Recent reviews by Kai Ning

This should have been a positive review however since there's no news about updating this one to KoF 13 Global Match, here we are.

Otherwise, it's the best looking 2D fighting game. It's also one with the most insane trials around.
And not showing input in trial mode is making a hard task near impossible to figure out if you're a beginner. The good thing is that those combo are kind of useless in match, the bad thing is that while they show you what's possible, it doesn't really teach you what's to prioritize.

Anyway, this still makes it one of the better game to learn a new pad/stick/leverless control scheme.

Double Dragon 2 was a game i played a lot as a kid, yet failed to finish even one level at the time. You didn't need to have 5h long tutorial to keep 4 years old playing back in my days. Just give them one frustratingly good game and have a total amount of a single number of game available to purchase !

That being said, it kind of explains why DD kind of fell of my radar.. Until this one, which possess a surprisingly deep combat system.
Normal move ? Yes.
Unique attack ? Yes.
Special attack ? Yes.
Grab ? Yes.
Dash cancel ? Yes
Assists ? Yes
Off the Ground (OTG) attacks ? Yes
Wall Bounce ? Yes
Command Grab ? Kinda, yes. Just cancel a normal into a grab.
Or a special. Or an assist. Or a special into an assist. An assist into a special ? Yes.
Combo ? Did you just read that cancel basicaly what you want ?

My god, they made a fighting game. They made a freaking tag fighting game. Because yes, it's a tag game. And a coop one, or a versus one. Depending on which game mode you choose. And you still both get to play 2 characters.

There's also good old 3D beat'em up mechanic progression. Beat the living out of some rando, take half their money like any good 10y old on journey would do and chose an upgrade at the end of the stage. Which will reset at your next run. Which is nice, 'cause it ties down to the difficulty of the game. Will you consume like you're at wallmart on a saturday's afternoon for some powerup or will you save up to buy some token to permanently unlock new characters, art or music ? No microtransaction here, just good old play to unlock.

Also, it's nice pixel art, and the music are good, and nostalgic when you boot up and hear the Double Dragon Theme again after 30 years.

The best version of TO available.

I was sceptic at first reading all the negative reviews here about the change made to the system.
Level cap, no more job xp, removal of random battles, skill slot etc...

Turns out that everything they did for Reborn was the right choice. No more grinding, party composition has never been as varied, the difficulty is on point and the cherry on top is that there is no penalty to rewind turns a few time by locking you out of a couple titles in this one too.

Soul Nomad has the most interesting story out of all N1 srpg. The demon path is an experience that any jrpg fan ought to play at some point.
Gameplay wise, it's more of an ogre battle than any other N1 title. There is some post game but not as much as any other N1 game. Everything can be done, including power leveling and maxing out stats under 70h.
Also, for once every postgame fights do bring some more lore and story to the table. Some will even solve some question left unanswered during the story adding some twist to a couple plot twist and one will explain a boss making a comeback at lv 2000 in a previous N1 as a post game bonus battle too.

As the last N1 original srpg before the company lost its soul and started to make the same game over and over again (Disgaea, for those still wondering), it's a testament to N1 golden age where it wasn't afraid to experiment and bring a lot of good idea to the table every year.

Nice little puzzle game that will keep your occupied for an evening.
Sadly, the gameplay ain't polished enough to keep you busy more than that as the rng can, and will make things out of your control and boring more often than it should once you start adventure mode after completing the 60 puzzles available in the game.

More UNI with better netcode, what's not to like ?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle...

That game managed to turn a good childhood memories into a PTSD stress inducing trigger.
11/10 would play again.

(But in all seriousness, that cheap tactic to make you buy a battlepass in order to be able to change your battlehub BGM should be considered a war crime)

Best version of Makai Kingdom available.
For Steamdeck owners, the screen utilise the full 1200x800 pixel. No black bar on top and bottom of the screen like in other NIS game (Disgaea 5 i'm looking at you). Quick resume make the SD probably the best device to delve into 100 long free dungeon upon reaching endgame.

Interesting game loop of exploring, selling loot, upgrading your stuff.

However, until you get the mimic pet, the inventory limitation can really be frustrating and making you spend more time than necessary micromanaging the loot.

Once you get the mimic, going more than 2 floors without have to spend time deciding what to keep and what to trash is possible. It's not that bad considering that the dungeon are 3 (to 5 if you decide so) floors long but the inventory being so limited kind of artificialy lenghten the gameplay.

Simple yet profound.
Short yet with infinite (well, almost) replayability.
NES graphic yet can still melt your CPU/GPU once foes spawns by the thousands.

The controls are probably the best out there for accessiblity, since a joystick is all you need.

Can't wait to see how it will ends up once out of EA.