Double Dragon Review

Double Dragon (PSN Import)
Developed By: Technōs Japan
Published By: MonkeyPaw Games
Date of Release: January 14, 2014
Price: $5.99


In the year 1994, the T-1000 (sporting a horrible bleached hairdo) tried to take over the world by uniting two halves of an ancient medallion. His plans were thwarted by the Chairman from Iron Chef America, and Bailey from Party of Five. After Alyssa Milano shows up in short-shorts and force feeds spinach to one of his henchmen the heroes figure out his plot, and kick his ass. What sounds like a bizarre bout of genre-defying fanfiction is in fact a perfect summary of the film Double Dragon, which was LOOSELY (I mean this literally) based on the original videogame.



So what the blazing hell does this have to do with this review? In 1996 Technōs Japan released a 1 on 1 fighting game based on the movie, and believe me when I say that the game is even more loosely based on the movie than the movie was based on the original. Other than some snippets from the film in the intro, and a few little references, this game is its own beast. And that ends up working out in the end. What you have here is a by the numbers Street Fighter clone with an interesting cast of characters (though half of them were never even in the movie), great graphics, and an equally good soundtrack.



In my personal opinion this game could have easily flown on it's own without using any material from the film, however anyone who is a fan of the cinematic cheesefest will appreciate the references. with lush sprites, awesome backgrounds, and tried and true gameplay, this game really stands on it's own. MonkeyPaw has done Double Dragon fans a definite favor by bringing this previously Japan-only game over here, and it serves as an excellent taste of things to come over the next month and a half as they release a new import each week, culminating in the release of Tomba 2. Tune in next time for a fast and furious review of Lucifer Ring!

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl Review

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Developed by: ATLUS
Published by: ATLUS
Date of Release: October 1, 2013
Price: $39.99

I'm going to be straight up honest here. I've played plenty of dungeon crawlers over the years, however I am a newbie to the Etrian Odyssey series. That said, I have played through many masterpieces such as Wizardry, Dungeon Master, Eye of The Beholder, and the recently release Legend of Grimrock. The dungeon crawler genre can certainly be a daunting trial for the uninitiated, as after your create your party you are generally turned loose into a world with scant provisions, and no general sense of where to go, in fact you often have to draw your own map as you go along.



The situation is quite similar in Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl, with a few minor details. For one, you have an actual story to contend with, rather than merely being dumped into a labyrinth and being told "find your way out". Plus the art of mapping is taught to you from the get go (it's actually your first quest!). The difficulty is quite nicely scaled as well, with options for players of all skill levels. Newcomers and genre veterans alike will find EOU to be quite accessible. The controls for both gameplay and mapping are incredibly intuitive, and the battle system is finely tuned and easy to understand.



But what of the presentation? From anime cutscenes to awesome voice acting, ATLUS has gone the extra mile to ensure that Etrian Odyssey Untold is the premiere dungeon crawler for the 3DS, and it shows. The visuals are nothing short of gorgeous, with 3D effects that seem organic and natural in their nature. It may in fact be one of the prettiest 3DS titles to date. Add to that an absolutely rocking soundtrack by veteran composer Yuzo Koshiro (Ys, Dragon Slayer) and it is clear that EOU is the complete package.



So to reiterate: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl packs a power and punchy presentation, a stunning soundtrack, captivating cutscenes, and gorgeous graphics. If the thought of mapping your adventure turns you off, do not fear: the game has an auto mapping feature that will make your life easy. Backtracking is made less of a drag by letting you warp between previously explored areas, and the Picnic difficulty will certainly tone down the stress if you are new to dungeon crawling. So if you have a 3DS and are looking for a damn good time, get out there and buy this awesome game already!

Shadow Warrior Review

Shadow Warrior
Developed by: Flying Wild Hog
Published by: Devolver Digital
Date of Release: September 26, 2013
Price: $39.99

The year is 1997, it is the past. The badass machismo of Duke Nukem 3D that once ruled the FPS genre with an iron fist is starting to wear thin. The world needs a new hero, and that hero is Lo Wang. Formerly a ninja assassin for the great Zilla corporation, this grizzled and wise ass-kicker had been betrayed by his boss and left for dead. Embarking on a delightfully offensive campaign of bloody revenge, Lo Wang kicked Zilla's ass and chased him back under the rock he slithered out from under. Sadly, much time has passed without a new entry in what started out as a kick-asstastic series, and fans were left to wonder what would become as out hero. Thankfully Flying Wild Hog has come to the rescue, rebooting the series with a swift kick to the family jewels.



The new incarnation of Shadow Warrior starts with a much younger Lo Wang cruising down the road in a slick sportster, singing to the tune of Stan Bush's "The Touch" (many kudos for that!). He is on his way to purchase a rare and valuable sword for his boss, Orochi Zilla. Of course things are bound to go wrong, and our hero finds himself up to his Wang in trouble, kicking things off with a katana-based choreography of carnage that makes the Crazy 88 fight scene in Kill Bill look like a Saturday morning cartoon. And this is where we first meet the true star of this game, Lo Wang's trusty sword. Forget all the fancy firepower the game gives you, why use a gun when you can grab some laser-hardened steel and cut yourself some demon sashimi? The melee combat is so good that it has the unfortunate side effect of completely overshadowing the otherwise excellent gunplay.



Even with all the seemingly overwhelming attention that Flying Wild Hog put into the stunning gameplay mechanics, the rest of the experience does not suffer for it. The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, with near-infinite detail placed into the smallest details of each level. Sakura blossoms sway in the breeze, and koi splash merrily in their ponds, awaiting a shower of demon intestines on which to gorge themselves on. You can even leave bloody trails of footprints snaking through the levels, I definitely haven't seen that level of detail in years. The humor of the original game also has not been diminished over time, this new entry is just as full of snark and wit. Be sure to look for every fortune cookie you can find!



When you add it all together, Shadow Warrior is quite honestly a full product, even with the omission of multiplayer. The massive and rousing single player campaign quite makes up for it. With a multitude of ways to dispatch your demonic nemeses, be it by the blade, the bullet, or by mystic powers, things will never get dull as you carve a bloody swath through the hordes of enemies that await. As with their previous work, Hard Reset, Flying Wild Hog has crafted a fine masterpiece of gaming that utterly should not be missed. So go forth young grasshopper, and kick some ass!

Bunny Must Die! Review

Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the 7 Devils (Steam)
Developed by: Platine Dispositif
Lovingly Localized by: Rockin' Android
Date of Release: September 26, 2013
Price: $9.99

The Year is 1999X. Thermomewclear power: a modern scientific marvel that allows free clean energy for all of bunnykind. This safe and renewable energy was the perfect solution, until the Thermomewclear Power Plant blew up and cursed poor Bunny with a pair cat ears. Still retaining her long lapine ears as well, she is vexed by the fact that no one can tell if she is a rabbit or a cat. She even went as far as to seek the aid of a wise old bunny, but unfortunately he was brutally murdered by a rampaging bull and has left Bunny stranded in the cave of the 7 devils. If you think sounds mightily effed up, you are probably right, but no matter. It is time for Bunny to set forth and kick some devilish ass!




Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the 7 Devils is a classic example of the tried and true Metroidvania formula. It was created pretty much singlehandedly by Aeju Murasame of Platine Dispositif (aside from voicework), and like his other works the game can be punishingly hard at times. The original release was only in Japan, with 4:3 graphics and a midi-ish soundtrack. However this localization is the cat's meow, offering many enhancements over the original release, such as mew new widescreen graphics coded in by Murasame, a wild soundtrack arrangement by Woofle, and a fresh English translation by none other than the extraordinary Sara Leen!




When starting BMD the first thing you'll notice is the lush hand-drawn anime graphics. The next thing you'll notice is that you can't walk to the right. You must first walk to the left a few steps to collect "The Gears of The Past" to be able to turn around. This quirky bit of humor quite obviously pokes fun at the general mechanics of the Metroidvania genre (in the way that you often must collect many items to make any progress), and trust me when I say that a whole lot more will be lampooned before you finish the game. The game even pokes fun at you (and then throws a viciously hard boss fight your way) for sequence breaking. Yes, the large-foreheaded first boss lady will fly off the handle if you skip her. However if you Do manage to finish off her enraged form, you get an achievement.




Now despite the amusing jokes and cliches blown out of proportion, the gameplay in Bunny Must Die is no joke. You have your tried-and-true Metroidvania exploration and progression, with plenty of Castlevania-style combat. You also gain the ability to bend time to your will, and that opens a whole new dimension in gameplay and puzzle solving. I should note though that no matter how good you are at this sort of game, you WILL die often. Just go into this adventure knowing that fact and you will have a good time. The way we learn is by making mistakes, right? And sometimes being repeatedly run over by a turret-tank while it fires searing hot laser beams up your arse can be a learning experience too.




Rockin' Android has definitely gone all-out in the process of making Bunny Must Die a breakout title for the western world. They have go so far as to give the options to use the original graphical mode and soundtrack, despite the overhaul that is provided by default. This speaks volumes of their dedication to customer satisfaction, and to their preservation of the original product's values. Just as with the Gundemonium Collection, Rockin' Android has taken an already awesome property and further polished it to gleam like a diamond and stand out on it's own in a rough sea of indie games. They have even included the arranged soundtrack for your listening pleasure, just check the install folder.




Now when it comes to buying Bunny Must Die there are a few options. Desura, GamersGate, and Playism. However, there is also the matter of Steam. Bunny clawed her way through Greenlight hell to get released, and her long struggle has paid off with a grand new port that has cloud saving, leaderboards, and achievements! Head on over to Bunny Must Die! on Steam and get it while it's hot!




So to recap: Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the 7 Devils offers frenetic platforming, Metroidvania-inspired exploration, kickass brutal bosses, a rocking re-arranged soundtrack, a superbly localized and hilarious story, a cute as heck main character, a super secret hidden character with a second playthrough, and tight controls that ensure that if you screw up, it's your own damn fault. What the heck are you waiting for? Bust out your favorite gamepad, buy the game, and kick some demonic patootie! Bunny's fate depends on YOU!

Skullgirls PC Review

Skullgirls (PC)
Developed By: Lab Zero Games
Published By: Marvelous AQL
Date of Release: August 22, 2013
Price: $14.99

In the fast-paced world of the fighting game tournament scene, there is one thing that matters above all else: balance. If a game has severely unbalanced fighters, then it may as well be thrown straight out the window. Another problem is cloning, to make it seem like a game has plenty of characters to go around, the devs may simply take one characters mechanics and re-apply it to another. We constantly see examples of games that just try too hard to shoehorn everything in to one crowded roster, and with games like Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 shoving 48 playable characters into the spotlight there is just no hope of a fair and balanced fight.




Thankfully, we have Skullgirls on pc now. When it comes to the lofty ambition of being the perfect tournament fighter, it manages to deliver on all levels! Lab Zero has made an already smashingly impressive console brawler shine even brigter on the PC. By bringing together a team of fighting game industry experts to craft Skullgirls into a pulse-pounding pandemoniac plethora of pugilistic perfection, Lab Zero has once again saved the day for fighting fans. What we have here is a set of 8 well-tuned femme fatales who are ready to kick ass and take names. You have the option of choosing either one full-powered character, a halved-strength duo, or a tag team trio of weaker fighters. No matter your choice you can rest assured that the game is ready to balance itself out, so choose the playing style that suits your tastes.




The graphical merits of Skullgirls are quite astounding, with each character fluidly hand animated in 1080p. The graphical quality is quite in it's own class, even upstaging recent fighters such as Blazblue. The stages themselves are no less detailed, with throngs of fully animated background characters, and a gorgeously parallaxed art style that almost feels three-dimensional. The eye-catching visuals are underlined by an impressive score by none other than Michiru Yamane, famous for her long running contribution to the aural tapestry of the Castlevania series. All of these elements perfectly meld together into a wonderfully film-noire/art deco aesthetic.




One last point I'd like to touch on is the excellent online gameplay, provided by the GGPO (Good Game Peace Out) netcode. It allows for a virtually lag-free online experience, regardless of the player's real-world proximity to one another. In my online experiences with Skullgirls I found no lag or dropped frames at all. In my humble opinion Reverge labs has crafted the finest tournament fighting experience possible, and for that I salute them. Skullgirls is well worth the price, so get out there and buy it today! Also be sure to download the Squigly DLC, as she's free until November 22!

Rise of The Triad Review

Rise of The Triad
Developed By: Interceptor Entertainment
Published By: Apogee Software
Date of Release: July 31, 2013
Price: $14.99

The year is 2013, and the First Person Shooter genre has gone to hell in a handbasket. The once sprawling, secret-filled maps of yesteryear have given way to liner corridors, with cutscenes every few steps. In trying to emulate blockbuster movies, videogames have lost sight of so much of what made them such worthwhile experiences. Regerating health has replaced healing pickups, and button mashing quicktime events have infected every inch of the FPS experience. Not to mention that most modern heroes are such wusses that they can't even wade into the crossfire without dying instantly, preferring to hide behind cover trading shots like spineless cowards. Thank god for Rise of The Triad, and for the awesome and ballsy team at Interceptor Entertainment for bringing it to us.

The first thing you're gonna notice when you start up Rise of The Triad is that the launcher lets you customize EVERY LITTLE DETAIL of the graphics settings. That's right, no craptastic console port here. Once you get into the ingame menu you can finish setting the basics like resolution, brightness and stuff, as well as choose your FOV. Again, no consoleized bullshit here. You also have full reign over your control bindings as well as audio levels (also be sure to try Classic Mode in the audio menu for a nostalgic blast!). That's not to say the new soundtrack isn't utterly badass, because the newly remixed tracks by Andrew Hulshult (of Burying The Trend) are utter ear candy. The use of the Unreal Engine also makes for eye candy, Rise of The Triad has NEVER looked this good. It's good to see that the folks at Interceptor give a damn about what makes PC gaming sofa king awesome.

For one thing, the sprawling mazelike levels that made oldschool gaming so much fun make a triumphant return, with dead ends, keys to match up with doors, and a total boatload of secrets. Seriously look EVERYWHERE around you, chances are that little out-of-the-way nook or cranny is hiding something badassedly awesome. The team at Interceptor have hidden awesome references new and old alike all over the levels (Dopefish Lives!). Oh, and then there's the other thing that makes PC gaming especially kicking rad: MODS! Rise of The Triad fully supports modding, and even has it's own easy to use drag-and-drop level editor (coming SOON™) so that you can make your own insidious arenas of mayhem and death! Not only that, but all future DLC is FREE (no Disc Locked Content here folks!).

Ok, all that stuff sound fine and dandy, but how does it actually play? Well imagine someone took the original Rise of The Triad, made it prettier, added proper aiming and WASD controls, and then basically turned everything up to 11 AND added more cowbell. Rise of The Triad looks and plays effing amazing, with a perfect challenge level for any player out there. There's a veritable army of foes waiting for you to take them on, and enough firepower to deal with them all. And that's just the singleplayer, there is also a full fledged badass multiplayer experience to be had, and let me tell you it is utter forking bliss. What other game lets you turn into a dog, zip across a bridge at breakneck speeds, and then tear your enemies a new one with your razor-sharp maw? CoD's dog is a wussy chihuahua compared to this beast. Oh and if you want you can do 'shrooms while you blast your foes into chutney.

So let's chalk things up here: Big freaking guns, frickin awesome powerups, four massive single player episodes, enough multiplayer to choke a horse (one of those big Clydesdale things, not some rainbow colored friendship pony), more guns, mayhem, Dopefish, secrets, adjustable FOV, ludicrous gibs, and a guy who is seriously named I.P. Freely. How could you possibly go wrong with this fluffy stack of murder pancakes? If you don't go out and buy this game now, you are seriously missing out and should really reconsider your priorities in life. Rise of The Triad earns a solid 11 out of 10, and also pre-emptively wins the Slipgate Complex FPS of The Year awards for the next decade, or until they come out with a sequel. Go. Buy it now. El Oscuro is a very inpatient guy, you don't wanna get on his craplist.

Apogee Throwback Pack Review

Apogee Throwback pack
Developed By: Apogee Software
Published By: Interceptor Entertainment
Date of Release: July 1, 2013
Price: $9.99 (Free of you preorder ROTT 2013!)

In the year 1995, the First Person Shooter genre was going strong. Wolfenstein 3D... Doom... Heretic... They all put id Software on the map, and defined the genre. And then Apogee Software blew the FPS concept to tiny bloody chunks, and rebuilt it into something totally ludicrous. Enter Rise of The Triad. Starting out as a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of The Triad was revamped into a whole new experience. Featuring five unique playable characters, a massive arsenal of deadly firepower, an actual narrative, dog mode, god mode, shrooms mode, one incredibly deadly baseball bat, enemies who begged you to spare their lives (before flopping over to play dead so they could stab you in the back as soon as you turn around), and enough ludicrous gibs to earn it the billing of "most violent game ever", RoTT was an amazing experience when played alone. Add to that the amazing "COMM-BAT" multiplayer experience, it's pretty clear that Rise of The Triad hit a home run.



But let's head back to a time two years before Rise of The Triad came to be. In 1993, JAM Productions created a new game franchise centered around a hero named Blake Stone, and had Apogee Software publish it. A sci-fi thriller to the core, Aliens of Gold saw the titular secret agent Blake Stone facing off against his nemesis, an insidiously corrupt and morally bankrupt geneticist named Dr. Pyrus Goldfire. Technologically it built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, adding in new features such as friendly NPC characters, working vending machines, and most impressively for the time, floor and ceiling textures. Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold actually managed to beat id Software's Doom to the market by one week and achieved modest popularity because of it, but was unfortunately overshadowed by the explosive popularity of id's smash hit.



The release of Doom and subsequent decline in sales of the first Blake Stone did not faze JAM Productions however, and in the following year of 1994 they released a new entry, Blake Stone: Planet Strike. Picking up immediately after Aliens of Gold, Planet Strike continues Blake's pursuit of Dr. Goldfire and this mutant army. Not only did it introduce more levels, more weapons, and more monsters, Planet Fire also included a fully functional automap feature, a handy too for those who tended to get lost in the mazelike levels. It's a more than worthy conclusion to an awesome as hell duology, and it definitely earns its place in this fine compilation.



When you take these three classic games and compare them to the stale FPS games of this generation, it becomes quite clear that a helluva lot more consideration was put into the level design and gameplay back in the days of yore. These three oldschool masterpieces gain massive amounts of replayability from the fact that back then the devs took time to design secrets and challenges to keep players coming back for more, unlike today's cookie cutter cinematic borefests. Another thing that is clear is how much time and effort Interceptor put into polishing these gems so that they shine on modern PCs. They are all lovingly wrapped in a DosBox-based frontend, and run natively in widescreen from the get go, no need for fiddling around with configuration to get these oldschool beauties running. They've even thrown in the original Rise of The Triad soundtrack, and the Extreme RoTT expansion at no extra cost. So what the hell are you waiting for, get yer ass on Steam and buy this beautiful pack of games. Better yet, pay an extra $5 and get RoTT 2013 as well!