Donkey Kong 3

The Short

Pros

- Decently fun arcade shooter

- Music and sound effects are classic

- Platform idea for a shooter is clever and adds some interesting twists

- Very faithful to the original arcade game

Cons

- The original arcade game wasn't that great to begin with

- Stiff controls, which worked for the first two games, falter here in a shooter

- The bugs' patterns are maddening to try and figure out

- Like...it's a game where you shoot Donkey Kong between his legs. That's the game. Why. 

Yes, this is actually a real thing.

The Long

If your first reaction to seeing this review was "Wait, what? There's a Donkey Kong 3?" then you'd be in the majority. After the success of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr, Nintendo decided to take the big brown ape on what would be his final arcade excursion in Donkey Kong 3: Galaga Edition. That's right, this isn't a platformer starring Mario or DK's lovable if somewhat dorky looking son, instead you're playing what is essentially a space shooter. And the enemy (aside from DK)? Bugs. Or bees, I guess, as they have hives. And little worms that block your path.

Really not swan song to end out on, guys.

DK summons pestilence from above, a sign of the oncoming ape-ocalypse.

In this game you aren't Mario, but Stanley. Stanley, as you can imagine, is very well known in that he hasn't appeared in a single game since Donkey Kong 3. Due to his purple hair and shoes I like to pretend that all the exposure to the toxins in the bugspray warped him, turning him into Waluigi, but that isn't confirmed by Miyamoto yet and he won't return my calls. So it's pretty much 100% fact. Hey, denial = proof. 

In Donkey Kong 3: To Bee or Not To Bee, you are charged with one simple task: shoot DK's...um...tender spot. His nether regions. Between his legs, so to speak. Stanley (looking straight up while firing, must be quite the view) has this big dumb monkey in his zoo or something and needs to get him out. So the logical solution is to blast him over and over until he crawls off the top of the screen. Yeah, ok, it isn't Mass Effect or anything but it gets the job done. 

DK's most embarrassing moment.

You can't reach him from ground level, as your spray has limited range. The game does, however, remedy this with it's feeble attempt at platforming. As in, there is a literal platform Stanley is standing on (and it's structure changes slightly between three variations as you play levels) and you can hop up or down it at will. Kind of different.

DK's end game (aside from reaching the bottom of the poles and murdering you viciously), is agitating nearby bees' nests. These bees are the size of a man and are way pissed off...but mostly pissed off at the flowers beneath Stanley. The bees'll try and make off with them, and Stanley has to murder the nefarious insects in order to recover the plants. Lose all the plants, you die. Get hit by a bee, you die. And, of course, DK can crush you because he's a monkey the size of Andre the Giant. 

A laff a minute in DK3

There's a few more tricks. Shoot DK enough and he might drop a spray power-up, which gives it max range and pierces multiple enemies. This also carries between levels if you still have time left on it, which is nice. There are also obnoxious caterpillars that will block your shots and are unkillable unless you have the upgraded gun. The goal is, obviously, to get a high score, as the game just cycles with more and more bees (and varying types) until you succumb to an awful, bee-infested death. 

Stanley, played by Nicholas Cage, in the film adaptation of DK3.

There are multiple problems with Donkey Kong 3 that made it far less memorable than it's predecessors. First, it isn't a platformer, and while it's a decent enough shooter the risk probably pushed most die-hard players away. Second, the bugs come off as unfair. Their patterns are only somewhat predictable, unlike most shooting games like Galaga where you can learn the patterns easily, and they're such small targets they can be hard to hit. Third, your weapon sucks, and having to constantly fight a war of attrition with an ever-lowering DK only makes this all the more evident. And lastly, the game's clunky controls don't work in it's favor at all. Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.'s movement and platforming feel archaic compared to modern games, but it was clear the game was built and balanced around that. I got none of this in Donkey Kong 3. Most of my deaths felt cheap or unavoidable, whereas in the previous two games I knew my deaths were always my own fault.

Point being, it plays clunky, feels unfair, and isn't at all like the previous two games. And that was enough to doom it to obscurity (and essentially kill the franchise, save the Donkey Kong Game Boy game and later Donkey Kong Country games). 

Stanley's enormous eye might be my favorite part of the game.

Graphically it looks good, in both the arcades on NES. While I have very limited experience with the arcade version of Donkey Kong 3, the NES version felt just about arcade perfect, for better or for worse. Again, these machines are hard to find, so correct me if I'm way off track here, but it looks and sounds almost identical.

But it doesn't really mean much if the underlying game is just a monkey's worth of problems. While still technically mostly sound, Donkey Kong 3 feels like a chore to play and fighting for high scores just isn't as engaging. As an added bonus, the NES cart still doesn't save high scores, not that you'd be inviting all the cool kids on the block over to play some high-stakes DK3 anytime soon.

How the mighty apes have fallen, Donkey Kong 3 is a misstep in an otherwise perfect series of arcade games. Two out of five stars. 

He's the now-sterile member of the DK crew

Toki: Going Ape Spit

The Short

Pros

- It's got "Going Ape Spit" in the title. Like...wow. 

- Music (in sound test) is great

- The monkeys not only have subs in the underwater stages, but have monkey faces on the subs!

- Your primary attack is to spit things to death. Spit spit spit 

- Tons of difficulty and customization options

- Underwater level (level 3) is probably the best level

Cons

- Toki would lose a race against a snail

- Bad camera means you can't see much above or below you

- Cheap beginner's trap segments throughout

- No checkpoints; a death starts you all the way back at the start of a stage

- One hit deaths

I'm so mad I could spit!

The Long

Ever been so mad you could spit? No? What, are you saying that expression is outdated and probably tied to the old west's culture of chewing tobacco? Why are you saying all this in a video game review?

Let me tell you: spitting is pretty great, in my experience. Spitting is an exciting thing you can do pretty much anywhere, and all it requires is a little bit of saliva. On top of that, you can up your spitting game by spitting off things that are really tall. Trees, the Empire State Building, the International Space Station; these are all things good to spit off of. 

Why do I bring this up? Because Toki: Going Ape Spit is a game about a monkey that spits on everything. Everything. Mostly other monkeys, but, yeah. Some game designer was sitting down one day and thought "We need a new idea for a run-n-gun game. People have already made Gunstar Heroes and Contra, what else can we do? The well has run dry!" and then...

A Spitting Monkey. 

It printed gold. Well, it actually didn't, but The Legend of Toki (as the game is known in Japan) was an arcade game that was ported to both the NES and the Genesis. The Genesis version is the one we're reviewing today, because it's the only version with the awesome subtitle Going Ape Spit. Which makes it earn the award for "Best monkey game ever made that almost has a swear in the title that could double as a pun."

Don't order the hot wings next time. Toki.

The story makes as much sense as most retro games, that is, it makes no sense at all. Toki is a studly, studly muscle man hanging out with his super-hot wife, when an alien city appears out of nowhere and a giant blue hand steals his wife and transforms him into a piece of spit monkey! Holy cow! Actually, now that I think about it, this is like a combination of the openings of Congo's Caper and Adventure Island 3! Nobody will get these references, great review!

Anyway, Toki is going batspit insane without his lady-friend, so he decides to go off on an adventure. And his primary weapon of choice? Saliva. Mucus. Phlegm. Loogies. And sometimes triple, multi, or charged shot variations of those. 

Toki: Going Ape Spit is a "run-n-gun." Well, I use that in the loosest sense of the word: it's more like a walk-n-gun or a trudge-n-gun. Toki moves extremely slow, though he has an impressive vertical jump distance. As you move forward you spit the ever loving spit out of those spithead enemies you come across (usually other jungle critters) with your spit-slinging powers. Toki can fire in all eight directions, and with powerups being plentiful and lasting a long time, you'll be toting some serious spit-power as you attempt to get your lady back.

Assuming you don't touch anything ever. Because this is one of those "one hits kills you" games. 

You'll meet some ugly folks along the way.

It's about halfway through the first level when you realize that you kind of hate Toki: Going Ape Spit. Novel (as in "weird") concept aside, the game revels in it's unfairness. Toki's slow speed means reacting to faster enemies is almost impossible; you'll have better luck dodging traffic trying to cross the California I-5 freeway in a wheelchair. Spitting is (thankfully) fast, and honestly your only saving grace, but it does you no good if you can't see the enemies. And here's where Toki's biggest problem lies: the awful camera.

Because of the large sprite size, the camera doesn't really give you much of a field of view. Which is fine most of the time, unless you want to go up, down, left, or right into the unknown. There is a series of steps on the very first stage where an enemy will fly literally out of nowhere and kill you if you don't know to stop, look up, and see him coming. And don't get me started about stage two, which is vertically oriented. They give you Nikes (shoes that increase your jump height) which might as well have had a "die faster" sign next to them, as leaping higher almost surely puts you off the top of the screen and right into an insta-gib enemy. It's infuriating.

But then something happens. Something really weird. You start to get it. You understand now: every step must be cautious. Taki's slow, deliberate movements. The enemies' obnoxious yet calculated placement. The dangerous heights and unfair deaths. You have to take everything slow, examine every ledge and upward climb, and be fast to react on the trigger. You have to expect to die again and again until you memorize enemy placement and patterns, calculate exactly what weapon to use when in this elaborate dance of death.

You heard it here first folks: Toki: Going Ape Spit is the Dark Souls of Genesis monkey games. 

Plus Toki can now defy the laws of physics.

The game's difficulty curve makes no damn sense whatsoever. Anything on a platform is difficult, with stage two and its vertically-oriented stage being a horrible offender. But then you get to stage three, which is a water stage, and it's so much easier, in fact it's probably the funnest stage in the game. This is probably because you not only have decent movement speed, but also free range movement. The camera also is now forced to follow you (because of that movement change) which means you can actually see enemies as they come. Plus every course in stage three is absurdly short, making the whole area a cake walk. This is, unfortunately, the only water level in the whole game, out of the total of nine stages, each with their own bosses. 

Which reminds me: the majority of the bosses are cake. The first boss requires you to employ the most difficult of strategies: learn how to shoot up. The second boss requires an even more complex strategy: press "spit" a lot. And so on and so forth; not particularly challenging. 

He looks scary, but he's a piece of spit.

Graphically, this game is a mixed bag. It has that "super muddy" Genesis look, like everything is covered in spit. But some of the enemies and bosses have a good amount of detail. The monkey subs with monkey faces on the subs are by far the highlight, and the fact that the boss of the stage is an even bigger monkey sub with an even bigger monkey face only makes it that much better.

Music is good...in sound test. See, going through sound test in the menus, I found a ton of really decent music in there. The problem is that in-game you'll be hearing one or two songs over and over and that's about it. Stages one, two, and four all have the same song. Three (thankfully) being underwater changes it, but that's it. Sound effects are minimal and hardly worth mentioning. 

Pictured: The best enemy in any game since Mega Man 3 PC's jogging fish

Toki: Going Ape Spit is a game that's hard to love, but even harder to hate. It gives an awful first impression, has some super dodgy level design, and altogether feels a bit like a bad arcade port (which is probably is). But on the flip side, once you spend the time to unravel its nuances, it isn't quite so bad. While the one-hit deaths and lack of stage checkpoints is brutal, it compensates by having a ton of options for continues, extra lives, and difficulty settings. Is Toki a spitty game? Well, kind of, but it's also one I actually spent the time mastering in order to eventually beat it. So, in the end, I guess it could be a lot worse. 

But it could be a hell of a lot better, too. Two out of five stars. 

Monkey see, monkey poo. See, I can make puns too, Toki!

Hatred

The Short

Pros

- Reasonably fun dual-stick shooter

- Art aesthetic reminds me of early-isometric era PC games, like Fallout

- Black and white color scheme (with explosions being in color) is striking

- Character's one-liner's are so bad, it has to be intentional

- Made me feel edgier than I did playing Doom in secret back when I was a kid

Cons

- Shooting controls are fairly lackluster

- Black and white makes it hard to differentiate objects in the environment

- The same button for executions (aka healing) is the same as swap weapons. Why.

- Very hard, with a minimal continues

- Short, especially for retailing at $20

- Subject matter and its "extreme edginess" will certainly turn off a few people

This guy should probably just go to a metal concert, and let of some steam.

The Long

I don't know whether to praise or condemn Destructive Creations (makers of Hatred), but I will say this: like Scott Cawthon of Five Night's at Freddy's fame, they know the state of the current gaming climate.

Hatred is a game about a mass-murderer. There is no beating around the bush here, no subtext or anything like you might have with Grand Theft Auto (or all the Call of Duty games for that matter): Hatred is about a dude in a trenchcoat wandering around town gunning down everybody he sees. If you are already grimacing, then this probably isn't the game for you. Because apparently it also wasn't the game for a lot of people, especially game journalists.

Due to its obviously controversial subject matter, Hatred got lampooned by a large number of blog style gaming websites. For a while there was nothing but a stream of posts about how repulsive the game was, how it should be banned, and so on. This was only exacerbated when the game not only got an AO rating (which the ESRB usually reserves for hentai games), but Twitch outright banned it, and it was temporarily pulled from Steam Greenlight despite being Greenlight within 24 hours (it was later returned). Like I said, Destructive Creations knew the state of game journalism. Like Scott used YouTubers as free press, these guys kept pushing the "edginess" of their game out there and sat back as the game marketed itself. On it's release (at the rather inflated price of $20) it became the best-selling game on Steam.

So all that aside...is the game actually, I dunno, any good? Is it a cess-pool of evil and filth and should be banned from society? Or is it really just mediocre and would have probably been ignored if people hadn't made a big stink about it?

Read on to find out (though you can probably guess where my money is).

Jack Thompson must be having an heart attack right about now.

There isn't much in terms of story to Hatred. Much like Postal and it's titular "Postal Guy," "Hatred Guy" is an angry trenchcoat wearing, dreadlocks donning crazy person. After a tutorial that could have been replaced with the game saying "it's a dual stick shooter," you leave your house and just start shooting people. While this is going on, they scream and run and beg for mercy (which you can't give them, as the objective is literally "Kill all the civilians"), and Hatred Guy mouths off some absurdly stupid one-liners. Honestly, I kind of chuckled at the one-liners, which probably makes me an awful person. But him saying things like, "Where's your guardian angel? Oh wait, I killed him." is such an absurd attempt at being EDGY that I can't help but chuckle.

To be honest, I was secretly hoping that this whole game was gonna pull the rug out from under everybody who criticized it and end up being some sort of elaborate critique of game violence. Seriously, I was really hoping for it. Considering how ridiculous the entire thing was, I was waiting for the Spec-Ops: The Line moment where the game became self aware of its atrocities and critiqued me, the player, for continuing to engage in them. Honestly, as some sort of meta-analysis of gaming violence and outrage (especially seeing as this is literally the sort of "school-shooting simulators" Jack Thomson was warning us about back when he attacked Grand Theft Auto 3 in the early 2000s) it really could have done something brilliant.

It doesn't, in case you were wondering. It's just some vain, B-movie attempt at EDGE. 

For some reason, the police aren't really cool with your murdering rampage.

Gameplay itself is dated, as in "the indie scene finally got over dual-stick shooters like three years ago." Essentially, it plays like Alien Shooter or Zombie Shooter (both better dual-stick shooters where you murder tons of stuff in gory violence and for great stress relief, but lacking EDGE) but set to the idea of Postal. You can have three weapons and three grenade types at any given time, and can switch them on the fly. You also find new ones as you run around. Weapons have surprisingly small clips, so you'll have to reload frequently and play somewhat strategically if you're going to survive. Shotguns, in particular, suck really bad because not only do they have next to no range and do trash damage, reloading them takes exceptionally long. You also have very limited ammo, as it is only dropped by the police (and they can be hard to take down), so the game advises you to use handgun ammo on civilians (or just kick them and execute them) and save the heavy artillery for those who can actually fight back.

On that note, civilians are essentially just walking health potions. The only way to gain life is to "execute" fallen enemies, which is done by putting them in a wounded state (either by shooting them or kicking them) and pressing Y. You then get one of several canned charming executions, usually involving the person begging for their lives as you gun them down. It sounds shocking (and it arguably is), but context is important here, because most shooter games also have similar execution animations (complete with begging) as part of their systems. I'm not making a statement one way or another, just tossing out facts.

You also have a plethora of side-missions, which actually end up being part of the main objective for each area. Completing the side missions gives you respawn points (of which there is a very limited number) should you fall in battle. Fall and not have any respawns and you're done, game over, but luckily there's a stage select so you don't have to start the whole game from the beginning.

Executions range from quick and painless to long and tedious.

Hatred looks decent in stills, not as much in execution.

There are lots of problem here, though, and I don't mean just the content matter. Hatred's dual-stick controls feel sloppy all around. Normal aiming puts a reticule only a short distance from you, and the option for a longer-distance zoom (with the left trigger pressed in) makes the camera sloppy and somehow harder to aim (despite giving you a laser sight). I found myself gravitating towards a "spray and pray" style, meaning using the handgun was more of a chore than fun. Keep in mind: I love dual-stick shooters, and consider myself pretty good at them (I got all the achievements in Geometry Wars 2, so there's that). The controls just felt overtly stiff, and the aiming straight up bad. A little auto-aim probably wouldn't have hurt. That or some sort of visual indication when dealing with height/obstacles blocking your vision.

Another big problem is the difficulty. Hatred feels unnecessarily punishing, both in delivering you ammo to continue fighting, to recovering life, to its archaic checkpoint system. I managed to beat the game on Easy only failing once or twice, but on Normal it proved a considerably harder challenge. On the harder difficulties it turns into a game of hide and seek with the cops, praying a weak enemy is close enough for you to execute and get health. It isn't particularly fun, nor stress relief, which is what I envisioned this game being when I first took an interest in it.

The pervasive control problems continue throughout the game. The button for execute (Y on a controller) is the same as "Change Weapon," and since executions are necessary (and hard to see if they're in the right state due to the homogeneous black and white graphics) I often found myself changing weapons instead of executing, or ending an execution with the wrong gun equipped. It can also be hard to see objectives and where to go, though the mini-map does provide a little bit of help in that regard. All in all, what should have been a fun stress-relief orgy of violence is instead a clunky, mildly frustrating mess. At least I get to hear Hatred Guy's stupid quips while "crashing" a party.

Hatred looks decent in stills, not as much in execution.

Graphically, Hatred is as mixed a bag as its gameplay and controls. I actually found the black and white visual aesthetic striking (also giving the game more EDGE), with only certain things (red barrels, explosions, blood, police lights) providing a splash of color on the bleak world. If I were going to actually analyze this game, I'd praise them for having the world appear mundane in the eyes of the protagonist until he's doing something awful (blowing up stuff, killing people, etc. are the only actions that have color in them), but honestly they probably didn't think that far ahead when making the game. But, to be fair, it does do some really cool stuff with shadows, particularly in the mandatory sewer level. Also the explosions (and the destructible environments) look pretty rad. I like the 2000s-era Fallout style of isometric visuals they went with.

The color scheme does have a lot of issues, however, especially in darker areas (which is...like everywhere, but especially the sewers). Since it's all gray, it can be extremely difficult to see enemies in the dark against the also-gray backgrounds. This got me killed several times, where I was being shot at but couldn't quite spot the enemies in the darkness. Yes, I could click in the right stick for a quick scan, but you try clicking the right stick while also aiming with it, moving with the left stick, zooming with the left trigger, and firing with the right. It's bloody controller Twister, and considering how inconstant the aiming is anyway it probably wouldn't have worked out regardless.

Music and sound is...there. The music is generally uninteresting, and the voice work mostly consists of people screaming and Hatred Guy saying stupid stuff. I'll say it's all just mediocre and leave it at that, because I can't think of anything else to say.

Lastly, I'll mention that (since this is a PC only game), Hatred stutters from time to time, even with a souped-up rig like mine. I imagine that's just poor optimization, but those load times? Really?

The roof...the roof...the roof is on FIYAH!

In closing, I'll address the obvious elephant in the room: how I felt about Hatred's content matter. Honestly? I did feel a little like a horrible person the first few minutes I played through it. But the game's so blatant attempt at EDGINESS actually became kind of endearing after a while. Is Hatred's subject matter all sort of screwed up? Yeah, kind of. I mean, video games as an industry often feel built around violence, and the fact that a game like this just cuts any pretense of giving that violence justifiable context and essentially is a school shooting/murder simulator is weirdly...I don't know, honest? Is it damaging the industry by existing and should be condemned? Nah, and honestly the uproar given to it was predictable and probably not justified. But even so, a game is only as good as its actual gameplay and mechanics, and Hatred just falls short on so many levels.

To me, this is fairly synonymous to me playing Doom as a child. My parents outright banned it in the house, and even banned me playing it at friends' houses. I'd have to sneak over to the right friends at the right time in order to play the game, talking about it in hushed tones when we'd meet and hope our parents didn't hear about how we blew demons away in bloody viscera. Both were EDGY at the time, and both caused a lot of uproar, but honestly I don't see anything wrong with something like this existing. If anything, it could prove that games, even mainstream ones, have no limits in the content they'll dare to tread on. I'm just really annoyed they didn't pull the rug out during the final act and do something clever with it.

The game released at $20, which is kind of absurd considering both its length (only a few hours, if that), mediocre controls, and general repetitiveness of the gameplay. If you still have some interest in it, I'd say you could at least sate your curiosity at a lower price tag (say, $5 or less or in a bundle), but honestly there are much better dual-stick indie shooters out there.

Plus then you won't cut yourself on the EDGE!!!!!

Two out of five stars.

Carmageddon, eat your heart out.

This War of Mine Full Version Free Download Games For PC

Free Download This War of Mine PC Games Full Version 



Strategy games developed and published under the banner of 11 Bit Studios, released on November 14, 2014.

In this war game you don't play as a combat soldier. But a group of civilian casualties in the beleaguered city. You can also download The dark long is a game of survival.

System Requirements of This War of Mine PC Game 2014

Gardens Inc 3 Bridal Pursuit Collector's Edition For PC

Gardens Inc 3 Bridal Pursuit Collectors Edition For PC






Download  Gardens Inc 3 Bridal Pursuit Collectors Edition PC Games Full Version

Game Information :

Title: Gardens Inc 3 Bridal Pursuit Collectors Edition-Wendy99
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
Developer: Nitreal Games
Publisher: Nitreal Games
Release Date: 12-2014
Size: 544.28 MB / Single Link Compressed

System Requirements :

OS:

Counter Strike Global Offensive For PC Game Free Download

Counter Strike Global Offensive For PC Game Free Download





Free Download Counter Strike Global Offensive PC Game For Windows

CS G.O is the most popular shooter game in all walks of life, developed by Valve Corporation. Players have the option to choose the terrorists or anti terrorist team. Then complete different goals that come your way by killing Your enemies. There are many rounds short

Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Free Download Full Version PC Game

Dynasty Warriors 8 categories of action and adventure game containing a battle between the kingdoms. Developed by Omega force and published by Tecmo Koei. The album was released on February 28, 2014




The story of the game Dynasty Warriors 8 is that there is a battle between the player and the enemy. The player is a lone warrior in this game. A large number of enemies who try to kill the player