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Fantasy Zone (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I’ve mentioned before, but side and vertical shooters are not one my favourite genres. Sure, I play them, but it takes a special one for me to really enjoy it and buy it multiple times. Like Fantasy Zone.

It was only recently (checks… SIX YEARS AGO?!) that I completed this on the 3DS, and now I’ve done it again. It didn’t take anywhere neat as long this time, thankfully, but it was still pretty difficult. Again, Level 3 proved the hardest part (except perhaps the boss rush at the end).

Why aren’t more shooters this colourful anyway?

The post Fantasy Zone (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Maneater (PS5): COMPLETED!

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At first, Maneater is a great fish-chomping game with slightly annoying combat (with crocodiles and barracuda) and a funny faux Deadliest Catch style narration, but it soon starts to become tedious and repetitive. And then, even though the game doesn’t change, it becomes fun again. I’m not sure why.

You’re a baby shark, who eats to get bigger and evolve, ultimately to take down Scaly Pete, the fisherman who killed your mother. The waters you swim in are broken down into areas, with you starting in a swamp and moving through an industrial area, a nightlife filled city, the open sea, and so on. Each is opened up by completing tasks, such as munching a number of humans on a beach or destroying a fishing boat or culling some seals. Bigger water creatures attack you, and if you cause enough damage or eat enough people, the humans start to hunt you down.

There are RPG elements, as each thing you consume gives you certain “nutrients” which are spendable on upgrades such as gnashier teeth or a whippier tail. You also get different types of body part, such as bone or electric, for progressing. As well as this, you’ve 10 increasingly difficult hunters to coax out and eat as a sort of side story, and a number of Tony Hawk style floating objects to collect or Assassin’s Creedy hidden chests to smash open.

As for why I tired of the repetition before getting back into it and having a whale (a sperm whale, actually – I ate a few) of a time – perhaps I just switched off a bit of my brain and embraced the simplicity? There’s not much depth (except in the open sea, ho ho), and it’s not very hard (although I had a couple of hurdles that required levelling up a bit), nor is it very long, but don’t go in expecting Skyrim with Sharks and you’ll probably enjoy it too.

The post Maneater (PS5): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Control – Completed Review

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Control Ultimate Edition was added to PlayStation Plus in February, it was one of the few games I did not get round to enjoying on the PS4. You play as Jesse Faden who arrives at the FBC (Federal Bureau of Control) to find out what happened to her brother. The building is not all that it seems with many hidden secrets to be found and mysteries revealed during the campaign.

I enjoyed the story with its nice selection of characters and the plot slowly peeling back, it felt almost like a season of X-Files with its super-natural themes. The gameplay is action-based and skills will unlock that allow you to get an advantage over the hiss from shield, launch to seize which allows you to take control of enemies. The skills can be upgraded by ability points which are rewarded from missions or going off the beaten path and finding hidden areas.

Control is a metroidvania game where everything on the map is slowly defogged when you unlock new skills or complete main chapter quests. There is a fair bit of revisiting locations but fast travel can be unlocked by taking over control points around the map. Outside of the main campaign there are a few side quests which will purposely take you into unexplored area and randomly generated alert missions which are time limited, these are usually the kill all enemies or protect soldiers challenges that reward you will materials. You will need a fair bit of materials to upgrade weapons or purchase mods, although I just used the various mods I collected throughout the game.

There are some great set pieces/boss fights in the game and one in particular has you dashing around to a thumping soundtrack whilst killing the hiss. Control has been a great game to play coming in at just over 30 hours, I had no issues on the PS5 with fast load times, smooth frame rates and beautiful visuals.

I will leave it to Jessie to give a quick summary of the game “That was awesome”


Xeno Crisis (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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I was immediately impressed with Xeno Crisis. It’s a Mega Drive game (tailored here to fit the Evercade’s controls) with great sound and graphics, and really slick and lots of sprites on screen at once.

It’s a Smash TV sort of shooter, with screen after screen of baddies to shoot (and the odd soldier to rescue), with each level ending with a boss – some of which are bloody huge.

The only issue with the game is it’s so hard. So very, very hard. And then, when I completed it, I got a bad ending with no suggestion as to how I’d managed it. Mr Internet explained that because I’d used some serum which revives you, ultimately that caused my death at the end, and the trick is to Not Ever Die.

So, armed with the button combination to open up a hidden menu where you can make yourself invulnerable and start on the final level, I completed it again. And still got the bad ending despite not using any serum. Tch.

The post Xeno Crisis (Evercade): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Super Double Dragon (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Or, in some parts of the game, “Return of Double Dragon”.

The thing is, I picked my Evercade up and the Technōs cartridge was still in it from when I played River City Ransom recently and the shelf with all my Evercade games on was easily six feet away and therefore too far to bother with, so I picked something from the cart already inserted and that was Super Double Dragon, which I’d never played before.

It’s very much What if Double Dragon was Final Fight, but it’s not as good as Final Fight. It’s not a bad game, but it was pretty easy and much less impressive both visually and sonically than Final Fight. Or Streets of Rage.

The post Super Double Dragon (Evercade): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.