Am I writing a game review of a Mario game on the back of the Super Mario Bros movie, yes i am. Which honestly isn’t a bad film and it’s grossed over 1 billion, pretty much everyone has seen it at this point. Also i’m writing this because I found it for a few quid and in between everything else I have to do with life this is a quick, easy and fun game to play. Having been unable to play much as of late, having my end of year assignments to do, now they are out of the way, I can finally move onto bigger and better things. Firstly this, then secondly and obviously Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. I will also be attempting to play the mid levelled reviewed, The Callisto Protocol, whilst I have a few months to myself I really aught to work through my obscene backlog of games, which only gets worse. With the addition of AEW fight forever finally being released the end of next month, plus Final Fantasy 16 dropping, it seems I’m doomed to be swallowed and consumed by my own greed of collecting games and struggling to get anything played. I haven’t even got the platinum for Hogwarts Legacy still, and I’ve basically done everything outside of collecting all the collectibles in Hogwarts itself and replaying the other houses at the start of the game.
Anyhow, enough of my gaming woes, which ultimately are highly trivial in the grand scheme of life. To the meaty part of this review, the game itself. If you’ve ever played a Mario game, you’ll know what’s in store for you here. It’s your typical story Bowser takes Peach. Mario gets outraged and goes around jumping on stuff until he finally beats him again, and gets reunited with the Princess. At this point in time with the series itself being around 30 years old, you’d have decided whether or not you like Mario games, as they all tend to follow the same formula. Not a bad thing mind, or it could be you just really enjoy Mario Kart as any sane person does.
You traverse through 8 different worlds. Within each of these worlds are your playable levels. Each level puts Mario in a different environment with different obstacles to traverse and enemies to get past. This games level creativity are superb. Each mission is genuinely different, considering at the basic concept it’s reach the flag pole at the end of the level whilst collecting coins, and finding the three hidden star medals in each level and jumping on some Koopas to smush it. Once you’ve completed the main worlds, you unlock Luigi as a playable character. Allowing you to go through the worlds again as the small plumbers brother. Not really affecting the gameplay any. You do unlock a few extra bonus worlds though, so you can at least attempt those first time round as the green counterpart.
Throughout this game you’ll come across the usual power-ups, and transformations. These include small and super Mario, plus fire, Tanooki and and boomerang if you get those ability power ups instead. Plus a few other smaller ones, like invincible Mario if you keep doing, the 1up health as well. There’s enough to help you traverse these mini biomes, a few extra wouldn’t have hurt though, just to spice up the game variety a little bit more.
As a game, much like Tearaway on the PS Vita, this is one of those titles that truly utilises the hardware and capabilities of the console it’s on. Making full use of the 3D,making use of it in level, and making for some of the mini-games where sliding it on or off reveals how to solve the puzzle before you. Even the gyroscopic functionality is used for firing canons, binoculars and a few other things.
This game is deserving of a big and beefy 8/10, A highly tasty game. It’s the epitome of quick bite-sized fun. Each mission is quick and different enough from the last to keep you entertained, whether in quick bursts or longer gaming sessions. It has great re-playability and like most Mario games, just plain and simple fun.
This was one of my favourite games as a kid, I must have finished the PS2 version at least 30 times and I’ve played it on all its different console versions. When this was announced I was hoping it would live up to the original, with the same story but much fresher. Let me tell you, this is a proper remake.
I played the remakes of 2 and 3. 2 was great, 3 was okay, but 4 is incredible. It’s easily one of, if not the best remake of a game I’ve played . The story is almost identical with some bits moved around and some changes for more logical choices. There’s more of a fear factor than the original, especially the fight in darkness with the blind wolverine guy.
Leon is as badass as he was in the original, part gymnast, part model and part super soldier. This game gives Leon the same over the top melee moves as the original but this time they’re even more mental. From the suplex move from the original to deflecting axes mid air, this game does a great job of making you feel superhuman. Ashley is actually less annoying than in the original, they do a really good job of transforming her from damsel in distress to a useful team mate with the random knowledge to operate a crane with a wrecking ball.
Some bits of the game are drastically changed. You still get the epic village fight that really defined the tone in the original and does the same in this. The village lake section almost feels open world as you can travel to 6 different places from the lake including a place you’ve been to before but now have the keys to plunder it fully. The castle seems to have had the biggest overhaul, rooms have all been moved around to a different order that what I remember from the original. This is good cause it keeps you on your toes, there were points where I thought I knew what was coming and I was correct, and others where I thought I was about to go through to the iconic maze section only to be hit with an entirely new rampart section before it.
The RE4 remake actually feels like it’s dipping its parasite filled trotters into an RPG. It’s obviously still a linear action fulled epic, but there are sections like the lake that almost feel open world with the various side sections you can visit as well as returning to old areas with the ability to explore them further. The addition of merchant quests are so good, there’s now a list of side quests you can complete for spinels that are used to purchase many many goodies, like the punisher or Matilda handguns to gunpowder for crafting or even tokens for the new keyring rewards. These new key-rings replace the models you get from playing the shooting range mini-game. So instead of little models that were previously just nice to look at, we now get these key rings that are also nice to look at, but come with bonus multipliers (very RPG) like extra ammo crafting and more heath recovered with snakes.
Gameplay is great, nice slick controls, knife parrying is mega OP, but it fits with the style of RE4. Being able to parry the chainsaw guy with a kitchen knife is comical but being chainsawed in half if you’re facing the wrong way is appropriately brutal as you’d expect. The quick time events have gone, like the boulder run and Krausers knife fight. I’m in two minds about this, on one hand I enjoyed them in the original but the knife fight in the remake feels like a boss fight now instead so I suppose I’m happy with it.
The QTE events aside, this game stays true to the combat and chaos of the original. Boss fights are much improved with the exception of the U3 boss fight being cut. I do understand as it’s kind of random in the story but it was fun so I do miss it slightly. Regeneradors can run now which is just terrifying, these were the worst enemy for me, mainly due to my very poor sniper skills. These flabby blobs of pain and nightmare fuel do really heighten the horror aspect though which as I said is a big improvement in this game. Not much else terrifies you more than when you think you’ve killed one of these flobby bastards, only to see it rebuild itself with the addition of shards of metal, turning itself into a Bruce Dickinson-less iron maiden.
This game is an easy 10/10 for me. Some Real Fuckin’ Tasty gaming . That much so I finished the game and then preceded to start a second play-through immediately. I intend to platinum this game although it looks horrendous to do, but I’m willing to replay this many times.
Considering this came out a couple months back and I’ve had it since day 1, it’s taken me a mighty long while to complete. This is no bad thing, mind. This game is based on the not so known series that is Harry Potter. Only this time taking place in the 1800’s, you’d expect that the game would only take certain queues from the book and film series. It leans fairly heavily into it though so it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Again this isn’t a bad thing.
Hogwarts towards the end of the game.You can use flying mounts as well as your broom.
First thing I have to mention is Hogwarts itself. Honestly not only does it look incredible, the design and functionality of it is truly remarkable. From all the hidden rooms, moving pictures, ghosts flying around to students casting spells as you go past them. The moving staircase, or the snake that magics the door to the Slytherin common room and disappears as you walk away, all the way to the talking goblins and sets of armour. The castle is littered with tiny details that really build a sense of a living breathing school of magic. As the game progresses so does the season within the game itself, so Hogwarts is decorated differently from Halloween to Christmas. Even the floating candles in the great hall differ. This also changes Hogsmeade’s appearance as well as the terrain of the world that lays out of the walls of Hogwarts. With Hogsmeade being the next big area and contains most of the shops you will use to buy brooms, broom upgrades, different equipment benches for the room of requirement, or bits and bobs for the areas where you can look after and breed the fantasy animals of the magical world, kinda like fantastic beasts.
The tedious lock picking mini game.
The next big thing I should talk about is the magic itself, having 27 different spells you can learn, with some being passive like Alohomora. With most being combat focused and learning the three unforgivable spells. For the most part you’ll only use some spells outside of combat, such as duel challenges or for puzzles. Which is a shame as you’d like a bit more functionality from some of them. Oddly you learn up to level three for Alohomora as this acts as the lock pick mini game. I’d rather it just auto unlocked stuff though, it gets a bit tedious sometimes unlocking a door to unlock a chest or another door for some usual lower stat bit of clothing. Plus the lack of a morality system makes for no reason to not crucio the ever loving shit out of everyone and then hit them with Avada kedavra. As with two of the upgrades you get means the curse spreads to other enemies and then you can one shot all the poor afflicted in one go. You can’t do this till late game though which is a shame, as by the time you get to do this you’ve only a few main missions left and have probably completed or close to finishing the main side quest stories. The combat is pretty decent, standard spell casting hot keys for your special higher damage moves, you can dodge, or upgraded apparate out the way, and use protego which can be used to stupefy enemies briefly. Mostly the upgrades you get are a bit wank, some aren’t really worthwhile or others just don’t do much. With your damage and defence coming from the rating attached to your clothes. They can be upgrade slightly via the loom in the room of requirement and you can attach a charm trait per each piece. At no point do you learn an auto cast so if you just hold down the trigger for it which would make life so much easer, especially with trolls, which just sponge standard attacks. They really missed the mark by not allowing your wand to be a semi or full automatic.
Your character inventory to change equipped clothes.It’s taken a few years, but gaming has finally represented me.
The world is filled with mini villages to explore, all the same as Hogwarts. Filled with hidden field pages to find, chest, loot bags. More specific collectibles such as collection chests and everyone’s favourites the demiguises. If you want to go for a more thorough play through there are 96 merlin trials which blow ass. Honestly they are tedious as fuck. I’d have much preferred like 15/20 harder puzzles then the shitty 96 you get. Honestly one of my only flaw with the whole game. You can also find; highland field pages though as well, along with popping balloons on your broom, landing pads, bandit camps, animal dens, ancient magic hotspots, mini dungeons which reward you with some new clothing items, and a few other smaller things to find that off the top of my head I can’t remember. There’s enough to keep you occupied for a good few extra hours if you choose to mop up the trophy list. There are three flying challenges, and five bigger dungeons to explore most are locked behind the side quest stories though. Flying in the open world is dandy, the race challenges on the other hand though, pure dogshit. They aren’t that hard to do as long as you’ve upgraded your broom and hit most of the speed bubbles, but it could be a it more loose in the turns. Overall your most fun in exploration will come with Hogwarts itself and the three hidden secrets you can find.
Amongst the main story and the three main quests, which you should definitely do Sebastian’s as soon as they are available as these give you the three unforgivable curses. There are 57 side quests in total to do. So not as grand as other rpg’s out there but enough to tide you over, and for the most part they aren’t all the same. They all help build the wizarding world, and introduce to varying aspects of the game. You have assignments early in the main story these are what unlock your new spells.
Just like duelling the snakey boy Voldemort in the films.
As well as having many spells in your arsenal, you also have potions and varying attack plants. Which honestly I barely used, not because they aren’t of use it’s just that it’s normally easier just to blast the shit out of all your enemies. You do have the option of stealth, but this is definitely a mechanic that needs work. Even with the upgrade to be harder to be seen, you are almost immediately seen by an enemy. So going in all gung-ho is a far better choice. There isn’t too many enemy types, so getting used to how they will attack isn’t too hard. Other then formidable foes, which are just named villains with more health and can usual be eviscerated with your special ancient magic move. Which is gage that fills up during battle, and then can be used to annihilate a poor unsuspecting goblin or spider.
A Hebridean black dragon you rescue.A Graphorn, this is the hardest beast to catch.Boss form of Ranrok
The story isn’t great to be honest, it starts off intriguing then it just meanders and doesn’t build up with the big bad in Ranrok being a fairly non involved bad guy and doesn’t amount to much. With the final boss fight being fairly disappointing. If at any point of the game where the use of magic or quick time events could be used to enhance a mission of fight, this was it and it missed the mark. The game is far better when you are wondering around, or doing quests for better written side characters. I’m currently just under the 40 hour mark and have done pretty much everything, just mopping up collecting everything, and then doing the beginning part of the game again three more times so I can get the platinum. So it’s not the longest game going, and once you have done everything there really isn’t much re-playability outside of going through it all again. Which is a shame. As inviting as the castle itself is, overall the game doesn’t come off as a Borderlands, Elder Scroll, Fallout or Witcher type of game. Where you have all these different builds, or new game plus to return for another round.
My expert combat skills on full show.
Overall I’d rate this game a very high, 8/10, Highly Tasty.
The wank Merlin trials, statue you get upon completing itDaedalian Key slap challenge. One of the night time only collectable, the demiguise.
For a first entry in a new triple A game, it’s a very strong start. The game world is fantastic and this is exemplified in Hogwarts itself, all worthwhile to explore. Combat works well but is lacking finesse, along with weak upgrades from the skill trees. There could be a few more enemies for variety, and a slightly better or at least in-depth upgrade system. I’d argue even having quests not always ending in caves or crypts just to build the world up a bit. At the moment it seems unlikely but this game is ripe for DLC, even just a new game + just to breath a smidge more life into the game. Hopefully in the inevitable sequel the game hasn’t pigeonholed itself to just Hogwarts and its surrounding areas, as it will definitely need to go further a field to not make the game stale from the get go.
I played the first Jurassic World game and while I didn’t platinum that due to the annoying database trophy, I did enjoy it and I’m a big fan of operation genesis on the PS2. So it makes sense that I picked up this game to play and expected to enjoy it, and that I did.
First things first, let’s talk about the campaign in this game. It’s very short, 5 missions that can be done in less than 3 hours and they’re not incredible by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a rinse and repeat of the same, catch this dinosaur, put it in an enclosure, make it happy. This isn’t anything special but it’s more used like a tutorial and gets you used to the new scientist system as well as keeping your eye out for wild dinos in the challenges and knowing what to do with them.
Then we move on the real meaty balls of the game. The chaos theory mode is very, very good and very, very fun. This mode lets you play through the films and make it ‘work’ this time. It kicks off with Jurassic park, slapping you onto Isla Nublar and letting you recreate the park that started it all. This seems to follow the film as close as reasonable but instead when the shit hits the fan, you fix it before that lawyer guy gets eaten with his pants down. Why he decided to hide from a T-Rex and then rip his pants off I’ll never know.
I absolutely loved this part of the game, seeing the little Easter eggs like what happened to the Spinosaur from JP3 and the planned Jurassic park San Diego is great. The missions are a fair length, some are only an hour, Jurassic World took me about 8 (possible due to being terrible). All in all this section was around 18 hours for me so it’s a fair part of the game.
Sandbox mode is better too. You can have ‘square maps’ which are huge so you can make proper Jurassic World sized parks and fill it with all these new dinosaurs. The Mosasaur is as great as in the film with the iconic shark grab out the water, and all the new sea dino’s are good although I do think we need a few more with more options to decorate the lagoons. Flying dinos are great too though, there aren’t too many of them. You can however decorate their aviaries and their habitation requirements are better than the lagoon creatures, which from what I can tell just require water.
Now, this is where the game kicks into high gear. The challenges. I’m currently on the last challenge and these take some time. Around 7 hours per challenge and with 5 this is about 35 hours of game time. That being said I am trying to do them on Jurassic difficulty for that sweet sweet platinum. These are fun though, while being very challenging with its absurd staffing cost and a storm every 2 seconds.
I’m very impressed with this game. Much better than the first one. Not sure what they could really do for the next game in terms of campaigns, I think hybrid splicing is going to be essential as that’s the only thing id say this game really lacks. Things like more dinos and decorations are a natural addition to a sequel.
I’d give this game 9/10 Pure Tasty Gaming. It’s banging and with some hybrids, more sea and sky boys with a similar chaos theory system the next game will be an easy 10.
Having been trying to get some maze of memories boosters for some time as round by me it appears it’s not existent in any stores, in the end I just went the old fashioned route of going through Amazon. ‘Cause fuck small business, they don’t need our money. Any ways I bought a few individual packs, they turned up and here we are.
Here the packs are in all of their foil glory.
To be honest I wish I just went for the option of just buying any entire booster box, as I did pull some decent cards, even a good few of the ones I wanted. Such as Red-Eyes soul, the re-print of the labyrinth heavy tank. Even going as far as getting the reprints of the gate guardian cards. Getting Suijin, Sanga and their fusion Gate Guardian of Water and Thunder. Obviously if you’ve seen my previous post you’d know I’ve already got all the originals from a speed duel deck. However you lose the joy of opening the packs and finding the cards you want. Plus they aren’t tainted by the not so obvious speed duel writing in the text area.
Here’s some of the good’uns I got. Pretty happy with it all to be honest.
Having not really bothered doing much card collecting over the past 8 or so years I forgot how quickly pulling doubles becomes tripled and quadruples. Sometimes this is a good thing like the super rares or collectors rares. Still getting used to the tier levels within this as again it has changed somewhat since my youth. However you don’t want to be getting three plus of the same shit card form only a few boosters.
I say all that however I have every intention of buying some more in the very near future none of this will stop me, in my pursuit of owning all he cool cards I never had as a wee lad.
Very happy with these two. With Red-Eyes being my favourite card from way back when and always wanting this heavy tank as it looked cool as fuck.
My next collecting goal is still a duel disk, I just feel I’d be doing myself a high disservice if I don’t get one soon. I’d definitely help if I even bothered looking for one.
I definitely also need to up my physical game collection. As I still only have that god awful GameCube monstrosity the Falsebound Kingdom. I’ve got a few others digitally but it’s not the same. I feel some of the next ones I get should be the tag force games for PSP. I should probably also consider getting some sleeves and folders. Seeing as I’ve gone from not many cards to literal hundreds. But meh… who knows I’m pretty shit at these sort of things.
Adding this new hobby to my main expensive hobby will probably bankrupt me one day, but life’s too short to not enjoy the stuff you enjoy. I’m not sure where I’m going with this particular one but I hope you tasty folk stick around for the ride. I’d also take passing the interest on and hoping that you join in yourselves. As ever stay fucking tasty, you delicious bastards.
This’ll be just a quick review, due to the lack of me being able to get footage off my Vita and the fact I imagine most of you would have already played one of the Borderlands games in some way or another and if you haven’t, you are truly missing out.
Borderland is one of the best game series going and 2 sits firmly as one of my all time favourites. Easily in my top 5. I have completed 2 on Xbox 360, PS3/PS4, and started 2 play throughs on the Vita over the years. I must’ve completed the game easily 7 times if not more since it originally dropped. It never gets old. Having started the game up and lost all my previous save data somehow, I chose to just start again. Picking zero for this run, opting for a sniper build, which I have yet to do. If nothing else this game provides high variety in play styles.
With this handheld version, it’s basically the same. If you’ve played the full console version which ever version it may be not much has changed. This is a real positive though. The graphics are all but the same, just slightly down graded. It doesn’t make too much of a difference though. Textures aren’t as crisp and the rendering isn’t obviously as good. This should be expected though considering the lower hardware capabilities. The game plays perfectly fine though, well for the most part. It will semi-frequently lag a bit and get a bit jolty. Overall doesn’t effect the overall shoot outs, which is the main part of the game. The gun fighting and loot, shooting is still just as great as it ever was here.
This particular version comes with pretty much all the DLC, minus Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. Which is a shame as it’s by far the best DLC. Even spawning a spin off title which I have yet to play, just another game in my ever expanding backlog. Having the other 3 main DLC’s to play though is worth while still. Adding extra hours of play and new legendary weapons, boss fights and a slightly higher level cap.
This version makes use of the Vita’s touch pad and touch screen, integrating it into the main aspects of combat. Used for running, melee attacks, throwing grenades and activating each individuals special ability. You can use the console itself to move when zoomed in, I personally find it harder to use activated then not, as you’ll constantly move whilst trying to aim with the joystick. You can if you’re butterfingered like me, though accidentally and constantly launch grenades at the floor in front of you, and end up blowing myself to shit.
Ultimately this version is a slightly downgraded graphically version of the already 10/10 classic. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table really. Just having the extra features that come along with the Vita itself. You get all the same guns, missions and trophy listing that can be shared with the PS3 list if you have already played it. It’s still just as much fun as it ever was and handsome jack is still one of the best villains in gaming.
I’d give this a 10/10 real fuckin’ Tasty. Having one of the best games of the 7th generation console cycle, with barely any downgrades, and with added portability. Even if you can get them on the Switch now as well, I’d imagine that is worth your time just as much as well.
The newest addition in the mainline series of Pokemon games comes in the form of Scarlet and Violet. I’d be lying if I just said I didn’t enjoy it, but the truth is, it is a good game. It’s just lacking in many areas as well as moving the series forward once more.
The academy you are part of, also the biggest building in the entire gameNew map and the three story paths. The new detailed map, if you zoom in enough you can find habitats.
Having enjoyed Legends Arceus so much and with many of the quality of life upgrades that came along with it, finally having the fully explorable open world that Pokemon has long deserved is great. It’s a tad shit to see how many of these great features have just been passed by in the newest entry. One of my biggest gripes with Pokemom games is the seem to have a new gimmick each entry and honestly I couldn’t care less for it. Mega evolutions was great, Dynamax was alright for gym battles, but ultimately fell flat. Terrastallizing is fun and does help mix up battles somewhat but what’s the point in getting used to it when it’ll be fucked off forever come the next game.
These are the three side paths, you have to pass a gym test before fighting the gym leader now. Finding and defeating the titans. Along with Cassiopeia.
Even if you overlook the lack of graphical finesse, and the terrible rendering as you traverse along, you can see they have put more effort in, especially in textures, and giving Pokemon fur if they should, a metallic shine etc. It’s not so much there’s no effort here it’s just lagging behind the quality it should be especially coming from one of the biggest franchises in the world. It is nice to see some actual world building in the design of the Paldea region, having the freedom to tackle the Team Star base, Gym challenge or the Titan Pokemon as you please is nice. However in only having 5 star bases and 5 Titan Pokemon too battle, a few more too pad out the world wouldn’t go amiss.
The updated Pokédex, which rewards you now as well.
Battling still works the same, wild trainers dotted around to run into and crush their dreams and steal their money, with a more Arceus approach to the overworld with multiple Pokemon free ranging it. Even occasionally having a group of 5/6 of the same Pokemon to destroy. I usually use the R trigger function that sends your lead Pokemon out to pick up items automatically or decimate the local wild life. I mainly use my combine harvester of a Baxcalibur to gleefully reap the souls of the masses for easy and slightly lower exp and items. This is a great way to farm exp and level up quickly. Baxcalibur is the newest psuedo-legendary and outside of seemingly missing a few design flairs it’s a monster. If you don’t have one in your party you’re playing the game wrong.
Battling with terastallized Pokémon. Evolving happens out in the wild as well.
I really wish this game had carried over 6 features from Arceus; catching Pokemon without battling, the item crafting, the Pokedex entry filling system, the mini side quests, self contained evolutions no trade only ones, and finally the ability to learn all moves but pick and choose the loadout as it were. The closest of any of these features that came over is the TM crafting. If these had all been implemented into the final product, it’d be such a better game for such small features. It’s like telling your parents you dug a hole in the garden and found diamonds, only for them to take it away and give you a lump of dog shit. Ones an unrefined product but is ultimately potentially priceless and the other is just shit and lying to them by trying to be thankful for being given it.
I love Pokemon games. They’re hard not to be hella fun as long as your into the whole grind of battle, catching and levelling up. With the nicely designed and open area of Paldea it is fun exploration and the new wave of side characters are good and engaging. Even with your Legendary Mon depending on which version you’ve got makes for fun world travelling, gliding swimming running up sheer cliffs. You’d be hard pressed not too easily pass an hour or two just battling around picking up endless items and TMs. It does still feel lacking, and for all the steps forward, it also feels regressive. I can’t say I’ve ran into many glitches or bugs which many did on release, I did enjoy where an entire town was just getting rained on by an endless stream of Jigglypuffs. Somehow as game bugs go that’s one that heightened the experience.
Team star leader battles end in battle against these big ol’ cars which never appear anywhere else in the game.
I’d argue I’ve spent far too much time on surprise trade as well, Lord be damned if I won’t get all version exclusives without owning both versions. Having all three starters, Charmander and only lacking Dreepy at the moment I’m not doing too bad in the task of completing the Pokedex.
I would give this game a 7/10, Positively Tasty.
It follows the typical Pokemon game formula, and as such if you’ve been along the ride for nearly 30 years, you’ll enjoy this. It has a few new nice bells and whistle to make the world seem bigger and more detailed. Battling is fun as it ever has been however, it does miss some of the forward thinking game mechanics of Arceus which I hope will either get a new entry or at least be implemented in the series going forward.
I’ve slowly picked up a few more titles for my fledgling collection. A few for the PSP, and original Xbox mainly. Having neglected my PSP collection for some time and not buying much for my Xbox since getting it, it was a pleasant surprise to go to my local hunting spots and actually getting some interesting titles or games I actually wanted for a change. Adding some well deserved new flavour to these old recipes, as it were. I managed to get one slightly rarer game in Suikoden IV, and obviously at the top Tearaway for the Vita. That game alone rekindled my love for that console.
If you look closely you can see where the price sticker ruined my Tearaway case at the top
It’s always nice growing my collection, especially when you get everything for a decent price. What isn’t nice is having those price stickers leaving their rank residue across the case. Clinging on for dear life no matter how hard you pick and scrape at it. My tearaway case unfortunately succumbed to this.
A few Xbox classics here and one for the 360 I always wanted to get but never did.
I’ve not really played as much lately as I would like too, due to bad time management and life mainly. However, I have nearly got a few more reviews ready to go, I just need to add the finishing touches. I will be making time for knights of the old republic though. Between, Hogwarts legacy, Callisto protocol and borderlands 2 on my Vita. I’ll have a good few reviews to roll out. Who knows I might even try and get another GameCube one out soon as well. I’ve got Luigi’s mansion and Eternal darkness I’ve been trying to start since Christmas.
Getting Monster Hunter Freedom 2 completes my trilogy for the PSP. That makes me super happy. As I now only need a few titles in that’s series and I’ll have the entire collection. Well physical copies for my region anyway as I’ve got a few others digitally. I had to get WWF Smackdown on the Ps1 as I’d have been doing the massive wrestling fan within me a disservice else. I imagine it’ll be as janky as I hope it’ll be. So I’ll be trying to give that a whirl sooner rather then later.
With just a quick update here, for all of you my fellow tasty gamers. As my collection of old and new expands. I hope your collecting whether it’s just one game series or one particular console is going just as well for you as it is me. As always stay tasty, and keep an eye out on the blog for upcoming reviews and updates.
I decided to blow the dust off my PS Vita, and finally purchase a game I’ve been meaning to for some time. That game being Tearaway. It was not too much of a costly game and fairly easy to pick up, something that you wouldn’t associate with the Vita usually as you can’t find any games or if you do they cost a small fortune.
I’ve contemplated getting it a few times, but I saw it for cheap on my travels and just went for it. This won’t be a long review, nor will it have any pics or vids like most of my usual posts do as I don’t have a PS TV which is my next target I wish to purchase. Even if I did I’m not sure this is one of the titles that’d work on it.
This game comes from the studio that bought us the original Little Big Planet trilogy. So it’s jam packed with all the charm and whimsy of that series which I was always a big fan of. The game here is pretty simple, you play as a letter in the form of a sealed envelope who appeared in a world and given the task of delivering to the sun that has appeared. That sun is you that uses the front facing camera to input you in to the game world. Along the way you have to fight off the evil scraps that have also appeared, and collect confetti scattered throughout the levels. You use this confetti to unlock camera filters, camera types and pre-made unlockable stickers you can stick on Iota (you) or other characters you meet along your travels.
Each level is phenomenally designed, they all look fantastic. All unique and papercrafty which you can effect certain parts of it by using the highly unique in game paper cutting mechanic. It’s all fairly linear and the camera is fixed for the most part. Dotted throughout the levels are a few collectibles. You have the hidden gifts, which you open using the touchscreen pulling the bow apart. You have the extra things to do, usually a small mini game or sticking a specific sticker to yourself or the character you are talking to. Finally the white paper-craft pieces that only regain colour once you use your in game camera to take a picture of and restore it. The real cool part of the paper-craft ones is though once you unlock them you can actually access an online guide on how to actually make them which you can still access, which is pretty fuckin neat.
Something that Tearaway does incredibly well, is something that I’d argue the 3DS and the Switch didn’t. It utilises every neat little feature packed into it’s hardware. Unlike the Switch where every game forgets it has a giant usable touchscreen and it irks the living shit out of me that no one utilises it, anyway back to what I was saying. It uses all the unique features of the Vita, every level is littered with little touchscreen required actions. Pulling down ramps, flicking/crushing the enemy scraps. Using the back touchscreen to move objects, bounce off boards, gyroscopic functions to move platforms, the constant use of both back and front facing cameras. It really adds to the experience in a positive way. It showcases how dirty Sony did the Vita by just deciding to put it on the back burner without a light and waiting for it to die. The PSP was great, the Vita was the successor it deserved, but it never got the chance yo shine. Here at least this game is so well done, that even coming up a decade later this game is so fresh and fun to play. You easily forget it’s a handheld game, it plays so well it could easily be a full console game that was ported rather then being the other way round. Now they did release an expanded version on the PS4 which I was considering getting. I’m not saying it will but I imagine the true way to play it would be on the Vita as I reckon it’ll lose something without all the cool little design features that come conveniently and neatly packed on the Vita itself.
Playing this game just makes me want Sony back into the handheld market this time only with a plan and too at least to give it a fair chance. I’d argue so far this is the best game I have so far played on Vita. It’s truly fantastic.
I’d rate this game a near full marks, at an incredibly high 9/10 Pure Tasty Gaming. It’s fun, easy to play and endlessly charming fully utilising the often overlooked gem of a console that is the PS Vita.
This will just be a short one, mainly due to already having a grand guest review covering this game. I was going to add some photos in to show how good looking the game is. However I forgot to take any and now the game is uninstalled whilst I wait for the expansion to come out. So sorry about that. After waiting a good few months to purchase this game cause next gen games are fuckin pricey. I was greatly looking forward to finally playing it. For the most part I wasn’t disappointed.
Straight away you are blown away by the visuals, the graphics are incredible. Showing just how far we have come even in just a few years on different generations between both the Horizon games. The machines look fantastic, and are even more fun to hunt. Well for the most part, some are just complete arseholes and they fucking suck to fight. Running into a ThunderJaw early on is a phenomenally bad time. You’ll more then likely just be rag-dolled and missile striked to oblivion. Or some other machine will join the fray and will hit you three times in a row with unblockable attacks one after the other whilst on the ground so you can’t move.
One gripe I had with the first game was the melee combat, and here I don’t feel its any different really. It still kinda blows major ass. You’ve got a couple combos and these new skill tress but ultimately other then the resonator blast it’s not overly improved. Rolling out of the way does jack shit as well, as you still seem to get twatted out with zero contact, and in my case usually off a edge of a cliff. This goes hand in hand with damage as well. I tend to find the damage you receive is off, it always seems to be high even against lower levelled enemies whilst you are wearing good, to fully upgraded top tier armour.
The world map is far bigger and more fun to traverse with more over-ride mounts available along with the new glider. Having more locations to be discovered and they seem to be more concise and densely filled areas. One thing I don’t get is though why nearly all machines are just turbo hostile and immediately want to kill you, even in passing. There are more rebels and rebel camps to clear out, but this time round they are kinda shite to kill as apparently you can take like 9 arrows to the head whilst being set on fire, and still not succumb to death.
The archery combat is brill, along with the new weapons, all coming with a greater selection available to you. A lot of it comes off style over substance, they focussed too much on making the game look incredible, and adding to what the first was missing. I don’t think Zero Dawn was fully fine tuned to what it should be. So in this game they’ve added a few extra bits here and there, that should’ve realistically rounded off the first game. Here we get a far better looking, and bigger world with a few new machines, and underwater sections, but ultimately doesn’t add that much more depth to what was already there. The story especially, continuing directly from where it ended. As it should. It does feel hollow for some reason, very outstretched in some parts, not really capitalising on the amazing story in Zero Dawn.
Before this was graded 8/10 by MoonHeads review. Personally I’d give it 7/10 Positively Tasty.
Which too some may seem lower then it deserves. But I find it’s lacking what made the first one so good, what that is, i’m not too sure. I feel it could be the originality thins out and it ends up sorta hitting the usual story tropes which the first missed. I can point out a few things that bring it down somewhat like the first 6 hours is what the end of the first game should’ve been. Or the tedious human combat,upgraded pouches still don’t hold a lot of arrows, slightly shit wall climbing physics. Some machines aren’t designed that great to fight as they just become a slog on occasion. I feel i’m just nitpicking though, it’s still a fantastic game but I just don’t think it’s quite the sequel it could’ve been.
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