Player Reviews

The Good
The artwork is quite decent and the puzzles, though simple, can be challenging because many are timed.

The Bad
After just about every dialogue screen there is a puzzle and this very soon becomes tiresome. It is not that the story or the puzzles are bad it's just that, for me, the game did not flow.

The Bottom Line
I did not enjoy this game. For me it very quickly became tedious

The Good
The Molyneaux god-complex begins here, for the better.

The game concept is a very intriguing one: prove yourself the deity of deities by assuming godly powers and aiding the Good little computer people in their life-or-death struggle with the Evil little computer people. You do this across a large number of worlds with striking, and strikingly different-looking, terrain types: grassy, snowy, desert, lava, etc. In addition to raising and lowering the level of the terrain, you have the power to cause floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes. You can dub some of your "walkers" (the name for your constantly wandering little computer people) knights who will equip shield and sword and go forth and wreak much havoc against the enemy, killing them and burning their homes and castles. It can all be quite a lot of fun to watch…but only sort of, and only for a while (more on this later).

Populous is a technically well-executed, polished piece of software. For its day, the graphics and music/sound are quite nice. Actually, the background music gets annoying fast, but at least it is easily turned off.

The Bad
The Molyneaux god-complex begins here, for the worse.

Populous laid the groundwork for a whole series of Molyneaux games released by Bullfrog and Lionhead, and undoubtedly influenced a lot of the god sims and real-time strategy games that followed it. This is really not such a good thing. Peter Molyneaux has himself often been lauded by the fawning gaming press as a "Game Design God." Personally, I'm not sure exactly how he ever earned such respect. From Populous to Black & White, it seems like none of his games has ever lived up to the hype.

There are many annoying things about Populous that make it a failure. I'll list just a few for now. First, the icon-based interface is obscure and difficult to get a hang of. Why they couldn't have included a few actual words in the game (in ANY language!) is beyond me, but it sure would have helped me out a lot. Now, once you get past the interface, you notice that the close-up view of the world you are currently playing is always restricted to a very small area. I suspect this was necessary, given technical limitations at the time, in order to display the large and colorful sprites that undoubtedly sold many copies of this game. Still, it's another annoyance. It also rudely reminds me that I am a mere mortal playing a game, and not, in fact, an omniscient deity.

But of course, how long can you feel like a deity if the awesome power you will use the most during the game is [drumroll]…raising and lowering land? Yes! That's right! You too can become an all-conquering, omnipotent deity through…um, better landscaping??? It's not only pitifully un-godlike work, but also very repetitive after just a short amount of time. Yet you will spend most of your time doing it, in every single level you play in the game. It isn't even very user-friendly, as at least some of the terrain types make it difficult (for me, anyway) to tell WHAT the level of the terrain is in a given area! Very frustrating stuff, indeed.

If there is all of this repetition, you must be wondering: At least it's wonderful that this game is in real-time, and you can watch the cool action unfold, right? Well, no, not really. You see, Populous suffers from the same problem that seemingly every real-time strategy title that followed it has. Because events are constantly unfolding in real time, prompting you to constantly act and react, you can never afford to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of it all. Granted, your walkers don't do much worth paying attention to most of the time (but that's just another shortcoming of the game!), but sometimes they do, like when you knight them and send them out to kill and burn the enemy. Do you get to watch? Well, no, not if you want to win the game. You'll just have to trust that those knights are out there doing their job while you tend to the important "godly" task of raising and lowering land so your little computer people can breed more strong, healthy walkers, who can later be knighted and then ignored by you while you…well, you get the idea.

Again, this problem isn't unique to Populous. It's a feature in countless real-time strategy games. Still, I've always considered this to be a fatal flaw with games of this genre. It's my game, and I paid hard-earned, legal tender money for it, so shouldn't I get to watch and take part in the action during the most crucial parts of the game? Give credit to Will Wright (SimCity) and Sid Meier (Civilization) for coming up with different yet equally effective solutions to the real-time god-game dilemma. (SimCity lets you act/react while the game is paused, so you can then afford to sit back and watch things unfold for a while in real-time; Civilization abandons real-time completely for a turn-based format.)

To recap: once you get over the hump of figuring out and memorizing what all the little icons mean, you find out that the actual gameplay is pretty shallow and that you will mainly do the same boring things over and over. The few cool things going on are missed by you because the "realism" loved by Molyneaux and his minions requires that every game be real-time. Some would call this fun. I call it a rip-off.

The Bottom Line
If you were thrilled with, and then disappointed by Black & White, well, just know that it was déjà vu all over again for Populous players.

The Good
The classic gameplay is still addicting. Virus buster is a cool use of the Wii Remote and even better with friends.

The Bad
Graphics and presentation look too basic. Online multiplayer has no voice chat, only pre-made messages.

The Bottom Line
Very fun, but too bad you can't buy it anymore if you don't already own it.

The Good
Here is a game, which has a basic objective, get your caterpillar to eat all the plants, yard by yard. Each yard brings out a new challenge with fewer spaces to cater for the ever-growing caterpillar. Thankfully you do get some bonus items to simmer down the otherwise aggravating difficulty, such as extra lives, shortening scissors, and others. And then there’s the option to get rid of the rocks if they are making the game a little too unfair. The sprite work has a nice mix of dithered floor textures and flat coloured objects.

The Bad
With a simple game comes the misfortune of bad controlling to ruin a good gaming experience. You can only use the left and right mouse buttons to steer the caterpillar. For driving games two buttons for clockwise and counter-clockwise work okay, but most Snake variants use directional buttons to determine which way the elongated character goes, so you’re likely to get confused and steer it the wrong way and crash, wasting your precious limited lives. It’s like left is down, up is right, and all that. While the help file does say that the game is keyboard compatible, this isn’t true at all. Every attempt to make it work with the game gets the player nowhere.

Adding to the frustration is the discrete jumpy frame rate, which makes you steer your caterpillar out of sync with bad timing, either one square too soon or too late.

The Bottom Line
Just when you think you’ve seen all the Snake variants in gaming, new and obscure ones seem to pop and crawl out, just like this one. Not the most balanced of games to go on your desktop, but if you love a good high score as much as an arcade gamer, it’s your way to go, assuming you can grab a copy and get it running on your PC. With caterpillars taking the stage on a Snake game, what comes next? Leeches? Earthworms? Giraffes? Surprise us.

The Good
Uhhh, you can turn it off

The Bad
there's no point to it!!!!

The Bottom Line
Very bizarre... I don't know who thought this was a good idea, but even rudimentary games like minesweeper or solitaire have some sort of goal to achieve.

The Good
this game is very very very good

The Bad
but it is also very very very hard

The Bottom Line
good, but very very very hard

The Good
The pre-rendered sprites look good. Fantastic soundtrack. Levels look nice.

The Bad
Little point in finding bonus rooms if you don't care about 100% completing games. Boss battles are shallow with Dumb Drum being the worst offender. Difficulty can be frustrating especially when you don't access to save your game. Donkey Kong's hand slap move is worthless and you'll forget that you can use it throughout your playthrough.

The Bottom Line
Good starting point with the franchise, but the sequel is miles better.

The Good
The game opens with one of the sweetest and well done animated sequences, purely inviting you to play. It seems like you're watching a Retro Charlie Brown cartoon blended with a DreamWorks CGI film. Everything about the graphics looks as smooth and flowing as water and not just the bodies of water, but the character animation and overall textures. Even the music tunes bring out the mood and drama at a comfortable pace.

While playing the game, the dynamic camera angles pan and shift just enough to focus on the player character at just the right speed. The camera even performs well on the two player offline mode. Whether you are playing as Fynn and Furple, the character feels comfortable to control and trigger actions. The characters are never obscured thanks to transparency in the textures. And speaking of transparency, there's a lot of satisfaction to finding hidden places where you think there's a solid wall, encouraging exploration.

The Bad
While the camera motions work as they need to, the only issue is that you can't reliably try to backtrack due to fixed direction, though you won't need to for the most part. The biggest disappointment is that you absolutely must have a controller to play the game in single-play. It's kind of off-putting if you're accustomed to keyboards and definitely not off to a great start. If you are playing this by yourself, a lot of concentration is needed to work with the fish and the cat at the same time. Impractical, but not impossible.

The Bottom Line
Throughtout the years there have been great games that require Teamwork like Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, and awful ones like Cookie & Cream for Nintendo DS. This game falls into the good list. It all goes to show you that you don't need vocalised dialogue in a game, even today to bring out quality. Fans of the Crash Bandicoot series will definitely get some joy out of this one. Console players would give anything to see and play this one on their choice of platform. I guess we can only dream and play when given the chance. This is game you can definitely play to bond with your best friend.

The Good
It had a fun singleplayer campaign

The Bad
The game was forced to be online only, and since they shut down the servers. The game is now unplayable. Also they are removing it from PC players accounts, meaning those purchases mean nothing now.

The Bottom Line
If I can play any of the Forza Horizon games still even without the servers, this game should also still be playable too.

The Good
The game has a nice and pretty unique Y2K art style that really screams the late 90's/early 2000's (seeing as it comes from 2000, duh), loading times really aren't much of a issue, it only takes around a couple seconds.

The gameplay of the game is quite snappy and retains most the feeling of the original games in the series meaning it should be quite easy to get into.

The Bad
I really want to know what Acclaim was smoking when designing the box art. Also, while the gameplay is perfectly fine, the game doesn't take advantage of using the analog sticks, a feature heavily used in most PS2 games, meaning all precision is relied on tapping the D-Pad instead of being able to slightly glide the sticks into the direction you want it to aim.

The Bottom Line
The game is good, it is one that I personally pull out to play from time to time. Second long loading times and graphics shouldn't really change if a game is fun to play. And which the game also is pretty common and is easy to acquire a copy of. So if you're a fan of the Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move series, or are just a puzzle game fan who is just looking for a little matching challenge to add to you're PS2 collection, this game has got you covered.

The Good
The story of the game is interesting and you can see that it draws on the influences of classic medieval fantasy epic books. I love the retro 8 and 16-bit feel that the game offers, so much so that sometimes it feels like I'm playing a remake of the NES classic Zelda II, or Faxanadu (NES) and even Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia (PC). The graphics, the design of the environments, the animations and all the Pixelart in general are luxurious, the game is so beautiful that sometimes you stop to see all the details. The music is another thing to highlight, it's really good, and it's reminiscent of those SNES chiptunes, specifically it's very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger. The game flows easily, it does not become boring, since like Metroidvania at last, it has its RPG touches, and you will have to return to the areas where you could not access before, you also have the sub-missions of the NPCs of the towns, which upon completion they will give you prizes or money. The other good thing is the number of actions that the protagonist performs, from swimming, hooking on the corners of the platforms, slowly descending the walls, sliding, double jumping, attacking in various directions whether on the ground or in the air, etc as well as the variety of weapons, shields, armor (clothes) and items. In short, a great game that is a little different from the other Metroidvanias.

The Bad
I think the weak point is the difficulty, I think the game is somewhat easy, if the difficulty was a little higher, the game would be more challenging. Although the boss fights have a medium level of difficulty, they will be a piece of cake for more veteran and expert players.

The Bottom Line
A great Metroidvania style game with a Zelda II flavor from the NES. A beautiful game visually and artistically, with good playability, doses of RPG and fun times. If you like games with that classic retro feel from the 8 and 16-bit era, this is your game. A game that, due to its easy-medium difficulty, will appeal to both adults and children, in short, a Metroidvania for all ages. Don't let it go!

The Good
Live A Live is an episodic JRPG with eight chapters spanning a wide range of settings and time periods, from prehistoric times to Edo Japan to a spaceship in the far future. The original game was released in 1994 on the Super Nintendo, when Square was at their peak (it came out right along the Final Fantasy series, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger). Apparently, it sold poorly enough in Japan for them to never bother releasing it in the West. For a long time, the only way to play it outside Japan was to get your hands on an imported copy (or a ROM) and either learn Japanese or track down a fan translation patch. Needless to say, this remake, 28 years later, came as a major surprise!

What makes Live A Live special comes down to mostly two things: The sheer variety of settings and the unique combat mechanics.

The game initially lets you choose from seven chapters running between one to three hours, which you can play in any order and a final one that unlocks once you completed the others. While the finale loosely connects the heroes’ paths, for the most part, each chapter is completely unique. Take the Wild West one, for example. It’s a fairly short but memorable chapter in which an outlaw named Sundown unites with a bounty hunter to help a small town set up traps within a time limit and defeat an evil gang of bandits. Then you have a story set on board of a space ship in the far future in which you play a spherical robot called Cube facing various flavors of space horror. One sprawling chapter involves a ninja on a mission to rescue a prisoner from an enemy castle in Edo Japan. Another, set in prehistoric times, focuses on slapstick humor as characters communicate using symbols in speech bubbles rather than written dialogue. The chapter set in present times is purely focused on combat with individual fights set up as underground sporting events, Street Fighter style. A chapter in ancient China involves an aging kung fu master searching for disciples to teach his secret technique to a new generation and a near-future chapter involves a biker gang, telepathy and a giant robot.

The range of settings, characters and play styles is truly staggering. Chapters can be fairly short, which might have contributed to the game being poorly received in 1994 but a more modern view would be that there is remarkable little filler and grind. Once an idea is played out, the game moves on to the next.

The other stand-out is the unique combat mechanic. Combat has traditionally been one of the weaker aspects of JRPGs with winning or losing mostly depending on your characters' stats or equipment. Any planning or strategy revolved around grinding to level up your character or following simple rock-paper-scissors rules such as fighting an ice monster with fire attacks. Live A Live does all the classic JRPG combat tropes but it also adds something new: Positioning. Combat plays out on a 7x7 grid and characters and enemies take turns to either fight or move to a different tile. Attacks have a tile pattern (for example firing a gun diagonally or affecting all adjacent tiles). Tiles can also have status effects applied to them like fire or poison, forcing an opponent to either use their turn to flee or receive damage. While most fights are too easy to be much of a challenge, this elevates combat from simply spamming the attack with the highest damage, adding a lot of strategy. It’s an example of what JRPGs could have achieved if they dared to experiment with the formula a bit more.

The Bad
There are moments where this game being 30 years old shows and it’s mostly in how little it cares about the player getting lost. Despite the remake adding a radar and splash screen tutorials, some of the labyrinthine designs and lack of real mission objectives mean that you often find yourself running around aimlessly in hopes of triggering a random event that pushes the story forward. I prefer not to use external guides as getting lost can be part of the charm (and very much be intended by the designers) but occasionally had to give up and looked things up online. Also, of course, the episodic nature makes it hard to really dive deep into any character. I would have been more okay with that if the final chapter connected all characters in a more in-depth way but it mostly feels like it was done as an afterthought.

As for the remake aspect, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The voice acting ranges from decent to cringe-worthy and I found myself switching it off in some chapters. The 2.5D graphics are a strange mix of 16bit-era sprites for characters and environments with 3D perspective and occasionally full-polygon elements. Text is rendered sharply in full resolution and so are all menus (which annoyingly leads to a 2 second delay every time you enter the character menu). Environmental and particle effects also seem to be full resolution and picked from some Unreal Engine library. While on the SNES, the pixelated art style grew out of cleverly solving the limitations of the hardware, in 2022 it's mostly just a vague reference, an imitation and, most importantly, a shortcut. It feels bit jarring and dare I say… tacky. Why not go fully 3D or stay in a lower resolution aesthetic consistently?

On top of that, one of the more interesting aspects about the SNES original is that each chapter was drawn by different manga artists, adding some unique styles and flavors, which are mostly lost in this remake. Sometimes it’s ok to let a decades old game be a decades old game. I probably would have preferred an official release of the SNES original to soak in the historical context of the game over playing a version with superficial polish.

The Bottom Line
All in all, Live A Live is probably one of the most interesting oldschool JRPGs to currently play, despite its limitations. I don’t know if it’s the „best“ in terms of polish or depth but there is no other game of this genre that lets you experience so much variety in such a tight package. I have to praise Square Enix for bothered to remake such an obscure (and, back then, financially unsuccessful) game for modern audiences. Other remakes often feel lazy, especially on the Switch where they sometimes fill huge gaps in the release schedule that could be taken by actually new games. But with Live A Live, there genuinely hasn’t been a way for Western audiences to play this game for 30 years so it feels suprisingly fresh.

The Good
Amazing soundtrack/Well-written, mysterious story/Plot revelations/Charming characters

The Bad
Main ending leaves a few questions unanswered/Slow start

The Bottom Line
This game took some time to grow on me, but after seeing its conclusion, I find it be quite unforgettable. It has a well-written, mysterious story with some mind-boggling revelations and an incredible soundtrack. The first “ending” is surprising and made me eager to find out what secrets this small town was hiding.

While the (true) ending left a few questions to be answered, what happens is heartwarming and impactful. The song titled “Epilogue”, takes the ending to another level. It is simply masterful. The last image, the last bit of dialogue, and the last portion of the song all combine to create a poignant moment that I won't soon forget. It actually made me appreciate my father a bit more. I have rarely been affected by a game this much.

The Good
The graphics look decent. Some great music. Cool extras that longtime Sonic fans will enjoy. Two stages are from the Sonic Rush and Sonic Colors DS games, which feels appropriate given this game is on a handheld.

The Bad
Classic and modern sonic play nearly identical to each other since they both play in 2D and both have access to the homing attack. Instead of the stages coming from the Game Gear and Game Boy Advance games, the stages come from the Genesis and Dreamcast games like the HD version. The main story mode can be completed in less than 3 hours. Some of the levels were designed in a way that makes it impossible to avoid an enemy, spikes or even a pitfall appearing out of nowhere which feels cheap.

The Bottom Line
Play the far superior HD version. You're not missing much by not playing this game.

The Good
The developer really put a lot of time into it, is a really nice guy.

The Bad
nothing, perfect in every way.

The Bottom Line
Support more small game developers

The Good
Introduced mouse-swing and set the standard for controls in Golf games. Excellent graphics for the time. Soundtrack by Charles Barth is a big pluss.

The Bad
I would have loved a few more courses.

The Bottom Line
My favourite golf game of the 90s. Was not topped until late into the Links series. Absolutely amazing game that does not get the respect it deserves.

The Good
A fairly standard hidden object game that does a few things differently like making some scenes two screens wide. It has some good puzzles and the hidden object scenes are well done.

The Bad
According to my notes the game played flawlessly and there were no problems at all. There was just no sense of urgency or peril that made me want to finish a scene quickly so that I could advance the plot and see what happened next.

The Bottom Line
Nothing wrong with t his game really. I played it, I enjoyed it and very soon I forgot about it.

The Good
Graphics, animation, stable framerate, fantastic collision detection.

The Bad
No direct weapon upgrades other than drones.

The Bottom Line
An average difficulty, good looking game worth playing if you are into shoot'em ups of the 16bit era.

The Good
What's this title got for you? To put it bluntly new levels, new effects (including explosions that mimic the Death Star explosion), some blood effects that float in the air, objects you can shoot, and new music tracks. In the third mission, you do have a humorous encounter with an under dressed soldier in one of the bathrooms. Finished with the compliments? Let's move on to the rotten meat and underdone potatoes of the game.

The Bad
Being more like an expansion pack to Airborne Hero D-Day Frontline 1944, it suffers pretty much the same gameplay flaws and poor quality graphics. More of the new that is the same, as it were. To recap you have an awful control scheme, uneven enemy AI, big lack of ammo and health supplies, no auto-reloading, the slow patient moving of the player character, and tedious mission objective formulas. The winter weather effects now make enemy ambushes a hell of hurt to your health, not to mention the number of times they hit you before you can. It makes the Nightmare difficulty of Doom tame by comparison. And if that wasn't enough, the fifth mission has trees that upon getting close, catapult you in the air and force you to fall and take a ton of damage.

The Bottom Line
It's unbelievable that this winter cousin of Airborne Hero D-Day came out the same year and its just as bad. It's practically a whole world war against gamers. Asylum could have almost made a hundred bad games like this with the same engine, but luckily this is where the series ends. It is fortunate that the PlayStation, Xbox, Sega and Nintendo consoles were not soiled by this monstrosity. This title does not test your gaming skills or give you true appreciation for 3D games, but hurts the mind and fries the brain. Don't give this game a try, you'll quicky regret it. I can't veto this game enough, it's here whether we dislike it or hate it. Well no Asylum Game's getting in my door, so there you have it.

The Good
Great graphics, character designs and music. The bonus stages look cool. Gameplay is simple, yet fun that anyone can play because it only uses the d-pad and one button.

The Bad
Getting hit results in losing all your rings, which can be frustrating if you are getting close to the end of the stage to play the bonus stage and being close to getting 100 rings to get an extra life. Some stages like Labyrinth Hill Zone and Marble Hill Zone feel like a chore to play because it doesn't let you run fast throughout the level. You can't save your progress.

The Bottom Line
You have no excuse not to play this classic because it's virtually on every game platform.

The Good
I got ths game from Steam because I liked the idea behind it, a scientist who does not believe in magic having to deal with the reality of it. I was not disappointed. It is a well written story and the pacing and puzzles are just about right. It is a longer game than I expected too.

The Bad
A couple of the puzzles had me scratching my head and searching every location trying many, many combinations of items in locations. This is not too much of a problem for me but it is a warning - the game offers zero hints and there is no skip/auto advance feature.

The Bottom Line
This is a good game.

OK I am stuck and I am frustrated. I got stuck four days ago and I have revisited the game half a dozen times and I still cannot make progress even after finding an on-line guide. That does not mean that the game is at fault and I still recommend it - just be aware that, like me, you may not finish it.

The Good
You get to fly around as Superman.

The Bad
You can barely tell where you are flying. The controls are bad, the gameplay is annoying. Having to fly to a specific place just to start a level is stupid, because it is also timed for some reason. The levels themselves are hard to beat because of the controls.

The Bottom Line
All in all a terrible game for the beloved superhero. A stain in DC video games.

The Good
The OST is so weird for this game.

The Bad
This game is harder to run than a marathon. The graphics, the controls, the gameplay.

The Bottom Line
Just listen to the OST and most definitely forget about even being able to run it.

The Good
Nothing. The music is not the worst thing ever on some of the "games".

The Bad
There's actually only a few games but just reskinned to get to 52. They're all trash. I guess if you like some arcade games you might get entertained for a couple of minutes. Most games are buggy and just badly made, others are just the same game over and over again.

The Bottom Line
There's nothing to enjoy here truly. You're better off watching someone's reaction to this rather than playing it yourself.

The Good
You can go faster than the speed of light IN REVERSE.

The Bad
Everything. You can never lose, but sometimes you can just not win despite the fact that the cpu doesn't move. No collisions, meaning you can drive through anything. I genuinely cannot believe this is a real "game".

The Bottom Line
Just ridiculous, how this was made and greenlit.

The Good
Features 1,138 cards.

The Bad
The AI opponents cheat. They will not attack a monster that you have face-down in defense mode if that monster has more defense points than the opponents monster's attack points. They also miraculously draw the perfect card in certain situations like Monster Reborn and Raigeki. The higher-tier opponents aren't restricted to the limited and semi-limited list, which leads to duels that feel unfair when you lose.

It takes forever to unlock opponents and also some are very cryptic such as having a very useful card in your trunk rather than logically having it in your deck and one opponent even requiring you to have only monsters in your deck.

Most opponents use the same cards even though as stated before that there are more than 1,000 cards in the game which makes dueling very repetitive. They managed to screw up Dark Magician's, Dark Magician Girl's, and Magician of Black Chaos' names as Dark Spellian, Dark Spellian Girl, and Spellian of Black Chaos, respectively. This is inexcusable because these three cards are some of the most iconic monsters in the game.

There is no password function to type your real-life cards to add to the game like in previous games. Characters don't talk when you duel them like in previous games which makes the game feel bland.

The Bottom Line
If you have to play a Yu-Gi-Oh! game on the GBA, don't let it be this one.

The Good
Soundtrack is catchy. Nice tribute to classic horror icons in pop culture.

The Bad
Stiff controls which are a problem when you jump and walk up or down stairs. Very difficult which punishes players for dying which results in losing your upgraded whip, sub weapons, and hearts. Every time an enemy hits you, you fall back which can lead to deaths. Graphics have not aged well with some rooms even having stairs midair above Simon not connected to the floor or ceiling. No save feature on the NES version unless you play on an emulator which you can use save states.

The Bottom Line
I can see why people like the first Castlevania, but the high difficulty affected my enjoyment on this game.

The Good
In the end, characters story, especially if you find the right "path" of answers, it's interesting. Also it's very open minded product and it's always nice to have.

The Bad
It's a huge wall of text and from time to time you are called to make a choice between two or maybe three different answers. Not enough for me. I won't criticize the structure of this but I hoped there were at least more occasions to have the player choose something.

The Bottom Line
I would recommend this only if you're mentally prepared you would read a lot, you don't have so much space to choose and you don't have a huge backlog. If you have it, play something else before.

The Good
So much content and replay value.

The Bad
A few annoying stars but that's it.

The Bottom Line
Great game, fun ash and imo an all-timer.

The Good
Animation Magic. What else do I need to say? Seriously.

The Bad
Nothing bad whatsoever.

The Bottom Line
11/10. One of the greatest games of all time, easily.

The Good
Classic 80s RPG goodness in the style of Ultima, etc, with a lot of modern comforts and improvements. A large world to explore with incredible variety, nicely and believably divided into digestible-sized areas to not feel overwhelming.

The Bad
There is no sequel planned.

The Bottom Line
A true labor of love on two levels: not only is it an amazingly complete ultima-esque 80s-style RPG that ticks all the nostalgia boxes, while also avoiding the negative aspects of 80s gaming with various UI improvements and conveniences, but also, the whole thing runs on a TI99! This makes it perhaps the only actually really good game ever made for the woefully mismanaged and short-lived TI99.

Definitely worth a look for any fan of 80s-style RPGs, and as far as I'm concerned it's right up there in the top ten.

The Good
Despite its age and improvements in similar titles that arrived in the years since, MediEvil holds up. The art design is stylish, the soundtrack is fantastic, and the levels are enjoyably varied. Despite low polygon counts and low resolution textures, many areas are pleasant to look at. There is an interesting mix of gruesome and lighthearted elements.

The balance of combat and puzzles feels just right, offering a challenge without being overwhelming. I used a walkthrough a couple of times when I felt stuck, but since the levels are all relatively small, I would have found the solution on my own in each case had I been a little more patient.

Sir Daniel Fortesque is an unusual character. He was the first one to die in a battle against evil sorcerer Zarok 100 years ago, yet somehow become a hero of folk legends. In the mythical Hall of Heroes where the heroes of former times spend eternity, Fortesque is not taken seriously. Now, accidentally resurrected, Fortesque gets another chance at proving himself a true hero.

Our hapless hero lost his lower jaw when he died, so he can only grunt. In conversations with other characters, he has only a few barely intelligibly lines and if it weren't for the subtitles, we would have no idea what he is saying.

The Bad
My main frustrations stemmed from control and camera issues, leading to numerous deaths.

The camera angles occasionally obscured hazards, resulting in unintentional falls or unseen enemies chipping away at my health. Abrupt camera shifts sometimes caused disorientation, leading to fatal missteps. During the final boss battle, the camera's erratic behavior exacerbated the challenge, making it feel like I was battling the camera more than the boss itself.

The precision of both digital and analog inputs on the PlayStation controller felt lacking. While manageable in most situations, it became a major hindrance during sequences requiring consecutive precise jumps.

Opt for the English version over the German one for a better experience, as the latter suffers from subpar voice acting and discrepancies between spoken lines and subtitles.

The Bottom Line
MediEvil remains a standout title on the original PlayStation. With its lovable protagonist, engaging gameplay, and enduring artistry, it's a must-play for fans of the era. Despite occasional control and camera frustrations, its charm and gameplay diversity shine through, making it a timeless classic.

The Good
This game was (for me) a revelation at the time. I had zero understanding of flight mechanics or how to set the radios to navigate, so I cannot attest to the accuracy (or otherwise) of the flight model, but this game had a real sense of "being there" and being in control. One of my most memorable moments playing this game was trying to land my Cessna in heavy thunderstorms at night (the "Thunderstorms at Champaign ILS" mode) with the cockpit all lit up, the menu bar switched off and the marker beacon lights illuminating on your descent, just like in a real plane. There is a tremendous amount of customisation available, especially with the add-on scenery packs that were to become a big feature of the series from FS4 onwards, and the game had some nice training modes to help you understand how to fly the plane, as well as some entertaining diversions such as crop dusting, WW1 ace and the plane designer. Plus, this is the only flight simulator game I've played that actually had decent keyboard controls!

The Bad
The graphics may have dated, but (actually) this is irrelevant provided that the flight model and navigation is realistic enough for you.

The Bottom Line
Worth checking out purely for the nostalgia value, but this is a classic and well worth playing. Although the Microsoft Flight Simulator series has evolved over time to bigger and better things, FS3 and FS4 represent the high watermark for the earlier titles.

The Good
An amazing story with plenty of fun. Acquiring and using the 3 spirits add so much to the game. I have played it through several times in my life and will continue to do so.

The Bad
Some elements to the game can be too challenging.

The Bottom Line
Highly recommended game to experience at least once.

The Good
The game story does fit quite nicely into the X-Com universe, and is some-what likeable just for its X-Com-ness, hmm...

The Bad
Interceptor aims to change the style of the X-Com games, and IMO that is its fatal mistake, I would much prefer to have had another Apocalypse engine game, with a new story than this. The tech-tree and research are not as rewarding as past games, the space combat system is a Tie Fighter wanna-be at best. The game simply fails to excel in any single area of itself, and this makes it dull overall.

The Bottom Line
The game is trying to expand the X-Com name, but misses what made the other X-Com games what they were. It fails to excel in any area, and makes for a lackluster, disappointing game overall.

The Good
Content Warning, much like other proximity chat spooky games (Lethal Company and Phasmophobia), is enjoyed with good and humorous friends.

There is not a lot of learning required, and I think this could be a suitable title for even the most inexperienced of players.

I really enjoyed operating the camera, and it's fun to explore the several spooky locales one visits in the game. Watching the resulting video is always a joy – kind of like a recap episode of a TV show.

The Bad
I wish I could decrease or turn off the amount of headbobbing/wobbling one experiences, as I have friends who easily get a bit sick from such, and even I could feel a headache coming.

I think it's surprising that the emotes one can do cost so much in-game money to obtain.

My microphone – also an issue in other similar titles – does not function with the game, so I have to use a crummy webcam microphone in order to play optimally.

The Bottom Line
It's a fun little game to play with friends. I laughed a lot while playing, even after my own demise. I got it for free during April 1st, but I think I would still enjoy it even if I had paid 89 Norwegian kroner for it. With good company, you'll experience silly goofs and laughter, while trying to go viral (in-game).

I have some minor gripes with the game, but I'm looking forward to seeing future updates, if any.

The Good
Like... everything! Whoever developed this port, did an unusually good job, bringing this epic space shoot-em-up to the 8-bitter C64.

The fire effect on the 3rd level never gets old.

The Bad
It slows down when there is too much going on the screen.

(Life Force, eh? It's called Salamander! Silly Yankees.)

The Bottom Line
Just pointing out the wins from the usual crud of arcade conversions.

The Good
Everyone knows arcade Ghosts 'N Goblins. If for nothing else, then the legendary difficulty - despite being a good game, it was deliberately designed to mess with the player!

The port done by Elite in 1986, is a classic on its own right for C64 users. While it is a very cut back version, I'd say it is neatly compact. Still, very fun to play.

What especially deserves highlight is the soundtrack. Mark Cooksey put just one tune in the game, an original composition that wasn't in the arcade, but what a spooky and cool tune it is! Can't get enough of it!

The Bad
The jumping physics is very wonky. Plus the platform ledges are very sharply and suddenly cut off - you don't even step onto the last pixel and you already fall. Lots of cheap deaths because of these.

There is only the first 4 levels in here. The 3rd and 4th levels are mixed up compared to the arcade. At the end of the 4th level, you just find the princess, and that's it, happy ending.

The Bottom Line
This was the C64 game we probably played the most back in the day, despite barely ever getting trough the first half of the first level. It just kept making us try again and again. Since then, I managed to play trough the entirety of this port, without cheating. It was a very good challenge.

It's bit of a shame that this version is so cut back (even if we couldn't know it). Realistically, it's neat what they could cram into just a 64 kilobytes single-load game on cassette tape.

But that is only true to the 1986 classic version. In 2015, a group of C64 enthusiasts did a makeover of this port. It was polished and reworked, and got all the levels from the arcade. That is the version to play nowadays.

The Good
This game is (theoretically) based on a TV show license. It is also (theoretically) the sequel to the first Airwolf game, which was a clunky something, in the genre of undefinable home computer weirdness. In both games, our vessel is the Airwolf attack helicopter, but this time it flies in OUTER SPACE! (How does that even work? Ha ha!)

But do not let all that distract us. What this game truly is, is a scrolling space shoot-em-up, a minimalistic Gradius clone. As such, it is pretty neatly done. While this is a cut down version of Airwolf 2 even compared to other platforms, this is what actually turns it to be enjoyable (as the other versions are 'naff with all the dumb sht they throw at you at lightspeed). The program is well done - smooth scrolling, many objects, okay-ish hit detection - which was a rarity on the C16 back in its commercial lifespan. The game is pretty tough, yet it makes me want to try more again, so it does something right.

The Bad
The screen scrolls from right to left, which feels a bit... unnatural?

The powerup collectibles block your missiles, which can make troublesome situations.

The hitboxes are square around all objects, regardless to their visual shape. (considering the hardware, I cut it some slack, and the game also remains playable.)

The Bottom Line
A good game for the often neglected Commodre 16 (and Commodore Plus/4) computers. One of the best scrolling shoot-em-up for the platform, besides Reach for the Sky and Skramble.

The Good
It has EVERYTHING! It's the whole arcade game, in 8-bit glory!!! Okay, some minor details may have changed, but it is way beyond in term of C64 arcade coversions. Even the presentational bits and cutscenes are here. And the gameplay didn't get lost amidst all this.

There is 2 player co-op mode! The 4 player mode would have been impossible to implement, so this is as good as it gets.

The audiovisuals... well they are what they are, as a demake. But there is nothing particularly wrong with them. And there is even simultaneous music and sound effects during gamepaly, a rare feature on C64 games.

The Bad
One button Atari-style joystick controls. Not very comfortable, but manageable.

It came way too late in the commercial life of the C64, it's almost like a homebrew game made by enthusiasts (or I could also say it's perhaps for the better).

The Bottom Line
Wow! It's a beat-em-up that completely destroys the pathetic C64 port of Golden Axe!

The Good
The visual style and the audio is very cozy. There are a lot of fun design opportunities with the prerendered graphics that you collage together. Personally, I appreciate the inclusion of various identity flags, though I didn't use them a lot for my sticker designs.

I think for what the game has, it does very well, including the design tool, the printing setup, and the packaging. The packaging is especially satisfying to me, where I can mix and match types of paper with the customers' orders. My least favourite part of the game is setting up sticker sheets for printing, but this not an obstacle.

The drag-and-drop features generally feel pretty good, as they are used for most of the game. Sometimes the sticker hitboxes (to grab) feel a bit weird, but it's not that offensive.

The Bad
When I play business simulator games, I like to feel a bit of tension. It's not what this game is going for, but it's something I miss. I made some mistakes while playing, but didn't feel any particular penalties.

The customer-based stories are short and lack substance, but feel somewhat suitable for the atmosphere the game's going for. The customers will also request various types of designs, which is not a challenge at all – for the most part, I already had designs that featured what they requested, which was a bit of a let-down.

The Bottom Line
I feel like I got my money's worth, so if you're looking for a cozy and unchallenging game, this might do the trick. It's a cute and laidback sticker experience, that allows you to make fun products from prerendered graphics and have customers overshare their lives with you. If you're looking for a more in-depth business simulator with a bit of a challenge, this might scratch that itch.

The Good
The price is cheap. The animated stills in the cutscenes are relatively detailed.

The Bad
The graphics are pretty cheap. There are barely any animations, and the style is generic. The cutscenes are very simple. The gameplay does not feel impactful.

The Bottom Line
Do not waste your time. There are many games that do the cutscenes better and many games that do the gameplay way better.

The Good
- Has a simple but interesting story - Charmings Artwork and music - Fun figthing mechanics, perk system, menotor, phone apps. - Difficult side quest - The right ammount of weapons, enemies and dungeon variety for the level of difficulty (its not actually so reeptitive)

The Bad
- Not THAT challenging - For being a RougeLite, dungeon styles where kid of reppetitive - Few dungeons variety and enemies

The Bottom Line
Going Under is a very fun game to play with not so difficult gameplay and fights, the magic comes when using perks, mentors, and othe staff the game delivers you. You can actually find a well made story here, interesting characters and very well designed with charming music. This game for me was actually really fun to play of even pick up after a while without playing.

The Good
Try to play under the radar and it will take longer before making millions. Make some risky informed investments and you will soon be rewarded. Beware the SEC is always lurking.

The Bad
I was always missing a graph of the stocks. That would have put this game at 5 stars for me.

The Bottom Line
I always had fun playing this game when it first came out and spent quite a few hours trading back in the day. It actually taught me as a kid as much as I needed to know about how the stock market works more or less.

The Good
The hero got a gun in one hand, and the other is a bionic arm that can extend very far. It can kill enemies, pick up collectibles, and acts as a grappling hook. Instead of jumping, you use the grappling hook to climb higher. The swinging mechanic is fun!

The levels are very diverse, from tall forests, trough giant fortresses, to underground bases. It's good to look at, and each got unique gimmicks.

The game engine works flawlessly, there is 8-way scrolling that is butter smooth, unlike in any other home computer conversions.

Tim Follin handled the sound. There are no sound effects, but the soundtrack is so intense that I can't even mind it! The tunes are coming from the arcade original, but with unique twists. Tim really rocked off the SID chip here, wow!

The Bad
The sprites are small and somewhat ugly.

There are no boss fights, not even a proper ending.

This is not like the Japanese NES version where the main boss is a regenerated Hitler, and at the end his face shown in close blowing up. That is ridiculously awesome. It should have been included in every version!

There are two separate C64 ports of this game. The UK got this good one. The USA got the lame one. Poor americans.

The Bottom Line
Just wanted to point some of the wins out of the usual crud of arcade conversions.

The Good
There are two separate C64 ports of Double Dragon (by Mastertronic vs Ocean). Both are bad, on the same level, but different ways. Althought not for the lack of trying! (Some of the war stories from the developers are known in C64 enthusiast circles.)

At least they can have multiple enemies and 2 players on screen at once (which is far more than what C64 Golden Axe had from later).

The Ocean version is a bit newer, and somewhat better on the technical and presentational front, but not that much that's it's worth it.

The SID chip can do wonders with soundtracks. Wether because or despite the composers, hard to decide in this case.

The Bad
Both conversions are barely playable, and look like a joke.

The Bottom Line
This is the time when arcade games started to exceed way above the capabilities of 8-bit machines, and the programmers had trouble figuring out how they can keep up with the demands of the publishers/buyers.

At least the port of DD2 turned out much better.

The Good
It's a cool arcade game, and a very good C64 conversion it! Good on the technical front, content wise, everything is there that needs to be.

The exclusive title screen music, composed by Martin Galway, is legendary!

The Bad
It's extremely hard! Not without a reason, it's got that Japanese kind of tough but well calibrated challenge to it. Still, I wish I could explore more from it.

The Bottom Line
Just wanted to point out some of the wins from the usual crud of arcade conversions.

The Good
There's like only 3 tunes in here (out of the 11 or so I know from the DOS and Genesis versions), but they are remixes done by Jeroen Tel, so it's party time!

The graphics, while not pretty (especially with in mind what they were trying to recreate), is very ambitious.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the way the graphics was done lead to the downfall of this port. The technical limitation that they only managed to put just one enemy on the screen at a time, completely killed the gameplay! They have faithfully ported how the player or the enemy attacks, and that's the problem: GA is not meant to be a 1-on-1 fighter. The challenge was in how the enemies co-operated with each other. How they sneak up on you while you are busy beating their mates, so you had to divide your attention between them, that's what made the fights so hectic. Without this, you just keep spamming the fire button and the enemy stands paralized, until it collapses. And what especially makes this an elongated borefest, that all the the enemy waves are here, but instead of comig in groups, they come in series. Turning it into a challenge of your patience foremost.

I would bring up that it lacks a 2 player mode. Or that it's an either music or sound effects situation. Or that it lacks in presentation, like missing the cutscenes or the map between levels. In the light of what I told previously, it doesn't even matter.

The Bottom Line
Golden Axe is one of my favourite games on DOS. Later, after discovering how good the C64 version of Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken are, it re-ignited my interest in the C64. So I was pretty excited to see how GA translated to it. Pretty disappointingly, as it turned out. I have no reason to complain, I didn't burn my money on this port (condolences to whoever did back in the day).

But let's be realistic. At that point in time, it was a wonder that the C64 still recieved ports of the latest and greatest arcade games at all. The hardware was long in the tooth, and it was very hard to demake the much more advanced games faithfully.

At least this program puts up a nice show that is a medley of the arcade, so buyers at least got something for their money. It's not like C64 users could get a similar beat-em-up that was done better... apart from Double Dragon 2 and 3... or the Simpsons Arcade game... sheesh, why am I angering myself!?

The Good
It has most things that the arcade version has to offer, and implemented in a very functional way.

The controls are very responsive, and everything moves swiftly!

It has the 2 player co-op mode!

The graphics in the cutscenes can be demoscene-level of impressive. During gameplay, it's not so nice, but it works.

The Bad
One button Atari-style joystick controls. Not very comfortable, but manageable.

There is no in-game music.

The fact that it's a port of Double Dragon 3...

The Bottom Line
Golden Axe is a much better beat-em-up than DD3. But this C64 port of DD3 is a light years better game than that of GA.

The Good
It mostly has everything that the arcade version has to offer.

It has the 2 player co-op mode!

There is simultaneous music and sound effects during gameplay, plus some digitized sound samples happen occasionally.

The Bad
One button Atari-style joystick controls. Not very comfortable, but manageable.

It's a bit slow, it feels like you are walking in mud all the time.

The graphics looks ugly, in that dirty/crusty way that rushed C64 ports often look. But it works, and the gameplay is surprisingly intact!

The Bottom Line
Unlike the port of Golden Axe, this is an excellent beat-em-up to have on the C64.

The Good
Recently, I have talked about the sequel (Abe's Exoddus) extensively, which is very similar to this game - looks similar, uses a lot of the same assets and gameplay mechanics, etc. Both are excellent games, but Exoddus polished out the rough aspects of Oddysee, and has a lot more content. Neither does help that playing Exoddus first made this one look a bit jankier. A.E. is the better game in general.

However, there is one aspect in Oddysee that I think is superior to Exoddus: The atmosphere! This game has such a uniquely sober, depressing, and contemplative mood to it, consistently in every aspect from the audiovisuals, down to the interactions with the Mudokons. It's a piece of evocative art come to life, even more so than Exoddus.

The Mudokon workers of RuptureFarms are... kind of creepy. You know that in Exoddus, the Mudokons can have different moods, and their voice sound more uplift in general. They also react with shock if they see the death of Abe or other fellows. However in Oddysee, they all sound so numb and deeply traumatised! It's a bit like they are dead on the inside. The little detail that they don't even bat an eye when Abe or a fellow dies a grizzly death right in front of them, implies that they see and live trough such horrid events on a daily basis, and they don't even care anymore. This is some North Korea level of sh*t.

Nowadays I find that in Exoddus, I don't care about the cutscenes. That is because the leisure manner and the childish humor in them (like "fourth wall" breaking moments) is bit distracting to the overall experience. Not that I hate it, Exoddus feels more liberated, where Abe is kind of a famous celebrity/terrorist, so it makes some sense. But here in Oddysee, the story in the cutscenes is told in a serious and poetic way, that is more appropriate with the oppressive feel of the gameplay. It makes the game's world more coherent and immersive overall!

Abe's journey is told in such an effective way, that we can easly sympathise with - even if the cutscenes are left out! Starting out as the punching bag of life, in the suffocating court of the dim and filthy slaughterhouse, with a desire to escape this horrid place to anywhere else. At this point, freeing the fellow workers is optional, just wanting to get away with your pathetic life, even if that means everybody else gets gassed for it. Then making a narrow escape from the inside of the factory, to the open air stockyards. Now we are able to see the smoke filled sky as the sun sets, but still not in safety, as the path is laid out with traps and corpses trough a wasteland. Finally making our way out into the nature, meeting with the natives, who propose you a challenge. Travelling to far away lands, to the ancient temples of the Mudokons, that are inhabited their sacred but wild (and deadly) animals, to ignite the all the flint locks and survive the trial. Gaining a mystical, Abe's life gets to a new goal: freeing the remaining Mudokons and shutting down RuptureFarms!

The Bad
That dreadful checkpoint system makes this otherwise hard game into extremely hard! There are very few checkpoints laid out troughout the levels. So if you die, you often are put way back, either to the start of the level, or to the last checkpoint, losing a lot of progress you made since. And so you have to repeat sections, that are often very difficult, and also have to keep saving the same Mudokons over again. Saving the game just saves the state of gameplay as it was at the last checkpoint when you reached it.

Worse yet in this game, you can command only one Mudokon at a time! That makes a lot of extra work to get all of them individually to safety.

The Bottom Line
Well, what can I say? Both Abe's Exoddus and Abe's Oddysee are my all time favourite games! They still hold up despite the remakes.

Many people complain that Oddysee is too hard, and a bit of chore to repeat things because of the checkpoint system. So now I want to brag, that I have beaten Oddysee the within the first week (of schooldays) I got it, saving all 99 Mudokons. That is because playing Exoddus before it was a very good training, and I have laboriously examined every inch and corner of platforms to find the hidden places and Mudokons. You can do it too!

The Good
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is a 2D static screen platformer (of the "cinematic" kind like Prince of Persia or Flashback). Story wise it is a sequel to Abe's Oddysee, and the second Oddworld game released. Although theoretically, it's not part of the planned main quintology, more like an expansion pack to A.O. It reuses many of the same assets, polishes on the gameplay mechanics, adds a few new elements, plus the amount of levels are double or triple compared. (Look, if Doom 2 could get away with it...) The plot is set on an alien planet, that looks familiar, yet Odd to us. You are playing as Abe, once a slave of a meat factory called Rupturefarms, now a celebrated Messiah of the Mudokons. He is embarking on to free up yet more of his kin from the industrialist Glukkons and their Slig guards, and to reclaim the desecrated native burial grounds. And he does so mostly without weapons or fistfight - Abe's way of doing thing are by speech, sneaky industrial sabotage, and spiritual powers.

So, what do I mean, that it makes you feel like a hero? Well, there is a lot of example in gaming where you have rescue someone, often just according to the plot, but sometimes as an active gameplay element. In old games, the characters you rescue may work like collectible items or checkpoints. In more modern games, there are the dreaded escort missions. Do you like escort missions? With dumb lemming-brained creatures that easily get themselves killed? Sounds like a recipe for an unpleasant time. While this game is basically designed around such an idea, it manages to turn it into a solid gameplay mechanic. (Okay, it helps that in 2D there are less ways to go wrong.) The creature AI can bring a lot of suprises and unexpected (funny and/or catastrophic) situations. The behaviour of the NPCs, if not exactly smart, it is deliberate in its ineptness. Just look and hear those ugly yet endearing little green schmucks (the Mudokons). Even if in a limited way, they have character. It can be a hassle to deal with them, yet you just want to keep helping and rescuing the poor sods! Otherwise they can get torture on the whim of the nearby Sligs, or even meet grizzly end.

What I told thus far, still likely could be mistaken for a Lemmings-type thing. But the main distinguishment is: you are part of the game world! This is first and foremost an action game, but can get pretty puzzling, one you have to mind getting everyone to safety, in a dangerous world of workplace hazards and unfriendly employers. Your objective is two fold: find your way to the level exit (which often has to be unlocked), while (sort of optionally) lead each green buddy a bird portal, trough which they can escape. In the second half of the game, there are countless occasions where you could just screw over your Mudokon friends by leaving them behind. Many situations where the level exit gets opened early (often with the co-operation of your Mudokon fellows) and you could just go on with your progress. But then you have go trough extra trouble to lead your fellows to a bird portal, before you leave. I think there is a lesson in there: help those, who helped you out!

Do your heroic duties badly enough - specificly save less than 50% of your comrades (or get killed that may) - and you get a bad ending of the story (even if it is not nearly as traumatizing as in Abe's Oddysee or Munch's Oddysee). This also means, that for saving more than 150 Mudokons, you get the good ending. To max out the game by saving all 300 of them, you have to look out for the secret areas. There are lots of these secret places scattered troughout the game. During the course of my several replays, I have laboriously examined every possible ledge and corner, like an OCD ridden idiot. The ending bonus may be nothing special, but I have the peace of mind to that I've rescued everyone, seen and done EVERYTHING! (Only to be told later, that the piles of Brew bottles mark the secrets, ha ha!)

On my recent re-play I was surprised to experience, that the things I discussed above still hold up, and didn't turn into a stale cliche, like it did in at the end of Stranger's Wrath. It still made an impact on me, I cared about saving the Mudokons!

What else can I highlight? Hmm... well, I have some trouble reviewing Exoddus, as it has become etched so deeply into my gaming memories, that it is hard for me to vocalize, what exactly I love in it so much. I want to call it one of the best, if not the best game ever. So there needs to be some justification to this preposterous claim. Below I go trough a few points, in no particlar order, what comes to my mind.

-The unique alien beings. Each have their purpose and quirky design. There are the Mudokon natives/slaves versus the evil industrial faction (Sligs, Slogs, Glukkons), plus the sacred wild creatures (Paramites and Scrabs). While most of the species make a return from Abe's Oddysee (minus the Elum), there are some new ones or variations that Exoddus introduced. Such as the Sloggies (tiny Slog puppies), the flying Sligs (complete with a ridiculous helicopter backpack, and a grenade launcher instead of a gun), the "pantless" Sligs (can turn into a walking or flying slig), the fleeches (double headed worms that can eat you whole), the Greeters (smiling guard robots that only see with a motion detector). Even the Glukkons turn up in the gameplay occasionally. Blind or moody Mudokons are a new thing too.

-Gamespeak. One word voice commands that you use to interact with other creatures, and make the do your bidding (if the're willing to listen to you). This has improved a lot since Abe's Oddysee: you can now handle multiple, or even all Mudokons, also command them to do errands for you by activating swiches. Blind Mudokons are especially dependent on your vocal guidance, and it is a nerve wracking job to prevent them to walk into a trap or accidentally alert the Sligs.

-Possession. More games should have this awesome feature, seriously! Chanting until your soul leaves your body, takes over the nearest on-screen foe or wild creature, so you get to command their abilities and weapons. Suddenly going from being a unarmed Mudokon on the bottom of the food chain, to being a dangerous killing machine that can clear out the level from the rest of the foes, oh yeah! Better yet, become a Glukkon, and boss around clueless Sligs with your word. The paramites are also pretty social among themselves. The Slighs however have become more cautious since Abe's Oddysee, they are quick to shoot their suspicious fellows. The possession feature could easily break the challenge of the game, but that is taken care of. Strategically placed chant supressor orbs prevent Abe from being able to do this everywhere (altough the use of grenades can change the situation). The possessable creatures get into a state of panic when they hear your chanting and can run away. Also they are limited in their movement (e.g. Sligs can't climb ledges).

-There is an element of stealth. Hiding in the shadows, sneaking around behind the backs of Slig guards, trying to be as silent as possible, while you are doing your activities of industrial sabotage. The music changes according to the situation, and you will hear that creepy musical cue a lot when idle enemies are nearby.

-Even just walking around feels good. The walkable surfaces are divided into an invisible grid, so it is not hard to plan your movement, even in the middle of hurry business. And Abe's dopey walking cycle is fun to watch.

-Abe can now punch. You can give nearby Sligs and other Mudokons a good slap (you can even cause a row of Mudokons go fistfight each other). Granted, this will usually not accomplish anything useful or good. But is is funny to pull off, and a bit of sign that Abe's is not so helpless as he used to be in Oddysee. It's not purely just a gimmick either, there are things like the ghost traps and wired Mudokons that have to be beaten up.

-Farting by the press of a button... aside from the comedic novelty, Abe's farts can become a deadly weapon too! Drinking Soulstorm Brew from the vending machines turns Abe's fart into a explosive cloud of a time bomb (that count back with smaller farts). Possessing your fart clouds makes them controllable. So rude and bizzare, I love it, ha ha!

-Minecart riding. The "mine carts" are tank-like vehicles that can crush everything in the way, and follow the tracks that sometimes go up on the walls and ceilings.

-The gameplay mechanics are actually pretty complex, but it doesn't feel like it. That is because the game does a very good job at explaining itself, and gives adequate training situations as it goes on. The tutorial instructions are embedded into the world in the form of billboards and info terminals, instead of obligatory message boxes interrupting you (like modern games normally do). So the "tutorial levels" are not an inconvenient drag when you re-play the game next time.

-The game is firmly commited to a HUD-less design. What indication you need to know, is most often marked with subtle differences in the behaviour + sounds of the objects/creatures concerned. For example, the working Mudokons like to make it known how they feel - they often stand up and make a whimper when sad (and flash blue when doing so) or groan when angry (and flash red), so you know beforehand what to deal with. Another example, your inventory of throwable objects is shown by a little floating number above your head, but only while aiming or taking a stock. Prehaps the least subtle is the "Mudokon head" icon popping up when loading, reaching a hard-set checkpoint, or quicksaving, but you oughta notice that!

-Save, Quicksave, Restart Path. The worst part of Abe's Oddysee was the checkpoint system, and saving the game only preserved the state how things stood when you hit the latest checkpoint. Here in Exoddus, this was massively improved! When you save the game to the hard drive, it saves the current state of gameplay. Beside permanent save, there is now a Quicksave feature. Which means, hitting F5 on the keyboard lets you setting your own soft checkpoints anytime and anywhere, and hitting F6 lets you reload that. It's a lot like savestates in an emulator. The game can afford this, because it has more than enough challenge and content to offer. If you messed something up with your quicksave, the Restart Path option puts you back to the last hard-set checkpoint instead.

-The audio-visuals have that late '90s alien aesthetic. They were designed with great consideration, and are everything they need to be. They both serve the game's purpose well, and are pieces of art in themselves. Oddworld originally started out as an animation/art company I believe, and this is some of the best computer generated graphics of its time, in pre-rendered 2D form. On a The graphics may have aged (as the resolution is not so sharp anymore on modern displays), but the artistry behind it still holds up. Each screen background suggests a world of industry or lush nature you could get lost in. The music actively accentuates the action happening in the game. The music is made of short loops. The normal level theme plays out when no danger is nearby. Ominous tunes play if idle dangerous creatures are nearby. It switches to action music if you are spotted by them. The sound effects are very functional and memorable too. So much, that a blind gamer can play trough the whole game, purely just by the sounds. (You may have heard of that, the story was widely publicized years ago.)

-There are lots FMV cutscenes troughout the game. They are so well rendered that I didn't think about them being CGI (it was synonymous with crappy movies) until it was pointed out to me later (duh, what else they would be?). Some advance the story, others are just transitions of travelling from one place to another. I loved seeing the story cutscenes back in the day. Nowadays I don't care so much about them, they're too childish compared the oppressingly serious mood of the gameplay. However, the transition cutscenes, when they are detailed and show off the scenery in motion. They still get me intrigued, kind of in the same way Star Wars used to. Like, when I see the techy innards of the Death Star, and it makes me wonder what all that stuff does, or where is it situated to the rest of what we have seen. Also, I only realize now one of the shortcomings of the later Munch's Oddysee - the world scenery feels so much bigger in scope, than what MO ever managed to portray.

-The differences between the PlayStation original and the PC port? The backgrounds are in much higher resolution on the PC, while the sounds do not have that strong echo effect that permeates the PSX version. The keyboard controls are quite comfy on the PC. Also, the PC version lacks the two player mode.

The Bad
The game can drop inputs. Why it happes is because Abe's sprite has detailed animation which has to play out before we can do other things. For one example, you cannot move and talk at the same time, you need to stand still for that. This is usually not a problem, but sometimes it can become one, in cases when you have to act quickly. Add in that the creatures have randomized reaction times, and the game can give you a hard time unpredictably. For a specific example in my recent playtrough, I had to fuss about a lot at a screen, where drills descent onto two unsuspecting Mudokons as soon as you enter it, and they have to be called away just in time. The only entry to that room is descenting on a hand operated elevator, which only can be stopped at a walkable platform. I have spammed the Hello key about a million times when the animation of the elevator stopping played out, and it just got swallowed up. Neither did help that the dumb Mudokons reacted very slowly. I tought I am just slow to issue my gamespeak commands. But no, the next day loading from an earlier save, the Mudokons on the same sceen had quicker response time assigned to them.

The game may be perfectly playable for the ones with low vision, as I mentioned. On the opposite though, it has no accessibility features for the hearing impaired. Now, the gameplay still can be figured out without sound... until you reach the parts with the voice locks! To which, as a Slig or Glukkon, you have to repeat certain speech patterns, to open up doorways. Why this matters to me, is that back in the day, I played this game on the lame old family PC, that had no sound capabilities at all. Because it came from an age when PCs had no built-in sound chips yet, so sound cards had to be bought separately. But those things were hard to find by the time we had that PC. So it was frustrating for 14 year old me to get hung up on the darn voice locks, argh!

The Bottom Line
A gaming masterpiece, with original ideas and thoughtful execution, that are still unmatched to this day. It hold up just as much as when I first saw it.

Finally, I was able to finish this review-y thing! Best game ever! My most favourite game ever! 100 out of 10! The remakes? Who cares! Exoddus should be in all lists of best games of all times. Simple as that. Good night. faints and falls under the desk

The Good
Another good yet free game that I found on Steam. It is short, if the reviews I have read can be believed it can be completed well under an hour, but I suppose that it depends upon the player's skill level.

It does look good in a dingy industrial kind of way, the sound effects are fine and the back ground music isn't bad either. The game played smoothly and flawlessly in a window which was its default setting. I did not like the keyboard controls but they were easy to reset and there is a controller option too.

The Bad
I continue to be rubbish at games like this but I keep trying because I have the all the old Tomb Raider games stashed away somewhere.

The Bottom Line
A good little game but just not for me

The Good
A few of the scenes like Act 2 look nice

The Bad
- The 3D camera is awful. - Turn-based combat takes way too long compared to BG1/2 RTWP. - Characters and monsters many actions and move too far per turn. - It has 4 party members instead of 6 like in BG1/2. - The UI is very ugly compared to BG1/2. - The 3D character faces/portraits are very ugly compared to the drawn portraits in BG1/2. - It includes childish reddit humor like the poop knife. - It's been in early access for years, but it's still very buggy. - It's too sexual to the point of being disgusting in my opinion - The animations are comically bad. - The PC is not voiced so they just mime in the animated dialogues. - The companions are extremely unlikeable. - The environmental graphics tend to be confusing (though not as much as JA3) - The narrator is a bizarre feature

I could go on...

The Bottom Line
The story of BG ended definitively in BG2 ToB.

This is a different game that they cynically put the BG name on. I think that without the name this would be recognized as a bad or mediocre game.

Sometimes our memories deceive us, so after finding "BG3" so disappointing I went and played BG2 SoA. Yep, it's just as good as I remember it being and much better than "BG3".

The Good
The remarkable thing about Gruds in Space is that it fully commits to being a "graphic adventure" rather than "a text adventure with illustrations". Text descriptions throughout the game are markedly minimal, with them only really cropping up to draw your attention to specific details in the screen that might not be immediately obvious; everything else is done through the graphic window.

And it works! The game provides a convincing feeling of adventuring in the first person (albeit with a pathological inability to face any other direction than due north) and is very intuitive to navigate. The puzzles are challenging without being overly obtuse, and the environments you'll navigate are laid out logically with none of the annoying "if you leave this room from the south, you'll enter the next from the east" nonsense found in some pure text adventures.

While the storyline is simplistic, it makes sense and it's nice to see some actual characters taking active involvement in proceedings -- as well as presenting a few unexpected surprises here and there.

The Bad
Disk swapping, and seemingly no support for multiple disk drives! It's not too bad for the most part, as much of the game is on side 2 of the floppy disk, with only the program file and certain select areas on side 1, but having to swap back and forth to save your game is mildly inconvenient. This will be nothing new to experienced veterans of text adventures on floppy disk-based systems, but it can be cumbersome, particularly on emulators... though in that latter case you can always just use state saves instead.

And you will want to save, because there are a few areas in the game where it's possible to stumble in relatively blindly and find yourself completely stuck -- not dead, but unable to move. At that point you have no choice but to either load a saved game or restart the whole game.

The Bottom Line
So long as you're open to navigating a graphic adventure with a simple text parser (and it is a pretty simple one, only really requiring two-word inputs for the most part) and are willing to save your game relatively frequently, Gruds in Space is an enjoyable game and an interesting look at the early days of adventure games where the emphasis is on visuals rather than text descriptions.

Purists may scoff, of course, and they certainly did back in the day, but Gruds in Space deserves to be better-known than it is. Recommended.

The Good
As a first-person shooter battle royale game, I'm intrigued by the gameplay and visual style of Deceive Inc. Its retro spy visuals make me feel a bit nostalgic, and the diverse character roster is exciting. The focus on deduction and a heist is especially entertaining to me.

Gameplay is a wee bit confusing at first, even with the tutorial, but if you're familiar with typical first-person shooter schemes, you quickly get acquainted with the various buttons. In the game, you spend a lot of time gathering intel to unlock doors and interacting with other objects, but this didn't necessarily feel like a lot of time to me.

The game uses an unlockable character system, where you may use credits earned in-game or through purchase to unlock a new playable agent. You obtain the in-game currency quite fast, and I feel like new options are never too far away, such as in some other games with similar systems, like the battle royale Apex Legends (2019).

The various characters have unique quirks and abilities. My favourite of the ones I tried ended up being the reporter Chevalière, who has the ability to track down where enemy spies are. I also quite enjoyed Ace and Squire – the first of which has a sniper rifle and the ability to follow a target's footsteps, and the latter has the ability to scan for nearby valuables.

As a neutral thought, there are loot boxes present in Deceive Inc., that you get through levelling. As far as I could see, there was no option to purchase these with real money. They feel unobtrusive, and contain various types of cosmetics for any agents or gear.

The Bad
I find the gunplay to be just fine, though I find that it feels a bit unresponsive. The bullets fly, but I could not sense whether I hit or not, or how effective they were. The same goes for when my player character gets shot.

As with some other "PvPvE" type games, like Hunt: Showdown (2018) and Dungeonborne (unreleased as of writing, alpha test in 2024), players seem somewhat incentivized with waiting it out. Instead of actively trying to complete the main goal (the heist), it can be beneficial to wait for other players to finish it, only to mow them down at the finish line.

One of the core mechanics of Deceive Inc. is being able to disguise yourself as the various non-player characters (and other player's disguises) in order to fool other players and to access areas requiring a higher clearance. Once you get a disguise with a certain stage of clearance, which frankly doesn't take long, there isn't much reason to play around with disguises. The relevant characters wander around where players are, either way, so you don't have to fear standing out, unless you have the one special character as a disguise.

The tutorial does not mention certain things, such as being able to crouch and the interchangeable passive buff system. I also wish there was a more thorough explanation of agent levels, as they seem to unlock various objects and abilities through such.

Some of the text in the game's user interface is occasionally difficult to read. This includes text of a similar brightness to its background. I also see a discrepancy in which decimal marker is used, where there is occasionally both a period and a comma used on the same screen.

The Bottom Line
I have played the solo mode, where you're up to 12 players against each other. There is also a duo mode (teams of two), and a trios mode (teams of three). The various agent ability texts mention having interactions with friendly players, which I imagine can add to the complexity.

I am occasionally fond of games featuring deduction, like Among Us (2018) and Project Winter (2019), and this was one of my favourite aspects of Deceive Inc. It is a blast trying to spot where enemy players are and who they are disguised as, though it usually ends in a pretty average gun fight.

I think that Deceive Inc. is suitable for players who are looking for a slightly different first-person shooter battle royale game, and though I think the gunplay and the disguising mechanics can use some work, I think that it can also be a fun entry for a couple of friends or even players new to first-person shooters. While the tutorial is lacking, it doesn't seem to have an overwhelming amount of depth to it.

I would give it half a star more if I could.

The Good
+Metroidvania style, great music, fun pixel art

The Bad
-Short, simple, easy

The Bottom Line
An ultimately fun but very simple take on the Metroidvania format. Good for a couple of hours of entertainment, though most of the challenge lies in just avoiding enemies and their projectiles. Good music, though there are a limited number of tunes.

The Good
Solid gameplay. Catchy music (although sounds better on 8-bit releases). Digitized voices are good. Enemies behave consistently and reset their positions whenever you re-enter screens.

The Bad
You don't really do any car park attendant duties. Not much content for a full-priced game (20 screens). One of the required items is kinda annoying to collect due to a lift in the second shop screen.

The Bottom Line
"You can't park here!"

The Good
This game made me a gamer since it release in the philippines not only me but also friends of mine and people in ph love this game so much. this game is so good to play.

The Bad
well when its shutting down feels really bad.. really bad:)

The Bottom Line
we hope that this game will rebirth

The Good
The script and the characters are quite captivating.

The Bad
The gameplay is quite sluggish, especially when we notice that Gears of War and Call of Duty Modern Warfare are from the same era and much smoother. It's still enjoyable, but it's not standing the test of time.

The Bottom Line
The game is fun, but as I said before, even for its time, it's already outdated. Another point is that despite being an adventure story, the character's main action is shooting, and shooting to kill. Compared to the action-adventure movies it tries to look like, it could have had more creative and comical actions and ways of dealing with enemies. Despite this, it's a fun game and well worth playing, especially after a tiring day at work when you don't want to think about much else.

The Good
Fire & Ice is a 2D sidescrolling platformer game from the 16-bit era. You play as Cool Coyote, in a trip from your house in the icy North Pole, trough various climate regions, into Egypt where a fiery demon resides (and apparently is the source of your woes or something). Your attack is throwing ice pellets, that will freeze up the various creatures inhabiting the levels, they can tolerate various amount until freezing up. Once frozen, enemies can be destoryed, or they will thaw out sooner or later.

The audiovisuals are excellent. They showcase the better side of the Amiga, without being overly tacky.

The graphics are very colorful and nice to look at, and the 16-bitness of it is just right. The sprite of the main character is comfortably big and nicely detailed (look at the hairs on the tail go flopping). There is 8-way scrolling, and the levels are designed around it, so altough you're generally headed left to right, most of the levels take good advantage of the vertical plane (apart from a couple of levels that advance just straightforward). There are sloped surfaces, that function acceptably (take that, Turrican!). The graphic design of the scenery is properly 16-bit, you will not find a platform that is just a flat slab (aside from intended bricks). The background layer most often is just a "sky" made of color gradients. But how the color gradients move according to the height, it gives the illusion of parallax scrolling. While the enhanched AGA/CD32 relase added detailed parallax backgrounds, those do look a bit tacky. In general, game engine works in a solid 50fps, I believe. I do not particularly care about frames per second, but it's undoubtedly smooth!

There is simultanous music AND sound effects during gameplay (fortunately, as it not always a given feature on the Amiga). The in-game musics and sounds are a mixture of higher fidelity samples and gritty "Atari"-ish chip sounds. It's not like just some generic techno tune and stock sound effects (like budget Amiga games often have), how they managed it this way is quite stylish and unique, serves the game's purpose excellently. It is all very memorable, and the soundtrack can become a banger at times. The game starts with a nice little show, as the title screen features Cool Coyote playing a cool song on a piano. The enhanched AGA/CD32 relase offers the option for a CD based soundtrack, but the tunes are completely different and less than appropriate, so I recommend sticking with the chippy sounds.

The gameplay is a pretty standard platforming fare, but it gets the basics down, and is executed tightly.

The game beigns with an ice level/world, which is kind of unique for a starter level. And yes, it is a bit slippery. Fortunately, falling icicles and skiing/snowball trowing enemies will be your main challenge, not the controls. And the underwater levels? They are probably some of the most pleasant of their kind in gaming!

The main objective on each level is to collect 6 pieces of the key that unlocks the level exit. The pieces are held by random enemies, and you have to search back and, forth until you assemble the whole key. Once you get near to a dropped key piece, they gravitate to you, so it is not a problem if they have fallen into a pit or something (wow, feels quite a modern feature, makes life easier).

The most distinquishable gameplay element are the puppies. They can be found scattered troughout the levels. Once you go near one, it starts to follow you, in their jumpy-springy way. They're optional, and can become a pain to guide them all the way to the level exit, but it is worth it! For one, they serve as extra firepower (or ice power?), and are invincible to regular enemies. When you fire your ice pellets, so do the puppies. If you do so frantically, the puppies charge forward. When they touch frozen enemies, the can destroy them. A handy little help! For two, once they touch the unlocked level exit, they give you an extra life, each! How neat!

Another neat feature are the little storm clouds. Spam them with ice pellets, and they charge up. Once charged enough, they start snowing. But make them too charged, and lightning bolts become a danger. Why they're important is, that the snowflakes are collectible items. They can be used as bombs that freeze all enemies on screen.

One more thing to mention in the time limit. You have about three "days" to spend on each level. Which is implemented as day-night cycles. The color gradient background reflects the time of day. Once you run out of time, fireballs start to fall from the sky.

The Bad
The controls are designed for a single button Atari-style joystick. The one fire button shoots the ice pellets, so for lack of better, Up has to be jumping. Which is not out of place for European games of the time, nevertheless it is an uncomfortable method. The special attacks require a fiddly combination of the direction controls and pressing fire. I often trigger the instant freeze bomb by accident. Granted, in an emulator you will likely play with the PC keyboard. Fortunately, on real hardware the game also has an option for playing with the Amiga's keyboard. It's still a single button design on keyboard, but much more comfortable with the cursor keys. And the later AGA/CD32 release finally has an option for the 2-button CD32 controller, with a dedicated jump button!

The middle part of the game (the jungle world) is ruthlessly difficult and unforgiving, even compared to the rest. This is the part where people usually give up (or resort to cheating). Oh and remember, normally you have to complete the game in one sitting. With insta-kills, time limits, no saving, no continues, just some extra lives you can scoop together. Sure, beating the game on your own (in the fair way) may be one of those 'once in a lifetime' achievements. But the game has enough content without the developers needing to resort to playing dirty tricks on you (with like random booby traps and fast enemies), so a little bit of break would have been appreciated!

The enemy designs often feel out of place, compared to the cartoony design of the main character. Some have that bulbous "Chuck Rock" look, others are more realistic instead.

The Bottom Line
You know the stigma about Euro platformers (if not, watch the video of Kim Justice about the topic). They share many of the stylistical and design choices, that were less than ideal back then, and are hated nowadays. As the Amiga and Atari ST computers were most popular in Europe, they received a lot of jank. On one side, there are a lot of platformers that (apart from the tidied up audiovisuals) were either straightforward ports from 8-bit systems, or had a very limited 8-bit like desgin to them. On the other side, there is the notable handful of platformers that were trying way too hard to ride the Sonic fad and show off, but ended up being not fun to play and/or unappealing.

So what about Fire & Ice? While it is unapologeticly a Euro platformer, as coming from the UK it bears stylistical and design kinship with them, those elements are surprisingly subtle. The good outweights the slight impracticalities so much, that I barely found way to mind/complain about them! It's a perfectly adequate 16-bit game, without being overcomplicated and tacky. It is solid on the technical front, competent on design for the most part, it deals with the right compromises, and offers a very tough but good challenge. Beside the Turricans, this is one of the best games of the Amiga's library. Moreover, I can safely recommend it to anyone who likes platformers!

(This game is curiously absent from Kim Justice's list of good exceptions, another reason of writing this review.)

The Good
After the campy showing of the Raimi films in Friend or Foe, Shaba and Treyarch made it up with creating a proto-Prototype game (2nd after Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction) where Peter Parker for reasons unknown gets a part of Venom after 20+ years. In 3-4 chapters, NYC goes from a peaceful metropolis plaqued by gang banger drive by's and shoot outs to a full on symbiote infested cesspool. Taking a page from Neversoft's game, the developer put a little treat for Marvel fans in form of supporting characters such as Mary Jane, Luke Cage, Black Cat (3rd best in gaming) and villains like Kingpin, Vulture, Electro etc. For those that did not enjoy the tech demo feel of Treyarch's Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in, this one brings a clear redesign of NYC.

The Bad
Since this is a PC port, the main issue derrives from FPS and sometimes the camera. The plot, while an interesting concept (looks like Neversoft is the core inspiration) needed more time in the kitchen with the pacing and better explanation for certain plot points. Keith Arem, the VO director did what he could with the dialogue but certain voice actors shouldn't have been casted (Vaughn as Spidey, Atkin Downes as Moon Knight and O'Brien as Electro). A future remaster might fix some of the camera and FPS issues.

The Bottom Line
Despite being better than Friend or Foe, this game deserved more time spent on polishing certain aspects before release.

The Good
The perfect introduction of Spider-Man to the new millennium. The game shows that this was made by Spider-Man fans with its story, writing and solid performances. Plus, Stan Lee is the narrator! How cool is that? The story follows Peter Parker as he tries to find the impostor Spider-Man that stole technology from a reformed Otto Octavius during a science expo. To make matters worse, a green fog has covered New York City (leftover from the original PS1 version). In thirty-ish levels, you will fight against one of Spidey's greatest rogues such as Scorpion, Rhino and even Venom all while getting closer to the true masterminds. Graphics wise, it is an improvement over the limitations of the original Neversoft PlayStation version (Mary Jane and Black Cat).

The Bad
Controls and camera take some time getting used to (especially in boss fights and that Venom chase level). There are the occasional glitches in 2 levels of the game. Certain boss and enemy character models although getting a more detailed look thanks to the work of Treyarch on the Dreamcast port have gotten an almost campy feel (Rhino, cops/SWAT officers and the bald henchmen).

The Bottom Line
One of the finest superhero games of the twenty first century. To those who complain about FPS, I advise you to read the Spider-Man Dreamcast preview article where they interviewed the art director Christian Bušić. It will clear up that particular quirk.

The Good
Good physics simulation Good community Mods support Good for low-end hardware

The Bad
Graphics are outdated and graphics update isnt released yet.

The Bottom Line
I think all sim racers should give it a go.

The Good
Zybex is an unusually well realised space shootemup, for a low budget home computer game. Moreover, it has an Atari 800 port, which even turned out good. The playfield keeps scrolling from left to right. Instead of a space ship, we control little people with a space suit and jetpack. It does feature a co-op 2-player mode.

The graphics are nice and detailed. It has that late era C64 aesthetic to it (after all, it IS a port from the C64), something that was unseen on the Atari before Zeppelin's releases. The screen scrolls smoothly from left to right, and the screen is busy with sprites (that even have working hit detection, what a luxury!). The level sceneries are minimal, but they convey a good idea of what kind of location we are traversing (and act as an obstacle at occasions). The backgrounds are just blackness, but after all, SSSSPACE!!! The enemy sprites in the C64 version are more colorful, while on the Atari they share their palette with the scenery. As far as I got in the game, this didn't pose a problem.

The title music is one of the best tunes for the system! During gameplay there's only sound effects, but they at least make a nice soundscape. In comparison, the sounds in the C64 version are quirky and effect-heavy, while in the Atari version has a crystal clear square-wave rendition of them. Both versions have their strength.

One notable feature to talk about is the weapon system. Destroyed enemies drop various powerups, which we can collect. When we pick up a new kind, it does not automatically switch to that weapon, rather we gain a new weapon in our arsenal without losing the current one. We can switch weapons at will! When we pick a powerup for a weapon what we already have, it upgrades that weapon's firepower. When we lose a life, the current weapon's firepower gets downgraded by one unit (we can also lose weapons if is on its lowest firepower), but the rest of the weapons are not changed.

Another good feature is, the game does not progress linearly. After the first level, we get a selection of levels we can chose from. Some levels are locked, and we gain access to them by collecting tokens on the accessable levels. Quite a novel idea for the era and circumstances.

The Bad
The joystick fire button does not shoot - the game does that automatically, by making the game character fire away constantly. (The fire button just switches weapons.) On one hand, this is a good thing: it goes easy on our joystick button and fingers, without needing a controller with autofire function. On the other hand, it takes away a little bit of control. Especially at low firepower, when the shots do not connect, we are vulnerable until our bullet leaves the screen. I wish there an option for manual firing, or a version with such a hack.

This game still does cheap shots: waves of enemies coming so fast you can barely react in time. I guess you would have to find a way to survive and memorize when these happen. This is one game where I wish I could explore more from it, but it is very rigorous in its challenge.

The Bottom Line
The Atari 800 line of computers are one of my favourite vintage system. They had pretty exciting (if quirky) hardware capabilities, with great potential. Tragically, they were neglected as a gaming platform. Sure, it enjoyed some relevance in the early 80s, but after 1985, the gaming industry kind of abandoned it. While the system theoretically still competed on store shelves against the likes of C64/Spectrum/Amstrad or even the NES, where more and more exciting and advanced games pushed the limit, the Atari 800 line was kind of stuck in the past. Thus it missed out on the genres that were popular in the late 80s, like Super Mario-esque platformers and Gradius-like shooters, which would have been appropriate for it. Zybex is a bit of a redeemer, or gap filler in this regard. Whoever happened to buy this game back in the day (instead of getting suckered with Transmuter), got a good value for their money.

The Good
I have recently reviewed another obscure Atari 8-bit shoot-em-up with a silly word for a title, and there I mentioned the lack of scrolling games on the platform. This brings to another one that interests/disappoints me, for the opposite reasons.

One half of the reasons is the execution, which can be complimented here. The graphics are not exactly what I would call pretty, but it's well crafted, and shows the better side of the system. The colors are juggled in a way that it obscures the limitations. The sprites are moving swiftly. The background scrolls nicely, and it has multiple layers in a fake parallax effect. I suppose the programming behind it is impressive.

The title music is a Pokey-chip remix of Rob Hubbard's Sanxion Loader/Thalamusic from the C64. Neat! And aside that there is your daily dose of obligatory Atari noises. Everything should explode with an Atari sound effect!

The Bad
The game is not very interesting. Under the good looks it's more like an early 80s game, and not a very good one. It is mind-numbingly simple and repetitive. The challenge is on your patience, how long are you willing sit by it.There are no power-ups. The levels are the same apart from the changing backdrop, they just get longer and and the enemies get faster. New-looking enemies appear here and there, they are just as useless ballasts as the old ones. And by the way, what are supposed to be the enemies? I see red beach balls, weird looking flies, and abstract cartoon whales, haha!

If we accept that the game is behind its time, then the criticism is this. The sprite of your plane (looks like an armed passenger plane?) is way too big. It's a huge, controls clumsily, it just begs to get hit, good thing there is a health bar. But when you find out you can just move to the top of the screen and stay there, then the game gets ridiculously easy! Most of the things will just pass under you! The plane automatically descents when you are not moving it, but what stops you holding it to the top?

One more annoyance, your weapon can overheat, and so your firing rate decreases. Thats exactly what you don't need to a slow moving big plane.

The Bottom Line
Mediocrity one way and another. Surely, Zybex exists to redeem for one, but we also could have a better executed Transmuter. Or a more interesting Extirpator.

The Good
Transmuter is a space shootemup, a low budget clone of Nemesis (aka Gradius). That sounds like one of the most trivial things ever... except for Atari 800 users. There is a disturbing lack of scrolling games on a system that was to compete with the Commodore 64, NES, et cetera. So, a game like this theoretically COULD have been be more than welcome in this scene.

So here is this game, which does bear with some semblance/qualities of Gradius.

The music and sound was done by David Whittaker, so it at least sounds like it COULD be a good game.

The Bad
HOW ON EARTH DO YOU MAKE A SHOOTEMUP AND IGNORE ALL THE STRENGTH OF THE ATARI 8-BIT HARDWARE!? THE GAME ENGINE IS A TOTAL JOKE!

What they did is, took the assets of the ZX Spectrum, and did minimal effort to make it work. Imagine the Spectrum graphics, in a blocky low resolution, with even less colors, all a choppy, slowly moving, ugly mess. Hit detection? It exists. Sometimes.

Look at that lame title screen. I assume those agonized looking faces in the bottom are the faces of the people who bought this game.

The Bottom Line
Such a wasted potential. I can say that there is a game under the crud, but you have to try very hard to pretend it's acceptable. At least there is Zybex to redeem.

The Good
Total control over your country starting in 1836 and running out for the next 100 years.

The Bad
Micromanagement can be difficult, learning curve is steep and its not called a 'spreadsheet simulator' for nothing.

The Bottom Line
There is a lot to learn in the game, but once you get the hang of it, the rewards and interest are immense. It will take a lot of time to get into but it covers everything you could want from the era.

No other game covers quite what Victoria 2 manages.

The Good
First and most, this is a freaking Lucasfilm (later LucasArts) adventure game, with all its complexities. For that, it's a small wonder it could get made on the humble old Commodore 64 at all.

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is Lucasfilm's second point & click adventure game released after Maniac Mansion. Story wise it's not a sequel, but there are many similarities and even references to it. The main similarity is that both use the SCUMM engine and interface, but the list of action verbs has changed. Beside that, shortcut keys were introduced, to help out the fiddly joystick cursor. The dialog output field is now two rows tall, thus conversations are easier to read (too bad talking only happens at the occasional scripted event in this game, as the interactive dialog tree was not invented yet).

The audio-visuals... I have to say, this is one of the worst looking best games ever, haha! As for me seeing the enhanced DOS version first, the C64 version was ridiculously ugly afterwards. Maniac Mansion was more stylized, with the characters having big heads, that went better with the "Lego brick" graphics of the C64. Here, the developers wanted to do more, and they just barely could make it to work. But it IS functional, so I don't mind it! All that, paired with those ridiculously awesome, more-powerful-than-necessary sound effects happening for every little mundane task, it adds up as a surreal experience. When the game starts and the intro cutscene plays, and get I hit by this brick of a graphics, then an excessive rendition of the intro theme starts to play on top of it, it gives me such a weird feeling that is unlike anything else.

Speaking of the intro, Zack McKracken has one of the most memorable game intro cutscenes ever!

Hmm, lets say something about the rest of the game quickly.

-There is the whole World to travel, famous landmarks to visit, many ancient mysteries to solve. (At least in the technological constraints of the system and era. But hey, Maniac Mansion was confined to a single house, so it's quite an expansion of scope!)

-Aside from Zak, there are three other playable characters (after reaching a certain point). Some complex puzzles require the orchestrated cooperation of multiple characters trough multiple remote locations or planets.

-Zak gains supernatural powers as you collect the artifacts.

-Travelling to Mars never has been cozier.

-It is very forgiving about the mistakes you make. Even if you get caught by aliens, the punishment in the brain washing chamber has just temporary effects. (Granted, not as failsafe as the later ones, but definitely better comapred to Sierra adventures.)

-It almost rivals Monkey Island in how many memorable gags it has.

The Bad
Technical wise:

-Lots of loading from the slowly Commodore floppy drive, and lots of disk swapping to be done too.

-For being a point & click interface, on an Atari-style joystick, it can be tiring on the long run. There is no support for mice in the Commodore version (neither the Neos nor the 1351). (There are the keyboard shortcuts though.)

Engine wise:

-As an early SCUMM engine game, the interface still has some jankyness to it. Instead of the expected features from the later games, there are many redundant verbs, while there is no "Look at", no "Talk to".

-There is manual "What is" exploration, as the cursor doesn't highlight interactable objects in the playfield to you.

-You have to construct the command sentence first, then have to do another click on the command line to confirm and make it happen.

-The inventory items have no pictures. Just the item names in a short text, that are often vague. The inventory list has been shrunk to just two visible lines (as a side effect of the increased dialog field).

Gameplay wise:

-It's probably the hardest LucasArts adventure, many difficult puzzles (it was designed to sell hintbooks after all).

-It definitely does not hold your hand. Most of the world is accessible from the get-go and it's easy to get overwhelmed at first. There are no chapters and not many clearly explained goals.

-There are still some possible dead end situation, or even the characters dying (granted, these only happen if you are excessively careless, but I mention).

-Lots of awkward sideview mazes to keep track in, some even in the dark (spells a cheap way of padding to me).

-The extra unnecessary jungle mazes. They're not even puzzles, you just have to wander aimlessly until the program decides you have arrived to your destination.

The Bottom Line
Oh LucasArts, where are you now... Back in the 80's, Lucasfilm/LucasArts was at the top of their game. It wasn't just all about riding the Star Wars success, at the time they really rocked the world! First, they did magic to the movie industry. And if that wasn't enough, they got into the fledling gaming industry and treated it just as good. It wasn't about doing the obvious movie tie-ins, instead they did a lot of innovation with original concepts: simulators with fractal generated terrain (e.g. Rescue on Fractalus), a proto first-person-shooter (Eidolon), the first graphical online MMO (Habitat), also re-shaped how graphical adventures are played and told their story (Maniac Mansion). Then LucasArts made a lot of adventure games, that were cherished for their smart writing/humor/and puzzles, the overall charm and quality of them. Until everything got to be Star Wars.

So, I have encountered the DOS version of Zack McKracken first, which is the better version. But I write this review about the Commodore 64 version, because that's more impressive one. Let me explain. Back in the mid 2000s, when I have discovered the old adventure games and got into the genre. "There is a Commodore 64 version? How could it possibly even work on that garbage?" Up until that point I only knew primitive little arcade games on this system, as the one C64 I have seen/played at my classmate's only had a datasette. So this game and Maniac Mansion were something on a new level, and it reignited my interest in the C64, wanted to see more, what else it is capable of. Since then, I did play both games on the real thing.

The Good
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is the fourth entry in the Spyro series, and the first one to make the leap to the next generation console, the PlayStation 2. While the Spyro series is often praised highly among the PlayStation classics, I have to admit that I don't know much about it. I have bought this game because I have received a used PS2 console, and I was looking for something similar to Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko to play on it. Initially, it seemed like a good choice: on the surface, it looks like a competent, well rounded 3D platformer.

Playing as a dragon. I AM FIRE! I AM DEATH! -- Eh, I mean like a purple colored cartoon dragon, which is young and can't even fly yet. But hey, it is unique to control a four legged creature in a platforming game. Spyro's main attack is a fire breath. Above that, three more breath modes will be gained as you progress: ice breath, electric breath, and - wait for it - bubble breath. Okay, these all have their purpose. For one, they unlock various elemental locks, most notably on the gates in the main hub world. These breath attacks are introduced as something unknown yet, so I guess these are new features to the franchise. Another attack is ramming, whick allows you to run headfirst into destructable/killable things and do damage. For defense, the wings can be used as shield, reflecting enemy projectiles back to the sender. It is fun, but you rarely get to use it. The wings are also used to be able to glide after jumping. There is also a kind of triple-jump mechanic, where in mid-air Spyro can flap wings to just barely reach a ledge.

Spyro has a sidekick constantly with him: Sparx the dragonly. It flies around and helps you to pick up nearby gems, so you don't have to touch everything yourself.

The goal of the game is to capture 100 dragonflies that has been kidnapped and scattered around the land by the villain. The stupid little bugs run away from you when approached, so the bubble breath has to be used to catch them.

The levels... honestly, they had generic cliche themes from popular media that were forgettable (the Gex games are also guilty of this, but not to this extent). One exception that I liked was Cloud 9, a dreamy above-cloud city inhabited by sleepy teddy bears and bouncing stars. The background music also picked up the pace there. For another one, the honey slide levels were also memorable (for being a pain).

Let me compliment the audio-visuals. The graphics looks both delightful and eye-candy. Especially the level loading animations jump to my mind: purplish hues, wooly clouds, Spyro floating in the air before the sun-lit vibrant horizont. It is all so dreamy! The soundtrack fits to this. The music troughout the is not very interesting, in the sense that it doesn't really come forward and grab your attention. It's sublime, sort of there in the background, made of little chiming and bells, contributing to the a magical aura of the game. The controls seem to be functioning well. There was also no problem with the camera (your view to the game world), like it was in earlier 3D platformers. In general, it is a very calming and peaceful experience, that makes you feel like everything is fine and dandy.

IT'S A TRAP!

The Bad
Shesh! I really wanted to like this game. But there must be something terribly wrong, when after each play session you leave frustrated and fuming angrily! I can't really grasp the full extent on what's the problem with the gameplay, but I will try.

At first, playing the game was a breeze. I got up to the second world/level, the farm lands with the UFOs. It wasn't much of a challenge, until I got to a point where you had to clear a wide gap for a jump, to be able to continue towards the exit. It is a bit of comlicated situation, as you have to summon a spinning UFO to lower to the ground, jump on it, then it rises up to it's default position, and you have to make your way onto the storey of a barn. It doesn't seem like a big deal to pull off with the jumping-gliding-flapping mechanic you got tutored on in the beginning. I have tried, almost made it, but fell off. Tried again, almost got there but fell. Again. Again. And again... Allright, I must have gotten tired or something, will return another time. About a whole year passed like that. I have bought two new controllers in that time, because I was thinking something is broken. I kept also practicing with the controller, so after so much time and effort, it could not have been just my fault all this time! [A little side rant: I have grown to hate the PS-style controllers, as primarily a PC gamer with the comfort of a keyboard and mouse, I don't know how people find that comfortable for long session, it makes my hand hurt.] I don't even know why I returned to the game after a while, but at one time, after wasting a lot of time and effort trying to get trough that point, It somehow happened! Great, I thought, I can leave this behind and continue on with the game like nothing happend. Ugh, well, not really. Almost every level has one such a specific point of for an impossible jump. And I got stuck. Again and again and again. ARGH! Good thing not all such impossible jump spots are in the way of a level exit, sometimes they just lead to some collectible items.

The minigames, bonus races, and whatever else sidequests that come up in the game, they appear to be a nice little distraction at first. Until you realize, that in order to get to the final boss, you have to max out the game: finish every level, collect everything, catch all 100 dragonflies (insert Pokemon motto here), beat every single bonus challenges and races. EVERYTHING!!! Nothing is just a bonus. Shesh, why does it have to be like that! And what did I say again? It's good that not all impossible jump spots are in the way of level exits? Scratch that, it is mandatory to mess around with every impossible jump spots!

Worse yet, the bonus races are rigged. At the first few dozen tries, it is impossible to win. Then you seem to do better. Eventually, if you keep trying over and over again, you will win the race, and the opponents won't even pose a challenge. You may first think that you got good at it. Until one time, you will eventually realize. It's not the skill, no, it's the number of tries that matters! The developers scripted it this way to keep you busy. How lame. (Hmm, maybe this is the deal with the impossible jumps too?)

The voice acting... ugh! My head hurts from even just thinking about the badly exxagerated impressions that some NPCs had. And you had to listen to it over and over again, because sometimes it was mandatory to interact with characters (like, they gave you quests that you could easily fail... PTSD from the honey levels). Farmer Bob, Joe, Billy, whatever variations there are of him, one of the worst offenders! By the way, we are a dragon, why do we have to put up with their BS, let's just eat them or something. Spyro, as boring as he is as a character, at least his voice doesn't make my skin crawl. Sparkz on the other hand... Bzzzuuzuiu BZZzuioziuzio Buuziuzzz.

Don't even let me get started with my complaints about creative decisions the game designers had. Just for one, why are there so many military themed minigames, in this otherwise cookie-cutter kid friendly game? Is this an advertisement for the US military? Why does a dragon need to drive a tank, or an airplane? It looks dumb. Let the dragon itself be the vehicle of destruction!

The enemy creatures are so inept and useless, that they hardly ever pose a threat.

The Bottom Line
The thing is, it does not seem that bad. Only when you are playing it, it makes you want to pull your hair out. But whatever, after about a decade of torture, I have beaten the game! Now I go and beat myself up, for being so stupid that I willingly put up with this.

[That was like in 2018, but I am posting this only now. That is because I wanted to dig deep and understand how exactly this game was so tortous, but the reviews I have read contradicted with my expereince and I got confused. Who cares, I put it out as it is. Onto the next dozen unfinished reviews!]

The Good
This is a sidescrolling 2D platformer with a mascot character. It was originally developed to be a flagship title for the 3DO. But as the console failed to gain a wide audience, it was ported to several other platforms, including PCs. This was among the first batch of Windows 95 games, and Microsoft used it in its marketing aswell.

The main character, Gex, is a TV-obsessed gecko lizard (complete with that rad '90s attitude). He gets pulled into a television realm for reasons by a badass-looking cyber villain, Rez, the overlord of the Media Demension(sic). Gex is voiced by stand up comedian Dana Gould, and he has quite a lot of wise-crack jokes to tell, most of them referencing movies and TV shows. Some people hate it, I happen to like it. Gex is quite proud of his tail an tongue. He can attack by tail-whipping, he can bounce on his tail, can catch fly powerups with his tongue. He also can climb every wall and ceiling like geckos do, the standout feature of the game.

The gameplay is like the usual 2D platforming fare, and from that it has a lot to offer. The game is fairly long and challenging! It of consists 5 worlds with themes of horror, cartoon, jungle, martial arts, and the futuristic but grimy Rezopolis. Each themed hub world has 2 to 5 levels and some hidden ones, all is accessible through TV sets. Each world has it's own set of enemies and hazards.

The graphics varies between hand drawn and 3D rendered elements. The game also uses sprite scaling effects, especially at the final boss (that was a cool boss battle). The intro and ending FMV videos look good for the time. The soundtrack is very '90s, sort of reminds me of sitcoms of the time, with some light distortion guitar thrown in occasionally. The musics are decent but not very memorable.

The Bad
There was a lot of jankiness I encountered in this game.

First off, you are forced to play the cemetery. Which as it is, not very appealing for a starting level/world. It gets pretty hard from the getgo. The game looks like it would allow to non-linearity, as you chose levels from a hub world. But levels and worlds get unlocked in a linear order, mostly one at a time. What a waste of opportunity.

Saving your progress can be done only with a password. Which is very restrictive, because if you quit and later continue, you loose all your extra lives and stuff. And the VHS-tapes that provide passwords are rare, so you have to play large chunks of the game between saves. I don't see why they could not implement saving to your hard drive in the PC version. Good news, once you know the locations of the secret bonus stages, it's easy to boost up yourself with extra lives in each play session.

The controls are not the best either. I think they have some input lag to them. Worse yet, the keyboard controls are stupid! While the game allows you to re-map your inputs, you cannot use any of the easily accessible modifier keys like Shift, Control, or Alt, like in any other PC game. Neither can not press or hold more than two keys simultaneously. This makes maneuvers like Run-Jump almost impossible. You have to release the Run key slightly before pressing Jump. Let me remind you: Microsoft itself endorsed this game... I managed to finish the game like this, but wouldn't do it again with these controls. I cannot speak what is it like when you play with a controller attached instead of the keyboard. Let's suppose it is better than this.

In the sequel, I hated the space level where it was very easy to fall from the narrow platforms into the big void and die. This game has lots of places like that! Swamps, pools of blood and liquid noise. One missed jump, and you can start the entire level over... and over... and over again. Checkpoints are not too common.

I personally did not like the in-game graphics, as it is not very coherent. The sprites of Gex and Rez are more detailed 3D renders. The majority of the backgrounds are either hand drawn of manually pixelated. The enemies only consist a few colors and their animation are more laggy.

Sometimes the wisecracks that Gex tells get repeated way too often. Does not help that the voice clips sound bit-crushed. Specifically, I do not want to hear the "WELMAAAA" or "Jeez Scoob let's get back to the Mystery Van" quotes again.

The Bottom Line
A fairly decent, if average game. Even tough plagued by jankiness, I liked what it had to offer. This is the first time when I encountered a game where its 3D-ified sequel (still from the '90s) is better and more fleshed out than its 2D predecessor. Doesn't help that I played the entries in the Gex series out of order.

The Good
O.S.W. is a unique hybird of a 3D platformer and first person shooter. The game graphics/engine looks like a direct evolution from Munch's Oddysee. Unlike the other Oddworld games, this is all about a mysterious figure only known as Stranger, in a land far away from the previous stories/species/characters. The hero is not a defenseless little thing this time: Stranger is a big and strong creature, with a weapon! In the first half of the game, he is a bounty hunter, capturing outlaws for money, in a Wild West type setting. In the middle of the game, there is almost like an Akira level of twist, and the game sheds away its Western-likeness. In the remainder, he fights on the side of natives against the industrialists, in varying settings. This game does away with the alien aesthetic, in favor of a more dramatic storytelling, with places and beings that are slightly less weird. I am not entirely a fan of the story or the setting, but at least I can't say they're milking the same thing over again. All creatures are fully voice acted, we will not hear the familiar one-word talks here (which left much to the imagination and felt appropriately alien), so it was strange to me hearing the goons shout "Yes, lure him out, boys!" or "Aim at his groiiin!"

You can actively switch views between the outside view (with a following "camera"), and the ego view. In the outside view, it is more comfortable to travel around and explore. In this mode, Stranger can jump and double-jump, climb ropes, perform hand-to-hand combat, or run (which gradually becomes speedier as you move forward without interruption, eventually running on all limbs like an animal, causing damage if you collide into destructable/killable things). You can also control the camera around Stranger with your mouse, separately from the movement controls of the character, albeit the camera subtly aligns itself up to your movement.

When you decide to holster your weapon, the game becomes an FPS. But you don't really have a gun: your weapon is a double barreled crossbow, firing live creatures! Yes, your ammo is the local Oddworldian wildlife of small bugs and rodents, and you stock up by capturing them at their habitat, buying them at the store, or from designated crates (Take that, PETA! :D). All ammo types do different things, like making noise to lure enemies to it, knocking them out for a short while, schocking them or activating electric machines, etc. It's your choice, which two you keep loaded for which fight. And you fire with both barrels independently at will. You can carry only a limited amount of each ammo type, and the firing rate is also slow, but both limits are upgradeable in the shops.

The playable world is impressively big for a game from 2005 (I think, admittedly I don't know much modern games beyond the year 2000). And you have to travel a lot, between towns or the places where outlaws reside, going through lush wilderness and beautiful deserts. Your method of travel is by foot, the very fast running is the way to travel distances. And all this works mostly seamless, there are no visible loading screens, no levels in the traditional sense. Sandbox would be a massive overstatement though, the gameplay area is always constrained between canyons/cliffsides, and the missions are clear cut. In the towns you can have short conversations with the Clakkerz(sic) that inhabit them, sort of "OG Nintendo RPG" -esque, except fully voice acted. This is not an RPG though, there are no experience points to gain, just earning money from the missions and sometimes buying things that can enhance Stranger's abilities. The sum of money you have is also the indicator of your progress for story reasons, so spending has to be done carefully. Aside from those I kinda felt like, the way that you, as the player, are getting to know the intricacies of your strange weapon, ammo types, and abilities better with each battle, until you can successfully take advantage of them, that is the real leveling up. Anyway, the towns have bounty stores and shops, these are usually the main points of interest there. The towns also act as a hub. You take up a missions in the bounty store of the town, then you have to find your way to the path out of town (usually trough secured gates that get opened for the mission), that leads to the location of the wanted outlaws.

Speaking of missions and battles. Each bad guy you embark on to capture, hides at some place that acts as their fortress. And they command a slew of goons equipped either with guns, rockets, melee weapons, or even doing the "arab terrorist". You have to infiltrate the place and defeat most of the goons, to be able to face off with your main target. The missions then usually escalate into a monumental and tiresome boss fight, to the last man standing. Apart from the instances of total alarm (like in a boss fight), there is an element of stealth in the gameplay mix. Each enemy has a line of sight, which is shown to you in a radar indicator. The music is minimal, but during action, it accentuates what is happening. What I want to highlight here is the creepy, spine chilling music during stealthy affairs: it got seared into my brain! While there is no dedicated stealth takedown, with the webbing ammo type you can incapacitate your prey in relative secrecy. The enemies can be either knocked unconscious for a short while, or killed after a few rounds of punishment. This is indicated by "dizzyness" stars above their head. 3 yellow stars and they faint and get a red star. Once they accumulate 3 red stars they die. Or in case of the bosses, there are dedicated bars on screen. Speaking of indicators, Stranger himself has a health bar and a stamina bar. While raining gunfire can quickly deplete his health, once safe, he can heal himself by the press of a button, which only costs stamina. And the way he does this is very badass: he just shakes off the damage! By the way, all fired bullets remain as visible objects stuck to the characters or in the environment, a neat gimmick. Once the foes are down unconscious or dead, you can capture them in your... Ghostbusters-like suction tank of infinite capacity? (never explained), but you are vulnerable to the others while you are doing so. Captured enemies can be later cashed in back at the bounty store. It should not be a surprise that each one is worth more alive than dead, and killing the bosses is less of a peculiar work than stunning them. One more thing to talk about is the enemy AI, it's deceptively stupid, yet can be pretty clever in times you don't expect it. For an example, I was chasing an enemy, I was on its tail, and it acted cowardly. But once I relaxed a bit, it noticed and got confident, became an agressive nuisance.

The part when the Grubbs (the so called natives) were running in and out of their houses at the sight of you a was funny, especially while wearing a headphone, so you could subtly hear them peeking out :D

The Bad
The game begins with a classic tutorial mission, where message boxes jump up and pause the gameplay. Yeah, its an annoying little necessity, pretty standard stuff, ... wait a minute, Oddworld can do better than this! What did they used to do? Integrating the instructions into the environment in the form of billboards, information terminals, etc. so when you later played the game again, the start was like any other level that didn't interrupt you. Where did that idea go?

I have to nitpick some of the artistic vision aswell. As I mentioned, there is little to none of that Alien aesthetic. Bugs look like bugs (the Zapfly is nice though). Chippunks look like chipmunks. There are now vehicles in Oddworld, that look and work mostly like Earth vehicles. A far cry from the creative trains or the "mine cart" from Exoddus. Worse yet, in one mission you have to recapture a laptop, which is flat out just a 2000s laptop. I would have expected something quirkier, like a chrystal ball attached to a typewriter or something. The phone in a cutscene looked like the part, why not the computer? Aside from these, I often found thinking to myself "hmm, that technology/architecture is a tad bit anachronistic for a Western", then I had to remind myself that this is not really a Western.

The second half of the game is very rough around the edges. The circumstances of the game have changed, and your learned tactics and of ammo types have become mostly useless, to deal with this new kind of enemy that are better equipped and prepared. The creatures you can collect is often the type that you have no use for anymore. There is no point in capturing enemies either, you can suck them up endlessly into your suction-tank just to get rid of them from the battlefield, but nowhere to drop them off or get anything for it. It's a good thing that they make you feel overpowered in close combat - for a short while.

Hm, let me quickly go trough what happens towards the end of the game. Doing some industrial sabotage? Check, the expected shenaningan in Oddworld. Defending the Grubbs from small troups of Wolvarks that are terrorizing their village on a whim? Sure, why not! Wearing viking-ish armor while travelling long distances with a row-boat up on the river, complete an auto-firing machine gun? Badass! Dropping into like, a bleak long tortuous session of WWII trench warfare? What the heck!? Why? Am I playing Call of Duty all of the sudden? This is the point where it feels like it would be most appropriate to spread lead and spill the guts of soldiers, but you are still stuck with your sophisticated pea shooter and the family friendly rating. Sure, your close combat abilities are great at this point, but whenever you leave your cover, you get gunned down in seconds by the literal army of foes. And the whole setup is ridiculous: you tell me that bad guys are doing an all out war on just a bunch of cute little Grubbs who don't even have weapons? I really hated this part! Then it kind of tainted the final section of the game, at the dam aswell. The Grubbs (it's never shown how the heck can they even fight) are somehow storming the place and winning the battle!

Come to think, this is the first and only Oddworld game, which ends with a usual cliche epic boss battle, all weapon blazing. At this point I want to mention that I was very tired of these, how do I say it, "Fast and the Furious" type of grand set pieces happenning on the boss battles, where stakes are raised the sky, and the physics and game rules are glossed over, in order accomodate that. I don't like that in movies, nor really in games. I would have expected something smarter than that.

In the final cutscene, it is shown that by destroying the dam, you flooded the towns of the Clakkerz aswell. You know what, fck the Grubbs, what about the Clakkerz!? o_O

The Bottom Line
Finally! It happened! I had the fortune to be able to play and beat this blasted game! After such a long time of just reading about it! The darn thing was an XBox exclusive back when it originally came out. In 2010 I missed out on the PC release, and then ignored it for a long while, I guess wasn't all that interested.

I am not a fan of the FPS genre. But I can see why Oddworld Inhabitants had to resort to make it into an FPS-kinda thing. Back then, there were a handful of interesting projects at Oddworld hyped on their quaint old website and fansites. All of these projects got nowhere, I guess for finantial reasons. The 2000s were not a happy time for quirky and/or independent studios, even less so than today. Boring big businesses and their typical FPS franchises (even soaked in muddy and yellow palettes) ruled the game industry firmly by this point. I am happy that at least this thing got released at all!

And how would I rate it now? It is surely a great game of its time, but far from perfect, especially the second half. I got some kicks out of it, but I don't think I will come back.

The Good
The graphics looks OK for being 3D, much less ugly than Escape from Monkey Island (the fourth game) was (I mean duh, that was not hard to accomplish a decade later). The character desings, while still quirky, look much more appealing than they were in MI4. Personally I would have preferred if the graphics returned to 2D hand drawn animation, but it does the job.

The music is nothing to write home about, it's there in the backround to give that Caribbean flavor.

The gameplay controls are mixed: it's both an evolution of the gamepad/keyboard centric inputs from MI4, while fortunately also re-introducing the classic mouse driven pointing-and-clicking that is so synonymous with the genre and MI series. You move Guybrush with the keyboard, and handle items with the mouse. It's a little clunkier to play the game like that, both compared to the streamlined MI4 and the classic point-and-click mechanics, but it's workable, and maybe necessary for the 3D environment.

The puzzles are pretty easy. Yeah, this is a game for the Internet age, where if getting stuck, most people will just look up the solution, which is available in seconds anyway. Hardcore adventure gamers won't find much challenge here. I am not a hardcore adventure gamer, so it's okay. This is Tales of thing is more like a lite Monkey Island experience than a proper big entry in the series.

LeChuck was everything from ghost to a giant stone statue, but human? That's new!

The Bad
The dialogue is not too good. Every line tries to be rapid-fire instant funny, all the time. The classic MI games had better writing than that, and the humor had more depth. But yeah, what can you do with a franchise as famous and hyped by that point? Trying to dish out instant gratification like it's a fast food chain.

The Bottom Line
Monkey Island 5 was rumored on the fansites back troughout the 2000s for a long time. This is no MI5, but the short episodic nature of Tales of Monkey Island was a fresh and allright way to bring the franchise back to the limelight. It wasn't necessary (I consider the story closure in MI4, as silly as it was, to be definitive), but we all crawed it! I haven't played the other episodes, or the recent one yet.

The Good
In the early 80s, Konami already ruled the genre with Scramble. It was a simple and very satisfying game. Then they made Gradius, which brought the power-up system to the space shooter formula, among others. Most features I will praise about it will probably sound trivial and standard to the point of cliche, but bear in mind: this game revolutionized the genre and everybody ripped it off, sometimes well, but most often badly. (I could be wrong about my facts, still it was very influential.)

In Gradius, each level begins with a prelude, where you have to be quick to soup up your firepower to the challenge. Then comes the main part of a level. Here, each enemy type and obstacle is well defined and unique. The environment is lively, all the levels are distinguishable and evolve as you progress forward. It's like going on an adventure. Why is there a tunnel of land in space, where things walk below and above you? Even volcanoes erupt there! Why are a bunch of Maori statues in space, spitting fireballs? The game world has its own logic. Even in such limited possibilities, it presents itself so interestingly, that you want to see more and more of it! Then the levels end with a giant boss to face off. They may look the all the same big ship, but each require some different tactic to discover in order to beat them.

The difficulty is high but reasonable, the developers calibrated it carefully. You have to fight for every inch of progress. It always tests your skills. It may look like there is a lot of open space for you to move, but the happenings are so intense that you have to do crazy patterns most of the time. If you make a little mistake, you are set way back to the nearest checkpoint. But when you prevail, it is cathartic!

As for the port to the 8-bit MSX 1 computers? Oh boy, Konami surely put their love into this conversion! Gradius is recreated on this far more limited system, has most of the content the arcade version has to offer! Technical wise too, this game is crafted as well as reasonably possible. I love when an obscure system like the MSX gets such a good treatment. It even has an extra level: The Graveyard.

In the MSX port, you have infinite continues, so you don't have to hang so anxiously to your lives or waste coins to be able to explore more of the game. The challenge and difficulty is enough to keep you hooked for a looong time (at least it did me).

The graphics may not rival the smoothness of the arcade or the NES for technical reasons, but it is well crafted and does everything to look good, without being overworked.

The sound effects are cute, and a well engineered feedback. The music is so fitting, memorable, and sweet! It's got that epic anime spirit to it (from the time when those were exotic and innovative, rather than a fan-service and joke). The whole soundtrack is intact and comes trough the chippy sounding little noisemaker of the MSX flawlessly! The sound chip has limited number of channels, so the music and effects could have gotten easily butchered, but they bridged over this by playing the complete tune in the first loop and then taking away a channel for sound effects.

There is also a special cartridge version with advanced sound that features the SCC sound chip. The reworked soundtrack and effects for this are so phenomenal that I would not believe that this is coming from an MSX or any 8-bit system, if I didn't know! It's even better than the arcade original. Konami was spoiling MSX users!

The game can be controlled with a joystick or the keyboard of the MSX, so there is that.

The Bad
Scrolling is not the strength of the MSX, and thus the environment goes left by gradually jumping 8-pixel tiles. The sprites move smooth though, and it doesn't really get in the way, so I can easily forgive this.

The Bottom Line
"Shoot-'em-ups" are a pretty ubiquitous and primitive action genre. Coming from the Commodore 64, and later mucking about with emulation of other home computers, I did not like them. There are dime a dozen of this stuff, all the same. You uselessly pound the fire button with zeal, tryng to hit the same-old useless enemy formations, then you uselessly die. Then there is Gradius on a whole new level. It's got that Japanese game design genius, precision, and creative weirdness, starting from the audiovisuals trough the level design down to small details.

The Gradius franchise is to the shootemup what Super Mario franchise is to the platformer. They revolutionized their genre, laid down the basic formula to be followed by so many, and are some of the best games of their kind. Took a long time for the west to fully understand and get close to it. The first Gradius may not be the pinnacle of the franchise or the genre, but it is very solid!

The Good
For the most part, this game is like an expansion pack to Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko. It's more of the same, it has more content, more worlds (with themes not seen in the previous games), more levels, more... everything! Gex now always wears some suit that is approriate to the level theme.

This time, the main hub world is Gex's base. Which is like the Batcave. It's interactive, it has part to explore, items to find, a training room, and whatnot. Pretty creative.

Out of the level themes, I want to highlight the anime one. It had pretty fresh satire for the time (for example school girls as enemies), and a pretty cool atmosphere in general. Gex has a robotic/mecha like suit here.

The items are now made of poligons instead of sprites, which is... something.

The Bad
There is no PC port! I didn't know about this existing, until I got into emulation. And even then, I could not find a good working PSX emulator for long, to be able to try it out.

Once again they did the thing where they swapped the voice actor for Gex in Europe, to yet another somebody. Give me the voice of Dana Gould or nothing!

And for the game itself. As everything is cranked up to a higher level, it gets overwhelming instantly. For example, the starting levels already have such a bouncy energy to it, that its hard to focus. It gave me nausea! Other people seem to prefer this one as the best in the franchise, I found it hard to get into it. The previous game had the right amount of zanyness.

The game has more of a story this time, and it takes itself somewhat seriously. While it's an improvement over the previous games where the story was paper thin, I don't like where this took the franchise. Not a fan of the added characters and cutscenes. The Butler Turle is, allright if boring, but Agen Xtra... My experince was -even if mostly just trough YT- like this. It's like meeting with a good old buddy you haven't seen for long. Only to bring his slutty annoying girlfriend. They keep ignoring you, and the they keep schmoozing and saying lewd things to each other, and you're like "Hey, I don't need to hear this, keep it to yourselves!". I have nothing against damsel in distress stories, but Agent Xtra can just shut up and fk off. I guess they wanted to get every opportunity to show off that they got a live actress to act badly, but why in a game with a cartoon gecko? And Rez, while he is the main villain yet again, barely has any presence.

The Bottom Line
I haven't played this one much, but I want talk about it. Maybe some time I will be to play trough it, and will be able to write a more in-depth review.

The Good
The first Gex game was a 2D sidescrolling platformer, starring a TV-obsessed gecko lizard (complete with that rad '90s attitude), and it originally appeared on the obscure 3DO console. Next up followed Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko as the sequel, mainly developed for the PlayStation 1. I would say this one is practically a like remake of the first game, plus so much more! It successfully made the leap into the 3rd dimension, back when this critical move could break franchises and companies. While I am greatly biased toward traditional 2D graphics (the "threedee" usually gave me dizziness and was often unnecessary), this one also improved on the gameplay and polished most everything what the first one did (neither does help that I played them out of order). It was interesting, easy to pick up and play, and bearable enough in its 3D-ness. And so it happened be my introduction to both 3D platforming and the talking game mascot phenomenon, and I am grateful for it!

Let's address the elephant (as in gecko) in the room. Gex likes to make his presence known, he is very vocal. You cannot simply ignore him -- he either makes or breaks the game for you! He is a little gecko with like the massive ego of Duke Nukem, and he tells his wisecrack jokes on his own accord. I happened to enjoy his banter, and I will write down my anecdotal reasons below. It is said that there are 800 voice clips for him (voiced by stand up comedian Dana Gould), so repetition is less of a problem than it was in the previous game.

Beside the talks, Gex got the moves too, for a lizard he is a hyperactive fella. He can run around on two legs. He can jump. He can attack by whipping with his tail. Also can coil it up in mid-jump to spring higher or crush enemies below. He can use his tongue to grab onto ledges or catch flies for power-ups. On his four, he can climb onto walls or ceilings (at least where the game allows it). And there is one more add: a Chuck Norris style flying kick! Which is not necessary to do, newertheless it's looks awesome, whenever you manage to pull itt off. Gex can take five hits before losing a life. But this should not be much of a problem, it is possible to rack up a massive amount of extra lives if you go around exploring. You'll hardly ever see the Game Over screen by just accident.

Flies are Gex's favourite snack. Conveniently, they the provide power-ups! There are color-coded flies trapped in small tube TV sets trough-out the levels. The TV has to be destroyed, and the fly is promtly released, which will then circle around Gex. If we let it follow us, the fly serves as an additional hitpoint (regardless how unhealthy it may look, haha). If we chose to catch and eat the fly, the power-up is activated. A green fly restores a hitpoint. Purple ones give an extra life. Golden and white flies give timed invincibility, in the form of an elemental aura of fire or ice. But this invincibilty is still vulnerable to damage from the opposite element, so for example don't go surfing in lava if you have the icy one. Mid-level checkpoints are also in the same kind of TVs, these show a checkerboard pattern instead a fly.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the levels are themed as various genres of movie/TV shows, and often reference popular media. Some are more cliche and kind of carried over from the previous game (cartoon, haunted house, martial arts, pre-history, etc.), others are a little more unique (computer tech, space sci-fi, espionage, etc.). These are reflected in the look and feel of the environment, cosmetically in the foes and collectibles, more functionally in the types of environmental hazards and interactive elements. Gex's jokes also adapt to the context. On certain occasions, Gex gets an appropriate costume, just for the show (for example like a bunny or duck suit when there are the Elmer Fudd lookalike hunters around).

You don't just progress from one level to the next, they are laid out in a creative and non-linear way, fully taking advantage of the 3D world. Firstly, there is an interactive hub world (the Media Dimension) where you can chose which level you want to enter. The hub world is divided up by giant gates. Gates open up when you have earned the required amound of trophies (in the form red TV remotes) or completed a boss battle. Then you get a new set of levels, while you also don't lose access to the previous ones. When you approach a gate in the hub world not yet unlocked, Rez threatens you, with his booming voice! Secondly, all the levels are - how do I describe it - also kind of a hub in themselves. They have one entry point, but multiple exit points - each earning you a red remote once you pass trough them. The challenge is in either finding your way trough twisted paths to an exit point, or also unlocking them by accomplishing given objectives. You are always given hints regarding specific exits when you begin a level, but you can chose to ignore them and go however you like. There are not all that many levels in the game, but how they are padded out this way, is not bad! Items (aside from already collected remotes) and enemies return each time you start a level, so it's useful when you want to stock up.

The levels are chock-full of collectible items. It is not necessary to mind them, but the reason to collect them is pretty valid. Pick 30 of them up, and they change appearance and location plus you are rewarded an extra life. Then pick 40 up from the second type of collectibles, again they change appearance plus extra life. Pick up 50 of the third type, and you are rewarded with the level's white remote controller! But that is not all! There are also hidden white remotes on each level to search for. White remotes remotes unlock bonus and secret levels, which provide golden remotes. If you finish the game with every possbile remote contorller collected, you get a bonus ending!

The levels are inhabited by various unfriendly creatrues. As platform game foes they usually do not pose much of a threat, unless the danger is getting kicked off from your path. The ninja ones though are pretty cool for regular enemies, and put up a good fight! The occasional boss battles are all mind-numbingly simple tasks, where you're letting the enemy get hurt by their own traps/attacks. On the plus side, these happen in epic set pieces. My most favourite event in the game is the giant monster fight with Gexzilla against Mecha-Rez! While the goal is to let Mecha-Rez fall off a building a set number of times (it wants the "high ground", haha), you actually get engaged in combat here. Skyscrapers collapsing, tiny tanks and helicopters trying to interfere and getting wrecked, good stuff.

I like how the game progresses. Initially, you get to chose between a bouncy cartoon level or a scary haunted house level, all with the right amount of zanyness. They are good, appealing starting levels (which is a big improvement compared to the first game). The world gradually opens up as you complete tasks and collect the remotes, giving access to more complex, varied, colorful levels. Well into the game, you could notice on some skyboxes that the 'air' is torn, revealing metal scaffolding and blinking lights. Finally, when reaching the last few levels of Rezopolis, they are unsettling places compared to the kid friendly rest of the game. Dark industrial setting and occasional brainscapes, clusters of TVs showing random stuff, deadly pools of bubbling white noise, dirty old robotic and bio-mechanical creatures, menacing industrial techno music. AWESOMENESS. And then, there is Rez himself. One of the most badass looking video game villains ever! Creepy bio-mechanical abomination sporting a rocket booster instead of legs, with a terrifying voice to match.

And now, some technical comparisons between the Windows port and the PS1 original:

-The graphics, is identical between the two. Most thing is pretty low-poly but textured, the collectible items are sprites. The draw distance is pretty short, and the game hides it by either taking place in rooms, between cliffs, or showing fog. It doesnt look bad, altough I miss that there are no graphics settings to tweak with, but that's how console-to-PC ports often are. Like, stuck in time to when they were released, to the capabilities of the PS1, or Pentium 1 PCs with an early 3D accelerator card, in a resolution of 640x480.

-On the front of sound, there are notable differences. The PC version lacks some presentational sound ditties. And the background music, while the themes are mostly the same, they work completely different. On the PS1, the music is built up from bit-crushed sound samples and is mixed in real time, allowing the music to follow the events, actively reacting of the gameplay. On the other hand, the PC version takes advantage of the "Redbook" audio capabilities of the CD-ROM, and thus it is in much higher quality. This also means that the music is hard-mixed and passive -- one type of level, one soundtrack to it. By the way, the music is mostly like off-brand instumental/"MIDI" rendition of famous themes approriate to the level. Where it truly stands out are the techno songs, those sound like genuine pieces of their time, and true bangers!

-Saving: The PS1 version has the possbility to save your progress on a memory card. Or if you lack one, then it offers a "password" combination (of the PlayStation symbols) that vaguely reflects your progress. On the PC version, you alway have the convenience to save your game to the hard drive, so no juggling with passwords. All this only works when you are back at the hub world.

-Controls: The PC version can be controlled both with a gamepad (of at least 4 buttons), or with keyboard. The keyboard controls register flawlessly, and can be re-defined (all unlike the PC port of the first game, I don't know how they messed that up).

The Bad
The most obvious flaw that can affect the gameplay, is how the "camera" (your view to the game world) is behaving. There were many occasions when I was not able to see the action, because the camera got stuck on a wall, or was facing in a wrong direction. This was a common problem for early 3D games with a third person perspective, back when game developers haven't quite figured out everything yet. Can't say that they didn't try in Gex 3D: there are even three modes of operation you can select from, right at the pause menu. One is where you manually turn the camera (with dedicated keys), a half automatic, and a fully automatic. Neither is perfect, there are places where one works better than the other. It is at least not a game breaking problem, you have to learn to deal with it. [Edit: I recently played the N64 version, and the camera is even more broken there, no wonder people are panning that version.]

There is a seizure hazard in the game. That is, when you activate a mid-level checkpoint, the screen flashes white. Like, you are supposedly being photographed, but it's confusingly represented by a tiny TV set like for the power ups, and you cannot always see its checkerboard icon from all angles. And this makes not just a little flash, it's like you flash grenade yourself! The entire screen suddenly goes FULL WHITE, and stays that way for a few seconds, then fades back. Now, I don't have epilepsy, but every time that happens and I got suckered into it or forgot to look away, it feels like my eyes have been destroyed and mind has been wiped blank. NOT cool.

In other news, Gex can climb onto walls and ceiligs, you know, like geckos do! It's a gameplay mechanic that makes the new 3D game world all that much more, free, complex, interesting (also potentially more confusing, dizzifying, and whatnot) ...Except you don't really get much walls that can be climbed. Only distinguished textures are climbable, and they were used on sparse occasions. Why I bring it up here is that, compared to the previous game, it feels like a step back. In (the 2D) Gex 1 you could climb most walls anywhere, which was a major feature. I think I understand why the game designers chose to deal with it the way they did here. But in case a new Gex game would get ever made, I would be dissappointed if they would not integrate the full freedom of wall climbing into the engine and gameplay.

Another thing to chalk up, are those darn space themed levels. They are very hard from the special circumstances: they are basically an open bottomless pit with little bits of floating -often moving- platforms and debris; plus you are limited on oxygen and have to look out for air supplies; with leeching enemies around that can drain your air quicker. Any sense of wonder that this fantastic new frontier invokes is quickly replaced with dread and anger. In Space, no one can hear you cursing for the frequent deaths! This is where your extra lives are guaranteed take a massive drain. Add in the fact, that these levels are some of the trickiest to navigate aswell, and it's guaranteed that you will spend a long time on them. Yeah, it's an intended part of the challenge relatively late in the game. Still, I can hate on it!

Additionally, let me rant about the European dub (which is technically what's appropriate to where I live). What was the point of changing the voice actor, and to such an inappropiate voice? With it he sounds like an old man talking slowly, just reading in some lines in the most flat way possible. Not very fitting for a hyper-active bouncy gecko. I guess the idea was that the brits wanted a suave, sort of Sean Connery impersonation (because of the slight Bond theming), but it doesn't work! I've heard people preferring this dub because "it's less annoying". To me feels like, without the voice of Dana Gould, it's a whole different game lacking Gex himself!

The Bottom Line
I guess now I have to explain why I like Gex in the first place. Some time ago, I was on the lookout for old Windows 95 era games, to try on my Pentium 1 trash of a PC. I vaguely remembered seeing a game at a relative's place, where a reptile thing was running around (which later turned out to be the demo of Croc, but whatever). So I downloaded "this" game, started up, got to a level, Gex materialized in the playfield out of poligons (it's a teleport effect it does). And when I wanted to take control, suddenly Gex looked back and said something silly. And I was like "Whuuut? Ya bastard, haha!". I was not used to a videogame character talking on its own (yeah, Duke Nukem 3D did it earlier, but at that time I didn't have a sound card). Did I just got adopted a Digimon partner or something? It was cool. And so this was a game where it didn't feel like the playable character is just an avatar for me. It's WE are that are doing it, getting the evil rid of this digital world... or something. There is some paper thin plot implied in the intro video, but it's easily ignorable. A hyperactive little gecko, with an ego on level with Duke Nukem, it was endlessly funny to me, in an ironic and endearing way. I don't like to admit it, but this was around high school years, and I had no friends, so yeah, quite an uncomfortable time. I hate to write all this sentimental cr@p down, but without it, all this text would have no menaning. Gex buddy, you lovable little dork, I would hug you if I could!

The Good
The absolute best combat system in a solo game, enabling creativity, stimulation, well-thinked challenge, visual beauty, diverse gameplans etc. Combat situation equally stimulating when facing bosses or numerous grunts Well-thinked progression through the aging system, which rewards mastery of levels & game mechanics Creativity in answers to bosses moveset rewarded, rather than focusing on mastering by heart the patterns Progression trough the skill tree really adds a whole depht of gameplan possibilities Overall, gameplay-wise the depht of how you can learn to play is immense for a solo game Great visual ideas, particularly in levels 2 & 3. The general artistic direction of the game is refreshing and pleasant Beautifull animations through the mocap of a real Pak-Mei Kung Fu martial artist A whole new experience through gameplay modifiers & arenas in the 2.0 update, which drasticaly adds to the game playtime. Even though a short span of 5 levels in the main game, a sensation of completeness emanates from it

The Bad
Inequality of bosses in terms of moveset interest, as well as reasonability in challenge when encountered in your first playthrough Flawed lock-on system that is highly susceptible to meddle with your way of managing multiple ennemies

The Bottom Line
The best martial-arts solo game, as well as the best beat-them-all experience I can think about

The Good
Artistic Direction (environment as well as bosses) Ambiant (musics, lightworks) Combat system (moveset creativity, bosses patterns, stimulation, difficulty scaling through the game) replayability (NG+, different endings / gamepaths) freshness of the experience in the whole genra as well as per the previous entries of from software

The Bad
few camera issues a gameplan more focused on mastering by heart the moveset of ennemies / bosses than mastering creative offense (compared to similar games like Sifu / Lies of P)

The Bottom Line
Hesitation is Defeat

The Good
Tom Baker's narration is wonderful as usual. The Book is nicely presented with high quality backgrounds and animated portions of each page. Occasionally there are simple games like pick the odd word out or count the items.

The Bad
It's still only one rather short children's book. It cost £35 on release which is far too much.

The Bottom Line
I could see a child wanting to play through this over and over again and it's got a reasonable amount of content.

The Good
It's got 17 line drawings telling the story of the movie that you can fill in with colours while listening to an audio clip from that part of the movie.

The Bad
It was £35 when released!

The Bottom Line
Just get a real book, crayons for £2 and the full movie on vhs for £10

The Good
Exactly the same as the Amiga 500 version

The Bad
Exactly the same as the Amiga 500 version

The Bottom Line
If you only have a CDTV and not an Amiga 500 This is as good as it.

The Good
It's quite funny, there is a reasonable amount of content which would probably take you a couple of hours to find it all

The Bad
The animation and sound mixing are quite amateurish. The gameplay is basically quickly click a section of the screen on occasional action scenes. otherwise it is just exploring the various buildings of town.

The Bottom Line
Quite a fun, silly experience. Might have felt a bit underwhelmed if I'd paid the £23.99 at launch though.

The Good
There is some amusingly awful acting.

The Bad
It's pure chance with every wrong move sending you back to the start. pick the right options and you beat it in 9 minutes, 5 minutes of which is waiting for the next screen to load.

The Bottom Line
A curio today, but a real fleecing of the early adopters of CD-Rom games.

The Good
They got a professional Narrator to read the book. They dressed people in costumes for photos.

The Bad
There is no game, just looking at photos and reading the book.

The Bottom Line
Amiga Format was right buy the book.

The Good
Since the game long shutdown before I heard about it, I had to play on a private server through the Soapbox Launcher and it was actually fun, with the race variety and all.

The Bad
The game gets too grindy for me at points.

The Bottom Line
Back when EA still supported this I would of gave this a 3/5 due to the P2W elements, but the community got rid of them and made it much more fun

The Good
Extra content is much appreciated and gives you more to do.

The Bad
Handling isn't the best.

The Bottom Line
Its a good 4/5 and great for its time

The Good
Clearer graphics, better controls and more options make this the outstanding version of Metroid Prime.

The Bad
The control scheme is still cumbersome, partly by nature and partly because of its Gamecube roots. The lack of finesse can really make some boss fights drag on.

The Bottom Line
Fantastic Metroid Prime is back and better all round, but some elements, trudging back and forth and particularly the boss fights overstay their welcome.

The Good
The SMS version pleasantly opens with a vastly coloured title screen playing some Indiana Jones theme remix, followed by a little cutscene with the “Mexican Hat Dance” tune, and finally a text introduction of the current level, which also hints what is different from the previous level, with little gimmicks now and again, especially the parachute. The real challenge is the next level will always be familiar to you, and at the same time it won’t be.

Even with the same colour scheme being used through the levels, the details are eye-catching and just the right amount to keep the screen interesting and give the right amount of visual feedback during the gameplay. Even the sprite animations are decently fluid and don’t look stiff in any frame.

The Bad
Quality of the visuals and gameplay are apparent. Audio cues on the other hand get boring after a while, especially when collecting the treasure and hearing the “La Cucaracha” jingle time and time again. Even though this game is set in Mexico, the game makers could have at least tried to put more tunes like “Besame Mucho”. No matter, what you hear is what you get, turn off the sound if it becomes a pain.

The Bottom Line
This was quite the interesting port of he game. Those who played the computer and early console versions of the game might not recognise this conversion. Panama Joe really stands out among the fictional archaeologists next to Alabama and Nevada Smith. If you want the best experience in Montezuma’s Revenge, the Master System port does it best.

The Good
You vowed to the god Kwon that you'll avange Yaemon Grand Master of Flame who murdererd your foster father Naijshi and stolen the Scrolls of Kettsuin. Collect keys, treasure, shurikens and fight your way through the enemies to face the three guardians.

The Bad
Not much in my opinion.

The Bottom Line
Very good game for MSX 1. One of the best!

The Good
Keep the ants out! They eat the muchrooms! They eat the fences! They eat everything! Shoot them! There are so many.

So replace the wood fences with stronger ones! But they cost more, so grow more muchrooms to sell them for credits. Buy seed, stronger fences, solar panels, electric pads, help droids etc. Oh my, you forgot to turn on the beacon for the incoming shipment!! Now your shipment is scattered all over the map! Go try to save them before the ants eat everything!

The Bad
Not much! You'll need a lot of time though, so not a game if you just want to play for a couple of minutes. You can't save your progress.

The Bottom Line
Very good. One of the best MSX 1 games.

The Good
You play against the computer AI who is walking the same world as you. Search for herbs to create spells in your cauldron. You use these spells to attack or freeze your opponent, heal yourself, be invisible etc.

Search herbs and create your spells, and search for your opponent before he finds you! Oh, and the dreaded fenced garden :) Look out for the guardian!

The Bad
Not all the spells are usefull. You'll use lightning, Fireball, Sprites, Heal, Freeze and Invisible most of the time. Most of the others are not very usefull. They could have done that better, but still. The best MSX 1 game ever in my opinion!

The Bottom Line
The best game for MSX 1 ever in my opinion.

The Good
The art, the slow pace, some puzzles, some dialogues, some characters, flying from place to place, definitely the landscape.

The Bad
Music glitches in some parts of the map. The speeder spinning after bumping into invisible obstacles. Because you'll fly a lot, invisible obstacles become incredible annoying. Camera glitches while in narrow places.

The Bottom Line
Play the game, then go and read Arzak, by Moebius, where all the art comes from.

The Good
EVERYTHING! IT'S REALLY GOOD!

The Bad
NOTHEING! IT'S REALLY GOOD!

The Bottom Line
PLAY IT! IT'S REALLY GOOD

The Good
There is almost nothing that I did not like about this game. I have just finished it and I have had a very good time playing it - I even kept my headphones on and listened to the music when I normally turn the sound off after a while because it all becomes a bit boring.

So, where to start? I suppose the first ting that struck me was the story. It started with the female protagonist, I think she had a name but it is not used that much in the game so I have already forgotten it, anyway she was abandoned at an orphanage when she was very young and she sets off to find out about her mother. Now that start and the cover image of the guy with googly eyes had me thinking this was going to be an iffy and probably a sentimental game. Not a bit of it. After the briefest of introductions that gets the woman into the Emerald Maiden the story takes off and it is a good story which I will not spoil.

The Emerald Maiden is quite large and parts have to be explored multiple times but the game has an excellent in-game map which can be used to fast travel as well as showing if an area has an uncompleted task. I did find that a couple of times I was at a loss to know where to go next but between the map and the hint option I was never in any difficulty.
The strategy guide is very good. I did use it once or twice, I think there were occasions where I had multiple actions to complete and I completed one out of sequence so I did not have the required item, a valve part or something similar, to do what I thought I needed to do next. The guide was helpful in getting me back on track. Unlike guides in some other games it does not show the solutions to hidden object puzzles which isn't really a problem because there are no in-game achievements to be forfeited by using a hint.

The game's music was good, it suited the game, it did not grate and it did not become boring even though I played the game all day. The voice acting throughout the game, apart from one notable exception, was also first rate and really added to the experience.

The puzzles fitted in well with the story, at no point did I feel that the developers had shoehorned a puzzle it just to make the game longer nor did I feel that there were vast spells of dialogue or times when I had nothing to do. The scope and the pacing were, for me, pretty much spot on. There are two main kinds of hidden object puzzle, one uses silhouettes - this is usually used when a device needs to be assembled from the found parts, and the standard kind which has items hidden in plain sight and others that require some assembly. The other puzzles/mini games included some logic puzzles, picture assembly, pipe puzzles, and at least one tile flipping puzzle all were clearly explained and all could be skipped.

Finally the artwork. This, I think, was a vey clever mix of drawn and photographed imagery blended together very well. There were a couple of times, mainly in the jungle where the trees and cliffs looked too like a modified photograph and seemed at odds with other scenes but overall everything was clear and easy on the eye.

The Bad
This is my contribution to the 'Bad Section'. It is going to be short, it is being very picky but there is one part of the game that kills the suspension of disbelief that swept me along with the story and that is in one of the jungle sections. Throughout the voice acting had been very good but this chap, who was supposed to be a native of an Amazon tribe, was wholly inappropriate. It sounded like the devs had realised they needed a bit of voice acting doing so they went down to the local pub and asked some random guy to read a few lines inti the microphone to help them out and that is what he did. No acting, no emotion, more a case of "I'll do this just to get rid of them so that I can get back to my pint". He could not have sounded more English or more disinterested.
OK that is more of a rant than I intended for such a piddling little thing but it irked me at the time.

The Bottom Line
I played on the Experienced difficulty setting and I started playing this morning at around 08:30 and I finished the full game and the bonus chapter at around 17:00 with the usual coffee, snack and comfort breaks. That's a full day and I feel that I have been entertained the whole time.
Will I play it again? No I will not because it is not my preferred kind of game. It is a good game and I enjoyed it but the only games I have ever replayed have been the early Thief games, some of the Lucas Arts adventure games and Fallout 3, 4 & New Vegas - games I can lose myself in for days.

The Good
Seems like a fine bullet hell shooter

The Bad
I just don't like bullet hell games

The Bottom Line
If you like bullet hell shooters, give it a shot.

The Good
Captures feel of the NES and gameplay is solid.

The Bad
Nothing in particular

The Bottom Line
It feels good as retro nostalgia, but if it was released in the era, it would be remembered as just a solid game like those that it pays homage to.

The Good
Fluid movement mechanics and abilities.

The Bad
Subtle camera glitches and dialog popups which should not happen.

The Bottom Line
My favourite Speedrunning game, played it since I was a kid. Will always have a soft spot for it. Underrated hidden gem.

The Good
It's basic math as the title says, it's basic math. you solve basic math, you pop it in, you do math, it works, simple! its not trying to act like something its not like with math grand prix, its just basic math, if you want to do basic math on your atari 2600 or compatable system this is absolutely perfect for you.

The Bad
the alternate title "Fun with numbers" might not be an accurate description depending on who you ask

The Bottom Line
some games are masterpieces, some games are colossal failures, some are big, some are small, some make you happy, some make you sad, some games work properly, some dont, Basic Math promises Basic Math, and you can always rely on it for that. 10/10

The Good
Best team and solo PVP game ever made. The lore created by Sam "Meridian" Johnson was so amazing in how it greatly encouraged conflict through disparate histories. To this day, no one knows how my elf druid was so powerful (Celee/Qualme on Mourning)

The Bad
The graphics were terrible in 2003, but they let us mass PVP with hundreds of people in view concurrently on our crappy computers.

The Bottom Line
Someone needs to be willing to waste millions to make a new version of this game because PVP today is just MOBA crap.

The Good
I haven't played this in ages, but I can easily say I've never played anything like it. I believe I discovered this on Home of the Underdogs many years ago. I had so much fun creating students named after my friends and family members, trying to take on the mutant teachers.

The game is challenging, but the story is a blast. Heading to the school every night, you just never knew which group of corrupt, demonic teachers you were going to run into. They all had unique bios and powers, and honestly some of them sounded hella creepy - like a teacher who bites you with mechanical jaws.

I remember having a question many years ago (even long after the first I played this), and emailing the devs who were kind enough to answer me. Even today, I have an urge to play this again.

The Bad
The early nights can be a slog when starting a new game because you don't do much damage and you do need to worry about losing students early. It can take a long time to take a teacher out. Also, once things start to go sour, I remember it being hard to turn things around - but that could be that I was just not that good at the game as well.

The Bottom Line
Giving this 5 stars because the memories it gave me, and the fact that I've never played anything quite like it. Always hoped this would get a remake or re-release somehow, maybe someday!