Games 1-6
This is going to be out of order because I played some beat 'em ups in the middle of my Devil May Cry project.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge
2-player co-op playthrough using the two new character, Mondo Gecko and Mona Lisa
This was the fourth time I've played through this game and honestly, I can see myself playing through this every year. I love the pixel art, the animation, the music, the bosses, the environments, it's just all-around a great game and I think it may be the best game in this genre.
River City Girls
2-player New Game + playthrough
I played this back when it first launched and eventually dropped it because of the never-ending grinding and spongy enemies. Fortunately, my brother finished it, and we sat down for a new game + session. This game has some great pixel art, fantastic music and the gameplay is the right level of complex without being overly complicated, that is except for the grinding and enemies that never stay down on your first playthrough. The problem with enemies taking so many his is that it drags you out of the adventure part of the game and by the time you're done you just want it to be over. I avoided that by starting at level 30, making the game much more fun to play despite the fact ng+ ramps up the difficulty.
River City Girls 2
2-Player New Game + playthrough
This game looks identical to the first, the music is very similar to the first and basically everything here is an extension of the first game. That's not to say there isn't anything new. The combat has been expanded, but still not over-complicated. The map is significantly larger despite being the same location. There are more enemy types, more music, more of everything. Unfortunately, there's more grinding and more spongey enemies so once again I played with my brother who took the time to unlock ng+ so we could run through the game more quickly. Quickly isn't a thing in this game, even starting at level 30 and having already unlocked all the hidden items, the game took 11 hours. 11 hours in a beat 'em up is an eternity. I think this game could have shed a few areas and would have been better for it. The game also has a tendency to send you on fetch quests through areas you just passed through quite often, padding the time even more.
Devil May Cry 3
Completed playthrough
This game was just great. I enjoyed DMC and despite hearing it was a complete pile of shit I actually didn't mind DMC 2. DMC 3 is a prequel to those games featuring a younger, absolutely insane version of Dante. He's a complete goof of a character (in a good way) who is constantly cracking jokes and doing hilarious stuff. At one point you fight a big-veiny-boobed vampire demon and after winning she turns into a guitar which Dante actually goes on to play in a cutscene (image related). Combat in this game was great, lots of moves to string together and plenty of enemies and bosses to use them on. I'd rate the game higher but unfortunately, I played this through the Devil May Cry HD Collection which was cobbled together by monkeys who put zero effort into these ports, so the game has zero settings, 1080p resolution cap, 240p cutscenes and menus designed for the PS2 era. Absolutely great game, but it needs to be played outside this collection on its own.
Devil May Cry 4
Completed playthrough
This game is better than a 75 but this version of the game isn't. I actually really enjoyed it, but the Steam version of the game is broken for Win11 users. In order to even launch the game, I had to download a hex editor and modify the game. Then to change the resolution to match my 1440p monitor I also had to make changes using the hex editor. After that, the game would sometimes hang when cutscenes started, so after killing a boss I'd often get an infinite loading screen. The game itself looks great, plays great, the world is once again fun to explore and find secrets in. The characters are fantastic, and the boss fights are almost all great. Nero's evolution throughout the game as he discovers the truth about the organization he works with was done well. Dante is older now than in DMC 2 so he's a bit more reserved, though still quick with the one-liners. The combat is more fluid than earlier games. Traversal can get a bit annoying; Nero has a grappling ability that's a bit janky but it's not game-breaking. The game's worst offender is the last boss. I had no idea what the game wanted me to do and spent way too much time getting slammed by massive fists before I figured it out. In a game that is nothing but smooth boss fights one after another, the boss is way out of place.
Devil May Cry 5
Completed playthrough
The RE Engine is such a great engine. This game looks phenomenal and despite my hardware being pretty outdated, I ran this at 1440p/120fps locked with no upscaling and max settings with a ReShade running and my PC barely cared. On top of looking good, the combat has been polished to an incredible level. Everything is moving lightning fast on screen, with characters teleporting around constantly but at no point did I lose track of my character. Combos are slick and rewarding to pull off, attacks blend seamlessly into each other, and the fights are just fun. The boss fight are massive events, incorporating the surrounding areas, destroying buildings, using the level as part of the fight itself. All of the character (that actually matter) return, and the new characters are great. Nico was especially fun, a complete yokel of a girl who speaks like that one kid in everyone's elementary school that was kind of an asshole, but everyone liked them anyway. I also really got a kick out of the attention to detail and care in the game. In one of the boss fights, the boss had an answer to every attack I pulled off. At one point he stole the hat off my head and wore it, I used my motorcycle swords (yes you read that right) and when I combined them to launch a motorcycle as a missile he cut my bike in half, he broke the blade off my sword, he tangled my nunchucks up, he deflected my rocket launcher, it was awesome. The biggest negative I could come up with for the game was that the exploration, that to me was a staple in earlier entries, was kind of just gone from this game. It was mostly point A to B traversal with a lot of battles in between. Given the genre it's not the end of the world, but I did miss it. The other glaring issue with DMC 5 is whatever they did to Trish and Lady's faces. Trish especially looks like a gargoyle on meth. Luckily mods exist so in my game their faces looked more like they did in DMC 4. This is a truly great action game, even if you never played the earlier games there is a synopsis of the events leading up to DMC5 on the title screen, though I would recommend playing at least DMC3 and 4 as well.
