HIGH The lightning bolt effect when a ball hits top speed.

LOW The absurdly difficult third stage.

WTF The fart noise that occasionally plays when losing a ball.

I learned many things in my time with Breakout Beyond, the first of which being that I am not good at Breakout Beyond. 

I came to this realization early on, as I remained stuck on the third stage for over 30 minutes (as a point of reference, most levels take around two minutes to finish).  Thankfully, subsequent lessons were kinder.  I realized, in their reimagining of the original Breakout, that the developers at Choice Provisions were less focused on replicating the twitchy, skill-based play of the Atari classic and more interested in crafting an aesthetic journey rooted in strategy.

The basics are familiar enough — controlling a paddle on the left side of the screen, players try to keep a ball in play long enough to break through a wall of bricks on the opposite side.  The paddle only moves up and down, but can be sped up to reach snappy ricochets, and time can be temporarily slowed when things get too hectic.  Particularly skilled players can apply spin to the ball, curving it around obstacles to hit hard-to-reach bricks.

While the mechanics don’t stray far from the 1976 original, it’s the aesthetic design that immediately sets Breakout Beyond apart.  The yellow afterglow of the ball bouncing back and forth illuminates scratches, cracks, and smudges across the screen.  Crisp and vivid vector lines form the boundaries of the playfield, shimmering with every collision.  The reverberation of the ball striking the paddle is both visual and auditory as it blends with the thrumming synths to create a cohesive, reactive soundscape.  Scanlines and the simulated CRT glow round out the illusion, and despite Breakout being more than ten years my senior, I am flooded with phantom memories of hazy neon and nicotine-stained arcade cabinets.

The primary mode, Voyage, takes full advantage of this presentation as its 72 levels evolve over time.  The visuals and soundtrack grow in intensity across those stages, peaking in the later levels with lurid, over-saturated colors that ripple along with the bassline.  In these final areas, tracking the ball’s trajectory becomes a secondary concern as the blown out, phosphorescent lines coalesce into a beautiful blur.

Beyond the stylistic elements, level design belies Breakout Beyond’s score chasing roots.  While steady hands and quick reflexes are still needed, an emphasis on creating chain reactions with power-ups introduces a strategic element to Breakout Beyond that feels at once fresh and frustrating.  Each stage is populated with static power-up bricks such as the multi-ball which spawns additional balls into play, or the shield which can help keep those extra balls on the map.  Complicating matters are the purple question mark bricks — these can be filled with any power-up the player has unlocked to that point.

Stringing these power-ups together becomes the primary means of progression, as players are unlikely to be successful through brute force alone.  I often found myself stuck on a stage, only to discover that switching my selected power-up was enough to win after a dozen failed attempts.  Sometimes this was as simple as selecting the drill to punch through the final bricks without rebounding, other times success relied on creating a domino effect of bombs triggering one another across the screen.

This emphasis on strategic choice is intriguing, and the most effective chain-reactions play well with the aesthetic emphasis — ten balls ricocheting around the level, neon light pulsing with each bounce, is quite the sight.  However, I found this solution-oriented focus didn’t always gel with more reflexive play.  Advancement often became a matter of trial and error as I cycled through power-ups waiting for the right one to carve my path to freedom.  Upon finding it, the screen would often devolve into a chaotic blur of light and sound, only to clear on the victory screen, leaving me in a state of bewilderment.  The satisfaction of seeing the bricks disintegrate in such splendor is overshadowed by the nagging sensation that it wasn’t brought on by my hand.

This blend of strategy and dexterity results in an experience that is consistently interesting to see and hear, but not always as engaging to participate in.  While the mechanics complement the aesthetics, I never felt as though these elements were as in sync in my hands as they were on the screen.  Victory often felt arbitrary in Breakout Beyond, and though my skills did develop over the course of my journey, I never felt as though they factored into my success or failure. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

— Ryan Nalley

Buy Breakout Beyond: PC – PS – XB – SW

Disclosures: This game is developed by Choice Provisions and published by Atari. It is currently available on PS4/5, XBO/X/S, Switch, PC and iOS. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 13 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. 30 minutes of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E.  This game contains no violence, language or other objectionable content. The gameplay consists entirely of bouncing a ball back and forth to break blocks and should be appropriate for all players.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: While there is no traditional dialogue in this game, there are several instances where words are spoken aloud.  In all of these cases those words are also written across the screen in large text.  This text cannot be resized. All auditory cues are also represented by on-screen indicators, this game is fully accessible.

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

The post Breakout Beyond Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The latest Virtua Fighter 5 edition, with rollback, finally available on Steam.

LOW The single player component is pretty barebones.

WTF Kage’s flying headbutt down attack looks absolutely lethal — to himself.

Rejoice, ye faithful, for the grand Virtua Fighter resurgence is nigh! Hooray!

For those who missed the recent news, Virtua Fighter 6 has finally been announced after almost two decades of waiting, so what better way to celebrate this momentous occasion than for Sega to release a new version of Virtua Fighter 5 on Steam — along with some swanky new rollback netcode, a new intro song by legendary Sega vocalist Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and assorted balance changes? It may not be a brand new game, but still — nice.

Despite being based on a title that’s almost two decades old at this point, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. looks amazing. Stage design in particular is downright spectacular, offering sweeping grasslands, vibrant rain-slick cityscapes and a raft that carries players past soaring pillars of rock as players attempt to dunk their opponent into the drink. Characters are large, well-defined and sharply rendered to take advantage of modern 4K displays.

In fact, the presentation is generally great overall with big, colorful menus that hew closely to PlayStation’s Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown release from three and a half years back. It pops just a little more vibrantly, however, and seeing the main menu screen rolling continuous high level matches that can be enlarged at the touch of a button is as fantastic a feature now as it was back then, as a great way for new or learning players to see how certain characters can operate in skilled hands.

Speaking of characters, there’s a roster of nineteen playable characters, all with distinct and viable martial arts styles on offer. From MMA and Jeet Kun Do to Bajiquan and Drunken Kung Fu, there’s a style to suit nearly every taste. Though, let’s be honest — anyone who isn’t using Vanessa Lewis is probably doing it wrong, as her grapple-based beatdowns are poetry in motion.

The beauty of Virtua Fighter is that all of these fighting styles somehow feel reasonably authentic to their source material, even when someone’s being uppercut six feet into the air and punched five times before they hit the floor. It just works and feels strangely realistic, though arguably filtered through the lens of a Hong Kong kung fu movie.

Additionally, there’s a purity to R.E.V.O.‘s pugilism that’s downright refreshing at this point. In a genre where progress seems to be trending towards tacking on as many Supers, Rage Arts, Drive Rushes and Heat Gauges as possible, it turns out that there’s a lot to be said for simply focusing on the fundamentals. It’s all easy to understand on a visual level too, with no lingering hurtboxes or similar idiosyncrasies throwing players for a loop. Controls are simple – a punch button, a kick button, a guard button and various combinations thereof are all that are needed to delve into an extremely precise fighting and technical experience.

If I had to summarize Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. ‘s matches in a single word, it would be ‘explosive’. It’s not a game that rewards all-out aggression, but when fighters do clash their health gauges can be stripped down in astonishingly short order. However, there’s less of a focus on rushdown than in some competing games as defensive options are strong, most non-specialized attacks won’t hurt downed opponents, and maneuvering around the arena is also incredibly important. A huge lead doesn’t mean much if a player gets sloppy and winds up being tossed out of the ring.

As for the balance changes, they’re subtle. Weight classes have been tweaked so Taka Arashi’s a little more vulnerable than he used to be, and Eileen isn’t such a temptingly lightweight target. Some older moves have been returned to a character’s repertoire, and it’s all just a little more balanced than ever. Not that it was badly tuned before — quite the opposite — but nearly twenty years of digging away at a game’s core will often result in uncovering a few rough edges.

While it’s an excellent offering overall, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.‘s biggest weaknesses tend to occur outside the fighting. Namely, as a modern fighting package, it’s lacking in extras needed to lure in casual players. Not everyone wants to spend all their time online, and aside from a training and arcade mode, there’s not much else for solo players other than watching high-level matches stream in through the main menu. There’s nothing here on par with the extensive single-player offerings seen in recent titles such as Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and recent Mortal Kombat titles, and even character customization options have been pared back significantly since the days of the original Virtua Fighter 5 release.

Worse, though, for a title that focuses so much on online competitive play, there’s no cross-platform play with the PlayStation version of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, which has already been updated to maintain balance parity with R.E.V.O. Steam may be a huge platform, but with an older game like this Sega really should be casting the net as far and wide as it’ll go — and that includes an Xbox release too. Get everyone in on this party, dammit.

With those foibles noted, Virtua Fighter 5 is still a peerless fighter even after all this time, resulting in a game that’s still a joy to play. It’s the best version of a legendary fighting experience, and even if it doesn’t check all the expected boxes of a modern fighting game package, it still kicks ass.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is currently available on PC. A similar version is available on PS4 and PS5, but is missing certain new additions such as rollback netcode. This copy of the game was obtained via paid download before a key was provided by the publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 3 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 7 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes. Furthermore, I’ve played a lot of VF5 over the years in its various forms.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, and Violence.  The official description reads as follows: This is a fighting game in which players choose from a large cast of international fighters to compete against others in one-on-one matches. Players punch, kick, and throw opponents as they attempt to drain their health bars. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, cries of pain, and brief replay sequences of knockouts. These replays are shown from various camera angles, some of which are slightly zoomed in. Some female characters are designed with revealing costumes (e.g., deep cleavage, bikini-like tops); one character is depicted in a mannequin-like style with nipple-less breasts and buttocks. One character is described as using “Drunken Kung-fu” as his fighting style and can be seen drinking from a gourd during fights; some of his moves reference his drinking, letting players know how many drinks are needed to perform those attacks.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. Characters have a few intro and win quotes delivered in various languages, none of which are necessary to enjoy the game or story. After all, there is no story aside from the background lore. Some audio cues can help discern certain moves, such as a swooshing noise signifying that sidestepping certain attacks isn’t possible, but there’s no need to rely on them. It’s a very visual game.

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

The post Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Snow Bros. finally gets a successor!

LOW Camera controls are severely lacking.

WTF The final gauntlet…

Those with an affinity for spending coins at their local arcade back in the day will certainly rejoice to see likenesses of Nick and Tom (actually, their offspring) in a brand-new Snow Bros. title — it’s been a long wait since the 1990 original! As one of those fans, I was immediately hit by a warm wave of nostalgia upon learning that Wonderland existed.

The original Snow Bros. was a 2D action-platformer featuring co-op play where snowmen avoid baddies before taking them out with well-timed snowballs that roll down platforms and engulf anyone in their path. It had a perfect philosophy, a hefty dose of challenge, and — most importantly — a masterfully designed set of levels.

Fast forward to the end of 2024, and we have Snow Bros. Wonderland, a title that aesthetically continues the theme of two snowmen stopping a villain’s plans to turn the world into a lava land.

Our heroes Nick Jr. and Tom Jr. (sons of the original duo) are now in 3D and possess their parents’ ability to throw an unlimited supply of snowballs into foes, quickly turning them into giant rolling balls. Once that’s accomplished, players can find the best use for these enlarged snowballs, whether it be simply kicking one into other foes, riding it to reach higher elevations, or throwing it like a basketball to hit a distant pressure plate.

Snow Bros. Wonderland is framed like a fairytale and told via short animations that play out between each of its worlds in which we steadily clear out a set of stages and end with a boss fight. Unfortunately, Wonderland‘s setting and approach to storytelling leave a lot to be desired, due in equal parts to the lack of clever plot twists and lack of characterization.

Aside from the titular duo, only Winda – the mandatory “waify-material” character (unlocked as a playable skin at the end of the campaign) makes regular appearances, though not the substantive kind. Also, the aforementioned cutscenes after bosses are presented in a bafflingly meek manner. They’re animated stills where only the characters’ lips move in accordance with voiceover, and nothing interesting happens regardless. I’m not sure why they were even included. However, Snow Bros. has never been about story or worldbuilding, so it’s not that big an issue.

Of course, this leads me to gameplay. Pelting an enemy with snowballs turns the foe into a large snow boulder with a reticule showing which direction the ball would rush if I was to kick it. I was satisfied with this inclusion, as it clearly displays an understanding of the original Snow Bros. mechanics. Being able to track where exactly the ball will roll in a 3D world is essential, and upon giving it the boot, it acted just as I hoped — it does indeed flatten the nearest enemies and eventually sends them off into outer space.

I was curious to see where the devs would take this awesome idea next and how much further they could evolve it, but there was no such luck. What soon dawned on me was that the mechanic of engulfing enemies in snow and using them against their brethren is actually not the core of the Snow Bros. Wonderland experience. Instead, what we have is something more similar to a standard 3D platformer along the lines of the modern Super Mario games. Unfortunately, the content can’t meet that standard, and also suffers from some bewilderingly outdated choices that negate the rose-colored affection I have for the original. 

Primarily, proper camera and controls for 3D platformers like Snow Bros. Wonderland are crucial. Nearly thirty-year-old titles like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie got it right and led the way, but Wonderland’s camera controls are nonexistent. The available view provides an acceptable perspective most of the time, but it’s also prone to letting moving platforms obscure the player’s view. 

Also, while I did beat the game, I was never at ease with the finicky platforming and never felt particularly ‘in control’ of anything. Worse was when camera and controls both worked in concert to increase the difficulty — tasking the player with jumping to a platform at the deep end of the screen while level geometry makes gauging the distance a pure guess is not a good experience.

Moreover, there’s a hidden timer present throughout each level. While the original punished players for not being able to defeat all enemies in a given time by spawning an unbeatable reaper-like character, it was perfectly acceptable back then given its 2D nature and the ability to observe the entire screen at once. In contrast, Wonderland features much larger 3D stages whose plains and elevations enjoy overlapping each other, and being cornered by a ‘punishment’ entity like a reaper who can one-shot players who weren’t able to make it through a given course of dastardly jumping challenges quickly enough — well, it’s not exactly cool. (Pun intended.) 

Luckily, dying doesn’t carry many negative consequences, as we merely lose a small portion of accumulated currency that’s used to unlock upgrades like being able to run slightly faster or to kick a ball further away than before — all aspects that are mostly helpful, yet Wonderland’s combat won’t be a thorn in anyone’s side, even without them.  

Progression-wise, Wonderland introduces new moves (like a mid-air twirl attack reminiscent of a certain Italian plumber) and new types of obstacles with each new biome — things like lighting strikes or floods that limit the player’s movements or trap them, contributing to a palpable spike in difficulty. While none of this sounds bad on paper, what’s readily apparent is Wonderland’s inept execution. 

For example, many of the levels task the player with transferring a snowball across significant space while riding on a platform big enough for both of them only if the player were to stand on top of the ball. Since running on top of the ball is a learned skill here, the catch is to get in position while figuring out how to keep the ball frozen during the entire trip. Easier said than done as the character’s weight makes the ball move ever so slightly, immediately causing a fall? Worse, this movement is inconsistent — it sometimes happens but not always. Once the player manages to finally get it done, they’ve likely wasted so much time that the reaper appears, adding insult to injury.

Such a wide range of inconsistencies results in an experience that never feels right — Snow Bros Wonderland is ultimately a game that’s on par with trying to squeeze a marshmallow through a keyhole. Even if one succeeds in doing so, it’s definitely not worth the trouble in the end. 

Rating: 5.0 out of 10 

Disclosures: This game was developed by TATSUJIN Co., Ltd., Toaplan and Bitwave AB, and published by TATSUJIN Co., Ltd., Clear River Games, Toaplan and Toaplan Co., Ltd. It is available on Switch, PS4/5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch Lite. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the game, and it was completed. The game supports co-op multiplayer for up to four players. 

Parents: This game has received an E rating from the ESRB and contains Fantasy Violence. The game features cartoony characters and snow-day aesthetics, while the focus is mostly on platforming challenges rather than combat encounters.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue in this game is shown via textboxes, so they’re easy to keep track of at all times. All enemy attacks are clearly telegraphed on-screen with enemies signaling when they will strike next and in which general direction. No audio cues are necessary. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: This game offers a controller diagram and there are two control presets to swap between.

The post Snow Bros. Wonderland Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Brutal artisanal arcade action. Dense, lush pixel art.

LOW Desperately needs a proper practice mode.

WTF A ninja with a shotgun just feels wrong (but also kinda right?)

Tengo Project is a team of three industry veterans devoted to keeping arcade culture alive in a world that has mostly forgotten it, but they occupy a wholly unique place even within that niche — they’re not restoring and preserving classics like the arch-archivists at M2, nor are they general workmanlike preservationists a la Hamster. Instead, Tengo Project returns to old arcade or console titles and completely re-envisions them.

As such, it’s easy to reach for the term “remake,” but Tengo’s title are remakes only in the sense that a butterfly is a remake of a caterpillar. Each piece from them carries forward the life force of its inspiration, but transformed into something new and striking. Their latest, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn, may be the most ornate expression of their process yet.

Reborn has its roots in an NES title called — you guessed it — Shadow of the Ninja, a late-era 2D NES action-platformer in the vein of classics like Ninja Gaiden, and Reborn could still be described as such. You can sense the NES texture underneath, now enriched with an elegant suite of deepened mechanics, all of which are honed to fine points that the game will happily skewer players on. The difficulty here? Well it’s pungent, intense, and bracing — it’s an heir to (and evolution of) the kind of brutal things that Ghosts ‘n Goblins and the early Castlevanias were doing.

Player characters Hayate and Kaede are ninja, so they’re not as stiff-jointed as Arthur or the Belmonts, but neither are they lightning-fast. Their moveset is nuanced and powerful, but also laden with recovery frames and balancing drawbacks. As is always the case with experiences of this ilk, engaging with the possibilities and limitations of the moveset is the first step on the long road to mastery. The two core verbs are a sword attack which fans out in front of the character and can destroy some projectiles, and a long-range kusarigama attack, which can be aimed in both orthogonal and diagonal directions.

Then there’s the item system, which is baroque, wild, and wooly. Crates throughout each level contain items that can be swapped between and used like sub-weapons. There are a gobsmacking 53 different items altogether, including a tea kettle, a butcher saw, a pirate ship cannon, a tonfa, and even a suite of decidedly un-ninjalike military hardware like a minigun or a pump-action shotgun. There’s a lot of functional overlap between items in a general sense (lots of big clubs, lots of projectile weapons, etc.) but there’s nuance too — the blunderbuss fires a wild mess of pellets, for instance, while the pump-action keeps its spread much tighter.

Superplayers will probably establish a meta for which items are best, but all the ones I’ve found have felt extremely powerful and are a satisfying way to tip the odds in the player’s favor. A good thing, because there’s a bristling bestiary standing between these little ninja and the credits. There are hench-gorillas, onmyoji riding magical waterspouts, gun-toting mecha, lava monsters… and that’s before taking the bosses into account, each of which is a rich course of brutality on its own, with complex, demanding attack patterns.

It’s a testament to the mechanical richness on display in Reborn that I have gone this long without discussing the incredible visuals. This is pixel work from true artists, and I love the Tengo Project house style — it’s multilayered and lush, with a particular eye to color and shadow to create depth, backgrounds that teem with movement, and buttery-smooth animations that are detailed, but never cumbersome. Reborn may be Tengo’s most impressive work to date purely from a visual perspective, and just being able to see what the next screen looks like, the next enemy, the next boss, is as much a reward as the conquering of the obstacles themselves.

In a larger sense, Reborn is fashioned from arcade-style philosophies. It’s meant to be played over and over… to be mastered, cleared from start to finish without dying, and played for speed. That’s going to take some time for all but the Chosen Ones. I’m a long-time arcade player (I have 1ccs under my belt) but I still haven’t finished Reborn’s six stages. It’s a beast from the start, and by the time players reach stage three the gloves are off — and there wasn’t much glove to begin with. Practice is key.

Sadly, that process is made more difficult than it needs to be due to the lack of a proper practice mode. This is something that dogs other Tengo Project releases, but it’s an even bigger problem with Reborn because each sub-section of a stage is really a level unto itself — there’s no way to jump into a specific section without playing through the portions of the level that precede it. Reborn is a test for serious arcade players, and Tengo Project surely knows that. Seeing them continue to hold back on features that are quickly becoming standard in this style of game is disappointing to say the least.

Each Tengo Project release is a handcrafted monument to a type of experience and particular strain of gaming culture that is mostly forgotten by the mainstream. This is not “Retro Gaming” as marketed to us for the last 20 years, but a type of design that fully embodies the specific, timeless, vibrant virtues of the ’80s and ’90s in new and exciting forms. Reborn is for sickos, by sickos. For those that have love in their heart for arcade culture, and for muscular, uncompromising, full-blooded action built on a system of beautifully-tuned mechanics, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn will be one of the best things they can buy this year.

8.5 out of 10

— Ben Schwartz

Disclosures: This game is developed by Tengo Project and published by Natsume Atari. It is currently available on PC, PS4/5, Switch, and XBO/X/S. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 7 hours were devoted to the game, and it was not completed (yet!). 0 hours were spent in the two-player mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence and Mild Blood. The official rating states: “This is an action platformer in which players assume the role of ninjas attempting to stop a demon invasion. Players traverse side-scrolling levels to defeat human and fantastical enemies (e.g., robots, monkeys, ninjas) in melee-style combat. Players use swords, chains, guns, and cannonballs to attack and kill enemies. Combat is highlighted by impact sounds, colorful light effects, and brief blood-splatter effects.”

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is no dialogue in the game itself, but the attract mode does have subtitles for the Japanese text crawl. They cannot be altered or resized but the text doesn’t appear in the game proper at all. All enemy attacks are telegraphed visually, none appear to rely on sound cues alone. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Shadow Of The Ninja: Reborn Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Premise is simple. Bosses have great pacing.

LOW Not a lot of depth.

WTF The boss obsessed with printers.

TRANSCRIPT:

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

Bullet hell games are usually known for filing the screen with noise, bright lights, and a million projectiles while demanding precise, perfect play for success. One BTN Bosses is certainly a bullet hell, but it goes in a different direction by taking out the mechanical dexterity usually required to pilot a spaceship between waves of incoming fire while activating shields and weapons, and instead distills the experience down to a point where it can be played, literally, with a single button. 

In One BTN Bosses, a ship orbits around a central enemy. As players move faster, bullets will fire toward the enemy boss automatically and start taking down its health while the boss fires back. Incoming attacks can range from things like bullets and bombs, to wilder things like shapes that grow in size before disappearing. When the player changes direction to dodge attacks, the ship’s fire slows, and this has the effect of slowing damage output. As players defeat bosses, they’ll unlock movement options and new weapons that change play. 

For example, players start with the ability to change direction and fire single bullets as they move around. One upgrade changes movement by limiting it to a single direction, but also allows players to dash through enemy attacks without being hit. Players can also modify their offense with things like like a laser that fires faster as the player moves faster, and so on. Also, if they player ends up with a loadout they don’t care for, all ship options can be changed between levels. 

The campaign serves as a training mode for players to learn the ins-and-outs of the mechanics. Players will have a couple of fights against a starter boss which serves to teach players about the different types of attacks. Then players will fight against the main bosses which combine multiple attacks in different ways. Once they’ve got the hang of it, players can go into the other mode, which serves as a roguelike version of the game. Players can’t change their movement or attack option between levels here, but each victory grants the player a special ability like increased weapon damage, increased top speed or acceleration, or shields they can pick up in each level. 

Regardless of which mode players are in, One BTN Bosses has fantastic pacing, easing them in with a slow ramp of ever-more-complicated bullet patterns. Starting with bullets firing directly at the player and the danger being telegraphed ahead of time, things soon escalate into multiple bullet waves and deadly shapes. One BTN Bosses also incorporates different challenges like smaller orbits, different shapes or a single curved line with portals to mimic an orbit without actually being a connected circle. 

Honestly, it’s hard to find anything wrong with One BTN Bosses, but if I had to pick something, then it would be that I wish there was more to it — more weapons, more movement options, more bullet patterns. Just more of everything, I suppose? The campaign ran for a short three to four hours, and by the end of it, I felt like I’d seen everything it had to offer.

In the end, One BTN Bosses could easily serve as a gateway to get players into the bullet hell genre without overwhelming them. It still requires the same skills needed for other bullet hells like timing, precise movement, and balancing attack movement with dodging enemy fire. However, it makes everything happen with a single button press, so players can focus on practicing those skills in a more limited, controlled way. It might not convert those who already know they don’t like bullet hell titles, but fans of the genre and even people on the fence might find a lot of excitement in how masterful it is at minimalism. 

For me, One BTN Bosses gets a 8.5 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Midnight Munchies and published by Midnight Munchies and Outersloth. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 4 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: There is no rating according to the ESRB. Players shoot colorful bullets at bosses that are different polygonal shapes. No blood, no foul language, lots of jokes from the characters in the game that revolve around office humor. In my view, it’s approved for all ages.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles can be altered and/or resized. Music serves as atmosphere only. There are no relevant audio cues. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are completely remappable. Players can select a specific key, or use the mouse click.

The post One BTN Bosses VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A solid mix of racing game ideas. 

LOW Unnecessarily difficult in some places.

WTF We need more homages to Gran Turismo! 

I seek out different kinds of racing games, especially when I review here at GameCritis. It’s an important and beloved genre for me, and there’s no shortage of exciting stuff coming out — offerings range from simulators to over-the-top arcade stuff, and anything in between. Of course, most of the titles I play tend to show off cutting-edge graphics, real-world cars and massive worlds to drive around in. Super Woden GP II is decidedly not that, but it did lure me in with some welcome ideas. 

Played from an isometric angle, SWGP is an arcade racer with several modes. On the surface, it seems like a deceptively simple experience with visuals and gameplay reminiscent of older arcade titles (think Over Top or Super Drift Out) but the depth becomes apparent thanks to the sheer amount of content. 

The most prominent offering is Career mode, which sees players competing in championships on closed circuits. Each of these competitions revolves around a series of races that net players credits to buy cars that can then be upgraded for more events. Pulling from the likes of the original Gran Turismo (down to the main menu’s design) there’s a great loop of racing, upgrading, and car collecting here that I appreciated.

There are over 100+ cars here, each from different countries and manufacturers. While all fictional, it’s not hard to spot clear homages to the Ford GT or Toyota AE86, and every vehicle has a distinct handling model, with stats that can be upgraded. Similar to the original GT, there’s a special kind of joy in buying a cheap car early on and building it up to compete against the best of the best.

While I appreciated the gameplay loop, I do have to admit the lack of a lot of accessibility options soured the experience overall. Part of this is that I found SWGP quite difficult at first, thanks to my inexperience with isometric racers. Turning corners and keeping up with AI-controlled opponents was rough initially, and the lack of a controller map was odd, not to mention the confusion caused by a lack of any tutorials.

Despite those initial frustrations, I did find myself enjoying it, and play was more manageable once I bumped the difficulty down to easy and practiced on tight corners. I did appreciate the onscreen indicators that told me when to turn or to watch for hazards, but I did wish there were more optional concessions made for newcomers. 

Other modes outside of Career include Time Trials where players can compete for the best times on global leaderboards and the best mode, if you ask me — is rally mode, where players race on various terrain under extreme conditions. Being forced to race a clock that’s winding down and trying hard to hit every checkpoint is not for the faint of heart, but I know with some practice I can get there. 

Overall, Super Woden GP II’s marriage of old-school arcade racing and a modern focus on car collecting is a fairly successful one, as I certainly enjoyed buying cool-looking cars and building them up for the big leagues. While the lack of options and accessibility features can use some fine-tuning, I’m certain those with a love of racing games (and a lot of patience) will get some good mileage out of this one. 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published by Eastasiasoft and developed by Vijuda. It is available on PC, PS5, PS4, XBO/S/X and Switch. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 5 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed. There is multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10 for Mild Violence and Alcohol Reference. Nothing objectionable here, as it’s just racing. Players can crash but the damage model can be turned off in the main menu.

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

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are plenty of visual cues in gameplay, but there are no options to resize any of the text or menus. Even so, I’d say it’s fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped and there are no diagrams. On PS5, R2 is to accelerate and L2 is brake/reverse. The Left Stick is used to steer.

The post Super Woden GP II Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Firing guns (and myself!) at enemies is great!

LOW “Variety” translates to “more of the same”.

WTF Killing everyone in the name of “fun”!

TRANSCRIPT:

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

Cat Rascal and their friends just want to have fun, and for a while they did. Then a portal ripped open and drenched the world in chaos. Naturally, fun was no longer an option. This group of cats spent years putting together a mech that could survive the portal’s energy, and now, it’s up to them to delve into the portal and bring fun back to the world.

Whale Peak Games presents Go Mecha Ball — an isometric roguelike twin stick shooter where players control Cat Rascal (or one of their friends) through a dangerous realm full of robots that want to fire as many bullets as possible into their faces. Players will run around arenas picking up guns and shooting waves of enemies that drop gold to buy items or crystals that can be used for permeant upgrades between runs. Completing each level in a run awards a power up — either more damage, more health, or a special ability, including things like a rocket jump that damages enemies around the player, turrets that help fend off enemies, or grenades that deal area damage.

While a max of two guns and two abilities the player can have at any moment is nice, the most important tool is being able to transform into a ball that comes with a boost. It does function as a dash, but it’s also the main way players can gain ammo for their guns. As enemies attack the player, ball-dashing into enemies to ‘deny’ the attack forces enemies to drop ammo. In later levels, the dash can also be used to clear stage hazards, strip armor from enemies, and push enemies off ledges. This boost has a limit, though, and managing it requires consistent strategy.

The dash isn’t the only bit of strategy that needs to be used, though — each level also has aspects that must be utilized in order to eliminate every enemy. For example, many areas are vertical in scope, which means enemies can be above or below the player. Finding bounce pads to go up or dropping down onto enemies from above will be needed. Some levels also have boost pads that act like a free dash into enemies, causing damage or the denials that award ammo.

While this might seem like it adds up to a solid action experience, don’t forget that Go Mecha Ball is a roguelike, and the progression here is strange. Before each run, players can use tokens in gacha machines, and these are what award abilities, weapons, and upgrades that are not given right away, but instead must be found during a run. This didn’t quite land for me, as there was never a solid sense of making progress — it just felt like I was adding random pickups to the levels.

Another odd aspect to Go Mecha Ball’s roguelike status is that enemy variety is slim, so it’s easy to learn patterns. In an effort to combat this low variety, players will get an artifact that increases the difficulty of the next run, but this essentially meant it was still the same enemies, but this time they’d have extra armor or a healing aura to buff their buddies. Variety is one of the hallmarks of the roguelike genre, but this ain’t it. I would have much rather had more enemy types instead of the same goons bulked up. This limited number of foes made every run feel too similar.

Honestly though, I can largely forgive Go Mecha Ball in both instances because frankly, I had such a great time with it. The physics feels smooth and responsive in a way that works for me, and it’s satisfying to launch off a ramp in ball form, transform to shoot an enemy mid-air, transform back to dash into another enemy and then send them off the level in one smooth motion. Because of moments like this, Go Mecha Ball has rolled its way to being one of my favorite games of the year in just a few short hours.

For me: Go Mecha Ball gets an 8 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Whale Peak Games and published by Super Rare Originals. It is currently available on Steam, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E10+ and contains Alcohol Reference and Fantasy Violence. Robots explode into pieces when they are destroyed, while the player sparks and starts to smoke, but the screen fades to black before they explode. While the game says Alcohol references, I either didn’t encounter them myself or I completely missed them through my playthrough.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but it’s is not resizable. Audio mostly serves aesthetic purposes and is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control scheme layout. Players can hold left trigger to go into ball form, and release to go back to mech form. Right Trigger shoots the currently equipped weapon. Left and Right bumpers are both for abilities. Left control stick will move the character, while the right control stick will aim the gun. “X” will switch weapons, “A” will select items to purchase in the shop.

The post Go Mecha Ball VIDEO Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The buzzsaw flying saucer.

LOW Little reason to play more than a couple times.

WTF Why did this alien have to come to Earth to get high?

Despite my inconsistent skill, shmups are one of my favorite genres. So, when I read about Excessive Trim, a shmup-like where players control an alien in a buzzsaw flying saucer bringing destruction to earthly farm fields, I was intrigued. Upon playing, that intrigue quickly faded…

There’s not much story to Excessive Trim. An alien is visiting Earth in search of weed and other drugs. It has arrived in a buzzsaw spacecraft, and for some reason has decided to rain carnage down on procedurally-generated farmland, and that’s about all players get — there is no significant reason why the alien is on Earth, why it needs human narcotics, or why it’s so hellbent on destroying Earth’s hardworking farmers.

The player’s only mode of attack is the large flying saucer. A buzzsaw is constantly circling the craft and charged attacks make quick work of cows, farmers, and tractors roaming the fields. It’s a cool idea in concept, but the procedurally-generated content becomes repetitive quickly, and offers little in the way of variety. Less than ten attempts in, and I was ready to play something else.

The controls in Excessive Trim are simple and precise, but there is no tutorial or even an in-game menu letting players know what buttons to press. A simple intro stage letting players know how to play the game would have gone a long way towards improving the overall experience.

I enjoy the graphics of Excessive Trim, though. A simple, three-color scheme is blended with pseudo-3D characters and landscapes. This creates a unique look, but like the rest of the title, it became repetitive quickly. Players can change the color palette, but I found the other options hard on the eyes and quickly returned to the default mode.

Excessive Trim has great concepts, but falls short in execution. Solid graphics and a buzzsaw spacecraft can’t save it from feeling more like an extended tech demo than a fully-realized experience.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Panda Indie Studio and published by EastAsiaSoft. It is currently available on XBO, XBX/S, PS4, PS5, and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 2 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. This reviewer reached level 7 and collected over 200 in-game collectibles. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood, Use of Drugs, Violence. No officially summary is available, but this game lives up to its descriptors. While violence is cartoonish in nature, there is plenty of blood-splattering kills of both the human and bovine variety. Drug use is plentiful — the main character is depicted smoking marijuana and players can buy narcotic power-ups, like magic mushrooms.

Colorblind Modes: Thereare no colorblind modes available. However, in addition to the default red, white, and black palette, there are seven additional color schemes for the graphics.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles, as there is no in-game story or dialogue. Menu text size, including upgrade shops during the game, cannot be altered and/or resized. There were no noticeable sound cues that impact gameplay. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. Players move the alien spacecraft with either the left joystick or left control buttons. The dash/pound move can be executed with either the A button or the two shoulder buttons, ZL and ZR.

The post Excessive Trim Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stages one, two, three, and five.

LOW The fourth stage.

WTF Locking an advertised feature behind a secret location!?

I’m a dog person and dogs are great, but even the best ones can be frustrating at times — like when the dog wakes up at three in the morning and proceeds to puke on the carpet while standing on the hardwood floor. The recent, dog-based shoot ‘em up, ProtoCorgi, has inspired similar mixed feelings of joy and frustration.

ProtoCorgi is a shoot ‘em up that focuses on a C3 class (Cut Cybernetic Corgi) pup, Bullet, on a mission to save its owner from aliens intent on conquering the universe. Players take control of the titular corgi and blast their way through 5 lengthy stages filled with robotic fish, space samurais, and a bevy of other over-the-top android enemies.

The graphics are bright and colorful pixelated cartoons that fit perfectly with the not-so-serious premise of this shoot ‘em up. The art is enhanced further with excellent music that’s fast and upbeat, conveying a Saturday Morning cartoon-like urgency of saving the world.

Thankfully, ProtoCorgi controls smoothly, providing players with a great experience as they control Bullet. Holding the fire button unleashes a steady barrage of lasers and rocket upgrades that are dropped by enemies throughout the campaign. Repeatedly pressing the same button sends out a sonic “BARK!” — powerful, but comes at a price, as this attack is slower.

There are also alternate abilities, and all are unlockable by finding secret sections within each stage — a perplexing inclusion given the game’s advertising. One of the main attacks shown in PR videos is a “spirit” attack — Bullet has a ghost dog that zooms across the screen and punches enemies with an extremely powerful strike. Even though this can be unlocked in the first stage, due to its hidden status I imagine that many gamers will play for hours without unlocking it.

Another annoyance with ProtoCorgi is the fourth stage. The rest of the campaign provides a good challenge without being too frustrating, but thanks to some questionable visual decisions, level four is the equivalent of the dog puking on the carpet while standing on the hardwood floor. The level begins with a background that scrolls vertically with Bullet’s movements, while the foreground action scrolls horizontally. I don’t get motion sickness, but this made me queasy.

Stage four also has quick-dodge sections that preview the upcoming area by blinking the entire stage’s layout. While this warning is needed in a fast-paced flying game, something simpler, like a small, lone arrow, may have helped make it easier on the eyes. With both visual miscues, I could only play this section once per day, as multiple attempts resulted in headaches.

Overall, ProtoCorgi is a good game — it controls well and has style galore, which are both key parts of a good shoot ‘em up. Unfortunately, one level with seriously questionable design decisions keeps this from winning Best of Show.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Kemono Games and published by Ravenscourt. It is currently available on Switch and PC.This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. Less than 30 minutes were spent in the stage creator mode.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Mild Fantasy Violence. No official description is available, but this one is safe for most younger gamers. This is typical shoot ‘em up gameplay, with not an ounce of bloodshed. Most enemies are humorous looking robotic creatures and blow up when defeated, leaving behind debris or food when they explode.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles. The game’s intro tells the main story, but only through pictures, no voiceover. There are no audio cues needed for play. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. Controls on PC include keyboard and controller options, both of which are remappable.

The post ProtoCorgi Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Today GameCritics is happy to present this video covering Bleak Sword DX from guest contributor Arlyeon. For more from Arlyeon, you can check out their YouTube channel or their Discord. You can also support them on Patreon!

Hey Folks! It’s time to strap in for some swift suffering, since today I’m going to be talking about More8bit’s brutal hack & slash, Bleak Sword DX. In essence, this expands upon the initial apple arcade release, providing a remixed and extended campaign to cleave through. That said, was I quick to pick up this bit of swordplay, or did it wind up being a deluxe disappointment?  I’m your host Arlyeon, Let’s find out together. 

In just one night, the Kingdom fell – the royal family fell by one of their own. And yet, this was not a brutal act of ambitious politics. Rather, it was caused by the corrupting influence of a dark relic known as the Bleak sword which poisoned, and ultimately possessed it’s wielder. And that was just the start.

Granted unnatural longevity by the blade itself, the Bleak King was granted centuries to enact his reign, plunging the countryside into chaos, as dark magic spread freely, and countless horrific creatures emerged from their slumber. 

A seemingly endless nightmare – were it not for the curious dream a lone wanderer receives. 3 Magic stones, scattered across the countryside- which when united, might be able to overcome the fell magics of the Bleak Sword.

As for the execution, the game’s intro does most of the heavy lifting, as it introduces both the backstory and premise. Yes, there are some brief scenes to accompany every boss fight, as well as to showcase your journey forward- but the real meat of the narrative comes in this moment, and the finale, by all accounts.

Almost. See, once you clear the central story, there are a trio of epilogue areas- which actually receive a bit more exposition than their peers, insofar as explaining the context for your journey. Even still, it’s overall a fairly straightforward affair- which leans more towards providing cinematic moments, and establishing a mood, than trying to engross players in a complicated narrative.

And this focus on simplicity is equally reflected in how this Hack & Slash plays. The controls are simple enough – being a basic combo, a charge attack, a parry, and a dodge roll. Yes, there is a stamina meter to manage, which imposes some slight degree of tactical consideration- but, even that isn’t too bad, given it’s wholly divorced from your dodges, as well as your ability to parry and counter. Admittedly, getting the timing on counters -can- be a bit tricky at first, but short of the stupid spiders, just about every other enemy in the game is well telegraphed on this front. And if they can’t be countered, their animations still let you know when to dodge.

What’s more, Bleak sword’s approach to stage design really helps to make the experience feel snapping. See, each level is essentially an arena, which tasks you with clearing out the enemies which crop up (ideally in a timely fashion, given certain stages seek to overwhelm you).

That said, even with this basic premise, I remained solidly engaged. Part of this is simply due to the diversity of each of the game’s biomes. In total, there’s 12- with 11 of them having 12 stages, and 1 with 6.

Each of these regions have their own pools of enemies, and suitably dramatic boss encounters- providing you some suitably solid enemy types to learn the nuances of- as well as environmental hazards to adapt to. (And even without those, there’s still a fair amount of attention provided to the stages themselves, as pillars, trees, or even narrow hallways all serve to change how you’ll adapt to incoming enemies.)

But the element which helped to hook me the most, was the overall snappy pacing of Bleak Sword as a whole. Each of those stages are relatively quick to clear on their own- provided you maintain a good pace, making this a -very- good game for people who want something to pick up and play briefly- but also providing enough variety to motivate a player to barrel through it’s content over the course of an afternoon or two.

Still, as brutal as the game can be- there are some elements to facilitate your journey. Namely, items and leveling. Items are straightforward enough- when you clear a stage, you’ll occasionally receive an item, such as a consumable health item, or an accessory that boosts your attack and/or defense. There’s also scrolls that permanently boost a stat- though these are incredibly rare.

Only, well- you only have two item slots, which means optimizing your loadout is a logistics decision- especially with early accessories that might provide more attack, but drop your defense.

Leveling, likewise, is another straightforward element. Gain enough exp, and you’re given a choice to increase either your attack or defense, alternating every level. I mean, you can boost your health- but, well, attack helps a -lot- with keeping combat quick and snappy.

Admittedly, these systems aren’t safe from the game’s overarching difficulty, either. See, when you clear a stage, you don’t actually heal back all your health, only a portion of it. Which is made important, since you bleed out -all- the experience you’ve earned towards your next level -and- drop all your items when you die. While you -do- regain it all, if you clear the stage that killed you- you only get 1 shot to do so. Which is a bit rough, given- clearing that stage when you’ve -lost- all the boosts from your equipment can be rough. There were more than a few instances where I got wrecked, and proceeded to double back to earlier areas to farm up a brand new loadout.

In any case, as much as this provided a -lot- of content for me to pour over (and master, given I collected the majority of the achievements related to clearing bosses without being hit) – that isn’t the full extent of the game. Once you’ve cleared it, you unlock a brutally hard extra difficulty -and- an additional 2 game modes. Namely, a boss rush, that pits you against every boss in the game, back to back- without items or leveling boosts -and- an arena.

The arena, on the other hand, starts out a lot more forgiving, but even its difficulty scales up considerably, as it won’t be long until you’re facing off against foes from the final biomes, all while your gear and level remains the same. It’s, uh, a time- but it definitely provides more content for those seeking a challenge.

But, that’s the gameplay- so let’s move onto the graphics- and, on the whole, I appreciated this quite a bit. Visually speaking, there’s a low-fi quality to the entire thing, but, it still manages to provide decently detailed stages to navigate, which manage to lean into the dark ambience the game is trying to evoke. I was, in fact, surprised at how dramatic the boss intros could be, despite the more simplistic visual presentation.

Also, the fact that each stage is stylized like a Diorama was definitely a unique element- as was the manner in which certain elements of the stage provided an obstacle both as a physical impediment, as well as a potentially obscuring element that might allow an enemy to surreptitiously advance. It -really- coaxed me into playing more cautiously, and making use of the terrain to my advantage.

I also appreciated the weather effects, because it was interesting to navigate the haze of a snowstorm, or a sudden flash of lightning obscuring the battlefield. The latter element -does- represent a hazard to epileptics- but, there is a handy accessibility option that allows you to tune down Lightning Strength. 

That said, what really brings the thunder here is the soundtrack. If you’ve played Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, or Below, the music might sound familiar to you, since the OST was done by Jim Guthries. And it is just -delightful-. To the point that listening to more of the tunes was another major factor in my desire to just crush stage after stage.

But yeah- all in all, this was my experience with Bleak Sword. Well, beyond the fact that I highly recommend using a controller. Yes, you can remap the keyboard controls (and even include the mouse) – but, it wasn’t my tool of choice here.

That detail aside- I overall had a -lot- of fun. While simple, the overall story felt -fun- to engage with and witness. (And there were- some neat details to be found in the game’s bestiary). That said, the real star of the show was the gameplay. It’s a -solid-, challenging experience, and I was surprised at the sheer amount of variety that it provided. What’s more, if you were like me, and stacked your offense to the high heavens, the Arena provides a -very- solid avenue for you to see the full repertoire of your enemies arsenals- because they -are- more than one trick ponies. A fact that kept me on my toes the entire time.

Which is a lot of words to say, I recommend this game, – enough to call it a very solid HIT.

*

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