RetroPokeFan's Corner (Reviews and other tat)

SpongeBob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (PS2)

2/5

I'll give this one credit for going all out on the imagination side of things but otherwise Creature from the Krusty Krab (or Breature from the Krusty Karb as Nintendo accidentally called it once) is truly a mixed bag.

You get some great parts (like the cel shaded Patrick section and the fun giant Plankton section) but also a lot of really duff nonsense (such as the races that aren't really races at all and those god forsaken annoying mini games that pop up, lemme get back to the action please, god damn it!) and in the end it's not really a game I'm ever gonna come back to anytime soon.

If you are planning on playing this though, then run away as fast as you can from the Wii version because good god, are the controls a hunk a big ol' junk there.
 
Road Runner (Amstrad CPC via Internet Archive)

1/5

Incredibly miserable arcade game based on the Looney Tunes character where you're forced to collect every last piece of bird seed left on the road (and I do mean, every last one of them) while Wile E Coyote chases after you.

Not only are the controls super stiff but it feels so one sided as Wile E will almost always catch you.

I bet we've all wanted to be like the Road Runner one day but if it's as super annoying as this, maybe I'll pass thanks.
 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack (Nintendo DS)

1.5/5

Surprisingly I managed to reach the final level despite wanting to abandon it after only four levels, but after seeing everything this game has to offer I soon got bored and decided to finally drop it for good.

Christ, this is one boring soulless little game that tries oh so desperately to harken back to the days of the classic TMNT arcade games but doesn't have a single shred of personality or charm to back it up.

Just go play the old Konami classics instead of this cheap crappy cash in wannabe.

Nice comic book style cutscenes though.
 
Cartoon Network Racing (PlayStation 2)

3/5

It's surprisingly not too bad for a licensed cartoon racing game that takes some pretty heavy notes from Mario Kart: Double Dash.

It's certainly not perfect what with the speed of your vehicle feeling oddly slow and the somewhat aggressive AI but I still had some fun with this one and you can even unlock a few episodes of the Cartoon Network shows represented here which is a nice little added bonus.
 
Over the Hedge (PlayStation 2)

2/5

Button masher: the DreamWorks movie tie-in edition.

No really, that's exactly all I felt whilst playing this one. You're just doing an endless array of button mashing for the most part even if there are a few short sections to break it up a bit.

As far as the DreamWorks games I've played goes, this is certainly nowhere near as good as say Madagascar.

Kinda cool that the game does it's own thing story wise rather than just adapt the film's plot though even if it is forgettable...

kinda like the movie itself which I hardly even remember at all. Not even the fact it had Bruce Willis in it.

Yeeeeaaahh..
 
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania (Nintendo Switch)

4/5

A wonderful remaster of the 1, 2 and Deluxe content and a return to top form for the series reminding me of just how wonderful the classic games were.

It gets hard and frustrating, but in the good kind of hard and frustrating way that doesn't make you wanna go all crazy and throw your controller around the room. Whenever I reached a much harder level I didn't think I'd get pass, just seeing Aiai manage to make it to the goal always gets my heart pumping and leaves me satisfied.

And gee wilikers there's a lot of content in store for you including some nice QOL improvements, some special guest characters not just from Sega's library but some other franchises too, extra content and all the classic minigames returning from 1 and 2.

It isn't perfect with the physics feeling a little off than with the older games but if you're itching like a dog to get that good ol' fun Monkey Ball goodness, than Banana Mania will no doubt be a great time.
 
Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)

4/5

While I'm not too familiar with the Ratchet and Clank series (having really only played Size Matters before this on the PSP) I really do have to admit that this is a really fun game filled with plenty of action and lots of satisfying weapons to use.

And it's all wrapped up into one neat little package of a game. It might not be for everyone (especially those more familiar with how the other entries are like) but give it a shot and you may just like it.
 
Tom and Jerry (GB/GBC)

2/5

Aside from one or two games, the beloved cartoon cat and mouse duo hasn't really fared all that well when it comes to video games and alas this Game Boy/Game Boy Color title doesn't fare much better.

It's an incredibly dull and generic platformer that barely does much with the licence at all. Heck, bloody Tom is barely in the game much either so it may as well have just been called Jerry.

Yeah, that's more appropriate.
 
Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (GBA)

1/5

I'm very convinced that the magic ring that's stuck on Jerry's head is legitimately cursed.

I mean why else is Jerry running around beating up endless Tom clones, seeing Uncle Pecos in the garden, smacking the crap out of realistic looking rats and spiders that totally does not badly clash with the cartoon art style and running away from a massive LSD trip?

Also, this is a really bad beat em up and I mean REALLY BAD. The scrolling is also horrendous as well.

This is beyond near bootleg levels of entertainingly awful.
 
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2)

5/5

One of the all time great skateboarding series (though we don't talk about 5... ever), Pro Skater 3 is easily right up there as one of the best entries in the Tony Hawk series with some really great levels, tricks to pull off, secrets to find and plenty of other cool stuff too.

It's always enjoyable to rack up the high scores and pull off some insanely flashy combos and this game delivers by the bucket load. Probably one of my favourite games.


Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS1)

4/5

Though not as great as the main console versions, the downgraded PlayStation version is still a sight to behold especially with how Shaba Games were able to bring some of these levels onto the original PlayStation.

A few of them do have some slight changes made here and there due to the limitations of the console and some levels appear earlier than others but the game itself is still an enjoyable romp with the same entertaining gameplay and it's amazing to see how far they were able to push the boundaries of the console with some of these levels.
 
Tribe Nine

4/5

A fun and enjoyable anime series that I enjoyed from start to finish. Really liked a lot of the characters especially Taiga who was so entertaining and the dub from Sound Cadence is great.

My top fave voices were Haru, Taiga, Ojiro, Hanafuda and Kazuki but everyone else was really great. Really nice seeing a couple of NY VA's pop up too such as Jake Paque, Wayne Grayson, Nicholas Corda, Erica Schroeder and Emily Bauer too.
 
Bungo and Alchemist - Gears of Judgement

3.5/5

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Being based off of a Japanese mobile game (and one that is still currently Japan only), I wasn't expecting too much from Bungo and Alchemist at first but the end result is a neat little surprise.

It's not the most amazing anime in the world but I did really enjoy this series especially when it comes to character interactions and especially the dub by NYAV Post with a lot of fun performances from the talented cast of LA, NY and Texas (in Ian Sinclair's case) VA's.

Some of my favourite ones include Richard Thomas as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Zeno Robinson as Osamu Dazai, Dino Andrade as Cat, Robb Moreira as Sakunosuke Oda, Eddy Lee as Toson Shimazaki, the late great Billy Kametz as Ango Sakaguchi, Jake Paque as Naoya Shiga, Tom Aglio as Dan Kazuo, Marc Thompson as Masao Kume and especially Barrett Leddy as Chuya Nakahara who has the funniest moments of the show.

There's other great VA's too like Chris Hackney, Ian Sinclair, Alan Lee and Kyle McCarley to name a few.

Overall, it's a very enjoyable little series indeed.

Also if you're a Bungo Stray Dogs fan don't go into this expecting it to be related to that show. There's a few authors that are represented here and even a few VA's from said series too, but that's where the similarities end.
 

3 Games in 1: Tak and the Power of Juju / SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge / Rugrats: I Gotta Go Party (GBA)​


3/5

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A bundle of three Nickelodeon games.

To keep things simple, here's a very short summary of these three games:

SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge: A mediocre platformer.

Rugrats: I Gotta Go Party: A mediocre mini-game collection.

Tak and the Power of Juju: Alright platformer and it looks pretty decent on the GBA too.

Really not much else to say other than it's a forgettable collection of forgettable titles that you'll probably forget in mere seconds... which is right now actually.
 
Pokémon Masters EX

3/5

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This surprisingly has been somewhat enjoyable to dive into.

I mean yes, it is a mobile game and for the most part I just can't stand em and yes, this does have some of the usual bullcrap mechanics that a lot of these gacha games like pulling outta their sleeves but I dunno...

there's just something about seeing years worth of Pokémon characters from both the games and even the anime all coming together and interacting with one another that makes me feel all tingly and warm inside and I suppose it delivers on that front.
 
SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

4/5

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When it comes to SpongeBob games, Battle for Bikini Bottom is still up there as THE SpongeBob game. The one that all others (good or bad) bow down to as their leader every day.

It's filled with some enjoyable levels really bringing the world of the cartoon to life, great platforming goodness and jolly, vibrant music that still sticks in my head to this day.

While there are a few niggles here and there (and then again there always is with platformers), it certainly doesn't ruin what is certainly a grand ol' time down in Bikini Bottom.

It's enough to make you wanna drop on the deck and flop like a fish in joy.
 
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (PS1)

2.5/5

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With the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series already a runaway hit for Activision, it was clear that everyone and their grandmother was going to want a piece of the extreme sports pie and during this period we were spoon-fed an array of clones and copy-cats.

But even Activision themselves saw dollar signs in their eyes and saw fit to make an entire label dedicated to titles of their own - thus the short-lived Activision 02 label was born (and quickly perished faster than you can say "Wowsers!") kicking things off with Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX.

A game that happily wears the "Featuring the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game engine" badge on the front cover like a happy camper, this is a game that is just alright at best but it ISN'T anywhere near close to the same level of quality as the Tony Hawk games.

The janky ass physics especially kinda ruin it for me as your BMX rider can just inexplicably get stuck on things or just randomly bail which gets annoying very quickly.

There are some fun levels like the London Underground and Construction Site but the less said about the bloody terrible and poorly designed New York City Park level, the better.

I did have some moments of satisfaction and fun when things didn't go wrong and I was able to pull off some fun tricks. That is until said problems happened which made me roll my eyes and notice the small little problems with this one.

It's a bit disappointing really. I thought maybe messing around on a BMX bike would have been just as fun as doing it on a skateboard but at the end, while it's certainly not a bad game Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX just left me feeling a bit sour.

Hoping the sequel can improve things although I'm not holding my breath either.
 
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Game Boy)

3/5

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Technically played via the Cowabunga Collection on Nintendo Switch.

Now here's the kind of game that'll instantly come and very quickly go memory wise - it's those teenage mutant turtle guys who are ninjas and they crave for pizza and they have this rat guy who's their instructor and they're in a never ending fight to stop the Shredder and a bunch of other people who sound vaguely evil and all that.

Yes, it's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or Hero Turtles if you just so happened to live in Europe) and boy were they popular back then. And boy were they instantly guaranteed to get everything under the hood like all popular things including - you guessed it, videogames.

Their first foray into Game Boy territory isn't all that bad if slightly aged. It's definitely on the more easier side (although somewhat of a blessing compared to the first NES game) and you'll blast through it all in about half an hour but it's at least an enjoyable half an hour shredding through the enemies (even if there aren't many), watching them jump out from behind to attack you and avoiding all those obstacles.

And even if you sort of forget about the game afterwards, you can always wonder if The Shredder and Kang got vaporized into a milkshake.

Shredder milkshake anyone?
 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

1.5/5

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Technically played via the Cowabunga Collection on Nintendo Switch.

This is normally why I would just copy and paste my review from my Backloggd account and go into more detail but quite frankly, I don't think this game even remotely deserves that sort of thing and I just don't feel like it today (so there!)

TMNT on NES was absolute hell to go through. A genuinely insufferable little game with terrible hitboxes, annoying enemies and just a abundance of cheap deaths and traps all over the place. If it wasn't for the Cowabunga Collection and it's QOF features, I would have just given up on this title entirely.

A game that's aged terribly and is easily the worst of the titles in the Cowabunga Collection hands down.

And why are they all wearing red bandanas on the cover? How did no one in the art team even notice that mistake?
 

Disney's 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue (PS1)​

3/5

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Cruella de Vil's finally had it. She's made an array of countless toys to sell off but unfortunately for her, not a single child could even care less for them.

So in typical Cruella de Vil fashion, she decides to kidnap an array of puppies and turn them into toys so that it'll finally grab their attention. Luckily for then two Dalmatians Oddball and Domino aren't going to stand for that so off they go to stop Cruella and her henchmen in their tracks.

For a Disney licensed platformer this honestly isn't all that bad with it's almost Spyro-esque gameplay. Yeah, it's definitely nowhere near as good as those games and the puppies aren't going to be giving that purple dragon any restless nights but I did enjoy my time with this game. It just gives me a very nostalgic fuzzy feeling inside (especially with the first two levels).

And it's somewhat better than the film it was promoting, so there's that I guess.
 
Disney's Donald Duck Advance
2/5
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Disney's foul tempered duck was already cooking up a storm on other consoles so I guess it was only natural that Donald would eventually bring his crazy shenanigans over to the GBA and the results are... okay.

Becoming more of a standard 2D platformer similar to the GBC version than the Crash Bandicoot-esque gameplay like other consoles, it's another licensed videogame that ticks all the usual platforming cliches off of the list.

One thing that lets this game down though (and what keeps this from getting the usual good full 3 stars) is the extremely shoddy collision detection and hitboxes. Sometimes when you jump on enemies or punch them you kill them but other times it'll be you taking damage instead, leaving you with some frustrating scenarios that could make you almost as angry and flustered as Donald himself.
 
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