Sakura Wars Review – A Delightful Return To The Stage

Publisher: SEGA

Release: 2020

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Western audiences have largely missed out on Japan’s beloved Sakura Wars franchise. The story-driven series has been around for nearly 25 years, with its heyday in the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast era. This tactical dating sim debuted in North America with So Long My Love in 2010. Now, a decade later, Sakura Wars is back with what Sega is dubbing “a soft reboot,” modernizing its more traditional elements, such as implementing action-oriented combat. The result is a heartfelt journey that pays homage to the Sakura Wars’ legacy while breathing new life into it. Sakura Wars’ charm makes up for its flaws, creating a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

Sakura Wars is an interesting blend of a visual novel, dating sim, and mech-centric combat. It takes place in Tokyo during a fictionalized version of the Taisho period, and has a bonkers premise that sees players helping to run a theater while also protecting citizens from monstrous threats. You play as Seijuro Kamiyama, a former navy officer hired to lead an all-girls group to success on and off the battlefield. One minute, you’re collecting tickets for their performances. The next minute, you’re fighting side-by-side with them in mechs in an Olympian competition to prove you can best protect the world.

The plot is outlandish, but Sakura Wars makes it work thanks to great character moments, an interesting world, and over-the-top spectacle. The cast is fantastic, with colorful personalities, such as a boisterous shrine maiden and a mysterious ninja prodigy. Your goal is to build up trust with the various young women, which gives you stat boosts and access to team attacks in battle. I liked getting to know the various party members and learning their backstories, and watching everyone grow to be a big family is heartwarming. A lot of secondary characters are also fun to explore, and the unique and surprising ways they’re incorporated into the story is satisfying. My favorite part of Sakura Wars is how it would have me laughing at its crazy antics, like making me walk around in a ridiculous mascot costume shouting “bwoooot!!” at passersby, only to pull at my heartstrings moments later with the revelations of how certain team members lost their parents.

However, be prepared for interactions that feel straight out a trope-filled harem anime, like accidentally walking on a girl in the bath. I didn’t mind when the scenes centered on being supportive and helping my team through their various insecurities, but dialogue options that let you sneak peeks at the women’s various body parts cheapen the narrative and the main character’s role within it to be a positive change in their life. Many of these choices are optional, and when you cross the line you usually get penalized, but I still could have done without all the creepy “I’m tempted. Should I look?” lines and the zooming in on their chests and butts. The romance aspects in general ricochet between being melodramatic and perverted, which is also jarring.

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While Sakura Wars is heavy on story and relies on choosing dialogue options under time constraints, it breaks that up with exploration, minigames, and combat. For instance, you might be required to search for clues to catch a thief, help out at a restaurant by remembering orders and delivering them, or even go on a date with one of the girls. Having the regular day-to-day activities helps to immerse you in this strange world and add some normalcy to it, but then you also have these larger-than-life mech battles that sell the fantasy. It strikes a good balance overall.

The new action-based combat suits Sakura Wars well, as it complements the story and adds some much-needed energy to the experience. At certain points, you hop in your mech and slaughter waves of enemies using strong and light attacks. As you explore different dungeons, you also do light platforming to avoid obstacles and reach new areas. They usually conclude with a large boss battle and a slew of astonishing animated cutscenes, especially in terms of displaying some of the action.

While I loved turning my mech’s jets on to dart across the map, chaining ridiculous combos, and executing cool team attacks, the dungeons and these bouts all feel generic. I enjoyed when the venue got a shake-up, like when you battle in the mech competition, which turns into a best-of-three-bouts. However, these new variations don’t come often enough, and the combat doesn’t have enough depth to keep things interesting, so it becomes monotonous and repetitive. At least these portions never take too long to complete, and they are littered with cool story moments.

Sakura Wars is a hard experience to put in words, but that experience doesn’t come around often. It is a captivating ride, striking a great balance between its funny and heartwarming moments. Just like the struggling theater group, the performance doesn’t always come together exactly as planned, but it has so much heart and charisma to leave the audience wanting an encore.

Score: 8

Summary: Sakura Wars’ charm makes up for its flaws, creating a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

Concept: Create a soft reboot of Japan’s popular and long-running Sakura Wars series featuring a new cast and action-packed combat

Graphics: The entire game is gorgeous, but the detailed and impressive animated cutscenes steal the show and made me look forward to every cutscene

Sound: From each team member’s personality-driven theme to the inspiring J-pop-infused battle tracks, the audio is breathtaking. Just note: Voice acting is only in Japanese

Playability: With smooth controls and easily understood mechanics, Sakura Wars is easy to pick up and play, but the over-reliance on timed sequences can be annoying

Entertainment: Sakura Wars is not perfect, but it is a delightfully charming experience. Between the sweet bonding moments and high-stakes battles, there’s plenty to cheer for.

Replay: Moderate

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Moving Out Review – Packed With Frustration

Publisher: Team17

Developer: SMG Studio, Devm Games

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Switch, PC

If you’ve moved (or helped people move) at any point during the past few decades, odds are you’ve heard someone make a joke about their Tetris skills paying off. There’s something satisfying about finding the perfect spot for a box or arranging things to fit into what seems like an impossibly small space. That sensation is part of what Moving Out promises; as a member of a furniture-moving company, you and up to three co-op buddies are tasked with filling up the truck as quickly and efficiently as possible. Moves get more complicated and sillier over time, but ghosts, flamethrowers, and rising pools of guava juice prove to be far from the biggest obstacles to success.

You begin your career as a certified Furniture Arrangement and Relocation Technician with fairly mundane jobs. The first few homes allow you to get the hang of the basics, which include surveying the area for the objects you’re required to load into the truck and sizing up the trickier parts of each move. It might be tempting to grab the nearest boxes and lob them into the truck, but those smaller objects can quickly add up. Before you know it, it’s time to put a sectional couch inside and you don’t have any room. But first, you need to maneuver that couch through narrow hallways, around obstacles, and potentially out the front window.

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It’s possible to schlep all this stuff around as a solo player, but that’s an option of last resort. You don’t have any A.I. companions, so you’re stuck dragging heavier objects around without the option of performing a handy co-op “heave ho” toss with a partner. That move is incredibly useful for making the most of the limited truck space, since objects like beds and tables can be stacked if you put enough of your back into it. Bringing a friend along for the ride via local co-op makes some aspects of the game much easier, but it comes with a warning: If you aren’t a patient person, or you’re prone to getting frustrated or lashing out at other people, avoid this game. I’m only kind of joking.

Even the early moves seem designed to be as maddening as possible. Doorways are just barely wide enough to accommodate larger pieces of furniture, making them a tight squeeze in ideal circumstances. Moving Out takes clear cues from Overcooked, but it adds a significant wrinkle: wacky physics. Overcooked is great because a group can fail, evaluate where they went wrong, and regroup with a better strategy in mind. Moving Out has that element of strategizing – such as figuring out what objects the team needs to move and how to prioritize those mini tasks – but success is unpredictable. Maybe you’ll get hung up on an invisible barrier around a doorway. Perhaps your throw will land weirdly short, dropping a fragile package in the pool. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason for a lot of these goofs; even if you’re able to clearly call out what the team needs to do next, performing what should be simple actions feels like you’re rolling the dice.

 

As frustrating as it can be, I found myself drawn to a few standout levels. I enjoyed a Frogger-inspired section in particular, where the movers have to cross a busy street before making their way across logs and alligators. Some later levels, where players have to communicate and work out which switch-controlled doors to open and when, are similarly amusing. Players who find themselves getting into the game can look forward to completing secret objectives like breaking all the windows in a house or not stepping on rakes in a yard. These allow you to access arcade-style levels, which feature more abstract platforming/moving challenges. They’re good for a quick burst of fun, but I never felt compelled to stick around to set high scores.

Moving Out has a charming sense of humor and the developers clearly went out of their way to make the game as accessible as possible. You can adjust difficulty in an impressively granular way, checking individual boxes to tweak the time you have to complete goals, make objects lighter, remove some obstacles, and more. That does make it easier to zoom past some of the trickier levels, but it doesn’t ultimately change the fact that moving furniture in the game is as fun as the real deal.

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Score: 6.5

Summary: Ghosts, flamethrowers, and rising pools of guava juice prove to be far from the biggest obstacles to success.

Concept: Get a job as a mover, creating mayhem as you cram your truck with a variety of awkwardly sized objects

Graphics: Little flourishes, such as the marks you leave dragging furniture on the floor and the satisfying way power cords snap when pulled, make it a treat to see in action

Sound: The soundtrack is bouncy, peppy, and entirely forgettable

Playability: The challenge comes in not only figuring out how to tackle each environment-based puzzle, but getting the physics model to cooperate

Entertainment: Moving Out is clearly inspired by Overcooked’s chaotic co-op, but its inconsistent controls add a layer of aggravation likely to test friendships, marriages, and parent-child relationships

Replay: Moderately high

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Streets of Rage 4 Review — Return To The Old-School Neighborhood

Publisher: Dotemu

Developer: Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games, Dotemu

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC, PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Switch

To me, the brawlers of the ‘90s represent the perfect arcade-style experience. They are easy to pick up and play, difficult to master, and full of nonstop action. Even though the Streets of Rage series technically wasn’t in arcades, Sega’s original Genesis trilogy embodies everything that made this genre so popular in its heyday. Now, 25 years since the last installment, Streets of Rage 4 remains devoted to that specific tradition – a fact that elevates this sequel while also dragging it down.

Streets of Rage 4 uses the classic games as templates, borrowing the structure and concepts to assemble an experience that feels like a natural successor. You (and your co-op friends) clean up crime in a grimy city by beating up an array of punks and toughs. Walking through a series of side-scrolling stages, you lay down the law with punches, kicks, throws, and special moves – with a little help from health-restoring food you eat off the ground.

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The action looks and feels great, with satisfying impacts every time you land a blow, and enemies flying across the screen at the end of a combo. The slick new visual style gives the world and characters a different look, but the gameplay is unmistakably old-school. You have a basic suite of moves that doesn’t evolve or change, you fight wave after wave of enemies that require minimal strategy, and you get hit by cheap shots from off-screen. Sometimes this combination produces nostalgic thrills – but it is often just boring. Functionally, Streets of Rage 4 feels similar to booting up a 2D brawler in a compilation of 16-bit classics. On one hand, replicating that experience authentically is an achievement. On the other hand, resuscitating a 25-year-old formula without any compelling additions or twists makes it feel more like a relic than a return.

Even if it’s archaic, at least it’s faithful; Streets of Rage 4 pays loving tribute to its source material. The teams at Lizardcube, Guard Crush Games, and Dotemu have mined the series’ history to create a treasure trove of references, tributes, and cameos. You pound familiar-but-redesigned foes like Signals and Galsias, as well as fresh interpretations of iconic bosses. Even the new playable characters fit in well with the recognizable faces; I especially like Floyd, whose grab and throw moves make him feel especially brutal and flexible. But if you prefer the old characters, you also unlock pixelated playable heroes from the original trilogy. Plus, swapping between the classic and new soundtracks (both of which fit the action well) is a nice touch. With so many nods, Streets of Rage 4 is a fitting celebration of this franchise.

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The big problem is Streets of Rage 4 is too focused on looking back, and it doesn’t move forward. Your brawls are entertaining in the moment, but they don’t have the complexity to inspire the multiple playthroughs required to see everything the game offers. The biggest incentive you have is to keep racking up points to unlock new playable characters – which you can then use to fight through the same levels. The heroes all play a little differently, but not enough to dull the repetition of the encounters. You can increase the difficulty if you want additional challenge, but that isn’t the real issue; without any meaningful progression or persistence, it feels like you’re just a different hamster running in the same wheel.

Playing games with friends is fun, so local and online co-op (with a max of four and two players, respectively) can help inject some new life into the conflict. Having additional sets of fists to distract bosses and break up crowds can be a life-saver in the main campaign. But the additional modes, like competitive battles between players and boss rush, are more diversions than destinations.

Streets of Rage 4’s simple approach to combat and content is enjoyable in short bursts, but it doesn’t have the hooks to keep you coming back. This beat ‘em up feels like an homage to the ‘90s, but it’s also stuck in that era.

Score: 7

Summary: This beat ‘em up feels like an homage to classic ‘90s brawlers, but it’s also stuck in that era itself.

Concept: Create a sequel to one of the best 2D brawler series of the ‘90s, remaining faithful to the content and gameplay of its predecessors

Graphics: A revamped artistic approach makes the world and characters pop. However, when you unlock the pixelated classic characters, they clash with the new visual style

Sound: Numerous songs from previous Streets of Rage composers ensures that the music fits the action. The new soundtrack is good, but you can also switch to retro music from Streets of Rage 1 and 2

Playability: The controls are approachable and familiar. Combat isn’t just about button-mashing, but your limited repertoire of moves gets stale

Entertainment: Streets of Rage 4 is a fun stroll down memory lane, but it doesn’t have enough depth to completely pull players in

Replay: Moderately High

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MotoGP 20 Review – Tough Turns

Publisher: Milestone S.r.l.

Developer: Milestone S.r.l.

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, Switch, Stadia, PC

I’ve played many racing games, but MotoGP 20 is a new kind of challenge that I wholeheartedly embrace. The high-speed, demanding bikes require a slightly different approach from the traditional race car techniques I’m accustomed to, breeding an internal competition for understanding and mastery that leads to a heightened tension on the track. This creates an appreciation for the bikes – their power and handling – that is a welcome change from getting behind the wheel of just another race car.

The need to make your rider lean into the corner to turn the bike and fight centrifugal force – with two wheels underneath you – is an added dimension that makes cornering feel different than in a car. Fine tuning your line through the corners is harder because even slight aberrations in your speed or lean can easily change your arc and cause you to lose speed. Just winging it or finessing the corner is more costly than in a normal racer. The satisfaction for a smoothly taken corner – or succession of corners – is truly its own kind of reward. And when it didn’t go well for me, I was thankful for the rewind feature that lets players correct their mistakes.

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It may sound like just more to layer on, but I suggest you choose the option to split the control of the front and back brakes to separate buttons. The back brakes don’t have as much proportional power as those on the front, but they offer some extra control in the middle of a turn. Similarly, changing the amount of fuel you carry, and thus the weight of your bike, can have a big effect on your lap times. While running out of gas during a race is a nightmare scenario, using less gas in practice sessions is a good way to hit crucial R&D objectives in the career mode.

In the career mode (which features tiers of different-caliber bikes), you hire an agent to broker an amenable contract and technical directors to work with your staff to unlock and create bike upgrades. It’s straightforward off the track, but on the track during practice sessions is where it gets more interesting. In order to complete development tests to earn points for R&D, you have to hit specific lap times.

This is standard for a career mode, but it becomes fun when you start fiddling with your fuel loadout and sitting down with the track engineer for a guided setup. The latter is a great tool to customize the bike’s settings to how you race and what kind of feedback the bike is giving you. The track engineer asks you questions around specific gameplay elements, such as how the bike is handling in the middle of a corner, to give you the feel you’re looking for. It’s a simple way to modify the bike without asking you to actually grab a wrench and start tweaking things you might not understand. Making these tweaks and fixing any damage you incur during practice all take up valuable practice time – another aspect that adds stakes to the sometimes-boring race weekend format.

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I wish other areas of the game were as helpful as the track engineer. Not only would riders of all skill levels benefit from tutorials on the finer points of bike riding, but the game does not explain crucial aspects like how the bike’s electronics work. Given how important things like fuel consumption and braking can be, it’s a shame that the electronics controls that affect these aspects and others aren’t explained. What is the AW number, and what does it mean when I raise or lower it? Even a simple racing academy with video and/or tests demonstrating how to take different kinds of corners would be welcome.

MotoGP 20’s online is also missing some key features. It has no matchmaking or larger league/season structure, even if you can tweak elements like turning on/off collision and filling out the field with A.I. racers if you wish. At least the historic mode adds a twist beyond just going through scenarios from the past. The mode’s daily challenges confer currency that can be spent on a revolving marketplace of real-life teams and riders for the mode (currently there is no way to spend real money here). It doesn’t come close to your standard sports game Ultimate Team-esque fantasy mode, but it's new within the racing genre, and I’d love for it to be further developed in the future.

Racing is a constant challenge. Each corner, opponent, and straightaway is a chance to gain or lose positioning at a bevy of different points on the track. I’m used to that cadence, so to introduce new wrinkles that evolve and deepen the experience on and off the track is exciting. It feels like a new take on speed.

Score: 8

Summary: Racers looking for new challenges will find a lot to love.

Concept: Take on the particular challenge of these high-speed bikes through a solid career mode, a slightly surprising historic mode, and basic online multiplayer.

Graphics: The game isn’t exceptional in the visual department, but it runs smoothly.

Sound: Pre-race commentary exists, but it’s minimal and doesn’t amount to much.

Playability: Tutorials for aspects such as taking corners on a bike or the electronic bike controls are absent.

Entertainment: The curves come at you fast, but if you get into a rhythm you can unlock a rewarding racing experience.

Replay: Moderately High

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Predator: Hunting Grounds Review – Not Quite at Its Apex

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: IllFonic

Release: 2020

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

The alien warriors from the Predator films are irresistibly equipped for video games. These fearsome hunters not only look formidable, but they come complete with a wide array of memorable gadgets, including their optical cloaking camo, shoulder-mounted plasmacasters, and – if worse comes to worst – self-destruct nukes. Gamers have been either fighting off the bug-faced Yautja or playing as them since the NES days, with varying results. Illfonic is the latest developer to step up to challenge of adapting this alien race, in the form of an asymmetrical humans-versus-predator shooter. At its best, Predator: Hunting Grounds is as close as you’d want to get to sharing a jungle with these green-blooded killers, though dull missions and limited map selections don’t make for a particularly lengthy hunting season.

Illfonic’s previous title was Friday the 13th: The  Game, which offered a similar four-versus-one setup. Unlike the relatively helpless campers in that experience, however, players don’t have to rely on hiding in closets or calling for help as they’re stalked by a powerful entity. Your four-person fireteam is more than capable of downing this intruder, provided you work together and take advantage of your superior numbers. The predator may pack more firepower than a Cabela’s warehouse, but it still bleeds. And if it bleeds, as the saying goes, that means you can kill it. But you have to find it first.

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Hunting Grounds doesn’t just dump everyone into an arena and call it a day. Instead, both sides spawn in different spots in the South American jungle, which is a dead ringer for the lush foliage in the original 1987 film. When the match starts, the fireteam has a series of objectives they need to complete before they can get to the chopper and their successful extraction. Whether you’re tracking down stolen artifacts, getting data from servers, or destroying a drug operation, they all generally play out the same: You head to the next waypoint, find the object that’s highlighted, and hold down the interact button. Then it’s off to the next set, and then the eventual exfiltration. These never feel like anything other than the busywork they ultimately are. They’re not interesting in and of themselves, but they serve their purpose, which is essentially turning your squad into bait.

In Predator lore, the creatures are drawn to heat and conflict. When you engage with the braindead human A.I., your fireteam isn’t in any real danger. The guerrillas are equipped with glorified Nerf guns, and aside from snipers and heavies, their shots don’t require much first aid afterward. The real danger comes with the noise that you generate when you return fire. Every gunshot you make has the potential of sending up a visual flare to the predator player, if they happen to be looking in the right direction. This tension is palpable, especially if you happen to hear the alien’s chattering as it watches you, unseen from the trees.

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If you’re on the human side, you engage with the A.I. and predator in a first-person view. The predator gets to experience combat via a third-person camera, which gives you a bit of an edge if you’re playing that role. It fits with the creature’s enhanced perception, which is further upgraded with its infrared vision. When activated, you can scan the world for blips of heat, which mark potential targets. Learning which is human and which are A.I. is part of the challenge. Once I got the hang of the role, I loved engaging in the predator’s “poke and retreat” style of combat. Jump in too early, and you risk giving up your position. The predator is formidable, but it’s not invulnerable; a focused squad can make short work of you if you’re sloppy. Instead, you need to learn when to attack, when to follow silently in the trees, and how best to watch for openings. The trick is to be patient, but persistent. If you wait too long, you’re forced to play your hand as the team waits for the chopper – a position that leaves you more vulnerable than if you’d picked off your foes earlier when they were distracted with their checklist of tasks.

Getting the hang of the predator role takes some learning, and unfortunately you do most of that learning in live matches. A brief tutorial teaches you the basics of moving through the jungle canopy – a breeze, thanks to smart navigation controls and clearly marked paths – but it’s thin on combat. That’s a shame, because fighting against a poorly acclimated predator isn’t fun; it turns what’s usually a tense confrontation into unintentional comedy – and it usually ends with a dead predator. And it’s even less fun when you happen to be that dead predator. On the other hand, I had a blast when I was matched up against players making full use of the predator suite of abilities. “Humiliating” seems like an understatement when you describe getting snared into a net and then having your spine yanked out, but it’s fitting. Most of my failures were the result of not paying attention or being overly confident, regardless of which faction I was playing.

The predator is a certainly more of a draw than the comparatively generic humans it faces, and the queue times reflect that. I waited about five minutes each time I wanted to play as the alien hunter, compared to a minute or so as the fireteam. The predator also gets a better overall deal in the cosmetics department. The default character looks great, and the customization options let you change up your mask, armor, skin pattern and coloring, dreadlocks, and more. Humans have comparatively scant options, aside from a ton of underwhelming weapon shaders. The cosmetics are purely optional and there isn’t a microtransaction in sight, but overall the loot boxes aren’t exciting. 

The other unlocks, which include new weapons, perks, and class archetypes, are more interesting. I had a decent time coming up with different builds, experimenting with a pure anti-predator loadout before eventually settling on more of a support role designed to help keep my squad alive and well armed. That flexibility helps to keep the action fresh, but with only a handful of maps and only one real game mode, it’s hard not to get the sense that you’ve seen everything there is to see after a few dozen matches. 

Hunting Grounds treats the character and setting with reverence, which, as a fan of the movies, is easy to appreciate. If you’re looking for an authentic predator experience, this is about as good as it’s gotten. And fittingly, it’s perhaps best enjoyed the way the predators have interacted with humanity: drop in, enjoy the hunt, and get out while you can.

Score: 7.25

Summary: Drop in, enjoy the hunt, and get out while you can.

Concept: Capture the essence of the ‘80s action movie in asymmetrical matchups, as either the titular alien warrior or a member of a military squad

Graphics: The predator is the star of the show, with nearly every element of its design and arsenal lovingly recreated. Humans don’t fare as well, with odd loping animations

Sound: Alan Silvestri’s memorable score adds gravitas to the action, and the predator’s snarls and chatters are as unnerving as ever. Human dialogue, on the other hand, has a strange echoing effect

Playability: An all-too-brief tutorial does little to fully acclimate players to the predator’s nuanced gameplay. The fireteam can rely on traditional FPS instincts, but getting comfortable with the hunter may take a few rounds

Entertainment: Hunting Grounds sets the table for thrilling cat-and-mouse battles or embarrassing farces; the quality of each match is ultimately up to players. When everyone’s dialed into their roles, it’s a lot of fun

Replay: High

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