Game of the year 2023

 What is the answer? I have said it many times before and been wrong on reflection that it's been a poor year, including what now seems like an insane comment of 2013. GT5, Last of us, Bioshock infinite, Tomb raider reboot. Madness. Maybe this year will be the same, maybe... First off, biggest let down, Dead space remake, I have never played it before as when it came out I had no interest in survival horror but my tastes have since changed, but I just do not get the big deal of this game, it's riddled with many of my personal gaming foibles. backtracking, repetitive environments, long boss battles and most egregious of all, enemy attacks from behind you couldn't possibly know were coming (until such an act had made you respawn) that just eats up your health, especially in a game where health is such a commodity. I found it much more infuriating than any other adjective. But what were the good game? It sure as hell wasn't Sonic superstars, not made by the creators of Sonic Mania and the ultimate sin, 2.5d! but decent reviews gave me hope, How wrong. Presumably Sonic team have zero staff members left from the early 90's (especially Yuji Naka, Sonic creator, now in jail (I think (presumably for making Balan wonderland ( actually it was insider trading but that's boring)))) because they just do not get it, gimmick laden and unpredictable enemy placement (just like the lame DS games (unbelievably adored)), honestly, there's games like Spark the electric Jester out there for £5 and that is more of a Sonic game than this could ever be. Please hand over the series to fans now, at least the 2D series, and hey, maybe get some outside help for the 3D games as well so there's not sweeping changes between every release. Rant over (for now). 

Special mention to cult of the lamb, a far superior twin stick rogue like to Hades (yeah, I said it) but even though I played it in 2023, it released in 2022, hard cheese ( hmm, probably should have been nominated for last year, especially since I wrote that about 2 hours before I am writing this, but I didn't, Tinykin lucked out there). Speaking of, foolish River city girls came out in mid December 2022, does it not want to be nominated for this prestigious award?

There are some honourable nominations, Cocoon was a good puzzler, but not a really great one and Spiderman 2 was probably the best example of one of 'those' PlayStation games you'll get, but it's still full of that never ending mediocre story that curses them all. Also, all the bosses were the same and the one with Venom (spoiler alert) took the absolute biscuit with having 4 back to back stages, come on now. Also, I'm pretty sure (shudder) Mario wonder would have made this list, but I no longer have a Switch, so do one you Nintendo mug.

Resident Evil 4 remake

Not all survival horror remakes that I never played the original versions of are massive disappointments, case in point RE4, a series of games mentioned many times before. Since RE7 the series have delivered banger after banger (after banger (credit: Sheamus)). What a sensation, all elements of this game are bang on survival horror, sure it's changed up the setting to a less horrorey setting, but the feeling remains, along with resource management and crazy enemies, story beats and bosses

Starfield

Did it blow my mind like when I fired up Oblivion for the first time? no, but some of the hate that this game receives is crazy, it's the most Bethesda softworks game that they could make (it's really not tat difficult to understand that travelling to other planets is equivalent to travelling through 1 single map) and it's miles better of the lame duck that was Fallout 4 (that said, maybe if CD Projekt Red hadn't released a far superior game in the same genre like when Fallout 4 released, maybe I would change my opinion( hey, I'm replaying it now after the sensational Tv show)). I really enjoyed the story and for my money Andreja is the best companion Bethesda sortworks have ever made, although I would have liked to learn more about house va'ruun, but maybe it will be covered in DLC that I will never play. I also appreciate the unique new game plus they included even if I spent about 10 minutes in it.

Immortals of Aveum

This is the most comparable game to a nominee from the previous year I can think of (that being high on life). A decent but not fantastic FPS but with some great lore and a fun twist of shooting magic from your hands instead of regular old guns. It may not have the most original gameplay but sometimes you shouldn't fix what isn't broken.

Were this a better year this game would not have been nominates but gotta make up the numbers somehow.

Yeah, not a great year, just 3 nominees, a repeat of 2014, at least that was a new console year which are normally pretty poor, no such excuse this time. The winner by a mile is Resident evil 4 remake (although I was considering not picking it as I picked 2 remake previously), the only actual really great game this year, perhaps due to me never playing the original, but that's my situation.

So here's the list of winners thus far;

2013: The last of us

2014: South Park the stick of truth

2015: Rocket League

2016: Doom

2017: A Hat in time

2018: God of war

2019: Resident Evil 2 remake

2020: Maneater

2021: Guardians of the Galaxy

2022: Nobody Saves the World

2023: Resident Evil 4 Remake

I truly hope they do not advance to a Resi 5 remake after the presumed 9 next, I would much rather a more modern 1 or Code Veronica remake before.

game of the year 2022

I'm back for GOTY 2023, but before i do that, a year was missed. I am aware no one will ever read this, yet it is here for prosperity.

First of all, I've really gone off this Play station style third person action game style that has become so popular. I didn't enjoy God of War Ragnarok despite the previous entry being my GOTY winner in 2018, as a result I couldn't even bring myself to get half way through, the story was unbearably boring and the gameplay was okay, at best (when there was any). I think I encountered this first with the last of us part 2, but was most cemented by Ghosts of Tsushima, I barely got through a few a couple of hours. That said, I did enjoy Horizon zero Dawn, hardly the best game ever, but a fun story and plenty of fun side quests (some bad ones too though). 

This was a year of gamepass for me, which I picked up to play the soon to be mentioned Nobody saved the world, I got 3 months and milked it hard. I only had an Xbox one then (upgraded now, low finances be damned), so largely played this on my laptop, which I finally own one that I can play a game made after around 2005 on, but it must be said I never play games on PC, apart from FM of course. Anyway, Onwards

TMNT Shredders Revenge

Ever since Foul Play I have found a new love for brawlers that I never really had before, despite remembering playing the likes of streets of rage, goldenaxe and most appropriately Hyperstone heist, I think just to be part of the zeitgeist (a word I can't even spell now, let alone knew what it meant when I was 6). Having gone back to some of these fairly recently it is clear the genre has moved on, the likes of this game, River City girls and Mother Russia bleads wipe the floor with the so called 'classics'.

On to this, sure, I watched the Turtles cartoon as a kid and saw the 3 movies, but was never a big fan, but as soon as the trailer dropped with Mike Patton of all people performing the classic theme tune along with some lovely animation I was in. Then I played it, and it lived up to the hype, I even finished it twice (once solo, once co op), something I rarely ever do, at least not without a 10 year gap between the 2 playthroughs. It plays like a fantastic modern brawler, looks great, fantastic music and is just all round fun to play. 

Nobody saves the World

I love the Quacamele's, so what were Drink box doing making some top down twin stick shooter/ slasher. Well, they made the right call (let's just ignore that random Vita game I don't care about). Between multiple character's ability to swap and skills to match up, much of the fun of the game is figuring out what the best team is and what powers to use. It can be tough at the start but when you finally figure this out, the power is all yours to dominate.

The world is really fun, the RPG elements like levelling are done well (for once) and the story is cool. Twin stick games like this were something I was never really in to as a kid, but another I've had my mind changed on by many games, initially by Assault Android Cactus, and many more since and this game is by far the best one I've ever played.

Tinykin

A simple 3D platformer clearly made for kids with a nothing story, but with a great map to explore. You're a tiny alien guy who lands in a house on Earth and must make your way around the large (from your characters' perspective) rooms to fix your ship, kinda like Toejam and Earl. 

This game is very simple but figuring the way around maps with the help of the Tinykin that give you the abilities to get around is just a fun, if simple problem to figure out on each level.

High on Life

Remember when Rick and Morty was good? That was a while ago now, certainly before pickle Rick (rolls eyes), This game hits with it's comedy much better than the recent seasons of this show and again the levels are fun to explore (this is getting to be a theme) and the plot is fun. Hey, they even put a really weird 90's Denise Richards film in it that you can watch all the way through. Voice acting is great too, and hey, JB Smoove is in it as a gun, and who doesn't love Leon. Shame he plays the worst gun that I rarely used. Oh well.

As for the actual gameplay, it is very simple. This game turned out to be the first game I had dusted off my Xbox One for in a few years and I'll tell you what, loading times are shocking, were they always like that? I remember going back and playing Portal a couple of years ago (maybe the previous time to this the Xbone was used) and the loading times shocked me then, but didn't seem this bad, and that was a 360 game! This is my fault for not having a series X then, a problem that has since been solved. Anyway, a fun if flawed game.

And the winner is, NOBODY SAVES THE WORLD. A real breath of fresh air for me.

Got this out quick to jump on to the actual last year, 2023, so check back in soon (maybe (probably not)).

Game of the Year 2021

That was a year to forget, in many ways. Covid, games, my life, football. Ugh. Don't have much blurb to put in so let's go straight in to the honourable mentions.

First of all, the game I spent many years being hyped for, Biomutant, a game where you play as an adorable fluffy lad in a world of many fluffy lads. Turned out to be fine, it certainly had an interesting world, fantastic art style and good story, but unfortunately the gameplay was pretty average and the idea to do a David Attenborough style voice over was just awful. While on Fluff and hype, Ratchet and Clank rift apart. This game also looks fantastic, and unlike Biomutant it plays very well, it's really fun and there's no escaping that. The issue here is it just like every other Ratchet and Clank game, a few years ago I wrote on here about catching up on R&C as I had skipped it for years, but now I see through the formula, and sure, I enjoy it, but it is what it is, fun but empty, like what I imagine is the appeal of reality TV.

Let's move on to FPS's. Splitgate, pretty damn good. A cross between Halo (or insert your preferred arena shooter here) and Portal. Not only does it play well, but the thoughtful tactics the portal gun (or whatever they call it) can open up add an extra dimension to the gameplay. I certainly had more fun playing this than Halo infinite, but as it's multiplayer only and not still 2008 when I had friends, I now have none. Of course the other shooter is Deathloop, I don't have anything to add that many haven't said before, it's good, but it isn't as good as any of the Dishonoured games which also came from Arkane. 

And finally a trio of little indie platformers. Sheepo, a Metroidvania where you get no weapons, which makes a fun change to what is normally expected from the sub genre. Mighty Goose is another, along the lines of Metal slug, many enemies, many guns, lots of fun. And finally Spectacular Sparky. I saw it advertised as to Sega what Shovel knight is to Nintendo. That was one hell of an ambitious statement, but it convinced me to buy it. Even though that turned out to not be true, it was a fun run and gun platformer with lovely short levels, just how I like them. Additionally it had voices from some guys I listen to podcasts by, so that's fun. Anyway, time for the proper games now

FORZA HORIZON 5

Forza returns to the list with perhaps the best game in the series yet, or certainly the best list of cars and events. You wanna live out that Gran Turismo/ childhood 90's interest in Japanese super cars, you can. You wanna find cars made famous by TV shows that someone somewhere has made a brilliant job of recreating the paint job, it's in there. Wanna go speeds that are especially uncontrollable, you can. For me, this has, by far, the best selection of cars from any racing game, ever. Then there's great gameplay as well with varied game moads (including a shockingly good battle roayle) and a varied open world to explore. My only minor gripe is I don't think the open world is as good as the last 2, but in terms of what's available, this is the best game in this series, by far.

RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE

My not actually long standing love of Resident Evil continues. Like 7 before it, another first person game that is more focused around horror and sneaking whilst the remakes focused more on action from a third person perspective. I really like how they have separated these 2 simulations RE series this way. Anyway, a continuation of forgettable protagonist Ethan Winters' adventures in RE7 as he tries to rescue his daughter from a village full of crazies. The classic videogame set up of a main big bad to get to while going through all their underlings areas first, including the likes of the internets favourite giant lady Dimitrescu, and that crazy good doll maker section. Great game, great story, silly ending.

THE ASCENT

It's a top down shooter, a genre I hadn't ever been a big fan of until just a few years ago. Geometry wars 2 always seemed like an outlier, but then Assault android cactus came along and a whole new world was opened up to me. Roll on X amount of years, and here comes a dystopian top down shooter, gritty RPG. The gameplay here is just so good, albeit very hard at times, with a great selection of weapons and abilities. 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

The guys that made Shadow of the Tomb Raider (the worst one of the three) have clearly learned a lot from that experience to bring in to this game. It has many of the hallmarks of Tomb Raider (or that other, lesser series some morons prefer) but with more people. The team fighting works well as you can call in team mates for special attacks and the 'bantz' is really good. The story is great, full of twists and turns and with choices to make that can lead to advantages or disadvantages further on in the game. There are some fun collectables and it is nice to learn about some of the gotg lore outside of the films. And of course the music is great and is heavily involved in the game. Until you have fought fin fang foom while having Rick Astley play, you haven't lived. Graphics aren't great though. 

So, which of these will join the illustrious list of annual victors, Gods amongst games never to be forgotten for their achievement (by which I mean winning this). Who will be declared champion of 2021?

2013: The last of us

2014: South Park the stick of truth

2015: Rocket League

2016: Doom

2017: A Hat in time

2018: God of war

2019: Resident Evil 2 remake

2020: Maneater

2021: Guardians of the Galaxy

The music pushed it over, that and me thinking maybe RE7 was better than 8 yet didn't even get a nomination. 

Game of the Year 2020

 Got here eventually. I seem to think this at the end of every year, but 2020 wasn't a great year in terms of top draw games (nor indeed, the world in general), though the industry did see a boom period for obvious reasons (lockdown), so hopefully with more interest, this will lead to more high quality games, though I fear it will more likely lead to more live service or party games that I do not care about at all.

    Honourable mentions then, and I'll start with the 2 PlayStation sized elephants in the room that sucked up less prestigious awards than this like a Henry. Firstly, The last of us part 2. I really liked the first couple of hours, including Joel's death which lead Ellie to her revenge quest with nice flashbacks to their time together interspersed to fill in the time we missed throughout the game. Almost immediately after Joel's death the revenge plot is de railed though as Ellie and Dina decide to look around an area of downtown Seattle, playing guitars and etc, thus totally killing the blood thirsty revenge missions plot as it all just seems like a bit of a lark, a feeling that went on way past my motivation to avenge Joel's death had passed. Then the game went on forever, both Ellie's section and Abby's, the latter of which didn't need to be in at all, and if it did at best should have lasted an hour. the gameplay was also really outdated, just because the AI is good is not a reason to claim a game plays amazingly (also, the enemies calling out for their friends after they had been slain, as if anyone would care about killing a random NPC). Did love the gore though. 

Then Ghosts of Tsushima, I can't think of an historical setting that I care less about than futile Japan, it just doesn't connect with me, but this game was raising eyebrows, so I figured I must try it, turns out I should've listened to my gut that I wouldn't be interested and I wasn't. Additionally, I've been playing games for 30+ years now, I don't need you to add in wind effects to point me in the direction to go thanks, totally unnecessary .  

Actual honourable mentions now, Crash Bandicoot 4, looked absolutely fantastic and played well although very hard. It was good but for me, too many gimmicks and some levels were far too long. Katana Zero was a great little 2D platformer that had a series of quick, small assassinating levels with a drug crazy storyline, might well have made the final list, but although this game became viable to me in 2020 on Xbox, it actually came out on Switch in 2019, so by my own self imposed rules it doesn't count. Speaking of Platformers, Ori and the Will of the wisps came out, the second game in a great series of beautiful metroid-vanias, it plays and looks great, this is one of just a handful of must play Xbox One games.

And finally Doom Eternal and Resident Evil 3 remake. The sequels to 2 previous winners that are not even final nominees in my list. These games are both good yet not on the same level. Firstly Doom Eternal, I get that it is intentionally more thoughtful and takes planning, and it took me a long time in to the game to understand the game properly before I actually figured how to play it properly and got good, and I enjoyed it then, this seemed completely contrarian to the reason I enjoyed the first rebooted game with it's classic run and gun gameplay that I missed from my early teens. Also, the platforming in Eternal, much like any first person platforming, was absolutely garbage. Resi 3 remake then, another good game of course, but took away the scary setting to a more run around mucking about style, repetitive bosses and a far less interesting story. On the plus side no infuriating Mr. X.

Those are not all the games I enjoyed from the year but I am not going to be making a big list that goes on forever. Now, the main list

STREEETS OF RAGE 4

Ah, Brawlers, my current favourite (Shredders' Revenge looks amazing) and it's a throwback for me too. As a Mega Drive lover (and now owner once again), I spent many a day unleashing rage on the streets, though back then, I didn't appreciate it to the correct level and preferred the likes of Alien Storm and Might Morphin' Power Rangers the movie. Over time though, I have been able to see past sci fi and TV show attachments to appreciate the real classic series. This is a fantastic addition to the series, some 25 years after the previous release, this game looks fantastic and plays fantastic, somewhat reminiscent of Doom 2016 in that it ignores the way the genre has gone over time and plays like a classic brawler, but turned out better than they ever were. 

You may also like: River City Girls

MANEATER

When I became aware of this Shark-PG a year or so before it came out, I was excited, sharks are cool everyone knows that. While I was thinking this will be a step up from previous sea creature games like Ecco or Dolphin Olympics, a friend of mine told me about Jaws Unleashed, a PS2 shark game, which left me a little disappointing that this game was not as fresh a subject as I first thought, nevertheless I got it anyway. It may be on the simple side of games, but the collectathon nature of this game really got to me, travelling from one area to the next, fighting bigger animals, killing shark hunters, eating people on a beach, find a pop culture reference, leaping in to the air to collect a number plate, fighting an even bigger animal, turning your shark in to a robotic Megalodon type creature and so on. The open world is nice and varied, considering you're under the water, but most importantly it's just a fun game, with a fun story and fun moments. Edit, I just found out there was an Ecco game somewhat like this on Dreamcast, how interesting (also bought it). 

You may also like: Spyro Reignited

CYBERPUNK 2077

And the award for the most bug filled game I've ever liked goes to... 

I loved the Witcher 3, as well as 2 when I played it years later. This game was of course one of the most hyped games of all time, and much like No mans sky it had no chance of matching it, but if you can ignore that and all the bugs, then there is a really good game here. A futuristic yet gritty RPG, where knife arms run wild. Cyberpunk is a big RPG, with a really interesting setting, great story and great characters with loads to see and do, again full of pop culture references and satire of real life in a way few games outside of Grand theft Auto manage succesfully. The game feels great to play and the story stays interesting throughout. The only gripe I have (other than all the ones listed above) is that with so many side missions to do, they can get samey at times. 

You may also like: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

ASTRO'S PLAYROOM

Nostalgia, is there any better word in the English language (certainly not based on my prebvious goty awards). A journey in to Playstations' past, through robots acting out classic games (with the added 'guess that game' self imposed challenge), collecting classic Playsation items such as multitaps and UMD's all the way through to battling the PS1 tech demo T-rex as the final boss (kind of). There are no game of the year awards given just for this though, not by me. This is one of only 2 games really made to show the power of the PS5 so far and as a result looks absolutely beautiful, sounds fantastic and makes great use of the dual sense in a way that, much like with Uncharted golden abyss on Vita, is unlikely to ever be done to this level again. Gameplay wise, it's a solid 3D platformer, not a pure gameplay powerhouse but as a total package it deserves a bus of it's own. As a bonus, it's a free pack in game, and much like the very first game I ever played (I think), Alex Kidd in  Miracle world on the Master System this sets a great sign of what is to come from this system. PS. both of those games are better than 360 pack in game Hexic HD.

You may also like: Sackboy a big adventure

So, what will join the mighty list of my blogs' games of the year? As mentioned earlier I often say years aren't great for gaming then upon reflection later realise I was wrong (see 2015 when at the time I said it was bad, but was so wrong), and yet right now, this seems like another one, many solid games but likely nothing that will go down in my mind as a possible all time great, though I imagine praise of TLOU2 and Ghosts will go on forever, like Breath of the wild and Mario Odyssey as 2 of the greatest games ever. None of these 4 are anywhere near (that's my opinion anyway (especially Mario Odyssey which I do not think is even a good game)).

And watch out for the winner because here she comes...

2013: The last of us

2014: South Park the stick of truth

2015: Rocket League

2016: Doom

2017: A hat in time

2018: God of war

2019: Resident Evil 2 remake

2020: Maneater

Maneater is just a really fun game with a great hook which I really enjoyed, so much so I even got the platinum trophy which is a rare feat for me outside of games i specifcally buy for £1 to get one.

2021 looks to be a good year (for gaming obviously, the real world is still shit) but everything seems to be piled in to the latter half of the year, so much cool looking new stuff, sequels and retro games, let's see how many of these get delayed.

Game Pass: Yes, your grace

 I have 'officially' given  up on Gears Tactics now, I want to be able to stop playing games when I have lost interest no matter how near the end I am and thus forcing myself through them. Here is what happened. I was on a frequently recurring mission (one of a handful that repeats many times over), where both of your characters cant die or you get a missions fail. So, I failed the mission twice and realised I was no longer enjoying this game, and then stopped. That was it. No need to go back now, I have seen many times over what this game has to offer, and if it were half the length or had more mission variety it would be fantastic, but it isn't. It tries to borrow so much from Xcom but misses 2 of the key fundamentals whereby you have to research new equipment to upgrade your characters, and more importantly, everyone can die. A idea that is both a blessing and a curse as it can be a major blow to lose someone highly skilled, yet human sacrifice is key to success. I'm not saying they had to entirely copy Xcom and re skin it with Gears of War, that would be cheep and lazy, but by fundamentally changing the entire way the gameplay system works with character deaths really has a huge negative impact on this game for me. It's a real shame as there was so much promise but turned out to be a mediocre spin off to try and bring new fans in to a waning series. Oh Well!

So, then what next (if you read the title I'm sure you can guess) as I wasn't sure. I tried many, Fe, a 3D platformer that interested me when it came out a few years ago, but turns out I'm glad I passed at the time as it is pretty dull. I tried Spiritfarer which is some kind of people/ ship building game that is very well respected and seemed interesting, until I found out it was about 30 hours long, and couldn't be bothered with that. Then Xenocrisis, a game from last year that also came new to the Mega drive (among other classic consoles) that I nearly bought for $40 or for it, but it was on Game pass, so sod it, anyway, it's a top down shooter and it was okay, glad I didn't spend that much on it. Then on to Rush: a Disney Pixar adventure but that became apparent within seconds it was very much a game for small children. Then Tetrix Effect, another well respected game, then I remember I'm terrible at Tetris (give me Hexic any day (No, I'm not joking)), so finally I tried Yes, Your grace.

It's a simple strategy game where you are the king of a medieval settlement where you control your budget, the welfare of your townsfolk, happiness of your family, relationships with other kingdoms and prepare for war. It's not combat strategy like a Gears Tactics or a Command and Conquer, nor a world builder like a Tropico. but much more simple, based heavily on story and the consequences of your decisions. In many ways it's more like a Telltale game. A lot of choices turn out to be unpredictable, what may seem right can turn out to be a huge error, meanwhile you might spend gold trying to solve a problem but it turns out to be a waste of time (see the excessive 50 gold wedding dress, if you play this game, do not but that).

Balancing these tasks is challenging and in fact come the final battle I had to reload the save several times over to succeed, which turned out to be frustrating as I had to repeatedly perform a time consuming magic ritual many times over before returning to the battle. this frustration aside, the interactions with your family, despite only taking place via text are fantastic and would pull at the heart strings, if I had one. The game looks great in a 16 bit style, with great, simple character design for the major characters and varying sounds for their voices, with the king himself the very tired sound of a aging man under so much pressure.

This is another Game Pass, as I realize now they all be due to me unlikely to continue playing a game for too long that I'm not enjoying with so many to choose from. A great story with tough decisions and a fine story.

You may also like: Detroit: Become Human

On to River city girls now, and it's yet another great brawler. Time might be coming up on Game Pass for me now, despite having the best part of 2 months left of my cheap subscription, but now there are finally some good looking new games coming out that are drawing my attention back to PS5. Bio Mutant finally has a release date, and it's not long away at all, whilst Blue Fire, that has just comes out, looks great and the comparisons I'm hearing to my 2017 game of the year 'A Hat in Time' are getting me excited. Anyway, after River City girls I plan to do my Game of the Year, but who knows if that will actually happen.

Game Pass: Hypderdot

Dot dot. Still grinding through Gears Tactics, and it is beginning to be a slog now unfortunately, I do enjoy the gameplay but there are only a few mission types and it is beginning to get old now, if I was nearing the end I could accept it, but I'm still early chapter 3, so there's still a third of the game to go, which means I'll damn well finish it now no matter how tired I'm getting of it. Not really any games of note that seem particularly interesting to me coming out for a while, picked up the re release of Scott Pilgrim and to be honest it doesn't stack up to modern competition. Obviously I have been speaking about the brawler genre a lot recently, and compared to the likes of the aforementioned Streets of Rage 4 and Mother Russia Bleeds it does not hold a candle. I'm sure I told myself back 10 years ago that I really enjoyed it when I really wanted to support indie gaming, which I still do, now though, with a modern lens, I cannot recommence it.

A game I can recommend is Hyper dot. Talk about making an old idea new again. From Asteroids to passive mode in geometry wars 2, this game takes these concepts and perfects them. A simple idea, you are a tiny dot in a circular arena set out to avoid all the enemies. It's not the most exciting concept, or at least not to most, but I was immediately interested just from watching the trailer. I loved Geometry Wars 2 and spent a long time competing with my friends for the highest scores, and my area of expertise was Passive mode. The lead would constantly change, but sadly one person kept playing after the group had retired from the chase and now he holds all the high scores. Bastard.

This take on the genre happens in levels (although there is a survival mode, amongst others), always throwing in new challenges, from different arena and dot sizes, a mix of enemies, dark arenas, icy arenas, collection based levels, levels where the enemies move along with you like Super Hot, the variety available far surpassed my expectations going in. Needless to say with a game of this nature it starts to get very difficult towards the end, but there is not a story that might have forced me to keep playing beyond my wishes. With the time I spent with it, it turned out to be a fun challenge which you can play with some music or a podcast going on, whatever's your poison. 

So, it's another Game Pass rank. Another really good game available on Game Pass. Maybe I should sell my PS5 and just play on my Xbone... Actually, no. 

You may also like: geometry Wars 2

Anyway, now I'm pretty much done with this, or I better be before all my hair is pulled out, I need to find another game to break up the monotony of playing Gears Tactics other than playing Rocket league over and over again, I could do that in reality, I do love it so, but I don't feel like I'm really achieving anything (yes, including achievement points/ gamescore) or indeed experiencing anything new, so a new game must be found fast whilst I force myself though 1 repetitive tactical battle a day.

Game Pass: Power Ranger Battle for the Grid

 Whoops, it's Game Pass, not Games Pass, oh well. The next game I picked up lead me down a rabbit hole of researching Power Rangers Comics, watching a Youtube documentary and the 2017 Power Rangers (not enough Green Ranger), so, that was a thing for a couple of days and indeed, another reason to delay starting Gears Tactics, though I'm getting deep in to that now, at least until I get distracted again, HyperDot is calling out to me right now (edit, it's awesome).

After going on a rant in my last post about brawlers, I failed to mention a game (well, a few really, but only one is relevant here), that being Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle, an acceptable brawler from a few years ago, and a fine sequel (in my mind) to the two Mega drive Power Rangers brawlers, The movie one being of particular interest to me at the time, as it had both the original and what I will refer to as the 'Rocky cast' (remember how bad of an actor that guy was, I was 7 and could tell he was crap) as well as multiple different Megazords, of course, being a child, having a game based on a franchise I liked at the time made it seem better to me, and though I haven't touched this game in probably 25 years, most franchise games from that era tend to be terrible retrospectively, so maybe it was, but I don't want to know. Point is, the game that came out a few years ago was heavy on presentation and nostalgic references, and pretty light on it actually being that good of a game, so i went in here expecting essentially the same thing, but in a fighting game instead.

But what a pleasant surprise, it was pretty good. Certainly no Street Fighter 2 (the 30 year old untoppleable (is that a word) pinnacle of the genre) but still fun. a 3 on 3 team fighting game, with just a few buttons, simple to use combos to learn, special moves, Zord attacks and some extremely over powered characters. Jason should be the best one anyway, he is the leader after all and if I lost him in a shopping center, I would be frantically calling after him too.

Aside from just versus mode and classic arcade mode, there is a story mode in here, which seems to be the normal now in fighting games after I first encountered it in Injustice, and just like Injustice, the story was lifted straight from Comic books. As mentioned earlier, I did some research on the modern comics, because that's where the story for this comes from (apparently they're really good, but a couple of times in my life I tried to get in to comics, but can't (books are better anyways (not that I can be bothered to read them either))), with a transdimentional Tommy Oliver, having teamed up with Rita rather than performing his classic Mighty Morphin face turn, then killed her, took her armies and conquered the universe and now he's come for the rest of 'em. It's a decent enough story in the game, but as with every other fighting game story, there's only so many characters and possible match ups that the lack of variety gets a bit tiresome. There doesn't even need to be though, even though there is a season pass you have to buy to unlock many of the characters and skins ((which is pretty shitty) though not as egregious as street fighter 5), it allows you to play as some of these charters in the story mode, but nowhere near all of them. Then, when I finished the story (which came with no achievements!!!!) I assumed something would be unlocked, Kimberley was heavily involved in the story for instance, but no. Gotta spend that cash I guess (hope there's enough left over to pay off my tab at the Juice bar).

Once that was all done with, it was morphin to online play-time (too much of a stretch?), and after 10 successive wins, knocking off considerably higher rated players than myself I knew I could go pro. Obviously after I met my first loss I gave up and never played again, thus keeping a fantastic win to loss record in the only way I know how to get one. As Farkas Bulkmeier once told me 'quit while you're ahead', then he beat me up and took my lunch money (that's a thing in America, right?).

This game gets the rating of Game Pass, another that's passed my test of a game (whatever that is). An enjoyable fighting game that doesn't require great skills to succeed, so grab your Dragon Dagger and make your excitement grow for this very good fighter.

You may also like: Marvel vs Capcom

Still slugging through Gears Tactics, it's good but really could've done without some of the side missions. PS. I can't believe the words 'Morphin', 'Megazord' or 'Megadrive' aren't in the dictionary on this site, they're on the one in my head.