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We’re in a minor renaissance for 2D brawlers. Once a dead genre left in the 1990s, we now have a full resurgence thanks to games like Streets of Rage 4, River City Girls and TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is the latest classic franchise brought back in brawler form, as Hasbro’s action figure line takes center stage.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra has a simple premise. COBRA has unleashed an army of clones to attack the world’s monuments, you have to stop them. That’s it. Now go punch some guys. At the start of the game you can play as four characters, all from the 1980s G.I. Joe team: Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes and Roadblock.

If you’ve played any other game in this genre, you already know how gameplay operates. You’re on a 2D plane moving from left to right, although there is some movement up and down the screen too. You fight off armies of enemies that attempt to crowd around you and punch you in the face, so you have to punch them first. There are two attack buttons, and these attacks change when dashing, along with an aerial move. There’s also a special move you can activate once you’ve filled up an energy bar. The specifics of these moves change between characters, although the general control scheme stays the same.

However, while other modern brawlers have done interesting things with their mechanics, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra feels comparatively basic. While Streets of Rage 4 offered creative use of special moves and Shredder’s Revenge offered some superb movement mechanics, Wrath of Cobra…has guns. Various firearms drop throughout the levels and can be used to blast enemies from across the stage. It’s not the most interesting addition, but there is some satisfaction to be found in blasting enemies from across the stage for a moment. Sadly, they can turn those guns on you too, which is much less satisfying to deal with.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is old school to a fault here. It’s missing most of its contemporaries’ quality-of-life improvements, instead feeling like it stumbled straight out of 1992. Defensive and movement options are limited. Some enemies are tedious damage sponges. Getting surrounded happens often and can be brutal. All these elements were present in classic Streets of Rages and Double Dragons, which I still consider to be great games. However, while it’s easy to accept all this in games from the NES and Genesis eras, it’s less forgivable in 2024 when so many games have moved the genre forward in recent years.

On top of this, movement is sluggish and occasionally unresponsive. This is notable in turning, which was either so fast I broke into an unintentional run or it simply didn’t that I wanted to turn around. Turning in mid-air was also a dice roll, as the game simply decided on a whim whether or not it was possible to do.

Character balance is also significantly messy. I tried out each of the initial four characters and it’s impressive how much character choice affects the experience. If you’re playing as Snake Eyes, you can bump this review’s score up a point. He’s ludicrously fast, his attacks have brilliant range, he can dish out endless combos and, most importantly, his special summons a wolf. Playing as Snake Eyes felt like a power fantasy and much more in line with what I was expecting.

Then we have the rest of the cast. Duke is decent, but he’s also where most of my complaints about the game’s sluggishness came from. He’s the most generic brawler character imaginable, with decent moves that don’t stand out much. He does have a cool dash move quirk where he’ll slide himself behind an enemy but other than this, he’s average in every way.

And then we have Scarlett and Roadblock. The latter is a powerhouse with his attacks, but good luck getting them out because he’s so slow you’ll likely be hit before your animation barely begins. Scarlett has the opposite problem, with excellent speed but weak attacks. She should have one of the best attacks in the game, as she drops a miniature bomb for her aerial, but the explosive range is poor and it’s next to impossible to aim effectively. One of her dash moves inexplicably leaves her vulnerable for a full second too, a decision seemingly based on nothing more than trolling the player.

Presentation is serviceable. The sprite work is excellent but it’s hard to shake the feeling that it’s all pretty standard. I know I keep making comparisons to other recent brawlers Wrath of Cobra feels noticeably bland compared to the likes of Streets of Rage 4. That said, I did like how much of the military equipment was so obviously based on the toy line where the sight of every dirt bike and van led me to hearing “playsets sold separately” in my head. The goofy plastic feel of everything adds a lot to the setting, and I wish they’d leaned into it further to give the game a more unique identity.

The intro animations are severely lacking though. The character designs are bland and the voice acting is terrible. However, I’m willing to give it some credit if this was an intentional choice to replicate the stiff, limited animations of many 80s cartoons. Sadly, this is still better than how the rest of the story is delivered. You get text on the most boring loading screens in existence and nothing more. Obviously, story isn’t a huge draw for games of this type, but it did feel cheap.

The soundtrack was good, but I couldn’t help but feel like Tee Lopes was phoning it in. There’s still some catchy tunes here but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of his previous work in Sonic Mania or Shredder’s Revenge. That said, the opening theme song was a bop, mostly enhanced by the presence of Crush 40’s Johnny Gioeli. It’s an original composition rather than a recreation of the 80s theme song, but I feel it was a significant improvement. Gioeli is roaring “the all-American hero” with the same energy he sings about hedgehogs and “hell yes” is the only possible response.

However, it would be nice if the game’s technical issues didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of that opening theme. Both animated sequences at the start of the game suffered problems in my copy. The opening animation just cut off halfway through while the opening story animation crashed the game entirely. While I rarely had issues in actual gameplay, those two glitches left a bad first impression.

On the whole, I found a decent amount of enjoyment in G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra. For the most part, it’s a standard brawler which is a fun time for a few hours, and I imagine is enhanced with friends. However, the inexperience of the dev team shows throughout, and I was left imagining how much better this would have been in the hands of Dotemu or WayForward.

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra ends up being a decent if unremarkable entry into the retro brawler genre. However, unbalanced characters, technical issues and bland presentation make it hard to recommend over more polished games from recent years.

G.I Joe: Wrath of Cobra is out now for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The post Review: G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is a Decent But Unremarkable Brawler appeared first on Siliconera.

There are times when an idea seems sound. Take what we love from monster raising and training games, then combine that with farming sims. Some games already played around with the idea, like Ooblets and Re:Legend. Some might even argue there’s a bit of that in Rune Factory, what with people able to tame monsters in dungeons to act as livestock, assistants, or partners in battle. Monster Harvest is a game that clearly tries. But the lack of balancing, quality of life features, and Switch specific needs means Monster Harvest feels like it needed more time to grow.

Like many farming games, Monster Harvest begins with the player moving to a new, quaint town as a result of a family member. In this case, your uncle is Professor Spark. He’s a scientist who discovered planimals, plant animals grown from crops. You move to Planimal Point, the village named after the new lifeforms, to help with his research. A small, rather empty house is provided for you, there are plots of land to clear and till, and it’s up to you to grow both crops and planimals with special slimes, fulfill requests, and essentially make a life for yourself.

The problem is that right from the start, Monster Harvest feels unbalanced. The stamina system needs retooling. You don’t know how much energy any activity will take until you do it and learn for yourself. And then even when you do know how much it entails, it also means reconciling yourself to the fact that watering a plant will use as much stamina as tilling a plot of land or taking down trees. Yes, the expectation is that every action you take will require energy, but games like Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons succeed by knowing that all actions aren’t equally exhausting. You don’t have to worry about time ing, but running out of energy is an issue. Also, from my experience, it seemed like selling food rather than consuming it was a better use of it, due to how much you’d recover. So until you can start irrigating your crops, it can take quite a bit of time to go from surviving to thriving.

Also once you do start growing some planimals, you also have to worry about keeping them alive. This isn’t a game where you have the luxury of getting attached to your companions. The dungeons might actually be a bit challenging as you’re first finding your way. There is something of a boon to it. If the character actually managed to gain some levels, the Heartslime they leave behind could be used on the soil to ensure your next planimals will be at that level when they grow. But I still felt a bit bad to know a character I went to the effort of growing and raising would perhaps be so disposable, even with knowing my next harvest would be a better one.

Another thing that keeps Monster Harvest from being its best is that it just doesn’t feel good on the Switch. The Switch is a fantastic system for farming games. And plenty appeared on other systems here, but have adjusted or optimized controls and UIs. Monster Harvest… doesn’t. The font is incredibly small and difficult to read in handheld mode. Navigating your inventory is cumbersome, and good luck trying to take one or two items out of a stack of them. The game crashed on me, which isn’t fun when you’re invested and keeping to a schedule. Also, for a game where selling planimals can be a source of money, it would be helpful to have a prompt showing how much you’d get before you committed to the decision.

Then… there are the bugs. For full disclosure, I didn’t get past the second season in Monster Harvest on the Switch because of them. You use blue slime to make livestock, which are supposed to grow up. Except they don’t. There’s a bug keeping that from happening. I stopped playing because my save, which previously was working, wouldn’t load.

Monster Harvest is unfortunately a game that needed more time to grow, especially on the Switch. There are so many problems with it right now. Some of them make things more difficult than they need to be. Others are bugs that make it downright unpleasant or impossible. Maybe in a few weeks or months it might be worth someone’s time. But it needs more time.

Monster Harvest is available for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The post Monster Harvest Needs More Time to Grow on the Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

People will have to wait two more months to play Monster Harvest, as the release date ended up delayed from May 13, 2021 to July 8, 2021. However, Maple Powered Games offered a full explanation for the delay. The goal is to make players’ farm and town even larger, so people will have more room to grow and more to do while in Planimal Point.

The big alterations seem to involve the scope and size of the game. For example, the farm people own will be larger. Which might work out for folks, as one of the other additions will be more kinds of crops. Planimal Point will be bigger too, and the relationship system will be get “an overhaul.” (In the game, befriending shopkeepers could get you discounts.) You’ll also have more to do and additional rewards for doing them.

Some other additions cover both cosmetic and practical changes. For example, the female avatar will look different than before. There will be more dungeon encounters to stumble upon and you will have a minimap to help you through areas. Fighting might be more varied as well, as there will be additional Planimal attacks.

The update didn’t mention how Monster Harvest being delayed will affect the PS4 and Xbox One launch dates. When the original release dates came up, the Switch and PC versions were due on May 13, 2021 and the PS4 and Xbox One ones on June 3, 2021.

Monster Harvest will come to the Nintendo Switch and PC on July 8, 2021. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are also on the way.

The post Monster Harvest Delayed to Add a Bigger Farm and Town appeared first on Siliconera.

The next Stardew Valley-like life sim has a release window. Maple Powered Games and Merge’s Monster Harvest, which involves growing plant-monsters called Planimals, will show up on the Switch and PC on May 13, 2021. The PS4 and Xbox One versions will follow on June 3, 2021. And, after that, PS4 and Switch physical copies will appear in both regions.

In Monster Harvest, you’re a farmer in Planimal Point. It’s a place with its own unique seasons, which are dark, dry, and wet, and odd slimes that can alter the nature of crops. Your goal is to have a successful life, while also perhaps using the Planimal crop monsters you grow to aid you as you continue to farm or attack SlimeCo.

Here’s the latest trailer. It shows some of the Planimals you can grow, which you can ride or use in battles against other Planimals. It also shows off some of the people you’ll meet in Planimal Point.

Monster Harvest will come to the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam on May 13, 2021. It will show up on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on June 3, 2021. Physical PS4 and Switch copies will appear in Europe on June 4, 2021 and North America on June 8, 2021.

The post Grow Planimals on your Switch and PC in Monster Harvest This May appeared first on Siliconera.