HIGH Solid, classic-style 2D graphics and catchy tunes.

LOW Brutal difficulty even higher than the original.

WTF The first game I’ve seen where the score resets after losing a life…

Difficulty is a topic that has dominated the discourse over the last few months. However, let’s all agree on a simple point — finding the right balance between challenge and enjoyment isn’t easy at all. Some developers can spend years tinkering with a formula before release, but in the case of Ganryu 2, I think this one needed more time in the lab.

As readers have surely noticed, the “2” in the title indicates that this is a sequel. The original is a little-known (and not very special) 1999 Neo-Geo side-scrolling hack-and-slash which featured two playable characters. Apparently, Storybird Studio thought it was the perfect IP to bring back to life and develop a sequel to.

Narratively, there’s not much to pay attention to — Miyamoto Musashi, the protagonist of the original, gets called back to Japan to fight against evil. No second playable character here.

The press release mentions both Shinobi 3 and Shadow Dancer as inspirations for Ganryu 2. Indeed, the idea is clearly there in the way Musashi roams the Japanese countryside dispatching enemies left and right. Yes, this is a classic 2D side-scrolling hack-and-slash with a few alt weapons, wall-jumping and such, but essentially players run and jump around, dispose of enemies, reach the boss at the end of the level, and progress. There’s nothing more to it than that, but there doesn’t need to be.

Still, mentioning a huge classic like Shinobi III as a point of comparison reveals right away the problem with Storybird’s attempt — there is no flow nor rhythm to the gameplay here. Where Sega’s work felt like a magical dance in the way their ninja progressed through each level with beautiful 2D graphics and an exquisite Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, none of that same energy is here.

The jumps feel floaty and imprecise, the rhythm is constantly interrupted by enemies spawning everywhere, and above all, the difficulty feels cheap.

Ganryu 2 wants the player to memorize every little obstacle by trial and error in an oldschool way, which would be fine if the player wasn’t punished for death by resetting the score, losing all power-ups and being set back quite a way. While Musashi has a health meter, a hit often sends him flying back (good old ‘Nintendo Hard’ trope design) into an abyss.

Worse, there are no difficulty settings (nor any settings at all, except for volume) which is a bewildering sight for a retro-themed 2022 release. Players dealt with this kind of difficulty because we had to back in the 8- and 16-bit days, but design and player concessions have come a long way since then. Seeing the words ‘game over’ with all of the penalties that come with it in Ganryu 2 will not be a welcome sight.

Technically, Ganryu 2 stutters a lot on the Switch, especially in Stage 2. This is is indeed a problem when the action requires one to be extremely careful. Apparently things got worse after the first patch and the team is working on another, but still.

Apart the stuttering, the otherwise-pleasing graphics get in the way of the action. Some visual elements are foregrounded and obscure the enemies which tend to randomly spawn whenever one goes exploring about, sometimes even right on top of the player’s sprite. These aspects of the difficulty in Ganryu 2 simply do not feel fair since skill won’t help.

Retro players starved for a Shinobi-like title who also relish mastery through repetition will surely see this as the perfect opportunity — just be sure to get anything other than the Switch version. For everyone else, Ganryu 2‘s try-and-die learning curve is repulsive, and the trial-and-error design harshly punishes the player for every little mistake. It’s one of those rare titles that I do not wish to go back to.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Storybird Studio and published by Pixelheart. It is currently available on Switch and PS. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: The game is rated E10+ by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence. Overall, there’s not much in the way of violence and there is no blood, but considering the brutal difficulty of the game I would probably recommend this to a teen audience.

Colorblind Modes: there are no colorblind modes and also, the graphics make identifying the enemies quite more difficult than it should be.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not feature spoken dialogue, nor are audio cues used to communicate enemies’ attacks. Text cannot be altered or resized. In my view, the game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The game is controlled by moving the character around with the D-pad, using B to jump, A to slash and Y to throw kunai daggers (see included scheme). It is not possible to remap the controls.

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HIGH This game is cute, concentrated nostalgia.

LOW Unlocking characters is a bit too random.

WTF I legitimately found myself trying to use Yuri’s moves while playing as Sakura.

Back in the latter half of the ’90s, fighting game fans only had one question on their mind — who would win in a fight between legendary swordmaster Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown and simpering fangirl Sakura Kasugano from Street Fighter? Blade versus fists, grizzled wartime veteran of countless life of death struggles versus an overly optimistic schoolgirl. Nobody knew how this matchup would go, but they yearned to find out, and in November of 1999, owners of the awesome Neo Geo Pocket would get the chance to find out with the release of SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millennium.

Despite the Neo Geo Pocket’s heartbreakingly small install base and modest hardware, Match of the Millenium was an instant classic. It punched way above its weight and provided players with a dream crossover that was so full of charm, good humor and respect for the source material that it’s hard to think of a better example of fanservice, even today. Sure, it’s more than twenty years old at this point, but this rerelease on the Switch shows that it can still hold its own with nostalgia-driven players like myself, and it’s likely a strong enough experience to win over a few new fans as well.

As far as presentation goes, there’s a cute ‘virtual’ Neo Geo Pocket plonked in the middle of the Switch screen. The view can be zoomed in on to get a better view of the action, and the skins surrounding the play area can be changed to reflect the various types of NGPC skins that were available for the device. Naturally, I opted to mirror the one I owned and settled on a nice Stone Blue skin.

It’s staggering just how much personality and depth SNK managed to cram into such a tiny cartridge back then. Rival characters such as Kyo and Ryu or Terry and Ken often get pre-fight dialogues and animations before kicking off each bout, facial expressions and personality tics come across well in the super-deformed graphic style and the kicks and punches feel nice and solid with well-judged pauses at the moment of impact. Oh, and the writing is absurd — it’s oddly translated and utterly charming.

Since the Neo Geo Pocket only had two main face buttons, there’s only one button each for punches and kicks. A short tap will slap out a weak version and holding it a little longer will trigger the stronger one. It’s not ideal, but works well given the constraints of the original hardware. Sadly, there’s no option to map weak and strong attacks over the Switch’s four-button interface to more closely reflect the standard King of Fighters style setup.

The roster is excellent, with a variety of characters from each company’s respective franchises on offer. Whether it’s Kyo vs Ryu, Nakoruru vs Morrigan or sword-wielding maniac Haohmaru against resident schoolgirl Sakura, there’s a great initial roster that can be further bolstered with character unlocks such as Geese and M. Bison, powered up versions of Iori and Ryu, and a few others. Akari from Last Blade, anyone?

The stages and music are all lifted from the franchises rather than being original constructs and compositions, but this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, it’s the right move. While the NGPC sound chip isn’t able to replicate each track accurately, they’re still great renditions — fighting Morrigan on Terry’s train as it rushes past Mount Rushmore to the sound of Esaka… yep, it’s a pretty awesome dose of fanservice.

The method of playing against another player whilst undocked is cool, too. The screen flips vertically, mirrors itself on opposite ends of the Switch, and allows both players to use the buttons on each end of the device — a nice touch for the handheld as it brings to mind similar arcade cabinets I’ve seen in Japan.

Another nice thing about Match of the Millennium is that it comes with a hefty variety of additional modes. Of course there’s the standard Story mode where Geese Howard and M. Bison are teaming up to unleash evil on the world, in addition to a variety of one-on-one fights and Tag matches, but far more surprising is the variety of minigames unrelated to battle.

By choosing the Olympics mode, players can skip between Team SNK and Team Capcom (managed by Rimururu and Karin Kanzuki respectively) and aim for medals in a variety of events. Some of these are twists on the main game, while others are completely different. Ranging from fending off an invasion of the Mars People from Metal Slug in a shooting gallery to helping Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins not get murdered by enemies while snatching up bags of gold and treasure chests, there’s a nice selection of simple (but enjoyable) distractions that earn points used to purchase bonus supers for each character.

So, Match of the Millennium is a nostalgic stroke of genius is basically what I’m saying. Surely it has some problems though? Surprisingly few, actually.

Unfortunately, neither the Switch’s Joycon analog sticks nor its d-pad are suited for precision inputs in fighting games. Dragon punch-style actions can be inconsistent to pull off in the heat of battle, though SNK’s half- or quarter-circle then forward motions didn’t give me the same amount of trouble.

The other issue worth mentioning is that unlocking characters requires many runs of the tournament mode, at which point panels will be removed from an illustration of the new character. Unfortunately, the panels removed are random and sometimes panels that are already gone get ‘removed’ again, making these unlocks a luck-dependent chore.

SNK vs Capcom‘s certainly not going to leave jaws on the floor with its technical prowess and it’s not as precise as many ‘serious’ fighters on more powerful hardware, but it’s a cute and immensely enjoyable blast from the past that’s certain to bring a smile to the face of fans at a price that’s tough to beat.

And hey, not to be greedy or anything, but when’s Card Fighter’s Clash coming to the Switch?

Disclosures: This game is developed/ported by Code Mystics and published by SNK Corporation. It is currently available on the Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. Less than 1 hour of play was spent in multiplayer modes. There’s no online play, and it’s not like there’s a lot of local competition during a pandemic. I checked it out though, and it looks neat.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood and Suggestive Themes. Nobody in their right mind could be offended by this. It’s cute and adorable with chibi characters duking it out in a cartoonish and lovable manner.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized, except by enlarging the screen as a whole. Also, sound is not required to enjoy this game. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable, with buttons able to be changed on the emulator / hardware level.

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HIGH My addictive first two-hour play session.

LOW Trying to catch lobs out of a slide is frustratingly hit-or-miss.

WTF The surprisingly magical alchemy of Frisbee, tennis and air hockey.

I was only a few hours into Windjammers and this review was already beginning to take shape.

“2017 is The Year of The New Retro Sports Game,” it would read, citing Windjammers and Pyre (the visual novel-meets-SNES-style-basketball game from Supergiant) as evidence. Look at all these developers creating new but retro-feeling sports games!

The problem is that Windjammers, developed and published for the PS4 and Vita by DotEmu, is not a new game. On the contrary, this 1994 cult classic originally released for the Neo Geo is so cult that I had never heard of it, and so classic that it feels like it was created for today’s audience.

The game’s aesthetic is pure ‘90s — bass that sounds like it was ripped from the Seinfeld theme song, sunny G-rated rap, and 16-bit character models in the vein of Street Fighter II, dressed in uniforms that wouldn’t look out of place in a Tae Bo video. Despite the retro look, the depth of gameplay and responsive controls haven’t aged a day.

Basically, Windjammers is a fictional sport which incorporates aspects of tennis, air hockey and ultimate Frisbee. The top-down camera displays what is essentially a tennis court, complete with a net down the middle and four quadrants subdivided by white, painted lines. One player occupies each side of the court, serving as both offense and defense, attempting to throw a brightly-colored disc into their opponent’s goal which runs the entire width of the court. At the same time, they’re doing their damnedest to prevent their opponent from doing the same to them.

As in air hockey, bouncing the disc off the sides of the court is encouraged, and quarter- and half- rotations of the left stick add increasing amounts of curve to the disc. Sending it sailing into the larger yellow portions of the goal will net the player three points, but scoring in the smaller red sections is worth five, so bouncing and curving at angles is required for maximum points.

Windjammers features six playable characters ranging from the light and fast Hiromi Mita of Japan to the tank-like German, Klaus Wessel. Larger characters throw the disc harder and faster, but smaller characters are less likely to get blindsided if an opponent hurls the Frisbee into a hard-to-reach corner.

However, even speedy characters like Mita move at a snail’s pace compared to the rocketing discs that Windjammers’ athletes hurl around the court, so mastery of sliding is required to pull off consistent receptions. Slides take some time to recover from (the greater the character’s size, the longer the recovery) so it’s essential to be strategic in making these split-second decisions. Each character also has a different supercharged shot which they can unleash by holding the X button at the correct times. Larger characters have more powerful special moves.

In action– especially on the medium or hard difficulty settings– a long volley in Windjammers is a thing to behold, like a table tennis match at the Olympic games. Playing at a high level requires lightning fast reflexes, and the tide can turn in a matter of seconds. The game rarely felt unfair, however, because I was constantly aware that the play had meaty depth just underneath the surface.

This release of Windjammers, though, is not similarly meaty. There are some cool additions like the option to play with a fuzzy TV filter or the curvature of an arcade cabinet’s bubble screen bending the edges of the court, but the game itself is pretty barebones. The only singleplayer option is an arcade mode which tasks the player with defeating the six playable characters, but there’s no campaign proper.

A few of the maps switch up the basic formula by adding barriers across the middle of the court which jammers can use to achieve interesting bounce and curve shots, and there are two mini-games–one which tasks the player with controlling a dog attempting to catch a Frisbee, another is bowling but with a disc–but neither of these are especially compelling.

In the end, Windjammers is a mechanically interesting experience that still feels fresh 23 years after its release, but this PS4 edition doesn’t include much to enhance the original. As it stands, Windjammers is enjoyable for an afternoon with friends, but it doesn’t offer much to hook players for the long term. Rating: 7 out of 10

Disclosures: This updated version of Windjammers was developed for PS4 and Vita and published by DotEmu. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 10 hours were devoted to the game between the arcade, local and online multiplayer modes and the game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E with no content descriptors. Nothing to worry about here.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Aside from the characters’ nation-specific barks (like Steve Miller, the British jammer, saying “Good show!” after a set) there is no dialogue in the game, and important audio cues (like the opening whistle) have visual counterparts.

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

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

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