Connor Nichols's Reviews
Whipseey is a very disappointing platformer that’s just way, way too short for its own good. It has some fun ideas, but with zero replay value, a short length and bad hit boxes, I honestly can’t recommend this platformer compared to the many others available on the eShop. You can play other shorter platformers for the same price or less, but they have more to encourage replays and are a lot better balanced overall.
River City Girls is easily one of my new favorite games in the Kunio franchise, right behind Super Dodge Ball. Made great thanks to an outstanding variety of battle moves, good level design, clever pattern-based boss battles and an outstanding co-op experience, this is one of the best belt scrollers in recent memory, and considering how many of them fall into the same trap of being a repetitive bore nowadays, it’s very refreshing to see a new one that nails all the right notes that make a belt scroller addicting to begin with.
For a $5 game on a system with plenty of better budget titles, this game isn’t a bad one, but it’s incredibly generic and very short, to the point that the platinum trophy basically gives up after the first two worlds, and doesn’t even bother to cover the entire game. You really have no reason to pick this game up unless you’re buying these cheap games for an easy platinum, which is pretty sad considering how some more complex level designs and a wider scale could lead to great potential for a sequel.
Regardless of how you choose to play this, Psyvariar Delta was a shooter that absolutely surprised me with how addictive it is while also getting so much right about score chasers. As a re-release, it’s fantastic, and as a new remix it’s equally as good.
Even if you’re a lasped Yu-Gi-Oh player like I was, this is still absolutely worth a look, and serves as a great tutorial for the main card game along with being a great place to experiment with gimmick decks.
Vasara Collection is a decent collection of two really fun scorechasers alongside a brand new game. However, several irritating bugs and leaderboard problems make this collection incredibly tough to recommend to those wanting to play this game for the sake of improving their scores. Still, the two included games are great co-op shooters, although the standard $10 price is tough to recommend in this compilation’s buggy stage, especially when you can get other shooters with proper leaderboard support for only $2 less via the Arcade Archives line.
The Ninja Warriors is a surprisingly great port, offering a bit more extras to make up for the unique display, while also being a fairly fun co-op game to play with a friend. However, as a single player game and as a score chaser, the game can get pretty boring real fast, with the only major highlight being the outstanding soundtrack. If you have a friend to spend time with, then this is an arcade gem worth picking up for sure, but otherwise you might want to hold off on your mission.
In conclusion, Road Fighter is a Konami classic that’s a fairly simple arcade racer compared to what would come out later, but that simplicity leads to a lot of fun overall. As a perfect fit for the online leaderboards (save for the caravan mode) and the good sense of one more try the game gives you, Road Fighter is still a bit tough to recommend at the pretty steep price of $8.
Mighty Switch Force Collection is a fantastic compilation of Wayforward’s puzzle platformer series. Containing the two major games, along with a remake and a spinoff, this is an almost complete collection, only missing that aforementioned puzzle game, which I honestly wish was added to supplement Academy. The controls are incredibly tight and just as responsive as they were in the original games, and with some of the best level designs in puzzle platformers.
Mochi Mochi Boy is a puzzler that I found to be pretty enjoyable, although incredibly basic. It gets the job done and is a fun way to test your thinking skills, but it’s nothing that you’ve probably haven’t seen before on mobile devices.
Ninja Spirit is a fantastic action game that holds up very well today, arguably a bit more than the PC Engine port that’s more famous. It may only be seven stages long and can be beaten in 45 minutes or so with trial and error, but they’re still some of the finest action stages that I have ever seen from an Arcade game, and I can’t recommend this game enough.
However, there’s still the issues with matchmaking, and compared to the more polished kart racers on the system you’re better off picking one of those, and you’re especially better off picking this up on any system but Switch due to the framerate downgrade if you’re still interested in these fun moments. Team Sonic Racing is decent as a handheld game and a fun racer in general, but this port could have been so much better.
Rolling Gunner is a fairly standard shooter, taking some elements and working on making them polished enough so that players of any skill levels could get used to shooting games, while experts can challenge themselves on the higher difficulties or by limiting themselves to getting as far as possible on one credit. It may not do anything new, but it serves as a fun, solid shooter for score chasing fans who enjoy these old-school games.
Xenon Valkyrie was a game that got swept in my backlog that I didn’t think much of at first, but upon playing through several runs and getting further and further each time, I find myself totally engrossed in this game. As an action platformer, the controls are excellent and the combat is satisfying, and the random elements here work great, shaking things up every time in a good way without making the game frustrating or too dependent on luck.
Toejam and Earl is a great example of a retro revival done right, taking a clunky roguelike and polishing it up, making it absolutely gorgeous while also continuing to provide an incredible co-op experience.
Super Neptunia RPG is a fun if clunky take on the RPG genre, with some elements of parody that the series is known for. However, as fun as it is to explore the areas and take on sidequests, the game can still get dull, with a bland battle system, slow pacing and slightly confusing navigation. Something’s just not right when the battles of an RPG end up feeling like a chore compared to the exploration aspects, even with the speedup feature.
In conclusion, Terra Force may seem like a shooter that does little new, but in all honesty it doesn’t really need to. Fun stages, a simple powerup system and serving as a great score chaser makes this Nichibutsu gem a worthy pickup for fans of shooters. Just be prepared to have a hard time beating this if that’s your main goal, since as per the norm recovery runs can be downright evil here.
Contra Anniversary Collection is easily one of the higher quality gaming compilations to come out as of late. With seven fantastic games and a few more regional differences, there’s a lot of fun to be had, whether it’s from score chasing, co-op fun, or trying to 1CC each game to save a replay for, every game in this collection has at least one version that’s super enjoyable.
Shakedown Hawaii was absolutely worth the long wait it took to get here. From superb score attack challenges, a good story mode and just a bunch of stuff to do and fun to be had, Shakedown Hawaii ended up feeling just a bit better than the original RCR thanks to a bit more focus.
Guilty Gear ACPR is a really enjoyable fighter, despite being a bit older than some of the more entries in the franchise. It’s a strange choice having this one ported over a more recent one such as XRD, but ACPR still holds up extraordinarily well, with a bunch of single player content to unlock, great fighting mechanics, and a great game balance that make this worth revisiting whether you’re a newcomer or a big fan of the series.