Source: Cashmoneys Price: £19.99 (Soundtrack free!) Where to Get It: Steam
SUPERHOT was an interesting, paranoia inducing game about shooting and killing and beating people in a game that… Haha, well, let’s just say “Time only moves when you do”, and leave spoilers out of it. It’s an interesting premise, the story took some cool and dark turns, and I quite enjoyed it.
Oh, you poor fool. When it comes to pistol v pistol, friend… I automatically win.
SUPERHOT is more of the same… Except now in a sort of roguelike form. There are areas, and within those areas you have a pattern of random levels taken from a pool, and random upgrades (the number of each is fixed), and defeating everything in an area is completion, which then lets you access other nodes in this network, nodes that have memories, snippets of dialogue, and hacked in upgrades such as the ability to charge people, or bullet deflections that deflect every bullet back toward the enemies, regardless of whether you deflected those. But in its basic level goals, it remains mostly the same: Use your time stopping/slowing powers to murder red people in a level using whatever you can, be it thrown items, melee weapons, or one of a variety of guns.
And naturally, what SUPERHOT: MCD brings to the table, apart from MORE story, is just… MORE… MORE gun. MORE wrinkles, such as enemies who can only be hurt in certain locations, and are otherwise as white and sterile as your non interactible bits of scenery. MORE levels in which to play. Hell, even the achievements are “MORE [thing]”
And indeed there is! There’s so much MORE…
And aesthetically and narratively, it’s also similar, in that paranoid, dystopian tone, which I compared to a mix of David Cronenberg and David Lynch (two film directors well known for surreal and dark films), and the way the aesthetics both subtly put you off balance and highlight everything you need to know.
For anyone with a little first person, low poly roguelike-ish need, this one’s a pretty solid pick. And for the people who played Superhot, but somehow haven’t already got MCD… It’s MORE.
The Mad Welshman apologises that he wasn’t able to screencap mid shuriken throw. Those things go at one hell of a clip…
Source: Cashmoneys Price: £29.99 (And a whole buttload of DLC, totalling £71.) Where To Get It: Steam
I loved Darius when I was young. It was a great example of the imaginative boss design of shmups, along with Xenon 2’s bosses. An evil empire that has a design theme of fishes, crabs, and cephalopods for its giant boss ships? Oh. Hell. Yes. It helps that the series has had one hell of a soundtrack, and it’s been alright on the difficulty for a shmup.
I would have shown screenshots of mowing down smaller enemies, but with only a few exceptions, that’s relatively quick, even if the waves are placed in such a way you move a lot.
So, once again, the Belsar have invaded, with their fish-like ships, and it’s up to the elite Silverhawks to scramble to save the day. Go save the day, hero!
Bam. Plot done. Let’s talk about the game. Like earlier titles in the series, it’s split up into various routes, although, unlike previous entries, there’s a single main route, and side routes. What makes this one interesting is that you can unlock ships from throughout the series (and, with DLC, play ships from other properties, including the jetpack cannon funtimes of the Space Harrier protagonist), and play with those… Although you’ll get a chance to try out most of them in any case, some of which have unique tricks, and all of whom have at least one different element. Each mission is split up into at least two stages, often with multiple boss fights against memorable ships (the same models, such as King Fossil or Mirage Castle, have appeared pretty much throughout the series, so returning players know most of what to expect.)
Including this asshole. Ohhh, I’m sure many Darius players remember Thousand Bullets…
Missions also have mutators from the base of “All types of powerup, your special weapon charges from killing enemies”, such as limited or no drops, or your special weapon automatically charging (You’d think this was a godsend, but no, the challenge usually matches that mutator.) Beating each stage earns you a proportion of the score as points to purchase ships (Ships from later in the series, such as the Murukamo, require a lot of points, so if you really, really want to play those early, expect to grind the earlier missions a lot), and to spend on, if you choose to use a custom ship, powering them up for the mission (just using them is free, but if the mission has a no-powerup mutator, you really want to power them up appropriately, or better, than the preset ship you’re given)
When it comes to soundtrack, it’s great. The music, as mentioned, has been strong through most of the series, and this one is no exception. Visually, it works well, ships with powerups being denoted with strong, saturated colours, and foreground elements you could conceivably smash your ship against more saturated and brighter than the background, as it should be. The UX is clear, the sound is good (although, fair warning, if you’re using one of the older ships, it uses similar sound effects to the games they’re from, and changes the soundtrack in some places. They’re still powerful, so, er… Don’t discount them, even if chiptunes and beepy pew-pews aren’t your thing.)
Oh wait, I did have a wave screenshot!
It does get difficult somewhat early, due to some of the bosses having revenge bullets, a boatload of health, and some nasty attacks, but it plays very smoothly for what it is (a port of a PSP game), it’s a good shmup with a great soundtrack… My only critique is that there’s no english language version of the special guidebook you can get as DLC. I’d love to read that. Ship DLC is pretty cheap individually, and there’s certainly enough playtime that you won’t feel the need to play with those until you’ve finished the main game. Oh, and let’s not forget that it has both Arcade and Story modes (The mission route mode I’ve spent most of this review talking about), remote play, and Chronicle Mode, an interesting mode where there are 3000+ worlds on a “cabinet” that you share with other players online.
So… It comes highly recommended as a shmup which, while it gets bullet helly fairly quickly, is interesting, cool, and with a great soundtrack!
The Mad Welshman loves the inventive shooters, with the interesting boss designs. Don’t give me boring old “Ships, but big.” Give me things that make me say “Omigod, this is a thing I want to share!”
Source: Review Copy Price: £14.99 (£7.19 for Soundtrack) Where To Get It: Steam
Ah, adding roguelike elements to things. We’ve seen it a lot, in recent years. We’ve even seen games that attempt to mix the Battle Network style of play, in which a field of tiles is split in two, and you dodge round them, using spells, cards, chips, whatever you wish to call them, to make attacks… Look… Move round field. Dodge attacks. Hit people with things, in the way the cards you got say. Rinse. Repeat.
My co-op partner and I… Getting our asses kicked.
So, most of this review is gameplay, because the story? Well, it’s
post apocalyptic, there are beasties, there’s an end goal (Eden), and
there are bosses (Who are also playable characters.) The aesthetic
is, for the most part, fine, with a UX that only takes a little bit
of getting used to (Although… Points docked for no colourblind
mode, and some colourblindness problems, like the four tile marker,
and broken tiles not being quite clear enough), with some nice music
and pixel-art.
But the majority is gameplay, and the gameplay definitely has some
interesting elements. Like its inspiration, it is, essentially, a
deckbuilder, but stays real-time by shuffling your deck, rather than
having you pick cards from it, randomly putting them into one of two
slots, while you have a “weapon” for your character you can fall
back on (or, in the case of Saffron, the starting character, hold the
button down while you’re doing everything else.) Not all the weapons
are weapons, and the cards you can pick for your deck, the artefacts,
remain the same for all characters.
This… Seems like a bad idea. But it may not be… Well, situationally…
And there is the nice touch that you can focus on certain
builds, letting the RNG prioritise certain card types over others.
Maybe you like Anima, the elemental cannon type. Maybe you prefer
Trinity, where the best things come in threes, or, more
specifically… Third time lucky. Or maybe you want something like
Flow, where the flow is built up and spent, powerful so long as you
keep the flow flowing. I like this, it allows you to build the
sort of deck you want, even if it may be luck to get it going.
Shops are expensive, it’s true, and the unlocks between runs are,
essentially, random, but they happen, and the fights are
reasonable, so all is well in singleplayer.
Co-Op, on the other hand, is… Less well implemented. There is
shared health, but this comes at the cost of both players having to
play the same character, where… Not all of the palette changes are
properly distinguishable from each other. It is also only local for
both Co-Op and PVP (the latter of which I didn’t try, it must be
mentioned.) There have been attempts to balance the co-op elements,
with quicker mana regeneration, but, on the whole, my friend and I
were not impressed. If you are trying this through Remote Play, be
aware that yes, you’re probably going to have latency. Damn you,
British Internets!
I would say the little sod’s got what’s coming to him, but he’s one of those enemies you have to take down with individual attacks. He only takes one HP per, y’see.
Overall, though, I like One Step From Eden. It has flaws. It has boss fights I don’t like (Violette’s can be quite painful if you don’t realise those notes are for stepping on, to prep you for her largely unavoidable attack.) And, as mentioned, co-op’s not so hot. But it has more going for it than against it, and so, I would recommend this.
The Mad Welshman appreciates not having to play an alphabet soup deck. And no, this won’t make sense to many. But he is still glad.
Source: Cashmoneys Price: £12.99 Where To Get It: Steam
At first, Endcycle Vs didn’t interest me, despite loving Megaman Battle Network’s combat system of a 3×6 grid, split in two, in which the player and their opponents use abilities (Chips, in the case of the player) to attack the enemy, a new hand coming when the old one is used. After all, it was multiplayer only, and not even mod support was going to bring me to that party.
But now, it has singleplayer and… Well, I’m somewhat bouncing off
it, to be quite honest.
This one’s a nasty one if it hits.
Mainly, it’s for a very simple reason: Everything is fast. And can
seemingly move diagonally, although that may be just that they’re…
Going really fast. In its inspiration, MegaMan Battle Network, things
generally don’t move quickly. And the few enemies that do are
considered the biggest pains in the ass in the series. Similarly,
some moves where instant hits (known as hitscan), so you at least
knew that, the moment you hit the fire button, something would get
damaged.
And neither of these appear to be true, with the exception of swords,
in Endcycle Vs. Spreadshots? Slowish projectiles. Cannons? Slowish
projectiles. The “Rush” Sword is, in fact, a leisurely dodge. And
grenade and trap type weapons both have a specific range, and are,
generally speaking, slow. Meanwhile, enemies fast. Can you perhaps
see the problem here?
Chips, chips, chips. Enough to open a chip shop. Which they have.
Now, less a problem and more “Something different, to maybe get
used to” is the fact that, instead of getting a new “hand” of
chips once you’ve used the last, you have three sets of four chips,
each with cooldowns, and you can switch between chips with the space
key, and use one of those four chips with the arrow keys. Okay, cool.
But what this, generally speaking, means is that you’re either
waiting on a cooldown, or rapidly switching between ability sets.
Now, you can set everything to attack chips, if you really
want, but it’s good to have some sort of healing, some sort of
defence, and some sort of area or panel grab chip, which makes
neutral panels yours, or enemy patterns neutral. Because you can only
move on neutral or your panels, so without those, you can get
hemmed in.
One of the two endless modes replaces one of your chips after each victory, your choice. But you cannot choose “None.” And, as you can see, sometimes this means getting a “No options you like” moment. Like this one.
Aesthetically, it’s alright. The music is good, light, but pumping
beats for combat, a synth theme, various other tunes, all inspired
by… Well, its inspiration. The spritework’s alright, the menus have
a consistent font, and my main gripe is that it’s hard to parse
cooldowns when you’re concentrating more on the enemy’s position
rather than, y’know, you. Where the icons and their cooldown
shaders are.
Overall, it’s very obviously designed for the Pro E-Sports crowd,
balanced around people who are twitchier, more timing aware, and fine
with longish matches because they’re darting around so damn much. But
that definitely isn’t for me, and I don’t particularly see it being
appealing to more than a niche crowd within the niche that is people
who like this sort of battle game overall, and the people who, like
me, loved a game boy advance series from way back when.
Stuff gotten! waves the tiniest flag.
There are other games like this in my future. And so, I don’t actually have all that much interest in coming back to this.
The Mad Welshman lives in the cyberworld. He has to admit, it’s a somewhat dull place. You get used to those rushing neon comets quite quickly.
Source: Review Copy Price: £32.99 for the base game, £9.17 total for the soundtrack and “time-savers” Where To Get It: Steam
Azur Lane is one hell of a phenomenon. It was, originally a mobile shmup gacha type deal that persists to this day. Gacha, by the way, means random drops, like the toy ball machines you sometimes see in cinemas and arcades, which are called Gacha Machines.
I decided to kill you all with cute early on.
But over the years, it’s gotten an anime, several manga, a fan following that make doujin and headcanon, expanding on the world… And the developers, basing their shipgirls, or kansen (women who’ve been given magical girl powers from rebuilt battleships to fight an alien threat called the Sirens… Or to use that alien threat’s technology to be evil) on the battles and cruisers, destroyers, battleships and carriers of World War 2, even down to a plotline in the main game that closely matches that of World War 2.
It’s interesting stuff, and, prior to the release of this game, a
friend encouraged me to try out the original. So here I am, reviewing
a 3D, third person character shmup with players switching between
shipgirls of various abilities to achieve three goals for S rank: All
player ships survive. Bosses killed. And to do that in 2 minutes or
under.
It can get… A lot, quickly in battles. Just circle strafing isn’t gonna save you here, buddy.
And it’s honestly pretty nice! Very talky, and with a game loop
that’s a somewhat acquired taste, but the writing is good, and each
character shows their development, from Shimakaze, the protagonist of
story mode, a cute, but naïve shipgirl just coming into her own, to
Amagi, the sadistic, dominant, and extremely thirsty cruiser who was
the villain of the early arc of Azur Lane, along with her adoptive
“sister”, Kaga, who is a much more quiet character who merely
appreciates the art of battle… And is a grumpy dork. There’s even a
particularly humorous section in Chapter 4 of the game, where one of
the bigger bads, the Siren “Purifier”, attempts to fight the main
character, with a big, dramatic build up… And then all of that, the
dramatic music, the stormy clouds, the evil laughter and dramatic
monologue… All fall down as she’s told Shimakaze is in the middle
of a friendly match with another character.
“…What.” I laughed, just as I laughed at several moments up
until then.
Yes, those are the “Deal with it” sunglasses. Yes, she does wear them often. Deal with it.
Mechanically, while the main loop of “Sit through a ton of events,
have some two to five minute battles, maybe grind some earlier
battles to make sure you S rank, collect loot boxes, then do it some
more” may turn folks off, the battles themselves do have their
interesting parts. As with the original mobile game, there are up to
three frontliners, and three support ships, which provide abilities,
covering fire, that sort of thing. But you can switch between the
characters, and when you do… The character you were using heals, a
subtle encouragement to switch characters to use their special
abilities (such as Shimakaze’s speed boost), their lock on attacks,
and their own weaponry, with strengths and weaknesses. My one crit so
far is that while moving forward to the next objective is clearly
marked with a green arrow, it could sometimes be simpler, mission
wise, if the enemies just… Spawned in, rather than wasting time.
Maybe a personal preference thing.
Meanwhile, the keyboard is not recommended for this one, as there are
directional controls, camera controls, two attacks, two specials, a
dodge… That’s tough to keybind well, and I had trouble before I
went to controller to carry on playing.
Red is important, green (lighter green, good call) is optional (but recommended.)
Aesthetically, Azur Lane in general has been known for its music, and
it’s no different here, with some good tunage, solid sound and voice
work, and the visual novel/overworld map elements are well done. The
UX is pretty clear, and, while the 3D isn’t top notch, it’s still
pretty good, and I do like the water, unrealistic though it may be. I
dunno, maybe it’s because it adds a touch of stylisation.
So, overall, I enjoy Azur Lane: Crosswave. It’s definitely one fans of the original should check out, and, if you like these sorts of genres, there’s going to be an element of the game, at least, that will be enjoyable to you. It knows what niche it’s aiming for, and it lands it, and… Well, I appreciate a well written game!
The Mad Welshman curses the day his friend got him to Azur Lane. It’s killed his productivity…
