Arcade Boxing Game Review: Punch-Out!!

Most gamers know Punch-Out!! as the story of a small boxer named Little Mac who rises up the ranks against boxers way out of his weight range in order to become the champion.

However, Punch-Out!! didn't begin on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It originated in the arcades with a third-person boxing game with an unnamed boxer. The goofy boxers from different countries originated here, However, it only has one circuit with only six boxers, most of whom returned in the NES classic. These boxers are Glass Joe, the French boxer who lives up to his name, Japan's Piston Hurricane, Turkey's Bald Bull, America's Kid Quick, Italy's Pizza Pasta, and the American champion, Mr. Sandman.

The original Famicom Punch-Out!! lacked the Mike Tyson, or Mr. Dream, fight just like the arcade original. It also began with Glass Joe and ended with Mr. Sandman. Piston Hurricane and Bald Bull also returned. However, Italy didn't get representation in the NES game and the United States of America had to settle with just Mr. Sandman.

The game is a bit hard to get into for fans of the NES game and the Wii game since the third-person view that looks through the body of the unnamed boxer is a very different gameplay representation. The boxer is also the same height as his opponents, making the boxing mechanics vastly different. Once you get used to the different gameplay styles, the goofiness of the game still shines through. There are no Doc Louis intermissions, however. He originated in the NES game and added some extra goofiness to the franchise.

Punch-Out!! for arcades is an important milestone as the start of the well-regarded Punch-Out!! series. However, it is very different from the more well-known NES game. So, if you began your Punch-Out!! gaming with that title, or the Wii sequel, then it will take a while to get used to the differences. When you do, however, it is a fun boxing game with the unique goofiness for which the Punch-Out!! series is known. The arcade version is now available through Hamster's Arcade Archives series on Nintendo Switch, so it has never been easier to play.

Final Verdict: 

3½ out of 5

Turn-Based Role Playing Game Review: Steven Universe - Attack the Light

Steven Universe: Attack the Light is a mobile role-playing game adaptation of Cartoon Network's Steven Universe television series.

Even though it is a mobile game, it is a capable turn-based role-playing game in its own right. It has all the hallmarks of the genres, including leveling up, finding items in chests and purchasing them from stores, and tough boss battles. Steven Universe actually works perfectly as an RPG, as Steven himself points out in the game. The series, especially in the early seasons, is all about the Crystal Gems traveling to dungeons and defeating monsters.

The main Crystal Gems, including Steven Universe and his adoptive parents Garnet, Pearl, and Amythyst, are all playable. Steven is the assist character, which fans of the series will attest is perfect since Steven Universe is all about healing people and helping people with their problems.

The story finds the Crystal Gems traveling across the world to areas to familiar areas such as the strawberry battlefield as well as then-new areas such as the desert. They are chasing after a creature known as a light prism. Their search brings them face-to-face with a new Gem threat.

The music fits the game, but don't expect anything on the scale of the memorable music numbers seen in the series. The graphics are a departure from the series, with a unique water-painted look that somewhat resembles the later Dove shorts. It works well for this universe as the general spirit of the characters still shines through.

Steven Universe: Attack the Light is a great example of how to do a video game adaptation of a popular animated television series right. The gameplay is a lot of fun, and the music fits the game well. The story is just like those you would see on the show, which is helped by the fact that it was written by the series creator, Rebecca Sugar. 

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Action-Adventure Review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time changed up the formula, successfully bringing The Legend of Zelda series into the 3D era.

The game followed a child Link, who has been raised by the ageless Kokiri. With an ocarina, he can play tunes that act as spells to control time and space around him. One song will send him forward and backward in time. Link resembled the ageless Kokiri he was raised with as a child, but as an adult, he towers over them. Adult Link can explore areas that have changed dramatically as a child, but he can also use the ocarina to go back in time to when he was a child to influence things in order to change them.  This aspect reminds me of Sonic CD, albeit with a lot more interaction between time periods due to the fact that Ocarina of Time is a story-rich action adventure.

The game mechanics have been translated well into the three-dimensional age. Like Super Mario 64 before it, the game is very different from its two-dimensional counterparts, but it retains enough of the formula that it fits perfectly within the universe. Link can now travel in complete three-hundred-sixty-degree directions. However, the basic gameplay is still there. Link has to buy equipment or acquire it from non-player characters. He travels to dungeons where he gains keys to unlock doors and chests. In some chests, he finds dungeon keys that will unlock large dungeon doors and some chests. He also can find equipment in chests that he needs to use to get through future dungeons.

The music has always been a strong point of the series, and that continues here. There is the obligatory updated theme song, but there is also a lot of music that is unique to this game. It's fantastic, taking advantage of the audio hardware of the Nintendo 64, and a lot of them will remain in your head long after playing the game. There are also the usual fun little musical motifs that play when certain actions are completed. The short chest opening music still acts as an earworm when thinking of the game, even decades after its release. The characters, including Link now have grunts and yells. This aspect is kind of charming, and it remains in The Legend of Zelda series to this day. The one drawback is the voice of Link's fairy companion, Navi, who will yell "hey" or "listen" whenever there is a new piece of information. It is cute the first few times, but it becomes grating after a while. There are only a couple of voice clips, which is a shame, as this could have been alleviated with multiple recordings of the lines or by using multiple words.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a great example of how to translate a two-dimensional game into three dimensions. It gives additional abilities that come with the new perspective but keeps the basic gameplay that made the original games so much fun. It also adds a fun mechanic with the titular ocarina which has musical spells that affect time and space. The graphics aren't as impressive as they once were, but the unique style still shines through the incredibly blocky characters and environments. The music is fantastic, and most of the grunting and yelling voice work is charming. Navi the fairy becomes annoying after a while, but she isn't enough to take away the enjoyment of this fantastic game.

Final Verdict:

4½  out of 5

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Review

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Review Soon

Free Point-and-Click Adventure Review: Sfinx

LK Avalon, the Polish developer that had previously created Sołtys, released another adventure game two years later.

Sfinx, also known as UFOs, is thematically the opposite of LK Avalon's previous game. While Sołtys focused on adult humor with its theme of a father chasing the groom who left his daughter at the alter during their wedding, Sfinx focuses on two school kids. Because of this, it is a game that can be enjoyed by all ages.

Two friends, a girl named Andzia and a boy named Wacek, are friends from school. The impetus of the game is an old professor, akin to Doc Brown from Back to the Future, who tells the children that an unidentified flying object had crashed nearby. Intrigued, as children are wont to do, the two school kids go looking for the UFO.

While the theme of Sfinx is vastly different, the interface remains graphically and functionally the same as that seen in Sołtys. This is a good thing, as the interface was the one saving grace of the latter game. It has a graphical user interface at the bottom of the screen where actions can be selected as well as inventory items. The main difference between the two games is that both the girl and the boy are controlled by the player. The drawback is that the two characters can carry four items each, and some items can only be picked up by a specific character. There are still stereotypes here, as the girl won't touch dirty items, but it's nowhere near the level of those in Sołtys. Honestly, that stereotype is innocent enough that it's easy to overlook in the grand scheme of things.

The puzzles are pretty zany but can be figured out pretty easily if you put your mind into the mindset of a cartoon. The zany style doesn't just go for the story and the puzzles, but it is also shown in the art style as well. The characters have a pleasing cartoon-style look and the colorful backgrounds complement them perfectly. Although there are no earworms that will remain in your head after you play, the music also fits with the various scenes of the game.

LK Avalon has improved upon Sołtys greatly with Sfinx. The story, art, and music are fun. The interface is easy to use, although the limitation of inventory slots is a bit of a drawback. The ScummVM team translated the game into English for the first time and released it for free on their website. While I didn't care for Sołtys, Sfinx is a game I recommend that adventure game fans give it a try.

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Beat 'Em Up Game Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project was a beat 'em-up video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System based on the 1980s animated television series.

It has the craziest storyline of all the Konami games based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, since the 1987 series was so zany, it fits with the franchise perfectly. In the game, Shredder and Krang stole the entire island of Manhattan and it is up to the ninja turtles to get it back.

As it is for the Nintendo Entertainment System, it only has two action buttons. However, it makes great use of what is available. It manages to have most of the moves from the arcade games thanks to button combinations. It also pushes the Nintendo Entertainment System to its limits. It has the fun enemy animations and background object interactions from the arcade games that weren't present in the NES version of the original arcade game. It lacks the ability to have different kinds of enemies on screen at a time, but since the enemies have a ton of character, it's not that noticeable while playing through the game.

The game also has quite a nice soundtrack that evokes the feeling of the arcade games. It also has voice clips, but, of course, they are highly compressed due to the limitations in file size available on NES ROM cartridges. This was pretty standard practice at the time, and voice clips weren't common on the NES at all, so it's cool they're included. It really does help to evoke the feeling of the Konami arcade beat 'em ups.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project is a worthy member of Konami's 90s ninja turtle beat 'em up oeuvre. When I was a little girl, I avoided the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games due to the small size of the sprites and backgrounds necessary for the games to fit in the small resolution of the console. This was a mistake on my part, as Konami managed to translate all of the gameplay, style, and charm from the arcades into Nintendo's little grey box. If you are going to play this, and you should, opt for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection. That way you can reduce the flickering that was necessary to push the console to its limits. That's one of the great things with emulation, we have much stronger hardware now, so we don't have to live within those limits anymore and can experience games at levels the developers could only have dreamt of back in the 1990s.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Freemium Fighting Game Review: MultiVersus - Season Two

The MultiVersus open beta is no longer available to download for new players and the server will be shut down for existing players on June 25, 2023. It will return out of beta in 2024, but for now, it's worth looking at the disastrous season 2 rollout.

After a fantastic season 1, fans, including me, were looking forward to season 2. Warner Bros. Discovery has a fantastic library of characters to choose from including the classic Warner Bros. characters from Looney Tunes, many classic characters from Cartoon Network, MGM cartoon characters, and HBO characters, to name just a few. Season 1 received characters from all of these properties, so hopes were high for season 2. However, only one character was added, Marvin the Martian, in November 2022. Throughout the four months of 2023 that the game was widely available, no new characters were added at all.

Another large expectation for season 2 was new maps. Each of the above properties has unique worlds that would be fantastic to translate into playable arenas. Each map in season 1 also came with remixes of music from those worlds, so they were aural treats as well as visual. They also came with their own interactive elements such as breakable walls and switches to activate platforms. These were all themed after the properties as well, making each map a pleasure to play. Season 2 received one map, the throne room from Game of Thrones. It was great to finally see Arya Stark get an arena to go with her universe, but there was almost half a year of time available for season 2.

The only element that really saw wide release in season 2 was premium content. There was new free content available through the battle pass including new banners, icons, stickers, and badges. However, most of the new content including a Marvin the Martian announcer pack, dozens of alternate costumes for the characters, and dozens of profile icons were all paid content. With only one new character and one new map, the fact that most of the new content was locked behind a paywall made season 2 extremely disappointing.

Season two of MultiVersus was a disaster by any definition. Only one new character and one new map were released. There were no new game modes and most of the new content that was available, such as an announcer pack and alternate costumes, was behind a paywall. The fact that the new content that was available for free, such as badges, stickers, and icons, were all vanity items stung for free users. The only thing that didn't hurt about season 2 was that the game itself was still fun to play. It's just a shame that very little went into making it even more fun to play this season.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

MultiVersus Season 1 (Open Beta) Review

MultiVersus Season 1: Puns and Villany Review

Virtual Reality Point-and-Click Adventure Review: Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is a Virtual Reality game with a story that takes place directly in the middle of Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2.

The game takes place directly after the end of Psychonauts on the mission to rescue Lili's father, the leader of the Psychonauts. The plane they are on goes down while flying over the Rhombus of Ruin due to an abundance of psylirium, a radioactive material that is mentally disorienting to most psychics.

Because Razputin Aquato is a powerful psychic, he is able to mostly overcome the effects of psyliryum, making him the only person who can uncover the plot behind the leader's disappearance as well as to save his fellow Psychonauts and his girlfriend Lili.

It is one of the best uses of virtual reality that I have played so far since it sticks to the strengths of the concept while avoiding the pitfalls of the current technology. To reduce the possibility of motion sickness, the game can be played while sitting. It plays like a point-and-click adventure game where the motion of your head acts like a cursor, while there are text prompts for objects with which you can interact. 

The story is also told in a fantastic way that makes complete sense why Raz would be seated as he serves as your eyes and ears. You can use many of his psychic powers to manipulate the environment as well, with many powers from the original Psychonauts making their return. There are many characters that make their return as well, including one that fleshed out a larger backstory than they were given in the original game.

The music and art style was a big part of what made the original Psychonauts so appealing, and Double Fine did a fantastic job capturing the spirit of the original in both respects. The opening has my favorite song in the franchise so far, as it is a James Bond-style spoof complete with over-the-top female vocals. You can also move your head around to view the credits in virtual reality which was a nice touch. The rest of the game retains that spirit as well.  There aren't as many areas to play around, so there isn't as much of a vast difference in art styles between the real world and the mental worlds, but they all adhere to the aesthetic set by the original game.

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is a fun virtual reality point-and-click adventure take on the world of the Psychonauts. The voice acting, art style, and music are all great and adhere to the style of the previous game. The story is also fantastic and ties the virtual reality aspect into the story well. It's a shame Double Fine hasn't released a version of the game without the headset requirement, but if you have a PlayStation 4 and a PlayStation VR or a Windows computer with a VIVE or Oculus headset it is well worth playing.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5