Two gameplay trailers for Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite were posted by Marvel Entertainment these past couple of days. The first shows action between the team of Mega Man X and Ryu facing off against the pairing of Captain Marvel and Iron Man. The second shows off characters like Ultron, Chun-Li, Hulk, Strider Hiryu, Thor, Chris Redfield and Hawkeye in two different battles! With more accessible controls along with its deep fighting mechanics, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite rightfully excites!
Friday, April 28, 2017
ARMS (NS) Introducing Helix Trailer
Introducing Helix (or DNA Man as he's known in Japan)! His gelatin body can stretch up and down to avoid incoming strikes, and move every which way possible. His home is the lab stage, as seen in this video just released by Nintendo a little while ago on its YouTube channel. ARMS releases on June 16, 2017!
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PS2, GCN, XBX) Retro Review
It's been a couple of months since SuperPhillip Central's last retro review, but now we have a new one on the site. It's for the first outing of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series in video game form. Usually there's a rhyme and reason for a retro review. Perhaps a new entry in a particular game series is coming out, or maybe it's the anniversary. With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Well, there really is no reason other than to just play it in co-op with a fellow reviewer. Here's the SPC retro review of 2003's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I grew up like many kids in the late '80s and early '90s, I was hooked to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Everything about the heroes in a half shell had me foaming at the mouth, whether the movies, the hokey cartoon show, the action figures, costumes for Halloween, the video games, and so forth. In 2003, the Turtles returned with a brand-new cartoon series. In the U.S., it aired on the Saturday Morning Fox Box, a collection of cartoons that was formerly known as Fox Kids before it became the all-4Kids TV branded morning of shows.
Like in the late '80s, the powers that be behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on a merchandising spree. Though the (at the time) new series for the turtles didn't reach the highs and fandom of the late '80s one, it still received plenty of stuff, and yes, that included video games. A multitude of Turtles-branded games released based off of the 2003 cartoon, and the first was a multiplatform game for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox known simply as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you're looking for the magic of the older arcade games, you won't find it here. In fact, you won't find much of value here.
It all goes down to plethora of problems. The first is the nearly brain-dead combat on offer here. You have a light attack, strong attack, and the ability to throw shurikens of various types. There's no real discernible difference between light attacks and strong attacks, so the only real recourse of action here is to spam the light attack button, performing combos in this manner.
Every offense needs a good defense, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doesn't offer much in the way of avoiding enemy attacks. You see, there's no block button whatsoever. This means you can get caught in a multi-hit combo, particularly by bosses who provide the stiffest of challenges over the otherwise easy enemy AI, and find a great deal of your health depleted in the process. Instead, what you're faced with is the need to use the left shoulder button to dash away from enemies before they can wallop you, which is by far more limited a defensive option than a block would otherwise be.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' 2003 offering is split up between six chapters which are divided up between multiple areas. What level design is here is the most basic of the basic with linear corridors and occasional open spaces, all requiring you to move from one horde of enemies to another (the kind that usually appear out of nowhere). There is no real exploration to be found as usually interesting locations in levels are blocked by invisible walls. When you do find a place of interest, it can house the game's sole collectible, a scroll that unlocks some form of concept art in the gallery section of the game.
Instead of the side-scrolling nature found in the more loved arcade games by Konami, 2003's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has 3D arenas and areas that provide different camera positions at various heights and angles that follow along with your turtle. Sometimes it can be to your detriment, however, as the camera can occasionally not keep up with the action or face you with a precarious angle or point of view.
In between some chapters, your turtle of choice enters Splinter's dojo, where they must complete a task to earn a reward. This can be an increase to their offensive or defensive abilities or it can be something as simple as learning how to jump and attack. Yes, you have to learn how to jump and attack in a beat-em-up. The otherwise baffling and impossible-to-know means to jump and then attack is locked behind completing one of Splinter's trials.
Playing solo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is quite the slog as you're fighting the same number of enemies in solo than you would in co-op, many that can overwhelm you in groups. However, things become a bit more enjoyable with a second player. Unfortunately and confusingly so, there is no option to play with four buddies. Only two turtles and players can play at a time. Nevertheless, two players make for a funner experience, though still full of button-mashing and little else.
The fact that you have to beat the game as all four turtles to face the true final boss and see the true ending (meaning that player one has to control one turtle through the game four times) makes for longevity to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the gameplay is so vapid and repetitive that this makes for more of a chore than a challenge.
The presentation for 2003's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn't too shabby. The cel-shaded style which was popular for the time looks great. Animations are moderately executed, but not all looks great as areas themselves are a bit drab in appearance. Clips from the show look great, though they make for a disjointed story that has little cohesion whatsoever. It's more of an episodic structure, and even then, it won't make much sense contextually to those who haven't seen the show. When not showing clips from the series, the characters just stand around in their 3D model glory with limited animation. Finally when it regards the audio, the voice actors do a nice job, but the music is mostly uninspired butt rock, something that is just background noise.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' 2003 offering is a repetitive beat-em-up with little reason to play through it more than once, despite its intention to have you play through it four times just to see the real ending. Yes, it's accessible, but the combat is so basic that there's no real joy from overcoming wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wave after wa-- oops, better stop myself there-- of enemies. The only real challenge comes from the harder-than-ordinary boss battles, and this is mostly due to the lack of any sort of block button. Alone the game is tedious, with a friend there is more fun to be had, but not much more. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game based off of the 2003 cartoon series is hardly worth a look unless you're a giant turtles fan. Even then, I feel shafted of my five hours with the game.
[SPC Says: D]
Heroes in a halfhearted effort
Like in the late '80s, the powers that be behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went on a merchandising spree. Though the (at the time) new series for the turtles didn't reach the highs and fandom of the late '80s one, it still received plenty of stuff, and yes, that included video games. A multitude of Turtles-branded games released based off of the 2003 cartoon, and the first was a multiplatform game for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox known simply as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you're looking for the magic of the older arcade games, you won't find it here. In fact, you won't find much of value here.
It all goes down to plethora of problems. The first is the nearly brain-dead combat on offer here. You have a light attack, strong attack, and the ability to throw shurikens of various types. There's no real discernible difference between light attacks and strong attacks, so the only real recourse of action here is to spam the light attack button, performing combos in this manner.
 |
| Just in case you needed a visual aid, this attack "bash"-ed this Foot Soldier in the face. |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' 2003 offering is split up between six chapters which are divided up between multiple areas. What level design is here is the most basic of the basic with linear corridors and occasional open spaces, all requiring you to move from one horde of enemies to another (the kind that usually appear out of nowhere). There is no real exploration to be found as usually interesting locations in levels are blocked by invisible walls. When you do find a place of interest, it can house the game's sole collectible, a scroll that unlocks some form of concept art in the gallery section of the game.
Instead of the side-scrolling nature found in the more loved arcade games by Konami, 2003's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has 3D arenas and areas that provide different camera positions at various heights and angles that follow along with your turtle. Sometimes it can be to your detriment, however, as the camera can occasionally not keep up with the action or face you with a precarious angle or point of view.
In between some chapters, your turtle of choice enters Splinter's dojo, where they must complete a task to earn a reward. This can be an increase to their offensive or defensive abilities or it can be something as simple as learning how to jump and attack. Yes, you have to learn how to jump and attack in a beat-em-up. The otherwise baffling and impossible-to-know means to jump and then attack is locked behind completing one of Splinter's trials.
Playing solo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is quite the slog as you're fighting the same number of enemies in solo than you would in co-op, many that can overwhelm you in groups. However, things become a bit more enjoyable with a second player. Unfortunately and confusingly so, there is no option to play with four buddies. Only two turtles and players can play at a time. Nevertheless, two players make for a funner experience, though still full of button-mashing and little else.
 |
| Co-op makes a horrid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game much more digestible and dare I say, fun! |
The presentation for 2003's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles isn't too shabby. The cel-shaded style which was popular for the time looks great. Animations are moderately executed, but not all looks great as areas themselves are a bit drab in appearance. Clips from the show look great, though they make for a disjointed story that has little cohesion whatsoever. It's more of an episodic structure, and even then, it won't make much sense contextually to those who haven't seen the show. When not showing clips from the series, the characters just stand around in their 3D model glory with limited animation. Finally when it regards the audio, the voice actors do a nice job, but the music is mostly uninspired butt rock, something that is just background noise.
 |
| Shell Cell: The preferred way of keeping in touch with your fellow turtles. |
[SPC Says: D]
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Dan the Man (iOS, Android) Review
After today's earlier Kami 2 review, SuperPhillip Central continues to seek out interesting mobile releases with Halfbrick Studios' latest, Dan the Man. Is this game by the dev team behind Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride worthy of standing next to those great games?
From the makers of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick Studios, comes the team's latest title, a game based on a web series, Dan the Man. Without much context to the game, the story portrayed here is a bit confusing. Who the heck is this army of characters, what's up with the two dudes-- one bald and one with a hat, and just what in the world is going on? It says something then, that even without a cohesive story to its name that Dan the Man ends up being an enjoyable platformer/beat-em-up.
One thing I was worried about with a platformer with beat-em-up combat was the touch controls. Sometimes a game of this type can be let down by its touch-based inputs. Thankfully, this is not the case with Dan the Man. All it needs is its left and right movement inputs on the left side of the screen and its attacking, jumping, and special weapon buttons on the right side. However, if you want a more traditional experience, you can use an MFI controller for analog inputs, which was my preferred way of playing. Regardless, it's great that the standard touch controls work well, and that you have the option of playing with analog inputs if you so desire.
There are 16 levels in total in Dan the Man, and they are split up among four worlds, if you will. They are quite lengthy too, usually taking at least five minutes even when rushing through them, and up to ten minutes if you're playing more leisurely or exploring levels for secret areas. I would have enjoyed more bite-sized levels for convenience's sake, but there are ample checkpoints throughout. Still, many levels can feel long in the tooth, especially with all the "fight rooms" that impede your progress until you clear out the area of enemies. At the end of each level, your point total is accumulated based on how many enemies you defeated, secret areas found, damage you took, and how many objects you broke-- true to the style of the arcade games Dan the Man is inspired by.
The story mode won't take any more than a few hours to beat. The difficulty slowly increases as you play through the levels and worlds, introducing a steady amount of new, harder, more resilient enemy types, new obstacles and hazards to concern yourself with, and more challenging platforming bits to overcome. The game being but a few hours length-wise for a first play-through makes for an adventure that doesn't overstay its welcome. In fact, you might want even more after you've vanquished the impressive and enjoyable final boss.
That's where the two alternate modes of play come in for Dan the Man. One is an arena-style brawler that pits your character in a variety of battlegrounds, needing to take out all enemies in a set amount of time to get as high as score as possible. The other mode presents daily challenges to the player, where completing them nets some rather snazzy prizes in the form of coin bonuses.
Coins are a precious commodity in Dan the Man. They have a variety of uses to them, from upgrading each of the playable characters' fighting abilities in between levels to buying helpful inventory items from in-game shops that appear frequently throughout levels. These items include things like revitalizing potions that save your bacon when your health runs out or temporary weapons like shurikens, shotguns, and even explosive RPGs.
Outside of typical platforming in Dan the Man (which some can be a bit difficult as it can be hard to distinguish what you can and can't jump on occasionally), the combat reminds me a little of the Double Dragon series. There are kicks, punches (both from the ground and in midair) to unleash on foes, as well as holds and throws, performed by holding a direction while standing close to an enemy. It's a lot fun, frenetic action that is simple enough to be learned and perform with the controls, but mindless button mashing won't do you any favors. It's all about picking your shots and thinking ahead to avoid damage.
However, not all is perfect with Dan the Man, and there are two big issues I have gameplay-wise. For one, the knockback that Dan receives upon taking damage is insane. It has Dan rocketed backward, and this is only compounded by the second issue: there are no invincibility frames for Dan. That is to say that when you take damage, you can sort of be like a pinball, bouncing off hazardous objects and projectiles to quickly find yourself killed. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it's maddening. Enemies also get knocked back from punches, so both the player and enemies are on even ground there, but at the same time, enemies don't have to go the entire level.
Still, death isn't a major blow to the player. Through watching a video or playing 200 in-game coins, you can revive yourself from the last checkpoint you came across. Most checkpoint signposts where progress is saved let you pass by freely, but sometimes a 30-second ad plays. These can be removed entirely by paying the premium price of $2.99. This also results in statues bestowing you with rewards when you pass by them instead of needing to break them and watch their videos to get the same reward. Other in-app purchases consist of new playable characters and bundles of coins. None of these IAPs are required to enjoy Dan the Man.
With Dan the Man, Halfbrick Studios has successfully created another winner. With a fair ad and pricing model, satisfying gameplay in both its brawling and its platforming, beautiful art, and respectable level design, Dan the Man delights in many ways. Yes, some of the gameplay issues do detract from the experience, and levels can be a bit too lengthy, but overall, Dan the Man is a short but sweet adventure from beginning to end.
[SPC Says: B]
Dan, Dan. Dan the Man. If he can't do it, no one can!
From the makers of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick Studios, comes the team's latest title, a game based on a web series, Dan the Man. Without much context to the game, the story portrayed here is a bit confusing. Who the heck is this army of characters, what's up with the two dudes-- one bald and one with a hat, and just what in the world is going on? It says something then, that even without a cohesive story to its name that Dan the Man ends up being an enjoyable platformer/beat-em-up.
One thing I was worried about with a platformer with beat-em-up combat was the touch controls. Sometimes a game of this type can be let down by its touch-based inputs. Thankfully, this is not the case with Dan the Man. All it needs is its left and right movement inputs on the left side of the screen and its attacking, jumping, and special weapon buttons on the right side. However, if you want a more traditional experience, you can use an MFI controller for analog inputs, which was my preferred way of playing. Regardless, it's great that the standard touch controls work well, and that you have the option of playing with analog inputs if you so desire.
There are 16 levels in total in Dan the Man, and they are split up among four worlds, if you will. They are quite lengthy too, usually taking at least five minutes even when rushing through them, and up to ten minutes if you're playing more leisurely or exploring levels for secret areas. I would have enjoyed more bite-sized levels for convenience's sake, but there are ample checkpoints throughout. Still, many levels can feel long in the tooth, especially with all the "fight rooms" that impede your progress until you clear out the area of enemies. At the end of each level, your point total is accumulated based on how many enemies you defeated, secret areas found, damage you took, and how many objects you broke-- true to the style of the arcade games Dan the Man is inspired by.
The story mode won't take any more than a few hours to beat. The difficulty slowly increases as you play through the levels and worlds, introducing a steady amount of new, harder, more resilient enemy types, new obstacles and hazards to concern yourself with, and more challenging platforming bits to overcome. The game being but a few hours length-wise for a first play-through makes for an adventure that doesn't overstay its welcome. In fact, you might want even more after you've vanquished the impressive and enjoyable final boss.
That's where the two alternate modes of play come in for Dan the Man. One is an arena-style brawler that pits your character in a variety of battlegrounds, needing to take out all enemies in a set amount of time to get as high as score as possible. The other mode presents daily challenges to the player, where completing them nets some rather snazzy prizes in the form of coin bonuses.
Coins are a precious commodity in Dan the Man. They have a variety of uses to them, from upgrading each of the playable characters' fighting abilities in between levels to buying helpful inventory items from in-game shops that appear frequently throughout levels. These items include things like revitalizing potions that save your bacon when your health runs out or temporary weapons like shurikens, shotguns, and even explosive RPGs.
Outside of typical platforming in Dan the Man (which some can be a bit difficult as it can be hard to distinguish what you can and can't jump on occasionally), the combat reminds me a little of the Double Dragon series. There are kicks, punches (both from the ground and in midair) to unleash on foes, as well as holds and throws, performed by holding a direction while standing close to an enemy. It's a lot fun, frenetic action that is simple enough to be learned and perform with the controls, but mindless button mashing won't do you any favors. It's all about picking your shots and thinking ahead to avoid damage.
However, not all is perfect with Dan the Man, and there are two big issues I have gameplay-wise. For one, the knockback that Dan receives upon taking damage is insane. It has Dan rocketed backward, and this is only compounded by the second issue: there are no invincibility frames for Dan. That is to say that when you take damage, you can sort of be like a pinball, bouncing off hazardous objects and projectiles to quickly find yourself killed. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it's maddening. Enemies also get knocked back from punches, so both the player and enemies are on even ground there, but at the same time, enemies don't have to go the entire level.
Still, death isn't a major blow to the player. Through watching a video or playing 200 in-game coins, you can revive yourself from the last checkpoint you came across. Most checkpoint signposts where progress is saved let you pass by freely, but sometimes a 30-second ad plays. These can be removed entirely by paying the premium price of $2.99. This also results in statues bestowing you with rewards when you pass by them instead of needing to break them and watch their videos to get the same reward. Other in-app purchases consist of new playable characters and bundles of coins. None of these IAPs are required to enjoy Dan the Man.
With Dan the Man, Halfbrick Studios has successfully created another winner. With a fair ad and pricing model, satisfying gameplay in both its brawling and its platforming, beautiful art, and respectable level design, Dan the Man delights in many ways. Yes, some of the gameplay issues do detract from the experience, and levels can be a bit too lengthy, but overall, Dan the Man is a short but sweet adventure from beginning to end.
[SPC Says: B]
Kami 2 (iOS) Review
Two years ago I took a look at Kami, which released on the Nintendo 3DS as well as mobile platforms. Now it's 2017 and its sequel, Kami 2, has unfolded onto the App Store. With easily digestible puzzles and new features, Kami 2 is a definite improvement to the foundation built by the original game.
With puzzle games, developers can fall into the trap of not providing much in a sequel to distinguish itself from the original game. Kami 2 falls into such a trap gameplay-wise, but in the realm of content, the game brings enough newness to its sequel to make it a worthwhile download, especially at its free price.
As stated, Kami 2's gameplay remains unchanged from its predecessor. You get a screen-long series of differently colored shapes, and you essentially have to use your finger as a fill tool to paint the entire screen in one color in as few moves as possible. Tapping one segment of the screen will transform it in one color. Instead of paint filling the areas, the origami-inspired aesthetic results in the filled areas folding up like paper. Both the process visually and hearing the paper rustle as it folds are ultra satisfying to the senses.
If you succeed in completely a given puzzle at par (or the required amount of moves), you earn a Perfect Badge. Earning enough of these unlocks new batches of levels that are increasingly more challenging to solve.
Kami 2 feels a bit like an expansion pack of sorts. It's the same base game but with over 100 levels to solve, which have to be solved in a set order (in this case, by batches of six levels). The extra included content makes the game shine even brighter. From the aforementioned 100 levels in Journey mode, daily puzzles that appear for completion, and the ability to create as well as share your own Kami-style puzzles with the world (you unlock more color varieties by playing through Journey mode), the extra content available in Kami 2 makes for an appealing package.
So, what's the catch? Well, Kami 2 doesn't have one with regards to its pricing strategy. Being free, you might expect ads being shoved in your face, some sort of energy meter that restricts how many levels you can play for a specific period of time, and things of that sort, but Kami 2 has none of that. Yes, the daily puzzles and the create mode require an online connection, which isn't too baffling, but Journey mode can have its entirety be played offline. The only charge of money comes from when you want to buy a new batch of colors for the create mode or need a hint for a particular puzzle
That said, you might need hints, as Kami 2 can become mighty difficult. While beginning puzzles require just a few moves at most to complete, later levels force you to perform 10 or more moves. This brings up a problem with the game, and that is that on puzzles with an enormous amount of necessary moves, you will no doubt make a mistake or several. There is no option to undo a move or series of moves. Instead, you're forced to restart the puzzle from scratch. This is not only tedious and time-consuming, but it can make solving puzzles much harder to do, as it's troublesome to remember the order of the moves you made when you SO close to solving a given level.
Journey mode can sort of feel like you're going through the motions by the halfway point, and it can feel a bit repetitive. A sense of joy I found in Kami 2 came in the levels crafted by members of the Kami 2 community. New levels pop up routinely, offering an active community filled with creative creators. You can apply different filters to weed out the types of puzzles you don't want to play, and you can like specific puzzles to help curate what puzzles stand out to other players. Creating your own puzzles is an easy process. It just requires you to solve the puzzle you made yourself, complete with setting a par amount of moves based on how many moves it took for you to complete your puzzle.
Kami 2 is a consumer-friendly game that doesn't get in the way of players' fun and engagement with the title. Its 100+ puzzles in Journey mode provide a great deal of content if you can stomach to play them all, but some quality of life improvements could have been made to make for a less bothersome experience when attempting to solve particular puzzles. The daily puzzles and create modes offer even more longevity with its constant influx of creative levels by the community. You can't beat a free price tag, so the problems in which Kami 2 couldn't really spoil my fun as much as they could have.
[SPC Says: B-]
Into the Fold
With puzzle games, developers can fall into the trap of not providing much in a sequel to distinguish itself from the original game. Kami 2 falls into such a trap gameplay-wise, but in the realm of content, the game brings enough newness to its sequel to make it a worthwhile download, especially at its free price.
If you succeed in completely a given puzzle at par (or the required amount of moves), you earn a Perfect Badge. Earning enough of these unlocks new batches of levels that are increasingly more challenging to solve.
Kami 2 feels a bit like an expansion pack of sorts. It's the same base game but with over 100 levels to solve, which have to be solved in a set order (in this case, by batches of six levels). The extra included content makes the game shine even brighter. From the aforementioned 100 levels in Journey mode, daily puzzles that appear for completion, and the ability to create as well as share your own Kami-style puzzles with the world (you unlock more color varieties by playing through Journey mode), the extra content available in Kami 2 makes for an appealing package.
That said, you might need hints, as Kami 2 can become mighty difficult. While beginning puzzles require just a few moves at most to complete, later levels force you to perform 10 or more moves. This brings up a problem with the game, and that is that on puzzles with an enormous amount of necessary moves, you will no doubt make a mistake or several. There is no option to undo a move or series of moves. Instead, you're forced to restart the puzzle from scratch. This is not only tedious and time-consuming, but it can make solving puzzles much harder to do, as it's troublesome to remember the order of the moves you made when you SO close to solving a given level.
Kami 2 is a consumer-friendly game that doesn't get in the way of players' fun and engagement with the title. Its 100+ puzzles in Journey mode provide a great deal of content if you can stomach to play them all, but some quality of life improvements could have been made to make for a less bothersome experience when attempting to solve particular puzzles. The daily puzzles and create modes offer even more longevity with its constant influx of creative levels by the community. You can't beat a free price tag, so the problems in which Kami 2 couldn't really spoil my fun as much as they could have.
[SPC Says: B-]
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