Best Levels in Gaming History - Volume 23

It's been over four years since we've last seen this special series of posts, so why don't we gently ease it back out of hibernation and its hiatus with an all-new entry? Best Levels in Gaming History certainly is a subjective list that holds some of the most enjoyable, entertaining, and exhilarating video game levels, areas, racetracks, and missions for me within gaming's illustrious history.

We've built quite the collection together of levels, and no doubt you may require a refresher or maybe you would like to fondly stroll down memory lane. Fortunately, you can easily do both with these following 22 (wow!) volumes:

Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Volume Seven
Volume Eight
Volume Nine
Volume Ten
Volume Eleven
Volume Twelve
Volume Thirteen
Volume Fourteen
Volume Fifteen
Volume Sixteen
Volume Seventeen
Volume Eighteen
Volume Nineteen
Volume Twenty
Volume Twenty-One
Volume Twenty-Two

Now, let's begin Volume 23 of Best Levels in Gaming History!

Downsize Surprise - Astro Bot (PS5)

Let's begin with something big... or small... or both, really! Astro Bot was without question my favorite game of the ones I played in 2024, and it reminded me so much of Super Mario Galaxy in how the game constantly brought new, fresh mechanics and ideas into each level it presented players. Much like with Galaxy, it took lots of willpower to stop myself from playing marathon sessions in Astro Bot, as I wanted to play "just one more level" to see what wild and wacky concept Team Asobi would showcase for the next level.

So, we've settled on the fact that for me, Astro Bot is oozing with creativity in its levels, but what is one of the levels that best presents this? Well, me listing the level name above and spoiling that answer notwithstanding, one of the most impressive levels within Astro Bot's story comes within the second major cluster of levels.

Downsize Surprise is unassuming enough at first. Nothing really stands out apart from the massive building in front of Astro. It's only until our hero slams open a block of cheese that he finds himself seemingly stuck within a cage! Curses--a trap! However, a chest inside said cage reveals the solution and the main, crafty mechanic of this stage. Forming mouse ears from the special item in the chest, players can shift into tiny mouse size to pass through the bars of the cage. What is revealed, then, is that players are able to switch between small Astro and regular-size Astro at will. 

This, as you can imagine, opens up incredibly clever level mechanics and creates situations where Astro must switch sizes to pass certain platforming obstacles and challenges. A door to small for regular-sized Astro? Switch to teeny, tiny Astro! If it's a matter of not being able to reach a platform as small Astro, switch to his bigger self! 

The fact that all of this is done seamlessly without any discernible loading is just awe-inducing. How the level is built to take advantage of this mechanic and how said mechanic wouldn't really be possible without major sacrifices on lesser hardware than the PlayStation 5, really makes for an incredibly impressive technical feat of a level. And heck, it's also--like so many other levels in Astro Bot--just a dang pleasure to play through in general!

Piranha Plants on Parade - Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NSW)

I brought up Mario earlier, but rather than speak of the 3D games, we're delving into the most recent 2D entry of Mario, and the one that brought back some much-needed freshness to the franchise. Well, at least that of the 2D Mario games. 

The "Wonder" in Super Mario Bros. Wonder refers to each and almost every level possessing a Wonder Flower that turns the level into quite a trip. Some levels result in an abrupt freefall, another turns Mario and our playable cast of characters into different enemy types, while another transforms pipes from being stagnant and resting to ones that bend and inch along the ground as if they're doing "the worm"!

However, at least early in the game, nothing comes close to the sudden surprise of the second level's Wonder Flower transformation. Piranha Plants on Parade is the name, and it sort of tricks you into thinking with the first Piranha Plant that you see in the level, that that is the stage's gimmick. This Piranha Plant doesn't stay stationary in its pipe. Instead, it pops out and marches along. 

Of course, this isn't actually what the level name references. Upon touching the required Wonder Flower soon after, the real fun begins. Piranha Plants from their various colored combo of pipes pop out and begin singing. Some march, some just peek out to say hello, but they all do so in rhythm to the new song that plays. It's almost a fever dream--seeing this sort of ode to Little Shop of Horrors in the Flower Kingdom happen. All the same, it's a darn enjoyable fever dream!

This transformation sets the scene for Super Mario Bros. Wonder's campaign and essentially tells players, "expect the unexpected" for the rest of the adventure. While future levels and their Wonder effects may surpass the craziness and awesomeness of Piranha Plants on Parade's effect, it's this very level that sets the expectations--or lack thereof--for the entirety of the game, being quite memorable and a fantastic early highlight of Wonder in the process.

Kingdom Valley Act 1 - Sonic X Shadow Generations (Multi)

This next level comes from a recent release from last year: Sonic X Shadow Generations, chiefly the entirely brand-new Shadow Generations portion of the game. Like Sonic Generations, Shadow's half of the game sees the brooding hedgehog play through various levels, old haunts, and highlights from his gaming career. There's the Space Colony Ark from Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes' Rail Canyon, and yes, even a stage from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)--that of Kingdom Valley.

To say 2006's Sonic game was rough around the edges (ow, the edge) would be an understatement and underserving just how much of a radical trainwreck the game was. That said, Shadow Generations takes Sonic 2006's stage representative and much like every other past stage it references in the game, it improves upon it in pretty much every way.

Kingdom Valley (specifically Act 1, which stands as my favorite of the two acts in Shadow Generations) takes much of its references from the original Sonic '06 level, including the eagle that Shadow can cling onto to take him to higher areas, smashing his way through pane glass windows of castle towers, speeding through the water whirlwind tunnel where Sonic's Mach speed section from the 2006 game took place, and also adds new touches, too. One of these is introducing a new Doom Power to Shadow, that of Doom Surf, allowing Shadow to automatically bust out a surfboard made of Doom energy to coast along watery channels and corridors within the level. 

It says a lot about a game with mostly stellar designed stages that one could easily pick any of them to represent Shadow Generations, but for me, my highlight for Shadow the Hedgehog's half of Sonic X Shadow Generations no doubt had to be Kingdom Valley. Proof that you can polish what I considered in 2006 to be a turd into something truly magnificent when enough TLC has been put into it.

The Raging Sea - Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Multi)

From riding the waves as Shadow the Hedgehog to walking the waves as the Prince, the Raging Sea is one of the most impressive areas within Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown's amazing Metroidvania world. The concept of the area is that it's completely frozen in time, so the Prince can literally run along the top of the water itself. Within the sea is a series of ships, a fleet, frozen solid, where the Prince can enter into the various vessels and explore. Lightning strikes, too, are forever documented as snapshots of the weather phenomenon, but also quite painful to the touch and resulted in frozen fires burning as well.

While the area itself is rather flat, the map reveals itself as essentially one straight horizontal line from left to right, there is a fair amount of variety to be found. The aforementioned ship fleet lends itself to having plenty of places to perform proficient platforming, enemy types are numerous, and secrets abound indeed. The boss fight that takes place at the far right edge of the map also brings the heat and is quite challenging for unprepared players. Hell, even seasoned action-platforming vets may find themselves having to redo this fight multiple times.

All in all, it's not every day that an area or zone from the Metroidvania genre delights and delivers in concept and execution. Nowadays, the genre is a dime a dozen seemingly, but Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown made its case for one of the top titles in the genre last year--and just one of the best games of 2024 as well.

A Trip to Alivel Mall - Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NSW)

Let's shift away from dark, stormy, and brooding with something more cute and cuddly to wrap up this volume of Best Levels in Gaming History. Kirby and the Forgotten Land brought the long-running Nintendo / HAL Laboratory franchise into full 3D, and the experiment was an absolute success. 

One of the early levels of the game remains one of my favorites within the entire campaign--that being A Trip to Alivel Mall. Kirby and Forgotten Land, as the name implies, features Kirby running and jumping through a dilapidated land, once bustling and teeming with life. It's decidedly reminiscent of a world humans left behind, and this concept is no clearer early on in the game than Alivel Mall.

With a quaint and cozy theme, Kirby runs up escalators, enters the food court, and passes by abandoned, shuttered stores in this once-thriving and happening location. Though, it's far from lacking occupants inside, of course, as enemies and caged-up Waddle Dees have taken up residence--the latter against their will. 

It's a setting that we don't see too much in games--that of a mall, sure, but also one that's been virtually abandoned and allowed itself to be eroded by the sands of time. Between solving puzzles on which hall to enter based off of cleverly-hidden signs as hints, and battling the pink puffball's way through the bright and bouncy level, A Trip to Alivel Mall is a standout early stage within Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

BAKERU (NSW, PC) Review

This Sunday evening review closes this weekend out on a positive note. We do love a positive review here, don't we? That said, I shouldn't say any more, as I don't want to entirely spoil why BAKERU is such a good game! Instead, I'll let the actual SuperPhillip Central review do that!

Drumming up some big time fun

Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!! is developer Good-Feel's latest independent game project. For those who might not be familiar with the developer, Good-Feel is best known for its work with Nintendo as a development partner, working on such games as Kirby's Epic Yarn, Wario Land: Shake It!, Yoshi's Woolly World, and most recently, Princess Peach: Showtime!

While those aforementioned games used Nintendo's help and support to make and publish them, Mameda no Bakeru was a self-published game at least in Japan, which begged the question if anyone would pick up the proverbial slack to publish it outside of the Land of the Rising Sun. For someone like myself who loves platformers and feels the gaming world needs more of the 3D variety at any point in time, I eagerly anticipated any news towards a proper localization.

Well, needless to say, the game finally was brought over to the West in due time (specifically, almost a year wait) and in North America by none other than Spike Chunsoft. Now simply titled BAKERU in the West, the game saw its release last year and most recently, a physical Nintendo Switch version two months ago. Was the wait of myself and others (there were more than dozens of us, I'm sure!) really worth it?

A little girl from the Issun Clan named Sun stumbles upon a tanuki boy named Bakeru while being chased by the evil Oracle Saitaro's troops. After being saved by Bakeru, Sun relays information about the Oracle, expressing that Saitaro's scheme of turning all of Japan into a giant dance party is underway. In order to stop this, Sun suggests that together, her and Bakeru should head to and get the aid from various legendary Japanese heroes to thwart Oracle Saitaro's master plan. What follows is a charming, cute, and crazy (in the best ways) adventure that takes Bakeru and Sun all across and over fairytale Japan.

Oracle Saitaro's troops are all over Japan causing a ruckus,
so it's up to Bakeru and Sun to crash their party!

BAKERU is a 3D platformer with lots of heart and lots of drumming, too. Bakeru's main form of attacking is with his two taiko drumsticks, one in his left hand and one in his right, using the left and right bumpers respectively. Both can be used together or alternated to strike enemies or one or both bumpers can be held down to unleash more powerful attacks. The drumsticks aren't just for warding off and beating down foes, either. They're used for drumming on gears and other mechanisms to spin platforms, open doors, and much more. 

Here, Bakeru strikes these gears with his drumsticks in order to move this green platform along its attached rail.

Early on in his journey, Bakeru learns various Henge powers, four to be exact across the adventure. Each one possesses unique abilities and has contextual uses for when they're best used. One allows Bakeru to shrink to fun-size, Sun's size, entering into small alcoves, doors, and passageways that he otherwise wouldn't be able to fit into. Another is an absolute powerhouse of a Henge ability, offering immense strength in exchange for the Henge meter depleting at a super swift pace. The final two Henge powers grant fishing lines that can rapidly attacks foes with light strikes from faraway, while the other allows Bakeru to skate around while firing off pellets from a pair of guns. Switching between forms is as simple as holding down the shoulder button and selecting from the menu with the corresponding face button for the Henge power you want. Returning to normal Bakeru form is easy peasy--a tap of both shoulder buttons at once.

In this Henge form, Bakeru wants his enemies to talk to his hands, because the drum does not understand!

One of the most impressive aspects to me of BAKERU is that the game is constantly throwing new gameplay ideas and mechanics at the player, all the while spreading itself across over 60 levels. There is of course your standard 3D action-platforming where Bakeru runs, jumps, and drums through areas, beating down enemies, evading obstacles, and exploring the relatively lengthy levels for collectibles. More on those in a little bit. However, there are also races, literal dogfights in the air (if only because your vessel is a block-shaped pupper of a dog), and even giant mecha robot boss battles, apart from the typical on-foot-as-Bakeru boss fights. 

These epic mecha robot battles play out similarly to boxing matches--complete with knockout counts!

Each level contains eight collectibles players can opt to find, and these are rather rewarding. Not just because they encourage exploration and are sometimes in some truly tricky spots, but also because they provide information and trivia to the player. Five of these collectibles are Scoop's trivia. Scoop is character, also a member of the Issun clan that when found in levels, provides interesting trivia and imparts his knowledge onto the player. From learning aspects of Japanese geography and culture, to learning the difference between "clouds and fog" or better yet, where farts go (yes, really), Scoop is fountain of fun information. Other than the five "scoops" from Scoop in each level, there are three Souvenirs based on the areas and prefectures of Japan that each level in BAKERU are based off.

Don't worry, Bakeru. That's no piece of poop--that's none other than Scoop!

The platforming stages within BAKERU have a wide amount of variety all in themselves. There are verdant forests, bright beaches, lush gardens, bustling cities, chaotic construction sites, tall mountains, fiery volcanoes, snowy slopes, underwater amusement parks, gigantic bridges, traditional Japanese temples, and so much more within the game to discover and platform through. 

The amount of enemies in BAKERU is impressive, as well, offering lots of unique foes to take on, some requiring skillful dodging, evading, or better yet, timing in order to parry their attacks to leave them wide open to an offensive onslaught of Bakeru's own. No doubt a skill check early on within the game are the enemies dressed in armor and wielding kendo sticks. Trying to take them on as Bakeru with but simple drumstick strikes is a fool's errand. They'll simply block each and every attempt to attack them. And then there's when their eyes light up bright red, ready to make their move, dash forth, and strike Bakeru. These enemies gave me quite a bit of trouble starting off in the game when they were introduced, but as Bakeru learns additional Henge powers, they go down with relative ease as more and more tools and tricks are learned.

Bakeru hasn't exactly gone fishin', but he does "cast" some lines of pain onto these projectile-firing foes!

One of these tools is that of helpful items from the tanuki shopkeeper Uriko, who frequents levels at checkpoints throughout the game. For an amount of gold found readily throughout levels, not only does she sell food that can instantly heal Bakeru when needed, but passive, temporary buffs like increased speed or attack, as well as items that can be saved for a rainy day (or in BAKERU's case, a difficult boss or challenging level) like an item that instantly replenishes Bakeru's Henge energy, or even a shield that guards against any and all attacks for 30 seconds. There are also premium items like crackers in the shape of hearts that permanently boost Bakeru's maximum health. Truly helpful in the long term.

While BAKERU is by no means the most arduous adventure around, it does have some challenging points to it, whether when Bakeru faces more-fiendish boss battles, trickier platforming trials, or even searching for hidden Tanuki disguised as objects in some stages, where only feint occasional movement or a tanuki stamp reveals their locations. That said, it's overall a relatively breezy experience if you're a seasoned gamer, but at the same time, BAKERU as a game is not something you can simply sleepwalk through and expect to easily complete it. Finding all 200+ Scoops, all 150+ Souvenirs, all 20-something hidden Tanuki, and securing all the game's achievements will certainly take some effort. For me, this process to 100% the game took about 20 hours.

In most sections of BAKERU, you'll have fully free 360 degree
camera movement available to you. ...Not exactly here, though.

BAKERU is a gorgeous game, and depending on the platform you play it on, it will be more or less a technically sound experience. While the lesser-powered Nintendo Switch does sometimes simply struggle to hold a steady framerate--this is most apparent in the hot springs level--it does an admirable job of running well. The Steam version is understandably more capable and consistent in performance, seldom showing signs of FPS drops. Both versions I did not encounter much in the way of bugs nor glitches, which really impressed me, as when a game has over 60 levels, I would think something would have to give somewhere. This is thankfully not the case with BAKERU. The game features voice acting, though this is Japanese-only, which works for the game since it's set in Japan and stays authentic. 

Time for some construction destruction, courtesy of Bakeru!

If you're looking for another charming and well-designed game from Good-Feel, well, you certainly have one with BAKERU. The developer once again shows with BAKERU that it doesn't necessarily need Nintendo's supervision in order to create a fantastic game. That's not to discredit either Good-Feel or Nintendo here, of course, as together, they do create some awesome gaming experiences. Between BAKERU's colorful and engaging levels to explore--each based off a Japanese prefecture--a multitude of secrets housed within these said levels, an astonishing amount of gameplay variety, entertaining boss battles, cute and charming humor, and gorgeous graphics, BAKERU marches to the beat of its own drum and is a great, original game for doing so.

[SPC Says: A-]

Star Wars: Demolition (PS1, DC) Retro Review

With several Star Wars-related announcements happening this past week, I decided to finally dive in to my backlog and try out a Star Wars game of a unique type, to say the least--a vehicular combat game in the vein of Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8. It's Star Wars: Demolition, and here is the SuperPhillip Central retro review!

Car Wars

Much like the Star Wars movies and television projects have varying levels of success and quality to them, the games, too, also delve into various degrees of success and quality, too, all within the galaxy far, far away. And much like any long-standing, running franchise, Star Wars as a series dabbled and continues to dabble in a wide range of game genres and types. It's especially interesting when the games go out of the norm of what you'd expect from the Star Wars franchise. 

Take Star Wars: Demolition, for example. The game was developed by the team behind the Vigilante 8 series of car combat/destruction games, and much like that series, Demolition features the same gameplay style. It's essentially a Star Wars take on Twisted Metal, which was pretty popular on PlayStation back in the day, and has since seen a resurgence in interest due to the Peacock "Twisted Metal" show.

Battles in Star Wars: Demolition are mighty intense at times!

The gist of Star Wars: Demolition is that Jabba the Hutt has created a twisted game of sorts where various outlaws and characters throughout the galaxy see themselves thrust into vehicular combat in one of eight arenas across the galaxy. There's Tattooine's Mos Eisley, as well as another level on the planet featuring the infamous Sarlacc Pit from Return of the Jedi. You can even throw other competitors into said pit with some spirited maneuvering. There's the icy planet Hoth, the swampy marshes of Dagobah, the multilevel Cloud City, and the capital city of Naboo. The original trilogy and the then-recent prequel movie are well represented here. 

Hoth features mostly wide open, icy expanses with turrets, AT-ATs, and snowy slopes to take cover behind.

Arenas in general are relatively open. There are plenty of places to move around, though I did notice moments where I felt I got stuck unfairly on the scenery, making myself quite vulnerable to attacks from that result. They feature opportune locations for staging intense fights, spots where you can teleport in between to get out of a dangerous jam in a jiffy, and methods to duck around cover to avoid attacks.

There are nearly a dozen characters to choose from in Star Wars: Demolition, each possessing their own vehicle with their own stats in three categories: armor, speed, and charged attack power. From Wade Vox and his Landspeeder, General Otto and his AT-ST, and even Boba Fett in tiny jetpack form, each character feels different and contains unique abilities and weaponry.

Each character's vehicle has two attack types: there's a weapon that is exclusive to them and one that is loaded onto their vehicle. The former is used with R2 while the latter type is utilized with L2. For instance, Aurra Sing uses a sniper rifle with virtually unlimited range from her Custom Swoop to shoot foes from afar. This bullet can also bounce between baddies. Whereas the Wookie Quagga's Episode I Battle Tank, the AAT's Tank Cannon is a massive blast that will assist in bringing down even the biggest of opponents. Meanwhile, some character/vehicle-exclusive weapons like Tia and Ghia's Snowspeeder-exclusive tow cable really have limited utility. It's great for tethering opponents and dragging them around, perhaps even into Tattooine Dunes' Sarlacc Pit, but beyond that, it's quite useless, really. 

That giant blast will give this Wookie's opponent a major Naboo-boo!

Within skirmishes themselves, players have three colored meters to keep an eye on. There's the red weapon energy gauge, which depletes with each shot, whether with primary or secondary weapon use, that when fully depleted means that that vehicle cannot use their weapons. Either going to a red zone on the map where weapon energy can be replenished, picking up a red weapon from a destroyed roaming droid on the map, or biding one's time to have it sloooooooowly fill back up is what will refill it. There's also a blue (shields) energy gauge and once a vehicle's shields are totally gone, they'll have to worry about their green gauge, which is their health. Once the latter is depleted fully, it's demolition time.

Holding down the L2 (for picked-up weapon types like concussion missiles, proton torpedoes, and thermal detonators, for instance) or the R2 (for a vehicle's primary weapon) will charge a given weapon to bring a bigger bang to an opponent if that attacks hits. Still, even charging your weapons will deplete your red weapons energy in a faster fashion. Fully holding down the R2 trigger to four complete levels of energy is how you use that character and vehicle combo's exclusive weapon. Combining the L2 and R2 triggers together and successfully striking an opponent is also how you get Force Hits, which are important for gaining credits in the Tournament and High Stakes modes--more on those modes shortly--and also how you can provide a super-impressive (and demoralizing for the player on the receiving end) fatal blow to a demolished vehicle.

The vehicle types each feel and look unique. What else can you say when your opponent is riding a Rancor!

Outside of setting up battles, Star Wars: Demolition features a relatively small range of modes. The main one which is where solo players will spend the most time in to unlock characters in is Tournament mode. This is a set of four battles in four different planets, the order and opponents depends on the character chosen. It pits you against one other opponent to begin, then the next battle includes an additional opponent, until the final, fourth battle where the maximum amount of competitors await. 

Through personally destroying and demolishing opponents, defeating them with final blows, and getting a high Force Hit multiplier, you'll get awarded with more credits. Credits are important because not only can you spend them when you're in red and blue zones in maps to replenish weapon energy and shields respectively, but if you earn 10,000 or more credits by a single Tournament run's conclusion with a specific character, you'll be one step one closer to unlocking new characters/vehicles to play as, including the ultimate unlockable: the villainous Darth Maul from Episode I, whose awesome special weapon pulls out his trademark double-edged red lightsaber to deliver damage to other opponents in an up, close, and personal manner.

Darth Maul takes to the desert with his double-edged lightsaber!

Other modes in Star Wars: Demolition include High Stakes, where you bet credits for your victory. Losing means you walk away from whatever your bet was, but winning, especially against a tougher CPU player, means you are rewarded with a copious amount of credits for your victory. There is also a Droid-destroying mode separate from every other mode, where the goal is to hunt down roving Droids by either ramming into them or shooting them from afar and getting a high score within a three-minute time period. 

Star Wars: Demolition plays well enough, though its visuals are severely limited by draw distance from the PS1 with textures not really rendering until you get close enough to the environment. This is especially noticeable in the Naboo arena where steps simply look like ramps from far away, and only start resembling steps when you're practically on top of them. Vehicles look great, however, and the level of destruction that is on display as they deteriorate from damage is really impressive for a game from 2000 and on the PS1, too. Sound-wise, the music is appropriately action-packed and the character voice acting with the spoken one-liners in and out of battle are well done, also. The animated rendered cutscenes that play as rewards for either winning or losing Tournament mode are a nice little prize and little time capsule of the era.

What's Yavin IV? Why, it's for vehicular combat nowadays! (Thank you, I'll be here all week.)

If you're looking for a competent and capable Twisted Metal clone that takes place in a galaxy far, far away, you could do much worse than Star Wars: Demolition. For instance, you could play absolutely nothing, as that's pretty much you're only alternative as this was the only Twisted Metal-style Star Wars game that I know of! You'd be worse off, I'd argue, because Demolition is rather good. It won't take you that long to see every piece of content, play every mode, battle in every arena, unlock every character, and such (so a full-priced purchase back in the day would have been gut-wrenching for me), but the ride there is indeed enjoyable. With it being a cheap purchase and accessible via PlayStation 5 and 4 as part of PlayStation's Classics line, there's no real adverse risk in trying this game out. You'll most certainly like it, especially if you have either a fondness for Star Wars, a love for Twisted Metal, or a combo of both. Just mind the corners and don't get demolished yourself!

[SPC Says: C+]

Goof Troop (SNES) Retro Review

While not the first review I had in mind for my return at SuperPhillip Central for 2025, Goof Troop ended up being an enjoyable romp once I finally knocked it out of my backlog. Let's quantify just how MUCH of an enjoyable romp it was with my retro review of the Super Nintendo's Goof Troop.

"A Goofy Game"

This past week saw the 30th anniversary of "A Goofy Movie", so I opted to dive back into the past and play a game sitting in my Super Nintendo backlog for decades now: Goof Troop. Interestingly enough, Goof Trip on the SNES was one of Shinji Mikami's (of Resident Evil fame, and many other Capcom classics) first projects. While it's a short experience, either alone or with a co-op buddy, Goof Troop is also quite a sweet one, too. Let's dig in because good GWARSH, is this game worth looking at!

Goof Troop's story is simple, and like the adventure itself, short and sweet. Spending a lovely afternoon fishing off the coast of Spoonerville, Goofy and his son Max spot a pirate ship of all things sailing towards them. Upon closer inspection, Goofy and Max spot their neighbors Pete and his son PJ aboard the ship. It's a regular pirate kidnapping! (Well, as regular as that is in Spoonerville, at least!) Goofy and Max hightail it into a small boat and paddle for all they're worth to catch up, but it's for naught. They arrive at an island where the pirate ship has docked, and now the search for their fellow neighbors and friends is underway!

Once the simple slideshow series of scenes with text is finished, the game proper begins and it wastes no time getting you into the action. I was immediately reminded of a cross between Nintendo's fabled The Legend of Zelda series and the oft-overlooked Shigeru Miyamoto Game Boy masterpiece Mole Mania of all games in what Goof Troop was reminiscent of gameplay-wise. You move in between different screen-wide rooms in a top-down perspective, defeating enemies in indirect ways, solving puzzles, collecting keys, and making your way to the boss of each of the game's five levels.

Everything in Goof Troop is better with a buddy, but solo play is enjoyable too!

Goof Troop features indirect combat, with Goofy and Max picking up objects like planters, vases, and barrels, for instance, and using those to chuck at foes to defeat them. Alternately, blocks can be kicked, sliding across the ground to slam into unsuspecting enemies in their path. This is also used for various block-sliding puzzles, too, which are a nice reprieve from the action.

There's no water in sight, but this particular pirate just walked the figurative plank anyway!

Of course, aiming is important when chucking objects, and evading foes' advances is paramount, too, as either protagonist only has a set amount of health in the form of hearts and lives to utilize. However, copious amounts of fruit not only add hearts to their overall health, but if you get over six hearts, your character earns an extra life. Pink diamonds flat out bestow an extra life, whereas rare white gems reward Goofy and Max with an extra continue, if all their lives get spent. 

One aspect of Goof Troop's health and lives system that I liked and disliked was rationing hearts. What I mean by this is that as stated, getting more than six hearts on health from picking up fruit means, yes, you do get an extra life, but your health goes back to zero hearts. Meaning that if you take damage afterwards, you immediately lose that life you just earned. This is fine while exploring levels, but in practice with bosses, dying means you come back with zero hearts, which means you're a one-hit wonder and death comes quickly, making it quite easy to fly through lives while battling bosses. 

Regardless, those aforementioned white diamonds handing out continues and a password system where you input five objects (diamonds, bananas, cherries, etc.) to return back to the stage you last left off at makes for a lack of headaches entirely. Plus, as mentioned previously, the game isn't a lengthy endeavor whatsoever--offering five stages that will take most players less than two hours to run through.

This room requires Goofy and Max to press down all four buttons in each corner of the room.
Time to put your thinking caps on and sliding-block-puzzle mastery to the test, friends!

Goof Troop can either be played alone or with a second player in some very fun co-op action. The former features the ability to play either as Goofy or Max, and the difference between the two is that Goofy is stronger and can defeat bigger foes in one throw, whereas Max requires at least two thrown objects to defeat the biggest of baddies in levels, but has slightly more speed than his ol' dad. 

In single-player fun, Goofy or Max have two item slots to pick up useful tools like grappling hooks that can pull objects and items from faraway locations, planks that can be used as bridges, bells that can be rung to lure enemies to their location, torches to light up otherwise incredibly dark areas, shovels to dig up treasure, and keys to open locked gates. In co-op, players each have one item slot, so there's some strategy involved between players to decide who takes what. Also, players can toss objects between one another. Pressing the pickup/throw button has either Goofy or Max hold up their hands. This is required to catch objects, either thrown by enemies or by their co-op buddy--otherwise they're either take damage or in the case of friendly fire, they'll get temporarily dazed.

Max plays a game of catch with this pirate while his proud dad Goofy watches on.

At the end of each stage and in the spirit of games of yore, a boss battle indeed awaits. These generally require moments of downtime between dodging a boss' attempts at attacks, while picking up objects to throw at the big baddie while they are vulnerable. These are the most action-packed and challenging places of moment-to-moment gameplay with Goof Troop understandably, so it's not uncommon to soar through lives during these encounters. 

This second-stage boss really cooks (especially if a torch hits poor Goofy or Max).

After the game's five stages are complete within the span of about two hours or less, the game's ending greets players and the adventure is complete. One aspect of Goof Troop that I can see players enjoying is speed-running stages and the game in general, as at the conclusion of each stage, the total time it took a given player or pair of players to get through the stage gets displayed--although not recorded for posterity or anything like that. The total tally of all stages gets shown at the end of the adventure, too, so attempting your best to speed through the game is something I can see for some much needed replay value. Otherwise, Goof Troop would have been a good "rental" back in the day, and nothing more.

That said, Goof Troop on the Super Nintendo's adventure is one where the gameplay holds up so remarkably well, it can be enjoyed either solo or with a co-op partner (and each playthrough is unique depending on the vibe and teamwork you display between your co-op buddy), and speed-running opportunities offer plenty of entertainment to be had. Is it a game you'll rack up dozens upon dozens of hours enjoying? No, not at all--but is it a stellar puzzle-adventure game all the same, worth checking out if you have the method or opportunity to do so? As the Goof Troop cartoon's theme concludes, "Ba-da-ba-bop-ba-doo-doo-bop! *deep voice* YEAAAAAH!"

[SPC Says: B]

Nikoderiko: The Magical World (Multi) Review

We have a new game to review! It's an indie 2D/2.5D/3D platformer--a mix of all three, really! It's Nikoderiko: The Magical World, and the SuperPhillip Central verdict is here.

 Crashing the Country

Allow me to preface this review with something most likely obvious from glimpses of screenshots and/or trailers of Nikoderiko: The Magical World: I'm going to mention the words "Donkey Kong Country" and "Crash Bandicoot" quite a bit throughout this review. When the inspiration is so intense and palpable, it's somewhat difficult not to, especially since Nikoderiko wears its clear inspirations on the main character's rolled up sleeves. That said, does Nikoderiko: The Magical World do anything to cast aside as just being a clone of these two games rolled up into one unique title? 

Despite being derivative, Nikoderiko: The Magical World can be a wheel-y good time occasionally.

Nikoderiko: The Magical Journey has no intention of hiding where it's cribbing its ideas and concepts from. Between collecting letters in levels that spell out "N-I-K-O" to hidden barrels that blast its players into secret bonus areas to perform tasks such as "collect all stars", "defeat them all", or "find the key" for golden trinkets, you sort of have to admire the development team's chutzpah in how brazen and blatant it all is on the Donkey Kong Country side, particularly Tropical Freeze. Then, there's aspects like picking up barrels, treasure chests, and other objects to chuck at enemies or breakable walls, once more to reveal secrets. 

Two secret bonus barrels like this one are cleverly hidden away in each level. 

Not to leave out a certain former PlayStation mascot, Nikoderiko: The Magical World takes aspects from Crash Bandicoot as well, putting players into somewhat seamless transitions from 2.5D gameplay to 3D, either running away from the screen or towards it, Crash-style. There's also purple diamond collectibles, one in each level, to obtain as well, though these don't have asinine conditions like some Crash games where you have to backtrack through somewhat significant portions of stages to collect them. So, Nikoderiko has THAT going for it, at least.

Now, I might not be playing fair to Nikoderiko: The Magical World, as it's not necessarily a detrimental thing necessarily to be derivative. In fact, combining the gameplay styles and dimensions of a 2D/2.5D platformer like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze with Crash Bandicoot is unique all to itself. Most of the time in the levels, even, it's done in a clever enough way. 

Niko and the other playable character, Luna, play similarly to one another. Though it was preferable to play as Niko to hear all the voice lines and quips the mouthy mongoose had to offer in levels, whereas with Luna, she's silent as can be. That notwithstanding, it might be preferable for some players to control Luna if they don't want to hear dialogue whilst platforming. Your mileage may vary there.

Move over Donkey Kong--Niko is coming for your "king of swing" title!

Regardless, both characters have the same move set. They can jump, hold out a glider to float carefully to the ground or across chasms, they can slide, they can ground pound (though if you're holding a direction while smashing the ground, you'll end up sliding in the direction you're holding, which often results in unwanted hits, deaths, etc.), and they can also jump off walls--though this feels rather "sticky" for lack of a better term. 

True to the game's heavily-DKC-inspired form, couch co-op is available for two players to enjoy the game together. The pros are that players don't share a pool of lives (there aren't lives in this game to speak of, for one), and they have separate tallies of hearts, the health meter of the game. Thus, two well in tune players can say, "We both have one heart left, so while we have this moment of peace, why don't you take a hit so you can come back with two hearts?" It's harder in boss battles to cheese in this way, but still very much possible.

Co-op shows flashes of fun alongside flashes of frustration, too.

Nikoderiko: The Magical World is indeed a challenging game regardless. Sometimes checkpoints are further away from each other than I'd like in certain levels, and some levels in general go on for far too long. Whereas other levels feel like you blink and they're over. That said, levels are generally well designed, offering plenty of opportunities to display some platforming prowess with well telegraphed but also hidden secrets, too. Generally if something looked curious to me during my playthrough, checking it out would usually result in my being rewarded for said curiosity, which is seldom a bad thing in a game like this. 

The level variety is often enjoyable, as well, delivering plenty of unique ideas and creative concepts usually executed at the very least competently and at best really well. One level featured a Crash Bandicoot-esque scenario where a flying dragon chased Niko as I ran towards the camera in this 3D affair, while later in the level the dragon returned, though this time pursuing Niko as he rode a DKC Returns-style rocket barrel. Another level took our mongoose hero and heroine down into the ocean depths, giving both a black silhouette cast against the blue background--again, DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze-style. The deep waters of the level weren't too friendly, but they were remedied with a little help of a seahorse-like animal buddy that could fire a laser to defeat foes with ease.

This dragon doesn't wish to dance, so I suggest you keep moving forward, Niko.

Like Donkey Kong Country (are you tired of the mentions yet?), Nikoderiko: The Magical World sports an assortment of animal buddies as mounts. The aforementioned seahorse is one, while others include a frog that burps up fireballs to eliminate enemies, there's a bat that serves as a flapping-good time for flight, and also a Yoshi-like lizard that chomps up foes and can regurgitate them back at other baddies. Though, the latter is a bit janky to say the least in execution.

If you've seen it done in Donkey Kong Country, you'll most likely see it
(and done marginally worse) in Nikoderiko: The Magical World.

And really, that's a lot of what Nikoderiko: The Magical World is--a janky experience, or at least quite unpolished. Between glitches where my character couldn't pull out their glider for whatever reason, to camera chaos in co-op where the camera just wouldn't pan in an appropriate-enough position that would work for either myself or my co-op partner, the problems with Nikoderiko: The Magical World are plentiful. Small things like characters and objects on the world map not having their textures load quickly enough (at least on the latest Xbox Series S build) so they'd look incredibly "off" aren't immense problems, but put on a pile with everything else, they do--in fact--add up to be quite bothersome.

Otherwise (and that's not a play on the composer being David Wise--and the music is unfortunately just serviceable this time around, on that note), Nikoderiko: The Magical World is a jack of two trades and a master of neither of them. The Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot segments of the game are done better by the originals instead of this imitation of both. That isn't to say THIS game isn't worth your time. There are hardly enough Donkey Kong Country-inspired titles to exactly say that we're embarrassed with riches here in this department. Though, if you DO crave something of the DKC style and MUST play something, if you haven't already touched either Kaze and the Wild Masks, Marsupilami - Hoobadventure, or Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, look into those games first before trying Nikoderiko out. All three of those are preferable (and somewhat more original) experiences to at least me.

[SPC Says: C]