Reviews by Neppy

What was initially an original and fun concept turns into quite a frustrating game. Playing Sudoku competitively against CPUs sounds fun, and the better you are the more you can hinder them with short minigames. But those minigames are frustrating button mashers and appear way too often near the end of the campaigns. These minigames probably work way better on the Nintendo DS, another console the game was released for. There is a mode where you can play the minigames non-stop and on higher difficulties I constantly got the feeling that I had to turn the joystick around way too much for an already not-so-good joystick. And speaking of campaigns, these are some of the worst I've ever played in all video games. I know I shouldn't judge a Sudoku-type game of all games on it's campaign but it's the majority of what you'll be doing throughout the game. The dialogue is the same for every character except minimal differences, despite all of them having different goals and relationships with characters. Oh, and the same BGM plays throughout the whole game. Please, just buy a physical book of Sudoku puzzles and you'll have way more fun with it.

The campaign is literally 34 chapters of just tutorials/defending against every single enemy in the game with a satire story, and content is severely lacking. There are no extra modes other than campaign except for the usual quick battles. To the game's credit, I did feel like I legitimately got better at the game thanks to the campaign, which was proven in the final battle. Too bad I didn't really have much to test my skills on. Regardless, it's a core Soul Calibur gameplay-wise.

I love racing games that allow you to roam an overworld. L.A. and Tokyo are beautiful cities, but there is not much to do in the cities themselves except for a few collectables which is a shame. There is a good variation in racing formats but some are unfortunately far less used than others. A good amount of cars too, but I felt most aggrevating to contol without good handling stats. Loading screens also plague the game. It was fun overall, but I'll probably rather play the console versions.

I always define this game as ''Super Monkey Ball, but with cars''. GripShift is a puzzle racer with many platforms and obstacles, and it's your goal to reach the end without falling off. Ideally it would be even better if you can score the collectables scattered throughout stages before finishing, but this game can be pretty difficult for completionists. Towards the end I lost interest, but there are enough modes (including stage builder) to delve into. Racing up loops is the worst by the way.

Being a Fate fan, I'm obviously slightly biased towards this game. Suffice to say I did really enjoy it. The story was classic Nasu storytelling with complex terms that will all become clear over time. There were a good amount of masters and servants, and what I personally really enjoyed was when they brought up servants that were not in the game. Servants such as Calamity Mary and Armstrong that as of yet do not have any appearance in any Fate material, and it's fun to imagine that there are far more servants out there than that we currently know. The story is told as it was a visual novel, not an unfamiliar territory for this franchise. Like visual novels, there are occasional dead ends/bad endings and alternative routes, but it's pretty obvious when that happens and the game warns you multiple times. What's interesting is that this form of gameplay is combined with another well-loved genre, namely turn-based JRPGs. The idea behind the combat in this game is precisely how I imagine Fate to be: learn more about your opponents through dialogue or fighting with them consecutively. Once you know their names or slight information about their history, you will be at an advantage. The execution is a mixed bag for me however. I usually felt the need to talk to everyone in school (the main hub), but that hub is slightly too big in my opinion with too many unnecessary places (the Archery being an obvious example). The combat works like rock-paper-scissors, and this can potentially really suck the less you know about an opponent. Some enemies do favour one particular style of combat over the other, or have a said pattern. But you have to learn that pattern first, and that can mean that early battles can be an absolute hell. Especially if you pick Caster, or this game's version of ''hard mode''. Caster is by far the weakest servant until she learns her magic spells where she funnily enough becomes the best servant. But until she learns those magic spells, she's extremely vulnerable and can die easily from critical hits. Even in late game she dies easily if you are unprepared because of her low defence, and there's not much you can do about it since you possibly don't know what their next attack will be. The dungeons are decently fun to explore, though I've never understood what the point is behind completing them 100%. Overall I had a good time with this game despite the frustrations I sometimes had with the battle system. If you're a Fate fan you should definitely play this, though I would also recommend it to non-Fate fans.

I loved the original Grand Theft Auto: Vice City a lot. Vice City is probably my favourite city out of all the GTA cities just because it was so colourful and full of personality. Vice City Stories does more of the same with the city, leaving most of the places intact and also showing some familiar faces. What has changed is the story and the main protagonist. The story does come down to your usual kill baddies and take over the city, though I did feel it to be a bit on the weak side. This mainly has to do with the main protagonist Vic Vance. One of the antagonist actually describes him best, namely ''You're trying to be the good guy in a bad man's game''. He does not want to do anything with taking over the city or getting high on drugs, but just wants to earn money for his family. This is very noticeable in the story as he's constantly pissed off whenever he has to do something morally bad, and literally is unable to smile. I know Grand Theft Auto games aren't really played for the story or characters, but I felt Vic to be one of the weaker main protagonists the series has to offer. The gameplay is surprisingly good and lends itself to the PSP very well. Driving feels very smooth and combat is pretty easy (although I feel that also has something to do with the pathetically weak AI). There is still enough to do in Vice City aside from the main storyline, and there's even some co-op! I've never tried out the latter, especially not now that wifi is pretty much dead on the PSP, but I can imagine it being a nice addition at the time. Another unique addition to this game is your own Empire. Not unlike the gangs from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you can take over empire buildings to increase your overall presence in the city. Empires come with their own sets of missions, increasing the worth of the empire. They can also be attacked by rival empires a la San Andreas. I didn't bother too much with this gameplay mechanic since I mostly focused on the story, but the option is there for you. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is pretty much a 3D GTA on a portable console, and I wouldn't have it any other way.