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Game Corner [Zelda Day]: The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo 3DS)

21/02/202107/01/2024Dr. K18 Comments

On 21 February 1986, The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo EAD, 1986) was first released in Japan. The creation of legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, The Legend of Zelda launched one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises, with its silent protagonist, Link, and his vast fantasy world of sword and sorcery not only enduring over time but constantly evolving and improving as the series progressed.

Released: 7 June 2011
Originally Released: 21 February 1986
Developer: Nintendo
Original Developer: Nintendo EAD
Also Available For: Family Computer Disk System (Famicom), Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U

The Background:
The Legend of Zelda was created by designer Shigeru Miyamoto (the man responsible for Nintendo’s popular mascot, Super Mario) and Takashi Tezuka; in fact, Zelda and Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo EAD, 1985) were developed simultaneously and so, to separate the two games, Zelda was purposely made far less linear and based around both exploration and experimentation, with Miyamoto drawing inspiration from his childhood love of exploring forests and caves. Although players are free to name the game’s protagonist, he was dubbed “Link” to suggest an emotional “link” between the player and their avatar and his story was framed as a “coming of age” tale that would allow the player to grow alongside their silent, but by no means less iconic, game character. The Legend of Zelda was hugely successful for Nintendo, with the game selling well over 6.5 million copies and Nintendo even commissioned a special gold cartridge variant for its North American release. The game was met with universal praise during its release and is still regarded as one of the greatest adventure game of all time. Although I was aware of the franchise thanks to the much-maligned animated series, being a SEGA kid growing up I didn’t play a Zelda title from start to finish until I got The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (ibid, 1993). This was enough to hook me on the franchise, however, which grew to a deep affection thanks, of course, to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (ibid, 1998). The original title, though, had always eluded me so, with this year marking the game’s thirty-fifth anniversary, I figured now was as good a time as any to sit down and give it a go.

The Plot:
The peaceful kingdom of Hyrule is suddenly invaded by the malevolent Ganon (or “Gannon”, as he’s referred to in-game) and his monstrous army. Having already stolen the Triforce of Power, one part of the legendary Triforce, he kidnaps Princess Zelda to acquire the Triforce of Wisdom. However, after she separates the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments, it’s up to Link, a plucky young boy from the forest, to journey across the land, recover the Triforce fragments, and put an end to Ganon’s dreams of world conquest.

Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda is a 2D, top-down action/adventure game set in the fantasy land of Hyrule. One of the few NES titles to feature a battery back-up save feature, players can create one of three save files and save their progress whenever they die in the game, which is a necessary feature given how large the game is. Unlike the majority of Zelda games, though, the name you give to your save file isn’t reflected in-game; when you rescue Princess Zelda at the game’s conclusion, she refers to you as “Link” no matter what you title your save file, making this original adventure one of only a handful of Zelda titles to actually use that name to refer to its green-garbed protagonist.

*Defeat enemies with your trusty sword, which shoots out beams when you’re at full health.*

Once you’ve created your save file, you are immediately dropped into Hyrule and left to fend for yourself. Link moves in a grid-like pattern across the map and comes complete with a shield that will block most enemy projectiles as long as he is facing them. If you enter the cave at the top of the game’s first screen, you’ll acquire a sword, allowing you to dispatch most enemies in one of two ways: the first is a tried-and-tested sword swipe and the second is an energy bolt that fires from your sword as long as you are at full health, which really helps to clear the screen of enemies from a safe distance. Defeated enemies may occasionally drop hearts or fairies to refill your health, bombs to allow you to deal explosive damage to enemies and uncover secret passageways, or Rupees (or “Rupies”/”Rubies”), the in-game currency. Link can hold a maximum of 255 Rupees and will sporadically stumble across merchants hidden in dungeons or caves who will sell him a variety of items, weapons, and power-ups.

*The majority of Hyrule and the game’s dungeons are accessible right from the start.*

As you might expect from a Zelda title, the game’s overworld is pretty expansive, covering forests, mountains, and beachfronts. A mini map is present in the top-left of the game’s heads-up display (HUD) but, out in the overworld, is next to useless since all you can see is a little green dot (representing you) on a blank, grey background. In dungeons, you can collect a Dungeon Map to make navigation a lot easier but, again, it’s not as helpful as it could be since there’s no distinction between floors, meaning it’s very easy to get lost or turned around or to wander around Hyrule with no idea of where you are or need to go. Your goal in the game is to visit eight dungeons (referred to in the game as “Levels”) and retrieve the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom; you can track your progress towards this goal from the game’s inventory menu and non-playable characters (NPCs) can offer you (extremely) vague hints about how to progress but, otherwise, much of the game’s adventure is in your hands. As a result, pretty much the entirety of Hyrule is available for you to explore and visit as long as you have, at least, some bombs available to you. This means that it’s very easy to wander around the overworld and stumble into the game’s harder dungeons before you’re ready, which can add an additional layer of challenge to the game if you’re brave enough to attempt to tackle these tougher levels out of sequence. It also means that you can acquire some of the game’s more powerful and useful weapons early, at the very least, though some can be useless without others (I, for example, acquired the Book of Magic long before I got the Magic Rod, making said book all but useless).

Zelda‘s dungeons are largely indistinguishable beyond their colour palette and enemy placements.

Given that I played through 90% of this game blind and without a guide, I have to say that that this is all-but-inevitable as, while the game’s first two dungeons are easily found almost right next to each other, it’s entirely up to you to explore your surroundings so it’s pretty easy to stumble into the harder levels when you only have three of four hearts in your health bar. As big as Hyrule is, though, many of the dungeons are actually quite small; inside, you’ll be tasked with defeating enemies and solving very (very) simple puzzles (generally as taxing as pushing a certain block or bombing a certain wall) to open doors, or collect keys to open doors, grabbing a new weapon or item, Dungeon Map and Compass to aid with your navigation within the dungeon, and then defeating a boss to extend your health bar and retrieve a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom. One interesting feature I was surprised to see was that you can carry keys from one dungeon to another, which can give you an edge with the game’s harder dungeons and allow you to take shortcuts here and there. Gameplay follows a very simple formula from start to finish: explore the immediate area, uncover secrets, find a dungeon, and retrieve a piece of the Triforce of Wisdom. The only time the gameplay is changed up is when you descend down hidden staircases inside the dungeons and enter a short 2D area where the level’s weapon or key item can be found. Otherwise, gameplay variety comes from utilising different weapons to battle enemies and bosses or factoring in the erratic patterns of the game’s enemies, who like to attack in something resembling a co-ordinated effort or en masse, requiring both some strategy on your part and a healthy supply of hearts in order to survive the damage put out by the game’s later enemies. As a result, Zelda’s difficulty is, largely, up to you; if you clear Level-1 and then stumble into Level-8, it’s probably best to leave that later dungeon and seek out Level-2 to 3 to give yourself a better chance of success.

Graphics and Sound:
The Legend of Zelda is a very basic 2D adventure; like Super Mario Bros. and many videogames of that era, the graphics are extremely simplistic and, largely, require quite a bit of imagination and suspension of disbelief on the part of the player. Link is immediately and instantly recognisable against the game’s many different backgrounds and compared to the enemy sprites thanks to his green tunic and cute little sword and shield but, obviously, you’re not going to see many frames of animation or layers of detail in this game. Additionally, I found that the game struggled a bit when there were a lot of sprites onscreen and/or sounds playing at the same time; the iconic Zelda theme plays constantly on the overworld and, when Link is low of health, the game emits a constant beeping to inform you and enemies make little noises when they shoot at you or are destroyed and all of these sounds can blend into each other and the game slows down noticeably when a hoard of Lynels incessantly shoot projectiles at you.

*Though limited by the hardware of the time,* Zelda is a vast and ambitious adventure.

Despite the game’s limited graphical capabilities, Hyrule is surprisingly vast, varied, and detailed at times; the entire land is surrounded by sea that you cannot cross and made up of forests, mountains, beaches, and icy regions. You’ll have to navigate a series of repeating, identical screens in a maze-like puzzle, dodge boulders as they rain down from Death Mountain, explore a haunted graveyard, cross the water using a raft, enter a waterfall, descend into caves, and cross beaches while Leevers randomly pop out at you as you explore looking for merchants, additional items and weapons, and the elusive dungeon entrances. Dungeons are generally recognisable in the overworld but, sometimes, you’ll enter what appears to be a dungeon only to find a merchant or other NCP. When you do find a dungeon, you’ll be treated to a different in-game tune, which is refreshing, but will find that most dungeons are aesthetically very similar just with a different colour palette. Dungeons get progressively bigger as you progress, though, and are filled with more enemies; you’ll also find that you’re required to visit different floors using staircases and bomb walls more frequently to access different areas and properly progress, which adds an additional layer of challenge to the game. Each dungeon also has its own unique layout and appearance as seen on the map screen to help distinguish them but, for the most part, they’re quite similar and not themed around elements like later Zelda dungeons would be.

Zelda uses text and (very) simple and vague dialogue to convey its plot and your objective.

For an adventure game, The Legend of Zelda is extremely light on story and dialogue; the game’s story is told through some text when you wait around on the title screen but, beyond that, you’ll need to read the game’s instruction manual to learn more about the plot and the lore of Hyrule since the NPCs offer only cryptic clues and vague statements. Dialogue and character interaction is practically non-existent in The Legend of Zelda, which I find a bit surprising given how prominent it would become in the series and how heavy it featured in more traditional role-playing games (RPGs) released around the same time, such as Final Fantasy (Square, 1987). However, given the amount of grammatical errors and incongruous dialogue contained within the first Zelda this is, perhaps, a good thing; it also means that the onus is on the player to explore every nook and cranny and to experiment with every weapon on every screen on the game to uncover secrets and new areas, placing an emphasis on exploration and player immersion rather than hand-holding.

Enemies and Bosses:
Link will have to contend with a wide variety of enemies on his grand quest; the overworld is alive with numerous enemies, some of which are specific to certain areas and each of which presents a different challenge thanks to their attack patterns and difficulty. It’s very rare that you’ll take on just one or two enemies at a time and, generally, you’ll have to battle about four or five at once and often a mixture of different enemies, requiring a certain amount of strategy on your part as you can’t always take the direct approach in battle. One of the most common enemies in the game are the Octorocs (octopus-like creatures that spit projectiles at you), Peahats (bulbous vegetation that hover in the air and can only be destroyed when briefly stationary), Tektites (spider-like enemies that hop around the screen), aforementioned Leevers (spiked globs that burrow in and out of sand), and the Keese (bats that flutter around the screen). While you’ll encounter different coloured variants of most of these (and other enemies) that are tougher, these are the most common enemies and are easily dispatched with one sword swing.

Zelda‘s tougher enemies can be a real headache thanks to their numbers and attack patterns.

As you progress, though, you’ll encounter far more formidable enemies: Moblins launch spears at you, Goriyas toss boomerangs your way, Ropes (why they’re not called “snakes” is beyond me) charge at you head-first, and Wallmasters will drag you back to the first screen of the dungeon you’re in if you’re not careful. Some of the game’s toughest and most annoying enemies include the Wizzrobes (who constantly teleport around the screen, often directly into where you’re walking, and fire energy bolts that can easily drain your health if you’re caught in a crossfire), Darknuts (who can only be attacked from behind and wander around in an unpredictable pattern), and the aforementioned Lynels. You’ll also have to be careful about getting too close to seemingly harmless Armos statues in case they spring to life, avoid getting eaten by a Like-Like lest it take away your shield upgrade, and make sure you have plenty of health or arrows to make battling the Poe’s Voice that much easier.

*The Dodongo might be pretty pathetic but the Manhandla was a pain in my ass!*

The game features nine dungeons to explore, which means nine bosses to contend with; make sure you familiarise yourself with each of these bosses, though, as you’ll encounter all of them on multiple occasions as sub-bosses in the game’s later dungeons. Technically, you can battle them in whatever order you like as long as you’re tough enough to survive the dungeon and their damage output but it’s best to try and take them on in sequential order to give yourself the best chance at success. This means that the first boss you fight should be Aquamentus, a horned dragon that spits out three projectiles that you must dodge between. This boss is fought in Level-1 and Level-7 and is made all the easier if you have the energy to use your sword beam or ammo enough to shoot arrows at it, which will make short work of it. The Dodongo, in comparison, is a pretty pathetic excuse for a boss; it lumbers around the screen doing little to nothing and is easily dispatched by placing bombs before its mouth. Later on, you’ll have to contend with three of these at once but, since they don’t make any effort to attack you, they’re easily the weakest of all the game’s bosses. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the Manhandla boss; this piranha-like bastard was the bane of my life since it popped up three times throughout the quest. It slowly bounces around the arena firing projectiles at you and is very tricky to hit thanks to the limited reach of Link’s depowered sword and Link’s restricted range of movement; it’s much faster and more efficient to use bombs to deal massive, successive damage to the Mandhandla but be wary as, the more parts of it you destroy, the faster its movements become.

*Bosses range from frustratingly awkward to ridiculously easy depending on how equipped you are.*

One of the toughest bosses in the game, for me, was the multi-headed dragon Gleeok; this monstrosity sports two, three, or four heads, spits projectiles towards you that are difficult to avoid, and is only able to be damaged by awkwardly slashing at its neck or, more effectively, shooting arrows at it. Be careful, though, as when the Gleeok’s heads are severed they will float around the arena shooting projectiles at you and cannot be harmed. Compared to Gleeok, Digdogger and Gohma are a walk in the park, especially once you have acquired the recorder and the bow; Digdogger is completely invulnerable until you play the recorder and reduce it down to its core but, once you do, you can just whack it until it’s defeated. Similarly, Gohma can be a bit of a pain with its sporadic movements and projectiles but a few well-timed shots to its exposed eye will put it away without any real issues; the most difficult thing about many of these bosses is having enough health, the right weapons, and being able to navigate the arena when projectiles are being fired at you from both the boss and the nearby statues.

*Despite his fearsome appearance, Ganon is* *quite a pushover once he’s out in the open.*

Of course, the main objective of the game is to assemble the eight pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, battle through Level-9 (which is accessed by bombing a specific rock formation on Death Mountain and features swarms of the game’s toughest enemies and a new sub-boss, the Patra, which can only be destroyed after first taking care of the tiny little eyes it shields itself with), and confront the evil Ganon. For the final boss of the game, Ganon isn’t that much of a challenge; he turns invisible and fires a series of projectiles at you, forcing you to swipe somewhat blindly around the screen until you hit him. Land four this and he appears in all his monstrous glory…and is easily destroyed with one hit from a Silver Arrow for a disappointingly anticlimactic end to the game.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Link begins the game with three hearts’ worth of health which, very quickly proves to be far too little to get past the game’s tougher enemies and dungeons. Fortunately, every time you defeat a dungeon boss, you expand your maximum hearts by one and can find additional Heart Containers hidden on the overworld or for sale from certain merchants, which will increase it to twenty units. Certain weapons also have similar limitations; for the majority of the game, you can only carry six bombs at a time until stumbling across a merchant who will allow you to carry double that amount (…for a small fee), the only way to get arrows is to buy them, and your usage of the Red Candle is restricted. Thankfully, the Blue Candle and Magic Rod are not so restricted, allowing you to light up dark areas and deal damage to enemies (but watch out because the flame you conjure can also hurt you!)

*A number of key items and upgrades will vastly improve your chances at success.*

As you might expect from a Zelda title, Link has access to a decent variety of weapons and items: enemies sometimes drop a clock (which causes enemies to freeze in place and gifts Link with invincibility for a brief period), the boomerang allows him to attack from a distance, the stepladder lets him cross one tile of water, the raft allows him to drift across water at certain points on the map, and he can also find a Power Bracelet to move blocks and upgrades for his sword and shield to block more projectiles and deal additional damage. Eventually, you’ll also be able to purchase health-restoring medicines and other expensive items to aid your quest: one such item is a Magic Key that renders all other temporary keys redundant and a piece of food to get past Goriyas (though you’d never know that you need to use this item). You can also buy a Blue Ring and find a Red Ring, both of which significantly reduce the amount of damage you take while also changing Link’s tunic to blue and red, respectively.

Additional Features:
Whereas later Zelda titles placed significant emphasis on a variety of side quests, I only really came across one in this first title (barring the hidden Heart Containers on the overworld) which involved taking a letter from one NPC to another to be able to purchase medicines. After finishing the game, you will unlock the “Second Quest”, which replaces your save file sprite to one of Link holding his sword aloft and overwrites your save file from the beginning but mixes up the locations of dungeons, enemies, and items and also increases the difficulty of the game’s enemies. You can, however, jump straight into this mode by naming for save file “ZELDA” and also make frequent, fragrant, and continuous use of the 3DS version’s save state ability to make beating this difficult and finicky first Zelda title much less of a headache.

The Summary:
After years of hearing so much hype about how good The Legend of Zelda is and having experienced a number of 2D and 3D Zelda titles, I was excited to finally experience the first in the series and, for the most part, The Legend of Zelda lived up to the hype. It’s definitely a product of its time and suffer somewhat from the limitations of the NES hardware and the simplistic graphics, gameplay, and sound but it’s still an ambitious little action/adventure title that was both offering something unique at a time largely dominated by space shooters and platformers. Everything on offer in The Legend of Zelda was expanded upon and improved as the series progressed but, for this first entry, the player is required to utilise a lot of exploration, experimentation, and utilise the bare minimum of information to find the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. I went in mostly blind and did okay, for the most part, and only had to turn to a guide for the last two dungeons and to track down a couple of the game’s more elusive items so it’s definitely do-able but the game is handicapped somewhat by this format since it’s very easy to just get lost and end up wandering around in circles or being absolutely bludgeoned by the game’s tougher enemies. Honestly, I have nothing but respect for those who managed to get through this game back in the day without the benefit of save states since it’s a deceptively tough title, one that I’m sure kept many kids busy for many hours or even days with its vast landscape and tricky bosses.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

What are your thoughts on The Legend of Zelda? Did you own this on the NES back in the day or did you, perhaps, discover it later on a different console? How do you feel it holds up these days, especially against later Zelda titles? Which Zelda game, character, or dungeon is your favourite and why? Would you like to see a return to the top-down style of gameplay for Zelda or do you prefer to more action-orientated, open world approach? How are you celebrating The Legend of Zelda’s debut today? Whatever your thoughts, memories, or opinions of The Legend of Zelda, and the Zelda franchise overall, feel free to drop a comment below and check in next Sunday for more Zelda content.

Game Corner: Double Dragon Neon (Xbox One)

12/02/202130/04/2022Dr. KLeave a comment

Released: 12 September 2012
Developer: WayForward Technologies
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The Background:
Double Dragon (Technōs Japan, 1987) was a pioneer of the sidescrolling beat-‘em-up genre; an incredibly popular arcade title upon release, the game was equally popular when it was ported to home consoles, with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version being particularly noted for both its difficulty and addictiveness. While a number of sequels followed throughout the nineties, the series pretty much died out for some time and was mainly represented by ports and remakes. Developers WayForward Technologies revived the franchise in 2012 for this part-sequel, part-remake, part-parody that replaced traditional 2D sprites with a 2.5D, cel-shaded style and a heavy eighties-inspired soundtrack and aesthetic. I first played the game on the PlayStation 3 and remember enjoying it well enough, despite a troublesome difficulty curve, so I was excited to try the Xbox 360 version out on the Xbox One when I recently got the chance.

The Plot:
Under the direction of the cosmic sorcerer lich Skullmageddon, the Shadow Warriors gang kidnap Marian once again and, true to form, the martial arts brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee must journey across, and beyond, the world in order to rescue her!

Gameplay:
Double Dragon Neon is a 2.5D sidescrolling beat-‘em-up with light platforming elements in which players assume control of either Billy or Jimmy; while both characters look and control exactly the same (except for a palette swap), players cannot select which of the Lees to control (player one is Billy and player two is Jimmy and that’s all there is to it). Still, whereas the Lee brothers were a bit clunky and awkward to control in the original videogame, they have a lot more versatility this time around; players can tap X for a quick combo, Y for a stronger attack (and mix and match for more diverse combos), jump with A, and press B to grab enemies when they’re stunned or to pick up and throw weapons and objects.

*Though they look practically identical, the Lees have a lot of moves at their disposal.*

Unfortunately, control is still quite sluggish in a lot of ways; walking speed is painfully slow and players have to hold RT to sprint ahead but there’s quite a delay between pressing RT and your avatar actually breaking into a run. Luckily, you can duck with LT and, with a well-timed press of this trigger, you’ll successfully pull off a “Gleam” dodge and briefly increase your attack power. You’ll notice under your health bar another bar, represented by lightning, that slowly refills over time; pressing RB will allow you to pull off a “Sosetsitsu” special moves at the cost of draining this bar. These are equipped by finding and purchasing cassette tapes and equipping them in the sub menu and there are many different special moves available, from a fireball to a whirlwind kick and a screen-clearing dragon attack, all of which can be upgraded and cost more of your Sosetsitsu energy to perform.

*While you can find health and power-ups, you can also buy them with the cash you earn from fights.*

Double Dragon Neon sees you exploring stage stages (referred to as “Missions”) and battling a variety of enemies, from thugs to sorcerers and robots. When you start the game, you get two lives but can acquire more if you destroy objects (barrels, vases, crates and the like) found in the stages. If you lose all your lives, you can continue but, while you have infinite continues, you’ll have to restart the mission right from the beginning. Thankfully you can, occasionally, find cans and bottles of fizzy drink (“Crystal Dragon Kick”) to partially or fully replenish your health. As you defeat enemies and smash objects, you can also pick up cash, which can be spent in a handful of shops to purchase health, extra lives, and cassette upgrades.

*A variety of environmental hazards dog your progress but can also be used against your enemies.*

While the majority of the gameplay involves running right and beating up endless waves and different palette swaps of enemies, you’ll also have to deal with a number of stage hazards; the classic Double Dragon pit and conveyor belts make a return, which allow you to toss or lure enemies to their death, but you’ll also have to contend with falling platforms, arrows and missiles raining from the sky, and even avoid being sucked out of an airlock! Unfortunately, the clunky nature of the game’s controls, movement speed, and the very noticeably button lag can make this annoyingly difficult, especially in the graveyard stage which is littered with rolling spiked logs! You also need to be wary when breaking open containers as some, especially those in Skullmageddon’s palace, contain grenades that will explode in your face if you’re not careful! Double Dragon Neon also includes the standard “moving elevator” stage but greatly expands upon the difficulty of this trope by placing you precariously on a platform as it flies down an icy slope and bombarding you with a near-endless slew of enemies!

Graphics and Sound:
“Neon” is a pretty apt descriptor for this game as Double Dragon Neon is a neon-drenched, cel-shaded spectacle to be sure! The game features large, brightly colourful graphics and models that are full of character and an absolutely bonkers aesthetic that is heavily inspired by some of the most popular eighties movies and cartoons. Die hard fans of the original Double Dragon may, actually, be a little put off by this as, while the game features an extremely faithful recreation of that game’s first stage, it quickly ends up blasting off into outer space and dropping you into hidden genetics laboratories.

*The game’s stages and graphics have a striking cel-shaded quality to them.*

To be fair, though, my experience with the original game/s is quite limited and vague so maybe this was a thing in the first game but Double Dragon Neon sees you battling on the streets, into a futuristic dojo that doubles as a space ship (complete with Death Star-like throne room), butting heads with a particularly annoying helicopter and tank in the countryside of what appears to be feudal Japan, traversing a haunted graveyard, and working your way through Skullmageddon’s elaborate fortress before battling him in another dimension entirely! A lot of the environments are quite dark and dreary at times, which allows the character models and more garish aspects of the game to pop more, while others are brighter and more visually pleasing, but all of them are fairly elaborate and have a lot of depth to them. If you explore within the limited confines of the screen, you may also find a few hidden areas, shops, or Tapesmiths to improve your odds against the game’s increasingly tough difficulty spike.

*The game is a fantastic homage to the arcade games, music, and style of the eighties.*

While the graphics are attractive and help to make up for the occasionally clunky gameplay and lag, Double Dragon Neon’s soundtrack is one of the most appealing aspects of the game. Embracing its eighties aesthetic, the game features pop and rock music heavily inspired by bands of the time as well as rockin’ remixes of classic Double Dragon tunes to give it a real energetic beat and a catchy ambiance that you can’t help but hum along to as you wade through countless Williamses. Double Dragon Neon also features some limited voice acting, mainly clips and quips from the Lees (who speak in a “surfer dude” style that was popular in cartoons at the time) or their enemies, but it is Skullmageddon who really takes the cake! An elaborate pastiche of the likes of Skeletor, Mumm-Ra, and Shao Kahn, Skullmageddon is an over-the-top, flamboyant, Saturday morning cartoon of a villain who takes the game into absolutely ludicrous territory but he’s cheesy in the greatest way possible and I absolutely loved it!

Enemies and Bosses:
Double Dragon Neon has a decent amount of enemy variety going on; while, for the most part, you can expect to battle palette swaps and reskins of most of the enemies you’ll encounter in the first Mission, enemy models are large and colourful and have some personality to them thanks to their tendency to shout insults your way. Generally, you’ll come up against denim-clad street thugs but you’ll also encounter some more prominent, named enemies, such as the cartwheeling Williams, whip-wielding Linda, and a couple of robotic foes called “Hoverbizzles”. Of course, one of the more physically imposing enemies is the muscle-bound Abobo; these massive freaks of nature often come crashing through walls and can deal heavy damage with a few meaty swings or grapple moves and can take quite a bit of punishment before they’ll be stunned enough to knock over.

*The teleporting, ranged attackers that you fight can be some of the more annoying enemies.*

Just when you’ll feel like you’ve gotten the hang of these guys, you’ll encounter palette swapped variants, multiple Abobos at once, and then reskinned versions, Bimmy and Jammy, who are failed attempts at cloning the iconic Lee twins. You’ll find that enemies such as these act as mini bosses, of sorts, since the game is actually quite light on actual boss encounters. Other troublesome foes include the likes of Shun, the incredibly annoying Geishas, and Bao Boshi, who all have a frustrating tendency to teleport around the screen (usually either right in your path or irritatingly out of reach) and toss projectiles at you while other enemies attack you from behind or clobber you with weapons. One of the more annoying things about the game’s enemies is how they often continue to launch their attack animations even after they’ve been hit, meaning you can easily get hurt even though the enemy should be stunned but, thankfully, stage hazards will damage them just as much as they do you so it’s recommended that you use everything at your disposal to take them out.

*The Killacopter and Giant Tank are two of the more frustrating bosses you’ll encounter.*

As mentioned, Double Dragon Neon is surprisingly light on bosses but you won’t really notice as Missions tend to end with either you facing a slew or gauntlet of enemies or battling guys like Abobo. When you hit Mission 5 and 6, however, you’ll have to contend with the “Killacopter”, an indestructible helicopter that constantly hovers just out of reach, fires missiles at you, spawns wave-upon-wave of enemies, and tries to skewer you with its blades. The Killacopter hounds you throughout Mission 5 and lends air support to the Giant Tank boss of Mission 6, which is easily one of the game’s more frustrating boss encounters. You are constantly bombarded with bombs, missiles, and explosions and have to painstakingly make your way up the tank, destroying its cannons, to toss explosive barrels into its one weak spot. Considering how tough Mission 6 is, this can be a really maddening experience and had me raging on more than one occasion.

*The game is full of homages to other franchises and pop culture.*

Another boss you’ll battle is the Mecha Biker, who is a clear rip-off of Mega Man; the Biker blasts across the screen on his futuristic, Akira (Otomo, 1988) inspired bike trying to run you down or burn you with its flames, before resorting to his blaster and slide attack after you destroy his ride. He’s probably the easiest of the game’s bosses once you get him off his bike as it’s pretty simple to avoid his shots by either dodging them with your roll or standing right next to him at the edge of the screen, which lets you pummel away without fear of injury, but I especially enjoyed how his death animation was a clear homage to Mega Man’s explosive death. You’ll also fight a giant, genetically engineered, mutated plant, Marian II (a clear homage to Little Shop of Horrors’ (Oz, 1986) Audrey II); Marian II attacks either by spitting acid, bones, and other projectiles in a spray from its mouth or, primarily, by trying to stomp and bash you with its pod-like appendages. It’s best to concentrate on attacking one of these at a time as, after they’ve been damaged enough, they’ll burst open to reveal a ravenous shark head and a fire-breathing Tyrannosaurs rex! With these come new, more damaging and frustrating attack patterns as you’ll have to try and move your clunky ass out of the way of screen-covering flames or dash attacks. Though the fight is helped somewhat by Marian II’s rare tendency to drop health and other recovery items, you absolutely cannot rely on this so it’s best to concentrate on one pod at a time (I recommend the right pod, which is the shark head) unless you’re trying to earn the “Jawsome!!!” Achievement.

*Skullmageddon is a cheap spam artist who deals huge damage and can take a hell of a beating!*

Naturally, your ultimate challenge comes in the form of Skullmageddon; you’ll battle this bony bastard three times, with each fight being similar but getting progressively harder each time. The first time you face him, he’s not too difficult as long as you have mastered the Gleam dodge and you avoid his teleport surprise attack as this deals massive damage. The second fight is largely the same but made more troublesome by the fact that he’s supported by an evil, brainwashed version of Marian who fires projectiles at you and causes stage hazards to keep you from attacking Skullmageddon. Skullmageddon’s attacks are much faster and more frequent this time around and he and Marian will power up an ultimate attack if you don’t deliver a good kick to Marian to disrupt her.

*Giga Skullmageddon is the game’s greatest challenge so it’s best to upgrade and equip your tapes!*

After freeing Marian from her brainwashing, she transports you through a portal for the final battle against Skullmageddon’s strongest form yet (and the most frustrating boss by far): Giga Skullmageddon! For this battle, you’re transformed into a “Rob-Bro” but, while this allows you to one-shot the handful of enemies in the area (including Abobo), it’s just a skin that really doesn’t help you in the fight against Giga Skullmageddon. This time around, Skullmageddon is relentless and can significantly drain your health, or kill you out-right, if he lands a blow from his massive sword when he’s teleporting around the screen unless you have the right cassettes equipped. Skullmageddon still stops to gloat at times and launches a slew of projectiles that you can dodge to get some good hits in but, after he’s absorbed enough damage, he’ll start raining fire down into the arena (which, occasionally, includes much-needed power-ups and extra lives), dashing around at lightning speed, protecting himself from damage, and dramatically increasing in speed and ferocity. You’ll need to swap between different Sosetsitsu tapes throughout the battle to help tip the odds in your favour but, even with that, this is, without a doubt, one of the toughest boss battles I’ve ever experienced and, to make things worse, if you lose you have to replay through all of Mission 10 right from the start to even attempt it again!

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As mentioned above, you can refill your health with Crystal Dragon Kick and also acquire extra lives, either by searching around, defeating enemies, or buying them from shops but you can also collect batteries to refill your Sosetsitsu faster. Many enemies will also carry weapons that you can pick up and use; these range from baseball bats to whips, knives, and hairpins but you can also grab boomerangs and fans for useful ranged attacks and explosive jars and grenades (but be careful with these last two as they can hurt you as well!) You can also tackle the game with another player and, by pressing in the right analogue stick, perform a high five for a temporary power boost.

*Be sure to upgrade your Stance and special move tapes to have a greater advantage in battle.*

As you explore, you’ll find cassette tapes that allow you to equip different special moves and “Stances”; each of these can be upgraded by a Tapesmith for some Mythril, which can only be acquired by beating bosses. Each special move deals more damage and takes away more Sosetsitsu energy as you upgrade it; I found I mostly relying on the Spin Kick or the Fire Ball but an upgraded version of the Dragon Swarm can be useful when fighting Giga Skulmageddon. The Stance tapes affect your stats and come with a few useful benefits, such as increasing your health, attack, or defence or allowing you to absorb some health or become more powerful with every blow you land. It helps to mix and match them depending on the situation but, for the most part, you can stick to a set layout…at least until the final boss, which will require you to have better health and defence.

Additional Features:
Double Dragon Neon has thirty Achievements for you to earn. These are quite random and diverse and range from mundane stuff like grabbing two enemies at once or grabbing enemies in mid-air ten times to using every weapon, throwing hairpins at every enemy, and finishing every Mission with the Ro-Bro skin (which requires a code to unlock). Easily the most difficult Achievements involve beating the game on its higher difficulty settings or in two-player co-op with friendly fire enabled but there’s also one that requires you to hit a punching bag eighty-seven times to access a secret area filled with swarms of the game’s hardest enemies! As you clear each mission, the game map opens up so you can revisit previous stages, which is fine, but you’ll have to start a whole new game if you want to try a different difficulty setting. When fighting through some stages, you will come across keys that can be used in shrines to get extra cash, tapes, and power-ups but you may have to endure some particularly frustrating areas to reach these shrines. Similarly, gigantic Tapeworms will sometimes burst through walls and beating on them allows you to grab some extra goodies, a hidden area can be found right before fighting Giga Skullmageddon that can give you a slight (slight!) edge in the fight, and defeating him unlocks a concept art gallery, if you like that sort of thing.

The Summary:
Double Dragon Neon is a pretty decent upgrade of a classic beat-‘em-up title; with an amazing soundtrack, some impressive graphics, and decent gameplay mechanics, the game is a lot of fun as a throwback to the eighties and traditional sidescrolling beat-‘em-ups. Unfortunately, it also suffers from some annoying enemies, hazards, and has a very prominent difficulty spike that is only exacerbated by the noticeable input lag and sluggish controls. As great as the game looks and sounds, this can be a real turn off as it leads to some cheap deaths and hits and needless frustration rather an a fully polished experience; yet, as challenging as the game can be, it’s also a lot of fun and very satisfying to playthrough so I’d say it’s well worth your time and probably even better with a friend in tow.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Double Dragon Neon? If so, what did you think to it and how do you think it compares to other Double Dragon games and beat-‘em-ups? Were you a fan of the game’s neon-drenched, eighties-inspired aesthetic and soundtrack? How did you find the game’s difficulty and input lag? Did you enjoy the game’s many references to other Double Dragon games, franchises, and pop culture? Did you ever beat the game in two-player mode? Would you like to see another Double Dragon game released in either this style or a more traditional aesthetic? What’s your favourite beat-‘em-up franchise? Whatever your thoughts on Double Dragon Neon, or Double Dragon and beat-‘em-ups in general, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Game Corner: Wario Land 3 (Nintendo 3DS)

04/02/202114/04/2025Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 2 May 2012
Originally Released: 21 March 2000
Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Also Available For: Game Boy Color

The Background:
After his debut in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (ibid, 1992) Mario’s dastardly doppelgänger, Wario, quickly usurped Nintendo’s portly plumber as the face of Mario’s handheld sub-series. After the critical and commercial success of Wario Land II (ibid, 1998), Wario’s adventures continued on the Game Boy Color, a long-awaited colour upgrade to Nintendo’s popular handheld console. Wario Land 3 continued the tradition of expanding upon its predecessors, featuring far more emphasis on backtracking, exploration, and experimentation and would be the last in the series to release before Nintendo released the technically-superior Game Boy Advance console. Still, Wario Land 3 was a much-lauded success upon release and was eventually brought to the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console some twelve years after its debut, which is the version I’ll be looking at today.

The Plot:
After Wario’s plane crash lands in a dense forest, he stumbles upon a mysterious cave and is sucked into a magical music box . An enigmatic hidden figure beseeches Wario to find five other music boxes to free him from his imprisonment and, excited at the prospect of finding more rare treasure, Wario dutifully sets out to satiate his lust for riches.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessors, Wario Land 3 is a sidescrolling action/platformer in which players take control of Wario, Mario’s mischievous and greedy lookalike. As in Wario Land II, Wario is functionally immortal; though he takes significant knockback from enemy attacks, he cannot ever be killed and faces no consequences for being attacked except being knocked from a platform or into another hazard. As a result, the player never needs to worry about replenishing Wario’s health or lives or being penalised for being attacked as long as they are patient enough to climb back up to where they were when they were knocked back. Wario begins the game noticeably less capable than in previous titles; he can still jump (shocking, I know!) and can barge into enemies with a shoulder charge but he can no longer pick up enemies and throw them…at least, not from the start. Instead, Wario must find power-ups in coloured treasure chests hidden throughout the game’s many levels to reacquire many of his usual skills, such as the butt stomp and the ability to pick up and throw enemies. Wario can, however, still roll into a ball when pressing down on a slope or coming off a zip-line to pass through narrow passageways.

*Wario needs to re-learn some of his patented and basic abilities from the last games.*

The main objective of the game is to visit each of the twenty-five levels found at each compass point on the overworld; each one contains four coloured keys and four chests of the same colour which house treasures, power-ups, and key items. Wario must collect each one to open up new areas of the overworld and progress further; this means that each level must be revisited multiple times with Wario’s new abilities and new areas opened up with the treasures and each compass point will only be fully accessible once all treasures have been collected. This makes the game much bigger and more confusing than even its predecessor, which featured branching story paths depending on the choices you made during gameplay; here, you constantly have to backtrack to old levels in order to open up new ones and, someti s, key items will affect multiple levels at once. Thankfully, Wario can return to the mysterious figure in the Temple at any point for a hint on which level to go to, though it’s up to the player to figure out what’s changed in that level or which of Wario’s new abilities needs to be used to progress. The game’s overworld is split between the four compass points (North, South, East, and West) and Wario can quickly travel to each one by pressing the “Select” button on the overworld. From here you can also check on which treasures you have acquired, reactivate key items to remind yourself of where to go, and, eventually, trigger the game’s day and night cycle (which, otherwise, automatically switches to one or the other every time you finish a level, with the time of day also affecting the levels in certain ways).

*You’ll need all the Coins you can find to beat the annoying golfing mini games.*

Within each level, you can also find a number of Coins, including eight large Musical Coins; unlike previous games, though, the amount of Coins you have doesn’t affect the game’s ending and Wario’s capacity is capped at 999 Coins. Instead, Wario uses Coins to play a number of hidden golf mini games found in each level, which is necessary to open previously blocked paths and find more keys and chests. The golf mini games help to break up the gameplay a bit but is needlessly frustrating when you first play it since you’re not really given any direction on what to do. Basically, by moving the screen to the right, you can see where Wario’s shot will land on the field; you need to press A and then quickly press it again when the slider reaches a power level high enough to avoid getting stuck in water, lava, or the rough grass and then quickly press it again when it hits the blue area of the slider to take your shot. You get four shots at hitting the Para-Goom and, if you fail to sink it in the goal, you’ll have to pay some more Coins to try again. When I first played this, I was frustrated by the finicky controls and vague directions but, once you play it a couple of times, it’s not so hard to get the timing down and the 3DS’s save state feature really helps speed the process up.

*Wario’s “Reactions” will allow him to find more treasure and reach new areas.*

As in the previous game, Wario can still change forms when hit with certain attacks; these will briefly alter Wario in strange and amusing ways to help him break through previously impassable blocks, reach higher areas, or pass through small spaces and figuring out how to use these different transformations (or “Reactions”, as the game calls them) is key to finding all the keys, chests, and Musical Coins. When in a level, you can also save your progress at any time, see which keys you currently hold, which chests you’ve opened, how many Musical Coins you’ve collected, and even return to the overworld map all with an appreciated ease. Compared to the last two Wario Land games, Wario Land 3 is much more difficult and time consuming; thanks to the abundance of backtracking and vague hints, it can be very difficult to know where you need to go and what you need to do. Thus, you are encouraged to experiment; if you see something blocking your path, try using all of Wario’s abilities as some will affect the obstacle or possibly even destroy it. When exploring a level for the first time, try to take note of your surroundings and out of reach areas as you may need to return later with different abilities to access these parts of the level, and be sure to visit the Temple if you ever forget the levels your key items have affected or opened up. For the most part, though, I found Wario Land 3 best played in short bursts of about an hour or so tackling each level in turn as they opened up or changed rather than trying to slog through it in extended sittings, which may have contributed to my more annoying experiences with the game as it never seemed to end.

Graphics and Sound:
Wario Land 3 was easily the best looking entry in the series at that point; thanks to being made exclusively for the Game Boy Color, the game is full of bright, vibrant colours that really pop out at you. While Wario is actually a little more subdued in his colouration, appearing almost monochrome, this actually helps him to stand out against the colourful backgrounds and, as you’d expect, he’s full of life and character, falling asleep if left idle for too long and scratching his butt when left halfway up a ladder. There is a lot of level variety on offer in Wario Land 3; each compass point of the map is home to at least six different levels and, rather than each compass point having a fixed theme, every level looks different and has different gimmicks contained within.

*Levels are more varied, detailed, and colourful than ever and change as you progress.*

You’ll explore standard platforming levels such as forests, deserts, volcanoes, and ice levels but also explore ruins, swamps, towns, castles, and caves. Each one has at least two different colour palettes thanks to the day/night cycle and, though they start off relatively small and restrictive, each one is quite large, with many different layers and areas to explore as you gain new abilities and affect the overworld. Wario Land 3 has a bit more emphasis on story this time around, with short cutscenes playing whenever Wario acquires a new item to show how it has affected the overworld map. When you find new power-ups, a short tutorial will play showing you how to use Wario’s new ability (which can be revisited at any time from the pause menu) and there are a few instances of dialogue, primarily from the hidden figure, to relay the game’s simple plot. As you’d expect from a Mario/Wario title, the soundtrack is suitably chirpy and catchy, though I can’t say that it really made much of a lasting impression on me.

Enemies and Bosses:
Since the game’s plot does not involve the Black Sugar Gang this time around, you’re faced with a whole slew of all-new enemies, many of which behave very similar to those from the last two games. Accordingly, you’ll come across spear-wielding Spearhead’s who will prick you with their sharp weapons, Para-Gooms who descend from the air and shield themselves with spiked umbrellas, puffer fish-like Haridamas which sprout spikes when they get close, and annoying birds that fly across the screen and stun you but can make for a boost to higher areas if you can time your jump correctly. You’ll also come up against a bunch of enemies that will change Wario’s form with their attacks or abilities; Appleby and Doughnuteers throw delicious apples and doughnuts your way, Fire Robota’s spout flames, Hammer-bots relentlessly try to squash you with their giant hammers, floating jellyfish try to sting you, and Zombies constantly spring out when it’s most inconvenient to hurl their heads at you. For the most part, these enemies are placed in or near areas where you’ll need the accompanying Reaction to progress further but, equally as often, they’re simply placed to be annoying so if you don’t need a specific transformation be sure to avoid them.

*Often, the direct approach is insufficient to defeat* Wario Land 3‘s bosses.

Wario has a tough battle ahead of him this time around as he must battle eleven different bosses in his quest for the five magical boxes; because of the nature of the game, though, it’s entirely possible to battle these bosses out of order depending on what abilities you have and key items you’ve found, which can mix up subsequent playthroughs of the game. With the exception of the final boss, each of Wario Land 3’s bosses requires three hits to defeat and, like in the last game, each one will expel you from the boss arena if you get hit or mess up, changes up their attack patterns as the fight progresses, and requires quite a bit of skill on your part to defeat. The Doll Boy, for example, sits atop a totem pole tossing hammers at you; you must avoid these and destroy his totem pole to bring him down to ground level then frantically avoid his hammer swings to jump on his head and finish him off with a shoulder barge. Similarly, Wormwould pops out of the ground to spit rocks at you that will send you tumbling off the platform if they hit you so you need to use your ground pound on his head before he gets the chance. Each boss is unique and requires different strategies to get around their attacks; Wolfenboss has to be knocked out of the air by ricocheting a Kuri at the right angle, for example, while Mudee is fought while you’re clinging to a net and requires you to time a ground pound onto its body while avoiding its spiked tail. Anonster, meanwhile, can only be brought down to ground level by throwing its own web balls up at it, which can be tricky because it’s hard to judge the angle of your throw.

*Wario’s final challenge is a gigantic, demonic clown that is actually capable of killing him.*

Some bosses are more unique and frustrating than others, though: Jamano plunges the arena into darkness, forcing you to quickly navigate around the small area hitting four skulls to bring the exorcising light and Wario needs to avoid Helio’s infectious stings and ground pound a pump to inflate and explode the boss. Easily the two most frustrating bosses, for me, though were Pesce and Shoot; Pesce, a weird rat/piranha hybrid, can only be defeated by poisoning it with mouldy cheese but it’s really tricky to time the dropping of the cheese so the damn thing actually eats it. Shoot is similar to Dunk from Wario Land II in that you must beat him at a ball-based game, in this case football. You need to avoid being squashed by Shoot but it’s not made clear exactly how you’re supposed to smash him into the goal; the easiest way I found was to lure him near to the goal (but not too near) and then barge him when he’s bouncing in the air as I could never get him into the goal when the goalie was stunned by a ground pound. After finding all five musical boxes, Wario returns to the hidden figure, who reveals himself to be a demonic clown entity and the game’s final boss. This is the only time in the game that you can get a game over as Wario will instantly be defeated if the clown grabs a hold of him. You need to jump over, or duck under, his hands and stun his fists with a ground pound and then jump and throw the fist into the clown’s face four times to win. Honestly, the most difficult part of this boss was getting the timing of my attacks and jumps right as his fists swing at you pretty fast and it’s easy to lose your grip on the stunned hand if you’re not fast enough.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As mentioned before, Wario can acquire upgrades for his abilities and relearn classic skills from various treasure boxes. This includes an upgrade to his shoulder attack and ground pound to break through tougher blocks, being able to charge up an enemy before throwing it to throw it higher and further, the ability to swim (and then swim through currents), smashing objects from below, and performing a high jump by pressing up and jump at the same time.

*Many of Wario’s Reactions return from* Wario Land II and function in the same way.

Wario also assumes a number of different forms upon being hit with certain attacks or encountering certain hazards. Many of these return from Wario Land II, such as Fat Wario (who destroy enemies by touching them and can smash through special blocks), Fire Wario (who, after running around with his butt on fire for a while, eventfully becomes engulfed in flames to break through special blocks), Flat Wario (who is small enough to squeeze through tiny gaps but extremely difficult to control, with the game forcing you to desperately try and float him through gaps in vertical areas), Zombie Wario (who passes through thin platforms when jumping on them), and Puffy Wario (who relentlessly float upwards until he hits a ceiling or block). You can also become Ice Skatin’ Wario when frozen (more of a hindrance than a help), Snowball and Ball o’ String Wario to become an unstoppable ball and break through special blocks, Bouncy Wario (helpful to reach high areas but difficult to control), Bubble Wario (which can let you pass through directional currents to reach goodies but is often just an annoying hazard), Invisible Wario to get past Seeing-eye Doors, and Vampire Wario. This last one is pretty cool as you become a Dracula-type figure and can turn into a vampire bat by pressing B and fly up to new areas but, since this latter mechanic is the only useful thing about this Reaction, I’m not sure why Wario doesn’t just become a bat by default.

Additional Features:
There are one hundred treasures to find in Wario Land 3; you’ll need all of Wario’s abilities and certain key items to find them all as some are not only hidden in previous levels but also in hidden levels on the overworld map. Thankfully, you don’t need to find them all to complete the game and you don’t get a different ending for having them all but collecting all one hundred does unlock a time attack mode. There are also, as mentioned, eight large Musical Coins to be found in each level; collecting all of these opens up a fourth golf mini game if you just can’t get enough of that particular gem. Of course, if you’re playing the 3DS version of the game, you can also make liberate, unapologetic use of the save state system to make the game a little easier on yourself.

The Summary:
Wario Land 3 really surprised me; I kind of expected the series to get a bit simpler as it progressed but, if anything, the Land sub-series just got bigger and more ambitious as it went on. This is easily the biggest of this sub-series both in terms of graphics and its scope which is great for a classic handheld title and I can’t fault the game for being packed full of content but…man, is this a long, convoluted game. Wario Land 3 really kicked my ass as I went into it expecting quick, easy, pick-up-and-play gameplay and was, instead, forced to constantly backtrack and explore all over the game’s vast overworld and numerous levels. This was great for expanding the depth and range of the sub-series and makes for an addictive and engaging handheld experience; I tried to limit my play time to short bursts of a few hours or so but often found myself getting sucked into the game as I tried to track down one more treasure chest or unlock one more level for my next session.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Wario Land 3 before? How did you find it compared to the other Wario Land videogames? Were you a fan of how big the game was and its emphasis on backtracking and exploration or did you find it maybe to be a bit too ambitious for its own good? What are your thoughts on Wario as a character and his wacky sub-series? Would you like to see more of him and his unique gameplay mechanics or do you think he’s better suited as a side character relegated to mini games? Whatever thoughts you have on Wario and Wario Land 3, feel free to drop a comment below.

Game Corner & Knuckles: Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Xbox One)

02/02/202115/09/2024Dr. K42 Comments

Following a highly anticipated release, bolstered by an extravagant marketing and release schedule, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992) not only improved on every aspect of its influential predecessor but also went on to become the second best-selling SEGA Mega Drive game of all time. Expectations were high for the equally-anticipated third entry, a game that ended up being so big that SEGA made the decision to split it into two, birthing perhaps the greatest 2D Sonic adventure in the process.

Released: 10 June 2009 / 9 September 2009
Originally Released: 2 February 1994 / 18 October 1994
Developer: Sonic Team
Original Developer: SEGA Technical Institute
Also Available For: Gamecube, Mega Drive, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Portable, SEGA Saturn, Xbox, Xbox 360

The Background:
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a blockbuster hit for SEGA; thanks to the title selling over 400,000 units in its first week alone (and over six million during the Mega Drive’s lifespan), SEGA was able to catch up to Nintendo in the “Console Wars” of the mid-nineties, raising their stake in the home console market by 40%. Anticipation was high for the release of the third Sonic game, which saw development split between two teams: a Japanese team and an American team, with Yuji Naka, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Roger Hector at the heart of the game’s development. Sonic 3 introduced a new antagonist character for our heroes; numerous designs were submitted before the team settled on Takashi Yuda’s concept of a super strong red echidna eventually dubbed “Knuckles”. However, thanks to a combination of a strict deadline to release in time for a major McDonald’s marketing campaign, and Naka’s wish for the game to vastly expand upon the gameplay, mechanics, and lore of the previous two games, Sonic 3 proved to be too big for a single 34-megabite cartridge so the decision was made to split the game in two to hit their projected release date. While this proved to be an expensive decision for us gamers, both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles became two of the Mega Drive’s best-selling titles, with both games selling over one million copies in the United States. Both games received critical acclaim praising both the graphics and Sonic & Knuckles’ innovative “Lock-On” technology. Sadly though, the game (particularly Sonic 3) has run into some legal troubles over the years, mainly regarding Sonic 3’s soundtrack, which meant not only was a combination cartridge of the two games cancelled but a remaster for mobile devices was shot down and Sonic 3 (and, consequently, Sonic 3 & Knuckles) is frequently missing from modern-day compilations.

The Plot:
Doctor Eggman’s Death Egg space station has crash-landed on the mythical floating Angel Island, home to the Master Emerald and Knuckles, the sole surviving member of the legendary echidna race. Eggman has tricked the gullible and hot-tempered Knuckles into thinking Sonic and Miles “Tails” Prower wish to steal the Master Emerald, making recovering the seven Chaos Emeralds and putting a stop to Eggman’s diabolical schemes twice as hard for our dynamic duo!

Gameplay:
As you might expect, both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are 2D, sidescrolling action/platformers in which you travel across a total of twelve stages (known as “Zones”): six in Sonic 3 and six more in Sonic & Knuckles. Just like in Sonic 2, the majority of the game’s Zones are split into two “Acts” but, in a twist, you’ll now have to battle a boss at the end of each Act (with the second Act typically featuring a showdown against Eggman in one of his deadly contraptions). Just as Sonic 2 took everything about its predecessor and improved upon it considerably, so too does Sonic 3 & Knuckles expand upon the options available to you; Zones are now bigger than ever, featuring numerous different paths and mechanics all geared towards having you blast through faster than ever before. Even better, the games are designed with each character’s specific abilities in mind; each character can run, jump, roll into a ball, and blast away in a Spin Dash but they all have different unique abilities as well, meaning that some paths are only available to Knuckles, for example, or some areas can only be reached using Tails’ unique (if limited) flying and swimming mechanics.

*Each character has their own abilities* *to help them take different paths in Zones.*

Sonic 3 & Knuckles still keeps its controls simple, though, and each of these different abilities is easily activated simply by pressing a button twice; press A twice as Sonic and you’ll be surrounded by his “Insta-Shield” (a brief flash of lightning that can protect Sonic from projectiles and extend the reach of his spin attack to cause damage). Press A twice as Tails and you’ll be able to fly or swim by then rapidly tapping the same button; Tails can even carry Sonic up to new areas but he does get tired rather quickly so, while this is useful for skipping large portions of the game’s Zones, it does have its drawbacks. Knuckles, meanwhile, is probably the most versatile character; he can glide, climb up walls, and bash through certain walls to reach entirely new areas (and bosses) that are unique to him. He is, however, the game’s “hard mode” as he is noticably slower than his two counterparts and his jump is much shorter. As in Sonic 2, the game gives you the option of selecting how to play, this time from its innovative and unique save state menu; while you’re limited to choosing between either Sonic or Knuckles in Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3 (and Sonic 3 & Knuckles) allows you to pick between Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or Sonic and Tails (who, thankfully, is far more useful this time around thanks to his expanded moveset and the game’s new Special Stages). As always, though, you can collect Golden Rings to protect you from harm, earning extra lives for every one hundred and activating Starposts to create a checkpoint and enter the new Bonus Stages if you’re holding a certain number of Rings.

*Every Zone is packed with gimmicks but none were more infamous than Carnival Night’s barrel!*

Speed is a far greater aspect of Sonic 3 & Knuckles; while the first game heavily promoted how fast and powerful it was, it really wasn’t until Sonic 3 & Knuckles that Sonic Team actually delivered on that promise. Zones are massive, filled with slopes, loops, springs, and all kinds of nifty, unique new mechanics to rocket you forwards. You’ll jump from crumbling (or disappearing) platforms, swing from vines, rush down waterways, bash through walls, teleport across the Zone, and be transported through the air through a number of fast-paced and exciting new mechanics. Each Zone has a unique gimmick to it that is implemented in a far more impressive and engaging manner: Angel Island Zone catches fire halfway through, Marble Garden Zone sees you using pulleys and spinning tops to navigate vertically and desperately trying to outrun the collapsing environment, Sandopolis Zone features a variety of new sand-based mechanics before having you frantically search out for light switches to scare off ghosts, and Sky Sanctuary Zone has you teleporting around, jumping from crumbling platforms, and bouncing from fluffy clouds. Every Zone is densely packed with features and innovative gimmicks, far more than any previous Sonic title, and perhaps none so infamous as Carnival Night Zone’s notorious barrel. I won’t be arrogant enough to say that this barrel wasn’t an obstacle for me back in the day but I don’t have nearly as many bad memories of it as some do; through trial and error, I think I slipped past it easily enough but the solution is simplicity in itself: simply stand still and press up and down alternatively until it lowers enough for you to continue on.

*Zones are huge, with multiple paths and areas exclusive to certain characters.*

Although the games do have a far greater emphasis on speed, there are still a few slower sections and small puzzles for you figure out; generally, these are as simple as pressing a switch to lower water, reverse gravity, or open doors but, other times, you’ll be blocked off by unbreakable walls or tossed to new areas by Knuckles. There’s always another way around in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, though, no matter who you’re playing as or what you’re up against; balloons allow you to bounce yourself to higher areas in Carnival Night Zone, for example, and you can cause sand to fill the pyramid tomb of Sandopolis Zone Act 2 to progress further (though be careful as you’re just as likely to get crushed if you dawdle). Additionally, you have some returning concerns to be aware of, such as spikes, bottomless pits, and drowning if you linger underwater too long without a shield or grabbing an air bubble. Gameplay is fast and full of variety thanks to the dense nature of the Zones and their many gimmicks but there are a few aspects from Sonic 2 that don’t make the cut, unfortunately; Sonic’s biplane, the Tornado, only shows up in cutscenes, for example. However, things do get mixed up considerably when you reach Lava Reef Zone; not only is this Zone a mixture of lava-based hazards and a crystal-infested cave, it also wildly differs depending on which character you play as. Sonic and Tails will have to play through two Acts, culminating in the reactivation of the Death Egg and a tense battle against Eggman, before proceeding on to the long-awaited Hidden Palace Zone to go head-to-dread against Knuckles. Play as Knuckles, though, and you’ll face no boss in Lava Reef and Hidden Palace is little more of a transitional Zone to take you to Sky Sanctuary Zone, where Knuckles’ game culminates in a final showdown with Mecha Sonic.

*There are some bugs and glitches that can see characters reach areas they shouldn’t.*

Indeed, the narrative of Sonic 3 & Knuckles differs depending on which game you play; if you play the combined game, the story is far more cohesive, tracking Sonic and Tails across Angel Island, battling Eggman, dealing with (and eventually allying with) Knuckles, and finally returning Angel Island to the sky. Knuckles’ story, though, takes place after the end of the game no matter which version you play; this means his Zones are presented slightly differently, with the background changing to show the island is in the sky, and he faces a vengeful Eggrobo and the aforementioned Mecha Sonic rather than Dr. Eggman. This, in addition to the myriad of different paths Knuckles’ abilities afford him, means that playing as Knuckles offers a slightly different experience in a variety of ways since you won’t face the same obstacles as Sonic and Tails (or you will, but in different ways). Obviously, no game is perfect and Sonic 3 & Knuckles is no exception; occasionally, you’ll go so fast that you’ll out-run the camera, potentially falling victim to one of Eggman’s “secret traps” (or, more accurately, running into a kill zone or causing the game to soft-lock). You can also use glitches and manipulate the game to have characters enter areas they normally can’t but, personally, I never really ran into anything like this in a normal playthrough. Thanks to Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles’ unique save feature, you were able to have multiple save states back in the day, which made completing the game and collecting the Chaos Emeralds easier than ever as you could just jump into any Zone whenever you liked. This feature was, unfortunately, missing in Sonic & Knuckles, which did make that game a bit more difficult back in the day as you would have to complete it in one sitting, but, while the Xbox Live version of the game doesn’t recreate the expansive save state features of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, you do get three save slots for each game to, at least, reduce Sonic & Knuckles’ difficulty a bit.

Graphics and Sound:
For my money, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is not only the best 2D Sonic game of its time but also the best looking and sounding; Zones are absolutely huge and full of life and little elements to really make them stand out. No two Acts of any Zone are the same as the environment will change (sometimes subtly, sometimes explicitly) between Acts: Angel Island Zone bursts into flame, Mushroom Hill Zone changes seasons, Ice Cap Zone switches from a mountain top to a frozen sea, the Death Egg looms in the background of Launch Base Zone Act 1, takes off in Act 2, and sits ominously in Lava Reef Zone Act 2 (notably it is missing when playing as Knuckles since his story takes place after Sonic and Tails’s), and Death Egg Zone has been ungraded from a mere elaborate corridor to a twisting, mechanical nightmare of futuristic paths and technology and gravity-shifting mechanics.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles‘ level variety is second to none!

No doubt about it, Sonic 3 & Knuckles features some of my favourite Zones ever; from the aforementioned Marble Garden Zone to Ice Cap Zone, with its unique and breathtaking snowboarding sequence, to the bouncy goodness of Mushroom Hill and the exciting dread of Lava Reef Zone. Even Zones that are more annoying, like Hydrocity Zone, are fun to play through since they look great, are fast-paced, and are filled with interesting gimmicks to keep you moving forward. The game expands and improves upon numerous mechanics from its predecessors, too; while Wing Fortress Zone was decent enough in Sonic 2, Flying Battery Zone takes everything that worked in that Zone and expands upon it, making it feel much more alive and engaging. While Carnival Night Zone isn’t quite as iconic as Casino Night Zone, I actually prefer it for its music, presentation, changing landscape, and better implementation of gimmicks. It’s not like the “casino” theme was completely abandoned either as it shows up, merged expertly with the rotating Special Stage mechanic of the first game, in one of the game’s two all-new Bonus Stages.

*Cutscenes and Act/Zone transitions* *tell the game’s story and help connect its world.*

Additionally, Sonic 3 & Knuckles has, hands down, my favourite Special Stage design ever. Gone are the annoying, rotating mazes and cumbersome half-pipes of its predecessors, replaced with an eye-catching spherical design that has you collecting Blue Spheres, avoiding Red Spheres, and, despite some noticeable slowdown and the Stages increasing in speed and difficulty the more you play, these Stages are, by far, the easiest of the classic 2D Sonic titles, which only increases their appeal to me. Probably the best thing about Sonic 3 & Knuckles is its heavy inclusion of cutscenes, all of which perfectly convey the game’s simple (but far more detailed) story through the simple use of pantomime and music. The game opens immediately after the ending of Sonic 2, with Super Sonic flying alongside the Tornado and crashing head-first into Knuckles, who swipes the Chaos Emeralds and runs off with a chuckle. Knuckles reappears at numerous points throughout Sonic and Tails’ story to cause them havoc, activating switches and traps to cause them to fall or be blasted into the next Zone. Even when he’s not present, there is usually a means for the characters to progress to the next Zone, which really makes it feel as though the games (and the island) are linked together in a cohesive way. Not only that but, when you clear Act 1, the next Act immediately loads from that spot without cutting away, giving a sense of the scale of the game’s Zones.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles has probably the best soundtrack of the classic 2D titles.

Characters and sprites are more detailed than ever; Sonic is easily the most noticeably different, now far pudgier and sporting adorably oversized hands and feet, but each has their own idle animation to encourage you to get back to the game and the game’s Badniks and bosses are some of the most impressive and detailed yet, with each taking full advantage of their unique environment. And then there’s the soundtrack; originally composed by famed pop star Michael Jackson, the soundtrack was hastily reworked after SEGA cut their ties to Jackson but similarities between the games tracks and Jackson songs can still be identified. Regardless, both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles have fantastic soundtracks, full of energy and unique themes not only for the Zones and bosses but also for Knuckles. Sadly, Sonic 3 & Knuckles utilises Sonic & Knuckles’ soundtrack rather than Sonic 3’s (which is superior, in my opinion), and the game’s music is often altered when it is ported for other systems, but that doesn’t stop it from being easily the best and most memorable of all the classic 2D Sonic games.

Enemies and Bosses:
As always, you’ll have to contend with Eggman’s Badniks; although still quite cute to look at, these Badniks look more dangerous than ever but are, in actual fact, no more aggressive or dangerous than in previous games. Their placement is much improved over Sonic 2 and their level of difficulty both escalates and drops as you progress due to the nature of Sonic 3 & Knuckles being two games spliced together.

*Badniks and hazards are more deadly than ever, often using the environment against you.*

This means that you’ll be merrily bouncing off of Rhinobots in Angel Island Zone, dodging Turbo Spiker’s rocket-powered spike in Hydrocity Zone, and timing your attacks to bust open Pointdexter when playing through Sonic 3 and then back to smashing open relatively harmless enemies like Butterdroid and Madmole once you land in Mushroom Hill Zone before you frantically try to smash apart Toxomister before its Ring-draining cloud chokes you to death. As if that isn’t enough, many Badniks and hazards use your enivonment against you; Cluckoid blows a wind to keep you back (often trapping you in a nearby sticky vine in the process), hazards can freeze you into a block of ice, Rock’n can only be damage with a Spin Dash attack, and Chainspikes will try to impale you on their razor sharp chains. Additionally, you’ll also encounter ghosts in Sandopolis Zone that grow increasingly aggressive as the lights dim darker and can only be dissipated by turning the lights up full. Helpfully, though, the game’s many shields (and Sonic’s Insta-Shield) can not only repel enemy projectiles but you’ll also be able to use Spiker’s spikes as a spring to bounce away from danger.

*To mix things up a bit, you’ll have to face a mini boss at the end of every first Act.*

In a change of pace from the previous two games, you’ll also have to battle a mini boss at the end of every first Act before you can reach the goal post and clear the Act. These range from a hovering, flame-spewing tank to a tree-chopping robot and a sentient animal capsule. Perhaps having learned something from the unique bosses of Sonic the Hedgehog CD (SEGA, 1993), these mini bosses (and the game’s main bosses) require a little more thought that just ramming head-first into them; Hydrocity Zone’s mini boss, for example, rockets around the arena and sucks you up in a whirlpool and can only be damaged when its rockets stop spinning, and Launch Base Zone has you take on two mini bosses at once, each one attacking you (and protecting itself) with a mace-like chain that only speeds up with its partner is destroyed.

*Mini bosses generally require a bit more strategy than just “jump and attack”.*

Similarly, if you try to blindly attack Sandopolis Zone’s golem, you’ll just get hurt, so you need to attack its head and force it into quicksand to dispose of it, and you’ll find the only way to destroy Flying Battery Zone’s mini boss is to trick it into attacking itself. Probably the game’s most troublesome mini boss (at least, for me) is the mechanical Cyclops you battle in Death Egg Zone; essentially an upgraded version of the Wing Fortress Zone boss, this mini boss has you ramming a giant eye, watching out for explosive spikes, and avoiding spinning spiked platforms while it tries to fry you with is deadly laser.

*After he eludes you in Launch Base Zone, you finally confront Knuckles in Hidden Palace Zone.*

When playing as Sonic and Tails, you’ll also have to contend with Knuckles; however, Knuckles only appears in cutscenes to cause you grief and you won’t actually get to go blow-for-blow against him until you reach Hidden Palace Zone. Here, Knuckles with glide, Spin Dash, and jump at you much like the battle against Mecha Sonic from Sonic 2. Simply jump on Knuckles’ head or smack him out of the air a few times and he’ll soon be beaten; afterwards, he is enraged to find Eggman has stolen his coveted Master Emerald and, though, wounded, assists you in reaching Sky Sanctuary Zone. Finally, you have the prerequisite showdowns with Dr. Eggman himself; again, though, Knuckles never actually battles Dr. Eggman; barring glitches, Knuckles will, instead, battle against an Eggrobo but, with a couple of exceptions, battles the same bosses as Sonic and Tails. Eggman isn’t messing around this time; rather than try to smack you with a wrecking ball or run you over in the first battle, Eggman will hide behind a waterfall in Angel Island Zone, blasting at you with flame cannons and generally hovering over a bottomless pit.

*The direct approach rarely works in this game as Eggman isn’t playing around this time.*

After that, you’ll have to mix up your attack strategies a bit, using whirlpools and explosions in the water to ram into Eggman’s craft in Hydrocity, flying around the screen (or dodging spiked chains) to ram into Eggman’s drill machine in Marble Garden Zone, trying not to get sucked into an electrical field in Carnival Night Zone, watching out for blasts of chilled air in Ice Cap Zone, and dodging massive weighted balls in Launch Base Zone. Eggman’s flame machine returns in Mushroom Hill Zone, this time in a chase boss battle that sees you avoiding spiked hazards and jet blasts in what was, probably, the inspiration for the boss battles of Sonic Advance 2 (Dimps/Sonic Team, 2002). Dr. Eggman’s contraptions are even more formidable as you play through Sonic & Knuckles: he swings around at you in Flying Battery Zone, trying to fry and skewer you at the same time; hides behind a massive laser-spouting golem in Sandopolis Zone; and is completely protected from your standard attacks in my favourite regular boss battle of the base game, the Lava Reef Zone boss. Here, you have to jump from platform to platform, avoiding spiked bombs and trying not to fall into lava as Eggman tries to tip you towards him. The Flame Shield really helps in this battle as it allows you to stand on the lava and just hop over the bombs until they send Eggman packing.

*Eggman hops into his deadliest Death Egg Robot yet for the penultimate battle!*

When playing Sonic 3, you’ll face something of a gauntlet in Act 2 as you’ll have to battle Eggman in Launch Base Zone, knock the smirk of Knuckles’ face in a cutscene, before facing Eggman in two separate contraptions on the outskirts of the Death Egg. The first machine is pretty simple (dodge his lasers and ram him when the little electric ball isn’t blocking your attack) but the second is one of my favourite boss battles of 2D Sonic (with a kick-ass, ominous track to boot). This sees Eggman jump into his “Big Arm” Egg-O-Matic and fly across the screen trying to land on you, grab you, and pound the Rings (or life) out of you. He also flies along the bottom of the screen trying to skewer you with his spikes and the only way to damage him is with a well-timed jump to his cockpit but, once you do, the Death Egg will crash again (this time in the Lava Reef Zone’s volcano) and you can move on to the Sonic & Knuckles portion of the game. Note that when Knuckles faces this boss, it’s in the actual Launch Base Zone as, in his story, the Death Egg is completely absent from the Zone since it’s already been destroyed. When playing as Sonic and Tails, you’ll travel to the Death Egg Zone and battle Eggman in a far bigger, more intimidating and dangerous version of his Death Egg Robot mech. This is, essentially, a three-stage boss battle; first, you have to avoid being squashed by its fingers, destroying them one (or two, if you time your jumps right) at a time. Once its fingers are destroyed, it chases you from the left side of the screen, destroying the platform you’re on and trying to fry you with flames from its nostrils. You’ll have to jump over these flames and smack it in the nose to expose its Master Emerald power core (and weak spot); however, Eggman also charges a screen-filling laser blast from the Master Emerald that you’ll have to watch out for and you’re constantly at risk of falling or slipping to your death.

*Although Sonic and Tails battle him three times, it’s up to Knuckles to put down Mecha Sonic.*

Once you’ve landed the final hit, be sure to angle your jump back to the platform; now, you have to chase after Eggman as he flees with the Master Emerald, ramming him as you go until he is defeated while desperately trying to not bounce or fall as the platform crumbles behind you. If you’re playing as Knuckles, though, you won’t get to experience this battle or the game’s final Zone; instead, you face Mecha Sonic in Sky Sanctuary Zone. Mecha Sonic acts as Sonic and Tails’s mini boss in Sky Sanctuary Zone, appearing three times; in the first, he’s in Eggman’s wrecking ball machine from the first game, then he jumps into the Metropolis Zone bubble machine from Sonic 2, before essentially recreating the battle against his namesake from Sonic 2. Knuckles, though, has to face a powered-up Mecha Sonic, who absorbs power from the Master Emerald to turn into Super Metal Sonic; faster, invulnerable, and blasting both large energy bolts and weird ring-things at you, Super Mecha Sonic can only be damaged when he reverts to his base form, which gives you a small (very small) window to ram him once (maybe twice) before he powers back up.

*Grab all of the game’s Emeralds to pursue Eggman through the atmosphere as Super/Hyper Sonic!*

Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds in Sonic & Knuckles (or all seven plus the seven Super Emeralds in Sonic 3 & Knuckles), and you’ll get access to the game’s true final Zone, the Doomsday Zone. Here, Super/Hyper Sonic must fly through the asteroid-littered atmosphere in pursuit of Eggman, who fires missiles and bullets at you, all while racing against the clock as your Rings are continuously drained in these forms. Luckily, Rings are scattered throughout the atmosphere and you can dash ahead by pressing A but it can be very tricky to manoeuvre as not only are asteroids blocking your path, Eggman’s bullets and missiles can send you flying back a ways and Eggman can only initially be damaged by causing his homing missiles to crash into his cockpit. Once you’ve done this enough times, he’ll escape in his Death Egg Robo mech and be finally vulnerable to your head-on attacks but, again, you have to be careful to not let asteroids and projectiles slow you down and be sure to grab any Rings you see or else you’ll fall to your death in seconds.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As is the tradition in Sonic titles, numerous computer monitors are scattered throughout the game’s Zones. Smashing these monitors will award you with such rewards as ten extra Rings, an extra life, a speed up, or an invincibility but don’t go blindly rushing in to break every monitor you see as there are special new Eggman monitors which, when broken, will damage you.

*While all the characters can grab the elemental shields, only Sonic can utilise their full potential.*

Sonic 3 & Knuckles mixes things up with the inclusion of three elemental shields; the Water Shield (which keep you from drowning), the Flame Shield (which protects you from flames and lava), and the Lightning Shield (which attracts Rings to you and protects you from electrical hazards). In an interesting piece of realism, the latter two shields will be lost if you jump into water and, while all three characters can acquire these shields, only Sonic can get the most out of them. Grabbing each one as Sonic replaces his Insta-Shield with a new ability (the bounce, flame burst, and double-jump, respectively) which more than makes up for his inability to fly, climb, or swim.

Additional Features:
While both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles come with a handful of Achievements to earn, you sadly don’t get to earn any additional Achievements for playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Still, these Achievements are pretty standard fare for the Xbox Sonic ports, featuring such requirements as finishing the game, reaching certain Zones, collecting one (and all) of the Chaos Emeralds, or collecting a certain number of Rings. Thankfully, there are no timed Achievements this time so you don’t have to worry about finishing the game in under an hour or beating certain Zones in a certain time, but this does make getting all of each game’s Achievements incredibly easy As is the tradition, each character can access the game’s Special Stages to try and earn one of the Chaos Emeralds.

*Every character gets a flashy Chaos power-up this time around.*

You may be tempted to leap into the sparkling halo found when you pass a Starpost with certain Rings but this simply brings you to one of three Bonus stages (where you can earn extra Rings, lives, shields, continues, and bump up your score); instead, hidden throughout the game’s Zones are a number of Giant Rings. Once you find one of these Rings and jump into it, you’ll have to collect every single Blue Sphere to earn a Chaos Emerald. These Blue Sphere Special Stages speed up the longer you’re inside them to make things more difficult and increase in difficulty as you progress, throwing more maze-like constructions in your way and peppering your path with instant-fail Red Spheres. Still, there’s no time limit to worry about and Tails doesn’t cause you any trouble like he did in Sonic 2; plus, there’s only a few Special Stages where a wrong move can cause you hassle and, thanks to the game’s save state feature (in all versions of the games), you can easily return to one of the earlier Zones and retry for a Chaos Emerald as often as you need. Because of this, Special Stages are only really difficult when playing the base Sonic & Knuckles as Sonic since there was no save feature in the original version and, even now, it’s harder to find the elusive Giant Rings with Sonic’s more grounded moveset. Once you collect all seven Chaos Emeralds, both Sonic and Knuckles can transform into Super Sonic or Super Knuckles after collecting fifty Rings and jumping. This will make them invincible and super fast but will drain their Rings over time (and, of course, they can still drown, be crushed, or fall to their deaths). Once you clear Launch Base Zone, you’ll be stripped of your Chaos Emeralds and will have to power them up into Super Emeralds by clearing seven more Special Stages. This allows Sonic and Knuckles to become Hyper Sonic and Hyper Knuckles and allows Tails to become Super Tails. In these forms, characters are even faster and have additional abilities (Hyper Sonic also glows like a rainbow and can dash ahead, Hyper Knuckles can shake the screen to destroy Badniks by gliding into walls, and Super Tails is surrounded by similarly-powered-up Flickies that home in on enemies and bosses to deal additional damage).

*Compete in the game’s somewhat-improved multiplayer mode or access addition features with the”Lock-On” feature.*

Sonic 3 also comes with a multiplayer component that allows a second player to play as Tails alongside Sonic, as in Sonic 2, or two players to go head-to-head as Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles in the game’s split screen mode. While this is nowhere near as awful as Sonic 2’s thanks to the screen not being stretched to ugly proportions, it is very zoomed out and Knuckles is missing his moveset, though you are able to play through five unique Zones in three different match types (Grand Prix, Match Race, and Time Attack). Sadly, though, this mode (and a playable Tails) is absent from Sonic & Knuckles. As mentioned before, the Xbox Live version of these games doesn’t allow for the original save feature but it does come with three save states for each game and access to online leaderboards. Owning both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles not only allows you to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles but also gives you access to the “Blue Sphere” mini game to take on a near-infinite number of the game’s Special Stages and, best of all, if you also purchase Sonic 2, you’ll be able to play as Knuckles in that game too.

The Summary:
I love Sonic 2, don’t get me wrong, but Sonic 3 is worlds better in every single way and Sonic 3 & Knuckles is just about as perfect a 2D Sonic game as you can get. Certainly, for me, this combined title is the quintessential 2D Sonic title, with only Sonic Mania Plus (PagodaWest Games/Headcannon, 2018) coming close to matching the scope and entertainment offered by Sonic 3 & Knuckles. With massive Zones, loads of gimmicks and tweaks that pretty much perfected Sonic’s gameplay, a fantastic soundtrack, some of the most detailed and animated graphics of the 16-bit era, and a simple but wonderfully well told story, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the complete package for any self-respecting Sonic fan. Blisteringly fast, with loads of replay value and additional features to keep you coming back for more, the only thing keeping Sonic 3 & Knuckles from being infallible is SEGA’s inability to release a proper remaster of the title for a new generation of players.

My Rating:

Fantastic

How do you feel about Sonic 3 & Knuckles? Which of the two games did you prefer? What did you think about Sonic & Knuckles’ “Lock-On” technology? Where do you rank the games against Sonic’s other 2D titles? Perhaps you prefer a different 2D Sonic game; if so, which is it and why? How did you feel about Knuckles upon his debut, the new Super forms introduced in this game, and would you have liked to have played as Sonic and Knuckles or Tails and Knuckles? Would you like to see a remaster of the title? How are you celebrating the anniversary of Sonic 3’s release today? Whatever your thoughts, please feel free to share them and your memories of Sonic 3 & Knuckles below.

Game Corner: Call of Duty: Black Ops (Xbox 360)

27/01/202125/11/2022Dr. KLeave a comment

Released: 2010
Developer: Treyarch
Also Available For: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 3

The Background:
It’s the final week of “CoD Month” here on my site. So far, I’ve played all three titles in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games, 2016), Call of Duty 3 (Treyarch, 2006), and Call of Duty: World at War (ibid, 2008) and I’ve been less than impressed with what I’ve seen so far. For the longest time, I’ve never been much of a fan of the Call of Duty titles (Various, 2003 to present), mainly because I don’t really get on with first-person shooters (FPS) at the best of times. The perspective can be difficult to judge, enemies shoot at you from nowhere, and I just find them (especially military shooters) quite generic and uniform and, so far, the Call of Duty games I’ve played haven’t done much to change my views. World at War was probably the one I enjoyed the most and, it turned out, spawned a spin-off series for the Call of Duty franchise that continued with this title. Black Ops was another title that happened to come with the Xbox 360 I bought a while back and I’ve heard a lot of positive things about this title, especially, among all the Call of Duty games. So, one last time, I sat down to plough through one more Call of Duty game simply for the Achievements and to see if my personal bias could be swayed.

The Plot:
Sixteen years after the events of World at War, the United States and the Soviet Union are locked in a “Cold War” that moved warfare away from the trenches and towards more clandestine operations. Black Ops revolves around the discovery of “Nova-6”, a deadly chemical weapon that is in the hands of several Russian sleeper agents placed across the globe, and the race against time to locate, isolate, and destroy it before it can kill millions.

Gameplay:
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter that sees you in the role of SAD/SOG operative Captain Alex Mason; unlike the other Call of Duty games I’ve played so far, you primarily control Mason throughout the game’s campaign but, at various times, you’ll also play as CIA paramilitary operations officer Jason Hudson. Also in a change from the previous Call of Duty titles I’ve played, Black Ops’ protagonists are actually vocal, talking during gameplay and in cutscenes, which is a nice change of pace.

CODBLOPSControls — Call of Duty‘s control scheme was pretty standard by this point.

When it comes to the controls, you know the story by this point and nothing is really different here: you reload with X, jump with A (still as useless as ever unless you’re vaulting over walls), switch weapons with Y, and sprint for a bit by holding in the left analogue stick. Grenades and other explosives are tossed with the Left and Right Buttons, you aim and shoot with the Left and Right Triggers, respectively, and can shoot wildly from the hop or try to be a bit more accurate but pulling on the Left Trigger to aim down your sights. Pressing B allows you to assume one of three stances: standing, crouching, or prone, each of which alters your aim and ability to be stealthy or open to enemy fire.

CODBLOPSHealth — *There’s no regenerating your haz-mat suit so stay out of gunfire!*

Health still automatically replenishes when you avoid enemy fire, and you still get a generous amount of checkpoints to help you reload when you’re inevitably blown up by a random grenade but Black Ops mixes things up a bit by having a few missions where your health “bar” doesn’t really mean shit: the first is when you pilot vehicles (such as the Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter and an attack boat) and the vehicle’s damage doesn’t auto-repair and the second is when you (as Hudson) must walk through a cloud of Nova-6 in a haz-mat suit. As you take damage, the suit cracks and doesn’t auto-heal so you’re at risk of being exposed to the deadly nerve agent if you linger too long or rely on the traditional auto-heal mechanics, which is actually a nice touch and harkens back to FPS games of old where auto-healing wasn’t a thing.

CODBLOPSMason — *Mason’s plight is a central part of the game’s narrative.*

A helpful mini map is located at the top left of your heads-up display (HUD); this shows your location, the location of your allies, enemies, and the direction of your objective. Maybe I’m just used to them by this point but I actually found this mini map quite useful as it actually gives you a far better idea of the layout of your current area and where you need to go. As always, the game isn’t all just mindless shooting; in fact, story plays a major role in Black Ops. Having a vocal protagonist really helps with this and Mason is right in the middle of the Russian’s plot to gas their Capitalist enemies as he was captured and brainwashed by the Soviets; the narrative is framed by several cutscenes wherein Mason is interrogated by US personnel regarding his actions and the action frequently cuts away to more of these scenes. Sadly, these cutscenes can’t always be skipped; sometimes, you’re able to skip them by holding the A button but you’ll have to sit through a fair few which is annoying on repeated playthroughs.

CODBLOPSVehicles — Black Ops *also sees you piloting helicopters and driving attack boats.*

Also breaking up the action are a variety of other gameplay sections; there’s the vehicle-based ones I mentioned above which are basically similar to the tank- and helicopter-based missions of previous games but actually much more enjoyable. When controlling the Hind, you both pilot the craft and shoot with a machine gun and missiles; while it’s quite difficult to manoeuvre and get a good bead on targets (especially other helicopters), it’s still quite fun to be up in the air and have a greater field of view. The boat mission is pretty much exactly the same as a tank-based mission from World at War except you’re on a boat, in the water, and it’s night-time in the jungle; the boat is still a bit slippery and awkward to control but it’s fun just wrecking shit up with its armaments.

CODBLOPSInfiltrate — *Guide your ground team from the air and then infiltrate with stealth.*

One mission also sees you inside of an SR-71A aircraft; from here, you’ll use a thermal radar to direct your ground forces and then switch down to them to clear out the opposition. Once the mission switches to the ground proper, you’ll have to rappel down to a facility and utilise the same stealth tactics seen in the previous games to progress further. Stealth also plays a big part in another mission where you must first avoid an overhead helicopter, silently dispatch of two guards, and then infiltrate a Soviet missile based while wearing their uniforms. As dark and grave as World at War was, Black Ops is even more so. The game opens with Mason escaping from a desolate Soviet prison where he reconnects with Viktor Reznov from the previous game; Reznov’s edict is literally burned into Mason’s mind as he finds himself compelled to assassinate a number of Axis scientists throughout the game’s narrative. Oh, and did I mention that you end up going to Vietnam? Well…you do. Similar to how the Japanese elements made the last game more brutal and affecting, seeing the Viet-Cong charge blindly into gunfire and try to slice your throat out is legitimately jarring, almost as much as them capturing Mason and his comrades and forcing them to play Russian Roulette!

Graphics and Sound:
Building upon the level of detail seen in World at War, Black Ops is probably the darkest, grittiest, and most detailed of the series thus far (at least, of the ones that I’ve played). Character models continue to be the weakest aspect but it’s easily forgiven when you realise how detailed and elaborate many of the game’s locations are: the Vorkuta Gulag isn’t just a desolate, rust-filled prison; it’s a desolate, rust-filled prison in the middle of a snow-swept landscape that is perfect for a high-speed motorcycle escape to a train. Khe Sanh, and Vietnam in general, is rendered with a horrifically affecting realism that really captures the humid and horrific conditions of that particular conflict and stands in start contrast to the dark urban landscapes you run through in Kowloon City.

*The game’s attention to detail and voice cast is just as good as ever.*

Voice work is even more important than ever to Black Ops because it actually features a speaking protagonist; Sam Worthington (remember when he was a thing?) takes centre stage as the tortured and haunted Mason, Gary Oldman returns as the revolutionary Reznov, and even Ed fuckin’ Harris shows up to voice Hudson. I also took much greater note of the music in this Call of Duty title; there’s a foreboding, heavy feel to the tunes of this game alongside the traditional stirring military melodies and, in true Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) fashion, the troops stationed in Vietnam like to blast the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” at full volume in their base camp and when blowing enemy encampments to smithereens.

Enemies and Bosses:
Like World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops has far more enemy variety than in the previous titles. Rather than simply gunning down Nazis, you’ll mostly be clashing with Soviets, Vietnamese, and even British Commandos. As always, these enemies are formidable thanks to their flagrant use of cover, melee, and explosives to whittle your health to nothing in no time at all.

CODBLOPSFinale — *Storm the* Rusalka to end the threat of Nova-6.

While bosses aren’t really a thing in Black Ops, when flying the Hind, you’ll come up against a couple of enemy attack choppers that must be destroyed before you can progress and, when in your attack boat, you’ll specifically have to trade shots with another boat to complete the mission. When joining the assault on the Rusalka, you’ll have to provide cover fire from your attack chopper and also bring down another enemy Hind, before eventually confronting and killing Nikita Dragovich, one of the key minds behind Nova-6, in a quick-time event.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
As with other games in the series, Black Ops is going for realism over the more flamboyant aspects of other FPS titles so the closest thing you’ll get to upgrades is when you are able to call in air strikes, take control of armoured vehicles, or happen across an armoury.

CODBLOPSWeapons — *Blow enemies into flaming chunks or cut them down with duel pistols.*

Despite this, and the setting of the game, Black Ops has some pretty nifty weapons on hand for you to use; though you’re still limited to only having two at a time, some of the stand-outs for me were the Franchi SPAS-12, a pump-action shotgun that can also fire incendiary rounds, the Python (a high impact .357 Magnum), and the Beretta Model 682, all of which are great for close-quarters dismemberment. You can also grab a crossbow (that can also fire explosive arrows) and a couple of nifty grenade and rocket launchers, like the “China Lake” and the M72 LAW, and even duel-wield pistols and smaller submachine guns at various points.

Additional Features:
As with the other Call of Duty titles, you can choose to play on a number of different difficulty settings and earn a fair amount of Achievements. These are generally earned after clearing missions in the main solo campaign but also pop with when find all of the Intel hidden throughout the game, complete certain missions with certain weapons, kill a certain amount of enemies in certain ways, or slaughter some poor, innocent test monkeys as quickly as possible. Multiplayer returns in Black Ops but, this time, you’re able to set-up a multiplayer match against computer-controlled opponents, meaning I was actually able to experience a Call of Duty free-for-all deathmatch for the first time. When in this mode, you can select or create a class where you customise your weapon loadouts, perks, and other aesthetics, which is a nice touch, and you can tweak the level of difficulty of your computer-controlled foes but I was absolutely owned by the computer even on the easiest setting and found it was little more than a standard deathmatch.

CODBLOPSZombies — *The “Zombies” modes continue to be a lot of fun.*

Returning from World at War is the “Zombies” sub-game wherein you must try to survive for as long as possible against endless waves of zombies in a variety of maps; one of these has you playing as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro in a fantastic piece of ridiculousness that is massively at odds with Call of Duty’s more serious tone…and I love it! The more zombies you kill, the more points you earn to spend on fortifying your defences, unlocking new areas, or accessing better weapons but the best part about the “Zombies” mode in this game is the inclusion of Dead Ops Arcade, a top-down arcade title that plays very similar to Smash TV (Williams, 1990) and Dead Nation (Housemarque/Climax Studios, 2010) and was honestly the most fun I’ve had playing a Call of Duty title.

The Summary:
Call of Duty: Black Ops was far more enjoyable for me than any of the Modern Warfare titles and a fine follow-up to World at War but I still find myself largely unimpressed. If anything, it’s annoying that it took this long for the series to feature a speaking protagonist right from the get-go but, while the game is better for it, I didn’t find Mason particularly compelling; you can see the big twist in his narrative coming a mile away (thanks in no small part to the constant cutscenes that jerk you abruptly from the gameplay to slap you in the face with the twist before it’s revealed), it’s outrageous to me that he was allowed back into active service after the big reveal, and the idea of chemical attacks or sleeper agents isn’t exactly new by any stretch of the imagination. Still, by taking everything that worked in the Modern Warfare games and in World at War and applying them in a more intimate story with greater stakes, Black Ops actually worked for me on a level the other Call of Duty titles didn’t. It helped a lot that areas were far more recognisable, varied, and interesting, that the locations were unique and engaging, and that the developers included Dead Ops Arcade and so many recognisable political figures happily blowing holes in zombies.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What did you think of Call of Duty: World at War? Where does it rank for you compared to the other Call of Duty titles? Do you think I have committed the ultimate sacrilege by besmirching the good name of the Call of Duty franchise or do you agree that the series is somewhat over-rated and stagnated? Whatever you think, please do leave a comment below and come back for more content and reviews in the near future.

Game Corner: Battletoads (2020; Xbox One)

25/01/202116/05/2023Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 20 August 2020
Developers: Dlala Studios and Rare
Also Available For: PC and Xbox One X

The Background:
Make no mistake about it, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) were hot shit back in the day; though the TMNT first began life as a ridiculous, dark, and gritty comic book, they shot to fame and into the cultural consciousness with the 1987 cartoon series and a line of action figures and the franchise was the hottest kids commodity at that time. That success also, inevitably, brought a slew of knock-offs and imitators, many of which, like the Battletoads, were reasonably popular in their own right. Conceived of as a direct response to the TMNT, the Battletoads (Rash, Zitz, and Pimple) were space-faring adventurers who made their debut in the appropriately-titled Battletoads (Rare, 1991), a sidescrolling beat-‘em-up that is notorious for being one of the hardest titles in the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) library. Battletoads was fairly well received and a number of follow-ups were produced, including a pretty kick-ass arcade title in 1994, but the franchise quietly died off and remained dormant until Microsoft surprised everyone at the 2018 E3 with the announcement of an all-new entry in the beloved series. Perhaps bolstered by the reception of Rare Replay (ibid, 2015), Rare chose to revive their franchise as an Xbox One and PC exclusive, one not hampered by hardware restrictions, and effectively reintroduced the Battletoads to a whole new generation of gamers.

The Plot:
After being awoken from a fantasy simulation after twenty-six years, the Battletoads are dismayed to find that they are no longer intergalactic heroes. Seeking to reclaim their former glory, they set out to defeat their long-time nemesis, the Dark Queen, but end up joining forces with her to confront a greater threat, the evil alien race known as “Topians”.

Gameplay:
Like its predecessors, Battletoads is a 2D, sidescrolling beat-‘em-up in which up to three players can battle across numerous stages spread between four chapters (referred to as “Acts”). When you begin a new game, you can select from three different difficulty levels (“Tadpole” being the “Easy” mode, “Toad” normal, and “Battletoad” being the hardest). Once you’ve selected a difficulty, you’re locked in to it and will need to create a new, separate save file to play on one of the other modes but you can switch between these save files easily enough by pressing X on the main menu.

*Each of the Battletoads handles a little differently, with different strengths and weaknesses.*

There are three characters to pick from (Zitz, Rash, and Pimple) and, while each of the titular Battletoads controls the same, you’ll find that each one has their own strengths and weaknesses: Rash is the all-rounder, with decent speed and attack power; Zitz is the weakest but also the fastest, able to string combos together much quicker; and Pimple is the slowest but also the most powerful of the three. Unlike in the previous games, you can freely switch between any of the Battletoads on the fly by pressing left, up, or right on the directional-pad (D-pad) to “tag in”, allowing you to mix and match your attack strategies on the fly. While there is no life system, this effectively gives you (in single player mode, at least) three lives since, if a Battletoad is defeated, you automatically switch to one of the other two and, after a short time, any toad that has been knocked out will regenerate a portion of their health and allow you to tag them back in. This adds another level of strategy to the game as you might want to favour Zitz for the majority of a stage and save Pimple for the boss battles but it’s important to not hog all the health-restoring flies for any one Battletoad as it could leave you at a disadvantage later down the line. Fortunately, the game is extremely generous with checkpoints, which refill and resurrect your team to full health, meaning you can easily jump right back into the action and you are even given the option of skipping ahead if you continuously die.

*The Battletoads assume a variety of wild animations and forms when performing their attacks.*

Being a sidescrolling beat-‘em-up, combat is obviously at the forefront of Battletoads’ gameplay; each character can unleash a quick combination of strikes with repeated presses of the X button, launch enemies into the air with Y, and charge up a powerful “Morph Attack” (which sees them transform into a variety of outlandish and amusing forms) by holding down the B button. You can also jump with A (revolutionary, I know), hold or press RT to run or evade, respectively, and hold down LT in conjunction with other button presses for different effects (press A and you’ll spit gum to render enemies immobile for a few seconds and press Y to pull enemies, flies, and collectables closer with your tongue). You can also wriggle the right analogue stick to perform a taunt, though I never discovered the point of this move beyond grandstanding.

*Gameplay isn’t all punching as you’ll have to do some tricky platforming and puzzle solving, too.*

While the majority of the game involves simple, arcade-style fighting, the monotony is broken up in a variety of ways; you can use LT and B to latch on to special hooks and battle in the background and foreground, for instance, and you’ll be required to press switches to open doors or raise and lower lifts at various points. You’ll also have to drag crates around to reach higher levels and use these techniques in lieu of your fighting abilities to solve various puzzles. In the game’s third Act, the Battletoads split up and Pimple is left to perform some rudimentary platforming, dodging spikes and other hazards, and climbing a mountain by pressing switches in the right order to clear a path. Similarly, when controlling the Dark Queen, you’re asked to run as quickly as possible through an all-too-familiar maze-like stage using her dash and unique ability to float to get past the many spiked hazards in your way rather than fighting.

*This was easily the hardest and most frustrating part of the game for me.*

You’ll also have to complete a couple of different mini games to open up electronic doors either by completing an electronic circuit or hacking your way. The first is relatively simple, involving the rotation of wires to allow a current to travel from one point to another but it gets a little trickier as you progress by introducing dead ends and different directions. The second is quite a unique little mini game that sees you moving an 8-bit Battletoads icon across a horizontal grid while avoiding moving red hazards; this can be tricky when playing with others as one touch of these hazards will reset the grid for all players but, if you struggle and fail enough times, the game gives you the option to automatically hack the door. Other times, you’ll have to complete a number of quirky quick-time events (QTEs), the most prominent of which is an eccentric version of rock/paper/scissors, but you’ll also be completing menial tasks such as massages, sending e-mails, and signing autographs with rotations of the analogue sticks and repeated button presses. Later, you’ll need to use these skills as Pimple to fight off besmirched cult members and be sure to keep your wits about you after defeating the game’s final boss as you’ll need to perform a few QTEs before the battle is officially over. Some of the mini games, however, aren’t as much fun or easy to understand; at one point you have to complete three in a row with hardly any time to register what you actually have to do but by far the worst and most frustrating part of the game was when you have to reboot the systems of your space ship. The mini game displays a number of symbols, each one relating to a different mini game, and you have a very short space of time to find the game you need and complete it, all with the most vague of onscreen prompts to direct you. The worst part is that this section just keeps going and going, is very unforgiving, and it can be really difficult to see where you’re supposed to be looking as the mini games are all quite small by the end.

*Gameplay has a surprising amount of variety and just the right amount of challenge.*

Finally, gameplay is mixed up further by the return of the Turbo Tunnel, panic-inducing chase sequences, and some overhead shooting stages. Thankfully, the Turbo Tunnel is nowhere near as harrowing as in the NES game; for one thing, your view is from behind, which makes it much easier to see oncoming hazards. Each hit or mistake costs you a Battletoad but checkpoints are generous and, while it goes on for some time, it’s actually more exhilarating than frustrating. The Turbo Tunnel returns at the end of the game but, while it is harder, it’s a much shorter section; the spirit of the old tunnel is evoked in the sledging sequence, though, which has you holding X, Y, or B to grind along different platforms and that can be very difficult when you’re also required to jump with A. One of the most harrowing sequences from the NES game, the rat race, is recreated when you, as the Dark Queen, have to outrun falling stomach acid but, thanks to her dash and barge attacks and, again, many generous checkpoints, it’s nowhere near as impossible or demanding as the original game. Finally, the space shooting sections, while also a lot of fun, see the screen literally fill with enemy ships and projectiles to become one of the most elaborate “bullet hell” shooters I’ve ever played and these stages do tend to drag on a bit and are probably the most “unfair” of the game’s stages at times.

Graphics and Sound:
Battletoads is a fantastic throwback to a simpler time in gaming; like Streets of Rage 4 (Dotemu/Lizardcube/Guard Crush Games, 2020), the game favours brought, vibrant graphics and backgrounds and a rockin’ soundtrack that includes remixes of classic Battletoads tracks. Unlike that game, however, Battletoads is far more over the top and cartoony; the toads themselves are full of life and wacky antics and these is best seen through their zany attacks that see them growing comically enlarged feet, fists, or transforming into sharks, bulls, jackhammers, and even whipping out a Battletoads (Rare, 1994) arcade cabinet to damage enemies.

*Stages and graphics are colourful, wacky, and wonderfully enlivened by a cartoony aesthetic.*

Stages are varied and have a lot of depth, with some fun things to see in the background; you’ll travel through futuristic neon streets, a disused carnival, and wacky alien landscapes. Sadly, though, there is no “moving elevator” stage and there aren’t many chances to interact with your environment; there are no barrels to smash, no weapons to acquire, and your interactions are generally limited to activating switches or spitting bubblegum at various targets. Still, the simplicity of the interactivity in no way renders the environments lifeless or boring as they’re packed full of little details and things to see and distract you.

*It’s a good job the story is so full of mapcap fun as it’s a surprisingly big part of the game.*

Battletoads is very big on story and features a number of cutscenes and lots of voice acting; the titular heroes are pretty funny, being out of touch superheroes obsessed with becoming relevant in a world that has passed them by, and everyone has distinct and amusing personalities, from the exasperated Dark Queen to the flamboyant Tobians, Uto and Pia. While I enjoyed these cutscenes, which reminded me a lot of Rick and Morty (2013 to present) and were full of Rare’s signature, quirky sense of humour, it was a bit annoying that you aren’t always given the option of skipping them on subsequent playthroughs.

Enemies and Bosses:
As you make your way through the game’s stages, you’ll come up against a host of weird enemies; many of them, like the different coloured anthropomorphic rats, Topian cops, and disgruntled lumberjacks, are mostly disposable cannon fodder for you to go to town on. Some of their variants, though, will block your attacks with a guard or shield that can only be broken with your charged Morph attack, and will also toss projectiles your way. When in the space shooting sections, you’ll come up against a number of different ships, some which fill the screen with projectiles of all kinds that will truly test your reaction skills and patience. Other enemies can be a bit more troublesome: Kernel will charge up an electrical attack that electrifies nearby water and can cause massive damage; Fewcharge will unleash a laser beam that covers a large portion of the screen; and be sure to dash out of the way of Brucey when its about to charge at you. As you progress, you end up having to face multiple variations of these enemies at once, which can be very difficult and requires a lot of strategy and awareness on your part as your health will be drained quite quickly if you’re not careful.

*Porkshank is a big, tough first boss but easily defeated once you master his simple attack patterns.*

It’s a good job Battletoads has so much enemy variant and challenge involved in its combat since it’s surprisingly light on boss battles. The first boss you face, Porkshank, is a gigantic pig whom you fight three times in the first stage. The first encounter requires you to evade his combo of attacks, the second sees him try to charge at you head-first, and the third sees him split into two and do both attacks at the same time. While he can absorb a great deal of damage, as long as you dodge out of the way and charge up a Morph attack or quickly switch to Pimple, it’s pretty simple to get past him without any real trouble. The enormous Guardian boss requires a little more strategy on your past; the entire arena continuously fills with Blinkeys, pink eyes (hah!) that try to distract you from dragging the Summoner Eye out of its protective field. Each time you damage the Summoner Eye, the Guardian tries to crush you with its massive fists and then you have to smack a piece of debris into the gargantuan creature; the cycle then repeats twice more but with more Summoner Eyes to attack and more fists to damage.

*Axeley is definitely one of the game’s more frustrating and troublesome bosses.*

One of the game’s most difficult and frustrating bosses is Axeley, a crazed lumberjack who fills the arena with bombs that are very difficult to avoid before leaping into the arena and causing shockwaves with each impact. When his giant axe gets stuck, you can attack with extreme prejudice but, for his next two phases, he starts rolling logs at you that are extremely hard to jump over, tossing in more bombs, and performing far more jumping attacks to keep you constantly on guard while you wait for your brief window to attack. I would recommend using Zitz for the most part and keeping track of Axeley’s movements so you can switch to Pimple and get the most out of that brief window of opportunity.

*Once you get past Dirtbag’s slew of projectiles, you’ll have to avoid the Dark Queen’s “helpful” tornados.*

Dirtbag can also be quite the tricky encounter; like with Porkshanks, you’ll encounter him in a couple of different confrontations in the space shooting sections but the difference is that Dirtbag likes to attack with a variety of projectiles that you have to squeeze between and relentlessly fire at his ship while using your shield and evade to escape from harm. What makes this difficult is that you’ll most likely get to this boss with very little health left because of the gauntlet of enemies you have to blast through first and it seems like only parts of Dirtbag’s ship are vulnerable. Although you don’t actually fight against the Dark Queen this time around, she does actually help you in a penultimate battle before the final boss; her version of help, however, involves conjuring tornados that are just as likely to hurt or kill you as they are to toss enemies from the stage so be sure to stay away from them wherever possible.

*Uto and Pia might be flamboyant but they’re no joke when you finally have to battle them!*

The game’s final bosses are the Topians, Uto and Pia, essentially two intergalactic beings who stole the Dark Queen’s power and are practically Gods. When you fight them, they will take it in turns to launch attacks such as spherical projectiles that bounce across the arena and protect them and a giant laser beam that’s particularly difficult to avoid, turn invisible and intangible, and come crashing down onto the stage, all of which cause massive damage. Once they’re injured enough, they’ll team up for real for their final phase but, luckily, only one of their health bars needs to be whittled down. Still, I recommend taking advantage of the invincibility option that becomes available after a few deaths or when you’re close to failure.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
I mentioned this earlier but, strangely, there are no power-ups or weapons to pick up in Battletoads; while you can’t grab barrels (…or enemies) to throw around and there’s no score-increasing items, you do accrue a high score as you progress. Each fight that isn’t a boss battle receives a grade; the better your combo and the less hits you take, the higher your score becomes and, at the end of every stage, you receive a grade based on your performance and will earn an extra collectable if you manage to get at least an A ranking for every fight in each stage. When in the shooting stages, the scoring system continues but you can actually pick up power-ups that improve your ships weaponry for a limited time, turning it into a spread shot, a high-powered laser, or bolts of magenta energy to cause massive damage against your relentless enemies.

Additional Features:
Battletoads has sixty-one Achievements for you to earn; many of these are tied to the game’s story and can’t be missed but you’ll also get ones for defeating a number of enemies, breaking through their block attacks, finding collectables, or using your various toad abilities. Others are a little more obscure or challenging, like entering a button code in the credits, finding every collectable, or finishing the game on the highest difficulty. Of course, you can also play Battletoads with up to two friends; in co-op mode, you can revive your team mates when they’re defeated and you can go head-to-head to get the highest score but there’s not really anything on offer once you finish the game. You can play as a couple of different characters in the game’s story but they aren’t added to the roster for replays, there’s no one-on-one fighting mode, and no boss rush or skins to unlock, which is a shame since it would have been a good way to put the points you earn to good use to unlock classic 8- and 16-bit skins. You can, however, unlock a special Battletoads themed ship for Sea of Thieves (ibid, 2018) once you complete all of Act 1…so there’s that, I guess.

The Summary:
I was somewhat apprehensive going into Battletoads; I’ve played the original NES game on Rare Replay and couldn’t get past the Goddamn Clinger-Winger stage but I did have a lot of fun with the arcade version of the game. Thankfully, this version of Battletoads is much, much easier than its NES counterpart; I was worried Rare were going to pull a troll move on us and make a ridiculous frustrating throwback to that era of nigh-impossible videogames but, instead, they delivered an extremely enjoyable beat-‘em-up with just the right level of challenge and variety to keep things interesting. I was genuinely surprised at how much Battletoads had to offer; calling it a simple beat-‘em-up is probably doing the game a disservice and this may go a long way to explaining why many of the clichés and traditions of beat-‘em-ups are missing. It’s more like a combat-heavy action/platformer and it never lets any one mechanic last long enough to become monotonous or repetitive. While a lot of these gameplay mechanics might have been annoying and frustrating at times (that damn system reboot sequence, for example), once you’ve gotten past them you can focus on a different section that more than makes up for those challenging moments. Perhaps best of all, it makes the Turbo Tunnel actually doable and I never ran into a truly game-breaking roadblock; it’s a shame that there’s not more to it in terms on unlockables and stuff but I can forgive that for the more enjoyable aspects of the game.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

How did you find Battletoads? Which of the three Battletoads was your preferred character? What did you think to the game’s mechanics and presentation and how did you find it as a revival of the franchise? Are you a fan of the franchise and, if so, which game is your favourite? Did you find the original game as difficult as its reputation or were you able to clear it without any real difficulty? Which of the TMNT knock-offs was your favourite and would like to see more revivals of old franchises? Whatever your thoughts on Battletoads, or memories of the franchise, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Game Corner: Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360)

20/01/202125/11/2022Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 2008
Developer: Treyarch
Also Available For: Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 3

The Background:
At this point, I have played four Call of Duty (Various, 2003 to present) titles and I have to say that, so far, I am less than impressed with any of them, and the series in general. Before I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games, 2016), I had little to no interest in Activision’s long-running franchise (that kicked off its first spin-off with this title) primarily because I don’t really like military-style shooters and my love for first-person games died out shortly after Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000). Admittedly, a lot of this is due to my personal bias against being shot in the back or by enemies I can’t see, struggling with the perspective and the controls, and generally just finding first-person shooters (FPS) difficult to navigate at the best of times. However, when I bought my Xbox 360, it came with a couple of Call of Duty titles, one of which was this one and, since I’m doing “CoD Month” on my blog for January and I would hate to waste the G associated with the game, I sat down and rushed through it mainly to see if my bias against the series was justified and to obtain a few extra Achievements.

The Plot:
Despite Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Treyarch, 2007) bringing the series into the then-modern day, World at War returns the plot to World War Two, specifically focusing on the Pacific and Eastern Front skirmishes between the Allied Forces of the United States and Europe against the Axis Powers of Japan, the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany.

Gameplay:
Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter that casts you in the role of Private/ Private First Class C. Miller of the United States Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division, Private Dimitri Petrenko, and Petty Officer Locke. While each character’s narrative sees them fulfilling different objectives in different parts of the world (or at different parts of the same location), each controls exactly the same and just like the characters in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The A button lets you jump and vault over walls, Y switches weapons, X reloads, and pressing in on the left analogue stick sees you break out into a finite sprint.

CODWaWControls — *The controls are exactly as established in the* Modern Warfare *trilogy.*

Pressing the B button allows you to either crouch, go prone, or stand to avoid or engage with enemy gunfire while pressing in the right analogue stick allows you to melee kill enemy soldiers. You can toss a variety of grenades and other explosives with the Left and Right Buttons and aim and shoot with the Left and Right Triggers, respectively. Again, you can either shoot somewhat wildly from the hip or snap to the nearest target and aim down the sights of your gun by pulling on the Left Trigger and, similar to Call of Duty 3 (Treyarch, 2006) this can be problematic as you’re aiming without the assistance of modern technology such as laser sighting. As is largely the standard for FPS titles, your health will automatically recover once you avoid damage for a few seconds; the more damage you incur, the longer it will take to replenish. There are a number of checkpoints in the game for when you do inevitably die, though, and there’s plenty of cover for you to duck behind but you have to keep your wits about you as your enemies won’t hesitate to throw a grenade at you or come charging at you head-first with their bayonet drawn.

CODWaWMissions — *The action is broken up by some intense missions involving assassination and dog-fighting.*

A helpful radar/mini map combination sits in the bottom left of your heads-up display (HUD); this shows you the location of your allies, enemies, and a star marking your objective. Should you forget your objectives, you can bring them up at any time by pausing the game, which you may have to do from time to time as the game can be both painfully linear and frustratingly unclear at times; if you miss a vague order from one of your team mates, you may find yourself shredded to pieces or blow up before you even know what it is you’re supposed to be doing or where you’re meant to be aiming or directing your air strike. Gameplay is broken up a bit through the use of vehicle sections: as Miller, you’ll call in air strikes and jump on a small tank-like vehicle and use remote-controlled rocket strikes to destroy enemy tanks; Petrenko meets up with Sergeant Viktor Reznov in Stalingrad (who promptly wastes a lot of your time lecturing you about the finer arts of sniping and the evils of General Heinrich Amsel) and is tasked with performing a tricky assassination; and Locke later pilots a PBY Catalina flying boat to shoot down Japanese planes and ships.

CODWaWDark — World at War *is probably the darkest of the* Call of Duty‘s I’ve played.

Overall, the game is far more intense and gritty than the other titles I’ve played; for one thing, the Japanese troops you encounter are far more sadistic and aggressive than those of previous titles, leaping up from hidden bunkers, charging at you head-first, and even detonating themselves and your own dead comrades. Similar to the controversial airport mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (ibid, 2009), you’ll also accompany Reznov to Berlin and murder a whole bunch of injured and surrendering German soldiers, which is a bit disturbing. A similar event occurs at Shuri Castle, where Japanese troops appear to surrender and instead assassinate one of your team mates with grenades!

Graphics and Sound:
Call of Duty: World at War is the best of both worlds in this regards as it takes the classic World War Two setting of the original games and applies the modern coat of paint the series had received in Call of Duty 4; this means, again, that locations are recreated with a fantastic level of detail and, thanks to the fact that we travel to more exotic locations (Makin Island, Peleliu, Okinawa, and the Reichstag among others), actually make this game far more visually interesting than its predecessors.

CODWaWGore — *Gore is plentiful in* World at War.

While character models are still the weakest part of the game, they’re largely garbed in elaborate camouflage outfits or rugged guerrilla outfits that, again, help them to stand out compared to their more uniformed Nazi counterparts but also against their environments. Also, unlike previous games in the series thus far, enemies can be dismembered by your shots; arms and legs will blow off, chests will be blown apart, and large pools of blood accompany the many dead bodies you’ll leave in your wake. Again, though, locations, weapons, and vehicles still have the same high level of attention to detail I’ve come to associate with these games that really emphasises how desolate and horrific the Second World War was.

CODWaWVA — *Gary Oldman reassumes his famous Russian accent to bring Reznov to life.*

Call of Duty: World at World really brings the big guns to its vocal performances thanks to the inclusion of Gary Oldman as Reznov and Kiefer Sutherland as Corporal Roebuck. Of all the Call of Duty titles I’ve played so far, I had the least amount of issues with World at War’s dialogue; it wasn’t fully of overly macho “Hoo-rah!” or military slang like the Modern Warfare games but also wasn’t repetitive and annoying like in Call of Duty 3, though it still sticks to the stirring military tunes that pepper these games.

Enemies and Bosses:
Call of Duty: World at War has far more variety in the types of enemies you’ll encounter than the other Call of Duty games I’ve played in that you’ll battle both Japanese troops and Nazis this time around. Generally, the enemies you come up against are just as wily as ever; hiding behind cover, tossing grenades at you, and bashing you with their weapons whenever you get close but the Japanese troops are on another level entirely. The Japanese are aggressive, suicidal maniacs who burst out from hidden bunkers in the fields, clamber up and snipe at you from trees, charge at you head-first screaming “Banzai!” and trying to skewer you, or simply blow themselves up to kill you and your comrades. They also don’t hesitate to rush at you in waves upon waves, clambering over their fallen brethren to get to you, and force you into a quick-time event whenever they try and grapple with you.

CODWaWReichstag — *The game’s final mission sees you storming the Reichstag.*

As always, you won’t really come up against boss battles in the traditional sense. You’ll need to make use of air strikes and heavier weaponry to take out tanks and enemy placements and protect some naval ships from kamikaze pilots, which is about as deep as that gets, and the game’s final mission sees you (as Petrenko) storming the Reichstag in a bid to liberate it from Nazi control. This was easily one of the most frustrating and tiresome missions in the game as you have to disable some anti-tank guns, wipe out the ground forces who pop up out of nowhere, have the high ground, and throw grenades at you, and then try to not get crushed by a falling column or roasted alive by a flamethrower-wielding Nazi.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Call of Duty has always placed a greater emphasis on realism compared to other FPS games and, as a result, your power-ups are largely limited to the lovingly-recreated weaponry and vehicles made available to you. As always, you’re limited to holding only two weapons at a time, some more suitable than others. Given the setting of the game, you’ll often find yourself running through and clearing out trenches, so you might need to Trench Gun or the shotgun to make bloody corpses of your opposition. The Panzerschreck is perfect for taking out tanks and enemy aircraft and you can make use of Molotov Cocktails and flamethrowers to roast your enemies alive if you’re feeling particularly sadistic.

CODWaWTank — *Jump in the tank and wreck some Nazi shit!*

You also get to jump into a flame tank and use its cannon to blast Nazi bunkers, tanks, and towers while roasting soldiers with its flamethrower and pilot a PBY-5A Catalina aircraft to shoot down Japanese fighters. One thing I did like about this mission was that you had to constantly switch from the front, back, and side turrets as the mission progressed and you really got a sense of the claustrophobic space in this small aircraft but actually shooting at and hitting your targets (especially the planes) as a tall order thanks to the game’s less-than-helpful aiming reticule.

Additional Features:
Call of Duty: World at War features a number of different difficulty settings for you to play on, each one affecting the challenge in different ways, in addition to a number of Achievements. The majority of these can’t be missed as they’re tied to story progression but others will have you performing more specific tasks, like air bombing a certain number of enemies, burning soldiers out of trees, or completing a sniper assassination with a handgun. If you explore your environment well enough, you’ll also find Death Cards attached to makeshift graves; find all of these and you’ll get another Achievement and special gameplay options for the game’s co-operative mode. As with its predecessors, World at War features a multiplayer component that I wasn’t able to fully explore since I don’t have Xbox Gold. It also features a co-operative mode, however, that allows two players to player through the main campaign at the same time, which is a nice touch and I wonder why this wasn’t incorporated until the fifth game in the series. Brand new to the series, though, is the game’s “Nazi Zombies” mode in which up to four players are forced to survive against endless waves of Nazi zombies in a variety of maps. The more zombies you kill, the more points you earn to spend on fortifying your defences, unlocking new areas, or accessing better weapons. While an interesting mode to include, I can’t say that it hooked me too much as you have to play and grind quite a bit to get the most out of it but it’s a nice breath of fresh air after the game’s more sombre main campaign and I wonder how I would feel about an entire Call of Duty game in this vein.

The Summary:
Of all the Call of Duty games I’ve played so far, World at War is probably the best but that’s still not really saying much. The game makes use of all the improvements brought to the series in Call of Duty 4 and applies them to a truly horrific time in the Second World War, offering a greater visual variety to the locations and enemies you’ll encounter. The inclusion of a couch co-op mode and the zombie survival game is a nice touch and I felt this did a much better job at presenting an appealing, intuitive, and coherent military shooter than Call of Duty 3 but, at the same time, it’s still not very innovative. There’s an “x factor” that is just missing for me, mainly because of how bland even this game’s more exotic locations appear. The zombie mode had more promise as it was skewing towards the ridiculous; I get that Call of Duty is a far more serious FPS title, though, but, for me, it’s just not as much fun as other FPS games.

My Rating:

Could Be Better

Game Corner: Ōkami HD (Xbox One)

15/01/202127/01/2022Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 12 December 2017
Originally Released: 20 April 2006
Developer: Capcom/HexaDrive
Original Developer: Clover Studio
Also Available For: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 (HD) and Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 (Original)

The Background:
Originally released for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 back in 2006, Ōkami was the result of many combined ideas from the staff at Clover Studio. However, it was Hideki Kamiya, best know for developing Resident Evil (Capcom, 1996), who pushed for the game to focus on nature before the gameplay was eventually refined and the game’s unique visual presentation settled upon. Though sales were considered to be somewhat poor and resulted in the closure of Clover Studios, Ōkami won (and was nominated for) several awards and enjoyed widespread critical acclaim, with critics praising the game’s length, use of the Wii’s motion controls, and attention to detail. However, many of these same reviews also pointed out some flaws in the game’s lengthy dialogue scenes and getting the game to register control inputs. Regardless, a HD remaster was later released, which received equally high praise and is generally considered to be the definitive version of the title.

The Plot:
One hundred years ago, in the land of Nippon, the feared white wolf Shiranui and renowned swordsman Nagi fought and sealed the eight-headed demon Orochi, giving their lives in the process. When Orochi returns, the sun goddess Amaterasu takes Shiranui’s form and, alongside a lewd, fairy-like artist named Issun, travels far and wide to rid the land of Orochi’s curse and the darkness that threatens to devour Nippon and all its inhabitants.

Gameplay:
Ōkami is a narrative-heavy, semi-open-world action/adventure game; while it does have some elements of role-playing games (RPGs), the action and gameplay mechanics are very much like the Legend of Zelda series (Various, 1986 to present), with much of the game’s central concept being very similar to the wolf-based gameplay seen in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD, 2006). I’m obviously not the first to make that comparison but it still rings true, though the difference here is that you play as a wolf from start to finish whereas Link would transform to and from a wolf throughout Twilight Princess, which remained primarily a classic 3D Zelda title that focused on swordplay and other mechanics rather than solely on the wolf.

*Amatera*su acts very much like a wolf, often for comedic effect.

In Ōkami, you are (eventually…) put in control of the white wolf Amaterasu who, for all her intelligence and sentience, looks, acts, animates, and controls very close to how a wolf or dog would, generally for comedic effect. This means that she can not only run along on all four paws, leaving a trail of blossoming flowers in her wake as her speed increases, but will also whimper, howl, and curl up into a ball when left idle. Amaterasu’s main form of attack is to tackle enemies head on with a press of the X button (which also functions as a ground and mid-air dash), bark with the B button (which doesn’t really seem to do anything but spook non-playable characters (NPCs)), jump (and wall jump) with A (and automatically jump over small objects as she runs at them, like Link in his 3D adventures, though Amaterasu doesn’t have to worry about taking fall damage), and dig up treasures and other objects with the Y button.

*Amaterasu has a bit of trouble swimming but is perfectly happy to bite NPCs…*

Amaterasu can also perform a doggy paddle when in water but will, eventually, run out of stamina and be dropped back on the last piece of dry land she stood on, though you can eventually earn techniques and abilities to make traversing water far easier. You can also bite with the Y button, which allows you to pick up objects (such as keys or other key items) to unlock doors or complete side quests; you can also bite NPCs or other animals for a laugh, if you like.

*Issun acts as your guide and seeks to learn the thirteen brush techniques alongside you.*

Amaterasu is not alone in her quest; she’s joined by the lewd travelling artist and swordsman Issun. Issun functions a lot like Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (ibid, 1998) in that he will constantly interrupt your progress and gameplay to spout dialogue and exposition and occasionally point you in the right direction or towards objects of interest but differs not only through his womanising ways and blunt sense of humour but also by actually aiding you in combat somewhat. Amaterasu is in possession of the “Celestial Brush”, an enchanted paint brush that allows players to solve puzzles, gain new combat techniques, and attack enemies by holding down the RB button and drawing with X.

*Battles take place within a magically-enclosed arena and mostly boil down to button mashing.*

As you explore the various different overworlds of Nippon, you’ll encounter floating, ominous Demon Scrolls; though these can, largely, be easily avoided, they will chase after you if you get to close and, upon touching you, lock you into a magically-enclosed arena to battle a number of enemies. When fighting in these arenas, your controls change slightly; now, you can attack with one of two different equippable weapons (or “Divine Instruments) which allow you to strike, defend, or unleash a ranged or combination attack with a variety of Reflectors, Rosaries, and Glaives and deal either massive damage or a finishing blow with the Celestial Brush (easier said than done thanks to the game’s odd idea of perspective). If you don’t feel like battling, you can attack the mystical barrier to open a hole to allow you to escape, avoid the Demon Scrolls, or slash at them with you Celestial Brush to make it easier to get around them. However, I’d advise battling every enemy at every opportunity as it’s a great way to earn rewards since you’re evaluated after each battle and earn additional Yen for finishing fights quickly and without taking damage.

*Stay out of Cursed Zones and dispel them by destroying Devil Gates.*

There’s no escaping from boss battles or Devil Gates, though, and, when you enter new areas, you’ll find they’ve been cursed with a life-sapping black fog that can only be cleared by destroying a number of Devil Gates dotted around the area. Passing into one of these Devil Gates forces you to battle a number of enemies that are, generally, a little tougher than the average minions but defeating them is still pretty easy thanks to the breadth of the game’s simple, but effective, combat and victory will restore the land to its natural beauty and allow you to hunt for goodies.

*Earn Praise to increase Amaterasu’s health, ink pots, Astral Pouch, and purse.*

As a God, Amaterasu can earn Praise by performing a number of tasks and side quests; these range from using the Celestial Brush to blossom and bloom withered trees, freeing areas from the cursed fog, feeding the myriad of wild animals you’ll encounter, helping out NPCs, and defeating bosses. Praise can then be used to upgrade Amaterasu’s maximum health, ink pots (using the Celestial Brush consumes ink, which automatically regenerates over time), Astral Pouch (when filled with the various food you can find throughout Nippon, this allows Amaterasu to resurrect from death if defeated), and her purse. As you upgrade each, the amount of Praise needed to upgrade further will increase so it’s recommended that you do anything and everything you can to gain even a small amount of praise. Honestly, though, the game isn’t really that difficult so you might not need all of these upgrades to succeed; I never died once in my playthrough and never seemed to be in danger of reaching the limit of my purse so I’m not entirely sure why you need to increase its capacity.

*Purchase items, weapons, and equip Holy Artefacts to gain additional abilities and power-ups.*

Like many RPGs and adventure games, Ōkami, sadly, doesn’t feature an autosave feature; instead, you must manually save at various Origin Mirrors (which also fully restore your health and ink) scattered across Nippon or after clearing the game’s dungeon (be sure to make at least one extra save file in case you get stuck or blunder into the game’s final dungeon with unfinished business still to do as you won’t be able to get back to the overworld otherwise). As you defeat enemies, break pots, dig up treasure chests, and generally play the game, you can collect various items to help you in your quest; ink pots will refill your ink, Solar Energy refills a portion of your health, food fills up your Astral Pouch, various treasures can be sold, items aid you in battle (different sizes of bones for health, Inkfinity tags to grant temporary infinite ink, buffs for your attack and defence and so forth), and Yen to purchase new weapons, items, and to pay to learn new techniques from the Onigiri-Sensei. You can also find Demon Fangs, which can be traded for Holy Artefacts; you can equip up to three of these to walk on water, safely cross lava, keep Demon Scrolls away, or attract collectables, among other things. Stray Beads can also be collected to earn both an Achievement and an extremely powerful Holy Artefact that basically makes you unstoppable. It’s one of those games where there’s a lot to see, do, and collect and many different ways to upgrade your abilities without the traditional use of experience points as you can also find and purchase Gold Dust to strengthen your Divine Instruments.

*I struggled a bit with the camera, which made drawing vines far more difficult than necessary.*

While you are given full 360-degree camera control, you may find that the camera is still less than helpful at some points as it can stutter, get stuck behind objects, and automatically snaps back to its default position every time you leave or enter an area or finish a cutscene, which is annoying as I much prefer the more zoomed out perspective. You can also hold LB to enter a first-person perspective to get a better view of your surroundings and both Amaterasu and the environment will turn transparent to help you spot platforms, areas, or Konohana Blossoms but, often, I found it awkward to actually direct Amaterasu and her brush, especially in certain boss battles and situations.

*The brush techniques are simple to do but the game often struggles to register the correct input.*

This is because it’s never entirely clear where your drawing will appear on the screen: sometimes, you’ll draw a straight line to slash open a rock and just bloom some flowers on the ground; other times, you’ll try to bloom a tree only to cause the sun to rise or a wind to pick up. This is because the thirteen different Celestial Brush techniques you acquire are all extremely simple in execution (generally one or more lines or a swirl of ink) but the game sometimes seems to get confused about wheat you’re doing, meaning you can waste ink performing the game’s more costly techniques or be needlessly frustrated by something as simple as drawing a line from point A to point B thanks to the dodgy camera and perspective.

*I noticed a bit of pop-up and slowdown at times.*

Perhaps as a hold over from its time as a Wii and PlayStation 2 game, Ōkami features a fair amount of pop-up; Demon Scrolls, pots, boulders, and certain other landmarks will fade in and out of existence as you explore and I, personally, encountered a lot of annoying slowdown upon loading up my save file or when battling large groups of enemies. There are some benefits to this, though; Demon Scrolls don’t respawn until you leave the area you are in, for one thing, but pots do so it’s pretty easy to stock up on health, ink, and Yen as long as you can be bothered to keep breaking these items open.

*There’s a lot to see and do in* Ōkami so you’ll always be kept busy, at least.

Ōkami is a pretty exhausting experience, to be honest; I was expecting maybe a ten to twelve hour game but my final playthrough clocked in at more like fifty hours. There is a lot to see and do and a fair amount of backtracking required once you learn new techniques, as well as many side quests and distractions to keep you busy. The game features numerous towns spread across a wide, open field, with new areas (such as a swamp, bustling city, beach front, and frozen region) being equally large and full of things to do, as well as ten dungeons that vary in length and difficulty. Many of these dungeons revolve around a specific gimmick (the vine or wind technique, for example) and might be as simple as collecting a key from one area to unlock a door, learning a new technique, and then battling a boss to manipulating the game’s day/night cycle to raise or lower water levels.

*Objectives and puzzles are generally simple but can be a bit vague at times.*

Thankfully, the game has an extensive menu on offer that allows you to view, use, and equip items, review your objectives, read up on enemies and bosses you’ve faced, and keep track of any pending quests. The downside, however, is that many of these objectives and side quests, like the game’s puzzles, can be annoyingly vague at times; the map, while helpful, doesn’t display the names of everywhere you’ve visited (this only happens when you’re fast travelling, which is annoying) and Issun is more likely to berate you for taking too long to figure stuff out than help you actually solve puzzles, which range from pushing spheres either down a simple, narrow corridor or through a treacherous bit of quicksand and onto weighted switches (which can be tricky as Amaterasu doesn’t have opposable thumbs!), desperately trying to attach vines to a log (against a time limit) as it speeds through a raging stream, gathering ingredients or acquiring a mask to sneak past enemies, draining water, activating lifts, blasting open walls with cannons to reach new areas, or using your various brush techniques to cross chasms or navigate the dungeon.

Graphics and Sound:
Similar to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (ibid, 2002), Ōkami is presented in a gorgeous cel-shaded style that causes everything, from NPCs to environmental objects to Amaterasu, to pop out at you. Unlike that game, though, where everything kind of blended together to resemble a cartoon, Ōkami draws its inspiration more from the Ukiyo-e style of Japanese watercolour and wood carving art. Indeed, the game is heavily (and unapologetically) steeped in both Japanese cultural, mythology, and folklore; the result is a game with a distinct visual, artistic, and narrative identity and, while the Zelda comparisons are many, I found myself more reminded of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (Konami Computer Entertainment Osaka, 1997), a similarly bonkers action/adventure title full of weirdly hilarious and crude humour, eccentricities, and heavily influenced Japanese cultural and folklore.

Ōkami *has many beautiful locations, each distinct from each other.*

Functionally, there’s not much here you haven’t seen before, particularly if you’ve played any of the 3D Zelda titles; Amaterasu travels to little towns and across wide, open plains, visiting dank dungeons, sunken ships, bustling cities, frozen wastelands, and even shrinking down to meet the pixie-like Poncles. Thanks to the game’s unique visual presentation, though, every area feels like a fresh and distinct take on clichés such as the water- or wind-based temples. The miniature village of Ponc’tan stood out for me quite a bit as it was a surreal, magical little mushroom kingdom that was a far cry from the ostentatious reality of Sei’an City or the quiet simplicity of Sasa Sanctuary.

*The cel-shaded graphics really add to the game’s character and help it stand out*.

Each place you visit has something new to see and a distinct flavour to it; the aforementioned Sasa Sanctuary is populated exclusively by the Sparrow Clan, for example, while frozen village of Wep’keer is home to the shape-shifting Oina tribe. Even the lands that surround these areas are teeming with life and NPCs, from merchants and blacksmiths to deities and talking dogs, moles who want to play hide and seek, the lethargic Susano, a bear who is particularly fond of balancing on spheres, the unfriendly and demonic Mr and Mrs Cutter, and Yoichi, who professes to Nippon’s greatest archer. Each of these NPCs, and others, needs Amaterasu’s help in some way and is given a little introduction so you know who they are and brought to life through the game’s unique visual style and a number of quirky characteristics.

*Cutscenes are a mixture of in-game graphics and motion comic cinematics.*

Being an action/adventure game in the spiritual style of a 3D Zelda title, Ōkami features an abundance of cutscenes and dialogue; thankfully, you can skip these, though you’ll miss out on a lot of the game’s lore and information vital to your progression if you do. These cutscenes are rendered using both the in-game graphics and, at times, a kind of motion comic presentation where the narrator explains what’s going on as images are drawn onto a scroll. When characters do speak in the game, it’s largely through a combination of text boxes, pantomime, and a Banjo-Kazooie-like (Rare, 1998) gibberish, which I find endlessly charming, though it can be laborious having to constantly press A to advance the text. Worst of all is that, all-too-often, NPCs will waffle on and then finish talking, only for the game to indicate (though the presence of a green triangle over the NPC’s head) that the NPC has more to say; because of this, I’d advise pressing B rather than A so you don’t have to worry about accidentally jumping rather than continuing the conversation.

*The game mixes charming gibberish with a suitably Japanese soundtrack and aesthetic.*

In keeping with its heavily Japanese presentation, Ōkami also features a soundtrack that is distinctly Japanese; inspired by classical Japanese works, the game features a blending of traditional and modern Japanese musical sensibilities to create a suitably whimsical and magical sense of awe and scope to the game’s proceedings. However, while it’s functional enough and serves to bring life to the various areas and situations you find yourself in, I can’t say that it was particularly catchy or memorable.

Enemies and Bosses:
In keeping with the game’s off the wall visual style and influence from Japanese folklore and mythology, Ōkami is populated by a wide variety of demonic creatures and weird and wacky monsters for you to fight. While their appearances may change as you progress, and their attacks and ability to absorb damage may become more aggressive and formidable, respectively, you are pretty much taught the fundamentals of how to handle the majority of the game’s enemies in the first few hours of gameplay.

*Battling the different Imps will teach you the basics of tackling the majority of* Ōkami’s *enemies.*

The first types of enemies you’ll encounter are the Imps, which can either be Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, or Black; each one is slightly different, with the Blue Imps gliding in the air and needing to be slashed down, the Yellow Imps burrowing underground, and the Black Imps attack using the skulls of their victims. When you later encounter the Guardians, Namahage and Clay Army, you’ll find that these enemies are, essentially, stronger variants of the Imps and the same tactics can be used to defeat them regardless of how much tougher these later enemies are.

*The game’s tougher enemies will require a more strategic approach on your part.*

That’s not to say that the game doesn’t feature some pretty tough enemies; flying enemies like the Crow Tengu and Dead Fish can be troublesome since they like to block your attacks, the Wheel enemies require you to use your elemental brush techniques to make them vulnerable to attack (which can be difficult if you’re low on ink), and many of the larger enemies, such as the Ogres, are completely resistant to your attacks until you knock off their giant stone masks. Similarly, the Bud Ogre and Igloo Turtle will require your elemental brush techniques to get through their defences and, often (especially later in the game), you’ll be tasked with fighting a number of different types of enemies all at once, which requires a surprising amount of strategy at times.

*Get used to battling these bastard giant spiders!*

As you enter new areas and explore Nippon and the game’s dungeons, you’ll encounter new enemies and many of the bigger/tougher ones could be classed as sub-bosses. Each of Ōkami’s dungeons is, of course, capped off by a boss battle, each of which is unique in its execution. The first boss of the game, the Spider Queen, is actually one of the most annoying and frustrating bosses you’ll encounter as the only way to damage her is to use the vine technique to attach three vines from nearby Konohana Blossoms to the hooks on her butt. This will fell her and cause her abdomen to open up like a flower, allowing you a short window of time to attack the eye-like globs that act as her sole weak point. You better get used to this piece of shit battle, though, since you’ll fight three Bandit Spiders in the game’s hidden Devil Gate Trials and the Spider Queen as part of the Ark of Yamato’s boss rush.

*You’ll need to snuff out the Crimson Helm’s flames to deal actual damage.*

In comparison, the Crimson Helm is a veritable walk in the park, especially later when you have even more elemental powers at your disposal. This minotaur-like oaf charges at you wielding giant swords and covered in armour but you can lure him into crashing into pillars and attack him to break his armour off, and then use the wind technique to put out his flames and deal actual damage. Since you don’t need to worry about fighting the damn camera to expose the Crimson Helm’s weak point, this boss battle is actually enjoyable.

*Stun Orochi with Sake to destroy its bell and leave its heads vulnerable.*

After reaching the Moon Cave, you’ll battle the resurrected Orochi, the eight-headed dragon that has cursed the land and is the subject of such terror and legend. Though large and imposing, Orochi is pretty simple to put down as long as you’re patient and clever about it; to start with, Orochi is invulnerable thanks to his golden armour so you have to use Amaterasu’s water-bending technique to direct some Sake-infused water into three of Orochi’s heads until it collapses, which allows you to attack a bell on its back. Once you whittle the bell’s health down, Orochi will be vulnerable and you must contend with the different elemental and physical attacks of each head, stunning them with the same Sake-tainted water and destroying each in turn. Though tedious, it’s stupidly easy to avoid Orochi’s attacks, so the battle’s difficulty comes from having the patience to destroy Orochi’s heads and the skill and timing to complete an annoying quick-time event (QTE) that follows the main fight, which sees Susano deliver the final blow to Orochi.

*True Orochi is supposed to be Orochi’s peak form but it’s defeated just as easily as before.*

This isn’t, however, where the game ends; nor is it the last time you fight Orochi. When you briefly take a trip to a hundred years in the past, you’ll battle “True” Orochi, which is supposed to be Orochi at the peak of his powers…but it’s exactly the same as the previous battle, with the same level of difficulty and the same tactics, with the only difference being that the legendary warrior Nagi delivers the killing blow. You’ll also have to defeat Orochi one last time in the Ark of Yamato’s boss rush but you don’t have to complete the QTE that time, which is great since the game has a bit of trouble recognising that you’ve cut Orochi’s heads during these sequences.

*Blight’s speed is easily neutralised* *to leave it vulnerable to your charged attacks.*

After besting Orochi, the game’s bigger, far more expansive second half begins. The first boss of this next stage of the game is Blight, a possessed sword and suit of armour that is quite possibly the easiest boss in the game. Thanks to Amaterasu’s time-slowing “Veil of Mist” technique, you can slow Blight to a crawl for a few seconds, allowing you to dodge its attacks and attack it until its weak point, the possessed blade Goldnail, which can be easily dispatched using charged Glaive attacks.

*Some bosses can drain your ink or both block and counter your attacks.*

When you explore the sunken ship and the waters around Ryoshima Coast, you’ll encounter the gigantic Water Dragon, which cannot be defeated and must be fled from and then entered to retrieve a key item. While inside of the Water Dragon, you’ll battle the Tube Foxes and an evil form of one of your allies, Rao; the Tube Foxes exhibit a decent amount of agility and can drain your ink, which can be bothersome, while you’ll need to reflect Evil Rao’s daggers back at her and attack when she’s vulnerable on the ground. Neither are particularly difficult though Evil Rao reappears in one of the game’s more frustrating Devil Gate Trials where you have to not only fight multiple versions of Evil Rao but also the similarly-sword-wielding Wakka.

*You’ll need to direct lightning to Ninetails’ sword and destroy its spirits to deefat it.*

The final boss of the game’s second portion is Ninetails, a large, nine-tailed kitsune who can only be harmed by directing lightning to its sword; this splits Ninetails into nine ghostly humanoids who attack Amaterasu incessantly. As you weather their attacks and destroy them, you’ll reduce Ninetails’ tails; do this enough times and Ninetails will be reduced to a normal, one-tailed fox and be vulnerable to your attacks but it’s still best to deliver massive damage with Amaterasu’s Thunderstrike technique. Though big and able to copy many of Amaterasu’s, and even cancel out any brush techniques you use, the hardest thing about this boss is dealing with all of the spirits that Ninetails splits into since they don’t flinch after being attacked.

*Amaterasu battles Nechku and Lechku alongside other wolf allies.*

When you reach the conclusion of the Waku Shrine, the game’s final (and biggest) dungeon, you’ll battle the giant mechanical owl Nechku; this fight is relatively simple since Shiranui, Amaterasu’s past self who is significantly more powerful, does the majority of the leg work for you. After defeating Nechku, you travel deeper into the dungeon and battle it again, this time as Amaterasu and alongside another of her friendly rivals, the shape-changing Oki, and Nechku is joined by its twin, Lechku. In this case, you need to use your Celestial Brush to interact with one of the many different items the two whip out in order to stun them and then grab Oki and fire him like an arrow to deal greater damage. Having two bosses to contend with makes this one of the more challenging boss battles but it’s still far from difficult, especially since you can slow things down with the Veil of Mists, and neither Nechku or Lechku appear in the Ark of Yamato’s boss rush.

*Yami’s design is a bit underwhelming after all the mental shit we’ve seen up to this point…*

Speaking of which, be sure to save before you board the Ark of Yamato as you won’t be able to return once you enter. Inside, you’ll have to battle the Spider Queen, the Crimson Helm, Blight, Ninetails, and Orochi again one after the other (though you can rest up and save between each battle) in order to confront the game’s true final boss, Yami. Yami (which is just a giant, glowing sphere, which is a bit underwhelming after everything you’ve seen and fought up to that point) strips you of all of your abilities and you must attack it, dealing with its five different forms to regain your abilities. In its first form, it tries to smash you with either a hammer of its spherical body, causing holes to form in the floor of the arena (if you fall down them, you respawn in the arena but take damage) and attacking it restores your Rejuvenation, Power Slash, and Greensporout techniques, which allow you to crack open the sphere at deal actual damage to Yami’s core.

*Yami has multiple forms and attacks, each of which require your restored brush techniques.*

Yami’s second form sees it engulf itself in fire and split into platforms, launching flaming parts of itself at you and forcing you to do some tricky platforming or jumping to damage the core and restore your Cherry Bomb, Waterspout, and Crescent techniques. Its third form sees it launch fireballs and freezing ice blocks at you and forces you to attack a slot machine to conjure these attacks, missiles, and even health and ink pots. Its fourth form sees Yami sprout legs and tentacles, which whip at you and form into swords for you to use Thunderstrike on, and is the toughest of Yami’s base forms since it takes a little more to expose the core, which can absorb quite a lot of damage.

*Yami’s final form doesn’t hold back but it’s still not much of a challenge for your many abilities.*

For its final form, Yami sprouts a claw hand to protect its core, which constantly shields itself from your brush techniques. The only way to damage this final form is to use Sunrise to dispel the darkness in the arena, reflect missiles back at it, and attack the core when it busts out its massive laser. You can also deal damage by attacking Yami’s hand, which is easy enough to dodge, and its spherical shell to, eventually, stun it and expose the core to your more powerful attacks. This was the first time in the entire game I actually bothered to use items to increase my attack power as Yami can take quite a beating but, otherwise, this boss is tedious and long-winded but far from difficult.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Amaterasu has many options available to her to power-up her attacks and abilities; as mentioned, Gold Dust can increase the power of each of the Divine Instruments, which you can acquire after beating bosses, from weapons shops, or in treasure chests hidden throughout Nippon. You can also find and buy various Steel Fist Sake or Steel Soul Sake to increase your attack and defence, respectively.

*The Onigiri-Sensei will teach you all kinds of new attacks, like shitting to annoy your enemies…*

As you explore, you’ll be able to pay an extortionate amount of money to the Onigiri-Sensei to upgrade and learn new attacks and techniques. This allows you to add additional attacks and build greater combos, dodge (and counter attack after a dodge), double jump, increase your attack power by equipping two of the same type of Divine Instrument and, of course, piss or shit in the middle of battle to insult enemies and force them to drop Demon Fangs!

*Use your elemental brush techniques to solve puzzles and damage enemies.*

One of the main objectives Amaterasu has, beyond restoring peace to Nippon, is the awakening of the thirteen Celestrial Brush Gods and re-learning their brush techniques. Most of these are elemental based, allowing you to conjure and manipulate fire, water, and wind, while others are tied to nature, allowing you to blossom withered trees. You can use the different brush techniques to open doors, repair broken bridges, cause platforms and paths to appear, and to attack enemies, with certain enemies being vulnerable to certain elements.

*Slow down time, conjure bombs, and then spend a whole bunch of Yen upgrading your techniques.*

You can also use these techniques to slow down time, blow open cracked walls and floors with bombs, scale walls using cat statues, and freeze objects. You can perform multiple brush attacks at once but not in the same moment; so, if you want to do a Power Slash, draw a Cherry Bomb, and direct lightning to an enemy, you need to press and hold RB and draw with X in three separate instances rather than in one. By tossing an exorbitant amount of Yen into three Divine Springs, you can upgrade some of these abilities to make them stronger or allow you to draw more objects on screen at once.

Additional Features:
Ōkami has fifty-one Achievements for you to earn, the majority of which are worth a mere 10G each, even some of the more time-consuming and long-winded ones, and are directly tied to story-based events so they can’t be missed. Technically, the only ones you can potentially miss are the “No Furball on the Menu” Achievement (which requires you to quickly draw yourself a lily pad and then use an Inkfinity Stone to relentlessly conjure wind to quickly carry you safely to shore before the Water Dragon can eat you) and the “From Imps to Demons” Achievement since the Fire Doom Mirror can only be fought during one mission in the game. The others can be achieved with enough patience by earning loads of Praise and Yen to max out all of your abilities and attacks and making sure that you defeat every enemy you see and don’t die (which is pretty easy to do).

*Hunt down monsters and compete in races to earn Praise and Achievements.*

As you might imagine, there are a whole host of side quests to keep you busy as you play, with many of them resulting in you earning Praise, Yen, and an Achievement. One has four NPCs ask you to hunt down and destroy certain monsters, which is easy enough to do (simply interact with every Demon Scroll in the surrounding area and they’ll eventually crop up), while another has you winning races against three different opponents (well, I see “win” but you only really need to win one of these races; the others just require you to catch up to your opponent and tackle them in three separate, increasingly-difficult challenges).

*I can’t say that I was a fan of either of these mini games…*

There are also a few mini games to eat up your play time; one has you tackling moles for rewards and is optional but the other two, the digging and fishing mini games, are required to complete to progress the story and to earn all of the game’s Achievements. I struggled a bit with the fishing mini games at first since the game didn’t seem to want to register my brush strokes but then I must have either gotten better or the game decided to play along and let me draw the line and slash the fish without much issue. The digging mini games are a lot of trial and error that have you digging, bashing, slashing, and exploding rocks against a time limit while an NPC follows along, walking into spikes and needing to be guided to a specific point to unearth a treasure.

*The Kusa 5 are, apparently, even tougher than Orochi and must be fought in waves.*

There are also a couple of optional boss battles, of sorts; as part of the story, you have to find and recruit the five Canine Warriors and, after finishing Oni Island, you can return to the Gale Shrine to battle these five dogs once more. Known as the Kusa 5, you must fight them in both groups and waves. As in the initial battles against the dogs, they like to dash, jump, and tackle you, dig holes to bury you and hurt you with the dirt, and leave explosive turds to damage you. In this battle, they are said to be more powerful than Orochi and, while that’s certainly true, they’re actually slightly less bothersome to fight since they can be damaged without jumping through a bunch of hoops and you can always use the Veil of Mist technique for an advantage.

*You won’t last long in the Devil Gate Trials if you come unprepared.*

You can also learn a more powerful dig move to unearth three secret Devil Gate Trials; at first, these chasms are guarded by three Bandit Spiders but, when you return, you’ll have to pass through ten Devil Gates in succession, defeating wave upon wave of the game’s toughest and most annoying enemies. If you leave the area at any point, you’ll have to start all over again, so it’s best to stock up on items and equip the Wood Mat (which restores your health, at the cost of some Yen, when you leave Amaterasu idle) to heal up between gates. This, and the Kusa 5, are easily the most challenging parts of the game but challenging in a way that is tedious and annoying rather than necessarily difficult as, as long as you spam the Veil of Mist and equip the right Divine Instruments, you should be able to best each trial with the skills you’ve mastered.

*Upon completion, you’ll unlock a gallery and some skins to use in New Game+.*

After you defeat Yami and complete the game, you receive both a final evaluation and a number of awards, unlocking a gallery and such from the main menu and some skins to utilise in the game’s “New Game+” mode. When you play New Game+, you retain all of the progress you made in your first playthrough except for the brush techniques, some weapons, and a few Holy Artefacts and other items. This means that it’s pretty easy to finish upgrading any of Amaterasu’s abilities you missed the first time around and to make short work of the game’s earlier enemies but I’d recommend creating a save point before you enter the Ark of Yamato so you don’t have to play through the entirety of the game from the start to finish your Bestiary or treasure tome.

The Summary:
Ōkami is certainly a beautiful game to look at and play through and I can see why many praise its visual presentation and narrative; it’s a long, sprawling adventure that sees you exploring a unique and quirky fictional land, meeting and battling all kinds of characters and monsters, and certainly stands out against other games of its type. However, as lovely as it is to look at and as fun as it can be to play, I was often frustrated by a lot of little annoyances; the day/night cycle, for one thing, the camera’s jerkiness and clumsiness (especially in boss battles), for another, and the game’s unreliable nature when it comes to registering brush strokes. The platforming and jumping aspects can also be needlessly annoying and, at times, the hints and directions you get are far too vague. While this opens the game up to exploration and experimentation, it can be annoying to be stuck in a room or area with no idea of how to proceed and the map is less than helpful in this regard. Still, overall, it’s a solid title with some intense and engaging boss battles, a rich and intriguing lore, and plenty of side quests and distractions to constantly keep you busy.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

Have you ever played Ōkami? If so, did you play the original version or, like me, have you only experienced the HD version of the game? If you’ve played both, how do you find the HD version holds up compared to the original? What did you think to Ōkami’s unique world, characters, and lore? Did you find the game to be a bit too long and convoluted and the brush and camera to be less than reliable or were you engrossed in the game’s complex story and pleased with the game’s controls and mechanics? Which of the game’s areas, dungeons, bosses, and/or characters was your favourite and why? Would you like to see more from Ōkami or do you feel its best that it was one and done and how would you compare the game to others in its genre, like the Zelda series? Whatever your thoughts on Ōkami, feel free to leave a comment below.

Game Corner: Call of Duty 3: Gold Edition (Xbox 360)

13/01/202125/11/2022Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 2006
Developer: Treyarch
Also Available For: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox

The Background:
I know what you’re thinking: Why am I playing Call of Duty 3 when I haven’t played the first two? Well, it’s firstly because, to my great shame, I have to admit that I am not really a fan of the Call of Duty franchise (Various, 2003 to present), which has endured through multiple releases, spin-offs, and other related media over the years and collectively sold over 250 million copies. This is mainly due to two things: I’m not much for military-style shooters and my love for first-person games died out shortly after the release of Perfect Dark (Rare, 2000). A lot of this is due to my personal distaste for being shot in the back or by enemies I can’t see, struggling with the perspective and the controls, and generally just finding first-person shooters (FPS) difficult to navigate at the best of times. Also, a while ago I was gifted a copy of Call of Duty 3: Gold Edition for Xbox 360 and, having recently burned through the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy (Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games, 2016) set that came with my console (and since it is “CoD Month” here on my site), I figured I’d pop the disc in and give it a go if only to see if my bias against the series was justified and to obtain a bunch of Achievements.

The Plot:
Like the first two Call of Duty titles, Call of Duty 3 takes place during World War Two, specifically in 1944 and featuring missions relating to the Battle of Normandy that have you taking control of various silent protagonists that make up the Allied Forces of the United States, Britain, Canada, and Poland.

Gameplay:
Call of Duty 3 is a first-person shooter whose narrative is split between four different silent protagonists: Private Nichols of the American 29th Infantry Division, Sergeant James Doyle of the British Special Air Service (S.A.S.), Private Cole of the 4th Canadian (Armored) Division, and Corporal “Bohater” Wojciech of the Polish 1st Armored Division. While their mission objectives, weaponry, and resources differ, each character basically controls in the same way: you jump with the A button (an action that is largely useless), view distant targets through your binoculars by holding in the left analogue stick, switch weapons with Y, and reload with X.

COD3Controls — *The lack of a run option really hurts the pacing of the game.*

By pressing B, players can either crouch, go prone, or stand upright and each of these stances will affect your speed, aim, and level of stealth. When standing upright, for example, you’re more likely to be hit by incoming gunfire so it’s best to crouch behind cover or go prone to be largely undetectable to the Nazis. Unlike in subsequent Call of Duty titles, there’s no option to dash here, which is a major drawback when trying to navigate through heavy gunfire or keep up with your squad, so I’m glad that the developers fixed this in the game’s sequel. Pressing in the right analogue stick allows you to melee enemies and you can toss grenades or smoke bombs with either the Left and Right Buttons, respectively. Aiming and shooting is performed the Left and Right Triggers and you can choose to either shoot from the hip or aim down the sights of your gun with the Left Trigger. Given that the game’s setting and weapons are far more antiquated than those in later Call of Duty titles, this can be problematic as you don’t have the aid of a laser sight and the in-game reticule is largely useless, meaning that it can be difficult to get a good shot at your target, especially when they’re effectively camouflaged by the drab environments.

COD3Ambush — *Be sure to find some cover to avoid Nazi gunfire.*

As is largely the genre standard these days, you can recover your health by ducking behind cover and avoiding damage for a few seconds; you have to be mindful of your surroundings, though, as enemies are known to lob grenades at you and pop up out of nowhere to riddle you with bullets. The game also has an annoying tendency to endlessly spawn enemies into its environments until you reach specific points or objectives, so my usual tactic of clearing an area from a safe distance was largely ineffectual in this particular game. To help you head in the right direction, a compass sits in the bottom left of your heads-up display (HUD); this displays your allies, any enemies in the area, and a star marking your objective. Sadly, though, there’s no mini map and the compass doesn’t really take into account floors or layers, meaning it’s easy to get a bit lost and confused about how to progress (here’s a hint: try using your melee attack to break wood panels). Also, your objectives are only really accessible by pressing Select and they can often be a little too vague at times.

COD3Vehicles — *The tank missions are quite fun…the jeep missions are not.*

Gameplay is broken up a bit through the use of driving and tank sections; as Doyle, you’ll have to drive your team mates around in a jeep, avoiding Nazi soldiers, barricades, and tanks as you smash through gates and across fields and, as Bohater, you’ll get to control a tank, blasting at other tanks and soldiers. While the tank sections are fun, the jeep driving sections are not; the game defaults to a first-person view (which you can thankfully change by pressing in the right analogue stuck), the controls are both loose and slippery and clunky and stiff at the same time, and the compass is more of a hindrance than a help, especially in the mission where you drive around rescuing Maquis fighters. While stealth is an option in the game, it’s nowhere near as prominent as it would become in later Call of Duty titles. At the same time, the game features more quick-time events (QTEs) as Nazis will sometimes leap out at you and you’ll be forced to mash the shoulder buttons and then press a button to fend them off. The game is also a lot tougher than its successors, featuring far fewer checkpoints and much more durable enemies; these Nazis take a lot of bullets to put down, even on the game’s easier settings, making tasks such as holding out against their vast and infinitely-spawning forces a tall order in later sections of the game.

Graphics and Sound:
Despite rendering many of its locations with an impressive level of detail, Call of Duty 3 definitely shows its age even compared to its immediate follow-up. Character models are off, resembling action figures more than human beings, and the overall presentation of the game’s menus and various screens is bland and leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of this is exacerbated though the game’s use of in-game cutscenes, all of which are completely unskippable, which, while good for character and plot development, really don’t do the in-game graphics any favours. I found a couple of amusing glitches at times, too, that betray the age of the game, such as Nazis running through mid-air, spazzing out half-in-and-out of walls, and blinking in and out of existence. Luckily, though, when playing the game proper, locations, weapons, and vehicles all still look pretty impressive. There’s a definite attention to detail in all of the environments and the way the weapons look and feel to really recreate the feeling of war-torn Europe during the height of the Nazi regime.

COD3Cutscenes — *Unskippable cutscenes are the order to the day here.*

I’m even far more understanding of the long reload times for certain weapons as it adds to the aesthetic of the period the game is recreating, though it’s still way too easy to get turned around or lost and overwhelmed by the ceaseless German troops that swarm every area. Call of Duty 3 mostly makes use of period-fitting music and rousing military tunes to really set the tone for the game’s setting. Much of this is rendered mute during gameplay, however, when all you will hear is gunfire, explosions, and the inane dialogue of your team mates. There’s not a lot of variety here, sadly, as you’ll hear the same shouts of “Move, move, move!” and “Germans in the open!” and “Outta here!” over and over again, to say nothing of the constant repeated yells from your Nazi foes. During cutscenes, it doesn’t get much better, with the Nazis constantly being referred to as “Jerry” (I get this was a popular slang term for them but having every single character refer to them in this way every single time got old really fast) and a great deal of xenophobia and paranoia on display from your team mates. While this is, again, probably very true to the way things were during World War Two, and it does serve as a character arc for one of your team mates, it’s more annoying than anything and I would have loved to have to option to skip these cutscenes.

Enemies and Bosses:
When you play Call of Duty 3, you’re playing to cut down Nazi scum left, right, and center with no remorse or hesitation. There are literally no other enemies to encounter here, no other members of the Axis Powers to go up against; it’s just hate-filled Nazis from start to finish. Most of these are little more than cannon fodder to your superior weaponry and skills but their sheer numbers and nigh-unstoppable movement can still cut you to ribbons in seconds. This is aided by their ability to hide behind cover, jump out at you without warning, toss a Stielhandgranate at you, or bash at you with the butt of their rifles.

COD3Nazis — *Nazis just keep coming in nigh-unstoppable waves until you hit certain points.*

Ordinarily, I like to clear areas of all enemies to make for easier progression but Call of Duty 3 doesn’t always let you do that as Nazis continually spawn in until you reach certain parts of the map; at the same time, though, if you spot a Nazi sniper or manning a machine gun, it’s best to take those guys out quickly or you won’t last long. Call of Duty 3 doesn’t feature bosses in the traditional sense; perhaps the closest thing the game has to an actual boss is when you (as Bohater) have to awkwardly navigate your tank through a small village while exchanging shells with Richter, a Nazi tank ace known as the “Black Baron”. The rest of the time, you’ll be holding out against superior numbers, desperately trying to survive, plant explosives, or call in an air strike to fend off the Nazi invasion.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
Due to Call of Duty placing a greater emphasis on realism compared to other FPS titles, there aren’t really any power-ups or bonuses to be found in Call of Duty 3 beyond the large array of weaponry made available to you. You’ll be wielding all kinds of World War Two-style guns and rifles, many of which I found burn through their ammo quite quickly and have small capacities, meaning you’ll be liberating fallen Nazis of their hardware as-and-when required. You can only hold two weapons at a time, though, and it seems a lot of the opposition’s munitions are inferior to yours, so it becomes a question of strategy: do you grab a German rifle and risk being caught in a long reload cycle or do you stick with your American-made hardware and hope you have enough ammo? While there are vehicles to make use of, you’re relegated purely to driving duties when inside the jeep, which is a real shame as I much prefer shooting than driving. Luckily, Bohater and his tank are on hand to make up for that but, unfortunately, the game’s controls and environments are largely too clunky and awkward to really enjoy either experience.

Additional Features:
Call of Duty 3 features a number of different difficulty levels that increase, or decrease, the game’s challenge and, of course, a bunch of Achievements. You’ll get a fair few of these simply by playing through the game’s main single-player campaign but others require you to fulfil certain tasks, such as throwing five grenades back at your enemies, driving off a ramp while in your jeep, avoiding damage, or using only German weapons. Given that is an FPS title, Call of Duty 3 also includes a multiplayer component but, unfortunately, it’s only available to those with Xbox Gold so I wasn’t able to see if it’s still active. From what I can gather, though, it sounds like the standard player vs. player death match you can find in any other FPS title, though it seems like an odd decision to not include a split-screen multiplayer mode that you can play offline as well. If you have the Gold Edition of the game, it also comes with five free extra maps for this mode and a bonus DVD with making of features and interviews, if you like that sort of thing.

The Summary:
I’ll admit, it’s hard for me to get excited or interested in a Call of Duty title; they’re just not that interesting to me and all I wanted to do was burn through and grab the Achievements and call it a day but…man, Call of Duty 3 is not very good at all. It’s so weird how the very next game in the series is leaps and bounds above this one in terms of presentation, options, and accessibility. Obviously, you have to cut it some slack as it’s quite an old game now but, still…I found nothing in Call of Duty 3 that improved my view on the franchise and was more frustrated than anything thanks to the unskippable cutscenes, dodgy vehicle controls, near-useless compass/map system, constantly respawning enemies and graphical glitches, and the sheer mind-numbing repetitiveness of the game’s dialogue and gameplay and I can’t say I’m interested in seeing what the previous two titles were like after slogging through this mess.

My Rating:

Terrible

What did you think of Call of Duty 3? Where does it stand in your ranking of the Call of Duty titles? Do you think I have committed the ultimate sacrilege by besmirching the good name of the Call of Duty franchise or do you agree that the series is somewhat over-rated and stagnated? Whatever you think, drop a comment below and be sure to check back next week for another Call of Duty review.

Game Corner: Burnout Paradise: Remastered (Xbox One)

08/01/202127/01/2022Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 16 March 2014
Originally Released: 22 January 2008
Developer: Criterion Games
Also Available For: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Original Version); Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 (Remaster)

The Background:
The Burnout franchise is a series of racing games developed by Criterion Games that began with the appropriately-titled Burnout (ibid, 2001) and is best known for its fast-paced, arcade style racing and its innovative crash mechanics and physics. Now, traditionally, I’m not really one for racing games; it’s not really my thing and I tend to stay away from anything that isn’t a mascot racer. In 2011, though, you may remember that millions of PlayStation Network accounts were compromised; as a means of compensation, players were offered a number of free games, one of which was Burnout Paradise, a title I ended up enjoying so much that I bought a physical copy some time later.

*Unlike is predecessors,* Burnout Paradise was more of an open world racing game.

Unlike the other games in the Burnout series, Burnout Paradise is an open world game designed around exploration, online play, and racing without predefined tracks. Though the developers had to work hard to justify these new elements with the game’s sceptical publisher, Electronic Arts, Burnout Paradise was met with a generally positive response from critics and was supported by lots of downloadable content (DLC) that included additional cars, gameplay modes, and a whole new island to explore. The vast majority of this content was included in the Remastered version of the game, which also included support for higher-resolution monitors and ran at sixty frames a second. Considering how much fun I had with the original version of the game, I was delighted when a friend of mine gifted me the Remastered version so I could get back to racing through the streets, taking down cars with reckless abandon, and bopping along to the game’s awesome soundtrack.

The Plot:
Welcome to Paradise City, a large, urban environment where racing is the aim of the game. With guidance from DJ Atomika, you are shown the basics of how to race in Paradise City with the ultimate aim to upgrade your driving licence and earn a whole collection of top quality motors.

Gameplay:
Burnout Paradise: Remastered is an open world racing game in which you drive around the fictional Paradise City taking part in a series of races and other challenges to upgrade your driving license, unlock some cool cars, and be the most respected driver in the entire city. There isn’t really a “story” to speak of or a character to play as; all of the cars are empty, the streets are completely devoid of pedestrians, and while the motorbikes do have a rider, they disappear if you get into one of the game’s signature wreck sequences. As a result, the vehicles take centre stage and the only character the game really has is DK Atomika, a radio DJ who acts as your guide and talks you through the basics of the game’s controls, objectives, and offers advice as you’re driving around.

*Build up your Boost meter to blast ahead in a burst of nitrous!*

There are a variety of vehicles on offer in Burnout Paradise: Remastered, each with their own unique statistics and abilities, though all control largely similar: you press and hold in the Right Trigger to accelerate, use the Left Trigger to brake and reverse, glance behind you with the Left Bumper and switch camera positions with the Y button, and press X to use your emergency brake (or “E brake”) to perform drifts and power slides and such. As you drive, you’ll also build up a Boost meter in the bottom left of the screen; once it’s full, you can initiate a nitrous boost with the X button to blast ahead and dramatically increase your speed and odds in races. The type of car you have determines how long your Boost meter is and how effective it is; while “Speed” orientated cars have the smallest meter that drains once you press and hold A, heavier vehicles allowing for a three-tiered Boost meter, and “Stunt” orientated cars build their meter by performing special tricks and jumps.

*Take part in a number of events, my favourite of which involve smashing up other cars!*

Choosing the right type of vehicle is the key to completing all of the game’s various racing challenges (known as “Events”); you may have to sacrifice speed for strength to survive “Marked Man” challenges but heavier cars won’t serve you too well in the longer races. In Burnout Paradise: Remastered, you can pull up and stop at multiple sets of traffic lights throughout the city and initiate an Event by pressing LT and RT together and there are multiple types of Events on offer. Each vehicle has their own unique Burning Route, a timed event that awards you an alternative version of the vehicle you use (with Burning and Midnight Rides substituting for the bikes); Marked Man has you race to a specific point on the map while a number of cars try to take you down; a Race is simply that: you start at one point and race to another, generally against more opponents and across a longer, more difficult distance as the game progresses; Road Rage has you perform a set number of takedowns within a time limit; and Stunt Run has you performing power slides, jumps, and a variety of other tricks to build up a required amount of points.

*Use the mini map and landmarks to help navigate the city as fast as possible.*

There are a couple of other Events on offer as well, such as Road Rules, Time Road Rules, and Showtime Road Rules, which see you setting speed and damage runs within a time limit for the benefit of the online leaderboards. You can use the directional pad (D-pad) to restart an Event if you mess up or are about to lose and the D-pad also accesses a separate menu for online functionality. Navigating Paradise City is pretty simple thanks to the mini map in the bottom right of the screen, which clearly shows the main road through the city and the many twisting, turning side roads and country lanes; it also highlights your opponents and nearby points of interest, like the Auto Repair shops that repair your car when it has taken damage and the Junk Yards where you can switch vehicles. If you need a better view, you can access a larger, more detailed map from the pause screen and filter it to show these landmarks, and others, which are added to your map as you pass by them while driving. Sadly, though, there’s no way to set a route to follow and no fast travel features but there are plenty of recognisable landmarks (such as the airfield, the football stadium, and the country club) and, as you’re racing towards a destination, street signs appear at the top of the screen and blink left or right so you always know when to turn…just be prepared to apply a little E-brake for tight corners.

*Smash your car up to your heart’s content but don’t be surprised if it affects your racing performance.*

Of course, the biggest selling point of the game, and the franchise, are the elaborate crashes; as you’re driving along at high speeds, you’ll have to dodge other vehicles and obstacles such as walls and bollards. If you clip or crash head-first into these, you’ll be treated to a stunning visual of your vehicle crumpling like paper or flipping over and over. If the crash is only minor, you might get lucky enough to simply drive away from it but, if it’s more serious, your car will get wrecked and you’ll need to visit an Auto Repair to fix it up. There is no game over, though, so you don’t need to worry about the game ending because of damage but if you get too smashed up you won’t last long in Events so it’s best to either repair the damage or switch to a tougher vehicle.

Graphics and Sound:
As a racing title, the main thing Burnout Paradise: Remastered needs to worry about is performing consistently well at high speeds and rendering its large, multifaceted city. Thankfully, the game excels at both as I experienced no slowdown at all even when racing against multiple opponents and the city flies past at breakneck speed, never glitching or suffering from pop up or loads times, which are effectively masked by the city’s vast size and various areas. The only times I found the game slowed down was when you were in the Junk Yard, especially when you visit after unlocking a number of new vehicles, as each one has to load in and there’s no way to skip past these sequences.

*Each vehicle has its own strengths, weakness, and capabilities that affect your driving experience.*

Burnout Paradise: Remastered features a wide variety of cars, bikes, and other vehicles, all of which are based heavily on real-world vehicles but changed for legal purposes. You’ll get to drive sports cars, muscle cars, racing cars, jeeps, coupes, and even massively impractical piston engines on wheels. There are also a selection of motorcycles on offer, cop cars and other emergency vehicles, vehicles based on iconic cars from television shows and movies, and even miniature toy cars. I’m no really a “car guy” but I was impressed by the game’s wide selection and the detail on offer; each vehicle controls a little differently and even crashes a little differently so you can mix and match and experiment to see what’s best for you in any given situation. It’s not easy to do this, though, since you have to travel to a Junk Yard to switch cars, which can take a while if you’re stuck in the mountains, but the majority of the cars can also be customised with paint jobs in the Junk Yard are by driving through a Paint Shop.

*The game performs really well; it’s super fast and smooth and has lots of detail packed in.*

Paradise City itself is the game’s most impressive feature; it’s a massive city, with lots to do and see, and it’s just fun to simply drive around aimlessly listening to some tunes and looking for things to smash through. Numerous tracks will play from the in-game radio; these can be skipped using RB and customised from the main menu and include classic music, original tracks from the previous Burnout games, and some kick-ass tunes from the likes of Sense Fail, Alice in Chains, Twisted Sister, and, of course, the game’s title track: “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses. The game also features a day/night cycle that you can customise the length of from the pause menu, which is a neat feature, and there are numerous landmarks to see all over the place. You’ll also stumble across fun little side areas to mess around in, such as a number of parking lots for big jumps, a quarry pit, and a railroad track and the game’s size and scope is further expanded with a visit across the bridge to Big Surf Island, where a host of additional challenges await.

Enemies and Bosses:
As it’s a racing game, there’s no real “enemies” in the traditional sense; one of the main things you’ll need to worry about as you race around the city are the many hazards that can wreck your car, from small stuff like walls and bollards to major things like oncoming traffic or rocky cliffs. When racing in Events, your main enemy will, of course, be the other racers; these start off pretty simple, with one or two cars putting up a little bit of competition, but as your license upgrades you’ll find the opponents start taking multiple different routes to the end goal and are much tougher to beat. One thing that is helpful, though, is that you can take the other drivers down to give yourself an edge in a race; they’ll return to the fray but it can be enough to buy you some time to pull ahead.

*Be sure to take down other drivers and pick a tough vehicle to keep from being wrecked.*

You’ll face far more aggressive opposition in Marked Man and Road Rage Events; in the former, black cars will try to ram you off the road and wreck your car and, in the latter, you’ll be doing this to a certain number of vehicles. Again, at first, this isn’t so hard; you can race up behind and alongside the cars to shove them into oncoming traffic, walls, and other opponents to build up a multiplier bonus which is always fun but, as the game progresses, the opponents get faster and much more aggressive so it’s worth switching to a car with more strength and durability than a flimsy sports car.

*Shut down cars racing around the city to add them to your collection.*

Similarly, there are no “bosses” as such but, as you win Events and upgrade your licence, new vehicles will appear throughout Paradise City. When these race past you, you have to chase after them and take them down in order to add that vehicle to your Junk Yard. Again, chasing down cars and smashing them up makes for some of the most entertaining aspects of the game but it’s a bit random when they’ll appear and fly past you and, as the map doesn’t highlight them, you’ll have to keep your eyes open when there’s a few out in the wild.

Power-Ups and Bonuses:
There’s only really one power-up available to you in the game and that’s the aforementioned Boost function. The Boost meter is built up by performing takedowns, stunts, and racing along, and really is the most valuable tool in your arsenal as it allows you to quickly catch up to cars to take them down or blast past them to the finish line. The downside, though, comes when you drive a vehicle that blows through its Boost meter in one go and the boost you receive can make certain cars careen out of control and into incredible crashes.

*Repair your car or refill your Boost mid-race to gain a significant advantage.*

Otherwise, your power-ups are tied towards the type of vehicle you use; faster cars with a decent Boost meter are good for most of the game’s Events but can cause you to be easily smashed up. As a result, it’s best to keep an eye out for the Auto Repair Shops to repair any damage and refill your boost at other drive-throughs, both of which are super handy mid-race to give you an edge.

*Smash through billboards and gates and tackle Super Jumps to earn Achievements.*

As you explore Paradise City, you’ll find numerous gates and giant billboards to crash through; if you spot these, make sure you crash into them at every opportunity as you’ll learn a handy shortcut and take one step towards earning the game’s numerous Achievements. In addition, scattered throughout the city are a number of jumps and Super Jumps, many of which will have you crashing through one of the 120 billboards and are guaranteed to be found atop the parking lots. You’ll want to reverse up a bit, though, and get a good run up and time your boost to really fly through the Super Jumps and make sure you stick the landing or you might fail the jump.

Additional Features:
As mentioned above, the game features a number of Achievements; fifty-six, in fact. From what I can tell from my memory of the PlayStation 3 version’s Trophies, these are actually a little different than those seen in the original game and include such things as upgrading your licence, landing a certain number of Super Jumps, getting a takedown multiplier, winning Events, and so forth. You can easily burn through a whole bunch in just an hour or so of play but you’ll need to hunt high and low to find all the billboards and gates to smash through.

*Take on a variety of online modes or drive the famous Delorean in hover mode!*

Thanks to being the most complete version of the game, Burnout Paradise: Remastered includes all of the DLC from the original game; this means you can jump in a variety of police cars (each of which comes with a siren you can toggle on and off) to race around in. These cop cars are also used in the game’s online mode as a “Capture the Flag” style game where four players, as the cops, must chase four others as the robbers. You can also challenge online players to ranked and unranked races, Freeburn Challenges, and variations of the usual in-game Events, as well as have your best times and scores uploaded to the online leaderboards. Toy versions of certain cars are also freely available as are the “Legendary Cars”, which offer vehicles based on the Knight Industries Three Thousand (K.I.T.T.), ECTO-1, and the DeLorean time machine, amongst others. I found myself drawn towards these simply for their speed and iconography and the fact that you can put the DeLorean into hover mode!

*Hop on over to Big Surf Island to take on a whole new bunch of challenges.*

Finally, there’s Big Surf Island, a massive extra area to explore that is accessed via a bridge. Big Surf Island is smaller than Paradise City but pretty big in its own right and is home to a whole new load of billboards, gates, and jumps (here called “Mega Jumps”) as well as new cars (most of which you’ll have access to from the start) and Events that see you having to race to specific checkpoints across the island. One thing to keep in mind about Big Surf Island, though, is that nothing you do there contributes to upgrading your driving licence; instead, the points go towards building up your “Big Surf Island License”, which is levelled up to 100% by completing everything the island has to offer.

The Summary:
Now, I’m not really a fan of cars or racing, much less racing games; all of my car knowledge comes from Top Gear (specifically from 2002 to 2015) and my experience with racing games is limited to a few arcade titles and kart/mascot racers. Yet, I really enjoyed Burnout Paradise and, as such, found this Remastered version just as enjoyable, if not more so thanks to the inclusion of all of the DLC right off the bat so you have everything the game has to offer available to you. If you enjoy racing, the game has you covered. Stunts and such? It’s not for me but it’s in there. Maybe you’re more like me and you prefer the high speed crashes and taking down other cars by shoving them into the path of an oncoming bus without mercy. If so, this is the game for you. Simple to play, with loads to do and see, and fun to just drive around aimlessly, Burnout Paradise: Remastered is a great game to just throw on for an hour or so and unwind after a stressful day, taking part in some super fast races, ridiculous crashes, and listening to some great tunes while you do it.

My Rating:

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Burnout Paradise and the Burnout franchise? If so, which game is your favourite and what is it about the games that you like? Did you pick up this Remastered version of the game; if so, how do you think it compares to the original? What is your favourite racing game franchise? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below and let me know.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Fantastic

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Great Stuff

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My Rating:

Could Be Better

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My Rating:

Pretty Good

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My Rating:

Terrible

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My Rating:

Fantastic

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