Recent reviews by Tenmar

It's a free Suika game that just works. It also has twitch integration so you can see how you do against your friends. It's nice and simple and you can just relax and play.

Multiplayer Beta Review

The design of this game confounds me. The challenges and battle pass system drives players to play suboptimally in games. Ranked has the opposite problem where you are given the best weapon in the game, the battle rifle, which makes ranked matches incredibly bland.

Lack of game mode choice is also a problem as most game modes are just ignored by the playerbase. Game modes like Power Seed are interesting but 90% of players will ignore the objective.

Assault Gunners HD Edition is as simple and straightforward you can get for a mech game from story to gameplay.

Mars is under attack by automated AI and it's up to you and your squad to destroy the machines and discover who is behind these attacks. A simple story that presented purely in text before each mission that won't bring up any emotions but is functional to explain why you're in that area and your mission.

Graphically, this is a VITA game and the models of the mechs you create and the enemies you fight are basic. You will not have the graphical design if you're used to playing a game like Armored Core, Daemon X Machina, or a gundam game. However, every single part of the mech and weapons are customized and for a simple approach you'll easily be able to identify your mech as you play.

The gameplay is also extremely straightforward. A simple third person shooter control scheme where you use each face button to select the weapon you want to use and then just start blasting away using the shoulder buttons.

Sadly the depth where each weapon has a different damage type is hardly noticeable on a normal difficulty playthrough which I would recommend as unlocking stronger parts are only acquired from collecting drops from enemies. The types of parts you will acquire are determined from each mission which works but hinders players from designing the type of weapons they want to use.

Unlike other mech games however, you collect development points during missions which are used to unlock the body and leg parts as well as leveling up those parts. Leveling up the body and leg parts to your mech is easily the most important part as they will determine your health, shield energy and shield energy regeneration rate. Every part is viable and has their own strengths and weaknesses so it'll come down to preference on how strong you and your squad will be.

Your squad consists of three other mechs and you can assign different roles that will affect their stats. Attackers will output more damage, support increases the movement speed of your squard and so on. You can also design each of your squads mechs but their power will be determined on the parts you have or haven't leveled up. So don't expect a squad mech to be effective at end game when you've given them tank legs but only leveled up bipedal legs. You can also control the AI of your squad which is simple but effective which is a boon to fighting off the hordes of enemy AI you'll face.

For a vita port, Assault Gunners HD edition is a nice simple mech game to enjoy for an afternoon. There is additional content post game as well as DLC missions and a survival mode. Being a port, you also will have access to the strongest weapons immediately if you would like the game to be as easy as possible. However, you won't be dealing with anything difficult missions or anything complex. Just a nice simple straightforward mech third person shooter game.

Despite mixed reviews on Metacritic, Strike Suit Zero is a simple flight sim with a nice twist of being able to transform into a power mech.

The story of the game might not make much sense but it works to move the gameplay forward from mission to mission. Voice acting performance is perfectly fine for what little there is.

However, the big issue with the gameplay is the controls. One of the most controversial issues is being able to properly fly your Strike Suit in flight mode. With a gamepad Born Ready makes the awkward choice of tying the roll to the left analog stick and the yaw is tied to the right. Which makes sense as the goal is to encourage players to use both analog sticks in sync to control the Strike Suit in flight mode. The execution however only results in frustration as having to manage using both analog sticks, face buttons and shoulder buttons at same time makes controlling the Strike Suit a hindrance to enjoyment. I would recommend moving the yaw to the left analog stick and roll to the right. This change makes flying simpler and comparable to games like Ace Combat or Star Fox.

The other issue is the targeting system. It is functional but too fundamental that results in frustration as battles become larger and most intense. There are two targeting options: objective and "front facing". Objective fulfills the role of targeting objectives but does not focus on the closest target which results in the targeting system having you aim at enemy spacecraft across the map. "Front facing" suffers the issue of also not picking the target closest to you. But while the targeting system works in early mission, as soon as you take on capital ships the targeting system will only target the capital ship itself and not the various turrets that you're supposed to destroy in order to destroy the capital ship as efficiently as possible.

Despite these two issues, the core gameplay is enjoyable and fulfills the experience of being a simple straight forward space simluator like in Tie Fighter while also being able to transform into a powerful mech able to destroy your enemies quickly.

Power ups for the ship are available fulfilling optional objectives in each mission, however the effect of the power ups for your strike suit are not explained. There are also multiple ships to unlock encouraging replaying missions.

Overall a straight forward game that can be beaten in about 7 hours. While the quirks of the controls and the targeting system are hurdles you'll have to deal with. Once settled, you'll easily get absorbed into the experience as the atmosphere of space and space combat.

A nice simple platforming battle royale with a fun setting as a game show. Fun to play with friends.

Gameplay at the core is more Earth Defense Force. However, the art direction, design choices, weapons, and story didn't go far enough in either parody or serious to be enjoyable.

While you have the freedom to play any class regardless of gender, the weapon variety lacks any sense of overall creativity or impact that unlocking new weapons result in making future missions easier. Very few weapons are effective when playing solo.

A small cast of characters accompany you during missions meaning that it is no longer an army vs army in missions. This results in missions even in normal being you against the aliens. Characters have names but no actual models or presence in or out of missions. Needed to go further as the story centers around your squad.

Enemy AI goes straight for the player and will ignore your allies. Problem is only increased as the waves of enemies increase in number. Enemy variety is small but the core enemies offer shock value as you'd expect from EDF.

If you have a solid group of friends, you can have fun playing this game. Playing solo is hard to recommend even with online play available.

Solid, light hearted fun with friends that iterated on their mechanics creating a rock paper scissors game of dodgeball.

Looking for a simple fun beat em up in the vein of Castle Crashers with a Viking theme? Then try Viking Squad. Supporting up to three players local and online you plunder loot for your Jarl (that you happened to curse by freeing Loki, good job) and ravage the lands to stop the chaos you started.

Mechanically you collect new gear and weapons through levels and plunder loot to buy and level up your stats. In combat you traverse levels moving up and down between four lanes and sliding to dodge enemy attacks at the last second. Each viking has their own speciality and play style with their own special attacks that you can charge which cost rune power. If things get overwhelming you can also unleash an ultimate attack to clear the room.

Viking Squad is a great game to introduce people to beat em up games with colorful art direction, great cartoon viking theme, and a folk-rock soundtrack that makes replaying the game a good time. Short and sweet to beat once, but to do everything (achievements) will require multiple playthroughs.