For pretty much every review on this site, I don’t post until I’ve rolled the game’s credits, at least. I point out when that isn’t the case. I do, however, play a decent number of games I don’t end up finishing. As a PlayStation Plus and GamePass (for now) subscriber, as well as a connoisseur of cheap retro PlayStation games, I can jump into games for a little while to see if they stick without financially committing to a full playthrough. I have some thoughts on these games, but don’t feel qualified to write up a full review. Hence, Incomplete Reviews.
Without further ado
BALLxPIT
What Is It? The premise here is that you are playing a Space Invaders/Vampire Survivors hybrid. A never-ending stream of enemies will approach from the top of the screen in block row/column formation and continuously advance towards you. You, a fantasy character, will run freely in the open spaces, firing off balls. These balls will bounce around, dealing damage to anything they touch, before eventually finding their way to the bottom of the screen and returning to your supply. Along the way you will pick up XP which allows you to level up, with each level up allowing you to choose an upgrade. The upgrades can be special balls, such as fire, ice, blade, etc… or something else to increase your chances of survival. There is an auto-fire button you can use, but it slows you down, but grabbing “move at normal speed when auto-firing” upgrade negates that effect. This continues until you clear a level and its boss.
After a clear or death, you get sent to the home area which turns into a hybrid city building/farming situation. You will use your space to lay fields to harvest from, using those resources to purchase upgrades and build better stuff. Everything feeds into upgrading stuff to make future runs a bit easier. You will also unlock new characters and blueprints for buildings during your runs to use in this home area setting.
The Verdict The basic concept here is a lot of fun and well executed. Applying the “shooting balls that bounce around hitting opponents until they’re gone” mechanic on top of leveling and upgrades is a great mix. The game is a lot of fun as well, as the mechanics are well implemented and gameplay is smooth and responsive. I did not get much out of the home area section, but that’s fine. I ultimately dropped this game because I felt that the success of my runs was way too random. Either I would get offered good upgrades and fusions and would be powerful enough to eliminate all of the enemies or I wouldn’t. There was no discernable difference in my approach when I got through a level or I got crushed ⅓ of the way in. Maybe this was me not fully understanding all of the systems around the balls and upgrades, but I mostly felt either strong enough or way too weak. There wasn’t much of a learning curve that I could find to improve so I wasn’t terribly interested in investing a lot more time.
Crash Twinsanity
What Is It? Crash Twinsanity is the second major entry in the mainline Crash series on the PlayStation 2. It follows The Wrath of Cortex which was a flawed extension of Crash 3 that I had a good time with. Twinsanity pairs Crash with Doctor Neo Cortex, his typical enemy. The game features more open area levels than prior games. Crash finally breaks that last half dimension after years of existing in 2.5D. The game isn’t open world, but the movement in these new areas is in line with true 3D platformers. Often, Crash and Neo will be tied together in one way or another. It could be wrestling which creates a rolling ball you have to navigate through obstacles, or maybe linked so Crash has to throw Neo to solve a little platforming hurdle to progress.
The Verdict I dropped off of this because the Crash/Neo pair sections were not any fun. The Crash-only sections were good enough as full 3D Crash levels. The controls on the wrestling ball Crash/Neo sections are bad and then having to throw Neo ahead of Crash showed up, and it was not a good time. There was a really good early section where you are running on parallel tracks as Neo and you have to stay ahead of Neo and clear obstacles so he can safely pass. This is a wonderful use of the two characters and makes the lesser mechanics stand out even more as being bad. Like other Crash games, this is a short playthrough, it says a lot that I could not bring myself to finish.
Ninja Gaiden 4
What Is It? A new entry in the 3D Ninja Gaiden series. The game brings the hack-and-slash, frantic, bloody combat that you expect from the series. The game looks great and plays fast. The dodge mechanic, at least initially, is tied to locking onto a target and then moving yourself out of the way at the last second before they attack. Successfully doing so will put you behind an enemy with the chance to land a quick blow. The environments are fairly bland, but not distractingly so, they just kind of exist. Fight your way through hoards of enemies, find optional side areas to increase your currency supply to purchase more/better upgrades, and repeat.
The Verdict There was just something a tiny bit off in the combat controls that led me to dropping this game. I can occasionally love a good hack-and-slash game, even with tough combat and weird controls, but I could not get there in Ninja Gaiden 4. The move-to-dodge thing wasn’t great but I also didn’t like the lock-on system that much. Fights would inevitably devolve into button mashing where I wasn’t fully certain of who I was actually targeting. The game offers some unlockable moves, with the parry being an important one, which helped improve the initial experience, but still didn’t quite land with me. I suspect I should stick to the 2D versions of Ninja Gaiden.
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