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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.

Game Review: She Remembered Caterpillars

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Nothing that I love more than a good puzzle game, and She Remembered Caterpillars is one, and even more. Yes, there isn’t a lot of action going on in the game, or is there?

I say that because the game isn’t really much, at least on the surface. I’ll do my best to describe the gameplay as best as I can. In each level, the player takes the command of these bugs that look like the sections of caterpillars. You can toggle between these sections, and their color determines where they will go.

If you look in the illustration above, you will see bridges on the pathways. If you are a red bug-section, you can cross a red bridge. If you try and cross a bridge of another color, the bridge will become a drawbridge that will not allow you to cross. There are also gates that will block you if you are a certain color. The object is to get the bug sections to those white circular platforms so you can move on to the next level.

Of course, it is easy, at first. Then suddenly, and I forget what level where this happens, but things get very complicated. Especially when the bridges become secondary colors like purple and orange, and this is when you have to merge sections to become fusions like something out of Steven Universe.

She Remembered Caterpillars feels very familiar, and maybe it is because other puzzle games follow its format. The solution to these games is always figuring out what moves to make before you do them, sort of like a complex Tower of Hanoi puzzle.

Remember at the beginning of this review when I said there might be more going on with this puzzle game? Well, at the beginning of each level, there is this bit of texted story that sounds very tragic. It sounds like the dialogue you would say if someone were about to die, or some kind of tragedy.

I am guessing that this story is what is supposed to keep you invested in solving the puzzles, and even though it is not needed, it does succeed at making the game better.

On the whole, I’m going to give She Remembered Caterpillars four out of five stars. If you love these types of puzzle games, it will be much higher, and lower if you do not. Such is subjectivity of the genre.