Pac-Man 99 Review – A Great Game To Play While Doing Something Else

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Switch

I have played 128 games of Pac-Man 99, but I'm only half certain I know what I'm doing. Lacking any kind of tutorial, Pac-Man 99 leaves players to learn and understand its systems for themselves – making for a frustrating introduction to a visually busy game. However, once I cleared that initial hurdle, I found myself reaching for Pac-Man 99 time and time again – if only because of how unobtrusive it is. 

Taking cues from Super Mario Bros. 35 and Tetris 99, Pac-Man 99 is a modern twist on the Pac-Man action you've known for four decades: go around a maze picking up small pellets and larger power pellets while avoiding the five ghosts on-screen that can end your run. The twist here, however, is now you're pitted against 98 other online players. Pac-Man 99 is, essentially, a battle royale experience where you compete against the group to be the last player standing. The bulk of the gameplay features Pac-Man’s classic maze-running action, but pick-ups on the left and right side of the maze allow you to gobble ghosts and send attacks at other players, such as ghost Pac-Men that can either slowdown or end a player’s run. By and large, I found this twist on the familiar formula to be a fun challenge – it's satisfying to figure out when to save your attacks before unleashing them on the opposition.

However, getting to the point where you actually understand how to play Pac-Man 99 is a whole other story. The game lacks any kind of tutorial, which leaves it up to players to figure out how to actually play the game. If you're willing to bang your head against the first dozen matches or so (a frustrating experience, to say the least), you eventually get the hang of it. But in the early hours, there's so much happening on-screen that Pac-Man 99 seems inscrutable. Early in my playtime, the complete lack of tutorials turned me off.

While I've since learned how to enjoy Pac-Man 99, many of its systems remain bewildering. Using the Nintendo Switch's face buttons and right analog stick, you can choose ways to attack other players, with options labeled Stronger, Random, Speed, Knockout, and so on. However, I never fully understood the clear difference between some of those attacks. Pressing and moving the buttons doesn't offer detailed visual feedback, and it’s unclear how my attacks impacted other players.

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Despite this, I still enjoyed my time with Pac-Man 99. While many of the systems are opaque, through enough trial-and-error, I got good enough to frequently place in the top 25. Unlike many other battle royales, matches of Pac-Man 99 are relatively quick and reloading into a new match is painless, which I also appreciated. On top of the battle royale mode, Pac-Man 99 also has a Score Attack, CPU Battle, and Time Attack single player modes, though by and large I found these unremarkable and not nearly as fun as the base mode. It's also worth pointing out all single player game modes are locked behind a $15 paywall, as is a lot of the cosmetic content, but the battle royale mode is free. If you're itching for more Pac-Man, it's certainly there, but as far as I'm concerned the best this game has to offer is the free mode. 

Pac-Man 99 is not a particularly difficult game, but it is engaging, and I found myself wanting to play more and more. However, the electronic music that plays over the menu and during matches is repetitive and annoying (there are maybe two or three songs in the whole thing), so Pac-Man 99 has become my go-to podcast game. Which, if you ask me, is an underrated genre. The other night I sat down and listened to the new episode of Today, Explained by Vox while playing – I recommend it, it's a good one. 

To enjoy Pac-Man 99, I had to accept the frustrations that came with learning its systems. While it does an embarrassingly poor job of explaining the hows-and-whys of its mechanics, once you figure them out on your own, it's a good way to fill lulls in your day. Pac-Man 99 has become my go-to when I want to do something else, and I can't think of much higher praise for a game of this caliber. It fills a niche in my life where I can stay occupied with something fun without the need to devote all of my increasingly limited attention to it.

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Score: 7.5

Summary: A lack of any kind of tutorial is frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of the action, Pac-Man 99 is a fun way to fill lulls in your day

Concept: Battle 98 other players in competitive Pac-Man, using attacks and power-ups to gain the upper hand

Graphics: There’s a lot going on on-screen at any given time, from the standard Pac-Man fare, to new enemies and pick-ups. Visually, it’s a lot to take in, but eventually you start to understand it slightly better

Sound: The repetitive electronic music quickly gets old. I played the game on mute almost exclusively

Playability: Pac-Man 99 plays like Pac-Man, but the added challenges create rewarding and tense moments

Entertainment: A lack of any kind of tutorial is frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of the action, it's a fun way to fill lulls in your day

Replay: Moderately High

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Lost Words: Beyond The Page Review – A Touching Tale Full Of Emotional Highs And Lows

Publisher: Modus Games

Developer: Sketchbook Games

Reviewed on: Switch

Also on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, PC

Growing up is a time of discovery – for better or worse. Adolescents are trying to figure out who they are, while confronting life’s complexities and harsher realities. Lost Words: Beyond The Page dives into this confusing time by allowing you to interact with a young girl’s journal as she pursues her dream of being a writer. You see two sides to her life: the story coming to life in her imagination and personalized entries showcasing her feelings as she faces her own hardships. The two begin to intertwine in interesting ways, making for an emotional tale about acceptance, perseverance, and coming of age that made me misty-eyed on more than one occasion. Lost Words: Beyond The Page is worth the experience for this reason, but you have to contend with some shortcomings to get to the beauty.

In Lost Words, the narrator, Izzy, is struggling to write her first story. We get insight into the frustrations and challenges through her journal, where she reveals what’s going on in her personal life. The experience is heavily focused on atmosphere and narrative, right down to selecting certain aspects of Izzy’s story, such as the character’s name and attire and choosing the words to convey her emotions. You platform your way across words as she writes them in her journal, and you interact with the fantastical world she creates by selecting words from your journal and moving them to obstacles with your cursor, like using the word “repair” to fix a bridge or “rise” to raise platforms.

 

Because words matter so much, a strong narrative is essential. Thanks to the work of writer Rhianna Pratchett, who worked on Heavenly Sword and the Tomb Raider reboot, the narrative is certainly the best part of the game. Izzy’s journey is relatable to anyone who’s had to find their way. Like every young person, she struggles with her self-esteem and having confidence in her own abilities, but what resonates the most is her feelings when she experiences an unpredictable tragedy that causes her to examine the darker parts of life. I won’t spoil anything, but I will say that Lost Words can be a punch in the gut; I felt so much for Izzy as I watched her spiral into depression and struggle to accept the events unfolding around her.

Overall, I enjoyed the main story and its message, but it does play out pretty predictably and occasionally overdoes it in the motivational speech department. However, outside of the main narrative’s slow start, the way the game mechanics tell Izzy’s story is quite beautiful. A few scenes will always stick with me, like when Izzy gets the ability to use the word “ignore” to get past crowds, symbolizing her shutting out others. Sadly, these great moments don't occur regular enough, forcing you to put up with some boring gameplay. It doesn’t help that the environments in the fantastical world are barren, linear almost to a fault, and not very interesting to explore. Even navigating these spaces with their various challenges and obstacles gets dull fast, because the mechanics rarely change or evolve enough to be satisfying or offer a challenge. For instance, I loved when the word “rise” transformed into a new gameplay mechanic when I was able to go underwater, but this is the only time I felt the game did anything interesting with the words at your disposal.

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I haven’t even addressed another issue: the finicky controls. You often move words around the screen to make an extra jumping platform or so you can interact with objects, but this process feels awkward; sometimes it’s hard to match things up precisely and the controls aren’t as responsive as they should be. For instance, I experienced a delayed response for some actions, like using the word “break” to split a tree branch. I also ran into some technical issues with slow load times, disappearing objects, and framerate chugging. These mishaps don’t occur regularly enough to be overly frustrating, but I hope future patches smooth things out.

Lost Words: Beyond The Page affected me more than most games do, but it’s not always engaging to play. In the end, the touching story wins out over the flaws, but be prepared for an inconsistent experience. Sometimes I found myself nodding off going through yet another boring platforming sequence; others, I had to turn to the next page of Izzy’s journal to make sure she’d be okay. Lost Words: Beyond The Page is an interesting way to tell an interactive story, venturing into territory that isn’t often explored in video games and I’m glad it exists, despite its flaws.

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Score: 7.75

Summary: Lost Words: Beyond The Page is an interesting way to tell an interactive story, venturing into territory that isn’t often explored in video games.

Concept: Through her journal entries, learn about a young girl’s mission to become a writer as she confronts big life challenges

Graphics: The vibrant and creative journal pages hold your attention. Unfortunately, the fantastical world isn’t as exciting to explore, leaving much to be desired in the graphics department

Sound: Music and voice acting punctuate emotional moments, but neither are memorable elements of your journey

Playability: The game is easy to learn, but awkward controls and technical hiccups bring down the experience

Entertainment: Lost Words: Beyond The Page features fantastic writing that tackles complex topics about the human condition, but the gameplay doesn’t hold the same allure

Replay: Moderate

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Outriders Review - Chaos That Surprises In The Best Way

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: People Can Fly

Release: 2020

Rating: Mature

Reviewed on: PC

Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Outriders is an explosively chaotic looter shooter that pulls from the best of the best of People Can Fly's previous games while offering a new tale that takes some seriously wild turns. Despite launch day connection issues, I couldn't put Outriders down and after running two complete character builds through the main story and endgame content, I'm happy to say that this game has lived up to every one of my expectations and hopes. 

I love shooters and RPGs, and Outriders amalgamates these genres perfectly. The entire adventure is macabre with a dark narrative that centers on survival, the ability to adapt, and the journey to prove you're the biggest badass on the playground. That storyline is more immersive than I expected, and while it takes about an hour to really pick up momentum, it eventually becomes a cacophony of in-your-face action. That action coincides with a tale that rests within sci-fi fantasy but holds a modicum of truth regarding human instincts and how we react when there is nothing left to lose and everything to lose at the same time. It also has the subtle, dry humor that People Can Fly is known for, especially to Bulletstorm fans.

Outriders begins its adventure with a cutscene heralding the arrival of humans on a new planet called Enoch, a world that was meant to be their salvation brimming with promise as a fresh start for humankind. While the beginning sequence goes all-in with the action, the true start of the story kicks in soon after and goes hard on the fight-or-flight instinct in a new world that challenges what it means to be a survivor. The fast-paced, action-packed moments convey the need to keep moving, and those moments are even starker thanks to calm-before-the-storm story sequences that introduce the characters along the way. The characters feel wildly different from each other, with some offering a return of innocence to this world and others showing off the brutal reality of what it’s like to stay on top when the rest of the planet wants you dead. The intermittent scenes of normalcy add a layer of depth that enriches the game. 

Like other People Can Fly games, Outriders is more about the feel rather than the look. This distinction is clear in all aspects of the game, from the class variation to the subtle smirks and exasperated looks between speaking characters. From combo-ing an epic attack against the final boss to dealing with the petty shenanigans of your cohorts, Outriders' adventure is full of dimension. That nuance is felt in the combat, the leveling, and the story, with characters that become more and more compelling as the narrative continues on.

Leveling up in Outriders is satisfying and easy to manage. The skill tree draws obvious inspiration from the Diablo franchise, but there are other influences such as Path of Exile. The four classes each have three branches to perfect their combat style. I love charging into battle like Leeroy Jenkins, so the Pyromancer and Devastator classes are my favorites, and I specialized each by choosing the more offensive branching skills. There are more strategic branches as well, taking on full defense, or a hybrid approach, all of which are streamlined in a way that isn’t overwhelming and didn’t leave me second-guessing if I made a wrong choice.

Regarding the four classes themselves, Outriders provides a playstyle for everyone, and that left me excited to replay it to try out the different types of combat. The Trickster allows you to teleport behind an enemy when they are paralyzed for a K.O. It feels intrinsically satisfying, and nothing compares to being able to slow time itself to control the battlefield. Devastators are the tank of all tanks and the backbone of any group. Devastators are strong, meaty, and can control gravity, which gives them a protective edge, letting them draw fire from your crew and sending enemies into the abyss. Pyromancers are a medium-ranged class that specializes in AOE damage by wielding the destructive power of fire. The firewall skill plows through enemies in an especially satisfying way.  While not as durable as other classes, a Pyromancer's explosive arsenal makes them the perfect addition to any group taking on the world of Enoch.

Lastly, the Technomancer is a great class for those who love engineering specs because it harnesses technology meaningfully to rain damage from the sky. This class is incredibly versatile, taking on the role of support with the ability to heal teammates while outputting intense damage.  

The gear in Outriders matters, which is something that some loot-based games have failed to master. People Can Fly did a great job providing a wide variety of weapons of all types that offer a meaningful impact on the moment-to-moment action. This adds a layer of immersion and thoughtfulness that a lot of looter-shooters haven’t offered. It's also one of the many reasons why franchises like Borderlands continue to be a standard in this genre; that, and its off-the-wall humor, which is something that Outriders also has, though it doesn’t truly shine until later on in the story. 

There are varying degrees of gear as well, including the coveted Legendaries. Some of these designs are insanely detailed and impressive. Outriders has some of the best weapon designs of any game out there, including one gun that looks like it popped straight out of Bloodborne. Another looks like it popped straight out of Egypt. One shotgun looks like an Apex Legends character threw pure radiation at a wall and decided to turn it into a weapon. The creative team clearly had a lot of fun designing this aspect of the game, and kept me motivated to hunt down Legendaries; even if I didn't necessarily care about the stats, I wanted everything I could possibly find to see what other elaborate designs the team came up with.

But as I said, Outriders is much more about how the game feels versus how it looks and the gunplay feels just as impressive as the aesthetics insinuate. The baseline guns themselves all feel very different from one another. The kickback of a shotgun, the recoil of a sniper rifle, the quickfire action of dual pistols; each weapon-type feels unique, as they should, but they also feel weighted in a way that reminds me of how gunplay felt in Gears of War Judgement, another title by People Can Fly. 

Weapons continue to scale up in power as you progress, but players have the option to tailor that combat style even further with the use of gear mods. Mods help to further that customizable experience with different options to equip in order to achieve a certain build. Mod types include buffs, ways to enhance current skills, and how to boost your offense and/or your defense. They aren't the end-all-be-all of character craftsmanship, but like Destiny – they are a vital part of taking your character to the next level. Some even help you heal faster when fighting, which is especially helpful for those exploring Enoch solo. Fire damage, decay, leeching, there are a ton of different mods out there that are broken up into three tiers. 

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Another positive aspect of Outriders is that this game doesn't have any microtransactions. While it is always online (something I wish wasn't the case due to not wanting to be tethered to the status of servers), it is not a live service game. There are no paywalls, no locked content, but there is still more adventure to uncover even after the main campaign is completed. When the story is finished, there are additional quests called Expeditions and these are so much more fun than I anticipated. Endgame quests are often a bit of a grind or can feel meaningless, especially after concluding a storyline that progressed in a dramatic way. I was really happy to see that Expeditions weren't treated like an afterthought, it's obvious that People Can Fly wanted players to feel like the journey didn't have to be over when the credits rolled and it did a really good job at doing just that. If you're a gear hunter like I am and have a never-ending FOMO regarding the best of the best, the 14 missions within the endgame content help achieve better drops. These high-end missions feel rewarding because they are time-sensitive challenges that are designed to make players sweat. They are hand-crafted new levels that aren’t just recycled content from the campaign, they are something unique entirely with their own challenges and their own gameplay mechanics. 

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As an obsessive Destiny 2 player, I can say that the endgame isn't anywhere to that level, but Outriders content feels meaningful in a way that will draw dedicated players while not leaving casual gamers feeling like they are missing out. The campaign and the endgame are balanced thoughtfully and in a way that does the looter shooter genre a profound service.

Outriders isn’t revolutionary, and it’s not trying to be. Outriders is a well-thought-out shooter with expertly tailored RPG twists. It's an enjoyable ride that is made infinitely better by playing with friends, but not inherently hurt by running solo either. This game takes the best parts from other looter-shooters and the best aspects of sci-fi RPGs and blends these elements into an experience that is worth diving into because of its high replayability, customizable play style, and fun story. I'm already strapping in for another run. 

Score: 9

Summary: Outriders lived up to every single expectation I had and then some.

Concept: Level up your Outrider, master your Altered powers, and find out what went wrong when searching for paradise

Graphics: Overall, the graphics are a little dated, but the cutscenes display stunning facial animations that offer a subtle layer of realism to all character interactions. The different areas of Enoch are incredibly beautiful

Sound: The music ramps everything up to level 10, especially in combat. While not a focus, the music paired with different ability sounds makes it easy to get lost in the fray in the best way possible

Playability: Navigating skill tree and gear leveling is easy to use and enjoyable to experiment with, and the gun mechanics feel weighted in a realistic way that is satisfying

Entertainment: Taking to combat and combo-ing skills with other players is immensely satisfying and make each run-in with enemies feel exhilarating rather than a chore

Replay: Moderately High

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