Reviews by mhj
NeoGeo, a name that conjures up many memories for me. I played many of them in the arcades in the 90’s, including titles such as Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury and many other hits. I never really got to play the Last Blade, however. It was only until recently that I really could experience the joy that is the Last Blade. Coming in at $7.99 USD on the Switch eshop, it’s just at the right price to dive right in! I’ll go over the presentation, the controls, the difficulty, the sound and music and finally an overview of the whole thing.
When you first start the Last Blade, you’re asked to select from one of several modes. You can choose Japanese, American, Caravan or High Score mode. I won’t go into the latter modes, Caravan and High Score, because I didn’t find those interesting. Once you pick Japanese or American, you’re given a choice of which user to select to play the game with. After that, the intro starts up and you’re asked to “insert coins” as you would in a real arcade. To do so, you press the L button to insert coins and the R button to start(as player one). You’re then presented with a choice of combatants, each with their own unique special moves as per the usual fighting game rules. After picking one, you can choose either Power or Speed mode. I haven’t played the game long enough to understand the real differences between them. Regardless of your choice, you’re whisked away to the first fight! The presentation for all the above is completely flawless and one of SNK’s best, with I feel the only games rivalling it’s presentation are the sequel, Garou: Mark of the Wolves and King of Fighters.
Now for the controls. The controls are very tight and it’s very easy to pull off combos, even despite the age of the game. Certainly, you do need practice, and that’s one of the downsides of the game I’ll get into later. Anyways, the controls are very responsive and usually only need a little push to really pull off anything. I’d say it’s also one of the game’s best features. Also I would recommend the use of the Pro Controller or an arcade stick, by say, Hori, for the best experience with the controls.
As for the difficulty, it’s rather hard, especially if you’re not good at fighting games. I’ve had years of experience in fighting games, but I am by no means a master at them. The last boss also exhibits what some would call “SNK Boss Syndrome,” which means that they are really are cheap and unfair. I found this to be true a little, and it took me at least 10 tries to beat the boss. There are options to lower the difficulty, but what is really glaring is the fact that you can’t switch the game to what is called “AES” mode. NeoGeo, the console, was no different from the arcade version, but there was the fact that many games, when you used them in a NeoGeo console, would often have a menu of options that you could select from, and that usually included a training mode. This port lacks the option to switch to console mode, sadly. In any case, because of the difficulty, I would recommend that you mostly play this with your friends to have the best time.
The music and sound are amazing, and just a joy to listen to no matter what. Sometimes the music is purely ambient, however, but other times it’s got such a Japanese feel you can’t help but be surprised out of what they could do with the NeoGeo’s hardware. You’ll want to find the soundtrack online after listening to the music in the game! As for the sounds, they’re all hard hitting, and the sound effects do the game real justice. There’s no tinny or otherwise out of tune sounds here.
Overall, I’d say the game is definitely worth it, especially if you have a Pro Controller or 2, and a friend. It’s unfortunate about the lack of a AES mode, but maybe one day they’ll do us a service and patch it in. I’ll give this 4/5 stars due to the facts mentioned above. Great game, just needs some adjustments in this port.
The Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, they’re great little controllers for the vast majority of games, but sometimes, you need something more akin to a classic controller. A controller like the Super Nintendo gamepad. This review will cover the various aspects of the Pro Controller, the feel, the grip, the buttons, the price, the battery and finally I will give an overall opinion.
The feel of the controller is honestly quite good. It’s sleek and doesn’t really have any ergonomic issues. The shape is rather nice and both of my hands could grasp it well.
The grip of the controller is great, I feel like it won’t break down easily, compared to many other main system controllers. I’d say that if you want a controller that you can take anywhere, the Pro Controller fits the mold.
The buttons of the controller are the controller’s only real shortcoming, at least for 5 of them. The sync button, located on the front of the controller, is somewhat difficult to press, so when you’re pairing it, it can be a hit-and-miss process. Then we have the dpad, and compared to the PS4 controller, it falls very short. It’s very stiff and it can be hard to direct the controller to have your character move in a diagonal direction, such as up-forward or down-forward without really mashing it. The rest of the buttons, however, are great and feel just fine.
The price was $70 USD, which is a lot for a controller. I’d say that’s not too bad for a controller, considering how much they cost these days, but I think it should’ve priced like $20 cheaper, given that unlike the pair of Joy-Cons, you only get a single control pad.
The battery life is supposed to be 40 hours if I recall. That’s honestly really good battery for a wireless controller, although you can plug it into the USB-C port if you have the Switch docked and not have to worry. I’ve had no problems with it so far regarding battery.
Overall, I’d say that for the price, it’s a bit of letdown, and the buttons can cause issues when using the dpad. If you’re looking for a serious controller for the Nintendo Switch, it’s rather hard to find one that will be supported compared to the Pro Controller. I hope that Nintendo will put out a revision for serious players who want precise control in their games. I’ll give it a 3/5 because of the issues highlighted above. The dpad issue I find to be very serious, at least for me.
Nintendo, a company with a long history. From the Game and Watch, to the NES, Wii and in-between, everyone knows Nintendo. Thanks to the poor reception of the Wii U, Nintendo was in a slump, but then came along the NX, which would later be known as the Switch. In this review, I’ll discuss the setting up of the Switch when you first get it, the interface, the online/friend system and the games.
When the Switch first came out, it was very hard to find one. They sold in droves and online, it was even harder to get one. One day I heard that the local Best Buy was getting some in, so I went and they had some in, and I bought it right then and there, along with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
I came home, and opened the package. At first I was somewhat confused as to how it was supposed to work, at least as far as where to put some of the cables, since the place to plug them in was hidden behind a piece on the Dock. This was while I was setting up the Switch initially, which, I might add, was very easy. When setting up on the main Switch unit/tablet, I recall that all they ask you to do is create a local account, add a password if you want and pick an avatar. I believe there was also a day one download update, for both the system itself and the controllers aka Joy-Cons. In any case, within about 15 minutes I was playing Mario Kart. Compare that to the PS4/Xbox One.
Regarding the interface, it’s very bare-bones compared to the other game systems I’ve known. It’s simply just pick and play a game. As far the interface for the system, controller and other non-game menus goes, it’s also very bare-bones, which some might find confusing if they don’t understand what a certain function does. Overall though, it’s not a bad experience.
The games which line the system are some of the best of the bunch, from Zelda to Mario, from Splatoon 2 to Rocket League, the Switch has plenty of heavy hitters. The Switch seems to be more orientated towards multiplayer games than most in it’s line-up, especially local multiplay. Some of the outstanding ones include Mario Kart, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Super Bomberman R, Rocket League, Ultra Street Fighter 2 and many indie games. I’d say that it has a great selection, and for the audience which Nintendo wants to have, it fits perfectly.
The online/friend system is what I’d say would be the only shortcoming to the Switch’s great presentation. It harkens back to a time when people had to memorize long strings of code just to be able to interface with another person. The friend code system of the 3DS is practically what the Switch uses, and I find it very contrarian to the goals of the system. You have to input a long string for a friend, and it’s just so not very smooth. However, online play, at least for me, has been very robust, and I feel as if the servers are excellent.
The upcoming games for the system look to be very amazing, and Nintendo has promised to deliver a steady stream of games, so they don’t make the same mistakes as they did with the Wii U. Some of them include a new Metroid Prime, Mario Tennis, DLC for various games already out and so forth. A new Nintendo Direct is supposed to coming as well, so the announcements will probably be awesome.
Overall, the system is only marred by the friend code system, and I find everything else to be great. If you’re looking for a system you can just pick up and play, or you want to have a party with friends and game with them, I’d totally recommend the Switch. I feel Nintendo is doing everything it possibly can to not repeat past mistakes, and I feel as if they’re succeeding. If you’ve been holding back buying one, now is the time to jump in the game and enjoy all the games you’ve missed out on. I’m giving the Switch 4/5 stars, and the only reason it’s not 5/5 stars is because of the friend code system.
This review is about the Playstation 4 Slim Model, 500 GB that came with Uncharted 4. I got it on sale for about $230 I believe. Now, I won’t be reviewing the services which are optional, such as Playstation Plus. I also won’t go over the history of the Playstation or it’s current competition with the Switch and the Xbox One. So, lets start the review!
The PS4, when first booted, asks that you create a Playstation Network account, set the privacy settings and numerous other settings, such as power. When I was first given all these options, I wasn’t particularly surprised, having owned a PS3. To newcomers however, all these options might seem overwhelming. After setting everything up, you should be ready to go with whatever game(s) you’ve bought.
That brings me to my next point, game installation. Normally game installation doesn’t take long, but if you have patches, or bought the game digitally, it can potentially take quite a while. At least for me it did when I digitally bought Final Fantasy X/X2 and Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. I would say it took a little over a day for them to complete the installation. I don’t know why the network speed is so slow, but I had mine hooked up via an ethernet cable and it was still slow. Additionally, digital games often can take up a lot of hard drive space, which brings me to my next point.
If you decided to go on the cheap like I did and bought the system with so little space, you might be a little scared of running out of space quickly. It’s true, you will run out of space rather quick if you buy, say, a game or 2 every month. However, if you buy physically then you shouldn’t have to worry about re-installation taking as long or losing the license to the game if, for whatever reason, the game is taken off the digital store. Plus, you can reportedly install a larger hard drive if you so desire. I haven’t done it because I don’t have the money, so I continue to buy physical copies of games.
As far as making friends and communication goes, on the PS4 it’s rather quite simple. One simply has to find their friend(s) using a search feature and send them a friend request. Additionally, you can be a Close Friend with someone, but as I haven’t used that feature, I don’t know what benefits it confers onto your relationship, other than they can see your real name. Typing messages is simple as well, thanks to word searching. However, due to this ease of use, sometimes one can run into spam messages which might rip you off or potentially put you into a bad situation. I recommend deleting messages from anyone you don’t know right away, as you would if you were using email. Your friends and you can form groups, which brings me onto my next point.
Groups are fun little places where you can find matches with other people, or share advice and generally make friends. I recommend joining a few groups based on whatever game(s) you happen to have, because they also sometimes have notifications concerning news about the game, or tournaments held internally to the group. One word of caution though, if you join many groups, be prepared for lots of notifications when you turn on your PS4, and that can be a bit annoying.
Now onto something else I’d like to touch on, the future of PS4. I believe the PS4’s future looks rather bright, many AAA games are still coming out for it, and one recent one, God of War, has set the stage for AAA games once again. E3 is coming soon, so I’m sure more announcements for the PS4 are sure to follow. I can’t wait for it!
Overall, I find the Playstation experience, as a complete package, to be a solid one. I’ve been a gamer for a long time, since the days of the NES/Famicom, and while I miss the times of when you could just plug in a game and play it, without having to worry about system/game updates, I understand the need to patch the game(particularly fighters and MMOs). Regardless, I think you will find the PS4 to be a great system, and I highly recommend it.
I’m giving it 4 stars and not 5 because of the little issues I’ve faced here and there, and the issues I raised above. If I could give it 4.5 or 4.7 stars out of 5, I think that would be closer to the truth of the rating. Anyways, thanks for reading this review!