Author: M. A. Ligocki

  • Review: Mexican Ninja (XBOX Series)

    Review: Mexican Ninja (XBOX Series)

    Japan and Mexico. The Narcos and the Yakuza. Who would have thought that they’d become one, eh Hombre. Now they’re filthy Narkuzas, making life hard in your Pueblo. Aye Caramba ese, what’s a Mexican Ninja to do but go and show them whose boss.

    Welcome to the wacky world of Mexican Ninja and it’s melting pot of two intersecting cultures in the crime-ridden city of Nuevo-Tokyo. Somehow, someway, the Yakuza and the Mexican Cartels have banded together to create the Narkuza – a ruthless gang of criminals making life difficult across Nuevo-Tokyo. It’s your job as that of the fabled Mexican Ninja to deliver hyper-violent street justice to the gangs and evil tech corporations flooding the city with crime and drugs. No barrio is safe from your wrath!

    Mexican Ninja is a brash, violent, colourful and incredibly crude return to 3D arcade brawlers and beat-em-ups. Think the original TMNT Arcade Game, Double Dragon and even Streets of Rage, if it was a dazzling explosion of colour and graffiti and more foul language than Leonardo can withstand before going into a coma. It’s a super-fast, hyper-violent barrage of melee-based combat against the lowest of the low the underworld has to throw at you. But it’s also a bit more than that. Because Mexican Ninja has a twist in the proverbial tail. And that is that it’s also a rogue-like.

    Sometimes there are pairings that you wouldn’t have considered. And mixing up a beat-em-up with rogue-like mechanics just happens to be one of those. And yet, here at least, it works incredibly well. That’s down to the fact that developers Madbricks clearly have a handle on what makes both those genres work. More importantly, they clearly understand what it is that makes both of those genres work well together. There’s a fine balancing act between mixing gameplay mechanics and styles, genres and ideas, and I daresay Madbricks have managed to do just that.

    Both genres are defined by repetition. But it’s a repetition that compliments each other rather well here. Beating arcade games back in the day, especially if you wanted to do it on one quarter, meant spending a lot of time replaying it to get good and finally carry yourself through to the end without losing a life. And rogue-likes require the same kind of dedication, just with less quarters spent in the long run. Popping them together works like a bit of a dream then, when implemented right as now your character gets stronger while you memorise the enemies and attack patterns. Unlike in traditional beat-em-ups where your character doesn’t change at all.

    This little change up in mechanics does wonders to add depth, replayability and a breath of fresh air to what is, for all intents and purposes, as traditional a multiple-stage beat-em-up as you can get.

    Mexican Ninja’s focus on kinetic, high-speed action lends itself well to button-mashing gameplay. But don’t let that stop you from playing tactically either, as both styles along with fast reflexes will get you to the end. Our ornery little ninja has light and heavy attacks, a jump, a dash and a basic parry to his broke-ass name. Mixing up attacks provides some thrilling, high-octane combat as you zip across the stage, disembowelling every cabrone in your way. As an added bonus, you get two Jutsus to help you even the odds, the first of which is picked up at the start of each run. The second you can choose as a reward at any of the stages that offer it as a final one, or at some of the many shrines in each area.

    On death, enemies drop all too valuable Yen for you to use in the games hub to upgrade the ninja. There are two skill trees to blow your cash on. One provides basic stat upgrades, such as increasing magical damage, health and base attack damage while the other tree unlocks new attacks and combo perks. Both are necessary to increasing your chances of making it through Mexican Ninja’s gauntlets.

    As much as button mashing will get you far, it’s learning those extra moves that make a difference. Not just for the games boss fights which are full of AOE’s and the occasional ad, but to chew through enemy shields faster than the basic combo will.

    The boss fights are also bright and colourful and as foul-mouthed as the rest of the game. From a Crack Panda to Tech Bro’s in a giant Sombrero wearing mech, Mexican Ninja goes all in on the weirdness.

    The rogue-like mechanics are exactly what you would expect. Each time you die, you start right at the beginning and lose any incremental upgrades you’ve picked up in your previous run. Money, thankfully, gets carried across with your rebirth. To make life somewhat easier, if you decide to quit the game while in a stage, the next time you resume it will be from the start of that area. But full death comes with a complete wipe and all you’ll retain is the money you had on your corpse and the permanent upgrades and moves you’ve unlocked.

    Everything from increased health and Jutsu upgrades, to enhancing all of your attacks are yours to choose from during a run. Choosing the right upgrade for your playstyle is highly important. Is a 5% damage increase worth more than a 10% health increase? That’s for you to decide. New Jutsus as well rock up throughout the campaign. Whether you want to throw out the Mexican Ninja version of a Bankai or release a deadly fart cloud around you that inflicts poison is, again, up to you. Be wary though and read the fine print on those upgrades as some come with detrimental effects to you as well.

    It wouldn’t matter though if the mechanics didn’t complement each other. And they do. Mexican Ninja is a ridiculously fast paced brawler that will keep you on your toes in fights. There’s a lot going on here and you do need some fast reflexes to keep up with it all. And that’s what makes the combat so exhilarating. The speed and ferocity is cathartic.

    Visually, Mexican Ninja is a gorgeous game. The visuals explode with colour in everything from the hectic, screen-filling attacks to the gorgeous graffiti on buildings. There’s a cel-shaded approach but Nuevo-Tokyo definitely sports its own identity in the looks department.

    The games one downside is that there’s quite a bit of noticeable screen-tearing. While Mexican Ninja’s obscenity laden dialogue and humour may not be for all, it’s gameplay is stupidly addictive and a great showcase for why rogue-likes and beat-em-ups should collaborate more often. There’s a simple joy to getting to grips with its systems and speed that makes cake-walking that fourth boss with nary a hit a pleasant high. Take a dive into Mexican Ninja‘s madness and you may just be pleasantly surprised.

    Pros:

    • Fantastic art design
    • Fast paced, fun combat
    • Weird humour

    Cons:

    • Noticeable screen-tearing

    Score: 7/10

    Mexican Ninja was reviewed on Xbox Series S/X using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on Xbox One, PS4/5, and PC.

  • Review: Realm of Ink (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Realm of Ink (Nintendo Switch)

    When Realm of Ink first launched on Nintendo Switch, it was in an almost unplayable condition. Not due to bugs though, but rather due to performance and visual issues. Realm of Ink was plagued by an extremely low resolution, artifact-ridden FMV cutscenes and, worst of all, game breaking performance in the form of frame drops, input lag, and slowdown. So much so it made walking in molasses seem fun in comparison. During the early mob fights it wasn’t too terrible, but by the time I reached the first boss, it was an unplayable mess of headache inducing, stuttering frustration.

    The reason I bring it up is because, if you grabbed the game on launch, you probably would have been inclined to shelve it pretty quickly – perhaps not even intending to return. But since then, developer Leap Studio has really brought the game up to scratch with a bevy of bug fixes and optimisation patches that have resolved the bulk of the issues. While it’s not 100% perfect – and I’m not sure it ever will be on Switch 1 – Realm of Ink is now in more than just a playable state. It’s also a lot of fun.

    You take on the role of Red, a warrior literally trapped in a “Realm of Ink” as a character in a story whose actions and paths have been dictated by “The Narrator”. But after dying during a scene and reawakening at the Fox Inn, imbued with Fox blood and free of The Narrators control, you make it your mission to escape the story you’re trapped in by any means necessary.

    Realm of Ink is the latest Rogue-like to be inspired by Hades. Played from an isometric perspective, the similarities are undeniable, but Realm of Ink does enough on its own to have a novel identity, not least of all through the games stunning art direction.

    Utilising an ink outlined, water-style painting aesthetic, Realm of Ink has some stunning character, art and location designs. It often looks like a painting in motion with vast swatches of colourful attacks and explosions going on around you. It’s complimented by some good sound design, but the art is, by far, the star of the show.

    The games story, while fun, can’t hold a candle to either the visuals or the combat. As with most Roguelikes, story progression is tied to your progress, or lack thereof. Each death unlocks more of the story, giving agency to your quest while also giving you more insight to the events you’re living and dying through. The various characters you meet will also have their back stories and personalities unlocked the further you progress.

    Repeated deaths are worth more than just new story content or a chance to prepare before taking on the last boss that ganked you; it also opens up more of the Fox Inn for you to explore. Initially you only have access to a few rooms and services, which include changing character skins and setting the difficulty of your next run, but each death reveals more services. This makes it worth your while to live, die, and repeat things a few times even if you can make it through chapters in one run.

    Naturally, combat is Realm of Ink’s meat and gravy. The core combat is simple enough: you have light and heavy attacks and can dash to avoid attacks. Attacks can be powered up by holding down the attack button before unleashing it. At its core, it’s a simple hack-and-slash system, but where Realm of Ink really stands out is in its pet/companion and Ink Relic systems.

    Across the game you’ll come across various Ink Relics which are themed around the Five Elements in Chinese Mythology, namely Water, Earth, Fire, Wood and Metal, and the special Momo Inks for your pet, which also consist of the five elements.

    Inks are the lifeblood of the combat system as they possess multiple functions and stats. They can enhance your attacks, give you special abilities, and power up your pet. You can hold two inks at a time, making for a variety of attack combinations between standard and special attacks. What inks you hold also determines into what form your pet morphs and which attacks are available to them. Finding ink combinations that possess good synergy is part of the games appeal as it lets you play around with different combinations.

    There’s a lot to take in behind the scenes of the combat system, specifically in all the special abilities and buffs that each Ink provides and how it combines with your base stats or that of your pet. Inks you don’t use can be broken down into shards which you can then use to upgrade the other Ink Relics you have equipped into more powerful, rarer forms.

    Adding onto the combat complexity are perks and talents, some equippable through trinkets that provide you with stat boosts or even new attacks. It also wouldn’t be much fun if there weren’t permanent upgrades for you to strengthen your build with. In fact, it would probably be mind-numbingly frustrating if you couldn’t. That’s where Elixirs come in. These provide permanent stat boosts to everything from HP to critical hits and, next to a good Ink combo, are the most sought-after item in the game. For me at least.

    Realm of Ink doesn’t delve into randomised levels, so your path through the game regardless of how much you die is the same. However, when you’re moving between areas, you’ll get to choose which reward the next room will provide for completing it. There’s everything from gold to stronger enemy encounters but choosing to fight for Elixirs is probably the best way to go at first.

    One thing I do appreciate is that at certain points in a chapter, usually before a boss, you’ll come to an encampment with your allies from the Fox Inn hanging around. Here you can power up your Inks, heal yourself with food that also gives you stat buffs, and buy more trinkets to stack onto your build – f you have enough gold that is. The nice thing about these rooms, apart from telegraphing a tough section to come, is that if you need to take a break, you can quit the game and resume from here when you come back.

    Overall, the combat is incredibly fun and can get seriously hectic with the number of enemies and effects being thrown around onscreen.

    All of which brings us to the one flaw that Realm of Ink still has: performance. While all the video files have been patched up with non-artifact laced versions, slowdown still plagues the games most hectic fights, specifically in later chapters and some boss fights (which are usually full of summoned ads).

    Unlike the vanilla state which was, for me, unplayable with slowdown, frame drops and serious input lag, the slowdown is more navigable and playable now. There are some visual effects that you can switch off in the graphics menu to reduce system load, but it’s impossible to remove them all on original Switch 1 hardware. Far less severe for sure, but still a sore spot on an otherwise beautiful and fun game.

    Realm of Ink’s story may not induce highs as high as its combat, but it’s a fun tale in a really fun, action orientated rogue-like form that is capped off with lovely visuals and a rewarding, complex build system.

    Pros

    • Great, complex build sysxpected depth
    • Excellent, hectic combat against hordes of enemies
    • Gorgeous, watercolour inspired visuals
    • Fun enough story

    Cons:

    • Slowdown in the more hectic fights and boss fights on a Switch 1

    Score: 7/10

    Realm of Ink was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series S/X, PS5, and PC.

  • Review: R-Type Dimensions III (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: R-Type Dimensions III (Nintendo Switch)

    It’s time to grab your flight suite and strap in because the evil Bydo Empire is back again! That’s right boys and girls, it’s R-Type time!

    As a lone, hotshot pilot, it’s your job to stop the bio-mechanical horrors of the Bydo Empire across a variety of mechanised and goopily organic stages full of monstrous creations trying to kill you. And, in classic R-Type fashion, the stages themselves don’t seem to want you around either! Which of course means, for fans, that this is traditional R-Type through and through.

    Over the last couple of years, we’ve had multiple R-Type Dimensions games. For those who may not now, these are essentially remakes of the original R-Type games, starting with R-Type Dimensions, R-Type Dimensions EX, and now R-Type Dimensions III that, unsurprisingly, is a remake of R-Type III.

    To be fair, the Dimensions series is also as much a remaster of these classic shooters as they are remakes as the original 2D versions of the games have been included with them. And, as with so many recent remasters/remakes that know what they’re doing, usually let you swap between the old and new versions of the games with the press of a button or a toggle in the settings menu.

    And that holds true for R-Type Dimensions III as well. Not only does it let you play the original game as it was, it also lets you see the stellar work that developers KRITZELKRATZ 3000 has done on rebuilding the game in 3D. And believe me, it really is of the above and beyond variety where the new 3D take on the games 2D visuals are concerned.

    Now, as much as I love pixel art and the R-Type games original 2D visuals, this is probably the first time where I preferred to play the game in it’s brand-spanking new 3D incarnation over the original visuals. That’s not to say that the 2D visuals have aged poorly, far from it, but the level of work that’s been put into the 3D designs is just stunning.

    Every enemy, attack, and stage design has received significant makeovers with tons of new details added onto the ships and environments that just makes everything pop. Make no mistake, R-Type Dimensions III’s 3D visuals are stunningly colourful, especially when everything and the kitchen sink is blowing up around you!

    Included with the 3D version is a new camera angle as well. This just tilts the angle ever so slightly so that the rear of the screen seems to slide out further while the front shrinks in a bit. It’s a slight perspective shift to keep your attention focused on the front of the screen where everything is coming at you from. Now while I appreciate the attempt at trying something visually new in a time-honoured genre, it does break the illusion that you’re flying forward. Instead, it makes the enemies and the environment seem like they’re popping into existence just at the screens black border. It also affects the sense of your spaceships movement, making it feel less like you’re moving as much as the environment is rotating around you. At least that’s how I felt.

    There is one major issue with the relatively instantaneous swapping between 2D and 3D, at least on Nintendo Switch 1 that is. And that issue is that it isn’t a seamless swop between visual styles as we’ve come to see in many remasters. Instead, there’s a significant pause in the action as the game switches between the 2D and 3D engines, and vice versa, followed up by slowdown and stuttering for a couple of seconds as the game hurdles back up to speed. If you’re going to switch visual styles, then it’s best to do it when there’s a quiet moment onscreen.

    The games visual menu lets you swop between the different visual styles as well and houses some other little visual flourishes such as screen filters for both the 2D and 3D visuals and the ability to place the hub on different sides of the screen along with adjusting its transparency.

    Outside of the spanky new 3D visuals, R-Type Dimensions III is a little bit on the bare side where these retro remakes and remasters are concerned. There’s a Jukebox to play the games original and rearranged soundtrack in but, sadly, no production artwork to view. That’s one of my favourite go to spots on remasters and remakes so I was a little bummed that there was nothing of that variety here. Granted, the 3D remake is so stunning that I can’t hold it against the release.

    As for the game itself, there are multiple difficulty settings and the much appreciated, though not for the right reason, Normal and Infinite modes. Normal gives you the original games set number of lives and hopes you can survive the Bydo onslaught while Infinite gives you infinite lives to beat the game with.

    Now anyone whose played any of the R-Types, hell any of the side scrolling shooters from the late 80’s and 90’s eras, knows just how hard these games can be. Many were designed for arcades first and the driving force behind those was getting kids to part with their change. However, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t complete them on one coin, and in some special cases, one life either.

    The R-Type games have always been designed around quick reflexes and stage memorisation and sort of straddled the line between been challenging versus horribly unfair. R-Type Dimensions III follows those rules almost to a tee. However, from about the halfway point of the game it swops from been challenging into cheap as hell. And not the kind of cheap that makes you want to come back and beat it just because. It’s the type of cheap, poor design that makes infinite lives a godsend. I’m the first to admit that my reflexes aren’t what they used to be for twitch gaming, but damn if this didn’t frustrate the hell out of me.

    Even though R-Type Dimensions III has some of the most frustrating level design in its back half, it’s still hard not to enjoy the work KRITZELKRATZ 3000 have put into this title, specifically it’s 3D makeover. I would have liked a more robust package of retro production delights though. That said, this is a game catered towards the hardcore R-Type and 2D side scrolling shooter fans and should make most of them quite happy when added to their collection.

    Pros:

    • Gorgeously detailed 3D visuals
    • Infinite lives is a godsend
    • Can swop between the 3D and original 2D visuals

    Cons:

    • Swopping between visual modes isn’t a seamless experience
    • Cheap as hell level design in the games latter half
    • Considerably bare-bones compared to other retro/remake titles

    Score: 7/10

    R-Type Dimensions III was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch 2.

  • Review: Necrophosis: Full Consciousness (XBOX Series)

    Review: Necrophosis: Full Consciousness (XBOX Series)

    Back in 2021, developer Dragonis Games released the first of their deep dives into H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos with the near photo-realistic first-person adventure game, The Shore. Now, onto their third game, the developers are continuing their exploration and re-imagining of the Cthulhu Mythos with the morbid and eerie Necrophosis: Full Consciousness release for Xbox and PlayStation owners. Originally released on PC last year, the game is making its jump to console in a complete edition that includes its Subconsciousness DLC, continuing its strange story at the end of the universe.

    Set in an alternate timeline, billions of years after the demise of the universe, you take on the role of Consciousness itself. Now awoken well past the end of all things, you have to navigate a nightmarish landscape of broken beings in a bid to find your purpose in all of this madness.

    Played from a first-person perspective, Necrophosis falls into the affectionately dubbed “walking simulator” category. It’s a game that’s less concerned with traditional gameplay than it is with mood, atmosphere, and narrative. As such, actual playability takes a bit of a step back in favour of creating an interactive painting of macabre visuals for you to explore.

    And macabre it certainly is. Heavily inspired by the Gothic art of Zdislaw Bekskinski, Necrophosis is a poem in motion; a painting come to life; a Weird Tale of decay given to you to explore. It’s a decrepit world of bone and sinew, of creatures caught somewhere between full death and lingering decay, cast into surreal forms of fleshless muscle and yellowed, ossified bone. It’s a stunning attempt at bringing Bekskinski’s unique, apocalyptic and surreal art to interactive media and marrying it with the nihilism of Cosmic Horror at the hands of some of the Cthulhu Mythos most famous creations.

    From the King in Yellow to Nyarlathotep, to that great hoary Old One himself, Cthulhu, Necrophosis cameos some of the big guns into a tale that’s aimed at exploring the metaphysical and philosophical connotations of choice and existence itself, while marrying those themes to one of the Cthulhu Mythos most unexplored aspects: it’s cyclical nature. As Lovecraft once wrote: “The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be.”

    Choice, and whether or not you have any, is an important through-line throughout the experience. I feel as though the sense of player agency, or the lack thereof, ties into the game’s themes. This feels especially important when linked to the games rather simplistic gameplay. When you’re not speaking to woeful entities or reading the lore drops scattered across the environments, you’re dealing with some very basic puzzle solving that essentially amounts to taking an item to a specific place or giving it to a specific creature. There’s very little difficulty involved here, and the procedure doesn’t change throughout the game’s runtime, or that of its brisk expansion which, at the end of the game, left me with the impression that it was meant to highlight just how little agency Consciousness has in the unfolding of the story. Whether or not that was what the developer intended I can’t say, but it certainly fits in with the games overall themes and tone.

    Of course, Necrophosis’ greatest strength is its atmosphere. Even when the actual gameplay didn’t quite light me on fire, I still found it hard to put the controller down as I always wanted to see what was just around the corner. How much more of this version of the Cthulhu Mythos would I uncover, what lurked in the shadows, what new tainted abominations would each cycle bring? Like a good arcane tome or portal to the unknown, the need to know more, to see more is the games driving focus.

    That it’s tied to some striking visuals and creepy sound design just happens to be the icing on a malodorous cake.A walking simulator, a piece of performance art, a poem brought to life, a weird tale to read on a dark and lonely night, Necrophosis is all of these things. More than that, it’s a love letter to Cosmic Horror and the Cthulhu Mythos that is aimed squarely at fans of those genres, both of the literal and digital forms of entertainment. As such, it’s an acquired taste that fans of those genres will certainly appreciate. But as a take on what a game could be, anyone looking for something different in the indie gaming space should make the effort to check it out. You may just find something to love at the end of all things.

    Pros:

    • Superbly grotesque art design
    • Compelling exploration that keeps pushing you forward
    • Lots of lore to discover

    Cons:

    • Limited interactivity with very simple puzzle-based gameplay

    Score: 7/10

    Necrophosis: Full Consciousness was reviewed on Xbox Series S/X using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PS5 and PC.

  • Review: Foreign Sun (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Foreign Sun (Nintendo Switch)

    Foreign Sun had spelunking back and forth between a settlement, a sewer system, and a competing settlement; running around shanking anyone foolish enough to cross beam-sabers with me; getting ready for another attempt at the boss. Turns out I still wasn’t ready enough.

    I spawned back in to find the settlement I’d been buying my mods at raised to the ground, its inhabitants butchered by some black-clad, mask wearing weirdos who were also wiping out anything breathing in the competing settlement. I imagine they did the boss in as well?

    Did this happen because I failed to beat the boss too many times? Because of a prisoner I helped free a little earlier in the game? Questions whirled through my mind but I carried on. And just when I felt the need for a map, lo and behold there was an NPC selling them for the low, low cost of my soul. What could possibly go wrong, right?

    Choices with consequences – a bold claim many games make yet very few achieve. Even fewer with consequences that make a discernible difference to the game world around you.

    It’s not difficult to understand why that doesn’t happen all that often. Games are complex beasts, full of varied systems already struggling to work together in harmony. But every so often, a game comes out of left field that makes you go; “Wait? What just happened?”

    And that is exactly what Foreign Sun made me do. Now I love replaying games that I enjoyed, but I rarely have the urge to restart them or play a New Game+ as soon as I’d finished it. But even before I was at the halfway point through Foreign Sun‘s world, I already found myself wondering “What if?”

    What if I’d beaten that boss on my first or even second attempt? What if I hadn’t visited that suspicious prisoner? What if I hadn’t sold my soul just for a quick way to figure out where I was or had yet to visit? What if?

    So much so that I’d considered starting a new save file just to see how much of a difference my decisions would make. And that’s when I knew Foreign Sun had me hooked. Even with the tough boss fights and the more than a few moments of feeling like I was butting my head against a wall trying to figure out where to go next. Yeah, Foreign Sun captured me, so much so that I’m still thinking about it. Still wondering “what if”?

    Developed by Final Scene dev, Foreign Sun is both the spiritual successor and rework of the developers previous game, Biomass. What started out as a visual update has evolved into it’s own pilgrimage to the Lighthouse.

    Set in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world, where survivors eke out a miserable existence in the drowning remains of skyscrapers, Foreign Sun is a Souls-vania swimming in a variety of influences. From odd mutations to cyberpunk-ish leanings, it’s a melting pot of ideas all rounded out with a heavy Spaghetti Western feel. And as a pilgrim with no name hoping to reach The Lighthouse and cross the Meridian Gate, your journey across a new, wild world is only just beginning.

    With choice being such a huge part of the narrative, seeing everything Foreign Sun has to offer will require multiple playthroughs. The game seems tailor made for it in essence, with multiple endings that reveal more about the world, change characters, and open up new routes and boss fights.

    With that requiring a fair amount of time investment, it’s a good thing the game is both intriguing and plays well. In essence the basics of Souls-likes is here, with light and heavy attacks, ranged attacks, and mods that upgrade your health and stamina. There are machines to reconstitute at when you die, where you also buy your mods from, but stat specific upgrades don’t exist, making this a more streamlined experience in the Souls genre.

    You can block and parry attacks, but what you can block and parry is based around the type of attack used. Some attacks, like AOEs, can’t be blocked. Others will drain your stamina bar and a little bit of your health. Some attacks can even parry bullets back at enemies.

    Close combat is the name of the game here, with bouts designed around weapon clashing. In function it’s a form of parry, but one that needs to be hit back-to-back to drain the enemy’s posture, leaving them open to one hit kills for regular enemies and large damage dealers to bosses. With all your melee weapons plasma-based, the Star Wars inspiration is clear and quite awesome. Timing is paramount, but when you do get the flow right and clash multiple sword attacks together in one sequence, it’s a spectacular-looking (and sounding) sight.

    The combat system is simple to use but has enough nuance so that it is hard to master while paying attention to all the small details that can turn the tide in a fight. Clash weapons too often with not enough success and you can overheat, leaving you open to attacks. Sneak up on enemies and you can do a one hit kill. Regardless, paying attention is highly important as the combat flow in Foreign Sun is incredibly fast. You’re going to need speedy reflexes here to survive fights. Even more so in boss fights.

    It does bring me to one of Foreign Sun‘s flaws: it’s just a little too hard for its own good at times. Bosses can be very challenging and even standard enemies can wreck you in two or three moves. Even with health mods, you get wiped out very quickly. I think the game needs a little more tweaking on the difficulty and damage dealing mechanics, especially for bosses where it can feel like you’ve hit a roadblock until you finally manage to beat them.

    Atmosphere is one thing that Foreign Sun excels at. The fantastic soundtrack combines wonderfully with the ominous, washed-out, sun-drenched visuals and dark, mutant infested corridors. Even with NPCs around, there’s a feeling that you’re a lone gunslinger on a long, lonely journey, reinforcing that Western feeling. And dripping over it all, a sense of melancholy and despair that permeates the whole journey. The games audio is also wonderful. Beam weapons sound fantastic – even more so when you’re clashing at high speed.

    Games that come around and really surprise you are increasingly rare. Vanishingly rare are the ones that make oft used mechanics feel fresh again while also surprising you. For its few faults – namely the high difficulty and obscure moments on where to go next – Foreign Sun is one of those games. It’s an atmospheric, lovingly crafted, melancholic Souls-vania with haunting, hidden depths that I can recommend to all indie fans.

    Pros:

    • Choices you make have weight
    • Fun, fast and deep combat
    • Fantastic atmosphere
    • Great soundtrack

    Cons:

    • Some hefty difficulty spikes
    • Can feel obscure at times where progression is concerned

    Score: 9/10

    Foreign Sun was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC.

  • Review: Skautfold: Moonless Night (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Skautfold: Moonless Night (Nintendo Switch)

    Welcome to the 1900’s. Welcome to the Angelic Empire of Britannia. Welcome to Skautfold: Moonless Knight. And welcome to the end of the world.

    If that sounds like a heavy opening, that’s because it is. And that’s because Skautfold, as a whole, is as well. Set during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Skautfold series is a full-on Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraftian, Cosmic Horror action-RPG franchise that, sadly, you probably never heard of. Initially released for PC in 2020, Moonless Knight is now allowing console owners to pit the Knights of the Empire against eldritch horrors with this penultimate chapter that propels the series towards its apocalyptic conclusion.

    For this entry, the series switches location from the horror-plagued streets of London to the shores of Japan and its Dawn Empire. As part of a delegation sent to negotiate with the Emperor in response to the looming end of the world, you take on the role of Gray, 2nd Knight of the Empire. Alas, things do not go well, and the negotiations are sabotaged by a group of Eldritch God worshipping Lunatics. Taking shelter in the Imperial Palace, it becomes your job to route the cultists, win the Emperor’s trust and delve into the legends of the Oda clan and what lies hidden beneath the Palace – possibly the only thing capable of saving the remnants of humanity.

    Like the Darksiders games, the Skautfold series has played around with different game genres for each instalment. From survival-horror to Metroidvanias, the developer has explored diverse mechanics and perspectives. What has remained true for each instalment is the heavy cosmic horror focus along with RPG and Souls-like elements. And that remains true for Moonless Knight as well.

    Moonless Knight ditches the survival-horror mechanics of the original, instead focusing on gameplay mechanics and styles from other games in the series, creating an isometric action RPG with Souls-like mechanics. Unlike most action-RPG’s however, the Skautfold games focus firmly on storytelling while taking a step back to focus on almost hardcore, tactical Souls-like combat. There’s a bit of Metroid and Legend of Zelda mechanics thrown in for good measure to create a melting pot of strangely addictive gameplay.

    The story itself is great and paints a pretty, or not so pretty, picture of the stakes here at the end of the world. It’s certainly one of the games highlights, filled with plenty of dialogue and enough creatures to make the Lovecraftian fan in you happy. From Night-Gaunts that operate shops, to the Mi-Go running a smithy, to certain frozen statues highlighting the form of a certain Mighty Messenger, there’s a veritable who’s-who of the Mythos here for the aficionado.

    One of the nice things about the Skautfold series is that you can jump into the games at any point. While the story, albeit focusing on different protagonists, is continuous, you don’t have to have played the previous game in the series. And the same goes for Moonless Knight. There’s more than enough exposition for you to figure out what’s going on but I would recommend picking up on this series from the very beginning, if you haven’t already.

    The world is a little bit Metroidvania in design, with plenty of locations blocked off by skills you may not have, and alternate routes and paths that need to be unlocked. Exploration is important on your first run through an area as there are upgrade materials, money, and skill increases scattered across the environment or found in chests. There is a level of repetition that does set in as you do travel across the same areas a bit too much. For me, this aspect of the game felt less like a Metroidvania and more like a dungeon-crawler when taking into account the back and forth and room layouts that add to the labyrinthine and maze-like feel of the environments.

    Skautfold: Moonless Knight makes use of one of my favourite ways to level up skills in a game and that is, by using them. Blocking, dodging, and your weapon are improved by using them. It’s a really satisfying progression mechanic that does a great job of showcasing your increasing prowess. You can also find skill upgrades in chests and at the games merchant. Your weapons, which range from a standard sword to dual wielded blades, can also be further levelled at the smithy. This not only increases your damage output but, eventually, completely changes the weapons form.

    Empowering you further are relics scattered across the environment. These not only add another tool to your arsenal but also help in navigating the environment. These relics also come into their own in boss fights with specific ones working better against some bosses than others. Finally, on the offense scale, you’re saddled with a familiar to help you in combat that also levels up as it does its job.

    Where Moonless Knight really shines, and where it got its hooks into me, is in the combat. The various rooms may not be overly populated, but almost every fight is a tactical contest for survival even as you get stronger. This is due to the game favouring positioning, perfect dashes, and perfect blocks to keep you alive, and it’s all driven by the Guard mechanic.

    Moonless Knight employs a Guard bar, which is a combination of a stamina bar and a shield. All of your actions drain some of the Guard bar, whether that’s swinging a sword, blocking, or dashing. At the same time, the bar protects you from damage and once it’s empty you start taking damage to your health. Each fight is a taught affair of managing this bar while paying attention to the enemy tells to determine whether or not they’re going to block or attack.

    Damaging an enemy means having to chew through their Guard bar before you can rain hell down on their health. While the bar recharges on its own, blocking at the right time will recharge the bar while pulling the same amount out of your opponent’s bar. The Guard bar is also tied to your health: the lower your health, the lower the Guard bar.

    The best part about this system is that the enemies, even bosses, are governed by it as well. So, while bosses may have inflated health and guard bars, and you have to learn their attack patterns along with which relic is best for the encounter, the combat system and encounters never feel cheap. Ultimately it comes down to you increasing your strength while reading every encounter carefully because, even as you level up, a string of poor moves can punish you all the same. And if you read the room right, you can walk through it without a scratch.

    While I liked Moonless Knight‘s pixel-art visuals, especially the death animations as enemies are cleaved in twain amidst gushes of blood, it does bring me to one of my few issues with the game. And that is that in certain maps, specifically the Imperial Palace, I found it hard to tell the difference between walls, support pillars, and the floor. This is down to everything been constructed from wood and there was more than one moment where I had to stop and wonder whether or not that was a wall or floor before me.

    My other issue is the room design becomes more and more labyrinthine the further you delve beneath the Imperial Palace. It’s fun enough for exploration, but once you have to start running through the same area multiple times, especially if you want to get somewhere quickly, navigating it becomes a repetitive chore.

    That said, Skautfold: Moonless Knight is a wonderfully fun delve into an alternate, Cthulhu Mythos-infected world that builds upon its earlier instalments. The dungeon-delving nature of the game may get repetitive at times, but it’s made up for with a great story and some truly fun and infectious combat mechanics.

    Pros:

    • Good Cthulhu Mythos inspired story
    • Fun, gripping combat mechanics
    • Levelling up abilities through use is always a great mechanic

    Cons:

    • Some tile-sets make it difficult to discern walls from floors
    • The maze-like aspect of later areas gets tiring to navigate

    Score: 7/10

    Skautfold: Moonless Knight was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X.

  • Review: City Hunter (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: City Hunter (Nintendo Switch)

    My introduction to Ryo Saeba’s adventures came not through Tsukasa Hojo’s original City Hunter manga or the anime series or even the movies, but rather through the 1993 Jackie Chan City Hunter live-action adaptation. A movie a I absolutely adore. So much so that it’s my second favourite Jackie Chan movie. It was that adaptation that got me to delve deeper into the previous adventures of the lecherous private investigator and his underground City Hunter business.

    Now, after thirty-five years, the only official licensed game of the classic manga – not counting Ryo’s appearance in other crossover games – has been brought back to modern consoles and PCs with a somewhat slightly remastered version courtesy of Red Art Games and the original developers SUNSOFT. This also marks the games official debut outside of Japan.

    City Hunter Nintendo Switch 2

    Originally released in 1990 for the PC Engine – or the TurboGrafx-16 in the US – City Hunter is a mostly traditional side-scrolling action game. It’s highly reminiscent of Taito’s Elevator Action, Ocean Software and Eurocom’s Lethal Weapon, and just about any other retro side-scroller. You run to the left and right of the screen, shooting endless enemy spawns as they come towards you from off-screen while trying to complete your objectives.

    Across the three missions the game has for you, you’ll find yourself running and gunning through office hallways, warehouses, labs, and industrial areas. Each of the levels are full of doors leading to other areas or to empty rooms and there’s a lot of back and forth between sections. To the developer’s credit, they’ve tried to add some depth to the game by implementing NPC’s that either update your objectives, heal you, or give you a new weapon. This does change the missions into a bit of a run around as you hunt down someone or something to get that next keycard but that does very little to mix up the base gameplay of shooting the ever-loving snot out of anything that happens to wander on-screen.

    City Hunter Nintendo Switch

    Like most retro games, City Hunter is very much a product of its time. And of licensed titles of the time as well. Which is to say that while the action is fun enough for the short time it will take you to blast through this – in a perfunctory sort of way – there just isn’t enough done with the City Hunter license to make it stand out from the rest of the crowd. Sure, Ryo can get health back in the presence of a scantily clad woman, and the anime’s iconic closing theme is here for the opening, but the bulk of what makes City Hunter City Hunter simply isn’t here – specifically the jokes.

    This version of City Hunter is less of a remake or remaster as much as it is a straight-forward port of a thirty-five-year-old game. Which is nothing to be disappointed with where preservation and saving obscure retro titles is concerned, but it could have done with much more love than what few features have been added that are now standard for retro title remasters. It also comes with all of the original’s problems too. From flickering sprites to unfair enemy spawns that always result in cheap hits (specifically when you’re exiting a room), to lacklustre background art design that makes each mission look identical, this really is the same game it’s always been.

    City Hunter Gallery

    What’s new to this revival version spans the gamut of what is now mandatory for the preservation of old games.

    Visually, the game supports CRT filters and multiple aspect ratios, specifically 4/3, widescreen, pixel perfect, and native resolution. The visuals themselves look exactly the same as the original games, featuring some nice 2D animations – though they might be a tad cleaner than the original release.

    There are three flavours of gameplay: original, enhanced, and hard. Original speaks for itself and it’s the game as it was back in 1990. The Enhanced version is meant to have refined enemy behaviour, more responsive controls, and improved gameplay but for the life of me, I couldn’t pick up any major differences between this mode and the original. Hard is, as it implies, stronger enemies and a higher difficulty which should suite those wanting get every ounce they can out of the game when tackling a new scenario.

    As is now super popular across retro game compilations, there’s a nifty Rewind feature that let’s you undo your mistakes. Sadly, it doesn’t do anything to nullify those cheap hits from enemies that spawn right outside a door that you’re exiting. You can also save and load your progress at anytime which is really great when you need a breather and is vastly superior to the original password continue system.

    City Hunter Bunny Girls

    Finally, there’s my favourite feature of any retro title: the Gallery. While not as robust as I would have liked, City Hunter’s Gallery lets you take a look at key artwork, anime stills, the original games CD Box and inlays and, finally, listen to all of the music.

    When compared to a lot of the recent retro collections, City Hunter is a little on the anemic side. It’s not the longest retro title and hasn’t aged all that well in the gameplay department, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an appreciated effort in making sure that another relatively obscure game doesn’t disappear into the annals of gaming history. As such, it’s a game that hardcore retro collectors and fans of the original game, manga, or anime will get the most out of.

    Pros:

    • City Hunter finally receives a worldwide release
    • The crisp animations still hold up
    • The anime’s closing musical track is included

    Cons:

    • A slightly barebones retro release
    • Repetitive stage design
    • Design bugs lead to cheap hits

    Score: 6/10

    City Hunter was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PS5 and PC.

  • Review: The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest (Nintendo Switch)

    The mind, as they say, is a terrible thing to waste. Even more so if you’re the creative type. And that’s the problem facing Fletcher, a burned-out game developer who needs to reignite that creative spark. When a hypnotherapy session goes wrong, Fletcher’s world goes full meta as he finds himself trapped within the labyrinth of his own mind and his current creation. The only way out is to spelunk through the job that has bled into his subconscious and defeat the demons within holding him prisoner.

    As such, Fletcher’s quest puts you in the shoes of a game developer who has to reckon with his own profession by living through what he’s designed. And in this case, it’s a 2D platforming title with vague hints of Metroidvania-ness at its core. As is developer Elden Pixels go-to through the course of their career, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a retro-inspired platformer that could have easily stepped out of the past with its, initially, challenging design.

    Fletcher’s story is full of bizarre, fourth-wall breaking humour that intends to poke fun at the game design process. Quirks, bugs, poor design, it’s all fodder for the developers to use to elicit a smile through this surreal adventure. Not all of the humour lands, but when it does, it’s a nice slice of grin-worthy meta-commentary. But the humour is even better when those poor design choices are thrown at you as obstacles to be overcome. Be warned though, there’s some serious adult language and jokes on display here, from pixellated nudity to Samuel L. Jackson level of profanity bombs. If you’re thinking of handing this one over to the kids, you may want to reign that horse in for a bit.

    Visually, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a bright and almost cheerfully colourful game, despite the adult subject matter. The game uses a lovely looking pixel art style that is both charming and wonderfully animated from the characters to the backgrounds. Between the character and enemy designs and the stage design, it very much resembles bright, colourful, children’s cartoons from the days of yore. There are wonderful little details scattered across the place, from the squinty eyes that peak out of boxes until you get close to them, to the lovely boss designs such as a giant surfboarding shark with colour changing trunks.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Shark Boss

    The games audio is no slouch either. Sound effects are great, but it’s the games soundtrack that comes in kicking with a pop cowboy/Western themed tune that will worm its way into your ear long after you’ve stopped playing. The boss music is really great though and represent the best tunes in the game.

    The gameplay is where The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest will, most likely, polarise many gamers. It is, initially, quite tough and a bit on the unbalanced side.

    Progression through the game uses some Metroidvania design, with a world map and layout that’s evocative of so many games in the genre and areas blocked off until you gain new abilities by beating a boss. But that’s as far as the Metroidvania impact goes as the game is broken up into small, self-contained challenge rooms that are a mixture of platforming, combat and timing to get through. Each room is like a little mini-puzzle in survival that requires fast reflexes along with the patience required to work out the patterns in enemy movement and attacks while making sure you don’t get skewered by the many sharp environmental objects, like tacks, that are littering the world.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Gameplay

    Adding onto the game’s difficulty is the use of light procedural generation. Now while the overall map shape remains the same and certain specific rooms and gauntlets remain in place, the bulk of the room layouts will differ both between new runs and, even, reloads. While procedural generation is supposed to give you the feel of a new run each time, it’s not long before you’ll see rooms repeating, even if they’re not in the same place you originally encountered them.

    It’s that procedural generation though that really throws the games difficulty all over the place. The randomisation means that you’re just as likely to run through one, long series of frustrating rooms to reach the next save point as much as a whole bunch of easy ones. Worse yet, are the areas where you’re hitting a weird combination of hard and easy rooms that completely destroys any sense of finely-tuned difficulty progression. Stepping out from a save room could land you in a really hard room, followed up by two easy rooms and then three hard or so. I’m sure you get the point by now. Now while this keeps you on your toes, and you have to be because you can only take two hits before dying, it does the game no favours early on and set me up with a sense of increasing frustration by the time I hit the first boss.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Randomised Rooms

    Here’s the thing though. There’s a point, right after that first boss actually, that The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest just clicked for me. Perhaps it was earning the double jump which made navigating the rooms faster and with a little more finesse that did it. Or getting a second bullet so you could fire two shots at once instead of just one and waiting till you’re bullet either hit something or disappeared off-screen before you could fire another. Either way, this is when the game really came alive for me and, dare I say it, became a whole lot more fun.

    Sure, the procedural generation and its difficulty skewing dynamic sticks around. And yeah, the multi-phase boss fights can be a bit much, but somehow, this is when it just starts feeling right. There’s a sense of finding your groove once you understand the mechanics at play that makes even the umpteenth death just another learning experience. And believe me, I died quite a bit.

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Premise

    If it’s all still a bit much, there is an assist mode available. There’s no description in-game on what this does, but it appears to me that with it enabled, when you die, instead of respawning at the last save point, you respawn at the entrance of the room you died in. Super useful for sure, even though save rooms are liberally placed across the map and you can warp from one save room to another. This just streamlines moving forward and not having to hassle with reaching where you died when the last place you saved at was five rooms ago.

    If you can overlook the procedural generation and its issues and get on board with a truly ancient slice of game design, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a lovely looking and fun old-school, arcade platformer with a humourous narrative that just needed a little bit more fine-tuning to reach greatness.

    Pros:

    • Nice, colourful pixel art style
    • Good soundtrack
    • Fun gameplay once you get used to the mechanics
    • Memorable bosses

    Cons:

    • Procedural generation messes with the difficulty curve
    • Very frustrating initially

    Score: 7/10

    The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC.

  • Review: Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster (Nintendo Switch)

    Review: Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster (Nintendo Switch)

    There has to be a point where, when considering the work done by Nightdive Studios in remastering, we should immediately acknowledge the stunning work the company is doing in updating and preserving classic games – some of which were considered lost to time – and making them playable for modern machines. Using their custom KEX Engine, they haven’t just made the games playable on modern hardware, but updated them as well with better visuals, quality of life changes, behind the scenes extras – if those production goodies are still available – and even going as far as creating new expansions, in conjunction with other developers, for certain games. Their track record is nothing short of… wait for it… legendary.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Intro

    Not ones to rest on their laurels, Nightdive are constantly jumping into forgotten gaming libraries and pulling out gems to work on; usually multiple titles at a time. Right now, we’re going to focus on one of their latest efforts: the Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster.

    Outlaws might be one of those games you have heard of. Lord knows it’s flown well under my radar for many years, even though it has an illustrious pedigree behind it.

    And that pedigree? None other than LucasArts themselves.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Intro Cutscene

    While most will remember LucasArts for their classic point-and-click adventure games and numerous Star Wars titles (with the enduring legacy of Monkey Island still going strong), but their FPS legacy didn’t begin and end with Star Wars: Dark Forces. Two years after LucasArts gave us one of the best Star War FPS’s, they used the same engine to power a nostalgic trip into the Wild West with Outlaws.

    Heavily inspired by Westerns, particularly of the Spaghetti kind, Outlaws was a surprisingly narrative heavy FPS that took us through Frontier towns and tumbleweed-filled gulches across a lawless land of bandits and land barons. A year later, the free expansion, Handful of Missions, was released to further extend our stay in the lawless frontier. Although Outlaws wasn’t a major commercial success, it managed to gain a cult following as well, along with community-created level packs, and is regarded as the first game to introduce a sniper zoom on weapons and reload animations.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Visuals

    Like most Westerns, this is a story about revenge. When retired Marshall James Anderson’s wife is killed and his daughter kidnapped by the minions of a ruthless land baron, the good Marshall sets out to get his daughter back and deliver frontier justice to the men that took her.

    While this may be a simple story, Outlaws tells it with a surprising amount of cut scenes and dialogue, chronicling Anderson’s bloody journey across the West. LucasArts tells that story with serious cinematic flair, featuring a wonderful opening sequence heavily inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and some fantastic lingering landscape shots. It doesn’t hurt either that the surprisingly dark story is rounded out with a soundtrack that fits right up there with the best Westerns.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Gunfight

    The audio design is great overall, with wonderful sound effects for gunfire and reloads – though I did get a little tired of hearing the same; “You’re outnumbered Marshall!” sound byte playing throughout the campaign.

    Featuring a combination of hidden secrets, large multilayered maps, light environmental puzzles, and fun shooting, Outlaws plays like any number of FPS’s from the 1990’s. It may not feature the smartest of enemies, but they fill the role of shooting gallery goons well enough. The Wild, Wild West motif, coupled with the game stunning score, goes  a long way to giving Outlaws its own flavour. Overly complex it may not be, but it is incredibly stylish and fun.

    There are an assortment of items to pick up, from the typical key variants to open locked doors, to oil canisters and throwing knives for combat. Most weapons have an awesome alternate attack. For the double-barrel shotgun, as an example, it’s the classic ability to fire either one round at a time or both. My favourite, however, was the revolver alternate, which lets you quick fire with a fanning technique – that’s slapping the hammer back repeatedly with the palm of your hand. If you’ve watched enough Westerns, you’ll have seen that move often enough.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster Alternate Fire Modes

    If I have one nitpick about the games combat, it would be that important enemies, or bosses if you will, often aren’t all that discernible from regular enemies beyond how much damage they take to go down. More than once I had a level end as I capped someone, only to have a cut scene play showing that I’d just taken down a wanted target when I thought I was blasting just another cattle thief.

    The Handful of Missions expansion, meanwhile, is just that: a handful of missions. Only they take you back into the events that made Anderson the Marshall that he becomes. Across the Civil War battlefield, to hunting down and trying to bring in wanted felons alive, the expansion is a nice continuation of the game for those wanting more High Plains shenanigans.

    As for Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster itself? Well, what is there to say? Nightdive have once again worked their magic to make this the best version of the game to play without spoiling the original vision. Most noticeable, of course, are the reworked, high-resolution visuals which gives the game a lovely, crisp look. You can switch between the original visuals and the new with the push of a button – a feature I always love – but this is one time I certainly do prefer the reworked art assets.

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster River Level

    There’s also cross-play multiplayer, both online and locally, and a Vault for you to take a gander at the games production artwork, script, and development documents. And if you love the soundtrack as much as I do, you can listen to each of the games tracks in the Vault as well. Rounding out the package are a set of Achievements to be earned.

    Overall, Outlaws + Handful of Missions: Remaster is an excellent remaster of a really fun Western-themed shooter long-relegated to a clunky and buggy PC version. It may not be visually or mechanically complex by today’s standards, but it’s still a great FPS featuring a strong narrative and a fantastic soundtrack, that still proves that sometimes, simplicity is the best design.

    Pros:

    • Reworked textures and higher resolution
    • Can switch between original and reworked visuals at any time
    • Excellent soundtrack
    • Fun gameplay

    Cons:

    • Some overused sound bytes

    Score: 8/10

    Outlaws + Handful of Missions Remaster was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 1/2 using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/PS5.

  • Review: Kaku: Ancient Seal (Xbox Series)

    Review: Kaku: Ancient Seal (Xbox Series)

    While Kaku: Ancient Seals bills itself as an open-world, action-adventure RPG, in reality – and spiritually – it feels a lot closer to the PS2- and PS3-era of large zone, action-platformers, like Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank. Just with a sprinkling of modern ARPG mechanics. Make no mistake, that’s no slight against Kaku and developer BINGOBELL’s aspirations, as Kaku certainly goes big in just about every way it possibly can.

    Set during some primeval era, Kaku throws you into the shoes of young Kaku himself. A quest to capture a flying piggy leads him to a bigger quest to save the world. Kaku is the anointed one and the future of the world – now split into four continents by way of a catastrophe – needs some serious saving. Kaku has to use his newly acquired godly powers and return elemental balance to the world.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Story

    And Kaku’s quest isn’t just big, it’s massive. Because Kaku’s world is massive. There are four continents for you to run across to set things right in, populated by primeval creatures of all sorts, like savage tribes and elemental Lords that need to be taken down to right the elemental imbalance. All of which is rounded out by side-quests to take on, both brain teasing and environmental puzzles to solve, platforming challenges and puzzles, and lots and lots of combat.

    If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Like many open-world games, Kaku perhaps throws a little too much at you to do, a lot of which becomes repetitive by the time you’ve reached the second continent and the play-style and story-flow is established. So while I did eventually wear myself out on finding shrine keys and collecting all the various items you need for upgrades and crafting, the exploration and platforming still managed to keep me hooked. And a lot of that is down to the games world design.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Visuals

    Each continent is home to a different biome, from wet marshlands to dry-as-bone deserts and freezing glaciers, providing a nice variety of gorgeous locales to explore. Because each area is so large, Kaku is dotted with teleportation pillars for you to unlock via a fun puzzle game that has you sliding blocks to certain positions within a set number of moves.

    Although you can approach any continent at any time (even jumping between them during missions), Kaku’s environments are less open-world and more open-zone, as each continent is broken up into different regions and temples that you load into. This is a good idea as it helps to make each area more navigable, while providing greater variation and themes. Invisible walls do, unfortunately, pop up when you reach the edge of the games map, which both looks and feels awkward.

    The platforming, which is one of the games highlights for me, is very traditional, with the ability to double-jump and air dash to navigate the pitfalls around you. We’re talking moving platforms, spiked and fire platforms, and switches you need to hit while riding platforms that are moving or falling apart. In short, it’s fairly traditional stuff for 3D platformers but it is done well.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Traps

    Combat is where you start to see more modern mechanics with enemies that have massive health and stun bars. Kaku has a light attack, an arm guard attack that damages the stun bar, and a wide range of combat skills to unlock, These range from more melee attacks, ranged attacks, and what is, essentially, a super mode that heals you while giving you access to godly weapons and damage output for short durations.

    The said, combat is easily the weakest aspect for me. The enemies being bullet sponges are just one of the many combat issues that eventually had me kiting enemies from a distance when I could, or just avoiding them completely when I could. A lot of that comes down to Kaku’s combat speed and animations that feel too slow coming out of or transitioning between attacks. When you combine Kaku’s slow move-set with enemy attacks that briefly stun you and many enemy attacks, especially projectiles, that are really fast, all too often you get stuck in stun-lock loops and pummelled in mobs. Enemies also do pretty hefty damage, even when you start to upgrade Kaku’s stats.

    I also found a fair amount of cheap enemy placement in environments that require lots of platforming with deadly drops beneath you. Large enemies on small ledges with little room to manoeuvre is just a giant no.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Traps Boss Fight

    Boss fights tend to go big with giant enemies that have multiple health bars and attack patterns you need to pay attention to. While they’re generally more fun to engage than common mobs, they’re still plagued by the same combat issues which can be aggravating when you’ve taken a boss down to it’s last health bar, only to be stun-locked and knocked off a platform to your instant death, and have to restart the entire fight.

    One thing you’re going to have to do is upgrade to keep Kaku alive. If you don’t, you’ll quickly watch your health disappear in a flash while dishing out single points of damage to groups of enemies.

    There are a fair amount of crafting materials to gather: from shards that drop from enemies you use to upgrade your base abilities, to various ores and plants for healing and inventory expansion. There’s a very light crafting system for cooking beneficial foods and creating elemental ammo for your slingshot. Armour and weapons can’t be crafted or upgraded; instead, they’re dropped from bosses or picked up from chests and have buffs associated with them The most you can do is socket them with ruins that add incremental perks like ten percent more health.

    What you really want to do is rapidly upgrade Kaku’s inventory limit, how much food he can carry, his health, stamina, attack, and defence – everything really. Attack, defence, and item limits are easily upgraded in a sort of spirit realm, where you channel crafting items into unlocking higher tiers of damage and defence. Kaku’s skill tree has a variety of useful attacks and you can also only upgrade them here (at launch, the skill tree video is bugged though as it plays the same video for each of Kaku’s skills instead of showing the correct one per skill).

    Following in Breath of The Wilds footsteps, there are small puzzle-platforming temples in the spirit realm you need to complete to upgrade health and stamina. These formed some of my favourite moments in Kaku, as they required you to use the bulk of your platforming skills in bite-sized moments that didn’t outstay their welcome.

    That said, upgrading doesn’t make the combat and it’s surprising difficulty, any better but it does make fights shorter. Even when I’d upgraded Kaku’s damage output to its fourth tier, I still preferred to avoid fighting unless I had no other choice.

    Kaku: Ancient Seals Xbox Series X

    Returning to the positives, Kaku is a mostly gorgeous game. While I don’t think the cut-scenes do a great job of showcasing this, the scenery when you’re exploring Kaku’s world are, oftentimes, quite stunning. There’s a wonderfully massive sense of scale captured by the environment design that always made it a  pleasure for me to see what was around the next bend.

    While Kaku has some issues and kid-friendly visuals that belie its high combat difficulty (and the occasional frustrating platforming moment), BINGOBELLS adventure still manages to feel like a fun return to action-platformers of old. If you can overlook the frustrating combat system that could do with some fine-tuning, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in its primeval world.

    Pros:

    • A massive multi-zoned world to explore
    • Beautiful environments that create an epic sense of scale
    • Fun platforming, puzzling, and exploration gameplay

    Cons:

    • The combat feels overly difficult and mechanics need fine-tuning
    • Some poor/cheap enemy placement
    • Repetitive area side-quests and tasks for upgrades

    Score: 7/10

    Kaku: Ancient Seals was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5/Pro.