Remember Rayman? The action platformer with amazing music and a charming cast of characters? Well, throw all that in the trash, because it's time to convert the game into a series of crude mini-games, where the entire cast is replaced with screaming bunnies! And after the third game (TV-party), drop Rayman from the franchise for some reason. Anyways... The mini-games are decent but a lot of them are recycled in story mode, like the infamous FPS and dance segments. I grew up with the game on PS2, where some of the mini-games would literally give you blisters from shaking the joy stick from left to right in a rapid pace, but the PC version plays MUCH smoother than that version. Being able to play the mini-games with a mouse is pure bliss and makes it much easier to aim/control. With that said, the game is nowhere as fun as the regular Rayman games. Beating it will take you 3-4 hours at most and by the time you're done, you'll probably want to take a long break from it. There is a "score attack" mode where you can unlock videos, but it's not worth the amount of time and effort it requires.
What's the difference in this "remaster"? Improved textures, character models,lighting/particle effects and some changes to the UI, plus a difficulty choice. There is also a brand new power-up system, where you can unlock powers for helmets. A few new collectibles too, like postcards (which are basically just screenshots of locations from the game), and a fast-travel system. It's more than you would usually get in a remaster, but it doesn't really justify the 50$ price tag it has on consoles. Luckily, the PC-version is a bit cheaper and was 75% off, and at that price, it is well worth it. It's a very repetitive, but decent game if you are an Asterix fan. Most of gameplay revolves around beating romans (which is faithful to the source material, at least) and some fights requires you to take down 80-120 of them in a row, which can get quite tedious. You're basically beating the same boss over and over too, which seemed a bit lazy. There are some puzzles and platforming sections, but you're constantly interrupted by enemies. I would recommend playing the game on easy to get the battles over with as quickly as possible. The highlight of this game has to be the video game references. You'll see enemies dressed up as Sonic, Mario (the most annoying enemy in the game!), Rayman and heck, even Lara Croft! They're all using signature moves and sounds from their respective games, which adds a lot to the experience. There's also some objects, like a Sonic bounce pad and a Bomberman... bomb. It's almost like the game was a test to see how many blatant references you could put in a game without getting sued. If you like brawlers, Asterix and video game references, you will probably enjoy this. The graphics are pretty good for a mid-2000s licensed video game and it's clear there was a lot of effort put into the game. You'll get at least 8 hours of gameplay, even more if you care about the collectibles and unlockables. Next up, Asterix XXL 3!
The "Agarest War" series is known by thousands for being one of those "love or hate" games. The game lasts for 100+ hours so you have to grind a lot, the difficulty is horrible if you try to beat every level chronologically without redoing levels for EXP (even on easy) and it's nearly impossible to get the "true end". However, this doesn't make it a bad game. This is what makes it unique. Grinding isn't that bad if you play it smart (or lazy, whatever you call it). You can set the fighting to "automatic" if it bothers you and do something else instead. Most of the time, your team survives the fight. The PSN version had a system where you could buy TP (Technical Points) for real money, but that didn't survive here as it would've been considered "greedy". As this is half RPG, half visual novel, you will have to scroll through a lot of dialogue. There's always long cutscenes before and after every major battle. There is also a bunch of events every third level or so. The story itself is okay, but kind of hard to follow. There's so many details, cities and names you have to remember to make any sense of the story. Getting all the CG (Gourgeous HD art images) will prove to be a challenge, as you need be careful with your affection gauge and make the right choices at several multiple choice events. This will unlock scenarious and the accompanied CG image, usually a clumsy event made really really naughty by the character's pose and innuendo (E.G. "It's too huge, it won't fit!" when eating a banana). These are what made the game famous in the first place. The voice acting is avarage. The character's talk way too quiet and is often interrupted by the BGM in the game. Also, the voices are too relaxed in action-packed scenes. None seem to get emotional either. It's a perfect fit for patient, hardcore JRPG players or Anime fans, but everyone should at least try this game. At this price, you can't really go wrong.
As a huge Earthworm Jim fan, I can confirm this game is utter garbage. Instead of following the video game series, this game is based on the cartoon version of "Earthworm Jim". The slime character which used to be snot coming out of your neck in EWJ2 can suddenly talk for some reason, the fridge jokes are overused and Peter Puppy stars as a big decapitated head inside a huge tube in Jim's mind. This is all he gets. The levels are bland and boring, with absolutely no connection at all to the Earthworm Jim universe. The first world is a barn, the seoncd a fast food island, the third is a horror house and the last is a deserted canyon. Most of these worlds are incredibly empty, which is why the developers added collectibles (marbles and udders) and a swarm of enemies to hide it. After collecting and killing everything, you will start to notice how empty these levels really are. Every boss battle is done by "Pork Boarding", where you slide on a pork and collect marbles by shoot ing the bosses to make them drop the marbles. This is quite a challenge, as you've got to collect absolutely EVERY marble while dodging enemy missiles. This is extremely repetitive. Expect each boss to take 1 hour at least. The humor itself is very dark and doesn't really fit the E rating it was given. Every character you help gets crushed (and killed) by a fridge, you decapitate cows by throwing a bloody meat axe at them (with a realistic death), you "kill" Elvis (yes, THE Elvis) by grinding him into a burger and you shoot old ladies and babies. I am not kidding. There is also a lot of gross out moments, like a river made out of c**p and people puking on you. There is even a mild yokel swear in there (Dayaaaam!) I love Earthworm Jim 1+2, even the HD version was good. But this was dissappointing. It took me 12 hours to finish and every hour was painful. Play this if you are an ultra hardcore fan, but stay away if you have no good childhood memories of this belovable characters.
The PC-version is missing a bunch of music tracks, as well as some FMV sequences and sound effects found in the Playstation version. However, there are some benefits to this release! There is an exclusive "Band Land" level not found in the PS version, and you'll get access to a bonus game (Ray Breakout) if you beat the game 100% and insert a code at the world map. The Electoon Cages are also placed differently than in the PS version, which gives players accustomed to the PS version an additional challenge. The graphics seems a bit less smooth and more pixelated too, but maybe that's just because of the screen resolution. The game is still a ton of fun and just as entertaining today as it was back in the day.