You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/super-smash-bros-ultimate.913/

Originally released in 1999 for the N64, Super Smash Bros was the first in a now-distinguished line of family-friendly fighting games featuring the best of Nintendo’s characters. With each new release, the roster grew, stages and features improving with each generation’s new capabilities. Now the final month of 2018, the ultimate release is upon us: just how far has this franchise come in 19 years?

A Smashing Time

The mode that immediately grabbed my attention is the series staple: Smash. Each battle plays out as the series has defined as standard, with recognisable fighters from franchises Nintendo or otherwise taking to the stage. With that in mind, you might be wondering what this supposed Ultimate release adds to the formula. For better or worse, I don’t feel much has changed, at least from a non-competitive standpoint. Starting with the original cast of eight fighters, characters old and new become available to you the more you play. There’s a pleasant sense of progression to be found in this, each challenger approaching screen feeling deserved, and offering a satisfying challenge before gaining access to them as a part of your roster.

If there’s one thing to be observed, it’s the overall step up in difficulty the game has taken from its previous releases. For the first time, I found myself actually losing against new characters as they appeared, forced to rechallenge them later. With the release of version 1.2.0, the difficulty of these challengers has supposedly been reduced. While I don’t feel either difficult or easy challengers to be bad in themselves, it would’ve been great to have seen some kind of setting to define how you want to play, in oppose to bringing down the difficulty altogether. If it’s a case of accessibility, make visible accessibility options and give the power to the player akin to how you can decide the difficulty of your CPU opponents.

What’s left in regards to changes feel minor, but all add up to create what is probably the most refined and polished Smash Bros experience to date. You have the FS Meter, something charged as you deal and are dealt damage, which rewards you with a Final Smash when full. You have stage morphing, which will switch between two stages mid-battle at random or predetermined intervals. You have the underdog boost to throw a bone to a player in a pinch. All these features can be toggled and saved as rulesets, and I really suggest you try everything. With the ability to save and pick between rulesets each time you go into a game, there’s nothing stopping you from going from everything to a more mundane no items, Final Destination-only setup depending on your mood.

It’s really quite difficult to pull up things to dislike here, the only thing coming to mind being that you have to reselect your character after each battle. For all the quality of life changes made, it surprises me to see something like this overlooked. Of course, you can get around this to some extent by making each battle the first to two to five wins, the game transitioning fluidly between each one with your selected characters, but it would have been nice for the cursor to already be over your previously used character if nothing else. It feels as though there’s an unnecessary delay between battles that could be so easily addressed.

Outside of the standard battles, Smash Bros Ultimate brings in two really cool new ways to play: Squad Strike and Smashdown. Squad Strike is something I never knew I wanted, letting you pick three or five characters to face off against your opponent’s selections. This mode diversifies into Tag Team, Elimination, and Best of. The first of these is by far my favourite, the fight flowing just as a standard stock battle might, the difference lying in what happens after you’re KO’d. Instead of respawning as the just-fallen character, you move onto the next fighter in your roster, keeping the game fresh and adding a fun layer of strategy to your choices and the order you decide to bring them out. Elimination functions similarly, but lacks the fluidity of Tag Team, starting a new battle each time a fighter falls. Best of is exactly as it sounds, functioning the same way as the first to X wins in standard Smash; where it is more interesting is again in the choice of characters. Deciding the order you’ll use your roster is the key to each of these battle types, and the mind games and predictions of how your opponent will decide serve as the foundations of the strategy and fun to be found here.

Smashdown is something I always knew I wanted, and I struggle to express how happy I am to finally see it, especially with as many characters on offer as this game has. This mode sees you pick one character at a time with them removed from your available pool after each fight, the player with the most wins at the end being crowned the victor. There’s so much to love here for how simple a concept it is. You have the debate of picking your best characters versus picking your opponent’s best to deprive them of the option. There’s little more to say, but I definitely encourage you to try it if you want an intense string of fights with a friend.

Spirited Warfare

Something severely lacking in the previous release, Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U, was a significant single player experience. Ultimate remedies this with spirits, spread across Spirit Board, and the game’s Adventure mode. At their core, both modes offer the same content: themed fights against spirits inhabiting the bodies of the game’s roster. These fights always come with twists; be it environmental changes like the arena being littered with lava, or your opponents being metal, being able to launch you easier, or being large or small, amongst other things. While a lot of these fights can appear unbalanced at first, I found myself constantly impressed by how well they suited their respective character. The choice of fighter and respective special conditions have kept me hooked, and have given me a reason to keep picking up my system, even when my friends are too busy to play. To add depth to these fights, you can pick your own set of spirits to bring with you to battle. These can make certain attacks stronger, add special characteristics to your fighter, or simply negate the environmental advantage your opponent has. Combine this with a rock, paper, scissors aspect of red beats green, green beats blue, and blue beats red, and you’ll find yourself gathering and using a large variety of different spirits for every situation.

Adventure mode sees the game’s cast enveloped and subsequently taken by a mysterious light, leaving only Kirby to save the day. The premise isn’t much, ultimately acting as a structure to allow you to move through the same battles seen in Spirit Board, but as a framework to make you want to gather and use spirits it does incredibly well. Breaking up these battles, you’ll also find bosses and more standard fights when you challenge a fighter for their freedom to make them playable. For how simple it is, I found myself incredibly impressed at the sheer scale of the world. As strange as it might sound, it truly felt like a world. Each area is themed to a certain game or series, giving you pleasant moments of belonging as you roam through a familiar setting. While the mode as a whole can feel a little repetitive, it does well in constantly giving you a reason to come back to the game, whether you’re only picking it up for one fight or ten. Also acting as a way to unlock characters, it’s an ideal place to start.

Classic Games

Tucked away in the Games & More screen, you’ll find many a familiar mode. Offering your standard multi-man smashes, Century, All-Star, and Cruel Smash, as well as the classic… Classic Mode, you’ve again got content upon content to satisfy a single player, but also tag team efforts. With each of your Mob Smash modes allowing for up to four people to participate, and Classic up to two, both storing high scores relative to the players present, you can happily drag others to suffering the same terrible fate as yourself in Cruel Smash (or happily play the other modes together if that’s your thing).

The mob smashes fairly self-explanatory, I feel the light truly deserves to be shined on the game’s implementation of Classic Mode. Instead of a standard selection of fights to be played universally by the cast, each member has their own story to tell, dictating the battles they face. Lucina’s path pits her against heroes from her franchise, Chrom’s battles are always with a CPU partner, each tells a tale you’ll smile at if familiar with the character and their origins. Though each route is short, you’ll find yourself coming back to clear each character’s route and better your high score. If you’re not confident in your skill, the intensity meter from the previous game returns, allowing you to dictate your own starting difficulty, with it adjusting based on how you perform as you progress. For those wanting a challenge, trying to finish each route with an intensity of 9.9 is an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.

It isn’t all roses here however. Perhaps more notable to long-running fans of the series, two familiar modes are missing: Endless Smash, and Home-Run Contest. While these aren’t necessarily significant in the content they provide, I can’t understand the removal of the fan-favourite minigame that’s been a hit since Melee. Toting that every character is present is one thing, but to remove two long-standing game modes is entirely contrary to the game truly being the ultimate package.

Online Interaction

This review being post-release, I’m able to discuss the uproar surrounding the game’s online when it first launched. Put simply, it was substandard and dissatisfactory, throwing many into confusion over just what their Nintendo Switch Online subscription money was being used for. Now a few patches in (the game being on version 1.2.0 at the time of writing), I’m glad to report things are at least better. Playing 20 or so matches online, some alone and some coop with a friend next to me, we experienced minor moments of lag, but the experience was largely positive. These moments definitely aren’t enough to ruin a casual fight, but if they happen at the penultimate moment of a more competitive game, I could definitely understand frustration. 

Connectivity aside, the actual implementation of online features is interesting to say the least. Discarding the notions of fun and glory present in the previous game, you simply jump into online games. Where opinions are mixed is in how the game does its matchmaking. At launch, priority was heavily given to players in close proximity in an attempt to make matches as fluid and lagless as possible. This came at the cost of discarding a player’s preferred ruleset, throwing competitive players into matches on large stages with undesirable items, and casual players into a more mundane setting. With the latest update, preferred rules are at the core of matchmaking. While still not perfect, I did manage to match with other players relatively quickly and had my devilish ruleset a good deal of the time. Though through a lack of skill I am yet to unlock it, the game does also feature a mode for the more experienced players in Elite Smash. Pitting you against other high ranking players, the idea behind it is to keep you hooked on intense fighting action by constantly challenging you. It is however worth noting that there is, to the best of my understanding, no difference from standard online battles aside from this. It could still be four-player, it could still have items, and it might not even be set on Final Destination. At the moment, all you can do is hope Nintendo change this in future, but for now, you might just have to learn to make the best of it.

Battle Arenas are the game’s answer to a lot of people wanting to play together. Featuring a queue system and the option to spectate, I imagine this to be the go-to mode for streamers and casual online tournament organisers. Being able to fully customise the rules, as well as the player rotation, this mode presents a surprisingly intuitive way to get together with faraway friends and play with minimal effort. It’s also worth noting this is the only mode you can really be certain you’ll get the rules you want, so you might see competitive-hungry players flocking here, even if it has no impact on your online ranking. 

Training and More

The last major thing worth mentioning from my perspective is the game’s training mode. Much to my surprise, it is the best it has ever been, even for a more casual player such as myself. The map itself is huge. Featuring a large flat platform, as well as a battlefield-esque stage to the side, on top of clear markings for distance and blast zones for both Battlefield and Final Destination, you’re really able to understand how each character works. The settings available to change range from your standard CPU damage percentage, to more interesting things like being able to lock their damage percentage, show the trajectory of attacks at varying percentages, and even make the game move a frame at a time. Everything I want, and everything I never knew I wanted, is here. In every other game, I’ve simply overlooked the training mode and learned by doing, but here, I almost feel like the game is pushing me towards it. It feels a waste not to use it when everything is laid out so perfectly.

On more minor notes, several things return from previous games. Amiibo training, tournaments, and eight player smashes are all here. A nice addition is that every map can now be played with eight players unlike the previous game where only select maps were compatible. Custom Smash now features more options, the personal favourite of mine being the ability to start with Rocket Belts—try this with Little Mac for some serious fun.

Overall, I struggle to deny that this is in fact the ultimate form of Super Smash Bros. Riddled with a plethora of addictive content for both single players and parties of people alike, you’ll find time an abstract concept as you proclaim “just one more” after each battle. Though missing a few modes I had thought to be standard of the series, it offers more than enough to keep you hooked for tens, if not hundreds of hours.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/pokemon-lets-go-eevee-pikachu.902/

Originally released in 1998, Pokemon Yellow took the gameplay and world of its predecessors Red and Blue, and mapped it more closely to the plot and characters of the animated series. The result was a fantastic experience thriving on both what made the show entertaining, and what made the games stand out. Roll on 2018 and we once again find ourselves at a crossroad, the series-favourite Pikachu now joined by Eevee to ease fans of the mobile sensation Pokemon Go into a more traditional console experience. With gameplay changes galore, Kanto isn’t quite how you remember it, but is it for better or for worse?

A Whole New World

Much of the game’s introduction plays out as you’d expect for a Pokemon game. You choose your character, you name them and your rival, and you dive straight into the world. Starting with more sparkle and shine than the series would have had 20 years ago, Let’s Go utilises a short cutscene to draw you into its colourful and inviting world. These being distributed throughout your adventure, they do well in adding emphasis to a moment, as well as creating a real sense of grandeur and excitement for what is to come.

Compared to my previous Kanto experiences, Let’s Go feels far more eager to throw you into the action and maintain a sense of continual progression. You find yourself out of Pallet Town and exploring the world almost instantly; road blocks such as the old man’s capture tutorial in Viridian City replaced with a more seamless ‘learn by doing’ approach as you catch your starter Pokemon. Even small things like being able to head straight back to Oak’s Lab instead of walking from Viridian to Pallet are things I find myself appreciating. It feels as though the game wants to be played above all, and this is nothing but a good thing in my eyes.

Perhaps an element some may fault here is the game’s fairly regular offers to take you to where you need to be. There are two ways something like this can be viewed, and I feel it interesting to discuss both. A growing criticism of recent games, hand-holding has become an irritation to the long-time fans of the series. Instead of leaving you to play your way, you’re guided from point to point, as if untrusting of your ability to do it yourself. I personally felt this a significant issue in the 2014 remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, often not being able to walk from one town to another without somebody healing your party and telling you how good a job you’re doing. While Let’s Go presents you with much of the same in its offers, they were infrequent as to not feel demeaning. Each time I accepted, it felt like it made sense, in oppose to backtracking through a route I had already traversed. It kept the game moving and made it that new content was continually being presented to me. There was one exception to this in being shown to Diglett’s Cave from Vermillion City (this being around a ten second walk away for those unaware) but overall I felt them a positive inclusion. All of that being said, the beauty of them is that they are presented as choices; if you’d prefer to walk back, you’re entirely free to, sometimes even rewarded with an amusing quip for turning down such a kind offer.

Kanto itself is the best it has ever been. While I have to question whether this is as far as the Switch can be pushed, the region feels alive; colourful and bustling with activity. Though a large part of this comes from the wild Pokemon visually roaming around you from route to route, I feel the work put into the world shouldn’t be overlooked. Let’s Go succeeds in presenting a region fantastically familiar, and yet completely fresh. A personal favourite change of mine comes from the redesigned gyms now having seating for people to watch the battles. It’s something incredibly small, but it really builds up excitement for each major battle as a thing that deserves to be watched. Small changes like this are littered throughout the world, and do well in drawing fans of the series back to where it started. I constantly found myself thinking “this wasn’t there last time!” and appreciating just how amazing technology is to have allowed for such a world to be in my hands.

Catch and Train

In Let’s Go, the focus of the gameplay has quite clearly shifted. In previous games, the general gameplay loop consisted of battling wild Pokemon to be strong enough to battle trainers, to then be strong enough to defeat key opponents such as gym leaders or evil organisation bosses. To some extent, this loop is still in place. You still gain experience through wild encounters, you still battle trainers, defeat gym leaders, and overthrow evil corporations. It’s around the implementation of Pokemon Go’s wild encounter mechanics this loop begins to evolve.

With encounters now as simple as walking into a Pokemon in the overworld, then throwing a ball into a shrinking circle, the game encourages a different kind of playstyle. Experience is gained by catching a Pokemon, with bonuses rewarded for capturing on your first throw, for landing your shot in a smaller target, and for catching many of the same Pokemon, amongst other things. The overarching theme to these bonuses is playing well and playing fast, pushing you to get better and in turn, encounter and catch more and more Pokemon. Going back to the gameplay loop of previous games, this focus on more literally catching them all disrupts how the game is generally played. Expecting you to encounter and catch more Pokemon, and as such gain more experience, you’ll find fewer trainers hanging around the region, especially early on. Also quite notable is how few Pokemon each of them actually have, it being a little after the second gym before you commonly start seeing each of them have more than one on their team. It’s difficult to say whether this is a decision I agree with. I certainly understand this approach; trainer battles serve more of a purpose in providing you with the Poke Balls and money to continue your capturing sprees, in oppose to their previous role as a prime source of experience. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel I was being spoon-fed victories.

Coach Trainers are a lesser-talked about addition to the formula, being optional NPCs to interact with and in turn battle. They differ from your usual crowd in throwing out a stronger team, and rewarding your victory with rarer items, such as candies for your starter Pokemon or TMs. While I did enjoy their presence, the feeling of them being there as a patchwork solution to the standard trainers’ difficulty remained in the back of my mind.

I understand these games are largely as they are to act as a lighter and more casual entry point to the series, and in that each of these changes do thrive. The wild encounters are different, and it definitely isn’t something for everybody, but to me it’s simply another kind of Pokemon. It isn’t trying to challenge you as a player, more see you through a quaint journey of throwing balls at anything that moves and reward you for sitting down and taking everything in. As somebody’s first game, it ticks all the boxes mechanically speaking, and sets them up well for the inevitable step up the next generation of games will bring with them.

Motion Madness

The Switch toted as a console to be played anywhere, anytime, with anyone, Let’s Go brings with it a first to the series in co-op play. Simply have a friend pick up a Joy Con, shake it, and they’re in! As the second player, they’ll have their own avatar in the overworld, and have a Pokemon from your party follow behind them. If you time your throws together in a wild encounter, your balls will converge, giving a satisfying animation alongside a reasonable capture bonus. On top of this, they’ll also be able to join you in trainer battles, making for an amusingly unfair 2v1 fight.

If you look at this from a difficulty standpoint, it’s fairly easy to imagine just how much this trivialises what few challenges the game has to offer. If you wanted to get through it as quickly as possible, you could even pick up the second Joy Con for yourself, but this isn’t really what this system is for. To put it as simply as possible, if you’re reading this, I honestly don’t think the co-op play was made with you in mind. I imagine the game’s co-op to be a generation of children’s first interaction with the series, tagging along with a parent’s or sibling’s adventure. With this in mind, its current implementation is perfect in the most straightforward of ways. It’s an adventure of simplicity and reward for fresh-faced fans in place to draw them into the world itself.

For the single players out there, Let’s Go offers three ways to play: in handheld mode with the Joy Cons attached to the system, with a Joy Con (either the left or right), or with the Poke Ball Plus. From my time playing the game, I can say I came to enjoy each way of playing, but none is without fault. Starting with what most would consider the best way to play, handheld mode is the closest you’ll find to a traditional control scheme. You move with the left analogue stick, interact with A, cancel with B, and use the extra buttons for additional shortcuts. It feels natural. Catching a Pokemon sees you manoeuvre the system with motion controls before pressing A to throw your ball at the target, and it’s here the issues begin. Motion controls. Handheld mode offers what is probably the better implementation of these, but even with that in mind, they aren’t exactly optional. While the left analogue stick is usable in handheld mode, motion is always active, forcing you to weave and wave your console until you hit your target, or stay entirely still as you manoeuvre the left stick.

The single Joy Con and Poke Ball Plus take a different approach. Seeing you perform a throwing motion with your chosen controller, you’re provided with a real sense of being in the moment. The HD rumble, as well as the internal speaker of the Poke Ball Plus, do a brilliant job in pulling the game out from behind the screen, but we find ourselves arriving at the same issue. Having far less control over where the ball is heading, I managed to perfect my throwing to hit Pokemon in the centre of the screen, and at a specific point to the left and right. The motion quite fortunately felt guided to a reasonable extent, but still frustrating at times as your ball flies to the opposite end of the screen.

A bit of an oddball, the Poke Ball Plus only has an analogue stick and two buttons, as well as an additional interaction to be had when shaking it. With such limited options, you miss out on a lot of the convenience you get from the other control schemes. You might be questioning just what is so special about it to justify a £45 purchase? There isn’t really a surprise to go here, it’s exactly what it says it is. While it provides some of the most satisfying feedback I’ve felt in any Switch game I’ve played, I struggle to recommend it to others unless they find themselves wanting to use the Pokemon Go Plus functionality as well. It’s a great feeling to throw it at a Pokemon, but I don’t believe it does enough for somebody just wanting to play Let’s Go.

While I really enjoyed each control style, it stands out as a shame to me just how limited they are. Want to use the precision aiming of handheld mode when the system is docked? You’re out of luck. Want to use a pro controller? Both Joy Cons in the grip? Afraid not. Be it a push to sell the Poke Ball Plus as a control option, or a complete misjudgement of the playerbase, the lack of choice when it comes to controls is a real shame. With this being a key thing to make or break the overall experience, it needs to be perfect, or as close as possible, and for many this simply isn’t the case.

What Comes After

If you’ve played a Kantonian Pokemon game before, you’ll largely know what you’re getting into for the bulk of the game. Eight gyms, Team Rocket, maybe a few legendary birds. But what do you do when all is said and done, after the credits have rolled? This is where things start to get a little murky. Lacking the Sevvi Islands of Fire Red and Leaf Green, and even the Battle Towers and Frontiers seen in many a recent release, the amount you’ll get out of Let’s Go’s postgame content will depend on how much you’re willing to put into it.

After the Elite Four, you return to Pallet Town, the game expanding in two ways. The first allows you to fly over the world on one of three Pokemon: Charizard, Dragonite, or Aerodactyl. It’s a really fun inclusion, being able to soar above houses, over oceans, and past that one route you decided you didn’t want to fight every trainer, but it also shines a light on the segmentation of Kanto. While you can fly above most things, you’re still forced to dismount when entering the gates or mountains that divide the region. For example, on one map you have everywhere from Viridian City all the way south to Cinnabar Island, and on to Fuchsia City. On another, Pewter City to the entrance of Mt Moon, and so on. The world has always been divided by these boundaries, but it’s never felt like such a hard border. My irritation further fuelled by the lack of accessible way to dismount outside of opening the menu, navigating to the Pokemon screen, and putting the Pokemon back in its ball, it feels as though little thought was put into what is otherwise a really cool addition. There are a lot of ways this could have been remedied. From simply having mounting and dismounting assigned to a button, to extending the divisory gates and mountains to accommodate high-flying trainers, the game appears to lack a final coat of polish.

The second post-game addition comes in the form of Master Trainers—trainers scattered through the region specialising in only one Pokemon. To challenge them for their mastery over a Pokemon, you’re forced to fight them one on one in a mirror match. I find this to be an odd inclusion given the casual focus of the rest of the game, but a fun and refreshing challenge nonetheless. This is however the part of the postgame content where you’ll basically get back what you put in. Each Master Trainer’s Pokemon is at least level 65, going up to level 75. While you’ll be able to beat one or two with the Pokemon trained during your adventure, you’ll soon hit a wall, one you can only really overcome by grinding it out. Whether you’ll want to do this really comes down to whether you enjoy the game’s capture mechanics. If you do, sifting through the wild populous of each species can become a calming activity as you go about watching your daily TV shows in the background. If you don’t though… You’ll probably just want to skip these altogether.

It’s difficult to say whether Let’s Go will be a game for you. If you enjoyed Pokemon Go, I’d recommend diving in, though with the lack of touch controls, your muscle memory and experience will only take you so far. For everybody else, it comes down to what you want out of the game. What we have here is not Pokemon in the traditional sense. It finds its strengths in other areas, drawing in a more casual and relaxing air about it. If you want to relive your childhood wonderment as you explored the vast region of Kanto, your family of miscellaneous creatures in tow, I’d say give it a shot; just don’t be expecting too much of a challenge along the way.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/gal-metal.891/

I’ve always held rhythm games in a particularly fond light. Where Project DIVA hooks me on its frantic sensory overloading, and Taiko grips me on its easy to pick up and satisfying smashing of a drum, Gal Metal advertises itself as something new. Discarding the idea of set routines and on-screen prompts, you’re tasked with jamming without limitation, but is this a step forwards for the genre, or a step too far?

Aliens!?

This is the kind of game I love summarising the story for. You have your run of the mill high school boy on his way home, when he’s abruptly abducted by a race of talking octopi called Octoids. He and another rather generic-looking high school girl named Rinko are told their species are to blame for wiping out the Octoid civilisation because of a space probe sending out the lethal sound of metal. Deciding Earth only needs one emissary, the boy and Rinko get merged into one, and chaotic fun ensues as they’re tasked with defending the planet with the power of metal. With the boy controlling Rinko’s body, but her having the knowledge and passion for metal, as well as knowing her own daily routine, they’re forced to work together with the Rinko’s band to fight off the invasions.

It is so absurd in the most fantastic way. The manga-style used to present story scenes fits the tone beautifully, continually managing to entertain and amuse me as the plot develops. It has a fun sense of progression and does well in escalating as you stop attempt after attempt to take over the planet. Mixed into these cartoony segments are idle conversations in class through phone messages, as well as training your band for the upcoming battle. The messages are fun, giving you choices of replies each leading down different conversation paths. At the end, you often find yourself unlocking a small event with one or more of your bandmates, giving them a little more screen time.

Training in Gal Metal sees you divide your free time across work, play, miscellaneous activities, as well as band practice to learn new combinations. Feeling a little like a dating sim in its stat management, you have the freedom this game holds at its epicentre to develop as you see fit. If you prefer a certain style of drum combo, you can put effort into that stat for bonus points. As well as this, you get events from chapter to chapter allowing you to further get to know the cast. It all adds up to create an incredibly personal experience, one that feels as though it could be played three times over whilst still maintaining a degree of freshness. My only real criticism on this front is how short it is. Putting replayability of the chapters aside, there are only 13 to work through. Whether this will be an issue for you will come down to whether music variety is a killer. Within the 13 songs, you have a huge range, each completely unique to the way you choose to drum to them. That being said, no matter how varied they are, there are only 13. In my time playing, I thoroughly came to enjoy each one, but it really makes me question whether the DLC is a required purchase to get the fullest experience. With five new chapters, band members, and songs, it feels like a significant amount to leave out, with the fact of it being launch day DLC (and the DLC itself being a suspiciously small 4 MB download) rubbing salt in the wound. Physical buyers do get it bundled with the game however, so perhaps there is incentive to invest there. Regardless, as I don’t have the DLC myself, I’m unable to comment any further on it.

Drummin’ Free

As its unique contribution to the genre, Gal Metal throws away all notion of set routine, instead leaving it to you as the player to figure out. The idea of it seemed crazy to me, I honestly couldn’t picture it in any way that wasn’t an unenjoyable mess, but here I am hours later completely invested. In the free time before battling aliens, the game gives you the chance to look at and learn the timing of different drum combinations, to then be mixed together in any way you see fit. The scoring system itself isn’t discussed in great detail during gameplay, something I feel to be a curious choice. Instead of learning how to be the best out of the gate, you instead find yourself observing the score you get, and the hints given at the end of each song. Through these, you have a sense of gradual improvement and natural progression. I’m not sure whether I’m entirely on board with this, but I can’t deny the satisfaction that comes from getting your first million point bonus and not really knowing why it happened. If you prefer a more technical approach, there are undoubtedly guides floating around online to get you started at a rapid pace. While I would have liked a little more information, I feel a lot of that comes from my own impatience. If you’re willing to give the game some time, you’ll figure it out one step at a time.

The drumming itself is hard to describe. You wave the Joy Con and you hit either the red or blue drum, and the timing and choice of drum hit will affect which combos are used. Considering the reliance of motion controls for the recommended style of play, I found myself surprised at how good it feels. Each strike feels defined with even the fastest combinations giving you enough time to return to neutral before striking again. The balancing that went into this control scheme honestly amazes me. You can also play using the buttons, or the system’s touch screen in handheld mode, but this is one of the rare gems where motion controls really take it to another level. If you happen to be an actual drummer, the game also advertises a drum mode where the feel of hitting the drum is replicated. Being musically challenged, it’s not something I really adjusted well to, sticking with noodle mode for the duration of my play sessions, but it’s a great option to have nonetheless.

Heavy Metal, Heavy Fun

As a fan of Project DIVA and Taiko, Gal Metal seemed like a foreign experience, and to some extent, that’s exactly what it is. Finding itself detached from its genre whilst pushing it to an extreme I haven’t personally seen before, it’s something I can see myself returning to when I want something different. While it has less content than I would have liked, it redeems itself in the sheer amount of time that can be put into making the game what you want it to be. A remarkably open-ended experience, it’s a game I can recommend to anybody wanting to drum on their own terms, or anybody who just wants a frantic arm workout with motion controls.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/corpse-party-book-of-shadows.888/

As much as I’d like to review this as a standalone title, I can’t in any good mind recommend playing it without previously experiencing the first game. With Book of Shadows acting as a prequel, sequel, and midquel, it aims to supplement the events of Heavenly Host Elementary School and the characters trapped within. Considering this, the following review will include minor spoilers to the first game, mentioning the events in general, as well as a few of the game’s endings. If you’re interested in the series, you can find the first game on PSP (or Vita via PSN), iOS, 3DS, and PC, so give it a go and check this out later.

Anthology of Agony

Where the Corpse Party told a fluid story in five chapters, Book of Shadows takes an entirely different approach. Set before, during, after, and in alternate endings of the first game, it fleshes out the world and its characters in a way that simply wasn’t previously possible. From a gameplay perspective, a lot has changed. Discarding the previous game’s RPG aesthetic and style, Book of Shadows relies on the player’s perceptive eyes and puzzling prowess to move through maps and interact with the world in a point and click environment. On top of this, it introduces several changes to the formula, two of the more notable ones being darkening, and the ability to save anywhere.

As an idea, darkening also existed in the first game. The process of losing yourself to the school’s ever-present ambience of dread and sorrow, it could cause a character to act on emotion, leaving them vulnerable to possession from vengeful spirits. While the lore remains consistent, Book of Shadows introduces this idea as a gameplay mechanic. Comparable to a sanity meter in other games, it increases with certain in-game events, or by interacting with things such as dead bodies. Outside of these, it also serves to penalise you for making wild guesses or not having the right equipment in specific scenarios. With some events locked behind a certain darkening percentage, you get a real sense of the school changing and warping, especially for those looking to examine each dead body for its nametag. If you let the meter reach its limit, the chapter will end in either a wrong end or a game over.

With the series known for its branching paths and list of unfortunate ends, saving frequently has always been important. Where the Corpse Party’s RPG gameplay lent itself to specified save points within the confines of the world, I feel this would have been much more difficult to implement in a point and click environment. Saving would move from finding notable landmarks as you explore, to being frustrating points to look out for in each scene. With this in mind, you are able to save through the menu as and when you please, as well as the game making automatic saves at key decision points. While you could technically save wherever you wanted in the 3DS version of Repeated Fear through what is most likely an oversight, Book of Shadows appreciates this design choice far more, largely because of the contrasting gameplay styles. Repeating an event by navigating through an environment with potentially missed hazards and interactions, paired with the ability to remove the already-limited option of saving during tense scenes versus simply holding a button to skip a wall of text, before methodically clicking in the correct places—while I would have appreciated free saving in the previous title, it’s here where it’s needed.

The final change worth mentioning isn’t one from the first game to this, but the result of porting the game from PSP to PC. The biggest part of this is of course the updated graphics. Everything looks cleaner, the CG graphics in particular standing out along with the menus and text boxes. I was quite surprised to see the inclusion of the first game’s CG assets if the game detects its save data as well. Though also included in the PSP version, it feels far more significant here. With the PC version of Corpse Party not including the CG assets of Repeated Fear on the PSP and 3DS, this is the first time fans of the series will be able to see them in such high quality. Where I shrugged them off in the PSP version, I found myself actively looking through and appreciating their inclusion. Add to this a far more natural point and click experience with, put bluntly, the ability to actually point and click, and you have what is likely to be the best way to play this game. Where you lose portability, you gain easier accessibility, better graphics, and a more natural feeling control style. Which version is for you will come down to what you value more, but with no additional content added to the PC release outside of high quality CG assets, there isn’t much incentive to double dip outside of wanting an easy way to replay the game.

As a more general note, I’m happy to see how well the game runs on low-powered machines. Though the introduction cutscene for some reason runs at an atrocious framerate on a low-spec system, the rest of the game is fluid and a joy to experience. To be clear, this was a very low spec laptop. Pushing the boat out a little further, I also wanted to try the game with a graphics tablet, taking the point and click gameplay as far as I can imagine. All in all, it worked great. Though I had to do a small swipe for it to register as a click, it’s something fun I’d recommend trying if you have a tablet lying around. If you’re a more traditional player, the game can be controlled solely with a mouse, a keyboard, or a combination of both, as well as with a gamepad like the PSP version before it, so there should be something for everybody.

Considering the game’s anthological nature, I’ll discuss each chapter briefly as a separate entity, looking at where they fit in the series chronology, what they bring to the table, and how I rate them. To be clear, while I won’t be spoiling plot elements outside of what you’d learn from five minutes of playing the chapter, there will be details of the original game used to give them context. Most of this should be relatively minor in nature, but you should stop reading here if you haven’t played the first game and ignored the warning at the start of the review.

Seal

Continuing from Wrong End 6 of Chapter 5, Seal follows Naomi as she repeats the events of the first game with a feeling she knows of the events to come. What makes this chapter particularly interesting is in its highlighting of how Book of Shadows is different to its predecessor. By starting the game in the same area with the same series of events, you’re brought into the world again gently, giving you time to adjust to the changes before the prior knowledge of events becomes more prominent.

There isn’t much in the way of branching paths or additional endings, but the wrong ends are easily recognisable and again serve to provide an idea of familiarity with the events. Where this chapter really shines is in giving the same areas you recognise a new feel in the ways you can experience them. It also does well in setting the tone for the rest of the game. No longer able to rely on Corpse Party’s graphical disconnection to warp twisted scenes to the darkest thought in your mind, Book of Shadows presents it in all its gruesomeness as a sight to behold. Whether this is something you appreciate or not, I see it as a largely unavoidable design choice given the genre shift. There are of course still some things a little too dark to be shown, often the depiction of torture, relying on the series’ ever-sickeningly brilliant audio design to force you into visualising them for yourself. Though not overly present in Seal, it does well in teasing you into the quality of gameplay to come.

Demise

Also following Wrong End 6, Demise looks at Mayu as she arrives in Heavenly Host. Similarly to Naomi in Seal, Mayu has a premonition of the events of Corpse Party. With this lingering in her mind, she explores the halls hoping to be reunited with her friends.

Where Seal thrived in an alternate look on familiar events, Demise is interesting for its look at Mayu in general. For obvious reasons, she never had a lot of time to be developed in the first game, and seeing how she reacts to the environment and its woes is far more a fresh experience than I was expecting. It feels like it could have also been the first chapter were it not for Seal’s parallels with the first chapter of Corpse Party. Also featuring a reasonable array of wrong ends, one in particular lingering in my mind for its haunting screams and sound effects, there’s a fair bit of exploration and discovery to be had. It’s a good chapter all in all, but finds itself riding on the strengths of the series without really doing much in the way of anything new.

Encounter

Though being by far the most linear of the chapters, with no exploration or nametags to be found, Encounter stands out to me. A prequel to the events of Corpse Party, it primarily features Yui Shishido as she feverishly recalls a rainy night of her school days. 

Being one of the shortest chapters, it’s hard to say much without spoiling the experience. Out of all of them, it was this one that truly instilled dread in me. The writing and sound design really stood out in building a tense and gripping scene—add to this the single most horrific piece of artwork in the series and you may too find yourself feverishly recalling this nightmare fuel. Because of its length and linearity, it might not be a favourite for all, but I felt it a nice change of pace after Demise. With a good number of wrong ends from poor decision making, it also goes a long way in making you appreciate the automatic saves.

Purgatory

Where Encounter may be my favourite for the degree of tension and fear it provided, Purgatory stands out for another reason. A prequel to the events of the first game, you get the chance to learn about paranormal enthusiast Naho Saenoki and the events that lead to her arrival in Heavenly Host.

Shining a light on the minor characters of Corpse Party is a large part of what makes Book of Shadows so interesting. Furthering the idea of this being more a supplement than a sequel to the first game, it expands the world in ways I never knew I wanted. Here we see Kibiki and Taguchi in a human environment, we see a character previously only mentioned as a nametag and a note, we see Naho’s enthusiasm and her drive. With the first game’s presentation of a fluid and largely linear story, it didn’t really have much of a chance to go into such detail for character backgrounds without an express reason to reminisce. Book of Shadows being free to tell individual and detached stories, Purgatory thrives in feeding you the information previously left unsaid, and gives you a feel for the larger picture.

Shangri-La

Back in the chronology of Wrong End 6, the spotlight turns to Morishige, a character previously only touched upon as he gave into anguish and madness. The chapter opening with a monologue of his familiar love for the dead and a recap of relevant events from the first game, the focus soon shifts to some familiar faces from Byakudan as they explore the school’s second wing.

While I find myself fonder of other chapters, Shangri-La doesn’t necessarily do anything wrong. It’s one of the longer chapters, featuring a significant amount of small puzzles and quirks, as well as the most wrong ends in the game. I enjoy seeing more of Morishige, but aside from Kizami, I never found myself growing particularly attached to those from Byakudan. It’s as though a lot of them are just ‘another character’, and while that might have been true for the first game, their establishment here as something more ultimately doesn’t sit well with me. It’s quite contrary to my love of learning more about the world, but it feels as though this chapter could have been better spent on something more significant. All of this being said, even not being fond of the main cast, the familiar girl in red weaving herself into the tale is enough to keep me invested, the wrong ends being some of the best on offer. If you enjoy the Byakudan characters, this will be an enjoyable chapter from start to end.

A small quirk I noticed when playing this chapter was how some of the CG artwork was uncensored when compared to the PSP release, or at least less censored. The image above is a good example, taken from Morishige’s opening dialogue. If you look up footage for the PSP version, you’ll see far more of her body covered in black. I can assume this is because the PC version is unrated, and I can also assume there are more images like this I haven’t noticed having not played the PSP version in so long. If you’re one for the purist experience, there could be some entertainment to be found in comparing the graphics used. It’s strange none of the promotional material advertised this, but the difference in image is far too great to put down to a difference in resolution. 

Mire

Mire is an odd chapter. Set during the events of Wrong End 2, it details Yuka’s capture and eventual escape from Kizami. This being Corpse Party, this of course means getting an awkward panty shot from Yuka as Kizami is ready to cut her, but once you’re past that and into the bulk of it, it does a good amount to redeem itself.

Yuka is my least favourite character of the series, and I can say that unashamedly. With her entire character being that she needs the toilet and wants her brother, she irritates me to the point of being annoyed at the mere memory of her. Even considering this, I thoroughly came to enjoy Mire. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t Yuka that redeemed this chapter, but her interactions with others that simply wouldn’t have been possible with the rest of the cast. Again it’s not among my favourite chapters, but it’s hard to hold it against the game for featuring a character I dislike. If anything, it should be commended for crafting an enjoyable experience using her.

Tooth

If the PC version of Corpse Party is how you experienced the first game, you’ll recognise this chapter from the offset. Telling the same tale as the game’s fourth extra chapter, you learn why Tohko was missing a tooth when Mochida first found her.

I’d like to be consistent in my thoughts and say I didn’t enjoy this, not being fond of the Byakudan cast, but Kizami really is enough to keep me hooked. It’s a neat story with little that can go wrong. I can’t say whether I preferred it as a point and click, or in the PC version of Corpse Party, but if you’ve come from any other version of the first game, this should be an enjoyable, albeit short, tale.

Blood Drive

The only chapter to continue from Corpse Party’s true end, Blood Drive serves as the bridge between the first game and the aptly named third game Corpse Party: Blood Drive. Of all the content in Book of Shadows, this chapter felt the closest to traditional Corpse Party. Whether this is because it’s the story’s intended route, or because of the nature of the events, it had me completely terrified and engaged, despite its lack of bad ends.

Following Naomi and Ayumi after their escape from Heavenly Host, they venture to the Shinozaki Estate in hopes of bringing back the memories of all the friends who had died. With the stakes high, but not necessarily tied to whether the characters survive, Blood Drive has a different vibe about it. It’s as though the characters are fighting for a shred of hope, in oppose to a desperate struggle for survival. It’s refreshing, and sets up for the third game in as good a way as I could have hoped.

Overall

All in all, Book of Shadows is a game that does not have mass appeal, and I mean that to no demerit of its quality. This is an experience for fans of Corpse Party to bring themselves closer to the characters and the world they’ve already come to love. Putting a particular light on Sachiko’s sadistic nature, you have an experience of fear and dread, paired with haunting writing and audio design, all crafted in such a way as to answer questions you never thought to ask. A game of horror and surprise, and of Sachiko Ever After, it’s a must-have for any lover of the series.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/fire-pro-wrestling-world.886/

The world of wrestling is one I haven’t touched since the GameCube-era WWE games, but one I found undeniable joy in. From their flamboyant and dramatic moves, to their customisable wrestlers, and their frantic multiplayer action, these games found a firm place in my library. As time went on, they went unplayed and forgotten—a sad fate for such tales of power and grandeur. Roll on 2018, a year of highs and lows, and the year I once again delve into the genre.

First Impressions

With my last experience quite possibly over a decade ago, I was somewhat unknowing as to what I was getting myself into. Loading into the game for the first time to see a small menu populated with a seemingly infinite number of customisations and settings, I found myself simultaneously under and overwhelmed. Momentarily questioning whether this was really a game for me, I jumped into the core single player mode Fighting Road hoping for things to be explained in a way as to get me started. This was a mistake.

After what I can’t deny to be a fun and engaging introduction to the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) sport, I made a rather basic character and jumped into the ring. 20 minutes. 20 minutes of mashing buttons each time the fighters grappled, of pressing every direction and combination to try to break free of holds, of pinning and praying. My wrists cried out in pain and I really thought that was it, that this game would leave me in the dark. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand how hand-holding in games is becoming more and more of an issue to some, but to give me nothing but a button layout to work with; I was in awe.

It was only when looking into its original PC release I came to realise how the game was structured. The Fighting Road mode that makes up the majority of the game’s single player content wasn’t a part of the base game, in fact releasing around the same time as the complete PS4 version I’ve been playing. With it technically being additional content, I can understand the lack of tutorial, with a PC player picking up this DLC assumed to know the ins and outs of the game. Further exploration of the menus lead me to the game’s Mission Mode, and in it, the game’s six tutorial missions, outlining standard procedure and timing for basic gameplay events such as grapples and pinning.

Continuing past the tutorials in this mode, the game puts you through challenges of increasing difficulty and complexity to really get you acquainted with how to play, and how to use the full abilities of your fighter. To be quite honest, they’re fantastic at what they’re trying to do, and acted as a great supplement to the knowledge I had elsewhere acquired. It might be a little strange for me to have included these first impressions, especially considering much of them stem from my misunderstanding of the game’s modes as a whole—but if I could so easily make this mistake, what would stop others? Quite amusingly in retrospect, the game does tell you to start with Mission Mode in its menu flavour text, but I’d have appreciated some kind of pointer to it when starting the game, instead of having to come across it after the fact.

This isn’t something to hold against the game too harshly, with you only having to learn how to play once, but I can see the frustration of a 20 minute button mashing slug fest being enough to put some off and paint a picture of the game far worse than it realistically should have been.

Into the Ring

With a firm understanding of the ins and outs, I once again jumped into the ring, and what an experience it was. The best place to start when talking about the core action is the regular exhibition match. Using what I assume to be standard pro wrestling rules, your aim is to put on a show for the audience, and end with your opponent pinned to the count of three. You have the purist experience here, and it shines a brilliant light on the options and technicality on offer.

The game’s use of 2D sprites in an isometric 3D environment at first feels awkward and poorly thought out, but the more you play, the more you use this environment to your advantage. Both landing and dodging attacks requires precision and thought, and gives you a real sense of intricacy in the footwork and movement. While the fighting can be simplified down to weak, medium, and strong attacks, as well as running and grappling, in each of these you have an expansive set of choices. You want to wear down your opponent’s stamina, but you also want to stay in control of the game, you want to retain your own stamina, but you want to take some hits to put on a show. There are options, satisfying blows, and a real sense of back and forth until one person triumphs over the over; it is engaging and some of the most fun I’ve had playing with a friend in a good while.

From this standard match, the game branches out. Still following the same rules, you have barbed wire and landmine deathmatches. While the win conditions and structure of the matches are the same, what differs in these lies outside of the ring. Instead of a simple timer starting when your opponent is thrown out, they are greeted with explosive barbed wire and landmines respectively, each dealing huge damage. It also puts an emphasis on getting your opponent out of the ring, often causing me to switch my strategy from the standard match.

Contrary to the previous two, cage deathmatches put a large cage around the ring, and task you with breaking out as a unique win condition. You can also switch this to a more normal three count, or your opponent being unable to continue fighting if you want the confines of the cage without the match changing too drastically in objective. Beyond this, you have the match types that really start to alter the gameplay. You have gruesome fighting, and SWA rules. Both of these use a mixed martial arts (MMA) ruleset of rounds, knockdowns, and TKO wins, but are setup slightly differently. SWA rules try to blend MMA with wrestling, the fight happening in a normal ring and each round lasting ten minutes and victory being possible by pinning. Gruesome fighting however takes place in the 12-sided dodecagon cage. With five rounds of three minutes as standard, and the only victory coming from your opponent being unable to continue, it truly earns its gruesome title.

The final match type, S-1 rules, presents a playstyle closer to boxing. Limiting you to just striking attacks, you fight in rounds of three minutes with victory by TKO and knockout available. While each of these modes are varied and incredibly fun in and of themselves, the level to which they can be customised stands out. Win conditions, round length, round amount, weapon types; if you don’t like a mode, you can make a mode you like. This flexibility extends far beyond settings for matches, and into the majority of the game.

Custom Everything

Edit Mode takes the third spot on the main menu, and there’s a good reason for that. You can create your own wrestlers, you can create your own referees, teams, even a hot pink and neon green ring should you so desire. There is so much on offer to the point of it easily overwhelming you if you want to make everything your own from the offset. Among my favourite things about the customisations is the ability to take your favourite fighter from the game and edit them to your liking. Bobby Bobby has taken my heart in this game, and being able to make him look like a tomato is something I never thought I’d have. And yet here I am, fighting with Tommy Tommy. With more than 700 parts to be layered in any which way you want, your wrestling squad is limited only by your creativity.

If you’re so inclined, you can also share and download creations via FPW Net. While I can appreciate the inclusion of this, its implementation is somewhat awkward. Instead of it being integrated into the game’s menus, for some reason it sees you go through the PS4 browser to subscribe to the items you want. It’s fine. I’ve never been fond of the PS4 browser, but it gives plenty of options to filter and sort through the ocean of user-submitted content. I wish they could have made something a little more intuitive, but it does the job well enough.

Want to be the Very Best?

As the game’s core single player content, Fighting Road tasks you with creating your own character, and building them from match to match to become the best in your own way. There’s a lot I can praise here. Between giving the game a sense of progression, fun dialogue, and a genuinely recognisable cast of characters for fans of Japanese wrestling thanks to a collaboration with NJPW, this mode goes from strength to strength. A highlight for me is the introduction of each new character, telling you who they are, what they’ve done, and why you should care, all with photos of them in action. It almost comes across as an advert for NJPW at times, but in as good a way as can possibly be. It had me looking up these fighters as they appeared, giving this mode a layer of depth that would be impossible without this collaboration.

Leading on from this, it surprised me how much I enjoyed seeing the characters throughout the story. Though I can’t quite put it into words, there was something gripping about seeing and interacting with photos of the fighters, in oppose to drawn counterparts or something similar. From their expressions to their attire, everything felt natural, well-written, and as a whole just incredibly fun. Leading my character Ippo Makunouchi from wrestling amateur to champion was a joy, and one I’d be happy to repeat. Putting a focus on strength and endurance with this character, I could see myself coming back to try a different style of fighter, or even try playing without investing any training points at all for an additional challenge. Aside from the lack of signposting for how to play the game before starting as mentioned earlier, I really struggle to find fault. I can certainly understand why players of the PC version would spend £14.99 on this as additional content.

I came into this game with no expectations beyond wanting a good time, and a good time I did get. Though a somewhat rocky start, largely due to my own ineptitude, Fire Pro Wrestling World is a game I can recommend wholeheartedly. Whether played with friends or alone, there is content aplenty to keep you gripped and grappled for hours at a time.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/super-mario-party.879/

Turning on the game for the first time, Super Mario Party feels different from the offset. Before so much as greeting the title screen, you’re asked to commit how many players and systems are participating in your party, the maximum here being four players spread across either one or two systems. After locking in your choice, you get your standard Mario Party setup: Mario and friends are arguing over who the superstar is, and it can naturally only be settled by board game. Added to the mix for the first time is Bowser and his cohort of minions, the Koopa King himself convinced one of his crew has what it takes to prove themselves the superstar. The setup here isn’t much, but it does everything it needs to for the game to kick off straight away. After this, you pick your party entourage and off you head to the plaza!

The Party Plaza is a small area you can explore with the other members of your party following behind you. Though it serves as little more than a means of choosing your game mode, I appreciate how it brings the world together and gives your characters a genuine sense of togetherness and comradery to be later destroyed as you betray one another in traditional fashion. Before jumping into each game mode, there are a few smaller things worth noting. First, there’s no touch control for menus or wandering the plaza. With the focus on multiplayer aspects, it makes sense for these not to be here, since it’d mean one player has the system to themselves, but it’s something I like to see regardless. Second, not everything is unlocked from the start. The Party Plaza starts out feeling somewhat limited, though it soon grows. Finally, the miscellaneous speech from characters as you choose who to play with is just perfect. The game keeps the last three characters you played with as a recommended group, with them asking for you to pick them again for the party. It’s adorable, and it’s these small touches throughout the game that make it into the experience it truly is.

Mario Party

This is probably the mode you’re here to learn about; are there cars? Is it too gimmicky? Do Joy Cons ruin the experience? Won’t somebody think of the HD Rumble! Perhaps more thorough than my usual review style, I can hopefully answer all of your questions and more as I break everything down.

Going through this chronologically, the first option you’ll have is your choice of board—Whomp’s Domino Ruins, King Bob-omb’s Powderkeg Mine, or Megafruit Paradise. Just three boards. Though there’s a fourth gated behind beating these, it’s easy to think you aren’t really getting much for your money here. Looking past the number, I find reasonable conflict in the board designs. While each one looks graphically impressive and alive, they feel flawed in their boxy and squarish layouts. Gone are the curved and wacky paths of games gone by, everything now feels cleaner and more clear-cut, for better or worse—whether you get on with will really come down to personal preference. The major positive in aesthetic is how much more it feels like a board game; it’s as though each one could be folded away nicely. On the other hand, it makes it more of a challenge to look at the boards as unique and individual, this furthered by the distinct lack of boards numerically speaking. While Megafruit Paradise sets itself apart with its bright and vibrant fruity colours, Domino Ruins and Powderkeg Mine come across as too visually similar to me, despite their clearly different board hazards and themes.

My other main point of conflict with the board layouts is just how small they feel, and there’s a good reason for this; they are a fair bit smaller than usual. Looking at Domino Ruins as an example, the outer ring of the course consists of 35 spaces—that’s 35 spaces from the starting space to go around the board and be back at the start. To draw a few comparisons to previous entries, Toad’s Midway Madness of Mario Party 4 had a huge 55 spaces on its outside path, every one of the dreams in Mario Party 5 felt vast in scale, with a variety of paths and shortcuts; even Yoshi’s Tropical Island in the first game had 43 spaces on its outside path. I understand it’s not a perfect metric to use to measure board length, but it at least offers a reasonable comparison. The biggest difference between Super Mario Party and previous entries would be the dice. Ranging from 1-6 on the normal die, and character-specific ones coming with a variety of benefits and downfalls, you’re moving through the boards at a slower pace than you would with the previous games’ 1-10 dice. It all balances out to some extent, but it’s a little jarring when you first jump in.

Overall, I think the dice are a fantastic idea to bring to the traditional board. Essentially the same as they were in Star Rush on the 3DS, the dice give your character choice meaning. Sure, every character has your standard 1-6 dice, but when Bowser’s dice can roll a ten, you’re obviously going to try for it. Each character has a good balance and an associated sense of risk and reward; in my first game I played as Rosalina and didn’t move a space for three turns because I refused to give up on using her dice. These dice also are interesting in providing the idea of a best character for each map. The easiest example I can think of would be Hammer Bro’s 50% chance of rolling a five on Powderkeg Mine, the fifth space being an ally space, granting you an ally for the rest of the game (more on these later).

Making their return for the first time since Mario Party DS, hidden blocks also lurk beneath blue spaces. I love these. They’re completely random, completely disgusting, and can completely ruin your game, but that’s what makes them so perfect. Mario Party as a series thrives in these moments of random unfairness, and I couldn’t be happier to see these again. After landing on a space with a hidden block, a nice new feature is a small spinner with a highlighted area; if the spinner stops within this area, you get a star, otherwise you get some coins. This visualisation of luck is a brilliant fit for the random nature of these blocks, giving everybody playing a moment of suspense to find how just how bad this might be for everybody else.

At the end of each turn, as you might expect, waits a minigame to be played. I’ll discuss the quality and variety of minigames later in the review, but for now, I want to focus on their relevance to the party. The most immediate thing I noticed is how games are selected; Super Mario Party will always choose a game you haven’t unlocked yet. Though a minor design choice, it’s one I appreciate above most. By forcing the spinner onto locked games, you simultaneously ensure the player is always engaging with new content, as well as putting them closer to unlocking a game mode that requires every minigame. Without this design choice, you might find the game dragging on as you repeat maps you didn’t necessarily want to in order to unlock an additional part of the game; it feels like natural progression as it is now, and the pacing is perfect as to unlock the final mode after experiencing the others.

One of the more notable changes to minigames comes in how players are rewarded for their participation. Gone are the days of winner takes all, in its place standing tiered rewards; first place taking eight coins, second taking four, and third taking two. In 3v1 and 2v2 games, the losing side always gets two coins. While this might be a small change, it has a significant impact on how longer games play out. With second and third place still rewarded for efforts, and first place having their prize reduced by two coins, it’s much more difficult to dominate a map as it would have been in previous games. Where you could have kept winning minigames to deprive your opponents of coins, and by extension stars, you’ll now find them creeping behind you. This is furthered by the cost of stars being only ten coins, making them a world more accessible to your opponents.

Touched on earlier, allies make a return from Star Rush, something I am overjoyed to see. While Star Rush was by no means a perfect Mario Party game, I feel it did a lot of things right, and it’s great to see these ideas being brought into a more traditional setting. As in Star Rush, gaining an ally grants reasonable benefits; you can use their special dice block, and you also get an extra 1-2 dice rolled each turn for each of your followers. Ally spaces aren’t exactly common on boards, there generally only being a few on each, so it’s not uncommon to go full games without getting any yourself. This shines a light on the importance of their balancing, and it’s here I feel the game does well. With its small boards and risky dice, the addition of one or two to your roll never feels particularly game-breaking, instead being a pleasant bonus or safety if you really want to try your luck. Though I can imagine it getting out of hand if you had a full party of three allies, with how uncommon the spaces are, the effort required to gather them would be a skill in itself.

Aside from ally spaces, each board also has an array of fun things to land on. First, you have your standard blue and red spaces, giving and taking three coins respectively. It’s interesting to see how few red spaces there are on each board, clearly putting a focus on high star count and frantic games, in oppose to the constant losses you might have experienced in previous games. A versus space acts as the game’s alternative to battle minigames, each player throwing coins into a pool, with the winner of a not-minigame taking the biggest portion of it home. This not-minigames pleasantly surprised me, presenting a challenge limit-pushing, instead of the usual luck-based activities. Quite simply, it involved each person blowing up a balloon, with the largest one winning. Sadly, computer opponents don’t seem to put up much competition here, you being able to edge them easily, but I can imagine a room full of friends would play differently.

You then have good and bad luck spaces, each providing a spinner of good and bad things that could happen for your character; item spaces to give you a random item; and event spaces, the effect of which varies from space to space. While there may not be many types of space, spread across the smaller boards, they’re ample in keeping the game from becoming stale. As well as spaces, you also have characters you interact with by walking past them: your item shop, and friendship destroyer. Though I’m most used to seeing Boo in this role, Lakitu steps in as the game’s star and coin thief while Boo parties on. As usual, when you pass Lakitu, you can steal coins for free, or a star for 30 coins. A nice addition to what would be the cause of many arguments, Super Mario Party is kind enough to include the option to randomly select your victim. While this option is designed to save friendships, it’s also nice to see CPU opponents using it on occasion instead of all simply ganging up on 1st place (usually me). I’m not sure how the higher difficulty CPUs would use such power, but I can at least get along with my crew on normal difficulty.

Coming towards the end of each game, you have your last push; this time it being three turns before the end, in oppose to the usual five. The game seems to have a theme of making things smaller, contrary to its Super title. I’m really fond of the changes made here, Toad calling a stage-specific character to the floor to ask who they think will win. Instead of simply rewarding who is falling behind, they can root for anybody, including first place on rare occasions. While I understand it somewhat defeats the purpose of this last push, I found it refreshing to see the middle ranks get a renewed chance at victory. Aside from this reward, the blue and red spaces have their values doubled as usual, and Kamek turns bad luck spaces into extra bad luck spaces. With stars being so cheap and coins flying everywhere, the last turns are exactly as frantic as the game desires, perhaps more so than previous entries with the reduced cost of stars.

When all is said and done, the game wraps up with the love or hate king of the game: bonus stars. You thought your poxy two star lead was enough to win? Think again! Selecting randomly from a list of possible bonuses, you may be rewarded for collecting allies, landing on unlucky spaces, or using the most items, amongst other things. With no way to tell how these will turn out, you feel a genuine pressure to take a significant lead while you still have the chance, strategically stealing stars and manipulating the flow of the game as best you can.

While I definitely enjoyed my time with the first three stages, it’s in the unlockable fourth where the game really shines. If you want this stage to remain a surprise to you, feel free to skip over this paragraph. Kamek’s Tantalizing Tower differs from the other stages in a number of ways. Red and blue spaces have their values doubled from the start, the star is always in the same place, the price of stars changes after one is taken, and you can buy more than one star at a time. This stage puts a huge emphasis on gathering coins and keeping up with your opponents, assuring you either maintain pace to match their rapidly increasing star count, or find a way to stop them being able to buy them. This is the board where I feel its small size does it justice, keeping the game constantly moving at a fast pace and first place changing turn by turn. With Lakitu’s services locked behind landing on a single event space, the focus is on grabbing what you can and moving quickly. It is by far the most fun stage of the Mario Party mode, with turns disappearing before you notice you’ve started.

Partner Party

Moving on from traditional play, it surprised me to see the inclusion of not just Star Rush’s allies and dice, but its most unique gameplay aspect in its entirety. Featuring free movement across boards, gathering allies as you go, you have everything you remember from the 3DS version. While I enjoyed Star Rush, there was a lot holding it back from really shining as a prolonged experience; the changes made by Super Mario Party elevate it from obscurity.

Serving to splice this modern game style with the tried and tested formula, these changes ultimately create something I genuinely believe to surpass both. This comes down to three major factors—the mode played as 2v2, minigames being at the end of each turn, and the objective being changed to start collecting. On top of these, you also have smaller things like more board events and a few different items to encourage exploration, but these are minor design choices in comparison.

Where Star Rush had you competing for allies to dash across the board and score the most points against a boss, Partner Party feels what a 2v2 Mario Party should’ve been years ago. By using a combined dice roll of both team members, it creates a sense of union and strategy in choosing the risks you’ll take together, without an arbitrary link binding the players together, such as two people driving in the same car or something similar. It feels like a natural evolution of team-based Mario Party, and is probably my favourite mode of the game. It also goes a long way in explaining a few of the lacklustre elements of the Mario Party mode.

Partner Party using the same maps as the Mario Party mode comes with several limitations; boards can’t be too big, boards can’t be too crazy, and boards must have some means of accommodating free movement. That both modes use the same boards is the reason why they feel so uninspired by comparison to previous games—fitting the requirements of Partner Party whilst maintaining the interesting sense of escalation, progression, and variation required for Mario Party leaves us with something that doesn’t quite reach the desired heights of either. I have no issue saying the boards are fun, but if they were completely different whilst remaining thematically similar, I feel they’d have excelled far beyond what they currently are.

One final thing to mention about Partner Party is that while the boss battles of Star Rush are no longer present, the idea of frantic ally-filled minigames have been repurposed into team minigames. Unlike the boss battles of Star Rush, team minigames are simply additions to the end of turn minigame pool, and allow you to play a 2v2 game with your human teammate, as well as any allies picked up on the board. These are all fantastic fun, if not a little unbalanced if one team has a lot more allies than the other, but that in itself puts an emphasis on gathering them as soon as possible. With allies visible on the board, they’re not a just a nice addition as they are in Mario Party, they’re an integral part of the mode, where you can plan who you want and how you’ll move to get them. Partner Party is your standard gameplay mode with more freedom; a fantastic addition to the series that excites me for what can be done further. It’s as if the development team knew players wanted traditional play, and added to it in a meaningful way, in oppose to going in completely different directions seen in other recent releases.

One Trick Pony Modes

After your main two modes, Super Mario Party includes a few other things to keep itself fresh, the big two here being Sound Stage and River Survival. With each of these modes adding ten uniquely-styled minigames, they’re fine additions to the game, but they aren’t much good beyond one playthrough with a group of friends.

Sound Stage is one of the more interesting modes of the game in the fact that it doesn’t really feel like Mario Party at all. Featuring ten rhythm minigames, with three used per play session, you’re thrown into one after another with a constant faint beat coming through the Joy Con’s HD Rumble. These games are each incredibly easy to pick up, but with a reasonable degree of difficulty to master and score perfectly on. Much akin to Rhythm Paradise (or Rhythm Heaven for American readers) in its premise, it’s reasonable fun and does well in not being tiresome to complete, despite its limited minigame quantity. Where it falls somewhat flat is in its replayability and rewarding of mastery, or thereby lack of both. The replayability is an easy matter to discuss; there aren’t enough games to keep you coming back. It’s a fun mode while it lasts, and I’m glad to say it lasts long enough to keep you entertained until you get its mark of completion, but the only reason you’d come back to this mode would be to score perfectly on the games, another issue I have. Where Rhythm Paradise has gold medals to strive for, giving you a trophy of sorts for your efforts, Super Mario Party has… Nothing. You’re rewarded for beating each difficulty of the mode, but never for sticking with it to the end, and I feel that a shame. Any replayability this mode could have had feels squandered because there’s nothing left to be had. You can go back to both party modes thanks to their random elements. With each game being different, each experience with them brings unique memories and events. Sound Stage’s fixed and samey nature means it needs a different approach, and this just wasn’t thought out enough.

River Survival sees you in a raft with three friends as you paddle with the Joy Cons down the fast-moving river rapids. Your aim is to traverse the rapids without running out of time, getting more by manoeuvring into minigame balloons and playing well. With everybody working together, you get a different amount of time as a reward based on how well the team performs, ranging from S rank to C. I love most of these games, working together in a Mario Party game being a relative rarity, and one I did find myself enjoying a lot. The issue here is that there are only ten minigames in the pool. Where Partner Party can get away with its ten unique games being part of a larger pool, and Sound Stage can lean on the fact it only uses three per session, along with remixes, River Survival soon grows drab when each playthrough has 15 minigame balloons. It’s one thing to be repeating levels each time you play, but to always get multiple of the same minigame in one session is just bad. It puts you in a frame of mind to be dodging the minigame balloons and cutting it as close to the clock as possible, which is fun and entertaining in itself, but leaves you with what is only half of the mode. It’s a shame other minigames couldn’t be remixed with a team spin; a lot of free for all minigames have a scoring system that could’ve been retooled with this in mind. All things considered, it’s fun, but I can’t see myself playing it more than once with the same group of friends. With you needing to beat it at least five times for the mode to be marked as complete, this might become a drag for completionists.

Both of these modes do a lot right and there is definitely a lot of fun to be had, especially if you have a large group of friends. What they both seem to lack is a reason to keep playing. They’re interesting ideas that do well in padding out the overall experience, but once you’ve played them once, you’ve played them a thousand times. On top of these modes, you also have Toad’s Rec Room—a collection of four smaller games, each supporting the ability to use two systems in unique and interesting ways. There are some really interesting ideas in action, but again very little to keep you coming back. With these hidden off to the side, this feels more acceptable, generally feeling more like extras than something the game wants you to focus on.

Minigames

Finally, the big kahuna itself—how do the minigames hold up? Perhaps the most integral part of any Mario Party game, it is no understatement to say the experience can be made or ruined by the standard set, so allow me to break it down for you. Super Mario Party features a total of 80 minigames, these divided into 30 free-for-all, ten 1v3, ten 2v2, ten team, ten co-op, and ten rhythm. Mario Party selects its games from the free-for-all, 1v3, and 2v2 pools depending on how players did on the preceding turn, giving you 50 games in the pool. Partner Party also sports 50 minigames, selecting again from free-for-all and 2v2, as well as its exclusive team minigames. And finally the other modes as mentioned earlier use their exclusive games; River Survival having co-op games, and Sound Stage having you play rhythm games.

Comparing Super Mario Party’s minigame total to previous games in the series is an interesting task. For the sake of comparison, we’ll only look at minigames in the Mario Party pool, a total of 50 from the categories mentioned earlier. Looking at the same sample in other games, we have 34 in Mario Party 4, 47 in Mario Party 5, 52 in Mario Party 6, 43 in Mario Party 7, and 37 in Mario Party 8. Be aware these numbers exclude non-standard minigames such as duel and battle games. As the series goes, Super Mario Party much to my surprise is amongst the top in minigame quantity. Contrary to its lesser modes, this gives Mario Party and Partner Party a great sense of replayability and variance, but numbers are only part of the story. On the whole, the quality is again surprisingly high. The game makes great use of the Joy Cons’ features; enough so to warrant the exclusion of the Pro Controller as a play scheme. If you’re interested in a brief word on each minigame, I’ve included a summary and personal rating for each in the spoiler below. Be aware that even a brief word for 80 games is quite the wall of text.

⁠—You can find this summary on the GBAtemp review⁠—

Along with your standard Free Play option for minigames, you also Mariothon and Square Off as means of keeping the play experience fresh. Mariothon is a relatively standard mode for Mario Party minigames, seeing you play five consecutive games and competing competing for the highest score. Square Off on the other hand has you capturing territory for each minigame you win, with the player with the most territory at the end taking the victory. Essentially being the classic game Othello with the addition of a free-for-all minigame to see who can pick the next tile. I enjoyed both of these modes for what I played of them, but neither really have a factor to keep me coming back. If I want random minigames, I’d really just go to a party mode; if I wanted a specific minigame, I could easily find it in Free Play.

The final mode worth mentioning is the game’s primary single player content—Challenge Road. Featuring each of the game’s 80 minigames, it tasks you with completing a challenge on each to progress. While you don’t necessarily have to win each game, the challenges presented were definitely enough to keep me hooked. It should be kept in mind however that this mode is ultimately just a minigame gauntlet. Aside from the challenges, the games aren’t remixed in any way, and there’s nothing particularly special done to make you want to play it after having already played most of the minigames to unlock the mode in the first place. If you are willing to brave it, you can expect to unlock a few additional characters for your troubles, but don’t be expecting much more than that.

The Small Things

Super Mario Party does a lot of clear-cut things right. Returning to the traditional formula of its predecessors, it puts forward an evolution of the series with meaningful additions. Looking past the obvious however, you begin to see the extent of care and thought put into the end experience. If playing as Bowser or Bowser Jr, you’ll see Kamek apologising for carrying out his duties on bad luck spaces. You’ll see Shy Guy jumping asking for you to play with him again as you return to the plaza. It’s easy to love the amazing content, and be put off by the lacklustre additional modes, but to experience the care and attention put into this entry to the series is an experience unto itself. Super Mario Party is a game I’ll be coming back to for weeks, months, and perhaps even years to come, and I hope its sequel can build on its successors and learn from its downfalls.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider.870/

This being my first look at a Tomb Raider game since playing the original more than ten years ago, everything feels strange from the outset. With a large cinematic scene to bring me into the world, followed by the first piece of gameplay in freeing Lara’s leg from a large rock, the game already felt detached from the series I once knew. Even seeing our protagonist swear so freely just felt wrong; I understand games move with the times, but it took me a good moment to adjust to everything before me. It’s not to say any of these factors are to the demerit of the game in any way, the introduction did a great job of bringing me into the world and really getting me excited to learn more about this adventure.

Before getting into the bulk of the gameplay, I found the game’s offering of difficulty settings particularly interesting. Instead of providing a standardised experience for each player, or dynamically changing the difficulty to the player’s skill, the game chose to approach this issue with three separate settings; one for combat, one for exploration, and one for puzzles. Offering the choice of easy, normal, or hard for each, you’re given a little explanation of how the game will play after making your decision. As difficulty goes, I think this is a brilliant implementation. Where I usually find myself disliking direct combat in games, I was able to enjoy the other aspects without them being overly simplified to be brought in line with my lack of shooting expertise. Playing on the overall difficulty Rite of Passage (combat easy, exploration normal, puzzles normal), I thoroughly enjoyed the game at my own pace, and as an added bonus have reason to return to it later to attempt it on a higher difficulty. With knowledge of the game’s level design and puzzles already behind me, as well as a New Game+ mode available, the jump between difficulties feels lessened on subsequent playthroughs, further incentivising coming back and stepping it up.

Getting back to the game itself, I have to say it took me by surprise just how pretty everything was. This may be an opinion formed by Shadow of the Tomb Raider being my first PS4 game, my eyes largely used to the less graphically impressive Switch library, but it really caught me off guard. From the rocks to the water, the game had a way of feeling alive and interesting in its environmental design. There were moments I found myself having to take a step back to simply admire what was before me.

Gaining control for the first time was an interesting experience. The game felt responsive and satisfying, but I ultimately had no idea what I was doing. The presentation of tutorial information helped in this respect. By making it move with the camera and blend into the foliage in the scene, it did a good job of maintaining a level of immersion whilst not compromising the information provided, as well as being non-intrusive as to allow those who already know what to do to go on with no holdup.

While the game finds strength in its visuals and sense of exploration within deceptively confined spaces, many of my standout moments came from its stealth segments. In these, Lara must hide herself in grass, moss, or just out of sight, avoiding or picking off enemies as she goes. What’s interesting about these sections is how much they differ depending on your difficulty setting. With easy combat, and normal difficulty set for everything else, I could use Lara’s survival instincts to highlight enemies, and see when one is isolated to be taken out without alerting others. On the higher difficulties where survival instinct is disabled, you begin to find yourself becoming far more vigilant and are forced to rely on other strategies. This more vigilant and skilful approach isn’t exactly the kind of thing I personally enjoy, but its inclusion to cater to a much broader range of player is something I really appreciate seeing.

Maps are often crafted in such a way as to feel open despite being largely confined and linear in nature. Again in relation to the difficulty setting, the areas you explore and how you interact with them change entirely, the linearity standing out in easier settings and lessening as paths are marked less clearly and you aren’t able to see directly where to go. Where you know where to go and choose to explore on an easier setting, exploring becomes an integral aspect of the game when Lara is without her survival instincts; where crafting and resource gathering are a secondary concern on an easier setting, they become a focus when you can’t save the game without materials. Though I keep talking about the game’s difficulty settings here, it’s honestly baffling just how different the game can become with such small changes.

Talking more specifically about map design, I was happy to see how little of the game felt alike, especially considering how almost all of it is set in one of a cave, a forest, or a tomb. It does a good job in creating small landmarks to recognise as you progress through the story, making the world really feel complete and unique, instead of the same things thrown into the same environments in a different order.

Outside of your traditional exploring and tomb raiding, the game is broken up by more obscure gameplay, the unexpected standout of these being the runner sections. Whether escaping disaster or a myriad of enemies throwing themselves and arrows at you, these moments put an emphasis on urgency and scene building. Despite Lara respawning each time I messed up, I felt genuine tension and thrill as I moved through each scripted turn and landed each specified jump. With this tension and urgency, you’re pushed to make jumps you find yourself thinking “can I really reach the other side?”, and while these jumps thrive in this fast-paced context, they’re also used throughout the game to great effect. Constantly satisfying to make, their inclusion outside of these make-or-break sections also serves to reinforce the idea that they are possible, the knowledge you’ve done it before being what pushes you to hit the button each time after.

This kind of reinforcement also works against the game in some respects. Where you’ve made a jump once, you know you can make it again. While it’s still satisfying to see Lara cross large chasms like this, the same can’t be said for her narrowly escaping death in water. The issue in these cases are that there was never really any satisfaction to begin with, instead the payoff being how you narrowly escaped. The knowledge that this escape isn’t as narrow as you were first lead to believe is what’s reinforced as you continue to experience the same section, ultimately growing overused to the point of losing all impact. Thankfully, it’s not so frequent as to be a real concern, but you see it enough to question whether they couldn’t come up with another interesting way to end a water section.

Puzzles in Shadow of the Tomb Raider are an odd thing to discuss, because a lot of the time they didn’t feel like puzzles; rather defined actions as means of progression. While this may largely be because of my puzzling prowess, it more likely comes down to my use of the survival instincts. With this ability highlighting objects of interest and things to be interacted with, I always knew where I needed to be and generally what I needed to be doing. Though you could call the missing part a puzzle, it’d be more apt to describe it as connecting the dots. With the feedback and payoff for completing these sections, it’s still satisfying to get through them, but as I’ve found myself saying a number of times, the game would be entirely different on a higher difficulty. Puzzle difficulty changes how Lara gives the player hints when they activate their survival instincts, with the highest difficulty disabling survival instincts altogether as previously mentioned. On normal difficulty, she’d give vague comments, but these were more often than not things that were easy to figure out by looking at the objects of interest on-screen. If you find yourself wanting to be challenged more in these sections but chose an easier difficulty at the start of the game, you do however have to option to simply forgo using the survival instincts, though you obviously won’t get any kind of achievement or benefit as you would have by choosing a harder difficulty in the first place.

Though I don’t want to say too much about it so as to spoil it, I did rather enjoy the game’s plot. With this being my first look into the modern Tomb Raider trilogy, I was surprised to see how easy it was to pick up. The only part I felt somewhat confused about was the game’s antagonist, but the events of the game felt enough to flesh out his character and group without relying too heavily on your knowledge of previous games, something I really came to appreciate.

All in all, Shadow of the Tomb Raider surprised me. I can’t say I know what I expected going into it, but I can say the journey was a fantastic one. What I played was enough to get me excited about the series once more and explore the previous two titles of the trilogy; and maybe even enough to go back for a second run through without survival instincts to truly experience the game again.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/acens.869/

What’s in the Box?

• AceNS 3 in 1 Loader
• RCM Jig
• Micro USB to USB Cable

Packaged in a sturdy plastic container, the device comes with everything you need to get started. My first impression was relatively good, the jig seeming well-made and working each time I used it. The micro USB cable is probably the shortest one I’ve had to date, and if you have any reasonably-sized tower for your desktop, you’ll find it hanging from the port. It’s not necessarily an issue since most people will likely have ten or so of these cables lying around, but it’s worth mentioning. I do find myself rather fond of the smaller cable however, allowing me to keep it with me without it getting in the way, it fitting back into the box nicely even without its cable tie.

Before discussing the unit itself, it’s best to address the elephant in the room; this is undoubtedly Xkit’s RCMloader design. From the design, the weight, even the RCM jig, everything is identical (the AceNS rebranding aside). Immediately, it’s easy to dismiss this as something terrible, but it does come with benefits. Everything that was great about the RCMloader still stands true here; the loader does what it advertises and does it well. Supporting up to six payloads, which can be easily changed by connecting it to a PC using the included cable, and a simple button to change between them, I’ve enjoyed using it. It’s a huge leap from having to directly use a PC to inject payloads, but it isn’t without fault.

The first is perhaps the killer for some; the device uses capacitors as means of power. Put simply, it won’t retain any kind of charge between use. A little unsure as to how I could put a metric to this, I tested to see how many times it could inject a payload consecutively. This process involved me turning the system on with AutoRCM installed, injecting the ReiNX payload, removing the device before it could start charging from the system, then restarting the system and repeating the process. Doing this, it managed to function eight times, so if you happen to have seven friends and don’t want to wait to charge it when you all decide to play Mario Kart together, you’re in luck! Though with charging only taking around six seconds, this is likely irrelevant. It’s worth mentioning the Ace3DS team have another model in the works utilising a battery in oppose to the capacitors here, so if this is a deal breaker for you, it might be worth holding off.

While altering payloads is as simple as plugging the device into a PC and it showing up as a normal drive, the process of switching between them is a little flawed. A positive here is that the device can be charged using its micro USB port, something incredibly useful for those with AutoRCM installed and no means of charging it using the Switch before use. The real negative is that you can’t use the button to switch between payloads when it’s powered like this. I can understand why; with the device plugged into a PC like this, you can edit its storage and in turn, the configuration file with the current payload listed. Even so, if booting into Hekate with no payloads on the Switch itself, I’m left with having to either mess with the configuration file directly, or plug the device into another USB-C port. Thankfully, my laptop has one spare, so this wasn’t so much of an irritation for me, but I can understand it frustrating some.

Whether it’ll stand the test of time is a matter in and of itself. The connector at the head of the device feels loose enough as to rattle if gripped or shaken, but not to any point of real concern at this moment in time. Aside from this, it feels sturdy and well-built. The micro USB slot holds the cable in extremely well, and the button provides a satisfying and stable click when pressed.

Overall, I do think the AceNS is, well, ace. If you can get past its use of capacitors and have a way to keep it charged handy, it’s something worth picking up. While essentially the same product as Xkit’s RCMloader, the price difference is largely minor, the AceNS retailing for $18 on several major flashcart sites. If you’re somebody who prefers to use these as retailers in oppose to random AliExpress or eBay sellers, this could be another reason to grab one.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/snakebyte-tough-case.865/

Looking at the box the case came in, my first impressions were reasonably good. The red and white colour scheme gives it an official-looking and professional design, with the information presented clearly. What did strike me as odd from the offset was the colour of the case on the box. Far less garish than the promotional images, it comes across as less of a strawberry pink, and more a violet. This came as a pleasant surprise; I don’t dislike the brighter colours used in the promotional images, but the toned down purple is a much better fit with other things I own, it actually looking like a perfect match to my Kindle Fire.

Getting it out of the box, the coloured areas are made of a sturdy plastic, with a clear window on the back to see the Switch logo. It looks reasonably nice and I didn’t hesitate to see how the Switch fit in. Seating the system and Joy Cons together, the plastic grips to them nicely; this makes it a little difficult to remove the system later on, but if you’re planning to primarily keep the system in the case, this will likely be a positive point for you. With the ports and fans left exposed, you’re free to switch cartridges and charge the system as you see fit, safe in the knowledge the system won’t be overheating as you do. I’m a little disappointed to see the power button and volume buttons covered. With plastic on top of them, you’re forced to really put some weight onto the buttons to get a response. If you keep your Switch in sleep mode, this could again be a non-issue, but to me it’s a significant irritant. Add to this a slight bulge in the case where the aforementioned buttons sit and it’s something I find difficult to overlook.

From a protection standpoint, this case does a relatively good job of keeping the system safe. While I don’t have a hammer handy to hit it with as the box advertises, I did try punching the back of the system. Though my fist aches a little, the system remains in good working order. Of course this will only be the case if you hit it from the back; the system has no such protection on the front. This is what it is really. Between the raised edges to hold the system in place, and the slightly higher Joy Con analogue sticks, the system will likely survive a fall on its front assuming it falls flat. If any kind of corner hits it though, you might be wishing you had something a little more substantial. The lack of consideration for the Joy Con analogue sticks is also a bit of a shame, but I’m not really sure what could have been done about this. If the edges are raised further, the system would become growingly more uncomfortable to hold, making the additional protection inconsequential.

I can imagine this case pairing well with a good glass screen protector, but as it is, you should still have a reasonable peace of mind if it’s dropped. With the added bulk of the case, you also won’t be able to dock your Switch. This is really something made with handheld gaming in mind, and for this purpose, it’s fairly good. While too bulky for the dock, the system feels pleasant to hold, and as an added bonus, can also have a charm fitted to it. Considering its strengths and weaknesses, I don’t think this case is for me, but I also think it has fantastic use for protecting the system against the everyday damage of children. Its rugged and sturdy feel, paired with the difficulty in removing the system, make for an ideal means of child-proofing the system. It’s not to say there isn’t use here for the everyday Switch owner, but I feel a more average user would be interested in docking the system, in using tabletop mode, or even wanting to put it in a bag knowing the screen is safe. The folks at snakebyte have certainly made a Tough:Case, but at the cost of the system’s core versatility, you have to debate whether it’s worth the sacrifice.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/senran-kagura-reflexions.859/

This has been a month of firsts for me; in these past few weeks I’ve reviewed my first fighter game, acquired my first IKEA furniture to assemble, and now I find myself sitting in front of my first Senran Kagura game. I’ve seen ninjas, cooking, and water gun fights from the series but at all times simply looked from afar—no more I say! Promised an experience available exclusively to the Nintendo Switch, one to utilise its unique features more than any game before it, I step, nay leap, into this world of infinite possibility.

A Heart in Five Pieces

The story told in this game is that of a shy and well-endowed female classmate. After suddenly calling you to the classroom after school, much to her surprise, you appear. It’s around this point her intent becomes clear; increased heart rate, rosy cheeks, an arm position that must be causing some serious pain to her chest—all signs of love yet to be confessed. Unsure of how to express her true feelings, she humbly requests your help in searching herself. Senran Kagura Reflexions is a story of blossoming love between friends, set across several well-illustrated landscapes. On the surface, you may mistake it for any other high school romance, but it’s in its core gameplay it flies far beyond anything that has come before it.

Reflexology—the technique of applying pressure to various parts of the hand to rid the body of pain or illness. Her hand in yours, you caress her palm, her fingers, and her thumb, until her mind is taken to another realm; a land of dreams and make believe. Here, she can truly express her feelings with no remorse nor regret. The caveat is that these feelings will only come out with further reflexology… Elsewhere on the body. A key advertising point, where you choose to massage her body will change the outcome of the dream sequence, and the game does do reasonably well here in making the same events more interesting. With each scene having five different routes, each marked by their own colour for you to know which route touching a certain place will lead you down, there is a relative sense of realism at play here. If you want to spend the session prodding her inner-elbow, you might be thanked for making her feel relaxed; and equally if you spend the session slapping her gelatin breasts, you might be called out for your deviant ways.

Before you can reach the session’s penultimate dialogue, you have a chance to relax her more than any simple massage with Glorious Reflexology. Starting with only your hands to work the stress out of her thigh, you eventually unlock a roller, brush, and massager to really help find the words she is aching to say. Each of these adding unique gameplay sequences, they go a long way in helping the game feel less repetitive. Of course, with there only being four glorious techniques, you still may find yourself tiring of them towards the end of the story. Thankfully, the development team took this into account, and allowed you to skip this part of the dream in the later stages of the game, giving you the chance to work through at a much faster pace and touch her heart in a way nobody else could. It’s a shame there’s only one character included in the purchase price, as you find the game is over before you really get a chance to know her, but at the same time, the journey to the end point is an experience in itself. If do you find yourself yearning for more, four additional characters are on the way, with Yumi available today as purchasable DLC, and the rest being released in the coming weeks. While the limited content is a shame, I find myself unable to justify a complaint with the asking price being so low (£8.99 / $9.99).

High Definition Rumble

A significant selling point for this entry in the Senran Kagura series, Reflexions uses the Switch’s featureset to its fullest, putting HD Rumble at the forefront of the gameplay experience. I find myself split in this regard; on one hand, I constantly was in a position of not really noticing the significance of it, but on the other, when I was specifically putting attention on the rumble, I could match it to the events on-screen remarkably well. A keen example would be in the Roller Glorious Reflexology sequence. When I first played it, I felt the rumble as the roller was put on the back of her leg, but when I really paid attention, I noticed the intricacies; each notch and bump on the roller genuinely felt defined in the Joy Con feedback. It’s impressive the degree of subtlety and integration the development team managed to achieve in what is ultimately a very unsubtle game. I had a similar experience with the Massager in a Glorious Reflexology sequence; the Joy Con vibrated subtly when being held, and felt as though it was being pressed against something as it was pressed down.

This of course extends beyond the more obvious moments, each touch, rub, and slap giving some sort of feedback. Remembering an early promotional video for the game, where the game’s director said how he wanted to recreate the feeling of a pudding and water balloons using HD rumble, was where my curiosity for the game stemmed from. Slapping the breast of the game’s protagonist, I can say I wasn’t disappointed. It felt as a water balloon or a gelatine pudding might as it rippled in a way I would expect the aforementioned balloon or pudding to. It’s absurd, it’s stupid, but it is a great deal of fun.

A Game for Degenerates?

Senran Kagura Reflexions has a clear target audience in mind, and markets itself well towards this audience. With long-time series fans at the centre of this, it also does well in attracting those of low moral standing, and those simply looking for a fun experience. The obvious attraction comes from prodding and slapping the various areas of the game’s heroine, but there lies unique charm in each of the game’s dream sequences. From the little sister, to a female warrior, a teacher, or even a schoolgirl in the gym storage room; this game caters to many a strange desire, wrapping them in the hazy package of fantasy as if to say “it’s okay, it’s not really happening.” I don’t really understand the appeal in these, and while the range of alternate dialogue and interaction were welcome, I feel the game could have thrived further by properly integrating a plot and character development into this instead of blindly catering to what is ultimately fetish culture. That being said, such an approach would be to take away from the raw and unadulterated entertainment value provided by its disjointed and shameless choice of scenes.

The game also provides ample customisation options to the player. Do you want your heroine to have a pony tail? Pigtails? Bangs? Two pairs of worn underwear around her ankles? A double knot? Senran Kagura Reflexions has you covered. With more customisation options being made available as you progress through the story, you can develop her wardrobe at the same rate as her personality, and relationship with you as the player. Being able to change her hair, outfit, and lingerie, as well as having the ability to add up to eight accessories to the equation, the experience can truly be made your own.

Final Thoughts

When all is said and done, it’s hard to really come to a conclusion with this game. Were it a full retail experience, I would be throwing criticism at the sheer lack of content, but for its price tag, you really do get what you pay for. Here you have a short but sweet overly sexualised experience full of laughs and slaps. If you can get a group of friends together to play, it’s something I feel I can wholeheartedly recommend, if only for the one-time experience. There may also be a niche audience in those wanting to try out the HD Rumble, with the feature not overly used to this extent in other Switch games, but whether it’s worth your money just for this is perhaps something more subjective. All in all, as long as you know the kind of game you’re getting yourself into, you’re bound to find some fun to justify the cost.