Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC, 3DS, Vita) Review

Wednesday night at SuperPhillip Central sees us coming down with a curse! But thankfully for us, this is the good kind of curse, an excellent game from Koji Igarashi of Castlevania's Metroidvania entries, and Inti Creates of Mega Man Zero and Azure Striker Gunvolt fame. When these two creators collide, what we get is an excellent homage to Konami's classic franchise with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Here's my review.

What a wonderful night to have a curse

Koji Igarashi's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to his directed Castlevania games, successfully saw itself reach its funding goal on Kickstarter. One of the sub-goals for the game was an 8-bit prelude to Ritual of the Night that would play like the classic NES Castlevania games--whereas Ritual will be in the Metroidvania style. This game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, has since launched on all major platforms, and while it comes off a greatly more than just an homage, fans of retro gaming and old school difficulty alike will find something to love about it.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon finds the main character, Zangetsu, cursed by a demon. In a tried and true formula, he sets out to strike down the demon which bestowed the curse to him. Along the way, he quickly gathers three other comrades, each with different abilities to assist in getting through the game's eight levels.

It might not be the Vampire Killer, but Zangetsu still whips it, whips it good.

Zangetsu is the standard, all-around character with great attack strength and sizable enough health. Meanwhile, the other trio of characters each possess something unique to serve their uses. For instance, Miriam has a long whip that can easily cut through foes several spaces ahead of her. Her ability to perform a high jump means she can access areas that Zangetsu cannot. She also has a slide move to get through tight spaces. Then, there's the magician Alfred who is limited in his abilities due to low health and a lack of melee moves allowed to him, but his spells deal plenty of damage. Finally, there is Gebel, who might as well be Alucard. He slings bats at enemies to attack them, and can even turn into a furry, flying rodent himself to cross over gaps. Of the four characters, he's the only one who cannot gain access to or change special attacks.

Alucard--I mean--Gebel unleashes bats from inside his cape to take down enemies.

The levels of Curse of the Moon take place in all kinds of interesting places--from a rain-drenched ghost ship to a sand-showered pyramid. These are linear affairs, but the replay value is beefed up through the notion of alternate paths, which there are plenty of in each level. Most can only be accessed by one of the character's unique abilities, and some paths are harder or easier than others. Occasionally, having a certain character for a path is mandatory if you wish to reach areas otherwise inaccessible to the other characters, usually housing goodies in them like health, magic, or defense upgrade.

Without Miriam and her ability to slide, this magic upgrade would remain untouched.

Character management is important, too, as once a character loses all of their health, falls down a pit, or otherwise perishes, they're unavailable to you until the next level or when you lose every other character--whichever comes first. Thankfully, you can switch between characters on the fly with the shoulder buttons, so if one character is low on health, you can swap them out for another whose meter is better filled.

Each level concludes with an engaging and enjoyable boss battle that pits your team of demon-slayers against a powerful foe, where pattern-memorization, careful planning, adept dodging, and precise timing are all key to survive and escape with your life towards the next level. Most bosses employ some sort of desperation move after their health has emptied, using their last breath to try to take you out with them. While most of these attacks are thankfully not one-hit death deals, it can be a little unfair to not know what kind of health-deteriorating attack a boss is going to hit you with, sometimes resulting in you dying at the very conclusion of battle only because you couldn't have possibly foreseen what was coming. A small gripe, but a gripe all the same.

The first boss is one feisty furnace that Zangetsu is about to send to the repairman.

Curse of the Moon doesn't quite reach "NES Hard" levels like the classic Castlevania games, but it is challenging nevertheless. You can make the game as hard or as easy as you'd like by virtue of two main difficulties. There is Veteran, the standard difficulty that limits the amount of lives you start with (though you can find 1-Ups hidden in levels) and causes your character to get knocked back upon taking damage. Then, there is Casual, which is a much easier difficulty that gives you unlimited lives (though characters can still die and not be able to come back until you start the level over and complete it) and no knock-back from enemies and hazards whatsoever. I strayed towards Casual mode to give myself a more relaxing, less strenuous time, since my Castlevania-styled skills don't hold up like they did for me as a kid (nor as someone with much less time and patience), but even then, Curse of the Moon holds a pretty stiff challenge, nonetheless.

Even still, simply beating the game once won't give you the full story. There are multiple modes that unlock upon reaching the initial credits, such as one that follows directly after the events of first completing the story. Then, there's a mode where you can play through the game solely as Zangetsu, killing each character you'd normally team up with in the story to take their special power and attempt to beat the game that way. Other than that, there is also a Boss Rush mode which is one boss after another until the final showdown.

Whereas this particular boss is one gold rush away from a serious and total beat-down.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a satisfying appetizer to the upcoming main course that is Ritual of the Night, that succeeds in delivering a classic Castlevania game in all but name. Perhaps the game strays a little too closely to Konami's NES trilogy, but it's a wonderful, awesome homage all the same. Some might find the controls a little too unforgiving, with how the game forces you to dedicate yourself to your characters' jumps (i.e. no midair course correction), but for everyone else yearning for a retro-inspired Castlevania in new franchise clothing, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is the game for you. It's by no means cursed to mediocrity. In reality, it's far from it.

[SPC Says: A-]

Underrated Games With Even More Underrated Soundtracks - Part Seven

If you've been around SuperPhillip Central for a while now, you're probably well aware that I have a strange fixation on underrated/overlooked gems when it regards video games. Couple that with my love for video game soundtracks, and you have the impetus for why I came up with this series of articles, now at its seventh part. On this edition, we're taking a look and listen to games like ARMS, Sonic Forces, Everybody's Golf, and more!

To get (re)acquainted with past parts of "Underrated Games With Even More Underrated Soundtracks", then look no further than these delightful links:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

ARMS (NSW)

Our first underrated game and soundtrack for part seven of this recurring series of articles is ARMS,  a game that like a certain recent Nintendo game, also launched with the bare minimum of content. No doubt this caused many critics to slam this aspect of the game. Thankfully, a stream of steady content came ARMS players' way with new characters, stages, modes, and features to enjoy. This was on top of the already superb fighting-based gameplay. This wasn't your daddy's fighting game--that much was certain with ARMS' unique perspective, approach, and method of fighting. Many of the themes heard from the game play off the main theme of the game, and man, is it a great one! Now that ARMS is fully featured after all this time, maybe we can hope that a certain tennis game that launched this past Friday gets the same TLC given to it.

Grand Prix

Spring Stadium

Ribbon Ring

Buster Beach

Temple Ground

Fire Emblem Warriors (NSW, N3DS)

Releasing on both the Nintendo Switch and New Nintendo 2DS and 3DS (note the "New" in there--the game won't work on standard 2DS and 3DS systems!), Fire Emblem Warriors was maligned for various reasons, whether rightfully or not. From the character selection that leaned too heavily to modern Fire Emblem games, to the relatively basic maps and Dynasty Warriors-style combat that is deceptively not deep enough for some, Fire Emblem Warriors didn't brighten the day of some reviewers and Fire Emblem fans. As someone with a loose interest in the franchise, I happened to think Fire Emblem Warriors was a solid effort and ended up putting over 50 hours into the game. Though, quantity time with the game does not indicate quality, of course--just a lot of free time during the holidays. What really rocks about Fire Emblem Warriors is its inspired remixes from past games in the series. Even without knowledge of some of the games (due to missing out on them), I still loved every piece of music in this Musou edition of Fire Emblem.

Fire Emblem Theme

Prelude (Warm Blaze)

Conquest (Flames)

Road Taken (Roar)

Twilight of the Gods (Reprise)

Sonic Forces (Multi)

Sega's composers really know how to bring it--no matter the game. Heck, we've seen--er--heard that with even Sega's weakest efforts, and yes, some of those are, in fact, games featuring the company's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. That continues with Sonic Forces, a soundtrack that I originally didn't find much enjoyment to be found through the samples shared by the Sonic the Hedgehog social media account. Listening to the majority of the tunes during the course of gameplay eventually made me come around to the entire soundtrack. Well, almost the entire soundtrack, as I'm not the hugest fan of most of the faux-Genesis sound chip style Classic Sonic themes in the game. But the vocal themes for your avatar and the standard rock of the Modern Sonic levels? I certainly liked listening to them. Sonic Forces may be a quick game to beat, but it doesn't outlast its welcome. It also features enough longevity to keep players coming back for more for those who were entertained during their experience with the game.

Fist Bump

Moonlight Battlefield (Aqua Road)

This is Our World

Death Egg Robot [Phase 3]

The Light of Hope

Everybody's Golf (PS4)

From a super speedy game to a more relaxed, slower-paced one, we turn our attention to Everybody's Golf, the latest in the long-running series that debuted on the original PlayStation--though the series was known then as Hot Shots Golf in North America until this PlayStation 4 entry which unified the name worldwide. Everybody's Golf broke new ground in the series, featuring the ability to traverse freely around an interconnected course, split up between the front nine and the back nine. The soundtrack is so mellow and marvelous that I often found myself just standing still on a given course with my custom golfer just bobbing my head to the tunes as they played. If you've yet to check the latest installment of the Everybody's Golf series, you really should, especially with the game's budget price.

Main Theme (Clap Your Hands)

Home Area

Eagle City (Open Course 1)

Kanaloa Beach (Open Course 4)

Imperial Garden (Open Course 1)

Super Bomberman R (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC)

Bomberman, Bomberman! Does whatever a Bomberman can! His return last year with the Nintendo Switch launch title Super Bomberman R was quite the blast, and it has recently--as of this month--seen a release on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Each of these ports have their own exclusive character to play as in multiplayer, in addition to the bombers already in the game. The game was a bit of a mess on the Switch, but with consistent and invaluable patches and updates, Super Bomberman R is now a massively entertaining package on Nintendo's hybrid platform. You can thank us launch Switch owners for being the beta testers, PS4, Xbox One, and PC players! The actual game delivers all the bombastic and bomb-tastic thrills one would expect from traditional Bomberman games, and the music is catchy enough to make bombing runs all the more explosive.

Title Screen

World 1: Planet Technopolis

World 2: Planet Timbertree

The Five Dastardly Bombers

Battle

Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Wii U, 3DS)

Pairing up two former mascot rivals from the Nintendo vs. Sega golden years of classic gaming sounds like a dream come true put on paper, but interested parties didn't quite get what they wished for. Instead of a platformer or action game, Mario and Sonic took their rivalry to the Olympic Games way back in 2008, and almost every two years after, they continued this. Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games appropriately brings some inspired Mario and Sonic theme remakes, but what really wowed me were the bright, colorful, and jovial percussive and brass-featured original songs in the game. Rather than name a bunch of remixes that you've probably already heard before, here's some fantastic tracks from the game, both Rio-inspired and some just plain rockin'.

Main Theme

Maracanã

Football (With Crowd)

Rugby

Cycling

Octopath Traveler (NSW) "How Will You Forge Your Future?" Trailer

With Octopath Traveler's impending release next month, Nintendo of America has revealed its television advertisement for the game. Promised to be a 60+ hour epic RPG, Octopath Traveler is shaping up to be a modern classic. Which character's path will you try out first?

Mario Tennis Open (3DS) Review Redux

Mario Tennis Aces released on the 22nd, and rest assured, you can be certain that SuperPhillip Central will cover that game with an in-depth review. In the meantime, let's take out the Review Redux machine and churn out another second take on a past game I reviewed. This time around, I'll be looking at Mario Tennis Open for the Nintendo 3DS. Fitting, no? Not just because of Mario Tennis Aces, but also with Wimbledon coming up.

Mario just got served. ...But that's a good thing.

In my feverish anticipation for Mario Tennis Aces for the Nintendo Switch (since released this past Friday), I wanted to return to a previous Mario Tennis game that I had easy access to. Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 was a no-go since the system is in storage. The GameCube's Mario Tennis also suffered the same fate. I wasn't too interested in the more RPG aspects of the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance entries in the series, and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash on the Wii U? Hahaha--no.

Thus, the answer was obvious. Back when it originally released, Mario Tennis Open drew great ire from fans and critics alike. Sure, it wasn't roasted to tennis hell, but it didn't unleash a winning serve to most players. The reason for this was the Chance Shot gameplay system. As rivals rally the tennis ball across the court, occasionally colored circles appear where the ball is set to land. By pressing the appropriate button to let loose the appropriate shot type, the power and intensity of the shot would be amplified considerably. A red circle means to hit a shot with topspin for a powerful strike that can send your opponent stumbling backward. A blue circle means to hit a slice that can curve so much that it seriously defies the laws of physics. Purple is a strong flat shot, yellow is a lob, and white is a drop shot.

For instance, a white aura around the tennis ball indicates a Drop Shot
that sticks close to the front of the opponent's side of the court is incoming.

Now, while this can be considered a game of Simon Says--running from side to side of the court and rallying shots according to the color of each circle--you really won't get anywhere against tough, clever opponents, even the ultimate difficulty of the AI, Ace. There is a whole strategy and psychology to Mario Tennis Open. Do you forgo charging up a lob to perform a drop shot, or do you start to charge for a lob, charging up the yellow circle in the process, and hit a flat shot at the last second to completely throw off your opponent? There's more to Mario Tennis Open than a simple game of Simon Says. While that will work on beginners, it's not recommended against ace players.

Mario Tennis Open features a satisfying amount of single player modes, which offer a fair bit of variety to them. As with most Mario Tennis games, the main mode is Tournament Mode. This pits you against a series of three matches in a row in various tournaments in order to win trophies. The tournaments increase in difficulty (as well as how many sets you must win) as you go along, and there are both Singles and Doubles tournaments to participate in. Winning the fourth tournament with a given character unlocks their Star version, a more improved iteration of that character, complete with better stats. Thankfully, you need not play all four tournaments continuously to unlock a Star character. Merely unlocking the fourth through normal play will allow you to start from it, and once you win the championship, the character you're using will obtain their Star version. This is great, as otherwise there would be a ton of grinding to be done through the laughably easy starting tournaments against mind-numbing opponents.

Here's Luigi's ball in your eye! Wait. That came out wrong.

That said, grinding is there to be had, if you so desire. After each match you play offline, a new piece of gear becomes available for purchase in the Clubhouse shop. This gear equips to your Mii with a varied and wide selection of available goodies to randomly unlock after each match and purchase. These come in the form of tennis rackets, outfits, wristbands, and shoes. Each of the dozens of purchasable gear affect your Mii in various ways, altering shot speed, power, angles, character movement, and more.

Outfit your Mii and then take your custom avatar to the court.

I mentioned some grinding to be done. Well, this is where it comes in. In order to purchase gear from the Clubhouse shop, you need coins. Baffling enough, you can only coins through playing the four mini-games available in Mario Tennis Open, as well as StreetPass matches. The former features multiple level challenges ranging from rallying a ball through rings for points, to a really novel and cool mini-game where you hit a ball off a wall that displays a side-scrolling level a la the original Super Mario Bros. Your ball can hit blocks, enemies, items, coins, pipes and so forth to earn points and additional time to clear the level. It's by far my favorite mini-game ever seen in a Mario Tennis game. Meanwhile, the StreetPass battles earn you more coins as you get consecutive victories against AI-controlled Miis you've met through StreetPass. Considering the 3DS is very much winding down, it can be difficult to find another local player who has a 3DS and this game in their StreetPass log to exchange Miis with. Why one doesn't earn coins from winning regular matches in Exhibition, Tournament, or Online is just silly to me and a questionable design decision.

Ring Shot and Super Mario Tennis are half of the available mini-games in Mario Tennis Open.

Since I just mentioned it, online multiplayer is available in Mario Tennis Open, and it's fairly limited in what you can do. It's simple tie-breaker style matches against friends or random players. With the latter, winning or losing boosts or lowers your ranking. Winning also bestows you with a Victory Medal, which has no other uses than bragging rights and a way to unlock up to three Mario series-themed Mii costumes. Playing online can be quite vexing with a now-limited field of players available, meaning waiting for a match can take a while. Furthermore, if you aren't using your Mii or a Star character, you will pretty much be handing tougher opponents the match. Personally, I would have liked to see separate matchmaking for Mii and traditional Mario characters. Of course, the bare minimum was all that Nintendo and Camelot concerned themselves with.

Ooh! That shot is ice. Er... I meant "nice"! ...I'll see myself out now.

I talked about Mii costumes, and these are things that kept me coming back to Mario Tennis Open--well, that is, unlocking them. By completing in-game achievements like winning tournaments, earning a specific amount of Victory Medals, beating an Ace difficulty AI opponent, and so forth, you earn full costumes based on Mario characters and enemies alike. There are over 20 to unlock, and some of these take serious skill and/or patience to gain access to. Aside from Mii costumes, there are four unlockable character to reveal and play as--all unlocked by playing and beating the third level of each of the mini-games in Mario Tennis Open.

Mario Tennis Open is a better game than I gave it credit for when I originally reviewed it, and even then, I was pretty satisfied with Camelot's Nintendo 3DS effort. I think the court variety--from participating in an exciting rally atop a giant toadstool to a rumble in the jungle--is one of the Mario Tennis series's best, and the character roster is quite good, too. Perhaps offering an optional simple mode without Chance Shots would have made Mario Tennis Open a more palatable entry in the series for many, but as is, Mario's 3DS round of tennis serves up a stellar deal of fun.

[SPC Says: B]

INK (NSW) Review

INK is a game that's seen a release on other platforms in the latter half of last year. Now, it arrives on the Nintendo Switch with an exclusive 2-player mode. Will this game color you surprised with its quality in a positive way... or a negative one? SuperPhillip Central's INK review seeks to answer that for you.

Not ink-credible, but not ink-croaching into bad territory either.

INK is an interesting 2D platformer that has your vessel, a square of paint, moving through levels to reach the goal. What differentiates INK from being just another 2D platformer is the paint mechanic that is the central focus of the game. Starting off in a level, the actual platforms and geometry inside is completely camouflaged in darkness. In order to find a path through, you need to squirt multicolored ink throughout the level, getting it on the platforms' surfaces to make out where you need to jump, scale walls, among other platforming activities.

Nothing's mattering when you're smattering of splattering goes on.

The first handful of levels of INK's 75 individual challenges greets players with a tutorial of sorts, showcasing the objective of levels and what your block of ink can do--whether it's a simple jump, a double jump that squishes out ink to surrounding areas, leaping up and sliding down walls, and reaching each level's conclusion.

After the initial five or so levels have seen completion, you get right into the thick of things. Some levels are as simple as venturing through the dark, inking up walls, floors and ceilings in order to get an idea on where platforms are and where bottomless pits and other hazards, such as spikes, hide. Then, it's just a matter of getting the goal. Other levels require you to defeat every single enemy in the level with a simple jump on their blocky heads, something made a little more challenging than it needs to be due to INK possessing a playable character that has slippery and floaty movement. Add this with some spotty hit detection, and you have a sometimes frustrating go of it at times.

Thankfully, levels are short, and these can be beaten usually in less than 30 seconds. In addition to that, when you die (and you WILL die... A LOT), all of your ink splatter remains visible, so you need not repaint areas of level all over again when you retry a level after failing it. Only when you back out into the main menu will levels return to their original state. That said, enemies always return after you die. After all, the developer definitely needed to keep the game at a high enough range of difficulty, right? Death is a reoccurring theme in INK, as there are several "gotcha" moments to be found in the game. Elements like platforms that swiftly rise or fall after the enemy on top of them is defeated, invisible spikes that only appear after you ink them (whether it's from manually doing so or automatically when you are blown apart upon touching them), and just ever so as much as grazing the boundaries of a given level will all lead you to an unplanned and quick meeting with death.

The 75 levels get quite arduous to complete in the latter half of the game, complete with the need to collect keys to unlock sections of level, sentries that shoot out homing shots that can be a challenge to avoid, myriad spikes, multiple bottomless pits, small platforms to precarious leap on and off from, and three boss fights that split up the traditional levels quite nicely, adding a different type of platforming into INK's colorful mix.

At three different points during INK, a different boss inserts itself into the action.
Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Not knowing where most level elements are in the game results in a lot of trial and error. You'll slowly but steadily make progress each time you die, but each death will usually yield another result: a frustrated sigh because you couldn't have possibly known there was a bed of spikes right above your block's head, especially when you've already died ten times and were basically at the very end of the level. Now, you have to do it all over again, but once again, at least you keep all that ink splashed all over the environment to more easily see your way through the level.

INK doesn't have too much replay value to speak of. There are 20 hidden objects within the 75 levels, but the game gives no indication from what I've seen regarding which levels house collectibles and which don't, which makes searching for all 20 more of a hassle than fun. If you do wish to add to your play time, you can always attempt to find these collectibles--just remember that you have to collect them AND reach the goal in one life. A shared JoyCon mode with two players is also available in INK, and that can get quite hectic. Enjoyable, but quite hectic. Other than that, you can attempt speed runs through levels, record your runs via the Nintendo Switch's Capture button, and share them online through either Twitter or Facebook.

There are 20 collectible coins to find in 20 of the 75 levels of INK.
These require some discovery and lots of skill to collect and make it out of the level in one piece.

After the dust has settled and the ink has all but dried up, INK is an entertaining little time-waster, but it's not much more than that. Its vivid visuals and chill soundtrack make for nice ambiance to run and jump to, but the actual running and jumping is marred by slippery handling and floaty jumping, on top of some occasionally poor hit detection. While it may sound like an awful combination, INK is actually worth checking out, especially at its relatively low price. INK won't make a big splash with most players, but it will have you enjoying yourself for longer than you might th-INK.

...

...

(Sorry.)

[SPC Says: C+]

Review code provided by Digerati.