Recent reviews by janner66

The premise is simple. Just fire your football at enemies to destroy them in the hope that they may drop a medallion for you to pick up. Collecting fifteen medallions moves you on to the next level where there are more difficult enemies to contend with. Occasionally, a defeated foe will release a football streaker which if caught will reward you with an extra life, up to a maximum of six lives.

This game gets quite frantic quite quickly. The football bounces randomly around the screen and then just stops somewhere for you to go and pick up. The enemies have no fixed movement patterns and can change direction at a moments notice, so just retrieving the ball is a challenge. Once you have the ball you start to walk slower so you need to get rid of it quickly. The game area is quite small and more enemies seem to spawn on regular occasions making it quite congested at times. Your character moves quite swiftly and you get just as much satisfaction out of dodging enemies than you do by destroying them.

There are a lot of different enemies, some can shoot at you, some drop webs which you and the ball can get caught in, some fire lazers, and they all move at different paces. Even if you hit them and they drop a medallion you then have to weigh up whether it is safe to retrieve it or not. Medallions disappear after about ten seconds so sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. This makes the game quite exciting.

Five achievements have just been added which will definitely prolong the experience, but two of these will be very challenging to acquire. My highest score was sixty-nine whereas the last achievement is for two hundred and forty medallions. It would be nice to see some leader boards introduced.

Football Squad is a fun little arcade game that is challenging but fun in small bursts. The next progression would be to add leader boards and maybe some more achievements to prolong game time, but for less than £1 it's good value for money already, and will provide an hour or two of fun.

I really enjoyed my time with Schim, a funny looking blob that represents the inner essence of our protagonist that is ripped out of him during a particularly stressful period of his life. It is up to us to get back to him and rejoin as one. As we follow him around, watching his day to day occurrences, like going to work, travelling around the city, and attending social events, we skip from shadow to shadow in pursuit of him. I really enjoyed this interaction with the character. It added a nice story element to the game which I wasn't expecting, and even though stories without words can often be problematic to understand sometimes, this story made perfect sense and was quite emotional.

The different locales he finds himself in make for some really imaginative and original puzzle playgrounds, jumping from shadow to shadow in zoos, playgrounds, factories, on the street, and many other interesting places. The world of Schim is quite entertaining and feels alive with people going about their business, and finding visual treats off the beaten track like a fireman rescuing a cat can feel rewarding and encourages exploration. Everything just looks amazing with an innovative aesthetic that is so cool. Even though it looks basic in a way, there is so much detail everywhere that places just look real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzcZNwXx7hs

Game play is as simple as jumping from one shadow to the next in pursuit of your other half. Things start off quite simple, and I was worried that the game was going to be too easy, but the difficulty does ramp up when you have to interact with objects to create shadows, and manipulate objects to get things moving so that you can jump on their shadow. There's puzzles like changing traffic lights to get pedestrians moving, so you can hop into their shadow, or hitch a ride on a moving vehicle. There are also unobtrusive objects like parasols and washing lines that can propel you over greater distances. The majority of the game does involve just finding a path to your next destination, but I never got bored jumping from shadows as there are some original mechanics and interesting objects to interactive with. I think there could have been more manipulation of objects to make the puzzles a little more difficult. I did get stuck a couple of times in the game, but that ended up being because I wandered too far away from the path I was meant to take and couldn't get back. There is a restart button but it does take you back to the start of the level, but because levels are broken up into tiny sections, it's not too much of a pain if this happens.

There are other Shims in the game, and you will see them as you travel around places. Sometimes, they appear when you find hidden objects, usually in out of way places, and other times finding these objects creates shadows you need to progress. The other Schims really confused me and I wasn't sure what I was meant to do with them. There is an achievement to reunite them all, but reunite them with who and how? There is an interact button but it didn't seem to do anything so I really don't know what that was all about and I feel like I have missed out on a facet of the game because it wasn't explained in the short tutorial at the start.

There are also achievements for finishing the game with only one jump allowed, which makes it much harder, and a risky mode where my understanding is that you have only twenty lives to complete the whole game! It is a shame that you cannot play chosen levels after you complete the game for mopping up achievements. As far as I can tell you need to play through the whole game again which I find frustrating and needless.

Schim is a highly original game, and that is not often said in a cluttered market where the same ideas are churned out over and over again. You can tell a lot of work has gone into designing these areas and some of the puzzles are very clever, if not a little easy in most areas.

Just as a puzzle game it stands out from the pack, but then you have the added bonus of a beautiful aesthetic, that is forever making you smile and nod with appreciation, and then a half decent story to boot. I have played many puzzle games with silent stories and they mostly never make sense, so to achieve an emotional story as well should be praised.

The game takes just over six hours to complete but there are harder modes if you want to repeat the journey afterwards which will add an extra dimension of challenge for sure.

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I did enjoy Superspec Rallycross for a few hours, but it felt like it needed more content and there wasn't much left to do after completing the Grand Prix, unless you enjoy chasing global leader board times.


The Grand Prix section has twelve cars to unlock as you progress through the circuits, but these cars cannot be upgraded, and as far as I could tell are all identical in power, so these are for a change in aesthetics only.

There are twenty circuits to race on in total in the championship, divided by by five days and four different races on each day. The races don't take very long to complete at all and it feels quite frantic. If you make a mistake, it is difficult to get back to the pack as the race isn't long enough to make any time up. Cars don't sustain any damage and it is an acceptable tactic to smash into them whilst going around corners to gain an advantage. Collisions feel very odd and almost like the cars are made of rubber, the way they bounce around. Personally, I didn't particularly like the feel of drifting around corners. It didn't feel very smooth and any braking allows the pack to overtake you, so it is just a case of putting your foot down and keeping it down most of the time. Going off track, like onto the grass, penalizes you heavily on straights and your car slows down, but you can slide across grass on corners as a good way to make an advantage for yourself. There are various obstacles around the track to prevent you from cutting corners. Some are made of stone (not very safe) and stop you in your tracks, whilst rubber tires can actually give you an advantage when you bounce off them, almost giving you a speed boost in the process.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287805775

Each track will have a joker route which adds a bit of tactical thinking to proceedings. The alternative route can either be a short cut and gain you loads of time, or it is a longer route and sets you back a little. Every car is required to take this alternative route only once during the race, although it can be missed or even repeated at the cost of a penalty point, so you can use that to your advantage in certain situations. There is also a bonus point for the fastest lap in each race.

When you first start playing the Grand Prix mode, you have to finish first on each day to unlock the next day, but once you have unlocked tracks, they will stay unlocked. This caused a little confusion for me whilst chasing the achievements. There are three difficulty levels, and achievements for winning the championship on each difficulty. I won the championship on the easy difficulty but when you play on the next difficulty, the tracks are all unlocked, and unless you play the championship from start to finish in one sitting, it is difficult to know where you were in the championship. I quit the game half way through a season and came back, only to be confused as to what was the next race in that championship I had started. I thought I had won every day on that difficulty but did not get the achievement, so there is either something wrong there, or that needs to be redesigned to make it less confusing.

Twenty tracks is quite generous, but it doesn't take long to complete them, as at most you only race five short laps. There are different terrains like asphalt, mud areas, and on snow, and I did see a little difference in handling on these different road conditions. There is no nitro boost or advantage at the start line if you time the lights well and no pit stops.


This mode allows you to play any of the twenty circuits against AI opposition, but it is only one race and afterwards you are thrown back to the menu screen. I suppose it is good for practicing the tracks but otherwise I see little point in this mode.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287791546

Time Trial can be fun if you enjoy competing on leader boards and racing against your fastest lap ghost. There are friends and global leader boards for each of the twenty tracks, but it only caters for five places, and currently there is an error on the friends leader board because it mirrors the exact position of your global leader board finishing position.

Instead of racing your ghost indefinitely until you've had enough, you are only allowed to race against your ghost for four laps so this adds a bit of urgency to the mode. I don't like the way you are thrown back to the menu after you've finished the last lap, not even giving you a chance to see the leader board, and have another go. Annoyingly, you have to go back into the mode and find the track if you want to repeat your attempt.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3287806015

Split Screen allows you to play with up to four other players locally on the same track, where the screen is split into four. There is no online racing unfortunately. This mode would also benefit from having a tournament where you raced laps individually on one full screen and competed against lap time perhaps.

SuperSpec Rallycross is a fun racer but it lacks a bit of content currently, mainly because it has no online racing, and because the races are so short the Grand Prix mode feels like it is over too quickly.

If you already own Circuit Superstars you will probably think this is a little inferior, but it does provide a different experience, and is worth a look. If you don't own Circuit Superstars then I would recommend buying that over this one currently.

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Detective Minerva Case promised to be a crime deduction and solving game, which appealed to me as I enjoy looking for clues and making deductions. I imagined scouring rooms for clues and taking evidence from bodies, reading emails, documentation, perhaps interviewing witnesses and travelling around to different locations, and uncovering an interesting story. There is hardly any of this in the game and it is very basic.

Game play solely involves entering a room and finding ten pieces of evidence, but the evidence is very obvious and there is no opening drawers, looking through filing cabinets, or even searching the murder victim. The most imaginative the searching gets is by clicking on the computer and reading the emails, otherwise it is just a case of finding evidence in plain sight and clicking on it. There was no further examination of any of the evidence and no analysis, like sending items off to the lab for finger prints or sending bullet cases to ballistics. There's no journal or any way to reference the evidence you have collected, it just floats around in the room so you will need to remember it. I often found evidence by accident by spamming the right mouse button and it would pick up nearby evidence without actually looking at it. Navigating the room was troublesome with a very loose camera and descriptions of evidence floating in the air often obstructed your view.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3281885589

Once you have collected it, you go back to the office and have to choose six pieces of evidence from the ten pieces you collected and then put them into chronological order of the events of the murder. The evidence is laid out crudely on the wall so you can reference it here, but the controls and camera are so poor that it is hard to even look at the evidence. The evidence board is even worse, and it is incredibly frustrating just trying to put a piece of evidence in one of the slots. I could not do it with my mouse and in the end had to use a combination of mouse and arrow keys.

Putting these items in chronological order is just guess work really as there is no deduction or any leg work gone into investigating the case. There is no story, cut scenes, or any interaction with other characters, so the story is completely derived from the evidence you collect. There's ten pieces of evidence, now put six of them on the board. I attempted to order the evidence but the process was so infuriating that I lost interest, and at this point my PC was getting worryingly hot and I had to come out of the game in fear my PC would get damaged.

The atmosphere of the game was quite intriguing with a futuristic vibe and flying cars outside the window but everything was very dark and I considered turning up the contrast to see what I was doing. The music was probably the best thing about the game as it did give a futuristic vibe but it was mostly ambient noise and there was no tune as such.

Detective Minerva Case was disappointing. There are not enough ways to search for evidence, not enough ways to analyse evidence, no suspects or witnesses to interview, and no story or investigation to be had. As a detective game it misses out the fun bits of finding evidence and gaining clues from that evidence.

I would have given it more time but the experience was frustrating and the game is poorly optimized, as my PC was getting very very hot.

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Hearts 3D Premium (Is there a non Premium version?) is a card game where you take tricks and try to avoid scoring points, the only exception is that if you take all of the tricks, including the Queen of Spades, you will add the maximum number of points to every other opponent on the table. I won't go into all the rules as there is a decent tutorial explaining the rules within the game, but that is it in a nutshell.

So, is it any good? That depends on your skill level at playing Hearts and whether you want an online match or are happy to play against the AI. At the moment you don't have much choice, as there is nobody online because the game is only a month old, and finding and setting up a lobby was a bit confusing I thought. It reminded me of playing card games decades ago where you have to enter your IP address for LAN matches and when hosting an internet game there was no lobby or message to suggest that other people could actually see your table, so I was left a bit confused. The game really needs a Discord group or Steam group to organize matches, which can be accessible in game, and the match making system needs to be overhauled to make it simpler and cleaner.

The actual game is presented well enough with a multitude of different environments to play in, fifteen different decks, fifteen different tables, and settings to adjust game speed. You can turn on and off shadows and reflections and adjust sound levels. There are five different tunes or a medley of those tunes, but you cannot hear them in the settings as you scroll through them which would have been welcomed. It worked on my ultra wide monitor without any changes and there is an option to play in windowed mode too.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3281225351

The rules of the game can be altered to suit your mood with up to six players playing at three different difficulty levels. Settings can determine finishing after x amount of rounds, or reaching x amount of points, and can include shooting the Sun, where you have to take every single trick, as opposed to shooting the moon, where you take all of the hearts and Queen of Spades. There are also variants where you can include Jokers which either instantly win or lose a trick. Shooting the Moon and Sun are great ways of injecting some tension and jeopardy into hands, but it is difficult to know who has already won tricks because they are not shown anywhere, so you will need to rely on your memory to keep track on things. Personally, I would like to see who has won tricks on the screen, or at least have that as an option in the settings so that people who prefer that can have it if they wish.

The AI difficulty on professional, the hardest difficulty, was okay for my skill level and there is a leader board which registers your lowest score, even if you didn't win the game. It would be nice to have friend's leader boards and online leader boards too. The score boards are a bit simple and look ugly so a redesign of them would help. The achievements unfortunately rely on playing x amount of games in general, and playing x amount of games online. I much prefer skill based achievements rather than ones that rely on grinding, and in some cases might be impossible to achieve if you cannot find an online game.

Hearts 3D Premium is a decent attempt at Hearts and is perfectly playable with a nice aesthetic and lots of different rules and settings to apply to cater to your tastes.

The only major drawback currently is that there are no online players and the lobbys are a bit confusing to use. There are lots of improvements which could be made including some horrible achievements, which would help single players carry on playing if they were catered more towards them, and extra leader boards.

If you are happy to play single player against AI, which is a relaxing experience, then I would just about recommend currently. Hopefully, some of my suggestions will be implemented, but be wary that if you want a multiplayer experience online, there isn't one currently, but I guess that is only going to improve if people buy the game and there is an easily accessible area where players can organize games.

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Love! The greatest natural high you can get. It can lift you up, and bring you down. Some of us have trouble finding love and others find it easily. Not often do we find love whilst sitting on the sofa and watching your favourite drama and a portal opens up and spews out your soul mate. I don't remember anyone ever saying that when you ask "how did you meet?"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3280693492

For these dog people that is how it happened, and we watch as their love blossoms and grows into something beautiful through the medium of interactive art. Pressing things on the screen advances the story, and if you are stuck, usually something flashes to point you in the right direction. There are a few easy puzzles like joining pieces of paper together and clicking things, and a few medium difficulty puzzles like building a machine or shooting ducks at the fair. Nothing is too difficult though, and you may have to experiment and persevere a little, but generally it is quite easy to find a way to continue the story.

The story is quite short at about an hour, but it is full of humour and is very charming to watch. I loved the artwork and the animation. It just made me smile throughout, and there are some really nice tunes playing that compliment the wacky and abstract visuals and story.

There are eight very short episodes which go through the evolution of their relationship. In each episode there is an Easter Egg that you can find but this is not dependent on continuing the tale, it's just for a bit of fun. If you do find them all you will be able to repeat the puzzles without playing the episodes.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3280693556

After the final chapter, I was left wondering if there was something I was missing or had not done, as the ending was a little perplexing, and again, I was thinking to myself have I done this right or am I missing something? The game started again with the same story, which I repeated once more, yet the same outcome. Is this the loop, and can I stop it, or is this meant to be?

So, I reached out to the developer and there is a way to stop the loop and see the ending, and if you do not stop the loop it will just continually restart with the same story. The final chapter is the hardest puzzle of all, and I don't want to spoil it, but there is something you can do to stop the loop so just pay attention to some of the things you do within the game building up to that climatic moment.

I also found out that Looped is based on a short film which is currently doing the rounds at International Film Festivals, and the characters were first introduced in this film, so do take a look, as it is very entertaining too.

Looped is a really fun and imaginative short interactive story that has an uplifting feel and shines through with its positive messages of love. Adapted from a short film, the production values are impressive with great visuals and sound, and I hope there are more projects in the future.

The finale can be a little confusing so just be aware that there is a puzzle at the end that you need to solve to see the true ending and break the loop.

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It wasn't long ago I played Pocket Mini Golf and really enjoyed it. You can read my review of it Here , so I was surprised to learn that there was a Pocket Mini Golf 2, considering the first installment was only released last month. I was instantly worried because I thought it might just be an identical product under a new name, but boy was I wrong.

Pocket Mini Golf 2 is actually a massive step up from the first game and is a completely different experience. There are more imaginative holes, more features, and almost a puzzle like attitude is needed to solve some of the holes. The amount of content has also been increased with four distinctly different biomes with an aquarium, a laboratory, a twilight garden, and a toy store aesthetic. Each of these biomes has their own set of rules revolving around the theme, so there might be air bubbles in the aquarium which you can use to jump gaps, and teleporters in the laboratory, for example.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276842176

Each hole has up to three stars to collect, depending on how many shots you took to complete the hole, and earning stars gains you achievements. There's also mini gems on the course to collect which can buy you new balls, flags, trails, celebrations, and some imaginative noises when hitting the ball. There's also a huge red gem which you can collect, but these almost seem impossible to collect sometimes, and apart from it being marked on the map as being collected, I wasn't quite sure what the purpose of these were apart from the challenge.

There are also three symbols down the side of the screen which look like they should be some sort of super power, and they are also on the course to collect, and I collected quite a few of these. I have no idea what they are meant to do though. Whenever I pressed one of them, it seemed to shoot the ball in a random direction and certainly did not benefit me in any way. I am sure I am missing a trick somewhere but I don't remember these symbols being explained so I would like to see a short tutorial on these please.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276842126

The mechanics are again really easy to use. Just pull back to set the power and move the mouse to set the direction and press the LMB. You can also rotate the course easily to get the best view of your shot. Occasionally, the ball would go out of bounds but the shot would not reset to the last known spot like it should, so I had to restart the hole. It didn't happen that often but it did happen enough to mention it as a bug.

There is a local multiplayer option of having up to four players play on any of the holes with some customizable options. The idea being the winner is the first person to finish the holes irrelevant of the number of shots, so that sounds quite frantic and fun, and there is also a challenge section where you have to try and get as far as you possibly can with the number of shots you are given, and your high score is saved.

Pocket Mini Golf 2 seems to be a leap forward in the amount of content and quality of holes from the first installment. The game almost feels like a puzzle game with strategic planning and risky shot taking reaping rewards. Currently, both games are on sale and I would say they are a steal at their current prices, and if you enjoy a casual golf game to waste a few hours with, I would definitely recommend picking these up.

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I played the original series in the arcades and on Commodore 64 and there are a few differences from what I remember. The cars are a lot slower than the arcade version but personally I quite like that as I feel I have more control over these cars, rather than frantically trying to avoid collisions. The control you have makes for better racing in my opinion with a feeling that your skill plays more of a part and races are closer. The control also helps pave way for some new features like obstacle courses which would be impossible to play in older versions of this game. I really enjoyed the obstacle courses with debris on the track that you need to avoid, jumps, speed traps and speed boosters all complicating things. The placement of some of these obstacles are deliberately placed to cause maximum havoc, and sometimes you will need to plan your routes and slow down when needed, meaning you will try and try again, and it was very addictive trying to beat the gold, silver, and bronze times.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276609051

There are no golden spanners in Neosprint and therefore no upgrades to your car, but instead you instantly get a choice of all nine cars which have differences in top speed, acceleration, and handling. This gives the option of picking the car best suited to your driving style, and often I found myself changing cars due to the track composition. Of course, you can customize each car with extras you earn from winning cups. The one noticeable difference I immediately noticed was that there are no short cuts on track, so no gates opening and closing where you can gain serious time or fail as the gate shuts in front of you. I used to love that aspect of the game so I was disappointed with that omission. To be fair though, the tracks are more elaborate than the original series ever was so it might be hard to incorporate the gates, but I'm sure they could have fitted them in somewhere.

The campaign is quite long with eight different rivals waiting at the end of each biome and there are numerous tracks to compete on before you reach the rival. I didn't have much difficulty beating the rivals to be honest, but I still enjoyed the racing and there are some really nice tracks to compete on.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3276609267

The Time Trial mode is also a lot of fun, where again you are competing against gold, silver, and bronze times, but you are racing against a ghost of one of these times depending on how well you do on your first lap. Some of these times are very difficult to beat but the addition of the ghost makes it very exciting. There are also leader boards to compete on for extra incentives.

Racing in Time Trial, Campaign, and Obstacle Courses earns you cups which unlock liveries for your car and pieces to use when building your own track. Sometimes, these track builders can be a little fiddly or difficult to use, but I found this track builder a breeze to make some really nice tracks, which you can share with the community. This mode is probably best left until you have played all of the other modes so that you have more pieces to use. You can even use community built tracks in Grand Prix mode where you can set up your own campaigns and race against AI or human opponents.

The only thing this game is missing is the option to race online with other players which would make it perfect.

NeoSprint is the top down arcade racer I have been waiting for and I had a lot of fun playing it in every mode. There is a lot of content here, depending on how determined you are to beat gold times and earn achievements, but it is so addictive that you probably will be trying and trying as they are quite challenging.

This Sprint game feels like evolution to me rather than a homage to the originals, apart from the gateways which I do miss, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. If there was an online racing option it would be perfect.

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First of all, I would say the price level feels a little high for a four hour game, and the quality level doesn't match that of its price tag. The game was enjoyable, but it felt a little cheap and cut a lot of corners in both story and game play.

The world is very small with only three territories, and the territories are very small also with one main street and a few side alleys. The main street is where you will find most distractions like the arcade, supermarket, bowling alley, karaoke, clothes shop, pawn shop, and restaurant, and in the alleys you'll usually find some illegal gambling operations like Pachinko or tortoise racing, and a taxi rank where you can visit the dojo.

The arcade is quite a fun place to spend a bit of time, with a few mini games to enjoy, like the move it dancing game, a whack a mole type boxing game, a claw game trying to grab prizes, and a fortune teller. Most of these are for achievements but they also have high scores if you did want to repeat them, but they're very basic and mostly just involve quick time events, pressing the game pad in a certain direction periodically. The other mini games like bowling and karaoke are also very basic but fun nonetheless.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275299129

There are a few ways you can earn money to spend on new outfits, food to replenish health, or use to gamble. Either you can register at the job center and work as a fork lift driver, in another basic game where you load pallets on to the back of a lorry for a minute, or you can beat up rival gang members and steal their cash. A lot of items are very expensive to buy so you will need a few days of work if you want to kit Kaito out completely, and the gambling games are also quite expensive with the chance to double your original stake. These gambling games are quite difficult to win and mostly rely on pot luck and have the odds stacked in their favour. I must mention that sometimes it is difficult to know what option is highlighted, so I did do a bit more gambling than I wanted, as I didn't know if I was accepting another go or leaving due to the lack of clarity on the cursor. I ended up losing all my money.

Apart from all the sideshows and random arcade games, of course there is a story, and it has two endings depending on the choice you make towards the end of the game. Every character you meet and talk to is voiced to a reasonable standard, but most encounters on the street only involve giving you directions to your current quest and they offer no backstory or even chit-chat. Only major characters offer a bit more interaction, sometimes with a few options to choose from, but I suspect they all end up with the same result, apart from the major one at the end.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3275299398

There are a couple of side quests but again they are very basic and short. and the only real quest is the main story which is quite linear. It usually involves you being sent off to talk to someone and along the way beating up some people and partaking in some driving mini games. The story is quite entertaining, but don't expect an elaborate story with in depth character examinations and back stories. Again, it is pretty basic but the fact that there is voice acting helps a lot.

The combat is probably the shining light in the experience with some fun beat em up style karate kicks and punches, but the arenas are quite small and cramped or just act like a side scrolling beat em up. There are finishing moves when your meter is full which are entertaining to watch, and the character looks and feels quite fluid in his combat moves. There are weapons to pick up from beaten foes like knives, baseball bats, and guns. These are quite powerful and will tear through opponents, but when enemies have guns it is almost impossible to defend against it and it will often be your demise unless you can get to them very quickly. If you do die, you'll end up in hospital and will have to repeat a few of the same fights you've already been in to get back to that position again. That can feel a little demoralizing and repetitive. You can upgrade your moves by visiting the dojo and performing another quick time event mini game by either kicking, punching, or blocking a dummy. Afterwards, I was awarded a new move to perform but there are no skill trees and again this felt like a very stripped down mechanic.

Hood Story: Kaito Yamazaki is fun to play as long as your expectations are kept to a reasonable standard. It is nowhere near in the league of the Yakuza series and more akin to the original Shenmue series but still not as elaborate.

If you can pick this up on a heavy sale and you enjoy this type of game then there is entertainment value here but it is a bit rough around the edges and quite stripped down in almost every facet, but I enjoyed the ride so will recommend with these caveats.

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For single players there is a casual mode where you have an infinite number of shots to complete the fifty levels on offer, or a competitive mode where you only have three shots to complete each hole. I believe there are more holes on this mode, perhaps seventy-two, as there is an achievement for completing that last hole. On each hole there is at least one gem, but sometimes more than one, which you can choose to collect or just ignore. Some of these gems are in difficult positions, and often take you away from the hole, so it is a gamble to try and collect them knowing there is a hefty penalty for not completing the hole in three shots.

If you do fail to complete the hole in three shots you can either skip the hole or try and play it again. Either option will cost you gems, and the price of admission is quite high even at lower levels. As you progress the cost of failure rises and you will soon run out of gems to make another attempt. The only way to earn gems is to play the casual mode and earn gems from playing those holes. It does feel a little repetitive trying to earn gems this way, and you will find yourself playing the same holes which can become a little tedious. I suppose it is good practice for the main event, it's just a shame there are not more holes in this section as you need to play a lot of holes to get enough gems to be able to make an attempt on the competitive hole you failed on. Usually, you can make a little bit more progress, but your heart does sink a little bit when you know you have to repeat all those holes to earn more gems. It's a difficult one because if you reduced the cost of a further attempt, the game would probably be over too quickly, so even though it does feel a little bit of a grind, it probably is set about right, and does add a little jeopardy to proceedings.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3270539391

The holes are reasonably imaginative. They start off very basic and new features are added later on like magnets, which can pull your ball towards them; boosters, which send your ball flying at speed often into the abyss; the traditional windmills and drawbridges which you need to time right; water hazards and hills; and angled surfaces. I think there could have been more holes with these features in, as it felt like they were only around for a few holes and then they disappeared. There is a DLC for the base game, so perhaps there are more features there.

In the main, the ball behaved as I expected, although the angled surfaces appeared to be a bit suspect with the angles the ball rebounded off, and there were some very challenging shots where the ball had to go through very narrow channels off these angles. I got the same doubts with the hills also, as you cannot spin the course around to see things from a different angle, which sometimes can cause viewing problems, and it was very difficult to judge the right amount of speed to get up a hill successfully without making a mistake as it was hard to judge the gradient because they often looked flat.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3270539871

There aren't many options in the settings but the game worked perfectly on my wide screen monitor out of the box and I had no issues with frame rates or anything. You can adjust the sound and I think that is it. I would have liked to have seen an option to change the way you hit the ball, as there is only one way, and it felt alien to me and took me a while to get used to. I would like an option to do the reverse of the way it is done currently.

Even though I wasn't interested in the multiplayer I did try to play it, as there is an achievement for starting a game, but I had difficulty trying to get the game started. The screen says to press start but I could not get it started using the mouse buttons or the start key on my game pad. Eventually, I got a game started by pressing A on the game pad and enter on the keyboard, so perhaps that needs changing. Multiplayer is local and not online and it appears to be a race until the end with everyone playing on the same screen.

Pocket Mini Golf is quite enjoyable and it kept me interested for a couple of hours trying to complete all the holes and earn the achievements on offer.

I think I would have preferred more holes in the base game, so attaching the DLC to the base game for free would solve this. Otherwise, I think it is a decent attempt which is fun and entertaining.

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