Developer: Capcom
Price: $60
Platform: Switch, PC in the future
Is Monster Hunter Rise a sequel to MH Generations or MH World? It's a little bit of both, and that's not always a good thing. Monster Hunter Rise definitely plays like a follow-up to MHW, but the way some things, like multiplayer and expedition tours, are implemented really feel like a step backwards from MHW.
Don't let the low spec Switch graphics fool you, Monster Hunter Rise is not a return to the clunky gameplay style of Monster Hunter 1-4. As far as the hunting gameplay and controls go, MHR feels a lot like MHW. Environments are huge and loading screen free, controls are even faster and smoother than in MHW, and things like debuffs, monster tracking, and ordering pre-hunt meals have been simplified even further. You don't even have to look at footprints or Anjanath snot to track monsters anymore. You get an Owl buddy (or Cohoot) to automatically do the tracking for you now, and it’s super cute!
Monster Hunter Rise's controls feel like an evolved version of MHW's. MHR feels faster, more responsive, and a lot of those long animations you had to wait through in the past are either shorter or cancellable with the new Wirebug mechanics. It's not quite Devil May Cry, or even Zelda, but it's definitely the best playing Monster Hunter game yet. MHR makes MHW feel slow and clunky by comparison. I still feel like this game has a problem with trying to do too many things with not enough buttons, though. And adding new mechanics doesn’t help matters. I think controls for ranged weapons especially are even more of a mess with the added Wirebug skill button modifiers.
The Wirebug is the big new mechanic in MHR. If MHW's Clutch Claw is like Batman's grappling hook, then the Wirebug is like Spider-Man's web slingers. The Wirebug is faster, has less restrictions, and is much easier to use since you’re swinging from a bug. You don’t even need a surface to grapple onto. You can use it to traverse the environment, ride monsters, do weapon-specific special moves, and even zip to safety after a monster knocks you down.
Wirebugs use the new Wirebug gauge as their resource. You get 2 by default and can get a third one by picking up an item. Most moves use 1 Wirebug and a few more defensive (or more powerful) moves use 2. The Wirebugs go on cooldown after using them and come back at different rates depending on what moves you use. If you use enough Wirebug attacks on large monsters, you’ll be able to ride them. The whole jumping on them thing is gone and so is grappling onto their face and smacking them around. You can still ram the monsters into walls when riding them, though. You can also control the monsters and have turf wars. The monsters handle about as well as a semi, but it’s fun getting a monster to fight the quest target monster. That’s actually a really good strategy to use since they do so much damage. It’s very easy to get non-quest monsters into rideable states with just a couple of Wirebug attacks too. There's so much cool stuff Wirebugs let you do. They really make Monster Hunter more fun. I love them and I hope they’re here to stay.
Another not so innovative, but much cuter addition to Monster Hunter is Palamutes, AKA dogs. Palamutes are like MHW's taxis meet Palicos. They fight alongside you and you can ride them around like mounts. Unlike MHW's taxis, though, you have full control over them. You also don't have to do obscure quests to unlock them in each zone. And unlike Palicos, they can't set up traps or healing installations. They also don’t talk. All they really do is attack. You can equip them with some heals and buffs that go off as they attack, but they're not as varied as what's available for Palicos, who get 5 classes with lots of different skills.
Where MHR strangely takes a step backwards into pre-MHW Monster Hunter is in quest progression and multiplayer. Unlike in MHW, you can't play any quest you want in multiplayer. You actually can't do any of the village quests in multiplayer. The Gathering Hub has its own set of Low Rank quests. If you only do village quests first, you'll be offered a special quest that will unlock tiers of monsters you've already killed in the hub, but besides that, Low Rank quest progression between the village and the hub is separate. I often ran into situations where I would kill a monster in the village, but didn't have a quest with that monster unlocked in multiplayer, so I either had to catch the hub quests up, or just farm a monster solo. This isn't much of an issue once you get to High Rank, but it's frustrating and needlessly confusing when you're starting the game.
Unlike in the old games, though, Gathering Hub quests aren't exclusively balanced for multiplayer. The hub quest's monsters' health scales for 1 to 4 players, so they're all soloable. I only learned that through the official Monster Hunter Twitter account, though. The NPCs clearly tell you only masochists try to solo hub quests.
Weirdly enough, once you finish the village's Low Rank quests, you have to move to the Gathering Hub to continue the story in its High Rank quests. The village has no HR quests at all. And to top off all this game progression weirdness, the story isn't even done. I mean like, the game isn't finished and they're patching in the last set of story quests later. The story leaves off in a weird cliffhanger and none of the villagers acknowledge that there are no more story related quests to do.
There is another pretty big new thing in MHR, Rampages. For some misguided reason, MHR has a tower defense quest type that's all about using turrets. Yes, those same horrible turrets from arenas and fights like Zorah Magdaros and Jhen Moran. In Rampages, you set up a bunch of turrets and kill hordes of attacking monsters before they break a gate that leads to the village. You can set up a bunch of auto turrets and get buffs that multiply your Hunter's damage, so you don't really have to manually use turrets the whole time, but somebody is going to have to use them if you want to complete all the objectives and get the best rewards. I guess Rampages aren't as terrible as fights like Zorah Magdaros, but they're not great either. And you can't avoid them because there's unskippable Rampage quests in the story and one of the last bosses only appears in a Rampage.
MHR looks really nice, but it’s nowhere near as good looking as MHW. It barely runs above 720p docked, it's capped at 30fps, the textures are lower resolution, and the lighting quality is nowhere near as nice as MHW's. Rise’s environments also lack the plants, hills, trees, and all the little things that make MHW’s zones look so realistic. MHR’s zones look very flat when compared to MHW’s. Rise does look very nice for what it is, though, and the framerate rarely dips below 30, even in multiplayer. At least docked. I have seen the game chug in handheld. Rise looks more like MHW than MHGU at least. It doesn't look like a high res 3DS game, it looks like a very nice Switch game.
I really love the Japanese theme and presentation of the game. MHR feels a bit like a throwback to MHP3rd in that sense. Kamura Village is basically a Ninja village, with tiled roofs, sakura trees, a dango stand, and a hunter who likes to hang out on the rooftops. A lot of the monsters chosen for the game are based on Japanese cryptids and Yokai, and they all get Samurai movie style intros complete with film projector filters and Kabuki theater style poems. The loading screens also feature beautiful Monster Hunter Ukiyo-e art, which really makes all this monster hunting stuff feel like it has a long history in this world. It’s really well done and it just feels like a lot of thought went into it.
I love the soundtrack in MHR. It's also very Japanese. A lot of the instrumentation used in the tracks reminds me of Naruto and Okami music. It’s full of great remixes of old themes, like Proof of a Hero, and awesome new ones as well. Including 2 new tracks sung in the Monster Hunter language by the Wyverian twins from Kamura Village. The game's sound effects are very well done too. You can really hear all the things in environments come alive around you. It's very immersive.
If you love Monster Hunter and have been a longtime fan, you’ll probably love this game too. You may be a bit disappointed with the amount of monsters in it if you’re coming from MHGU or Iceborne, though. It’s not a fair comparison, since Iceborne is the expansion to MHW and MHGU is a compilation of 15 years of MH, but I'm guessing the hardcore will most likely blow through MHR’s content within a week and be left wanting more. But I guess that also means this game is really good. I love how this game plays. It’s hard to go back to MHW now because this game is so much faster and more fun to play with the Wirebug. I think the way they split up the Low Rank progression is pretty bad, and the online is a puzzling step backwards from MHW in some ways, but it’s not a huge deal once you get to High Rank. Overall, I think this game is great and I can’t wait until they put more monsters in it.
Developers: WayForward, Artplay
Platforms: PS4, XBO, NS, PC
Price: Free DLC for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ($39.99)
Version Played: PC
If Ritual of the Night is the Symphony of the Night of Bloodstained, then Classic Mode is its Castlevania I. This is free DLC for Bloodstained RotN, but it is a full ClassicVania style game. It's actually longer than Castlevania I on NES. Don't the Curse of the Moon games have ClassicVania Bloodstained covered, though? Well, they're more like Castlevania III and Bloodlines. Classic Mode is much more like Castlevania I. Also, I’m not going to complain about having more ClassicVania goodness.
And when I say like Castlevania, I mean a lot like Castlevania. Classic Mode is structured almost exactly like Castlevania I on NES. Right down to the 6 levels split into blocks. There's even chicken (curry) hidden in the walls! The first level has you going through a courtyard into the castle entrance, then a sewer, and then back out to fight a giant bat boss. Later on you fall through the floor down into some caverns, go up a clocktower, and walk up a set of stairs in front of the full moon on your way to the final battle in a throne room. Yeah, it's that similar. This almost feels like a remake at times. And by at times I mean very often.
Unlike in the Curse of the Moon games, only Miriam is playable in Classic Mode. Her controls here feel like a mix of Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, and her Ritual of the Night version, which is basically Alucard. Fans of Castlevania I, III, and Rondo will feel right at home with these controls. She has that slow Belmont walk, there’s knockback (except on Easy mode), she can only whip directly forwards, uses stairs like in the ClassicVanias, has no air control when jumping forwards, and has a Richter style backflip. Miriam’s backflip is much easier to use, though. The window to input a second button press to do a backflip is much more forgiving than Richter’s, and she can do it while jumping forwards. She can even turn around mid-air and backflip in the direction she’s jumping in. This makes it so you can use the backflip as a long jump. It looks cool and is very useful. Miriam also has her slide and backstep moves from RotN, which I barely used. WayForward has done a great job in making this feel like a modern ClassicVania.
Pretty much everything about Castlevania's gameplay is represented here in some way. All the subweapons, enemies, obstacles, and most bosses from Castlevania have a Bloodstained counterpart. The cross boomerang, holy water, and throwing axes are here. There’s enemies that behave just like the skeletons, bats, armor knights, and Medusa heads. There’s platforms that fall away beneath your feet, traps, and clock tower gear platforms just like in Castlevania. Most of the bosses are also very reminiscent of bosses from Castlevania. So reminiscent that Castlevania strategies will work on them. Even the last boss is basically the classic Dracula battle you see in Symphony of the Night’s intro. This really feels like a remake sometimes!
There are some new graphical elements in this mode, but it’s mostly reused models from RotN. They’ve done a really good job in making this mode look and feel like a ClassicVania, though.. The camera is pulled back a lot farther, the classic UI is placed on top, and there’s lots of new animations that will instantly remind people of Castlevania, like the door opening, subweapon, and jumping animations. This isn’t just RotN with new controls.
All the music in this mode is the chiptune music from Bloodstained RotN‘s soundtrack. It's great music, though. Valiant Stride, Brave Trigger, and Everblack are here, among others. It all sounds very Castlevania-ish and fits this mode perfectly.
I should mention that I ran into quite a few bugs. I saw enemies that became invincible, the monkey in the werewolf fight got stuck in the air and froze, graphical effects that stuck on screen even after I died, and the game crashed on me during the final battle and it didn’t autosave on the final level, so I had to do the previous level again. Hopefully this stuff is fixed soon.
This is an awesome game! I just love it! WayForward obviously knows their Castlevania. The controls feel right, the level design is challenging and fun, the music is perfect, and the way they reused RotN’s graphics looks great. I hope they make more of these. Maybe put Zangetsu in the next one? Or add him to this one? This is just too good not to make another. Fans of the NES Castlevanias are in for a treat.
Publisher: Enhance Experience Inc.
Developers: Resonair, Monstars Inc. and Stage Games
Platforms: XBO, XBSX, Windows Game Store. PS4, Steam, and EGS in Summer 2021.
Price: $40, Free expansion for Tetris Effect in 2021.
Version Played: PC Game Pass
From the moment I first played Lumines, I thought they should make this game. Tetris Effect combines the trippy graphics of Lumines and Rez with the falling block puzzle game that started it all, Tetris. I've played everything from Mii and Nintendo themed Tetris to Tetris with Puyo Puyo characters, and I can safely say that this is the most amazing looking Tetris game I've ever seen.
The thing that really sets Tetris Effect apart from other Tetris games is how the music and visuals fit perfectly together with the gameplay. Every time you move a piece or clear a line, it makes a sound, and somehow, it goes along perfectly with the music. It's pretty amazing. But this isn't some kind of Tetris rhythm game. At its core, this is still just Tetris.
The only real new mechanic is the Zone system. Zone is a lot like a fighting game super move. You fill a meter as you clear lines and then press RT to use Zone and stop pieces from falling by themselves for a short period of time. It comes in handy when you're about to lose and need the extra time to place pieces. Zone powers are only available in a couple of modes, though; Zone Battle and Journey.
Journey is Tetris Effect's single player campaign. It’s a journey through all the game's level themes and songs. You play through groups of connected levels, usually between 3 and 5, and your goal is to clear a certain amount of lines so you can move on to the next level. The play fields are not cleared when you move to the next level, but they will start off empty if you lose and continue. I guess they just want you to stay in the zone. Another unique thing about this mode is that the speed of falling pieces changes along with the music. Levels don't always start slow and get faster towards the end.
There are also 13 other single player modes under Effect Modes. There’s the usual Marathon, playlists of stages with similar themes, Quick Play for single levels, time challenges, score attacks, and other mini games, like target clear modes. Some of these are pretty fun, but honestly, I’m just going to play endless Marathon 99% of the time.
Like the song says, we're all connected. Tetris Effect Connected's new modes are all about online and local multiplayer. You can play all these modes offline, and even by yourself with CPU controlled teammates. The main mode, Connected, is like nothing I've ever seen in a Tetris game. It's a 3 player co-op game in which you play as a team against a boss with special powers. The boss can take away your ability to hold or spin pieces, send huge pieces your way, and even shuffle the blocks on your play field around. It can get pretty nasty, but it's fun. What's really interesting about this mode, though, is the connected part. As you clears lines, a meter fills, and when it's full, all 3 of your team's boards are connected into one and you can freely place pieces anywhere for a short period of time. When the time runs out, you send tons of garbage blocks to the boss, and that's how you beat them. It’s almost like a Tetris raid. It's really good. I'd love to see something like this in Tetris 99.
Connected is a lot of fun, but if co-op Tetris isn't your thing, there's also some more traditional multiplayer modes. Zone Battle is basically regular VS Tetris with garbage blocks, but with Tetris Effect's Zone system. There's also score attack, which is like playing single player and comparing scores at the end, and Classic Score Attack, which is the same thing, but with 8-bit Tetris graphics and rules. No hold or hard drops allowed. I think these modes are pretty good, but why isn't there 4 player VS or 2P VS without Zone powers? Those seem like obvious things.
There are also weekend events for both Effect Modes and Multiplayer. In Effect Modes, certain modes will be marked as “Event” and they’ll contribute to a community goal for the event. Everyone who participates will unlock an avatar when the goal is reached. Under Multiplayer, the “Full Moon” will appear on Saturdays. The Full Moon allows you to play Connected VS, which is Connected mode, but with a real person playing as the boss. I played as the boss a few times and got destroyed by the garbage clocks sent my way every time, but it was a lot of fun.
Tetris Effect's soundtrack isn't exactly something I'd listen to on its own, but I love it while I'm playing the game. The experience just isn't complete without the graphics and the gameplay. It's the way everything comes together that makes the soundtrack perfect for the game. There are a couple of tracks I love, even by themselves, though; City Lights, a fast-paced Jazz track, and Connected, the main theme of the game.
I love how this game looks. It's like the trippy graphics of Rez and Child of Eden taken to the next level. But like with the music, they're only part of the experience. There's a word for when hearing sounds makes you see colors, synesthesia. Tetris Effect is a game about synesthesia. You're not getting the full effect of the graphics by just looking at the game. You need to see and hear how the game responds to you playing it.
I love this game. I'm not saying it's perfect, I could come up with some more modes to throw in here, but it's definitely one of my favorite Tetris games of all time. It's a shame that it's been tied up in exclusivity deals since its original release because everyone should have a way to play it.
9. Panzer Dragoon Remake - I’m so happy to see Panzer Dragoon make a comeback! I love these on-rails shooters so much! Yeah, the Switch version’s graphics aren’t great, but it looks much better on PC, and it’s just such a great game. Fans of games like Star Fox, Sin & Punishment, and Rez should really check this out. I can’t wait to see Zwei!
8. Super Mario 3D All-Stars - This is a pretty barebones collection, but these games are just too good to pass up! Super Mario 64 and Galaxy especially are still a lot of fun, even with Mario 64’s wonky camera. They’ve also added some control options since I reviewed it. I think this is a must get for 3D Mario fans. Get it before it's gone!
7. Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection - This is one of the best collections I’ve seen in a while. It’s definitely higher quality than Konami’s Contra and Castlevania collections, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and the previous mega Man Legacy Collections. There’s lots of art and music, great control, saving, and viewing options, and the games are really good too! This is a must get for MMX fans. I know many skipped these because they were on GBA and DS.
6. Shantae and the Seven Sirens - I had some problems with this game’s drab color scheme and Metroid-like map, but I still think it’s the 2nd best Shantae game after Pirate’s Curse. It’s definitely a lot of fun and worth checking out for metroidvania fans. I just prefer the more Wonder Boy-like layout and brighter colors of the previous games.
5. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - I liked the first one’s structure and modes better, but the sequel is still really good. Eight characters, super challenging, and lots of great Classicvania style action. If you’re a fan of Castlevania III and Bloodlines, definitely check out the Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon games.
4. Tetris Effect Connected - I’m playing this right now and I love it. I’ve seen a lot of themed Tetris games over the years, and this might be the coolest one! It’s trippy Tetris! But not just trippy Tetris. It’s Mizuguchi style Tetris. It has that same kind of look and vibe as Rez and Lumines. It has great single player, co-op and VS multiplayer modes, awesome music, and amazing graphics. I just love this.
3. Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass: The Crown Tundra - The Crown Tundra expansion is just about the perfect way to cap off Pokemon Sword and Shield. This Legendary Pokemon hunting content is just what the game needed. I loved the old-school flavor of this expansion, the new story is really good, and the new Max Lairs are a lot of fun too. The Crown Tundra is much better than Isle of Armor and well worth the price of the Expansion Pass.
2. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (PC) - This game got off on the wrong foot, but Capcom’s support has more than made up for it. They took a lot of the emphasis away from the Guiding Lands and put the focus back on event quests. Real holidays, made up holidays, Capcom game and Milla Jovovich movie tie-ins. There’s always something cool going on in MHW.
1. Animal Crossing New Horizons - This is the way. There really is no other choice. ACNH is far and away my #1 pick for 2020. I played the hell out of Animal Crossing. I have over 775 hours on my Switch’s activity log. That’s like 300 more hours than any other Switch game I have. Nintendo has done a great job keeping the game updated with new activities and stuff to collect, so I’ll keep coming back to this in 2021. ACNH is the best AC ever!
Developer: Xeen
Publisher: SquareEnix
Platforms: NS, PC, PS4
Price: $49.99
Version Played: PC
Now, you might be thinking, “Didn’t you already review Trials of Mana?”. Yes, I did, but that was the SNES version included in Collection of Mana. This is the remake by the same name and released a year later. It’s a very different game, but also pretty much the same game. It’s a 3D remake with a new battle system, cutscenes, voice acting, and a remade soundtrack, but as far as the story, world, and structure go, it’s pretty much the same game I played last year.
If you're looking for a Chrono Trigger quality story, you won't find it here. The characters all feel like anime/RPG tropes and the story is the same save the world by collecting elementals stuff we've seen in tons of other games. Maybe this was okay in the 90s, but it's just boring now. Especially playing through it a second time. I had a very tough time paying attention to it.
You'd think the new voice acting and cutscenes would help keep me interested, but they don't because they're bad. Cutscenes are animated in a very cheap anime-like way. Characters just kind of go from pose to pose and don't do a lot in between. The voice acting is just as bad. It's not Working Designs bad, but almost. The main cast is okay, for the most part, but NPCs are terrible. A lot of them read their lines very slowly and take 2 or 3 second pauses in between sentences. It sounds like they had to do a bunch of takes for each line and then pieced the whole thing together. It sounds terrible and it's boring to listen to.
My biggest problem with the SNES original is the battle system. The action freezes every time you pull up the item wheel or use a spell. It's supposed to be an action RPG, but there's almost as much downtime as in a turn-based RPG. Thankfully, this remake has a new and much improved battle system. Everything happens in real-time and the action doesn't stop to make you watch long spell animations.
The new battle system feels like a modern Secret of Mana with a bit of 3D Zelda, Monster Hunter, and PSO to fill in the blanks. It has lock-on targeting, strong and weak attacks, combos, dodging, and shortcuts for spells and items you can bring up by holding the triggers. You also get a charge move you can do by holding down the strong attack button, which will remind people of Secret of Mana's special moves. These charge moves are not Trials of Mana's equivalent, though.
The class abilities from the SNES game are still here, but the meter works very differently. You now collect shards that pop out of enemies when you hit them to fill the meter, and it doesn't deplete after every fight anymore. You also get a shortcut for each level of class ability, so you don't have to use all your meter every time. This lets you strategize and use weaker class abilities on normal enemies if you want. I like this system much better than the one in both Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana on SNES.
The original ToM doesn't have any kind dodge move. In fact, enemy spells lock on to you and you can't avoid getting hit by them. You can dodge or interrupt every attack in this remake. You get a dodge roll that works kind of like what you see in 3D Zelda games. The game also highlights the area of effect of attacks on the ground for you, so you always know when and where you need to dodge. This is much better than unavoidable damage.
Weirdly enough, they added a jump to this remake, and it actually matters. There's a few platforming sections throughout the game, there's boss attacks you have to jump to avoid, and you often have to jump to hit flying enemies. You can even dodge roll in midair, which looks kind of weird, but is useful. I think it works. It's not useless, like the jump in some other RPGs, and it makes the game a little more fun to play.
The stat and training point system has also been completely overhauled. Putting points into specific stats now unlocks passive and equippable buffs, like MP recovery after battles and attack bonuses. You can even unlock buffs with one character and equip them on another. It's pretty cool. You can also unlock some of these equippable buffs by talking to some NPCs. I'm not a big fan of that, though. It's cool when it's a story-related NPC, but I don't want to run around talking to every random villager. Their dialogue just isn't very interesting. I probably missed a lot of those.
Another cool thing they added is the new objective and waypoint system. You always have a little note on the screen telling you what you should do next, there's little icons marking the way to the next objective, and there are markers on the map as well. It's very MMO-like. It also makes it so you don't have to pay attention to the story to know what you should be doing, which is a good thing in my opinion.
Unlike in the SNES game, there is no multiplayer here at all. And since this is a 3rd person game, and it gets pretty hectic during battles, you kind of just have to trust that your party member’s AI is good enough to get you through. Like in the original, you can customize each of your party member’s AI. You can tell them to attack, heal, assist, or do a mix of different things. I played through the whole game on normal, with Charlotte focusing on healing, and I had a pretty easy time, so I guess the AI is alright. Your party members aren’t great at moving out of the way of boss attacks, though. I didn’t try playing the game on hard, but I did try playing without Charlotte, which is a difficulty setting onto itself, and I had a tough time keeping my party members up during boss fights. I could see this being a big problem on higher difficulties.
There is actually some new content in the game in the form of new post-game quests, two new final classes for every character, and a gigantic new dungeon with a new boss. But sadly, most of this new content is more like recolored content. The new classes are really just the last light and dark classes in a branch combined, most of the new bosses are reused models, and the new dungeon is mostly recolored sections of other dungeons chained together. It reminds me of the kind of bad DLC you see in a lot of games. This is definitely worth playing, though. It's the most challenging content in the game, the new story bits are cool, and the reward for completing it is pretty nice; a New Game+ mode.
This remake features a remade soundtrack, and it sounds really good, but it's the same thing with modern technology. It's not orchestrated or anything. It's still a great soundtrack, though. The SNES soundtrack is also in there as an option.
Trials of Mana is definitely the best looking of the Mana remakes so far. It's not like they set a high bar, though. This looks fine and it runs at a great framerate, but it has the same problem as Dragon Quest XI, the environments don't match. All the characters and enemies look right with their anime-like shading and cartoon outlines, but the environments look like they could be from any other game. I suppose it couldn't be helped. These remakes are obviously not getting huge budgets.
I didn't really like the SNES game, but this is much better. It gets rid of all the annoying stuff, except for Charlotte, and modernizes the combat and UI in great ways. This is definitely the best of the Mana remakes, and I'd like to see future Mana games be made in this mold. The story is not interesting at all, but the gameplay is fun. I say skip the original and play this.
