HIGH The blunderbuss!

LOW The second act.

WTF Who knew a 17^th century shotgun could be such a versatile tool?

I came to Sacre Bleu with little foreknowledge of musketeers.  Having now spent several swashbuckling hours beneath one of their plumed hats, I can safely say I have overlooked the deadliest fighting force in human history.  From standard swords and pistols to the more esoteric blunderbuss that doubles as a rocket propulsion system, the destructive capacity of these frisky Frenchmen cannot be overstated.  Dubious historical accuracy aside, Sacre Bleu is an excellent demonstration of the alchemical potential between flexible mechanics and (mostly) tight design.

Ostensibly a 2D action-platformer, Sacre Bleu tasks players with battling through castles, kitchens and sewers to escape the clutches of a corrupt Cardinal and his army of mercenaries.  However, the cartoony, side-scrolling trappings hide Sacre Bleu’s more tactical nature. 

Due in large part to its heavy reliance on slow motion, combat in Sacre Bleu has a unique flow.  Any time players aim one of their weapons, the action slows down, allowing ample time to plan an assault.  Building on this foundation is the blunderbuss.  Though counterintuitive, this rifle does not deal direct damage.  Instead, firing blasts of air that can launch the player skyward and move objects, this weapon becomes a tool to set up elaborate attacks with the more bespoke weapons, such as the pistol and grenades.

There is a staccato rhythm to these fights.  Snapping in and out of slow motion, bursts from the blunderbuss propel the musketeer across the battlefield lining up headshots, deflecting arrows and lobbing grenades along the way.  Measured consideration and chaotic heroism form an exhilarating union as moments of careful planning are punctuated by explosions and corpses.

Sacre Bleu reinforces this cadence in its platforming.  Many of the stages are made up of spike-filled mazes requiring quick, mid-air turns, and it is here that the blunderbuss truly takes center stage.  Whether it’s launching me up to hard-to-reach ledges, providing a quick boost to outrun spinning blades, or simply knocking obstacles out of the way, I felt as though I was constantly finding new uses for it.  With up to three bursts before touching down, freezing time mid-air to adjust the musketeer’s trajectory is a breeze.  While intimidating in appearance, even the most complex sequences rely more on keen observation and planning than pinpoint precision.

Unfortunately, these stellar mechanics are let down by Sacre Bleu’s inconsistent camera. The perspective was often either too close or too far away. It just never seemed to be where I wanted, and I found it difficult to track my character during some of the trickier platforming segments. There were also times when my character outpaced the camera, and I’d sprint headlong into a wall of spikes I couldn’t yet see.

Compounding these issues is Sacre Bleu’s underbaked middle third.  With a greater emphasis on puzzles, many of these sections require the player to stand in specific spots while using the blunderbuss to manipulate the environment.  While a nice change of pace, these segments can be overly fiddly.  Though not a deal breaker, knowing exactly what I needed to do, but being unable to execute because my character isn’t in quite the right spot is never a great feeling.

Ultimately, what I admire most about Sacre Bleu is its focus.  The developers came up with a novel core mechanic in the blunderbuss and explored its full potential.  While not every element is executed to perfection, there is nothing wasted, and Sacre Bleu never overstays its welcome.  With a little tighter fit and finish, Sacre Bleu would be unimpeachable, instead it will have to settle for just being pretty darned good.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Buy Sacre Bleu – PC – Switch

Disclosures: This game is developed by Hildring Studio Inc and published by Noodlecake Studios.It is currently available on PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Switch. Approximately 6 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, Crude Humor, and Violence.  While this game contains pervasive violence, it’s presented in cartoony, unrealistic fashion.  Additionally, the camera is generally pulled far enough back that the action appears small on the screen. Enemies can be killed with pistols, swords, grenades and arrows. There is a small amount of blood occasionally, and enemies cry out when killed. There is no profanity.

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. There is no recorded dialogue in this game, and all conversations are represented in on-screen text boxes.  All visual cues are accompanied by on-screen indicators. About half of my playtime was without sound and I did not experience any issues or difficulties. This game is fully accessible.

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

The post Sacre Bleu Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

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.

The post Ganryu 2 Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Browsing the design documentation.

LOW The online experience for some of the titles.

WTF Doing research and finding Easter eggs everywhere.

The Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is a collection of seven side-scrolling arcade-style brawlers taken from the dev’s libraries from 1989 to 1997. The titles are, in chronological order: Final Fight, King of Dragons, Captain Commando, Knights of the Round, Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors, and Battle Circuit.

All of them are presented with both English and Japanese versions, offline and online play, a raft of design documents and supporting art, the ability to alter the difficulty and number of lives, and all the games come with different wallpapers to fill out the screen as the games keep their original arcade formatting.

For fans of Final Fight, this is not the definitive version available. That honor goes to the X360/PS3 versions of Final Fight: Double Impact. This Bundle version is packed with extra artwork, but is missing ways to emulate different styles of monitor, the in-game challenges, and it doesn’t seem to be using the GGPO middleware for the online. For those not familiar with it, the player picks one of three fighters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses — Cody (the all-rounder), Guy (faster but weaker) and Haggar (a tank but slower). After selection, it’s all about punching, kicking and grappling through each 2D side-scrolling left-to-right stage using a myriad of weapons to take on increasing numbers of enemies and big bosses at the end of each level.

(Also, it is important to note that Final Fight is not as good as Streets of Rage. It had to be said.)

So, while Final Fight is probably the most well-known of the bunch, the real draw of this collection are the other six titles, some of which haven’t been legitimately released since arcades, and each one has something that adds onto the basic Final Fight template in different and interesting ways.

The King of Dragons offers a Dungeons & Dragons flavor to combat with mages, warriors and archers in the roster of five. There’s a leveling system, a limited block feature with shields for certain characters, and a desperation move that causes more damage at the cost of health. Capcom would later iterate and improve on this in their licensed D&D titlesTower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara. It’s probably the weakest of the titles here with a lot of palette-swapped enemies and weak level design thanks to some sections feeling too narrow to navigate with multiple players at the same time. The bosses — although good to look at — have predictable patterns, and are often easier to beat than the mobs.

Captain Commando holds a special place in my heart as the game that swallowed up most of my change back in 1991. It has a distinct roster of 4 ‘commandos’ with big bulky sprites that look the part. It was a delight to go through the backstory and find out that Captain Commando himself was a mascot in the US for many years. The characters are all well-animated, there are bulky mechs to commandeer, and a collection of melee and ranged weapons to pick up. There’s still a palette-swap problem, but because each level feels distinct, it was still enjoyable to return to it after so many years.

Knights of the Round is probably the biggest surprise included. Based very loosely on Arthurian lore, it follows Percival, Lancelot and Arthur as they wage battle on evil knights and samurai. I was put off by its price on SNES, and didn’t understand the flow of the game when it was in the Arcades — there’s a leveling system that feels largely irrelevant and more like an incentive for players to screw each other over for points. What is interesting is that players have a basic parry system. Timing an attack while pressing back at the same time an enemy strikes will grant a brief moment of invincibility to wail on opponents, and this can be used on bosses too.

Warriors of Fate was a big draw for me. The English language version mangles it, but it’s clear from the visuals that this title is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms saga and predates the Dynasty Warriors franchise. The characters are big, chunky and bold, and imbued with a personality taken from a manga published at the time. Each of the fighters feel quite similar in terms of fighting, but the way that the levels twist and turn and the use of foreground items give it more depth.

Armored Warriors is the standout of the pack as it presents a very different vision for the genre. Each player controls a building-sized mech taking up a huge amount of screen real estate. As well as punching and grappling, each mech has a limited amount of ammo and the ability to rip off arms, weapons, and legs of enemies and using them instead of their own. There are also stand-offs where robots combine and become indestructible for a brief period. It was like the devs looked at Cyborg Justice on the Megadrive, took all the good ideas, and improved on them. The pacing is much more akin to something found on a home console, including in-game interludes where enemies duke it out verbally before punching each other into spare parts.

Battle Circuit sees Capcom at the end of an era and at the top of their game. Although the fighting isn’t particularly noteworthy at first, the visuals are vibrant and each area feels distinct and inventive. Each of the characters can be leveled up with new moves, and there’s a ton of interactivity between them when desperation moves are used in unison. This entry has never been available legally on any platform outside the arcades, so it’s almost worth the price of the Bundle just to have this.

In offline mode, all seven games appear to be arcade-perfect, with no frames dropped and no irritating flicker like the kind found on early home console ports. Unfortunately, the online co-op isn’t as flawless — unsurprising, as these games were never built with online in mind. The connections were stable and the games were all basically playable but there was noticeable input delay that could mess with some of the requirements for precise input.

The only other issue worth mentioning is that since there are no quarters being dropped into a machine to play these, it’s a simple matter for anyone to brute force their way to the end, and once that’s done, there’s no incentive to go back. This lack of replayability is common to arcade titles at the time since they were designed to extract as much money as possible from players — the nuanced, deeper design one might expect didn’t start becoming common until home consoles established a strong foothold.

The Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is a great collection of famous (and not-so-famous) games from what I would consider to be a golden age for the publisher, and despite their age and simple designs, there’s still some fight left in these old dogs. Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Capcom and published by Capcom. It is currently available on PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBO. Approximately 7 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and most of the games were completed. 4 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Teen. The games do include cartoon violence with Captain Commando leaning into more macabre bloodless limb severing or bodies being disintegrated. Nothing is overtly disturbing but some parents may want to keep their young kids away from them.

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

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: The game is fully playable without sound. The text is not adjustable. All dialogue is delivered via subtitles, although there is very little of it, and the fonts vary from game to game. Overall, this content is completely accessible.

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

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HIGH Reliving my childhood arcade memories.

LOW Getting bored every 30 minutes or so.

WTF Watching my AI partner wander aimlessly while I needed to be revived.

Among my friends, I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t have fond memories of feeding quarters into beat-‘em-ups at the local arcade. Thanks to levels full of traversing cities, moving trains, suplexing thugs, and breaking trash cans open to find whole roast chickens for health, beat-’em-ups always seemed more exciting and story-driven than fighting games or high score titles.

The genre faded into obscurity along with the arcades they called home, but the decades of pent-up nostalgia made me all the more thrilled when I learned that Devolver Digital was helping bring the beat-’em-up back with Mother Russia Bleeds, a pixelated mash-up of Final fight and Hotline Miami. Unfortunately, the years have not been kind to the genre.

Like the best beat-’em-ups of yore, Mother Russia Bleeds starts its story off with a bang, going from zero to thirsting for vengeance in sixty seconds. It starts as just another day of strolling in to an underground fight club to bludgeon an endless horde of bums into submission when a truck full of riot police shows up. The cops whisk the main character away to a gulag somewhere, where they awaken strung out on an experimental drug, wanting to stick it to the party responsible.

The story doesn’t take many unexpected twists or turns from there, but the aforementioned experimental drug changes up the “mash the punch button for success” gameplay just enough to keep things interesting. From the start of Mother Russia Bleeds, players have the choice of injecting the drug in two different ways, represented by the two triggers on a controller: either to regain health or to enter a killing frenzy.

The killing frenzy speeds player movement while slowing enemies down, and renders most grunts one button press away from a gruesome death. Players start with three uses of the syringe, and can refill it by sucking the drug-infected blood out of enemies that twitch on the ground after death (tonally, a bit different from eating a hamburger left on the street).

This management of blood creates an interesting risk-versus-reward when battling the occasionally frustrating bosses, or taking on a large crowd of enemies. Where I may have mindlessly mashed the attack buttons in other beat-’em-ups, I found myself maneuvering around the screen to make sure I was killing enemies in the open, and not using environmental kills that made their bodies disappear when I needed health. In addition, players can unlock different effects for the drugs on multiple playthroughs and by doing challenges in the endless arena modes.

Beyond that, Mother Russia Bleeds plays exactly like beat-em-ups from my youth… to a fault.

A nifty (but not well-explained) combo system makes combat a little deeper than the average on paper, but my play sessions with still boiled down to mashing punch, kick, and occasionally grab to defeat hordes of mindless enemies. I would then get frustrated with a boss battle, call down partner AI after my first few unsuccessful solo tries, and move on to the next level where I would rinse and repeat.

Because co-op is bizarrely limited to local players with no online options, I did (unfortunately) complete the entire game by myself. I imagine playing with a friend on the couch would be a bit more entertaining, but it wouldn’t change the fact that the staleness inherent to beat-’em-ups quickly sets in, exacerbated by the fact that playtime is no longer limited by the amount of quarters in my pocket.

Ultimately, while Mother Russia Bleeds does an admirable job of evoking beat-’em-up nostalgia, it did little to hold my interest beyond a handful of sessions. I found no reason to return to the story mode after completing it, and the endless arena mode only further highlights my problems with the game since it lacks the modest progression of the campaign.

Gamers with a special place in their hearts for beat-’em-ups may get several sessions’ worth of enjoyment out of it (and I’d still recommend it to folks who really enjoyed arcade beat-’em-ups back in the day) but Mother Russia Bleeds is not the shot in the arm the genre needed to remain relevant in 2016. Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game was developed by Le Cartel Studio and published by Devolver Digital. This review code was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 4 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. No time was spent in multiplayer mode because multi is local only, although AI bots are able to be called in for assistance.

Parents: As an independent release, Mother Russia Bleeds did not receive a rating from the ESRB, but I would fully expect a rating of M. As the title suggests, blood abounds as players wallop on their enemies. Weapon pickups and environmental kills available on most levels definitely cross the line into exceedingly gruesome territory.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: No audio cues are necessary to defeat any of the enemies or bosses, and all dialog is shown as text.

Remappable Controls: Keyboard controls are fully remappable, Controller inputs cannot be changed. Iy you plug a Dualshock 4 in directly without third-party software, the correct PlayStation inputs are displayed.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind settings in this game.

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