Axiom Verge 2 (Switch)

ARTHUR! King of the Britons!

The sequel to the game I played back in 2017 and 2018. A CEO of a company named Indira is traveling to an Antarctic station she acquired in a buyout of a Katherine Hammond with information about Indira's missing daughter. At the station she is transported through the Breach from the first game to a new world and has to find a way back. She finds something called Arms, people made into weapon to be used by Wielders that she uses to traverse the world. One of the Arms take control over her body and intends to get control of a weapon to destroy the portal (?) of a world that will destroy all worlds. Indira detonates a storm bomb and the game ends.

Quite surreal experience playing through this. You think there's gonna be like any metroidvania ever, but there is for example only one boss that you have to defeat... and it's a puzzle boss and is the final one. Everything else optional for some skill upgrades. Also, the connections between both game in the series are rather subtle. The final area seems to be the starting point for Axiom Verge 1 with similar music cues and there are mentions of Trace, but if it's the same one is harder to get. 8 hours, 20 deaths and 66 % of the items and 88 % of the map. 

Visually it's better in my opinion than the original, mostly due to other areas than inside caves and laboratories. Music, not so much. It's fine, but there isn't pumping techno, synth or electronic that grabbed your attention in the original game. Overall a fun little diversion. 

Star Trek: Voyager

The Voyage Home

Continued with the next series, Voyager. Saw the first seasons back when they showed it on the Swedish public channel. It was some kinda buzz about it. One of the channels announcer was a big trekki and showed of a trek manuscript he had and acted out some advertisements for certain episodes especially the one when they travel back to modern day after a run in with a ship from the future.  I gotta have watched something like 4-5 seasons before losing interest or SVT changed when they broadcasted the episodes, from prime time to something not appropriate for a school-going kid. Cause I get the impression that they showed all episodes by going through wikipedia. 

Story is that Voyager under Katherine Janeway is sent to the Badlands to find a Maquis ship that have disappeared where one of the Starfleet infiltrators are, Vulcan commander Tuvok. Turns out that the ship was taken by the Caretaker to the Delta Quadrat some 70 000 lightyears away from earth. Janeway gets the help of former Maquis Tom Paris that have been imprisoned after capture. Voyager gets caught as well and after the crews of both ships are united they noticed that each ship have a missing crew member. The Maquis have lost Be'leanna Torres, a half-human Klingon and Voyager have lost ensign Harry Kim. Both have been taken to a nearby planet where a race of telepathic aliens live under ground. Voyager learns that the Caretaker protects the Oocampa as they are called and he is dying and looking for a body to regenerate into. They meet a Telaxian named Neelix that will help them, but he tricks them to free his girlfriend, an Oocampa Kes that have been kidnapped by the Kazons, an alien race fighting and stealing their way through the Quadrant. After rescuing all the crew members they destroy the station the Caretaker had in order to stop the Kazons using it to destroy the Oocompas. In the process the Maquis ship is destroyed and the crews have to merge in order to get back to earth. So captain Chakotay that steered the Maquis ship becomes number one, Be'Leanna Torres chief of engineer. Due to casualties the medical crew died so they also have to rely on an emergency hologram for the duration of the trip.

It was a rather good start for the series. Interesting premise. After watching the whole series, maybe not holding up the whole way through as it looses a bit of urgency in their actions in later seasons. I mean, they stopped to participate in a F-Zero race in space. Also, I have clear memories of the first season  like the Beowulf episode, but after that I can hardly recall anything with exception of the time travel back to earth episode. Maybe the Seven-o-Nine episode, but I can't say say if I reached it or not as a kid. There are interesting episodes later on, like the Kurtwood Smith episode when he travels the quadrant changing history to get back his family. And you had Grima Wormtongue actor Brad Douriff as well, amazing episodes. Best ones are when Reginald Barclay appears in his work to get Voyager back... and can be due to Councillor Troi showing up making fun references to the Next generation. One episode I don't like is the final episode. After some more time travelling shenanigans a Janeway from 36 year into the future travels back and shortens their travel from 26 to 7 years total. That's fine and seeing where people ended up in the future was interesting, but then they reach earth (and those futures are undone) and it just ends. No meeting between Tom Paris and his father, or Be'Leanna and her father or Barclay meeting the crew. At least one episode could be the readjustment after 7 years, like the Dominion wars, technological advancements... Tuvok meeting his family... everyone meeting their family. I want some emotional feelings alright after a 7 year long mission.

So the ending doesn't land, some good episodes, but in the end it was kinda bloated. Nice to finally see the ending. And seeing it after all other shows you get a much better understanding for races and politics between them. But they did too little between the hostilities between the two different crews. It died out after season one and then reemerged for one episode in the seventh season. And certain plot points just disappear, like the second Caretaker. Now it's only Enterprise, the animated series and Discovery left of the Netflix library. Would be nice with the classic Star Trek-movies as well. Funny also how Star Trek seems to have inspied Stargate SG-1 a great deal. SG-1 is basically The Next Generation, Atlantis is Deep Space Nine and Voyager is obviously Universe. Although Universe was bad.

Metroid Dread (Switch)

Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!

Latest Metroid game and the first for Switch. Surprised revealed in spring 2021 and released in October the same year it was the first new 2D Metroid game since Metroid Fusion back in 2002 meaning it was almost 20 years between them, and it's also the first game since Fusion that brings the story forward since the games in between have been stories set before Super Metroid... well, I don't know about Federation Force since I haven't played more than the intro stage. 

Story is that after Fusion the federation got a message with a video of an X parasite on a different planet. Thought of being extinct since the events in Fusion when Samus dropped a whole space station on SR388. So the federation sends in 7 specialised E.M.M.I robots specialised in extracting biological matter. But as usual they lose contact and Samus Aran has to be sent in to finish the job. Arriving she is attacked by a Chozo named Raven Beak that strands her in the middle of the planet and without her powers. So she has to search the planet to upgrade her weapons, avoid and then destroy the rouge E.M.M.I's and escape.

This games hard. Usually you get to the end game and can demolish any enemy and boss, but here I actually have to learn to fight the damn things. Closer to the Metroid Prime end bosses since those were hard as well. Or at least the first two, never finished 3. Also, the tricks you gotta do to get 100 % items is something I couldn't do on my own so I had to look it up and then train to get it. People have played too much of these games if the thought is "yeah, pretty obvious you gotta stand on this edge, shoot the door, shinespark up those two ramps and then get through the speed booster blocks in morph ball mode for a missile upgrade".

In the end it seems like Raven Beaks plan was forcing Samus to fight which would force the Metroid DNA in her to take over and with that allow him to clone the Metroids and use them as an army to conquer the Universe. Unfortunately for him the X destroyed most of his plans and when Samus finally get good enough there is a real battle to the death. I gotta have been killed around 10 times, but I got him. And then I was able to escape with only 5 seconds to spare before the whole planet blew up. There is different gallery images you can unlock depending on ending time, I got almost 15 hours first time. After beating the game once you get hard mode, and we will see if I ever beat it. I can probably cut down on the time by a wide margin just by not being compelled to paint the whole map since it doesn't actually matter, beyond a small OCD tendencies. 

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch)

 

In the Vampire Hall of Fang, Yeah! 

There's not a vampire zanier than! 

Duckula!

Continued and finished the third and last game of the Advance games. And yet again I summarised it rather well last time. Same observations and the same problem that I start and let it go. Not 7 months like last time, but a week. It goes well until a certain point in the game where every monster is overwhelming in the new area until a couple of bosses later, the giant that takes the giant bat to be exactly. Then the games get easier and you rack up a lot of EXP and levels making the end easier. I could probably extend the game another 10 hours with getting all the souls or playing as Julius to get the Belmont-feel.

What did they do to enhance the game then? Used the same thing from Circle of the Moon and added a pop-up for all the souls, meaning every monster. And a beastiary, but like Harmony of Dissonance not that practical when there is one in game. Great to replay these games after 6 years.

No Time To Die

ANOTHER WAY TO DIE!

Finally, the latest Bond-movie arrives at cinemas. I watched it back in October 2021, but why reschedule all other post for being current, plus with almost a year after the movies release in the cinema and probably half a year or so with blu-rays and DVD:s no one can complain of spoilers, right? Great, cause we are diving deep into it. Movie starts out in Italy where Madeleine Swann from the last movie have taken Bond to see Vesper's grave so that he can process that, she is a psychologist after all. And she has memories of her mother's death and her rescue from a man in a mask. At the grave Blofeld left a SPECTRE calling card and blows the tomb up and a chase through the streets of the town. Bond gets away with Madeleine and dumps her on a train since due to his paranoia he believes she told Blofeld after he made a little call. We get a reversed goodbye on the train station as she runs through the wagons from inside and then Bond leaves.

Intro song... and I don't like it. Why are the Craig songs so boring (with exception of Another Way to Die, but that one everyone else hates)? Where's the pop-rock songs like the 80's that pump you up for the movie?  Still, movies return to London 5 years later where a group of special commando infiltrates a secret virus laboratory... FINALLY! A decent Craig plot, and written before the pandemic since it was supposed to be released in 2020 so they wrote it in what, 2018-2019? They also kidnaps one of the scientist that gives them the secret bio-weapon Hercules that... wait, is that the doctor from My Hero?

It is!!!

Didn't live long but that was fun. Where was I? Oh yeah, Hercules. A nanobot bio-weapon that targets specific DNA-codes meaning it acts as an assassin, the side-effect being that it even targets family members since they have similar genetic codes... it's FoxDIE from the Metal Gear Solid-series. Funny that a plot from the video games version of James Bond is being used in the actual James Bond-series. So this was a black ops laboratory so MI6 wants to keep a lid on the story. So in Jamaica CIA with Felix Leiter tries to recruit Bond to get the scientist first. After a run in with the new 007 that tells him to stay away Bond obviously joins with CIA. He head to Cuba, teams up with a CIA operative and infiltrates a SPECTRE party, where they release Hercules and kills all SPECTRE agent present since the scientist switched the code that was targeted for Bond himself. After a scuffle with the new 007, the SPECTRE body guards and lastly the cuban police. Bond and the CIA operative wins the struggle and Bond escapes with the scientist in 007 airplane. He met Leiter and another CIA-agent on a ship out at sea, but turns out that the CIA-agent is actually working for the other team and shoot Leiter and escapes on the plane with the scientist. After blowing up the ship, Leiter dies and Bond heads to London.

In London Bond tries to get information from M and Q and Moneypenny. After getting some information from a USB the scientist had Bond is allowed to meet Blofeld in prison together with his psychiatrist, Madeleine Swann, who got a meeting from her old rescuer that want her to use Hercules on Blofeld. She leaves before Blofeld arrives, but not before Bond takes her arm where she applied the formula. So Blofeld dies after a skirmish with Bond after Blofeld tells him that Madeleine was innocent to the bomb at the tomb. Regrouping 007 is sent after the rouge CIA-agent while Bond is looking for Madeline. Which takes him to Norway and the old house of the White family. Where it turns out she has a 5-year old daughter Mathilde. Gee, I wonder who the father can be. They also have Norwegian children show in the background so that was fun listening to another language that I understand. She also tells us that the bad guy is Safin, the only survivor of a family of poisoner employed by SPECTRA that Blofeld did away with. And then he shows up, kidnaps Madeleine and Mathilde and Bond and 007 joins with Q on a plane toward the Chinese sea to an island between Japan and Russia where abnormal activity have beed detected. Turns out it's Safin's family home that now returned to him and he started mass-producing Hercules. So the agents gotta infiltrate the base and... wait, now it's getting ridicules. 

Looks familiar?

Well, Metal Gear might have stolen that idea from Escape from LA.

They infiltrate the base, rescue Madeleine and Mathilde and Bond is opening the missile blast doors so that the whole base can be destroyed by a missile strike from the Royal Navy. But Safin interfers and is able use a special vial of Hercules on him that is programmed with Madeleine's genetic code so that he can't be near either Madeline or their daughter. So he decides to stay as the bombs rain downs on the island so while climbing up the control tower... what did the writers do? Play Metal Gear all day?

The references never stop.

Climbing to the top he talks with Madeleine over comm-radio saying his goodbyes...

All that is missing is the title song playing.

And then the island blows up and we go to London where the gang from MI6 mourns his death and then back to Italy with Madeleine and Mathilde as We Have All the Time of the World starts playing by Louis Armstrong which have been hinted all over the movie so as someone said, this is very much a reimagining of In Her Majesty's Secret Service. They even use the title song from that movie in the score when M tells Bond about Blofeld and Madeleine. Hans Zimmer, musical genius. 

So as first impression, I liked it. The plot works and it's a pity it wasn't released just before the Pandemic since now it would seem like it just took the headlines while the truth is it was written before it. Music's (beside the title track) great with the call backs and such. Fun how they handle the call for a female or person off colour to be 007 by giving them exactly that. But the Craig movies overall is a bit weird in the continuation of all the movies, since they pretty much waived away that and assumed that it was all Bond. But Craig starts and ends with him. Well, besides Judy Dench. And I assume Ralph Fiennes and the others of MI6 will return for the next movie. One negative is that the main bad guy is a bit weak in his plans, since he's pretty much was gonna sell Hercules. Why not go all out Hugo Drax or Stromberg? Especially Drax since the first look of the Hercules look like the virus containers from Moonraker. Bond villains ain't as crazy as they used to be. 

Actraiser Renaissance (Switch)

 

And he has risen!

Got Actraiser Renaissance for the Switch. A remake from the original SNES which I got on the virtual console for Wii. I played it and got to the final boss, but couldn't defeat him, even though my character was maxed out. Funny enough also a Clan of the Grey Wolf-review. Always better to play a remake then.

Story is that you as the lord of light have awakened and must purge the lands from the darkness of Tanzra. You begin by being awakened in a forest in the land of Filmore where you have to defeat the Centaur and from there people begins gathering at your temple and you can begin terraform the earth in order to create a civilisation. Gameplay loop is rescue an area, create a civilisation, close all monster lairs and then fight off the big bad and then head to the next area.

Added additions for this game is monster sieges. Monsters will attack and by building forts and palisads you gotta use the angels powers and heroes to fight them off. To get more story they also introduced heroes from each area. Also some of the monsters got a bit more backstory like the Arctic Wyvern and the Werewolf. They also changed the level system. The old game you got health by how many believers existed so you wanted to max the number which was determined on your score on the monster stages that set how many residents you could have in the simulation levels. Magic was limited by scrolls that you had to find our get due to some quests. Now they added HP and MP and decides on level which you level up by finishing quests. MP can also be upgraded by finding scrolls in the levels that +10 MP for each which I guess is a reference to the original mana scrolls. Which make magic more usable and not as limited. The final boss rush was a lot easier. Overall the game was easier. They also added a new area beyond Deathheim with a new boss. A grand final where all 6 heroes joins you to protect the new area from monsters and its hinted at a former lord of light or something akin to that which killed all humans. 

Overall found it rather enjoying. The different gameplay styles is still fun and the added moments helps a lot to flesh out the games. The music is fantastically remastered with some new compositions as well. You can also chose to play the old versions of the songs (and the emulated sound for the new songs). Interestingly enough, Clan of the Grey Wolf spoke very highly of the music, but I can't help but hear that it at times sound like it's a bit inspired from Star Wars: A New Hope. Especially the world tree music sounds a bit like the run at the death star at the ending of the movie, or that might just be me.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch)

Crack That Whip!

Continuing the Castlevania Collection we got Harmony of Dissonance, Juste Belmonts fight against Dracula. Playing through it again and reading my thoughts I feel the same way for the game. Everything from graphics and music is as mentioned. The added thing was... a monster book? Why? There is one in game? The explanation of the different sub-weapons combinations is rather nifty. They also added a marker for collectable items and relics so that you know which area they are in, but the magic books are not part of that, also a rather strange decision. Not much to say, solid game.