only game in this collection I’ve never seen or read about before, so I was very curious about it. Cobra Triangle is another Rare game that takes an isometric view, which gives the game a great look and sense of speed. Controls are simple with acceleration and shooting (I really like that Rare Replay added the right trigger for acceleration, meaning your thumb can be entirely focused on shooting), turning is very fluid. The upgrade system is a bit confusing to start with. Each upgrade pack you pick will cycle you through the different types of upgrade, and you press X to use the packs on that upgrade. The campaign is split across 25 different challenges, of which there are multiple types. There’s a time trial race which has a load of enemy AI for you to blow up, an obstacle course where you have to avoid logs and whirlpools, a shooting gallery where you have to shoot targets as your boat drifts along, one where you protect swimmers, a few bosses and some others. One I liked in particular (even though these levels are quite difficult) was one where you have to destroy mines. You pick them up by driving over them, and have to drive them to a marked location as the guards pursue you. If they catch you, they’ll take the mine off you and take it back (unless you then drive into them and get it back). I feel like this mode in particular would be an awesome 2 player mode, but unfortunately Cobra Triangle is only singleplayer. The snapshots were a lot of fun for Cobra Triangle, the final one was difficult until I tried a crazy tactic that ended up working. Snake Rattle and Roll If someone showed me Snake Rattle and Roll and told me it was a SNES game, I would believe them. It looks too nice to be a NES game, with great 3D looking graphics in a colorful cartoon style. In Snake Rattle and Roll, you must get your snake to the end of each platforming stage. However, to unlock the door you must stand on some scales. If you’re not heavy enough, the door won’t open. As everyone knows, when a snake eats something, it gets longer (this fact was later solidified by Snake on Nokia 3310). In Snake Rattle and Roll, there are three colours of balls you can eat. Yellow is the best, while red/blue depend on the colour of your snake as the matching one is best. Snake Rattle and Roll flows very nicely, with very smooth controls. This, however, can also be a problem. Lots of stages have no edge, so you’ll find yourself sliding off the edges a lot. The isometric view, while lovely, can also make some jumps difficult, and there are a lot of jumps where you’ll need to jump diagonally (in terms of pushing diagonally on the controller, everything is technically diagonal in terms of visual direction), and some jumps where you need to alter course mid-air. To start with, these jumps, while difficult, are still an acceptable difficulty. But towards the end, Snake Rattle and Roll really ramps up, with wild jumps you need to make while avoiding obstacles. Then you reach some ice levels, so you’ll be sliding even more, with lots of uphill ice slopes. The final boss is also ridiculous, and is incredibly difficult even with the rewind feature. It doesn’t look like much, as it’s a small foot that hops around in a preset pattern, but it takes a lot of hits (possibly 50ish), all while meteors fly at you from all directions. To make matters worse, if you miss for more than half a second (while it jumps away, or to not get hit by a meteor), it’s invisible health resets and you effectively have to start from scratch. With that said, Snake Rattle and Roll still feels like fun, even when you’re constantly failing (final boss excluded). It feels like it was designed with 2 players in mind, competing for points and laughing at each other's failures, rather than actually completing the game. The snapshots were pretty enjoyable for this, with a few being about beating levels under certain conditions (like not being able to eat things). 1 3
Cube Posted July 8, 2021 Author Posted July 8, 2021 And some more. Games will probably take me much longer from this point forward, as the games are much longer. Solar Jetman The third Jetman/Jetpac game, Solar Jetman changes things by having a structured quest across designed levels, tacking down parts of a golden warpship. You also won’t use the jetpack that much. Most of the time will be spent in little pod-like ships, and the controls are very physics-based. Instead of pointing in a direction and moving, you instead rotate your ship and use the thrusters to propel yourself, to stop you have to face the other way and use the thrusters to stop. It makes it feel like a successor to Lunar Lander than Jetpac. If your ship is destroyed, you won’t be dead instantly, instead you’ll be in your spacesuit with your jetpack, flying around in a way more similar to the old Jetpac games. You can still shoot, but only horizontally, meaning some enemies you can’t hit at all, and you can’t pick up important objects. On top of this, you are very fragile, and one more hit will kill you. Once your ship is destroyed, you’ll want to rush back to the start of the level to grab a new one. This is a very nice mechanic to continue the game without losing a life. As you explore levels you’ll find various objects: ship parts, upgrades, fuel and diamonds. You’ll need to pick these up in your pod and drag them back to your mothership at the start of the levels. Items are heavy, and your little pod will struggle to fly them around. Sometimes there are wormholes that you can use for a shortcut. This does unfortunately mean that some parts of the game are long slogs back to the start of the level, moving slowly. How difficult things will move does depend on what planet you are on, as different ones have different gravity. Due to the really well made physics, you can feel the difference and can adjust your playstyle accordingly. While there’s a lot to praise about Solar Jetman, it ultimately is a fairly slow and tedious game. The snapshots do create some nice bit-sized chunks for you. Digger T Rock A fun puzzle platformer with some nice ideas. Digger T Rock is separated into 8 caverns. In each one, you must locate a pressure switch (which looks like a large pillar) and then rush to the exit point. You can dig through soft rock with your shovel, find ladders to climb down large holes, and find explosives to blow up certain walls.The levels are fairly small, which makes the trial and error methodology less frustrating, and makes learning how the level works a lot of fun - even when you have to contend with hidden paths you can’t see. You’ll need to find the exit, switch and work out a path between that takes less than 60 seconds. Unfortunately, resources are quite limited. Waste too many and you’ll need to start the level again. In some ways, Digger T Rock actually reminds me of Lemmings, except that you have control over an individual lemming. Working out the puzzle of each level is entertaining, and it’s a shame that there’s only 8. That said, level 8 is a nightmare. There are loads of pillars that look identical to the switch, but only one will work, multiple routes to try that will waste resources. On top of that, there are no ladders or explosives in the level itself. If you haven’t saved enough stuff from previous levels, it will be impossible to finish, and you’ll have to reset the game and start from the beginning - not fun in the slightest. With more levels and having the required resources in each level, this could be an extremely fun game. The snippets used in the snapshots were good fun, especially one where you have to make it from switch to door with no damage. Battletoads Infamous for being brutally hard, Battletoads is still extremely difficult even with the features of Rare Replay. But what surprised me the most about it is that the difficulty of it felt fair. At its core, Battletoads is a classic side-scrolling beat-em-up. Can be played with one or two people, however it’s probably more difficult in two player due to friendly fire and how you both have to complete each section. The fighting is a lot of fun, with some combos to figure out, some weapons you can pick up. For the most part, the actual fighting I didn’t find to be too difficult, at least compared to games like Streets of Rage 2. Of course, it’s not all about fighting. Some levels try out different things, keeping the game feeling fresh throughout its whole playthough. There are some platforming focused levels, and some vehicle based ones, including the dreaded turbo tunnel - a hoverbike section where you have to avoid obstacles hurtling towards you. At first, I was surprised at how tame it actually felt based on everything I’d heard. Avoiding things wasn’t too bad, and making the jumps was surprisingly easy. Then comes a section where everything is extremely fast, avoiding everything is extremely difficult and I didn’t even get to the end due to accidentally hitting a warp and skipping the next level. And then some of the later levels make the turbo tunnel look easy, such as the penultimate level where you have to escape a spinning orb on a track, requiring perfect timing for you changing directions on corners. Alongside this difficulty is just an odd sense of joy. There’s a lot of charm in the animation and style, with great music as well (including the best pause music ever). Battletoads really is a classic. The snapshots are quite fun, including an infinite loop of the Turbo Tunnel. Luckily, the amount of time you need to survive to complete is quite generous. RC Pro-Am II A big improvement over the first, RC Pro-Am II fixes some of the niggles of the first game and adds in some new improvements, such as multiplayer. The graphics are more fine tuned. They don’t have the cutesy clunky toy look, but they’re overall better detailed and include 3D-looking elements for more elaborate tracks. Handling also feels much better, making cornering easier and it feels less slippery overall. One big notable change is the enemy AI. They now feel like proper competitors more than obstacles. They feel much fairer and don’t feel like they’re cheating anywhere near as much. It also helps that the game gives them names, making them seem like opponents. With these changes, I felt like I was actually playing to win instead of just playing to progress, and managed to get an overall 1st place (barely) across all the cups. One small issue is one of the obstacle types. One some straights, a plane will come and bomb you or shoot you. These are difficult to dodge and the plane is out to get your specifically. The upgrade system has changed. Instead of collecting upgrades on the track, you collect money to spend on specific upgrades, or to buy power ups to start the next race with, such as rockets, shields or nitrus. These power ups can also be found on the tracks. RC Pro-Am II is a great classic racing game. The snapshots for this were fine, with one difficult one requiring you to dodge two planes - one of them while your car is on ice. Battletoads Arcade An arcade version of Battletoads, this is a new adventure where up to three people can fight through waves of enemies to reach the end of levels. It looks absolutely superb, with top notch animation, with each of the Battletoads having unique looking moves, all of which are a joy to watch. It’s also a lot goreier than I expected, with loads of blood and decapitations. As this is an arcade game that is designed for taking all your pennies, it’s hard to judge its difficulty, as you have infinite continues in this version. I did end up using a lot, though. Battletoads arcades has less non-fighting levels than the original NES game, but still manages to feel very varied with some set pieces requiring dodging, as well as some really fun boss battles. There’s also a chasm level like the first, but this time you’re on a jetpack with a special ability to turn into a wrecking ball and obliterate everything on screen. It’s a lot of fun to play. One level is significantly different, as it’s a shooting level. You’re on top of a hover truck and can move back and forth a little. While shooting, you then point in the direction you want to shoot as you fire streams of bullets. It works really well, and is a lot of fun to play. The only issue is that this is the final level of the game. It feels really odd that the final boss is fought in a different style, and it isn’t even the main villain of the game (the Dark Queen, who you don’t fight directly at any point). It gives the impression that something was planned, but there wasn’t time to finish it before the game was released. Still, Battletoads Arcade is incredibly good fun. The snapshots also had some fun ideas, and are the final ones in Rare Replay. The music is also brilliant, especially on the ice level. Killer Instinct Gold This won’t really be a proper review as fighting games like this aren’t my style. I’m not competent enough at playing them to give a proper opinion on it, but as it’s part of Rare Replay, I figured I’d experience what it has. One thing I can comment on is the presentation. The visuals are rather nice indeed. The characters are in the style Rare used for Donkey Kong Country: impressive 3D models were made, and then turned into 2D sprites. The 3D stages look really nice for an N64 game as well, with some nice glossiness and reflections to some of them. The main mode is arcade, where you fight each character in turn before facing off against the boss. It feels a bit like Street Fighter 2 in terms of multiple types of punches/kicks and lots of combos to move. There are some spammy moves which can be used against the AI, but I imagine a competent player would be able to counter them. Other modes include modes where you use multiple characters in a row, first one to lose all of theirs loses, as well as training and practice modes to help you learn combos. There’s also a tournament mode for playing with lots of people. What I find really odd about Killer Instinct Gold is that there’s no basic Vs mode. You can launch an arcade against an opponent, but there’s no basic single match mode. On top of this, there’s also no stage menu, instead you need to both press button combos at the same time to force a certain stage. 3
Aperson Posted July 9, 2021 Posted July 9, 2021 On 7/3/2021 at 8:43 AM, Dcubed said: Yeah... I would never subject myself to that torture of 100% completion ever again. I'm kind of glad I knocked that out last year! Albeit that was on the Gamecube version. I haven't been playing much lately aside from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate following the Kazuya update. Been clearing Classic Mode with a few more characters and I'm also trying to learn a few more characters in addition to Ike, namely Samus and Greninja. I think Greninja is someone I could try and get used to playing as but the attack variety has seemed somewhat limited. Dash into up air and followed by Side B when they're coming down seems to be the easiest way to do it, the character seems to be based around an evasive playstyle that you can then dash into your opponents while they're attacking to hit them. You can push your opponent off the stage during recovery with Hydro Pump but I haven't quite got that down properly to be able to pull it off. Aside from that I plan to replay Metroid Prime Hunters this week for Gaming Anniversaries. I lost the cartridge years ago and I never got the true 100% ending to the game, so I want to make up for that. I downloaded a digital copy of the game on Wii U in order to replace it, as I figured that the cartridge is long gone and I might as well have some way to play the game even though I can't play multiplayer on this copy.
Nicktendo Posted July 14, 2021 Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) I've been on a bit of a roll this month and have already managed to beat a few games. The first one was Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which I bought on a whim when Greg simply said "do it" after I told him it was on sale. Surprised at how difficult this game gets in the third chapter. I've managed to do the first two to 100% competition, but I can see it taking me a long time to do the third. I had a great time with this game. The gameplay is unique and the almost 100 mini challenges give it the perfect pick-up-and-play appeal. The only thing I really had an issue with was the camera, which always seemed to be cumbersome and awkward at the game's most tense moments. Like I said with Box Boy, I really like how difficulty is implemented into this game. Beating it (which is what I did) is relatively straightforward, but getting all the diamonds, doing the level's challenge and finding the hidden Toad take a lot of work. Probably not quite worth the £30 I paid for this, but there is a fairly good amount of content + the DLC which comes with the gold version. I'll be going through that soon. I had gone through the majority of Eliminator Boat Race last year but couldn't do the final couple of races. Well, I finally did them the other day. Not easy at all - took me multiple attempts and probably around an hour of trying. This game is great to be honest, a really fun NES game. However, I much prefer the top-down Micro Machines style racing over the mode 7 style racing, which is hard to control and frustrating when your opponent starts ramming you. Give it a go on the NES app if you want something a bit different with fun dialogue. At the start of the month, I got convinced to give Super Metroid another go after a group of lads from a discord I'm in started talking about it and replaying it. Having never beaten a Metroid game, I thought it was time to finally put this game to bed, especially with Dread on the way. After about 6 hours, I got stuck. Spent an hour trying to figure out what to do next and then gave up... So I started playing Metroid: Zero Mission instead, which I had on Wii U for some reason! Turns out that just buying stuff that's on sale can work out sometimes! Anyway, I played this handheld with the Wii U plugged into the power supply in the corner of the room. Amazing how nice this game looks, I love the sprite work here and how colourful everything is. The first few screens were familiar as someone who's started Metroid on NES no fewer than 10 times, but I'm so glad they made this remake and I don't have to put up with horrible slowdown in the original. I managed to beat this in about 3 sittings. Took me around 5 hours. I absolutely loved it! I really found the ability to hold down R to access the missiles useful as it became annoying to constantly be pressing Select on SM. The exploration is great, especially because the map is not that big, though I did start to get a little tired by the end, but I think no one really likes heavy amounts of backtracking in these types of games. Once I was done with Mother Brain I thought the game was over. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Space Pirate ship at the end of the game. Completely changed up the gameplay from quiet exploration to intense battles and chases in a much more linear fashion. Great stuff! Accidently stumbling upon upgrades and secrets and the boss battles were highlights of this game for me and it was super comfortable to play in bed on the Wii U pad - much better than on a small GBA screen I imagine. But that's not all... Yesterday I did finally beat Super Metroid! Went back to it on Monday evening and worked out what I needed to do pretty quickly. I have to say, the final boss and escape sequence puts many modern 2D games to shame by way of how goddamn epic it is. I honestly couldn't believe I was playing a Super Nintendo game. Had I played this game back in 1994, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it would have easily taken the top spot as my favourite game on the system. As a product of it's time, it is absolutely perfect. The map is obscenely large for the time, but not too big (even if I did get lost a couple of times). What I mean by that is in 1994 we all had more time. This type of game design doesn't really work today because people don't have the patience for getting lost or getting stuck. However, being sat on the bedroom floor on a Saturday afternoon, you could easily just spend three, four, five hours wandering through the world, finding secrets and trying to work out what to do next. It was acceptable back then in a way it isn't in 2021. I can really appreciate that, but still occasionally used save states anyway The atmosphere in this game is unrivalled. What they've achieved with the feeling of loneliness and isolation in this game is just unmatched. I've always read people saying this and thought it was hyperbole. It isn't. The way the music, level design and superb graphics blend together to create that feeling is something I haven't experienced to such an extent in a SNES game. I think it does environmental storytelling very well as you move between the different worlds, enemies and bosses and kind of lets you make up your own mind about what's going on. Very cleverly done, especially as I'm someone who generally likes to be told the story and walked though it. Here, I found myself interpreting stuff and enjoying that process. I love the way the game doles out power ups, the feeling of becoming more powerful is explicit and engaging, and being able to go back to previous areas when you saw something that looked a little off is probably one of my favourite gaming tropes. Here it is done to a masterful level. Spending 20 minutes trying and failing to understand wall jumps was extremely frustrating, but then it suddenly clicked and became second nature. No explanation. No hand holding. No text. Just - "haha, try and get out of THIS!". A feeling of accomplishment I very, very really feel in modern gaming. 5 minutes later I was wall jumping everywhere and finding new areas and power ups all over the place. Superb game design. The bosses, also, deserve a special mention. I don't think I managed any of them first time, but kept going back and working out when to attack and when to avoid. Again, just excellent design. Nothing ever felt impossible, I just needed to get better, faster, take my opportunities at the right time. The way Samus moves seems clunky at first, but does feel much more natural once you've spent a bit of time with the game and got used to the various differences between this and other side scrollers. I think the game still holds up very, very well. Amazing that this game is almost 30 years old because it certainly doesn't feel like it is. My only niggles were getting lost for long periods of time (but again, that's a 2021 complaint) and I really hated when you get stuck in sand or an enemy which swallows you and can't jump out of it. Seems entirely random, but that's a minor complaint. I'm so glad I finally gave this game a fair shot. I've started it so many times and never made it further than the beginning of Brinstar. At the risk of annoying H-o-T, I have to say that this game also made me appreciate Hollow Knight on a whole new level. The inspiration from Super Metroid is obvious, but they've taken what works from this game and built and interesting and vibrant world with superb modern combat and movement. The foundations and philosophies in game design and worldbuilding are the same though, and finally playing through the "blueprints" of Hollow Knight has impressed, engaged and entertained me in a way I never thought possible for a Super Nintendo game. Metroid Fusion is next on the list. Edited July 14, 2021 by Nicktendo 6 1
Cube Posted July 14, 2021 Author Posted July 14, 2021 Blast Corps One of the N64 games that defeated me as a kid, Blast Corps created a silly but awesome concept: there’s a nuke on a truck, due to a fault the autopilot sends it straight to the centre of a city in a straight line and touching anything will cause it to explore and take out the entire city. Each of the main levels have a similar premise: the truck is driving in a straight line and you have to clear its route before it hits anything. Each level is essentially a puzzle to solve, smashing buildings, swapping between vehicles, filling in gaps in order to achieve your goal. To do this are a variety of vehicles. You start each level in a pre-chosen one, while some can be found in the level. The most basic is the Ramdoser, where you just ram into buildings, but others are more unique. There’s a small car that works best when you land on top of buildings, a vehicle that smashes things to the side of it, one with guns and even a few different mechs. There’s also the backlash, which is very difficult to use and can lead to the most frustration. It’s a dump truck and the main damage is caused by its rear. Reversing is really slow, so the trick with it is performing drifts and turns so the back skids into buildings. If you are able to master this easily, then you’ll have a great time, but if you struggle at aiming then it can lead to a lot of frustration. The developers must have loved it though, as it seems to be the most used vehicle. On top of the destructive vehicles, there are also a couple of cars, trains and ferries. The trains and ferries are mainly used to fill in gaps the nuke truck can fall down, while the cars are to get between vehicles quickly. For an early mission, you start in a mech with a jetpack, but need to grab a train to make a bridge. Luckily, this train has a car to get you back to your mech. In terms of controls, I think the addition of using the R trigger to accelerate in the Rare Replay version of blast corps helps a lot, it feels more natural due to current games and means your finger is ready to mash the “action” button for the vehicles that perform an action (stomping, shooting, bashing). With this setup, everything felt natural and very precise. On top of the main missions, there are also challenges. These can be time trial races, smashing certain items, collecting items in a set time, playing Pac-Man with trucks or simply destroying a bunch of buildings as quickly as possible. These are short and sweet, but fun and as it’s very quick to retry, often avoid being frustrating when you constantly fail. When you complete all the main missions, you aren’t done with the game, you then have to locate seven scientists. These are hidden in the previous missions, and you also have other tasks in each mission: free survivors, smash all buildings and collect all “RDUs” (little lights that turn on when you drive near). The survivors one is a bit pointless as smashing all buildings will cause this to happen anyway. Finding the survivors will trigger the end cutscene and credits, but then there are bonus missions to play. These are a bunch of silly over the top missions, and you need to get gold and all previous stuff to progress. I had a great time doing this, and learning the tricks to get the best times needed for each level is very rewarding. Blast Corps is a great game, and the uniqueness of it means that it’s still great to play today. I think it’s quite amazing that nobody else has made a game about smashing stuff with vehicles (that I’m aware of anyway). Jet Force Gemini When I was younger, I got so close to beating Jet Force Gemini but never could because I couldn’t save all the Tribals (cute cuddly bear people). This stopped me from being able to go and fight the final boss. Now, after 20 years, I have the opportunity to give it another go. Jet Force Gemini felt extremely ambitious for its time: a third person shooter with multiple characters. There are 10 main worlds to explore with hidden secrets, and a few bonus places to find, lots of weapons to find (including ones you can miss if you don’t explore), and bears to save. You play as siblings Juno and Vela, as well as their dog Lupus (the best character). You get attacked by an army of Ant Drones and are separated. Each of them head to big boss Mizar’s Palace via their own journeys to take on the villain. At this point, you can’t access all the doors, which means you can’t save all the Tribals yet. Your main focus is getting to the end of each level, although exploration will reward you with more health, more weapons and bigger ammo capacity. Once you’ve teamed up together, you’ll get upgraded suits and revisit the previous planets to search for ship parts and save the Tribals. You are hunting for ship parts and have to use the skills of each character to do so: Juno can survive in lava, Vela can swim underwater and Lupus can traverse gaps without needing any jetpack fuel (which Juno and Vela can use for their jetpacks, but only in certain areas). Each world is set into different “areas” (the game clearly marks the end and start of these) which reset each time you leave. This means you have to find all the tribals in one go, miss one and you’ll have to go back and find all of them again. Jet Force Gemini can also be very cruel: Tribals will be next to explosive barrels (sometimes out of view with enemies nearby), some enemies will target Tribals, at one point I encountered flying enemies and shot them, only to discover that a tribal was hiding behind a crate and was killed by the explosion. That said, this time around finding the Tribals didn’t seem too bad. Exiting an area and returning isn’t so bad, and you can prioritise the more dangerous ones first. You’ll learn which areas you’ll need to revisit as who and eventually find everything you need to fight the final boss. I did enjoy the fight, but I wish you could have chosen who to take on the final boss as. The controls in Jet Force Gemini take some getting used to, and the original controls are a complete nightmare. It tried to do a full 3rd person shooter on an N64 controller with one analogue stick. The Rare Replay has a “modern controls” option which is a must. Here, when you aim, it takes on a more modern way of shooting, letting you move with the left stick and aim with the right. I found myself using this for the whole game instead of using the autoaim that happens when you don’t try to target. It’s a great addition and makes the game much more playable. The soundtrack is also phenomenal, making Jet Force Gemini feel like an epic sci-fi adventure. Conker’s Bad Fur Day When Rare first showed off Conker 64, it was criticised for being too close to Banjo-Kazooie: a cutesy and cuddly platformer. Rare took this on board and went the complete opposite direction: a violent and rude adventure filled with swearing. It starts off with Conker drunk and taking the wrong way home, resulting in a lot of misfortune. The humour of Conker’s Bad Fur Day still holds up, with lots of snappy comebacks, rude jokes and lots of crazy things happening. The “amateur” feel of the voice acting (which is performed by the developers) actually works extremely well, with some brilliant British accents you generally don’t hear in games - like dung beetles with heavy scouse accents. Throughout the game you’ll go through a mixture of settings, such ones you would find in other platformers (farms, haunted mansion, caveman themes), ones based on popular films like Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix and some which are quite unique to conker’s Bad Fur Day (like a dung pile). You’ll come across a wonderful assortment of characters. Gameplay is fairly simple. You move around and jump, you have a longer second jump and a high jump. Across the map are context sensitive buttons. Press B on these and something special will happen - what exactly depends on the context of the button. They essentially give Conkey exactly what he needs at that time (as Conker himself describes it). The lives system also has an explanation, as told to us by Gregg the Grim Reaper, saying that Squirrels are a special case like cats (which Greg hates). Unfortunately, these jumping mechanics feel extremely dated and have not aged as well as Banjo-Kazooie. Jumping feels delayed and it’s very easy to misjudge where Conker is in relation to platforms, meaning you’ll miss a lot of jumps and it will feel like the game is at fault because of it. On top of this, the camera is a pain to move and will give you horrible angles a lot of the time. Due to this, Conker’s Bad Fur Day feels incredibly clunky and is not fun to play. It’s a big shame as everything else is so wonderfully done: the crazy plot, the fun designs and ideas, the charm of the swearing and violence from cute characters. Conker’s Bad Fur Day received no improvements for the Rare Replay version. There is a remake of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, which was criticised for censoring more than the N64 version, but I do wonder if it’s nicer to play. I’ll be finding that out soon. 4
Glen-i Posted July 14, 2021 Posted July 14, 2021 Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of those cases where I absolutely have no regrets about finally playing through it a few years ago. And getting through especially difficult sections like the "It's War" chapter gave a real sense of accomplishment. But I never want to touch it again. It's very punishing if you mess up and if I were to play it again, I think it would just sour me on the game. Once is enough. That said, best ending in a Rare game ever! Very few games manage to hit as hard as Conker's final monologue and it's astonishing that it managed to pull that off so well in what is almost entirely, a very silly game. 3
Dcubed Posted July 14, 2021 Posted July 14, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Glen-i said: Conker's Bad Fur Day is one of those cases where I absolutely have no regrets about finally playing through it a few years ago. And getting through especially difficult sections like the "It's War" chapter gave a real sense of accomplishment. But I never want to touch it again. It's very punishing if you mess up and if I were to play it again, I think it would just sour me on the game. Once is enough. That said, best ending in a Rare game ever! Very few games manage to hit as hard as Conker's final monologue and it's astonishing that it managed to pull that off so well in what is almost entirely, a very silly game. That’s fair enough to say I reckon. It’s a fantastic game that I wouldn’t want to change a thing about, but it’s hard as balls and it can be very frustrating at times (especially during the It’s War chapter). But so too does the high difficulty not only make for a greater feeling of satisfaction when you do beat each section? It also heightens the comedy too, as the difficulty does really go off the rails at certain parts, to the point where you just have to laugh as the designers clearly throw a middle finger at the player Edited July 14, 2021 by Dcubed 1
WackerJr Posted July 15, 2021 Posted July 15, 2021 21 hours ago, Dcubed said: That’s fair enough to say I reckon. It’s a fantastic game that I wouldn’t want to change a thing about, but it’s hard as balls and it can be very frustrating at times (especially during the It’s War chapter). But so too does the high difficulty not only make for a greater feeling of satisfaction when you do beat each section? It also heightens the comedy too, as the difficulty does really go off the rails at certain parts, to the point where you just have to laugh as the designers clearly throw a middle finger at the player Agree with you both. While it’s fairly tough in the beginning when it’s tone is more ‘teenage humour’, I always found the difficulty in the second half ramped up alongside the darker tone.
WackerJr Posted July 15, 2021 Posted July 15, 2021 Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (Switch) I guess the first rule of DDLC is don’t talk about about DDLC!No spoilers here. I went in blind, having avoided spoilers & knowing very little about this visual novel apart from it’s positive reputation. I thoroughly enjoyed it! [emoji2] For me it was maybe a little over-hyped, but a memorable experience. 3 1
Aperson Posted July 17, 2021 Posted July 17, 2021 Replaying Metroid Prime Hunters by way of Wii U Virtual Console. Aiming to get the true ending having never got it before, currently just finished up the second Cretaphid fight on Vesper Defence Outpost. I think when I had the game I thought I had to fight the Guardians but watching Speedruns has changed my attitude to timed sequences in video games so I just straight up skipped the guardians upon spawing back. The escape sequence for that part is actually really easy when you dodge the guardians. The Wii U Gamepad is proving to be just as bad as the DS when it comes to aching hands when playing this game. I still think the aiming in the game is a lot better than dual analogues but its not very comfortable on your hands when playing it! 1
Cube Posted July 19, 2021 Author Posted July 19, 2021 Grabbed by the Ghoulies The only thing I really knew about Grabbed by the Ghoulies before going into it is that even Rare themselves mock the game, making fun of it (and it’s poor sales) in later games. The plot is fairly simple: two teenagers go into a haunted looking mansion, the girl gets captured and so on, but it’s presented in a style that’s a mix between comic book and a black and white film, and it’s definitely very charming, with some fun and amusing characters. The game itself is very arcady, and I think it blends some classic and modern types of gaming quite well. In order to save your friend (and other people trapped in the house), you progress through the haunted out room by room. There’s only one route you can take at any given time, so you can’t explore freely. Instead, each room is its own contained challenge. As soon as you enter, your health will change to a set amount that is curated for the challenge within and when you trigger the challenge (typically by approaching the exit door, but sometimes before), a set of conditions will appear: kill X amount of enemies, kill a certain type of enemy, only use weapons, don’t kill a particular kind of energy. If you fail any condition, you don’t fail the challenge, as long as you kill the required enemies the door will open and you will progress. The punishment for failing is that a Grim Reaper (a rather stylish one, at that) will appear and hunt you down, if it touches you, you die. It’s a great mechanic and in some challenges, you may even decide to purposefully fail as attempting to deal with the reaper might possibly be easier than the challenge. Combat itself is very simple, the right stick is used to attack in the direction you point, a bit like shooters like Robotron and Geometry Wars. You can pick up a wide array of items from objects scattered across the rooms, which do more damage but break after three hits, and some rooms will give you specific weapons. Also dotted throughout the level are soup cans, which give you temporary power-ups like a mini version of yourself that attacks enemies, stops weapons from wearing, make you faster or possibly give you bad effects. These are all specifically placed, and sometimes finding these are vital for being able to beat a room. If the game puts you against many strong enemies you have to kill, there’s probably a one-hit-kill soup somewhere in the room. Enemies are also varied and wonderful, from simple imps (which I’m sure are Jinjos) to mummies that cast curses and exploding worms. Each enemy behaves in a certain way, and understanding how they act is important to progressing. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is fairly short, but also features extra challenges to complete. These are unlocked by finding a Rare Tome in each room. Unfortunately, sometimes these can be a pain as the game will sometimes automatically move you to the next room. On top of this, when you return to a previous room (which will have a new challenge), a new book will appear, so you are likely to miss some, but thankfully there’s a replay option to help pick these up. I can see why Grabbed by the Ghoulies wasn’t a big seller, as it’s quite a unique game, but there is a lot to enjoy about the game. Conker Live & Reloaded A remake of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, I was curious to see how different they feel. In terms of the crazy plot, rude dialogue and all that, it feels the same. This version does have more censored words, but I didn’t find it impacted much anyway. It’s still clear what is being said, and a lot of swear words in the original were bleeped out anyway. To some, this was the biggest issue with the remake, but I don’t feel like it’s anywhere near as important as some make out. In terms of improvements, you have the much nicer looking graphics, and the fur effects still look great even today. Everything not only looks more detailed, but the entire world feels more colourful. The controls also feel much more responsive, along with a better camera. For the platformer parts of the game, it’s similar but just nicer to play. Live & Reloaded has more lenient checkpoints as well, and when you run out of lives, you can simply continue from the most recent checkpoint. This does make lives pointless, but also removes the need to replay some sections for no good reason. I think the lives were mainly left in due to the wonderful Gregg the Grim Reaper, and the “game over” cutscene. One change that I wasn’t too keen on were the added enemies. I think this would be fine if they were more varied, but entirely all of them are creatures in metal buckets that have spikes that come out. Each one takes five hits, so each time you encounter one you whack it, run backwards and repeat. The haunted section of the game adds some wonderful creepy dolls (although oddly there’s a few randomly in the earlier barn level), so more enemies that fit each area would have been much better. The later levels - the war and heist sections - were more shooting sections and have been completely overhauled, and play like a pretty good modern 3rd person shooter. This gameplay is the basis for the game’s multiplayer (which can be played split screen and with bots, so you can still try it even though the servers are down). While it has a few problems, I think that if you want to try out Conker’s Bad Fur Day, pick Live & Reloaded as it’s much nicer to play. 2
Dcubed Posted July 19, 2021 Posted July 19, 2021 I can’t agree with your sentiment regarding L&R compared to the original. Basically every change made to the game from the N64 original was for the worse, and I would even argue that the new visuals are worse than the original’s too; as the more realistic visuals lose the whole “fairy tale cartoon world gone wrong” appeal of the original game. L&R isn’t a terrible version of BFD, but it is the inferior version in almost every respect. That being said though? I agree with you 100% regarding Grabbed by the Ghoulies. Right little gem of a game that sadly came out on the wrong console at the wrong time. It deserves much more love than it gets!
Aperson Posted July 19, 2021 Posted July 19, 2021 Powered through the rest of my Metroid Prime Huntyers replay today. Got past the dreaded Piston Tunnel and that was enough to help me get all the way to the end, scanning everything and... beating Gorea's second phase for the first time. You see, I never actually beat Gorea's second form back in the day. I always got to the final boss and beat it multiple times while repeatedly getting the bad ending. I thought that I had basically beaten the game at that point but I was confused by the fact that there were still some locked features which I had no idea how to unlock. I was also confused by online matches taking place on the Oubliette stage which I'd never unlocked. I would later find out that you were supposed to read the Alimbic Prophecy lore which tells you that you need to shoot the spinny things in the final boss battle in a certain order with the corresponding weapons. But during my proper playthrough I lost the cartridge. This leads into this year when I finally replaced it with a proper digital version. So now I've gone through and got that 100% on Prime Hunters: 1
Dcubed Posted July 23, 2021 Posted July 23, 2021 (edited) Hey, you know what game is awesome? Dicey Dungeons! Guess what I just completed and wrote a review for? You'll never guess what score I gave this game... Go on! Click the pic and enjoy! Also, I happened to finish another game... Ace Attorney: Justice For All is the second game in the Ace Attorney series. It's a fairly typical Capcom "more of the same" sequel, you know, like the endless barrage of very similar Mega Man sequels or PS1 era Resident Evil titles. However, while that kind of sequel can start to burn you out very quickly, oddly enough, the same isn't really true of the Ace Attorney series. And I think that comes down to the fact that within the Ace Attorney series, like I previously mentioned, the story IS the gameplay; as the way in which you prove whodunnit is wildly different in each game & case. As such, each game feels distinct & fresh, despite all making use of very similar mechanics & assets. So how is Justice for All different from the first game? Well, the first and most major addition is the introduction of Psyche Locks; a much needed expansion of the fairly rudimentary Investigation portions of the original game, where you are tasked with pressing people to reluctantly open up about events related to the case by presenting the right facts & evidence at the right time. It's a brilliant mechanic that would go on to become one of the key defining features of the series going forward, and rightly so. I'm sure she's legit... The Psyche Locks are a natural extension of the supernatural elements seen in the first game, and naturally, so too does the story delve deeper into the nature of the psychic powers held by the Fey Clan. As such, the story might disappoint some who preferred the more grounded aspects of the original game; but personally I don't mind that. So long as a story doesn't pull its punches and fully commits to its supernatural elements, I'm cool with it. What I do mind however is the wonky logic presented throughout the game. The Ace Attorney series is kind of unfairly maligned for having somewhat questionable logic with its use of evidence; where you know the answer, but can't present that evidence at that time, or where the story goes off the rails and is either full of holes, or doesn't make sense logically with what you have in your court record... However, that criticism is definitely applicable with Justice for All; especially in Case 3, which feels like it really needed an extra editing pass at the very least. There are plenty of times where you're given a clue that doesn't really lead anywhere, or at least doesn't lead anywhere where you can actually go to at the time; and the courtroom scenes can be frustrating when you're working with some very flimsy logic that doesn't feel intuitive. It's Justice for All that gives the series that reputation in particular and it's unfair to the rest of the games in the series, which handle things much better in that regard; here though? It can feel a bit rough. Everything about this scene is incredibly stupid That being said though? Case 2 & 4 are pretty great fun! Case 4's scenario in particular... Spoiler Everything involving Maya's kidnapping and forcing De Killer to break his contract with Max Galactica ... is fantastic! Also, I actually forgot that there was some more clever use of legalese in this game... Spoiler Where Adrian Andrews invokes the right to refuse to testify. Very well done! Also another clever bit of foreshadowing that I totally forgot about... Spoiler Max Galactica not showing any Psyche Locks when you ask him if he killed anyone... Technically, HE didn't There are some fantastic moments throughout Case 4 in particular; and it's mostly very well done all throughout. It's a shame then, that those rough moments throughout the game and the occasional bit of wonky logic (of which, Case 3 is especially guilty of), end up spoiling some of that enjoyment. Overall though? It's an important step forward for the series. It's probably the weakest game in the entire series, but it gave us the series defining Psyche Lock mechanic, and Case 4 is a genuine corker. So it's hard to be too mad at it. Also it gave us Pearl, and what kind of heartless monster DOESN'T love Pearl!? And with that? Spoiler New Super Mario Bros 2 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (MSU-1 Switch Remake Music Edition) Pilotwings 64 Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Light Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Super Mario 3D World (Switch Version) Perfect Dark Zero Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Sabrewulf (GBA) Actraiser Sonic Delta (Sonic 1,2 and 3&K Combined!) Bowser's Fury Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa Terranigma Metroid II: Return of Samus Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Ace Attorney: Justice for All Dicey Dungeons Edited July 23, 2021 by Dcubed 3 1
Jonnas Posted July 24, 2021 Posted July 24, 2021 I'm of the opinion that AA2 is a pretty messy game as a whole. Its development was rushed, and it shows (and it definitely has the most mediocre soundtrack). But it is true that Case 4 is masterful still. Definitely one of the best resolutions ever for a case. 11 hours ago, Dcubed said: Spoilerz (Reveal hidden contents) Everything involving Maya's kidnapping and forcing De Killer to break his contract with Max Galactica I love that you somehow managed to swap Matt's name with Max. That's some wild fanfiction you just described 11 hours ago, Dcubed said: Everything about this scene is incredibly stupid Every single case in this game shows at least one gaping hole or unresolved logical impossibility somewhere in there... Except for Case 3. Ironically, as convoluted as that case was, it's also the only one without a blatant contradiction by the end. Spoiler Case 2 features Maya's Schrödinger robe, a piece of clothing that somehow got shot, bloodied, and submitted as evidence. The next day, it was revealed to also have been incinerated and destroyed the entire time. During Case 4, Lotta Hart witnessed the "Nickel Samurai" leaving Juan's room and took a photo. Later that night, Wendy Oldbag stole that photo, and it motivated her to watch Juan's room closely, resulting in her witnessing the exact same event that Lotta photographed earlier, and had been the reason Wendy was there in the first place. Stable Time Loop without any sort of time travel, bravo. Case 1 is about how Wellington killed a cop in front of another cop, spent 15 minutes looking for his glasses on the ground and meddling with the crime scene, then called the police. Guess Maggey just spontaneously ceased existing for 15 minutes, because that's the only way any of that works out.(Also, nobody in the courtroom realises you can't write a name with a broken friggin' neck, but that's the flimsy logic issue you already talked about in your post) This game definitely needed more time to iron out such plotholes. 1
Cube Posted July 25, 2021 Author Posted July 25, 2021 Kameo: Elements of Power Rare’s take on an epic fantasy, Kameo: Elements of Power gives us a story of Elves and trolls, although interestingly, there are no humans in this world. I also quite like their take on Trolls. While they’re still brutish and strong, they’re not done so in the typical “dumb” way, instead they focus on science and technology, creating impressive weaponary for you to fight. The elves are also not typical elves, and seem more like fairies, due to having wings. Wings won’t help Kameo jump over large gaps, but do allow for very fast movement, allowing areas to feel large without it taking too long to get anywhere. Each area you visit also has interesting creatures living there, it’s surprisingly quite a fascinating world. The story itself isn’t as unique, though, and is fairly predictable. Kameo’s sister turns evil due to jealousy, wakes up the baddest trolland kidnaps their family. It’s very cheesy, especially one character used for a sequel bait twist near the end who practically announced that they’re secretly evil the first time you meet them, but still charming enough to be serviceable. The main feature of Kameo: Elements of Power are the Elemental Warriors. These are spirits of creatures in various forms of Rock, Fire, Ice, Water and Plant, with two for each type. Each one has a fantastic design and they all feel very different to play, with their own moveset. You can upgrade each one using elemental fruit hidden throughout the lands (and are often rewards for side-quests). While this is structured similar to a Zelda game: a hub area, village area with quests and then a dungeon ending in a boss, there’s a lot more focus on combat and navigating the world. In combat, you earn points for dispatching enemies quickly, and you’ll need to learn which Warriors are effective at dispatching what enemies - some need a certain element to combat them. There’s a wide array of enemies, all of which are very easy to identify, so you can quickly analyse a situation and choose which warriors you need. You change into these with the B, Y and X buttons. My only issue with this setup is that it means you’ll be changing warriors a lot. There’s a quick select option if you hold down one of the buttons, but because it doesn’t pause or slow down the game, it’s useless in combat. The way forward is also very strict, you always need a specific Elemental Warrior to progress. Unfortunately, the game rarely allows you to experiment outside of combat. I also wish that some of them were utilised more, as a couple such a Rubble (a heap of rocks that can fire bits of itself), Flex (a stretchy water creature which is a hookshot with limited grapple points) and 40 Below (a menacing ice creature riding a giant snowball) aren’t used much outside of their initial areas. This is especially true for the final section, which focuses mainly on a couple of these creatures. I feel like each needed its own “power moment” to celebrate them all at the end. There could also have been a few more combinations of utilising different powers. Even with this, you do get a bit of leeway in fights and can experiment a bit more there. Between each dungeon, you’ll encounter large battles in the Badlands, where the trolls are trying to destroy the shrines protecting your kingdom. The scale of these battles is impressive, with hundreds of elves and trolls doing battle. Even now, the amount of creatures on-screen is an impressive sight. As the main bulk of trolls are focused on your elf army, you can still zip around to where you’re needed the most and concentrate on the important part of the fight. Accompanying you on this journey is a mystical wizard in a tome called the “Wotnot Book”, this game’s Navi. My advice for this is to go into the options straight away and turn him off, as he’ll constantly be giving you advice and nagging you to talk to him, although he does get some entertaining lines in the cutscenes. The music in Kameo is also amazing. It’s Rare’s first orchestrated soundtrack and it features epic sounding tunes with strong instruments and choirs. It makes each moment feel epic. While Kameo: Elements of Power has its problems - mainly not letting you experiment more with the Warriors - it’s still a great fantasy game, one that probably gets overlooked these days. It will never happen, but I would love to see a sequel with more refined...elements. Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge The criminally overlooked Banjo game - even by myself. Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie are loved by many, Nuts & Bolts get unfair hate (it’s a brilliant game) but at least it gets some attention. Banjo’s outing on the Game Boy Advance however, barely gets mentioned, and I didn’t even properly play it until now. Turning a Banjo-Kazooie game into a GBA game sounds like a daunting task to me. The obvious route would be 2D, but I don’t think that would capture the spirit of the game. Instead, Rare went for an isometric-like viewpoint (it’s more head on, so you’re not mainly walking diagonally), and somehow managed to squeeze the feeling of a Banjo game into the tiny GBA. Most impressive is Banjo and Kazooie’s moveset. Most of the moves from the first game are here and work really well with the limited buttons on the GBA. Firing eggs has been changed drastically, as Banjo now holds Kazooie like a gun (like the first person segments of Banjo-Tooie), allowing you to move around a bit more freely to line up shots, which works really well. You also get access to different egg types like electric, fire and ice. The gold feathers and red feathers suffer the worst fate. Gold feathers are now only activated from a pad, so are only utilised a few times, while flying is not in the game at all. However, I can see how flying in this would be a nightmare so it’s understandable. Even with these, moving around really does capture the feel of Banjo-Kazooie perfectly. There is one main flaw with the viewpoint: sometimes it’s difficult to judge where a platform is, as you can’t tell how high it is. One thing that does help is that Banjo’s shadow is visible to help you aim, but you’ll still mess up a fair few times. Grunty’s Revenge is more lenient with lives as it has none, instead allowing you to continue from your last “door”, having saved everything you have collected. This alleviates the unfairness of jumping on platforms as it means it never takes long to try again. The graphics look lovely on the GBA, it gives the game a 3D feel despite being in 2D, which makes Banjo and Kazooie look more natural and like their N64 versions. Each level is accompanied by catchy music with 10 jiggies to find (one of them being finding all 5 jinjos) with a wide manner of ways to find or earn them. Each level does have a minigame which consists of a fishing game, a shooting game, a slide or a sort of dodgems game. These are easily the weakest parts of the game as the minigames are not fun (the shooting is fine). Each world can be completed the first time you go through it, with the exception of the swamp level, which needs a later transformation for one jiggy. Transformations also return, with Mumbo providing them. They work slightly differently here: once you have unlocked a transformation, you can then use it in any level. This gives them a bit more time to shine, and it’s usually clear as you explore levels as to which ones you’ll need. They’re all adorable, especially mouse Banjo. Grunty’s Revenge is a short game, taking between 4-5 hours, but for the most part it’s an incredibly fun experience that captures the feeling of the N64 Banjo games extremely well. 2
Dcubed Posted July 26, 2021 Posted July 26, 2021 (edited) BKGR is a pretty nice rendition of the series' trademark gameplay in 2D form; it's surprising just how close it actually does feel to the 3D games! Which kind of goes to show how the N64 games are more like 3D adventure games than pure platformers I suppose. That being said though? It's just not very ambitious outside of the basic premise of feeling like a 3D Banjo game. It doesn't really try to push the series forward in any way and it's all well worn territory. The levels are pretty ho-hum in terms of design, with not really much in the way of unique or creative mechanics or interesting traversal, the transformations aren't particularily interesting, the boss battles are pretty crappy to be honest, and even the mini games largely disappoint. It's pretty contempt with just being "a portable Banjo Kazooie game", as if that's enough on its own. It's decidedly inoffensive, but it doesn't really excel at anything either. They could've done so much more with the concept, but it ends up being a pretty typical handheld Rare game; a second rate, low budget affair that is perfectly competent, but doesn't try to push any boundaries. That being said, Mumbo's Pad is a sexy disco fueled bachelor pad in this game. Which is nice. Edited July 26, 2021 by Dcubed 1
Cube Posted July 26, 2021 Author Posted July 26, 2021 Perfect Dark Zero Perfect Dark Zero has a feeling that it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It’s a prequel to the much loved Perfect Dark on N64, but also wants to be more like Halo. But at the same time it wants to be a stealth game and a cheesy over the top action game. To me, it gives me the impression that Rare were working on a new IP, but ended up shoving the Perfect Dark name into it mid-development. I have no idea if that’s what happened, it’s just the feeling the game gives. The story starts out before Joanna Dark joins the Carrington Institute, where her and her dad (who comes across more of a brother in terms of looks and voice) are freelance agents trying to save someone (and their research) that DataDyne is interested in. The dialogue is over-the-top cheesy and the plot absurd. If this wasn’t related to Perfect Dark, it would be enjoyable in a “parody blockbuster action film” kind of way, similar to what WET did with B-movie action films. There’s even one segment where you can choose which kind of sassy response Jo gives an enemy, but this doesn’t crop up again, so it feels out of place. If this went full in with the parody action, and let you choose dialogue through the game, it could be hilarious and entertaining. The music is also wonderfully cheesy, with some brilliantly funky beats that fit the visual style quite well. A lot of the setups - such as a virtual deathmatch with a cheating opponent called Mei Hem - would even be perfect with the parody style, along with a boss fight towards the end of the game with a couple of cowboys that come out of nowhere. It’s never explained who they are and are never mentioned again. And if the gameplay went alongside this, such as the previously mentioned WET or the more recent Bulletstorm, then I think it would be thoroughly entertaining. Unfortunately, the gameplay feels slow and sluggish. Even at 100% sensitivity, aiming feels like its on a very low setting. Stealth is also quite paramount, as enemies will hound you relentlessly if you’re spotted. They’re very good shots from a distance and it’s very difficult to tell where a shot is coming from. Your best hope is to try and funnel the dumb AI into a choke point and take them out as they come trough. Level design also doesn’t match the style. Everything just comes across as a bit tame, with no memorable locations. Levels also don’t flow very well, so you’ll spend the whole game just wondering if you’re heading the right way until the game takes pity on you and displays arrows on the floor. Within each level, a lot of the areas look the same, making it easy to get lost. Weapons also feel fairly weak, as enemies take a lot to go down (especially with armour that explodes off the wearer in an over the top manner). You also now have limited slots, so you’ll mainly stick with a pistol and assault rifle. There are some cool weapons in the game, but you’ll likely never use them in the campaign because you lose a vital slot for one of your main guns. The original Perfect Dark created a wonderful weapon wheel to manage all the weapons, so going to a two weapon layout feels restrictive, and you miss out on some really fun weapons. DataDyne and the Carrington Institute also feel very different. DataDyne is run by insane over the top villains (while Cassandra was greedy but not totally insane), while Carrington Institute feels more like a mercenary gang or unprofessionals and less like a spy agency, with agents treating Jo as a sex object and not an equal, with Johnathan constantly making a pass as Jo and someone you rescue saying a dumb line like “if I knew rescue looked like this, I’d have gotten in danger sooner”. Give them new names and you wouldn’t notice any similarities between them and the versions from the original game. The same also holds true for Joanna Dark. Take the same plot, story, music, rename some things and give it the over the top action gameplay such a story deserves and you could have something immensely fun and entertaining. Instead, the style of Perfect Dark Zero and its gameplay are at odds with each other, making both seem worse than they actually are. Neither part is terrible, it’s just that they don’t fit together. 2
Dufniall Posted July 28, 2021 Posted July 28, 2021 I haven't been very consequent lately, so time to pick up this thread! I played quite some games on and off, but haven't finished many. Still, got some stuff to talk about. First: Rocksmith+ beta (PC) After the Ubisoft E3 show, I asked for access to the Rocksmith+ beta program, and a couple of weeks I got an email that I could try it out. So installed it and gave it a try. Very short introduction, the Rocksmith series is a rhythm game where you use a real guitar or bass guitar. It's more of an education tool than a game, although the previous title (Rocksmith 2014) had more game elements than the new Rocksmith+. Being a beta the song list was not that extensive, but I'm guessing that will be fixed in the long run. It looks a lot less like a game than Rocksmith 2014, with more focus on tutorials, and less on fluff like arcade games (which is bad cause I liked the fluff). Overall presentation is pretty good though and looks modern. There are some good new functions like a guitar tab view, the ability to not only use the Ubisoft cable, but use an app or your own audio interface as well. A bunch of niggles were encountered, like my cable freaking out on occasion while tuning, and an empty menu where I could only get out by hard quitting. There was a support/feedback forum but that was only people shouting complaints, and none of the devs responding so pretty useless. The big difference with Rockstar 2014 is the payment model. Where the first one was a one time purchase plus DLC songs, Rocksmith+ will have a monthly/yearly subscription fee. I can see why they are going for a subscription service. First of all, no hassle with buying separate songs. Also it will probably mean they have more budget for educational videos and the likes. But I think the most obvious reason was that via an exploit, it was pretty easy to add all DLC to Rocksmith 2014 for "free", so I'm guessing they missed a lot of DLC purchases that way. The suggested prices are pretty steep (I think I saw something like €14,99 a month), for what is in it now I don't think it will justify the price and I'll stick to Rocksmith 2014. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered (Nintendo Switch) So here I am, doing everything I can, Holding on to what I am, Pretending I'm a superman! What a game this is! I've always loved the Tony series, and this remaster is hitting all the right notes. It feels like I'm playing the old games so job well done on the physics, and they put in a couple of skills from the later games (like wall plants and spine transfers) to give you a bit more options to extend your combos. From the intro movie to returning to classic levels such as School II and Venice, accompanied with a great soundtrack, it all just feels right. The Switch version runs pretty adequate at 30FPS and looks good enough. I'm glad I waited for this and not went for the PC version as it's a great game to pick up and play a couple of runs in handheld. New are the different challenges, an extensive build-a-park mode and new skaters of course, as well as more custom options for your custom skater. But the biggest fun is still going through all the levels with the different skaters. It baffles me how true they stayed to the old games with the objectives etc, I'm curious how newer players will experience it as it feels pretty old-school. Can also imagine it being pretty hard for newcomers, but my muscle memory did serve me well. Roll on THPS3+4 Remastered please! Castlevania: Bloodlines (Castlevania Collection, Nintendo Switch) Another title done from the Castlevania Collection, this time it's Bloodlines. While @Jonnas started out as John with the whip (as can be read a few pages back), I felt more like playing as Eric and use the spear for a change of pace. It is definitely one of the better 2D Castlevanias that I've played, although it still has the classic niggles (such as knockback after being hit, often resulting in me falling in a pit). Needless to say I used the save state option aplenty... Level design is good, quite varied as you visit multiple locations in Europe. One thing that I noted though was the sheer lack of recovery items. Either I didn't find any (bar during the final boss fight) or they are just not there. I'm guessing it's probably the first. Playing as Eric feels good, he has quite a range with the spear and a funky pole-vaulting high jump. Some quirky bosses and enemies keep it interesting. Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - Donkey Kong Adventure DLC (Nintendo Switch) After the announcement of Mario+Rabbids 2 during E3, I knew this was the time to finally play the Donkey Kong DLC. The playable cast here is Rabbid Peach, Rabbid Cranky and Donkey Kong, so your team is the same during the whole adventure. Donkey Kong is a beast, great range and a very cool moveset as he can pick up and throw enemies/friends, lure foes in with his bongos and groundpound them, and has a multi-hitting boomerang. Cranky is a bit more straightforward with a shotgun and a grenade, and Rabbid Peach plays the same as in the main game. The battles are great, with a couple of fun twists that are not in the main game. The game still looks gorgeous as ever and the humour and cutscenes are there as well. The only minus would be the abundance of block sliding puzzles, not my favourite and they are found aplenty. Mostly to find collectibles though, so you can bypass most if you don't like them. All in all it's a great bit of DLC, I think it's even on discount now (and is pretty often) so if you liked the main game don't sit on this, as it's an amazing continuation of the game and well worth the +/- €10 it is while on sale. League Of Legends: Wild Rift (mobile) So, time to shatter all my accumulated scene points in one go. But I have been playing League Of Legends: Wild Rift quite a bit on my phone. It is the mobile adaptation of the PC version of LoL, and as such has had some changes to the main game. Items work a bit different, matches are a dash shorter (about 15 minutes on average while on PC it's more towards 20-25) and obviously touch controls. But I can't believe how well it plays. It doesn't feel like a compromise at all. The touch controls have been implemented pretty intuitive, and the game runs smooth and looks good on the mobile screen. It does help if you know how the game works, but I think for newcomers this is a lot more friendly to step into than the PC game due to the easier use of items, and the lack of runes et cetera you need to pay attention to in the PC game. It does have the obvious niggles that every online game has (people AFK or not playing cooperative), but luckily typing on mobile is more difficult than on keyboard so there is a lot less flaming and harassment than on PC. All in all a fun game to play in a lost 15 minutes or during a boring meeting. Resident Evil 6 - Jake and Sherry's campaign (PC) Finally I finished Resident Evil 6 a while ago. I've talked a couple of times about it already so I won't go into it again. Time for Resi 7! 3
Recommended Posts