*Old*
Valiant Hearts the Great War - PS4
Scott Pilgrim - PS3
Comix Zone - PS3
Hell Yeah Wrath of the Dead Rabbit - PS3
Infamous Second Son _ PS4
Might Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle - PS4
*New*
Dragon's Lair
Space Ace
Lollipop Chainsaw
Dragon's Lair - PS3I must have triggered some loop, because it took a long time to finish this and I'm told it's a short game. I found rooms repeating themselves on my play through to my annoyance. I felt like I had played this for an hour including all the reloads from when I died using the game's save state feature.
So basically, DL is just a bunch of randomly generated rooms full of quick time events. It's not that much fun to play honestly, especially since a few QTEs require perfect timing or you die. Still, this game is a part of gaming history so I'm glad I played it, and the animation quality alone makes the game worth checking out. It's clearly what got the game so much attention when it first released.
The save feature on this title was much appreciated, as if I had to keep starting the game over again from the beginning I would have been too frustrated to finish it. These things are a god send for certain retro re-releases. Daphne acting like a porn star when you finally meet her I thought was funny. I also have to say, for people complaining about QTEs in modern games, it's nothing compared to getting through some of the tough rooms in this game. Most modern games flash the button you're supposed to hit on screen in such an obvious way you can't miss it, and they give you a few seconds to hit the button versus the perfect timing required for some of DL's quick time events. Heck, you can miss one or two QTEs in a lot of games and still not fail. Dragon's Lair it's one mistake and you die and re-do the room or re-do the game if you are out of lives. I guess this is old man me telling the young kids today to quit bitching about your quick time events.
Space Ace - PS3I found Space Ace to be more interesting than Dragon's Lair. Following a linear story is more engaging than seeing a bunch of randomly generated trap rooms. Also, the game has some really fun and cool action sequences. And the alternating between young Dexter and Old Dexter is funny. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of found the QTE's a bit more forgiving too. There seem to be parts of the game too where you actually have multiple choices of what to do for the QTEs, which can slightly alter events (like not energizing in some scenes). Overall, I like this more than Dragon's Lair. Both of these games give you the option to sit back and watch the game's without QTE's. With Space Ace in particular it's fun to sit back and just enjoy it as a cartoon.
Lollipop Chainsaw - PS3So I finally got around to finishing this game. I also got the Valentine's Day Edition. The main draw for this edition for me is that you get the outfits that were pre-order only in North American. Even if you don't care about outfits in games or pre-order bonuses, it's hard not to want that awesome Ash Williams outfit
LC is a rather unpolished and sloppy game in a lot of ways. Some parts of the game are really frustrating, particularly some the infamous mini-games. And it's kind of a dumb game with a ridiculous story and a few cringe worth lines of dialogue and jokes that are really low brow and crass. I know the game got some hate for not playing like a Bayonetta game and for its sexual objectification too.
In spite of all this, I really, really like it. I don't care if it's not Bayonetta, LC has its roots firmly in old school, arcade brawlers, not "character action" games. The combat kind of sucks initially, but Juliette's move set and abilities expand as you upgrade her and the combat becomes pretty fun. Her move set is funny because she fights like a cheerleader. She has combos where she is hitting enemies with her ass, her poms poms, or doing hand stands and flipping upside down while slicing up zombies with her chainsaw. There's some interesting quirks to the combat too, like a low attack button where you'd expect the jump button to be.
And she has some interesting abilities at her disposal like a chainsaw blaster for third person shooting, a weird dash that makes use of her chainsaw, Nick tickets that allow her to use her decapitated boyfriend's head (yes, you read that right) against her enemies, and a super mode that makes her invincible and very powerful. The real hook for combat is getting "Sparkle Hunt" kills for simultaniously decapitating 3 or more zombies. This gives you lots of cash for buying upgrades and other stuff, and lots of points for trying to get those A+ ranks for each stage. The best thing about sparkle hunts though is the audio visual feedback the game gives you for successfully doing them
Speaking of which, the graphics are great. It's not a technically great looking game, but it does have a great art style. Everything about the game's world is bright and colorful, odd for a game about a zombie apocalypse. This game stands in stark contrast to all of the dark, post apocalyptic, zombie games out there. It's like you're seeing the world through the eyes of the bubbly, cheerful, optimistic character that Juliette is. As you slice apart zombies, you'll see stars and rainbows emerge from their bodies. It's all very silly and a big part of the game's charm
The music is absolutely outstanding. It's a mix of licensed tracks and original compositions for the game. The way the game seamlessly goes from video game music to licensed tracks is impressive and the licensed stuff is an eclectic mix ranging from noise pop to metal
The game is a fun mix of pop cultural elements with voice acting from Tara Strong (Batgirl and other iconic voice acting roles), a script worked on by James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy fame, licensed tracks featuring classic songs, Buffy and Evil Dead influences (the zombies in this game are basically Deadites and the Ash pre order outfit says it all), and a bunch of retro gaming references. The game is almost Deadpool-like too in its fourth wall breaking. I mean Juliette actually tells the player not to look up her skirt.
Some of the game's humor is awful, but a lot of it does hit the mark, particularly when Juliette and Nick are making light of the grim situations they find themselves in.
Nick - " Oh man, that was so much fun! It almost makes me forget about the fact that all my friends are dead!"
Aside from combat, the game mixes things up quite frequently with mini-games and gameplay often shifting from combat to other things like blasting things with your chainsaw blaster or doing little musical mini-games or bizarre things like riding a tractor and running over zombies with it. Lollipop Chainsaw never allows itself to get repetitive or boring.
As for complaints about the game sexually exploiting Juliette and being offensive to women or whatever, I think the counter argument to that is that the game revolves around Juliette and her two sisters saving the world from a zombie apocalypse while all of the male characters are relegated to supporting roles or characters that need saving. This game is actually about female empowerment quite honestly. And the objectification of Juliette is done in a playful, none offensive way and is subverted when her boyfriend actually becomes objectified himself as a talking, decapitated head that Juliette starts decorating with make up and showing off to her sisters later in the game like he's a cool, fashion accessory. Destructoid had a whole article covering some of this stuff
It's a fun game. I'm not really a big Suda 51 guy, but I really like this game. It's basically one big, fun, zombie killing arcade game with all the weirdness and wackiness that comes from Japan and the minds of people like Suda.