Super Mario Run (Android)

Super Mario Run is the first mobile game released by Nintendo that used one of their well-known existing intellectual properties. In this case, it was Mario, which was a big deal at the time of release. It did use a monetization method that was rare for its time, being that while it was free to download, only the first three levels were playable for free. After that, you must pay US$10 or its equivalent in your local currency, to unlock the rest of the game. At a time when mobile games were, and currently still is, dominated by free-to-play models, this coupled with the high price, and the game underperformed.

Ignoring that aspect, this is an auto runner. It is designed to emulate what speedrunning a normal Mario game would feel like. In this respect, it achieves its purpose and the game works extremely well as a result. The animation of Mario jumping and flipping around looks amazing, like that first time you’ve played Assassin’s Creed and the parkour just works. As expected, the game is simple to play and simple to control. It is designed to be played with the screen in a vertical orientation. It is playable with one hand and Mario will automatically run. You tap the screen to jump, holding it for a higher jump. Mario will automatically climb over small obstacles and enemies, but if you time it correctly, you’ll be able to jump on top of enemies for extra height and coins.

Coins are scattered throughout the level to collect, and they act as your high score, encouraging you to replay the same level. Timing your jump is important given that you cannot move backwards and that can be annoying especially since each level has five pink coins to collect. Collecting all five in a single attempt will unlock another five purple coins in different positions. Getting those will unlock five black coins in new positions yet again. This is a simple yet addictive element that strongly encourages you to replay the same level.

Despite the auto running, each level is designed quite well in that there are hidden secrets here and there. It obviously incorporates staples of Mario games such as its enemies, the blocks for bonuses, and general gameplay elements. Yet the game puts its own spin on things including blocks where it pauses Mario and the timer to allow you to decide where to go next. The game can get challenging and soon after the first world, cleverer elements come into play where timing is crucial to get the perfect, or near perfect, run.

Each level is short, designed to be completed within a few minutes, usually less than two minutes. Unfortunately, the game only has six worlds of four levels each, meaning there is only a total of 24 levels. Each world has a boss battle to finish it off and these sections make it feel very similar to a normal Mario game despite the auto running. Each level has a timer and if you die, either by an enemy or falling into a bottomless pit, then you can respawn a limited number of times via a bubble. Run out of those bubbles that revive you and you’ll be forced to restart the level. there is an easy mode where it gives you unlimited time and unlimited bubbles (i.e. retries).

The story mode, known as Tour, is supported by a simple yet traditional story. Basically, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and Mario needs to catch up to him to save her. After completing the original 24 levels, World-Star is unlocked, which has nine new levels. The twist is that each level remains locked and has a specific requirement to unlock. These involve challenges within some of the main game’s levels and they can be tough.

There is another mode called Toad Rally where you play against the ghosts of other players to gain more coins. It can be fun, but this mode is tied to the kingdom building aspect of the game. You will need to keep winning in Toad Rally to advance and gain more toads for your kingdom. This will in turn unlock more buildings and decorations to put into the home screen of the game. Every time you beat a ghost player, it will match you up with harder and harder ones. It seems to scale up quickly, but at least losing doesn’t cause you to lose that many toads, but it is still a setback.

Finally, there is Remix 10 mode where you consecutively play ten very short levels. Basically, these are just small sections of the existing levels. The background of this mode is to find Princess Daisy and playing the mode will give you more buildings and other decorations. Each mini level has at least three purple coins to collect, and dying in one will force you move onto the next level, losing all the coins you had collected from that level. This mode, along with Toad Rally, is gated by tickets that you earn by playing through the Tour Mode.

You can unlock other characters to play, who each control a little bit differently such as Toad who runs faster, or Yoshi who can float a bit during his jumps. Annoyingly, the game requires a persistent internet connection. Even a single drop off will disconnect the game. Due to this, the game constantly loads between screens and levels, which is frustrating. There are times where the game will randomly disconnect from the servers, even when your internet connection is strong and there are no issues with other apps.

Overall, Super Mario Run is a nice interpretation and translation of Super Mario into a simpler format for mobile phones. The animations are smooth, and the controls are simple, yet the levels present just enough challenge to keep it interesting. Each level is a bit too short, but even considering that, it can be annoying restarting a whole level since Mario can only ever go forwards. You can’t really afford to make a mistake and must retry the whole level instead. With its short length, it is a bit too expensive to pay the asking price for the full game, while the free levels are too small a part of the game. Still, it has good production values and is a fun game.

-----------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Blue Reflection Ray (2021)

Blue Reflection Ray is an anime that is a spin-off of the game and is a prelude to the sequel game. It is 24 episodes long and follows Hiori and Ruka. The former is a Reflector, which is basically a magical girl. There are other Reflectors who would use their power to steal the feelings of others. When they do so, they create a temporary bubble, signified by the more fantastical elements, and the feelings are represented as a crystal. Reflectors are then able to transform in these bubbles, complete with weapons. It is like the original game in that the designs have a ballet theme to them.

Hiori is on the good side, and she fights against the other Reflectors as she does not believe that taken even unwanted feelings from someone will help them. Those feelings make up that person. Ruka can become a Reflector, but she is reluctant in the beginning as she doesn’t know what she wants to do with herself. It takes a short period of time before she finally decides.

The anime doesn’t explain the context of the setting very well and you’re left to figure it out yourself. It doesn’t help that the writing and pacing is subpar. It is very slow and there are times where it can be disjointed. Coupled with the poor and simple animation and this anime does not leave a good first, second, third or any sort of lasting impression. Unfortunately, the slow pacing and uninteresting plot continues to pander on for most of the season. You might start getting confused over several of the characters as they do not have much of a difference between them in terms of personality and appearance. Just like the games, the point of this show is to show off how beautiful the characters are, and the plot is second.

The plot supposedly has a big turning point in the middle of the season, but you’ll still find it hard to care. The anime was episodic for most of the first half of the season too. In every episode, there will be a small plot point and then the girl of the week who will have their feelings crystalized and attempted to be taken over by the enemy. Yes, things progress, such as the protagonists increasing in number, or the backstories coming out, but it is all so very dreary and dry.

Once the mid-season conflict is resolved, the second half seemingly goes back to how it was. It removes the episodic nature but it’s still about the protagonists finding a way to beat the antagonists. The antagonists are still in the background plotting away with their goal which hasn’t changed. While the protagonists are more aimless with just the generic “we have to stop them” as their only guiding post. Even big things such as the reveal of the characters you are supposed to know and supposed to feel surprised by, are dull.

While it is not a big revelation as such, the last part of the season is a little bit more focused. By now, it is obvious that the events concern and revolve around Hiori. Things being just that little bit clearer when it comes time to show off why it is so. The pacing remains slow and there are still too many scenes with nothing happening in them, but it’s a little less boring.

The season waits until the very end to reveal the motivation and backstory of the main villain. It is designed to be a tragic backstory so that you can feel sorry for her and empathize with her actions. However, it was left too late and so by that point, it is difficult to take her side considering all the things that she did. It doesn’t matter though since the anime finishes with the expected happy ending and things are quickly forgiven, making most of the season feel redundant.

Overall, Blue Reflection Ray is extremely average. The game it is based off didn’t have an amazing story, so this anime did not have a strong foundation to work off from anyway. However, the storyline did not have enough plot to sustain the full 24 episodes. Half of the episode count would have been sufficient because as it is, the pacing is too slow, and you lose interest in what happens. Having a reset in the middle of the season and then the characters kind of repeating what they were doing to catch up was not great either.

---------------------------------------------

For other reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita)

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was originally for the Vita, but was later ported to the PS4, PS5 and Switch. First off, Falcom always had decent graphics for their games on the Vita, such as Trails of Cold Steel and Ys: Memories of Celceta, and the trend continues here. The game looks great, although it is similar in style to the previously mentioned games, so can feel a bit samey at times.

The game follows Adol, who is travelling on a boat. It gets attacked by a giant sea monster and the boat capsizes. Adol is washed ashore on a mysterious island, named the Isle of Seiren. It’s an infamous place, as it is somewhere that is extremely dangerous from which no one has ever returned from. While on the island, he meets up with the captain of the boat and they work together on surviving. The captain oversees the building of a base where the stranded passengers can stay safe, while Adol explores the island and saves any other passengers that were washed ashore.

Adol starts off alone with weak equipment but that will eventually change. He soon meets up with two more characters, Laxia, who is seemingly your generic tsundere character, and Sahad, a gruff and down to earth kind of guy. Combat was always the key highlight of the Ys series and Lacrimosa of Dana plays in a similar fashion. One button is used for combat and then you can map special moves via hotkeys. The character can dodge and block, and doing these in the right moment will give you bonuses and advantages over the enemy. Finally, the characters can dash and run.

You have three characters in your party at any one time and each one will aid in attacking the monsters. They tend to go off on their own at times to seek out the nearest monsters, which can be good or bad. You can swap the playable character at any time with a button press and each one plays in a different way. Defeated enemies will drop items which you usually use to upgrade equipment, cook, and synthesize. It’s one of those simple but addictive gameplay loops. The key aim is to explore the island, which is separated into small sections that have a loading screen between each one.

The goal of the game is to explore the whole island. Despite what it may look like at first glance, the game is quite linear. It blocks off sections of the island until you have saved enough people to open those paths up. Enemies roam the environment, and they are usually quite easy. From time to time, you might encounter slightly higher leveled enemies that are harder to beat. You’ll have to take advantage of their weaknesses to specific types of weapons in such a case. There are frequent bosses which generally trend towards being big and uniquely designed to impress the player.

Scattered around the world are landmarks, which act as the collectibles of the game. There are fetch quests, as well as combat quests where you need to fight waves of enemies to protect the settlement from being overwhelmed. The game has good quality of life features such as the ability to fast travel from the get-go. However, if you die in combat, you will have to reload from your last save which feels archaic. You could potentially lose quite a bit of progress in such a case. Thankfully, you can save anywhere and anytime but there is a distinct lack of autosaving.

Despite all the positives, the game has a very slow start. It unlocks things at a glacial pace and the story goes nowhere for a long time as it continues its attempt to set things up. The boringness remains for at least 15 hours. The first section revolves around exploring the island and finding castaways, so it can feel repetitive. It gets better as it then unravels the mystery of the island of Seiren but doesn’t quite recover from the slow beginning. However, the exploration and fast paced gameplay never gets old. The characters have depth to them, including all the NPCs who are all given personalities and backgrounds that you spend time on getting to know about. Their dialogue frequently gets updated after every major event.

Collecting item drops from enemies is a huge part of the game. Every enemy you defeat will drop at least one item. They are used to get all your items, including equipment, potions, and food. You will struggle to upgrade everything right after something unlocks but that is what keeps you wanting to get out and explore. There’s also a bit of inventory management happening early on. You must go into the menu to constantly swap items that you need to equip to climb up vines or to see in the dark. Thankfully, you will eventually unlock more slots, but it is still much more annoying than it has any right to be.

There are some annoyances with the game such as the overly slow panning of the camera during scenes and equally slow animations. If there was a way to speed them up, that would be great. combine this with the large amount of filler in the story and the game can feel bloated. The story does become better towards the end as it explains the way the world works with a huge revelation. The ending can feel weak and rushed, but it highlights the relationships built between the characters and when the credits roll, it feels a bit sad to say goodbye to the characters.

When you eventually unlock all the characters and build up a good repertoire of skills, the gameplay still doesn’t get boring. At its core, it is simple but it’s just so easy and addictive. The difficulty can trend towards being a grind at times, with some enemies having too much HP, doing too much damage, or moving too fast for you to hit consistently. Most of the side quests are hunt or fetch quests but they are dressed up with some dialogue to try and mask the repetitive nature of them. The game had a terrible translation upon release and got a patch, but there are still formatting errors here and there.

The game takes around 30 to 40 hours to complete, depending on how much you explore and the difficulty that you are playing on. As per usual for Falcom games, there are a lot of missables and you can load your cleared save into a New Game Plus while carrying over a lot of things to make the second playthrough easier and faster. Even if you don’t, you can continue to explore the island and find all the collectibles and items. This is a big game and very impressive for the Vita.

Overall, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is a good game and the best Ys yet. The gameplay is fast paced and polished and there is a high emphasis on exploring. It is a lot of fun finding new areas, although enemies are a little bit on the bloated side in terms of health, so it can start to grate later. Similarly, the story is too bloated with a slow first half, and even when the plot picks up, it wastes a lot of time with slow animations and scene transitions. The story itself is much more in depth than you would expect, and while it doesn’t completely justify the first half, it is a good story by the end.

-----------------------------------------------

For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Snarl (SS-86 Leader)

Review:  #789

Name:  Snarl

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Studio Series

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Leader (Wave 12)

Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Snarl transforms into a robotic Stegosaurus, as based upon his appearance in the G1 cartoon.

This is a good beast mode, although only the plates on the back and his tail are painted gold, his legs and head are not.

The Dinobots were always decently sized figures, and Snarl continues the trend here.

The mouth can open and close, and while there are joints for the legs, he's not very poseable.

The robot sword pegs underneath him as storage.

The tail also cannot move, it is angled straight down which can look kind of weird.

While he can look stumpy from the side, this is still a solid beast mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

To be honest, Snarl has a generic transformation that doesn't surprise you.  It's functional though, and the front splits to form the robot legs.  While the back forms the torso and arms.  He pretty much transforms as you'd expect him to.

ROBOT MODE:

Once again, the robot mode is good and in an effort to be show accurate, he is quite smooth looking and lacks many elements that would hit at what his alternate mode would be.

He carries some kibble on his back, but they are packed pretty close to the torso.

The head sculpt has a silver face to bring out the details.

Again, he is a decent size compared to older Leaders.

He comes with a cardboard stand depicting a scene from Autobot City.

Articulation is fine, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and the all important ankles.

For weaponry, he makes do with a sword.  Unlike the other Dinobots released so far, he doesn't have a gun.

The sword is made of a soft flexible plastic that's painted silver.

When not in use, the sword can store on his back in robot mode.

Snarl is chunky although there are a fair few hollow areas, so he is not as heavy as his size might imply.

Nevertheless, Snarl is a nice addition to your shelves and will draw your eyes with his presence.

OVERALL:

Snarl is a solid toy.  He has no surprises and thus feels generic at times as a result.  To complete the collection of Dinobots, of course you will need to get him.

-----------------------------------------------------------

For other Transformers reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Purchase from Amazon using this link.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)