Year Plans 2023: What I've Missed

I felt like closing the year with this. All the way back in my Retrospective for 2022, I set up this new concept of the Year Plans, in which I picked a number of games from my collection that I hoped to play through and review on the blog during the following 12 months. Part of the idea was that, since I have such a large backlog, I would focus on a few titles on top of the yearly Quick Reviews.

I even thought of adding a new main page to the blog to keep track of the ones I had selected for this year.

I did go through all the titles selected for the Quick Reviews, because I like the concept and it’s an easy way to knock a couple out through a few months. The longer titles, that’s a different story; I didn't get to cover as many as I would've liked. So, instead of giving them a full playthrough and article, I figured I would either discuss what my plans were/might be for each title, or give a quick “First Impressions” after playing each one for about an hour, depending on the case.

Today, it’s a relaxed article. Nothing too complex, just me chatting about games I know and trying out a few I haven’t played yet.

Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation

Yet another game that’s unavailable for purchase on the Steam Store (since May 2022), I’ve had this one sitting in my library since 2021. A purchase on Humble Bundle four years prior included four DLC packs for the game... but not the game itself. It’s been odd every time I reviewed on here a game that could no longer been purchased, but I feel it’s important and interesting to do so, like keeping track of what's been lost. This entry by BKOM studios, whose headquarters are in Quebec City, is meant to be a virtual version of an existing board game, Tomb of Annihilation. It does have that tabletop feel, and the association with Dungeons & Dragons (a license expiration may be the reason why the game got delisted) is clear as day... I say that as if I have ever played that game...

On the other hand, the codes for the DLCs still worked, so... I have that to look forward to when I'll dig deeper into this one. This was a fun hour!

Gaming Memories: Mighty Final Fight

A last Gaming Memories article for the year? Let's go.

Mighty Final Fight

Nintendo Entertainment System

July 1993 (NA)

One of the NES games I recall playing the most. Outside of this entry, I have no real connection to the Final Fight series, comprised of side-scrolling beat'em-ups and whose first entry was released to arcades in 1989. This is a retelling of that game's story, delivered with a comedic tone and a super-deformed style.

The story, a classic of the era: A girl kidnapped by bad guys. In this case, it is Mayor Mike Haggar's daughter, Jessica, taken by the Mad Gear Gang. Haggar enlists the help of his two friends Cody and Guy, and all three set out to open a whole can of whoop-ass onto various bikers, thieves, and other street scum on their way to Belger, the gang's leader.

The game is set across five stages and had everything to please me: Players and enemies alike have health bars visible at the top of the screen, and enemies come in all shapes and sizes (and gimmicks). All three characters have a wide array of moves, and can even learn more as the game includes a simple (if not simplistic) experience system. Haggar feels like the Easy Mode, being tougher and having stronger moves than his allies and starting out at LV3, compared to Guy and Cody's LV1s. That said, the two guys are speedier. Alas, no 2-Player Mode, but I can't say multiplayer on home console was ever a thing I cared for.

A few sequences within levels feel like mini-games. One notable example being in Stage 1, where the selected fighter has to break incoming barrels (and may also find items that increase their EXP). The bosses are all notable; utterly silly but also pretty dangerous. Unfortunately, the game is also very short, at five stages, and can be finished in well under an hour. Bit disappointing, not gonna lie.

It's short and easy enough that I finished the game multiple times. It ranked among my favorites on the NES alongside Startropics, DuckTales, the Mario games, and more that I'll eventually get to. I can't say I consider myself a beat'em-up connoisseur, but I do think this one's worth checking out. Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, that's usually the case in these Gaming Memories articles. (At least for now, as I focus on the games I really did care for - the ones I didn't, that's gonna be a different story.)

Top 12 Boss Battle Types

Let’s end the year on a more relaxed article.

Boss battles are one of the defining traits of video games. Most genres include them in one way or another, and it’s tricky, but not impossible, to imagine a game that does not have them. They represent thresholds to cross in the story a game tells; they run the gamut from easy to insane in terms of difficulty; early ones may teach you a skill, later ones may force you to master that same skill; and they can be central to the plot, if any, or wholly unrelated.

Because I covered a lot of them, expect several
examples pulled from Nintendo games.

In over 50 years of video games, there’s been plenty of room for experimentation in how video games work and how their stories are told. As a result, we’re not lacking in types of bosses out there waiting to spring out and offer a challenge. Full disclosure, the types of bosses covered today are mostly described through their entries on TVTropes, because it’s a simple way to accurately discuss them. It’s also going to help fishing up examples for each type making the list, as I hope to pick from titles I discussed on this very blog to illustrate my choices. I’ve been reviewing stuff for 10 years now, so I ought to have examples for each of them. "Boss Battle Types" can cover the boss itself or the kind of battle we have against it.

This is, obviously, a subjective list going off how I feel these types of bosses and battles rank against each other, or above the ones I excluded. Are there any that you feel I missed out on? Feel free to comment!

Word to the wise, don’t make a drinking game out of every time I use the word “boss” here. I don’t want a death on my friggin’ conscience.

We’re starting with...

12. The “Tactical Suicide Boss”

While cutting the various types of bosses down to twelve only for the list (as my original cut picked out of 64 possible options on TVTropes’ page about boss battles), I eventually wondered whether I wanted to focus more on the bosses themselves, or the type of strategy needed to defeat them. I wound up focusing on the monsters, but there’s a handful of entries for strategies, and we open on one.

King K. Rool would be unstoppable, but he has to throw his
crown to attack, exposing his soft noggin.

The core idea behind the “tactical suicide boss” trope involves a boss that would, by all accounts, be undefeatable. There’s just one problem: To attack, this enemy must reveal the only means of harming them. This differs from battles where the means of defeat of the boss is found in the arena itself, another type of oversight on the part of a baddie we’re battling. There’s something poetic to how the fault lies entirely on the enemy themselves for exposing the one thing that can beat them, and it feels even more satisfying as a result. Due to these parameters, this specific type is more common to platform and adventure games, but has been seen in other genres as well.

DoubleMoose's "Just Die Already"

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Gaming Memories: Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country

Super Nintendo

November 21st, 1994 (NA)

I never owned a lot of Super Nintendo titles; if I recall, I've had maybe 10 total, and most came with the console, which had been gifted to me by cousins. I may have bought only one game for it. And as is normal for a kid given multiple new playthings at once, I eventually settled on a couple of favorites. This was one of them.

Donkey Kong's first major platform game on the SNES (and, ironically, the only "Donkey Kong Country" game of the era to feature him, as he has to be rescued in both sequels) felt like a game-changer in several ways. The 3D look given to all of the sprites made it groundbreaking as one of the first "2.5D" titles to exist. It featured not only the famous ape who famously had a beef with Mario in the earliest days of the plumber's career, but also Diddy Kong, a younger chimp clad in red, as well as a handful of additional Kongs serving as varied stops throughout this adventure.

The story? Oh, it's as simple as it gets, really; a group of villainous reptiles known as the Kremlings, led by the ruthless and kooky King K. Rool, has stolen the Kongs' banana hoard. Go kick their asses and get it back. The Kongs will help you, be it Funky Kong allowing you to travel to different areas (worlds) of Donkey Kong Island, Candy Kong saving your progress, and Cranky Kong providing tips, comedy and head-canings, grumpy old ape that he is.

I remember having such a good time with this game. A couple of stages had interesting gimmicks (not a fan of the mine carts, but the stage with the On/Off switches and the zombie-like reptiles was cool). The inclusion of animal helpers was great (Rambi, Enguarde and Expresso have a dear place in my heart; Squawk and Winky, not so much). And there were so many secrets to uncover and ways to earn extra lives - enough hidden areas that the game actually goers beyond 100% and is properly "completed" at 103%, and there's balloon lives, the KONG letters and even animal tokens to collect. The last battle against K. Rool is especially noteworthy with its famous fake-out ending, where credits start rolling too early - then the crocodile gets back up and things get serious.

It's such a great game and I have a huge nostalgic connection to it. With the gift of hindsight, I can see how it set the tone for the Donkey Kong franchise as a whole - its comedic edge, a staple of Rare, would be a part of the following entries, up to and including Donkey Kong 64 and most of the studio's other projects. It's a classic, for good reason, and definitely a must-play.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)

Dude never catches a break. (Note: My screenshots in this
article come from LongplayArchive's video of the
game. Go check it out!)

Jumping from a Prince of Persia game to the next, and in fact, jumping into the... uh... This is weird. The Sands of Time trilogy continues in two entries, Warrior Within released in 2004 and The Two Thrones released in 2005. However, things got meddled in this continuity with the addition of two interquels taking place between Sands of Time and Warrior Within: The first is a DS game titled Battles of Prince of Persia, while the other is today’s game, released for the Wii and other platforms on May 18th, 2010 in North America.

We know how messy Ubisoft gets with its multi-platform releases... well, The Forgotten Sands is an even stranger beast as, though it was released on many consoles and for PC, most versions follow a different story. The Wii version is no exception – so it’s possible you might have played another version and never heard this tale. Let's dig in right away and see which adventures the Prince got into before the actual sequel to his story.

A Kingdom to Call My Own

We open in the heat of action as the Prince is parkour-ing his way out of another crumbling castle. Though this time he is followed by a speaking light revealed to be a djann (a female djinn) named Zahra. Fleeing as the place falls apart, our hero must use his physical skills to make it out alive. Now that’s a great feel for a tutorial!

I swear this guy is so good at crawling up walls he
puts the Spider-Men to shame.

This is where we learn our new moves. The Prince has gotten better since his last adventure! For starters, he can climb walls from a horizontal crack (not just ledges) to another and can even climb up and down vertical cracks without any issue. Whereas back in Sand of Time when he ran up a wall he had to jump off backwards, this time he slides down the wall, preventing him jumping to his death. Not a lot of differences overall, but the additions make him even more versatile platforming-wise than he was before – no small feat. Extra abilities gained later down the line will add even more.

Flash back to the actual beginning of this story. Our protagonist has found Zahra at a mysterious market. His wish? A kingdom all to himself, to come back to his father with something to show for his efforts. It’s a commendable goal for certain. (Shouldn't he be running from time-paradox monsters according to Warrior Within, though?)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

I once again realized I haven’t reviewed enough non-Steam games this year – or, more specifically, I covered only one Wii game and only one Ubisoft game. Here’s my chance to remedy to that.

King and prince, ready for attack.
Things are about to go horribly wrong.

Prince of Persia has been on my radar perhaps since before I began writing this blog. There’s the movie, of course, and I’ve covered it. However, I remember trying the very first game in the series, or rather a port of it for the Super Nintendo, long ago... and failing quickly because I couldn’t figure out the combat mechanics and fend off the enemy swordsmen. Which takes us to a more recent time. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which the movie is based on, was one of the first games I obtained for free on Ubisoft Connect, formerly UPlay, through special events on the platform. Some time later, I found another game in the series, a port for the Nintendo Wii.

Why not cover both? They’ve been waiting long enough. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a Ubisoft game whose ports were released mainly in November 2003, with the Windows version out in December. I wasn’t planning on reviewing this game almost exactly 20 years after its release. Fun coincidence there. So, how's it like?

The Dagger of Time

This story begins as the army of Persia, King Sharaman and his son the Prince at the head, invades an Indian kingdom belonging to the Maharajah. They got word from that kingdom’s Vizier, betraying his leader, of a treasure held at the Palace, with the King intent on taking it. The Prince (no name given) is prepared for such a quest, having been trained his whole life. This is where we discover the controls to this game.

No wonder this guy made a plaything out of
time itself, he already mocks the very concept
of gravity. (Apologies for French text, I never
figured out how to change the game to English.)

One of the most praised aspects of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the parkour-based platform gameplay. The Prince has a wide array of skills: Running upwards and sideways on walls, wall-jumping, moving up and down ledges, climbing and jumping betwen pillars, swinging from horizontal bars... The list goes on. You can tell that every area of the game was designed with all those skills in mind. It’s not rare to find rooms with nary a solid floor, forcing you to figure out an alternate path. The Prince regains health by drinking water. However, he can get hurt or die instantly if he falls from too high. You’ll only really figure out the right height to fall from through trial and error, of which there is a lot in this game. Controlling this hero is a little tricky at first, but very rewarding once you’ve got all the mechanics down.

Team Indie

Imagine, if you will, your favorite characters in a single game – but it’s not a mascot fighter à la Smash Bros. or any other in the genre. They’re not here to duke it out. Instead, all were pulled from different games, all bring their own skills to the table, and they have a common goal to work towards. But just what genre could that be? An FPS? A platformer with branching storylines? Something that uses each character’s genre of predilection in a gameplay roulette?

Well, today’s game provides one answer. A creation of Brightside Games released on October 8th, 2014, Team Indie sees multiple heroes of indie gaming coming to the rescue of a powerless kitten. True to the scene, the genre is... a puzzle platformer. Can’t say I haven’t played my fair share of those by now. The other notable detail here is that today’s title was delisted from Steam, at the publisher’s request. You can’t buy it, and it won’t come up on searches on the platform. I only have access to the page because I had this game patiently waiting in my collection ever since I obtained it in the Humble Freedom Bundle, purchased in February 2017. It’s also not the first delisted title I cover; in fact, it’s the third this year.

Games get delisted for all kinds of reasons ranging from being too large a source of stress for their creator(s) to basic issues pertaining to rights. I scoured the Internet to find the reason as to why Team Indie was delisted, but I’ve come empty-handed. For now, at least, the mystery remains. My guess is that it boils down to a rights issue, owing to the crossover nature of this title.

Don’t see this review as an article on something you might want to purchase, since it’s not possible. Today, I feel more like a museum curator, observing something that used to be accessible, but now can only be discussed in the past tense. And in an age where digital products get pulled at their owners' whims, preservation of that kind can be very important - so I feel a duty to at least talk about this one, "can't buy it" be damned.

Green-eyed monster cat

Jealous cat much?

A gamer with some hacking skills lives with her old cat Oskar. One day, she receives a mysterious package, which turns out to be a kitten named Marvin! The kitty has a strange gear-shaped pendant around his neck. Oskar, angered by the younger feline’s presence, swipes and snaps the pendant. This happened as Marvin stood close to the computer, and... inexplicably, the kitty was teleported into a video game.

Movie Review: Five Nights at Freddy's

Happy Halloween!

Yeah, I stilll have that mask. As for the film, how could I not see this on opening weekend? I acknowledge the games for the important gaming and cultural phenomenon they've become as well as the indie horror milestones they represent. But I always felt more attracted to the franchise's lore than to its gameplay, so while I did review the first six games, I can't say I played them all for very long. A movie based on this universe was always going to appeal to me more in terms of presentation.

I understand Scott Cawthon wanting this product to be as close to how he views his creation as possible, hence his status as producer and his name repeatedly appearing in the intro credits. We also have Emma Tammi as director and Jason Blum (of Blumhouse) also as producer. This film spent long enough in development Hell that knockoffs had time to be greenlit, filmed and released before this one did. (Speaking of, doing a compare/contrast with one of those, Willy's Wonderland, would be wild.) Cawthon can safely say the bet paid off, because the end result, story-wise, is exactly what we could expect, yet throws enough curveballs to keep things interesting to those familiar with the franchise. When it comes to horror, however? It's a little light. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The story

Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is a young adult down on his luck. Goes from a job to the next, without much success. He is taking care of his younger sister Abby (Piper Rubio) after their mother died and their father up and left. He is plagued by traumatic memories of the time when he was a child and his brother Garrett was kidnapped while the Schmidts were having a picnic. He has been reliving the scene in his dreams to catch any details that could let him recognize the kidnapper, without luck.

Threatened with eviction, struggling with his role as caretaker, dealing with an aunt (Mary Stuart Masterson) who wants to take Abby away not out of love and worry but for the government funding it would lend her, and losing yet another job, Mike sees a counselor who makes the dreadful suggestion. The pay will suck, the hours will suck, but it's not like he has any other options. Mike ends up taking the job as security nightguard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a joint once home to bustling arcades and state-of-the-art animatronic performers, now an old and decrepit building that should have been torn down years ago. Really, all he has to do is hold this job down long enough to prove that he can be steady, and that'll be it.

WarioWare: Get It Together! (Part 2)

Continuing from Part 1… and we’re already at the (not quite) final stage! No time to waste, let’s get to it.

The missing folks

Oh, this boss is so cool. The glitchy effects before
the fight were really cool, too.

"Win!"

Wario's “Anything Goes” stage, the classic closer of the main Story Mode (with all microgames therein involving him in some way) is the one most bugged out. The glitches have even taken over the space between games! The greedy developer jumps in with a few friends. This stage is the longest yet, but also, between microgames, you have to fight the boss bug in the background. This is one of the most unique ideas I’ve seen in WarioWare, and it’s brilliant. Still, at the end of the usual number of microgames, we have won, and we kick the final bug out. Or… do we?

It's the first time that the "space between games"
serves a real purpose and it's amazing.

Woo, the crew's all reunited! ...Or is it?

After a little bit of deliberation, Wario realizes that he likes the fresh spin this bug adds to his stage, so he agrees to let it stay in this area. Still unsure how to leave, though, the gang soon meets the Supreme Developer. This godly being bearing Wario’s nose admits to being the one who pulled the crew into the game to clear out the bugs. He lets them leave, but welcomes them to return anytime to play some more.

When they have returned to their world, the developers wonder what exactly caused those glitches. Some ancient artefact? Messing with the wrong person? Nah. Just Wario being a mighty sloppy dev as usual. Wario's angry employees chase him around the room. Must be a Wednesday at the office.

However, Wario realizes there are people missing still – so a few devs must still be trapped! The whole crew goes back in and meets the Supreme Developer again, who informs them that something else is out there and has captured them… The group has to face the next stages, all of which are classic remixes. One with all of the microgames at random; one with all of the microgames starting on the third difficulty; and a last one with the full remix, but only one life. Through this, we rescue…

WarioWare: Get It Together! (Part 1)

Didn’t expect me to review a Switch game before the end of 2023, did you? Gotta slip one into my schedule. And I went for an easy one to talk about. Or… rather, so I thought. Anyway!

Show of hands, who knew
about this one? Thought so.

Past Smooth Moves for the Nintendo Wii and its focus on motion controls, the WarioWare franchise entered a bit of a slump. WarioWare D.I.Y., despite being a fantastic introduction to game design, did not do too well sales-wise and its pre-existing elements were lacking, especially when it came to microgames, the series’ bread and butter. Snapped!, for exclusive use of the DSi’s camera feature, well… you can imagine its limited use wasn’t going to help it. Game & Wario, for the Wii U, ditched the classic microgames for regular mini-games instead and, while creative, those felt too different from the formula.

WarioWare Gold for the Nintendo 3DS was ambitious; not only are all of the main characters voiced, but the 300+ microgames (more than any other entry in the franchise) featured classic controls and ones akin to those in Twisted! and Touched!, owing to the portable console’s touch screen AND built-in gyro sensor. The mix included both new microgames and remakes of classic ones. However, the game was released in 2018, in the dying breaths of the 3DS, which did not help its sales.

A classic from Mega Microgame$!, back
for Gold, 15 years later.

The challenge with WarioWare is to find a new gameplay gimmick to base the entire title on. When the console itself doesn’t provide one, that is. The Switch brought back motion controls… but for those, WarioWare: Move It! is coming out very soon. Before that, we got the very quirky idea of WarioWare: Get It Together, released on September 10th, 2021. You know all those characters we’ve been following since 2003 and who are glorified hosts for their games? We can finally play as them.

Them Darned Glitches

Screenshots for this review were taken from a
Let's Play by Zebra Gamer. Go check it out
if you'd like to see the full game.

We open in the crowded WarioWare offices as Wario puts the finishing touches on a new game, in a cool portable console. He tries to show the gang, but the game glitches. In his anger, Wario throws the game upwards, but the console sucks in all of the developers, turning them into Chibis. Now, they’re all trapped, scattered inside the game, and must find a way out. Wario observes his new form, and laments the presence of bugs all over his usual intro stage! Guess we’d better find the others, as well.

(Most of what comes next will be me reviewing all the playable characters, since they are a core element of gameplay and I’ve played enough to know their strengths and flaws. Also of note, when I say “Action button”, I mean A/B/X/Y, because all can be used to perform a character’s action.)

Sonic Forces (Part 3)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Still no time to lose!

Liberation

The Resistance has liberated 1/4th of the world, so it's far from over. Eggman’s ultimatum ends tomorrow. We finally have a plan: Tails has found out that the Phantom Ruby needs an immense amount of power to work, and that its remote source is on the Death Egg. Time to destroy it! Considering how often Eggman builds those moon-sized ships and has them destroyed, I guess this is a day that ends in Y.

Avy started out anxious. Scared. Now they fight giant robots.

Vector, disappointed, isn't the one this time around
who has to find the computer room.

In Stage #20, Avy creates a distraction at Guardian Rock, near Green Hills. Meanwhile, Sonic sneaks into the Chemical Plant to break Eggman’s contact with his Death Egg’s weapons, by destroying the supercomputer in the plant. This liberates the area; we finally have over 50% of the world’s population freed. With the Egg’s weapons system down, the Resistance sneaks Classic Sonic onto the giant ship to shut down its power source and destroy it, which is Stage #22.

"The OC saves the main hero from uncertain doom" - Check.
We're 75% down the list of fanfic tropes. Most of 'em have
been seen so far.

One major area under the mad doctor’s boot is the Metropolis. Since the Phantom Ruby’s power has been diminished, the heroes focus their efforts on that area. Sonic runs through the Metropolitan Highway to face Eggman. However, the doctor has two nasty surprises; one, he has a backup power supply under Metropolis, so the Ruby was not weakened. Two, the Phantom Ruby can create the Null Space, a pocket dimension where nothing exists. As Sonic is sucked in, Avy jumps in to try and rescue the hedgehog, only to fall in with him. This is the start of stage #24, but the Null Space part is almost nothing; Sonic and our avatar just double boost all the way into an exit and then run through Metropolis together to find Eggman. We don’t even spend 30 seconds in that pocket dimension. The hero come back and confront the scientist who, cornered, does a tactical retreat to his tower.

Eggman, bring your worst. We're coming, and we're angry.

Sonic Forces (Part 2)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

I didn’t cover much of the story in Part 1, so I’ll remedy to that today.

Answering the Call

Ohhhhh HOT HOT HOT!

When we come back to Avy (our avatar), they’re at the Prison Hall of the Death Egg, looking to rescue Sonic. We get to try their skills out a little more. Story-wise, it’s their big chance to prove themselves. Not like they need to bail Sonic out, as the villains do it for them.

Hey, couldn't Zavok turn giant in Sonic Lost World?
Yet here he is, piloting a robot bee. Laaaaaame.

Eggman considers the planet conquered, so the Resistance is barely a blip on his radar. He is ready to execute Sonic, so he sends Zavok out to bring the hedgehog to his fate. Zavok frees Sonic from his shackles; a battle ensues. Zavok pilots a large bee robot and is too high for Sonic to reach him. This battle was the first real challenge the game had for me, in part because of the small arena surrounded by endless pits and my struggles with frame rate. It’s also a tough fight because it’s counter-intuitive. Zavok will slam the ground with his robot, causing a shockwave. Usually, in games, those hurt you. Here, they’ll propel Sonic upwards, high enough to attack. But what would be your normal reaction to a ground shockwave in a boss fight? To jump and avoid it! Not a fan of that boss. At least it’s over relatively quick. Sonic defeats Zavok, who  disappears in a flurry of glitches.

I do have to give it to this game; when its abundance of
background details aren't a distraction to gameplay,
they can be friggin' GOR-GEOUS.

Sonic makes a run for it, learning that he was in outer space the whole time. This is Stage 6 and at the end of it, Sonic jumps onto a spaceship and finds himself in the hangar. This is done through a quick-time event; somewhat uncommon, they help make the game feel more cinematic at times, but it also means you have to constantly be prepared for when they’ll pop up, as they may happen when you least expect them. Thankfully, the time window you’re given to react is lenient, but still – I’m surprised QTEs are even included at all.

The Double Boost is the most prominent "QTE-like" here.
You don't need to learn how it works... yet.
Also, Avy radiates joy. He LOVES being here. Daaw.

Sonic Forces (Part 1)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

After Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, returning to Sonic platformers is like a cold shower. Welcome back to reality! When it comes to this franchise, the highs are really high (especially in the 2D realm), and the lows… oh, the lows can get really low. The blue hedgehog hasn’t been able to catch much of a break since… 2006 maybe? Yeah, he’s never living that one down.

Needless to say, there's a
lot of history to this series.

It’s like for every good game we can mention since then, there’s been one that wasn’t up to par… if not an outright stinker. It’s unclear whether it’s the fans or SEGA who still don’t know what they want the Sonic franchise to be. If we tried to split the Sonic games released over the last 20 years into the good, the mid and the bad, every Sonic fan’s list would be different.

All this to finally get to today’s game, which… well, it’s certainly divisive. Sonic Forces, developed by Sonic Team (with the PC version developed by Hardlight) and published by SEGA, was released on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows and Xbox One on November 7th, 2017. This is the second of two games released that year to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary, the other being Sonic Mania. As far as opinions go, I’ve heard both extremes, so I’m really not sure what to expect and where I’ll stand on that debate. Guess there’s no better way to figure it out than to play it, right?

(Obviously: Spoilers, so tread lightly if you haven’t played the game and don’t want to know what happens.)

Gaming Memories: WarioWare: Twisted!

The reviews I'm working on need a little more time, so I'm posting this instead today.

WarioWare: Twisted!

Game Boy Advance

Release date: May 23rd, 2005 (NA)

The WarioWare franchise started out a little kooky, with its unique concept of "microgames" (meaning mini-games so short they're completed in just a few seconds) and its cast of crazy characters. The very first game in the series, Mega Microgame$!, set the tone. It would become tradition for new entries to the series to introduce new characters (developers) and gimmicks, often basing their entire collection on said gimmicks.

Which takes us to Twisted, the first game in the series that I owned, also for the Game Boy Advance. I didn't cover this one in the early days of the blog; you'll see why soon. The cartridge, larger than normal, actually had a built-in gyro sensor. The sensor would calibrate upon the game being turned on, so that it would work no matter which type of GBA you owned (with a top slot for the regular GBA, or the bottom slot for an SP model, which is what I had).

The story here: Wario and Doctor Crygor end up inventing a strange Game Boy Advance that reacts to being tilted left and right... so Wario, true to form, decides to market the Heck out of it, even asking his crew to make new microgames using this new feature. Most, if not all, of the microgames involve tilting the console. Shave a guy by moving the razor around his face? Spin the console upside-down to drop a hat off a guy's head? Sure. Several games here also require pressing the A button. Notably, one "boss" (read: A longer microgame at the end of a stage) only asks you to turn the console on the side to play a shmup... against noses. This is one of only two games on the GBA to use a gyro sensor, the other being Drill Dozer.

I recall loving the weirdness of that one - then again, weird is just normal for WarioWare. But spinning the console? Yeah, that was especially bizarre. Later entries in the franchise would focus on the new Nintendo console's features, like the touch screen and microphone of the DS, the motion controls of the Wii, or the digital camera of the DSi. A new one is coming soon, focusing on the Switch's motion controls as well.

As for why I never covered this one in a full-length article? Well, that's because I didn't own it anymore. One day, I had friends come over and one of them brought some other guy we didn't really know. One of them had brought her games, including her own copy of this one; at the end of the day, she lost it. We genuinely believe it was stolen by the guy we didn't know. I gave her my copy. I'm pretty mad that it was stolen, but I did the right thing in the end. Let's just say I never allowed for +1s I didn't know at home from then on.

Quick Review: Zero Reflex

Ooh, closing these Quick Reviews on a pure test of skill. Yes! Why do I feel observed?

This was the first level I encountered.

A creation of Exordium Games released on November 5th, 2015, Zero Reflex (also known as Zero Reflex: Black Eye Edition) is a Bullet Hell game based entirely on a simple premise: Attacks come from an eye at the center of the screen, and the little thing you control can only move around the eye in a circle. Move with either A and D, the left and right arrows, or the left and right Crtl, that’s all the controls you need. No need for a grandiose story either, all we have is the many challenges ahead.

This one is clever: The darkness won't kill you
outright, but the bullets are the same color so
you can't see them in those shadowed areas.

Every stage sticks around for exactly 30 seconds, and you have three lives. Avoid the various bullets, hazards and other dangers, most of them coming from the eye itself, other times floating around the circle you’re moving on. A game of this type with a limited form of movement is an interesting idea, but since it’s so simple, it’s gotta have something extra outside of controls to back it up. Well, it does… if you consider colorful graphics as good enough. On the front of style, the game delivers, as every level feels special and adds a little something to the overall experience. That said, if you want the full package, you need to try and get through the Psychedelic Mode, where the background moves and serves as a greater distraction while you go around avoiding the bullets sent your way.

Those things jumping around the "planet"
were a big roadblock for me.

Two power-ups can help you, if you can manage to reach them. The first provides a shield against damage for a few seconds, while the second unleashes a shockwave that will remove all bullets in its area (but not larger hazards). On every level, you have three “Hit Points”. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Well, the catch here is that if you lose all three HP, you are booted back to the previous level. So you have to beat that one again. Not so bad once you’re accustomed to the game. However, some back luck and you wind up far back. Well, at least they’re gonna be in the same order.

And everything is out there for your blood. Shuriken, ladybugs, snake tongues… sometimes the circle is bigger, sometimes it’s smaller… sometimes it’s not visible, so you have to approximate where your cursor is going… A couple instances remind me of other pure skill games on Steam, like Super Hexagon.

Those damn circular saws are even harder to
avoid when the background is distracting me.

Also included are a Practice Mode accessible from the main menu, as well as a Hard Mode unlocked after beating Normal Mode, followed by an even tougher Nightmare Mode. The main difference between them is that on Normal, your three HP restock at every level and you go back 1 level, but on Hard, you only regain 1 HP at each new level and go back two levels. I assume that on Nightmare difficulty, your HP doesn’t restore at all, and you go back three levels. Good luck! At least the game puts you through only 20 levels (out of the 25 the game is made of). With the 30-second limit for each, this means a successful run takes 10 minutes at the minimum. That said, the difficulty gets intense fast, especially on higher difficulties.

This one’s fun. Catchy music, simple yet fun graphics with the possibility to add a psychedelic twist to them, and basic gameplay that’s all you need for what Zero Reflex wanted to be. It’s pretty fine, if you feel like paying 3.99$ USD for it on Steam, anyway.

Oh, that goddamned level... Yes, for the
record, the clock hands outside the circle
will hurt you as well.

The one thing that bugs me is the first negative reviews on the store page that say there may have been something scummy going on with this game on launch, with Exordium Games promising a 10K$ prize to someone going through all 60 levels (I assume all three main difficulties) and giving proof. Yet, they’d argue most submissions showing a success were done through hacking, without telling how they verified for such things, and ultimately they gave the prize to someone they left anonymous. Very suspicious. If you’re not bothered by that (after all, the “prize” was “given” on January 2016, so all that’s left is the game itself) and want a challenge… well, it’s still around.

Man, talk about a weird downer end for these Quick Reviews. Hopefully we aren’t staying in the grim and the depressing with the upcoming big reviews… Oh, right. The next one is gonna be Sonic Forces… I can probably slip in a happier one in-between… I’ll see what I can do.