Monster Camp XXL Review

Monster Camp is the sequel to Monster Prom; a sort of dating sim/party game hybrid where you raise stats, pick solutions to problems that arise and attempt to win the heart of one of Spooky High’s most popular students. It was hilarious, and I’ve been looking forward to the console release of this for a while.

So this time around you’re on a trip to Camp Spooky, and instead of trying to secure a prom date you’re looking to view an upcoming meteor shower with the camper of your choice. Most of them had hidden routes in Monster Prom and have been upgraded to main characters; Witch living in a TV show Joy, Anime-loving, buff demoness Dahlia and, my favourite, Monster hunter Aaravi; a young woman cursed by a snacking, reality TV watching spirit named Hex and living a life governed by RPG rules. Kind-hearted computer boy Calculester and silver spoon-sucking, arson and knives loving demon prince Damien had main roles in Monster Prom, leaving only one entirely new romance option: Milo. Milo is a non-binary grim reaper and social media influencer who adores life and all that it can offer. Apart from Zoe, personally I much prefer Camp’s romance options to Prom’s. Aaravi, Milo and Dahlia in particular are all fantastic. The magazine quiz from Prom has been replaced with picking three items to pack for the trip; these affect your starting stats, of which “Money” is no longer one. A question or choice of action to break the ice on the trip determines whom you’ll be trying to woo, and you’re off; spending time in different locations to increase your Boldness, Smarts, Fun, Charm and Creativity. Each location always offers a boost to the same stat, so you can farm the one you want, and after doing so you’ll encounter the game’s main focus: dealing with dumb, outlandish situations that you have to solve, picking from one of two options. They act as stat checks, and you can’t choose which two stats the game will offer up, nor does the game tell you the number required to pass them. All manner of things can happen: dealing with ghosts or a serial killer, surviving in the woods, convincing Damien that the mouth fleshlight his Dads accidentally put in his luggage is actually a pocket friend who offers words of encouragement… For the most part it’s all goofy, silly stuff, and each character has multiple storylines they’re following, with secret endings to unlock that lead to an ending other than watching the meteor shower together.

The funny stuff is, just like Monster Prom, laugh out loud hilarious. The writing is sharp, with an excellent mix of dark humour, silly moments and bizarre rug pulls like the secret ending where you fail to pass a test proving you aren’t a bear, and so actually turn into one and just watch the meteor shower yourself because you’re all you need. One of the biggest laughs I’ve had in a long time came from a situation where a teacher took Damien’s face away, leading to a rapid series of jokes that all hit hard. Each character has a distinct personality, goals and likes, and different combinations of the other campers will often get involved in situations. There’s also a cast of side characters who show up now and then. To name a few; a bat lady version of Katniss Everdeen, a chameleon camp councillor who is supposedly a master of disguise despite his costumes looking like they were made for a school play but worse somehow, and the weretiger P.E teacher from Monster Prom, here obsessed with preparing the campers for bear attacks.

It’s not all gut-busting shenanigans though, the game has some lovely emotional, more serious moments too, often during the hidden routes. Joy’s involves dealing with her exes and helping her break the cycle of toxic relationships. Aaravi’s involves helping her open up emotionally and slowly start to build a relationship. Milo helps you prepare for your apparent upcoming death with a glorious celebration of life, you endearing yourself to them by revelling in life rather than worrying about death. The writing is fantastic across the board, regardless of what emotional state it’s going for. For all the sex jokes, comedy violence and goofy dumb bullshit there are plenty of just wholesome, pleasant moments with likable characters. Not that the sex jokes, comedy violence and goofy dumb bullshit are bad, far from it, I’m just saying; it does both really well, and strikes a good balance.

There are a few new features this time around: sometimes the two answers you have to choose from aren’t tied into stats, but instead appeal directly to one of two characters. Camp and Prom both have intermission sections where this happens anyway, but new to Camp is it happening during the active parts of the game. Twice per game you have access to alcoholic drinks that offer a variety of effects, from buffs and debuffs to unlocking secret endings and changing what the background music sounds like. Sometimes you’re asked to write answers in, which lead to a nice moment where Milo lamented that, had we had more time together we could have watched Predator 2. It most often comes up when talking to gossip-loving mothperson Moss Mann, who spreads rumours that offer stat boosts and decreases seemingly at random. That’s the game’s only real problem, it’s unpredictability. Sometimes one of your two choices is clearly a bad one, but what seems like a pretty safe option might go horribly wrong, and it’s not apparent 1) if that’ll be the case and 2) just how badly it’ll mess things up. I had a really good run trying to romance Joy, then picked what seemed to be the better of the two final options and made her hate me. You can play a short or long game, with the runtime being about thirty and sixty minutes respectively, and it’s annoying to completely nail every choice then mess it up right near the end. You can sometimes salvage it, but not often. Also, once you’re on a certain camper’s path you can’t change the target of your affection. You can ask anyone to the meteor shower at the end of a game, but you can’t focus your efforts on anyone other than whoever you pick at the start through the icebreaker.

Monster Camp is a great time. The characters are distinct and likable, the writing is superb and strikes a good balance between serious emotional moments and hilarity, and the whole thing is just really fun. I love it.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

The King of Fighters XV Review

I only got properly into King of Fighters recently, but it’s become possibly my favourite fighting game series. Last year I bought up pretty much every Fatal Fury and KOF on the PSN store, played them, loved them and got super hype for this; the latest instalment. If you’re unaware, my approach to fighting games isn’t learning all the ins and outs, pouring over frame data and taking them online; I just play them for fun. What I look for in fighting games is satisfying combat, cool characters yelling move names and good presentation, and in that regard, KOF rules supreme. They also have good stories and final bosses for the most part, which is always a plus. 1999 is my favourite story based KOF because I love K’, Krizalid and the ending where you sprint for your life through a sewer while the NESTS cartel talk about how they’re going to mess you up going forward. My favourite dream match KOF is 2002 UM, because I think of the 2-D ones it looks and plays the best, and has the best roster. My custom team is K’, Leona and King. Let’s get into it.

The story, unfortunately, is the next chapter in the Shun’ei saga; he and Meitenkun are joined by Benimaru for some reason, with a new rival team consisting of floaty hands user and tagger Isla, shamaness Dolores and Heidern of all people. According to Dolores, if Shun’ei and Isla combine their efforts they should be able to tackle a new, far cooler form of 14’s final boss Verse called Reverse, as well as Otoma=Raga; the god she’s here to summon. The story is sparse and uninteresting; Isla doesn’t like Shun’ei in a tsundere way, her floaty hands turn into Reverse but are still present if you’re playing as her (I was hoping for a situation like in ’97 where someone else would take her place, but sadly that didn’t happen), and you kick the shit out of Otoma=Raga and send her on her way back to the void from which she came. Different endings identify her as an African god of creation, but there’s no real explanation of why she in particular was summoned, what Reverse was planning (if anything) or what the connection between the two is. Isla is a better protagonist than Shun’ei, and there are some hints at characterisation for them both, but they don’t have a lot to work with, and while they’re a step up from Verse, the bosses here aren’t particularly interesting. Making things worse is firstly, thanks to Verse being defeated in KOF 14 and having all the souls contained within returned to life, Rugal could have made a triumphant return as the final boss. Secondly, along the same lines, team Orochi are back, and team Sacred Treasures have re-formed to stop them. I’m not saying they should just re-do KOF ’97, but maybe include the key players in this story given that they’re all here?

Fortunately despite the story being weak, everything else is great. The team endings have some neat cameos, good character work, and set things up for some of the confirmed DLC characters. Every first opponent you fight gets a nice little narrated intro, and certain characters have unique intros where they interact. The roster’s been cut down quite a bit since KOF 14, in particular that game’s mountain of new additions; the focus here is very much on this arc’s protagonists and series favourites. The only new characters for this instalment are the aforementioned Isla and Dolores, as well as Krohnen; the new identity of K9999; a character temporarily shitcanned for being a blatant rip off of Tetsuo from Akira. Personally I didn’t feel like anyone was missing, though there are definitely characters I enjoyed playing as more than others. I beat story mode with every team so as to get a good idea of how every character plays, and this is the game that made me realise how great Clark, Ralf, Athena and Vanessa are. The actual fighting is as good as it’s ever been; the universal dodge button adds an extra dimension to defence, the hits are all impactful and weighty, and the returning auto combo system is useful for when I need to quickly do a bunch of damage to the final boss, or use a super that requires an awkward input. It’s a bit awkward to activate though, which can be frustrating, although I’ve been using it less and less as I’ve played the game more. If you haven’t played KOF, it’s a Street Fighter-style mix of motion and charge characters, with everyone being easy to pick up and use to at least a passable degree. The auto combo system helps in that regard, and it suits my style; a mixture of timing, special moves and single, powerful normals.

Graphically the game is a step-up from 14; the characters all look sharp and detailed, and the faces have improved. There aren’t a lot of stages, but they’re all vibrant and detailed, in particular the one that has a background full of things from Metal Slug; characters, vehicles, weapon power ups; as a fan of that series it’s great to see it get a look in. Also, the soundtrack is wall to wall bangers; they’re all super catchy and suit the tone of the fights.

KOF XV is more KOF; cut down a bit and more focused than 14 but, in my opinion, better for it. It’s fun to play, it looks great, it sounds great, it’s just a shame the story is pretty poor. It won’t worry my two favourites, but it’s another good game in the series.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

The Book of Boba Fett Review

I have a pretty limited relationship with Star Wars. I like films 4-8, a couple of the games and one issue of a comic, but that’s it. Never been into the cartoons or any of the expanded universe stuff. I did really like The Mandalorian though, because instead of being a Star Wars story it was about a wandering space ronin/cowboy with a cool helmet doing cool space ronin/cowboy things and learning to open up as a person. It also, in my opinion anyway, made Boba Fett cool. Despite my hatred for the prequels I even liked that they brought back Temura Morrison. They provided some extra information that confirmed he and his father are both legit Mandalorians, had him actually show off his skills in combat, and ended with him seizing control of Jabba’s throne, so I was all hype for this, his solo series. Please note that this review will contain spoilers.

Having crawled his way out of the Sarlacc with the help of his wrist-mounted flamethrower, Boba Fett is in a bad way. The first two episodes alternate between showing what happened to him after that; held captive by a Tusken Raider tribe until he saved one of their lives and became accepted as one of them, and his current task of making the people of Mos Espa respect him as their new Daimyo. His time living among the Tuskens taught him the importance of kinship, he’s sick of seeing bounty hunters and assassins used and thrown away by stupid, rash employers and he intends to rule through respect; eschewing being carried around on a platform in favour of walking everywhere and meeting face to face with those he would rule, sparing people who wronged him and always being open to negotiation. When he isn’t walking the streets or holding court in full armour, he has to sleep in a Dragon Ball Z=esque healing tank because thanks to the Sarlacc’s stomach acid he’s about 70% scar tissue. Mos Espa’s mayor mugs him off, and Jabba’s cousins are in town looking to take over his enterprise; this is a strong set up. Unfortunately, it’s here that things get a bit messy. Having established the Hutts as a threat, they immediately realise that they and Boba are being played against each other and split. Episodes 3 and 4 are heavy on flashbacks, showing tragedy befall the Tuskens and how Boba met Fennec Shand and reclaimed his ship, then 5 and 6 barely feature the title character at all, as they pivot to show us what Din Djarin’s been up to instead. Don’t get me wrong; I love Mando, him reuniting with his sect was interesting and he’s an important ally for Fett, but it feels like the intrigue set up around who’s going to give the big man trouble is rushed in its set up, when that should be the focus of the show. It is, after all, “The Book of Boba Fett”. Having spent most of the runtime on flashbacks and Din Djarin rather than establishing the threat to Boba’s rule, an uninteresting villain takes the stage for a big showdown in the finale episode, which, to be fair to it, is good fun.

The supporting cast are a mixed bag; there’s a heavy metal Wookie with electric knuckle dusters, he’s cool. There’s also a gang of cyborg mods, as in the Quadrophenia kind, who I’m not so sure of. I don’t really have anything against them, but they don’t add anything either; I’m not one of these people inexplicably furious that one of them does a 360 spin before shooting someone. Fett recruits them early on and uses them for recon despite the fact they all stick out like a sore thumb, because they’re the only people in Star Wars who drive brightly coloured space-vespas and have droid parts grafted onto their bodies. Cad Bane makes his live action debut, which didn’t mean anything to me because I’ve not seen The Clone Wars, but he seemed pretty cool. As I sit here and think about it, it seems like even more of a mess; Boba Fett feels like part of an ensemble rather than the star of the show, something that can’t be said about Din Djarin in his series. For what it’s worth, I really liked the Mando episodes, and the pieces all falling into place as they did for the blow-out finale was satisfying. Taken as a whole, I enjoyed the series a lot, but it does dip in that middle third. What time is spent on Fett and right-hand woman Fennec Shand is good; she is a cold-blooded killing machine who offers council and insists her boss not take any shit. He is battered, weary and genuinely trying to help the people of Mos Espa. The stuff with Fett and the Tuskens learning from each other, and them welcoming him into their culture adds some nice texture to his character and helps make his transition from ice cold bounty hunter to community leader feel natural. What I could do without, personally, was more of Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano because I find Jedi boring, but their scenes had the conclusion I naively hoped for, so I appreciated that. It also nicely sets up a potential third season of The Mandalorian, which I’m all for.

Weak villains, wonky pacing and shifting focus to other characters threaten to hobble The Book of Boba Fett, but despite it all, I enjoyed it. Having Fett take over a criminal enterprise and change its MO to one of respect and compromise, fuelled by his time with the Tusken Raiders is great. Din Djarin’s story is furthered in interesting ways, and the big blow-out finale is a good time. It has its issues, but overall I think it’s a good series, and I’d definitely watch a second season.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Windjammers 2 Review

Recently I thought it was finally time for me to climb aboard the Xbox Game Pass train. The reasons for doing so were twofold. Firstly, previous releases: games I never got around to playing, a game I loved as a child without putting down money for it (which was the right move) and dipping my toe into online multiplayer with the attached Live Gold subscription. The second reason was new games; a chance to broaden my horizons a bit, review different types of games and not limit myself to ones I have to buy. First up; Windjammers 2, a sequel to a Neo Geo game from the 90s, which I think explains why a man who looks a lot like Wolfgang Krauser is in it.

Basically, it’s air hockey but with people throwing a flying disc, with a smidgen of volley ball thrown in. One player serves, the other can catch it and throw it back, gently bop it so it lands just over the net or smash it back. If the disc goes high into the air you can jump up and smash it back it into the ground, or you can wait underneath it to charge up special throws, which can also be used by filling up a meter. The wall behind each player has three sections; two for three points, one for five points, and if the disc hits the floor anywhere else and isn’t returned, an amount of points are awarded, dependant on the arena. It took some time for me to learn it, not helped by the tutorial just being a series of diagrams with corresponding button presses, but once I got it down and, surprisingly, started playing online, it quickly became immensely satisfying. I’ve gone through periods in the past of playing online multiplayer, the last one being Rainbow Six Siege before it got a bit big and E-Sporty for me, but this is the first time in my life I’ve preferred and sought out online play in a videogame. There are single player options; matches against the CPU and an arcade ladder, but for me the game is at its best when you’re taking on real humans with varying levels of skill and therefore difficulty. The single player modes are still fun, although the arcade mode is surprisingly harsh; you start with a fixed number of credits (two on easy, one on normal, zero on hard) and can only earn more by filling an experience meter over the course of your matches. Characters all have varying amounts of speed and power, as well as their own unique special throws, and arenas have different sizes, goal layouts and sometimes obstacles in the middle. One arena, the Casino, has a unique element where the disc is worth a random amount of points from one to eight. If you lose a match in the arcade mode, you can’t change character, only switch between the two opponents the game offers you, each locked into an arena you can’t change. It’s quite sparse as things go; once you choose a character you’re locked in until you win or lose the whole thing.

Regardless of mode, the gameplay is fantastic. It’s quick, pacey and satisfying; rebounding the disc off walls, catching it and swiftly chucking it back, doing a sneaky lob shot to try and catch out your opponent; it’s ace. Despite being set in 2003 the game has something of an 80s vibe; it’s very bright and colourful, with lots of summery locations and a woman in a bikini throwing a disc to whoever’s serving. The only problem I have is that the game will sometimes give me the wrong amount of points; I’ll smash it into the five point section and it’ll give me three, or the other way around. It’s not a big deal, but it is a bit annoying. It’s quick, it’s fun and win or lose, I have a good time. Mind you, I don’t care about losing anyway, I just play for fun, but even so; it’s great win or lose.

So that’s Windjammers 2: a sports game so fun it made me prefer and actively seek out online multiplayer. That alone makes it noteworthy, but it’s also a fun, satisfying game that I thoroughly enjoy playing. Good stuff.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18