WHAT IS IT?

The latest – and, spoilers, fantastic – entry in the surprisingly long-running Scott Pilgrim series of comic books, video games, movies, and cartoons.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s a delightful, if canonically ambiguous, entry in our beloved, Toronto-centric series.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Every Torontonian, most geeks, and definitely Michael Cera.

BREAD MAKES YOU FAT?

There’s never been a better time to be a Torontonian.

Between last month’s side-splittingly funny Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – a film that begins and ends with a CN Tower “heist” of sorts – and this month’s release of Scott Pilgrim EX, sequel to the goofy movie with which Nirvanna shares no small amount of DNA, Toronto is proudly, entertainingly, back in the spotlight.

It’s been sixteen long years since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: the Movie blew our collective minds with its raucous, geekified take on Toronto, introducing a whole generation of dorks to the awesomeness that is our city. It’s been longer still since Scott Pilgrim debuted, in the pages of the cult classic graphic novel – the first entry of which arrived in 2004 – written and illustrated by Ontario’s own Bryan Lee O’Malley. (He grew up in London, Ontario, but moved to Toronto in the early ‘00s.)

For a long while, Scott Pilgrim had the feel of a precious, hidden gem: one you either knew about and lovingly embraced, or missed out on entirely. Despite landing director Edgar Wright – of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame – the film adaptation performed poorly at the box office before quickly disappearing into obscurity, the flame kept alive in only the most obscure (and not necessarily even Canadian) corners of the Internet.

Over time, though, something wonderful happened.

Acclaim for the film, not to mention the excellent, underrated comic book series, began to grow. Critical reappraisals followed, even as it became hard not to notice the film’s impeccable casting instincts – its bevy of future-famous faces includes Kieran Culkin (“Wallace”), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Ramona Flowers”), and Aubrey Plaza (“Julie Powers”) – not to mention Brampton’s own Michael Cera in the title role. Amusingly, the movie also features a plethora of superhero actors, including ex-Superman Brandon Routh (“Todd Ingram”), ex-Human Torch/future-Captain America Chris Evans (“Lucas Lee”), and future-Captain Marvel Brie Larson (“Envy Adams”).

It took some time, but eventually Scott Pilgrim went from cult classic to cult canon, earning for itself a sequel animated series – 2023’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off – and several beautifully remastered editions of the graphic novels, not to mention various action figures, Funko pops, and board games. (Surely, the truest sign of nerd success).

Now here we are, 2026, and Scott Pilgrim EX – the title is an amusingly geeky double-entendre – has arrived. A direct sequel to the 2010 Scott Pilgrim tie-in video game, as well as a pseudo-sequel to both the comic book and the recent Takes Off, with which it shares its canonically dubious continuity, EX is a fantastic (if flawed) retro-action title, and a must-play for gaming geeks and Canadians alike.

It’s also very, very funny.

I’M IN LESBIANS WITH YOU

Like its decade-and-a-half-old predecessor, Scott Pilgrim EX is a hardcore 2.5D side-scrolling beat-em-up, a genre which generally involves moving left to right, foreground to background, as you and, in optional multiplayer, your team of allies, take on a succession of missions. Here, the six-or-so-hour campaign is suitably silly, as you track down your band’s missing/stolen instruments, dispersed across space and time thanks to the machinations of “Metal Scott”. And yes, if you recognize that as a Sonic CD reference, you’re tuned right into this game’s wavelength.

Selecting from a roster of familiar faces – Scott, Ramona, a few of their famous “Evil Exes”, some spoilery characters – your team of one to four players (crossplay enabled; shout-out to my PS4-owning buddy Carl!) is set loose on a wonderfully realized 16-bit Toronto, here rendered as an interconnected set of screens which can be more-or-less freely explored. It’s a nice touch, having everything connected from the start (with hidden shortcuts connecting the farthest flung locations), instead of the more traditional structure of standalone levels, as in the recent Marvel Cosmic Invasion (also from Tribute Games) or the previous Scott Pilgrim game.

Gameplay is slightly more sophisticated than button-mashing, as you’ll need to learn the difference between regular and heavy attacks, expert use of the throw/pick-up function (for weapons), and of course your various super attacks. Most fun of all, EX has an abundance of unlockable summons, ranging from Sex Bob-omb’s #1 fan Young Neil (who summons a legion of groupies, it’s hilarious) to Ramona’s zippy housecat. We’ll refrain from spoiling more, but part of the fun of EX is unlocking each new summon and trying him/her/them out until you decide on your favourites.

Also, the soundtrack, by returning chiptune artists Anamanaguchi, is fantastic, demonstrating that the band, which scored both the original game and the recent Takes Off TV series, haven’t lost their touch.

THINK ABOUT DEATH AND GET SAD AND STUFF

Splitting the difference between nerd homage and Toronto love, EX is overflowing with fantastic references, from knowing character and level designs to tributes to iconic parts of Toronto.

On the nerd/gamer side, you’ll encounter an overwhelming amount of familiar-looking enemies and items, liberally “borrowed” from titles like Super Mario, Mortal Kombat, Devil May Cry, and a frankly absurd number of allusions to my favourite 16-bit series, Ghosts ‘n Goblins. (Clearly, someone at Tribute is as big of a Sir Arthur aficionado as I am.) There’s also an entire Ocarina of Time-like system for learning various “riffs” (bass, drums, etc.) which progress the story. It’s awesome.

When it comes to Canadiana, Montréal-based Tribute Games – founded by several veterans of the Ubisoft team that developed the original game – clearly knows their Toronto. There’s the obvious – the CN Tower, a brilliantly reimagined Casa Loma, plentiful TTC references – accompanied by the more specific, like lovingly parodic takes on Toronto stalwarts such as Honest Ed’s (rip), Second Cup, and Shopper’s Drug Mart. Heck, there’s even a whole shop which exclusively sells power-ups named after Neil Young albums.

CONSTANT COMMENT

Scott Pilgrim EX is not without its problems, at least some of which are inherited from its tough-as-nails predecessor.

To begin with, EX can be ruthlessly difficult, refusing to dole out a bare minimum of health power-ups even as it sends you through increasingly harsh challenges. The placement of checkpoints – often before a long gauntlet of enemies preceding a boss fight – can feel unfair, albeit accurate to the quarter-munching era to which this game also pays homage. EX also crashed several times during our playthrough, most notably at the height of a particularly tough boss fight. Not cool.

Indeed, EX is one of the few games to earn a rare Toronto Guardian “Easy Mode” Stamp of Approval: it’s frankly a better game on lower difficulties, since the combat, while still challenging, is offset by what feels like a fair allotment of health and other power-ups.

EX is also clearly designed with multiplayer in mind, so woe be to any solo gamers. Combat in general is more fun with allies, while boss fights are more tolerable with multiple players teaming up. In fact, there reached a point during my single-player playthrough that I began activating a second controller for every boss, leaving my idle ally to soak up enemy attacks as a distraction. Also, fair warning: some mechanics – like the ability to revive after being K.O.’d – are only available in multiplayer.

Then there are the minor, but nevertheless irritating, problems. Puzzles and Shops which don’t save your progress when you die between checkpoints, forcing you to go back and repurchase/redo everything. Unskippable dialogue sequences. Unskippable dialogue sequences. In 2026. The (bizarre) inability to swap characters from anywhere but Ramona’s house, necessitating longish treks across the map whenever you want to change your hero. EX also suffers from some fairly mediocre platforming controls, which mostly don’t matter, but occasionally hinder the game’s optional challenges.

Perhaps the game’s single worst failing is its atrocious revive system. It took us forever to figure out that, once an ally is down and that ten-second counter appears above their head, you need to stand near – but not over – their prone body and manually throw hearts at them, hoping one lands in the correct spot. Even if it wasn’t so poorly explained, it’s still a baffling design choice, adding needless complexity to an essential mechanic which, in any other game, operates with the tap of a button.

Having said that, the weaknesses of Scott Pilgrim EX are only what reduce it from a pure 10/10 to a still impressive 9/10 vegan gelatos. The whole time we were around it, we had a fantastic time. It almost felt like we were on drugs. Not that we do drugs. Unless you do drugs, in which case we do them all the time. All of them.

***
Final score: 9/10 vegan gelatos.

Visit the official website for Scott Pilgrim EX here.

Check out Bryan Lee O’Malley’s official prequel comic, Scott Pilgrim: Dawn of Metal Scott, here.

The post Scott Pilgrim EX (PS4/5) Review: Oh, Canada appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

A retro side-scrolling beat-em-up, à la Final Fight – or, to be more precise, X-Men Arcade.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s the best beat-em-up since Streets of Rage 4.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Blaze Fielding, Billy and Jimmy, Mayor Haggar. My buddy Matt.

BLUE BLAZES

Face front, true believers, this one’s for you.

Long-time Marvel Zombies will no doubt recall, and look fondly upon, the Marvel arcade era, when the fabled House of Ideas could be counted upon for everything from hyperkinetic Street Fighter-style fighting games to quarter-munching six-player beat-em-ups featuring a who’s-who of mutantdom.

Tribute Games, the widely admired, Montreal-based developers behind Marvel Cosmic Invasion – and before it, the wonderful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – are clearly veterans of that era, pouring their love of Marvel and these arcade classics into this, their latest, best, effort.

A four-player, drop-in/drop-out co-op beat-em-up with a refreshingly non-MCU slant, it’s a fantastic, just-in-time-for-the-holidays, action game worth checking out for any fan of Marvel, superheroes, or plain ole arcade fun.

THE HUMAN ROCKET

(Very) loosely inspired by the legendary Annihilation miniseries from 2006, Marvel Cosmic Invasion puts players in the spandex and superpowered armor of a diverse roster of fifteen heroes (and some villains!), teaming up to defend the galaxy from Negative Zone warlord (and nominal Fantastic Four foe) Annihilus. Annihilus, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1968, is one of the great underused cosmic villains, a diabolically evil green-and-purple super-insect, given new life in the pages of Dan Abnett’s and Andy Lanning’s Annihilation, the series which also rejuvenated the comic book career of former teen hero Nova. (Incidentally, Annihilation also planted the seeds for what would become the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy.)

When Marvel Cosmic Invasion begins, Annihilus’s attack is well underway, his Annihilation Wave having already conquered several planets en route to invading Earth. Aided by an army of insectoid aliens, as well as numerous brand name characters bent to his will – courtesy a kind of mind control which awfully resembles the xenomorph life cycle – Annihilus is on the verge of victory, with only fifteen characters, and fifteen stages, to stop him.

Gameplay is standard beat-em-up, with sprite-based characters pressing ever forward, left to right, top to bottom, across a series of themed stages – New York City, the Savage Land, etc.

In addition to standard jump and melee attacks, each character has a dedicated special (often, though not exclusively, a projectile, as in Spider-Man’s web attack or Rocket Raccoon’s grenades) as well as a screen-clearing super move. Some characters – Nova, Iron Man, several others – are also capable of flight, and it’s usually a good idea to take at least one flyer with you into each mission.

About that: Cosmic Invasion’s niftiest feature is that each player actually chooses two, swappable, characters per level. Clearly inspired by the tag team mechanic in Marvel vs. Capcom, this allows for fun combos as you “summon” your alternate character to, say, interrupt an enemy attack, or swap them out entirely to tackle a particular challenge with their skill-set. I love the opportunities this affords, each stage a chance to try out new team-ups, like pairing the formerly married Black Panther and Storm, or joining “horse Thor” Beta Ray Bill (he’s awesome) with fellow cosmic stalwart Nova.

Happily, the game does not restrict who you can take into any level, though it encourages you, through certain character-specific challenges, to prefer particular characters in particular stages. In a game with easily replayable 8-10 minute levels and plentiful unlockables, that’s an easy and inviting prospect.

BERSERKER BARRAGE

Also great is the attention to detail which has gone into this game.

Designs are heavily inspired by – if not directly lifted from – Marvel arcade classics, with certain enemies (case in point: the wonderfully retro Sentinels), and even specific character animations looking like they’ve been ported over from an arcade cabinet. Even the fact that Wolverine’s default costume is the brown-and-yellow from X-Men Arcade says a lot about Tribute’s approach.

As do the excellent casting choices, ranging from Toronto’s own Cal Dodd (Wolverine) and Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm) reprising their roles from the X-Men cartoon, to a surfeit of familiar voices with long-running Marvel associations, including Brian Bloom (Captain America in animation and video games since the 2010s), Josh Keaton (the longest-serving Spider-Man, though he’ll always be Young Ocelot to me), and Isaac Singleton Jr. (the voice of digital Thanos since at least 2015).

Cosmic Invasion is also overflowing with cameos, easter eggs, and references only the most diehard Marvel fan will appreciate. Background details feature familiar names and faces. Certain in-game achievements (typically formulated as “Accomplish X Task by Y Character”) are deep-cut references to comic book lore. Nova, the game’s de facto lead, gets to shout “Blue Blazes!” and “Time for a New Warrior”, referencing his time with the largely forgotten ’90s teen hero team New Warriors, which also featured such cult-beloved heroes as Speedball, Scarlet Spider, and Darkhawk.

WELCOME TO DIE

Marvel Cosmic Invasion isn’t perfect, though there’s hardly much to criticize.

It’s not exactly original – even the tag team concept is just a variant of what you could do in the LEGO Marvel games – and it would’ve been nice if a few more levels shook up the formula, like the standout Asgard level which takes place on a parallax-scrolling Rainbow Bridge.

Characters don’t differentiate from one another enough to make a marked difference, meaning it’s easy enough to stick to a handful of favourites. (Though you should, as a rule, mix things up just because it’s the only way to upgrade each character’s HP and skills.) A few of the boss fights can be cheap, in two competing senses: sometimes, a boss (typically a well-known villain or brainwashed superhero) is so overpowered they can be annoying to deal with; other times, bosses can be easily exploited or brute-forced, especially if you’re playing in co-op.

And though not nearly as beholden to the MCU as, say, Eidos-Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy game, the unwelcome influence of corporate synergy still bleeds through, for instance in the game’s inclusion of the godawful Cosmic Ghost Rider character (he’s Frank Castle, the Punisher from the future, don’t ask), who Marvel has unfortunately been trying to make happen since his comic book debut in 2018.

The lack of any Fantastic Four members also seems a big mistake, given Annihilus’s heritage and this year’s best superhero movie. Also, I hate the fact that Cosmic Invasion lacks a post-credits scene. Come on, it’s a Marvel tradition!

Minor concerns aside, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a welcome addition to the ever-growing stable of retro beat-em-ups, benefitting not merely from nostalgia but from meaningful gameplay choices and a design which makes things fun even for those who’ve never grasped a sweaty, pizza-stained arcade joystick, or spent a hundred quarters trying to defeat Magneto, Master of Magnet.

I’m still holding out hope for some DLC characters – Mr. Fantastic? Darkhawk? Paste Pot Pete? – but until then I’ll continue to Make Mine Marvel.

***
Final score: 9/10 cosmic cubes.

Visit the official website for Marvel Cosmic Invasion here.

The post Marvel Cosmic Invasion (Switch/PS5) Review: Excelsior! appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

Fantasy chess. On steroids.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s the essential version of the essential game which brought the Tactical RPG genre to the West. It’s also hopelessly unbalanced, so prepare yourselves.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Kasparov, Carlsen. HAL-9000.

SQUIRE

Many years ago, your resident Toronto Guardian critic wasted away a summer on Nintendo DS puzzle-RPG Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes. Combining RPG gameplay with tile-matching mechanics straight out of Tetris, the (Canadian-made) Clash of Heroes is an underappreciated portable classic, showing what happens when genres are blended by innovative developers.

Though playing in what we’ll call an adjacent space, there’s little doubt Clash of Heroes was heavily inspired by PlayStation classic Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), released by Squaresoft at the height of its creative powers and in the immediate wake of the era-defining Final Fantasy VII. Widely considered one of the great PlayStation titles – and one of the better PlayStation Portable titles when it received a fairly significant rework in 2007’s War of the Lions – Tactics melded real-time-strategy (as in Command and Conquer) with the turn-based RPG stylings which Square is known for.

Now, nearly thirty years later, Tactics has received a top-to-bottom rework, ignoring the War of the Lions version in favour of a modernized Tactics which somewhat reduces the grind and somewhat ups the entertainment value. It looks better, it plays better, and it’s an essential experience for anyone (like me!) who missed Tactics the last couple go-rounds.

It’s still, however, an exasperating grind. Which, for better and for worse, is kind of the point.

KNIGHT

In ludology (the study of games), chess is what’s known as a “perfect information game”. In chess, as in checkers or Go, all information is openly available to all players at all times, with no secret or random elements to cause surprise. The challenge, then, is strategic: maneuvering your pieces to outflank and outwit your opponent, even as they try the same, based on the same information.

Final Fantasy Tactics is what I’d call a semi-perfect information game. At the metagame level, there’s much to it which is unpredictable: what turns the story will take, what will happen to your ever-growing roster of teammates, what particular challenges await in any given battle. At the granular, battle-stage level, the information nears perfection: you and your computer-controlled foe can see exactly what awaits on the battlefield, what the various units are capable of, where they can move. You can even see turn order, allowing you to predict which foes to prioritize, which can safely be ignored.

The only truly random element of FF Tactics is the under-the-hood die roll that accompanies every attack, and which can occasionally turn a sure-thing attack (90% probability!) into a random fail, costing you valuable time and, more often than not, the life of one of your team members.

I love this aspect of FF Tactics, but I also hate it. Because if there’s one thing about FF Tactics which is also true, it’s that this is a mean bastard of a video game.

Every other mission in FF Tactics is a progression wall. Every other battle comes down to one or two invisible dice rolls, or random errors by computer-controlled enemies or allies, or having the wrong character in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Fans of Tactics will insist that it’s tough but fair, that it can be learned, overcome, manipulated to your advantage. I’m somewhat inclined to agree. But please trust me on this: all those warnings you’ve read about the legendary difficulty of this game are true, even in this ostensibly “player-friendlier” version.

HOLY KNIGHT

The gameplay of FF Tactics is easily the best thing about it.

Each battle takes place in an isometric, diorama-like stage, prepopulated with environmental elements (swamp, rocks, trees, etc.) and broken up into grids consisting of identically-sized squares, one square equalling one movement space, much like a board game. The actions of individual characters – your team consists of an ever-shifting roster of one to five companions – are governed by equipment and attributes in categories such as Defense, Physical Attack, Movement, and Magic. A robust “Job” system lets you freely assign and reassign characters to different classes, accumulating experience and unlocking abilities across traditional RPG classes like White Mage, Thief, Knight, and so on.

The Job class is complex, overwhelmingly so, and your enjoyment of Tactics will partly be informed by your familiarity with this system from the original release, and/or your willingness to pore over online strategy guides. I liked the fact that I could, say, take a fire-wielding Black Mage and teach her the Knight’s “parry” ability, which auto-deflects weapon attacks. I hated the fact this required a nigh-endless grind to unlock the requisite abilities from across classes – and the way the game punished me if I spent too long in one Job, improving its abilities at the expense of others which could only be unlocked through different Jobs.

BARD

In fact, this game on the whole is a grind.

Online guides (and my buddy Rob, a Tactics veteran) have all confirmed for me what was already self-evident: unless you’re willing to do really dumb, time-wasting things – like encircle a low-level Chocobo and repeatedly thwack it without killing it, allowing it to heal itself so you can beat it up again – Tactics can be prohibitively difficult.

Maybe I’m older, or maybe I have less free time (or maybe those are the same thing), but my idea of fun isn’t wandering around a map looking for random battles so I can slowly beef up my stats. Sure, Ivalice Chronicles offers a fast-forward function (hold down the right trigger) which partly mitigates this, but at the end of the day, this game doesn’t want you to succeed unless you’re willing to grind and grind again.

Maintaining another ignoble JRPG tradition, Tactics is also wildly imbalanced. This often works in your favour – by combining specific abilities, especially in the latter part of the game, you can easily overwhelm or brute-force your way past foes. But it can also work against you, as in the many confrontations which throw up ludicrous difficulty spikes intended to derail your progress. There’s nothing worse than encountering a particularly resilient foe who’s immune to most attacks, or can heal faster than you can hurt them, forcing you to – you guessed it – go back to the Job grind.

One might think this is all an argument against Tactics, but, as experience shows, this game is largely worth the experience, with rewards for those with the patience and perseverance to forgive its, frankly, bullshit difficulty and grind-heavy mindset.

For one thing, there’s a great story buried in here. Also endlessly complicated, but a great one nevertheless, centred on a brewing civil war in a lovingly realized fantasy kingdom, with a wonderful central hero – Ramza, youngest of the Beoulve family – caught up in political machinations far more complex than he can hope to understand. Following Ramza’s story, along with that of supporting characters like his erstwhile friend Delita and the heroic knight Agrias, is worth it, offering up fascinating twists and turns, with major developments baked right into the dialogue-heavy battle sequences. (The voice acting, in both English and Japanese, is excellent.)

Ivalice is also very portable-friendly. With its short-burst, turn-based gameplay, it’s the type of game which can be easily picked up and played, then suspended at any time without risk of interrupting its natural flow. I tried it on both Steam Deck and Switch, on the go and connected to the TV, and both systems proved perfectly suited for the experience. I honestly can’t imagine being restricted to the TV, as on the original PS1 version, since this game so readily lends itself to travel, long waits in the doctor’s office, and so on.

I still think Final Fantasy Tactics is overhyped, its so-called “classic” JRPG difficulty ruthless in a way that isn’t necessarily fun (don’t even get me started on the whole permadeath thing). And as a veteran of Tactics-like games, including the notoriously difficult XCOM and the rather more reasonable The Banner Saga, I know there’s a way to balance this genre in more reasonable ways. Games like XCOM have demonstrated how to offer challenge without frustration, or, on the flip side, how to hand the player abilities which aren’t so overpowered they break the game. Tactics does not even try to manage that balance, and it shows.

I understand the historical importance of Tactics, and I appreciate the opportunity to play it with modernized controls and extensive quality-of-life improvements – better UI, rebalanced classes, improved camera angles among them – but, all these dozens of hours later, I’m struck by just how badly it wants to grind me down. God knows how those kids survived this back in the ’90s.

***
Final score: 8/10 Chocobo eggs.

Visit the official website for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles here.

The post Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Switch/Deck) Review: Job Grind appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

A collection of largely forgotten, but cult-beloved Capcom fighting games from the 90s and early 00s.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s great, though one truly bizarre omission – Rival Schools deserved to be here, dammit! – might dampen your enthusiasm.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Anyone who ever owned or wished to own a Dreamcast.

EVERYBODY WAS KUNG-FU FIGHTING

The original Capcom Fighting Collection, released in 2022, was a bit of an odd duck, packing together a disparate collection of titles – most of the Darkstalkers games, a couple puzzle-themed Street Fighter spinoffs, something called Red Earth – with 2003’s PS2-exclusive Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, a long-forgotten iteration of the legendary fighting game that never stops iterating. (Personally, I prefer Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.)

The sequel to CFC, meanwhile, packaged together nearly every Marvel vs. Capcom title, to great acclaim and a far larger player base, for obvious reasons. Now, Capcom has gone back to the well for a collection that splits the difference between its two predecessors: some of the games here are relatively popular, with fans who’ve long been waiting for modern, online multiplayer-friendly ports. Others are just sort of here, obscurities which will appeal only to a few curious folks.

There’s also one big fat, frustrating omission. A defining game of my childhood, one of the few I can consciously remember organising neighbourhood tournaments around, Rival Schools: United by Fate is a cult classic which barely anyone else seems to remember, but which remains beloved for those of us who do. With then-impressive 2.5D graphics and an innovative, weapons-heavy combat system tied to an interesting theme – all the brawlers are high school students, with abilities themed around tropes like the jock, the nerd, and so on – it made for fantastic multiplayer gaming, and a pretty good single-player story to boot. The reason I’m talking about it is that, inexplicably, its (very good) sequel, Project Justice, is here, whereas the original didn’t make the cut. (At least RS biker chick Akira showed up in Street Fighter V.)

To be clear, Project Justice is great – I love all the team-up attacks, like the one where a character grabs hold of their opponent, so their partner can launch tennis balls at them – but it’s bizarre that its predecessor is missing.

OUT OF THE STREETS AND ON TO THE INTERWEBS

For most players, the big sell for CFC 2 is the presence of both Power Stone games.

While not as well known as the Street Fighter or Marvel vs. titles, the Power Stone series was a mainstay of arcades and Dreamcast-equipped homes, with vaguely Smash Bros.-esque gameplay involving characters running around a 3D stage, beating each other up, collecting power-ups, and leveraging elements of the semi-interactive environment. The first PS has always been the most popular, with its finely honed 1-on-1 gameplay (the sequel introduced four-player battles, hewing ever-so-slightly-closer to the Smash Bros. template), but both are a lot of fun to tackle, whether in single-player mode or in the newly online multiplayer.

As always, Capcom’s netcode for online multiplayer is a big reason to pick up these collections. The Marvel vs. collection has already been a boon to multiplayer fighting, introducing a whole new generation of players to the, ahem, marvel that is that series (especially the fabled MvC 2). I can similarly see both Power Stones getting a lot of play, potentially leading to their resurgence in tournaments, both virtual and real-world.

And that extends to the other titles as well, top of which is the one Street Fighter entry included here, the arcade re-release version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, subtitled “Upper”. The original SF 3 Alpha was already included in 2018’s Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, but this very specific iteration – an arcade re-release of a game which debuted in arcades in 1998, then was ported to home consoles with some tweaks, then re-released to arcades in 2001, console tweaks intact – had basically disappeared from anywhere outside a handful of Japanese arcades. Purists will, of course, buy this Collection simply to get their hands on it.

While one might be tempted to suspect this random Street Fighter title was included precisely for that purpose, at least Capcom picked a great – and less obvious – selection from the SF series. Alpha 3 is one of the best SF games, with gorgeous graphics, a deeply rewarding combat system, and some great roster options, including the series debuts of Cody (of Final Fight fame) and the popular female wrestler R. Mika.

EVOLUTION

In addition to the Rival Schools sequel, the Power Stones, and the Street Fighter entry, the Collection also includes two Capcom vs. SNK titles, a random 1998 game called Plasma Sword, and, better than its reputation suggests, 2004’s Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Of those remaining titles rounding out the collection, the two vs. SNK games are most likely to appeal to serious fighting gamers, already familiar with SNK characters like Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard. The Plasma Sword game is, in a word, random: a slow-moving, not particularly admired, lightsaber-centric fighting game which nobody bought for the Dreamcast.

Finally, Capcom Fighting Evolution was largely maligned at release, though I have a soft spot for its attempt to bring together characters from across several games, including Street Fighter (core and Alpha series), Darkstalkers, and other Capcom properties. Similar to the early Marvel vs. titles, the game is built around 2-vs-2 endurance battles, with players able to concoct dream teams of cross-property fighters. From SF, options include Ryu, Guile, M. Bison, and Chun-Li, while Darkstalkers’ most famous character, Felicia, is here representing her series alongside a few other ‘stalkers. From Street Fighter Alpha, fighters include Guy, Rose, Karin, and Sakura. There are a handful of folks from the forgotten Red Earth, and finally some brand-new characters created for the game. It’s not a good game, exactly, but it’s a fun little romp through Capcom history.

Across the board, new features included for all games in this Collection include a Training Mode, various display filters to mimic the aesthetic of a CRT or arcade monitor, quick-save options for single-player campaigns (no memory cards required!), and various metagame challenges with rewards for completing certain activities, like winning X number of battles with a particular character. There are also, mercifully, difficulty modifiers available for all games, ensuring no exploitative enemy AI like you might have encountered at the quarter-devouring arcade.

It’s obviously not going to contend with the recent Marvel vs. Capcom collection, nor will anything ever supplant my beloved Street Fighter 30th collection, but for fighting game diehards, there’s definitely something to see here. See you on the leaderboards.

***
Final score: 8/10 Thanos’s left pointer fingers.

Visit the official website for Capcom Fighting Collection 2 here.

The post Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (PS5) Review: School’s Out appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

WHAT IS IT?

The loveliest video game of 2024.

IS IT GOOD?

It’s gorgeous.

WHO SHOULD PLAY IT?

Disney artists.

A BRUSH WITH DESTINY

For its first couple hours, Neva contents itself with merely being the most beautiful video game you’ve ever seen. But then, something happens, and, though the core gameplay remains the same, its world begins to unfold in altogether unexpected ways.

It’s a bold, if not entirely successful, bid to be something more than just “that game that looks like the Sleeping Beauty background”, and developer Nomada absolutely deserves credit for it. We’re going to refrain from spoiling the nifty ways Neva evolves, but just know that this game is both more (and occasionally less) than it appears…

DOG DAYS

Neva picks up where games like Ōkami and Journey – and Nomada’s own 2018 title Gris – left off, with some of the most strikingly illustrated graphics of any video game ever made.

Neva is essentially a Ghibli-style fairy tale about a young woman named Alba (the player-character) and her pet/companion, Neva.

When Neva begins, the title character is merely a cub. Over the course of its four or so hours – corresponding to the four seasons – Neva grows into a formidable fantasy animal, a sort-of cross between a wolf, dog, and deer. In that time, Neva also becomes perhaps the most precious thing of all: your best friend.

If Neva was just four hours of Alba and Neva wandering through gorgeously rendered 2.5D landscapes, that would be enough. If anything, its main weakness comes from its “gamier” aspects, like overlong combat sequences or finicky precision platforming. These are, if we’re being honest here, distractions from the main event: watching Alba and Neva move across a world that looks like it was painted by Eyvind Earle.

That said, Neva certainly is and does more than just show off developer Nomada’s artistic chops. Its simple, fable-like story begins with a death (as these stories often do), then unfolds as a series of challenges through which Alba/Neva must overcome an ever-growing darkness. It’s a tale told a thousand times over, but it’s told well here, simply, with minimal to no dialogue and an evocative art style which communicates more than most games accomplish in hundreds of hours of dialogue.

THE JOURNEY NOT THE DESTINATION

Gameplay in Neva is simple, if not quite simple enough. Alba (you) can run and jump and dash and activate light towers and, on occasion, swing a shadow-destroying sword to fend off the dark, oozy, creeping things threatening the world.

The wolf-dog Neva is largely there to back you up, providing combat support and, as your pet grows/ages, assisting with relatively simple environmental puzzles.

At any time, you can stop whatever you’re doing and, with the tap of a button, pet the dog. Or hug. Or scritch around the neck. All are appreciated.

Neva is unabashed about its influences. There’s a healthy dose of Limbo and Inside, the two critically acclaimed “silent wanderer” titles from Danish studio Playdead. There’s also quite a bit of Journey (my #1 all-time favourite game), right down to Neva‘s central mountain, which has clearly been lifted from that 2012 masterpiece. In its painterly aesthetic, Neva also reminds me of Ōkami, which, perhaps not so coincidentally, also stars a magical wolf.

Speaking of coincidence, Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) is possibly another influence, with its similar tale of a young woman’s bond with her wolf and 2.5D graphics. Then again, it could just be that stories of magical wolves and dogs are irresistible.

A BEAUTY THAT SLEEPS

Most of all, Neva plays like a classic Disney film come to life. Evyind Earle may not be as familiar a name as Ub Iwerks or Walt himself, but his contributions to the Disney canon are legion. As the lead background painter on Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, and Sleeping Beauty, he solidified a house style which favoured sparse, geometric shapes and bold, striking colours. (Here’s a nice article about Earle with lots of examples of his art.) Clearly, Nomada’s creative director Conrad Roset is a fan.

It’s too bad there aren’t more games that take inspiration from classic animation. Cuphead is an obvious example, as are the Samorost and Machinarium titles from Amanita Designs, and the remarkable (and criminally overlooked) Ni No Kuni from Studio Ghibli.

Neva is a fine addition to a very small but illustrious pantheon and one of the Great Games of 2024.

***
Final score: 9/10 paintbrushes.

Visit the official website for Neva here.

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