I'm going to guess that this game is better when played with live humans - that being said, there is a "campaign/story" mode, and - wow, what a mess. There's so much that's unclear, hard to control, or even understand.
The game is basically Mario Party, on the DS, but with Crash Bandicoot (and friends). And, it mostly doesn't make much sense. Maybe I missed a tutorial? Or, to be fair, I was playing without having looked at or read the manual. There's lots of UI stuff (menus, not in-game) that felt sort of hit-miss as I fumbled around, and the games themselves. Well, lets say that the AI is either unfairly too good, or that I'm just terrible at it. The latter might be fair, but the difference in scores suggests that there might be something else going on.
Here's another game I didn't spend too much time on, but enough to get a general vibe. It's definitely a "sim" game - you need to manage a bunch of stuff and so on, but it is structured in a way that seems rather straightforward - as in, the piņatas that appear have certain needs and will appear in a certain order.
I recall that there was a TV show, but I was surprised that the game has lots of footage from what might be that TV show? Or maybe that was all in the original 360 games? Anyways, I was surprised by how much footage (it doesn't look great, tbh) there is in the game - and this is only for the tutorial missions and a little bit more. As I write this I guess I'm even more surprised that the IP seems to have disappeared entirely?
As for the gameplay? Well, it's not the sort of thing that gets me excited, and I was think it's interesting how the savagery that's a part of the game (kill piņatas to feed the ones you have) remains front and center in the game. There's also some of that in how you can knock critters around with the spade and stuff.
I've always been a bit surprised at how few "GTA clones" there are given the success of the series. Sure, there's Saint's Row, and Ubisoft would probably count their open world hacker game I'm drawing a blank on as I write this. (Oh, it's Watchdogs!). I think there are a few older ones - sort of circa GTA III era.
So, imagine my surprise when I boot this game up - went in blind - and, lo and behold it's a GTA-clone (I don't use the term pejoratively here). You've been newly recruited by the cops because something's going on, you drive around to different locations to do missions, you can stop/hihack card (but, you're a cop here - so, it's commandeering?). There's guns and shooting and a minimap that looks very familiar. There's also collectables including taking snapshots in special locations and more.
Like, wow. This really is the GTA template in DS form. Technically quite impressive - it has all the 3rd person 3D stuff going on (rather than the handheld GTA games that went top-down view if I recall).
Sure, there's technical limitations - and it's a bit amusing to watch vehicles up-rez in LOD as you get closer to them. And I really couldn't work my way through the UI - I have hard time holding the DS and aiming and firing all at the same time (with stylus). Maybe it's the extra large and heavy DS XL that's to blame here?
The game is set in NYC - and there are recognizable landmarks and all the good stuff you'd expect. Oh, there's also interior locations to run around in, chase missions, and more.
What doesn't seem to be there is the humor and style of GTA. Here the characters (in cut-scenes, not the 3D models) are western-anime style. It makes me wonder who made the game, and I've now noticed it's also published by Ubisoft!
Huh. This one's an odd duck on more ways than one:
1. You don't get new cards by collecting money for lootboxes. You get new cards by upgrading your existing ones that makes you progress along a track. The upgrades are purely cosmetic.
2. Make a deck of 10 cards, but you'll (usually) only get to use 5 or 6. The game plays in 6 turns with an automatically increasing mana source - just like hearthstone, but it's all in the locations!
3. There are 3 locations you play cards to - and the locations have effects and the effects are revealed on turn 1, 2, and 3. The effects can be pretty significant - setting game rules, adding cards, boosting, etc. The effects are super important in making the game work successfully because they add tactical considerations. In other words, how you use the cards you have for maximum effect has a lot to do with the location effects.
I've enjoyed it enough so far that I paid for the season pass. Only 4 weeks though - which seems a bit short and it seems impossible to climb up the ladder to get the rewards. So, I'm feeling a bit miffed by that, but we'll see. I might be wrong on the ladder bit.
