Recent reviews by DarkHelmet

I really enjoyed playing this game. Rogue-lites have become my go to for awhile now since I can only game in small bursts and it lets me feel that sense of completion from a full run.

The fight mechanics seemed a bit boring at first, but get much better as you unlock more moves, abilities, and ritual schools? Once you unlock the chaos rituals and start spawning vicious or giant mobs to assist you things get a lot easier unless you choose to raise the difficulty (which thankfully you can also lower back down).

All of the four main characters were enjoyable to play. I had a little bit tougher time getting used to Karl - the dwarf with the boomstick. Once I was able to get his Arcana Mastery upgrade though things got a lot more entertaining ... and explosive.

The graphics are fine. I enjoy hand-drawn art as much as the next person, but I felt like I would have really enjoyed some more frames of animation. It wasn't enough to make me not want to play, but it just seemed like the game could have been so much better visually if there had been some more smoothness to the movements. I know it's an art style choice, but when I do a strong sword swing attack I don't want to so easily be able to count how many frames are in the animation (it might have been 3, 4 at the most).

The sound effects are well done (minus the repetitive voiceover lines which I mention below) and the music I felt was above average. It wasn't a Darren Korb masterclass, but it was very enjoyable to play to.

- The only real gripes I have are the main characters and bosses need more voiceover lines. Some of them get repeated WAY too often. It doesn't have to reach Hades levels of voiceover variety, but at the character select screen for instance, the exact same line was spoken every time you switched characters. Surely another couple of hours with the voice actors could have made some of these moments feel so much better.
- Also, there are some skippable cut scenes like in Asterios after you beat two sections, then the main gate opens and several enemies come out to attack you in the main bazaar area. When you try to speed up this section when the enemies come out it will stop you from speeding up the sequence 2 or 3 times instead of letting you push through the whole thing. You can start skipping through again almost immediately once it stops you, but it is annoying and slows you down. Hopefully this will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
- This is pretty minor, but I feel like the main NPC 'Mother Uchawi' speaks WAY too slowly, too often, in an odd dialect, is oftentimes long-winded and is occasionally difficult to understand or words things in such a way you have no idea what she is talking about. There were times I felt like this game needs to have a prequel to explain the events that happened leading up to this game. It doesn't seem like it is explained very well or perhaps I skipped too many of her speeches because I lost interest in what she had to say due to it breaking up the rhythm of the game for me.

I don't write a ton of reviews, but I feel inspired and now that I've hit 100% achievements on this game it seems like a good time to get it done. The short version of this review is that this is a great game and I wholeheartedly give it a thumbs up. At worst, there are some very small and easily looked past problems. I will typically throw my money at anything with a dose of nostalgia like Mighty No. 9 (sadly that was terrible), Mega Man 11, Bloodstained, etc. so I'll try not to let the fact that this game pushed my nostalgia button so well as to cause my review to be overly biased.

"The Great Stuff"
• The art style is amazing. I don't think there is one negative thing I can say about it. Is it a little cartoony - maybe to some, but it all blended together so well it never bothered me for a moment. The people that were getting bent out of shape about what they called 'hobo Axel' need to get over it. He looks fine, plays great, and there's some vague backstory about him going into seclusion and meditating that would explain the look. The needless whining over that fixation was ridiculous.

• The fighting looks and feels great. I settled into Adam Hunter pretty quickly as soon as I unlocked him half way through the story mode on my first playthrough and barely ever looked back. I was surprised how I kept adjusting my attacks and play style, finding new ways to more efficiently beat enemies to a pulp the more I kept playing. You wouldn't normally expect even a moderately deep fighting system in a game of this style, but it manages to pull it off. The combo system is enjoyable most of the time and gets better once you realize different tricks to keep it going between scenes of enemies (i.e. hitting drums, picking up items). It can be a bit frustrating when you get to a 50+ combo rolling and then one guy gets a cheap shot in and you lose your streak and any extra points you would have received. It's very satisfying when you earn a long combo, but at times feels too punishing when you lose it due to what feels like nothing more than bad luck.

• The sound effects are spot on and so many are brought directly over from the classic games such as the item pickups and barrel breaks. There is one that is totally messed up and appears in my EPIC FAIL section.

"The Slightly Less Great"
• The boss fights are okay, but they use the same character model WAY too many times or they just pair up previous bosses to make it a "new" challenge. For example you fight new faces Estel and The Commissioner separately, then you meet them again together at the end of a later stage. The same goes for the Y twins. There are 3 other bosses that use the same model (snake lady) and while one uses electricity and fights alone with adds and the other two fighting together without adds use fire and poison it feels a little lazy and the visual difference is very minimal. I realize the old games had memory limitations that made palette swapping common, but this needless repetition on a modern title didn't appeal to me. Then when previous bosses aren't being paired up or rehashed enter Shiva, Max, and Barbon from the old games which were cool to see updated, but when you set that alongside previous issue it starts to look like a lack of inspiration for the bosses.

• The new music soundtrack did not appeal to me and at times I found it to be distracting if not outright annoying. For all but one stage I always leave on the retro music which I am so thankful was there. It still sounds amazing and goes with the action more often than not. I feel bad even making this comment especially since I have seen the music featurette video they released talking about all the different talent they had gotten together for the music and it seemed to be such a labor of love for all of them. I was honestly really looking forward to it, but it immediately fell flat for me once I started playing.

EPIC FAIL
• Ok ... for anyone that ever played the old games do you remember how satisfying the sound effect was when you hit someone with a pipe? It was epic. Well .... they changed it and it is weak. This is made further upsetting by the fact that the correct, original sound can be heard when you get smacked in the face by Abadede in his secret throwback boss fight. This desperately needs to be fixed. I noticed this immediately the first time I smacked someone with a pipe wrong and no joke it takes me out of the game a bit every single time I use the pipe because the sound used is so unimpressive by comparison.

First impressions are mostly positive and this definitely feels like a MegaMan game.

My main gripe at this early stage is with the controls. On classic MegaMan games I could jump and use my regular shot to hit anything every time. The timing seems just a hair off with the old arm cannon especially during the jump animation. I've been able to deal with it, but it doesn't feel 100% on the mark.

One other small thing that doesn't feel right is the animation and stun that goes on after being hit. You get knocked back an amount that I would consider to be the width of a 'block' in this game. This would be similar to a single block graphic in the original that was repeated to create the level. I feel that after this slight immediate knockback I am more frozen in place and for slightly longer than usual. This creates an unfamiliar feeling compared to the classics and it causes some deaths that the old series in a similar situation would not create especially when converyor belts are involved.

Also, as others have stated the music I have encountered so far isn't of the caliber of MegaMan 1-3 (my golden video game years), but it isn't bad by any means.

The game is indeed hard and my instinct as a classic MegaMan gamer is to not use the gear system to 'nerf' my way through it, but I am definitely being tested for not doing so. Just on BlockMan's stage alone the miniboss which I just got to a second time is tough to predict soon enough to get out of the way without using the Speed Gear especially the second time around when the game throws a conveyor belt into the fight which seems like a cheap shot in my opinion.

Would I recommend it this early on? I think so. But I do wish the gameplay were tweaked a bit with the old games in mind as noted above. I'll get used to it, but it is so close to what it needs to be it makes me want even more for it to get past that 98% mark and to feel exactly like the old games with a fresh coat of paint on it.

Will update as I go along ....

Update 6/30/2015

After a patch or two later and playing more I have had a successful online experience, finished story mode, and now I have a few extra things to mention. The memory leak "seems" fixed for the moment and the game appears to be much more stable.

+ I only did a couple of online bouts and the experience was surprisingly smooth compared to initial release.

+ Living Towers offer a good alternative to the classic arcade tower with a ton of modifiers and challenges along the way. It still feels a little tedious after a few, but definitely an improvement on the idea.

+ Being able to overlay combos / specials / finishers on the screen while you fight was extermely helpful at times especially in story mode when you are switching characters every few fights.

- Between mobile and console/PC versions the developer makes too many attempts to reach into my wallet. It is extremely tacky and distracts from the game. The focus that was placed on this should have been spent on making the game a better experience, but that would've cost money instead of made it so what motivation did they have. On day one this was a $30 game at best considering how much money would be made on DLC / microtransactions. Develeoper greed is definitely out of control at the cost of quality making us quite literally pay more for less.

- Loss of tag modes... why? It was so much fun and when I could actually convince someone to play with me locally it kept their interest longer since they could essentially test out two characters in a single match.

- No stage fatalities which have been a staple of the series throughout and a few of the backgrounds seemed well suited for a good set up.

- Too few background stages that become repetitive and worn out quickly.

- Story mode, for me, seemed far too short or at least much shorter than MK9. I was both surprised and a bit disappointed it was over so quickly. Too many playable characters had a miniscule / meaningless role in the story such as Baraka, Reptile, Jax, Kitana, Kung Lao, etc. - Erron Black and Ferra/Torr were completely disposable and had zero explanation or back story. Lots of fleshing out could've been done, but this game was clearly rushed out the door. Major plot events such as Scorpion being released from Quan Chi's power and his humanity restored went by so quick I didn't even notice when it happened. Suddenly he was human and I was like ... okay, that's cool, but when did that happen? I had to go back and then noticed it happened when Sub-Zero and Jax were released as well. If your audience can so easily miss such a pivotal plot point you've not done your job correctly. And the glowy green power Johnny / Cassie absorb and display prior to giving Shinnok a royal beatdown ... was that ever explained? Also, the vintage character's overwhelming trust in the new recruits to perform tasks far outside their abilities and confidence level seems horribly naive and misplaced. And then trusting them to defeat Shinnok seems unbelievable if not utterly ludicrous. The ending, regardless of how short and full of missteps the ride there ended up being, was satisfying and the potential set up for a sequel was interesting. Also, I hope Rain becomes a playable character at some point since his fighting style seemed pretty reasonably fleshed out in the story.

- Speaking of the new recruits, I don't think Neatherealm did nearly enough with them to make them interesting as fighters or for the player to have much if any investment in them in story mode. Takeda and Kung Jin's move sets were okay, Cassie's was decent, but just felt like regurgitated ideas from Johnny Cage and Sonya which was intentional, and Jacqui Briggs seemed completely uninspired. As for other new characters D'Vorah was interesting, Erron Black was kinda fun, but Ferra/Torr was just weird and as a fighter did not interest me at all.

- The new crypt design is a pain in the ***. It is nearly impossible to follow what you have and have not opened. It's no wonder they offered the abillity to pay and unlock it all because going through and trying to do it manually, even if you had infinite coins to start with, would be an exercise in frustration. Whoever designed this needs to be punched in the jeans.

In summation, my review is still negative and I deem its predecesser MK9 a far better overall game that Neatherealm seemed to really pour their heart and soul into so if you don't have it go pick it up. This game needed a more fleshed out story with less day one DLC and preferably zero microtransactions, less disposable characters, more stages, a more logically designed crypt, and without tag modes and stage fatalities completely missing.


Original Review
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I'll keep this short since it has already all been stated ad nauseum.

The game looks great and seems like it would be a truly worthy successor to the great reboot that was accomplished in MK9....

.... however, the crippling memory leak and seemingly unoptimized state of the game and its netcode makes it un-recommendable by me and I've loved this franchise since MK1 (sans Deception thru Armageddon). Releasing the game in this state is inexcusable. I don't fully understand why High Voltage Software was hired to port this with their track record - as I know it anyway which may admittedly be a little narrow.

In addition the DLC strategy with this game is sickening. If there is another after this I will not be paying full price for half of an unfinished and unoptimzed game. This nickel and diming the customer to no end is really getting out of control.

DuckTales Remastered is a testament to what a developer can do with an old title and WayForward does an absolutely stellar job in every department.

Graphics and animation are lovingly updated and re-created to make you feel that you are playing an interactive episode of the old TV show. I could go on about this, but if you haven't watched the 'Duckumentaries' above (and on YouTube) they do a great job of showing the process they went through to update it.

Sound design is fantastic, but the game's music was the audio portion done with the most love of the original NES source material. It is nothing short of beautiful and nostalgic. The composer went above and beyond keeping close to original compositions, but updated them perfectly to full orchestrations. I can not fathom how this could have been handled any better. The calm, smoothness of the stage select music coupled with the act of performing a swan dive into Scrooge's money bin hit my nostalgia nerve very hard. Nothing has pulled me back to the happiness of my childhood like that did in a long time. The other impressive bit in the area of audio was the use of what I believe is the entire original voiceover cast from the cartoon which adds another layer of authenticity and enjoyment to this game. And when I say everyone I mean all the way from Scrooge (Alan Young was 93 I believe when he recorded this) all the way down to Webigail and even Duckworth the butler has a couple of lines.

The gameplay remains wholly unchanged from the original. The pogo can be a little frustrating every now and again, but it always was and isn't in any way crippling here. Also, the addition of added difficulties is welcome since the original was very unforgiving in this area. The main change is the addition of a whole new final level - Mount Vesuvius which takes the place of returning to Transylvania in the original. A difficult final stage that is well conceived and fits in with the rest of the game well. The final bit of the game after your battle with Dracula Duck is a homage to what the old 8-bit twitch reaction platformers could be. The game is a tiny bit short, but that's hardly a criticism since the orignal was the same and only took more time due to the unforgiving difficulty.

Overall, this is a wonderful game for all ages, especially those old-school gamers of us in our 30s that loved these old 8-bit platformers. I am definitely keeping my eye on anything WayForward does from here on because they clearly know how to make, not just a good game, but how to make it fun and its refreshing to see a developer who seems to really care about what they're doing versus raking in the cash as the primary motivator. If they ever got their hands on Capcom's 8-bit MegaMan library (especially this same music composer) I would be all over that.