TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

You can play this today through the Cowabunga Collection. It features level selector difficulty scaling, a fairly generous rewind, a quite absurd potential high number of continues and even God mode.

In a number of ways this is quite similar to its predecessor from 1989. Both are arcade machines that adapt aspects of the Saturday morning cartoon that aired from 87.

Where that one opens with April O'neil being kidnapped something I understand happens in a bunch of these here Crang in his massive android body Steals the Statue of Liberty. Given that in both cases what we are fighting to retrieve has no actual agency I appreciate that here they went with an actual inanimate object.

It's great when the idea of women as trophies as something to be rescued is challenged and it truly has zero impact on the actual plot. Instead she actually gets to report the news here and that's how you learn that it's even happening. She has a job to do, does it well and thus helps in her own way though she isn't a physical threat.

This time around we are not limited to moving around the big city that I think is New York but I don't live there and thus don't consider it the center of the universe. It's not even only set in the present day.

In order to slow you down you are sent into the past and have to gradually make your way through different time periods. You legit start in prehistoric times dealing with pterodactyls and raptors and it's every bit as glorious as it sounds.

When something is based on a comic book that is this wild it makes a ton of sense to actually dive into that head first period. I absolutely adored this franchise when this first came out and this was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted out of it.

You also go to the Wild West and what I think are the days of high seas pirates. On at least one occasion you are making your way across a train that is moving at high speed. I've said before and will again if you can fit that sort of thing into a story like this then it is likely to tremendously add.

This does maintain the issue of a lack of enemy variety. They get a lot from the aforementioned TV show and that one was primarily there to sell toys and thus did not need as much in that regard as this does. And certainly a lot of the designs they had there make more sense for boss enemies than muscle and this needs the latter more than the former.

So we still have a bunch of reskins of the foot soldiers and they will wield different weapons that require you to approach them using different tactics. There are new robots that match perhaps even exceed the roadkill Rodney's in obnoxious they can be to go up against and how satisfying it is when you defeat them.

This has some truly epic encounters with some of the most memorable antagonists that had popped in the series by this point. Other than what I've already mentioned we have the shredder himself We have those yellow Xenomorph things that dwell in sewers And we have Baxter Stockman after he's been turned into a family fly.

There is a lot to their movement patterns and how they attack that you have to memorize, recognize and respond to in order to get past them. There are again environmental hazards such as manholes to fall into fire hydrants that can spray you or others when hit etc.

Throughout this you can play solo with up to three others. Each player can control one of the four turtles. Leonardo is Very well rounded, Raphael and Michelangelo are incredibly powerful and fast at short range And Donatello has the best reach but worst speed and damage. You'll want to go with the last mentioned if you are entirely on your own. And yes you can get all the way through this without anyone else if that is the situation.

You still have three different attacks linked to your jump depending on if you engage it right before you hop while you're around halfway through it or after you've reached the peak and you are coming back down.

This adds a very welcome dash that can go in either direction and leaves you extremely vulnerable from the other. You are also less helpless when surrounded. You will want to be very careful not to get cornered surrounded that sort of thing It can be very helpful to focus on finding a way to remain roughly in the middle of the screen but that does also mean that they could come at you from literally any angle at any time So it's at all safe just closer to it.

The music gets you pumped. Voice lines help make it feel like you really are Fighting your way through the show. And the sound work is on point everything sounds like it actually made a strong impact on something or someone without being too intense for children.

It also helps that some of the weapons that could easily cross that line are toned down. Getting set on fire in this does not terrify rather it is humorous as it is presented as the equivalent of hot foot. Full damage and the like has a Looney Tunes approach thus making it clear that no one is actually being grievously injured here. The fact that this came out after the series had run for a little while also means that they can lift characters directly from there. I really loved fighting those stone guards or whatever they're called. It's great to see these memorable visual designs actually be presented as posing a danger which they rarely do on the show at least the early seasons because of the rules surrounding such at the time.

This runs completely smoothly and as long as you are OK with the gameplay being quite simplistic and straightforward by today's standards you can still really get into this. As much as I can be nostalgic for the experience of going and honestly probably wasting a bunch of quarters I am willing to acknowledge that some of these just don't hold up that well. 8/10.

Thankfully this does not attempt to be a shot for shot remake but rather takes a number of elements and changes and updates that which really needed it whilst keeping the core intact.

You are much more likely to enjoy this if you have realistic expectations so I'm going to try to set out to help with that. This is not trying to match much less outdo the original in camp nor is the family unit supposed to basically be perfect at the start.

It acknowledges that some aspects of that one has not aged well and attempts to make it more palatable to audiences today without losing the edge that us fans of it love about it. This is largely successful in that regard.

While I am not going to give it away here I will say that there is at least one twist that arguably pushes too far in part because it simply is careful enough in dealing with a very sensitive subject Part of that is that the reveal happens late so there isn't a lot of time to go in depth with it.

On at least one occasion it brings up something that is being talked about a lot today and an argument could be made that it is not completely unproblematic in how it explores it though it appears to have its heart in the right place.

Where the 33 year old version is very tied to the 90s and its version of feminism This brings it into the mid twenty twenties and also adds to how it goes into mental health. Gaslighting remains a major theme and is here treated slightly differently in a way I found to be quite compelling.

It is more of a slow burn and the melodrama while not completely gone definitely takes a back seat. They change just enough that despite having watched the first dozens of times I still did not guess exactly where this was going.

It opens on a very striking image that really colors the rest of the film and I would argue it was the right choice. It is more disturbing than violent albeit what there is of the latter does make you wince.

The acting is uniformly excellent. I would like to watch every one of these cast members in other things. We are in a golden age of child acting and this is yet another example of that. 10 year old EMMA's actor is asked to perform some very complex emotions and absolutely nail them. 8/10.

This is one of those games where it's extremely important to have realistic expectations when deciding whether or not to play it and if you want to have any chance of liking it. It's somewhat similar to adios except without WASD in that you are carrying out Actions that we wouldn't necessarily be that excited about in real life because they are meaningful to the player character and if the circumstances are right that means they become it to us as well. It also bears some similarities to the Rusty Lake franchise in that you are clicking directly on things Rather than the old school point and click where you have to select verbs and such. It is not a puzzle game rather you are carrying out tasks and you will rarely be unsure of what to do next and never to the point where you just get annoyed with simply not knowing. There is no tension or suspense albeit there is at least one thing that is arguably at least somewhat disturbing. The gameplay loop at times Calls attention to itself. We see this the fact that it immediately provides you with a list of things that you're supposed to do in a specific order and that once you've done them all you have to do them again. Much like the white door it is purposeful and communicating something. To me it came across as the player character being on the autistic spectrum and I don't say that to denigrate people who are or the game itself. I appreciate it could also simply be read as the choice of an artist. Essentially this is a visual novel. A mildly interactive studio GhiBli Movie. Depending on how you feel about that that is either its greatest strength or biggest weakness. For me it was the former. I adore the work of Miyazaki and I was elated to be able to play through something so heavily inspired by it. I was particularly reminded of only yesterday since both of them are about the memories and past experiences as well as Kiki's delivery service since it is a story about a young woman figuring out exactly how she fits into the world and engaging in something for a job that she feels a passion for or at least thinks she does. This could be the very first game you ever play. There is no fail state And the challenge is essentially nonexistent which again I say neutrally not as criticism. The sound work here is truly mesmerizing and I mean that literally. The soft tapping of rain on window is part of why this functions so well as a cozy game. Every so often you'll find a negative review on one of the best games ever made and it's basically someone saying that they play games to try to relax and that wasn't what that particular game did. I hope every single person who's ever written something like that is able to find and play this because this is what they were hoping for from any 1 of those other games in that regard. The voice acting is great and a lot of it is little sounds rather than fully voiced lines and yet they express so much. Essentially the one downside is that there is a bug where text will stick. What I found to be the most effective solution was pressing escape twice and at times I wasn't entirely sure if eventually it just fixed itself or if it somehow did eventually work that I just sort of clicked everywhere. This never froze or crashed for me but the sticking did slightly harm the emotion which is otherwise on point. I was amazed at how much I felt for the player character despite how different she and I are in several crucial aspects. Each time that there was something that meant that something had to be done again in the same or similar way Because of the story I felt even more invested And I was quite satisfied with the conclusion. Considering that this is fairly short I would definitely say to make sure to get it on sale I personally got it free on Epic. I would have been happy provided that it was discounted and I am overjoyed that I got to spend some time on this. I thought they struck a great balance between letting the player do stuff that an artist would do including sketching and adding color to paintings and also keeping that from becoming overly complicated. These are things that in real life I can't imagine myself doing. Basically you cannot accidentally ruin the painting with the wrong color it'll just be fixed like removed and the sketching is really just about figuring out where the edges of the sketch go and then filling out everything within that by holding down the mouse button and dragging across it Period from this description you might not think it but it actually does lead to a sense of accomplishment and you feel like you're making progress on the overall plot. I can't put into words how great it is that games like this are getting made I remember the 90s where so many games felt the need to be fast paced and dark and while I hold a number of those in high regard still sometimes we do need stuff that's like this. This is one of those that I could picture A child play but also a senior citizen and they would both tremendously enjoy it as it is not too difficult for either nor is it violent or so long that it becomes excessive. Another thing they did incredibly well here was the cat. They really Captured this sense of mischievous energy and also this idea that maybe there is something more than that there. I'm afraid I forget where I saw it but somebody wrote that this was the Frenchest thing that wasn't actually made by French people that they'd ever come across and I definitely second that. I was reminded of the Jean Pierre Jeanne movie Emily. And trust me that is high praise. This has the right number of settings as well as the level of detail and variety to them. Her home feels lived in and real without being Overwhelming in how much you can click on. I also quite appreciated the way that it does gradually increase the complexity so it doesn't feel like it's staying at the same level throughout Which I am willing to admit as much as I love adios it's not impossible that that would have been at least slightly improved by having something like that in there.. This did also remind me of Dear Esther the way that at times it feels like you are moving through a poem More than it being a classic clear narrative the way that a lot of games do. This game helps prove something that I've been arguing for years by now which is that in the medium of video games you can essentially tell any story that you want something that isn't completely possible with any other medium. Perspective interaction and the elements of sights and sounds can combine to have that effect. On account of my sore wrists I was not able to play this entire thing in one sitting though I appreciate others will. However in the pauses I took to rest I found myself thinking about it a lot. As others have noted it is emotionally engaging and you find yourself really wanting more throughout playing and also fulfilled once you reach the ending. I love the choice to sometimes have completely smooth animation and other times essentially use stills and fade between them. Also a sure way to my heart is to unironically use silent film style black screen with white text on it to convey dialog in place of spoken words. If I haven't already gotten it across yet then let me come right out and say this has a tremendous amount of irresistible charm. It is like a warm hug from A loved one that you haven't been able to spend time with in far too long. For a very long time I thought that I just did not like any kind of poetry and then I started being able to play games like this and I realized that I do and it's just a matter of finding the right kind for me. Ebenezer Scrooge types are perhaps the one group of people I might not recommend this to at all but honestly I wouldn't rule out this might melt the heart of at least some of them. This strikes a good balance between hand holding and letting the player realize things on our own. Essentially it will provide a hint if you do something that isn't quite right.