2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

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2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 22nd, 2017, 6:12 pm

Let me know what you think of this new set of 3DS reviews.

eneuman96
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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby eneuman96 » March 22nd, 2017, 11:29 pm

All of the Shantae games are good, but I can't help but wonder if playing the two most recent ones first will negatively affect your opinion of the slightly-less polished first two games if you ever get around to reviewing them, though the first game and the limited-release physical edition of Risky's Revenge are very pricey. The downloadable version of Risky's Revenge is far more affordable than the physical version, for what it's worth.

CaptainCruch
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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby CaptainCruch » March 23rd, 2017, 2:46 pm

Nice reviews! I agree with everything you said about Shantae: good looking, great music, but sometimes a bit lacking in structure. But a very good platformer nonetheless.

I only played the demo of Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and decided not to buy it and you confirmed my opinion... as a Sonic fan I try to avoid all bad Sonic games...

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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby Retro STrife » March 23rd, 2017, 8:32 pm

Thanks for these, and good timing! I had never played any of the Shantae games before reading your review of Half-Genie Hero. But I can't ignore an A+ VGC review... So that glowing review, combined with everyone in the Feedback Forum saying that Pirate's Curse was a better game, led me to pick up Pirate's Curse as my first Shantae game.

Sadly, I have to say I'm not remotely impressed. Admittedly, I have only played the game for an hour or so, so I need to give it more time...but still, if I'm going to love the game, I feel like I should be getting some good vibes right off the bat. Instead, the characters aren't that interesting or funny to me, the dialogue drones on and on (I'm actually a fan of dialogue and cutscenes in games, but not this nonsense), and, worst of all, is the total lack of structure (as you noted in your review). I have no clue where I'm going half the time and, when I went a week without playing at one point, I couldn't remember where I left off when I started playing again. I anticipate that there will be lots of senseless backtracking too. That said, it's not a bad game by any means, but it's feeling very average to me at this point. I was actually really happy to see that you gave it a B+ (a whole grade drop from Half-Genie Hero) which made me feel better about not loving it. I would have felt like I had something wrong with me if this was another A+.

I will say, I don't get how you love the Shantae games but weren't a fan of the Tomba games for PS1. I feel like they have a similar vibe (old-school platformer with crazy characters), but that the Tomba games are much better.

eneuman96
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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby eneuman96 » March 23rd, 2017, 10:46 pm

Retro STrife wrote:Sadly, I have to say I'm not remotely impressed. Admittedly, I have only played the game for an hour or so, so I need to give it more time...but still, if I'm going to love the game, I feel like I should be getting some good vibes right off the bat. Instead, the characters aren't that interesting or funny to me, the dialogue drones on and on (I'm actually a fan of dialogue and cutscenes in games, but not this nonsense), and, worst of all, is the total lack of structure (as you noted in your review). I have no clue where I'm going half the time and, when I went a week without playing at one point, I couldn't remember where I left off when I started playing again. I anticipate that there will be lots of senseless backtracking too. That said, it's not a bad game by any means, but it's feeling very average to me at this point. I was actually really happy to see that you gave it a B+ (a whole grade drop from Half-Genie Hero) which made me feel better about not loving it. I would have felt like I had something wrong with me if this was another A+.


It's somewhat odd to me that you mention getting lost, because that happens to me all the time in various games but I didn't have THAT much of a problem with it in this game. Maybe I played it differently from the way you did? I don't know, but I will say I think Pirate's Curse is the best game in the series because I think the quicker pace compared to the other games really benefits it, plus the animal transformations are eschewed in favor of more distinctly Metroidvania-esque abilities.

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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby Stalvern » March 24th, 2017, 1:48 am

CaptainCruch wrote:as a Sonic fan I try to avoid all bad Sonic games...

Not much of a Sonic fan, then. Zing!

(I kid, I kid.)

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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby Retro STrife » March 24th, 2017, 9:50 am

eneuman96 wrote:It's somewhat odd to me that you mention getting lost, because that happens to me all the time in various games but I didn't have THAT much of a problem with it in this game. Maybe I played it differently from the way you did? I don't know, but I will say I think Pirate's Curse is the best game in the series because I think the quicker pace compared to the other games really benefits it, plus the animal transformations are eschewed in favor of more distinctly Metroidvania-esque abilities.


I'll give it more time and maybe some things (like not knowing where to go) will improve over time. But some of the other things I mentioned (like liking or not liking the characters and dialogue) usually can be gauged pretty well in the first hour. But if my thoughts change I'll definitely update it here. I try to play this game in bed at night to make progress and it doesn't help that it puts me right to sleep every time... (though in fairness, I pass out all the time during other games too haha)

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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby Sonicx9 » March 24th, 2017, 5:56 pm

Good reviews critic, as for Shantae and the Pirate's Curse vs Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. I can understand the grade differences as you did play Half-Genie Hero first, and played Pirate's Curse later on, so that is why you have a different view point. And if the critic did review the first two games, I would not be surprised for you giving them lower scores because they are less polished then the 3rd and 4th games respectively.

As for Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal review, I am rather surprised that you gave it a low score considering that the related Wii U game Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric released around the same time period is consider the worse of the two via Metacritic critics/users: http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/so ... e-of-lyric and http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/soni ... ed-crystal, even though some reviewers such as IGN gave the inferior Wii U game a slightly higher score: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/14/ ... ric-review and http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/13/ ... tal-review. But to be frank neither Sonic Boom games are all that good, and even last years SONIC BOOM: FIRE & ICE the best of the Sonic Boom sub series is not all that great!: http://www.metacritic.com/game/3ds/sonic-boom-fire-ice

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Re: 2017/3/22: Nintendo 3DS: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Postby Retro STrife » May 22nd, 2017, 3:39 pm

I was a bit harsh on Shantae above (if calling it "average" counts as harsh), but I've now played several hours of the game and have over 50% complete, so I've definitely played far enough to make a fair judgment now. The game has grown on me a bit more over time. I like the characters and dialogue more now. I now have an understanding of where to go. I like Castlevania/Metroid style games, so I enjoy that this game has that aspect to it (and thank god for the map). Yet, at the same time, I'm starting to get pretty bored with it around 5 hours in, and 2 or 3 islands remaining, and I'm looking forward to it being over so I can move on to another game. I may even quit in the middle of it, which is rare for me. But, now that I've put the time in, I agree with almost all of the Critic's review. I think any score in the B range is fair for this game.


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