Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend PS Vita Review

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is a 2D fighting game for Arcade, PS Vita, PS3, X360 and PC, which was developed by Arc System Works and published by PQube (UK release) or Aksys Games (US release). It is a sequel to BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and extended version of original 2010's game.

Last year ago, I've already reviewed Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma Extend for my PS4, so I have praised the game for revamped fighting mechanics, anime style animations, impressive visual novel presentation with detailed storyline and memorable characters, excellent soundtrack, and epic game modes that really makes the game so much fun than the previous installiment. I decided to pick up another Blazblue game for my PS Vita because I haven't owned any of 2D fighting game titles for PS Vita, so I did really mention on my last year review that the Continuum Shift are might be played too similar with Calamity Trigger, but I have started to change my mind by getting this game for my PS Vita just to see if this game are turns out to be actually good as the first original game. So far, I really liked the game for storyline, characters, fighting style, animations, soundtrack and of course it has more extra content for the extended version with four new stories, more playable rosters, and the updated version of Blazblue Calamity Trigger's story. I also enjoyed the several of game modes such as story mode, arcade mode, abyss mode, challenge mode, score attack mode, 2-player versus mode including online battles and unlimited mars mode are definitely top-notch for fighting game titles.

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


Presentation

The story mode has various selection of chapters depending which character you're playing. You get to play certain of the rosters such as Ragna the Bloodedge, Jin Kisargi, Noel Vermillion and all others playable roster to complete the story of the game. It is also including four new stories for certain characters such as Makoto, Valkenhayn, Relius and Platinum. You can also find out the backstory from the previous game by selecting Calamity Trigger scenario which gives a recap of the first Blazblue game and you can also get the tips by selecting Teach Me Miss Litchi which gives you all information about the Blazblue universe.

Unlike the later Blazblue game such as Chrono Phastasma which divided the different story scenarios, you have to select any of these two decision choices during the story slideshow. If you picked the wrong ending then you will get advice from Professor Kokonoe to give you a helpful hint to get the right ending via Help Me Professor Kokonoe, while other choices will lead you to gags reels which has nothing to do with main storyplot of the game, but it does have some funny moments during the gag reel. Unfortunely the gag reels doesn't really help on the main story scenario because it causes confusion to understand the main plot of the game if the players picked the odd choices during the story presentation, so it should have been better if the gag reels are on separate scenarios just like how the Chono Phastasma have divided the original and non-original scenarios on story menu.

I really liked the main story of the game which is just sounds good as the first installiment and I also liked the FMV cutscenes with kickass anime style animation. The story presentation has magnificent visual novel slideshow design which looked amazing for most of the scenery backgrounds and character's design. I say the length of the story presentation are still bit overdone just like the Chrono Phastasma, but still there's options to skip the cutscenes if you still don't to watch the whole things. It has amazing rosters in the game like Ragna, Jin, Noel, Mokoto, Taokaka, Bang, and Litchi, while Terumi is still quite insane main villains in the series.

Overall, I did like the main story, characters, visual novel design and epic cutscenes.



Gameplay

This game still retains the traditional 2D fighting gameplay as the first game, but features balanced tweaks and improvements over the originals. On character select, you get to choose two variety of fighting style such as technical mode which are the standard gameplay controls with simple attack moves while the stylish mode are making the fighting mechanics more easier to perform more combo moves which makes the gameplay controls more accurate to play.

Your goal is to beat your opponent through each rounds until their life meter is completely down to win the match.
During the gameplay, players have life bar on top of the screen which tells the player how much life bar left remaining and you have special meter on bottom of the screen which tells the player how much level you have gained before performing the special moves. You have four basic attack buttons known as A, B, C and D, which performs weaker and stronger attacks and you can grab opponent by pressing B and C button together to perform grabbing attack. The player will also can block moves from the opponent's attack, but the barrier is more likely to get damage when the barrier bar turns red until it reaches empty, but it can also can regenerate back to full green bar slowly. The player can perform two different special moves such as distortion and astral, when the special meter reaches between half or full meter of levels, so using the distortion special moves will give higher damage attacks to the opponent, while astral performing an instant finishing moves to the opponent.

I believe the fighting style plays lot better than the first original game especially with PS Vita controls are much easier to play because it's highly designed for most of the PS Vita's fighting game titles making it feel more accessible and responsive. The hit detection has the great range of collisions which fixes the design of fighting gameplay and I also liked the variety of basic and special moves which worked really well. I really enjoyed playing different kinds of game modes such as story mode, arcade mode, versus mode featuring both local and online match, abyss mode, and unlimited mars mode because of the challenge difficulty and increasing player's experiences.

Overall, it has great fighting style, responsive controls, excellent special moves and enjoyable game modes.


Graphics

I really liked the anime art-style look of the game's presentation. The character's design is looking well drawn with impressive facial expressions and body language which really expressed the character's personality and it has really nice scenery choices on backgrounds, colourful details on whole scenes to make the visual novel looked marvellous for the game especially with epic FMV cutscenes animation. I also liked the look of the 3D backgrounds in gameplay stages are looked absolutely gorgeous with awesome special effects and the character's animations are looking spectacular in 2D gameplay battles.

This game runs really well on PS Vita system with no stuttering slow downs at all, so I'm very glad that the game developer teams have managed the PS Vita system well to show how amazing the 2D fighting game looked and it's just looked good as the console versions.


Overall, it has cool character's animations, stunning 3D backgrounds stages and spectacular anime art-style presentation.


Music and Sounds

It does have similar soundtrack as the originals, but still Daisuke Ishiwatari did a wonderful job with most of the music with mix between rock and metal genres for most of the character's theme, but it does also have really cherished orchestrated music on game's presentation to fits the mood of the story scenes. It does have impressive sound effects with more atmospheric backgrounds noise and cool hitting sounds effects. It still has the same voice cast for most of the characters, but still they did a professional job with their voice acting performances, but you can also change language between English and Japanese voices to see what fits the right for every characters in the game during the story sequences.

Overall it has excellent soundtrack, impressive sound effects and good voice cast in the game.


Special Features

The extend version are more of being definitive version of the original game itself because it featuring all completed characters, stages, games modes, and plenty more unlockable stuff on reward menu that the game has to offer. Some of the unlockables on reward menu are still quite overpriced, but you can still carry on playing some of the game mode to earn enough money to able unlock all the stuff in the reward menu.

Overall, it has all completed contents such as more playable characters, stages, games modes, and plenty more unlockable stuff on reward menu.


Advantages

Amazing presentation

Great gameplay

Spectacular graphics

Excellent music and sounds

Completed special features


Disadvantages

Gag reels may cause confusion on main plot of the game

Overdone story length

Overpriced unlockables on reward menu


Final Verdict


Presentation 7.5/10 - impressive main story, memorable characters, great visual novel design and epic cutscenes.

Gameplay 8/10 - great fighting style, responsive controls, excellent special moves and enjoyable game modes.

Graphics 8.5/10 - cool character's animations, stunning 3D backgrounds stages and spectacular anime art-style presentation.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - excellent soundtrack, impressive sound effects and good voice cast in the game.

Special Features 9/10 - more playable characters, stages, games modes, and plenty more unlockable stuff on reward menu.


Overall 8.5/10 - Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is a solid 2D fighting game for PS Vita. This game features great story development, cool character rosters, incredible game modes, unique fighting mechanics, steallar animations and badass soundtrack that made the game so entertaining to play. It's another impressive sequel that really shows the bit of improvements over the first Blazblue game, so if you're the fan of the series then this is definitely must pick up and play.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider PS4 Review

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a Action-Adventure Third Person Shooter game for PS4, XBONE, X360 and PC, which was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It is a sequel to 2013's reboot Tomb Raider.

The first reboot of Tomb Raider is quite a such ace game when I've played on my PS3 in three years ago. I've enjoyed the single-player campaign with amazing story presentation, well played combat gameplay, the game's atmospheres, darker tone, well designed graphics and it has great action that the game has to offer for Tomb Raider's fans. While I'm hoping to look forward to sequel, I'm kinda bummed to see Rise of the Tomb Raider being first released for XBONE and X360 in 2015 as timed exclusive which angered to most of the PS4 and PC owners who are hoping to look forward to play this game on their consoles until they finally released the PC version in January 2016 and of course the PS4 version in October 2016 as 20 Year Celebration edition. I've finally picked this game for PS4 from the game market store because it took me awhile to get the game since 3 months ago, so then I've started to play this game for a week and did I like the game? the answer is yes because it's another great sequel that won't be disappointed to all fans of the series. The game retains the same combat gameplay and updated graphics to keep the game refreshing, the story and characters in the game are still pretty remarkable as the previous game and of course the new campaign story Blood Ties are also pretty nice edition too.

So without go further do, lets start the review.


Presentation

The game takes place after the event of Tomb Raider 2013's reboot, it's starts off with a British archaeologist Lara Croft who appears to suffered with stress disorder after she's learned the past of her experience of the supernatural on Yamatai. She still works on her late father's research into lost city of Kitezh and decided to head at Syria to uncover the tomb of the Prophet of Constantinople until she was encountered by groups of Trinity. After shes managed to escape and discovers a symbol, she and her friend Jonah decided to head at Siberia in search of the legendary city of Kitezh.

The story in the game are quite impressive at the start of the game where Lara Croft talks about her horrible experience at Yamatai which gives a great recap from the previous game. The actual story in the game were magnificently surprising that the developer teams did a stunning job with the main storyplot, cinematic design of cutscene and adventurous sequences are very well done that helped increases the experience of Tomb Raider universe. I also wanted to point out to character Lara Croft's character development have started to get better than before since the 2013's reboot and honestly she's still a amazing female protagonist that makes the series so memorable over the decade. I also liked the side characters such as Jonah, Jacob and Sofia are also decent, while I finding the Konstantin are by far the weakest villain in the game except Ana is definitely better antagonist.

Overall, it has terrific storyline, adventurous cinematic design and awesome female protagonist, but lackluster male villain.


Gameplay

You take control of Lara Croft in open-world level where you have to complete the mission throughout the story.

The open-world area has different kinds of single player missions such as main quest, side-quest, and two new campaign such as Baba Yaga and Cold Darkness Awakened. Controlling Lara are pretty simple which she has ability to jump around each platforms, swims under the water, and climb on the obstacles by using the climbing tools such as pick axe which can be sticked on the wall while climbing and she can also climb up the trees and rooftops. She can also traverse between the camps and across the island using footpaths, ziplines and climbable tracks. You can highlight the objects by using the survival instincts which she can able to spot enemies, collectables and objects nearby. In combat gameplay, you will have four selectable weapons to choose such as pistols are balanced and simple to use, the rifles can be shot through far-distance, the shotguns are quite useful for close range combat, and the bows which you can able to craft four sets of arrows such as regular, poison, explosions and fires. You can use the melee attacks on the enemies by using the axe which allows player to instantly perform finishing kills on enemies. During the stealth gameplay, you can throw any of objects such as bottles or cans which can be used for distracting the enemies, but you can also craft these items to create the molotov cocktails and grenades and the player has advantage to hiding in bushes or trees to prevent getting caught by the enemies nearby, but try keeping eye on player's stealth status which tells you if the enemy sees you then it will indicate red symbols. Crafting items may requires the materials items such as cloth, animals skins and leaves which can be found on any level environments. You can also upgrade your weapons, gears and skills through base camps which helps improves Lara's overall abilities and you can also change her outfits too. Base camps are also part of the save points which saves your progress to continue where you left off and you can also travel through the different location by using the fast travel which is quickest way to travel through instead of continue running on the whole area.    

The gameplay plays and feels much like the previous game which is still pretty damn playable. Controlling the player is just played perfect especially with those combat mechanics has great shooting range, impressive stealth kills, amazing crafting systems, and useful upgrades. I still find the quick time events is just little bit better than the previous one, but still it wasn't sounds brilliant which are still impossible to hit the correct button. I really enjoyed the single player missions with tons of great epic actions, but it seems to be it's not having enough puzzle elements in the game which they would have nice to added more puzzle elements are the most important things for the franchise. I really liked the cool open-world environment seems to be very large area which are good for exploration such as discovering hidden secrets, collecting relics, hunting down animals, and there's lot of things to do in the game.

This game does have croft manor which has DLC story called Blood Ties which are also pretty fun to explore Lara's homeplace and there are one of the challenge mode to play such as Lara's Nightmare which you have to take down the groups of zombie-like horde and defeating skull-head boss, but it may not be challenge friendly which can also cause many of rage quit, but it's still plays okay.

Overall, it has great combat gameplay, cool open-world levels and epic missions.


Graphics

I honestly got to say that the graphics are pretty looked similar from the previous game, but they managed to update some of the improvements such as visual effects are slightly looked cleaner with great use of lighting and the environments has larger depth of open world area with deeper backgrounds from far-distance and some crispy textures details which they did a fabulous job to keep the game up to date. The animation is still pretty amazing to see how outstanding these characters looked on modern day consoles and it's running on rock-solid performance of 30fps with no shimmering issues and lag inputs that makes the PS4 version feels more superior which they have managed to fixed the problem that was found on Xbox One version, so the actual game looked spectacular when running on PS4 Pro consoles with stunning 4K resolution.

Overall, it has cleaner visuals, larger environments and amazing animations.


Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack is sounds frigging incredible that fits the tone of the game's presentations because it sounds very dark, but amazing at the same time that gives a feeling of the game's atmospheres. The sound effects has spectacular atmospheric backgrounds and intense noise coming from the sound of gun firing and boom explosion. The voice cast did a fantastic job on their character's role is just sounds good as the previous installiment.

Overall, it has incredible soundtrack, spectacular sounds and fantastic voice cast.


Special Features

This game comes with all completed content such as Blood Ties, Lara's Nightmares, new endurance mode co-op and includes all DLC for single player campaign. The PS4 version also comes with nice artbook style with brown video game case has Lara Croft's 20 Year Icon on the front and it also has really impressive artwork page to look at the art style of Lara Croft's fan-made images.

Overall, I loved the artbook cases and it has all completed features on PS4 version.


    

Advantages

Terrific story

Awesome female pragtonist

Great combat gameplay

Larger open-world area

Epic missions

Amazing graphics

Incredible soundtrack

Well made artbook cases


Disadvantages

Lackluster male villain

Weak QTE

Not enough puzzle elements


Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 - terrific storyline, adventurous cinematic design and awesome female protagonist, but lackluster male villain.

Gameplay 9/10 - great combat gameplay, cool open-world levels and epic missions.

Graphics 9/10 - cleaner visuals, larger environments and amazing animations.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - incredible soundtrack, spectacular sounds and fantastic voice cast.

Special Features 9/10 - impressive artbook cases and  all completed features on PS4 version.


Overall 9/10 - Rise of the Tomb Raider is another great sequel especially with PS4 version are far more superior than the Xbox One has to offer. This game definitely lives up with the fans of the beloved franchises with great combat mechanics, superb missions, larger open-world area to explore, all completed content and of course the incredible story and female protagonist that made the game such legendary which is worth to pick this game up and enjoy the Lara Croft's adventures.

My second opinion is that I still liked this sequel, but I prefer 2013's reboot a lot better.  


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Yakuza 0 PS4 Review

Yakuza 0 is a Action-Adventure game for PS4 and PS3 (Japanese release), was developed and published by SEGA. It is prequel to original 2005's Yakuza for PS2.

Five years ago, I remember playing both Yakuza 3 and 4 for my PS3, and I was really surprised with these games overall because I loved the combat style gameplay where you have to beat the shit out of these guys, I loved the open-world area where you can explore the different places in the city, and of course the story presentation has well written main-plot and badass cast of characters that made the series so amazing to watch and play at the same time. After liking these two games, I'm hoping to look forward the sequels such as Yakuza 5 for PS3, but unfortunately I never had a chance to purchase the game due to lack of physical copy for worldwide release and my limited PS3's hard drive space, which is quite a shame for people like me who prefers physical game disk over the digital download copy from the PS Store. Despite not being able to play Yakuza 5, I'm able to pick up Yakuza 0 for my PS4, which I am happy that I get to play another game in the series since 5 years ago.

My overall impressions on this game is that Yakuza 0 are by far not the only best game in the series, but it's another fantastic game titles of PS4 library that the western audiences should able to enjoy the story driven action-adventure genres with outstanding main plot, great characters development, cinematic design, intense combat gameplay, more variety of exploration, realistic graphic design, and it has more to offer that made this game worth to play for your collection. However, the game itself are pretty super long because it focuses on slower-paced story which helps giving the player a fresh start to the series. So far, it took me awhile to finish the game in one to two weeks and it's turns out that I really enjoyed the game as much I've enjoyed Yakuza 3 and 4.

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



Presentation

This game splits with two different main plot between the main protagonist in the game. The event takes place in December 1988 in Kamurocho, the story starts with Kazuma Kiryu, who works with Dojima's family of Tojo Clan as debt collector, was being framed for murdering a innocent civilian as he leaves the business to investigate and search a true killer before his family is forced to take responsibility on his behalf, while other events takes place in Sōtenbori, which focuses on Goro Majima, who runs a cabaret club as the founder, was offered by Sagawa to accept the assassination job until he realises his target is in fact a defenseless blind girl named Mokoto Makimura, which he decides to protect her instead and find out why she's being targeted.

I say the presentation in the whole game is quite well done because the story was well-written which explains the innocence of Kiryu showing that he wasn't involved with the crime scene incident as he searches the killer nearby before they turning his family against him, which makes the Kiryu's main story more interesting with tons of mysteries plot and has tone of dark suspense. I also liked the Goro's main story that explains the refusal of assassinating blind girl and finding out why Sagawa wanted to kill her for reason, which is quite a plot-twist going around in the story.

I say the cast of characters are quite impressive such as Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima are two of the greatest protagonists that has proper personality, more appealing look and being the most badass brawler in the series that kick the crap of the Yakuzas. I also liked the rest of the side characters in the story such as Akira Nishikiyama are quite a decent character that shows how much he cares Kiryu a lot to keep him away from getting involved with bunch of Yakuzas and Mokoto Makimura is just a very sweet emotional girl that really shows how much she needs a support due to her blindness. I also wanted to point out this game does have a impressive sub-plot that really adds the scenario of the game which is pretty good, but if you want to focus more on the main plot of the game then it's best to stick with story missions rather than doing side-missions on single player campaign.

I really liked the cinematic design of cutscenes with realistic captures of character model as you can see they did a great job with lip syncing that really matched the speech well and it feels much like a human the way the character moves in the scenes. I also liked the use of cinematic style between actual CGI and slideshow text which they did a such professional job on this game. I also loved the action sequences of the game with fully action packed Yakuza style movie.

Overall, I loved the outstanding main stories, excellent characters and well made cinematic design that puts the presentation overall step up in right direction by game developer teams.



Gameplay

You take control of two of the playable characters such as Kiryu and Goro, depending the story chapters. In open-world area where you can explore the city of Kamurocho or Sotenbori, your goal is to complete the mission throughout the story scenario which can be marked with the pink symbols on the map screen.

You may be encountered by groups of Yakuzas which you are being forced to fight them during the battle gameplay. In battle gameplay, you'll start with three basic moves such as weak attack, strong attack and grabbing, while you have the health bar and heat power bar at the top-left corner which representing character's health and heat. The weak attack are pretty much quicker to attack enemies, while the strong attack can also give bit of damage. The grabbing can allow you to grab the opponent which lets you smash them into the objects if the heat power are fully increased and there are some different kinds of weapons to pick-up such as katana-swords, pistols, bins, bicycles, crates and more of them are very useful during the combat gameplay. You have three sets of fighting styles such as brawler which is more balanced fighting styles, the rush or breaker is pretty much more fast-paced figthing style which is quite good for performing faster combo moves, and the beast or slugger is pretty slow but more powerful fighting style with brutal fighting moves can give more heavy damage to the enemies. You can unlock the new moves in each three fighting style sets through the abilities options which allowing you to perform more variety of fighting moves. The battle gameplay does also sometime involves quick time event is where you have to hit the right button which can be appeared on the screen. You can also earn completion points by beating the challenge which you can spend these CP points to the shrine area which gives you ability to run longer, gather more money from enemies, and more useful CP unlockables.      

Besides the story mission, you can also do the side-missions depending on which area you went on. You can visit any places in the city such as convenience store where you can purchase the variety of items and the restaurant or fast food is the place you can enjoy eating the amount of food and drinks which helps increases the character's health and heat power. You can also enjoy your free time by visiting places like SEGA arcades which lets you play your favourite arcade classics such as Space Harrier, Outrun, Super Hang-On and Fantasy Zone which is quite awesome to have it on this game. You can also play different kinds of mini-game like Karaoke, Pool, Darts, Bowling and some more which can be found in different places in map area. You can earn more money by doing the business at Real Estate Royale is where you can buy properties and hiring staff which helps the player increases the amount of money. You can also take part of working at Cabaret Club is where you have to help groups of hostess to purchase the new clothes, make-ups and accessories to help impressing the customers. You can also visit at the women fighting clubs is where you can place bet on group of female fighters to win the prizes.

I really liked the battle gameplay a lot better than the previous game because it's adds the improvements of fighting style that keeps the game up to date. I also liked the insane finishing moves where the enemies gets ass beaten with weapons, objects and barefists is quite brutal to see them bleed to death. The things that I did not like in the game is the price cost of new moves is ridiculously expensive which is over 300,000,000 Yen, Yikes! that's quite too much to spend. I also liked the overall open-world gameplay where you can visit and explore at the same time. Controlling the characters in both battles and open-world gameplay worked really well in the game without having any issues. My favourite part of the game was the driving rail-shooter mission is where you have to shoot down the enemies which kinda reminds me of SEGA's early shoot em ups classics such as Virtua Cop. I really enjoyed playing as these two characters with fantastic story missions in each chapters which adds the Yakuza's overall experience.

Overall, it has better combat gameplay, magnificent open-world area, great exploration, entertaining missions and enjoyable mini-games.



Graphics

The graphics are looking spectacular in whole game because I really liked the realistic characters design which looked amazing in story cutscenes and in-game battles. It has impressive facial expressions which shows their overall personality and their body figure feels more human like which they did a outstanding job in whole game. The open world area seems to be same size as the previous game, but still it has two cities to explore which feels like they wanted to expand more levels to discover new things in the game. I really liked the details on the buildings with stunning textures, it has great use of backgrounds areas with no slow downs pop-ups at far-distances and it has numerous of crowded people in whole cities. The game is quite bloody during the both battles and cutscenes which they did a good job with the gory effects seems to be real and crude looking things.

Overall, it has realistic characters, stunning textures, great backgrounds and bloody amazing gory effects.



Music and Sounds

This game has fantastic original soundtrack by various of Japanese composers did absolutely great job with these musics that fits well for both presentations and in-game battles which adds the game's mood and atmospheres. The sound effects are quite well made with city background sounds and in-game sound works. I had to admit the Japanese voice cast did a perfect job with their characters with fitting voices that adds the right tones of chraracter's voices. The game speaks in original Japanese languages but offered with English subtitles which helps the western audiences to understand the storyline of the game.

Overall, this game has fantastic music, well made sound effects and perfect voice cast.


Special Features

This game has new game plus with cleared data which adds the replay values, the platinum adventures mode allows player freely walk around the city without focusing on story, it has 2-player local mini-game mode which contains Karaoke, Pool, Darts and Bowling, while online mini-game has Poker and board game to play. It has climax battles mode where you have to fight the enemies to complete the challenge. This game has 4 classics SEGA's arcades at the SEGA Club Arcade such as Space Harrier, Outrun, Super Hang-On and Fantasy Zone. This game also have trophy achievements and leaderboards.

Overall, it's a great edition to the game's content.


Advantages

Outstanding main story

Memorable characters

Amazing battle gameplay

Great open-world exploration

Stunning graphics

Fantastic music

Perfect voice acting

Impressive special features


Disadvantages

Unlockable new moves are ridiculously expensive

Each chapters are quite bit long


Final Verdict

Presentation 9/10 - Outstanding main stories, excellent characters and well made cinematic design.

Gameplay 9/10 - Better combat gameplay, magnificent open-world area, great exploration, entertaining missions and enjoyable mini-games.

Graphics 9/10 - Realistic characters, stunning textures, great backgrounds and bloody amazing gory effects.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - Fantastic music, well made sound effects and perfect voice cast

Special Features 10/10 - New game plus, mini-games, climax battles mode, SEGA arcade classics, achievements and leaderboards.


Overall 9/10 - It's a awesome prequel that gives a player new freshstart of a series. Yakuza 0 is amazing titles for PS4 owners and fan of the series should able to experience with Yakuza's universe. With outstanding presentation, great exploration, and amazing battle gameplay that adds the game's overall and it is definitely must own game for your PS4 collection. I'm still hoping to look forward to see Yakuza Kiwami for PS4, a remake of first game, coming out on the end of August.


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Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy PS4 Review

History of Crash Bandicoot franchises:

In year 1996, Crash Bandicoot made a first debut for PS1, which was originally developed by Naughty Dog. It is a 3D platformer game where you take control of mascot hero named Crash Bandicoot has his mission to stop the evil scientist named Dr. Cortex from taking over world and rescue his girlfriend named Tawna. This game was best known for soild gameplay, unique levels, impressive visuals style, great presentation and of course the main protagonist. It was well received by most of the video game critics and had becoming the PS1's eighth best-selling game sold over 6.8 million copies.

The success of the first game has spawned with the sequels such as Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes back, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, and of course the spin-offs such as Crash Team Racing. During the year 2000's, SCE and Naughty Dog has sold the rights of Crash Bandicoot franchises to Vivendi Universal and letting developers Traveller's Tales takes charge of developing Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity for multiplatform consoles was released in between 2001 and 2004, while 2007's Crash of the Titans was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment, and then the last game in the main series was Crash: Mind over Mutant was published by Activision in 2008.

In year 2016, Sony's E3 Press Conference has finally announced that the HD remaster of classic Crash Bandicoot will be released for PS4 as Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy will include original first three games in Crash Bandicoot series running on high-definition 4K resolution, remastered audio and cutscenes, and newly recorded dialogue from past voice actors from the franchise.



Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy PS4 Review:


Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy is a 3D platform game for PS4, which was developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision. It is a HD remastered and video game compilation of first three titles in Crash Bandicoot series, which were all originally developed by Naughty Dog for PS1 in the 1990s.

Back in my old days when I was younger, I haven't played any of Crash Bandicoot titles because I was busy with playing popular platform games like Mario, Sonic, Rayman, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker, but I heard lot of positive things about Crash Bandicoot series because my old friend from school, who had PS1, told me about the game was really entertaining and fun to play. Then now in 2017, I have finally get to play these classic Crash Bandicoot games on my PS4 and I've been played it for a weeks. These are the best video game compilation for PS4 owners should be able to enjoy incredible 3D platform game because these are very faithful to Naughty Dog's original trilogy due to upgraded HD visuals, remastered presentation and sounds, and of course originals classic style gameplay that makes these game worth owning it for the fans of the platformers genres.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

After the beginning of the game's logo, I really liked the scene of polygoned character Crash Bandicoot threw the wooden boxes and jumps into the upgradable machines that turns him into freshed-new looking character, wow he looks fantastic in his remastered appearences.

Then you will have 3 selectable games to play on the main menu, which are nicely done.

These games takes place in fictitious Wumpa Islands, South Australia. In first game, the story starts off with evil scientist named Dr. Cortex and his assistant Dr. Nitrus Brio experimenting the new device Evolvo-Ray which are used to mutate most of the animals into beasts with superhuman strength, so they also experimenting on Crash with untested Cortex Vortex until it rejected allowing Crash attempt to escape, while Crash's girlfriend Tawna, who attempting to save Crash, got captured in Cortex's castle. Crash has the mission to stop Dr. Cortex's plans and rescue Tawna.

In second game, it takes place the event after the first game, Dr. Cortex falls towards to lair of dark caverns and discovers glowing crystals as he takes the crystals to his laboratory to examine it. One year later, Crash was living with his sister named Coco as she forces him to get her new battery for her laptop until he abducted by Dr. Cortex instructing him to bring a crystals, while Coco who is suspicious of Cortex's true intentions.

In third game, Dr. Cortex's space station was destroyed by laser beam device and demolished into tropical mountain which causes evil masked Uka Uka, who is Cortex's mastermind, to set free and confront Dr. Cortex's failure to retrieved the crystals and gems. While Uka Uka recruits Doctor Nefarious Tropy to join him and Cortex in their latest plan, they decided to create a time machine that allows the villains to travel through time to find more gems and crystals scattered across the timeline. Meanwhile at the Bandicoot homeland, Aku Aku senses his evil twin brother Uka Uka's dangerous plans and orders Crash and Coco to prevent them from collecting crystals before it's too late.  

I got to say that I really liked the story overall because it's very simplistic and easy to follow the dialogue plot in the game. I also liked the design of the cutscenes are completely re-done giving a cinematic look of the game that fits well on the HD remastered version. The various of the characters are very memorable in the game such as Crash Bandicoot is quite a cool video game protagonist with his awesome personality and his rad appearance, while Dr. Cortex considered to be impressive villain in the series with is sinister plans and comedic humour that made him entertaining. I really liked the level presentation that takes place in different set of locations such as Jungle, Beach, Ruins, Mountains and many more interesting places. Crash Bandicoot has the funniest death animations in the whole game after being attacked by enemies and obstacles or falling of the stages are the best part of the in-game's presentation.

Overall, it has great storyline, cinematic cutscenes, hilarious death animation, memorable characters and excellent level presentation.


Gameplay

You take control of Crash Bandicoot to complete the stages from start to finish which is more like of the linear 3D platform game. Crash has his abilty to jump and spin-attack in first game, while in later game like Cortex Strikes Back allows you to perform slide attack and body slam, which are used for attacking enemies, smashing crates and collect items can be found on the crates such as wumpa fruits, extra lives and protective Aku Aku masks which protect Crash from one single hit from enemy and obstacle. Collecting 100 of wumpa fruits will also gained you extra lives.  There are some different types of crates such as letter C for checkpoint that lets the player resumes the level after losing life, arrow crates which makes Crash bounces on, and the TNT crates makes the things explodes, but the Nitro crates are quite deadly which makes instant kill to Crash, so be careful. You will able to earn the gems by destroying all the crates without dying, so it can be found on hidden levels or alternatives routes. You can also find bonus stages which can be appeared as question mark sign in each stages. You can also earn relic by beating the time limit from time attack mode which can be available after beating each stages. In later game like Warped, you can also earn Crash's new ability by defeating boss, so you can perform any of his ability such as longer spinning attacks, bazooka, double jump and dash which is quite nice edition for later Crash's sequel. These game does shares with great mini game action such as ride stages where you ride with hog, bear and tiger to avoid obstacles, race to finish at motorbike stages, fight out with planes at dogfight stages and of course Coco's jet-ski stages that made the game quite entertaining. You also get to play as Coco for each games which sounds pretty cool to see any playable characters in whole three games.

I got to say the gameplay plays really great with these 3 games because the controlling Crash is pretty playable with left thumbstick are highly recommended for 3D platform game style to make it easier to control, while using d-pad are actually used for someone who preferred the classic style PS1 controls. It's takes awhile to practice the game because sometime Crash may have floaty jump which causes sometime to fall of the stages or accidentally being touched by enemies or obstacles. Despite the levels design are quite well done, some of the stages may have a dodgy hazards objects which causing players to struggle to get past through the level, but practice makes better once you get used with these levels. I really liked the boss battles on each games because each of the boss characters are quite balanced and challenged at the same time. My favourite part of the game is the stage where you have to evade from the rolling boulder is quite epic. I felt that I liked the Crash Bandicoot: Warped a lot better because this game offers new variation of Crash's abilities making it easier to play and it has better level stages, boss battles and motorbike mini-game which makes the game even better in comparison to first two games which are also a great game, but I felt the first game considered to be hardest in the series. I got to say that revisiting same levels from previous are quite useful for collecting relics and gems will adds the replay values of the game which is fantastic for 3D platformers genres.

Overall, It has great gameplay, well done stages, entertaining boss battles, enjoyable mini-games and nice replay values.


Graphics

I got to say that the games developer did a stunning job with these three games with upgraded visuals runs on 1080p (regular PS4 or PS4 slim) to 4K resolution (PS4 Pro model), stellar animation for character design and the level environment has magnificent setting for most of the level locations that fits the theme of the game. It gives a cartoony style of the game that made it more appealing and faithful to classic PS1 trilogy. I also liked the special effects of lighting and contrast in each levels such as the stage is where you have to use fireflies to glow in dark, the beach stage has well made sea water and the snow stage was covered with snow and outstanding icy particles inside the cave.

Overall, it has nice visuals, stellar animation, magnificent environment, and outstanding special effects.


Music and Sounds

I got to admit the original theme song sounds very catchy and memorable with jazz-style soundtrack which fits really well for Crash Bandicoot series, while rest of the soundtrack in all levels sounds really great too. It was originally composed by Josh Mancell from the original PS1 trilogy, while it was was arranged by Vicarious Visions audio team did a perfect job for the N.Sane Trilogy. It has superb sound effects with cartoony style soundworks, atmospheric noises for each stages and of course the voice cast did a amazing job voicing their characters which are completely re-done with newly dialogue from the past actors who originally did their voice from the franchise.

Overall, it has fantastic theme songs, superb sound effects and amazing voice cast for their characters.


Special Features

This game features some replay values such as revisiting same levels for collecting more relics in time attack mode and more gems when destroying all the crates. It features one playable character for all 3 games such as Coco and trophy achievements. It also including additional features for all 3 three games such as unified checkpoints, pause menus and save systems, including both manual and automatic saving, which were first introduced in Warped.



Advantages

Impressive presentation

Memorable characters

Great gameplay

Epic boss battles

Enjoyable mini-games

Stunning graphics

Catchy music

Amazing voice acting

Nice replay values


Disadvantages

Dodgy hazard objects

Floaty Jump


Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 - Great storyline, cinematic cutscenes, hilarious death animation, memorable characters and excellent level presentation.

Gameplay 9/10 - Great gameplay, well done stages, entertaining boss battles, enjoyable mini-games and nice replay values.

Graphics 9.5/10 - Nice visuals, stellar animation, magnificent environment, and outstanding special effects.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - Fantastic theme songs, superb sound effects and amazing voice cast for their characters

Special Features 9/10 - Replay values, one playable character, trophy achievements and more additional features.


Overall 9/10 - Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy is a fantastic video game compilations for all platformers fans should able to enjoy these 3 awesome games from the past. I'm very glad that Vicarious Visions did a wonderful job of remastering these 3 originals trilogy has finally come to PS4 consoles. This is definitely must own game for PS4 owners and I'm still hoping for the developer teams will able to give Spyro The Dragon a PS4 remaster treatment for the future. Overall, Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy are by far the best 3D platformer game for my PS4 collection in my opinion.


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Top 5 SEGA Saturn Games

SEGA Saturn is a 32-bit game console for fifth generation era was released in year 1994. It was a successor to one of the SEGA's most amazing 16-bit machine called SEGA Megadrive/Genesis and it was a rivalry to their competitors such as Nintendo 64 and of course SONY Playstation that hits the market in mid-90's. Unfortunately Saturn did not sold well in western release because both N64 and PS1 are the biggest top-dog of the fifth generation era that offers amazing games titles, innovative controllers and groundbreaking graphics that defines the 3D gaming, but the Saturn was best known for most of the games genres like fighting game, racing game, shoot em ups and RPG. It has impressive list of games library such as Panzer Dragoon, Nights into Dreams, Manx TT Superbike, Virtua Cop, Street Fighter Alpha and more great games to play.

I really enjoyed playing SEGA Saturn games that brings me so much nostalgia in my 90's days and it has the incredible gaming accessories for the system such as Saturn's light gun and racing wheels are perfectly best for the arcade games. I decided to make my top 5 favourite SEGA Saturn games of all time and please enjoy my recent top 5 list.



5 - SEGA Rally Championship

 

I was really amazed to see one of the SEGA's best racing game of all time hits the home console itself. SEGA Sports team did really show off the powerhouse of the Saturn's game system to see how SEGA Saturn was capable of running the arcade perfect port. SEGA Rally Championship is a rally racing game for the Saturn which offers the new content for the system such as time attack mode and 2-player mode. It has 2 playable cars and 3 track course to complete the championship mode.

This game plays very well with ether 6-button controller or racing wheels featuring excellent driving controls and great driving range of speed that made this game absolutely fun to play. The graphics are just almost good as the arcade version and it has really kick ass soundtrack that keeps the player motivated. If you want to play the best racing game on the system then this game is for you to play.


4 - Virtua Cop 2

     

Virtua Cop 2 is the remarkable light gun shooter that plays lot better than the originals. You get to play as 3 police offers has their mission to wipe down the group of thugs was led by criminal gang leaders. I was really surprising to see any of the light gun games came out on the home console bundled with the light gun controller was highly designed for playing light gun games on the TV. It worked really well with the CRT TV (except HDTV) giving a retro vibe to the game.

It has 3 playable stages to play on arcade mode and featuring combat training simulator known as proving grounds where the players has to take down groups of thugs. This game has excellent selection of weapons, more action sequences, amazing variety of stages, epic boss battles and of course you can also enjoy with your friends with 2-player co-op mode which makes the game even more fun. If you're the fan of the light gun shooter genre then this game is definitely must play for Saturn owners.



3 - Virtua Fighter 2

One of the sequel to grandfather of 3D fighting game was released on home console. Virtua Fighter 2 was considered to be one of the best-selling game on the Saturn which helped boost the hardware sales. This game featuring 2 new playable roster along with returning characters from the originals, more variation of fighting styles making it easier to play and upgraded visuals runs on 60 FPS which really improves the game's overall over the first Virtua Fighter.

This game has basic arcade mode, battle out your friends with local 2-player battle, complete with time attack mode and practice your moves through training mode. The fighting controls are very simplistic for 3D fighting game genre and the groundbreaking graphics adds the realism to the animation and stages without any of slowdown issues which turns out the Virtua Fighter 2 has becoming another arcade perfection to Saturn's hardware. This is must play for fighting games fans.


2 -  Nights into Dreams

 
If we didn't get any of proper Sonic games for Saturn then what is the solution? here is the Nights into Dreams which was created by same team behind Sonic the Hedgehog franchises.
It's a quite shame for Saturn owners didn't get a proper 3D Sonic game like Sonic Xtreme was already cancelled in mid-90's instead they end up with two pointless Sonic games like Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R which SEGA fans was never asked for, but at least Nights into Dreams is rather being a fantastic action-platformer games for the Saturn's systems.

Nights into Dreams takes place in dream world called Nightopia, the story follows two teens, Claris and Elliot who enters to dream world with the help of Jester-like named Nights, so they begin a journey to stop the evil ruler Wizeman from destroying Nightopia. This game features beautifully made presentation with stunning cinematic cutscenes and great storyplot.

You take control of Nights in 3D stages and imposes time limits on every level, so your goal is to collect and recover the stolen ideyas. It splits into different 7 levels depending on between two playable characters such as Claris and Elliot. This game offers unique 3D stages with atmospheric levels design and really weird boss battles are worth for the challenge. It plays well with not just with 6-button controller, but 3D Saturn controller are highly designed for most of the 3D game genres giving it more precised gameplay controls to make it easier to play. The graphics are very colourful and more vibrant looking visuals that made the game look gorgeous. The soundtrack is absolutely well done that fits the feeling of the game's presentation and gameplay stages. Nights into Dreams are very sweet action-platformer game for Saturn owners to enjoy the magical experience of Nights universe.



1 - Panzer Dragoon 2: Zwei

Panzer Dragoon 2: Zwei is a rail-Shooter game for Saturn and it is sequel to original Panzer Dragoon.

Most of the video game developers had difficult time to develop 3D games for Saturn due to hardware limitations, but this game proves that Team Andromeda can manage to make really outstanding 3D rail-shooter game which definitely shows the Saturn's powerhouse that pushes the hardware limit allowing to have magnificent results of overall 3D graphics technology.

This game takes control of Jean-Luc Lundi with his dragon Lagi has his mission to battle out against Sestren to prevent them destroying villages. The game is quite simular with other rail-shooters game like Nintendo's Starfox series, but this game features 7 levels in single player mode. It offers amazing variation of combat gameplay such as faster shooting laser, lock-on target allows shooting in multiple targets in row and berserk special which shoots multiple lasers are the coolest thing in the game and I believe it plays lot easier than the first Panzer Dragoon has to offer. I really liked the atmosphere of level stages are perfectly well designed and gorgeous looking environment. The music in the game is absolutely sounds masterpiece being the most quality CD soundtrack for Saturn's library.

This is one of the best SEGA Saturn games ever created and it is one of my top favourite Saturn of all time. This is must own game for Saturn owners which this game had becoming quite expensive to purchase on online store, but lucky I had this game for worth £15 from Ebay.


Honorable Mentions:

Virtua Cop
SEGA Worldwide Soccer
Manx TT Superbike
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Athlete Kings
Last Bronx
Panzer Dragoon
Marvel Superheroes
Saturn Bomberman
Guardian Heroes
Burning Rangers



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Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit PS3 Review

Back in my childhood days, I remember watching many of awesome anime TV shows, such as Gundam Wing, Ultimate Muscle, Rave Master and Beyblade, when I was kid. One of the show that caught my attention was Dragon Ball Z is a anime TV show which was based on manga by Akira Toriyama and it was sequel to original Dragon Ball. It was first shown at Japan in 80's then it was later released at worldwide in between mid 90's and early 2000's. It was one of the best and most popular anime franchises that blew our mind because it has tons of badass characters, amazing animation style, aggressive fight battles, incredible storyplot and of course Vegeta's best lines ("IT'S OVER 9000" ) that made the series so memorable. The success of the franchise spawns many of merchandise including movies and video games.

The video game series does shares with different kinds of game genres such as Action-Adventure, RPG/Card-Based and Fighting. I'm more interested playing in fighting game genres for Dragon ball franchise, so I decided to pick up Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit for my PS3. Okay then, let's head back to review the game.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is a Fighting game for PS3 and X360 was developed by Dimps and published by Bandai (Now called Namco Bandai Games) in JP/EU release or Atari in US release.

I had to admit this game are actually played a lot better than later Dragon Ball games such as Raging blast and Battle of Z. I really enjoyed the fighting style of gameplay which is pretty simple to use and I loved the visuals of characters and environments looked really amazing in whole game. It has three sagas based on anime shows for story mode, 2-player local or online and unlockables features in the game. There are some few mistakes in the game such as unskippable in-game cutscene and lack of backstory in comparison with original anime TV version.

So without go further do, lets start the review.


Presentation

This game follows the three sagas from Dragon Ball Z story. Saiyan saga was based on season 1 of Dragon Ball Z which focuses on Goku's adventures, while season 3 focuses on Frieza saga and season 6 focuses on Cell games saga.

This game does have really cool opening cutscenes at the start, but when starting the story mode it did not mention the story backgrounds from the original anime show. It would have been nice to include the backstory from the originals to know the introduction of the story, but the rest of the storyplot in the game are still quite decent. I really liked the rest of the characters from the show such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Cell, and Frieza are still amazing in the game. I loved the in-game stages which has dark and gritty looking places, while others can be posh and colourful that fits the atmospheres of the presentation. I gotta love the look of fighting sequences during the mash button QTE. The part that I did not like is the in-game cutscenes are unskippable after using the drama pieces which is kinda annoying because it's makes you wait longer while you tried to skip the in-game cutscene that is not needed during the battle.

Overall, this game could have been add the backstory and option to skip the in-game cutscene, but still has decent storyplot, badass characters, stage presentation and fighting sequences.


Gameplay

This game has single player story mode called Z chronicles which has over 50 chapters to complete. It also has 2-player modes which you can battle out against opponent through local or online battle, the survival mode where players must fight a wave of opponents until the life bar runs out, the Time Attack Mode, where the player must defeat opponents before a certain amount of time runs out, and the Battle Points Mode, where players must earn battle points in battle. You can also learn moves through trial mode which teaches you how to play the game and practice your moves through training mode.

The fighting gameplay is displayed on 2-D format. It has both character's health bars on top of the screen, while available drama pieces icon are below the health bars. The Ki bars on the bottom of the screen are used for performing special attacks and transformations. The players must take control and battle one of the characters from the Dragon Ball Z series.

The players will have three different attacks. One is rush attack which is quickest moves, while smash attack performs stronger damage attack and Ki attacks are used for shooting blast at the opponent, but you can also hold it down to perform powerful attacks. You can perform different kinds of moves such as super attacks which is stronger Ki moves and the ultimate attacks is even more powerful moves which gives a heaver damage to the opponent. When your Ki gauge is filled up your characters has ability to use transformations allowing characters to transform into powerful form (e.g Goku transformed into Super Saiyan) which increases their abilities. Using aura sparks allowing your characters to use teleport as evade attack moves and ultimate move attack as finishing moves. There are different types of drama pieces such as assist attack which allowing your partner to attack your opponent, the health recovery which increases your health bar and the defence which helps reducing your damages from your opponent.

I say the gameplay plays decently well for the whole game. It is quite simple to use which I finding the fighting style are managed well for the fighting game genres. I really liked the variety of moves where you can perform amazing heavy attacks, really cool Ki moves, and using the transformations and aura sparks are worked really well for in-game battle. The drama pieces are sounds useful, but as I mentioned on presentation part you cannot skip the in-game cutscene after using drama pieces which kinda slows down the battle gameplay, but still it's playable. My favourite part of the game is the fighting sequences where you had to mash the buttons sounds really cool. I really enjoyed the Z chronicles mode with three sagas to experience the Dragon Ball Z universe and I finding the trial mode is seems to be lot easier than most of the fighting games titles. You can also enjoy different kinds of modes such as 2-player battle mode, survival modes, time attack modes and battle points mode which makes the game enjoyable to play.

Overall, I really liked the fighting style controls and excellent game modes.


Graphics

I really liked the 3-D anime style animation which has a same charm as the original anime TV show. The character's design are well detailed and looked more appealing that fits well for their characters appearances. It has stunning level design with colourful environments and gorgeous background settings that looked really incredible for whole stages, and I also liked the visuals effects of dragon ball blast is friggin kick ass.

It actually improves the overall graphics over the previous Dragon Ball Z fighting games which I felt amazed to see any of modern fighting games with quality looking graphics.                        

Overall, I loved the animation, characters, levels and visuals.


Music and Sounds

I got to admit the opening theme song are very catchy with J-Rock style. It has two different versions of theme song such as "Kiseki no Honō yo Moeagare!" and its English counterpart "Fight it Out" were written by Yuriko Mori and Kanon Yamamoto, and was performed by J-Rock singer Hironobu Kageyama, while the composer Kenji Yamamoto did a original soundtrack for this game. I really liked the overall soundtrack because most of the anime shows has the best Japanese theme music.

It has wicked sound effects of the game with well made atmospheric sounds from the original anime show. I also loved the voice acting for most of the characters in both Japanese and English dialogue which is sounds faithful to original.

Overall, it has wonderful soundtrack, wicked sound effects and great voice cast.


Special Features

This game features unlockable characters, stages and modes without requiring DLC which is sounds awesome that all completed content is fully on disk. It did not have trophy support in comparison with X360 version did have the achievements, so it's kinda shame for PS3 players. You can also learn new moves by beating the each chapters of sagas which is nice.

Overall, it has unlockables stuff, but it would have been nice to include trophy support for PS3 version.


Advantages

Decent presentation

Excellent game modes

Impressive gameplay

Excellent graphics

Wonderful soundtrack

Unlockables content


Disadvantages

Unskippable in-game cutscenes after using drama pieces

Lack of backstory compared with original anime version

Lack of trophy support


Final Verdict


Presentation 7/10 - Decent storyplot, badass characters, stage presentation and fighting sequences.

Gameplay 7.5/10 - Impressive fighting style controls and excellent game modes.

Graphics 8/10 - Excellent animation, characters, levels and visuals.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - Wonderful soundtrack, wicked sound effects and great voice cast.

Special Features 7/10 - Unlockables!!!


Overall 7.5/10 - It is not by far one of the best fighting game of all time, it is one of the impressive fighting game in the series. Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is one and the only decent DBZ game for seventh generation consoles, unlike the games like Raging Blast and Battle of Z are definitely not good as this game has come to offer. If you're the biggest fans of the DBZ games or someone who's been looking for a quality fighting game then this game is worth buying for your collection.

In my second opinion, I'm definitely gonna try playing another DBZ games like Xenoverse 2 for my PS4, but I'm definitely look forward to see upcoming DBZ game called Dragon Ball Fighter Z in 2018 release.

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Top 5 Must play PSP games for PS Vita owners

Playstation Portable is one of the Sony's most impressive handheld devices was released in year between 2004 and 2005. It was sold over 82 million worldwide and it shares tons of amazing game titles to play, but Sony decided to released their PSP's successor called PS Vita which was released in year between 2011 and 2012. Despite the poor sales of PS Vita that didn't do well on handheld gaming market it does offers some of the amazing titles to play and some great features such as touchscreen/rear touchpad, dual sticks and remote play.

I'm very glad that I have PS Vita for 5 years because I've enjoyed playing some of PS Vita games and of course downloadable PSP games. It's a shame that the physical PSP games aren't backwards compatible with the PS Vita due to lack of UMD format, but instead you have to purchase the PSP games library from PS Store which is not a bad thing because you may be lucky to buy these for cheaper sales.

There are some of the PSP games that PS Vita owners should be able to enjoy these awesome titles and I'm going to make my top 5 must play PSP games for PS Vita owners. This is for the PS Vita owners who did not own the original PSP, but they should able to download it from PS Store and play on their PS Vita system, so please enjoy this top 5.    



5 - Resistance: Retribution

 

















Resistance are one of the fantastic FPS series by Insomniac Games (same developers team behind Ratchet and Clank series). This game is a spin-offs to main series and unlike rest of the games are First-Person Shooter this game is a Third-Person Shooter where you take control of British Royal Marine named Lieutenant James Grayson has his mission to wipe down the Chimera invasion.

This game features impressive cover-based gameplay mechanics with easier to control aiming system which works well for the TPS style and it has excellent selection of combat weapons with great shooting range. It has epic single player campaign with fantastic storylines and characters that made the presentation sounds interesting for the series. This game also features 8-player online matches with modes such as Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Containment, Free For All and Assimilation.

This game is definitely worth playing for most of the PS Vita owners should able to purchase from PS Store.


4 - Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny

 

Soul series were very known for being one of the best 3D weapon-based fighting games in history.
Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny is definitely the quality game for PSP to show how amazing this game looks on PSP standards due to technically impressive visuals and animation. Despite the game has missing the proper story presentation and online versus modes this game features quick match modes where the players are given the list of A.I players to choose which opponent to fight and gauntlet modes is the tutorial which has similar story telling features like Soul Calibur II's Weapon Master mode, but it has 34 chapters with two to four sub-missions in each stages. This game also has character customization mode which you can able to edit and customise your character's appearance just like from Soul Calibur IV.

I finding the combat gameplay is very accurate to control due to incredible fighting techniques, great use of weapon systems and fluid combo performance are very playable and responsive to play. The game also has memorable characters from previous titles and also features playable guest Kratos from God of War series.

If you're the fan of the series then this is definitely for you to play.  



3 - God of War: Chain of Olympus

   

















God of War is always one of the most badass hack n slash series on Sony platforms. This game are surprisingly the best game for the PSP library. This game is a prequel to original God of War which is loosely based on Greek mythology and set in ancient Greece. You take control of Kratos who been guided by the goddess Athena, who instructs him to find the Sun God Helios, as the Dream God Morpheus has caused many of the gods to slumber in Helios' absence.

This game is very similar to previous installiment with a focus on combo-based combat, platforming and puzzle elements. I'm very impressed with the overall game because the developer team Ready at Dawn has managed to help Santa Monica Studio to make such quality PSP game due to magnificent controls for PSP standards. It has amazing combat gameplay with insane combo systems and great selection of weapons and power-ups. It has well designed levels environment with excellent puzzle solving that made the game quite challenge. I also loved the overall look of graphics which shows the powerhouse of the PSP systems with fantastic visuals, well designed characters, gorey special effects and runs on 60 fps. Kratos are always one of the most badass video game characters of all time that kicks everyone ass and it has superb storyplot and amazing Greek-themed presentation.

PS Vita owners should able to experience this epic hack n slash action.



2 - Metal Gear Soild: Portable Ops

Metal Gear Soild is always one of my favourite Konami franchises of all time. Kojima Productions was the mastermind behind Metal Gear series were well known for being the most influential stealth-action game that defines the game's genres. I'm very surprised to see any of Metal Gear titles being released for handheld system. Metal Gear Soild: Portable Ops is a stealth-action game for PSP which take place in the events 6 years after the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. You take control of Naked Snake who is forced to fight off his former unit FOX after they instigate a revolt in a South American base. He get to meets a surviving member of the Green Berets team named Roy Campbell was sent to investigate the affair.

This game retains the stealth-action gameplay from the MGS 3: Snake Eater, but offers the team-based approach where you have to recruit allies and form a team of trained specialists which is helpful for players to work with the teams during the mission. I finding the team-based gameplay is very useful for each missions which gives a player experience to enjoy the single-player campaign. I really loved the stealthy gameplay mechanics where the player has ability to hide on the objects and sneak behind the enemies without getting caught and I also liked the mission objectives is where the players has to complete each tasks on every mission which bought so many in-depth challenges. This game has incredible stylised cutscene, well-written story and fantastic cast of characters that bought out such amazing presentation and the graphics did a good job for PSP system with realistic looking characters and great level designs that really fits well in a game. This game also features online multiplayer mode which is an expansion of the "Metal Gear Online" mode previously featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Fans of the MGS series were pretty impressed to see how Kojima Productions managed to make such excellent game for PSP titles, so this is definitely the second must play for PS Vita owners.



1 - Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy

     

















Final Fantasy was one of the biggest landmark of turn-based RPG genres by Square Enix. The success of the main series has spawns so many of sequels, spin-offs and other related series. It is hard for me to get used with the Final Fantasy series because games like FFIV, FFVI and FFVII are the only three games that I've enjoyed, but I finding FFXIII are quite not good as the previous titles that I've liked. What really got me attention is the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy for PSP which is quite a different game from the main series, so I just got this game purchased from PS Store and downloaded it on my PS Vita. I spent playing this game for three to four weeks to complete and it really pleased me a lot.

Instead of traditional turn-based RPG, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is game mixed between action RPG and 3D fighting game genres. It is a prequel to original Dissidia Final Fantasy. The game initially focuses on the twelfth war between the gods Chaos and Cosmos who have summoned several warriors from parallel worlds to fight for them.
This game features additional mechanics that adds to the battle system such as EX mode and assist. It also features some of the new playable characters such as Lighting, Tifa, Vaan, Laguna, Kain and Yuna, while it's still retains the returning characters from the originals such as Cloud, Squall, Onion Knight, Zidane, Cecil and Terra. This game has single-player story mode with open-world map where players being able to experience a story while exploring the world with scenarios and events taking place as the story progresses. It has great battle system mechanics and terrific combat controls that keeps the performance of gameplay feel freshed and polished to play. The exploring is great for finding items chest, purchasing a variables of magics and battle out against the enemies to level up your character's skills. You can also purchase your new weapons, armours, moves and accessories to improve your character's abilities. This game has versus modes where you can fight against other player through local or online modes and you can also battle against A.I players as well. I really loved the presentation of the game with cinematic sequences, stunning characters and superb storylines that made the game quite entertaining, and it has one of the best soundtrack from all Final Fantasy series.

This is by far one of the best games for PSP library that is highly recommended for PS Vita owners should be able to enjoy this kind of game.    


Honorable mentions:

Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows
Ridge Racer
Everyone Tennis
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Killzone: Liberation
Metal Gear Soild: Peace Walker
Corpse Party
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX
Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles
Megaman X: Maverrick Hunter
Gran Turismo  



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