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Review: Call of Duty: WWII [PlayStation 4]

Developer: Sledgehammer Games
Publisher: Activision
Released: November 3, 2017
Completed: March 19, 2023
Rated: M for Mature

I don't play a lot of Call of Duty, and especially not the toxic multiplayer.  I have no interest in being called names by a 14-year-old who has nothing better to do than play online all day, or some dudebro whose entire identity revolves around his COD rank.  That said, I do appreciate a good single player campaign, and I definitely enjoy shooting nazis in their stupid fucking faces.  Call of Duty: WWII scratches both of those itches pretty well, even if it stars Josh Duhamel.

The tech behind Sledgehammer's entry is impressive, for sure.  At times I couldn't tell whether I was still watching an in-engine cinematic, or if the game had started.  At times, even the character models are photorealistic.  It would almost be disconcerting if not for the video gamey tropes that break the immersion.  The audio/visual presentation is without fault.  The story, on the other hand...

After the last several COD games had single-player campaigns as more of an afterthought, Sledgehammer decided to make a lengthier, story-driven campaign that centers around a southern soldier in the 1st Infantry named "Red" Daniels.  Red's your typical southern gentleman with a girl back home and a somewhat traumatic event involving his totally-not-dead brother that haunts him.  He and his division, which include his friend Private First Class Zussman and the cliche angry Sergeant Pierson (Duhamel), are thrust into many of World War II's biggest moments, opening with the invasion of Normandy, Operation Cobra, Hurtgen Forest/Hill 493, and the Battle of the Bulge. 

I appreciate the focus on making a compelling single player campaign, and the battles are often thrilling and devastating.  It gives you an even deeper appreciation for those who risked, and in many cases sacrificed, their lives and were witness to things so horrific it's hard to even imagine them.  There's even a brief tour through a captured labor camp at the end of the campaign, and even in video game form it's bone-chilling what those dirty bastards put other human beings through.  

The issue I have with the story is that it's a little clumsy.  I already mentioned Red's definitely alive and well brother, and the angry superior officer who constantly gives him and Zussman hell but also harbors guilt over a past event, which of course changes their entire dynamic when he's confronted about it.  The worst part, though, is that literally every single one of the game's missions features a moment where Red gets knocked unconscious or, at the very least, senseless for a moment.  Something explodes and your ears ring for a bit, or you wake up later and keep fighting.  It became so overused, I started laughing when it inevitably happened in each subsequent mission.

The gameplay is fairly standard COD fare, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  At this point, the formula is obviously a winning one.  Guns all feel pretty unique with different levels of recoil that make some harder to use than others.  You'll inevitably have your own favorites that you're always on the lookout for.  As usual, you can carry only two at a time, but you can swap them out for anything you find lying around.  You're also equipped with both fragmentation and smoke grenades, both of which are absolutely necessary if you want to survive.  Few games make better use of grenades than COD, honestly.  In a lot of shooters, you can just ignore them, but in COD they are lifesavers.  

One change is that, for the first time in a long time, the regenerating health has been replaced by finding and using med packs in the field.  You can store up to four at a time and use at your discretion.  It takes a moment and you're vulnerable while using them, but it's a better system than just cowering behind rubble for 10 seconds and suddenly feeling healthy again.  It was always tense, trying to get to cover just to use a health kit before that last bullet sends you to a game over screen.  You're also now able to dive into cover while running, which is a nice little touch.

Your squadmates also have special abilities that unlock as you build rapport with them.  You can request health packs, ammo, targeting smoke for allied mortars, and the Sarge can point out enemy positions, making it easier to spot them in the crowded battlefields.  

I have to say the variety of missions is also welcome.  While it's still a first-person shooter, there are brief moments where you'll pilot a P47, a Sherman tank, or a participate in a high speed chase while driving a Jeep.  There are a handful of stealth segments, including one longer mission where you switch protagonists, that are surprisingly fun.  It's not the longest campaign, but it's well rounded with different gameplay types that keep it from becoming repetitive.  There are also some collectibles scattered throughout the levels, as well as heroic actions you can complete such as dragging wounded soldiers to cover before they die.  

For those who are into multiplayer, the game comes with the expected online competitive modes, as well as the much loved Nazi Zombies mode.  I can't really comment on them, since again, I despise online multiplayer. 

From a single player perspective, WWII is a fun campaign, even if the story is really predictable.  The action is fast, looks and sounds incredible, and the battles themselves are memorable.  Given the extremely cheap prices on the secondhand market, it's well worth your time, even if you have no interest in the multiplayer.

Call of Duty: WWII was completed on a PlayStation 5 with no cheats.

Review: Dead Space [PlayStation 5]

Developer: Motive
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: January 27, 2023
Completed: February 5, 2023
Rated: M for Mature

The original Dead Space was a nice surprise, but after two sequels, a couple of spinoffs, and even an animated movie, Electronic Arts - ever the villains of the industry - seemed to mothball the franchise.  Despite critical acclaim, apparently the sales just weren't there.  As the series went on, it leaned more into action and less on survival horror, culminating in Dead Space 3.  While DS3 isn't, in itself, a bad game, it felt more like a generic third person shooter wearing a Dead Space skin suit (or like a necromorph that had reanimated the corpse of the superior predecessors).  It seemed Dead Space was, well, dead.

Then, for whatever reason, EA decided it was time for a remake and I am here for it.  

While I am not among those who consider the original game a masterpiece, it was nevertheless a solid survival horror game.  I didn't find it particularly frightening because it became obvious after the first two encounters that the game had a predictable formula.  You complete objectives, then all the monster closets open up and the beasties come for you.  What made it interesting and kept it from feeling repetitive were the fun weapons you had at your disposal, and the core mechanic that required you to cut off enemy limbs rather than go for headshots.  I enjoyed the original Dead Space quite a bit (and my original review is still published on this very blog), but it was outclassed by its immediate sequel in every way.

The remake is, by and large, incredibly faithful to the original.  That means it has all the strengths such as the incredible atmosphere, outstanding sound design, stunning graphics, and fun combat, but also the weakness of predictability.  There are a few minor changes made to the mechanics, particularly a few of the weapons that were all but useless in the original game have been overhauled to make them viable, and there are occasionally branching paths, but this is essentially the same Dead Space - just a whole hell of a lot prettier.

Like most modern games, Dead Space allows you to select a performance mode, which runs at 60 frames per second at the expense of some of the graphical bells and whistles, or the 30 FPS quality mode.  While I'm not one of those people who thinks 30 FPS is "literally unplayable" (because I understand the definition of the word "literally"), the difference between the two modes is so negligible you might as well just go for performance mode.  No matter which you choose, this is a damn fine looking game.  Everything is so detailed you can even read the tiny serial number on the back of Isaac's helmet.  

A lot of the changes are focused on the presentation.  Protagonist Isaac Clarke has been given a new face, though this is one area where I prefer the look of the original game, and is now fully voiced by the same actor from the original trilogy.  This helps the narrative, which has also been adjusted somewhat to make things a bit more clear, but also provides more backstory for Isaac that I loved.  It also seems like they may have recorded dialogue more than once, depending on Isaac's current health status.  As before, your health is displayed ingeniously on the back of your space suit (instead of an intrusive HUD overlay), but several times during my playthrough I noticed Isaac audibly grimacing in pain while at low health and speaking to his radio buddy.

The other major presentation change is the addition of visible damage to your enemies.  While the necromorph creatures have essentially the same designs, with their bony limbs protruding and flailing, shooting them will now tear off pieces of flesh.  It's a terrific effect, especially when using the newly revamped force gun, that not only looks cool, but conveys important information to the player. 

Speaking of weapons, Isaac's arsenal is mostly the same, but this time around I found every single weapon useful.  Even in the sequels, I never touched weapons like the flamethrower, but I found it extremely helpful when battling the little skittering enemies or launching the alt-fire napalm bomb at enemies on the walls.  The pulse rifle also dishes out way more damage now, and the force gun went from being utterly useless to one of my favorite weapons for clearing large groups of enemies.  With the help of nodes hidden around the world (or purchasable from the shops), you can still upgrade each weapon's damage output, ammo capacity, reload time, and unlock some special bonuses.

Being so faithful to the original game does mean that some of the original wow factor may be diluted for returning players.  There are a lot of setpieces in the game that, while still fun, were more like nostalgic memories than "holy shit" moments for me.  One thing the original game did very well, however, was change up the gameplay just enough from minute to minute to keep it from feeling like a stale bunch of similar looking corridors.  There are zero-g moments, including boss battles, moments where you're racing against a dwindling oxygen supply, and moments where you're grabbed by a giant tentacle and need to extricate yourself lest you be torn apart.  Even with the predictability of necromorphs crashing through the vents in bigger rooms, the combat is still fun, challenging, and even somewhat strategic.  I remember feeling like I was always on the cusp of running out of ammo, which forced me to change weapons and tactics often.

If you loved the original Dead Space, the remake is a fantastic way to experience the game again.  For newcomers, there's an incredibly enjoyable, tense game and I kind of envy you for being able to experience it for the first time.  The gameplay enhancements are smart and welcome, while the graphics and sound are simply stunning.  I would love nothing more than for Motive to tackle the even-better Dead Space 2, and maybe even give us a complete do-over of 3 more in line with the first two.  Hopefully this time, the sales justify the sequels.

Dead Space was completed on PlayStation 5 with no cheats.

There was a blog here. It's gone now.

It's been a while.  As is often the case, I get burned out on writing, then after a while I get the urge to do it again.  Good thing it's just a hobby and not a job, huh?

The ol' blog has a new layout, partly because I stopped paying for TypePad premium, but also because I just wanted a change of scenery.  Apart from that, it will be business as usual around here.  I'll be reviewing games I complete, writing the occasional feature article (A History of Video Games, A Work of Box Art, Crappy Custom Cabinets), and maybe the occasional collection update.  

Speaking of...

I'm currently sitting at 3,255 games.  Big Box PC Games are the largest part of my collection at 447, which is about 13% of the entire thing.  SEGA Genesis remains in second place with 298, and PS4 is in third with 266.  In case you were wondering, yes, I did obtain both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X at launch.  It's difficult to catalogue XSX games because they're multigenerational, but I've got a decent little collection of 39 PS5 games.  

Anyhow, I'll get to reviewing a few of the games I've beaten recently in the next few days.  I'm currently battling a nasty cold, so it's a perfect excuse to get back into writing.

The Unbeatables: Animal Crossing: New Horizons [Switch]

Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: March 20, 2020
Completed: May 17, 2020*
Rated: E for Everyone

*This is the date I rolled credits, but this game is technically never-ending.

If ever there were a game that was perfect for its time, it's this one.  Released right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that is still, more than a year later, raging on, the latest entry in Nintendo's cutesy life simulator provided everyone stuck indoors with some much-needed cheer.

I've played nearly every Animal Crossing game released in America, save the terrible Amiibo cash grab title, and I've always had the same reaction: "This is fun for an hour or so."  After that, I never go back.  It turns out I don't like doing chores in video games either, and that's what a lot of these games felt like to me.  Each and every time I told myself I wasn't going to fall for it again and I'd played all the Animal Crossing I needed, and each and every time I was proven a liar when fear of missing out - what the kids call FOMO - got to me.

But this time was different.  I'm a natural homebody, so I felt like I was built to survive a pandemic of this nature.  I had all the video games I could ever need (not necessarily want); why did I need to go outside?  Then I realized lockdown meant no concerts.  No hours spent scouring bins at a record store, or taking an entire afternoon to visit a bunch of game stores and hunt for finds.  It meant no movies in the cinema, no restaurants, and even my 41st birthday, which occurred just weeks after lockdown started in the US, was spent alone, unable to see my family. 

In lieu of all the things I loved to do, Animal Crossing finally clicked and became the escape I needed.

There came a deeper appreciation for the creativity and freedom of expression the game allowed.  Just like in real life, I began decorating my little house with all kinds of things that made it uniquely me.  I used the simple but effective editing tools to make a Prince symbol poster, and a Sierra logo t-shirt I wore around town.  As my house expanded, I turned one of the rooms into a game room, much like my real home, and another into a music studio.  I built a cute little park for me and my island residents to enjoy, visited my friends' islands for design tips, and spent hours hunting for new insects or fishing.  I finally understood why these games were so appealing.  With so much negativity in life, even pre-pandemic, Animal Crossing was a little bite-sized slice of joy. 

You can turn it on, play for fifteen minutes, and still feel like you accomplished something - even if it was simply weeding your island.  Or you could spend hours earning bells to payoff that dastardly raccoon loanshark Tom Nook to improve your home or the land itself.  Every visit to Blathers, the adorable owl who runs the city's museum, was exciting.  Had I dug up a new fossil?  If not, at least I got to hear him say "jolly good" in his little gibberish language. 

It wasn't always sunshine and roses, of course.  The game stuck me with a villager I just did not like right out of the gate, but I made the best of it by sending them threatening letters for my own amusement.  It doesn't actually do anything in the game, and in fact it was even funnier when the recipient would express happiness that I had sent them a letter that read "I don't like you.  Get off my island."  Later in the game, you'll also receive visitors, and finding ones I wanted to invite to live on the paradise I had created was tough.  First world private island problems.

The cheerful aesthetic and upbeat music add to the overall joy.  Day after day I'd login, visit my shopping district to see if there was anything interesting, dig up fossils, water the flowers, and weed the landscape.  Some days I'd have a goal in mind, and others it was just a way to pass the time in a beautiful, happy place.  I'd watch dazzling sunsets over the water, or look for shooting stars at night. 

This is to say nothing of all the content that has been added to the game since launch.  After about four solid months of playing every day, I haven't returned to my island in a while, but I keep meaning to so I can experience things like swimming and the change of seasons.  Nintendo has truly made an evergreen game that can last a real lifetime.  Most importantly, it got so many of us through those rough early months while we adjusted to our new lives as shut-ins, so much so a common joke was Nintendo created the virus to sell more copies of the game.

The game kept me connected with friends.  I couldn't see them physically, but we would text about our islands, share funny screenshots, and even visit each other virtually.  Sure, we texted regardless, but there was always an aura of happiness to the Animal Crossing conversations.  We weren't espousing our daily real world problems; we were sharing fun updates and forgetting about the state of the world for a little while. 

As I write this in March 2021 (and backdating the post), I look back fondly at my time on Mallardca, a duck-related play on Mallorca (or Majorca, depending).  New Horizons was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark time.  It became part of the daily routine that maintained my sanity, and the more I reminisce about it, the more I want to return.  I'll bet there's a lot of weeds to pull, for starters.  I'll leave you with a picture of my character stalking a friendly koala with an axe because I am the best at Animal Crossing.

Review: The Last of Us Remastered [PlayStation 4]

Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: SCEA
Released: July 29, 2014
Completed: May 17, 2020
Rated: M for Mature

I admit it: I was wrong about The Last of Us.  In my original review of the PS3 exclusive I harshly critiqued the game for its lackluster gameplay.  While I still feel I made some valid points - that the puzzles were unimaginative, and the horde-like survival segments are the weakest parts of the game - I have softened and warmed to it over the years.  Replaying it via the PS4's Remastered edition, I found myself gripped once more by its incredible story and solid (if unremarkable) gameplay.

Don't get me wrong, The Last of Us doesn't reinvent the stealth-action genre.  There's nothing here you haven't seen in games ranging from Metal Gear Solid to Uncharted to the modern iterations of Tomb Raider.  But just because a game doesn't do anything new doesn't mean it shouldn't be praised for doing things well.  Perhaps I expected too much the first time.  The hype around the game had certainly reached stratospheric levels.  Ironically, I've railed against reviewers who criticize other games for not being innovative, yet rereading my original review I saw I had become the very thing I despised.

There was never any question that this was one of the greatest stories ever told in gaming at the time.  I said as much back then, and I still feel it's true today.  I also said it's a shame you had to play the game to experience the story.  Yet this time around, I found myself enjoying the game.  OK, the ladder puzzles are still lame, and the horde survival segments still suck, but those are small speedbumps in an otherwise very good game.  Even the sniper/escort sequence, which I abhorred in my original playthrough, felt more enjoyable this time around. 

At its core, The Last of Us is a fairly standard stealth-action game.  It has all the usual trappings of the genre such as a simple crafting system, objects you can use to distract enemies while you sneak past, and large, open areas replete with convenient waist-high cover for shootouts.  It's straightforward and linear, but there's a sense of urgency and tension that makes every new area exciting.  

The gameplay is the meat and potatoes of the experience, but the story is the seasoning that enhances what otherwise might be a bland meal.  From the first-rate voice work to the animation and modeling to the rich but ruined world that still looks as stunning six years later, The Last of Us reels you in right away.

The PS4 remaster is an odd beast in some ways.  It's the best way to play the game, but at the same time it's not that significant of an upgrade.  The resolution is higher and there's some nice new lighting effects in the game's quality mode, or you can opt for more PS3-grade visuals with a silky smooth 60 frames per second framerate if you're one of those weirdos who thinks 30 FPS is "literally unplayable."  Either way you play it, the game looks fantastic, which is a testament to just how good it looked even in its original incarnation. 

The major selling point for me was the inclusion of the Left Behind DLC on the disc.  This is a short interlude/prequel to the events of the game where you'll take control of Ellie.  What makes it noteworthy is the flashback to just before she would meet Joel.  It explores the relationship between two young girls coming to grips with their sexuality in a mature and incredibly poignant way.  In some ways, the final moments of the DLC eclipses most of the base game, save perhaps its own equally devastating and unforgettable opening sequence. 

The bottom line is that if you're one of the three PlayStation owners who hasn't played The Last of Us yet, this is your ticket in.  If you are one of those people, I envy you because I wish I could go back and experience the story for the first time again.  Even at my most cynical I praised it for its exceptional writing, realistic character portrayals, and unparalleled voice acting.  Now that the initial hoopla is over, I've learned to appreciate the game for what it is as well. Simply put, it's a must-own.

The Last Of Us: Remastered was completed on a PS4 Pro with no cheats.

Retro-Review: Disney's DuckTales [NES]

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: September 14, 1989
Completed: May 15, 2020

Admit it: you have the DuckTales TV theme song stuck in your head right now, don't you?  You're welcome.

DuckTales, the game, probably needs little introduction.  It's widely regarded as one of the NES' best platformers that doesn't contain Mario.  Frankly, most of Capcom's NES output was stellar, but DuckTales seems to be remembered most fondly.  Taking off the nostalgia goggles reveals some blemishes, but it's still a very solid, fun game.

DuckTales is not very challenging.  I recall beating it in my youth, .  This was probably the first time I'd played it in 20 years, which had the side effect of seeing it with fresh eyes.  At its core, it's a hop n' bop platformer.  Scrooge travels the world collecting treasure solely to increase his own wealth and become the richest duck in the world.  Scrooge is clearly the 1% and we should cancel him.

Sarcasm notwithstanding, the levels are fun to explore and packed with secrets.  Scrooge can use his cane as a pogo stick to bounce off of enemies and jump higher, or swing it like a golf club to eliminate obstacles.  Like Capcom's Mega Man, you're given the option to play the levels in any order.  Levels are very distinct from one another, including Transylvania, an Amazonian jungle, and the moon itself.  There are a handful of tricky segments involving the pogo stick, spikes, and bouncing off enemies over bottomless pits, but there's nothing here that will fluster anyone who's played a Mario game.  There are even multiple endings, depending on how much money you finish the game with.

The graphics are bright and colorful, and capture the look of the show very well - though Scrooge oddly wears the red waistcoat from the comics instead of the blue one from the show.  There are loads of cameos from the likes of Scrooge's nephews, Huey, Duey, and Louie, and Launchpad McQuack. 

Music and sound are on par with Capcom's other work on the NES - which is to say, pretty excellent.  The chiptune revision of the show's theme is almost as iconic as the original, while each level has its own unique tune. 

Now to address the elephant in the room: the blemishes I spoke of - enemy placement and hit detection.  Though I said it's not a very challenging game, I struggled at first because I did not recall some of the unfair enemy placement or respawning enemies.  There's no comparison to something like Castlevania or Mega Man, but some of the enemy placement is incredibly cheap and will result in practically unavoidable contact.  The other issue, which ties into the first, is there are times you'd swear you landed on an enemy, but you either take damage or sail right past them.  Neither issue is game-breaking, but I was surprised to discover the game was not as perfect as my memory had led me to believe.

That said, it's still true that this is one of the most enjoyable platformers on the NES.  It appeals to a wide audience even today, and boasts some terrific level design that rewards exploration, along with great graphics and music.  Experienced players can complete it in about 35 minutes, but there's nothing wrong with that.  If you want an NES Hard game, there are plenty of other options.  DuckTales fits the bill (heh) for a more casual game the whole family can enjoy. 

DuckTales was completed on a real NES with no cheats.

Review: Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise [PlayStation 4]

Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Publisher: SEGA
Released: October 2, 2018
Completed: May 14, 2020
Rated: M for Mature

I went into Lost Paradise with high hopes.  I'm a casual fan of the anime, but by no means an expert on it, and a hardcore fan of Ryu Ga Gotoko's Yakuza franchise.  A game that married Yakuza's combat with a series known for its crazy level of violence seemed like a perfect match. 

If you're unfamiliar with Fist of the North Star, the basic premise is something like an anime version of Mad Max with martial arts.  Protagonist Kenshiro wanders the post-apocalyptic wastes, punching people until they literally explode, seeking vengeance on the man who left him for dead and reclaim his love from his rival.  As one of the only practitioners of Hokuto Shinken, a fictional martial art that relies on hidden pressure points within the body, Kenshiro is one of the deadliest men in the world, but he makes a few friends along the way and becomes something of a hero to the citizens who've been terrorized by roving gangs.

Lost Paradise retells some of these events with an action-RPG twist.  If you've played any of the recent Yakuza games - and if you have not, what the hell is wrong with you? - this will feel instantly familiar.  Kenshiro can tackle quests from NPCs, play silly mini-games, upgrade his abilities, and of course, punch people until they explode.  The over-the-top violence is here, and it's quite hysterical at first.

After the dozenth time you've seen each Hokuto Shinken move, however, you'll start to tire of seeing the same cutaway for each move.  The problem is they break up the flow of combat with a short cinematic.  You'll have to mash or properly time button presses to maximize damage, but the action stops briefly for Kenshiro to announce the name of the move.  When you're surrounded by large mobs of enemies, which is basically every encounter, you'll be using techniques frequently, at which point the constant interruptions are far less entertaining.

By and large, the combat is the game's biggest strength.  It's fast-paced and absurd, and Kenshiro has a bevy of moves at his disposal.  The best moments, however, are the 1v1 boss battles, which play out like an arena style fighting game.  These fights feel absolutely epic in nature, and will put your skills to the test.  The bosses are no pushovers which makes defeating them feel exceptionally rewarding. 

You can also supplement your skills with medallions that grant access to timed buffs, but to be honest, I rarely found them very useful.  Some I never used at all, some seemed woefully ineffective, and others were just good enough to do a little chip damage or give you a moment to heal, but none of them felt like necessities. 

Lost Paradise gets off to a slow start.  The first four or five chapters are very constrained and linear, but the game opens up after that and feels much more like Yakuza.  There are all kinds of side missions you can accept and activities to complete, and like Yakuza, many of them are quite comical.  For example, you can early a little extra money as a bartender, which can open up some quests from patrons, but also sees Kenshiro use his Hokuto Shinken skills to mix drinks.  Eventually you'll also get access to a vehicle you can use to travel the wastelands, and you can find or purchase upgrades for it as well.  After you get past those initial few hours, the fun factor ramps up dramatically as you're allowed to explore more.

What holds the game back is the fact that many of the quests don't respect the player's time at all.  Too often I was sent on a quests to one location to talk to someone or retrieve something, then I'd return to the original location only to be sent back again.  There's just too much back and forth for very little payoff.

The other issue is how talkative everyone in the game is.  Look, I'm all for a good narrative, and I can appreciate they tried to pay homage to the franchise's roots as a manga and anime series by giving it a decent story, but there is so much talking!  In a game that's mainly combat-centric it just starts to drag on.  It's like Fist of the North Star by way of Hideo Kojima with 20 minute long cutscenes between actual gameplay.  Maybe they just felt that long or maybe they were, but in either case, the long stretches of story did nothing for the overall pacing.

One area it's hard to find fault in is the presentation.  The graphics replicate the look of the animes very well with thick outlines on the characters and bold colors.  It's not quite cel shaded, but it looks more like hand drawn art than 3D models.  Audio fares similarly well.  The English voice cast is solid, and there's just the right amount of camp in the delivery.  Music is a mixture of butt rock and electronic dance that is serviceable and suits the game's silly tone well. 

Control brings it all together.  Using the Dragon engine means everything is responsive, snappy, and beautifully simple.  Like SEGA's classic Virtua Fighter series, you can do a lot with only a few buttons.  It's nearly identical to Yakuza's combat, which is a good thing, because it maintains that level of impressive animation and visual flair but doesn't require the player to input overly complex button sequences.  Also like Yakuza, you'll unlock more techniques as you progress through the game and upgrade Kenshiro.

If you're a huge Fist of the North Star fan, this is likely the best video game version of the series.  It feels very faithful, at least to me and my limited knowledge beyond the anime.  Diehards will probably love stepping into Kenshiro's boots and letting fists fly while enemies explode into clouds of red goop.  The combat is truly exciting, even though it's frequently broken up by the scripted Hokuto Shinken moves.  How much you enjoy the rest of the game's activities or even its story will depend largely on how big of a fan you are.

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise was completed on a PlayStation 4 Pro with no cheats.

Review: The Sinking City [Xbox One]

Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: BigBen Interactive
Released: June 27, 2019
Completed: April 30, 2020
Rated: M for Mature

The Sinking City is one of those games that should have been better, but could have been so much worse.  As I put hour after hour into this Lovecraftian mystery, I encountered numerous bugs, anomalies, glitches, and problems, yet I still couldn't put the controller down.  In spite of all its flaws, major and minor, there's an engaging game here that really got its hooks in me.

As I said in my Call of Cthulhu review, I'm generally a fan of Lovecraft's work, and the games based on it.  The Sinking City does a marvelous job adapting elements of various short stories and novellas into an original story, and most admirably, addresses the concerns of racism present in many of them rather than sweeping them under the rug.  Racism exists in the real world, and in Oakmont, the fictional town (and neighbor to Lovecraft's famous Innsmouth) where it takes place.  Indeed, one of the greatest moments in the game for me was mocking a Grand Wizard of the KKK enough to provoke him to attack me, and then promptly shooting him in his stupid face, but the game doesn't force you down that path either.

There's a lot of freedom in The Sinking City.  As an open-world adventure - or as open as a city more or less closed off from the world by a supernatural flood can be - you'll scour the town for clues, accept or decline quests, upgrade your character, and engage in clunky combat.  This being a Lovecraftian game, it has the requisite sanity system as well, which will cause your vision to blur and all that jazz as you descend into madness.  Let it dip too far, and you die.  It's all pretty standard for a third person horror action-adventure, but what I did appreciate was how I never felt pressured into playing it a certain way.  Puzzles can have different solutions, and unlike most games where I just accept every quest offered to me, there were several I declined because I didn't like the person asking for my assistance. 

That's what The Sinking City does best.  It tells a captivating story and sells a believable, if surreal, world.  There are people I simply didn't want to associate with, and in some cases, decided the world would be better off without them (see: the KKK member).  There are other members, such as the ape-like Mr. Throgmorton, that are shades of gray.  He's an abrasive, rude, and elitist rich man, but he also seems genuinely concerned with his missing son in one of the game's earliest quests, and keeps his word to you.  Frogwares even went out of their way to make some of Innsmouth's transplants likeable, no small feat for fish-faced humanoids.  Just don't get too attached to anyone in particular.  This being a Lovecraftian game, there aren't a lot of happy endings.

You're given more or less free reign to explore Oakmont, though certain areas will be inaccessible until your procure a boat to navigate its flooded streets.  There are numerous generic houses you can enter to search for items that can be used to craft valuable resources, including bullets which, in a clever touch, double as the game's currency.  There are certain areas of town that are infested with grotesque monsters, making them extremely dangerous to enter.  Should you need to, it's advisable to run instead of engaging in combat lest you be quickly overwhelmed and sent to a long, slow loading screen.

The monsters themselves come in only a handful of varieties.  There's a spindly spider-like creature that flits about, making it hard to get a bead on, a gigantic mass of flesh called, appropriately enough, an abomination, and a creature that looks very much like one of the straightjacket enemies from Silent Hill 2.  In addition to otherworldly beasties, you'll encounter the occasional human enemy as well.  No matter who or what you're fighting, combat is the least enjoyable part of the game. 

By contrast, the investigation sequences are an interesting idea that felt just a little undercooked.  Given that you're a private detective, you have some special mental power that allows you to see visions of the past - because of course you do, this is a video game.  At certain points, you'll be tasked with reconstructing a crime scene by viewing the events, then selecting the correct order in which they occurred.  These are seldom difficult, but I enjoyed it from a storytelling perspective and wished the mechanic was a little more fleshed out instead of three or four moments easily pieced together.

The Sinking City is rough around the edges in most ways, including its presentation.  The character models are OK-ish, but they look at least a generation behind in most instances.  The city itself is rather gorgeous with its wet, slick streets and antiquated aesthetic.  The lighting plays a big part in this too, making it attractive to look at in stills, but the rampant screen tearing and graphical glitches spoil it in motion.  I lost count of how often monsters would clip through or get caught in scenery, or enter one of those endless physics based death throes where they just twitch non-stop. 

As if that weren't bad enough, the framerate is woefully inconsistent, often dropping well below 30.  I'm generally not bothered by things like this, having grown up during the early days of 3D gaming and all that entailed, but for a system as powerful as the Xbox One or PS4 to struggle with a game like this definitely shows a lack of optimization. 

Building interiors are generally recycled from one of about three templates, which makes exploring the random houses a bit dull.  On the flip side there are also several unique structures to balance it out.  The water, obviously a prominent part of the game considering its name, looks decent enough.  Basically, the graphics are a mixed bag.

The sound fares a little better.  The voice acting is more capable than you'd probably expect, though certainly not the highest caliber.  There's not a lot of music that I recall, but the ambient sound effects are quite well done. 

One other issue worth mentioning is the game's map.  You'll need to rely on it a lot to navigate the confusing streets and waterways, but it can be very finicky.  Oftentimes, my quest markers would simply disappear until I went back through my active quests, which caused them to reappear.  As you might imagine, this was annoying. 

But to be honest, I enjoyed The Sinking City way, way more than I expected to.  It's a gripping tale of Lovecraftian horror with excellent writing that also intelligently handles some of the author's less admirable qualities.  The game doesn't hold the player's hand, and it respects them enough to make their own decisions instead of telling them how to feel one way or another.  It's rare to see a game demonstrate that level of maturity, and even though I happily shot the grand wizard without thinking twice, I respect that the game didn't get all preachy to tell me what I already know: racism is bad.  Instead, it just presents situations to you and you deal with them as you see fit, allowing you to immerse yourself a bit more. 

True, the immersion breaks whenever one of the game's graphical glitches, extremely long load times, or even the occasional hard crash crops up, but none of it was enough to stop me from playing.  I was engaged until the very end, and satisfied with the conclusion I received (out of three possible endings).  Frankly, it's one of the better Lovecraftian games I've played, even if it's held back by its technical issues.

The Sinking City was completed on an Xbox One X with no cheats.

Review: Streets of Rage 4 [Xbox One]

Developer: DotEmu, LizardCube, Guard Crush Games
Publisher: DotEmu
Released: April 30, 2020
Completed: April 30, 2020
Rated: T for Teen

After a 26 year wait that included several attempts that never got past the pitch stage, Streets of Rage 4 is finally here!  Was it worth the wait?  Mostly.

Rather than waste time with a lengthy dissertation on how much I love this series, let's dive right in to the meat and potatoes.  Streets of Rage 4 is a worthy successor to the original trilogy, but it's not perfect.  In many ways, it's polarizing, specifically the hand-drawn art style.  I'll admit, I'm still not fully sold on it.  At times it looks great in conjunction with the lighting, and others I think it loses the grittier, more realistic look of its past.  There's an absolute quality to the assets, but the overall visual style may not click with you.  Some people love it, some absolutely loathe it, and wishy-washy people like myself fall in between.

Whatever you think of the visuals, I think everyone can agree they're nothing if the gameplay doesn't deliver.  On this front, Streets of Rage 4 is generally a home run.  It feels very much like the best entry in the series (Streets of Rage 2, for the uninitiated or uneducated) with some nice new additions in the form of a juggle combo system, and new offensive and defensive special moves.  But before we get to all that, let's discuss the roster.

Returning for the fourth outing are Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding, the only two characters to appear in all four games.  More importantly, returning for the first time since the game that started it all is Adam Hunter!  Adam was always my favorite of the original trio thanks to his long reach and raw power, and the announcement he would finally be playable once again was a welcome one.  Joining the old favorites are newcomers Cherry Hunter, Adam's punk-rocker daughter, and Floyd Iraia, a beefed-up protégé of Dr. Zan who's sort of a cross between his mentor and Max Thunder for SoR2. 

It's a fine and well-balanced cast where each fighter offers something unique.  They all have clearly defined attributes that make them feel different from one another beyond just their special moves.  With any beloved franchise, there are always characters you'd love to see return - Skate, Max, Zan, or even hidden playable character Shiva would have been welcome - but the base cast is supplemented by a host of nostalgic unlockables.

As you play, you'll earn points that go towards unlocking these bonus characters, which includes nearly every playable character exactly as they appeared and played in the original three games.  Only Roo the Kangaroo, a hidden character from SoR3, is absent though Shiva is included.  It's odd Roo is nowhere to be found with all the others returning, and considering he's seen tending bar in one of the game's early stages, but I guess there's just no place in the world for a boxing kangaroo.

Getting back to the game's combat, SoR4 will feel instantly familiar to veterans.  There are actually lots of minor changes made to things like invincibility frames, but the basic controls remain the same.  There is now a separate button to pick up items, which feels weird, but you get used to it pretty fast.  The biggest changes are the new juggle combos, and how the specials work.

The combo meter is pretty self-explanatory.  Hitting enemies in rapid succession will increase said meter, resulting in a point multiplier, and looking pretty cool to boot if you manage to keep an enemy airborne for a while.  It's not just for single enemies though.  So long as you're on the offensive, any enemy hit within the window of time will count towards your combo.  It's a fun new mechanic for expert level players who can do some really impressive things, and it adds depth to the already rock solid combat.

Specials also work a bit differently.  Gone is the meter from Streets of Rage 3.  Your offensive and defensive specials will cost you a portion of your lifebar, but this time around that portion turns green.  As long as you aren't hit by an enemy, you can regain this portion back with subsequent attacks of your own.  It's an excellent system that rewards skillful play, though at the time of this writing, it's easy to exploit with Floyd's defensive special, which has a large window of invincibility frames.

The combat feels great, which is the most important thing.  It's obvious the developers revere the original three games and did their best to replicate that feeling while adding thoughtful improvements.  Enemies are aggressive and somewhat intelligent, and many have their own quirks such as the ability to block your attacks or throw the player (and yes, the defensive landing is still in the game).  The game provides a very reasonable challenge for the uninitiated, and experts can crank the difficulty up for more. 

That's all well and good... but how's the music?

Yuzo Koshiro's soundtracks to the classic Genesis games were as memorable as the combat itself, so when it was announced he was returning to provide tracks for the fourth entry, fans were excited.  Koshiro-san didn't provide the entire soundtrack, but his involvement was considered a make-or-break factor for many people. 

Streets of Rage 4's beats aren't anywhere near as memorable as the first two games, and they're significantly better than 3's, but ultimately I was a little disappointed in the soundtrack.  There are some decent tunes, and I liked how the music would build, adding layers and complexities that matched the pace of the gameplay as you progressed through the stages.  It's just that there's little here I'd listen to outside of the game.  Like I said, it's decent but not exceptional.  There is also an option to use retro soundtracks, which consists of music curated from Streets of Rage 1 and 2 on the Game Gear and Genesis respectively.  Why they opted to use the Game Gear music instead of the Genesis original is beyond me, and it makes this option notably less desirable than it would have been had they used the incredible YM2612 tracks.

Circling back around to the visuals, it must also be said that the style may be subjective, but some of the character designs are objectively poor.  Replacing Mr. X are his children who have an anime-emo-chic look that just does not work for the game.  There is a graphical filter you can apply that adds a pixelated look, bringing it closer in line with the Genesis games, but no filter can make up for such lame villains.

After a 26 year wait, I'm willing to overlook a lot of Streets of Rage 4's issues.  It's not a perfect sequel, but it does justice to the original trilogy.  Questionable art and character designs notwithstanding, the combat is deep and satisfying.  The game may be a bit too long for its own good, and the music doesn't come close to the greatness of the first two games, but it's a worthy revival in a series that has lain dormant for far too long.  Hopefully it also becomes the blueprint for Streets of Rage 5 - much sooner rather than later.

Streets of Rage 4 was completed on an Xbox One X with no cheats.

Retro-Review: Bare Knuckle III [Genesis]

Developer: SEGA/Ancient
Publisher: SEGA
Released: March 18, 1994
Completed: April 27, 2020

A while back I reviewed Streets of Rage 3, the western release of Bare Knuckle III and the final installment in the series until 2020's hotly anticipated Streets of Rage 4.  I compared it quite unfavorably to the Japanese version because, well, the Japanese version is better.  In fact, it's so much better, it warrants its own review, even though it's sort of redundant.

The experience of playing Bare Knuckle III is vastly different than its American counterpart.  It's easier - almost too easy on the normal difficulty - by a wide margin, with the US version's default difficulty being worse than hard in Japan.  Whereas the US version often feels like a slog, the lower enemy count of BK3 quickens the overall pacing, and thank god for the more modest lifebars of the Japanese bosses. 

Fundamentally, it's the same game.  It has the same characters with the same moves, the same levels, the same soundtrack, and the same new mechanics.  Weapons still degrade and break after several hits, you can still roll up or down or dash left to right, and a meter still governs whether your special moves will cost you a small portion of your lifebar or not.  The more reasonable difficulty just makes it exponentially more fun to play.

There are some minor differences, of course, many of them cosmetic.  Axel's inexplicably yellow shirt is once again white, and Blaze returns in her red top and skirt.  Axel again shouts "grand upper!" instead of the ironic "bare knuckle" used in the US version, despite it being the Japanese title of the series.  The biggest gameplay difference, besides being more manageable to play, is the inclusion of the stage one mid-boss, Ash.

It's easy to see why Ash was dropped from the American release, though some of his data still exists on the cart and can be accessed via a Game Genie if you want to play a bugged out version of him.  A raging homosexual stereotype, Ash resembles the Village People's Macho Man, wears fishnet stockings, and runs with limp wrists flung upwards.  I'm not easily offended, but even I groaned.  Even in 1994 when homosexuality was far less socially accepted, this would be considered outrageous.  If nothing else, it's an interesting sign of cultural differences that no one at SEGA of Japan thought this should be removed.

Oddly, the American version does not replace the boss fight with Ash.  His sprite driving boatloads of thugs to the dock was replaced with stage one boss Shiva's, but you don't engage with him until the end of the round. 

The other big difference between the US and Japanese releases is the story.  Not only was it heavily altered for the US, containing a plot that involved Mr. X replacing government officials with robot clones, it was also significantly cut down.  There are additional mid-level cinematics in Bare Knuckle III that tell an entirely different story of a deadly explosive discovered by newcomer Dr. Zan that Mr. X hopes to use to start a full-scale world war.  It's the discovery of this substance that leads Zan to joining the rest of the cast as a force for good.  Stories in beat 'em ups are about as important as male nipples, but it's still puzzling why it was changed for the western audience.

Unfortunately, one thing that did not change was the music.  Bare Knuckle III has the same spastic hard techno soundtrack as the US game.  I know it has its fans, but I hate it with few exceptions. 

The change in difficulty really makes all the difference, resulting in a much more fair and faster paced game.  The stages are still somewhat uninspired, but you won't be bogged down by twice as many enemies in each one, allowing you to progress faster.  It's generally assumed that SEGA altered the difficulty of Streets of Rage 3 to combat the rental market, where games could often be beaten over a weekend, thus eliminating the incentive to purchase them.  In doing so, they highlighted the repetitive nature of beat 'em ups and stripped much of the fun out of the game.  There are only so many hundreds of Galsias you can beat down before you're ready to stop playing.  Taking everything into account, Bare Knuckle III is still the weakest game in the series, but it's superior to the American Streets of Rage 3.  

Bare Knuckle III was completed on a real Genesis via a homebrew English translation cart with no cheats.