It's almost the end of November and lately, I've been going all-out on my PS3 backlog as I've been playing fighting games, RPGs, indies, and other games that I've impulse bought during sales. That's mainly due to the fact that I'm planning on fully clearing my PS3 backlog before thinking of getting a PS5 next year. So in the meantime I've been just playing old games that I had laying around. In terms of this year's actual releases, nothing caught my attention lately except maybe for the Switch releases like Animal Crossing and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which I might get around to playing them later next month. So without any further delays, here are the games that I've been playing recently:
Tekken Tag Tournament was the first spin off game in the Tekken series and remains beloved by fans of the series for its introduction of tag battles and then-impressive graphics. The aforementioned tag mechanic is the star here, as you can freely tag between characters in the middle of combos, easily connecting more combos and recovering the previous character's health. There's a handful selection of characters including mainstays like Nina, Jin, and Kazuya, who were my favorites. The level selection is decent with some nice looking stages.
Tag Tournament features familiar modes to sink you in like Arcade, Survival, Versus, and Time Attack-- the standard modes we expect these days. In a twist, Tekken Tag has the addictive Tekken Bowl Tournament mode, where you can select your fighters as they duke it out... in a bowling alley. Surprisingly, this mode is a game of its own as each characters has their own unique stats and throwing speeds while also packing a challenge as getting a perfect 300 score is by no means an easy feat. I probably spent a lot more time here than I thought just because it's so damn fun, if you can get around the clunky feeling of it.
The game's dated on the visual side, no surprise given that the game came out like 20 years ago. The HD remaster polishes things up slightly, allowing the game to look more sharper (and ancient...) on the PS3. Sound-wise, Tekken Tag is definitely a game that came from the late 90's, with the soundtrack boasting some neat electronic tracks. While it has aged on the gameplay and visual sides, Tekken Tag Tournament was still a fun game to play if you're a fan of the series.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (PS3)
The sequel to the aforementioned hit, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 brings more characters and stages, gameplay refinements, and entertaining visuals to the mix. In short, it's a much better game over the original Tekken Tag. Stringing combos and tagging between characters across a bunch of new cool stages was tons of fun and new characters from later Tekken games like Lars, Lili, and Alisa were awesome to play as.
The standard genre modes are here as well as a handy tutorial one that should get newcomers up to speed with the game's mechanics. The gameplay is a lot more fluid than its predecessor as landing combos feels a lot more faster and responsive. The online is still active years later though you still need the crappy "Online Pass" to play. When you do, you might regret it as the lobbies are filled with pros who are... extremely skilled at the game.
Being a PS3 game, Tag 2 has held up well seeing the character models and stages looking great. The soundtrack is just as good, featuring lots of neat tracks-- even a collab with rapper Snoop Dogg that surprised me. As a massive fan of Tekken and a casual player of fighting games, I have to say that Tekken Tag 2 is among the best fighters that I've played.
Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS3)
The Sly Cooper series has been always a favorite of mine since the PS2 days and I've recently went back to playing the Sly HD Collection on PS3 aaaaaaand the games are still fun! Sly 2 is often regarded as the best entry in the series, with lots of new gameplay changes over the original game. The Cooper gang's adventure as they collect the various pieces of their former nemesis from falling into the hands of the Klaww Gang-- all while avoiding the short-tempered police officer Carmelita, was still engaging years later.
The gameplay is a major step-up from the original as you get relatively big levels to explore and Sly's buddies are finally playable. Bentley's levels mainly focus on hacking terminals and zapping enemies with his crossbow while Murray's levels are about brute force as you'll often beat enemies and and open heavy doors. There's a bunch of different objectives in each level to keep things fresh and the boss fights were also fun, despite leaning a bit on the easy side.
The cel-shaded visuals, music, and comic-book-like cutscenes still hold up well and were fun to watch years later. Again, the Sly Cooper series have always been a favorite of mine among the PlayStation library and Sly 2 was an awesome adventure. I'm still holding out for Sly 5 someday...
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