Beat ‘em ups have been hit and miss for me. Going back to classic ones they are old, clunky, and frustrating as hell to play. Newer ones can be better but the graphical style can sometimes interfere with easily seeing how to interact with the world and lanes. Well Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has come along to see if it can balance newer gameplay, and beautiful pixel art graphics. But does it succeed?

Nostalgia

There have been plenty of TMNT over the years, but as I am a bit of an old fart, the classic cartoon characters are what resonates most with me. April with that terrible yellow jumpsuit is an icon and I won’t hear anything else about it. So with this I was so in.

Then we bust in with the villains, classic Shredder, classic Beebop and Rocksteady, Classic Krang in the old beefy body. It oozes old in all of the right ways.

More nostalgia, just better

Then there is that sweet, sweet pixel art beauty. Everything in this game looks so good, and in that way they get nostalgia right. If it looks too much like a classic beat ’em up it would look so much worse. Seriously go watch some old NES games and see how it doesn’t look the way you remembered them. This has been an experience that has scarred my memories as I go back to ‘stunning’ games and am greeted with awkward pixelated horrors. Some games don’t age, some do.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has taken the pixelation, but made gorgeous 2022 graphics with it. The animation is a little bit jittery, but so well designed. In this way it feels more like how you remember old games looking, as opposed to what they actually look like.

More modified notalgia

Gameplay is another issue that ages with Beat em ups. A couple over the years have clicked with me, but so many are clunky. Not being enough to the side for your hits to land, weird enemy hit boxes, Beat ‘em ups have aged hard over the years.

Fortunately Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has been designed in a way that feels like how I remember the games working. It plays so well and is so damn fun. SImple combat, repetitive enemies, excellent boss battles. It’s so damn well designed.

Best of all, the levels are super short. I was always surprised how quickly I got to the boss but this is a pretty key aspect of what I enjoyed about the game. The levels being short and snappy means any repetitive enemies don’t hang around for long enough to get boring. This means someone wanting to enjoy the game on ‘easy’, can beat it in a day. Someone wanting more can take on harder difficulties, and try beating the other challenges that levels have to offer. Since they get as hard as not taking any damage, there are heaps here for completionists.

Turtle Power

I figured the game would be fun enough, and maybe scratch a nostalgia itch. I was not expecting a genuinely fun and engaging experience. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge delivered so much more than I was expecting.

If you have a group of friends then the game gets even better. But on your own it is still a damn fun game. Turtle Power!

If you have ‘Game Pass’, it is already there. Check it out!

The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Square Enix has now released The Forsaken Maiden – the second instalment in the Voice of Cards franchise on Switch, PS4 and Steam.

But wait, didn’t the first game The Isle Dragon Roars come out only a few months ago? Yes! Am I pleasantly surprised? Yes! Am I a little concerned for the welfare of the staff at Square Enix? Yes!

For those hearing about this franchise for the first time, Voice of Cards is a JRPG series from Yoko Taro (the creator of NieR) told entirely through the medium of cards. Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden is a completely standalone story, and arguably better than its predecessor.

A game that holds all the cards

Imagine a tabletop JRPG with the environment, combat, characters, and dialogue all represented by cards, paired with the dark vibes of Yoko Taro. That’s the Voice of Cards series.

As discussed in our review of the previous game, don’t come to Voice of Cards looking for a mechanically complex card game. You have five swappable moves to use against enemies that are weak or resistant to different types of attacks.

It’s typical JRPG stuff with a neat stylistic card spin. If you’re looking for a chill time with some Yoko Taro twists, it’s pretty great.

This time around, our old scrappy boy, girl, and mascot type character have been replaced by a more docile boy, girl, and mascot type character, along with a series of rotating group members. Sardonic narrator “Game-Master” Todd Haberkorn is replaced by (also more docile but equally competent) narrator Mark Atherlay.

More difficult challenges are on the cards

My dance card is full

Sea-riously good. Also, cards!

The post Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Lego games are fun. Do you like Lego games? Great, you will like this game. That is all, play Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Oh I need to fill in more words?

OK well, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga gives us the main nine movies in one sweet Lego game. To say this game is big would be an understatement, but that comes mostly from the freedom you gain outside of the story. 

To follow the story you pick whichever trilogy you want, then jump into the first episode. Each episode takes a few hours, depending on how much you piss around. Completing an episode lets you unlock the next episode in the trilogy, rinse and repeat.

I liked the story mode except for some of the unnecessary walking.

This is because you spend a lot of time walking or running across a hub to start the next mission. Now where this deserves credit is you have some freedom to complete mini missions and puzzles to unlock Kyber blocks. If you want to do that then this is a nice break from the story, but if you would rather return to this after the story, then it’s a lot of unnecessary faff.

Now for the story itself, I mean it’s a Lego game. It obviously follows the main beats from the nine movies but sillys it up a lot. The game is built, and built well, for a family audience. This means it throws silly jokes at you a  lot, but plenty land even for an old man like myself, like watching the edge of a ship coming into view, to zoom out and see it is cake being shoved in Poe’s mouth, for example. Classic and silly humor. Listening to force ghosts giving advice and Anakin’s voice comes over saying “I don’t like sand”. Silly? Yes. But good? Also yes.

The gameplay itself is pretty stock standard. When you get to fly that is pretty damn fun, but the majority of your time will be the platforming.

You will mostly platform your way through levels, hack and slash your way through enemy minifigs, and smash Lego to reconstruct it in different ways to get across challenges on the map. You know, it’s a Lego game. When in a story mission you only have the designated story characters, but when in those hubs/free roam moments you can switch around characters to collect those hidden kyber bricks that need a certain class of mini-fig. It is incredibly easy to lose a lot of time doing this.

Speaking of which, kyber bricks. These are the main collectibles dotted around levels and open worlds. They may be tucked away somewhere waiting to be found, they may need a certain character’s ability to reach, or they may involve more complex puzzles/mini games. The good news is if after the game you want some decent post-game content, well there are 1166 of these suckers. You use them for class upgrades as well so you don’t collect them for complexion alone, which is cool.

For context, when I beat the story, I had roughly 150 kyber bricks, so I have heaps more to go back and get should I be so inclined. Added to this of course are hidden characters to unlock, and heaps of mini kits. So if you so desire, you can sink hundreds of hours into this one, and you might because once the story ends and you get free reign to explore the galaxy, there is so much fun to be had.

The game wasn’t bug free which was annoying.

I had cut scenes where it went to black so I would have to close the game and reopen it. Sometimes I was surprised how much progress I lost. I had the game crash twice while playing the story. Also not ideal. These weren’t that regular, but still annoying.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a pretty easy sell. Do you like Lego games? Do you like Star Wars? Well then you should enjoy the hell out of this game. Minor quirks aside, it is a banger, and given how long it has been since I played a Lego game, well worth it.

The post Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

I have played many Final Fantasy games, and have enjoyed many hundreds of hours of them. The series has made some serious changes that didn’t initially gel. Looking at you Final Fantasy XII, well that was until I played it again 10 years later and realised it was amazing.  

So a souls-like merged with Final Fantasy? I was as open minded as I could be going into Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.

A Stranger to both

First of all, the souls-like aspects aren’t as intimidating as you maye expect. So don’t be scared off. Souls games tend to be absolutely brutal, and this can be if you want it to be thanks to difficulty settings.

What the game shares with Souls games is the structure of advancing. You will make your way through a level, and every time you get killed you reload back at your save point. As you advance you can unlock shortcuts so that if you die you can advance further forward faster.  

Now saving will be absolutely crucial here of course, so you don’t lose that sweet sweet progress. Well when you save, all the enemies are resurrected. This is a soulsy thing, and that means you have to be sparing with your use of saving at times. Especially if you are using enemies as a way to tell which path you haven’t used yet.

So what is so different to a souls game I hear you ask. You have the option to choose the  difficulty level. That’s it. I mean it’s a little thing, but that is the reason I beat the game so it’s a pretty damn big deal. There are easy to hard options, but also a casual option that is more generous with things like the MP you drop when you die, and I’m not ashamed to say I casualled it.

Even in casual I had my ass kicked a few times, but if you want it to be brutal then you absolutely can. Options are the spices of life. Or was it Variety? Who cares, you can play it in easy mode.

Strange yet familiar

Despite the massive amount it borrows from the souls series, it is a Final Fantasy game in so many ways. Immediately you are presented with this beautiful castle that couldn’t look more like art work from FF15 if it tried. The characters’ looks and styles are as Final Fantasy as they come, and then there are the enemies.

Nothing reminds you that you are playing a Final Fantasy game than being zapped by a Coeurl, or looking into that freaky tentacled massive mouthed beast known as the Malboro. There are little details like cactaurs that randomly appear. They aren’t too hard to take down, but killing one drops some serious loot.  

One of my favourites and most hated are the Tonberry’s floating around. Anyone familiar with the series will know these iconic bastards. It doesn’t matter what level the enemies were or how kitted up I am, these beasties could slaughter me in seconds. In these moments I had to take the timing and dodging down or I would be smoked.

A bit Strange, a bit familiar

One aspect of the game I found interesting was the leveling which is split across the gear and the job system. The jobs system has you earning skill points to spend in a tree, and regularly at the end of a tree you unlock new job types. The jobs bring different skills and you can equip two at a time to switch between.  

This becomes helpful as you start using different melee jobs with different magic types to smash your enemies. There are more nuances like jobs that use more than one, but I never got too into the weeds of that.

The equipment levels are what will gauge if you are strong enough to tackle a mission. Basically every enemy you beat drops gear. You can get into the detail of each drop and decide which stats you wanted to boost. Because of the frequency I opened the menu every so often and used the auto-equip system. You can get into this if you want, I did not.

Final Fantasy Origin

I have been focussed on what makes this game feel like a souls inspired Final Fantasy game, but with any of these there is of course a story. The majority of this story is told with cut scenes at the start and end of each mission. These short snaps at times don’t contain much information and so I wasn’t that engaged for the bulk of the game. Then suddenly near the end it got good.

The short version of it is you are Jack, a man tasked with destroying this being Chaos. You start with your team of two allies who go around defeating these chaos enemies, freeing the power of the crystals that they are corrupting. Along the way Jack learns a lot about what Chaos is and his part to play in the world’s destiny. It is hard to go into much more detail without spoiling the actual good bits.

The story starts off a bit meandering and unengaging, but at the end of the game I kind of appreciated some of the early story bits more so it kind of works in the end. It doesn’t have the exciting breadth of a normal Final Fantasy game, but given it is based on the first Final Fantasy game I may have been asking a bit much.

Don’t be a Stranger

The early stages of the game feel a bit all over the place, but when it gets going it becomes engaging. The game is fun enough to play, and the difficulty options make the game so much more accessible than I was expecting. That ending, phwoar, was well worth it.

The post Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

It has been so damn long since I played a wrestling game. This is because the last time I played one I found it so clunky and uncomfortable to play. Getting any kind of rhythm was so hard, and after being frustrated with controls I decided I would rather do something I enjoyed. So when WWE 2K22 announced it was overhauling their gameplay this year, I thought it might be finally my time to rise.

You can finally be a pro wrestler without the head injuries

For me the make or break of this game was going to be the gameplay. They have simplified the hell out of this game, but it will take a bit to get the hang of it. The buttons have been simplified to a light attack, heavy attack, grab and block/reversal. These are key to the fighting, and knowing these four buttons will let you fumble through a fight or two.

This simplicity of entry is absolutely crucial because I wouldn’t have fumbled through my first couple of hours if I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. After an hour or so of fumbling, you notice that the AI is doing cool stuff and this is where you will get the hang of using the shoulder buttons. These do things like running, grabbing the ropes or objects, and climbing. These combined with your basic attack buttons is when a fight gets awesome.

This might be running so you can do a grab that slams your opponent into the mat, grabbing the ropes so you can do a backflip onto your grounded opponent, or hitting that sweet frog splash from the turnbuckle. It took me a few hours but man when it clicks, you feel like a badass.

It’s easier when they don’t fight back as hard.

Once you feel like The Rock it is time to crank up the difficulty. First you crank the game up to medium and you hold your own, then you crank it up to hard and get your ass kicked. Well I got my ass kicked anyway. This is because there is a real knack to countering and hitting your moves at the right time. Countering involves guessing what your opponent presses in time, and if it is the right button you counter it. It shows you a triangle or square at times, but that can be such a split second you don’t have time to register it.  

When the difficulty is cranked up then the game gets  a lot better at countering, and spends less time on the ground waiting for you to hit them with an aerial move. They on the other hand can hit you at the exact right time.

The other annoyance I have is sometimes the moves miss. Given it is in a 3D ring there is a nack to going in the right direction to hit a move, and the game can be forgiving. But sometimes for no reason you do a flip and sail straight past them into the mat injuring yourself. This isn’t so bad on the lower difficulties because the AI misses as often as you do, and it is kinda funny when you both go for an attack, both miss, and both slam into the mat. On the harder difficulties the AI makes a lot less mistakes.

Enough modes that kept me fighting

One area that WWE 2K22 is not lacking is the mode department. The first is pretty heavily involved in our cover star Rey Mysterio. The Showcase mode has Ray quickly introduce fights that were important in his career, and then you take part in the fights.  The idea here is to do the major actions that took place in the fights which pop up as an option in the top left.

You can also ignore that, and win the fights. I would always start trying to follow it properly, then get into the fight and do it my way. If you actually follow the steps then it will help introduce you to how to fight. I did not. Some people never learn.

Then there is the MyRISE mode which is the career. Here you create your character, and start in the development center. After you do well there you get the chance to go on to one of the WWE rosters where you take part in a bunch of stories, fight for championships, etc. It is a cool mode that decides if you are a heel or face based on your choices, and opens up pathways as you act. This mode gets addictive fast, and I enjoy it.

Well until I ran out of contracts

Then there is MyFaction which is where you collect cards providing superstars and customisations. You will use these cards to take part in fights and unlock prizes. I like this mode except for the microtransaction feel to it. You earn currency which you can use to buy card packs. So far totally normal and OK. Your card has a limited number of contracts and when they run out you need to buy more. If you don’t then you won’t be taking this card into battle.  

Every time I did this I felt like I was taking a step away from that sweet pack of cards to take a couple steps forward later, and can see how you would be tempted to drop more coins. If this wasn’t as egregious this mode would be more awesome. Because of the microtransactions and stuff it needs to connect to the server every time you start this mode, and it takes an age to load. Not the nuggets deal, but again a bit of a pain.

The MyGM mode surprised me. This has you doing a simulation of running a brand, with the hopes of getting to Wrestlemania with your brand being stronger than your competitors. You pay for things like the venue, the lighting etc, and pay to bring in superstars. Matches with extras like a TLS match cost more and even superstars cutting promos costs money. I was going to tease the mode, until I lost three hours without noticing it. The mode has enough complexity to be engaging, but not so much that it will put you off if a manager sim isn’t your jam.

Then there is Universe and exhibition modes which let you grab a superstar and get stuck into fights. They are fine, nothing more than extra fights.

One big good looking show

Aesthetically the game looks pretty good. It’s far from realistic, but given the number of people that are digitally recreated in game, it is a pretty mean feat how decent they look.  The varied stages are pretty cool, especially in the career mode. That is until you hit the big shows then almost every RAW fight looks the same. There is a lot of voice acting in the game which definitely adds to the experience.

If, like me, you have been putting off playing a WWE game because of that steep learning curve, then this one may well be worth a look. I can honestly say I am enjoying my time with this game so much more than I was expecting.

The post WWE 2K22 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Aaaaah Gran Turismo 2. Someone set it up for a lunch break at school on a projector and everyone was blown away by how realistic it all looked. From then on many old ass gamers like me came to expect the gold standard with the Gran Turismo series. Amazing graphics, amazing racing, and getting an overpowered car so you could blitz through courses without any skill. The series was peak racing.  

Then came Gran Turismo Sport. Our only PS4 Gran Turismo game and it was … underwhelming. It supposedly got better post launch but I had tried, enjoyed it a bit, and moved on. I mean Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon had blown me away from the get go. With that being the case, why go back in case an average game got good.

Well now we have a PS5, and with it a Gran Turismo 7. All the pressure was on to deliver here, and for the most part, Polyphony has done so.

Jumping into the game I was met by some clunky menus as I tried to figure out how to play the warm up game Music Rally. This has you making your way through some races where the car, the song and the track have been pre-defined. It is a nice way to relax, enjoy some music, and get stuck back into the series. It had some weird things where it refers to beats, and the music timer pulses to a beat so I tried to figure out if I was supposed to do something with that, maybe tap accelerate. Nah, turns out that is nothing but flashy and you need to get to the end of the course as quickly as you can.

This is an incredibly minor annoyance, but it was an annoyance, and my first intro to the game. So it wasn’t a great start. Fortunately it gets way better.

Gran Turismo games have normally thrown you in the deep end. There is the list of races, you need the right car and right licenses and then you can get stuck in. Here you are guided a bit more. There is kind of a campaign feel to it where you visit a cafe and they provide a menu of cars to earn by doing certain races. This is how you unlock new tracks to tackle.

I like this for a few reasons. First of all the menus are themed and it tells you little stories about the cars you have unlocked and their places in motoring history. What this does is it gives a purpose to all the racs you are doing, which previously the games lacked. You kept racing because you wanted to keep racing. This is awesome and I certainly enjoy it, but it would have also been cool if the option was there to go and do the races the way the old games did. That way you can bounce between the styles of learning about the history, and enjoying race progression.

One other annoyance I found was that most of the races have a rolling start. So this means that when you take over the cars have all been driving already. This is cool for variation but I enjoy races that start from a stop.  There is nothing more exciting than pinching those first couple of spots when a race starts because you have overpowered your car with mods. This is especially important when you have only focused on the power like I have and can’t steer the car for shit.

Give me more standing starts please.

Another annoyance is the credit system. You are going to need some serious money to buy some cars and so there will be grinding. This isn’t new, I have spent years doing boring endurance races over and over again to earn some cash. What is new is annoying quirks like not being able to sell duplicate cars. Instead you just remove them from your garage.

There is something inherently wrong about spending heaps of money to buy your cars but the system has you give them away as opposed to being bale to sell them. Like bang em down to half price since you are selling them after driving them off the lot. But nothing? That’s daft.

There is also a roulette system where it gives you bonuses which can net you some cash. The problem is that cash pales in comparison to the cost of some of these cars. The good news is you can spend some of your real world money to buy them … in this full priced game.

It’s an annoyance that will probably only hit the handful that really want to grind out a collection of cars. But still dumb.

One of Gran Turismo’s greatest aspects and most controller breaking ones is the license system. As you go you will need to make sure you complete your licenses or the races will be locked off. If you haven’t played a Gran Turismo before, each license has a series of short tests. This may involve hitting a certain corner or a couple of corners using predefined cars. You get graded based on time giving a bronze, silver or gold trophy. You only need bronze to continue, which is hard enough at times, but those silvers and golds get tempting. I spent a scary amount of time trying to knock .05 seconds off one of my times.  

Fundamentally if you enjoy Gran Turismo games then this will be for you.

The game is fun, and it feels like the real Gran Turismo game we have been waiting for. The history lessons are awesome, the racing is awesome, so much of the game is awesome. Sure it has some shortcomings, and I kept trying to reverse time (I have played a lot of Forza games since Gran Turismo 6 was released) but fundamentally it is a great game that fills an important slot in the PlayStation library.

The post Gran Turismo 7 Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; fans don’t know what they want.

I don’t say this as an outsider looking in; I’ve been playing Pokemon since 1999. My journey has been Blue, Gold, Ruby, Platinum, Black, Y, Sun, and Sword, with multiple sequels and side-games thrown in for good measure. Umbreon and Espeon have been tattooed on my forearm for the better part of the last decade, and I’ve got three separate extra devices just for Pokemon GO.

I say all this not to brag (obviously, because it’s frankly kind of sad), but to establish that when it comes to Pokemon, I’ve been there since the beginning. So when I say that Pokemon Legends Arceus is one of the best things the franchise has ever graced the world with, I am able to back that up.

Because, well, it is. 

We’re entering Unown territory

Pokemon Legends Arceus begins with inexplicable time travel. No flux capacitors or TARDISes in sight, but instead a fairly literal Deus Ex Machina (or Arceus Ex Machina, I guess).

I’m not going to wax lyrical on the implications of this game to the temporal causality of the Pokemon universe. I’m just going to say that the way it’s handled is deeply refreshing. Instead of long-winded explanations and technical know-how, the rationale is basically that a wizard did it. The wizard is Arceus. Also you’ve got amnesia, like a daytime soap opera.

Look, the plot ain’t Shakespearow. 

Willing and Clefable

The Galaxy Team – definitely not Team Galactic – accept your time mishaps with the naivety and good humour of a toddler, barely questioning your story before asking you to work for them. Honestly, hiring standards in Hisui aren’t the best. As long as you can demonstrate that you’re not pants-wettingly terrified of a Starly, you’re basically their messiah.

The quests start off sort of basic; go here, catch this, come back, etc. At least there’s no escort missions, so thanks for small Blisseys.

And it gets Wyrdeer

Every new Pokemon game brings new forms, evolutions, and general design-related shenanigans. Pokemon Legends Arceus brings us the Hisuian variants, which range from the excellent (Arcanine) to the less excellent (Electrode) to the viscerally upsetting (Palkia). The new types come with some slight stat shifts which, despite the lack of a multiplayer function, lay the foundation for real paradigm shifts to competitive play in future. Dual type Samurott with added Speed? Oh, yes please.

The Pokedex is mostly the same as the standard Sinnoh dex from Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but the Hisuian forms and new playstyle means you’ll be far from bored.

Speaking of the Pokedex, the new system of actually researching what they eat and do should be the standard. I genuinely felt like I was doing, you know, research. Science is 90% repitition, as they say, and BOY will you be doing some science.

Unforgiving and even Tentacruel

Most surprising of all, Pokemon Legends Arceus is actually kind of hard. I know, right; a challenging Pokemon game! Well it’s not that surprising; I lost many hours to the harder versions of Pokemon Conquest, and while I struggled with the Mystery Dungeon series I think that’s mostly because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. But Pokemon Legends Arceus is closer to the formula we know and love, except now it’s dangerous. 

I used to love challenge runs of classic games, but I don’t think you’ll be able to Nuzlocke this one. Your Pokemon will faint. Like, a lot. Alpha Pokemon hit like a truck on ketamine whose mother you just insulted, and the levels just keep on climbing as you traverse Hisui. You can’t be Snorlax about travelling around, and especially at night.

Gastly. Gastly everywhere.

Breath of the Weavile

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how similar in appearance Pokemon Legends Arceus is to the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Because does, in fact, look very similar.

That similarity, however, is only pixel deep. The movement, gameplay, and flow of the game is entirely its own Ultra Beast. I’ve not played a game quite like Pokemon Legends Arceus before. In terms of a Pokemon game, this level of departure from formula is, well, astonishing.

The game isn’t fully open world (good), but more of a heavily expanded Wild Area of Crown Tundra type deal. There’s a fair few invisible walls, and which I say purely because of habit as the walls are visible to the point of obscuring everything in a horrible pink haze when you try to fly out of bounds on a glorious psychic eagle. 

Just like real life, right?

Framerates get a bit iffy in some circumstances. Mass outbreaks of detailed Pokemon and some draw distance issues can be irksome, but bearable. Other graphical glitches like collision issues are mostly funny, like when someone’s foot kept vibrating during a cutscene like an off-brand Sonic the Hedgehog. 

But these are minor Beautiflies in the ointment, and I’m struggling to find any real complaints.

Arcanine and a half out of Ten

Some technical limitations are all that pulls Pokemon Legends Arceus down, and I’m pretty confident they could be fixed in a patch or two. 

With a wholly fresh take on the franchise formula, a super listenable soundtrack, and content for days, Pokemon Legends Arceus is always going to be a good one. But moreover, it simply works. This is the free roaming, fast paced, risky Pokemon game we’ve been saying we want for decades, and it’s right here in front of us.

I Luvdisc it.

The post Pokemon Legends Arceus review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

It is not an understatement to say I adored Horizon Zero Dawn. I went in skeptical as I wasn’t always the biggest fan of open world games. Games like the Witcher series couldn’t hold my attention despite multiple attempts. What I found though was a game open and expansive, that played like a tight third person action game, with an engaging story and world.  

So can you guess which game I was looking forward to most in 2022? That’s right, Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Not actually, the real answer was of course Horizon Forbidden West. But do go play Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It’s really good guys.

The game throws us back in with our old friend Aloy. The blight in the world is spreading, killing everything it touches. So, a reasonably important issue that should be dealt with sooner rather than later. Aloy is trying to do that by looking for a Gaia backup that will make all the machines good again.

This will make the world habitable for life, so kinda handy.

When she returns to camp after an unsuccessful hunt she discovers one of her old friends has set a trap resulting in Hades being released and headed west. We soon discover that the Forbidden West is an area obscured by a wall. Here a new group of people, the Tenakth, call home. It turns out that for generations the Tenakth and Carja were at war where…well the Carja were bastards that caught and killed a lot of them. This has changed a little and the Carja have been giving heaps of reparations to the Tenakth to try and make good. 

It so happens that they are about to provide a new treasure chest of “we’re sorry” money. With gates opening and leaders present, this is a chance for Aloy to try to get passage to the west. A bunch of events happen, and Aloy winds up in no man’s land. It turns out on top of the drama between the three Tenakth clans, there is also a breakaway group. They are causing all kinds of havoc and death.

So here we have a fun time for Aloy. She wants to go find the parts of Gaia to save the world before everything and everyone dies. This should be a challenge on its own but she has to face a bunch of hurdles like regional politics and religions getting in the way. This frustrates Aloy who is trying to save everyone, and also deal with a new threat that has arisen.

Dun dun dunnnn…

If you enjoyed the story in the first game you should keep enjoying this. It’s a solid sci-fi story in an extraordinarily amazingly built sci-fi world. Like the first game I find the whole world so damn interesting. Seeing details like ancient containers (the boots of wrecked and rusted cars), ancient ruins (a hotel that is beyond repair), and so much more adds this awesome layer of mystery to the world. On top of this world is the world that grew from it, and this beautiful mix of primitive and futuristic makes it a treat to explore and learn more about.

The game is loaded with side quests. This can vary from glorified fetch quests and killing quests, but they are usually soaked in details that help expand the world. These all add a heap to the world, and I found myself regularly wanting to complete them and get distracted from the main story.

Saving the world is important, but this tribe needs water and they will get it trading machine hearts.

The game generally still feels good to play as well. The controls took me an hour to adjust to, but once you nail that gameplay feels smooth as butter. Flicking between weapons and ammo types on the wheel clicker makes combat so damn fun. This is important because you need that to be seamless as you rip off chunks off and kill massive machines.  

There have been other crucial additions like excess inventory going to your stash removing a bit of that monotony. Though picking up everything in the world gets old fast. And other aspects have been added like gliding. So after you climb a massive tower you can glide down now rather than having to climb back down.

The game isn’t as bug free as I have hoped.

Unlike the first game, or at least my memory of the first game, the game isn’t free of bugs. There were minor things like NPCs getting stuck on objects, which were fortunately minor because each time it happened I was able to run forward to the next point of the quest and it carried on. There were other quirks like a machine moving out of the silent strike range, including when walking closer to me so instead of an assassination I hit the machine and started a massive battle.  

But more annoyingly there was an issue where the frame rate would drop like crazy so the whole screen was stuttering. I was knee deep hunting an annoyingly fast machine when it happened the first time and I didn’t want to find out the hard way how long it was since an auto save so I powered through spending 30+ minutes on a junt that should have been five. I tried changing to performance mode, put the PS5 to sleep and woke it up, all kinds of stuff. It was only sorted by saving, closing and relaunching the game.  

I even waited this long to see if they would be ironed out at launch with a patch but nope. It’s not a buggy mess, but it’s still a pain in the hole. I didn’t need to be fighting bugs as there were plenty of machines to fight.

Regardless of some polish issues, Horizon Forbidden West is an amazing game. I love the world they have continued to build. I love the clan politics, and I love how annoyed Aloy is with clan politics. And I even love the kangaroos equipped with whips. Play Horizon Forbidden West.

The post Horizon Forbidden West Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

God of War (2018) answered one of gaming’s hardest questions, what can you do with a game franchise that was beloved by many teenagers for its childish sexism and unnecessary violence? Obviously, the general answer is let it be an object of its time, beloved for its strengths and a reminder of what gaming was like.

Well Santa Monica Studio took it another way by making it a strong, interesting story that is as much of an emotional journey for the player as it is for Kratos. Also, unnecessary violence, it is God of War of course.

Now that emotional journey is on PC.

 If you didn’t own a PS4 or a PS5 and therefore this is the first time you might try playing God of War, then you are in for a real treat. The game kicks off with our old friend Kratos living in the frozen expanses of Midgard with his son Atreus. His wife has died, and they plan to spread her ashes from the highest peak in the realms. Unfortunately, he gets attacked at his home by someone with special abilities and now Kratos’ quiet life in hiding becomes a lot more difficult as the Norse Gods become aware of him.

Suddenly a nice hike up the highest mountain to spread some ashes is complicated as the Gods don’t like the Greek God of War in their midst. One area the game massively improved on is the action. It is much closer and more intimate than the older games. Kratos is equipped with an axe he can fling around, and he unlocks a lot more equipment as the game progresses. If you haven’t played yet, I don’t want to ruin that for you.

There are some light RPG elements as you can collect gear which can also be upgraded. Slot in some runes in for extra buffs and you have yourself enough customisation for you to spend too much time poking around a menu.  This does add some depth to the game, as we discover the complexity that Kratos has developed as he learns to be less of an ass hat to his son.

God of War also achieved an extraordinary feat of having no loading screens.

The opening screen which appears to be a static image literally moves into the opening cut scene when you choose to start a new game. It is a technical marvel. Then there is the fact that the game looked absurdly good when it was released on PS4. Then running it on PS5 hardware this absurdly good-looking game got more absurdly good looking. Well with as much power under the hood as you want with a PC, it gets better.

If you have played the game before then this package doesn’t offer too much more. If you have a beefy ass PC and want to make it prettier for your next playthrough, then it will achieve that. The real value here is for PC gamers to play this absurdly excellent game for the first time. So go play it PC gamers. Like now.

The post God of War PC Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

Psychological horror games are good in theory, but only work if they really make you feel something. That feeling doesn’t always need to be fear either, and that’s what In Sound Mind manages to do so well. It’s not a constant barrage of adrenaline, but a slow build up of tension and unease. Which is all very surprising after one of the weirdest, and edgiest opening lines in a video game. But I won’t hold that against it. Much.

You play as Desmond, an amnesiac physiologist who is trying to piece together his own memories by exploring the literal psyches of his patients. Not so surprisingly, this does not go well for him. There’s also a talking cat, weird ink monsters, and noxious purple gas. In Sound Mind doesn’t shy away from the weird, and it works well in the game.

That goo isn’t good

You’ll start the game in the basement of your apartment and soon come to realise that something has gone seriously wrong in your city. The first major thing to keep an eye on is the flood of weird purple goo outside that’s completely swamped the city you live in. You also have a terrible work-life balance. But that’s to be expected when your apartment, your office, and all of your patients’ apartments are in the same building. Oh, and you’re very clearly being watched since every time you approach a phone. Like it starts ringing and the main villain takes time out of his busy day to taunt you. It’s not subtle.

The various bosses in the game are simultaneously the best and worst thing about it. The main villain is the worst for it. He calls you on the phones scattered around the level constantly, taunting you and generally being a megolamaniac. It would be effective if he didn’t sound so terribly cliché and over acted, and also wasn’t called Agent Rainbow. I find it hard to take him seriously. And then he goes and creeps around the levels so effectively that you usually only notice him when he disappears. Or when he’s standing in front of you, locking you in a freezer to die.

I find that rude, honestly.

Fight me

On the flip side, the bosses for each level are amazing. Each level is presented as a tape recording of your therapy sessions with your patients, and the main boss for each level is said patient. It doesn’t take long for you to realise when you go into a new level, that you’re heading in there to fight Desmond’s demons, as much as his patients. These are all people that have serious mental health issues that Desmond failed to help. They have become the villains of their own stories, but never really come across as completely evil.

In Sound Mind tackles the issues around mental health well. Especially in an industry that likes to either play mental illness as a joke, or a reason to be a bad person. It never comes across as disrespectful. Each of Desmond’s patients are painted as human first, mental illness second. Playing through a level, you don’t feel as if you are there to defeat someone. You’re either there to help them, or to stop them before they hurt themselves. As a reflection of this, most boss fights are more akin to puzzles that bring the bosses some measure of peace.

Delightfully unsettling

Each level is well designed, with fantastic attention to detail. The levels mix the mundane with the uncanny, so you end up with a perfectly normal supermarket that slowly turns into a haunted maze or a beach that turns to floating shipping containers. It works really well to create an uncomfortable feeling when you’re exploring a level. Each level introduces a new theme, and new tools or abilities. While the apartment allows you to calm down, the fact that you have no idea what could possibly come up in the next tape world leaves you with a delightful sense of unease.

Adding to that unease is the sheer panic of combat. Not because you’re greatly outnumbered, or underpowered, but because nothing within In Sound Mind lends itself to shooting enemies. The controls are shaky, and most of the time it’s easier to just run away rather than dealing with the annoyingly slow reload times, and Desmond’s inability to consistently point a gun at anything. Luckily, there are usually environmental hazards that can be used to your advantage. Also a shard of glass to stab things with when things start to go really wrong.

Petting cats keeps monsters away, fact

In Sound Mind tells an impressive story about people struggling with life, and throws in enough tense atmosphere, and creepy jumpscares to keep you on your toes. You’ll never know what uncanny level you’ll stumble into next, but you’ll enjoy it. It allows itself to be more than just a horror game, by being genuinely enjoyable, even as you’re creeping around trying to hide from monsters.

Also, the talking cat can be pet. This is very important.

The post In Sound Mind Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.