Quantum: Recharged is an arcade, retro style game developed by ‘SneakyBox‘ and published by ‘Atari‘. Quantum: Recharged is said to be coming out the 17th of August 2023 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Atari VCS, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and pc. It’s good to see a re-release of an old game and modernised. X35 Earthwalker will see how interesting this is. Let’s take a look.
Quantum: Recharged has a very simple premise. Players must encircle and trap the enemies with your ship to create zones that destroys them. Pretty cool and different from the straight up bullet hell or arcade shooter. So the aim is to avoid damage at all costs. Be quick and stay mobile. Players will need to get sort of tactical.
So those who play the original will know what to do in Quantum: Recharged. Quantum: Recharged has the improved sounds, graphics, visuals, animations, scenery etc… But wait, there’s more! arcade mode off course as you got to play the game first. There’s leaderboards which means things get competitive. All those with no life will score high. Power ups, as new flavours need to be added. Power ups include things like an extra life, unlimited dodges and even freezing your enemies.
Challenge mode is a thing. Quantum: Recharged challenge mode has 25 so called, “hand-crafted” levels which have their own challenges. For example, defeat a certain number of enemies within a time limit. Not very challenging if you ask us. Step it up Quantum: Recharged. The best thing they got going for them though is the fact that Quantum: Recharged has local co-op. So grab a family member or fiend, hand them a controller and have some fun.
We checked out some Quantum: Recharged gameplay and it’s what we expected. Quantum: Recharged is definitely fast paced. Very fast. So make sure to get use to the speed. Dash around, avoid damage and danger, encircle foes and beat them. It’s so arcade and classic looking. Flashy, lights and action.
Overall Quantum: Recharged looks like a fun game. A good fun game. Classic fun and simple formula. The developers ‘SneakyBox’ have done a very good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear how this game does. Quantum: Recharged may have a rerelease but it’s still hasn’t got the same quality level as… the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Callisto Protocol, that next level survival horror game is back at it… not like a crack addict. The new game mode is here! It’s called Riot Mode. We heard about this mode but off course had to wait. Not anymore. X35 Earthwalker, the best and greatest gamer of all time, gave it a try. There’s lots to say but we will try to shorten this, maybe explain more on the podcast, regardless; read this or you a bum. Let’s take a look.
Riot Mode is all about survival… surviving for as long as you can actually. There’s no set goal like get to wave 50. You just keep going until you die. We aren’t a fan of horde modes like that. We prefer a set goal. Something to conquer. You spawn in a room and make your way through to the main map. More on the room later by the way. Once in, you Riot Mode begins. Each wave spawns in enemies from the main campaign. So be prepared to deal with them all. As you slay and survive waves, you earn Callisto credits.
In Riot Mode you use the Callisto Credits to buy weapons or upgrades or even ammo. Whatever. For example you can upgrade the stun baton for more damage or buy the Assault rifle. What we don’t like is the restrictions on the load outs. You can only have one pistol weapon and one rifle type-ish weapon. So you can’t have Hand Cannon and Skunk Gun as both are small and classes like a pistol. You can’t have both Assault rifle and Riot Gun. Both are long two handed weapons. Not fun. Be careful how you spend as some things are more needed than others at certain times.
Around the map are other stuff too. You can find health packs and GRP battery dispensers. They are quite cheap but increase in cost as you really progress in waves. So decide, do you want to heal, or get more damage on a weapon? You can stack up on health packs too. You can even buy ‘gate fuses’ which can be used to activate traps in rooms. For example there’s a connector corridor that has a rotating razor trap which travels in a straight line. You can use that to mow down foes. There’s also a closing spike compactor trap which you can use to tap and smash enemies. One shot them.
Now Riot Mode is apparently very difficult. We have seen youtubers first attempt and one got to wave 27 and died. Another called dan got to wave 42. It might just be a skill thing though as X35 Earthwalker on his first attempt got to wave 61. If you are a master at The Callisto Protocol and dealing with enemies then you will have minimal issues. The problems start when swarms of different enemies mix together. If you have fat guys throwing their weight at you, while a security robot has you in his line of sight, while an exploder its rapidly approaching… then you will experience pain. Unfair pain. Some enemies you can’t ignore and have to dodge; however some attacks keep you in place or stagger you, setting you up for strikes.
Arguable the biggest threat is the two head. He doesn’t wait his turn in combat. He comes for you no matter what. He does big damage and you have to respect it. Prioritise him. Yet if the biophage in security uniform are on you, then tough luck as he is major aggressive and will keep you dodging or getting slapped around, while two head approaches. The best weapon is rampage mode. When activated you have unlimited ammo and literally one shot EVERY enemy for 30 seconds. Use this mode wisely. It will save your life. Rampage Mode is the best thing in this game.
Remember that starting room? Well there’s more to it. It’s actually the room to pick your starting perks. What?! Perks?! Yeah, the game doesn’t tell you. X35 Earthwalker discovered this by himself. You unlock them as you play and progress. X35 Earthwalker unlocked all in his first try (He is the best after all). There’s like 15 perks. You can select a maximum of 3. Then jump in.
Now for the rewards. When you play, you unlock the Hazmat suit. It’s a cool design. We definitely like this. Other from that… nothing. So let’s talk about this. Riot Mode is definitely fun and can get real intense. It’s a great addition to The Callisto Protocol. It is lacking some things though. The fact that there’s no goals and i9t’s a go on forever thing means it suffers from the same problem as other modes. It gets boring fast. When X35 Earthwalker got to wave 55, he did get bored and tired. He pushed on only because he set goals for himself like get to wave 60 or pass 100000 score. He did both by the way.
The other issue is that there’s nothing to earn. You get the hazmat suit and that’s it. It’s not even like you need to reach wave 60 to get it. You basically just have to play. So Riot Mode will die quite fast. Developers need to understand what players want. Riot Mode needs goals, Riot Mode needs prizes and rewards. Riot Mode needs something to keep players going. The combat is as solid as ever. The Callisto Protocol is currently the best survival game right now. Riot Mode has good potential but it must be capitalised on.
Quick update: X35 Earthwalker literally just did his third attempt at Riot Mode and He got to wave 102! That’s right. Possibly the first to do it too. It took too long. Developers, you need to make those later waves shorter. X35 got seriously bored, especially in the last 20 waves. So much sacrifice for no reward. That right… got nothing for doing it besides just a platinum medal in game. Oh well. Part of the X35 Earthwalker gaming achievements.
X35 Earthwalker has set himself another goal in Riot Mode and once that’s complete, then there’s no other reason to play again. So developers, look into this and make some adjustments. Now Riot Mode may be crazy but it’s too small for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Asteroids: Recharged is a action arcade shooter game developed by Sneakybox and Adamvision studios but published by Atari. Asteroids: Recharged is said to be coming out the the 14th of December 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Asteroids is back and it’s coming new stuff. Let’s take a look.
Let’s keep this simple with Asteroid: Recharged. It’s Asteroid. Like come on. If you don’t know what this game is then we don’t want to help you. Just open up another page on your search engine and type in ‘asteroid game’. You’re welcome. Now concerning the rest of y’all who aren’t uncultured swine, read the rest of this G-blog post. Asteroid is back and modernised. This includes new, better controls and off course superior graphics.
Asteroid: Recharged is not just controls and visuals. There’s new gameplay mechanics and features too. There’s new power ups and weapons to help you. There’s rail guns, spread shots and even reflector shields and more. There’s not just asteroids. There’s these annoyingUFOs that have some anger issues. They are after you. So take them down… if you can.
We checked out some Asteroid: Recharged gameplay and it’s what we expected. You are the computer cursor arrow thing. You move around, dodge, stay alive and blast everything really. The UFOs look stupid but they don’t care. They want to kill you. The best thing about Asteroid: Recharged is that there’s local co-op… unlike Halo Infinite. Every mode gives the option for local co-op. Excellent decision.
Overall Asteroid: Recharged looks like an excellent game. Simple game but seems to work well. The action can get serious when asteroids start closing in from all around. We like the visuals of a destroyed large asteroid. Looks excellent. Modernising old retro games is an easy job and are mostly done good. The developers ‘Sneakybox’ and ‘Adamvision studios’ have done an excellent job. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to just wait and see what Asteroid: Recharged will do. Now Asteroid: Recharged may have been modernised but what’s always modern is… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Centipede: Recharged is an arcade retro game developed by ‘Adamvision Studios‘ and ‘SneakyBox‘ and published by ‘Atari‘. Centipede: Recharged is said to be coming out the 29th of September 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Those horrible insects are back. We got to blast them. Let’s take a look.
Centipede: Recharged is an old school game brought back basically. Remember those fast moving long centipedes that tried to make its way towards you? Well it’s happening again. Seriously? Who likes centipede? They are horrible creatures with a nasty and dangerous bite. They are fast and have harmed people. So we should blast them. So yeah, that’s what Centipede: Recharged is about. Dangerous centipedes are coming your way and you need to blast them but in modern fashion.
As you can obviously see, Centipede: Recharged is modernised. There’s new visuals, new animations and off course some special effects and particle effects. Just think about what they did with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 and some space invader games. It’s basically a remastering of the old classic games. Same thing basically but everything looks better and hopefully controls better. So those who are a fan of the original Centipede should automatically like Centipede: Recharged.
Yes we are aware that there are other bugs too like spiders and a scorpion but clearly the main enemies are centipedes and plus it’s the name of the game so give us a break here. We like the fact that local co-op play is here too. More games need these options. Good job Centipede: Recharged. So work together with a friend or family and crush those horrible bugs together. Two blasters are better than one… unless you are the one getting blasted. So remember that.
We checked out some Centipede: Recharged gameplay and it’s mostly what we expected. There’s challenges too. Well 30 of them. There’s an endless arcade mode too. So there is some replayability in there. We also spotted some power ups. That’s right, this isn’t the same Centipede you use to know. There’s power ups effects like bombing in a row, side shots and even scaring enemies away. There’s more too so it will be interesting to see what others do.
Overall Centipede looks like another nice modernised classic game. A simple job that so far looks done right. Again, if you liked centipede then you will most likely like Centipede: Recharged. It looks good but we expect more though. The developers ‘Adamvision Studios‘ and ‘SneakyBox‘ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker like what we see but expect more though. Now Centipede: Recharged might have dangerous bugs but those get easily crushed by.. the ‘Earth Walk!’
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a racing arcade game developed and published by ‘Milestone s.r.l‘. Hot Wheels Unleashed is said top be coming out the 30th of September 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. Hot Wheels Unleashed is here to bring the heat. Let’s take a look.
Hot Wheels Unleashed doesn’t need any explanation really. We all should know what Hot Wheels is. The racing car toy brand. They have many cars, released many tracks and the like. Many children were excited for Hot Wheels. Having the cars jump across tracks, go down big hills, go too fast around a corner and fly off the tracks and more. Basically it’s a video game now. Players can control the actually toy designed cars and race in Hot Wheel designed looking tracks. So yeah, you should know what to expect now.
What’s really good about Hot Wheels Unleashed is that players can build their own tracks. If this feature wasn’t in the game, we would not pay any mind to this game. Building your own tracks had to be in Hot Wheels Unleashed. The tracks can even have Hot Wheels styled features and props. You can have mechanical beings like giant spiders and even a dragon head that can hinder the other racers by either trapping them in sticky web or crushing them in their jaws. So these tracks can get real crazy.
We checked out some Hot Wheels Unleashed gameplay and it’s what we expected. When building your tracks, everything in the environment can be a part of the track. Stage objects mixed with track modules brings new possibilities. There’s split screen multiplayer. Two player split screen is a thing but you can also face up to 12 players in line races. So the action is definitely available here. We like that there’s drifting to handle those corners. The overall speed of the game seems to slow though. Maybe their target audience is primarily children and youngsters so they don’t want the game too difficult but the speed looked lame to us. There does look like there’s drift speed boosts and a lot of speed pads to make you go faster but it doesn’t look like much of a speed boost. We will have to wait and see. Yes we are aware it was pre-alpha footage so it can change. We hope it changes.
Overall Hot Wheels Unleashed seems like a good game so far but nothing special or great at all. We need to see more. This could be a real cool racing game. We need loads of environments like race tracks over the ocean and have the backgrounds and environments alive with creatures and nature etc. They might be going for the racing at home feel like with the actual toys but we need that creativity. The developers ‘Milestone s.r.l‘ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear what Hot Wheels Unleashed can do. Now Hot Wheels Unleashed may have actual toy cars but it has no effect on… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is a arcade action platformer game developed and published by ‘Capcom‘. Let’s just say this right now. Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is fantastic, brilliant and worth your time. Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is a brutally difficult game. If you plan to take this game on then keep that warning in mind. Let’s take a look.
Let’s get this out of the way. X35 Earthwalker not only beat Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection but 100% it too. This was done on the Nintendo Switch. X35 Earthwalker is the only gamer that we know who has done this on a pure Legend difficulty run which means you don’t lower the difficulty to beat a specific level or part. 100%-ing this game was too painful. There’s two specific levels in the shadow versions that brought the vast majority of the pain. Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is cheap and we aren’t talking about price. This game is cheap in terms of how unfair it is. This was all done ON PURPOSE. Some gamers of lower intellect say that Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is badly made or some parts weren’t made well but actually those things they are talking about were designed that way intentionally to troll the players. Capcom are a bunch of dirty trolls when it comes to this game and it shows and makes players suffer. More on that later though.
Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is what fans of the series would expect and appreciate. There has been Ghosts n’ Goblins, Ghouls n’ Ghosts (the best one), Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts and Ultimate Ghosts n’ Goblins. This is known as the probably the hardest video game series in existence. X35 Earthwalker has beaten this series. We can say that Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is the hardest of them all. The others are easy compared to it. We are saying all this to give gamers an idea of how hard this game is and what you bums are getting yourselves into. So yeah you Ghouls n’ Ghosts fans will definitely be happy with this game for sure. If you hate it, it’s mostly because you suck at the game. Now the tradition of beating the game twice is still there. Going through the game once is 50% of the game. You only truly beat the game when you go through it TWICE. It’s been that way for every game in the series except Ultimate Ghosts n’ Goblins but it had a huge twist. This is where youtubers like ‘ericvanwilderman’, ‘ryukahr’ and ‘darksydephil’ have ALL FAILED. These guys beat all the levels ONCE on legend difficulty and then bailed like cowards. This means they didn’t beat the game. They didn’t get the main ending or true ending either. Nothing. They folded. So X35 Earthwalker is better than all of them.
Now the big difference here with Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is magic. Yes there was magic in Ultimate Ghosts n’ Goblins but it’s way bigger here. You got to collect the umbral bees to return to the umbral tree to get magic. These magics are game changers. Very powerful. Players will need these to truly beat the game. We love the big variety of magic here and what is available. You’ve got flame walls to cover you from ground based enemies. You’ve got passive upgrade magic like kitted out which lets you hold multiple weapons. There’s magic like transmigifrog which turns enemies into… well… frogs. Off course the iconic lightning magic is here so you can blast them all away… no team rocket. In most parts magic makes the game easier while in possibly two areas it feels like it’s a necessity. Concerning the youtubers we mentioned earlier we did notice they relied too heavily on magic while one did gorgon spam which is lame. The gorgon magic is like the cheapest magic in the game. It turns all small to medium sized enemies into stone. They can’t move or hurt you. Not only that, there’s a chance that when you kill them while stoned (get it) they drop items including armour. It’s overall the best magic in the game. Our free tip to all players who want to 100% the game and get magic quick. You have to aim for the umbral bee net magic. That magic will save you soooooo much pain and troubles. Just get it. Shut up! Don’t argue with us, just get the net and thank us later.
The bosses are big but not a big deal for the most part. Most players agree that the hard parts of Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection are the levels but the bosses are easy in comparison. The bosses are easy. The only one that gives real problems is cerberus. He has the most unpredictable and random actions. It can go so wrong very easily. The others have a more fixed way of beating them. The Bosses are basically remakes of the original bosses from the previous games. Fun fact the cyclops originally was called a unicorn in the first game. These boss fights are good fun though. In terms of difficulty from hardest to easiest we would say: cerberus, shielder, dragon then cyclops.
The design style of Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection game looks very nice indeed. We like how the game looks. It isn’t what we wanted though. We don’t think this is the best style for this game but we certainly appreciate all the work that went into it. As we said before it looks good. The music is very good and we like the variety they got going on. The Execution Grounds music might be our favourite and then Crystalline City.
The levels are designed very well in Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection. There’s so much to say about the levels. There’s so much reference and designs done to pay respects to the original games. With zone 1 & 2 the bottom levels are based on Ghosts n’ Ghouls while the top levels are based on Ghosts n’ Goblins. These levels are made with difficulty in mind. The levels constantly spawn many enemies. They never stop, forcing players to move quick but you can’t rush though as that leads you into all the traps. Some levels have areas where you reach a specific spot and then numerous enemies spawn. The developers Capcom are real trolls here. The worst we’ve seen. There are some spots like by a jump where a specific enemy will ALWAYS spawn just to meet you where you would land if you jumped. There’s multiple moments like this.
There’s a part in hellfire hamlet where it looks safe but a Fire Fennec will always land there and knock you. You aren’t safe there. There’s even a cursed moment in Cavern of the Occult, the shadow version, where at the very end, after you’ve struggled so hard to get there (hardest part of the game for us), you have to jump of the stone dragon and land on solid ground. The developers double layered the troll here. First there’s a drawing, an exact copy of the landing area in the background but earlier. It looks exactly like it but slightly darker so players jump thinking it’s the right time but it leads to death. That’s the first part. The second part is worse. After you fall for the first troll (which we know you did) and try again you jump to land on the safe ground, except a plant monster pops up basically at the edge waiting to knock you back into the bottomless pit to die. How horrible. piece of crap scumbag move capcom. You scumbags. Expect trolls and things to ruin you.
We do like that there’s a good amount of variety in Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection. We like that weapons seem more balanced than previous games. These weapons have their moments and reasons for using them. We have tried all and enjoy them all for the most part. We really like the hammer as well and it’s satisfying to kill many enemies be untouchable and even kill bosses with it but it’s sill the worst weapon overall in the game. Now Let’s talk a bit about the negatives of this game. Back to the weapons. The developers haven’t learnt from previous games. Everyone knows that the daggers (according to official booklets from previous games they are swords) are the best. No debate needed. They should have mixed things up. Unless you have the kitted out passive upgrade you can only have one weapon. The only weapon everyone would pick and it’s the one you truly only need is the daggers. That’s bad design. Like for example why would you pick the lance over the daggers? Exactly, never. No one we’ve seen online pick lance over daggers either. Balance the weapons to make it so that players really have to decide at times what’s best for what’s going on.
Second complaint is how the levels get locked away after you’ve beaten the game completely as in the shadow levels. The first time makes sense as you are sent back to the start to go through the levels again but in shadow mode. After you’ve beaten the shadow mode levels why do they lock away the levels again? That’s a dumb move. We already beat the game… relax for a moment. The third complaint is that when you beat a level more than once skulls will appear next to the name of the level. These skulls make the level harder. We believe the maximum is two skulls. It could be three though. When two skulls are there, the levels have more aggressive spawns, there’s therefore more enemies. We can’t control this at all. This is a problem because when X35 Earthwalker first went through all the levels, all was well but then he entered levels again to find the umbral bees and black chest. Then he beat the shadow versions of the levels, which forced him to play through them all again to unlock the levels so he can go for the umbral bees and black chests AGAIN. By this time the levels got skulls. This means when trying to beat the hell holes, and find all the collectibles, X35 had to do that with a harder version of the level. That’s not fair. This whole game isn’t fair so that’s saying something. The fourth complaint would be the Red Arremer final secret magic where you transform into Red Arremer. It’s inferior to the real thing. You can’t fly forever like the actual demons, you have limited mobility and it’s not fun to play as. We rather be Arthur than red arremer which shouldn’t be the case. It’s a let down. Our big award for getting all the umbral bees is a lame red arremer form. Not happy. The fish complaint are the actual red arremers themselves. They are too hard to beat. We found a way to beat them but it isn’t guaranteed. There are some places where you can’t use the technique. Lightning magic level 3 is the best solution to those demons but that’s end game when you have loads of umbral bees. When everyone first faced the red arremer no one knew what to do, even the seasoned ghouls n’ ghosts veterans were like how do you kill this guy.
Now to be positive again here’s some more stuff we truly like. We like that Ghosts n’ Goblins has good stuff from the previous games like level design from the first two games. Upgraded weapons due to having special armour just like Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts. In order to get the true ending and real final boss you need to collect all of the demon orbs just like needing to get all the rings in Ultimate Ghosts n’ goblins. The special armour you get as a reward for truly beating the game which includes beating all hell holes, collecting all demon orbs, beating the final true boss and getting the true ending. This special armour actually makes you invincible. Enemies can’t beat you. Falling in bottom pits and falls can still kill you but no enemy can kill you. You can’t get killed. It’s awesome. Now that’s a good reward. We liked that they kept the arcade feeling of the game. We do care about the score and getting the items for points. The magics are versatile and fun to use allowing for different tactics. We liked the challenges set for players in this game. They are all fair and doable but are actually challenging. When you complete them all, you feel real good for sure.
Overall Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is a fantastic game. You will hate the game during some parts and you will completely disown the game and say you’ve never heard of it when trying to 100% it but it’s great fun. We have watched many gamers, some of which are actually skilled, fail and die many times in a single level. Like over 100 or even 200 deaths on the first few levels. It’s so tough that not even ‘ericvanwilderman’, ‘ryukahr’ and ‘darksydephil’ can beat this game on legends difficulty. Remember that going through the levels once isn’t beating the game. It’s the best game in the ghouls n’ ghosts series yet easily. It didn’t go for innovation like Ultimate Ghosts n’ Goblins but decided to stay to the original style which off course worked out very well here. There’s so much more we can easily say about this game but we have to end it here. It’s long enough as it is. Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection is currently one of the best games of 2021 easily and an easy 10/10. Play it… unless you suck. Now Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrection may be 10/10 but it’s not perfect unlike… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Thunderflash is a new action adventure arcade shooter game developed and published by ‘SEEP’. Thunderflash is said to be coming out the 26th of February 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PC. This game is coming with the old school style for sure. Ley’s take a look.
The story in Thunderflash is very simple. Here’s what it says, “The Kashmir is being occupied by a criminal organization known as Bloody Wolf, and your job is to make your country proud by taking them all down.” So you are dropped straight in the action with your gun. Firing at everything that moves. It doesn’t matter what it is. you see a squirrel… then shoot it. It shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Just one look at Thunderfash and you know it went for the old school 1980’s look. Pixels and everything.
There are two characters right now: Bad boy commandos Rock and Stan. That’s what they call them. You can either play Thunderflash solo or cop with a friend. Co-op makes a big difference for games. It’s a simple game. Just fight your way through numerous enemy soldiers, vehicles, explosions off course, drones and even bosses. Thunderflash does remind us of ‘Smash TV’ with the style and top down shooting but also reminds us of Contra due to the intensity of the combat. So if you did like either of those two games then there should be something for players here. Now off course an arcade shooter game needs lots of weapons or at least gun power ups. In Thunderflash you can get powerful weapons to use against the horde of enemies. There is also a boss rush too so when you beat the game you can face the bosses and show them who is boss (get it?).
We checked out some Thunderflash gameplay and it’s what we expected for sure. It’s top down, running around, shooting enemies coming at you in squads, power up, try to survive and take down the boss. Arcade style, lives remaining, pixel graphic style, scrolling screens and of course explosions. Thunderflash isn’t something big and new or anything special. Just something a number of players will enjoy, either for old time sake or because the style is their type.
Overall Thunderflash seems like. simple but alright game. You get what it says on the box. Just old school shooting action. You can’t get mad at it. We wish the game did look better graphically. We have not seen enough but we know what exactly it is. The developers ‘SEEP’ have done a alright job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to listen out what what gamers say about Thunderflash. Now Thunderflash may have old school action but that’s too old for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Tetris Effect Connected is a new arcade puzzle game developed by ‘Monstars Inc.’, ‘Resonair’, ‘Stage Games’ and published by ‘Enhance‘. Tetris Effect: Connected is said to be coming out 2020 on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. It’s Tetris, that alone should tell you what this is all about. Let’s take a look.
Tetris Effect: Connected is Tetris at the end of the day which means you got to place falling blocks of different shapes and patterns in places to fill up rows to get rid of them and score the big points. If you don’t know what Tetris is then you should be ashamed of yourself for the most part. We never cared about Tetris but we knew what it was. Now Tetris Effect: Connected is like Pac-Man Championship Edition 2… a bigger, better game with the same foundation formula but with new features, mechanics, more colours and more flashiness.
The Single player has been upgraded and levelled up. There are all new modes like ‘Zone Battle’ which has “time-stopping Zone mechanic” which can be the thing that helps bring someone from behind in the game or maybe in front. This shakes up the 1v1 battles. New features and mechanics means new tactics and new things to taken into account. There’s said to be over 10 modes in Tetris Effect: Connected so expect lots of things to do in this game. This isn’t the main thing nor what we care about that much.
What we really care about is the multiplayer as that’s the biggest upgrade in our opinion. The multiplayer has what’s called connected mode. This where up to three players can actually connect their playing fields together and play as a team. This team must do their best to defeat CPU bosses. A whole series of them and they keep getting harder and harder. So working together and doing your best is the solution. We don’t know if there is a difficulty adjustment for the number of players working together or not.
Tetris Effect: Connected has the green badge of Xbox Series X approval. You know what this means. “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness, and frame rates up to 120 FPS.” So expect 120 frames per second of Tetris Effect: Connected goodness.
We checked out some Tetris Effect: Connected gameplay and it’w what we thought it would be just more flashy. There over 30 different stages to play on, more than 10 modes. The effects don’t make things hard to see. It’s Tetris at the end of the day, so don’t expect any sticky plasma grenades. Our favourite thing is clearly facing the CPU bosses like that scorpion. Tetrtic Effect: Connected will have both cooperative and competitive gameplay which will be both local (old for that) and online. There’s options.
Overall Tetris Effect: Connected is looking like an excellent game so far. Tetris Effect was good but this new game is even better. It has all the previous great stuff plus more. The multiplayer is definitely going to be the best feature of this game and we like the flashiness and work that’s gone into this game. The developers ‘Monstars Inc.’, ‘Resonair’, ‘Stage Games’ have done an excellent job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what else Tetris Effect: Connected has up it’s sleeves. Now Tetris Effect: Connected may have a new flashy upgrade but it’s incredibly dull when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Streets of Rage 4 is an arcade beat em up game and off course the fourth game in the Streets of Rage series. Many have been waiting for this game. Many. X35 Earthwalker is one of them but off course the greatest and coolest of them. Things are different this time around in Streets of Rage, in multiple ways and for the better. Many have talked or reviews this game (they did alright) but remember… a game hasn’t been reviewed until X35 Earthwalker has reviewed it. Let’s take a look.
Streets of Rage stories have never been complicated. They are always straight forward and simple. In Streets of Rage 4. There’s crime in the city, an evil syndicate is behind it all and the vigilante heroes go in to stop it… beating the crap out of everyone and everything that gets in their way. Simple. This time though Mr X is not the one behind it. He’s dead. It’s his children… the Y twins! Mr and Ms Y. So this time Axel, blaze, Cherry? and Floyd? with rage in their hearts take on the streets of rage. Yep, we got new characters. Cherry hunter (if you couldn’t tell by the name) is the daughter of Adam Hunter. Floyd Iraia is the apprentice and assistant of Dr Gilbert Zan. So no Adam again?…
The rules are the same in Streets of Rage 4. Keep moving to the right and beat up all the bad guys. Reach the end of the level and face a boss. Get enough points and you earn an extra life. Each of the characters have their own stats which can be viewed in the extras menu but you must unlock it first. They each have special attacks with a few like Blaze having an additional. There’s the defensive and offensive special attack. The defensive is like a ‘get off me’ move which during you’re also invincible. Offensive is normally longer range, travels a little and does straight up damage. Each character also has an ultimate attack. These require stars to activate which don’t come easy. For example, Floyd’s ultimate is him firing huge laser like he’s Cyborg from Injustice. Cherry is the fastest of all the fighters and the only one who can sprint. Floyd is the biggest and strongest but slower than slow itself. Axel is a balanced fighter with a powerful offensive special move. Blaze is also balanced, bit weaker than axel but got an additional special attack.
Streets of Rage 4 isn’t a hard game but a fair challenge, unlike Streets of Rage 3. The difficulties are: Easy. normal, hard, hardest and Mania. Mania is as the descriptions says… unfair but it’s only for the masters of Streets of Rage 4. Familliar enemies like Galsia, donavon, yellow signal are all here and ready to fight. Matter of fact, enemies from different Streets of Rage games are all here. They come back as mini bosses, actual end of level boss or just strong enemies. Big Ben, the fat guy in red introduced in Streets of Rage 2, is back and he charges you spiting fire (somehow) just like the good ol days. Barbon who was a boss in streets of Rage 2 is back and also a boss. He still kicks hard. Garnet, the women who jump and kick you from Streets of Rage 3 are here too. The Muay Thai fighters are back too and they are worse in our opinion. There are new enemies too like Honey who we hate the most. Stupid enemies indeed. When there’s multiple of them, expect a rough time. Police officers including one with a futuristic shield called Murphy (robocop anyone?). Goro who really slows down how you play and is dangerous when more than one is present. There’s more.
The old techniques are there in Streets of Rage 4, like landing on your feet when launched or thrown. You can break grabs as well and even juggle enemies with multiple simple hits to lead up with a strong finisher. Let’s dive in a bit more concerning some enemies. Yes enemies have variations of them just like the older Streets of Rage games. Galsia is normally blue and the weakest but then you will come across a green, red and white version who have more health and more aggressive. Donavan has a green and red pants versions of them. We believe the green one is called altet, something like that. Anyways, the red ones can throw weapons at you and even catch weapons throw at them. The last version of them is called ‘z’ and they at times can have armour. Big Ben has variations. There’s Gourmand and Anry. Gourmand will always try to belly flop drop on you while Anry will roll for an attack like Sonic the hedgehog but only vertically. Watch out for these guys. These guys and others aren’t much of a problem really but it becomes a huge problem when you play in hardest difficulty. The character designs are excellent. Amazing. Majority of these characters were designed right. Their design says quite a lot about them. Our favourite enemy design is Diva, hands down. Her design from her clothes, to heels, to hair style all have character. Her movement animations is also excellent. Combine it all together and she’s tough, a boss, dangerous, sexy and got attitude. You need to beat her up first before she complies.
Our second favourite enemy design is Mr Y. This guy has evil crime lord written all over him, from the trendy stylish coat, to his hair and fighting style. He doesn’t back down, regardless and knows he’s powerful. He was meant to be a bad guy. What’s that? He wanted to be a chef, well too bad, crime is his life. He looks good for sure. Our favourite hero design probably has to be Blaze. We feel like this is the best look for her possible. She’s got her jacket back which is a good thing. They went for a beautiful, sexy design but also she would kick your butt in many ways if you even try it on her once. Now some have a problem with her design but we think those people just need to grow up. Yes her skirt is real short but for what she does it’s actually practical. Look at her fighting style over the Streets of Rage games. She kicks… a lot. She does flips and jumping kicks. Jumping was her best stat in the very first game. How are you going to jump kick effective in a long skirt, you can’t unless it has a slit going all the way up to your hip. She can kick high if she needs to and flip. Her shirt makes it possible. It rides up when she does which is very realistic. We get it, some of you dads out there thinking, “young lady, go back upstairs and change. You ain’t fighting crime dressed like that!” We understand but her outfit is good, realistic and practical. This is coming from a martial artists with over 12 years experience. We don’t like Axel’s design. He looks kind of chubby now, like his six pack formed on top of the fat. He was a martial artist so why would he let himself go. Being a wanderer and searching for direction or whatever he’s doing doesn’t mean you stop caring. Wish he was in shape like Adam. Adam looks great but we can think of better designs for him.
Next let’s talk about the music. Streets of Rage games have always been known for their music. The boss music in Streets of Rage 1 is the best. You can bop and jam to it while facing the bosses. Streets of Rage 2 had two levels that we really enjoyed the music off. Also Streets of Rage 2 also has the best character select screen music, hands down. Streets of Rage 3 was the least of all the games in our opinion. Streets of Rage 4 has real nice menu music for chilling. You can get the Streets of Rage 2 character select screen music in the settings. In Streets of Rage 4 the best stage music of them all hands down is part 1 of level 2 the Precinct. Easy. If you say no, we will give you a location, meet us there and we will fight you. We aren’t responsible for all wounds you WILL get. Back to topic. Level 1, 2, 3, 4 and part 2 of level 9 had good to very good music. The others music was alright or not impressive to us sadly. Music in Streets of Rage 4 has build up music as in the music starts with a simple or unimpressive beta but as you go through the level the music builds up and extra beats are added and then it becomes something real good. We like that style. Level three hasn’t got good music at the start but then becomes something you can jam too but if you switch retro music for that level, it’s the boat music level from Streets of Rage 2 which was excellent. Sadly the retro music is better than the modern. We wish the developers did more concerning the music. The variety is definitely there even giving a more oriental music for the china town level.
Let’s now go over what we didn’t like. We don’t like that you had to beat level 4 before you can play as Adam. Adam was missing from both Streets of Rage 2 and 3 in terms of being playable. Then now in Streets of Rage 4 we got to play a bit to get him. Speaking of characters we don’t like that you can’t play as modern Shiva. If you look at the title screen you see Estel, Diva and Shiva on the front screen like they are a part of the cast. They have good looking character designs with their own moves but not unlockable. Maybe they plan to bring them in as DLC but if they at the front then either they are significant or playable. Simple. You might say they are there because they are bosses. Good point but Barbon, Nora, commissioner, DJ K Washi etc aren’t on the front. So yeah it’s not consistent. What we don’t like is hw the biker girls like Honey and the Muay Thai fighters have almost instant reflex hitting moves that can even joggle making certain sections practically unfair. The biker girls slide attack still hits you diagonally and forces you to save yourself by using special moves which drain your health and leave you in a bad state. What’s also disappointing is that besides the first thing levels like 1,2,3,4 the rest of the music isn’t great and the retro audio options aren’t good either. We was expecting the greatest Streets of Rage music of all time. Didn’t happen. The striking window or time for enemies to hit you remains the same regardless of difficulty.
The trick to handling Barbon isn’t clear like the other bosses. When he does his repeated roundhouse 360 kicks you are suppose to jump but it doesn’t look like that’s possible so you don’t try that. Especially someone like mFloyd who can’t jump high at all (sucker has 10cm vertical leap) the kick visually goes through his body but doesn’t hit. Also having the biker girls come out to join Barbon because you smash the bikes isn’t good either as you want the items but when you smash the bikes they come out. If you aren’t careful you will end up fighting Barbon and 6 biker girls at the same time. Adam had practically no relevance in the story besides his reveal which again is just bad. For some reasons Streets of Rage 4 on Xbox One has a shorter combo window than others. We watched some people including CoryxKenshin play Streets of Rage 4 (video below, watch when he hits the car) and we noticed that when they finished fighting someone their combo number in the top left hand corner stays for much longer, flashes and then shrinks showing it’s going to reset soon. That doesn’t happen on our Xbox One version. It resets so fast. Also when you hit the car in stage 1 that counts as hits and raises your combo counter. It doesn’t do that for us. Also if you hit cones, bins, water machines, whatever destructible which normally hide food or whatever under it, it also counts as a hit and even eating the food prevents the combo from ending. This allows you too easily get crazy combos. Very unfair. Where’s the section that allows us to play music from the game? They should have had that.
Let’s finish with more good stuff. What’s cool is that the levels and dialogue make it clear that the Y twins respected their dad. Family love. We like how each characters special attacks are so different from each other. Floyd being technology and pure force, Axel having fire as usual, Cherry having abilities linked to her guitar and music, Blaze having what looks like energy and off course Adam looking like green flames with dragon shapes at least for the offensive special move. The effects look excellent. We like the additional information and stuff you unlock in the extras menu. Those are actually interesting stuff. The ultimates look fantastic and make you want to use them a lot but sadly you get punished for using them by getting a lower score as you get 500 points for each star you hold on to at the end of the level.The fact that you can play as one of the characters from the previous Streets of Rage games is a big brain move. You can literally go through the whole game a streets of rage 1 Axel. That’s big. Players off course loved that they did this. The story is simple and easy to go with including cinematic scenes. It makes sense and you just roll with it. We also truly enjoyed that there are hidden levels where you face old bosses from past Streets of Rage games like Jack and even Mr X. It’s like a blast from the past. See clip below for an example alone with X35 Earthwalker getting an out of this world combo.
Overall Streets of Rage 4 is an excellent game. It’s awesome. We are having so much fun playing it. We have beaten the game multiple times. Gotten the perfect and out of this world combo achievements. We still have quite a bit more stuff to do. Even mania difficulty can’t stop us. If you are a fan of Streets of Rage or new to the series you will most likely enjoy this game. We haven’t tried the multiplayer but it’s clear. Either play online and go through levels with others or battle against over players online in battle mode to see who has more rage in their heart. The developers have done an excellent job but there is room for more. We suggest you get Streets of Rage 4 besides it’s not even expensive like £21. Off course we don’t go over everything but the main stuff. Now Streets of Rage 4 may have great designs, music and animations but those would have been much better if they done… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Music Racer is a musical arcade game developed and published by ‘AbstractArt‘. Music Racer is said to be coming out the 29th of January 2020 on the Xbox One. It’s already out on PC though. So what stood out to us was the graphic style. So racing plus music. Let’s take a look.
So there isn’t a story in Music Racer. It’s literally just a straight up arcade game in terms of it’s all about the gameplay, that’s it. Now players control one of two types of vehicles: a car and aircraft (we think). Just travel along the track along to the sounds of YOUR music. As you go along you must hit the beats and get the rhythm. So literally just race along and chill to the beats YOU are playing.
The type of music that YOU select will impact many factors like: the length of the track, how much time you have and the movement speed of the player. So think about the music YOU select for each round.
Now if you haven’t caught onto the clues we gave you, then shame on you. Music Racers requires YOUR music to play the game as in your very own music! So players need to have music files like MP3, Ogg, Flac, Wav etc (at least the PC version required them). You can stream from YouTube too so you can get tunes from there.
We checked out some Music Racer gameplay and it’s what we expected for the most part. You are racing through what looks like a digital world with neon tracks. Move left or right to catch the beats and get that tune going. Nothing special but looks good though. There’s multiple colours and since the track is dependant on song, there will be great variety.
Overall Music Racer just seems like another quick, fun arcade game. Nothing serious at all. Just casual fun. The graphics are good for its style. The music is dependent on the players taste. We haven’t seen anything that makes us want to play but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It does what it says on the box. The developers ‘AbstractArt’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Music Racers will do. Now Music Racers may allow us to use our tunes but no matter what you bring, it’s dry when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’
