Cheesy Reviews

Media Name: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2005 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: 100% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 8/10 Despite this essentially being a tech demo for HDR made out of a scrapped section of Half-Life 2 , I still decided to play this anyway in between Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. I would have to say that I enjoyed this. The graphics have aged really well and still look beautiful. It was also fun as another level in Half-Life 2 which makes sense given that it was originally meant to be for the game. It was also fun to listen to the developer commentaries and hear insights on the game's development. Basically the only problems were that it was really easy (mostly because enemies can't attack you while listening to the commentaries) and really short. Other than that, this was a great tech demo and I'm glad that I decided to play it.

Media Name: Half-Life 2 Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2004 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 9/10 Given how much I liked the first Half-Life game , I was excited to play the second mainline entry in the series . I would have to say that it certainly lived up to my expectations. The controls were great and even better than in the first game. The story was a great continuation as well. I also really liked the music but I wish that it didn't cut out every time you entered a new area. I liked the weapon selection as well. I had a lot of fun playing this game and though there were very few bad things about it, the game wasn't perfect. The friendly AI got in the way quite a lot throughout the game. I also found that grenades sometimes bounced too much meaning that it was sometimes difficult to blow up my target. I was also confused by which ammo drops are for which weapons sometimes. Other th...

Media Name: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Media Type: Video Game Release Years: 2003 (GameBoy Advance), 2015 (Wii U Virtual Console) Game Director:  Hiroyuki Kimura Developer:  Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Played on: Wii U Virtual Console Completion Status: 100% (Main Game) Finished Playing: 29th November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 While I already have a GameBoy Advance copy of this game, and could also play the All-Stars and NES versions if I wanted to, I chose to buy this game again on the Wii U Virtual Console so that I could play the E-Reader card levels. This review is only focused on the main game however. I really enjoyed this one and I would have to say that it is my favourite of the NES Mario games. I really liked the controls for the most part and found them to be very responsive. The game has some great level design which was actually quite challenging to get through at times. The graphics, sound design and music of this version were also really nice. Bas...

Media Name: Half-Life: Blue Shift Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2001 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 15th November 2022 My Rating: 6/10 This was the second Half-Life spin-off game that I played and since I enjoyed Opposing Force , I expected this one to also be really fun. It was just ok. Since it had the same engine as the previous two games, I encountered a lot of the same issues. I also found this one to be way too easy. It was also way too short as it took me just over 2 hours to complete. The world design was confusing sometimes as well as there were times where I got lost since I didn't know where to go. Other than that though, I did like the story and sometimes it was fun. Overall, while far from bad, this is definitely the weakest of the Half-Life Goldsource era games. At least the next one is Half-Life 2.

Media Name: Half-Life: Opposing Force Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1999 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 I knew going into the spin-off games that they weren't that relevant to the plot but I still wanted to try them out anyway. I didn't actually know the order of the spin-offs release and it's just a coincidence that I ended up playing this one that released first before Blue Shift that released after. I'd have to say that I really enjoyed this one. I found it to be quite fun to play similarly to the original Half-Life . The weapons and graphics just like the original have aged really well. I did find though that it crashed more often than the original (chances are Valve aren't as focused on updating these games). The friendly AI could sometimes be a bit dumb as well and either not shoot anything or walk in front of enemy gunfire. One of m...

Media Name: Half-Life Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1998 Developer:  Valve Publisher:  Sierra Studios Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 12th November 2022 My Rating: 8.5/10 I've had the Half-Life games sat in my Steam library for a while now and despite hearing nothing but great things about them, I only just got around to playing them. I really enjoyed this first one and found it to have aged extremely well. The controls were really good and nice to use. The graphics, to say that they are from 1998, still look really good. I enjoyed using the different weapons and the resource management aspect of the game. The story was also really good. Pretty much the only problem was that sometimes it was difficult to figure out what I was supposed to do. Overall, this was a great game and I'd have to say that it is one of the best games I have ever played and I will definitely play it again.

Media Name: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels Media Type: Video Game Release Years: 1986 (Famicom Disk System), 1993 (SNES) Game Directors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka Developer:  Nintendo R&4D Publisher: Nintendo Played on: SNES Completion Status: 100% Finished Playing: 6th November 2022 My Rating: 3/10 I absolutely love the Super Mario series which is why I decided to play all of them. I really wanted to like this one, I really did but I hated it. The level design was terrible with it sometimes feeling more like I was playing a Kaizo Mario game instead of an official Mario game, especially with how many times I died because of Kaizo blocks. The enemy placement and some of the jumps could be be both bad and strange. I also felt that the difficulty in worlds A-D was weird and levels were either really difficult or really easy. Other than those factors, despite being recycled from SMB1, the controls, music and graphics were good. Another factor that I liked was that since ...

Media Name: Super Mario Bros. Media Type: Video Game Release Years: 1985 (NES), 1993 (SNES) Game Director: Shigeru Miyamoto Developer:  Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Played on: SNES Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 1st November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 I decided to play through every single one of the original Super Mario games though playing the versions which I believe to be definitive. This obviously meant starting with the first one, Super Mario Bros. I chose the All-Stars version of the game mostly because it meant that there were save files without using save states meaning that whenever I died, I didn't have to hold down a combination of buttons to continue the game. I really enjoyed it. I liked the controls for this version of the game. The level design is overall really good (although I don't like some levels). The updated graphics and music are both amazing and use the updated hardware to their advantage. I had a lot of fun playing this game.. other than world...

Media Name: Countdown: The Game Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2009 Developers: Sanuk Games, RingZero Game Studio Publisher: Mindscape Played on: Wii Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th October 2022 My Rating: 7.5/10 I used to be obsessed with Countdown so this was the game show game that I was looking forward to playing the most. I enjoyed it, it as it was intended. The gameplay was quite fun and same as the game show. It has a really good range of difficulty options to choose from. The UI looked nice and was pleasing to the eye. Also the classic Countdown theme song was present which is one of the best parts of the show. Basically the only problem was that the AI was kinda really easy even on medium mode. There were also a lot of rounds and it was unclear as to how many there were. Overall, this was a really good game based on a game show and .

Media Name: Deal or No Deal: The Banker is Back! Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2008 Developers: Endemol Publisher: Mindscape Played on: Wii Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th October 2022 My Rating: 6/10 I used to watch Deal or No Deal quite a lot years ago so this was one of the game show games that I was most looking forward to playing. I enjoyed it, despite the RNG reliance, it was actually quite fun. The graphics were quite decent with Noel Edmonds' model actually looking decent (though some of the rest looked laughably bad). There were some times where it would be funny with the characters dancing. One of the problems though were that while the game had other modes besides regular Deal or No Deal, they weren't very good with Break the Bankers Code basically being a crappy number version of Wordle and Banker's game just being to watch AI play the game until you offer money as the Banker. The naming keyboard was also probably the worst one I've eve...

Media Name: Family Fortunes Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2009 Developers: Talkback Thames, Slam!, Freemantle Media Publisher: Mindscape Played on: Wii Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th October 2022 My Rating: 5.5/10 I kinda ended up deciding that I wanted to collect every single game based on a game show that released on the Wii in PAL regions. I'll only review the ones that I was actually able to finish at least a round of. This one I wouldn't say is based on a gameshow that I loved but I did watch it a bit years ago. Basically it's just the British version of Family Feud. The game was ok, the gameplay was average as unlike most Family Feud games where you enter your answer, this one you have a list of answers. I'd say that I would've rather entered the answers but this works too. The character models were all extremely ugly though that made them really funny to look and laugh at. You have the alternative of using Miis but I think it's funn...

Media Name: Muddy Heights 2 Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2016 Developer: Rageborn Studio, LLC Played on: PC Completion Status: 100% Finished Playing: 30th September 2022 My Rating: 7/10 I played the first Muddy Heights game years ago after watching a let's play of it on YouTube and I found it to be fun. I didn't end up getting the second game until I saw it on sale this year. I'd have to say, it was a good game. I found it to be quite funny at times. The gameplay was quite fun when I actually had active powerups which allowed for more movement options and more time. The powerups themselves were pretty good as well. I found the human animations to be decent but funny (though I guess that's what should be expected from a game that's literally about pooping off of a building). Pretty much the only problems were that some of the quests were a bit confusing to figure out what to do to unlock them and that it was extremely short. I don't mean that the main gam...