Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Today we look at a single genre of game, the endless runner, you are on rails and you have to avoid as many obstacles as possible in an attempt to reach the highest score.
Top Run
Starting with an 80s inspired endless runner and the only game to involve actual running, Kevin and his dog Buddy have to avoid everything from bullies, aerobic girls, prisms, crt monitor heads, punk motorcyclists, digital cats and even clones on hover boards, this is basically a look at this reference type of game with the most obvious one being Back to the Future; it's so packed full of references it becomes hard to keep playing without being constantly reminded of Rick Astley. The game keeps playing until you have a house full of cosmetics.
C-Tier Game
Super Box Delivery: Beyond the Horizon
A more simpler cartoony style game, I'll let the tutorial girl tell you how this works.
Fun fact, Fera the tutorial girl is my inspiration for my Shark House lead character Popuri.
The game rewards risky strategies for higher scores as you can only score points when you drop the packages off at a station, it looks nice but a little too easy to clear and no Leaderboards means no replay ability.
D-Tier Game
Retro Highway
The best of today's three games is Retro Highway and a game I have an affinity for, in the style of Super Hang-On, you have to avoid traffic but this time you have a leaderboard and I was able to work out a trick to get a guaranteed high score by chaining the shield power up as it makes you invincible to traffic, combined with boost it really accelerates the score and because I figured this out before any one else, I topped five out of the six stage leaderboards, at time of writing I doubt I'm still top of the leaderboard as I've not played the game for two years now, the stress to maintain the record is not great for my mid 30s heart to take on a regular basis.
A-Tier Game
Three weird stories from very different games.
F1 2021
It took EA buying Codemasters to finally get a cheesy story out of F1 and EA's story writing history is very much the same as every bad motor racing movie which is most of them; tell me if you heard this before, a young promising driver joins a team and immediately falls out with the veteran old guy teammate, both are manipulated by a perfect prick who ends up losing when the teammates make up and win, what makes this a little more bearable is that you play both the rookie and the veteran and at no point you are ever expected to win, god forbid F1 would actually allow a fictional character to steal the status quo off it's stars Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, that's what your nameless career mode driver is supposed to do. Because F1 is a yearly release it will never get a decent score and a cheesy story mode isn't going to change that.
C-Tier Game
The Fairy's Song
Join Marnie, a disgruntled teenage girl from Grimsby, that's a Northern British port town for all the American readers, forced to go to the go no where quiet village of Fenchapel to visit her grandmother, she ends up encountering a lady knight out of time Leofe, who takes Marnie on a journey to Fenchapel's past as Leofe finishes what she started a 1000 years ago in Fenchapel. Surreal to hear a story where I actually understand the setting references and writing is rare and shared by only one other game, ebi-hime really brings the best out of it's British writers and Fairy's Song is a joy to read.
B-Tier Game
Long Live the Queen
A remake of a PC game from a decade ago, you are in charge of the crown princess Elodie as you develop her schedule to keep her alive for 40 weeks until she becomes Queen, and I do mean keep her alive as any slip up will result in her death if you fail to develop a stat high enough for her to cope with the situations she finds herself in, the game encourages you to be whatever ruler you want to be as decisions can make you look like a sinister bitch when you can order murders and executions if you so desire, no two playthroughs are the same, this also leaves everything up to RNG a bit too frequently.
B-Tier Game
For a change of scenery, lets look at some popular games.
Minecraft
It's fascinating how what is essentially digital Lego is the best selling game of all time yet I've probably answered my own statement seeing as Lego themselves are the best selling toys of all time. The game is a survival epic where the whole world is yours to well mine and craft in your image, going in blind, it's not a game that you can play for half an hour at a time, it's a game that needs investment to give you results anywhere close to what any streamer can get or even young family members who do have the time, I definitely see the appeal and those who don't haven't given it enough time to cook.
A-Tier Game
Stardew Valley
I remember playing the original Harvest Moon multiple times and Stardew Valley is the perfect version of it and it shows when Harvest Moon's creator even says that Stardew retains it's freedom that his franchise had lost over time, but what's more phenomenal is that only one person made it. Again it needs investing to get to a good point but is more generous than Minecraft.
S-Tier Game
Lies of P
Lies of P is what happens when you take the basic plot of Bubblegum Crisis, make all your killer robots killer puppets and turn it into a souls like with pretty boy Pinocchio as the main character. Unfortunately this isn't going to get me into Soulslike games anytime soon, not that I'm anti hard games, is just that I prefer my hack and slash games to be more combo heavy, flashy and less restrictive and janky which is why I prefer Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, so my rating is at least fair as it's more my gaming taste as opposed to the game itself.
B-Tier Game
The top down race genre found it's way back into modern gaming through the medium of indie titles and today's three titles remind you of those days where physics can often kick your ass.
Absolute Drift
Funselektor Labs made the master piece that is Art of Rally but their first attempt at the racing genre in Absolute Drift is an example of major baby steps, drifting is the most difficult mechanic to get right that even triple racers struggle with and Absolute Drift is pretty dreadful with this mechanic, thankfully the game is merciful and let's you practice open world as many times as you like, you'll find out very quickly how out of practice you really are, especially if you used to play Micro Machines in your childhood.
C-Tier Game
Super Woden GP
They clearly wanted to make a Rally game as the mechanics seem better suited for offroad than traditional circuit racing, for a game that is part of the all achievements offered for cheap class of games, the difficulty curve is pretty high as the difference between winning and losing is judging one corner wrong, it's a nice balance that almost justifies the 3000G score on offer.
B-Tier Game
Circuit Superstars
I've never known a game that has pissed me off more than Circuit Superstars, the sad thing is, it's actually pretty good as a game but the developers really messed up big time over the time it's been out, everything from the game not starting to not loading saves properly to completely locking me out of content I had already completed; but what bothers me most of all is the ego, early on they brought in Top Gear as a selling point as well as an exclusive list of real racing pros setting times on the Top Gear Test Track.
They are as follows.
Romain Grosjean - Former F1 now Indy Car
Sam Bird - Formula E
Jimmy Broadbent - Racing game genres most well known personality.
Lando Norris - Formula 1
Conor Daly - Indy Car and Nascar
Charlie Martin - Endurance Racing GT
Catie Munnings - Rallying
Jamie Chadwick - Indy NXT
Those are the ones I know of and I'm faster than Conor, Charlie, Catie and Jamie.
Another thing I hate is how long it thinks I want to race, an online race can go on longer than a Project Cars race with anywhere between 10 and 20 laps per race with qualifying, I can complete a Mario Kart four race session with load screens and lobbies included faster than one online race in this.
Least the music is good.
C-Tier for the game, massive F-You Tier for the developers.
When you make a legendary IP like Pokemon or Mario, it's hard to break free of that legacy to create something new without being reminded of what they made before, so I've assembled five different industry legends and one legendary company to see if leaving their legacy really was the right decision.
Keiji Inafune
The man behind the Blue Bomber Megaman ended up leaving Capcom having started from illustrator moving up the hierarchy to some top positions, his two most notable titles since leaving have been Azure Striker Gunvolt and Mighty No.9.
Verdict
While Azure Striker Gunvolt is pretty well received if very niche, Mighty No 9 was an infamous failure that even destroyed consoles, meanwhile legacy collections of Megaman continue to sell well with pretty much every title coming back in some form.
Yuji Naka
The man behind the Blue Blur Sonic the Hedgehog was a prominent Sega figure throughout Sega's tenure as a console maker up until 2006, his only notable game since was Balan Wonderworld for Square Enix.
Verdict
Balan Wonderworld was a doomed project from the start and Naka would fall out with Square Enix and leave all while Sonic began a new renaissance guided by new talent, Naka's career would come to a halt as he was arrested for Insider Trading Fraud last year.
Hideo Kojima
The man behind Metal Gear Solid turning a stealth top down shooter into a cinematic gaming juggernaut would later divorce from Konami following some messy disputes, creating Death Stranding with his own studio.
Verdict
The eccentric personality behind Hideo Kojima really shows when even four years after release, no one knows what Death Stranding is supposed to be, meanwhile it's clear that Metal Gear Solid can't survive without Kojima.
Yu Suzuki
The man, the myth, the legend and now the new breakfast cereal, Yu Suzuki is Sega royalty behind their best arcade titles creating a metric ton of hits including Space Harrier, Outrun, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and Shenmue. He would establish his own company to finish the ill fated Shenmue saga but also reminded the industry what he's capable of with Air Twister, a Space Harrier/Panzer Dragoon legacy game.
Verdict
It's clear that Shenmue is never going to leave his shadow while Air Twister is a reminder of what he can really do, it's clear that he maybe should've stopped on Shenmue as we could've continued to have some really stellar titles. It's worth noting that much of what made Shenmue work is now in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise that other than Sonic is Sega's money maker.
Game Freak
The developers behind Pokemon being the main driving force of it's video game success although the franchise is facing rougher waters with how messy Scarlet and Violet are, it's not showing signs of waning in popularity. Game Freak have shown willingness to make their own games with the most notable being Tembo the Badass Elephant.
Verdict
I doubt they'll ever escape Pokemon and I can foresee a future that Pokemon will switch from Game Freak to a different developer. Tembo isn't a bad title but it's certainly not bringing in Nintendo money.
Christian Whitehead
Credited with saving the Sonic franchise, known as Taxman, Whitehead provided all the support for Sonic's current gen classic re-releases with polished versions of the classics as well as the legendary Sonic Mania.
Verdict
He's burned a few bridges with Sega following Origins so whether we'll see him contribute to Sonic in future instalments remains to be seen, his team are working on Penny's Big Breakaway, an attempt at a 3D platformer, remains to be seen if he can breakaway from Sonic.
