This is not a final review, as various aspects (Such as it’s single-player and online) have not been experienced or evaluated as much yet. The game is currently out now to buy, so fi you want to play it, go give it a shot!
In case you haven’t, you can check out my review for Manyland! I also announced a game, which you can view it’s website at hayashilabs.weebly.com
One year begins, another one ends. 2015 has been a great year for games, filled with titles that have defied the genre, and big juicy stories that have torn across subreddits and newsfeeds. Gaming could never be bigger, and so much smaller.
For this year, we’re doing short review/retrospectives on the past games that came out (Or just any game that caught my attention), and which ones are my favorite. We’re starting with mobile games. Each game will be given a scale out of 5 stars, which is something I normally don’t do with reviews. Most of the titles here are free-to-play games.
(This is UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The post will be given pictures to complement the titles later).
Fallout Shelter
Welcome Home.
iOS/Android, F2P, Bethesda Game Studios
Fallout Shelter was a big surprise at E3 2015. A free-to-play vault sim from the massively popular franchise that takes a unique spin on things. While it’s great the game doesn’t push it’s microtransactions too hard, the game slows down in progression once you unlock all of the buildings and have amassed 100+ vault dwellers. There simply isn’t too much content for staying, and that’s a absolute shame. It’s one of those games you’ll pick up and play for about a month, then put down for awhile. It’s still highly addictive and something I still highly recommend. It’s just not that great of a game.
2015 Rating: ***
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
Fantasy on the Go
iOS/Android, F2P, DeNA games
DeNA does not exactly have a good track record when it comes to mobile, since a lot of their games consist of the typical japanese mobile game model. But Record Keeper happens to be so much more. Microtransactions don’t feel too important and it’s got an insane amount of depth like a FF game. It’s UI is somewhat clunky and the Auto ability basically turns it into a idle game a lot of the time, but it’s still a great pick-up for FF fans.
2015 Rating: ****
Sonic Runners
Sanic slows down from microtransactions
iOS/Android, F2P, Sonic Team
Oh ho ho boy, here we go. Sonic Runners is actually a really fun game. Botched by horrible F2P mechanics and generally being a outright broken mess of a game. It’s prone to cheating, is unoptimized as hell, and it’s way of unlocking characters is about as bad and annoying as gambling. It is quite frankly incredibly frustrating to play. On the surface, there’s a really cool game here, but it’s hard to see that now. Stay clear unless you really need a Sonic game to fill your quench this year.
2015 Rating: *
Rayman Adventures
Rayman slows down but still rises from microtransactions
iOS, F2P, Ubisoft
Like Sonic, Rayman has been in a complete drought of games for awhile, and his only recent game is now the mobile platformer “Rayman Adventures”.
It is surprisingly not horrible. It’s a bite-sized version of Rayman Legends, and while is stoked with the typical Ubisoft bullshit you see in most games, is a fun game with stellar presentation. There’s no energy system and for the most part the game’s main currency (which comes in low quantity a lot of the time) is not needed at all to “improve your stats” and is only for buying additional boosters. It does piss me off that this requires always online-play, this would be a great game to play on the bus!
2015 Rating: ****
Mortal Kombat X
Crappy Mobile Version of OK fighter
iOS, F2P, Netherrealm Studios
I like the card aspect of MKX on mobile. It’s interesting, addictive, and it kept me going for about a few weeks. But the combat is so dreadful (Since there’s literally like zero combos) and so bare bones that it’s really hard to enjoy. The Injustice Mobile game had more combos then this, and that’s quite frankly terrifying. Give it a shot if you want, but if you are expecting a good Mortal Kombat game, well prepare to be disappointed. And slightly annoyed.
2015 Rating: **
Assassin’s Creed: Identity
Viva la Australians
iOS, F2P, Ubishit
So if you’re wondering, you can only play this game if you downloaded it from the Australian/New Zealand App Store. Been in softlaunch since 2014.
Which certainly doesn’t excuse it from being critiqued
First of all, as expected by Ubisoft, it’s a pretty buggy mess. Softlaunch or not, this is still somewhat inexcusable. Like Rayman Adventures, it tries to be a bite-sized version of Assassin’s Creed, and that’s not bad at all, but it still needs major improvement. For one, controlling your character is a hassle, with them clinging/climbing to walls you didn’t want them to or going in the most annoying direction possible if you’re using the “tap” mode to direct them. The microtransactions are somewhat bothersome but don’t detract from the main experience, since the actual game is too easy. What hooks is that after you finish the 10 levels in the game, you unlock Heroic Mode, which gives you bonuses upon completing random contracts. As repetitive as it is, it does give some good incentive to get a bunch of common loot, turn that loot to one piece of uncommon loot, and then contribute that to max up gear.
There’s zip content as of now, which hopefully changes later on. Not a bad game, but definitely not worth making a freaking itunes account for Australia
This interview may contain very minor spoilers to Oneshot.
Today I’m interviewing NightMargin, an artist/game dev who’s worked on Oneshot and Bless You, Rip. We talked about various game development subjects and asked about the upcoming re-release of Oneshot.
I gotta be honest here, watching the original E3 2014 trailer from last year seriously sinked my excitement for the game. It was unrealistic, looked way too good to be true, and it looked like it was banking hard on playing like Counter-Strike.
What is Project: It’s Mine? It’s a upcoming game where you are a game collector, and you collect games! It’s a small side thing I’ll try to do whenever I get free-time, but I will quickly discuss the current process of building this game.
Behold, my brand new project! Yet to be finished, yet to fully be started, but hopefully ready to be badass! Since school will hit me down and make me super busy, I’m hoping to focus on one, super duper project. Now first, I’m going to tell you this.
I need your help! This project is gonna need some help in order for me to truly realize it, and if you step in, you’ll be credited!
How to send me footage.
I need game footage to place in my videos. I’m trying to cram as many games as I can into here! If you have footage, you can send it to me in various ways:
-If your video is at high quality, upload it to Youtube, and send it to me. I’ll download the video myself online.
-Or, you can also send me the video via file sharing sites. The email I’m using for this project is Captcha locked to protect it from spammers. I’ll check my email occasionally for any submissions. I generally prefer Google Drive or Dropbox. Please upload those videos on there are send them to me. I am not entirely too keen of mediafire. Also, send me video files. If you’re placing in a rar file or some shit, then I won’t accept it.
-You could also just attach the clip onto a email. If it’s too big, go with the option above. REMEMBER, VIDEO FILES ONLY
Any game that’s either came out in 2015 or is celebrating a anniversary/birthday in 2015 can be added, so basically any game. I can only record PC games or games that have a record ability placed into them.
I will be putting this entire blog post into a separate page later.
I have a game on the list, but I don’t know how to record it. How?
There are many ways to record stuff, especially on consoles. If you have the game on PC, I recommend using Lolio Game Recorder. It doesn’t work for everything and it can eat up HD space but it can record at a great 60fps 1080p quality. There’s no watermarks or anything.
If you have consoles, try using the console alternatives to record footage. There doesn’t seem to be a way to record Wii U games beyond a capture card, but you can use the XBONE and PS4’s Game Capturing features.
If you have any sort of capturing device for consoles, please feel free to use that. Those record at 60fps, rather than the 25 fps from the game recorders found in consoles.
When will it be out?
I am aiming for a late 2015 release, but worst case scenario it might be done in 2016. Depends on how busy I am.
How long will it be?
Possibly around 4-10 minutes.
Why this project, and not other This is…. videos or etc.?
Because of school starting, I kinda no longer have the time to work on the Nikoback channel as much as I want to. I still want to deliver some kind of unique project that’ll serve a good time waster.
What song will play in the video?
Still undetermined, but I’m looking for something that I can use with permission.
I want to help!!
I’ve already mentioned that I’m on the lookout for video footage, so you can help me by recording some game I need footage for and send it to me! If you want to help in other ways, here are a few things I could use (but not need)
-A full logo saying “This is…. Video Games, 2015”
-A Video Thumbnail (I can handle this myself though)
Like I said, this is just a part-time thing I’ll be handling throughout the year. I will be able to put the whole video together on my own.
Hey! You missed this game!
Again, if you want me to show a game you really liked this year, send footage for it! I apologize if I miss something you want featured, I can’t record everything after all.
That’s a large list of games you can’t record. What if you don’t get footage for a lot for them?
The video will still resume as normal but won’t include footage for biggie titles that came out this year. This may change the final name of the project or the project’s goals, but nothing else.
Nikoback Reviews and stupid things 
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