Have you ever felt so heartbroken that you wanted to just run forever into the void and scream? That’s the entire premise of Sayonara Wild Hearts, or at least my interpretation. Like most Annapurna games, a lot of their shorter stuff requires player interpretation. You are able to inject yourself into the game and place a unique finger on the story. There isn’t much content in the game, and aside from visual or symbolic interpretation, the female lead you play as is heartbroken and trying to mend her feelings. What we get is a pulse-pounding soundtrack with a visually gorgeous action-rhythm game that I couldn’t put down.
Every level is unique and flows with extraordinary precision. You will ride a skateboard, a motorcycle, an elk, and a mech. That’s not for you to worry about, as all you need to do is move left and right and dodge obstacles and collect hearts to increase your score. This game’s main hook is a score attack system in which you can get small hearts, large heart rings, and smaller collectible discs to increase your score. As the level goes on, the length and difficulty ramp up from just straight, wavy roads and loops to dodging left and right and choosing different paths with the most hearts. You can’t die per se, but you will rewind back about 5 seconds, which is nice, and there’s no penalty to your score, but you do lose whatever you gathered during those five seconds and need to reclaim it. A lot of the levels flow differently from boss fights using QTEs to jumping around on cliffsides and flying through cities. The pace of the game is insane, and it’s always moving and changing, which is really exciting.
Towards the last fourth of the game, the gameplay changes up, and you become a Game Boy cart and get inserted into a set of VR goggles. Here the developers pay tribute to, clearly, some of their favorite games, such as Tetris (you move through Tetrominos) and Geometry Wars. You eventually get a bow and can lock on to enemies to rack up combos. There is a nice bit towards the end that is a clear nod to Panzer Dragoon. The gameplay is also synced with the music, and with a good sound system (I have a 5.1 system hooked up), you are surrounded by fantastic techno and electronic beats with some beautiful vocals (provided by Linnea Olsson) and melodies. Jonathan Eng is a fantastic musician who has a very unique sound. He provides the boss fight music, with the vocal tracks. The music evokes a mix of nostalgia, wanderlust, and ethereal alternate timelines filled with pure fantasy. Daniel Olsen provides the rest of the OST and it’s just wonderful. It has a very 80s vibe to it as well, and it just fits so well with the visuals.
There was only one level that felt nauseating to me. The level bounces and kind of skips animations, making it difficult to focus and keep track of everything, but it was thankfully short. There are “Heartbreak” interlude levels in between this set of tracks, and they are fairly short. I also found the Game Boy level, while novel, slowed things down too much and broke up the pace. The entire game up until that point is just high-octane, in-your-face, pulse-pounding techno and constantly changing levels. I felt the Heartbreak levels were slow and short enough to give you a breather. Those slower levels aren’t bad; they’re the only gameplay switch-up in the game, but they are a bit jarring.
Words cannot adequately convey the experience of this game. It needs to be played, and I don’t know why I waited so long to play it. I downloaded it multiple times on different consoles, including Game Pass and PS Plus, and even tried a demo a couple of times, but it just never clicked for me until now. I love the soundtrack so much I listen to it outside of the game too. Anyone who loves rhythm action games, 80s techno-pop, or beautiful art shouldn’t miss this game. I just wish it were a bit longer.
The iconic intro sequence, the theme song, the suit, and the quote “Shaken, not stirred”—these are all iconic things from the James Bond series that every single person on Earth knows even without ever seeing the movies. I am one of those people. My parents were never Bond fans, so I never grew up watching them. This series is so deeply woven into pop culture that you could never avoid the newest James Bond actor announcement or the release of each movie. They were consistently at the forefront of the entertainment industry. Until now, the video games trailed behind like a deformed sibling. I played almost every James Bond game growing up because they were fun spy games. Of course, GoldenEye was the most popular, and it remains the most popular, James Bond game to date. First Light is the first original James Bond video game that is not tied to a movie license. This means even those who don’t like the series will like this game if you love stealth-action (Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell) or fun scripted games (Uncharted, Tomb Raider). This is IO Interactive’s first foray into the series, and it’s a strange choice of a developer, but they clearly put their hearts and souls into this game.
You play as new James Bond actor Patrick Gibson. This character is a very young, naive, and hotheaded Bond rather than the mature and experienced person we usually get in the movies. This James Bond accidentally stumbles into the role, with the first 2-3 hours spent on a lengthy tutorial mission and training montage that introduces his character and MI6 training. The majority of this opening sequence is storytelling and world-building, and IOI did a fantastic job doing so. The characters are believeable, Bond is likable, and the writing is sharp and tight and constantly keeps you guessing with plot twists and turns. I was completely engrossed in the game because a twist surprised me just when I thought the story was predictable. The best aspects of both games are present in this one, which feels like a combination of Hitman and Uncharted. First Light is a stealth action game unlike the movie tie-in games before it, which were all high-octane, action-packed, scripted, and linear games. First Light encourages espionage, stealth combat, open combat, melee combat, and even some vehicular mayhem.
If you played the Hitman games, then the espionage spy stuff will be familiar, but the gameplay is much more guided and streamlined. Many people don’t like the openness of Hitman’s levels, as they tend to be confusing and difficult. Getting that perfect run can feel like a monumental task. Bond has various gadgets at his disposal, but this is Bond set in modern times. AI is rampant (it’s the main villain of the story), and he has a smartwatch that connects to a HUD contact lens that gives Bond a leg up. If you hold a button down, you can see enemies through walls and various other helpful icons, such as eavesdropping on conversations for hints to complete objectives and seeing who is carrying important tech to swipe and what can be interacted with. The first level, for example, is a fancy chess tournament set in Europe, and bond has to gain access to the main building, but he’s in a valet suit. He can get into the more public area, but to go deeper, he needs to find access to doors. You have multiple ways to achieve your goal, similar to the gameplay in Hitman. Either do it the sneaky way and pickpocket people, sneak around and break down doors, or find a stealthier way in by opening a vent up. Some methods involve more combat, while receiving the right hint can provide an easier entry. You will encounter a range of espionage spy sections throughout various levels, making them enjoyable to solve.
The combat is a bit more advanced than Hitman. In the game, players can take cover, and use various weapons, but ammunition is very limited. You can’t just shoot forever like in Call of Duty. The gameplay encourages constant movement and melee combat with enemies. Yellow glints can be parried, red ones need to be dodged, and then you can punch and kick and eventually activate a takedown button. Melee combat is a bit clumsy. Animations can start and stop in jerky ways as you try to move around and hit different enemies; there’s no way to combo into another enemy, and cool moves like throwing your weapon and then running up to a stunned enemy and grabbing theirs are just clumsy. It works fine, but melee combat is the weakest part of the game. Shooting guns feels pretty good, and the gadgets really do help. Camera flashbangs, dart phones (that poison enemies), laser beams, and trip mines are just a few. There aren’t many gadgets, but you will use them a lot, especially during the spy sections. When you use a dart on someone, they will ignore you, and it lets you move in past a single guard into a restricted area.
Bond also has ways out of getting caught, and this mechanic is a brilliant way to keep trial and error down that can frustrate players. You can bluff and pretend to know why you’re there if you enter a room with up to 6 enemies. They will ignore you for about 30 seconds. You can also comply when caught and get kicked out of the restricted area. This action also doesn’t count for trespassing, just smaller restricted areas in more public spaces like behind a reception desk. You can also fake surrender and knock out an enemy, but if there are witnesses, you can’t do that. This rule also doesn’t count for License to Kill scenarios when you are allowed to shoot to kill. I found these areas a bit frustrating, especially when they forced stealth onto you. The choice is to either try to sneak your way around a ton of guards or shoot your way through. Enemy patrols feel random, and it can be difficult to get a good stealth line going. You can crouch, run to cover, and swap covers, but these actions only help so much.
Bond does get to drive vehicles. The iconic Audis and Aston Martins are present, but there aren’t enough driving sequences. You only get a few driving sequences, and none of the cool Bond gadgets are featured, except for a tease at the end. I know the film is a “coming of age” story for Bond where he goes from a wet-eared rookie to a more sophisticated spy, but this is because there’s room for sequels for this Bond to grow and evolve. Bond’s supporting cast sadly doesn’t get enough screen time outside of his partner Greenway and M herself. Q possesses a wonderful personality, but it’s odd that most of Bond’s MI6 classmates disappear after the opening sequence. This makes that entire section feel distinct from the rest of the game. I wanted to see the other characters on screen more often because the acting is superb, ranking among the best this year. Every new scene featuring Bond, from a tropical vacation to a fancy dinner party, kept me engaged. The game consistently introduces new elements, ensuring it never feels stale. After a spy section there are always some scripted events sprinkled in and the occasional boss fight.
First Light also looks fantastic using IOI’s Glacier engine. The game comes to life with tons of NPCs and gorgeous vistas. This is an incredibly varied and long game, running for over 15 hours just for the main story. Sim Ops, which make up the other half of the game, are challenges that unlock skins. Once the credits rolled, I wanted more, and that’s a good thing. I didn’t want this game to end. I loved seeing Bond and Co. on screen, and every plot twist made me want to see the next one. The story isn’t sophisticated by any means, but it’s fun and full of some great action set pieces, and it’s constantly changing. First Light is the best Bond game ever made, and the next one will have to meet high expectations.
One of the key principles of LEGO games (I’m not capitalizing that anymore from here on out) is “fun”. Also, fun with others. Lego games have been a core part of video games since Lego Adventure Island for the PC back in the late ’90s. Lego really took off in the video game sphere with Lego Star Wars. This was a smash hit that created a basic formula and building blocks for every other Lego game to come after it. That’s both good and bad. See, whenever there’s a new generation of Lego games, everyone hopes for something more difficult, more in-depth, and with more content. Lego games shifted to open world with Lego City Undercover for the Wii U and have kind of stayed that way since. I haven only played some games in the series as Lego Star Wars came out when I was a teenager so I was already not the target audience, and my little sister didn’t seem to care for it. It was still fun and something to zone out with and the handheld versions were completely different games.
Legacy of the Dark Knight is the fourth Lego Batman game. The previous three introduced various elements that were borrowed from the tried-and-true Lego formula, but with Batman and DC superheroes. Legacy of the Dark Knight is a “Greatest Hits” of Batman movies and video games. It takes many gameplay elements from Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham series and pulls scenes from various Batman movies, mostly Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s series. This is clearly one of the most cinematic and ambitious Lego games to date. The game takes you through Bruce’s early years as a child walking through Wayne Manor while cosplaying as the Grey Ghost with Alfred tagging along behind you. This introduces basic controls and mechanics to the player. Anyone who has played any Lego-licensed game in the last decade and a half will be completely familiar with how this game plays. Most of the same gameplay elements exist for better or for worse. The game slowly introduces Batman and his abilities to you as a player. You also have a single sidekick who is with you. You start out with Gordon but eventually unlock others through the story, such as Catwoman, Robin, and Batgirl. Each character has an ability usually needed for a puzzle. Gordan can use a foam gun to stop objects. Catowman can use her whip to spin objects. Robin can use his homing batarang to target multiple objects at once.
This dynamic is designed for co-op in mind, but sadly, the puzzles in this game aren’t any more sophisticated or involved than any other Lego game. While they seem complex at first, their solution is usually always given to you (using Batman’s detective vision from the Arkham games) or has the difficulty so simple that small kids can solve it. I understand these games are geared towards children, but I figured they would be ramped up some. The entire game plays out like a Batman Arkham game. From the looks to the abilities and even the combat system, it is ripped straight out of those games. Sadly, while the combat system is the most advanced of any Lego game, it does get repetitive really fast. It lacks the more advanced combo moves and takedowns and just has Batman switching from enemy to enemy in any direction. You can rack up a combo, but these can be broken too easily with more than a second pause between dodges or attacks. You can press a parry button that flashes above enemies to keep combos going, and then you unleash a powerful attack once your meter goes up. There’s no switching and comboing between characters like in the later Arkham games, sadly. The combat system is fine, but I beat the game on the Dark Knight difficulty, and all that did was add more enemies and make scenarios take longer to get through, plus introduces a life system that will restart you at the last checkpoint after three deaths.
There is stealth in this game; just like the Arkham games, you can swing around on pillars and objects overhead, but it’s mostly useless. Most areas seem to have poorly laid out enemy patrol patterns, and I always got caught no matter how good I thought it was doing. Most of the main levels are varied and take you through movie scenes. For example, the Joker parade scene from the ’89 Batman movie is awesome. The same song plays (“Partyman” by Prince), and you get to see Joker vandalize a museum with translated Lego humor. Another scene is Mr. Freeze from Batman Forever, and this is the Schwarzenegger Mr. Freeze to boot. Alfred is obviously pulled from Michael Caine’s version, and Lucius Fox is Morgan Freeman’s version. You get a couple of different Jokers here, such as both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s versions, and the voice actors do a good job imitating them. We also get Poison Ivy from Tim Burton’s movie as well as Tommy Lee Jones’ Two Face. They all blend together fairly well with a good amount of levels tossed in. Each level is full of platforming, combat, and puzzles and is varied enough with some scripted events to never become boring. The only time things became dull was during combat encounters that did not involve boss fights. Fighting the goon waves over and over again gets pretty dull really quick because all of the upgrades you earn from finding Wayne Chips are for exploration only.
Many other elements from previous games are here, such as busting up objects to build something to advance in a mission. This has always been a cool feature and never gets old. Seeing a real Lego object being built from pieces is always cool. Vehicle driving is strictly limited to the open world. There are a bunch of different vehicles to drive, and each character has their own. I loved driving Batman’s Batmobiles from different eras of the movies. There are also a ton of costumes to unlock by finding every collectible in each level. Red Bricks are used to unlock color schemes too. There are a ton of collectibles to find here, and many are in the open world. Taken from the Batman Arkham games are Riddler puzzles scattered throughout. These are not nearly as complicated as in those games, but they are still fun, and a couple did get me to think a bit. There are various caches, emblems, and objects to discover. Trials, races, and various events to test your skills too. It’s a lot of content, and most of it is pretty fun. I didn’t care for the combat trials, as I think this is the weakest part of the game. Boss fights are the only unique thing combat-wise, and I found them to be pretty fun to figure out.
The game itself looks fantastic with water dripping down glossy Lego surfaces and great lighting, and they nailed the mood of the Batman Arkham games. It seems they mostly went for Arkham Knight more than City, and surprisingly the Batmobile feels better to drive here than in that game. You can’t run anyone over (you just pass through them), and the violence is kept to a minimum. The humour is spot on early in the game, and then it kind of just drops off halfway through. The level of jokes and physical comedy that Lego games are known for is great for awhile. Later on, the game relies on more cheese and slapstick humour that just doesn’t land right. I’m not sure what went wrong here, but it’s not the end of the world. The game just looks and feels like all the best Batman video games and movies rolled all up into one. I just wish the combat wasn’t so mundane and boring. The puzzles are easy but plentiful and always keep you guessing, the scripted events are fun, and the boss fights are at least entertaining. The voice acting is pretty good too, so what you have here is Lego Batman: The Greatest Hits.
The south of the United States of America has a lot of culture. The region we refer to as “the Old South” extends from Louisiana to parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. The black culture here is deeply rooted from ex-slaves, and it is a very proud community. South of Midnight explores this culture and does it tastefully, where most games caricature the “voodoo” aspect of the South. While that is in the game, it’s not the sole focus. You play as teenager Hazel Flood, who goes on a journey of self-discovery and exploring the roots of her own culture. The game begins with Hazel helping her mother pack and escape a dangerous flood. Her mother doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry and is more worried about her community than her own safety. This causes the two to fight, and her home gets swept away in the flood. As you search for help, you discover that you are a Weaver. Someone who can weave the threads of fate and fight Haints and Stigma, which are things that most folk can not see. You come across a giant talking catfish, various fun creatures, and a journey with a heartwarming story.
Of course, it’s not all perfect. While I did enjoy the story and wanted to see what happened next, there aren’t any huge twists or turns. The game runs for about 10 hours, so there’s enough time for a decent story, but the amount of detail the game puts in here doesn’t allow for quite enough time to really expand and become something really nuanced. We get to know Hazel quite a bit, and we explore her childhood, psychology, and her family history, but most of the other characters are secondary to this. The voice acting is fantastic, and the stop-motion animation of the characters looks great. Everyone looks like wood-carved puppets with a lot of detail. I found the story fun and interesting, but not memorable, but that’s okay. There are a lot of environments to explore and tonnes of platforming.
Sadly, there’s not a lot of exploration, as this is a very linear game. You stay on a single path with an occasional left or right branch for some “floof”, which is used to purchase upgrades on the limited skill tree. You can also find green figments to permanently upgrade your health. A lot of the mechanics in this game feel half-baked, and nothing is more underwhelming than the game’s combat. You only have a single attack button and just whale on enemies and knock their health bar down. You quickly (too quickly) unlock powers such as a push, pull, weave, and passive abilities to stun enemies, but these don’t add much to the combat. Enemies are damage sponges, and you just spam the special attacks without much strategy outside of sending your doll Cruton out to possess the most powerful enemies. When an enemy is down, you can untangle them and absorb some health. Each of these combat areas is walled off with a single health orb inside. You rinse and repeat for 10 hours. It gets incredibly dull very early on. Before Chapter 3 was over with, I was already checked out with the combat. There are no additional attack buttons, and the enemies, while all looking and attacking differently, don’t give you any reason to strategise attacks. Some enemies will turn yellow after so much damage and do an AOE attack, but that’s about it. I found them boring to look at and to fight.
One of the gameplay loops through half of the game is to listen to the stories of various characters that were close to Hazel. They manifested in the world as a large enemy that needs to get defeated. Sadly, you don’t take these enemies down God of War style. We are relegated to fighting some enemies, watching a scene, fighting more enemies, watching a scene and repeating. You need to fill your memory bottle just enough until the evil fog is triggered and a chase sequence ensues. This requires you to run and parkour through a long run. Once you place the memories in the bottle tree, you “save” that creature, and you move on to the next one. There is a small break with more platforming and storytelling about 2/3 through the game, and combat eases up a bit, but the boss fights are the only things that change anything up. These have repetitive cycles as well, but there’s something a little more thrown in to make it challenging, and they are great to look at.
Outside of platforming and the tedious combat, there’s not much else to this game. There aren’t any puzzles, which is a missed opportunity, and I feel Cruton is underutilised. You can throw him out and control him to explore burrows to find floof, but there’s not much to his areas except dodging brambles and walking up ramps. I feel the core action-adventure experience is here, and maybe a sequel could really fix a lot of these problems. Hazel is a great character to follow and play as. Her outfits change a few times throughout the game and look awesome; she feels like a powerful character without playing to stereotypes. I continued playing solely because of my investment in her, not the combat. The platforming was fun and had a nice flow to it, but some puzzles really would have added depth to this game.
Overall, South of Midnight has a strong foundation with great storytelling, a fantastic protaganist, and beautiful visuals, but the combat is seriously lacking. The repetitious behaviour of the attacks, the basic skill tree, and the boring gameplay loop of arena and platforming make me wish there wasn’t any combat in this game at all. A single attack button and a few passive abilities just don’t cut it. The bosses are a nice change of pace and can be fun, but that’s it. There are no puzzles, and Cruton is a Clank-style sidekick that is underutilised. The current elements provide a solid foundation for what could become the next God of War, but let’s hope a sequel addresses these issues.
There is a certain moment in our lives that everyone is always chasing or trying to recapture. We don’t know it when we’re in this moment, but it’s one of the biggest draws of nostalgia, especially for Gen X and Millennials. That moment is the first major turning point in our lives. Where we go from a teenager to an adult. It’s both exhilarating and incredibly frightening at the same time. This jarring shift happens faster than any of us want it to, and we are always trying to cling on to that childhood just a few moments longer, but for reasons we don’t understand. Maybe we don’t want to go to college; we want to pursue dreams or hobbies, or some of us just end up with the wrong crowd and can’t find a way out. That turning point is graduating high school, turning 18, and becoming an adult. A million social and economical responsibilities are thrust upon us and against our will, with many of us not ready for it or prepared for what society has to give us. This is that single fleeting moment that Mixtape is trying to capture, and this is probably the only game that I’ve played that has done it right.
Some of us may have had friends in high school, and after graduation we fell apart. Either by choice or unknowingly, just due to life and the way that current pushes us. Some may have gone away to a college in another town. Some may have got three jobs and are working constantly with no more time for fun. Some may have got into trouble and wound up in jail. Sometimes our parents move away after high school and we start a brand new life. Mixtape does a fantastic job of bringing you into this fleeting moment and the emotions behind each of those singular and granular events. From running away from a house party to finding a hangout spot and cleaning it up. Mixtape follows three high school friends, Cassandra, Stacy, and Van, as they try to prepare for the last major house party before graduation. This sounds cheesy and like something out of a mid 2000s teen movie, but it’s not that at all. That’s the end goal, but it’s everything in between that sweeps us up emotionally and keeps us glued to the screen.
The only other game I can compare this type of emotional depth to is Life is Strange. While that game is capturing a very different feeling of this age group, it’s similar in both aesthetic and tone. The game starts out with you skateboarding to a licensed track down a long hill. It seems overly long, the autumn leaves crunching under your wheels, the sun close to setting, and you don’t have a care in the world. Stacy is the main protagonist, and she breaks the fourth wall to talk to the player and introduce each track to her mixtape of life, if you will. She’s a music nerd and is trying to make her last and final mixtape to capture that fleeting moment, but she just doesn’t say it. This overly long downhill skate through a rural town in Northern California captures the first of those granular moments. You may remember doing things like this, but just the colours of the time of day, the orange and yellow leaves, the cool air, and laughing with your friends. The game overexaggerates each of these moments that Stacy is in while she’s listening to these tracks. It visually represents the feelings you have and probably remember. It’s truly magical.
Each room you end up in (each of the three friends) has objects you can examine, and Stacy will narrate with her inner voice, similar to Max in Life is Strange. There’s a similar vibe with the way sketch lines dance on screen and harsh sunlight filters through the room. The characters move in a stop-motion animated way, and this helps invoke that feeling of remembering your past. The game is set in the late 90s, so only those who grew up then will remember this specific time period. Internet was scarce, and there was no social media or smartphones yet. While I wasn’t in high school yet at the time, I was in the 4th grade when this game was set, so I have similar memories of playing outside with friends without a care in the world. Laughter echoing in my mind as I think back to those innocent days of youth where the only thing I had to worry about was how my hair looked. These are clearly also some of the only concerns with Stacy and her friends. They want to party and drink beer, and Stacy wants to be off to New York to chase down a music producer to show her a mixtape she has made to start a new career, school be damned.
When you select the orange highlighted items in each room, you will fall back to a memory. This is how each character is introduced and their personalities unfold. The developers did a fantastic job of giving us these three new characters in just a few hours and making you care about them. The writing is sharp and tight, and there isn’t a single scene wasted. The voice acting is fantastic, and I really got sucked into this game and never put it down. Each memory consists of a mini-game or some sort of simple gameplay element. That’s the only major drawback to this game. There isn’t much gameplay here. Some of the mini-games, such as flying through the air and doing jumps, can be fun, but again this is an exaggerated feeling. Maybe you’re just walking home from a friend’s house but feel so high with endorphins that it feels like you’re flying. This euphoric state is the type of emotion that is evoked from the player. Every feeling is visually represented rather than just talked about.
Most of the scenes are bonding experiences each person had with each other, but the overarching story involves trying to get to that beach party and the unaddressed feelings of Stacy leaving for New York and possibly never coming back. It’s pretty emotional and moved me quite a bit towards the end. Cassandra’s overbearing parents and Van’s underbearing mother both get thrown in, and it all just worked. I’ve played so many short indie games that just can’t do a story or character arc right in such a short time because it requires sharp writing because you can’t waste a single scene. Running through a local abandoned dinosaur exhibit and taking photos on a crappy digital camera, trying to rent videos while drunk, etc. The music is also a huge part of stirring up emotions, and it feels like each track is set just right. We’ve all heard these songs before, and I recognised most as I grew up with my parents listening to these songs. Most are set between the late 60s through the 90s, ranging from rock to post-punk and grunge metal.
Overall, Mixtape is such a nice surprise and a treat for those who grew up in the late 90s. The analogue media that floats around the game’s mechanics and vibe is something that a lot of us miss. It just reminds me how much smartphones and social media have destroyed creating intimate moments with friends and the feeling of discovery. We aren’t forced to go outside anymore and make memories but instead can create them digitally. While I understand the benefit and convenience that this tech has brought us, there is also an ugly and dark side to it that can’t be ignored. Between Mixtapes‘ fantastic visual style, licensed soundtrack, and the very specific way of invoking emotions, there’s so much crammed into this 3-hour game. The three characters are well-written and surprisingly memorable, and I feel like this game is something I might go back to someday.
1940s cartoons have slowly grown in popularity, but especially their art style due to copyrights running out mostly from Disney. This had led to many horror projects or inspirations from these shows (Bendy, Cuphead). Mostly stemming from Steamboat Willy and his ilk, Mouse: P.I. for Hire doesn’t just take inspirations from the cartoon era it replicates but also other first-person games like Doom. Mouse is a first-person shooter that is very similar to the first two Doom games with some obvious elements of the newer reboots. First and foremost, P.I. for Hire is a fantastic game to look at. It’s not easy to make a black-and-white game due to the lack of colours that are used to give visual clues to gamers. Clearly the developers used white on black contrast to deliver basic video game language to players, and that’s quite tricky.
While I would love to say that Mouse is a fantastic Doom clone and is basically Doom: Steamboat Willy Edition, there are some glaring issues that kept this game from greatness. While the shooting mechanics feel really good and every gun has it’s own purpose and style there are some balancing issues with Mouse. You start out with the Mouser (haha), which is a semi-automatic pistol, and that’s totally fine. However, you get stuck with this single weapon for way too long. In fact, the weapons are spread so far apart it makes you want to stick with just a single gun. Like the newer Doom reboots, there are tons of pickups in every area. You rarely run out of ammo, so this doesn’t encourage mixing things up. That goes hand in hand with enemy design. Doom has a very distincft design that forces you to switch weapons for different enemies and their distance. Mouse desperately wants to be a close-quarters arena-style shooter, but these areas just aren’t big enough. There also isn’t enough multi-layering to give you breathing room or strategies. Most levels all play out exactly the same, which is multiple corridors bookended by an area with monster closets and almost no verticality. Some act as hubs, and as you come back around throughout the level, more monster closets will open, but this becomes very tedious.
There is a main hub that has your office where you pin clues you find in each level. You can also upgrade weapons with found blueprints and buy ammo and collectibles as well as play a baseball card-style poker game, which I didn’t find very interesting or fun to play. Maybe because I’m not a baseball fan. Money is accumulated incredibly slowly, so you have to be mindful about what you buy. If you don’t care about collectibles, you only use it to buy ammo so you’re stocked up before each mission. I wish there were more uses for money; again, this is part of the balancing issues in this game. When you upgrade weapons (up to three times), you get a cool visual added to the weapon but also a secondary fire option which harkens back to Resistance or Ratchet & Clank, but they aren’t as clever. The shotgun lets you charge up a double shot; the double-barrel shotgun lets you fire both barrels; the James Gun lets you shoot a burst of ammo; the mouser lets you do 3-round bursts. It’s not very diversified, and despite the amount of weapons you get, there are still more balancing problems with these. The pump-action shotgun and double barrel are mostly repetitive. The double-barrel is slow to reload and doesn’t let you carry much (12 rounds), and there are no long-distance weapons. Everything is short- to medium-range, but there are no long-range areas. There is only one explosive weapon (cannon) and one throwable (TNT), which make another pair of weapons repetitive. The brain gun is fun but doesn’t do much outside of exploding heads but requires constant contact. There’s a freeze gun, which I didn’t find useful, as it only freezes one enemy at a time and takes too long. I can go on.
I mostly stuck to the pump-action shotgun and the James gun, as those two complemented each other. Close-quarters damage and being able to shoot many enemies at once. I rarely touched the Mouser after unlocking those two. There’s a paint gun that does a bit more damage, but what I wanted were weapons that do splash damage or another type of fast-firing weapon. The enemies also always repeat. There are enemies with shields, melee enemies, big melee guys that take a lot of damage, and flying enemies, and that’s about it. This gets old really fast as there are nearly 15 levels in the game. Many levels look the same, with several set in swamps, warehouses, movie lots, etc. With everything being black and white, I wanted to see more diversity in scenery. You can unlock passive abilities like hovering, double jump, wall run and climb, but these are rarely used and felt like afterthoughts. There are no puzzles in the game either. The only puzzle is technically tail-picking, which is a nice change from The Elder Scrolls style of lock-picking. This consists of pins and a maze-style lock. You have to push the pins while moving through the maze. Some are timed and some have hazards, while others have limited moves. The problem is that once you do a few, they are all the same with zero challenge. This compels you to skip optional safes and doors in order to progress.
That’s what you will do through most of Mouse. Moving forward just to get to the next thing. The story is mildly interesting, but poorly told. It feels very disjointed, and half of the time I don’t know what was going on. There are multiple cases going on at once, and a lot of them cross over. There are typical noir-type stereotypes in the game, and they just were not clever or interesting. The voice acting is good, and I like some of the mouse-related puns, like ‘fondue’ being alcohol and ‘cheese powder’ being drugs. The boss fights are probably more interesting, but the final boss fight is an absolute pain due to the cramped arena with not enough room to move around. Despite all of this, the game is fast-paced, and I did enjoy just shooting everything in sight. That feeling from Doom does come across in the game, but the only truly interesting area was the “hallucination” level in which you jump around a fantasy area and go to hell and find the chainsaw. Most of Mouse’s problem is that it takes itself way too seriously.
The rubber hose animations and art style are fantastic to look at, and the game feels good to play. The weapons are great to shoot, but the levels feel way too similar to each other, and many of the game types of areas repeat. There’s no deviation in design, and the same few enemies repeat forever. There are no puzzles, and tail-picking becomes easy way too quickly. Passive abilities aren’t used much, and the weapons are poorly balanced with both alt-fire modes and overall use against enemies. Many weapons serve the same function, causing you to stick to the same few throughout. That doesn’t make the game unenjoyable, just repetitive, and many players may quit early on. The story isn’t very interesting and the characters are dull, but it’s still a great shooter at its heart, and I kept blasting my way through the game, having fun despite how serious the game took itself.
When I played Fatal Frame II for the first time on Xbox, I left both loving and hating the game. The entire series has always had faults and issues, but sometimes that’s the charm of the series. The clunky and slow controls, the cramped spaces, the linear levels, etc. Fatal Frame II Remake isn’t like Silent Hill 2. This isn’t a fully reimagined, built-from-the-ground-up experience. This is literally just the same experience remade with a third-person camera and some minor refinements. I feel like this could have been Team Ninja’s opportunity to make Fatal Frame shoot for the stars like Silent Hill has, but all we get is more of the same. That’s not completely a bad thing, but this game isn’t the remake I expected, especially since this is the second remake of this game (originally remade for Wii, called Project Zero 2, only released in Japan and Europe).
Everything visually was remade, including the cut scenes. This is mostly a scene-by-scene remake of the original for better or worse. You start out wandering into the Minakmi Village with your sister in tow and explore the first house. You pick up a flashlight, save for the first time, and get the Camera Obscura early on, and then it’s time to explore. There are a lot of items to collect that show up as blue glints on the ground; there are ghosts to capture called Specters that wander around, but you need to be quick or the shot is gone forever. Your parameter will flash the color filter you need to get certain shots. You can unlock doors and cabinets with some filters and solve puzzles with others. Film is used as ammo against the wraiths that attack you. The camera system is overly complicated and could have been redesigned from the ground up, and I don’t know why it wasn’t. The areas are exactly the same as the original but made with a lot of attention to detail. The lighting and atmosphere are fantastic here, and you always feel on the edge. There are details like Mio slowly opening a door or reaching out for an object in hopes nothing snatches your hand. Most of the time it doesn’t happen, but a rare occasion means you need to fight a wraith.
If you know how to play the original, then great. The game plays 100% like that down to a tee, with nothing changed. There are no added areas or anything we’ve grown to expect from remakes like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Nothing was really improved, just updated for a modern audience. With that said, you do get shown where to go next on the map…sometimes. You can follow a crimson butterfly around to most of your objectives, but some will just be yellow blips on your map but not your minimap. It’s not consistent, and many times when you are exploring one of the three large houses, you won’t know where to go. This can lead to a lot of aimless wandering, refighting the same wraiths, but it does seem the difficulty is more balanced. I finished the game on normal and never ran out of film, which was a common problem in the original.
When it comes to combat, the camera hasn’t been updated or changed to be better. Just more modernized. The FOV is very narrow, and you need to keep the white circle over the wraith’s face and make the focus points turn red. The more focus points, the more damage is done, shown by a health bar on top of the screen. The health will turn from red to a washed-out red, showing the potential damage that shot will do. It’s best to shoot enemies right when they attack for more damage. This can lead to a Fatal Frame opportunity in which your film loads instantly and you can take a couple more shots. There is a white line on each health bar, and you need to get it below that line as fast as possible or the wraiths become agitated and regen health and become more aggressive. This is where the different films come into play. Type 7 is the weakest and is infinite. Type 14 does moderate damage. The Type 90 does moderate damage but loads quicker. Type 00 loads the slowest and does the most damage, and you only get a few of these throughout the game saved for bosses. Then, type 61 does heavy damage but also loads slowly. This is really confusing. Why not rename the films or put (heavy, light, etc.) next to the name? If all of that sounds complicated, the upgrade system is more bloated.
There are charms you can find throughout the game. Some of these have audio attached to them played through the spirit radio, and some are bought at the save lantern. Most of these are completely useless. This was an opportunity to revamp this system, but instead we get 50 charms with most not being effective enough. You can’t easily swap charms. You must go into the pause menu and change them. These add passive effects like more damage to certain filters, wraiths will be less aggro, stamina will recharge quicker, etc. However, most charms are just a single passive trait. Stones have two traits, but usually a positive and a negative. Most charms are things like “damage is increased when Mayu is in the shot with a wraith.” Mayu is only with you a few times in the game, and you want to keep Wraith away from her. Once you’re knocked down, you have to use your camera flash to get them off of you if you can’t shake them fast enough. A wraith can cause a game over if Mayu is attacked too many times. Switching between filters is only useful early on, but once you get the Radiant filter, you can upgrade the attack charm to level 6 and use that through the whole game. The Paraceptual Filter is good for longer range but rarely needed. You can add prayer beads to the filters and camera to upgrade them, but they are very rare, and you won’t get through many upgrades by the end of the game. It’s best to focus on a single filter (the Radiant filter) and the camera itself. You want a zoom function but want to increase film capacity and attack power on the filter. New Game+ will give you an opportunity to upgrade other filters. You can find items throughout the game to heal and recharge stamins which is needed for dodging and running in combat.
Again, I found this overly bloated and it could have easily been cut down. More prayer beads would have been nice. Once you start a New Game+, everything costs a ton of souls. Sometimes in the millions, and unless you’re playing on Nightmare difficulty, you won’t get enough souls in a single playthrough. It’s kind of a rigged game that forces you to play a certain way. Even costumes are locked behind large amounts of souls, and the original costumes are all gone, such as the Bandage, Bikini, and other more skimpy outfits. This leaves little incentive to find everything, as all the notes have to be found in a single playthrough, but the Twin Dolls (there are 47) carry across play throughs. It’s kind of a mess and makes multiple playthroughs very tedious. The linearity of the game and the fact that all of the scares are pretty much seen during chapter 1 mean playthroughs will be less fun. The game still retains the jank from the original. The slow and sluggish movement, the over complicated Camera system, and the few enemies that make an appearance are all defeated the same way. Just make the circle flash red and shoot. The bosses are more interesting, but many are fought multiple times. This is something that could have changed in the remake. You will finish the game in about 10 hours or so even if you try to find everything.
If you’ve played this game before, don’t expect much other than a more polished version of what you already know. New players will enjoy a retro survival horror in a shiny new skin, but those who come from Resident Evil and Silent Hill remakes might find this game too slow and its systems too bloated to enjoy for long. I personally like this game. The story is interesting enough, but most of it is told through diaries and journals, so if you aren’t looking for those, you will miss out on a lot. The cut scenes don’t really show much, and nothing is really explained through dialog. This is something that also could have been changed. Maybe some exposition-dumping dialog during certain scenes. I love the new visuals as well, but the claustrophobic areas will feel too cramped for some. Some may prefer the retro survival horror jank preserved, but I say what’s the point of a remake then? We can just play the original.
When you think of skateboarding, you usually think of grounded realism or arcade fun. Games like Skate or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater come to mind. Maybe the more recent Session: Skate Sim. You wouldn’t think of fantastic music and trippy visuals, but here we are. Skate Story doesn’t just have a brand new trick system for skateboarding games that works, but it also works well within the confines of its own world. You are a glass demon who signs a contract with the devil to eat all of the moon in the underworld to bring eternal darkness, but in exchange you become full. The story kind of plays a backseat to the rest of the game, but it’s moody and dark and has enough value to pay attention to. There are some pretty dark themes tossed in like depression, hopelessness, and impending doom.
The game’s trick system uses all of the shoulder buttons for flips and the circle button for ollie. You can push with the X button to go faster, but there are no grab tricks. This is solely a street skating game. You can do flip tricks and grinds, and they feel as good as any other well-established skateboarding trick system. The animations are fantastic, fluid, and smooth and so well responsive. The game isn’t a rhythm game, but the level design is focused around the music. The game features surreal visuals similar to many indie games we are seeing on Steam. A lot of trippy colors, strange shapes, and an overall feeling of non-human presence. Nothing in the world is recognizable with everything mishappening. It’s like looking at hell through a kaleidoscope. The game does have linear levels and story progression. After each intro section, you are dumped into each level of Hell’s “city” to freely explore. Levels are set up with plenty of spots for tricks, but your goals are pretty standard. You usually need to perform a high score, maintain an ever-dropping score, or defeat a boss. Sometimes you need to perform a string of specified tricks as well. Over the first few levels you will learn new things such as manuals, nollies, advanced flip tricks (that require double tapping a shoulder button before an ollie), and grinding.
Exploring is probably the weakest part of the game. You can get more souls to buy more boards, stickers, trucks, and wheels at the gift shops, but that’s it. There are hidden stickers in the world, but you will most likely just go straight to the next story element. The levels are well built with many trick spots, but I wish there were more optional objectives that could lead to achievements or something. It’s not a deal breaker, though, as there are plenty of levels to see and experience. These are just the main stationary levels. In between objectives, you will have randomly generated linear “tracks” that you push through or trick through to the beat of electronic and trance music that verges on the border of vaporwave. The levels and pacing of them are designed around the music, including the lighting and effects. The songs are absolutely fitting and so much fun to listen to. With a great sound system, this game becomes an audiovisual treat unlike any other. It’s so good I put the soundtrack on my daily rotation for video game music. The track levels are a lot of fun and are fast-paced. They can get a bit frustrating later on when you feel like you’re restarting each track constantly because you just can’t nail a grind to get over a pit or something, but these tracks are seconds long, and when you go into the warp gate, you start another track seamlessly.
Boss fights are plentiful and sadly overused. These bosses have health bars, and you need to “stomp” tricks down to knock their health down. Larger combos and points do more damage. You can trick up a combo and “bank” the points by stomping. Not all bosses are the same, but they feature a couple of the same ideas. You either need to stomp in general or stomp in their spotlight, which is the only place they can take damage. Bosses are very visual, but overall they are the same throughout, with some bosses being back-to-back. There are also smaller “enemy” characters that can shoot at you as you skate around. It’s an interesting idea, but after the 10th boss, you get a bit tired of it. Some later levels have you rack up a combo score before a time limit, and some will decrease if you stop for too long. It’s not difficult, and while the bosses all have timers, I never died or had to start over from running out of time, but I came close. If you don’t adjust to that trick system quickly and learn to combo, you won’t do well. You can customize your skateboard with decks purchase as the shops as well as place stickers anywhere you want. It’s a neat feature.
Overall, Skate Story has an intriguing enough story for what it is and plenty of levels to play in. The game is nearly 8 hours long with ten chapters, so you will get your money’s worth. The insanely unique visuals, fantastic soundtrack, and great trick system make this one of the best indie games this year and put it at the top of the best skateboarding games ever made. It’s hard to put the game down, and if it weren’t for the repetitive bosses and having more to do in the open levels, this game would be pretty much perfect. It’s okay that there aren’t any grab tricks. It doesn’t need them. Just sit back, enjoy the music and story, and have fun skateboarding.
When one of the founding fathers of modern horror games has a new release, we stand up and politely pay attention. Along with other series such as Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, and Clock Tower, Resident Evil is in the upper echelon of survival horror gaming. While the series has had multiple reboots over its life cycle, the most modern version from Resident Evil VII remains intact here. Requiem feels like a blend of VII and Village but also adds elements of what made past games great. The level design and flow of Resident Evil 4 plus the slow plodding pace of the original series. The levels with Grace Ashcroft will frighten you and make you grip your controller in anticipation and fear, while Leon Kennedy’s more action-oriented level will make you do the same, but due to the intense action and strategically pulling out different weapons for each situation that comes up. One new aspect to Requiem is the haunting atmosphere and near post-apocalyptic feeling that Raccoon City has. Yes, you do revisit some areas from Resident Evil 2. I also noticed that Requiem has a different flavor of music during Leon’s exploration areas. I got Fallout 3 vibes. You feel alone and desperate, savoring any and all moments of light, safety, and quiet no matter how brief. Requiem makes you feel desperate and alone, and that’s very hard to pull off in most games.
Another aspect Requiem shies away from is less of the campiness from previous games, even VII and Village, which is a welcome change. While there is some cheesiness from the series that eeks in from some of Leon’s lines or the personalities of a few characters, the more serious nature of the series is a welcome change and works well here. While new character Grace isn’t my favorite in the series, she has enough humanity and personality (such as her stuttering a lot when she’s scared and nervous) to help bring the game closer to something more relatable. There are subtle touches in the game that a lot of people might miss, such as Grace holding her mouth when a boss character snakes by, her fumbling a lot when desperate, and little gestures that make a difference. Her sections are played in first person (and optionally third), so you are more up front with the horrors around. Requiem plays like two separate games, and it may be jarring to some. There will be a divide with fans of the slower-paced games loving Grace’s part and fans who love RE 4-6 preferring Leon’s more action-oriented parts. I feel they complement each other. When things start to feel a little too slow, you switch to Leon, and when things might feel a bit repetitive there, or you need a break, you end up back with Grace. Both Leon and Grace have three large parts of the game each that they star in. Most of Grace’s parts are in the first third of the game, giving you brief tastes of Leon’s sections through the first third.
Grace’s sections are all about atmosphere and scares. There are no real jump scares here. Capcom did an amazing job delivering a lot of tension through the lighting and mood around you. Harsh white walls may seem like a safe haven, but just beyond the next door is complete darkness and zombies wandering around. Grace isn’t powerful, and her resource management is much tighter than Leon’s. In the first area every bullet counts, and you usually have to run away from most situations. I don’t want to dig too deep into the story and spoil anything, but Grace is investigating the hotel that you are in during the first part of the game, and while the overall layout may seem small, it feels huge when you can only advance little bits at a time. A fight with two zombies will feel like a herculean effort compared to Leon’s sections, who can battle a dozen or two at all once. Grace has a single pistol during her entire time in the game, and you have to acquire other things through crafting. You create things with scrap and blood. Blood is gathered with a tool that you acquire a little ways into the first area. You can craft healing items, ammo, Molotovs, and Hemolytic syringes to keep zombies from coming back to life. Yes, they come back here. Unless the heads are destroyed, that is, and Grace isn’t powerful enough to really do this on her own. It’s story-related, but the syringes cause the zombies to essentially explode. It’s important to craft as many as you can and get downed zombies before they even come back because they can come back stronger as blister-head zombies. These are fast-moving and tough to take down. A single blister head obliterates your ammo and health reserve and is hard to run from.
As you can see, Grace’s sections are meant for sneaking around, finding secrets (many notes with safe codes, for example), and a single area to level up. Yes, things can be missible in this game. Only the first section allows Grace to upgrade her abilities, such as weapon strength, increase storage (more pouches can be found later), blood storage, etc. It’s important you find the ancient coins throughout the first area and buy everything. I found it a bit odd that you can’t upgrade in later levels, but that’s the way it is. Doing so will make later parts of the game much easier. As for bosses, it’s best that Grace does not engage with them. Leon can later come through and take them out, but as Grace, you would waste your Requiem bullets and little ammo early on. Requiem is a powerful pistol that Leon carries (and gives to Grace in the beginning) that should only be used as a last-minute bail-out method. Later on, I saved it during boss fights. Ammo is insanely limited for this and hard to craft, as Grace (the recipe is well hidden).
The horror elements in Grace’s sections are fantastic. The introduction to each boss that stalks certain areas is so well done, and they are insanely grotesque. Zombies aren’t just plodding buffoons that make for easy targets this time around. They sway and fall around, which makes them hard to hit. Getting headshots isn’t easy, and their movements are unpredictable and require you to take your time and aim carefully. Certain scenes, such as when Grace is fighting off a zombie for the first time and it bites her weapon and breaks its teeth. The beginning of the game is mostly all about the horror while slowly opening up the first level to you and forcing you to explore. With each objective completed, you will be desperate to rush back to your safe room and save. Puzzles are not very complicated in this game. Most of them just want items that you have to fetch in different parts of the levels.
Leon’s sections are very similar to Resident Evil 4. Even though he’s older, he’s still tough but very much experienced. Your loadout is larger than any other RE game he stars in, and you can easily carry up to five weapons with room to spare. Leon’s first major area you explore eventually opens up to upgrades via a tracker that gives credits for kills as well as finding bonus tracking with different rarity. You can upgrade your weapons similar to Resident Evil 4. You can buy various attachments, sell weapons and items, and buy new ones. You can upgrade your armor as well. It will take quite a while to get enough credits to upgrade your favorite weapons, but by the end of the game it’s doable. Leon feels a bit heavy to control here, and his sprint is pretty fast. Melee combat is a bigger focus. Leon has a hatchet he can use to parry melee attacks. Sometimes when a zombie is staggered, you can chop off their head, do kicks (similar to RE4), and even throw melee weapons that enemies drop. It’s imperative that you switch weapons for each situation at hand. If you’re dealing with a couple of tougher enemies, grab your shotgun. If there are a lot of smaller zombies from afar, use your sniper rifle. If you have a bunch up close, whip out the SMG and spray them down. Your pistol eventually just becomes a backup weapon. Just like in RE4 you’re constantly balancing weapons and ammo to stay alive. You can craft items just like Grace, but the focus is more ammo and grenades and healing items than anything else. Weapon attachments aren’t really a thing in this game, so you end up finding a few hidden charms that can be attached to weapons. Leon’s areas are less scary and more intense during combat, but like I explained earlier, the exploration is haunting and eerie. You might enter a dark building not knowing what’s inside while searching an optional area for supplies only to get ambushed. One of the more fun moments is Leon being able to wield a chainsaw and cut everything down, but there are only a few scenes in the game that allow this.
Overall, Requiem is a fantastic Resident Evil game mixing multiple elements of what makes the series great. The evolution of the best zombies in any game that started with Resident Evil 2 Remake, the slower pace of the original games, the fast-paced action and great level design of the more modern games, and the visuals are mind-blowing. At least on PS5 Pro, Capcom’s use of PSSR 2 and ray tracing is incredible. Grace’s areas have halls with lots of white walls and light that look sterile and hopeless, with areas that are barely lit making you run for any light you can. This is one of the best-looking games of this generation, and it runs incredibly well. Requiem might feel bipolar with these two different takes on action, but it’s a refreshing take. The game isn’t too long either, only lasting about 20 hours if you get all optional items. You can easily blow through the game in about 15 hours.
Super Mario Odyssey was one of the best games released this last generation. It was imaginative, never got old, and was just the right length, but I also didn’t want it to end. There was something insanely addictive about Odyssey that the mainline Mario games always got right. I hadn’t felt that way since Galaxy. Bananza is made by the Odyssey team, but can they catch lightning in a bottle twice? As with all other Mario games, the story is minimal and lacks uniqueness. It’s barely there to keep the player threading through a series of levels. Essentially you play as the titular ape who wants nothing but banana gems. He works for a mining company (or so it’s implied) on Ingot Isle and ends up coming across a mysterious talking rock and Void from Void Co., an evil ape hellbent on stealing the Banana Core to make his wish come true. It’s fine. For the most part, I have no interest in Mario stories, but they are at least entertaining.
That’s not why you’re here, though. Bananza has a similar gameplay loop to Odyssey in the sense that you can just follow the main story thread and do only the main objectives, or you can venture off and discover a new challenge somewhere or how to get a hidden Banana Gem. In this game, there are 777 Banana Gems in total, while Odyssey features 880 Power Moons. Although there are fewer Banana Gems, the overall size of Bananza is significantly larger than that of Odyssey. The main gameplay element in Bananza is the terrain deformation and total destruction of entire levels. The experience is incredibly satisfying all the way to the end of the game. The game has many layers, but you start at the planet’s outer core and work your way to the center. Naturally, layers will get tougher as you dig deeper, and each level has a layer hardness rating. This means that the primary terrain you are walking on will require more hits to break through. You also have a slap power that produces waves that penetrate the ground, showing you what’s hidden underneath. This ability is essential to finding hidden items spread out everywhere.
This ability is what made this game confusing at first to me. I’m used to most Nintendo games having everything you need to find visible. You just have to figure out how to get there. This adds an entirely new element to the way you think about navigating levels. You can dig through nearly every object in the game. Of course, there are layers and material you cannot dig through to stop you from cheating. However, some Banana Gems have more than one way to get there. You can either dig straight through or find a clue on the surface to get there. These may be obvious dig spots on walls, gold veins leading to hidden items, or places where you need to use one of your five abilities to get to it. There’s a lot to this game, and it can be very overwhelming at first. The completionist within you will be utterly enthralled by the sheer size of some levels and the sheer difficulty of locating their hidden treasures. That’s also the fun of it. You feel like an excavator, an explorer, and someone on a hunt for treasure.
Your main objective will always be highlighted with a yellow exclamation. You need to talk to characters who will constantly extend the breadcrumb trail to get you to the level’s main boss. There are many different ways this can happen. You will encounter a mix of platforming and combat trials, which require you to use your abilities while navigating the current state of the world’s terrain. For instance, you can dissolve the poisonous slime in the Festive layer by grabbing and melting salt chunks. One example is Switcharoo Goo, which consists of two different colors. Hitting one color will fill the other in the opposite X and Y axis. Later levels will throw multiple things at you, such as the Switcharoo Goo, but you need to have an enemy eat it while you run around one color to climb to the next. You must constantly stay alert and respond swiftly. The game’s level design and pace are impeccable. I always eagerly anticipated the next move or the challenges the game would present.
That’s where combat and platforming challenges come in. There are multiple types, and all award Banana Gems. The Combat challenges are single banana platforms that are covered by purple Void Co tape that you need to have Pauline sing to get rid of. When you drop down, you must defeat a specific number of enemies within a time limit, and these enemies are typically of the same type found in the current level, which also includes terrain that you need to utilize. Another terrain example is in the Radiance Layer: there is light that turns certain terrain soft, and in shadow it will turn hard. Enemies can be covered in this terrain, and you must find a way to break through a wall to get the light to shine on them or cover them in shadow. Platforming challenges offer three banana gems, with one hidden somewhere on the level, but they are not timed. Each layer has a2D level in the style of Donkey Kong Country as well, usually named something clever after the SNES series.
Other challenges include Swifty challenges, which are white triangles that require you to destroy all the white wall pieces in that small area in less than 20 seconds. Usually you need to use an ability or manipulate the terrain around you in some way. There are quizzes from the Quiztone (characters in this game are called Tones); some will place a spot on your map for a hidden banana gem, and some challenges are just seeing one through a wall that you can’t get to, and you need to figure out a way around. You’re always thinking and solving puzzles when exploring. They are also incredibly clever, allowing you to solve them instantly and experience a satisfying “Aha!” moment each time. There are a few other challenges I haven’t covered, but suffice it to say despite all of the variety there are a lot of the same type, and they do eventually wear thin after 30 hours of doing them. I will delve deeper into this issue at a later time.
Bosses themselves, while designed cleverly, are effortless and barely offer any challenge. The RPG aspects of Bananza, along with the option to purchase health-restoring items from the shop, contribute significantly to this. You can breeze through bosses pretty quickly. The only real challenge was the final couple of boss fights that seemed to last forever. The situation is pretty typical with most Mario games. Boss fights in Mario games are usually not that hard despite being clever and fun. I just wish there was more of a challenge here. At least the game doesn’t go the route of a boss rush at the end or anything like that. I only fought two bosses again later in the game, so it wasn’t that bad.
As I stated earlier, there are RPG elements in this game. Those gold nuggets you acquire in the game are actual currency to buy things in the shops, construct shortcuts and gateways (rest spots), and unlock challenges. Some main objectives require gold as well. Another currency is banana chips, which are used to exchange banana gems. The third currency is fossils. Each layer has its own type of fossils. Common, uncommon, and rare fossils. These are used at the clothes shop to dress up DK and Pauline. Clothes add defense against the main element in the layer that can harm you, such as burning, poison, shock, etc. You can also change DK’s fur (no added bonus) for some fun. You can then upgrade those clothes up to level 3 with more fossils. Banana Gems are used to gain skill points (five get you a skill), which unlock things like more hearts, making it easier to break through tougher layers, and adding bonuses to your ability powers as well. DK can do a couple of interesting things with terrain, such as using it to “terrain surf” and knock into enemies to travel long distances. Softer terrain deteriorates at a fast rate, so it’s not advised to surf over terrain that can hurt you, as it will disappear quickly from under your feet. There’s an ability for DK to surf over water, allowing you to skate over hazardous surfaces like the aforementioned hot grease in the Festive layer, but this is an unlock in the skill tree.
Pauline herself is an assist character similar to Mario’s hat in Odyssey. She doesn’t get in the way and never leaves your shoulder. You use her voice to change into forms and get rid of purple tape on certain objects. That’s it. She’s a wonderful character to see that’s not shoved off to the side in a Mario Kart or Mario Party game. She has character and spunk, and her relationship with DK over time is charming, albeit nothing more than what you would see in a Pixar movie. It’s not very deep or memorable, but it’s enjoyable to see. I wish her singing was put to more use. While I appreciate the melody she employs when you unlock the purple tape and the catchy songs she sings in each ability form, they quickly lose their appeal. Hearing the same song on repeat every time you transform gets old. The songs also flip when you switch abilities quickly (you don’t need to go back to normal form and re-form into another ability), so it’s like skipping tracks on a CD back and forth constantly. The music isn’t particularly pleasant to listen to.
That’s my biggest issue with this entire game. The gameplay becomes monotonous after a while. I loved seeing all the new layers. The first time you drop into the Lagoon layer and see the sky swirling out of the hole like water into this bright, colorful world, it’s fascinating. That never got old, but as you get deeper, those bright and colorful layers are less frequent and give way to drab dark worlds with many browns, blacks, and little light. I feel the game overstayed its welcome, with too many later levels feeling too similar, and many challenges towards the end of the game felt like they were put in to extend the game time. It’s not a good thing that the final level stretches endlessly. There are 17 freaking levels in this game. It could have easily been cut in half with just the best ones, and it would have been fine. I enjoyed having a few “break” levels, such as the Racing layer, which did not include many challenges or require collecting Banana Gems. Occasionally I just wanted a cool new thing to do that didn’t require dozens of hours of exploring.
The visuals and audio are top-notch here. While the game doesn’t quite look like a full-blown Switch 2 game (it was started on Switch 1 anyway), the impressive deformation and destruction and textures that you can almost swear you know what it tastes or feels like are something Nintendo does well. The ice cubes look and sound like real ice. The burger mountain looked so good I wanted to go and get a burger. I wanted to know what the Switcharoo Goo tasted and felt like to squish. The physics and textures are so well done here. However, the game has some terrible performance issues with frames dropping into single digits when hundreds of objects are flying around or when the camera zooms away to show the entire level for a few seconds. It’s noticeable all the time, not just once in a while. I feel like Nintendo not utilizing the power of the Switch 2 is a real problem. No VRR, no DLSS, and the game doesn’t look too hot in handheld mode either. It doesn’t ruin the game, but it could have been better.
Overall, Donkey Kong Bananza is one of the best games this year. The biggest issue with this game, in my opinion, stems from its overstaying welcome, the similarity of many later levels, and the overwhelming number of challenges that eventually become monotonous. The final level could have been shortened, and while 17 levels is a significant undertaking with something new to offer in each one, the novelty does not resonate as strongly as it did in the earlier levels. Nintendo created an experience that is not easily replicated, featuring incredibly fun destruction (such as destroying a building-sized racing cup full of gold, which is one of the most memorable moments in this game), great level design, and making Donkey Kong a fun character for a new generation to play as. From the fun DK Country references (find Cranky Kong in every level for a Banana Gem!) to the fantastic and occasionally otherworldly and surreal feeling and scope of the music, there’s something here for everyone.
Super, thank you