MetalCaveman

Def Jam Vendetta For the longest time, I was sure this was the sequel to Fight for New York, turns out it's the other way around. One of the most frustrating fighting games I've played, mostly due to how hard it is to actually end a fight, you can't just beat the crap out of your opponent you need to win through pin, submission or knockout, but pin and submission rarely work, and knockouts only work under special circumstances, combine this with an awkward control scheme and the result is an annoying nightmare. Not something I would recommend. I have fond memories of Fight for New York, so now I'm curious as to how that one has aged. Grade: D-

Area 51 (PS2) Took a bit of time to get used to the controls, using R2 to aim, L2 to jump and L1 to crouch feels weird but after my brain adapted it wasn't so bad lol. The story is fun, silly, cheesy and cool, it really throws every Area 51 conspiracy theory at you lol, there's government experiments, alien weapons, a virus, a fake moon landing, a secret underground base, everything! Voice acting is neat (except for a VA that aged like milk), David Duchovny voicing a character that's involved with alien stuff, that just feels right. There were only two alien weapons but they were fun to use, and one of them has infinite ammo so that's always neat, just wish you fought more grey aliens. Alien monsters, infected mutants and humanoid soldiers are cool and all, but greys should be more common as an enemy type in a game like this. Grade: A

P.N. 03 This was... something lol, the most positive thing I can say is that some of the ideas present here went on to become Vanquish, and that one's cool. Oh, and I guess the Papillon suit is kinda neat. The controls are awkward, even for a GameCube game, some enemies and bosses move way too fast for how slow the aiming is, environments are empty and barren and not in a GameCube era kind of way. The story is pretty much non-existent: "Here's your next mission" "Will you tell me about the target?" "No" "OK" The last boss is a nightmare too lol, overall, not recommended unless you really, REALLY want to see what came before Vanquish. Grade: D-

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90% off, the eshop version.

Star Fox Assault Shorter than I remember, but still pretty fun. Really appreciate that it uses the C-Stick as a right stick camera control instead of some other weird control setting lol. Aparoid infection is still super creepy, specially the Corneria boss fight, still hits hard after all these years. There are some issues though, voice acting is a weak spot, Peppy went from cartoony old guy voice to monotone apathetic old guy voice lol, graphics also look like a downgrade from Adventures, and (this is just me lol) I much prefer the Arwing from Adventures over this one, Adventures has a more practical look and feel to it, Assault just kinda has pointy stuff everywhere and doesn't really land, just hovers in place. Grade: A

Star Fox Adventures Better than I remembered, but also kinda bad lol, some of the parts I recall being super frustrating (like the test of strength in Lightfoot village) were way easier this time, while the bomb puzzles were as annoying as always. Gameplay holds up better than expected, except for some things. Trying to aim the fire blaster feels like you're fighting against the staff itself, really frustrating, specially with how many timed puzzles require that you hit targets with this thing. Not being able to jump down while climbing rock walls gets annoying real fast, more so if you make multiple visits to the store. Not having proper camera controls is also quite the choice, specially when Assault does have the option to use the C Stick as a normal right stick camera control. I actually didn't remember that moment with Scales lol, was actually looking forward to that fight and then... Nothing. Grade: B+

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Star Fox 64 As fun as I remember, also, I'm way better at it now than when I originally played it aeons ago lol, took me about an afternoon to get both endings. Grade: A+

Would love an entire album in this style.