Games

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (PS2) Review

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So kicking off the gaming side of the DBZ movie/game marathon-thingy is the game that feels like it kicked off Dragon Ball games, as it was the first released here in the west that was any good (for context: you can find my reviews of “Ultimate Battle 22” and “Final Bout” by clicking on them here…) Admittedly as with most things that are the start of a series with multiple sequels this game is quite lacking in polish and modes it still created a solid framework to build on, and has a few unique gameplay ideas that I hadn’t experienced before or really since beyond its sequels. Sadly it looks like crap (even at the time I thought it looked off) but hey-ho. Let’s take a look!

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Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Mega Drive) Review

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I had a lot to think about when it came to this quick one-off return to the Game to Movie Marathon, as technically if I was doing the Sonic games in order with the films I’d be reviewing Sonic CD here (or really I’d have reviewed CD with the second movie and 2 now, but that would really be confusing!) also given Sonic 3 the movie focuses so much on Shadow would a review of Sonic Adventure 2 make more sense here? I ended up matching 3 with 3 for the sake of nicely matching visuals, but then I had to surrender to my childhood nostalgia and keep 3 separate from “& Knuckles”, which it’s often paired with it (for good reason, don’t get me wrong…) Basically a review of Sonic The Hedgehog 3 to coincide with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, so let’s take a look at another one of my childhood favourites, shall we?

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Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PS4) Review

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Resuming the on-and-off Kingdom Hearts first ever playthrough… thing, we reach Birth by Sleep, a game originally on the PSP but in terms of this review it also got a few “HD” console ports, which is handy. Set ten years before Kingdom Hearts I, the game features three protagonists each with their own story mode that intersect with each other, which was fun (reminded me of the Resident Evil 2 A/B scenarios) and the combat was great as well. Let’s see how it fairs overall though…

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Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (PS5) Review

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I’ve said before on this site that I’ve been a fan of Assassin’s Creed since the very first game but Ubisoft certainly make it hard to continue to be one, and Shadows is very much a continuation of that. The gameplay is great and the visuals are absolutely stunning, but the story is non-existent and even worse ends on something of a cliffhanger that won’t be resolved until paid DLC expansions… Throw in a bunch of online challenges and currency cluttering the map and ruining immersion (that thankfully play no role in completing the game, but still…) and this is mixed bag. Let’s take a look anyway and try and see where it lands…

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Bleach: ReBirth of Souls (PS5) Review

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I was cautiously optimistic about ReBirth (yes the B is capitalised for some reason) of Souls going in as the presentation looked spot on and the combat seemed fresh and exciting, but at the same time it was a modern Shonen-anime based fighter released by Bandai Namco, a lot of which has been bare-bones and subpar to say least in the last 10 years. The truth has ended up somewhere in the middle, where it plays better than most of its contemporaries and the presentation is indeed spot on, but it’s far from perfect. Still, it’s a brand new console Bleach game, something I literally assumed would never happen again, so I’m just happy it exists at all! Let’s take a look…

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Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2/PS5) Review

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I’m not sure why it’s taken me a year to get round to writing the review for the second classic Battlefront game, but here we are anyway! Battlefront II was one of those sequels that improved on the original in literally every aspect and then added a whole bunch more besides. Dedicated space battles, playable heroes, the ability to actually run… you name it, they added it or improved it. That being said, what’s it like to play now in the mid 2020s? Well…

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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS) Review

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It’s time to wave goodbye to the “Metroidvania” style Castlevania games as we look at Order of Ecclesia, essentially the swan song of the original timeline/run of games, minus a few multiplayer and phone things anyway. It ends the series with a bang though, not just presentation-wise or gameplay-wise but also a “bang” in the sense of knocking into something hard as the game is really challenging, to put it politely. They knew the people playing at this point would be veterans rather than newcomers, I guess. Well, let’s take a look then, and bring an end to this particular brand of Castlevania on this site (I will get round to the classic and 3D games one day, I’m sure…)

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Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II (GameCube) Review

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Ten years ago today I posted my first review ever as I kicked off the blog that would become this site. It was of “Last Battle” one of my least favourite games ever (which you can still look at by clicking here!) So I thought to celebrate ten years I’d do the opposite and review one of my favourite games ever, which given I’ve reviewed a lot of those already it was initially hard until me and my friend started replaying Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II for the GameCube and I remembered why I’d sunk well over 100 hours into it back in the day. Sadly I can’t capture original hardware so I can’t show you my Level 60+ Hunter character but oh well, this new run via an emulator has been plenty fun as well. So let’s take a look at what will probably be the only online multiplayer RPG to appear on this site (as I played it exclusively offline single player/split-screen multiplayer…)

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Warriors Abyss (PS5) Review

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Well this was a surprise, literally as it was suddenly revealed and shadow dropped last month! I was expecting the first and only new Warriors review to go up on this blog to be Dynasty Warriors Origins but as that still hasn’t dropped to a price I’m comfortable with I’m happy to get this rather addictive Roguelike with nostalgic characters (i.e. reused models) from the peak of both the Dynasty and Samurai Warriors series instead. Is it perfect? No, but it’s relatively cheap (so long as you’re not interested in vastly over priced costumes!) and really fun. Let’s take a closer look, as the game has understandably gone under the radar I feel this is one of the few reviews that might actually matter in the long run!

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Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix (PS4) Review

David HoganLeave a comment

After mistakenly playing the next game release-order-wise last time (thanks PS4 collection menu!) it’s finally time to tackle Kingdom Hearts II in this on-and-off marathon of my first time playing the series, and I was excited about this more than most because it’s often cited as the best one. Now obviously I still have three main games and two spin-offs to look at yet (not counting mobile titles, which I won’t be covering gameplay wise at least) so I can’t say “I agree!” but I did enjoy myself a lot, which can never be a bad thing… let’s take a closer look at the game then, nearly 20 years after its initial release (Coincidentally!)

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