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Game Corner [X-Men Day]: X-Men: The Official Game (Xbox 360)

Dr. K1 Comment

To commemorate, the culmination of their long-running and successful X-Men movies, 20th Century Fox declared May 13th as “X-Men Day”, a day to celebrate all things Mutant and X-Men and celebrate Marvel’s iconic collection of superpowered beings who fight to protect a world that hates and fears them.

Released: 16 May 2006
Developer: Z-Axis
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox

The Background:
Ever since Stan Lee and long-time collaborator Jack Kirby created the X-Men in 1963, Mutants have featured prominently in Marvel Comics and grew to greater mainstream prominence thanks to the influential animated series from the nineties, the success of which led to 20th Century Fox purchasing the film rights and producing a successful long-running live-action franchise. The X-Men have also have a storied history in pixels and polygons; the Mutant team first came to life on the Nintendo Entertainment System in what was essentially a vertical shooter, but the characters arguably saw the most success in their numerous arcade ventures and team-based brawlers. To coincide with the release of X-Men: The Last Stand (Ratner, 2006), publisher Activision was tasked with creating a tie-in videogame to be released across all available platforms and bridge the gap between X2: X-Men 2 (Singer, 2003) and the third entry. However, just as X-Men: The Last Stand was critically panned, X-Men: The Official Game failed to impress with its poor enemy A.I., repetitive gameplay, and for being little more than a shameless cash-in.

The Plot:
Still reeling from the death of Doctor Jean Grey, James “Logan” Howlett/Wolverine, Bobby Drake/Iceman, and Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler battle radical terrorist group known as Hydra and their gigantic, Mutant-hunting Sentinels, encountering some of their worst enemies in the process.

Gameplay:
X-Men: The Official Game is a third-person action game with three distinct gameplay styles split across its three playable characters, Wolverine, Iceman, and Nightcrawler, who embark on an adventure that takes place soon after the events of X-Men 2 and fills the gap between that film and X-Men: The Last Stand to explain why Nightcrawler is missing from the team in the third movie. While the levels in X-Men: The Official Game are pretty linear, the developers furnished players with a helpful mini map which indicates friendly non-playable characters (NPCs), enemies, and points you in the direction of your next objective/s. There are a few branching paths you can sometimes take, either by smashing through walls and windows as Wolverine or teleporting to higher areas as Nightcrawler, but these generally just lead to a collectible and it is actually pretty easy to get turned around as everything looks very similar. Although each character has a distinct way of playing, there are some similarities between all three: both Wolverine and Nightcrawler can jump with A and dish out attacks and combos with X and Y, Nightcrawler and Iceman can both target foes with the Left Trigger, and all three will automatically heal from minor wounds (though Wolverine and Nightcrawler and able to dramatically speed this up by holding the Left Bumper or pressing the Right Bumper, respectively, whenever it’s safe to do so, though any movement at all will cancel out this healing boost).

Slice through enemies as Wolverine, teleport about as Nightcrawler, and slide around as Iceman.

Wolverine’s gameplay is very much that of a hack-and-slash brawler; however, fans of genre-defining titles like the God of War series (Various, 2005 to present) will be left disappointed as Wolverine is quite a clunky and limited character thanks to the presentation and camera angles offered by this game. With a tap of LB, Wolverine can sheath and unsheathe his claws (which is more of an Easter Egg than anything), which he can use to slash at the multitude of minions who come charging at him in any given level. Using combinations of X, Y, and B (which pushes enemies away), Wolverine can string together some basic combos; he can also block incoming attacks by holding the Left or Right Trigger (and you can flick the analogue stick while blocking to pull off an awkward dodge roll to try and get away from sticky situations), and successfully landing attacks will build up his “Fury Meter” which, when full, powers up your attacks and healing for a short time with a press of the Right Bumper. Nightcrawler has similar capabilities in combat, but his levels are much more focused on platforming with his signature teleport and a bit of semi-stealth. Nightcrawler can also string together punches and kicks for combos, but you’re best served using his relocation attack; pressing B sees him automatically teleport behind the nearest enemy to pummel them with X or smash them with Y, which is great for taking out groups of enemies quickly. RT allows Nightcrawler to teleport to a variety of surfaces, from pipes to bridges and walkways, and is great for quickly traversing areas and getting to consoles or control panels which need rewiring with X. Of the three, Iceman is the most unique as he’s constantly moving forwards on an ice slide and his levels play much more like chasers or dogfight simulators. Holding A lets Iceman boost ahead, while RT brakes and RB allows him to flip around quickly to retarget enemies. X unleashes an ice beam, which is great for freezing up pipes or putting out fires, while B tosses out his Hailstorm attack and Y puts up a temporary frost shield. You’ll need to constantly tap LT and B when faced with multiple targets, but Iceman’s levels are much more geared towards preventing catastrophes or reaching a goal and are often accompanied by an anxiety-inducing time limit.

Whether you’re fighting a gauntlet, repairing consoles, or facing a time limit, things get very tedious.

The game’s story mode is laid out in a linear mission-based structure; at various points, the narrative branches off to follow each of the three characters and, prior to starting a mission, you can pick from three difficulty settings: “Novice”, “Hero”, and “Superhero”. These will dictate how tough the enemies are, with enemies on “Superhero” able to whittle your health to nothing in just a few hits or under sustained gunfire, but there are perks to completing the mission on higher difficulties as you earn more “Mutation Evolutions” on these settings. These power-up each character’s stats, raising such attributes as their overall health, the damage their attacks deal, and their health and energy recovery, and the only way you’ll only be able to max out your abilities is by beating every mission on “Superhero” mode. This, however, is easier said than done; the game is very stingy with its checkpoints, meaning that failure to complete some of the game’s more monotonous tasks requires you to start the mission over right from the beginning. Following glorified training missions for each character, you’ll be thrust into the game’s story mode and, very quickly, will see everything X-Men: The Official Game has to offer. Wolverine will pretty much always be tasked with clearing away all enemies, with wave upon wave teleporting in or rushing in through doors, though he sometimes has to dodge hazards such as flaming vents and cages or destroy something in order to progress. Nightcrawler almost always has to teleport about the claustrophobic environments, activating panels or rewiring stuff, and occasionally luring exploding probes to power nodes or Sentinels to open doors. Iceman is either racing towards something or fending off attacks, often against a time limit; this means you’ll be dousing fires and cooling down nuclear reactors with your ice beam or chasing down an enemy or towards a goal before time runs out. Occasionally, another X-Men appears to help out; Ororo Munroe/Storm accompanies Wolverine and Nightcrawler you can have her instantly kill all enemies with her lightning by pressing in the left stick, while Nightcrawler also has to deactivate shields so that Piotr “Peter” Rasputin/Colossus can destroy some power generators, but Iceman has no such help when desperately trying to stop Giant Sentinels from marching on the downed X-Jet. Sometimes Iceman will have to slide through “nav points” (essentially glorified rings) and avoid laser hazards and mines, sometimes Wolverine’s locked in a room and forced to fight a gauntlet of enemies, and sometimes Nightcrawler has to destroy glowing crystals to keep enemies from spawning, but it’s all very repetitive and your objectives tend to be to do something once and then repeat it three or four times until the mission abruptly ends.

Graphics and Sound:  
In all honesty, X-Men: The Official Game doesn’t look all that bad; the in-game graphics are pretty decent, with stylistic versions of the film characters well represented for the most part, though the range of animation offered by the three is somewhat lacklustre. Of them all, Nightcrawler looks the best; I love his little coat and how he spins around on poles with a flourish and sometimes gallops on all fours, and it’s a stark contrast to Iceman, who is either relatively static due to his gameplay or ragdolling all over the place when knocked from his slide. Wolverine looks good, but his gameplay is tedious and clunky and severely hampered by the lack of a lunge attack, though he does gain some extra animation frames when in Fury Mode or trying to pounce on larger enemies. The game’s music is pretty decent; it’s mostly all ripped from X-Men: The Last Stand, and many of the film’s cast return to voice their respective characters. In fact, the vocal work may be one of the best things about this game; it’s great hearing Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart not only reprise their roles but do it without the lifelessness and boredom that so often accompanies videogame tie-ins.

While the game’s later locations become more visually interesting, the cutscenes are a cheap let down.

Sadly, the same praise can’t be levelled at the game’s environments and cutscenes. Cutscenes are accomplished using a motion comic aesthetic not unlike those employed at various points in games by NetherRealm Studios; these painted pictures have a very limited range of movement, no lip synching, and the cutscenes come off as cheap and rushed and quite unsightly as a result. The in-game environments are okay, but disappointingly bland; the whole game makes a clear effort to evoke the grey, grounded, semi-sci-fi aesthetic of Singer’s films but there’s generally not really much to see since areas are so linear and empty. You’ll get to fight on the Statue of Liberty in a call-back to the first film and revisit the surprisingly unflooded Alkali Lake facility from the second film and the Weapon X laboratory, all of which are very well realised interpretations of the film locations but are so grey and drab that even cheeky references to Wade W. Wilson/Deadpool can’t save them. Thankfully, once the game gets away from recreating areas from X-Men 2, locations become a bit more visually interesting; the Sentinel factory is great, with a massive Sentinel head looming in the background, as are the colourful levels that take Wolverine to an elaborate Japanese palace and garden grounds, but the game really shines once you get into the Master Mold’s control centre, a gigantic airship full of electrified wires and ominous dread that evokes the Borg Cube. Iceman’s chase through the streets of Hong Kong is similarly a visual spectacle thanks to the neon signs, bridges, and skyscrapers, all of which helps to really elevate the game’s presentation after the first few drab missions and despite the tedious gameplay.

Enemies and Bosses:
With such varied and colourful characters as the X-Men and the Brotherhood to work with, it’s no surprise that the developers chose to mainly have you wade through an endless supply of generic and boring Hydra thugs. These guys come packing machine guns, electrified axes and lances, and claws and can mostly be taken out with some quick combos but some will block your attacks. For Wolverine, things get a little more interesting as he gets to battle the Hydra “Wind Unit” (who are basically ninjas with two katana), while Iceman is often blasting at smaller Sentinels or fire dragons conjured by John Allerdyce/Pyro. Nightcrawler will also have to deal with Sentinels but he can only take them out by teleporting to them and luring explosive drones to them before the robots can blast him off with a shockwave. Later, Nightcrawler is placed in a nightmarish illusion by Jason Stryker and forced to battle off teleporting demonic entities, and you’ll also encounter Hydra goons packing bazookas and heavy cannons in some levels. For the most part, the enemy AI is pretty dumb; they’ll easily lose track of you and won’t think to go around certain obstacles, but in wider, more open areas they can be incredibly annoying and persistent, catching you in a crossfire or swarming around you to deplete your health in seconds while you desperately try to escape to safety.

No matter who Wolverine faces, the same hit-and-run tactics will always serve you well.

Each character also has to deal with a number of bosses, with some fought multiple times in different forms. During Wolverine’s first training mission, you’ll battle against Victor Creed/Sabretooth to learn the basics of combat; Sabretooth makes a return as the final boss of the game, too, where he’s fought within the decaying remains of the Master Mold facility and significantly more powerful even against your upgraded stats. Sabretooth charges at you with a shoulder barge, can hit slow but powerful combos, grabs and lunges at you, and even has his own Fury Mode that speeds him up and makes him more aggressive. Still, the best thing to do is to avoid his attacks, hit a quick combo, and then stay out of his reach to build up your Fury Meter before unleashing it (avoiding pressing Y as this lunge isn’t effective against him) to whittle down his health bar. Halfway through the fight, Sabretooth flees to a lower level, where debris is a concern for both you and him, and you’ll also have to worry about his health slowly replenishing if you take too long, but he’s not especially difficult to put down. Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike makes a return in this game and you’ll battle her a couple of times, too; the first time you fight her, it’s within the eye of a hurricane and you have to be careful of being blasted about by the winds while also pushing her into the hazard, and the second time is within a Japanese temple and forces you to fend off waves of enemies between rounds. Still, Lady Deathstrike may be faster and nimbler than Sabretooth, but the same hit-and-run tactics work well against her and it’s much easier to get her trapped in a corner and just go at her full pelt until she goes down. Wolverine’s toughest foe is easily the Silver Samurai; this hulking armoured bastard can teleport about, has great reach with his broadsword, doesn’t get stunned by your attacks, and can send out both energy blades and electrified shockwaves and forces you to fight his minions between bouts. Once again, simply run or dodge about to avoid the brunt of his attacks and build up your Fury Meter and then just tank him as he’s a bit of a damage sponge and can easily cut you down with just a few swipes of his sword.

Nightcrawler and Iceman generally have to fulfill other objectives while fighting their bosses.

Nightcrawler only gets one boss to fight against, but it’s one of the more frustrating ones in the game; while on the rainswept Brooklyn Bridge, he and Storm must fend off clones of James Madrox/Multiple Man while teleporting about the place and defusing his many bombs against a time limit. Afterwards, Nightcrawler has to battle him alone and more directly; the “prime” Multiple Man will occasionally set an explosive charge and, if enough of them go off, the bridge will be destroyed and you’ll lose the mission but try and disarm them and you’ll be beaten to death in seconds by his ceaseless doubles. Your best bet is to stay on the move, dashing to safety and healing when you can, and hoping that he doesn’t set any of these charges (or quickly interrupt him before he can). The hardest thing about this battle, though, is actually dealing damage to Multiple Man; he seems either impervious to your attacks or only hurt after you take out his clones, which can be hard to do as they swarm around you, making for a boss battle more about luck than anything. Iceman primarily battles against Pyro; first, Pyro tries to burn down and destroy a fission plant, then he tries to overload a nuclear reactor, and then he conjures  a gigantic fire serpent to target the toxic waste canisters. If enough of these are destroyed, the mission ends so make sure you’re rapidly switching target locks and throwing out your Hailstorms to take out the fire dragons. The serpent itself is also quite a damage sponge, and can set you ablaze if you get too close, but if you power-up Iceman’s Hailstorm attack that makes things a lot easier. Definitely his hardest challenge is stopping a seemingly endless army of Giant Sentinels from destroying the X-Jet in Hong Kong; these huge armoured hulks can only be destroyed by targeting six yellow power nodes, but the ones on the front are super hard to hit not just because of aiming difficulties but also because of their high-powered lasers. Destroy one, and another drops soon after, and another, and this was the first mission where I actively had to drop the difficulty down to “Novice” to get past it and even then it was a pain in the ass!

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Unfortunately, there are no collectible power-us available here. Wolverine and Nightcrawler can built meters (either by landing attacks or waiting for it to charge, respectively) to speed up their healing but the closest Iceman gets is destroying Sentinels to gain extra time until fifteen are taken out. As mentioned, Storm and Colossus will accompany you for some missions; Storm can unleash her lightning, but you’ll need to wait for her meter to fill up too, and you’ll also need to get back to help Colossus fend off the Hydra goons before they deal too much damage to him.

Additional Features:
There are sixteen Achievements up for grabs here, with three insulting 0G Achievements awarded after clearing each character’s training mission, three more being rewarded for completing the story mode’s three vaguely defined acts, and three more earned after fully upgrading each characters Mutations. You’ll no doubt notice a few collectibles in each level of the game; every mission hides five Sentinel Tech files and one Weapon X file, and collecting all of these for each character will award another three Achievements and also unlock a bonus costume for each character and a “Danger Room Challenge” for each. Unfortunately, while these collectibles aren’t too difficult to find even without a guide, the rewards you get are pretty pathetic; the costumes are little more than street clothes variants and just having one each is more than a disappointment, it’s a travesty. The Danger Room Challenges amount to timed obstacle courses and challenges used to test your character’s gameplay and abilities, but you earn nothing for completing them so there’s no point in them even being there. Aside from all that, your only other option is to try and beat every mission on “Superhero” to fully upgrade every character, something you won’t really be motivated to do since the gameplay is so uninspiring that even the promise of cutting down goons dressed in Wolverine’s signature wife-beater won’t be incentive enough to ever play this game again.

The Summary:
I tend to go into movie tie-in videogames with pretty low expectations; while I’ve played a fair amount that are pretty good, there’s no denying that they’re generally very rushed, lacking in content, and don’t have a lot going for them. On the plus side, they can sometimes be quite cheap and have some easy-to-snag Achievements, and that’s basically what you’re getting here with X-Men: The Official Game. There’s some decent stuff on offer here; Nightcrawler, especially, is pretty fun to play as and I enjoyed teleporting about the place and pummelling enemies with his attacks, and even Iceman was quite fun in the few missions where you weren’t forced to battle against an arbitrary time limit. Sadly, and most confusingly, it’s Wolverine’s gameplay that really drags this one down; he’s very restricted in his offense and the lack of checkpoints really makes getting through some missions, but especially his tedious gauntlets, a frustrating chore. Awful cutscenes aside, the presentation is pretty good; the game makes a decent attempt at recreating iconic locations from the first two films while infusing a more comic book aesthetic and storyline into the movie timeline, but locations are far too bland and repetitive to really be all that interesting, even in the latter parts of the game. Bosses battles are equally uninspiring; thanks to Wolverine getting the bulk of them, they’re hardly a selling point of the game’s few strengths and, overall, there are far better superhero and action videogames out there for you to put your time into. A serious lack of options, unlockables, and replayability hamper this title; while it’s not too difficult to blast through it in about four to six hours, it’s unlikely you’ll be motivated to try and get everything you miss the first time around and, despite a few entertaining aspects, it remains a cheap cash grab designed solely to leech off the popularity of Fox’s X-Men films rather than actually trying to be an entertaining videogame experience in and of itself.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy X-Men: The Official Game? Which of the three characters was your favourite? Did you enjoy the game’s effort to bridge the gap between X-Men 2 and X-Men: The Last Stand? Which of the game’s missions and bosses was your favourite and do you feel like Sentinels are a little overdone in Marvel games? Did you ever fully upgrade the characters and find all the collectibles? Were you disappointed by the lack of options and unlockable extras? What’s the worst (or best) videogame tie-in you’ve ever played? Which X-Men videogame is your favourite and how are you celebrating X-Men Day today? Whatever you think about X-Men: The Official Game, and X-Men in general, feel free to share your thoughts below.

Game Corner [Turtle Tuesday]: TMNT III: Radical Rescue (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K1 Comment

The first issue of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) was published in May of 1984. Since then, the TMNT have gone on to achieve worldwide mainstream success thanks not only to their original comics run but also a number of influential cartoons, videogames, and wave-upon-wave of action figures. This year, I’m emphasising third entries and time travel shenanigans in the popular franchise every Tuesday in May!

GameCorner

Released: 30 August 2022
Originally Released: 25 November 1993
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Original Developer: Konami
Also Available For: Game Boy, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were almost unrivalled in popularity back in the late-eighties and early-nineties; known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles here in the UK, the “Heroes in a Half-Shell” dominated an entire generation with their comics, cartoon, extensive toy line, and videogames. Konami’s efforts not only proved a hit at arcades but also took 16-bit gamers by storm and helped to make Nintendo a household name in the UK. Additionally, Konami produced three handheld TMNT titles for Nintendo’s ground-breaking portable console, the Game Boy; though restricted by the Game Boy hardware, the first two games impressed in their ambition and even tried to incorporate elements from the arcade releases. However, for this third game, Konami chose to completely overhaul not just the graphics and gameplay, but the genre too; unlike the previous two handheld efforts, Radical Rescue was a “Metroidvania” title with a heavy emphasis on exploration rather than mindless brawling. This resulted in mixed reviews, with some criticising the decision due to the Game Boy’s hardware being insufficient for such a genre and others praising the genre shift as a means to improve upon its predecessors. Either way, Radical Rescue remained a Game Boy exclusive title for nearly thirty years before it was finally re-released in the 2022 Cowabunga Collection alongside a host of other TMNT games and quality of life features.

The Plot:
When their arch-nemesis, Oroku Saki/The Shredder, strikes again by kidnapping their master and father-figure, Splinter, the TMNT leap into action one turtle short. Now Michelangelo must venture into the Shredder’s hazardous mine to rescue his brothers, and their master, and put a stop to their enemy’s latest scheme.

Gameplay:
As mentioned, Radical Rescue is a 2D adventure game with a heavy emphasis on exploration as much as combat; it thus falls under the “Metroidvania” banner and will have you constantly consulting a barely useful grid-like map to discover new paths and areas to explore in your quest to locate the other TMNT. This means that, unlike every other TMNT game I’ve ever played up to this point, you can’t select a character from the start; instead, you’re stuck with Michelangelo and must defeat bosses to acquire keys to free his brothers and then hunt down key cards to access new areas, using each turtle’s unique skills to get past enemies and obstacles. Each turtle controls the same; you use X to attack and A to jump and press X while jumping to do a flying kick. Unlike in the TMNT’s last two Game Boy outings, you can neither throw shurikens or perform a slide kick with down and X, though you can toss shuriken when climbing ladders and you’re able to switch to one of the other turtles at any time from the pause menu and each one not only has their signature weapons but comes with different abilities to get past hazards and access new areas of Shredder’s diabolical mine. Mikey actually ends up being one of the most useful characters; I found myself defaulting back to him a lot as he can perform a helicopter-like glide with his nunchakus when you press and hold A while jumping, which is great for drifting past spike pits or reaching out of the way platforms.

Each turtle has their own unique abilities to aid with exploration as well as combat.

While I can’t be certain, I’m fairly sure that the game forces you to rescue each of Mikey’s brothers in a specific order; I definitely found myself following a particularly path but then my logic was based simply on going for whichever boss and key card was closest to where I was. Thus, the first turtle I rescued was Leonardo, who’s given the bizarre ability to burrow through certain blocks by pressing down and A, effectively turning him into a living drill. Next, I rescued Raphael who can pop into his shell with down and A to pass harmlessly over spikes (until you inevitably have to jump up to a platform) and through small gaps and tunnels; this also makes him immune to certain attacks, which is helpful. Finally, I rescued Donatello, who can cling to and scale walls by jumping at them, which is basically required to access the final areas of the mines. Naturally, each turtle has their own strengths and weaknesses in combat, with Raph and Mike limited in their reach compared to their brothers, but I found myself favouring Mike since there’s more emphasis on jumping than any of the turtle’s other abilities. Every time you defeat a boss, your health will be fully restored, which is useful; rescuing a turtle (and, later, Splinter) grants you a password that you can jot down from the pause screen to continue if you fail in your quest, but your main enemy here will be trying to find your way around the mine and surviving its mechanical trap rooms.

Exploration and backtracking are greatly emphasised to find secrets and rescue your allies.

Radical Rescue all takes part in one large interconnected map; you start on the outside of the main area and venture out here a couple of times to reach other otherwise inaccessible parts of the mine, and will go through doors (either using a key card or passing through from a certain direction) to enter mechanical areas where a boss lurks. These areas, and the mine itself, and crawling with respawning enemies and numerous hazards; we’ve got falling boulders, spike pits, wall lasers, bursts of flame, ceiling spikes, Foot Soldiers trying to run you down in giant mine carts, and extremely annoying bubble-like projectiles that clog up the screen and follow you incessantly. The Cowbunga Collection allows you to activate “helpful map icons” and I’d definitely recommend doing this; it doesn’t help the basic nature of the map but it’s useful to know that you’re heading to a boss, key card, or captive in need of rescue. This will serve you well when it comes to exploration; naturally, you’re somewhat limited in how far you can go in the mines when you only have one or two turtles on hand but, when you have them all, it’s very easy to get turned around because the map is so simplistic and many of the game’s environments all look the same. Because of this, it’s not uncommon to locate a captive turtle but not have a key or to run into a door that requires a key card you haven’t gotten yet, or to have to backtrack halfway across the map to get an item you require. Once you get used to the map and have all four turtles rescued, exploration gets a little easier; you can take shortcuts by climbing or digging down certain areas, for example, but a quick travel system to the four compass points of the map would’ve been much appreciated.

Graphics and Sound:  
To be fair, Radical Rescue is a step up from the TMNT’s last two Game Boy titles. Sprites are smaller now, but actually benefit from it; you get more screen space to work with and the game runs much smoother by default. As a trade-off, though, the game’s taken a step back in some areas; Leo and Raph only hold one of their weapons again, there are no idle animations, and the common Foot Soldiers simply wander about the place. However, the TMNT are far more versatile this time around; their new abilities help them to be more unique and offer up some new ways to play and some new animations and the boss sprites are far bigger and more visually interesting. Additionally, the story cutscenes are the best yet for a TMNT Game Boy title; text and large sprite art are used to convey the general plot and whenever you rescue an ally and, while these barely contain any frames of animation, they’re much more detailed than in the previous games.

The visuals are far better but environments are too similar to impress all that much.

The game’s music isn’t bad, either; while sound bites are at a minimum this time around, Radical Rescue still features a pretty good version of the classic TMNT theme and each area of the game has different music associated with it. However, where the game falters, for me, is in the variety of its presentation; while it’s nice to not be ploughing through the sewers, streets, and Technodrome again, I question the logic of setting the entire game in a drab, repetitive mine. Sure, there are ladders, lanterns, and some different rocky formations here and there but the Game Boy simply isn’t powerful enough to make this large and boring environment visually interesting. When you’re outside, it’s a different story; the background is still quite plain and generally just shows clouds or mountains, but it’s a nice change of pace from rocks and shit. The mechanical areas do help to break things up as well, but these all look and feel the same as well; it’s way too easy to get lost because most of these areas are largely indistinguishable from each other. I think it would’ve helped to theme them after the elements; have one take place under water or covered in snow, one have more lava pits and fire hazards, maybe implement a wind theme…anything but the same screens over and over. In this way, while Radical Rescue is easily the biggest and most involved of the TMNT’s Game Boy adventures, it also paradoxically feels the least innovative because it’s just not very engaging to plod from one dark cave to one mechanical hellscape and back again.

Enemies and Bosses:
As is to be expected, the Shredder’s Foot Soldiers are all over the place. Unlike in the TMNT’s last two Game Boy games, they’re a little bit more competent here; they mostly just wander around but the greater emphasis on horizontal and vertical exploration means they’re often in awkward places and the fact that they constantly respawn can make traversal a bit difficult at times. The Foot Soldiers will toss grenades at you (which you can destroy), wield pickaxes, and fly overhead with jetpacks to drop bombs on you, as well as try to run you down in large mine carts. You’ll also encounter little laser firing spider-like robots, these weird rock-like humanoids, and mechanical frog-like enemies that hop about and fire at you. Traditional TMNT enemies like Mousers and Roadkill Rodneys are absent here, replaced by swooping bats and an abundance of environmental hazards, such as homing missiles and spikes. Another area where Radical Rescue is a step back from its predecessors is its bosses; the game boasts only five boss battles, with all but one being some of the TMNT’s more obscure enemies (at least for me). Each one sports a health meter and each boss fight takes place in an enclosed arena that’s ripped right out of the Mega Man series (Capcom, 1987 to present).

Bosses are fought in enclosed arenas and will test your patience at times.

The first boss I thought was Scratch, who jumps about, swipes at you up close, and hurls a ball and chain at you from a distance. Scratch very much sets the standard for Radical Rescue’s bosses in that they have quite large hit boxes, deal quick, heavy, and nigh-unavoidable damage up close, and you need to get into a bit of a rhythm to land an attack; rather then simply tank through their hits and whittle their health down, it’s better to keep your distance and play things smart, something that serves you well in the fight against Dirtbag. This mining mole dashes at you with a super annoying uppercut and swipes with his pickaxe, but will also leap into the air and stun you if you’re touching the ground when he is. It’s pretty hard to avoid him as he always aims to land on top of you, so you need to jump away and then quickly double back to hit him and then jump away again to avoid taking damage. I was probably getting the hang of the game by the time I fought the Triceraton as he actually seemed a bit easier; for this fight, stay out of his crosshairs and avoid the lighting bolt he fires out while being mindful of his charge attack, but otherwise he’s not too dissimilar from the Rocksteady and Bebop bosses of previous TMNT games.

As if battling these tricky bosses wasn’t bad enough, you’re forced into a boss rush before the finale.

Lastly, you’ll battle with Scale Tail, probably the most difficult of the four main bosses; Scale Tail lashes at you with his tail when you’re up close and spits a projectile at you that becomes a plume of fire. If you manage to avoid this, the snake will try to blow you into the hazard, though this is actually your best chance to attack him providing you can fight against the rush of air and avoid taking damage from his large hit box. After battling through the hazardous final section of the game, you’ll have to fight all four bosses again, one after the other, with no health items or reprieve between each bout! While this is easily one of the laziest gameplay mechanics of any game, I actually found the bosses a little easier the second time through, probably because I was more aware of their attack patterns and had a tried-and-tested strategy in mind for beating them. After defeating them all again, you’ll get to take on “Cyber Shredder” in a two-phase boss battle where he gets a whole new health bar after the first round while you get nothing, making for easily the toughest segment of the game. Shredder flies across the screen with a knee attack, levitates overhead and spams a diving kick, throws kicks at you up close, and launches an orb-like projectile that becomes a plume of fire. In the second phase of the fight, these flames are bigger, the Shredder gains an aerial projectile, and his attacks become faster and more aggressive.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Unfortunately, despite being a Metroidvania adventure, Radical Rescue doesn’t offer anything that new in terms of pick-ups and power-ups. Each turtle acts as a power-up in a way, offering new traversal options, but the best you’ll hope for in any tangible way is the odd slice of pizza dropped by defeated enemies to refill your health. Two new aspects though, are the ability to pick up and store a whole pizza, which will replenish your health bar when it’s drained (a literal lifesaver in boss rooms) and the ability to permanently extend your health bar by picking up hearts hidden throughout the game.

Additional Features:
Another way Radical Rescue is a bit of a step back is the lack of any in-game options; there are no difficulty settings here, no bonus games, and the only real option available to players is to continue their progress with the password system. When playing the Cowabunga Collection, you’ll net a sweet 70G Achievement for completing the game; you can also check out the game’s box art and manuals, switch between the Japanese and American version, apply various borders and display options (including an LCD display to recreate the feeling of playing on the Game Boy’s eye-watering screen) and make use of a strategy guide for some helpful tips. While the only enhancement on offer is to activate helpful map icons, you can still rewind the game with the Left Bumper and access save states using Right Bumper, both of which are incredibly helpful during the game’s trickier platforming and boss sections.

The Summary:
I was completely caught off-guard by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue; I was not expecting it to be this sprawling Metroidvania-style game and it took me some time to come to terms with the dramatic genre shift compared to the more action-oriented TMNT games I’ve played. That’s not to say there’s a lack of combat here; you’ll still be busting plenty of heads, but the emphasis is much more on exploration, back-tracking, and thinking about how to get past obstacles and progress to new areas. In some ways, this is much appreciated; the game is surprisingly big, definitely offers something different from the TMNT’s usual games, and I liked that the TMNT each had their own abilities to help differentiate them. While I appreciate that it’s offering something different, it’s pretty tough to find your way around the repetitive environments and I’m unimpressed by the mine setting, as large as it is. There was also little incentive for me to switch between turtles, the bosses were unnecessarily troublesome at times, the inclusion of a boss rush was beyond lazy, and I don’t think the enemies, environments, or bosses really captured the depth of the TMNT license. Still, the gameplay wasn’t bad and it’s clear that Konami had finally come to grips with the Game Boy’s capabilities by this point so it’s probably worth another go-around as long as you play this version of the game, with all the handy features to get around its more frustrating aspects.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue in your Game Boy library back in the day? What did you think to genre shift towards exploration and Metroidvania mechanics? Which character’s ability was your favourite and which one did you play as the most? What did you think the the game’s presentation and the boss battles? What’s your favourite Metroidvania title? Whatever you think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue, feel free to share them in the comments below or leave your thoughts on my social media.

Game Corner [Turtle Tuesday]: TMNT III: The Manhattan Project (Xbox Series X)

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The first issue of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) was published in May of 1984. Since then, the TMNT have gone on to achieve worldwide mainstream success thanks not only to their original comics run but also a number of influential cartoons, videogames, and wave-upon-wave of action figures. This year, I’m emphasising third entries and time travel shenanigans in the popular franchise every Tuesday in May!

GameCorner

Released: 30 August 2022
Originally Released: 12 December 1991
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Original Developer: Konami
Also Available For: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Background:
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles here in the UK) were the in thing for kids like me back in the eighties or nineties thanks, largely, to the popularity of its influential cartoon and extensive toy line. After helping to define the term “NES Hard” with their original, incredibly successful TMNT title for the NES, developers Konami turned to the equally popular arcade game for the sequel, which proved to be a hit thanks to its ambitious recreation of its far superior arcade counterpart. By the end of 1991, Konami had mastered the art of bringing the TMNT to the arcades with the smash title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Konami, 1991), which also took 16-bit gamers by storm with its home console port. NES players weren’t forgotten in this time, however, with this 8-bit expansion of the previous NES title being critically lauded despite it never actually being released in the United Kingdom. Although TMNT III: The Manhattan Project was never ported or re-released to other consoles or digital services, the 2022 Cowabunga Collection remedied that for modern gamers by including it alongside many other TMNT games and quality of life features

The Plot:
While vacationing at the beach, the TMNT leap into action when their archnemesis, Oroku Saki/The Shredder, kidnaps April O’Neil and hijacks the entire borough of Manhattan, turning it into a floating island and daring them to challenge him.

Gameplay:
If you’ve played any of the TMNT’s arcade efforts, especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (ibid, 1990), you’ll be immediately familiar with the controls, features, and gameplay of The Manhattan Project. As in those titles, the game allows up to two plays to pick from one of the four titular turtles and battle their way through waves of enemies in a variety of locations, many of them drawing from tried and tested environments such as the sewers and the Technodrome. The Manhattan Project offers two options for two players, one that allows friendly fire to be activated for an extra level of difficulty and one that disables it so you can play like a normal person. The controls couldn’t be simpler; you press X to attack and A to jump, with your chosen turtle pulling off a mid-air kick when you press X when jumping. Each turtle control exactly the same and is defined primarily by their colour scheme and the range of their weapon, with Raphael at an obvious disadvantage and Donatello having a longer reach. You can toss enemies overhead by pressing down and X, which seems to do greater damage, or pull off a power attack at the cost of some health by pressing X and A together. Each turtle has their own power move, with Michelangelo performing a handspring kick, Donatello barrelling across the screen in a cannonball, Leonardo flying into a sword cyclone, and Raphael performing an M. Bison-like torpedo attack, but I found actually getting them to execute these power modes to be surprisingly unreliable since all you have to do is press two buttons together.

The TMNT have more attack options and the game is decidedly more akin to its arcade brethren.

Overall, gameplay and combat is basically exactly the same as in the previous NES title and naturally lacks some of the additional animations and options seen in the superior 16-bit titles, with no dashing, elaborate combos, or throwing options available to you, but as a simple pick up and play arcade brawler it does the job pretty well for those who were stuck with the NES. Additionally, gameplay is once again mixed up slightly with a sidescrolling chase sequence in Scene 2 that sees you slashing across the ocean on a surfboard; there are also times when you’re asked to travel diagonally and where you can jump up to a higher level to avoid certain hazards. As ever, the TMNT need to watch out for holes and barrels, which will squash them flat, and new hazards like explosive pipes in the sewer and conveyor belts on the floor of the Technodrome, though you can switch to a different character when you run out of health. The Manhattan Project also includes an elevator section, as is the staple [https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/10-weird-rules-for-every-scrolling-beat-em-up] of any good beat-‘em-up, with this one taking you up the outside of a skyscraper like it’s Street of Rage (SEGA, 1991), but also includes some unique fighting stages that in themselves act as hazards. You’ll be fighting on top of a submarine, on a bridge strewn with holes, and on the aforementioned lift; in these areas, you need to be careful not to jump or be hit into the water or down the gaps as it’ll cost you some health. However, you can awkwardly manipulate your enemies into falling to their deaths in your place and, if you simply walk near the edge, you’ll hang on rather than simply slipping off as in most 2D games from this era.

Graphics and Sound:  
On the surface, The Manhattan Project really isn’t all that much different from the TMNT’s last NES title; however, the environments and overall presentation is far better. For starters, the game ambitiously recreates the cartoon’s iconic opening sequence and the game even includes a few sound bites here and there to evoke its technically superior arcade and 16-bit counterparts. While TMNT’s sprites don’t seem to be all that different, they have been tweaked a bit: Leonardo now holds two katana, for example, and there’s some animation on Donatello’s bo staff as he walks; even their idle animations have been expanded a little bit to include foot tapping and such. Although you can again remove the slowdown and sprite flickering, these elements are still somewhat present, with the same minor screen tearing and the screen still struggling to scroll properly; you’ll find yourself walking right at the edge of the screen and needing to hop back to get things moving less jerkily. The enemies are a little more diverse this time around; not only do they pop up from manholes, out of the water and sand, and from behind parts of the environment, but Foot Soldiers will scurry down poles, burst out of vehicles, and your turtle can get blinded by gas and sand this time around.

The Manhattan Project is undeniably graphically superior to its predecessor.

Environments are much improved over the TMNT’s last NES game; though still a far cry from the arcade and 16-bit titles, there’s much more detail, colour, and even a bit of animation here and there (such as the tide coming in on Scene 1). This is best seen in the Technodrome stage, which is far more visually interesting than before, and in the sewer, where you now cross through waist-high water rather than just being in a simple brick environment. There are some new stage types on offer here, such as the beach that opens the game and includes a pier, the aforementioned submarine, and even generic stages like the bridge are spruced up with large holes to avoid. Perhaps the most impressive environments are the subway, where enemies will jump out of subway trains, and those set on the rooftops of the floating city as you can see skyscrapers and other buildings in the background. Cutscenes and music are much improved this time around as well, with the TMNT transitioning between stages on their blimp more sprite art, voice samples, and speech bubbles being included, and even the heads-up display has been changed up to give it a more distinct visual identity.

Enemies and Bosses:
As ever, your most persistent enemies will be the robotic Foot Clan and their many variants; these guys will toss large shuriken at you (though you can deflect these with you weapons), burst up from the ground, blast at you from hovercrafts, hover about on floating discs, wield whips, and ride around on large rolling balls. The Foot also toss balls and weights at you to squash you, attack with swords, toss daggers in a spread, throw lances and boomerangs at you, and you’ll find two working in tandem to fry you to your shell with an electrical beam. The Rock Warriors are also back, though thankfully without their annoying charge attack; now, they still fire machine guns and heavy ordinance but can also temporarily stun you with gas grenades and send you flying across the screen with a swing of a girder! Robots also dog your progress, with flying bugs diving at you in a kamikaze run, humanoid robots firing projectiles at you, spider ‘bots dropping from the ceiling as rocks, and Mousers clamp down on your hands.

Familiar villains and accompanied by some newcomers as bosses and mini bosses.

As The Manhattan Project is a much bigger and longer game than the TMNT’s last outing on the NES, you’ll have to contend not only with a few more bosses but also a mini boss or two, all of whom come complete with a helpful life bar and will be immediately familiar both to fans of the franchise and anyone who’s played any of the TMNT’s arcade outings. As is often the case in these types of TMNT games, the first boss you’ll fight is Rocksteady and he’s not really changed his attack pattern up all that much; in addition to kicking and punching you when you’re up close and charge at you from a distance, he comes armed with a harpoon gun to launch projectiles your way. The second boss, Groundchuck, represents not just a rare venture into different villains but also an increase in difficulty as he charges around the screen erratically and swings a pipe at you after you deliver enough damage to him. Halfway across the bridge, you’ll get attacked by my favourite TMNT villain, Slash; this dark turtle jumps about the place, spins around on his spiky shell, and (appropriately) slashes at you with his jagged sword. He’s merely an appetiser for Bebop, who now comes equipped with a spiked mace that he twirls over his head and whips at you in a horizontal line. Down in the subway, you’ll fittingly do battle with Dirtbag, who comes rolling in on a mine cart and fires rings from his miner’s helmet; although he also wields his trademark pickaxe, he leaves himself wide open for an attack when it gets stuck in the ground.

Since the game’s bigger, it only makes sense that there’s more bosses and that they’re a bit tougher.

When you reach the end of the sewers, you’ll have to fend off the Mouther Mouser mini boss (a Foot Soldier on a larger Mouser who spits out fireballs and smaller Mousers) before finding yourself on a narrow path surrounded by rising water and once again doing battle with Leatherhead, who not only whacks at you with his tail but also fires a shot gun spread your way. Rahzar and his ridiculously disproportionate head is the mini boss of the Technodrome and again charges at you, swipes with his claws, and can freeze you into a block of ice with his spit. Defeating him sees you facing off with the Shredder, with April held hostage nearby; a cheap spam artist who can kick you clear across the screen, the Shredder slashes with his sword and has a devastating throw, but is thankfully lacking in his de-evolution powers this time around. Tokka attacks you on the rooftop; carrying a shield to block your flying attacks and able to uppercut you into the electrifying neon sign in the background, Tokka also likes to take a bite out of your face and punch at you. The Mother Mouser reappears on Krang’s ship, which is also where you’ll naturally battle Krang; again, his sprite leaves a lot to be desired but he’s a bit tougher this time around thanks to the electrical hazard in the arena, his rocket punch, missile barrage, and tendency to electrify his body while taunting. Krang can also split his android body into two, with his torso floating about firing eye beams at you as his legs stomp about trying to kick you. You’ll immediately face Super Shredder after this fight; Super Shredder can teleport and dash about, send you flying with a swipe, summon a lightning strike and even turn you into an ordinary turtle with a fireball…although this is now a temporary ailment rather than an instant death move.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Unfortunately, The Manhattan Project doesn’t expand on the available pick-ups in any way; the only power-up you’ll find here are the all-too-rare instance of some health-restoring pizza, which is a bit of a shame considering Turtles in Time had added a new power-up item.

Additional Features:
There aren’t any in-game options available to you in The Manhattan Project beyond picking between the two different two-player options unless you enter the legendary “Konami Code”. This means that your only options for replay here are to pick a different turtle or play with friendly fire on and off rather than setting different difficulty levels. The Cowabunga Collection does offer some additional features, however; first, you’ll earn yourself a respectable 70G Achievement for completing the game and you can the game’s box art and manuals, switch between the Japanese and American version, apply various borders and display options, and listen to the game’s soundtrack. The enhancements also allow you to remove slowdown and sprite flicker, allow for “easy menu navigation” (which I found no use for), and offer a super useful infinite lives and an easy mode if you’re struggling. Finally, you’re still about to rewind the game with the Left Bumper, access save states using Right Bumper, and watch the game play itself if you fancy it.

The Summary:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project isn’t much compared to its arcade and 16-bit counterparts, for sure; it’s undeniably graphically inferior, the sound and music isn’t anywhere near as clear, and the gameplay and combat remains restrictive and clunky thanks to the limitations of the NES. However, it’s quite obviously a step up from the TMNT’s previous outing on the NES; not only are the sprites a little more alive, the environments are far more detailed and the game is almost double the length of its predecessor, meaning that it’s a pretty decent 8-bit alternative to the likes of Turtles in Time. It’s unfair to be too harsh on it considering the power of the NES simply can’t compete with its bigger brothers, but it’s a far more impressive effort that its predecessor and felt much more like a complete, concentrated effort rather than a downgraded port. The addition of mini bosses was a nice touch and I liked how the bosses had second phases or upped their attack strategies after you dealt enough damage. The cutscenes and story are far more impressive this time around, though the lack of additional options, power-ups, and gameplay mechanics keeps it from really being all it could be. Giving each turtle their own power move was a nice touch and I liked the additional animations and stage variety on offer here; in some ways, it’s like a remix and expansion of its predecessor, but it’s clearly the superior of the two so I had a pretty good time playing through this one.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project make it into your NES library back in the day? What did you think to the gameplay and presentation of the game, especially compared to its predecessor and arcade counterparts? Which character’s power move was your favourite and what did you think to the new bosses and mini bosses? What did you think to the new, longer stages and the additional tweaks made to the visuals? Did you play with the additional features added to the Cowabunga Collection? What’s your favourite NES game? Feel free to drop your opinions on the TMNT’s third outing on the NES in the comments section down below or share them on my social media.

Game Corner [National Superhero Day]: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Xbox 360)

Dr. K5 Comments

In 1995, Marvel Comics created “National Superhero Day” and, in the process, provided comics and superhero fans the world over with a great excuse to celebrate their favourite characters and publications.

Released: 24 October 2006
Developer: Raven Software
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, Xbox One

The Background:
Perhaps few videogame publishers are as synonymous with Marvel Comics than Activision; the publisher has been spearheading adaptations of some of Marvel’s most popular properties since the year 2000. They weren’t all smash hits, of course, but some of their titles have been praised as among the best for characters like Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Marvel’s resident Mutant team, the X-Men. In 2004, the publisher teamed with developers Raven Software and saw big success with X-Men Legends, a team-based brawler that incorporated role-playing elements and simultaneous co-op gameplay. Following similar success with the sequel, Activision’s partnership with Raven Software expanded to incorporate much of the rest of Marvel’s line-up with this title, which was built on Vicarious Visions’ Alchemy engine. The game also greatly benefitted from utilising the Havok physics engine; in addition to including many of Marvel’s most popular characters alongside those added as downloadable content (DLC), Nintendo staples Link and Samus Aran were initially planned to be Wii-exclusive characters before being nixed. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance received generally favourable reviews; critics praised the game’s presentation and for improving and expanding upon its predecessors, and the game was successful enough to warrant an equally-successful sequel three years later and (eventually) a Nintendo Switch-exclusive third entry that received mixed reviews. Sadly, despite a remastered version being developed for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2016, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is currently delisted from digital storefronts and quite difficult to come back for an affordable price as a result.

The Plot:
When Doctor Victor Von Doom and his Masters of Evil launch an attack against the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate (S.H.I.E.L.D.), Colonel Nick Fury sends out a distress call to all available superheroes for assistance. Steve Rogers/Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor Odinson, and Logan/Wolverine respond to the call and must soon join forces with a myriad of other Marvel heroes in order to put a stop to Dr. Doom after he attains incredible cosmic powers from Odin Allfather.

Gameplay:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is a top-down, team-based brawer peppered with some very light puzzle solving, opportunities for exploration, and role-playing mechanics. Players can (eventually) assemble a team of four from around thirty available superheroes and journey across a number of recognisable Marvel locations battling against the nigh-on endless minions of the Masters of Evil. Up to four players can play at once, though a single player is able to battle on alone, using the Left Trigger and directional pad (D-pad) to direct their computer-controlled team mates or switching to another superhero by pressing a corresponding direction on the D-pad. Players are given two primary attack options: A for a quick attack and B for a stronger attack, which can be charged up, and alternating between these commands will allow you to string together a few simple combos that will stun, trip, or blast your foe into the air, which can be essential to breaking through some enemy’s guards. X is the “action” button, allowing you to open doors, activate consoles, turn levers, or grab enemies to pummel, throw, or relieve them of their weapons, and Y allows you to swim and jump (you can also double jump, web-sling, or fly by double pressing and holding the button, respectively). Players can block incoming attacks by holding the Left Bumper or tap it to dodge out of the way entirely and each character has their own special abilities, which are accessed by holding the Right Trigger and selecting either A, B, X, or Y. Special powers can only be used if you have another energy, which is represented by glowing blue orbs dropped by enemies or uncovered from smashing crates or opening chests, and allow you to fire energy beams, toss projectiles, entrap enemies (by freezing or webbing them up, among other options), boost you (and your team mate’s) defense, attack, and other attributes, and cause status effects to your enemies like stunning, burning, or electrocuting them. While many of the effects are largely shared amongst the roster, each character pulls them off in their own unique way; Tony Stark/Iron Man’s Repulsor blasts are different from Mark Spector/Moon Knight’s projectiles, even though both can ricochet around the environment, and each character has a variety of special powers that you can power-up and assign to the face buttons from the “Hero Management” menu.

Assemble a team of four superheroes and battle the endless forces of the Masters of Evil.

Each character also has a big, character-specific attack that can be performed when your energy gauge is completely full and you press Y while holding RT this will see them unleash a huge, screen-clearing attack specific to them and each character will perform these in succession if their energy gauge is full. You’ll also earn additional bonuses if certain characters pull off their special moves at the same time, and this also happens if your team is formed of characters who have a history together, like the X-Men or the Fantastic Four. The game’s story mode is comprised of five “Acts”, which drop your team in a variety of locations that should be familiar to Marvel Comics fans. After clearing the first mission, which has you retaking a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier from Dr. Doom’s forces, you’ll be dropped into one of five hub areas where you can interact with Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, and other non-playable characters (NPCs) to learn more about your current or next mission, gain insight into the heroes and villains, and be given side quests to perform. In the hub area, and scattered throughout each location, are S.H.I.E.L.D. Access Points where you can save or load your game, change up and upgrade your team, or revive fallen teammates. Just as blue energy orbs can be acquired during gameplay, so too can red health orbs, but some environmental hazards or bottomless pits will see you or your teammates taken out of action. It can take about three minutes for your fallen ally to be ready for revival, but they can only be brought back into the fight from one of these save points. As you defeat enemies, you’ll earn experience points (XP) and level-up once you’ve gained enough XP, which will improve both your individual and team stats and unlock additional special moves for you to utilise. From the Hero Management screen, you can switch your character entirely, change their costume (which affords different abilities), equip gear to boost their stats, and name and improve the competence of your team to increase your odds when in a fight.

The tedious combat is broken up by some simple puzzles, QTEs, or short bites of variety.

Gameplay in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance quickly grows quite repetitive; you can charge through most missions by repeating the same combos and special moves over and over, and opportunities for exploration are quite limited as areas generally only give the illusion of being large and multi-pathed. Combat doesn’t get much deeper than tripping, stunning, or blasting enemies, or avoiding using physical or energy-based attacks, and it’s surprisingly easy to get turned around in areas even with the presence of a mini map as one dark, grey corridor looks the same as the last. Puzzles aren’t much of a head-scratcher here; you’ll generally fight your way to a console or power generator that needs to be activated or destroyed, though sometimes you’ll need to activate two switches at once with the either of a partner, and you’ll sometimes have to perform these tasks against a time limit. You’ll need to push or pull heavy objects onto pressure pads, redirect sunlight to free Balder Odinson, defend Dum Dum Dugen in a glorified escort mission, perform character-specific motions to activate statues, or complete quick-time events (QTEs) to open doors or take out larger, otherwise-invulnerable bosses. You’ll jump behind the controls of an anti-aircraft cannon, be joined by NPCs like Major Christopher Summers/Corsair, and have to rescue characters like Doctor Bruce Banner and Prince Namor McKenzie/The Sub-Mariner, though some of these are optional side quests. These optional missions appear during the main campaign and often having you searching for items for a specific character, or destroying certain targets along the way, and sometimes you’re faced with an impossible choice between two options which will fundamentally alter the multiple endings. Gameplay really gets interesting, though, when you end up in Murderworld, a twisted funfair featuring bumper cars, a giant pinball set, a hedge maze, and even an old-school Atari-style mini game that sees you awkwardly swinging from ropes and collecting Golden Tickets to rescue Doctor Jean Grey/Phoenix from Arcade’s clutches.

Graphics and Sound:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is largely an impressive looking title, despite how old it is now, thanks to the zoomed out, almost isometric camera perspective. This means that the in-game character models, while hardly the most detailed, pop out nicely against the various backgrounds and I liked how they all had their own unique flourishes, like Spider-Man being able to web enemies up when he grabs them and Norrin Radd/The Silver Surfer floating around on his cosmic surfboard. Unlike some similar team-based brawlers, this really helps it to feel as though each character plays a little differently since they don’t just share the same animations and have a little individuality to them; you’ll need a stronger character to move certain objects, for example, and it’s much easier to explore the environment with a character who can fly. While your customised team won’t appear in the pre-rendered cutscenes, they do all have a lot of unique dialogue during the game, and when talking to or fighting against other characters; dialogue trees exist so you can ask a number of questions to NPCs or pick different options, which either helps you answer trivia questions, kicks off a side mission, or has you picking to team up with or save a different character, and villains like “Lester”/Bullseye or Quinten Beck/Mysterio. Unfortunately, the music isn’t really on par with the voice acting; it’s all very generic superhero-y or militaristic themes, and the in-game tracks often awkwardly loop, which is very jarring; the music’s also very loud, so you might want to adjust the sound settings in the options.

While the cutscenes aren’t great, the in-game graphics are decent enough and there’s a lot of dialogue variety.

The pre-rendered cutscenes also often let the game down a bit; they haven’t aged too well, and have a very rubbery and surreal quality to them (though they are pretty epic, especially when the Masters of Evil are discussion their evil lot and when Galactus and Uatu/The Watcher enter the story) that I’d criticise more if I could actually see them but the cutscenes are very dark and the only way to brighten them is by changing your television’s settings. The game’s environments often don’t fare much better, either; while it’s fun visiting places like the Sanctum Sanctorum and Valhalla in the hub worlds, the actual mission locations quickly become confusing and boring. While there’s a lot to destroy and see in each area, and even some hidden paths to uncover, rooms, corridors, and sections all start to blend together and the levels themselves can outstay their welcome at times, which only makes the monotonous combat more glaring. That’s not to say that there aren’t some visually interesting locations, though; you’ll swim through the depths of Atlantis, travel to Hell itself, battle across the length of the Bifrost Bridge and through the frozen wastes of Niffleheim, and infiltrate the gothic, regal stone walls of Castle Doom. Easily the most impressive area you’ll visit, though, is the Skrull home world, which is currently under attack by Galactus. The World-Devourer is seen lumbering around in the background between the futuristic skyscrapers and even pursues your across the walkways in an exciting (if frustrating) sequence, though the gameplay and visual variety offered by Valhalla is equally fun as you can visit the Warrior’s Hall (where NPCs are enjoying revels) and hop across Viking ships amidst a cosmic backdrop.

Enemies and Bosses:
Since a gaggle of Marvel’s most notorious villains has joined forces in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, you can expect to come up against a bevy of disposable goons during your adventure. It doesn’t take long for you to basically have seen everything the game has to offer in this regard, but each location does at least change up the appearance, dialogue, and some of the attacks of the enemies you face; you’ll battle Ultron’s minions, Loki Laufeyson’s trolls, and soldiers from the Shi’ar Empire and the depths of Atlantis, all of whom can be defeated using your standard combos or special powers. You can set your team mates to follow, attack, or defend formations, but I always like to choose an aggressive approach to overwhelm the hoards of enemies that can flood each area. Some of these carry weapons, either melee armaments like axes, spears, and swords which you can appropriate, or laser rifles for long-range attacks; others shield themselves and need to be attacked from behind or stunned. Some, like the imp-like demons from Mephisto’s Realm, leap onto you and drain your health, while others fly above taking pot-shots at you, and some are resistant to physical or energy attacks or need to be tripping, stunning, or blasted into the air. Some are larger, dealing and taking more damage, while others regenerate their health (or their allies), sap your health or energy, or boost the attack of other foes, so it’s best to take those guys out first.

A whole host of Marvel villains stand in your way, though most can just be beaten into submission.

The Masters of Evil have assembled quite the smorgasbord of allies; you’ll do battle with almost every single villain from Marvel Comics throughout the course of the game, sometimes more than once, as various underlings dog your progress throughout each mission. Often, you’ll battle at least two of these sub-bosses at a time; sometimes they flee after an initial encounter and need to be fought again, other times they’re powered up to be more formidable, and in other cases they’re able to heal or shield each other from your attacks by working together. However, defeating the likes of Mac Gargan/The Scorpion, Bullseye, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes/The Winter Soldier, Chen Lu/Radioactive Man, Valentin Shatalov/Crimson Dynamo, Aleksei Sytsevich/The Rhino, Herman Schultz/The Shocker, Doctor Curt Connors/The Lizard, Hussar and Neutron, Paibok, and even the corrupted superheroes you eventually fight really don’t require much more than you constantly attacking them with combos and special powers. Indeed, while it’s impressive that so many villains appear in the game, very few actually offer much in the way of a challenge beyond being a little tougher than the regular enemies you encounter, with even the likes of notorious villains like Ultron and Titannus proving quite disappointing encounters as, while they keep you at bay with laser blasts or destroy everything in a rampage, respectively, both can be similarly put down without any complicated strategies. Many of these villains are fought in teams, however, and they can also reappear in the simulator missions you unlock by finding discs, allowing you to battle them with different characters and in different situations, but as long as you string together your usual combos and unleash your best special attacks they go down pretty easily, even when bolstered by disposable minions.

Some of the best sub-bosses require a bit more strategy and forethought to put them down.

Other villains, however, do bring a little bit more to the table: Mysterio uses illusions to throw you off and, while Paul Pierre Duval/Grey Gargoyle can disable you by turning you to stone, Baron Carl Mordo, Kl’rt/Super Skrull, and the Mandarin disable you with elemental attacks to encase you in ice or send you flying with a blast of wind. The Mandarin also ends up being a particularly annoying boss as you need to lure his spider-like robots into teleporting to his safe spot to destroy his endless supply of Ultimos and actually bring him down for good. Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing/M.O.D.O.K. challenges you to a trivia quiz to get closer to him, then brings in waves of Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) minions to annoy you in addition to firing lasers and shockwaves at you. When battling Byrrah Thakorr-So and Krang, you also need to destroy sonic emitters to progress the mission, while Attuma and Todd Arliss/Tiger Shark can be difficult to hit as they’re swimming all over the place, making for a more aggravating encounter. Dragon Man randomly drops in as a tough obstacle to bypass since he’s capable of dishing out some formidable damage, while Blackheart employs multiple versions of himself to attack you and you’ll need to take on all three members of the Wrecking Crew at once (though they fall pretty easily if you’re wielding an axe or other weapon). Amora the Enchantress can allure you and your teammates into not attacking her, and will heal her brutish ally, Skurge the Executioner, Ulik and Kurse can only be defeated by attacking one with melee attacks and the other with energy attacks, and you’ll need to lower the shields protecting the likes of Kallark/Gladiator, B’nee and C’cil/Warstar, and Cal’syee Neramani-Summers/Deathbird (who flies around the arena tantalisingly out of reach and swooping down to grab you otherwise).

The bigger, more formidable bosses offer a bit more variety and spectacle.

Luckily, the game claws back a bit of challenge and intrigue by its large and engaging end of Act boss battles. After fending off Dr. Doom’s attack on the Helicarrier, you’ll battle Fing Fang Foom on the main deck; this gigantic alien dragon blasts fireballs at you from the air, covers the ground with shockwaves when it lands, and can only be brought down by firing anti-aircraft cannons at it and making good use of your ranged attacks. After making it past his robots and death traps, you’ll battle Arcade’s massive mech in a circus tent, which you need to fire yourself at using cannons and succeed at QTEs in order to have it damage itself in frustration. The eldritch Kracken is one of the ore frustating bosses as you can’t damage it directly and must lure it into attacking the nearby columns so you can complete a QTE sequence, but it seems completely random when it’ll actually smash into these columns, meaning the fight drags a bit. Fittingly, Mephisto awaits you in the depths of Hell; this demonic villain spews hellfire at you, protects himself from attacks with a shield, and can even screw up your controls with his powers, though you can disarm him and use his Hellsword to damage him. You’ll have to take extra care when Mephisto compels Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler or Jean Grey to attack you, however, and will lose that character forever when they sacrifice themselves to stop Mephisto. At first, Loki isn’t really too much of a threat; sure, he’s got lightning attacks that stun you and is assisted by his Frost Giant minions, but he goes down pretty easily. However, it’s all a ruse as he then poses s Nick Fury to have you activate the indestructible Destroyer, which you must flee from while desperately searching for the ice-shielded Loki; once you find him, simply attack him until his shield breaks and the fight is ended. Galactus, however, is a threat far too big for you to tackle head-on; instead, you must desperately flee from him (destroying his drills if you have time) and then avoid his massive fists to activate three consoles and blast at him as the Silver Surfer in a QTE sequence. Finally, you must take on Dr. Doom himself; however, despite stealing Odin’s power to become a literal God, the mad doctor really isn’t too difficult to defeat even with the corrupted Fantastic Four acting as his personal guard. Simply destroy the four generators powering his shield, chase him down as he dashes and teleports across his throne room, mashing buttons when he grabs you, and pummel him as you would any other enemy or boss and, eventually, he’ll be defeated without too much problem regardless of his electrical attacks or shockwaves.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As mentioned, you can refill your energy and health by collecting blue and red orbs, which are dropped by enemies or found by destroying crates or opening chests. While some hazards can whittle your health down pretty quickly, or kill you immediately, health is pretty easy to come back, and you can also grab weapons to dish out greater damage to enemies (in fact, this is highly recommended as weapon attacks easily cut down even the most intimidating Super Soldiers and Doombots). You will also acquire S.H.I.E.L.D. Credits from enemies and the environment, which can be spent on upgrades to your character’s powers, costume-specific abilities, and upgrading your team’s stats; you cans et these to auto-upgrade, but they increase in cost each time you boost them so you can burn through Credits pretty quickly. Defeating the game’s many sub-bosses and bosses will also yield special gear that you can assign to each character; this will boost your attack, XP, or gauges, resist or inflict elemental damage, and offer numerous other perks but you can only equip one item to each character and your inventory has limits, meaning you’ll need to sell some to make way for new pick-ups as you come across them. Finally, as mentioned, you’ll get boosts to your stats and performance for forming teams of related characters, and performing special moves with certain characters, so it can be beneficial to experiment with different combinations and search around the environments for chests for more loot.

Additional Features:
There are forty-six Achievements on offer in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, with the majority of them popping after clearing each Act and defeating bosses. Other Achievements include tossing enemies to their deaths, performing a certain number of finishing moves, defeating a certain number of enemies, unlocking every character and costume, and finishing the game on Hard mode, among others. Since the only difficulty-based Achievement you get is finishing on Hard, you may as well play through on Easy unless you’re going for that Achievement, and you’ll also get Achievements for finishing missions with another human-controlled character and upgrade every character’s special moves. Throughout each level, you’ll find a number of collectibles scattered about; art books unlock artwork to view, action figures allow you to unlock T’Challa/Black Panther and Matt Murdock/Daredevil as playable characters (and you can play a claw mini game in Murderworld to unlock Eric Brooks/Blade as well), and you can unlock Nick Fury by finishing the game once and the Silver Surfer by earning at least a Bronze medal in the game’s bonus simulator missions. These are unlocked by finding S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator discs and recreate key moments and battles from each character’s history in a series of tough challenges. You can also take on five sets of trivia questions in each hub world for additional XP and Achievements, replay and revisit any Act, hub, and mission once you’ve finished the game, view movies and other unlocks in the gallery, and go head-to-head with your friends batting for points in an “Arcade” mode. By defeating numerous enemies with each character, you’ll eventually unlock up to four different costumes for each one, with these offering slightly different abilities that you can upgrade. Unfortunately, you can no longer purchase the two additional DLC packs, which added eight new characters to the roster in addition to twelve extra Achievements, none of which can be accessed on home consoles any more, which is a shame as I wanted to have Eddie Brock/Venom on my team and had to settle for symbiote Spider-Man.

The Summary:
I’d played Marvel: Ultimate Alliance before on the PlayStation 3 and, while I’d enjoyed it, I remember being put off by the lack of Trophies to earn and the fact that the DLC was only available on the Xbox 360 version. When I finally bought an Xbox 360, this game was on my buy list and, coincidentally, was a bit more expensive than I’d like and the DLC was still unobtainable, unless I wanted to shell out ridiculous amounts for an imported version. When I finally got it again, I enjoyed getting back into it; the game is very action-packed and chock full of playable characters, cameos, and villains to fight, but there’s really not a great deal to the combat, graphics, or the story. It’s fine and enjoyable enough, but things get repetitive very quickly and you’ve basically seen everything the game has to offer (apart from a few bells and whistles) after the first Act. You’ll beat on the same generic goons with the same tedious combos over and over, solving simplistic puzzles and spending your Coins on upgrades, but very rarely will you actually find much t set this apart from other, similar brawlers. The character selection and variety is great, and I like how they feel distinctive despite basically all being the same, and I enjoyed how some stages were more visually interesting than others, allowing you to swim or venture onto the hull of a space craft. While the sub-bosses weren’t up to much, the bigger bosses offered a bit more challenge and entertainment, but it feels a bit like the developers maybe crammed a little too much into the game without trying to make each villain a unique encounter. Overall, it’s a decent enough team-based brawler that’s probably more fun with a couple of friends to play with; there’s some decent replay value on offer with the different endings you can get based on your decisions and the extra missions and unlocks to find, but it does feel a little lacking in presentation and overall content to really score much higher.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Marvel: Ultimate Alliance? If so, what did you think to it and who made it into your team? What did you think to the combat, character selection, and the overall gameplay? Were you disappointed that the boss battles were mostly just a tedious slog? Which of the characters, villains, and locations was your favourite? What endings did you get and did you ever unlock all of the costumes and characters? Did you ever play as the DLC characters? Where would you rate this game against its sequels and other similar games? How are you celebrating National Superhero Day today? Whatever your thoughts, sign up to leave a comment below or leave a comment on my social media, and be sure to stick around for more superhero and comic book content throughout the year.

Game Corner [Robin Month]: Gotham Knights: Deluxe Edition (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K6 Comments

In April of 1940, about a year after the debut of arguably their most popular character, Bruce Wayne/Batman, DC Comics debuted “the sensational find of [that year]”, Dick Grayson/Robin. Since then, Batman’s pixie-boots-wearing partner has changed outfits and a number of different characters have assumed the mantle as the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin have become an iconic staple of DC Comics. Considering my fondness for the character and those who assumed the mantle over the years, what better way to celebrate this dynamic debut than to dedicate every Thursday of April to celebrating the character?

Released: 21 October 2022
Developer: WB Games Montréal
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S

The Background:
In 2008, Eidos Interactive and Rocksteady Studios delivered one of the greatest superhero videogames of the modern era, Batman: Arkham Asylum, which proved to not only be a critical and commercial success after years of Batman games of varying quality but also kick-started an incredibly successful and well-regarded series of videogames. Batman: Arkham City (ibid, 2011) proved to be bigger and better and, despite criticisms of its driving sections, the final game in the series, Batman: Arkham Knight (ibid, 2015), was still met with largely favourable reviews. After the success of Arkham City, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment turned to WB Games Montréal to develop a prequel and give Rocksteady Studios time to produce their expansive and impressive finale. Although Batman: Arkham Origins (ibid, 2013) is often considered the black sheep of the franchise, I found it to be just as enjoyable as Arkham City and it still sold incredibly well and it even laid the foundation for a spin-off focusing on the Suicide Squad. Indeed, in August 2020, it was announced that Rocksteady would be returning to their popular spin-off franchise for a Suicide Squad title but, at the same time, WB Games Montréal were also revealed to be working on their own Bat-centric title, one that wasn’t connected to the Arkham series but still owed a lot to it in terms of its presentation and gameplay. Unlike the Arkham games, Gotham Knights was to be a multiplayer, open-world adventure set after the Dark Knight’s death and focusing on his four protégés; the game was built to incorporate role-playing elements and online functionality to allow players to co-operate in combat and missions. However, also unlike its spiritual predecessors, Gotham Knights was met with mixed reviews; while the customisation and visuals were praised, the combat and focus on grinding was criticised; the lack of variety offered by mission objectives and dull mechanics were also a negative, though the focus on character relationships was praised.

The Plot:
Batman is dead, killed in battle with Rā’s al Ghūl. In his place, his four protégés – Dick Grayson/Nightwing, Tim Drake/Robin, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and Jason Todd/Red Hood – must work together to combat the escalating crime sweeping the city, fill the void left by the Dark Knight, and investigate a mysterious secret cabal known as the Court of Owls.

Gameplay:
Gotham Knights is a third-person action game that takes place in an open-world environment, includes a great deal of role-playing game (RPG) elements, and allows players to pick between one of the four titular Gotham Knights and take on a variety of missions across different nights in Gotham City. Although each of the Gotham Knights has their own pros, cons, and special abilities, they all share the same control scheme, which, like many things in the game, is similar to that of the Batman: Arkham series but also a little different. You attack enemies with X; tapping the button will unleash a small combo that quickly gets a little repetitive and holding X charges up an attack for extra damage and to break through the enemy’s guard or shields. A is use to open doors, squeeze through gaps, interact with the environment, and to hop over obstacles using the game’s dysfunctional parkour mechanic; as you run around (accomplish by pressing in the left analogue stick), you can tap A to hop over gaps or up to higher levels, but the only time you can actually jump is after grappling to a ledge (accomplished by tapping the Left Bumper). Press Y sees you toss out a ranged attack, either with Batarangs or Red Hood’s apparently non-lethal pistols, and you can also hold Y to knock back and stun enemies with a wider ranged attack. B allows you to evade; there is no counter system like in the Batman: Arkham games but you can hop over and under incoming attacks and out of the way of gunfire (helpfully indicated by danger lines) and, if timed correctly, pull off a counter by tapping X after a dodge. Like the combat, it’s not as slick or intuitive as in the Batman: Arkham games, which again is something that comes up a lot here, but it does a decent enough job.

Each character has their own unique skills and abilities to fight crime in a Gotham without Batman.

The Left Trigger allows you to precision aim your projectile to attack specific enemies or interactable elements, such as exploding barrels, electrical boxes, or chains to create platforms; the Right Trigger lets you grab enemies after you’ve whittled their health down enough, allowing you to finish them off with a strike attack with X, interrogate them to fulfil mission objectives with Y, or toss them at other enemies (or off a rooftop!) with B. The Right Bumper brings up the onscreen “Ability” menu; as you pummel enemies and perform well-timed evades, a meter will build up that allows you to perform your character’s unique attacks, such as a flurry of strikes, unleashing an elemental attack, calling in a drone for a short time, or sending out a bunch of little nanobots. Some of these will boost your attack, other will create a hologram to distract enemies. Similar to the Batman: Arkham games, you can also crouch by pressing in the right stick and take to higher perches to scope out large groups of enemies; this allows you to pull off silent takedowns or ambush takedowns if you want to make a little more noise, disable any security cameras or turrets, and use the environment to instil fear in your enemies and cause them to hesitate. While there are no “Predator” sequences, the spirit of this mode is still alive here; you’re often encouraged to take a stealthy approach, something Robin is especially good at, but you can just as easily tackle most situations head-on since the Gotham Knights are much better at resisting and avoiding gunfire. Additionally, your health will no longer be restored after taking out enemies; instead, you carry a limited umber of health packs, which you can use by pressing right on the directional pad (D-pad); enemies will sometimes drop health packs when defeated so look out for these and, if you’re defeated, you’ll respawn but will have lost a chunk of the bootie you picked up in the mission. At first, the Gotham Knights seem a bit limited compared to their caped mentor; each has their own individual strengths, with Nightwing being more acrobatic and Red Hood a powerhouse brawler, for example, but none of them are capable of gliding, at least not at first. You’ll need to complete a series of side missions with each character, ranging from stopping the randomly-generated “procedural crimes” around the city, interacting with non-playable characters (NPCs) like Alfred Pennyworth and Renee Montoya, to eventually unlock each character’s unique traversal method (known as “Heroic Travel”). Nightwing gets a jet-powered glider, which is a bit clunky to control; Robin taps into the Justice League’s satellite’s to teleport short distances, Red Hood harnesses the power of the Lazarus Pit to pull off a mid-air leap, and Batgirl gets a conventional glide.

Race through the streets on the Batcycle and use the shadows and your detective skills to complete missions.

All of these are performed with RT and you’re encouraged to practice and master them using time trials scattered across the city, but I found them a bit unwieldy so I relied mostly on the grapple, which can be chained together to quickly cross horizontal and vertical distances, and the Batcycle. Summoned by pressing up on the D-pad, the Batcycle is a fast and nimble way to get around the impressively crowded city streets; RT accelerates, LT brakes, reverses, and lets you perform a drift, Y sees you perform your ranged attack (though you can plough through pedestrians and enemies as well), A performs a wheelie for a ramp boost, and you can even rocket off the Batcyle with LB. The Batcycle is much more fun than Arkham Knight’s Batmobile and Gotham Knight’s handy and familiar compass and waypoint system mean it’s easy to blast your way to each objective, but you can also unlock various fast travel points across the map by taking out drones as a story objective to make things even faster. Between missions, you’ll return to the Belfry to rest up, advance the story, interact with characters, and upgrade your gear but you can also quick launch missions from here, which will spawn you in a unique and enclosed section of the city to take on one of Batman’s rogues in a specific environment, such as Arkham Asylum or the city dam. Another holdover from the Batman: Arkham games is the ability to scan the environment; pressing or holding down on the D-pad lets you perform an AR Scan, which highlights interactable elements, allows you to tag specific enemies, and is essential for examining crime scenes. Here, you scan dead bodies, lab equipment, and other key areas for clues; sometimes you need to identify a specific item, other times you need to link two together, and you’re often given the option of quick-solving the puzzle if you take too long. It’s a decent system as you’re spending half the game in what’s essentially a wire-frame mode like in the Batman: Arkham games, but it can lead to you feeling obligated to AR Scan every nook and cranny for potential items of interest. When playing Gotham Knights, you have the option of focusing on the main story or taking care of numerous side missions, however this is often actually integral to completing the main story or upgrading your characters. Consequently, while you could glide past most of the random crimes and enemies in the Batman: Arkham games, that’s not the case here; playing on the “Normal” difficulty is quite a challenge, practically forcing you to engage with every premeditated crime and side mission to get stronger, so I definitely recommend playing on an easier difficulty to make things less repetitive. And things can get very repetitive: crimes range from punks trying to bring into cars or escaping police custody, to performing bank heists, hacking into terminals, attacking armoured cars, and even racing away down the streets. You’ll be retrieving organs from organ traffickers or Modchips from goons, defending your allies and other NPCs from attacks, tracking down pieces of Basil Karlo/Clayface, disrupting Doctor Harleen Quinzel/Harkey Quinn’s latest scam, and sneaking into areas through vents to take out enemies.

While you’ll be repeatedly stopping the same crimes, some missions are more memorable than others.

These missions repeat over and over, with stronger and more diverse groups of enemies being mixed in, but with very little deviation; sometimes you can gain bonus rewards if you stay undetected or take out enemies in certain ways or avoid damage, other times there’s a loot crate for you to collect, but mostly you’ll be swinging in to do the same tasks over and over, which can get repetitive very quickly. The main story is where the meat is at. While you often have to complete some side missions to advance it, such as repeatedly infiltrating Oswald Cobblepott/The Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge, disrupting enemy strongholds, rescue hostage strapped to bombs, avoid attracting the attention of the distrustful and trigger happy Gotham City Police Department, and exploring some of Gotham’s most notorious locations, such as Blackgate Prison and even the cavernous tunnels beneath the city. There’s generally a good balance of action, stealth, and puzzle solving when on mission; you might have to sneak into an area and quietly take out goons, but you can also bust heads if you feel like it and are strong enough to pull it off. Puzzle solving becomes more prominent as the plot thickens and the Court of Owls and League of Shadows get involved; you’ll be finding Owl’s Nests all over the city, interacting with hidden doors and taking on the zombie-like Talons to clear them out, as well as infiltrating a masquerade ball and staying undetected as you listen in on the Court’s conversations and examine various parts of stately homes for hidden doors. The Court like to test your mettle in a series of elaborate death traps; you’ll have to avoid instant-fail traps like bursts of flame and spinning blades while on a conveyor belt, for example, muddle through the dark caves and even the wreckage of the Batcave, and at one point are drugged and forced to endure a maze full of spike traps and tricky platforming while the game distorts around you. There are a lot of mazes, elevator shafts, and simple to tricky puzzles to solve, these latter being difficult mainly because the things you need to find are so small. Again, things can get very difficult and very frustrating very quickly on higher difficulties, where you absolutely must tackle every and any crime happening around the city to level- and power-up but, on easier settings, things are much more enjoyable, if still a bit repetitive. While you can upgrade and modify your gear at any time, you can only switch characters in the Belfry, which will end that night’s patrol. The city map reloads, with any incomplete missions still active, and it pays to swap characters between missions to unlock all their abilities and mix things up, and also because some are better suited for certain missions than others.

Graphics and Sound:  
Gotham Knights absolutely impresses in its visual presentation; Gotham City is bigger than ever, divided into different sections, many of which will be familiar to players of the Batman: Arkham games, and the city is awash in ominous darkness, glows with light, and often covered with rain. All the familiar locales you’d expect are here: Blackgate Prison, Arkham Asylum, GCPD headquarters, and the like, alongside chemical plants, docks, cemeteries, towering skyscrapers, dingy alleyways, and gothic cathedrals. Many areas include little references to other Batman villains and stories, which is fun to see, or house plaques and other scannable points of interest for you to interact with. Unlike the Batman: Arkham games, Gotham Knights’ overworld is fully populated not just with criminals, but pedestrians and traffic! Gothamites can be saved from attacks, run into with your bike, and will offer commentary when they see you, which really helps the city to feel alive for the first time. As ever, the thugs come in all shapes and sizes and are loyal to different gangs but also offer some amusing commentary when you stalk and batter them. Posters, scannable graffiti, and a variety of warehouses are also on offer; thugs will take over Robinson Park, break into banks, and cause disruption in the streets all around you, all of which helps make this the most lively, dangerous, and accurate Gotham City of any Batman game despite how repetitive some elements can be.

The game looks great and has lots of customisation options but is a bit unstable at times.

Gotham Knights is a very story-driven game, so it’s good to see that there’s basically no distinction between cutscenes and in-game graphics; if you customise your character a certain way, they will appear like that in every cutscene, and dialogue and interactions differ depending on which character you play as (and, presumably, how many of you are playing at once). While I’m not a fan of all the costume choices on offer, they do look impressive and the game only struggles whenever your character wears a cape; sometimes the cape physics go a little janky. While combat is noticeably stripped down compared to the Batman: Arkham games and much more reliant on special abilities, it is fun, especially when you level-up and/or lower the difficulty, but the game struggles to maintain a consistent framerate at times. More than once I experienced dramatic and game-breaking slowdown, with the action stuttering or the game out-right crashing at least five times in my playthrough, which I really don’t expect from an Xbox Series X game. Things can also get quite cluttered very quickly, especially when completing the organ harvesting missions; it was never clear to me where I was supposed to take the organ, meaning I’d often run out of time and would have to clear away other active missions before trying again with a clearer compass. Still, the interactions between the Gotham Knights are one of the best parts of the game; they’re united in their grief but still act like siblings at times, making jabs at each other and learning to live and move on together, which was great to see. More often than not, when you switch characters, you’ll be able to interact with parts of the Belfry to learn more about each character, in addition to completing missions for your allies out in the field, all of which allows you and the characters to grow into their roles as Gotham’s protectors.

Gotham is more alive than ever but the game really shines when the environments are visually altered.

Gotham City is an expansive open-world map full of overground trains, built on top of the Court of Owls’ grimy tunnels, and filled with colourful characters. However, certain missions will restrict you to a specific game area, an isolated and reskinned version of the map tailored to that villain, and this is where things really get visually interesting. When confront Doctor Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze at the Elliot Center and Blackgate Prison, Gotham is ravaged by a vicious snowstorm; ice and snow are everywhere, with innocents caught in the crossfire, and it really helps set the mood for the battles against Mr. Freeze. Similarly, you’ll explore the gothic and ransacked remains of Arkham Asylum, enter the Gotham General Hospital after it’s received a makeover by Harley Quinn, and even venture into the ruins of the Batcave, giant dinosaur and penny and all, as you track down the Court of Owls. While it’s often difficult to see in these areas and they’re fraught with danger, they help to mix up the gameplay and the visuals and the enemies you encounter, from Mr. Freeze’s Regulators to the sword-wielding League of Shadows, then start to appear on the overworld, and in stronger forms, to help keep things a little interesting even as you complete the same tasks over and over. It’s fun just barrelling through the streets or taking to the rooftops, stopping crimes along the way to your next objective and stumbling across side quests as you go; there are various items to examine or interact with, generally for exposition or to aid you in combat, and lots to see and do in terms of customisation, though I found the menus a little finnicky to navigate at times.

Enemies and Bosses:
As in the Batman: Arkham games, Gotham City is ravaged by a contingent of criminals, all of whom are loyal to one gang or another. You’ll encounter “Freaks”, street punks who follow Harley’s lead, the Regulators, who wield tech and often use Mr. Freeze’s toys, be attacked out of the blue by the League of Assassin’s ninjas and stir up the Court of Owl’s zombie-like Talons in their nests. Enemies come in different types, from regular grunts to ones with weapons (Molotov cocktails, rifles, freeze or electrical weapons, and even annoying drones), and bigger enemies who have shields or can tank your hits. Each gang has these different types of enemies so, if you fight three different types of Regulators, you’ll encounter similar versions when fighting the Freaks, though they do look different. The bigger Freaks have large metal shields and sometimes maces, for example, whereas the larger Talons wear ceremonial armour and carry axes and the larger Regulators can create an electrifying area attack. Generally, they all go down quite easily once you get the hang of combat; you can dodge out of the way of their attacks and gunfire, which also seems to damage enemies, and take advantage of any interactable elements to stun or defeat them, but things can get quite hectic as enemies mix and match and you take on waves of them to complete objectives or defend endangered Gothamites. You’ll also have to avoid the GCPD; police officers are often in the streets or will arrive at crime scenes after you’ve cleared out enemies; they won’t hesitate to shoot or chase you and you won’t gain experience points (XP) from taking them out, so it’s better to just avoid them.

Thankfully, Man-Bat is on hand to offer a bit of spice after pummeling Harley and her freakish thugs.

You’ll encounter each type of enemy in a dedicated fight as the story progresses, essentially making them almost like mini bosses. Tackling the larger enemies is good practice for the battle against Harley Quinn’s goons, Basher and Blazer; one is obviously a large brute and the other is smaller and likes to toss flaming bombs at you, all while other goons attack you and a series of bombs activate in an enclosed space that you need to disarm before the timer runs out. By this point, you’ll have encountered similar enemies to these two more than once, and many others after ape their strategy, so it’s not exactly hard to break through Basher’s guard with a heavy strike and pummel him while dodging Blazer’s projectiles and smacking him up too, but make sure to take care of the bombs as soon as possible. Harkey Quinn herself (now using the alias Dr. Q) is also fought later in the game after you disrupt her operation and confront her in the vandalised hospital. Harley’s a nimble little minx, deftly cartwheeling about while swinging first her giant hammer and then a sledgehammer infused with electricity. Harley also tosses playing cards are you and sends her goons against you, but you can take advantage of the environment to deal damage to her as long as you can dodge her manic swings and land a good combo once the window of opportunity opens up. Later in the game, after spending a great deal of time investigating Doctor Kirk Langstrom’s death and research, you’ll not only engage with the various Talons of the Court of Owls, who can poison you and are so quick that you need to stun them with a heavy ranged attack, but you’ll also battle a number of Man-Bats across the city. Though they look scary and vicious and can blast you away with  scream, swipe at you, and will pin you down to gorge on you, these monstrous freaks are actually quite a pushover, especially by that point as you’re pretty well powered up, and can easily be beaten into submission.

Mr. Freeze and Clayface represent two of the most frustrating and unfair encounters in the game.

However, before that, you’ll endure two of the most frustrating and game-breaking bosses battles I’ve ever experienced. The first is Mr. Freeze, who initially tries to freeze the city with a big machine that deals damage when you get too close. Mr. Freeze stomps about firing missiles at you and his freezing gun, both of which can freeze you on the spot or cause painful ice spikes to sprout from the ground. Mr. Freeze also has a habit of flying about the place, drops down with a slam, and swipes at you when you’re up close. After you deal a bit of damage, he retreats to the machine and it sends out freezing bolts that you have to frantically dodge and he unleashes blasts from a shoulder cannon. This is the first boss fight of the game and is honestly one of the worst experiences of my life; Mr. Freeze is an absolute tank, with your attacks barely fazing him, so you absolutely must have ice resistance and fire damage equipped, be at a higher level, or lower the game’s difficulty because this is an absolute chore of a fight otherwise. It only gets worse in the second bout; this time, Mr. Freeze has escaped Blackgate Prison inside a giant spider-like mech! He stomps about the place, causing a freezing effect, and bombards you with missiles from afar, so you’ll constantly be running and dodging and frantically attacking his legs to get a good shot on his cockpit. The fight then shifts to a frozen platform on the sea, where you need to quickly grapple up top to avoid being flash-frozen, some goons join the fray, and everything becomes even more frustrating and tedious. Clayface is just as bad; after tracking down his clones around the city and taking them out in a massive melee, you battle him in the sewers and your attacks barely do a dent without the right modifications; in my first encounter, he could one-shot me with his annoying grab attack and I was only able survive and beat him by lowering the game’s difficulty. Successfully avoid his swipes and grabs and you’ll have to outrace his liquid form and clay tendrils in the sewer tunnels, which can result in some unfair instant failures if you’re not careful, before fighting him one last time in a furnace. Here, he sprouts extra arms and become much more aggressive but things are significantly easier if you’re equipped right, correctly powered up, or playing on easier difficulties. Still, these boss battles were a pain in the ass, with unfair checkpoints and a startling difficulty spike that almost had me rage quitting!

Ultimately, you’re forced to battle a resurrected Bruce and a malicious Talia to safeguard Gotham.

These bosses are possibly so annoying and difficult because Gotham Knights really doesn’t feature many boss battles at all. The game is padded out by multiple encounters with Mr. Freeze and Clayface, meaning that you only interact with the Penguin rather than fighting him and have to settle for Man-Bats and tougher enemies as your main obstacle as the final portion sees you fending off Talons and the League of Assassins in the catacombs beneath the city. Here, Talia al Ghūl, predictably betrays you and sets a volatile, resurrect Bruce Wayne against you. Bruce is actually quite a fun boss but not too dissimilar from most of the enemies you’ve fought up to that point; you have to dodge his flurry of blows, break through his guard, and deal enough damage to drive him to his knees so you can tap A to appeal to his better nature. When this works, Talia engages you directly in a two-stage boss fight that takes place around a Lazarus Pit (that ironically hurts you if you step into it). Talia is swift and attacks like lightning, teleporting around the arena and striking with her sword, so you’ll need to be tapping that B button like a madman (or precisely, to pull of perfect dodges and counters) and landing combos wherever you can. She also fires arrows at you in a spread and a charged attack, and switches to an even faster and more aggressive spear for the final phase, which includes a big jumping strike that leaves her open to damage. While the fight is needlessly drawn out since your window or opportunity is so short, both Talia and Bruce are far less of a headache than Mr. Freeze or Clayface since they don’t just absorb your blows, you should be much stronger by then, and the fights are more diverse with more opportunities to land hits.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Even on the easier difficulty settings, you’ll want to engage with as many premeditated crimes and side missions as possible to earn the XP you need to level up, the AP you need to upgrade your special abilities. Gotham Knights incorporates a loot system; defeated enemies, chests, and mission rewards will include a whole bunch of scrap, “Modchips”, and other rewards that you can use to customise, craft, and enhance your gameplay experience. You’ll get different colours and parts for your suits and the Batcycle and the more you collect, the more you can craft to create better equipment. You can also unlock “Transmogs” (basically skins) to be applied over the game’s suits if you like (which I preferred; you miss out on being able to customise each part of the suit, but you also get to wear a strong outfit and avoid some of the game’s uglier designs). Mod chips can be applied (and up to four fused together) to your suit, melee, and ranged weapon for additional buffs, such as increasing your health, durability, and attack power, adding elemental attacks and resistance to your character, and other benefits that I honestly didn’t look too deep into as it was a bit of a cluttered and confusing system. I simply crafted and created the strongest elements I could and went from there, but you’ll definitely need to think about adding fire attacks and ice resistance to your character when taking on Mr. Freeze, for example. As you defeat enemies and complete mission objectives, you’ll also earn XP; earn enough XP and you’ll level-up, increasing your stats and awarding you Ability Points (AP) that can be spent upgrading each character’s unique skills. This is where you’ll unlock their more powerful abilities, but you’ll also be able to buff their damage output, gain a respawn for Batgirl, increase their stealthiness, and other useful perks that make gameplay more enjoyable. However, while each character levels-up at the same rate (if you only play as Nightwing, the other characters will level-up when he does and you’ll be able to use the same AP to upgrade them, making things less of a grind), there is a level cap; once you hit Level 30, you’re done and can’t earn any more AP until you overwrite your game save with New Game+, which ups the level cap to 40. The Gotham Knight’s headquarters, the Belfry, also changes as you progress through the story; more interactable elements are added and it becomes more homely and fit for purpose as you progress, just as your abilities become more honed from battle.

Additional Features:
Gotham Knights boasts forty-eight Achievements, at least eight of which are essentially unmissable as they’re awarded for clearing the story’s case files and taking out Batman’s leftover rogues. Achievements are also earned from defeating certain enemies, preventing crimes across the city, crafting certain gear, and fully upgrading each character. Unlike the Batman: Arkham games, there aren’t any riddles to worry about here; you can scan landmarks across the city, and graffiti, and find Bruce’s discarded Batarangs for more rewards and Achievements, but these are surprisingly difficult to find and thus not much fun to search for, as well as mysterious symbols strewn all over the place that I could never quite figure out. You’ll unlock audio files, comic book covers, information about the city, and details on all of the enemies, bosses, and allies you encounter as you do so, in addition to earning some Achievements, but there’s a lot less on offer compared to the Batman: Arkham games as the focus is more on the multitude of side missions. Gotham Knights has four difficulty settings but no Achievements tied to them so I absolutely recommend playing on “Very Easy” to help balance the more repetitive and frustrating aspects of the game. Clearing it unlocks New Game+, which overwrites your save file, increases enemy difficulty, and carries over your upgrades and unlockables, but it irked me that it meant losing my save file to play it. There is a lot of gear to find and craft, though a lot of it is superfluous; I don’t get why you’d wear a suit or use gear that’s weaker compared to others, so some of the customisation is lost there as I simply favoured the strongest setup and then applied a Transmog. The Batcycle can also be customised, to a degree, and this Deluxe Edition of the game comes with some additional gear and skins for it and the characters, though you’re not missing out on much if you just get the standard version. You can also play the arcade version of Spy Hunter (Bally Midway, 1983) in the Belfry, where you can battle even tougher versions of the bosses if you’re a sadist or take on training missions to learn new skills, but they’re nothing compared to the combat challenges of the Batman: Arkham games. Finally, Gotham Knights can be played in multiplayer; two players can play alongside each other and even team up to perform team attacks, and up to four players can take on challenges in “Heroic Assault” mode, though there are no Achievements tied to these features either, which is weird considering it’s a pretty big part of the game.

The Summary:
I’m sorry that my review has constantly made reference and comparisons to the Batman: Arkham games but it’s frankly unavoidable given how much of Gotham Knights’ gameplay and visuals takes from that series. in many ways, I feel the game could’ve easily been a continuation of Rocksteady’s franchise with just a few minor tweaks here and there, but it is unfair to make such comparisons as, for all its visual and gameplay similarities, it’s a very different game. Gotham Knights is a long, story-driven action experience; the focus on these characters continuing on after Batman’s death is very intriguing and I really enjoyed their interactions and camaraderie, as well as their individual playstyles. I thought I would favour Nightwing as my go-to character but all of them had their pros and I enjoyed swapping in and out and customising their costumes and gear. Gotham City has never looked better and it’s amazing to see it alive not just with crime, but civilians as well; it’s a massive city that can be daunting to traverse, especially with so much going on at any given time, but you’re given plenty of tools to navigate and address those issues. Unfortunately, the game is severely let down by its repetition and frustration; even on “Normal”, the game is unfairly and unnecessarily grind-heavy, especially considering the level cap. Bosses are an exercise in frustration without being properly prepared, making it less a game a skill and more a game of tenacity, and few of them were fun to play against. The instability of the game was also a factor; I was shocked by how often the game stuttered, glitched, or out-right crashed on me, forcing me to restart missions or even give up at certain points until things sorted themselves out. There are a lot of mechanics here that may appeal to RPG players, but they’re a bit complicated, cluttered, and annoying for me; I get that the point is that you’re learning and growing alongside the Gotham Knights and that’s conveyed very well, but it’s just tedious doing the same tasks over and over and cobbling together new gear that’s instantly rendered superfluous by better gear. In the end, it’s a decent game and I did enjoy it; it might be better (or worse) playing alongside a friend and there’s a decent amount on offer, but I can’t say I’ll be deleting my game save to tackle New Game+ any time soon.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to Gotham Knights? How would you rate it against the Batman: Arkham games and do you think that’s a fair comparison? Which of the four playable characters was your favourite and why? Did you also struggle against the game’s bosses and difficulty spike? What did you think to the combat and RPG elements of the game? Did you enjoy crafting and customising your characters? What did you think to the relationship between the Gotham Knights? Did you ever play the game online and, if so, how did it hold up? Which of Batman’s sidekicks is your favourite and how are you celebrating the Boy Wonder this month? To share your thoughts on Gotham Knights, leave a comment below or on my social media.

Game Corner: Aliens (Arcade)

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: January 1990
Developer: Konami

The Background:
The Alien franchise (Various, 1979 to present) has a long and complicated history with videogame adaptations; from pixelated garbage to first-person shooters, real-time strategies and crossover titles, to survival/horror experiences, the decade-spanning sci-fi/horror franchise has seemingly done it all, including its fair share of arcade titles. In 1986, director James Cameron took on the unenviable task of following up on Ridley Scott’s financially successful and highly influential Alien (ibid, 1976) and more than met the challenge, producing an incredibly profitable and well-regarded follow-up that served as ample inspiration for both Alien videogames other videogame franchises as well. Naturally, considering how popular the arcade scene was at the time, Aliens made the jump from the silver screen to the familiar trappings of a sidescrolling run-and-gun courtesy of Konami, one of the most prominent developers in the industry at the time. Although it never received a home port, Aliens was an extremely popular arcade title when it released; its visuals and action were highly praised and, decades later, it is still regarded as one of the best games in the franchise.

The Plot:
Vicious, parasitic alien lifeforms have overrun Weyland-Yutani’s colony on the desolate world of LV-426 and only Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and Corporal Dwayne Hicks are left to battle through the hordes of acid-blooded Xenomorphs and confront the ghastly Xenomorph Queen!

Gameplay:
Aliens is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun title in which players take on the iconic roles of either Ripley or Hicks to blast through a number of environments ripped straight from the blockbuster sci-fi/horror classic. The game allows for simultaneously two-player co-op, but players are locked into a specific character: player one is always Ripley, and player two is always Hicks. Additionally, there is absolutely no different between the two characters except for a different sprite and a different name above the life bar; both characters can move in any direction across each stage and fire while standing and walking or while ducking and crouching walking to blast at smaller enemies. There is no jump button to worry about, no health-draining special attack, and no time limit but Aliens will spawn in and swarm over you if you stand still for too long.

Blast your way through Aliens and their many variants to wipe out their infestation of LV-426.

Players are armed with the awesome M56 Smartgun, which has unlimited ammo and allows for continuous fire if you simply hold down the fire button. This default weapon has a high rate of fire and will shred the game’s basic enemies in just a few shots, though you can’t fire in any direction except straight ahead of the direction you’re facing from either a standing or a crouching position. There are instances where you can climb up or down ladders, however, in order to take a higher or lower path and, when playing in co-op, this is highly advised in order to better clear out the enemies in your path. Quite often, you’ll also be forced to crawl into an air vent to progress and have to watch out for blasts of steam, Facehuggers, and some of the game’s new Xenomorph variants.

Crawl through vents, mow Aliens down from the APC, or don the Power Loader to even the odds.

Aliens is the very definition of a coin-muncher; enemies will run at you and explode, taking a chunk off your health bar, and you get a couple of lives per credit. If you run out of credits, you can simply input some more and continue from where you left off, which is great news when you’re emulating the game as you can just plough ahead until you reach the ending. Its not all mindless sidescrolling shooting, however; the game always switches to a vertical shooter for some bosses and there’s a couple of bonus stages where you need to mow down Xenomorphs from the M577 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) in a desperate attempt to rack up points and rescue Rebecca “Newt” Jorden. Other tried-and-tested sidescrolling mechanics are here to help mix things up as well, including acid hazards dropping from above, sudden drops to sewers, explosive barrels, and, of course, a moving elevator stage where you need to fend off waves of enemies while travelling further down into the bowels of LV-426.

Graphics and Sound:
If you’ve seen the movie on which Aliens is based, the environments will be immediately familiar to you; you begin the game in the living quarters of the LV-426 colony, and blast your way through the metallic hallways, dingy sewers, and enflamed landing pad shredding any enemies that you come across and grabbing power-ups. The game does a fantastic job of rendering the movie’s locations in a high level of detailed sprite work and locations, and even includes the motion tracker when you’re in the air vents; while the player sprites aren’t incredibly detailed and are lacking in animations, you do get to see them from different perspectives when the game switches to the vents or a vertical perspective, and all of the enemy sprites are quite varied and detailed (though the purple colouring of the Xenomorph drones is a little odd; I suppose it helps them stand out from the environment, though).

Environments and enemies are extremely detailed and perfectly recreate the movie’s aesthetic.

There’s a decent amount of attention to detail placed into the game, despite how short a lot of its stages are; Facehuggers are held in glass capsules in the backgrounds, Xenomorphs crawl over the walls, up from the floor, and drop down across the screen, and you’ll spot a number of colonists left helpless victims to the Facehuggers. Seeing Chestbursters explode out of their chests in a bloody burst and the Alien’s biomechanical gunk corrupt the environment really helps add to the atmosphere and the fidelity to the source material, and the game is punctuated by some limited voice acting (mostly grunts and cries), though the memorable Alien squeal is sadly absent. The game’s story is related through some out on context pixelated recreations of shots from the film, onscreen text, and using some limited sprite animation; the most impressive of these is saved for the finale, where you can force the Xenomorph Queen out of an airlock and be treated to a sprite-based recreation of her being flush out into space. Although James Horner’s iconic score is absent, the game’s action is punctuated by some rocking beats that incorporate a siren effect, and a blaring alarm in the finale stage helps to add to the tension created from the blazing sky and flaming walkways.

Enemies and Bosses:
If you remember Kenner’s awesome toy line from back in the day, you’ll know that the Xenomorphs had some pretty funky variants outside of the movies. The most basic Alien drone will amble over to you, trying to swipe at you and exploding on contact, and you’ll need to crouch down to destroy the Alien eggs before they can spit out Facehuggers or to take out the titchy Chestbusters and spider-like Xenomorphs that scuttle around in the sewers. You’ll also encounter bat- and snake-like Xenomorph variants that flutter or slink about, Xenomorphs that ooze out of the floor or leap up from the foreground, and variants that spit acid at you from a distance. Easily the weirdest Xenomorph is a red, frog-like variant than hops around the screen and grows bigger as you shoot at it, but the most intriguing inclusion are the zombies. It seems in this version of the story that those infected by Chestbursters become gloopy, shambling ghouls that toss grenades, take shots at you, crawl their legless bodies across the floor, and spit out Chestbursters.

Aliens come in all colourful, disgusting shapes and sizes in this action-packed title.

Each stage is finished by a boss battle against a particularly gruesome Xenomorph variant; the first of these is a quadrupedal monstrosity with a snapping mouth at the end of a long, elasticated neck. Joined by a cadre of Facehuggers and spitting projectiles at you when its head has been blasted off, this Alien isn’t too great a threat as you can easily dodge its vicious jaws and even destroy its attacks with your gun fire. While trying to track down Newt, you’ll be attacked by a large Alien that is impenetrable whilst curled into a ball; you’ll have to avoid its rolling attacks until it uncurls and then unload in it to bring it down, but this is merely a sub-boss before you battle an Alien that’s been partially absorbed into the environment. Though it remains completely stationary, it rains Alien eggs into the arena and stretches its limbs out at you while. You must keep moving left to right, blasting and destroying the limbs and hitting the head when it pops up, though beware as you’ll be literally bombard by eggs when it’s near death, which can whittle your health down in no time at all.

After wading through countless Aliens, you’ll go head-to-head with the Queen Bitch herself!

There’s also a particularly gruesome spider-like Xenomorph that you’ll have to contend with twice throughout the game; this brain-like monstrosity scuttles about the place surrounded by orb-like Alien embryos which it uses as a shield and throws out to hit you. After the first encounter, you’ll then battle two Xenomorph bosses at once; these two nasty critters channel the lightning bolts that rain down across the level and fire them at you as bolts of electricity, and when there’s only one left it will surround itself with and shoot out glowing spirals of electricity in a desperate bid to protect itself. After fighting your way through the Alien nest, you’ll encounter the Xenomorph Queen; at first, she’s unable to attack beyond spitting acid at you and summoning her drones to protect her, so you simply need to fend them off and destroy her egg sack a piece at a time. However, when her egg sack is destroyed, she’ll detach and go on a rampage; the final confrontation takes place aboard the Sulaco and sees her clawing, biting, and charging at you and swiping with her spear-like tail. Thankfully, there’s a Power Loader on hand to help smack her about and, after you’ve damaged her enough, you can either pour on the firepower to blow her to pieces or force her into the airlock by rapidly tapping the attack button to activate the Power Loader’s flame torch.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As you wade through the parasitic alien scum that have overrun LV-426, you’ll occasionally find food that will replenish your health, but these are few and far between and usually placed right before a swarm of Xenomorphs and hazards. You’ll also find crates that will bestow you with another weapon that you’ll keep until you lose a life; these can be either a homing missile launcher, a three-way shot, a rocket launcher that fires three in the direction you’re facing, and a flamethrower that fires in bursts. You can’t just hold down the fire button with any of these additional weapons, sadly, but you can pick up bombs to toss into groups of enemies or a super smart bomb to clear out all onscreen enemies. There are also rare occasions, most notably the final boss, where you can hop into the Power Loader and use its big, pincer-like arms to splatter Aliens into acidic goo, destroy walls, and even the odds against the Xenomorph Queen.

Additional Features:
There’s really not anything else on offer in Aliens except for about thirty minutes of frantic run-and-gun action. You can play with a friend, of course, to mix things up and this probably adds both player characters to the sprite-based cutscenes, and you can compete to get a higher score as well, but there aren’t any alternate paths or anything to that you won’t see on the first playthrough. You’ll notice some differences in the Japanese version of the game; stages now have titles beforehand, the colourings of the Aliens is closer to the movies, enemy placement is a little mixed up, and both Newt and the APC stages are missing.

The Summary:
I’ve played a lot of the Alien videogames, and my fair share of arcade titles, over the years and I have to say that adapting the property into a fun, action-packed, mindless shooter is generally one of the most tried-and-tested tactics for the franchise. If you can’t recreate the horror of the source material due to hardware restrictions or mass appeal, then why not lean into the action-orientated elements that James Cameron introduced so well in the sequel? Often, this is hit and miss, but I’m usually quite pleased with the results as I love a good run-and-gun arcade title and Aliens is certainly a lot of fun to blast through. The attention to detail is admirable, recreating the environments and bloody horror of Aliens to an astounding degree for the time, and I really enjoyed all the new Xenomorph variants peppered throughout the game. The game gets very cluttered with enemies at times, which limits the usefulness of the weapon power-ups, but it’s just the right length with some surprising variety with the vertical shooting and APC sections so it’s well worth setting aside a little bit of time to load this one up and give it a quick run through.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Have you ever played the Aliens arcade game? If so, where would you rank it against other Aliens videogames and arcade titles of the time? Which character did you play as and what did you think to the new Xenomorphs featured in the game? Did you enjoy the game’s bosses and what did you think to the final battle with the Xenomorph Queen? Which of the Alien movies or videogames is your favourite and why? Whatever your thoughts on Aliens’ arcade venture, feel free to drop them below or leave a comment on my social media, and be sure to check out for my review of the film that inspired the game.

Game Corner [Crossover Crisis]: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (Xbox 360)

Dr. K6 Comments

In April 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman, et al, 1986) released and saw the temporary destruction of the “Multiverse”. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m discussing multiversal crossovers all throughout April in an event I dubbed “Crossover Crisis”.

Released: 16 November 2008
Developer: Midway Games
Also Available For: PlayStation 3

The Background:
Mortal Kombat (Midway, 1992) stood out from the competition at the time with its focus on gore and violence and unique digitised graphics; the game was a massive success for Midway and the first real competition for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991) in arcades and on home consoles. However, while the franchise went from strength to strength during the 2D era of gaming, Mortal Kombat struggled to find a footing in the emerging 3D fighter arena, leading to the developers desperately trying to be innovative and appealing in an increasingly competitive business. Since Capcom had seen some success with crossovers with Marvel Comics and other fighting game developers, Mortal Kombat co-developer Ed Boon scrapped plans for a back-to-basics reboot of his violent fighting series in favour of a crossover with DC Comics. While incorporating popular DC characters like Bruce Wayne/Batman and Clark Kent/Superman had the potential to broaden Mortal Kombat’s mainstream appeal, the license carried many restrictions for the developers; Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was hampered by a “Teen” rating, which substantially neutered the series’ trademark violence. This, as much as anything, greatly contributed to the game’s mediocre reception; while some found the title surprisingly enjoyable, despite its bonkers premise, others found the gameplay and variety frustratingly tedious. Although the game received a “Kollector’s Edition” release, this was Midway Games’ last project before they went bankrupt and plans for downloadable content were subsequently scrapped. Thankfully, this wasn’t the final nail in the coffin for the franchise; the association with DC’ s parent company, Warner Bros, saw Midway being purchased by Warner and restructured into NetherRealm Studios, and the ultra violent was not only soon back on track but the new studio also eventually found success with the DC license in a separate series of fighting games.

The Plot:
After Raiden and Superman repel invasions from both their worlds simultaneously in their separate universes, villains, Shao Kahn and Darkseid are unexpectedly merged into “Dark Kahn” and the two universes to begin merging, with catastrophic events. With characters from both universes wildly fluctuating in power, representatives from both worlds come together to stop the merger by any means necessary.

Gameplay:
Mirroring the style and presentation of its mainline series, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a 2.5D fighting game in which players pick from a roster initially comprised of twenty fighters of iconic characters from both franchise’s and battle through the game’s single-player story mode, fight one-on-one against another player or computer-controlled opponent, battle their way through an arcade ladder, or take on a series of increasingly difficult combo challenges. By default, fights take place in a best-of-three format and against a time limit but you can alter these settings (and many others, including the game’s difficulty and the use of blood) in the game’s main options menu to speed up gameplay or make it more accessible to you. Rather than employing different fighting styles and weapon combat like its predecessors, or properly incorporate different variations like in the later games, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe takes a very barebones approach to combat and gameplay options: controls are fully customisable but, by default, you can throw with X or Y, kicks with A or B, toss them aside with a generic throw with Left Bumper, block incoming attacks by holding the Right Trigger, dash towards (but not away from) your opponent, jump in or crouch down to attack or avoid incoming attacks, and string together combos by quickly pressing the attack buttons alongside directional inputs. The game includes a practice mode to help you get to grips with this, and a “Kombo Challenge” feature that helps you practice the game’s tricky combo system, but you can bring up your fighter’s moves at any time by pausing the game. It has to be said that combat is quite a hurdle here; you’ll sometimes jump or dash when you don’t mean to, even when using the directional pad, jumping punches can be very floaty and often miss, and the game seems weighted in the CPU’s favour even when playing on the easiest setting as they have no difficulty pulling off some of the ridiculous combos on offer here.

Unleash your Rage, pummel opponents in Free-Fall, or smash them through walls.

Each fighter can pull off a number of unique special moves with simple button and directional inputs (back, back, X, for example, or left, down, B); while these can be stringed together with combos, they can’t be enhanced like in subsequent games as your “Rage Meter” only allows you to pull of the ever-annoying breakers to interrupt combos and attacks when filled to the first tier and activate the game’s “Rage Mode” by pressing RT and LT at the same time. This will put you into “Rage” mode, which powers up your attacks and coats you in a glowing armour that weakens the damage you receive, shrugs off projectiles, and keeps you from being stunned or knocked over. This doesn’t last for very long but it can easily make short work of your opponent, and activating it will even see you unleash a burst of energy that knocks your foe away, so properly timing the burning of your Rage Meter can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The game also features a few unique gameplay mechanics: if you grab your opponent with the Right Bumper , you’ll activate “Klose Combat” mode, which sees you pummelling or breaking your opponent’s limbs with successive presses of the face buttons. They (and you) can counter these attacks by pressing the right button at the right time, and these quasi-quick-time events (QTEs) also crop up in the “Free-Fall Kombat” and stage transition moments. In some stages, you can send your opponent plummeting down to a new part of the arena; while in free fall, you can mash different face buttons to deal damage and finish them off with RB, but they’ll turn the tide against you if they hit the right buttons. Similarly, some stages allow you to charge your opponent through a way, whereupon you’re asked to “Test Your Might!” in a tug-of-way style button mashing sequence that inflicts more damage the more of the bar you manage to fill. These mechanics can be fun ways to spice up the somewhat lacklustre in-game combat and definitely open up the otherwise bland and empty arenas a bit more since you can literally smash your opponent to new areas, but they’re a far cry from the stage transitions seen in the Injustice series (NetherRealm Studios, 2013 to present).

While you can get up close and personal with foes, the dull finishing moves will leave you disappointed.

Sadly, that’s about it for in-game options; some stages very destructible elements you can smash into, and all of the game’s characters sport special moves befitting of them (Sub-Zero’s ice blast, for example, and Bruce Wayne/Batman’s Batarangs) but, since the game is hampered by a lower rating, there is very little blood and none of the gore you’d expect from a Mortal Kombat. That’s not to say that Fatalities aren’t present, however, they’re just…what’s the word..?…oh yes! Shit. Unlike in subsequent games, you can’t view your character’s finisher inputs from the pause screen, which makes finishing your opponent a real chore, but very few of these moves are even worth your time pulling off. All of the Mortal Kombat characters can execute two Fatalities that will see them murder their opponent in the most PG way imaginable; while some leave the opponent an exceptionally dry and clean skeleton, most boil down to you simply stabbing, shooting, or crushing them with very little bloodshed. The more morally pure DC superheroes will opt to finish their opponent with one of two “Heroic Brutalities”, though many of these would no doubt leave the foe severely crippled or dead since we see the likes of Clark Kent/Superman driving them into the ground and Barry Allen/The Flash pummelling them at superspeed. Unlike in previous (and subsequent) Mortal Kombat videogames, there are no mini games to distract you and is no in-game currency to earn, no player profile or fighter card to customise, and no Krypt to explore to send your coins. There aren’t even alternate skins for the fighters beyond a very minor palette swap when choosing the same character, and the best the game offers is allowing you to view bios, character models, and endings in the “Extras” menu, all of which makes for a very stripped down title even compared to its predecessor, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Midway Games, 2006).

While there’s not much to the arcade mode, the story mode is decent enough, if limited and tedious.

This also means that there are no challenge towers or option combat modes like “Test Your Luck” or tag-team combat to spice up multi-player gameplay; you can play locally or online (well, I assume you can’t do this latter any more) in ranked and “King of the Hill” style matches but the arcade ladder is a standard, ten-fight challenge where the extent of the game’s variety is offering you the choice between facing all Mortal Kombat or all DC Universe opponents or a mixture of the two. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe does, however, feature a single-player story mode but, strangely, it only allows you to play as up to eight characters from either side. After picking either the Mortal Kombat or DC Universe story, you’ll take control of a specific character and battle anywhere from three to five opponents as part of the campaign. This remains a great way to familiarise players with the vast majority of the game’s fighters and their unique combos and special moves, but you cannot perform finishing moves when playing the story mode. Although you can’t skip any of the cutscenes, or jump to specific chapters and fights after completion, you can save and quit…which is definitely something, though the game’s difficulty can become frustrating as the computer-controlled characters love to block your attacks, uppercut you out of nowhere, and jump-kick you out of the air, and can seemingly juggle you in an inescapable combo at will! Unlike in later NetherRealm Studios games, the story mode is as basic as it gets; the only time it actually tries anything remotely different is during Major Jackson “Jax” Briggs’ chapter as you’re forced to battle Diana Prince/Wonder Woman without your machine gun, which means you’re robbed of on of your ranged attacks. If you’re defeated, you have ten in-game seconds to choose between continuing and quitting, which is true of the arcade and two-player bouts as well. Unfortunately, winning or losing in two-player mode simply dumps you back to the fighter select screen and, as far as I could tell, there isn’t even a way to select your stage let alone input Kombat Kodes or activate anything interesting to make the fights less of a chore.

Graphics and Sound:
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe looks pretty good, for the most part; the character models are very similar to those seen in Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm Studios, 2011), meaning they hold up about as well, but some suffer more than others. Women, for example, look particularly off; sure, it’s great seeing Selina Kyle/Catwoman’s amply cleavage and Lieutenant Sonya Blade’s nipples poking through her top, but they’re all impossibly sexualised and their hair is very blocky and static. Unlike later NetherRealm Studios offerings, character’s don’t have unique intros or dialogue with each other before a fight; the camera simply pans the arena and zooms in to find the combatants ready to go and, while they do have little animations between rounds, these don’t seem particularly unique to any fighter. Post-fight animations are a little more unique, but there’s a definite lack of variety and character in each fighter which reminds me of the cut-and-paste job seen in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (with the exception of the Joker, who dances and prances all over the place at every opportunity). On the plus side, characters do take battle damage; you’ll see their clothes rip, blood and bruises form on skin, and even uncover Scorpion’s skull as inflict damage on your opponent, which is fun, but the lack of any alternate attires or skins is a major tick in the “Con” column for this barebones title.

Stages are quite bland, but character models and cutscenes are okay, save for the poor endings.

There are some other notable little details on offer, however; when you toss Kano’s dagger at an opponent, it’ll stay stuck in their chest for a bit, you can sheath and unsheathe Baraka’s arm-claws with a press of B, you’ll see Sub-Zero’s icy breath, and there’s even a reference to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Meyer, 1982) thrown in for good measure. Another thing in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe’s favour, however, is that the CGI cutscenes are basically indistinguishable from the in-fight graphics; while the character models might be a little less detailed than in later games and have that action figure sheen that is common in this generation of games, it’s still impressive that there’s little distinction between the two, though the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired (the DC Animated Universe this is not!) and there’s very little to inspire you in the soundtrack, either. Similarly, stages are quite a let-down; the majority of them have this half-and-half theme going on where the DC Universe is split or merging with that of Outworld, NetherRealm, or Earthrealm but, even with that, there’s hardly anything to see or do and the stages are disappointingly bland and empty considering how big they are and the fat that you can navigate them in a 3D space. The likes of Oa, Themyscira, and the Fortress of Solitude probably stand out the most and have a few things to see in the background, but there’s a distinct and disappointing lack of Easter Eggs and visually interesting stages. Probably the most interesting one is the asteroid stage that sees you transitioning above and below thanks to the messed up gravity, but the game continues to bug me with presenting all these passable CGI cutscenes and relegating the arcade mode endings to a series of still pictures with narration.

Enemies and Bosses:
Since this is a fighting game, every character will inevitably be your enemy at some point so it can be useful to get an idea of what each one is capable of by playing through the story mode and completing their arcade ladders. However, there isn’t really too much to distinguish each character; you’ think the Flash would be faster and slippery to control compared to Liu Kang but he really isn’t and, while Jax and Billy Batson/Captain Marvel may utilise powerful grabs, they don’t feel any slower than someone like Kano or Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Every character has a few simple combos that it’s best to learn so you can leap in, mash X three times or X, X, Y and then hit a special move or a throw to deal some decent damage, and they’re obviously made a bit more unique by their individual special moves. Characters will invariably have a projectile or some kind of range attack, a rush or grapple of some kind, and sometimes even disorientating gadgets like flash or smoke grenades. Some have more special moves on offer than others; Shang Tsung, for example, can toss flaming skulls across the screen and from above, suck his opponent’s health to fill his own, swap places (but not bodies) with them, and pull off a slide while other characters, like Batman, Sub-Zero, and the Joker, have parry moves in their arsenal that can interrupt attacks. Some characters are also a little more versatile than others; Superman can suck enemies in for a big punch, rush at them and smack them out of the air, fry them with his heat vision, freeze them with his breath, and perform flying attacks while Lex Luthor relies on his mech suit to fire missiles and blast away from danger. It’s when playing or fighting against the Mortal Kombat characters that long-time series fans will be at their most familiar: Liu Kang tosses his trademark fireballs and flying kicks, Jax grabs his foe and causes shockwaves, Kane launches himself like a cannonball, Scorpion throws his trademark spear, and Kitana uses her fans and dashes about in the air to be her usual annoying self.

Overcome the largely interchangeable fighters to chip away at the monstrous despots.

The lack of powered-up attacks, unique throws, and the generic effects of Rage Mode mean that you really don’t have to tailor your fighting style all that much against different opponents; Raiden’s abilities don’t really make him all that different from Slade Wilson/Deathstroke as both can be jumped over, ducked under, and attacked even if one has a dash and teleport and the other relies more on ranged attacks. You also won’t have to worry about any secret fighters cropping up in the arcade ladder; what you see is basically what you get but you do have to watch for characters like Sonya stringing together their multi-kick attacks in a cheap-ass combo. The exception to this comes in the form of the game’s big bad, Dark Kahn, who basically just looks like a slightly tweaked version of Blaze from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and fights with a combination of moves from Shao Kahn and Darkseid. Dark Kahn awaits at the end of the story mode and arcade tower and is easily the biggest challenge you’ll face outside of the harder difficulties and opponents getting cheaper and more aggressive. A lumbering, monstrous foe, Dark Kahn can absorb a great deal of damage, gains armour and invincibility frames, and can drain your health bar to nothing in just a few basic swipes to say nothing of his energy barrier, shoulder charge, rising knee, and Warhammer attacks. Your best bet against him is to soften him up with ranged attacks and projectiles and stay moving; hop in, land a combo, and follow it up with a jump kick and then back away to avoid him stringing together his devastating moves in an inescapable barrage. The same is true of Shao Kahn and Darkseid, who act as sub-bosses in the arcade ladder; individually, they’re almost as formidable as their merged form, with both able to stun you with their hammer, fry you with their eye lasers, and smash you into the ground with a leaping attack. While you can’t play as Dark Kahn or perform your finishing moves on him, you can perform your finishing moves against Shao Kahn and Darkseid but, while both of these characters are unlocked after finishing the story mode (and, confusingly, pressing RB on the character select screen rather than adding them to the roster), neither of them have Fatalities of their own. Ultimately, while these three aren’t as impossible or as cheap as other Mortal Kombat bosses and sub-bosses, none of them really challenge your combat skills beyond relying on hit-and-run and spam tactics much like the previous two Mortal Kombat videogames that just ended with this hulking beast that could wreck you if given a chance rather than something that actually requires a bit more skill.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
There’s absolutely nothing on offer in this regard in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe beyond the individual character’s special moves; this game is severely lacking even for a one-on-one fighter as there are no codes or options to spice up gameplay, no weapons to grab, barely anything to interact with in stages, and characters don’t even get buffs or anything with their special moves the closest they get is teleporting, surrounding themselves in a damaging aura for a bit, or tossing bombs or grenades either close, mid-range, or far away.

Additional Features:
There are fifty Achievements on offer in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe; many of these are obtained simply by playing through the story mode, with Achievements popping after certain chapters and completing each (and both) stories. Simpler ones are acquired by performing a ten-hit combat, initiating Klose- and Free-Fall Kombat, and performing one Fatality or Heroic Brutality. Things get a little more complicated and frustrating when you try to perform all of these moments as a handful of them require you to press up, which makes you jump and interrupts the sequence, and in trying to get the 5G Achievements from completing each character’s Kombo Challenge otherwise, you’ll get Achievements for finishing the arcade ladder with all characters and competing in online fights, which are probably impossible to get these days. These involved standard fare that you might expect, as mentioned, and you can fight locally, but beyond unlocking every character’s ending and trying to finish their Kombo Challenges, there really isn’t anything else on offer here once you’ve finished the story mode and a few arcade ladders. There’s no concept art, character models, or extras to unlock, no gear or skins or arenas to unlock, and no downloadable fighters on offer, making for an extremely barebones and lacklustre fighting title that struggles to compete against others in the genre or even its predecessors.

The Summary:  
There was a lot of promise in the concept of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe; after the success that Capcom had with their ventures with Marvel Comics, this could’ve been a great springboard to a more mainstream audience. Sadly the game is let-down at almost every turn: everything from the music to the visuals and the depths of the combat is just lacking, to say nothing of the additional features and options for replayability. It’s interesting revisiting this after playing Mortal Kombat ’11 since that game was supposed to be the franchise’s back-to-basics approach but it’s hard to get more barebones than Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Even some of the 2D games had little extras, mini games or cheats or options to tweak the gameplay, but there’s absolutely nothing here, not even alternate skins for the fighters! The story mode is okay; it’s a paper thin excuse to mash these worlds together but it works, but I have no idea why it’s not a twenty-chapter mode that lets you play as each character from both sides. I’m actually a bit lenient on the lacklustre finishing moves; I get that the game couldn’t show spines being ripped out and flash being melted, but I think a little more effort could’ve gone into these and I really don’t like the term “Heroic Brutality”. The Free-Fall Kombat, Klose Kombat, and stage transitions are somewhat interesting, but the stages are so bland and empty that they’re completely wasted here. similarly, the lack of individuality to these colourful characters and the generic nature of their special moves and the Rage Mode really make this probably the most mediocre game in the entire franchise. Ultimately, this feels like a rushed, budget title that was hampered by pressing deadlines and financial pressure and a complete waste of the DC license. If you can get it cheap, give it a try and nab some easy Achievements, but otherwise you’re better off playing NetherRealm’s later games as this is just such a throwaway disappointment of a game.

My Rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Terrible

What did you think to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe? Were you disappointed by its use of the DC license? What were your thoughts on the game’s story and its depiction of these worlds merging? Which of the game’s fighters was your favourite and why? What did you think to the Free-Fall and Klose Kombat features? Were you disappointed by the lack of special features and the Rage Mode mechanic? Which characters or features would you have liked to see added to the game? Which Mortal Kombat and/or DC Comics videogame, movie, comic, or other piece of media is your favourite? Are you a fan of multiverse stories and crossovers? Whatever you think about Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, eave a comment down below and be sure to check back in next Tuesday for more Crossover Crisis content!

Game Corner: Resident Evil 4 (2016; Xbox Series X)

Dr. K14 Comments

Released: 30 August 2016
Originally Released: 11 January 2005
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Also Available For: Android, GameCube, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Oculus Quest 2, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox Series S, Zeebo

The Background:
Spearheaded by Shinji Mikami, Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996) was one of the seminal titles for Sony’s burgeoning PlayStation. By focusing on atmospheric horror and resource management, the title practically invented (if not massively popularised) the “survival-horror” subgenre. Despite its blocky graphics, clunky tank controls, and B-movie dialogue, Resident Evil was a critical and commercial success that was soon followed by a number of sequels that continued to refine the gameplay, add to the lore, and be equally successful. With the videogame industry firmly in its sixth-generation, one largely defined by the PlayStation 2, Mikami set about producing a fourth mainline entry in his survival-horror franchise, but Resident Evil 4’s development was fraught with issues. There were at least four different versions of the game, one that was so far removed from the franchise’s roots that Capcom spun it out into an all-new action-packed series, one that saw Leon trapped in a haunted castle, one where he was pursued by a hook-handed monster, and one where the player was beset by horrifying visions. Ultimately, these were all scrapped and Mikami took over the directing duties, intent on reinventing the series from the ground up; one major aspect of this was the shift away from static and cinematic camera angles and prerendered graphics to an over-the-shoulder perspective and fully modelled 3D environments and a greater emphasis on player control and action. New enemies were created to fit the new tone, ones that were more intelligent, versatile, and monstrous than Umbrella’s Bio-Organic Weapons (BOWs) and Leon evolved from a rookie cop into a bad-ass agent who spouted one-liners like an action movie star. Initially a GameCube exclusive release thanks to a pre-existing deal between Capcom and Nintendo, Resident Evil 4 was soon ported to multiple platforms; it became the second best-selling Resident Evil title, made it into the Guinness World Records for 2012, and is widely praised as one of the best (if not the best) entries in the franchise despite it paving the way for less acclaimed action-orientated entries. The game is so revered that it later received a high-definition port on modern consoles that included all of the additional game modes and unlockables alongside new graphical and gameplay tweaks before being completely remade in 2023 following the success of Capcom’s previous modern remakes.

The Plot:
After escaping from Raccoon City, Leon S. Kennedy, now a government agent, is sent to rescue Ashley Graham, the daughter of the United States President, from a mysterious cult in rural village in Spain. There, he encounters a group of hostile villagers who pledge their lives to Los Iluminados and have been infected by a mind-controlling parasite known as Las Plagas.

Gameplay:
Unlike every Resident Evil game that came before it, Resident Evil 4 is a third-person action shooter with some light puzzle solving and additional mechanics sprinkled in. The entire complexion of the franchise has been altered; gone are the fixed camera angles and “tank controls”, replaced by fully rendered 3D environments, a much more action-orientated perspective, and a far greater range of movement. The player steps into the familiar shoes of Leon (but he’s changed so much between Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 that he may as well be a completely different character) and can choose from three different control types, with my preference being the first. In this configuration, X performs an action (such as opening a chest or a door or picking up items or vaulting over ledges), B does absolutely nothing except exit out of menus, Y brings up the map screen, and holding A allows Leon to run indefinitely. You aim with the Left Trigger (a function greatly aided by the inclusion of a laser sight to your weapons) and fire with the Right Trigger. Pressing LT and A will allow you to manually reload and you can perform a quick turn by holding down on the left stick and pressing A. Holding the Left Bumper and pressing RT sees you switch to your knife for close-quarters combat and to save ammunition, but it’s better to use this weapon when enemies are already down to avoid being grabbed. In the years since Resident Evil 2, Leon has become an absolute bad-ass and is now capable of some incredible physical feats. These range from simple things like double tapping X to kick open doors, diving out of windows, or jumping down from greater heights without worrying about damage, to more superhuman feats, such as smashing enemies with a variety of melee attacks when prompted.

A new perspctive brings Leon new, action-packed abilities and panic-inducing QTEs!

This is a great way to conserve ammo; you can fire a shot to stun an enemy, or slash at them with your knife, and then hit X to kick them away so you can follow up with another knife attack. Leon will often be tasked with barricading a room against swarms of enemies, which means pushing bookcases in front of windows, kicking down or raising up ladders with X, or shooting at explosive barrels to even the odds. If grabbed by an enemy, players can avoid or lessen damage by waggling the left stick, but you’ll also be required to pull off some quick-time events (QTEs) to get out of scrapes. When boulders come rolling at you or you make a desperate dive for a cliff edge, you’ll need to rapidly tap X to avoid being crushed; when the Verdugo or other bosses take a swipe at you, you’ll need to duck or dodge out of the way by pressing X and A or LT and RT together, and these skills are put to the ultimate test near the later stages of the game where you need to perform a series of acrobatic dodges to escape a laser trap. While QTEs aren’t as overused as they would be in later games, the developers clearly wanted to make the most of them; you’ll be rapidly tapping X to swim away from a gigantic sea creature or to slash at tentacles grabbing you, you can be sure that they’ll crop up in most boss battles, and QTEs even appear during cutscenes, meaning you can never put your controller down for a second or you’ll risk being stabbed through the heart! Another massive gameplay mechanic of Resident Evil 4 is the partner system; Leon is aided on a couple of occasions by the mysterious Luis Sera, who will help fend off attacking enemies at key moments, but obviously the most prominent partner you’ll have to look out for is Ashley. After rescuing her, Ashley will diligently follow you around and you’ll need to keep her safe to avoid a game over.

You’ll need to keep Ashley safe, and rely on her to solve certain puzzles, which constantly pepper the game.

Using the Right Bumper, you can command Ashley to stay in place or follow you, which is used to solve certain puzzles such as standing on two pressure pads or pulling two levers simultaneously, but she’s useless at defending herself so you’ll need to have her hide in dumpsters and such to avoid being carried away by enemies. Ashley can be very grating as she is constantly screaming for help and in need of rescue, and there are many times where you’ll have to provide cover fire for her as she turns cranks or searches for keys. Thankfully, you’re not handicapped by her the entire time; in fact, you play more of the game without her than with her, and she does help break up the action a bit in a later part of the game where you get to control her. Ashley carries no weapons but can toss nearby lanterns at enemies with RT and crawl under desks or through small spaces to avoid them entirely, turning cranks to progress and return to her saviour. If she really gets on your tits, though, you can unlock a suit of armour for her that protects her from all attacks and makes her too heavy for enemies to carry away, making her far less of a nuisance and being doubly useful as she acts as a human shield. The map screen is also far more user friendly here; you can clearly see locked and unlocked doors, treasure, save points, and other areas of interest, and your next destination, which makes navigation much simpler, something aided by the game largely being much more linear than its predecessors. Still, while much of the gameplay has been altered to make use of the new presentation and format, many of the classic Resident Evil tropes remain. You’ll be exploring areas for items, documents to expand the story, and keys to unlock doors; often, you’ll need two or more items, insignias or plates or the like, to complete a puzzle and progress onwards and you’ll be unlocking or clearing pathways to create shortcuts as you explore. You’ll sometimes need to examine, combine, or encrypt key items to progress, or activate (or deactivate) security protocols to acquire the items you need, awakening any dormant enemies in the area. Other times, you’ll be exploring maze-like areas, such as a particularly ominous hedge maze, raising a cannon to blast open a door, or receiving some much-needed air support from a helicopter.

It’ll take all your skills and weapons to conquer the game’s puzzles and swarms of enemies.

There are several familiar puzzles here, too, such as pushing statues onto pressure pads, angling mirrors to reflect lasers, picture puzzles, turning dials, and merging coloured lights to acquire new items or open new paths. These usually aren’t too difficult, and the solutions are normally provided by inspecting the immediate environment, or with a bit of trial and error. In addition to pushing crates into water to create platforms or off lifts to progress upwards and turning levers to open doors or activate traps, Leon is now able to jump across gaps, smash off padlocks, ride zipwires, and ride around in minecarts, blasting at barricades and enemies alike as he goes. Vehicles actually crop up a few times in the game, with you needing to shoot the drivers of trucks to avoid being crushed, defending Ashley as she ploughs through a facility in a bulldozer, riding a speedboat across a lake as a sea creature stalks you, and a particularly aggravating final section where you must race away from the island on a ski boat, flying over ramps and desperately avoiding falling rocks at high speeds. Not only can more enemies than ever easily swarm you, but the environments are littered with hazards, from annoying beartraps and explosive trip wires, to bursts of flame, swinging axes, and spiked ceilings. Some of these can be used against your enemies, but most you’ll either need to avoid with a QTE or shoot at panels to stop them from splattering you across the wall. While Leon is afforded more resources than ever, you still need to watch your ammo and be mindful of your stock of healing items; Leon can only carry so much, even with a fully upgraded attaché case, and you won’t have the benefit of Item Boxes to help you out here so it’s best to use the environment wherever possible, flee to higher ground, and force enemies into a narrow space to easily pick them off with as few shots as possible.

Graphics and Sound:
Without question, Resident Evil 4 was the best-looking Resident Evil we’d seen at that point. While I think the remake of the first game actually holds up better now, thanks to the restrictive angles and clever use of lighting, there’s no doubt that this was a dramatic shift away from the limitations of the previous generation and into a new era for the franchise. No longer restricted to tight corridors or prerendered environments, Leon explores some surprisingly large areas, with much of the game taking place outside and in a location decidedly removed from the urban trappings of its predecessors. Leon is now a large, versatile 3D model who can interact with his environment and enemies in fun new ways; from backflipping out of danger and kicking the heads off his attackers to simple things like being able to move and aim in all directions, the player had never had some much freedom in a Resident Evil title before…it’s just a shame you can’t move and shoot at the same time, which can make combat a little clunky, and the camera is a little too close at times, meaning it can be difficult to see what’s ahead of you.

The game certainly had the most visual variety of any Resident Evil title at the time.

Still, the game looks gorgeous; so much so that I really don’t understand the logic of prioritising a remake of it over the far more polygonal Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (Capcom Production Studio 4, 2000). Taking place in a desolate Eastern European nation, the game is awash with a gothic aesthetic that is both familiar and new. Leon explores barren, backwater villages and farmlands, an ominous graveyard, descends down into a number of sewers and catacombs, and even ventures into a dank mine and a dig site to uncover the origins of the Las Plagas parasite. Outside environments are plentiful, with Leon venturing around the outskirts of towers and castles so the game can impress with its graphical scope; crows, wild dogs, and signs of decay and the Los Illuminados’ influence are everywhere, giving even the smallest rural areas a sense of menace. Once inside the churches, castles, and stately manors of the malevolent cult, the game becomes a little more familiar; once again, we’re treated to vast and elaborate rooms filled with paintings, suits of armour, dining tables and joined by corridors bathed in moonlight. You’ll venture into disgusting kitchen and waste disposal areas filled with dead or dismembered bodies, wade through wretched water and creep through rusted, wrecked prisons and crumbling catacombs, past vast lakes, waterfalls, and waterwheels in the surroundings mountains, and even into industrial areas filled with molten metal, shimmering heat effects, and corroded elements.

Eventually, you’ll reach more high-tech locales, with the horror countered by the B-movie dialogue.

After battling through the boobytraps of the Los Illuminados’ grandiose castles, you’ll descend into dark tunnels filled with giant, skittering bugs, heavily fortified bases surrounding the Los Illuminados’ island, and eventually reach a disused, high-tech facility not unlike those Umbrella established under mansions and cities in the previous games. Here, you’ll be treated to bloodstained walls, trashed laboratories, and bizarre Las Plagas experiments, which all burst or shamble to life in the most horrific ways. Largely, there’s very little distinction between the CG cutscenes and the in-game graphics, especially in this remastered version of the game; while the same can’t be said of Ada Wong’s unlockable chapter, whose cutscenes are as low quality and blurry as they were on the PlayStation 2 version, the main game looks crisp and clear…perhaps a little too clear at times, though there are some suitably dark and spooky areas to help balance the lighting. The action is constantly interrupted by radio conversations between Leon and his allies and enemies, which really gives a sense of how much Leon has changed; he’s no longer a rookie cop and is instead a flirtatious, cocksure action hero who trades barbs and drops one-liners as often as he does chat up lines. The game plays its dialogue very tongue in cheek; while not as clunky and awkward as the voice acting in the original game, it’s as though the direction here was to treat it like a B-movie from the off, resulting in a strange mix of terror and ridiculousness at times. The music is suitably ominous and still used to great effect; you’ll always know when you’re in a save room or area or near the merchant, for example, and the music generally only kicks in when enemies or hazards are nearby and will fade out once the danger has passed. Enemies also shamble about, dragging their weapons across the floor, and shout when they spot you; they’ll chant strange phrases and mutter their loyalty to their masters even as they dissolve into a puddle of goo, making for far more visually interesting enemies than moaning zombies.

Enemies and Bosses:
Speaking of which, another way Resident Evil 4 separates itself from its predecessors is in the complete absence of zombies and Umbrella’s bio-organic weapons and viruses. Instead, every enemy in the game is infected with an ancient, mind-controlling parasite that makes them slaves to the Los Illuminados’ power and grants certain superhuman abilities. Your most common enemy are the Ganados; faster, more vocal, and more coordinated than zombies, these infected villagers will rush at you, try to eat you, and attack you with melee weapons from afar or up close. Many hold flaming torches, which you can use to set them on fire; others toss sticks of dynamite, which you can also use to thin out the hoards. You’ll also encounter robed variants who wield crossbows, man catapults, and carry maces, large wooden shields, and even scythes that they hurl at you! Soldier variants are further protected by armour and helmets and carry rocket launchers; additionally, Ganados’ heads will explode and tentacled parasite will swipe at you, or a Facehugger-like variant will pounce at you from the floor. Enemies also man fire-breathing statues and the local wildlife has also been infected, meaning you’ll come across some John Carpenter-esque wolves rippling with tentacles. The Plagas also control heavy suits of armour in the castle, but you can make surprisingly good use of the flash grenade against most enemies, in addition to shooting them into pits of molten metal or over the side of cliffs, blowing them up with flaming or explosive barrels, and you can even shoot their meat cleavers out of the air if you’re quick enough.

The game’s most horrific and formidable enemies crop up as mini bosses to get the adrenaline pumping!

It doesn’t take long for the enemy variety to ramp up and become more formidable, though. You’ll come up against a massive Ganado wielding a Gatling Gun on more than one occasion, or a Ganado in a red robe and sporting a ram’s head will mount a large rotary cannon and cut you down if you can’t make good use of cover to get a shot at him from behind. Raging, masked Ganados rush at you with chainsaws and can one-shot you if you don’t keep your distance and blast them with your heavy artillery, and you’ll even have to battle a few claw-and-armour clad psychopaths who charge at you, swiping madly with their clawed appendages, and can only be damaged by targeting the writhing parasite on their back. These Garradors are usually fought in an enclosed space as other enemies swarm around you, a common theme in Resident Evil 4 as the game loves to send a gaggle of various enemies at you, forcing you to stay on the move and switch up your weapons accordingly. Giant mutated locusts and bugs also crop up: some will hover about, darting at you from above; others skitter across the floor to slash at you; and some are invisible and will leap onto you to vomit acid over your face! By far the most disturbing enemy in the game is the Regenerator, a slender, ashen, zombie-like creature instantly recognisable by its distinctive and chilling breathing. As their name suggests, these wretches constantly regenerate, necessitating the use of high-powered explosives or an infrared scope to target the pulsating boils on their body. Their spiked variant, the Iron Maiden, is even more fearsome, exploding in an array of spikes as it ungainly shuffles after you, so it’s best to either avoid these creatures or make use of any nearby explosives to put them down, but keep your distance as they tend to explode in a shower of guts upon death. Many of these enemies are introduced in such a way that they could count as mini bosses; Doctor Salvador and the Bella Sisters, especially, mark key moments in the game that indicate how dangerous these enemies can as they can take your head off in one move!

Some monstrous and terrifying new creatures will take both heavy firepower and some skill to best.

You’ll also have to contend with some far bigger enemies, each one taking the disgusting body horror of the franchise in new, startling directions. One of the first is the gargantuan, troll-like El Gigante, a lumbering beast you first fight in an enclosed arena near the opening village and later battle alongside a second, similar beast inside a factory. Generally, these creatures charge at you and grab and squeeze you, things you’ll need to rely on QTEs to avoid; they also swipe, pound, and swing trees at you but are pretty slow so you can usually get around them easily enough. In the first battle, you’ll also be aided by a local dog if you chose to save it; in the second, you can drop one into a pit of molten metal, but you still need to avoid getting too close or you’ll be dragged under. Otherwise, unload on El Gigante’s face until the parasite explodes from its back; attack this until it bursts, and you’ll finally put it down, but keep your wits about you as you’ll need to hit LT and RT to avoid being crushed afterwards. When you reach the lake, don’t fire your gun into it (unless you want an Achievement…) because Del Lago will eat you up! This monstrous alligator…thing…attacks your little speed boat, requiring you to toss your infinite supply of harpoons at it and mash X whenever you’re knocked overboard. This can be very finnicky as it’s hard to line up your shot and the cooldown time between throws is substantial; also, don’t get complacent as you’ll need to mash X to avoid being drowned when it snares you with its tentacle. Before you can leave the Godforsaken village, you’ll battle Bitores Mendez inside a burning barn. This spider-like monstrosity slashes at you with his insectoid limbs and tentacles absorbing damage much like Mr. X before his torso completely disconnects from his body and scurries about the place, making him a difficult target to hit; thankfully, you can clamber up to a higher level and make use of the various explosives scattered about the place. When in the processing plant, you’ll constantly have to dodge the Verdugo’s spiked tail as it whips at you from above and below; after you restore power and wait for the lift to arrive, it will attack with lightning fast speed, putting your QTE skills to the test. The Verdugo seems to be completely impervious to all weapons; all you can to is topple over the nearby cannisters of liquid nitrogen to freeze it, buying you time and allowing you to briefly scare it away.

The game leans into body horror and the grotesque mutations popularised in Resident Evil 2 for its later bosses.

A similarly impervious Las Plagas monster awaits in an elaborate cage maze down in the tunnels; “U-3” is this scorpion-like mess of limbs and tentacles that you must dodge and scare away while activating consoles to drop each section of the cage. Once done, it will attack you directly on a cliff edge; here, it will burrow underground to slash at you, but you can make use of explosive barrels to damage it and trap it in an enclosed space to avoid being cleaved in two by its pincer! Resident Evil 4 also introduces a rival for Leon: Jack Krauser, a mercenary for hire who initially attacks with his knife, forcing you to win QTEs to avoid being unceremoniously stabbed to death. Later, he shoots explosive arrows, a machine gun, sends his explosive drones after you, and leaps out to attack you as you search for three tablets in some ruins. This culminates in a one-on-one boss battle where Krauser mutates a knife-like appendage on his arm which he uses to slice at you and shield against your attacks. You’re given about three minutes to defeat him and escape before the area explodes; your best bet is to target his legs and switch to the knife, which does far more damage in this battle than in any other. Leon is also mocked all throughout by the diminutive Ramon Salazar, who largely sends his minions and even a giant statue of himself after you rather than face you head-on. After scaling his tower, however, he’ll mutate into this massive, plant-like monstrosity and try to swat you with his huge spiked tentacles. Like in the battle against “G”, you need to target Salazar’s pulsating eye to deal damage and briefly expose him from his protective cocoon so you can fire at him with your heavier weaponry, ideally the rocket launcher for an instant kill. Finally, after dogging your progress and killing Luis, you’ll confront the leader of the Los Illuminados cult, Osmund Saddler, at a construction site; here, he transforms into a four-legged abomination that also sports eyeball protrusions that you must shoot to stun him and allow you to strike his exposed central eye. Eventually, Ada will drop a rocket launcher into the arena for you to finish him off, but this can be a tough fight if you’re low on ammo, especially as you need to rely on the knife to damage the main eye and you’re given less than three minutes to escape the island afterwards.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As ever, Leon can restore his health using first-aid spray and herbs and you can combine these to restore more health or his and Ashley’s health meters. You also won’t need to worry about being poisoned here, though do be wary when smashing open crates for goodies as you’ll sometimes be attacked by a snake! Almost every enemy you defeat will drop some goodies, such as herbs, ammo, or pesetas, the local currency. Smash open jars, crates, and barrels to reap the same rewards and you’ll often also find high value collectibles in the same way or twinkling at you around the environment. These can be sold to the merchant, who you’ll encounter many times throughout the game, usually right next to a save point; saving is once again done manually at typewriters, though you no longer need to worry about ink ribbons and the game does contain checkpoints, so you don’t have to start all over from your last save point. The merchant will buy almost anything off you and will sell you new weapons, ammo, health items, and upgrades to your outfit and weapons.

Weapons and upgrades can be purchased from the merchant to vastly improve your arsenal.

Occasionally, you’ll find new weapons and upgrades in cases or lockers around the environment but, for the most part, they’re also purchased from the merchant. Every weapon can be “tuned up” at the cost of more pesetas, allowing you to increase their damage, reload time, capacity, and firing speed, though the cost of this tune up increases each time. It’s also worth waiting for better weapons to become available; there’s little point in wasting money upgrading the standard shotgun, for example, when a more powerful one becomes available later on that is more worth your investment. Leon has access to a variety of familiar weapons, from a standard pistol (which can be upgraded to fire bursts), shotguns for close range combat, machine guns (which can also be fitted with stocks to improve handling), sniper rifles (which can be fitted with a better scope or an infrared attachment), and a variety of grenades (standard explosive, incendiary to set enemies alight, and flashbangs to stun enemies and instantly burst parasites). You’ll also get access to more heavy-duty weapons, such as the armour-piercing magnum, the mine launcher, and the rocket launcher; while the mines take a few seconds to explode and the rocket launcher is a bit unwieldy as it forces you into a scoped perspective, these are the most powerful weapons and make short work of any enemy, even the game’s large and grotesque bosses.

Additional Features:
There are twelve Achievements up for grabs in Resident Evil 4, seven of which are awarded simply by playing through the game and clearing each chapter. If you shoot the water and draw out Del Lago, you’ll snag another at the cost of Leon’s life; another has you holding out against the villagers at the start of the game until Dr. Salvador shows up; and another is given for beating the game on the far harder “Professional” mode. Beating the game on any difficulty will also unlock two alternative costumes for Leon, one a dapper film noir outfit and another his classic cop uniform, which also nets you an Achievement. The final Achievement is earned by winning all twenty-five bottle caps in the various shooting galleries found throughout the game; here, the merchant supplies you with a sniper rifle and another weapon and you’re tasked with shooting all the targets on the range to earn your prize, which is easier said than done if your aim is as bad as mine! There are also several blue medallions found all over the game; shooting them will unlock new weapons that the merchant will gift to you for free, which can be helpful on your first playthrough.

Take on side stories as Ada or battle for points in the all-action “Mercenaries” mode.

Beating the game also unlocks the “Assignment Ada” mini game; in this game, which is similar to the “4th Survivor” bonus game for Resident Evil 2, you control Ada on Saddler’s island and must track down five Las Plagas samples in one playthrough, managing your ammo and health without the benefit of save points. Ada is also playable in the “Separate Ways” campaign, a five-chapter side story to the main game which fills in the gaps around Ada’s involvement in the plot. Ada plays exactly like Leon except she’s faster, far more graceful in her moves, has access to a powerful bow gun and a grapple to reach higher areas faster, and takes more damage when attacked. In this mode, you’ll play through rejigged sections of the main game and even battle similar bosses, such as El Gigante and Krauser, and endure a unique fight against Saddler in his human form. Additionally, you can play the “Mercenaries” mini game, even playing as different Resident Evil characters like HUNK and Albert Wesker, in which you must defeat enemies to score points against a time limit in a fun arena shooter. Finally, you can view files and movies from the main menu and unlock additional costumes and weapons by clearing these game modes, though there are sadly no Achievements tied to them.

The Summary:
I can totally understand why so many people rave about Resident Evil 4. This was only my third playthrough of the game, and the second of this version; I played on a cleared game, so I had access to Ashley’s super useful suit of armour, upgraded weapons, and the infinite rocket launcher for the last half of the game and I still had an absolute blast. I’m a big fan of the original games, their focus on exploration, puzzle solving, and resource management and it’s true that a lot of the survival/horror aspects have been lost in this more action-oriented game. However, they’ve been replaced by a creepy, disgusting body horror; some genuinely thrilling moments thanks to the QTEs happening during cutscenes; and the spirit of the franchise is kept well alive even though we have better controls, a better camera, and far better graphics. Leon has always been my favourite Resident Evil character; while he’s a very different person here, this game went a long way to solidifying how cool he is, and I enjoyed his new abilities and gung-ho attitude. Even the annoying parts, like Ashley constantly being in danger, the swarms of enemies, and the occasional instant deaths are fun to replay; even now, some aspects catch me off-guard, like the trucks speeding towards you or Krauser’s sneak attacks. I may not fully understand why the game needs to be rebuilt from the ground up but I can understand the logic behind it; Resident Evil 4 is a popular and successful entry in the franchise, on that redefined the series for better or worse and which could benefit from a few modern tweaks, but at the same time this version still stands up as one of the most enjoyable in the entire franchise.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think about Resident Evil 4? When did you first play the game and how do you think it holds up today? Were you put off by the new perspective and controls scheme or did it reinvigorate your love for the franchise? What did you think to Leon, the changes to his repertoire and character, and the dynamic between him and the other characters? Were you a fan of the QTEs and Ashley? Did you ever collect all the bottle caps? Which Resident Evil videogame, character, monster, or spin-off is your favourite, and would you like to see a return to the original tank-control era of the franchise? Whatever you think, feel free to leave your thoughts down below.

Game Corner [Mario Month]: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K5 Comments

So, for no better reason than “Mar.10” resembling Mario’s name, March 10th is widely regarded as being “Mario Day”, a day to celebrate Nintendo’s portly plumber, an overalls-wearing mascot who literally changed the videogame industry forever and shaped the home console market of the nineties.

Released: 11 January 2019
Originally Released: 18 November 2012
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Original Developer: Nintendo EAD
Also Available For: Nintendo Wii U (Standard Edition)

The Background:
After the videogame industry crumbled following an influx of numerous overpriced consoles and mediocre titles, Nintendo pretty much single-handedly saved the industry with the runaway success of Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo EAD, 1985) and, following the “Console Wars” of the mid-nineties, Nintendo and their famous mascot continued to be an innovative and reliable staple of the videogame industry. After a successful venture into the third dimension resulted in some of Mario’s most beloved titles, Nintendo decided to return Mario to his roots with the release of New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo EAD, 2006) on the Nintendo DS, a 2.5D title that spruced up the platformer’s classic sidescrolling gameplay with new features and modes and which proved to be a hit. Two follow-ups soon followed, one for the Nintendo Wii and one for the 3DS, with both receiving high praise for their multiplayer functionality and addictive gameplay mechanics, and the development of a further follow-up for Nintendo’s unfortunate Wii U console soon began. The first Super Mario title to feature high-definition graphics, New Super Mario Bros. U was designed specifically with the Wii U GamePad in mind and emphasised single-player vertical exploration. The game was highly praised and sold over 4.8 million units; as part of the 2013 to 2014 “Year of Luigi” campaign, an expansion pack was created as both a separate physical release and downloadable content which featured shorter, tougher levels and focused on Luigi’s unique playstyle. After Nintendo bounced back in the home console market with the Nintendo Switch and achieved great success with Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD, 2017), this enhanced port of the game was developed for the console; containing all previously released material, and some additional features, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe was also met with positive reviews and become one of the best-selling games for the Switch.

The Plot:
Bowser, King of the Koopas, and his children (Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings) invade Princess Peach’s castle and hold her hostage, flinging Mario, Luigi, and two Toads far away. The portly plumber and his friends then resolve to travel across the land, defeating Bowser’s minions along the way, in order to rescue Peach and restore her castle to normal.

Gameplay:
Like the classic Super Mario games of the bygone 8- and 16-bit days, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is a sidescrolling platformer but, in the style of the New Super Mario Bros. subseries, it’s a 2.5D title. The game allows up to four players to team up and travel across eight colourful, whimsical Worlds, hopping across platforms and on enemy’s heads in their quest to defeat Bowser’s minions. Each of the five playable characters controls a little differently and has slightly different power-ups and mechanics tied to them, meaning that the game’s difficulty is directly tied to which character you pick (Mario is an all-rounder, for example, while Luigi has poor traction, and Nabbit cannot be harmed by any enemies, making him the default “Very Easy” mode of the game). Each character has their own set of lives, but shares any collectibles they find along the way, and you can easily revisit and replay previous Worlds with whichever character you like from the overworld screen and the submenu. As is also the style of these kinds of Super Mario games, the controls are as simple as you could want: by default, the A and B buttons allow you to jump and you can hold the X and Y buttons to run, though you can swap these two sets of controls around if you like. Jumping three times in succession, especially while running, will allow you to pull off a triple jump to reach higher areas. When jumping, you can kick off walls to wall jump higher or potentially save yourself from falling down a pit (though you’re just as likely to accidentally wall jump off a platform or block and die if you’re not careful), press down to perform a block-smashing butt stomp, or press A, B, L, or R to perform a little twirl for a bit of extra height. You can also climb up and down ladders, press down when on a slope to slide down and kick any enemies out of your path, and tap the jump buttons when underwater to swim along. X and Y can also be used to hold certain items or characters, such as a Koopa shell or a Baby Yoshi, and you can release the button to throw these at enemies or to collect out of reach Coins.

Play alongside your friends with five different playable characters, each with slightly different mechanics.

Jumping, however, remains your primary method of attacking enemies; with well-timed jumps, you can clear gaps and entire sections of the game using the triple jump and gaining extra height by bouncing off an enemy’s head, but it pays to not be too complacent as some enemies either can’t be defeated by jumping on them or will hurt you if you try. Similarly, other enemies can only be dispatched by jumping at the blocks or platforms beneath them to either knock them off or tip them over, and you’ll also want to make use of the game’s many different power-ups and suits to help take out enemies faster. By default, each character begins the game with five lives and in their base form; this means that one hit will kill you, so be sure to search out a Super Mushroom or similar power-up as soon as possible to gain an extra hit point. When playing as Toadette, the Super Crown will transform her into “Peachette”, allowing her to float and double jump just like Princess Peach is known to do, while Nabbit doesn’t actually power-up from any of the items (but is immune to damage to compensate). When playing, you’re battling against a time limit, which alerts you when it counts down to the last 100 seconds and speeds the game’s music up accordingly to help push you forward. As if this, and the high number of hazards and projectiles you’ll eventually face, wasn’t bad enough, you also have to keep an eye out for the bevy of bottomless pits, which eventually expand to cover the majority of the ground in later Worlds. Handy checkpoints placed within Worlds will power you up and allow for a respawn point, but you still get kicked out of the World and have to manually re-enter, in your base form, to try again. Fail enough times and a “Super Guide” block will appear to help show you how to succeed, but the World will be flagged as incomplete until you finally reach that flagpole unassisted by this mechanic. Your main objective, unsurprisingly, is to head to the right of the screen, jumping over pits, hopping to platforms and blocks, and taking out any enemies in your way to reach the flagpole. Along the way, you’ll contend with such hazards as fog-spewing clouds, rising and falling platforms, swaying mushrooms, giant toppling heads, cannons, temporary platforms, and plumes of both water and sand.

There’s plenty of variety, and challenge, awaiting in the game’s different Worlds.

While gameplay is, by the nature of its presentation, quite linear, there are opportunities for exploration; paths are hidden behind the background, leading to Coins and blocks, you can spawn vines to reach upper platforms, and you can enter pipes to explore underground areas, again usually for Coins or to find one of the three Star Coins hidden in each World. Sometimes, you can wall jump beyond the boundaries of the screen to take shortcuts or reach Secret Exits, which create new paths (or bypass Worlds entirely) on the overworld map so you can reach the Koopaling’s castle for that World. Some Worlds feature autoscrolling sections, either horizontally or vertically, that force you to stay on the move to keep from being crushed or boiled by rising lava, and, after clearing World 2, the game will ask you to choose a path to tackle either World 3 or World 4 (though you can, and absolutely should, backtrack to play both of these Worlds regardless). These Worlds add a new wrinkle to the overworld map in the form of the haunted locations (usually mansions, but there’s a shipwreck, too) infested with Boos. Boos will only advance towards you when your back is turned, and these stages tend to feature confusing door mazes, temporary platforms formed by hitting P Switches to turn Coins into blocks, and light-based mechanics where you need to carry a Baby Yoshi to light the way and scare off Boos. Other Worlds favour tilting platforms, slippery ground, an abundance of pits and crushing hazards, and you’ll even find yourself jumping to and swimming in bubbles when progressing vertically through World 7. You’ll also have to watch out for bigger enemy variants, instant-death lava and poison, and weighted platforms that either require you to jump to keep them moving or will stop if too many enemies and items drift onto them. There’s a lot of fun, colourful variety on offer and your platforming and jumping skills will be progressively put to the test as you clear each World, with more and more hazards and gimmicks being thrown in your path; thankfully, the controls are tight and responsive enough to manage these, but it’s true that the jumping can tend to be a bit spotty at times and you can easily find yourself slipping off a platform or falling to your death when you didn’t mean to.

Graphics and Sound:
I’d played New Super Mario Bros. before, so I was well aware of how great Mario and his Worlds look in 2.5D but New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is absolutely gorgeous to behold; Mario, Luigi, and their friends have never looked better in 2.5D thanks to the Switch’s high-definition graphics, with each of them sporting cute idle animations and victory poses when finishing a World. This emphasis on adorable character models and animations even carries through to the enemies, who still hop and dance to the jaunty themes playing in the Worlds to not only give you an opening to attack but also to allow you to better time your jumps or anticipate enemy movements. As is often the case, there’s no spoken dialogue in the game and the characters largely rely on gibberish and pantomime and simple cries of “Yahoo!” and “Oh, no!” to make their point, which is fine by me, though you will encounter non-playable Toads who will offer encouragement, power-ups, and challenge you to mini games in their houses. There can often be a lot happening on the screen at any one time, between the enemies, moving platforms, obscured paths, and projectiles, but everything pops out and has a discernible pattern and it’s simply a matter of skill and timing to overcome the obstacles in your way.

The game shines in its visuals, making for probably the best looking 2.5D Super Mario title yet.

Similarly, the Worlds on offer here are just as vibrant and visually interesting as the character models; there’s a lot to see in the background and foreground, often to tease you into taking a risk on a hidden path or entice you into trying a different power-up to make a tricky jump. While the Worlds are pretty standard Super Mario fare, ranging from colourful fields to snowy landscapes and lava-ridden castles, there’s also some fun throwbacks to previous Mario games, like Soda Jungle (which features retracting vines, rotating logs over poisonous water, and enlarged enemies and blocks), and the haunted houses. You’ll also traverse a desert full of quicksand, shifting sand, and statues to jump from, a beach-front and coral reef where jets of water blast you along underwater, tricky jumps to chains and up and across the rocky landscape of the mines, and a whimsical but taxing trip through the clouds. Every World also features two castles, which adopt an ominous stone-and-magma aesthetic and feature crushing blocks, buzzsaws, and rotating platforms, and you’ll also have to endure a cannonball and Bob-omb filled obstacle course when whisked onto Bowser’s battleship.

Enemies and Bosses:
The vast majority of the enemies you’ll encounter in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are returning baddies from previous other Super Mario videogames, such as the mushroom-like Goombas, green and red Koopas, Boos, Thwomps, Chain Chomps, Bullet and Banzai Bills (which are frequently invulnerable), Piranha Plants, and Monty Moles. Most of these are pretty harmless, wandering back and forth or in easily recognisable patterns, but they quickly fill up the screen in larger numbers and some of the more annoying enemies, like the Hammer Bros (and their fire, ice, and boomerang variants) and Dry Bones, can cause headaches with their arching projectiles and ability to respawn, respectively. Naturally, there are also some new enemies in the game as well, such as the squirrel-like Waddlewings (which often carry Super Acorns for your consumption), walrus-like Flipruses, the screen-filling Dragoneel, homing Targeting Teds, and the mischievous Nabbit, who steals Toad’s items and must be captured in a race against the clock in previous Worlds.

A number of mini bosses will constantly return to oppose you, changing size and tactics each time.

In addition to the seven bosses you’ll encounter, you’ll also have to contend with a couple of mini bosses along the way. Not only will your platforming skills be tested if you choose to go back and capture Nabbit (and you really should, if only to get him off the overworld and get his items), but six of the Worlds include a tower guarded by Boom Boom, a muscular Koopa who is afforded new abilities by Kamek as the game progresses. Primarily, Boom Boom will attack by flailing his pythons at you, either in a charge or a jumping, spinning attack, but he also grows in size and sprouts wings to dive down at you. While the arena you battle him in is often altered by cosmetic changes befitting the World (such as water and lava), the area you fight him in is never really a hazard and it’s actually beneficial to use the walls to get better height and bop him on the head three times, which is usually easier to do than with the Koopalings since Boom Boom doesn’t attack while protected by his shell. In World 6, the tower is defended by a Sumo Bro who is enlarged by Kamek; this hulking brute can’t be attacked from above and causes electrical shockwaves by stomping his feet, and can stun you with his jumps. To defeat him, you need to jump into the platform he’s standing on while beneath him to tip him onto his shell and then jump on his exposed belly three times to put him away. World 7’s tower is guarded by Kamek himself, who magically spawns in blocks containing enemies. You can hop around on these to try and jump on his head when he teleports in, but he’ll cause them to rain down and hurt you, or release their captives, and he also flings magical bolts at you that cause the ground to become temporarily unstable. Sticking to a set pattern and staying off the floor is your best chance at winning this battle, and it’s not too difficult to jump on his head when he teleports in nearby. You’ll also battle Bowser Jr. one-on-one twice in the game, once after clearing World 5 and then again after World 7. You need to traverse the cannons of Bowser’s battleship to reach him, and both battles are a little different. In the first, you’re underwater and must lure the Targeting Teds into his craft while avoiding the Bullet Bills that fire horizontally and vertically through the arena. The second battle is much tougher; you’re on a precarious metal-blocked platform and Bowser Jr. floats just out of reach, occasionally tossing Bob-ombs at you. His craft sports boxing gloves which can wreck and temporarily destroy the ground beneath you, or extend to shove you right off edge, but you can quickly hop on his head as he passes by or run up them to bonk him if you’re fast enough. Bowser Jr. also causes trouble in World 8, ramming into you, blocks, and platforms to try and hurt, kill, and force you into lava and also joins his father for the finale.

The Koopaling’s each guard a castle filled with death traps and have some tricks of their own to slow you down.

Before you can reach that climatic battle, however, you have to contend with the seven Koopalings, each of whom awaits after clearing a castle filled with death traps and hazards, and each of them will erratically spin at you in their spiked shells after you land a hit, which can be tricky to avoid. First up is Lemmy Koopa, who tosses progressively larger bombs at you, though you can hop onto these for an extra bit of hang time. Morton Koopa Jr. awaits in World 2 and knocks segments of a giant, caterpillar-like Pokey at you from across the arena that you need to jump over or duck under. This battle’s made a little tougher thanks to Morton shaking the ground with his stomps and the two gaping holes to a bottomless pit at either side of the platform, though you can use the walls to help avoid the Pokey projectiles. After this, you have a choice of your next destination; I chose to visit World 3 first so I battled Larry Koopa next; this pint-sized sucker fires bolts from his magic wand and can be tricky to hit thanks to the three water jets that burst up from the arena floor. The arena is similarly against you when you visit World 4, as Wendy Koopa skates about on the slippery ice and causes icicles to drop from the ceiling. The only way to reach Iggy Koopa is to find the Secret Exit in World 5; this leads you to one of the more troublesome boss battles as Iggy constantly runs away through the pipes, appearing on the floor and the ceiling, and fires bolts at you that can also cause up to two large Magmaarghs to pop up. His shell attack is also a pain as he’ll reverse direction, which can catch you off-guard and result in a hit, but once you figure out which pipe leads him to where you can anticipate his movements and hit him accordingly. Roy Koopa is a pretty simple and enjoyable fight; he fires Bullet Bills from a bazooka and hops up onto the stream of floating platforms to evade you, which means there’s a fall hazard in play here, but I found this the easiest boss of them all as you can just hop on his head, take the high ground, and instantly repeat without him getting off another shot. Finally, there’s Ludwig von Koopa, who hovers at the top of the arena, duplicating himself and filling the screen with diagonal projectiles that can be tough to avoid. Naturally, you need to hop on the head of the real Ludwig to score a hit, and the projectiles only increase with each successful blow.

After making it through the lava-filled final World, you’ll have a face off against a gigantic version of Bowser.

Finally, after beating all the other Worlds and crashing Bower’s airship, you’ll dispel the dark cloud surrounding Peach’s Castle and tackle the final, most aggravating World of the game. The once lush and verdant castle has been transformed into a stony, lava-filled hellhole; flaming meteors fall from the sky, lava rises and falls beneath your feet, and you must not only cross the sea of burning magma on a raft but also watch out for Bowser Jr.’s attempts to crush and boil you alive. Succeed, and you’ll reach the final battle, which begins familiarly enough with you ducking under and jumping over fireballs spat by the Koopa King himself. When faced with Bowser, you’ll need to jump over or duck under his fireballs and quickly run underneath him to hit the switch and cause the bridge beneath him to collapse, but this is only the appetiser to the game’s true finale. Enlarged by Kamek’s magic and joined by Bowser Jr., Bowser battles you to the end on the castle rooftop, again spitting high and low fireballs and jumping about the place. To defeat him, you need to dodge Bowser Jr.’s Bob-ombs and hop on his head after avoiding his craft slam; you can then commandeer the Junior Clown Car with B, tapping B to hover over Bowser’s head, and then hit R to crash onto him. Like his kids, Bowser becomes a spinning dervish after he’s hurt and you’ll need to run under his shell when you get the chance to avoid being hurt or killed, and then dodge the rain of fireballs he spits into the air to repeat the same cycle over, dodging more Bob-ombs and fireballs as you go but, as long as you have at least a Super Mushroom and are mindful of your jumps and hit box, this shouldn’t be too difficult to do.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Many of Mario’s most famous power-ups are here for the taking, including the Super Mushroom, 1-Up Mushroom (with extra lives also awarded with every 100 Coins you collect), Super Stars, and Fire and Ice Flowers. Super Stars are rare in the Worlds themselves but endlessly helpful as they make you invincible for a short time (and speed you up and add a nifty somersault to your jump) and successfully defeating a bunch of enemies in a row in this state will net you an extra life, but it won’t protect you from instant death hazards, unfortunately. The Fire and Ice Flowers let you shoot off a bouncing projectile with X or Y, with the iceballs temporarily freezing enemies to create platforms or allow you to throw them. Other power-ups include the Mini Mushroom, which grants you a moon jump, the ability to run up walls and enter tiny pipes, but costs you your ability to actually defeat enemies. POW Blocks will defeat all onscreen enemies, the aforementioned Super Crown lets Toadette become Peachette, and you can also hover through the sky with the Propeller Mushroom or slide along the ground or water (and fire off iceballs) with the Penguin Suit.

There are plenty of fun power-ups, old and new, to help you in your whimsical journey.

If you can knock Lakitu out of the sky, you can briefly take control of his cloud to fly over stages, and you’ll also come across the new Super Acorn power-up, which transforms you into a flying squirrel and allows you to glide, cling to walls, and perform an arch to gain a little extra height. You can also win P-Acorns from the various mini games which allow you to mid-air jump indefinitely, and you’ll find Yoshi eggs hidden in blocks throughout the game. Yoshis come in four styles, the regular green (which you ride as normal, using his tongue to eat and spit out enemies, chow down fruit for power-ups, and make use of his flutter jump to reach higher areas), and three Baby Yoshis: magenta (which swells up into a balloon to help you bypass hazards), blue (which spits out bubbles), and yellow (which can light up dark and/or haunted areas). Each of these baby Yoshis will also automatically eat up any enemies or projectiles that come your way and can be throw, but it’s usually better to keep them in hand. Every now and then, a Toad will offer you a power-up at the end of a World, and you can play mini games in their houses to collect Coins and earn more power-ups (though you’ll lose out if you get a Bowser tile), and you’ll also find power-ups on the overworld on occasion, too.

Additional Features:
There are 246 Star Coins to find in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, three in every World, and collecting them will really test your patience and platforming skills as they can be well hidden or hanging in precarious positions. When you finish the game as any character, you’ll unlock the ability to save at any time on the overworld (previously, the game saved after towers and castles and you could only create a one-time save point), the Secret Island (a kind of pointless overworld inclusion that lets you view the credits and various other in-game records, and the Superstar Road. This is where those Star Coins will come into play as you can unlock eight new challenge stages by collecting every Star Coin in each of the game’s other worlds, which is easier said than done. Accomplishing all this adds another Star Stamp to your save file, which allows you to brag that you’ve finished the game to 100%, though finishing the game as the other characters doesn’t factor into this achievement. There are also some alternative paths on the overworld beyond the Secret Exits where moving to certain points causes you to collide with enemies and be warped to a special challenge (usually involving the Super Star) or be automatically taken to different Worlds.

New Super Luigi U adds a whole new level of challenge and difficulty to the game.

Being as it’s the most complete version of the game available, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe also features the New Super Luigi U content, which excises Mario from the playable roster, expands upon Luigi’s controls and physics to make him slippery and light as all hell, and reduces both the length and time limit of each World. Worlds are also full of references to Luigi, from statues to sprite work and silhouettes and an abundance of green, as well as being restructured into bite-size obstacle courses that will offer the greatest challenge of the game by far. With checkpoints gone and hazards everywhere, it’ll take every bit of skill and precision jumping to best this mode, which pushes you to use your triple jump, loose physics, and the game’s power-ups in new ways to bop off enemies, avoid death traps and hazards, and reach the goal flag. The game also offers a few additional challenge modes, including time trials and speed runs, Coin collections, and 1-Up collections, all of which deny you the use of power-ups, put you against a tough time limit and meeting criteria (like not touching the floor), and award you either a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal depending how well you do. Boost Rush allows you to take on rejigged versions of the World’s according to certain criteria (such as focusing on the balloon Yoshi, Penguin Suit, or Squirrel Suit) to nab Coins and speed up the tempo of the game and the enemies. Finally, you can go head-to-head against other players in Coin Battle, or put together your own courses using Coin Edit to challenge your friends, and all of the game’s modes can be played with other players, who will respawn in bubbles after losing lives.

The Summary:
Although I’ve never had the greatest relationship with Super Mario titles since I notoriously struggle with his classic titles and only really got into the franchise once it moved into 3D, I really enjoy these 2.5D throwback games and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe truly is an exemplary title that showcases the very best of this side of the franchise. Colourful, visually appealing, and bolstered by jaunty music and cute, cartoony attention to detail, the game impresses with its tight controls and a fantastic implementation of some of Mario’s 3D skills (such as the triple jump and wall jump). While it can be frustrating at times because of the precise nature of its platforming and how inconsistent the physics and wall jumps can be with some characters, this is purposely implemented as part of the game’s difficulty curve and, more often than not, any mistakes you make will be because of you rather than the game being unfair. Every enemy, challenge, and obstacle can be overcome with skill and patience, and you’ll find yourself using Mario’s power-ups (especially the new Squirrel Suit) to take risks that invariably pay off to launch you off enemies and towards the coveted flagpole. The inclusion of four additional playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, really helps to add some variety to the gameplay (though I would’ve preferred there only being one Toad and to have Peach be playable by default, no matter how little sense that makes) so that anyone of any skill level can pick this up and enjoy it, and the boss battles, while simple, were pretty fun thanks to the challenging castles you have to go through beforehand. Super Luigi U was a much-appreciated additional feature, if one I found far more harrowing and frustrating, and I enjoyed all the extra challenges and features to help extend the game beyond the main story. Overall, this is easily my favourite 2.5D Super Mario adventure by far; it takes everything that worked so well in Mario’s better 16-bit titles and infuses them with the Switch’s high-definition graphics and mechanics, and it was an extremely fun and challenging gameplay experience from start to finish.

My Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Fantastic

Did you enjoy Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe? How do you feel it compares other Mario titles, specifically the previous Super Mario Bros. games? Which of the playable characters was your favourite and why? Did you enjoy the new power-ups and the challenge offered by collecting the Star Coins? Which of the boss battles did you struggle with, and did you ever get all of the Star Stamps on your save file? What did you think to Super Luigi U? Which of Mario’s Switch games was your favourite and how are you celebrating Mario’s birthday this year? Whatever your thoughts on Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, feel free to share them below or drop a comment on my social media and be sure to check back in for more Mario content throughout March!

Game Corner [Mario Month]: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Nintendo 3DS)

Dr. K5 Comments

So, for no better reason than “Mar.10” resembling Mario’s name, March 10th is widely regarded as being “Mario Day”, a day to celebrate Nintendo’s portly plumber, an overalls-wearing mascot who literally changed the videogame industry forever and shaped the home console market of the nineties.

Released: 27 January 2014
Originally Released: 10 May 1999
Developer: Nintendo
Original Developer: Nintendo R&D4
Also Available For: Game Boy Color

The Background:
After his debut in Donkey Kong (Nintendo R&D2/Ikegami Tsushinki, 1983) and graduating to his own arcade title alongside his brother, Luigi, Shigeru Miyamoto’s Mario took the world by storm with Super Mario Bros. The game was extremely popular, selling over 40 million copies and was pivotal to Nintendo saving the videogames industry from destitution. The game is also no stranger to being ported to other systems; it was a 16-bit makeover for Super Mario All-Stars (Nintendo EAD, 1993) and re-released on the Nintendo Wii to commemorate its twenty-fifth anniversary but, before that, though, Super Mario Bros. was ported to the Game Boy Color in this version of the game. Although Super Mario Bros. Deluxe suffered from a smaller screen size due to its new portable format, the game featured a few new features, such as additional animated elements, challenge modes, compatibility with the Game Boy Printer, and bonus levels, all of which saw it ranked as one of the greatest Game Boy games of all time and it was highly praised for its additional features. The game later made it onto the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Library, and gamers were even able to receive a free copy by registering their Nintendo Network ID, which further bolstered the game with the 3DS save state features and finally gave me my best opportunity to play through this classic title after years of struggling with Mario’s classic 2D efforts.

The Plot:
The Mushroom Kingdom has been invaded by Bowser, King of the Koopas, and this wacky army, the Koopa Troopas. After transforming the citizens into inanimate objects and kidnapping Princess Toadstool, Mario and Luigi set out to liberate the Mushroom Kingdom and rescue the princess from his clutches!

Gameplay:
As an updated port of perhaps gaming’s most famous 2D, sidescrolling platformer,Super Mario Bros. Deluxe looks, sounds, and plays exactly the same as Super Mario Bros. except you have reduced visibility due to the screen size and the scrolling is a little janky at times. This basically means that the left side of the screen catches up to you pretty fast, which can be an issue as you can’t freely backtrack in the level (or “World”) so it can cause you to plummet to your death if you’re not careful, and it’s not always immediately clear what dangers or goodies are above or below you, meaning you need to use the directional pad to shunt the screen up and down for a better look but, otherwise, the controls and presentation are exactly what you’d expect from Nintendo’s breakout title. You’re played into the overalls or Mario (or Luigi, if you press the Select button prior to entering a World), who can run by holding B or Y and jump by pressing A. Mario will cain extra height and distance if you hold down the jump button and jump from a run, and jumping on enemies is his primary way of dispatching them. While Mario’s physics are pretty tight and responsive, he can be slippery and awkward at times, especially when bouncing off springs, but Luigi is even worse since he has far less traction and a less manageable, higher jump.

Run and hop around squashing baddies, clearing gaps, and swimming through treacherous waters.

As ever, your goal is to move from the left side of the screen to the right and reach a goal flag within a time limit; this timer is pretty generous and it’s only on later Worlds where the game throws repeating paths at you that it can get a bit tricky reaching the end in time. Mario hops about, bouncing off enemies and hitting blocks to progress, but also has to clear longer gaps with the aid of a spring or moving, weighted, or temporary platforms or smaller ones by running over them. Throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, you’ll find a number of pipes; some of these can be entered to reach secret areas, usually full of Coins, and provide you with a shortcut, but you can also go out of bounds sometimes and find a Warp Zone to skip ahead to a later World. For the most part, you’ll be exploring the block-and-gap-landed Mushroom Kingdom, with only a few different obstacles (either “stairs” or blocks, more gaps, or long stretches of land with enemies to bump off) distinguishing them, but you’ll also venture into underground areas somewhat reminiscent of caves (which tend to be a bit more claustrophobic had have more elevator platforms) and also underwater a couple of times. Here, you’re completely defenceless without a Fire Flower or Super Star and must rapidly tap A to swim ahead; you don’t need to worry about air, which is helpful, but there does seem to be sections where you’re pulled down towards the bottom of the screen (and your death). Although there’s a score counter in the game, it’s more for bragging rights than anything else and doesn’t seem to award you extra lives, though these are awarded for consecutively defeating enemies. Furthermore, while there are no mid-World checkpoints, you can save and end your game at any time from the pause menu and you’re given three save files to play with, and the game keeps track of your lives and completion progress on the new (albeit limited) overworld screen.

Graphics and Sound:  
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe appears to be an exact recreation of the original title, so it’s Super Mario Bros. as you know and love it and in all its 8-bit glory, though there are a few graphical additions to the water and lava to make them more lively. This means, of course, that animation frames are low, and the presentation is quite basic, but the game is still a colourful and pretty ambitious title, with Mario and Luigi’s sprites being the obvious standout. Sure, they have no idle animations, but they can grow and shrink and change colour from power-ups, do a little slide/turnaround pose when you quickly change direction, perform a breaststroke underwater, and have a little death animation when you stupidly run into an oncoming Koopa shell. Enemies receive even less animation but remain memorable simply because they’re so quirky and weird; mean little mushrooms, hammer tossing turtles, and pouting fish fill the screen, with all of them popping out from the backgrounds thanks to their unique colour palettes, and there’s never a question of not being able to see where you’re going or what you’re doing (as long as it’s not too high up or below you).

Some minor improvements and new additions bolster the classic 8-bit graphics.

The game also seems to pop a little more and run a little smoother, potentially because of the better hardware, and all the classic Super Mario Bros. tunes are here to settle in your ear for the rest of the day. There’s no many, granted, with only a handful of different tunes playing in the game’s different areas, but they’re all chirpy and catchy and help keep everything very whimsical. Sadly, there’s really not much variety in the Worlds; the Mushroom Kingdom stages sometimes have more pipes or blocks or platforms, or slightly different hills or even mushroom platforms at some point, but the closest they get to actually looking any different are the rare occasions when they receive a minor palette swap to simulate night or have brick castle walls in the background. The underwater levels are very visually appealing with their bubbles and seaweed, but are few and far between, same as the underground sections, but the game does impress with its end of World melody and jingle (a little flagpole raises and fireworks go off when you clear Worlds) and in the lava-filled stone castles you must conquer to clear each World. There’s no in-game story offered at all, but a Toad will tell you that the princess is in another castle at the end of every World and there’s fun little animations of the castle crumbling on the new overworld screens, so that’s a nice touch.

Enemies and Bosses:
Naturally, all the enemies you’ve come to know and love from Super Mario titles appear and made their debut in this title. The first enemy you’ll come across are the Goomas (pretty unthreatening sentient mushrooms that wander about and can be flattened with your jump) and the Koopa Troopas. These come in two colours (red and green) and a flying variant that can either catch you off-guard in mid-air or act as a temporary jump boost. When you defeat a Koopa Troopa, you can hit their shell to send it flying into other enemies for a score and life bonus but be careful as it’s just as likely to ricochet back at you. You can do the same to the Buzzy Beetles, but these guys are smaller, harder to hit, and are immune to your fireballs. Also of great annoyance are the piranha plants to pop out from pipes, usually when you least expect it, the squid-like Bloopers (who erratically swim about underwater), and Cheap Cheaps (who often dive up out of the water as you run over bridges).

You’ll dodge many enemies and fake Bowsers in you quest to take out the real Koopa King.

By far the worst regular enemies you’ll encounter, though, are Lakitu and the Hammer Bros. Lakitu hovers overhead (just out of reach) and drops Spinys across the stage , though you can take both of these out if you have a Fire Flower. The Hammer Bros usually attack in twos and from higher ground, tossing hammers in a tight arc that can be tough to jump over and even tougher to land with your jump as the window where they’re vulnerable is incredibly small. As for bosses, there’s technically only one in the entire game but you must battle him eight times and each time you have to endure a lava-filled obstacle course and/or pick the correct path to reach him, and this is, of course, Bowser. While seven of the eight Bowsers are actually his minions in disguise, each one attacks just like the real thing; perched over a bridge, Bowser moves back and forth, hops up and down, and spits fireballs at you. Some castles include a moving platform overhead for you to use to get behind him, and the fights become tougher as the amount of projectiles he spits increases, he adds a load of hammers to his arsenal, and Lava Bubbles will pop up from the magma below. However, the strategy to defeating Bowser remains the same every time: either blast at him repeatedly with a Fire Flower until he’s done in, or hop over him (or pass through him after taking a hit) and jump on the axe to remove the bridge beneath him and send him to the lava below.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Coins are scattered all throughout the Mushroom Kingdom. Collecting these adds to your score tally and will net you an extra life once you get one-hundred of them, after which the counter resets to zero. Your Coin counter carries over between Worlds and you’ll often find bunches of them hidden away beneath pipes or along higher paths. You can also grab a 1-Up Mushroom for an extra life as well, or a Super Mushroom to grow bigger and become Super Mario/Luigi. This lets you take a hit without dying and allows you to smash certain blocks by hitting them from beneath, which can uncover secret routes. A Fire Flower lets you throw bouncing fireballs with the B button, which is great for taking out most enemies (and Bowser) from a safe distance, but you’ll revert to you basic, smaller form if you take a hit in either of these states. Finally, there’s the Super Star, which grants you a brief period of invincibility from all onscreen hazards except bottomless pits and lava pools; consecutively defeating enemies in this state will net you extra points and, eventually, an extra life.

Additional Features:
One of the primary reasons I was actually able to finish the game this time around was due to the additional features offered by the Nintendo 3DS, most notably the save state feature, which lets you create a save point wherever you want so you can recover from mistakes much faster and easier, though the base game includes a number of additional features, too. Although you initially can’t backtrack to previous Worlds, you’ll be able to select which World to revisit on your save file after clearing the game. This also unlocks a new, far more challenging adventure, which you can play by selecting the star option when loading your save file. This replaces all Goombas with Buzzy Beetles, speeds up the enemy’s walking speed, reduces the size of elevator lifts, adds more fire bars, and removes the power-ups from the game. New Super Mario Bros. Deluxe also includes a ‘Challenge’ mode that sees you exploring the game’s Worlds once again, this time in search of Red Coins and Yoshi Eggs to unlock content in the game’s Toy Box.

The game’s additional modes and unlockables add a great deal of challenge and replay value.

Once you accumulate 100,000 points in the main game, you unlock ‘You VS. Boo’, a race against a Boo across rejigged Worlds hitting new blocks to clear the way so you can get ahead of the ghost, which can naturally pass through walls. Once you beat the Boo, it’ll get replaced by faster and faster different coloured variants to test your high score. When you earn 300,000 points in the main game, you’ll unlock Super Mario Bros. for Super Players (indicated by the Luigi face now on the main title screen), which is a remake of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Nintendo EAD, 1986). This game gives you only one save slot and provides thirteen new, much tougher Worlds, a new item in the injury- (or death-) dealing Poison Mushroom, alongside palette swaps of enemies and a wind that makes jumping even trickier. You can also partake in a ‘VS Game’, which is a two-player challenge mode that’s exactly the same as ‘You VS Boo’ but pits you against another human player, a Toy Box that offers a variety of toys for you to unlock and use, and a Fortune Teller mini game that awards you extra lives on a new save file. Every time you defeat each of the eight castles, a Toad will be added to the Mystery Room which will show you animations or artwork to print out on the Game Boy Printer, you’ll receive medals for clearing the different game modes, and there’s even a calendar included if you want to keep track of the days of the week.

The Summary:
I’ve carried the shame of never having beaten Super Mario Bros. for most of my life; to be fair, I didn’t own any of Nintendo’s home consoles until the Nintendo 64 so I didn’t really play any Super Mario titles that weren’t on the Game Boy or played through emulators, and my attempt to play it on the Nintendo Wii was largely just me messing about rather than actually sitting down and trying to finish it. Knowing that the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console wasn’t long for this world, I jumped at the chance to get Super Mario Bros. Deluxe while I could can give it a go and finally achieved that long-elusive goal of finishing this classic platformer, and I was mostly happy with the results. The game is fun, bright, and full of a steady challenge; while it can be too simple at some times and a little frustrating at others with its obstacle placement, it’s fun hopping about and using the skills you’ve mastered over the course of the game to dash past and jump around the later Worlds. While there’s not a lot of variety to the Worlds and the graphics are very basic, I can excuse that since it was an 8-bit title from the mid-eighties and it still holds up as an entertaining little adventure to keep you busy for a long afternoon. While it’s a shame that a version of Mario Bros. (Nintendo R&D1, 1983) included as well, I won’t hold that against it as the additional features added to this game, including mini games, The Lost Levels, and extra challenges, really make Super Mario Bros. Deluxe the definitive 8-bit version of Nintendo’s classic platformer.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Super Mario Bros. Deluxe? What did you think to the additions made to the game and how do you feel it compares to the original videogame? Did you play Super Mario Bros. as a child and, if so, what are some of your memories of the game? Did you ever find all the Warp Zones and complete the new challenges introduced in this version of the game? Which of the classic Super Mario titles is your favourite? Are there any retro videogames you didn’t complete until later in like? Whatever your thoughts on Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, feel free to leave a comment below by signing up or drop your thoughts on my social media, and be sure to check back for more Mario content this March!