Remember that other Hades II? The one with turtles in it? That was a great game, wasn’t it? I bought that because it was so much like Hades and there wasn’t really any other Hades-likes around that had good reviews. Oh, except for actual Hades II. Which I finally got round to buying. Set a number of years after the first game, after Hades himself stopped being a Bad Dad And Husband and Zagreus brought the family back together, Hades …
You’d be hard-pressed, from the screenshots, to see that PowerWash Simulator 2 is actually a different game to PowerWash Simulator 1. And the gameplay too, in fact. After all, there are only so many different ways washing dirty stuff can be presented. Why, then, is this a whole new game and not just another pile of DLC for the original? Money? It’s probably money. Right? There are differences, if you look closely. Perhaps the biggest, in terms of “gameplay” at …
While I’m a big fan of 2D Metroid games, and I did enjoy the first Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2 just left me cold and so I never played the third game. Oh, and Hunters was terrible. As a result, I did not rush out and buy Metroid Prime 4 at launch like I did with Metroid Dread. I did, however, get bought it as a present recently. I was worried it would be incredibly hard (like Prime 1), and …
What if Arkanoid was Vampire Survivors? Well, you’d (sort of) have Ball X Pit. Instead of a bat, you have a person who throws balls to destroy enemies, which are essentially blocks, that move slowly towards you. You can gain XP from gems dropped by defeated baddies, as per Survivors games, and levelling up lets you choose a number of upgrades for your balls – such as balls that set things on fire or cause area damage like earthquakes. Eventually, …
It’s not often I play a big all-the-graphics modern games these days. In fact, even Spider-Man 2 is now a few years old. It does look amazing but the important thing is how it plays. Very few games are this much fun to just get from A to B. Batman: Arkham Knight was, and the first Sony Spider-Man was, but most other games don’t give you the freedom and the tools and the verticality that just make it a joy …
Well this has been a long time coming. Yes, I could have bought it at any point but it was seventy paahnd or something else obscene so I didn’t. Then I got it for Christmas and it was added to the pile and in the last week, I finally got round to playing it. Just as Sony gave it away as a free rental on PS++++++++. The secret to comedy, is timing. Let me first tell you about the install …
Aaaaand I’m done. Yes, I completed it a couple of weeks ago, but I had to go back and do some more, getting my different Lives levelled up and completing some of the side missions and ranking up regions in Ginormosa. I also collected the remaining Strangelings, and delved to deeper depths in the dungeon tree. But, I realised – everything now is just grinding. There’s no purpose to anything. Sure, I can get to higher levels, and get better …
Yes! I was one of those idiots that paid SIXTY SIX POUNDS for a piece of plastic that you put your Switch (or Switch 2) in, so you can sit awkwardly while playing games made for one of the worst consoles ever made! It’s like having two red-tinted Game Boys stuck in front of your eyes that you can only really play at a table (or, as I did, on the sofa with a teetering pile of lap cushions), all …
This is great and it is so obviously using Hades as a template it’s not even fair to suggest it’s anything but a clone. But a really good clone. It even mentions about the powers you obtain as being “boons” at one point, which is what they’re called in Hades. So, in case you don’t know how Hades plays, I can explain for Turtles. You start in the sewers, and face room after room of similar but random layouts and …
Nintendo were kind enough to give this GameCube game out to people who pay for the top tier of their online subscription service. Back when it originally came out – at the GameCube’s launch – it was perceived to be a disappointment. Indeed, I eschewed it in favour of Super Monkey Ball and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 because it wasn’t the follow-up to Super Mario 64 we all hoped was happening. Of course, I did eventually play it and …
It’s Mr Driller only on the Game Boy Advance, only on the Switch. It’s missing the many game types and variations from later games in the series like Drill Land, but it’s the same gameplay and just as much fun as it ever was. But hoo is it hard. The constant worry that you should just dash for the end rather than try to grab some air, or vice versa, when you’re low on oxygen. The all-to-easy way to miscalculate …
I’ve a mixed history with Donkey Kong games. Donkey Kong 64 I loved, for a while, until it became clear it was a nightmare of repetition and collecting. Donkey Kong ’94, for the Game Boy, is one of my favourite platformers. I hated all the Super NES Donkey Kong Country games with their stupid pre-rendered graphics and terrible physics and collision detection. The evolution of those for the 3DS and Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns was better, and I completed …
Remember a while back I played a game called Shin Chan The Endless Subtitle About Seven Days Of Summer Or Something? It’s one of those lazy Japanese summer games by Kaz Ayabe where you go fishing and catch bugs and do lots of minor things with very little consequence. Natsu-Mon is one of them. This time you’re a boy who’s part of a circus troupe, staying at a guest house in a small town for the summer. You run errands …
My daughter and I were big fans of the original River City Girls so the sequel was sat on my wishlist for ages waiting for a bit sale. That came around, and we played it through together. It’s more of the same, really. A side-scrolling, semi-open-world beat-em-up with RPG elements set in the world of Kunio-kun/River City Ransom and made by Wayforward, just like the first game. It has a great cartoon style, loads of in-jokes (with both River City …
This game is big, busy, and full of charm, even if it doesn’t quite hit the same epic scale as the first Xenoblade Chronicles. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll see some familiar creatures (like the adorable fluffball Nopon) and field enemies, but there’s no direct link between the two stories – at least, not initially. That said, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is prettier than the first game, with vibrant visuals and more detailed environments. It’s also much busier, with …
