Kirbyfan45

This might genuinely be the best non-Smash platform fighter ever made. It has everything you would want from the genre, whether you're a casual player, competitive player, or both. Some of the smoothest rollback you've ever played even with items on, solving a long issue this subgenre had with online, alongside crossplay on ALL platforms makes sure you can always play with friends. And the roguelike campaign is filled to the brim with fanservice via the character interactions and the enemies they pulled inspiration from. Alongside all the movesets, voice acting, an amazing recreation of the 2/3rds style often seen in cartoons, and so many more, this should be considered the dictionary definition of a labor of love and should be studied on how to make a licensed platform fighter.

Despite being an update to the original (That's advertised as a sequel for some reason), absolutely nothing about the original game was fixed. Slap as much rollback and crossplay on it as you want, this is still the same overly simple, insanely limiting, and horrifically one dimensional game as before. You can polish a turd as much as you want, but a turd is still a turd. Especially when compared to other fighting game releases at this time that have a heavy focus on expanding the characters and opening up many new combo possibilities, this is just a pathetic release that is the definition of overrated and overhyped. And no, "poor localization" and being the boy who cried censorship are not factors that hurt this game

As a fan of the original series, I admit I was interested in what this game would offer. Unfortunately, my interest would turn into disappointment as soon as I started the game. The awful voice acting put a bad taste in my mouth and the empty open world didn't do anything to help, feeling more like an excuse to extend the game time, something it would fail at as I would beat the entire game in just a bit over an hour, most of it containing spoilers. The story attached to the game is very basic, and while the writing can evoke that same wit as the original series, the voice acting doesn't do any favors. The minigames themselves, while sometimes decent, also often go into boring territory, or are RNG minigames (Which isn't good for a game like this) or straight up awful to play due to unresponsive controls and bad player feedback. The fanservice is also disappointing, as there are next to no real references to the old series, and the self destructing note gag isn't portrayed well since it's the same every time. Hell, sometimes they get stuff wrong like the MAD Agents that often show up. In the original series, the common MAD Agents consisted of a fat guy and a skinny guy. However, in the game, the skinny guy was replaced by Madame, a character who only appeared in one episode of the original series, and as far as I know, never again. I honestly did expect this to be better considering what I heard about Microids' other licensed games, and as a fan of Inspector Gadget myself, and there are still things I liked about the game. I was able to get used to Gadget's voice and Quimby's voice was also alright, and the voice actor for Dr. Claw was very convincing, doing a great impression of Frank Welker's voice. The art style was also appealing, even if some of the graphics do look atrocious. And the music was also pretty good. Unfortunately, those upsides can only do so much, as the game at best is seriously below average. Hopefully Microids learns from this and uses their experiences with their other licensed games like their Asterix games to create a great Inspector Gadget game that pays tribute to the original series, but as it stands, Inspector Gadget MAD Time Party fails as a party game and fails as an Inspector Gadget game, as disappointing as that may be

Graphics can only take you so far in games. And this is a perfect example. Yes, it looks fantastic and is super smooth, but if the gameplay falls flat, it becomes a waste of eye candy. And that is what DNF Duel is. A waste. It could have been good, but there were some just stupid decisions made. Like the one button specials, meaning you're limited to 4 special moves. One of them being a one button invincible DP. On top of that, the game is so set on these one button specials that even using the command input sit provides (Where the only benefit is waiting less for meter to recharge) can only be done via the special button, so you don't even get special move strengths! AND ON TOP OF THAT, despite them being normal ass special moves, they still require meter. I would understand if they were EX moves, but they're not. That makes no sense, why should I be locked out of playing the game for playing the game? Not that you could do much with them because the hitstun decay is so strict that you need full setups just to do basic BnBs, trying to do combos normally has a 90% chance of it prematurely ending. On top of that, the balance is piss poor. Why do characters have moves that basically cover the entire screen? Why is it that there is a character with a move that keeps you in block for 5 seconds and beats guard cancel? Why was there not a single nerf done in the patch?! Some of this would be excused if the combat engine at least gave you options to combat this, but besides a dodge roll, you get nothing. Not even an air dash, which would have been really useful against those long moves. The game doesn't even give you the benefit of air blocking, in a game where moves are as tall as the screen. And if you're out of meter, you can't do a guard cancel, which means you will get hit with a guard break because even though this was developed by a team who has made multiple games with a pushblock, this game doesn't have pushblocking. Nothing about this game is fun in any way, it's an exercise in frustration that gets overhyped because of how people view graphics in games as the be all end all. About the only good thing I can say about this game is that it has rollback netcode, but there are so many better rollback games you can play. Hell, I would rather play a delay based netcode game than this trash! Recap: Over simplified engine and missing mechanics lead to a frustrating game that shows the developers did not care in anyway, and how exploitable the FGC can be

Nickelodeon All Star Brawl does everything it needs to do for a great platform fighter as well as a great Nickelodoen game in general! Ludosity, despite having a limited budget, managed to knock it out of the park with this one! They were able to create fast paced gameplay that is the perfect pace to balance the strategy competitive players use as well as the chaos for casual players. Add some great and out there character picks such as Oblina and Powdered Toast Man, ALONGSIDE some amazing references that show that the devs truly love these shows and you can see why this game is amazing! The game also features rollback netcode, and while it could still use some work, for being developed by one guy, it is impressive so far. It's not just fights, you also have a Sports mode with its own rules as well as a simple arcade mode. Some might find the modes underwhelming, but I always played these kind of games in the main battle mode anyway. Even when we get to the sound design, things are.... Mostly great. Sounds are meaty, as well as cartoony, with a banger of a soundtrack. However, due to budget reasons, again, no voice acting. The devs are aware of this though, and if Nick is able to give the OK and budget for that, I will update this part of the review, but the lack of VA is something that is super hard to overlook. Still, we re-rise in the visuals, with bright, reference filled visuals with some expressive animations that will get you nostalgic. In the end, Nickelodeon All Star Brawl is a new standard when it comes to licensed platform fighters, and this game is just amazing, check it out when you get the chance

Spidersaurs has sooooo much potential to be an amazing addition to your Apple Arcade lineup. It has everything yuou could need, good character design, great voice acting, good gameplay, and a fantastic art style and soundtrack. And it was developed by the Contra 4 team, so what could go wrong?! Well, one fatal flaw that destroys any excitement I may have had for this game: The difficulty. Now I am not one to call a game crap just on one thing, but this fatal flaw causes a snowball effect or crap (So a crapball?). What is said flaw? The difficulty. This game is just way too hard. And I'm not just saying that because I'm bad, I legit think this game is way too hard. And I have proof! First off, the game just spams so many enemies and projectiles on screen, and is kinda jerkish with it. Enemies also throw out projectiles when killed because that's fun, including a long lasting gas that you will run into since you never expect it. I also notice that projectiles will appear from off screen or mix in with the background, so good luck dodging that. Also, your upgrades, which are usually cool and all, end up going down when hit and you lose everything when you die. Why is that an issue? Some bosses require certain weapons to kill them, so this was a bad idea to add! And speaking of dying, there's limited lives. In a game released in 2019. Unacceptable, I don't care what excuse you throw at me, this isn't the 80s. You are only wasting everyone's time, especially since there aren't even any continues. Game over and you are forced to restart the stage from the beginning. No. Just, no. These issues make the game too frustrating to continue playing and will usually end up resulting in a rage quit. And no, I could not find any difficulty options since that would require good game design. This game gets a kick in the crotch out of ten. It seems nice and all, but this game will do anything it can to screw you over, basically putting all that effort to waste. This game ****

Remember Nickelodeon Kart Racers? Well in this sequel, take everything bad about the first one, throw it out the window, add some focus, and you get one of the best turnarounds ever! Whereas Nick Kart Racers 1 felt super budgety, was unfocused, and was trying to bite off more than it can chew, you can already tell this sequel is more focused, as it is about the racing and one main racing mode done right! As the controls feel 10x tighter than last time, and with more variety thanks to the crew mechanic. Select specific characters for some buffs, and you get some intense variety not seen in other kart racers, and speaking of characters, the amount of characters is much larger in this game and covers much more of Nick's history! On the downside, while the graphics are definitely so much better, there can still be some parts that could have used a bit more polish, such as the character models. Also, cups still sometimes repeat races, which is sour, and the game still has 0 voice acting, meaning races are still super empty feeling. You can't have SpongeBob without Tom Kenny's voice coming out of him, you just can't! Still, this game improves so much and with the super low price on PC, I recommend you check this game out on PC

I have never seen a game get screwed up this badly! Seriously, this was a simple concept! Make a fighting game crossing over some of the IPs you worked on! ArcSys, why was that so hard? First off, you are STILL allergic apparently to making new BlazBlue assets, as all BlazBlue assets are still the same ones from the first game back in 2008! Even without that elephant in the room, there are still many issues before you even start playing! Like, why is the roster imbalanced between character count? Why does the character select screen ****? Why is this game so loud? And when you finally get into the game, you realize you're stuck with 2 and a half buttons to work with! What are you supposed to do with that? Doesn't help that hitstun decay is so bad, you can barely get off 2 loop reps! Basically, you get 0 combo opportunities no matter who you choose! Even if you want to get past this and just go for mixups and resets, you STILL run into issues! Like the lack of an arcade mode.... In 2018. Who approved this? And the fact that this is an ArcSys game and the online is about as smooth as dragging a rotten pig anus across literal lava! What you end up with is a game that plays super clunky and has no content to even try to back it up! As you get no modes either. This game is a travesty, and that is not even mentioning the DLC nonsense that happened as well. I understand seasonal content and all, but this game did it so poorly, as when the game launched, half of the roster was DLC. You have to WAIT and reasonably release DLC as you go on! Don't just dump that info on everyone! All this and you know why this game failed. Doesn't help that ArcSys gave 0 fricks about this game, as they never even attempted to fix this train wreck, only turning it into a meme with tank, and then just leaving it to rot. I say, good riddance this game was forgotten, and it was one of the catalysts in what I call ArcSys' dark age

If you went into this thinking you could get an interesting KoF spinoff on Switch, you are DEAD wrong! This game is an absolute mess in so many ways! First off, the whole idea of the game feels... Off. Now SNK wasn't unfamiliar with the female fighter cast, this happened over 20 years ago with Gals Fighters on the NGPC. Yet, that game somehow manages to kick this game's ass. That game featured the characters to have some serious charm with some nice humorous animations akin to Pocket Fighter. But here, it's just fanservice bait, like Mai's cow outfit and Kula having Angel's outfit. Meaning this game has no charm of the original. Doesn't help that the gameplay is basically nonexistent, as all the depth of a KoF game is gone. No more command inputs, no more crouching, no more holding back to block. This game just pries on being super simple and of course, that hurts the game a lot! What the result is that every character ends up having only one combo that'll be the only combo you will ever be using. That is it. That means there is no reason to come up with any strategy or even a single mixup. It gets boring in about 5 seconds. Doesn't help that this game somehow still ended up with some bad frame rate issues on Switch despite not looking too clean, KoF14 laughs at this game. Overall, this game just uses fanservicy content to try and hide the lack of anything good about it and I hate that. This game could easily have been a hidden classic if it went for the charm of Gals Fighters and kept the deep gameplay of KoF, but apparently that was just impossible for SNK and they just had an urge to completely muck it up. If SNK ever decides to go for this again after KoF15 releases, they better make it actually good!

Pretty visuals can only take a game so far, as once you get past that, you get an admittedly fun story mode, but the actual gameplay itself constantly works against the player, featuring refresh mechanics on special moves and the game just prematurely ending your combo, even if it wasn't that long. That and the fact that ArcSys is just allergic to good netcode, and there is basically no reason to pick this game up

Despite being a mobile game, KartRider Rush+ manages to be a fully fledged kart racer with all the modes you'd expect, like normal races, ranked matches, time trials, etc. The game features an easy to learn, but hard to master model with a high skill ceiling. And with a story mode that is (Almost) fully voiced, you will get the change to check out multiple karts in new game modes. Top that with the surprising balance, which allows F2Ps and P2Ps to be evenly matched in game modes, and you get a super balanced kart racer that can even rival Mario Kart. The series made a huge mark in Korea for a reason. Wanna take a break from racing? There are even minigames and a house you can attend to, allowing for alternate ways to play the game. With the game constantly being updated with new and unique content, there is always a reason to keep checking out KartRider Rush+

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

No. Just, no. No. Never. No. Stop. Enough. No. I'm leaving. I refuse. Go away and never come back

From the mastermind of Yuji Naka and his team at Balan Company, Balan Wonderworld is a game that, despite somewhat knowing what to expect, still surprised me with its creativity. Each new area I went to had new gameplay ideas that kept me hooked playing. That alongside the easy to pick up gameplay helped me get drawn into this mystical world with great CG cutscenes that spark a new limit in CG. Alongside some creative visuals using many different techniques, and a mystifying OST, it's hard to call this game anything but great!

A super faithful remake of the cult classic, SpongeBob BfBB Rehydrated is a must play for anyone who was or currently is a fan of the franchise. Even non-fans will be entertained by the gameplay, and with nostalgic music and visuals that set the standard for any future SpongeBob games, there is no reason not to check this game out on your platform of choice. I know I'm ready for more!