My brother's favorite fighting game when he was back in college, which I happened to find at the local resale store for real cheap a few months back. It's good fun, but I'm pretty bad at it. I'm not the biggest Naruto fan, but I did watch a decent portion of the original series back then the English dub was on TV, so I'm reasonably familiar with the story in the mission mode. It's fun, but I'm not very good at it Xp
It's an Eighting game, so like Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, it's a matter of simple to learn, hard to master. A normal attack button and a special attack button along with joystick combonations make up your normal attack ripitioure. After that, you've got a big mess of combos, dashing clockwise and counter-clockwise, a chakra bar for directional counters and supers, as well as counters to really spice things up and make you feel like you're trash at fighting games (which I am ). The game loads CRAZY fast for a disk game though. Like, you'd almost think it was on a cartridge with how quick it loads. The framerate dips during some of the super move animations, but other than that, it runs great and looks really smooth as well. The presentation is top notch. The voice acting is all great (if it isn't from the show directly, it's definitely the same voice actors), and characters will even have unique enterance dialogue depending on whom they're fighting. Music is varried and fun, lots of very colorful stages which are locations from the show. Tons of characters, but they take FOREVER to unlock. That is the worst thing I can say about the game: It would literally take you days of grinding money to unlock all the characters (something which I did not do. I just beat the arcade and mission modes). Verdict: Recommended. If you like Gamecube 4-player fighters, this one is great fun with some great depth. It starts with 10 of 25 characters unlocked, and it's not an insurmountable feat to unlock a few more (unless you're dead set on Orochimaru or Itashi, in which case you're gonna be there for a long while). It's pretty cheap as well, so it won't break the bank!
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Another Metroid-like down, and another one fairly enjoyed. It's better than okay, but it's not amazing or anything. It ain't no Axiom Verge, I'll tell ya that much! . I played through on normal mode, and it took me about 8 hours to 98% the collectibles with all achievements (which are very easy to get).
You move in a 360 degree submarine, a bit like capsized. You slowly go around the map, getting moneys for upgrades, health and missile-mana upgrades, and new powers. The narrative is simple but sweet, but nothing special. The graphics are all 2.5D and quite pretty, but there are some very noticeable framerate dips in some areas which are very annoying. The fact that you're just floating around and not actually platforming takes a lot of the nuance and skill away from the combat that something like a name-brand Metroidvania or Axiom Verge has. It's ultimately one of the game's biggest downsides, in my opinion. Verdict: Recommended... but. It's not the best Metroidvania out there atm. If you haven't played Axiom Verge, then there's really no reason to go for this first (unless you don't want to spoil yourself first ;P). It's good, but not great. Once again, the strongest emotion evoked by playing games from my childhood is not nostalgia, but a sense of amazement at how I ever beat them without reading ANYTHING EVER. ALL of the dialogue is always so unfamiliar, I can distinctly remember even skipping over it all the time, too. Props to babby me for having the patience to just brute force his way through games X3
This is the first time I've played this game in quiiite a few years, and this time I was, at the outset, going for 100%. I quickly realized I didn't have the patience to do that, though, and just went for "as much as I can stand" I ended up around 16.5 hours and 185 golden bananas, and all but one fairy, crown, and medal (and an assortment of a little over 100 bananas). I have no idea how the average time on HLTB is over 30 hours. That's a bit insane to be given that you only need 100 bananas to beat the game. Maybe it's people just having a hard time finding things like the Rare or N64 coins? This is definitely the 2nd worst of the Rare platformers (with Conker of course taking the bottom spot, Banjo 2-E at first and Banjo 1-E at 2nd). The design philosophy around switching kongs REALLY extenuates the "theme park" approach to level design, and makes the levels feel much less alive and more planned out than something like Banjo, especially 2-E. This game definitely has some mechanical problems as well. Compared to something like Banjo or Mario 64, the kongs do control a little slippery (a complaint I have heard about the game before, but only now have really come to realize). It's not game breaking by any extent, but it can be aggravating and off-putting at first with how much momentum the kongs seem to carry. It definitely takes a little getting used to. A LOT of the bonus games too are fuckin' shit and I hate 'em. Some, some are just annoying, like the ones that rely on reaction time to shoot the banana when the lights go on and off, but the beaver-herding one especially just does not fucking work. The beavers always run into the side of the hole, as if it weren't a hole but a wall, and given that there are not one but TWO instance of the hardest version of that game, I just said fuck it after a half an hour of trying. The framerate is really inconsistent as well. They were clearly really pushing the hardware in terms of how many objects could be on screen at once, because some areas in particular (World 7 boss, llama temple, a couple others) just had the framerate dipping aaaall the time. Again, it wasn't anything game breaking, but it was still very noticeable. The game still has such good style though. It's not quite as funny as Banjo 2-E or as memorable as Conker's, but it's still good. The music fantastic of course, and the kongs really all feel like they have their own personalities, even though they never talk. Their idle animations especially would always make me chuckle X3 Verdict: Recommended. If you like collectathon 3D platformers, you'll probably enjoy DK64. It's not the best on the system by any means, but it's still a good game. Kong switching isn't the most fluid or well implemented thing in the world, but DK64 certainly flows and feels better than a really tedious cluster-fuck like Earthworm Jim 3D. The 18+ rated, Japan-only fighting game that I HAD to at least try, basically gave me what I expected and then some. There's certainly nothing pornographic, but there's definitely Ecchi up to 100 here. For the record, I'm very bad at SFII-style fighting games.
It' a fighting game with 12 characters, all of whom are varying costumes of scantily anime girls. From a sailor-uniform school girl, to an airline stewardess, to the one I chose which was a go-go dancer in body-tight clothing and really revealing cleavage. I didn't exactly muck around with EVERY character (I only ever played two or three), but once I found one whose special moves I could reliably pull off AND who had a very silly outfit, I stuck with her and pressed on. Her walk cycle backwards is absolutely ridiculous: her boobs spin in counterclockwise directions over a cycle of like 4 frames and it was always so funny. If I had the capacity to record and gif it, I totally would, as it must be seen to be believed. As could be expected from a game with this kind of art direction, the presentation is actually quite nice. The characters are all very different looking, there are like 16 different stages with their own musical tracks (some of which I thought were quite good), and there are a good few voice samples for each character as well. Each character even has a different voice actress. The characters are fairly SFII-ish, with holding backwards blocking, and then 3 levels of kick and 3 levels of punch. I don't think the shoulder buttons do anything, at least nothing I could discern. Juli, the character I picked, has a quarter-circle forward punch and a half-circle forward punch, one of which is a big ol' fireball and the other is a spinning-arms forward lunge, both of which are very good. I could never find out which was which, as they seemed to go off whenever they felt like it no matter what kind of circle-forwards I did, but they were enough to bullshit me to victory. Final boss was CRAZY OP, with a chip-damage fireball that took off like a third to a quarter of my health per shot. Just kinda had to hope her AI was dumb enough to not dodge my fireballs properly and eventually won Xp Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Not really comfortable recommending games in a genre I'm so unfamiliar with, but it was silly nonsense that entertained me and gave me some good laughs for an hour, which is exactly what I wanted. Definitely something I think Exhuminator or Elkin could get a good laugh out of as well if they wanted to emulate it or something. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that it made me laugh enough that I'm considering purchasing this game to show to other friends to laugh at as well Another Japan-only fighting game, this time centered around Ultraman. It even needs one of those expanded memory cartridges to work properly. Again, fairly good presentation, but lacking in substance.
Honestly, I could barely even figure out how to play through this. I think there are three attack buttons: A kick, a punch, and a special button. The special button would sometimes would do special moves when combined with some kind of d-pad combo, but I could never get anything to work remotely reliably. You also NEED to kill your opponent in story mode. Just running down the clock and having higher HP isn't enough. I did the whole game forward-dashing and jump-kicking, so that's a decent enough way to beat it on easy mode In the story mode you can pick from 5 different generations of Ultraman to play as, and there are 10 or so monsters from the series to fight. Their 2D-digitized models actually look fairly nice, and actually like a guy in a suit (for better or worse). I personally would've preferred stylized animation, but this was near the age of Mortal Kombat, so digitized graphics were still popular, I guess. I never tried out the versus mode on this one, but I would assume you can play as the monsters in that bit (it would be fairly insane if you couldn't O.o). You fight in 3D battlefields with 2D buildings everywhere you destroy as you knock each other into them, which is a pretty cool effect. Some of them are very cool though. My favorite was Ace Killer's stage, where there're a bunch of crucified (yes, really) Ultramen in the background. The one where you can destroy Tokyo Tower one was pretty neat too though. The musical selection is very poor though. Only two songs ever play during story mode, one during the first 9 fights, no matter the stage, and one for the final fight against Zetton. Verdict: Not Recommended. Unless you're a BIG Ultraman fan, there's really no reason to play this. If you can get it for a buck or two, it's a neat enough toy to muck around with, but as a fighting game it's much more style than actual substance. It took a little while to grow on me, but I ended up rather enjoying this game. It kinda doesn't know if it wants to be a kinda silly Sci-fi FPS or a horror-ish game, but that doesn't stop it from being a fun romp. I'll mention here that the game took me like 8 or 9 hours and I got every achievement on my first runthrough, sans the one for beating it on hard (or the multiplayer ones, which I assume are impossible to get now).
It starts out slow because it takes like an hour or two to get your super powers. That whole time, more or less, you're also stuck with a really annoying NPC who won't shut up his face. But after that bit, you get more fun guns and your super powers and the game gets a lot more enjoyable. There are a couple other little annoying things about the presentation which aren't game breaking, but are very noticeable. On the 360 when you load in a new map (like when you start a new game), textures take a very noticeably long time to load in. This game came out 3 years after Bioshock (which it clearly took at least a little inspiration from), but it doesn't have audio logs you can pick up and listen to while you walk: You need to stand still on top of them to listen to them, not that they're ever necessary or that interesting as any in Bioshock though. NPC's also don't look at you while they tell you scripted events. You're uncommonly locked in place during cutscenes, so you can Gordan Freeman your way around a room while the NPC just stares at the air where you're supposed to be and talks to no one. Nothing game breaking or damaging, just little weird or ugly things that harm the overall presentation. You need to look around maps for money (or at least what is effectively money) and med-packs and upgrade blueprints and the like, and while they're never hidden really cruelly or outlandishly, they can be quite out of sight sometimes. This is only a problem because the NPC's love shouting at you to hurry up when you can actually take as long as you damn well please in all but two parts of the game, and even then the checkpoints are fairly generous. There are even a couple easter eggs which there are achievements for finding spiced throughout the game which of course I HAD to find. One is very clearly a Metroid reference (Mother, my Brain Hurts!), and the other one I had to look up, but it's apparently a LOST reference (some kinda big wheel thingy). There's even a Borat reference in a note, which there's no achievement for finding (Great Success!). The gunplay of course is very fun. It's very much like FEAR in that you can absolutely blow enemies apart with your guns. On normal mode, especially once you max out the damage on a gun (which ain't hard), human enemies literally fall to pieces in front of you. Or you can use your power-glove thingy to turn them to dust or morph them into monsters which attack their friends (or you, if they run out of friends). The pistol is absolute wank, but every other gun is great fun to use. Verdict: Recommended. If you're looking for a fun, sci-fi shooter to pick up and romp through, this is a great choice! It ain't hard to find, and it's $5 or less, so it won't break the bank. It's not the best game ever made, but it didn't have to be to be fun. Got through this in more like 6 or 7 hours, which is more along the lines of Howlongtobeat. It was promised to be better than Part 1, and it certainly was!
This DLC focuses highly on stealth, for the most part. You can now do stealth takedowns, you can take down enemies non-lethally, and you even get a plasmid that's akin to Dark Vision from Dishonored that lets you see some loot and enemies through walls, and even lets you cloak (given this came out some year and a half after Dishonored, the influence is obvious). Your new weapon is crossbow, but it's fairly stealth focused. This ain't the crossbow from Bioshock 1, as it uses tranq-darts, KO-gas explosion darts, and noisemaking darts. All of this is introduced to you very quickly, so there's no beating around the bush with the new, fun toys. The level design is pretty big, and it took me a while to explore it all, despite how small it actually is. I thought I explored way more than I needed to, but clearly not nearly enough as I missed five audio logs (compared to one a piece in the main game and BaS Part 1)! The Big Daddy wandering around is also a constant threat as well, as he's impossible to take down. Given how this is so stealth focused compared to the main game and the first 2 DLC's, which are far more action-games, this reminded me a lot of the Dead Money DLC for Fallout New Vegas (as a reference). At the very least the stealth emphasis makes plasmid/vigor traps worth a hell of a lot more than how worthless they were in the main game. The story is head-and-shoulders above Part 1's. It felt far more relevant to the greater story that a crossover game between the two universes tried to tell, and it even goes to explain one of the more iconic scenes you come across in Bioshock 1. The twist is pretty easy to see coming, but I thought it was clever, and my journey didn't feel like a total waste of time like Part 1's did. Verdict: Recommended. If the main game didn't quite do it for you, this is a very good add on to add a bit more closure to that experience. Unless you're really dying to know what leads up to it first-hand (they relate it to you well enough) in Part 1, I'd say that's totally worth skipping for this. This is as close to a Minerva's Den experience as Infinite gets, though I wouldn't say it's quite that good. Howlongtobeat put this at about two hours, and it took me 4 while I really looked hard for stuff, as a reference. I was pretty excited to get to this, as a return to the Rapture I love so much, but they've really Bioshock Infinite'd it up so much that I didn't really care for it. If anything, it just made me wanna replay Bioshock 1 and 2 even more than normal Bioshock Infinite did Xp
The gameplay is really nothing special. It's just more Bioshock Infinite for the most part. It even has sky-rails in it (but to be fair, it does make sense in the narrative in the game for things to be different, like Plasmids being drinkable now just like Vigors were). I thought the story was pretty awful though. Really unsatisfying and mostly just all in the ending. Minerva's Den this most certainly is not. Verdict: Not Bad. Most of the value here is more fairly good first person FPS like Infinite was and the novelty of seeing a pre-fall Rapture (which I didn't find significantly interesting, tbh). The story is really forgettable and feels really rushed and slap-dash. A desperate attempt to link the two games universes in some way that really just should've ended more ambiguously and left it up to the audience to decide an ultimate motive for certain characters, rather than ham-fisting it like they did into some kind of bow. I tried this game back like FIVE years ago, and have been meaning to go through the rest of it for a while now. I'm a fan of the first two games, so I thought it'd be right up my alley. Although Bioshock 2 is still my favorite, I'd say I like this one on par with the first one, as I found very similar problems with them both.
This is a first-person shooter, so a big qualifier for how much I like it is how satisfying the gunplay is. The reason I like 2 the best is because the guns are really meaty and fun AND the plasmids are still great fun. The reason I don't like 1 so much is because the guns are all shitty little pea-shooters and it's a lot easier just to melee everyone in combination with fun plasmids (bees, fire, etc). The reason I like this one only about as much as 1 is because it has a similar problem: The guns are fairly meaty and effective (although feel pretty wank in the late game), but the plasmids (or should I say "vigors") are really boring and 9 fights out of 10 I forgot I even had them. That was my biggest complaint years ago, and it still is. The game will even pop up notifications at you, "Don't forget to use your Vigors!" and I just couldn't help but chuckle because I really plainly didn't need them more often than not. I usually only used them for the novelty of it. This goes into my complaint that the game is far too easy on the default difficulty. I realized this too far into the game though, and you can only pick the difficulty at the start. I'm usually pretty bad at console shooters, so I picked normal instead of hard, but even for me the game was REALLY forgiving. Even the very final battle I did terribly on, and still managed somehow to do it in only one try. The guns were meaty enough to be fun though, so that wasn't so bad. Speaking of mechanics, I don't really care for the gear system too much. I really liked how Bioshock 2 did their sub/passive plasmids, and I don't really know why they went back to one a bit like Bioshock 1's. They made it ever worse, in my opinion, because they made it like the bone-charms in Dishonored. Where you find gear is pre-determined and specific, but which piece of gear this actually is random. This being the case, you can either have a very well paced progression of gear from beginning to end, or more likely you'll have what I got which is finding some really great ones early on, and then almost all new gear I found for the rest of the game was totally worthless and disappointing :/ I liked the story okay. I thought the two main characters had a very well portrayed relationship for a video game. I already knew one of the twists at the end, but not the other. However much that contributed to my ability to successfully guess the last twist like halfway through the game, I can only guess. It was an interesting portrayal between a father and their child though, an interesting twist on how Bioshock 1 did it. It brings up some other interesting themes, such as how the freedom fighters can end up being just as monstrous as they tyrants they're overthrowing, but I ultimately didn't like the setting or the story themes as much as I like 1 and 2's Rapture. Verdict: Recommended. It's not the best shooter in the world, but it's a pretty darn good one, and not one you'll feel like you're wasting your time with. Lots of goodies to hunt for, dudes to kill, and mysteries to encounter. It's not Wolfenstein New Order or Doom 4, but it's still a fun game. So, funny story, I picked up this game (apparently) thinking it was Freedom Fighters (thanks, Sarge!). Regardless of the fact that I misremembered a game from a video I watched YEARS ago, I ended up having a great time anyway!
The story, as with every Dead to Rights game apparently, revolves around a cop named Jack and his hella-jacked dog Shadow going around doing very 80's movie-esque crazy shit in order to bring a stop to the corruption and gang violence which plagues Grant City (which is MOST certainly not New York ). It's all played very seriously, but it came off as very hammy and silly to me most of the time. I don't know if Jack's voice actor is trying to overact or ham it up, but it certainly comes off that way, especially with some of his one-liners X3 . The really over the top, one-man-army combat really helps extenuate that parodist, hammy feel. According to the promo/extra material inside the game, they really wanted a "seamless" combat system that could shift between melee and ranged combat very quickly and fluidly, and I think they did a pretty good job. Jack is a well practiced boxer, but more like a crazy freaking martial artist. His ability to do crazy combos to not just one but many opponents is nearly God Hand-esque at points, especially with his finishing moves. They don't restore health or anything like in Splatterhouse (another Namco released, last-gen Action game from around the same time), but they do kill enemies a little quicker as well as give a somewhat horrifically brutal display of just how pissed off/inhumanly strong Jack is. The stunts he does are just so ridiculous that they just couldn't make me laugh sometimes with how horrific they are Combine the elaborate melee combos you can do with just a light and heavy attack, quick blocking, evasion, and counters with the X-button, how you can also grapple opponents to use them as human shields, as well as swap between two different guns AND direct Shadow at people to maul/distract in the meanwhile, and things can get pretty crazy. The controls are laid out really well for it though. I never felt hopelessly overwhelmed with mechanics or anything. I actually forgot grappling was in the game for like 3/4ths of it, tbh Xp . Very satisfying third-person combat. B+ (because the camera is a bit too claustrophobic to be a perfect A). Another bit that they throw in here and there are the just-Shadow sections, which I have sorta mixed feelings about. These are sections where stealth is not necessarily required but very recommended. You're just a big freaking dog, so while you have very efficient melee you can't use guns, so taking down enemies stealthily (and you can see/smell/hear through walls so it ain't hard to track movements) will certainly make the combat easier, but if you wanna just run in and go ham there's nothing stopping you. I liked them, and thought they broke up Jack's action quite nicely. Verdict: Recommended. I suppose those of you who've played many more shooters than I have might consider it some generic cover shooter with fancy melee, but I very much enjoyed my time with it. Definitely worth a look for the very cheap price it goes for |
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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