Title: Resident Evil Deadly Silence
Developer: Capcom
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: DS
NA Availability: Retail
EU Availability: Retail
Block Usage:  N/A

The first Resident Evil game is known for being an iconic start for the survival horror genre.  Having come out 3 years before its would-be rival, Silent Hill, it introduced a zombie scenario that led to an interesting storyline along with an experience that made you pick your battles, conserve ammo, and even take a lot of risks with having a limited number of times you could save your progress.  It went onward with that formula for four more titles before Capcom changed the direction in RE4.

The first Resident Evil is the very first horror game that I played and, coincidentally, the first horror game I reviewed for this site with the PS1 Classic, Resident Evil: Director’s Cut.  It shaped my love for the franchise that still stands today with dozens of replays of 1, 2, and 4 along with infinite ammo saves for 4, 5, and Revelations 2 on both the Vita and PS4 and my recent acquisition and playing of Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles.

With reviews, I only have a single handheld Resident Evil left and this will also be the first time I’ve reviewed multiple versions of what is essentially the same base game.  Remade for the Nintendo DS with various enhancements to the original on the PS1, here is my retro review of Resident Evil: Deadly Silence!

Story

The story of the first Resident Evil needs no introduction for horror fans.  In the outskirts of a Midwestern town in the United States (coincidentally in the same region of the country where I grew up and live), a series of bizarre murder cases have been reported.  The Special Tactics and Rescue Squad, otherwise known as S.T.A.R.S., sends its Bravo Team to investigate, which leads to their disappearance as well as the events of Resident Evil Zero.

When Bravo Team doesn’t turn up, Alpha Team is sent after them, only to be attacked by vicious monster-like dogs in the forest.  With their helicopter gone and monsters all around them, they retreat to a nearby mansion, only to walk into a trap-ridden house full of zombified humans, dogs, spiders, and more.  As they head in further and search for their fellow comrades, they uncover a plot that would spark the starting point of the entire series, all down to a single company.

The story of the first Resident Evil had a lot of good moments, but aside from the HD Remake, it is best known for having cheesy-bad lines and just-as-comical voice-work.  If you didn’t experience this kind of voice-acting back when these games first came out, you’re in for a very awkward and comical treat.  The infamous “Jill Sandwich” joke began with this game.

Gameplay

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is an enhanced port of the original Resident Evil.  Since it plays the same way the original did, this is a 3D survival horror game with puzzle elements thrown into the mix.  You will be constantly exploring areas, shooting and knifing down enemies from time to time, and collecting items to use to solve puzzles to open new paths.

The main differences between this and the original game are the inclusion of a “Rebirth Mode”, local Multi-Player, and touch-based gameplay additions.  The most unique of these new features is the touch-oriented gameplay.  Since that will be tied in with Rebirth Mode, I’ll talk about both of those together in a moment.

There are two ways of playing the game, Original Mode and Rebirth Mode.  Original Mode replicates the experience found in Director’s Cut, which is available for the PlayStation Vita as a PS1 Classic.  Rebirth Mode is exclusive to the DS version of the game, with more enemies, more ammo, and hardware-based mini-games, puzzles, and battles.

These hardware mini-games are in the form of touch and microphone features.  A lot of the puzzles that just required flipping a switch in the original game now have their own puzzles.  For example, flipping the switch in the “Statue/Gas” room in the mansion now has you setting gems on a scale to achieve an equal balance to open up the area to the item hidden in the room.  A lot of these are touch-based, but there are also a few that use the microphone, with you physically giving CPR to a certain comrade or blowing into the mic to blow out candles in a room.

The most fun to be had in the new features are the touch-based combat battles.  Certain doors and rooms have a random chance of spawning a first-person knife fight when you enter the room.  In these sequences, you will be armed with the knife and must fight off enemies running towards you.  You use the touch screen to swipe or stab with the knife and you can either slash at will or slash just before an attack hits you to get a critical hit.  This feature is also used for an exclusive and particularly-tense knife battle against Yawn, the giant snake boss.

The base game is the same as the past versions of the game.  You will be running from room to room, collecting ammo and items to be used in puzzles and managing your storage through chests you find in various rooms.  You also must find Ink Ribbon items in order to save your progress.  Only having 3 Ink Ribbons means you can only save your progress 3 times unless you find more Ink Ribbons.

Combat is incorporated into the game, but not nearly as heavily as past titles.  Since this is more of a survival game, ammo is very limited.  If you want to have enough ammo for boss fights, you have to decide what you want to fight and which enemies you’d rather just run past.  Getting ammo drops from first-person knife battles helps this, but you can’t just run and gun, especially towards the end when enemies in rooms start to respawn if you leave that room or hall for more than a minute or two.

The most strategic part of the game is what you take with you.  Your inventory is extremely limited, so you have to store items in chests and choose what you want to take with you.  If you need 4 crests to open the rear door of the mansion, you have to decide if you want to take them all at once, because that would leave you with only 2 remaining slots for weapons, ammo, and healing items.  It’s all a big thought process and strategy, even for those like me that have played the game literally dozens of times over.

When you beat the game in Rebirth Mode without getting any of the bad endings, you can unlock the Master of Knifing Game Mode.  This has you running through a gauntlet of first-person knife battles leading up to a boss.  While this is a fun and challenging game in its own right, beating it with a high score will allow you to unlock a certain character for Multi-Player.

Speaking of, Multi-Player is a mode that you can use if you have a local friend with a DS, 2DS, or 3DS and a copy of the game.  In Multi-Player, there are Versus and Co-Op Modes as well as a lot of unlockable characters to play as.  In both, you’re fighting against enemies from the game as well as more powerful versions.  For example, you could be fighting Hunters along with a larger Boss-level Hunter.

As far as time is concerned, it is a gamble on what you know versus what you don’t.  When I first got Deadly Silence back in the DS/PSP gen, I played it almost 50 times right after one another (Yes, I love RE1 that much).  Having not played the game in about a year or so, it took me about 4 hours to complete the game as Jill.  There was some unneeded backtracking there, as the game can be completed in under 3 hours.

What I’d say is that if you’re like me and practically have the entire game engraved in your memory, it’ll take you 3-4 hours to beat it.  If you’re new to the game, you can probably double that time if you’re not using a guide.

Controls

Since this is a DS game, there is no way to use the new buttons on the New 3DS while playing this game.  ZL, ZR, and the C Stick will not be used.  Most of the others will be, but you can’t use those extra buttons in Resident Evil.

As far as controls go, the D-Pad and Circle Pad can be used for walking, turning, and aiming your weapon in front, above, or below you.  Then you have the L trigger for getting the knife out (a feature inspired from Resident Evil 4) and the R trigger for aiming your currently-equipped weapon.  What the face buttons do depends on your control scheme.  Control Type A has the A and Y buttons used for actions/shooting with B to be held for running.  Control Type B has A and B for actions and Y for running.  X is never used.

I can already here you readers saying it: Tank Controls!  Yes, the game has tank controls.  This means that if you want to turn to go to the right or left, you can’t just strafe or automatically go that way.  You stop, manually turn, and then go forward again.  This is something that added to the strategy/survival of these games but also one of the things that makes them not having aged well for newcomers.

Presentation

The visual presentation was done in a very smart way.  When you play DS games on the 3DS, the top screen is cropped in its original resolution, but the bottom screen is full-screen on the 3DS.  Even on the XL models, it is stretched to fit full-screen.  Any DS developers who made games where the game displayed on the bottom screen can give gamers a pretty nice experience on the 2DS/3DS.

Now about the actual visuals of Deadly Silence.  It looks a little cleaner than the PlayStation version, which is a plus.  The only bad part is that the DS version didn’t render CG scenes very well.  Even on the DS, the famous first-zombie scene is a pixelated mess.  All of the CG scenes are like that, so just know that’s how that is.  Actual gameplay looks nice, though, considering they are tuned PS1 graphics.

Now about the performance.  Load times are near-non-existent, which is great, and another thing is that the door opening sequences can be skipped.  While these did add to the tension of what was in the next room, it’s very convenient to be able to skip them.

The frame-rate is what I have an issue with.  Almost the entire game runs really well.  However, when you get to that Guardhouse section where you’re running through water, you slow down but so does the frame-rate.  Everything slows down to a chug.  At first, it may look like it’s just the built-in water physics, but it doesn’t take long to realize it’s the game having a hard time running on the DS.

Title: Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Developer: Lucas Arts, Double Fine
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.0 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

When you hear the name, Lucas Arts, what do you think of?  Most people’s answer to that will be Star Wars, Star Wars, and more Star Wars.  After all, we’re talking about Lucas Arts here.  I’ll admit that the majority of Lucas Arts games I’ve played are Star Wars games, like the Battlefront series or my favorite PS1-era Star Wars game, Shadows of the Empire.

Lucas Arts is also known for adventure games that have done really well in their time.  One such adventure game got remastered for new systems last year in the form of Grim Fandango Remastered.  I reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling of that title, especially the big variety in character personalities.  I loved that cute little bubbly secretary in Year 2.  Such a shame she just kind of disappeared after that.

A couple other Lucas Arts games that have been talked of recently are Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle.  These were point-and-click adventure games that acted and played like old classic cartoons.  The PS Vita recently got the ability to play these in remastered form.  Here is my review of Day of the Tentacle Remastered!

Story

The story actually begins 5 years prior to the beginning of Day of the Tentacle.  During the events of the original game, Maniac Mansion, a group of friends ventures into a mad scientist’s mansion in order to save one of their friends.  Five years later, one of the living sentient tentacles that live at the mansion drinks toxic sludge-filled water and mutates, growing arms and an appetite for violence and global domination.

Upon this happening, the old gang from the first game is contacted and they venture back to the mansion to put a stop to Purple Tentacle’s plans to take over the world.

The story of this game really does imitate old cartoons.  The intro looks like a cartoon, the way everyone talks, and even how the visual design and animations look reminds me heavily of 90s cartoons.  This is really unique and charming for someone like me, who grew up in that era.

Gameplay

Day of the Tentacle Remastered, just like its original version, is a point-and-click adventure game.  Throughout the game you will be pointing with a cursor and clicking on items, doorways, and other objects as you travel through a mansion and more solving puzzles with items and through dialogue with NPCs.

The main difference between the original game and Remastered is the updated visuals and the updated user interface.  Much like Grim Fandango Remastered, though, you can switch back and forth between the updated and original of these two.  Also noteworthy is that you no longer need to use the Computer in the mansion 5 times to play the original game, Maniac Mansion.  You only need to use it once.  However, the original game received no enhancements in the Remastered version.

The main difference between this game and Grim, though, is that there is no free roam control with the buttons.  This is still a point-and-click game at heart.  You move a cursor around the room and anything you can interact with is highlighted when the cursor goes over it.  You can then select it to move there and/or interact with it.  Think of it like the point-and-click investigation sequences from the Danganronpa series.

As you explore various areas, there are a lot of different items and people you can interact with.  Some things you can look at, talk to, turn on or off, and some you can even take to use in combination with something somewhere else.  It’s got the same kind of progression as Grim Fandango, but a different take.  You can also combine items you can take with one another to create new items to use in combination with a place.

This is where the game’s main point as well as the main bit of confusion can lie.  With absolutely no tutorial, hint system, or anything else to clue you in on what you’re supposed to be doing, you just have to figure out and experiment until you get things right with solving puzzles.  This can take quite a long time to adjust to, as this game’s puzzles are much more difficult than those in Grim Fandango.  Without a guide, it can be easy to wander and get lost, not finding what you need for more than an hour or so.

Speaking of time, this game can take a good 6 or more hours to complete, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can take even longer.  In short, this may look like an indie to untrained eyes, it is a game that has quite a bit of content to go through, and that’s not even counting playing through the original game.

Before wrapping this up, let’s talk about an ever-annoying PSN Pop-Up feature built into the game.  The game supports cross-save, so it likes to connect to the internet.  If you’re not home and trying to save battery, the game cannot load properly with Airplane Mode turned on.  When I’ve tried, I went into a literally endless loop of windows of it trying to connect to PSN at the title screen and it telling me I have Airplane Mode turned on.  It isn’t until you manually re-enable the network features that it allows you to go past this.  It also periodically will bring up the Connecting to PSN pop-up if you suspend the game for a while and go back to it later.

Controls

As many people once thought otherwise, Day of the Tentacle Remastered is compatible with the PlayStation TV.  Since the game has button and touch controls both, there’s no need to have to use the alternative touch features with a DS4’s touchpad or the R3/L3 commands.

The D-Pad doesn’t do anything in the game aside from using the Up button to highlight each object in the room that you can interact with.  The Left Analog Stick allows you to move the cursor around the map and the Right Analog Stick will cycle the cursor between objects you can interact with.  The L and R triggers lets you cycle between items in your inventory that you wish to use in combination with objects in the room.  X interacts with an object and Square pulls up an interaction menu.  Triangle pulls up your inventory, and Circle cancels out of menus.

Finally, the Start button will let you pause the game and go back to the Main Menu.  The Select Button is the most interesting, though.  Tapping the Select button will switch between the remastered visuals and interface with the original game’s visuals and interface.

I wouldn’t say it’s a bad control scheme, but as I said in the Gameplay section, the game doesn’t tell you how to do anything.

Presentation

The visual presentation of this remaster is really well done.  All of the graphics are smooth, colorful, and really a big upgrade from the original.  This is overly apparent when you switch back and forth between the original and remastered visuals.  It’s a showing that things have really come a long way in these past 23 years.

The rest of the game I have no issues with.  I really like how the voice-acting and dialogue really fit the “cartoon” feel of the game.  Load times are nice and short and things run pretty nice.

Title: Super Mario World
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: New Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Virtual Console (SNES)
NA Availability: Digital
EU Availability: Digital
Block Usage:  68

Super Nintendo emulation has finally become a thing for 3DS users.  However, there is a good bit of controversy over it, as it is exclusive to the “New” line of 3DS systems.  This was explained early on, as the clock speed of the original 3DS simple cannot handle SNES emulation, as bizarre as that sounds.  Regardless, New 3DS owners can include classics like Earthbound and Super Mario Kart on their handheld.

Today’s review is going to be a review for a game, but essentially also a review of how SNES emulation works on the 3DS.  And what better way to start these SNES retro reviews off than with Mario’s famed entrance to and the best-selling game on the SNES.  Here is my retro review of SNES title, Super Mario World!

Story

Super Mario World essentially functions as Super Mario Bros. 4, taking place not long after the events of NES game, Super Mario Bros. 3.  Mario and Luigi decide to take a vacation to a place known as Dinosaur Land after saving Princess Peach in the previous game.  Not long after relaxing, though, the Princess has disappeared.  Upon searching, they find a dinosaur named Yoshi (the series playable debut of my favorite character from the series), whom explains that both the princess and his dinosaur companions have been captured by the Koopas.

What I just told you is way more story than the game actually gives you, and that’s how Mario has always been.  You just play the game, but dig into the manual and you find this involved story synopsis that is barely mentioned in the game.  But, the game tells you enough to get you going, and even gives you bits and pieces of storyline every time you finish up a castle’s boss fight.

Gameplay

Super Mario World is a 2D platformer, much like the majority of Mario games were back in those days, and some still today.  You will be progressing through stages platforming, gaining coins and power-ups, and fighting off enemies and bosses in order to get to the next stage towards your goal.

Progression in the game is linear, in a way.  You have a point-to-point map where you tackle a stage, unlock the next, play it to unlock the next, etc until you get to a Castle that houses a boss fight and then move onto the next area.  This is a pretty standard thing with Mario games, but there is some deviation that the game threw in.  Some areas have secret exits that open optional areas, while others require you to find secret exits to go to the next area, like the Forest of Illusion world.

This game also introduced Yoshi as part of the main series.  Although Yoshi didn’t get his own platformer game until Super Mario World 2, he is a power-up you can find from blocks and you can ride him.  This can make tackling enemies much easier, though Yoshi cannot enter any of the Ghost House or Castle stages with you.  You also have a new power-up in the form of the Hero Cape that lets you temporarily fly and glide, somewhat similar to the Tanooki Tail/Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3.

As you go through each stage, you will have to fight or avoid enemies.  Some can be jumped on, while others must be attacked with a power-up, like the Fire Flower or Hero Cape.  Most enemies are easy to tell their strategy, but if you’re new to the game or series, it may take some experimentation to get it right.  The Restore Point Virtual Console feature will be able to help you immensely in that regard.  Just like Game Boy and NES VC, you can actively create restore points anytime and re-load them if you screw up.

The most fun parts of the game is surely going through and fighting the bosses.  These pit you in castle environments against a single boss, having you watching and learning boss patterns so you can figure out how to hit and defeat them.  There are 8 main bosses throughout the game and a mini-boss thrown into World 7 as well.

The difficulty I would put at medium.  A lot of older platformers were known for being overly difficult, but Super Mario World’s difficulty would pass fine with today’s standards.  Harder than more recent Mario games but not frustratingly so.  The most difficult part of the game is finding secret exits, and even the required secrets are just a matter of experimenting with pipes and the cape.

Your first run of the game could take a good 5-6 hours or more, depending on how well you do at the game.  Veterans could expect a much shorter time, but veterans know exactly what they’re in for.  If you use the Restore Point system, that’ll shave a lot of retry time off how long it will take you.  It’s long enough to keep you busy.

Controls

Since SNES Virtual Console is only able to be used on the New 3DS, it utilizes some of the new buttons featured on that model.  The C Stick doesn’t have any use, but the ZL and ZR buttons can be held down and used with Y to switch which controller is currently being used in the game.  This is used for situations such as a 2-player game in Super Mario World where Luigi is always associated with Controller 2.

The Circle Pad and D-Pad can be used for movement in this game and the two triggers can be used to extend the camera left and right to look at where you’re going.  A is used for the spinning jump and B is used for the normal jump.  You can hold down either the X or Y buttons while moving to run.

Overall, it’s a pretty simple design.  I think the inclusion of the New 3DS buttons in the Virtual Console interface was a good idea, further tying this to those models aside from CPU requirements.

Presentation

To talk about visuals, we need to discuss Pixel Perfect mode.  In SNES Virtual Console games, the default resolution is about like what Nintendo DS games look like on the 3DS.  This is slightly larger than the SNES’ native resolution, which means that the image is stretched out.  There is no form of filtering going on here, so when it is stretched like this, it is very blurry.  This is certainly not optimal for gaming.

If you go into the VC Menu on the touch screen, you can enable pixel perfect mode.  This slightly reduces the screen size and displays the games in their original resolution which makes things very clear without any blurring, even on the New 3DS XL.  This is vastly preferable, even for those that prefer larger screens.  The blur is just too much of an annoyance.  It makes you wonder why they didn’t just make pixel perfect mode the default resolution.

As far as how Super Mario World looks, I don’t have a whole lot of complaints.  The 2D models don’t look absolutely perfect, but they do look nice for what they are.  I found no issues with the way they looked or were presented.

Title: Mega Man Legends 2
Developer: Capcom
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: PS One Classic
Download: 228 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Currently Unavailable
PSTV Support: Yes

A lot of series fans were really let down when Mega Man Legends 3 was announced for the Nintendo 3DS and was later cancelled before even the prototype demo version released on the eShop.  Now, we don’t know if we will ever get Mega Man Legends 3, after all of that hype for the series’ first game since the PlayStation era.

There are alternatives for handheld fans of the Legends series.  As much as some 3DS owners may not enjoy it, PS Vita fans are now able to play all three Legends games via PS1 Classics.  It started with the Legends prequel around Tron Bonne and then Mega Man Legends, which many people thought wasn’t able to be put on PSN due to copyright issues.

Now, much time after my reviews of those, what seems to still be the final game in the Legends series has arrived on PSN for PS Vita and PSTV owners to enjoy.  Here is my official retro review of Mega Man Legends 2!

Story

Some time after the events of Legends, Roll’s grandfather, Barrel (Do a Barrel Roll!), leads an expedition to a place called Forbidden Island, where legends state that no one has ever returned from.  On said island is the mythical Mother Lode, which legend states is the greatest treasure in the world.  During the voyage, however, Barrel’s ship is attacked by an unknown assailant, prompting Mega Man and Roll to join in and assist.

Following this, Mega Man and Roll are sent to surrounding islands to recover keys to unlock and reveal the Mother Lode, racing against the clock in competition with The Bonnes from the first Legends game, Glyde from the Tron Bonne game, and two new pirates entering the fray.  As they work, they also uncover hidden mysteries of the islands as well as Mega Man’s past and the fates of Roll’s parents.

The story is definitely one of the larger parts of this series, and it retains the enjoyable plots of the first Legends game all while also providing a lot of mythos for the series as a whole.

Gameplay

Mega Man Legends 2, like the first game, is a 3D action game with platforming and puzzle elements thrown into the mix.  As you go through each area and dungeon, you’ll be constantly platforming, gathering items to solve puzzles, and fighting off enemies with your buster gun and select special weapons you can create from items.

The main differences between the first and second Legends games are some extra systems thrown in as well as the fact that none of the special weapons are required to progress through the story.  Some extra systems are in the form of a large number of side-quests to do, a license system that can strengthen enemies and allow access to new ruins, and finally an Affection system with Roll that can lead you down a Light or Dark path that is tied to one of the side-quests as well as affecting shop prices.

Progressing through the game has you using The Flutter to fly to various islands in the vicinity of Forbidden Island.  On each island, there are towns full of NPCs and shops as well as dungeons for you to fight your way through to get key items both for the storyline and to help you afford upgrades from the Junk Shops.  Once you get so far in the story, all of these islands also house a lot of side-quests for you to go through for specific items, scenes, and changes to shop prices.

Upgrading is a big part of the depth of the gameplay systems.  Junk Shops sell all sorts of upgrades for you to buy.  There are buster gun parts that can increase your power, range, rapid (speed), and energy efficiency.  There are also armor pieces for the head, body, and legs that can increase your damage resistance as well as allowing dodge-rolls and free passage on hazardous terrain.

The biggest thing, though, are material items and booklets.  Booklets that you find will have instructions on making equipment and special weapons.  If you gather both the book and required items, Roll can develop and upgrade that equipment for you.  This is the only way to gain access to these weapons, so theirs is much exploring and buying to do if you want to be able to use special weapons and especially the jet skates that give you much faster maneuverability.

Exploring dungeons is pretty simple.  You go through each room with the goal of finding the end, where the key item you need to progress the story is.  Along the way, enemies, mini-bosses, and major bosses will fight you.  Each dungeon also has a specific puzzle-type to it.  Some have sections you have to flood and slowly move through water to get through some areas, while others have you adjusting gravity levels to unlock and gain access to certain doors.

Combat is the most fun you’ll have in the game, particularly boss fights.  You fight with the buster gun and special weapons.  The buster has unlimited ammo while the special weapons use up special energy that must be recharged once it runs out be it from enemy drops or special upgrades you can buy from the shop, much like the energy canteens you can buy to refill your health gauge.

When you defeat enemies, they drop health, special weapon energy, and refractors.  Health and Special Weapon Energy will replenish the health and special gauges, respectively.  Refractors are used as money, and you’ll need a lot of it for good equipment upgrades.  Thankfully, this game retains all of the glitches of the original release, so the “Golden Bird” trick can still be used for farming refractors.

Fighting bosses is where the game gets difficult.  Every boss has a specific pattern that must be learned in order to really fight against.  I had only a couple bosses I didn’t have to repeat a few times to learn strategies to beat, one being the final boss because I farmed money and had OP equipment.  Since this also brought back the Mega Man tradition and refighting bosses at the end of the game, it’s best to learn strategies early so not only can you be ready for the end-game, but also so you can beat them without having to retrace your steps with very little health.

Across the game is a lot of time to consume.  My first run took me out of the way for only a few side-quests for upgrading equipment and I beat the final boss around 12 hours into the game.  Considering most Mega Man games don’t take much more than a couple hours, this has a lot of content to go through.

Controls

Controlling the game is doable, but can also be tricky at the same time.  Like the first game, the R2 trigger is used a lot for locking onto enemies, so some control configuring is to be done on the Vita.  On the PlayStation TV, you don’t need to worry, since you have all the buttons you need on a DS3 or DS4.

So here’s how it goes.  The Left Analog Stick lets you move and the L and R triggers can be used for the camera controls.  R2 is used for locking onto enemies,  Then with the face buttons, X is used for jumping and Circle for interacting with people and objects.  Triangle is used for firing your special weapon and Square for your buster gun.

What I would suggest is moving the camera controls (L and R) to the Right Analog Stick and R2 to the R trigger.  This enables a very comfortable play style.

Now, the lock-on works so much better in this that there aren’t any near-impossible bosses like in Legends.  However, the camera can still screw you up from time to time.  When there are a lot of enemies on screen, the camera can easily move where you don’t want it or far enough away from your target that auto-lock goes to something else.  This is quite frustrating.

Presentation

Visually, this game is a step up from the first Legends game.  There is a lot more detail and the environments are much more colorful.  Not that the first Legends looked bad for a PS1 game, but they definitely improved the graphical engine in Legends 2.

I can also say that, unlike the PSN release of the first game, Legends 2 contains no slowdown or frame-rate issues whatsoever.  Load times are short and I have no real complaints about the presentation.

Title: Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy
Developer: Climax Studios, Ubisoft
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 2.9 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download | Retail
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

It’s not every day that the PS Vita gets a game from a major AAA franchise.  What could be called a game from a hit franchise was Hitman Go from awhile back, but Hitman isn’t really as big as a lot of other franchises.  But, we are talking about games like Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Final Fantasy X HD Remaster, Killzone: Mercenary, Resident Evil Revelations 2, and so on and so forth.  It happens, but not very often anymore.

Assassin’s Creed hit the Vita first with Liberation, which while entertaining, was riddled with bugs and glitches, not an uncommon trait with an Assassin’s Creed game.  Aside from that, Vita owners could also play Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines, a PSP mashup of the gameplay of the first two entries as well as a story taking place between the first two games.  However, PlayStation TV owners only have the convenience of Bloodlines, as Liberation was never made compatible with the micro-console.

Both the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV have gotten a new game, or set of games, in the recent weeks for the franchise.  The recent “Assassin’s Creed Chronicles” trilogy has come to the handheld world, and it’s my job to fill you in on how this goes.  Combining the China, India, and Russia chapters, here is my official review of Assassin’s Creed: Chronicles!

Story

The story of Chronicles takes place over three different time periods, because this is actually a collection of three different games.  On the main consoles, PS4 and Xbox One, these were separately released early this year.  Yet, they’re bundled together on the Vita.  So, to explain the story, we need to explain the story of each individual chapter.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China marks the exploits of Assassin Shao Jun, an Assassin during the 1500s, the time of Khan and the Mongolian assault on the Great Wall of China.  A Chinese sect of Templars known as the Tigers recently ambushed and wiped out almost all of the Chinese Brotherhood of Assassins and Shao allows herself to be captured, having a mystic box given to her by Ezio Auditore as the bait, starting a campaign for the Templars’ quest for this box and Shao’s quest to avenge her fallen brothers and sisters.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India takes place some 300 years later, during the Sino-Sikh wars.  Arbaaz Mir, an Assassin whom has fallen in love with the princess of the Sikh Empire.  After a meeting with her, he is sent on a journey after a sect of Templars in India and later Afghanistan that ambush his mentor and covet a mystic jewel they were carrying, supposedly connecting it with a strange box at a nearby temple.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is one of the most recent AC games to date, taking place in 1918, not long after the end of the Russia Revolution.  An older Assassin named Nikolai Orelov, about to retrieve legal papers to leave the country for America, is sent by the Brotherhood to retrieve a box at the Tsar’s home, rumored to be the same box that Ezio Auditore had given Shao Jun almost 400 years prior.  Once there, he finds a plot by the Templars not only to covet the box, but also to murder the Tsar’s family, including whom would one day become the famed Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov.  This tale follows Nikolai and Anastasia as they make enemies of not only the Templars, but another group as well on their trip out of Russia.

The storylines of these games each tell a specific, standalone tale, but the box Ezio gives to Shao Jun in China is the central point that melds them all together.  It appears in all three scenarios and the Chronicles Trilogy essentially shows you where the box and its corresponding artifacts goes all the way from China in the 1500s to present day in a secret epilogue.

Gameplay

Unlike most games of the series, Chronicles leaves the realm of 3D open-world and takes the action-stealth gameplay into the 2.5D world.  Chronicles is a 2.5D side-scrolling action-stealth platformer, donning gameplay similar to LittleBigPlanet but with the Assassin’s Creed formula thrown in instead of Sackboy’s typical types of journeys.  You will still be performing assassinations, fighting enemies, taking leaps of faith into bails of hay, and everything else the series is known for, but in a new perspective.

Progression in the game goes in the form of choosing an “Episode” in the form of one of the three games and then going through each story mission until you reach the end.  This is like a mission-based game, though completing one mission automatically spawns a story scene and pushes you towards the next.  It gives you a feel that it’s an ongoing game, even though it is technically mission-based.

Each mission has you in very large 2.5D environments with multiple planes connected by ropeways and bridges, tasking you with various objectives, the objective depending on what mission you’re on.  Some missions have you sneaking past security to assassinate a certain leader, while other missions have you navigating an area in order to reach a boat to escape or a simple reconnaissance mission of stalking someone to find out what they’re up to.  Although you still navigate environments and work on getting past patrols, what you’re doing can greatly vary.

The stealth elements come in the form of sneaking past guards and patrols.  Each area has guards stationed as well as hiding spots where you can conceal yourself.  These hiding spots could be closets, dark corridors, or bushes/trees.  While in these areas, you cannot be seen (though moving within bushes causes noise that allows patrols to find you regardless) and this is where you look and study patrol movements and patterns to figure out how to get past them.

In some cases, it’s just a matter of waiting for them to walk by, popping out of the hiding spot, and dashing for a window or ladder to go on.  As you play the games further, though, it gets very intricate.  Some areas will require you to use specific gadgets to get past, or gadgets and very specific timing.  Sneaking past enemies is one of the most difficult tasks in the game, though using the Eagle Vision feature that lets you see which guards are targets and which aren’t makes things much easier.

Speaking of stealth, let’s talk about grades.  At the end of a mission, you are graded by what you did.  The game typically wants you to always do stealth and never be seen and never kill anyone other than your target.  If you can accomplish this, you will get a high score, which leads to requirements for upgrades, like more gadget ammo, health, faster running or crouch-based movement, etc.  That’s the typical scenario, though you don’t have to play like that.

I view the game having two types of ways to play it.  You can do 100% stealth with intricate movements and very careful progression to make sure you’re never seen so you can get those upgrades.  Or, you can do what I feel is the more fun route.  Sneak past guards that are simple to sneak past, but also throw in some hanging assassinations and combat to get your blood pumping.  There is a combat system there for a reason other than the few boss fights.  The only way the game will punish you is by not giving you as many points towards upgrades that you don’t necessarily need to complete the game, anyways.

Let’s get to combat.  To assassinate someone, you have to sneak behind them or hang from a ledge below them and perform the action while they’re not looking.  Raise the alert, and you enter combat mode, where there is no 1-hit-kill-assassination.  Then, it’s you versus them, or a group of them.  The game has a simple way to dodge attacks with the circle button, but things get difficult if you get surrounded.  The ideal situation is to have all enemies to one side of you because if they’re on both, not only are you waiting for combat openings, but you’re blocking attacks from both sides.

I say to do combat often as well because some missions don’t give you that option.  There are some levels that are pure stealth from getting captured or being in a hostage situation where you aren’t allowed to be spotted or knock anyone out at all.

Now, let’s talk about the simplicity of the games, which is something I know other publications have been harsh on.  The basic progression of the game is simple, but simple doesn’t mean that game is easy.  On the contrary, there are a lot of sections in the game that have nothing to do with combat at all that is very, very hard to accomplish.  Some stages in India have very intricate platforming to be done in limited amounts of time that only give you a few seconds of leeway time before you automatically fail, and that only gets harder once you get to Russia.

To go further, there are two types of areas that really get your adrenaline going, which are the Escape Levels and Sniper Battles.  These are fast-paced levels where killing guards doesn’t affect your score and you are racing against the clock, going as fast as you possibly can.  These can be from running out of a village the Templars are burning down, escaping a crumbling temple, or being chased across town by a giant tank.  These are all very intense, difficult, and helps balance the game between strategic stealth and blood-pumping sprinting.

Sniper Battles aren’t entire levels, but sections of levels.  In these, you are armed with a Sniper Rifle, go into a first-person scope view and must shoot off enemies as quickly as possible before they shoot you off.  These can really get your blood pumping, as in some sequences, you literally have to snipe all other snipers before they get a single shot in.

As far as time is concerned, here is what I came out with.  China took me almost 4 hours to complete and both India and Russia took me about 3 hours a piece.  That would leave the entire trilogy using up about 10 hours of your time.  You also unlock New Game Plus and New Game Plus Hard Modes whenever you complete one, giving you upgraded points and exclusive upgrades, while Plus Hard gives you far less health and takes the ability to see where the enemies are looking.  It’s got a lot to keep you busy.

Controls

Controls are really intuitive and Ubisoft uses the PlayStation TV Compatibility very well.  Not only is the game compatible, but the two different types of features that use the touch screen on the Vita are redirected to the L3 and R3 buttons when the game is played on the PSTV.  To be specific, Eagle Vision is toggled with L3 and Grappling to a ceiling is toggled with R3.

Moving around is done with the Left Analog Stick and you can move the field of view with the Right Analog Stick.  The D-Pad buttons are used for activating various gadgets, like Shao Jun’s rope or Nikolai’s Sniper Rifle. The L trigger is used for crouching and crawling, and the R trigger is used for firing off a gadget once you have your aim correct.  Finally, the face buttons.  X is used for jumping, and Circle pick-pocketing or looting bodies.  Triangle is used for heavy attacks or various stealth energy skills like stealth kills and Square is used for normal attacks and assassinations.

I have no problem with the controls, nor do I have issues with how they’re explained.  Everything is shown and told to you throughout the entire game, so you’ll never forget what to do.

Presentation

The visual presentation was something that was very difficult to gauge.  Since the camera is so far away from you all the time, I had to get an enemy on a plane directly in front of the camera to really see what the graphics looked like.  Up-close, the graphics look more on the low-end of the Vita, but I honestly do not see that as an issue.  When you’re zoomed out of character models, as you will be for 99% of the game, it looks really nice, even on the PSTV.  Everything is colorful, especially the artistic backgrounds in Russia.

So, the big question.  How does it perform?  Assassin’s Creed games are known for being buggy and glitch, and this is definitely some of the nicest work Ubisoft has done on the series as of late.  Yes, there are bugs.  Two that I noticed.  The first is that some of the scenes in China and India will have audio breaks, like they’re coming in with static for a second or two.  This happened with at least 3 different scenes.

The other is featured in this section’s screenshot.  After a sequence in India, I saw that my character’s model was stretching itself, the front half moving while the rear half not moving at all as I platformed and played a constant game of “Catch Up” with it.  It did not hamper my ability to play the game but it was quite bizarre to see.  Once I had reset the checkpoint, it went away.

As far as frame-rate goes, it does very well.  I only saw the frames drop once, for a second or two, and it didn’t affect gameplay at all.  Ubisoft did an excellent job at this game on the Vita.

Title: The Legend of Zelda
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Virtual Console (NES)
NA Availability: Digital
EU Availability: Digital
Block Usage:  47

The Legend of Zelda is a franchise that a lot of people have known and loved for a long time.  Ever since the NES era, there have been countless adventures for Link and Zelda.  From The Legend of Zelda and Link to the Past to Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask to Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, Zelda still endures and expands throughout Nintendo fans.

Every fan of the series also has their own favorite and where they began the franchise.  My first Zelda title was the original, gold cartridge NES game, though the first game of the series I actually completed was Ocarina of Time, which remains my personal favorite.  For every generation, there are new Zelda fans being brought up, some of which do not know or have experienced the origins of the franchise.

Today, I am going to take you all the way back to the beginning.  Before Midna, the Twilight Princess.  Before Ganondorf and Volvagia.  A retro review and start to reviewing as many games of the franchise I can, here is my official review of the NES Virtual Console title, The Legend of Zelda!

Story

The original Zelda game takes place later in the overall timeline.  Some time after the events of Link Between Worlds, the Demon Lord known as Ganon is revived and leads an army attack on Hyrule.  After having stolen the Triforce of Power, Ganon continues his campaign to plunge the world into darkness.  Fearing that Ganon may seek the other pieces of the mystic Triforce, Princess Zelda splits the Triforce of Wisdom into 8 pieces and scatters them throughout Hyrule.  Shortly after this, she is captured and her servant named Impa seeks out a brave soul to rescue her.

Link is this brave soul sent on a journey across Hyrule to recover the 8 pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom and to use them to defeat Ganon.

But you don’t get told any of this when you play the game.  When the original game came out, this detailed storyline was written and shown in the instruction booklet that came in the box.  You can read this in the digital manual in this Virtual Console release as well.  But don’t expect there to be any story at all in the game, itself.  That’s one thing about this.  It’s a story-heavy franchise, but there’s no story at all in the original game outside of the manual.

Gameplay

The Legend of Zelda is a 2D action-adventure game with puzzle elements thrown into the mix.  You will be exploring an overworld map as well as dungeons, fighting through enemies and solving puzzles in your quest for the Triforce pieces.

Progression in the game is quite the confusing puzzle at first.  This is the definition of a game throwing you completely under the bus at the get-go.  The game starts and you’re on a map with a cave nearby and monsters lurking everywhere.  There is no initial sense of direction outside of that cave, which is basically just where you get a weapon to defend yourself.  You have no idea what you’re doing, where you need to go, or what you’re doing out by these caves.  You’re just there and you have to figure it out as you go.

The idea is that you explore and will eventually find more caves to explore, which will slowly light your way until you find your first dungeon.  The idea of the game is to explore, earn money to buy tools to help you solve puzzles, and find and go through the 8 dungeons to get the Triforce to enter Death Mountain, the final area of the game.  You just don’t realize this until you actually go through for awhile and see shops and dungeons and put 2-and-2 together.

Despite the fact that you can and will get lost in the game, the first Zelda does throw in clues to guide your way.  In some dungeons are NPC rooms that will hint at where you need to go, be it guiding you in the general direction of another dungeon, detailing a key item you need to find for a certain boss, or giving you directions to get through the maze-like forest on the west side of the map.  You may have to pay NPCs for this knowledge, but that is where the Virtual Console Restore Point feature is quite handy.  (In simple terms, make a restore point before paying, get the info, and the re-load the restore point).

Now let’s get to what makes this game so tough-as-nails hard.  I won’t lie that the puzzle-solving in this game is pretty simple.  We all know the general formula of Zelda dungeon puzzles.  You go into a room and the doors lock you in with a bunch of monsters.  Defeat the monsters and the door opens.  Or, you push a block and the door opens.  Repeat until you find the boss, kill the boss, and you’re done.  This is all quite simple and the first dungeon drives this point home quite well.

Combat and avoiding enemies is what makes the game so hard.  Unlike recent Zelda titles, heart drops from enemies are extremely rare, so your task is going to be defeat as many enemies as possible without being hit, at all.  You want to stay at full health because you have a blade beam at full health which makes fighting a lot easier.  It is doable otherwise, but you’re going to have to constantly learn patterns for every new enemy, and many rooms will require you to be constantly on your toes.

If hordes weren’t enough, bosses can be even worse.  The first boss I fought was quite easy to figure out and fight.  The second boss had me constantly moving to dodge magic attacks but I got him on my first go at him.  The third boss, a certain three-headed dragon, had me on the ropes and took over a dozen attempts to get to the second phase of the battle, and it got even harder from there.  When all was said and done, I felt like I’d accomplished the goal of a lifetime, only to realize it was just a mini-boss, and the real boss was waiting even further inside the dungeon.  This isn’t like Ocarina of time where you can casually strafe to dodge attacks.  Boss fights are hectic, fast-paced, and require exact movements to do properly.  They will test your patience and your sanity.

That’s what I’ll say about the difficulty.  Moving around the map and figuring out where to go isn’t really an issue.  Combat and boss battles are almost the sole factors that make this one of, if not the hardest Zelda game I’ve had a chance to play.

Since this is an NES game, it’s short, right?  While there are some miraculous speed-runners who have completed the game in mere hours, this is not a short game.  Accounting for exploring, getting lost, learning the map, and everything you’re actually supposed to do, I’d clock your first run through this game at least 9-10 hours.  How many NES games last 9-10 hours?  Not many.

Controls

Controlling this game is quite simple.  Since this is an NES Virtual Console game, don’t expect it to have any special controls on the New 3DS models.  It’s the same whether you’re playing on a 3DS, XL, 2DS, New XL, or New 3DS.

Moving around is done with the D-Pad, but can also be done on the Circle Pad.  I would highly advise you stick to the D-Pad, as you’ll need its feel for the precise movements you’ll be doing while you play.  The A button is used for attacking with the sword and B is used for whatever alternate item/weapon you have equipped.  The Y button is an alternate for Select, which pauses the game.  Finally, the Start button will go to the customization menu to check on what items you have and how many pieces of the Triforce you’ve obtained.

I don’t have any problems with this, to be honest.  It works well.

Presentation

Alright, so the visual presentation of an NES game is really hard to gauge in Virtual Console, unless it’s absurdly blurry or has negative side-effects that it didn’t have in its original release.  With this in mind, this game looks quite crisp on the 2DS I played it on.  There isn’t any noticeable blurring from the different in resolution.

What is different is slow-down and lag.  Now, you’re thinking this is an NES game, so how can it have considerable slowdown and lag?  I thought the same thing, until I used the candle in a small room with two enemies and the frame-rate tanked to under 5 fps.  At first, I thought this was a standalone freak glitch.  But, across the game, it’s happened dozens of times, for different items/movements.  The Virtual Console release has considerable frame drops that shouldn’t be there.

Title: Ratchet and Clank Size Matters
Developer: High Impact Games, Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: PSP
Download: 762 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

The Ratchet and Clank series is something that I’ve always gotten nostalgic about, because of how much it resembles base gameplay from the 3D Platformer “Golden Era” of the PS1 and Nintendo 64 days.  Whenever I play one of the games, I’ve got that Crash Bandicoot and Spyro feel with how you play.

There’s a lot of buzz going around for the series because it is headed to the big screen in its own movie.  Aside from this, a game version of the movie, which is actually a reimagining of the first game of the series, has recently come to and gotten stellar feedback on the PlayStation 4.

Taking a look back, the PS Vita has had a trilogy for the series as well as a port or two of some newer games that really didn’t perform well.  Looking past the alleged Vita version of Into the Nexus, we look even further back through history to give handhelds more to play of this series.  Coming from the PSP era and my personal introduction to the series, here is a retro review of PSP title, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters!

Story

Size Matters is the final game of the “Original Series” for the franchise, before the “Future Series” began with Tools of Destruction, so this takes place sometime after the events of Deadlocked.  The duo are enjoying a vacation on the beach of a tropical planet when a young girl named Luna approaches them.  Wanting them to show off their skills for a school project, the two are pulled into a fight with strange robots and go after them, whom have kidnapped Luna.

The journey of the game is about a civilization and myth called the “technomites”, which are supposedly a race that created all of the technology in the universe.  As the journey continues and they pursue after Luna, they are involved in a plot that involves the two of them that’s much more than a simple rescue mission.

I would rate the story as enjoyable.  It’s not as galactic or universal as the previous games in the series, but with the way it comes through the final act, it does make sense and its enjoyable, through and through.

Gameplay

Size Matters is a 3D action-platformer with puzzle elements thrown into the mix.  As you explore each area, you will be platforming as well as fighting off enemies with an array of gadets and weapons.  There are some other elements as well in mini-games, like board-racing and arena vehicle combat.

Progression goes in the form of planets/worlds for you to explore.  The story drives this, planting you on a planet to explore to spawn the next story event.  You go through, see story events, and then the next planet opens.  However, you can freely go back to most of the 10 available worlds later on.

As you explore each world, you will be platforming around, until you get to the end.  Reaching the end is a matter of platforming, fighting enemies in your way that have doors locked, participating in mini-games to get items or advance the story, and using items and the environment to solve puzzles to open new areas, like unlocking doors or growing plants that can throw you to an unreachable ledge.

Weapons are your biggest assets in the game.  You can find and buy several different weapons that essentially function as fire-arms, and can even be used in third or first-person fashions.  However, you start with only one.  Each world that opens up will open up new weapons and items to you in the vendors that are placed around the game.  Typically, one new weapon will open up to purchase in each world with bolts you gain from fighting off enemies and destroying environment objects.  These weapons are also placed in a strategic way that said weapon is very effective against that planet’s native enemies, throwing out an objective of building up enough bolts by the time you get to the end, so things can get a little easier for you.

Bolts are also used to buy ammunition.  Every weapon you find, savor the non-combat weapons, has limited ammunition.  The only way to refill ammo is by finding ammo crates around levels or finding a vendor and paying to refill your ammo.

The final customization type of item you can find is armor.  Armor pieces will either be given to you or found as you play through the game and armor sets cause a lot of different effects.  The Wildfire Armor, for example, will allow your wrench to be set ablaze, catching every enemy you hit on fire to do more damage.  However, these effects require a full set of armor, and not mixed and matched from several.

Actual combat is a mix of melee fighting and shooting.  You have a giant wrench that you can whack enemies with for close-range combat, and your other weapons are generally all for long-range combat.  Each weapon differs, from a sniping laser rifle that shoots exploding mines to a gun that shoots a ball of acid that sticks to the ground, continually damaging all enemies in the vicinity.  Some work better on some enemies but not others.  Many bosses, however, require the use of specific weapons to be defeated.

Weapons can also be upgraded.  Once you use a weapon for so long, it upgrades into the next tier of 4 tiers.  Each upgrade makes it stronger in a variety of ways.  Some will just do more damage, while others will have more concentrated blasts or a longer range.  Ratchet can upgrade, too, gaining more maximum health after defeating so many enemies.  Similar to an RPG leveling system without actual levels.

Past the normal progressions, you have mini-games.  These all consist of different genres.  The game has a game where you shrink and go inside locks to open doors, having you skid down rails.  Some other mini-games, having you racing on hoverboards and flying a ship-sized Clank through space.  These all have optional missions you can also do to collect Skill Points, but only the first of each are required for various plot reasons.

This continues on throughout the 10 different worlds you go through.  Across the entire game, your first run may take you as long as 7 hours, which is debatable.  This is about the same length as the previous game, Deadlocked, but a good 4-5 hours shorter than games of the main series.  For the first attempt at a handheld Ratchet and Clank game and for the current $9.99 price tag, it’s got a good amount of content to it.  Just don’t expect it to be a 12-hour journey.

Controls

Controlling the game is pretty easy.  To get it out of the way, this game is compatible with the PlayStation TV and the usual PSP treatment with controls is the same here.  The L and R trigger controls can be used with both sets of triggers on PS3 and PS4 controllers.

Moving Ratchet (or Clank) around is done with either the D-Pad or the Left Analog Stick.  Camera controls are set for the L and R triggers, which can easily be redirected to the Right Analog Stick for a very comfortable console-like feel.  L will rotate the camera left and R will rotate it to the right.

The face buttons are pretty easy to figure out, though they are explained to you.  X is used to jump, double-jump, and use the helicopter-like glide.  Triangle is used to switch between your grapple weapon and the last special weapon you used.  You can also hold down Triangle to open a wheel to manually select another special weapon.  Circle fires your special weapon and Square attacks with the wrench.

There is one thing I have a problem with here, and that is the camera.  Only moving horizontally isn’t all that much of a problem, but it gets hung up on walls, enemies, and other objects with great ease, making maneuvering around crowded rooms very difficult to do, especially while fighting at the same time.

Presentation

Visually, the game’s story scenes are right on par with the PS2 games of the series.  The gameplay engine’s graphics are just a little less so.  Still, for a PSP title, it has a lot of detail and looks pretty nice.  Even stretched out on the PlayStation TV, it still looks good.

There are two things that I have issues with here.  First of all is the most minor.  At some random times, part of the audio would cut out.  You can be fighting a boss, and the sound effects of your weapons will mute, but nothing else will, only to come back a minute later.

The other is the more crucial issue.  When the game tries to auto-save or launch a scene, it struggles.  Sometimes, it will freeze for a moment or two before launching them.  The problem is that it’s not always successful in launching them.  One boss fight wouldn’t launch at all.  It tried to launch and then it just didn’t, requiring me to restart the game.  A few other times, it struggled so much that the game crashed and closed on me.

Title: Yoshi’s New Island
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  3,300

Yoshi has always been my favorite character from the Mario franchise.  My first encounter with the green dino was in Yoshi’s Cookie on the NES and again in the secret roof area in Super Mario 64.  I’ve done a lot of playing with him, including having written an entire Walkthrough guide for Super Mario 64 DS for every Power Star you can obtain while playing as Yoshi.  In short, he’s my favorite character and probably always will be.

What I haven’t been able to do on the site so far, though, is write a review on a game surrounding Yoshi.  Sure, he is a major playable character in Super Mario 64 DS and a big feature from Super Mario World, but Yoshi has his own series of games where he is the star.  Yoshi’s Island.  Yoshi’s Story.  Yoshi’s Wooly World.  The list goes on, and the first one, Island, is a series in and of itself.

I’ve played the original Yoshi’s Island via my GBA, GBA SP, and NDS more times than I can care to remember.  So, when Nintendo announced that they were continuing the Yoshi’s Island franchise in a new game on the 3DS, I was beyond hyped.  Recently put on the discounted “Nintendo Selects” line, here is my review of Yoshi’s New Island!

Story

Due to the convoluted time-travel timeline in Yoshi’s Island DS, it’s hard to say whether this is a direct sequel to DS or the original.  It is a sequel to one of them, though, and a replay through Yoshi’s Island DS is really due for me to be able to know for sure.

Yoshi’s New Island takes place sometime after the events of the previous Island games.  After the stork went on an adventure with the Yoshis, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi, it had finally reached its destination of delivering the twin babies to their parents, or so he thought.  It turns out that he delivered the babies to the wrong house and in the midst of the paranoia involved, the evil wizard Kamek swoops in and once again kidnaps Baby Luigi with Baby Mario plummeting down to an island below.

On said island is a clan of Yoshi, discussing what they need to do about the recent invasion from Baby Bowser, intending to make their home a vacation spot for him.  Mirroring the events of the first game, Baby Mario falls in the middle and begins crawling towards Baby Luigi.  Using this as an opportunity to help Mario and locate Baby Bowser, the Yoshi clan decides to carry the young plumber to find his missing brother.

The storyline of this game feels kind of like some fusion of the first two Yoshi’s Island games.  The main plot greatly resembles that of the first game, while the secret final story stage is reminiscent of some events of Yoshi’s Island DS.

Gameplay

Yoshi’s New Island is a side-scrolling platformer with action and puzzle elements thrown into the mix.  Much like the previous games, you will be jumping and fighting through levels, aiming to get to the end and go to the next.

The story progresses through 6 worlds, which have 8 stages a piece.  Just like the original, you will have normal stages as well as two Castle/Boss stages in each world.  Completing one stage unlocks the next and you keep going.  Once you complete a world, you unlock the next as well as a mini-game for the local multiplayer mode that is separate from the Story Mode.

Stages play out as side-scrolling platformer stages.  Your goal will be to navigate platforms and reach the end of the stage, where you can pass Baby Mario to the next Yoshi to tackle the next area.  These stages have everything from the typical Yoshi formula.  If you get hit, Baby Mario will float away, crying until you reach him or his timer reaches 0 and you get a game over.  Just for the record, Baby Mario’s crying is somehow even more irritating than it was in the original.  Crying faster definitely pushes you to retrieve him faster.

The basics of combat are also the same.  You can eat enemies and turn them into eggs, which you then can aim and throw at other enemies as well as blocks that affect the environment or clouds that can give you keys, new paths, or simply a power-up.  If you remember the way it worked in the previous two games, then it’s almost exactly the same here.

One feature that was changed slightly was the vehicle sequences.  When you find various gates that look like black holes, you go into a sequence where Yoshi turns into a vehicle.  To navigate these levels, you have to use the system’s built-in motion controls.  While this can be a little weird to get used to for the first time or two, once you get your bearings, this works really well.  These are all very short, but they retain the feel and, for some, the difficulty of the original’s vehicle sequence timers.

The main addition is giant eggs.  In some levels, there are giant shy guy enemies that you can swallow to produce eggs that take up nearly the entire screen.  One of these is a normal White/Green egg that is used for demolishing environments in your way and effectively netting you a ton of coins and extra lives.  The other is Black/Green and used as a weight, allowing you to sink under water to explore and navigate water stages.

One thing I’m going to say is that this game is a little easier than the original was.  On top of the level design being good, albeit more straight-forward than previous games, is the Flutter Wing.  Anyone remember Super Mario 64 DS Multiplayer and letting Yoshi gain wings on his back from the Wing Cap?  He gets it here, too.  Fail a level several times in a row and the game will give you the option for a handicap of being able to fly through the stage.  However, doing this will forfeit the ability to unlock the true final boss.

Across the whole of the game, you’ll probably spend about 6-7 hours.  This is a pretty decent amount of time, especially considering the Yoshi’s Island games only have 6 worlds versus the normal 8 for Mario platformers.

Controls

Controlling the game isn’t all that hard to do.  As far as the New 3DS is concerned, nothing is optimized with its new buttons.  ZL, ZR, and the C Stick effectively do nothing at all in Yoshi’s New Island.

Moving around is done with the Circle Pad and D-Pad, though the D-Pad is preferred for this kind of side-scroller.  The A button is used for jumping and the B button is used for eating enemies.  Both the X button and R trigger are used to aim to throw an egg while L and Y can be tapped to stop the aim at its current location for precise aiming.  There is also an option to use motion controls for aiming.

Overall, the controls work pretty well.  The ability to stop the aim in one spot with L and Y is a nice touch that makes things more convenient.

Presentation

Visually, Nintendo tried to bring back the artistic style of the original in this new game.  The original hand colorful, hand-drawn visuals.  The environments and characters here remind me of a canvas style of art.  It really makes the game look unique, especially when you see some of the giant bosses in this manner.  The only issue here is that many of the smaller character models, especially Yoshi, have lots of jagged edges and look blurry when you look at them.  This makes it a little weird and straining when you play the game.

The rest of the presentation is nice.  The music has a very happy-go-lucky feel to it and there’s nothing wrong with how the game performs.

Title: Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Developer: Autumn Games, Lab Zero Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 2.6 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download 
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Fighting games have been an increasing pleasure for me in the handheld world.  I’ve played nearly every fighter there is to play on the Vita, and have enjoyed almost every single one of them, especially Injustice and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.  More fighters keep coming to the gaming world, and the Vita has recently gotten another fighter in its arsenal, of the Skullgirls franchise.

Skullgirls is what I’d like to call a great example of the current fighter business model, but also of how to do it right.  The game, just called Skullgirls, released on PC.  When they added content to make “Skullgirls Encore”, they added updates to the original game for that content, rather than packaging it as another fully-priced game.  Finally, they made 2^nd Encore, for the PlayStation world for Encore with all of the DLC bundled in.

PS4 players have been able to enjoy this game for some time now, PS Vita players waiting a bit for them to finish optimizing the game for the handheld console.  Now that it is here, we can all see if the wait was worth it.  This is my official review of Skullgirls 2^nd Encore!

Story

Legends speak of an ancient artifact known as the Skull Heart.  If obtained, it can grant any woman’s wish.  However, if she is impure of heart, it will transform her into a powerful, evil entity known as the Skullgirl.  We fall into the world as a new Skullgirl is born and at large.  There are many others out to defeat her, some seeking the Skull Heart while others trying to protect the civilian population from the destruction.

The story of this game I find to be very unique as it melds a lot of different feels.  The general art style really has a “Noire” feel to the setting but also a very retro cartoon and anime theme to it.  The VN cutscenes really help the anime and cartoon feel of it, and it is fully voiced, which also helps.

Gameplay

Skullgirls is a 2D fighting game, much like most fighters.  If you imagine games that are 2D in art and environment, like BlazBlue, this is the kind of fighter you’re looking at.  As you play through the game, you’ll be participating in 2D one-on-one battles in 2D arenas like any 2D fighting game.

As far as game modes are concerned, there’s a good number of things to do.  These are divided into Single Player, Versus, Training, Help & Options, Leaderboards, and Extras.  Each of these has several different things you can do, be it playing a game mode or looking at unlocked artwork.

Single Player is divided into Story Mode, Arcade Mode, Quick Match, Survival Mode, and a toggle one of the six difficulty settings.  Story Mode allows you to choose any of the 14 characters’ story arcs for you to play, while Arcade Mode lets you just fight through a gauntlet of battles.  CPU Quick Battle lets you set up a single fight against the opponent of your choosing and Survival lets you endlessly fight enemies until you finally loses.

Story Mode in this game is one of the strangest story modes I’ve seen in games.  Some characters’ story arcs have practically no story and are like Arcade Mode, but with a scene at the beginning at the end.  Others, however, have extensive plot scenes between each and every battle.  It’s like combining BlazBlue’s way of handling story with Tekken’s, depending on who you decide to play as.

Versus is for multiplayer.  This lets you participate in online or local battles in Tournament Mode, Local Mode for local multiplayer, Quick Match, and then being able to create or join unranked online matches.  There is also a section for Invites, where you can check on invites you’ve sent to PSN Friends to play with you.

Training has a Training Room where you can practice moves and combos, and then there’s Tutorial Mode to go through each of the 37 tutorial lessons for learning how combat works.  Finally, you have Challenges and Trials, which are meant to put you in specific conditions, forcing you to fight and learn from certain situations to better prepare you for both Story Mode and Multiplayer.

Finally are Help & Options, Leaderboards, and Extras.    Options lets you change button configuration, settings, and see how to play.  Leaderboards lets you check the online leaderboard rankings.  Then, Extras lets you view artwork and other unlocked media for the game.

Combat is pretty typical for a fighter of this type.  You have various types of punches and kicks that you use for fighting.  You also have some special attacks that are dependent on your character.  Some characters can turn their hair into weapons while others can summon undead warriors to fight for them.  Each of these have their own attack types and combos that you can set up.

What I will say is that Skullgirls has a very heavy focus on blocking and knowing how to get around a blocking opponent.  If you normally ignore blocking, this game will kick your butt, no matter what difficulty you’re on.  I tried all six difficulty settings and the boss-tier battles were tough as nails, even on the Sleepwalk Easiest difficulty setting.  You cannot simply button-mash to get through it.  You have to learn how to block and get around blocks or you will not be able to beat anyone’s story mode, let alone fend for yourself in multiplayer.

Outside of this is a surprisingly-deep combat system.  There are a lot of different options you have for combos and everyone feels different.  One character’s special combos could be for close combat while another may have different combos for close and mid-range, needing you to learn to keep your distance when you can.

Across all these game modes, there’s a lot to do.  The original Skullgirls took about 3 hours, give or take, to beat.  Accounting for all of the extra story content released since then, and the difficulty curve, I’d clock it more at 6-8 hours for Story Mode.

Controls

The controls for the game are pretty nice.  It was known a long time ago that not only was this game compatible with the PlayStation TV, but it supports multiple-controller local multiplayer on the PSTV.  Along with this, there are separate controls for the L2 and R2 buttons.  Two types of attacks can be used, one if you press R2 with L2 held down, and another by pressing L2 while R2 is held down.

For the standard controls, the D-Pad and Left Analog Stick can be used to move your character around the stage.  The Right Stick doesn’t do anything.  L and R are used for special attack combos as well as extensions of the Kick and Punch combo attacks you can use with the four face buttons.

I would say the controls work quite nicely.  The tutorial areas show you what everything does and everything responds with great accuracy.

Presentation

Visually, the game’s environments and character models really bring out that “cartoon” feel of the artistic design.  Each of the models in battle look really well-done and just watching all the effects in the Training Room and standing still can show you just how much work was put into this game.

However, there are two things I’m going to nitpick about the presentation.  First of all, many of the menus and even a lot of the in-battle HUD is very blurry and hard to read.  Even on the PSTV with my 19” TV less than a foot from my face, I find it very hard to read many of the menus.

The other is the lag present in multiplayer matches.  Whenever I play online with someone, the battles have a considerable amount of slow-down.  It is all consistent and feels like a balanced frame-rate drop, but a drop, nonetheless.  The game performs much less smoothly in multiplayer than it does offline.

It has been another good month for us, guys.  Granted, video content has been down to zero, but that may yet start up again soon.  It all depends on some things going on in this writer’s life.  But, apart from that, it’s time to discuss and present the review recap for this month.

Featuring 11 games, here are all of the site’s reviews for April 2016:

Nintendo 3DS Reviews

Hyrule Warriors Legends
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
Super Mario World
The Legend of Zelda
Yoshi’s New Island

PlayStation Vita / PlayStation TV Reviews

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Mega Man Legends 2
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Skullgirls 2^nd Encore
Trillion: God of Destruction

As I said earlier, it was a good month.  You can expect some reviews early next month as well, including but not limited to Aegis of Earth, Megatagmension Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies, and more!

*Please ignore the flashing segment over Purple Heart in the video review.  That is not part of the game.  It is an error in my video editing software that appeared no matter how many times I tried to edit or put in different clips

Title: Megatagmension Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies
Developer: Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Tamsoft
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.5 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download | Retail
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

Hyperdimension Neptunia has been all over the Vita for the past couple years.  Counting today;s review and the upcoming Neptunia vs Sega Hardware Girls, we will have 3 main games (Re;Birth 1, 2, and 3) and 5 spin-off games (Producing Perfection, Noire, U: Action Unleashed, Sega Hardware Girls, and Zombies). The series is continually growing and with Neptune, Nepgear, Noire, Blanc, IF, and Vert (soon) having their own games, you wonder what they’re coming out with next.

Today’s review is on a Neptunia game that is, for all intents and purposes, sequential with Action Unleashed.  This is in the fact that Action Unleashed started the Neptunia series’ introduction of an action game with RPG elements.  Today’s game is made by Tamsoft, the makers of Action Unleashed and the Senran Kagura games, and is the introduction of a multiplayer game in the franchise.

Here is my official review of Megatagmension Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies!

Story

The Gamindistri presented in this game is separate from the main series.  In this game, the CPUs that govern and watch over each nation befriend humans and work together to learn more about human culture.  To do so, the CPUs and CPU Candidates join a school on a small island, called Gamicademi.  Although, while there, the school is on the verge of closing down.

To help bring interest and recognition to the school, Blanc is recruited by the Film Club to make a zombie movie.  In the process of making this movie, however, real zombies appear all around the island, putting the students in both a bad and advantageous situation all in one.  While talking care of the zombie threat, Blanc and the Film Club continue to make their movie, intending to save the academy from closing down and from being overrun by zombie hordes all at once.

The story in this game is completely silly with mostly being comedy, as opposed to overall serious plot.  Granted, it’s a much more interesting story than Action Unleashed and does come together with a serious and sound closing, thanks to Uzume and some plot points too spoiler-ish to put into this review.  It’s entertaining, but don’t expect an epic and serious plot.

Gameplay

This is an arena action game with RPG elements thrown into the mix.  Like Action Unleashed, you will be exploring a 3D arena while fighting hordes of enemies and bosses in the process of completing a mission objective, be it defeating so many enemies or making a boss spawn to take down.  There are also some multiplayer elements, as this game not only has single player, but multiplayer as well.

Since this is very similar to U, the biggest thing to know is how the roster has changed.  All of the characters from Action Unleashed are here, so you have Neptune, Noire, Vert, Blanc, Nepgear, Uni, Rom, Ram, Dengekiko, and Famitsu.  Joining this game is the newcomer Tamsoft, Plutia and Peashy from Re;Birth 3, and Uzume from Megadimension Neptunia VII.

When you boot the game, you already have all game modes unlocked.  You have the choice of Story Mode, Multiplay, Gallery, and Config.  Pretty easy to figure out, all in all.  First of all, Gallery is where you can watch unlocked events, music tracks, etc and Config is used to change the game’s settings, like voice language, camera controls, and using Default Settings.

Story Mode is divided into its own menu.  This lets you use Action, which lets you play through all of the story missions of the game.  The next is Setup, letting you customize your characters with equipment, increasing stats, and checking Lily Rank status.  Treasure allows you to use materials you’ve obtained from missions to unlock costumes.  Shop allows you to buy new equipment, weapons, and items.  Finally is Config, which is the same as the Config option from the Title Menu.

Story Mode missions are comprised of Chapters called Scenes.  There are 12 chapters in the game, each with their own set of missions to go through.  Unlocking the next chapter is a matter of playing through all missions of the previous chapter with a high enough rank that the next chapter will unlock for you.

Multiplayer is a little different.  This allows you to do Ad Hoc or Online co-op matches with up to 3 other players.  You can create rooms or join already-existing rooms to tackle the many multiplayer-only missions.

Combat in Story Mode is different from Multiplayer, so we need to discuss how they’re different.  When you go into a mission, you will be placed in a 3D arena full of enemies to fight.  You will fight them with combinations of light and heavy attacks as well as skills and using Share Energy gained from defeating enemies to transform into more powerful forms or use ultimate attacks for high damage output.

In Story Mode, you choose two characters for a mission.  You control one character at a time and can switch between them any time of your choosing, so long as you are standing on ground.  There is a balance done here between the characters because the character not being used is constantly regenerating health as long as they’re in the rear.  If a character dies, however, the secondary character is used and it can take a good 2-3 minutes for that KO’d character to revive.  It is generally easier to manage by switching out when your health gets low to avoid that revive cooldown.

In Multiplayer, there is no switching and no transforming.  You are just one character (normal or transformed) just as any other player is.  When a player is KO’d and another is not, there is a cooldown time to revive.  However, if you tackle multiplayer missions on your own, the mission fails when you get KO’d.

Aside from this is customization to help you.  Certain items can be equipped for temporary effects, but exclusive to Story Mode are support characters.  Across your time in the story, you will unlock support characters that will recharge and be able to use special effects for you every so often.  For example, IF will grant you a temporary attack boost while Dogoo Man can regenerate some health for you.

The actual combo system is very different from that of Neptunia U: Action Unleashed.  You still can do combos with the light and heavy attacks, but at the start, you have very little you can do with these.  You have to rely more on chaining combos into skills to keep you going until you level enough to be able to learn all of the character’s different combos. Skills have to recharge before you can use another, so there’s a bit of strategy involved.

Speaking of strategy, this game is also harder than Action Unleashed because of how bosses are portrayed and act.  Some people felt Neptunia U was an easy button-masher.  I won’t say I had an extraordinary amount of difficulty with this game, but each boss presented unique challenges to the point that it was always frustrating to see a certain boss show up.  You’ll have to learn patterns and know how to dodge and counter properly with combos to be able to survive the mission.

Finally are the RPG elements.  There is a leveling system that increases your stats after you get experience from missions.  Leveling also gives you Action Points which are used to increase the character’s HP, Attack, Defense, and learning new combos to use in battle.  Utilizing AP and buying weapons will be key to helping you being able to tackle missions easier, in Story and multiplayer.

As far as length is concerned, we need to look at missions.  Each story mission took me an average of about 5-6 minutes to do.  Some only took a couple minutes while some took 7-8 minutes a piece.  With 55 missions to go through in Story, that clocks the game somewhere around 5 hours, give or take.  Adding in the unlockable missions for Multiplayer should put it more around 8 hours total, depending on how much training you have to do for multiplayer or how many friends you have to regularly tackle them with you.

Controls

Controlling the game is pretty easy to do and explained well to you.  The game is compatible with the PlayStation TV, which still makes PP and Re;Birth 1 the only Neptunia games that cannot be played on the micro-console.  No special controls on the PSTV, though.

Moving around is done with the Left Analog Stick and you can move the camera with the Right Analog Stick.  The D-Pad can be used to toggle the mission description, command list, and a cinematic camera pause (like when you pause in Super Smash Bros.).  The L and R triggers are used with the face buttons for skills and character-switching/transformations.  Then, face buttons.  X is used for jumping and Circle for dashing. Square is used for light attacks and Triangle for heavy attacks.

The control scheme, itself, isn’t bad.  The one thing I do have an issue with is the camera.  There are a lot of times when the camera will be your worst enemy, especially when you’re trying to lock onto an enemy.  Not only will the camera zoom in on your body when you get close to a wall, making it extremely hard to see anything, the lock-on doesn’t work unless the camera is in a specific place.  That place being the enemy being in front of the camera rather than just being close to you.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks just as crisp and nice as Action Unleashed did.  All of the characters and environments look really well done and beautiful on both the Vita and the PlayStation TV.  The music is there as well, providing a mix of tunes from previous games and some newer tunes.  Also worth noting is the amount of detail they put into the zombie versions of previous Neptunia enemies and the new zombie enemies for this game.

The way the game places is very nice as well.  I didn’t see any significant frame drops across the game, and the latency stays smooth even in 4-player matches over the internet.  The developers really did a nice job of utilizing and optimizing the game, for the Vita and for the multiplayer situation.

Title: Ray Gigant
Developer: EXP
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.3 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

When I talk about Dungeon RPGs about a specific type of the genre, I can see what you’re thinking.  What are you talking about, writer?  All RPGs have dungeons.  How would dungeons dictate a genre that always has dungeons?  That’s a pretty fair point, but DRPGs are what we call first-person dungeon crawlers.  Vita fans will recognize this genre in the form of Demon Gaze, while 3DS fans may in the form of Etrian Odyssey.

The developer known as EXP has been working on Vita Dungeon RPGs for a good while.  Demon Gaze is the first one that I played, and I thought it was a lot of fun.  They’ve made some since then, but now I’m at the point of reviewing another one.  Something that Namco Bandai helped with a bit and finally coming to the West.  Here is my review of Ray Gigant!

Story

Ray Gigant takes place in a post-apocalyptic world.  Before the game begins, strange giant monsters known as Gigants appear all around the world, and are impervious to all sort of weaponry and ordinance.  It is very much in tune with the kind of plots that Toho sets up within the Kaiju movies they’ve been making since the 1950s.  In the end of this set of battles, only two were able to fend them off, but not before the entirety of civilization fell to its knees and the world effectively ended.

The game’s setting takes place around three humans that are “compatible” with Shirogami, the beings that bonded and gave the two in the first battle the power to fight and fend off the Gigants.  Each story goes around each of the three’s story in the world as the human race attempts to fight an ongoing war with the Gigants, before coming together and bringing the three together for the final confrontation.

The story is well-written and the setting is interesting enough to keep you entertained.  However, the only thing that brings it down is the very first protagonist.  His story scenario has interesting characters in it, but he brings a lot of the quality down with his personality and lack of likeable traits.  The story gets a lot better once you get to the second scenario, but it’s a long while to get to that point.

Gameplay

Ray Gigant is, as I stated in the intro, a Dungeon RPG.  You will be spending a lot of your time running through first-person dungeons,l collecting equipment and fighting enemies with a goal point in the depths where you’ll fight a boss or gather a key story item.  There are also school simulation elements thrown into the game but for the most part, it’s a first-person dungeon crawler in the same field as Etrian Odyssey and Demon Gaze.

Before going on, there is one thing I have to say about the school sim elements.  You get dialogue choices when talking to the girls, giving a big hint that this is some sort of affection system for dating sim elements.  However, these are effectively just there to showcase different reactions from them.  It doesn’t affect scenes later in the game, which begs why it’s even there in such a misleading way.

The game is story-driven, despite the heavy amount of dungeon crawling there is to be done.  As you progress through the story, you will have new dungeons open up to explore.  One thing to note, however, is that you need to explore as dungeons become available.  Unlike other RPGs, you cannot re-explore past dungeons.  So, once you get there, do everything you want before you leave.

Exploring the dungeon is grid-based, just like Demon Gaze and each tile can have its own items and interaction points you can see both on the map and as you explore.  There could be traps, items to gain, and battles to fight.  One unique thing about this game is that there are battle types, noting how many combat Action Points it takes to go through a battle.  Harder battles give better spoils, but require much more AP, causing the difficulty to spike.  Sometimes, it is worth the risk, but other times, it’s smarter to just go for the weaker battles to preserve those points.

Now let’s get to combat.  There are two types of combat you do in the game.  Combat against normal enemies and combat against Gigants.  Combat against normal enemies is in typical first-person turn-based fashion.  You choose commands for your characters and then both parties attack one another, and then repeat.  Fighting against Gigants, however, have a much bigger focus.  Your party will be spread around the gigantic enemy and will fight based on distance from it.  Sword-wielders will be close to it while bow users will be a great distance away.  This adds a good amount of strategy to these large boss fights.

The way you fight is gauged by your Action Points.  At the beginning of a battle, you have a full amount of AP to use for your commands and each command requires a certain number of AP.  You can attack for your entire first turn, but your AP will drain like crazy.  If you run low, you will have to use an entire turn to wait and have it regenerate.  It is generally better to balance your commands to conserve this, especially in harder fights.

If I were to gauge the overall difficulty of the game, I’d say it’s about medium difficulty for the genre.  It’s certainly not going to be a game that’ll make you throw your Vita across the room.  It’s probably a good game to play if you’re new to the genre, along with Demon Gaze.

When we talk about length, you’re in for the long haul.  It took me almost 3 hours to get to the first dungeon, so expect the entire game to be the better part of 30 hours, at least.  This is not a short RPG, and for this type of game, it’s a good thing.

Controls

This game is compatible with the PlayStation TV, but there aren’t really any special controls when used on the micro-console.  So, that basically just means you don’t need to worry about touch control alternatives or using the extra triggers.

Moving around the field or menus at the school is done with the D-Pad and/or Left Analog Stick.  The right stick is used to strafe in dungeons.  The face buttons are used for choosing commands in battle.  The L and R triggers are used for strafing as well.

Presentation

Visually, this is definitely EXP’s most impressive looking DRPG.  When you’re in combat, you can see your party’s character models, which is unique for the genre, which normally only shows enemy models during combat.  The amount of detail and aesthetics involved is also interesting.  Like the Neptunia games’ scenes, there are constantly moving models.  The Gigant models in boss fights especially have a lot of effects that give a great feel for the true scale of what you’re fighting against.

As far as the rest of the presentation goes, no real complaints.  Load times are short, frame rate is smooth (as a 2D game should be), and it all in all plays well.

It’s that time again.  Well, actually it was that time yesterday, but I didn’t get around to writing this until today.  But with another month’s end comes another recap for all of the new games added to the PlayStation TV, be it upcoming, already released, or just all around no one knew the information until now.

So, another nice month for PSTV owners.  Here’s what was added to the list this month:

Japan

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm
Atelier Shallie Plus
Believer!
Bullet Girls 2
Dance with Devils
Eikoku Tantei Mysteria The Crown
God Eater: Off Shot
Hyakka Hyakurour: Sengoku Ninpoujou
Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna
Kono Oozora Ni Tsubasa Wo Hirogete Cruise Sign
Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki 3rd Evolution (Trails in the Sky The 3rd Evolution)
Muv-Luv
Muv-Luv Alternative
Nobunaga No Yabou: Souzou Sengoku Risshiden
Omerta Code: Tycoon Kai
Sangoku Koi Senki: Omoide Gaeshi CS Edition
Wand of Fortune R

North America

140
Axiom Verge
Cyber Threat
Foul Play
Mega Man Legends 2 (PS One Classic)
Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness
Risk of Rain
Rocketbirds 2
Superdimension Neptune vs Sega Hardware Girls (Name Update and NA confirmation)

If you count both regions, that is 26 more games added for PSTV users. Granted that not all of them are out yet, but that’s a great month for the PSTV List!  I will have an update to it later today and hopefully very soon after as well.

With hardware reviews, I generally tend to not go anywhere behind the current systems.  All the hardware reviews I’ve done are for the 3DS, Vita and their variants, namely the New 3DS XL, 2DS, PS Vita Slim, and PlayStation TV.  It takes a very special exception for me to go beyond that to more handhelds in terms of hardware reviews.

Today is one such occasion, as I was browsing through a flea market store, browsing for some Nintendo DS games for new retro reviews.  I was specifically looking for Pokemon: Soul Silver or Heart Gold, not only because a friend of mine asked for a review, but because I really want to play one of them.  In my trip here, however, I found a gem I’ve been wanting to buy for a long time, and I got it for no less than the price of a new PS Vita game, along with 2 games and a power cord.

All the way back from the 1990s is the handheld that dared to not only compete with Nintendo, but technically outclassed it, much in the way the PS Vita outclasses the Nintendo 3DS in terms of hardware and processing capabilities.

Sega fans, take note, for this is my retro review of the Sega Game Gear!

Design

When you look at the Game Gear, you realize how massive the thing is.  It’s a good 2 inches wider and taller than a PlayStation Vita and over twice as thick as a Vita slim.  It’s got weight to it as well.  My Surface Pro 2 tablet/keyboard combo is considerably lighter than the Game Gear.  It’s still comfortable to hold the system, but it’s heavier than most of today’s portable technology.

Now let’s get to the input.  From the front, we have four different button input areas.  There is a circular D-Pad on the left, two face buttons on the right simply called Button 1 and Button 2, and there is a Start button directly above those face buttons for pausing games.  There is also media on the front, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.

The sides and bottom don’t have anything to interact with, but the top and back do.  On the top, we have a volume slider wheel and headphone jack.  Next to it is a mystery port that is guessed to be used for a controller, though none of the sources I found online nor the person I bought it from really knew.  Beside that is the cartridge slot for games and the two interesting and wacky peripherals Sega made for the Game Gear.  One was the TV Tuner to watch TV on the system and the other was a modification add-on that allowed the Game Gear to play Sega Master System games.  (Just imagine if Nintendo made one for the 3DS that let you play Game Boy, GBC, and GBA games).  Finally, there is the switch for turning the system on and off and a port for the AC power cord that Sega made.

On the back, we have the rest of the cartridge slot as well as two large battery compartments.  The Game Gear was a power hog.  Unlike the Game Boy and Game Boy Color’s 2-4 battery supply, the Game Gear takes 6 AA batteries to be able to be used outside of the house.

Now let’s get back to the front of the system.  There is a backlit screen used to display games and a single mono speaker in the bottom-right corner of the system.

That’s about all there is to it in the design.  I’ll be talking about all of this in much further detail in the video review as I don’t want to go on and on in the written review.

Performance

Now we get to how this thing handles and runs.  And that will go in sections as well.  First of all, is how it feels in your hands.  Overall, I am comfortable using the game gear.  It is designed in such a way that I can hold it in my hands with my fingers comfortably over the buttons.  I also hold it in a way that the mono speaker on the system is not covered up by my left hand.

Before we get to performance in games, let’s talk about that speaker and that backlit screen.  The Mono Speaker is, of course, just a mono speaker.  In today’s handheld standards, mono sound is pretty iffy quality.  You can tell there is a certain degradation in the sound quality when you listen through this speaker.  Thankfully, plugging in headphones gives you stereo sound that is much better quality for when you’re alone or want to block out the world while you play.

The screen is something else that was ingenious at the time, but ends up being a problem.  A backlit screen on a handheld was unheard of back in 1990, but Sega pulled it off.  The screen is quite colorful, but there is a problem with quality.  The screen is lit and colored in a way that you have to hold it at a specific angle from your eyes to keep the color from distorting on you.  Not only that is the fact that games on the Game Gear are much less clear than on a TV with, say, the Genesis.  You can see it, but there’s a lot of blurring involved, especially in games with moving text, like Jurassic Park.

Now let’s get to the power-hogging nature of this system.  I researched battery life online a lot this week, and most of the sites and discussions I found claimed that the Game Gear could barely last 2 hours on 6 new AA batteries.  I tested that this week with generic brand batteries bought at a local CVS store.  With Sonic 2 in the entire time, the system managed to last nearly 6 hours before it finally gave up.  That’s pretty on par with today’s handheld standards, and this is a system that came out almost 30 years ago.  Much better than I was expecting.

As far as playing games is concerned, it played them quite well.  Button input was spot on when I was playing Jurassic Park and Sonic 2, and you don’t even have to power the system off to switch out your cartridges.  If you slip one out and put another in while the system is running, it automatically reads the new cartridge and starts it up.

Title: Okamiden
Developer: Capcom
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Nintendo DS

There is a special place in the gaming world for every franchise, some of which many wish there were more games for.  For me, and a good friend of mine, Okami is one of those franchises.  Okami released on the PS2, was ported to the Nintendo Wii, and then remastered for the PlayStation 3.  The game was such a unique and heart-warming adventure, we all wished they had made another game in the series.

Unknown to me until I was randomly browsing Amazon a few weeks back, they did make another game in the series.  Apart from ports and remasters of the original PS2 game, the developer being the Wii port made a sequel to Okami, and that’s what we are going to discuss today.

Here is a retro review for Nintendo DS title, Okamiden!

Story

Okamiden takes place some 9 months after the end of the original game, with Amaterasu having left Nippon.  Despite the final boss from the previous game being defeated, demons mysteriously return to the land, spreading chaos and cursing all of nature around it.  In an attempt to re-summon Amaterasu, the Wood Spirit Sakuya manages to summon a small white wolf in the Sun Goddess’s place.  The young wolf, known as Chibiterasu, takes the artifact and celestial brush once used by his mother and sets out to rid Nippon of demons once and for all.

The story of Okamiden is, like Okami, very emotional and touching.  There is a large theme of preserving and reviving the beauty of nature, but there is also a very deep connection involved, showing Chibi’s growing relationships with characters from the previous games, new characters, and the many partners that you collect throughout the journey.

Gameplay

Like Okami, this is a 3D action-adventure game.  Throughout the game, you will be exploring environments as well as solving puzzles with the celestial brush and fighting through enemies and bosses when the need arises.  If you’re familiar with how the original game played, then you know what I’m getting at.

A lot of the gameplay elements resemble that of the original game.  However, the biggest new addition to the gameplay is the use of partner characters.  You will have sections of only controlling Chibi, but have many where you have partners with you, riding on your back and assisting you in puzzles and combat.  Each partner has unique abilities, like Kuni’s slashing to get rid of boulders or Nanami’s ability to fill spike pits with water.

Exploring the world is simply done by freely roaming around it.  You will have objectives to go to, but you can also freely roam around to look for items both for the main quest and for various side-quests that open up.  This is a 3D adventure game, so there’s a lot to run around to and explore.

The two main things, though, are puzzle-solving and combat.  Puzzles are often solved using the Celestial Brush.  Like in Okami, you can use the Celestial Brush to paint on the screen (using the Nintendo DS touch screen and the stylus pen) and perform magic.  Many of the spells from the original game are here, like reviving nature and slashing enemies.  As you progress through the game, you’ll learn new techniques that will be used not only for boss fights but also for finding hidden treasure and reaching hidden areas.

The most unique and newest brush technique is the Guide technique.  When you get to a section that Chibi cannot traverse, you must hit X to dismount your partner.  You then use the brush to lead them to where they need to go and back.  This is used for near-crumbled tunnels, water-filled areas, and more.  It is also used in many boss fights.

Combat is done in its own little arena, much like battles take place in different arenas in console RPGs.  In here, you can use various weapons you can find and equip to combat enemies.  However, the Celestial Brush is also used here pretty heavily.  The first couple enemy types can be hacked away at to be defeated easily.  Most others have a certain gimmick that makes them hard to reach and damage.  You can use specific brush techniques to damage and stun them, making them vulnerable to damage.

The same is done for bosses, though bosses cannot be attacked normally at all.  The first few bosses of the game are almost invincible until you use a brush technique at the right time to stun them and lower their defenses.  This makes the bosses more strategic, but also a lot more fun.

How much you can use the brush, however, is limited.  You have Ink Pots you can collect to use for the brush and when you run out of ink, you can’t use it anymore.  On top of that is a time limitation.  Each time you use the brush, be it to fight enemies or solve puzzles, you have only about 30 seconds to draw what needs to be drawn or you have to start over.  It isn’t easy to run out of time, but you have to be quick with that stylus sometimes to get it just right.  Not every sequence is just drawing a circle.

As far as length is concerned, you’re looking at a 20-25 hour journey.  For an action-adventure game, that’s quite the trek.  It’s not as long as the original game, but it has a lot of length to it.

Controls

Controlling the game is pretty simple.  But one thing to note is that all of your work with the celestial brush is done with the touch screen.  Every time you paint, you have to whip out that stylus pen and go at it.  If you’re not used to using the stylus, this game will teach you to, as it is used heavily.

Moving around is done with the D-Pad/Circle Pad and the L and R triggers are used to freeze time to open a sequence to use the celestial brush.  The A button is used for dodging and B is used for jumping.  Y is used for physical attacks, and X is used for moving your partner on or off of you.

I don’t really have any issues with the controls.  Sometimes the camera seems finicky because it moves on its own, but it normally stays behind you and does that fairly well.

Presentation

Visually, there’s praise to be done but criticism to be made.  Okamiden successfully recreates the Japanese style of Okami on the Nintendo DS.  There is also a lot of cel-shading around the characters to further enhance and make the models look nice, despite the lack of 3D power of the Nintendo DS.  However, despite this, a lot of the environments look very rough and almost like a PS One game.  It doesn’t look bad for a 3D NDS game, but it doesn’t look great in general.

As far as performance goes, the load times are nice and the frame-rate is nice, most of the time.  However, I found that in the sequences where you use Nanami as your partner, the frames chug and struggle quite a bit.  This happened in a few other places, but was most noticeable when you had Nanami as your partner.  It wasn’t to the point of the frame-rate messing you up, but it was a slow chug compared to the rest of the game.

Title: Mega Man ZX
Developer: Capcom
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Nintendo DS

The Mega Man franchise, as extensive as it is, may be at an end.  Mighty No. 9 may replace the entire Mega Man franchise, though I personally hope it doesn’t.  Mega Man had a great run, and spawned several different series, subseries, and timelines.  Although most of those series are on the same timeline, there’s also a secondary timeline (Battle Network and Star Force).

I follow and love the main timeline the very most.  It started with the original series and then went much deeper with the story and characters with the Mega Man X series.  What I loved the most, however, was the Mega Man Zero series that released four games on the Game Boy Advance and a collection I reviewed last year for the Nintendo DS.  I loved the plot around Zero and was very torn at how the series ended, and the fact that the series ended.

I’d always known that they made another series after Zero, but I’d never gotten around to being interested enough to pick it up.  Having browsed a GameStop lately eventually got me to get the series to see if it was as fun as its predecessors.  Now that I’ve finished the first game (with the second to soon follow), here is my retro review of Mega Man ZX!

Story

Mega Man ZX takes place several hundred years after the end of the Mega Man Zero series.  Although peace between human and reploid was achieved during the Zero series, Maverick Raids from an unknown source began and those raids have continued in all the centuries since the exploits of Zero and Dr. Ciel.  The plot begins as Vent, a young boy who works as a transporter, is attacked by Mavericks and bonds with a “Biometal”, being given the powers of previous legendary reploid heroes and joins a fight with a group called the Guardians against a group planning on awakening a destructive force that could destroy the world.

The story of Mega Man ZX really hits the typical “Villain is going to become strong and destroy the world” thing that Mega Man has always done, but it can really be considered a true successor to the Zero series.  The main heroine has a connection to that series and all of the Biometal models you find are all based on characters from the Zero series, from Mega Man X and Zero to Sage Harpuia and Fairy Leviathan.  It’s something that any fan of the Zero series can really appreciate.

Gameplay

ZX is a side-scrolling action game with open-world elements thrown into the mix.  You have your basic formula and gameplay of fighting in 2D areas, but you’ve also got some new elements in play that the original Zero series did not have.

Progressing through the game is a mix of doing missions to take down bosses and world exploration.  Instead of automatically being transported to your mission’s area like most Mega Man games do, you actually have to explore the large free-roam world and discover that area with the mission taken before it will actually start and you can do it.  This is done by exploring and finding new paths in what is already available to you and using key cards you gain from previous missions to unlock new areas.

I would directly compare to ZX’s exploration to that of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.  The world is huge and there are a ton of different areas to explore.  Some new areas are difficult to find until later in the game while some paths remain closed until you actually take on its mission.  It opened up something new for the series, though.  This level of exploration and discovery was never done in previous 2D Mega Man games, and it’s a nice change of pace that really adds to the depth.

What you’ll be doing the most in exploration and missions is combat.  The most unique aspect of ZX is the biometals that allow you to essentially transform into armored forms based on Mega Man Zero characters.  You have Models X and Z, based on Mega Man X and Zero, which form early on, giving you gameplay identical to that of Zero in the Zero series.  Then, you gain more biometals from bosses, based on Harpuia, Leviathan, Fefnir, and Phantom from the Zero series.  Each of these have very different fighting styles, from Model H’s aerial dashing and double swords to Model L’s ability to freely hover in water and spear combat.

Traversing areas will become much easier by experimenting with the biometals.  You can freely switch out each one as you go, and there are also areas that you can only traverse without a biometal equipped.  This makes you vulnerable and with much less ability, but some areas are too small for armor to fit through, requiring you to squeeze through in normal form.

Considering the exploration of this game, it won’t be a short experience.  My first run through ZX took me almost 8 hours and that’s with a lot of exploration and a little help from online guides to finding certain areas.  If you don’t use online resources at all, I would probably gauge the game more at 9-10 hours.

Controls

The game is pretty easy to control.  You don’t really use the touch functions of the DS when you play the game.  You just use the buttons.

The D-Pad/Circle Pad is used for moving around.  The L trigger is used for a sub-weapon and R is used for activating the Overdrive ability of an equipped biometal.  A is used for dashing and B is used for jumping.  X is used for swapping biometals and Y for attacking with your main weapon.

This works, though the scheme is completely customizable.  I personally prefer dash being set to the R trigger, but you can set it however you want.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks like it uses the same graphics engines as the Mega Man Zero games do on the GBA.  This looks nice most of the time, but it’s definitely brought down.  In a few sections, you can see a noticeable amount of blurring and jagged edges (Yes, jagged edges on 2D models).  The animated cutscenes in the game, while great, also look very pixelated and blurry.

Performance runs really nice.  The game is smooth, load times are very short, and it all in all works quite well.

Title: Mega Man ZX Advent
Developer: Capcom
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Nintendo DS

I’ve really been on a Mega Man kick lately.  Well, lately really means ever since I played and reviewed Mega Man ZX a couple days ago.  I really got into and loved ZX and wanted to go for its sequel right away.  Any fan of the Mega Man Zero series can easily see why, given how the ZX series, although it’s own series, essentially serves as a successor to the Zero series.

Not to beat around the bush with this intro, we should get onto the review in question.  Here is my retro review of the final game of the ZX series, Mega Man ZX Advent!

Story

Some years after the events of Mega Man ZX, a group of mercenaries known as “The Hunters” are sent on a mission by a company called Legion to track down and recover a new Biometal that was discovered.  In the chaos of the mission, the main character (Grey or Ashe, though Ashe is more ‘canon’ compared to the first game) comes in contact with the biometal and bonds with it.

Soon after, she is thrown into a battle between other people whom have bonded with Biometals as well as being sent on missions to prevent the revival of Biometal Model W, once thought to have been stopped, on the typical Mega Man timeline against a villain out to destroy the world.

The story of ZX Advent is really more of the series taking on its own form.  ZX had heavy ties to the Zero series, while Advent branches out further and makes a storyline that is more unique and not relying upon ties with past series of the Mega Man franchise.  I wouldn’t call it better or worse than ZX, as it has an interesting story and main character, though I personally like ZX better because of the heavy ties with the Zero series.

Gameplay

Much like its predecessor, Advent is a 2D action game with light open-world elements.  The main difference here is that there are much fewer elements of there being an open-world environment than the original ZX.  From a gameplay standpoint, though, it is identical to the first game.

The first thing I should go over is how exploration differs.  In ZX, you were constantly exploring a huge open-world map, discovering different types of doors and paths and discovering new paths upon getting card keys.  This returns in Advent, but not nearly as immense.  There are a couple doors you need card keys for, but there really isn’t much exploration to be done.  Many missions teleport you directly to the mission location and only a few require you to search and find locations.

The biggest gameplay enhancement, however, is Model A’s “Copy” ability.  In many previous Mega Man games, you gained a new special weapon upon defeating a boss and in ZX, you gained a new Biometal.  In ZX Advent, however, defeating a boss allows you to copy their DNA and transform into that boss.  Not only do you gain the ability to use one of their skills, but you gain access to a fully-controllable form of that boss, no matter how small or gigantic the boss is.  This gives you over a dozen different transformations and fighting styles rather than the 5 from ZX.

Missions take you through side-scrolling environments, as Mega Man fans are familiar with and there is a lot of combat to be done, leading up to a boss or two.  If you’ve played ZX, you know exactly what you’re doing.  Although there are a lot more transformations, combat is pretty much the same as it always was.

One thing I want to say about the game, itself, is the difficulty.  Compared to ZX, Advent feels like it’s constantly holding your hand, to an intense level.  There are tutorials for literally every power you get, basic level movement, and characters even automatically point you directly where to go, removing any sense of exploration and discovery.  There’s nothing wrong with tutorials in games, but this game is like tutorial overload.  Tied with the overall simple boss patterns to learn, it just feels like a cakewalk, even compared to ZX’s Easy Mode.

The last thing I should say is length.  Unlike ZX, Advent is not an incredibly long game.  My first trek through Advent took me about 4-5 hours, compared to 8-10 hours for the original game.  It is only half the length, but at the same time, it’s not really a bad amount of length.  Considering how quickly-paced Advent is with more focus on action and less on exploration, it’d be difficult to keep that amount of pacing going for a 10-hour journey.

Controls

Controlling this is mostly like the previous game.  The main exception is that Advent finally went to use the Nintendo DS touch screen for a few functions.  Most of these functions are for toggling between the map and available transformations as well as special abilities for some forms, like a radar on the touch screen to show you where things are in a pitch-black room.

The control scheme is the same as before.  Circle Pad/D-Pad to move and the L/R triggers for Sub-weapons and Overdrive.  A is used for dashing and B for jumping.  X is for transforming and Y is for primary weapons.  As before, this is also 100% customizable, so you can set it up however you want.

Presentation

Although there are some nice enhancements to Advent, like moving backgrounds, it still suffers from the same flaw from ZX.  It is still using a GBA graphics engine, so some bosses still have jagged edges around them and the animated scenes still look pixelated.

The one thing they did improve on here is voice-acting.  Not only is there English Voice-Acting in the animated scenes, but there is voice-acting in over half of all of the scenes in the game.  Every major scene is voiced, which is a pretty large step up from what they’d done before.

Performance is just like ZX, so there’s nothing to complain about.  Load times are short, frame-rate is smooth, and it all in all just runs really nicely.

Title: Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault
Developer: Acquire, Aksys Games (Publisher)
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 751 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download | Retail
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

 

The Tower Defense genre I wouldn’t say is my favorite genre, but it’s got a lot of fun.  I certainly had a ton of fun with the Crystal Defenders PSP demo back last generation.  I just don’t play the genre too often, as is known for how late this review is being posted (Much apologies to Aksys Games for taking so long on this).

There is one tower defense game that I’ve known about for the PS Vita for quite some time, and that is a title known as Metropolis Defenders.  It received a free demo in Japan, which I’d actually added to my PlayStation TV Compatibility List a long while back.  Unbeknownst to me, the title was coming West, and I knew it was coming West.  I just didn’t realize it right away.

The realization hit me when I got this press copy of a title called Aegis of Earth from Aksys Games.  Upon loading it, it looked strikingly similar to Metropolis Defenders.  Not long went by before I realized it was the same game, but with a different name.  So, here is my official review of Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault!

Story

The story of Aegis of Earth goes around a post-apocalyptic world in constant worry and danger of attack from giant monsters of various kind.  You come in as a new commander in the ranks of the military, in charge of not only protecting cities from monster invasion, but also helping the cities to grow.

To assist you in this, almost all of the technological advances of what’s left of mankind are spent on defense and assault technology to constantly keep monsters at bay from tearing down what little remains of the human race.

That’s about as far as the story goes.  It’s not a bad setup, but given how much dialogue is thrown into the game, there’s a definite lack of really developing on the plotline.

Gameplay

Aegis of Earth is, at its heart, a tower defense game, and that’s really what it is.  There are some other elements thrown in, like the normal strategy elements of tower defense, but also some RPG elements with your crew characters and whatnot.  So, I’d call it tower defense with RPG elements thrown into the mix.

Progression in the game basically takes you through various cities/towns.  You spend time with one city for a good while, doing missions to defend and develop it and whatnot, and eventually you’ll move onto another.  This progression goes throughout pretty much the entire game, so once you get through one city, you know how the game will keep proceeding.

Actual missions will proceed in two different phases.  You will have a planning phase and a combat phase.  The planning phase allows you to use earned resources on weaponry for defense as well as being able to develop parts of your city in the means of trying to make it hospitable and attractive for people to come and live there.  You do have limited resources, so you really have to decide what you do and don’t want to do.  Experimenting around with this is key to figuring out the right balance, not only of weapons and living areas, but also between what weapons are good against what hordes of enemies that come to tear down the city.  This is actually pretty interesting and I’ve not seen that put into tower defense before, with developing a city at the same time as defending it.

The combat phase is what makes the game so unique.  When in the combat phase, enemies come towards the city from various directions.  The placement of your guns is auto-firing when enemies are in range, but each city is circular.  Not only circular, but there are a few different circle layers that you could have placed weapons on.

To combat enemies, you must rotate each of these circles to point your weapon placements towards where the enemies are coming from.  Obviously, the best idea is to have tons of weapons in all directions, but the limited budget doesn’t allow this.  So this gives you a bit of strategy, not only with your placement of weapons in the planning phase, but also timing with these rotations, especially when enemies are coming from several directions at once.

Once this is over, you will reap the rewards of your success, as well as your troop helpers from your base gaining experience to be able to assist you further in ongoing missions.  As you go through the game, this will continue, while you’ll be able to unlock new weapons to use and place as well as unlocking more powerful enemies to face in battle.

I wouldn’t say that Aegis of Earth is overly difficult.  I’ve definitely played harder tower defense games, but I think the amount of strategy involved with development and the rotations really helps to balance this out.  What the game lacks in raw difficult compared to other defense games it has in the amount of strategy and timing it requires.

As far as time is concerned, you’ll be busy for quite some time.  There are over 20 different chapters to go through, so there’s a lot of game here to keep you busy.

Controls

First of all is the fact that Aegis of Earth is fully playable on the PlayStation TV, just like its Japanese version is.  There aren’t a lot of special controls for the PSTV, but since the game doesn’t require the use of the touch screen, there’s no need for that.

Typical menu navigation is normal with the D-Pad/Left Analog and the face buttons for functions, like selecting and cancelling.  When you’re in Planning, you can use the Left Analog stick to move and select areas of the city to select and do stuff with.  In Combat, the Left Analog as well as the triggers are used for rotating whatever the selected circle of the city currently is.  The Right Stick moves the camera.  Finally, you can use the D-Pad to swap between which circle you’re currently rotating.

It’s a pretty simple process and the game does a nice job of explaining this to you.

Presentation

Visually, the game doesn’t look bad, but it could certainly use some work.  My main complaint with the visuals is that they often look blurred when you’re in the middle of a mission, especially in a cinematic with going into the mission.  The way the lighting is done, a lot of the models just look blurred around the edges.  This doesn’t really affect gameplay, but it’s something to be noted on.

The other complaint I have about the presentation is the lag/struggle the game has with running itself.  You’ll notice right away that there are some skips and lag in loading sequences and even the title screen.  Most of these drops aren’t very heavy, but you’ll notice them a good bit, not only in menus but otherwise as well.

Title: Langrisser Re:Incarnation -TENSEI-
Developer: Masaya, Career Soft, Aksys Games (Publisher)
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital
Block Usage:  5,846

Langrisser is one of those franchises that many RPG fans know about and many RPG fans have no clue about.  I wouldn’t put it against you if you’d never heard of the franchise, since almost all of the games of the series were never released in the West.  Then again, I’m in the same boat if you didn’t.  I’d heard the name before, but never played any of the games until this past week.

If you know about the new Langrisser game, you know that reviewers have been ripping the poor thing to shreds.  On Metacritic, the game has an average rating of 34/100.  That’s awful!  I think I’ve only reviewed one or two games as low as a 3/10 and that’s mostly because they were a mess all around.  The fact that an RPG, one that Aksys Games published no less, was getting an average rating that low, it got me wondering.

So, my goal of this review is to clear everything up and tell you whether the game truly deserves that score or not.  Here is my review of Langrisser Re:Incarnation Tensei!

Story

The plot of this game revolves around a war between two main factions, one being an empire and another being an army trying to stand against it.  Pretty cliché “evil empire vs rebellion of light” sort of thing.  Caught in the middle is a young man in a small town military named Ares, whom comes in contact with a magical sword known as Langrisser.  Before long, the army of light is trying to seek him out and he ends up in the conflict between the two factions.

The plotline is interesting enough, and there are plenty of characters with development, but my main complaint about the story is how fast the pacing is.  The story starts and within 2 minutes, bam, you already see your main character, during the next day and the town is under attack.  No halting for base character development before all hell breaks loose for him, the empire, the other army, his companions.  Just drop some names, a small scene of moving to a base and bam, town is taking fire.

Story pacing is important and that’s what I didn’t like about this.  The pacing was too drastic.  The writers had these big dramatic events, but didn’t put enough time into the little developments before having said dramatic event take place.  It all felt very rushed.

Gameplay

Langrisser is a grid-based Strategy RPG, as the series has always been known for.  Each mission and scene will take place on a grid where you move units around and fight to complete objectives.  It’s got a basic SRPG formula, with the uniqueness to be told in just a bit.  All in all, it’s an SRPG.

Progression through the game is fairly linear, with you being taken from one scene/battle to the next.  You watch scenes unfold, the battle grid open up, fight a battle, get your spoils, and then you move onto the next set of scenes/battles.  Kind of like Yggdra Union was, but with a few more options available to you.

The interesting part of this system is that many scenes also take place on the grid.  You’ll see a scene developing with various units moving around on the grid, setting up the battle that is about to take place.  It combines this grid with visual novel-style cutscenes and really proves to be an odd, yet unique way of presenting the plot.

When you go into battle, you’ll have your base units that are there in the battle because of story reasons, but you can also recruit mercenaries to help you out.  Think of it like Mercenaries from Ragnarok Odyssey Ace.  You pay them part of your reward in exchange for their support during the mission/battle.  Each story unit acts as a “Commander” and can each recruit mercenaries within your current budget and there are different classes of mercenaries you can recruit, such as warriors or archers.

The grid system in this game is by far one of the oddest-looking SRPG grids I’ve ever seen.  It is completely 2D in nature with no isometric showing like SRPGs normally have.  You are looking at a flat 2D map with pixel characters on it, moving around.  At its base, it plays like many SRPGs do, but the way it looks just presents itself in a way that makes you just tilt your head at first glance because of how different it looks.

Doing battle is pretty straight-forward.  There is a turn order and a unit can move, attack, use skills, etc.  All you’d expect from an SRPG.  Depending on the mission, you’ll need to do different things.  Some missions have you moving to a certain place while fighting enemies while others will have you fighting off enemies in normal combat.  But movement is key to any battle and formation is as well.

Here, we get to parts of the game that are similar to Fire Emblem and Disgaea.  First off, if you have an ally directly next to you when you launch an attack, you can have them join in and give you a little extra damage to the attack.  This is very similar to how Disgaea handles team attacks.  Then, once you launch an attack, you go to a 3D animation, showing two 3D characters fighting for the attack.  Very similar to the zoom-in animations from Fire Emblem.

Once you defeat an enemy, you’ll get experience and can level up right in the middle of a battle, increasing your stats to continue making fighting easier.  This goes for all commander characters, since they’re not temporary like mercenaries are.

Once an entire battle is over, you’ll get a nice little phase where you can manage inventory, buy equipment, and in general just prepare for the next step.  It’s not an entirely free adventure to give you a chance to grind and grind, but it’s enough that it doesn’t feel as limited as games like Yggdra Union that force difficulty spikes on you with no way to train.

Controls

The controls are pretty simplistic.  First of all, the circle pad doesn’t really do anything.  The developers opted to have the D-Pad be used for movement in the field rather than the D-Pad and/or circle pad.  Now with the face buttons, one thing you’ll find interesting and a little odd is the A and B configuration.  Typically in Nintendo games, A is used to select menu items and B is used to cancel.  In Langrisser, this is swapped.  B is used to select and confirm, and A is used to cancel.  This will feel more comfortable to PlayStation fans as it more resembles the West’s configuration for the X and Circle buttons on PlayStation systems.

Now, let’s get to the rest of the control scheme.  The L and R triggers are used for zooming in and out of the grid with the camera.  X is used to pull up the game’s menu, and Y is used for switching the currently-selected character.  Finally, the touch screen has touch-specific menus to traverse.

I don’t really have a problem with the control scheme.  It works well.  The only thing is that the game doesn’t tell you how to do anything.  There is a mild combat tutorial, but no button tutorial at all.  A big “thrown under the bus” move, especially for a game that doesn’t use a traditional control scheme for the system.

Presentation

The visual presentation is certainly lacking in a lot of ways.  Some would say it looks like a Game Boy Advance game and, really, it kind of does.  The only problem with the presentation is that the visuals look like they were made for a smaller screen.  Animated scenes look pixelated.  There’s a noticeable blur on character models and even cutscene artwork models.  It just looks like it wasn’t optimized enough.

The rest of the presentation has no complaints from me.  There’s nothing wrong with how it runs or loads or anything like that.  The load times are short, no frame drops, and no cuts in audio.  That part is optimized quite well.

It’s that time of the month again!  It hasn’t been the busiest month in my site’s life, but we have made some pretty interesting things in this month of May.  The Sega Game Gear review, for one, and a few other nice things.

But, let’s get to the reviews.  Here are all reviews for the month of May!

Nintendo 3DS Reviews

Langrisser Re:Incarnation –Tensei-
Mega Man ZX
Mega Man ZX Advent
Okamiden

PlayStation Vita / PlayStation TV Reviews

Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Video Review (Fan Request)
Megatagmension Blanc + Neptune vs Zombies – Video Review
Ray Gigant

Other

Sega Game Gear – Video Review