Video Game Review #334: Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems

Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

This section of the review is going to be short and sweet, as I never played this game growing up. In fact, I didn’t even know it existed until just a few days ago. I was scrolling through the Super Nintendo library on my Retro Pie when the title of this game caught my attention. I quickly looked it up on YouTube and watched a SNESdrunk review of it. I thought it looked like it could be a fun way to pass some time, so I fired it up, played it, and beat it. And now here I am writing this review.

 

Story:

This game loosely follows the events of the Infinity War comic series from the 1990s, NOT the Infinity War MCU films. In the game, the Infinity Stones have fallen to the surface of the Earth. Adam Warlock appears to warn the planet’s greatest super heroes about the strength of these stones, and how they possess the power to destroy the universe if they fall into the wrong hands. Thus begins your quest to investigate all of the possible sites where the stones may have crash landed. You have to fight through these locations, defeating waves of enemies and several of the toughest super villains in the Marvel Universe (including Thanos at the end of the game). Once you’ve made it through all the stages and have collected all the Infinity Stones, the game is over.

Gameplay:

The game begins by giving you the choice of which stage you’d like to play through first. When you make your selection, you can then pick which character you’d like to use to complete the stage. There are five different characters to pick from: Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man, and the Hulk. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Hulk is the strongest character, but he is also very slow. Spider-Man can climb walls and scoot along across the ceiling. Wolverine can use his claws to climb walls. That kind of thing. Your character has one health bar to work with, and that health bar carries over from one stage to the next. So if you beat the first stage with the Hulk, but use up almost all of your health – and then you pick the Hulk as your character for the second stage, you’ll start out with a nearly empty health meter. So you have to play strategically. Eventually, however, you are given the ability to heal before starting each stage, so that makes things a little easier for you if you have a favorite character you like to use all the time.

Basic gameplay consists of jumping on platforms, walking to the right, and punching your enemies to death. This game is ALMOST like a beat ‘em up, but it does not take place on a 3D plane and there are platforming elements aplenty to be found. I’ve heard it compared to X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (also for the SNES), but I have not played that game so I cannot verify or shoot down this claim. This whole thing is just very, very basic. So basic, in fact, that I feel like I’m not going to be writing for very long. You walk to the right until the screen stops scrolling. You fight the enemies that come out. Once they’re all gone, you can continue moving to the right. Sometimes you have to knock down walls that appear, blocking your path. Other times you have to hurry along because the path has filled up with water and you are starting to run out of breath. Sometimes there are platforms you have to ascend or jump across. When it comes to gameplay variety, don’t get your hopes too high with this game. You walk, you punch enemies, and you keep walking until you fight a boss.

One thing that’s pretty cool is that this game implements “fighting game”-esque controls into the mix. Sure, you can just spam the attack button to punch your enemies into oblivion, but if you play around with different button combinations (like down, right, attack), you’ll discover different moves you can unleash. These attacks will come in great handy to you as you play, and I’d say are essential to your ability to master this game.

What didn’t I like about this game? Well, if you die with a character you are sent back to the beginning of the level and have to do the WHOLE THING over again with a different character. There are no checkpoints in this game, apparently. Luckily stages are pretty short. Another gripe I have is that before each stage you’re given the ability to modify or upgrade your characters, and I could never figure out how to make this work. Every time I would click on something, the game would just beep at me like I did something wrong. The only thing that ever worked was the ability to heal my character before each stage. Even that seemed to have a certain number of times you could do it attached to it. Luckily I never ran of healing items because I have no idea what would have happened all of my characters had died. Do you have to start the whole game over? I am betting you do.

Also, I got the impression that you are allowed to do “special attacks” due to the gem icons you see on the screen from time to time. Could I ever figure out how to do them, though? No. No I couldn’t. I just played through the game using your standard jumps and melee attacks. Luckily if there are special gem attacks they aren’t essential to you being able to beat the game, because I still did okay without them.

 

Graphics:

This game looks really good, character wise. The 2D sprite based artwork looks phenomenal. All your favorite Marvel heroes and villains are faithfully created and animated for this game. Just look at these screenshots. The characters look great, right?

If I had to bicker it would be about the game’s stage design. The stages themselves are, for the most part, pretty boring and uninspired looking. I enjoyed the variety in the different types of stages you’d fight through, but none of them got me too excited visually.

 

Sound:

Overall things sounds pretty good here. All the punch and kick noises are what you’d expect to hear from a game like this. Stage music is fine. It’s fast paced and gets you pumped to beat up some bad guys. Kind of reminds me more of something I’d hear in a Sega Genesis game, rather than a Super Nintendo game to be honest with you. On the whole, however, I’d say this game’s sound is very forgettable. I liked it in the moment, but in the long run absolutely nothing about it stood out to me at all.

Overall:

This game was kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. I could tell as I was playing through this game that it was nothing special, but I still had a fun time. The theme goes a long way, I think. If this wasn’t a Marvel game, I’d probably be saying it was mediocre and telling you to avoid playing it. But it IS a Marvel game. And it’s Marvel-ness really saves it, in my humble opinion. There’s just something incredibly satisfying about playing as Captain America and smashing hordes of enemies with your shield. Or going to town on them with your adamantium claws as Wolverine. Or smashing them with your giant Hulk sized fists. You know what I’m saying. The fun character sprites, the Infinity Stone based storyline, and the combat system all made this an overall enjoyable experience for me.

Has this game become one of my all time favorites? Am I going to return to it every few years or so to play through it again? Probably not. In fact, I may not ever play this game again, period. But I’ll be darned if I didn’t have a good time with it on my recent playthrough. This is a fun game. Anyone interested in Marvel definitely needs to check it out. If you’re not a Marvel fan, don’t go out of your way to play this. You have better things to do with your time, and if you aren’t invested in the story, the theme, or the characters like I was, you’ll probably find that this is a somewhat mediocre game.

But I liked it.

 

Final Score:

C+

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

X-Men

X-Men 2: Clone Wars

Lego Marvel's Avengers

Double Dragon

Batman Forever

Video Game Review #333: Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

PC

Nostalgia Factor:

Growing up I was mainly a console gamer, but our family did have a personal computer that we kept in our dad’s bedroom. Seeing as how this computer was so inconveniently placed (my dad locked his bedroom when he wasn’t home), us kids didn’t get to play it as often as we would have liked. We only had a handful of PC games… in fact I think I could name them all off the top of my head. There was The Lawnmower Man, Wolfenstein 3D, Corridor 7, Spear of Destiny, Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: Tie Fighter, and a Jurassic Park game that came pre-installed on the PC itself. Oh, and this game: Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos.

At first I didn’t give this game much thought. My brother and my step brothers, who were big into fantasy role playing stuff like Dungeons and Dragons, were this game’s target audience. I’d watch them play it from time to time, but it just didn’t interest me at all. Eventually everyone stopped playing this game due to its steep difficulty level. I don’t know what changed with my thought process, but suddenly the game began to interest me. Perhaps it was because everyone else had given up on this game and I wanted to swoop in and one-up them. Whatever the reason, as soon as I started playing this game I immediately fell in love with it and became hooked. I played it as much as I possibly could, getting past the part where everyone else had gotten stuck (The Urbish Mines). My brother and my stepbrothers became so interested in seeing what happened next, that they’d gather around the computer and watch me play.

Unfortunately, I’d end up getting stuck as well. The White Tower. The third floor. Between dying all the time and this area’s complex puzzles, I just simply could not figure out what to do next. I obsessed over this Tower, spending hours and hours combing through everything there was to comb through. Could I figure out what to do? No. Remember, we didn’t have the internet back then to look up the solution when we’d get stuck. It got so frustrating I even considered calling one of those 1-800 gaming tip hotlines to figure out what to do next. But that didn’t happen. Eventually I gave up on Lands of Lore, and for over 20 years I’d be haunted by my failure to complete this game.

Up until the last year or so, I had always been opposed to emulating… except when it came to Lands of Lore. Every few years from basically 2006 to today, this game would pop into my head and I’d try to find a place where I could download it online. Every single time I failed, and I would give up out of frustration. Then a few years would pass and I’d try to see if I could find it again. I’d fail, get frustrated, and try again in a few more years. Finally here, in the year 2022, a whopping 28 years after this game’s initial release, I’d manage to get my hands on a working rom of this game.

Would this game be as good as I remembered? Would I finally be able to complete it? Read on for the full review.

Story:

An evil sorceress named Scotia has unearthed an ancient mask that allows her to change shape and take on the form of animals and other people. King Richard, recognizing Scotia’s threat to his kingdom, sends you (the player) out to recover the Ruby of Truth, an item that is instrumental in counteracting Scotia’s dangerous new magical mask. The Ruby is missing, however, and when you return to tell Richard, you find that Scotia has infiltrated the castle and has cursed the King. You are sent out by Richard’s counsel to consult with the nearby Draracle (a powerful prophet/oracle) to find out how to break the spell. The Draracle gives you a riddle scroll that you have to decipher in order to find the ingredients you need to concoct a potion to cure the King. This is basically your goal for the rest of the game. Scour the kingdom, talk to people, do battle with trolls, orcs, and other dangerous creatures, and gather the ingredients you need to save the King. Once you save the King, it’s time to defeat Scotia and end the game.

Gameplay:

Lands of Lore is considered a “dungeon crawler”, which is not a genre I have a whole lot of experience with, to say the least. How does it stack up against other dungeon crawlers out there? I don’t know. This is the only one I’ve played!

The game starts with you choosing from four different characters to play as. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are geared towards magic, while others may be geared towards physical strength. I almost always choose Conrad, who is the most well-balanced of the characters. Action takes place from the first-person perspective. Everything is handled through clicking on the screen with your mouse. There are directional keys on the bottom left hand corner of the screen that you click on to move your player. Next to the directional keys is an icon with your player’s face, along with health and magic meters. Click on your character’s face to open up the equipment screen, where you can swap out your character’s weapons and armor. Next to your player’s face is a weapon icon and a spell icon. Click on the weapon icon to attack, click on the spell icon to cast a spell. Along the very bottom edge of the screen is your inventory, where you’ll place all the various items you pick up as you play. Last but not least, there is a zzz button that allows you to rest (as long as you are in a safe location). Resting recovers all of your health and magic points. Be careful, because if there are enemies in the area they will wake you up with a physical attack while your defenses are down.

One thing I can’t stress enough is to GET THE MAP as soon as you start playing the game. Somehow I missed it on my last playthrough, and I had to restart the whole game over again when I realized how impossible it would be without a proper map. The map acts as most maps do in video games – everything on the map is blank until you discover it, and it fills in as you go. This game is filled with a countless number of twisting and turning corridors that all look the same, so be prepared to reference this map quite often.

Dungeons in this game are really hard. Not only are they tough to navigate, but the game doesn’t ease you in when it comes to the difficulty level of some of these battles. I don’t know if it was just me doing something wrong, but my characters only connected on their physical attacks about 20 to 30 percent of the time. It became very frustrating watching them miss all the damn time. The dungeons themselves are filled with pits, pressure pads, hidden walls, compartments, and buttons to press. You’re just going to have to trial and error your way through this game’s puzzles, because nothing is given to you on a silver platter. Or just cheat and use the internet like I did. Hey, don’t judge! I put in my time with this game when I was a kid. My main focus this time around was beating the game at all costs. 

My main gripe with this game is that figuring out what to do next is nearly impossible sometimes without guidance. You know how people like to rip on Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest for all the cryptic and obscure things you have to do to beat the game, like standing against the wall and holding down for ten seconds with the red crystal equipped to summon a tornado to take you to the next area, when the game NEVER gives you hints that you are supposed to do this? Lands of Lore does the same kind of thing. In one part of the game you have to hold a green skull over your character’s face and right-click the mouse in order to defeat a challenging beast guarding the entrance to the mines. In another area you have to do that same thing with a black cube in order to break down a magical gate. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wasted hours and hours scouring the game for hints when there were none to be offered.

Overall, however, I enjoyed the sense of freedom and discovery I felt when exploring this strange fantasy world. I just wish the focus of the game was a little bit clearer.

Graphics:

I think the art style of this game still holds up pretty well. Your enemies can look a little bit pixelated at times in battle, but what you see here is nothing worse than what you’d see in a game like Doom or anything else released in that era of gaming. In fact, I’d say Lands of Lore looks even better than Doom. While a lot of the dungeons may look repetitive and “same-y”, where this game excels is in its ability to create a believable fantasy atmosphere. Many areas of this game may not look like much, but I was never not engrossed by this game’s rich fantasy design.

 

Sound:

I just mentioned this game’s atmosphere, and the sound effects and music of Lands of Lore have just as much to do with creating that atmosphere as its graphics. Everywhere you go, the music fits right in with what you are doing. If you are in a cave, the music is dreary and grim. If you’re exploring the overworld, you get a nice little adventurous (but mysterious) tune. The voice acting is great. Patrick Stewart is the game’s most recognizable talent as King Richard. The sound effects are good, too. I have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to this game’s sound.

Overall:

What a blast from the past. I expected that I would still enjoy Lands of Lore, but I can't say I expected to like it as much as I did. From the moment I started playing this, I couldn't put it away until I was done with it. Almost all of my precious free time has gone towards playing this game. Between raising a toddler and working a full time job, that time is hard to come by!

This game delivers a fresh-feeling fantasy world to its players. The music and the graphics add terrific atmosphere to this game. The maps are large and fun to explore (for the most part). The story isn't the greatest out there, but it's enough to keep you moving and always on your toes. This game does have some flaws - like respawning enemies, cryptic hints as to what you are supposed to do next, and dungeons that begin to overstay their welcome (I'm looking at you, Castle Cimmeria!). Solutions to certain puzzles are so vague it almost feels impossible to beat this game without the help of an online guide. 

All of that said, I still couldn't help but love Lands of Lore. I loved it as a kid. It was my introduction to role playing games in general back then. I love it now. It's such a fun game. I would recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in this type of game. Even if you aren't a dungeon crawler fan, like myself, I would be willing to bet you'd be able to enjoy this game. I see and I realize its obvious flaws, but to me the positives of this game far outweigh the negative. And it has nostalgia going for it too.

So yeah - Lands of Lore. Excellent game.

 

Final Score:

A

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

The Legend of Oasis

Shining Force

Snatcher

Congo the Movie: The Lost City of Zinj

Shenmue

Video Game Review #332: Castlevania: Bloodlines

Castlevania: Bloodlines

Sega Genesis

Nostalgia Factor:

Well, here it is. The day has finally come in. I’ve made it through every single game on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection for the PS4. Last game in the collection: Castlevania Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis.

Being a proud Genesis owner as a kid, I have no idea why I never played this game growing up. You’d think it would have been right in my wheelhouse. I was a big Castlevania fan for the NES. I rented virtually every game in Blockbuster’s inventory for the Sega Genesis. But yet I never managed to play Bloodlines. I’m going to guess that by some bizarre coincidence, none of the two Blockbusters (and the Hollywood Video) by my house carried this game. Seems a little strange for a popular title like this, but if I had seen this game on the shelves I know for a fact I would have given it a chance. Oh well.

Now here I am in the year 2022, playing Bloodlines for the first time – 28 years after the game’s initial release date. I’ve enjoyed pretty much every Castlevania game on the Anniversary Collection so far. Would Bloodlines continue that trend? Why yes, yes it would. Read on for the full details.

Story:

This game takes place in more “modern” times than the previous games in the series. It’s 1917, right in the middle of World War I. An evil witch has taken it upon herself to resurrect (you guessed it) Count Dracula, for the ten billionth time. John Morris, a distant relative of the vampire-slaying Belmont clan, along with pal Eric Lecarde set off to stop this woman from completing her quest. Spoiler alert: they fail. But it’s okay. You beat Dracula at the end of the game and all becomes well with the world once again.

So far, after playing through the first eight games in the Castlevania series, I can’t say I’ve really cared about the storyline for any of these games. They simply give players a reason as to why all of this stuff is going on and why you’re fighting through these stages. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s become clear to me now that if you’re looking for deep or impactful video game storylines, you should probably look someplace else.

 

Gameplay:

If you enjoyed Castlevanias I and III for the NES, you’re in for a real treat here. Now before I get too far, let me continue by saying that, despite all the rave reviews I have read, I actually wasn’t that big of a fan of Super Castlevania IV for the SNES. Of all eight games on this collection, I’d probably rank it the fifth or sixth best. So if you are expecting me to compare the gameplay of Bloodlines to Super Castlevania IV’s, (because of the 16-bit connection) you’ve come to the wrong place. Bloodlines is the far superior game, and I’d put it and its gameplay more on the same level as the classic NES titles than anything else. Capiche?

The game begins with a choice of two different characters to select from – John Morris and Eric Lecarde. John is more of a traditional Simon Belmont-like Castlevania character. He’s got the trademark whip, which he can swing in multiple directions. He can also use this whip to grapple across long distances when the need arises. Eric uses a long spear as his main weapon, and offers players a little something different outside the norm of your typical Castlevania protagonist. It took me a while to get used to him at first, as his spear isn’t as versatile and seems a bit stiffer than John’s whip. But it has its advantages. A longer reach – for one. Eric also has a special move that John doesn’t. If you hold down the crouch button on your controller and hit the jump button, he launches himself into the air, allowing you to reach platforms that would have been completely inaccessible if you were playing as John. As a result, this game offers you multiple paths you can take. Can’t swing across this big gap because you don’t have a whip? Use your high jump and discover an alternate route instead.

This is a “traditional” Castlevania game in nearly every sense of the word. You start at the beginning of each stage, fighting your way through to the end of it, where you face off against a boss character. You jump over pits, you climb stairs, you attack candles to get items and special weapons – such as holy water and the throwing axe. You’ve got familiar enemies like flying medusa heads and bone-throwing skeletons. Action is fun, fast paced, and per tradition – quite difficult.

Although this game does offer quite a stiff challenge, it’s not impossible. Trial and error is your friend. You also have a password system so you don’t have to start from the beginning each time you play. If I had to offer any complaints, my main one would be that there are some traditional Castlevania “rules” that seem to have been ignored for this game. Medusa heads behave differently, the flight patterns of birds and bats seems to have changed a bit. It threw me for a loop my first time through this game. I was like: “they’re not supposed to do that!!!”

I got over it and adapted quickly, however.

Graphics:

I just really love the way this game looks. It doesn’t go a dark or serious route like Super Castlevania IV. Although it may not look quite as good as that game, I actually prefer the way that this game doesn’t take itself too seriously and instead focuses more on the fun and ridiculous side of Castlevania. Your characters look great. The story sequences are fun to look at. The worlds feel alive and bursting with energy, colors, and small details.

There is some fun, gimmicky shit to see here too – such as the stage with the mirror-like reflection in the water, a stage where you jump on rotating platforms suspended in mid-air, and a trippy stage where your viewpoint is fragmented into three different perspectives, almost like you are playing the game through the reflection of a cracked mirror. Every single level I always looked forward to seeing the art of the new stages and what fun and unique visual tricks the game was show me next.

Sound:

This game has such a fun soundtrack. Again, it ignores what Super Castlevania IV does and instead emulates the more fun and fast-paced audio style of the NES games. And it does it seamlessly, too. The combination of the music and the graphics: it just works.

I may get hate for this, but I hated Castlevania IV’s soundtrack. I jokingly said in my review for that game that a lot of its stage music sounded like elevator music. Bloodlines does not have that issue… although there is a borrowed tune from Castlevania IV that shows up at the end of this game – and I nearly busted out laughing when I heard it.

 

Overall:

I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect much from Bloodlines coming in. Maybe it was because I had often heard people say that this game wasn’t as good as Super Castlevania IV for the SNES – and I wasn’t a giant fan of that game. So if this game wasn’t as good as that one, chances are I wouldn’t like it.

But those people are completely wrong. This is easiy, EASILY the far superior game. You’ve got multiple characters, each with different skill sets. Graphics and music that capture the spirit of Castlevania in (to me) a far better way. Levels that are more creative and fun. It’s a stiffer challenge. It’s got better bosses. It’s faster paced. It’s just great. I loved every second of this game. My one complaint? It’s too short. 

I’m kind of kicking myself for not playing this as a kid. I’m sure if I did, I would have played the bejesus out of this and it would have easily grown into one of my favorite Genesis games of all time. Now it may miss that opportunity. I have so much other stuff to play and not enough time.

Will I ever come back to play Castlevania Bloodlines in the future? Yeah, I’d like to think I will. Of all the games on this Castlevania Anniversary Collection, I can see myself returning to I, III, and this game the most. I hesitate to call games that I didn’t grow up with “classics”, but this game comes just about as close to that as you can possibly get.

Final Score:

A-

Check out my other reviews from the Castlevania Anniversary Collection:

Castlevania

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Kid Dracula

Castlevania: The Adventure

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge

Super Castlevania IV

Video Game Review #331: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

PSP

Nostalgia Factor:

I’ve known of this game for many years now, but seeing as how I’ve never owned a PSP I never really gave it much of a second thought. Recently, however, I decided to browse through the list of PSP games on my RetroPie, and would you look at that – there was Crisis Core. I never thought I would have an opportunity to play this game, so I immediately fired it up and dove in.

I came into the game relatively blind. All I knew was that it was a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, and it featured SOLDIER First Class Zack. Final Fantasy VII is one of my most revered games of all time, so I came into this a little skeptical that it would be any good. How would I feel about it in the end? Let’s find out!

 

Story:

This game takes place about four or five years before the events of Final Fantasy VII. Midgar is under construction. Shinra is at war with Wutai. Sephiroth is a SOLDIER rock star. But so are Angeal and Genesis, two first class members of SOLDIER that are never mentioned in Final Fantasy VII. You play as Zack as you begin to make your way through the story. Zack is dispatched to Wutai to assist with the fighting. After coming home victorious, Genesis and Angeal defect from Shinra and openly wage war against the corporation. Zack and Sephiroth are sent to track down and kill these two traitors. Thus begins a bit of a convoluted plot thread where you find out Angeal and Genesis are experiments, and are being cloned to create some kind of super soldiers. I had a little bit of a hard time following what was going on, mainly because of the messy Kingdom Hearts-esque dialogue scenes that veered things wildly off track.

During a battle, Zack is thrown from one of Midgar’s pillars and lands… in Aerith’s flower garden. Wow, what a coincidence! Zack meets Aerith and begins to fall for her. There are a series of missions involving Aerith that take place in the Sector 5 slums. Honestly, this part of the game was too much of a mirror of the Cloud/Aerith storyline in the original FFVII and it bothered me a bit. Could we get a little creativity here, please? I mean, I guess it is nice we get to see Aerith again, but aside from a few passing lines don’t you think she would have brought up the similarities between her experience with Zack and her experience with Cloud at least once in Final Fantasy VII? At least we got one of the most pressing questions in Final Fantasy history answered: where did Aerith get her flower cart from? Zack scavenges the parts for it and creates it for her in one of the most memorable and impactful side quests in the game.

Honestly, I wasn’t too big of a fan of the game’s storyline and where it was headed until Zack was dispatched to Nibelehim with Sephiroth and young foot soldier Cloud. This is where the game began to pique my interest. Seeing the events of the Nibelheim disaster and the resulting fallout from Zack’s perspective was super interesting to me. Zack and Cloud’s friendship is kind of touching, actually. When the dust settles and Zack and Cloud escape from the Shinra mansion, we see in great detail many of the insurmountable challenges Zack has to face in an attempt to get him and his close friend to safety. If you played the original Final Fantasy VII, you know how things end for Zack. I didn’t think I’d be that affected by things, but seeing Zack’s character growth and development throughout the game was something that took me by surprise. Zack is a likeable and sympathetic figure, and the ending sequence of the game hit me right in the feels.

 

Gameplay:

This is where my biggest beef with this game lies: the gameplay. It is SO repetitive. Basically, each mission you’re dropped down into a specific location. You can hit, I believe it is the square button, to bring up the map so you can see where you are going. The path you follow to get to your main objective is fairly linear, but you will explore branching paths you can take to get to your destination. As you proceed, you’ll occasionally be pulled into random battles. If you’re a fan of the original Final Fantasy VII or pretty much any 90s era JRPG, random battles are something you should be used to by now. But the battles in this game are SO frequent, and require such little strategy that they quickly become monotonous and mundane. Most battles consist of just hitting the X button rapidly until you’ve killed your enemies. Yay? To make things worse, each battle starts with a loud robotic voice that says “ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE!”. Every single time I’d hear that phrase I’d clench my fist a little bit harder.

During combat, a “slot machine”-type wheel with the characters’ faces on it will randomly appear onscreen. I’m not exactly sure what triggers this to happen, but it happens multiple times a fight. I’m not complaining too much though, because something good always happens as a result of this. You might launch a special Limit Break type attack. Your character might get a temporary stats boost. You might get a temporary bonus where spells don’t cost you any MP. You might get healed by Aerith. You might even level up. Why does this happen? What causes this mysterious slot machine to appear? Even after playing and completing this entire game, I have no freaking idea.

I’ve already mentioned Kingdom Hearts so I guess I will mention it again. The combat system is VERY reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts. Mainly you mash the X button to attack with your sword, but using the L and R trigger buttons you can select magic spells or items to use. I found this game to be relatively easy, but there were a few boss battles where I had to stop and grind a little bit before I could be competitive against them.

Aside from just following the main story, you can access save points to tackle bonus SOLDIER missions. Some of these missions include training missions, mop up battles against the Wutai forces, treasure/materia hunts, destroying enemies that want to bring down Shinra, or other side quests that tie into the main story. There are seemingly hundreds and hundreds of these side quests – and they all consist of nothing but repetitive battle after battle after battle. I completed about 4% of them before getting bored and just focusing on the main story. I suppose someday I could come back and finish all of these off, but I probably won’t. They just don’t add much of anything to the game or its story. It’s like they put them in simply to pad the length of the game (because it is relatively short).

 

Graphics:

For a PSP game, this looks surprisingly good. Initially I didn’t think it would hold up well, especially when played on a big screen through my RetroPie. I guess I’d compare these graphics to an early PS2 game, but with a lot more jagged edges. Characters are well-designed. Zack is animated and brought to life in a way that makes him more than just a black-haired Cloud clone. Environments look really nice. It was awesome to see areas such as Junon, Midgar, and Nibelheim faithfully brought to life in full 3D (we’re just going to ignore the FFVII remake for the time being).

It’s a nice looking game. I’m not going to lie and say it looks perfect. In fact, people that are more critical than me might say that this game’s occasional rough spot filled with pixels and jagged edges might make it look “ugly”. But it has a certain charm for me.

 

Sound:

You’re going to hear many remixed versions of classic Final Fantasy VII tunes as you play this game, and they all sound very good. A big part of what made the original FFVII so iconic was its music, and luckily this game does it justice. The only thing I didn’t like about this game’s music is the fact that loud, obnoxious heavy metal is played during the battle sequences and at times it seems very out of place compared to the tone of the rest of the game. Speaking of the battle sequences, I already complained about “ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE!” earlier in the review, but it is so obnoxious I’m going to do it once again.

The voice acting straight down the line is a mixed bag. Most of the more memorable characters such as Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth all sound very good. The supporting cast… not so much. Everyone seems to talk in this cryptic, disjointed manner of speech – similar to what you’d hear in a Kingdom Hearts game. It’s a little cringe worthy to me, and I missed many important plot points simply because it was so distracting.

Overall:

My opinion kept changing back and forth as I played this game. When I first started it, I loved it. A few hours into it, the game became a chore to play. After Aerith was introduced, I got back into the game again. Then I lost interest. Then I became invested again. Back and forth, back and forth. It wasn’t until the characters came to Nibelheim that I became completely invested in Crisis Core – and by then the game was nearly over.

There’s a lot that is annoying about this game. The camera angles, the frequent random battles, ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE, the button mashing, the endless number of pointless side missions, the repetitive nature of the game, the flower cart assembling, the stilted dialogue that made the game hard for me to follow. But at the same time the game does a lot right. If you’re a fan of the original FFVII, you’re going to love seeing Midgar brought to life in a way that’s faithful to the source material. The music is good, many of the characters are endearing, and the game fills in a lot of backstory and provides you with details about the rise of Shinra and the overall world of Final Fantasy VII that you probably never knew before. Also, Zack is a badass in this game and a lot more charismatic as a lead character than Cloud has ever been. For FFVII junkies, this game is a near must-play.

That said, Crisis Core isn’t fantastic. I like the idea of the game, but I feel as if things could have been executed a lot better than they actually were. To me, this game is right there with Dirge of Cerberus in terms of overall quality. OK, maybe it’s not that low, but you get the idea. I feel as if there was a lot of awesome potential here, but they JUST missed the mark at making this a truly great game. Instead, we get one that’s only slightly above average.

 

Overall:

C+

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

Video Game Review #330: Alien vs Predator

Alien vs Predator

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

Alien vs Predator is a game I’ve been aware of since it was released back in 1994. I would never get the chance to play this game, however, as I never encountered the arcade unit “out in the wild”. 28 years (wow) after its initial release, I was finally able to sit down and play this game on my Retro Pie.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game, and in fact I’ve even heard it referred to as one of the greatest beat ‘em ups of the 90s. Would Alien vs Predator live up to those lofty expectations? Let’s find out!

 

Story:

This game’s story is a doozy. An Alien ship has crash landed in the middle of “San Drad” California. Aliens begin to run amok, killing everything in sight. An elite military team is sent in to destroy the Alien threat, led by Dutch Schaefer and Linn Kurosawa. Apparently this is the same Arnold Schwarzenegger Dutch from the original Predator movie, but this time around his strength has been supplemented by cyborg implants. Dutch and Linn are about to be overwhelmed by the Aliens when a group of Predators appears and saves them from certain death.

The Predators join the human fighters as they attempt to track down the Alien queen and snuff out the Alien threat once and for all. You defeat the queen relatively early in the game. I remember thinking “oh wow, this must be a pretty short game” after emerging from the battle victorious. But no. The game’s story takes a twist as humanity becomes the game’s new enemy. Weyland-Tutani, the villainous corporation from the Alien films, does Weyland-Tutani things by capturing Aliens and performing experiments on them in order to weaponize them. You and your ragtag group take the battle to Weyland-Tutani, and eventually into space. The fighting ends when you defeat the big bad boss man, crashing his ship into San Drad and destroying all remnants of the Alien invasion once and for all.

Overall it’s a pretty ridiculous story, but it works. It’s like a comic book come to life. One thing I don’t quite understand is how the Predators seem to be able to speak perfect English, which is something I’ve never seen in any other movies, games, or comics with Predators in them. They can mimic small human words or phrases, sure. But carry on full conversations? Hmm…

 

Gameplay:

This is definitely one of the most over-the-top beat ‘em ups I have played. You start out with a choice of four characters: your two humans and your two Predators. As you play you will notice you only have three buttons at your disposal: attack, jump, and shoot. At first glance this appears to be your typical TMNT or Final Fight-ish beat ‘em up. You are on a 3D plane. You can move up and down, in addition to left and right. The attack button melee attacks your enemies. The jump button makes your character jump. Jump and hit the attack button to perform a jumping attack. Standard beat ‘em up stuff, right?

What sets Alien vs Predator apart is the ability to use weapons. I’m not talking about picking up knives, guns, or bombs that your enemies drop (although you can certainly still do that in this game). I’m talking about how each of your characters comes equipped with a gun or a projectile weapon of some sort. For the most part, these weapons don’t cause a whole lot of damage. I mainly pulled them out either when I was surrounded or when I was trying to play defense. Although they don’t do a whole lot of damage to your foes, they are good for knocking them to the ground and allowing you to catch your breath for a second. You can’t overuse these weapons, though, as they will overheat and you then have to sit there and wait for them to recharge before you can use them again.

As you progress through the game you’ll collect a number of pick-ups. Some of these items allow you to fire your weapon for ten seconds with no risk of it overheating. Other items include your standard health and points items. There are probably some other items that are escaping my memory, but I am sure you get the drift. If you hit all three buttons at the same time (jump, attack, and shoot), your character unleashes a powerful attack that throws all your enemies back and allows you to regroup for a moment. As normal with this type of game, using this move drains a little bit of your health meter.

There’s not much else I can say about this title’s gameplay that sets it apart from other beat ‘em ups of the time – other than that this game is VERY chaotic. Tons of enemies onscreen. Explosions. Chaos. This is like Final Fight on steroids. The action just never lets up.

Graphics:

Even though this is a 28 year old game, it is still really nice looking. It’s so bright and colorful. It’s like a comic book or a cartoon brought to life. The characters are crisp and jump off the screen. Everything’s well animated. Despite all the chaos onscreen, the game never slows down one tiny bit. I enjoy the artwork in the little story sequences too. The makers of this game definitely have created something to be proud about. 28 years later and this game looks just as good as ever.

Sound:

I can’t say this game sounds as good as it looks. There’s almost no memorable musical tracks to be found here, nothing that stuck in my head after I finished the game. The music fit what was happening onscreen, sure, but I can’t say it was catchy or memorable in any way whatsoever. Same with the sound effects, although I do love how they used the exact sound of the Marine assault rifle from Aliens in this movie. It’s such an iconic sound, and I’m glad it was included here.

Overall:

Don’t get me wrong, this is a really fun game but I’m not so sure I’d put it on my beat ‘em up Mount Rushmore. The TMNT games, Final Fight, X-Men, the Simpsons, Double Dragon, Captain America and the Avengers – I think I had a better time with all of those titles than I did with this one. Now those games I have nostalgic feelings attached to, so maybe that is affecting my judgment a little bit here. I don’t have those same nostalgic feelings about Alien vs Predator as I do for those other games.

That said, I do feel as if nostalgia is important in this case, since all these games are so similar and do everything basically the same. Since they are all so similar, a lot of it is going to come down to what you played as a kid or what you grew up with – whether you think that’s fair or not. If I had grown up with this game instead of, say, X-Men, I might be saying the exact same thing about X-Men I’m saying about AVP. Am I rambling? Am I making sense? I feel like I’m not making any sense.

All in all, this is a really fun beat ‘em up. It looks great. The story is over the top and fabulous. It’s filled with nonstop action and explosions. I’d encourage anyone interested in the genre to give it a shot. I won’t even argue with those who say that this is the best beat ‘em up ever made. While I don’t agree, I can totally see where they might be coming from – especially if they have fun, nostalgic memories attached to this game. I wish I could say I did, but I don’t.

Final Score:

B

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Double Dragon

Final Fight

Captain America and the Avengers

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time

The Simpsons

Video Game Review #329: Keystone Kapers

Keystone Kapers

Atari 2600

Nostalgia Factor:

My first Atari 2600 review! So many “firsts” have been happening with this blog lately, and I just love it. Here’s to many more!

Back in the 1980s when I was growing up, my grandparents had an Atari 2600 in their living room. When I was over, a good way to keep me entertained was to plop me in front of the TV and let me play video games to my heart’s content. There was a good variety of Atari games to pick from. Dig Dug, Ghostbusters, Joust, Vanguard, Warlords, even E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. But if you were to ask me what my favorite game was out of all of them, I would have said it was Keystone Kapers.

I just loved the premise of playing as a cop and chasing a bad guy through a shopping mall while avoiding carts and all the other crazy objects that would come flying my way. I’d end up playing a lot of this game when I was a kid, but when my grandparents got rid of their Atari 2600 that was the end of Keystone Kapers for me. Here we are in the year 2022. I haven’t played Keystone Kapers in at least, Jesus, 32 years. But I still remember how much I loved that game.

How would it hold up today? Let’s find out!

Story:

You play as a cop named Keystone Kelly. Your goal is to chase a crook named (aptly) Harry Hooligan through a series of stages, all taking place in shopping malls.

Like most games of its time, there is no “ending” to Keystone Kapers. The game just keeps looping and getting more difficult until you eventually die. But yeah, that’s all you need to know about this game’s story. You’re a cop chasing a bad guy, and that’s really all there is to say about that.

 

Gameplay:

Each stage contains a map that shows the location of both you, the player, and Harry Hooligan. The very basic gist of the game is that you have to chase Harry down and touch him, leading to his arrest. You always start on the bottom right section of the map, and Harry is somewhere above you in the middle of the map. There is a timer in the top left corner of the screen. If you can’t catch him before the timer hits zero, you lose one of your lives. Lose all your lives and it is game over for you.

As you run through the mall, you have to dodge a series of obstacles such as bouncing balls, toy airplanes, and out-of-control shopping carts. If you get hit by one of them, precious seconds are taken away off of your timer. As you get deeper into the game, getting hit by one of these things can even kill you outright.

There are two strategies you can take to catching Harry. The first strategy is to use an elevator (located in the middle of the mall). But these elevators are extremely slow and also require precise timing if you are going to pull off catching Harry properly. If you take the elevator in an attempt to cut off Harry on the top floor, he will turn around and start going back downstairs, again causing you to lose some precious time. You want to take the elevator to the second floor, head to the escalators to the right, and try to chase down Harry before he can escape off the roof.

An alternative to using the elevators is to just simply run all the way through the mall, hoping you are lucky (or skilled) enough to dodge everything in sight. The first escalator that will take you to the second floor of the mall is on the far left side of the map, and the second elevator which takes you to the third floor is all the way on the right side of the map on the second floor. You’re basically running in a zig-zagging pattern towards the top of the mall, hoping you aren’t using up so much time that you’ll lose a life.

I always prefer to take the elevator in the middle of the map. It seems a lot safer as far as getting hit and losing time goes, and if you can get up to the second floor unscathed it gives you a nice little lift that you might not have gotten from taking the long way up. Taking the elevator is a bit risky, though, because you have to be lined up with it PERFECTLY in order to get on it. And if you accidentally miss the elevator and it goes back up without you? Congratulations, you basically just lost a life.

As I alluded to before, this game just keeps going and going. There is no end to it. As you get deeper into the game, the obstacles start moving much faster and are much more difficult to avoid. You have to be completely perfect in order to catch Harry, or you’ll find yourself running out of lives fast. I did find, however, that once you reach a certain point, the difficulty level of the game plateaus and stays the same until you run out of lives.

On my very last run of this game before sitting down to write this review, I was absolutely killing it, beating level after level after level. I had to turn the system off, though, because once the difficulty plateaus you’re essentially playing the exact same level over and over again – and what is the fun in that?

This is a very challenging game, especially if you have never played it before. You need quick reflexes and you need to think fast if you want to have success with Keystone Kapers. It was something I wasn’t very good at as a kid, but it still kept me coming back for more. As an adult, I quickly mastered this game to the point where it stopped being fun after a while. All in all, however, I’d say I enjoyed my time with this game.

Graphics:

I mean, it’s an Atari 2600 game. There really isn’t much to look at here. It’s very basic, using the same colors and level design over and over again. I wouldn’t say this game necessarily looks ugly, especially when compared to some other games of its time. But it definitely ain’t pretty. Back in the 80s I am sure this was one of the best looking 2600 games out there. Heck, that’s probably one of the reasons I was drawn to this title to begin with. By present day’s standards, however, there is absolutely nothing special to see here.

 

Sound:

There’s nothing special to hear here, either. The jumping sounds and the sound you hear when you take damage are your standard Atari beeps and bloops. There’s no stage music, so the game is for the most part eerily silent as you play it. This is definitely a game you don’t play for its presentation.

 

Overall:

I can see a lot of younger gamers taking a look at Keystone Kapers, maybe playing it for about five minutes, and then turning it off and moving on to the next game. And that’s fine. If you didn’t grow up in this era of gaming, you may not understand the appeal of some of these old games. I think even if I myself hadn’t grown up with Keystone Kapers I probably wouldn’t have given it much of a chance.

Even with my experience playing it as a kid, I only played this game for an hour or two before I got bored with it. You can only do the exact same thing, over and over again, for so long. If it’s an all-time classic like Frogger or Donkey Kong, I don’t mind as much. The challenge of the game is addicting and keeps you coming back for more until you’ve mastered it completely. But despite the initial challenge, you can master Keystone Kapers pretty darn quickly.

Normally I’d give a game like this a final score of a C, or maybe even something below that. But nostalgia is going to win out here – just by a little bit. For all the fun memories I had as a kid, for all the times I boasted about how much I loved Keystone Kapers and it was my favorite Atari game, for all the times in the years between the 1980s and today that I longed to come back and play this game again – it gets a C+.

Definitely still one of my favorite Atari games, and a game that, despite its flaws, still holds a warm place in my black heart.

 

Final Score:

C+

For a complete index of all of my past game reviews, click

>HERE<

Video Game Review #328: Batman: The Video Game

Batman: The Video Game

Nintendo Entertainment System

Nostalgia Factor:

This was a game that I never owned growing up. I remember playing it at my grandma’s house a couple of times because one of my uncles had it. I liked the game and I thought it was fun, from my limited time with it. In particular, I remember thinking the wall jumping mechanic was really cool. I never came close to actually beating the game. The farthest I ever made it was the boss battle at the end of stage 2. For some reason that fight always stuck around in my memory.

Nearly 25 years passed before I was able to find a used copy of this game at a local game store shortly before starting this blog. I played Batman from beginning to end – all the way up to the Joker battle. But I just could not for the life of me actually beat the game. If you die against the Joker, you have to replay the game’s entire final stage over again from the beginning, and it is a GIANT pain in the you know what.

Just last week I decided to come back and finish this game once and for all, using the RetroPie and its save states. Call it cheating, accuse me of not beating the game properly: I don’t care. I play games for fun, and if that’s the way I wanted to play Batman I am not going to apologize for it. Now that I’ve completed the game, what would my final thoughts on it be? Let’s find out!

Story:

This game loosely, and I mean LOOSELY follows the plot of the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Cutscenes in between stages show the Joker taunting Batman and daring him to come after him. You’ll visit some familiar locations from the movie like the Axis Chemical Plant and the bell tower, but many of the stages in between have absolutely nothing to do with the movie at all. Do you remember when Batman fought tanks in a cave in the movie? I sure don’t.

Before we move on, I have to address some of the liberties the game took with Batman and his ethical code. One of Batman’s main weapons in this game is a gun, which any self-respecting Batman fan knows that he refuses to use. Also at the end of the game he just flings the Joker off the top of the tower after beating him in a fist fight, despite his strict no killing rule – especially of an already defeated opponent.

I don’t know why, but this really bothered me.

 

Gameplay:

Batman shares a lot of similarities with other 2D platformers of the time, such as Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. Your goal each stage is to simply make it from the starting point to the end of the level. Nothing shocking there. Batman’s main attack is a melee punching attack that takes your foes down in just a few hits. It’s an effective default weapon and I found myself using it quite often. The only drawback to it is that you have to get in close to your enemies to use it. As you play you pick up ammo for three other weapons: a short range boomerang, a gun (I’m rolling my eyes as I type this), and a thrown projectile that splits into three and deals damage to anything it touches.

When you kill an enemy, they’ll drop one of three different item types: ammo for your weapons, a heart that refills one bar on your life meter, or a B icon that I was never able to figure out the purpose of. They don’t give you an extra life, and there is no points system… so what the fork do they do?

Jumping is responsive and works well. This is where I most compare the game to Ninja Gaiden. When you jump into a wall you are able to jump back off the wall in the other direction. You will need to master this wall jump ability if you want any chance at being able to beat this game.

Make no mistakes about it, this is a VERY challenging game. You’re going to get hit a lot. You are going to die a lot. You are going to fall to your death quite often. The bosses are really tough, too. But it is nothing that can’t be conquered without a little trial and error. Again, I compare this game to Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania in that regard. Yes, I used save states to beat this game, but that’s only because I have SO MANY games to play and my time is very limited in which to do so. If I had sat down and dedicated a couple days to beat this game (maybe even just one day), I have no doubt I would have been able to master this game. Tell that to my job and to my one year old, though.

If I had to offer one complaint about Batman’s gameplay, I would say that I found the “item drop” enemy spawn points to be quite annoying. If you don’t know what I am talking about, there are these machines in the ceiling that you’ll encounter sporadically as you play this game. They drop an unlimited supply of enemies down on you, respawning over and over again when you kill them. While it was nice to be able to use these spots to kill enemies repeatedly and farm for health items and ammunition, the rate at which they drop health seems extremely low. And every once in a while an enemy sneaks through and deals damage to you, with no rhyme or reason whatsoever. It should take you one or two minutes of sitting at one of these things to refill your health, but honestly sometimes it took what seemed like ten. Just give me what I want so I can move on! And stop with the cheap shots!

 

Graphics:

Batman may not look like much by today’s standards, but it looks perfectly fine for a game of its time. I love the dark color scheme of the game. It really seems to reflect Gotham City and the tone of the original Batman movie very well, even if it doesn’t follow its plot very closely. The little cutscenes add some fun to the game as well.

But don’t ask me why Batman is purple. This may be the only purple Batman I’ve seen in any form of media, ever? I don’t mind it though. The character pops out from the background and doesn’t blend into it. It also just seems “right” and perfectly fitting to this game, for reasons I can’t really explain.

 

Sound:

This game has a fantastic soundtrack. It’s right up there, again, with games like Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. Even up there with Mega Man too. It’s got that classic, groovy NES vibe to each of the songs. I’d proudly put any of this game’s stage tracks on my video game music playlist. The sound effects perfectly match the action on screen as well. I got nothing to complain about here.

 

Overall:

I quite enjoyed my time with this game. It’s a fun, classy, and perfectly enjoyable platformer for the NES. It’s also movie tie-in that’s not just a blind cash grab, which is refreshing to see. They actually took the time to make this a good game!

As much as I liked to compare this game favorably to other NES classics, I don’t know if I’d put it up there with them. Batman shares a lot of traits with Ninja Gaiden, but I wouldn’t say this is as good of a game as Ninja Gaiden. Or Castlevania. Or Mega Man. Maybe I feel this way because I didn’t grow up with Batman and I don’t have the nostalgic feels for this game that I do for others. That’s completely possible. But it just wasn’t *quite* hitting those same high notes for me as the other classics I’ve mentioned.

This is a good game, yes. And I would even listen to the argument that this is a great or really good game. But a classic? I’m sorry, but in my humble opinion it’s just not quite there.

Final Score:

B

Looking for more Batman game reviews? Look no further!

Batman: The Animated Series

Batman Returns (SNES)

Batman Forever

Batman Returns (Genesis and Sega CD)

Batman Forever: The Arcade Game

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Origins

Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: The Telltale Series

Batman: The Enemy Within