Tag: review

Horizon Chase Turbo Review (Switch)

Horizon Chase Turbo on Nintendo Switch is a racing game that truly feels like a modern update of the SNES racer Top Gear (no relation to the British TV show). In fact, it feels so much like a modern Top Gear game that I can’t properly review this game without first talking about the SNES game.

About Top Gear

Top Gear is a Super Nintendo game where 20 cars compete in courses around the world. Each of eight countries (or regions) has a four-race tournament. It has simple, arcade-style gameplay that’s just fun to play. No weapons, no power-ups, and no crazy jumps. You get a few nitros available per race, and some courses have pit stops where you may need to refuel (or not, depending on your car and the track in question).

Screenshot of Top Gear (SNES).
Top Gear on SNES

Top Gear’s controls are simple, minimal braking is required, and the action is fast and fun. The tunes are incredibly catchy, and the great soundtrack adds a lot of enjoyment to the game.

About Horizon Chase Turbo

Horizon Chase Turbo borrows much of what made Top Gear great. There are a variety of cars to choose from, and you unlock more as you progress through the game. Of course, each one has different handling, top speeds, acceleration, and so on.

Racing through fireworks in Hong Kong.

The graphics maintain a retro look with low-poly, blocky foreground objects alongside the road. But the graphics are still clean, colorful, and aesthetically pleasing. And the game runs at a fast pace; turns can sneak up on you if you dare to blink. So don’t blink. 😂

Some tracks have varying weather conditions, as you may have to race through rain, thunderstorms, snow, blizzards, fireworks, volcanic ash, or a sandstorm. The conditions can also change mid-race, and that includes day turning to night, the sun setting or rising, and so on.

Horizon Chase Turbo screenshot featuring Dubai at sunset.
Dubai at sunset.

The controls are simple and effective: You can accelerate, brake, and use nitros. You can steer by using the control stick or control pad, and you can fully customize the button controls. I reconfigure mine to mimic Top Gear’s controls (X to accelerate, Y to brake, A for nitros). The only complaint I have about the controls is that it doesn’t save your custom control settings. Fortunately, it only takes a couple of seconds to set up.

The makers of Horizon Chase Turbo hired the same musician (Barry Leitch) who composed the Top Gear music. There are lots of great, catchy tunes that are fun to drive to. Not only that, but you’ll hear some classic Top Gear melodies within Horizon Chase Turbo as well!

Racing near an active volcano in Horizon Chase Turbo for Nintendo Switch.

Game Modes

There is a tournament mode similar to Top Gear’s, but the main mode here is a world tour campaign. You compete in over 100 courses around the world, and the object is to win each race while collecting all of the coins spread across each track.

There are twelve countries (or regions), and each one has 8-12 courses. That includes one “upgrade race” in each region, which has no coins to collect. But you just need to finish in the top-three in that race to unlock a new upgrade that applies to all cars.

Racing near the oceanside in Horizon Chase Turbo.

An endurance mode is also present, and it plays like an obscenely long tournament. The “short” endurance challenge is composed of 12 consecutive random races, in which you must always finish in the top-five to continue to the next race. The medium challenge consists of 36 races, and the long endurance challenge consists of an insane 109 consecutive races, with no ability to save your progress. Yikes. I mainly stick to the world tour and tournament modes.

There is also an “Adventures” mode which allows you to unlock new car skins. Win five races with each car to unlock a new skin/color for that car.

Top Gripes

One difference between Horizon Chase and Top Gear is how you refuel. There are no pit stops in this game. Instead, you pick up gas containers on the track as you race. Unfortunately, the gas icons can be easy to miss on some tracks, and they don’t even show up on the map until you’re already low on fuel. This is one aspect of the game that could’ve been handled better.

But my biggest complaint with the game is the lack of online play. For a while, it had leaderboards and ghosts of friends’ cars you could race against. However, those have since been removed in an update. But the game does have split-screen multiplayer for up to four players, and it’s a lot of fun.

Overall

Despite the lack of online play, Horizon Chase Turbo has a lot of content. There are multiple game modes, over 100 different tracks, dozens of cars, and lots of unlockable bonuses. I’ve spent well over 50 hours with the game (and counting), and I still enjoy it immensely. I never want to put it down!

Horizon Chase Turbo is the modern Top Gear game I’ve always wanted. It is almost my exact taste in racing games, and it has become one of my favorite racing games of all time. 10/10

Horizon Chase Turbo screenshot featuring the northern lights.

Note: There are also several DLC packs available, including a free one. But I do not factor DLC into my reviews of the base game.

Buy Horizon Chase Turbo at Amazon

Actraiser Renaissance Review

First unveiled in a September Nintendo Direct, Actraiser Renaissance for Nintendo Switch is a remake of the 1990s hidden gem ActRaiser on the 16-bit Super Nintendo (SNES).

The Basics, Much Like Before

Just as in the SNES original, you play as a god that looks over six lands. There are two distinct types of gameplay: Hack-and-slash style action stages and a town-building simulation mode. In the action stages, you take human form as you use your sword (and magic attacks) to fight through a variety of enemies…including a large boss at the end of each level.

An action stage in Actraiser Renaissance.
A tree gives a helpful hand in Fillmore’s first action stage.

In the simulation mode, you direct your people (who worship you at a shrine) to make new roads, houses, fields, and more. You can use miracles to fulfill the people’s requests. For example, you may use lightning to clear out overgrown trees, use the sun to melt ice or dry out swampland, or make the wind blow to allow people to use their stagnant windmills.

The simulation mode initially has monsters (you fight them off by controlling an angel equipped with a bow and arrows), and the object is to lead your people to seal each monster lair. But this mode is generally more peaceful and relaxing, and it provides a nice change of pace from the action stages.

The town-building simulation mode.
The town-building simulation mode.

What’s New

The action levels have been redesigned, boss enemies don’t follow the same patterns as on SNES, and new mini-stages have been added for each time you seal a monster’s lair. Your player also has several new moves, including a rising strike, a backstep, an overhead slam, and a thrust attack.

Actraiser Renaissance has more emphasis on plot…and lots of dialogue. Some original storylines have returned, but they are fleshed out and go into much more detail. I was happy to see that the runaway boy Teddy from Bloodpool has returned, and he still gets homesick when you deliver him some of his mother’s fresh baked bread.

Teddy: Aye, there's no mistaking it! Mother's bread, fresh from the oven! And just when my hunger was beginning to grow unbearable. As if my stomach summoned it out of thin air!

Also, each town now has a “hero,” although some of them don’t seem like heroes initially. But many of the new storylines in each town revolve around them.

Philotas: ...I swore, then and there, never to allow such a tragedy to be repeated.

But the biggest change in Renaissance is the addition of settlement sieges, in which hordes of enemies come to attack your town (for no apparent reason). You can place forts at strategic locations, deploy palisades, command your heroes to guard certain spots, and use miracles (lightning, etc.) to help the fight. But curiously, the angel can not shoot arrows to help out during sieges.

A settlement siege in Kasandora in Actraiser Renaissance.

The sieges provide a strategic challenge to the game. Unfortunately, they occur a bit too frequently for my tastes. They break up the the semi-peaceful simulation mode with more tense battles. While I don’t necessarily dislike the sieges, they are my least-favorite aspect of the game.

There is also some other new content at the end of the game, although I won’t spoil it in this review. But I was pleasantly surprised by the addition.

Graphics, Sound, Controls

The graphics have obviously been updated quite a bit from the SNES version, but they’re mediocre (at best) by modern standards. The pre-rendered characters look awkward and stand out (and not in a good way)…particularly against darker backgrounds. If you’re in a dark cave, why should bright lights be reflecting off your helmet? 😂

The music in the game is incredible. Heavenly, even. There are remastered versions of the great SNES tunes, along with some new songs as well. In addition, there’s even an option to switch to the SNES version of the songs, which is a really cool feature.

The controls are simple, straightforward, and solid. The new moves are easy to pull off, and I have no complaints about the controls.

Preparing to fight a monster in Bloodpool's action stage.

A Class Act

ActRaiser Renaissance may have a bit of filler that extends the game (it took me about 25 hours to complete the game), but it’s enjoyable from start to finish. Even the sieges grew on me as I progressed through the game. I still prefer the original ActRaiser overall, but this remake gets a big thumbs-up from me. 8/10

Buy Actraiser Renaissance digital code at Amazon

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

Link is free to explore the vast, expansive world in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. To call the game huge is an understatement. The world is colossal, easily dwarfing every other Zelda game by a wide margin. And that world is filled with many hidden things to find…shrines, Korok seeds, treasure chests, and much more.

Holding up a rock at sunrise.

#Goals

Completing shrines will be one of your first goals in the game. There are a whopping 120 of them in the game, and each one is essentially a mini-dungeon. Many of them have puzzles to be solved, some of them are combat tests, and a few even use motion controls to roll an orb around a maze (those are my least favorite).

Each shrine will yield one spirit orb upon completion, and you can trade in four spirit orbs for a new heart container or stamina vessel. Even though I preferred to stock up on heart pieces early on, I eventually discovered that stamina is more valuable. Having multiple stamina wheels allows you to climb higher, run farther, and explore easier. Fighting enemies in the overworld, for the most part, is optional. Many times, it’s better to run away…especially if you’re not stocked up on health items like food and potions.

Speaking of food, Breath of the Wild allows you to collect items you find–mushrooms, fruit, flowers, monster parts, and more–and cook them to make various dishes. Characters may tell you recipes for certain foods, and others can be learned through experimentation. Certain dishes and potions will give you abilities that last for a limited time: They may give you extra stamina, resistance to heat or cold, attack/defense boosts, and so on. Cooking up exactly what you need is very helpful ability, but it’s a tedious and time-consuming process if you’re making multiple dishes.

The first few shrines in the game give you runes, which Link can use to obtain special powers. That includes the ability to place bombs, the power of magnesis (the ability to lift and move metal items, regardless of size or weight), cryonis (the ability to make ice pillars on water), and stasis (the ability to stop time for an object and hit it repeatedly to add up its kinetic energy). These abilities are essential for completing many areas of the game, so mastering them is a necessity.

Link uses the power of magnesis to move a large metal panel.

In many ways, Breath of the Wild is not your traditional Zelda game. It’s far less linear than just about any previous Zelda game, and most things can be done in any order you wish. Instead of a traditional eight dungeons, Breath of the Wild essentially has five main dungeons: Four mechanical “Divine Beasts,” and then of course Hyrule Castle at the end of the game. And even those feel nothing like the typical dungeons you’d find in a Zelda game.

There are also dozens of side quests scattered throughout the world. But sometimes the most fun comes just from exploration and experimentation. You can use your rune abilities in creative ways, and some tasks can be completed using a variety of methods. You can sneak up on wild animals to mount and tame them, and then ride them around. That ability isn’t limited to wild horses, but also other wildlife including deer, moose, and even bears! And of course, you can also set things on fire and watch the world burn.

Sword Loser

By far, my least favorite aspect of the game is the weapon system. It starts out with a cool premise: You can pick up weapons from defeated enemies, and even use defeated skeleton’s arms to bash other baddies. The problem is that the weapons you acquire are fragile. In many cases, they won’t last more than a few minutes of fighting. You may even need multiple weapons to defeat a single enemy (and not just bosses)! So you always need to be stockpiling weapons to swap out each time one of them breaks. (The same thing applies to shields and bows).

Link's rusty broadsword breaks while trying to cut a tree down.

I originally thought that would just be a temporary problem. Surely, once I got the Master Sword, I’d be set for the rest of the game, right? Nope. While the Master Sword doesn’t break, it still runs out of “power” after a while, and it can’t be used while it recharges. So you’ll still need to swap in other weapons. It’s a bit of a pain.

Graphics & Sound

The graphics look great, as the game has some truly stunning landscapes. Sometimes I’d stop exploring just to watch a sunset, look at a rainbow, or watch a storm pass through the valley below me. The sound effects are also quite satisfying, from the rustling wind to thunder, birds singing, running water, and much more.

Towns, ranches, buildings, and other certain areas have background music playing…and it’s generally quite pleasant. But the audio isn’t perfect. When you’re out running around in the overworld, sound effects are typically all you’ll hear. Unlike virtually every other Zelda game ever made, there is no overworld theme. The lack of music for much of the game is quite a disappointment, especially when Zelda games normally have such great soundtracks.

Best of the Wild?

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is clearly not a traditional Zelda game. While I miss some of those traditional Zelda elements, Breath of the Wild is an incredible game even without them. It’s an amazingly fun game that will keep you exploring for hundreds of hours. I can confidently say that it is the best Zelda game to date, and it’s also one of the best video games ever made.

I rate The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a strong…

10/10

Buy BOTW for Switch – Buy BOTW for Wii U

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