RoberTime

Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers, known as Quack Attack in Europe, was a game I found a few years ago and decided to give it a spin this month. And to be honest, according to the mixed reviews, I actually didn't find it that bad. Goin' Quackers takes place with Donald Duck and his friends watching TV with Daisy as a reporter for news, talking about a temple of the evil magician Merlock. Eventually she gets captured by him and it's up to Donald to travel around the world and save her. However, he is on a race with Gladstone Gander to do so, but this has no bearing to the gameplay for some reason. First off, the way the game looks. Everything looks cartoony just like the classic Disney series with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc. And can I say, I find Donald Duck to be one of my all-time favorite Disney characters. Love his character, voice, and bad temper of course. But let's talk about my first impressions when booting the game up. When I got to the main menu, the first thing I thought was "Oh hey, this is literally Rayman 2 but with a different font and theme". Same option menu, same file management, etc. But when you think about it, it's an obvious answer seeing how both these games were made by the same company, Ubisoft. The nitpicking of the presentation for me is that some animation sequences are rather choppy like Old School Runescape, and so are some of the models of the game. I would say that Donald Duck is modeled okay though. And for some unknown reason, he wears a sleeping cap during boss levels? Gameplay in Goin' Quackers is pretty simple. There are four worlds each with four levels and a boss battle. That's 20 levels as far as I know, unless there are bonus ones which I don't know of, as I am writing this review right after beating the game. The level design is actually pretty slick. Half of the levels are laid out exactly like Crash Bandicoot with linear pathways and collectibles. The other half is quite interesting because they are 2.5D platformers which remind me a LOT of the modern Donkey Kong Country games. Each level has three toys from Huey, Dewey, and Louie which Merlock enchanted, as well as a partially hidden piece of a boss image near the end of the level. Collecting all four pieces in a world enables the boss level to beat to proceed to the next world. I really love the level design for most of the levels. The style of them really takes me back to childhood when I played similar games like that. (I actually didn't play this game back then) SPOILERS AHEAD I actually want to talk about the final boss battle, as this was the most frustrating part of the whole game, and at the same time, the most WTF one. Merlock transforms into a flying beast and chases you down around a ring of platformers above lava. He is shooting fire at you as you do so, usually in straight lines and even horizontal ones. When I first came to this level, I thought "OH MY GOD, this is literally the boss battle of Sanctuary of Rock and Lava!". That was from Rayman 2, the same as the main menu. I don't even know why they would choose that path for the final boss. But boy was it frustrating. Actually, the only serious part of the battle was the second phase (All bosses have three). As there are pillars of fire dotted around the platforms. However, as I try to be careful and move around them, I would STILL get hit. The hitboxes are HORRIBLE in this final boss battle. I've managed to beat the second phase twice before playing the third and it was much easier than the second as the pillars were gone. Then beaten the game. That was a Geometry Dash breather right there. SPOILERS OVER So for conclusion, the game is fun if you enjoy Disney and N64 games from childhood. But I didn't find this game from childhood and I like it! But still, the game is a bit scratchy with a portion of it, however not the majority. The final boss is still garbage. It's a game with fun gameplay, collectibles, and linear, non-mazey levels that give straight-forward progress. STORY: 7/10 PRESENTATION: 7/10 GAMEPLAY: 8/10 VALUE: 6/10 (As per ****) OVERALL: 7/10

I have beaten this game many years ago and I'm currently doing a playthrough of DOOM II when I thought "Hmm, perhaps I'll talk about my opinion on this game while I'm at it". I mean I usually review games after I've finished them so that I can give all of the information I know from the start to endgame. DOOM is a game developed by id Software and started out as a DOS game for Windows 95 twenty years ago. It was considered to be the most played game at the time with its innovative graphics and gameplay. DOOM takes place at a few moon bases where an unnamed marine, known to many as "Doomguy", travels and defeats monsters who have spawned from Hell. He also travels into Hell to get to the root of the problem. DOOM isn't like your typical first-person shooter. There are several choices you can do to move around, such as the keyboard per se, as I use that to play the game. You can still use the mouse, however it's a bit difficult to navigate levels. But that doesn't mean the controls are wonky and terrible. It's still pretty easy to move around. You can't jump though, but you can run across gaps to "Jump" from platform to platform. But this gimmick gets focused heavily in the fourth episode exclusive to "The Ultimate DOOM", which I have for Steam and iPhone. So let's talk about the combat features, such as the weapons and monsters. According to the story, all of the monsters you have to fight are something out of Hell, for example, there are things like Imps, Demons, Specters, and barons. Oh, and let's not forget about the lovable "Cacodemon" you can find later in the game. Monsters like imps and demons are easy to kill, but at the end of the first episode, you come across some Barons of Hell which are pretty difficult to defeat, as they attack fast and require many hits to kill. You'll also find more difficult monsters, like the Cyberdemon, who shoots rockets like a maniac, as well as the final boss which is the "Cyber Demon" or sometimes known as the "Spider Mastermind". The weapons you can use in the game are pretty sick to use against these monsters. That's why I have a blasted good time playing this game because of all the violent things you can do with the weapons and monsters. At the start of the game, you have a pistol, which is the weakest weapon in the game. Later, you can pick up a shotgun which is much greater than a pistol. Then there are other ones out there like the Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, and even the Chainsaw. There is even a plasma gun you can find in secret areas, and in even more secret areas, you can possibly find the greatest weapon in the game; the BFG9000. Also known as the "Big "F***ing Gun". Now for the miscellaneous bits: I really LOVE the soundtrack. It really matches the mood in some levels. My favorite one of the bunch is the music in E3M1 called "Hell Keep" where it really fits in with how you are going to have a serious time in Hell. That song is called "Untitled" by the way. As for graphics, they were good at the time. You couldn't really make anything better twenty years ago so this was pretty spot on. In later ports, there was a bonus episode called "Thy Flesh Consumed" where I don't really know how it follows the canon of the main story, but the levels of this episode are pretty tricky and technical with unique gimmicks and perhaps a few other things. The only major complaint I would give to the game is trying to solve puzzles to beat certain levels. I mean when I'm trying to find a button or key, it usually takes me five minutes to move on. Sometimes if I DO find something, it's just a lousy secret area. But as I kept replaying the game, I knew what to do and I have fun again. So yes, DOOM is one of the greatest first-person shooters and one of the first ever. I consider DOOM to be my most favorite first-person shooter ever, aside from Half-Life 2, which I love as well but I guess deem that second best. DOOM is a total pass for me. The gameplay is great, the story is great, the music is great, the vast majority of the game is great. STORY - 9/10 PRESENTATION - 10/10 GAMEPLAY - 8/10 VALUE - 8/10 OVERALL - 9/10

I decided to play de Blob this early Spring season in relevance to the invocation of Spring. I remember playing the first level with a friend about eight years ago and I really loved it. I found this game again a few months ago and bought it to call it my own, and I think I was proud that I chose to play this again... First off, de Blob is a third-party Wii game published by THQ and developed by Blue Tongue. The plot of the game takes place in a world called Raydia inhabited by Raydians. Most of the action comes from "Chroma City", a colorful and bright populated capitol of Raydia. Then came alien invaders called "INKT" which consists of a horde of pitch-black beings led by Comrade Black who wants to steal all the color of Chroma City. Now it's up to an agile Raydian named Blob. To restore color to the world with the help of a special resistance called Color Underground. I really love the idea of the story, and that's why I picked this game to play. In the game, you play as Blob and you are supposed to re-color buildings and fix conflicts to proceed through levels. There are "Paint-bots" which are filled with colored paint which can change the color of Blob to paint whatever color he is. They come in the three primary colors, and can even be mixed to secondary colors with multiple unique paint-bots. But you have a specific health meter that increases when you attain paint, but slowly goes down when you use it. There are also minions of INKT that attack with ink to turn Blob black. When black, he loses paint. When the paint meter is at zero, he loses a life. So make sure you are at a sufficient amount of paint. Now for the levels, there are ten long levels in the game, each with their own modes and bonus levels if you get a Silver or Gold rank from beating them. In each level, you are timed. I have never let the time run out, but I assume you have to start the level over if time runs out. But that is one of the least of your worries, as if you resolve problems in levels, such as painting specific items or completing challenges, you can get many time bonuses to add to the time limit. Moving on, each level has several "Sectors" and in most cases, you must gain enough "Paint Points" to open a gate to the next sector. You can get Paint Points for painting buildings and clearing challenges. This is pretty much how every level is in the game. Now let's get to the good stuff before I begin nitpicking, first off, the style and presentation of the game is possibly the best I have seen in a nostalgic Wii game like de Blob. The art style is great, the story is great, and I love all the cute names and designs of characters and areas. But the music though, I'm pretty sure it's the focal point of what made this game overwhelmingly great. This game has some of the best music I have heard in a video game. During gameplay, while you color the world, the music slowly gets bigger and bigger. At the start of each level, there is no music, but as you progress through, it gets bright and exciting. The music has been programmed so well that I had a blasted good time jamming to it as I was playing. My favorite music came from the Chroma Dam because it was so happy and full of energy, especially when Spring is on its way as I'm typing this review. Music is outstanding in this game! I NEED MP3'S OF THESE MASTERPIECES Okay, now for the things I hate about the game. But just because I'm saying these, doesn't mean this game is crap, look at what I just wrote above! First off, the platforming controls are pretty wonky. Usually when I'm trying to jump from platform to platform, it feels like I'm keeping a marble on a flat board. It usually takes me 10-40 seconds to get a few meters of jumping distance correctly if that's the case. The second thing, the levels are long and I'm not really a big fan of them, as they can be rather tedious. And that's how it was later in the game. The game was slowly becoming tiring for me when I kept playing it. Although the graphics and music are nice, the game doesn't really keep me on the TV for hours, compared to my time playing Geometry Dash, where that game too is colorful and has great music. I could only play two levels at a time and then take a break before I move on. But other than that, this game is amazing for a third-party game. The gameplay concepts are like nothing I have seen in a regular platformer. I'm finding this the most original third-party Wii game I have played. And the music is so well done, that I could replay levels to go all DJ as I play the game. Haha. Controls and level length is partially blurry, but overall, this game is a pass! I'll give de Blob 2 a shot one day if I can find it for an appropriate system. STORY - 9/10 PRESENTATION - 10/10 GAMEPLAY - 7/10 VALUE (As per ****) - 8/10 OVERALL - 9/10

Scooby Doo! - Classic Creep Capers was one of the first ever N64 games I have played. I haven't got far enough in the game back then due to frustration, but 10+ years later, I have beaten the game and suppose now is time for a detailed review: Scooby Doo! CCC is a game starring one of Hanna Barbera's top icons Scooby Doo, developed by Terraglyph Interactive Studios, and published by THQ. The game has several episodes featuring monsters and foes from classic Scooby Doo! episodes, such as the Black Knight, Snow Ghost, and the Witch Doctor. The game is quick and requires you to solve puzzles and gather enough items for the gang as clues and trap elements to halt the monster and unmask him. So let's move on to Gameplay: You control Shaggy who is followed by Scooby Doo and must find items within the area while avoiding suspicious entities that can scare Shaggy and Scooby. But gameplay is actually pretty blurry. The whole time, a static camera is pointed somewhere within the map, and when you move out of its sight, the camera jumps to another position in your new area at a new angle. This can be VERY problematic at many points of the game... First off, when the camera changes position, you still move but every turn you make on the control stick is RELATIVE to Shaggy's current angle he's moving at. It resets whenever you stand still. And this can be really annoying when being chased against monsters or dodging obstacles. Secondly, having a camera pointed in random areas of maze sections of the map is incredibly confusing. The game has simple mazes, but the camera makes it 20 times harder. I even missed a few crucial items which I spent a half hour searching for, only to look up a walkthrough to know where they are, and they were in maze segments. The camera is pretty much the main reason why this game has mixed reviews. Moving on, when you are trying to avoid obstacles that are dangerous and horrifying, shaggy loses a chunk of a meter below a picture of his head, which is displayed on the top-left corner. I like to call this the "Amnesia Sanity Meter" because it reminds me of Amnesia The Dark Descent how you need to take care of your sanity. When the meter runs out, you reset at a specific point of the episode. But there are Scooby Snacks lying around the map and you can pick them up to restore the meter, as well as a "Kitchen" room in each level where you can get food. However, there are many ridiculous moments when trying to negotiate obstacle zones. Firstly, there are a few things that don't even look scary, yet Shaggy is a **** to them. Like moving sawmill logs and clockwork gears. But perhaps my most WTF moment in the game is at the start of the third episode with the Witch Doctor where you enter a lounge and there are moving wooden cutouts with a door on the other side. With my sanity meter dangerously low, thinking that area was harmless, Shaggy got scared and I started over. OK REALLY? Not to mention the hitboxes on many hazards are pretty bad. And combining this with the camera, the moment it switches or if I can't see it, I would get scared out of nowhere. It's almost impossible to get past certain areas without getting scared once. So let's cut the crap and explain a few admirable points to the game. First off, I like it a slight bit mainly because it was part of my Childhood which came with a whole N64 during one Christmas day. I was pretty excited, and I was happy to be playing again long later. The story and themes emulate the actual TV show to a T, and I love the nostalgia coming from that. To conclude, the game is really choppy with gameplay and the main reason is the camera that ruins it for many of us. I only played it again recently just to see what the rest of the game was like. Oh and by the way, if I remember correctly, the game is controller pak powered and requires saving on there. But you probably won't need it as the game is quick. I'm really wishing the game was longer as I cleared it all in one afternoon. I don't really recommend this game, just another poor N64 title in the vast bunch. STORY - 6/10 PRESENTATION - 7/10 GAMEPLAY - 4/10 **** VALUE - 4/10 OVERALL - 5/10