Splatoon

 

First of all, two things must be said upfront about this new intellectual property from Nintendo. Yes, it doesn't have enough multiplayer content yet, and yes, voice chat is missing. Both of those "negative" factors in the eyes of many can be dismissed for now, because more content is coming very soon, and voice chat is not a necessity for tactical reasons as you wil eventually climb the ranked matches ladder, and the game is very much fun on itself without it.

Splatoon is a flashy cartoonish third person arena shooter with squid human hybrids being present as the player's persona's, and the main objective is to spray as much ink as possible in the area so that in the end, your team will have more than the opponents.

Splattering your enemies(or killing them in normal first or third person shooters)is a secondary objective that could delay the first one for the opponents to achieve, and the available arsenal is varied, entertaining and they fulfill different roles for the players to take.

A roller for instance is a melee based tool that can quickly cover much ground while simultaneously defeat enemies if they get too close to them. A splattershot on the other hand is a ranged based tool that has a wide range and a good fire rate.

There are many others available, of which several of them are variants, but pretty much all of them seem to have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the area's being played and the matchmaking itself.

This Wii U title also has a lengthy single player campaign that is more reminiscent of traditional Nintendo games rather than the absurdity that they have pretty much finally developed an online multiplayer shooter, although with innovative features, and the first inspiration that came to mind was Super Mario Sunshine's F.L.U.D.D. physics.

Innovative features include the ability to change into a squid, allowing you to traverse below the ink of your own kind so that you can hide and regenerate your ink fuel for examples. Upon respawning, you can also launch towards your teammates in a strategic manner, which sometimes can make or break your current match.

Splatoon is also equipped with an addictive soundtrack which embodies the teenage kid culture it represents, and I was pretty much instantly hooked with the online battles on my first playtime evening, especially after I turned off the motion controls for the camera.

Nintendo has most likely released the 3rd most popular multiplayer Wii U game at this moment, behind Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, as there are pretty much no other kart, fighting or shooting games that come close to these 3.

Because more content is coming very soon, the rating for Splatoon will for now stay on pending, however if this was the final game I would give it about an 8.3 just for replayability alone and the fact that there are plenty of different roles one can take with matches.

Bloodborne

From Software delivers again on their successful action role playing hack and slash game with Bloodborne, a spiritual successor to the Souls franchise, which was a spiritual successor to the King’s Field franchise. Play as a customized hunter, and uncover the dark gothic city of Yharnam, where an evil curse has plagued the townsmen and horrifying creatures occupy the streets now too.

The artstyle of Bloodborne is awesomely detailed, and the methodical combat has been fastened and improved because although the category of weapons has lessened, they all have 2 styles of using them now, such as letting the standard axe turn into a two handed halberd, or a standard holy sword turn into a bigger two handed holy sword.

Some features which were fine before have been lessened and are actually quite dissapointing. Covenants for instance are minimized into 3 different ones, and NPC quests have the same issue of quantity. Traveling between the new lanterns replacing the bonfires means you need to warp to the HUB location each time before you can move on to the next area.

PvP options are also way more limited because the conditions have gone higher in order for opponents to appear even in the first place. The same more or less goes when you want to summon allies using the beckoning bell. Many times there would be no allies to help me out, it's actually a rarity when contact could be placed. Even after beating Bloodborne for a second time, this issue persisted despite thinking that server intensity would be either lessened or higher depending on the amount of people playing the game.

 

Once again is the soundtrack minimum in quantity, but more than enough makes up for it during intensified boss battles and it’s just engrossing. The difficulty remains unforgivable even after beating Demon’s, Dark and Dark Souls II before, and I was most of all impressed with the enemy designs and their animations.

It remains utterly satisfying however to progress through these games, and Bloodborne is simply the best exclusive PS4 game at the moment. It is perhaps a little bit shorter and even dissapointing than the Souls games, but it more than enough makes up for it with optional content, the art style, the improved combat and the intact challenge which becomes truly brutal with the new game plus option like always.

Since the sales have been positive, I think that DLC is unavoidable when looking at the improved Dark Souls II with it's DLC, and even Dark Souls before that which also had an expansion pack, otherwise known as DLC nowadays. Both of those DLC's will be talked about soon enough, because thanks to Bloodborne, I have been on another Souls ride.

Rating: 8.5

Azure Striker Gunvolt

Inti Creates has released a somewhat spiritual successor and alternative towards Mega Man Zero and ZX in the form of playing as a lightning based hero who is able to tag enemies utilizing his electric field so that damage output is spread across the fields.

Azure Striker Gunvolt, having been released only on the Nintendo 3DS, has become commercially successful enough to permit the developer to create a sequel which was not too long ago announced, it only was recent though that it was released in Europe.

It's your familiar side scrolling action game with many elements returning from Zero and ZX returning such as the aesthetics, the mission/boss selection, the similar story and of course the gameplay, which is now focused on indirect combat instead of using a cybersword.

Automatically being able to damage enemies in the surrounding area, while being able to boost Gunvolt's health using special chips made the game quite frankly easy for me as a seasoned hardcore Mega Man player, except for the final boss's 2nd form, which had an annoying OHKO to be bothered by.

The somewhat short length of this digital only release is compromised by the game's relatively low price, which actually gives it more than enough content, it's just that in this industry, almost every game released is overpriced in so far as how much content is provided, but that is another future topic I can talk about.

While Keiji Inafune has been busy with post-development of the upcoming Mighty No.9, Comcept and Inti Creates have been collaborating in order to create Mighty Gunvolt inbetween as well, which is another retro throwback to classic Mega Man gaming, featuring the main characters of both new establishing intellectual properties. It's a free bonus which is fun while it lasts.

Azure Striker Gunvolt is a modest alternative approach to familiar side scrolling 2D action, and it shows promise, but I felt that it's similar towards Mega Man Zero 1 in the sense that it's not greatly polished yet. I'm sure that the sequel will be an improvement.

Rating: 7.4