Pray for Death (1996)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, last year my brother bought me stuff on Steam for my birthday. Within the same purchase is Pray for Death. Not to be confused with a movie of the same name. I previously done a few playthroughs prior to this review. A few months ago, The Worst Fighting it's an web show. Where this YouTuber covers the worst fighting games with many other things to keep it interesting.

Pray for Death (1996)

This game often gets compared to Mortal Kombat series. But it's actually more similar to Killer Instinct series. You can tell by some of the animations as well as some of the art work is clearly inspired by that series. Even a particular character, Maelstrom fights very similar to Killer Instinct's Fulgore. The actual story is directly similar to a few not great fighting games.

Almost the entire roster wants to challenge Death to become immortal. This is directly the plot of Time Killers aka first labeled MK rip off. Personally screw both games go play Eternal Champions. If you can get your hands on the sequel/updated version on Sega CD that's even better. Not to mention, Death is the final boss in both games.

Not a lot of people knows in Time Killer's famous bad Genesis port. There does exist a way to play as Death. You have a similar method to play as Death in Pray of Death. Ultimately in either Eternal Champions game, you are fighting for the opportunity to live again. Sadly the conclusion to that concept got scrapped.

Indirectly the concept similar to Shadow: War of Succession. Most of the roster going after the position for the next Shadow King. The previous Shadow King got transformed into a cyborg. What's kinda amusing is Anubi basically Anubis in this game. Surprisingly War Gods by a few months predates Anubis in a fighting game here.

There's a few hidden characters mostly the bosses. They aren't anything special with Death having voice overs. I'll give them credit he actually looks like the Grim Reaper. Unlike Death in Time Killers seriously what is that? It's kinda like Dracula in Castlevania 2 where he looked more like the Grim Reaper than Death does.

Pray for Death can differ on the controls, I played two different methods. Originally the famous keyboard method that took some time getting use to. It's easy to get confuse what the buttons do. The later method with a controller is the one I recommend most. There's a decent amount of characters to play as. I do like before every match begins.

The characters says stuff towards each other. A little better than Shaq Fu still not great. Once in a blue moon you might be surprise what's written. It's a classic fighting game set up with a ladder. You fight through the entire roster to face Death. There are finishers that are mostly alright. It's technically better than a lot of MK rip offs.

The audio for the most part isn't great. A few sound effects ends up being the best of them. The difficulty will spike to a degree. If you play the game on too easy of a difficulty. The game refuses to give you an ending. I'm just glad they didn't do what TMNT: Tournament Fighters on Sega Genesis done.

I really don't like playing an fighting game with little to no endings on hardest difficulty. I can say most of the roster does have endings. I think the biggest surprise to me maybe to a lot of people. It's obvious the elephant in the room. You actually can play as Cthulhu!!! Yeah a fighting game from the 90s you play as Cthulhu.

The stages are mostly meh easily could've been a little better. It hurts worst when you start comparing it to Killer Instinct. Even Killer Instinct Gold on Nintendo 64 had a lot more going for it. I personally enjoy playing that game through Rare Replay. Pray for Death isn't an rememberable experience. Especially considering it to The Black Heart let's not even compare the two.

Also regarding the Grim Reaper in video games. He isn't rememberable like Gregg the Grim Reaper in Conker's Bad Fur Day. Even reapers in Vampire Survivors worked better. They lack voice overs as well as dialogues. I will say his lines are better than Death in Time Killers the Arcade version at least. Even considering their endings, it's not even close!!!

Pray for Death may be better than some similar 90s fighting games. But in all honestly that's not saying much. You got to realize some fighting franchises back in the 90s were quickly becoming big. Some of which are high selling fighting game franchises today. This game got buried just like three cartoon shows tried competing with The Simpsons to end up getting buried themselves.

There really isn't much to like about the actual game. If they didn't focus on mimicking Killer Instinct's style. Instead went with their own fighting system. Then I felt this game would've been a little better. It's far from the bottom of the barrel fighting games wise. It's beneath the middle of them with plenty of better fighting games you could be playing right now.

The closest positive thing I could say it's on GOG as well. GOG does notably better with older PC games especially DOS ones. On both services outlasted Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport. Technically that's a good thing considering that was notably worst than this. Despite an unplayable guest character being Barney the Dinosaur still within the files.

Pray for Death is an repetitive fighting game of the 90s era. You should expect to lose a lot before you finally finish an run. I can't recommend playing it longer than a few minutes. A modded version with the right stuff could bring this game back to life. In terms of recommendations stick with Eternal Champions series minus the spin offs you'll be fine.

BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad (2021)

Unrelated I do also plan to review Varney Lake and Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York soon. I may have to revisit them to help me prepare those reviews. I rather give them more respect doing that. I will also attempt going for a different ending in Varney Lake as well. I honestly can't wait to talk about either vampire game soon.

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I recently bought six vampire games from my amazing wife. This might be difficult to believe, I already play through one of them. Which so happens to be the vampire game I'm going to review today. I learned of it's existence within a few months. I still felt I need more vampire games that may never change.

My recent GOG vampire games purchase

1. BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad

2. BloodNet (2 versions)

3. Veil of Darkness

4. Rogue Lords

5. Vampires Dawn 3 - The Crimson Realm

6. Vampyr

I also wanted to say Vampyr in particular I kept a close eye on for years. I just finally gotten the golden opportunity to get it. Sometimes you gotta be willing to wait a few years maybe longer to get games with everything at a much cheaper price. Obviously most of this vampire purchase is notably longer games than BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad.

BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad (2021)

The story involves Count Bloodvayne going to rescue members of his vampire unit from Scorpion. No not Mortal Kombat character or Spider-Man villain. Although either of them in this could've work honestly. There's five stages that does offer some variety. I probably should tell you expect to die a lot. Thankfully you get as many chances you want to get through the game.

Each stage has multiple sections filled with enemies as well as hazards. You gotta adapt quickly or you won't get far. The game's difficulty spikes very often to the point it's not fair at times. For example you have two enemies running towards you. You can only take one of them out if you remain on the ground. Ideally you should try to jump over both of them.

From there you should quickly take em out before you take a hit. I should also mention this is playing a joke of the game being based on an animated TV show that never was. Which I kinda like concepts similar to that to a degree. I actually felt in the audio department it's good enough to get the job done. Easily the art work itself is my favorite aspect of the game.

They sure don't hold back being violent in this. You even see enemies get killed by hazards with some brutal death animations. Which is among my favorite stuff about the game. The bosses are notably repetitive as well as a bit unfair at times. It's one of those games, the main antagonist the solo boss character.

In this case, Scorpion takes a play book from Sonic's Dr. Robotnik. He actually has a particular boss fight somewhat similar to his original boss fight all the way back to Sonic 1. I will say the boss fights are better than the boss fights in Duke Nukem 1. To me, it felt like only Dr. Robotnik made the concept work.

Some of the dialogue you can tell they had some fun making this. Parts of it has self awareness with some jokes thrown in. We aren't going to compare this to UnMetal, it's not even close. I will say the bat character is a little more cute than expected. This bat also acts as a power up until you take a hit. Some of the routes you are force to take within these stages can be frustrating to get through.

I will be honest parts of those actually tougher as well as more intense than most boss fights in this game. I'm not even why so many deaths I died from a single hit. Last I checked I wasn't playing Contra. Also let's not even begin to compare this to either Contra or Metal Slug. The later I'm a much bigger fan of myself.

It's kinda amusing to get shutters to open. You simply find the computer then destroy em. Geez vampires may differ in how long they been around for. You would expect they have the knowledge to hack an computer or simply pull the cord from the wall. Instead they are so impatient to get through. They have to directly destroy computers.

I'm glad this isn't a heavy key item game. Although some of those FPS wise are truly amazing games. Which in all honestly I rather be playing those instead. This is by no means a bad game. It's kinda more of a gem than anything else. There's just enough good you may find some enjoyment in it. The flaws actually makes it difficult to keep on playing.

There's other modes like Speed Run Mode and Boss Rush Mode. I have a few major problems since I didn't try those out. Speed Run Mode is rushing through the game. Now if the game wasn't so strict about everything. I would've considered giving this variation of the game a try. Boss Rush Mode can differ depending on games.

Either they can surprisingly fun or a frustrating challenge. In this case, it's obvious a rather unforgiving challenge. I rather do an boss rush in UnMetal than this!!! The only major thing left to discuss are the five playable characters. You start with Count Bloodvayne basically Dracula in this. His name likely a reference to Dr. Van Helsing just not in the way you expect.

It's also a possible reference to another vampire series, BloodRayne. I actually felt he's among the best characters in the game. I do respect all of them plays notably differ from each other. I do have a clear favorite among them. Sergeant Sabre kinda reminds me of Marvel's Blade mixed with Star Wars' Lando.

He is armed with a sword that quickly cuts through enemies. I actually felt he's the best set up among the playable characters. To me, Rick Ghastley actually the worst among them. Ideally you should love the guy with an shotgun. But the way his shotgun works is too flawed. You have to manually reload your gun.

Also it's even easier to not fire a shot in time. Not to mention, the brief period of reloading could be a death sentence in several spots too. I could argue how the other four playable characters are better. I also do like at the end of most stages, you can choose which character to unlock. Personally I absolutely loved that with a huge passion.

I really didn't want to play through the entire game multiple times to unlock everyone. Even if I had to Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood is way more worth it. I know it's strange the good guys actually the vampires. Which that twist by itself caught my attention. I also should point out, all of them has a different Vamp Power aka their specials.

Some of them activates automatically or others like Mitzie's you have to do manually. Although using her Vamp Power in the wrong areas can harm and kill her. Which is kinda amusing since she has wings!!! I rather had the ability to fly for a short period of time. I also liked whoever you play as has different lines within cutscenes.

This is a touch I am glad they went for. It does help differ the experience enough to maybe play through the game more than once. For an indie vampire game it's a little interesting than expected. I don't think it's a good place to start. Especially if you want to get more into vampire games. I will say for what it is you should consider giving it a try.

What it does well is truly amazing stuff. The challenge is a bit unforgiving at times. At the same time, parts of finishing the stages felt like a real achievement. There's some secrets if you know how to go about em. I do like they allow exploring for the most part. A few sections you are rushed to through. Otherwise if you can overlook the difficulty curve it's a fun vampire game.

Balatro (2024)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, my brother bought me some stuff on Steam. I previously wanted the newest DLC for Puppet Master: The Game. He also bought me a game I previously discussed in here not long ago. Balatro, I figured I voted for it in The Game Awards 2024 within every category. I may as well play the actual game for myself.

Balatro (2024)

I will be honest, I don't have many card games. I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil VII's 21 mode. I previously owned both Poker Night games. You know the crossover Telltale Poker games? You would think I wouldn't struggle much in Balatro. You actually would be quite wrong about that. Balatro is a rather unique take on poker.

One guy over two years developing this made an roguelike poker game. Which quickly became one of my favorite indie games in years. I am quite serious, Balatro turns poker into possibly the most exciting thing ever!!! Of course, you have access to the typical deck of cards. Then that's when things quickly becomes more interesting.

Balatro also adds trait cards as well as planet cards into the mix. Also Joker cards are notably presented in this too. All of them adds to the overall experience in so many ways. Trait cards all differ in what they do. My two favorite trait cards are Fool and High Priestess. Fool card automatically gives you the recent planet or trait card yo used.

This could be a double edge sword. But assuming you worked this into your strategy like I did. Then using this could be a god send. High Priestess card gives you two random planet cards. Planet cards in general level up your combination you can draw during matches. For example if you want to increase your overall points to win matches.

You could level up a single pair or double that. Yes this also applies to Flushes and Straights too. Before we get into the true uniqueness of it all. I still got to discuss the remaining stuff with the shop. You also can buy more cards which includes additional bonus versions. Yes some of those bonuses stack on top of each other.

The best part is unlike both planet and trait cards, these will reappear within your deck by default. Which means you can eventually use em again. You always have the option to add in more cards to better your chances. You also can buy Vouchers that differ things to a degree. They usually on a slightly higher price range.

Also every set which there are three each has an Voucher you can buy. Now all of that out the way, I bet some of you dying to hear about Joker cards right? Easily the best cards in the entire game. Sure, not all of them are winners for many reasons. Some requires particular combinations played in order to work. They notably differ in what each Joker card brings to the table.

It's very critical you get the right five Joker cards. Even having four of them that works amazingly well will get you further into runs. One or two not great Joker cards will quickly end runs. You also have the option to skip most of a set through buying those skips. Personally I don't recommend relying on skipping.

I rather go the longer route with my upgrades being more higher leveled. I finally can discuss the main points system. You get a blue side that represents amount of chips that can get multiplied. The red side virtually is the multiplier itself. Which can be notably increased to better your chances. I had so many failed attempts at trying to win just one run.

Before anyone asks this game forces you to start from the easiest difficulty. You can push yourself to get the harder difficulties. I should mention, you also get different decks with a notable change. A couple of them are simply in a different color. Balatro does have more unique designed decks you can unlock.

I also wanna say Joker cards really has personality to em. You can tell the developer really had a thing for Jokers or clown characters in general. Somehow all this additional complexity works in a surprisingly much simpler method. At first starting the game you got so much to learn. Obviously you are going to lose a lot before you start to truly understand how the game works.

Just in case people wanted to know. Which Joker cards are among my favorites. Misprint Joker has randomized multiplier. I also kinda liked it's design as well. Popcorn Joker is great for bigger point multiplying in matches. The only real issue I have with that is at random the card disappears. My personal favorite Joker card is Burnt Joker.

This card in the right hands can destroy a good amount of this game. Burnt Joker involves your first discards within matches. Whatever combination even High Card automatically gets leveled up one. This obviously comes with a risk. At the same time, the right cards to discard can make all the difference.

The better part is considering you can stack. You could get two similar Joker cards that levels up your multipliers. Just imaging Space Joker with Burnt Joker. Speaking of Space Joker, he's among my favorite Joker cards too. Space Joker at random among doing any combination even High Card will level em up.

This also means you can be quite creative how you go about increasing the multiplier. Balatro is heavily about being creative with your moves. Not a single match is boring in this whatsoever. In every possible way the perfect balance of everything imaginable. I really can't directly criticize anything because the game automatically balances itself out.

Balatro is virtually an 9.5 game right off the bat. I know some people didn't like an card game made it into Game of the Year awards. Hell it even won a particular Game of the Year award. I can strongly say this game truly deserved it's nomination. This reminds me in a few ways to REVII's 21 mode. Look I know I'm about to compare an Black Jack mini game to an poker game.

I'm more of a Black Jack person myself. I still wanna say Balatro is the one way I really wanna play poker. To me, this game was really refreshing as well as inspiring. Again one person made such an game, I'm deeply impressed. This is exactly why I recently found indie developers more impressive. Balatro already on most platforms, I played it through Steam.

I would love to own this on GOG. Balatro is a game you wouldn't believe works this mind blowing well. Especially considering all the information you need to take in. Eventually you quickly memorize enough of it to play the game well. There's also additional skins for decks, which I haven't tried yet. I'll give an example considering Death Battle about to do Among Us vs Fall Guys episode.

They have an Among Us skin for the decks, I love that!!! The best part is this game amazingly cheap as well as being notably smaller than most Game of the Year nominees. You are getting everything right off the bat justifying it's price. In comparison, most of them are notably a lot bigger than Balatro. You actually need to free up a lot of GBs off your platform of choice to play em.

They are much more expensive with some having DLCs too. It's nice to have a game that gives you everything for much less. Of course you should know the famous saying. "Big things comes in small packages." Which perfectly describes Balatro in a nut shell. I am deeply proud to given this game my votes in The Game Awards 2024.

Balatro is never boring at all even during the first matches. Where you need to earn 300 points to continue on. No upgrades prior you can still lose this. Roughly 8 out of 10 times you'll win. Then again I didn't go beyond the second lowest difficulty at the time of writing this review. In all honestly, Balatro made something like poker into one of the absolute greatest indie games I ever played!!!

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood (2023)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I been planning a few video game reviews for some time. I will confirm the biggest one among them going to require a lot more hours. Before I can even begin to write my review on it. The game in question is that good I really want the actual review to be as close to perfection.

I figured to start things with the vampire game I also put a lot of time into. I played a little of a few similar games. Vampire Survivors and Brotato respectively through Game Pass. I kept eyeing up this particular movie game. It's loosely based on an movie called Renfield. You know that Nicholas Cage Dracula movie. I still haven't seen the movie.

I'm glad Universal didn't rush this game out. They were guilty doing that back in the PS1 era. Renfield is a game I really wanted to talk about. I still felt like I need more vampire games in my collection. I played plenty of everything else horror related especially demons and zombies. I wanted to show respect towards vampires this year.

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood (2023)

This game actually had an early access period within the same year it gotten released in. Which is kinda crazy considering some games I previously bought that were early access took a few years. Before they officially left early access to release. Renfield is a roguelike shoot em up style game. Roguelike is a rather unique genre.

I actually already planning to review another game that's a different style of the same genre very soon. Roguelike is virtually randomizing majority of the game. At the same time, you will be given upgrades. You can choose which upgrades you wanna use. There's no run going to be remotely the same period. This alone adds so much to the overall experience.

You either could be notably weaken or chosen too many of the not great upgrades. You really want stuff that works very well together. Especially in the later levels with some notably difficulty spikes. Simply having the right weapons with enough upgrades. You actually could destroy levels in no time. You also get some familiars that each have their own health bars.

Like Brotato, each level does have an end. You constantly fighting through waves of enemies. Like Vampire Survivors, you also can use points earned to upgrade many stuff. Therefore, you will be bettering your chances before going back in. But it also gets crazier than expected. You also unlock upgrades for familiars.

There's also characters as well as outfits you can buy. A lot of characters to choose from including two versions of Dracula. Personally I'm a bigger fan of Sun Kissed Dracula version myself. At one point in the levels, another character you play as shows up. They simply move around not doing much. They are automatically protected because after you survive that wave.

You will be given a choice save or kill em. It's not quite like the first two BioShock games with that system. I don't see much of a real difference other than choosing kill route. Those characters dies off screen screaming. There's a decent amount of levels with no true path to go. The bosses are notably different from each other.

I really like I can play this game with just one hand. You have no idea how rare that is for me. I could be drinking some of my favorite drinks with one hand. At the same time I'm playing Renfield it's kinda awesome. You can believe this game is filled with enemies. I recently came to like roguelike games such as these.

Just imagine back in the 90s more of those existed. Especially on consoles I grew up playing. I probably own too many of them by now lol. Renfield is a surprisingly decent licensed game. There's the right level of challenge making it a truly fun experience. My favorite level takes place at the apartments.

This is set up vastly different from the other levels I played. It's one big open area that doesn't lead to additional locations. I know some people might find that a little boring. But when the action really picks up here wow. This level actually an endless level by default. This means the level keeps going until I lose.

I even maxed out leveling during one of my first runs on that level. Renfield might be the best licensed Dracula game I ever heard of. Just imagine if this would've gotten release back in the 90s. It would've blown people's minds in a great way I'm not that sick. This is easily among the most replayable indie video games I ever played!!!

I kinda felt some aspects to me were done a little better than Vampire Survivors. Look I know that has a couple DLCs, it recently gotten an Castlevania one in fact. I do wanna confirm this game isn't an knock off that in any possible way. Yeah both sorta play on vampire concepts with similar mechanics. I felt most that played both games agree they are still quite different from each other.

This is a loose recreation of a movie. Which in itself was a loose adaptation somewhat spin off story to the Dracula novel. You actually play as two versions of Renfield with the later named "Robert" among my favorite characters. My actual favorite character is Bat Head. "Hey you can play as Batman!!!" Just kidding folks, it's more similar to one of Batman's enemies, Man-Bat.

He's a humanoid bat character that has a loud scream attacking. I should mention every character by default has one weapon. Some has a few additional stuff but that's about it. Mostly an ability that plays into their play style. Let's be honest, they all can virtually play the same to a degree. Just how it all begins with those characters the only true difference.

I also liked they went with a meat golem character. When I found out about this character, I was a bit caught off guard. I previously knew the concept from Castlevania series. I strongly felt in every aspect this game truly deserves an 9.5 from me. I absolutely loved every single minute I played of it. I highly recommend you try out this game soon, it's truly amazing stuff.