53 public reviews
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What can I say about this marvelous masterpiece? Schwarzerblitz is the ultimate throwback to the era of 3D fighting games that we saw with the PS1 , Saturn , and Nintendo 64 . Its simple polygonal graphics belies a charming, intriguing, and ultimately fun piece of software. Now I play a lot of fighting games. And I mean a LOT. There are few I haven't at least tried, ranging from mainstream favorites to the most…
The Sonic the Hedgehog 4 project was an attempt to return to form. After years of 3D games of declining quality and handheld 2D games which garnered mixed reception, Sega was determined to release a new installment which called to mind the franchise's glory days in order to get back on the fanbase's good side. Sonic 4 would not be the project that succeeded. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (henceforth, Sonic 4 E1)…
Let's get this out of the way: from every sort of objective standpoint, DF: Death Fighter is overall a travesty of computer software. Everything about it makes it seem like it programmed and sprited by a five-year old instead of a man in his twenties. The sprites are hand-drawn and look like they were colored in with marker or color pencil. There are almost no animation frames; characters have no walk cycle, and any…
I'll admit that I'm not overly familiar with Hokuto no Ken . I know the basics, though, from the few episodes that I've seen, from the other games I've played, from the live action film, reading the prequel manga, and just simply from the pop culture effect. What I do know, is that Hokuto no Ken is amazingly badass. Bruce Lee worship, exploding enemies, massively tense showdowns... all of which are null from this…
Read the full review Hokuto No Ken: Raoh Gaiden - Ten No Haoh
I've always liked the main installments of the Tekken series, even the much maligned Tekken 4 . Even though the first two games have aged terribly, they're still decent to sit down with every so often. Tekken 6 is arguably better than those early ones, but it's a definite drop from the last few incarnations of the game. Although it still plays smoothly, Tekken 6 seems much, much slower. At first, I thought that I…
Mortal Kombat fighting DC comics characters was an idea that I, as well as possibly many other kiddies, had back when the Marvel vs. games were fresh. However, I never thought we'd actually see the day when such a thing existed. It may have come about almost a decade late, but it's here nevertheless. I've always been a fan of Mortal Kombat, and have always championed the series when the elitist tournament-obsessed…
Let's face it, most anime fighting games are unparalleled rubbish. The Naruto games, however, more or less are of an at least playable quality. Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 is no exception. The Clash of Ninja (on Nintendo consoles) and Ultimate Ninja (on Sony - and now Microsoft - consoles) series have always been different beasts entirely, the UN series has splintered into many different subcategories, whereas Clash…
I feel that no game has gotten it right in regards to what it would be like to control Godzilla and his kaiju cohorts, but Pipeworks ' titles come close. Unleashed is the culmination of the best of these titles. The Wii version only uses motion controls, so it's quite troubling to get used to movement and attacking. Once you get the hang of it though, it becomes second nature. Besides the control issue, the Wii…
While The Outfoxies may be obscure to some, it was a part of my childhood. Back in '95 or '96, when the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 3 machines had lines that stretched seemingly to eternity, salvation came to fighting game fans in the form of The Outfoxies. It was fun and different, whereas in those early days of versus fighters, the "other stuff" (sadly, including some of SNK's best) were known as "Street…
If I were a lazy man, I'd sum up this game thus: "This game is awesome." However, since I'm not, and one sentence reviews on games would be worthless, I shall expound on this. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is everything a fighting game should be. Fun, fast, frantic, visually impressive, and friendly to both newcomers and veterans. Seriously, it's an amazing game. Take Marvel vs. Capcom 2 , weed out the roster to a manageable…
Read the full review Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX on the PSP is a slight upgrade to my previous favorite incarnation of the game on the good ol' PS1. That, in turn, had been my favorite Street Fighter game since I had initially played it. By culminating all of the best stuff from previous incarnations of SFA3 and throwing in Ingrid for good measure, Capcom has made quite the definitive version. True, it doesn't have the extra -ISMs of the…
The King of Fighters XI is the final (non-remake) game in the series that uses the same standard graphics and engine. As a result, SNK Playmore obviously made the game as best as they possibly could. Is it the best KoF? Lord no. But they didn't try too hard and do something stupid, like shove every character in the canon into the title at the cost of gameplay like so many others do on their final game on an engine…
It's no secret that my favorite fighting game theme is "goofy horror", where standard horror monsters and tropes are played with to an extent where they still definitely fit square in the horror theme but are also comical and visually tantalizing. The Darkstalkers series, Skullgirls , the upcoming Chainsaw Incident , and to a lesser extent even some of the Bleach fighting games all fit this mold and all have an…
Pac-Man Collection was one of my favorite cartridges on the Game Boy Advance . I love Pac-Man , and I love classic compilation cartridges. Although I owned many of the more "unique" games for the system, and even indeed, the comparable Namco Museum , Pac-Man Collection likely spent more time in my GBA than any other game outside of Pokémon Ruby way back when I was seriously into that franchise. There's a lot to love…
Eons before the internet made anthropomorphism something sick and twisted, there was a time where human-slash-animal hybrids were the most popular thing in existence. Arguably ignited by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and similar properties, it seemed like every other new comic book, cartoon show, and/or video game had anthropomorphic beings as the stars. Brutal is a fighter based on this concept. Although each of…
It takes a lot for something to win over someone who has already set their mind against it. It's tough to even understand sometimes how such a thing even happens with someone who tries to keep a relatively open mind. Something about Divekick rubbed me the wrong way from the outset. It was a silly little thing then, based on a (not at all funny) joke. But it was still that; just a joke. I didn't care for it at all,…
When I'd first heard scuttlebutt of Nintendo registering a trademark for NES Remix , I thought it would be a compilation of their old games with enhanced graphics, à la Super Mario All-Stars . What we got instead, was a plethora of custom challenges based on NES favorites. That's not a bad thing, though, because what we got is still a gratuitous love letter to NES' best. NES Remix's announcement was a welcome…
I've come to love pretty much everything put out by Jayenkai , the one-man development "team" who somehow manages to release a quality title every week. My favorites are the NeonPlat series, but I've got to admit, Sheep Goes Right holds a special place in my heart. Sheep Goes Right reminds me a lot of Kirby's Epic Yarn , in the best way possible. It's got a very pleasing, non-traditional graphic aesthetic, with a…
The Breakout / Arkanoid formula is an old standby for the independent developer. If one knows what he or she is doing, it's pretty simple to get the basics down. Making it good, making it stand out, however is a challenge. I know this from experience. So very rarely, does one find a game in the genre that hits all of the right buttons without resorting to a gimmick. Brick Break Blitz , despite its semi-generic…
I've got a confession to make: I love Breakout / Arkanoid clones. I snatch up pretty much every one I can and even though I'm pretty terrible at them, I get quite a bit of enjoyment out of them. I made my own Breakout clone in 2005. I have a copy of Wizorb on three different platforms just because. So when I saw screenshots of Crystaloid for the OUYA , I thought to myself "Well, this looks pretty decent". I saw that…
As an indie developer myself, I try to support others in the field as much as I can. I buy every indie game that interests me (budget willing) to show I care, especially ones that I feel could be tragically overlooked. For every indie game that makes it big for whatever reason, there's about 100 that deserve the same level of popularity, but don't. I suppose that's true of every facet of life, though. Unreal Land…
While Kabuki Warriors presents the original concept of a fighting game revolving around a kabuki play, that is the closest thing to merit this game provides. Okay, the opening FMV isn't terrible either, but that's it. The characters have no personality to speak of and are fairly generic in terms of gameplay ability. Nearly every character has a standard katana , and their fighting styles are, with few exceptions,…
As a fan of the TMNT for 25 years, I've stuck with the property through a lot, through its ups and downs, from the original cartoon to the super obscure anime OVAs to Next Mutation and beyond. As I've weathered through the worst times of the series, I've been able to tolerate some pretty ridiculous stuff just because the TMNT name's been attached to it. Like many, I was worried about Peter Laird's 2009 sale of the…
The fact that H.P. Lovecraft wasn't credited for character design and modeling seems to be an oversight. I'd had the demo for Dragoon on my harddrive for some time. Looking for a decent fighter on the indie circuit is nigh-impossible, so I had downloaded the demo for anything that resembled a versus fighter in order to find one to play. Out of maybe six games I found two that weren't shit, and Dragoon didn't make…
The Dead or Alive series has always been known best for the breasts , and this has always made me sad. I mean, I like boobies as much as the next guy, but there's got to be more to a game than mammaries. After all, porn is free on the internet, and I see a lot of nudity on an average day at work anyway. I was highly disappointed in DoA4 due to its grating counter system and various other factors, but Dimensions not…
This is what Skullgirls looked like when I had first heard of it. I'd been monitoring Skullgirls' progress for years. Even back then, when it looked like something that would run on a PlayStation 1 , I knew it had potential. Something about the art style and design really interested me, and I'm always up for a new fighting game - even amongst the really terrible ones, there's only a few I actually hate . I kept tabs…
Brace yourselves, this one's gonna sting.... The 3D Zelda games bore me. Okay, I can't say that with absolute certainty: I've never touched Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword . But the rest? Yawns aplenty. The most offensive to my sense of fun is the much-loved, oft-deified Ocarina of Time. Now I didn't have a Nintendo 64 as a lad, but I did have several opportunities to play, and a couple of them were for extended…
Battle Fantasia might not be as polished or balanced as many of the big name fighters out there, but it's a lot of fun, and criminally overlooked, especially in retrospect to its overrated cousin BlazBlue . Although it is similar to Guilty Gear in many respects, it doesn't just copy-paste and then screw with the source code like BlazBlue does. Battle Fantasia's visuals and gameplay tweaks allow it to stand on its…
Japan releases about 60,000 anime/manga fighting games a year. A majority of them do not even warrant a look. However, since Sunday x Magazine (aka Sunday VS Magazine) was a 50-year anniversary crossover of two prominent manga publishing venues, I thought I'd give it a try. Truth be told, with very few exceptions, I haven't the foggiest idea who most of the characters in this game are. However, that doesn't take…
Read the full review Sunday vs. Magazine: Shuuketsu! Choujou Daikessen
Ordinarily, I despise nostalgia. It's naught but a sentimental feeling that clouds one's judgment on an issue, event, or object... it makes a person recall something fondly, despite its actual quality. While internally, this would be an acceptable emotion, over time (and the advent of the internet), it's mutated into a disease in which people reject any newer versions or incarnations of the subject or its genre,…
I'd been a fan of Slender Man for some time before Slender came out. Out of boredom and wanting to find something legitimately creepy, I stumbled across a link to the Something Awful post where the character was conceived. This lead me to Marble Hornets, which was midway through season 1 at the time. There was just something unsettling about this... thing, this tall, tentacled, suit-wearing faceless man, that made…
I never did buy into the hype surrounding BlazBlue. Upon initially seeing it, I thought to myself, "This is just Guilty Gear with prettier graphics." Well, I was partially wrong. It is Guilty Gear with prettier graphics, weaker gameplay, and a twisted, lame mindscrew of a story. Where to start? Well, the characters aren't as solid as Guilty Gear's. A few of them have endearingly quirky personalities, but nearly the…
Vectorman was just one of those games that I was sold on just by the commercial alone. The screenshots in magazines didn't really pique my interest, but seeing it in action made all the difference. The game at the time was super gorgeous and really showed what the Genesis was capable of. Even today there are aesthetics that Vectorman seems to dwarf the current generation on. Of course, pretty moving pictures aren't…
My first exposure to Pac-Man was on the Atari 2600. I played it probably more than any other games on the console. I loved every minute of it. So it came to me as a surprise that it's not only the game's most hated port, but it's one of the most hated games period. I didn't get to play the "real" Pac-Man until I was a bit older, and needless to say, I was pretty blown away by how much better it was. However, it…
I initially loved Mortal Kombat Deception , but upon playing it again recently, realized that although all of the reasons I enjoyed it were valid, it really wasn't all I had previously seen it as and I was likely blinded by fanboyism. It's still decent, but even reading over my old review, it seems there was a lot to despair over that I had noted but ignored. Unchained is a semi-upgrade to the core Deception game,…
It almost feels wrong to be reviewing something like Pyongyang Racer . It's a browser driving game developed in a country that is, at least to those in the west, not known for technological advances outside of things designed to kill us. The game, however, which was commissioned by a tourist board, seems to want to dispel those negative feelings outsiders have toward them. The game is often nicknamed "Propaganda…
Despite being a martial artist and a hardcore enthusiast of the history of combat, I have purposely avoided the Deadliest Warrior television show. From what I have heard from those that have seen it, as well as what I've read about it, it seems like the historical warfare version of MythBusters: a bunch of quasi-experts are hired to present inaccurate fluff that is more entertainment than education. Even skimming…
I wanted to hate Street Fighter IV. I really did. Its odd placement in the storyline, its straying from the traditional 2D sprites , bland new characters, its random resurrection of many characters of characters who were supposed to have kicked the bucket for good... there was a laundry list of things that bugged me about the latest incarnation of the daddy of fighting games. However, upon actually getting some…
Read the full review The legacy may have been crippled a bit, but it lives on....
I first came across the Hobo with a Shotgun game while perusing the sort of things possible with the game development software "GameSalad", as I was looking for a way to get away from Game Maker and find something that offered the kind of balance of freedom and ease of use that GM was known for. Based upon screenshots, Hobo with a Shotgun seemed to be the standout of the bunch. The graphics are delightfully retro…
I purchased a really cheap Android tablet by Polaroid of all companies, and decided to test its limits. I knew fighting games were supposed to be terrible for touch-devices, but being a huge fan of the genre, I just had to take a gander at what SNK had to offer on the device. Peculiarly, the game's p2p fights are handled through a social networking venue. It's not a terrible thing, and if you're not really into the…
Upon initial introduction, Next Dimension seems like a worthy successor to the decent Mutant Academy games. Do not let the game's roster and shiny graphics fool you, though. The game pretty much plays like a cross between Children of the Atom and Dead or Alive , which is an interesting concept, but it is not carried out well. The game is not very finely tuned and not only has a very broken tier list, but the…
Recycled sprites, unbalanced gameplay, rigid controls... you'd think that after decades of making exciting and fun versus fighters , Capcom would be ashamed to churn out this sort of rubbish. Capcom Fighting Evolution, jokingly referred to as Capcom Vs. Capcom in light of the company's previous crossover efforts, haphazardly mashes an exceedingly small stable of fighters into one slow, overbloated mess of a game.…
My distaste for the proper BlazBlue games is nothing short of legendary, but there's something within me, deep down inside, that wants this series to actually be good someday. After playing BlayzBloo, I can't help but feel they're headed in the wrong direction with the core games. BlayzBloo is no Power Stone , but for a little mini-download handheld title, it does the job. Everything is pretty much low-key and…
Read the full review BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale
Arcade Attack is a disgustingly misguided attempt to reclaim the old-school TMNT game magic. This farce of a game seems to have been developed using just a checklist of tropes common to the arcade incarnations of yesteryear, but they forgot to make the thing actually worth playing. From the moment you pick up the game, you're visually assaulted due to the cover by the way of some very poorly drawn Turtles with giant…
Read the full review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack
As a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for well over 20 years, I've seen the series hit some ups and downs, even in video games. However, I had no reason to feel that I had anything to worry about when I found there was going to be a remake of the arcade classic Turtles in Time . And as it turns out, I had every reason to anticipate such a game. Maybe I'm just a simple person who enjoys simple pleasures, but…
Read the full review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
Many have maligned Street Fighter X Tekken, especially in the Fighting Game Community. I find however, in the core of it, the most important part, it's quite decent. Maybe even a little more than that. Okay, so I'm far from the type who will play this for 36 hours a day and find all of these crazy glitches and infinites, but then again if I were the type I don't think I'd end up enjoying any game. What is here is a…
Dino Rex seemed like an interesting premise: a pre- Primal Rage fighter with dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the execution is lame as hell. The monochrome beasts are slow and awkward, and the sounds they make will have you reaching for a gun to blast the speakers to kingdom come. There's a plot in this game, but it's hard to follow, riddled with Engrish and random bonus stages that take place in the present. Between this…
I have, in the past, praised the first DragonBall game for PSP , Shin Budokai . Although DB Evolution uses the same engine, it feels like it's been dialed back a lot. Due to the fact that it's based directly on the film, the cast has been reduced enormously. No in-game transformations, no movie-esque versions of characters from the anime making guest appearances, and no chance of some of the more minor characters…
