REVIEW: SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium on Nintendo Switch

Review by Jon Donnis

In the world of Gaming, you will often hear the word "Timeless", probably an overused word, but today we are going to use the word Timeless once again.

Back in 1999 there was a hand held console called the Neo Geo Pocket Color, more famous in Japan than Europe or America, it was a very successful console, and one of its greatest games was SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium. Back in the 1990s SNK and Capcom were the kings of the beat em up game, fierce rivals too, but eventually they got together and started producing games that used characters from each other's games. SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium was the pinnacle of that.

26 fighters from games like The King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Streetfighter 2, and Darkstalkers, all classic games, and finally the best characters from each get to face off.

Various gameplay options include tag teams, fighters queued up, and classic one on one action. Fight through the stages to reach your rival, defeat them and you get to see your characters ending, fail at the end and you see a bad ending. Throw in the usual Survival and Time attack modes as well as some mini games, and you have a pretty complete game.

So far everything sounds great right!? And it is, this is a classic, TIMELESS game, and it will be in another 20 years, but with that there does come an issue, show this game to any kid under 15 and they will say "I am not playing that, it looks crap", as my nephew said, it took me forever to get him to have a go and when he did, he really enjoyed it, but still that problem will persist, so who exactly is this game aimed at? It is clearly being sold to children, but children are spoilt in 2021 with insanely realistic graphics. And although gamers over 40 are a strong market, I have to wonder how many will actually pick this up.

The Good

This was a great game in 1999, and it is a great game now.

The Bad

The very people this game is aimed at won't play it. Simple as that.

Overall

A timeless classic that should be played and enjoyed by all, I just fear that it won't.

I score the game a strong 8/10

Review by Jon Donnis

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos - Launch Trailer

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos takes players on a journey across the land of Tasos and into the depths of challenging, procedurally assembled dungeons located throughout the world. Gems earned during dungeon runs can be used to rebuild your home town of Intori, which in turn grants access to upgrades that can improve your warriors as well as unlocking other classes and equipment.

Players can help each other out in co-operative play, either locally or online, but those who take on the challenge will have their experiences tailored to them, with puzzles and challenges scaling depending on the number of players. Each hero can be customised, along with a selection of classes, all of which have their own abilities and benefits in gameplay, and players wanting a taste of the action can try a free demo on Steam and Nintendo Switch right now.

Key Features:

Four-player co-op adventuring: Up to four players can explore the lands of Tasos and tackle the dungeons, assisting and reviving each other to earn victory together

Roguelite dungeon-crawling: Take on procedurally-generated dungeons packed with a variety of monsters, earning gems to spend on upgrades to get further in the next run

Town and class upgrades: Each run in the dungeon earns heroes gems to spend on upgrades, including the facilities in the town, as well as player abilities and stats

Classic gameplay reinvented: This is top-down adventuring brought into the modern day with colourful visuals and a number of options for combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration.

Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos is available on all platforms for £15.99 / €19.99 / $19.99.

Thunderflash - Launch Trailer

Inspired by nostalgic retro games you know and love, Thunderflash will drop you into the combat zone top-down, and the intensity will never let up. Play a solo mission or with a partner, and choose from bad boy commandos Rock or Stan, and go up against an army of mercenaries, military weapons and more!

The Kashmir is being occupied by a criminal organization known as Bloody Wolf, and your job is to make your country proud by taking them all down. Fight your way through waves of soldiers, explosives, vehicles and drones, and bosses, and collect more powerful weapons.

Show that you have what it takes to be a hardcore warrior!

Release date: 26/02/2021 - 4.99 on All Formats

Features

* Intense top-down war zone action

* Collect powerful weapons

* Single player and two player mode

* Boss rush mode

REVIEW: Xuan-Yuan Sword VII on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis
Xuan-Yuan Sword VII is the latest Action role-playing game from Yooreka Studio, a game plot that is set firmly in Chinese history and mythology set in the Western Han Dynasty.

Your character is called Taishi Zhao. Let's take a look at the official synopsis

In the last of Western Han Dynasty, the powerful prime minister of China superseded his emperor and build a new dynasty called Xin. In this year, words appeared on the boulders, stone cattles appeared in fields, and ancient tombs cracked, tremendous signs appeared, told a time of peace and prosperity will come. A peculiar bamboo slip in the crypt of Marquis of Liu was delivered to Court Astrologer's hand.

Unexpectedly, Taishi Mansion was badly damaged by a bizarre fire that night, and all his family was killed in the fire and the bamboo slip disappeared.

Ten years later, the prosperity mentioned in the prophecy has never come. A decade of war and famine, the people were miserable, and the chaos had spread among the country.

Ok, so Xuan-Yuan Sword VII is an Action RPG, using my preferred third-person perspective to play, this game is story heavy, and that is good if you like to feel emersed in the history of the story that is being told.

Combat seems a bit basic, but for what it is, it is perfectly fine, but you will just find yourself using heavy attack over and over and will win every fight pretty easily. You can also cast some magic spells, but you only really get two spells, so it's pretty basic in that respect. But let us be honest, swinging a sword is always more satisfying. You are also accompanied by your little sister, who has her own powers which you can call upon in times of need, but mostly you will just leave her to do her own thing.

You will come across various puzzles in the game, some easier than others, although once you try for long enough you can just skip them if they are too hard, and it doesn't affect the game as far as I can see. You can upgrade your character as you would expect, better weapons, amulets, the usual stuff. You also have access to the Elysium, a magical plane of existence whereby you can craft things which will really help upgrade your character.

The graphics are stunning and the music is beautiful, and the voice acting, although not in English, just sounded right to me.

The Good

Easy to play, great graphics and music.

The Bad

The combat at times can be a bit unbalanced on a difficulty level, and some of the translation as I read the subtitles is a tad off, but nothing that will really cause more than an eye roll on your behalf.

Overall

A fun game that you will fly through, if you like ARPG and you like Chinese history and mythology, then give this game a look. I am enjoying it so far.

Review by Jon Donnis

REVIEW: GraviFire on Xbox One

Review By Jon Donnis

GraviFire is a logic puzzle game, whereby you have a mixture of gravity, mechanics and those old sliding picture puzzles, all come together to make a very good little game. You control "The Green Fire" who has been abducted by aliens, who force him to solve puzzles, you need to push blocks from one point to another, get all the blocks in the right place and you pass the level, sounds easy right? Wrong! You also have lasers you need to avoid, all the while you have to worry about and control gravity to help you along, suddenly what seemed like a really easy game, needs you to use every braincell you have to figure everything out.

With 50 levels to beat, lovely pixel graphics, and a decent learning curve, this is a very addictive game. Once you get into the flow of things, you will complete it pretty quickly, but that said you might find yourself seeking out help on the "Youtubes!". Check out my gameplay video below, this was recorded live, as I played levels 5 through 10. The rest you can figure out yourself!

The Good

Simple gameplay mechanics, easy to learn and master, logic-based puzzles, cute pixel graphics, and a catchy soundtrack.

The Bad

Nothing really, it's a great game, maybe more levels? Ok I have one complaint, I completed the game, but never got the achievement for level 50. This may be because I used the skip function on a couple of levels.

Overall

If you like simple logic-based puzzle games, then you can go wrong with GraviFire. Excellent game. I score it 9/10

Review by Jon Donnis

GraviFire will be released on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch™ and Xbox One on March 3'rd! Price is 4.99 💵 everywhere!