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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.
Anyone who checked out the NES version either on Nintendo Switch Online or back in the day should really give this Arcade original a shot, since it’s surprisingly addictive. The speed focus is perfect for the caravan mode, making this game one of the most fitting for the score chasing mode in quite a while. It’s still a tricky game, but it’s much more fun than you may expect, and it’s great that Hamster brought this arcade gem to a new generation.
Guilty Gear is an OK port of a rough start for a classic fighting franchise. The characters are unbalanced, the arcade mode is really unbalanced and gets borderline cheap in difficulty, and the lack of much to do besides getting every ending and unlocking characters leaves this game to be rather lacking for the $10 price tag.
Image Fight is a really enjoyable and well-made vertical shooter from the 80s. As an obscure Irem game that doesn’t get recognized nearly as often as R-TYPE, it’s nice to see a western release of the original Arcade version for the first time ever, although it’s super punishing and not nearly as easy to get into as a vertical game like Twinbee or Strikers 1945, which may turn off those with less patience to learn the trial and error.
I feel that if there was a bit more content and if the waves were more consistent with the difficulty of their bosses, then this game could have been something truly amazing, but as it stands right now, it’s just a good little action game with little else to note.
For high score chasing, this is decently enjoyable, but if you were hoping for a variety of powerups or something besides a simplistic shooter, then you may want to look elsewhere. Still not bad for what was a former April Fools joke.
Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a really fantastic loveletter to the Classicvania era of the series, including seven fantastic games (and one bad one) emulated well for a new generation.
Remilore is a decent action game, brought down by a frustrating save system and some other odd design choices. While the weapon mechanics and upgrade systems are totally fine, the fact that the game only has one temporary save slot is just inexcusable, considering how this game can take a hour or two to clear and you can’t have a second player jump in without restarting the entire game.
Ninja Gaiden is a fun co-op adventure to play with a friend. While it’s not much of a score chaser and thus loses some replay value for that alone, anyone interested in the origins of the Ninja Gaiden franchise should be willing to check this out, and if you have a buddy around for local co-op then this is a fun way to kill an hour.
Ping Pong Trick Shot Evolution felt more like a level pack than a sequel. While there’s still puzzle fun to be found in this game, I found everything to be too samey for my tastes, and while both Ping Pong titles are fun puzzlers to enjoy, I felt this one could have been made a lot better if the framerate improvements found in the multiplayer mode applied to the rest of the game, along with some more new level gimmicks to play with instead of sticking with the older ones.
Revenge of the Bird King is an interesting spin-off of the Gunworld series with some ideas in mind, but it’s not really that fun. Tight controls and the sense of speed you can get with this game are one thing, but if the level design and the overall structure isn’t good to compliment it, then you aren’t likely to even get anywhere without a guide or dumb luck. It’s an annoying experience for sure, and unfortunately one I cannot really recommend compared to its predecessor.
Awesome Pea is a generic mess. Clunky level design, repeated setpieces, inconsistent level lengths, this platformer honestly feels like something thrown out the door in a few months with little care. As a Game Boy throwback it fails, and as a quick platformer it fails, so considering how this game asks $6 for two hours of unsatisfying content, I just cannot recommend this game in the slightest, not with many other better options available on the eShop.
Arcade Classics is a really fun package with a ton of addictive score chasers with only one of them being not as fun to play (Haunted Castle) unless you’re a really dedicated player. The overabundance of shooters may seem a bit off at first, since Konami had other fun games that weren’t shooters, (Roc N Rope, Track N Field and Shaolin’s Road to name a few favorites) but all of these shooter picks are quality choices.
Fun Fun Animal Park is yet another example as to why Motion Controls are a terrible idea. A lot of waggling, turning and shaking is involved here, but it never amounts to anything fun. The game can become a real drag and even with a friend the shallow length of this title dries up quickly.
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a shockingly great fighter, with well-balanced mechanics and a lot of fun combat to be had. The mechanics and flow of this fighter work great and it could very well have the potential to be among the higher-tier Power Rangers games out there. The big problem with this game is that it’s very lacking on actual content, especially of the offline variety, and while there are more characters planned, it’s disappointing to see stuff like extra costumes locked behind the preorder DLC rather than being something you could unlock through single player play.
Aggelos was a big surprise. Having played a bunch of Metroidvanias in the past year, most of them ended up being well-made but lacked some sort of hook to keep me playing, and the few that did ended up being something that went above and beyond. Yet in this case, the game benefits from going back to the roots and being a throwback done right, going for both authenticity and accessibility that made the six hour adventure well worth every single minute, even during the frustrating bits.
While it works perfectly fine and I think this will be a game I’ll revisit like I do with the many Arcade Archives titles to improve my score, I do think the randomized names, the lack of saving custom palettes and lack of online leaderboards do hold this back a bit from being as great as it could have been.
It doesn’t do much to shake things up or even offer a unique take on the formula, but Woblyware managed to provide what’s easily one of their best experiences to date, and it was one that I feel is worth a look if you liked any of their other titles or just want a new metroidvania to play.
Block-a-Pix is a simple, yet surprisingly fun puzzle game. I ended up playing a good amount more than I usually would for a review, and ended up having so much fun I cleared the entire first page without hints despite the fact that I had little reason to play more than a few puzzles from varying sizes, yet like with Picross S, I just couldn’t help myself, and I may even add this to my gaming backlog as a result.