52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

[dhaabi]

08. Radio Hammer || Nintendo 3DS || 01.22.25



After looking over the small library of games I have installed on my 3DS system, I settled on playing the rhythm game Radio Hammer. Before playing, I really didn't know much about it aside from its gameplay, so I was hoping for it to be good enough to keep me engaged.

As a rhythm game, Radio Hammer adopts highway lane gameplay mechanics. From the right side of the screen, enemies representing musical beats run toward the player-character which requires the player to attack them. By default, there are only two lanes for enemies to traverse, meaning that there are only two different actions to take: either aim your attack toward the top or bottom lane. However, there is an option for players to limit the lane number to only one that instead forces all enemies to rush toward you in a line, which is much easier. In a way, I found it to be a handicap of sorts, and I only found myself needing to use it twice for overcoming optional late-game challenges. Additionally, there is some degree of control preference, as either the D-pad or face buttons can be utilized, and interchangeably too. Playing interchangeably was my preference throughout the entire campaign, as it seemed far easier for each of the two enemy types (top and bottom lane) to have full dedication to one hand instead of constantly moving both thumbs back-and-forth from one button to another.

During gameplay, action prompts are rewarded with typical rhythm genre feedback scores such as Perfect and Miss. At certain points during each track, a gift bonus appearing from the left side of the screen appears which can either be taken or ignored. Eventually, these gifts have the possibility to instead be trap boxes which should always be avoided. Otherwise, players should prioritize taking the gift as their bonus allowed for the special gauge to fill more quickly. There is only a short window of time for this while gameplay speedily moves along, but the timing for these boxes to appear follows along with the track beat and generally in short moments of rest, so it's not all too difficult knowing when to expect them. Regarding the aforementioned special gauge, its meter increases with each successful action and prevents the player from taking damage once full during its brief activation period.

For most players, they will be spending the majority of their time—or even all of their time—playing story mode. In what seems like it could be controversial among players, selecting a stage while in story mode often does not present just one song. Instead, a majority of stages combine as many as five individual tracks together which must all be completed to progress. Song transitions aren't mixed to be seamless, and there are even certain transitions which prompt a brief loading screen. Perhaps because the length for each track is short, stages will regularly recycle tracks previously played. Personally, I would have preferred dedicated songs for each stage and only limited to one in total, but this design choice was ultimately fine to play through. Still, as stage design is now, a lot of each chapter's late stages wear out their welcome even if total stage duration may only be five minutes at most. However, story mode does excel at presenting different styles and genres of music presented through its four characters. They each have their own simple narratives to follow and unique tracks to play too. In order to progress from one player to another, the player is required to fully finish the current character's story. For what it offers, the game's story mode is fine but it's really not noteworthy or memorable, and the three narratives are not interconnected.

Throughout the story mode, a score meter is present, but it has no bearing on the player's success. Instead, simply completing each stage with any amount of health remaining is the goal for this mode. Fortunately, though, there is an achievement system which adds some degree of replayability and an incentive to perform with higher proficiency. Only after achieving each stage's goals is the player awarded three possible stars, though earning them is entirely optional. With that said, another play mode becomes available as the player progresses through the story, which is a freeplay type mode that does judge the player based on their score. Those exploring this mode will be likely feel pleased that they're able to freely select individual tracks instead of a predetermined set. A randomized stage select mode is also present, complete with varying difficulty variances. I actually didn't spend time playing any other mode besides story mode, as I found it sufficient enough. I wasn't particularly challenged while playing and there are no leaderboards, so I saw little reason to play for score.

While I wasn't impressed with Radio Hammer at first—and I suppose I'm still not, though it's certainly a fine game—my opinion of it did become higher as my playthrough continued. There is a lot of replayability to be enjoyed for those who seek it, and its core campaign offers a good enough challenge (particularly the late-game, as to be expected) and especially so if wanting to achieve three stars for each stage.

[bikingjahuty]

11. Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)

My wife and I were massive fans of the local co-op multiplayer of Yoshi's Wooly World on the Wii U, so when we found out it was getting sort of, kind of a sequel on the Switch, we were there day 1 to pick it up. Unfotunately, neither of us connected with Crafted World the same way we did with its predecessor, and we ended up dropping the game about 10 stages in. That was back in 2019, and since then we've brought Crafted World up numerous times and how we should have given the game more of a chance and also tried not to compare it too much with Wooly World. Well, nearly 6-years later we finally picked Crafted World back up and we are both very happy we did.


Yoshi's Crafted World is an incredibly charming, adorable, well made, and above all else, fun game. While it's still on the easy side when it comes to platformers, it's still very fun to see all the levels which all are different and unique from one another. One will be in a jungle setting, while the next is in a haunted mansion, and then the next will have you launching into space. Everything in the levels looks like some very well done school art project, and it's truly remarkable how creative the team that made this game was in finding every day items to model various enemies, bosses, stage props, and various other visuals aspects of the game with. It definitely kept the game feeling fresh and unique throughout and made me want to see what the next stage was like. One disappointment, especially when compared to Wooly World is the quality of the collectables and extras within the game. My wife and I replayed stages over and over again to get secret items and other collectables we needed to unlock different Yoshi colors or other unlockables. However, in Crafted World, you're more or less limited to using coins you collect in each stage to purchase fairly lackluster, bulky costumes for your Yoshi, which really didn't do anything for me, or incentive deep exploration of each level. Music and audio is pretty good in general, but nothing incredibly, especially compared to many other Nintendo OSTs. Overall, my wife and I really enjoyed Crafted World, althopugh I do have to admit that if I wasn't playing this game with her I'd have definitely enjoyed it less, mostly because of how easy the game is and its limited mechanics. But for what is' worth, I definitely recommend this game and its definitely one I misjudged at first. (1/26/25) [37/50]

[tripredacus]

6. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Steam)
There is not much that I like about this game. The sound is not good and the music is also not great. I mean the music is what you would expect but the levels vs sound is not correct. It also does not operate properly on actual 5.1, it puts the ambient sounds in the wrong places or doesn't play them at all. Obviously this is a console conversion that isn't done properly. Default controls do not use the mouse at all and uses a strange keyboard layout that is reminiscent of an 80s game. At least it supports the controller which is good enough. It was also interesting there is no dialog except for grunts and laughs.

It looks alright and the auto-aim on the blaster is good. I had some issues with the 3D space with facing the correct way or also when using jumps. As such, the platforming sections were somewhat difficult for me to do. I did recognize that the game is made for children and is quite forgiving in regards to difficulty. Also I like the collectible aspect in the game, it would have been quite fun to do when I was younger. There is no Steam achievements for this game so there is no real point in bothering to be a completionist or farm the enemies.

The game softlocked on me during the pod race stage. Basically I had not raced well enough in the first two laps so that when it autosaved at the start of the final lap, there was no chance for me to win the race. The gameplay and mechanics were not interesting enough to me to restart to beat that stage and I just knew there would be more 3D platforming sections I wouldn't be able to stand in later levels.

7. Xevious (NES)
This was not the game I thought it was. I haven't played this since I was a kid and I think I made the same mistake back then also with thinking it was a different game. I'm not concerned about finding out what the correct game was, as it doesn't matter. It has some interesting things in the stages but is really quick basic. Even using arcade stick I didn't feel like the ship was fast enough to evade during tough sections. Also this game gave me the feel that it was possible to do a peaceful run, but I'm not the type to take the time to learn how to do that.