214 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.
From what I remember about the launch of this game it seemed like everyone was quite critical of how this game was designed. With a bit to much of a focus on collecting way to many things. Yet my first reaction once I got into the first world was that they did a great job at recreating the atmosphere of the N64 era of platformers. Even the collectible aspect doesn’t seem that bad other than having acquire 100 pages…
Indeed like a lot of the population of earth I have a smartphone. Yet mobile games rarely get installed since it is mostly a podcast device. Yet when Nintendo does a collab with Cygames it got my attention. Dragalia Lost follows the Euden a prince of Alberia as he goes off to reclaim his birthright. Which just so happens to be a wind dragon that he can form a pact with if he proves himself worthy. Yet all is not…
Like always X gets new weapons from bosses. Other than Super Mario World the early Mega Man X games were very memorable to me even to this day. Instead of playing through the first one and write up a review on that I thought it might worth checking out X3. Since it isn’t really mentioned that often. Like every X game Sigma has a new plot to take over the world by using Dr Dopper as a go between. Who tried to create…
When a new game comes out based on a long running franchise I just can’t help but look back at the past. Instead of doing the obvious thing, (AKA play Spider-Man 2) I decided to look at Treyarch's first attempt at making a web slinging adventure. Although most would stick to what was in the movie they decided to go a bit deeper into the many villains of the spiderverse. While still telling the gist of what was on…
Pokemon X/Y may have brought me back into the pokeuniverse but they were missing a hook to keep me playing till the very end. This has been fixed in this latest game. Once again the player inhabits a boy/girl that must travel around the islands to become the very best. Unlike every other game instead of facing Gym leaders they must overcome trials and then the Kahuna of the 4 different islands.It may be similar but…
Time to pull another RPG out of the bookshelf to finally play through it. I have a lot of positive memories of Dark Cloud 2 yet I never managed to finish it. The mixture of different gameplay styles really gives it a positive first impression. Yet now that I’m seeing this game in a new light I can see why it is well regarded while also seeing some very notable flaws. The action is fast paced and the cel shaded art…
A wide cast of unique characters livens up the sections between doing adventure game stuff. Over the years I’ve been somewhat fascinated by Lucasarts adventure games. Yet not till long after they have been really out of date. Can’t say I’ve been going through them at a very fast rate though since Monkey Island and Escape From Monkey island have been the only ones I’ve beat till now. Grim Fandango had a very unique…
For a game I just bought on PSN a while ago because it was on sale it managed to easily blow past my expectations. The story itself is a pretty big reason why so let me give you a quick introduction. Our protagonist fox named Reynardo used to be quite the master thief. Until one day he decided to settle down yet that could not last as the king of the land went crazy. Town after town was razed till they reached his…
This Donkey Kong reboot is kinda the gold standard for remaking a old game while adding a bunch of stuff to it. While the first 4 levels are like playing the arcade game it quickly opens up into a puzzle platformer. I doubt this needs to be said but 5 years later DK has kidnapped Pauline again. Mario must once again make his way through a bunch of levels but this time he’s got some new skills to even the odds. The…
Over the top crime drama is still on point. All of it is voiced now too. With this release being noted as the swan song for the character that has been the constant protagonist for over 10 years it has a lot to live up to. Kazuma Kiryu has once again been pulled into the world of the Yakuza. After getting thrown in jail again for 3 years he gets out and hopes to go back and take care of the orphanage he founded. Yet…
Like any good sequel this game adds layers to a already complex tale of a group of friends that try to defy fate. If you somehow started reading this and haven’t played Steins; Gate then stop. Literally impossible for me to not spoil some of the plot in the original game in the upcoming paragraph. This is 100% the game. So I hope you like to read. This picks up directly after our primary protagonist Rintarou failed…
Why not finish off my unofficial retro remake review month with a new game. A new game that is 100% a reimagined take on Castlevania III. It takes elements of the original game like swapping characters and expands on their usefulness in a modern context. Making all the sub weapons and allies much more key to making sections of the game easier. While still letting the player decide how hard they want the game to be.…
From one direct remake to another with one very notable difference. While Punch Out had added new challenges this is 100% the same game with a new coat of paint. Sure they did add in Wonder Girl mode but other than it being awesome it adds very little to the overall game. Which leaves me pondering if a old Sega Master System game can still be fun to this day. Being able to swap directly to the old game at a touch of…
Unlike with Maximo this isn’t a reworking of a old formula and is just a direct remake with new stuff. Out of Nintendo's library of franchises this one wasn’t one I thought we would see again after the first two games. Sure it sold a reasonable amount of copies but this series never seemed like a game that would get a new release in 2009. But I’m still glad they got Next Level to develop this since it maintains the…
May is a bit of a slow month for new releases that interest me so I thought it might be cool to look back at some games that were either remakes or reimagined takes on classic franchises. Like a lot of my ideas this was thanks to Jason playing Maximo on UPF. I remember enjoying this game although it seemed quite tough like the game it was based on. Turns out my impression of it was kinda wrong going by how easily I…
Since this is a collection of two games I’ll be talking about the first ZoE in the first few paragraphs before switching to the sequel. A lot of what makes up the first game feels like a starting point with some hints of greatness but it is fairly simple. The story starts with our young protagonist learning about the horrors of war before accidentally falling into the cockpit of Jehuty. For some reason the A.I.…
As a follow up to the addictive yet very short Steam World Dig this does everything that one did while still expanding it in a positive way. The last game ended with something happening to Rusty and in the interim he has disappeared. Which leads to one of his friends named Dorothy to head out to solve this mystery. All she has is a broken light and a rusty pickax to start her adventure but it soon becomes apparent…
In the age of monthly releases of 16 bit like indie games I feel like developers have to try to stand out more than ever before. Which is very hard to do these days and in this situation I don’t even see 1% of all of them since they usually have to have some oomph behind them before I even think about picking them up. Yet in this case I just bought this because Wayforward was publishing it and the whimsical cartoon…
One of Aya's letters about one of her friends. Do I have some fascination with playing visual novels with Root in their name? This is the second time this word choice has shown up in a game I’ve played recently. Unlike the last one with its time bending chicanery this one relies on one big mystery. One day protag-kun decides to look over his old letters from a pen pal he had 15 years ago. Yet this day he notices a…
I was reminded the other day just how good this game was when it was released. Made me want to revisit it so I decided to play through it again and see if it still holds up. As the title of the game implies it follows the exploits of Goemon who happens be a unsung hero of a wacky version of Japan. This time a pair of stage performers have gotten their hands on a instant stage beam and plan on turning all of Japan…
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy ( Why no title on the title screen? ) With 10 years of legacy behind it I was beginning to think I had enough of the Uncharted formula. Which was absolutely true between the second and third game. It wasn’t until the forth game arrived that my love for swashbuckling treasure hunters was reignited. Then Naughty Dog went and made a side story starring Nadine and Chloe. Two unlikely allies…
In this world no one cares about waking up this guy at all. On the surface this game appears to be a horror game but I found a lot of the horrific elements aren’t even the real reason you’ll want to play this. Detention takes place in Taiwan at a time of martial law. Two students get caught stuck in their school after a colossal rain storm. Which collapses the bridge leaving them stranded. At the same time the river…
Playing this game reminded me of another game that I played this year Neon Chrome. A game I wrote a review for yet never posted until now. The reason I’m bringing that up now is that they are both randomized multiple run based games. Yet they both have similar issues that keep them from becoming something you could play once a day for a year. The balance to make something like Spelunky is tough but I’ve gone on a…
Neo Chrome is set in a cyber world where a overseer controls everything. One hacker decides to fight back and take over one of the people under the overseer’s control and scale the tower to take him down.. This setup is just a reason for a bunch of enemies to stand in your way since other than a few minor moments that show you how much a jerk the antagonist is. But I doubt anyone is booting up a top down shooter to…
Plenty of different dinners to test your cooking skills. The first game in this series was frighteningly addictive thanks to the focus on building up a great restaurant by constantly changing up what foods you decide to serve each day. While it still retains this motif it focuses more on serving foods in a bunch of unique restaurants that also happen to be in the newly opened Terragon tower. Each one has a different…
Burn with me! Here I am with another in a line of solid but never quite amazing releases from Wayforward. They’ve certainly made amazing games before like Shantae and the Pirate's Curse but they tend to make a lot of okay games. In this case this turns a movie tie in game that should be bad into something that is good. Based on the recent Mummy movie this requires you to suit up as one of the secret agents that are…
Every level has a nice crisp look to it. For this title bearing the 10th anniversary stamp I somehow never heard about this series till now. Seeing that this was mainly on phones I could certainly see why it never came up on my radar. Since I didn’t even have a smartphone when they came out originally. This game is the third in the series and had free to play elements that aren’t apart of the PS4 release I’ve been…
A statement that’ll never not remain true is the fact that giant robots are cool. In the early 2000’s Gundam Wing brought this series over and made it popular in the US. I obviously watched it but the 80’s Mobile Suit Gundam was more my speed. Thus I ended up with a bunch of PS2 games based on different sections of the One Year War story arc. Which is a conflict between the Earth Federation and the Principality of…
Read the full review Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space
800+ moons seems like a absurd amount of stuff to collect. Yet I have a urge to obtain them all. Ah a new year has gone by and a new Mario game has arrived. Featuring many different kingdoms to explore it certain lives up to its title. The game begins quickly with a snappy cut to Mario facing down Bowser once again on board one of his flying ships. It seems he wishes to marry Peach this time and he is prepared to…
Around the release of this game was when vehicle based action games started to become more scarce. After deciding to replay this I started to see why that was the case. Nothing wrong with this style of game but it certainly follows a formula that never managed to change. Without anything new brought to the table the one thing left that can still work in a game like this is the setting. Pretty much impossible to make…
After being such a big fan of Naughty Dog's latest work it’s surprising that it took me four years to finally visit the post apocalyptic wasteland full of mushroom zombies. Looking back 2013 me was all about nonstop action instead of trying to scavenge my way through many horrible situations. A lot like the first scene of the game where we get introduced to our main protagonist Joel. Who quickly goes from trying to…
Maybe I should brush up on some Indonesia ghost lore to find out whats actually going on in this game. Emulating something you like by creating your own version of it is a modest goal. The only issue is keeping the good parts of the Fatal Frame franchise without making similar mistakes. With the budget this little game has that just isn’t possible. Any effective horror game has a creepy narrative to aid in building…
Just about everyone didn’t expect much from this crossover when they first heard about it. The crazy Rabbids mixed with Mario seemed like an odd match that couldn't go anywhere good. Yet finding out it was a turn based strategy game my curiosity made me want to check it out. My usual spiel of going through the narrative is quite pointless for this game. All you need to know is that the wacky Rabbids have invaded the…
Alright so I’m writing a review for a visual novel. Thus this game relies entirely on being able to convey a compelling narrative to keep players reading like a really good book. Upfront I can tell you that it has that in spades. It even has a unique gimmick that makes it a bit more unique than a standard visual novel. Before I get to that I need to somehow write up a synopsis to this 30 hour epic. Since the game…
The artistic flair from 2D models to 3D models has been retained. The mixture of both styles really makes some scenes stand out more than others. This may reveal my opinion early but I’m disappointed that I didn’t get around to playing this till now. The new gameplay style made me think Spike Chunsoft couldn’t put together a good action game set in the Danganronpa universe. Turns out I was wrong. Like any good…
Read the full review Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
As a sequel to a Nintendo game this is one of the few that feel like it has minimal upgrades. Running around painting everything is still the main mechanic and all the modes they added to the first game are still in this one. Even the mcguffin in the single player campaign is the same since once again the Octarians have stolen the great zap fish and it is up to a special inkling agent to save the day one more time.…
Over the years the Final Fantasy series has been either hot or cold for me depending on what Square Enix decides to do that year. With this release, they decided to go with something a bit more action based which does fit closer to the style of game I tend to like better. Yet does it go far enough in that direction to make it feel like a fun game to play? By the time I’ve finished writing this review we shall know…
After watching Giant Bomb East play through a part of this I had to revisit it to see if it holds up at all. Out of all the Mario games, this one has a bit more story to tell via CG cutscenes. Most of it is kinda weird with the gist of it being about an evil Mario that has painted Isle Delfino with a bunch of paint. Mario gets blamed for the vile act and he must now clean up the town. After getting introduced to the…
I could die from all the cuteness this game emits. Side Note: Props to the developer for sticking to a surprisingly serious ending. Directed by the creator of the Mana series this game tries to bring back those ideas and mix them with a bunch of different gameplay styles. In a lot of ways, this game felt like an alternate take on a Secret Of Mana origin story. The game begins by introducing a cute chibi looking…
It has been a while since I put some time into a Netherrealm game. I’ve at least played all the recent releases but none of them had substantial single player content that kept me coming back for more. Most of the time I tend to play through the arcade mode with every fighter and that’s all I do. Yet that has changed with this game. Like usual before I go into any details let's quickly sum up what's happening in the…
With Call of Duty going back to the second world war I thought it might be worth going back to the first game that got me interested in this setting. Medal Of Honor Frontline may not be the first in the series but it was the one that caught my eye one day while looking through the many games at Babbage’s It follows adventures of James Patterson who is a covert spy who gets moved around to different areas to complete…
Most of my memories playing this game were the fact it had Japanese surf rock in it and the very nice looking cel-shaded visuals. Those facts remain true this day but with fresh eyes, I decided to pick this back up and play through it one more time. In a lot of ways, this is a straight up remake of Brave Fencer Musashi. At least thematically since the plot has a few things in common with the first game. The world is…
Hard to not see how much this game follows in the footsteps of Portal. In both how the game is structured and the main narrative hook. The plot starts with Ava being woke up my T.O.M. on board a spaceship above Europa. It turns out the ground crew appears to be in dire straits and it is up to Ava to figure out what is going on. To reach the inner sanctum 70 different small puzzle rooms must be solved to find out…
With Waypoint starting up a monthly video game club I decided to take part in it. Since I like writing small reviews of most of the games I play I figured it wouldn’t hurt to review this month's game too. Binary Domain was a third person shooter that came out in 2012. I played it when it was new and enjoyed it. Yet does it retain its positive qualities 5 years later? Before I answer that question let's go over a few…
Over the years I’ve seen games that tried to take the multiple perspective angle with the story they were trying to tell. Most have done an average job at best but now a game has taken it to a whole new level. That game is named Nier Automata. Since I don’t want want to spoil any details I’ll be focusing my review on 2B's storyline. A quick set up of the story is that humans have fled to the moon after an alien…
While scanning through a stack of Dreamcast games at a local convention this one caught my eye. Like the old days, I just saw the box art and thought it looked like Ace Combat so I picked it up. Turns out the box art didn’t lie. This is an arcade fighter jet game about blowing up jets, boats and battle fortresses. That last item does imply this isn’t a super serious game even though it kinda tries to tell a serious…
Eve is a new character that is only really around to spit out exposition. The Blaster Master name has been brought up to me through many different podcasts but I never took the time to check it out till now. Inti Creates has crafted a remake of the first game while adding new elements that make it a better game. Even though this looks like it could be a prequel it is indeed a remake since the story picks up with…
How can you not like Trico? He looks so cute. Many different types of media have tried to create a compelling companion story to varying degrees of success. The Last Guardian is another attempt to craft a faithful companion that the player can really care for. It succeeds in doing that by slowly endearing you to the giant beast Trico. As the boy and his giant friend go through many different locations that test the…
