Games

Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA) Review

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Super Circuit sits in a strange place in my Mario Kart history in that I played it at launch (ish) and played it a fair amount, but its difficulty curve and me not really being a big handheld guy meant I didn’t really get into it the same way as other entries in the series (beyond 3DS and Tour, which I just haven’t played at all) Going back to it now has only made the challenge even more, well, challenging, despite having a full screen and comfortable controller in my hand. Much like when I played Super Mario Kart for this blog the old style controls are just so… counter intuitive after so many years of the newer style back-to-back. Oh well, it’s another Booster Pass course drop today, so let’s look at another Mario Kart game!

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Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition (PS4) Review

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Last year I completed the original Mass Effect’s PS4 remaster and really enjoyed the experience, remarking how I skipped on them originally because a friend had played them in front of me a lot back then. Well, Mass Effect 2 he only played the first half or so and then stopped so this not only had the actual fun of finally playing it but I got to see where the story is actually going (or I guess where it goes given the original Trilogy’s storyline has been complete for sometime now…) Happy to report improvements in both gameplay and story made this a very fun experience, so let’s take a look!

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WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth (PS2) Review

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The next entry into the Smackdown! series of WWE games is the rather stupid sounding “Shut Your Mouth”, I guess they’d already used “Know Your Role” on SD!2 and “Just Bring It!” in the last game so ran out of Rock catchphrases? (Well, baring in mind “Smackdown! If You Smell” sounds weird) Subtitle aside SYM and its sequel are the high point of PS2 WWE games and frankly among the best in the whole Yukes SD/SvR/2K run that only recently came to an end. So let’s take a look!

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Mario Kart 64 (N64) Review

David Hogan2 Comments

While I’m off by a week or two it’s still time to look at the next Mario Kart game alongside a “Booster Pass” release, this time the second ever MK game (that just makes me think of Mortal Kombat… oh well!) that being Mario Kart 64. At the time the 3D graphics were a great addition to the game and made for far more varied maps to race on, but in 2022 its safe to say it looks a little worse for wear, as a lot of N64 games do. How does it play though? Let’s take a look…

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Earth Defence Force 5 (PS4) Review

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Me and my friend have been playing EDF games since … well, we played two on the XBOX 360 anyway, and so it was a nice treat when he turned up with Earth Defence Force 5 in his bag over the summer. With 110 missions and us only managing to get together for a few hours a week it took a while but as per usual it was an absolute blast. It may not be much to look at or listen to but it’s hard to find a more fun example of “couch co-op”. Let’s take a look!

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Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PS4) Review

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While I finally do have a plan in place to cover the many Dragon Ball games in my collection on this blog including this game would mean reviewing it a good few years from now so I’d rather review it now after I’ve just played it, especially since there is still more than enough DB games to cover for that eventual plan as it is. So yeah, I finally played DBZ Kakarot at the start of the year after the complete collection was on sale for roughly £10 digitally. The combat didn’t look inspiring and the story was just the same-old so I didn’t get it at launch, despite free-roaming the Dragon Ball world sounding very fun. Were my instincts correct? Let’s find out!

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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) / Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Definitive Edition (PS4) Review

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Continuing my nostalgic tour through my late teens with the PS2 era GTA games as well as playing through the recently released “Definitive Editions”, it’s time for Vice City! Steeped in 80s culture and films (especially Scarface…) Vice City also saw several firsts for the franchise, including a fully voiced main protagonist! Let’s take a look at both versions and see how they either stand up today, or if they’re actually any good to begin with…

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Super Mario Kart (SNES) Review

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When I saw six new DLC packs for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe I was really excited to play the new (to me, having never touched Mario Kart Tour) tracks and returning retro tracks so I thought about covering the old games those tracks come from, then realised that I’ve played (to death) six Mario Kart games not including 8 so my mind immediately made a marathon out of it, naturally! Each day a new “Mario Kart 8 Booster Pack” comes out I’ll throw up a review of a Mario Kart game, in order of release. Then I guess I’ll put up a review of 8 for completionists sake… Anyway! Super Mario Kart is one of those rare games that you can point at and say “This game innovated an entire genre” and to top it off it was great to play despite being the first of its kind. What it’s like to play now? Well…

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The King of Fighters XV (PS4) Review

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Sometimes I don’t bother reviewing new fighting games for fear of people thinking I’m some sort of expert instead of the casual player I’ve been for the past… few decades, but given King of Fighters as a franchise has appeared so frequently on this blog (and in many different forms!) I thought throwing up a review of the latest entry wouldn’t go amiss… so let’s get to it!

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Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine CD) / Vampire’s Kiss (SNES) Review

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It’s time to admit something: I was going to review Rondo of Blood alongside it’s sequel Symphony of the Night last year given they’re packaged together but despite slowly but surely making my way through it I never did in the end because I lost the screenshots I took when I cleared the Symphony of the Night folder. Well, now with the SNES port of Rondo (known as Vampire’s Kiss in the UK, Dracula X in the US) on the latest Castlevania collection I thought “Perfect, I’d hate to leave it unplayed and now I have an excuse!” … Jesus, I was not prepared for the increase in difficulty found on the SNES version. So I’ll admit given I’d already completed a version of the game I spammed save states like some sort of bitch, whatever that means. So while most of the later game screenshots come from a “cheaty run” I can promise you I have played at least the original legitimately…

With that overly long opening out of the way: Let’s take a look at it/them!

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