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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Bob the Builder - ABA - 33% (3)
Echo Night 2 - GGGG - 100% (4)
MaxRacer - BA - 25% (2)
Rat Attack - GA - 75% (2)
Reel Fishing - ABA - 33% (3)
Strikers 1945 - GGG - 100% (3)
It was kind of interesting to see that the reception for both Strikers and Echo Night was very close to the other games in their franchises, even though they were rated quite far apart. I would agree that both of those franchises maintained a pretty consistent level of quality.
Games for this topic:
Contender 2
Detective Barbie
Future Cop: LAPD
Kyoutei Wars Mark 6
V-Ball: Beach Volley Heroes
Virus: The Battle Field
Sort of an interesting set of games here. I remember thinking the first Contender was a decent effort, and the Barbie games we've looked so far this gen have actually generally been decent. I'm also hoping that Kyoutei Wars is a more interesting take on Kyoutei than before because I do think it has potential, but we'll have to see.
Contender 2 - B
ReplyDeleteDetective Barbie - G
Future Cop: LAPD - G (SR)
Kyoutei Wars Mark 6 - B
V-Ball: Beach Volley Heroes - G
Virus: The Battle Field - G
Unfortunately, Contender 2 is actually much worse than the original game. Compared to the first one, Contender 2 is vastly faster and that's about it. No improvements have been made to any of the issues from the first game, health regen is still absurdly too fast and makes hits feel trivial, and increasing the speed of the game makes punches totally unreactable and robs the game of any nuance it might have had originally. It's sad because I feel like the first game had a decent foundation and could have been good with smart updates but this one just went in the wrong direction. At least the K-1 series exists.
Detective Barbie is actually pretty cool. It's a graphic adventure game that bears some resemblance to Grim Fandango, making similar use of a 3D character that moves through prerendered areas. The production values for the game are pretty good, the prerendered backgrounds are of good quality and it also has full voice acting. Like in most adventure games, you'll have to talk to people, look at a lot of things, pick things up, and use items to eventually reach your goal of solving the art theft. Even though this game is a little bit on the simple side compared to the Lucasarts games, it doesn't feel insultingly simple, all of the potential suspects seem like they might have done it and Barbie has to do quite a lot of legwork to find the clues. Something I like is that Barbie has a pretty complicated "Crime Computer" that you can check periodically, it does a number of interesting things like recording key statements made by the various suspects you talk to that you can review later. There's also a lot of minigames, some of which are tied into the plot and some are just for fun, and these are also competent. My one complaint is that Barbie can only hold 3 items out a time, and switching them is a little slow, but it's not gamebreaking. Overall, while this clearly isn't on the level of the Lucasarts games, it's still a pretty solid product that I played for quite a while. I appreciate that when it comes to "games for girls" we've moved on from atrocious, zero effort games (because "girls won't know any better") to competent games with a girl-friendly theme or character.
Future Cop LAPD rocks. It's similar to the Saturn game Amok in that you control a mech from a mostly overhead perspective, but it's maybe even better than that game. Pretty much everything about this game is fantastic. For starters, there's the production values. This game has a ton of pretty good quality FMV, and there's also constant mission chatter throughout the missions that not only helps enhance the immersion but also helps ensure you don't get lost or confused on what to do. The gameplay plays quite similarly to Amok, you have 3 types of weapons, all of which have limited ammo, so you can't fire too senselessly, and there's a gazillion enemies trying to take you out at all times. Thankfully, the game has excellent controls and the auto-lock works really well, so while it is often frantic it never feels unfair. Missions can be a little long, but they're decently varied both between and within missions. After completing stages you can unlock new weapons to further customize your mech. Oh, and on top of all this, there's also co-op. Easily one of EA's best efforts on the system, and an easy SR contender among lesser-known games.
When I saw Kyoutei Wars's colourful presentation, I had high hopes for it, but it's actually even worse than Virtual Kyoutei on Saturn. The basic formula is the exact same, time the start, then run the oval course faster than anyone else, but it plays way worse. The time to start the race takes WAY longer, it feels like you have to wait for like a whole minute for the start, and the controls when actually racing are stiff and terrible. I still feel like this sport has potential, but maybe if you took this genre and did it well it'd just be Wave Race.
DeleteFinally, a good Volleyball game. Beach Volley Heroes is made by Technos, the same company as the Kunio games, and it bares quite a lot of resemblance to them. It feels like a somewhat traditional Volleyball game at first, but what sets it apart from others is that the players have health bars. When you block hard spikes, especially if you don't block them well and get hit, you take damage, which makes you slower and more likely to make mistakes. You can recover health using recovery items or by calling a time out, but you have a limited number of those, so you need to manage them carefully. There are also super shots, which vary by character, and you can gain money through matches to buy equipment to upgrade your team, which feels very reminiscent of the Kunio games. Still, perhaps the greatest appeal is the Volleyball fundamentals, forcing the opponent to make a bad return that sets you up for a super spike is just as satisfying as in games like Mario Sports Mix, which is the mark of a well-made game.
Virus: The Battle Field reminds me a lot of Cube Battler on Saturn, except it's much better. Like Cube Battler, this game is essentially a vehicle for an anime OVA, where you spend a lot of the time just watching anime, then do a battle every now and then. However, compared to Cube Battler, the battle system is vastly more competent. It's a card battling game, though you can't make your own deck (both players play with the same deck). The rules of the game are fairly simple. Cards are divided into 3 types, signified by the color of the number box at the top of the card. Red Cards are attack cards, Blue Cards are item cards, and Purple cards are support cards. Every card can be used to attack, and its attack power is the number at the top, but every class has a second function as well. Red cards can be used to charge the charge guage, adding the number at the bottom to your charge. Blue cards can be activated to produce some effect, which consumes the amount of charge guage listed at the bottom. Purple cards can also be activated, but they don't consume any charge guage. You can also make card combos if you have cards of matching values in your hand, either multiple cards of the same colour with the same value, or multiple cards of the same colour which make a "straight" (ie, 3-4-5). For Red cards, this just combines their damage, but for Blue cards, the total becomes a heal instead. Purple Cards combine with Blue cards via some method I don't totally understand (I think they have half their displayed value for combination purposes?) but the game tells you when you have a combination available so you can just use that. The card effects are pretty easy to understand (many are just like "Def +4" or "charge x 2"), the only ones you'd have to learn from experience are the ones that inflict statuses, like the super powerful freeze effect. Overall, it's a pretty fun game and it's decently accessible, which isn't something that can be said for most Japanese card games, and the anime seems pretty cool. A solid product overall.