Category: Video Game Reviews

All the video game reviews

Review #1309 – Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (Nintendo DS)

Yeah, so what was supposed to be part of a year-ending trilogy of reviews has been pushed back to the go home week for Review #1300… and then THAT didn’t end up happening due to reasons, resulting in this being pushed back further.

In many ways, the pushback was a blessing of sorts, as I was able to go back and fix a couple things that I wasn’t too thrilled with (minor dub changes and such). In any event – and at the risk of spoiling things except not really – I had the most fun revisiting Portrait Of Ruin. It’s probably my favorite of the DS trilogy for reasons that I hope are communicated reasonably well enough in the video review, but the simple truth was that I was more into this game than I was the other two, especially moreso than the next one.

Next Friday, we shoot on Order Of Ecclesia.

And dat’s a SHOOT, brother.

Review #1308 – Balloon Fight GB (Game Boy Color)

Hey, remember that Balloon Kid game we reviewed on Monday? Well, here it is, again… but in color… and yes, it’s Earth Day, so a good chunk of review is recycled from Monday’s review… but it’s not just a splash of color and call it day.

Speaking of splash of color, Friday is when we get to ruin some portraits.

Review #1307 – Balloon Kid (Game Boy)

The fundamental reality dawning upon you that a game that was thought to have been previously covered on this here web zone turns out to not have been covered is a frightening thing. Indeed, I had long thought that Balloon Kid had received the review treatment, but as it turns out, it has not.

And so we’re rectifying that piece of business. Today is Balloon Kid for Game Boy. Wednesday is Balloon Fight GB for Game Boy Color. And on Friday, we ruin some portraits.

Review #1306 – Gradius: The Interstellar Assault (Game Boy)

The sequel to Nemesis on Game Boy deploys an interstellar assault on the senses that can only happen on Game Boy… and also Nintendo Switch, apparently.

I had concerned going the NSO route because the game is on there, but decided to go old-school instead. And yes, the game’s also on Game Boy Color on one of the Konami GB Collections… it’s still Game Boy, though.

Review #1304 – Gradius (PC Engine)

So this would be the time where I would load up on a bunch of wrestling game reviews on the road to Wrestlemania, but since the road to Wrestlemania seems to have more potholes than the island of Montreal at the moment, I’ve decided that we’re going to cover a couple Gradius games, starting with this Japan-only PC Engine version and then following up with the two Game Boy entries, Nemesis and Interstellar Assault.

In any event, Gradius is a fun one to revisit. There’s a Gradius Origins collection that you should check out for arcade fun… and also Salamander III is quite the banger.

Review #1303 – Super Bombliss DX (Game Boy Color)

Oh look, it’s another Tetris/Bombliss game… yay?

Something off the back burner that was kept aside for a rainy day… and as luck would have it, it’s a pretty wet day today, so I think that works out nicely.

Next week, we knock some Gradius games off the bucket list. Relatively short reviews, nothing special, really.

Review #1301 – Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)

On what is traditionally Review A Great Game Week On this channel, we look at the Neutopia duology that graced the TurboGrafx-16. Are these shameless Zelda ripoffs or is there a little more to it with these games?

Well, let’s just say that there’s a reason that Zelda is a beloved franchise that thrives to this very day while Neutopia… is not. So the obvious question boils down to are these any good? With that in mind, I did play both Neutopia games via Wii Virtual Console because those versions have a save function that would normally require a Turbo Booster or one of those things that saves games. It’s probably the best way to play these… or at least, it would be if Wii Shop was still a thing, which it isn’t… and that makes me sad.

Neutopia II follows on Wednesday.

Review #1300 – Star Wars (Master System)

Feeling a disturbance, alright…

Yes, we’ve shifted gears from our originally intended 1300th review (which will now be 1400th) to a Star Wars game on Master System that… is the only Star Wars on Master System and will hopefully be the thing that gets me to covering that Game Gear version of Star Wars that is much more interesting.

Just so we’re clear, the “faux THX” sounding sound is the Super Mario World keyhole sound effect stretched out to last longer than it actually does. So if anyone should CID’ing this thing, it’s da Mario, not the Mouse. The mouse can fly a kite up… well, you know.