Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate PS5 Review

 

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate is a 2D Beat-em-ups game was released in 2025 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch, and PC.

It was developed by Mages Inc and published by Rocket Panda Games, and it is also a 2025's fully remastered version of 2013's original titled as Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds was originally released for X360, PS Vita, and PC, and also later ported to PS4 and Switch in 2015-17 releases as Overdrive. 

The game acts as an spin-off title to 2011's fighting game titled as Phantom Breaker for Arcade, PS3 and X360, then later released in 2022 as Omnia for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC.

First of all in last month, I've previously mentioned the 2011's fighting game that I never actually played it before, so until now I've finally had a chance to bought the game off from PS Store thanks to winter holiday sale.

After downloading the game on my console, I had a first go with the 2022's update version of 2011's fighting game titled Phantom Breaker: Omnia for PS4 which features all fighters from previous version in addition to 2 new fighters, remixed soundtrack, new fighting game style, balanced adjustments, and the ability to play through stories of both the 2011's original and 2013's extra making it the first time the game will see a release outside of Japan featuring both Japanese and English voice acting. 

My first impression is quite bit mixed because it may not be as good in comparison with other anime fighting games that plays slight better like Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, Arcana Hearts 3, and Under Night In-Birth in terms of fighting controls and design wise, but I do praise the game for its cast of rosters, story presentation, visuals and sounds, and of course the full complete content does help the game quite a bit...I say it's not a bad package overall. 

So enough with that because now I'm going to focus on reviewing the spin-off title called Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate for PS5.

Before I begin reviewing the game, I had previously played Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds for PS Vita quite long time ago and the game is kinda plays similar to one of Treasure's cult-following classics such as Guardian Heroes on SEGA Saturn which is why I had a reason to bought it for PS Vita digitally, but I never quite had a chance to finish the whole game because I got busy with studying at my university back then, but now pushing forward to many years later I've finally going back to this which is why I've bought the ultimate version for the PS5 to see if the game is actually fun as today.

So what I've learned about the ultimate version is that it features freshly updated visuals, enhanced battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online for co-op and versus mode with full cross-platform play is something that I'll be interested in playing this game.

Is the ultimate version of the original game worth a look? so let's find out and see how the game really goes.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game set in Tokyo, Japan as the story starts out with the mysterious villain named Phantom has ordered the young fighter groups with magical artifacts to fight and creating spacetime rifts to regain his sealed powers, as he kidnaps the girl named Nagi which prompting her sister Waka and the allies to team up traveling across the parallel worlds to rescue Nagi and preventing chaotic plot from the hands of Phantom. 

The story in the game is however decent, so you're just a bunch of anime girls squad went on mission to rescue the kidnapped girl and confronting the evil who manipulates young individuals into fighting which causes the creation of dimensional rifts and plotting to obtain the sealed powers, so that he can able to do something very dangerous that harms the world.

It's kinda like any of Beat-em-ups video games with similar plot which I don't really mind at all because it's just the way it is supposed to be that makes the game quite interesting to play.

Aside with the story, I say I really liked the choice of the characters in the game such as you have heroines like Mikoto Nishina the music college student with big-ass sword, then you have Waka Kumon who is part of the Kumon's family clan and also Nagi's elder sister, then you have Itsuki Kouno the heroic house maid on the mission, and finally Yuzuha Fujibayashi the kick-ass high-school ninja, so these are the main 4's had agreed to team up together to battle against the hordes of Phantom's younglings.

Then you have sub-character Nagi Kumon who is Waka's little sister which poor thing was being captured by the Phantom.

It also featured two mid-bosses such as M the Scavenger and Cocoa who is nothing but sort of trouble maker becoming part of Phantom's ally, and of course various of enemies including Kagebito once human being but became Phantom's parasite, T-DA Monster who is Cocoa's creatures from her favourite video game, Robot corps of Wahrheit created by military manufacturer, groups of Yin Yang fortune-teller who believe in the Phantom, and of course the large-sized bosses such as big fat green dragon, tall red-horned devil, and of course the bulky mecha-dude.

I adore the game's presentation which I really liked the anime art-style for its visual settings and design, so the game has really awesome opening intro that has eye-catching, flashy, and stylish sequences are incredibly beautiful to watch.

I also wanted to praise the settings of stage locations starting from light to dark scenery in each levels such as you have street, city building, gaming arcade club, school outdoors and refectory, cargo ship area, underground sewers, parking space area, construction site elevator, train station, temple, and of course the dark dimension place.

As the ultimate version of the original game, I really liked the changes on the visual side because I liked the 3D-cel-shaded style on background area of each stages which is looking spectacular on the modern platform that made it look different from the previous version's simple 2D-style background design.

Overall, it has decent story, good characters, and great presentation design. 

Gameplay

The game has story mode which is single-player based campaign, where as the co-op mode for both local up to 4-players and online up to 6 or 8 players.

You take control of 4 of the heroines in 2D side-scrolling perspective, as your main goal is to fight through the stage and defeat the bosses in order to proceed the next stage.

You will have both of your health and magic bar being displayed on top of the screen which I will explain these for later on this review.

For movement, press the left/right d-pad button or push the left/right with left-stick control is to move player, and press the up d-pad button or push up with left-stick control is to jump, and holding down with the down d-pad button or with the left-stick control is to crouch down.                     

Double tap the left/right d-pad button or with left-stick control is to dash, where as you can able to perform the air dash while in the mid-air.

Press the left shoulder button is to change side of line from back to front or front to back, so this will allow you to fight the enemies on foreground or background side. 

For combat, press the square button is to use quick attack deals light damage on enemies, the triangle button is to use middle attack deals medium damage on enemies, the circle button is to use fierce attack deals heavy damage on enemies, and of course the cross button is to use SP attack allowing you to use various of special attack deals very heavy damage on enemies. 

Attacking numerous of enemies are also fills up your magic bar up to 2 meter levels in which if its fully filled-up your magic gauge then you can use it to perform 3 of the special ability moves, such as you can activate the overdrive by pressing the right trigger button which allowing you to perform multiple of quick combos attack for 10 seconds, then you have out-range attack which allowing you to release a homing projectiles on enemies by pressing the right shoulder button, and finally the special move which allowing you to release their strong special attack by pressing the left trigger button.

These are the special abilities may result with faster combo hits up to more than 300 and of course it deals massive damage attack on enemies and bosses pretty easily.

You can also restore your health by finding the food items can be found on trash bins or objects, and you can also regain your half of your health points by activating the overdrive mode as well depending on how much remaining red-lines you had on your health bar.

After defeating bunch of enemies will drop down both of the score item and red gem, so your score item with a high score is determined by enemy strength and the number of combos you have performed will result adding multiples of scoring system like most of the arcade Beat-em-ups games do, and you will have the red gem which increases your experience level which means after you've collected many of red gems and beat the stage you're prompted to the skill menu where you can able to upgrade your skills parameters and moves to improve upon your character's attributes.

It will enhance your attack power, speed movement, and defense system which increases your strength to attack your enemies with high damage hits, your speed of combos will go much faster, your defense will reduce taking damage from enemy's melee and projectiles, and of course having to learn all the skill moves may improve upon your fighting style like dash attack, double jump, air throw, counter bursts, increased levels for combos and specials, and of course the super finisher known as phantom break will easily wipes out the enemies and bosses with massive damage blow.

So far, the gameplay plays it great because I really liked the fighting system with the choices of upgrading your skills and attributes just really adds-up the RPGs-style element is the kind of Beat-em-ups game that I like to play.

I say the fighting style and controls are solid which I can able to pull-off the moves and techniques with melees and combos just works really well throughout the stages.

The game does have an option to configure the controls scheme which allowing you to remap your button layout to suit your playability, but I also wanted to point out the one thing that doesn't allow me to change the button layout is the jump button which sets up d-pad button as default, so I wanted to change it to the cross button to make the jumping lot easier to control which sadly it didn't have an option to change it.

I am hoping they should consider adding it to the patch update to resolve it, so that I can able to remap the jump button.

I agreed with having a 10 or 12 enemies on whole screen because this adds-up a significant results with multiples of juggling combo hits and having to fight many of baddies just adds-up a overall challenge especially playing on hard or nightmare difficulty where you could sometime get an ass-whooping or being able to kick their asses depending on your luck is what the fun of the game is all about, but it may get quite tedious on some part which you may can sometime losing track with your character when some of your enemies gets all crowded together on screen may block your view during the battle, so please pay a close attention to your character and try not to get crowded by others too much.  

I also liked the mix of small and large enemies has their own advantages with different damage attack and pacing which I love the balance of having a both of tough brawlers and average fighters in the whole screen.

I got to say that I adore the boss battle in the game is because not only you're fighting with the bosses but there are multiples of enemies may start intervening you for the fights just makes the battle quite insane to play.

Not only the game had the single-player story mode, you can also enjoy the game with your friends through the co-op mode for 4-player local and 6-8 players online may going to satisfy your arcade experience, then you have the single-player arcade mode which has score attack where you must earn many scores as possible before beating the stage and you have time attack where you must beat the stage fastest in order to get a new records, and then finally you have battleground mode which is basically 4-player versus match like the fighting game where you must fight and defeat your opponents in order to win the fight.

These are the game modes that are enjoyable to play is something to appreciate the game most that you likely never to get tired of playing it for hours of fun.

Overall, it has solid fighting system, insane boss battle, and excellent game modes.

Graphics

The game's visual design is looking amazing for anime Beat-em-ups game which as you can see that this remastered version is completely remade it with the Unreal Engine 5 resulting a freshly looked visuals to make the game look better on the modern platform release.

While retaining the chibi art-style for adorable characters but with modern polish and smoother animation, and it also improves upon the visual aspects with vastly improved design, higher resolutions, and better performance is something that we had to take a look of how the game's visuals are compared to the previous version of the original game.

In 2013's version of the original game, the environmental stages and settings are all 2D with flat-surfaces on background, few minor lighting effects, and has old-school sprite animation is kinda similar to the 32-bit SEGA Saturn game, where as the ultimate version which I'm currently playing on has significant changes from the previous version which you can see the stage background is now cel-shaded design to make it look bold and sharp visually and I also notice the background is now 3D when scrolling through the stages, the special effects on this game is much more flashy on collision box which doesn't bother me much to be honest, the use of colours are much cleaner on many areas, and of course the sprite animation is looking more smooth, so I got to say it's a nice overall improvement over the previous version in terms of visual enhancements that made the game appealing on the modern platform.

I wanted to praise the use of screen-zooming effect which you can see the screen goes zoomed-in when your character is standing close to enemy, where as it zooms-back the screen when you're standing far-distanced away from the stage that made the whole landscape looked large on the screen.

I also liked the line-shifting on the stage where your character switch sides from top to bottom just like you've seen it from Treasure's Beat-em-ups classic like Guardian Heroes does. 

The good news is that all platforms including both the PCs and consoles version had appears to performed well throughout the gameplay with 60fps thanks to its Unreal Engine 5 upgrade with stable performance even during intense brawler action which I am pleased with the results on 9th-gen consoles and PCs, and I also glad to hear that the game had run smoothly on 8th-gen consoles with no signs of issues whatsoever. 

Overall, it has amazing visual design, smooth animation performance, and nice screen-zooming effect. 

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in this game is fantastic because not only it includes the original soundtrack from the previous version which uses the style of chiptune & retro arcade music, but this ultimate version features a remixed soundtrack of the original game with the style of catchy J-Rock & Anime music just sounds incredibly awesome that keep you pumped for brawling action.  

It was composed by Takeshi Abo, who was being known for his score on Science Adventure series, did an amazing job with the original soundtrack, where as the opening and ending song was composed by Epsilon_Zero featuring 2 vocalists such as Maestra (Mai Sato) for Japanese version and Shoyun for English version are also did a good job on both songs. 

I wanted to praise the sound design for its collision detection noises, flashy sounds, and environmental effects is being well tacked on throughout the stages, and I say the voice acting in this game is doing pretty great especially on both the Japanese and English dialogue during the cutscenes. 

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, decent sound design, and great voice acting.

Special Features

The game has 2 unlockable Nightmare mode difficulty option and paid DLCs characters. The day one edition as physical copy comes with instruction booklet, collectable card, and exclusive skins.

Overall, a stunning content.

Advantages

Great presentation design

Solid fighting system for combos and upgrades 

Insane boss battle

Excellent game modes for both local and online co-op

Amazing visual design

Fantastic soundtrack

Disadvantages

Can't remap the jump button

Enemies can get crowded on your way

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent story, good characters, and great presentation design. 

Gameplay 8/10 - solid fighting system, insane boss battle, and excellent game modes.

Graphics 8.5/10 - amazing visual design, smooth animation performance, and nice screen-zooming effect.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - fantastic soundtrack, decent sound design, and great voice acting.

Special Features 8/10 - unlockable game's difficulty, DLCs characters, and physical edition's goodies. 

Overall 8/10 - I can honestly say that I mostly much preferred the Phantom Breaker going for the Beat-em-ups action brawler route than the traditional fighting game which is why I think it a perfect fit for the series, so please don't get me wrong because the Phantom Breaker: Omnia is still an okay fighting game had some good stuff, but I feel that this game is just stepped in the right direction by going for the spin-off title with the Beat-em-ups gameplay just seems to work better in my opinion.   

You have a wide cast of characters to play, has the option to upgrade your moves and skills to improve your fighting system, then you can't go wrong with the various of game modes to play for both locals and online co-op play, and you could able to enjoy game for its story presentation, action-packed stages, and of course the boss battles is the reason to like the game which felt like it's a love letter to cult-classic SEGA Saturn game like the Guardian Heroes has to offer.  

I am glad that the Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate had made the improvements with visuals enhancements, arranged soundtrack, revamped battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online with cross-play feature is something that you'll be fully appreciate the game most.

The physical copy for PS5 and Switch as day one edition is cost around £25 or more, where as the digital releases for PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are cost about between £20 and £25.

Is the game worth for play? if you love the Beat-em-up as an genre then yes that is correct because Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate is a solid anime action-brawler that is worth checking it out may going to impress many Beat-em-ups fanatic will not going to miss out this amazing hidden gem title.    

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Touhou: Luna Nights PS5 Review

 

Touhou: Luna Nights is a Side-scrolling Metroidvania game was originally released in 2019 for PC and was ported to consoles such as XBONE and Switch in 2020, and was later ported to PS4 and PS5 as 5-Year Anniversary Edition in 2024.

It was developed by Team Ladybug and published by Playism, and it is a fangame title under the indie series Touhou Project created by Team Shanghai Alice.

The series was started back in year 1997 as the Shoot-em-up games which was being known for the style of subgenre as bullet hell, a term that heavily focused on gameplay design which involves a large amounts of projectiles the player is required to dodge adding a extreme level of difficulty, so similar to earlier Shoot-em-up arcade games like Batsugun and DonPachi where you must navigate through impossible swarms of bullets which made the game quite challenging to play.

First of all, the series hasn't been introduced to outside of Japan so what I've learned about this is it has become more particularly notable as a prominent source of Japanese doujin content with the series spawning a vast amount of fan-made works such as artwork, music, print works, and video games.

The popularity of the series at outside of Japan doesn't start till in mid-2000s when the online forums, social network, and video platforms became a thing with the internet memes, music videos, animated videos, fan-art site, and of course the video game playthroughs is where I've discovered Touhou related stuff on YouTube such as Bad Apple!! which is a catchy anime music videos became one of the most famous pieces of Touhou music, and lets not forget the insanity of soundtrack from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil such as U.N Owen Was Her? was notoriously famous for 2008 viral video titled "McRoll'd" which remixed the song with samples of Japanese McDonald's ads featuring Ronald McDonald falling off the bench seat.

Because of this, it has gained a large cult following thanks to multiples of fan-made content which the series has been still around over the years.

Not only the video game series just had Shoot-em-ups titles, but also shares many fan-made spin-off games with different kinds of genres such as RPGs, Dating Sim, Fighting Games, and of course Metroidvania.

To be honest, I've never played any of Touhou games which I had a trouble of picking which Touhou games should I play on my console until I've discovered the game that got me interested to play which is Touhou: Luna Nights for PS5, so is there the reason to review this? well first of all I've been playing several of Metroidvania titles from the past like Metroid, Castlevania, Shantae, Bloodstained, and Hollow Knight is the first reason that I've loved the genre for video games, and the second reason is that this game plays really similar to anime-style Metroidvania games that I have previously played it from the past as well like CreSprit's Rabi-Ribi and Tevi in terms of gameplay design and presentation style which is why I am here to review this game to see if this title actually good to play or not.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The story starts off with the Remilia Scarlet who is the head of the Scarlet Devil Mansion sends her head maid Sakuya Izayoi to a parallel world which resemblance to home world of Gensokyo. 

Having all her powers been stripped off, Sakuya set her journey through the world to recover all those powers and finding way of get back to the real Gensokyo while uncovering the secrets behind the creation of alternative home world of Gensokyo.

I say the story in the game is kinda below average at best which is not really terrible but seems okay because I find the plot of the game is rather too basic which I was expecting most of the Metroidvania games has the story-focused plot with the in-depth details and backstories which unlike this game had quite lacked, so instead you're just been thrown in the game after the 30 seconds opening intros and went on the quest to confront a vampire lady who creates the alternative universe castle with bunch of monsters and stuff for you to fight, but there are an interesting twist in the story which you will find out at the end while progressing through the single-player game. 

Aside with the story, I say I really do like the characters in the game which I adored the cuteness of anime girls in general, so you have chief maid Sakuya Izayoi has ability to use time-stopping system and uses the knifes as a throwing weapons is pretty cool, and then you have a supportive character like Nitori Kawashiro, a shop owner who was really good with her engineering skills provided to sell her useful item to Sakuya.

Lastly you have 4 of the bosses to encounter with such as Hong Meiling, Marisa Kirisame, Patchouli Knowledge, and of course Remilia Scarlet.

I adored the pixel-style presentation that kinda gives me a 16-bit vibes to its settings and design throughout the stages, so it's kinda like the style of Castlevania games which had a similar gothic architectures in some stages like the underground area, palace room, dungeon, library hall, and of course the clock tower, where as the first stage has a Japanese style temple house filled with water pool, outdoor's full of bamboos and man-made objects, and of course the flat-designed rooms is what I liked about the game's layout design and structures which really stands out the game's overall presentation that fits the Touhou's universe.

Overall, it has below average story, but has decent characters and good pixel-art presentation.

Gameplay

In single-player playthrough, you take control of Sakuya in 2D perspective as your main goal is to defeat various of bosses and confront Scarlet Devil leader for her action behind an alternative universe she created.  

For basic controls, press the left and right d-pad button or push the left-stick control to move your player, as well as the crouch by holding the down d-pad button or left-stick down, and lastly the cross button is to jump. 

For the combat and ability, you have two time mechanics system to use such as slowing down time by holding the square button till the round-symbol went full then release it to temporary activate slow-mo time, so this will allow you to bypass the impossible gaps and spot as well as your enemies will move slower till it goes back to the normal speed after 10 second.

Then you are able to freeze time by pressing the circle button will make the whole thing froze including enemies and objects which limited with the stopwatch count at the top-middle of the screen which tells you how long can you use it, so these stopwatch count will decrease quickly when you move around and once it reaches to zero count then it goes back to the normal time, but your stopwatch count will automatically replenishes when it's not in use.  

You have throwing knife as a primary weapon which you can use these to attack enemies at long-range distance, so tapping the square button is to throw knives which also decreases the amount of MPs, but you can also recover your MPs meter by activating your freeze time then obtain all MPs item by standing close to your enemy's hitbox.

While not using the time stop mechanic, you can also obtain all HPs item by standing close to your enemy's hitbox to recover your HPs meter, so this is the best way of replenishing your health and magic meter when grazing the enemy's attack.

You can also perform various of your special weapons by pressing the triangle button which allowing your player to use the special attacks that can heavily damage your enemies and bosses such as shield dagger are used for stunning or blocking the enemy's projectiles, homing daggers that automatically track and home in on targets, chainsaw is effectively useful against the floating enemies dealing a significant amount of damage, and of course the thousand knives that unleashes a large auto-aiming spray of daggers which can also automatically graze enemy's projectiles to recover HP, so those are the special weapons which can be found and obtain from any of each stages during the exploration.

You can also switch any of special weapons with the left and right shoulder buttons or you can also hold the triangle button to access the weapon-wheel slot menu to select any of special weapon to use.

You can able to obtain the ability can be found somewhere in the areas, which allowing you to use it for various of unaccess spot such as the double jump which allowing you to jump on high platforms that are difficult to reach, grip knife is used for when during the freeze time you can able to make platforms with the knives allowing you to reach at the impossible platforms, screw knife is useful for breaking a solid-boxed object to access undiscovered area, and of course the sliding knife is used for sliding through the smaller gap hole, so these are the abilities you may need it to being able to bypass though the next area.

During the exploration, you may find some of the upgrade items which can be hidden in any areas, so having to obtain these items will increase your health, magic, knives, and time will improve your power-up skills makes your player last very long. 

At the safe station area, you can able to save progress by simply touching the phone booth and also acts as the checkpoint system as well, and you can also fully replenish your HPs and MPs by simply touching the vending machine.

You can also visit Nitori's shop which gives you a choice of selling the gems that you have collected and also buying the useful items like HP item, MP item, knives, clock, and EXP.

While exploring many areas, you'll be fighting with bunch of enemies, so defeating them will drop their gems which like I said before you can sell them to the shop for bigger currencies, but having to keep all the gems with you without selling them all are also temporarily slight increases your attacks, defense, graze, and of course regen for time, MP, and HP might help you a little, but I highly recommended to stick with levelling up your stats by defeating many enemies on screen for farming which I likely to preferred more for Metroidvania games, so having your stats levelled up will improve your attributes making your attack and defense system lot easier to defeat various of strong enemies and bosses. 

So far, the gameplay plays really good because I liked the idea of using the time-stop mechanics system which works really well for Metroidvania game, so using these time-stop mechanics will allow you to do something really cool for some areas such as the stage's hazards objects like rotation blades which goes backwards when using the freeze time then turn it off to go forward, then the floating platform will move up and down during the freeze time then it will stop moving when the freeze time reaches to zero, then you have the broken bridge will float up high when using the freeze time allowing me to bypass through then it will fall down on the ground when the freeze time goes off, then during the freeze time you can able to walk across the water on top till the freeze time goes off causing you to fall underwater, and of course using the slow-mo time will allow you to do something like sliding through the small gap before the door goes shut.

It also worked on enemies and bosses too because their projectiles will get slow-down or freezed during the time-stop makes it easier and faster to dodge those incoming projectiles and you can also throw multiples of knives till the freeze time goes off resulting a massive damage attack on enemies and bosses during the battle is quite an effective way of defeating them quickly.

I wanted to praise the use of graze system in the game because unlike most of common Metroidvania games where you normally replenish your health and magic with the potion item through the menus,  this game has the different way of replenishing the health and magic system by grazing your enemy's hitboxes which makes the game quite interesting to go on the different style of gameplay which I liked it.

I also loved the use of abilities and skills which works mostly well for platforming and combat, so I liked using various of stuffs like the protective shield, homing attacks, jump manuvering, and you name it.

The main highlight of the game is got to be a boss battle because Touhou series was very known for its aggressive difficulty thanks to bullet-hell frantic action where the bosses had fire multiples of their projectiles that scattered all over the places in single screen making it impossible to evade their attacks, but thankfully it's not quite as tough in comparison to most of the shoot-em-ups games which I've managed to defeat them by being able to avoid many projectiles as possible while memorising their attacking pattern to know where they shooting at me on the spot.

I say these bosses are actually quite fun to fight against such as you have Hong Meiling, a kung-fu waifu has ability to use projectile shield, fires multiple of plasma ball, and shadow jumping. 

Then you have Marisa Kirisame, a flying broomstick witch drops down the red smoke to paralyse your time system, fires ground plasma laser, and has colorful rotation orbs.

Then you have Patchouli Knowledge, a floating girl with bunch of library books flying around firing a projectile arrows, waves of water, and fireball. 

Then of course Remilia Scarlet, a leader of Scarlet Devil with bat-wings unleashing her bunch of lasers and beams all over you is totally insane to fight against her is what makes the battle with bosses quite fun to play. 

As I had a fun of playing the whole game, I do find the length of the game is ridiculously short which takes about 7 to 10 hours of playthrough is rather makes the game quite completely goes fast which is kinda shame because I would love to see more of the exploration and having more locations for a new discoveries and more bosses to fight with to extend more playthrough time could have made it better, so I do like having a unlockable 2 game modes which has all skills mode which retains all the skill weapons you previously obtained from the first playthrough and of course you have 1 HP mode which you will start out with one health point remaining where you had to beat the whole game without taking any damage from the enemies and bosses with one hit damage makes it quite brutally challenging to play, so that is completely fine which I'm happy with the 2 game modes but I rather have much more lengthy single-player playthrough to satisfy my expectation, so please give us a more extra campaign for this game.           

Overall, it is ridiculously short, but it has cool time-stop mechanics and graze system, decent combat and platforming gameplay, and insane boss battle action.

Graphics

The game's visual is quite nice for its pixel-art direction which like I said it before about the 16-bit style of presentation just made the whole game look decent for the indie Metroidvania games.

It has sharp quality of details that made the stage layout looking bold and clean, and I liked the use of colours that made the whole stage quite gritty and dark really makes the game quite standout for gothic style levels.

I do want to praise the use of special effects in some stages such as bouncy pool of water and raining effects in stage 1, the rotating blades moves in 360 degrees in the library room, you could see the clockwork machine behind the background in the clock tower, the red coloured cloud scales forward at the outside of the castle, and of course you can see the parallax scrolling in some stages like stage 1 for example where you can see 2 or 3 layouts between the moonlight and trees scenery in background and temple house in foreground move quite smoothly as you go across the area from back to front.

I do like the sprite animation in the game because I find the player's walking and stance animation is quite smooth and being well animated which they did a good job of keeping the sprite well detailed, and lastly I got to praise the use of projectiles effects that has bright and heavy impact of explosion, flashiness, and waves of beams just looked so amazing on both of exploration and boss battles.

As far as I can tell that the game's performance is running smoothly on all platforms including PS5, PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, no matter what platform you're playing on because it's just a simple indie 2D side-scrolling game that you may going to enjoy this game with no signs of slow-downs whatsoever.   

Overall, it has sharp quality details, dark gothic colour layouts, nice special effects, and smooth sprite animation.

Music and Sounds

The game actually has a good original soundtrack that fits the style of Touhou games, so it had a number of kickass track for some stages such as Lunar Clock/Luna Dial, Shanghai Alice of Meiji, The Maid and the Pocket Watch of Blood, Love-Colored Master Spark, Voile the Magic Library, The Young Descendent of Tepes, Septette for the Dead Princess, Flowering Night, Akutagawa Ryuunosuke's kappa, and of course one of the Touhou most famous song is definitely U.N Owen Was Her? which I got to say that the whole soundtrack is quite so catchy just really adds up the intensity level of action-packed Metroidvania game.

It was composed by an indie musician peposoft who did a remixes and arrangements of classic Touhou Project music to fit the style of game.

The sound design in the game is great for its use of environmental sounds in some stages and of course I love the collision noises from the projectiles that has the heavy use of wavy and beamy effects.

Sadly there are no voice over feature in the game which is kinda bummer, but that's the way the game is made. 

  

Overall, it has good soundtrack and great sound effects.

Special Features

The game does have 2 unlockables game modes such as all skills mode and 1 HP mode which I've mentioned it on above before, and it does have the boss rush mode where you had to defeat all bosses while aiming to earn a high ranking grade.

The physical collector's boxset of 5-year anniversary Limited Edition comes with physical PS5 copy, instruction manual book, 3 cover-art inlays, steelbook case, double CD soundtrack, and of course the certificate of authenticity.

Overall, a solid features and package.

 

Advantages

Good pixel-art presentation

Cool time-stop mechanics and graze system

Decent combat and platforming gameplay

Insane boss battle action

Nice looking visuals

Good original soundtrack

Disadvantages

Below average story

Short single-player length

Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - below average story, but has decent characters and good pixel-art presentation.

Gameplay 7/10 - ridiculously short, but it has cool time-stop mechanics and graze system, decent combat and platforming gameplay, and insane boss battle action.

Graphics 7.5/10 - sharp quality details, dark gothic colour layouts, nice special effects, and smooth sprite animation.

Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - good soundtrack and great sound effects.

Special Features 8/10 - has unlockable game modes and stunning physical collector's boxset.

Overall 7/10 - Despite the couple of flaws that the game could have done it bit better, Touhou: Luna Nights is still a good game as it became my very first game to experience this beloved Japanese bullet-hell series.

It had several of fun aspects about this title filled with hidden discoveries during the exploration, using time-stop mechanics and graze system worked really well for platforming and puzzles, the combat and upgrades are simple and straightforward, and of course the bullet-hell boss battle are insanely fun to play which is why I never regret playing this because I had a good time playing it for days.    

I would love to see a future sequel which I was hoping the team behind this title will able to consider making a next installiment with longer single-player adventure, bigger exploration, and hopefully make the story development bit more interesting, so that's all I can say about it.

The physical copy of the game for PS5, PS4, and Switch release cost around between £30 or more, where as the collector's edition cost about £70 or more.

The digital release for PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are slightly cheaper for between £12 and £14. 

Is it worth to play? it depends on whether if you're the mega fan of the Metroidvania games or Touhou series in general. If your answer is yes then you're likely going to have fun playing this title without any of doubt whatsoever, so give this game a worth of go.  

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5 Christmas Wishlist of 2025

During the season of this winter holiday, have you even seen a bunch of decorations throughout the town, the street, and the houses with the trees full of tinsels, lights, and bobbles? well I'm glad you've asked because it's a Merry f***ing Christmas of 2025 everyone. 

It's a winter holiday festival where you get to do something really festive things like building up a snowman with scarf and hat on, riding on your own sleigh throughout the street, playing snowfall fight with friends at outdoors, listening and singing your favourite Christmas songs, watching a various of your favourite Christmas movies, roasting your own Christmas dinner with big large turkey, and of course you get to meet a Father Christmas himself giving out a presents is what makes this holiday celebration so special.  

As a long-time gamer myself, I love spending time of collecting many of retro and modern gaming titles as well as the gaming accessories that I really want to get it for the Christmas holiday, so I've made my own 5 most wanted items that I'd like to add it on my wishlist and give the reason to own it for my gaming collection.

So without go further do, here is my 5 Christmas Wishlist of 2025.

1 - Sonic Racing Crossworlds (PS5)

When it comes with company like SEGA which was fondly remembered for their classic racing arcade hits from the mid-80s and early-90s days like Outrun, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, and of course SEGA Rally Championship are the prime examples of being a pinnacle of arcade racing genre, and then pushing forward to year of 2010s there's a racing franchise that caught my attention was Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing for 7th-gen consoles and PC release which is a kart-racing game similar to Nintendo's Mario Kart in terms of gameplay style and design, and it features not only just a Sonic and his friends but also has a various of playable characters from different SEGA franchises joins-in for a kart racing battle.

I really enjoyed the first installiment of the series which I have praised it for its base rosters, wacky stage design, and driving controls with great drifting mechanics is what I liked about the game, where as the follow-up title like Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed was released 2 years after the first game had done something better for its innovation of vehicle transformation mechanic, various of great game modes, and additional improvements over the first game is what makes the second title being my favourite in the racing series.

The third title such as Team Sonic Racing was released in 2019 for 8th-gen consoles and PC making it a first game only features Sonic characters as opposed to SEGA rosters from different franchise, so I say it wasn't as good in comparison with the second game does it better but overall it's still a fine racing game in the good way.

In 2025, SEGA had bought a fourth title called Sonic Racing Crossworlds for both 8th and 9th-gen consoles as well as PC which many had said it's one of the better racing title than the third game in the series with large playable rosters including 3rd-party guests and returning style of 2012's title for gameplay mechanics is all praised by fans and critics which gives me the reason to own this kart-racing title for PS5.

It's like this game are finally taking back to it's roots that made the first and second game in the series so amazing to play and I definitely can't wait to look forward with the recent Sonic racing game that I would love to play.

2 - Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac (PS5)

An iconic franchise of Bandai Namco's titular hero that we all know and love when the 80s maze-like arcade hit are widely being one of the all-time greatest arcade game in gaming history.

As I loved the 80s old-school classic that became a gaming popular culture over the years, the media franchise had shared with different kinds of spin-offs and others that are quite different from the maze-chase arcade games, so it delved into other genres like platformers, racing and, sports. 
I've discovered Pac-Man World Re-Pac which is a 2022's full remake of the 1999's original game, so I did really enjoyed the game for its amazing presentation design, great platforming levels, cool boss segments, and enhanced visuals is the reason why I liked the idea of having the spin-off series going for a different route as a 3D platforming action as opposed to main series maze-like approach.

It was followed by 2025's title such as Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac which is a full remake of 2002's original game which I have heard really positive things from many people calling this second game a fun platforming adventure that are also a must play for the fans of the 3D platforming genre thanks to improved gameplay design and game's additional content are highly praised which I am definitely gonna add this to my wishlist.

3 - Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate (PS5)

 

Before I discovered the Beat-em-up spin-off, it all started with the 2011's Fighting game title called Phantom Breaker was created by the developer team 5pb.

To be frankly honest, I've never played the 2011's game but it seems to be an really interesting fighting game that I wanted to check it out, so instead I have found the 2013's spin-off title called Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds which was released for X360, PS Vita, and PC.

Unlike the main game which is a fighting game, this spin-off title is a side-scrolling beat-em-ups action which plays kinda like the Treasure's Guardian Heroes in the style of gameplay and design are quite similar. 

I remembered owning it digitally on the PS Vita in around mid-2010s and I began to play the game for the first time, as I'm kinda impressed with the game's anime-visual presentation and 4-player co-op action, but never fully had a chance to finish the game is due to being busy mostly on my PS3 and PS4 games that became my major focus.

In 10 years later since I've played the original game, I had found out the news that the game gets a fully definitive version with the Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Ultimate for 8th and 9th-gen consoles as well as PC which the original game gets fully remade using the unreal engine 5 adding a fresh updated visuals, enhanced battle system, and adding 6 to 8 players online for co-op and versus mode with full cross-platform play is something that I'll be interested in getting this game for the Christmas season.

4 - Touhou: Luna Nights (PS5)

            

There's one of the franchise that I never quite heard of it before until when the internet became a thing in mid-2000s and early-2010s, this is where I first discovered the franchise called Touhou Project which is a Bullet-Hell Shoot-Em-Up series that became a large cult-following in Japan which was really known for its skill-based challenging gameplay and large number of memorable soundtrack, then the franchise has exploded to the popularity thanks to the creator ZUN allowing and encouraging the communities to create a fan-made content includes art, music, and video games that helps the franchise keeping active, and it was notoriously being the internet culture with bunch of memes, music videos, and animation that attracts a new audiences especially it appeared on the online platforms like forums, fan-art site, and YouTube.

The series has spawned with many of spin-offs games with different genres such as Fighting, Turn-Based or Tactical RPGs, Action-Adventure, Metroidvania, Dungeon-Crawlers, and Platformers.

To be really honest, I never actually played any of the Touhou games which I had a trouble of picking any of these games whether if they are good or bad enough to play, until one of the game that I am mostly interested in playing is Touhou: Luna Nights, an side-scrolling Metroidvania games which I heard many of Touhou Fans had said that this could be one of the best game in the series has garnered positive reception from critics and near-perfect score from user-review. 

The reason why I am interested in adding this game to my wishlist is because since I've previously enjoyed some of the Bullet-Hell style Metroidvania games from the past like CreSpirit's Rabi-Ribi and Tevi which are incredibly fun Side-Scrolling Adventure, I was expecting this game to be just as good in terms of exploration, combat skills, and chaotic boss battle which is why I wanted to play similar game like this that I am looking forward too.    

 

5 - Hori Fighting Stick Mini (PS4/PS5)

 

Having an arcade stick at home is something that I'd like to have this on my wishlist. Just like what I've experienced with the Mad Catz Arcade Fight Stick for Wii which was designed for certain of Wii fighting games that are suitable for 8-buttons controls such as Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core, and Super Smash Bros Brawl, where as the others with different genre such as the sports titles like EA's NBA JAM and SEGA Superstars Tennis, and of course SNK's 3 titles like Metal Slug Anthology, Samurai Shodown Anthology, and Arcade Classics Vol.1 are also worked well which is the reason why it became one of my favourite video game accessories.

Now that I was thinking to get another arcade stick for PS4 and PS5 which is Hori Fighting Stick Mini, an arcade video game controller designed by Hori which was made not only just for Fighting games but also suitable for various of arcade games with different genres such as Beat-em-ups, Shoot-em-ups, and Run 'N' Gun.

That'll be awesome to play arcade games for PS5 like Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Raiden 3 and 4 Mikado Remix, R-Type Final 3 Evolved, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, and Contra: Operation Galuga as an example. 

I also heard that this arcade stick are also worked on PC as well in which you can connect it to your gaming PCs with the wired USB connector, so I think it's a perfect way of playing the most of the arcade titles on MAME emulator.    

I don't really mind the size of the arcade stick which is small, compact, and affordable are best designed for casuals or those who are new to arcade stick will likely going to enjoy their fun arcade experience.

I was hoping that I will consider to think about getting this mini-sized arcade controller seems to be a awesome idea for my arcade games that I've owned on PS4 and PS5, so I definitely will add this to my Christmas wishlist.

    

Honourable mention:

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance (PS5)

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (PS5)

Silent Hill 2 (PS5)

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (PS5)

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5)

Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5)

Castlevania (PS2)

Resident Evil Survivors 2 (PS2)

Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior (PS2)

Maken X (Dreamcast)

Illusion of Time (SNES)

Wolfchild (SNES)

Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis/MD)

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Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics PS4 Review

 

Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is a video game compilation of 2D fighting game series was originally released in 2024 for PS4, Switch, and PC, and was came later to XBONE in 2025 release.

It was both developed and published by Capcom, and includes 7 arcade titles in the Marvel vs Capcom series of crossover fighting games that were originally released between 1993 and 2000.

Back in very good old days of 90s where I used to watch really cool animated TV shows based on Marvel's comic book such as Spider-Man: The Animated series and X-Men: The Animated series became a huge thing for me to watch it on CRT TV every weekends because I really loved those cartoon shows where the heroes goes on mission to save and protect the world from the evil villains, and I do sometime watch with my sibling with the 80s live-action TV series such as Incredible Hulk are incredibly entertaining to watch an angry pissed off green giant smashing the whole thing into pieces.

Going forward to 2000s then 2010s, Marvel had shared with amazing numbers of live-action films such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Thor, Deadpool, and of course Marvel's Avengers that took the comic-book movies into a new level which is why these films became worldwide successful and being loved by the comic-book fan communities. 

As I loved the Marvel's films and TV related stuffs, I'm mostly spend more time to play video games as my everyday favourite hobby especially I grew up playing the Capcom's classics starting from 90s to 2000s era like the Street Fighter which is a commercially successful franchise that helps defining the fighting game as an genre, then you had Mega Man which surprisingly another well known side-scrolling action series featuring your favourite blue bomber hero goes out fighting against the groups of enemy robot masters, and of course Resident Evil which is a landmark franchise that helps popularising the horror genre for video games is the reason why it became my favourite 3 Capcom's flagship series.

There's one of the franchise that caught up my attention which is a crossover fighting game series where you could have your favourite two flagship brands coming together and turned into a fighting game phenomenon that are quite awesome to play, so it is Marvel vs Capcom.

To be honest, at the time in around mid-90s I never actually played the previous entries like X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs Street Fighter, and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter that was on SEGA Saturn, well despite the early twos did got released at worldwide and other later twos are only released in Japan which is why I've missed out these great games that invented the crossover fighting game genres...well up until I've finally got a chance to play these first threes except last one on Saturn as in mid-2010s thankfully I say. 

Going back to the early-2000s when I had SEGA Dreamcast as my very first 6th-gen console to own, so my sibling had took me to the rental shop to browse the latest Dreamcast titles that would interest us to play it at my home, so I chose Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.

It's a 2 on 2 crossover fighting games featuring a playable roster of Marvel's comic book franchise and Capcom's video game franchise must compete each other in tag-team based battle using their unique moves and special attacks.

The game was received positive reviews for its colourful visuals, tag-team based gameplay, and faithfulness of original arcade experience.

It was followed by 2000's title such as Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes which I have also rented the game as well, so it made a significant improvements over the predecessor by adding a new features such as 3 on 3 tag-team based gameplay, expanding more fighting rosters and assist system, 2.5D graphics for stage backgrounds and visual effects, and more simplified control scheme.

The game was critically acclaimed by gaming critics and also considered as one of the greatest fighting games of all-time, which makes Marvel vs Capcom as a crossover fighting game series quite popular among with the fighting games fan communities.

In around year 2011, Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds made its way to PS3 and X360 is a first game to use 3D character models as opposed to 2D sprites from the previous twos, along with new methods of play style designed to make the game more accessible to newcomers.

The game was later updated titled as Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 for PS3 and X360 was released 9 month after the original game, as well as the later platform releases such as PS Vita in 2012, PS4, XBONE, and PC in 2016/17, which the ultimate version made an adjustments to the original game featuring additional rosters, stages, gameplay tweaks, and improved online experience.

The game received positive reviews upon the release for its gameplay and character rosters, but not nearly quite good as the predecessor due to lack of new features and game modes were criticised, but overall it's still a solid fighting game overall.

Then up until in 2017 with the Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite for PS4, XBONE, and PC is where it completely destroys the franchise with the poor presentation choices especially with the art-direction and story doesn't seem to impress the fans of the series, having a short numbers of playable roster are also criticised for missing various of favourite characters from the previous games, and of course having to going back to the 2 on 2 route as opposed to 3 on 3 approach is what really kills the game which is why it sold very poorly at release putting the beloved franchise nail to the coffin.

I was pretty upset to see one of the Capcom's best fighting game crossover series being declined since the atrocity of 2017's title that is where I never get to see a new entry at the light of day.

Then up to year of 2024 when they had finally announced the return of the series with the video game compilation of classic crossover fighting games titled as Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for 8th-gen consoles and PCs.           

This is where it puts the smile on my face after hearing the amazing announcement that Capcom had given the series a second chance for us to re-visit the classic arcade games again that we all know and love back then which is why I've bought the PS4 copy to see if these video game compilation is worth a purchase depending on how really good the game's line-up on the collection and how much the content and extras had to offer on this package.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

After booting up game, you'll be greeted with the title screen which display the title logo with the background art-work of all Marvel and Capcom rosters...yeah I really liked how it shows the throwback of Ryu and Cyclops handshake that was originally referenced from X-Men vs Street Fighter title screen.

Then after hitting the start button, you're accessing to menu screen which gives you an option to select any of these modes such as offline play, online play, museum, fighter awards, and options.

What I've liked about this collection is the UI design on the game selection menu which I really liked the boxed icon of the all 7 games making an easier for users to navigate which arcade games you really wanted to play.

After selecting the game which boots right up to game's start-up screen, so what you see on the display screen is the side-background wallpaper and scanline screen filter act as an default setting.    

You can access to the display and sound settings at the pause menu to change the display of the screen such as the screen filters where you have a choice of choosing a right type of these screen filter that really suits your style of playing arcade gaming on the screen such as CRT TV filter is more of the retro-feel of the 80s TV screen set, the scanlines filter are quite common for most arcade machines that uses the darker tone look on the screen with shady lines, the smooth filter made the display image appeals more softer and less sharper details, and of course the no filter made the display image appeals more sharper and less softer details, so it's really good to have these options being included on the collection that appeals to those who wanted to have their full-on arcade experience or maybe to gain their childhood nostalgia.

You can also change the side-background wallpaper to change the background theme on the side of the screen, so I'm mostly preferred to change it to no background theme instead.

I wanna to talk about the stuff that's included on the museum such as gallery and musics, but for the presentation side lets focus on the gallery from all 7 games which has the wide range of illustrations including character's image of your favourite heroes and villains, promotional posters that advertise the arcade game, arcade marquee cards displays how to play guide, hand-drawn concept art is sort of behind-the-scene images displaying how the game was created, and of course fighting stages from all 7 games, so these are the gallery stuffs that are quite colourful and cool to see things that represents the fighting game series was being very known back in the day of old gaming.

Overall, it has good UI design, cool display filters and background themes, and has wide range of illustrations on gallery.  

Gameplay

Before I begin to review all of 7 games in the collection, I wanted to discuss the stuff that we need to focus on the emulation performances, game modes, additional options, and achievements.

When booting up the game, you get a logo screen, opening intro, the title screen displaying the game's title logo with the"hit the start button to play" highlight, and of course the demo play displaying with the best of hi-scores list on screen.

I began to play these games to see if the game's performance ran really well throughout the playthroughs, so far most of the games runs really smoothly with no signs of slow downs not even with the frame-stuttering which I got to say that the emulation performances on the collection turns out pretty decently which I am glad that it implemented the game well when running on 8th-gen console platforms and PCs.

I also tested the controls on each games to see if it had an input lags issue during the gameplay, so far I didn't ran the issue with these games which I find these controls quite responsive because I can able to pull many moves and combos without any of input delay whatsoever meaning that you will not able to struggle with the game at all. 

I forgot to mention that you can also reconfigure the controls scheme by going to the option menus and head over to the control config options which gives you a choice to remap these buttons to suit your playability, so I'm fine with the default settings which I had no problem.  

Aside with the emulation performances, I wanted to discuss the option menus on each games which are also important because you can able to reconfigure the game's preferences to suit your playstyle such as the game's difficulty ranging from easy to hard, the best of rounds, the speed of timer, the hit damage level, and of course the character's selection option which gives you a choice of choosing to access all the hidden or unlockable characters or leave it hidden as it is, so I picked a easy character's selection because it made it easier for me to navigate the hidden or unlockable characters that I wanted to play as.     

For example: on Marvel Super Heroes I get to play as Anita, Doctor Doom, and Thanos as a hidden character, same goes with Akuma, Juggernaut, and Magneto are also hidden on X-Men: Children of the Atom.

The best part goes to Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes is because you wouldn't had to go through earning all currency points and spend it to unlock all characters like the 6th-gen console versions do, so instead you can able to access all unlockable characters by going on the option menus and select easy character selection as an default is the easiest way of accessing to the characters that you wanted to play as.

I wanted to praise the latest update they released on last April which adds versus mode where you can battle with your friends or computer player on offline competitive match with best of 10 rounds, and then you have the training mode where you will spend time on practicing the moves, combos, and specials which is great for those who wanted to learn and practice the game before they are fully prepared for the upcoming competitive match.  

I also liked the additional arcade revisions for X-Men vs Street Fighter been added to the game's update because it comes with 3 different version to play such as revision 1 (960910) which is the initial Japanese release version is most commonly played in Japanese arcades, where as the revision 2 (961004) are the worldwide version that are quite popular among with the competitive players, and finally the revision 3 (961023) is the exclusive to this collection made a balance changes from revision 2.

I also wanted to mention the online versus mode being featured on the collection is where you can battle against the competitive or casual players through the online matches.

It comes with online ranked and casual multiplayer modes with rollback netcode, online leaderboards, and of course the training and spectating modes which is perfect for tournament play on all titles.

The collection comes with achievements called fighter awards is where you need to complete all the list of tasks on each games which helps you keep the busy with the game, so I've managed to achieve it all.

The video game compilation has 6 games based on the fighting game series plus 1 extra bonus game which makes 7 games on the collection.

It has X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of the Heroes, Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and then of course the bonus arcade title on the collection such as The Punisher which is a side-scrolling beat-em-up game which I will explain it for later on the review because let's focus first on the 6 of the fighting games with the X-Men: Children of the Atom.

It's basically 1 on 1 fighting game making a Capcom's first debut to feature a characters under license from Marvel Comics.

You take control one of the X-Men members or 4 of their enemies and proceed to compete in a series of best 2 out of 3 rounds on 1 vs 1 fighting matches.

It has Colossus, Cyclops, Iceman, Omega Red, Psylocke, Sentinel, Silver Samurai, Spiral, Storm, and of course Wolverine as a playable roster, where as the others such as Juggernaut and Magneto act as a playable hidden boss characters.

After selecting a character, the player can choose any of two blocking system options between manual and auto meaning if you select the auto mode then you will automatically block attacks during the battle.   

The gameplay plays it similar with Capcom's previous fighting games such as Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Darkstalkers, so you will have a 8-ways move control and 6-button fighting control starting from 3-buttons of weak to strong punch on top and 3-buttons of weak to strong kick on bottom which is simple and straight-forward to learn how to pull off a special moves and combos.

You and your opponent will have a life bar on top of the screen indicating a health points where if the opponent takes the damage from your hit attack then it will shorten their remaining health points, but if fully ran out of their health points on the life bar then they got knocked out meaning who ever the person knocks out their opponent will win the round.  

The game also had the combo system called X-Power gauge that builds up the meter on top of the screen as the player performs regular or special moves.

It starts at lv. 1 and reaches lv. 2 when it becomes half-full and then becomes full and reaches MAX level allowing them to perform powerful moves delivering a severe damage hit on the opponent.

Other features introduced in this game include super jumps, ability to roll away or towards an opponent after falling, the ability to determine the aim of a projectile move, and the ability to pursue an opponent after performing a throwing attack for follow-up attacks.

Then going forward to the next game such as Marvel Super Heroes which is another 1 on 1 fighting game featuring new rosters such as Blackheart, Captain America, Doctor Doom, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Thanos, while retaining some returning characters from the previous title such as Juggernaut, Magneto, Psylocke, and Wolverine.

While the game is quite similar to the predecessor, it heavily focuses on infinity gem systems containing 6 gems power which can be earned by obtaining them from opponents during the arcade mode or by fulfilling certain criteria during the versus mode such as getting the first hit.

Having to obtain the gems, this will allow them to use these gems in battle in short amount of time such  as increased power or defense, health recovery, and additional attacks.

Next up X-Men vs Street Fighter became the first installiment in the Marvel vs Capcom series featuring the characters from the Marvel's X-Men franchise such as Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine, then the cast from Capcom's Street Fighter series such as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, Dhalsim, Zangief, Charlie, M.Bison, and Akuma.

Similar to the Capcom's previous fighting game, it is the first entry of the series to feature 2 on 2 tag team battles which incorporates dual-character selection and tag team based combat, so instead of the best of 3 round format it consist a single round matches meaning each player selects 2 characters to compete in a 1 on 1 battle in attempting to defeat the opposing team.

They are also given the ability to switch between their characters at any point during the match meaning one of them at the off-screen will slowly recover a portion of their health points while the current character on the screen is still fighting, so if one character loses all of their health then the tag partner will automatically come into play. 

The major highlight of the gameplay is got to be a tag-team hyper combo attacks which you and your tag partner will able to both perform a hyper combos simultaneously on-screen deals a massive damage attack on the opponent quickly.

On to the next game with the Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter which is a follow-up to the predecessor featuring a roster of 17 characters with 9 fighters from Street Fighter and 8 heroes from Marvel universe.

It plays exactly the same as the predecessor, but also introducing the new mechanic known as the variable assist which allowing player to summon their off-screen character to perform a special move without changing their currently-controlled character would later become a signature gameplay element used in several future instalments of Marvel vs Capcom series.

Then you have Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes which is a 3rd installiment in the series featuring the characters from Capcom video game franchises made the debut on this game such as Captain Commando, Jin Saotome, Mega Man, Morrigan Aensland, Roll, and Strider Hiryu while retaining the 3 returning Capcom's characters such as Ryu, Chun-Li, and Zangief, as well as the 5 returning characters from Marvel comics such as Captain America, Gambit, Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine while introducing 2 new characters such as Venom and War Machine.

While it plays similar to the predecessor, it features two significant changes on gameplay such as variable cross which replaces variable assist from Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, so basically the variable cross is a new technique featured on this game allowing player to execute duo team attack which they can attack their opponent with both characters simultaneously on-screen for a limited time.

Player is also given unlimited use of the hyper combo gauge which allows them to perform several special techniques with multiple hyper combos moves which delivers heavy damage to the opponent in quick succession.

On to the next ones such as Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes which is a 4th installiment in the series which made several significant changes on gameplay such as a more refined variable system used in past Marvel vs Capcom games which allows players to tag in other team members at any point during the match and it also re-implements the variable assist gameplay mechanic introduced in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter allowing players to call upon one of their off-screen team members to perform a single special move to aid them.

Each playable character possesses 3 different types of assists which can range from projectile attacks to healing moves.

It also became a first game to feature 3 on 3 tag team battle with a team of 3 characters to compete in a 1 on 1 battle as opposed to teams of 2 characters in the series previous entry.

The game features a modified 6-button control scheme which replaces three pairs of low, medium, and high strength punches and kicks into a setup of 4-attack buttons and 2 assist buttons making it a more simplified and easier to control.      

The game has expanded a roster of 56 playable characters from various of Marvel Comics properties and Capcom video game franchises making it one of the largest playable rosters in Capcom's fighting games.

Out of all 6 fighting games that I've played on the collection, I really enjoy playing it from start to the end because I just loved having to play these kinds of arcade fighting games that Capcom was very known in the 90s era that help defining the fighting game genres.

I say X-Men: Children of the Atom as an arcade version is a decent 2D fighting game that plays it quite close to Capcom's Street Fighter in terms of fighting gameplay design and had a great cast of rosters pulls off many good amount of combos and moves, where as I got to praise Marvel Super Heroes for its infinity combo system when using the gems power just adds-up an interesting gameplay mechanics, and I got to say X-Men vs Street Fighter is what created the flagship of Capcom's crossover fighting game franchise thanks to 2 on 2 tag-team battles and the range of characters from Marvel's X-Men and Capcom's Street Fighter featured in the game makes the improvement over the previous two fighting games.

Then I got to appreciate Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter which is just as good as the previous entry making the first crossover fighting game to have your favourite Marvel heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Hulk had their chance to battle with the groups of Street Fighters for very first time since the X-Men members had previously did in the X-Men vs Street Fighter.  

I also had a charm with the Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes which I am happy to see Capcom adds their new roster from different franchise in the game such as you have Mega Man, Jin Saotome, Morrigan Aensland, and Strider Hiryu made their debut in the crossover fighting game series, and I wanted to praise the use of new fighting system just works really well throughout the matches thanks to variable cross attack and multiple hyper combo moves just makes the game fun to play.

The best game in the series has to be Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes just took the crossover fighting game into a new level thanks to large cast of playable rosters, new character assist system, introduction to 3 on 3 tag team battle, and of course the combo fighting system and more simplified control scheme is what made the game become a huge landmark of the franchise being loved by many gaming critics and fans.

After covering all 6 fighting games, I had to end it with the last ones with The Punisher which is a side-scrolling beat-em-ups game where you take control of The Punisher and Nick Fury as their on the mission to kill the crime lord the Kingpin and bring down his organisation.

It plays similar to Capcom's previous beat-em-ups game such as the 1989's Final Fight and 1991's Captain Commando in terms of gameplay design and had local 2-player co-op play that you and your friends can join-in for the beat-em-up action.

It has 2-action buttons such as the attack button which is used for melee attack on enemies while continuously tapping it to attack them further on which can be chained into combos, and you have the jump button in which you can use the jump attack on enemies by pressing the jump then attack button in mid-air.

You can also perform the grapple moves on enemies in close-range when you're close to the enemies resulting the player grabs them, then press the attack button to mash them while grabbing and you can also throw them to the ground by pushing the left or right directional button then press the attack button.

You can also perform the special attacks by pressing the both action button together delivering a heavy hit damage on enemies, but using it frequently can result draining the player's health points so do it wisely before you end up running out of your health, so your health can be replenished by picking up food to increase it. 

The game also has a range of usable weapons such as the knife, steel-pipe, sword, pistols, machine guns, grenades, and flame-thrower can be limited with the remaining ammunition meaning those weapons can get easily run out in short-time. 

These choices of weapons had the best use of the long range attack and close-combat attack delivering a good amount of hit damage on enemies.

I say The Punisher is actually a blast side-scrolling beat-em-up action which plays just like the previous Capcom's beat-em-ups games, but with additional choice of firearm weapons is quite a unique game for its time because I really liked the ideas of blasting the enemies off with machine-guns, flamethrowers, and throwing grenades is what makes The Punisher an over-the-top button-mashing brawler.

To be honest, I've used to not like the game quite long time ago when I first remembered playing it on Genesis/MD version which turns out to be rather dull and rough console conversion in comparison, but thankfully I had a chance to play the original arcade version on this collection which is way better to play really adds up an fun overall arcade experience. 

Out of all 7 games in collection, it's plays fantastic and you should be able to enjoy all 7 arcade classics without any doubt whatsoever because Capcom is truly a king of the old-school arcade gaming which we had to all agree.       

Overall, it has all 7 fantastic games to play, smooth emulation performances, excellent game modes, and cool additional options.

Graphics

I say the graphics in all 7 games is looking spectacular especially when it's out for the arcade machines and 5th-gen console like Saturn for example which I adore the comic-book style environments, bright and colourful details, clean looking textures, and of course the fluid sprite animation just undeniably looked incredible for its time in the mid-90s and early-2000s, but as on 8th-gen systems and PCs for this video game compilation it is still looking fantastic which really holds up well as today standards thanks to being upscaled to 1080p display output for 8th-gen consoles provides a clean and crisp picture on modern televisions, where as the PCs supports up to 4k display output with games like Marvel vs Capcom 2 having an internal resolution setting that can be increased up to x4 which results a sharper visuals on higher resolution monitors, where as the 8th-gen system like PS4, XBONE, and Switch can limit up to x2 which may not be quite close to the PC version but at least having a x2 on the 8th-gen consoles are acceptable which I did not had an issue.

I also wanted to praise the in-game display options which allows you to reconfigure the display filters that you can change it from old-school CRT TV to Arcade's dark-shady scanlines then soft and smooth to more sharper and less softer.

You can also change the screen size ranging from 4:3 standard ratio to 16:9 widescreen ratio then fully stretched to smaller-boxed screen, so I've preferred to choose the 4:3 standard as an aspect ratio because most of the retro gaming on the modern television looked way better with the 4:3 ratio, where as the other ratios looked kinda bit goofy in my opinion.

Like I've mentioned about the game's emulation performances last time which runs mostly well for most 8th-gen consoles and PCs with full on 60fps throughout the game and then again there are no signs of frame-stuttering and slow downs whatsoever which you guys are going to be all right playing on your system.

Overall, it has comic-book style environments, bright and colourful details, clean looking textures, and of course the fluid sprite animation.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack for all 7 games is sounds magnificent which we all know Capcom's fighting games in general had the shares of the best music for fighting games that keeps you in the action.

I adored the tracks ranging from X-Men: Children of the Atom to Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes which I really loved the CPS-2's instrumental quality just feels more like an 90s Arcade hits, where as the Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes are totally goes in different direction with CD quality Jazz-style music which I did hear some of you may not be the fan of this music style choices, but honestly I really liked these kind of songs that are catchy to listen which some of you may disagree with me, but I don't really care much as you say because having these style of music is what makes Marvel vs Capcom 2 quite recognisable.              

I also liked the arranged soundtrack by CAP-JAMS that are included in the collection which can be found on music menus, so check it out if you're interested in listening these tracks.

The original music for the games included in the collection are composed by Yuki Iwai, Yuko Kadota, and Masato Kouda as part of the Capcom Sound Team Alph Lyla, where as the others such as Shigeyuki Kameda, Kodai Ikeda, and Hana Kimura acts as an additional music composers for the collection.

The sound effects in many games are perfectly sounds fine which I didn't encounter any of sound glitch and never hear any of scratching noises or muffled sounds, just sounds mostly pure clean during the in-game battle. 

I also really liked the sounds of hit collision, environmental sounds, and of course the announcer's voice-lines (THE BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL BEGINS...ENGAGE!!! ROUND 1 FIGHT!!! KO!!!) in every games is just sounds totally amazing...man I f***ing loved the Capcom's energetic-arcade sound design.  

Overall, it has magnificent soundtrack and perfect sound design.

Special Features

The game has gallery mode, music player, and fighter awards...well that is all it have on the collection but anyway it's still a good features, nothing goes wrong whatsoever.

Overall, a good bonus content.

Advantages

Good presentation

7 fantastic games

Smooth emulation performances

Excellent game modes

Cool additional options

Spectacular visuals

Magnificent soundtrack

 

Disadvantages

UK/EU copy for Switch release has no game cartridge (see "Overall" on the below, if you know what I've mean)

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - good UI design, cool display filters and background themes, and has wide range of illustrations on gallery.

Gameplay 9/10 - all 7 fantastic games to play, smooth emulation performances, excellent game modes, and cool additional options.

Graphics 9/10 - comic-book style environments, bright and colourful details, clean looking textures, and of course the fluid sprite animation.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - magnificent soundtrack and perfect sound design.

Special Features 8/10 - has gallery mode, music player, and fighter awards.

Overall 9/10 - Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics is clearly being one of the Capcom's very best video game compilation thanks to game's performance is well optimised for modern consoles and PCs, customisable displays and additional options for game's settings, has game modes ranging from offline training practice and 2-player versus to online competitive matches, and of course having all 7 amazing library of games in one package is the reason to own this collection.   

I really liked having the fighting games cross between the two franchises where you have your favourite video game characters having their battle with your favourite comic-book heroes is the kind of game that I've enjoyed playing it on the arcade and consoles.

The physical copy for the PS4 may cost around between £20 and £25, where as the digital releases for the PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam are slightly higher between £40 and £45.

To be vary for those who planning to buy the Switch releases is not what you've expected is because I heard the US and Japan release did get a physical cartridge, where as the UK/EU release has a code in a box that requires a digital download which I think it's a kinda ridiculous that you will end up having a game case without game cartridge but you will get it cheaper for like £25, so if you don't want the code in the box then you might want to get a US or Japanese imports that has the game cartridge inside the game case for roughly about £40 is not quite a cheap option unless if you're into collecting the games for the Switch's libraries.

Is this the video game compilation a worth time to take you for the ride? absolutely right because for those who regularly plays the game digitally I think you might want to get it straight away just in case it may gonna delist it off from the digital store in the future, where as for those who prefers to own the game physically may not have to worry too much on the physical copy for the PS4 is still cheaper to buy online as today where as the Switch owner may need to think about getting the full copy with the actual game cartridge which is quite pricey in comparison, but just in case the price will likely go up in the future its better off to get one now if you really want to add this to your gaming collection.   

 

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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.