Bot Vice (NSW)
Bot Vice is an indie from DYA Games that follows the adventure of ex-cop Erin Saver as she must rescue Bot City from a madman and his gang of robotic henchmen. It's an arcade shooter where you control Erin as she shoots waves of enemies using a wide selection of weapons like SMGs, grenades, and rocket launchers and beat a boss fight at the end of a stage. The game's on the tough side since bullets will come at you from everywhere, forcing you to constantly dash and take cover, though there are multiple difficulties to choose from. The main game packs 25 main missions with extra bonus stages to beat after the story.
Visually, Bot Vice's retro visuals are nice despite seeing plenty of indie sporting the same look by now. The character sprites and backgrounds, and visual effects were good and blended well with the futuristic setting. Surprisingly, the game has voiced dialogue with decent performances that didn't sound as cringy as I thought. The soundtrack was great and I liked the upbeat tracks. The gameplay and story were both entertaining, as well as the retro look. At $10, Bot Vice is a short but sweet game and it ended up being a fun time. The story was cool, the gameplay was entertaining, the presentation was solid, despite it lacking in terms of added content.
SoulCalibur IV (PS3)
The SoulCalibur series first saw its debut in the HD era with 2008's SoulCalibur IV for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Retaining the classic gameplay while introducing a new game modes and visual style, the game was well-received when it came out. It's also a game I've been wanting to play for ages ever since I got a used copy for cheap. So how did age throughout the years? Surprisingly well.
SCIV lacks a story mode, so the game's tale is told through each character, as they have their own reasons for getting either Soul Edge or Soul Calibur. It's pretty basic as you get a bunch of text to read at the intro, fight around five battles, and watch a brief cut-scenes at the end (which often raised more questions than answers). A recap movie would've been helpful to get newcomers up to speed given that the plot is confusing.
Gameplay is your standard weapons-based fighting, with each character carrying a unique weapon to them ranging from swords, staffs, whips, and axes. This time a new mechanic called "Critical Finish" encourages offensive play as knock down pieces of armor from your opponent, filling up your Soul Gauge to finish them off. It discourages defensive play so constantly guarding will get you in trouble this time around. You can also beat your opponent by a ring out (throwing them off stage), which was cheap yet funny to watch. Also, the game packs a perk system that gives characters stat boosts in some modes, a neat feature.
SCIV features an arcade and training modes, as well as a series first at the time, online mode. Sadly, it's dead nowadays with no players or matches. Tower of Souls mode has you climbing through a tower, clearing floors of tough enemies, which is sure to keep you hooked for a bit. That aside, the game modes felt missing since there's no Time Attack mode and Weapon Master mode like in SoulCalibur II.
The guest fighters are the most unfitting ones in the series yet with Star Wars characters Darth Vader (exclusive for the PS3) and Yoda (exclusive for the 360), as well as Starkiller (appearing in both) making an appearance. Darth Vader was by far the coolest with his red light-saber and force attacks being fun to play. Yoda was reported to be broken, given his small hit box and immunity to throw attacks while Starkiller was an alright addition. While both Vader and Yoda were console exclusives, you could've bought the other for $5 as DLC, though they got delisted sometime ago due to licensing issues.
Character Creation was my favorite aspect of the game and though limited, I spent a good chunk of my time creating some cool characters and fine-tuning their looks. You can choose a fighting style based on the main roster (excluding the Star Wars characters and final boss) and even adjust their stats by equipping them with armor and skill cards. Again, it's rather shallow compared to SoulCalibur VI's character creation, but it was a really fun time nonetheless.
Visually, SoulCalibur IV looks great considering its over 13 years old and an early 7th gen game. The character designs and backgrounds are top-notch and more detailed compared to previous games. I wished that there were more colorful stages since the majority looked kind of drab and monotone though. The soundtrack, especially the Star Wars tracks, was enjoyable and complimented the game's tone.
Overall, SoulCalibur IV was a genuinely fun time yet still left a lot to be desired with its game modes. Still, the character creation mode and Star Wars characters are always something to look forward to and I can easily see myself coming back for them.
Code of Princess EX (NSW)
Code of Princess was a 3DS game that released back in 2012 and recently received a remaster for the Switch in the form of Code of Princess EX. It follows a scantly-clad Princess Solange as she must defeat an evil queen that's terrorising her land by summoning monsters. Along the way, she'll be joined by a band of unlikely companions such as the crafty thief Ali, moody necromancer Zozo, and upbeat sage Allegro as they journey to face the queen. Though not what I'd call memorable, the story was goofy and entertaining.
Code of Princess EX is a beat 'em up with RPG elements as you get to choose your character, equip them with weapons and armor, and beat enemies. Stages have you fight a variety of enemies ranging from knights to giant monsters, and you get to switch lanes in levels to evade attacks (though the inputs weren't responsive at times). You can customize your characters with a good chunk of weapons, shields, and accessories, which boosts their stats considerably. That and levelling up by replaying levels will help you out during the game's more harder late stages.
Aside from the main party, you can play as nearly all of the NPCs and side-characters, though you'll have to level them up to match your party's current level. Thankfully, the game packs optional side content like bonus quests where you can easily rack up experience fast and getting new gear as well. There's also a tutorial and free-play modes to ease you into learning the game's basics. All in all, the gameplay itself was sluggish as you'll be doing the same combos over and over repetitively with little in the way of excitement aside from the occasional boss fights.
Visually, Code of Princess is underwhelming. It might've looked decent on the 3DS at the time, but on Switch, it leaves a lot to be desired. The character models were low-res and ugly, which clashed with the bland and uninteresting backgrounds. The anime designs and cut-scenes were good, which were the main standouts. The voicework is in Japanese, with sadly the 3DS English voices being absent. The soundtrack was OK at best and it's packed with generic tracks. Overall, Code of Princess EX was a decent but forgettable game. It took around 5 hours to beat with little in the way of replay-value, so it's best to check it out on sale.
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