Connor Nichols's Reviews
Super Box Land Demake is a fun sokoban title, offering a really enjoyable block pushing experience that’s best played with a friend. The levels are short and to the point, the difficulty curve is fine, and the co-op leads to more solutions and thus more ways to play through the game. My only real gripes with Demake come from how there’s no true retry button, and how incredibly slow the rewind functionality is. That, along with this game easily becoming repetitive when played in a long session like what you’d do on a console, makes this game a fun time if you have a friend over, but if you’re a solo puzzler, maybe pick this up for a handheld system so it fits the pick up and play nature more. Either way, playing in co-op is a very enjoyable experience that pleasantly surprised me.
Reverie was a fun little Zelda-like. It took me a bit longer than I expected to get around to investing in it, but I’m glad I did. While it’s basic and the gameplay itself isn’t all that great, the presentation here is very nice, and it’s an excellent port, with in-game achievements, lots of collectibles, and a smooth experience all around.
Reed 2 feels like more of the same, and while that’s not always a bad thing to see in a sequel, I can’t help but feel that Reed 2 tries too much to make things harder than the first for no reason, and outside of an objective change in each of the stages, the whole experience feels almost as if I’m playing bonus levels of Reed Remastered that are terrible. Sure, the controls and other aspects are still solid, but when the level design is a step backwards instead of forwards, I can’t call Reed 2 a good sequel at all, and even using the term “Sequel” feels too generous here.
Reed is a fun, fast-paced platformer with enjoyable level design, but the content just isn’t there. While Gravity Duck sports more levels, it’s far more boring and dull, not benefitting from the good level design found here. On the other hand, even the hidden secrets in Reed aren’t enough to make this a replayable experience, so while it’s a fun romp that controls very well, it’s more of a one-and-done you’re probably better off enjoying on sale.
Gravity Duck isn’t a broken game, nor is it a badly made game. The biggest problem with it comes from the shallow nature and utter boredom factor you’ll experience. While League of Evil offered more collectibles, more content, and more fun, this game is just a linear romp from Point A to Point B, one that’ll get absolutely insufferable as you make it to the end of the second world with little in the way of anything impressive. The game works, and the concept is simple, but sometimes simplicity can be overdone, and that’s exactly what happened here.
Spooky Ghosts is a fun mini metroidvania that I enjoyed far more than I expected to. While the whole adventure will take you around two hours to 100%, it’s still an enjoyable romp with a decent difficulty curve, although the slow firing of your shot is a consistent gripe from start to finish that not everyone will be able to get past.
In conclusion, PING REDUX is a pretty enjoyable remaster of a Wii U indie gem. I definitely appreciated several of the QOL improvements and difficulty tweaks, making this game a more beatable and enjoyable experience all around. It’s a really fun take on the Pong formula, and next to Armillo and XType Plus was one of the few Wii U indies I wanted to see remastered and playable elsewhere. Thankfully, Nami Tentou delivered on that wish, with a really good revamped take on the original 1.5, making this the definitive experience overall.
None of the previous games I’ve reviewed in my six years made me jump ship so early before I reviewed them, not even the awful Skunk Software titles. But there’s a first time for everything, and thus Galaxy Warfighter is the game most-likely to prompt snap judgement from a player based on how terrible it is. Look at the pretty screenshots, and keep on walking by.
Cat Girl without Salad does indeed feel like an April Fools gag, for better or worse. While some similar gags like 8-Bit Bayonetta or the Shin Megami Tensei metroidvania still lead to solid games made in a shorter amount of time, Cat Girl ends up as a bigger mixed bag, due to being only three stages long, with each of those feeling like a dull slog through the mud. The powerups are super cool and nifty, but since they rarely appear and the final stage is filled with enemy sponges, they never felt truly realized or useful.
In conclusion, the Samurai Shodown Collection is a decent effort from Digital Eclipse, though it fails to live up to the heights of SNK 40th. The games all run fantastic offline, but the lack of some options from the MVS bios, the complete omission of captions from the museum, no Neo Geo CD music, and medicore online leaves this feeling a bit less impressive than the prior SNK loveletter. This is still an absolute blast for newcomers wanting an easy way to jump into the franchise, and I had tons of fun playing through IV-V Perfect, but the other games left a lot to be desired due to that classic arcade difficulty.
Unfortunately, there’s no cross-play in sight, which seems like a gargantuan missed opportunity with the recent Console releases. The Steam version is by far the one with the most active playerbase though, so if you play here, then you’re in for a good time, especially if you have friends willing to join your lobby. Add custom levels and worlds that the Steam Workshop provides, and you have an insane amount of multiplayer replay value that makes this one of the best computer games I’ve ever played online.
Seven Sirens still is an absolutely excellent metroidvania worth enjoying, but I can’t help but feel some things could have been done to make this the ultimate game to surpass Pirate’s Curse. It definitely sets things back on the right track after Half Genie Hero, but it doesn’t quite match the peak the franchise had already set. Regardless, this is a must-own if you felt that the last game wasn’t what you felt Shantae should be, and missed the old style of exploration from which the series started on.
Even if Thunder Force IV may have turned you off like it did me, due to it’s brutal difficulty and weird vertical scrolling, I’m happy to say TFAC is a much more balanced and fun game, offering a fair challenge on its default setting with bonus content that makes this game fully deserving of the $8 pricepoint. (Or even 1000 Yen, if you were like me and imported this ASAP) There’s only one AGES game remaining, and here’s hoping the other Technosoft gem gets the same amount of love and care as this title did…
Still, I am confident enough to give this game a solid recommendation nevertheless, if you’re an RPG fan wanting something lengthy and enjoyable with fast-paced battles to play. If you were in my boat of dismissing the original or thinking it was perhaps too much akin to the other anime styled RPGs you’ve seen, then please, I do truly implore you to make an exception and give this game a shot: It’s truly great, and one I’m more than happy to have started a journey with! Here’s hoping I continue to have a good time as I play it through the coming months.
When the only gripes I have are some online flaws and a bit of lacking variety with certain enemy types, that’s pretty much a good sign that the game is solid all around. Still a bummer that the online situation isn’t fixed yet, but at the very least, local-play and the 1v1 battle modes are still absolutely worth your time, and I cannot recommend this game enough. It just misses the bar for being a perfect game in my book, but I still consider this to be the best in the SOR series, proving that you can return to an old franchise and make it even better.
In conclusion, Toy Tanks is an OK arena action game. What kills most of the fun in this game are the strange controls, with nothing that’s really practical. Thus, Toy Tanks just feels a lot more clunky and complicated than a game like this has every right to be, but if you can somehow get over the crazy hurdle of this game’s control schemes, then you do have a decent, sixty-level experience to blast through, along with a goofy two player battle mode. So at the end of the day, Toy Tanks isn’t a bad game, just a very clunky one with some weird learning curves, leaving a middle of the road experience in its place.
In conclusion, Heroes Trials was just an utter bore. Little of interest, barely anything to write home about, and the limited fun I had with the ranged character doesn’t save the game from being really shallow and uninteresting. The whole game feels like a reject mobile project from five years ago, with little polish and nothing that I’d miss if I had a life where I never played it to begin with. Sad to say, but action RPG fans should look elsewhere, and maybe pick up a better game like Kamiko or Oceanhorn.
I still feel that Smilebasic 4 is absolutely worth the $30 pricetag for all the creative and excellent games that the peticom community have released already, thanks to an earlier launch in Japan, and I’d argue a few of the user-creations like several of the vertical shooters are of equal, if not higher quality to some actual, full-fledged indie eShop titles. It’s a pretty incredible platform, and for budding BASIC creators, USB Keyboard and mouse support makes this far more practical as a tool than the 3DS touch screen. Definitely an excellent application worth your cash, especially if you were a fan of the previous applications!
Overall, I felt that G-Loc was a very impressive port. It’s still a very fun, seldom-ported scorechaser at the end of the day, and while some may not like the cockpit perspective or dated visuals, it’s still a solid way to kill time and go for new scores. The AGES mode didn’t really add much else besides some QOL improvements, but to be blunt, I couldn’t think of much else to add, since none of the missing stuff from the Game Gear port is worth getting upset over, as the pacing of this arcade version is far better.. All in all, a very solid port of a fun gem, and I’m glad I imported it! With only two AGES releases to go, the twilight days for the line seem to be upon us… Here’s hoping this is the start of a great finale.
In conclusion, Plus Alpha is a fairly typical vertical shooter, but it’s one of Jaleco’s best. The enemy placement feels just right, the weapons are incredibly fun to use, (low amount of powerup icons non-withstanding) and the stages are usually the perfect length. As a score chaser, Plus Alpha excels at being addicting and well-polished, but otherwise, the game really doesn’t do much new for the time, and there’s not even two player co-op.