Metal: Hellsinger:
I enjoyed this game a lot more than I was expecting to. I suck at rhtymn games but I do tend to enjoy games inspired by them like Batman Arkham and Ubisoft Prince of Persia platforming so I thought I would enjoy this game and I did.
The thing that took me a while to learn was that I had to fire when the drums started hitting and the game became a lot easier to manage after that. My favorite weapons were the pistols and the boomerangs.
My only major gripes with this game is that the last two levels can be kind of long and draggy, enemies like the acid pukers and shields enemies can be irritating to fight, the latter especially due to how much hits he can take with the boomerang weapons and getting a "glory kill" to the best can be rather challenging for me even by the end, I can do it but not as consistently as I would like
Vigilante 8:
Surprisingly plays better than the PS1 Twisted Metals but I prefer the art style and character of TM. Still, pretty solid game in it's own right.
Toy Story 3: the Game:
Pretty solid Prince of Persia clone, the platforming is a lot more automated and it's more fast paced quick reaction times rather than quickly jumping to platforms but I think the game throws enough to be interesting like collecting batteries, occasional stealth sections, helping the toys and the stuff with soldiers and aliens. Some of the automated ledge detection will not register sometimes. I prefer it over Toy Story 2 the game since it controls better and doesn't have the awkward camera controls of late 90s platformers. The game is nothing remarkable, but I'd say it's a solid enough hidden gem and a decent movie tie in game, everything I wanted Toy Story 2 to be but wasn't.
Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga:
This game was a solid time overall, but I can't help but think this game was stretched out far too much to accommodate for 9 movies. While the game does a good at going over all 9 movies and even does a decent job at going over movies I dislike which is anything past ROTJ, I feel like much of the game feels like it is going through the motions like it has all of the major moments of the movies and having it all playable in coop form. It's the most ambitious Lego game but I feel like the game could take things furthur. I know these games are for kids but I got to wonder how much the shooting and combat would fare better if there was an actual punishment for death. The game has a pretty solid lightsaber combat system but since you can keep dying on the fights and widdle away at the health bars, you never feel like you have to learn the game's mechanics. It's even weirder when you throw in that the mandatory Podrace win from the previous Lego compliation because it's the only part of the game where you actually have to win and not beat widdling at enemy health bars. That and I am not a big fan of the quest markers in this game even though the game was consistent in it's use of them.
The game is pretty solid overall, I just feel like the game is pushing the boundaries of what a Lego game that is easy for children can geniunely be and it felt like they had to strech resources to cover all 9 movies.
My Hero's One Justice:
I am not a big fan of MHA, and I'll be honest and say I wasn't expecting much out of this game and I only got it for less than $10. The game is probably one of the most average games I played in a while, everything about this title feels like a low budget version of what CyberConnect2's games do. There's a lot of load screens and there's hardly any cutscenes and are mostly just comic stills. At least CC2's games have high production values, have different gameplay styles on occasion and have those over the top QTEs to hide the shallow gameplay. This game is what you get if all that was removed and all you have is awkward arena fighting gameplay and that's it. There's also no dub either which annoyed me a lot since I had no idea what the characters were even saying outside of the comic still cutscenes.
A lot of the fighting just consist of running around and hoping you hit the enemy with a special move or keep a combo chain going long enough to widdle down at the enemy's health and some characters have moves so OP that I just want to spam them since they do massive damage and require the least of amount of complexity to pull off. I wouldn't really mind if the arena fighting gameplay is shallow(CC2's anime arena fighters can be boiled down to this afterall) if this game had other things to break it up but it doesn't. I am amazed this game is charged at full price when not discounted since the everything about the game feels like a budget game through and through. I try not to expect much out of these games but the game failed to reach the low expectations I already had for it.
Kirby 64:
It's pretty decent, my only big issue are the controls and that I feel the spike ball powerup felt almost too good to use since every enemy comes in close promixity of you and it gives you invinciblity frames after you press the attack button. I also wish for this game to have Yoshi's Story's controls, I can't even imagine playing this game on an N64 controller. Playing this on a Switch Pro Controller made my hands feel weird.
The game's level design is pretty good all things considered. I am glad they never went full 3D and waited until Forgotten Land to do it. I am pretty sure it would control as awkwardly as Mario 64 if it did that. I also love how this game doesn't make you secret hunt and it is entirely optional, you get a "bad" ending of sorts but I prefer this over playing every stage like a paranoid kleptomaniac.
Overall, I surprisingly enjoyed this for an N64 game.
Disruptor:
I enjoyed this game a lot more than I was expecting to. I did wish it had a modern remaster that balanced the difficulty but the game is pretty fun. Insomniac knew how to make an enjoyable game even they first started. For a game called a "Doom clone" the level design has no key card collecting, it's mostly just switch pulling and it has the psi powers. I can see why even ID Software was impressed with the game at the time, Insomniac really is a talented studio in that their first game is pretty good, they still continue to make good games and their work ethic is unrivaled.
Anyways, the guns all feel pretty good and the psi powers feel decent enough if underpowered in some respects and the level design despite the limited draw distance is still pretty good, it's good old fashioned 90s maze like levels which I like. When it comes to being a shooter, the game ticks all the boxes even if it never manages to be outstanding. So why a 6 rather than a 7?
It's due to the unbalanced difficulty, sometimes you will be rolling with ammo and at other times you will barely have enough and there are psi powers only missions. I feel the game is at it's best when the psi powers are in conjuction with the gunplay, when it's just the psi powers, the game can be painfully dull, since most your psi powers are underpowered against bigger waves which later levels will have in spades. I feel like a remaster with rebalanced difficulty could fix this problem, but otherwise, with cheats, this is a solid hidden gem.
Twisted Metal 2:
The core gameplay is still fun but I can't help but find the difficulty too punishing for it's own good. You get two lives throughout the whole campaign of each character and lose one life and you lose it permanently, and it's easy to get overwhelmed and lose a life very quickly, and health pick ups get harder and harder to find the more you progress. The driving isn't the greatest and the animations can lead to weird collision detection.
I prefer Head On and Black over this game despite me finding some enjoyment in TM2.
From Russia with Love Game Review:
Decent game overall. The game has pretty basic combat with auto aim and enemy weak spots being generally easy to hit, I often blasted an enemy that was carrying a grenade. I never watched the movie so I can't comment on the game being faithful to the movie, however I can say as far as a third person shooter campaign is concerned where you fight enemies using hitscan weapons, the game keeps objectives varied enough where things don't get boring. You will be using gadgets like the laserwatch and the portable helicoptor, planting bombs, disarming bombs, vehicle sections, jetpack sections and so on. The game keeps everything varied enough considering how basic combat is and does a good enough job at feeling like a solid roller coaster ride. As far as movie licensed games go, it's a moderately enjoyable enough time.
Gripes would be that I wished the game had actual overshoulder aiming since the manual aim system in this game I find to be very clunky, the yellow dot doesn't feel as accurate as it should be and the auto aim can be cumbersume at times when it comes targeting an enemy you want to hit. I also wish the stealth segments were better since there is enough of a stealth system to make the sections decent enough like a crouch walk and being able to slow down your movement but the enemy AI notices you far too quickly, the cover system being awkward to use also doesn't lend for quick ways to peak around corners when hidden. The car sections also don't control that great.
For someone not too familar with James Bond outside of the couple Bond games, I have played I consider this title to be good rollar coaster thrill ride kind of game. Something like a CoD campaign.
Kill Switch:
Kill Switch is one of the fucking weirdest games ever, the game isn't even that amazing and is serviceable at best yet the game inspired so much cover based shooting. The funny thing is that even Kill Switch itself knows cover based shooting isn't that interesting which is why it can be beaten in less than 2 hours. The game being 2 hours is actually what prevents me from being harsher on it since if it was any longer, the tedium would really let in.
The weapons sounds punchy enough and the damage animations are pretty good. But other than that for a game so influtential, the game itself isn't that remarkable. Gears of War was more refined since it let you zoom in with over the shoulder, the cover system works a lot better, added active reload and it had more interesting enemy types in some ways but at the end of the day, cover shooting is basically a game of virtual wack a mole.
You get shot, wait for health to regen, shoot, then rinse and repeat, and since you fight human enemies, that just makes this style of gameplay more monotonous. The objectives in Killswitch are varied enough, but the game is nothing really remarkable, it feels like a downloable game from the 7th gen if in terms of value and how much game there is.
Foreclosed:
An interesting Deus Ex styled game, while it is kind of impressive what this small team can put together, the shooting isn't that great since it's dull cover shooting that often consists of waiting for your health to regen after you get hit a couple of times and the stealth mechanics aren't great since enemies tend to notice you too quickly and that it's hard to tell if you can remain in stealth that long since your cover will blown very quickly. The modern Deus Ex games I feel do what a lot of what this game does but better. It's not bad and I think the length complements and it checkpoints well enough so the sub par mechanics don't wear out their welcome. If you want a quick game to beat, then this game does the job well enough, just don't expect anything great or even good.
Poi:
Game was pretty good, I enjoyed the platforming and the controls a lot and while the game is on the nose on how much it borrows from Super Mario 64 gameplay wise, I do prefer this game over it because I prefer the more modern controls and camera, I got to wonder if this is how SM64 would play like if Nintendo ever bothered to remake it.
The level design is solid but I did wish there was more levels since there are only 4 main ones and the game does feel padded in how much it makes you play challenges levels and mini games just to unlock the later levels and I found the game lying to you about getting the stones and then telling you to get more Explorer Medallions to be especially egregious.
Still a solid homage to Mario 64 and I prefer this game due to the modern controls and camera. I'd give this game a higher score if there were more actual levels but for what a small indie team accomplised, my hats go off to them.
Midnight Flight Express:
Very good and satisfying beat em up. This game to me is My Friend Pedro beat em up edition. It's a pretty solid homage to the Batman Arkham combat with it's emphasis on rhytmn and counters and like many beat em ups the advanced moves are more of a chore to pull off but what is here is very well made and fun. Biggest suprise of the year for me. This might be the closest thing to a John Wick and "gun fu" style game out right now.
Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed:
Pretty good remake overall, not as big of a leap as the DAH1 remake but still solid enough. It can be buggy at times. If you never liked DAH2 to begin with, this game will do little to change your mind.
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