Joshua's Video Game Reviews

The Legend of Zelda (NES) Gameplay 10/10: Comparing the Legend of Zelda to other games is wrong because the Legend of Zelda was the first of its kind and almost every game after was just copying what Zelda started. First of all they invented the battery in a game cartridge which allowed players to save their data and continue playing from where they left off. That revolutionized the gaming industry on its own, but then they added the feature of free roaming the game world without a time limit and the ability to pick any dungeon you wanted to explore. They expanded on this new freedom by allowing players to money grind the Rupees and heart containers. So basically, the Legend of Zelda is responsible for everything we hold so dear in modern gaming. If somebody wanted to complain about some glitches or perceived repetitiveness they would have to realize that Zelda was a first of its kind and there was nothing else to compare it to at the time. Complaining about the first Legen...

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair Gameplay 9/10: The one thing EDF has going for it is the fun gameplay. Fighting giant insects while blowing up innocent civilian buildings is such a cool idea it's surprising nobody thought of it before. There's robots, there's tanks, there's flying robot women and even a "legally distinct from Godzilla" Godzilla-type monster. The giant robot battles were great, there was only 2 or 3 instances of actually robot action. The shooting mechanics of the game were straight forward with most of the guns having shit-for-accuracy, but that was done on purpose to force players to pick a sniper rifle or learn to shoot mountains of bullets to hit 1 target. The ammunition is unlimited for most guns, so there's never anything boring about the shooting or gunplay. It can get frustrating at certain points because the game has several glitches and often there is little direction about what the objective is. Mos...

Mad Max <PS4> Gameplay 8/10: I have no choice, but to judge this game from the driving and the ground gameplay separately because the two are like night and day. First the driving: it's amazing and feels like a better version of Twisted Metal. The customization is surprisingly huge having multiple weapon attachments and upgrades to the driving performance of the car. At first I was disappointed by how clunky the driving is, but that's because the car needed room to improve in performance as part of the game mechanics. As I advanced through the game upgrading my car the Opus Magnum felt responsive and handled great both off-road and on asphalt. I thoroughly enjoyed the flamethrower attachment and the harpoon weapon is still my favorite.  Now the downside: the ground combat is horribly repetitive with punching, punching and more punching. Really, that's it. It might sound cool to take out an entire fortress with just your fists, a shiv and tiny shotgu...

Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos  So far I've only written about games I enjoyed, but now it's time to look at some video games that were unpleasant or just plain suck. Graphics 5/10 Even by Super Nintendo standards these graphics were of poor quality. They had the technology to use a 16 bit machine, but the sprites look more like the NES days. There are some issues with clipping and the characters just don't seem life like or animated. There's also a problem with discerning what some of the items are supposed to be: are the pick-ups supposed to be cheese or coins? What type of enemy is that?  Gameplay 3/10: The controls were clunky, the mechanics didn't make sense and the entire game extremley repetitive. The objective was exactly the same in each level: release some Mexican stereotype mice from their cages. Then there was the infuriating boss battles with no direction about how to defeat your enemy. Many times I was confused about how t...

Super Mario Bros. 3 This game doesn't need much of an introduction so I'll just get to the review. My review will of course be opinion based because this game has been around for so long and multiple generations have had the chance to develop appreciations and criticisms for Super Mario Bros. 3.  Gameplay 10/10: Gravity sucks and Mario finally destroys it in this game with his amazing ways of flying, bouncing, flipping and riding on top of bullets. Every gamer was amazed the first time they touched a leaf and Mario transformed into a raccoon who could fly if he ran fast enough. The flower power-up is back and looks better with more realistic fireballs. The frog suit was arguably a great solution to how annoying water levels can be in any video games. The grand finale is the Tanooki Suit: Mario dons a suit that resembles a Japanese raccoon-dog which allows him to fly then transform into a solid stone statue. And how cool is it to jump on top of a moving bullet whil...