Connor Nichols's Reviews
Still, as a solo experience, and as an overall package? Reshrined still manages to be incredibly fun, and while I’ll never get why Natsume-Atari insists on making the multiplayer experiences as inaccessible as possible, the core gameplay loop is still outstanding enough that I can at least recommend this for a solo playthrough or two, and especially for the sake of those online leaderboards. Once this game finally clicks, it’s a whole lot of fun, and I am relieved that I managed to get it to finally click once I spent a good amount of time on it solo.
I’m still not a fan of padding in my shmups, but I also can’t deny how satisfying it is to get everything memorized and nail a perfect run of a level after many attempts at doing so, growing more powerful with my attempts.
Still, if you can look past the faults here and don’t mind a bit of jank here and there, you’ll be able to enjoy this game well enough to get one playthrough of fun out of it at the very least, and I do believe that this formula has potential to be expanded out more in a bigger and better sequel, preferably one that doesn’t have any Apple Arcade baggage, and with hopefully a lot less jank with the co-op.
Nevertheless, even four years later, Semblance is a really good time, and the world-shaping gimmick is a whole ton of fun to mess around with. I only just wish it hadn’t taken me this long to finally get to shaping this delightful experience.
Ultimately, for a “Collection”, you do get everything… But with none of the historical context these retro games requires, and as arguably the biggest and most remembered of the Qubyte line yet, it’s a shame almost no extra work was done in this compilation besides compiling these three together and adding achievements. If you liked the original game and just want to play that, you’ll have a fun time, but otherwise, if you were hoping for the other two to be anything substantial or for any bonus content to be here, I’m sorry to say, that ain’t the case.
However, they do have to get on top of the emulation in the future: bad sound emulation here is unfortunately, a big shame that brings the whole package down, and while it’s not as unplayable as Panorama Cotton was at launch (the gameplay is perfectly as it should be, it’s just the audio that’s irritatingly off), it’ll definitely bug those who’ve played this game the way it should sound.
In short, Mofumofusensen is a pretty solid fighter, and for a SmileBasic game, it absolutely excels at what the engine provides, going out and being a pretty great game independently! Compared to most of the games I played in SB3, Mofu is pretty high up there, even if it doesn’t have nearly the same amount of replay value that I spotted in a few of the scorechasers up for download.
Still, shameful delay on my end or not, this isn’t a bad game, and while it doesn’t do much special, it does end up being a enjoyable enough timekiller, and if you have a Steam Deck, this ain’t a bad way to pass the time on the go.
Well, I’m happy to say the developers have accomplished making a kickass action game that I definitely see myself falling in love with on my Steam Deck, and while I am disappointed in myself for not getting this covered during the EA period, it definitely is in an outstanding spot right now, and with future tweaks here and there, this action game is only going to get better, and I am proud to say that Konami did it, they made an original, new game that’s super enjoyable and worth your time.
Rotund Rebound is a great bout of speedy fun, offering some lovely refinements on the formula that started me off eight years ago, and just being a fun speed game with varying playstyles that people will eventually latch onto.
You’ll still have a great time playing Wonder Boy V and Monster World IV if you haven’t already done so, and the original Monster Land is a decent time, but at the end of the day, Wonder Boy Collection just feels strangely disjointed.
Really, when the only gripe here is the fact that these are split into two volumes, I still found revisiting the Turrican games in this collection to be a whole lot of fun, with Mega Turrican Score Attack being the surprise winner of the bundle: definitely a great remix, and a glimmer that shows that perhaps a brand new Turrican game could be worth a shot in this modern age. For those who bought Flashback and don’t really care about the additions here, the second volume is the one to get for sure, but for retro fans who’ve waited so long, I’m happy to say this first volume is an excellent starting point for the franchise, or even as a way to resist some old classics.
The second volume of the Turrican Anthologies didn’t hit as well for me as the first, which is surprising as I fully expected the opposite due to it containing an exclusive game! Yet, said game isn’t nearly as fun as the others, and as much as I love it, having three versions of Mega Turrican here is a bit overkill, even if I get why they included them. The Super Turrican Score Attack being a bit weaker also stings, and I ultimately feel that a combined SKU would have been better at the end of the day.
The sheer variety of levels, choosing your own route, the differing playstyles, and the online leaderboards easily make Cotton Fantasy one of the best modern shmups available on the Nintendo Switch, with the lack of a dedicated Caravan Mode being my only real gripe here. Still, thanks to online leaderboards and good character variety, this is a shooter that’ll keep any scorechaser fan in bliss.
However, as it stands now on Switch, Ganryu 2 isn’t in a good shape at all, even with the recent patch: more balancing needs to be done, and that framerate needs stabilization. No longer a chaotic mess like it used to be, and it has glimmers of a fun gameplay loop, but alas, this quest for revenge should be held off on, for the time being at least
Thankfully, with online and local options, those with friends and the game should be able to get that done with little hassle, and if you don’t mind lengthy stage gauntlets without the option to pause and pick it back up later, then this is a super fun tower defense that’ll keep you busy for a long while. Unfortunately for me, I found myself preferring the 3DS one just a bit more, as that felt far better for pick up and play purposes and seemed to be made with solo play in mind, unlike Cart of Darkness.
The Immortal was a weird choice to start this line of retro classics with: neither version of the game is particularly a classic by any means, and while I do find the NES version to be a legitimate gem worth trying out at least until you get stuck, the basic wrapper, the frustrating guide game nature of both versions, (but especially the Genesis one) and the lack of QOL stuff like a rewind feature does lead to this tedious experience not being brought back in the most polished of ways.
Unfortunately, the general package leaves a lot to be desired, as a good shooter is dragged down by a lack of options, with no local co-op, (despite the original game having it, oddly the only major thing from the OG game to not be improved on here) no border options, no visual display modes, and most disappointingly, no online leaderboards, which for a shooter in 2022 is a sad exclusion. Yeah, the main game has some minor frustrations such as enemies that surprise you from behind, and the latter half of the game leaning a bit too hard in the Bullet Hell realm, but all in all, you’ll still have a fun time with Andro Dunos II, and if you somehow grew up with the first game, this absolutely surpasses it in every possible way!
Considering that even Konami’s collection had an exclusive interview section in it, Taito Milestones feels incredibly barren as can be: hopefully future volumes add some more bonuses such as key art and the such.
I am confident in saying that River City Girls Zero and the Carbon Engine used to power this game is an immensely promising sign of future things to come: spectacular emulation quality, plenty of options to mess with, an improved gallery, and two great english translations on offer lead to River City Girls Zero being an outstanding package for both RCG and Kunio fans alike!