Top 5 Favourite 90's Games of Decade

Video gaming in 90's are one of the best era that is not the only defining the gaming industries, but also defining our childhood nostalgia.
From early to late 90's, there are so many selection of groundbreaking games titles that were well known for pioneering the genres, being a system's best-seller, and gaining more popularity from gaming fanbase are the reason why video games are so successful over the decade.
We had seen so many of video game magazines and TV commercials that catch us attention to get more interested with gaming entertainments with full of exciting big AAA titles to look forward too such as games like Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Doom, Half-life, Mario Kart 64, and so many of great titles to choose from.
I had such a fond memories of playing these kinds of games as a kid and how much I've love spending time playing with my friends and families when we had  PCs and Consoles in our home as I grew up playing on SNES, Genesis/MD, Dreamcast, Gamecube, PCs and so on.

Today, I wanted to make my own top 5 games that defining my gaming nostalgia as a young child. I've played several of games from 90's that I was blown away with the appealing graphics, catchy soundtrack, memorable characters, and innovative gameplay.

So here is my top 5 favourite 90's games of decade.





5 - Doom (both PC and Consoles)

     
























First Person Shooters is one of the genres that was pioneered by previous Id Software's title such as Wolfenstein 3D which was originally released in 1992 for PCs and various console platforms for later release. It was critical and commercial success which had gained several awards and sold over 200,000 copies that helped popularise the genres as being the grand-daddy of FPS.

The success of Wolf 3D had led the Id Software to make another shooter title which is Doom was originally released in 1993 for PC and various console platforms for later release.
The game takes control of space marine known as Doomguy in first-person perspective view, battling against the hordes of demons from the hellish place of Mars.
Doom was heavily regarded as being one of the greatest games ever made that pioneered networked multiplayer gaming, 3D graphics technologies, and support for customised mods (WADs files).
The legacy of Doom had inspired many of similar FPS titles known as Doom Clones.

I remember first time playing it when my brother had bought Windows 95 PC to my home as a kid where I got interested with the home computer. Along with the PC, he had a demo software disk which contains these shareware titles that you get to tryout the demo version, so I've played the first episode of Doom on Win 95 and I was impressed to see how realistic the game been played on home computer.
So my brother had finally went to gaming shop to pick up a full copy of Doom for Win 95 and I am so excited to play the full version of the game along with my cousins.

What I've liked about the Doom is the fast-paced 3D gameplay filled with the hordes of monsters to shoot at, discovering secrets area, obtaining keys to open new areas, and the main goal is to head at the exit room.
I also liked the selection of simplistic weapons such as pistols, shotgun, chaingun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, and of course the biggest main signature of Doom franchise is big f***ing gun 9000 can wipe the f**k out of the demon with huge ass green plasma.
The levels in each mission is well designed for its speedruns challenge which normally appears on score stats tells you how long can you beat single mission less than the par time which really adds the overall challenge of the game.
The graphics in the game did hold up to today standards regarding the visuals has the neat textures, great use of lighting, and well animated enemy's sprites are still very appealing for FPS titles like this.
The presentation has very dark and gory themes of demonic looking level filled with sinister atmospheres and lot of bloody settings that really fits the tone of the game's personality.
Doom was also known for the original soundtrack by Bobby Prince was inspired by songs from heavy metal bands (such as Metallica and Pantera) making it one of the most memorable video game musics in history.
I got to say Doomguy is one hell of the guy that kicks all the demons asses making it most recognisable video game characters of all time, while it also shares with the memorable hordes of enemies in the game such as Shotgun Guy, Imps, Cacodemon, Hell Knight, Cyberdemon and Spider-Mastermind.

Doom is the game that not just the only made me got into with FPS genres, but it is also being my childhood favourite shooter, so if any of you wanted to be a hardcore and edgy as f**k then GET READY FOR MORE RIP AND TEARRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!



4 - Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Genesis/MD)

     
          
    













Ah yes good old Sonic the Hedgehog, a beloved video game mascot had started in 1991 where SEGA developer's Sonic Team had bought the original Sonic the Hedgehog for SEGA Genesis/MD.
It is a main rivalry to Nintendo's mascot Mario during the console wars fallout between Genesis/MD and SNES in the beginning of early 90's.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a critically and commercially success at the release which had sold over 15 million unit worldwide making it system's best-seller that really helps the overall sales of SEGA's 16-bit hardware.
The success of Sonic first game had led SEGA to develop another sequel in year after the original is Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for SEGA Genesis/MD which introduced a sidekick named Miles "Tails" Prower and featuring two-player modes which are also well-received and had same praises as the original making Sonic's series being a all-time popular video game franchises.
The game takes place after the first original game. The blue hedgehog hero named Sonic and his new sidekick Tails in their quest to stop the crazy mad scientist Dr. Robotnik from stealing 7 coloured gems known as chaos emeralds to power his space station. 

Back in my old days where I normally go to my cousin's house every weekends with my sibling as I remember seeing my cousin playing a 2D platformer on his SEGA Genesis/MD which had caught my attention to see how colourful the game is and the game is so much different from the game that I've normally played on my SNES such as Super Mario World, but Sonic 2 is actually a much faster game that really focusing on speedy gameplay which was the reason why the game is so much appealing to my view.
I had a chance to play Sonic 2 on my cousin's 16-bit game system which makes it one of my very first Sonic game that I've ever played.

The reason why I loved this game is because I really liked playing several of platformer games with simplistic 2D gameplay and bright colourful graphics, so Sonic 2 has 13 zones to play featuring 3D bonus stage to collect chaos emeralds and two-player couch co-op with your friends.
The main goal is to head at finishing line, while playing as Sonic has his ability to run, spin-dash, and jump as well as jump attack on smaller enemy which I finding it very straightforward to play for 2D platformers.
Each of the zones takes places in different locations such as Emerald Hill Zone, Chemical Plant Zone, Casino Night Zone, Mystic Cave Zone, and there's more of them to play.
Most of the levels in the game are very unique for its gameplay design with bigger 2D levels filled with hazardous objects, Dr. Robotnik's minions, finding different route, discovering secrets, collecting rings, swimming underwater (Yeah we already know Sonic definitely hates water), and plenty of more platforming action including obtaining 7 chaos emeralds through the 3D bonus stage.
I got to say that the battling against Dr. Robotnik is clearly the best part of the game that really adds the fun factor of the game making it the greatest boss character in video game history.
I really liked the variety of level environments on each zones which has great use of background parallax scrolling and 2D stage layouts that made the game look very appealing for 2D platformer title and I also got blown away to see how impressive the 3D bonus stages looked for SEGA's 16-bit system because it really proves that the game did really show off the system powerhouse due to SEGA Genesis/MD ran on 7.67 MHz CPU Speed which is two times more faster as opposed to their rivalry SNES that ran on 3.58 MHz CPU Speed.

Sonic 2 is the game that offers not just the only gameplay and graphics, but also has the replay value that is worth playing the game again.



3 - Super Mario 64 (N64)

           















Super Mario is one of the Nintendo's biggest landmark of all video game franchise. It was started out in 1985, a two year after the struggles of video game crash that happened in 1983, where Nintendo finds the way of saving the gaming industries is their killer apps for NES which is Super Mario Bros, a 2D Platformer game that becoming universally worldwide phenomenal had sold over more than 40 million copies and also viewed as one of the all-time greatest games in gaming history which led the success of the franchise had spawn numerous of sequels, TV shows, merchandises, and comic book.

In the year 1996, Nintendo took their time to finish their next-gen console such as Nintendo 64 to be ready with the next console wars competitors such as SONY Playstation and SEGA Saturn that had already started two years ago before the release of the N64.
There are one of the game that caught my attention as a kid was Super Mario 64 is a 3D Platformer game which is a part of the launch title for the N64 initial release.
It is one of the first Mario game being played on the 3D perspective, making it a departure of traditional 2D side-scrolling from previous game. It is becoming not just the only N64's highly acclaimed and best-seller title, but also a most influential video games that defines 3D platform experience had inspired several of the developers to create their own 3D platformers title such as Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot, Rare's Banjo Kazooie, Insomniac Games's Spyro the Dragon, and SEGA's Sonic Adventures.

I remember at the time in 1997 where my brother had to sell my SEGA Saturn in able to get the Nintendo 64 and the copy of Super Mario 64 from the video game store for my Christmas gift as it got me really excited to play a 3D Mario game on the Nintendo's 3D system. It looks like Mario had to do it all over again by nothing but saving his damsel of distress from the same old villain just like the previous Mario games.
You play as the Mario on 3D perspective where you have a freedom to wander in big open worlds in all directions and discover the level environment as your main goal is to collect all stars in order to access to the new worlds by completing the each objectives in the game which is very new to its 3D platforming genres.
Mario has ability to run, jump, climb, crawl, swim, punch and kick which is pretty standard for 3D platformer where you can able to perform more variety of special moves such as triple jump, long jump, dive attack, back-flip, ground pound, and wall jumping which is very useful for some levels that requires to use these moves to reach a higher up areas, thanks to N64's analog controller making the full use of 3D stick is really shows that it plays so flawlessly for 3D games like this on N64.
What makes the game quite unique for Mario games is collecting all stars which you will need to beat the objectives to obtain them, so there are lot of fun gameplay segments such as battling with bosses, race against koopa, saving baby blue penguin, puzzle solving, reaching higher up castle, and collecting all 8 red coins are the main reason why this is one of my all-time favourite Mario game so far.

Super Mario 64 is a revolutionary 3D platformer game that has aged remarkably well over the years with outstanding gameplay, fantastic graphics design, and has stunning replay values.



2 - The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES)

         








Speaking of Nintendo, they are also known for their legendary Action-Adventures series called The Legend of Zelda which started out their first debut of the original game for NES in 1986. It is worldwide success that sold over 6.5 million copies which leading into a major video game franchise. The success of the franchise had spawned numerous of sequels, spin-offs, merchandise, and some others.
 
As a child back then, I wasn't familiar with the genres like role-playing game which has numerous of the sub-genres such as Action-Adventures, Turn-Based, Strategy, Tactical, and you name it until my siblings had discovered the game in shopping store for SNES such as The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past which is Action-Adventures title being released in 1991 and it is a third installiment of the series had gone back to traditional top-down view since Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link for NES.
The story takes place before the event of the original game, a Hyrule hero named Link was awakened by Princess Zelda in telepathic message said that she was been held captive in the castle dungeon by treacherous wizard named Agahnim who attempting to release his dark master Ganon.
As the story progresses, Link set his quest to save Hyrule, defeat the dark lord, and rescue the descendants of Seven Sages as well as he can travel between the worlds of light and dark places.

You take control of Link in overhead view which allow you to travel and explore the open-world environments.
Link has basic sword attack to damage against the foes, while his shields are used for deflecting the enemy's projectiles such as arrow.
It also introduces some newer elements that improves upon the game such as the spin attack that makes it easier to give sword advantage for combat gameplay, and the bombs and arrow are now separate items can be used without wasting the amount of rupees.
There are numerous of useful items for most of the locations like you have several of equipments that allow you to pick heavy objects, sprinting, swimming on water, and improving your weapon and shields, while these items can be selectable on inventory such as boomerang, bomb, rods, hookshot, lantern, medallion and etc. which you will need these to benefit your main quest.
I really liked the exploration in the game where you can go out wandering to find hidden secrets, buying items from shop, winning prizes, discovering new locations, and talking to villagers to get clues.   
Zelda series are very wide-known for most of the dungeons locations which is a maze-like levels filled with the enemies to fight against, the puzzle solving aspects which brings you the challenge of solving the puzzles, and of course the biggest highlight of the game is the epic boss battles such as ball swinging dude, 6 large blue knights, gigantic sandworms, lizard-like creature, huge ass moths, and of course Ganon that brings the overall gaming experience of the whole Zelda franchise.

The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past is clearly a breathtaking Action-Adventure title that brings the whole glory to its SNES libaries and it is one of my favourite game in the series that defines our gaming nostalgia.



1 - Super Metroid (SNES)

     
         
     












A one particular game that created the genres known as the Metroidvania, a sub-genre of action-adventure games are popularised by Metroid and Castlevania series, so that is Metroid for NES released in 1986 which is a game that caught everyone attention.
It received many of praises from critics and fans for its non-linear game style focusing on exploration, search for power-ups, and speedrunning that are later influenced other video games titles. 

There are a game that really add my interest for SNES libaries is definitely Super Metroid released in 1994 which are being listed as a biggest masterpiece in video game history had received universally acclaim for its atmosphere, gameplay, music and graphics. It really helps the success of the Metroidvania genres had inspired later games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Axiom Verge, and Shantae.
It took me while to get into with the game with the particular genre as a kid in 90's because its a totally new experience that I really wanted to play on SNES, but unfortunately I had a problem with the faulty save function on game cartridge which I never able to beat the game till later around in my teenage days where I've managed to fix the game's battery save, so I can able to save the game properly as normal.
After beating the whole game, I was completely satisfied with the game that turns out to be one of the best SNES games I ever played. It really changed my life to see how much I love spending time  playing video games as my all-time favourite hobbies.

Super Metroid is a 2D side-scrolling adventures where you take control of heroine named Samus Aran, a bounty hunter who travels to planet Zebes to retrieve an infant Metroid creature who was stolen by the Space Pirate leader named Ridley since the incident that happened in Colony.
You will have basic fire blaster to shoot at the enemy, while the game introduced newer elements to its gameplay such as ability to shoot in two directions using shoulder buttons, running by holding the dash button, and moon walk while holding to charge her blaster which is a slight improvement over the previous game thanks to 6-button SNES controller takes advantage of game's controls.
The upgradable items that really adds the variety of Samus's ability which allows her to use really cool things such as turn into morph ball, speed dashing, high jumps, charging up her blaster, using ice blaster to froze enemy, swing around with grapple beam, and her well know signature moves is screwattack which is great for the levels that requires you to reach higher areas, gain access to tight places, and easier to go across to open areas.
What makes Super Metroid so much fun to play is the use of exploration where you can explore any of the levels to discover hidden secrets, collecting items, gaining power-ups, and hunt down the bosses is the reason it plays so much flawlessly on SNES.
It has best looking locations such as Brinstar, Crateria, Norfair, Maridia, and others are fully well designed maps with dark and mysterious backgrounds which really adds the atmospheric scenery of the game as the graphics has the impressive use of the colours, the animations, and overall design of the environments.         
It definitely has the greatest soundtrack of all SNES libaries mixed with the ambient mood of sci-fi orchestrated sounds and realistic sound effect with different personalities that the SNES sound chip can able to handle the use of 8 sounds channels on the hardware.
The boss battle in the game are my favourite part in the game which has the foes like Chozo Statue, Kraid, Botwoon, Draygon, Ridley, and of course the Mother Brain which gives you the confidence to gain your Metroid experiences.
I got to say Samus Aran as the character in the game is regarded as being a recognisable female protagonist in video game history.

Super Metroid is my number 1 favourite games of 90's era that never got me dissapointed because it is clearly being one of the biggest SNES masterpiece that shines my gaming childhood.   




Honorable Mentions:


Metal Gear Soild
Resident Evil 2
Goldeneye 64
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Soul Calibur
Super Mario World
Legend of Zelda: Ocrena of time
Quake II
Duke Nukem 3D
Half Life
Final Fantasy VII
Panzer Dragoon 2 Zwei
Nights into Dreams
Starfox 64
Unreal Tournament
Chrono Trigger
Super Street Fighter 2
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Gran Turismo
Crash Bandicoot: Warped




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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night PS4 Review

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2D Side-Scrolling Metroidvania games for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by ArtPlay and published by 505 Games, and it is a spiritual successor to one of the masterpiece classics from mid-90's such as Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which was also created by Koji Igarashi who had responsible with his Castlevania titles for PS1, GBA and DS.

At the time where Koji Igarashi had left Konami in 2014, he gains many request from his fanbase to make another Metroidvania type of game in which he began to run his crowdfunding through Kickstarter in 2015, so he revealed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which is a game that borrows the same elements as his predecessor games from Castlevania series.
It has successfully raised more than $5.5 million from his backers to fund the game's development, while it was been surpassed by YsNet's Shenmue 3 that broke the record with $6.3 million in a similar period as Bloodstained.
The game has finally got released in Summer 2019 where Koji Igarashi had rewarded their fans with additional free 13 DLC's in development for 2020 after he accepted the criticism from fans regarding with his prototype demo from 2016-18 beta release.

As I am looking forward to getting this copy for my PS4, I got this game for £18 during the black friday sales from Amazon which I think it's a great pricing deal to purchase the copy.
I was hoping to see the game succeed because I previously enjoyed Castlevania: SOTN on my PS Vita via Castlevania: Dracula X Chroncles as digital PSP title, so how does the Bloodstained: ROTN turns out on modern day PCs and consoles? the answer is I f***ing loved this game.
I've been spending time playing the game for weeks of play and my whole experience on Bloodstained is rather positively fun overall due to being faithful to classic predecessor with modernised graphics overhaul, well executed gameplay design, bigger level exploration, has many secrets to discover, and worth entertaining boss battles, while the game did hold it back with annoying 20 seconds of load times and some sluggish frame rate in some areas, but this game proves that the creator did a remarkable job on his work of game that didn't let his fans down with many improvements over the previous demo, so I am very glad that he took his crowdfunding game very seriously to show how amazing the Bloodstained is been played on the final release of 2019.


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



Presentation

The game takes place in 18th century England during the Industrial Revolution. The game's intro explains the history where the whole homeland had been invaded by the hordes of demons due to Alchemist of Alchemy Guild had created the demonic crystal power known as the Shardbinders
allowing them to summon demons that killed the members of Guilds, until the members of Church has successfully vanquished them and saving two remaining survivors such as Gebel and Miriam.

In 10 years later where demons have returned which pledged by a great dark castle, Miriam had learned the Gebel's revenge on the surviving alchemists for what they did to him which was the reason why he summoned the demons to destroy England as Miriam and former alchemist Johannes began their journey to castle as well as stopping Gebel taking his power to harm the homeland of England.

The story is kinda pretty familiar with the Castlevania series, but instead of killing off vampires it had cast of demons to deal with which I think the game's plot that involves history of dark ages in England is pretty interesting for gothic horror aspects.
You have Miriam, a now becoming demon killer to confront Gebel's actions who had been involved on ritual site of Alchemy Guild since 10 years of past.
I say the opening intros and ongoing further dialogue plot is pretty well done for most part especially with the relation between the characters had provided with extra details during the conversation is what made the storyline worth readable on the dialogue sequences.
Miriam is rather a solid main protagonist which I finding her quite appealing for not just by judging her appearance which has stunning outfits, but her strong personality and bravery that adds positively on her character's development.
She also had supportive characters like Johannes and his friend Dominique to help her preparing for the ongoing quest,while it has an another demon hunter named Zangetsu who takes time to get used with his trust on Miriam due to her Shardbinder powers having ties to demons, but still quite a badass looking guy which was voiced by David Hayter, who was well known for his role on Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid series, provided his excellent voice on Zangetsu.
The game also shares with the great villains such as Alfred the crooked old man, Gremory the freaky 6-arms girl, and Gebel the sorcerer which are also just as good as the main villains from Castlevania: SOTN.

The overall presentation is just like from Castlevania series as you expect with gothic themed environments, rich and dark looking levels from in and outside of dark castle, has several of locations such as broken home villages, rich-looking cathedral rooms filled with blood fountains, library areas that books fly everywhere, underground water stages, inferno cave levels, icy cold places and etc.
There are over 100 of demons included in the game such as bats, waterhorse, ghosts, weird looking cats and dogs, poltergeist the flying frame, poison toads, Shovel Knight (AKA Shovel Armor), Lili the bunny-lady, gargoyle, barber with trenched coat, and many more in the game.
I really liked the overall design of the levels that really fits the tone of the dark and demonic themes of gothic horror genres as I find the cathedral rooms with blood everywhere and rich details building is rather looking sinister for most part, while I finding the underwater stages is looking calmer and gloomy for its aquatic tones which I liked the aspects of the stage design that made the game very appealing to look at.


Overall, it has readable storyplot, solid cast of characters, and rich gothic presentation.



Gameplay

The game featured with single-player mode along with extras such as new game plus, nightmare difficulty, boss rush mode and speedrun mode.

You take control of Miriam in 2D side-scrolling play with Metroidvania elements as your main goal is to find and defeat the evil which requires your character to level up their stats to becoming more stronger as possible.
The game has over 20 locations to discover during the exploration where you can run around the areas filled with hidden secrets, enemies to fight with, and collecting stuffs.
The map screen will help you navigate some areas where you wanted to locate at so the map screen are smaller on top-right corner during the gameplay, while you can access to map option by pressing the middle button which expands the whole maps to look at.
You will have a save points area which marked red on map where you can book the progress so you can later able to continue on where you left off in the game, while there are warp room which marked green on map which really helps you warp through to other locations.
You will have a weapon and magics attack which are used for defeating the enemies depending on how strong the weapons and magics worked effectively against them.
You will have an option to choose which weapon that suits your combat playability such as kicks, daggers, swords, and whips are basically much quicker to use for balanced character, the spear or lance are effective for thrust attacks, the clubs, katana and giant sword are slightly slower but has powerful strikes at the enemies, and finally the firearms are worked better for the far range distance in which you can able to get these from shop or crafting places to pick the best weapons as possible.
You can also perform the attack move set similar to fighting games depending on which weapon you are currently using.
For example, I can perform variety of techniques such as parry, rapid fire, flashing air kick, power slash, and force blast in which these techniques can be found on libraries shelves in some areas. 
You will retrieve these magic moves known as the shards by defeating several of the enemies in right timing, so you will have 5 unique coloured shards such as red shards for conjure, purple shards for directional, green shards for familiar, yellow shards for passive, and white shards for skills.
These shards will give you ability to use such moves like throwing spears and axe, collecting bloods, summoning helpers like knights and fairies, grabbing on heavy objects, teleporting with rays, floating around undersea with steam, increases your stats such as attack and defense, dash around the hallway using speed, performing double jump, changing room gravity with invert, and many more to collect in which you will need these to get past through to the new areas that requires some skill shards to use and it is also very handy for using shards for secondary attacks that worked effectively against tough enemies with their powerful stats, but it can also drains down the MPs which you will need to keep an eye on player's status bar on top-left corner.
You can also purchase the items from the Dominique's shop which has selectable items to choose such as potion and ether which increases your HPs and MPs, some useful items like mithridate and holy water to improve your player's status from poisoning and curses, and collecting some ingredients for preparing foods, while meeting up with Johannes will able to provide you with crafting weapons, armors, headwear, and accessories which really benefits your overall stats but each of weapons and armors are sometime differs like one of the items that increases your defense but weakens your luck and intelligence while others are effectively with your resisting stats but makes your attack much weaker which gives you idea to choose which are these items works best for your character's stats.
Each of crafting items do requires materials to create one which you will need to pick the right materials depending on what enemies carries with but you can also dismantling the items that you don't need to use converts into a materials which I think it worked in someways.
You can meet up with the Liberian named O.D will allow you to borrow his 3 book which also benefits your player's stats too.

As far I've learned the way of using weapons, magics, and organising the items, the combat systems in the game is working absolutely well for most part. The responsive of weapons is very good for some range attacks and has fair collisions which I did not have any issues while attacking the enemies so it really helped me a lot when giving an options to equip the right items that I can able to defeat them much quicker and making easier to avoid any deaths in some levels.
I was really impressed with the size of the exploration which given me freedom to explore around the levels where I can able to discover secrets, visiting new places that I never been too, collecting valuable items and materials, gaining upgrades for HPs and MPs, helping people in side quests, and encouraging me to keep killing more bad guys to level up your character is the reason why the game had kept me busy to play in good old 25 to 30 hours.
I got to say the boss battle in the game is very well done for its overall challenge, so it features bloodless lady, Vepar the giantic seawoman, Valac the twin dragons, Bathin, Doppelganger the clone, Valefar the tophat casino, and many more to fight against which I had tons of fun to memorising these enemy's patterns and taking time to defeat them had really kept me motivated for my gaming experience.
My favourite part in the game is the secret level based on indie's 8-bit title Bloodstained: Circle of the Moon which plays just like the classic NES title such as the original Castlevania so it is one of the coolest easter eggs that was featured on this game. The others are the some locations in general like Oriental Sorcery Lab is very like Ninja Gaiden where you get to fight with bunch of Ninjas and ape-like demons in stages, while I really liked the puzzles where you warp through the levels.
I do find the underground waterway, inferno cave, and hidden desert are also looking spectacular where I really liked swimming around underwater, avoiding fire hazards, and collecting gold in sandy places.
The part that I don't like about the game was 20 seconds of load times because after you getting killed in the game that leads to loading screen as I had to wait until the game loads up which I finding it quite tedious to stare at the screen and I also did encountered with the sluggish frame rate in some areas which I will explain it more on the graphics side, but so far it played absolutely fine on my PS4 without the issue while playing this game.       

Overall, it has great combat system, larger exploration maps, and challenging boss battles.



Graphics   

The graphics is looking outstanding in whole game. I am very glad that the creator had finally improved the overall game's design after taking criticism from the fans since the 2018's prototype demo.
I had notice the use of 3D backgrounds and has parallax scrolling in some areas like Tower of Twin Dragons, while some of them such as Hall of Termination has much cleaner textures and rich environments of level designs which is very well done for most of them.
I really liked the lighting animation on flames, waters, icy, and mist is pretty looked stunning for the use of visual effects and the character's design is looking absolutely incredible for their appearances and animation which really fits well for modern day gaming.       
While the game does run fairly well on the PS4, XBONE and PC, it also shares some issues with the sluggish frame rate in some areas depending how many the animations and enemies they putted in the game and I also heard the Switch version had suffered badly at the launch release which doesn't look good as the previous 3 platforms so I'm pretty sure the updateable patches will able to resolve the issues on Switch version.
So far the whole graphics for most of the levels, environments, and animation is looking amazing when running with Unreal Engine 4.


Overall, it has outstanding environments, stunning visuals, and incredible animations.



Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack was composed by Michiru Yamane, who previously did her work on Castlevania games, did a fabulous job of making such epic music on most areas.
The music that fits the mood of the game well such as the cathedral has darker classical tone, the underwater is much sounds calmer, and the whole rest brings you into action with kickass progressive sounds which is very like to Castlevania: SOTN.
The sound effects in whole game are pretty acceptable in some areas with decent atmospheric effects and has great use of sound works in most of the time. The voice acting in most of the characters are actually good for its dialogue especially with David Hayter did a marvellous job on his role of Zangetsu.


Overall, it has kickass soundtrack and acceptable sounds in whole game.



Special Features

The game comes with free 13 DLCs which we received 4 of them at the launch release such as new game plus, boss rush mode, speed run mode and nightmare difficulty as the rest of 9 are still in the development for 2020 release which is a fantastic bonus to this game and it also comes with secrets and surprises of easter egg in the game.
You can also customise your character's appearances to suits your outfits and hairstyle, so that's pretty cool.
You can also enter the cheat code on the player's ID name to receive bonus items in the game and the best part in the game was being able to play as Shovel Knight using EX Shovel Armor, HOLY F***ING MACARONI IT'S TRUELY AN AWESOME EDITION.


Overall, it has free 13 DLCs, surprising easter eggs, customising your own character's appearences and bonus unlockables using cheat code.




Advantages

Solid presentation

Great combat system

Larger exploration maps

Challenging boss battles

Outstanding graphics design

Kickass original music

Awesome bonus features



Disadvantages

Tedious load times

Sluggish frame rate in some areas

Switch version runs rougher compared with other platforms (sadly for poor switch owners).




Final Verdict


Presentation 8.5/10 - readable storyplot, solid cast of characters, and rich gothic presentation.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - great combat system, larger exploration maps, and challenging boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - outstanding environments, stunning visuals, and incredible animations.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - kickass soundtrack and acceptable sounds.

Special Features 10/10 - free 13 DLCs, surprising easter eggs, customising your own character's appearances and bonus unlockables using cheat code. 
  
         

Overall 8.5/10 - This is one of the Igarashi's strongest title that his Kickstarter campaign just got everything right it should.
Bringing out the quality first, making the game twice as big, and offering bonus content at the launch is what made the game turns out to be one of the finest 2D Metroidvania title that gives the fans what they want from the creator.
I had such fun playing over 20 hours of epic single player adventures filled with larger maps to explore, discovering secrets, level up your characters, has great selection of weapons and magics for its combat gameplay, the gorgeous looking environments, and has the non-stop boss fights is the reason why I've enjoyed the game so far.
I hoping the creator will able to make another Metroidvania title similar to Bloodstained in sometime future and any of you are interested in playing these kinds of game then it's definite to buy this awesome indie title for retro gaming fans.



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Yakuza Kiwami 2 PS4 Review

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is an action-adventure game originally released for PS4 and PC in 2018-19, while XBONE will soon to be released in 2020 along with other two titles like Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami.
It was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by SEGA as it is a remake of the original 2006's PS2 title and also a follow-up to 2017's Yakuza Kiwami.

In the last 2 or 3 years ago I've already covered these two games such as Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami as I really managed to enjoy these hard-hitting action which are the strongest line-up of the beloved series.
I expecting Ryu Ga Gotoku doing a same thing with the another remake which is Yakuza Kiwami 2 which I am looking forward to see another crazy Yakuza action such as the exciting story, the badass characters, the city exploration, the minigames, the busy side quests, the brawling combat, and more to offer.
I finally had a copy of this game for nearly £20 during the awesomeness of Black Friday sales from Amazon so I can able to play it on my lovely PS4.
After managing to beat the whole game for a week, I was satisfied to see how amazing the Yakuza Kiwami 2 had played on the PS4 is because it's not the only being the finest sequel of the franchise, but it is the most refreshing treatment of the original PS2 title featuring improved graphics enhancement based on Yakuza 6 engine, adding new gameplay features, and better story elements is the reason why the game is so much worthy to pick up and play it on your modern gaming PCs and consoles.
I also labelled this game as being one of the better remake of all Yakuza games that did not disappoint the fans of the series will able to enjoy themselves in full modern HDs or 4K for sure.


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



Presentation

This game takes place in year after the event of the first game. The game starts out with Kazuma Kiryu, the former Yakuza member of Tojo Clan, and his niece Haruka are living happily in peaceful life until the chairman of Tojo Clan Yukio Terada who appears at the funeral site as he pleaded for his help due to conflict war between the Tojo and the Osaka-based Omi Alliance.
After Terada being horribly murdered by assassins from a rival organization such as the Omi Alliance which led Kiryu set his quest to recruit with the new chairman as well as preventing the war between the Yakuza's organisation conflicting with the Dragon Of Kansai known as Ryuji Goda that is been liked to funeral shootouts.

The story in the game is being well written which involves the huge conflict between the rivalry of the two clans where Omi Alliance had made the crime against the Tojo Clan which I think the way the story had written in the game is quite remarkable for its gangster like drama did fit the game's presentation well.
I also learned the further storyplot which introduced some new characters such as Detective Kaoru Sayama who agreed to help Kiryu's quest to stop the Omi threat in exchange for information on the Tojo, as she believes they are connected to her parents disappearance as a child.
Then you have Jiro Kawara, a former partner of Detective Makoto Date, shares his back story with the event of 1980 massacre that happened in Kamurocho. He joins up with Date for mission to investigate bombing of the Kazama family offices which the attack was led by the Korean mobs called Jingweon Mafia.
I finding these further storyline started to get very interesting with many of family history, the back story, the mysteries, and many things in the game that the developers did such a amazing job on the plot development.

The character Kazuma Kiryu is still totally badass which really nails it well on whole Yakuza games is the reason why I liked him so much with his personally and energised brawler that really keeps up his character development.
I also find Kaoru Sayama is pretty good for her career as the talented Police Detective, but for her side it is very nice to make connections between her and Kiryu are slowly to get to know each other as the story progress through which I think it is very good to have friendship between the officer and ex-yakuza.
Then you have a trouble-making asshole villain named Ryuji Goda just likes to piss off the clan members of the Tojo Family which you can see his arrogant attitude on his grin face making a threat against innocent and thinks he is a toughest of his clan is the reason he is one of the baddest bad guys in Yakuza series.       
The game also had a returning characters from the previous game including crackpot himself Goro Majima, who is now working on his construction business, always made me laugh a lot in whole game, so yeah what you know it's Majima guys because everyone loves his comedic personality.

The presentation in the game is still remarkable as the previous entry of the series filled with outstanding design of motion capture for it's character's lip sycing on facial animation and the movement of body language is surprisingly well done for its cinematic sequences. Like the Yakuza Kiwami it also fixes the confusing plot of the story which keeps the story much easier to follow is the reason why the remake version did lot better than what we had from the original PS2 title.


Overall, it has well written story, memorable characters, and great presentation design.



Gameplay

Similar to previous game, your goal is to complete the mission throughout the story scenario which can be marked with the pink symbols on the map screen.

You get to run around the city to discover places you want to go, while you may be encountered by groups of thugs which forcing you to fight them in beat em ups segments.
You have the health bar and heat power bar at the top-left corner which representing character's health and heat.
You have basic weak attack, harsh strong attack, and grabbing attack are mainly used for attacking on opponents. The weak attack are pretty much quicker to attack enemies, while the strong attack can also perform much of the heavy damage as you can make the amount of combos attack by mashing these two buttons in different combination which allows the character to perform more variety of moves depending on the stats of your character's fighting upgrades.
Grabbing the opponent which allows you to throw them into grounds or beat the shit of them with the bare fists while grabbing them.
You can also pick up these objects to attack them such as trash bins, bicycles, boxes, and other random stuff, while you can also use weapons such as swords, knives, and firearms which you can keep or equip them from the inventory options so these are the objects and weapons items are very useful for combat battles which really helps the player to kill the enemies much quicker.
After filling up your heat bar which allows you to perform much punishable moves on the sequences such as breaking their backbones against the wall, bashing their faces with traffic cones, busting their balls off on the lamp post, and pressing their jaws off so hard with the feet in brutal way which is the biggest highlight part of the gameplay style.
Defeating the opponents off or beating the missions will reward you with these coloured tokens which can be used for upgrading your character's ability such as player's strengths, styles, heat action, and social life which really helps improving your healths, defense, fighting moves, and some lifestyle stuff like digestion levels and hunger capacity which really motivates the player to boosting up the player's stats to become a better fighter, but I do find the cost of the later upgrades is way too tedious which takes very too long for me to gain enough tokens so I can able to afford these powerful fighting upgrades which really slows down the pacing of the length play, but don't get me wrong I do like the wide selection of fighting moves and ability to unlock which is very good for most of fighting part in the game.   

Besides the story mission, you can also do the side-story depending on which area you went on.
There are 75 side-mission scenarios in this game such as tracking down fraudsters whereabouts, helping old lady dealing with group of thugs, buying tissues pack for sneezey musician with colds, retrieving the sharpest blades for chef, and many more interesting substories that really helps you keeping very busy to play it more than the hours.

You can visit any places in the city such as convenience store where you can purchase the variety of items that allows you to increase your health and heat bar which is handy for the later missions.
The restaurant or fast food is the place you can enjoy eating the amount of food and drinks which also rewards you just the same as defeating the opponents or beating the missions, but it is also extremely limited which you will need to keep an eye on hunger level which took time to digest slowly so use it wisely when ordering the food.
You can also drink amount of alcohol from the bar places, but it also makes you super drunk if drinking too much which makes you struggle to run around the city until it will slowly calm it down in another 5 or 10 mins.
There are two social minigames that you might able to enjoy such as Clan Creator in Majima Construction is kinda like castle defense game where you take control of Majima and his mens to defend his construction units in strategy RPGs style, while you need to level up several of employees to improve their constructing skills such as HP, attack, and defense.
There are Cabaret Club Grand Prix which is a simulator game where you need to help hostress throughout the tonight's shift as well as ranking up their status and earning more cash.
Besides these two minigames, there are plenty more minigames to play that keeps you entertained such as karaoke, golf center, darts, mahjong, and of course two classic SEGA's arcades such as Virtua Fighter 2 and Cyber-Troopers Virtual On which are the main best part of the game.

So far, I am very impressed with the overall game that offers many of awesome things such as story missions filled with non-stop brawling action featuring excellent fast-pacing gameplay and epic boss battles that I can able to enjoy the whole Yakuza universe, while the side-missions that really helps me motivating my overall experiences. It has two playable cities to explore around filled with restaurants, bars, clubs, streets, stores, and mini-games to visit, and of course having fun beating shit of these scummy thugs in the streets is what makes the game even fun to play in over 20 to 30 hours of play, so I am so happy to see the developers team could able to deliver this remake even far better than the original 2006 version for PS2. 


Overall, it has fantastic story missions, cool side-quest, excellent brawling gameplay, and has two cities to explore.



Graphics

I got to say the graphics on this game is looking lot better than previous two Yakuza games which the game was running on the engine based on Yakuza 6.
The character animation for cinematic capture is looking far realistic with the use of facial figures and body movements which really feels like a real-life human beings even the dialogue and expressions are very well done for most part in the game and I also liked the improvements on the character animation for the in-game parts during the exploration and battle sequences.
Speaking of sequences, I got to love the gruesome parts on the finishing animation where I liked to see their faces get busted in slow-motion, while it has a bloody special effects on most of the cutscenes where these guys get splatted to death is definitely looked brutal for action-adventures genres.
The game hasn't made any changes in open-world design in regards of the series was mainly focused on the same location as many of Yakuza games, but don't get me wrong because I really liked the setting of the buildings and some open environments that keeps the game looked up to date especially with the use of lighting effects is also pretty looked decent for most part.


Overall, it has great character animation, nicely made large open-world environments, and many brutal sequences with the use of bloody special effects.



Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in most part are actually just as brilliant as the previous entry that keeps you more pumped for crazy Yakuza action, while there are some darker tone music that fits well on the cinematic scenes for atmospheres and mood.
The sound effects are pretty sounds good for most part with crowded noises in the city and has sharp sounds on guns and knives effects while the Japanese voice cast still just did a perfect job as they did on the previous game that really keeps up well with their character role.
The English subtitles will help the western audiences to understand the game's main story in regarding the game can only speak in Japanese.


Overall, it has brilliant soundtrack, great sounds, and perfect voice for character role.



Special Features

The game did have new game plus for its replay values, the premium adventures is the game mode where you get to do whatever you want in the game during the exploration, and it has several of mini-games to play.
The game did have 3 new bonus chapters called Majima's Saga where you take control of Goro Majima mainly focused on his side story.


Overall, it a worthy content to this awesome game.   
    



Advantages

Well written story

Great cast of characters

Excellent fast-paced gameplay

Great cinematic presentation

Fantastic story missions

Cool side-quest

Amazing graphics design

Brilliant Soundtrack

More features



Disadvantages

Over costing for later upgrades


 

Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 - well written story, memorable characters, and great presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - fantastic story missions, cool side-quest, excellent brawling gameplay, and has two cities to explore.

Graphics 9/10 - brilliant soundtrack, great sounds, and perfect voice for character role.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - brilliant soundtrack, great sounds, and perfect voice for character role.

Special Features 9/10 - new game plus, premium adventures, mini-games, and Majima's Saga.



Overall 9/10 - Yakuza Kiwami 2 is not the only being a better sequel to the first game, but also a fantastic remake filled with graphics enhancement, overhaul gameplay mechanics, and adding story elements is the best way to address the issues that was previously found in the original PS2 version.
I did managed to enjoy many things that the game had to deliver with epic story presentation, selection of playable missions to choose, and encouraging players to explore around the city and fight like a true Yakuza gang is the reason why this game is highly recommended to all the fans of the series will able to enjoy the full remake of the original 2006's sequel.
I am hoping soon to get the copy of Yakuza 6 and of course definitely to get Yakuza Remastered Collection for further future.


 
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My 5 Christmas Wish List of 2019

Ahhh Christmas, our winter holiday season that everyone celebrates and having a good times with their families.
It's snowing outside, building up the snowman, decorating up the tinsels, setting up the Christmas trees, wrapping up the presents, getting the Christmas dinner prepared, singing jolly Christmas songs, watching our family favourites Christmas films, and finally meeting with Santa Claus is what the Christmas is known for over the decade.
I've been covering all my most wanted Christmas wish list in every last year where I've listed several of the video games titles that I wanted to get it on this Christmas season.
To keep you mind, these are not my proper top 5s because I don't rank up these items from 5 to 1, it's just these 5 things that I'm adding to my wish list that I'd like to consider to get these for Christmas Day as a special gift for myself.

So here is my 5 Christmas Wish List of 2019.





1 - Shenmue 3 (PS4)

     



















Back in my Dreamcast days where I spent time playing several of great category of Dreamcast titles the likes of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and Sonic Adventures. There are a game that had caught my attention was Shenmue, a mix of open-world adventures and interactive cinematic genres that revolutionised the gaming industry.
It was wider known cult-following titles for having story-driven plot and has cast of memorable characters that made me want to play it more to see how amazing the game looks on Dreamcast standards, so it has a huge open-world environments where you can able to explore around the realistic worlds, the game teaches you to master kung fu, collecting capsules from vending toys, and of course finding sailors is the reason why I loved the series so much.
While the series had garned highly acclaim reception, it also suffered with poor sales numbers which leading the SEGA and the creator Yu Suzuki had decided to put their franchise on hold due to struggles with their development hell.
Yu Suzuki finally makes the return for the newer sequel through the kickstarter campaign in 2015 and had gained over $6.3 million making it the fastest Kickstarter funding of 2015, and the game had finally got released in 2019 for PS4 and PC.

We been waiting for 18 years since the cliffhanger ending of Shenmue 2 because we wanted to see the continuation of Ryo Hazuki's journey to find his father's killer that the event had happened on previous entry of series.
I wanted to see how the sequel can manage well for its story continuation development, some new cast of characters, running on beautifully made Unreal Engine 4 for its quality graphics, more exploration and dialogue conversation, and better fighting system.



2 - Yakuza kiwami 2 (PS4)

 
   


















Yakuza is one of the SEGA's finest action-packed series that blew me away back then starting from Yakuza 3 to Yakuza Kiwami for Playstation platforms.
This franchise was known for having incredible storylines, memorable characters, and being overly violent brawling action which is the reason why I loved the series so much.
This series takes control of Yakuza's badass brawler named Kazuma Kiryu, who worked as Tojo Clan member, fights his way to deal with his rivalry that turned against him.
What makes the series fun is the mixed of open world action-adventures and brutally beat em ups genres where you can able to walk around the city of Japan while being enountered by groups of Yakuzas that wanted to pick a fight with you.
The game has many of story main which focuses on progressing story lines on each chapters, while side-quest missions giving you an extra quest which also rewards you with many character's upgrades for improved fighting skills and gaining more strengths.

I've previously enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami for PS4 which is a faithful remake of the original PS2 game, so I wanted to see another Yakuza action which is the remake of Yakuza 2 to see if this game does holds up more nicely to the original PS2 version such as improved fighting mechanics, more graphical enhancements, and newer story elements.



3 - Super Smash Bros (3DS)

 















Super Smash Bros is one of my all-time favourite fighting game series by Nintendo.
I remember back then where I had Super Smash Bros Melee for Gamecube and Super Smash Bros Brawl for Wii which is these game that really defines my gaming life.
It had cast of many favourite rosters including third-party guests, more brawling stages to battle, has many game modes to play, and it definitely has the best multiplayer battles in fighting game history.

Since I've stopped getting another Nintendo consoles after I had a Wii for over 10 years, my brother had decided to offer me a 3DS system after he got given up playing with the handheld game system, so I can now able to enjoy and play 3DS by myself.
It's been for very long time ago that I haven't played any of recent Super Smash Bros titles since Super Smash Bros Brawl for Wii because I got very busy with the Playstation 3 in 2011 which was the reason why I decided to focus more on different console brand rather than just being stuck with Nintendo console brand, but now I've finally had a 3DS with me and there's a chance for me to get a hands on with the Nintendo's epic fighting game.
I also heard Super Smash Bros Ultimate for Switch is definitely a much better fighting game on the system if I could end up getting the Nintendo Switch in the right future, but i'm still getting my hands on with the Super Smash Bros 3DS which is great for adding to my 3DS libraries.



4 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4)

I grew up playing Konami's Gothic adventures known as Castlevania is a game series where you take control of vampire killer battling against Dracula to restore their mankind's homeland.
Theres one of the game that is totally different from the previous entry was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for PS1 which was highly regarded as being not the only best Castlevania game in the series, but also being credited as one of the finest Metroidvania title, a genres that pioneered a similar formula to Metroid series.

The success of the game has spawned with numerous of Castlevania titles for both GBA and DS, until the creator Koji Igarashi had left the company in 2014 to work on his indie project through kickstarter campaign which is a Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spritiual successor to Castlevania: SOTN, had gained over $5.5 million funding in 2015 and the game had finally got released in 2019 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC.
I'm looking forward to play Igarashi's brand new title that got me excited to play, as I previously enjoyed playing Castlevania: SOTN on my PS Vita (via Castlevania: The Dracula X: Chronicles as digital PSP games) which is my second favourite of Castlevania series next to Super Castlevania IV for SNES.
I can't wait to see how Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night can able to live up to the classic Metroidvania formula filled with non-linear 2D side-scrolling exploration and a variety of 2D gameplay mixed with combat and puzzle elements.
I also looking forward with a different storylines and characters, modernised 2.5D graphics, intense original soundtrack, discovering hidden secrets, battling against epic bosses and the best part of all is the free updates that adds ups nicely to the game at the launch release.



5 - Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (DS)

I've previously enjoyed playing some tactical RPGs titles the likes of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Valkyria Chroncles, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, and Codename S.T.E.A.M.
One of the game that got me interested to play was Advance Wars: Dark Conflict for DS, which was developed by a same team behind Fire Emblem series.
This game is much more rather on darker tone and more serious than the previous installiment which I think I liked it better for its crude atmosphere.

I wanted to give game a try to see if this game does have a great story presentation and has epic tactical gameplay depending on how good the strategy played on the single player campaign.
The game also featuring local multiplayer where I can able to enjoy battling with friends on just one single handheld.
It's really fun to have all on-foot solders, the tanks, and all units starts slaughtering the shit of each other during the dark battles is what makes Advance Wars so interesting to play.
I had to get enough DS libraries that are worth adding it to my gaming collection.

     


Honorable Mentions:

DragonBall FighterZ (PS4)
Hollow Knight (PS4)
Spider-Man (PS4)
Death Stranding (PS4)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Contra 4 (DS)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
Fire Emblem Awakening or Echoes (3DS)
WarioWare D.I.Y
Valfaris (PS4)
Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
God of War (PS4)



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Xbox Series X Reveal at Game Awards 2019 (My Reaction & Thoughts)

At the nearly the end of the eight generation console era, we get to see a new teaser of the next-gen Xbox console at the Game Awards 2019 called the Xbox Series X, which was also known as Xbox Scarlett as the project codename for the new Xbox system.
Over the last several months where I have learned so far about the new info of the next-gen Xbox's hardware specs which Microsoft had stated that their next-gen console will able to run 4 times lot powerful as their predecessor such as Xbox One X.
It features AMD's Zen 2 CPU architecture and RDNA graphics architecture, a custom-designed solid state drive, GDDR6 SDRAM, and support for real-time ray-tracing running up to 120 frames per second rendering, and of course 8K resolution that they adding to this next-gen consoles for its beautifully made graphics design for 8K gaming and reducing the numerous of latency input to improve the game's responsiveness while running on Xbox Series X.
As I watched the actual teaser footage of the new Xbox console which is kinda look promising to see how the next-gen gaming is gonna be like on 2020 as I liked the way the trailer looked showing off few upcoming games such as Halo Infinite and the system's graphics showcase using ray-tracing technology, but I do find the console name is kinda laughable because Microsoft always putting their silly random names that didn't fit right for the Xbox's console family, so I much rather prefer the console names ending with the numbers like what SONY did name their Playstation consoles in each numeral order from 1 to 5.
I don't really mind the design of the console that looked just like the PC Desktop system because we already know it's Microsoft, a computer company was known for having a bulky system design, but I do think the design of this console is kinda looked okay in my opinion.
I hopefully the company will able to confirm a actual price for next year console and I pretty sure they will add the fully backwards compatibility program in ability to play all existing previous Xbox console titles (such as XBONE, X360, and hopefully Xbox Original).
I also liked the small teaser of Ninja Theory's next AAA title such as Senua'a Saga: Hellblade 2, a sequel to award-winning dark-fantasy title Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which is going to be exclusivity for the Xbox next-gen console. I haven't played the original game before, but the actual trailer of Hellblade's sequel that shown on Game Awards 2019 is looking spectacular what the game had looked like when running on the next-gen console as I liked the feel of the dark-gritty mixed genres of the intense folklore and psychological themes which really adds up perfectly to the overall atmosphere of the game's presentation.       

There are some main concerns about the next-gen Xbox console is that they need to bring out all AAA exclusive titles that could save Xbox brands, so I'm pretty sure they got enough games developers that Microsoft had hired them to make more IP's, so they could able to bring enough more consumers to buy their product if the Xbox team had managed to pull their socks up and avoiding the same mistakes as their predecessor from 2013's reveal of Xbox One.
So far, I did enjoy watching the small teaser of the new Xbox console and hopefully I will see what SONY could do better with their next-gen PS5 next year.




Here is a teaser trailer of Xbox Series X down below:

Also check out Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 trailer down below:

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Final trailer of Sonic The Hedgehog is looking better than before (My Reaction and Rant)

The moment of truth had finally come, now I get to see a another trailer of Sonic The Hedgehog film had been much improved over the totally garbage of the first official trailer releases.

Since I've watched the first reveal trailer of the movie that was first appeared on YouTube in last 6 months, I was absolutely buggered to see how dreadful our favourite SEGA's mascot Sonic had looked which had zero resemblance to his original form of the video game franchise as it received numerous backlashes from the fans of the series that aren't very happy with the poorly designed character that Paramount Pictures had ever done, so they decided to delay the film release from November 2019 to February 2020 as they attempting to redesign Sonic to make it look like what Sonic should have been liked from the original series.


If you haven't seen my previous rant of Sonic first trailer, please check it out on link below:

https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/why-sonic-hedgehog-movie-official.html



Now in this month of November, they finally released the second trailer of new Sonic film which I had another go to watch it and see if this trailer had finally meets not the only my expectations, but the fans too and holy shit it finally did it, this Sonic is looking much better than what I've seen from the first reveal trailer.
His body and faces did actually resembles the real form of Sonic The Hedgehog with descent quills from the back of his head, huge cartoony eyes, short arms and legs, wearing white gloves, and classic-style speed shoes is definitely what we want from new Sonic film.
Along with improved character's design, I've also liked the wacky humour from the comedy legend such as Jim Carrey, who taking the role of Dr. Robotnik, are surprisingly just like most of his 90's comedy films which is the best positive part of the trailer.
They also did add the references from the classic Sonic games with similar level and sound effects from Sonic 1 which is also acceptable for the new Sonic film which really adds the nostalgia of classic gaming days.

So far, I am happy what they did with the final trailer as the Paramount Pictures did open their ears to the fan's criticism as they made a lot of honest promises that they wanted to make the Sonic film much more appealing as possible to make the film look good by avoiding the same mistakes they did on first reveal trailer.
I wanted to see the movie succeed as long as they keeping up good work with the story and action at the February 2020 release.



Here is the second trailer of Sonic film and tell me what you think:

If you want to see the trailer comparison between two, here the video down below:

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Aggelos PS4 Review

Aggelos is a Indie Side-Scrolling Action-RPG for PS4, XBONE, SWITCH, and PC, which was developed by Storybird Games, and published by PQube.

This is basically a inspired retro-styled title that was played very similar to early classic series such as Wonder Boy in Monster World is one of the sub-series to Wonder Boy franchise that is heavily focused on Metroidvania style genre which is an opposite to side-scrolling platformers like the first 1986's original.
To tell you truth, I actually never played any of Wonder Boy titles in my old days as a kid because I didn't own the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive at the time when I got very busy playing with my SNES, until I finally had my own SEGA's 16-bit system in around 2016 as a young adult.
I was fully planned to find a cheapest ways to purchase any of Wonder Boy games for my Genesis/MD or PS4, but until I've discovered this game on both Amazon and Ebay for £12 which I think the price is actually not that so expensive, so I had to purchase this copy on Ebay for my PS4.
After playing it for a week, my overall thoughts on this game is actually pretty solid for the indie title as I'm a huge fan of all retro gaming stuff that really appeals to me the most.
I really liked the style of the graphics, the presentation, and of course gameplay which is kinda like mixed between Zelda II: Adventures of Link for NES and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap for Master System that made the game quite interesting. It has several of locations to explore around, many cool weapons and abilities to learn the new moves, gaining more skills, the secrets areas to discover, collecting key items, and has epic boss battles that really keeps me more entertained to play, but there's are few drawbacks that the game was been encountered with such as lacking the backstory at the beginning of the game and some annoying bugs that needs to addressed, but so far it's still plays decently well with full 7 or 8 hours length of fun to play which is the reason why this game is still worth for collecting it.

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



Presentation

The story starts off with the 30 second of intro in ordinary days focuses on young unnamed warrior who walks towards the woods as he rescued the girl named Lyn (The Princess of Lumen) from the Valion's minion, he's taken her safefully to her home castle to see King Gentel who thanked the young warrior for saving his daughter from the Valion's minion.
Lyn and her father began to talk about the story regarding the four elements are these special power orbs that the Valion already had all four of them which allowing his dark power to destroy the peaceful homeland known as the world of light.
To prevent Valion from taking control of the land, only the brave ones could able to stop them from attacking the homeland as the nameless hero finally accepts the King's objectives to save the world by gaining all elements that allows him to fight off against the evil ones.

I got to say the story wise is rather bit of mixed overall which this game didn't had a proper backstory regarding on opening intros can only lasted for 30 seconds with no explanation whatsoever, so it would have been nice if they could able to progress enough story details on Valion's history is good to know what was the reason why he stole all four elements and why conquering the peaceful world which could have added further more storyline to make the game sounds more interesting, but it gets better at the half of the game once you're able to progress though the game.
I did like the whole characters in the game especially with most of the enemies and bosses are kinda just like you're expecting from the classic 8-bit era.
It has dragons, bulls, squids, fish, birds, clouds, bears and all others minions. The bosses are looking pretty good in the game which has big fat green dragon, hairy spikey monster, huge ass orange skull, and of course red squiggly squid. I'm pretty sure Valion the Evil Knight does look like it's straight up villain from Shovel Knight which I think it's kinda look awesome.
I don't really mind playing as the nameless protagonist which is absolutely fine the way it should in the game because this character is actually you as a hero in the game which is acceptable for most part in the game. I say Princess Lyn is pretty much like from video game princesses such as Zelda from Legend of Zelda series with similar personalities that keeps her character standards quite interesting.
I did appreciated with the overall settings on each location such as the forrest, lava, caves, aquatic, sky, mountains and etc. which has colourful looking level designs in Master System graphic style which I really liked how the levels been set in different scenery to make the game look visually appealing to 8-bit die hard fans, so each of the locations had filled with houses, shops, pubs, castle, libraries, pillars and all other layouts they added on the game seems to be pretty impressive for the level design choices.


Overall, it has mixed story at the beginning, but I give credit for the decent characters choices and appealing presentation design.



Gameplay

You take control of nameless hero in 2D perspective of side-scrolling RPG as your objective is to collect all four elements which requires you to gain better weapons and abilities to able to defeat all four bosses.
You will have sword as basic primary weapon which uses for attacking enemies in each level area, and you have a jump button which makes your player jump on platforms.
There are player's bar on the left-side of top-screen which shows your player's health, magics and item icon which really helps for player to insure that you got enough health and magic to being able to continuing on the quest. You will also have level up skill on the right-side of the top-screen which shows how many skill levels you have gained which really improves your character's skill fighting during the battles.
You can also extend your health and magics by collecting items that can add the player's capacity which slowly makes the player bit stronger on health side, while needing enough magic to use it for handy level exploration. 
On pause menu, you will able to access inventory screen which showing the list of items, weapons, armors, moves, rings, and elements that you have collected during the progress of the game.
There are some shops that you can able to purchase useful items such as potion and elixir which helps regains your health quickly, while these herbs are actually used for back-up health when losing all your healths during the battle.
You may able to find weapons and armors in hidden passage of levels location as it really doubles up your attack and defend skills which improves your player's playabilities. There are some weapons and armor that are pretty effective to use such as dragon armor which protects you from the heat that damages you in lava cave, the water sword that shoots 3-ways bubbles in underwater which is effective against sea creatures, and Iron sword are effective against the slimy creatures which I think these combat are actually good for most of the level locations and boss battles.
You may also gain new moves by collecting all 4 scrolls items which allowing you to perform moves such as uppercut attack, downward stab, sword jab, and lightball attack, while these 4 rings can be found on boss stages are actually used as the magic moves such as fire that shoots fire but also creates portal for short cuts, earth that throws at the enemies but creates platforming path that you can jump on, water that floats you under the water but shoots multiple bubbles, and air that allows you to dash forward but making your player run faster which I think these moves and special rings are actually good for breaking hard objects and going across through the blocked areas, that allows you to enter the new path of hidden passage.
Going on map screen shows you where you're been located in and gives you an idea to discover a new locations and there are a save features in the game which shows the flashy water fountain which not only to save your game, but also regenerates your health and magics too.
The game does have an RPG elements where you had to follow the important tasks that helps you finding way to being able to visit the unknown places, so you may get a key information from people in the town to help you with the clues and stuff like what they need it are pretty much like from Zelda II: Adventures of Link for NES where people in the village houses may allow you to access to new locations or rewarding you with important key items in the game if you're able to meet their requirements on certain objectives which I think it really help keeps the player busy for good old 7 to 8 hours of adventurous fun.

So far, I am pretty grateful with the choices of level exploration which I really like spending time to explore the level to search for hidden areas, visiting unknown places, collecting golds to able to purchase affordable items, and talking to people in small town areas for useful infos which I think its just as you're expecting from the 8-bit classics era. I also liked the choice of weapons, items, magics, and others which I think it worked pretty well for most part of the game with excellent hit detection and being able to attack enemies effectively.
I do think there are an issue with the minor bugs where it randomly performing uppercut attack in air when I only just pressing the jump button without pressing the up+attack button that needs to be fixing the issue because I finding it quite aggravating when trying to jump on platforms without having to fall into the deadly pits which I had to start over again till I've reached it at the new area of level.
I also think the map screen is not quite as cleared in comparison with other Metroidvanias titles, so it only showing the world location of maps which didn't actually showing the whole detail of the level areas that I wanted to make sure that I have visited enough areas in the game, but thats okay.
I got to say the boss battles is quite epic which requires you to memorising their patterns and weaknesses without having to take much damage from them which really adds up the overall challenge of the game.
There are some interesting side-missions in the game where you can able to help people in the worlds such as completing the mini-game with green-tall dragon, finding pendent item for princess, and recovering one of the sea creature with effective weapon will reward you with special item which help you keep a busy with this game for most of the time.
This is got to be a finest side-scrolling adventures that the fan of the Wonder Boy series are able to enjoy similar titles like Aggelos filled with many locations to explore, gaining more powers, finding hidden secrets, and battling against the enemies and bosses throughout the game with many goals and rewards.

Overall, it has multiples locations to visit, great RPG elements, fluid combat gameplay, and epic boss battles.



Graphics

I got to say I really liked the style of 8-bit graphics which is very close to early classic Master System titles filled with colourful environments on houses, trees, stones, castles, seas, and other cool layouts in the levels that made the game look very appealing for the fans of the classic 8-bit era.
The game does have really cool parallax scrolling at the backgrounds area which has really nice scrolling animation on the back layouts and these textures on the environments are in nicely sharp filters with no scratchy details whatsoever.
The characters sprite in the whole game is looking fantastic for most part especially with many of minions and bosses are quite looked cartoony, but very good at the same time which fits perfectly well for the old-school titles like this game.
I'm glad that the developers did keep the graphics detail intact to make the game just like from classic gaming from 80's era which made the game quite good.

Overall, it has colourful environments, cool background parallax scrolling, sharp textures, and great use of sprites.



Music and Sounds

I got to admit the original soundtrack in whole game is the best part of the whole because it was combined between the early Master System and NES days was known for having a energetic sounds of 8-bit music.
I believe I think it was composed by Francois Perez who not only did his work on designing and program the game, but also did made his own original music which I'm quite surprised that he did put a lot effort on the whole game during the development.
The music in every locations are catchy, happy, and some bit of the darker tone in the game which I think it really did a outstanding job, but I did encountered with bugs in sky palace locations where the music had suddenly stopped after pausing the menu which I don't know what was causing the music to stop until I've moved to other location which makes the music suddenly plays.
It does have a use of classic 8-bit sound effects for atmospheres in every locations, the slashing sounds on combat weapons and magics, and cool roaring sounds from every minions and bosses.

Overall, it has outstanding music and classic style sound effects.


Special Features

Unfortunately there are no unlockable content and some DLCs in the game which is kinda shame except it does have two difficulty options and aiming to have 100% completion for smaller replay values.
It would have been awesome if the game could have been added a new extra content for more adventurous expansions with brand new locations, more epic bosses, some mini-game, and having new game plus.
Unlike the digital release, the physical copy of the game comes with small manual book which has the info on characters, items, weapons and etc. is kinda awesome for game collectors.

Overall, I wish they could able to add new features in the game which would be sounds awesome to have one in the game.



Advantages

Appealing level and characters presentations

Great RPG elements with over 7 or 8 hours of lengthy campaign

Fluid combat

Epic bosses

Colourful graphics

Outstanding music


Disadvantages

Lacking backstory

Some minor bugs that needs fixing

Not enough special features 



Final Verdict


Presentation 6.5/10 -  despite with no proper backstory at the opening intro, the game has fairly decent characters choices and appealing presentation design.

Gameplay 8/10 - multiples locations to visit, great RPG elements, fluid combat gameplay, and epic boss battles.

Graphics 8/10 - colourful environments, cool background parallax scrolling, sharp textures, and great use of sprites.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - outstanding music and classic style sound effects.

Special Features 5/10 - despite with no unlockables and DLCs, but at least the physical copy came with cool bonus manual book.



Overall 8/10 - A very solid clone title deserves a praise for interesting presentation design, lengthy side-scrolling campaign, and has excellent gameplay overall did add up the positively about how unique the Aggelos played on both PCs and Consoles.
It is a overlooked gem is more likely becoming a obscurely title for video game collectors that loves collecting a forgotten title like this, so it cost around from £12 to £15 on Amazon or Ebay which is not quite an expensive to pick up and play.
It may be not for everyone to play, but it's more recommendation to fans of the retro-gaming days, so I did not regret myself for picking up an fun side-scrolling adventures which is worth playing again sometime in future.       
So far, it's a Wonder Boy's love letter to fans that had done everything right, so in fact I loved this game.           
 
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