Stylistically, I’m not as smitten with Deathsmiles as I am with Akai Katana. What can I say, I’m just not into sexualized preteens and teenage girls! Honestly though, across the dozen or so unique half-hour playthroughs, there were only one or two skeezy scenes, but hey, one is too many, right?
Continue reading Deathsmiles [Xbox 360] – Review
As a kid of the 1990s, games like those included in the Raiden Fighters Aces compilation are what come to mind when I think of shoot ‘em ups. The three games included display an adherence to 2D pixel graphics, when in the mid to late 1990s, at the time of their release, 3D polygonal visuals were becoming the norm. The vehicles I piloted, those I destroyed, the villages and other locales I flew over all appeared to be grounded in reality, save for the sci-fi weaponry blotting the screen at all times. And the ludicrously high scores, now those I remember. Yep, stepping up to arcade cabinets at the bowling alley and having to count out the high score in chunks of three to see how many million points I attained, that I remember.
Continue reading Raiden Fighters Aces [Xbox 360] – Review
We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. We’re human, after all. For achievement and trophy hunters, there are plenty of temptations. Nowadays, games whose rewards are not hard-earned are bountiful. Take Pacific Wings, for instance. It’s a shameless clone of Capcom’s 1942, developed Sprakelsoft, a German purveyor of similar clones on mobile storefronts.
Debuting as a free-to-play app on Google Play in 2010 – the digital storefront for Android devices – it has since seen release on a number of other platforms, such as the PlayStation 4. While lacking a platinum trophy – the most coveted trophy of all on Sony platforms – it nonetheless contained a few gold trophies, the next best thing. Even better, obtaining them required little effort, and less than a half-hour!
Now there’s a downside, and in this case it’s playing Pacific Wings. The game’s twenty stages go by with little difficulty, little change in scenery, and thankfully, little time to ponder if it was worthwhile. Those gold trophies are front loaded in the first half, leaving only a measly bronze for folks with little shame. But like they say, go big or go home.
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. An indie developer gets their start making and publishing digital games for the Wii U. Yeah, I never heard that one either, but apparently that’s just what happened with Petite Games, the maker of Super Destronaut DX and Super Destronaut: Land Wars.
Continue reading Super Destronaut Games
You know that feeling when you’ve just finished a movie or book and feel like you had some grasp of what happened, but know another round would benefit you’re comprehension immensely? Well, Nier: Automata sure as hell produced that feeling in me!
Continue reading Nier: Automata [PlayStation 4] – Review
As someone who browses the video game section nearly every time I enter a Walmart or Target (sorry honey), I know from experience that the former never really puts games on clearance. Heck, in the year of our lord 2021, the closest Walmart to me STILL has a few licensed PlayStation 2 games. And they have the GALL to charge a ten spot for them! Listen, Walmart, I don’t think anyone is going to drop ten bucks on The Naked Brothers Band: The Video Game at this point. That game came out in 2008 – 13 years ago! The developer has gone out of business in the years since; THQ, the publisher, went bankrupt and has even come back in the intervening years! Just discount those games, or trash them, there’s no point in having them take up shelf space!
This is all to say I was surprised to actually see Walmart put a handful of games on clearance. And no, not THOSE games for some reason, but actual good games, like Indivisible. Being slightly familiar with the game’s Valkyrie Profile inspired battle system, and the prospect of a couch co-op RPG, the nine dollars practically flew out of my wallet. Unfortunately, the co-op didn’t wind up being as much of a draw as I had hoped; just as with the SNES Final Fantasy games, the second player really only participates in battles, so the non-combat sections leave them… waiting to play. BUT! It’s an otherwise enjoyable, refreshingly brief-for-an-RPG, video game.
Continue reading Indivisible [PlayStation 4] – Review
Looking back, it’s been approximately eight years since I played the Resistance games. Like most games, I missed their time in the spotlight, but hey, they were still worth playing.
Continue reading Resistance: Retribution [PlayStation Portable] – Review
It’s amazing what comes into your mind when you just stop and think, huh? For instance, just a few nights ago I was thinking about Akai Katana, the bullet hell shoot ‘em up I’d been playing on the Xbox 360. I first dabbled with it back in September, after thrilling sessions with Mars Matrix caused me to reevaluate the intimidating subgenre of shoot ‘em ups. That first session was a euphoric experience, full of lights, sounds, and unconscious reflexes, and I wasn’t even doing very well. It was a lot like losing my virginity! And like that pivotal event, once it was over, I knew I wanted to experience it again.
Continue reading Akai Katana [Xbox 360] – Review
Although my playthrough of Phantasy Star II sputtered to an end well before that game’s completion, my appetite for an older JRPG hadn’t been satiated. There was no shortage of such game on the Sega Genesis Classics compilation I was playing, and with most of them still new to me, I decided to stick with it for the time being. Continuing on with the next entry in the Phantasy Star series – Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom – was an option, but I went ahead and placed it on my backlog. Instead, having learned that Phantasy Star II was the first JRPG released on the Genesis, I thought I’d follow it up with the next chronologically released JRPG (available on this compilation). That game, which debuted half a year later, was Sword of Vermilion.
Continue reading Sword of Vermilion [Sega Genesis] – Review
I won’t lie. After more than forty hours with Picross: Lord of the Nazarick, I still have no idea what’s up with Overlord, the game’s underlying source material. In fairness, I’ve been slowly whittling away the more than 500 picture crossword puzzles for over a year, so of course the brief text conversations that occurred at the beginning of a particular character’s section didn’t stick with me. And hey, who cares anyway? My original intent wasn’t to familiarize myself with Overlord, it was to find a new well of Picross puzzles to solve at bedtime and on that account, it was a… well, a mundane success.
Continue reading Picross: Lord of the Nazarick [Switch] – Review![Deathsmiles [Xbox 360] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/deathsmiles-xbox-360-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Raiden Fighters Aces [Xbox 360] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/raiden-fighters-aces-xbox-360-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Pacific Wings [PlayStation 4] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/pacific-wings.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Nier: Automata [PlayStation 4] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/nier-automata-playstation-4-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Indivisible [PlayStation 4] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/indivisible-playstation-4-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Resistance: Retribution [PlayStation Portable] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/resistance-retribution-playstation-portable-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Akai Katana [Xbox 360] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/akai-katana-xbox-360-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Sword of Vermilion [Sega Genesis] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/sword-of-vermilion-sega-genesis-north-american-box-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
![Picross: Lord of the Nazarick [Switch] – Review](https://mybrainongames.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/picross-lord-of-the-nazarick-nintendo-switch-cover-art.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1)
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