SnappyGR

Snappy Game Reviews - Utawarerumusou? The hard to pronounce and just as difficult to type Utawarerumono series has managed to pique my interest ever since it released on the PS4 because of its gorgeous artwork and also because it looked like a turn-based strategy game like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. The thing that kept me from ever picking these games up was the fact that everyone kept bringing up how these were mostly visual novels with tidbits of gameplay thrown in between. This by itself wouldn't put me off as I've played and enjoyed many visual novels in the past but the theme of feudal japan war drama didn't win me over. However, the idea of beating people up in feudal japan by mashing buttons did seem like something up my alley, which is why I felt excited about Utawarerumono: Zan, a hack-and-slash game that reimagines the events of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. The game starts right away with some exposition about the main character who one day finds himself wandering around a snowy area without any memories of his past or himself. Just as he was about to get killed by a monster he's saved by a girl wielding mysterious powers named Kuon. She names the amnesic man Haku and they set off on a journey together. Right after these two characters are introduced you're thrown into a bug extermination mission with two other fellows only to have another shift of events right after. I knew beforehand that there would be no way someone could pull off an abridged version of sorts of a visual novel that would make any sense for someone unfamiliar to the source material but I had no idea how jarring it would be. The plot kept jumping everywhere and made no sense after the first few chapters, at this point I simply stopped trying to understand what was going on and simply enjoyed the gameplay and the visuals. Zan is clearly targeted to fans of the series but despite this, there's still a lot to appreciate in this hack-and-slash. As stated before, Zan is an action game where you slice and dice hundreds of enemies at a time in the same vein as Dynasty Warriors and other musou. Most of the time you'll be chaining combos with the square and triangle buttons while avoiding taking damage to build up your chain meter and reap bigger rewards. Said rewards might be standard power-ups, materials or money which can be used in a gacha system to obtain new equipment or randomly improve the one that you already own. By taking down enemies you'll also build a special gauge which allows you to do either a special attack that varies depending on which character you're controlling at that time, for example, Haku has a very helpful healing aura while the righteous warrior Ukon has a super fancy slice attack that inflicts a ton of damage. There's also a finisher technique that every character has after reaching level 25 but by then you'll be nearly done with the main story anyway so you'll only put it to good use if you dabble in the extra modes or decide to play the game a second time on a harder difficulty setting. While the gameplay was mostly what you'd expect from a game of the genre I was really surprised by the mission variety on offer in Zan. Besides your typical getting from point A to point B and killing a given amount of a certain enemy type there were a couple of different missions that really stood out such as the one where you're running away from a giant bug and another one where you have to destroy vents in order to freeze a lab room. All of this high octane action is presented in a very slick and smooth 3D engine that never faltered during my time with the game. It might not push the hardware to its limits but highly stylized games like Zan don't really need that level of detail to look great. Beating the main story won't take you too long even if you're not familiar with the genre, we were able to complete all its nearly 20 chapters and see the credits roll in about 5-6 hours. The game was a lot more forgiving than other games in the genre, despite having a bit of a difficulty spike towards the end I'd say I had a harder time keeping up with the plot. Once you're done with the main game mode you might want to max out every character and unlock a couple of extra things such as BGM's in Free Play (which can be played online with up to four people) or go through the story once again in a higher difficulty, other than that there are a few in-game achievements that you might want to look out for and little else. Utawarerumono: Zan was a surprisingly fun albeit confusing for someone unfamiliar with the series. Aquaplus and Tamsoft really outdid themselves in terms of mission variety and character move-sets making Zan my favourite of their vast repertoire without breaking any new ground and at the cost of feeling somewhat formulaic. Now if you excuse me, I need to get myself ready for when Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen comes out.

Snappy Game Reviews - Timeless collection As a huge fan of the genre, I’m always happy when a new shoot-em-up (SHMUP) gets released nowadays. There used to be a ton of them back in the good old days but sadly that’s not the case anymore. We have to look back to the end of this golden age to find a pair of rare Japanese arcade exclusives developed by VISCO Corporation known as VASARA and VASARA 2. These two SHMUP’s that came out in the late ’90s and early 2000s are known as the swansong of the company and had never made its way out of Japan, until now. QUByte Interactive decided to bring these two cult classics to the modern age together with a couple of extras like a new game mode and online leaderboards in the VASARA Collection. The action takes place in feudal japan with characters based on real historical figures but in all honesty, you don’t need a detailed background story to any of what’s going on to enjoy either VASARA game. All you need to know is that you get to choose one of a few warriors, each with different stats, and you get to fly around in a flying hoverboard with all kinds of weaponry to take down everyone that dares to oppose you. You get to pick either of the two games from a straightforward menu system. After making your selection, you can tweak the settings of the game itself, such as the difficulty and the number of lives or even toggle the screen filter. There’s also the option to play either of the two classics in TATE mode which is the preferred way to to it, at least on the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode. The original VASARA has three characters which are your usual balance, speed and heavy types that you would usually find in arcade beat em ups. Through its 6 stages, you fly around while taking down enemy soldiers, mounted cannons and giant mechs. The rate at which things come flying towards you is pretty insane even on the lower difficulty level and at times you’ll have to rely on bombs to clear out the screen. The other way to clear oncoming fire is by using your sword, this can be done by holding down the fire button and releasing it at the right time. This mechanic is essential to survive and to also build your score as you’ll get a score multiplier for each enemy that you strike down at once. By collecting diamonds that fly around the screen as things blow up you’ll build a vasara gauge, once it’s full you’ll get a supercharged sword attack that trashes everything on the screen. VASARA 2 is more of the same but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The sequel bolsters a slightly larger cast of playable characters and two game modes, one of which doubles the number of stages present in the previous entry. Gameplay-wise it’s pretty much identical, you still collect power-ups to boost your attack power and pick up diamonds to build your vasara gauge, or should I say gauges. Yes, there’s three of these now and there aren’t any bombs to save you this time around. This makes the gameplay even more intense as there’s a bigger emphasis on collecting diamonds than before, adding to this the bigger cast and larger number of stages makes VASARA 2 the better game in my opinion. As for the new game mode, VASARA Timeless features procedurally generated stages where up to four players can aim for a high score that utilizes a slick 3D engine to spruce up certain elements from both VASARA games such as characters and bosses. Seeing that there are no continues in this game mode, it makes sense for the difficulty to be toned down but since every stage is procedurally generated there really isn’t anything really exciting going on at any given time. VASARA Collection is a true love letter that brings two cult classic SHMUP’s to the west with all the bells and whistles you’d expect while also adding a brand new game mode and online leaderboards. Even though VASARA Timeless didn’t manage to grab my attention for more than a few minutes, I still find that this package has great value to fans of the genre and people looking to discover more about what made old school SHMUP’s so great.

Snappy Game Reviews - Team effort It’s been a fair while since the last time I played a brand new tie-in game to a movie. These used to be very popular in the ’90s and early 2000s but slowly started to become rare occurrences as most tie-ins weren’t exactly game of the year material. As such, it was a surprise for me to find out that ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’ that had just come out in theatres this summer had a videogame, a virtual reality one no less, that was worth recommending. The Angry Birds Movie 2: Under Pressure VR focuses on couch co-op fun that people of all ages can enjoy, as long as they’re able to assemble a crew of their own. The Angry Birds Movie 2: Under Pressure VR takes place during the part of the movie where the crew leaves Bird Island in a yellow submarine to investigate the source of an imminent threat hailing from Eagle Island. This is quickly set up for those who still haven’t seen the movie by a few of the segments taken from the movie. While on your journey there you’ll be on the track of a sea creature that stole Leonard’s favourite crown, it’s a minor detail but it helps to give the levels some feeling of progress towards an end goal. Each stage is a race against the clock to collect and secure the biggest amount of treasure while keeping your submarine in one piece. The player wearing the headset is the captain of the crew and as such has full visibility over what’s going on inside and outside the submarine. He’s also the one in charge of the Magnashot, a slingshot that can load itself with all sorts of items and even crew members. The Magnashot controls double as the controls for firing the submarine canons that can collect treasure laying at the bottom of the sea or destroy debris depending on the loaded ammo type. Keeping the canons loaded at all times is crucial to succeeding and requires a lot of teamwork and communication especially if you’re aiming for a high score. The rest of the crew members have an important task as well, as only they can grab explosives necessary to destroy certain hazards as well as keeping the deck secure from any dangers. This may sound like utter chaos, and it sure is, but you can rest assured that every little mechanic is introduced in a very comprehensive matter. When you’re playing by yourself things can get just as, if not more, chaotic than with more players as you’ll constantly have your reflexes and micromanaging skills tested as you try to make ends meet as both Leonard and Red. The same gameplay mechanics apply to when you’re playing on your own but I honestly feel like there should’ve been some tweaks made to make things less frustrating when you’re playing on your own. Small changes like adding a crosshair to the Magnashot to make aiming easier or perhaps letting it grab pigium (pink explosive treasure) without blowing them up would’ve made for a more balanced solo experience. Getting Leonard’s crown back should only take you a couple of hours but you’ll still have a couple of challenge stages to tackle. There is a total of 30 stages in the game where, in good old Angry Birds fashion, you’ll aim to obtain three stars in each. Getting three stars in every stage is a daunting task to attempt on your own but it shouldn’t be too difficult with a group of friends. When it comes to co-op games available on the PlayStation VR, The Angry Birds Movie 2: Under Pressure VR is easily one of the best available right now. It’s gorgeous, brimming with personality and a blast to play with friends. If you plan to explore the ocean on your own, however, be prepared for a tough as nails multitasking experience.

Snappy Game Reviews - At the speed of light Lightfield is a new hyper-futuristic racing indie game developed by Lost in the Garden that tries to break the mould of how to make an anti-gravity racer by introducing a brand-new mechanic with a lot of flairs. It might have felt like a bizarre experience at first but the result is quite refreshing despite missing a few beats here and there. Lightfield ’s main concept is a hybrid driving style that mixes high speeds with a parkour mentality. For you see, in this game you take control of a flying ship that can snap to any surface. While snapped to a surface your ship moves a lot faster than it does while flying but you’ll need to combine both forms to be able to navigate these cleverly designed courses. And this is where the parkour comes in, by snapping and unsnapping you’re able to pull off a variety of tricks that give you short boosts as you make your way through the course. This makes for some satisfying gameplay with you constantly having to switch between forms to maintain high speeds, regardless if you're driving horizontally or vertically. By winning events or simply collecting small bits scattered on the ground you gain experience that is used to unlock the next planet. The game can easily be split into three core categories: Racing, Time Trials, and Exploration. While the first two are rather self-explanatory the exploration mode is something that you don’t usually find in what essentially is an anti-gravity racer. While exploring each of the seven planets at your leisure you’ll be looking for several stars that are scattered throughout these huge maps. The fact that this mode doesn’t force you to meet a certain time or avoid taking damage means that you have a great opportunity to experiment with the parkour nature of the gameplay to try and find certain alternative paths or practice tricks while getting familiar with the track itself. This is why I always made sure to do this mode before any of the other two as I felt like it made a difference to learn the ropes before actually getting into the competitive events. Besides collecting stars there are also three treasure pieces hidden in each map but unlike the stars, you don’t have any sort of help to track these small pieces which becomes a real issue since these planets are packed with little nooks and crannies. Once you master all seven planets you'll unlock their nightrider versions, which are variations of the original tracks with a couple of changes and a different colour scheme. The game also features both a couch co-op mode up to four players as well as a friends-only online system up to six players, though the developers confirmed that they'll add regular matchmaking shortly through a free update. I only find it strange that there aren't any events that rely solely on the trick system. Sure, you'll need to use it to make it to the end of each race but I feel like the game could've had a mode similar to the old Tony Hawk games where you'd have to earn a certain amount of points by performing tricks before the time ran out. On the presentation side of things, Lightfield is pretty decent. Every single planet has a distinct sci-fi look and feel to it with each of these being massive playgrounds. The use of simple textures brimming with subtle light and colour effects makes for a pleasing aesthetic as a whole. I especially love the small trail of light that every ship leaves behind as besides looking quite neat they also serve as helpful guidelines to optimize your route. The only blemishes here are the recurring times where the game freezes for a second which kept throwing me off every single time and the lack of v-sync, at least on the regular PlayStation 4. On the other hand, the soundtrack is a bit of a hit or miss. The traditional idea of having one recognizable piece of music for each track is replaced in favour of having a selection of electronica music from a couple of albums composed by the Viennese Zanshin that's constantly playing. Because of this not only did the locales feel a little less memorable but so did the soundtrack itself. I mean, sure it's all a matter of taste and my opinion will likely be different from yours but I'll single out a couple of tracks just so you get what I mean. For example, I'd like to have more chilled music like Summer Night Steam or Jinxed Sphinx and less experimental music like Acbde Acbde or Solrenichi. Thankfully there’s an option that lets you skip tracks so you can simply ignore the ones that you don’t enjoy. Overall I was decently pleased by what's on offer here but it’s not as cohesive as I would’ve liked. Despite its technical issues and a couple of odd design choices, Lightfield is a unique racing game that successfully introduces a brand new hybrid racing style that works surprisingly well and demands a lot from the player to master it.

Snappy Game Reviews - Super INK Boy The indie scene is filled with 2D platformers but recently we got introduced to a new one with a somewhat bizarre mix of concepts. Imagine if you will, a game with the pixel-perfect challenge of Super Meat Boy combined with the eerie exploration of The Unfinished Swan, that’s pretty much what Zack Bell's INK is. INK is a very minimalistic 2D platformer where you control a simple white square and have to get to the exit in each of its 75 stages by either simply getting there, destroying all enemies or collecting various keys to unlock certain gates. What makes it stand out though is the fact that every single level starts as being completely invisible with the player having to fill in the blanks, for you see, this colourless white square that you get to control is bursting with colourful ink, quite literally. By simply sliding around, both on the ground or on walls, these will be covered in ink of assorted colours, double jumping sprays out ink blobs in all directions and even death can be a useful method of uncovering a stage as your progress doesn't get reset with each death, instead each of your attempt builds upon the previous one making the progression feel fun and rewarding, at least for the most part. The game does a good job of easing the player into this mishmash of concepts by having the first dozen or so levels being rather easy but once you get past the first of the three bosses in the game you'll start coming across hazards such as deadly spikes and moving blocks that can crush you. The thing is that since you're unable to see anything before you spray it with ink you might run across some unexpected deaths, especially if you have twitchy fingers or a lesser amount of patience. This wouldn't be a big issue if the wait between deaths wasn't so long. With each death, you must wait about two seconds in between respawns, it may seem like I'm nitpicking but in later stages, it starts to get annoying as you'll be constantly dying and retrying. It's a good thing then that the game is rather nice to look at. It might look simple but I found it extremely amusing to look at all the colours pilling on top of each other as a result of my actions. The soundtrack is also quite nice with some moody ambience tunes that contrast surprisingly well with the chaos of some of the more advanced challenges. INK is unfortunately quite short despite the previously mentioned 75 stages as some of these are extremely easy straight lines to the exit that take only a few seconds to complete though as with any game that highly relies on skill your mileage may vary. To extend your playtime a little bit, you may want to try and grab all 20 medals hidden on your way to the exit of some of the stages. These, as pretty much every other thing in INK, need to be all coloured up before they can be collected and are usually well hidden in tricky spots. INK is a refreshing take on an oversaturated genre that manages to combine two seemingly contrary genres to create something quite special, I just wish there was more content in here.

Snappy Game Reviews - Unlimited bullets Everyone knows that I love a good space shooter, be it a classic like Gradius and R-Type or more modern ones like Astebreed or Ghost Blade HD. Each of these games manages to take me into this strange zone where time stops and all that registers in my brain are flickers of light coming from the barrage of enemy bullets. My blatant love for this genre only made me more surprised to learn that there’s an indie ‘shmup’ series on mobile developed by a Canadian studio, Doragon Entertainment, that was making its first appearance on consoles, namely on the Nintendo Switch. I’m happy to report that Danmaku Unlimited 3, the latest title in the Danmaku series, is currently the best bullet-hell space shooter that you can buy on the Nintendo Switch. You get to pick between two different game modes right off the bat, those being the beginner-friendly Spirit Mode and the more advanced Graze Mode. While these two share the same stages and enemy layout if you choose the same difficulty level they provide somewhat different gameplay experiences. In Spirit Mode, enemy fire turns blue after the firing ship gets destroyed, by colliding with these blue projectiles you’ll increase your trance gauge which, in turn, will help you enter the awesome trance mode much faster. When activated, your firepower gets an incredible boost and enemy fire turns into gems, collecting these will add to your Graze counter which makes an enormous difference if you’re aiming for a good high-score. As for Graze Mode, you’ll have to become familiar with enemy and bullet patterns as in this mode enemy fire won’t become harmless and you have to rely on the Graze mechanic. Basically, in this risk/reward system, you’ll earn Graze points by flying your ship ever so close to enemy fire, on top of helping you gain more points it’s the only way to build your trance gauge, unlike Spirit Mode. The game feel and controls are spot on, you’ll be blasting enemies and steering away from danger with ease even if you’re using the Joy-Con analogue stick which honestly surprised me. Even though the game adopted a weapon system similar to the one in the Dodonpachi series, one weak fire mode with added mobility and another stronger but slower one, I didn’t think that I would be able to control the ship with this level of precision. On the presentation side of things, we have a very competent game, both visually and also in the sound department. The smart use of colours for the ships and oncoming fire means that there was never one instance where I lost track of my ship nor got hit due to a bullet blending with the background. Everything looks beautifully crisp whether you plan to play it on your TV or on the go. Still, on that note, arcade lovers will really appreciate the included option to play the game in TATE mode. Danmaku Unlimited 3 stages are accompanied by guitar-heavy tracks crafted by BLANKFIELD, these do a fantastic job of getting you pumped to take down massive fleets of enemy ships. Even if you’re well versed in the genre you might have a tough time beating Danmaku Unlimited 3 on your first go even playing on the more lenient Spirit Mode. This high difficulty, as well as the fact that there are only five stages in total that can be beaten in roughly 30-45 minutes, might be a deal-breaker for some but fans of the genre know that unexplainable feeling of beating a ‘shmup’ in 1CC, which stands for one-credit clear. Besides mastering the main game modes and aiming for those sweet high scores there are also a couple of unlockable weapon types for meeting certain criteria, such as grazing a given number of shots in a single combo. Danmaku Unlimited 3 ended up being a fantastic surprise that manages to tick pretty much every box on how to make a fun space shooter. While I think that there could’ve been a little more work put into each of the stages backgrounds as they’re little more than eye candy this ultimately feels like a small nitpick when you have a bullet hell of such a high pedigree. A must-have for ‘shmup’ fans and a decent introductory game for newbie’s looking to get more familiar with this sort of gaming genre.

With the massive success of hardcore platformers such as Super Meat Boy others soon followed it's footsteps in an attempt to bring something new to the table while trying to capture some of its success. One of such games was a 2011 mobile game called League of Evil, a more humble twitch reflex platformer where your goal is to get through challenging levels to get to the end and punch an evil scientist in his ugly evil face. League of Evil has recently been ported to consoles and the result is decent for a budget game but you could get something much more inspired by spending a tad more. As previously mentioned, in League of Evil you have to get through bite-sized challenging stages to punch the evil scientist that awaits you at the end of every single stage. These have different backdrops and hazards but ultimately it all feels like it's been made with a bog-standard level editor making the whole experience a bit uninspired. You have a couple of extra objectives such as locating a briefcase that's hidden somewhere in every stage and beat each stage as fast as you can to obtain a three stars rank. The gameplay in itself is fine, you can perform jumps, double jumps, walls jumps and punch enemies with ease. The feel of the game is adequate for a platformer of this kind and despite a few unfair level design choices such as most of the leaps of fate ending up with your character being impaled to death the gameplay might as well be League of Evil's strongest suit. The game has 140 stages plus a level editor for you to enjoy but not one of these 100+ stages stuck with me after I was done getting the platinum trophy in the game, which took about 4 hours. As a bonus the game features cross-buy between PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, however, it does not feature cross-save between the two platforms. League of Evil is a budget hardcore platformer that's more suitable for portable consoles or mobile devices because of its simplicity. If you have no issues with touch-based controls you can grab the free version for Android which has pretty much the same amount of content.

Snappy Game Reviews - A wizard’s first steps Recently released on PlayStation VR, Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition is the updated version of the original Waltz of the Wizard that released on PC in 2016. A virtual reality experience that puts the player in a room of a tall tower full of magic and wonder where players are invited to experiment with all sorts of fantastical things. Within seconds of starting up the game, you’re put in front of a table with a cauldron, a bunch of weird-looking ingredients and a talking skull, among a whole lot of other things that surround you. With little to no guidance, you’re allowed to go crazy and do pretty much whatever you want within that room, from coming up with new magic spells to picking up a club and bashing everything around you or even shoot a giant eye that shows up from time to time outside your windows with a crossbow. There’s a lot of detail in the objects that you can interact with which makes them easy to stand out from one another and easy to understand what they are from afar. The sound, on the other hand, is certainly lacking with no music whatsoever and distorted voices that I found to be hard to understand without the use of headphones. Besides messing around with the items inside the tower room there are also these orbs that resemble snow globes that emit certain sounds for you to replicate on a xylophone, by doing so you’re transported to somewhere outside the tower where some sort of event is playing out. Only one of these manages to stand out in my opinion and that’s the dungeon. In the dungeon, your goal is to navigate a sort of labyrinth full of traps and dark knights to activate three orbs, by doing so, and kneeling in front of a pedestal, you’re rewarded a cylinder that slows time to a crawl and that can be used in one of the towers activities. This was easily my favourite part of Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition and I wish that it could serve as the base work for a virtual reality RPG. The game makes use of two move controllers to interact with the objects, the hand tracking isn’t perfect as one would expect from a PlayStation VR game that uses Move controllers but given the more relaxed nature of Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition it didn’t cause a lot of frustration. I attempted to play both seated and standing up and both methods produced similar results, for the most part, they worked fine but picking up objects from the floor or slightly off to the side was always a challenge. Despite this, there was such a feeling of wonder and discovery that I still pushed forward through these issues to try and interact with everything. I even ended up discovering certain secrets by accident, such as playing catch with the knight after levitating the vast majority of the items in the room. As previously mentioned, Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition is the updated version of the original game with more activities and objects for you to interact with, such as new spells, new magic potions and a few minigames. I’m not going to list every new little bonus added to this version but it took me roughly two hours to get all trophies and decide to end my journey as a wizard. Ultimately Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition is a fun and engaging experience that makes for a great VR showcases for all ages. While none of its ideas is truly fleshed out there’s always something within sight for you to wonder about what will happen next in this magical world.

Snappy Game Reviews - Limited appeal Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s is the most recent offering from publisher Sometimes You, a kickstarter project that’s a sort of dating sim visual novel that revolves around finding ways to distract girls to obtain their, err, underwear. Yes, underwear. This might sound alluring or creepy depending on the type of person that you are but despite having this very particular goal Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s is unable to pull off an engaging experience. The game’s prologue starts off by setting the background story of the main character, Kenji Kojima. A young man that left his hometown to live and attend university in the big city. He quickly finds himself struggling to make the ends meet and ends up picking odd jobs to keep his boat afloat. Through these experiences, he got to talk and meet a lot of people and developed quite strong social skills, even with the ladies despite still being single. He still did well enough though to develop his little theory about women, according to Kenji a woman’s underwear can tell you more about who they truly are than any normal conversation. The said theory is put to the test in four different scenarios where you’ll have to engage with four different clients in specific ways to steal their panties and get to know them better. By helping the girls solve their problems you’ll slowly get to know a little about what’s going on with their lives and what moves them on a more emotional level. I didn’t find myself attached to any of the characters as the game doesn’t give itself enough time to properly develop them and the dialogue isn’t particularly engaging, especially due to many typos in the English translation. The way you advance in the game is pretty standard for its genre, it mostly boils down to multiple choice actions that are sprinkled in between the character dialogues and simple point and click mechanics to interact with the backgrounds. The order in which you do certain things will affect how things play out, how many panties you’re able to collect and which one of the many endings you’ll get. At times this felt like borderline trial and error but the zany nature of some of the endings made it sort of worthwhile. You can keep track of all of this in the chapter select screen which is helpful if you’re trying to complete the game in its entirety. The one redeeming factor in Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s is its aesthetics. The art direction hits the nail right on the head as the characters and backgrounds look like they’ve been lifted from a 90s anime into the modern days, backed by a superb synth-heavy soundtrack. The voice acting for each of the girls was also a pleasant surprise considering that this is an indie game. I wish that I could praise Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s to high heaven but I honestly can’t. Despite loving the artwork and the vibe that it emits there just isn’t enough, both in terms of quality and content, in this package to justify spending your time and money. If you’re in it for the platinum trophy then go ahead and get that done, otherwise, you’d be better off looking somewhere else.

Snappy Game Reviews - Down the rabbit hole It’s been a whole year since the remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s first game The Silver Case launched overseas for the first time. Based on the original PlayStation game by the legendary SUDA51, published in 1999, this bizarre visual novel still managed to blow me away even 18 years after its original launch. As a SUDA51 enthusiast, I was able to pick up several references from more recent Grasshopper Manufacturer titles such as Killer7 and No More Heroes which made the already compelling story even more of a pleasure to experience. Despite it being a work of fiction, The Silver Case has a very distinct late 90’s suburban Japan vibe to it and those who resided in the 24 Wards felt like real, unapologetic people. I believe this speaks volumes about both the quality of the original script and the English translation as well. Back when I first picked up The Silver Case I had no idea that there had been a sequel released for mobile phones in 2005 but I was extremely happy to hear that there were plans for a worldwide release of the remaster of The 25th Ward: The Silver Case as well. Given the embryonic state of mobile gaming in 2005, I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t at least a little sceptical about the quality of the game but my doubts quickly dissipated as I made my way back into the world of Kamui Uehara and rejoined the Heinous Crime Unit. Without going into spoiler territory the story picks up almost half a decade after the events of the original game, the sequel envisions a dystopian city where there’s a very peculiar community. In the said community, the most privileged have access to this new lifestyle, a “perfect” city, practically without negative aspects and completely without criminal activity. However, those who live there must obey the rules that have been set for this perfect society. Whoever makes the smallest mistake isn’t punished like in a normal society, instead, they’re instantly shot or turned into some sort of brain dead being. These events are stringed together by rather bizarre moments and twists that make for a very enjoyable and very dark, unpredictable story only pushed even farther by the mostly skewed colour palette and strange, at times even purposely ugly character portraits. Although this is a Goichi Suda game, only the first scenario was written by him with the two others being written by Masahi Ooka and Masahiro Yuki. While the first scenario has the typical over the top SUDA51 style that could be compared to some of Quentin Tarantino’s works the other two are less chaotic and more concise chapters in the message they want to convey. The 25th Ward: The Silver Case mainly explores themes such as the moral and ethical issues of corrupted authorities that should defend the law and protect the people and how in turn that mould the behaviour of ordinary citizens based on the social hierarchy. The game is a traditional visual novel with very minimalist interactions thrown in throughout each of its nearly 20 chapters which are divided into three different scenarios. This isn’t a huge deal if you manage to get into the insane plot and, just like in the original game, ignore the typewriter sound that the text scrolling makes. At times you’re allowed to roam freely through long corridors, talk to some characters and even enter keywords but these usually feel like stilted interactions that are only there for the sake of giving the player something to do. The 25th Ward: The Silver Case is ambitious, but its ambition doesn’t quite manage to achieve the same brilliance as its predecessor. It still shares the same interesting lore and I’d argue that some of its characters are more charismatic than most of the cast of the original game but there’s a certain “something” that’s missing on top of the inferior soundtrack and overall plot. Despite this, The 25th Ward: The Silver Case still is a fairly interesting visual novel and a small piece of Grasshopper Manufacture’s history, which goes without saying that this is yet another must-play for any SUDA51 fan.

Snappy Game Reviews - Hacker for a day Access Denied is a no-frills puzzle game developed by Stately Snail and released by Ratalaika Games where your goal is to crack each of its 36 devices through logic and observation. The game lets you choose each device from a menu in a very straightforward way and from there its just you and some sort of contraption. These start very easy with the first few serving as little tutorials on how to rotate the devices and interact with them but eventually, things get more tricky with some logic conundrums and mathematical problems for you to solve. While this might sound like a chore to some of you there's a lot of fun in working towards those 'A-ha!' moments after you've realized a solution. There's also plenty of variety in how you're meant to solve these puzzles but I'm afraid that by going into more detail I might spoil your experience. Presentation-wise it looks great for what it is, the whole game is set in a workbench-type environment and the devices emerge from the centre of a table that's right in front of you. While you're working towards the solutions you'll constantly hear the sound of rain coming from the outside. I can't say that I'm a fan of ambient sounds and as such, I ended up turning the sound down and listened to music instead. Speaking of things that are far from ideal in Access Denied, the controls. The controls are cumbersome, to say the least playing on PlayStation 4. Your only mean of interacting with the devices is by moving a pointer across the screen using the control stick. This is far from ideal and kind of baffling because of the DualShock 4 features motion controls AND a trackpad, both of which have been tremendously used in another PlayStation 4 puzzle game, Statik. I'd love to see a sequel to Access Denied made in VR with a more intuitive control scheme. All things considered though, Access Denied still manages to offer a couple of hours worth of entertainment to fans of the genre at a budget price.

Snappy Game Reviews - Jydge Jydy In a distant future seriously affected by crime, only one man can save the city and force criminals to taste the sweet taste of justice. JYDGE, based on the world and gameplay style of Neon Chrome, another 10tons Ltd. title, sees the player in the role of the titular cybernetic super police Jydge who lives and breathes for the safety of the citizens of its city in what’s a clear homage/parody of Judge Dredd. While Neon Chrome featured a somewhat rogue-like approach with randomly generated levels to a top-down twin-stick shooter, JYDGE goes for a more traditional approach with fixed level layouts and linear progression. Stages are split into several chapters and must be progressively unlocked by obtaining medals in previous missions. You’ll be awarded one of these by simply completing any given mission successfully but that won’t be enough to get through the whole game, you’ll have to worry about completing a plethora of secondary objectives as well. These range from not taking any damage, to completing the mission under a specific time, amongst many others. Said secondary objectives aren’t the most original and given the dwindling number of total missions end up feeling more like padding than actual extra content, with that said they help to mix things up through this very short venture. Besides completing these objectives you’ll also need to look out for coloured keys that open specific doors and wads of money that you can confiscate to unlock a wide variety of upgrades back on the Department of Jystice. These can be broken down into two categories, passive skills known as cyberware augmentations for the JYDGE and weapon modifiers that change the firing mode of the JYDGEs trusty gavel. Technically speaking, the game is fairly consistent if a bit overly simplistic, just like Neon Chrome, uses the same buildings and models that are earlier. They are far from the centrepiece of JYDGE but are always good to help the player to distinguish everything with no scenery around. Its soundtrack helps to push this cyberpunk aesthetic that the game tries to portray even further and despite being able to achieve its goal it was purely forgettable. In the end, I felt a little underwhelmed by JYDGE especially given how much I appreciate both Neon Chrome and the recently released Time Recoil, all three games developed by the same company. There are certainly some redeeming qualities to JYDGE such as its humour and the wide variety of objectives and upgrades to unlock but in the grand scope of things, these aren’t enough to make it stand out amongst its twin-stick shooter peers.

Snappy Game Reviews - Yōkai are everywhere The Nintendo Switch has been the new home for a lot of rogue-likes, there are literally dozens of these games available right now and each one of them manage to bring something new to this niche genre, be it by approaching it in a distinctive style or by introducing some new element to the old and proven formula. One of the most recent releases is Yōdanji, a port of a mobile title that was released by KEMCO back in April that took the very core of rogue-likes and applied a fresh coat of paint in the form of a Japanese folklore theme. Gameplay wise Yōdanji is as basic as it gets for a rogue-like. There’s no story mode to speak of, instead, the game goes for a more straightforward approach by having you delve into traditional procedurally generated dungeons filled with deadly yōkai for you to take down through turn-based combat, treacherous traps and many collectables to help you along your way. Even though killing enemies yields no experience points there’s a levelling up system in place. You can improve your magical creature by finding and taking down Hitodama, by doing so you’ll be rewarded with HP and SP upgrades on top of being able to either upgrade one of your basic abilities or learn a brand new one. Making your way to the 10th and final floor of this dungeon is no easy feat and failing means starting from the very beginning so you should carefully approach every single encounter and explore thoroughly to stock on food and health items. Beating a dungeon while finding three magic scrolls will reward you with the possibility to summon a brand new yōkai. While the visuals might’ve been apt for a mobile game it’s hard to ignore how disappointing the game looks when compared to other offers on the same system. The yōkai artwork and chibi sprites can be quite adorable but the dungeon backdrops are uninteresting and the menus and UI are extremely basic. You’re better off sticking with the handheld mode for this one as the game only looks worse on a bigger screen. There’s also the matter of the soundtrack, or better the lack of it. There aren’t a whole lot of music tracks which means that things get extremely repetitive in no time. I found that the best way to enjoy Yōdanji was to simply mute the game and listen to something else like a podcast while exploring. The game makes its debut on consoles with all the updates that were released so far for mobile devices as well as having native traditional controls on top of the original touch controls. This means that you can access either Yōkai Picnic, an easier version of the main mode, or the endless Challenge Dungeon right from the get-go, all of which with online leaderboards which is a nice bonus. The game has a fair amount of content but despite the large amount of playable yōkai, 21 in total with varying status and abilities, the gameplay can get rather stale during longer play sessions. Despite its overly traditional approach to the genre, Yōdanji is a competent and inexpensive rogue-like dungeon crawler with an interesting Japanese folklore flair that will surely keep you entertained in short spurts if you manage to withstand its harsh difficulty.

Snappy Game Reviews - Not my pink wafer! I’ve played a lot of shooters over the years and it might as well be one of my favourite genres now that I think about it. There’s something about the high score chase, flickering coloured lights and the difficulty that is usually associated with these kinds of shooters that I find extremely amusing. Entering the fray on the PlayStation Vita we have Son of Scoregasm, a new top-down twin-stick shooter developed by Charlie Knight, a man who clearly knows what makes a shooty game fun. While Son of Scoregasm might resemble other twin-stick shooters there are a few unique aspects that manage to make it stand out. One of the said aspects is the plot of the game. If you play through the tutorial you’ll learn about the driving force behind you going on a shooting onslaught is rather amusing. Space baddies are threatening the planet Earth and have managed to steal the tasty treats of its king (yes, Earth has a king in this universe) in the process. Your task is to take the fight to them and return the king’s snacks to their rightful owner. To do this, you have to get through all 28 stages in the game, which are branched into seven paths with a boss battle at the end of each. By clearing a stage you’ll be given the option to take an easier or a reward filled harder path. These stages are sort of arenas in the form of basic shapes filled with many dangers that will constantly try to take you out, if you’ve ever played Geometry Wars you’ll have a basic idea of how these are laid out. The key difference is how the game handles its multiplier. I felt incredibly confused after beating the first stage with 0 points, but once I realized I had to use my ship’s pulse to build my score everything clicked and added an extra layer of complexity to the game as I kept replaying stages to try and maximize the enemies that I could take out with the pulse instead of using regular bullets while balancing the two. Despite not being technically impressive, Son of Scoregasm manages to be visually appealing. There’s always a plethora of colours bursting on screen, be it enemies, hazards or your own bullets although I’ve never felt like there was a lack of clarity of what was going on. I never felt like I was dying from not being able to tell what was going on and that’s a sign of a well-designed shooter. Still regarding the presentation of the game, the music composed by Jon Marwin, on the other hand, was quite underwhelming. There are only a few tracks to speak of and while they’re quite alright none of them stood out giving me little reason play the game with the sound on which was a real shame. Shooters usually have that one track that you usually associate them with and that’s not the case with Son of Scoregasm. The game might seem a bit short on content but some of the stages of the hardest paths are utterly relentless, I’m looking at you Still Mean. Besides this, you can try to collect all the medals in the game by beating a certain high score in each or try to get through the game on a higher difficulty. There are also online leaderboards for each stage as well as a full trophy list but it sadly is missing a platinum. Son of Scoregasm won’t win over any newcomers to the twin-stick shooter genre but its score system is very clever which enhances the addictive nature of these kinds of games, add to this the portable form factor of the PlayStation Vita and a ton of both enemy and stage variety and you have the recipe for a successful last shooter hurrah on Sony’s handheld.

Snappy Game Reviews - The short end of the twin-stick Inksplosion is a fairly standard top-down twin-stick shooter from Petite Games, the creators of the Midnight series of video games. In Inksplosion you play as a skull that can shoot a plethora of different gun types to survive hordes of incoming enemies while aiming for the high score. The Classic Mode is the first mode you get access to and it’s quite frankly the most engaging of all three modes available in the game. In this mode you have to clear randomly generated stages with a given gun, be it the slow yet powerful rocket launcher, the standard Normal Gun or the ol’ reliable shotgun with its spread shot. Surviving these stages isn’t a big deal for the most part as enemy waves are incredibly small and they don’t take a whole lot of damage to be destroyed. You do have to pay attention to your health gauge as it can be depleted quite fast in later stages and dying means having to start from the very beginning of the game. The gameplay can get fairly hectic because of how the stage gets covered in ink from your bullets and oncoming fire from every single enemy. This visual detail is far from original but it works well in a top-down shooter like Inksplosion. Over in the sound department, there are a couple of nice tracks by Levi Bond. Once you get good at Classic Mode you’ll unlock another mode which is the Arena which works like a Survival Mode but barely adds anything to the main game mode. Besides this there’s also a harder version of Classic Mode but, again, it doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the primary game mode. Old school arcade games like this relied on high score chasing and that can be a goal in itself as well in Inksplosion but these will only keep your interest for a little while due to the lack of variety in general. Trophy hunters will rejoice however as Inksplosion is a cross-buy game and features separate trophy lists, meaning that you can get two platinum trophies (one of PS Vita and one on PS4) in about 20 minutes. Inksplosion is an OK top-down shooter for anyone looking for a cheaper alternative to some of the more expensive and meatier games in this genre but the lack of modes and gameplay variety hurt the game in the long run.

Snappy Game Reviews - MagiCrafting (abridged version) Borealys Games, a new studio based in Montreal, composed of industry veterans and passionate young developers came together to pitch their very first project on Kickstarter, Mages of Mystralia. Best described as The Legend of Zelda meets Harry Potter, this promising concept captivated a lot of people’s attention and became a rousing success which led to the full development of the title. The game starts off by setting up a little bit of the backstory of the world and some of its characters through the form of a little cut scene, I do suggest checking out the webcomic to get a better grasp of some of the events as it adds some details to the story written by the bestselling author Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting. The world of Mystralia was once one of magic and wonder until the events that led to the troll plague when a young mage was named king of the realm but was consumed by his studies of spell crafting. This ushered in the era of the Marquis, where magic is forbidden but despite this, there are still remnants of magic in the world, such as the main character Zia. Zia is a young girl that sees herself forced to learn how to put her powers to good use after accidentally burning down part of her village. This is the starting point to an enchanting, yet typical, fantasy tale. The magical world of Mystralia is brimming with colour and looks charming, almost as if you were playing an animated movie. There are a few instances of objects popping in, clipping and for some reason, the shadows go haywire during some of the cut-scenes which can be a bit distracting but for the most part, this is a very technically impressive game considering that it’s been built using Unity. The lovely visuals are accentuated by the fantastical orchestral soundtrack, composed by Antoine Vachon, which helps to elevate the experience to a whole other level. The real selling point of the game though is the unique spell crafting system and how the world is built around it. For you see, Zia gets a hold of a Spell Book very early in her adventure which allows her to cast electrical, fire, water and wind magic. Each of these serves a different purpose, for example, electrical attacks are your go-to close-range attacks, fire and water are good for ranged and area of effect attacks respectively and finally, the wind is reserved for more defensive skills such as shields and magic barriers. Each of these can be further customized through the use of runes with different effects, which can be obtained through story events and can also be found in the wild while exploring. Eventually, you’ll be able to change elements, add additional effects, chain spells to create combinations or even name your own spells. All of these gameplay elements come together to build an action-adventure game quite reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda but that’s very much its own thing. It strikes the perfect balance between combat and puzzle-solving with a bunch of bosses sprinkled in but it’s not without its shortcomings. For as much praise as I gave just now regarding the spell crafting system I think that the enemies could’ve used a little more depth, as most of them can be brute-forced by simply using the first couple of runes given in the game. Speaking of brute-forcing, I was also able to overcome a couple of puzzles using this very same method, or at least it felt like brute force to me. It’s really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but I think it’s something worth noting. The journey in Mages of Mystralia is considerably compact with my first playthrough clocking just less than 10 hours total, it’s paced is quite nice though as it keeps pointing the player to the next main objective without really forcing you to go in that direction. With that said there are some instances where you’re forced to backtrack to a specific point that you’ve come across before with a new rune or spell so that you can advance in the game. Being this brief also cuts down short the potential of the spell crafting system, you can explore the world at your own leisure after beating the game but you probably won’t come across many new ways in which to use your spellbook other than solving the puzzles that you've might have missed your first time through. Mages of Mystralia is a fabulous action-adventure set in a lively fantasy world that is a joy to discover. The story and characters might not be the most original but the deep spell crafting system works more than makes up for it, it works wonderfully and really kept us experimenting both in combat and while trying to solve the game's inventive puzzles. I wish there was more of it to keep me messing around with my spellbook but what is there is still a very meaty and overall enjoyable experience, so grab your wizard hat and start practising.

Snappy Game Reviews - That familiar rush There are a whole plethora of anti-gravity racing games nowadays trying to capture the essence of the great classics such as F-Zero and WipeOut, with the latter has recently resurfaced on the PlayStation 4 the idea of a new F-Zero is sadly still pretty much dead in the water. While this seemingly endless wait continues though, I’ve had the chance to play a couple of indie games that tried to fill this gap, such as the Fast Racing Neo and now the slick Redout developed by the Italian studio 34BigThings. Redout is a new anti-gravity racing game released in early 2017 that’s recently seen the light of day with some extra content, dubbed Lightspeed Edition, on consoles such as the PlayStation 4. Despite being an anti-gravity game, Redouttakes a more traditional approach to how it handles its primary mode. As soon as you start the Career mode you’re asked to pick one ship from any of seven racing teams in the game. These range from the usual well-balanced ships to the slower sturdier ones and finally the faster glass cannons. Each of these ships controls beautifully with a very intuitive default scheme and many controller options, you’ll be sure to find one that you enjoy. You can further increase each attribute of your ship by using the in-game currency to do so or compensate for certain shortcomings of your favourite ship by using active and passive power-ups. While these make for some interesting combinations I feel that it also defeats some of the brilliant simplicity that the genre is known for. The Solar Redout Racing League is broken into four classes of ships, each with a set number of events of a wide variety of racing modes. This may be one of Redouts strongest suits as the number of modes and events is simply staggering with the Speed and Boss events being amongst my personal favourites. In Speed events your goal is to try and keep your ship’s speed above a certain number for as long as you can, with that time being deducted to your total lap time, Boss events, on the other hand, work like endurances of sorts, with each of the tracks of a single location are pieced together with portals making for very long, and also very exciting runs where a single mistake can mean having to start all over again. Redout is a real joy to play. The AI is challenging but mostly fair, the track design and backgrounds of each of the seven locations are very distinct from one another and brimming with small details meaning that you’ll never get tired of going through the same tracks over again, though I would’ve liked to see a wider range of locations given the vast number of tracks on offer. The blistering sense of speed comes through even on the regular model PS4 at its sub-60FPS due to how the visual effects accentuate all the action going on screen. The original soundtrack is also worth noting with some great EDM and techno tracks that will push those bass-heavy speakers or headphones with its full 5.1 surround sound support. The game is also packed with a ton of content. The 35 tracks of this Lightspeed Edition of Redout make up for over one hundred events in Career mode, on top of this, there are Free Race, 2-Player Splitscreen and Online modes. The main mode will most likely be enough to quench your AG thirst but in case you’re interested in picking up Redout for the online you better bring some friends along with you because as of writing this review the servers are pretty barren and the few people that show up online seem to only be there until they manage to get the single online trophy that Redout has. Speaking of trophies, the game comes packed with a friendly platinum that’ll be a joy to unlock for fans of this genre. Redout: Lightspeed Edition is a fantastic tip of the hat to the anti-gravity racing classics, it’s absolutely gorgeous, plays like a charm and it’s packed with a great deal of content. The upgrade and perks mechanics are ultimately an unnecessary extra layer of complexity but these small issues are often forgotten as soon as you get on the race track and hold on to your controller for dear life hoping you don’t blow up your sweet ride on the first set of turns.

Snappy Game Reviews - Clenching through space Snappy Game Reviews - Clenching through space Bullet hell shooters are plain fun, aiming for that high score while feeling like a champ for making everything on screen explode while being showered by enemy fire. This to me is pure gaming bliss and I love “gamey” games, as such, I had a wonderful time with Ghost Blade HD. Ghost Blade HD has a straightforward plot that doesn’t add much to the game, being a shooter that doesn’t detract from the game though. There’s an AI named Shira that was built to protect the residents of Mars but after some thousands of years have passed it all goes haywire and Shira becomes Evil Shira and it threatens the existence of the entire universe. In the Main Game, you take control of one of three ships throughout five stages with a distinct boss at the end of each one to take down Evil Shira. Stages and enemies have enough variety to keep the game from feeling repetitive but to be honest you’ll be spending most of your time looking at the enemy fire and trying to dodge it. There are three difficulty levels, with Easy being extremely generous with how when you’re about to get hit the game automatically deploys a bomb so you won’t die until you run out of bombs and Hard being, well, pretty challenging with enemies being more durable and shooting an insane number of bullets. With that said, I found that Normal strikes the perfect balance between challenge and fun, you’re still pretty vulnerable as taking a single hit will destroy your ship. There’s also a neat risk/reward system in which if you get close enough to a bigger ship and take it down while in a certain range you’ll be rewarded with more points than usual (you’ll hear a chime if you’ve done it right). The soundtrack is certainly one of the highlights, having a little bit of both old and new. It harkens back fond memories from 90’s shooters like DoDonpachi with tunes heavy on synths while also to throw in some modern ones that kind of remind me of Ikaruga, that’s certainly not a bad thing. As for lasting appeal, besides the Main Game (which can be played with 2-Players simultaneously) which depending on your skill will take about 30 minutes to get through there’s a Training Mode where you can practice any stage or boss at your leisure and a Score Attack Mode which features a unique stage made up of what seems to be sections of stages from the Main Game where you try to get the best score with infinite lives. Most of my time with the game was spent hunting for trophies, as Ghost Blade HD boats a full trophy list with a platinum trophy. Getting an x599 multiplier on Hard in any stage had me clenching my teeth in a sort of pleasing way, I was truly getting challenged and it felt amazing once I finally beat that challenge. I commend 2Dream re-releasing this Dreamcast hidden gem on current-gen systems, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to experience the amazing SHMUP that is Ghost Blade.

Snappy Game Reviews - Wake Me Up INVECTOR is a brand new PlayStation 4 exclusive rhythm game, developed by the Swedish based Hello There Games, that focuses solely on the work of a single Swedish artist, Tim Bergling. While the name of this Tim fellow may not ring any bells, his alias will surely be familiar to most of you, he’s none other than the DJ and record producer Avicii. Despite being fairly familiar with both Hello There Games previous works and, to some extent, Avicii’s music portfolio I’d be lying if I said that I came into INVECTOR with high expectations but I’m happy to say that my doubts were completely destroyed by this fantastic game. INVECTOR has a pretty straightforward structure despite how unorthodox its gameplay is, but I’ll go back to talking about the structure of the game before getting to the real meat and potatoes. There are 22 tracks split into 5 different worlds that you can play in one of three difficulty levels, with the toughest, unfortunately, being locked from the start. This means that players used to extremely challenging rhythm games might not feel as engaged in the experience right away. The progression in the main mode feels great with each world being composed of fairly distinct tracks that helped to keep this 2-hour journey fresh to the very end. After beating specific songs, you get to watch short animations of a pilot named Stella and her journey through space in search of candy, these honestly add little to nothing to the game but since they’re so short it wasn’t a huge deal overall. The gameplay of INVECTOR is quite ingenious. You get to fly the previously mentioned spaceship in several landscapes such as outer space, sprawling cities and lush forests while tapping buttons to the beat of the music. The brilliance of it comes in the variety of gameplay sections, three in total, and how they merge to create something quite special. One moment you might be flipping to the rhythm inside of a triangle while the next you’ll be, sliding left to right and jumping gaps trying your hardest to stay on point just before flying off the track in an on-rails flight mode where you have to go through hoops to keep your combo going in order to get the highest grade possible. All this might sound overly simplistic, and honestly it kind of is, but I find that the best rhythm games are those that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of their skill level, and fortunately INVECTOR gets that as well. The better you perform the faster your ship will fly along the track with mistakes bringing you back to a sort of comfort zone where you’re able to get back on your feet and build up your combo once again. This is more of an exciting and fun journey through fantastic vistas than a hair-pulling hardcore endeavour. The good-feel vibes of the gameplay are severely heightened by the superb visuals and extremely clean UI. The game adopts a low poly 3D look to it with neon lights coming out of every corner bursting with colour without being overly distracting. The end result is incredibly slick and smooth even on the standard PlayStation 4 model. Hello There focused exclusively on the work of Avicii for the soundtrack of INVECTOR and to be fair they’ve handpicked a great selection of tracks with plenty of variety that shouldn’t scare away players who aren’t fans of Avicii. I came into the game only knowing a handful of Avicii’s songs and was surprised by how broad his music is, I had the wrong impression that he was yet another DJ focused on EDM (to be fair that seems to be the most popular) but I quickly realized how wrong I was and got to enjoy the tunes quite a bit. Regardless though, I honestly believe that the gameplay alone is strong enough to get you into the groove regardless of your taste in music. Beating the game won’t take too long if you just want to go through it once but there are some incentives to give it a bit more playtime. Besides having a local multiplayer mode there are also online leaderboards and a full trophy list with a platinum trophy that’ll surely take a fair while to beat. Despite considering there’s enough content to justify the purchase I was expecting a bit more of it given the launch price tag. With that said though you’d be doing yourself a disservice to skip INVECTOR if you’re a fan of rhythm games or a fan of Avicii’s work in general. Whether you decide to raise the roof on your own or to throw a party with your friends with the local multiplayer mode you’re sure to have a wonderful time with INVECTOR.

Snappy Game Reviews - Acid Trip I truly miss the early days of the golden age of indie games, I have fond memories of playing those timeless classics that despite seeming extremely simple were brimming with new ideas sometimes even mixing genres to make something truly special. Expand, a game by Chris Johnson & Chris Larkin, made me feel like I had just gone back to those times. At first, it seemed like this incredibly basic mostly monochromatic maze game where you have to navigate to make it to the end, but Expand‘s simple concept made for quite the experience. As such there’s very little text in Expand and you learn everything you need to know through experience. You can move along white surfaces, black surfaces act as walls that can expand or contract that, for the most part, are harmless unless you get crushed by them and red objects mean instant death and should be avoided at all costs. With this knowledge that gets passed to the player during the introduction, you’re free to explore any of the initial four sections of this black and white world. This sense of freedom is rather welcoming in a game like this though it might make for some difficulty spikes depending on the order that you go through the game. Each of the previously mentioned sections has a given number of challenges for you to overcome that revolve around the same basic idea of navigating safely to the end of the stage. Once you get all four segments a fifth and final area will be unlocked that will put all you’ve learned to the test. For a game only comprised of simple shapes and few colours Expand never got boring to look at nor to play, this is because of how inventive each maze is. Through the use of shifting perspectives and clever transitions, the game can keep your attention at all times and makes you want to keep playing just to see what comes next. This is heightened by the beautiful and eerie soundtrack composed by Chris Larkin. It somehow manages to keep you relaxed even in the most frustrating bits through its soothing tunes. This trippy journey should take little more than 2 hours to come to a close but despite being this short I think it strikes the perfect length, I felt completely entranced during my time with the game and by the time I got through the final section and started going through the credits sequence I felt wholeheartedly satisfied. Expand is also a nice little treat for trophy hunters, despite not featuring a platinum trophy, as you can get every single trophy by simply getting through to the end. Expand is one of those games that I feel like will sadly fall under the radar for a lot of people due to its simplicity but trust me when I say that this is something that you must experience for yourself to truly understand how ingenious it is as a whole. Great original presentation with some fantastic music pieces and clever, if a little simple, puzzles for a small price makes it an easy recommendation.

Snappy Game Reviews - So close, yet so far The End is Nigh is a brand new hardcore adventure platformer by Edmund McMillen, the man behind such classics such as Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. In this game, the player takes control of a one-eyed blob named Ash who’s one of the few beings to survive the end of this world. Tired of feeling lonely, Ash decides to venture out into what remains of this world in the hope to build (yes, build) himself a friend from other people’s remains. This post-apocalyptic world is broken into over a dozen different themed zones, each comprised of single-screen levels for you to master. Since Ash is missing any kind of limbs he can only rely on two core abilities, jumping and hang on to ledges by his eye socket, yes, the fact that the main character is missing an eye is integrated into the gameplay. The more limited array of moves makes for an overall more cautious and methodical approach to each and every platforming challenge which felt quite refreshing. This was far from my wrongly preconceived notion that The End is Nigh was going to be more of the same Super Meat Boy style of gameplay with a sombre tone. Each screen felt like a little self-contained puzzle in the grand scheme of things and more often than not I would find myself analyzing the whole stage, looking for ledges that I could grab on to and learn enemy patterns before making the first move. This doesn’t detract from the complexity of the level design, in fact, I’d go as far as to say that the ones in this game felt more well balanced, cohesive and fun to me than the ones in Super Meat Boy while retaining the same high pedigree platforming and tight controls. With that said though, the game is still quite the endeavour. Aside from the first world that serves as a tutorial to get things going than anything else, The End is Nigh will put your nerves to the test with extremely tricky platforming bits and insane enemy placement. Throughout my 10 hour playthrough though none of the stages felt cheap or unfair. In fact, deaths felt more like a slap in the hand than a punch to the gut due to how short each level is and how fast the game respawns you back into the action, giving you that urge to give it one more go in the hopes that this time you’ll finally be able to make it through. This feeling was especially true while playing the game outside of the house during lunch breaks, every time I had 10-15 minutes to spare I’d grab my Nintendo Switch and beat a couple of stages before getting back to work making this version the definitive way to play this game. Besides the staggering amount of levels, more than 600, there are also some goodies for those that master the game such as retro mini-games with in-game achievements of their own and a couple of alternative endings. In terms of presentation, we have a very simple but polished artistic design that takes us for a ride in this grim, brooding world with very few colours and filled with bizarre-looking creatures regardless of whether you decide to play it on the go or docked on your big TV. This more simplistic design choice not only functions as a way to instantly immerse you in the game but is also used in tandem with shadows to conceal secrets such as tumours, the main currency in the game, in unpredictable places. Another highlight is the stupendous soundtrack that borrows many classical music themes known to all and remixes them in a surprisingly catchy way while staying true to the overall theme of the game. The End is Nigh is without the shadow of a doubt a must-own for anyone who’s thoroughly enjoyed any of Edmund’s previous work and a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch. It masterfully encapsulates the grim overtone of The Binding of Isaac with the tip-top platforming of Super Meat Boy while still having its own identity.

Snappy Game Reviews - Music to our ears The Nintendo Switch has been bombarded with a whole bunch of quality rhythm games ever since its release, be it more straightforward like VOEZ or a little bit more complex like Superbeat: XONiC. As a fan of the genre, I will never be upset over getting more of what I love and as such I was quite happy to hear that PM Studios was helping with the release of MUSYNX on consoles. This indie title that was first released on mobile devices and developed by I-Inferno is yet another solid offering that joins the Nintendo Switch’s eShop. MUSYNX is as straightforward as it gets right from the start. As soon as the little intro animation is played you’re given full access to the entire 90+ tracklist (with more on the way through DLC), difficulty levels and key modes. The game tracklist features a stellar soundtrack comprised of a broad range of music genres such as pop, classical, trance, Vocaloid, R&B, and a couple more. Songs are grouped into categories and each of these categories has its unique skin, this gives the game a bit more flair to its otherwise fairly humble visuals. The gameplay is very standard but in a good way. Notes slide towards you in rows of 4 or 6 depending on the mode that you’ve chosen and you have to press or hold the right button at the right time, the better you do the better your score will be at the end. There are a couple of things that you can tweak before picking a song such as the speed at which notes slide towards you and the level of “Sound Enhancer”, the lower it is the more accurate your keypresses sound which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how good you actually are at the game. The game looks and plays amazing on a big TV in docked mode but to me, the real winner is being able to take the game anywhere. There’s nothing that can compare to zoning out to a flashy rhythm game on my way to work with my headphones. Although the game is very fun to play there were a couple of small shortcomings that became apparent right from the start of my time with MUSYNX. First, the awful user interface that makes the action of picking a specific song a complete nightmare. The game doesn’t have a favourite songs list nor any genre filters so in case you want to play a specific song you have to scroll through the entire tracklist every single time. On top of this, the lack of any real modes is somewhat disappointing, a mere arcade mode with leaderboards like the one in Superbeat: XONiC would do wonders to the overall replayability of the game. Despite these small gripes, MUSYNX is still a fine addition to the Nintendo Switch growing list of rhythm games. While its simplistic gameplay and a broad range of music genres are very welcoming features to newcomers I do wish there was a little more meat on its bones considering its asking price. As it stands, MUSYNX is still a very fun title that will surely have you tap your feet to the beat at all times.

Snappy Game Reviews - Snake Pass Crypt of the Serpent King is a first-person dungeon crawler where you take control of a hero tasked to navigate through a seven-level dungeon in order to banish the evil Serpent King. You start the adventure with a very weak weapon and low stats that you can upgrade by collecting gold and XP from enemies found on each and every floor of the dungeon. Spending gold in fancy new weapons and XP on raising your stats is the only sense of progression that you’ll get from the game as little else really changes as you progress through the game. Although the very core gameplay is perfectly fine everything else is extremely basic and formulaic. As previously mentioned, you go through each of the seven dungeon floors and the way to get to the next is to find a given number of keys in order to fight a boss. The issue here is that despite every floor looking differently from one another they all feel the same in terms of the level design. Corridors and rooms feel exactly the same with a different coat of paint, even the key rooms all follow the exact same pattern of being in a square room guarded by a deadly hazard of some sort that you need to avoid. This not only applies to the level layout but also to the enemies found on each floor. There’s a staggering one, yes, one enemy type per floor and you fight roughly 10-20 enemies as you make your way to the boss room, meaning that this shortcoming becomes a real issue quite fast. The boss themselves are fine, I actually like their designs although I wish you had to apply different strategies in order to take them down instead of fighting them as if they were regular enemies. The game as a whole really is very simple, from the gameplay down to the visuals and sound design which are quite serviceable given this is a budget indie game. Taking down the Serpent King should take most players roughly an hour but trophy hunters will spend a bit more in order to obtain the full trophy list which contains a platinum. Despite the fact that the game costs about as much as a cup of coffee there isn’t a whole lot to Crypt of the Serpent King. Unless you’re a trophy hunter or insanely curious to see what’s wrong with the game first hand you’re better off saving your money for something else. Yes, this is an incredibly cheap dungeon crawler and it functions correctly but it does the bare minimum to stand out as well. Sadly the solid, yet basic, RPG foundation of Crypt of the Serpent King is nowhere near enough to make it stand out.