I should take a look at Arkanoid: Eternal Battle.
End of Year Reviews!
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 On 12/25/2022 at 08:22 PM by Cary Woodham See More From This User » |
Let’s count down to the New Year with more reviews I’ve written recently at GamerDad.com. Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
NEO GEO Pocket Color Selection vol. 2 (Switch)
Game maker SNK is known for their fighting games, but they also made their own consoles, like the NEO GEO and subsequent arcade machine. When it came time for them to compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy Color, they brought out the NEO GEO Pocket Color. This was a really awesome little handheld, and for a short while, I even liked it better than Nintendo’s portable offerings. I’ve been happy they’ve been re-releasing NGPC games on the Switch, and collections of those releases when they’ve had enough to do so. And now you can play a collection of ten MORE NGPC games on the Switch!
Arkanoid: Eternal Battle (PS4)
Arkanoid is a classic arcade game that came out in the mid 80s by Taito, makers of Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble. It’s a Breakout clone, meaning you move a paddle on the bottom of the screen as you bounce a ball to break blocks at the top. Except Arkanoid features improved graphics, power-ups, and enemies, so it’s really a better game. Arkanoid is a special game to me for many reasons. It was a mainstay arcade machine at the local Pizza Inn when I was a kid, and it was one of the few arcade games I could get my dad to play. Because of that, Arkanoid was also one of the first games I got for my NES (I also thought the included paddle controller was cool). Over the years I’ve enjoyed other Arkanoid games, like Arkanoid: Tournament Edition and Revenge of Doh in arcades, Doh it Again on SNES, and Arkanoid R. I also really liked Arkanoid DS because the music in it is freaking awesome. So I was excited to review Arkanoid: Eternal Battle, the newest in the series.
About ten or so years ago, there was a My Little Pony cartoon based on the toy line with the subtitle “Friendship is Magic.” The cartoon was directed by Lauren Faust, who also worked on such cartoons like The PowerPuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. So because of this, the My Little Pony cartoon was surprisingly good and developed a fan base of all ages and genders. Some fans even made a fighting game based on the My Little Pony characters. Hasbro shut that down, understandably, since they didn’t want their toy line associated with fighting. But people liked that idea so much that Lauren Faust created some new characters for a fighting game, and that’s how we got Them’s Fightin’ Herds! It’s a cartoony one-on-one fighter featuring all manner of hooved animals.
Help Izzy explore exotic places and gather treasure in Intrepid Izzy, a retro styled 2-D platform adventure game with “Metroidvania” elements where you must re-explore places with items you’ve acquired along the way to progress. The game is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here. I also read the game is available on the Dreamcast (can’t believe they’re still making games for that), and the press release even says it’s like something you would play on the Dreamcast. Although me personally, I think it’s more like something you’d play on the Game Boy Advance, or even now. Gameplay is a LOT like Shantae, and Izzy could even be Shantae’s cousin as they both have purple ponytails!
Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx (PS4)
Miraculous is a cartoon show that I’ve never heard of before until now. Apparently you can watch it on Disney+. The show stars a high school girl named Marianette, who lives in Paris. But she can also turn into the superhero Ladybug and fights super villains with her partner Cat Noir. With her polka-dot outfit, acrobatic martial arts skills and weird yo-yo thing, Ladybug will also save the day in this new video game based on the cartoon.
A magical orb sits on a pedestal at the top of a tower, and as long as it stays there, the land is at peace. But when the orb falls off, you as an apprentice wizard must climb the tower and set the orb back in place to bring balance to the world. But each level in the tower is a pinball table, so you’ll use flippers to launch the apprentice wizard around as you smack enemies, collect treasure and experience points, and nab keys to unlock the next floor.
The Preschoolers is an interactive coloring book on Switch where youngsters can watch cartoon episodes about kids at a preschool day care, and then color scenes from the episodes they just watched. The initial game comes with two cartoon episodes, but you can purchase two more in Season 1 plus more coloring pages at the Nintendo eShop.
Aliens have invaded Earth so the President sends out her secret weapon: a chicken! Super Chicken Jumper is a continuous runner with 8-bit styled retro graphics. Play as a chicken as you run, jump, defeat bosses, and collect power-ups and items to help you keep going further.
Help a little purple dude collect and wear his fez hat and make it to the door in this single screen 2-D precision platformer.
Lunistice is a linear 3-D platformer that pays homage to low-poly games you might’ve seen on 32-bit systems like the PlayStation. There’s some weird story here that I can’t figure out, but all you need to know is you play as Hana the tanuki and guide her through several dream worlds as she hops and spins her way to the goal.
Giorgio and Felicia are two newlyweds who still love each other, but the ‘honeymoon phase’ is starting to be over as Felicia longs for more romantic days. So she enters a vacation contest and wins, so the couple have a second honeymoon in Egypt. While exploring the pyramids, the two get lost from the tour group and accidentally wake a mummy’s spirit. Now they must explore the cursed pyramids and other temples to find four talismans to break the curse. Falling Out is a 2-D platforming co-op game with randomly generated dungeons. You can play single player or with a friend locally.
And that’s all for now! Thanks for reading my reviews and posting ‘likes’ and comments. I do really appreciate it. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year! --Cary
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