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The Neo Geo Pocket fighting games are such good fun. They might all be the same, more or less, but they’re fun. Even in single player.
I completed this a few years ago, but I recently bought the Neo Geo Pocket collection for the Switch so I’ve been playing the games on there a bit. This is the first one of them I’ve completed, and I did it as Yuri for a change.
Haven Park is a twee little game (and I mean that in a good way) about a bird who takes over the running of a set of run down campsites out in the countryside. It’s very similar in feel to A Short Hike, but with more interaction and a different emphasis.
It involves collecting resources, like wood, to build appealing camping areas, which are then populated with visitors. Some of these have additional requests, and there are a few areas that are blocked off until you’ve made certain people happy. It’s pretty, and quaint, and cosy, with a play at your own pace progression. A few of the “clues” to “solving” problems are a bit obscure, and navigating around can be a little frustrating with the camera angle and narrow cliff ledges combining to cause long detours when you inevitably drop off, but they’re minor setbacks.
Short, friendly and fun.
When this came out, I played and completed it almost immediately. But, as I was looking for a two player game to play with my daughter – and that was a while back – I thought it’d be good to play again. And it was!
It’s a very different game when you’re playing it with someone, as it’s both competitive and co-op at the same time. You have to complete each mini-game to progress, but only one of you actually needs to do that so you compete to see who can do it first/best/whatever. This also has the knock-on effect of making the game even easier than it already was as you have effectively have twice as many chances to beat each game!
Once more it was time to play a digital cock-fighting game! I mean, that’s basically what it is, right? With a plot, of course. A plot which is the same in every single Pokémon game: evil organisation (usually with a non-evil front) want to capture Pokémon for $reason so they can get Ultimate Power or something. All while your 10 year old avatar is rapidly rising from having a single feeble creature to being King Of All Pokémon Trainers and has to save the world at the same time.
This game is the same, in most aspects, as all the others I’ve played. Sure, this retains the 3/4 overhead view of the Nintendo DS original (and looks a lot like the recent Link’s Awakening remake) rather than have a fully 3D environment like Pokémon Sword, but that doesn’t change the gameplay at all. In fact, in battle screenshots you’d be hard pushed to tell which of the Switch Pokémon games I was actually playing.
Importantly, it doesn’t matter about being almost the same. Being almost the same actually works because the formula is sound and so remains fun, and it’s only really the catching and fighting Pokémon that you want from these games, is it not? Change that too much and you might break it.
So I beat all eight gym leaders, defeated Team Whoevertheyareinthisone, took on (and walked over) the Elite Four, and then trounced the supposed “champion”. It was all very easy, but I had a nice time and there’s more that opens up to do after the end credits, so although I’ve completed it, I’m not done with it just yet!
Just in case I was misremembering that this was one of the good linear Castlevania games, and my thoughts on Vampire’s Kiss were based on warped memories, I decided to give this a go. It’s on the Switch Online Mega Drive collection too so it wasn’t difficult figuring out a way of running it.
And, I was completely right. It is so much better than Vampire’s Kiss it makes that game look like a dodgy c-tier “Dracula’s Castle” knock-off and not a legitimate title in the series at all. Bloodlines (or “The New Generation”, if you prefer) is faster, slicker, more varied, longer, less frustrating, and much more fun. The bosses are excellent, there are all sorts of nifty graphical effects that the Mega Drive can’t do except it can – tilting towers, sprite scaling, splitting the screen up and shunting bits of it around, and so on.
I played through as Eric Lecarde – the one with the trident – as I think I played as Mr Whippy last time, and the reach of his tool (careful now) makes certain sections much more doable – he can stab baddies on platforms above him, for a start.
I’d probably go as far to say that this is the best linear (rather than SOTN style) Castlevania game. Yes, even better than Super Castlevania IV.
