47 public reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
If there was ever a perfect case of not understanding the assignment, this was it. Strider Returns is an absolutely terrible non-canon sequel to the first Strider game. Now, that prequel had its issues on the Sega Genesis, they involved the frame rate at certain times. This return from Strider brought back the frame rate issues and it's like the devs decided "how about we don't fix it? How about we just make the lag…
It's Street Fighter. You probably know what the deal is with the SF games by now, and part of what makes these games cool is the look. The art style. There has to be something great, like maybe the sprites are top tier pixel art. Well, that's out the window here because this is a 3D game. Or rather, 2.5D because the fighting style is still the same. A few quirks are thrown in, like being able to launch your opponent…
Ah, Yu-Gi-Oh. I had fallen for the card trading fad back when this anime caught on, and thus, I played some of the GBA games from the 2000s. This was the second one I remember playing, and thus, for nostalgia, I went back to see what was up with Eternal Duelist Soul. It sure captures what the card game was supposed to be, and there's a LOT to take in. For anyone that never played, don't go into this with the…
I had played this years ago, in light of the Angry Video Game Nerd playing it, and I remember it being really bad. To make sure that I wasn't misremembering, I replayed it recently. Shaq Fu is even worse than I recalled. The idea of this game is to have Shaquille O'Neal in a 2D fighting game, where the story is that he rescues a young boy from the "second world" - when you boot up the game, you will find a menu with…
Let's get some positives out of the way: Graphically, this tries to do what it can regarding the screen crunch. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 was originally on the big arcade screens, so naturally, everything had to be shrunk to fit into the GBA's screen. I'm fine with that, some sacrifices have to be made to fit UMK3 into the GBA. Speaking of which, some stages are missing, and Sheeva is not a playable character. The…
This game is legendary, and for good reasons that go well beyond just being at the right place, at the right time. Compared to SF2, almost no one talks about the prequel , and for good reason: the controls in that game sucked, frankly. Try doing a hadouken or a hurricane kick with either Ryu or Ken in Street Fighter, without looking up how exactly you're supposed to input the commands for those moves. Shoryuken?…
On paper, this game has a neat premise. I'll skip some details of the lore to this: You are a robot that initially goes through some training. You go through some obstacles and wreck some small annoyances in a side-scroller setting before fighting 1-on-1 against another robot that's kinda like you. Rinse and repeat as the game goes along, and you eventually face a robot that is you, but better! Unfortunately, the…
There's a lot packed into just describing this game. It is a tactical RPG game that is also a crossover of many, many mecha anime, and a remake of the GBA game from 2001. I played the original GBA version many years ago and even though I didn't understand a word of Japanese, I did recognize numerous characters and mechs from Gundam Wing in this game. Outside of Gundam Wing, there are many other featured series in…
I think my experience with this game is one that other Medabots fans had - I played the Medabots Metabee game on the GBA, the one that had the TV anime's theme song. After finishing that, I got curious to see if there were other Medabots games and stumbled upon Medarot Navi. Since I liked Metabee in the other game, and its medal was Kabuto, I went with Medarot Navi Kabuto. Through playing this game, I found out that…
Ah, Medabots. For those that don't remember, the concept was simple. Kids had robots that ran on medals that were placed into a slot on the back of their torsos. The medals were esentially the soul of the medabots. These bots could have parts of their body changed so that they have different abilities, like shooting lasers, setting force fields, firing lasers, melee weapons, etc. Making a turn-based RPG based on…
When you look at the idea of MK Armageddon, it seems like a cool project. However, some sacrifices have to be made in order to fit all the characters into a game that's in the PS2 era. On top of that, the gameplay somehow has to be upgraded from MK Deception. Ultimately, the sacrifices made were not really worth the trouble, and the "upgrades" to the gameplay only ended up hurting the game. Not only that, but with…
Deception is definitely the peak of the PS2 era of Mortal Kombat for me. It adds some depth to the gameplay, and some new features that fit in just fine with the violent motif of the series. The konquest mode, in particular, is a highlight for me, although it may get annoying for other players since you can only unlock certain characters through that mode. One of the new characters, Kira, in her alternate costume…
Oh, Mortal Kombat...getting into the 3D era was not as easy for the series as some fans seem to think. It's true that the graphics in this game are a big step up from MK4 and MK Gold. What's also true is that the roster has some improvements, although a major risk was taken with the deaths of Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. However, the most important part is the gameplay. Is it fun? Well...kinda. MORTAL KOMB--wait, gotta…
The late 90s were an interesting time for fighting games. 3D graphics were on the rise, and some big changes had to be made even by big franchises. Thus, Mortal Kombat went into the world of 3D graphics with MK4. The game itself wasn't too bad (except for the Game Boy Color version), but that roster left something to be desired. Where did the cyborg ninjas go? The female ninjas are missing as well! Plus, some of the…
The original Mortal Kombat II on the arcades was a smash hit for the series. An improved roster, more fatalities, as well as other finishing moves, more secrets (which led to some ridiculous rumors among gamers), a badass final boss, female ninjas, a great soundtrack...gold was struck with this game. Unsurprisingly, MK2 ended up getting many ports to different consoles, including one on the PS1, which only came out…
Ah, Mortal Kombat Trilogy. It's a game that had multiple chances to fix a big issue with the game it's based on - Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. That big issue is the AI. Good lord, it is very annoying. In order to beat this game, and UMK3, for that matter, you have to basically study the AI's behavior, and make it so that the AI opens itself up for a beating. Otherwise, enjoy having the AI directly react to your…
An already big roster has even more under the hood. Numerous characters have EX versions available. By 1998, the King of Fighters formula was familiar to many. You had 3-on-3 team fighting, some great pixel art, and a cheap boss to top it all off. I felt like the original KOF 98 was just another sequel to the series - KOF 97 had already added Advanced and Extra modes for the power gauge. KOF 98 didn't add much to…
Read the full review The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
Chun-Li's new sprites are here, and they are gorgeous What crossover games need is a special feeling. The prequel to this game somewhat managed to capture that, but some fine tuning could have gone a long way. Capcom vs SNK 2 managed to do that fine tuning. The stages mostly feel special, but I will admit there are only a few of them here. I could have used more stages, personally. Get rid of the one with the…
Read the full review Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium
Sometimes, I'm amazed at the trouble developers went through to port certain fighting games to the PS1. For example, the Marvel vs. series practically sacrificed the tag team fighting, which is, you know, the main reason to play those games. The only team fighting you can do on the PS1 is through the "crossover" mode where you play against the same characters you chose for yourself. This port of Capcom vs SNK came…
Read the full review Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro
It's the same game. It's KOF 2002. There are a few differences, but if you played KOF 2002, you know what this is. Literally the same. Before picking characters, you can choose between different kinds of gimmicks for your super meter. There are also new stages, new soundtracks, and some characters are now hidden. The final boss is a young Geese Howard, for some reason. His AI is excessively spammy, and his attacks…
At the time, there may have been some resistance to seeing KOF use a tag team system like the Marvel vs series. I say "screw that" - after Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it was fair game, in hindsight. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 wouldn't come out for a long, long time. Enabling players to switch members of their team in and out was a major game changer. It's a shame that the series would get rid of this feature after KOF XI. The…
The intro to this game already sets it at an "all-time classic" status to me. Some will say 1998 was a better "dream match" game, but I honestly prefer 2002 much more. The mix of the Orochi Saga characters against the NESTS Saga ones feels more like a "dream match" to me. 1998 felt like just another sequel, while 2002 felt like the developers actually wanted to shake things up here. Choose your opponents! As I said…
Read the full review The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle
King of Fighters 2000 got kinda wacky with the Strikers, bringing in many people from other games. The core gameplay was mostly similar to KOF 1999, though. KOF 2001 didn't make much of an effort to change things, either. One big change involved the Striker system. Now, instead of having a separate amount of uses for them, this game makes you sacrifice 1 gauge of power to get your Striker to attack. 1 gauge of power…
By this point, the formula to KOF was becoming very familiar. SNK took a chance with the Striker system and added some fancy modes of battle which come at the cost of a super meter. As the title says, the core gameplay will still be familiar to fans of the series, but upon choosing your fighters, you now have to make up a team of 4 characters. One of these will be your Striker, and that's a character that won't be…
In theory, making a platformer where you can shoot enemies with your transformer isn't the worst idea. Making your character die in one hit wasn't uncommon back in this era of games. The controls could even be a little loose when it comes to movement. However, the level design has to hold up its end of the deal, or else, you could end up with a disaster like this game. Pictures taken moments before disaster Right…
Ah, SNK Heroines. I had some hopes for this game, and I'm not really sure why. Maybe, in my head, I thought that they would simply make a game that feels like King of Fighters, but with an all-female cast. That was not the case. Strike a pose! What you end up getting here is a watered down SNK fighter, where many of the fights end up feeling the same. I can understand why the fighting was watered down, to some…
Some people like to go hard on this game, but I want to try to provide some context to why that's happening. Is this a great crossover game? Fuck no. I have read that this game is the result of a cancelled project (Capcom Fighting All-Stars). All that remained from that was one character (Ingrid), and the idea of Capcom characters fighting. The end result is a game that seemed to be rushed to the finish line, and…
The mad men at SNK did it here. Fighting feels smoother, the graphics show a considerable improvement, the soundtrack is more memorable. Hell, the AI is much friendlier here than in the previous two games. It can still be a bitch to deal with when it comes to the bosses, but hey, that's part of the SNK formula. Charge your power meter! You have more chances of using super moves here. You have a playable roster of 27…
Let's jump right into the differences that this game has from KOF94 - mechanically, this game doesn't feel very different to its prequel. You can make your custom teams instead of being locked into whatever default teams the game offers. Team USA is replaced by the Rivals team. Saisyu is the sub-boss instead of a weaker Rugal, and at full strength, Rugal looks different. There are new stages and soundtracks. The…
Ah, KOF94. There's so much beauty and yet so much pain that comes with the beginning of the King of Fighters series. The controls to this game are perfectly fine, but there is a stiffness to this game that takes a while to get used to, especially if your first KOF games were any of them after 1995. It will feel like going from a comfortable, self-parking automatic car, to a beat up manual car. It gets the job done,…
Let's see what we have here. Awesome intro? Check. Smooth animations to complement fast-paced gameplay? Check. Combo system that's easy to pick up? Check. Beloved characters representing their respective sides? Check. Except for Zangief, I don't know how he kept making it into these Vs. games, especially the Marvel Vs. titles - he's a giant grappler, you'd think a fast paced game like this would not favor him at…
On paper, this should be a fun game. You play as a mech with a sword in a beat-em-up fashion, and then you have your sub-boss battle, followed by the boss that you battle in the style of a fighting game. There are significant cracks in this game's execution of this concept. For one thing, the beat-em-up part leaves something to be desired. As far as your abilities go, you can attack with your sword, do a little…
One day, I was digging through a totally legal collection of NES games online, and while scrolling through the list, this game called Layla caught my attention. Just look up the art for this game, it feels like there's something cool to be found here. Unfortunately, the art set me up for disappointment. This game is a side-scrolling shooter that starts off with some very annoying music. You go through interiors of…
Following the failure of Action 52 on the NES, the man behind that idea, Vince Perri, somehow found a real developer to make a Sega Genesis version of Action 52. That team was Farsight Technologies, and they had the mighty task of stuffing 52 games in one cartridge. This was an actually decently experienced team, unlike the one that worked on the NES version, but the end result was still not a great one. I will…
For those looking for a tl;dr version of this review: This is a turn-based RPG, with somewhat snarky dialogue and some fanservice during battles. The style of battle is intuitive and engaging enough to keep things fun. Let's get into the details now. So, the gameplay will have you go through chunks of story related dialog, maybe you'll see some scene play out and then you'll be walking around on the map or the…
Read the full review Mugen no Frontier EXCEED: Super Robot Wars OG Saga
This game has almost everything I want in a Pokemon game. I even feel a bit bad saying "almost" but I felt like a lot of the Unova region Pokemon were kinda lame, and found myself using a lot of repels. That's just me, though, and besides, through trading (or using PKHeX for you weasels out there) you can get nice vintage Pokemon into the game. But hey, let's get more positive. The story is interesting, and I want…
There's no use in going over every single game in this cartridge. All you really need to know is that Active Enterprises was a barely professional company run by Vince Perri. He had come across one of those bootleg famicom cartridges that were sold in countries where they didn't have to worry about getting a cease and desist letter, or anything like that. Perry wanted to make something like that...but legally. He…
Have you played King of Fighters after 1995? Congrats, you know how this game plays, but it's not about teams this time around, it's about 1-on-1 fighting, which feels handcuffed considering the context of this game. It came out after Capcom vs SNK 2. Now, granted, SVC Chaos had to be made for the Neo Geo arcade and home platform...for some reason, and so maybe it's a little unfair to compare this to CVS2. But more…
Getting right into it, this game's combat may seem strange. You have two lanes, like Fatal Fury, where you can jump back and forth to fight. When you move away from your opponent, you actually turn around, leaving you open for an attack. However, there's a quick back dash, you can also run towards your opponents, and once you get the hang of the controls (A for a strong attack, B for a weak one, and C to block, by…
If there's a nadir for Dragon Ball video games, it would have to be either this game, or DBZ Taiketsu on the Gameboy Advance. I'm not going to get into the graphics too much. This is a PS1 era game we're talking about, the 3D was going to look very blocky anyways, but my goodness, the stages are ugly. I will get the positives out of the way now - the soundtrack of this game is genuinely good. Do yourself a favor and…
Usually, when a game gets a sequel, I expect more content, not less. KAMEHAMEHA! Guess what this game did? Well, let's start from the top. After the admittedly cool intro, players will quickly notice that there's no story mode to this game. You know, one of the main attractions of the previous game, if not THE main attraction. No kind of arcade mode, either. It's almost like this game was rushed, and there was no…
"The little things really do count" is what this review will come down to. For example, the prequel, Advanced VG, was a perfectly fine game, but it was missing a bit more depth to make its gameplay more than just a derivative of Street Fighter Alpha. There was also no practice mode, but all the other bells and whistles were there. Right off the bat, this game has a practice mode, which is already a nice game changer…
Sure, some might look at the description of this game and think it's just for perverts. But, the reality is that there's not that much fanservice in this version, and a lot of effort was put into the presentation of this game. You got a hell of an animated intro, a story mode with more animation on it, and voice acting. Granted, sometimes it will feel like you're looking at a powerpoint slide, but I look at the…
This game did everything that was needed to improve on the first Super Butoden game. The fighting is mostly similar - you have a punch, a kick, a button to fly or land, and the shoulder buttons make you slide forward or back quickly. If you get far enough from your opponent, the screen will split, and you can unleash your ultimate moves - like the Kamehameha, Big Bang Attack, Special Beam Cannon, etc. Now, in the…
Once the year was slapped onto the title of Smackdown vs Raw games, there was a small, but realistic fear that this would lead to the games becoming the same. That's something that was called the Madden syndrome. In the case of WWE games, it started right here for me. The gameplay was still fairly similar to the previous SvR game, but the pace feels slower. More importantly, the AI got noticeably dumber in this…
In light of the negative reactions DBZ Ultimate Battle 22 got, I remember searching looking up other DBZ video games. This was way back in 2008, or so. And I got very curious about this game called Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butoden for the Sega Saturn. I don't remember there being a lot of footage of this game back then, but the intro fascinated me. Granted, it was a similar intro to DBZ Ultimate Battle 22, just with some…
Imagine if Super Mario Bros. didn't have rudimentary things like consistent controls, or side-scrolling, or even competent level design. That is what you'll be getting into with Super Mario Bros. Special. I could forgive the controls to some extent if the level design was forgiving to the player. For example, if the game never asked for very precise jumps onto small platforms, I might forgive it. But no, the game…
