Hi, I'm Dranzerstorm
Welcome to the Video Game & Music Lounge
This world is dedicated to Video Games and Music as I'll be showcasing the following.
Video Game Reviews set to the same tones as Retro Retrospective's Anime Reviews
Music reviews of Anime Openings & Closings
Western Cartoon music
Vocaloid Classics.
We may even have some Top Tens
I hope this World entertains you.
Several things you'll see quite often on an achievement hunters list, quite a high number of low quality 5000G titles, a large number of puzzles and shooters from the mad lads over at East Asiasoft and most of Ratalaika's catalogue.
One other thing you'll find is a little known game series called Aery - Little Bird Adventures.
Produced by EpiXR Games, the Aery games take you on a journey through a dynamic polygon landscape through the views of a little bird as a narrator commentates on the deep philosophy that surrounds the area you explore while collecting stars.
On it's merit the narratives can come across as a little too real or a little preachy especially when the music is designed to provide a zen like aura to your gaming experience, the first few games certainly keep up that appearance, but as time went on, the games were getting worse and worse.
16 games + 1 spinoff that uses a paper plane later and the problems keep piling up.
Collectables out of sequence.
Slow framerate performance issues.
Constant crashing.
Corrupt graphics.
Achievements popping at the wrong time or not at all.
A skip option on PC that let's you gain achievements by skipping all the levels.
Reusing levels multiple times.
Vikings in every bloody game possible.
Collectables stuck behind impassable walls.
Having the same soundtrack in every game.
And the biggest one of all, forgetting to add all the levels!
This should've been problems solved in game one but they've taken the Ubisoft approach of not testing their games and wonder why there are so many problems, and it's getting worse with every game; what started as a simple bit of escapism in a zen like environment has turned into an example of gaming greed at it's most vile.
At time of writing, I've played six of them, I've no plans to play all 17 titles any time soon, only 15 of them are fully completeable as the two most recent ones are broken until patched.
To put that into perspective, assuming I make 500,000 lifetime gamerscore this year and I play all the titles, 3% of my score would just be Aery games.
D-Tier for all the games.
Trash Tier for just the developers, stop being bitches and hire a play tester for god sake!
Getting into some triple A action today.
Halo Infinite
The spartan shooter that rewrote the FPS genre is trying things, an open world environment and a grappling hook are two big selling points of this iteration of Halo, however the game lacked alot of content on release and to this day is leagues behind it's rivals and extremely poorly managed; while the multiplayer continues being a great time, the campaign is woefully mediocre, it shouldn't be acceptable practise to wait over two years or more for a game to get good, this should've been sorted in the first month.
D-Tier Game
Forza Horizon 5
Were in Mexico for the ultimate car festival but I'm getting bored of it at this point, my biggest issue is how much the npcs want me to play, they never shut up, I feel like I'm not allowed to choose my own path as everytime I open the map I'm dragged to somewhere else, it's ten minutes of gameplay before I'm interrupted to do a race I don't wish to do yet, what made me retire was poor DLC, I know this franchise is better than this.
C-Tier Game
Sea of Thieves
The definitive game of piracy where you take a crew of rogues across the sea for rare treasures and dangerous adventure, if PvP allows you to even play without being killed every five minutes, thankfully it's been fixed with private servers. As for the gameplay, it's not for single player, I suck so bad at this game that I sank my ship immediately after leaving port, you need a crew to enjoy the experience.
B-Tier Game
A good mix of unique games today.
Air Twister
Think of Space Harrier but give it the soundtrack of a Queen rock opera and make it your best selling feature and you get Air Twister, it plays pretty much the same as Space Harrier but your character is female and you ride animals in boss battles, the aesthetic is amazing and the soundtrack more than makes up for the lack of replay ability and you'll certainly replay this game alot to 100% it.
B-Tier Game
Cinders
Imagine the Cinderella fairy tale but Cinderella was self aware of her abuse and actively did something about it whether it be sinister or just clever is up to the decisions you make in this visual novel with plenty of ways to reach the top of the Kingdom, you can marry the Prince or run away with the Guard Captain, you can murder your step mother or have her join you at the top, you can rule the Kingdom or get put to death, it's an interesting take on what is usually a very safe heartwarming story of romance over adversity.
B-Tier Game
A Short Hike
You play as a bird named Claire who has been brought to Hawk Peak Provincial Park where you can explore to your hearts content with the extensive PS1 graphics, you need a mobile phone signal and the only way to get it is at the top of the peak, you do basic tasks to obtain higher powers to let you reach the summit, this could easily be a slog to get through but once you reach the top, the penny drops as to why Claire needs a phone signal so badly, let's just say, call your parents and ask them if they're well, you'll feel better for it.
B-Tier Game
Now were getting weird again with these three titles.
I Am Mayo
There seemed to be a late 2010s trend of trying to out do each other with terrible sounding game ideas with I Am Mayo being the top of the list, you literally tap a mayonnaise jar until you run out of dialog or get all the achievements whatever comes first, easily a joke for your average Youtuber but hardly a game suitable for any normal gamer.
F-Tier Game
Mr Massagy
By the same developers, you play a buff dude named Johnny (who is not Johnny Bravo) who is gifted at massaging but terrible at dating, your job is to help him get through a date with a bunch of weird partners including a werewolf, a breedable alien, a cow, a sock puppet, mayonnaise from I am Mayo and even Johnny's Gender Swap Popeye Body Pillow among a couple of random girls, even if the date is a total mess, getting one heart is enough to win. Just as weird as I Am Mayo but at least has something to grasp gameplay wise.
D-Tier Game
Smash Boats
Using a bunch of novelty boats, the object of the game is to sink all the enemies that spawn in the bathtub using the weapon you possess while collecting stars, this game would be incredibly fun if only it had multiplayer, as it is, it's very limited in replay ability, a decent playthrough can be done in one weekend, even a more ham handed player can finish it in a week.
D-Tier Game
We're going from all levels of popularity today.
Rocket League
The only pro game I'm actually half decent at, Rocket League is what you get when you have to go both to soccer and RC racing club at the same time and discover a new sport; you have five minutes to win a match literally throwing your car around the arena to score a goal and win, simple and easy to pick up, somewhat chaotic thanks to a free to play format, due to it being a multiplayer title and a game that relies heavily on team work to win, there's more luck involved in finding players who will work together long enough to win rather than just drive into you for shits and giggles or try and steal all the glory, there's also the fact that it's too easy to quit a match, I'm also not a fan of epic games free to play model.
B-Tier Game
Sissa's Path
Despite the crappy title, Sissa's Path is just a simple puzzle game of moving and sorting cat toys, maybe because it's my weird way of thinking but I managed to clear every puzzle unaided, the game is balanced the same as every other puzzle game of it's type and can easily be played on a rainy day.
C-Tier Game
Going Under
You play Jackie Fiasco in a roguelike beat em up mirroring Power Stone style gameplay where you start as an intern and fight your way to the top to save your colleagues from turning into monsters following termination by the parent company that is basically Amazon, come on, the final boss is Jeff Bezos!
Other than being an unsubtle dig at Amazon in a world not too out of place in old Nicktoon Doug, you get to see the other businesses based on other failed ventures including Dating apps, Crypto schemes and Zero contract employment schemes.
Fun if you enjoy Power Stone and immensely satisfying for any adult who's had history with any of the enemy businesses, definitely worth a shot.
A-Tier Game
