PPR Presents Play Play: Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker

ne of most celebrated features in Super Mario 3D World were the Captain Toad sections; off-shoot mini-levels that involved the guidance of the intrepid Captain Toad through a gyroscopic stage of obstacles and danger—these sections were really dope.

In our review, George mentioned how this element of the game itself would be strong enough to be its own game; and just like that, as if Nintendo had its own NSA-like surveillance, they put their finger to the dial, and released an entire game centered around the dynamics of Captain Toad, in Captain Toad Treasure Tracker.

Join Catie and George as they give us a tour on what may be one of the most underrated exclusives that the Wii U has to offer in this brand new Play Play!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

QCF: Ray Gigant Review

he Dungeon RPG has been around for a very long time. Games like Might and Magic on yesterday's Personal Computer might have cemented the sub-genre long before today's gaming environment but these days, the PlayStation Vita is where it's at from some dungeon-crawling goodness. Games such as Operation Abyss, Demon Gaze and many more have given players a lot of choice for their Dungeon-crawling needs, with mixed results. Acctil's Ray Gigant aims to take a heavy stab at the genre, but is it worth a second glance?

Well, that's very hard to say—Ray Gigant charges out of the gate with a huge number of anime and RPG tropes practically oozing all over the place. Giant catastrophe in Tokyo and abroad at the hands of giant monsters, check, central character that gets caught up but survives said catastrophe, check; how about some Living jewelry that prevented his certain demise? Check. Cast of by-the-book characters and archtypes, we’ll throw on another check. Or what about being saved by a post-apocalyptic organization looking to eradicate an enemy menace, that’s a big check right there.

And it happens to be a high school even, Double-check—it goes on and on and on.

I'm sure if layers haven’t experienced much in the line of Japanese RPGs or anime in the last, oh, 20 years, seeing all of these typical elements with fresh eyes and no previous experience might enthrall them. For the rest of us, reactions could range from single eyebrow lifting to optical nerve injuring eye rolls, and the story notwithstanding, what can we expect from the actual gameplay?

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QCF: Star Fox Zero

et's just get this out of the way before we get going: You know what the Wii U is? Yes, that's right, it's its own thing. As far as the gaming landscape these days goes, all you typically need to get the best gaming has to offer is either one of Sony's or Microsoft's gaming boxes and a PC. But what if you want something a little more lighthearted? A little different? Well, that's where the Wii U comes in.

And you really don’t get a Wii U unless you're both ready and willing to play games the way Nintendo envisions them. Oftentimes, that includes using the technology that they have based their system around; which in this case—that would be the Game Pad.

If you don’t like the idea of motion controls or tablet-style gameplay, then ignore this review, because you shouldn't have a Wii U to begin with. With all of that said, Nintendo still manages to irritate me quite a bit, but when it comes to Star Fox, nothing keeps me from my fix.

You may have seen various pieces from around the interwebs; specifically from larger publications which, for all intents and purposes, shall remain nameless—claiming that Star Fox Zero is nigh-unplayable, that there's just so much busted about the game that it's not worth even a casual glance. Well, you can all just relax already, because Star Fox Zero is good—very good, in fact. Maybe even great, but we'll have to look a little deeper to see if that's an adequate description of Nintendo's sixth (released) core entry to the series.

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QCF: Dark Souls III

idetaka Miyazaki’s saga of “Souls” titles has left quite an impact upon the benchmark of action games, and the expectations held of its caliber—it’s almost inspired its own sort of sub-genre of gaming. With inspired contemporaries even garnering a modicum of success, it’s no wonder that Dark Souls III was announced so quickly, coming hot off the heels of From Software’s collaboration with Sony on the PS4 exclusive, Bloodborne.

Being as this is technically the fifth go-around, one has to think upon whether or not so many entries might potentially dilute the charm that make these games so exciting, and risk the danger of recycling familiar the same dynamics under a simple fresh coat of paint.

You’d be half right, but mostly wrong (don’t make me explain the math on that one, just read what I have to say) because while the familiarity of the venture is slightly fatiguing, the rush that the gameplay is famous for delivering is ever potent. Not to worry though; Dark Souls III has plenty of new features to really give this sequel the kick in you the ass that you wanted from it from the get go, and the adrenaline keeps freshness rolling from start to finish to boot.

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PPR Presents Play Play: Miitomo

egardless of how you may feel about the Wii U, the fact that Nintendo has launched a mobile app across major marketplaces like iOS, and Google Play is a really big deal. Even though this is the first piece of software to release outside of the Big N’s proprietary hardware, the app is definitely as “Nintendo” as it can get, and Georgie decides to give you all a tour of the app in action, and what you can do with it.

I mean, it IS free, check out our Play Play, and give it a whirl; oh, and add George because he could use some more friends, that loser…

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Bullet Heaven HD, Episode 150 - RefRain ~Prism Memories~

egica is back with more shooting goodness from across the Pacific. Annunced at PAX East, RefRain ~Prism Memories~ is a vertical shooter with some really cool features and deep scoring mechanics. How does it stack up?  

QCF: Pokkén Tournament

 think it’s safe to say that by this point, no one who isn’t familiar with the concept of Pokémon, even by a little bit, is a stranger to the vast expanses of its giant monster filled world. We’ve extensively covered the various spin-off titles offered by the series, but there was always one particular genre of game that was strangely missing from the lineup of titles billed around battling collectible monsters with another; a competitive fighting game.

In a collaboration with Bandai Namco and The Pokémon Company, one of the most ambitious spin-offs in the franchise has now broken ground onto the Wii U with Pokkén Tournament, a project that was headed by the same force responsible for Tekken. The potential here sounds like a match that’s worthy of Helix Fossil’s praise, but Namco Bandai’s track record with Tekken and other collaborative efforts (*cough TEKKEN VERSUS STREET FIGHTER) has been a little to spotty not be worried.

It’s definitely not as complex, or as deep as the as the source material that it stems from, but the fighting engine at work, but it is built with just the right blend of accessibility and frenetic adrenaline to please both fighting game gurus, and Pokéfanatics alike.

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Bullet Heaven HD, Episode 149 - 1917: The Alien Invasion

ould first-world-war airpower tae on an alien menace? It takes less time to drive these days than to fly in one of those old sky jalopies, but Andrade Games' 1917: The Alien Invasion might just hold the answer to this burning question. How does this "Memorization Bullet Hell" shooter stack up?

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