Game Title: World of Final Fantasy
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 2.7 GB (Extra Usage required for Voice DLC)
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

Fans of Final Fantasy have been waiting a long time for Square Enix to finally make another classic turn-based game in its famed franchise. Most of the latest releases that aren’t remakes of past games have not been turn-based in the slighted. Final Fantasy Explorers for the 3DS was an Action RPG in the vein of Monster Hunter and Bravely Default, while turn-based, can’t really be considered a part of the Final Fantasy series.

Last week, that all changed. A melding between Final Fantasy and what seemed to be Pokemon, Square Enix brought a new turn-based game in the franchise to the PS4 and PS Vita. Here is my review of World of Final Fantasy!

Story

The story revolves around two siblings, Reynn and Lann. They wake up to a seemingly empty world with no memory of their past. In a chance encounter, they’re told that they were once Mirage Keepers, people who can tame and command monsters from a strange world known as Grymoire. For reasons unknown, they lost all of their Mirages and their memories, taken to a different world. They then set foot back into Grymoire to recapture their Mirage companions and find out who they really are.

The plot of World of FF is both a giant love letter to Final Fantasy and a story both serious and fun. You will constantly be running into characters from Final Fantasy games, like Warrior of Light from the original all the way to Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. And while the game does have a very serious inner-tone and lesson, the dialogue keeps things fun with sarcasm thrown in from Reynn and Lann, making it fun not only in the dialogue but how the FF characters react to this way of speaking.

Gameplay

World of Final Fantasy is a turn-based RPG with monster catching and taming elements thrown in pretty heavily. As you travel from town to town, you’re going to be fighting a lot of monsters as well as recruiting and incorporating them into your battle party to help you fight your future battles for you.

Main progression is like you’d expect from a console Final Fantasy game. The story pushes you forward as you explore each area, discover new towns and dungeons, and proceed towards a story boss to complete that story arc and move onto a new area of the World Map. You also have a hub world you can always go back to, if need be, that houses certain services, like Side Quests, a Shop, and others that unlock later in the game.

The biggest bulk of the game, though, will be fighting and monster catching. In a normal FF game, you would have your party of characters and fight monsters. In this game, you catch monsters and those monsters then become said characters that fight alongside you. Catching monsters is dependent on conditions. When in battle, you must do a certain task for each monster to make them available for catching, be it reducing their HP or inflicting a specific status ailment. Finding what this requirement entails is as simple as using one turn to cast Libra on the monster.

Once they’re ready to be captured, you launch a prism, using a battle command. They are then encased in a sphere which goes through 3 blinking phases, where the monster has a chance to break free and escape. If the entire sequence goes by without issue, they’re caught and yours to control. If they break out, keep trying until they’re caught. Sounds easy, but some are tricky and will flee after the first attempt, so not everything will be as simple as their description says.

Once they’re caught, you can incorporate them into your Stacks. This is also new. Your battle party consists of two stacks. Party Monsters come in 3 sizes. Small, Medium, Large. Each stack must be comprised of a Large on the bottom, Medium on top of the Large, and Small on top of the Medium. Reynn and Lann can move between small chibi forms and normal-sized forms to be either the Medium or Large part of the stack. The other two slots are for monsters you’ve caught.

This feature is much deeper once you get into battle, itself. If you’re stacked, then all 3 characters’ stats will be combined and with certain stacked monsters come special unlockable abilities only available when stacked. There’s also a topple effect where if you take so much damage from attacks that affect stack stability, you can fall over and have to restack on your next turn. You can also do this to your enemies, so it’s important to always keep an eye on that.

Now, let’s talk about how battle works. You have classic turn-based battles, but instead of MP for skills, you have AP. You gain AP every turn, and every action you take uses a certain amount of AP. Let’s say you have 10 AP. You could use all of that to use a powerful spell, but then you’d have 0 left and your next turn will have limited options. You could, instead, use a weaker ability or support skill and then have more AP for your next turn. This is all about strategy, especially in boss fights.

Once you win a battle, you gain EXP for all characters involved in combat as well as all other Mirages/Monsters you have with you. When you level up, your stats increase, and Mirages gain SP (Skill Points). You can then go to their Mirage Board to learn skills in a manner similar to Final Fantasy X’s skill boards. These can be as simple as stat increases to opening slots that lets you use items to teach the Mirage any ability you want.

Mirage Boards are key to evolutions. Just like in Pokemon and Digimon, Mirages/Monsters have evolutions. Sylph can evolve into Siren. Tonberry can evolve into Tonberry King. The more you have access to, the more evolutions you can get into for more powerful forms and skills. Though, when evolving, it’s important to note that different evolutions have different sizes, so If you use Sylph for your Small spot in a stack, once she turns into Siren, she then has to use up a Large spot instead.

Evolving is more than just for efficiency, though. One of my favorite features of the game is called Joyride. Some Large-class monsters like Behemoth or even the Chocobo can learn this skill, which lets you ride them around in dungeons. There isn’t any real change in dungeon exploration, but plowing through a dungeon on a behemoth is just fun.

As you may guess, this is all comes together with the fact that there’s a lot of depth here. Even further than that is the Hero Gauge that allows you to use medals to summon legendary Final Fantasy characters, like Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI or the Day One DLC-exclusive Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. There’s a lot to the systems in this game.

Two final things: Difficulty and Length. It’s no question that there are a lot of reviews for the game out at this point, and most of them were written before the writer completed the game. This led to many saying that World of Final Fantasy is an easy game. Many parts of the campaign are pretty easy to figure out, but the further you go, the harder it gets.

If you aren’t fully prepared, battle strategy and all, you will not make it through many fights later on in the game. Many bosses require very specific strategies I would never know had I not bought the strategy guide for the game. So, if you’re worried about the game being too easy, don’t be. There’s a lot of challenge here, even before you get to the post-game dungeons.

And length. Length is one of the most confusing parts of this game. Square Enix said it was 100 hours of story content. IGN said it was 60 hours. Some other websites said it was 30 and under. When I finally reached and beat the final boss, I had logged around 43 hours in the game. So, anyone wanting to know how long it is, I would say 40-45 hours is a good estimate. Not the 60-100 hours we thought, but still quite lengthy.

Controls

First of all, World of FF is not compatible with the PlayStation TV and it probably never will be. Square Enix explicitly stated they weren’t supporting the PSTV. Does the game use anything the PSTV can’t do? No. There are no touch controls, motion controls, or camera controls. The game would not be hard at all to play on the PSTV. But, they still decided not to enable the feature.

As far as controls go, the Left Analog Stick moves your characters and Right Analog Stick will move the camera to take a look around dungeons. D-Pad is used for menus while the L and R triggers are used for switching menus in battle. X is used to confirm commands while Square can be used in the field for map features. Triangle pulls up the menu, and Circle can cancel commands.

Presentation

Now, presentation. Let’s start with graphics. I, among others, was disappointed in the graphics in this game’s demo, and in the game itself. Environments look nice, and so do some monster renders, but a lot of the visuals are very jaggy and more like PSP graphics. For some developers, this can be tolerated. For Square Enix, a company known for making games look and run great on handhelds (FFX HD and Dragon Quest Builders for example), this is just disappointing. While the chibis do look much nicer than the normal sized renders, Square Enix could have done much better.

Let’s talk about music now. The game has some great remixes of classic Final Fantasy songs packed in here. From Castle Cornelia and Battle Scene from Final Fantasy I to The Decisive Battle and Dancing Mad from Final Fantasy VI, series fans are sure to get giddy the first time they see their favorite FF character show up with a new remixed theme song.

My first thought on the previously-mentioned degraded presentation would be for it to sacrifice graphics for performance, but that didn’t happen either. Load Times are bearable, but there are a lot of frame drops as you’re exploring dungeons and fighting battles. These are manageable in dungeons because the moment you switch from 3-4 characters running around to 1 character riding a monster, the frame rate drastically improves.

In battle, not so much. It is turn-based, so the frame rate won’t really cause you efficiency problems, but the fact that it lags quite a bit in battle is bothersome to many

The Vita has a handful of horror games to choose from, most without even a physical release,  Yomawari: Night Alone is the first horror game on Vita to fill that void.

Game Title:  Yomawari: Night Alone
Developer: Nippon Ichi software, Inc.
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Horror
Download: 536 MB
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download
PSTV Support: YES

Story and presentation

Yomawari: Night Alone proves that you should never judge a book by its cover.

What started of as  what seems to be an innocent scenario of being a little girl walking her dog at night, turns into every child’s nightmare.

This simplistic concept goes a long way,
as you later on find yourself alone trying to find your sister and dog Poro throughout a hunted town overrunning with spirits.

At first it’s easy to be fooled by Yomawari’s cute yet visually appealing graphics, But as you find yourself navigating throughout the fearsome town dodging spirits, getting jumpscared left From right, you soon realize that Yomawari isn’t a horror game to be taken lightly. Without the need of a soundtrack Yomawari gets you sucked into the atmosphere of being alone at night. It builds up suspense with the most simplest of sounds, rather that be your own footsteps, crickets or even horse spirits galloping throughout the streets.

Rather you’re  playing on PSTV or an OLED Vita Yomawari is real eye candy.

Gameplay

There a little to no direction in Yomawari,  which can leave to pointless wandering and being killed for not having enough stamina, this is the only visible source of frustration in Yomawari. Throughout the game you’ll really feel of sense of hopelessness, As most of your option are to run or hide from spirits, while running you have a stamina bar which quickly reduces and depletes faster whiles scared, which make it easier for spirits to catch up to you. You can hide in bushes and certain signs throughout the town, while hidden spirits can’t get to you.  you’ll be able to tell how close a spirit is next to you by your heartbeat and a  red radar around you.

During your adventure you’ll come across different types of spirits that’ll need To be  approached and avoided differently, such as throwing rocks, lit matches or even giving them animal treats. Beware as spirits can sneak up on you.

There are jizo statues around town for quick-saving, offering a coin to them will make the location the statue your latest save point.

I find that although the heart raising moments in Yomawari: Night Alone will leave you on the edge of your seats, jumpscares are a “fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice,  shame on you” type of situation, as the same scenarios would repeat if you die.

Collectibles, handwritten letters and puzzle are scattered throughout the game. It would’ve been nice if the collectables  added more to Yomawari’s short story.

Conclusion

Yomawari: Night Alone does what many horror games can’t, as  setting a perfect atmosphere without the need  of a soundtrack. At first I was fool of the cute and adorable look of Yomawari, but soon realize I was in for a gem of a horror game.

The Vita was in need for a unique horror game with a physical release, as i stated earlier Yomawari: Night Alone is the first of hopefully many games to fill that void. Although I wish it was a little longer,  Yomawari is the perfect game to pop up when showing your Vita horror collection.

Many people have been waiting for handheld gaming to climb to the next level of depth, gameplay, immersion, and all around experiences that are now available in the console and PC world. When there were rumors about a PS Vita 3000 with extra power, and rekindled with the reveal of the upcoming Nintendo Switch, many people wanted one particular experience on the go: Open-World Hit RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

While people can be excited about playing Skyrim Special Edition on the Switch next year, the other side of the world has been hard at work to bring these kinds of experiences straight to the handheld community. Does the term Handheld PC sound interesting to you? Not a laptop, or Windows Tablet, but a laptop that can be held and used like a Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita. It is an idea, and now a reality.

There are many handhelds currently in the works to bring PC Gaming to handheld audiences, most of which are slated for release next year, like the Steam-based Smach Zero and the PGS Labs handheld. First to the show, however, is a device I’ve been watching very closely for a long time.

From creator Game Pad Digital that brought the Android world the GPD XD, here is my review of the first-ever handheld laptop, the GPD Win!

Design

By design, the Win will heavily remind you of the New Nintendo 3DS. The clamshell design and even the positions of the triggers on the back are similar to how they are placed on Nintendo’s redesigned 3DS system. The GPD XD had a similar design as well, bringing in the clamshell to help protect the screen.

The top piece of the GPD Win is a 5.5” touch screen, responsive in the same way as if you’d taken a Windows 8/10 tablet and brought it down to that small size. The bottom is significantly busier, though. On the bottom, we basically have 2 sections. He top as the gamepad and the bottom has the keyboard. The gamepad has a D-Pad, two Analog Sticks, 4 face buttons, and a clickable switch that I’ll explain later on in the review.

The bottom has a full QUERTY keyboard along with a number pad-like set of keys that are used for game and PC functionality. That pad is where the Power Button, L3 and R3 buttons, Volume Controls, Xbox Button, Start and Select Buttons, and the Scroll Lock and Print Screen buttons are. As it sounds, it has a pretty complex and packed interface for you to work with.

Two final things about the hardware. The “top” of the device, where triggers are for the 3DS. There’s a lot to go through here. The top of this has four triggers, meant to emulate L1, L2, R1, and R2. In between the sets of triggers are some interfaces and ports. In here we have a USB-C port used for charging, an HDMI-C port used for video-out, a full USB 3.0 port for USB accessories, a Micro SD Card Slot, and an AUX port for headphones. This is packed as well. GPD was originally going to incorporate a full-sized HDMI port on here, but you can easily see why they opted for HDMI-C.

On the bottom/back is the most interesting part, though. There is a 3-setting switch that allows you to modify the device’s fan. If it’s too loud, you can turn it down to blow slowly and quietly, or turn it off altogether. While I don’t suggest you ever turn it off, you can if you want.

Finally, we get to the software side of the design. This device is marketed as a handheld Gaming Device, but in all technicalities, this is a Windows 10 laptop. When you boot it up, you go through Windows 10 activation and the interface is exactly that of a desktop computer with Windows 10 Home Edition.

The design, I think, is really neat to look at and they positioned a lot of things in very smart places. The L3/R3 off to the side is a bit odd during games, but I would give kudos to these developers simply for fitting so many interface options in this device.

Functionality

While this is a Windows 10 machine, the functionality is geared towards it being a handheld gaming device, and that’s what we’re going to cover. To start things off, we’re gonna go over how the onboard gamepad fits into that. The onboard buttons are wired in to be recognized as an Xbox 360 controller in PC games. So, if you launch a game, it should automatically recognize and let you use the buttons in control schemes that would mirror those of the games’ console releases.

The way this works with the device is in that little switch you can see between the two analog sticks. That switches the “Mode” the device is in. If you switch it to Controller Mode, the gamepad buttons can be used as a controller. If you switch it to Mouse Mode, you’ll be able to control the mouse cursor on the screen with the Right Analog Stick and manage mouse clicks with two of the triggers. That’s a feature that I’ve found to be incredibly handy when not in a game.

As far as the rest of the functionality is concerned, you really just have to think of this as a miniaturized laptop. It can do anything a laptop can, except it’s smaller. You boot up to the Windows Login screen, navigate a desktop to open programs, you can connect to Wi-Fi and browse the web in Microsoft Edge, and the list goes on. It’s a PC that fits in your hands, and that’s something that’s important to remember.

Hardware Performance

Performance I’m putting into 2 sections to not have an overly long section for the unit’s performance. I’ve also got a lot to talk about in each area, so you don’t need me to showcase a fine example of Novel Syndrome in this review.

With hardware performance, we should talk about handling, heat, and battery life. With handling, the gamepad controls are very comfortable and easy to get accustomed to. Once you launch a game and start using the gamepad, it feels just like you’re using a handheld or controller, like a 3DS with more buttons. That is one thing they did that turned out nicely. Even the position of the triggers falls in very comfortably.

They keyboard is, too, but only at certain times. Fitting a QUERTY keyboard on a handheld device was just begging to fall into finger-cramp territory. Basic things like using the arrow keys and such are easy, but if you go into the console in Bethesda games and have to type, it’s not easy. I don’t have overly large hands and it works, but I’d be lying if I said it was a comfortable experience. The system could have definitely used a larger keyboard.

Finally, we have the screen. Using a 5.5” as an entire desktop isn’t easy. Windows 10 has features to help make things bigger, like Desktop icons, but really, no matter what setting you use, it’s not easy to navigate. Make text bigger and folders don’t display their full names. Leave it along and desktop icons are too small for some people to read. So, it all comes down to the fact that you really just have to get used to the display to use it comfortably.

Heat is another issue that is something you would have to wonder anyways with cramming an entire laptop into such a small form factor. The system has a built in fan and, with default settings, the system heats up a little bit. Nothing worth complaining about, but if you’re a computer person that wants the absolute best performance, then you should be worried about heat. Increasing the minimal heat caution value up higher will drastically improve game performance, but the device will get very hot very quickly. Gloves are advised, as that’s what I do and it warms up my leg real quick when I set it down to do something else.

The final thing on the hardware list is Power and Battery. First of all, you are going to want to know the battery life. From a 100% charge with Airplane Mode on and the Battery Saver power option in motion, you can expect around 5-6 hours of game time if you’re using emulation and around 3-4 hours if you’re playing PC games. This is also with the screen brightness all the way up at 100%, so if you brought that down, you might be able to get a little more time out of it.

Charging the unit is an issue, though. The GPD Win is probably the slowest device I own for charging. You could leave it at the Windows 10 desktop screen and it might charge 2% within 10 minutes of charging time. It uses a ton of power and is better off just left overnight if you want to get the thing charged up.

Game Performance

Now, let’s get onto what you really want to know: Game Performance. If you’ve been watching my YouTube Channel, I’ve been showing videos of the Win playing various PC and Emulator games. I’ve tested PC Games, a plethora of emulators, and streaming from an Xbox One console and the results are pleasing, considering this device only costs around $300. You won’t be getting brand new games to run well, but some experiences that are now on the go are quite nice.

As far as specs are concerned, the Win runs off Intel integrated graphics, the Z8700 CPU processor that bases around 1.6 Ghz, along with sporting 4 GB of Ram. It’s pretty basic for a PC, so there’s no big expectation for it to run every brand new game without issue.

In my tests, I found that emulation worked wonderfully as well as Xbox One Streaming. I’d be surprised if you found even a Nintendo Wii game you couldn’t emulated at 20-30 fps or higher. New Super Mario Bros Wii runs at a solid 60 fps and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess at a solid 30.

I tested a lot of PC games, from open-world Bethesda games to the JRPG-friendly Neptunia series. Games like Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim run pretty smooth. The Fallout games run around 35-45 fps throughout, while Skyrim has an average of about 30-35 fps, sometimes dropping down to the low 20s, but most of the time staying around 30. Tomb Raider: Underworld was also tested, which ran at a solid 30 fps. Most of the problematic games were newer games. Resident Evil 6 ran around 15 fps and Megadimension Neptunia VII ran around the same.

This basically comes down to a simple fact: The GPD Win can comfortably run games from the PS3/Xbox 360 era and back, while anything newer is on a game-to-game basis. Some newer games run decently and others run pretty poor, like Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster running at an average of 10 fps.

This comes at a price, though. As I said above, there is a significant performance increase if you adjust BIOS settings, and that is where these numbers came from. Skyrim occasionally boots and runs around 12-20 fps for me on normal settings, but runs at around 25-40 with the Bios set to increase performance. There is a video on YouTube that details how to increase performance by a channel called The Phawx, which I highly recommend anyone interested in this device subscribe to.

Game Title: Root Letter
Developer: Kadokawa Games, PQube Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.3 GB
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Visual Novels are something a few words can definitely be said about. The first thing that comes to my mind is that they’re almost all story. What makes a good Visual Novel is a storyline, and a good one. With so many RPGs coming out in VN format, you gotta have a gripping story or the players won’t stay interested in sticking around for the entire game. Dialogue leading to a good ending won’t amount to much, but emotional twists and turns will keep a player attached to the story until the finale.

Another is the fact that the Western and Eastern gaming audiences have different perspectives on VNs. In Japan, over half of the Vita gaming library is made up of VNs. It’s VN paradise. In North America, VNs are still somewhat uncommong compared to everything else. So, in Japan, it’s like “Another VN, cool”. In the West? Fans are like “OMG sweet. A new VN!”

Today’s review is about a VN that has received ridicule in Japan, but has been doing well in the West. A game that tugged deeply at my heart, here is my review of Root Letter!

Story

The story revolves around you, the Main Character with a customizeable name. In your high school days, you were penpals with a girl from another city in Japan, and you became very close, but the letters eventually stopped. 15 years later, you’re going through your things, moving to take a new job when you discover a final letter that you’d never seen before, mentioning that she had murdered someone. Worried, you rush to Matsue, her hometown, to find her.

Upon reaching the town, you find her nowhere to be seen with the whispers of ghosts and aliens in the air all around mention of her name. You then set out through the town for all of the friends she mentioned in her letters to you to find out what happened to her and where she is now.

The story of Root Letter is a mystery tale through and through. Every one of the friends you find will try their hardest to make sure you never find out the truth about your penpal, and that leads to a lot of digging, research, and interrogations. That starts one of the things I liked the most. The story has you constantly guessing and re-theorizing what’s actually happened to her throughout. By the time the finale came, I was shocked to find that none of my theories matched what actually happened.

The Main Character’s situation also reached out to me. Someone worried and seeking the penpal he fell in love with and being presented with obstacle after obstacle to make sure he never finds out really pulled at my heartstrings. From start to finish, I felt like I –was- the main character and experiencing all of these things through his eyes. It came through in such a strong way that it really pulled me into the entire experience.

Gameplay

As stated above, Root Letter is a Visual Novel. It is a story being told in cutscene after cutscene. While there are a lot of scenes, there are some interesting interaction segments as well. You’ll have to do research by using items in your inventory and asking questions to get NPCs to say certain things to open up the next dialogue sequence. And you get to interrogate characters using Investigation Time, which I’ll touch on in a bit.

Main progression is basically through each chapter starting with you reading one of your penpal’s letters, hinting towards what part of the past you’ll be digging up in that chapter, or more specifically, who you’ll discover in that chapter. You then go out into the world, exploring various locations of the city to gain evidence needed to figure out who that friend really is and to try to get answers out of them.

Getting answers is where each chapter gets more interactive and intense, called Investigation Time. In this, you’ll have questions you can ask and inventory items to use which have to first prove the person you’re speaking to is who you think they are, and then, once you corner them in conversation, ask about your penpal’s whereabouts.

This system I find reminescent of Ace Attorny because every time you choose the correct piece of evidence to showcase, it flies onto the screen in a very dramatic fashion, like when Ace yells Objection! in the AA games. These sequences are sometimes difficult and sometimes easy. There is a chance system too, where you can only get so many questions wrong before the person leaves and you get a Game Over.

That’s where the “Think” command comes in handy. At any point of the game, you can use the Think command to give you a hint on where you need to go next, or what piece of evidence you need to use in an Investigation. It’s really your guide, so to speak, and I’m a million times thankful it’s there, because without it, I’d still be mind-boggled at the Investigation Sequences.

Overall, the game comes together well with the Investigation System. My main complaint is story flow. Some chapters are short and you corner a character quickly, while others are long and drawn out. It feels very unbalanced in this way, and that’s really something that a good reader will find off-putting about the game. It’s a shame, too, as the finale and various endings you can get are chilling and brought me to tears more than once.

Speaking of endings, let’s talk length and replay value. Your first run through the game should take you around 10-12 hours for the normal ending. To get other endings, you’ll be spending about an hour a piece there. If you get into the story like I did, you will be emotionally distraught until you get that good ending, so expect at least 13-15 hours out of the game. Compared to some longer VNs this is short, but honestly, this is pretty good compared to other VNs in the west. Just look at the last VN I reviewed, Chase for the 3DS, which was only a couple hours long.

Controls

Controls are pretty simple. But before going into the simplicity, Root Letter is 100% compatible with the PlayStation TV. No special controls here, but you can go into the game, glad that you can buy it for the Vita and play it on the go and on the big screen.

The D-Pad is used for navigating menus and the X button is used for selecting options. Triangle can toggle how you want text to flow (Auto, Skip, etc), and circle can cancel an option in a menu. Finally, Square pulls up the story log and R2(R on the Vita) lets you skip text in a scene.

Pretty easy to use, overall. The only thing I’d worries about here was explanations for finding the save areas, and the game shows you exactly how to do that.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks wonderful. Being a VN, it’s all about the artwork, and it excels. Even when stretched on the PSTV, everything looks flawless. It looks just like the PS4 version does, which is uncommon for multiplatform games like this.

Performance, not much to say. Load times are short, no lag, audio syncs well, and the voice-work for all the NPCs comes through nicely. Like I said above, imagine the PS4 version except not on PS4.

Game Title: Exile’s End
Developer: Magnetic Realms, XSEED Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 99 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

One genre I’ve come to note that the handheld community likes and loves is the Metroidvania genre. I’ve seen more “What are some good Metroidvanias on this?” topics I’ve seen in both r/Vita and r/3DS than I could care to count. I admit that I do enjoy the genre every so often, so maybe I’m thrown into the same crowd as those people. The point is, it’s a pretty popular genre among handheld gamers.

A game of that genre (as much as the developers may want you to think it’s not) actually did come to the West not so long ago, on the PS4 and PS Vita both. By XSEED Games of all people, too. The people normally being thanked for RPGs like The Legend of Heroes, Ys, and Ragnarok published this small Castlevania title for indie fans.

Without further ado, here is my review of the PS Vita and PSTV version of Exile’s End!

Story

The story of Exile’s End takes place in a sci-fi world, where a mining operation’s communications go dark and a team is sent in to find out why. Upon crashing onto the planet where the mining operation was set in, the leader must round up whatever survivors he can and try to find out what happened to the mining operation.

While the story does show itself in a good few ways, the focus here is definitely the gameplay. The story is decent for what it is, and it kept me going because I’m a sucker for anything sci-fi, but just note that it’s not meant to be the focus of the game.

Gameplay

Exile’s End is a side-scrolling action game that’s aim was to emulate the old action games on the Commodore 64. While they go very far out of their way to say it is NOT a Metroidvania title, that is definitely what it feels like in its campaign mode, though with a bit of a survival element thrown in to keep things progressive as you play.

Basically, you have Story Mode and Survival Mode you can go through. Story Mode is a 5-hour trek through the campaign while Survival Mode is more of a Free Play mode that gives you a weapon and a timer with which you have limited time to take out all enemies and make it to the exit.

In Story Mode, you have a giant map to explore, each in 2D rooms. I would compare this directly to games like Symphony of the Night or even Valkyrie Profile, in my own experience. You go through each room and then you transition to another room which will eventually make up a large map of the overall area you’re in. The goal is to reach survivors or whatever your current objective may be by avoiding obstacles and solving puzzles.

The game is as much a survival game as an action game, though. At the start, your suit has no upgrades and you have no weapons, so you’re completely blind in everything you’re doing. You take a lot of fall damage, have no way of fighting enemies or solving puzzles and have to find all the tools you need as you go. It makes it a much more strategic experience than Survival Mode, where your suit is already upgraded.

The way that strategy works is figuring out puzzles and figuring out a proper way to platform. There are a ton of areas where you have to jump down and can’t see where you’re jumping to. Platform patterns are all different so you have to look down by holding the down button for a few seconds and see where you’re going. This isn’t an uncommon feature in older games, but the game doesn’t show you how to do this. It says to look down and you’re just there saying “Umm…okay? How do I do that?”

It also doesn’t tell you how to use items once you find them, which is integral to solving puzzles as one of the first puzzles is to throw a rock you find on the ground and equip over to a level that you can’t reach. Didn’t take me more than a few minutes to figure out, but again, virtually no instruction will lead many to a swirling pool of confusion.

The platforming, itself, is pretty intricate and not always predictable. Platforms might go in one direction for 2 or 3 steps and then turn left. The fact that you take fall damage until you get better upgrades makes you constantly think about these things with using the look function. The nice thing about this is that it’s not a platformer you can just run and rush through. The game makes you think and plan.

The same goes for items and weapons. You find a pistol that has 10 bullets and you may want to think whether you want to annihilate every harmless enemy in sight or save the bullets for a boss fight later on. Unlike Survival Mode, you don’t have an unlimited amount of everything (other than Health).

With how it all works, the pacing really feels kind of slow. You find a tiny scene, then a lot of empty rooms with little to no enemies or items and that repeats. People who love to explore may not mind this, but it felt like there really should’ve been more thrown into each room to keep the difficulty and thinking going. A lot of rooms are just running in a straight line or platforming with one or no enemies to try to avoid.

This goes on for the 5-hour campaign, while you also have Survival Mode which I find much more action-packed. In Survival, you’re thrown into a stage with certain weaponry and a timer. By the time the timer reaches zero, you have to wipe out every enemy in the stage, collect the key to get out, and get out. This feels much more Arcade-y and more action-focused since all you have to worry about is platforming and gunning down any and all enemies you see. That doesn’t make it easy, but it has a much faster pace.

Controls

Anti-Touch and PSTV enthusiasts will be happy about this one. Exile’s End is 100% Compatible with the PlayStation TV and has no touch controls to speak of. You can play it on the big screen and you don’t have to worry about using the touch screen for anything.

Navigation is easy as well. The D-Pad and Left Analog Stick are used for moving around, X and Square are used for jumping and items, and the L/R Triggers are used to cycle through items on-hand to set equipment. It’s really simple to get around.

Presentation

Admittedly, the game is optimized really well and looks pretty good, too. I will note that while most of the 2D world is rendered flawlessly, the character model of your character is a tad on the blurry side. It looks a little out of place with everything else around.

As far as actual performance, I have no complaints. Short load times, a smooth frame-rate, and all in all, plays just as well on the Vita as it does on the PS4.

Game Title: Sword Art Online -Hollow Realization-
Developer: Aquria, Bandai Namco
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 3.1 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Sword Art Online is one of the best things to happen to my website. Back when the first SAO game came West and I posted a review of it, my site’s popularity skyrocketed. I went from making 300-400 hits a day up to Over 9000 hits all in one day, and several thousand a day for that entire week. Hollow Fragment really put my site on the map for a lot of handheld gamers, and Lost Song did the same when I posted its review.

As an avid fan of Sword Art Online and its PS Vita games, I was more than excited to dive into the new game that recently released worldwide. Now that I have, I’m ready for my third Sword Art Online game review for the website. Without further delay, here is my review of the Vita and PSTV version of Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization!

Story

Hollow Realization takes place some time after the events of Hollow Fragment and Lost Song (further setting in stone that all three console games are set in the same timeline, separate from the anime timeline), where a lot of the original Sword Art Online’s gaming systems have been ported over to a new engine and launched as its own game, dubbed Sword Art Origin. In its beta test, the entire crew from the previous two games are diving in to not only test out how it has been implemented, but also to revisit the original world they were once trapped in.

The story involves Kirito and the gang taking part in the Beta Test and finding a seemingly-nameless NPC character. Taking her under their wing, they aim to find out why she’s nameless and how she got programmed that way in the first place.

The first thing to say about the story is that it’s for fans of the series. Newcomers will be very confused as almost every conversation between Kirito and any other character will directly reference either a scene from the original anime or a scene from the previous two games. The game does throw in recap scenes to showcase what happened in said games, but if you didn’t play it, you’ll be lost in those scenes. They play out, assuming you know exactly what they’re talking about.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Hollow Realization is very similar to Hollow Fragment in that it is a mostly-offline MMORPG. There is a real-time combat system and it will play very much like a standard MMORPG would. If you played Hollow Fragment, imagine that with a few gameplay upgrades and that’s what this game is. Hollow Fragment 2.0, so to speak.

When you start the game, you are able to customize Kirito with different hairstyles, body types, gender (with appropriate voice-tracks outside of story scenes), and your starting weapon. Once you do start, you’ll jump right in, being introduced to the new combat mechanics and thrown into the hub town where you’ll be taking on quests, talking to NPCs, teleporting out into the world, buying equipment, etc.

Before moving on, let’s talk about what’s new here. As I said earlier, this game plays and feels almost exactly like Hollow Fragment does. The exploration, parties, and even the combat feels similar. Here’s what’s new: You can now have parties of 4 (but can only control Kirito), you can revive fallen comrades and they can revive you, combat is slightly faster-paced (but not as fast-paced as it was in Lost Song), and the Skill Trees are mostly different.

Combat is a bit different as well. While you’ll still be hacking away at enemies, complimenting your party members to get SP boosts, and unleashing skill combos, you have different things in play here. You have enemy weaknesses, where hitting an enemy with a skill the moment after their attack ends, their guard goes down and they’re defense falls drastically. Honestly, it still feels like you’re doing the same thing in combat, but it is actually a little bit different.

The game progresses mostly in 2 areas: exploration and quests. There will always be some sort of Story Quest that you’ll have to do either in the hub town or out in the field but there are also optional quests you can get from the Quest Board that have nothing to do with story, normally hunting and gathering quests for extra cash.

Then we have exploration. Like the Hollow Area part of Hollow Fragment, you can freely teleport out into the field and explore for the sake of exploring. On this note, the world is huge and when I say huge, I mean open-world RPG huge. Hollow Fragment was huge and full of small rooms. Hollow Realization is huge and full of huge rooms that it might take you several minutes to run from one side to the other while ignoring enemies, NPCs, and anything else standing in your way.

Here’s where things get intimidating. If you followed the main story of Hollow Fragment, you explored a floor of Aincrad and got bits of story pretty often. In Hollow Realization, it quickly becomes the opposite. In many segments, I’d have to go out and explore to advance the main story quests, and there would be literally hours of exploration, obstacles, mini-bosses, etc before I would actually trigger the next story event for the main quest.

Granted, the Hollow Area of HF was like that, but it also wasn’t technically the “main” story of HF. The Aincrad section was. This feels very intimidating and makes the game feel really slow in pacing from how much time you have to throw away just to get a single story cutscene.

All of this is coming back from Hollow Fragment, but that’s another point I want to make. Transitioning between HF and Lost Song was drastic. It felt completely different, but Hollow Realization feels more like Hollow Fragment 2.0. Almost all of the gameplay systems are recycled from HF, all the way down to the pillow talk scenes with the girl NPCs. Aside from a few upgrades, very little is new here aside from the story. Back when this game was first announced, it looked more like a mix of HF and LS, but once you get into it, it just feels like HF.

Still, the game does come together decently well and there’s a ton to do. Only doing the main quest will probably get you to the end of the game in about 30-40 hours, while other quests and side events can easily double that.

Controls

Hollow Realization is fully compatible with the PlayStation TV and the developers made use of that. The two features that use the touch screen, locking onto enemies and praising characters, are re-routed to the L2 and R2 buttons. A nice little convenience that Namco Bandai likes to incorporate into their Vita games.

As far as controls go, the Left Analog is used for moving and Right Analog for moving the camera. The D-Pad and face buttons are used for set commands out in the field, while the L and R buttons are held down to change the skill palettes for the D-Pad and Face Buttons. It’s pretty simple and the game shows you how to do everything in the tutorial areas.

Presentation

Here’s where things get messy. Hollow Fragment looked smooth and crisp on the Vita, as did Lost Song. Hollow Realization doesn’t. There are jagged edges all over the place and blurring in a lot of the character models. Environments and some enemies look fine, but it really isn’t very fine-tuned like the original games were.

This extends into the rest of the presentation as well. Performance is very laggy and full of frame-drops when out in the field. The original had the occasional frame drop in town and Realization handles the town NPCs pretty well. But when you head out into the field, your entire trek will be frame-drop city. I don’t have a counter on, but I would imagine and guess it’d be around an average of 15 fps.

It really feels like the developers spent more time on the PS4 version of the game and not very much time at all on the Vita version, which is especially saddening for Vita fans since SAO has been a very popular series among handheld gamers.

Game Title: Pokemon Sun / Pokemon Moon
Developer: Game Freak, The Pokemon Company
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
Download: 24,457 Blocks
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download

Pokemon games are always about a journey and adventure, and it’s been a journey with me since I was a little boy. Pokemon: Red Version was my first handheld game back on the big brick Game Boy, which I still own and use to this day. Throughout the various generations of Pokemon, I have come and gone but I’ve always come back and loved the experiences the games have shown.

Some things change and certain games of the series catch my eye and some don’t. Generations 1-3 I loved. Generation 4 I didn’t really care for, and Generation 5 I never played outside of the Gen 2 remakes. Pokemon’s popularity in this generation sparked with Gen 6, which I did play, but certainly wasn’t my favorite. I played about half of Pokemon Y before I got bored with it, though I did enjoy playing Alpha Sapphire.

Then we come to Generation 7 and I’ve found my love for Pokemon rekindled. I’ve spent a lot of time with Moon and it’s time for me to post my review and thoughts, although I’m still neck-deep in post-game content. So, here’s my review of Pokemon Sun and Moon!

Story

The plot of Sun and Moon takes place not far from home of the first games. Relatively close to the Kanto Region is a group of islands known as the Alola Region. You and your mother recently moved from Kanto to Alola and you are eager to explore your new home. In your first day, you meet the nearby professor and get put into the Island Challenge program, where young trainers travel the islands, taking on difficult trials and taking on the Kahunas of each island in their journey to become a Champion of the region.

The story of Sun and Moon I like because it has a JRPG—like story that Pokemon hasn’t had before. Among the focus is the background of the islands, a likable scene with the local Team Skull troublemakers, and the Legendary Pokemon of the region being thrown into the story in a pretty smart way that fans of other JRPGs will feel right at home with.

I liked the story because I got attached to the characters. I felt the rush of each emotional scene and the bittersweet ending left a tear in my eye. Pokemon has never made that sort of emotional connection with me before, and seeing the credits roll was like seeing a favorite anime’s last episode. It’s a good journey, but you’re sad that it’s over.

Gameplay

Like previous games of the series, Pokemon Sun and Moon are monster-catching turn-based RPGs. That part of the core gameplay remains mostly unchanged, although a significant amount of the journey is different from all previous games of the series.

There are a lot of changes, but the most significant of those changes are the Island Challenges and the Z-Move system. Island Challenges basically replace Gyms with Trials that you undergo as you explore each island. Every island has Captains that put you through Trials, leading up to a boss fight to prove your worth during that Trial. The big change here is the fact that each trial is different and you’re not just fighting battles over and over until the main boss of the trial shows up. One Trial may have you hunting down and taking pictures of Pokemon while another may have you viewing dances and finding differences to point out.

Once each trial is complete, you receive a Z-Crystal for a specific move type. This is the big addition to combat. In Sun and Moon, you have Ultimate Attacks that can only be used once per turn called Z-Moves. Any Pokemon can use a Z-Crystal but they must have a move of the same type of the Z-Crystal to be able to use it and what kind of move it is changes the move. Some of the Crystals are Pokemon-specific as well. Fans of Mega Evolution shouldn’t fret, as you gain access to that once you hit post-game so they didn’t remove it.

The best thing about the trials is that you don’t always know when you’re undergoing a trial. On the first island, you head straight to where it takes place and you start the trial. On the other islands, though, the trials are kind of just thrown into the story. One moment, you think you’re helping with some side-quest and the trial appears out of nowhere, as if it’s just a part of the quest-line. This is very surprising, but also adds a sense of comfort as you go through the game.

Of course, there are dozens of other additions as well. HM’s have been replaced by permanent Ride Pokemon you can call at any time, TM’s can be used over and over without disappearing, there’s a Critical Catch system that randomly will give you an easy catch for Wild Pokemon, Alola variations of classic Kanto Pokemon, and there’s the QR Scan feature that lets you scan QR Codes of Pokemon from other player’s Pokedex to help you find that Pokemon for yourself. The latter also allows you to do a daily Island Scan, enabling rare Pokemon to appear on the island for a certain amount of time, like previous Starters such as Charmander or Tododile.

Now let’s talk about difficulty. Pokemon has always been a more casual experience, but it is in no way easy. Wild Encounters and even some Trainers may prove to be simple as you progress, but when it counts, the difficulty comes through. Some of the Trial Bosses gave me a run for my money, and the final battles of the main story nearly made me chuck my 2DS across the room. I barely scraped through those final battles, even with a large amount of preparation.

In your journey through the islands, you should expect to spend around 30-35 hours between the start until you reach the end of the game and see the credits roll. Once you do that, you get post-game content in the form of the Battle Tower area only available in post-game, cameo trainer fights against some familiar faces for series fans, hunting down story-based legendaries, and a few other things you can work on. There’s a lot to do here.

Controls

Controlling the game is pretty simple. You use the Circle Pad to move around and can hold the B button to run. The A button confirms and talks to NPCs, X pulls up your menus, and Y pulls up the Ride Menu to use a Pokemon for riding or navigating Terrain previous games required HM moves for.

The touchscreen is used pretty heavily as well. While not required, you can navigate menus with the touchscreen as well as all of the extra mini-games in the menu, like playing and caring for Pokemon to increase their affinity and affection (for evolutions like Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon) among other new additions to the mini-game list.

Presentation

Visually, they did an excellent job of overhauling the 3D from XYORAS to Sun and Moon. Yes, there are still jagged edges on the models, but they look a lot more detailed and smoother here. They’ve even taken out the circle shadows under battle renders and given each and every Pokemon accurate shadows both for their body and movement. It’s pretty impressive how far they are pushing their handheld unit.

That comes at a price, though. Pokemon Sun and Moon don’t run that well in more technical battles. One on One battles run fine, but if you are doing 2vs2 battles or any of the “Boss” battles for the trials, expect to see some frame drops. Some battles the drops are minor, but in others they are pretty significant. Whenever a Pokemon or Boss calls in additional Pokemon for help, just note that the more renders on screen, the worse the frame rate will get.

Your model of 3DS will definitely help here. If you’re running an older unit or a 2DS, frame drops come in almost every 2vs2 battle. On the New 3DS, there’s still a good bit of lag, but not as much of it. Either way, though, Nintendo pushed the 3DS with Sun and Moon, and it certainly doesn’t play as well as one would hope.

Game Title: Battalion Commander
Developer: Iriysoft
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 55 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

Most gamers have those times where they just want to play something casual.  I play RPGs like nobody’s business and eventually, I just want to settle down with something nice and casual for a-while.  That’s where all of the mobile games that get ported over to the 3DS and PS Vita really come in handy.  There are lots of micro-sized experiences to boot up and just waste time in.

My favorite genre of mobile-to-console games is the Endless genre.  First things that come to mind with that are endless runners, like Run like Hell or Run Sackboy Run.  Endless isn’t always about running, though.  There are a few games that incorporate top-down shooting in the same type of game.  I like to call these Endless Shooters.

Today, we’re going to talk about a game of that very genre that was sent to me just a few days ago.  The first Endless Shooter I’ve played on the Vita, here is my review of Battalion Commander!

Story

Since this game has no story attached to it, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

As I said above, Battalion Commander is what you would call an Endless Shooter.  The base gameplay and viewpoint is that of a top-down shooter, but your character is constantly moving up the playing field.  You have no way of slowing down or stopping them or the enemy waves.  It is essentially a top-down shooter under the rules of a textbook endless runner.

Basically, you have two game modes to go through, Campaign Mode and Endless Mode.  In Campaign Mode, you go through a set stage of areas and enemies until you reach the end and effectively “win” the game, while Endless Mode has you going through endlessly until you get a Game Over.  Both game modes randomize enemy encounters and other objects you find in the field of battle.  The main difference is that Campaign ends eventually, and Endless only ends when you die.

Before going on, let’s talk about gameplay itself.  When you start a game, you’re placed in the environment that is constantly moving towards you with you constantly firing your weapon.  The object of the game is to take down enemies in your path as well as cages you find to free and recruit new soldiers to your party.  You keep this up against increasingly changing enemies and the occasional “boss” until either you reach the end of campaign or all of your soldiers die.

You’ve also got Upgrades and Perk to think about.  Basically, when you play the game, you earn experience points and collect money from broken objects.  Money goes towards buying upgrades and experience goes towards leveling up your rank and unlocking new upgrades and perks.  These are integral to finishing the game because these upgrades will drastically increase your combat skills and make the game easier for you.  It’s pretty simple when you think about it.  Would you rather fight with pistols with infinite ammo or submachine guns?

This all goes towards the fact that you’ll be playing and dying a lot.  The first few times you play the game, you might not even get to the second environmental area, but all of those attempts will rack up the experience and money needed to buy new upgrades that help you get to that next area.  It’s a game of endurance in that regard, especially if you’re not a pro with this type of shooting game.

The above sounds repetitive in writing, but it actually does a nice job of keeping up the pace and interest with the random element in play.  I’ve played dozens of sessions and not a single one has been exactly the same.  Some start out easy and end in mobs of enemies while others start out difficult and have early bosses for a bigger challenge.  You’re still shooting, but everything about the progression of each session keeps things fresh.

The one thing I don’t like about the game is the fact that there is no sense of direction.  When you get dropped into the game, it just goes.  None of the mission icons are explained to you.  The Slow-Down-Time skill isn’t explained to you, and even the controls aren’t explained unless you dig through the Main Menu to find it.  I get dropped and see this stop-watch icon in the corner of the screen and I’m just like “Um, okay.  I have no idea what any of this does but okay.”

Now, for time length, that’s tough.  To be able to get the skills necessary to beat campaign mode, it could take you several hours, or longer.  It also depends on what kind of random sessions the game throws at you when you do try to beat the campaign.  On average, I would wager 4-5 hours, minimum.

Controls

First off, this game is not compatible with the PlayStation TV.  Many of the menu controls are touch-only though most of gameplay can be controlled solely with the buttons.  I’ll definitely be inquiring with the developer about getting PSTV Support added when I publish this review.

When in the field, the two Analog Sticks control movement, though the Right Analog Stick will move you significantly faster.  The D-Pad is used to activate an equipped skill that’s had time to charge up, and that’s about it.  Most everything else uses the touch screen, from menus, pausing, purchasing upgrades, etc.

Presentation

Visually, I can’t really complain.  This isn’t exactly a AAA-style 3D game, but the 2D art works well and looks sharp.  No blemishes or anything of the sort when you’re playing through the game.

The same can be said about the presentation.  Load times are nice and short, frame-rate stays steady for the entire experience.  There’s really nothing to be criticized in terms of presentation.

Game Title: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
Download: 2,919 Blocks
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download

The debut of Super Mario Maker is something that made me jealous of the people who have access to Nintendo’s current home console.  I’ve always loved games where you can create and share levels, like LittleBigPlanet, and having Mario take part in a game like that is really interesting.  However, to this day, I don’t own a Wii U.

So, when the game was announced to release on the Nintendo 3DS, I was more than a little excited.  It’s actually the latest in a list of games that have been ported over to the 3DS that give me less of a reason to get the console, right there with Hyrule Warriors Legends.

Now that it’s out, and I’ve had time to dive in, let’s talk about it.  This is my review of Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo 3DS!

Story

While the game doesn’t really have a story on the Wii U, the new campaign in this release does have a limited story.  The same thing Mario’s always had.  When you start, Princess Peach is kidnapped, so you go off to rescue her.

Gameplay

Super Mario Maker is a side-scrolling platformer with creation elements thrown in.  You play it like you would any other Mario game, but you can also create your own customized courses.  Basically, think of it like a 2D Mario game by the LittleBigPlanet developers.

Before we go any further, let’s talk about what they removed from the Wii U version when they ported it to the 3DS.  As many are aware, you cannot upload your created levels onto the internet to share with others.  The other main changes are the removal of Costume Mario (the power-up that used Amiibos to play as characters from other franchises in the game) and Giant Mario (Power-up that turns Mario into a Giant version of himself), though they kept the creepy Skinny Mario power-up that continues to haunt my dreams.  As such, this limits what Wii U-made levels the game can download and play.

Now, there are two ways to play the game.  From the Main Menu, you can go to the Create Section or the Play Section.  The Create Section takes you to the Course Creator where you can design and play your own custom courses.  Whereas the Play Section takes you to a set of different game modes for you to experience and learn about the course styles, elements, enemies, etc.

In the Course Creator, you are given basically a blank slate and you create a course from there, though there are several tutorial lessons that teach you how to use your tools.  You have a Start Point and Goal, which you can move, and you create everything from there.  You can put in ground, items, lifts, enemies, power-ups, hazards, all of which are customizable.  So, if you want to create a giant staircase of grass leading to a giant version of Bowser, all you have to do is use the stylus to place things where you want, give Bowser a Super Mushroom, and it’ll be yours to play through.

The game most unique feature, however, are styles.  A course can be in one of four styles based on four Mario games: Super Mario Bros (NES), Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario Bros. U.  The style dictates what abilities you have access to, the graphics, what enemies look like, and what power-ups you have access to.  Overall, though, you can switch between them.  Most elements are usable in all styles so you can swap styles to see what your course looks and feels like in the different games.

Now, if you want to Play rather than Create, there are several Modes to go through.  The Play Section of the game features Super Mario Challenge, Course World, and Coursebot.  Super Mario Challenge is a new campaign mode added in the 3DS version.  Course World lets you download and play Wii U courses, play the 8-course 100 Mario Challenge from the Wii U version of the game, and share your creations via Streetpass.  Finally, Course Bot will allow you to replay any stage you’ve saved, downloaded, or played in Super Mario Challenge.

As a way to give the game more depth due to online uploads being removed, Super Mario Challenge is essentially a campaign for the game.  It consists of going through 100 Nintendo-created levels using the Mario Maker tools that help you unlock new elements for the Course Creator.

However, it’s so much more than that once you dive in.  This 100-course campaign mode is actually a cleverly-disguised 2D Mario Game disguised as a “Tutorial”.  The levels here are all well thought out and challenging.  Some are remakes of classic levels from their respective Mario games with new twists while others are entirely new types of levels never before seen in the series with elements that you just wouldn’t see in a mainstream Mario game.  It’s a challenging and fulfilling experience, along with challenges for each course, like finishing quickly or only killing a certain type of enemy.

Overall, the game is themed towards the course creator, but it has a lot of meat to it.  Running through Super Mario Challenge without worrying about challenges will take you at least 5-6 hours, and that is easily tripled if you do want to do the challenges for 100% completion.  Then you have several more hours in the course creator’s lessons and actually diving in, creating, and downloading Wii U stages to play through.  There’s a lot to do, even with Online Uploading removed.

Controls

Controlling the game is pretty simple.  In the Course Creator, you use the stylus for pretty much everything.  When you’re playing, you use the Circle Pad / D-Pad to move and the face buttons to jump and dash.

Depending on your preferred play style, you may want to change the control scheme for the face buttons.  I like to play Mario games where A is jump and B is dash, but the default scheme has A and B as jump and X and Y as dash.  A quick change in the settings will fix that if you prefer the older style of controls, like I do.

L and R are also used in the Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros U playstyles, both to do spin attacks and propel yourself with the Propeller Helmet power-up.

Presentation

Visually, I can’t really complain.  All of the respective styles look exactly like their original incarnations.  Granted, Super Mario Bros. U’s style does have a few jagged edges here and there on the 3DS, but it overall looks very nice.

The music quality is good as well, though there’s not a lot to say here.  All of the music is taken from respective games.  The World, Underground, Water, Ghost, Airship, and Castle themes are taken from their original games and used during those styles.  It works, but don’t expect a brand new soundtrack.

Performance I have no complaints about.  Load Times are only a few seconds long, and the game never really lags, be it in the creation tool or in levels themselves.  It plays smooth whether you’ve got 2 Goombas on screen or 3 Giant Bowsers on screen accompanied by 10 more enemies.

Game Title: Slain Back from Hell
Developer: Andrew Gilmour, Digerati Distribution
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 785 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

The art of difficult platformers was first shown back in the NES era, which housed countless difficult platformers.  A lot of today’s platformers, however, lack that sort of tough-as-nails difficulty.  Some more nostalgic gamers wish for more experiences like the NES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy or even the original Ghosts n Goblins.

Just because not many platformers these days in the AAA world are difficult doesn’t mean there aren’t any difficult games out there.  There are actually a lot of difficult platformers when you look past Mario, Kirby, and LittleBigPlanet and look towards the indie world.

What we’re going to talk about today is a difficult side-scrolling platformer that’s not only difficult, but is also quite gory.  Originally from Steam, here is my review of the PS Vita version of Slain: Back from Hell!

Story

In Slain, you play as a warrior that died in a Gothic world, only to be resurrected and sent on a new quest.  Six evil overlords have taken over 6 different lands, and you must liberate these lands by brutally slaying these overlords and their countless minions of monsters.

The story I found to be a weak point of Slain because, while there is a decent story here, it’s shown to you in such a way that makes you feel uninformed.  Reaching event dialogue on a loading screen and brief scenes once you actually find each Overlord makes it feel like you’re in the dark for the majority of the game.

Gameplay

Slain is a 2D Side-scroller with heavy combat elements thrown into the mix.  Imagine it like Castlevania with swords instead of whips (and without the RPG elements from Symphony of the Night).  Throughout the entire game, you will be exploring worlds in the form of long stages, where you must fight off waves of enemies, make it to the end, and duke it out with a Boss.

Progression will typically go between a hub world and gateways that will lead to each world, but this doesn’t unlock until you’ve played through a few areas and gotten past the game’s first major boss.  Once you unlock the hub world, though, you’ll always go back there to choose what world you’d like to go to next.  The nice thing here is that some of them don’t have to be done in any particular order and you can choose where to go first.

Then you’ve got in-stage progression and combat.  The game is pretty linear in the sense that there is always typically one and only one direction to go.  You just keep going to the right or go wherever there isn’t a dead end.  Typical side-scroller stuff, but without the exploration elements normally seen in Castlevania.

The main hurdle will be obstacles and monsters.  Slain is a game of learning and retrying.  Each enemy will have a combat pattern to be learned and used when fighting them again.  Some enemies are as simple as running up and slashing with your sword while others you may need to imbue your sword with a particular element , do a perfect guard to perform a counter, or use your sword to deflect projectiles in order to stun them and perform critical hits to finish them off.  This goes for both bosses and normal enemies.

This element of learning is where the difficulty and the game title comes in.  In Slain, you will be Slain, a lot.  For this reason, there are multiple checkpoints in every stage you can respawn to.  Many waves of enemies require a specific strategy from distance with attacking, using power-ups gains from critical kills, or simply knowing to jump over traps that would otherwise result in instant death.  The game is in no way easy and if you’re looking for an easy game, you won’t find it anywhere in this game.

As far as length goes, you can expect to get several hours out of the game.  From the actual game, learning, and retrying bosses and sometimes even normal enemies, you shouldn’t expect to spend any less than 5-6 hours across the entirety of the experience.

Controls

First off, this game is not compatible with the PlayStation TV, and the developers have publicly stated on Twitter that they are not going to support it.  The game however, does not use any of the features the PSTV cannot do (Motion, Camera), so there shouldn’t be anything keeping it from being playable.  I am hopeful that I can inquire about a patch, but PSTV owners shouldn’t hold their breath.

Moving around is done with the D-Pad and/or Left Analog Stick and the Right Analog Stick is used for altering your elemental sword powers.  X is used for jumping and Square for attacking.  Triangle is used to guard, and the shoulder buttons are used for backsteps and using your MP pool for magic attacks.

That side of things is pretty simple and all of that is explained on-screen during the tutorial level.

Presentation

The graphics and art style of the game are one of the highly-praised aspects of the game.  The game does present a very interesting and disturbing gothic world, but the Vita version’s graphics aren’t quite as refined as it is on other systems.  Many of the text areas have jagged and blurry areas on them and it all around just looks jaggy.

The music is done well, and it gives me a big “Heavy Metal meets Castlevania” vibe, so that’s something Metal fans should look forward to.  It is a really nice groove for a gothic game like this.

As far as performance is concerned, the only complaint I have are the load times.  Loading sequences can take anywhere from 12 seconds to 25.  They’re pretty long and someone waiting to re-challenge that last boss may find themselves a little impatient upon waiting that long.

 

Game Title: Lara Croft Go
Developer: Square Enix Montreal
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 1.1 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

I’ve always been a bit of a Tomb Raider fan.  I played the original back on PC, and fell in the love with the PS2/PS3 Trilogy with Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld.  Back last gen, I played Anniversary and Legend’s PSP versions to death to the point where I practically have both games memorized at this point, and I’m even re-discovering them now via Steam on the GPD Win handheld.

One thing I’ve missed, though, is having a PS Vita or 3DS native game starring Lara Croft, be it a Tomb Raider game or an entry in the “Lara Croft” series like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.  That all changed last week, when Square Enix surprised everyone at PlayStation Experience by revealing and releasing a PlayStation version of the hit Mobile Lara Croft game, filled with new content not in any other release of the game.

Needless to say, I dove in as soon as Square Enix PR granted me a review code and I’ve got a review ready for you!  Here are my thoughts on the PS Vita version of Lara Croft Go!

Story

Due to this game having no story, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Lara Croft Go is a turn-based puzzle game in the same style as previous hit mobile game, Hitman Go.  In each area, you and the environment each take a turn for movement.  As you go through each turn, your goal is to solve puzzles and reach the end of the room to move onto the next area.  Imagine it like Hitman Go, but with more puzzle orientation and less on killing targets.

The biggest aspect of the PlayStation version of this game is the fact that it has temporary exclusivity over the newest DLC expansion of the game.  The “Mirror of Spirits” expansion is not coming to non-PlayStation platforms like Mobile and PC until March 2017.  Until then, only the PS4 and PS Vita version will have access to this expansion.

As you may guess, this is what you’d call a “definitive” version of the game, since it contains the base game, the Shards of Life expansion released as a Mobile update, and the previously-mentioned Mirror of Spirits expansion.

Playing through the game is a matter of going through stages and puzzle-solving.  Each section of the game will have you going through tombs and doing what Lara does best, Tomb-Raiding.  Your main goal will be to navigate through the area and reach the exit without being spotted and attacked by enemies.  You do this by taking certain paths, moving objects in the way of enemies, or by sneaking up behind enemies and taking them out.

The latter is something Hitman Go players should be familiar with.  As long as you don’t land directly in front of an enemy’s line of sight, they can’t attack and kill you.  Lara Croft Go mixes things up, though.  Some enemies can spot you a few spots away and will start chasing you.  This gives you the sense of the chase and needing to find a way to use your environment to either kill the enemy or block it from going after you further.

With the in-depth stuff increasing, the game’s difficulty does as well.  Lara Croft Go is pretty simple for the first few levels, but when you get close to the end of the main game, and especially in the expansions, things get very difficult.

In the Mobile version of the game, you could use hints to direct you on how to finish that area.  When you ran out of hints, you had to use In-App Purchases to use real money to buy more hints.  In the PlayStation version, there are no IAPs, meaning that for paying $9.99 instead of $4.99 for the mobile version, you get endless hints that never run out.

As far as time is concerned, the main game has around 41 levels to go through, and the expansions total up to around 20-30 more.  With each level likely taking you at least 3-5 minutes, that gives you a good 4-6 hours of play time, which isn’t bad for a game that only costs $9.99.

Controls

First off, this game is fully compatible with the PlayStation TV.  Everything you do can be controlled with the touch screen like the Mobile version, but can also be controlled with the buttons on your Vita or DS3/DS4.  It’s quite funny when you think about it, with a Mobile game port being PSTV compatible yet console-made games Dragon Quest Builders and World of Final Fantasy are not.

Moving on the board/stage is done with the Left Analog Stick and that’s what you’ll be using the most.  The only other buttons you’ll be using outside of menus is the Square button, for when you have a spear to use for attacking faraway enemies.  Pretty much all of the other buttons aren’t used much, if at all.

Presentation

Visually, no complaints.  The fact that Lara Croft Go looks more like a game of Lara running around tombs than Hitman Go looked like it was just some board game does the game some credit.  Aside from loving Tomb Raider, being able to see Lara climbing and fighting enemies by actually climbing and shooting gives the game some depth over its predecessor.

Not really a lot to say about music.  It’s there and it fits the scenario, but it’s nothing that’ll stand out at you.  There aren’t any intense, action-packed adrenaline rush songs like you’d find in the main series.  But it works well for this type of game.

Performance is where all of my nitpicks are.  Hitman Go on the Vita played decently well.  Lara Croft Go doesn’t.  Let’s start by talking about the Load Times.  Going from level to level or even respawning when you die takes quite a bit of time.  The shortest loading sequence I experienced was around 12 seconds while the longest was well over 30 seconds.

The next thing is the frame-rate.  You can tell in menus and in some stages that the game struggles a bit.  You see the frames jumping and stuttering.  A couple stages, though, really take the cake.  During these two stages the frame rate tanks to something awful.  An example would be like going from 30 fps to 15 fps for an entire stage.  This and the former point made me think they might have just rushed the PlayStation versions for PSX since Hitman Go’s Vita version played pretty well.  However, the PS4 version of Lara Croft Go plays wonderfully.  It’s only the Vita version that has these problems.

And the final thing about performance is crashing.  There were several instances where I was playing through a critical stage, completed it, and the game crashed as soon as it tried to load the next stage.  Granted, auto-save made sure I didn’t lose any progress, but it crashes a lot more than it should.

Game Title: #KillAllZombies
Developer: SPL
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 78 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

Shooters and zombies go together like bread and butter.  They were made for each other, and there are a lot of successful zombie shooting franchises and shooting games featuring zombies.  The House of the Dead.  The ongoing Zombie Nazis mode in the Call of Duty series.  Resident Evil 4-6.  The list goes on.  The PS Vita has even gotten that mobile zombie shooter, 2013: Infected Wars.  Zombies and shooters are always together.

Top-down zombie shooters are a thing as well.  Dead Nation is a great PlayStation zombie top-down shooter available on the Vita.  But the list is still growing.  Earlier this year, a zombie shooter was released across consoles and Steam called #KillAllZombies.  Until now, though, it was not available on handhelds.  Now it is.

Here is my review of the PS Vita version of #KillAllZombies

Story

Due to this game having no story, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

#KillAllZombies is a top-down arcade shooter.  During every run of the game, you will be pitted against endless waves of the undead from all directions.  Your goal is to survive as long as possible by gathering nearby weapons and temporary perks to enhance your arsenal until you finally do fall to the grasp of the undead hordes.

In the game, there are basically 2 things to do.  There is the normal Campaign Mode which has you pitted against undead until you die (think of it like a Survival Mode), and there’s Defense Mode, where you have to defend a base with your arsenal and placed turrets.  It’s pretty simple to understand for a simple kind of game.

Now, this sounds simple but it actually has more depth than that.  Survival Mode can go from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on your skill level.  The idea here, though, is to rack up kills and unlock new waves of enemies.  The further you go, the more weapons you can unlock that you can start the game with.  At the beginning, you basically just have a pistol.  But, last 10 minutes in a wave and you may unlock a shotgun to keep from the get-go, or an Uzi for lasting even longer.  The better weapons you have unlocked, the easier it will be to last longer in battle.

You also have constant Perks being thrown at you, which are also time-based.  Every time you get a perk, you have a choice of 4.  Some perks are great enhancements and some are not.  You may get options like a heavy weapon for a limited time or the ability to slow down time for everyone but yourself.  Or, you could get stuck with a perk that kills everything including you.  It’s really a gamble and entirely random on which ones you’re presented with.

Finally, you have obstacles.  Objects will constantly spawn around the map.  Some of these are simply there to hinder your movement.  Others, however, can be destroyed to give you free EXP to leveling up or health to recover from the last few times you got hit by enemies.

Once you have a good arsenal and reach a certain time point, the real challenge appears: Boss Battles.  Bosses are giant zombie monsters that have specific movement patterns that must be learned to be able to get past.  It is important to learn because it is oh-so frustrating to last 20 minutes in a single run with ease only to have the Boss show up and 1-shot you right out of the game.  Hordes are difficult at times, but Bosses are on a completely different level.

Defense Mode has a bit of depth to it as well.  For every kill you land, you get money.  The more money you have, the more defense turrets you can set up.  The more turrets you have, the easier it is to defend your base.

Across these two game modes, there’s a good deal of difficulty.  For reasons I’ll explain in the presentation section, the PS Vita version is arguably the most difficult version of the game.  Getting used to hordes isn’t easy, and it only gets harder the further you get.  If you like a challenge, it’s definitely something you should look into.

One thing that is missing from the handheld release, however, is local multiplayer.  On Steam, there was a co-op mode built into the game.  The handheld release is missing this feature.

As far as length goes, that’s tough.  There isn’t really an “end” to the campaign or defense mode, so it’s all on you.  I spent about 3-4 hours on the game before I unlocked the Uzi, which is less than halfway through all unlockable weapons.  If you really get into unlocking everything, you could spend dozens of hours on the game.  Or, you could spend an hour or less.  It really depends on you.

Controls

This is a game that is not compatible with the PlayStation TV.  Yes, I know.  It’s just a checkbox in the dev kit so it’s not like it’s hard to implement.  But I do plan on letting the publishers know and see if a patch can be made since the game doesn’t use touch or motion controls.

Controlling the game is pretty simple.  This is a twin-stick shooter, so the Left Analog moves you and the Right Analog will fire your weapon.  The face buttons are used, mostly for accessing and activating perks.  Aside from that, there’s not much to do, control-wise.  As I said above, no motion or touch controls are present here.

Presentation

Here is where things get a little strange.  As a top-down shooter, the game looks really nice.  Most of the models are made up of 2D renders and they all look crisp and clear.

However, any players of the console/PC version of the game will be wondering if they purchased the correct game.  The console version was isometric in camera angle and the renders were all 3D-ish.  The Vita version is completely top-down with 2D renders.  They look like completely different games even though they play exactly the same.

This is a very strange move, and arguably makes this version the most difficult.  The top-down nature of the handheld release gives you much less overall view of the map, meaning you won’t see enemies until they are far closer to you than you could see them in the console version.  This is good for people who like a challenge, but the entire change in the game is a very strange decision on the developers’ part.

Music remains the same.  The developers opted to have a sort of “Rock/Metal” theme to the game’s theme music.  For a zombie shooter, it really fits in well and keeps you interested as you gun down your enemies.  It helps the game keep from seeming too repetitive, especially when you are having to go through several different attempts when unlocking a weapon.

Performance is pretty darn good.  Frame-rate is steady and load times are nice and short.  I have no complaints.

Game Title: Shantae Half-Genie Hero
Developer: WayForward, XSEED
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 952 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

Among platformer games, I hold Shantae in a high regard in terms of being fun.  The Shantae series has been around since the days of the Game Boy Color and is still around today.  Mostly on handhelds, Shantae has also been making the jump to console games in the form of ports some of the more semi-recent Shantae games.  The PS4, for example, has a port of Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, made back in 2010.

As far as the PlayStation Vita is concerned, Shantae does not grace the handheld with her presence until today.  The first 3 games of the series never came to the Vita.  However, that changes now.  The newest game in the series comes out today and I have a review for you.  Brought to the world by Kickstarter, here is my review of the PlayStation Vita version of Shantae: Half Genie Hero!

Story

The story revolves around a half-genie, half-human named Shantae, the protagonist of the entire series.  She is working as a Guardian Genie for a small town, protecting it from invaders and other such threats.  One night, she awakens from a dream about the Genie Realm being in danger.  In the coming days, she is thrown an invasion, being fired from her job, and a host of other things that turn her world upside down while she treads towards that looming threat on her mother’s magical realm.

The story of Half Genie Hero is qujte funny and comical.  Most major characters from previous games show up in this game, and that’s where one thing is thrown at you.  The PS Vita has never had a Shantae game.  Neither did the PSP.  These returning characters don’t really get introductions so you won’t know of them unless you played the previous games of the series.  That makes things rather confusing with how the game shows them coming up.

Gameplay

Shantae: Half Genie Hero is a side-scrolling platformer with combat elements thrown into the mix.  It is very much in tune with the previous games of the series.  You will be navigating platforms, discovering secrets, and fighting enemies in a side-scrolling manner.  If I had any series to actively compare it do, it might be Kirby and the Amazing Mirror because of the elements of exploration and secret-finding.

As you progress through the game, story events will drive you towards your current objective.  You will explore these objectives through your town that acts as a base of operations and the actual levels out in the world where you fight enemies and bosses.  At the start, you’ll be limited on where you can go, but the more levels you complete, the more exploration and free-roam you’re able to do.

Speaking of levels, each level will have lots of enemies for you to fight.  Defeating enemies or destroying objects will net you HP drops for replenishing health, MP drops for filling your magic meter, and Gems that are used at the shops to purchase healing items or new abilities.  Finally, each level will end in a fight with a huge boss.  Fighting the boss can be tricky based on their attack pattern, but has a good reward: Transformations.

Transformations are the unique skill for Half Genie Hero.  Each one allows you to turn into an animal form that gives you special abilities.  For example, the Monkey transformation lets you cling to walls while the Mermaid transformation lets you freely swim underwater with no restraint.  Some of these transformations are obtained from bosses, while a few of them are hidden in levels for you to find.

That is where exploration opens up.  Every level is filled with secrets that require specific abilities to reach.  These secrets range from key items you need to collect for the good ending to the game to optional transformations, powers, and Heart Containers to increase your Maximum Health.  Each new transformation opens up new secrets to discover and the further you go, the easier and more fun the game becomes.

All of this repeats itself quite a bit until the end of the game, where you can continue to unlock secrets to get the Good Ending, or jump straight into the final level and get the ending that will make you very sad.  But, all in all, it gives you a good run of time.  My first time through the game for the Good Ending took about 8 hours.  Once you finish the game, you unlock New Game Plus where you can start the game with all transformations unlocked from the get-go, which is a necessity if you plan on doing the Speed-Run trophies.

Controls

Despite the fact that the game’s Kickstarter page said the game would be Vita TV compatible, it is not.  When I spoke to WayForward, they said they couldn’t make their release date and make the game compatible at the same time.  This was due to some confusion on Sony’s end which I hope I have cleared up.  Compatibility may come in a future patch, but it is not currently PSTV Compatible.

Controlling the game is pretty easy.  No touch controls.  You can move around with the D-Pad or the Left Analog Stick.  The triggers can be used to fire off your currently-selected magic, though the Circle button does that too.  Now let’s talk face buttons.  X is used to jump and Square for physical attacks.  Circle is used for magic attacks and Triangle lets you dance to change forms.  That’s about all there is to it, with the exception of Select allowing you to swap equipped spells without having to go through the menu.

Presentation

Here is where things get nice.  Visually, the game looks great.  The areas are colorful and the models look very refined and crisp and clean.  All in all, the game just looks beautiful and the fact that there are actively-moving elements in the background of every stage only make that more apparent.

The music is also something to be praised.  The game’s theme song, Dance Through the Danger, is enchanting.  If you’re a fan of female vocals in music, you need to look it up.  Along with that, the in-game music that compliments the main theme fits into not only the genie theme but the overall experience really well.

Performance-wise, I have no complaints but I will tell you about something.  Half Genie Hero runs at 60 fps on the Vita.  The frame-rate does drop a little bit at times during explosions and whatnot, but not huge drops.  The slowest it ever goes is still well over 30 fps.  So, for a Vita game, it runs pretty darn good.

Load times are nice as well.  The longest I ever had to wait on a loading sequence was 5 seconds, so it is optimized quite well.

Game Title: Air Race Speed
Developer: Qubic Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 309 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Driving games, flying games, simulation games.  All of these types of games are pretty rare to see on the PS Vita in recent years.  If we talk about Air-based racing and driving/flying games, only one game may game to mind: Wipeout 2048.  A launch title and pretty much the last “new” game the world is going to see of the long-running Wipeout series.

Indie games have come and gone that have tried to mimic the genre over on PC and consoles, but nothing on the Vita since really had that “Wipeout Look” so to speak.  Well, until last week.  One of the more recent Mobile-to-Vita games does have that sort of look, though it’s not exactly the same kind of game.

Here is my review of the flying simulation racing-like game, Air Race Speed!

Story

Due to this game having no story, this shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Genre is hard to really classify for ARS.  It acts like a racing game, yet it’s a Time Trial Single Player game.  The starting stages act almost like an on-rails flying game, yet more open areas deny that idea later on as well.  The best way to describe it is a Time-Trial based Flying Game.  Imaging the WRC series, but with fewer vehicles (that fly) and more simplified courses.

The basics of the game is that you go through a stage, trying to clear it in as little time as possible with crashing as few times as possible.  You’re thrown into this 3D area in a flying vehicle.  There are obstacles that you can crash into, which you must avoid, and rockets you can use to fly at high speeds.  The faster you fly, the better chances you have at maintaining high scores and getting more stars when the course is completed.  Then the next course unlocks and you repeat this process.

You can unlock new courses with just a single star for the previous course, but the more important thing about getting more stars is ships.  When you obtain certain numbers of stars, new ships unlock.  Every new ship has better stats, like Top Speed and Thrust Power.  This makes further courses easier to do well on to get more stars to unlock better ships and this kind of loops throughout all unlockable ships and courses.

The trick is to not crash.  For every crash that happens during a course, you have time added to your overall score.  Since Star Ratings are based on overall Course Completion Time, you want to crash little to no times to get 2-3 stars instead of just 1.  This is where things get challenging.  Some courses you can easily just hold down the thrust the entire time and be fine, but the further you get, the trickier the courses.  And with increasingly-fast ships at your disposal, top speed without crashing becomes harder and harder to obtain.

That isn’t to say it’s a crazy-hard game.  You can still do pretty well in all 4 tiers of courses if you take the first couple attempts for learning the course and a third or fourth attempt at getting those extra stars once you know your way around.  I think it provides a challenge to people not accustomed to this type of game, and a more mild challenge to those that are.

The amount of content is also something to discuss.  There are 36 courses in total, and each course takes 1-2 minutes to complete.  So, if you just do enough to unlock and complete each course with 1 star, you’re looking at 1-2 hours of playtime, which isn’t a lot.  The lower price of $4.99 is nice for this, but it’s still not much.  This is more of a “pick up and play 1 course” sort of game than for more in-depth gamers.

Controls

This game is a wonderful example of developers knowing and utilizing the PlayStation TV.  Air Race Speed has touch controls and tilt controls, yet the game is fully compatible with the PlayStation TV.  I have to praise these developers for not pulling excuses for why they don’t hit that Vita TV checkbox (like so many other developers are doing).  It is really something when such a small team can do what they can to make it work when big AAA companies won’t.

Controls basically work two ways.  Tilt and Button.  Tilt controls are as they sound.  You tilt the Vita as you fly through courses.  You also have button controls.  For buttons, you can move your ship around with the D-Pad or Left Analog Stick.  You can use X or the Right Analog Stick for your Rocket Boosters.  You also have the Circle Button available for utilizing the brakes.

This is another thing.  The game sort of throws you under the bus when controls are concerned.  Spend a few minutes going through menus and pressing random buttons and you’ll figure it out.  However, it would’ve been nice to have some sort of tutorial thrown in, especially in a high-speed flying game.

Presentation

Visually, players of the Mobile version should be familiar here.  There are the occasional jagged edges on the models, but it otherwise looks very colorful and pretty.  All of the environments show off sci-fi themes in their own way, from flying through what looks like a ship’s reactor to a constructed tunnel in the middle of the stars.

Audio is there for fans of techno or dubstep.  It isn’t especially emphasized on, but it’s enough to keep you a bit interested as you play through each stage.

Finally, presentation.  Surprisingly enough, the game plays really well.  Load Times are short, and the frame-rate stays very steady and very smooth for the entire experience.

Game Title: Need for Speed Carbon Own-the-City
Developer: EA Canada
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: PSP
Download: 810 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: No

I’ve long since thought about doing a retro review on one of the PSP Need for Speed games.  Criterion’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted is my go-to racer on the Vita and finding another open-world experience in the series’ PSP games wasn’t easy.  The PSP version of Undercover has free-roam, but it’s not on the North America PlayStation Network for download, and most of the ones that are have course-based gameplay without any sort of open world to explore.  Other racers h. , ave free-roam, like the Midnight Club games, but in Need for Speed, it’s more difficult.

I looked back to the first PSP NFS game I played and found my answer.  One of the first Need for Speed games EA made for the PSP and Nintendo DS had the course-based gameplay along with a free-roam city for you to explore.  And that is the game we are going to talk about today.

Here is my retro review of the PSP title, Need for Speed Carbon: Own the City!

Story

Own the City is separate from the console version of Carbon.  In OTC, you play as the brother of the leader of a local street-racing crew, trying to take over every piece of turf in the city.  In the game’s intro, you are shown racing with him as a mysterious car intervenes with the race, resulting in the death of your brother and a lot of time for you in the hospital.

As you wake up and are told what happened, your brother’s old crewmates and girlfriend take you to his grave and set you up with making a new crew.  And then you set off to race and gain reputation so you can find out who intervened that day and ended up causing the death of your brother.

The story of OTC is actually quite emotional for a NFS spin-off game.  It’s not what you’ll find in Carbon on the PS2, but it’s a very interesting and different take on the plot of a racing game.

Gameplay

Like its console counterpart, OTC is an open-world racing game with arcade and customization elements thrown into the mix.  As you progress the game for the next story event, you will be buying and upgrading cars, roaming the city, and taking part in races to gain reputation to retake that territory and move onto the next.

First up, how does this game differ from the console version?  You know the plot is different, and other parts are, too.  Own the City has the same soundtrack as the console Carbon, but has only a little over half of the cars.  OTC has around 30 cars at its disposal while on the PS2, there were easily 40-50 cars available.  For a handheld racer in the PSP gen long before Gran Turismo PSP became a thing, this wasn’t bad, especially with all of the visual enhancements you could do with each car.

Now let’s get to progression.  Everything progresses and slowly unlocks, from the car library to the actual world itself.  Players of the 2012 Most Wanted game will remember that the entire city of Fairhaven was accessible from the get-go, but that is not the case in OTC.  Basically, you have turf and you’re limited to what turf you can wander into.  At first, the free-roam city will be relatively small.  As you take over territories, where you can go will slowly grow until you have a huge city to freely explore.

Progression is based on money and reputation.  As you win races, you get money and reputation.  Money is used for buying faster cars as well as customization parts.  Once enough rep is earned, you get cutscenes and new major races for advancing the game’s story.  OTC’s customization is a little more advanced than Most Wanted’s but it’s got nothing on games like last year’s PS4 Need for Speed game.  If you want to be a professional ricer with mods, this isn’t the game to do it with.

The biggest feature of OTC that sets it apart from other racers is Crew.  In every race, you will be racing against opponents, but will have a member of your Crew with you in the race.  Each Crew Member has a Class and Power that you can use.  Some Crew members can ram targets opponents into walls while others can lay down spike strips to disable any car that it comes into contact with.  It’s very different, but a feature I’ve always loved about the game.

If there was one thing I would say I don’t like, it’s the variety of environments.  You see a lot of the same kind of roads and buildings for the entire game.  In Most Wanted 2012, there was city, forest, an airport, bridges, etc.  In Carbon, a lot of it looks very, very similar, even when you’re up in the mountains vs in the middle of town.

Length for the game is also something to be praised.  Own the City is borderline longer than the console version of Carbon.  NFS Carbon on PS2 may take you around 12 hours to complete while OTC took me around 15 hours to complete.  It is not every day that a handheld spin-off has more length than the original console version.

Controls

First of all, this is one of the few PSP games that are not compatible with the PlayStation TV.  As such, we should not expect it to ever be without hacking since only one PSP game ever received an “Update” and that was LittleBigPlanet.  Sorry for PlayStation TV owners, but this is one handheld game that is going to stay on-the-go.

Outside of that, the controls are not too difficult.  The Left Analog Stick is used for movement and the D-Pad can swap music tracks.  X is held down for acceleration and Square for the brakes.  Finally, Circle is used for locking onto targets when your Crew is able to use their special power during a race.

Presentation

Visually, this is a PSP racer so don’t expect something gorgeous.  There are a lot of jagged edges and many car details are pretty rough.  It’s definitely one of the game’s lesser features, especially with Gran Turismo PSP showing off the handheld’s capabilities in a much prettier sense.

Music there isn’t a lot to say.  Carbon had a fun soundtrack, especially with Joker and the Thief.  There is a large variety of music so you won’t hear the same thing every time you set out and do a race.

Performance-wise, I have nothing to really complain about.  Load times aren’t very long and gameplay runs pretty smooth from start to finish.  EA knows how to make their games run well, and this is a nice example of it.

Game Title: Shantae
Developer: WayForward Pocket Team
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Virtual Console (Game Boy Color)
Download: 70 Blocks
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download

Not long ago, I reviewed Shantae: Half-Genie Hero for the PS Vita.  Shantae is a franchise for handheld owners.  It, after all, began on handhelds.  The original Shantae released on the Game Boy Color and its sequel initially released as an exclusive for the Nintendo DS before being ported over to consoles later.  Even the third game was mostly developed as a Nintendo 3DS title, although being multiplatform with the Wii U.

Because of this, it is fitting to do more content on a primarily handheld series that was made to be played on the go.  I had initially been tempted by all of the PS4 Shantae sales that hit PSN in the past couple weeks, but being the handheld gamer I am, my 2DS has been filled to the brim with Shantae, Shantae, and more Shantae.

Now, we are going to continue our Shantae coverage by going back to the early 2000s.  Here is my review of the Game Boy Color game available on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, Shantae!

Story

Being a platforming game on the Game Boy Color, I fully expected the first game of the series to have no story in it whatsoever.  I was surprised to find out that there was actually quite a lot of story thrown in here.

In Shantae, you play as a girl with the same name as the title.  Shantae is a half-human, half-genie, employed by the small fishing town of Scuttle Town as their Genie Guardian.  As the game begins, a female pirate named Risky Boots drops a cannonball on Shantae’s home (in a style that reminds me heavily of how the Pigs Anchor Red’s home in the Angry Birds movie) and steals an invention from the town.

Shantae leaps into action, both in service of the town and angry about her home being destroyed.  She proceeds to pursue Risky through the nearby temples as she attempts to prevent the pirate from claiming magical artifacts to take over the world.

The story I wouldn’t call mind-blowing, but it gets the job done and adds a bit of character to each individual NPC you meet.  This was a pretty big feat for a Game Boy Color game.

Gameplay

Shantae hasn’t changed much in the past 14 years.  Just like Half-Genie Hero, Shantae is a side-scrolling platformer with exploration elements thrown into the mix.  As you play through the game, you will be exploring towns and dungeons through a large 2D map, along with solving puzzles and fighting enemies as you explore.  If Half-Genie Hero didn’t have the Flying Level Select, there’d be little difference in how the two games operate.

Progression goes in the form of finding each of the 4 main labyrinth dungeons, going through them, and finding the next.  Finding them is done by finding new towns and spawning story events with NPCs so you will know where to go for your next story objective.  While you can roam around and find the labyrinths on your own, story scenes are required for actually opening them.  In this way, the game keeps you from missing key story content.

The other element is exploration.  As you go through each labyrinth, you will gain new transformations (all of which are redone in Half-Genie Hero and a showing of how much fan-service WayForward put into that newer title) that make traversing new areas possible.  In each labyrinth, its transformation will be required to find keys and the boss room.  In the explore-able world, these transformations will open new areas to find collectibles, like Hearts to increase your maximum health, Warp Squids for learning teleportation spells, among other optional unlockable content.

Speaking of exploration, let’s talk about the one, infuriating element of the game.  Story scenes tell you where to go next, but at the same time, they don’t tell you where to go.  Once you finish a labyrinth, an NPC will tell you a location, like Oasis Town.  But they don’t tell you where Oasis Town is.  I had just finished a dungeon at the right side of the map when given that info, so I assumed I needed to go further to the right to find Oasis Town, but I in fact, needed to backtrack all the way back to the beginning of the game and go left.  It took me about 20-30 minutes of exploring to figure that out.  And that was only the first time they do that to you.

In short, there is no sense of direction.  You have to figure out where you actually need to go yourself.  And that leads to my second criticism with the game.  There are optional collectibles in each dungeon and around each dungeon that you must hunt for and find to learn teleportation spells for each town.  If you don’t find these or go out of your way to find them, you have to backtrack on foot, which takes a lot of time.  Does the game tell you about these spells?  No, it does not.  Not until you actually unlock one.  I had no idea they were a thing until I looked up a guide because I got hopelessly lost, looking for Oasis Town.  For a game with a lot of dialogue and hints for the time, it doesn’t implement critical information very well.

Now as far as actual difficulty, the game isn’t really that hard for an older platformer.  Navigating dungeons is pretty simple.  You solve simple puzzles to find keys, use those keys to open doors, find the next key, find that dungeon’s transformation, use said transformation to reach hidden rooms, and eventually find the boss room and defeat the boss.  Even the Boss Patterns are easy to follow.  Any veteran of platformers shouldn’t be hit too hard by the difficulty of the game.  It’s just the backtracking and lack of direction that will throw you off.

As far as length goes, it is quite lengthy for an older platformer.  I mostly played without a guide, and only did what was necessary to complete the game’s story.  With that in mind, I spent around 8 hours on the game.  Since this is a VC title and relatively cheap, that’s a really nice turnaround time that you’re getting back.

Controls

This is a Game Boy Color game, so don’t expect a plethora of extensive controls.  With that in mind, though, there are a few control swap-ups that Nintendo did when they threw this onto the Virtual Console.

The D-Pad / Circle Pad is used to move around in each area.  A is used for jumping, and B is used for attacking.  The Start button is used for entering Dance Mode for transformations, but the Y button can also do this.  I personally prefer using Y for it.  And that’s it.  Not a bad control scheme, but also not a great one.  It works, though.

Presentation

Visually, this game looks really nice.  Shantae was definitely one of the prettiest games to grace the Game Boy Color.  The 2D artwork and renders were pretty smooth and there was a lot of animation to each model thrown in.  It’s one of those games that you look at and think that it was a game that really tested the GBC’s limitations, and looks quite colorful and nice on the 3DS.

Music sounds like it was taken out of the NES era, but doesn’t sound generic.  Just as Half-Genie Hero’s soundtrack fit the Genie/Mysitcal theme, the music here does as well.  It might even moreso here because of that NES-style MIDI-like soundtrack.  There’s nothing like Dance Through the Danger, but it’s enjoyable.

Performance, I have no problems here, as you’d expect coming from the era this game was made in.  Frame-Rate, Load Times.  Everything runs great.

Game Title: Shantae Risky’s Revenge
Developer: WayForward Games
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: DSi
Download: 129 Blocks
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download

Shantae is a series that has always had time between its releases.  The original Shantae released on the Game Boy Color, and its originally planned sequel for the Game Boy Advance never saw the light of day outside of a beta demo.  Since it never really became anything, many people thought the series would never go further.  That’s no so different from the fact that Half-Genie Hero was in development and Kickstarter funding for years upon years.

Shantae Advance lived on as its ideas and graphics were used in the game’s actual sequel, which released originally as an exclusive game for the Nintendo DSi.  Later ported to some consoles and the lead-up to hit title, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, here is my Retro Review of the eShop title, Shantae: Risky’s  Revenge!

Story

Some time after the events of the first game, Risky Boots returns to Scuttle Town and steals a Magical Lamp of unknown origin.  Although recently fired as the Guardian Genie of the town, Shantae springs into action and goes after her.  In a race not unlike that of the original game, Shantae and Risky fight each other to get 3 magical seals that may unlock the power of this mysterious oil lamp.

One thing I will say about the story of Risky’s Revenge is that it has a very unsatisfying ending.  The game’s final chapter takes you through 2 bosses and right when there should be a final fight with Risky, the game comes to a sudden and abrupt end.  It was very sad, but also very unsatisfying and a big “Wait, what?” moment.

Gameplay

Like the previous and future entries, Risky’s Revenge is a side-scrolling platformer with combat elements thrown into the mix.  As you play through the game, you will be exploring areas around Scuttle Town in a big exploration fashion.  As you do so, you’ll find and navigate labyrinths as well as solving puzzles for keys and fighting enemies and large bosses in order to progress the story to the next area.

While the game plays similar to the original, it did bring some new things to the formula.  There were balancing aspects, like transformations freezing time instead of running in real-time.  But many additions are in the form of purchase-able magic spells and an MP Gauge.  On top of that is a much better hint system both with NPCs and story scenes, removing the lack of direction from the original game and making the game much more accessible to play.

The overall exploration is the same, but with new twists.  You will always have a certain labyrinth or area you need to go to and to find it will be a matter of exploring areas, fighting enemies, and finding new transformations that let you access new areas.  Overall, it’s the same song and dance, but levels now have several planes you can jump between (Like LittleBigPlanet or Kirby Triple Deluxe), so there’s a bit more depth here than there originally was.

The exploration is just as important as before, as hidden moves are required for reaching certain dungeons.  The game does a nice job of telling you where to find these areas, so there’s no reason to be confused at all.  But just know, you need to explore and test new transformations to be able to find these new attacks and skills required for moving onward.  There is a substantial amount of optional content as well, like Heart Containers to increase your max health and other collectibles.

Despite there being a lot to do, Risky’s Revenge is a very short game.  The original game lasted me around 7-8 hours.  Risky’s Revenge was slightly over 4 hours, making it feel like a pretty short experience.  Tying that with the abrupt ending, it just left an unsatisfied taste in my mouth once the credits started rolling.

Controls

Controls in this game are pretty intuitive.  First of all, the touch screen is used for your inventory.  So, instead of having to go into a menu to change your equipped magic/item, you just tap on it on the bottom screen.  This is very accessible and easy to use.

Moving around has changed a bit, since this was made for the NDS instead of the GBC.  Moving around is done with the D-Pad (and can also be controlled by the Circle Pad on the 2DS or 3DS), and the L/R buttons are used for launching selected items/magic.  The B button is used for jumping and Y is used for attacking.  A is used for speaking to NPCs and X is used for Magical Dances.

Presentation

Visually, there’s a lot of enhancement going on.  The character models are much more animated and there’s a ton of detail in the background.  The music has also gotten an improvement by remixing a lot of the original’s tunes to fit a more modern age.

Performance I cannot complain about.  Load Times never go past a few seconds, frame-rate stays steady and it overall just plays well.

Game Title: Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse
Developer: WayForward
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
Download: 2,315 Blocks
NA Availability: Retail | Digital Download
EU Availability: Retail | Digital Download

Ever since playing Half-Genie Hero on the PS Vita, I’ve made it my mission to review and cover the entire Shantae series, from beginning to end.  It went well and has gone by rather quickly.  I started with the last game, and then went back to the first and followers of this site should note what I have and have not reviewed by now.  But I strived and went through until the entire series was done.  At least, I can say today that it is done.

The series has had 4 games total, and 3 of those games are available for play on the Nintendo 3DS.  The original is on the Virtual Console for Game Boy Color games.  Its sequel is available via DSi Software from the 3DS eShop.  And the last of the 3DS Shantae games is not emulation, but completely native to the handheld.  On top of that, it got a widespread retail release for the first time in the series since the original game.

It’s been a long and fun road, and here is the coverage to end it until WayForward brings more down the road.  Here is my review for Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse for Nintendo 3DS!

Story

Pirate’s Curse is set mere days after the events of Risky’s Revenge.  In the aftermath of the previous adventure, Scuttle Town is under its new ownership by Armed-to-the-Teeth Ammo Baron and Shantae is struggling to push forward with her life after what happened in Risky’s Revenge.  But as Scuttle Town is struggling, it also affects the rest of the world as a long-dead Pirate King is finding new power to rise from his grave and threaten the world once again.

After being fired from her Guardian Genie position (again), Shantae teams up with Risky Boots to track down and destroy every ounce of Dark Magic on nearby islands not around Scuttle Town that is fueling the Pirate King’s resurrection in order to put a stop to it.

The storyline of Pirate’s Curse is very thorough and funny, but I do want to point out there are a lot of canonical errors.  The game takes place only days after Ammo Baron bought Scuttle Town (which you actually do during Risky’s Revenge), yet the game acts as if months have gone by, along with a lot of other things that don’t correlate with what happened in previous games, like the reason Genies aren’t in the Mortal Realm being completely different reasons between the original and Pirate’s Curse.

It’s as if they wanted to reboot the series with this game, yet keep it canon with the existing games at the same time, and it just leaves fans interested in the overall storyline confused.

Gameplay

Like previous and future games of the series, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse is a side-scrolling platformer with puzzle and combat elements thrown into the mix.  As always, you will be exploring locations and diving through dungeons to solve puzzles and fight against enemies and bosses.  The way you access areas is slightly different, but the overall feel and genre of the game is the same across the entire series.

Pirate’s Curse does change a few things about the formula.  Magic spells no longer use up MP, but are items dropped from enemies.  So, if you were one of those people who spammed Super Pike Ball in Risky’s Revenge, you can only spam it until your inventory of Super Pike Balls runs out.  Though the biggest change is the removal of Magic Transformations for maneuvering into secret areas.  Instead, you gain items that do this, like a hat ton glide through the air or a pistol to shoot at faraway switches and enemies.

Progression has also changed slightly.  In Shantae and Risky’s Revenge, you explored the same world and went from area to area to find dungeons.  In Pirate’s Curse (and Half-Genie Hero), you talk to an NPC in Scuttle Town and you’re taken to a World Map screen, allowing you to pick an island to travel to and are transported there right away.

Once on each island, though, you have the same song and dance with exploring, solving puzzles to find dungeons, go through dungeons, beat the boss, and move onto the next island.  Though it’s also worth noting that side-quests are a lot more plentiful here.  To unlock dungeons, you will have to backtrack and give items to NPCs to get new items to give you access to areas quite often.  This is all hinted quite well for you, but just note you will be doing it a lot.

Boss Fights have changed as well.  Bosses now have multiple phases where their patterns will change, almost as if they are 2 completely different bosses.  They also have a much bigger focus on utilizing that dungeon’s new ability to fight that dungeon’s boss rather than just learning patterns and attacking normally when you can.  They make you think a bit more than the previous 2 games do.

After going through all of this, you should spend roughly 8-9 hours on the game.  The same amount of time it’ll take to complete Half-Genie Hero.  Do note that if you plan on getting all 20 of the story-based collectibles to get the Good Ending (and canon ending that leads into HGH), it’ll be closer to 8-9 than 7-8.

Controls

Controlling the game is very similar to how it worked in the previous game, but a few things are different.  The removal of the Dance/Transformation feature and inclusion of items that are always equipped will make things a little off for those that played a lot of Risky’s Revenge.

Moving around is done with the D-Pad and/or Circle Pad.  Jumping and Attacking are still set to B and Y respectively.  The rest is a little different.  The use of items is now exclusively on the touch screen.  The L button is used for dodging and R is used for the hovering Hat item.  A is used for the pistol, and X is used to suck in items used for puzzles.

Not a hard control scheme to learn and the game tells you how to do everything.  But it’s a little different, much like how Risky’s Revenge controlled a little different from the original game.

Presentation

Visually, Pirate’s Curse looks very much like Risky’s Revenge.  The environments are beautifully detailed, but the character models have suffered.  There is a lot more degradation and overall choppiness on the character models.  This is much more apparent in the PS4 version of the game but comparing Risky’s Revenge and Pirate’s Curse on my 2DS and it is very apparent that the character model quality has gone down, which is surprising considering the former is a Nintendo DS game and former is a Nintendo 3DS game.

The sound and music have upgraded a good bit.  Pirate’s Curse is the first Shantae game to include voice-acting, and there’s a good mix of new music thrown in.  It still retains the overall feel of the previous games’ music, but the voice-acting is definitely the spotlight of the game’s audio.

Performance, I don’t really have any complaints about.  Load Times are short.  Frame-rate never really drops while you’re playing through the game.  Like the other 3DS-compatible titles of the series, it plays very nicely.

Game Title: Need for Speed: ProStreet
Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: PSP
Download: 748 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download (PS3 Transfer Required)
EU Availability: Digital Download

Need for Speed has long since been a favorite of mine when it comes to the racing genre.  While it’s true that I have a love for Gran Turismo ever since a friend got me into that series, Need for Speed presents a nice level of street racing that really hits my racing itch, especially when I play open-world games.  As such, I’ve been knocking out Need for Speed reviews lately in the form of retro reviews of PSP titles, though that may eventually go into DS titles as well, given the amount of PSP NFS games not compatible with the PS Vita.

Unfortunately, Need for Speed Carbon was pretty much the only PSP open-world Need for Speed game I can review on the PlayStation side (and most of the DS Need for Speed titles are extremely rare to be able to find anymore).  So, with this next Need for Speed review, we go into a stage of the series where EA took their street racer and experimented taking it into the Racing Simulation genre.

Here is my retro review of the PSP title, Need for Speed: ProStreet!  (Do note that you need a PS3 to get this onto a Vita or PSTV by means of the PS3 Content Manager Workaround).

Story

The PSP title of Pro Street does not feature a story mode, so this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Pro Street is a bit of a different racing game than the previous games of the series that I have reviewed.  I would call it a bit of a mix between racing simulation (like Gran Turismo) and an arcade racer.  There’s no open-world, so you’ll be doing all of your racing on set tracks without any traffic to worry about, cops to have chases with, and the main idea is the arcade-based style of racing, modding, racing, modding, etc.

First thing is first.  The PSP version of Pro Street is not the same game you’d find on the PS3.  It is, in fact, very different in nearly every aspect.  It has the same 46 main cars from the console version (but none of the Collector’s Edition or Bonus cars).  Aside from that, there are some exclusive features, such as Driver Personas.  They are like Assist Modes.  One gives you Full Assist, where the AI will line driving paths for you and apply brakes so you don’t have to.  The second gives you partial braking and the third is normal driving where you have to do everything.  Obviously, the more assist you use, the less money and rep you obtain from each race.

The overall feel and progression of the game is also different.  Pro Street console focuses on weekend events.  Pro Street PSP focuses on a campaign mode made up of race tracks and events around each race track. That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot to do, as there are 101 different races/events you can do across the game.  Just know the PSP version was intentionally made to be different from the console version (the PSP version released almost a year after the console version did).

Progression is in the form of unlocking events and proceeding to doing everything there is to do.  When you first start you select one of a few cheap starting cars and you can jump into a number of events at a few of the game’s race tracks.  You race to gain money and reputation.  Leveling up rep unlocks new cars and events while money is used for buying new cars and upgrading current cars.

For those that like modding cars there are upgrades to purchase, but nothing extremely extensive.  You have your mods for Engine, Nitrous, Chassis, Handling, and other basic functions.  You won’t get anything near as extensive as the mods you get in Need for Speed 2015, but there’s enough that you can spend time working towards your upgrades after you buy a car instead of having to do special difficult races for upgrades like in the Most Wanted reboot.

With doing and re-doing events in mind, the Driving Persona feature encourages you to go through each race with each driving style.  You go in with Full Assist and win and the game will reward you and ask if you want to re-do the race on the next style.  I find this a good feature, allowing you to get a feel for the race and then do it three times for three times the reward, not to mention learning the race track for the next event in that location.

Speaking of Events, you have a lot of event types, some of which are not in the console version.  You have your standard Circuit Races, but you also have Gate and Lap Knockouts, which I find much more exhilarating (every time you pass a checkpoint or do a lap, the person in last place is knocked out of the race and that keeps going until only 1 car remains).  These are also, given the arcade aspect, closed races.  You and your opponents and that’s it.  No cops.  No random traffic.  People who dislike the antagonistic AI in the new Need for Speed may find ProStreet PSP a nice change of pace in that regard.

As far as overall progression, that race, money, level up, race, etc is all there is to it.  You just keep unlocking and racing until everything that can be done is done.  It’s not nearly as “there’s an endless amount of things to do” like open-world racers, but it does have its charm in that simplistic menu system and jumping straight into races instead of looking around for them.

I wouldn’t put the difficulty up too high.  The starting races are pretty easy once you get a feel for your cars, and further in, things do get a bit more challenging.  I would not call it hard, though.  I found Most Wanted 2012 to be much more of a challenge.  It’s a fun game, but it’s not something a hardcore racing fan would have much issue with, outside the normal factors of learning courses.

With timee, there are 101 events.  Many early events can be completed in under 5 minutes, so going off that, you’ll be spending at least 8 hours in the process of playing through all events and unlocking everything.  That’s assuming you don’t re-do an event you like over and over for the sake of grinding for cash and rep.  And assuming you only do each event once, rather than 3 times a piece for the different driving styles.  Basically, you’ll have a lot to do.

Controls

First of all, this is the only PSP Need for Speed I’ve found, thus far, that is compatible with the PlayStation TV (others I have tested being Carbon and Shift which the latter cannot be put onto a Vita or PSTV).  This is a very good thing, as I had assumed it wouldn’t work since Carbon didn’t.  A happy surprise, you could say.

Controlling the game isn’t too hard, but the game does nothing to let you know how to play.  The D-Pad and Left Analog Stick are used for steering.  The L and R buttons are used for Nitrous Boosts and the Emergency Brake.  X is for acceleration and Square is the normal brake.  And that’s about all there is to it.  It’s pretty simple, but isn’t explained to you since the game has no form of tutorial.

Presentation

Visually, the game’s pretty rough on the eyes outside of cinematics.  While it does look like a nice upgrade from the PSP version of Carbon, there are jagged edges all over the place, from the cars to the environments.  If you like your racers to be nice and crisp, visually, well, this isn’t that.

Performance, however, is great.  It’s got the same music as the console version (so expect a lot of hip hop despite not having a street racing theme to it), and the load times and frame-rate are very well-done.

Game Title: Xenoraid
Developer: 10 Tons Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 40 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

We all know the story of Space Invaders, where Earth sends ships out to defend planets from invading alien ships, but do we ever really see a realistic look of said ships that are defending the world?  Of course, you can’t tell a thing from the original game, but more recent iterations should at least be getting more crafty with how the ships look in relation to our actual technology for space-capable vehicles.

I’d compare it to the movie Armageddon, where the space ships used to take out an asteroid actually look similar to our own space-ready shuttles.  But, have I ever seen a space video game do the same?  That answer would be no, until I played the game I am about to tell you about.

From 10 Tons Games, here is my review of the PS Vita / PSTV game, Xenoraid!

Story

The story of Xenoraid is quite simple.  Alien ships start heading towards Earth and the people of Earth try to make contact.  First Contact doesn’t go well, and the Solar System now has the imminent threat of an incoming fleet of ships, hell-bent on destroying everything we hold dear.

It’s not incredible, but it works.  Plus, the story actually continues past the intro with tidbits of info being given as the game progresses, which does a lot more than other games of the type do.

Gameplay

Xenoraid is a vertical top-down shooting game.  Imagine Space Invaders and you’ve got the right idea.  Granted, there are some unique twists to the gameplay here, but it has the same basic idea that Space Invaders began all those years ago.

Progression in the game is in the form of doing each “chapter” which is based on a particular planet.  Each chapter/planet has several stages for you to go through, where you fight off enemy ships around a particular part of the solar system.  Once you clear all missions there, you move onto the next and continue the process until you’ve completed everything there is.  Do note that you cannot go back and replay stages once you’ve cleared them.  Once you clear Stage 1, you can only go onto Stage 2.

On top of just doing stages, you have the unique features that come with customization.  When you play the game, you have 4 ships at your disposal.  You can change out these ships at any given time and each ship contains different types of weapons.  The idea is to switch out when either you have one’s weapons enter a cooldown or is about to be destroyed.  Since ships lost in battle are permanently gone and must be replaced with new ships (that cost in-game money), this raises the strategy up pretty high compared to other space shooters.

Then you have upgrades.  You gain in-game money from completing stages and that money can be used to buy ships (as I explained above) or upgrades either to a single ship or across all ships.  These upgrades could be more health or more complex like new weapon types.  There’s a lot of customization to be done and it is needed with increasingly-difficult enemies being introduced in each and every stage the game throws at you.  This is also tied with the fact that stages can’t be replayed, so you can’t grind for money and upgrades.

The difficulty mostly comes in the fact that complex enemies come into play early on.  As early as the third stage of the game, you will be shown several enemy types. Including enemies with several parts that must be destroyed individually.  Since you must defeat all enemies to complete the mission, it is vital that you learn how to fight each individual type.  After all, they will keep respawning on the map if you don’t defeat them the first time they show up.

Before we close up this section, let me talk about a very frustrating feature of the game.  Xenoraid is one of the many games that constantly tries to be online when Wi-Fi is turned on.  It comes in randomly, but 9 times out of 10 it does so while you’re in a stage.  It comes in without warning and does not pause the stage, so you’re essentially blind for a good 5 seconds and have no idea what’s going on with you, the environment, and enemies.  It’s a big nuisance.

The game also shows difficulty in environments and enemies.  While some stages have you just firing on enemies and dodging enemy fire, others have you doing that as well as maneuvering around obstacles like asteroid fields.

As far as time goes, each stage takes around 3-5 minutes to complete.  With several stages for each of the planets involved, the game will take you at least a few hours to complete while I believe an understandable time-frame would be around 5-6 hours.  A good amount of time for a game of this type, plus time for upgrades and buying new ships.

Controls

First of all, the game is compatible with the PlayStation TV, so you can enjoy Xenoraid on the go or on the TV, even without exploiting the fact that the Vita version is cross-buy with the PS4 version.  There are no special controls on the PSTV, but it is compatible all the same.

Controlling the game is simple enough.  The Left Analog Stick moves your ship around and the shoulder buttons are used for your weapons/sub-weapons.  Finally, the face buttons are used for your 4 ships  You tap the face button associated with each ship to swap out your current one for the desired ship.  This is all covered in the tutorial stage.

Presentation

Visually, the game is quite artistic and beautiful.  The renders are crisp, and the background environments really look well-done.  They’re in 2D, but when the game is moving, some of the background planets you would swear up and down are completely 3D in nature.  It’s one of the best-looking games of this genre I’ve ever seen.

Music is pretty decent for the genre.  Kind of a techno feel to it.  It’s nothing amazing, but it gets the job done.

Performance I have no complaints about.  Load times are short.  Gameplay runs nice and smooth.  It’s nice to have a lot more games to review lately without performance issues than with.