The Longest 5 Minutes

• Developers: Syupro-DX, Nippon Ichi Software Inc
• Publisher: NIS America
• Genre: JRPG
• Players: 1
• Platform: Steam, PlayStation Vita (reviewed), Nintendo Switch
• Release Date: July 28^th 2016 (Japan), February 13^th 2018 (North America), February 16^th 2018 (Europe)
• Microtransactions: None

Turn Based Magic

The Longest 5 Minutes is an old school top-down JRPG but with an added twist to the mechanic which I’ll go into later on.  First released way back in July 28^th 2016 in Japan this game has taken a long time to release over here in the west finally releasing on the 16^th of February earlier this year. As a fan of indie titles I try to look out for more obscure ones to try out as the fit perfectly on my Vita as quick plays but this one turned into something special for me and quite easily one of my favourite indies I’ve played.

The game takes your standard formula of JRPG mechanics but turns it on its head by starting you at the very end game battle right from the start. The whole ‘final battle’ takes place over a 5 minute period but this five minutes like the title of the game suggests is a lot longer than you think.

This final battle section plays more like a visual novel the way it’s set up as you have your multiple choice answers each time you interact in this section and depending on your choices you enter a different flashback to early on in your journey.

Time In Hand

The hero character you play with through the game, Flash, can’t remember how he ended up at the final battle with The Demon King so each time you ‘remember’ a piece of your memory you travel back to an earlier time in the story. These memories are all time stamped so you’ll see your at memory let’s say 6 seconds into the ‘5 minutes’ and it will be a level 6 memory so you’ll do this part of the story now for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending how much you get into it.

During these periods of time it plays much more like your standard JRPG in that you explore, do certain tasks in the story and upgrade yourself and your companion characters gear and weapons. This part of the game is very reminiscent in style to the early Final Fantasy games from the NES/SNES era and the Pokémon franchise with it sticking to the old school 8 bit/16bit graphics look. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest either as even still to this day seeing that style of game is still probably my favourite style and period of gaming and really plays on the nostalgia.

Overall you go through 39 of these memories throughout the whole thing and whilst on a single straight run through of the game you wouldn’t hit all of these I would highly recommend going back and changing through some of your earlier choices. When you do manage to change something in the game it opens up alternative memories to play through and ultimately by doing this effectively it gives you the chance of earning multiple endings.

So depending which ones you ultimately decide to choose to do you can either have a positive outcome at the end or it can end up detrimental.

During the more traditional JRPG times in the game as you travel around the world it can end up a drag at times. This is down to the random spawn drops of enemies. I get that it is one of the most basic aspects of a JRPG but even after 20 years of playing these sort of games occasionally when I’m just wanting to get to a marker location quickly it can be really frustrating every five steps you’re thrown into an encounter.

That’s Right! I Remember!

Overall through the 15ish hours I ended up putting into this game I did have a really fun time with it. The story was quite deep the more you learnt about your character Flash and the backstory of his friends. The villain character The Demon King was also quite a fleshed out villain who had far more in connection to the main heroes than initially anticipated but without spoiling some of the twists it’s hard to talk about.

My main bone of contention though is the pricing of this game, at £34.99 on the PS Store it is a very expensive title for an indie game. I would 100% recommend this to people but also to be cautious of what you are getting. It is still an indie game at the end of the day but you are paying a AAA release price for it so unless you are very into this style or look of games it may not be for you. If it is in a sale at any point which I’m sure it will end up numerous times then that time might be the best to jump into this one.

PROS

• Great mashup of a traditional JRPG mixed with a visual novel
• Concept of working your way backwards through the story is fresh and not utilized in half as many games as it should be
• Very reminiscent of early Final Fantasy and Pokémon games from Nintendo’s early days
• The throughout back style of the 8 bit/16 bit era works perfectly for this sort of game

CONS

• The price point of this game is very steep for what it is
• Random enemy spawns can be a frustrating grind to get through at points
• Relatively short for the style of game it is

VERDICT

7.8/10

The post The Longest 5 Minutes appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

• Developers: MachineGames
• Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
• Genre: First Person Shooter
• Players: 1
• Platforms: Xbox One (Reviewed), Playstation 4, Switch and Steam
• Release Date: 27th October 2017
• Microtransactions: None

Achtung Baby!

Hello folk and welcome to Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. Now I’m only really familiar with the original Wolfenstein, and then the subsequent generic crap that came out up until MachineGames‘ Wolfenstein 2014.

I missed Wolfenstein 2014, but was reliably told from sources I trust that it was a fun little number. Roll around E3 2017, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus trailer spiked my interest. The cut scenes looked mental and over the top, the action visceral. This may be a reason to step back to Wolfenstein.

Along came Mr. Dan Smash, who had a copy of the game, offered it to me for review, and now we are here…

Dam Busters

The game opens up with a rather lengthy cut scene recapping the fuckin’ madness of the previous installment/s. Setting the scene for the chaotic drivel that’s about to unfold over the next 10-13 hours.

Once the visual assault has finished, you are then given a intro in the style of a flashback, to when you where a little boy. You are on your bed sobbing, a caring mother comforting a poor frightened child, only for your abusive father to come home and generally be a dick. This here is Wolfenstein attempting pathos… For me it didn’t work, came across forced especially after the madness recap (more on this later).

Then whack! You are in, you are B.J. Blazkowicz, the same chap from every other Wolfenstein game, and why not. Due to the events of the last game, you are captured and without the use of your legs.

This intro level has you control Mr. B.J as you are being attacked aboard a ship, all whilst scooting about using a wheel chair. It was fun, stupid, but fun.

Nazi Gold

Whilst you are bipedal-ly impaired, the standard level of health is 50… I figure, ok, makes sense, I’m injured how clever. It’ll just last this one level… it does not last just one level.

Now being the ass clown that I am, this started to bug me, yes I get that it’s just a number. But after 30 years of gaming 100 is my full health situation. You can over-health yourself all the way up to 200, then your health cools down back down to the 50 of my bane.

Wolfenstein, why do you toy with my mind like so. It’s a small annoyance, that after a few hours of gaming does start to really piss me off. Fortunately for the sake of my sanity this gets resolved due to utter fucking madness during the course of the story. Yay!

Iron Sky

Let’s touch on the gameplay shall we before talking story.

The shooting mechanics are solid, the guns feel like they are firing hot pieces of pointy metal as they should. Action is fast and frantic, plenty of gore and dismemberment… which is always fun.

Axes are used as the melee weapon, to a very gory end. In fact, I’m pretty sure I just ran up to most enemies and axed them to death… it’s rather satisfying.

There’s a mild levelling up system, which give you buffs. So say, get X amount of head shots, and head shots do more damage. Kill folk with explosives you take less explosive damage. Simple things like that.

Every one of your main arsenal has 3 upgrade slots, with their own specific upgrades. For instance your pistol has a silencer, magnum rounds and extended magazine, whilst the Strumgewehr has a scope, armour piercing rounds and a quick reload magazine. These do really make a difference, and are very much welcome when you find one.

Later in the game you get to choose between three “power-ups” of sorts. One, allows you to constrict yourself though small holes, and help stealth. A piece of shoulder armour, which allows to you charge at folks and breakable objects like a bull. Finally some extend-o-legs, which allow you to be…taller? Now, don’t fear if you feel you have chosen poorly, the other power-ups can be found during side missions, provided you speak to the relevant NPC on the Sub.

After plugging through a few levels, the manic pace of combat and lack of new weaponry started to feel stale to me. Add to that, the level designs are often a confusing mess as to the direction I should be going. Bringing the kinetic pace to a sudden deflating stop.

New Orleans especially had me walking in circles, pouring more water over the already ebbing feeling of this game. Only to then finish a level, and be greeted with an entertaining cut-scene.

The Not See Party

Story…tone deaf I think is the phrase here. As mentioned at the top on of the review, Wolfenstein tries hitting you with pathos right from the off, but only goes and undermines everything with trying to be wacky.

You’ll probably hear a lot of people claiming the game is Tarantino-esque, it isn’t. The writing isn’t clever enough. It must be something to do with Inglorious Basterds, which simply means it has Nazi in it. I’m honestly baffled when this is brought up. It’s got more in common with They Live than Tarantino.

Through the first half of the game Mr. B.J laments during the levels, because he’s gonna die and not see his unborn children. Then the game thinks fuck it, this is getting a bit tired, lets go mental instead. Then you get something crazy (funny, entertaining don’t get me wrong) which resolves everything. Almost, like they’d written themselves into a corner.

The leader of your uprising dies early on, so you do a mission recuse a couple named Grace and Super Spesh… Next scene Grace is in charge… Wait, what, why?!?

This is Wolfenstein, trying to hard to be crrrrraaaaazy. It is funny, don’t get me wrong, there’s a few laughs here.

The father story arch from the beginning of the game, is sort of just thrown at you. To be wrapped up, again like they’d written themselves into a corner…

My favourite moments in the game are when you don’t have to fight.

Two scenes stand out to me:

One is walking through the streets to deliver Macguffin #23568. You see a small town under Nazi rule, with the KKK standing proud on the street corners and generally acting like twats. It’s funny seeing them being put in their places by the Germans. This level reminded me of Die Hard on the Gamecube, not an amazing game, but had some great little concepts.

The other is much later where we meet the Fuhrer himself… his frustration and lack of caring at that point of the game echoed with me, I found I had sympathy for digital Hitler.

A New Dawn

Upon completion I breathed a sign of relief. It was done, a decent ending, extremely open ended mind. But I was glad it was over, I enjoyed what I’d played, thanks and goodbye.

Wolfenstein was a mixed bag really, as much as I may have seemed to have really hated it, that’s not the case. The core game is competent, there’s plenty of collectables. The voice acting is fantastic (it’s the script that’s the problem). The graphics are pretty, and there’s some very entertaining sections.

It’s just, with it trying so hard to be edgy and wacky all at the same time, the two didn’t compliment each other that well. Maybe over a shorter game, but running me just over 13 hours to complete. I felt Wolfenstein fatigue by the end, unfortunately knocking what could have been an 8 down a little.

Each level breaks down into, find the commanders kill them to stop the alarm, next section, rinse and repeat. There are some very short side missions, and then you can kill the Uber commanders. You unlock these, by collecting Enigma cards from dead commanders. These missions are just go kill this commander. Very simple, take about 5-10 mins. Nice little extra killing if you don’t need a rest.

PROS

• Gun play has a nice feel in short bursts
• Voice acting is great
• Nice graphics

CONS

• Repetitive
• Repetitive
• Same stuff again and again

VERDICT

7.5/10

The post Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

Wulverblade

• Developers: Fully Illustrated, Darkwind Media
• Publisher: Darkwind Media
• Genre: Side Scrolling Beat ’em Up
• Players: 1-2 (campaign), 1-2 (survival)
• Platforms: Switch (Reviewed), Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Steam
• Release Date: 12th October 2017 (Switch), Steam and Playstation 30th January 2018, Xbox One 31st January 2018
• Microtransactions: None

Ryse

Welcome to Roman occupied Britain 120AD. The Romans are pushing north into Caledonia, 3 Heroes say “Ack! Ney!” to that, whilst eating tatties and neeps they fight back against the Roman might.

Wulverblade is an unashamed classical side scrolling beat’em up. You have lives, you have weapon pick ups, and you have special moves. The things that help define Wulverblade however are somewhat surprising.

Triarii

Wulverblade offers 3 characters to choose from:

Caradoc, 6ft 2in, of angry family man not willing to give up his land or freedom to these foreign invaders. He is the main character of the game.

Brennus, 6ft 7in of beastly brawn, Caradocs brother, the powerhouse and main damage dealer of the pack.

Then, last but certainly not least we have Guinevere, 5ft 9in, deft and lethal with her blade. The younger sister holds her own against the legion.

As with multi-character beat’em ups each character has slightly different stats, and attack types.

Caradoc stats are pretty even on stats with a slight edge towards defense. He is the main character after all, so you’d expect this.

Brennus is extremely biased toward power, with agility and speed being quiet frankly awful. Playing through, that speed became a serious hinderance.

Guinevere, poor power, excellent speed and agility, and with defence comparable to Brennus. Her speed helps greatly especially, with her juggle mechanic (sounds rude).

9th Legion

So on to the combat mechanics (should be short and sweet this one). You have Attack, Strong Attack, Block, and Jump simple. Now something that confused me a little at first (mainly because I didn’t read up on it), your Strong Attack button doesn’t do anything until you pick up a weapon to Strong Attack with. I am stupid, so that is the answer for that. Just thought I’d mention it, because there are a few folk like me out there.

Ok, moving onwards, your block isn’t just a defensive shield in Wulverblade, oh no, you can counter/parry your opponents. Which in the later game becomes very necessary to survive. This happens by pressing your block at the right at the point the enemy hits you. Your character flashes red, and you gain an attack bonus for a few seconds. In those seconds, cut the bastards arms and legs off.

Jumping is more of an avoidance tactic I found, but depending of your character you can cause juggles, which are always fun.

The game litters the floor with items either for points, or weaponry, such as: Arms, heads, seax knife, Spartha, pilums and more. You can use these to throw at your opponents. Other weaponry can be found, which then allows use of the Strong Attack. These weapons often have special attributes like recover health, or armour piercing. Be mindful when using these weapons, as the break with over use. Also, should you get hit whilst holding one, you will drop it, meaning you’ll have to pick it up again.

Wulverblade allows the arcade stable for beat’em ups, an area of effect (AOE) attack. Just like it should be pressing Attack and Jump at the same time damages all those in close proximity, but at a health cost to the player. Sometimes however, you need to tell Romans to back off no matter the cost.

Finally, you have your bomb attack. Call of the wolves, you bellow your battle cry and a pack ferocious wolves come charging in to gnaw on the enemies flesh! Pretty cool, you only have one though, so use it wisely.

The Boggart Of Darwen Barrow

Wulverblade is a pretty looking game, it’s got a very definite art design. The characters are nice and chunky, very cleanly drawn, and well animated. The backgrounds and levels are pretty.

As you play through the levels, the game although being a 2d game as far as sprites are concerned. Does use parallaxing to it’s artistic advantage. You’ll have characters running past in the foreground out of focus, even in the far background. One level has an archer running in the distance, turning and shooting at you, this works very well.

The music is also fitting. Wulverblade is a passion project by a chap named Michael Heald of Fully Illustrated.  Mr. Heald designed each character, came up with the story concept, and put in the leg work for each step of the way, for the past 5 years.

A unique thing about Wulverblade, is the heart. Whenever you play a level you unlock a little production piece or video. These for me are the gems of the game. You are given mini history lessons, pictures and videos of Roman forts and settlement remains in mainland Britain. This is a where a bias comes out in me, and It would be remiss of me if I didn’t admit it. I love history, I love these lands. I love the uniqueness of each country within these lands.

Wulverblade, makes me want to have many a road trip.

The sites in this game are in driving distance of my home. I’m inspired by this passion project, to visit these sites, and the feel the land myself.

Woden Law

Enough gushing, unless it’s Romans blood.

The game is played out over 8 levels. Taking about, 15-20mins each. Wrapping up with a boss fight. I’ve played the game Co-op to completion, which is fun. Certainly the way the game was intended to be played. It would be great if with an update you could play 3 player co-op. But it could get a little to chaotic.

Playing the game single player become pretty difficult near the end, especially the finally boss. I simply couldn’t do him on my own. I don’t profess to be the greatest gamer, so you may defeat him easily.

Other game modes include Arcade, which is as it implies. Turns the game into an arcade game, by that you are limited to 3 lives, and 3 continues. There isn’t a travel map, just cutscenes and Roman slaughter.

Wulverblade also gives you an Arena mode. Play solo or co-op slaying wave upon wave of baddies to set the worlds highest score.

The game feels like a perfect fit on the Switch. Adam brought his Switch to Play Expo and we just clicked the joycons out and smashed a few levels of sat there. Was great. (Adam lent me his Switch for this review, this game and Zelda have sold me on the Switch).

Overall

Wulverblade is a great beat’em, the extra content makes it worth it alone to me. The cost of a game can often shape my scoring. There is enough here to have fun with certainly. Especially co-op, grab a mate, a few beers a take-away bash through Wulver. But if this game was £35+ I’d of expected a bit more content. As it happens £14.99 in the UK, is a great price. Adding the much coveted value for money accolade.

I was fortunate enough get a review code. This game is certainly worth £14.99 if only to support the dev. I’ll be picking a random Show Me Games group member and purchasing Wulverblade for them.

PROS

• Fantastic graphics
• British history and lore
• Co-op gameplay
• Value for money

CONS

• Can lose track of character in the melee
• Some cheap hits

VERDICT

8/10

The post Wulverblade appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Action RPG, Open World
• Platforms: Switch (Reviewed), Wii U
• Release Date: 3rd March 2017
• Microtransactions: No

Switch It Up

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the newest entry in the long running franchise by Nintendo and boy oh boy it has come back to claim it’s mantle at the top in a big bad way. At this point I would assume most of the gaming community has experienced this game and said what has needed to be said about this game but for me this game has changed my outlook on how I see games going forward.

I went into to this game with an open mind but cautious after the long 4 year wait wondering how this game was going to eventually turn out. Would it be another Ocarina of Time or would it fall into the Skyward Sword category? Strangely enough it fit into neither, this game has truly changed The Legend of Zelda series going forward and has set a new benchmark which I don’t know if they will be able to top.

Hylian Hills

Glossing over the story of the game this is where it’s most in line with the rest of the series. It features the same tropes and locations of the previous games all mashed into one giant new Hyrule setting. You start the game after a 100 year sleep to be awoken with a mission to save Zelda from Calamity Ganon by recruiting the Divine Beasts from iconic locations in Zelda lore – the Zora domain, the Goron city, the Rito village and  Gerudo valley. The story is fairly rudimental in this regard but the story isn’t where this game truly shines, whilst having a solid story that fits into the Zelda lore it’s the other aspects of this game which truly stand out.

Breath of the Wild is a true open world adventure in every sense of the word. In most open world games there is a freedom of exploration but at certain points you will hit a crutch where you cant climb this certain hill or go past this point just yet. This game changes all that. You want to scale this mountain straight off the bat? Sure you can do that if you want too! You want to go right to the end game boss and get destroyed straight away? Go for it buddy! The fact you can literally go and do what you want from the get go at any point in this game is simply breath-taking, and such a simple little extra you would’ve thought would be standard in these sort of games, but really is fresh. Bear in mind at certain points going this way in the game you will fall time and time again it still makes you feel you are in control of the game the whole time

Whack ‘n’ Crack!

It’s time to move on to the big bone of contention for a lot of people with this game – weapon durability and item limits. Weapon durability is by no means a new mechanic in video games let alone the RPG genre but this one caught a lot of people off guard. The standard Zelda formula is you head to a dungeon and find out you need a particular weapon to move forward and find it there and then and it’s in your possession the rest of the game no question asked. This game does not do that in the slightest. From the start you are thrown in at the deep end, you have no standard green tunic clothes or basic weapons. Instead you have to fight and gather weapons throughout the game from enemies and a lot of the time the weapons will shatter 2 or 3 fights later.

The limited space you have to carry the weapons can early on make this a frustrating process as you will have to learn fast which weapons to keep, which enemies to fight to conserve items and space and generally which are needed to help progress the story in the best possible manner.  Whilst there is a couple of ‘unbreakable’ weapons and items scattered throughout, finding them can ultimately be very time consuming and difficult especially to novice players of the series so I can understand the frustration this may have caused quite a few fans throughout their play-throughs.

Deep Delving

The dungeon set-ups in this game also change up the formula from the standard gameplay you expect from the franchise. Whilst there are 4 of what you might call the ‘traditional dungeon’ style in the Divine Beast sections you also have over 100 mini-dungeons in the form of the shrines.  This shrines work as a way of increasing even your heart containers or stamina bars as you get Spirit Orbs for each Shrine Trial you complete and for every 4 orbs that you collect you can exchange them either for a new heart container or a slight stamina increase.

The Shrines level of difficulty fluctuates throughout the game in different ways as some are riddle and puzzle based which can be a pain at times trying to figure them out and some are more skill and action based with different level AI opponents.  Adding so many of these little extra missions give the game more life and longevity as there is no standard area to come across this as they are literally scattered at random points throughout the map so no matter where you are currently exploring chances are your Sheikah Slate is about to tell you that you are close to one of these mini-dungeons.

A Breath From The Wild

Overall for myself I can now tell I am going to find it hard going back to the more linear approach of the Zelda franchise after this game. The sheer sense of wonder and enjoyment this game brought by just standing on top of one of the Sheikah Towers and looking over Hyrule was unreal. It brought back memories of the first time in Ocarina of Time when you head in to Hyrule Field and sense the scope of the world just at a much larger scale. Graphically whilst this game may not be on the same stage as some of the top-tier PS4 or XBOXONE game it is absolutely gorgeous to look at and the fact I played this game practically entirely in handheld mode made it look even more impressive.

The colours and textures of everything is amazing to see, it blends the perfect mix of traditional 3D Zelda titles (like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword) with the art style and direction of The Wind Waker. Nintendo have now kind of backed themselves into a corner with this game, as how can they manage to top this game with not only another Zelda title or any other Switch title is anybody’s guess. After 70+ hours into the game and still many secrets to find, I can see myself going back into this world for many more hours and possibly years to come.

PROS

• Completely immersive world with everything is within your reach and truly open world
• Graphically the textures and art direction look stunning
• Completely fresh take on the Zelda franchise and reinventing the series for a future generation
• Story is standard but tried and tested formula which makes for a gripping adventure

CONS

• Weapon durability – can be frustrating at times until you get the hang of the system
• Voice acting left a lot to be desired, should probably stick to no voice option in future as the series doesn’t really require this function and the less said about this the better

Verdict

9.8/10

The post The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild appeared first on Show Me Games - Independent Gaming Site, and Community.

Super Mario 64

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Platformer
• Platforms: N64
• Release Date: 23rd June 1996
• Microtransactions: No

Pointy Polygon Pounding

So as I write this the switch has been out for a week and I am thoroughly enjoying every minute of its portable/TV console glory. Whilst the launch line up may be lacking it’s got me looking at the upcoming games and one has definitely peaked my interest much more than the others- Super Mario Adventure….. Sorry I mean odyssey.

Due to this trailer I was compelled to share my memories with you not from this game but from its Great grandad-Super Mario 64, quite possibly the greatest 3d platformer ever made. Picture the scene- Early March 1997, I swapped my Sega Saturn plus 10-15 games (which are probably worth a bloody fortune now) for a Nintendo 64 console with star wars shadows of the empire and Turok dinosaur hunter at Mega Swap in Accrington. The game I wanted more than anything was currently out of stock but a small glimmer of hope was given when the owner told me ‘ I know someone who is swapping their copy for Pilot wings tomorrow’

Bob Hoskins!

Holy Moly!!!! I rushed home to test out my new games and whilst I enjoyed Turok I decided that was the one I was going to swap for Mario. Saturday arrived and I begged my mum to take me over to Accrington so I could be there when the shop opened. One Turok plus £5 later and Mario 64 was in my hands!

I rang my best friend and he was round my house faster than the penguin on ‘cool cool mountain’. The game boots up and I hear the now famous ‘IT’S A ME MARIOOO!’ then the massive Italian plumbers mug fills my screen. That’s it I was hooked it was simply the best graphics I was ever going to see in my entire life, I mean how could it get better than this!!!

Then the opening cut scene with Lakitu flying through the world and under the bridge until the magic moment came and Mario jumps from the pipe and I took control. It truly was an amazing moment that nearly brought my 14 year old self to tears. From then it was 120 stars of pure platforming perfection. Racing giant KOOPA’s up a mountain, turning into a Mario version of the T-1000, swimming to the depths of a giant lagoon and then to top it off spinning a huge Bowser with his tail like something from a cartoon.

Looking at the game now, sure it has the classic N64 jaggies but it still holds up and who would have thought Nintendo perfecting the genre on their first attempt. There is only a select few games I will regularly replay every couple of years and without fail Super Mario 64 is the game I can always come back to and complete a few stars when the outside world is getting me down. If you have never played this game please please please give it a go and I promise you it will change your life!

PROS

• Control perfection for a 3D platformer
• Excellent variety of levels
• Changed the face of gaming forever  (editor’s note: These are the opinions of our freelance writer)

CONS

• Wish it had more stars to just keep going
• Hi editor here again, just trying to add balance. With some actual cons.
• Terrible clipping
• Falling through the world (or did Super Mario 64 invent that and everyone copied?)
• No luigi

Verdict

9.9/10   editors note: With all the bugs in this game, even to this day I believe this score is to high. 9.7/10 is more about right.

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The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past

• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre: Action Adventure
• Platforms: SNES
• Release Date: 24th September 1992
• Microtransactions: No

A link To the Past

In honour of the release of the new Nintendo Switch console and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild we have decided to take a trip down memory lane. Today’s piece will be on one of the biggest icons of video gaming and my personal favourite game of all time The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past.

This isn’t going to be your standard review as we’ve read countless of these over the years and we don’t need another one. Instead I’m going to talk about the things I enjoy about this game and how it changed the landscape of videogames and ultimately the legacy it left behind and why I love this game above all others.

By the time A Link To The Past was released The Legend of Zelda series was already a well-regarded series for Nintendo with the previous entries in the series The Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Both games vastly different to one another, the first a top down multi-screen action adventure puzzle hybrid and the second a slightly more open world side-scroller adventure which is highly underrated. Then came along A Link To The Past and Nintendo took elements of both and decided if we merge these together we can have the best of both worlds and my god they did it.

Hylian Shield

At the time of release ALTTP really used the full stretch of power from Nintendo’s newest system the SNES. You could see the jump up in the graphics with how much more detailed Hyrule was now compared to the original whose different sections on the map whilst impressive for the time didn’t really have much to differentiate from each other. In this game we have a fully breathing different world, whether it’s the living Kakariko Village with its many inhabitants, or the Lost Woods with its darker setting and enemies and maze like structure, all the way to Death Mountain surrounded by caves and secret paths and falling boulders. Every section of this map was well detailed and planned out to really make you feel like you were exploring a huge world for the first time. This was truly the first major open world game.

It followed the same lines of the first game by having you explore dungeons to find new items and collect the magic pendants to different Ganon again but what truly set this apart from the previous entries of the series and other games from the time was the big twist. Once you have seamlessly Finished the game and collected all the pendants and about to fight Ganon – BAMN! you’re in a new world! The game restarted from the Dark World, an evil twisted version of Hyrule.

This sort of twist and switch up of the game whilst done to death nowadays hadn’t been heard of at the time, Nintendo went and through a whole new games worth of material there for you by including this and stepping foot into the Dark World for the first time and seeing the difficulty level rise the way it did was unheard of. Not only was this a massive curve ball but it truly made the game seem an epic size basically doubling the adventure time you expected. Having a more twisted version of the Overworld to run a gauntlet through was incredible, paths you had taken previously where now blocked off, towns and people you had met on your journey ruins and dead, it’s crazy to think how unconventional this seemed at the time but this is where Nintendo have succeeded time and time again and laid the groundwork for video game creators for years to come.

TriForce

Let’s move on to the soundtrack now. The Legend of Zelda series have always had fantastic musical scores but ALTTP may be the most perfect of these scores with the most memorable songs. For a game on the system Nintendo really utilised as much as they could with the music crafting individual pieces that would years later go on to iconic status.

Hiring legendary video game music composer Koji Kondo who had worked on the original game as well as the Mario series they managed to get another hit out of the gate with this score. The Overworld theme is now synonymous with the series as is Zelda’s Lullaby and The Great Fairy Theŵe. The amount of complicated music they included was astounding at the time and still to this day is one of the most complete soundtracks in video game history and is up there with the soundtracks of games like Mario, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid on iconic status.

Master Sword

For me this game is about as perfect as a game can get and has been my favourite game of all time my whole life. I have ended up rebuying this game numerous times and played it consistently over the years. Whether it was the original on the SNES, the Four Swords edition on the Gameboy Advance or numerous Virtual Console versions on the Wii, Wii U or New N3DS, the game is timeless. If it wasn’t for this game we wouldn’t have half the games we have had over the past 25 years. From the gameplay to the story, to the soundtrack, the influence of this game is everywhere in modern gaming. From games like the Final Fantasy series all the way to modern classics like The Witcher, the Zelda influence is always there in the background.

Where people tend to credit Ocarina of Time as being the real needle mover in influence of Zelda it is easy to overlook this 2D classic but there is no denying all the groundwork that may have made Ocarina the consensus ‘best game of all time’ started first with A Link To The Past. For me ALTTP was the game that made me fall in love with the series and Nintendo as a whole, and started me on my journey of being a lifelong Nintendo fan. Hopefully Breath of the Wild and the Switch when released will give new gamers playing the series for the first time the same experience of wonder and astonishment I had discovering Zelda when I was younger. Here͛s to another 30 years of magical Zelda games and experiences.

Final Thoughts

• Revolutionary gameplay mechanics
• One of the best twists in all of videogames by introducing the Dark World
• Iconic soundtrack by Koji Kondo
• Laid the groundwork for videogames to come, influencing the entire market
• Nintendo truly taking gaming to the next-level using the full power of the SNES to incredible results

Final Score

9.9/10

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• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre:  Platform
• Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
• Release Date: 11th April 1992
• Microtransactions: No

One of the greatest of our time….

Super Mario World.  Easily up there as arguably the best Mario game of all time and is certainly a top ten all-time contender for most people.  A suitable jump forward from the NES
classics bringing everyone’s favourite plumber to the SNES.  Ever since then Nintendo have tried, and on the most part failed to create such a masterpiece.  Back in the days when Nintendo would try new things they had a go a continuing the saga with Yoshi’s Island but that paled in comparison and was generally snubbed as being more annoying than anything.

Now I am concentrating only on the 2D non-paper versions of Mario for the purposes of this, hence the reason that there is no mention of Mario 64.  The closest they came to recapturing the magic was “New” Super Mario Bros. on the DS.  Gameplay was much closer to the Mario world days and it was fun.  Nintendo then did what Nintendo does best and flogged that horse to death releasing similar versions for the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, but each instalment seeming less and less like the Mario we loved.

Recipe for greatness

So what did they get so right with Super Mario World?  Well if that were an easy answer I don’t think Nintendo would have struggled so much to re-create it.  Firstly, graphically it was superb and still looks pretty good today, hence the reason I own the virtual console version of this game on my Wii U and 3DS as well as playing it on several emulators.  This was also the first time we met Yoshi who has come and gone throughout the series and he is used just the right amount, even being sacrificed on many occasions for an extra jump.

Next it’s the music.  To this day, over a quarter of a century later, I will still catch myself humming the main Mario tune from this game and it doesn’t even annoy me.  I think that was one of the things that did it, all of the music was catchy but never annoying, and that’s a rarity!

Now the gameplay itself was excellent, difficult, but not to the extreme.  In the days before internet guides, the hidden secrets such as the Star levels were phenomenal, with the added surprise of what it did to the world one you had fought your way through the secret hardest levels of the game.  The addition of the cape did make a lot of the levels easily passable but there was none of this crap you get these days where you can skip levels if they are too hard.  Pfft!  In my day you had to git gud!

Star Road

Finally the world map was simply excellent with secret levels and shortcuts aplenty.  The areas weren’t as separate as they seem to make them these days, not quite the desert/ice/fire/water worlds that seem to be the standard road map since.  Each level was named instead of having a number, and the “worlds” were just different areas that you moved between.  This made the entire world feel fuller, more accessible and it made you more inclined to explore areas sections that you had missed via an unexpected shortcut.

In conclusion, Nintendo got this one right and although the subsequent efforts have been enjoyable, none have been able to match Super Mario Worlds perfect balance which is why it still stands up today and I will no doubt be purchasing it again if/when it becomes available on the switch.

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Zombie Vikings

• Developers: Zoink
• Publisher: Zoink
• Genre:  Beat’em Up
• Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), PC, Wii U
• Release Date: 1st September 2016
• Microtransactions: No

We Come From The Land Of Ice and Snow

Zombies, they’re everywhere. In movies, games, music videos and books. They’ve rampaged in shopping centres, space, the wild west and they’ve even been in love. But, have they ever been vikings………..well in all honestly they probably have in some cheap straight to dvd movie but not to my knowledge in a game……….well not on PS4. Well here they are in Zombie Vikings, a side scrolling fighter for 1-4 players from the developer of Stick it to the Man.

The adventure kicks off when the trickster god Loki fools Odin and plucks out his remaining magical eye so he can use its magical eye juice to gain more power. Angered by this (obviously) Odin summons 4 undead vikings from their graves and sends them to hunt Loki down. If it all sounds a bit grim then don’t worry as it’s all totally played for laughs.

You then choose from the 4 characters, with a 5th added for free since launch, and head out on your quest. You’ll meet crazy and colourful characters, resolve issues from your past and even explore the innards of a giant snake turned maggot cruise ship.

From The Midnight Sun

Game play itself is very basic you have an attack button, a signature move and the ability to jump and pick up small enemies or items and throw them about. Despite the 5 different characters which you can choose from at the start of each stage they all play the same with only their special moves differing. There are no upgradable combos or moves and no real reason to choose a different viking over another unless you really prefer one special over another. And the same applies to any new swords you collect.

Their are plenty of them but for the most part they feel way too samey and if you’re granted one for completing a side quest your then forced into equipping it straight away. Some stand out as more useful such as one that steals life force or one that causes baddies to explode on death but they are the exception. Also sticking to the done very basically formula are the side quests.

They can be found on most stages by discovering an NPC hidden off the beaten path who’ll instruct you to find an item and bring it back to then but some are so basic it’s insulting. In one I didn’t even have to move, just leap, attack a hanging pinata and BOOM, free sword.

While one needed snow to build a snowman despite it being a snow covered stage I could only collect specific lumps of snow. After a while I just started to ignore them all together.

Hot Springs Blow

What does fair better though is the humour and the odd and crazy situations you find yourself in and that’s what carried me through the game to be honest. From playing in a gnome flinging sport to regain team honour to actually fighting the North Sea the game throws plenty of silly situations at you but in the end due to the game’s basic and repetitive nature I doubt it’ll stick in the memory for long and I won’t be devoting time towards a second play.

PROS

• Funny storyline and dialogue.
• Full of crazy and silly situations.

CONS

• Combat and side quests are way too basic.
• Not enough difference between characters or equipment.
• Boss fights too easy.

5/10

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Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

• Developer: Intelligent Systems
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Platforms: Nintendo 3DS
• Release Date: 20th May 2016

The fire emblem series has been going for many years now starting out on the good old GameBoy Advance and being on every Nintendo console since, both big and small. The format has remained largely unchanged through this time and the reason for this is that it works.  Fire Emblem Awakening was the first time I played any of the series and I thoroughly enjoyed it and have since gone back and played some of the older ones. The basic format is turn based, you have a group of people under your command, you get to choose who to take with you and they all have different weapon/skill sets. Each character will also level up in an RPG style gaining ability points and other skills as the characters’ level increases. Each unit can also gain affinity with other units if they battle alongside each other giving added bonuses to various stats depending on affinity level.

The Path of Fates

This time around you create your character and find yourself as a member of the royal family, there are two kingdoms and you have links to both, you play through the first few chapters then at the end of chapter 5 you have to make a choice as to where your loyalties lie.  This is the splitting point between Birthright and Conquest. Birthright is the easier one to go for and this is the natural starting point as there are 3 games as part of this set as a whole, the first two already mentioned and the third – Revelations, was released shortly after these two which has a different path completely.

Easy, only if you want it

In the last few incarnations the game has been made slightly easier if you choose it to be. You can have it so that if a unit dies on the battlefield then they stay dead; you can have it so that they stay dead for the battle but come back after; or and this I believe is new to this incarnation, you can set it to its easiest where the unit will appear back on the battlefield with full health at the start of your next turn. To save myself having to restart battles constantly I went for the non-permadeath option (yes I’m a pussy!). Probably the main difference between this game and its predecessor is the removal of weapon degradation which I personally think is great as previously you would often keep your best weapons in storage, saving their precious uses for when you really “needed” them.  This could mean that your best weaponry could be left unused. You also have your own “astral plane” which is your home/castle that you can build, edit, and upgrade as you please.  You can also visit other castles, rate them and various other streetpass based tomfoolery. That part never interested me but I am sure plenty of people out there will enjoy that element.

Hey Baby…

The story is good, it’s never going to completely blow you away but it was enough to keep me interested right to the end.  You have optional battles that you can choose to ignore or even scout for others if you have done all currently available.  Now these are not just for grinding.  Part of the affinity element is that each character can gain S rank with one other person, and if you get a male and female character to S rank then they marry and have a child.  This is where the excuse is a little thin, the child is then placed in a “deeprealm” where time passes much quicker as they are safer there, you then get paralogue quests to rescue them or some such and after that they join your army. Although it’s a poor explanation it’s nice to get additions to your army which take skills from either the mother or father. You also get small scenes when they gain affinity and it encourages you to have units work together.

In Closing

In total I spent 46 hours on this which I really enjoyed, and although I have not 100% completed it (there are still 2 children I could have but the parents are terrible characters in my opinion) I would say I have done most of it. There are also map packs etc that are purchasable in game but I shall be waiting until I have gone through the others before even thinking about these. The little bits of dialogue between the characters is what really makes this game and can be really amusing at times and is just enough to keep you interested. For veterans and new players alike I would recommend this game and although there is nothing really breaking the mould here, if it aint broke don’t fix it!

I give it a solid 8/10

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• Developer: Square Enix, Silicon Studios
• Publisher: Square Enix, Nintendo
• Platform: Nintendo 3DS
• Release Date: 11th October 2011

Bravely second comes out in less than a week and for a change I managed to complete its predecessor before the new one came out (yey go me!). At 55 hours that was no easy feat and you certainly get your monies worth with this one.

My first thought when playing this was that this felt more like a Final Fantasy game than any recent Final Fantasy game released. The overall feel and art style reminded me very much of the much loved series and although this is made by Square Enix I thought they might have done something a little different.

Without spoiling too much, the plot unfolds much as you would expect; there’s been a disaster, you must band together with a few new friends to save the world, standard JRPG base. What makes this game special is both the core mechanics and the sheer wealth of customization, and I am not just talking costumes here I mean how the game is played can be changed quite easily.

The idea behind the brave and default is fairly unique, you can either store up turns to use in the future, or you can do up to 4 turns worth of actions in a round but leave yourself open for the next 3 rounds whiles things catch up, or a combination of the 2. It’s a fun system and introduces some extra tactical thought to an otherwise standard turn based system.

The next few things are what combined make it pretty revolutionary. Firstly you can speed up the battles, so your characters actions can either be normal speed, around twice the normal speed, or even faster meaning whatever you have instructed your characters to do can be over in a flash. You can also set your characters to “Auto” which means whatever actions you gave them last time they will repeat again. Once you get to a high enough level it means most random encounters can be done on auto and at the fastest speed, they can be over in around 15 seconds! This means grinding for levels is far simpler and quicker than in most other games. The final tweak is your random encounter rate. You can either crank this up by 50% or 100%, turn it down by 50%, or off completely. Found an area that gives good XP but you can defeat the enemies fairly easily, then turn the rate up. If you approaching end game and levels make little difference anymore then turn it down or off. All of these functions combined give you a control over the game that would be a travesty if not applied to every game of this genre going forward.

You start with 4 characters, Tiz, Agnès, Ringabel, and Edea. You stay with these 4 for the entire game, but thankfully this game also has a revolutionary “Job” system. Every time you defat a boss, you receive their asterisk, meaning that each character can take on the role of any boss you meet in the game. You can also use up to 2 sets of abilities; one set from the job you have equipped and one from a job that character has levelled up previously. The max level for any job is level 14, you get both XP and job points after a battle and you will easily be able to max out 2 to 3 jobs per character. There are a total of 24 jobs available and although you won’t bother levelling them all up, it means you can make your characters just how you want them and some have combinations that are pretty much unstoppable.

The story of this game for the first 20 to 30 hours is great, nothing revolutionary but enough to keep you interested. After that it gets repetitive. VERY repetitive, you end up fighting the same bosses over and over and for a game of this size it really isn’t needed. The bosses do start grouping together to keep the difficulty up so there is at least some interest and I don’t want to spoil anything but things in the story do change to mix things up a bit but I’ll be honest the last 10 hours or so were not very engaging.

Thankfully a decent ending stops the downward spiral and I did enjoy the game for the most part, the combination of a varied job system and the customizable battle settings left me looking forward to the sequel hoping they have kept the good and made improvements where necessary.

I give Bravely Default

8/10

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