Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Turtles in Time (Arcade) (Switch)

 

They're heroes in a half shell and they're green!

The second arcade game of TMNT games. Now Kraang appears on live television and steals the Statue of Liberty so the turtles suit up and fight on some construction that takes them to the sewer where Shredder sends them true a time portal to prehistoric time so the turtles gonna fight their way back to stop Shredder and his evil plans. After prehistory they end up on a pirate ship captained by the mutants from the second TMNT movie and then a train ride in the wild west. If I wouldn't know better it sounds like the music for this stage sounds like Sunset Riders? And coincidently they both came out in 1991. The boss is the alligator dude.

If it's the alligator dude I read in the comics he apparently was some small time thief that stole a crystal ball from a witch and while in New York dropped it into the sewer where he encountered the witch again and was turned into the alligator dude (I don't recall his name). That was terrifying as a kid and the worst part was that the comic was at least a 2-parter and we only had the first issue. So I don't know what happened.

After that they travel to the future, first a futuristic city on earth where they fight Kraang on a highway and then a starbase from the year 2100. After that back to 1991 and the final confrontation with Shredder. A much easier game, proven if not by a much lower death count. Started with 101 (added an extra life by accident) and ended on 52, almost 25 lives less spent on this game, and it felt like I did a lot better as well. A better game overall than the last game. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) (Switch)

They're the worlds most fearsome fighting Team!

Something short, the Arcade version of the Teenage Mutant Turtles game on the Cowabunga Collection for the Switch (and other platforms). A fire burst out in Apil's apartment so the shelled crusaders set out fighting through hordes of footsoldiers and mousers to rescue April and later on Splinter from Shredder, Bee-Bop and Rocksteady, Baxter Stockman, Kraang and... the rest of the bosses I don't recognise. After April's apartment it's the streets of New York, above and below followed by a factory that is the entrance to the Technodrome where the final confrontation of the Shredder. After his defeat the Technodrome explodes, our heroes escape and the game is over.

I was a huge Turtles fan as a kid, which is strange since we didn't have the series, but our neighbour had several of the episodes taped on a VHS. The ones I recall is one where some crazed scientist invents a machine that freezes people (where the ending is Donatello hanging frozen over a pit of acid or something) and one episode where a vase contained a genie (?). We got some comics from my cousins that also had the NES-game. The comics was based on the TV-series and not the original comics run or something. I got a Raphael toy with a motorbike that turned into a helicopter as well. And I saw the first two movies when we borrowed it from the neighbour when they came out.

Not much say about the game, short, brutal at least for one player (but it's solved with infinite continues). Started with something like 108 continues that ended somewhere just above 40. Would have liked a bit more recovering frames after each hit since I got pummeled over and over by the last bosses. No stake with the arcade version, but still,  quarter muncher is a rather telling description of the game.

Bayonetta 2 (Switch)

 

At least I refreshed myself in wait for Bayonetta 3

Finished it once again. Pretty much the same verdict like last time. I liked that you keep all upgrades from the first game so it was kinda effortless to play them back to back. It was only 16 chapters with was 2 chapters less than Bayonetta 1. And I don't know why, but it felt the gameplay was a bit more grind heavy in fighting bosses, takes more time and you seem to do less damage, or it might be just me being bad at the game. Also, the ending isn't as bombastic as the first game, I mean, riding a bike up on a rocket into space to reach a god to pry its eyes out and then throw Jubilees into the sun is rather more epic than flying (on an airwing in my case) toward a mountain where you fight angels and demons and then Bayonetta and Balder fight the evil Aeiser and combining a big Madam Butterfly to throw him into Jeanne's dog demon. Not as epic all I'm saying. Hopefully the third game up the antes. 

Now with some more games under the belt I also get more references, like the Lumen Sage Panther-form looking like Amaretsu from Okami. It has more replay value as well with Jeanne as a playable character and the grind for 9 999 999 halos to get the Platinum ticket, which can't be that hard if you gotta play all difficulties and try to get platinum (or maybe even Perfect Platinum) trophies on each chapter. I won't do that, I've got a life... or rather I got a lot of other games to play. 

This was the special edition I got after talking with the local game store and they had an extra copy. So of course I got it. It contained some sheets with stickers, a steel book cage, the normal game card for the second game, downloadable code for the first game and a box with what is called verse cards. I think they are the cards that Loki uses in the second game. No real value other than maybe as a prop for a DnD game or so. They are nice though, but I think I can understand what they represent, but I'm not sure. I think mostly depicting events in the game.

Fun to play, wonder how the third game will fit into this especially with the time traveling shenanigans.

*Update* What do you know, when I wrote this no release date was mentioned and now it has been revealed and it's just weeks from release. Sometimes I'm actually very current with the release schedule it seems.

Bayonetta (Switch)

 

Fly me to the Moon!

Finally got around finishing Bayonetta for the second time, but on Switch. Started on normal, but after four chapters had to go down on easy since without the combos and everything it ain't fun playing through the game. Also, at a point I stopped playing, maybe new games appeared that was more fresh or so. But that was... 3 years ago (as of writing)? Boy, times fly by. 

Nothing much to say, pretty much the same game. High-octane action from Platinum with different things to break up the usual action, like riding a missile, driving a motorcycle and so on.  Harder to follow the story though, mostly since I didn't pay attention. So if the story holds up now I don't know. Maybe that the film reel is a bit cheap in trying to convey the cutscenes without having to animate moving people.

Maybe I get a chance to play a bit more before the third game arrives... but maybe after the sequel. I think maybe the chapters are a bit long at times (goes for both games), but maybe that's me wanting to break up the chapters in order to not need perfection all the way through.

Altered Beast (Arcade)

Couldn't find a box art for the arcade game

Altered Beast, a Mega Drive game I played at a classmates house some times. Got it for the Wii Virtual Console, the 3DS and and Sega Mega Collection for the PS3. And I played the arcade version of that game after unlocking it by playing the first stage with my youngest sister. Pretty much only was able to get to the boss of the second stage and after that the lives and continues was out, but in Arcade mode, guess what? Unlimited continues. And by brute forcing our way through we finished the game in what, 20 minutes? I guess difficulty was the length of this game.

The story is that Neff, some demon god kidnapped Athena so Zeus raises one or two centurions from their graves (with some so bad it is god synthesised speech). So they fight their way through 5 levels, collecting some power-up spheres to alter their form into different beasts, a werewolf, were-dragon, were-bear, were-tiger and a better werewolf. Worst is the were-bear since it doesn't have a long-ranged attack but must get close. Were-tiger is probably the best since you can even attack upwards . After defeating Neff (why couldn't it have been Hades or something like that? And why is roman centurions doing in an ancient greek setting?) it turns out it is some kind of movie production shown by "behind the scenes" footage like the main guy taking of his animal mask or some one with a clapper.

This game is sort of a nostalgic cult classic and I would lie if I didn't want to play it as a kid, but playing it as older, it's pretty much cheap with sluggish gameplay. At least the arcade version moves a bit fluently, but still it's rather hard. 

Bayonetta 2

Played through the second game as well at it was pretty much the same as the first game. Still fun and quirky. Some improvements is that even though if you play on the easiest difficulty you still have control over the combos compared to the first one were it was automatic. How else are you gonna learn if the games does it for you? Other than that there isn't really much to say. Same characters plus some new ones, same voice actors and eerily similar story events. Takes place a couple of months after the first game and it's Christmas... which really has no impact since we are taken to some place in northern China with a holy mountain... but all the characters name is based on Norse mythology, like Aesir and Loki. Ok, so it doesn't make much sense, but it gets weirder. And this is gonna be *SPOILERS*... for both games I think.

So the basic is that the god of Chaos gave the humans free will, but in turn was divided into a good and a evil half who fights for control of the Eyes of the World. The Left Eye is currently with Bayonetta and the Right Eye was... I guess destroyed when we killed Balder in the last game (Balder being Bayonetta's father and a Lumen Sage). This caused Aesir to wake up and start his plan so you get that. Really, Bayonetta just gets wrapped up in this since her original goal was to find Jeanne in Hell since her soul was taken their after taking a blow for Bayonetta. So then the ending. Aesir deceived a time traveling Balder to get revenge for Bayonetta's mother, but are talked into helping Bayonetta. In order to defeat Aesir Balder traps Aesir soul within him and are brought back to his own time... where he start the path that lead him down to the end of Bayonetta 1? Which caused the events of Bayonetta 2? Damn time travel paradoxes, it doesn't make any sense. Or is it setting up a third game? Well, I've seen that it didn't do that well, but it didn't flop.

Forgot to mention last time another reason I bought this game was due to it being produced by the same company behind The Wonderful 101, which I loved. And I gotta say, they have much in common with layout of stages and how they shift the gameplay chapter after chapter. You fly a jet in one chapter and ride a exoskeleton suit in another between the normal enemy bashing chapters.

Bayonetta

Another game I wasn't gonna buy. I'm not much for action button masher combos... since I'm so bad at them. But for some reason I decided to download the demo for the second game and test it out... and I didn't hate it, find the visuals interesting and since I got a notion that these games were gonna be the hardest to find physical copies for so I  bought them. And boy what a ride for the first game. The story, that everyone else seems to have problems with, I found rather interesting. I wanted to know more. Yes, it was incoherent, but if you have a 500+ year old witch who lost her memory, was trapped in a casket under a lake and only awakened 20 years ago, there's gonna be holes to fill. Of course time travel really messes with time perspective, but it made sense in the end... mostly. Why she becomes the left eye as she took the little girl back to her time I don't quite get. Maybe I was so distracted by.... uh... the fan-service. Well... I mean, who doesn't like women with glasses, long, dark hair and dressed in a skin-tight suit... made out of her hair... which goes away while fighting... No I should probably stop here before I dig my grave all to deep.

Really, it's just something fun about it being released on a Nintendo console with the amount of swearing, gore and sexual... well, it's not subtle. Hell, first scene is someone urinating on a tombstone with the directors name on it, Bayonetta dressed as a nun... and losing her clothes as well. Glad for the the off-TV play so no one else sees me play it.

Wonderful 101

 

I got Mario Kart 8 when it got out and as a bonus you could get a free game so I went with this one, the Wonderful 101, by some considered the best non-Nintendo game on Wii U, which truth be told isn't saying much with the abysmal 3rd party support. Still, they are probably right since this game is freaking awesome. It's a superhero game where you control one of the Wonderful 100 as you fight back the space invaders GEATHJERK Federation in the Earth Defence war III. The gimmick is that you can gather 100 people (either drafted citizens or the actual W-100) and with them perform unite morphs to attack or interact with the environment.

Its story is parts serious, but more often a parody or homage to superheroes, mecha-series, transformers, sentai or power ranger shows or just other video games. It's freaking awesome. For example and SPOILERS!!! the final boss is both part Mother Brain from Metroid and Unicron from the 1986 Transformers movie. The design of the characters also reminds me of Thunderbird, the classic puppet sci-fi series from Britain and the story itself references the Terminator as the aliens come from the future, back in time to destroy humanity. One mission references this sci-fi trope to enter a body to destroy a virus or something. Also you have the Pokemon syndrome to gather all W-100 from all over the world... and for some reason Japan seems to have the highest per capita ratio of wonderfuls. Maybe it's Godzilla or something. The thing about the different W100 is that they come from all over the world, I even found one from Sweden... the Grim Reaper himself. Apparently he's from Umeå. My guess would be an homage to Ingmar Bergmans Seventh Seal or whatever it's called in English.

The most awesome thing, except feeling as a superhero team a la Justice League, is the music. They even have a theme song and I freakin love it... if you crank up the vocals a bit since the music drowns out the cheesy lyrics.

Nitpick is that changing weapons isn't 100% as you either use the gamepad touchscreen or the right analogue stick (stick is preferred) and the camera can be tricky in certain sections when you enter a building and the gamepad shows the view and you must solve a puzzle and the only way I found to look around was using gyro-controls. A bit irritating at times when you want to look 180. Other than that it might be on the shorter side, the story that is since the replay ability is huge in finding all 100, all data files, get the best score on more than 3 different difficulties and the characters are likable and the main character Wonder-red is perfect as total serious superhero which crashes with all others. Then on the other hand of the 7 main Wonders only 4 are given enough screen time to fully flesh out their quirks. Really, maybe a couple more story missions, but as tightly knitted the story is, it might make it worse. Really recommended so power up and save the day.