Witchy Reviews

On 09/29/2021 at 08:23 AM by Cary Woodham

We’re going to start celebrating Halloween a little bit early with game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com. We’ve got games featuring witches, ghosts, and some retro goodness, too! Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!

Space Invaders Invincible Collection (Switch)

Space Invaders is just as iconic of a classic video game as Pac-Man or Tetris. We probably wouldn’t be where we are today without it. And now you can play nearly a dozen games in the series with Space Invaders Invincible Collection. Let’s take a look at all the games on this collection!

Spelunker HD Deluxe (Switch)

Spelunker was an 8-bit 2-D platformer game where you explored caves, avoided obstacles, and gathered treasures. It came out in the US, but gained more popularity in Japan, probably because it was one of those easy to play yet hard to master games, and it came out when the Famicom (Japanese NES) was big. And now you can play an HD deluxe version of it.

Cotton Reboot! (PS4)

“Cotton” is a series of 2-D horizontally scrolling shooters that were very popular in the 90’s during the 16- and 32-bit eras. They star a candy-obsessed witch girl named Cotton who flies on her broom as she shoots down foes in spooky yet silly settings. It’s an example of the “Cute ‘Em Up” subgenre of shooters similar to titles like Twinbee, Parodius, Fantasy Zone, or Ordyne. And now the series is coming back with Cotton Reboot!, based on the original game. Darkness has fallen over a fairy kingdom, and a fairy named Silk enlists witch girl Cotton’s help to save the day (with a bribe of candy, of course). I really liked this one, as it reminded me of the really obscure cheapy games I would get on the PSOne, and that made me smile.

WitchSpring3: (Re:Fine) The Story of Eirudy (Switch)

WitchSpring is a series of mobile phone RPGs from Korea. And now one of the entries is on Nintendo Switch, which is why we’re starting with WitchSpring3. But you really don’t need knowledge of the previous games to enjoy this one, unless you just want to know more about the lore of everything in it. Anyway, in this game you play as Eirudy, a witch girl who lives in a monster-filled misty forest excluded from humans (but her grandmother lives nearby). One day while running an errand to collect materials for her magic, Eirudy bumps into a human fugitive who is trying to avoid soldiers like she does. Together they have lots of adventures, and you can use your witch magic for good or evil in this highly customizable turn-based RPG. It kind of reminds me of a cross between Secret of Mana and those Atelier so-and-so RPGs. Character designs are neat, but the lack of clear goals caused me to lose interest quickly.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 amiibo

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a 3-D Switch adventure game set in the popular Monster Hunter world. And like any popular game, there are amiibo figures for it, too. I FINALLY got them all, so let’s take a look at them! I’d like to play Monster Hunter Stories 2, I just don’t have the time right now. Too much on my plate. I have to say, though, that these were some of the HARDEST amiibo figures for me to get! Capcom really didn’t advertise these very much, so I didn’t know about them for a while. And you KNOW I keep on top with amiibo releases. So because of that, I had to import the Japanese versions of these. And then once they came in, there was a mis-shipment and I got the wrong one, and another was broken! I’m ‘dreading’ trying to get the upcoming Metroid Dread amiibo at this rate!

Pokémon Unite (Switch)

I don’t really play a whole lot of PC games, so I’m not familiar with MOBA titles. MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, by the way. But when a free-to-play Pokémon themed MOBA came out a while back, I knew I had to try it and review it! In the game you control your Pokémon directly as you work in teams of five to score goals on your opponent’s side. If you wanted me to describe it in my own inexperienced words, I’d say it’s like Pokémon mixed with basketball. I know people would disagree with that description, but that’s how I saw it. The game got too repetitive for me to stay interested for very long, though.

OBAKEIDORO (Switch)

With all the Pac-Man playing I’ve done in my life, I know that Obake means ‘ghost’ in Japanese, more or less. I’m not sure what the ‘doro’ part at the end means though. Anyway, in this game, two siblings are about to go to sleep under a red moon, but then a ghost comes out of their closet to snatch them away to play a spooky yet silly game of tag meets hide and seek. In this multiplayer game, choose to side with the humans or the ghosts as you either hide from the specters or try to catch all the humans.

Pretty Girls Panic! (PS4)

And last, play a classic styled arcade game to reveal pictures of anime ladies in Pretty Gals Panic. And that classic styled arcade game is basically just Qix. Which is ironic since there was a famous, or infamous game that pretty much did the same thing as this called Gals Panic. I did get all the trophies in this one, though, only because it was so easy.

And that’s all for now! Thanks for reading my reviews and posting ‘likes’ and comments on them here and there! I do appreciate it. Later! --Cary

SanAndreas

09/29/2021 at 10:58 AM

As much of a classic as Space Invaders is, it should be a regular feature on consoles. Galaga and Centipede are readily available. But for whatever reason, Taito generally makes it hard to find versions of Space Invaders that aren't on mobile phones, and I don't like touch screen controls in games. Thanks to Futurama, I will always associate Space Invaders with "Tom Sawyer," by Rush. And vice versa. This was the first time I played Lunar Rescue, but I did play a clone of it made by Brøderbund back in the day.

A Taito arcade collection would be great. Other than Space Invaders, my favorite Taito classics were Zookeeper (which I thought was a Mario game when I first saw it), Space Dungeon, Jungle Ki...Hunt, Elevator Action, and Arkanoid.

Cary Woodham

10/01/2021 at 07:25 AM

Yeah it's odd that Space Invaders isn't as commonplace nowadays. Thanks to Atari getting the license to put Space Invaders on consoles back in the day, we folks in the US actaully had more chances to play it than Japan did!

Zookeeper is great. The main character isn't Mario, but Zeke instead. His girlfriend you rescue is named Zelda. Hmmm... Did you know Zookeeper was actually made in the US?

I loved the Taito Legends compilations that were on the PS2. I miss the days when companies were willing to put like, 50 plus games on a collection. Nowadays if we get one, we're lucky if that range hits the double digits.

10/02/2021 at 04:27 PM

The Atari Flashback collection on Switch has over 100 games. No Solaris, though, since Doug Neubauer was smart and made sure he actually owned the rights when he made it. SNK's collection is pretty robust. A lot of Taito games are showing up as Arcade Archives titles, but other than Elevator Action and Legend of Kage, I've never heard of most of them. One of them is a pirate-themed re-skin of Jungle King.

I remember a lot of Space Invader clones. Atari's version on 2600 was weird. Texas Instruments came out with its own version that Taito could probably have won a copyright infringement suit against. Gorf was a mishmash of Space Invaders, Galaxian, and Phoenix.

Fun fact: the company that distributed Phoenix in the US was based in... Phoenix.

10/03/2021 at 08:48 AM

As a kid, I thought Pheonix was a cool arcade game. I liked the 2600 version, too.

On an unrelated note, I forgot to ask if you've tried ActRaiser Renaissance yet? For me that was one of the biggest surprises in the last Nintendo Direct. I am liking it so far, EXCEPT the tower defense stuff they added to the town building segments. It just feels like it's there just to pad out the game.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

09/30/2021 at 09:43 PM

I played a lot of that Space Invaders game for the DS, and I have to say... although I did enjoy, boy was that game busy visually. I just like the feel of Space Invaders - shooting, dodging behind the shield. Great game.

10/01/2021 at 07:26 AM

Space Invaders on the DS...are you talking about Space Invaders Extreme. Oh I love that one! Great modern update. Taito's Arkanoid DS game was awesome, too. Great music in that one.

KnightDriver

10/04/2021 at 04:13 PM

I'm so glad they put Lunar Rescue on Space Invaders Invincible Collection! I'll be looking it up on PS4 later tonight. I wish it'd come to Xbox though.

Every time I hear David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" where he says, "I'm a Space Invader" in the first stanza I think of the game. The song came out in '72 and you know how much Japan loves Bowie. Could it be a possibility they named the game after the song lyric?

Cotton Reboot looks very exciting visually. Those colors just expode in the screen shot.

Witchspring 3 looks interesting. If it was on Xbox I'd try it. Love turn-based rpgs.

That Monster Hunter Stories 2 dragon amiibo looks great! I should go a-collectin' and find some new amiibos to add to the action figure zoo I've got.

10/05/2021 at 08:34 AM

Do you remember the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth? When I was little, most other kids were scared of the creepy puppets in that movie. But not me! I was more scared of David Bowie in that movie!

They're releasing a bunch of old Cotton games for its anniversary.

You can still try WitchSpring3 and other games in the series on mobile devices. That's where it started out.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

10/09/2021 at 08:01 AM

I remember Labyrinth. Bowie was the actual "scary monster" in that movie for sure (get the album reference?). I heard is "Scary Monsters" song in a Goodwill, of all places, the other day. I guess it's kinda a Halloween song now.

10/09/2021 at 08:36 AM

I did rewatch Labyrinth fairly recently, and I have to say that while I was scared of Bowie as a kid, he actually took better care of that baby than the girl did. Bowie held the baby, sang to him, played with him, etc.

10/11/2021 at 03:20 PM

That's funny. I seem to remember that too. Not such a bad guy afterall.

PixlBit