Review Round-Up - July 2020

Mario avoided a folded fate in Paper Mario: The Origami King,
and earned a great grade and Game of the Month honors from SPC in the process!

If you can't tell by the new banner, representing two releases headed your way this month with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered Edition and Battletoads, it's a brand new month on SuperPhillip Central. That means but one thing--it's time to bring out the Review Round-Up to take a look at the reviews posted this past month! Let's begin!

We started with games featuring two types of rides: one on a bike and one in a podracer with Urban Trial Tricky and Star Wars Episode I: Racer respectively. The former delighted with its cross between Trials gameplay and Tony Hawk-style tricks, earning a B-. The latter saw the return of a retro classic remastered, receiving a B for its efforts.

Following that was the disappointment of the month for SuperPhillip Central, the ultra-difficult (and not always for the right reasons) Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. The game whipped its way to a less-than-satisfying C- grade. Finally, and on the other end of the grade spectrum, Paper Mario: The Origami King surprised me with its immaculate quality. Its adventure unfolded in such a delightful way that I couldn't help but give the game an A- as well as SPC Game of the Month.

We wrap up this month's Review Round-Up with some quick excerpts from each review published in July 2020 as well as one reminder to check out the SPC Review Archive for every review ever posted on SuperPhillip Central.

Urban Trial Tricky (NSW) - B-

Urban Trial Tricky won't send veteran players of games similar to it through too rigorous of paces, but for everyone else, what Tate Multimedia has made here is a pleasant and overall engaging stunt-based bike game for the masses. Between its lovely cartoon art style, generally polished and smooth controls, and straightforward gameplay, there's a lot to like about Urban Trial Tricky--enough to like that I am pleased to recommend it, despite its apparent length issues.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer (PS4, NSW) - B

What you see (and what you hear) is pretty much what you get with Aspyr's take on Star Wars Episode I: Racer. Sizable upgrades and major updates are not the main attraction here, as there aren't really any to speak of. Instead, you get the basic podracing package on more desirable hardware in a higher definition and a better frame-rate. More importantly, however, the game runs as wonderfully as it has ever run--or in this case, raced, and it's still worthy of a play to this day.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - C-

I won't say that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a poor sequel to the original game; it's just a disappointing sequel for me. While I'm most certain many will enjoy the daunting challenge presented by Curse of the Moon 2's lack of proper checkpoint-ing, myriad cheap deaths, aggravating final attacks from bosses, and maddening "gotcha" moments, it's simply not for me anymore. I felt like the game was more of a test of my patience than a test of my skill at times. Your whip mileage most certainly will vary.

Paper Mario: The Origami King (NSW) - A-

It really feels like with Paper Mario: The Origami King that Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have finally reached a satisfying compromise between the RPG aspects of the original Paper Mario games and the more adventure-intensive aspects of the more modern games in the series... The battle system is worthwhile and actually enjoyable to interact with instead of pointless and cumbersome, the humor is once again on point and sensationally well done, and the world is just incredibly fun to explore. Paper Mario: The Origami King isn't just a great game, it's a terrific installment of the Paper Mario series and may just be one of my favorites in the franchise yet. Big praise for a series that has had a string of recent arguable disappointments.

And here were the rest of the games reviewed this past month on SuperPhillip Central, a healthy mix of games!