Sonic Frontiers PS4 Review

 

Sonic Frontiers is an Action-Adventure Platformer was released in 2022 for PS5, PS4, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Sonic Team and published by SEGA.

We all know Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the SEGA's biggest flagship franchise started back in the early 90's when SEGA had bought their killer software title for SEGA Genesis/MD at worldwide to introduce their blue hedgehog hero as part of the SEGA's own video game mascot. 

The first original Sonic the Hedgehog game was commercially successful and had gained universal praise for its fast-paced platforming gameplay, colourful detailed visuals, and had recognisable original soundtrack is what made the game quite success at worldwide which sold 2 million unit by the end of the year 1991 becoming SEGA's best-selling title that helped their console's sales market.

The success of the first original had spawned with numerous of merchandise, animated OVAs, TV series, feature films, and of course various of sequels and spin-offs games which proves that SEGA's own franchise had became so popular for over the decades building up many fanbases, communities, and of course the younger audiences got their hands-on with their favourite blue hedgehog hero, which many labelled Sonic the Hedgehog as an iconic video game mascot that deserves a similar recognition as their rivalry such as Nintendo's own plumber hero such as Super Mario.

Sonic main series are doing a fine job with the later classic 16-bit titles like Sonic CD, 2, and 3 & Knuckles, as well as the 3D platforming titles for Dreamcast such as Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are the final last two titles that are so good on the system just before SEGA had ended the system's lifecycle in early 2000s to focus on the software titles for multi-platform instead. 

Sadly the later titles like Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, and Sonic Unleashed are pure hot garbage that didn't do SEGA's justice with horrendous gameplay design, clunky controls, and out of date visuals that adds-up the huge injuries to SEGA's own branding, until it went better with Sonic Colors and Sonic Unleashed as this time when SEGA just finally got their game right, then it went down again with Sonic Lost World, Sonic Boom, and Sonic Forces are just as bad as the other threes titles that I've mentioned above.

Sonic Team are not quite as they used to be back then since the 90's when we had really great Sonic titles mostly from Genesis/MD and Dreamcast days, as opposed to later ones that aren't as good which adds-up really concerning about the future of the Blue Hedgehog franchise which has quite some ups and downs. 

They are quite lucky with some decent spin-offs titles like SEGA All-Star series and Mario and Sonic at Olympics Games, having Sonic makes his appearance as playable roster for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Brawl and Ultimate, and of course the two of the 2020s live-action films like Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 and 2022's animated TV series like Sonic Prime had received generally praised proving that SEGA had done better job on spin-offs titles and other medias then the main series itself which seems to be quite shocking that the SEGA couldn't do well on main stuff, but doing better on others.

Sonic Team had decided to create a new title of the main series that are quite different from any of traditional 3D platformer, so they bought Sonic Frontiers to the modern platforms in the year of 2022.

Instead of being stucked on the traditional 3D platformers like the previous Sonic games, it's more of the mix of 3D platformers and open-world adventures being combined together which I think the ideas from Sonic Team had gone into a different approach that delivers a entirely new Sonic experience.

You just simply start roaming around the areas to explore, completing numerous puzzle mini-games and side-story, and of course an adventurous single-player campaign with wacky main levels and cool boss battles is what gains me an attention to give this game a worth of try. 

The question is could it be a good Sonic game again? which is why I am here to review this title in regards of how are these presentation, gameplay, and visuals really helped the new 3D Sonic title in terms of quality overall.

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

Presentation

The game starts out with when the all-time villain Dr. Robotnik travels to the unknown place called Starfall Islands to steal the technological secrets created by Ancients, a creatures related to Chaos.

Then he has his A.I unit named Sage which he began to upload her into the portal causing to summoned several of robotic defence unit, which led Sage ceases hijacking the portal and initiates a protection protocol causing Dr. Robotnik getting dragged into an artificial dimension called Cyber Space.      

Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends went to their flight trip at the islands to search for the Chaos Emeralds, until their plane is sucked into a wormhole to Cyber Space which separates Sonic and his friends.

Luckily Sonic had managed to escape to the islands in the real world, and he then discovers the disembodied voice gives him a tasks with findings the emeralds and destroying the robotic titans to remove the boundary between the real and digital worlds believing this will bring his friends back to normal.

The story in the game is somewhat pretty decent in my opinion. You do have a good opening scene which involves your friends got stucked into a different dimension known as Cyber Space, where as you as a blue hedgehog hero had managed to escape to the real world and being given a task to gather all the emeralds and defeating all titans are the only way to bring your friends back to the reality, while you had a villain Dr. Robotnik who are also got stucked in the Cyber Space aiding with Sage, an mysterious A.I girl who had been given an orders from crazy scientist to keep the track on Sonic and finding the way to escape from the dimension that he don't belong in, which makes these plot seems to be quite straightforward to follow.

Then you have several of memorable characters featured in the game such as Sonic the Hedgehog which we all know he's one of the greatest hero in the whole franchise without giving much explanation because...what do you know it's f***ing Sonic everyone, so we all loved him as our favourite childhood mascot.

Then you have three supporting characters like Miles Tails Prowler, Knuckles the Echidna, and of course Amy Rose which are also just as likable in Sonic franchise.

I also liked the Dr. Robotnik as a series long-running villain who are well you know, up to no good as always in entire Sonic games.

What I liked about him is that he seem to like being as the Sage's father-figure which proves that he created her as an A.I unit, so it's builds-up sort of a father and daughter relationship which is pretty charming to have connection between them that keeps the story worth watchable.

The presentation in this game is looking remarkable for its open-world environments because I would consider each of these islands is well-designed with constructive areas and landmark settings. 

Stuff like Kronos Island filled with ancient ruins, graveyard, giant waterfall, and fields and Forrest areas across mountainous terrain.

Ares Island is a desert land filled with rocky ground and high plateauing outcroppings, palm-trees and patchy grass, temples, and cave.

Chaos Island is a rocky land filled with lava, volcano, grey skies, dead trees and moss.

Lastly Ouranos Island has a similar features to first one, but has larger open-wide areas.

I really liked how are these island are being well structured with great landscapes, study mountains and hills, atmospheric backgrounds, and man-made pre-historic themes with ancient tech stuff going on which feels very unique for Sonic titles like this.

I also liked the Cyber-Space stages which feels like it's an reminiscence to early classic Sonic games that you may recognise some of the familiar looking levels like one of them are straight-up Green Hill Zone, and others are kinda like from Chemical Plant Zone which is why it made Sonic games well remembered throughout the years.  

Overall, it has decent storyplot, memorable cast of characters, and incredible presentation settings.

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of Sonic in 3rd-person perspective of open-world environment, as your main goal is to complete all the tasks in whole Islands such as various of main stages, puzzle challenge, side-missions, collecting chaos emeralds, and defeating all titans. 

Pushing the left stick which moves Sonic around the surrounding areas, where as the right stick are used as camera movement.

Pressing the cross button which makes Sonic jump, then double tap again for double jump to reach the higher platforms.

While in the air, hit the square button to use as homing jump attack on enemies or used for platforming on bouncy objects when the targeting symbol automatically appears on screen.

Tapping the square button which acts as melee attacking on enemies dealing with damages.

Holding the triangle button then push the left stick around to make a cyloop around which used as stunning or damaging the enemies, as well as activating the objects for puzzle elements.  

Holding the right trigger then push the left stick forward which makes Sonic run faster, so it traverse through the areas much quicker.  

Tapping the left or right shoulder button uses as dashing moves which allow Sonic to dodge enemy's projectiles or shift onto other rails.

After learning how to control Sonic, you'll be exploring around the areas in which you can able to access the map screen by simply pressing the touchpad button, so it will display the whole map of areas with bunch of icons that represents stuff, such as portals, key items, puzzles, emeralds, and etc.

So that you can able to navigate these by highlighting with the place marker which allowing you to traverse through the area till you've reached the destination.   

You really need to find a cog items which can be found in various areas or specific guardian enemy, so that you can use them to gain access to the Cyber-Space stages by activating the Cyber-Space man-made portal with the cog items. 

In order to get your friends back in action you must collect all the chaos emeralds which each of them can be unlocked by numerous of required key vaults to collect, in order to collect key vaults you must complete all Cyber-Space stages in each island to gain enough key vaults, so that you can able to obtain these emeralds which is required to fight against these 3 titans.   

Sonic are also requires to upgrade his skill levels such as his speed and rings requires many kocos to collect, as well as the bunch of red and blue seeds for his defence and attack system. Once you have collected all skill items then you will need to meet with the two elder kocos that they can able to increase your skill level which improves upon with your speed to boost even faster, ring to expand your health points, defence to reduce your health damage, and of course the attack to make your melee feel stronger to hit enemies with heavy amount of damage hit.   

You can also learn a new moves and techniques from the skill tree option by gaining enough skill points which can be done by defeating various of enemies, destroying objects, drawing a circle with cyloop, and completing the fish mini-game, but I highly recommend to unlock Air Trick which allowing Sonic to perform an stylish air stunts while in the air may reward you with so many skill points.

You can spend these skill points on stuff that you want to unlock various of new moves and techniques such as phantom rush when the combo meter is maxed out allowing Sonic to perform more powerful combo attacks, Sonic Boom is a high-speed kick that unleashes shockwaves that pummels the enemy, Wild Rush uses the zig-zagging attack, Stomp Attack that swoops down from above on to the enemy, Homing Shot launch a volley of energy spheres at the enemy, and various of the moves and techniques that really adds-up Sonic's fighting strengths. 

So far, I've managed to enjoy the main single-player campaign in the game because I really liked exploring around the island where I can able to spend time grinding many skill points, collecting red and blue seeds as well as kocos improving Sonic's attributes, learning new moves and techniques, and of course completing various of challenges such as puzzle mini-games that unlocks the new map display, collecting numerous of vault keys items that leads you to unlock chaos emeralds, meeting with the friends in side-missions, and of course defeating various of enemy's guardians will reward you with cog items which requires to unlock the Cyber-Space stages through portal is what really keeps me playing the game most of the time.

There's one of the problem that I encountered in the exploration is the mostly camera system that keeps switching places, so basically when you reached onto the platforming structures the camera system just purposely locks-on and turns into fixed angle which unfortunately I finding it quite distracting because if I wanted to start exploring around the areas by running though the terrains then the camera system shouldn't had to locked on to fixed angle, so I really understand it's useful for platforming segments but it's completely unnecessary for the exploration.   

I've managed to enjoy numerous of Cyber-Space stages which is similar to previous 3D Sonic games, so stuff like you have several of stages that gives us a throwback to earlier Sonic games, so for the platforming action I really liked the overall design because each of the stages has multiple short-cuts, has cool stunt objects like riding on the rails and jumping on popping balloons, and has so many hazardous stuff like spikey obstacles and enemies that flies around the level.

I got to say the titan boss battles are actually pretty fun to play because it had sort of trials and errors tactics where you had to find a specific weak spot which can be done by the parrying system, which means that you really need to use parry when one of your boss attempts to hit you, so you really need to make a perfect timing in order to evade the boss's melee projectiles then once you successfully performing the parry in time then the boss's weak spot may appear. 

This works pretty well in the game once you get used with the boss battles, so the more you practice the better you can able to play perfectly.    

The cool thing about the game is that it includes some unlockable stuffs like new game plus which carries the stuff that you've collected from the main campaign adding a nice replay values, and it does comes with battle rush which is basically a challenge mode where you had to defeat various of enemies alongside with their mini-bosses and main-bosses while racing against the time in order to get a high rank and then you have an arcade mode that let's you manually select stages from the core game are also a great extra bonus to this game.       

My least favourite part in the game is mostly the "Final Horizon" which is another story campaign that offers free downloadable for the game, introducing an alternative story ending, additional playable characters, along with new story elements, bosses, level designs and Cyber-Space challenges.

I don't really mind having the additional playable characters but sadly they're being locked in one Island instead of all 4s like the previous main campaign and it was bit let down for not having include them for Cyber-Space stages which is kinda shame because that would have made the game quite fun to play if they add them in the stages. The Cyber-Space does have some fair stages with different challenges like racing with hologram Tails and bomb-ticking stuff which is fine, but I'm never been a fan of other stuff like collecting flickies, speed boosting challenge, and moon gravity stage which is quite a time-wasting to play, so I rather stick with the main campaign's Cyber-Space stages instead which is way better in my opinion.

There are some stuff that I want to point out some criticism such as Master King Koco's boss trial where you had to beat all 3 bosses in time limit which unfortunately it wasn't as fun because of the annoying time limit are rather too short making it impossible to beat all 3 which took me about 5 tries to beat it. 

I got to say the one major flaw that I did not enjoy the most is the last final boss because I really don't like how these bunch of trees kept blocking my view during the battle, and I find these weak spot system is rather clunky compared with the previous ones in main campaign that I don't have an issue with, so this final boss fight is rather poorly balanced which makes it everything quite tedious to play.     

That being said, just stick it to the main story campaign which are way more enjoyable and better to play than the another story campaign that are quite disappointing, so don't get me wrong because it's just part of my opinion.

 

Overall, it has fine combat system and exploration, great platforming stages, and epic 3 titans boss battles.

    

    

Graphics

The graphics in this game is actually looking good on both the previous and current gen system. I say the open-world environment has a quite big landscape from draw-distance, the texture details on the grounds and wall surfaces are just as fine and smooth at outside, the water animation is bold and sharp at the ocean side, it has the lighting and shadow effects on some of the areas, and the character's design is looking quite great in the game.

I also liked the environmental design in the game such as having a large ancient ruins, has plenty of man-made sculptures, bigger mountains and hills, and has various of the objects and landmark stuff going on in the game.

The Cyber-Space stage are also looked pretty decent with good platforming design and fair sized-level is just looking right for recent 3D Sonic games, so you have a detailed environments on the background, and has colourful and wide looking foreground is just looking great so far. 

There are few things that I should point out is the skies that are stays on the static image instead of using real-time dynamic movement which is why the skies or clouds never moves during the in-game exploration, but to be fair on this game it does actually have a real-time day/night cycle system depending on how long the daylight cycle will last till it automatically changes to night time which is fine.

I got to mention the important thing in the game is basically the weird pop-ins objects on the platforms, so when you're standing on the higher platforms or you explore around the ground area you don't actually see many of platforms appearing in mid-range distance unless you had to move forward a bit till the platforming objects starts pops-in on the screen in 2 seconds which is kinda strange to see Sonic games like this are not nearly polished as the other action-adventure games which offers a better range of graphical details with clean structures and has no pop-ins delays whatsoever.  

The overall performance on any of these platform has some advantages of frame speed and screen resolution such as the PS5 and XSX/S has two performance options, so you have 4K mode which makes the game plays on 4K display for the cleaner images but it capped on 30fps, where as the 60fps mode which capped to 1800p but delivers a much faster-rate really fits better for speedy paced gameplay.

The 8th gen version are also look just as good with the PS4 Pro and XBONE (X model) system runs on 1080p, but capped on 30fps which is slightly bit less compared with the 9th gen consoles but still plays absolutely fine, where as the launch base model PS4 and XBONE has the same frame-speed as the later model version but the base PS4 version ran on 1080p resolution as opposed to XBONE ran on 900p, in which the base PS4 is slightly better for the resolution than the base XBONE but still they are both just as playable.

The Switch version runs on 720p docked and 480p handheld which I heard that it may not looked as good in terms of graphical design and frame speed are way better on the Playstation and Xbox counterpart that the Switch version had lacked, but overall it's still remains playable I suppose.

Overall, it has big open-world environments, good platforming design, and has fair performance for 8th gen console which makes the 9th gen console a clear winner overall.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack are pretty solid in many ways, so you have several of amazing orchestrated music in open-world exploration as well as some of the story cutscenes just really fits the action-adventure personalities, where as in the Cyber-Space stages has some catchy electronic music just fits right for the platforming action.  

The best part of the soundtrack has to go for 3 of these titans boss themes which delivers awesome Metalcore songs such as "Undefeatable" and "Break Through It All" which sang by Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens, while you had Tyler Smyth of Dangerkids (who has previously sang one of the song such as "Infinite" from Sonic Forces) also provided his vocals for the song such as "Find Your Flame" just amps up the game's excitement.

The sound effect in this game offers really solid overall sound design filled with whooshing noises, collisions, and some ambient sounds in some areas just worked really well in the game entirely. 

The voice casting in the game is quite acceptable especially with Sonic and his friends are still remain sounded as same like from the previous game, so no complaints whatsoever. 

Overall, it has good soundtrack, decent sound design, and acceptable voice over.

Special Features

I did mentioned the "Final Horizon" campaign before which comes as free downloadable update to this game, but as I said earlier I never actually liked it.

The good thing about the game is that I also did mentioned earlier about the unlockable modes like new game plus, arcade mode, and battle rush are nice bonus to this game.

The physical PS4 copy comes with free upgradable PS5 version which is a fantastic edition for those who had a physical PS4 version will get to enjoy a free PS5 version for future play. 

Overall, it's okay features, but not perfect.

Advantages

Decent storyplot 

Memorable cast of characters

Incredible presentation settings

Fine combat system and exploration

Epic 3 titans boss battles 

Nice visuals 

Good soundtrack

Disadvantages

Annoying camera system switching

Weird platforming pop-ups

Final Horizon campaign nowhere good as the main game itself 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent storyplot, memorable cast of characters, and incredible presentation settings.

Gameplay 7/10 - fine combat system and exploration, great platforming stages, and epic 3 titans boss battles.

Graphics 7.5/10 - big open-world environments, good platforming design, and has fair performance for 8th gen console which makes the 9th gen console a clear winner overall.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - good soundtrack, decent sound design, and acceptable voice over.

Special Features 6.5/10 - crappy another story campaign (Final Horizon), but has cool unlockable game modes.

Overall 7/10 - Sonic Frontiers is yet a better than I've expected despite few flaws. Unlike some of the previous 3D Sonic games on 8th gen era that are nowhere near fun to play, this game could be an improvement for its main story campaign which provided a really good storyline and has the likable characters being featured in the game is what makes Sonic franchise quite interesting to play for its story development.

Having a Sonic title shifted to the open-world adventure is stepping in the right direction which I really had a ton of blast to speed through the Islands by running around the areas to discover, does a wicked stunts in mid-air, collecting chaos emeralds, upgrading Sonic's skills, solving puzzle mini-games, completing several of action stages, and of course fighting with the 3 titans just makes the Sonic's speedy adventure a positive experience.

Yes I know the "Final Horizon" campaign is not that great which is why I liked the main story campaign even more is all to do a overall balance and fun factor aspect is what really matters the most. 

Is it worth playing? the answer is mainly for Sonic's fanatics because it's nowhere near the same level with other action-adventure titles like the recent Nintendo's Legend of Zelda and Marvel's Spider-Man in terms of exploration, combat, missions, and quality which are so much advanced and better overall, but don't get me wrong because this game is still quite decent to play which is perfect for young players will likely to enjoy this type of Sonic games are great for beginners.

The price for physical copy for console platforms goes between £20 and £30 which seems to be acceptable purchase, where as the digital releases for both PCs and Consoles (via PS Store, Xbox Store, eShop, and Steam) cost about £50 are slightly expensive which it's better off getting the physical copy instead.   

      

I am hoping the Sonic Team will eventually gonna make another 3D Sonic games with better gameplay system and overall game's design in the near future, maybe just maybe they will able to succeed it someday...never know.  

That's being said Sonic Frontier is still good enough to play which I didn't regret purchasing this title, so this will going to impress you if you really love the Blue Hedgehog franchise like myself...just give this game a worth of try that will likely make you change the mind and see if you really enjoying it.

   

     

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5 Christmas Wishlist of 2023

 

Have you ever been wondering about what's all these decorations and all other stuff going on that keeps happening on every winter season year? well as you can see, these people are celebrating the holiday season that involves setting up the lights, bobbles and tinsels hanging on the trees, building up bunch of snowmens in every street homes, making roast dinners for families and friends get together, watching favourites family's winter films, singing jingle bells all the way, and of course Santa giving away all the gifts to kids while flying on the sleigh with the Rudolfs.  

So what do you know guys it's f***ing Christmas because it's one of the biggest and most common holiday celebration in every winter years.

I had done listing my 5 most wanted Christmas stuff that I'm considering to get it on the day of Christmas or maybe it's week before the Christmas depending on how my planning went.

Okay, enough talking for now because we should be enjoying the Christmas holiday for now and without go further do here is my 5 Christmas Wishlist of 2023.

1 - Sonic Frontiers (PS4)    

After struggling to find a decent Sonic titles over the years since my childhood starting from classic 16-bit platformers to modern 3D platformers.

Stuff like Sonic 1,2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles are the prime definition of being a best 16-bit platformers that helped the hardware sales of the SEGA's 16-bit machine, and in years later SEGA had transitioned a Sonic titles into a 3D platforming action such as Sonic Adventures 1 and 2 which is heavily regarded as one of the greatest 3D platformer of the franchise, where as the games like Sonic Heroes, Sonic 06, and Sonic Unleashed are among being the worst libraries of the series that hurts the SEGA's beloved franchises.

It made a great comeback with the later games like Sonic Colors and Generations that got the game just right where it should be, then it became so bad again with the Sonic Boom and Sonic Forces, and then gone great again with the Sonic Mania.

SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise had a shares with flaws when SEGA's development teams hasn't had learned their lesson from the past which is why it couldn't able to beat their rivalry with Nintendo's most successful franchises such as Super Mario is the major examples of how to make a biggest quality platforming titles that attracted the attention of young audiences can able to pick-up and play it on their system, which SEGA couldn't do any better with their blue hedgehog franchise is due to polarising reception of some titles from the media critics and gaming fans which made them turned away from the flagship franchise that helped the company since the era of early 90's gaming.

SEGA then trying to win their trust back to their fans which they had bought a yet better again with Sonic Frontiers which many gaming critics had labelled it as an improvement over the previous installiment which seems to be a good news for the Sonic fans can able to give those a blue hedgehog title a second chance, so this is what SEGA could have done better with the previous titles from the past. 

As I am looking forward to play a Sonic's new installiment, this game is somewhat quite different from any of traditional 3D action-platformer with large open-world environments to explore, has multiple challenges, fight robotic enemies, gaining new abilities, and many single-player campaign levels, so this feels more like if SEGA had given us a new Sonic Adventure sequel which is why I am interested in playing Sonic games that doing something different rather than repeating a same old traditional 3D action-platformer from the previous titles.

2 - Virtua Cop: Elite Edition (PS2)

Being a fan of the light-gun shooter genre which is quite common back in mid-80s and early-90s. Stuff like the Nintendo's classics like Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley are the major examples of introducing the players with the light-gun controller that allow players to point and shoot things at the screen, which had became quite popular in Arcades and NES releases in 1985. 

Then Taito did a same with the Operation Wolf which popularised the military-themed light gun shooters at late-80s, and pushing forward with the early-90s titles like Midway's arcade hit Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Konami's Lethal Enforcers uses the digitised sprite visuals that are looking quite realistic at the time.

There's one of the SEGA's franchise that caught my attention which is Virtua Cop, the very first light-gun shooter title that make use of the real-time 3D polygons in shooter game genres. 

It was a huge success in 1994 on both the Arcade and Saturn releases which received acclaimed praise for its innovation such as 3D graphics, camera system, realistic animations, and ability to target specific body parts.

The success of the SEGA's 3D light-gun shooter title had influenced on later shooter games with 3D polygons being adopted by subsequent light gun shooters such as Namco's Time Crisis and SEGA's The House of the Dead.     

It had follow-up title such as SEGA's Virtua Cop 2 which was released in 1995, a year after the first original, which also received similar praise hailed the game as a improvement over the original game due to its more interactive environments and higher intensity in the chase sequences making it feel more of the big budget action movie.

Both of these Saturn's classics light-gun shooters are also received a fully remastered releases for PS2 titled as Virtua Cop: Elite Edition which featured an enhanced visuals, gallery extras, and implementation of Namco's G-Con 2 light-gun support. 

It's does sounds like a perfect titles for those who previously loves Virtua Cop 1 & 2 on Arcade or Saturn should consider checking these out for PS2.

 

3 - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (Gamecube)

       

    

I really love the 3D action-platforming game in general which I grew up playing the classics from the mid-90s such as Nintendo's Super Mario 64, Rareware's Banjo-Kazooie, and SEGA's Sonic Adventure are the major examples of how to create the best 3D platforming title which fully defines not only it changes the whole gaming industries, but also our childhood that made me loved the video games as my all-time favourite hobbies.

I also being grateful with some of the 3D platformers like Rareware's Conker's Bad Fur Day and Ubisoft's Rayman 2: The Great Escape, as well as the later ones in modern day era such as Activision's own remastered titles like Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy which is why I really loved playing the 3D title with real-time 3D environments, open-spaces levels with full exploration and goals, and platforming filled with puzzles and obstacles that keeps me playing all day night and long.

There's one of the game that caught my interest which is SEGA's own obscure title that some of you may or never heard of this before such as Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg which was released exclusively on Gamecube in 2003.

what made the game quite interesting is that the game was created by a same team behind the success of SEGA's flagship series such as Sonic the Hedgehog.        

It is a 3D platform game which involve rolling throughout the levels with the gigantic egg which allows the player to perform several of cool techniques with the egg, such as egg dunking, slamming, dashing, and shooting which adds the uniqueness of platforming gameplay style that are quite different from any of the traditional 3D platformers.

This is the kind of the 3D platforming game that I'd like to play that are doing something new which is why I really wanted to play this on Gamecube, so despite the game's poor commercial sales and had received an average reception from gaming media which didn't really stop me from picking this game up because I also heard plenty a good things from those who previously liked this 3D platforming title, so it's quite a shame that it never got any of sequel and remastered, and of course it still being remained stuck on one console platform which makes Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg as one of the SEGA's most forgotten gem in years.    

4 - Wolfchild (SNES)

           

Speaking of hidden gems related-stuff, I love spending my time to collect many games libraries to add it to my gaming collection, but when it's comes with the hidden gem titles that are sorely being long forgotten or is it a failed to notice that are being completely ignored by the public's eyes which is why we had an internet that allow us to discover and browse the games that are not being well remembered or is it met with the poor overall sales.

Sometime these forgotten games can also be labelled as an cult-following by the fans communities or maybe these games are actually plays pretty good that are worth owning to our collection. 

I was considering to get a copy of a obscure SNES action-platformer called Wolfchild, a 1992's title was originally released for Amiga, Atari ST, SEGA Mega CD, Genesis/MD, GG, SMS, and of course SNES was developed by Core Design, a development team behind the commercially successful series such as Tomb Raider. 

After watching the YouTube gaming channel such as Console Wars who recently made the video comparison between the SNES and Genesis/MD to see which are the best version of Wolfchild to pick up and play, so it's easy to say that I might be interested in to pick an SNES version in terms of gameplay and graphics quality.       

Even though it never been released outside of the U.S which likely the U.S imports will not work on PAL format consoles, but I also had a SNES converter adapter that allowing the imports games being played on any region consoles makes it easier to bypass the SNES's restrictive region-lock system.  

5 - Contra 4 (DS) 

  

Contra is one of the Konami's well recognisable series that defines the Run n Gun genres back in the mid-80s.

Stuff like we had Contra and Super C on NES which many of gaming press had labelled them as being one of the best arcade to console conversion for 8-bit platform, where as the later titles like Contra III: The Alien Wars on SNES and Contra: Hard Corps on Genesis/MD really showcasing the 16-bit hardware with greater level of parallax scrolling details and aggressive use of visual effects are surprisingly looking impressive for the 16-bit standards, while sharing with the solid gameplay action filled with over-the-top action-platforming levels, unique weapons power-ups, and of course frantic boss stages is what made Contra so special back then.

There's one of the game for DS that caught my attention which was came out at the year of 2007-08 in the U.S and Japan lacking the UK/EU releases, so that is Contra 4 developed by WayForward Technologies, a same development team behind their well-known indie series such as Mighty Switch Force and Shantae.

The game serves as a direct sequel to SNES's 1992 title as Contra III: The Alien Wars to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise.

What made the Contra 4 so great is that it made the return to the form for the franchise since the previous entries such as Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure for the PS1 are completely flopped that destroys the franchise's legacy, where as the Contra: Shattered Soldier for the PS2 made an improvement over the previous twos.          

Contra 4 is one of the game that Konami should have been sticking to the traditional 2D scrolling shooter, instead of wasting their time on crappy 3D style top-down shooter like the two PS1's titles that I've mentioned above. 

The good news is that most of the DS games are fully region free which means that it can be played on any of the region DS system without any restriction, so there's the chance that I will able to play it on my Nintendo's dual-screen system someday. 

Honourable mention:

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (PS2)

Raiden 3 X Mikado (PS4)

Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis/MD)

Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (Gamecube)

Bomberman Generation (Gamecube)

Maken X (Dreamcast)

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)

The Lion King (SNES)

Super Smash Bros (N64)

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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.      

Top 5 16-bit Shoot-em-ups Games

 

The genre that I mostly like spend time playing it on the 16-bit platform like on the SNES, Genesis/MD, and of course TG16/PCE (I own PCE CG Mini) that shares many great libraries of shooters which is we all know it as the term called Shoot-em-ups (A.K.A Shumps). 

The shoot-em-ups came with the 2 different categories of 2D sub-genres like the side-scrolling horizontal shooter and top-down perspective vertical shooter which is commonly being well known back in the late 80's and early 90's for its unique power-ups that allow players to shoot multiples of firing weapons, dodging many of enemy's projectiles been scattered around the screen making it very difficult to evade stuff, and battling with the bosses which requires the strategic ways of defeating them such as finding their weak spot and memorising their attacking patterns is what made the genre so amazing back then.

Today I decided to pick my 5 favourite titles that I mostly enjoyed playing it on the 16-bit platforms to give it reason why I liked the game that are so ground-breaking for the 16-bit perspectives.

So without go further do, here is my top 5 16-bit Shoot-em-ups games.  

5 - Blazing Lazers (TG16/PCE) 

Blazing Lazers is a vertical scrolling shooter game was released in 1989 for TG16/PCE which was developed by Compile, a same team behind Puyo Puyo, M.U.S.H.A, Aleste, and Devil's Crush.

It is also known as Gunhed in Japanese release which is based on the Japanese film of the same name in 1989.

You're taking control of the Gunhed Advanced Star Fighter must battle against the enemy space armada called Dark Squadron and its Super Weapons to save the galaxy.

What made the Blazing Lazers so great on the PC Engine/TG16 is the fast vertical scrolling gameplay and a wide array of weapons for the player to use that really adds the intensity of game itself.

It features 9 vertically areas to playthrough contains one or more bosses to defeat, and it has numerous types of weapons can either be upgraded or changed by collecting various numbered power-ups and purple orbs starting from rapid-fire main cannon to long-range plasma lazers. You can collect optional power-ups to help fight through the game such as multibodies, homing missiles, shields, and enhanced firing capabilities, so these are the weapons are fast and responsive works effectively against the large enemy's ship that took time to defeat which requires a much stronger weapon adds up a difficulty pretty nicely.

The level design is crispy and detailed in each areas from space station to alien's organs, desert planet to big floating bubbles which I am very impressed with the use of scrolling effects, colors details, and background visuals really fits the graphical capabilities of hardware itself showing much appreciate to its quality, and it has the incredible use of sound design with no sign of scratchy noises and it definitely has the best soundtrack of all PC Engine/TG16 library with outstanding percussion and melody throughout the game's Shoot-em-ups action.

Blazing Lazers is regarded as one of the better Shoot 'em up video games for PC Engine/TG16 system is the must play for the fans of the genres.

Despite the closure of Wii's Virtual Console service since this version got re-released in 2007, I was hoping this game should deserve another re-release for Switch (via eShop) in future or if any of you preferred to play it on actual hardware instead then be warned the actual copy of the game cost around between £170 and £200 making it harder to find it online or alternately you can also get it on built-in miniature system such as PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini for more than £100 which included this game as part of 57 pre-installed titles, so I just got lucky for owning the miniature system that I had one for two years ago just for worth £70.  

4 - Gradius III (SNES)

Gradius III is a side-scrolling horizontal shooter was originally released for arcade in 1989, and was came later for SNES in 1990/91 which was both developed and published by Konami.

You're the pilot starfighter controlling the fighting ship called Vic Viper to battle against the evil alien empire to save the entire galaxy. 

What made the game so great on the SNES is the gameplay mechanics system where your ship started out quite slow and weak at the beginning of the first stage, so you will definitely needed to upgrade your ship by collecting and using these single power-ups items which let's you choose any of these 6 power-ups when the desired power-up is highlighted on the bottom screen.

Stuff like you can increase the speed of the ship makes the movement bit faster, it drops missile on the ground areas, it fires long-range laser dealing heavy damage, it has ripple that deals with wave-sized projectiles, the shields that protects you from taking damage from enemy's projectiles, and of course the best of all is the 5 option projectiles which allowing you to fire additional range of vulcans or lasers. 

The game was notoriously being the tough ones thanks to narrowly layered level design for some areas and multiples of enemies makes really insane amount of projectiles are the reason why it's made it quite tougher to beat which requires many learning curves and strategy in order to successfully beating the entire game which is why it made the game quite good to play. 

The boss battles are insanely epic that made Gradius III worth to play, so stuff like you have long-sharp armed Goliath, big blobbed Bubble Eye, metallic ship Big Core MKIII, long-firey Vulture Dragon, large-piranha Choking Weed, blue-glossy Crystal Core, and many more total non-stop bosses that gives you a great ass-kicking all the way.

Gradius III is a solid Shoot-em-ups title that never officially got released at PAL region, so thankfully I've bought the copy as an Super Famicom releases which I also had a SNES converter adapter that allowing me to bypass the Japanese imports games on my PAL SNES system due to system's region-locked restriction.

You can get the SNES copy of either the NTSC US or JP version just for less than £30 online or you can also get it on PS2 titled as Gradius III and IV for £40 or less, and PSP titled as Gradius Collection for £50. 

Oh it is also available on PS4 and Switch as arcade archives for between £5.79 and £6.29 could be a better and affordable option for newcomer too.  

3 - U.N Squadron (SNES) 

     

U.N Squadron (A.K.A Area 88 in JP release) is a side-scrolling horizontal shooter was released in 1989 for Arcade, and was later released in 1991/92 for SNES which was developed and published by Capcom, and it is also based on the manga series of the same name titled as Area 88.

You take control of 3 of the pilot fighters went on the mission is to stop a terrorist group known as Project 4.

As I previously enjoyed the arcade version quite a long time ago, I decided to give a SNES version a go to see if the game does anything do better in terms of additional features and gameplay wise, the answer is it's a damn fine SNES shoot-em-ups game that does the job right.

What made the SNES version so interesting is that it featured additional mission select which allows you to choose any of the level such as the main and bonus missions.

What made the game quite unique to play is that each of the 3 fighter pilots has different style of play such as Shin Kazama has mid-range vulcan cannon which is perfect for well-balanced players, Mickey Simon has strong valcan cannon but has weak air-to-ground options, and Greg Gates has Gatling gun that has a second gun that shoots downward angle but has stronger ground options. 

After beating each stages will earn you with currencies which you can spend these to the weapon shop that gives you ability to use a variety of explosion bombs and various of planes with different capabilities such as the firing range and damage which really adds up the gameplay experience.

The graphics and presentation in this game are surprisingly look amazing for the SNES shooter with detailed landscape, nice foreground layouts, and great use of colours just feels like a true 16-bit title had to offer, and of course it provides the best soundtrack in any of Capcom's Shoot-em-ups that makes you keep playing the game for the action.       

       

U.N Squadron is a fantastic Shoot-em-ups game that I highly recommended to all SNES owners who grew up playing this particular genre. The SNES copy are not particularly that expensive which goes from £20 to £35 more which is worth owning the title for the retro collectors.

2 - M.U.S.H.A (Genesis/MD)

      

M.U.S.H.A (A.K.A Aleste in JP release) is a vertical scrolling shooter was released in 1990 for Genesis/MD which was developed by Compile, a same team behind behind then again such as Puyo Puyo, Blazing Lazers, Aleste, and Devil's Crush.

You take control of flying mecha pilot who has the mission to destroy a large super intelligent computer that threatens the human life and planet Earth. 

This game plays on vertical perspective view and the player starts off with the main weapon that can be increasingly upgraded by collecting power chip, so there's are three different types of special weapons can be picked up such as piercing lasers, fire-based explosives and rotating shields. It also has useful drones which can be set to one of the six attack modes, such as aiming forward, behind, or rotating around the player.

What made the game incredibly impressive is that the gameplay as a whole has tons of action-packed levels starting from floating temples to industrial facility then solid-rocked layed area to dark-thunderous skies which has the best overall design for its stage presentation, and you can't go wrong with the mecha bosses like golden templed freak fires with 5 waves of firey projectiles, big metallic headed barfing out bunch of scraps out of his mouth, big fat dude with two kabuki heads floating around the multi-spiked ball and firing 4 silvered orbs, a large ship with creepy-looking facemask with 2 floating fists throwing punches at you, the badass mecha guy shoots you with 4 blue projectiles and uses long-range blue whip as melee weapon, and many more to fight against is what made the game quite epic for its atmosphere. 

The graphics as a 16-bit standards are looking spectacular which really shows the power of the SEGA's 16-bit machine for its technical stand point.

The use of background layered parallax scrolling, the foreground special effects, the crispy and sharp looking animation, and detailed environments are such an incredible to look at for its design perspective making it a most technically impressive title of 16-bit libraries, and of course you had to give the game a remarkable credit for its blazing and wicked heavy metal soundtrack which makes it being the best part of the Shoot-em-ups games like this really fits the personality level of SEGA's 16-bit machine. 

M.U.S.H.A is one of the game that shamefully never got the release at PAL region (not until it got re-released on Switch (via N.S.O Subscription E.P in 2021), but still it is also an outstanding Shoot-em-ups game that you really need to play this on Genesis/MD. This game is stupidly expensive for game collectors out-there because it's goes up for more than £300, so I got lucky that I've bought this game as a reproduction copy of the game from Ebay for £7.00 a very long time ago. 

You can also play it on the Switch under the Nintendo Switch Online subscription (Expansion Pack) which are also an welcome options for newcomer who are interested in playing the 16-bit Shoot-em-ups libraries.          

 

1 - Thunder Force IV (Genesis/MD) 

  

Thunder Force IV (A.K.A Lightening Force in US release) is a side-scrolling horizontal shooter was released in 1992/93 for Genesis/MD which was developed by Technosoft, a developer teams behind Herzog Zwei, Dragon's Fury and Hyper Duel, and it is also a fourth title of the series. 

You take control of fighter spacecraft called Rynex to battle against Vios forces throughout the 10 stages.

You can select any of these stages at the level select menu, and the game plays on the horizontal perspective view.

The game still retains the same upgradeable defaults, speed settings, and unique extra weapons from the previous third game, as you have ability to change the speed of the ship that suits for your playability starting from slow to fast settings making the ship's movement feels realistic.

You also have each types of weapons that gives you the advantage of using the powerful projectiles which ranges the level of firing system starting from twin shot to blades that shoots forward, back shot to rail gun which fires backward, snake that fires 2-ways angle, hunter that fires multiples of bouncy projectiles, and of course the free way that fires insane amount of missiles which I consider these firing system as being one of the ground-breaking things they ever done in any of Shoot-em-ups libraries had to offer. 

It has 10 epic stages with intense action that are fast-paced and over-the-top, it has multiples of insane enemy's ships in the whole on-screen that fires amount of projectiles, has cool looking bosses that are ridiculously large, and has quite an atmospheric level design with in-depth environments going on starting from top to bottom of the areas are quite lethal to play thanks to numerous of hazardous objects and structures which is why it made the game so amazing to play.

The overall visuals is what I call it the bestest things that they ever done for SEGA's 16-bit machine in terms of heavy use of parallax scrolling, detailed environmental layouts from back to front, crystal sharp textures, and magnificent overall use of animation and special effects which I call it a biggest technical marvel of one of the SEGA's ultimate hardware console of 16-bit era.

The game also has epic use of heavy metal soundtrack that are sounds incredibly awesome especially with the title track such as "Metal Squad" which really blew everyone mind up with the heavyness of action-packed music that fits the game's Shoot-em-ups action. 

Thunder Force IV is definitely one of my all-time favourite 16-bit Shoot-em-ups game that defines my gaming childhood, and it is definitely must play for Shoot-em-ups fanatics.    

The copy for Genesis/MD goes from £40 to £50 more which is quite bit pricey, but also recommended for big game collectors out-there.

You can also get it on Saturn titled as Thunder Force Gold for more than £70 which is hella expensive, but the best way to play this game is the Switch release as part of the SEGA Ages collection (via Nintendo eShop) for £6 digitally.   

Honourable Mentions:

Axelay

R-Type 3

Space Megaforce

Gleylancer 

Gaiares 

Vapor Trail 

Lords of Thunder

Soldier Blade

Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (Galaxy Policewoman Legend Sapphire)

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Top 5 Resident Evil Games

 

Video games had an amazing numbers of categories back then, so stuff like we grew playing with action, platforms, arcades, RPGs, and FPS, but there's one of the thing that shook the gaming worlds which is a horror, the genre that focuses on the level of scares and terror that you've never seen anything frightening in video games such as people getting their bodies torned out in pieces, there's monsters coming to fright you with jumpscares, a psychological stuff with many dark illusions themes going on, crazy demonic rituals scattered all over the places, and many more dark shit with the level of gores and hearing someone screaming at the background kinda makes your skin go shivers and feel mentally disturbed after playing these kinds of games that offers a huge numbers of scare factors which is why the genre became quite popular in video games industries.

As a long time fan of the horror games, I got to talk about a Capcom's flagship horror franchise called Resident Evil which many of gaming medias and fans communities heavily regarded this series as not just being one of the greatest, but also a most popular video game franchises of all-time had labelled the series as a major example of popularising survival horror genres thanks to varieties of fantastic main titles like the first and second RE games are clearly an successful titles that created the whole franchise in mid-90s. 

I wanted to make my 5 favourite RE games that really defines my gaming childhood which I really never forget the moments that I really liked spending time defending myself for survival purposes, saving up enough ammos and health packs, running through the corridor rooms in each areas, solving numerous of puzzles to reveal mysteries, and of course fighting with hordes of zombies and monsters.

So without go further do, here is my top 5 RESIDENT EVILLLLLLLLLL!!!! GAMEEEEEESSSSS!!!!

5 - Resident Evil 7: Biohazard 

    

After I got really disappointed with the previous entry such as Resident Evil 6 which led many of the fans and the critics just straight-up hated the game that kills the franchise's legacy because it took away the horror elements from the earlier RE games which is why it labelled as the worst entry in the series.

Capcom had learned the lesson after the failure of RE 6 which led the developers had decided to going back to its original root that should have been in the 6th game for first place, so this is why they bought a next installiment such as Resident Evil 7: Biohazard which was hailed as the franchise's return of the survival horror that everyone been wanting for the RE game.

In RE 7: Biohazard, you get to play as Ethan Winters went on searching for his lost wife in the abandoned house of Baker's family.

What made the game got it right is the mainly survival horror roots which retains a original style of gameplay elements involving a survival approach and puzzle solving, and much darker and the intense level of scares is finally what you called a true Resident Evil game that we been asking for ages.

What makes the game stands out is the whole presentation design shares the influence from the 70s and 80s classic horror movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and The Evil Dead which adds the excellent overall atmosphere fits pretty really well to the game's concepts, and the best part of the game are mostly Baker's family members because I finding these people quite terrifying as f**k, such as you have Jack Baker is a chaotic bold-head old man that has ability to break through the wall and starts beating the shit of the Ethan, so that what you call a one tough old son of a bitch. The rest are sick-minded freak like Marguerite that surprise you with unexpected jumpscares, and that crazy asshole Lucas that really threatens the f**k out of Ethan is just makes these villains so insanity, but entertaining at the same time.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is an huge improvement over the previous entry makes the return to its roots that made the whole franchise successful again, so it's definitely must play for the fans of the series, as well as horror genre fans in general, so it's available on PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC.

4 - Resident Evil (Remake)

As I much loved the first RE game for PS1 back then, there are a full remake that just got released in 2002 for Gamecube, so that is a first Resident Evil.

 

You take control of two S.T.A.R.S members such as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine went inside the mansion to uncover the mysteries behind the Umbrella's dark secret who are responsible for the virus outbreak incident that had occurred at Raccoon City infecting the whole human citizens which transformed them into a zombies. 

The game is exactly like the 1996's original, but featuring a better overall graphics and cinematic presentation, improved story written with fixed dialogue, and has much more scare factor than the 1996's original counterpart.

While noting the improvement, the game as a whole are just plays fantastic especially on Gamecube which I am impressed with the visuals that are surely dark and terrifying, as opposed to the 1996's counterpart which are not so creepy as the 2002's remake. 

What makes the whole game so great that made the first RE game quite recognisable is the major focus on exploration where you need to explore around the rooms to gather the documents to reveal a Umbrella's history behind outbreak, as well as collecting important keys and objects that leads into a next areas can be solved by completing numerous of puzzles, while your goal is to protect yourself from getting bitten by zombies which requires a limited survival tool that may helps you to defend against them such as weapons and health items only if its necessary to use it. 

There are really great stuff that made the first game quite horrifying such as the zombie dog jumps out the window, the zombie comes out the closet, the big boulder came rolling down to you in undergound, the bunch of crows flying onto you in painting room, there are a one trap room where you'll likely to get squashed like a Jill's sandwich, and you'll be encountering by numerous of creatures like big long python, huge clawed green hunter, large eight-legged tarantula, tall-balded dude tyrant with one spikey arm, and of course indestructible monster Lisa Trevor which is why the game is not typically just a zombie game, but more of a monster-style horror game that is why I really liked having a kinds of title that are quite different from traditional zombie genres.     

Resident Evil Remake is a fantastic horror title that you may want to check it out on Gamecube or also on the Wii as part of the RE archive.

It is also got fully remastered for later platforms such as PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC as part of the Resident Evil: Origins Collection which features two games such as Zero and first RE Remake, supports 5.1 surround sound, 1080p resolution with 16:9 widescreen aspect ratios, and added new control scheme allowing players to move their character in the direction of the analog stick as opposed to old-fashioned tank controls from the original counterpart release makes it a welcoming recommendation for newcomers, so don't forget to get yourself a Jill's sandwich ready for lunch guys.

3 - Resident Evil 2 Remake

 

 

   

Resident Evil 2 is a Survival-Horror title for PS4, XBONE, and PC which was developed and published by Capcom. It is a 2019's full remake of 1998's title of the same name and of course a sequel to first Resident Evil game.

The game takes place two months after the event of the first game and it's set at Raccoon City in September 1998 where most of the people have been turned into zombies, due to an outbreak of a viral bioweapon known as the T-Virus, manufactured by Umbrella Corporation.

You take control of Leon S Kennedy or Claire Redfield in 2 separate scenario depending which characters you're playing as first in single-player story mode, as their goal is to find the way of escaping from the city feasted with hordes of zombies.

The story is is done absolutely well for making the plot much easier to follow the point of the story that has well-written dialogue, memorable story sequences, and of course two of the major characters like Leon and Claire are my favourite RE characters is what really adds the game's biggest highlight.

The whole presentation in the game is pretty well done which brings up the nostalgia of the original design. You have the recognisable locations such as police station filled with the hallways, library, office room, statue's room, clock tower, parking garage, the sewers, and underground base that these settings in the remake are much more appealing to look at and how nicely these level structure came close to the 1998's original design. 

I also liked the tone of the whole game are much terror and darker than the original version that really adds up the overall atmospheres of horror design. 

The remake made the improvements upon the original 1997's game such as playing on third-person perspective view which really helps the game, as opposed to fixed-camera angle from the original that didn't hold up to today standards which is the reason why Capcom wanted to go for a over the shoulder view for its easier gameplay design such as being able to aim and shoot freely at enemies, making easier to navigate items and objects what's front of you, and controlling your playable character precisely than the tank controls from the original that made the game fully playable for newcomer of the series.

The combat system is nicely balanced with limited ammo and range-shot that are heavily designed for survival depending on which weapons that works effectively against types of monsters, as well as using it as the self-defence mechanics rather than being the lethal is what makes the game feels just right for the genres.  

The puzzle solving aspects is actually fantastic that keeps me engaging with the game well because I really liked finding objects to reveal the hidden area as well as finding key or cards in different rooms that leads me to next locations that makes the whole exploration very satisfied.

The best of all are actually cast of monsters such as Lickers the fast moving monster can scratch you with their deadly claws, Plant 43 creatures can bite your head off clean, Lesser G monsters has large tentacle mouth and arm, Tyrant Mr. X chases you around the rooms till you get a massive beatings, Giant Crocodile is a huge-ass monster chases you through the sewers hall, and that god damn William Birkin always never dies that adds up the scare factor which is the reason why these monsters are so memorable in the game.

Resident Evil 2 is by far the best remakes of whole franchise that is worth checking out for all newcomers and the fans of the series will be impressed with the game's results turns out very successful.    

2 - Resident Evil: Code Veronica 

I know many of you been wondering why did I put this game a bit higher than the 1 and 2? well it's just my sake of opinion guys, so please don't get upset because this is my first childhood game in the series that made me more interested in the franchise back then. 

The game set after the event of RE 2 and RE 3: Nemesis, so you take control of Claire Redfield went on her quest to search for her lost brother Chris Redfield in Rockfort Island.

What made the game so great is that I really liked how the overall production had been produced in the game such as cinematic design just feels more like a actual movie, as opposed to in-game dialogue sequences as seen in RE 2 and RE 3: Nemesis. 

The voice performance and story dialogue are very well done during the conversation between the characters which feels like the characters are talking and communicating each other.

The gameplay plays just like the previous entries in the series which is totally fine for late 90's standards, but what makes the game quite great is that it had a best encounters in any of RE games such as yellow long-armed creature can grab your head in long-range distance, long large ground-worm digging through the grounds, a tall-balded tyrant with one spikey arm, mysterious three-long arms Nosferatu, and of course creature-looking chick Alexia Ashford.

The graphic design is looking specular especially on SEGA Dreamcast's hardware which really nails the overall 3D environments on every in-game settings just to make the game look more appealing on 6th gen system.

It clearly has the best overall soundtrack in any of Resident Evil games just came quite close to previous RE games. 

The game also offers a cool battle mode where you need to complete a hordes of monsters while aiming to beat a new time record in order to get a higher overall rank is a nice bonus to this game.  

Resident Evil: Code Veronica is a must have title for Dreamcast owners who are looking for a best possible survival horror games on their libraries, or you could also get it on PS2, Gamecube, PS3, X360, and PC titled as Resident Evil: Code Veronica X which featuring additional cutscenes and story elements that aren't present on original Dreamcast releases.

1 - Resident Evil 4 (Original)

      

There's one of the RE games that really changed the gaming industries back in mid-2000s, so the title that I did not expect to be a game changer which is Resident Evil 4 for Gamecube in 2005.

It's one of the game made a departure of survival horror genres from the previous entries, instead they made the horror game as a action-oriented approach which I thought the ideas they putting in the game might not work so well to the franchise, but boy I was wrong when the game got released in the 2005 it became a universally acclaimed title which I did not expect the game turns out to be one of the greatest games of all-time, and it also credited as a most influential video game which they viewed Resident Evil 4 as the biggest pioneer of modern third-person shooter genres, so I had to pick-up a copy of RE 4 for Gamecube to see if this really changes my expectations.

The answer is yes because this really consider it as one of my all-time favourite game for Resident Evil franchise that I ever played.

You take control of Leon S Kennedy set in Spain for mission to search for president's daughter named Ashley Graham, an annoying young blonde lady who are being held captive by groups of Spanish cult members.

It is a quite different from the previous RE games which you'll notice the new changes that you don't see from the previous titles.

Stuff like the gameplay design where they changed the third-person perspective of fixed-camera angle into the over-the-shoulder view which makes the navigation quite easier to interact what's front of you, and it also improves upon the aiming control where you can able to freely aim at the enemies with the laser-pointing cursor makes the shooting accuracy so much easier to point and shoot at them. 

Controlling the character in the game is a big changer because you don't have to go for a old-school tank-controls like from the previous game, instead you can freely move around thanks to over-the-shoulder perspective makes it so much practical for third-person shooters.

I had to admit that the game has the best looking visuals for Gamecube libraries because it feels like a early 7th gen era than the 6th gen standards which delivers a best looking character's design, the environments in many places filled with large open-areas, sharp details textures and uses a special effects techniques that you've never seen anything amazing on the 6th gen console. 

The game does have the best written story and has likable cast of characters that really adds the game's main highlight entirely. 

It has Leon S Kennedy which is one of our favourite RE's greatest heroes in the franchise, and it also has Ada Wong which she's one of the returning character we know her from RE 2. 

It also shares with the greatest boss battles in any of RE games such as tall-bearded guy Bitores Mendez, tiny-little freak Ramon Salazar, big-tough solder Jack Krauser, and of course dark cultist Osmund Saddler are the best part of the game.

The best part of the game which includes the mercenaries mode where you had to take down the endless numbers of villagers to gain many scores as possible in order to get a highest ranking, and you have an extra scenario called "Separate Ways" where you take control of Ada Wong which never been featured on Gamecube version, so you really need to get it on other console platforms in order to play this scenario.    

Resident Evil 4 is clearly being the Capcom's biggest horror masterpiece which is definite an recommendation to all gaming horror fans out there, so you can get it on Gamecube, PS2, and PC, and you can also check out a Wii edition which features a Wii motion controls are perfect to play for Wii players.

It also has re-releases stuff on PS3, PS4, X360, XBONE, and Switch which features better controls, HD resolution, and all bonus content from previous releases.     

The game also received an 2023's full-on remake was released for PS4, PS5, XSX/S, and PC, which also gained a higher praise for its more horror-focused presentation, modernised combat gameplay, and redesigned visuals.

 

Honourable Mentions:

Resident Evil Zero

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Original)

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2

Resident Evil 8: Village  

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Tormented Souls PS4 Review

 

Tormented Souls is a survival horror game was released in 2021 for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC.

It was developed by Dual Effect & Abstract Digital, and published by PQube Limited.

Growing up with the classic survival horror, a genre that was pioneered by the likes of Alone In The Dark, and populated by Capcom's Resident Evil and Konami's Silent Hill.

Those are games that delivers the nightmarish of horror atmospheres which shook the gaming worlds with the gruesome gory effects, multiples of death sequences, fighting for the survival, unexpected jumpscares, and uncovering the dark secrets is what made these games quite popular back in the 90's.

Of course we had games back in mid-2000s like Resident Evil 4, FEAR, Condemned, and Dead Space had improved upon the gameplay design and horror elements, where as in year 2010s such as Alien Isolation, The Evil Within, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard which brought us into the new level of horror that makes everyone shitting their pants off. 

 

The popularity of the genre had spawned with many clone titles or the titles that was inspired by the classic survival horror games was made by some of the small indie game developers or fan communities site as today.

It is really interesting to bring back the 90's style horror game into the modern platforms, so there's one of the indie game that gives us a nostalgia throwback to classic survival horror genre which is Tormented Souls.

It's one of the horror title that got me attention after I've discovered the actual trailer back in year 2021 which I was originally planned to wait bit longer until I had a chance to get a PS5 console, but sadly my plan didn't go well which is why I've changed the mind to get a PS4 version instead, so that I can play the game that I've wanted to look forward re-visiting the 90's classic horror roots. 

I had spent a week to play entirely to see if this game are actually just as good as the classic horror games that I've played back then, so my answer will be fully discussed on this review that I'll be covering some of the goods and bads aspects that the game is either a worthy to play that made the classic survival horror so great in the 90's or is it just a colossal mess that didn't do the game's justice.

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

Presentation

The game starts out with the young woman named Caroline Walker had discovered the unknown letter from the Wildberger Hospital, which has the photo of the two mysterious twin girls are likely being missing in the mansion. She then headed to the mansion to investigate the situation and find the two girls that are missing in the mansion. 

The story in the game are kinda a bit sounds above the average, but it does give the game a bit of the charm which is actually not that bad at all entirely.

I know you guys been thinking "why this woman really needed to investigate such a dangerous place and that?" so it may be sounds clueless at the beginning of the game, but not until you had to progress through the game to find out a part of the game may going to surprise you.

You may need to collect a numerous of diaries to uncover the mysteries behind the whole mansion may going to help you understand the plot of the game quite a bit.

Aside with the story, I say Caroline Walker is actually looked decent in the game which I really liked her outfits with black leather jacket, white dress with red ribbon, and black shoes. She does has nice short red-brownish hair and wears a eyepatch which sadly someone did something to her right-eye quite badly. 

I also liked the concept design of the enemy monsters are kinda gives me a H.P Lovecraft's aesthetics to it, so you have a creature sat on the wheelchair armed with claws, the legless deformed crawlers will nab you closer and has nasty spitting, the wall-mounts creature are bolted to corridors with deadly scythes for hands, the Drip monster hooked to an IV bag will linger you with spikes, the tall-hulking walker with rusted blades attached to their arms, the big-fat bloating monster are floating across the room, and the big husky robot with hazmat suit armed with giant hammers. Those are the monsters which I finding it quite terrifying as any of 90's classic horror games had to offer. 

I got to say the presentation in the game is quite amazing for its settings and locations because it really brings closer to the 90's classic horror game that we had seen it something similar to these environmental design, so stuff like in the mansion are filled with dentist room, bedrooms, meeting room, hall area, dining area, kitchen, sewers, library, basement, office, and etc. 

Each of these locations has the mixed of house and hospital setups where most of the humans are being horribly experimented which they turns into a horrifying creatures.

You will see several of rooms and wards are filled with pool of blood and particles of gory limbs scattered all over the places, and there are some of the room and basement are nothing but a pitched-black that became too dark to traverse around which adding the creepiness of the game's horror tone.

Overall, it has quite fair story, decent main protagonist, and amazing horror presentation. 

Gameplay

You take control of Caroline Walker in fixed-angle perspective, so in order to find the missing two girls you must find the way of heading to the destination goal by solving the puzzles that leads you into the new area, as well as uncovering the secrets and fighting for survival in the terrifying mansion.

The game has two control style that plays differently in the game, so you'll have a modernized controls scheme which are suitable for newcomers such as the left stick controls acts as 360s degree movement which you can move in 8-ways direction, where as the classic control schemes uses the d-pad buttons as the traditional rotation-tank controls like mostly from the 90's classic horror games, but you can also do 180s back-turn by holding the d-pad backward then press the square button.

You can interact, pick-up objects, and opening doors by pressing the cross button, where as holding the square button then pressing the d-pad button forward to make her run through the area, but she can also run automatically by simply just pushing the left-stick control without holding the square button makes it easier to control. 

In combat, you get the weapon ready by aiming with the left trigger or right shoulder button, then fire the weapon with the right trigger or cross button which attacks the enemies, but you can also reload the weapon by pressing the circle button.

You can access to the inventory menu screen by pressing the triangle button, so this will let you equip the weapons that you have obtained, examine the objects like opening or fiddle stuff, and combining the two items together.

So unlike Capcom's Resident Evil where you can able to store more items into the safe storage box, this game lets you keep all the items and weapons on your inventory screen much longer which I'm kinda surprised by it, but it's not a bad thing because you don't have to keep backtracking to the save rooms over again just to swap or grab the items that you'll need it for the later part of the game.

You can also access to the map menu screen by hitting the right thumbstick button which let's you navigate the map location which tells you where you are and where to head at the next area.

So far, they did a good job of re-creating the classic horror elements into a horrifying experiences where it had the intensity level of scare factor aspects in the game. 

Stuff like you'll be walking into the dark areas which likely you'll be dragged out and killed by random monsters unless the lighter item will save you from getting caught in action.

There'll be a tons of enemy monsters giving you unexpecting surprise in the dark areas and they'll move violently towards you receiving a severe damaging attack, so you'll be needing to use your weapons in order to defeat them, but be really careful about using the weapon frequently because you'll need to save up enough ammunition unless use it to kill if it's necessary. 

These enemy's A.Is are really smart enough to catch you if you get really close to them or they'll see you in mid-range distance.

There are some of the weapons that came in useful such as crowbar which acts as close-range melee weapon, the pistol that are good for all-balance dealing with light damaging attack, the shotgun is a close-range weapon deals with heavy damaging attack are effective against the big enemies, and the electric rod that not only stuns but kills the enemies too. 

The best part for the classic horror-style games is the puzzle solving segments where you need to solve the puzzle parts in each rooms which rewards you with the key items or objects that can leads you to next area, so stuff like figuring out the passcode to unlock stuff like padlock and cash register machine, activating the generators, using the correct patterns on door knocker, getting the elevator to function, unveiling the hidden secret door, using the valid combination key for locked doors, and many more to deal with the puzzle solving stuff.

While the game plays pretty decent throughout the story, I never liked how they designed the fixed-camera angles which I finding it quite cliché for most classic horror games but I never against the choices for gameplay design which I can fully respect it, but the problem is that having the fixed-angle orientation can cause the distraction when every time you walking or running across the areas it changes the angle differently can be nauseating for some players and you couldn't really tell where to find the items can be bit difficult to navigate stuff inside the rooms.

I got to be really honest about the movement controls which many newcomers had said that the traditional tank controls hasn't aged quite well as we remembered back then, so you have an option to use a modernised control scheme which I find the 360s degree movement on the left stick control tends to be quite easier to control because you don't have to go through with the tank controls like most of the classic horror games from the 90's era unless if you're one of the horror veterans who rather much preferred the old-school play which is sounds totally fine.

It is good to have the 360s degree movement which really helps the game, but I wish they should have added the aiming controls with the right stick as well because aiming with the left stick can be bit confusing for those who uses the modernised control option, but that didn't hurt the game as much to be honest.

What really matters the most is being able to enjoy the entire horror experiences filled with many monsters in each room that you had to either fight them or defend yourself for survival, cracking down the puzzles to reveal a hidden secrets, and uncovering the dark truths behind the mansion is what makes the game plays decently throughout the playthroughs.    

Overall, it has good puzzle-solving and great survival gameplay. 

Graphics

The graphics in the entire game are looking spectacular for the modern gaming platform because I really liked the way they improved upon with the lighting settings and environmental design which is so much cleaner and detailed which quite came close to games like Capcom's Resident Evil 2002's remake.

You have a bold textures of room's details, the structures of the building objects that are well designed, the use of the lighting effects in some areas gives us a great mix of light and dark tone of settings depending which locations are you at which adds up the game's atmospheres.

The use of the gory level are quite gruesome in some parts of the game, so you'll see a dead bodies everywhere, the pool of blood splattered on the floor, and the particles of body limbs that are surely slimy and squishy is just unpleasant to look at these kinds of stuff is what made the game quite disturbing to play.

The character's animation in this game are sure looking fantastic with their body movement and physics are keeping well intact to make human character moves like human being, and the creatures moves like a creeping monsters just got it really right in the game.

I also got to say that the PS5, XSX/S, and PC version delivers a best results for its smooth frame-rate and less loading times.    

Overall, it has gruesome gore levels, fantastic character's animation, great lighting effects, and well detailed environmental design.

 

               

           

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game are sounds magnificent because its had sort of a Capcom's Resident Evil vibes for its calming piano tunes at the title screen and save room which gives a moment of the relief from the nightmare, where as the rest of the music such as the chase sequences, fighting with the monsters, and entering the darkest rooms with pitch black areas are kinda has Konami's Silent Hill aesthetics for its dark environments sounds that makes your mind feel unsettling and building up anxiety which is why they did a good job of capturing the horror atmospheres.

The sound effects in the whole game offers a great range of horrific noises coming out from the backgrounds, hearing a haunting screams in some places, and the roar of the monsters.

I got to say the voice acting in the game are sure quite cheesy just like the 90's classic horror games, so don't let it fooled you because I totally understand the concept of the 90's classic horror genres is what makes the game an interesting throwback to 90's classic horror games back then.                       

Overall, it has magnificent soundtrack and horrific sound design.

Special Features

I am grateful to have a free downloadable PS5 upgrade which is a fine bonus, but unfortunately there's no additional content in this game. It would have been better if they offer stuff in the game like unlockable galleries, needs to add enough more costumes than just 1, new game plus mode, add more game's difficulty option, and of course battle mode that could have given the game enough addition, so that's a shame because this game provides a really good single-player horror campaign which I've enjoyed it so far, but I wish they should have included the additional content features. 

Overall, quite a shame.

Advantages

Amazing horror presentation

Cool concept design for enemy monsters

Decent main protagonist

Good puzzle solving 

Great survival gameplay 

Spectacular visuals 

Magnificent soundtrack

Horrific sound design 

Disadvantages

Fixed-camera angles may be not suited for some players

Aiming control should have been added to right stick option

Not adding unlockable content 

Final Verdict

Presentation 7.5/10 - quite fair story, decent main protagonist, and amazing horror presentation. 

Gameplay 7/10 - good puzzle-solving and great survival gameplay.

Graphics 8.5/10 - gruesome gore levels, fantastic character's animation, great lighting effects, and well detailed environmental design.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - magnificent soundtrack and horrific sound design.

Special Features 1/10 - lack of additional content.

Overall 7/10 - Tormented Souls is yet a good horror game that does the job quite right. It's feels like a true love letter to 90's classic survival horror genres that we adored the style of horror game which delivers a horrifying experience filled with multiples of deadly creatures coming to chase you through the corridors, discovering a rooms with amounts of blood scattered around the walls and floors, using a weapon and health kit as a tool for survival, and solving the mysteries to uncover the dark secrets is what made the game quite fun.

Even it does have shares with few drawbacks like the fixed-camera angles can be distracting for some players, the aiming control could have been better with the right-stick option, and of course the lack of the additional content that I've mentioned above which could have made the game done a bit better.

That being said, the game provides a good single-player campaign which I've been enjoying the game entirely, so yeah it's plays pretty good without any regret.

The game cost around between £15 to over £20 which you can get it physically on PS4, PS5, and Switch, where as you can also get it digitally on the digital storefront for all platforms just for between £16 or £17.

If you're one of the 90's classic survival horror fanatics out there interested in this type of style, then Tormented Souls is definitely for you to pick-up, and I am hoping for the game developers will able to do well on the upcoming sequel in the near future.    

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