ZCW Reviews

Cherishing That Second Playthrough-A Cuphead Review Following the recent update Studio MDHR gave us at The Game Awards on the new DLC for Cuphead, I decided to go back and beat the game again in preparation. I wanted to take a second look and provide a perspective of this already determined classic and better explain as to why it is so heralded.  Levels of Unprecedented Detail As many other reviews have remarked, Cuphead's visual style is breathtaking and has set itself apart from every other game of the past decade. It's hand drawn and meticulous animation is a reflection of a true commitment to an art style no matter how difficult; it is beyond comprehension to me how much time some of these bosses must have taken to draw. Also, the dedication to even emulating the audio and soundtrack to that era adds yet another layer to this package.  But, moreover from their visual and auditory flare, there is much to say about the game design I view throughout Cuphead. In fact, during t...

  Washing The Time Away-A PowerWash Simulator Early Access Review As much as I hate to admit it, these little simulator games have become somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine over the pandemic and the more online atmosphere we have been put through. To put it simply: doing these tasks in real life requires a lot more effort and makes it more of a chore than a game, but in a digital space they are like the junk food of videogames. So after I put around 24 hours into House Flipper I see myself put another 20 into this, and why exactly is that the case?  Clean in All Aspects PowerWash simulator is excruciatingly simple; within it you accept jobs where you clean up various dirty locations and objects for cash that you then use to buy better power washers and nozzles in order to clean more efficiently on the next job (the jobs of which get progressively more grandiose and complex). In a similar fashion to all these simulator games, the sensation of finishing a huge job is what kee...

  An Intergalactic Indie Gem-A Habroxia 2 Review Habroxia 2 has been a game on my Steam wishlist for quite some time, but I couldn't really pin a finger on why I hadn't purchased it yet. Following a substantial update around June of this year , I had no choice but to pull the trigger and give Lillymo Games' Habroxia 2 a shot. So how exactly does it stand up to the field of 2D space shooters out there? Side-Scrolling with Finesse What immediately surprised me was the Star Fox esque elements this game used in its approach to gameplay. Across the adventure you'll have many levels with alternate exits and bosses, all branching out to their own separate paths. This is something I haven't really seen done in a 2D shooter, and I had fun playing through levels I had previously beaten with a sharp eye looking for an alternate exit (keep in mind it's nothing too cryptic so finding the extra content isn't some monolithic task).  The game will also change perspective qu...

  Missing the Mark-An Exo One Review Previously I really enjoyed these sort of open ended and abstract experiences, specifically Giant Squid's Abzû and its great sense of aquatic atmosphere. Having not played many of the other examples of the genre, namely Flower and Journey, I decided to check out the newly released Exo One from Exbleative to make a return back into these types of games.  Misreading the Room Ultimately, Exo One falls short of capturing the essence of what made these games engaging enough to enjoy. Looking to Abzû, there was an emphasis of smooth and coherent movement-you could kick your flippers through the water rhythmically to gain speed or grab onto animals and use their unique features to ride through the water. Exo One has a similar sense of momentum, as you turn into a ball to roll down slopes then transfer out into a disc to fly forward at maximum speed.  And this deeply satisfying, however, this is all Exo One ever does for the en...

  Deja Vu...-An Inertial Drift Review The arcade racing genre of games has become one of my interest ever since I went back and gave ridge racer type 4 a shot a year or so ago. Ever since, I've intermittently played new offerings that have cropped up (mainly because the ridge racer series is completely in the water at this point) regardless of popularity. When Inertial Drift came up in my steam recommendations a few days ago, I knew I had to give it a shot and look into its offerings (not to mention the title being an homage to Initial D, an anime I particularly enjoy).  Arcade Drifting with a Different Approach In most of these games, controls are fairly simple. You have a gas button with a corresponding brake button, sometimes even a separate handbrake button, and you use the left stick to steer in the event you are using a traditional controller.  For Inertial Drift, however, you still have access to those brake and gas buttons, but you instead use both sticks to fully...

  Shockingly Deep-An ElecHead Review In another example of games I initially found out about early in development and forgot about till their release, ElecHead launched just a month ago! From what I can remember back from what I saw on twitter, the game had a very neat main mechanic that I was interested in seeing delved into into. So just how does solo developer Nama Takahashi (alongside the help of composer Tsuyomi) handle this interesting mechanic? Losing your head...playfully! In ElecHead you traverse various platforming puzzles as every platform you step on lights up as long as you have your battery pack head on tight. In addition to this, you can also throw your head in three directions to light up a far away platform and remain without a charge yourself (you can only be in this form for 10 seconds). Its extremely simple, and yet there are so many nifty uses of the mechanic that it felt like Takahashi found every single way possible to deepen it.  Just take a look at the...

  Rolling All Over Again-A Katamari Damacy Reroll Review The Katamari Series is one I'm quick to reference when I enjoy the relaxing, trance-like aspects of certain titles. Surprisingly, outside of a small indie title in Donut Country which wasn't necessarily similar, I have yet to see the formula of Katamari looked at outside of the original series, so let's take a look at what made these games so special.  Simply Outstanding In Katamari Damacy you just...roll stuff up. This is the unbreakable foundation that these games build upon. As something I've harped on a million times, I have always preferred when game designers use the environment to create complex situations instead of adding more mechanics. As such, Katamari is entirely revolved around (1) its unique control scheme and (2) its diverse environments. For example, while the main mechanics don't shift, your objectives do-look at the levels revolving around specific star signs, where you are tasked to collect...

  Revitalizing the Formula-A Mario Kart Double Dash Retrospective Having grown up in my formative years with the Game Boy Advance and, more heavily, the DS, Mario Kart was a series I enjoyed more on the mobile Nintendo consoles than mainstays growing up. In that time, I had tried out double dash on a friend's GameCube and didn't quite enjoy it-I was somewhere around 9-12 at the time-so I wanted to return to the game years later and see what I had dismissed earlier.  In all honesty, I can't believe I had waited so long to give it a revisit. Not only is double dash the most unique take Nintendo ever took on the franchise as a whole, it is also-in my opinion-the most enjoyable and depth filled entry they produced. It is almost astounding Nintendo failed to return to this formula, and instead has kept it safe ever since (something you don't see in series where taking chances failed them, like Paper Mario). So what exactly made this entry so enjoyable? Depth of Driving... Th...

Marine Architecting-An Aquarium Designer Review In a diversion from the past two weeks of non-stop action games, I decided to take a break this week with something more relaxed in Aquarium Designer. Previously I was a huge fan of these more casual type games like House Flipper, so let's see if Aquarium Designer can scratch that itch.  Aquatic Ambience Aquarium Designer revolves around completing all different types of Aquariums based off of jobs sent to you through your email. The main campaign will see you complete around 30 different missions, all with their own unique requirements and special secondary objectives for more flare. My personal favorite missions revolved around a client who wanted you to make the aquarium quickly, putting a time limit on your build and pushing you to make quick moves in the menus. In addition to the campaign, you can also freely create your own tanks, with the option to have them get dirty and deteriorate in real time if you fail to take care of the...

A Testament To Its Time-A Sin and Punishment (N64) Review With the recent announcement of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pack , I hovered through all the N64 offerings and noticed one odd game out: the previously Japanese only release Sin and Punishment, which prompted me to give it a look. If Nintendo is truly putting this alongside all time classics like Mario 64 and Star fox 64, how does this title hold up? In short- absolutely. *Short disclaimer: All captured footage here is recorded in an Emulator running a specialized graphics plugin to both enhance texture resolution as well as add English to all menus. Any graphical glitches are not found in the actual game. If you'd like to experience this enhanced version, check out the graphics plugin here * A Sneaky Little Classic  Sin and Punishment is essentially Star Fox but instead of commanding an Arwing you run through levels on the ground in that similar on rails style. Like those games, Sin and Punishment is able to genera...

  A Dance of Bots and Blood-An Ultrakill Early Access Review I had viewed Ultrakill for the first time some months ago, remembered having a great time, but had to play some other games in the meantime and forgot about it. For this week, I decided to come back (the game is currently on the greed update) and see all that this game had to offer.  Ultra-Dopamine-Rush To me, Ultrakill is the absolute best way to reinterpret the "boomer shooter" genre of doom in the modern age. It's obscenely smooth, coupled with a perfect smash of difficulty options for every player, especially those who seek to master its mechanics-mechanics of which push you to master them in meaningful ways.  In Ultrakill you'll frantically switch around you arsenal, each weapon of which has multiple secondary firing mechanisms to swap between, as you destroy wave after wave of enemy and boss alike. At any one moment of Ultrakill you'll be monitoring how many shots you have left of special bullets b...

The Return of The Rolling Rascals-A Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania Review For this week I spent an absolute ton of time playing through the brand new Super Monkey Ball Remake, and I wanted to instead switch up the typical format of this review. Since this is a remake, I split this review into cohesive sections in order to compare it effectively to the originals. This review will be a little late for this week (sorry about that), but I wanted to take the time needed to evaluate all the content, and there a lot, that this game has to offer.  Gameplay This is finally the return of Super Monkey Ball we have all been waiting for. The gameplay is not bogged down by outrageous motion controls or gimmicks, it's just rolling around simple levels. It’s insane that it has taken the 20th anniversary of a series to have a good title since the series origins back with the first two titles-but here we are.  Outside of a few tweaks to some overly frustrating levels, of which you can play thei...

  Slick, Free Flowing, and Melodic-A Lumines Remastered Review As no stranger to these musical, block-based puzzle games (hell, I reviewed and loved Mixolumia back in may of this year ) so I came in to Lumines Remastered with thoughts of the previous giants I had played in the past. So how exactly does Lumines stack up to those giants, mainly the generationally great Tetris Effect, in creating a fun and replayable experience in addition to its music? A Great Formula With Even Greater Songs As my entry point into the series, I was shocked to see just how much Tetris Effect used Lumines' sound design within its own remaster. In Lumines, every move you make with stacking a block syncs up with the music track in the background, providing little melodies in itself when you make a move or clear a square. This, combined with the insanely large track list that also changes the visuals of the blocks with each song, and you have a trance like experience with Lumines. Lumines also has a few p...

  Emulation Gets Official-A Review of Retroarch's Steam release  For a medium boggled down by overstepping companies trying to block preservation, Retroarch's release unto steam is a massive event for the emulation community. So what exactly does this release have to offer for those already familiar with the emulation scene? Exciting, Yet Lacking The first thing many will notice who are familiar with the standalone version of Retroarch is the core system. You see, Retroarch is a massive, multi-system emulator that allows for emulation of almost any retro game, but it needs cores to function as those individual systems when you boot up a game (A SNES game will need a corresponding SNES core, etc.). The standalone, non-steam, version comes packaged with all these cores, and allows you to use an online component to download any additional cores you may want for systems that aren't covered. This component also allows you to improve your cores by updating them when some of the c...