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A Brave Adventure!

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Developed by Square Enix and published by Nintendo, Bravely Second: End Layer is a massive JRPG for the 3DS and has had quite a bit of controversy regarding the censorship of the game in the west, but have these changes ruined the experience of the game? We don't think so and here's why:

Bravely Second: End Layer and its predecessor before it were a return to the roots of what made early Final Fantasy titles so great and are easily some of Square Enix's best efforts since the PSX era! The game picks up sometime after the ending of the original Bravely Default title in a world that is in the middle of huge changes. Most of the new job classes are given to you as you progress through the game's lengthy story, while the many returning job classes are earned through side-quests which is a great way to handle the job system in our opinions!



The battle system has also been revamped from the first Bravely Default title with several new additions, such as Bravely Second which freezes time during battle, but can only be used once every 24 hours unless you purchase an SP potion using irl money. We aren't fond of that, however the game is easy enough if you're sufficiently leveled even without resorting to using Bravely Second, so we give the feature a free pass.

You can also summon friends' characters in battle to aid you in a pinch, these summons can, at times be extremely useful as you can summon friends who are at a much higher level than yourself early in the game which can allow you an optional free pass if you get stuck in a boss battle that you cannot win at your current level. The game itself isn't all that difficult as long as you aren't terribly under-leveled or facing a unique breed of monsters known as Ba'al's "more about that later" but it's incredibly lengthy and engaging with over 50 hours worth of gameplay and 30 unique job classes!



There's a ton of optional features as well including toy making which can net you a ton of in-game currency later in the game, rebuilding the Lunar Base which unlocks new items and skills, and Ba'al busting which allows you to face unique bosses with a crazy amount of health in a lengthy survival battle. These Ba'al's can be weakened by attacking them with ships on the Lunar Base which takes quite a longtime, however the payoff is worth it in-terms of the monster's reduced health!

The game has been heavily censored in its Western release, however the core of the game is still intact and the main story is still mostly intact in its original form so despite our dislike of major changes occurring during localization, we feel that the game has NOT been changed to the point that it's harmful to the game itself.

The controls in Bravely Second: End Layer are flawless and easy as pie to learn which is always a positive for any game. Visually the game pushes the 3DS to its absolute limits with a gorgeous fully 3D world filled with incredibly detailed and intricate dungeons, and unique characters and enemies! The soundtrack is also among the best we've heard from a Square Enix title in years! What's even more impressive is the fact that the game is almost fully voiced so you'll feel like you're watching an anime series during all of the main story's cut-scenes which is quite a rare feature for a 3DS RPG!



Bottom-Line:

With excellent gameplay and a fantastic story, Bravely Second: End Layer is a force to be reckoned with on the 3DS! That along with the flawless controls and top-notch audio-visual presentation make the game one of the best JRPG's currently available on the 3DS! The major censorship, while unnecessary and annoying in our opinions, has done very little to hurt the overall enjoyability of the game. Bravely Second: End Layer is a game that any JRPG fan who owns a 3DS, should purchase! As for us this game receives a nearly perfect level of recommendation!

Price: $39.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★½ 9.5/10

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#Review #BravelySecond #Nintendo #SquareEnix #JRPG #3DS #Retail

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A Sweet Dish Called Revenge!

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Developed and published by WayForward Games, Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut is a remake / remaster of the second Shantae title originally released on the Nintendo DSiWare Service. The game has been visually improved and has many new features as well, but is this enough to keep the game fresh and has the game aged well in-terms of its mechanics? Continue reading our review to find out!

Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut is a Metroidvania-style adventure title that is extremely unique in the fact that the protagonist can transform into various animals to progress through the game's fairly sizeable world. The game itself is over 10 hours in length for first-time players and there are also a ton of secrets to be found so completing the game can take more than twice that amount of time!



Other unique features of the game include the ability to use panels to shift between the background and foreground, similarly to the Mutant Mudds games. The game can be difficult at times with some mind-bending puzzles, but for the most part its difficulty level is fair. The controls are great "especially the Wii U Pro controls", but the Wii U Gamepad works nice too. The Off-TV-Play feature is great for those who can't use their TV when playing the game!

Visually the game looks great! The multiple layered backgrounds, gorgeous and unique characters, and beautiful locations all add to the overall experience of the game and the soundtrack is amongst the best we've heard from the Shantae series!



Bottom-Line:

With fantastic and unique Metroidvania-style gameplay, great controls that are very intuitive and easy to learn, as well as an extremely amazing audio-visual presentation, Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut is a great game that no Wii U owner should pass up! We give the game a great level of recommendation!

Price: £6.99/€7.99/$9.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10

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#Review #Shantae #WayForward #WiiU #eShop

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Emulation Fail...

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Review written by @Jnes5 and edited by @Ichigofan.



It is the year 511 of the Unified Era in the continent of Imperia, which began after the War of Unification, which was meant for the realms of Athos, Elyria, Thena, Certes and the Vestra to unite and form the land of Imperia, has ended in success. A new war, the War of Independence, is occurring between Athos, Certes and Thena joining to face against Elyria in order to gain more territory from them. But as years have passed, the war was calmed down a little and since then, the Elyrian kingdom were having their traditional Harvest festival event until an incident occurs as the chosen one to sing in the main festival, Elena, becomes cursed and transform into a hideous beast and wreaks havoc upon the city. Aeron, a friend of hers, later finds her unconscious and returned to her human form next to a Vestra merchant named Mavda, who helps them escape from the city and from the Elyrian army and eventually reach the wastelands of Okanos, where a fortress known as the Thirteen Towers is located, over a massive chasm called The Scar, which was caused by a violent event called The Cataclysm and is only stopped from growing bigger and engulfing the world by the Thirteen Towers, where it is suspended in the middle of the chasm by twelve chains connected to the surrounding cliffs. Mavda reveals that she has seen Elena's curse before and that in order to lift it, Aeron must use the Oraclos Chain, a special weapon given by her, to obtain the flesh of the monsters that live in the Thirteen Towers. Although Elena will be returned to human form after eating the flesh of any monster in the tower, Mavda tells them that the only way to truly remove the curse is to retrieve the flesh of the 12 Masters of the Towers.

Story:

I do think that the story in this game is pretty good, although it lacks on certain areas, the whole setting to the whole world is not covered enough to know more about them, such as the empires in war towards Elyria and even how they even are or look like, it lacks a lot more background behind the whole setting and you even need to pay close attention to some details that the game might give you regarding the whole background of its setting to try to understand what is going on in the world... however, the game is still fine aside from the lack of background since the main story, which focuses on Aeron saving Elena from her curse from spreading any further, is presented very well, as you continue towards the game, there will be notes laying around that can give you much more on the background on the towers and even the war that happened years ago in the game's current time, as well as the character Mavda giving you a bit more of background from her casual talks to giving you notes detailing what's going on in the world, the game also gives you hints and mysteries throughout the game that of a side plot that  will affect the main story at the final climax of the game, one of the hints that lead up to more of the background related to the main story is very well told while the other hints that is also in the same main story is kind of predictable, although still well done, the main story is very interesting and with the hints and mysteries that the game will give you later on, but it would've been more appealing as to where you want to know what will happen in the end of the story if the character development was better (more on that later on...).

The game contains six endings which are S, A, B, C, D and the bad ending and each from them range from high to low respectively, and the lower the rank is, the more depressing the ending is, but one important thing to mention is that each ending can give you more background into the story the higher the rank is, including fixing a few plotholes as well, but the thing is the S ending is much more better in that regard since the other endings, while each of them quite different from each other and well told on their own, don't bring the benefits of the story that the S ending brings, that and because to be completely honest, the A ending, being the 2nd one from the top rank, was really sad despite the fact that it's supposed to be one of the "less" depressing endings from the rank...



Gameplay:

Pandora's Tower (also known as "Pandora's Tower: Until I Return to Your Side" in Japan) is an Action game with Role Playing elements that can be played with the Wii Remote + Nunchuck and the Classic Controller/Pro, The main objective of this game is to explore all 13 towers filled with many monsters and defeat the bosses in each tower and collect their flesh, but you also must return to the observatory every once in a while to keep Elena from turning into a beast by giving her any type of monster flesh while also strengthen your relationship between you, as Aeron, and Elena. The controls might be a little complex at the beginning, but it will be much more simpler later in the game, you attack with the A button and with the Z button in the Nunchuck you can defend yourself if stationary and you can roll out if moving and pick up items with the C button, there's also a helpful menu that you can open up with the + Button where you can manage and see the inventory, equip some armor, weapons or such, look at the map, etc., two interesting things to mention is that you can use any usable items by scrolling with left and right on the D-pad on a small menu and use that select item with either up or down on the D-pad, and the other one is what makes this game unique which is the Oraclos Chain, this chain can be helpful in ranged distances by aiming with the cursor with the Wii remote and when highlighted on an object or monster you can tap the B button to quickly grab it, hold it or attack it, but you can also hold down the B button to make the cursor have a little zoomed-in view of where you are pointing to where you can aim in great detail what you want to grab, this might sound troublesome when in battle, but the big advantage is that the game slows down when doing so, meaning there's no regrets of ever using this feature, but when the chain grabs something, you either pull it by holding down the C button or by violently pull it down by shaking the Wii remote downwards, you can also attach two objects with the same chain by pointing it to another object and pressing the B button while the chain is currently grabbing something else, you can even reach some items from a far distance with it. The controls feel well, there are also some other mechanics included in the controls that are also helpful that I will mention later like jumping where it's automatic in which once you run towards a gap, and there's another platform towards you, you will jump to it, however I did have a problem with shaking the Wii remote down in order to pull out something violently, as in sometimes it might work but sometimes you might need to shake a little more harder in certain times, and this can get bothersome if you are fighting with a lot of enemies, but other than that, the controls are good despite some little issues, but you can also use the Classic Controller/Pro in this game, replacing the whole aiming with the Wii Remote to aiming with the right stick as well as replacing the Oraclos Chain's controls with the R button, one issue I have is that the controls in the Classic Controller/Pro might be awkward to get used to and might take some time to be comfortable with it when using the chain, especially if you get used to the Wii Remote + Nunchuck, but it is great for those who don't want to aim and shake on the Wii remote and Nunchuck, making this game feel much more accessible to anyone in terms of controls.

This being an action game, the combat feels amazingly fluid and comfortable since dodging in this game actually feels like you are dodging attacks unlike other action games where dodging was useless since they can't even help you evade an attack, especially if it didn't hit you (sadly you can't constantly spam the dodging move since the game will punish you by making you vulnerable if you do it two times quickly, but to me it's a fair mechanic), there are also other mechanics that you can do in which there's a charge attack you can do by holding down the A button and then let go, you will also see a visual cue when doing a charge attack where you see a circle closing towards Aeron and when pressing the A button when the circle is almost gone, it will help Aeron to pull of more combos from the charge attack, the Oraclos Chain is even useful for battle in some cases, since you can use it by specifically point the enemy towards a certain limb to grab it and then violently pull it off, slightly damaging it, and you can get certain items from them by defeating them and when they're lying on the ground (with some red mist coming from them indicating they are defeated) and then aim which limb to take from, and then once the chain grabs it, you violently pull it off, you can get certain items from them but if it's in the stomach (in most enemies) you will always get the monster's flesh in which it will be useful for a certain situation (more on that later...), the chain also even has its own meter that that determines how much damage it can do when violently pull off someone and you can raise it if you use the chain in different ways but in a quick consistent way as it can slowly reset to zero if it doesn't do anything, it's meter can also be upgraded by defeating a boss, it's a pretty nice action game but it also has a great amount of RPG elements on it, for example you can level up your character by earning enough experience points by defeating enemies, you can level up your health meter, your attack power, etc. one RPG mechanic to mention is the inventory and equipment menu, in the inventory menu you are limited to carry a certain amount of items depending on how much your bag can hold, at the beginning it is very frustrating due to how low it is, but you can thankfully make Elena help you expand it with a certain item, and the equipment menu is sort of the same in terms of its functionality, there's a grid menu where you can set the equipment on them and take some space and the bigger the item is, the more space it will take, so you have to arrange them in order to make the equipment to have a little bit of more space by turning them or such, think of the item menu in Resident Evil 4, only much more smaller and you can't combine items and such, but you can upgrade its space by leveling up which is a good thing, speaking of equipment you can also acquire two new weapons eventually in the game aside from the sword, one which is more quicker to swing but very weak to use and one that has a great attack range but it is slow to swing, and all of your weapons can be upgraded to become more stronger with the help of Mavda by bringing her certain types of material items. And speaking of items, it has a great emphasis on the game as there's many types of items located inside the towers that you can use in a different way, you can find them by destroying some crates, find them in a certain spot or by finding the in chests, which said items are usable items, the equipment items, etc. but the most that gets more attention is the material items, since in this game you can also find items that you can use to create items of any kind with the help of Mavda, you can create usable items, gift items, more material items and also be used to make your weapon stronger as I've mentioned before, the game can get difficult if you don't use this mechanic often in order to help you out in the game, as I had trouble in a few dungeons due to not using this mechanic well and not often, but thankfully I did use it well and often later on and I had the choices of how I am going to play the game (better attack power, better defense, better range, etc.), some material items can each be found in a certain tower, meaning that you might go to a certain tower in order to get a certain item, but I think that is for completionists since I did fine and I didn't needed strong weaponry (but I did needed strong armory which can be obtained easily) to beat the game, but other people might struggle in order to get their equipment they want.

The towers are the ones you must explore and reach to the top, the exploration in this game can differ in each dungeon, but mainly it composed with rooms where it can be full with few or more enemies, which there's is a nice variety of them (both common and special) and each special enemy is unique to represent the tower they're on, and some rooms might have a certain mechanic that might help you progress through the tower with the help of the Oraclos Chain, for example there are elevators that can be operated to go up and down by operating a lever by using the chain from a distance if the lever is a little far away and there are some helpful structures that you can grab and help you in some way like the ladders that you can grab a part of it to get on to it and some hooks on the ceilings that you can grab to either hang onto it or swing back and forth in order to later jump towards another unreachable platform, and each tower has a different mechanic between each other that can be operated differently in order to progress, for instance there's one where you must operate a giant waterwheel in order to grab its handles sticking out of its sides in order to reach the next unreachable floor and there's one where you have to grab some stones that are sticking out of the walls in order to get higher to the tower, but the towers each have uniquely designed obstacles in some rooms that differentiate from others as well, for example there's one where you have to jump quickly over some stones they fall down the lava in a fire based tower. All of the towers though have a giant door at the top of the floor where the boss is inside, and the only way to defeat them is by pulling their master flesh out of them, however all of them have a massive health bar and the only way to hurt them is by making them expose their master flesh (since each boss have a unique way to fight them as they have different patterns and behaviors that you must attack them in a certain way to make them expose their flesh) and once exposed you must remove it with the help of your chain by making it stronger (which you can do that by pulling them for a while and then, at the right time, violently pull it down) and the more stronger it is, the more health you can get rid of, it is a great and fun game design but the thing is though the giant doors that lead to each of these bosses is locked up with chains, and these chains can be found in special rooms located throughout the tower by pulling the door's lock with the chain and then when inside, you destroy the chain with your weapon, so it encourages you more in exploring rather than reaching the top of the tower, but thankfully the whole towers do not have a very complex design that can take you very long to beat (the later ones might be but you might get used to the whole game to not take too long), and I say this because you have a time limit in these towers.

The game is not just about exploring the towers, it's about keeping Elena from turning into a beast, there is a gauge that acts like a time limit in the bottom-left corner of the screen that represents the amount of time left for her to turn into one, shaped in a circular form with three colors filling the gauge (white which means she's alright, purple which means half her body is going to change, and red which means almost all of her body will be transformed) and when time decreases, the gauge will decrease while staying in one of the colors where Elena's progress will be in, sadly you can't stop the gauge, you have a rest area which is the observatory, and inside there are a lot of helpful things (it even stops the timer until you go to a tower) such as a save point, a big chest that you can keep your items in and Mavda where you can talk to her and help you by offering her shop, strengthen your weapon, craft some new items, etc., and she can reward you some gold (in here they're called leots) if you bring her some notes or some spare flesh that you want to get rid of, and there are also some rooms in the observatory that can be visited and maybe find some items every once in a while, but the most important one in the observatory is Elena, and what you need to do to keep the gauge from decreasing is to feed her with the enemies’ flesh as I've mentioned before, and the monster's flesh comes from four varieties, one which is the master one that can recover Elena completely, but they can only be pulled from the bosses and are required to continue the game, but the other three are more common since they come from the enemies in which are the normal flesh that can only gain you a little bit of time, the dripping one that can give you a decent amount of time, and the pulsating one that can give you a great amount of time. But there's more, you not only keep her from turning into a beast, but you must also strengthen your relationship with her by giving her gifts (that can only be obtained by either buying them from Mavda's shop or by crafting one in Mavda's workshop) or by selecting the correct option when she asks you a question by talking to her,  but you can weaken her relationship by giving her the wrong items or if you answer the wrong question, and you relationship is indicated on a meter above the time limit that that is only seen when you're in the observatory and the higher the meter is, the more better the ending is going to be as I've mentioned before. Responsibility plays a great role in the part of the gameplay, as you not only must explore the dungeons, but you must also keep Elena from turning into a beast, otherwise it's game over and you will get the bad ending, but you must also keep your relationship with her as well, in order to affect the ending in the end, and for some reason the whole responsibility did not affect my enjoyment of the game, I did get used to it in order to get through the game, however I do think that some people might find this very tedious and a chore to do to play this, while the game is designed well in order to not be too long, the game does get harder in the later dungeons and some people might not have the patience for their responsibility to be much more difficult.

I thought that the game was good, despite the fact that the game has a time limit and some other issues, I do think that the responsibility is a strong focus in this game and the controls feel really good despite some issues and not to mention that the game is designed well in other to balance some of the issues like the time limit and the responsibility to be much more acceptable as you are playing, and it was enjoyable to me due to how strategic it can be despite not having any strategic mechanics in the gameplay, however I do think that some people might get frustrated with this game due to the responsibility and the other tedious issues like the item collecting and such.

Graphics:

I will admit that the game looks pretty dated, in fact it kind of looks like a game from the Gamecube Era, it goes with a medieval-fantasy style, but some textures, mostly the walls and the floors, look somewhat muddy and some of the environments lack some detail, but other than that, there are some settings that can look really great, some of the lightning and the water effects look nice, but the character models were great, they have great detail and they look like they were finely modeled, specially the bosses, although I have some issues with it since I feel the Aeron looks a bit... odd, and also the fact that there was a suggestive detail that was altered to not look like so, but it just looks strange and unnatural...



Music and Sound:

The soundtrack is very good, it has an orchestral score for all of its songs and in some of them they have choirs as well to accompany the music, although it needed a little bit of attention to be somewhat memorable since some of the songs are pretty quiet and the gameplay pretty much distracts from it, there is some songs that really accommodate some moments such as the boss battles, the important events, etc. and they all sound amazing and do a great job at setting the mood of the scene.

The sounds are somewhat very simple, most of them sound a little low-budget but for some reason they really fit well with the game, like the sword slashing, the ground being pounded, etc. but there are some sounds that are very nice that fit appropriately like the tensely-heard heart beat and others. The voice acting in this game is really great, although Aeron doesn't speak much, the voice actor Ryan Philpott does his best for the role and he is good at it in the end, Charlotte Sanderson as Elena is pretty good although I wanted to be it a bit more better since there are moments where she sounds a little quiet due to the music being loud at times or due to some other issues, but she does a great amount of effort into her role since the game has Elena so much to talk about when talking to her or giving her gifts and such, but the best one by far is Ann Beach as Mavda, she sounds perfect in this game, Mavda being an old woman and very mysterious for the other characters, the voice actress does the greatest job at portraying her at who she is, the other voices are fine but these three in which are the most important do a great job at this game. And also this game actually supports all common languages like Spanish, French, etc. but they are only subtitled as the voices are only in English.

Presentation:

Despite only the game being set in one place, the game does a great job at giving the towers that you visit an interesting and different design that doesn't make itself look repetitive, for example there is a tower with a green and forest nature-like environment, a blue and water based environment such as waterways and a giant waterwheel, etc. and each tower represent their uniqueness with said environments and a game design that takes the environment and integrates it into the gameplay, meaning that the towers feel very "alive" and they are interesting to explore it, and even when not in the towers the observatory can have its moments too, while it doesn't have any secret rooms to explore, it does have some rooms that look really great, for example at the next room of the main observatory you can go a spring-like tower area and it look very pretty to look at, everything in this game along with its setting feels great and I do feel that in this section it is very well polished.

What it isn't very well polished though... is the character development, I do feel that Aeron lacks more depth and while Elena is fine as she is, I do feel that some people might find them boring or uninteresting, therefore not caring if they want to struggle with the whole responsibility and the time limit of the gameplay since they don't want to play more enough of it due to doing it for some characters that they don't even care about, the director of this game actually said that Aeron was developed like this so that he can become not too outspoken or assertive so in that way we can feel related to him... although it didn't work for me and I'm sure some people (not all mind you) won't either... and also speaking of which, some people have found that his face detail in the game's box art cover seems to be copied from Noctis from the upcoming Final Fantasy XV...

As for the replayability, there is a lot of stuff to do in this game, there is the great amount of items of many types you can collect, the hidden notes that you can collect, etc. but one great thing to mention is that the game does give you a New Game + when beating the game, in which all of your stuff in your first playthrough will be in the next new game such as your level and the items you had in your inventory and in the chest, the weapon enhancements, the items created by Mavda in the workshop and even Elena's affinity and the given gifts, but not only does this new playthrough will give you new texts in the Observatory, a new weapon and some new scenes with Elena, in the first playthrough you will find red doors that, no matter what you do, they will not open, but in the New Game +, Mavda will sell you keys that will get those doors open, in which some include new items in the open and some require you defeating monsters but you can also acquire the new items, in other words, while you will be quite busy with this game, some people might be put off when wanting to 100% complete the game due to the time limit...

Be warned however that for those of you who want to complete this, there is a bug in the game that will make this game freeze in a certain moment, it won't happen to those who want to simply beat this game though, but in this link there are more details about the bug and how to fix it (without the need of a hack or a patch).



The Wii U Difference:

There's a potential flaw in the Wii U version of the game that can cause the game to freeze 100% of the time if you leave the fourth tower before completing it, this flaw seriously hurts the game's overall score, the Off-TV-Play on the other hand is definitely a nice addition to the game!

Bottom-Line:

I did find this game to be fun and interesting to play with, it has one of the best combat mechanics that is very appropriate for it, the story is very interesting coupled with a very unique and sometimes great looking setting, and while the graphics leave much more to be desired, it isn't really doesn't look that bad, however the game does give you great responsibility, as it has a time limit and a reputation meter that you must both each work hard in order to not get a bad or worse ending, and while I find that the game has a great balance in its game design in order to not be much of a chore to do but not be that easy when get used to the gameplay, I do find some people being frustrated with this game, coupled with the fact that the characters might not be deep enough for other people to care, which is the game's main reason for its gameplay design, so if you don't like a lot of responsibility in your games specially if you don't want to do it with characters that don't have a lot of depth on them, I might suggest that you skip this game, but if you're interested in this game but are worried about the flaws I've mentioned, give this a rent if you can to see how well it will do for you, but if you're very interested in this game and don't mind the game mechanics I've mentioned before, then I say give this game a go, however due to the Wii U version's flaws we give this game a decent level of recommendation...

Price: $19.99

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Score: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆ 6.5/10

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#Review #WiiU #VC #eShop #Wii #PandorasTower

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Mamamia! What A Spicy "And Sweet" Adventure!

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Review by @Ichigofan and @Jnes5.



Bowser has invaded the Star Haven, stole the Star Rod and has imprisoned the seven Star Spirits who guarded the Star rod! Now Bowser's fortress becomes attached to Princess Peach's castle and lifts it up to the sky, sadly the Star Rod makes Bowser invincible, so it's up to mario to save the seven Star Spirits in order to lend them their power to thwart Bowser once and for all!

Story:

Even though the story isn't anything original, the whole story has quite a cheery and charming tone behind it! The story also has some humor as well, while it's not going to make you die-laughing, it does serve it's purpose of it being very charming and cheery, the game can also change it's tone a little, but not by much, so overall, the story is so good that you can't help, but feel the charming and cheery tone it has us following!



Gameplay:

The game plays like an RPG, but it has it's own unique twist that's makes the mario RPG's a one of a kind! First thing's first, the game takes place in a lot of overworlds, some of which are long and some of which are small, and sometimes it can include physical obstacles in your way and you, as mario, can jump and use his hammer to overcome most of them, however some might require you to think and explore in order to solve them! Not only that, the game also includes "partners", which are your allies who can not only help you fight enemies, but they can help you with the game's puzzles that they can only solve, since many of the game's puzzles and boundaries are based upon the abilities of Mario's partners, you can accumulate partners as they advance into different locations.

You can only have one partner that can accompany Mario in the overworld, but you can interchange between them at any time, and the best part of all, your partners have no HP so that's means that when they take damage, this results in temporary paralysis on them where they cannot attack, but they will never get KO'd, the gameplay on all the overworlds feel like an adventure-oriented puzzle game, and they keep the game from not being just an RPG.

And this is where the uniqueness comes from! One of the things that makes this game unique from some other RPGs is that you can control the actions when mario and a partner or an enemy is going to attack! Fairly early in the game, you will obtain an item called a "Lucky Star" which will give you the ability to use the "Action Command", with this you can influence the power of a move when attacking or defending by timing a button-press accurately or performing some other action command as required, like pressing a button repeatedly, tilting the control stick and letting it go in a certain moment, with this you can double up your attacks and reduce half the damage when you're defending!



This is pretty great and it's definitely worth it because it feels like you're helping mario in this game! Another thing that is unique in the battle system is that Mario and his partners have a capacity called "Flower Points" (FP), which is the equivalent of magic in RPGs, which these can allow you and your partners to perform special moves, but each of these moves can consume a particular number of flower points when performed, so you must choose to use them wisely.

Other things included are the "Star Points", which are the equivalent of experience points, in which unlike other RPGs, you only need to collect 100 of them to level up, and the capacity does not increase in any way, while this might sound easy to level up, here's the thing, when you level up in a certain area full of enemies, those enemies might decrease the number of Star Points they drop but even that, and this is one of the best parts of the game, is that you don't really need to level up in order to proceed! the only thing that you need to rely on, are your skills...and your use of badges!

The badges are items you can collect and each of them have and advantage of helping you in a certain manner, like for example, one badge can increase your attack power, one can increase your health, one can give Mario another special move, some can make you invulnerable to some things, and much much more! Each badge consumes a set number of" Badge Points" (BP), meaning that you can only equip a limited number of badges at a time, so choose which are the ones that you think will help you the most at the moment! Different situations may warrant changing badges to make certain boss battles easier! There is also an on-screen gauge to display Star Energy, which is required to perform another type of move if you saved a star spirit, and each of them have a unique move that can help you in battle, and they can raise your gauge as you advance throughout the game, you can also locate hidden battle upgrades in the game's overworld, which promotes one partner character to a new rank once at a time and they can become stronger as well!

All of this and more, is why the game is really fun and very unique as well! However, even though some overworlds might not be fun, the game is still very great with it's gameplay and uniqueness!



Graphics & Soundtrack:

Since the game is called "Paper Mario", the game's visuals feature two-dimensional character cut-out designs contained within three-dimensional backgrounds, and the 2D characters look really good! They look just like a cartoon, and because of that, they haven't aged at all so they look just as good now as they did when the game first released on the N64! As for the 3D backgrounds...yeah, those are the ones that haven't aged well at all, but the thing is, some of those are so bland, that they weren't all that impressive even when this game was first released. Regardless the game's graphics are nice overall.

The soundtrack of this game is ok, some of the music tracks are very catchy, some of them set a great mood, some of them are decent, some of them are very awesome... as you can see, the soundtrack has a lot of variety when it comes with its quality.

The sounds are cutesy and some of them sound a little bit low quality, but as they are, they sound ok, and as for the voice acting... there isn't any, at all, well except a few mumbles and roars among other simple sound effects, but overall there really isn't any, which is perfectly fine in our opinions!



Presentation:

The game is kind of represented as a storybook, the game is divided in chapters, the game's progression depends upon interaction non-player characters (NPCs), who will often offer clues or details for the next chapter, and as I've said, the game does a good job on having a charming and cutesy tone throughout the entire story.

As for the replayability, this game has a lot of it! You can collect the badges, you can maximise your level, you can collect the star peices, you can play the minigames included in this game, you can do some hidden sidequests, all of this and more are awaiting those of you who are willing to fully explore this game's world, so there is no worries there if you're looking to be busy with a game for awhile!

The Wii U Difference:

The Wii U's emulation of the game is spot-on and looks and sounds a little better than the Wii Virtual Console release of the game. The Off-TV-Play feature and rumble-pak compatibility of the game give the Wii U version of the game a definite edge over the Wii version!



Bottom-Line:

Paper Mario 64 is a great mario RPG! The game has some great gameplay and a charming storyline, and even if there are some things that needed a few tweaks, this game is still a must-but for any Wii U owner! You might be skeptical if you REALLY love Super Mario RPG for the SNES or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for the GCN, but regardless, don't hesitate and buy this if you like RPGs! and as for us, this game gets a great level of recommendation!

Price: $9.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9.5/10

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#Review #WiiU #VC #N64 #PaperMario #eShop #Nintendo

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Defend My Witch!

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Developed by Flyhigh Works and published by Circle Entertainment, Witch & Hero II is a fantastic tower defense / roleplaying game that is great fun in small doses, but is it fun enough to keep you coming back for more? Continue reading our review to find out the answer to that question!

The gameplay in Witch & Hero II is a unique blend of roleplaying and tower defense with a bit of strategy genre thrown into the mix! Your hero must run into enemies to damage them, YS series veterans will feel right at home with this formula. Your hero is immortal so he needs to protect the fragile witch who has extremely low defenses or it's game over! On the flipside the witch has incredibly powerful and useful magic that can help clear out enemies so careful strategy is key to beating each of the game's many stages! The game is separated into stages and though it starts off easy it quickly becomes incredibly challenging!



Witch & Hero II is a fairly short game and can be beaten within six hours or so, but it's great fun! A little warning though, you might want to limit your gameplay sessions as the game can get very repetitive during longplays of the game. In-terms of controls they are very solid and quite intuitive in this game which is always a good thing!

Visually Witch & Hero II looks nice in a very retro way with excellent 8-bit backgrounds, dungeons, characters, and enemies the game just oozes with retro goodness! The soundtrack is also decent, but not all that memorable, regardless it gets the job done!



Bottom-Line:

With unique and solid gameplay, excellent controls, and gorgeous 8-bit visuals, Witch & Hero II is a fantastic blend of unique ideas that are decidedly refreshing, however an unmemorable soundtrack and repetitive gameplay hold the game back from true awesomeness. Nonetheless Witch & Hero II is still a solid title that we recommend to any fans of RPG's and the strategy genre!

Price: £3.19/$3.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

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#Review #WitchAndHeroII #3DS #eShop #CircleEntertainment #Indie #Nindie

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Epic Dumpster Diving!

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Developed and published by Log Games, Epic Dumpster Bear is a platformer that would be easy to write-off given its bizarre name, premise, and lackluster visuals, however the game itself is really quite solid and here's why:

Epic Dumpster Bear possesses a ton of content and secret levels which can be unlocked either by collecting enough collectables or by getting a bull's-eye at the end of specific stages! The gameplay is simplistic and typical platforming fare, however the controls can be a bit awkward at first. The game can be played with the Gamepad or Wii U Pro controller and the Off-TV-Play works flawlessly! The difficulty of the game starts off easy, but becomes exceptionally challenging later in the game which is good for those who're looking for a challenge!

Visually the game looks dreadful, the character and enemy models are ugly and look like they belong on a early N64 title and not a particularly good looking one. The backgrounds are no better and just scream early N64! The music isn't all that memorable, but it's okay enough and the voice acting just feels out of place.



Bottom-Line:

With solid, yet typical platforming gameplay with a challenging level of difficulty, great Gamepad exclusive features, and multiple controller options, Epic Dumpster Bear is a very decent game as far as its core mechanics are concerned, however its soundtrack is somewhat flat and its visuals are really, really bad! The controls can be awkward at first, but it isn't much of an issue. Overall however, Epic Dumpster Bear had potential to be a solid title overall, but instead is only average thanks to its many issues, regardless an average score isn't a negative score so we still recommend the game to fans of the platforming genre.

Price: £7.49/$9.99

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Score: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ 5/10

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#Review #EpicDumpsterBear #WiiU #eShop #LogGames

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A Grand Hack 'N Slash Adventure!

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Developed by Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja and published by Nintendo, Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda Themed game within Koei-Tecmo's long-running Warriors franchise that beautifully incorporates elements of both franchises into one incredibly enjoyable and not to mention extremely lengthy package! We think that Hyrule Warriors and its DLC are well worth their price and here's why:

The gameplay in Hyrule Warriors is surprisingly complex with a ton of strategy required to beat most of the game's levels. You must protect allies and capture keeps and much more depending on the current battle and mode that you're playing! The game's main mode is story mode where the story of the game takes place "duh". This is where you'll unlock most of the non-DLC characters in the game. The story scenes feel like they are straight from an actual Zelda game as Koei-Tecmo did an excellent job researching the series mythos!

Other modes include the strategic Adventure Mode where you'll tackle battles on a board of the original NES Zelda title or the worlds of other Zelda titles if you downloaded the Majora's Mask or Twilight Princess DLC Packs. Each battle has unique rules and objectives and there's several weapons and characters to unlock! You can also purchase more boards complete with characters, weapons, and new costumes to unlock as relatively cheap DLC.



Then you have Challenge Mode, where you can aim for a high score with challenging missions, most of this mode is locked unless you purchase the Boss Pack DLC, including the Boss Rush, and Ganon's Fury Mode's which are a blast to play! The difficulty of the game starts off very easy, but eventually becomes insanely difficult especially in the DLC packs.

The Gamepad features allow for single-screen multiplayer where one user uses the TV screen and the other uses the Wii U Gamepad which is an amazing feature! Other uses of the Gamepad include Off-TV-Play in single player and can be used to show current ongoing missions and the health of your allied generals which is a very useful tool to have in the game! The controls in Hyrule Warriors are pretty good and shouldn't take players long to learn and they're very intuitive which is very important in such a hectic title!

Visually Hyrule Warriors looks great! It's not the best looking Wii U title, but the stages and character models are very detailed, though they do take a substantial hit when playing multiplayer. Overall the graphics are still above average by a decent margin as far as Wii U titles go! The soundtrack on the other hand is absolutely breathtaking and is among the best that you'll hear from a Wii U title! The music tracks are all remixes from various games in the Zelda series which have been fully orchestrated and sound amazing!



Bottom-Line:

With excellent gameplay, great controls, fantastic use of the Wii U Gamepad, incredibly enjoyable multiplayer, a ton of content, above average visuals, and one of the best soundtracks available for the Wii U, Hyrule Warriors is among the best titles currently available on the Wii U so we can't recommend this game enough! If you haven't purchased Hyrule Warriors yet, you should! Anyways we give Hyrule Warriors for the Wii U a perfect level of recommendation!

Price: $59.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★★ 10/10

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#Review #WiiU #Retail #KoieTecmo #Nintendo #HyruleWarriors

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Solid Justice!

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Developed by Hit-Point Co. and published by Kemco Games, Justice Chronicles is a fairly unique JRPG that will likely entertain you for many hours, but how does it fare to the classics in the genre, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc.? Continue reading our review to find out the answer to that important question!

The gameplay is quite enjoyable and pretty straightforward for a JRPG at first-glance, however the beast partner system really adds a unique spin to the formula. The game also possesses a fantastic crafting system and an incredibly unique dual-layered world that'll draw you in, as well as a captivating story that'll keep you coming back for more! The game is also quite lengthy with over 40 hours of gameplay plus plenty of side-quests so don't expect to beat this game in only a few days!



The controls are very intuitive and easy to learn and the optional touch-screen features are a nice touch! The game can be quite difficult, especially during the second half of the game so be prepared for a serious challenge!

Visually the game looks decent enough, it won't blow you away, but it does have a nice art-direction and the world itself looks quite unique which is a definite positive. On the audio side of things, the game is good. The sound effects are pretty basic, but the soundtrack is very good. You won't find yourself humming any of tunes in the game, but we still enjoyed the music quite a bit!



Bottom-Line:

With solid to great gameplay, flawless controls that are easy to learn, as well as fantastic features such as item crafting and the partner beast system Justice Chronicles is definitely worth its price especially for JRPG fans, it also has a fairly good audio-visual presentation which helps the game's overall score! So ultimately we give Justice Chronicles a very good level of recommendation!

Price: $9.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #3DS #eShop #Kemco #JRPG #JusticeChronicles

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Everybody Phone Home...

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Here it is! Our 500th review and Steel Rivals is a truly epic title in our books, but for none of the right reasons! Continue reading the rest of our review to find out why we aren't very fond of Steel Rivals!

Developed and published by nuGAME the gameplay in Steel Rivals is straightforward and relatively simple, there are several modes including tournament and free battle. The tournament mode is actually decent in its mechanics, however this is the only good aspect of the game. The game lacks any sort of story mode which is a shame. There are some unlockable skins for the characters in the game, but overall there's not much of an incentive to master Steel Rivals.

The characters are so broken in-terms of balance with two character types, ones with weapons and ones without. Weapon wielding characters have a huge advantage in-terms of speed which completely ruins any balance between the various characters in the game.



The controls are an absolute disaster in Steel Rivals as there were many occasions where the blocking and attack buttons were unresponsive while at the same time the enemy A.I. made no mistakes whatsoever which meant that a dreaded game over was almost a guarantee.

The visuals are also atrociously bad, as the 3D character models look like bizarre mannequins with pseudo realistic faces and plastic skin. The backgrounds are better, but are quite drab and uninspiring. The sound effects are also lackluster with an equally boring soundtrack.



Bottom-Line:

With mediocre gameplay, broken controls and A.I., a total lack of a story mode, and an atrocious audio-visual presentation, Steel Rivals is quite possibly the worst game that we've ever reviewed and should be avoided at all costs. If you do download the game you should expect an E.T. level experience...

Price: £5.99/€6.99/$6.99

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Score: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 0.5/10

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#Review #NuGames #WiiU #eShop #Bad #Fighter

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Decent Match-Three Action.

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Developed by PlayEveryWare and published by iWin games, Jewel Quest is a simple yet highly challenging match-three style puzzler that will test your skills and can be a decent amount of fun for short-bursts, however how does it hold-up against its competition? Continue reading to find out!

The gameplay in Jewel Quest is simple, you must match three or more jewels to make matches to light up the puzzle board. The objective is to light up every space on the board within a set amount of time. The puzzle boards get progressively more difficult with each stage that's cleared and gets extremely challenging near the end of the 72 stages. You can also match three or more coins to earn a wildcard to light up a single puzzle square to help complete the stages!



The touch-screen controls are perfect for this kind of game and are also very easy to master which is good, since precision and speed are necessary for completing the more challenging stages in the game! The Off-TV-Play is also implemented well in this game so expect some quality audio and visuals even if you don't always have access to a television set!

Visually the game is a mixed bag, the background images in the stages are quite detailed and look nice, however the jewels and puzzle boards look very dated and are missing that HD shine which is very unfortunate, the audio on the other hand is nice with simple sound effects and an excellent soundtrack that definitely sets the mood for the game! Overall the audio-visual presentation is above average if you take everything into account!



Bottom-Line:

With solid gameplay that's both simple yet extremely challenging, flawless controls that work well with the game, and a superb soundtrack, Jewel Quest is a game that most fans of the puzzle genre will likely find quite enjoyable, however the visuals aren't on par with most modern games in the genre and as such it does slightly hurt the game's overall score. Regardless we still give Jewel Quest a solid level of recommendation to our fans!

Price: $4.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Puzzler #iWin #PlayEveryWare #JewelQuest

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Fantastically Frantic Digging!

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Developed and published by Namco Games and originally released on the NES back in the early 1990's in North America and Europe, Dig Dug II is an excellent sequel to the widely popular Dig Dug arcade game that was released in the 1980's, though it was and still is very underrated by gamers despite possessing far more content than its predecessor. Dig Dug II has withstood the test of time and it is still a very good game in our opinions and here's why:

The gameplay in Dig Dug II is fairly simple, but extremely challenging. You are armed with a harpoon that can inflate enemies and pop them for a small number of points and a jackhammer that can make cracks in the island and sink sections of the island. Drowning enemies award players with a very large amount of points, especially if you drown a large number of them in one go! Sinking three sections of the islands causes a fruit, vegetable, beverage, or mushroom to show up which is worth anywhere from a small number of points to a rather sizeable number depending on the item.



The game possesses seventy-two stages which can take two to four hours to complete as well as an additional hard-mode that can be played after beating the first seventy-two stages and possesses smarter and slightly faster enemies! The game is rather strange in-terms of difficulty as the level of difficulty ramps-up until the sixty-fourth stage and then suddenly becomes easy during the final eight stages.

The controls are very simplistic, being an NES title, that's not surprising, however you'll need quick reflexes in order to save yourself in some of the more challenging stages. The Gamepad's Off-TV-Play feature is great for this kind of game and you never have to worry about losing your high-score or progress in the game thanks to the save-state feature so overall this game might actually be superior to its original NES release!



Visually the game has aged well, by NES standards anyways, with colorful characters and stages. One thing that really impressed us was the quality of the emulation in this title, there's no frame-rate dips or visual bugs such as "ghosting" or darker and muddier visuals that are prevalent in many other titles on the Virtual Console Service, which is an absolutely incredible feat on Bandai Namco's part!

The audio has a few issues such as very rarely skipping music notes and such, but isn't a major issue. The sound effects are standard arcade fare which isn't necessarily a bad thing and the music is very catchy and enjoyable. Perhaps not as memorable as Bubble Bobble's theme song, but both of Dig Dug II's songs are pretty catchy. The game over jingle is also very iconic in our opinions! Overall the audio-visual presentation in the game is superb with only a few minor issues!



Bottom-Line:

With solid gameplay, excellent controls, great new features courtesy of the Wii U Virtual Console service, and a superb audio-visual presentation that has very few emulation issues, Dig Dug II is a quality title that we highly recommend downloading especially for its price! So if you haven't downloaded the game yet, do yourself a favor and download it ASAP!

Price: $4.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #WiiU #VC #eShop #DigDugII #Namco #NES #Arcade

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Borderlining Spoiled...

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Developed and published by Nnooo Studios, Blast 'Em Bunnies is an arcade shooter that can be fun in short bursts, however a lack of content, wonky controls, and repetitive gameplay hold the title back from true greatness, however that doesn't mean that the game is a total lost cause, and here's why:

The gameplay in Blast 'Em Bunnies is straightforward, you must shoot the enemies who just so happen to be adorable bunny rabbits. The level of difficulty can range from easy to moderately difficult which is to be expected from a title of its nature, however the game has several major flaws which hurt the game's overall score...



The gameplay is very repetitive as there just isn't much variety to the game's one stage, "that's right one stage" if you want to play additional stages you must purchase the paid dlc packs. The lack of content really hurts the replay value of the game. The controls are also incredibly wonky and very sensitive which makes playing the game a serious chore.

The audio-visual presentation on the other hand is really nice with adorable enemies and a colorful and cheery stage design the game truly looks great, while the sound effects and music are also quite fun and cheery!



Bottom-Line:

With repetitive gameplay that can be fairly enjoyable for short periods of time and an excellent audio-visual presentation, Blast 'Em Bunnies had the potential to be a solid 3DS eShop title, however poor controls and an utter lack of content really hold this game back and negatively effect our opinion of Blast 'Em Bunnies. It can be fairly fun for short bursts so we give the game a poor recommendation rather than a bad level of recommendation.

Price: £2.99/$4.99

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Score: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ 4.5/10

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#Review #3DS #eShop #Shooter #Arcade #NnoooStudios

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Gorgeously Awful...

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Developed and published by 2020 Venture, Chasing Dead is an action-horror FPS game with survival elements and actually has a very frightening story, however is the gameplay as good as other games in the genre? We don't think so and here's why:

The story is dark and your character must travel to a second Earth that has appeared in the sky and investigate it. Not all is as it seems as the world is filled with mutants, zombies, and even behemoths that look strikingly similar to the titans in the anime series Attack On Titan. This does give the game a very frightening sense of urgency just to survive.



The gameplay is quite lackluster, however with confusing gameplay and navigation issues that will leave players scratching their heads. Overall the layout of the world is very poor and to make matters worse the game suffers from frame-rate issues with the frame-rate dropping below 15 frames per second at times which is just unbearable.

The controls are also very awkward and take quite awhile to get used to. In fact the control scheme in Chasing Dead for the Wii U is among the most awkward controls that we've ever experienced in a game and that says alot given some of the terrible controls that some third party Wii titles possessed. The Gamepad features are okay with Off-TV-Play taking center stage, but that's certainly not enough to save the game from extreme criticism.



The graphics in Chasing Dead for Wii U are actually superb for an indie title and actually looks like an early PS3 title visually with a vibrant and incredibly detailed world in glorious HD and very detailed character and enemy models as well, however as we already mentioned the game suffers from absolutely atrocious frame-rate issues which seriously hurts the game's overall score.

In-terms of audio, Chasing Dead does have a good deal of voice acting and atmospheric music/sound effects, however the audio cuts out frequently and makes loud buzzing sounds when the frame-rate dips so again that's a serious strike against the game.



Bottom-Line:

With superb HD visuals and excellent soundtrack/ambiance Chasing Dead could have been a great adult-oriented title for the Wii U eShop, however lackluster gameplay, absolutely awful controls, and audio issues alongside the game's unforgivable frame-rate issues make Chasing Dead a title that you should avoid at all costs, especially given its price.

Price: £24.99/€29.99/$29.99

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Score: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 2/10

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#Review #ChasingDead #WiiU #eShop #2020Venture #FPS #Horror #Nindie

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Great Game, With Emulation Issues...

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Review by Jnes5 and Ichigofan.

(Wii U Virtual Console)

(C) 2000, HAL Laboratory inc., Nintendo

Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo

June 25th 2015, (Europe)
July 30th 2015, (North America)

Players: 1 player (single player), 1-4 players (Multiplayer)
Price: $9.99/€9.99/£8.99
Genre: 2D Platformer



Ripple Star, a planet that's populated by fairies, is being invaded and conquered by a threat called a Dark Matter. Ribbon, one of the fairies living in the planet, flees from home with their sacred treasure, a giant crystal, but then in their pursuit, the Dark Matter shatters the crystal into pieces throughout the galaxy and Ribbon falls onto Pop Star... Heartbroken to find that she is left with only one of the shards from the giant crystal, Ribbon also meets Kirby, and as she explains her situation to it, Kirby agrees to retrieve all of the crystal shards and save Ripple Star from the Dark Matter's control.

Story:

The story is good for a kirby title, it’s just a simple and straightforward plot that kirby games are known for, so I'm not expecting deep and complex stories from them, but its appropriate for this certain title since it's cutesy and charming, I did however find it interesting that this certain story does contain two endings ! one bad (in which it left me pretty tasteless) and one good (in which it was pretty good !) and they can be unlocked it depending on how many crystal shards have you collected (more on that later on).



Gameplay:

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (also known as "Kirby of the Stars 64" in Japan) is a 2D platformer game. You can start out with a video explaining the controls or not, but as any other kirby game, you play as him obviously, while you can jump with it, you can also flutter for a short amount of time by repeatedly pressing the A button, you can inhale some enemies by holding down the B button, and once you've inhaled someone or something, you can either press B again to spit them out, and making it hit something in front of you, or you can press down to swallow them up, but some certain enemies might have a certain power where if you swallow them up, you can gain its powers in which are called copy abilities!

in which they are fire, stone, ice, bomb, etc. but if you get hit many times, the copy ability that you are having right now will bounce out of you, that will be in a shape of a four-spiked star, and you can get it back again by swallowing it up again, you also have a health meter where you can recover by collecting the food that are spread in the game and below the health meter is a star meter where if you collect 100 stars that are also spread in the game (in which a yellow one cost 1 unit and a blue one costs 10 units) you will receive an extra life. The gameplay has the same good and enjoyable formula that many kirby games are known for, however, it also included a new mechanic in the copy abilities!

In this game, you can now combine copy abilities to turn them into one ! and you do this by pressing either the R button or any direction in the C buttons to pull out a power that you have right now and then throw it with the B button to launch it in front of you (you can also throw it upwards and get rid of it by pressing the indicated button again), and if you hit an enemy with a power, you can combine a new power in which it looks like an eight-spiked star, and then swallow it! You can combine two different powers or power of the same kind and these combined powers can make the game easy and some of them are either just pretty useless or boring or both, they all make the game more enjoyable due to how powerful and fun they can be!



The game also includes certain moments where kirby's friends will help along the way in certain areas in certain levels, Waddle Dee can help kirby go to a next area with the help of a vehicle that he found where the game turns into an on-rails platformer where you can jump and collect items in the air and avoid obstacles, Adeleine can draw an item that can help kirby recover health, receive a powerup, etc. and finally there's King Dedede, where he can ride you and basically control him, you can attack with his hammer with the B button and you can also make it charge up by holding it, but it doesn't do anything once you let go... but you can destroy wall and attack enemies with it, but you can't flutter in the air, you just only climb any escalators in the area in order to go up, I thought that these additional gameplay elements were slow paced (with the exception of adeleine) due to how they kind of interrupt the flow of the game, but there isn't that many moments to begin with and there are also not that bad.

The objective of the game is to select a planet from the galaxy screen and then selecting the level of the planet, and you must reach the end of all the levels included in said planet by reaching the picnic of kirby's friends where you must set an angle and the distance as to where do you want to land on the item in the picnic, so that way you can unlock the boss of the planet, so that way when you defeat him, you will collect a shard and then go to the other planet, but there is another objective in the game as well, and that is to collect the crystal shards that are in each level in each planet, they are spread throughout the game and you must collect them by touching it, all of these are either in the open, hidden, require a certain copy ability to reach it, by defeating a mini boss, etc.



Most of these are pretty difficult and a pain to collect, since most of them won't be possibly collected during your first playthrough so you must either require a good knowledge of this game and replay a certain level over again in order to obtain certain crystal shards or you can just consulting a strategy guide, while these might not seem necessary to beat the game, you do need them since the game can't continue to the last level if you don't have them all... that's right, ALL of them! I do think that this is pretty much a killjoy for me since it doesn't feel right that you must collect all of the crystal shards in order to get more of this game since most of them, as I've said before, can become tedious and a pain to do...

The game also includes multiplayer, but it only supports in the minigames that this game includes additionally and it doesn't have any multiplayer in the main game. These 3 minigames are 100-Yard Hop where you race to the finish line by hopping to the stones that are in the water by pressing the A button to jump 1 space and the B button to jump 2, fall in the water or slip on an object and it will delay your race, Bumper Crop Bump where you catch many fallen fruit from the as possible and you can even make a character move out of the way by holding a direction the character's in and then pressing A, and finally there's the Checker Board Chase, where you and three opponents are on an 8 X 8 squared chess board and you must make all the blocks in front of you fall by pressing A so that an opponent in front of it must fall, each character has five lives and they lose one life if they fall, and when one opponent has lost all of its lives, the checker board becomes more tiny!

The game is fine itself, I did really enjoy the whole idea of the combining copy abilities and other things as well, but the whole thing about the crystal shard collecting could've become much better since it this game make it seem forceful and tedious to do, but for what it is, I did had some enjoyment from it.



Graphics:

The game is designed in a 2.5D environment with a good amount of details in the backgrounds in some levels, but in a true kirby fashion, it's colorful, charming and it has it's very cool (and some even disturbing!) moments in certain areas! It looks great for its time and it does look good now, but there is an issue where I found some graphic details outdated and make it feel out of place, but there are some moments where it takes the whole environments feel more noticeable and necessary to progress on the game! And I do appreciate how this game takes advantage of that!

Music and Audio:

The soundtrack in this game is pretty good, it can have a variety of classical scores, cool tunes and obviously kid friendly music but in a medium but still great sounding quality, there are some really good songs in there since some are catchy, some are smooth and calming, and some even are just amazing to hear, it might be even memorable to some people!

The sounds are ok, while the sounds like the kirby inhaling and fluttering have gotten a much more updated and more modern sound (during its time), there are some that lack impact and there are some that just sound more appropriate for them, thankfully the latter is much more frequent. And believe it or not, this game does have some voice acting in it!

They are just bits and pieces of them since they consist of kirby getting hit or completing a boss level (and even dedede has one where he takes a hit!) and what they are, they do sound great and much more appropriate for the characters!



Presentation:

What can you expect from a kirby game? Its charm? Its cutesy nature? This Nintendo 64 game presents at what a kirby game would be like with a game console like this by also including cutscenes that represent the story and it doesn't break the whole nature of the game's charming nature at all, in fact, it makes it better by having a really smooth and good quality that doesn't make it look cheap and not charming.

The levels are also greatly made as well, since they feel more alive due to how much interaction is going on in the background and sometimes even pretty great with its pretty cool moments like in a moment where a pyramid rose up from a dessert (and all while you're playing mind you!) and imaginative and inspiring worlds, sure they might be just there for show to some people, but I do think that this game did a great job at making something different but still be charming and great that a lot of kirby games are known for.

As for the replayability, there is so much to do in this game! You can collect all of the crystal shards that are in the main game, you can also collect all of the Enemy Info Card that can be only obtained in each and single level in the game that has the picnic mode in the end (but sadly nothing happens when you collect them all...), you can unlock and replay a certain cutscene in the game in the movie theater by reaching said cutscene in the main game, you can unlock a boss rush mode by beating the game with the good ending and a sound test mode by beating the game with the bad ending, but as I've mentioned before, there are the minigames that you can unlock its higher difficulty by beating its previous difficulty.

The Wii U Difference:

The Off-TV-Play and Miiverse functionality are certainly great additions that weren't present in the Wii Virtual Console version of the game, however the visuals are much muddier and darker than they were on previous releases of the game and the audio is slightly lower quality as well, which is to be expected with re-releases on the Virtual Console service, however it does still slightly hamper the game's overall score.



Overall:

This game is pretty fun and a pretty good kirby game handled well for this console, it has that great charming feel, look and fun kirby games are known for, but it makes it more great thanks to its great quality on its elements such as the combination of copy abilities, the 2.5D desing, and more! While the flaws such as the tedious way of collecting certain crystal shards and other flaws did affected the enjoyment of this title, I still think that this is a good kirby game that might have been a little more better, so if you love kirby games or want a great platformer with collectathons included in it, then go ahead and get this one! If you are easily frustrated with backtracking or if you were put off with some of the flaws that I've mentioned in this game, then skip it, as for me this game gets a solid level of recommendation!

Price: $9.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

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#Review #Kirby64 #VirtualConsole #VC #WiiU #eShop #HalLaboratory

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Atmospheric Bloody Adventure!

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Developed by Mebius and published by Rising Star Games, Sadame is an action-packed RPG which feels somewhat similar to classics such as the Mana series, but with a much darker story! Does Sadame live up to the classics that defined the action-RPG genre? Continue reading our review to find out!

The gameplay in Sadame is extremely fast-paced and is definitely a part of the hack 'n slash sub-genre of RPG's. You can choose one of four character classes each with unique skills and techniques. These characters essentially share the same story, so don't expect four unique campaigns.

The several locations in the game are populated by many normal enemies and massive boss monsters that'll test your skills and even after you beat the game there's more to do. Overall the gameplay and story are fairly solid, though the latter takes a backseat to actual gameplay in this particular title! Also for some reason the game is really addictive and we haven't been able to stop picking up where we had previously left off on a daily basis!



The controls are quite solid and as bizarre as this may sound even on a 2DS the game seems to possess some sort of a faux 3D effect though admittedly it's only slightly noticeable.

The game's visuals are excellent, sure they won't blow players away, but the art-direction is superb with very detailed characters and enemies as well as fantastic visual effects! The music is fairly memorable as well with some great tracks along with a few "meh" ones, but overall the audio-visual presentation is great!



Bottom-Line:

With solid gameplay that's highly addictive, excellent controls, and a great audio-visual presentation Sadame is a great 3DS game for fans of action-RPG's and as such we give the game a great level of recommendation!

Price: $14.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #3DS #eShop #Sadame #RisingStarGames #Mebius #Nindie

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A Hauntingly Difficult And Fantastic Shmup For U!

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Developed and published by Squarehead Studios Star Ghost is an extremely challenging yet enjoyable procedurally generated shoot 'em up title released exclusively on the Wii U! Does the game live up to its Studios' Rare pedigree? Continue reading our review to find out!

The gameplay is fairly simple with the A button being used to move the ship up "release it to drop altitude" and the left analog stick is used to shoot and aim your shots. The controls definitely take some getting used to, but it shouldn't take too long to learn them. Still it would be nice if the controls were a little less awkward. Star Ghost is divided into several sectors with multiple procedurally generated stages. The stages and enemy patterns are well balanced so the game never feels cheap or unfair.



There are several types of enemies and obstacles that are introduced as you progress through the sectors and from the second sector on you'll face-off against boss battles! The boss battles play-out like a game of cat-and-mouse, but after awhile the roles are reversed and you'll take the offensive to defeat the worn-down bosses. This is a refreshing new take on boss battles that we thoroughly enjoyed in the game!

You can also earn blue orbs to spend on power-ups, health, and even a continue if you earn enough orbs. Purchasing continues is very important early on in the game when orbs are easier to come across and you're less likely to die. You only get one life per continue and start off with absolutely no continues and everything past the second sector is quite challenging so expect to replay the game many times before reaching the end!



Star Ghost also features flawless Off-TV-Play which is an excellent feature to say the least. In-terms of the audio-visual presentation the game is superb! Visually the stage backgrounds are vibrant and detailed with excellent lighting effects. The ship looks decidedly retro and so do the aquatic and insectoid enemies! The look of the stages will instantly remind gamers from the 80's and 90's of titles such as Gradius and Salamander!

The music is by far the game's strongest point, as the entire sound-track has been composed by the video gaming legend David Wise himself! With music this good you'll feel like you've been sent to the past and it's a wonderful feeling! The rest of the audio in Star Ghost sounds like something you would have heard in a 90's arcade room! You just won't find many modern games with such an authentic turn of the millennium sound-track and sound effects which is something we feel must be stressed as the developer deserves praise for this accomplishment!



Bottom-Line:

With excellent gameplay that is extremely challenging, but never feels cheap, fantastic visuals, Off-TV-Play, and one of the best sound-tracks we've heard from an eShop title Star Ghost is near perfection, however the rather awkward controls do take some getting used to so we felt that was an issue. Regardless Star Ghost is a wonderful title and because of that we give the game a great level of recommendation!

Price: £7.99/€8.99/$8.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10

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#Review #Shmup #Shooter #WiiU #eShop #Nindie #SquareheadStudios

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High-Tempo Rhythm-Based Platforming!

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Developed and published by Seaven Studios, Inside My Radio is a fast-paced rhythm-based platformer that can be extremely challenging or easy depending on how you play the game! So is the game as good as it sounds? Yes, to an extent and here's why:

Inside my radio has all the makings of a top-notch rhythm-based platformer! The platforming is fast-paced and enjoyable and the sound-track is flawless. The game's handful of stages are varied and the level designs are brilliant! There are some issues however, as the controls are a bit uncomfortable to use and the game is too hard without using the built-in metronome, but is too easy if you use it and the game is extremely short so expect to finish the game within a couple of hours.



Visually speaking Inside My Radio looks excellent and will really whet your nostalgic appetite! The character models are surprisingly detailed and the level backgrounds are equally detailed and unique! The Gamepad exclusive features such as Off-TV-Play work perfectly in this game which is a fantastic thing to say the least!

Bottom-Line:

With an excellent sound-track, gorgeous retro-style visuals and great gameplay, Inside My Radio is an excellent game with a ton of potential, however somewhat awkward controls and difficulty balance issues hold the game back from reaching true greatness. Regardless Inside My Radio is an overall great game so we give it a solid recommendation!

Price: £12.99/€14.99/$14.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #SeavenStudios #Platforming #Rhythm #Music

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Guardians of The Galaxy "Pun Intended"!

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First Announced at E3 2005 under the title Starfox DS Starfox Command was well received on the show floor. Taking advantage of the then new Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection; Command has the distinction of being both the first handheld and Online playable Starfox Title. Starfox Command was developed by Q-games and published by Nintendo. Since it was one of Nintendo's popular 1st party titles it was released on the DS to boost the handhelds sales. Unfortunately the online servers were shutdown in 2015.



Starfox Command takes place a few years after Starfox Assault and features six different endings based on how you choose to progress through the game. The plot is everyone on the Starfox team has split up and gone their separate ways. Fox is wandering the galaxy doing basically nothing. Falco is a drifter going from job to job. Slippy is engaged to a female frog named Amanda, Peppy is now general of the Cornerian Army and Krystal has joined up with Starwolf after fox told her to leave the team feeling that the life was to dangerous for her. The game introduces a new enemy called the Anglers, giant fish beings that live in the venom sea. Like Andross they too want control of the Lylat system and launch an invasion to get it.



As always you take control of Fox and his arwing to do battle against the Anglers. The game takes you too many different planets and sectors and there are a number of different enemies to fight. As you might have guessed players use the touch screen to control the arwing. The controls are very similar to Metroid Prime Hunters, with a few changes. For right handed people L is to shoot and when you hold it down you do a charged attack. The game is mostly controlled using the touch screen, slide the stylus left to go left or slide the stylus right to go right, draw circles on the touch screen to do barrel rolls these can also be changed to inverted controls.

Unlike other Starfox titles "cough" Starfox 64 "cough" there are no landmaster missions or voice acting. Characters in the game talk in this annoying gibberish chatter. Thanks to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect service shutting down in 2015, all online features in this game have been rendered useless, which does hurt the game's overall score.



In the graphics department, Starfox Command look awesome, most likely because at this point in the consoles life people didn't know what the DS was capable of. Even now on the Wii U VC service the game has aged quite well visually and looks every bit as good as Starfox 64! In game play it was interesting what the developers did,the game is a mix of aerial combat and strategy. Let me explain, when you get your mission you don't just jump in and start shooting stuff, you get a map and on the map there are small red dots (in later levels there is fog so you have to clean it away with the stylus first but there is a certain amount you can clean away at one time) these are your enemies.

On the same screen there is the great fox and an arwing, basically you just draw a line to the enemy you want to engage. That line you drew is the arwings flight path, but you cant get carried away drawing too many lines because the longer the line means the more fuel you're using and you only have a certain amount per turn so draw your lines carefully. While your objective is to take out enemies and clear a stage your primary objective is to protect The Great Fox. If any enemies get through and destroy the ship the level is lost and will restart.

Throughout the game you will run into many characters some new most old, like Pigma Dengar, James Mcloud, Andross, Katt Monroe, Octoman from F-zero and many more



Bottom-Line:

Overall Starfox Command is a great game. The graphics are great, the control are great, the mix of strategy and classic Starfox combat is awesome and suits the game perfectly, the story and its many endings will make you want to play the game over and over again! Unfortunately for some people getting the controls down can be a pain they take some getting used to. Trying to unlock all the different characters and endings can also be a pain as you have to play through the same levels multiple times. And the removal of the online elements is a real issue as well. Besides all that Starfox Command is a great game and gets a great level of recommendation!

Price: $9.99

Source: You can read @KingreX32's original review of the game here!
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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #WiiU #VC #eShop #Nintendo #Starfox #DS #KingreX32

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Soulless And Uninspired...

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Developed and published by Farsight Studios, Brunswick Pro Bowling is a decent looking sports title in theory, but is marred by crippling issues that really hurt the game's overall score. Is the game still worth a download despite these issues, we don't think so and here's why:

When Brunswick shutdown their bowling allies back in May of 2015 we assumed that the Brunswick Pro Bowling video games would follow suit, however the company decided to allow the relatively small video game development studio, Farsight Studios release one final game with their licensed franchise. This game, however seems to be an unfortunate case of where the developer's just didn't have any passion for the game as it feels soulless and lifeless.

The visuals are really bad, we're talking low-poly N64 era graphics with stiff animations, and little to no lighting effects or textures. The sound effects and music are equally uninspiring and flat.



The gameplay is not that great either as the difficulty level is far too easy and the game seems to be far more "arcade-y" than one would expect it to be, however that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if the powered-up balls weren't so incredibly overpowered. It's actually quite easy to score a perfect score of 300 in this game which takes away from the thrill of the sport.

The controls are incredibly easy to learn and intuitive which is a good thing, but it'd definitely be better if players had the option of using another controller or at least the option of not using the Wii U Gamepad, but unfortunately that isn't the case.



Bottom-Line:

With gameplay that provides little to no challenge and a really poor audio-visual presentation, Brunswick Pro Bowling is a game that feels soulless and doesn't faithfully represent the sport of bowling in any positive way and is very disappointing overall, but at least the controls aren't bad...overall Brunswick Pro Bowling receives a bad recommendation from us...

Price: $29.99

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Score: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Sports #Brunswick #Bowling #FarsightStudios

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Mashing And Burning...

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Wicked Monsters Blast: HD Plus was developed and published by Corecell Technology and is a shooting gallery party game where you and up to three other players can take part in hectic mini-games to determine who's the best gunner in the neighborhood! This sounds fun in theory however poor execution and even worse balancing issues make this game one to avoid and here's why:

Wicked Monsters Blast: HD Plus has three different modes of play, Arcade, Family, and survival. You can play solo or against your friends in any of the three game modes which is nice for those who don't have anyone to play with. In Arcade Mode you must rack up as many points as you can in a series of mini-games before facing-off against a boss in the ultimate free-for-all experience. In Family Mode you get to choose the mini-games and there's no boss battle so it's perfect for quick bursts of play! And Survival Mode has you face-off against an endless onslaught of mini-games until you fall and is only recommended if you have plenty of free time.



Regardless of your mode of choice the game has really bad balancing issues as the person using the Gamepad will always win thanks to the easy touch screen controls. The Wii Remote players just can't compete with the precision of the Wii U Gamepad which is a serious oversight on the developer's part. The controls are simple and easy to learn, but again the balancing issue between the Wii Remotes and Wii U Gamepad are painfully apparent.

Visually the game looks every bit as good as the famous WarioWare titles with nice backgrounds and characters that are both colorful and detailed! The audio is decent enough as is the music, but overall the audio presentation is forgettable.



Bottom-Line:

With good gameplay, great controls in single-player mode, and excellent visuals, Wicked Monsters Blast: HD Plus had potential to be a solid party game, however horrendous balancing issues in multiplayer and a forgettable audio presentation really hurt the game's overall score and to be honest we just can't recommend this game to our viewers. Wicked Monsters Blast: HD Plus receives a poor recommendation from us.

Price: £7.19/€7.99/$7.99

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Score: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3/10

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#WiiU #eShop #Review #CorecellTechnology #ShootingGallery #Shooter #Party

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Better Than A Bag O' Flesh-Pops!

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Developed by Just Add Water and published by Oddworld Inc, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is an HD remake of the original Oddworld title for the Sony PSX! The original version of the game was incredibly eerie and dark and was overall a fantastic game, so how does New 'n' Tasty stack up to the original? Continue reading our review to find out!

The story is very dark and sinister in Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty just as was in Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey on the PSX. Some elements of the story have been altered a bit both in a good way and bad way depending on the scene, but overall the story is still great for a platformer. The gameplay is still excellent with limited powers and emphasis on stealth, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is a challenging yet fun platformer that will certainly hook any fan of 2D platformers.

Besides the traditional platforming elements, the game possesses some clever puzzles including crates, levers, and intricate enemy patterns in some sections that require careful planning to get by as well as "endless runner" style areas where you ride a beast across hazardous areas filled with spikes and pitfalls among other dangers and it feels quite rewarding to get past these areas!



The controls are somewhat shoddy in our opinion, it's not broken, but the button mapping is pretty bad and there's no way to change it in the options which really brings the game down. There's also an issue where audio doesn't play from the Gamepad during cut-scenes which kills the mood during Off-TV sessions.

Visually the game is bright a colorful which is a stark contrast to the dark and eerie art-style the original Abe's Odyssey had on the PSX. Sure the environments look nicer for the most part, but this change completely ruins the game's atmosphere. Not only that, but the game's special effects and multiple layered hand-drawn claymation-style backgrounds were completely nerfed and replaced with more simplistic and in most cases inferior looking effects and backgrounds. These visual issues were problematic enough to force us to drop the overall score by one point.

In-terms of audio, however Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty shines. The sound effects are excellent and the music is superb and fits the game well! The voice acting during the cut-scenes is cheezy at times, but in a 90's Saturday morning cartoon sort of way, which is a good thing in our opinion!



Bottom-Line:

With fantastic gameplay that is both highly enjoyable and challenging, a great story with excellent cinematics, and a great audio presentation, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is a great game in its own right, however it fails to reach its true potential thanks to shoddy, poorly mapped controls, and a seriously downgraded visual presentation when compared to the original Abe's Odyssey on the PSX. There's also the issue with no sound coming from the gamepad during cut-scenes which will hopefully be addressed in a future patch, but overall the game is still solid to good and as such we award the game with an appropriate score!

Price: $14.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7.9/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Oddworld #Oddworldinc #NewNtasty #Nindie

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Ploughing The Road To Adventure!

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Developed by the now defunct Neverland Games and published by Marvelous Entertainment, Rune Factory Frontier is a fantasy style Harvest Moon title with much more JRPG elements than the mainstream Harvest Moon titles possess, including monsters and battles. Do these unique features make this game a worthwhile experience? Keep reading our review to find out!

The gameplay in Rune Factory Frontier is an excellent blend of action and strategy that will likely have you hooked from the get-go! You'll always have to manage your daily energy for farming and setting out into the game's four dungeons to progress the story, this requires teamwork with your own tamed monsters who can fight alongside you as well as bringing plenty of energy restoration items into the dungeons with you!



Farming plays a big role in the game and there are a surprising number of crops to grow! Farming is definitely the easiest way to earn money in the game, but the new Runey system can become quite a bothersome feature as you have to collect them and move them to different areas or risk them becoming extinc. If they become extinct it'll take crops far more time to grow and be able to be harvested. It'll also dramatically increase the likelihood of crops withering before they can be harvested.

Whether it's farming tools, weapons, or item creation skills, everything in the game can be leveled up. Leveling these skills increases their effectiveness such as enengy that use used, hit-rate for weapons, and the chances of success in item creation! The town Trampoli also grows during the course of the game with new residents and love interests arriving in town, as well as new businesses and services becoming available! This adds a great level of depth to the gameplay!

Technically you can actually chase off members of the village you don't like by giving them horrible gifts and being mean to them, though we don't recommend doing this to people who run a business or important service in town! The weather can be quite annoying at times as typhoons run rampant during the Summer and Autumn months laying waste to your fields. This is the worst typhoon rate that we've ever seen in a Harvest Moon style game...



The game's relationship system is pretty complex and some love interests can't be married until post-game. There's alot of interesting things about the marriage system, first of all, unlike in Harvest Moon they don't help around the farm, they just give you a box-lunch. The interesting part is during the anniversary holiday you can actually propose to another love interest who'll be appalled by your proposal and your wife will show up and beat you black and blue and your relationship points and friendship points will drop to zero.

Your wife will then start giving you grass for your boxed lunches until you relationship points increase to a sufficient level! This is a funny aspect that isn't possible in previous Harvest Moon or Rune Factory titles! As for the battles they're fairly simplistic and straightforward, perhaps a bit too simple, but it's nothing that ruins the game. The controls are easy to learn and very intuitive. We suggest that you use the Classic Controller option which gets rid of the tacked on waggle.

Visually Rune Factory Frontier is a fantastic looking Wii title that has a detailed world, and superbly designed characters who possess a great deal of uniqueness and personality. The lighting effects and other special effects also look great for a Wii title. The game also has some short animated cut-scenes which look great! In-terms of audio, Rune Factory Frontier has excellent voice acting and some of the best music in the entire series in our opinions!



Bottom-Line:

With excellent gameplay, superb controls that are intuitive and easy to learn, and a flawless audio-visual presentation, Rune Factory Frontier is a fantastic title that we highly recommend to all Wii and Wii U owners! The only real complaints are the Runey system and the overabundance of typhoons in the game, but overall we loved the game and that's why we give Rune Factory Frontier a near-perfect level of recommendation!

Price: Roughly $20 New

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10

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#Review #Wii #Xseed #Neverland #RuneFactory

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An Enjoyable Bugfest...

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Developed and published by Moving Player, Level 22 is a unique and enjoyable stealth-platformer that has many strong points, however it's riddled with a ton of major bugs. Do these bugs completely ruin the experience? Not quite, and here's why:

The gameplay in Level 22 is straightforward you must hide from all guards and employees by either distracting them or hiding from them to reach your office on floor 22 undetected to keep your job! The difficulty can be quite challenging at times, but it can be a rewarding experience to say the least.

The controls are passable, however they certainly could be better and it'll take players awhile to get used to them. The gamepad features are fairly sparse for a game that requires the controller, with touch controls being used for some actions in the game for some unknown reason which feels out of place in the game, however the Off-TV-Play feature is fully functioning and is a nice feature to have!



The enemy patterns are usually easy to read, however there's some issues that occur from time-to-time where the enemies don't follow their predetermined paths and that's not the only major bug that we found in Level 22, for instance one time when we hid in a box, a mailman picked up the package a drug us off forcing us to reset the game in order to progress. These issues really hampered this otherwise solid title in our opinions.

Visually Level 22 has a nice artstyle, nothing too impressive mind you, but it still looks nice with detailed stages filled with often humorous characters and objects. The sound effects are somewhat simplistic and the music is pretty generic in our opinions, but overall the audio-visual presentation is decent enough.



Bottom-Line:

With good gameplay, and decent audio-visual presentation Level 22 had the potential to be a solid game, however many bugs and other issues seriously hold the game back, but despite these issues there's still fun to be had with the game. We give Level 22 a decent level of recommendation!

Price: $6.99

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Score: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Level22 #MovingPlayer #Nindie

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My Drone, Not Feeling It...

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Developed and published by Enjoy Up Games, RV-7 My Drone is an action game that has you control a drone and try to complete certain tasks without being sent to the scrapyard, but is this game any fun? We have serious mixed feelings about the game and here's why:

The gameplay in RV-7 My Drone is really shallow, you basically go on missions with your drone, save civilians, secure cargo, etc. in what amounts to undless fetch quests. These mundane quests quickly grow old and there's not a whole lot of features that keep your mind off of this fact.

The stages are randomly generated which makes each playthrough unique which is nice. The controls are also very intuitive and easy to learn so that's a very good thing!



Their are several different enemy types, but there isn't much variety in their behavior and the difficulty of the game is very unpredictable at times which is quite annoying.

Visually the game looks really bad. The art-direction is very incoherent as there is no theme or consistency to the stages or enemies. The worst part is that there's alot of visual glitches in this game that we ran across which ruined the visual presentation even further for us. Issues included cropping and pop-in, but there were several other issues with the game's visuals as well.

In-terms of audio, the sound effects are decent enough, and the music is okay, but nothing that really stands out, overall the audio-visual presentation is definitely below average.



Bottom-Line:

With shallow gameplay and a poor audio-visual presentation, as well as a poorly balanced difficulty level RV-7 My Drone fails in many aspects, sure it can be somewhat fun in short bursts and some tweaks to the gameplay would have made the game average in-terms of quality, but as it is the game is quite poor at providing gamers a reasonable experience so we can't really recommend this game to our fan-base. RV-7 My Drone gets a below average recommendation from us...

Price: $1.99

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Score: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ 4/10

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#Review #3DS #eShop #EnjoyUpGames #Nindie

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Seriously Swell Shmup!

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Developed by Neon Deity Games and published by Choice Provisions Shutshimi: Seriously Swole is a very unique shoot 'em up title that has players take on 10 second waves of ememies as well as bosses and did we mention that it's blisteringly difficult too? Does the game as a whole warrant downloading it? We think so and here's why:

The gameplay is fast paced as you must take on hordes of enemies or a challenging boss in 10 seconds while trying to survive and rack-up points to spend in the shop to power-up your gun-wielding musclebound fish or change the elements of the next stage!

Every playthrough is completely unique which is a great feature of the game so expect plenty of surprises even after your 20th or even 50th playthrough! The difficulty is very unforgiving especially in the unlockable difficulty settings. Luckily, however you don't have to play alone as up to three of your friends can join you for some hilariously insane co-op!



The controls are fantastic and there are tons of different compatible controllers which is great for a game that utilizes co-op gameplay! The game also features Off-TV-Play which is a great feature when playing alone!

The game features two graphics options and BGM options one each that's retro or more modern both options are fantastic in both categories. The visuals are very fluid regardless of on-screen action, and the soundtrack is retro sounding and fits the game really well plus it sounds awesome to boot! Overall Shutshimi has an excellent audio-visual presentation!



Bottom-Line:

With superb gameplay with top-notch co-op, excellent controls with a ton of controller options, total randomness of the stages that seem completely balanced, and an excellent audio-visual presentation, Shutshimi: Seriously Swole is very close to perfection, however it's not quite there nonetheless the game is still one of the best indie titles released on the Wii U so far this year and has earned a near-perfect level of recommendation from us!

Price: $9.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9.5/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Shutshimi #NeonDeityGames #ChoiceProvisions

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Shallow Shadowy Platforming...

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Developed by Sarepta Studio and published by Snow Cannon Games Shadow Puppeteer is a 3D platformer that has some very unique gameplay and an excellent co-op mode, however it is marred by seriously repetitive gameplay, but is the repetition enough to make us not recommend the game? We don't think so and here's why:

The gameplay in Shadow Puppeteer is relatively unique, you must team up with the protagonists shadow in order to solve puzzles and progress through the platforming stages. The protagonist must traverse through a 3D plane whereas his shadow must navigate a 2D plane as he can only travel across the walls in most situations.



The co-op is where this game truly shines and it's quite enjoyable. One player controls the protagonist, while the other controls his shadow overall the game is much more enjoyable when playing with a friend! The game does have issues though such as repetitious stages and puzzles which really hurt the game overall.

The controls in the game are fairly solid, however it's quite challenging to control both characters at once in single-player mode. Visually the game is really good looking, especially the animated cutscenes which look amazing! The character models are fairly unique as well, but the stages themselves are a bit bland looking which is a bit disappointing. In-terms of audio the game's sound effects are fairly good and the music also fits the game very well! Overall the audio-visual presentation in Shadow Puppeteer is great!



Bottom-Line:

With solid gameplay that is quite unique, fantastic co-op, and a great audio-visual presentation, Shadow Puppeteer has its moments and can be a very fun game, however sometimes confusing controls and repetitious gameplay really hold the game back, but overall we give Shadow Puppeteer a solid recommendation!

Price: £13.49/€14.99/$14.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #SnowCannonGames #SareptaStudio #Nindie

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An Ice Solid Platforming Adventure Awaits U!

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Developed and published by the one person crew at Rainy Night Creations FreezeMe is love letter to the platformers of the 90's with some modern and unique touches that will remind players of the golden age of the video game industry, however some bugs are present, but are they bad enough to warrant staying away from this title? We don't think so and here's why:

The gameplay in FreezeMe is relatively straightforward you must collect Golden Cubes to beat levels and you can collect Green Pig Coins for doing side quests in the various levels. Some side quests are only available in certain levels and there are also several hidden Salamanders to find which unlock neat features post-game! There are also six challenge stages on top of the four main worlds in the game as well as 40 individual levels within the four main worlds. The game can take upwards of 30 hours to complete and admittedly even then you might not find all of the Salamanders in that time-frame as some are incredibly well-hidden!



The freezing mechanic is the most unique element in the game and is used to hold bosses in place, use enemies as platforms to reach higher areas, and to freeze certain moving objects such as lifts, rotating platforms, etc. The camera can be somewhat clunky, but it's no worse than that of the typical 90's era 3D platformer.

The game also features anti-gravity sections and planetoids in each of the four main worlds that add a serious Super Mario Galaxy feel to the gameplay formula. The controls are somewhat floaty and could be better, but they're still leagues better than most 90's era 3D platformers so it's not a huge issue. The co-op mode feels very reminiscent of the co-star feature in Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 and is a great feature that is extremely fun!



The visuals in the game are fantastic and look like they belong in a AAA Gamecube title! The character models are excellent, the worlds are massive and detailed, and the level designs are absolutely breathtaking! In-terms of audio the sound effects are typical fare for a 3D platformer, however FreezeMe's soundtrack is truly exceptional and fits the game like a glove!

Now for the bad, FreezeMe has several annoying bugs that seem to occur when using certain external hard-drives. One causes all of the buttons except the movement stick on the controller to stop working for the first 10-20 seconds of a level from time to time, and the other causes the controllers to be swapped during co-op which can be seriously annoying, thankfully these only occur when using certain hard-drives so if this happens move the game to your Wii U's internal memory to solve the issue!



Bottom-Line:

With fantastic gameplay and loads of content as well as a breathtaking audio-visual presentation FreezeMe is an excellent platformer that will remind players of 3D platformers of yesteryear, however this also comes with the typical clunkiness of the controls and cameras from games back then, but overall the game is absolutely incredible! The bugs, however seriously hamper the game, but are thankfully not gamebreaking by any means so we give FreezeMe for the Wii U eShop a great level of recommendation!

Price: IP $9.99 then $13.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #FreezeMe #RainyNightCreations #Nindie

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Sailing The Seas of Adventure!

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Developed by Camelot Games and published by Nintendo Golden Sun: The Lost Age is essentially cartridge 2 of the original Golden Sun title as both titles were originally supposed to be one game, but Camelot Games was unable to make the massive title fit in one GBA cartridge so they split the game in two.

You can use the password system in the first title to transfer your save file to Golden Sun: The Lost Age which is a fantastic feature that even works in the Wii U Virtual Console version of the game!

As for the story, Golden Sun: The Lost Age picks up where Golden Sun left off. The story actually feels much more epic this time around and many secrets are revealed about alchemy and the state of the world! Another unique story-related feature is that depending on your actions in the first game, some special story events may occur in Golden Sun: The Lost Age which is extremely cool as it connects the two games together as one single intertwined story!



The gameplay is similar to the first Golden Sun title for the most part, but there are several additions to the formula! First of all after a certain point in the game you'll obtain a ship that'll allow you to travel the seas and explore the world. This ship will later be upgraded so it can fly, allowing you to reach even more places in the vast world of the game.

The game features a ton of optional dungeons and some of these are quite challenging. Though the dungeons in general are far more difficult than the one's in the original Golden Sun title as the puzzles are at times extremely complex!

The battle system is more or less the same as it was in Golden Sun, but there are a few changes. First you can now obtain new summons via. Summon Tablets from certain dungeons that allow you to utilize multi-elemental summons that are more powerful than their single-elemental counterparts! Some of these summons can be exceptionally difficult to obtain.



The other new feature in combat is the switch system! At a certain point in the story your party will grow to a total of 8 members. You can switch members during combat or if all of your 4 member party dies the other 4 party members will jump in automatically which is a great feature when facing off against some of the stronger bosses in the game!

Golden Sun: The Lost Age also has a New Game+ feature that allows you to replay the game at an adjusted level of difficulty! You can choose whether the game is easier or more difficult and this will affect the stats of the enemies you'll face in battle during that playthrough of the game! The overall length of the game is incredible as well as it'll take most players 100+ hours to complete the game on top of the 80+ hours to complete the first Golden Sun title!

The controls are really tight and are very easy to learn. The graphics are also fantastic for a GBA title and The Lost Age appears to even be a little better than the first Golden Sun title visually! The graphics are a bit more crisp and clear. On the audio side of things, Golden Sun: The Lost Age is absolutely amazing, the sound effects are varied and sound great, and the soundtrack is one of the very best that we've ever heard from a GBA title!



Bottom-Line:

With top-notch gameplay with over 100 hours worth of gameplay, a fantastic story, excellent controls, and an unparalleled audio-visual presentation for a Gameboy Advance title, Golden Sun: The Lost Age is one game currently available on the Wii U Virtual Console service that every Wii U owner should have in their library of games! We give Golden Sun: The Lost Age a perfect level of recommendation!

Price: $7.99/£6.29/€6.99/¥700

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★★ 10/10

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#Review #WiiU #VC #eShop #Nintendo #Camelot

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Ascending The Metroidvania Ladder!

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Developed and published by Nostatic Software Ascent of Kings offers players hardcore retro platforming that can be quite challenging at times, but does that mean that the game is without faults? No, but it certainly is a solid decent game and here's why:

In Ascent of Kings you play the role of a young prince who must climb a sacred mountain to attain kinghood. Your four brothers who set out before you will give you items that will aid you and allow you to progress further into the game! The shrines that are scattered throught the mountain provide your character with health and oxygen upgrades which is will prove to be helpful as well.



The platforming itself can be tricky at times with hazards and challenging jumps to be made, along with levers, pitfalls, lava, and more that will test your eye-hand coordination as well as your reflexes.

The controls are a quite floaty and somewhat unresponsive, similar to the first Metroid title "though not as bad". The game also features Off-TV-Play and that's a great feature in any game, especially when it functions flawlessly as it does in Ascent of Kings!



One of the HUGE downfalls of the game is that it's incredibly short, so short in-fact that it can be beaten 100% in less than an hour. The other downfall of this game is the lack of replay value after completing everything in the game. There's no hidden bonuses or easter eggs to unlock which really hurts a Metroidvania style platformer such as this one.

The soundtrack and retro ambience of the game is truly great and is one of the better aspects of the game and visually Ascent of Kings is just oozing with retro goodness, enough said! We truly enjoyed the audio-visual presentation of the game!



Bottom-Line:

With enjoyable, yet challenging gameplay, excellent controls complete with flawless Off-TV-Play as an option, and a superb audio-visual presentation, Ascent of Kings could have been a truly great game, however the lack of content and replay value seriously hurts our overall opinion of the game. Nonetheless we still enjoyed it a fair amount so Ascent of Kings receives a decent recommendation from us!

Price: $1.99

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Score: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6.8/10

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#WiiU #eShop #Review #NostaticSoftware #Nindie

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A Solid, Yet Bumpy Adventure!

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Developed and published by Paladin Studios, Momonga Pinball Adventures for the Wii U is a pinball game featuring a squirrel. Much in the veins of Sonic Spinball this pinball title has a campaign packed with nine stages and ten accomplishments. The game is good for the most part, however it falls short of being anywhere near as good as Sonic Spinball or Mario Pinball Land.

The gameplay is decent enough with some of the stages being fairly large, however there aren't many stages and you are forced to play each stage multiple times in order to beat them. The game features voice acting as well, but it can get extremely annoying at times, luckily you can skip the story scenes if you want to.



The controls are fairly responsive and easy to learn which is a very good thing in a pinball title! The game also features Off-TV-Play which is nice, though we did experience some audio issues through the Wii U Gamepad's speakers.

Visually the game looks decent enough, it won't wow you, but the character models, pinball machines, and cut-scenes all look nice. The music can be somewhat annoying and as we said before, the voice acting is pretty bad. Overall the visuals are good, but the audio is definitely below average.



Bottom-Line:

With solid, albeit repetitive gameplay, excellent controls, and nice visuals Momonga Pinball Adventures can be a fun experience at times, however audio issues with the Wii U Gamepad, an annoying audio presentation, and a lack of content seriously hamper this game, though it still is fairly decent, which is why we give Momonga Pinball Adventures for the Wii U eShop a decent recommendation!

Price: £4.99/€5.99/$5.99

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Score: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 6/10

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#Review #WiiU #eShop #Pinball

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An Esphani Invasion!

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Published and developed by Little Orbit Games, Falling Skies: The Game is based on the hit TNT drama Falling Skies and is a Strategy RPG with many unique features, but are these features enough to allow the game to live up to the high expectations that the fans of the TV series have for the game? Keep reading to find out!

Falling Skies: The Game's story takes place between the third and fourth seasons of the series and is entirely unique making it a good way to fill in the gap between the two seasons of the show. The story takes place over a good deal of missions with long periods of time between story missions and mission briefing scenes which isn't ideal by a story-telling standpoint, but it does work as an incentive to progress further into the game!

The game is separated into a base headquarters and squad mission maps. At headquarters you can purchase upgrades, recruit new warriors, view a list of injured units and how long they'll be unable to participate in missions, and there's a memorial to see which of your comrades have fallen in battle. You can also dispatch a unit on a gathering quest to gather materials while you play through squad missions! The squad missions take part on a large map that has the traditional movement and attack grid that most strategy RPG's possess and you must use cover to prevent enemies from inflicting too much damage on your units!



There isn't a huge amount of enemy types so battles can be somewhat predictable, however the strategic elements of this game bring some much needed depth and make up for this shortcoming. After each mission your units gain experience and levels which allows you to teach them new skills from their skill tree. There are a handful of different classes each with their own unique skills which will be important to use in order to survive missions. The game could use a few more classes though as there aren't enough in this game, however it isn't a game-breaking issue. After missions you'll also receive new upgrades to purchase which range from weapons, armor, and ammo, to medical supplies and passive status boosts! These upgrades "especially better ones later on" can take numerous missions before they are finished and can be used in missions so careful planning should be made as to which upgrades you should purchase next!

The controls of the game are spot-on and are intuitive and easy to learn which is a must for any strategy RPG! The Off-TV Play also works perfectly and is a great feature for those who don't always have access to a television set!



The graphics of Falling Skies: The Game aren't the greatest, but they get the job done with reasonable 3D character and enemy models and passable special effects, but the music is incredible and will be instantly recognized by fans of the TV series and fit the game perfectly! The game also features voice acting from the actors of the TV series which is a nice touch though it would have been even more amazing if the game used the story dialog more often.

Bottom-Line: With solid gameplay and a unique story Falling Skies: The Game is a decent game for fans of the Hit TV series and the soundtrack is absolutely incredible! Though the game isn't without some flaws as a lack of character classes and disjointed story definitely don't do this game justice and the visuals could have been much better, though if you're a fan of the series we still give this game a solid recommendation!

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Price: $39.99

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Score: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 7.3/10

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#Review #LittleOrbitGames #FallingSkies #WiiU #Retail #eShop #PS3 #PSN #SRPG

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Party Like You're The New Kid in The City!

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Welcome to the world of animal crossing and enjoy a world where time and seasons change just as they do in real life. Do whatever you please be it fishing or helping neighbors out. It's completely up to you.



Gameplay:

This game is a sandbox virtual life game that you can pretty much do anything you want after the first 30-40 minutes of playing. You start the game in a bus talking to a chatty cat who will ask you the name of your town and the current date. Afterwards he will ask you several questions that will affect the gender and appearance of your character.

You will then arrive at your town and choose between 4 different empty homes to purchase. Tom Nook will then accept your initial payment which, much to Nooks dismay, is nowhere near enough to pay for the mortgage so he hires you to do several odds and end jobs to help pay for your homes mortgage. Once completed you can do whatever you want.

Theres tons to do in this game such as visiting the city to shop or fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting or even having some friends coming over via wifi connection. Or you can visit their town. This game has holidays just like the real world and there is plenty to do on those days such as getting presents from Jingle the Reindeer or finding the Jack O Lantern to get special furniture for your pad just to name a couple. It's pretty tedious to some but can be quite fun for those who like titles like this.



Graphics & Music:

The graphics in this game are cute and colorful but don't expect much detail or realism in the graphics (which is a nice change of pace from games like SIMS). The music in this title is very fun and cheerful and fits this titles cuteness very well.



Bottom line:

Animal Crossing: City Folk is a niche game that some will find irresistibly fun and addictive but is certainly not for everyone. However those who like virtual life games that allow you to live a separate virtual life such as The Sims, you'll likely enjoy this refreshingly cute game. At a $20 price for brand new copies it's a bargain.

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Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10

8- Great This is a great game that might have a few flaws or could have been better, but is still a game we highly recommend!

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#Review #Nintendo #AnimalCrossing #SliceOfLife #Gaming

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Take the role of a mercenary Larc Bright Lagoon in this epic fight against the gods in an atempt to save the common race!

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Story & Gameplay:

The story in this game is epic and has an emotion driven feel to it. The game is a turn based rpg that has a unique rogress system that allows you to boost stats and summon mighty rogress to aid you! Expect it to take quite some time to play through this game as the main story will likely take 80+ hours and if you add the secret dungeon, hidden bosses and sidequests, it can easily take 150 hours to complete this game 100%.



Graphics:

Wow, just wow this games graphics are absolutely awe-inspiring as the in game graphics such as models, special effects as well as the towns and dungeons are better then what's seen in most PS2 rpgs. It also has mind-blowing CGI cutscenes that look like something you'd see on a X-Box 360 rpg.



Sound & Music:

The voice acting in this game gets alot of hate by gamers and though it is not AAA quality it's still above average. The soundtrack is awesome and most of the music fits very well.



Bottom line:

This is one great rpg that no gamer should miss out on as it has a great story with tons of sidequests, 100+ hours of gameplay, decent voice acting (despite what you might read on other sites), an epic soundtrack and not to mention graphics that defy the limitations of the Wii.

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Score: ★★★★★★★★★½ 9.5/10

9- Awesome This game has little in the way of flaws, and is a highly enjoyable experience.

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#Review #Wii #ImageEpoch #ARF #RPG #Gaming

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