Axiom Verge PS4 Review

Axiom Verge is a 2D Platform Adventure game for PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, XBONE, Switch and PC, which was developed and published by Thomas Happ Games, while the physical release was distributed by Bad Land Games.

Yes it's another indie games titles for the modern game consoles and PCs, so I'm a huge fan of the Metroidvania type of games, which was popularised by the likes of 90's gaming classics such as Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are the biggest pioneers of the video game genres. The success of the Metroidvania genres has spread with many of the similar games such as Shantae, Cave Story, and Shadow Complex. There's one of the game that caught my attention was Axiom Verge which borrows the similar elements from the classic Metroid series. I was really surprised with the dark Sci-Fi presentation, unique level designs, amazing exploration and epic 2D gameplay with great boss battles and cool upgrades which made the game quite fun to play. It is perfect for the fan of the genre should be very surprised to see how this game turns out to be really amazing for the classic 8-bit style game.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The game takes place in New Mexico, 2003. The story starts out the scientist named Trace, who works at the laboratory, began to start the experiment until he was knocked out by exploding building due to faulty valve. After the accidental incident, he was awoken in the alien world of Sudra where he was assisted by the war-machine named Elsenova had given him quest to stop the mad scientist named Athetos, who destroyed the Sudrans long ago, and restore the power back to Elsenova. 

The story in the game seems to be quite basic for the 8-bit style type of game. It has well detailed imagery with nicely made 8-bit sprites for the cutscene design and quite straighforward story writing for the part of the story dialogue in the game which makes easier to describe what's going on in the story that involves accidental experiment that causes the main protagonist woken up in wrong dimension which made the whole overall presentation keeps ongoing progress. I really liked the setting of the dark Sci-Fi themes on the level concepts which pretty reminds me of classic Metroid series does adds up to the 8-bit nostalgia of the game. The game has cool looking enemies sprites in each areas, while the main boss in the game are also looked quite amazing for it's design. The main protagonist is kinda look like Hugh Jackman with large wacky hair and long sideburns which definitely suits him well in the game. I finding this character quite interesting for his concepts and personality which adds up the positively of the character in the game.


Overall, it has straightforward story, dark Sci-Fi settings, and impressive characters.



Gameplay

This game features single-player campaign and speedrun mode. You take control of Trace who been woken up in high-tech area, so you are focusing on the action and exploration of the each areas that  features over 60 items and power-ups to collect and defeat many boss as can.

Trace starts off with basic weapon called "Axiom Disruptor" which fires the long range shot. You can obtain more weapons in each areas such as "Nova" which fires large projectile, while firing again causes it to detonate and the "Kilver" that fires the short-range burst of electricity. There are some of the cool weapons that are very easier to kill enemies faster such as "Voranj" that shoots large energy bolts, the "Lighting Gun" that shoots strong electric on nearest target, the "Reflector" that shoots projectiles reflect off the walls, the "Multi-Disruptor" that fires 3-way projectiles at a time and there are plenty of more awesome weapons that allows player to easily kill many of the enemies which works really well in the game. The upgrades are used for improving character's tools and abilities which allows player to perform useful thing in the game such as "Field Disruptor" that allows player to jump higher, while the "Grapple" that allows you to swing from the rocks it latches onto, the "Lab Coat" that lets you teleport across against the wall, while "Trenchcoat" are slightly better than the "Lab Coat" that you can able to teleport in any direction. There are couple of great upgrades such as "Laser Drill" which helps the player breaking the rock objects, the "Remote Drone" which lets player fire to launch the drone, so it is useful to access the smaller paths of the levels. Using the "Address Disruptor" or "Address Bomb" which allows to de-corrupt the weaker blocks to open up the new area of the game. You can also improve the character's power-ups by collecting enough nodes which increases the health bar, size and range of weapon projectiles, and the weapon and item damage that makes the player even stronger.

Controlling Trace is actually pretty outstanding for the player's movement. Holding on the lock-on button allows you to shoot in any direction while standing still is quite responsive in which is easier to keep the player still without making any of movement. I really liked some of the stunning upgrades like "Remote Drone" and "Grapple" which heavily borrows the similar elements from the NES game such as Bionic Commando and Blaster Master. The weapons in the game are quite impressive with greater use of damage and range which adds up variety of the game. Despite the outstanding controls for combat gameplay and character's movements, the exploration in whole levels are absolutely fantastic which keeps me playing the game due to finding cool secrets, collecting notes, and discovering new areas that offers positively for the Metroidvania type of game. You can also use the map screen to know where you on and where you heading to visit which helps the player to navigate whereabouts in the levels. I got to admit the boss battles are quite fun to play, but quite frustrating at the same times that adds up the challenge of the game which is excellent. Sometimes the problem in the game was the player's weaker health points in which most of the enemies in the game can easily give heavier projectiles damage to the player that can cause a frustration for player in the game, so you need to be really careful when playing this game in each areas. You can also go for the speedrun mode which the players have to beat the speedrun timing by completing the whole game in short time as possible which is quite good for walkthrough challenge to see which are the best players can able to beat the time record.


Overall, it has outstanding controls, great combat gameplay and stunning use of exploration.



Graphics

The whole graphics in the game are fantastic regarding the level design and 8-bit sprites. The levels in the game are somewhat inspired by Metroid series, which has really great use of the particles such as bubbles and rocks objects. It has similar textures and backgrounds of the levels are quite detailed and colorful for the 8-bit styled game. The animation are pretty damn impressive on the character's sprites for most part without making it looked too clunky and clumsy. I also liked the use of the scaling effects during the boss battles where the camera starts zooms in and out at same time which is kinda cool.

Overall, it has fantastic level design, cool textures and backgrounds and impressive character's sprites.



Music and Sounds

Thomas Happ made a catchy original soundtrack in mixed style between the 8-bit and 80's synth music that fits well for the game's atmosphere because it keeps you in action while playing this game that adds up the excitement of the players. I also liked the use of the 8-bit sound effects for gun shooting, background noise and enemy's roar effects are also sounds really good in the game. This is by far one of the best music and sounds in gaming that does the right thing for the indie 8-bit games.

Overall, it has catchy soundtrack and excellent sound effects.



Special Features

This game features speedrun mode, over 60 items and power-ups to collect, and the special Multiverse Edition will include a physical copy of the game, a deluxe booklet with developer commentary and art, a double-sided poster, and a making-of documentary on DVD.

Overall, its a worthy special features for game's collectors.





Advantages

Simple story

Dark Sci-Fi themes

Outstanding gameplay

Great exploration

Fun boss battles

Fantastic graphics

Catchy Soundtrack

Excellent sound effects

                             
Disadvantages

Player's weak health

Frustrating difficulty




Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 - straightforward story, dark Sci-Fi settings, and impressive characters.

Gameplay 9/10 -  outstanding controls, great combat gameplay and stunning use of exploration.

Graphics 9/10 - fantastic level design, cool textures and backgrounds and impressive character's sprites.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - catchy soundtrack and excellent sound effects.

Special Features 9/10 - worthy special features for game's collectors.


Overall 9/10 - Axiom Verge is by far the most fascinating 2D indie-game that the fans of the Metroidvania genres will able to satisfy this amazing titles. Having a simple presentation, outstanding gameplay, great exploration and fantastic graphics does adds up with the nostalgia of the retro gaming from the past and it is worth for picking this game up for the full price.


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Rabi-Ribi PS4 Review

Rabi-Ribi is a 2D Platform Adventure game for PS4, PS Vita and PC, which was developed by CreSpirit and published by Sekai Project. It's one of the Crowdfunding Indie titles from IndieGoGo that already has raised over $10,000 in year 2015, right just before the game was set released for PC in 2016 which received much positive reception from the critics and fans. It was then later released for Sony consoles in the year 2017 and hopefully coming soon for the Switch version in later future date.

What really made this game so special was that 2D platform Adventure game is combined with 2D Metroidvania gameplay with Bullet Hell elements and the cutie anime bunny girl as the main protagonist in the whole game, so it's sorta like Touhou meets Metroid that really made Rabi-Ribi quite interesting. I was quite surprised with this game that offers many of the positive things about Rabi-Ribi such as wicked gameplay with tons of exploration areas and over 40 intense boss battles, very cute visuals with anime-style animation, cool soundtrack, and it has whole extra content in the game that made the game worth playing. It is considered to be the hardest video game titles on the eighth generation era due to overpowered boss characters and so many attack patterns that made the game quite impossible to beat unless you need to be very professional at this game without having to throw rage quitting so many times, but still it's very fun and entertaining at the same time once you get hang of it with the whole game.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The game starts off with bunny girl creature named Erina who was a normal rabbit that lived in a peaceful life until one day, she found herself in an unknown place and noticed her appearance turned into a human. During her aimless wandering around the island, she meet the cheerful pink haired fairy named Ribbon came to help with her by searching all her missing friends and preventing the cursed magic from harming their peaceful islands.

The game has really weird story about the bunny girl thought she was lived as the real-life rabbit in her lifestyle, but instead as it turns out to be a human form which causing Erina to find out the reason why she's been transformed into the human, so the story in general is kinda mixed overall due to lack of Erina's backstory and below-average storyline which they should have been done better job by putting more effort on plot of the game rather than just making story sounds silly, but to be fair the half of the story in the game is somewhat pretty okay, but it's not that sounds great at the same time which makes a quite harder for western players to understand, maybe just because it's something to do with story writing or language translations on the story dialogue. 
The rest of the characters in the game are all females, so you have all female characters that dressed up as random animal and fairy cosplayer such as Erina the bunny girl, Ribbon the fairy girl, Cocoa the cat girl, Nieve the bear girl, Lilith the bat girl and etc. Most of the characters in the game are quite adorable that adds up nicely for the game's presentation to make them look interesting.

Every each concepts of the level design are looked quite stunning overall. Some levels such as Starting Forrest, Rabi Rabi Ravine, and Spectral Cave are quite colourful and detailed which gives a nice Yoshi's Island vibe to it, while it does share with interesting cool levels in the game like Floating Graveyard, Azure Snow Land, System Interior, and others which is very well done with different kinds of themes in the game.

Overall, it has adorable characters, nice slideshow style and stunning level concepts, but suffered with below-average story.



Gameplay

This game contains 8 main chapters and 2 extra chapters were included in the game. You take control of Erina and her sidekick Ribbon to explore whole area in each levels where you can able to earn items, finding secrets, discovering new areas and talking to random people which is good for exploration. Using the map screen on the pause menu which helps the player to know where you're at and you will be given with the missions, which was added on the diary and the map points, in order for players to complete the certain of the main objectives during the gameplay. You can also fast travel in each levels by using the teleport area which allows you to choose which levels to visit. The player can also use the save points to save the game, so it will let you continue where you left off, but everytime you save the game can also give you a full health which is quite useful. 

You will start off with a basic weapon called Piko Hammer which are used for attacking enemies in close combat range, but it can also drains your SP attacks which prevents you from attacking, so you have to wait until the SP automatically recharge itself. While Ribbon has ability to use magic firing weapon which are used for long range attacks, so you will have MP bar which tells you how much left you have it on your MP everytime you using the Ribbon's charged shot. Ribbon also has different types of firing attacks such as Sunny Beam, Chaos Rod, Explode Staff, Carrot Shooter and others which are used for shooting at different types of enemies in the game. Performing the boost attack allows Ribbon to shoot massive damage at the enemies including boss characters which are also making easier to defeat.

The player are required to earn enough items to make it even more stronger and plays better. For example: the ability items can be found in any of the levels such as carrot bomb that uses for blowing up objects, rabi slippers that allows you to jump higher while air jump can allow you to perform double jump and sliding powder that allows you to slide on the ground which are quite useful for platforming purposes, while Ribbon's items such as Auto Earrings, Plus Necklace and Charge Ring can also improve Ribbon's firing attacks such as rapid fire and charge shot. You can also earn skills items such as Wall Jump, Bunny Strike, Air Dash, Bunny Whirl, Hammer Roll, Hammer Wave, Speed Boost, Soul Heart and Spike Barrier, while the orbs items also reduces the dark places, freely move in underwater and melting ice blocks which adds more variety for both combat gameplay and platforming as well. The player can also earn EN points by attacking all the enemies which you can spend all the upgrades, potions and consumable items from the Miriam's shop. Spending all the upgrades and potions can rewards player's stats and skills allowing to increase the overall levels of health, mana, regen, pack, attacks, skills and orbs, which means your character becoming even stronger and easier to battle against the foes. Collecting badges in the levels which you can able to equip it from the badge menus and performing your buffs/debuffs assets can also improve your player's levels.

So far, I really liked the exploration aspects of the game where I enjoyed exploring around the non-linear levels, which kept me playing in whole hours of fun by finding secrets and earning items. The combat gameplay works pretty accurate overall with responsive hit detection and reliable player's combat weapons.
Depending on game's difficulty, the game gets even harder for later chapter. Each of the boss battles can be very frustrating to play due to overpowered boss health, using enemy's buffs/debuffs assets that weakens your character's powers and too many attack patterns that scatters around which made the game quite impossible to beat, so playing a bullet hell type of game is not very easy for the most of the casual players unless you need to be experienced with bullet hell type of game by practising it more, the better you will become which adds the whole challenge of the game. So far, the boss battles are quite epic to play which I was surprised to see how developers managed to make the game even harder, but entertaining at the same time when I kept dodging their attack patterns without trying to get damaged badly.

The game also features new game plus which you can able to play the whole game again while still retaining the same contents from the previous save, which adds up the nice replay values and you can also enjoy playing two of the game modes such as speedrun mode where you had to beat the whole game faster with best time record as possible and then you will have a boss rush mode where you have to beat every boss characters without having to be defeated.   


Overall, it has great exploration, impressive combat gameplay, intense boss battles and nice replay values.



Graphics

I really liked the mix between the modern 8-bit and 16-bit style of in-game graphics. The character's design is well drawn in 2D sprites giving a cute look of the characters. Each of the whole levels are well built with full of great environments and the use of animation which offers colourful visuals details and parallax effects on backgrounds that made the level design looked amazing for retro type of game. For example: Golden Pyramid has light candles, doors, and gold pillars, while Azure Snow Land has full of trees and snows, but it has the water animation that really moves giving a nice variety of level design. I also liked the use of special effects during the boss battles, the enemy's attack patterns are looking spectacular with sparkly and glowing effects that made the game looked amazing overall.

Overall, it has well drawn characters, great environments, colourful visuals and amazing special effects.



Music and Sounds

The best part of the game was the whole original soundtrack that sounds really wicked overall. The music in the Rabi Rabi Town and Starting Forrest has cheerful tunes that puts everyone into smile, while the other music is sound kinda similar to other video game such as Golden Pyramid stage that has simular vibe as Shantae series and the Cicini's Computer stage which kinda sounds reminds me of 3D bonus stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While the original soundtrack are absolutely sounds fantastic, it has really good use of sound effects for the environment noise and atmospheric sounds that really fits perfectly for the game's presentations and in-game environment.

Overall, it has wicked soundtrack and impressive sound effects.



Special Features

This game has unlockable contents such as gallery mode, speedrun mode, and boss rush mode. The game also have new game plus which allows player to start the game at the beginning while still retaining the same items which adds up the nice replay value. For PC version, they will able to puchase DLC from the steam store such as digital soundtrack, digital artbook, and of course Cicini's Halloween and Is the order a DLC features extra chapters, while Sony's console version will also have Cicini's Halloween and Is the order a DLC included on both physical and digital version of the game.



Advantages

Adorable characters

Great exploration

Impressive gameplay

Amazing graphics

Wicked music

Nice replay value

More special features


Disadvantages

Punishing difficulty

Below-average story




Final Verdict


Presentation 6.5/10 - adorable characters, nice slideshow style and stunning level concepts, but suffered with below-average story.

Gameplay 8/10 - great exploration, impressive combat gameplay, intense boss battles and nice replay values.

Graphics 8/10 - well drawn characters, great environments, colourful visuals and amazing special effects.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - wicked soundtrack and impressive sound effects.

Special Features 8/10 - unlockable contents, new game plus and DLC.



Overall 8/10 - Rabi-Ribi is a surprisingly fun 2D Platform Adventure game with great Metroidvania style exploration and insane bullet hell action that made the game quite fun to play. Despite the silliness of the story which is not the main highlight of the game, what really matters the most as long as the quality of gameplay and graphics are turns out to be quite epic which features impressive combat, intense boss battles, great level design and has replay values. This is definitely a hidden gems for most of the video game collectors should be able to pick this game up if you're up with the highest challenge, so good luck with playing this game.         



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Polybius PS4 Review

Polybius is a shoot em ups game for PS4, which was developed and published by Llamasoft, as the game was created by Jeff Minter, who is known for his earlier work such as Tempest 2000 and the spiritual successor TxK. The game's title was taken from the original 1981 arcade game was also called Polybius which was a gaming urban legends in popular culture that inspires the fan-made game and of course the Llamasoft's 2017 game for PS4. Unlike the original game, the creator decided not to reproduce gameplay from the original arcade version, but instead this game was designed for a fast-paced 3D shooter gameplay which shares the elements from multiple other classic games such as Space Harrier and S.T.U.N. Runner was sounds different from the original game, but slightly better overall game in my opinion because this game is actually quite fun due to addicting gameplay, impressive visuals and cool game modes to play, so I wasn't feel regretting pick this game for my PS4 because I'm a fan of the Llamasoft's game titles such as Tempest 2000 and TxK.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

As the game starts off with health and safety warnings on the screen to ensure the gamers to fully understand the concerns of the motion sickness before playing the game. The title on the screen has well designed fonts size, but it somewhat has creepy dark blue backgrounds with illusion effects which is looked kinda disturbing for shoot em ups title, but it's still looking cool. As the game starts, each of the level has different kinds of designs depending what level you're on. The beginning of the level has nice checker board mixed with blue and purple on the flat surface, while most of the later levels has cylinder shaped, U shaped, tunnel shaped and many different kinds of shapes are looking spectacular for level design choices. What really made the game looked insane is that where you collect the pills during the gameplay which causing the stages to change colours into random LSD effects which adds up the overall atmosphere of the game, wow talking about being on crack while playing this game. They have the weird random stuff on the levels are bunch of screaming cows, horns, space invaders like aliens, cubes, ships, shattering glass, flagpoles and etc. which adds ups the overall presentation very well done for this type of arcade shooter game.

Overall, it has well presenting levels, atmospheric and weird characters in the game.



Gameplay

This game features classic modes where you had to complete over more than 30 levels, so your goal is to race through the stages until you reached the end of the level. You take control of player's ship by using the left analogue stick to move from left and right side of the level and it has only one basic fire with no special weapons and upgrades, which made the game quite simple to play as you use the basic fire to shoot down the enemies in the level, but your ship will able to go faster by passing through the each horns or collecting the pills which increases the overall speeds of the ship's firing and acceleration. You also need to be careful by dodging the collisions objects and enemy's projectiles nearby before you're accidentally bumped onto the objects or got shot by enemy which causes to lose your shields, but your shields will increase after you beat each levels which is no problem. While your ship becomes faster, it gets really harder for players to evade the hazardous area due to overused collisions objects and enemy's projectiles unless you master at the game by practising it more, the easier it becomes which gives a player worth challenging to play. Talking about the challenge, some of the levels that increasing the fun factor of the game such as run past the flagholes in correct way, shooting all the fried eggs without any miss, complete each levels without damaging shields and make your ship fly in 50 seconds which rewards the player's in-game scores. The player's score can be added to online hi-scores to show the best players out of thousands for worldwide.

There are another two interesting game modes are featured in the game such as pure mode where you start off with first level, but unlike the classic mode which has level selection, you can't able to continue the level where you left off, so your goal is to complete all the levels as possible without losing all the shields and the other one are survival mode which is similar with pure mode, but without increasing the shields after beating the levels. These two modes are actually fun to play which gives a great arcade experience for players to enjoy. So far the game's controls are quite responsive when controlling the player's ship and I didn't have any issue with lags and delays which made the game so playable.

Overall, it has great controls, cool game modes and fast-paced stages.



Graphics

The graphics in the game are very old-skool looking which fits well in the whole game. It very like the Llamasoft's previous titles with cool 3D polygon shaped design for enemy's ships and collisions objects which is well built for classic style arcade titles. Most of the environments are very colourful for level designs choices due to magnificent checker boards on flat surfaces and unique 3D shapes giving a 80's style look of the game and the special effects are very well done with the use of LSD effects and illusion animations. The game was also has Playstation VR compatible which allows you to use VR headset to experience a virtual reality of this game with the use of VR effects that made the whole game looked awesome. If you don't have a Playstation VR, the second options are 3D glasses which is also cool, but I think you should stick with the VR version, if you have one already. 

Overall, it has cool 3D polygon design, colourful environments and impressive special effects.



Music and Sounds

Most of the original soundtrack was made by several of Llamasoft's musicians such as Peter Duggal, Gareth Noyce, Rodger Poker and others. It sounds similar with the previous game such as TxK that uses the early 2000's trance music style which is acceptable for this type of game, but I felt it's not quite entertaining as the soundtrack from the tempest 2000 because I prefer the 90's techno style a lot better in comparison with this original soundtrack, but still it's sounds pretty decent overall. I also liked the song from the music videos called "Less Than" was composed by industrial rock bands Nine Inch Nails which featuring woman playing Polybius.

The game has retro styled sound effects which borrows the elements from the classics Midway's and Taito's arcade titles such as defender and space invaders which are the best part of the game that uses the same sound effects from the olden days gaming. 

Overall, it has decent soundtrack and awesome sound effects.



Special Features

This game featuring two playable game modes, online leaderboards, and trophy supports, but no unlockables features.



Advantages

Well made presentation

Fast-paced gameplay

Cool game modes

Old-Skool Graphics

Decent soundtrack

Retro style sound effects


Disadvantages

Overused collisions objects

Punishing difficulty

Lack of local 2-player modes

No unlockables features




Final Verdict


Presentation 8/10 - Well presenting levels, atmospheric and weird characters.

Gameplay 8/10 - Great controls, cool game modes and fast-paced stages. 

Graphics 8/10 - Cool 3D polygon design, colourful environments and impressive special effects.

Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - Decent soundtrack and awesome sound effects.

Special Features 7/10 - Two playable game modes, online leaderboards, and trophy supports, but no unlockables features.


Overall 8/10 - Polybius is a excellent shoot em ups title for PS4. You'll be amazed with this game that blows your mind with fast paced gameplay, insane special effects and cool game modes because it's challenging, it's entertaining and it's very addicting to play. If you're into with Llamasoft's past titles or type of game like this, then you should download this game from PS Store. I definitely going to look forward seeing the Tempest 2000's sequels in the future is gonna be sounds kick ass.




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