Spoonman

I pre-ordered both the PS4 and Switch physical copies of Land Adventures, thinking it was such a simple concept, that they couldn't possibly mess it up... Boy, was I wrong!! I expected so much more than this extremely boring and lazily developed game of Pang. In comparison, the SNES/SFC game, Super Pang/Super Buster Brothers, is an amazing, and well designed port. Pang Adventures is as boring as it can be. The graphics are boring and like Flash 2000 fair. The difficulty goes from a 1 to a 10 within about seven stages. It's a shame that Capcom let this great series die like this!

As a gamer since 1977, I can honestly say that Astro Bot was one of the most fun platformers I've ever played. It also reminded me how important games like this are. Games that celebrate the publisher's rich history are a great thing to see.. It's on par with something like Nintendo's Super Smash Bros.. If you enjoy 3D platformers, which are incredibly beautiful and have plenty of color, look no further. You will be in love with Astro Bot. And if you have been a fan of PlayStation for the past 30 years, you may feel a little emotional during the game.

Air Twister may not be for everyone, but very few games are. I've been a gamer since the 70's, and a huge fan of Yu Suzuki's games, (namely Space Harrier, OutRun, Super Hang-On, and OutRun). I still appreciate the shorter "arcade style" game, and actually welcome them after playing a 100+ hour AAA game. At first glance Air Twister may seem like a very basic on-rails experience, but if you dig a little deeper, you will realize there is much more to it. First of all, the game is quite beautiful. Not just in the quality of the graphics, but also its presentation, and other worldly style. There are many modes that will open up to you as you play the game. Some challenge modes, options to play the game in TURBO mode (where everything runs at 2x, except for you!), and a world map, where you can spend the game's currency (stars), which are collected in the main game. This part was MUCH appreciated, in an otherwise smaller arcade on-rails shooter. You can unlock several helpful powerups here, as well as different ways to change the protagonist's appearance, with face paint, masks, clothing, etc. You can spend hours unlocking this stuff, and if you are in collecting everything in a game, then this might scrach that itch. You also unlock audio tracks to listen to. I'll get into the music in a second. Unlocking the songs is a great addition, since some of them are very long, and this is really the only way to hear them in their entirety. (Pro-Tip: go to the settings, and turn the in-game sound effects to very low, and crank up the **** music! The musical soundtrack was composed by Valencia. If you like music in the style of Queen (their more operatic offerings, such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, and We are the Champions), Kate Bush, E.L.O., The Beatles, or progressive 70's style rock anthems, you might absolutely love the music in Air Twister! It really grew on me after a few plays. So much so, that I've now added it to my Spotify playlist. I can understand how some people were expecting something more along the lines of the Space Harrier (disco) theme, but this makes sense on many levels when you delve deeper. It really is a great match for the visuals. Yes, I love the game. I find myself playing it we'll after completing, and unlocking 100% of it. Some of the unlockable weapons will take out a screen of enemies in one blast (long hold the button to charge it), and when it does it shoots a huge particle based fireworks display that just looks gorgeous. It makes me wish it had PSVR 2 support. I bet it would look even more incredible in VR. Even though I think it's a great game, that doesn't mean it doesn't have some things I'd like to see improved, either in updates, or if we should ever receive a followup game: 1. Many of the enemy types repeat on several stages. A bit more variety would be nice. 2. The UI / HUD, still retains some of it's iOS DNA. This started as an Apple Arcade exclusive, if you weren't aware. So some of the icons are a bit large, and stay on screen, longer than I'd like them to. In fact, I'd have loved a setting to remove them altogether. Or perhaps it could have been a bonus modifier. This goes double for the ">>" fast forward icon, which is on screen for the entirety of the boss into sequences. It'd be better off without this! That being said, it's a minor quip. 3. The trophies/achievements are AWFUL! It was almost like we were trolled here. Sure, the One Hit Death Arcade Mode Trophy is masochistic! (play all 12 stages + boss fights without taking a single hit! ), but that's not what I'm complaining about here. Namely the PLAY FOR 100 HOURS trophy, and the HIT SLOW MOTION 100 TIMES) Trophies that seem really wrong. The Trophy list for these is still only at .01% achieved.. So that should tell you something! Again, many people won't care about this, but of they could adjust these trophies, it'd be nice. (Even though I'm nearly at 100 hours! :) ). So, that's my mini review. I don't leave many here, but I feel strongly about this game. If you're on the fence about it, wait for a deal! -Matt

This is one incredible freebie **** to include with the PS5 system. Just, whatever you do, don't discount Astro's Playroom as a simple "DualSense feature demo", or you will be doing **** disservice! It's a joy to play, from the moment it begins until the very end, and it will likely make you smile during the entire romp. Do yourself a favor, and give it a play!

I LOVE this game! I'm a big fan of "brick breakers", going back to playing Breakout, on the Atari 2600, as a kid. This game gets it right on so many levels. First, and foremost, they have nailed the controls. Without proper control the game would not be fun. Normally I would say these games NEED a spinner/paddle in order to be playable, but somehow the analog PS Vita/PS3 DualShock 3 works very well. I am writing this review in 2022. I wish I had gotten around to it earlier, but I didn't really use Metacritic then. That being said, I would ABSOLUTELY buy a new version of this, on the Switch or PS4/PS5/ Please, Nurium Games/Beatshapers, make this a reality! Until then I will continue to play this on my Vita and PSTV.

If you are a fan of Contra games, you will love this... Because IT IS a Contra game! For some reason Konami left Contra out of the title. There is even a button code which will play the familiar Contra music at the title screen. I had a blast playing this, with a friend across the globe. It ran incredibly smoothly on the PS3. I loved the smooth animation, by ARC. However, I did think that the 3D polygon bosses could have benefited from a few extra polygons of detail. And some of the sounds were too loud, and even sounded like they were clipping. Konami should really consider remastering this game for current gen consoles. (PS5/Xbox One).

I have to say, I haven't seen so many 10 ratings on a game since The Last of Us on the PS3! Yet there are so many negative reviews. I don't get it. So here's the deal.... We have a top down shooter with NES style graphics, a high level of blood, gore, violence, and even some brief nudity (8-bit style!), and a stylized soundtrack of some low end "wub wub"... So what's not to love?!? Well, I have to admit I was really enjoying the first few levels. I was dying pretty often at first, but that's part of the learning experience and there is no penalty or 3 lives per game business. What I didn't like is the difficulty spike around level 5. It goes from only a couple enemies having weapons to EVERY enemy have fully automatic guns along with rabid dogs darting at you. So basically it plays like this... **** toting enemy sees you YOU ARE DEAD! It quickly becomes a game of "Don't throw the (with apologies to Q•bert) controller at the TV! It's a bit like being sniped by someone you can't see over and over again. Very frustrating IMO and I grew up playing, and in most cases, beating some of the harder classics such as Ninja Gaiden 1-3, Ghosts 'N Goblins, & Battletoads. Had they oven the player a fraction of a second to see and respond to an enemy it would have helped. O even a lesser difficulty option, but no, it plays like its on Maniac mode all the time. Perhaps the developer can add a slightly easier difficulty via an update. I've seen this happen before. I would definitely jump back in and play if they evened up the odds a bit.

PaRappa The Rapper Remastered (PS4) The reason the controls feel so laggy and and the sound is buggy is because this is a remaster of the PSP version of PaRappa, NOT the PS1 version. Graphics = 9/10 Sound = 8/10 Extras = 5/10 Control = 2/10 Final Score 4/10 PaRappa the Rapper looks fantastic with upgraded HD visuals, and has never sounded better than it does here on the PlayStation 4. The problem though, is the severely imprecise controls, which can turn this game from fun nostalgia to pure frustration very quickly. For some reason the game feels broken on the 4th stage (Cheap Cheap the Chicken). I have very few problems up until this point, often getting near perfect on all button presses, but on this stage I failed 10 times in a row even though the button timing is matching up. I've played the original probably hundreds of times on the PS1 and PS2, and something is definitely off with the Remastered port. It reminds me a bit of the PSP version, which also had its share of problems. It's a shame they didn't bother tightening up the rhythm portion of the game as it makes up about 90% of the experience! As well as what I feel is broken on stage 4 (and possibly later levels). If Sony can fix this with a patch it would go a long way to improving this flawed experience. Other stuff... The game remains virtually the same as the PS1 version, with the ability to save just 1 song replay and when a new one is saved it overwrites the previous one... Why?! They should have allowed you to save one replay for each song. It would have been cool had they included other extras to celebrate the hiphop puppy's 20th anniversary. Extras such as; character bio screens, archived English and Japanese TV commercials, or early artwork sketches. Developer interviews. Had this game been remastered by Naughty Dog, Insomniac, or **** Punch we would surely have some of these things. Also, while the main game is remastered in HD (or 4K if you have a 4K display and PS4 Pro), the rest of the game's FMV sequences are in their original low resolution format. It's slightly jarring to go from sharp looking HD back to a small windowed, what looks to be 240p, resolution movies. It would have been great if they stored the original videos in a higher resolution, such as what Sonic CD had done with their animated intro in the Sonic CD remaster release, but you can't really fault them for it. There also appears to be some remixed versions of the main stage tunes in which you can play with. This is a great addition to the game. I would only recommend this to someone who is a huge PaRappa fan and someone who doesn't easily frustrate when it comes to imprecise controls. I'm also not sure I'd recommend PaRappa the Rapper Remastered at it's current price of $14.99 ($11.99 for Plus members). This might be one to wait for a sale on. Unless, of course, if Sony fixes the issues. *UPDATE** A new patch seems ro have made it slightly more responsive.

I wish Sega would put a bit more effort into their latest Genesis collection. Unlike their last one (Sonic's Ultimate) it doesn't have the cool extras such as the high resolution box art, developer interviews, or interesting unlockable arcade games such as Shinobi, Space Harrier, Zaxxon, Fantasy Zone, etc.. In fact they also left off Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Not cool Sega! I just heard they released a patch for VR support on the Steam version. Now where is the PSVR version of this update?! If they added this it wohkd defintely be something worthwhile, and would show that they do in fact care about their fans on all platforms.

Avalanche Studios, the company that also brought you the insanely fun Just Cause games, brings you Renegade Ops. It's such an incredible gem **** which combines the best of so many classic, tried and true games such as; Jakal, Choplifter, Blast Corps, Smash TV, Iron Tank and adds so much more to the mix. The twin-stick shooting action here is great. The vehicles have a nice sense of speed and are so much fun to control. I sometimes found myself just enjoying cruising along, taking crazy jumps, and doing donuts in the sand. Crashing your vehicle through small buildings sends little bits of highly detailed debris flying everywhere and is such a great and powerful feeling. If you enjoyed that part of Blast Corps, you'll absolutely love it here! The controls are tight, the graphics and sounds are incredibly detailed, and the voice acting is purposely campy...think Starship Troopers. At certain points in the game you will switch from your "cruiser tank" to a helicopter and the game takes on a bit of a shoot-em-up (SHMUP) feeling while still being very much on point with the rest of the game. The power-up system here is incredibly well designed. There are several types of both weapon and defensive upgrades available here, with each one being very different from the others. It was fun to mix and match the different types as well as max them out for the most fire power and defensive protection. There are also different characters you can choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses as well. I played the entire campain mode with a friend on the other side of the country and it was perfectly smooth and responsive at all times. Soon after that I played the entire campaign all over again on my own to ace each level, save all hostages, etc. Both times were so much fun to play. Renegade Ops is easily one of the best shooters (SHMUPs) I've ever played. **Also, fans of the classic arcade game Smash TV should be on the lookout for a hidden easter egg in which pays tribute to that game. I highly recommend Renegade Ops, along with its 2 level DLC pack. I hope that some day Avalache Studios can make a follow up game to this, or at the very least release this on current gen consoles so more people can experience how great **** it is.

The Rebooted version is drab, with the graphics being uninspired, and ugly looking. They made one of the most colorful games in history look like it was left out in the sun to fade for 25 years. It's mostly the same pattern design with texture-less polygon cubes over and over again. They should have taken a clue from the excellent SNES Q*bert 3 and changed the blocks into something interesting (Hats, teeth, gift boxes, etc) which changes from round to round. The controls are the worst though. You can almost never count on moving Q*bert in the right direction. It's a miracle if you don't jump to your death 50% of the time. Just terrible! Then you have the same 2 annoyingly short looped song over and over again. They sound like cheap public domain music tunes, bought cheap! Then you have the classic version of Q*bert which they somehow managed to butcher. The graphics are actually both too sharp and too blurry at the same time it's quite a feat! The same terrible controls which apply to the Rebooted version are here as well. After dying over and over again I started to wonder if it was just me so I started up the Sony PSN release of Q*bert on the PS3 and I was able to clear 4 boards in a row without dying. Why couldn't they build controls like this?! It's a shame they removed the better version from The PSN Store to make way for this. What else... Oh yeah. There is NO PAUSE! on the classic game. Maybe it's a feature to make it like games from before the Atari 5200 when a PAUSE button was such a new feature it was even mentioned in the commercials. Instead of pausing the game, if you press the circle button at any point during the game it instantly closes your game and brings you back to the game menu. I had a great game going and mistakenly hit the button? Tough @!?$&#! Start over! Hope you weren't expecting high score leader board support. In fact, there isn't even a way to enter your initials or show high scores like in the original version. They somehow just cut it right out of the emulated arcade original. Poor Q*bert deserves better than this!

The Rebooted version is drab, with the graphics being uninspired, and ugly looking. They made one of the most colorful games in history look like it was left out in the sun to fade for 25 years. It's mostly the same pattern design with texture-less polygon cubes over and over again. They should have taken a clue from the excellent SNES Q*bert 3 and changed the blocks into something interesting (Hats, teeth, gift boxes, etc) which changes from round to round. The controls are the worst though. You can almost never count on moving Q*bert in the right direction. It's a miracle if you don't jump to your death 50% of the time. Just terrible! Then you have the same 2 crappy songs which play over and over again. The same annoyingly short looped song over and over again. They sound like cheap public domain music tunes, bought cheap! Then you have the Classic version which they somehow managed to butcher. The graphics are actually both too sharp and too blurry at the same time it's quite a feat! The same terrible controls which apply to the Rebooted version are here as well. After dying over and over again I started to wonder if it was just me so I started up the Sony PSN release of Q*bert on the PS3 and I was able to clear 4 boards in a row without dying. Why couldn't they build controls like this?! It's a shame they removed the better version from The PSN Store to make way for this. What else... Oh yeah. There is NO PAUSE! on the classic game. Maybe it's a feature to make it like games from before the Atari 5200 when a PAUSE button was such a new feature it was even mentioned in the commercials. Instead of pausing the game, if you press the circle button at any point during the game it instantly closes your game and brings you back to the game menu. Had a great game going and mistakenly hit the button? Tough @!?$&#! Start over! Hope you weren't expecting high score leaderboard support. In fact, there isn't even a way to enter your initials or show high scores like in the original version. They somehow just cut it right out of the emulated arcade original. Poor Q*bert deserves better than this!

My short review.... I played DuckTakes Remastered for the first time last night. I played for roughly 2 hours, 20 minutes of which was listening to the title music looped over and over. Man, I love what they did with the music in this game! To be honest I didn't play the NES version too much, by 1989 I had moved on to 16-bit consoles and missed out on some classics like this. The controls.... are spot on. I know some people were reporting issues with getting the pogo to work, but it worked great for me (both analog and digital pad) The graphics.... are incredibly detailed and animated very well. Exactly how it should look. The voice acting... is excellent. If you remember the cartoon you will recognize the voice of Scrooge McDuck, as well as a few others. Some of the things he says are genuinely funny. Especially the dialog between Scrooge and Launchpad. The music... is incredible! I expected it would be with the excellent original NES OST being handled by Jake Kaufman (Shantee Risky's Revenge, Contra 4, Double Dragon Neon). He also nailed the Moon level music. Overall it's a great platformer, albeit a bit short. In just the 2 hours I cleared all but the last level. It does have some replayability to it though. By collecting diamonds and saving up diamonds you can buy character artwork (which looks really nice by the way), along with storyboards, and even the music tracks. I will definitely play enough to unlock the music. It gives you a great feeling of nostalgia and is a joy to play. I highly recommend it. I bought it on sale for $11.99 (PSN Plus sale), but I'd feel good about it if I had spent $15 as well. Now I'm looking forward to Castle of Illusion HD and the new Strider game. Bring 'em on!

"DRM killed the video game star" Capcom better learn from this and not enforce this type of thing upon gamers. I realize they are trying to kill the used game market, but this isn't fair to consumers. My friend played the game for a bit without me knowing and when I went to play it I couldn't delete the game save and start over. This is BS!