Rudy Lavaux's Reviews
NES Remix takes most of the NES' early library of first party games, and fractions them into small tasks that help to revisit the most satisfying moments of each, as well as "remixes" some into new types of gameplay involving all sorts of cool and surprising elements. Whether one has already tried these games, or even still owns them to this day, he or she may well find that this new way of revisiting them might just be more fun than the games themselves. Playing NES Remix allows players to discover alternative methods to enjoy these classics in ways that they would not have otherwise found themselves by playing their original cartridges or Virtual Console releases. On the other hand, those who never tasted some of these titles, some of which are perhaps not anymore amongst the most well-known of Nintendo's back catalogue of NES classics, may well find that they want to experience them for themselves in the way they were meant to be played, after they try NES Remix. Indeed, NES Remix sheds new light on those classics to make them more relevant even to this day. Although, with that being said, there will always be players who will simply have a hard time getting into older software on the premise that they look, sound, and play "old", and, other than in the visual department to a small extent, NES Remix does very little to change this.
Other than the slightly improved visuals and frame-rate that the PC allows, this version doesn't bring enough novelty when compared to the previous console HD versions.
Another World: 20th Anniversary Edition takes a beloved classic of the past that hasn't necessarily aged very well and brings to players who are hungry for monuments of gaming history just the version they needed to finally take a dive if they hadn't already. Those who played it back when first released may find here a good reason to dive in again on their Wii U and reminisce youth, albeit at a kind of a steep price. Waiting on a discount may be a good idea for those who have their hesitations as the game is indeed fairly short and ultimately doesn't bring much more than HD enhanced graphics, an easier difficulty on the whole, and a lacklustre revamped collection of sound effects. Nevertheless, the simplistic design, HD rendition, great CD soundtrack of the Mega CD version, and the overall intriguing experience of trial-and-error still stand out well enough to make this a worthwhile purchase for those looking for a unique experience on the eShop at the moment.
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is a well put together piece of software with a great attention to little details, set in a universe of folklore and culture which is exotic enough in the video game industry to feel highly original, and with a huge deal of humour thrown into the mix for good measure. The tough to master yet easy to understand gameplay, coupled with the many challenges to overcome to fully complete everything do extend the play life into "decent" territory, as it is otherwise a rather short experience for those who will rush through it. Guacamelee! clearly takes a leaf out of a lot of different books in gaming, Metroid being the most obvious, but Castlevania, Megaman, and Zelda are also other clear sources of inspiration, yet it manages to blend it all into what is now its own thing. It sure bases a lot of its appeal on nostalgia for those other franchises and the crowd of references to them thrown all over the place, but this never overshadows its own intrinsic qualities, which are clever design, good production values, great writing and, most of all, a clear love for video games from its creators, which does transpire through their work. Guacamelee! STCE for the Wii U eShop is certainly not a perfect game - it has its couple of minor faults - but never are they detrimental to the overall experience, and this is still a must-have for any fan of the genre.
Star Wars Pinball: the Heroes Within is the best pack of DLC tables released so far. It features possibly the best tables yet in the Star Wars Pinball series, including some of the most stunningly looking ones too, but also offering more content for the same price than the previously released Balance of the Force pack. Granted there are not many packs to compare this one to, but it's clearly the kind of DLC that makes you wish these tables had been the main game right from the start, and that the base pack had been made DLC instead. Indeed, one must still purchase the base three tables on Wii U in order to experience these four new ones, bringing the overall price to experience these on Nintendo's console to higher than it would be on some other devices where it is possible to purchase tables one by one. That's not to say that the base Star Wars Pinball pack isn't worth purchasing anyway, as its original review will show. That one really impressed with its quality content and exploitation of the franchise for pinball purposes, back in 2013. This new pack builds on what was already a great piece of software for both Star Wars and pinball fans. This new pack is a must-have on the eShop as each table offers lots of fun, looks great, and sounds awesome.
FullBlast is hard to fault entirely in one particular of its many aspects. It doesn't do much wrong: it controls well, the music is nice enough, the visuals, while not impressive, do look clean. It gets the action going, yet it fails to capture the attention because it's too repetitive and not engaging enough. It's neither good nor bad, it just feels dull. Nothing outstanding distinguishes one level from the next, and the lack of anything truly surprising or groundbreaking means that it feels more like work than entertainment to get through all the levels and see the ending. Online leaderboards, while they are a good addition (and are seriously lacking in the brilliant re-releases of old classics on Nintendo platforms), won't be its saving grace. The boring repetitiveness of the action, music, and scenery is likely to put off the most purist of fans, who will likely prefer to whip out an old classic rather than sticking around for too long in this newer title. Lack of content, replayability, and engaging factors hold back what could have otherwise been a much better home console experience, and proves that copy-pasting a mobile game onto a home console is not a good idea.
Not everyone can be Smash Bros. Other bigger studios have tried that with a bigger budget, bigger roster, bigger… everything, and have still failed to entirely recapture the magic that is to be found in it. However, what must be understood is that not all games need to be Smash Bros. in order to be good! What Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends tries to do exactly like it, it doesn't do it quite as well. What it tries to do differently from it, however, does feel remarkably good, which does seem to indicate that the great ideas the team does get on its own, are those that translate best in a playable form at the end of the day. This title can be enjoyed by very young fans of the movie because it's not a bad one, and it does offer some things that Nintendo's popular franchise doesn't - maybe not enough of them that would make anyone choose this one over the latter one, but even though it's lacking in more than one department, it can still provide some fun, under the right conditions.
Infinity Runner sadly joins the ranks of the heaps of titles out there which had an immense potential with a great concept and great atmosphere. It starts off well but is marred by technical problems. In addition to this, the repetitiveness of the gameplay and environmental elements take away from the overall feeling of excitement over time, which the title would have provided otherwise.
It is hard to make an RPG as classic as Dragon Quest VII. The series is known for not trying vastly different things in its mainline entries, rather sticking to a strict established formula that never disappoints its most hardcore fans, especially in Japan where it remains the absolute favourite role-playing experience for most. It is long and it moves slowly with its story, with lots of things to see and do on the side, and levelling up being very slow; however, it never gets boring and manages to hook players with a loveable story and characters served masterfully through witty dialogue, good visuals (if not technically very impressive), and a fantastic soundtrack by maestro Sugiyama-san. It feels very classic in its execution, yes, but the relative non-linearity and all things loveable about the game mentioned previously do contribute to making the long adventure a pleasant trip that never grows tedious. Fragments of the Forgotten Past is a great RPG through and through, masterfully remade for the 3DS, that offers what is perhaps the best value for money on the system in terms of RPG adventuring.
The most advanced, most detailed and deepest Pokémon experience to date can now be found in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Perhaps the last big mainstream first party Nintendo franchise to grace the Nintendo 3DS as the next generation is almost upon us, it is an indispensable addition to anyone's game library, even those just remotely interested in Pokémon.
Even with its handful of changes, or regretful omissions, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King on 3DS is a grandiose adventure that manages to evolve the series in terms of technical achievement and presentation, story-telling and overall convenience. It takes advantage of the enhancements of technology to help make this adventure a joy to work through, unlike some older RPGs can be nowadays. It is a definite pleasure, while still delivering the classic feel of a Dragon Quest title that most of its devoted fans, more so in Japan than anywhere else, expect to find with every new release that the series has seen to this day. Lack of orchestrated soundtrack or minimal censorship should definitely not put anyone off this historical masterpiece, even on the humble and ageing 3DS hardware. This, along with perhaps Ever Oasis, might be the last major RPG release for the system, as it probably sees its last year of relevance in 2017, and it could not hope to go out with a bigger bang than with this impressive port.
Make no mistake about it, Zero Time Dilemma is a disappointment, but it's mainly because fans of the franchise are such devoted ones. Taken on its own merits, without looking back to how the series was, it is certainly not a bad game, and has some excellent qualities that leave it an overall good experience, and definitely not a bad one.
The fact that a game with this style of presentation works so well to make you feel uncomfortable and creep you out is a testament to how well written and designed it is. It would have been easy to put too much of one thing or another in it so that the subtle balance of it all would be lost and this adventure feel like a complete mess, but that's not the case. It's a truly disturbing story that demands using your imagination to perceive this as more than a bunch of huge pixels on a screen, and this involvement is part of what makes the cake lift at the end of the day, and that is a genuine tour de force. That's not to say that it's perfect, as some things are not always executed brilliantly, and yet, in the end, the atmosphere and immersion are not spoiled by such little shortcomings, and the experience ultimately still comes highly recommended.
This is decidedly a very classic feeling Fire Emblem, with enough freshness to captivate even veterans of the franchise and comes with a welcome accessibility that makes it the easiest for newcomers to get into. This entry goes to show that there's room within the franchise to make different looking Fire Emblem entries that still feel true to the series but which also dare to not only tread new ground, but to do so in a great way. It's a well rounded package that is well balanced to please the majority of its audience, like the entire trilogy of Fire Emblem Fates before it, but while keeping it all confined to just one game with the complete epic story being accessible just from buying this one piece of software instead of it being spread out, and that's something to be thankful for. Overall, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, while feeling like an older entry, might very well be moving the series forward in certain aspects that could potentially return in future outings.
Besides Some technical limitations, Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition offers the same experience as other modern home console versions do, with the added benefit of being both playable anywhere, anytime. This is the key deciding factor that should determine whether one should pick this version or not over others, as this lets you play and build the same world, both at home and on the go, without any major compromises. The Wii U offered that comfort already with off-TV mode whenever someone else would want to use the TV for something else, but the Switch does way with the limitations of being away from the system hooked to the TV since the system here is completely portable, and this the best version possible outside of the realm of PC.
The Fledgling Warriors Pack, however, while not bad in any way, is perhaps a bit harder to recommend than the next one, but it is, of course, too early to say before said other pack is made available to the public. For players who wish for the easiest time to grind for items, money and experience very early on, then this is a good option, albeit a pricey one.
This second DLC pack is, just like the first, just a tool to help players grind and farm for things a little easier than the first one allowed. However, whereas the previous pack only made marginally easier the things that could already be done in the base game, this one really does help things out by a lot for players looking to maximise the potential of their party, especially post-ending.
Whether or not these are worth the purchase should be entirely up to the player and stems from how much the main experience is already enjoyed by each individual, but even then, one thing is certain: they do prove to be on the pricey side, which means they require more careful consideration as a result.
All of it perhaps doesn't truly amount to enough for the price that is asked, but this is still better value for money than the previous three DLC packs. Now, all that remains is the upcoming package of exclusive playable characters from the Fire Emblem Cipher trading card game, to be made available at an as-of-yet undisclosed date.
One of the most famous Neo Geo shmups, Blazing Star fetches a pretty high price online these days for a full copy, so its inclusion at such a comparatively low price on a digital platform, on a system in which it is actually very playable (unlike the release on smart devices), both at home and on the go, is hard to miss out on for fans of the game itself in particular, or shmups in general, or even Neo Geo far and wide. Even those who already own a physical copy should not find it difficult to consider rebuying. Indeed, if anyone can afford a physical copy of this, then the small price of this digital rerelease, which comes complete with online leader boards for them to show off their skills for the world to see, should not prove too hard to swallow. It is a great classic that deserves to be experienced today just as much as back when it just came out, if not for history's sake, then for its intrinsic quality alone.