Reviews by Neppy

Brakes may be for losers, but at least games that have brakes are good. Now with my (probably failed) attempt at a funny joke, let's move on to the actual review. BAFL is a top-down racing game that's way too chaotic for its own good. 8 racers on a very small track with power-ups happening is a bit too much, and it shows occasionally. My car was getting damaged so when I wanted to make a pit stop, I got pushed off constantly by the AI and my race was pretty much ruined at that point. And in general I feel the racing controls to be very.. average at best? I mean as expected there are no brakes so you slide all over the place, But when you are racing alone, the problem with having no brake shows. There are additional challenges per level which include Time Attack and Perfect Racing, which means hitting no sides of the road. This is doable, but you can see by the great amount of lesser players in the latter challenges that few people really enjoy it, and I can't blame them. The other aspect to BAFL is that it's somewhat of a party game, excusing the actual racing mechanics I guess? But even then, you're probably done with the game after a few races and then put it down. I don't recommend this game, but there is a demo in case you're curious.

God this game is intense, and I loved every minute of it. I'm personally not familiar with the ''high action parkour'' genre as far as I can remember, so for the sake of this review let's say it's my first game in that genre. And I would say it introduced me to the genre pretty well. The first levels served as good tutorial levels, letting you play around with your two primary weapons: a gun that shoots a speed-up force field that also increases jump height, and the other force field slows down anything within the force field and also allowing the player to double jump. You get used to them pretty quick and that is a good thing because the following stages require you to use them in quick succession, often without a solid platform underneath you. You will fail, probably pretty often even (though not nearly enough for that 1000 death achievement in my case), but the checkpoint system is pretty generous and you can retry as much as you like. I struggled with some levels on my first playthrough, but when I played the speedrun mode (which has no checkpoints), I blazed through it with not even half of the deaths I had during my initial playthrough. I'm still nowhere near the top of the community, but I personally felt like I got seriously better at the game, and that's the best feeling you can ask for. The game is very fair as well, and I got only myself to blame for almost all my deaths. The only slight issue I have is that when you jump, you automatically jump forward instead of in the air. You'll get used to it, but it did cause me a few unnecessary deaths. Other than that, I loved my time with Impulsion and definitely recommend it to people looking for a challenging but fair parkour platformer.

I really enjoy jetski racing games a lot, and Riptide GP: Renegade delivers on two of its most important aspects: gameplay and track design. A racing game with bad controls is doomed from the start, but the jetski's control very well in my opinion and I never really had trouble avoiding obstacles or hitting walls. Instead, I was able to stay on-course constantly and execute tricks for extra boosts with few issues, them mostly being my own as I sometimes miscalculated the time it takes to execute tricks before hitting the water again. The gameplay is solid with few to no complaints. The complaints I would have comes down to the vehicles themselves being story-locked, so you can't really choose yourself if you want a jetski that excels in speed or control. You're pretty much stuck to the best jetski you can get at that point in the game, not allowing you to have a choice. It's only a minor nitpick since the jetski's you get throughout the game are balanced pretty well. I would have liked to see more unlockables with level-ups instead of mostly tricks however, but the ones that are there do still provide you with a nice speed boost. The track design also feels very good, though unfortunately there are only 9 of them. I appreciate the ''quality over quantity'' approach as these stages are filled with good alternate pathways and great graphical design, but it does get a little tiresome to have to race through the same exact track for the 7th time in career mode. The alternate modes like slalom and freestyle do mix it up a bit but not enough to warrant it constant revisits. They could probably have ported over the stages from the previous games and that would already have made a huge difference. Speaking of the previous games; I have played Riptide GP 2, but it has been too long to accurately compare it to this game. They are both in a bundle and from what I can remember, they are both worth playing. Renegade also offers a good amount of customization to your vehicles and riders which I definitely appreciate. Definitely one of the better Jetski racing games on Steam so far!

This game does not deserve getting a negative review from me.. but it's only barely positive at the same time. Even as a massive Fate fan who unfortunately dumped way more money into Fate/Grand Order than he should have. Let me start off with the story, which is fulfilling if you have not played Fate/Extra, which this game is a sort of sequel to. Note: you do not have to play Extra to know this game's story, though I would recommend playing Extra over this game anyway. Extella may be a sequel to a non-existant Extra route which I can understand, but what I don't approve of is how it ruins several characters and story setpieces from the original. Extra had you choose between three playable servants that you got to bond with very well over the course of the game through a Visual Novel story. The main servants easily made the game for me, and thus it's a shame that Extella throws all of it out of the window. Emiya has been made insignificant as well despite originally being a main character. While Tamamo is still a main servant, this game very obviously has Nero Claudius as the main protagonist. Her character has been turned from someone who you had to prove your worth for, to a Mary Sue-like character full of love. Tamamo was always the playful, slightly mischievous character, but now she was turned into a complete control freak. There is a reason for it, but the reason is stupid. This game has not done any good towards Tamamo and that's a shame because I may even prefer her over Nero in the original Fate/Extra, but here she is just plain bad. Other servants are also hit-or-miss, but I'll let it go for now otherwise this paragraph will go on for a long time. The other major part of this game is the musou-like gameplay after all which is.. okay I guess. The servants overall control nicely and I have nothing to complain about them. There's a good variety in playable servants as well, each being unique. They're further enhanceable with buffs, and Master him/herself also has some skills to use during battle. But the Musou part overall is just decent really. Capturing sectors to gain a majority is a chore, and sometimes you're barely allowed to capture a sector because there is constantly something happening in other sectors. This is not new to the Musou genre or anything, but in Extella it just felt frustrating because I constantly had to move between sectors because if I didn't, I'd have to capture them or another again which would cost me extra time. Fights can already easily last over 20 minutes so you don't want to extend it even longer. Some enemies can also very easily put you into a ''stun lock'', unable to release yourself from it. Lastly, there is a pretty small number of overall stages, and they get repeated pretty often as well, most of the times even with the same stuff happening like being locked into a sector, or plants spawning all over the place. Musou games have a bad reputation for being repetitive, and Fate/Extella does not do any favours towards making that reputation better. It's a shame, but if you are planning to get this game, do proceed with caution. If you're unfamiliar to Fate, you might enjoy it more than when you have already played the earlier games.

Bomberman Land is a simple minigame collection in the world of our favourite bomber hero. In that regard, it does the job relatively well. There's a good amount of minigames spread across a decently long campaign mode. I'm glad to say that almost none of the minigames are button mashers, which is already a big positive in my book. I had the most enjoyment with minigames that adapted a different playstyle entirely, like a top-down driving game or a space shooter. Some minigames are obviously better than others as that is almost always the case, but to counter that the campaign has items to make minigames easier that you struggle with or simply don't enjoy without any consequences. I did dislike a few minigames, but primarily for the reason that they went on for a very long time in comparison to others. Driving on a highway for 80 kilometres without hitting another car took at the very least two minutes if not longer. I also felt that the campaign mode was structured quite unbalanced. Some minigames would appear only once, while other minigames would appear far more frequently. Not really a spoiler but the ''final boss'' of the campaign had one of the most normal minigames out there that we've played at least two times in the campaign before. Progression also felt unbalanced as you had to use zone pieces or objects to unlock new areas, but there are a total of 150 pieces and easily over half of them have no functional use. Getting pieces outside of minigames came down to fetch quests which I didn't mind, or just literally simply having a conversation. I felt like this could have been implemented far better, as now I felt the need to get all pieces because I may or may not need to use them later. Also, the game mocks you for getting all pieces by saying that ''you shouldn't expect anything in return'' after getting all of them. That's just straight offensive in my book. Other than that there are some fun distractions and you can dress up Bomberman with a good amount of accessories. And if you don't care about the minigames at all; the classic Bomberman style of gameplay is also part of this game as an alternative mode. It's not my preferred way to play classic Bomberman but I appreciate that it's there regardless.

I had a ton of fun with Spanky's Quest on the Gameboy. I went it completely blind and therefore had no expectations of what I would be walking into. It starts off with a stage select screen and the ability to pick any of four towers to play first, encouraging replayability as they do not have to be finished in a set order. Every tower has 15 levels and a boss in which you have to kill every enemy on the screen to move on to the next level. A simple concept, but how does Spanky's Quest execute this? Our monkey hero is equipped with a ball that he can throw to instantly get rid of enemies. But the fun thing about this ball is that it can be juggled on your head to become even bigger, all states having their own effects. I personally really enjoyed this mechanic a lot because not only could you get rid of enemies in unique and effective ways, but it also introduces a ''High risk, high reward'' system as you are vulnerable to enemy attacks while you are charging your ball. Usually, you don't have to worry about the attacks too much as the only thing enemies do is walk around very slowly, sometimes jump and that's about it. As a whole Spanky's Quest is also not very difficult for that reason (and also because you can continue from the same spot after all lives are lost). Bosses do actively attack but also have easily exploitable attack patterns. I personally don't mind this too much as it is an early Gameboy title, and the gameplay that is here is perfectly fine. Enemies also drop power-ups or letters that can form the word Spanky, which will annihilate all enemies on screen and bring you to a bonus world as well. You have to be careful with this as one death results in all letters being lost, which is yet again ''High risk, high reward''. I do feel there is a bit too much emphasis on the scoreboard system however, mostly due to one reason: juggling the ball also gives you points. You can juggle the ball indefinitely and get a ton of points, and the only thing you really have to worry about is an invisible time limit. It doesn't matter for a small Gameboy title as the leaderboards are not online or something, but it's very easy to abuse. Also, the soundtrack for this game is surprisingly very well done; I absolutely love the themes of the towers. The game gives you about ~3 hours of playtime, but I felt those 3 hours were very well spent.

My experience with Wave Race started off pretty rough. I didn't realise this game had a save battery and since it was a second-hand game, I got kicked down pretty hard by the decently challenging difficulty this game had. After I realised that I could delete my save, I at least had a little bit more fun but this still wouldn't be one of the first racing games I'd recommend for the original gameboy. This mostly comes down to the mechanics themselves, specifically taking corners. Now I do understand that this might be an appeal to the game but I personally didn't enjoy it at all. Since there is no braking, it's pretty tough to take those corners without ending up way out of course, and the opponents don't exactly help with that with them constantly bumping into you. Racing itself feels okay otherwise, nothing special but I can live with that. There are a few power-ups to get to steal boosts from other racers or to make cornering easier, but I never Aside from regular races there is also Slaloming, in which you have to get through as many gates as possible before your opponents do to score points. The mode that I could potentially like better if there wasn't one major flaw. The map does not show in any way how these gates need to be entered. Their entrance is either horizontally and vertically, and the only way to know which way they are facing is through memorization. This really sucks because you have to turn to get inside a gate, and turning at the last moment is a pain as stated earlier when I mentioned mechanics. Other than that it's a fun mode where you have to try to find the most efficient route, but I can't memorize the entrances for every map personally so it ended up working against me most of the time. It's a shame, but I can't give the original Wave Race a score higher than a 5.

Super Mario Land 2 was a great Gameboy game, so where could they go from here? How about handing over the franchise to an entirely different character who plays pretty differently from Mario as well? The villain from the second game stars in his own game, with an entirely unique setting that will end up being the norm for a completely new franchise. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I absolutely love the unique themeing the Super Mario Land series has. In this case, an entire island designed after food and kitchen objects. I love it, and I love the good amount of unique stages as well. They are slightly more exploration-based, a gameplay style that will be the staple for the games that came after. They can also change depending on story progression, giving the same stage you played before an entirely new way to play through! There is still a good amount of platforming, but like Super Mario Land 2 the stages aren't just simple horizontal planes. Wario also brings his own moveset to the table, being able to charge into enemies, pick them up and throw them and use a variety of power-ups. Wario controls very well, and the power-ups especially are fun to mess around with. His hat can turn into a jet to fly ahead, or a dragon to spit fire which I used a lot personally due to how good it is. There are several pretty annoying enemies throughout the game, and I'm glad the Dragon Hat can take those out pretty easily. Those power-ups are also used in stages to discover secrets and alternate exits, for better or worse. I personally don't mind it, but I can understand the frustration that people may have if they can't proceed to an area they want to go without having the respective power-up equipped. Several stages have treasures hidden in them, which all lead to one of many endings you can achieve in this game. There are also a good amount of alternate exits leading to different stages. My favourite being that there is an entire world that is completely optional, only out there for the explorative people. Boss battles are for the most part also good. They do not change patterns throughout the entire fight which is a slight negative, but other than that they are fun. I don't really have any negatives to mention; Wario Land is just a really fun game and an absolute recommendation for your Gameboy collection!

Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 is a really fun 3D Platformer. Every single stage felt unique and fresh, each with their own mechanics and activities. The themeing is basic but the stages themselves make up for it.. though the game is quite addicted to lava, with almost every world having lava despite some being the polar opposite of lava. While you might do regular platforming in most stages, there's always a new vehicle or other unique mechanics that make them memorable. You may be snowboarding down a mountain in one stage, while shooting down ice pillars with a combat vehicle in another. None of these overstay their welcome and are fun to mess around with. They all control very well too, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the underwater level might just be one of my favourites in the game. But while all the unique mechanics control well, I have a few issues with how Kao himself controls. The first one might actually be a bug, as in when I try to move Kao directly to the left, he walks slowly instead of running. This made some of the bosses and precise challenges where you had to run constantly pretty aggravating. The rising lava section had you run left constantly and was much harder for me than intended as a result. The boomerang also felt very finicky and not fun to use in most situations. The lock-on decided itself if it wanted to work or not, and it was torture to use at a long distance with enemies that would constantly jump around. And it's not like you can exactly get closer because they shoot homing attacks. Eventually I just rolled around after I got the upgrade that allowed me to roll indefinitely. What I also liked about the game was how Kao improved over the game the more collectables he found, giving more rewards to the curious explorers. While the coins were mandatory for the story and the purple shards led to minigames I personally didn't really bother with, the stars gave some new abilities to our animal protagonist. Some collectables are hidden pretty well, and with a few exceptions of where I missed single-digit coins and had to search the entire stage for them, none were really cheaply placed. And it's also great that when I got the collectables I missed on my initial playthrough, I could grab them later and leave the stage immediately for them to still count. Overall a really fun platformer and for that price, you can't go wrong. Definitely would like to see more Kao the Kangaroo games on Steam!

The first FlatOut is coincidentally also my entry point in this franchise of explosive muscle car racing goodness. At the time of writing this review it is also the only game in the franchise that I have played. And as a first game.. it was pretty good. I had a blast playing through this with many fun moments, especially making the lives of my enemy a living hell by driving them into trees or other obstacles. The drifting took some getting used to (Ice Physics in a racing game wut), but overall I had no trouble beating the main campaign. I did however have personal issues, which mostly comes down to FlatOut being a bit inconsistent. This came down to but not limited to shortcuts. Sometimes I just moved slightly to the left of a track and was immediately branded as off-track, having to reset to an earlier point in the lap. On the other hand, sometimes I could just drive through trees far gone from the track but it happened to actually function as a shortcut. Due to that I was hesitant on trying out shortcuts because they would either be the greatest shortcut ever, or I would go off-track and perhaps even lose my chance of winning the race. Another inconsistent part if how your car would suddenly turn around or even be completely immobile after hitting an obstacle or debris. Debris usually spreads all over the road if you or an enemy drive into them, and they can be a pretty big hindrance to you. I had multiple times when I drove near or over them, just for my car to completely spin around and me having trouble getting back on speed. Both of the inconsistencies did lead to some frustration which is a shame, because other than that I really did have fun with the game. The bonus mode especially was a ton of fun to do, special credit going to the Destruction Derby-esque minigame. I wish there were slightly more modes, since one of the modes is a quick race which is just the regular campaign mode.. without the campaign. I would have liked a sandbox mode or anything because despite there technically only be 5 lands with a good amount of maps in them, they would be fun to drive around with without a worry in the world. Overall FlatOut was a fun game to experience and definitely has me interested in the other FlatOut games. The original FlatOut does show its age, but if future games do improve on my issues, I'm in for a fun ride!