HIGH Surfing a missile into a building is rad as hell.

LOW There’s a suboptimal amount of downtime in the stage design.

WTF Joe’s eloquent way with words.

Are videogame bad guys deliberately stupid? It’s a question I’m sure nobody on the planet has ever asked before, but the bad guy in Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Lord Ruse, comes across as a prime example of being a blithering dum-dum.

First, he’s a bad guy gunning for domination in a world where Sega’s premiere bad guy-killing ninja Joe Musashi exists. He then intentionally attacks Joe’s home while he’s chilling with his wife, dog and students, confidently relegating the killing of said super ninja to his most inept followers and leaving before the job’s done — so now Joe has to prioritize killing the bastard in a personal way.

Players will rely on Joe’s trusty katana during this 2D side scrolling quest, as well as a pocket full of throwing knives and an understated ability to dive-kick dudes in the face. Over time he’ll acquire new moves and additional gear, but don’t expect new weapon types. Blowing fire and summoning snake gods are all well and good, but Joe’s ultimately a katana guy through and through.

In his pursuit of vengeance, Joe will discover amulets that improve or modify certain abilities. He can equip some that cause enemies to drop more money or better healing items, while others offer rechargeable barriers that absorb a single attack or give significant damage buffs as his combo meter rises.

Naturally there are a ton of bad guys to meet and defeat along the way, from low level ninja to far more competent ‘elite’ demons, robots and skilled swordsmen.

Most enemies have two damage gauges to keep track of — their basic health and a stun meter that opens them up for an instant execution marker which will see Joe bullet across the screen turning every vulnerable enemy a into bloody mist. It should be mentioned that doing these instakills never, ever gets old and is heavily encouraged by showering players who use it with more resources than normal kills.

To get specific for a moment, there’s an excessive amount of hitstop on attacks, causing the action to briefly freeze as blade meets flesh. Most titles usually reserve this for heavy or perfectly-timed hits, but Shinobi: Art of Vengeance liberally applies it to pretty much everything. It’s a double-edged approach, with many combos feeling weighty and powerful in nature, but this staccato rhythm of sword swipes staggers the flow of combat and lingers just a little too long when the player takes damage from enemies.

With that said, for the most part the action feels solidly enjoyable with plenty of scope for player expression and experimenting with flamboyant combos that brutalize enemies halfway across the screen, their broken corpses flopping around like pincushions full of kunai. However, I’m also curious to see how the same combat engine would fare if the hitstop was completely absent.

Something that’s more of a clear issue is that Joe commits to certain attacks, meaning that he can’t roll or jump to safety until the attack completed. It leads to the master ninja feeling less sprightly than he probably should, tanking hits with his face instead of swiftly sweeping out of range, making performing certain moves more unsafe than they probably should be. Not that enemies are particularly deadly for the most part, many of them putter through their standard attack animations without much regard for what Joe’s up to.

Bosses are the usual motley crew of idiots who think that they can take on Joe Musashi and live, though series veterans will recognize a few returning faces. They’re fine, but rarely standout – most of them are punching bags, honestly. That’s not to say that they don’t have attack patterns that require avoiding, but Joe can absolutely body them for the most part.

In terms of presentation, Shinobi looks great — absolutely fantastic in places, even, with a hand-drawn art style that continually impresses from the first scene in a gorgeously sunlit field, all the way to later stages storming through rain-slick cities, towering mountain passes, underground secret bases and the welcome return of an awesome surfboarding section. That said, I do find the overly angular stage design to detract from things somewhat, though I’m sure the choice was made to make surface areas more easily recognizable.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance takes a psuedo-metroidvania approach to level design. It isn’t all one large interconnected world to explore, but rather a bunch of levels peppered with secrets that can only be fully explored when bringing back tools and skills acquired in later levels — things like walls requiring climbing claws to scale, updrafts that necessitate the use of a glider, or anchor points that Musashi will need a grappling hook to latch onto.

Despite this, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance doesn’t take full advantage of the approach. Players will often return with new gear only to pick up a single item or perform a short platforming sequence instead of uncovering new areas to explore, enemies to kill and bosses to defeat. It’s largely disappointing when compared to other games that utilize the approach well, though there are portals known as Ankou rifts that offer more challenging subrooms filled with enemies or tougher platforming sections.

The puzzles on offer generally exist to slow the proceedings down. Flipping switches to open doors is rarely an exhilarating gameplay mechanic, and pushing heavy objects across a floor to block a laser or power a device doesn’t exactly scream high-speed ninja action. Little of this is significantly additive, instead leading to far more downtime than is desired.

I generally enjoyed Shinobi: Art of Vengeance just fine. On the upside, the combat engine is fluid and satisfying to experiment with, and for the most part Shinobi: Art of Vengeance generally offers a reasonably good time. However, as a longtime series fan I expected an absolutely awesome outing, and it never quite hit the heights I was hoping for.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Lizardcube and published by DotEmu. It is currently available on XBX/S/PS5/Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. The good stuff! The official description reads: This is an action-platformer in which players assume the role of a ninja leader trying to save the world from an evil corporation. From a 2D/sideways perspective, players explore levels while fighting various enemies (e.g., ninjas, soldiers, monsters). Players use swords, throwing stars, and dramatic special moves to kill enemies in frenetic combat; fighting is highlighted by cries of pain, brief slow-motion effects, and frequent blood splatter. One boss fight allows players to dive inside the creature and slash at a giant heart.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. I don’t recall any instances where lack of sound would be a problem. I’d say it’s fully accessible without audio.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

In my continuing effort to watch every episode of cartoons that I loved as a kid, the next one on my agenda was G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — specifically, the Sunbow Productions run starting with the first installment of the original limited series, all the way through the regular episodes and finishing with G.I. Joe: The Movie.

(The series continued in a different run produced by DIC Entertainment for 44 more episodes.)

*

For those who aren’t familiar, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (shortened to ARAH in toy circles) was one of the most popular kids’ cartoons in the ’80s, running from 1983-1986 for a total of 95 episodes, beginning with a limited series, and then being greenlit for a full daily series. The premise is that G.I. Joe is an elite quick-response military team comprised of various specialists, all banding together to fight Cobra, a terrorist organization bent on world domination.

As a kid of the ’80s myself, my first exposure to the show was watching it whenever I caught it after coming home from school. However, as was the case with every TV show back then, you inevitably missed some episodes because you weren’t sitting in front of the TV at exactly the right time, or because one of your parents commandeered the set to watch something else — and if you did manage to catch the show, there was a good chance it would be a re-run, as it was common for episodes to be shown out of order, or simply repeated. So, thanks to modern streaming technology and being a grownup with my own TV set, it’s easier than it ever has been to watch the entire run of G.I. Joe in the correct order and on my own timeline — and that’s exactly what I did. It became a fun daily ritual for my wife and I to make coffee, grab a blanket for the couch and play an episode or two in the morning before we started our day.

I can’t lie, hearing the heroic theme song and seeing the blood-pumping intro sequence after so many years brought back all the feels, and it was great to see the action and adventure I remember from back in the day — Duke! Spirit! Snake Eyes and the rest of the heroic Joes! Cobra Commander, Major Bludd and legions of evil Cobra troops! Lasers! Cool vehicles! Explosions! Everything a kid in the ’80s could want!

…However, it wasn’t long before reality set in.

I’ve revisited a fair number of shows like this from the ’80s, and across the board I’m struck with the sense that we didn’t know how to structure TV shows back then. Kids’ programming rarely delivered quality storylines and well-written characters. If you’re as old as I am and saw G.I. Joe when it originally aired on TV like I did, it’s a good bet that you have positive feelings and nostalgia for it — I know I do! But during this watch of the complete series, it was hard to get past the untapped potential.

One of the most notable things is how thinly the characters are written. Only a few faces get enough airtime to stand out, primarily Shipwreck and Lady Jaye, but there were dozens of Joes altogether. Sadly, they seldom had any defining qualities beyond an accent and what their costume looked like.

I’m sure this can be attributed to a lack of production sense back then, but also to the show’s primary purpose of selling toys. Why spend several episodes on building up a character if they’re not on store shelves for kids to buy later? This approach also meant that it was common for your favorite character to suddenly disappear for no reason, only to be unceremoniously replaced with whoever the newest figure in stores was. Were you a fan of Dusty or Quick Kick? Too bad, they’re gone. Hope you like Blowtorch and Recondo, now available at retailers near you!

There was also a notable lack of continuity and no overarching story arcs once we got past the initial limited series — some elements persisted or were referred to in later episodes, but there was no narrative throughline like we have with many modern cartoons. Of course part of this is due to the fact that there was often no easy way for people to catch up on episodes they might have missed. As such, many programs (not just cartoons) leaned into stand-alone episodes for ease of viewing, but the ’80s were also a time when the toy companies footing the animation bill had absolutely no idea how powerful and lasting the connection could be between emotionally-invested kids and the characters they bonded with. It was unintentional, but these shows turned kids into lifelong customers.

Case in point: the vast majority of toys these days are purchased by adults, and sales of big ’80s IPs like ThunderCats, Masters of the Universe and yes, G.I. Joe, are almost entirely driven by fans who grew up with these programs forty years ago.

However, despite the fact that animation houses weren’t focused on building strong shows that could stand on their own, they often came close as writers returned to certain characters more often than others. It may not have been what the toy companies wanted, but it seems to me like the folks pushing pencils and pens were doing their best to add quality wherever and whenever they could.

On the Joe side, it was largely Shipwreck who brought personality as a sassy seagoing slacker. Alpine and Bazooka were a comedy duo (later replaced by bickering buddies Leatherneck and Wetsuit) and anyone who’s watched the show for any length of time knows that the real star of the show wasn’t Duke or Flint or Snake Eyes — it was Lady Jaye. She’s in more episodes than literally any other Joe, and she had no trouble getting things done on every mission. She was the real backbone of the team!

However, even stronger than the Joes were the Cobra troops. Almost all of the named characters had larger-than-life personalities and easily-recognizable quirks that made them endearing to kids. Cobra Commander’s mirror-masked face and shrieking voice made him one of the most iconic villains of the entire decade, but Destro’s sense of honor, deep baritone and silver head also made a strong impression. The Baroness is not only an all-time baddie thanks to her prowess in combat and subterfuge, but she’s always near the top of any ‘hottest’ list and the seed of domme fantasies cropping up later in a fan’s life. The finish-each-other’s-sentence twins Tomax and Xamot were never far from the fore, and Zartan’s penchant for disguise kept us guessing. Anytime a random civilian or scientist showed up, there was at least a 50% chance it would turn out to be Zartan!

With this core cast established, the writers dabbled in creating touchstones which could have been leveraged into meatier content — Several episodes referenced the secret Cobra base located in Springfield, we learned that Shipwreck was adopted and Scarlett came from a large family of martial arts experts, the renegade Zarana secretly pined for humble PC tech Mainframe, and so on. These rare glimpses of the Joes as people with histories, interests and lives off the battlefield were some of G.I. Joe‘s best moments of character elevation.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest missed character opportunities was late in the series when a new toy push from Hasbro began. The majority of established Joe characters were swapped out with unknown people overnight, and it was a huge surprise to see so many new faces arrive with no introduction, while all the old favorites just… went away? An obvious move would have been to write in a more formalized ‘changing of the guard’ or to give some pretense of soldiers being reassigned, but we didn’t get one.

Another huge miss was when one of these new characters, Serpentor, showed up and displaced Cobra Commander as supreme leader. It caused huge strife in the Cobra ranks, and in a few episodes we see Cobra Commander actively undermining this usurper, to the point that he was sabotaging Serpentor’s campaigns and leaving him unguarded in the hopes that G.I. Joe would either capture or kill him. This inter-agency conflict could have been an entire seasonal arc shown from Cobra’s perspective, but this incredibly juicy concept is barely touched on.

Despite the fact that G.I. Joe never reached its full dramatic potential, it was still a fun ride. Beyond straight-up nostalgia, there were plenty of absolutely crazy episodes — and for my money, the best Joe stories are the ones when something totally off-the-wall happens, like seeing Shipwreck get brainwashed into believing he woke up from a coma and is now married with a daughter, or when Lady Jaye goes to Destro’s ancestral mansion and finds a Cthulhu-type monster in the basement. Let’s not forget the town with giant plants running amok, or that time Shipwreck fell in love with a mermaid. And, one of the all-timers is surely when the Joes read a bedtime story to orphans and it turned the whole episode into a fractured version of Grimm’s fairy tales to score many genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Unfortunately, the Sunbow run ends with a random episode that doesn’t act as any kind of coda, nor does it cap anything off or tie anything up. I have to assume it’s because Hasbro knew they would be transferring the series to DIC, so it was kind of a non-event. However, we semi-transition between animation houses with G.I. Joe: the Movie, and after having just rewatched it, I was impressed with how well it stands up after all this time.

The movie is somewhat divisive because some fans feel it veers away from standard military action by incorporating fantasy, sci-fi and body horror elements. However, I would counter that taking even a cursory look at a list of episode synopses reveals that G.I. Joe has a huge number of fantastical episodes — in fact, they probably do more fantasy and sci-fi than realistic military action overall, so folks who think the movie goes too far might want to reconsider.

Also, it must be said that the musical intro sequence to the film is utterly badass.

If nothing else, the movie serves as a good stopping point for the Sunbow series by bringing back many fan favorite characters that had been phased out of episodic content with the big Hasbro push, while also adding a huge amount of new lore and story elements for longtime fans to chew on — namely, the hidden, bioengineered history of a secret society called Cobra-La and how it relates to Cobra itself. Was it a retcon? Of course it was, but it was an easy one to believe in, and as far as I’m concerned, it was terribly cool.

And the icing on the movie’s cake? We got backstory on Cobra Commander himself, including why he wears his iconic mask and we even get to see what he looks like underneath it! That very issue was something that provided endless debate on the playground, so to get it settled definitively was incredible. Also, Cobra Commander’s story ends in the film via a genuinely tragic sequence of events, bringing a level of gravitas that we rarely got in this IP.

Speaking of gravitas, it was widely reported that Hasbro was planning to kill G.I. Joe leader Duke during the movie in an effort to ‘reboot’ the toy line, similar to the way they killed Optimus Prime in Transformers: the Movie, but after the huge backlash TF:tM received, they decided to change course at the last minute and re-recorded voice lines in order to suggest that Duke survives. When you watch the film it’s pretty clear that he wasn’t meant to live, but even with this awkward fix, it was ultimately the correct choice and ends the Sunbow era on the right note.

Despite all the typically-’80s things that might be wrong with the series in hindsight, it was still great to to go back into this cartoon and revisit characters and stories that I hadn’t seen in so long. There’s genuine fun to be had here, as long as one remembers that the show is a product of its time.

I’m also happy to report that the spirit of G.I. Joe has lived on past the ’80s.

First, for folks who want to see more, there are there two excellent and highly recommended follow-ups – G.I. Joe: Resolute and G.I. Joe: Renegades. Even though they’re not direct continuations of the original source material, they’re both outstanding spinoffs that have a lot to offer Joe fans. Also, folks who get the itch and would like to track down toys inspired by the ’80s vintage action figures can check into G.I. Joe: Classified, a series of figures and vehicles which revive the plastic spirit of the Joes, but also update them with modern designs, better materials and superior articulation.

I’m quite glad that I went back and rewatched this landmark series from so many years ago. It’s far from perfect and seeing it through rose-colored glasses certainly papered over some of the rough patches I didn’t notice much as a kid, but even when seen from a clear-eyed modern-day perspective, it’s easy to know why G.I. Joe made such a lasting impression and remains a popular property, even to this day.

…And knowing is half the battle!

The post CARTOON TIME: G.I. Joe, 42 Years Later appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The late-game reveal that elevates the story.

LOW The gold time targets in the time trials.

WTF Catsablanca.

The kind of sequel that picks up almost exactly where the previous game left off, Grapple Dogs continues the story of Pablo and his crew of scientist friends as they deal with the aftermath of villain NUL’s decision to pry open the walls between dimensions. Doing so has freed VYR, an enormous pyramid-headed beast who wants to subjugate all realities. The only thing standing in his way is Grapple Dogs‘ returning hero Pablo (and new star Luna, packing heat.)

Grapple Dogs’ controls were so perfectly tuned that it would have been a crime if the developers hadn’t built more levels around them. While we can all respect what Spider-Man games accomplish, grappling hook and swinging mechanics work best in a 2D setting, a truism that’s proven here over and over again. Every level is filled with opportunities for Pablo and Luna to fling themselves through the world, arcing from one blue-tinted hook anchor to the next. This gives the gameplay an infectious momentum, and the feel of zipping from one point to the next is so satisfying that I found myself thrilled by each new set of complicated platforming challenges.

Not that things are ever that complicated — Grapple Dogs has quite noticeably had its difficulty dialed back in comparison to the previous entry. The levels are still filled with hidden nooks and crannies that the player has to search for if they want the true ending, but enemies are thinner on the ground and mostly crop up in Luna’s levels where they can be be dispatched easily with her weapons.

Pablo’s levels are — as ever — devoted to precision platforming, but even those have been nerfed considerably compared to the original. The ‘bounce pads’ that were the bane of my existence in GD1 have been replaced by ‘stomp pads’ which perform the same function without punishing the player for coming in at the wrong angle. The momentum meter which required Pablo to get a run up to every major leap has been removed entirely, giving players much more control over the dogs’ movements.

(There were also no sections in which I was asked to grapple between a series of flying enemies who were busy trying to kill me — doing so is an option, but never a necessity.)

It’s possible that this is a case of aesthetics conquering gameplay. The first GD‘s iconic adorableness was harshly contrasted by the intense challenge its level design offered. GD:CC, by comparison, plays like it looks — something more likely to encourage people to chill in the vibes of its colorful worlds than smash their controller in fury. GD1 had deeply frustrating bosses requiring perfect reflexes, but I beat almost all of GD:CC‘s bosses on the first try. There’s even an ‘accessible’ mode that turns off player damage and allows them to make infinite mid-air jumps.

Grapple Dogs isn’t just an easier version of the previous game, though — the developers take their fundamentally great platforming and throw in a bunch of new mechanics.

There are three elemental powers on offer, and with Luna and Pablo getting completely different versions of each, that’s six new mechanics to play with — everything from turning Pablo into a ball of lightning that zips across metal plates to arming Luna with a flamethrower to clear out deadly vines, the powers are sprinkled liberally throughout the campaign, so the player always feels like they’re running into new obstacles no matter how close to the end they are.

The plot is another high point — the first title’s story was well-told, but this one’s on an entirely different level. It does a great job of both expanding on the world already created and also builds a stable foundation for what’s obviously intended to be a long-running series. There’s even a hint that inventor-bunny Toni might wind up as a playable character or get her own spin-off at some point. However, more important than the nods to the fans is the serious message at the core — this is a story about the dangers of non-intervention, and offers a warning that a love of comfort for its own sake is a corrosive that will inevitably lead to disaster.

Okay, that sounded a little dark, and Cosmic Canines does have some frightening foes, but it fundamentally remains one of the most family-friendly franchises around, and even moreso now that the difficulty has been dialed back so significantly. I thought that Grapple Dog was one of the best 2D platformers I’d played in ages, and this sequel absolutely lives up to its pedigree. Whatever the developers want to do next with these characters, it’s going to be worth tagging along.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Medallion and published by Super Rare Originals. It is currently available on PC, XBS/X, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. The game contains no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was rated E by the ESRB, and it contains Mild Fantasy Violence. There are goo monsters, and the explode into showers of goo when stomped on or shot. Do be cautious, though — while the original only had Pablo headbutting and stomping on foes, 50% of this game’s levels are about shooting enemies, which might not fit your defintion of kid-friendly.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. All information is provided via text, which cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the game’s controls are remappable.

The post Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Finding the final crystal skull.

LOW Repeatedly being teleported deep enough to have the air crushed out of my lungs.

WTF Finding out what Bait is made out of.

I kept playing Feed the Deep.

That doesn’t happen often. I try to only play things that have an ending, so that once I’m done, I can move on — but I kept playing Feed the Deep. Even after every mode had been completed, I kept playing. After defeating every challenge, I kept playing.

Even after wrapping up every secret and unlocking the true ending, I kept playing.

Part of this can be attributed to a pre-existing love of the setting. An exploration-focused 2D roguelite, Feed The Deep is set in the deep ocean, and as a general rule, I’ll play any game about underwater exploration — especially with a horror theme, such as it offers.

And what a theme it is. Deep in the ocean, a horrible creature lurks. Impossibly huge and unimaginably malevolent, it poses a threat to all human civilization, and it cannot be destroyed, only appeased — and appeasing it is the player’s job. Obtain a piece of bait and deliver it to the creature, calming it… until its hunger starts to grow again.

This grim work is accomplished mostly by careful searching and upgrading. The narrative establishes that things are getting dire for humanity — they’ve already been forced to move to floating cities as the oceans rose, and constant monster attacks are taking their toll. Not only is the player required to find the bait and deliver it to the Deep, they also have to search out gold and energy in underground caves in order to pay for the upgrades they’ll need to survive.

As with most underwater titles, limited air supply is the primary antagonist. Also deadly is the dark. There are monsters to be found, but they’re less dangerous than getting lost and running out of oxygen. The player’s flashlight — even when fully upgraded — doesn’t penetrate far into the abyss, and many surfaces are covered with patches of silt that destroy visibility completely.

With these factors in mind, navigation is the key gameplay mechanic, so most threats are built around damaging the player’s ability to tell where they’re going. Taking a hit from an enemy will rotate the screen a random amount, forcing the player to either watch which way air bubbles rise, or drop a heavy item to see which way is down. Rushing back to an air pocket is usually a good idea when threatened, but some enemies are able to teleport the player to a random place on the map, which means reaching even temporary havens becomes a nightmarish ordeal.

However, Feed the Deep isn’t satisfied with offering this already-compelling core experience. No, each of the seven modes available offer meaningful changes to gameplay that completely upend how the player deals with the labyrinths. One offers a glut of monsters and automated cannons, but arms the players with respawning bombs which allow them to tunnel their way through cave walls. Another robs the player of air pockets and forces them to constantly search for power cells to keep their rebreather going. Perhaps the most devious mode hides the bait somewhere among a warehouse worth of boxes and challenges the player to figure out which crates have key items and which are packed with deadly beasts.

There’s an oppressive tone that pervades Feed the Deep‘s gameplay. With poor visibility in the dark caves and walls that seem closer every time the flashlight swings between them, players never get a chance to relax and feel like they’re doing well. Hit points are extremely limited and the air reserve can’t be raised much higher than two minutes, so a single mistake can ruin any run, and Muscat does a great job of riding the edge of unfairness. Likewise, maps are just big enough that so that their randomization upon starting a new run doesn’t seem too inconvenient– the player can get a sense of their layout in just a couple of minutes, but there’s plenty of room to surprise with hidden threats and secret supplies.

Even the story is unusually good for the genre. There’s almost no dialogue — just a few exchanges between the player and their controller back at base. Most of the story is offered via dozens of text logs, two or three of which spawn during a dive. They offer surprisingly compelling glimpses into Feed the Deep‘s backstory, chronicling the lengths humanity went to in order to find a way to survive the creature’s threat, and their questioning whether survival is worth the price they’re asked to pay. Likewise, the path to unlocking the true ending is one of the most intriguing I’ve come across in ages, as it asks the player to engage with a series of Gameboy-style minigames that don’t just have to be completed, but also played in unexpected ways to reveal their secrets.

A great roguelite doesn’t just ask players to keep coming back for more, it creates a gameplay loop so satisfying that it makes it impossible to stay away. It makes players desperate to delve back into its world over and over again to experience every potential way the world can be reshaped. Feed the Deep, with its simple controls and bold graphical style, achieves this as well as any roguelite I’ve played — I’m still diving back into the depths, feeding the Deep over and over.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Luke Muscat. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed.  The game has no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game was not reviewed by the ESRB, but I’d say it’s roughly a T thanks to Cartoon Violence. If it weren’t for the bleak theme I’d call it an E10, but as cute as the graphical style might be, this is still a game about feeding a horrible monster to keep it from destroying humanity.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are no audio cues that will affect gameplay, I played the game largely without audio and had no trouble whatsoever. All story information is delivered via text. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable.

The post Feed The Deep Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Fluid combat and solid build diversity.

LOW Paper-thin story.

WTF The Shredder knows who Plato is?!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is an honest attempt at the roguelike genre featuring the four titular heroes in a half-shell.

The setting and art direction successfully mimic Nickelodeon’s beloved TV series, all the way down to the constant banter between Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, as well as with the inclusion of the handful of familiar baddies they have to beat (and re-beat, and re-beat again) throughout the campaign.

All of this is to be expected by TMNT fans, and the game rightfully delivers on all fronts when it comes to allowing up to four players to spend an afternoon controlling the ninja rascals while slicing through hordes of cutesy foes. However, aside from that specific draw bolstered by some admittedly infectious dynamism, there isn’t much here to warrant prolonged attention. 

As mentioned, Splintered Fate is structured as a roguelike, meaning players will progress through randomly-generated stages in linear fashion while earning currencies, learning skills, and besting bosses at regular intervals during a full run lasting roughly 30 minutes. It’s played from a top-down perspective that allows players a clear view of the action, instantly making it a fair (yet chaotic) romp given the sheer quantity of enemies that will fill up the screen.

The plot has the turtles dealing with an enigmatic character who’s kidnapped their master and locked him away in another dimension. They urge the boys to complete a series of stages accessible through a portal conveniently placed within their hideout. With (roughly) each new attempt, the turtles accrue clues on how to ultimately rescue Splinter and get him back. Unfortunately, the runs don’t vary much, and players will have to witness the same collection of bland, uneventful-looking biomes and the same bosses in the very same order (with only slight random variations from time to time) over and over again. 

While the plot isn’t anything to write home about, each line of dialogue is dutifully recorded with a cadence that resembles the TV shows, and it goes a long way to selling the experience to fans. Granted, not every videogame needs to propose a philosophical basis for why we, as players, “need” to willingly initiate the next chapter of play while postulating semi-hidden meta-commentary on the nature of life, but Splintered Fate is an example where it’s clear from the get-go that story doesn’t matter — and truth be told, allowing oneself to get entangled in building an all-powerful turtle is incentive enough to keep restarting the same loop for a good while.

Unsurprisingly, up to four people can play together, either locally or online, each controlling one of the turtles while trying to navigate the ever-increasing onslaught of enemies with brightly colored area-of-attack indicators heralding each offensive move. Splintered Fate does a fine job of intuitively teaching newcomers its core mechanics and allowing them to get into a rhythm before long — the action is always zappy, fluid, and entertaining, with various combinations of enemies and bosses aggressively racking up the difficulty to eventually force the player into a more calculated, hit-and-run style. Learning how to spot tiny gaps between enemies’ attack chains to land a crunchy critical strike is as satisfying and rewarding as one would hope.

In addition to this smooth teaching curve, Splintered Fate also features a fair amount of character variety and RPG elements, evident from the very screen when we get to select a character.

While each turtle uses a different weapon with a unique attack speed, reach, and combos, Leo can store up to two special attacks at once, Donatello heals between rounds and more quickly recharges a “Tool” attack, Raphael is all about scoring critical hits and Michelangelo receives multi-hit bonuses — and is generally more likable than the rest!

On top of that, players get to pick between various boosts upon clearing a room, allowing them to apply elemental damage-over-time effects like fire, lighting, and poison (or whatever “ooze” is supposed to be), as well as increasing their chance to score a critical hit or dodge an enemy swing. Defensively, we can use a small dash move to get out of danger, which replenishes after a few seconds to remind us that situation awareness is supremely important in Splintered Fate. 

While this may sound a bit complex, that’s not the case in practice. Once the action starts and upon clearing a room, a selection of two or three powers appear on screen that players can choose from in true roguelike fashion. For example, playing as Donatello, I might be prompted to choose between prolonging the invincibility period of my Tool attack or increasing the reach of my Special attack, making it easier to strike fools in all directions at once.

Aside from that choice system, we also earn currencies that can be spent to bolster certain aspects of our build — things like getting a revive that automatically respawns the character upon death, or permanently increasing things like health points or faster move speed. Of course, such a scheme coalesces into a satisfying advances, as even failed runs allow one to make critical upgrades across the board, boosting the desire to surmount each of Splintered Fate’s challenges.  

On the flip side, this system proved unable to combat the staleness that started to creep in once I had successfully been through a dozen successful runs. Of course no game is meant to last forever, but replay and variety are hallmarks of the roguelike genre and in this way, Splintered Fate comes up a bit short. It’s a good time while it lasts — especially for Turtles fans — but more content, more variety and perhaps a little more narrative would have boosted the experience to the next level. But still, it’s OK!

Rating: 7 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game was developed and published by Super Evil Mega Corp. It is currently available on Switch, PS5, XBX and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed. About 45 minutes were spent in online multiplier with two other players, while the maximum player count is four. 

Parents: This game has received an E rating from the ESRB and contains Fantasy Violence. The game features the titular cartoon characters as they battle through hordes of enemy ninjas and robots in an attempt to track down and save their kidnapped master. The writing, action, and art direction are all faithful to Nickelodeon’s long-running Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue in this game is shown via textboxes and fairly well-acted voiceovers, so they’re easy to keep track of even mid-fights. All enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed on-screen with easy-to-note areas of attack. I’d say this game is fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: This game doesn’t offer a controller diagram and the controls are not remappable. However, the controls are displayed at all times during gameplay at the screen’s corners for easy reference. On the Switch, the face buttons are for striking, using special attacks, and dashing in and out of danger, while the left stick moves the character.

The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

So, SilverHawks is a bit of a weird one.

If you’re a kid who grew up in the ‘80s (or if you’re a retro lover who came to the cartoons of that era later) you might be familiar with this Rankin-Bass production.

If you haven’t seen it, SilverHawks is about a group of cyborg police, sent from Earth to the faraway galaxy of Limbo and stationed at a floating space-base called Hawk Haven.  Their goal?  To crack down on Mon*Star and his Mob in order to keep the good citizens of Limbo safe.

I’m old enough to remember it from its original run — I tried to catch it on TV whenever I could, and it was like hitting the jackpot when I finally got myself in front of the TV on the right day and the right time. Their designs were just so damn cool. These people were made of shiny metal, but they each still had some organic elements, and the pop-on facemasks and pop-out wings were amazing. Even today, I think the aesthetics are incredibly on-point.

Also great? The bad guys were just as cool

However, while I have fond memories of it, it’s not nearly as recognized or revered as something like Transformers, He-Man or even its sister series, also from Rankin-Bass — ThunderCats. (They’re set in the same universe.)

Maybe it wasn’t as widely distributed, maybe it ran in a bad time slot, or maybe it was any one of a dozen other reasons, but while I wouldn’t say it’s *obscure*, SilverHawks isn’t usually one that gets name-checked when you ask an ‘80s kid what their favorite shows were.

(That said, it’s not nearly as unknown as TigerSharks, which is also set in the same ThunderCats and SilverHawks universe!)

Ironically, I started re-watching this immediately after I finished my first viewing of The New Adventures of He-Man, and the timing gave me an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast. Both series are sci-fi properties and they both ran at roughly the same time — 1986 for SilverHawks, and 1990 for New Adventures.

Ostensibly they share many common elements such as being heavily involved with space, they frequently incorporated spaceships and space combat, they each have an ensemble of good and evil characters, they both ran for 65 episodes, and more. However, they feel quite different to me, and now that I’ve seen the complete run of both under my belt, it feels as though New Adventures is the older, creakier series — yet it’s actually the newer one.

While I think SilverHawks has the edge in animation quality (in general) it’s not just looks that make it feel fresher — it’s the writing and worldbuilding.  

One of my favorite aspects of SilverHawks is that the writers spend a lot of time on their setting — the galaxy of Limbo — in addition to fleshing out many of the characters. Of course, this isn’t War and Peace here, but they do an outstanding job (well, sort of…) for a cartoon of that time period, especially relative to many of its contemporaries.

The people, places and settings of the show recur frequently, and it’s as easy to ‘get to know’ them as it is with the main cast. Did one of the bad guys steal something valuable? You can be sure he’ll go to Fence and try to sell it. Looking to pick up some dirt on the local crooks? Listen in at the Sini*Star Diner. Get stranded near the Light Year Limit and need a ride home? Seymour and Zeek got your back. I don’t know much about the development process behind SilverHawks, but I it feels to me as though there was a series bible somewhere, or at least someone that we would think of as a modern ‘showrunner’ guiding things.

Of course, like many programs of its day, there were a variety of writers hired to produce scripts and it’s clear they weren’t always in close communication with each other, but the show overall feels more cohesive than most despite being an episodic program that does not carry a single, connected storyline forward in a way that we might expect from many modern cartoons such as Steven Universe or Amphibia.

Something else that stands out is how each episode ends. While many cartoons in the ‘80s wrapped with a moral or a life lesson as an attempt to not be blatant toy commercials (see He-Man, G.I. Joe, Bravestarr and more)  SilverHawks went in a slightly different direction by offering brief, fact-based lessons on space. Framed as quizzes meant to enhance the Copper Kidd’s knowledge while learning how to pilot the team’s ship, kids of the era would learn real information about gravity, orbits, planets, comets, asteroids, and a host of other things that they could take with them to the playground. It’s a great idea that (as far as I know, anyway) was not copied by any other show in the ‘80s. 

It’s not all good, though. While I enjoyed this show as a child and still largely enjoyed it during my rewatch as an adult, I started noticing things that didn’t stick out to me before now that I’ve got a couple of decades behind me.

For example, it never occurred to ten-year-old me that the SilverHawks are basically space cops, this show is a form of copaganda, and to make it just that much worse, the ‘Hawks are not a diverse group.

When the series launched we got a white male commander, a white male team leader, a white male pilot, a white male engineer, a white female engineer and… an alien! That’s right, there was only one woman in the group, and they couldn’t manage even a single person of color! It’s a pretty glaring choice now, especially considering that the alien (the Copper Kidd, from the planet of the Mimes) isn’t really ‘different’ in any way other than that he can’t speak — so the one non-white member is also mute! It’s not a good look.  

Then, when we finally do get a person of color, not only is he named Hotwing (a pretty suspect codename since none of his powers have to do with fire) but in his first two episodes, it’s almost as though he’s not even in the same cartoon as the other characters. They barely interact, and it’s not until his third appearance that he begins to feel even remotely like a member of the team. By the time the series ends at episode 65, he never gets his due and rarely feels like more than a cursory, halfhearted nod towards diversity. Adding insult to injury? The team eventually adds three more members before the end of the run — all white males.

Another issue, although far less prominent, is one that surfaces in the episode “The Return of Tallyhawk.”

Tallyhawk, a cyborg hawk who acts as the team mascot, is also shown to frequently be the most effective and formidable member of the SilverHawks. However, he’s not a free animal — he’s controlled and given orders from the wrist device that the team leader, Quicksilver, wears.

In Return, The Mob steals the control apparatus and with just a few button presses, Tallyhawk’s full fury is unleashed upon our heroes, almost taking the entire team apart. What this suggests is that Tallyhawk is not a friendly animal who receives requests or information from the wrist device, but instead that he is fully controlled by it. Dig a little deeper on that and the conclusion is that he’s a captive animal who clearly didn’t volunteer for the cyborg program and is now being manipulated like a pawn. Granted, it’s not as obvious or as egregious as how Hotwing is handled, but it does smack of animal cruelty.

So yeah, that stuff is problematic.

And as I said, I didn’t notice any of this when I was ten, but upon revisiting in 2023, it’s definitely embarrassing and more than a little uncomfortable, and I wish there was a series remake where we could correct these issues. However, while I fully recognize that not everything here holds up to modern standards and I make no excuses for it, there’s still a lot to still like about this cartoon when the bad parts are acknowledged.

But there is one unquestionably great thing about SilverHawks… Maybe the greatest thing?

It’s got — hands-down — one of the best intro sequences to ever grace an ‘80s cartoon.  Driving guitar, slick animation, and a hot tempo guaranteed to get you pumped before the show. It totally rocks.

CHARACTER IMPRESSIONS – the SilverHawks

…Speaking of which, I’m not sure if I can say exactly what got me hooked on the SilverHawks, but if I had to pick one thing, it was probably that opening sequence. If you didn’t click that link above, click it! It seems silly to say, but there’s a lot of power in that great intro that encapsulates a tone and a vibe that might take hours to get across otherwise, and when supported by strong audio and a great visual style… well, that’s half the battle won right there. So, when we have what is easily one of the greatest ‘80s cartoon openers, I was already on board. Aesthetics really matter a lot to me as well, and Rankin-Bass absolutely nailed it here. Those gleaming cyborg bodies cutting through the blackness of space is truly striking, and even more so when the team means business by equipping their visors and extending their wings while flying through the void. Every bit of it screams sleekness and speed, and I’m sure that a huge part of the appeal was that this glinting, metallic team looked like they could have been ripped off of the cover of Heavy Metal magazine or taken from Hajime Sorayama’s portfolio. They all just look so fucking cool.

*

Commander Stargazer

As mentioned earlier, Commander Stargazer (Burt, to his friends) fills the gruff police station chief role, and is essentially analogous to the boss of any given precinct on an average cop show. While generally gruff and grouchy, it seems more like a surface affectation — he’s ultimately likable and certainly displays a sense of humor every now and again. He’s also not just a desk jockey, as he’ll put himself in the field when something needs doing, and he keeps the team on their toes by being alert for all potential dangers. His experience and guidance of the ‘Hawks is a core aspect of the show.

*

Quicksilver

The standard, straight-edge good guy leader. He fits the archetype perfectly! There’s not really much to say about him, other than the fact that if you tried to put together a version of an ideal leader, he’d probably come pretty close. Trustworthy, brave, and also extremelty idealistic and ethical, which is shown several times over the course of the series. He has full faith in due process and justice, and will do whatever it takes to uphold the law, regardless of who is in need.

*

Bluegrass

The team’s pilot, Bluegrass is a cool cat who takes the ‘Hawks into action, saves them when they need a rescue, and he keeps it together with a smile — but he’s also a bit of a puzzle as he doesn’t have a face mask, wings, shoulder lasers or retractable talons like the other. An explanation is never given, but I guess we can make a few guesses? Commander Stargazer is a much older model than the base team (at least 300 years older!) and doesn’t have any of those accoutrements either, so it’s possible that Bluegrass is an older model as well — just not as old as Stargazer. It’s also possible that since his main role is to fly the ship that he does not come equipped with the extra gear a frontline fighter would need. However, those are just guesses, and regardless of why he lacks some of the gadgets, he’s a fun guy that can be counted on in a pinch. It’s also neat to see the team look out for him when he’s in a spot.

*

Steelheart

A brave go-getter and one half of the “Steel Twins”, but she’s also… fairly generic? She’s smart, trustworthy, a clever engineer, really strong and overall a standard ‘good’ character, but beyond that there’s not much to define her besides the fact that she seems to love sports (specifically American football) just as much as her brother, which is an unusual quality for the time.

*

Steelwill

The other half of the “Steel Twins.” A massive guy always in good spirits, he’s just as strong as his sister, an equal engineer, and the two of them share a mental link that acts as the saving grace for them a few times over the course of the series. He’s an American football nut, often using sports lingo to get his points across, and he’ll often call a play to communicate a plan of action to Steelheart. He’s such a football fan, in fact, that his combat mask looks like a football helmet. He’s only a fraction more distinct than his sister, though — mostly owing to his speech mannerisms and obvious Love Of The Game.

*

The Copper Kidd

Kidd has always confused me. He’s an alien and they say he’s mute, but he communicates sometimes by whistling and sometimes by speaking in a vocoder voice. They say he’s from the planet of the Mimes, but we never see that planet at any point during the series, and no one ever discusses what it means. He is accepted as an equal part of the team which is great, but why do we have an “alien” who is functionally identical to a human being (minus normal speech) when we couldn’t manage a second woman or a single person of color until they got 21 episodes in? The only real differences with the Kidd are that his armor is copper in color, and it has pieces that detach. On either hip he’s got discs, but their function is never fully defined. Sometimes they act like boomerangs and sometimes they have an energy component to them, but overall they seem like magical ‘get out of jail free’ cards which are capable of doing whatever the writers need at the moment. Honestly, he feels like a missed opportunity on multiple levels.

*

Hotwing

It’s tough to write about Hotwing without getting upset at the whole series for handling him so poorly, so I guess, let’s first look at the good. His visual design is awesome? The bright, coppery armor is great, and he’s the only ‘Hawk that has detailed accents (flames) on his suit. He’s also the only human person of color on the team, so… yay, representation? The rest of it is… not great. As far as powers go, surprisingly he uses magic — not heat or fire, which might justify the name. I guess it’s better than electricity, which many black heroes end up getting since it’s not as powerful as abilities white heroes usually get, but like Kidd’s discs, his magic has never been fully defined or locked down. And frankly, magic feels out of step with the rest of the series since SilverHawks is sci-fi and technology, with no presence or suggestion of magic anywhere. Like Hotwing himself, the magic angle feels tossed-in at the last minute. Given that magic can theoretically do anything, it seems like he could be the strongest person on the team, but he rarely uses it in a meaningful way, most of the time employing the power to unlock a door or something simple… He never blinks Mon*Star into a prison cell to save the day. Hotwing deserves much, much better than he got, because as it stands, he’s essentially the spotlight that points out the flaws and biases of the creators.

*

Flashback

Like the Copper Kidd, Flashback is another semi-anomaly on the team that doesn’t get explained. His armor is green and he has a permanent face mask that seems unable to be removed or retracted. Not only does it keep his face hidden, his eyes are significantly different than anyone else’s. They don’t even seem to be human eyes — they’re too big and not in the right place on his head, making one wonder whether they’re prosthetic or if he’s genetically modified in some way? Or perhaps like the Kidd, is he another kind of alien and not human at all? His feet are also a different shape than the rest of the ‘Hawks and the claws on his feet never retract, further supporting a possible alien origin… but we never find out. Other than his physical differences, he has the ability to travel back in time (usually just for a minute or two) but in his first appearance he goes far, far back. So, much like the Kidd’s discs, the writers don’t nail his powers down and leave themselves lots of wiggle room.

*

Condor

I find Condor super interesting. He’s another old-school ‘Hawk who is less technologically advanced than the main crew. He’s also on familiar terms with Stargazer, suggesting they’re friends and contemporaries. He’s grizzled and sort of over everything — a real no-nonsense kind of guy.  His helmet looks like older tech than the others, and his flight abilities come not from pop-out wings, but from a rocket-powered jetpack. Again, this seems like ancient tech compared to the newer team members. On the other hand, he does seem capable of full flight, and not just gliding the way that most of the current team does. I feel like he’s got a lot of interesting stories to tell, but he comes so late in the series’ run that there just isn’t much time to explore his character.

*

Moonstryker

 He was the last SilverHawk to be added to the team before the show ended. He’s also the newest and most technologically advanced, coming after the generation of ‘Hawks the show started with.  He has a slightly more “natural” appearance, as the armored parts of his head are molded to look like blonde hair. Instead of pop-out wings, he’s also got a series of propulsion blades in his abdomen that spin to give him fully-powered flight — it’s interesting symmetry that the oldest active team member (Condor) and the newest (Moonstryker) are both capable of real flight, whereas the rest of the team either can’t maneuver in the air at all (Stargazer and Bluegrass) or can only glide (everyone else.) Apart from his tech differences, he’s just sort of upbeat and perky… a textbook rookie new guy, who is also apparently a sharpshooter with his shoulder lasers. Better internal targeting tech, maybe?

CHARACTER IMPRESSIONS – The Mob

What can I say? I really love The Mob. Out of all of the various collections of bad guys and ne’er-do-wells that we saw in the ’80s, they are very, very close to being at the top of the heap for me, probably only beaten out by Skeletor and his crew of evil warriors in Masters of the Universe. I think what I like most about them is that they’re a diverse bunch with an array of archetypes and designs. Not only do you have most of the bases covered for any type of caper, most have distinct personalities and clear gimmicks that make them stand out — things like Mumbo Jumbo’s garbled speech and inflatable attack mode, Melodia’s discordant key hammering, Hardware’s ability to come prepared for just about any situation thanks to his ridicu-huge backpack, and of course, despite being a bad tempered bully, Mon*Star is imposingly fearsome when he enters battle. If villains were scoops of ice cream, you’d be getting a full Baskin-Robbins array of 31 flavors here, and seeing them coursing through the galaxy in their drop-top limos is a fantastic image.

*

Mon*Star

The boss of the Mob, he’s generally human-sized with a wild mane of hair, but he’s also able to transform into a huge armored version of himself when he’s bathed in the light of the Moon*Star, a planet next to his home base of Brim*Star. Apart from being quite large and physically tough, he’s… a real jerk. His portrayal is interesting because he’s just not nice to anyone, including those within his inner circle. He almost never gives credit where credit is due, he doesn’t pay his people what they’re owed, and he’s quick to lay blame and accuse others of having shortfalls, even if it wasn’t something under their control. He’s a generally rotten dude and seems to rule more out of fear than loyalty from most of the crew. Basically, he’s a bully who runs things because no one is tough enough to knock him down.

*

Yes-Man

Mon*Star’s main flunky, Yes-Man is a serpentine alien who mostly hangs out at the headquarters and does whatever the boss wants. His main job is pulling the switch that transforms Mon*Star into his armored state, though he occasionally drives one of their space limos when someone needs a ride. Apart from being half snake, his main defining feature is that he literally says “Yes” in almost every sentence — it almost seems like a pathological compulsion, but because of that consistency, when he says “No”, it’s quite notable.

*

Hardware

He’s the backbone of the team in several ways. He comes up with most of the plans, he provides almost all the tech, he’s often the one calling the shots when Mon*Star is not around, and he’s always got something up his sleeve. His visual design is the perfect complement to his character since he always wears a huge backpack roll full of tools, guns and gadgets. He can stick his arm in there and pull out basically anything he wants, which is handy in a pinch. Physically, he’s reminiscent of the monster work Rankin-Bass used for their 1977 production of The Hobbit — a film that I found to be incredibly frightening and grotesque as a child. Hardware isn’t quite as scary as that but I remember seeing SilverHawks for the first time and being shocked that one of the monsters that had been tormenting Bilbo showed up.

*

Melodia

This everything-goes-to-11 keytar-wielding lady seems like she would kind of be a throwaway character, but she ended up being a quirky favorite. She often teams up with Poker-Face as someone who’s similarly dissatisfied with the way Mon*Star runs things, and she’s quick to come up with a scheme behind his back. However, something about her that I find both charming and hilarious is that I don’t believe she actually knows how to play her musical instrument. While it shoots musical energy similar to Bluegrass’ guitar, whenever she blasts someone, she’s just hammering on the keys and it always sounds incredibly discordant. I would love to ask the writers if they had agreed behind the scenes that she has no musical skill whatsoever.

*

Windhammer

This guy is another member of The Mob that shows a heavy visual influence from The Hobbit. For a sci-fi cartoon his basic cloth garb, flowing hair and giant tuning fork seem out-of-step, yet remain quite striking. He uses this tuning fork to summon all sorts of storms — electrical, wind, meteors, and more. Seeing him standing on a chunk of rock in space with his hair blowing and storms whipping around him is the perfect heavy metal album cover. You might think that he would be all about chaos and destruction from that imagery, but whenever he talks, he’s revealed to be one of the more intelligent and level-headed members of Mon*Star’s crew.

*

Mo-Lec-U-Lar

This guy is low-key the MVP of the entire Mob, and easily the most versatile. His ability to turn into anything is fearsome when it comes to espionage — he frequently turns into random things in order to sneak into Hawk Haven and surveil undetected, and when he’s on the run he can turn into anything to hide. The really interesting part about this is that not only does he look like what he turns into, he actually turns into it. For example, in the final episode, he assume’s Steelwill’s form and gains all of his super strength. He also turns into the ‘Hawks spaceship, the Maraj, and actually is a functional spaceship. It’s an incredible power that easily gets a leg up on the SilverHawks several times over the course of the series. Not only is he capable, but he’s also brave and eager to use his powers, so he’s quite a threat.

*

Buzz-Saw

Buzz-Saw is a huge, hulking robot with several saw blades mounted on his body. It’s a little unclear what his actual status is, though. In one of the earliest episodes, he’s completely destroyed — this gives the suggestion that he’s a throwaway droid, but that doesn’t happen again, and later he’s treated like an equal member of The Mob. It seems like they hadn’t quite decided what to do with him that early in the run, or maybe they were unclear on what level of violence they were shooting for. It was common for cartoons of the period to reserve a higher level of violence for robots since it was okay to ‘kill’ something that was not a living being, but it apparently they went back on that and instead promoted him. Interestingly, he needs to pull the cords on his chest in order to launch his saw blades, a bit like he’s starting a chainsaw. It’s a hilarious, unexpected design choice. Regardless of al this, he’s basically just brute strength doesn’t show much cleverness or charm. The Mob basically just points him towards a fight and he does his thing.

*

Poker-Face

One of my other favorites from The Mob, this robot (android?) is really slick and smart. He’s clearly one of the sharper members, and expresses his thoughts and feelings through eyes which function as slot machine wheels that can display all sorts of different symbols — it’s kind of like an early version of emoji popping up, which is quite clever. He mostly runs the Starship Casino to generate cash for Mon*Star’s operations, though he’s just like Melodia in that he’s quick to turn on the boss if an opportunity presents itself — not because he is without loyalty, but because Mon*Star treats him (and everyone else) so poorly.

*

Mumbo Jumbo

Mumbo Jumbo is a huge bull-like creature, perhaps a synthetic being, who is much like Buzz-Saw in that he’s not particularly clever or adept — mostly just brute strength for the Mob. He starts out as be a fairly large minotaur, but when he’s ready for battle he snorts and his body bulks up to three or four times the size of what it used to be, at which point he runs around on all fours like an actual bull. His design seems like a clear callback to the Red Bull from another Rankin-Bass production, 1982’s The Last Unicorn. Mumbo Jumbo doesn’t get a lot of play over the course of the series, but when he does show up it’s usually funny because he talks in unintelligible snorts, growls and moos, but everyone in The Mob can apparently understand him just fine. It’s a simple gag, but an effective one.

*

Timestopper

Timestopper is another guy, like Mo-Lec-U-Lar, who is quite powerful but massively underrated. However, he only shows up in a small number of episodes and doesn’t come back, possibly because the writers realized he was too strong? He’s able to freeze time for one Limbo minute. It’s never defined exactly how long that is, but it’s longer than 60 seconds, so any time he wants to swipe some cash or if he needs to make a getaway, he pops his power and everything in his vicinity freezes. This gives him plenty of time to escape or to play some trick on the ‘Hawks. Used correctly, ithink it would make him unstoppable, and the only foil to it is that Flashback’s own time power seems to trump it.

*

Zero, the Memory Thief

Out of the entire mob, we see this guy the least and it’s not even entirely clear whether he’s even an official member or just a freelancer who shows up to gig once in a while. He’s got oldschool reel-to-reel computer tapes on his chest, and uses them to drain the knowledge and memories from his victims — it’s pretty useful when trying to figure out access codes or operate complicated machinery. I’m honestly kind of surprised that he completely disappears from the show after just two or three appearances. Maybe the power was too cerebral for an ’80s cartoon?

*

MAJOR SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Seymour & Zeek the Beak

I really like Seymour the cabbie, and I honestly think he’s the glue that holds SilverHawks together as the most notable and frequent example of ‘normal life’ existing outside of the typical good guy/bad guy battle between the ‘Hawks and The Mob. He’s just a regular guy driving his space cab back and forth while trying to keep his head down, though he’s happy to earn a buck from either side. He’s frequently shown giving rides to just about anyone, and is also a key element in several episodes. Sometimes he’s a courier, sometimes he’s a Trojan horse and sometimes he’s just comic relief. It’s through the lens of Seymour that we see the cops and robbers conflict (which would be the entirety of some programs in the same time period) is just part of the larger Limbo galaxy, cementing the feeling of cohesion and belonging to something that encompasses various walks of life, and not just 22 minutes of lasering bad guys.

Zeek the Beak, a space bird of some type, just shows up out of nowhere and becomes Seymour’s ride along. He talks in a sort of space-Slavic (???) accent and is generally persnickety and irritable. I’m honestly not sure why they added him to the show? I can only assume it’s to give Seymour someone to talk to, but he never had an issue chatting up anybody who happened to be in the back of his cab. To be perfectly frank, I don’t think he adds a lot to the formula.

*

Bandit, Rhino & Cyclops

These three thugs are usually hanging out at the Sini*Star Diner. The first time we see them, we assume that they’re just background characters in a Star Wars “creature cantina” setting, but they end up having slightly meatier roles. They’re not as central as Seymour is, but they factor into a number of episodes, and like our favorite space cabbie, they’re most often used to show that there are other things happening in the galaxy. Sometimes they pull their own heists and cause some random trouble, or sometimes they’ll squabble with The Mob over turf, or some heist. They’re small-time losers who basically purse snatch and act like ruffians, but like Seymour, their repeated presence adds a verisimilitude that other cartoons of the era are lacking. The Mob aren’t the only crooks in Limbo, and these hoods definitely illustrate the seedier side of things.

*

WORLDBUILDING & LOCATIONS

As I said earlier, one of the things I like most about SilverHawks is the galaxy of Limbo itself. The recurring locations, the supporting characters, and the feeling that there are things going on that don’t have anything to do with the ‘Hawks or The Mob. Of course they’re the focus of each episode generally, but the extra work put into fleshing out and establishing their world really pays off.

I’m also quite enamored with the idiosyncratic version of space they’ve created. The show never gets into details about life support, radiation, losing atmosphere in damaged ships or anything even remotely like that. Rankin-Bass play fast and loose with being in space (they did the same in ThunderCats) but in a way that I think really works.

An obvious choice is that despite being in the middle of a galaxy, anyone — including Seymour’s cab! — can get around from place to place as quickly as they need. It’s a pretty convenient shortcut, considering the true distances must be light-years apart and it would be a very dull series if we spent 19 episodes traveling from Point A to Point B. But ‘fast travel’ is no big deal compared to some of the other custom rules they create.

For example, when in space, there is always a definite sense of ‘down’ no matter what, meaning that if someone falls out of a vehicle, they will immediately start falling ‘downwards’ towards the bottom of the universe instead of simply floating in place as you would in a zero-G environment. I have to assume this was to support more thrilling scenarios for kids watching. It’s easy for just about anyone, young or old, to understand falling, but things seem significantly less scary when a hero simply hovers calmly after a bad guy blows his ship up.

It’s also quite interesting that no one ever needs to put on a helmet or spacesuit in order to get around safely in in the void. In fact, it doesn’t seem necessary for the ‘Hawks to use their facemasks when between planets, characters frequently open their cockpits en route without any regard, and Mob vehicles don’t even have enclosed cabins! It’s an extremely common occurrence to see Melodia or Windhammer standing up in the back seat of a Mob limo, completely free of any protective gear, and blasting away with (I guess?) solar wind blowing in their hair.    

After just a moment or two of viewing it’s clear that the shenanigans happening in Limbo are completely disconnected from the reality of being in space, but once you get past that and just accept their world for what it is — a fast-paced ‘80s cartoon — this peculiar version of space becomes quite charming in its efforts to support fun, stylized stories that deliver tons of cool moments and exciting action.  

*

(The) Artificial Sun

An absolutely fascinating bit of design that gives Limbo a lot of flavor. Apparently the galaxy is without a source of illumination, so an artificial one has been constructed instead. Resembling a large spaceborne radar dish, it factors into many episodes, either as something to be used as a weapon or as something held back for ransom. It’s run by Professor Power, a quirky scientist with a lightbulb for a head.

*

Automata

A bit like Transformers‘ Cybertron in nature, this planet has huge chunks missing and sections have been replaced by metal and machinery. Essentially a large factory world, it’s run by a single artificial intelligence named Monotone, and often serves as something to be exploited by the mob.

*

Bedlama

The ‘Earth’ of Limbo. it doesn’t factor into many episodes, but we know that it’s the place where most of the residents live and serves as the place where the ‘Hawks go for R&R.

*

Brim*Star

The headquarters for The Mob. It’s red, angry and molten, and has a huge castle spire to serve as their central base of operations. The Moon*Star is right next door, and when it’s time for Mon*Star to transform, the planets align (via Yes-Man’s switch) and power floods into the main chamber.

*

Dolar

It’s a huge ‘bank’ world that seems populated only by Lord Cash and his robot assistant, Gotbucks. Once past the three layers of external shielding, the middle of the planet looks like an even larger version of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin. As one would expect, it’s often a target!

*

Fence

A grimy little asteroid where every crook goes to hide from the law, or to sell stolen loot. It’s also home to the Sini*Star Diner.

*

Hawk Haven

The headquarters of the SilverHawks, shaped like a hawk on a perch and built into an asteroid. It has a communications array on the underside of it which is tampered with in several episodes.

*

(The) Penal Planet

An artificial prison satellite built to house the criminals of Limbo. As one might imagine, it’s significantly less secure than it needs to be, whether you’re breaking someone out or escaping on your own.

*

(The) Sini*Star Diner

Not really a ‘diner’ per se — it’s more of a saloon where The Mob and various small-time hoods hang out. Built on the asteroid Fence, it’s a common location for finding informants or starting some trouble. Everyone orders the Limbo Cooler.

*

(The) Starship Casino

The casino run by Poker-Face. It’s vaguely blimp-shaped and ‘parked’ in space past the Light-Year Limit, meaning that it’s officially out of the SilverHawks’ jurisdiction.

*

THE TOP 10 SILVERHAWKS EPISODES (in order of appearance)

*

#27 No More Mr. Nice Guy – written by Chris Trengrove

In this episode we get a spin on a now-familiar sequence — Mon*Star’s transformation. The twist is that Yes-Man joins him in the chamber and becomes hyper-aggressive and tough. Not only is the new transformation sequence a huge laugh, it spotlights Yes-Man and gives us more time with a character who mostly just agrees with the Big Bad before throwing a switch. We also get another treat — Mon*Star maintaining his hold on the shadier elements of Limbo as he travels to the Sini*Star Diner on Fence and quashes three baddies who’ve got ideas about starting their own Mob. This peek into the general life and vibe in Limbo is superb and does much to add flavor to the galaxy.

*

#40 Flashback – written by Kimberly Morris

Not only is this the first appearance of the new Silverhawk, Flashback, it’s an extremely interesting script — it begins in the future and announces that the Silverhawks were all killed in a perilous mission, and Commander Stargazer now appears to be an extremely old man! Flashback is an experimental ‘Hawk who idolizes the old team and he uses his powers to travel through time, arriving right before they’re destroyed.  There’s no time to explain, so he has to knock them all out of commission and complete the objective himself, thus saving the team and changing the future. Pretty heady stuff for a kids’ cartoon!

*

#43 The Star of Bedlam – written by Kimberly Morris

In this episode we’re treated to the Copper Kidd’s first time flying the Maraj, although that’s just a small highlight. Several lesser characters get time in the spotlight, which is great, and we see much of the Starship Casino. After he stumbles across a stolen diamond and makes plans to split, we clearly get the sense that Poker-Face (and potentially other members of the mob) are chafing under Mon*Star’s rule, adding texture to the world. This episode is also heavily focused on Bluegrass, as the other ‘Hawks are away on a mission. Because he’s one of the only ‘Hawks with no internal weaponry, wings, or any other combat tech, he’s got to quickly improvise when he gets cornered, giving us a chance to see what he’s made of. Later in the ep, we see Mon*Star take a shot straight to the chest and he doesn’t even flinch, giving us an idea of how strong he is in battle, This one’s got a little bit of everything.

*

#45 The Bounty Hunter Returns written by Steve Perry

I picked this episode as one of the best since it’s the first (!!!) where Hotwing actually interacts with the rest of the full team in a real way — it’s pretty embarrassing that it took this long before he felt like he was even in the same show as the rest of them. On the plus side, the writers KINDA use this awkward status to their advantage. Since the Bounty Hunter doesn’t know who Hotwing is, he isn’t looking for him when the ‘Hawks show up, allowing him to accomplish the real objective while the rest of the team keeps him busy. As such, Hotwing does indeed save the day here, so kudos for that. 

*

#46 — The Chase written by Bruce Smith

This is a brilliant episode that highlights the underrated power of Mo-Lec-U-Lar, and the opening is a perfect example of why he’s such a force to be reckoned with — he’s undercover in Hawk Haven as a pencil on Commander Stargazer’s desk! Talk about deep cover! He steals the key to the Dolar vault and a series of events ensue which show his versatility and how difficult it is to apprehend him. While he’s on the run he masquerades as the computer Monotone on Automata, and later becomes a freight captain who throws suspicion on Professor Power, the person in charge of the Artificial Sun. The episode does take a bit of a cheap shortcut at the end because they needed a fast way for Steelwill to catch him — the bad guy can’t get away!! — but besides that little cheat, this ep is a stellar ride.

*

#50 – Gangwar, Part One written by William Overgard

I love this one because it puts a lot of focus on The Mob’s inner turmoil. Melodia and Poker-Face are tired of never getting their fair cut, so they decide to rob Mon*Star and get even with a clever plan. Of course things go sideways and we’re treated to a clear view of Quicksilver’s ethics. When the duo call out for help, Stargazer wants to let their call go unanswered so that Mon*Star can rub them out, but things get tense in Hawk Haven as Quicksilver says that anyone is entitled to the protection of the law, even crooks. It’s rare that a cartoon from this period shows so much serious infighting between the bad guys on top of a genuine moral dilemma from the good guys. Fantastic stuff!  

*

#52 – Sneak Attack, Part One written by Cy Young

Quicksilver and Hotwing team up to arrest Mon*Star by spraying themselves with an invisibility chemical and infiltrating Brim*Star when the Mob is out. The spray is a bit of a joke since it lasts about four seconds, but it kicks things off and it’s a great ride. The bulk of the running time is about the duo wrangling a pre-transformation Mon*Star and using Seymour’s cab to bring him to the Penal Planet, and plenty of hijinks ensue. It ends on a weird note since Stargazer only thanks Quicksilver for the win, even though Hotwing did just as much heavy lifting, plus he was standing RIGHT THERE. Ugh. Even so, it’s still one of Hotwing’s best episodes as he again feels like a genuine and equal part of the team here.

*

#55 – The Diamond Stickpin written by Peter Lawrence

We get a pretty good amount of time with Zeke and Seymour in this episode. Because they’re having a bad day and being cranky with each other, Hardware sees an opportunity and jumps in with a plan — it’s a clever one that would have done real damage to the SilverHawks if the three hoods that hang out at the Diner hadn’t messed it up. A bomb camouflaged as a pricey stickpin becomes a ‘hot potato’ as it changes hands several times. The chain of custody as it gets stolen back and forth is great, ultimately culminating in a wonderful bit of irony as the bomb ends up with Hardware and Mon*Star rather than the SilverHawks. There’s plenty of fun tension and OMG moments as the person watching the episode knows what’s going on even while the characters don’t. It’s a hoot!

*

#60 – Stargazer’s Refit written by William Overgard

In this episode, Mon*Star comes up with a new tactic to take out the ‘Hawks after many repeated failures — eliminate their leader. He cooks up a plan to have Mo-Lec-U-Lar melt Stargazer down with a special weapon. The plan doesn’t succeed, but the Commander is injured and needs repairs. He’s sent back to Earth with Condor as a bodyguard, and it becomes the Two Cranky Old Guys Roadshow as they have various misadventures along the way. The episode ends by showing what Stargazer is really made of when he willingly sacrifices himself to stop a bomb from killing innocent people… only to find that the bomb’s timer was set to the wrong time zone.  The insight and laughs we get from ‘Gaze and Condor’s shenanigans are great, and Stargazer’s heroic act was brave and selfless.

*

#65 — Air Show written by Peter Lawrence

This is the final episode of the series, and it seems clear that the writers must have known they weren’t getting renewed for a second season since this is an unusually well-done unofficial sendoff — every character makes an appearance, many of them in comic book style ‘splash page’ poses that give them a moment in the spotlight, and it’s basically wall-to-wall action from start to finish. While nothing happens in the story to definitively close things out or prevent the series from moving forward — nobody ‘dies’, Hawk Haven is not decommissioned, etc. — it really does feel like they were trying to put a bow on the show and end strong. Which they did!  

*

BONUS EPISODE – Zeek Power by Matthew Malach

This one isn’t one of the best episodes, but I had to note it here because at the beginning, Seymour and Zeek are intercepted by a magical ball of energy meant to recharge Hotwing’s spellcasting energy.  This sequence of animation is *awesome* and it’s really striking — a washed-out palette, plumes of energy and this utterly strange meeting in space, which is not without humor. That sequence is one of the best sections of animation in the entire series, and certainly worth the few minutes it takes to watch, even if you don’t decide to finish out the otherwise-standard action.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for taking the time!

I got the idea to write this retrospective as a way to mentally ‘put a bow’ on revisiting this series which stuck with me so thoroughly as a kid — I’d actually never seen all of the episodes, and after literal decades had passed, discovering it again for the first time through an older, more experienced lens was a fascinating experience.

If you’ve never seen SilverHawks, I hope this article has inspired you to track it down, whether on DVD or one of the various streaming services. If you have seen it, I hope I’ve inspired you to pay it another visit.

Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the SilverHawks, Rankin-Bass, this article, or ‘80s cartoons in general!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

The post CARTOON TIME: SilverHawks, 37 Years Later appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH An Action-RPG redesign gives new life to Mega Man.

LOW The grinding and the saving.

WTF The world can be destroyed with a computer virus.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.

Most Mega Man games have a regular formula — get through six or eight tough-as-nails 2D platforming levels, fight a boss at the end of each one, survive Dr. Wily’s castle to finally fight the usual big bad, Dr. Wily, and then roll credits.

I’ve always been a fan of the Blue Bomber, but I also love RPGs — they’re one of my favorite genres. Combining these two things, Battle Network is a Mega Man spin off series that takes our hero and puts him into a real-time-tactics role-playing experience.

Mega Man Battle Network: Legacy Collection revisits the entire ten game series (found mostly on Nintendo handheld systems) and puts them into one collection for Switch, PlayStation and PC players to enjoy.

For those who haven’t experienced it, Battle Network has players controlling elementary schooler Lan Hikari and his “net navi” AI program MegaMan.EXE. They work together to delete viruses and fight evil net navis.

Lan walks around in the real world checking email, talking with NPCs, and collecting battle chips for MegaMan to use. MegaMan explores the internet, finds other battle chips, and fights viruses. Unlike the classic 2D platformers that came before, the internet is more of a open world area that players can explore as they get upgrades and better battle chips to enhance MegaMan’s abilities. There is a main campaign to conquer, but players can also go online and trade chips with other players, or fight to steal chips.

So, what are battle chips?

In a nutshell, they give MegaMan new powers and tactics. Some allow him to steal spaces in battle so they limit the movement of enemies. Some just do a lot of damage. Some chips are weak on their own, but combine together to make more powerful ones. Battle Network allows players a lot of freedom in the chips they choose — the catch is how to get more of the chips players want. The answer? Grinding.

After each battle, players will get resources like money, free health refills, or free chips that enemies drop, and doing battle — aka grinding — is what’s going to be needed to succeed.

Don’t have enough money for chips or to get an upgrade for MegaMan? Grind against enemies to gain the money for chips. Need a specific chip that can’t be bought? Fight enemies quickly and without being hit until maybe the chip drops. The grind here is real.

Personally, every battle could take anywhere from about ten seconds (including loading into the combat and exiting combat) or a few minutes if my chip luck was bad. One fight in particular took nearly ten minutes because I came across a virus that could only be hit by physical chips and I couldn’t successfully escape the fight.

The grind is a bummer for sure, and on top of it, Battle Network requires players to manually save. I don’t want to think about the amount of time and progress I’ve lost because I lost a bad fight and forgot to save beforehand.

Apart from those complaints, I feel like Battle Network Legacy Collection is in a strange spot compared to other recent Capcom remakes.

Battle Network doesn’t have much in the way of accessibility for new players aside from a “MAX Blaster” mode which turns MegaMan’s basic attack into a one-hit-kill, but players still need to sit through the pre- and post-battle loading regardless of how fast the win was. Also, the graphics don’t translate well to a bigger screen. There’s a filter that smooths out the edges of characters and environments, but it’s a jagged mess on large screens without it.

There’s also a fair amount of memorization needed to know how each part of the internet connects, in order to avoid becoming lost on the way to the next objective. For those who forget or get turned around, there’s no help.

Despite my issues with them, I still adore these games. The chip tactics scratch my deckbuilding itch, but it’s not so tactical that it requires mental gymnastics to succeed. The story is charming in a saturday morning cartoon sort of way, and I appreciate the ability to access these games again on a modern platform. Capcom missed a few tricks by not adding a few quality-of-life and accessibility settings to make the games less grindy, but the series still holds a special place in my heart.

For me, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection gets 7.5 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by CAPCOM.  It is currently available on PS4, Switch, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 20 hours of play was spent playing the game, and one of the games was completed. No time was spent in the multiplayer mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Fantasy Violence, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, and Use of Alcohol and Tobacco. From the ESRB Website: “This is a compilation of action role-playing games in which players help a man stop evil groups from committing cybercrimes. From a 3/4-overhead perspective, players interact with characters and use humanoid AI to battle computer viruses and robotic creatures. Players use blasters. energy swords, and mini bombs to defeat enemies in 2D grid-based battle arenas. Battles are frenetic at times, accompanied by blaster fire and mild explosions. The game contains some suggestive material in the dialogue (e.g., “Stop peeking! You Pervert”; “Her measurements are 33,22,33”; “You missed out on seeing [her] naked.”). Some sequences depict animal droppings on the ground, with accompanying dialogue (e.g., “[T]he smell here is too much”; “Phew, why did he have to go here?”). Players can encounter drunken characters (e.g., *hic* in their speech); one mission objective requires players’ character to obtain whiskey. Gallery artwork depicts a character with a cigarette in his mouth. The words “damn” and “hell” appear in the game.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in game, but the text is not able to be altered or resized. There are no voices, and the audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes. Music will change and signify that a match is about to end, but there is also a timer on screen so it’s not necessary for play. In my view, the game is fully accessible.

Controls: Controls are remappable.

The post Mega Man Battle Network: Legacy Collection Vol. 1 & 2 VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Solid writing and breezy platforming.

LOW Performance issues, at least on Switch. 

WTF Clancy f*cking Brown!

For a certain generation, SpongeBob SquarePants quotes are a social currency. The same way that programs like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Seinfeld have infected the lexicon of millennials and Gen-Xers, Gen Z absolutely loves SpongeBob. I’m definitely in that camp and it’s still something I quote often, so naturally a new game based on the property was something I was eager for. 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a brand new 3D platformer developed by the same team behind SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom — Rehydrated (a title I reviewed back in 2020).

Taking place in Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and Patrick find themselves in the middle of a multiverse mess after an encounter with a mermaid fortune teller. Each of the main SpongeBob cast has been transported to different worlds in a series of disconnected universes, with each of their roles ranging from noble to absolutely dastardly. Now, the two are tasked with restoring the now-disrupted Bikini Bottom and saving their friends from being lost in the multiverse.

Gameplay-wise, Cosmic Shake feels similar to the Bikini Bottom remake in that players control SpongeBob who has different abilities like a ground pound, a bubble projectile, and a swing move that works when he’s near certain hooks. However, while the gameplay and mission structure of BfBB is more open-ended and reminiscent of old-school collect-a-thons, Cosmic Shake is a little more linear, offering an experience separated into distinct levels with specific objectives. 

For example, the very first section is a cowboy-themed one where players need to track down an outlaw version of Mr. Krabs being hunted down by the sheriff — a cactus soda-loving Sandy Cheeks. It’s all ridiculously charming stuff that gives the player an excuse to run around while following a specific objective (in this case, juicing different cacti) and to occasionally fight some enemies. It’s the standard platformer stuff I love, but with a coat of remix paint on top. As such, I enjoyed the gameplay loop, even if it wasn’t too inventive.

In between the platforming segments are a few minigames like a soda chugging contest, along with a host of other, fairly creative levels. My favorite was a movie studio where Squidward is an impatient and pretentious director making a martial arts film. What made this level cool was the fact that a whole chunk of it was played in 2.5D perspective, like a beat-’em-up. Fighting enemies in a backlot while getting yelled at by an angry director was entertaining, and I was sold.

While I can deal with generic level design between the minigames, some minor technical issues on the Switch did get annoying. For example, there were instances of slowdown, longer loading times, and texture pop-in. It was nothing gamebreaking and it didn’t ultimately impede my enjoyment, but it’s just a shame to see something so bright and colorful exhibit these issues.

What wa solid, however, was the cheery presentation I just mentioned — especially the art style and humor. Using the groundwork of BfBB, the character models look great. I love how expressive and over-the-top they are, with the voice cast from the TV show popping in as well. Hearing Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs after being absent from the last remake was a treat, and everyone else was just as good. It felt like watching a SpongeBob feature-length film.

The humor of Cosmic Shake is just as good. Everything feels like it caters to the fans, from the horrifically detailed freeze-frame shots, to the loading screens displaying the “One Second Later” title cards from the episodes. I also loved how sarcastic all the NPCs were, mocking the player in a SpongeBob vein and making very meta jokes about the game itself. 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is the kind of thing I love to champion — a mid-budget licensed platformer with a few rough edges that could have easily existed in the ’00s. Sure, it’s not breaking any new ground and could use a little polish when it comes to level design and performance on the Switch, but the final product is a joyous ride from start to finish. For fans of the series like me or anyone else who can’t get enough of that yellow sponge, this undersea multiverse adventure is worth checking out. 

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published by THQ Nordic and developed by Purple Lamp. It is available on PS4, XBO, PC, and Switch.This copy was obtained via the publisher and was reviewed on Switch. Approximately 10 hours were spent in single-player and was completed. There is no multiplayer mode. 

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10 for Comic Mischief and Fantasy Violence. The site reads: This is a 3D platformer game in which players help SpongeBob and Patrick rescue their friends transported to parallel worlds. As players explore themed worlds (e.g., Wild West, Medieval, Halloween), they complete objectives, interact with characters, and engage in melee-style combat with enemy creatures. Players use bubble-wand spin attacks, ground pounds, and karate kicks to defeat jelly enemies in frenetic combat. Combat is highlighted by cries of pain, screen-shaking effects, and mild explosions; enemies generally burst into bubbles when defeated. One sequence depicts trucks filled with manure.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles present in the game, as well as visual cues during gameplay. Subtitles can be adjusted. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped.

The post SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Both phases of the last boss fight.

LOW That damn chaser dragon.

WTF How is this game-within-a-game so addictive?

Taking Bionic Commando‘s grappling hook-based platforming and placing it in an ultra-cute environment may not seem like an obvious move, but Grapple Dog proves it to be a fantastic idea.

A 2D platformer just this side of sadistic, Grapple Dog opens with the titular puppy getting a grappling hook and accidentally helping a robot start the apocalypse. Armed with little more than the ability to swing through a variety of colorful levels and bounce off of robots’ heads, it will be up to the player to save the world before it suffers a dimensional collapse.

Grapple Dog‘s controls are immaculate. It’s important for any platformer to have rock-solid rules for momentum, but GD goes above and beyond. While Pablo, the titular Grapple Dog, can run, jump, and swim around the various levels well enough, the meat of gameplay is finding blue-tinted objects, attaching a hook to them, and swinging.

This is where the importance of control consistency becomes vital — players press the grapple button to latch onto an object or wall, then tilt the control to swing side-to-side before jumping off. Pablo leaves at a different angle and speed based on the point of the swing that he jumps off, and success in the game is based entirely around practicing these jumps until hitting the exact angle becomes second nature.

Grapple Dog gets players to that point via impeccable level design. There are five worlds, with five levels and a boss fight each, and each one introduces a new obstacle type, giving the player time to familiarize themselves with the mechanics before adding complicating elements like spiked floors and killer robots. The first world gets the player comfortable swinging, jumping, and using cannons to move around levels. Then, gradually, they’ll find themselves dealing with conveyor belts, rotating grapple anchors, floating water spheres, and more.

In addition to the basic obstacles and enemies, levels are packed with secrets to ferret out. There are five hidden gems and two hundred and fifty pieces of fruit in each stage, and while the game can be completed by grabbing just a handful of gems and fruit, the true ending is locked away unless players are willing to swipe absolutely every last shiny. It’s a rare thing for me to 100% any game, but there’s an infectious joyousness to Grapple Dog‘s platforming that had me going back until I’d seen everything it had to offer.

The thing that sets Grapple Dog apart from so many others in the platforming genre is just how forgiving it is. Yes, it’s challenging and requires split-second reflexes, and a few of the boss fights are incredibly brutal, but it never feels like it’s trying to punish the player unfairly. Pablo has four hit points, enemies regularly drop health on death, and falling into a chasm teleports him back to the last stable area at the cost of a single damage point, rather than shunting him all the way back to a hard checkpoint. Yes, there were times when I yelped in frustration after screwing up a set of swings and the final boss is extremely nasty, but at its core, Grapple Dog is the kind of platformer that wants the player to succeed and is more than willing to meet them halfway.

Loaded with surmountable challenges, cute characters, and fantastic level design, Grapple Dog is the rare all-ages platformer that really could appeal to anyone interested in the genre. It’s simple enough for a child to use it as an entry point for platformers, yet offers challenges daunting enough to frustrate the most jaded Super Meat Boy player. Grapple Dog is a absolute treasure.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Medallion Games and published by Super Rare Originals. It is currently available on PC, SW. Copies of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 25 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. No time was spent in the game’s co-op mode.

Parents: This game rated E by the ESRB, and it contains no content warnings. The only violence in the game involves bouncing on robots, there’s nothing questionable here.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. No audio is needed for successful gameplay. All dialogue is presented via text, which cannot be resized. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the game’s controls are not remappable. Players use the thumbstick to move Pablo, and face buttons to jump, grapple, and stomp.

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HIGH Enjoyable racing and lovable characters.

LOW Barebones package, disappointing online. And no voice-acting?

WTF All these references and the devs couldn’t fit a Kablam nod in?

Readers will know this, but it’s worth repeating – I love budget licensed titles. While developers and publishers seem to be doing away with this tier of production, 2020 has seen some releases that fall into this category, and whether it’s platformers or brawlers, I’m happy to play things in this style. One of the most popular kinds of budget game? Kart racing.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix is a new racer from Bamtang Games and serves as a follow-up to their 2018 release Nickelodeon Kart Racers. Here, players control one of 38 characters from shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, CatDog, Ninja Turtles, Avatar: The Last Airbender and even my favorite Rocko’s Modern Life to compete in solo or multiplayer races across 28 courses.

There are also 70 non-playable characters that act as pit crew. Players select one chief who provides a special power after building up a meter and two support characters equipped with passive or active abilities. For example, selecting a chief like Plankton from SpongeBob grants players the ability to slow every other racer down for a bit once their meter is full.

There’s even more choice found in the car customization. Of course, it’s not as expansive or simulation-heavy as something like Gran Turismo, but tuning a car is an important part of the experience. While each character has a specific car assigned to them, players select an engine and wheels that have their own attributes.

With this as the starting point, I will say that I enjoyed this game more than I expected to. The racing is fast and easier than something like Mario Kart thanks to a floatier feel in the controls. Cars seem to glide across the courses, which works well for this kind of experience as drifting (something I have never been good at) is simpler to pull off and rewards a slight boost.

Driving around courses based on Nick properties like one inspired by the The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen from Ren and Stimpy to one modeled after Zim from Invader Zim’s home planet also feels great. The courses are as standard as they come but I appreciate the window-dressing and dedication to the characters. Hell, they even added a Double Dare course, which is a reference to something no one below the age of 35 will get.

While there’s tons of Nick fan service here and seeing all four Ninja Turtles (and Shredder!) along with Heffer from Rocko’s Modern Life was the absolute coolest, I was disappointed that none of the characters are voiced. It seems like a huge gap in the content to feature a cast so iconic without the voices to match – I would have settled for pre-recorded archive audio, at the very least.

Another issue is that while it’s serviceable, there isn’t much in NKR2 to differentiate itself from the competition from a driving or mechanical perspective. The quality of play feels fairly generic, and I would have liked more singleplayer options too. There isn’t a story mode or anything other than racing and battling.

Even the online is barebones, as the only two options are a grand prix and free race. Aside from how long it takes to find opponents (there are never enough to fill the roster completely) there’s nothing to work towards – a battle pass system or multiplayer unlocks would have done a lot more to keep me engaged.

Overall, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix is generic, yet serviceable. Nick fans like me will get a big kick from all of the characters and references that were stuffed into the package, while younger kids and those new to kart racers will enjoy the accessibility of play. It may lack the features or amount of content that I would have liked, but I can safely say that I still managed to get some enjoyable mileage out of this kart racer.

Disclosures: This game is published by GameMill Entertainment and developed by Bamtang Games It is available on Switch, PS4, PC and XBO. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 15 hours were spent in singleplayer, with every character unlocked. About 1 hour was spent in the online multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E for Comic Mischief and Mild Cartoon Violence. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a kart racing game, based on characters and themes from Nickelodeon properties, in which players drive around whimsical tracks in contests of speed or arena-type challenges. As characters race, they can pick up and use cartoony power-up weapons (e.g., jellyfish, slime, boomerangs, exploding barrels), causing other racers to briefly spin out of control or slow down. One weapon, called the “diaper stink bomb,” causes racers to briefly emit green flatulence clouds.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no dialogue during gameplay and all relevant info in menus is communicated via text. Text cannot be resized or altered. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, the controls are not remappable but there is a control diagram. The Y-axis cannot be changed.

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