So this is a one-off. I played the game one time. Recorded little footage of it. But decided. I'M NEVER PLAYING IT AGAIN!!!
So Gods of Rome is an Android/Facebook/iOS Free-to-Play game. It's a fighting game. And while I don't hate it for the reasons others do. (Graphics, and simplified combat). I do hate it.
This gives me the same reminders I had with Marvel's Contest of Champions. I'm not hating like others cause of graphics or cause its a FtP Android/iOS title. I hate this game cause of the community and the gameplay.
Gameplay:
I could care less about how simplified the game is. The AI is insanely dumb that the only reason you'd lose is the same reason you would in SoulCalibur: Lost Swords. The AI happens to be stronger than you in stats. Which will happen quite often. So that's a minor thing. Most of my hate goes to the community and RNG. The community is pretty much ruthless. I don't mean there's some PVP or anything Cause the PVP is fight someone else's buffed up character. The AI is still dumber than a sack of bricks it's not a real PVP. I'm referring to the Guilds system. You can create a guild or join one. If you join one, you better have something great to offer otherwise expect to be kicked out or just rejected in less than 5 minutes. Basically the majority of the guild owners will kick you out if you're not playing this game as often as they'd like. Or you're not playing in a mode they want you to. Or they could be dicks and just have you around to help complete an event and then once the event is done. You get the boot. I'm not kidding. The other gameplay aspect I hate is how you acquire more characters. Yeah it's as random as Puzzle and Dragons but at least in PAD you could actually make use of whatever you got. Here not so much. Basically when you get the Mcguffin to acquire a new character. It's randomized as to what you get. Like most games you're teased as to what's featured. That I'm okay with. Its when you actually do it that pisses me off. The game brings up this roulette wheel that you might think, "Hey if I stop this at the right moment I'll get that character I want." Yeah...no. It's just there to tease you. The character you're gonna get was already decided long before the roulette wheel started. So if you wanted Zeus who happens to be on the wheel...don't hold your breath. I had the same issues with this game as I did with Marvel: Contest of Champions. Downloaded it for the same reason too. The characters. But I find out I'm not getting these characters and my chances of that happening are slim to none. If the game wasn't so "GIVE ME ALL OF YOUR MONEY" and the story was more entertaining then I'd play this. But nope. Now if you want to ask me about Marvel: Contest of Champions. Well that's the same thing. Copy and paste what I said here and there you go.
Graphics:
The Graphics are pretty good. Its the reason why I downloaded this in the first place. I like the character designs. However the game may be called "Gods of Rome" but when you look at the entire roster of characters. There's more non-roman gods in this game than there are roman gods. There's Heroes, Demons, Villians, and gods. I guess game names aren't important to pay attention to. You just pick one and ignore it. This game should be called "Almighty Warriors". Cause last I checked Anubis isn't Roman. I'm Zeus isn't Roman he's Greek. So uh....where's the Roman god representation? Seriously looks up the character roster and see how many "Gods" are actually gods. And how many of them are actually Roman. We don't care about game names here. So Why Am I Not Playing This Game? To give you a hopefully simplified reason. I went through the same crap in gameplay when I downloaded Marvel: Contest of Champions. It's pretty much the same exact game but different characters and a slightly different story. The Guild aspect sucks. You basically have to devote as much time to this game as you would World of Warcraft for a guild to actually respect you. The title of the game is misleading. Yeah I'm sure on my history test I'll put that Horus is a Roman god. "Yeah that'll get me an A" *sarcasm* The character RNG drawing is random and teases you far more than it should. I imagine there's some God of Money sitting on an altar with everyone's money with a message right before you enter saying "If you want the good stuff then give me all of your money and I'll CONSIDER it." Sidenote: You might point out that I'm playing games like Puzzle and Dragons, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, etc. However those games didn't rub in your face the need to give them cash. Not only that when you did it was actually worth it. Not like this game. I may sound biased but I really hate this game.
So while I'm busy rendering videos and figuring out what to schedule to be released on Youtube. I decided to go through my PC games. Mainly to see which ones I can actually play and which ones I can't. There's a lot I downloaded off Steam that are clearly in the NOPE category. I'll talk more on that later.
Anyway. Among the games I tried out. Guild Wars 2 was sitting on my PC for who knows how long. I remember I downloaded it when it turned free. Cause apparrently they're releasing an expansion that you have to pay for. Genius. I remember I deleted a lot of the files to make some space on my Hard Drive. Yeah this is one of those games...Actually when I think about it. I downloaded this at first when I was still with Comcast. Remember that Comcast has a data limit? Yeah that's why I didn't bother to play this. 300GB a month and these huge ass downloads for games is murder.
I figured why not. I can see whether or not I can actually play this game. So I downloaded just enough to play.
Character Creation
Well this game already does a good thing in the selection of races there's a beast class. So this game doesn't discriminate. It's not that I only play beast classes. It's that if you're gonna have a these beast classes be NPCs or whatever. Why not make them a playable race. Especially if they're combat capable. I have this problem with Final Fantasy 14, WoW, etc.
I know the supposed reason is that they can't be playable is something like, "Well they're evil so fuck them." But that doesn't mean you can't have some that suddenly decide, "You know what. I'm sick of being evil. I'm gonna be a good guy." Anyway. I'm glad this game doesn't just make the only races your generic elves, humans, Something not human but it might as well be called human cause it looks walks, and talks like a human. That's done way too much.
Needless to say I picked a Charr. I would've picked Asura but I thought Charr would be much better to play. The character creation is rather in-depth but in a different way. Where Champions Online lets you create your hero in a variety of ways. This game asks you questions to determine your story. So I tried to answer based on how I would answer in real life and tried to base it off my own events.
So now cause I picked a Ranger Class I apparently get a pet to fight alongside me. These all seem cool but Imma go with the Drake. It looks reliable and can probably tank a lot of abuse.
Gameplay
So after I finished with character creation. I sit through a nice intro telling me the history of the race I picked. Then I get down to the gameplay. My dude is ready to die for his people... Well I don't approve of dying. But let's save the day. First issue I have is these controls. I'm using the keyboard/mouse setup. Not sure if there's a controller setup for this game.
So uh...I'm clicking and am I attacking at all? I clicked on the enemy multiple times and I wasn't attacking. There were also tons of other players around. So its one of those type of games. I don't mind MMORPG games. I do wish that for what's supposed to be like the tutorial they leave you offline. So other players won't get in the way. I swear I felt like I wasn't really doing anything. I think I attacked maybe 2 or 3 times. Other times other players killed the enemy or my pet did.
After we save the day from some ghost. It's time to head back home and help out our people. Well I did 1 quest and that was about it. I helped a lady with her farm. Killing spiders and worms. I tried to keep a conversation going. But she wasn't interested. Well I had to do other things so this is where I saved my game and quit.
I don't mind the game. I mean so far there's no problems. I was playing it to see if the game worked. It does. I'm not exactly sure if I'll play it. I don't wanna ask others about the game cause likely I'll hear a bunch of negative crap. Also the game itself is free. But if you want the good stuff you gotta cough up some cash. So very likely if I was looking for someone to play with. I'll have to pay for the expansion. And I don't want to.
Well this takes me back. To the good and bad times of high school where Yu-Gi-Oh dominated the world. Other card games were there but it was all Yu-Gi-Oh. Anyway Duel Masters. I remember a review referring to this game as the more Edgier Yu-Gi-Oh with monsters that look like they came directly from hell as opposed to the other's rather childish look.
Well they're not totally wrong. I mean at least back then. Now Yu-Gi-Oh looks like it's adapted a rather edgier look with its monsters. Anyway. If you look at this game you'll probably say WTF was that guy smoking. This game's graphics, story, and heck everything fell rather lack luster. Like this game definitely should be better. It comes out in the middle of the PS2's life and it looks like this. Well Atari wasn't really that focused on appearances, story, and music. The gameplay is actually pretty good. Which they generally focus on when it comes to games.
Story
Okay so in the style of a Newgrounds Flash Animation (No offense to Newgrounds users). Some random lady initiated a ritual stating that by doing this she can take over all 5 realms without even having to duel. Well I guess she never read her children's card game handbook cause whatever the hell you're doing that involves a children's card game. You have to play a card game or it doesn't work. Needless to say her ritual backfires and makes all 5 realms (Fire, water, earth, light, & darkness) go haywire. Knight (or is it Night) is told by these ancients that he needs to gather 5 duelist to win the 5 colors tournament and hopefully they'll be good guys and put the realms back in order.
So later 5 stereotyped kids are sitting together and Knight shows up to tell them that they'll be invited to a special tournament. But first they must train and other stuff.
When I say Stereotyped kids. I mean some serious stereotypes are pushed here. You have the kid with an over-active imagination that's way too perky for no reason. You have black guy that's pretty much as far as a stereotype black dude can go in an E rated game. You got the lonely guy that's picked on. A girl that's way too nice for her own good. And you have the goth kid. These 5 are the characters you play as. Each having there own stories but it all plays the same.
Anyway once I get started I selected the kid with the over-active imagination. From what I remember fire type cards play pretty well especially when you're just starting out. Not to mention they have probably the most badass looking creatures. So this kid starts out by daydreaming that he's winning a tournament in complete anime style. That is until his mom snaps him out of it and has him finish his chores. He's then told that he was invited to a tournament and you have to meet Knight at the park.
I get to the park and Knight just like the anime is completely useless and only tells you what you need to do before disappearing. He says that I need to duel a bunch of people to get my skills and my reputation up before I go to the next mission. I duel about 3 guys whooping them all easily and well nothing...cause I'm supposed to go to a different place and duel a particular person. I stopped here for now for a good reason. Not cause the game's boring. (it is kinda) I'll explain later.
Graphics
Okay I don't really have issues with graphics. I mean people these days focus on the lame stuff like 60fps, 1080p. etc. Well these graphics are all over the place. Remember Chaotic, that card game that died after like 2 years? Remember how the anime at first looked like a flash movie. Then finally turned anime giving certain characters makeovers. Well Duel Masters on the PS2 is the former half of Chaotic and maybe worse.
Like I said the opening looks like a Newgrounds flash animation. But then the graphics get well...spotty. The 3D sprites are rather ugly. And this is coming from me of all people. I should give it some leeway. I mean its a PS2 game. But to give you guys a frame of reference as to how bad the 3D graphics look. Look at Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories' 3D graphics. That game has some 3D graphics when you press the button to load up monster attack animations for some of them. Well that's how this game is.
It doesn't help that the creature on the card looks completely badass. But when you show it on the game. You'll likely go..."Oh... :( " The reasons I bring this up. First off the GBA version of the game despite its obvious limited graphics actually look pretty good. It's no Golden Sun. But it does a good job. 2nd the anime itself. I remember as a kid when I watched the anime whenever I could I always couldn't wait for the monsters to show up and attack. Here I get really disappointed.
Whenever you attack the game plays the animation for the monster attacking and it's rather lengthy. Not only that but imagining the monsters when I see them on the card and then to see there 3D animation play it severely brings down the badass factor. I summoned some Triceratops like monster that looks really awesome on the card....when it attacks...It turns out it's an anthro-Triceratops riding a child's scooter. You know the ones that used to be advertised as they'll be far cooler than a bicycle or skateboard and even have a spark maker to make yourself look "cool" in front of all your friends.
Okay this looks badass lets summon it!
Oh...(This is one of the better looking ones. There's ones that look way worse than there card comparisons)
Probably the silliest thing about the graphics is the character animations when they lose the match. It's like they tried to copy Yu-Gi-Oh or some other card game where the duelist in real life would more or less pretend to get hurt by the monster's attack. But instead it looks like they either didn't want to commit to it all the way. Or that they got knocked senseless in a schoolyard fight.
This is a major letdown for me. I'm rather optimistic cause I would like to see this game get updated or at least have the 3D sprites redone by a random fan.
Music
Okay...what music? This game takes on the Japanese style of making use of music. It's either very quiet to try and give a sense of the environment or there's none at all to help with the mood. I don't mind this but the music selection sucks! I mean even YuGiOh gave me something good to listen to while playing. The most you'll get is hub world and menu screen music. Then during battle you can hear some music and its generally related to who you're fighting. But its low and nonexistent. Then when you attack the game plays a bit of a guitar riff that doesn't even last long enough considering how long the attack animations are.
Yeah bring in your own OST and play it over this game. Even with the cutscenes cause they're all more or less short and unnecessary.
Gameplay
Well the game more or less makes up for it here. First off there's a difficulty setting. Something other card games need. Then you have 2 different modes you can play. Standard or Extreme mode. Standard plays like your typical card game. You each take turns. Extreme mode goes past that and turns it into there own version of Final Fantasy's ATB system. Instead of effects lasting for 1 turn or so they last for a certain period of time. And your monsters have a cooldown as to when they can attack.
Deckbuilding isn't too hard. The menu is organized well enough to navigate it easily. The game auto-saves after almost everything as well. Which can be a good or bad thing. Overall the gameplay is good. But I wish there was an option to turn off the animations. I really only want to see them once when I do it for the first time and maybe a 2nd time if the attack is significant enough.
To Play this or not to play this?
Seriously I don't know if I should. No one's said anything about continuing this game. I'm reluctant to cause I don't want to waste my time and no one watches this game. I'm 50/50 in terms of whether I like it or not.
This is when I hate the naming of games. You either remake a game or reboot or remaster a game. But you title it the same thing as one of the older ones. Then you have to make up your own name for it to try and differentiate it from the original. It's not so bad on places like Youtube. You can see the pictures and know what's what there. But if you run a google search you have a really hard time finding what you want.
I had this problem with the Wipeout series. Actually that's on a whole different scale. You have the original Wipeout which is a Futuristic Racing game on the PSX (basically to rival F-Zero and does a good job of that). Then sometime later you have a game show called Wipeout that eventually made its own game. -_- You have no idea how long it took me to search up the racing one as every search turned up that outdated Ninja Warrior Knockoff. Yeah....-_-
Have this problem with Strider and Devil May Cry as well. Strider makes a reboot but you're searching for either the PSX, Sega Genesis, or NES one (there is one on the NES and Sega Genesis). I'm now getting the latest one.
Solutions to this can be as simple as refining your search. But sometimes that gets really annoying and difficult.
Luckily Rocket Knight isn't too bad in this category although if I talk about this game to certain people they'll think I'm talking about the classic Sega Genesis one. When I run searches about this game I tend to get both games to turn up. I guess cause this game is still forgotten.
Getting this Game to Run Properly
Yeah this is annoying. Once more my videocard being sub par rears it ugly head and even affects this game. I tried to run it at the highest settings 1440 x 900, 60Hz. Nope I get lag. I can tell this cause the demo I played on the PS3 and Xbox 360 the music doesn't sync up to the first cutscene. Yeah that's bad. So lets lower it.
1280 x 800....nope It's slightly better but not good enough. Still laggy
1024 x 768 Okay better...but still lagging behind. Let's try and remove draw shadows. Slightly better but still in the same boat.
720 x 480 Now it works. But to be on the safe side. Might as well remove full screen.
I hate this problem. But at the very least the game is playable. Before I couldn't really play it. I could but according to my screen recorder I'm bouncing between 30 and 18 frames. That's not good. It made attacking and dodging a random crap shoot. Sometimes I would land the hit. Other times I would get hit. Or I just totally whiff my attacks. Yeah not fun. Thankfully at 720 x 480 I can run this and record at a full 60fps. Not that I care for FPS but when its a matter of whether or not I'm going to have a hard time. Then the choice is obvious.
Gameplay Level by Level Explanation
So this is the first time for me I'm playing Rocket Knight. I knew about the game as a kid cause it was one of the games featured on the back of my Sega Genesis box. Unfortunately I never got the game. At the time My mom and dad (mainly my dad) bought whatever games they decided. No it's not a bad thing. It's not like they were "Soccer Moms" as some call it and I can only play games that they approve of. It was more my dad buying a game for me for a reason. Most of the time it was to beat me at the game cause he knew he could.
Controls are simple although on the PC version the controls or well the tutorial shows me keyboard controls and I'm playing on a controller. I wouldn't really bring this up except when you boot up the game it tells you to use a controller for a better experience. So I had to spend a few minutes getting acquainted with the controls. The other issue is the pad I'm using doesn't really have the best D-Pad. It works just fine. Just the shape of it makes me mistake directions at times. I'll hold Diagonal Down Right but I only rocket boost to the right. So controls I blame more my controller than the game itself.
Difficulty isn't too bad. I was gonna say this is an unfair game cause the first boss I faced I died multiple times cause my attacks didn't connect properly. I guess I should talk about this in stages.
There's not too many stages actually. I mean these stages are kinda above average in length. But there's still not too many stages. This is one of those games you can definitely beat in one sitting. But I guess to give you a sense of the difficulty. There are lives in this game and there are continues. So take that as you will.
Stage Explanation
Stage 1-1
So we start off with Sparkster tending to his farm. Bored to death then the Fire Nation Attacked...no..actually its the Wolf Kingdom. The wolves look more like dogs to me. I guess what makes them wolves is that they aren't wearing any shirts. Anyway once Sparkster see's this he rushes inside his house dons his armor and takes off to save the day. With his wife and kid cheering him on. So stage one is the tutorial for the most part. This button jumps, this button does a rocket boost, etc.
I am noticing that he has a fireball attack but its so weak. Where as slashing with my sword I kill most if not all of these guys in 1 hit. The fireball takes multiple shots. Yeah won't be using that. At the end my score is tallied based on how many objects I picked up and how much time I took. Then it tells me how many continues I have.
So the cutscene ends and this guy named Axel Gear shows up pissed at Sparkster for some reason. Then takes off. Sparkster gives chase.
Stage 1-2
Now I'm being taught about the flying stages. Now the weak fireball is useful. Even has a charge shot. You're typical side scrolling shooter here. I run into Axel and a boss fight starts up. He clearly has better weapons than I do. Shooting a straight beam. Dashing like crazy, and even can create damaging smoke clouds.
So I beat him and runs off. Well no time to give chase gotta save the day.
Stage 1-3
This actually got a bit long. And now there's ninja wolves. They'll hang on the walls throwing shuriken at you. When you get close or right under them they jump down. And this game has contact damage. These guys are annoying. Another new enemy type is wolves throwing dynamite at you. At this point the game tells you that you can knock the dynamite back by hitting it. Wait a minute I can knock by dynamite which by logic standards should explode. But I can't knock back a ninja star?!
Anyway it's a good thing the game told me this for an obvious reason.
Stage 1-4
Boss time. Wait Axel you're not gonna fight this thing with me? Hey get back here!
So this giant thing Shoots Buzzsaws, punches, fires rockets, and throws dynamite at me. So I figure I guess I gotta knock the dynamite back. Easier said than done. The dynamite when knocked back don't exactly just fly where you want it to. There's a science to this. What I haven't figured out. Not only that but the weak point is the head. I had a hard time knocking the Dynamite back to his face especially since if I attempted at the wrong time I could get punched in the face. Or I'll whiff and have the dynamite blow up in my face.
After a bit of struggling the boss is defeated. Well check this thing to make sure its dead. Nope is there a phase 2? No...it got up and completely exploded having the face plate land on top of me. Then Axel shows up and takes all the credit. The bastard. So once that was over the game tells me I unlocked hard mode for the next level. Wait what? I thought if you played in hard mode (I'm playing normal BTW) you stay in hard mode. It asks me if I want to switch difficulty. Um...no...I'm just starting this game I'm not suicidal.
Stage 2-1
So things get a bit more intense. I mean we are marching into our enemies kingdom now. Another new Enemy type. I can kill it but its best if I just lure it into a pit. The amount of fire power being shot is rather intense though.
Stage 2-2
So another Air Stage. I'm taking down airships along with more wolves and a lot more bombs. Kinda difficult to line up shots to take out as many as possible. But this stage ends.
Stage 2-3
So another gimmick introduced or at least only for this stage and the next. Sparkster's Jet-Pack is frozen due to frigid temperatures. Now I can only charge the Jet-Pack either by standing near a warm fire or picking one of these items to refills my tank. Either way I have to use it sparingly cause it's very easy to run out.
Stage 2-4
So what's his name Ulfgar??? I think that's his name. Anyway the wolf king. Who looks more like a wolf than the others. This guy has way too many ways you can damage him. However I can't just run up and slash him. I have to make him hurt his self. Funny how the gimmick to unlock hard mode was to make him fall through the floor.
So the boss fight ends and the Wolf King surrenders with the white flag. So game's over? Nope. The pigs of Devoltindos have other plans. They axed the Wolf King kicking him off screen. Before Sparkster or myself have anything to say about it. Sparkster is given a clunk to the head as well. Now all the evil bad guys are laughing. The people of Zephyrus are like WTF then they have guns pointed at them as well. Before we leave to the next stage Sparkster is thrown out the window into a seemingly bottomless pit.
Stage 3-1
Well thankfully this pit isn't bottomless. But man fell a long way down. Seems we're in the Pig's base. Everything's all scientific. The wolves are no more as enemies and now are replaced with pigs. And man are these pigs far more annoying. Most of them I have to work to actually defeat. This level is quite long too. I had a moment of stupidity thinking I was supposed to somehow head over to a switch but instead I hurt myself and found out it's a completely different switch. Kinda hard to see. Especially since I can't full screen this game.
Stage 3-2
Well not a flight mission. And I'm kinda digging the music here. Definitely sounds final level-ish or close to it. But oh god this mission impossible mess. Hitting switches that are timed to get from one point to another. Avoiding electric wires. All while blowing up the base. That's when things got really bad. I blew up the generator and now everything's blowing up. Time to run like hell. So now my platforming has to be quick and precise or I die. It's way worse in hard mode where I literally can't afford a single mistake. What I had to do is easier said than done. After a bunch of screw ups I finally make it.
Stage 3-3
Well showdown with Axel Gear. This guy is a total asshole this time around. Pissed me off so many times. He's always airborne and dashes away from you when you get close. The hard mode achievement is get him to get hit by his own bomb. You have to be ready and expecting it or it won't work. But what's really frustrating is his desperation bit where now he's using a gun. Really man...truly dishonorable knight you are. That gun killed me so many times. Once he's finally defeated time to get out of there cause the explosion I was running away was patiently waiting for this fight to finish.
Stage 4-1
So a flight stage. And it just doesn't stop. The supposed enemies that camoflague themselves then attack you. A guide said "Oh they're easy to deal with." Yeah that's a load of crap. There's so much crap on screen shooting at me its hard to pay attention to everything. The stage ends by shooting down an airship which I honestly thought was going to shoot back. But it didn't.
Stage 4-2
Alright back at home and man these pigs work fast. Machinery everywhere in place of the castle. Annoying pig enemies as well. Not fun to deal with. More platforming that relies on me being quick and precise. There's one part of the stage I just hated cause for one I didn't know where to go. I thought I would keep going right. But then the stage turns me around. First time I didn't notice this path. 2nd time this path is somewhat tedious to make. If your boost is too short you're gonna fall. So make it to the end to Fight General Swinehart and he's got a giant robot. That punches Sparkster in the face.
Stage 4-3 - Final
So the last boss fight. Okay what I needed to do first was obvious. But the 2nd part not so much. I then discovered oh after I kill the robot I gotta make the General crash into the electrified hands or face. Easier said than done. Half the time this guy would just fall safely right in-front of the electrified parts. Other times he would fly just out of my reach even after boosting. I got frustrated how this guy wasn't cooperating. Since it wasn't a matter of being difficult it was a matter of getting this boss to get damaged properly.
He finally goes down and gets taken out Smash Bros style. Star K.O. finish.
GAME!
This game's winner is Sparkster!
The people cheer on the hero as he flies back home. End credits roll. After the end credits he lands back at home another fine job for the hero. Now to tend to the wife and son. That's it for the game.
Unlockables
Back at the title screen. If I want to unlock anything. I have to play in hard mode. I did and god was I frustrated. More enemies to kill and boss attack patterns are much faster. I was frustrated. But managed it.
I unlock playing as Axel Gear which is nothing but skin/costume mod. It doesn't change up the story or gameplay. And I unlock Golden Sparkster mode. Which might as well be very hard mode. Enemies are far more aggressive but the worst part is my HP is cut in half. So these guys are doing more damage and I only have 4 hearts of health instead of 8. Yeah....maybe another time I'll do this. Not right now.
Gameplay
Okay so gameplay. It's insanely short. You can finish this in about 1-3 hours. I guess your replay value is Axel Gear costume and Gold Sparkster. Maybe this game's a bit too short. But definitely has difficulty behind it along with continues like a classic Genesis or SNES platforming game. I guess if you're one of those guys that want the highest score possible or the fastest time this is a good game to do so on.
But I know a lot of people will frown or ignore this completely. These days I find a lot of people whether on Youtube, Twitch, whatever. They hate having lives and they hate continues. Saying that its unfair to have it in the game and that its a harsh punishment to game over cause you ran out of lives and then have to start all over. But that's how games were back in the good old days. So I guess its true that times have changed and using old fashioned game design methods will only piss players off. I'd complain that gamers today just want there hands held or for someone to do the work for them. But that would be another 5 - 7 paragraphs of text by itself.
Anyway Gamplay is good but short-lived. 4 Stages. 2 different modes of difficulty. Not much else there. I guess it could be extended. Like giving the game an actual Axel Gear mode. A couple more stages.
Graphics
Graphics are great. Everything stands out for me. Even stuff going on in the background of some stages. Although I question if the wolves are just actually dogs. But enemy and character designs are great. Everything moves smoothly. I can't complain here about anything but my graphics card. I thought that since this is an old game I should be able to run it at the max specs. But no. I can't blame the game for that. I blame me.
Music and Sound
Music fits each stage. Sound effects aren't annoying except during stage 3-2 when I'm escaping the explosion. It's a bit too much going on in the background. No voice acting needed just funny sound effects and you can automatically tell what's going on. Not all games need voice acting or words to tell a story. You can do it just with a couple of sound bytes and animation.
Overall
A short enjoyable game. I think it's 15 bucks to download on either 360, PS3, or Steam. I got it when it was on sale. Worth my purchase. I kinda wanna play the older Genesis/SNES versions to see how they are. Anyway hope you guys enjoy the playthrough whenever it goes up.
