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Archives for July 2019

Game Review: Brief Battles

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It’s not often that I really like fighting games like Super Smash Brothers, but I was very pleasantly surprised by Brief Battles. Just to let you know, the game is not titled that because the battles are brief (short in their time), but briefs (a term used for underwear) are very important in this game.

The game begins like a lot of combat/fighting games with a list of characters, and I don’t really remember much differences between any of them. The set up is you select your character, arena, and its the typical fighting game set-up.

Now, I can’t help but wonder if the fighting style which uses underwear (seriously and not seriously) is supposed to be a satire of fighting games. In the game, the fighters go for certain gift-boxes which reveal certain underwear of power. There is a toxic one that shoots toxic beams, a freezing one, one with fire…you get the idea.

The arenas are your typical stuff with platforms, but what makes things interesting is how you can jump on walls and climb underneath platforms. That is something different, and it is takes some getting used to. I would imagine that once you get used to it, you can use it to really out-wit your opponent.

You can fight your opponent in several ways, like there is one where you have grab more golden underwear than your opponent. Yes, I am not really laughing at this as a concept, but I like the idea of this.

In short, Brief Battles is funny and worth playing, and I’m going to give it four out of five stars. Check it out here if you are interested.

Game Review: Table Top Racing World Tour: Nitro Edition

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Racing. There’s nothing quite like it. And honestly, I’m not too big on racing games. I mean, I like playing Mario Kart, but honestly, in the choice of playing Table Top Racing World Tour – Nitro Edition, and Mario Kart, guess what I am going to play.

I know that because my son and I played Table Top Racing World Tour – Nitro Edition, and he wanted to play Mario Kart in the midst of a race. So what’s so bad about this game?

For starters, it feels harder and less intuitive than Mario Kart, and I don’t know if this racing game based on Nintendo’s flagship character is the gold standard of racing games. Let’s just say that it is. I found that when I started playing this game, I had to qualify to get to further levels, and I didn’t win my first game.

I am going to talk about what is good about the game. That first race has a track that is just plain awesome as it is imaginative. I’ll describe it as a bunch of items like road signs, gas cans, and other auto maintenance paraphernalia. I’ll just ask you to play it to see it for yourself, but I am assuming that you are racing toy cars.

It is weird that it took me this long to figure out with a game known as Table Top Racing means toy cars. I am going to rate it two stars out of five.

Game Review: Feather for Nintendo Switch and PC

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It seems like I have been reviewing a lot of games where you play a bird. I mean, there was that cool Vane game which had a one word title and where you flew around, and now there is Feather.

I suppose that I could do a comparison of Feather and Vane, and then say which is better, but I don’t want to do that. Vane clearly has some world with some weird backstory that the player won’t figure out the first time. Feather, it doesn’t really have that.

In fact, I think the point of Feather is not to have too much going on. I realize that most games have a complex backstory to really draw in the player, but some players are really frickin’ turned off by that. In lieu of that, Feather has you as a bird flying through rings.

I think that the point of this game is to relax the player, and honestly, there is some kind of relaxation effect that happens with the new age-y music and soaring through rings. Oh my gosh, I just realized that the Superman game for the Nintendo 64 is considered one of the worst games of all time because it is about flying through rings. Trust me, Feather is a Justice League all of its own.

Yeah, that was a monstrous pun. Still, I would have to recommend Feather for those who don’t normally play games. You know, it’s like one of those games that anyone can pick up and play, such as Angry Birds, and then not bother putting down.

So I’ll give it a four star review, but that is out of five. I would give it a higher review, but it is difficult to relax when you are finding yourself getting upset that you can’t get through the rings.

Game Review: Mechstermination Force

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I am not certain whether or not Mechstermination Force is meant to be a parody of classic “run and gun” games, but it doesn’t really come off as one. Perhaps it is an homage to games of the eighties such as Contra where you take control of a character who can shoot and jump with no limits on your ammo.

I can honestly say that I was not a fan of these “run and gun” games in the arcade or on the console. The reason why is these games are hard. Seriously, they are usually about shooting a big target that takes a lot of hits to kill it, while being shot by millions of bullets. Mechstermination Force is like that, and is very, very difficult.

Mechstermination Force is all about one man versus a giant robot. I’m not certain why giant robots are attacking, as I am guessing that world building is not all important in this game.

Needless to say, you play a lone soldier who has a gun as well as a guitar to smash things, and…so is this a parody or not? Well, it could be, but the gameplay is difficult, involving a lot of tricks to shoot things and bring them down.

Honestly, in the few hours that I give to review games, I found it very difficult to defeat these giant robots. Each one of them is like a boss at the end of a level, only there is no level that I could find.

I’m going to give this game two out of five stars. I would rate it higher, but the levels were just so dang hard. Yeah, call me a video game wimp, but serious gamers should love the challenge. Check it out on the Nintendo Switch.

Game Review: Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing

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I have to admit that Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing is not going to get a good review from me. This is because in the time that I played it for review, I just couldn’t get into it.

I also have to admit that some of the choices of this game feel strange to me. I will have to say that the title of the game, Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing seems to invoke a pirate game. It feels like one where you become a captain of a pirate ship, and, I don’t know, hunt down other pirate ships. Maybe you could customize your ship and crew, or something.

Instead, Bow to Blood is this game where you take control of an airship. Now I like the idea of a game with airships, because there is something kind of romantic about them. I think there is a book known as Airborn that really creates this world full of blimps, dirigibles, and all kinds of cool stuff. Just doing a search for “Books about Airships” has revealed all kinds of books that I would love to read.

Bow To Blood could have benefited from developing a world of its own. Instead, it brings us a world “in the future” where airships battle in some arena, “to the death”. I have no idea if the game develops this world, but I lacked the patience to go deeper than an initial playing for this review.

So what is the gameplay like? Imagine fighting in a blimp. Yeah, it’s pretty obvious why there are not more games with blimps. Airships are by their very nature slow, and I found that moving this airship around was slow and confusing. Not only that, I spent a few minutes just doing nothing because nothing was happening. This is a game that could have benefited with a lame tutorial, as I was just moving my ship slowly to the barriers of the area.

I did like the idea of shooting things, and there is combat to spare that requires the player to strategize given their limited airship maneuverability. Still, it would have been awesome to design my own airship, so customization would have been a saving grace to this game.

The title of Bow To Blood comes from this idea that your airship is powered by your individual lifeforce, or something. I have to give it two out of five stars, but if you want to try it out for yourself, it’s on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC for about $19.99 here.