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Game Corner [Asterix Anniversary]: Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered (Xbox Series X)

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Asterix the Gaul (and his best friend Obelix) first debuted on 29 October 1959 as a serial in the French/Belgium magazine Pilote. Since then, the plucky Gauls have had many adventures in comic books, videogames, and feature-length productions. This year, I’m spending a few days celebrating this popular and enduring character.

Released: 22 October 2020
Originally Released: 21 November 2003
Developer: OSome Studio
Original Developer: Étranges Libellules
Metacritic Scores: 53 / 5.4

Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PC, PlayStation 2, (Original Version); Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S (Romastered)

Quick Facts: 
With over 400 million books sold worldwide, it’s no wonder Asterix expanded into animation, movies, and videogames. In 2003, Infogrames backed a new Asterix videogame, initially titled Asterix & Obelix: Next Generation, a 3D beat-‘em-up that marked his PlayStation 2 debut. Astérix & Obélix XXL was generally praised for its gameplay but said to be visually uninspiring and tedious. Still, it spawned three sequels and was revamped for modern consoles with this Romastered version. Despite the improvements, Astérix & Obélix XXL continued to frustrate with its barebones gameplay and mediocre combat.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered is a reworked version of the original 3D brawler, offering visual tweaks and additional options. Surprisingly, considering the title and the nature of the game, Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered is a purely single-player experience, with one player primarily controlling the plucky Asterix and switching to the oafish Obelix either when prompted or automatically. Players visit six stages, recognisable to Asterix fans, each with six levels apiece save for the final stage, Rome, which is a two-level affair. After choosing the game’s difficulty and toggling various display and music options, players start in Gaul and immediately begin bashing Romans. Players attack and interact with former Roman spy Sam Shieffer by pressing X, jump with A (executing a double jump with a second press in mid-air), catch stunned Romans with Y, and perform a weak-ass dash with B. The Left Trigger has your partner throw an enemy while the Right Bumper orders Dogmatix to attack, disarming and stunning enemies. The Right Trigger switches between the original graphics and sound and the Romastered visuals, earning you an easy Achievement and allowing you to collect different sestertii coins when challenging one of the many stele time trials. Your health is measured by shields, which are refilled by smacking wild boar and collecting their meat or fully refilled, and extended up the six shields, by finding shields dotted about. Players also smash a shitload of wooden crates and collect even more Roman helmets, multiplying their load by grabbing Centurion helmets floating about. There are no lives in Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered and players must save by approaching or smacking sleepy druids, respawning either at the druid or at autosave points when they fail their mission.

Decimate nigh-endless swarms of enemies with a handful of mediocre attacks and cannons.

The core gameplay of Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered is combat. Enemies are relentless, nigh-endlessly swarming town squares or enclosed areas, with players forced to defeat up to 1500 Romans and other enemies at a time! Combat starts pretty fun, with Romans flying all over, and quickly becomes tedious as options are so limited. As you dish out beatings, a combo meter builds and, when full, you can press specific button combinations to thin out the hoards. These are purchased from a merchant and are frustratingly limited since you can only perform them when the meter’s full. All you really need is the Twister combos, which see both characters transform into devastating tornados, though you can also pound Romans and dig up menhirs. Very rarely, magic potion empowers Asterix, increasing his speed and strength and making him temporarily invincible. More often, you’ll hop into cannons, rapidly firing cannonballs with X as Obelix pushes you back and forth. Finally, glowing spots or automatic sections switch you to Obelix, who’s slower and bigger but also strong enough to smash metal crates and haul giant stones to clear passages or create bridges. Asterix, meanwhile, can carry and light torches, lighting fires and explosive barrels to clear passageways. Often, players must smack windmills to raise platforms or Obelix must pull Asterix along on elevated platforms, but I was disappointed that Obelix didn’t have more combat options, like a ground pound or menhir slam. Obelix can bounce about on special springs, while slingshots ricochet you across areas and players must hit switches to open doors, lower bridges, or earn a Golden Laurel. Combat quickly becomes repetitive and tiresome, particularly when swarmed or playing without Obelix and Dogmatix as support, with enemies having a long reach and often shielding against your ridiculously limited attacks. Gameplay is mixed up by a handful of sliding and boat riding sections, where players careen down steep slopes grabbing helmets and avoiding boulders or race across water grabbing yet more helmets and avoiding various obstacles.

It’s hard to tell what’s worse: the repetitive combat or the repetitive puzzles and tasks.

The rest of Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered is exploration and platforming, with players swimming, hopping to platforms, and searching for switches. Often, you cannot progress until you clear out all enemies or hit switches and you must activate giant springs with X to fly to other sections. Speaking of, stages go on way, way too long, throwing the same gimmicks and obstacles at you no matter where you’re fighting. Sure, some areas have more water than others, Egypt (and Rome) has a lot of insta-death lava, and spike pits become plentiful, but you’re still forced to fight endless swarms of enemies until it’s safe to light an explosive, hit a switch, or push blocks and towers. Occasionally, you step on pressure pads to open trap doors, which is a great way to take out multiple enemies. Other times, you scale towers, explore caves, or go solo to open a door or clear the way. Sometimes, you must use the cannons to take out patrolling phalanxes; other times, Sam tasks you with collecting helmets or (surprise, surprise) clearing out all enemies before he’ll open a door. I wish there was more to say about the gameplay but there really isn’t. All you do is smash crates, bash enemies, collect helmets, and perform the same simple tasks again and again. Sometimes, blasts of wind rush through tunnels and you must hide in alcoves until it (eventually) dies down and to preserve your torch. One time in Greece, you push logs to make platforms for Asterix; and you must frantically eliminate flying Romans in Helvetia to light four torches. You never play as other characters (not even Dogmatix for stealth sections), there’s no upgrades beyond the rubbish combos, and the best the game has to offer in terms of upping the challenge is more insta-death hazards and enemies. Luckily, you won’t have to clear out those hoards if you die afterwards, but my god does this game outstay it’s welcome quickly!

Presentation:
Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered has a very confused visual identity. The titular characters have been given a gritty makeover, ditching their cuddly, comic book aesthetic for a more pugilistic atmosphere, though their supporting characters and enemies oddly don’t reflect this. Both characters have basic idly poses but are strangely quiet in most cutscenes, only really chiming in when they rescue their fellow villagers. There are no pre-rendered cutscenes so you’ll be seeing the in-game models the entire time, though they do look pretty decent. It’s just a shame they don’t have many animations or attacks and, when you bust out a combo, that the game lags. The game performs pretty well, unless there’s loads of enemies and action on the screen, though I did experience moments of stuttering and where I had to reload because the game didn’t register that I’d defeated all enemies. The story is about as predictable as ever, with the two warriors searching for their kidnapped friends and travelling across most of the Roman Empire. However, Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered wastes a lot of its potential by omitting notable characters from these locations, like Cleopatra, Gluteus Maximus, and Justforkix (though Redbeard the Pirate does appear). This extends to the enemies, with you fighting the same Romans over and over; the game doesn’t even include the “Roman in a tree” trope and instances where you fight anyone other than Romans are lacking. Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered also opts for a rock-based soundtrack that feels very out of place. The music is often a bit dodgy as well, cutting off and going silent midway through the action or abruptly ending or kicking in for no reason. It’s neat that you can switch between the old and new visuals, with the original graphics obviously being far blander and more basic compared to the modern makeover, though it’s not as if the new paint job makes things any livelier.

The visual upgrade is appreciated but doesn’t improve the tedious gameplay or barebones story.

Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered plays things very safe with its locations, having you fight in the forests and through the Gaulish village before visiting the snowy mountains of Normandy, the picturesque cliffsides of Greece, the night-time countryside of Helvetia, the arid deserts of Egypt, and finally the grandiose Colosseum in Rome. I liked seeing the Gaul’s village recreated in 3D, even if it is in flames, and it’s fun spotting recognisable locations like Cacofonix’s treehouse and Unhygienix’s fishmongers, and fighting Romans by the beach. It’s a shame you don’t get to properly storm a Roman garrison, but there are plenty of encampments stationed across their empire. I enjoyed the snowy wastes of Normandy, but this location is largely squandered as you’re mostly fighting up a mountain and your exploration of the frigid, Norse caves is limited to claustrophobic, windswept environments. Civilisation comes to the forefront in Greece, where you fight through Roman baths and bash gladiators, while Helvetia is tackled mostly at night and sees you springing and jumping up a cliffside. This area emphasises elevator platforms, which often crop up, where you must defeat all enemies to reach higher areas. I had high hopes for Egypt but, rather than exploring dark and ominous pyramids and crypts, you’re mostly stuck in the wastelands or fighting through the bustling market and city squares. There’s a lot of lava, boulders, and towering statues here and a pyramid does crop up, but it’s weird that there’s no labyrinthine switch puzzle or anything like that. Rome is the smallest area, restricting you to the ornate city outskirts and then forcing you to fight a gauntlet in the Colosseum, which I suppose makes sense but it’s still a bit disappointing that you don’t explore more of the city. It’s cool fighting before Julius Caesar and hopping on his throne, but there’s little to note here since you’re forced to focus on decimating the thousands of enemies who come at you in waves.

Enemies and Bosses:
Unsurprisingly, many Roman soldiers appear in Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered. The standard Legionnaires carry spears and shields and are easily defeated, eventually donning leaves to pop up from long grass. Taller Legionnaires appear in Greece and sport larger weapons, extremely annoying “pushers” swing gladiator sticks to send you flying, some fly on jetpacks to douse your fires, others fire arrows, and you encounter many instances of multiple Roman formations. These phalanxes wander about erratically, thrusting their spears from the sides or up top, but can be decimated with cannons. A larger “Optio” Legionnaire really got on my nerves since they often appear in fours and attack when you have no support on hand, charging a combo swing that seems to always hit. This is mirrored by the gold-clad Centurions, who come in two forms (though there’s sadly no Voluptuous Arteriosclerosus variant like other Asterix videogames) and can guard against your attacks and drop health-restoring meat. You also bash apart the Romans’ rock-tossing catapults and bash numerous Roman lions and their muscular tamers, and encounter some non-Roman enemies. Namely, cutlass-wielding pirates, their long-suffering captain, and two brutish Normans: a standard barbarian warrior and a more formidable chief. Fighting them is the same as fighting Optios and Centurions, except they swing spiked clubs and have no smaller cannon fodder to ease the battle. Honestly, I was disappointed by the enemy selection as the game sported fewer enemy variants than earlier, 16-bit and even 8-bit Asterix titles, and none of Asterix’s former rivals or enemies reappear here.

When you’re not bashing swarms of enemies, you’re facing the same war machines again and again.

This means that, rather than contending with the magic and hypnotic powers of Prolix the Soothsayer, tackling Redbeard’s crew, or pitting Obelix against Gluteus Maximus, you’re left to fight Roman war machines as boss battles. The smaller one is a towering structure with two concrete block arms that it swings and crash to the ground to create shockwaves. When you first fight this towering war machine, it’s in an open area with lots of room to manoeuvre and magic potion on hand, but you’re restricted to a smaller space in Egypt. Regardless, it’s best to use hit and run tactics, dashing in to smack the cogs holding the arms and escaping before you take a hit or are flung away, repeating until both arms are destroyed and the machine is left vulnerable. While most areas pit you against dozens, hundreds, or thousands of Romans, you must defeat numerous spiked bulldozer-like “Machines of War” to rescue your fellow villagers. At first, Asterix must get up high and leap to a big red switch on the machine’s top, extending the grinder-like appendages so Obelix can carefully hop between them and destroy their screws. This is easier said than done as the machine spits explosive bombs, its spikes have a deceptive hit box, and it can even electrify itself, to say nothing of how rotund Obelix is. In the second fight, you must step on three pressure plates to raise its central column, then race to the high ground to fire cannons at this target to attack the appendages as before. The same strategy works in the third encounter, only there are lava pits, levers to hit, and Romans to worry about (just ignore them, though, as the machine dispatches them). Finally, Caesar controls two Machines of War at once in Rome, with lava streams breaking up the ground. This time, you must drag Asterix to the high ground, extend a bridge, and hop to the red button, which is extremely difficult with so many projectiles and the janky camera. Luckily, you only have to destroy two appendages this time, so just focus on one machine at a time.

Additional Features:
There are twenty-eight Achievements in Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered, with six being awarded every time you beat a stage, and an extra one earned every time you clear the game on a different difficulty. There are three to choose from at the start, with a fourth “Extreme” difficulty unlocked after you beat “Hard” mode, though these Achievements stack so maybe tackle the game on at least “Normal” to save time. Each level has up to eight Golden laurels to find for another Achievement, you’ll get another for unlocking every combo, another for getting six health shields, and two more for defeating 5000 enemies and collecting 99999. Find and defeat Redbeard in each location and you get another Achievement, bounce yourself around twenty times in thirty seconds for another, and clear all timed challenges for more. By clearing areas and progressing through the story, you’ll activate steles that task you with switching between the old and new visuals to collect coins or racing to the finish against a time limit. You can replay any level from the main map to seek out any challenges or collectibles you’ve missed. You also unlock some fun skins if you find all the Golden Laurels in each location and can purchase amusing pictures from the Great Map screen. Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered offers a bunch of options, like toggling between the new and old visuals and soundtrack and sound effects, enabling autosave when near a druid, activating a speedrunner time, and revamped animations. Sadly, however, there’s no two-player options or boss rush or anything to collect other than endless helmets and the Golden Laurels, which stunts replayability a bit since stages are such a chore to play through!

Final Thoughts:
I had high hopes for Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered. I’d seen the games floating around the Xbox Store for a while and been tempted by them since I’m a big fan of the franchise and 3D brawlers, but man was this a let-down. The game starts pretty strong, with an interesting visual makeover for the two heroes and recreating their iconic image in 3D, but it quickly outstays its welcome after just the first stage. It makes sense to focus an Asterix game on combat, but fights are so dull and repetitive here. Even if you purchase all the combos, pulling them off is really weird and barely worth the effort beyond decimating foes with the Twister combos. It’s baffling how little you utilise the magic potion, how underwhelming Obelix is, and how restrictive and tedious fights are due to the janky camera and a lack of attacks. Platforming is equally aggravating, with you constantly performing the same tasks no matter what, with only some slides and boat sections to break up the action. Getting Asterix onto platforms for Obelix to pull was annoying half the time, I got sick of searching for switches, pulling rocks is never interesting no matter how big they are, and it was incredibly frustrating to reach an area and be boxed in and forced to fight up to thousands of enemies. To make matters worse, all you do between these tasks is smash crates and collect Roman helmets, which gets old quickly. There’s little point in exploring unless you’re searching for Golden Laurels and Redbeard, Dogmatix is unreliable as a support attack, and the bosses were a major let-down. I’m truly baffled that, with all the Asterix stories told and all the characters available, the developers recycled the same enemies over and over and used the same Machines of War with little variation. While the Romastered do-over improves the visuals and the game pops at times, every area is a slog to get through and a waste of the license, reducing the Asterix brand to a beat-‘em-up platformer so mindless and repetitive it makes the arcade game looks like a sprawling epic!

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Did you enjoy Astérix & Obélix XXL: Romastered and, if so…why? Were you impressed by this visual revamp or did you prefer the original? Were you also disappointed by the lacklustre combat and repetitive gameplay? Do you agree that areas went on for way too long and that the bosses were a disappointment? Did you ever find all the Golden Laurels and beat the new time trials? Which of the XXL games was your favourite and how are you celebrating Asterix this month? Whatever your thoughts on Asterix, feel free to leave a comment below, support me on Ko-Fi, and and check out my other Asterix content.

Mini Game Corner [Back to the Future Day]: Super Back to the Future Part II (Super Famicom)

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In Back to the Future Part II (Zemeckis, 1989), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels to October 21, 2015, which is known as “Back to the Future Day” to celebrate the franchise and science.

Released: 23 July 1993

Developer: Daft

MobyGames Score: 6.3

Quick Facts:
Celebrated as one of the most beloved, successful, and influential trilogies, the Back to the Future films expanded into decades of mediocre to aggravating tie-in videogames. Annoyingly, this sadly obscure, Japanese-exclusive release (originally intended to be a top-down adventure game), could’ve turned the tide with its colourful visuals and simple, but fun gameplay.

The Review:
Super Back to the Future Part II is a 2D, sidescrolling adventure in which you guide Marty McFly through six levels (known as “Rounds”), each with two to five stages and based on locations from the film. Although the game has no difficulty options, you can make things harder by limiting your lives, though I’d recommend selecting five as the game gets a bit brutal with its enemy and hazard placement. Each Round has a super simple (if sometimes nonsensical) password to continue your progress or skip tricky sections. Marty is essentially a slower, clunkier imitation of Sonic the Hedgehog, spinning about on his hoverboard to defeat and bounce off enemies, hitting springs to get higher, and avoiding spike pits, hazards, and ceilings. Players jump and perform Marty’s somersault with A and hold B to speed up, essential for climbing the game’s many slopes and making the longer, trickier jumps. Unfortunately, you must often hold B to jump to moving, temporary, and stationary platforms, which can be very finnicky. Marty doesn’t carry his momentum when jumping, can be very weighty and unwieldy, and is also very floaty, so you often zip past platforms, plummet to lower areas, or struggle to jump to a simple platform because Marty won’t move his ass. Players grab gold coins to exchange to helpful items at vending machines, restoring their health and gaining a temporary shield or invisibility, or earning an extra life. Oddly, there is no high score system so there’s not much replay value beyond the obscurity and visual appeal. It does offer a “Lesson” mode and the usual sound test options, though these are the bare minimum I’d expect. Unfortunately, there’s not much gameplay variety here. There are no bonus rounds or autoscrolling chase sections, for example, or opportunities to play as other characters, which is a shame.

Guide Marty in a colourful adventure through time that desperately tries to ape Sonic’s action.

Super Back to the Future Part II follows the movie plot very closely, starting in the far future of 2015, visiting the dystopian 1985, and ending in 1955 in a race to recover the Grays Sports Almanac from Biff Tannen. This mainly involves dashing up and down slopes, making blind leaps, awkwardly hopping to moving, falling, and temporary platforms, and hitting switches to lower barriers. While there are no bottomless pits, the knockback is unreal and can set you back quite far, or see you trapped down spike pits or hit by enemies until you rage quit and use a password. Marty’s sprite may be colourful and expressive, with a fun, super-deformed aesthetic, but his hit box is huge and you’re often required to spin into falling hazards or hop against walls to clumsily escape pits. Still, Marty is much more fun to control in the open, where a good run-up can see you hurtle or plummet past most stage hazards. When confined to the sewers or Biff’s luxurious casino hotel, Marty struggles, especially when there are ceiling spikes and moving platforms as it’s all-too easy to simply pass through these or slip off because of the dodgy jump mechanics. You’re occasionally asked to bounce off enemies to clear gaps, which is kind of fun, bombs and balloons sometimes fill the screen, and some Rounds see you riding wind currents (though you drop like a stone if you hit an enemy or obstacle). “Round 4 -2” sees you heading left, some Rounds are almost maze-like in their sprawling, samey layouts, and all these gimmicks are recycled in aggravating ways in “Round 6-1” (alongside massive falling boulders and more spikes than ever) to present the toughest challenge. While the gameplay is fun, the difficulty ramps up due to the awkward controls and how unreliable Marty is to control. Without a duck and with a massive hit box, it’s easy for him to take damage when riding platforms and such, and it doesn’t help that he sometimes gets a bit stuck on (or clips through!) the environment, or that he’s sent flying from the smallest of hits!

While the controls can be janky, the game has an undeniable visual appeal.

However, the game has an undeniable visual appeal and is visually the best looking of all the Back to the Future games released back in the day. Super Back to the Future Part II is ridiculously colourful, featuring chibi-style sprites that give everyone oversized heads and bring the game to life with an anime aesthetic. Marty is super expressive and has fun idle and victory poses where he taps his foot impatiently and flips and holds his hoverboard. Doctor Emmett Brown, Lorraine and George McFly, and different versions of Biff appear in the sprite-based cutscenes to advance the plot, and most Rounds start and/or end with either a sprite-based cutscene or some fun detailed (if unfortunately static) sprite art that tells a truncated version of the film’s story. Accordingly, the environments mirror the film and are just as vibrant and chunky as the sprites, reminding me of Amiga games, though some elements were a bit bland and some levels were a bit confusing to navigate. The game’s at its best in recognisable locations like variations of Hill Valley (the far future, with the courthouse and fountain, the desolate present, with its broken windows and ominous atmosphere, and the jaunty 1950s with its blood orange sky). There are a handful of these beyond the town square, such as the Café 80’s where you fight Griff, Biff’s garish casino hotel and neon-drenched rooftop, the haunting cemetery, and knobbing about backstage at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Sadly, these are juxtaposed with generic locations like sewers and warehouses and the level layouts rarely take advantage of their settings. There is very little to the casino stage, for example, which could’ve featured unique gimmicks like slot machines or elevators. Hitoshi Sakamoto offers a lovingly faithful, chip tune rendition of the film’s classic overture. Though this is reused in multiple levels, others sport jaunty little tunes or fun remixes of it and even a “Johnny B. Goode” soundalike in “Round 5-3”. While the interludes and cutscenes are fun, there’s no real ending and sadly we must rely on fan-made hacks to play translated versions, though the game remained gorgeous to look at, at least.

Wacky, super deformed versions of the film’s villains take full advantage of your massive hit box.

Marty dispatches a bunch of random shite in his adventure. He bops off various robots, trigger happy cops, and hoverboard (and hoverbike) riding goons in 2015, beats up Biff’s taser-wielding security detail in 1985, battles ninjas, dodges cans tossed by delinquents, and even comes across baddies wielding assault rifles, shotguns, or tossing dynamite! Each Round boasts at least one boss battle, with you facing Griff in “Round 1-2” and “Round 2-2”. In the first fight, he spins two baseball bats, slamming them to the ground to rain Pepsi bottles, and you must simply attack him or hit the television monitors to damage him. In the second, he floats above firing projectiles and occasionally ramming into you, protected from below by his hoverboard and forcing you to rely on switches to activate the central fountain and send him hurtling into the courthouse. You fight a musician in “Round 3-3, dodging little black balls and musical notes and utilising falling platforms and pipes to lands hits, and some dude with a hammer and some circus performer in “Round 3-5”. You can hit a switch to separate them, but it’s easier to focus on one at a time than chase them around. You fight the alternate 1985 Biff on the casino rooftop, hitting switches to send electrical sparks across the neon sign in the background to hurt him (though these can also hurt you!) and avoiding his pistol and rapid baton attack. Biff’s buddies Matches, Skinhead, and 3D await in “Round 5-4”, with each patrolling a different level of a three-tier environment. One holds a champagne bottle and fires a cork at you, another attacks with party poppers and such, and 3D runs back and forth laying a projectile trap. The hardest thing about this fight is getting Marty to each level without slipping or falling, though! “Round 6-2” sees you fighting Biff in a quasi-autoscroller where you’re actually confined to one area by trucks either side. Biff occasionally tackles you and tosses projectiles, and there are crates and other junk to avoid, but this wasn’t much of a challenge. Sadly, the hope of a second phase where you desperately race away from him was dashed as this is simply a cutscene, making for a bit of an anticlimactic ending.

Final Thoughts:
I’ve known about and wanted to play Super Back to the Future Part II for a long time but never got around to it back when I was emulating games as a hobby. It was really exciting to get into it for this review as it is a gorgeous and wacky title. It’s bizarre to me that this game was never released outside of Japan as I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be easy to translate and ship overseas. It’s doubly annoying as the franchise really needed this game back in the day as the other 8- and 16-bit titles were borderline unplayable. Sure, this game has flaws, but it’s clearly the best Back to the Future game of its time, even if Marty is a clunky-ass bag of sand with a massive hit box. It’s a shame the game didn’t do more with its mechanics. It’s clearly borrowing from Sonic so it would’ve been fun to sprinkle in some autoscrolling chase sections, perhaps a bonus stage where you control the DeLorean, or a level where you guide Jennifer Parker through the 2015 McFly house. Considering when the game released, it also might’ve been fun to have it feature levels from all three films, with Marty using a traditional skateboard, hoverboard, and perhaps gaining a pistol in 1885. Instead, the game relies heavily on the gold coins, which isn’t all that great and strangely limits your options for pick-ups. Add to that some finnicky jumping and platforming mechanics, some odd clipping issues, and the general lack of polish to the gameplay and Super Back to the Future Part II is undeniably a disappointment in terms of its gameplay. However, it’s so colourful and visually appealing that you almost don’t mind that aggravating aspects, especially as the level codes are so simple to enter. Overall, yes, it’s a flawed game that need a bit more polish, but Super Back to the Future Part II is still very appealing and enjoyable and I’ll always be mad that it never got released outside of Japan or ported to other consoles.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you ever play Super Back to the Future Part II? Do you agree that it’s the best of the Back to the Future games released back then? Would you have liked to see it released outside of Japan or do you think it’s too janky for a wider release? Did you also find the jumping and momentum awkward to deal with? Which Back to the Future videogame is your? How are you celebrating Back to the Future Day today? Whatever you think about Super Back to the Future Part II, share your thoughts below and donate to my Ko-Fi if you liked this review.

Game Corner: Quantum of Solace (Xbox 360)

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Released: 31 October 2008
Developer: Treyarch

Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3

Quick Facts:
When Activision secured the rights to the James Bond franchise, they immediately developed a videogame tie-in to the largely divisive Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008), handing the project to Treyarch. Their Call of Duty (Various, 2003 to present) game engine provided a basis for enemy behaviours and gameplay mechanics. Though reluctant, star Daniel Craig also appeared in and offered feedback on the game, though Quantum of Solace released to mixed reviews that criticised the rushed narrative and repetitive gameplay.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Quantum of Solace is a first-person shooter (FPS) that retells key events of the movie of the same name, while also featuring a massive interlude that recaps Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006). For anyone hoping for a classic FPS 007 experience, you may be disappointed to learn that Quantum of Solace has more in common with the Call of Duty games, setting a precedent for Activision’s subsequent 007 titles in the process. Accordingly, players fire with the Right Trigger, reload with X, toss grenades and flashbangs and such with the Right Bumper, and press the left stick to briefly sprint. You use the Left Trigger to “aim down the sights”, using this alongside a mild auto aim to quickly target enemies even when they’re behind cover, while the Left Bumper switches weapons (of which you can carry only three). Bond vaults over obstacles and gaps with Y, crouches with B to either sneak up on enemies or use cover, and “snaps to” cover with A. While under cover, players can either pop up to return fire, shoot around whatever they’re hiding behind, or use A to quickly dash to alternative cover, with the game adopting a third-person perspective for these moments. The directional pad (D-pad) alters your weapon’s fire rate and equips a silencer (if possible) and cycles through your different grenades. Bond can bring up his hand-dandy smart phone with the “View” button, receiving an overview of his objectives, cycling through any security cameras he’s hacked, reading data files, and consulting a pretty substandard map as a compass guides you towards your objectives. By default, Bond automatically regains health when taking cover or staying out of harm’s way, though Quantum of Solace is pretty generous with its checkpoints so it’s hardly an inconvenience when you die.

Take cover in firefights, hack locks, and shimmy past guards in this substandard COD clone.

When sneaking up on enemies, players can press in the right stick to perform a silent “takedown”. This initiates a quick-time event (QTE) where you must hit the right button to subdue your target, though enemies will be alerted if they spot the body, if you make too much noise, or if you’re spotted by cameras. Thus, it’s better to disable these by holding X when prompted rather than shooting them. Bond also shimmies along balconies to bypass guards, with the game often employing a picture-in-picture perspective to make it easier to time when to hop past windows and such. Occasionally, players must maintain their balance on beams using a pendulum mechanic, jump larger gaps with Y when prompted, and use a mounted turret to mow down enemies with no danger of it overheating. X interacts with the environment, retrieves phones for data files, activates switches, opens gates, and hacks PCs. When used on certain locks, a hacking mini game is initiated where you must press a direction on the D-pad when the number appears in green. Naturally, Bond has a small arsenal of weapons to choose from, either by grabbing guns dropped by enemies or opening special crates. You’ve got his standard-issue Walther PP9, of course, and similar variants alongside the high-impact Super Magnum, two heavy-duty shotguns, and a super fun grenade launcher. There are a couple of sniper rifles, with Bond able to hold his breath for a short time to steady his shot, and a whole bunch of machine and submachine guns. Some come with silencers and special scopes, some burn through ammo faster than others, and some are pretty weak and inaccurate or take longer to reload. I quite enjoyed the Uzi-like Mantis, the hefty TLD22, and the heavy-duty 8-CAT, but the M14 can go die in a ditch. You won’t have to worry about buying upgrades or add-ons or anything so just grab your favourite weapon and go for it.

It’s rare, but some missions offer unique objectives and mechanics to mix up the tedious gameplay.

While some sections promote stealth, being spotted usually just raises an alarm and sees more enemies swarm in, which can end your run pretty quickly so it’s better to pick enemies off with your silenced PP9 or sniper rifle. When stealth is necessary, you must crouch-walk around deactivating cameras and subduing enemies, though this can be tricky if you’re impatient like me. Other times, you’re forced to “survive” against waves of enemies who dive and crouch behind cover or toss grenades if they see you camping. You can shoot electrical boxes and explosive targets to thin out their numbers or occasionally shoot specific targets to drop boats onto them or collapse their rickety platforms. When Dominic Greene’s elaborate estate catches fire in the finale, you must shoot fire extinguishers to dose the flames, crawl though vents in the science centre, and quickly take out enemies before they separate your speeding train from Vesper Lynd’s. You get thirty seconds to do this and there are other similarly timed challenges to contend with, like when you’re given twenty seconds to run, crouch, and escape the tunnels before turncoat Craig Mitchell sets off his explosives or forty-five seconds to kill Greene. There are a couple of chase sequences, with the game (mostly) recreating the famous parkour chase from Casino Royale, forcing players to take alternative paths when the way is blocked or the ground gives beneath them, or when you chase Mitchell across the rooftops and through the houses of Siena. To infiltrate the opera house, players must sneak around disabling cameras and putting down enemies, heading under the docks and manipulating the gantries with switches, and finally sidling along on precarious ledges to avoid being spotted by snipers. The train missions see you taking ladders to the roof to take out and get the drop on enemies, you must snipe the guards outside the science centre, and stumble across a busy road to cure Bond of his poisoning in Casino Royale.

Presentation:
Quantum of Solace does a fairly decent job of bringing the movie’s locations and major action sequences to life, with environments showing a lot of life and detail if not really rewarding or promoting exploration. It tells an extremely truncated version of one of the weaker Bond stories, jumping from place to place and moment to moment and assuming the player is familiar with the film before derailing things to flashback to Casino Royale. When Bond and his MI6 cohorts do appear, they all reflect the likenesses of their actors but are little more than emotionless marionettes, quickly running through key moments of the plot to get back to the action. To make matters worse, most cutscenes are simply voiceovers placed over animated menus as MI6 and Mister White review or listen in on Bond’s actions. As ever, this remains a disappointingly cheap way to advance the plot, so I generally just skipped these when allowed. On the plus side, the movie’s awful theme song is replaced by a far less grating alternative from Kerli, the classic Bond themes punctuate the action, and Bond’s death animation is delivered through the classic gun barrel sequence. Enemies are quite lively, wandering around without a care in the world and leaping into action when they spot you, diving to and shooting around cover and even climbing ladders after you. They occasionally ragdoll about, comically toppling over balconies and such, which is always fun to see. Two of my favourite moments were when the drugged Bond stumbles through Casino Royale, his vision blurred and his body woozy, and your desperate climb up a sinking building in Venice. You also Vesper through the streets, automatically alternating between armed and unarmed if civilians are about, and I was very impressed with the opera house sequence. The environment is large and ominous, with opera music echoing in the background, and Bond must carefully sneak about behind the scenes to progress.

While character models are soulless puppets, the environments are surprisingly faithful to the movies.

After recreating the ending of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace opens with an all-out firefight at Mr. White’s luxurious estate. You start in the gardens, blasting baddies between flowerbeds, through the greenhouse, and through Mr. White’s fully stocked wine cellar. A new version of the film’s title sequence follows this and then you’re chasing Mitchell through claustrophobic caverns and across rooftops in a pretty impressive sequence as the environment is full of market stalls, drying clothes, and the sounds of football from televisions. The sinkhole mission is unremarkable by comparison though there is a section where you briefly protect Camille Montes from Greene’s goons and it leads to a Casino Royale flashback that starts with an exciting and fairly accurate recreation of the parkour sequence, with you crashing, jumping, and balancing about a construction site, and leads you into the visually unique science centre. The airport sequence is a stealth mission in the first half and a firefight in the second, with you frantically clambering up stairs to take out the would-be suicide pilot. The train mission was once of the most visually impressive as you start in the passenger carriages with Vesper and venture onto the roof during a torrential downpour, hopping to a cargo train and picking off goons as you go. While we never see the poker game, players do sneak Bond into Casino Royale, pushing laundry carts, shimmying across ledges, and using the vents to reach the spa for a firefight. The visuals take a bit of a hit on the barge, though it does add to the tension as you race to find Vesper and the Venice mission makes up for it by being in broad daylight. Like the movie, the game culminates with Bond and Camille infiltrating Greene’s impressive, ring-shaped Eco Hotel lair, which both catches fire and is rocked by explosions that force you to find alternative paths to avoid being roasted.

Enemies and Bosses:
As one of the duller James Bond movies to adapt to a videogame, Quantum of Solace features a forgettable slew of goons to mow down. While they will take cover, hunt you down, and toss grenades and their gunfire can ignite explosive barrels, their behaviour is generally predictable, and most can be put down with a few well-placed shots. If you’re spotted, they will shout for backup, generally bringing in better armed goons or perhaps guys in body armour, so it’s usually advised that you use stealth. At first, you’re just gunning down Mr. White’s bodyguards, but you do attack his helicopter to keep him from escaping, at least, and Bond can be easily put down if he runs head-first into an ambush. As you pursue Mitchell, he plants explosives and calls in goons to hold you off, with the game occasionally enforcing a “bullet time” sequence or rattling your senses when they use flash grenades. As ever, snipers can be the bane of your existence, especially at the opera house and science centre, so you’ll want to master the shimmying mini games and the sniper rifle to even the odds there. The science centre, especially, can swarm with machine gun-wielding guards if you’re not careful and the level layouts don’t always make it easy to spot who’s shooting you or from where. Even regular enemies can be troublesome on the train mission as you’re facing a strict timer to reach Vesper and they’re firing from all sides, making it easy to get caught in a crossfire. When infiltrating Greene’s Eco Hotel, you’ll encounter more of his “elite” guards (heavily-armed, armoured military types) who take a few more shots to put down. When pursuing Vesper through Venice, you’ll often get caught in a kill box as enemies bustle around courtyards and stick to the upper levels.

When you’re not taking out choppers and completing QTEs, you’re left to just gun foes down.

Sadly, boss battles are few in Quantum of Solace, with the game generally tossing in a timed challenge, a QTE, or forcing you to fend off waves of enemies either with your equipped weapons or, one time, a mounted turret. Helicopters crop up a couple of times, with you easily downing Mr. White’s chopper by blindly blasting at the cockpit and later using a convenient grenade launcher to take out another chopper at the science centre. This is a tougher objective, however, as the available cover doesn’t help much against the chopper’s guns and enemies drop in to cause you more grief. Another one pops up in the sinkhole mission, though there’s more cover and you can use a sniper rifle to target the pilot. Other bosses are reduced to simple QTE sequences that somewhat mirror the fight scenes from both movies. You battle Mitchell in a crumbling tower, for example, and machete-wielding Steven Obanno in a staircase at the Casino Royale. Naturally, you’ll want to pay attention to what’s happening as you’ll fail if you press the wrong button and you’re sometimes asked to mash a button. While Vesper’s busying drowning, Bond is jumped by Adolph Gettler, who stands there and unloads with his pistol. Since Bond is so desperate and grief-stricken, you’re only option is to take aim and fire with a nearby nail gun before you’re killed. As in the movie, Camille finishes off the depraved General Luiz Medrano, but you must shoot an explosive target to give her the chance. These same targets appear when you finally have your showdown with Greene, who wisely takes the high ground and calls in his elite guards to bombard you with gunfire. Since there’s plenty of cover and your objective is to kill Greene, and you only have forty-five seconds before the Eco Hotel explodes, you can just shoot the explosive targets to put him down and then make a break for it with Camille for a different, but equally unsatisfying ending.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements in Quantum of Solace. While many are now unobtainable as the Xbox Live network is down, these are still the only reason to sit through his forgettable game as they’re pretty simple. You get Achievements for completing each chapter and four for beating each difficulty mode. You’ll get an Achievement for finding some and all cell phones, hacking every lock, scoring fifty headshots, and executing fifty takedowns. Best of all, every level features a unique Achievement tied to it to encourage a replay (easily done after clearing the game and unlocking the chapter select). These require you to use only the P99 on the train, reach the Casino Royale spa and airport server room without being spotted, destroy every overhead light in the science centre, shoot down seven satellite dishes on the rooftops of Siena, and rescue Vesper in less than two minutes on the barge. The multiplayer mode offered standard options like free-for-all-team-based combat, and capture the flag. You could pick different maps based on the game’s missions, customise weapon loadouts, choose to play as either Bond/MI6 or the mysterious “Organisation”, and fight for control of the legendary Golden Gun or to disarm bombs. You would also earn points by playing the multiplayer mode, which could be spent on weapons, gadgets, and attachments, all for additional Achievements and to add a bit more spice to your deathmatches.  

Final Thoughts:
I first played Quantum of Solace years ago as part of my research for my Master’s degree (I did an essay about James Bond videogames). The experience was so shallow and by-the-numbers that I shied away from modern James Bond videogames for many years, only playing them out of sheer morbid curiosity or content for the website. Going back to it now, it’s not as bad as some later games (mainly because Bond isn’t using his damn cell phone for everything), but it’s still a dull and ultimately forgettable experience. It’s telling that so much of the game is based around Casino Royale as Quantum of Solace just isn’t interesting enough to carry the action. The gunplay and basic mechanics are serviceable, but the weapon selection is largely uninspired and there’s not a lot of meat on its bones as it’s simply another hastily thrown together cash-in title that ends up being a poor man’s Call of Duty. I could forgive the lifeless character models if Quantum of Solace didn’t cheap out with its fancy PowerPoint cutscenes, which are just so cheap and insulting that there’s little point in paying attention to the story. There’s little incentive to explore unless you’re desperate to find all those cell phones, what few “bosses” there are are just bog standard QTEs, and you’re barely encouraged to do more than just barge through all guns blazing. It’s a shame as the environments are pretty good, especially for the time, and there’s the ghost of some decent mechanics here. Sadly, knowing these would be both convoluted and driven into the ground by subsequent Bond games only drags Quantum of Solace down further as it set a bad standard for the franchise. As ever, you’re better off sticking to the classics rather than wasting time on this one, unless you fancy boosting your Gamer Score for an affordable price.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Were you also disappointed by Quantum of Solace? Did you enjoy the Call of Duty-inspired gameplay or do you agree that it set a bad precedent for the franchise? What did you think to the stealth mechanics and gimmicks like the hacking mini game and balance beams? Did you also find the Casino Royale missions the most enjoyable? Did you ever play the multiplayer mode and, if so, how was it? Which James Bond videogame is your favourite? How are you celebrating 007 this month? Share your thoughts down below, check out my other James Bond content, and go suggest anther Bond videogame for me to review by donating to my Ko-Fi.

Game Corner: RetroRealms: Ash vs. Evil Dead & Halloween

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Released: 13 September 2024
Developer: Wayforward
Metacritic Scores: 78 / 6.5; 78 / 6.4

Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

Quick Facts:
Despite being one of the most influential horror films of all time, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) has seen surprisingly little representation in videogames. Conversely, Sam Raimi’s controversial Evil Dead films (1981 to present) spawned ten videogames before the acclaimed television series merged with the Halloween franchise in this throwback release. Produced in tandem and designed to pay homage to both franchises and seemingly as a platform to showcase future works, both games were bolstered by additional downloadable content (DLC) and largely impressed.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
RetroRealms is a throwback to the classic 8- and 16-bit era, bringing two of horror’s unlikeliest franchises together for the first time. It’s certainly an odd fit, placing elements from the Evil Dead franchise into the largely grounded Halloween series rather than, say, Friday the 13th (Various, 1980 to present), but it works surprisingly well. It probably helps that both franchises are technically separated, with the collection presenting them as two cabinets in a long-abandoned arcade, though they share enemies, playable characters, and controls. No matter which game you play, you can pick between two characters (Michael Myers/The Shape and Ashley “Ash” Williams), with two more available via DLC. Non-intrusive in-game tutorials and signposts explain the mechanics and controls, which you can review from the pause menu. Every character shares the same controls, though they have different attributes and abilities to help them stand out. So, while every character attacks with X, charges a strong attack by holding X, and jumps with A, their charged move differs. Ash, for example, unloads with his “boomstick” while Myers performs a dashing stab with his trademark kitchen knife. Characters automatically clamber over ledges and can hop down by pressing down and A on certain flooring, and all progress upwards with a wall jump. You can attack upwards and in mid-air, even bouncing off them similar to the 8-bit classic DuckTales (Capcom, 1989). As you dispatch enemies, you’ll grab collectibles for cash. After clearing a World, you visit the shop to purchase upgrades and additional moves, allowing you to boost your maximum health, add combos to your attacks, and unlock fancier attacks. This adds a spinning slash to Ash’s arsenal to send heads rolling, sees him crash down on enemies with his robotic hand by pressing the Left Bumper in mid-air, and flinging his chainsaw arm upwards to extend his jump.

Hack-and-slash your way through two realms teeming with demons and Deadites alike!

Similarly, Myers unlocks a standing spin to decapitate enemies, slams on them from above with LB, or performs an upwards slash with the Right Bumper to reach higher ground escape bottomless pits. Pressing down and A when stationary performs a dash to fit in narrow vents, with characters becoming temporarily invincible as a bonus. Players also press B to enter the “Shadow Realm”, a Hellish dimension where Deadites roam, lava burns, and monstrous boils cover every surface. This lasts as long as your meter, which automatically refills, and you must switch between the two realms to reach hidden areas or progress further as some walls and platforms are intangible in different realms. You must be careful, though, as shifting realms can place you inside walls, which sets you back and costs you some health. Defeated enemies may drop partial or full refills for your health or meter and you’re granted unlimited lives, but only a single checkpoint per stage as each stage is split into two levels. You’ll also come across non-playable characters who gift you a sub-weapon, thrown with Y (though you can only hold one at a time). Ash attacks with his chainsaw and shotgun, gaining extra weapons by smashing coloured crates. These see him hurl the Kandarian dagger, toss a flaming lantern to set enemies and vicious roots alight, fire a nail gun to stun enemies, or chuck an axe. Killing innocent bystanders grants Myers similar sub-weapons, with him tossing a pitchfork or a hammer, though he also utilises a boomerang-like sickle and bolas. Each sub-weapon costs a different amount of ammo to use, which you find in crates or by slaughtering enemies, and the axe and hammer even bounce to hit multiple enemies. Both games include propane tanks to hit to take out groups of enemies and weighted pallets to release, which crush those beneath, and fire hydrants to blast enemies with a water jet. Some enemy attacks, particularly exploding gas canisters, also kill enemies and you instantly explode them into a shower of gore if you realm shift where they’re standing.

Use wind currents, avoid spikes and flaming oil, and move between realms to progress in both games.

While you mostly slaughter Deadites and escaped mental patients (and random bystanders as Myers), you’ll switch between realms more as each game progresses. This largely comes to an apex in the final World, where players wander the Deadite dimension, with previous stages mostly offering some tricky platforming challenges. Both Ash and Myers must jump to moving and temporary platforms, with some exploding beneath you and others carrying you across spike pits or bottomless drops. Vertical and horizontal wind currents push you to higher ground or carry you across larger gaps, though they also hinder you if you push against them. You’ll crash through windows, cutting through trailer homes and dilapidated cabins, leap to rickety towers, floodlights, and construction towers to progress, and uncover hidden paths by realm shifting to snag hidden goodies. Ash fights through an S-Mart Value Store, Myers clears out his family home, and both dodge and jump to falling chandeliers. Ash fights through the haunted forest, avoiding acidic water and being set upon by redneck zombies, while Myers cuts through Haddonfield, crossing huge bottomless pits caused by roadworks. Toxic gunk, acidic water, and fireballs are regular hazards but seem more prominent in Ash vs. Evil Dead, where fireballs often mess up your jumps. While rampaging through Phelps Garage, Myers slips about on oily ground that bursts into flames when enemies toss petrol canisters from the background, hazards that dog Ash as he fights through Elks Grove. Players also jump to conveyor belts, either being carried along by them, gingerly wall jumping or being carried up vertical belts, or even using them as moving platforms. Crushing hazards spell instant death in the Overlord’s castle, and you’ll be dodging spike pits and spiked walls, either by using platforms or riding wind currents, gnashing your teeth when your jumps are a single pixel off and drop you down a pit.

Presentation:
RetroRealms offers a fun, if somewhat sparse, hub world that expands as you clear Worlds. It’s a fun little 3D background to the retro stylings of both games. Neither game includes voice acting beyond anguished screams or monstrous roars, so dialogue is conveyed entirely through text. The story changes depending on who you play as, with Myers being comically silent and Ash providing snappy retorts. Ash vs. Evil Dead mostly pulls from the show’s first season, with him battling through Mossy Haven Trailer Park and even encountering Vivian Johnson, tangling with Eligos in Books from Beyond, and returning to the haunted cabin to confront Ruby Knowby, all while hacking and slashing through hordes of Deadites. Likewise, Halloween is a purely sprite-based, arcade-style adventure, featuring a chip tune rendition of the iconic theme tune and minor idle poses for the Shape, where he yanks down his mask, breathes deeply, and cocks his head inquisitively. While Myers has a larger hit box than Ash and is noticeably slower and clunkier, it’s to be expected of the Shape, who lumbers about slaughtering orderlies and Deadites alike. Blood splatters, heads roll, and bodies litter the backgrounds, with many enemies respawning once you move slightly off camera to either hinder you by sapping your health and knocking you down pits or help you by allowing you to “farm” resources. The realm gimmick is fun, essentially giving every World two skins, with the Nightmare Realm being a dimension of pure suffering and chaos. While you only spend a brief time here, it’s enough to see gaping maws, pillars of viscera and blood, rivers of lava, and hordes of Deadites lurking in the background. The Deadites are much stronger and more aggressive here, with the standard enemies constantly resurrecting, and it can be tricky discerning where you can go since everything’s so twisted and awful. It’s impressive, however, especially in the Overlord’s challenging castle. While the games run smoothly for the most part, I did experience some odd moments where the music cut out and an annoying glitch where Ruby stopped summoning demons, so I had to reset the game.

Pick your game and enter a bloody, action-packed throwback to the games of yesteryear.

After crashing through trailer park homes in Mossy Haven, splattering blood over the gaudy garden furniture and flamingo ornaments, Ash returns to the creepy woods, with the bridge, crooked trees, and even skewered bodies visible in the raging background. While his time in the iconic cabin is brief, all the weird, haunted furnishings appear and Ash’s severed hand crawls in the foreground. Deadites also tear apart military personnel and vehicles on the streets of Elks Grove. Players venture into the rusted, dilapidated Sunny Meadows Asylum, where scrawled renditions of the Necronomicon line the walls, before fighting through the wrecked laundry room and fending off vicious little Mini Ash’s. Similarly, Halloween begins in Smith’s Grove Sanatorium and sees Michael hack through guards and inmates as patients flee across the rainswept fields. Myers then rampages through a garage and junkyard before terrorising Haddonfield. A storm rages in most backgrounds, trick-or-treaters can be seen in the streets, and you’ll cut down the trespassers in Michael’s childhood home. Myers then ventures into a creepy cemetery and crematorium, passing crypts and catacombs, and wades through disgusting sewers and dilapidated tunnels. It perfectly captures the visual aesthetic of the original movie, right down to including sprite recreations of Michael’s first kill and his sister’s tombstone. When each character reaches the Overload’s castle, they’re greeted by a desolate, gothic, Hellish landscape and battle through a fully stocked dungeon, including Iron Maidens, chains, and propane tanks to clear out Deadite hordes. Huge, ominous structures, hooked chains, and gruesome bloody imagery are everywhere in this hellscape, which includes basically every previous hazard and stage gimmick. This means you’ll ride conveyor belts past crushing hazards, wall jump between and precariously hop to those same hazards, and dodge flames, acid water, and fireballs galore to reach the Overlord’s throne room.

Enemies and Bosses:
Ash’s primary enemy are those possessed by the Necronomicon, meaning he must cut down zombified trailer park trash, civilians, and lumberjacks. Most just wander about, but the ghoulish females and other variants spit phlegm and some of the possessed Value Store employees take a couple of hits to put down. Others, like the red-clothed employees and mad scientists carrying Ash puppets, explode after you deal damage, flinging you across the screen if you’re close. Ravenous little Mini Ash’s and killer dolls cling to you, stunting your jump and keeping you from attacking unless you shake them off. Michael Myers, meanwhile, cuts down guards, crazed inmates, construction workers, cops, and groundskeepers. While the inmates simply run around, security guards and other enemies toss projectiles that leave a flaming hazard on the ground, which can be aggravating. Mechanics and vagrants burst from doors and the background to charge you (which I found surprisingly difficult), gravediggers shovel up dirt, and injured bystanders crawl along the ground to whittle down your health. Naturally, players must also tangle with a host of monstrous Deadites, with projectile-firing eyeballs being a constant headache, respawing flying eyeballs screwing up your jumps, and zombie-like Deadite grunts springing to life after being put down. While the more troublesome Deadite variants are limited to the Nightmare Realm for most of the game, they do seep into the main game as you progress, with vicious spider-like Deadites charging across the ground, weird little cherubs screwing up your controls, bulbous mounds of fatty flesh sending you flying, and these weird phallic monsters spitting acid. You must also avoid flaming hazards, spike pits and walls, fireballs, acidic water, and bottomless pits, which become doubly troubling when platforms explode beneath you…or you forget to keep an eye on your meter.

Ash must put some of his old enemies back into the dirt to reach the monstrous Overlord.

At the end of each World, Ash battles a demonic entity conjured by the malicious Deadite Overlord. First, Ash’s neighbour Vivian is transformed into a gangly grotesque that scuttles about, leaving herself wide open to your pogo attack, before tricking you by hiding behind hanging sheets. When back in the cabin, players battle not Ruby Knowby, but the swarms of ghoulish Deadites she summons into the basement. Clear out each wave to damage her, taking advantage of the restorative cocktails when they appear, if necessary. After battling through Elks Grove, Ash faces a rematch against Eligos, a terrifying little demon who constantly teleports about the bookstore and tosses energy orbs. After a few hits, it returns to the store’s inner sanctum, speeding up and keeping you on your toes with spiralling lightning bolts. In the asylum, players face Evil Ash, an exact duplicate of Ash who uses the same moves and sub-weapons alongside a ground pound that can be tough to avoid. Though Evil Ash stops to laugh at you, he’s fast and hits hard, so it can be tricky to put him down. Similarly, the surprise battle against Ash’s possessed 973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale can be challenging as there’s no checkpoint before it and it takes up a lot of screen space. The axe is essential here, as is your dodge roll, and memorising the pattern of the tyres it fires. The Overlord forces you to battle the gigantic demon Kandar, who fills the background, spews fire, and slams the ground with its massive fists, causing flaming debris to fall. You must toss axes or use Ash’s chainsaw uppercut to hit the demon’s giant face, taking care to avoid as much damage as possible as the Overlord interrupts halfway through to finish the job! This sees you hopping to moving platforms over a giant pit, slashing and striking the grotesque eyeballs on the Overlord’s Kaiju-sized body and avoiding the orbs he fires, which can be tricky if you miss-time your jumps or enter the fight with low health.

Myers battles some familiar, if demonic faces, before cutting through the Overlord.

The Overlord also conjures a few fitting challenges for the maniacal Michael Myers. First, he pits Myers against the hulking Mister F, a deranged mental patient who stamps around outside the asylum, headbutting you, stomping the pavement tiles in a shockwave, and calling in the crazies to rush the screen. It’s best to keep your distance with your sub-weapons, then dash in with Myers’ charge attack, as Mister F has a large hit box. Next, the Overlord furnishes Phelps Junior with a demonic vehicle that switches between firing spikes, drilling into the ground to lure you in, rolling along with a giant wheel, and producing a shockwave with a huge weight. Regardless of the configuration, the charged jumping strike is your best bet as the vehicle can only be damaged by hitting the main cab. World 3 offers a battle against Michael’s archenemies, Doctor Samuel Loomis and Laurie Strode, with both throwing Molotov cocktails and a spread of knitting needles, respectively. While it can be tough avoiding these as Myers is so big, it’s best to focus on one enemy at a time, launching your projectile to stun or attack the other when you can. After fighting through World 4’s cemetery, Myers is finally reunited with his sister, Judith, now a gigantic, monstrous Deadite banshee who’s a fun homage to Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1988). Accordingly, you hop to platforms as she chases you, avoiding dropping down the pit and her flame pillars, then use platforms to toss projectiles and slash at the ghoul, switching to different platforms when she sets them alight and avoiding her large flame attack. Before you battle the Overlord, he forces Myers to face a shadowy reflection of himself. Shadow Myers teleports, slashes, tosses pitchforks, and proves a troublesome foe, doubly so as you’re left to face the Overlord with whatever health you have left and must fight Shadow Myers again if you die. However, if you simply stand still, Shadow Myers will explode, making the Overlord much easier. The demonic entity floats about raining fireballs, conjuring pillars of energy, swirling fireballs about the screen, and disappearing into the darkness, but your Darkness Rising and hammer sub-weapon will make short work of him.

Additional Features:
There are fourteen Achievements in the base game for RetroRealms, twenty-three in both Ash vs. Evil Dead and Halloween, and a further seven in each game’s DLC, for a total of seventy-four Achievements! You’ll get Achievements for simply loading the game, trying to exit the arcade, viewing the credits, watching the developer videos, buying a souvenir, or viewing a diorama. Achievements pop when you clear each World, use each character’s charge attack 100 times, using each sub-weapon in different ways, pogo off enemies, and kill a certain number of enemies, or visit the Nightmare Realm 300 times. Additional Achievements pop if you finish a stage without your weapons in any way, quickly defeating bosses or Worlds, and for finding every collectible. Each World has three pages of the Necronomicon or three jack-o’-lanterns to find that are tallied for this Achievement, though you’ll also find tickets to purchase souvenirs in the hub world. You can compare your times and scores against others using the online leaderboards (though there’s no online play here) and get some fun collector’s cards and all the DLC if you buy the physical version, which adds Laurie and Kelly Maxwell as playable characters. Each has similar Achievements tied to them (use sub-weapons, clear Worlds, be active for 300 minutes, etc), alters the dialogue and the story (Laurie’s trying to rescue Tommy Doyle from the Overlord, for example), and has different attributes and sub-weapons. Kelly attacks with a meat cleaver, giving her a shorter reach than Ash, but makes up for it with a machine gun as her charged move, which can be fired in multiple directions, and using a rocket launcher in place of an uppercut. Laurie attacks with knitting needles, firing them in a spread as her charged attack, has a handy double jump and a ground dash, and is smaller, faster, but weaker than Myers. Both have similar sub-weapons to each other and compared to the main game, though they have unique items that let them slow down enemies for a short time and Kelly gets a flaming shield to protect her.

Final Thoughts:
I was excited for RetroRealms when I first heard of it as I’m a sucker for retro throwback titles, especially hack-and-slash games, and a big fan of both franchises. While it is really weird seeing these two worlds collide, I got over it pretty quickly and found it amusing seeing Michael Myers basically ignore everything the Overlord says and go on a rampage! It was super fun revisiting locations from Ash vs. Evil Dead but, as I haven’t watched the show for a while, it was World 2 that stuck with me the most as you return to the infamous forest and enter the iconic haunted cabin, a location sadly underutilised here. The star of the show, for me, was Halloween, since the franchise has far less videogame adaptations compared to Evil Dead. Halloween does a fantastic job of adapting the first film into this surreal narrative, recreating key locations and even splicing in elements from other films, such as a mechanic resembling “Big Joe” Grizzly from the 2007 remake (though there’s sadly no reality TV stars in the Myers house). While platforming can be clunky and challenging due to Myers’ size, it was extremely satisfying hacking heads off and slicing through innocents and Deadites alike. The bosses were very fun, particularly the battle against Dr. Loomis and Laurie and Shadow Myers, being just the right level of challenge. While it’s frustrating taking damage, being knocked down a pit, or trapping yourself in a wall, it’s all very much in the spirit of old school games like the Castlevania (Konami/Various, 1986 to present), Mega Man (Capcom/Various, 1987 to present), and Metroid (Various, 1986 to present) videogames. I really enjoyed the realm-shifting gimmick, to the point where I kind of wish the games included a hard or alternative mode where you primarily play in the Nightmare Realm, and the gruesome imagery and bloody effects. The sprite work and environments are all fantastically well realised, especially in Halloween, and the gameplay was tight and responsive, with the games providing just enough challenge to keep you going without being too frustrating. I’d love to see more franchises added to the RetroRealms arcade but, as is, these were really fun, bite-sized offerings that brought a smile to my face.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Which of the two games included in the RetroRealms arcade was your favourite? Were you surprised to see these two franchises mashed together like this? Did you enjoy cutting Deadites up as Ash? Did you also struggle to fight his Oldsmobile? What did you think to the sprite reaction of Halloween? Did you enjoy the fight against Dr. Loomis and Laurie? Did you ever find all the collectibles and purchase every souvenir? Which horror franchise would you like to see remade in this way? What horror-theme videogames are you playing this Halloween? Whatever your thoughts on these games, drop a comment below, check out my other horror content, and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Evil Dead and Halloween reviews.

Game Corner: Hellboy: The Science of Evil (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 24 June 2008
Developer: Krome Studios

Metacritic Scores: 44 /2.8
Also Available For: PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP)

Quick Facts:
Having brought his trademark gothic art style to both independent and mainstream comics, monster-loving artist and comic creator Mike Mignola got his big break in 1993 with the distinctively Lovecraftian Hellboy, whose first live-action venture became an instant cult classic. Hellboy’s first jump to videogames was a poorly reviewed bomb and, despite roping in the creative forces behind the first feature films, The Science of Evil didn’t fare much better and was almost universally lambasted for its poor graphics and gameplay.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Hellboy: The Science of Evil is a third-person hack-and-slash (more of a “bash-and-smash” thanks to Hellboy’s signature Right Hand of Doom) that primarily follows Hellboy’s quest to track down a malicious witch but which features flashbacks to his earlier cases and run-ins with Nazi forces and ends with him confronting crazed Nazi commandant Herman von Klempt at his gothic castle. While the developers may have hoped to make something akin to the Devil May Cry (Capcom/Ninja Theory, 2001 to present) and God of War franchises (Various, 2005 to 2024), they instead lumbered players with a repetitive brawler that features no skill tree to expand upon, few collectibles, and a far too short campaign mode that drags out its runtime with mindless brawling and dodgy platforming. Players make Hellboy (or his allies, fishman Abraham “Abe” Sapien and pyrokinetic Elizabeth “Liz” Sherman in the co-op multiplayer mode) jump with A (holding it to jump higher and tapping it to clamber over ledges) and attack with X (for quick, light strikes) and Y (for heavier strikes or hold it for charged “Boom” attacks that stun enemies). You can dive roll by pressing A and X together (though its use as a dodge is negligible), perform a jumping strike or ground pound (at the cost of some energy), and grapple with the Right Trigger. You can then pummel and toss enemies or instantly kill them with B if you have enough energy. If knocked down, you must tap Y to recover and you must also do this if you respawn after a death. There are no lives here and plenty of checkpoints, and Hellboy’s health automatically refills after a short time (or if you perform a jumping ground slam). Smashing enemies or the environment sees you collecting blue energy to fill your meter, which lets you instantly kill enemies and perform some moves, and you’ll extend this meter by finding artefacts in each area.

Whether playing alone or in co-op, the action quickly becomes tedious and repetitive.

You shoot Hellboy’s versatile handgun, the Samaritan, with the Left Trigger. Although you can freely aim with the right stick, I wouldn’t recommend this as the aiming reticle is as tricky and unreliable as the grapple, which often failed to register my inputs. Hellboy can shoot lots of ammo types, with some being more effective against certain enemies, from regular rounds and the shotgun-like shots to grenades, flame rounds, and magic crystals. You cycle between these with the Left Bumper and collect ammo from crates dotted (or hidden) about, repeatedly tapping RT until your ammo is full. When your energy is full, you can enter “Hellmode” by pressing in both control sticks. This temporarily boosts your speed and attack power or unleashes a flaming shockwave, though I found this to be relatively useless as it doesn’t last long. Hellboy can also grab various weapons (barrels, stone slabs, massive warhammers, drainpipes, swords, and such) to use or throw at enemies. Though these are great for crowd control, can light lanterns or defeat certain foes, and will stun larger enemies, they break pretty quickly. Performing your grapple finish on certain enemies disarms them, gifting you a unique weapon like a machine gun or an exploding round, and you can execute a few basic combos by mashing different combinations of X and Y. However, most enemies take a hell of a beating and continuously swarm the area, to the point where I often felt like the game was glitching. Different enemy types attack each other, which is helpful, and a friend can help you out in the co-op mode, but combat becomes very tedious very quickly as it’s primarily slow, uninteresting punching. It might’ve been nice if you gained experience points to trade in for some fun new moves, like spewing hellfire or some kind of spinning attack, or could upgrade Hellboy’s Hellfire mode to see him go on a rampage as Anung Un Rama. Instead, you’re left with the same moveset for the whole game, with Hellboy acquiring new ammo and little else.

Puzzles and combat often boil down to mashing the same buttons or performing the same actions.

There are no difficulty modes here, though you can enable “friendly fire” to make co-op more frustrating interesting. The game is divided into six chapters, each containing a handful of sub-chapters and asking you to follow a fairly linear path. Along the way, you’re beset by enemies you can largely ignore unless a “ghost barrier” blocks your way. In these instances, you must defeat all nearby enemies to dispel the barrier. Other times, you must cut through ghost tentacles with a special crystalline sword or blast them with your crystal rounds. Occasionally, you activate levers to open gates, stop toxic gas spewing into the arena, or create new walkways. You do this by holding RT and tapping X, which is the go-to method for every “puzzle”. Spot a glowing wall? RT+X to smash through it. Path blocked by fallen trees, rocks, or stalled vehicles? RT+X to clear them. Need to ring a giant bell or push over a column to make a path? RT+X. You get the picture, I’m sure. The game gives the illusion of offering side quests by having Hellboy interact with corpses who ask him to do a task for them to open gates or doors. These generally amount to smashing up some enemies and, you guessed it, holding RT and tapping X. Cursed graves endlessly spawn enemies in the first chapter, but they’re easily destroyed with exploding Bambini heads. Enchanted coffins also appear here, though your “release” ammo will remove their threat and allow you to RT+X to open them for such rewards as…nothing or some ammo. While platforming challenges are light, they’re annoying due to the useless camera, which often switches to different perspectives and angles to screw up your controls. Chapter two introduces the lantern mechanic, where you must light torches and get rid of gnarled roots blocking your path, but this is more aggravating than fun as you must often backtrack for torches. Chapter four also sees you hurling frog monsters down pits to light torches and open gates.

Presentation:
I was somewhat optimistic about Hellboy: The Science of Evil when I heard Marco Beltrami’s Hellboy (Del Toro, 2004) theme on the main menu and saw that Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones were reprising their film roles. However, the game has a very confused identity and isn’t sure if it’s a movie tie-in, a spin-off from the comics, or something else entirely. While Hellboy looks and sounds like he does in the film, this world seems very different and closer to the comic books, being full of witches, ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural threats. While Hellboy’s stone arm lights up and even bursts into flame, and he adopts different outfits for each chapter, he has no idle poses and repeats the same one-liners and nonsensical statements throughout the game. There are no pre-rendered cutscenes and, strangely, barely any story. There’s some text between chapters and a handful of cutscenes that use the in-game models, but I was very confused about what was happening as there’s no real introduction, chapters abruptly end and jump to the past with little explanation, and the game essentially has no ending, either, as Hellboy’s just blasted into the water after defeating the final boss and the credits roll! I didn’t play in co-op so I have no idea if Abe and Liz appear in cutscenes, but it seems like they don’t, which is weird, and the story felt very disconnected and slapped together to me. This was a shame as it could’ve taken more inspiration from the source material or even retold key moments from the first movie to better tie things together. While the game performs relatively well, I did have some odd moments where the camera got stuck, Hellboy wouldn’t build energy, and the music cut out or oddly looped.

The visual style is somewhere between the comics and the first film, making for a confused game.

While you visit various locations and time periods in Hellboy: The Science of Evil, they’re all very drab and repetitive but I give the game kudos for evoking the dark, gothic aesthetic of the comics over the slightly more polished and sci-fi-esque presentation of the first film. You begin in the Carpathian Mountains of 2007 Romania, smashing your way through a mausoleum and emerging in a crooked, foreboding graveyard full of crypts, gravestones, gnarled trees, and dishevelled woods. A cauldron of bats often swarms in doorways or as you enter new areas, which serve as the calling card of the crazed witch Hellboy’s pursuing, and you’ll find crypts home to loquacious skeletons, a sentient gate who demands a password, and flame pits in dank caverns. Chapter two flashes back twenty-three years to a misty forest in Japan, where Hellboy follows a magical kitsune, encounters a mysterious, isolated monk who offers some exposition, and follows snaking cobblestone paths and fights through a bamboo forest. Pagodas are dotted about and this is where you experience how destructible much of the environment is, though it largely amounts to building your energy meter and discovering the odd collectible. Chapter three returns you to Romania, depositing you in an abandoned village beset by a thunderstorm. I liked the rain effect and lightning flashes and fighting in the narrow streets and on the precarious rooftops in this area. You also detour through a house to encounter a tortured suicide victim and eventually land in some dank catacombs home to disgusting frog monsters. This sewer-like area is alive with slimy egg sacs and razor-sharp tentacles (which helpfully target enemies), scurrying rats, and vaguely Lovecraftian statues. Chapter five flashes back to 1967 Tunisia, where you battle Nazi zombies in the ruins of an archaeological dig, smashing apart their camps, odd crystalline growths, and crashing through ruins. You end up in von Klempt’s gothic castle, a distinctly Mignolaian setting full of 1930s style laboratory equipment, Nazi paraphernalia, and the leftovers of their atrocious experiments with the occult.

Enemies and Bosses:
While there are only a handful of enemy types in Hellboy: The Science of Evil and the game is more likely to toss mini bosses at you and quickly make them regular enemies than wow you with big, action-packed boss battles, most enemies are somewhat unique to their chapter to give each setting a distinct personality (though they all show up in chapter six). At first, you’re beset by pigmy-like Bambinis, mischievous little imps who toss their explosive heads and scamper all over you. They’re relatively harmless unless they clamber onto your back; I had trouble working out how to throw them off before they drained my health. A slightly bigger variant wielding a chain also shows up and the Bambinis chip away at you as you face a pack of werewolves (though these guys look more fearsome than they are and simply swipe, howl, and bite). In Japan, you battle spear-carrying kabuki warriors (whose weapons can be stolen to light lanterns) and encounter troll-like oni, who guard against your attacks, bash your head in with their large metal clubs., and push you back with a sonic blast. You also battle katana carrying demons who swipe and charge with their blades. These guys introduce a mechanic where you must stun them, grapple them, and hit Y to counter their attacks, mash X to pummel, and finish them off with B when prompted. This strategy works on the giant Bambinis (who tackle you, toss exploding Bambini heads, and grab you and throw you into walls), the horned frog monsters, and the cybernetically enhanced apes you later encounter. You fight frog monsters in the sewers (through they’re easily tossed onto spikes) and various Nazi zombies. These guys can take a hell of a beating in chapter five and wield machine guns, electrifying blade arms, grenade launchers, and even these weird, steampunk-esque buzzsaw weapons!

Bosses are as disappointing as the gameplay and lack the visual spectacle I’d expect from the license.

Hellboy constantly encounters a witch in Romania. Each encounter takes place in a different arena but is essentially the same, with her always teleporting as a cloud of bats and tossing exploding Bambini heads. You must throw these (or other objects) back to send her packing and, in the final battle with the witch, you chase her to the rafters and finally corner her in the church attic, where you can get close enough to hit her. Hellboy’s hounded by a volatile cyborg ape…thing in chapter two and is trapped inside a pagoda with it at the chapter’s end. The large ape is deceptively fast with its leap and charge and has a hell of a reach thanks to its mechanical arms (which it fires and swings on chains). If you get too close, it grabs you and throws you about and, instead of fighting it, you attack pillars to drop down a few floors and eventually bring the whole structure down on it. Variations on this enemy appear in chapter six, with one surprising you on a narrow castle wall (however, I fled back and it seemed to despawn!) Chapter four ends with you dispatching some frog monsters and their horned giants, eventually destroying the central chamber of their lair, while chapter five culminates in a more aggravating boss battle against a large, Lovecraftian worm-thing. In the first phase, you must avoid the Nazis swarming the chamber and toss crystals at its mouth when it roars, then use RT+X on the nearby pillars to blast it with lasers. In the second phase, ignore the Nazis and attack with your unbreakable flaming sword, dodging its whipping tentacles to put it down. The game’s final boss is a demon unleashed by von Klempt that’s essentially fought like other giant enemies. You must stay away to avoid being pounded or eaten and dodge its erratic mouth laser, using any nearby debris to stun it or unloading with combos and your gun. Eventually, it’s joined by frog monsters and toxic gas and you must grab von Klempt’s floating cybernetic torso to finish it off, but this was a lacklustre end to a disappointingly mediocre game.

Additional Features:
There are twenty-seven Achievements in Hellboy: The Science of Evil, with one awarded each time you complete a chapter. You can also kill twenty-five enemies with different weapons for some more, kick fifty Bambini heads for another, and toss fifty enemies onto spikes for another. Every chapter hides a hidden artifact and finding each nets you another six Achievements (then a seventh for finding them all). Fall off a cliff twenty times for an Achievement and invent time travel to go back to when Xbox Live was a thing to snag two more for finishing a multiplayer chapter with Ape and Liz. Artifacts and lore that boost your energy gauge are hidden in each chapter  and playing through the game unlocks behind the scenes extras, interviews, and artwork. Completing each chapter unlocks it for you to replay from the main menu and finishing the game allows you to replay the main campaign with all the extra energy and ammo you’ve found. Although there was downloadable content planned where you’d play as Lobster Johnson and Achievements were programmed for this, it never released (not that you’d be able to get it now, or that I imagine it would’ve been that good!)

Final Thoughts:
I’m a big fan of the Hellboy movies, and the character (despite not having read many of his adventures) so I was excited to get into Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Since it’s only tangentially related to the films and released soon after the first movie, I had high hopes it’d avoid the stigma of movie tie-in games. Unfortunately, this really was one of the most disappointing, barebones, cash grab licensed games I’ve ever played. There’s barely any story here and no effort put into any of the cutscenes or even the script, with Ron Perlman muttering statements that seem strangely disconnected to what’s happening and the game seemingly failing to tie into the films or the comics. While Hellboy looks great and the environments are okay, evoking both the movie and Mike Mignola’s distinctive art style, nothing interesting happens with the character or where he goes and the game just feels like a series of events loosely tied together. The combat is so boring and gets old super fast. With no skill tree or additional combos or attacks to learn, Hellboy feels underpowered and frustratingly limited. If the developers were aiming for something akin to a Devil May Cry or God of War title then they missed the mark by a wide margin with the slow, lumbering combat and unsatisfying gunplay. The puzzles were a joke, with every solution to any problem simply being to hold RT and tap X until you win. The quick-time-event-like moments with bigger enemies and bosses were as finnicky as the camera angles and the grab, leading to some frustrating moments. The bosses were laughable as well, with only one offering something more than what you’d get from a larger enemy, and the collectibles and replay value were sub-standard, at best. I’d say this one’s only worth playing if you can get it cheap (a tall order these days) but you’re better off sticking to the Devil May Cry or God of War games for a satisfying hack-and-slash adventure.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Are you a fan of Hellboy: The Science of Evil? If so…why? Were you disappointed that the game didn’t have more to do with the movies and comics? Would you have liked to see more unlockable combos and attacks? Which of the bosses and ammo types as your favourite? Did you ever play the game in co-op? Which Hellboy videogame is your favourite? Leave me a like and drop a comment below, then donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more Hellboy content for the site.

Game Corner [Global James Bond Day]: 007 Legends (Xbox 360)

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To celebrate the release of the first of many filmic outings for James Bond, October 5th is officially recognised as “Global James Bond Day”.

Released: 16 October 2012
Developer: Eurocom
Metacritic Scores: 45 / 4.6

Also Available For: Nintendo Wii, PC, and PlayStation 3

Quick Facts:
After James Bond 007: Blood Stone (Bizarre Creations, 2010) eased the sting of Activision’s poorly received GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997) reimagining, Activision were keen to develop a new title to coincide with the franchise’s 50th anniversary. Built on their pre-existing game engine, 007 Legends saw Daniel Craig lend his likeness to six classic James Bond adventures alongside some returning faces. Sadly, 007 Legends was widely criticised for its repetitive gameplay, awful stealth mechanics, and slapdash narrative. Though the multiplayer options were praised and the game was bolstered by an additional downloadable mission, 007 Legends is largely considered to be one of the worst 007 videogames ever made.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
007 Legends is an infamous first-person shooter (FPS) in which players revisit truncated and largely reimagined versions of five classic James Bond films – Goldfinger (Hamilton, 1964), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Hunt, 1969), Licence to Kill (Glen, 1989), Die Another Day (Tamahori, 2002), and Moonraker (Gilbert, 1979) – in the guise of the Daniel Craig version of the character, completing anywhere from one to three missions for each. You might be wondering why the films are ordered like that and that’s a great question. The films are presented as flashbacks Bond relives during a near-death experience in Skyfall (Mendes, 2012) and, as such, there’s nothing cohesive linking them together (beyond some recurring characters) and no logic behind presenting Moonraker last except to have a finale in space!! Anyone who’s played Activision’s previous Bond videogames, or the Call of Duty franchise (Various, 2003 to present) will recognise 007 Legends’ control scheme and basic gameplay mechanics, though you can select different presets. By default, players jump and hop vault over low walls with A (though be careful as Bond takes fall damage!), crouch behind cover or to sneak up on enemies with B, reload with X and hold X to interact with the environment (to open doors, activate switches, or hack terminals), and switch weapons with Y (double-tapping it to quickly whip out Bond’s signature Walther P99). The Right Trigger fires while the Right Bumper tosses your primary explosive. The Left Trigger aims down your sights (and offers a partial lock-on when used correctly) and the Left Bumper throws your secondary explosive. You can briefly sprint by pressing in the left stick, perform melee attacks and quick takedowns by pressing in the right stick, and use the directional pad (D-pad) to activate gadgets and add-ons. These apply a silencer to your weapon, whip out Bond’s multi-use dart gun, use his wristwatch as a radar or to disable security cameras, or pull out his smartphone to hack terminals or scan the environment using different filters.

Whether you go in all guns blazing or use stealth, you can upgrade Bond’s abilities with XP.

Players can pick between “Modern” or “Classic” health systems, with the former seeing Bond’s health regenerate if he avoids damage for a time and the latter having him collect med-kits and body armour. Bond has an array of weapons (though he can only hold three at a time), with many found in MI6 cases scattered throughout each environment. You can utilise various pistols, from the standard Walther P99 and its variants to the high-impact Iguana .44, close-quarters shotguns like the Camara US6 and super fun Drumhead Type-12, and different sniper rifles (one boasting an infrared filter) for long-range combat. You’ll also grab different Moonraker Laser rifles (which boast infinite ammo), a rocket launcher, various grenades and mines, and a wide assortment of submachine guns and assault rifles. While these are great for thinning out hordes of enemies, many quicky burn through their magazines or are widely inaccurate, though you can compensate for this by purchasing upgrades with experience points (XP). Each weapon and weapon group as an “XP Challenge” tied to it where you’re awarded XP for “eliminating” different numbers of enemies or performing headshots and such. This XP is spent in the XP store to either upgrade Bond’s maximum health, durability, recovery time, sneaking ability, weapon switching and such or on attachments for each weapon class. You can buy bigger magazines, silencers, scopes, stocks, laser sights, a rapid-fire mode and more, however you can only apply three upgrades at a time to each weapon (and to Bond). Bond will also take the controls of a mounted mini gun during On Her Majesty’s Secret Service to mow down Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s minions and can use his dart gun to subdue, shock, or distract enemies. Although largely optional, some areas force you to stealthily avoid enemies or cameras, subduing them with takedowns, your silenced pistol, or your dart gun. This was incredibly aggravating in Licence to Kill, where guards and scientists kept spotting me, but was surprisingly easy in Moonraker. It’s generally beneficial to use stealth when prompted to avoid being set upon by reinforcements and to earn additional XP.

Sadly, there’s more focus on hacking than driving or exhilarating gameplay mechanics.

007 Legends quickly establishes its repetitive gameplay loop, tasking you with gunning down various guards or sneaking through areas, liaising with or fighting alongside non-playable characters (NPCs), and exploring various offices. As was the style for Bond videogames, Bond’s smartphone is a key component as you must either photograph evidence or use the camera’s different filters to locate hidden switches (and thereby hidden doors) or analyse objects of interest. You’ll also hack many devices using the phone, holding LT and RT to keep each bar blue or rotating coloured circles to complete a circuit, or rotating segments on Bond’s watch to crack safes. In Moonraker, you must wander through side doors and laboratories, sneaking through ventilation shafts to disable security turrets, while Licence to Kill relies far more on critical stealth sections. You’ll often follow or fight alongside the likes of Felix Leiter and Giacinta Johnson/Jinx and these guys more than hold their own, gunning down guards (occasionally alongside soldiers or marines) and leading you in the right direction. Other times, you must protect your ally, covering Doctor Holly Goodhead or Pam Bouvier as they said you. As far as I could see, these missions only fail if you die or leave the area as your allies seem invulnerable, though I could be wrong. Licence to Kill and Die Another Day offer two driving sections, with you holding RT to accelerate, pressing LT to break, and executing a handbrake turn with A. In Die Another Day, you use the D-pad to activate threat indicators, traction control, and the car’s missile lock-on systems (fired with B). Moonraker’s finale is played entirely in zero gravity, with you flailing about using A and B to ascend or descend and destroying Hugo Drax’s space station turrets. Finally, some enemies and nearly every boss is fought in a janky first-person fist fight sequence that basically amounts to a quick-time event (QTE). You must use the left or right stick, LT and/or RT, or tap A when promptly to land blows, parry, block incoming attacks, and disarm your foes.

Objectives and gameplay mechanics quickly become tedious as the game lacks innovation.

Naturally, every mission is loaded with a few objectives, with Bond having to complete more depending on what difficulty you’re playing. Secondary objectives also pop up, earning you additional XP, and your accuracy, completion count, and performance is ranked at the end of each mission for more XP. The onscreen radar and compass guide you towards your primary objective, but secondary ones must be sought out yourself and range from successfully bypassing enemies and cameras without triggering the alarms, analysing samples, destroying Blofeld’s anti-aircraft defences, and taking out Franz Sanchez’s terrorist cronies. You’ll hold X to open doors and plant bombs, analyse nerve gas, download data from terminals, plant tracking devices, gun down enemies, take out snipers, and automatically switch to night vision to explore certain areas. This is most prominent in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where Bond and Marc-Ange Draco explore Blofeld’s maze-like lair to find Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo/Tracy. This mission also begins with a high-speed ski sequence where you frantically dodge trees and rocks and take out Blofeld’s jet-skiing minions and helicopters to catch up to Tracy (easier said than done). Some objectives are timed, such as when you enter serial numbers into terminals in Moonraker to stop Drax launching his poison pods, or when you race into Gustav Graves’ jet, or a nail-biting escape from Drax’s shuttle launch that I barely cleared! Die Another Day starts with you mingling around and investigating Graves’ ice hotel alongside Jinx then taking out his guards in his impressive biodome before dodging lasers from his Icarus satellite and mortars from Zao. Occasionally, players “breach” areas, setting off a slow-motion sequence where you gun down everyone in sight, or you must shoot overhead pipes to dose flames blocking your way. Other times, you can interact with the environment to cause distractions or take out enemies. Some missions take nearly an hour to get through while others last about ten minutes, some rely more on stealth or shooting, and others take your weapons and gadgets away entirely in a desperate attempt to keep things fresh.

Presentation:
007 Legends continues to trend set by GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (Eurocom, 2001) in replacing past Bond actors with Daniel Craig (likeness only here) and having his stoic, no-nonsense Bond relieve classic Bond adventures. Although Timothy Watson does a striking job emulating Craig, his delivery is robotic to the point of apathy, robbing iconic Bond lines like “Do you expect me to talk?” of all their gravitas. All of Bond’s returning villains are modelled after their respective actors (except for Blofeld, who’s modelled after the Donald Pleasance incarnation) as are some of his allies, meaning Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, and Toby Stephens all return alongside the voices and/or likenesses or Carey Lowell, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman. Oddly, while Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear all return, Jeffrey Wright is recast as Felix Leiter, completely ruining even a slight chance that this game is supposed to fit into Craig’s Bond canon. Bond isn’t seen often but, when he is, he’s little more than a marionette, like his supporting cast. Lacking Halle Berry’s allure and charisma, Jinx is robbed of any memorable characteristics, characters simply go through their motions with little fanfare, and line deliveries are about as disinterested as the soundalike score, which evokes some of the memorable Bond themes but never fully commits to any. The game feels very slapped together, with each mission providing very little context and relying on the player already being familiar with these Bond movies. This might be fine if they didn’t change some elements around, such as Pam infiltrating Sanchez’s organisation in Licence to Kill and ignoring Graves’ true origins in Die Another Day. The flashback bookends and interludes are a cheap way to tie these stories together and I would’ve much preferred that the developers try to rewrite these movies into a cohesive narrative, perhaps using Quantum as a common thread (as the rights to the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (SPECTRE) were still up in the air at this time).

The game does a decent job of reimaging classic locations and characters despite some inconsistencies.

On the plus side, 007 Legends does as commendable a job as GoldenEye 007: Reloaded at updating and reimagining locations from each movie. Things start off pretty strong, recreating the gold-painted Jill Masterson and dropping Bond outside Auric Goldfinger’s Swiss airbase (which is alive with guards and explosions). Players eventually storm Fort Knox alongside Leiter and some troops, battling down to the vault and encountering the same bomb as in the movie, and eventually confront Goldfinger on his private jet just like in the finale. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service sees you racing down the Swiss Alps and launching an all-out assault on a faithfully recreated version of Blofeld’s mountainside lair, complete with brainwashing bedrooms and underground laboratories. Licence to Kill starts you at the ruins of an Otomi temple, where you stealthily take down guards to infiltrate Sanchez’s elaborate drug operation. This, again, closely mirrors the film but is obviously expanded to incorporate the heavy reliance on stealth in this mission. Licence to Kill ends with you securing a helicopter, chasing Sanchez’s truck on a highway, and even mounting it to take out pursuing Humvees. Die Another Day impressed considerably with its near-identical recreation of Graves’ ice palace, which featured a gaggle of NPCs at the bar, bedrooms and offices, and leads to a man-made jungle environment housed within a high-tech biodome. The laser cutters and ice field Bond drives across even return, as does the finale within Graves’ jet. Moonraker continues this trend, recreating Drax’s ridiculous henchmen and their yellow jumpsuits and seeing Bond sneak through his astronaut training facility, complete with gyrospheres, treadmills, and spare suits. Bond and Dr. Goodhead must escape a launching shuttle’s exhaust flames and sneak aboard another shuttle to board Drax’s space station, where the Earth, other shuttles, and a full-blown laser battle take place in the void outside. This was probably the most visually impressive section, however I did encounter a dramatic and nearly game-breaking period of slowdown during my playthrough. Textures also often warped or popped in out of nowhere, and enemies tended to comically ragdoll when shot.

Enemies and Bosses:
You’ll gun down a small continent’s worth of nameless, faceless, repetitive goons in 007 Legends, each of whom appear slightly different depending on who they’re working for but all follow predictable behaviours. Enemies patrol laboratories, facilities, and areas in a pre-set loop, becoming alerted to your presence if they spot dead bodies or you make too much noise. They call for reinforcements by triggering alarms (which sometimes instantly fails the mission), though you can negate this by disabling overhead cameras or quietly subduing them. Scientists and other NPCs also alert guards if they spot you, costing you the mission or kicking off a gun fight, and enemies are more than capable of taking and firing over cover, opening doors, and climbing ladders to pursue you. If you linger in one spot for too long, enemies toss grenades that can be tricky to avoid, though you can throw your own or blast explosive barrels to take out large groups. Enemies wield machine guns, pistols, and even rocket launchers, firing from afar like the ever-annoying snipers (distinguishable by their laser sights). As you progress, enemies wear more obvious body armour, necessitating the use of more powerful weapons, and they’ll even shred you with mounted guns and hit you if you get close. Occasionally, random guards will surprise you and force a fist fight, often with one or both of you swinging a pole or a wrench or something, which can be annoying as these fights quickly get tedious. Very rarely, enemies will race around in Humvees or on jet skis or attack from helicopters, rappelling down or firing from above and requiring you to blast them from the sky with a rocket launcher. I found Drax’s laser-firing goons particularly difficult to tag in Moonraker thanks to the disorientating zero-gravity, Graves’ suited-up bodyguards were surprisingly durable, and the security turrets will cut you to ribbons unless you disable them.

Every boss is fought in a tedious and all-too-easy fist fight and QTE sequence.

Any time an enemy forces a fist fight, this essentially counts as a mini boss, I guess, or a reminder of the clunky fighting mechanics for the real bosses. In Goldfinger, this means throwing hands with Goldfinger’s stout, mute bodyguard/assassin, Oddjob. Just like in the movie, you swing a pole at Oddjob and must dodge his razor-sharp hat (which instantly kills if you don’t react to the QTE fast enough). Like every fist fight, though, it’s a simple affair made even easier as Bond finishes Oddjob in a cutscene, though you must remember to hit LT to send Goldfinger packing. After cutting down Blofeld’s soldiers and beating up his goons hidden throughout his lair, you’ll get into a fist fight with SPECTRE’s head honcho in a cable car. Blofeld throws hands and an axe, which you must parry and then take from him, but it’s the same fight you have every time, just dragged out more. Similarly, after making it through aggravating critical stealth sections in Sanchez’s drug lab, you fight his sadistic right-hand, Dario, who swings a pole and ends up falling into the machinery. You must then succeed a QTE on Sanchez’s tanker truck and fist fight him, too, parrying his machete when prompted. Die Another Day mixes things up by having you race from and then fire missiles at Zao across the ice, dodging his mortars and Icarus lasers. Though the mission again ends in a fist fight, Graves is at least wearing his ridiculous cybernetic suit and you must complete a few more QTEs to dodge his electrical blasts. Moonraker not only employs aggravating critical stealth sections but has you circumventing and disabling overhead turrets to infiltrate Drax’s operation, where you’re naturally attacked by Jaws. You must tap A to avoid being bitten, tap RT to toss a screwdriver at him to save Dr. Goodhead, bash his head with a metal pole, and finally hit RT to electrocute him. When pursuing Drax, Bond must float around destroying six mechanical arms to stop his poison pods launching, which is tricky because of his disorientating zero-gravity is, the enemies firing at you, and the small window you have to attack the arms. You can destroy the pods as well, but the gas will chip away at your health, and this is basically it as Drax is finished in a cutscene.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements in 007 Legends and most of them are pretty easy to obtain, meaning this is the only real reason to play the game. You’ll get an Achievement for finishing each movie and two for finishing on “Agent” difficulty or higher or using “Classic” mode. You get another Achievement for fully upgrading one weapon, gadget, and buying all of Bond’s health and gameplay buffs, another for earning 10,000 XP, and another for scoring “eliminations” with every weapon class. There’s a bullshit but also amusing 0G Achievement, another for photographing Graves’ alligator and completing the Die Another Day driving section without gadgets, and another for sending Drax’s gyrosphere haywire. Every location has intel and biographical items hidden in it, usually in the bad guy’s office, which you must collect for additional Achievements and to unlock character bios and models. You can also view concept and production art, input cheat codes (mostly to unlock multiplayer extras), and tackle various “trials” for each mission and difficulty. These task you with having high accuracy, finishing each mission in a set time, utilising stealth, and amassing certain “eliminations” for a higher score, more XP, and a handful of Achievements. Similarly, you can take on the “Challenge” mode to revisit missions with less resources or certain restrictions in place. 007 Legends also offers local multiplayer (I assume the online functionality is long gone), featuring additional classic characters and some familiar gameplay modes, such as a free-for-all, capture the flag, team-based gameplay, limiting your lives, or offering more points for using the fabled Golden Gun. Though no longer available, there was also an extremely short, downloadable Skyfall mission (that had no new Achievements) that saw you pursuing the Patrice on a motorcycle (in first-person, no less) across the rooftops and through the streets and buildings of Istanbul, tracking the assassin to a skyscraper, and using cover to engage in a shoot-out against his sniping skills rather than offering another fist fight.

Final Thoughts:
I’d heard all about how bad 007 Legends was and, having been disappointed by Activision’s previous James Bond videogames, I was very reluctant to try it for myself, especially as it’s priced too high for its reputation and the Skyfall mission is now lost media. However, I finally relented, reasoning that the Achievements would be worth my time and it couldn’t be all that bad. Truthfully, it’s really not that terrible; it just continues the trend of these games being painfully repetitive and generic. It lacks the excitement and fun of Bond’s classic Nintendo 64 outing, fails to stand up to the celebrated (if equally uninspired) Call of Duty franchise, and, worst of all, doesn’t do anything interesting with the license. Recreating classic Bond movies was a great idea, but presenting them as disconnected, truncated flashbacks suffered by Craig’s Bond robs them of all context. While there’s some impressive attention to detail at times and fun little Easter Eggs dotted about, this is a cheap, clearly rushed celebration of the franchise that doesn’t even include an end cutscene! The shoot outs are quite fun, for the most part, but dulled considerably by the tedious hacking mini games and boring fist fight mechanics that reduce every boss to a painfully easy and tiresome slugfest. The stealth sections are even worse, raising the alarm and costing you the mission at even the slightest hint of your presence, and the pacing is all over the place, with some missions taking ages to finish and having multiple sections and others being over in the blink of an eye. The upgrade system is alright, I guess, but somewhat redundant given you can recover health, but it doesn’t take long to get everything you need. I don’t know if paying for the likenesses or the other Bond actors would’ve salvaged 007 Legends but it’s certainly a disappointing, half-assed, and forgettable experience that’s really only worth it to say you tried it and agree with the general consensus…and to add to your Gamer Score.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Do you agree that 007 Legends is one of the worst James Bond videogames? What did you think to the movies selected for the title? How do you think it holds up compared to other Bond games from this time? Did you also struggle with the critical stealth sections? What did you think to the hacking mini games and repetitive fist fights? Did you ever play the Skyfall mission? What’s your favourite James Bond game and how are you celebrating the character this month? Whatever you think about 007 Legends, please share your thoughts in the comments, check out my other James Bond content, and suggest a Bond movie or videogame for me to review by donating to my Ko-Fi.

Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman Forever (Mega Drive)

Dr. K2 Comments

Since his first appearance in the pages of Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a pop culture icon. September celebrates “Batman Day”, the perfect excuse to celebrate this grim and broody vigilante.

Released: 7 September 1995
Developer: Probe Entertainment
MobyGames Score: 5.8

Also Available For: Game Boy, Game Gear, MS- DOS, R-Zone, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

Quick Facts:
Though divisive, Batman Forever (Schumacher, 1995) made over $330 million at the box office and was accompanied by both toys and videogames. While Acclaim’s arcade tie-in was met with mixed reviews, it still fared better than the vastly different home console versions. Reviews criticised the clunky, digitised sprites, the obtuse and ugly environments, and unintuitive controls, resulting in what’s been called one of the worst releases for the Mega Drive.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Batman Forever is a 2D, sidescrolling beat-‘em-up that sticks pretty closely to the plot of the film (except Dick Grayson/Robin, looking decidedly more adult here, is already Batman’s partner). The game supports both two-player co-operative play and, bizarrely, competitive play, in which players can attack each other, which seems a terrible idea given how awkward this game is. Unlike its predecessors, which were simple brawlers, Batman Forever opts to lumber the player with fighting game mechanics not unlike the Mortal Kombat games from the time (Midway, 1992 to 1995). The game offers two control schemes, though option two is for those with a six-button controller (honestly, the recommended way to play this nonsense). By choosing this option, up makes Batman (or Robin) jump, up and left performs a somersault, and tapping and holding up when jumping executes a glide. While this helps reach out of the way areas, you’re locking into this animation and at the mercy of the awful level layouts. You perform a roll by double tapping left or right and hitting A, hold B to block, and attack with A, B, X, and Z. These see you firing rapid punches high and low, kicking, sweeping the leg, or performing a roundhouse kick or uppercut depending on your stance. Enemies generally attack one or two at a time, but you perform back attacks with the right button combinations (none of which are displayed onscreen). Button combinations also activate the many gadgets. While some are available from the start, others are only obtained by finding blueprints and Batman and Robin have unique gadgets as well as sharing weapons like the Batarangs and grapnel gun.

Sadly, the crippling fighting game controls are the least of this awful game’s worries.

While you can only pick two additional gadgets per level, you get unlimited ammo and can switch gadgets after clearing levels. Batman can perform his weird-ass cape morph from the film, erect a holographic decoy, and toss smoke and flash pellets to disorientate foes. Robin primarily utilises his bo staff, whacking enemies and using it as a shield, though he can also throw tranquilizer darts. While the jumping is finnicky and the glide is even worse, these aspects aren’t too difficult to get to grips with and can even be fun. However, you’ll run into a literal dead end seconds into starting the game as Batman and Robin must use their grapnel to get about. It’s not always immediately clear where or when you use the grapnel, or even how as even the six-button layout sees you hitting up and X with precision timing in the right spot. Occasionally, you may need to fire it while standing to swing over gaps but you’re more likely to be awkwardly leaping to handholds to fling yourself to higher platforms. Jumping down is even crazier as you must hold C and press down, making even the most basic movements needlessly complicated. Some elements of the environment are destructible, gifting partial or full med kits and extra lives, while riddles interrupt the gameplay when collected. Each enemy has a health bar that must be whittled down in janky-ass combat and all enemies must be defeated to progress as it’s the only way to open previously locked doors. However, this is also pointlessly convoluted as it’s not always clear where the exit is (it often appears as regular parts of the environment!) A counter showing how many enemies are left and an onscreen arrow pointing you to the exit would’ve been nice! While most areas are straightforward, the visuals don’t make exploration easy and areas you need to get to are often hidden behind the many foreground elements, compounding the issue.

Grappling and basic exploration is an uphill battle thanks to the confusing level layouts.

Mostly, you’ll just be wandering about digitised approximations of locations from the movie, beating up thugs to progress and smashing walls for goodies or secret areas. At first, you’re using the grapnel and drop down a lot but these elements fade over time, replaced by awkward jumps, annoying gliding, and obtuse puzzles. While clumsily grappling about the bank, you’ll rescue guards and end up fighting Harvey Dent/Two-Face’s goons on the extracted vault. As if the confusing, largely vertical layout of the circus wasn’t bad enough, you’re also battling a timer as you hop to hanging lights. While you can collect clocks to add additional time, you have around five minutes to search for goons to beat up, which drops rope ladders and opens the roof so you can disarm the bomb (in a cutscene). While exploring Two-Face’s warehouse lair, you must destroy crates to progress or grapple up to hanging crates to bypass water (or maybe it’s acid?) hazards, occasionally using them as platforms to get past larger bodies and struggling with the game’s large hit boxes whenever those crushing presses are onscreen. As confusing and unsightly as Arkham Asylum is, things really take a nosedive in level five, where you must search all over for levers to kick, which open trap doors to new areas. Many loop you back to an underground section, though, forcing you to clamber to background handholds (when the game decides you can grab them) to get back to where you need to be…only for platforms to drop as you’re on them and the whole tedious process to start again! By comparison, battling through and onto a subway train is far easier, even with the electrical hazards, but it’s equally aggravating to fling yourself around Nygma’s Claw Island lair to activate six of Edward Nygma/The Riddler’s pods. Between the awful controls, unintuitive combat, and confusing layouts, everything is overly complicated and tiresome, with even simple shit like fighting enemies on a descending platform being tedious chores.

Presentation:
Sadly, Batman Forever ends up being a product of its time as it opts to use the same technology and techniques as Mortal Kombat to present digitised sprites and pre-rendered backgrounds in an attempt to be innovative and groundbreaking. Unfortunately, it ends up being unsightly and confusing as the game loves to block your view with foreground elements. As impressive as these may be, they don’t equate to enjoyable gameplay as you’re left scrambling about trying to grapple or drop to new areas. Batman and Robin look awful, flailing about in standard fighting poses and jerkily executing the basic moves you’d see in Mortal Kombat. It’s such a shame as the game might’ve been somewhat tolerable if the developers hadn’t used this restrictive format and had used a more traditional beat-‘em-up style of play. Instead, combat is wild and unpredictable, with moves sometimes missing or passing through your target or being cancelled as the computer reads your inputs. While Batman Forever doesn’t include the game’s bombastic score, it does feature some digitised voice samples, though the story is entirely related through boring text rather than digitised recreations of the movie, or even sprite animations. The visual presentation relies heavily on shadow, which is pretty ironic considering how vivid the film was, with colour only coming into play at the circus (and even then, its muddy browns and oranges). While you sometimes see enemies burst from their prison cells or drums and the environment often changes, the level layouts are all over the place and difficult to navigate as it’s never clear where you have to go.

The digitised sprites and ugly visuals make for an unappealing and aggravating gameplay experience.

While the title screen is disappointingly basic and the ending is little more than a still image of Gotham City and some congratulatory text, Batman Forever does a commendable job recreated locations from the movie. The game starts in Arkham Asylum, which is actually a deep cut reference to the film’s original opening, where crazed inmates burst from their cells as players traverse a rusted walkway with the city in the background. Arkham Asylum is very gothic, dark, and claustrophobic, which is fitting but also makes for a confusing opening stage as dead ends are everywhere. Next, you head to the bank that Two-Face robs in the film. This level sees you fighting past desks, large windows, and potted plants, visiting each floor via the cylindrical lift on the outside, where the overly ornate Gotham City stretches to the horizon. As mentioned, the circus brings some colour to the game but also additional anxiety due to the timer and the vertical layout. You must grapple and jump to trapeze platforms, past clown cars and stage equipment and to the rafters and lights in search of baddies to beat to reach the bomb, which explodes in a still image if you fail. Two-Face’s warehouse is a disappointingly bland visual follow-up, comprised mainly of wooden crates and storage containers, until you reach the boss area and see Two-Face’s bizarre décor recreated. Level 5 was equally disappointing, being mainly the Ritz Hotel in the background and various tunnels and rafters, but the subway made up for it by having you fight through the dark tunnels and atop a speeding subway train. Level 7 takes place in Wayne Manor and the Batcave below, where you’ll see the Batcomputer, Batmobile, and Batwing in the background (with the latter two being sadly unusable). Level 8 starts on Claw Island and then shifts to inside the Riddler’s madcap lair, which rises from the background, forces up a narrow cylindrical shaft, and features various elaborate, overly complicated, technologically stuffed rooms full of monitors and question marks.

Enemies and Bosses:
A bunch of disposable goons are littered throughout Batman Forever, all of whom sport their own names and health bars. I don’t recall ever fighting more than two at a time, however, so you’ll be constantly backtracking and searching for any enemies you’ve missed to open the next area or level exit. Enemies largely share the same basic moves as Batman and Robin, and between each other, though there are some variations. This means enemies can punch, kick, and roll at you but they’ll also burst from the background, throw you, and wield various weapons. The Arkham inmates attack with knives (or possibly the rags of their straightjackets), batons, and tasers, pulling off fancier combos than either Batman or Robin, while Two-Face’s suited-up thugs carry pistols or high-powered shotguns. His gimp-masked brutes are more likely to grapple you, tossing you around with wrestling-style moves, or thrust a chainsaw into your crotch! The circus clowns wear comically oversized boxing gloves, performing jumping split kicks, and either vomit or toss paint, it’s not clear which. Level 5 debuts the Riddler’s bizarre minions, who teleport about, fire sticky goop overhead, and erect an energy shield to negate your attacks. Sadly, that’s about it and Batman Forever is very light on bosses. In fact, there are barely four bosses to worry about here. You fight Sugar and Spice before your first encounter with Two-Face (who goes wild with dual knives) and dispatch the Riddler’s holographic doubles before fighting him on Claw Island. The Riddler is surprisingly formidable, whacking you with his cane, stunning you, and using energy waves. He also transforms into a hulking form that stomps, shakes the ground, and cracks you over his knee before reverting to his normal form for the finale. Two-Face also returns in the finale, leaving himself open whenever he flips his coin or mocks you while also boasting an impressive and wholly uncharacteristic bicycle kick!

Additional Features:
There are three difficulty modes available in Batman Forever (“Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard”), though I didn’t care to find out what’s different about them. The game also gives you the option to turn the music off (probably best given how awful the soundtrack is) and play alongside a friend. You can also enable friendly fire and battle a friend in traditional one-on-one fights in the “Training Mode”, where other characters are also available to play as. Players must collect blueprints to unlock additional gadgets, but I wouldn’t say it was necessary as they’re all pretty similar, and can find hidden areas if they care to experiment. Batman Forever features a handy cheat code to enable a level select and one-hit kills, though this strangely doesn’t apply to the final Two-Face or Big Riddler bosses.

Final Thoughts:
I was honestly dreading playing this game as I’ve played the SNES version before through emulation and am well aware of how frustrating, ugly, and overly complicated it is. I wanted to give it a good go, though, and was surprised to find it quite beatable…if you enable those one-hit kills. While I’m a big fan of Mortal Kombat, translating those fighting game mechanics into a sidescrolling beat-‘em-up never works and Batman Forever is no different. Every fight is a chore and a coin toss regarding whether your moves will hit or miss. There’s a noticeable delay between pressing buttons and performing actions, Batman and Robin are clunky, and the level layouts are all over the place. Batman Forever tries so hard to be ground-breaking and innovative, using digitised sprites and pseudo-3D, pre-rendered environments to appear cutting edge, and in doing so is one of the ugliest games you’ll ever see from this time. The digitised sprites look awful, especially Robin, and the environments are needlessly complicated by obstructive foreground elements, confusing layouts, and the bizarre fixation on having you defeat every enemy. I liked that the game tried to mix things up with the timer gimmick and the looping path and grapple mechanics could’ve been fun, but they (like everything here) were executed so poorly. You’ll need a guide to perform even the most basic functions, the game’s awful at telling you where you need to go and what needs to be done, and the sheer lack of bosses and story elements is laughable. Of all the Mega Drive Batman games, this is clearly the worst and that’s saying a lot as I couldn’t beat the other ones! I would say that things might’ve fared better if the developers had ported or adapted the action-packed arcade game instead, but that was a manic mess of a game as well so it seems a videogame adaptation of Batman Forever was doomed to fail no matter what format it found itself on.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

Are you a maniac and somehow a fan of Batman Forever? Did you also struggle with the fighting mechanics and grapple or did you find them enjoyable? What did you think to the digitised spites and pre-rendered backgrounds? Which of Batman and Robin’s gadgets was your favourite? Did you also struggle to defuse the circus bomb? Were you disappointed by the lack of boss battles or did you find Big Riddler a fun surprise? How are you planning on celebrating Batman Day this year and what is your favourite Batman videogame? Whatever your thoughts on this version of Batman Forever, or Batman in general, please leave a comment below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest other Batman videogames for me to review.

Mini Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman Returns (Mega Drive)

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Since his first appearance in the pages of Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a pop culture icon. September celebrates “Batman Day”, the perfect excuse to celebrate this grim and broody vigilante.

Released: October 1992
Developer: Malibu Interactive
MobyGames Score: 6.4

Also Available For: Amiga, Game Gear, Master System, Mega/SEGA-CD, MS-DOS

Quick Facts:
Just as Batman (Burton, 1989) was accompanied by a smorgasbord of merchandise and videogames from Sunsoft, so too was the controversial (but nonetheless profitable) Batman Returns (ibid, 1992). While Konami brought their success with sidescrolling arcade brawlers to the widely praised Super Nintendo version, SEGA got wildly different games released for their consoles. Though echoing Sunsoft’s work on the Mega Drive adaptation of Batman, this version of Batman Returns was regarding as a forgettable brawler at best and a frustrating, unsightly release at worst and is largely seen as inferior to its Super Nintendo counterpart.

First Impressions:
Batman Returns borrows quite a few elements from Sunsoft’s Batman adaptation for the Mega Drive, featuring a nearly identical options menu and some similar gameplay mechanics, while expanding the scope and giving Batman more toys. While you cannot change the game’s difficulty, you can still set how many lives you start with (three, five, or seven) and can now pick between a few control presets. I mapped attack to the A button, jump to B, and Batman’s “Special Weapon” to C. Batman still throws punches but can also execute kicks depending on which direction you press on the directional pad (D-pad). Batman’s feet are so well armoured that they protect him from bullets and attacks so you might want to throw a kick to defend yourself. When jumping, you can tap B to shoot Batman’s grapple and swing from overhead platforms, though you can still fire it upwards while standing still and pressing up and A. If you tap or hold C in mid-air, you either flap or spread Batman’s cape, allowing you to glide across gaps. This is marginally more useful than Batman’s somersault from the last game, but it has an energy meter and, more crucially, level design so cluttered, ugly, and confusing that you never know if you’re going to glide into a bottomless pit! You can replenish Batman’s health by grabbing hearts, collect 1-ups (or earn extra tries by accumulating points), and appear to have unlimited continues. However, this also comes with two major drawbacks that crippled my run. First, if you die when fighting a boss, you respawn at a pre-set checkpoint, meaning the boss’s health is restored. Second, if you exhaust all your lives and continue, you are sent back to the beginning of the stage, which makes Batman Returns needlessly frustrating very quickly.

Ugly graphics, horrendous music, and clunky controls make this a chore to play through.

Batman has a bunch of Special Weapons he can use with C. Each consume ammo, replenished by collecting item-specific power-ups, and is selected from the pause menu. Batman tosses Batarangs, stuns enemies with smoke bombs, fires his grapple gun, disorientates them with a swarm of bats, or throws “super seeking” Batarangs. These last three are the most powerful and cost the most to use so they’re best saved for boss battles, though I also found myself forced to waste a seeker Batarang when a shaft was blocked by enemies above. There are five levels (or “Acts”) with three stages each. Each Act sees Batman pull up in the Batmobile and swoop into the scene but, while Batman is a far bigger sprite than before, he still has no idle animations. He’s also a far bigger target and, though faster, is very slippery and as ungainly as ever. It doesn’t help that the visuals are uncomfortably distorted and pixelated. Batman Returns may retain the Christmas aesthetic of the movie and recreate elements like the gothic architecture and Max Shreck’s cat-themed shops, but it’s painful to look at and listen to. While there are some fun effects, like slanted buildings, and stages are far bigger than in the last Mega Drive game, it’s no fun struggling with the clunky controls, constantly taking damage from enemies or spike pits, or falling down a bottomless pit or to the bottom of the stage because hazards are obscured by foreground objects. Though enemies don’t respawn, everything is too zoomed in and too big, making it difficult to see or know where you’re going, health is sparse, and bosses absorb a bunch of hits before being defeated. While it’s fun seeing the Red Triangle Circus Gang rendered as enemies, it’s weird that stone gargoyles spring to life and attack you and Batman’s again forced to endure some needlessly aggravating platforming challenges.

My Progression:
Although I was immediately put off by the graphics and music of Batman Returns, I found Batman more durable than in the last game and was quite enjoying seeing recognisable landmarks from the movie recreated, however ugly, in each stage. Oswald Cobblepott/The Penguin’s goons and maniacal fowls litter each stage, exploding upon defeat, and stages contain multiple mini bosses. You soon fight Selina Kyle/Catwoman on the rooftops, for example, struggling to avoid her lengthy whip and frustrated to find she’s invulnerable when cartwheeling about. Gotham City itself attacks you as well, with those giant, ostentatious statues flinging gears from the background, and the Penguin battles you in a bell tower, flying about on his comical helicopter umbrella and tossing missiles. At first, this was a bit of a chore, especially as you must grapple up, avoiding gargoyles as you go, if you die against him. But, on my second try, I found the Penguin could easily be cheesed if you stay in one corner and throw punches. Things fell apart in Act 2, however, where one of the Penguin’s brutes stalks about atop one of Shreck’s department stores and tosses giant letters at you. This bastard follows your movements, meaning I couldn’t figure out how to grapple up to him without taking damage and, when I did, he decimated me with his meaty punches and kicks. Technically, this is where my game ended as I was so annoyed by this that I resorted to inputting the stage select code (a chore in itself!) I used this to skip to the inside of the store, where roller-skating punks, knife-tossing temptresses, and bomb-tossing jesters await before giant windows and around escalators. I then got my ass handed to me in a rematch with Catwoman that I had no hope of beating, found the next section started with an insta-kill rolling hazard I couldn’t avoid no matter how hard I tried, and skipped to the Red Triangle Circus stage…where a simple jump over a pit proved too difficult for this heavy-ass Batman!

Unintuitive controls and awful enemy placement make this short game frustrating and tedious.

Honestly, I was glad to be done with the game, which was an assault on my senses and a far cry from the simple, arcade action of the SNES beat-‘em-up. While I couldn’t reliably get the stage select code to work to check out the game’s later stages, a longplay I watched revealed that Batman Returns is only about half an hour long in the right hands. It also turns out that you have to grapple over that pit in Act III and battle through the background cages, but I’m buggered if I’m going to endure this game again any time soon. But, for due diligence, the rest of the game sticks pretty closely to the movie once Batman’s finished swinging about the Red Triangle’s ferris wheel, circus tent, and colourful, hazardous train. Act 4 takes him into the sewers, which feature rushing water slides, gun-toting clowns, and a maze of pipes. This leads to the Penguin’s frozen lair, where Batman slips about on frigid, precarious, often sloped platforms, avoiding icicles and riding ice floats. While there are sadly no vehicle sections here, you do battle the Penguin at the end of each subsequent Act. He flies about in Act 3 tossing buzzsaws, blasts you with toxic sludge from a giant cannon before unloading with his machine gun umbrella in Act 4, and pilots his giant duck vehicle in Act 5, which displays battle damage as you attack. Finally, the dishevelled and maniacal Penguin hops about his lair, blasting with his shotgun-like umbrella while electrical bursts flare overhead. After he’s defeated, Batman battles Catwoman one more time as the credits roll, with her being mysteriously spirited away by cats to end the game.

Continue?
My expectations were low for Batman Returns after how disappointing Sunsoft’s efforts were with Batman and having played the SNES version (through emulation) in my teens. I’ve always known that the Mega Drive version is an entirely different game, which immediately makes it far less appealing, but the reality is so much worse. For everything the developers improved from the last game, there are a bunch of bizarre decisions that make Batman Returns just as bad, if not worse. Visually, the game is dreadful. It’s so muddy and pixelated and almost impossible to see Batman against the drab, overly complicated backgrounds. They’re fantastically faithful to the movie, but that just makes it worse as half the time I couldn’t see enemies or projectiles and most of the time I had no idea if I was gliding into a bottomless pit. I liked Batman’s array of gadgets, but their usefulness is negligible as you’re probably just going to save them for the bosses. Batman’s weird glide doesn’t get much play, thankfully, and the grapple is restricted to just reaching higher ground, but Batman’s still a clunky character with limited moves in his arsenal. As if the visuals weren’t bad enough, the game sounds awful, lacking both Danny Elfman’s timeless score and jaunty tunes to make the janky gameplay more tolerable. I probably could beat this one now that I know how to get around that pit, but I have no desire to come back to it, especially when I could just emulate the SNES version or even try out a Mega Drive conversion of that game. This was ridiculously disappointing, doubly so as there are no vehicle levels despite Batman Returns feature three Bat-vehicles! I’d be surprised if you thought this game was any good but let me know if you did in the comments. While you’re here, why not check out my other Batman-related content or pop over to my Ko-Fi to drop a donation to keep the site going?

Mini Game Corner [Bat-Month]: Batman (Mega Drive)

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Since his first appearance in Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne/Batman has become a pop culture icon. September celebrates “Batman Day”, the perfect excuse to celebrate this grim and broody vigilante.

Released: 27 June 1990
Developer: Sunsoft
MobyGames Score: 7.4

Other Versions Available For: Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, MS-DOS, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), PC, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum

Quick Facts:
At the tail-end of the eighties, “Batmania” swept the nation after Tim Burton eschewed his camp reputation in favour of a hugely successful and influential gothic feature film. This blockbuster hit was accompanied by a slew of merchandise, including a fondly remembered (if challenging) NES title and a generally well-regarded arcade title. The Mega Drive adaptation was developed by Sunsoft, who crafted noticeably different games for each console. The Mega Drive Batman was praised for its visuals and soundtrack, but criticised for being far too short to be truly challenging.

First Impressions:
Batman is a 2D, sidescrolling brawler that surprisingly follows the plot of the 1989 classic quite closely. Before starting, you might want to dip into the “Options” menu and tinker with the settings, which allow you to set your maximum number of lives (three, five, or seven) and set the game to “Normal” or “Hard”. From there, you’re given five continues and a limited supply of Batarangs and dropped into it. Batman tosses Batarangs with A, punches goons (or kicks their shins when crouching) with B, and jumps with C. You can double-tap C to perform a somersault but it’s far too unreliable for precision platforming between small, moving platforms. By pressing down and C, Batman jumps down wherever possible but again, watch out as you don’t want to drop into one of the many bottomless pits! Holding B sees Batman block and pressing up and C fires his grapnel, which snags parts of the environment and lets you reach higher ground or scale shafts. You’ll get points for each enemy you defeat (with most going down in one hit) and can refill Batman’s health, ammo, and lives by collecting specific items (usually placed over bottomless pits). Batman also features two autoscrolling vehicle sections, one where you blast through Gotham City in the awesome 1989 Batmobile and another where you cut through the skies in the Batwing. In both cases, you blast enemy vehicles with B and fire a limited supply of missiles with A, which you’ll want to stock up on as they’re seriously overpowered!

Clunky platforming and limited combat handicap Batman even when he’s in his fancy Batmobile.

Things start off okay in Batman. The title screen’s nothing to shout about, the story is a wall of text over digitised images, Danny Elfman’s memorable score is absent, and Batman doesn’t even have idle poses…but he swoops down at the start of each stage and there are occasionally partially animated cutscenes recreating scenes from the film. Batman’s quite clunky and awkward, shambling about and struggling with the finnicky platforming sections. At first, this isn’t a problem as you’re just punching respawning thugs, but things turn frustrating and unfair at the Flugelheim Museum. Pits are strangely all over the place here, with you hopping to moving platforms or grappling up narrow shafts, often as enemies shoot at you or chandeliers drop from above. The Axis Chemicals stage isn’t much better, featuring collapsible pipes, toxic sludge, conveyor belts, and narrow spaces that make manoeuvring Batman’s bulky ass even more aggravating. Being able to crouch-walk or giving Batman a slide or even the wall jump ability from the 8-bit Nintendo game would’ve really helped with this. While Batman respawns on solid ground if he dies, you must restart the stage from the beginning if you exhaust your lives and use a continue, which also resets your score. Respawning or continuing also starts you with the lowest health, meaning you can be easily killed very quickly, especially in the Batmobile stage as the car is surprisingly fragile! There are no combos or throws here and Batman’s gadgets are painfully limited. You’ll want to save your Batarangs and Batmobile missiles for tougher enemies and bosses, but the former are stopped by the environment and the latter are limited. Grappling is equally restrictive at times, primarily being used to get to higher ground to leap over crates and tackle enemies on balconies.

My Progression:
Batman recreates the movie with surprising fidelity, marginally impressing in some areas while also being painfully basic in others. In the first stage, for example, Gotham City stretches off to the horizon and the foreground is occasionally dotted by cars or filled with rain and lightning, but the same shops and buildings loop endlessly. Axis Chemicals is a bit more interesting but also appears cluttered and confusing. It’s never clear which pipes will burst or which jumps lead to bottomless pits, and it’s disappointing that the game doesn’t use digitised stills to show Jack Napier’s transformation into the Joker (even the Game Boy game did that!) The Flugelheim Museum may be a booby-trap filled madhouse, but it eventually resembles the art gallery seen in the film, only to reduce the Joker and Vicky Vale to static sprites as you fight the Joker’s roided-up henchman. I really enjoyed the Batmobile chase, which switches to an isometric perspective and has you racing past the city. Sadly, the Batmobile is as ungainly as Batman and can barely weave between the Joker’s goon cars. When faced with the more formidable tanks, the Batmobile is shredded in seconds unless you either stay back or get under their bombs. Despite how limited the combat is and the respawning enemies, Batman is quite easy to get to grips with…until you’re faced with the ridiculous platforming, then you burn through lives pretty quickly as troublesome enemies await on narrow platforms and pits exhaust your continues. This happened to me in Stage 4, right after clearing the Batmobile section, where a slew of mimes made traversing the power plant too taxing and I finally ran out of chances after being kicked down the pit or roasted alive one time too many.

Undone by the frustrating platforming, I never got to see the Batwing or final Joker fight.

Since there are no cheat codes for Batman and limited continues, I tapped out at the power plant, which was very disappointing as the next stage ends with a boss fight against that overly enthusiastic sword-wielding Joker goon from the movie and is followed by the Batwing section. This autoscrolling shoot-‘em-up mirrors the Batmobile stage but is far more visually impressive, especially in the way the Batwing tilts while flying. In this stage, you gun down the Joker’s attack helicopters and destroy his comical balloons, before battling a more formidable attack helicopter. As in the movie, the game culminates at the Gotham cathedral, which is full of the Joker’s trigger-happy thugs, spiked ceilings, and overhead walkways to grapple to. There are more bullets than ever here, though they’re nearly impossible to see when fired, and Batman must also contend with another sword-swinging brute, more fire-breathing mimes, bazooka-carrying baddies, and endure rematches against reskinned versions of the previous bosses! Surviving this onslaught leads to a gruelling spike-filled tower climb and a final confrontation with the Joker. Whereas Jack Napier simply stood there firing shots and relied on the nearby turret, bazooka goon, and acid pit to do his dirty work, the Joker fires flaming shots from his comically large hand cannon and, bizarrely, summons lightning blasts to fire across the ground. Ironically, it seems he’s incredibly easy to beat if you have enough Batarangs or jump in to land punches over and over, and the ending is simply a digitised rendition of the Joker’s demise with a splash of text and the credit roll.

I remember playing Batman on the Amiga as a kid, and the Game Boy version was one of the first games I owned for the handheld, and I even had this for the Mega Drive during my early twenties. I sold it off but got it back when I started collecting for the system, hoping for a simple little brawler that wouldn’t be too taxing. At first, that seems to be exactly what Batman offers. It’s ludicrously basic, even for an early Mega Drive title, translating only the bare minimum from the movie and next to nothing of the plot. The developers didn’t even use the in-game assets to recreate moments from the film save for a couple of instances, and Batman’s arsenal is as limited as his mobility and combat. This might’ve been tolerable if it wasn’t for the awful platforming sections. Batman either jumps too far with his somersault or falls painfully short with his dodgy basic jump, easily dropping down pits as a consequence only to drop down anyway when he lands due to knockback! The grapple is next to useless except to reach higher ground and the respawning enemies (particularly those aggravating sliding goons!) are a constant headache. The vehicle sections are fun ways to break up the awkward action stages, but the Batmobile wasn’t much easier to control than Batman and I can’t imagine the Batwing was much better. Batman is a game that’s handicapped by lumbering the Dark Knight with cliché videogame gimmicks like pits and platforms, meaning it’s not much fun fighting the bosses as they’re just bigger goons with cheap-ass attack patterns. But what do I know? I couldn’t beat the game and it’s apparently really easy! Maybe you beat it and found it quite enjoyable. Or maybe you prefer a different videogame adaptation of the movie, perhaps the arcade version? Maybe you can think of a better or worst Batman videogame to mention in the comics? And maybe you can donate to my Ko-Fi to help support the site.

Game Corner [Kirby Month]: Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)

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Created by Masahiro Sakurai, the disgustingly cute, ever-ravenous Kirby is one of Nintendo’s most popular characters. Accordingly, I’m dedicating most of July to celebrating the pink puff-ball.

Released: 24 February 2023
Originally Released: 24 October 2011
Developer: HAL Laboratory / Vanpool

Original Developer: HAL Laboratory
Metacritic Scores: 79% / 8.6
Also Available For: Nintendo Wii (Original Release); Nintendo Switch 2 (Deluxe Version)

Quick Facts:
Return to Dream Land initially began as a GameCube title and quasi-sequel to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (HAL Laboratory, 2000), before development stalled and shifted to the Nintendo Wii. Widely praised for its fun gameplay and colourful visuals, the game was remade (with additional abilities and modes) for the Nintendo Switch in 2023 to similarly positive reviews.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a 2.5D action platformer for up to four players, though your single player game is sadly limited to the titular pink puffball. This adventure sees Kirby and his friends journeying to five initial levels (called “Worlds”) with up to six Stages each (including a dedicated boss stage) to help the mysterious magician Magolor repair his ship, the Lor Starcutter. Once done, Magolor takes Kirby and the others to his home world, Halcandra, to challenge the final two, far tougher Worlds and battle the true final boss. Players enter Worlds and Stages via a world map, hopping between each on a Warp Star and entering Stages through doors like previous 2D Kirby titles, with each Stage unlocking as you progress. All of Kirby’s usual abilities return, with the game offering two control setups. I chose “Type A”, which maps Kirby’s swallow and attacks to B and his jump and indefinite float to A. Players can perform a slide attack by pressing down and A, press down after swallowing an enemy to acquire their abilities, and hold Y to discard an ability (which is also forced from you if you take too much damage). Kirby gets special items that are mapped to X, allowing him to restore health or switch abilities on the fly, and players can hold any shoulder trigger to guard against attacks. You can dash by double-tapping left or right, grab food and drink to replenish your health, and collect either 1-ups or 100 coloured Point Stars for extra lives. The Invincible Candy also returns to make you temporarily invulnerable and four new items make their debut: the balloon bomb (which inflates and threatens to explode the longer you hold it), candle (which lights up dark caves), the Prism Shield (which protects against falling enemies and hazards), and the Stomper Boot (which lets you safely pass over spikes and bounce off enemies and hazards).

Team up with friends to use Kirby’s new abilities and impressive, destructive Super Abilities,

Kirby has a new ability here: the Super Inhale, executed by holding B, which sucks up giant enemies or blocks and spits out a massive projectile that’s perfect for clearing a path when being chased by a Dimension Wall in the optional Dimension Rift areas. Kirby also gains limited, but extremely powerful, Super Abilities by defeating or consuming super enemies. These obliterate any enemies and even destroy the environment and hazards and are essential for accessing the Dimension Rifts, obstacle courses where you’re chased by an energy wall and must rely only on Kirby’s basic abilities (until you reach the resident Sphere Doomer/s). You must wiggle the left stick to charge the Grand Hammer and smash blocks or shunt power lines into position, tap B to plough through enemies and obstacles with Snow Bowl, and occasionally wiggle the left stick to deliver a killing blow with Ultra Sword. Kirby also acquires three new copy abilities not present in the original game. Mecha is easily one of the best as it gifts you a little mecha suit to fire mortars, a single or charged beam, drop mines, rush in with a flaming punch, and greatly boosts your flight. Festival sees Kirby perform a dance to turn enemies into Point Stars while Sand is one of the most useful against bosses as you can rapidly kick up sand and damage enemies with a twister-like sandstorm. Classic abilities like the Cutter, Stone, and Sword all return, with added combos and functions (such as holding up to charge a sword beam). Fire lights fuses and melts ice blocks, while Ice and Water douse flaming blocks and the latter slows you to surf over lava. Spark protects you with an electrical shield and summons lightning bolts, Beam sees you attack with a magic wand that passes through blocks, and Bomb blows up certain blocks to clear a path. You can wall jump and toss kunai with Ninja, attack underwater with Spear, and clear away all enemies with Mike. Sleep is generally placed to mess up your run as it forces Kirby to take a nap, while Whip lets you snag items through blocks and Hammer smashes certain switches. Additionally, Energy Spheres will unlock rooms on the Lor Starcutter to switch abilities between Stages.

Each colourful Stage offers some fun challenges and gameplay variety.

Kirby’s adventure is littered with familiar platforming challenges, from moving and temporary platforms, to outrunning boulders, dodging giant cannons in the foreground and background, and being blasted along by wind or rushing water. Sometimes, Kirby must illuminate dark caves or utilise an Invisibility Stone to become intangible; others, he must carry keys to doors for goodies, stunting his ability to fight back. Kirby must grab or hit switches to progress, sometimes needing copy or Super Ability to pass through barriers or doors, and utilises ladders, doors, and floating platforms to progress. Lava bursts from the floor, Kirby slips on ice, spiked walls, ceilings, and floor increase as you progress, and there are many crushing hazards to avoid. Kirby must also watch out for giant mallets, conveyer belts, and avoid the many bottomless pits, though players can earn additional Point Stars by tapping A at the right time in the Goal Game after every Stage. You utilise automated and manual cannons to blast about, sometimes timing button presses to avoid being crushed, swim in waterfalls and pass through walls to reach goodies, and race enemies to acquire their key before they fall off the level. You’ll float or Hi-Jump up narrow shafts, descend with Parasol or on a lift, avoid spiked pistons and duck under platforms when the ceiling drops, and reshape the environment with levers. “White Wafers” sees you dodging spiked wheels and rolling ice balls and tossing Balloon Bombs to movable blocks, and has a door maze inside a frozen palace. Flaming balls float about and slowly rain like meteors in “Dangerous Dinner”, “Nutty Noon” has you scaling a tower inside and out, and “Another Dimension” offers a sidescrolling shooter-‘em-up section where you spit or charge fireballs, dash through narrow gaps, and blast enemies after allying with Landia, a multi-headed dragon.

Presentation:
Return to Dream Land Deluxe is an absolute joy to look at. Everything about the game pops with vibrant colours and sickeningly cute visuals, with Kirby swinging his arms when idle, adopting new forms with each copy ability, and even donning masks after meeting certain conditions. The game greatly benefits from the polish of modern hardware to iron out the rough edges of Kirby 64 and expand the environments, with the backgrounds being full of little details like raging volcanoes, blizzards, rainbows, and floating islands. The foreground also impresses as plants gift Point Stars or health items as you pass and can be interacted with in different ways, from cutting ropes to lower platforms to destroying cliffsides and plugging volcanoes with your Super Ability. Kirby looks squishier than ever, crying when hit or dying and performing his little victory dance after defeating a boss, and the game wisely uses the in-game graphics and speech bubbles to tell its story. This is peppered with some storybook-like moments to show Magolor’s plight and eventual heel turn, though the story largely takes a backseat, as you’d expect from a Kirby game. The music is suitably jaunty and whimsical, but nothing really struck me as particularly memorable. I did like the ominous atmosphere in the Dimensional Rifts, which take place in a swirling, cosmic void and constantly have you on edge as the Dimensional Wall threatens to crush you. The game also performs extremely well, with no noticeable slowdown even with all the colourful enemies and massive hazards respawning and filling the screen. While the world map is a bit basic, it’s fairly lively as a Waddle Dee appears to provide wares and you’re often asked to jump, fly, or swim about to access each Stage. There are some fun effects with the Super Abilities, too, like enemies smashing into the screen, and little touches like Waddle Dees swinging on ropes, Halcandra Dees on treadmills or conveyer belts, and ancient ruins and giant mini bosses spawning to gift copy abilities you need to access hidden doors or goodies.

This vibrant, whimsical adventure may be the best Kirby game I’ve ever played.

Return to Dream Land Deluxe sticks very closely to the usual Kirby playbook when it comes to its Worlds, emphasising vibrant, cartoonish environments and whimsical, fantastical locations rather than complicating Kirby’s tried-and-tested gameplay. Thus, players explore the plains and treetops of “Cookie Country”, hopping about inside giant tree trunks and to wooden platforms above a dense forest, explore desert ruins and ancient pyramids in “Raisin Ruins”, marvelling at the sand geysers and running from rolling boulders, and explore coral caves in “Onion Ocean”, a tropical beach littered with dangerous palm trees and piers and featuring a calypso soundtrack. “White Wafers” sees you slipping about on ice as snow falls and an aurora borealis glitters overhead, with you traversing a frigid mountaintop and ice palace, while “Nutty Noon” is a series of floating islands high in the sky that includes fluffy cloud platforms, wind currents, and a gigantic stone tower. Halcandra offers the game’s toughest Worlds and most unique visuals, with “Egg Engines” being a massive, hazardous factory full of conveyor belts, crushing hazards, giant mallets and cannons, and pistons. “Dangerous Dinner” sees you traversing an active volcano, dodging lava plumes, magma balls, and surfing over lava as cinders waft on the breeze. “Another Dimension” and the finale see you traversing a surreal, cosmic environment much like the Dimensional Rift areas, one full of flaming hot, crushing obstacles, meteors, and gigantic crystalline balls that fill the screen and a hypnotic intergalactic kaleidoscope looms in the background. Some Worlds have more Stages than others to help ease you into the challenge, some offer more rewards than others, and some mix and match gimmicks from other areas, especially at the end when the game throws everything at you. It never feels cheap or unfair, though, as the game is very generous with health and lives, though you must be on your toes in the endgame as things can get very hectic, especially in the Dimensional Rift areas where you’re given less time to make jumps or clear a path.

Enemies and Bosses:
Unsurprisingly, most of Kirby’s long-time enemies return in this gorgeous adventure. Waddle Dees and Waddle Doos wander about firing beams from their eyes or floating on parasols but also have giant armoured variants and stitched together puppets that spew three of them upon defeat, alongside a super variant that holds the Flare Beam. Shotzos continue to fill the screen with cannonballs, Bronto Burts flitter about in the sky, Broom Hatters sweep the floor, and Sir Kibbles swing their swords in a slashing combo. Chillys emit a freezing blast, Knuckle Joes unleash a flurry of punches, Poppy Bros. Jrs toss bombs, and Sparkys try to fry you. Tootlebams attack with confetti, sentient swords and bows often protect Point Stars and 1-ups, Mumbies and Scarfys relentlessly pursue you, Barracu and large, voracious enemies burst from walls, lava, and water to chomp down on you, and Mechamechs hover about firing mortars or a charged beam. Owlgufs toss razor-sharp feathers, Hot Heads breathe fire, Crabys attack from the seabed by extending their claws, Comos descend on spindly webs, and Babuts drain your health bar. Giant variations of some enemies often block your path but they’re easily swallowed and turned into massive projectiles, and the super variants didn’t seem to be any tougher than their regular versions, though they do yield Super Abilities to get you into Dimensional Rifts. Enemies constantly respawn as you move offscreen so you can backtrack for different copy abilities, if necessary. They also sometimes drop health items and swarm in groups, either falling from above after you destroy a bomb block, littering the narrow tunnels as you run from boulders, or floating up as you descend in an elevator.

While many mini bosses appear, none are more persistent than the Sphere Doomers.

A whole bunch of brand-new mini bosses offer a mid-Stage challenge and yield a copy ability to access optional areas. Bonkers is the sole returning mini boss and once again wields a massive hammer that he twirls around and swings in between slowly leaping about, tossing explosive coconuts, and charging across the arena. His super variant follows the same pattern but gifts the Grand Hammer upon defeat, but attacks much faster. Dubior is a UFO-like enemy that teleports about, fires a lightning bolt, spawns miniature copies, fires electrical orbs, and rushes at high speed. Gigant Edge is a heavily armoured knight who hides behind a massive shield and swings a huge sword that can emit a shockwave projectile. Kibble Blade is similarly armoured but attacks with a large boomerang-like projectile that curves upwards, rams into you, tosses his boomerang from mid-air, and tricks you by throwing it in the opposite direction. King Doo is a gigantic Waddle Doo who fires a beam whip from his massive eye, charges up a beam projectile, and fires it while jumping about, too. Moundo simply tries to crush you by leaping up, riding a whirlwind, and twirling across the frozen floor to shrug off your attacks. Like their smaller cousins, the Water Galboros spit water in an arc and a spray and slide about on a water wave, alongside firing simultaneous water projectiles. You sometimes fight two mini bosses at once, which can be quite a challenge, and eventually decimate them with Ultra Sword in the endgame. The Sphere Doomers are the most persistent mini boss, however, as at least one is fought in every Dimensional Rift area. These bat-like creatures fly and dart about, conjure energy balls, fly in like a missile from the background, and charge across the screen. Battling them is made tougher by increasing environmental hazards, such as pits, water, and lava, though the Sand ability made short work of them in my experience.

Massive, bizarre bosses offer just the right level of challenge.

There are also six all-new bosses, with only Whispy Woods returning from previous games, though all have a “pinch” mode where they get faster and stronger and are made much tougher when battling their “EX” variants in the game’s harder “Extra” mode. As ever, Whispy Woods drops apples or enemies from its leaves and spits cloud puffs, but it can also inhale and eat you and spawn spiked roots. The genie-like Mister Dooter mainly attacks by tossing skulls or bombs or by trying to crush you with a butt stomp. Mr. Dooter also leaps higher using a tornado and bounces about on low health and boasts a flaming punch combo. Fat Puffer can pose quite a challenge as it barrels around as a massive rolling ball that’s difficult to avoid and tries to squash you, spits out water blobs and largely harmless enemies, and causes stalactites to rain from the cave ceiling. It can also fire a massive water geyser and doubles in size after losing half its health. The ape-like Goriath is a tricky target to hit as it leaps between walls, tosses snowballs from above, throws punches using its stretchy arms, and blasts out a spread of fireballs. It also attacks the ground to drop you to lower levels, ricochets about in a rage, and dive bombs at you as you’re busy avoiding its spiked projectiles. You eventually battle the Grand Doomer, a far larger version that also attacks with energy spheres. The Grand Doomer can teleport, fly out from one of four dimensional rifts, and bite down on you from a puddle. It also fires homing shots and fires a rapid slew of spheres from one side to the other before encasing itself in armour, forcing you to swallow a super enemy and chip away at its shield with Ultra Sword.

The multi-phase final bosses offer the greatest challenge as you’re bombarded by colourful attacks.

In “Egg Engines”, players battle the Metal General, a shark-like robot that rapidly attacks with a  cyber-katana, fires electrical darts, and spins its laser blade like a propeller. The Metal General also spits homing missiles or a massive rocket, which it also flies to attack from the background or from above, briefly covering the arena with flames. The Metal General also drops mines, spawns minions, and tries to dive bomb you, making it a formidable boss. Initially positioned as the main antagonist, Landia is a multi-headed dragon who hovers above and spits fireballs, dive bombs, and whips up a damaging wind. He also performs a tail whip attack, breathes fire, and sends fireballs across the ground. Eventually, he splits into four dragons who each spit fireballs down at you and conjure a criss-cross energy beam that can be difficult to avoid. They also play volleyball with their fireballs and eventually reform, but the Sand ability should decimate them before that happens. Landia then aids you against the Lor Starcutter, which rapidly fires single and spread shots, sends blades at you, launches energy sphere charges, and fires a massive energy cannon, later spinning around to increase the danger, though your charged shot will make short work of it. Magolor then takes the spotlight as the final boss in a two-stage battle that sees your health carry over between phases. In the first phase, Magolor teleports about, launches destructible orbs, conjures spikes, and throws fireballs from the background. He also creates a star-shaped black hole that you must avoid being sucked into or else you’ll be pummelled, fills the screen with a massive energy blast, and protects himself with armour, forcing you to use various Super Abilities to finish the phase. In his final form, Magolor is even more aggressive, conjuring rifts, spikes, a faster and greater spread of orbs, blasting between two portals, and eventually attacking with bastardised versions of Super Abilities.

Additional Features:
There are 120 gear-shaped Energy Spheres to collect, with two awarded each time to defeat a Sphere Doomer, some hidden behind special doors and challenges, and others requiring precision platforming, exploration, or Super Abilities to find. These unlock rooms on the Lor Starcutter where you can freely pick from any copy ability, tackle timed challenges for each copy ability, or play mini games. The ability challenges see you racing to the exit collecting coins for points, being awarded a bonus for each enemy you kill and losing points when you take a hit, all to gain a gold, silver, or bronze medal and add to your overall completion percentage. The mini games are modelled after Kirby Super Star (HAL Laboratory, 1996) and see you timing button presses to attack enemies in “Samauri Kirby”, cracking the planet’s core in “Crackity Hack”, and playing in a shooting range, catching eggs, or colouring lines on a checkerboard to drop enemies to their doom. These games are also played in Merry Magoland, a theme park environment eventually populated by bosses and other NPCs and where the Stamp Tickets you collect in each Stage award items to use and masks to wear. As you progress, you’ll unlock music to listen to and cutscenes to watch; you can also read up on some of Kirby’s past adventures. A boss gauntlet is also unlocked, which sees you battle each boss in consecutive fights with limited health-restoring items and copy abilities offered between rounds.

Play mini games battle bosses, or take Magolor on a quest to regain his magic in a fun epilogue.

Clearing the game unlocks “Extra” mode, which halves your health and the value of Point Stars, and presents a much more challenging version of the main story. In this mode, enemies and hazards are tougher and bosses gain new aggressive “EX” versions that sport new colour palettes and have new forms, such as the Metal General linking up with the HR-D3 mech suit. Clearing the main story also unlocks “Magolor Epilogue: The Interdimensional Traveler”, an additional, post-game story where you guide Magolor across twenty remixed stages within the fragmented Another Dimension to regain his magical powers. Unlike Kirby, Magolor cannot inhale, float, or copy enemy abilities. Instead, he briefly levitates with A, fires Magic Spheres with B (eventually charging a longer, stronger beam and his powerful Magolor Cannon), and drops bombs with down and B. Magolor must defeat enemies, building combos for Magic Orbs, which upgrade his abilities. New ones are also unlocked, allowing Magolor to spawn spikes, pass through certain walls, extend his health bar and attack range, and unleash more powerful attacks to clear away enemies and obstacles. Magolor quests for five Fruit Fragments, which are earned by defeating remixed versions of some of the main game’s bosses. Mr. Dooter now sports electrical attacks and can teleport using his magician’s hat, Fat Puffer becomes Fiery Puffer and attacks using flames rather than water, Goriath becomes Hydriath and adds splash damage to his attacks, flinging bubbles rather than fireballs and dropping water rather than rocks, and Magolor battles a flock of Raging Doomers who swoop about and leave behind explosive clouds. Eventually, Magolor battles the Crowned Doomer in a tricky two-phase battle that sees it launching electrical spheres, firing a laser beam barrage, dropping bombs, attacking from portals, and even summoning Raging Doomers! Once it’s beaten, Magolor battles the Master Crown, a gigantic, sentient tree that fires its roots through portals, spawns large explosive apples, fires a sweeping laser from its eye, summons minions, and comes crashing into the area before finally being defeated with the Ultra Sword.

Final Thoughts:
I had a lot of fun with Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, which beautifully translates the best of Kirby’s 2D adventures into a colourful and enjoyable 2.5D romp. The game was endlessly enjoyable to play, offering colourful visuals and a bunch of super fun copy abilities to keep you busy, with the Super Abilities added a bit of extra oompf to the gameplay and offering an optional challenge for completionists. While it would’ve been nice to see the Worlds deviate from the usual Kirby formula, the sheer variety on offer more than made up for it as there’s a lot to see and do between the various game modes and mini games. I imagine the game is a lot of fun in co-op, and was disappointed that I couldn’t play as Meta Knight, but this didn’t drag the experience down for me. Bosses were big and progressively challenging and the game had a picture-perfect difficulty curve, gradually increasing the challenge as you progress to the endgame and offering a harder mode to those who’ve mastered the base game. I really enjoyed Magolor’s epilogue, too, which offered a unique twist on the usual Kirby gameplay and nicely remixed the bosses. I’d go as far as to say that this is the best Kirby game I’ve played so far; it’s so adorably charming and a joy to pick up and play in short bursts. I was perfectly happy to go back and search for missing Energy Spheres to unlock new mini games and masks, enjoyed testing myself in “The Arena”, and went out of my way to challenge every aspect of Magolor’s epilogue to fully power him up ahead of the final boss. Honestly, I think the only things that hold this back are the reliance eon a traditional life system and not letting you play as other characters outside of co-op. Otherwise, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a beautiful, whimsical adventure that was a pleasure to experience and I’d highly recommend to Kirby fans old and new.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Did you also enjoy Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe? Which of the new modes and features was your favourite compared to the Nintendo Wii version? Were you also disappointed that you were restricted to Kirby in solo mode? Which of the bosses and Super Abilities was your favourite and did you ever find all the Energy Spheres? Did you enjoy Magolor’s epilogue and ever clear the “Extra” mode? Which Kirby videogame is your favourite? Comment below with your thoughts on Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe and support me on Ko-Fi for more reviews like this.