Shooting

Thank you Oasis Games for sending us a review code!

It’s great to see kid friendly games available on the PlayStation VR platform.  The cute monkeys and premise of shooting them with plunger arrows is bound to attract kids and aspiring archers alike.  No matter what attracts you to this title, be warned that your arms will get a workout even though the move controllers are not that heavy.

When you first fire up the game you’ll read a comic book style story about how the bananas and monkeys used to live in peace, but those days are long gone.  Now the bananas are in danger and it’s up to you to save them.  Not only do you get to pelt monkeys with various projectiles, you get to raise baby bananas too!  By showering young bananas with water, fertilizer, and sunlight, they’ll grow up and offer a unique attack style to fend off swarms of monkeys and bosses.  The monkeys are pretty sneaky and have different offensive and defensive tactics.  Fortunately, you have some tricks up your sleeve as well!

In the beginning the monkeys are “au natural” and easy to pick off with your bow and plunger style arrows.  It doesn’t take long for the monkeys to get younger, faster, and tougher, requiring more than one shot to take down. The construction worker themed monkeys need to have their helmets knocked off their heads before they can be shot down.  Other monkeys fight back by flinging paint at you that blocks your vision temporarily.  

Some of the monkeys leave behind new ammo which can be collected by shooting at it.  Besides plungers, you get to shoot out badmintons, frogs, fish, garlic, lollipops, fruit wedges and more!  Instead of ammo you may also collect single use attacks like pandas that will roll down every road and knock down monkeys as if they were bowling pins.  

If you still have bananas left at the end of the wave, you’ll advance to the next one with harder foes.  It doesn’t take long before monkeys will spawn from two different areas and you’ll have to teleport between locations to get to them.  After a few waves, a boss will show up and you’ll have to discover and attack its weakness to progress further.  In total there are sixteen levels to see provided you can survive the poor camera controls.

Ace Banana isn’t the first PSVR game I have played that has movement tracking issues, so it could be a platform issue.  However, since this game relies on accuracy to succeed, frustration quickly sets in when you cannot hit nearby monkeys due to calibration problems.  Recalibrating is easy to do and only takes a couples of seconds by holding the start button on the side of the move controller.  Having to recalibrate every three minutes is unacceptable and those valuable seconds will quickly end your game when your bananas are surrounded by monkeys or are being sucked up by a giant mechanical boss.  Even my children were getting flustered while playing and they generally have more patience than I do.

Besides calibration issues, the game interface is a bit confusing.  There’s a book that you can open to see how many types of monkeys and weapons you’ve come across in your adventures.  Opening the book was easy enough, but closing the book was not possible.  We tried pressing the suggested buttons on the regular controller to no avail and had to exit the game entirely to get out of the book screen.  Thankfully none of our progress was lost in the process.

Hopefully these issues will be addressed before they roll out the multiplayer update.   No release date has been scheduled as of this review.   If nothing improves then up to four players will be able to get frustrated simultaneously!   

The asking price is $14.99, but given the current tracking issues I’d hold off on buying this game until it gets fixed.  I really hope it does get rectified soon since this is a short but cute game that has potential.

Thank you aPriori Digital for sending us this game to review!

Aperion Cyberstorm is a hybrid twin-stick shooter/bullet heck for up to five players. There are plenty of enemies to shoot and avoid and the power-ups are ample. Between the three game modes (campaign, versus, and onslaught) there is plenty to keep players occupied on the go with the Switch version.

The disadvantage of the Switch version are the controls. Most players will be confined to a single joy-con to play with. The one joystick on is used for movement and the shooting is done via the four buttons along with some diagonal combos. Whoever has the pro controller will have a serious advantage. Playing solo is possible, but like many games, this one is more fun in groups.

The story is serviceable in the campaign mode, though the dialogue is a bit dry. Enemy factions are closing in on the planet Cadriga, and this is the home of Kate, Sam, and Joseph. Before they can flee, the bombs begin to drop. You must reunite them and take out the faction along the way.

No matter which game mode you embark on, you get to customize your ship by configuring its model, color, initials, and starting load out. In the beginning of the campaign mode, you only have three ships to choose from, and they have different strengths and weaknesses in matters of offense, defense, and speed. The starting firing modes of rapid fire and spread shot are nice, but you’ll unlock other abilities like cross fire and shield boosts before too long.

As you blast away enemy ships and harmless crystals, they’ll release energy shards which are used for healing and faster abilities. Sometimes a power-up will appear, which often has a wider blast radius. Sometimes a power-up will appear that can counter incoming swarms in one swoop. The power-ups are typically elemental and affect the enemies in different ways. For example, the ice power-up will temporarily freeze or slowdown the bad guys.

There are three difficulty levels, and the easiest (explorer) is incredibly boring. Do yourself a favor and start off with the fighter or veteran mode. Naturally, battling against people you know is always the best, so the versus mode is a good place to start if you have trigger happy friends.

Here’s a breakdown of the versus game modes:

Deadline – Whoever has the most points when the time runs out, wins.
Last Stand – Each ship only has one life, and whomever is the last one alive is victorious.
Titan – The player with the most points is the titan and the target for everyone else.
Battle Ball – Everyone must hunt the target and receive points for each time they hit it.
King – Everyone must battle for a key area on the map.
Control – Whoever holds the most territories and points, wins.
Salvage – Collect and use all of the abilities that are only good once.
Free For All – Your typical death match which is determined by who gets the most kills first
Team Battle – Whichever team kills the most from the opposing team wins
Hardcore Team Battle – Just like Team Battle but with friendly fire!

The versus game modes can be customized to end by points ranging from 5 to 50. There is also an infinite play mode if that’s appealing to you. Cooperative gameplay is also available in the Onslaught mode, which gets progressively harder after each wave of enemies is cleared. How long can you and your friends survive?

Visually, Aperion Cyberstorm is pretty simplistic when it comes to the graphics. The ships vary in size and style, but they’re not incredibly detailed. The energy crystals spilling out of them upon defeat are kind of pretty.

There is no voice acting, but the sound effects get the job done. I liked the electronic background music and found it fitting for this title. Unfortunately, the soundtrack is not available for purchase on Steam or Nintendo’s eShop.

The asking price of $14.99 is reasonable given the plethora of game modes to play. Since the single-player gameplay can get repetitive at times, I only recommend grabbing this game if you have friends to play along with and a pro controller to fight over.

Thanks to Mad Capacity and LREVG for the review key!

Once upon a time, buying a game meant you had access to all of its content. Said content may be simple, but ultimately pure in both scope and gameplay. Even now, in the era of loot boxes, micro-transactions, and season passes, it’s the straightforward gameplay-focused games that stand out. It helps, like with Astervoid 2000, if the game is a thoroughly well-built product.

Astervoid 2000 is uncomplicated in its premise: it’s an amalgamation of Atari games, featuring Asteroid-like environmental obstacles and Combat-esque multiplayer mayhem. Two to four player-controlled spaceships, or one against an ever-increasing number of AI-driven ships, duke it out in a constantly-shifting asteroid belt. The ships, while having six different designs, operate the same: a rapid-fire shot that can be charged for a powerful shorter-range blast, a quick dash, and a melee attack activated by dashing with a full charge. Ships have a shield that slowly recharges that can take one regular shot; a charge shot, a melee attack, or an unshielded attack means destruction. Asteroids drift in and out of the field, and come in four flavors: standard, explosive, reflective, and indestructible. They can’t directly harm your ship, but can push you around and interrupt your shots. A large, neutral battleship can occasionally drift in as well, randomly peppering the field with large green bullets.

In the single-player survival mode, your only objective is to take out as many enemies before you explode. Every four rounds, the number of enemies increase, and it won’t be long until you’re juggling six ships, a full asteroid belt, and a stray battleship. The multiplayer aspect is as you’d expect: up to four players, up to two teams, up to a certain number of kills. The survival mode comes with an online leaderboard; the multiplayer is, by design, local only.

This is, in essence, the entirety of Astervoid 2000 – a relatively simple game, but executed masterfully. The controls are tight and responsive, the gameplay is fluid, and the mechanics work in tandem with each other to add a surprising amount of depth. Normal shots cancel each other out, while charged shots blast through just about anything. Your ship slows to a crawl if it’s holding a charge, with the risk offset by the potential for a one-hit kill. Melee attacks make you effectively invulnerable, but wide open upon completion. Firing any shots at all push your ship backwards a little, potentially putting you in a bad position. Rarely, a killing blow will send your ship into self-destruct mode, letting you attempt to pilot your doomed craft to catch foes in the explosion. When it all comes together, it creates a fast-paced, well designed, engaging game.

It’s hard to pick out a weak spot in such a tightly-knit experience – the results screen lingers a bit too long and can’t be skipped or sped up, but that’s about it. The lack of online multiplayer might be a sticking point as well, but since the game is built around the premise of couch co-op, you can’t really fault it. It’s also rather hard to get four players on one computer at once; this is one game that would actually benefit from a console port. Overall, it’s a game best enjoyed in short bursts and with friends, but it’s always enjoyable and easy to come back to.

Graphically, the game is rather impressive, making use of both competent pixel art and more modern particle effects. Ships and bullets are colorful and easy to discern from the background, and the different asteroid types are obvious at a glance. There are some nice subtle details to it as well, with some wispy clouds and a neat flashlight effect on the front arc of every ship. The songs made for Astervoid 2000 are good, but tend to fade into the background of the in-game chaos. The sound effects do their jobs well, fitting nicely with their paired actions.

Morally, the game holds up just fine. Ship-to-ship combat is the focus of the game, though there’s not even any indication that these crafts are manned. In one of the opening splash screens, there’s a heavily-abbreviated swear word, as the game tells you it’s best enjoyed on a “big f’n TV” – otherwise, there's little text to be seen. In every other respect, this game is safe for all ages to enjoy.

In an environment where too many games chase too many demographics, Astervoid 2000 is refreshing: it knows what it is, and executes near-perfectly. If you enjoy old-school arcade titles and can get a lot of mileage out of short, pick-up-and-play sessions, Astervoid 2000 is certainly worth the price of admission. If you have three like-minded friends – and three wired controllers – it’s a must-buy.

-Cadogan

Thank you Aleksi Rantonen for sending us this game to review!

While I have never gone clay hunting, I have gone to shooting ranges and have fired .22, .38, and .357 caliber guns. I imagine that a shotgun has some significant kickback and expensive ammo which are issues that you won’t have to worry about in Clay Hunt Pro. After playing this title, I’m convinced that I would waste a lot of ammo and money missing flying targets as my hand-eye coordination is not getting any better with age.

When you first launch the game you have the option of doing a live event via Facebook or going to the virtual shooting range. With my poor scores, I certainly wasn’t going to make a fool of myself by doing a live event. Despite the simplified controls and lack of recoil, the physics seem pretty good for this 3D shooting simulation game. While there are arcade game modes, this title is nothing like the classic Duck Hunt game from the NES era. If you’re looking for a silly shooter, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

Going through the tutorial is logical and mandatory. In the tutorial you’ll learn the basic controls which are pretty simple. Tapping on the screen raises the shotgun and preps it for shooting. You can move it around and position it by dragging the screen. When you’re ready to fire you have to tap the screen. The aiming and accuracy is on you and after you fire you’ll get a point for hitting the target and be shown the trajectory of your shot versus the target’s path. The results are handy in telling how close or off you were from the target.

If you don’t like the point of view or point of impact settings, you can change them in the game’s settings menu. To get you acquainted with the controls your first task will be to shoot down targets that pop up from the ground. Your next targets will be moving horizontally and are easy to hit since they’re bigger than the clay and bird pigeons you can fire at later.

After the tutorial is completed you’ll have access to the Arcade Hall which lets you shoot popup targets and non-clay pigeons. The popup targets are the easiest thing to hit in the game and in the arcade mode your goal is to hit as many of them as you can before the timer bar depletes. Whenever you miss, the timer bar shrinks faster. In the pigeon hunt mode you have two and a half minutes to shoot down as many pigeons as possible. While there are a decent amount of pigeons to shoot at, hitting them takes a lot of luck and/or skill. This game keeps track of your highest scores and my best for the pigeon hunt is three.

The main game has eight Trap levels and six Skeet levels. You cannot advance to the higher level without completing the previous one. In the trap mode you only have one shot to hit the clay pigeon. In the skeet mode you at least know the direction they’re coming from and you have two tries. While both modes are challenging, I did much better in the skeet mode, but not enough to warrant getting even one out of three stars available. As a result I wasn’t able to unlock the rest of the levels.

Even though I wasn’t good at this game, it’s still fun and challenging. I’m curious of what people who have gone clay hunting will think of this title. The regular version of the game sells for $1.25 and has positive reviews. Any aspiring clay hunters should check their reflexes with these games.

Thank you Automation for sending us a review code! (Note: We received a code for this game from a time when it had to be purchased.)

It’s like Mario Party, but for adults—in the sense that you’ll end up with strained friendships, not the whole minigame virtual board game aspect. Deceit is the name of this first-person shooter. You’ll have to cooperate with your team or deceive the ones around you to escape out of the dark abandoned facilities, or slaughter the ones trying to escape. It is both a competitive and cooperative game at the same time!

Six players will start in a room, but out of those six players, two of them will be infected. In truth, the game is a 4v2, but the innocents have no idea who is an innocent, or even an infected—whereas the infected players know exactly who is who. Deceit plays in stages where the first stage, everyone collects supplies such as armor, ammo for your pistol, and special items to help you out such as cameras, flashlights, antidotes, and even a lethal injection. These items are unlocked through cooperation such as one person standing on a switch while the other person takes it or through minigames like target practice. Meanwhile, the infected players must collect blood bags from around the area without being spotted. Infected players also can collect all of the same items, which adds further into the whole deception aspect.

The second stage is the blackout stage, where the monsters come out and play. This is when the infected can turn into the Terrors, creatures who prowl the darkness, but only if they have a full blood meter (which takes either three full bags or six half bags of blood). Infected are vulnerable to the light when transformed, so this is the reason why cameras and flashlights have such an effect on them. During this stage, the innocents must run around and collect fuses to reactivate the power. Infected can halt the process by collecting fuses themselves as humans, or eliminate players as a monster.

After it loops again to the first stage after the blackout, it will then go into the final stage where any innocents left must escape and the infected are now enraged. Being enraged means they can transform no matter how much or little blood they have, and it becomes a last-ditch effort to kill the rest of the survivors. I sure hope all those items the innocents stockpiled throughout are of use. Infected players may have a disadvantage in raw numbers, but they make up for it by being able to kill innocents in one hit. Matches last between five and fifteen minutes, making Deceit quick to pick up and play.

The level-up system takes inspiration from Overwatch and similarly styled games. Every level gives you a token in which you can exchange with the dealer to gain various cosmetics. The process is rather unique as it is in the style of a memory cup game. What’s interesting is that if any of the cups are a rare or legendary cosmetic, they will glow purple or gold. The experience you gain through matches to level up also grants you a skill tree where you can purchase passive perks to give you a slight edge over everyone else. The microtransactions are pretty fair because the biggest purchase is around $35, and you level up fairly quickly, giving you plenty of opportunities to obtain lots of poses and skins.

The main draw of Deceit is the use of deception, feeling like a digital version of Mafia or Werewolf. Since this is a highly communicative game, you’ll want a working microphone or headset. Although there isn’t much depth in the game mechanics, the bulk of it comes from the way you deceive others. Sometimes, as an infected, you may want to help out others to take the suspicion off of you. When you take a blood bag, you can even use this trust that you gained from prior moments of teamwork to blame an innocent nearby and have them eliminated early. Trickery goes both ways; as an innocent, you can hide around in areas to see who picks up the blood bag or even ask information such as the distance to the exit (as infected players are unaware of this information). Since you have to constantly lie to get ahead, Deceit isn’t the most moral game out there and its probably best to avoid this if you’re uncomfortable with constant deceitfulness. Other warnings include the graphic violence, blood, and dead bodies all over, and that the Terrors are of supernatural elements, such as yetis and werewolves. There are also diary entries scattered throughout the levels that have blasphemy and harsh languages such as f**k and s**t.

Playing solo in Deceit is like taking all of the worst aspects of any multiplayer game and blending it together into one messy package. Regions and servers are not locked and anyone can join any region, so the language barrier shows itself quickly. Deceit holds a high Chinese and Russian audience due to its free to play nature, so more often than not you’ll run into someone that you cannot communicate with unless you happen to know Mandarin or Russian yourself. People without mics are also present and the only way you can communicate with them is with the chat or quick chat (voice commands). The chat is slow (and the added effect that they may not know your language) and while the quick chat bypasses the language barrier, it is also barebones and is only slightly better than being silent. A lack of anti-cheat system means you’ll run into your fair share of hackers, with the matches crashing every once in a while (any experience gained in the game is lost). Lower levels are plagued with people who refuse to communicate or trolls, while higher levels are filled with others that take the experience way too seriously—or trolls, leading to very hostile moments.

There also exists DLC for Deceit. With the nature of the game, one would think that it would simply be cosmetics. Unfortunately, the DLC is playable Infected: the werewolf and the vampire. The only way you can get them is by purchasing them. In free to play games, I never liked the form of DLC that gives paying players an advantage over others and it in itself is bad practice.

As of 2019, the original developer, Automation, closed their doors and a new developer by the name of Baseline Games took over. Only time will tell if Baseline Games can give the much needed supported Deceit needs. I would love to see a more robust voice system—something like HiRez Studio’s voice guided system (VGS), a huge list of preset voice commands accessed through a few keystrokes. Even with its flaws and lack of depth, Deceit is a fine game, but only if you play with your friends. The solo experience is for masochists only as there is just too much nonsense within and the whole state of Deceit doesn’t play kindly to a solo experience. If you have five or more like-minded friends, I’m sure you’ll have a good time working together and hoodwinking each other. There are only four maps (with the fifth one in the works), and a handful of items and Infected so this one is best played in short bursts. Be prepared to have someone mad at you at the end of the frightful night.

Thank you Badland Games for sending us this game to review!

Demon’s Crystals is a 3D twin stick shooter that arrived on PC in 2016. Nearly a year later, console players can now enjoy this $5 game. While a story isn't really needed, I’ll share it with you now. Urican demons have been on the top of the food chain until strange beings arrived that changed the peaceful inhabitants into hostile ones. It’s now up to the Urican demons to bring things back to the way they once were.

The arcade mode can be played solo or cooperatively with friends. In this mode you have to clear several levels before facing off against a boss. In order to complete a level you’ll have to satisfy the requirements of collecting a specified number of crystals or eliminating a certain amount of enemies. Oftentimes you’ll have to do a little bit of both. I like how the progress is saved and that the players can resurrect each other as often as needed. If you die alone or with a friend, you’ll have to restart the current level. You can continue as often as you like, which is nice. If this was genuine arcade game, I would have lost a lot of quarters!

Like all twin stick shooters, one of the joysticks is used for movement while the other guides a constant stream of bullets. The default firing mode isn’t that powerful, but thankfully there are many fun power-ups that spawn in random locations. Some of the power-ups change the formation of your bullets or create multidirectional streams. One of my favorite power-ups are the huge rockets that are good by themselves and even better when you can shoot three at a time! The invincibility mushrooms are nice too. Health and additional time bonuses are always welcome as they are often in short supply. You have to be careful at what you grab since there are debuffs as well that subtract time or confuse your controls.

The survival mode is the only one that does not allow for more than one player. As the title suggests, your goal in this mode is to survive as long as possible while trying to earn a high score. Sadly, there is no option for online play so you’ll need to recruit some family or friends to play with or against.

If you’re the competitive type, there are six multiplayer modes to choose from. Here’s a quick breakdown of them:

Crystal Quest – Collect as many crystals as possible before the time runs out.
Deathmatch - The last player standing wins.
Kill the Enemies - Shoot as many enemies as possible, but don’t kill the gnomes as they’ll reset your score!
Seize the Large Crystal - Break through the barrier and capture the crystal before your opponent.
Survival – See if you can withstand more waves of enemies than the others can.
Versus – Eliminate the opposing team.

As you can tell, this $5 game has a lot to offer. The game variety is decent, but this title is still best in short spurts since it may get a bit repetitive after a while. My son and I had a lot of fun playing this game together.

If you don’t mind the Halloween themed monsters and rune magic, this game is pretty family friendly. The violence is mild and the visuals remind me of the Skylanders games. They’re a little bit dated, but they’re colorful and get the job done. The sound effects are decent too.

If you’re a fan of twin stick shooters, Demon’s Crystals will be a great addition to your PC or console library. The asking price is very reasonable and it’s bound to entertain you and your family/friends for a little while.

Thank you PlayStack for sending us this game to review!

Dick Wilde was released in 2017 and received positive reviews. Regrettably, I haven’t played it, but I did add it to my Steam wishlist as I enjoyed playing the sequel. The story is pretty much the same with the swamp wildlife mutating and becoming vicious. It’s up to you to get rid of them all and their leaders (bosses) too.

To cleanse the area of mutated creatures you’ll need to hop on your raft and arm yourself with weapons and power-ups. The vertically challenged Dick Wilde isn’t much of a fighter, but he sells a lot of handy equipment to give you a fighting chance! Along with revolvers, shotguns, Uzis, and plasma rifles, you’ll find health extenders, critical attack increasers, as well as health kits.

In total, there are three worlds with several key gathering and challenge missions within. Many of the levels have several keys which will take multiple runs to collect them all. The keys are needed to unlock the final boss battle. Once the monstrosity of a boss is defeated, you can advance to the next world.

Dick Wilde 2 is an on-rails shooter where your raft is on a set path and you get to make a couple of directional choices (left or right) to gather keys that were not accessible earlier. As your raft is floating through a river or tunnels, various debris will pop up from underneath and you’ll have to shoot it apart before it damages your raft. You’ll need to dismantle partially submerged vehicles, refrigerators, wooden fences/crates, metal barrels and so forth. Red barrels are combustible, which comes in handy for quickly taking down groups of enemies or debris.

Enemies come at you from all directions, underwater, from the side, and even in the air. Crabs and fish will jump out and attack you while other creatures like giant rats, moles, scorpions, and snakes will hurl flaming or poisonous orbs at you. There are some squid/jellyfish like creatures that need to have their protective aura dissolved before you can do any damage to them.

Along with watching out for enemies, you’ll have to pay attention to your surroundings. Some levels have locked gates that only open if you shoot the numbered buttons in the proper sequence. Many levels have a couple of checkpoints where you can restore your health, buy power-ups, or upgrade weapons if you have the cash to pay for it. Money is earned by clearing out debris. Once a level is completed you’ll get to see various statistics like your accuracy, how much damage had been dealt and received, and how much debris has been cleared.

Multiplayer is a great feature and fun to play if you can find someone to play alongside. I was able to find an active game during the weekend, but any other time has been unsuccessful. Voice chat would be a nice feature to implement to communicate more effectively than waving and pointing your guns around. On a positive note, I like how progress/keys carry forward in the single-player campaign.

Graphically, this game is very colorful and there’s a lot of variety when it comes to weapons and enemies. The level design is decent but gets repetitive by having to replay them four times to collect all of the necessary keys. To mix things up you can play them out of order. The menu interface is pretty entertaining as you can shoot the environment as you’re looking around or waiting for a multiplayer match. Unfortunately, exiting the game is not intuitive and I had to rely on my controller buttons to leave the game since there was no menu option to do so gracefully.

The audio is entertaining with Dick Wilde’s funny comments like “Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit!” and “It’s a me, Dick Wilde!” The sound effects are fitting and the peppy background music is nice when it’s not drowned out by gunfire.

Dick Wilde 2 is pretty family friendly though it does have a couple of issues worth noting. Living creatures explode when shot and you’ll see red pieces falling and coming out of them. After shooting and destroying hundreds of mutated creatures and floating debris, my fingers hurt after a while. If you’re a middle-aged gamer you might have to take a few breathers to give your hands some rest.

In the end, Dick Wilde 2 is a fun, but flawed experience. Co-op multiplayer is great, but hard to come by and the levels are fun, but repetitive. If you enjoyed the first game you’ll probably like this one though I hear it’s not as challenging as the previous title. Gamers who like on-rails shooters should check this game out. If you’re looking for co-op play, you may want to look elsewhere unless you have friends who own this title already.

Thank you Over The Top Games for sending us this game to review!

There’s not much of a story in Full Mojo Rampage other than it starting off with your character getting chased in a cemetery and stumbling upon a Voodoo doll (with pins in it) that gives him the power to fight back. Your goal is to complete various objectives while fending away swarms of undead monsters that aim to stop you. Between them and the bosses, you will die, but your experience and medals collected do carry over to your next playthrough. Like other Rogue-like games, each playthough will be different as the maps are generated randomly.

Medals are used to unlock different masks and Loas (Voodoo spirits) with varying powers and abilities. Just like other twin-stick shooter games, one of the joysticks moves around your character while the other fires projectiles from your equipped wand. Depending on which Loa you are using, you’ll have different attacks or abilities mapped to your left and right triggers. These abilities need to recharge until they are able to be used again.

Besides enemies, you’ll find treasure chests, piles of bones, and tombstones that have loot inside if you stop to examine them. Many levels have shrines that let you combine items, which is really handy since you only have a handful of inventory slots. Vendors can also be found and they can sell healing potions and powerful wands. Unfortunately, the wands lose their charge so you’ll have to conserve their power or save them for bosses and rely on your infinite default wand as your primary. Some of the wands are pretty cool with multi-shot beams or grenades.

Passive power-ups are nice to find and equip. Be sure to examine each one and combine them when given an opportunity to do so. Some of the power-ups can increase your speed, attack rate, or even the amount of damage you do. Sadly, the power-ups do not respawn with you if you die. Upon your death, you will be taken back to the beginning of the dungeon where you have to start all over again. If you have leveled up, you can choose which attribute (health, damage, speed, attack rate) to increase at the main menu.

Pins can be collected as items in the game and you have to use them in order to unlock them for future playthroughs.  The pins can boost your stats, gold collection rate, or even give you starting healing potions.  Some of the pins can be upgraded so be sure to max them out if possible.  

Playing solo is fun and I enjoyed my numerous playthroughs. Once I got the hang of the game and controls I tried to find an online game to join. Sadly, there were not any available. It’s a shame since all of the popular game modes are there: co-op, death match, team death match, and capture the flag. Local co-op play would be a nice alternative, but that’s not available. If you’re looking for a multiplayer experience, you may want to look elsewhere.

Christians should also be wary of this title due to the numerous Voodoo references. Between the Voodoo dolls, pins for them, Loas, and shaman masks, this game is full of Voodoo symbolism. Aside from that, there are many undead monsters, magic, drinking/smoking references as well as language. Full Mojo Rampage definitely earns its Teen rating from the ESRB.

Aside from the moral issues and lack of multiplayer options, Full Mojo Rampage is a well polished and fun game. As long as you don’t expect any multiplayer action it’s worth checking out or picking up on sale.

Thank you Ratalaika Games SL for sending us this game to review!

FullBlast was released on Steam in 2016 and was pretty well received. It’s not ground-breaking by any means, but it is a fun shoot ‘em up regardless. I’m glad that it made its way to consoles in 2018. Though the Vita version is portable, it doesn’t allow for co-op gameplay as the other formats do. Another downside to the Vita version is that I experienced some gameplay slowdowns that are probably not present on more powerful gaming systems.

The story isn’t very original in this game. Aliens are invading and it’s up to you (an ace pilot) to reclaim our planet. In total, there are three difficulties and twelve levels. The default difficulty of normal wasn’t very challenging until the final boss battle as I was able to complete most missions on my first or occasionally second try. The last boss probably took me fifteen attempts.

Some levels are longer than others as a few of them merely lead your jet to a boss battle. All in all, this title may only take a couple of hours to beat. Since the levels are not random, there isn’t much replay value other than a different difficulty or trying to unlock a previously missed achievement.

As a shoot ‘em up, FullBlast checks all the right boxes with numerous power-ups to collect and plenty of marine-themed alien ships to shoot out of the sky. Some of the enemy aircrafts look like lobsters and stingrays. There are some krakens and insect-like ships too.

The levels take place in different biomes including snowy mountains and dense forests. The krakens can be found in the ocean missions. While not jaw-dropping, the visuals are decent in this title.

Voice acting is non-existent and all of the game’s dialogue is in text. Unfortunately, there are a few instances of the word d*mn used. The heavy metal background music is pretty good. It really gets you pumped for the upcoming battles.

Your lives are limited, but occasionally you’ll come across an extra life power-up. Other power-ups include a faster rate of fire, more or stronger bullets, or a temporary shield. After a level is cleared you can proceed to the next one with your power-ups intact. However, once you die or start a level fresh, you’ll lose any enhancements you had previously.

Though the enemy patterns may have their directions flipped, the level layout and power-up drop is always consistent. Your best bet on taking on the last boss is to continue on from level eleven fully powered instead of relying on the single gun power-up on the last level.

If you don’t mind the language and enemy combat, FullBlast is worth checking out. The visuals and story won’t blow you away, but the game is fun and that’s what counts. If you want to play with a friend it’s worth checking out on other platforms. It’ll probably run better too.

Thank you Team8 Studio for sending us this game to review!

It’s rare that I’ll admire a minimalist game. When I say minimalist, I don't mean cheap graphics either. Sometimes a game that just focuses on gameplay comes along and it's ok. While Genetic Disaster has little story, it’s actually a fun game that deserves a look.

Genetic Disaster is a co-op procedural action game in the same vein of games like Nuclear Throne or Enter the Gungeon. You pick between one of four characters with special abilities and you face multiple enemies until you die. Each character has a special ability such as generating a shield or using a powerful attack. I wish the game had more of a story to it, yet the game doesn't present you with much right now. I'm not sure why I am fighting these robots, and I am not sure why these strange creatures I can play as work together.

Once you start a session, you get one gun at the beginning of a game then you just go room to room and fight. One of the newest updates adds arena rooms which will spawn multiple waves of enemies; survive and you get a treasure chest. Some rooms have health packs, new weapons or gold. Gold you can use to spend on upgrades after every elevator to the next level.

Playing the game with someone seems to be a lot better than playing solo. While the characters have no backstories yet they all work well together. I had a friend join me in online play and the connection was flawless, no lag. Local co-op was also a reasonable option; my wife and I got to about floor 9. The challenge of the game is balanced around how many players you have with you as well as how many floors you've gone down. While this may be an unpopular opinion I am glad that the challenge remained constant. Maybe I haven't found an awesome upgrade yet before I begin a floor, maybe I haven't found that overpowered gun yet. Yet it's nice to see that this game doesn't have a build that makes the game extremely easy.

Hopefully, any negatives I have with this game will be improved. I would love to see more life brought into the characters, voice lines or even just the backstories would help me love these characters. It seems they have already worked on improving the feel of the guns, yet I think the enemies need to feel a bit more threatening too. It's not a good sign when I don't care about the enemies of a game at all. While a missing story didn’t bug me, it does make it harder to remember the game later down the line.

On morality you don't have much to worry about. There is no blood or gore, just the shoot em up violence. There is no bad dialogue or any vile imagery either.

Genetic Disaster has the foundations to be a great experience both for solo players and co-op, it just needs a bit of spit and polish to make it shine. Hopefully this game will become top notch, not a disaster.