By: Ava Bird

Roblox is known for its endless amount of unique, user-generated online multiplayer games, most of which are creative and interesting. But in this article, I’m only going to focus on three. So, without further ado, here are some of the best food-focused games on the platform.

Created by Deud1, ‘Work at a Pizza Place’ dates back to 2008 and has secured its place as one of Roblox’s most iconic games. Players contribute to the pizza place, Builder Brothers Pizza, by working one of six jobs: cashier, where you can take orders from NPCs (non-player characters), who can choose to get either a cheese pizza, a pepperoni pizza, a sausage pizza, or a fizzy soda; cook, where you can make pizzas; pizza boxer, where you can box pizzas; delivery, where you can drive to houses to deliver orders; supplier, where you can drive trucks to restock pizza ingredients; and manager, the one-person supervision job that everyone wants to claim.

If you don’t want to work, you can go on break and decorate your house or hang out with friends. Working earns you coins, which you can spend on furniture, decorations, house upgrades, pets, and presents, which can contain a variety of things, depending on which one you buy. You can also earn trophies by completing event activities, such as the corn maze, which appears annually in the fall. A favorite of many, this game is a must-play.

Made by Ultraw, ‘Restaurant Tycoon 2’ is the new-and-improved successor to the classic ‘Restaurant Tycoon’. In this game, you get to create and build your very own restaurant from scratch. You can unlock over 195 different foods from 25 different countries and regions to be featured on your menu, and you get to pick and choose. As you earn money, you can grow your restaurant and improve your ratings by hiring workers, adding tables, decorating, upgrading, and expanding. You have control over every aspect of your tycoon, giving you the opportunity to make your restaurant truly unique. You can cook, take orders, serve food, and do everything else you can expect to do in a restaurant. In addition to NPCs, you can also serve actual players, if they choose to visit your restaurant. If it is deserving, players can give your restaurant a like. This game is a new classic, and it’s worth a try.

Though it isn’t at all centered on food, Coeptus’s ‘Welcome to Bloxburg’ is a life-like roleplay game that treats food like the real deal. There are 45 (and counting) main dishes that you can make year-round, and each of them can serve multiple players. In addition to these dishes are 24 ‘quick meals,’ which are single-serving snacks instead of meals. There are also seasonal foods that you can make during different holidays, the most popular being Halloween and Christmas, and you can either eat them then and there or put them in your fridge to save them for later.

However, cooking in this game is a ‘skill,’ and there are 10 levels of any given skill. For the cooking skill, making food grants you progress, and leveling up unlocks more dishes you can make. In a way, this is comparable to real life: the more you practice a skill, the better you become at it. Each dish also costs money to make, ranging from 3 to 80 in-game dollars. Some players build creative restaurants or cafés that other players can go to, and each one deserves a visit. Overall, the food in this game is unique and fun to make, and it’s worth taking the time to level up your cooking.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and I highly recommend all three of these games.

By: Daniel Kendle

As the good old-fashioned saying goes, “he who puts bad graphics over great gameplay is like putting the cart before the horse.”

Hello, and welcome back to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. Today’s subject is the game ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus,’ which, while flawed, shows that innovation is the way to go for decades-old franchises.

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I’ll say that I’ve had a… mixed relationship with the Pokémon franchise over the years. On one hand, Gamefreak (the company behind the video games) have made games that have been held as classics by millions, practically defining their generations of consoles respectively. The franchise has also been dear to my heart for a long time, and even now in high school, I still get the games when they come out.

On the other hand, modern Pokémon games have become so formulaic and stupid that it’s almost a little insulting to buyers. No more are these games adventures with a party of your 6 favorite monsters, we here you can explore a world and become the best trainer you can. Nowadays, with games like ‘Pokémon Sword and Shield’ as well as ‘Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl,’ they’re become bogged-down, soulless entities. Yeah, the objective is to become the strongest Pokémon trainer there is, by going through all the gyms and eventually beating the Champion, but the ‘adventure’ aspect feels largely gone. Each game as of recent memory has an EXTREMELY linear, tight path forward, with only the slightest deviation every once in a blue moon.

‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ was the Gamefreak redemption arc. It was the first mainline game to differ heavily from the original games, instead being more akin to ‘Monster Hunter.’ Instead of having button prompts to throw things like Pokeballs and berries to catch and lure Pokémon, you instead have free-aim control on, like some kind of 3rd-person FPS shooter. There’s also many other changes, both big and small.

So, is this game good? Is the Pokémon formula screwed, with this being just a trash-flavored cherry on top of this pile of maggot-ridden compost? (My allegories could use some work, honestly) Maybe this is a breath of fresh air for the franchise, and possibly even RPG’s as a whole. Let’s take a look!

….. PART ONE: GAMEPLAY

Ooh, this game’s mechanics are so GOOD!

Like, seriously, this game is great to play. I’ve never inherently disliked the core Pokémon formula, though what I will say is that it is repetitive. Walk into some tall grass, encounter a randomized Pokémon, weaken it until you catch it, repeat. It never progresses in difficulty outside of a Pokémon’s levels growing in number, becoming tougher and stronger. But the problem with THAT is that your Pokémon gain levels as well, and normally stay in the same range as wild Pokémon. Or in other words, your Pokémon and other trainer’s and wild ones are basically all the same level for normal gameplay, making the core gameplay loop stay practically the same from beginning to end. It’s really, really degrading.

But ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ does something different, though it still keeps familiar aspects of the old games. You still have levels around the same as other NPC’s, but the game has become more strategy-based and focused on combat that rewards clever thinking and planning out attacks rather than brute-forcing battles.

In truth, I won’t be able to get to every gameplay aspect in ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’; there’s just TOO many. Stuff like Research Tasks, Pokémon Battles and Catching Mechanics and Requests will be talked about, but things like Farming and Rideable Pokémon are either not essential to gameplay or I don’t have a concrete opinion on.

Starting with the new Catching Mechanics, they are super smooth. Catching Pokémon has always been locked into a button prompt in previous titles. “Press the A button to catch the yellow mouse! Press the A button to catch the deformed caterpillar!” It’s never been a bad system, though very tedious. It takes multiple screens to show you through the menus and stuff, so the time taken for something really small like catching your 1,718th Bidoof in a row or catching the god of all Pokémon is the same, and by the same I mean monotonous.

But in ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus,’ the player has “free-aiming,” allowing them to throw Pokeballs freely, outside of battle and actually aiming and throwing them like you’re in an FPS-Shooter. And honestly, it’s great!

It feels SO smooth to control, whether using the Gyro-Aiming functionality or simply using the Joystick to control. It’s also very quick. One moment you could throw a ball at a Pokémon before going and finding some resource deposits to loot.

Speaking of resource deposits, the throwing mechanic also extends to other parts of the game. For instance, throwing one of your party Pokémon at a gemstone or fruit tree lets the Pokémon collect the resources from the deposit, which is pretty cool. I like how instead of collecting crafting materials yourself, (which you can still do for some smaller materials) some require you to rely on your Pokémon, which is cool! You also throw your Pokémon out at wild Pokémon to initiate a battle, throw berries to lure Pokémon to the fallen fruit’s location, and in the game’s boss fights (technically a first for the series) you throw balms at the raging Pokémon to soothe them. You get so much functionality out of this throwing function; it’s awesome!

The second piece of gameplay I’ll talk about are Battles, and the numerous new parts to that leg of gameplay. Past games have a solid gameplay loop but again, it’s been over 25 since the first game came out, and it’s safe to say that the ball isn’t really rolling on this anymore.

Here’s how they function:

1. Walk up to a Pokémon trainer or walk around in some tall grass for a random encounter.
2. Wait for the battle scene to finish playing.
3. Open up the menu and click, “attack.”
4. Click the move that either a.) does the most damage, or b.) has the type advantage. (‘Types’ are basically categorized elements that each Pokémon has that gives it strengths and weaknesses against other types, like Grass, Fire, Water, etc.)

5. Wait for battle animation to finish, then the opposing Pokémon attacks.
6. Rinse and repeat until boring oneself into a coma.

Even writing that was tiring. And that’s the rub with this system: it’s tiring. Every battle after, like, the first hour of the game is monotonous, tedious. Once you’ve got all 6 of your Pokémon for your team down, what’s the point? You don’t need to further progress if you’ve gotten your final squad, and then exploration is boring, which gut-punches the entire game.

Now, I’m not going to say that ’Pokémon Legends Arceus’ fixes everything about past battles. There are still times when you have to slog through a mandatory trainer fight or gain XP from fighting other Pokémon in order to level up more. But while it doesn’t redo the entire system, the game refines it.

Recent Pokémon games have had these sorts of “gimmicks” in order to spice things up, ranging from pretty solid to breaking the online meta entirely. ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ does have these gimmicks as well, but there’s more of them and they’re actually really good!

The first is the introduction of Strong Style and Agile Style moves into the game. When picking what move to use, you can now also choose if you want the move to be in 1 of the 2 styles. Strong Style makes the move deal more damage but loses you a turn, and Agile Style makes your move deal less damage, but gives you another turn. I’ve got to say, these are really fun mechanics that can actually provide some strategy into battles. NPC characters and wild Pokémon also use these to their advantage, making battles more challenging in the long run.

Also, Pokémon can move more than once at a time! Finally, no more even fighting, with you and your opponent going one at a time and waiting for the other to go. Now, it’s not uncommon for your enemy to move once, twice, even thrice in a row. Heck, when you’ve got more than one Pokémon join the battle, that number can jump up to 4 or something. The only bad thing about this is that this change, along with Strong and Agile Styles, makes it so the game doesn’t have either online nor local battles with other friends, a staple of other mainline titles. This is honestly pretty disappointing, and drags down the game’s replayability after you finish the main story.

To finish off this section, let’s talk about Requests. Requests are little side missions that have you talking to NPCs with a little icon above their head. Upon entering a conversation with them, you can get a little mission added to a list. These missions have you go out into the world and either catch some Pokémon, get some resources, or sometimes walk into a small “mini-narrative,” like fighting some bandits or something. These are cool, though very basic outside of you doing something for some more materials from them. I feel like they’re basically fodder for drawing out the game.

PART TWO: GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION

Alright, let’s get this out of the way: ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ looks AWFUL.

Looking at other Nintendo games, the company has basically perfected the idea of polish for their games, with cool art styles and beautiful scenes in most of their in-house games. Pokémon is technically a 2nd-party production; Gamefreak is its own thing, kinda like how the ‘Xenoblade’ and ‘Fire Emblem’ games are technically by other studios. So I guess the Pokémon franchise can get off not having the same graphical fidelity as Nintendo’s works, but still…this game looks gross.

Let’s start with the animations, and while I have much worse to say about textures and geometrical layout of the game later, the animations are much nicer in this title. Pokémon will actually run up to an opposing monster to attack it, whilst previous games had you “shooting bites,” or whatever. Pokémon outside of battles now sleep, eat, turn around without just lazily flipping their model 180 degrees. It’s nice, though these new animations are compensated by the fact that there are only around 200 Pokémon in this game, a far cry from prior titles. Humans, environmental things, stuff like banners and lanterns, all move like how they would in real life. At least this, the animation in and out of fighting, is good.

But the graphics themselves are a whole different story. Even for a game on the Nintendo Switch, which is beaten out by the Xbox and PlayStation for best hardware power and capability, this is mind-bendingly bad to look at. I’ve heard people say that this looks like a Wii game, which is honestly true (It’s also a bad thing, seeing as the Wii was released in 2006, 16 years ago).

The textures have this weird, muddy look to them. You look around the ground and rocks, and while some things look fine, like the trees, others look like garbage. Things with lots of details like specialized images on shirts or logos on banners or clothing look horrendous, being able to COUNT the pixels.

Another thing is the lighting, and it’s… strange. I’m not someone who’s an expert on lighting in games, but what I will say is that the lighting in this is pretty decent, but the insanely terrible-looking textures and geometry of landscapes mixed with somewhat-solid lighting makes ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ really weird to look at.

The geometry of the landscapes of the game is surprisingly bad. Polygons are practically embedded into every surface, with round-looking objects a rarity at best. I will say that over time I did get used to the wonky world around me, every time you enter a new area you get that feeling of depression once again, looking out onto a biome that, in all honesty, looks more like a tech-test than a final product.

And aside from that, I don’t really know what else to say. Like, 3D Pokémon games have never exactly been “lookers,” but this game feels like it went out of its way to look like this Frankenstein-amalgamation of decent lighting and animations, but atrocious polygons and textures. While not the worst looking Nintendo game out there – far from it, actually – it definitely feels like it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to Nintendo’s other 2022 products. ‘Kirby and the Forgotten Land,’ ‘Splatoon 3,’ even Gamefreak’s next game ‘Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’ look WAY better from the trailers and gameplay we’ve seen. So, why does this game look like sewage in comparison?

PART THREE: STORY

I actually quite enjoyed the story this time around. In ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ you begin as a 15-year old kid who’s sent back in time to a place known as the Hisui region, which is revealed later on to be the past incarnation of the Sinnoh region, a modern day land.

It’s revealed that Arceus, basically this God-like Pokémon, has sent you back in time in order to do… something. It’s a little vague, but it’s implied that the reason is to catch all the Pokémon in Hisui. You also get to customize your name and look during this segment.

Eventually, your phone is turned into this sort of device that lets you communicate with Arceus, and you’re dropped into the past. You awaken on a beach, where you’re led into having to catch some unruly Pokémon with the region’s professor, who’s lost them. After doing so you’re brought back to the professor’s village, where you’re like an outcast with your strange finesse with catching Pokémon, something that was very difficult back then. You enter a trial to become part of the Galaxy Expedition Team, an organization that has you catch Pokémon to expand something known as the Pokédex, which is something that all games have had to record your progress catching monsters, but is revealed to be the first ever in this game.

After picking out a Starter Pokémon you start off into the wilds before meeting a traveling trader known as Volo, who battles you. This is a tutorial for battling other trainers. He gives you some helpful information, and you’re finally able to go explore the Obsidian Fieldlands, ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ first large, open area to explore.

You quickly learn of rampaging Alpha Pokémon that have been out of control ever since you were dropped into Hisui. You head back to the village to speak with the professor, and he figures out that throwing “soothing balms” at the berserk monsters will calm them down. You make a basket of the little baggies, head to the arena where the rampaging Pokémon is at, and face it down.

And actually, the story goes on like that for most of the game! Reach a new area on the map, explore for a while, learn about the people and lore of the place, fight the rampaging Pokemon’s designated warden, and eventually calm down the creature. This continues until the end, which is honestly kind of touching, or at least as touching as a game where you throw balls at innocent animals and have them brutally battle each other. There are times where it’s stupid, yes, but while ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ may seem like an ugly game… its beauty is on the inside. The inside of the packaging, at least.

PART FOUR: CONCLUSION

Wait, so I actually LIKE this game?

Yeah, actually! ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’ is a flawed package, but within those flaws is a tightly-wound gameplay loop and fun story that shows that innovation from old formulas does pay off. While it kinda looks like the equivalent to a dead rat in a sock, other aspects look very promising towards this franchise’s future.

In the end, I think ’Pokémon Legends Arceus’ is a 7.5 out of 10 for me. While its story and gameplay are both good and awesome respectively, the overall look of the game brings down the score considerably, along with the removal of battling friends and Requests being somewhat shallow. Still, this is a great game that just needed a few tweaks, in my opinion.

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Once again, that’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK! I hope you enjoyed this review, and others as well. See you next time!

By: Daniel Kendle

When ‘Contra’ meets Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, I guess.

Hello, and welcome to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. This episode is of ‘Cuphead’, a 2017 indie game that has become one of the most popular of it’s category in the last half-decade, partially being that it’s the only known video game to be entirely made up of hand-drawn cell animation, rather than digitally-drawn, CGI or other forms. But is ‘Cuphead’ a shining example of gaming? Let’s take a look.

‘Cuphead’ was created by brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who were not video game developers at first, but then jumped to making the game after their recollections of games as kids. Reportedly, the first iterations of ‘Cuphead’ were based around a “school grade” aesthetic, with the game progression also having you move up in grades and art style. Eventually they went with a “rubber-hose” style after their friends saw them use an old 1930’s cartoon character as a stand-in for an actual game model. And then after that, they created Studio MDHR.

To talk about rubber-hose animation, it defines cartoons such as Betty Boop, Popeye, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and other Disney and Fleischer Studios work. It gets its name from the rubbery, unrealistic animation in most shorts. These are some of ‘Cupheads’s’ main influences, but the other prominent one is of “Run n’ Gun” games from the 80’s and 90’s, like ‘Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts’ and ‘Megaman’. These titles were normally difficult, grind-centric games that had players face off against bosses and enemies, focused around dodging attacks first and dealing damage second. They rewarded muscle memory and quick reflexes, as players would normally spend a good amount of time learning bosses’ movement and attacks in order to win.

‘Cuphead’ was first introduced in E3 2014, in a short trailer that didn’t feature much, except the art style chosen. Even with the relatively-small amount of info, the game was a highlight of the Xbox press showcase. The game had periodic updates shown until eventually releasing September 29, 2017. It was very well received, with over 1 million copies being sold within its first 2 weeks on the market. Its art style, difficulty, and gameplay were praised, and the game has been running smoothly ever since, selling 6 million copies by July 2020.

PART ONE: GAMEPLAY

‘Cuphead’ is, as stated previously, a Run n’ Gun game, where the player has to shoot targets and enemies whilst dodging attacks. ‘Cuphead’ is divided into 2 different types of levels: boss levels and platform levels.

The main focus of ‘Cuphead’ are the bosses. The game is one big Boss Rush, with most levels being where you have to fight a powerful enemy with multiple stages. The game is a VERY challenging game, reminiscent of other games in the genre. Most of the game is you reattempting bosses and stages, though it’s not annoying most of the time. In fact, defeating a level is incredibly satisfying!

The game’s moral of “tough but fair” lets the game designers not have to create bosses that scale with difficulty, if by only a little bit. They instead mold them around the idea of muscle memory and skill, the way a player proceeds through their journey being of their might rather than of a scaling difficulty. This is something other famously-hard games practice, like ‘Dark Souls’.

But diving into actual play, ‘Cuphead’ has someone shooting projectiles out of their fingertips (More on this in the Story section). There are 9 different types, each with different values and properties.

• The Peashooter is your basic shot, the one given to you at the start of the game.
• The Chaser is the weakest, but can track a target around and hit them without needing the player to aim.
• The Spread has great damage in a small radius in front of the user, so it’s good for close-quarters combat.
• The Lobber shoots gravity-affected balls that bounce on the ground.
• The Roundabout is like a boomerang in that it loops back after firing it, so you’re able to hit something even when your back is turned.
• The Charge has a short charging time (duh) between shots, but does the most damage out of any weapon. It’s also the only shot where you’re able to hold it without having to auto-fire.
• The Crackshot is arguably the best shot. Like the Chaser it follows targets, but also does a lot more damage and will do more damage by shooting an enemy before the shots break away to track and hit the target.
• The Converge is a 3-way shot that narrows its flight path when the player is locked into shooting. (I’ll explain this later as well.)
• Finally, the Twist-Up is the opposite of the Lobber, flying upwards instead of down.

Along with these shots are things known as Charms, little abilities that give Cuphead extra perks. These can range from extra hearts to a smoke bomb, from axe-parries to even more hearts! They mix up gameplay just enough that, like shots, can dramatically change how a boss fight plays out depending on what loadout you use.

While 2 shots can be equipped at a time, only one Charm is able to be.

But where do you get shots and Charms from? The shop, of course! The game has a traveling shop that can be found on 4 of the isles of which the game is played. Each item costs coins, which can be found in the platform levels, each with 5 coins each. I enjoy having to buy your power ups; ‘Cuphead’ isn’t exactly the type of game to have power ups within the levels, there’s only 6 platform levels along with the 34 boss fights, so there just wouldn’t be enough space to level out the progression if shots and power ups were inside the levels themselves.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about the platform levels. Each has unique theming and gameplay, with some focusing on different mechanics entirely. While the bosses have you shooting them up until they eventually run out of health, platform levels have you reaching an end goal. And honestly… they’re fine.

We’ll get to the bosses soon, but with the 6 platform levels, they feel like they have less of that “grandness” of the rest of ‘Cuphead’. While fine in their own right they feel more like afterthought than a mainstay of the game. They follow a linear progression, with you more or less traveling right while shooting enemies. No big baddies, no interesting concepts and ideas, just… eh. They’re alright, but “alright” isn’t cutting it for a game like this.

The main characters Cuphead and Mugman also are okay to control. Since the main game revolves around shooting, having the player be able to shoot in multiple directions is an obvious addition. However, hand-drawn animation is extremely time consuming, so animating hundreds, maybe even THOUSANDS of different poses would’ve taken forever. Instead, it was decided to only have players shoot in 8 different directions: forward, backward, up, down, and diagonal versions of all of them. This is VERY janky; I found myself more often than not shooting forward only, elevating and de-elevating if needing to shoot up or down respectively. This is very awkward, and doesn’t work very well. It’s a moment where it feels like the art direction and game design clash, making a worse experience.

‘Cuphead’ has a ‘lock-in’ mechanic that lets you access this 8-way shooting. When holding down the respective button, you’ll be locked into place, allowing you to aim as you fire using what you would normally use to run. This is also bad to control, as ‘Cuphead’ is a game where you need to be constantly moving around in order to dodge attacks, and having a button lock you in place is disorienting to the rest of the game, sorry.

PART TWO: BOSSES

‘Cuphead’s’ bosses are arguably some of the best in the business, in my opinion. They ALL have some of the best quality in gaming, with snappy combat and powerful attacks that combine with their incredibly creative concepts. There’s too many to list like from my last review on ‘Metroid Dread’, so I’ll simply mention some of the best and most interesting of the bunch.

Bosses in the game all have generally whimsical and fun ideas, just like how the 1930’s style of animation had very crazy and loony settings and characters. I feel like this gives them a distinct appearance when compared to another game’s enemies. Overall, I love this game’s bosses, for they feel like creations that remove themselves from the mold of the rest of the gaming industry’s blueprints.

There are 2 bosses that I’ll consider “Tutorial” matter, though I’ll only be talking about one: The Root Pack. Made up of 3 mean vegetables, they’re essential in teaching the player the 3 main ways attacks try to hit you, and how to dodge: jumping up and down, moving left and right, and a combination of the two. And the fights are fun too! I’m glad that they made the first bosses to the same standards as further fights, showing the complex polish of the bosses.

Another is Cagney Carnation, one of the most iconic characters in ‘Cuphead’. The flower’s fight is also great fun, with raised platforms and more challenging attacks to avoid. They also introduce the idea of bosses changing form, with him eventually turning into a tangle of weeds and barbs by the end of the battle. A fantastic fight; one of my personal favorites.

Moving farther up the ladder is my favorite boss in the game, Werner Werman, this German tank pilot who controls a giant mechanical cat in his fight. I don’t know why, but this fight is just so fun. I like the idea of having a smaller scale fight (literally) and have the two be the size of actual mice. I don’t know if this is controversial, but this is my favorite boss in the game, personally.

Finally, let’s talk about the final boss: the Devil. He’s one of ‘Cuphead’s’ hardest fights, and for good reason. You’ve made your way all the way to Hell, and he’s certainly fit for his kingdom. The fight’s chaotic and eerie, but man, defeating him is satisfying as all heck, and comes to make you realize what you’ve just done: beaten the game. While I do think that some of his attacks feel a bit RNG-based, the Devil’s a great way to end the main game. And speaking of the Devil…

PART THREE: STORY

I didn’t touch on ‘Metroid Dread’s’ story due to it being the final entry in the main Metroid saga, and I didn’t want to spoil anything. ‘Cuphead’s’ story is much more simple, and pretty easy to figure out. It’s not a detriment to the game though; I like having a more basic plot compared to other games having complex, moving narratives.

Cuphead and his brother Mugman are two kids who one day come across the Devil’s Casino. After gambling for a while they find themselves on a winning streak, to which the Devil notices and gives them a wager: if they can win their next roll, they get all the casino’s riches. If not, the Devil gets their souls.

Mugman doesn’t want to spread his luck dry, but Cuphead blindly rolls again. Of course, he gets snake eyes, and the Devil now gets their lives. The boys beg for mercy, and the Devil admits he’s gone too far… before tasking the 2 to go out and bring back the souls of those who owe him theirs.

Not knowing how to get others’ souls, they go to their grandfather Elder Kettle, who gives them a magical potion to let them shoot lasers out of their fingers. Eventually, after using their powers to defeat all the bosses (debtors) Cuphead and Mugman storm into the Devil’s casino again, and after beating his lackey King Dice, defeat the Devil as well, and free the debtors from the demon’s grasp, ending the story in a happy light.

Like I said, the story’s not very complex, instead feeling like something an actual Disney short would be about. I like it, though I do feel like we don’t see the bosses outside of battle, and now knowing them to be the debtors the boys have to beat it would’ve been pretty cool to see them after the main game is done, and maybe be able to talk to them and stuff.

PART FOUR: GRAPHICS

I mean, what is there to say?

‘Cuphead’ is arguably one of the best looking video games of the past few years, and possibly even of all time. Its unique hand-drawn animation style lends itself to some gorgeous graphics and fidelity beyond anything of recent memory.

One thing I noticed is that it feels like something straight out of a Disney cartoon. The backgrounds have such a warm feeling, I wish that I could look at them without having to be constantly sweating through the boss battles!

Oh, and the animation! It’s SO good. Studio MDHR used a type of animation called “Squash n’ Stretch” to animate moving objects, which basically means that a lot of frames exaggerate and contort frames of things to feel more fluid-like, which gives everything such a fascinating appearance that hasn’t been seen in many other games. It was practically eye-candy to myself, someone who loves animation in movies and cartoons. Great work all around.

There are some blips in quality here and there. Some bosses feel a little more constrained and bland compared to the animation of others, the same going for standard enemies and other sprites. Occasionally there’s some landscapes in the game without the polish seen in others. What I’m getting at here is that the few problems I have in the graphics department mostly come down to fluctuating art and standards seen in it. I’ll admit it, some places in the game look better than others. Whether that’s the art direction’s fault or the area’s theming, it’s still an issue nonetheless. But still, this game looks like some kind of blessed artifact from the 1930’s that ironically holds up greatly 5 years later.

PART FIVE: CONCLUSION

‘Cuphead’ is a great game. It’s snappy combat, beautiful visuals and – while not mentioned – great music makes it an awesome game to explore and play. However, some issues do arise, like boring platforming levels, semi-inconsistent graphical quality and clunky controls. For this, I think ‘Cuphead’ is a solid 8/10. While it does flub in some areas other games don’t, this is a great package, and deserves the recognition it has received, and hopefully will continue to gain.

That’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it! I plan on doing other indie games soon, so if you’re into that, make sure you stick around and not only check out my work, but other people’s as well.

By: Daniel Kendle

19 years is a long time for a sequel, especially a story-related one. But when your sequel sells the best out of the entire franchise, reinvigorates an entire audience, and wins eight awards… is it okay?

Hello, and welcome to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. Today’s topic is of the Nintendo game Metroid Dread, and how well it was executed, particularly about if it’s worth almost 2 decades of wait.

(This review is story spoiler-free by the way, though if you don’t want to know about the bosses, E.M.M.I’s and/or power ups, then this isn’t for you.)

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Metroid Dread began development as a Nintendo DS game, its 2nd prototype being shown off to staff of Nintendo of America, as well as other companies during E3 2009. Reportedly, it wasn’t meeting the standards of Metroid’s producer Yoshio Sakamoto, and the game’s progress was halted because of the DS’s power not being able to handle Yoshio’s vision. It was decided that more powerful hardware would be needed if the game’s full identity was to be created. Fear-based gameplay was Dread’s focus, and a truly-intimidating antagonist for the game required much more demanding hardware. This reason, the antagonist not being able to handle the DS, is widely considered why the game was put on hold for the time being.

But then in 2021, Nintendo’s E3 direct showcased a reveal for the game, now being made by both Nintendo and MercurySteam, a developer on previous Metroid games. Fans were hyped, not just because of it being the first main-line Metroid game in close to 2 decades, but also the fact that it was to be released only months after the reveal.

October 6th, 2021, the game was released to critical acclaim and financial success; nines and tens across the board and becoming the highest-grossing Metroid game, selling at around 3 million units. It satisfied fans of the originals, and also became many’s first experience with Metroid.

In my opinion, the Metroid Dread is hands-down the best Nintendo Switch game ever made. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 get thrown around that title, but what I feel Dread succeeds in, that those 3 don’t, is simple: polish. But before I continue, let’s start the review.

PART ONE: GAMEPLAY AND PROGRESSION

If you’re not well-versed in video game vocabulary, then the term ‘Metroidvania’ might not mean anything to you. Metroidvania defines a set of games, of which the word is made up of two games; ‘Metroid’, (obviously) and ‘Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’. These two games basically co-created the genre, whereby games like Hollow Knight, Guacamelee, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Cave Story are part of.

Metroidvanias play as large, normally 2D games that feature one large map instead of multiple regions, connected to one-another via many entrances and passages. The thing that makes Metroidvanias unique is their system towards progression, where the player has to traverse and back-track across the map, finding pickups that act as gaining new powers in order to further progress in the game.

Keeping that in mind, Metroid Dread does something different than other Metroidvanias.

Dread had the conscious decision to have mostly every “lock” (something to use a power up to overcome) and “key” (the power up) not very far away from each other. Things like the Space Jump and Morph Ball each have obstacles now solvable thanks to them, only a few minutes away. And this goes for, again, most items. There are exceptions, but this is Dread’s defining difference from the rest of the pack, and even previous Metroid games.

While this has been seen as a controversial design element, I personally like this WAY more. Prior entries like Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion are fantastic games in their own right, but getting lost, while a cornerstone of this franchise, isn’t much fun for me. I want to be entertained, and while finding your way through vast areas is fun for some, I don’t agree.

In short, I believe that if one of your main gameplay elements has a player backtracking, it’s not very fun in my opinion. I want to be able to experience a rich world full of new discoveries and adventures, not a rich world where half of the game is looking around previously-cleared rooms. It’s something that’ll make some disregard my review entirely, but what are opinions for, hey?

Moving on to how the main character, Samus Aran, plays, a widely agreed upon aspect of Metroid Dread is how gosh-darn smooth she handles! If you’ve never played a Metroid game before, the main weapon and piece of Samus’ moveset is shooting, and this might be the best it’s felt to do that yet.

The game is the first of its prior entries to feature 360o aiming, compared to previous entries’ 8-way shooting (they were on much weaker hardware, so I wont discredit them for that). You can shoot while running, jumping, crouching, and falling, so Samus can have a very versatile array of ways to kill something.

Speaking of ‘array,’ her powerups in this game are great! Some of my favorites include the Screw Attack, which basically turns her into a ball of death when jumping, killing anything touching you, the Ice Missiles, which can freeze things in place to make temporary platforms, and the Morph Ball, which has you curl up into a ball to travel around small passageways with ease. These were all in previous games, but they’ve been tightened and worked to a new level of polish.

The game runs at a slick 60fps, allowing for quick, uninterrupted movement. I can imagine the game feeling a lot worse to control if not, or at least close to, this framerate.

PART 2: GRAPHICS

This is a gorgeous looking game, even with the Nintendo Switch having graphical hardware somewhere between an XBox 360 and PlayStation 4, both consoles releasing years before. All games in the Metroid series range from okay to phenomenal graphics, and Metroid Dread might just take 1st place.

In order to maintain a solid framerate, the game has background elements and animations played at a decreased framerate, around 30fps. This could come off to some as disorienting, but in my experience, it becomes normal at some point.

Since the game is split up into several different areas, we obviously get many different environments as well. The first area, Artaria, doesn’t have much of a theme, as its main purpose is housing the tutorial areas and introductions to the game’s mechanics. However, you eventually reach other parts of the map, places like Cataris, a lava-filled place with blistering heat, Burenia, an oceanic sea laboratory with coral and dark trenches, and Ghavoran (my personal favorite) a rainforest with alien plants and animals spread about, things like giant spiders and meat-eating trees. The game makes sure that each place you head to is distinctive and unique, and that’s a good thing.

Other than that, there isn’t too much else to talk about concerning graphical fidelity. Textures are great, and so are color palettes, color variety, and so on. Metroid Dread is an incredibly polished game in terms of its looks and style, and since I’m not the most qualified person to talk about video game animation and art design, I’ll stop here.

PART 3: BOSSES AND THE E.M.M.I’S

The bosses in Metroid Dread have obviously had lots of love and dedicated time put into them. Metroid has always had memorable boss fights, whether it be Ridley, Kraid, or Nightmare (these three are from previous games). So, when MercurySteam had their hands on an all-new Metroid game, they delivered things on par with the past’s greats.

The first boss, Corpius, involves them turning invisible at scripted moments, having to focus dealing damage to the ends of its tail. Upon defeating him, you gain the Phantom Cloak power up, allowing you to become invisible through charging up a meter. Most bosses in the game follow this design: have a moveset consisting of varied attacks and abilities, then upon defeat drop a pickup that relates to one of said abilities. Corpius is a good way of introducing players to this system.

The next ‘big’ boss you fight is Kraid, a big lizard-thing from previous games. He has similar attacks to prior titles, flinging claws and breathing fire and poison projectiles. Also, if you pick up the Bomb power up before fighting him, there’s a way to insta-kill him during his second phase, allowing speed runners to beat him quicker than normal and move on. Metroid Dread has loads of these skips, allowing those skilled enough to bypass obstacles that would normally be roadblocks to those not in the know. While he doesn’t drop anything directly, a room accessible upon his defeat is nearby. This is also something the game does; having a boss not drop anything when defeated but having a room be stationed on the way out of their arena.

Next is Drogyga, an underwater plant-octopus thing. I have less to say about them, they don’t drop a power up or have a room nearby for one, they’re okay. The fight is similar to plant-creature fights from other games but underwater, so it’s an interesting spin, but not one that I find super fun.

Escue, a beetle that shoots out lightning projectiles, is okay as well. They’re arguably the most forgettable main boss of the game, being in a small room out the way of anything else. You do get a power up this time, the Storm Missile, which let’s you lock-on to many targets and fire out an array of missiles all at once, which is fun.

But going from 2 meh bosses, we have Experiment No. Z-57, my personal favorite boss. This lizard-bug-octopus thing has an incredible fight, involving all the power ups you’ve collected so far. It even has a speed run skip! While it doesn’t drop anything itself, you’re led to Artaria once again to nab the Screw Attack, which I consider a link between the two. Just… excellent work, this one.

Golzuna is a crab-esq boss that attacks using a grid like system of bombs in the air. While considered to be a forgettable encounter by others, I enjoy this one. You gain the Power Bomb upgrade from it, allowing you to place rows of bombs to get to high areas or out of reach places.

And before anyone asks, I’m NOT reviewing the final boss, as this is a spoiler-free review.

There are also many smaller bosses that are encountered, the two main ones being Chozo Warriors and Robot Chozo Warriors, each bird-like Sapiens. The normal Chozo’s are sleek, fast, and nimble, attacking using a spear in two different ways: slashing at you on the ground, or leaping to a wall and slamming down in a general area. At their second phase though, they have their face split open and become these horrifying, animalistic creatures. Before they had very controlled, graceful movements, like a dancer with a sword or something, but now they move wobbly and fluidly, more like some kind of creature than a sentient being. It’s a cool change, and they also now spew out black ink to attack.

The Robot Chozo Warriors, however, move in a more formulaic way. This is something all standard robot enemies do, though seeing as the Robot Chozo’s need more versatile ways of attacking you (they are a mini-boss, after all), they still move a little more smoothly than other ‘bots. They attack you using laser projectiles and ramming moves, which makes them fun to fight against. If you end up fighting 2 of them at once however, it’s just annoying.

But now… the E.M.M.I’s.

E.M.M.I’s are large, spider-like robots that control a large part of each area’s map. While not exactly bosses, killing each one lets you gain another power up. Killing one, however, is extremely hard.

E.M.M.I’s are immune to EVERY weapon you have, even the gear you get at the very end of the game. While you can avoid them, make too many vibrations and noises in their vicinity and they’ll track you down, eventually finding you and killing you. There’s a fraction of a second to react whenever an E.M.M.I finds you; parrying it will let you break free and stun it for a few seconds. But this is extremely hard, and is unlikely to be mastered, keeping gameplay interesting.

E.M.M.I’s can be defeated, however. Within their ‘patrolling area,’ you’ll eventually find a room containing a mini-boss, a giant eyeball. The fights are pretty easy, but upon defeating one you gain access to the Omega Blaster. With this, you can both blast a rapid-fire stream of laser projectiles, along with charging it for a few seconds in order to deliver a powerful, devastating beam that – after breaking it’s face-shield with the flurry of lasers – kills it. This is how you get the power up and free the designated area of the E.M.M.I.

I love the E.M.M.I’s; they’re so fun and rewarding to evade and later conquer! While I do think the SA-X from Metroid Fusion is a little better, these guys are very close to it’s level. I could go on and on about them, but to wrap things up, here’s some more things I think about them.

1. While I love most, the two E.M.M.I’s in Artaria are both somewhat forgettable. The first one is a damaged, broken version, which serves as a tutorial for killing one, so I guess that’s fine. But the second one – this time working – doesn’t have any flashy moves or special abilities. They both kind of left my mind the further I went into the game.
2. E.M.M.I’s each have different colors for the areas they appear in, though I think having more visual differences would make them stand out more. Maybe the one that drops the Ice Missile could have icicles and permafrost all over it, stuff like that.
3. The E.M.M.I’s move in a disturbing, insect-like way, contorting and reforming their bodies to fit whatever surface they have to scale; I love it.

PART 4: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

As I’ve said before, Metroid Dread is the best Nintendo Switch game yet, beating out Breath of the Wild and other contenders. It’s a masterful look at gameplay, beautiful graphics, and dreadfully-awesome enemies. It’s a game that I’m convinced will go down as an instant classic among many.

But the million dollar question is here: is Metroid Dread really worth 19 years of wait?

Yes. Metroid Dread is one of few games I’ve given a 10/10 score, and by golly it deserves. I cannot recommend this game enough, and if you haven’t played it yet I urge you to do so.

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And that’s a wrap for this episode of JOYSTiCK, specifically the pilot episode. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll come back for the next episodes. And if your interest in the Plaid Line has grown by this report, then check out others’ works.

By: Brogan Frey

On Wednesday, September 7th, 2022, Apple announced its new line of iPhones, the iPhone 14. There are 4 different versions of this new model, the iPhone 14, the iPhone 14 Pro, the iPhone 14 Plus, and the iPhone Pro Max, each including new features not yet seen before.

Both the regular 14 and the Pro will give you the pick out of 5 different colors. Midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and red.

All of the phones are water resistant, and all have a “ceramic shield” that Apple says is tougher than any smartphone glass. Basically, your phone will come with a screen protector as a part of the screen. 

And yet again, like Apple usually does, the phones are bigger as well as better with this new line. The iPhone 14 and the 14 Pro are 6.1 inches in length, and the Pro Max and the 14 Plus are both 6.7, making these 2 the biggest phones that Apple has released to date.

Something else that was expected with these new phones is the extended battery life. On the iPhone 14 Plus, the battery can last for up to 26 hours, and it will last up to 20 hours on the regular iPhone 14. All the phones can wirelessly charge, and there is also something that Apple has recently introduced that will speed up wireless charging, called the MagSafe charger. 

A new feature introduced with these phones is something that Apple is calling an “e-SIM” card. This e-SIM card would replace the physical card normally seen in most cell phones. This card is a digital version of the regular SIM card, allowing users to store multiple e-SIM cards, cellular plans, and phone numbers on the same phone.

The iPhone 14 costs $799, the Plus is $899, the Pro is $999, and the Pro Max is $1099. 

Along with the new iPhones, Apple announced three new Apple Watches, and a new set of AirPods. 

The new Apple Watches consist of the Series 8, the SE, and the Ultra. The most advanced of the three is the Ultra model, which is designed to help users track endurance training, scuba diving adventures, and triathlons.

The battery on this model lasts about 36 hours on a single charge, and is more water resistant than the previous model. It also includes an enhanced compass that can work at night, in the ocean, and in many other conditions.

The watches vary in price from around $249 for the SE, $399 for the Series 8, and $799 for the Ultra.

All the watches are available to order now, with the SE and the Series 8 available in stores on September 16th, and the Ultra model available on September 23rd. 

And finally, the last release of this year’s Apple drop, the new AirPods Pro 2. These AirPods have 6 hours of listening time with a single charge, which is better than the original version, which could only play for 5 hours on a single charge.

Another feature is a sound to help you locate the case or each individual earbud if you lose them. They now come with improved noise canceling technology, which can cancel out double the noise of the original version.

The AirPods Pro 2 cost $249 and are available to order. 

For more information, please visit:

• https://www.apple.com/