Recent reviews by EmuChicken

The definitive version of Zool.

https://youtu.be/UkOBh5p0VSk

Nothing more than a proof of concept / tech demo on how SoR2 would look on the PC. One stage... Repeat - but slightly harder. A grind.
Works quite well on an arcade cab, tho.
https://youtu.be/lD9-JKHol4Y

Only at 55 UK pennies, we have a lovely little gem that throws us back to the days of simple mobile games. Like the one with the bicycle, all you did was JUMP – One mistake, POOF!

Enter Montaro. A lovable mutt. DOGE is, apparently, the hip-new word kids use nowadays. From the Steam store page:
“Montaro is a casual runner game that was created to heal your heart.
– Random generated street levels.
– Lift up highschool girl’s skirts, protect your doge by panties.”

… Excuse me?
Perhaps this is how dogs live their life? Wandering a Japanese city, lifting up girls skirts, avoiding cats, birds, and chickens… Awww Montaro, you’re adorable!

.... More @
https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/montaro-pc-windows/

If you love the older point n click adventure titles (Zak McCracken, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Indy etc), and don't understand how it got derailed with nonsensical puzzles- then get back on track with Thimbleweed Park!

Nostalgia may take the reigns with TP's oldschool graphics, but it was more the writing, comic timing, puzzles, and setting that made me understood what I yearned for all these years.

It had me hooked to the end.

An only "flaw" I could think of, is that there was no need for so many playable characters. It seems that the team could've learnt a thing or two of how DOTT played out- eg. Ray and Reyes- there was no need for two separate playable characters - it may have been interesting if they'd have been a single entity (as a team), but I hardly ever used Ray, but used Reyes instead due to his oddly awesome voice.

BUGS: There were occasional sound glitches for me on my PC setup (ASUS Xonar)- Voices would go quiet and then only come from my left speaker (varies) - but nothing that was game-breaking.

Pros
- Excellent pixel art, presentation, and setting
- Colourful characters with unique personalities and backgrounds
- The same team that built classics such as Zak and Maniac Mansion
- Great hint helpline IN-GAME (so you won't be stumped for too long!)

Cons
- No need to use all of the characters

Rating : 9/10

A "remaster" of the original Grim Fandango.

You take the role of a grim reaper / travel agent, on the search of a lost client whom ran out of your office when you couldn't do your job correctly- (or so you're led to believe). The story - and setting are both top notch.
Grim is at heart, a point and click adventure game, but as it's 3D (one of the pioneers when first released), it was seen as somewhat different- especially with the "tank controls" that the later Lucasarts games started to add.

Voice acting, music and sound is GREAT.

Puzzles in this game get very difficult, nonsenical. At times triggers are done at what seems to be random, where dialogue options open up randomly, or when you can use an object. The feeling of knowing what you want to do, but not knowing exactly what is needed to start the sequence... Grrnnnnnngg!! Half way through the adventure it had me look up FAQ guides online- finishing the game only to see the story. The fun had turned into frustration ;/

---
The remaster adds developer commentary to scenes, concept art, new character models, new control scheme (mouse!), and wide-screen support.

Whilst many of these are welcome, it doesn't feel as a "remaster" should.
The character models look almost out of place, infront of the (now) blurry lower resolution backgrounds- even a simple contrast / brightness photoshop touchup would've been welcome.
Dev commentary was brilliant throughout.

It was obvious that they learnt a lot of things with the Monkey remasters, but also it feels like the team did a semi-lazy job.

Rating ; 3/5
- Recommended for anyone veteran or skilled in Lucasarts adventure games. For anyone else, start with MI!

Bugs encountered,
- Keyboard controls sticking, not idle when afk (often)
- Manny model doing odd things (arm's waving around, odd things)

Additional note; I'm unsure if I should hit "yes" or "no" to recommend this. Stuck in the middle. Screw it, yes for the music and dev notes!

While being a fan of the original, where you'd just keep driving, every now and then you'd have your car upgrade after the checkpoints, or the 3rd- placing bets on the race with your cool lil guy- the title alone of "Crazy Cars - Hit the Road" caught my eye. Sequel? Remake? - With no reviews on Metacritic- and a release on the IOS platform (with a description citing the 1988 classic), did we just find a "diamond in the rough" ?

Upon loading the game from Steam, we are introduced to a quick "set up" option with incredibly basic graphics options (Resolution... And "Fantastic" as an option, come on!)- controls...

Then we get to an "intro" and a menu.
Here we see... this won't be a pretty game, considering there's a girl that looks like she's had her face smashed with a shovel. The Menu is navigated by the Mouse (no keys), with a clunky interface. We have 3 different game modes, "career", "single race" and "multiplayer", and a "garage" where you can use your ingame currency to purchase upgrades- which are unlocked on the track.

Let's jump into career mode!
... For a 2012 game, and on "Fantastic" graphics, this game just screams "UNIVERSITY STUDENT TECH DEMO". If this was the case, then well done, kid! That's a nice "demo", but seriously, this game steals so much from the Burnout series on the PS2, that I fail to see any ounce of the original series anywhere in this title.
- A 4 car race where you drive dangerously in order to gain "boost" and ingame currency. The first car you drive seems to be as light as paper, as you continuosly fly up into the sky (whereas the AI cars can stick to the road), twitchy steering and odd "drifting"...

Oh, the graphics look like bum. Textures are repeated endlessly, and the draw distance ...Facepalm facepalm facepalm

FACEPALM

THIS IS A BUM GAME
- Don't waste your HD's space and/or your internet bandwidth.

With a setting seemingly taken out of a book from Stephen King, this game is full of scary stuff.
... Nah, really. I couldn't count the amount of times that I physically JUMPED out of my chair. This one has more frights than the latest Resident Evil game.
Released originally for the Xbox360 (2010), and ported to the PC (2012). Yeah a port.

Taking the role of Alan Wake, a writer stuck on vacation. Your wife goes missing, and its your mission to find out what happened to her after your concussion.
Dark forces are at work, and light is your only escape, and method into beating them. Using a torch, you wear away their "shield", and once you've done that, you can shoot them with any regular means (guns...). There is no knife, or melee weapon to fall back on.

Story is the real strongpoint to this whole game. The player wants to learn what happened to the wife, and is sucked into the world with its great writing. Writing? Oh, and you find white paper on the way actually telling you what will happen next. Confused? Yeah, its a bit strange like that.
There are six episodes in the package. Each a chapter to the story.
A few of the characters, Alan, Barry (comic relief), the police lady, Odin and Tor, that doctor guy, the freaky guy. There are many in this story, but you'll only remember a handful. Everyone else just gets the nickname "that xxxx guy".

Gameplay is pretty good. Whilst I'd have liked to see slightly tighter controls, it plays very well. Battles are quite exciting and you get a slight choice in weapons (there aren't many). It plays similar to a crossbreed of Resident Evil 4 & Indigo Prophecy. The battles, however are a bit hit and miss, as they seem to be a bit on the "lite" side. Serious gamers will probably be bored with the same enemies by the second or third episode.

Graphics are very good. Whilst textures at times are a little less than desirable (eg, Episode six, when you watch your TV), they help bring the player into the story. I'd say comparable to the first Batman : Arkham game.
Sound? Great. No complaints at all. Soundtrack fits. Swizzle.

As this was first released on the Xbox360, it may have been released in parts. But towards the middle of the game, there is a feeling of it being slightly rushed. You will keep encountering the same enemies, yet the battles play out no different. You defeat them in the same way.
The surroundings also feel like you're still in chapter one. Night setting, full of trees... Wood cutting tools... For the length (six chapters, maybe 10-11 hours standard playtime), it feels like you are going around in circles just to watch the story continue.

Pros
+Great story
+Good graphics and sound, helps portray the story well
+EEP! Jumped out of seat a few times
+Good controls

-Many characters I don't care about
-Copy and paste enemies and environment models.
-On, and on, and on (too long in comparison to substance)

Overall rating; 7/10

Last thought: Feels like a spiritual sequel to Resident Evil 4. I wouldn't re-play this title, but if you are a gamer that likes a strong "horror" type story- this game is worth a shot. Might feel a little uh, "cheap" half way through though! ;-)

I really did want to love this game, ever from the trailers being released, but I was left unfulfilled with this title.

This game as you already know is a team-based "FPS"-styled game themed on Medieval England.

You can unlock new weapons and armor through an XP system, XP is earned by killing and winning games online.

Graphically, the game does a good job by using the Unreal engine. Controls are tight and do well as they should. Players are plentiful, so finding a game in progress is no problem.

Unfortunately, the one thing that really lets this title down is the balance issue when it comes to them frigging horses.

It's not unusual to get into a server where the opposition spams with horses. It is fairly obvious that these should be limited to x amount per team. A recent game that manages to pull this off successfully is Natural Selection 2, where the more powerful items appear near the end game.

There is a "tutorial" system which was fine until it bugged out for me half way through.

Online there is always the question, "Chivalry or War of the Roses" ? - I dont really care for the question, but what WOTR does very well is with archery. It feels great to get a hit in and there is a sense of instant gratification. Ahhhh! If you prefer to stick swords into the enemy- WITHOUT being annoyed by horses, then I'd lean more towards Chivalry.

Pros

+ Good, well tested Unreal engine

+ Archery

+ XP system

+ Horses (if you know how to use them)

Cons

- Balance Issues

- Horses (Unbalanced)

- Hitting with swords feels a little disconnected

Overall; 7/10

I managed to grab this on some sale at steam or other, but it did actually shine out amongst the other games as you actually get to play as a detective, in what-seems to be a GTA game (from Rockstar, so what do you expect?)
Starting out the game, its a standard GTA-like story driven game. The "sand-box", or "free" style of gameplay however, is very lacking in comparison however. The game follows the career of a Detective, some "bad-ass" veteran from WW2 and his hijinx. It would be reasonable to say that this is a cross between an adventure game and a very small part action. - That said, there is also an "interrogation" mini-game to find clues or whatever.
Whilst on the cover it seems to sound pretty damn cool, it is actually let-down by a number of issues. Firstly, them damn graphics. I mean, they'd be quite good... if it was released by the same time San Andreas came out. But by the release, them flickery shadows, and jaggy edges - you can see that they must have been cutting a few corners. Dated.
Secondly- the "motto" of Rockstar, so far, (if you looked at GTA, or even Red Dead)- would be SAND BOX. This game is VERY linear. there are "street crime" events that happen in the city, but you'll be doing the same thing for each - Chase, shoot, suspect dead, repeat. To progress the story line, you had to go around interrogating people. you get 3 options "TRUE" , "FALSE", or "DOUBT". - there were many-a-time I had meant things in a certain way and the detective goes nuts for no reason-poopie! That said. > you could actually ask mostly wrong questions for all your suspects- then STILL manage to continue the story. - as punishment, solve street crimes- then carry on the story. pagnnhn!

Conclusion > I actually had a good time for the first hour or two. I mean, the story isn't bad, but it's vastly inferior to anything that GTA gave out. Graphics? They're OK. Game-play? Not too good- not going to touch this for a LONG time. Instead of a detective game like I wanted, it was more like a Japanese style graphic novel where you just watch.
As a Graphic novel, Im gonna give this a 7, but cos its in the "Games" section, ... 5? but... I did actually want to know what happened... so.. 6? yah...

- I think its time I dug out that copy of "Blade Runner" again, now THAT was detective work!

Ahh, Tim Schaffer's company "Double Fine" creates a "light" RPG adventure game revolving around kids and Halloween. Crossing the style of South Parks "Fun with Weapons" episode with Final Fantasy, the powers come from the costumes that each wear. A Robot with strengthened attack power, a knight with heightened defense, the statue of liberty with powers to heal the whole team. There are a total of around 9 costumes, but each only has one "ultimate" power.

The ideas behind the game are great, the setting really puts the player in the minds of the children, how they think- even there is no voice acting, the feeling and emotions are brought out wonderfully.
Story lacks depth, idea being that some witch or other is stealing candy to help her get to some other country where she can take over. It felt something that a kid thought up. At the start of the game, your twin gets kidnapped, and this is the only time I ever felt any kind of real connection to it.
The art-style reinforces the setting of playing in a kids world, big eyes, very cartoony.

Gameplay is either adventuring around looking for cases, hitting anything for candy (even getting candy from trash cans!), or spent in the battle sequence, where very "Final Fantasy" style gameplay commences. Unfortunately, both modes get old very quickly.
The adventure part feels like a very "dark" Zelda game. It's not bad, but not great either. There were times where paths were too difficult to be seen, or understood. Finding the cases in the Mall, or even the hill on the final stage, where I thought fallen trees had stopped me walking up. (took me 3-4 hours just checking online as I thought it was a bug, or checking if I missed something). "Trick or Treating" became old in the first half of the game with no variation, which brings me to the...
Battle sequence. This is where the action happens. Unfortunately, each costume only has one ultimate, as stated earlier. Also each person has one "battle stamp", which gives them a "counter", "stun", etc. Basically one trait that helps the character regardless of costume worn. Like the adventuring part, this becomes very stale from the second stage and begins to feel just like a waste of time for the player.
All in all, for the experienced RPG player, this is very lack-luster. An even SIMPLER version of "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest" on the Super Nintendo comes to mind. So for children, this game would be a great purchase to introduce them to the genre of RPG.
Other reviews stating that this game is "too short", may be correct. But with so little variation with Gameplay, AND a lack-luster story, I'd have to say it's a little too long.

Pros:
The universe is nice and well brought out by its use of graphics and sound / music.
Great ideas put on the table.
Nice bits of humor

Cons;
Adventure sections too dark and sometimes difficult to navigate
Lacking gameplay and depth, game gets old very quickly.

Overall;
I give this a very average 50-60%

It feels that with all of the great ideas that were put onto the table, about half of the potential was made. I'm not sure if it was a rushed project or anything, as the music and sound was perfect, but it would be nice to see what would have happened if the developer had gone the extra mile.

As it is, I can only recommend this game for younger gamers who you'd like to introduce the RPG genre- outside the world of Pokemon