Philosoraptor

Did I miss your write-up for Destiny of an Emperor? I've been curious about this one for a long time. Edit: Found it! Interesting. I'll put this one on my short list to play for the near future then. I'm also trying to also thin the collection, and this might be a candidate for the for sale shelf.

Yup! You hinted at it, but during my research, I found out by the way we measure lag today, CRTs do have lag. Because they draw the picture in lines starting from the top left and ending at the bottom right and because input lag is typically measured in the middle of the screen, even though CRTs start displaying the picture nearly instantaneously, it takes 16.6 milliseconds to finish drawing the frame, making a CRT's lag measurement typically .0083 seconds. Since I don't own a CRT, my measurements are just the best approximations I could make with a phone camera running at 60fps. I didn't factor in a CRT's input lag at all. I'd hold the controller up to the screen with the ship or character in the background and press a button to get movement. Later, I'd count the frames to determine how long it'd take the display to respond when the button was fully depressed on the controller. It's low tech, but it's what I had. I also ended up doing it for a bunch of handhelds just because I was curious, and they mostly ended up with response times of .06 or .07 seconds for the games I tested (first-party games, mostly). I also pulled the specs for my screens off of various review sites. My monitors have .011 seconds of lag, and my TV has around .025 seconds of lag in its native resolutions (1080p and 720p) and as much as .047 seconds of lag for 480i (RIP PS2 and Dreamcast SHMUPS). So, the rest of the lag I measured is coming from the game itself, the console, or the controller (for example, the wireless Retro Fighters N64 controllers I own do introduce a little extra lag over official wired Nintendo controllers). I didn't own a Retrotink when I took the initial measurements, but after I took them, it was clear I needed an upscaler to get to my TV's native resolution. The Retrotink 5X Pro has about .004 seconds of lag, which is negligible. It ended up shaving ~.02 seconds off the response times for the PS2 games I tested later and made them prettier in the process. Interesting. I'd never thought of it in terms of programming. That's fascinating! That makes a ton of sense and explains why none of my measurements on handhelds ever got below .06 seconds. I agree with you that a CRT is the gold standard and is the closest thing you can get to zero lag. And yep. I considered buying a new TV as well, but the input lag I was getting post-Retrotink wasn't enough to warrant the purchase. Almost all my measurements were .07 or .08 seconds of lag on my TV. Smash Ultimate ended up being .09. If I really, really need near lagless input, I can always hook something up to my monitor, which is about a frame faster. The only console that routinely spat out over .1 seconds of lag was the Retron 5 (.1-.14 seconds, specifically). The only other major blip I measured was Cotton 2 on the Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute. It had .15 seconds of lag, but it's also known to be a very, very laggy game. The TV I did my tests on was a LCD TV I bought from a Wal-Mart in the 2000s. If you're playing on original hardware with even a decent TV, you're probably not going to notice input lag. If you use a CRT, that's a best-case scenario. The only reason I got curious is I felt some games were sluggish, especially when playing on the Retron 5 and playing PS2 SHMUPs. .08ish seconds feels good to me, and I don't notice anything really amiss with the game. At .10 seconds or more, I start noticing more of a delay and make more mental complaints about "I jumped" or "I pressed the button."

So, you can craft six different types of items: Healing Items - Heals Plushkins inside and outside of battle. Assist Items - Increases Plushkin recruitment chances at the end of battles and and speeds up crafting item generation in the garden. Bloom Items - Unlocks a Plushkin's talents. Awaken Items - Raises a Plushkin's level cap. Equipment Items - Improves various stats. Each Plushkin can equip one item. Evolve Items - Evolves your Plushkin when they reach a certain level. Crafting materials can be obtained at randomly generated gathering points in the dungeon or by planting and harvesting seeds in the garden. So, if you have bad luck in the dungeon, you can just plant a bunch of seeds and gather the rewards later. It takes either 10 or 30 minutes from planting to harvest, but some Plushkins can reduce that time and you can use Assist items to speed it up as well. Honestly, the only thing I really found to be worthwhile to craft were equipment items. When a Plushkin levels up, their HP is restored, which really negates the need for healing items for most the game. Bloom, Awaken, and Evolve items are also OK, but your starter Plushkin evolves at certain points in the story by itself without you having to use items, and you're likely to recruit or get better Plushkins in the gacha before needing to evolve or improve them. Unlike Pokemon, the level caps and total stats of each Plushkin are tied to their "Rank," which can be from D to S. It seemed like the stat totals of every similarly ranked Plushkin were the same, just with different stat distributions. The level cap for D is 20, and it increases 10 levels for every rank up to S, which has a level cap of 60. I never used Assist items to improve recruitment chances, but I'm sure they're also OK. Probably more useful if you want a certain Plushkin or if you want to "catch 'em all." However, the equivalent of your Pokemon PC in this game only holds 60 Plushkin at a time (there are 135 total). So a "living dex" is impossible in this game. Pretty much. I found it to be a good "turn your brain off" game. It's also a good pick-up-and-play game, as each dungeon really only takes about 20 minutes to get through, you can leave a dungeon at any time with no penalty, and there's a save point in the hub world. Some chapters require you to get through as many as six dungeons, but most of them require you to get through one or three.

It's been a bit! Unlike the last time, life caught up to me and I haven't had much time to play video games. After Sumez made some great comments back in July about lag and response time, I did some science and measured them on a bunch of games, systems, and TVs/monitors to determine how much lag I was getting. I don't own a CRT, but I do have several computer monitors and flatscreen TVs. First off, I determined that about .08 seconds of input lag feels good to me. Less is obviously better, but I start noticing lag at about .10 seconds. I also found out my TV only adds .01 seconds of lag when it's outputting its native resolution (1080p), but adds more for older, lower resolution outputs. This is apparently common in the industry, especially for non-gaming TVs. It costs more money to make older input types and lower resolutions run as fast as the native resolution, and that's an easy way for manufacturers to cut costs. Most people aren't trying to plug in a SNES to a flatscreen anyway. The first remedy was simply plugging in my old consoles again. I discovered Retron 5 adds about .04 seconds of lag across the board, which pushes basically every console it supports over .10 seconds of input lag, at least for the games I tested. That's fine for RPGs and games that usually need translations, but not for anything that requires precise reaction times. Edit* This may be because the Retron 5 outputs in 720p, not 1080p. My TV upscales 720p to 1080p, so not everyone may have this issue or this much input lag with a Retron 5. The other remedy was getting a Retrotink 5X Pro. On top of adding a bunch of really nice filters, interlacing options, and inputs, it upscales and outputs those inputs to 1080p without adding really any input lag at all. This lets my TV output the signal from whatever console I'm playing in its native resolution and further cut input lag. Sadly, during this whole process, I found out both my Game Gears and my SNES were dead. The Game Gears probably just need recapping, but I couldn't figure out what was happening with my SNES. I ended up buying a modded SNES Jr. that outputs using a YPbPr component cable, and upon arrival, it didn't work either. Turns out my two OEM power bricks were actually the issue. After getting a replacement, not only did the SNES Jr. work, but so did my original SNES. Oh well. The SNES Jr has some game incompatibilities anyway that my version 1 SNES doesn't, so it has some use. _______________________________________________________ Anyway, since my last post, I've only beaten two games: Mario Kart 7 and Moco Moco Friends. I'm not going to go into how great Mario Kart 7 is because it's more or less Mario Kart 8-lite without a versus mode. If you like 8, you'll like 7. 9.5/10. Moco Moco Friends, however, I will talk about. At 27 chapters, the game ends up being about 30 hours long, but the amount of content, intrigue, and fun certainly don't fill the runtime. Honestly, this game would be better served at half that length with an extended postgame. The goal of the game is to recruit plushkins (monsters) and eventually be rewarded with essentially an "outstanding achievement" award for helping people and solving problems. To recruit Plushkins, you can either spin the gacha using currency you get in game (like Yo-Kai Watch) or recruit them after battle at a low chance (like the MegaTen games). The characters, while annoying to some, are almost ubiquitously airheads. Their voiced catchphrases, like "Heaven! HEAVEN! Ulu-luuu" and "Muka Chakka Fire" can grate after the 30th time, though. There's little to no character growth, and, aside from the few twists at the end, what you get in chapter 1 is what you get in chapter 27. Dungeon-wise, this game is super bland. Almost every "randomized" dungeon is three floors (two exploration floors and a boss floor) with between 3 and 7 rooms. The only exception to the rule is the very last dungeon, which has an extra exploration floor for a total of *gasp* four floors. Enemies are visible on the maps, as are resource gathering points, but if you fight everything in the game, the difficulty curve is really fair. The battle system is a 3v3 turn-based strategy affair. Statuses, especially sleep, are super busted. Not only will enemies not always wake up when hit (seems like maybe a 33% chance), but you can hit them with sleep again while they're asleep to prolong the status. Once they're asleep, your spells and attacks (all of which have at least a 10% chance of missing), always hit. Most of the game was spent with my starter plushkin spamming AOE spells while another spammed AOE sleep spells and the third attacked. Each spell costs a certain amount of AP. However, Moco has a pool of shared AP for all her plushkins, which is recovered at the end of every turn. So there's at least some strategy to battling. Sleep only costs 1 AP, though, and Moco recovers at least 2 AP at the end of every turn. Busted. The plushkins themselves are usually well designed and cute, but the how they distributed them across the runtime could have been improved. There's 135 of them, but you only really start running into new ones 20 chapters in. So you see the same 25 or so plushkins or their evolutions for most of the game, and you have to recruit the other 20 evolution lines in relatively few chapters if you're inclined to recruit them all. Overall, it's alright. It just gets a lower grade for: Being too repetitive. Not having a skip button for dialogue (everyone gets a few lines, making every interaction much longer and tedious than it needs to be). Introducing a bunch of resource gathering and crafting mechanics that become useless with the post-battle recruitment system AND being able to game the gacha system to pull rarer and more desirable ones by saving before pulling and resetting when you get skunked. Never really having any revelations when it comes to dungeon design or battles. Moco Moco Friends could have been so much more. Instead, for me, it's a 5.5/10.

Bump for the weekend!

There's been a bit of a paradigm shift with my short-term goals. I still plan on playing 75 games this year, but I've been focusing on quick playtesting sessions in hopes of selling games and streamlining the collection.

Bump!

I have official Sony component cables. However, I will fully admit that my SHMUP setup isn't ideal. My only TV is a 40'' LCD flatscreen from 2010. So, my only real option I have for Ibara is yoko. Even IF I could play it in tate, it's stretched because Ibara only outputs in 4:3 and my TV is 16:9. I still get an unstretched, 19ish inch picture out of it, so yoko isn't the end of the world. I sadly also don't have a Gameshark. I had no idea it could do those kinds of things. Mushihimesama is the other PS2 SHMUP that's often panned for blurry visuals. I have it both on the PS2 and Switch, so maybe I'll play both over the weekend and see which is better. Yup, that's accurate. The Arrange mode in PS2 Ibara is like a version 1.5 between the arcade version and Ibara Kuro, which I've never played or seen. Apparently, Kuro has a second character, is harder, and has different scoring from both the arcade version and the arrange version. I will say that I do like the arrange mode more because it does play more similarly to a more traditional Cave SHMUP. However, I'll also say that the blurry visuals and bad colors on the PS2 arcade version are the vast majority of the reason why I prefer the arrange mode. If it was an arcade-perfect port on the PS2 in the correct resolution, I'd honestly say they're as good as each other. However, with one being blurry and the other having enhanced visuals, it's a tougher sell to say they're as good as each other in this package, at least for me. Take it with a grain of salt, though, because my setup isn't ideal. Maybe a Gameshark and a CRT in tate makes a tangible difference. Regardless, I'm also hoping for an M2 port. They've done fantastic work so far.

Interesting! I didn't know any of that. Very cool. If I were to pick a favorite Cave series, I'd probably go with Dodonpachi. I still think Ibara is a fantastic game, hence the 8/10 9/10. Honestly, I didn't play the arrange mode, and I only focused on the original arcade mode. I'll play the arrange mode and post a follow-up with my thoughts. Maybe it'll improve my opinion of the game. Spoiler alert - it did. I've never played the PCB, but I just watched a couple of videos of both, and the PS2 one is significantly muddier. From what research I did, it seems to be that the PS2 runs at 480i, while the arcade runs at 240p. Also, aside from bombing at especially chaotic areas in the main stages, there's no slowdown at all in the PS2 version. I think I might have noticed some slowdown once in my many playthroughs. If you want a 1:1 arcade port, the arcade mode in the PS2 version isn't it. *Edit—I just finished playing some of the arrange mode, and it's essentially a completely different game. It has weapon select, your ship slows down when firing, your ship fires bullets faster, and enemy bullets are brighter and easier to see (bright pink instead of purple). Honestly, this mode does make a difference in my scoring, and the mechanics are more to my liking. I'm bumping it up to a 9/10.

I got lazy about writing up reviews for a while, but I didn't stop playing games or writing reviews in my spreadsheet. Since the last post in early March, I've beaten 32 games and met two of my three goals for the year: beat 50 games combined for consoles I don't tend to play as often (32X, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Mega Drive, PS1, PS2, PSP, PS Vita, Sega CD, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox), and beat one game on each of those consoles. My only other goal this year was to beat 75 games, and I'm still well short of that. Anyway, I'm not going to flood everyone with a thirty-two bullet wall of text with my thoughts on each game, so I'll just give the highlights. I'm also trying to better weigh my ratings against how good a game was when it came out versus its contemporaries. Games with high grades on older consoles might not still be a blah/10 game but I feel that they were at least a blah/10 game at the time. I have been retroactively adding ratings in my spreadsheet for how good and fun I think the game is today, but I omitted them from this list because it just ends up being too many ratings. I might include them in smaller write-ups in the future, though. As for what blah/10 means, I'm still going by Reed's excellent scale: Mario Tennis Aces (Switch)—A return to form, if you will, from the abysmal Ultra Smash. They still left out things I want to see in a tennis game, like five-set matches. I can understand why did that for online play, but at least give me the option to bore my friends locally, dammit. I also still think they haven't nailed down the size of the characters relative to the court, so the court seems very small compared to the early entries. Also, the racket-breaking gimmick is fine, but I wouldn't say it adds much positively or negatively. 8.5/10 Arcana Heart (PS2)—I'm only mentioning this one because decisions were made when putting this game on a disc. Instead of the updated version with "rebalanced" characters being the default, they instead opted to make the more poorly received initial arcade release the default. Even worse, they didn't even give you an option of playing one or the other from the main menu like sane people would; instead, you have to go into the "Interface" and switch the option to "Full" to get the updated version. Stupid. Otherwise, it's an old-school 2D fighter with a cheap final boss that released in 2008, making it outdated compared to deeper fighting games like Guilty Gear on day one. 6/10. KOF PS2 games (2006, Maximum Impact, XI)—All good in their own right. All of them = 8/10. Guilty Gear Judgment (PSP)—What happens when you take fighting game characters (including their combos) and plop them into a side-scrolling brawler? Well, in this case, middling dreck. And that's not because of the 21 playable characters; it's because of the bland stages, lack of enemy variety, and bland bosses. 6/10 Super Monkey Ball 1, 2, Banana Splitz (GC, GC, Vita)—Everyone's favorite digitized marble labyrinth game series, Super Monkey Ball shines in these three entries. Well, mostly. I can't recommend the Vita one as much as the ones on the Gamecube because the controls feel less precise, but 1 and 2. Hell yeah. 2 is probably one of my favorite games of all time with its array of challenging stages, dialed-in controls, and fun mini games. 1 is not too shabby either. If you haven't had a chance to play these, give 'em a shot. 1 = 9.5/10, 2 = 10/10, Vita = 7.5/10 Super Smash Bros. Melee (GC)—Not my favorite in the series because of the buginess. However, it's still a fantastic fighter chock-full of things to do and fun to be had. 9.5/10 Capcom vs. SNK 2EO (GC)—Worth mentioning because characters' special moves are mapped to various directions on the C-stick, making this an approachable fighter for newcomers. However, the control format that uses the C-stick doesn't also allow you to use the face buttons, meaning players who have put in the hours can be more precise and land better combos with the normal face buttons. 9/10 Dead or Alive games (3, Ultimate 1, Ultimate 2 [Xbox])—Ultimate 2 is the winner of this bunch with it's insane number of unlockables, lots of characters, and smooth gameplay. Strangely, I think the first DOA game runs better and is more fun on the PS1 than it is in DOA Ultimate, even with the improved graphics. 3= 9/10, Ultimate 1 = 7/10, Ultimate 2 = 9.5/10. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball—Fantastic volleyball action, the least objectification of the Xtreme games, a casino with blackjack, poker, slots, and roulette, and the option to listen to your own music at the expense of your game not loading! Plus, you can give your partner ugly gifts and slowly watch her descend into a clown show throughout the vacation. Not even heels in sand can stop these girls. 8/10. Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Soul Calibur 2, SoulCalibur (Xbox, Xbox, Dreamcast)—Not much really needs to be said about these. They're all timeless fighting games. 10/10 for everybody. Project Justice, Street Fighter EX3 (Dreamcast, PS2)—3D, or even 2.5D, wasn't kind to Capcom fighters. They have charm and decent amounts of polish, but they also have a lot of jank and floatiness. I find them to be fun regardless, but they're certainly a tier below the major 3D fighting franchises (Tekken, DOA, SoulCalibur). 7/10 for both. Power Stone 2 (Dreamcast)—My preference in the two Power Stone games. I like that the rounds last longer in 2 and the camera isn't operated by a drunken sailor. Only a mildly drunken sailor. 7/10 Magical Taruruuto-kun (Mega Drive)—A fantastic, challenging, unique platformer made by the people who eventually brought us Pokemon. The controls are tight, the graphics are insane for the Genesis/MD, and the music, honestly, isn't the best. But that's OK! Everything else makes up for it. Each of the four stages has both a miniboss of sorts and an actual boss. There are also checkpoints after certain screens, and up to three continues. Aside from the standard jump, Taruruuto-kun recieves three different types of magic after defeating the boss of the first three stages. He's also equipped with a glide, which must be used to get through narrow passageways, and a wand that he can both attack with and pick up and throw objects with. Even though it's relatively short, it's definitely one worth emulating if you don't have a Retron 5 or a Mega Drive sitting around. 8/10. Lords of Thunder (Sega CD)—This game is fantastic for 1993. Absolutely amazing. Everything runs smoothly with very little slowdown, and it's a really interesting amalgamation of both the old and new in the SHMUP genre. Almost all bullets are aimed at you, old school, but you get weapons that, when leveled up to their third stage, fill the screen, like a newer SHMUP. You also have highly-damaging melee attacks, which adds to the risk/reward gameplay, especially when your weapon isn't fully leveled up. 9/10 Knuckles Chaotix (32X)—The last thing I want to do in video games is be tied to an AI character made in 1995. Literally. The same-y stages with very few enemies and hazards don't help. Even the bosses are lackluster, and there are blatant safe spots where they'll just never hit you. Plus, with your partner, you pretty much extra invincible in this game, since they die for about ten seconds before coming back. To die, you have to kill your partner and then get hit again with zero rings. 5/10 Doom (32X)—I missed out on Doom when I was a kid. However, I had fun with this port. No, it's not perfect. Yes, it's missing levels. Yes, to strafe, you have to hold C and press a direction. Yes, it's extra pixelated, and yes it's buggy and can sometimes freeze for no reason. But, the fact that they got this game on a cartridge with 20 FPS in 1994 is impressive enough, even though the 32X could have probably handled an even better port. I also don't mind the controls, as hitboxes are pretty generous. The only other 32X game I own is Space Harrier, and I'd consider Doom to be the best of the three. 8/10. Ibara (PS2)—Considering its $200+ price tag, this is a hard one to recommend. It's glitchy, blurry, and has significantly less slowdown than the PCB. The explosion animations obfuscate bullets, and the choice of bullet colors makes them tough to pick out in frantic stages. However, it's also a Cave SHMUP, meaning it's still a very solid game despite it being neither the better version of the game nor one of the best Cave SHMUPS. 8/10 Due to the arrange mode being much better than the arcade mode, I'm bumping this up to 9/10.

I have to say, I've been really enjoying the videos you make. I dig your sense of humor, and it's cool seeing both the gameplay and your art on screen at the same time. I haven't seen another creator or reviewer do anything like it. Most of all, I keep clicking play for your perspective on each game and how much fun you actually seem to have with them. I honestly struggle to find much enjoyment in games on consoles older than the NES, but you've helped me understand why they were as beloved as they were and are. Keep up the good work!

I'll throw my two cents in, although I'm going to be heavily agreeing with @Floating Platforms. I'm not a completionist and don't go for platinum trophies very often. Out of my 2167 trophies, only 7 are platinums. I've beaten 108 games with trophy support across the PS3, PS Vita, and PS4, and I've played probably another 20-30 without beating them. Of the platinums I've gotten, a good chunk are bad, like Task Force Kampas, Null Drifter, and Project Starship X. They're far too easy to get for SHMUPS, only take about 20 minutes each to unlock, and can be unlocked before beating the game. According to https://psnprofiles.com/guide/10109-task-force-kampas-trophy-guide, 90% of PSNProfiles users who booted up Task Force Kampas walked away with the platinum. It's as if the developers were saying "thanks for buying the game; here's a free platinum." Two recent examples I have of good platinums are Demon's Tier + and New Super Lucky's Tale. In both cases, I ended up with a majority of the trophies through normal gameplay, and the platinum pushed me to play a few more hours to get the rest. No trophies were ridiculous to get, and the additional playtime to get them didn't make the game overstay its welcome or detract from the overall experience. To get the platinum in New Super Lucky's Tale, the hardest trophies required me to not get hit in boss battles, which I mostly was able to do on the first try during my initial run-through or a few additional tries in the postgame with the level select. I also had to collect a few missing pages, but I got 90% of them in my initial playthrough. The hardest trophy in Demon's Tier + was just unlocking/buying the six characters from the shop, which just meant a few additional dungeon runs post credits. To liken a good platinum to older examples, I'd say a good platinum is similar to when developers added bonus modes, postgame content, fun unlockables, extra characters, and other secrets to games as a reward for completing reasonable tasks. Stuff like beating higher-leveled characters from other NISA franchises in early Disgaea games to unlock them, unlocking the original Panzer Dragoon game for beating Panzer Dragoon Orta, and getting access to Cerulean Cave and Mewtwo after beating the Elite Four in Pokemon Red/Blue. A good platinum is a reward for beating the game, something that I wanted to do/get because I was enjoying the game, and something that extended playtime and challenged me while remaining fun and worthwhile. A "bad" platinum in those terms might be something like the certificate of completion for completing the Pokedex in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (I'll include a video showing how ridiculous this actually is in a spoiler at the end), finding all 100 gold skulltulias in OOT for infinite rupees, or the postcard for collecting 120 shine sprites in Super Mario Sunshine. And since I compared getting a trophy to getting more content and goodies in older games, I should point out that a good game doesn't replace those unlockables with a platinum trophy and paid DLC. The trophy should be another part of the free unlockables and postgame content, if the game has them. Going back to my Disgaea example, the PS2 games had a bunch of unlockable characters in the postgame, while the PS3, PS4, and Switch games have significantly fewer unlockable characters in postgame and lots of paid DLC for the rest, including characters that were unlockable in the PS2 games for free. That's bad. I also don't think that having a bunch of postgame unlockables is a requirement for any game, especially if the game doesn't have any DLC. Plenty of old games didn't have unlockables, and I think a Platinum trophy and no additional unlockables is an extension of that. Neither Demon's Tier + nor New Super Lucky's Tale have any DLC, and neither really have additional unlockables either. If a game's platinum trophy can be obtained during the credits on the first playthrough, that's not a bad thing.

In February, I got sucked back into FGO. And Granblue Fantasy. Back to three gachas. Pain. However, I did have some time to beat a few games since I last reported in. Granblue Fantasy: Relink (PS4)—Ooooooohhh, this is a tough one. A very, very tough one. It's hard to not be biased about this one either, since I play (and love) the gacha it's based on AND the first print of the game includes a code for the mobile game that saves literally a month or more of grinding AND helps unlock a busted character of your choice. Seriously. At the time of writing, the code alone is selling for $30-45, which is most of the price of the game. Sometimes, they sell for more. For those who speak my moon language, I ended up using mine to get Haaselia, an Evoker, and I got her about halfway to five stars just from the rewards from the code alone. I digress. Back to the PS4 game. Gameplay-wise, the battle system is very similar to Xenoblade Chronicles. However, there are 20 playable characters here. 19 are from the gacha and there's one (current) Relink exclusive. Everything is executed well, and the writing is up to the same high standard as Versus and the mobile game. Everyone's specials (ougis/charge attacks) and movesets are VERY different, and you can get a lot of additional playtime trying out characters and playing online. Instead of the weapon grid from past games and gacha game, you have a skill tree that also unlocks a variety of skills and upgrades for each playable character. Background information is shared through fate episodes, and several familiar, upgradeable weapons are available for each character. Locales are gorgeous, cities feel alive, and they even recreated all the familiar NPCs from the mobile game. They've also added lots of chests and critters to find in the towns and story islands. Because it follows the formula of the mobile game (read: quick quests to replay for drops later), most of the stages in its 20ish initial runtime to credits are broken up by running from set piece to set piece. So, even though it's hack-and-slash adjacent, it's once again closer to Xenoblade Chronicles in practice. It's fanservice for GBF fans. It's amazing. However, the game doesn't necessarily give you the best rundown of the story (or the mechanics, or the vernacular), so it's not as good of a jumping in point for new players as Versus is. Also, if you want to finish up the main story, the second arc is another 20 hours, so 40 in total. Overall, though, if you're a GBF fan, you'll love this game. 9/10 Ocean Commander (Wii)—Tough one to recommend. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but it's bland and way, WAY too easy. This game controls with the Wiimote and Nunchuck, with you holding B to fire, pressing A to bomb, and moving with the Nunchuck. You control the direction of your shots in 360 degrees by pointing the Wiimote at the screen. Each enemy destroyed gets you money which can be used to level up your weapons up to three times. However, you're an absolute unit of a bullet sponge. If I wasn't so concerned with keeping my enemy kill percentage up, I'd be curious whether you could sit in the middle of the screen and win by just holding fire. This game plays less like a SHMUP and more like the 30th best flash game on the Newgrounds homepage. Even though it boasts 20 levels and a final boss showdown, all of the levels feel the same with only minor enemy variety and spawn rates. Bosses are reused (and not even pallete swapped) in probably half the levels, and none of them are particularly large, inspired, or difficult. Overall, it's just sitting in the middle of the screen and holding the fire button for two hours, and trying to shoot the stingrays to keep your kill count up, if you're so inclined. Everything else dies from the barrage of bullets and projectiles eminating from your ship. No bugs, but no excitement. Solid meh. I'd say 4/10 at time of release, but probably 2/10 nowadays. It hasn't aged well. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash (Wii U)—The smoothest playing bad idea I've played in a while. No bugs, no framerate issues, everything has that Nintendo polish. But maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. First off, the gimmick is twofold: the first is mega mushrooms that make your character take up at least half the court (and the full court if you're DK or another large player), and the second are jump smashes and ultra smashes. Both of these things cause innumerable problems with the actual tennis itself. Just like the hypothetical-made-reality of the goalie fat enough to plug a hockey goal, the mega mushroom makes it nearly impossible to hit the ball by a supersize player, especially a large one. You can sometimes hit the special shots that appear on court to spin them around or whatever, but that's still no guarantee. Even when you're massive yourself, still no guarantee. Also, to compensate for this ridiculous mechanic, now the tennis ball itself bounces higher in unexpected ways. A shot that barely went over the net can bounce right over your head three or four times higher than you'd expect. Without the indicators on the ground telling you what shot you'd hit, it'd be even tougher to predict that. Jump smashes and ultra smashes basically take the finesse out of the game previously in older Mario Tennis entries and devolve most rallies into smashfests. They function as upgraded overhead smashes, but from the side. For ultra smashes, everyone does a mario-style super high jump overhead smash. However, because of that, they've reduced the angles you can hit the ball, especially at the net, significantly. There's no more cut shots and drop shots are mostly ineffective, making each rally just a slugfest. It's also almost impossible to hit the net or hit the ball out in this game. Speaking of the ball, it's minescule on screen, and it's even more ridiculous in the hands of a player under the effects of a mega mushroom. Plus with the size of the courts being a bit too small, it's very easy to lose track of the ball in front of a giant teammate. So, the tennis isn't the greatest. You don't have the angles to hit balls past competent computers much less good human players in mega mushroom mode, the court is too small, and the end up taking away more from the gameplay than adding. What else can be wrong with this game? Well, maybe the fact that there are only 16 characters, which is the same number as the N64 game if you don't include Transfer Pak characters, but they're of lower quality. In the N64 version, there was a significant difference in how each character type played. Serve and volley for Waluigi. Power and serve positioning for Bowser and DK. In Ultra Smash, the character types are still present, but the variation is significantly downplayed. So much so, that outside of the tricky characters like Boo, most play similarly to each other (and even the tricky characters still play pretty same-y, they mostly just fly and have a bit more curve to their shots, which is downplayed even more by the special shots that appear on the court during the match). Also, did we really need Toadette? or Sprixie Princess? Naah. Ultra Smash also contains many fewer modes than previous entries. No tournament mode here. You do have exhibition modes to take out the gimmicks if you so choose, but the default modes all have them. The replacement for the tournament is a fighting-game style "knockout challenge" where you face off against 30 characters (15 normal and then the same 15 again but as star characters) in tiebreaks one after another. Beat all 30 and you get credits (and coins to buy other star characters and courts). You can also play the knockout challenge with a supported Amiibo buddy. However, instead of modifying the rules where it's now California doubles (the team with two players has to hit between the singles lines against the team with one player, and the team with one player gets the whole court), both sides still play singles. So, you essentially get a free backup as you wail on the ball at the net. It get worse. There's ONE minigame, which is about how long you can keep a rally going. They also took away three- and five-set matches, leaving only tiebreaker, two-game, and one-set matches as options. I get that limitation for online play, but not local play. There are also fewer courts and surfaces than in previous entries. There are the usual grass, clay, and hard courts, as well as carpet, ice, sand, rebound, and mushroom (highest bouncing) court. However, due to the weird bounces, the only courts that really play differently are ice, rebound, sand, and mushroom. Even worse, they're all located in the same arena, just with a different surface. So, instead of Mario Tennis 64's cool locales and music for each court, you get the same music and a same-y surface. Mario Tennis Aces* and Mario Tennis on the virtual boy are the last Mario Tennis games I haven't played. However, of the ones I have played, this is easily the worst. Everything can be unlocked so quickly that it's easy to call this iteration a three-hour tech demo at best. 5/10 Edit: Started Aces. It's way better than Ultra Smash.

Yeah I did. That explains what I wasn't getting. I didn't realize they were different animals.

I must be missing something. So many people love Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but I gave them a 6/10 and 7/10 respectively when I played them in late 2020. I played them both on the PS2, if that makes a difference, but do you see someone who gave those kinds of ratings to the first two enjoying the third? Edit* Sorry Reed. Just saw it was @Gloves who played BG3. Although, I'm still interested in hearing about what I may be missing from the first two. *What say you, Gloves?