I used to play the first game all the time on the family computer, so when I saw it was on GOG I bought it immediately. A few years pass and I'm greeted by a remaster I didn't even know existed. It's a neat little package. Takes all the levels from the first and the second game and combines them, changing the UI, win conditions, and adding some minor QoL improvements such as having 3 lives instead of 1 for the levels from the first game. These are impeccable, and I had a blast while playing them. The second game's levels... not so much. The environments are way more detailed, making it hard to tell at times what you can and can't interact with, and some of the puzzles are borderline nonsensical. To top it off, the location levels specifically can be quite buggy. Clicking on environmental items doesn't always yield the intended result, which can be quite frustrating when the game expects you to trigger multiple tricks at the same time to get rewarded for each one, even though they should be considered separate. Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game, but the first set of levels is definitely the stronger bunch. Grab it on sale if you're curious. Also they restored the missing levels minus the tutorial, so the top reviews are outdated. Just thought it was worth pointing out :p
First off, I'd like to say that I disagree with Doubleflores. If you start the massive franchise that is Ys with a game that plays better than the first two, you might feel put off when you finally get to play those. That can't be a good thing because these games are amazing. There's an entire website (Digital Emelas) dedicated to explaining the different ways to get into the series, and I strongly recommend you visit it first if you're at all interested in Ys. I was hesitant to buy this game at first. It didn't look very pretty, and not being able to swing your sword on command seemed like a terrible game mechanic, but the aesthetics grew on me, as did the bump system. Being able to just walk in your enemy's general direction and attack proved surprisingly convenient, and I have to admit it's also pretty unique. Add to that the phenomenal rock music, and Ys really makes you feel like a badass. If I had to compare this to any other game, I'd unironically compare it to DOOM. Ys 1 has some of the best AND worst game design I've seen in an RPG, and it's absolutely BRUTAL. A bug makes the final boss go faster on full-screen, while your character's speed is locked to that of windowed mode, so keep that in mind. And I can't be convinced that the game can be beaten without a guide with all the crazy backtracking it makes you do in some of the later dungeons. 3.5/5 Ys 2 is (almost) PERFECTION. The story gets explained in much more detail, boss patterns are more clever but not as frustrating, music still rocks, the layout of the dungeons is not as maze-like, and it has a really fun magic system. This game is such a big improvement over Ys 1 that I believe it deserves a 5/5 all things considered. Both games taken into account, I give this compilation a 4 or 4.5/5, not that the score should matter much. Nevertheless, these games are fun and definitely worth your 5 dollars.
To say this is one of the best platformers out there is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Shovel Knight is an extremely polished, good looking NES throwback. If you haven't played it, now is a great time to pick it up. Even at 25 dollars, this game is a steal. 3 completely different campaigns, with a fourth one coming out this year, secret bosses, puzzles, multiplayer, and an upcoming BATTLE MODE. You can't get any better than this for the price. And the different campaigns are basically separate games. EVERYTHING changes, it's insane. But let's talk about the game itself: It's good. Really good. Much better than... Most of the NES games it's trying to emulate. The gameplay is very similar to that of Megaman. Escept you jump and shovel instead of jump and shoot. You select a level, fight a boss, gain an ability, which you have to find scattered throughout the levels... Or buy in the town's shop should you fail to get them instage. rince and repeat. And that's in theory how the game works. The way you select where to go though, is more akin to Super Mario Bros 3, which keeps things from getting dull outside of the main game. What makes this game special though, is the great level design, soundtrack, fun mechanics, and great controls. Especially the controls. Bouncing off of enemies Duck Tales style can seem hard if you only watched a playthrough, but it's surprising how intuitive it felt. I have heard some people complain the game is hard, but trust me, it's nowhere near the difficulty of, say, Megaman games. Instead, the game let's you chose how hard you want it to be through upgrades and the genious checkpoint system, which let's you destroy checkpoints in exchange for a ton of cash. What a genius idea to balance profit and risk! You can make the game harder, but never unfair...er. Each time you die, you KNOW it's your fault and not the game's. There's not much one can say about this game that hasn't been said yet, you just need to buy it. Period.
Because that's what I did the first time I played this game. No joke. So what IS Dead Space? Well, to answer that I must first ask you two important questions... Have you played RE4? If so, great. Have you watched Alien? Phenomenal. Well, what this game does is basically mix those two to create an extremely atmospheric survival horror game. AMMO is scarce, which will make you hesitate with each bullet you spend on killing this game's xenomorph-like creatures. Sure, there are buttons for stomping and punching, but those 2 won't get you too far in the harder difficulties. The game is also really atmospheric, It keeps you on your toes even when there's seemingly nothing in a room, wary of what might be lurking around the corner. And I especially love how the game plays with audio cues. But you really need to play the game by yourself to know what I'm talking about. And did I mention there are bosses? That combined with the intricate map system kind of makes it feel metroidvania-ish, which is obviously a good thing. Seriously, just get this game, it is worth every penny.
These games still play awesome after all theses years. You'd think the graphics would be dated by now, but strangely enough, they aren't. The game looks tight, plays tight, sounds tight, and it's as hard as i remember it being. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but i just can't see much wrong with the games. The only complaint i had is that you do have to fiddle with the settings a bit to make controllers work. To me some buttons didn't work so i had to use JoyToKey in order to play properly, but the games by itselves are gems. Plus i bought them when they were jus a dollar so i couldn't complain even if i wanted to.
It's really good, but not AS good as some people make it out to be. This game has great gameplay, a nice story, and the characters are memorable. The music is ok, though some tracks are just meh. However, that's where the good things stop, for this game has its fair share of problems. The visuals look bad in some places. Some people will tell you that "It's the style of the game" as an excuse, but the reality is some places look inconsistent. It's really weird going from a highly detailed enviroment to one that looks like it was drawn by a five year old. The puzzles are too simple and far between. The whole tutorial (Or should i say Tutoriel?) revolves around puzzles... But they're never touched again in the game until much, much later. And when they do throw some puzzles at you, they're too simple. This is somewhat remedied by the fact that battles in themselves are kind of like puzzles, but it still comes off as lazy. The game is far too linear for an RPG, you quite literally just go from point A to B to C and hardly ever revisit any places. And on top of that, the game is too short, like 5 hours long. 10 if you do multiple playthroughs. Still, i feel like the positives far outweight the negatives, which is why i gave it 4 stars. And can we talk about how cool it is that they didn't just resort to giving bosses ridiculously long healthbars as a way of artificially making them hard? The challenge in this game comes from actually figuring out how to beat each boss. I wished more RPGs did that.
I only played the demo, and thank God i didn't buy the game because while it looks simplistic the cutscenes are as slow as they can get. The idea is pretty interesting, and made me consider buying the full game, but the "plot" just doesn't do it for me. You see, in an Orwellian society survelliance is used to ensure no one has a different opinion as The Party, but in this game, survelliance isn't used to restric anybody's freedom, but to catch wrongdoers after they've commited a crime. That is the main issue i had with the game. I think if it wasn't named after Orwell and it didn't claim to be inspired by 1984 i would've given it 4 stars instead of 3, because the core mechanics and gameplay are good, but the fact that it misses the point of an Orwellian society kills it for me. Then again, i only played the demo, so maybe the plot does develop better later in the game. (Bear in mind that i gave a very bare bones explanation of what an Orwellian society is, because in doing so i would be spoiling the book for anybody reading this review.)
