Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (PS2, GCN, XBX) Retro Review

It's time for another retro review of the extreme sports variety! With Toy Story 5 having been in theaters, something called upon me to try out a game featuring the lovable cast of toy pals. But why stop there? Why not throw in some Lion King and Tarzan, and on skateboards, too!? That's what we have with Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, a game I had on my backlog for quite some time! Here's the SPC review.

When you skate upon a board, 
doesn't matter how many points you've scored.

The era of the 2000s was a gold mine for extreme sports games. Of course, leading the pack was none other than the Birdman himself, Tony Hawk and his Pro Skater series of games. It's no wonder why Disney wanted a piece of the extreme sports pie and threw its hat--or mouse ears--into the arena with a licensed skateboarding game built off of the Tony Hawk engine. Developed by Toys for Bob for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is the end result. Does it manage to stay on its board till the very end, or does it suffer from a premature bail?

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is a skateboarding game featuring characters and levels from Toy Story, Tarzan, and The Lion King. There are 10 levels total, three in each Disney or Disney/Pixar franchise (in the case of Toy Story), and a special Olliewood level that not only serves as a special customizable kid skater's skating grounds--based off of one of two winners of a contest that Disney and Toys for Bob ran to put their likenesses into the game--but also a level that takes on the role of a hub, using it as a portal to the other Disney levels for your kid skater to skate in.

Howdy, pardner! There's a snake in my boots and a board on them, too!

You're, of course, not limited to just playing as a kid skater in Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure. Each spotlighted Disney franchise features a handful of playable characters to choose from, many of which need to be unlocked by completing in-level goals. You ARE, however, limited in what characters and skate where. For instance, only Toy Story characters like Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and Zurg can skate in Toy Story level locations, such as Andy's Room, Pizza Planet, and Zurg's World.

Buzz Lightyear looks particularly proud of himself for this grind.

The levels in Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure are quite sizable, expansive, and pretty wide open as well, featuring plenty of well presented locales from the Disney worlds they're plucked from. From grinding on toy blocks, up cardboard halfpipes, and even discovering the way into the bathroom in Andy's Room from Toy Story, to skating along the hull, grinding along the high wires, and avoiding taking a plunge in Clayton's Ship from Tarzan, the levels are large, fully-featured, and full of housed secrets, great tricking opportunities, and fun skate lines to discover. 

Be careful as to not get seasick on this ultimate level of the Tarzan world of skating stages: Clayton's Ship.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure plays a lot like a Disney-themed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, specifically the fourth entry. While you don't have as many moves and special abilities in a given skater's repertoire, it pretty much plays similarly. And it's not just the gameplay that is familiar--the entire structure of freely skating around open sandbox levels with no timer to worry about, while searching out characters that task you with performing and completing various skateboard-related challenges and goals is present in Disney's skateboarding title.

Chat it up with the locals to obtain different goals to take on.

These goals are relatively simple to perform and achieve, for the most part, but I was amazed by how varied they were. Sure, there are goals as basic as grinding, performing a lip trick, or jumping over a specific spot, but there are also more complex goals to take on, too. These can be traditional finding and collecting the S-K-A-T-E letters in a level before the timer runs out, successfully executing a series of tricks as they're called out to you, flushing a toilet to get Hamm the pig from Toy Story off from the lid's high heights, and so forth. 

Collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E is a customary THPS challenge, and it's of course present in this game, too.

Completing enough goals unlocks new levels within that Disney series of stages. You also unlock new characters, as well, and seeing as each character in the game has their own set of special collectibles to nab, 25 per level--these unlock new content in the form of new tricks and special cosmetics--there's a decent amount of replay value to be found within the game. This is especially so when there's over 150 goals to complete within Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, multiple characters, levels, cosmetics, tricks, and special movies to unlock, and over 150 gaps to nail, too.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's controls haven't necessarily been dumbed down compared in their transition into Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure: instead, they've been made more accessible for the younger audience the game was intended for. The default control setup puts players in a more manageable configuration, with the most notable change being how manuals are performed. Rather than flick up and down on the analog stick to initiate a manual, it's as simple as pressing a specific face button. 

That said, if you're craving the controls from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, there actually is a "Pro Controls" feature, that takes the traditional controls of the THPS series and allows players to utilize them. Manuals once more are performed by flicking the stick up and down, grab and flip tricks are assigned to their typical buttons as seen in THPS, and the tricks available to your character greatly increase. Now, you won't have the same amount of unique tricks when compared to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, but it's a stark contrast between "basic"--for lack of a better term--controls, and the Pro Controls featured in the game. Not to be misunderstood, you still have access to manuals, reverts, spine transfers, and all the standard moves regardless of which control scheme you choose.

Uh... I'll have to decline that offer, Tarzan.

One issue I do have with Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure that the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series doesn't have is because of the fantastical, oftentimes unconventional dimensions of the character skaters involved. When doing spin tricks, it can be hard to judge where the front or back of the board is, and if you're going to land straight or fumble, stumble, and bail. This is due to the aforementioned unique dimensions of characters like Timon & Pumbaa and young Tarzan. Whereas the skaters in THPS are traditional in appearance, the majority of characters in Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure can block the view of the board or make it unclear if you're going to stick your landing while in the air. It can make for more bailing than I would have liked, but it's hardly a major frustration.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure features a lovely and most importantly for this type of game, smooth graphical style. It runs and performs well with seldom if ever a hitch in frame-rate. One of the most impressive aspects for me with the game was seeing just how exponentially expressive the characters in the game animate. Seeing Woody bail on his skateboard, and pick himself up while adjusting his limp toy arm was an absolute delight, and each character comes complete with a wide range of animations and voice clips. 

Olliewood is the largest level within the game, and is your kid skater's stomping (or skating) grounds.

Continuing with the sound aspect of the game, Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure's soundtrack is less Disney fare (you won't hear "Hakuna Matata" on the set list or Phil Collins' Tarzan tracks) and more Radio Disney. This means lots of contemporary artists that you'd hear in the early 2000s as played on Disney's old radio service. Nothing awful and a lot of it is rather catchy and emblematic of the era.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is exactly what you'd expect from the cover--a super competent skateboarding game for the kid and tween market, and also those Disney adults who who can't get enough of Tony Hawk-style skateboarding gameplay. It's not anywhere near as complex as a THPS game--and that's to be expected for the audience it was trying to capture--but Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure manages to make for a marvelous skateboarding gaming experience that lands its tricks much more than it bails on them.

[SPC Says: B] 

4PGP (PC, PS5, NS2, NSW) Review

After an unplanned absence and hiatus from the site for real-life reasons, I'm back in the driver's seat in more ways than one with a new review on SuperPhillip Central. It's 4PGP, offering a veritable who's who of racing game talent behind it and lots of arcade-y action in racing form. Here's the full SPC review--and not a moment too soon!

Start your engines and potentially some frustration, too.

I truly miss the era of arcade racing games. I'm talking about games like Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, etc. that don't appear in the modern gaming landscape. 4PGP (or Four-Player Grand Prix) brings with it the spirit of retro arcade racing games of that caliber with some talent that appreciates the era as well. 

For one, the game is directed by Jonathan Marole, a man who has worked on titles like The Crew and Test Drive Unlimited, while also having Kenji Sasaki, director of Virtua Racing and Sega Rally, involved too. Then, on the music front we have Tomoyuki Kawamura, whose past works include the aforementioned Virtua Racing and Sega Rally Championship. The talent is no doubt here, and it's awfully prevalent from the moment you start a race in 4PGP.

The feel of racing your formula-one vehicle is amazing. There's enough weight and tightness to the controls that it's simple to pick up and play the game. You won't have to worry about a simulation here, as 4PGP is pure unadulterated arcade racing action. From performing turns that require you to lean in on the inside of a curve or brake to not overshoot, to speeding down straightaways, the racing feels great, the sense of speed is immense, and it all handles beautifully.

Do you have the need for speed? Well, 4PGP will definitely sate it with its high-speed skirmishes.

The 14 tracks in 4PGP (three per cup, and two that unlock later on down the road) take you all across the world, from the United Kingdom to France to Japan. Turns are well choreographed, so you're seldom required to keep an eye on the mini-map for any reason other than to determine the amount of your lead (or in my case in later difficulties, how far behind the leader you are). 

Speaking of difficulties, 4PGP lures players into a false sense of security. If you start off with the Rookie difficulty, you'll find yourself easily breaking from the pack, maintaining large leads, and having a relatively easy go of racing. Novice brings about some added challenge, offering races that are much closer. That said, the distance in difficulty between Novice and the next level of races becomes a bit too large. What remains in the final difficulty is best left unsaid, as it requires a level of racing expertise that most players besides seasoned veterans most likely won't reach. The CPU is supremely punishing here and not always in a fun way. (Okay, I lied and actually said it instead!)

We may be at the middle of the pack, but there's plenty of race to go!

And that's okay, considering 4PGP would be a boring game if you could just speed through all four difficulties with ease. Instead, the latter difficulties do require the ability to read the tracks well, slipstream opponents, use the boost function sparingly but also smartly, enter into pit lane when needed at apt times, and pretty much run flawless races with perfect racing lines, applying the brake subtly to best take turns.

While there is a racing assist option available, perfect for beginning players or those who can't quite get immediate heads or tails on racing lines, it's somewhat of a handicap (and one not in your favor) in later difficulties, as it restricts you to essentially the same racing line as your CPU opponents. 

Like any racer of this type, following and executing the correct racing line is the key to victory.

My only real gripe with the difficulty settings of 4PGP other than the immense level of skill required to win on the hardest difficulty (a level of skill I decidedly did not have) is that vehicle stats are not balanced whatsoever. There is always a class of cars that is required to race in to stand a chance (or drive a chance, perhaps in this case). The starting set of vehicles do not hold a candle stat-wise and especially speed-wise to the sets and series of rides that you unlock as you beat various cups. This makes multiplayer a bit unbalanced. If a player picks a low-class vehicle, they might as well wave the flag in surrender if their opponent picks a higher class car (and that's waving the white flag and not the checkered flag).

As stated, 4PGP isn't just racing with no frills. There's some nuance here to keep the experience from feeling or being simplistic. For one, there is the boost function, which with the press of the left bumper instills your vehicle with a temporary higher speed. It isn't too pronounced, either, which might put off some players expecting a more prominent burst of speed. 

And while early difficulties don't really require keeping an eye on your tires, later ones practically require it. As you race, your vehicle's tires degrade, especially upon going off the track onto the tarmac, taking turns too fast, and so forth. The more wear and tear, as well as damage to your tires there is, the less accurate your steering becomes. This is where entering pit lane for a quick pit stop becomes mandatory. Successfully completing a short quick-time event style mini-game grants you full boost energy once more as well as fixes up your tires in a jiffy. 

Take a pit stop like the one seen here if your tires are in serious disarray.

4PGP is quite the looker on the track with impressive blur effects when blasting forward on the track to present a sensational sense of speed. This sense of speed is also mightily helped by the 60 FPS frame-rate that is as ever-present as the need to take turns well to win. The first two laps of each race is mostly accompanied by the roar of your vehicle's engine with periodic musical jingles to start each lap. It's on the final lap that the music kicks in, letting you know that the race is at its most serious apex. It works and works well here.  

4PGP is certainly quite kind on the eyes, but remember to focus on the track and not the sights if you wish to win!

4PGP delivers racing thrills with a modest amount of frills. While so many racing games nowadays chase after realism and simulation in the feel to their controls, 3goo's 4PGP is unapologetic in how it harks back to the classic era of arcade racing games. The lack of online multiplayer and steep challenge may turn off some players, however. For everyone else, 4PGP speeds past the finish line in sublime style while adding some subtle substance here and there to make for a worthwhile racer.

[SPC Says: C+] 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Kioku: Last Summer (PC) Review

While summer isn't officially here just yet in my hemisphere, we turn our attention away anyway from a private eye mouse to another indie game, one of a decidedly cheerier and more charming focus--that of a young girl's first summer on her new island home. This is Kioku: Last Summer, and this is also the SuperPhillip Central review.

Summer break with a game that can sometimes be summer broken.

Summer holds a lot of special memories for me, especially as a child, and no doubt I'm not alone in that. Friendships could continue to grow and prosper. Summer days spent playing outside from day to night, until the streetlamps turned on and you knew it was about time to return home. It was an era where the only real worry in life was possibly a scraped knee--or dreading the new school year starting, for that matter. 

Kioku: Last Summer attempts to recapture the nostalgia folks have for summer with a decidedly charming game. Unfortunately, like a rural Midwestern summer, it's also full of bugs, and just like the spiders and mosquitoes of the real world, these bugs can bite--though in a different way that does make for a less enjoyable experience.

Starting out, Kioku: Last Summer stars Asti, a young girl who finds herself at a new island home with new friends to make, new discoveries to be found, and new adventures to be had. It begins with the island's ferry docking, and you, as Asti, entering the school where you're introduced to your classmates, the friends that you hope to make.

Summertime is always better spent with friends.

The game follows a day-to-day format, though not in real-time. Each day presents a series of activities for Asti to accomplish to further the story. The first one, for instance, requires her to pick up three lost marbles belonging to a character named Bo, who doesn't take too kindly to Asti at the start of the game. He blames her for having his Game Boy-like device taken away from him by their teacher, calling Asti a "snitch" for doing so. Fortunately, this island is otherwise too kind, so snitches don't get stitches here. ...Ahem. Other activities that further the story can last a whole day, like searching for the whereabouts of a certain islander, or simpler events like bike races, learning to catch crabs from the sea, and various activities that essentially boil down to fetch quests. 

Feeling crabby? Head to the water to catch the clawed creatures, then!

Meeting the locals isn't too rewarding or exciting. They seldom have anything interesting to say when you speak to them, and the lines of dialogue at one time are limited to, well, just one line of dialogue each. This is not Animal Crossing where the locals have myriad things to say at a given point, and this isn't meant to be a sim like Animal Crossing anyway. A bullet point to Kioku: Last Summer is building friendships, and this couldn't be more passive. It's simply completing activities and progressing the story, and eventually Asti is the biggest social butterfly on the island--just like that.

When you're not progressing the story that plays out among a week of in-game days, there's not too much other stuff to do. You can search around the island for stickers, hidden in some pretty crafty locations--to the point where I still can't find the last one I'm missing for 100% completion. You can skip or ride your bike around the island for faster travel. You can head to the sea and catch crabs in a simplistic "fishing" mini-game, and you can even play a surprisingly enjoyable creature-battling, marble-slamming mini-game called Marubi.

Marubi pits three creatures in marble form against your opponent's trio of monsters, as you take turns rolling and spinning your marbles, or creatures, into your opponent's marbles. Each turn you and your opponent roll one marble apiece, and "attacking" another marble causes it to lose health points (or HP) based on their attack power. When all three marbles on one side are destroyed, the game is over and the victor is crowned. Now, sure, the game isn't very balanced in the sense that once I got a certain trio of marble monsters, I found that I was pretty much unstoppable, but the game itself is still fun.

Instead of believing in the heart of the cards like in Yu-Gi-Oh!,
 do we believe in the heart of the marbles in Marubi?

Unfortunately, island life isn't ALWAYS the most fun or the easiest to adapt to in Kioku, and not because of the occasional rivalries and friction between friends. No, island life is difficult because the game, unlike the pristine island itself, is littered with bugs, some of these actually locked my progress for a bit. Kioku: Last Summer is an incredibly unpolished experience currently, and that's even after the developers' patch. 

I've had instances where I interact with one islander, and suddenly I'm speaking to someone halfway across the island. Sometimes interactions don't work at all. The character you're trying to speak to will face you as if to initiate a conversation, but nothing will be said.

Generally, characters and tasks you have to accomplish next are helpfully highlighted by a colorful ring of flowers blooming around them. However, on some occasions I had it where even though I tried to talk to the proper character with the ring around them, they didn't initiate or continue the quest line. Instead, they talked about the weather or how they were yearning for coffee or whatnot. 

Chat with the locales, as they have... well, not much to say.

One very annoying glitch after a second bike race in the game saw me exit the finish line, and then go about my merry way. Unfortunately, as I learned later upon reloading my autosave (by the way, there is no manual save option in case you get softlocked and need to reload a previous save) that there was supposed to be a phone call from Asti's dad that she was supposed to be stopped by, but when I originally played through the scenario, no such phone call or interruption happened. So, basically a half-hour of my time was wasted wandering around like a goofball wondering why I couldn't make any further progress.

Kioku: Last Summer is not a long game by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it's over faster than my summers tended to feel as a child. To roll credits takes but a handful of hours, four or five, to be exact. Yes, there are achievements to earn, but most of these are time-wasters meant to be filler and little more. Why anyone would want to waste time "kicking" 100 goals into a soccer net is beyond me--WELL, OKAY! I WANTED THE ACHIEVEMENT!!! 

But seriously, heck to the no, if you think I'm riding this bike ad infinitum for that last achievement.

The game itself graphically on the presentation end of the equation is rather lovely. The anime aesthetic given to each of the islanders and characters in the game is suitably charming, and Kioku's color pallet is pretty and pleasant on the eyes. I especially enjoyed the lighting, specifically when the sun sets, blazing a bright ball in the sky over the horizon, sending its beams onto the island. 

The sound design is a mixed bag in the sense that the default settings, at least when played on Steam Deck, are ridiculously low. It took me an hour to realize there was supposed to be sound in the game other than little fanfares here and there! Seriously, bring all the audio levels up to 100% if you want to hear anything. What I DID hear was nice and serviceable for this type of game to elevate the cozy atmosphere the developers wanted to give the player.

Kioku: Last Summer is a short experience, as stated, and unfortunately, it's one that I would have a hard time recommending in its current state. Perhaps once the bugs and glitches I experienced on a consistent basis are ironed out and some additional polish is included, this would be an easier recommendation for breezy and cozy summer game. As is, though, you'll suffer some frustrations that are ironically the complete antithesis of the cozy vibes the development team intended. That said, I still overall enjoyed my time on the island, but if I didn't have a review to write, I would have most certainly held off until next summer.

[SPC Says: D+] 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire (Multi) Review

A weekend review shoots onto the scene with Mouse: P.I. For Hire. My investigation proved fruitful, offering word of a game that certainly surprised and delighted. Here's the SuperPhillip Central review. 

A Completionist's Noir-tmare

Saturday. 2:00 P.M. I parked my keister at my office chair and started rat-a-tat-tattin' at the keys like an hot Tommy Gun in hopes of finishin' my review. Like the Circuit de la Sarthe, this game I was coverin' had lots of twists, turns, and was just about as dangerous. This particular game had everything--mystery, intrigue, mice, and enough cheese to smile to one-thousand different photos. It was time to put my reviewin' skills to the test and start chattin' about Mouse: P.I. For Hire. 

...Okay, okay. I cannot keep up this Noir detective monologue bit for an entire review, so let's just get to it.

Immediately from the get-go, Mouse: P.I. For Hire delights, delivering a black and white cartoon-y art style reminiscent of Disney's Steamboat Mickey short. I was immensely amazed by just how fluid everything looked, shooting through guns blazing and seeing enemy heads pop, revealing a fountain of... let's say, ink. Yes, this is a gorgeous and well done game graphically, fully realized and nailing its cartoon aesthetic, and I'm pleased to say that it certainly holds up in the gameplay department as well.

While the enemy variety in Mouse: P.I. For Hire isn't the highest, offering a small mix of run-at-you melee
foes or faraway shooting types, it's still quite satisfying to blast them all down.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire is essentially a DOOM-like in that its levels are labyrinthine areas full of corridors, rooms, spaces, and myriad secrets while having you run, gun, and jump your way through them, mowing down or punching out everything in your P.I.'s path. 

You begin the game with nothing else but Jack's pistol, a Micer, and his fists. However, as the game and case go on, you'll acquire a shotgun, T.N.T. dynamite to chuck at foes and literally signposted walls, a riff off of a Tommy Gun called a James Gun, and more. The more inventive weapons are earned later in the game, such as the hot glue-shooting Devarnisher that melts the skin off your foes in real time, as well as a gun that fires a freezing ray to chill enemies into ice cubes, perfect for shattering. 

I'm rubber, and you're glue. Particularly hot glue. The kind that melts your skin off, bub!

Of course, that's not to mention all of the abilities that Jack learns throughout his case, such as the ability to twirl his tail to slow his descent in order to make it across large gaps or rise up air shafts, a double jump, the ability to wall run along specially marked walls, and more.  

All of these weapons and abilities do a great job in giving you a lot of options in firefights to experiment and take out baddies in a way that suits your play style. You'll certainly gets a multitude of opportunities to do so, as Mouse: P.I. For Hire really loves locking you in a large, expansive room and forcing you to clear the room out of enemies that pour in through doors with skulls on the top of them. 

Nothin' like the great outdoors to not feel so claustrophobic! 

Generally speaking, this is a common occurrence throughout the game's 10-20 hour campaign, and you get a sixth sense, sorta, of when these rooms will happen. It doesn't help that they happen so often that it can get a bit repetitive, even with all of the combat options available to you, whether that be running and gunning, jumping and shooting at exploding barrels to obliterate a squad of enemies at once, or even shooting a hanging prop like an anvil to crush an enemy as it stands below it.

By far the highlight for combat and being able to use multiple methods to dispatch baddies was that of the bosses in Mouse: P.I. For Hire. The game has a motley crew of foes to take on, and these aren't just "shoot 'em till their dead" type affairs. The best of these boss battle bunches include ones that feature attack patterns to avoid, evade, and dodge as you unleash a furious flurry of firepower and bullets their way. These are engaging and suffice to say, not as repetitive as the virtual "kill rooms" that litter the game's levels. 

The various boss battles served as quite the combat highlight for me.

When you're not brutalizing and murdering sinister foes in your path and in such kill rooms, you're on the search for clues. And in between finding these clues, there are all sorts of secrets to uncover in true DOOM-like, boomer shooter fashion. The secrets are well-hidden and many of them are quite easy to miss. Whether located in one of many vents that our gumshoe protagonist climbs through, inside locked doors and safes that must be "tailpicked" through an enjoyable enough mini-game, or simply sitting off the beaten path, these secret areas house money, newspapers, comic books, baseball cards, and other collectibles and goodies like schematics, used to upgrade your various guns and weapons. 

This, however, leads to my number one issue with Mouse: P.I. For Hire and one of my pet peeves in gaming--a game design sin, really. That's the extreme amount of missables within the game. By virtue of the structure of Mouse: P.I. For Hire, it's literally impossible to return to a completed level, which means that a lot of stuff that you missed collectible-wise is lost to you. Yes, you can purchase missed collectibles like newspapers, comics, and baseball cards from the hub city in the game--for a price, but key clues are permanently gone. 

Not exactly the warm welcome Jack Pepper was wanting here, but the welcome he was expecting all the same.

Even still, with the ability to purchase missed collectibles from the shop, there is still a finite amount of money throughout the game. Thus, if you wish to do a 100% run in one playthrough, a guide and multiple saves are a must to track everything down--from collectibles to side quests in the appropriate form of "side jobs". These, too, are easily missed and once they're gone, they're gone on your current playthrough. 

When a game is over 10 hours long for a playthrough, this gets quite frustrating quite fast, especially when the game possess multiple "points of no return" that are not clearly marked by it. Enter a door, and it can instantly lock behind you. Start a particular mission, and it can and will lock you out of returning to the hub city for the rest of the game. 

Usually each time a given level is completed, Jack returns to the city hub where his apartment and office are, enters inside, and pins various clues to his caseboard to hash out the all-encompassing, interconnected mystery that tells the story of the game. Additionally in this hub, Jack can peruse his usual stomping grounds, purchase ammunition, use schematics found in levels to upgrade his weapons and guns, enter the bar to chat with the locals, and even play a rather enjoyable card game using all the baseball cards found within levels.

Splat! My kind of 'toon!

As mentioned, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is a gorgeous game and its 1930/1940s esque cartoon art style is realized to its maximum potential. It really feels like you're playing a cartoon in a Noir style, complete with enough cheese puns to fill up a party platter. That latter part was especially enjoyed by me, as not only a lover of puns but as someone who appreciates a game committing to a bit. Between the fluid action, well done old-timey detective music--as well as some real world jazzy pieces like The Glenn Miller Orchestra's "In the Mood"--and the amazing voice acting--Troy Baker does a phenomenal job as Jack Pepper, Mouse: P.I. For Hire definitely delights.

And really, that's what the game does throughout its 10-20 hour runtime: it delights. Sure, a private investigator entering a police station and mowing down all of the dirty cops inside might bring some "ludonarrative dissonance" discussions into the fray if you think about it too hard, and the numerous points of no return means achievement (or is it "a-cheese-ment") hunters will balk at the requirements, but if you're just casually playing through the game, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is a ripper of a boomer shooter for sure. As a completionist, I hated having to use a guide to play through the game, as it really killed the pacing for me, but I can't argue against Jack Pepper's investigation being a thrilling and fun one. Case closed.

[SPC Says: B-] 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (NS2) Review

Our first review of this potentially busy month is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book for the Nintendo Switch 2, which also celebrated an anniversary on June 5th (though a one-year anniversary as opposed to our site's 18th anniversary). The game's a bit of a creature feature, but the best kind, at that! See why by reading on with the SPC review!

 Take a look, Yoshi's in a book: a discovery rainbow!

Yoshi's platforming debut in Yoshi's Island back in 1995 on the Super Nintendo is one that Nintendo's green dinosaur just can't escape the shadow of. Essentially, every platformer since is held to its high standard, and most of the time the comparisons aren't flattering. Now, my love and preference for Yoshi's Woolly World notwithstanding, it's safe to say that most other successors in the Yoshi franchise to Yoshi's Island have failed to live up to its rather esteemed reputation. 

Thus, it's interesting that Nintendo went in an entirely new direction with the Yoshi franchise. Yes, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is still a 2D platformer, but its structure and gameplay are quite different from the bog-standard, well-tread Yoshi's Island formula. Fortunately, for the Yoshi franchise, this is a direction that greatly succeeds at what it sets out to do!

Upon originally seeing the debut trailer for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book from Nintendo of America and all subsequent marketing, I was led to believe the game was going to be a charming, yes, but also an ultimately breezy adventure to play through, made more for younger audiences. While there's certainly some truth to that, overall, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book delivers enough challenges in its unique gameplay hooks that it kept me routinely coming back--enough so, that I happily 100%'d the game!

So, what IS Yoshi and the Mysterious Book if not yet another follow-up to Yoshi's Island? Well, it takes that game's foundations, but also expands greatly upon it to form something wholly original. The Yoshis stumble upon Mr. E (har-har), a talkative tome whose pages are incomplete. He requests that the Yoshis fill out and fill up his pages by entering inside and charting various creatures within. The Yoshis agree, and thus, the adventure begins. There's of course some story friction involved, such as Bowser Jr. and Kamek wandering through the pages, the former feverishly searching for a creature called the Bewilder Bird, but for the most part, the game is all about exploration and discovery.

Each "level" in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a contained experience focused on one new creature. Levels are usually not too expansive, but some can be, nor are they overly linear. Instead, they offer plenty of passages, rooms, areas, and for certain, secret areas to find. Immediately upon entering a level, the specific creature to be examined in its native habitat is there.

From there, it's all about examining the creature and using its abilities to further explore the level. The main "collectible"--for lack of a better term--is that of creature discoveries. Take the very first creature introduced in what amounts to the tutorial level, the Crazee Dayzee. Some discoveries are as simple as having Yoshi gobble up the flower with his tongue or bash it with an egg. Simple interactions that don't require much thinking to uncover. However, more complicated and involved discoveries are also available. These could be things like dunking a Dayzee in some water to make it sprout, using said creature to bloom an arch of flowers once it passes by it, or more interestingly, using differently colored Crazee Dayzees to create a remarkable rainbow of bloomed flowers of varying hues. 

Looks like a new discovery is in bloom! Well done, Yoshi!

Each discovery is worth a certain amount of stars, from one to three, with the more complex and complicated discoveries earning three. With 30-40 discoveries for a given creature's habitat, there's a lot of stars to go around. The stars are used to unlock further chapters, so in this sense, it's similar to Super Mario Odyssey's Power Moons in that casual, inexperienced, or younger players can still enjoy the majority of the game's content just by playing and finding the minimal amount of creature discoveries, whereas more skilled, veterans players can seek out as many discoveries per level as possible, fully completing and exhausting each creature's lineup of discoveries, and also collecting the trickily hidden Smiley Flowers, as well.

Some creatures live on land, some in the sky, and some in the sea such as this one.

What makes Yoshi and the Mysterious Book so fascinating and fun on a design level is how each creature Yoshi stumbles across has its own unique hook--its own gameplay mechanic--and so many of these could be fleshed out for their own game! You get such a steady amount of new, innovative, mostly intuitive ideas and concepts that get iterated on within the same level. From riding a giant boar that rushes and can dig through rock and sand, to using a spider creature's web to swing across the stage like Spider-Man, to bouncing off seeds like a gigantic bouncy playground to reach new heights, to retreating from a pursuing hand of grass while encouraging it to interact with the environment in different ways, there's just so much on offer--and that's just the tip of the iceberg, really. 

Ingenuity, imagination, and creativity are three things important to have for making discoveries in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

Heck, one level features a spore-like creature that literally can engulf an entire environment, spread on other creatures, and infest the whole level--which the latter is an actual discovery that Mr. E encourages Yoshi to attempt! That's one discovery of Yoshi's tasked by the book, yes, but it's also recommended by Mr. E to essentially exterminate an entire species from a totally different level, too! ...This book has some serious, unresolved problems!   

Yoshi can spread these spores all around the stage. ...Wasn't this the start of a certain Naughty Dog series?

So much of the joy found in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is experimenting with the environment and its creatures in ways that go off the beaten path and tests the limits of your imagination. The most worthwhile and rewarding discoveries are the ones that make you think, "there's no way the developers or designers thought to include THIS or would make me do THAT" and lo and behold, you accomplish that task and boom! A new discovery gets written onto the page/level. 

A fun little touch is that each discovery you find through exploration, experimentation, and so forth gets written onto the background of the level at the exact place you discovered it. Sure, the background can get a bit crowded and claustrophobic when myriad discoveries are written on the page, but they never overlap to make for a visual mess, thankfully. 

Chart all of your discoveries for each access in Mr. E's readable pages.
You can also name/rename each creature you come across in Yoshi's adventures.

If you feel you've exhausted your imagination and creativity, and have zero idea on how to squeeze more discoveries out of a given creature's level, Mr. E has helpful hints. With the press of the L button, Mr. E will give some semblance of guidance. Some are less obvious than others, but for more obvious hints, you can spend tokens collected in levels to gets new discovery recommendations and further hints, too. Tokens are practically given away in levels, so you'll pretty never be having to grind for them to get hints when needed.    

This creature is of note, both figuratively and literally, for being quite musical.

Of course, levels aren't just built around minor creature discoveries. Each level or creature habitat has its own major goal or objective that opens up the "exit' to the level. You can of course continue charting discoveries long after the exit reveals itself, and you can easily start a level over or end your exploration directly from the pause menu. The former--the Start Over option--is important as a fair number of discoveries can be missed and you can get "locked out of" in a given expedition. Starting the level over puts most everything back where it was, with all your current discoveries, of course, logged in already.

Like the discoveries and the creatures within Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the major goal of each level has a massive variety, all of them different depending on the creature and the level. For instance, the tutorial creature, the Crazee Dayzee, is all about blooming three giant buds at the end of the level by having Yoshi carry the creature to the buds to bloom them. Another, feature the Shy Guy, has you searching a settlement for elusive, hidden, hiding Shy Guys, and taking them back to the settlement's center. Whereas another creature requires you to win an aerial race to unlock the level's exit.

For example, the main objective of this stage is to fully grow this plant by routinely watering its head.

Some levels, generally the sixth and final one in each chapter, have a boss battle to take on. Now, Yoshi does not a health bar or anything like that in this game. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking when "damaged". The boss battles are not about surviving, but these also serve as opportunities to chart even more creature discoveries in how you go about the battle. As the Hauger, that previously mentioned giant boar, you can actually juggle the boss you battle against multiple times in the air, and in doing so, you unlock a discovery. Needless to say, this is easier said than done, which is a testament to some of the skill-based challenges that some discoveries demand of the player. Also, something that not a typical younger player would be able to do, either! 

Creatures come in all shapes and sizes within Mr. E's colorful pages.

Not every creature's habitat can be exhausted of discoveries in Yoshi's first visit. Some creatures have second "acts" to their specific levels, usually designed around interacting with a second creature. These second acts have far fewer discoveries to find, as they usually require Yoshi to hash out the means to clear the level's main goal and open the exit. Some of the later objectives can be immensely challenging. 

So many discoveries and especially stuff in the post-game, requires a level of play that not many in the inexperienced camp will be able to accomplish easily. Heck, even my gamer self of 35+ years struggled with so many of them. Part of this is because some creatures possess unwieldy, somewhat non-intuitive controls which leads to some frustration, but also another part is that some of the discoveries require such careful precision or specifically ordered steps that they can be challenging to achieve.  

Speaking of the post-game, it was curious to me that I rolled the credits after the sixth chapter was beaten. That's because there's still more story-related content in the following four chapters that unlock after. You're not really done with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book's story until you roll the second set of credits and unlock the literal post-game from there. It makes me wonder how many potential players will roll the first credits and assume they're done, despite so many loose ends with the story, unique creatures, and chapters are available afterwards. 

There are many familiar creatures from Yoshi's past games (like these Goonies),
 but more often than not, you'll discover many brand-new ones.

Switching gears to more a mechanical level, Yoshi himself controls pretty much better than ever in his latest game. He basically has all of the skills he's learned from his Yoshi's Island days: egg-throwing, flutter-jumping, ground-pounding, to assist in examining creatures and making discoveries, and he also has a tail whip that can send smaller to medium-sized creatures riding his saddle. This offers even more in the way of interacting with creatures, such as one that will blow out ride-able bubbles when saddled on Yoshi, or again, the Crazee Dayzee, which will bloom flower buds when the creature passes over them while riding on Yoshi.

Between completing each chapter by logging all creature discoveries and collecting all Smiley Flowers, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book took me just over 40 hours to fully beat. It was mostly an enjoyable time, too, save for some struggles with controlling creatures here and there, trying to make heads or tails of the in-game hints, attempting to successfully clear certain, challenging discoveries, and the incredibly occasional (like, once every five hours) frame-rate freezes and hits. 

Yoshi takes some time to stop and smell (and say hi to) a flowery friend.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is very much a thumping good read--or rather, play. It presents so many unique ideas within each of its 50-60 creatures that it approaches Super Mario Galaxy-levels of "new stage, new concept". Such a feat is no small task, and it's certainly no small comparison either. Yoshi's latest absolutely floored me with its exponential amount of fresh ideas, stellar level design, myriad methods the game's systems interact with each other (in almost a "how does this game not break?!" kind of way), and how it constantly rewarded me for thinking outside of the box. It's not Yoshi's Island, nor does the game even itself set out to be, which may disappoint some, but for those who give Yoshi and the Mysterious Book an honest chance, you'll immensely enthralled, much like reading an exceptional page-turner of an actual book. Good-Feel and Nintendo authored an amazing game here.

[SPC Says: A-] 

Rockman & Forte [Mega Man & Bass] (SFC) Retro Review

While I don't foresee us ending our time with the Blue Bomber until the next time MEGA MAY rolls around in 2027, we'll be taking a brief break from Capcom's super fighting robot for a little bit, at the very least.  

Let's wrap up MEGA MAY with a special review--an import-only game from the Super Famicom is our review subject: Rockman & Forte. Mega Man and Bass see themselves as a pair of playable characters in this super-late Super Famicom release, which would eventually make its way westward on the Game Boy Advance years later. Maybe we'll check out the GBA port another day! For now, here's the SPC review of Rockman & Forte!

Am I all about that Mega Man & Bass?

Originally, Rockman & Forte (translated to Mega Man & Bass) skipped the West entirely and only released in Japan. The game was a late life Super Famicom game, releasing in 1998, pretty much two years after the Nintendo 64 launched. Thus, Capcom saw no real reason to release it in the West. We wouldn't see the game on our shores until much later on the Game Boy Advance with a localized version of the game. Although the lack of screen real estate made an already extremely difficult game even harder.

Lovingly given the moniker "Mega Man 8.5" by fans due to it being a stopgap between the previously released Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 9 (also using a similar visual style, as well as including two Robot Masters from the former), Rockman & Forte puts players in control of either Mega Man or Bass. Each plays differently to the other, possessing advantages and disadvantages to each other as well.  

Familiar foes, gimmicks, and visuals alike appear in Mega Man 8.5--I mean, Rockman & Forte!

For instance, Mega Man can charge up his Mega Buster to unleash a charge shot, great for dealing more damage to enemies. Bass, however, has a machine gun-like spray of bullets that he fires. These are notably weaker, and cannot go through walls like Mega Man's Mega Buster's shots can. Though Bass can fire upwards and diagonally, something Mega Man's shots cannot do. 

Bass has already won, as he has the high ground.

Mobility-wise is where Mega Man and Bass differ on a significant level as well. Bass can double jump, which makes his campaign a little easier at least when getting around stages. Mega Man has a single jump, which means you really need to jump with precision and look before you leap. 

One reason it's best to play with carefulness and caution is because Rockman & Forte is not an easy entry in the series. Heck, Mega Man as a franchise is no cakewalk in general, being tough on its best days. However, Rockman & Forte takes the difficulty dial and cranks it all the way up to extreme levels. Deaths were quite common in my playthrough, whether that be from taking too much damage or more often than not, coming into contact with a bottomless pit or instant-death spikes. 

Even the opening stage, something that usually is pretty breezy in most Mega Man games containing them, almost feels like the designers expect you to be a seasoned Mega Man player. Enemies that can hit you into instant-death lava, spike traps, and let's not forget to mention the wind in the final section that blows against you as you make death-defying leaps over a bottomless pit as enemies fire at you. It's rather ridiculous for an opening stage and makes a daunting first impression.

The Green Devil feels like a nice respite after that killer of an introductory stage!

An aspect that makes Rockman & Forte so challenging is that you take great amounts of damage from enemies, and especially the Robot Master bosses. I was amazed by just how much enemies, their bullets, and attacks hit both Mega Man and Bass like trucks. Sometimes all it took was five or six hits from full health to end up being eliminated in battle. 

Fortunately, there are some ways to mitigate the punishment Rockman & Forte unleashes on its players. Auto's shop is home to various power-up parts and items like extra lives that can be purchased with bolts collected in stages. These parts range from one that doubles the amount of health recovery, one that lowers the amount of weapon energy used, one that halves damage, and one that allows you to exit previously cleared stages. Though, so many of these--especially the latter two--feel like they should be the default to begin with and available from the get-go instead of being required to buy them. Just more proof that Rockman & Forte is punishing to the player.

While Bass can't shoot through walls without a special part,
this enemy is a sitting duck for Mega Man as he pelts it from the safety of this ladder.

Furthermore, Rockman & Forte follows Mega Man 8's example by not having E-Tanks whatsoever, something that past Mega Man games aside from the very first NES original possessed. While Mega Man 8 was definitely manageable without E-Tanks, here it seems like an absolute joke (and an unfunny one at that) that they're not included. Again, it's way too easy to die in Rockman & Forte, between how much damage Mega Man and Bass take with default equipment and the numerous perils and hazards in stages.

After the surprisingly challenging opening stage is complete, the screen containing the eight Robot Masters becomes available. However, Rockman & Forte starts you off with only three to choose from. Conquering one of the stages unlocks up to three more stages that branch off from the Robot Master you beat. It's a clever arrangement and one I'm surprised no future Mega Man game incorporated. 

Defeating Bass? S'No, man, I don't think so.

The stages themselves are overall well designed. There's the underwater sunken ship of Pirate Man's, where later in the level you enter into various bubbles, controlling them as they float upwards as you avoid spiked mines and other obstacles that want to burst your bubble. There's Burner Man's jungle stage, where upon entering the indoor base, you encounter fake floors that can send you falling a level below if you're not observant enough. Then, there's Magic Man's stage, similar to Mega Man 8's Clown Man, full of toy trains that carry you across the tracks (and bottomless pits) to your destination. 

One of the really enjoyable and entertaining parts of Rockman & Forte is how you're encouraged to replay stages. Throughout levels are collectible discs scattered about, some out in the open, but most are hidden or require some prodigious platforming to collect. A lot require the special weapons earned from defeated Robot Masters, like pushing Cold Man's pillar of ice across a bed of spikes while using it as a makeshift sliding platform. Of course, some are also only accessible to Mega Man with his slide ability, while others are only available to collect by Bass with his double jump or ability to temporarily fly with Treble a la Rush Jet. Either way, collecting these was fun as they encouraged exploration, seeking out secret areas, and more importantly, each disc collected gets added to an in-game database housing information about various Mega Man characters and Robot Masters. There are 100 discs to discover in all, so this adds to Rockman & Forte's replay value.

Of course, your level of longevity with Rockman & Forte will last as long as your patience stays intact. This can be an overwhelmingly frustrating game with its extreme difficulty, and nothing speaks to that more than the final trio of stages once the initial eight Robot Masters are routed. 

Mega Man 8 Robot Masters Astro Man and Tengu Man return to exact their revenge in Rockman & Forte.

These stages take place in King's Palace. King is the primary villain of the game, on a crusade to "rescue" robots, including the eight Robot Masters he stole from the introductory robot museum stage to serve as his faithful subjects. Needless to say, these stages ramp up the difficulty to insane levels. The main reason for this is again, dying is way too easy. The second of three stages is practically three levels in one, and losing against the first battle with King results in getting kicked back all the way to the start of the section of stage and not directly before the battle, y'know, like pretty much every other Mega Man game in existence would handle it. 

Yes, checkpoints are few, and when you lose all your lives (do note how I didn't say "if"), you have to start all the way back from square one, the very first King's Palace level. It's a horrendous endurance run with some super tough, incredibly easy-to-die boss battles and plentiful instant death traps sprinkled throughout. 

Rockman & Forte might not welcome with its extreme level of difficulty, but it definitely does with its presentation, offering gorgeous sprite-work reminiscent, of course, of Mega Man 8. Character sprites and level environments are insanely detailed, looking absolutely incredible with rich, vivid, and varied colors. It's not a perfect package, as the frame-rate can certainly hitch when a lot of enemies and bullets appear on screen at once. This is most apparent when playing as Bass with his showering spray of bullets. Musically, Rockman & Forte features a superb soundtrack with memorable, sublime, and catchy songs that present themselves as real earworms. I absolutely enjoyed hearing the themes within the game.

For the longest time, Rockman & Forte was my white whale when it came to the Mega Man series. It was one entry that I simply could not beat--albeit that was with the Game Boy Advance port. Finally, yes, finally, I managed to roll credits with this Super Famicom original version. Now, whether that was worth the decades-long struggle is something I'll have to wrestle with for a while here, but overall, Rockman & Forte has the bones of a good game. It's sizable level of extreme difficulty will put off most players, and heck, even many tried and true fans of the Blue Bomber. There's a lot to like here, but then the game proceeds to punish you for playing it. Rockman & Forte is a game I entered wanting to love, and did actually love starting out, but then I ended up with only really tolerating it by the time I rolled credits.

[SPC Says: C]