Beyond Co-op Reviews: December 2021

After a long absence, we're back with a bevy of reviews of non-cooperative games.

Welcome back to Beyond Co-Op Reviews, our critical look at games that don't feature co-op modes.

This month we're reviewing some of the most exciting and colorful games of the year, including the Nintendo Switch-exclusive multiplayer party game, Mario Party Superstars! 2021 has seen plenty of great single-player and competitive game releases, plus some worthwhile updates to existing games. With so many games to choose from, let us help you find the best non-cooperative games in our Beyond Co-Op Reviews!

Mario Party Superstars (Switch)

“The boards offered here do a great job of capturing the appeal of the series while also including minor updates to their looks and rules to create a fresh experience. The selection of minigames is very strong, and the host player can even choose to limit the minigames by their original platform (N64, GameCube, etc.) or genre.

Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX (Switch, PC, and iOS)

“The original Monster Rancher games read actual audio CDs and then generated monsters based on each disc’s unique data. The Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a disc drive, so instead, this collection (regardless of platform) uses a searchable database for monster generation.”

Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey (PlayStation, PS VR, and Oculus Quest)

“Bubble Cores are rotary in nature, so hitting the bubbles on one side of the core will cause the entire structure to spin around. This really keeps you on your toes since you have to tackle the bubble structure from varying angles.”

Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC)

“Monsters will occasionally drop cards when killed. These cards can bestow Shantae with a huge variety of buffs when equipped. She can only equip three cards at a time by default, so mixing and matching buffs adds fun strategy and customization to the game.”

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC)

“Online multiplayer has become a key feature for Battle for the Grid over the years. The online community isn’t exactly massive, but optional cross-play between all platforms certainly helps.”

Cotton 100% (PlayStation and Switch)

“Untranslated story sequences aside, Cotton 100% is still a very charming little shmup. Cotton flies across seven large levels, battling against cutesy fantasy monsters and huge bosses along the way.”

Panorama Cotton (PlayStation and Switch)

“This installment in the long-running cute ‘em up series ditches the 2D side-scrolling viewpoint for a 3D view similar to that of Space Harrier. Now that ININ and port developer Ratalaika have brought the game to modern consoles, gamers around the world can appreciate what a technical marvel Panorama Cotton really is.“

Ragnaröck (Steam VR and Oculus Quest)

"Viking music drum game in VR with pirate-themed music. Need I say more?"

Download codes were provided by each of the publishers in this feature.

Review by: Paul Acevedo

Nintendo’s Mario Party series has been going strong since the N64 days. Some players feel that newer games like 2018’s Super Mario Party have over-complicated the experience. This year’s Mario Party Superstars embraces a back-to-basics approach, limiting the character selection to 10 favorites and offering a selection of five game boards taken from the first three N64 installments and over 100 minigames taken from the first 10 numbered Mario Party games.

Mario Party is, of course, an interactive board game in which up to four human and AI players travel around the board, collecting coins, competing in minigames, and trying to win by amassing the most stars. The boards offered here do a great job of capturing the appeal of the series while also including minor updates to their looks and rules to create a fresh experience. The selection of minigames is very strong, and the host player can even choose to limit the minigames by their original platform (N64, GameCube, etc.) or genre.

One common complaint about Super Mario Party is that it only launched with an online minigame mode, not the full online board game mode (full online play came in a free update earlier this year). In contrast, Mario Party Superstars comes with full online play right out of the gate. After selecting online play and then choosing to start a game, players will enter a screen in which they can toggle matchmaking for each of the available boards. You can’t set matchmaking parameters like game length, unfortunately, but it’s still a decently functional system. Communication is limited to character-themed stamps during gameplay. Despite occasional lag spikes, the online game I played was genuinely fun. Being able to enjoy the multiplayer experience even when you don’t have friends over certainly adds to the value of this installment.

Between games, the coins earned from gameplay can be spent on a small variety of unlockables like encyclopedia entries, music tracks, and customizations for the player’s ID card. It’s a shame that we can’t buy new playable characters. All local players get to earn coins for their own profiles (as long as they’re signed in), which is a nice touch. Minigames can also be played separately from the main board game mode.

I’m no Mario Party expert, having only played four or five games in the series. Still, Mario Party Superstars is an easy recommendation to casual and serious fans alike. The board and minigame selection will offer countless hours of multiplayer fun, and online play is good enough to extend the party even further. If you’re looking for a fun party game at home or on the go, make sure you land on Mario Party Superstars.

Mario Party Superstars sells for $59.99 in digital and physical formats.

Our Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s when Pokemania was running rampant, Nintendo’s Pokemon series faced competition from Bandai’s Digimon and Tecmo’s Monster Rancher games. Digimon has stuck around all these years, but Monster Rancher hasn’t seen a new console release since Monster Rancher DS. Perhaps it’s time for a comeback, seeing as how Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX has just arrived on Nintendo Switch and Steam.

The big difference between Monster Rancher and Pokemon/Digimon is that Monster Rancher isn’t an RPG; it’s a simulation/breeding game. At the outset of each game, players will name their trainer and then be given an assistant. The assistant, like all NPCs, is represented by cute anime-style portraits when speaking. Players must then recruit a monster either from the market or shrine. The market sells a few basic monsters, but the shrine is where this series gets interesting.

Long ago in the world of Monster Rancher, an angry god trapped countless monsters inside of magical disc stones. By taking these stones to a shrine, humans can release monsters to keep as pets. The original Monster Rancher games read actual audio CDs and then generated monsters based on each disc’s unique data. The Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a disc drive, so instead, this collection (regardless of platform) uses a searchable database for monster generation.

Searching for an artist will either bring up a list of that artist’s albums (each one capable of summoning a different creature) or fail to find results. My casual searches for bands like Bad Religion did not produce results, but the Legend Cup website lets users select a monster and then see a list of albums that will generate that monster. You can also select the Random option to be given a random album that will then generate a unique creature. The database could certainly use more artists; it’s frustrating to search for favorite bands only to get no hits. Still, generating monsters randomly or from albums listed on Legend Cup manages to be enjoyable and unique despite the game’s limitations.

Having acquired a monster, players must then train and care for it from week to week. All non-battle interactions take place via menus. Training consists of various short-term drill and jobs that boost specific stats, as well as long-term trips that provide big stat gains at the expense of 4 weeks of in-game time and the monster’s energy. Battles, which primarily take place during scheduled weeks of the in-game calendar, are simple but dramatic, providing a welcome dose of excitement between all the training and management.

Monster Rancher 1 and 2 DX offers mildly enhanced ports of the original PSOne games. These games don’t look visually improved to my eyes – the intro FMVs are grainy 1:33 videos and the polygonal graphics are quite rudimentary by Switch standards. Enhancements include an optional remixed soundtrack, optional faster game speed (which you’ll want to leave on), additional slots for saves and monster storage, and 27 new monsters.

High-level success will require a lot of research outside of the game. The in-game help text is enough to get players started, but not much else. A pair of hardcore cutesy monster breeding games with dated graphics won’t be for everyone. Still, the depth of the gameplay and variety of monsters contained herein will enthrall a certain kind of gamer – like me!

Monster Rancher 1 and 2 DX sells for $29.99 on Switch and Steam, and as two separate games on iOS.

Our Rating: 4 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

While Bubble Bobble is Taito’s most popular franchise, the Puzzle Bobble series of spin-off games is probably more numerous. The latest installment, Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey, comes from California-based virtual reality developer Survios. Puzzle Bobble 3D doesn’t require a VR headset, though – it can also be played on PlayStation 4 and 5 without a headset.

Puzzle Bobble 3D offers three modes: single-player Story and Infinite modes, plus the online multiplayer Duel mode. Story is the meat of the game, consisting of 100 bubble-bursting levels and very little actual story. Every 10 levels or so, a series of tiny, wordless images reveals a simple narrative involving the little dragons Bub and Bob’s vacation. Given that the game’s graphics are 3D, some 3D cinematic sequences would have fit a lot better than tiny comic panels. Speaking of 3D graphics, they look super sharp on PlayStation 5 – even if everything is zoomed out a bit too far. The music, composed by Taito’s Zuntata sound team, is also quite good – better than Bubble Bobble 4’s soundtrack, at any rate.

Vacation Odyssey’s gameplay is closely based on that of the original Puzzle Bobble games. Each level consists of one or more groups of colored bubbles. Bub and Bob must aim and fire their own bubbles from their cannon on the ground. Matching three or more bubbles of the same color will cause them to disappear. The shift to three dimensions changes things, though. Instead of coming from the top, a level’s bubbles now originate from a mechanical-looking Bubble Core. Most of the bubbles around a core must be popped before the core itself can be shot and destroyed with any colored bubble.

Bubble Cores are rotary in nature, so hitting the bubbles on one side of the core will cause the entire structure to spin around. This really keeps you on your toes since you have to tackle the bubble structure from varying angles. Each level has either a shot limit or a time limit, adding challenge and variety to the campaign. Special types of bubbles create unique effects when shot, such as the star bubble destroying all bubbles of the same color and the toxic bubble causing Bob to lose his ability to swap bubbles for three turns.

The game incentivizes the replaying of levels for higher star ratings as well as coins. Aiming for better ratings is generally fun, but the clunky aiming and semi-unpredictable rotation of the bubble structures caused me to give up on 3-starring levels pretty quickly. As for coins, they can be spent on unlocking three different power-ups. After unlocking a power-up, uses of it still have to be purchased with coins. Not the worst system, but the coin payout from levels is far too low for anybody to be able to afford to use power-ups regularly.

Puzzle Bobble 3D’s real weakness is its controls. Aiming the bubble cannon with a Dual Sense controller works, but it’s slow and awkward. After lined up the shot, the right trigger fires instead of a face button. Failing to fully pull the trigger will result in the shot not going as far as normal, likely missing the mark. I don’t see a benefit to analog firing here – there’s never a reason to aim at a particular spot but not fire at full force. You can learn to live with these clumsy controls, but they slow down the game and make it feel a bit worse than the usual Puzzle Bobble.

Even if Puzzle Bobble 3D isn’t as refined as the best Puzzle Bobbles, it’s still a decent new take on the classic series. The three-dimensional mechanics are actually cool; you just need some patience to master the controls. Playing in VR would likely add some wow factor, but the non-VR experience is worth a shot for players who love to bust a move.

Puzzle Bobble 3D costs $19.99 on PlayStation and Oculus Quest.

Our Rating: 3 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

Originating all the way back on the GameBoy Color, WayForward’s Shantae series has long been the standard-bearer for American-developed platformers. The fifth game in the series, Shantae and the Seven Sirens, originally launched as a timed exclusive on Apple Arcade, later appearing on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam in 2020. Seven Sirens recently received the free “Spectacular Superstar” update that improves on the overall experience, so here we are with this review.

Seven Sirens begins with a gorgeous anime intro from Studio Trigger that is accompanied by another catchy, original song sung by the voice of Shantae, Cristina Vee. Shantae and her friends have been invited to Paradise Island for an event called the Half-Genie Festival. Our heroine meets five charming half-genies like herself, but the other half-genies are soon kidnapped during the festival opening. It’s up to Shantae to get them back, which will put her at odds with not just old foe Risky Boots but also the titular Seven Sirens.

Like previous games, Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a 2D Metroidvania platformer. Shantae must explore the hub area Arena Town, Paradise Island, and its many oceanside and subterranean dungeons as she seeks to rescue her new friends and save the island. Our protagonist fights chiefly by whipping her hair, though she’ll gain new offensive moves and powers as the game goes on.

Given that Shantae dresses like a belly dancer, dancing has always been a part of her skillset. Traditionally, the dances she acquires throughout a game allow her to transform into various forms like monkey and bat to reach new areas, but dances have been reworked here. The new dances allow Shantae to see invisible objects, grow plants, power windmills, and shake the environment.

What about traversal, then? Various coins that Shantae collects bestow her with temporary transformations called Fusions. These transformations are mapped to individual buttons, so you’ll just hit a button to turn into a newt to dash, a different button to become a frog and swim, and so on. The fusion system speeds up gameplay, but having to dance literally all over the map to find secrets will slow things down a lot for completionists.

The other new game system involves Monster Cards. Monsters will occasionally drop cards when killed. These cards can bestow Shantae with a huge variety of buffs when equipped. She can only equip three cards at a time by default, so mixing and matching buffs adds fun strategy and customization to the game. The number of copies required to actually equip a card varies – some can be used with only one copy, while others require ten. Thus, you’ll have to stop and farm the new monsters you encounter if you want to wield the bonuses their cards bestow.

The “Spectacular Superstar” update adds a handful of quality-of-life improvements across all modes as well as several new game modes:

Topping the amazing Shantae: Half-Genie Hero would be almost impossible, and Shantae and the Seven Sirens doesn’t quite manage that. The level design is less inspired than in previous games, and some of the boss fights get repetitive. Still, it’s a gorgeous game and another chance to hang out with this terrific cast of characters. If you sat on the fence before, now’s the time to get ret-2-go with the number one half-genie hero.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens sells for $29.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam.

Our Rating: 4 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

When Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid launched in 2019, it was largely praised for its solid fighting game mechanics but panned for its smallish roster of 12 characters. But that was then, and this is now. Developer nWay has continuously added new content via updates and season passes. The Super Edition of the game includes all of the content from Season Passes 1-3, while Season Pass 4 is sold separately. With all those additions, Battle for the Grid has grown into a truly robust fighting game!

Battle for the Grid’s single-player offerings include Story, Arcade, and Training modes. Players will want to complete the 18 short tutorials to learn the mechanics before hopping into the other modes – Story doesn’t teach you how to play. Story mode is a loose retelling of the comic book’s “Battle for the Grid” storyline. The writing (by actual comic writer Kyle Higgins) is suitably dramatic, pitting rangers from across dimensions against Lord Drakkon, an evil version of Tommy Oliver, and his corrupted underlings. Many characters are voiced by their original actors, which is pretty awesome, even if some of the voices sound like they were recorded on phones instead of studio microphones.

The gameplay is simple to learn without sacrificing depth. Before each fight, players select a tag team of three characters. Three of the face buttons are dedicated to low-high attacks, and one does special moves. Combining directions with the face buttons performs different moves. The bumper buttons perform assist moves and swap out fighters. Super moves are performed by a simple combination of the High and Special buttons, provided the player has enough Super meter for it. The Ultra meter allows combatants to summon the assistance of a gigantic Zord or Goldar for either counterattacks or assists. Yes, it’s undeniably cool to witness a giant robot’s foot slamming down on opponents.

Online multiplayer has become a key feature for Battle for the Grid over the years. The online community isn’t exactly massive, but optional cross-play between all platforms certainly helps. Be warned that the Achievements/Trophies involve playing 1,000 ranked matches and winning 500 of them, which is excessively grindy and unrealistic for most players. At least the Achievements for beating Arcade with different characters are doable!

While the game’s roster might have been diminutive to start with, it now consists of 26 characters from approximately 13 series/films/universes, including Ryu and Chun Li from Street Fighter. Season 4, which just wrapped up, added Adam Park (MMPR Black Ninja Ranger – ’95 Movie Version), Poisandra (Dino Charge Villain), and Rita Repulsa (the original MMPR Villain). I’d have preferred one of the armored ’95 movie rangers to a ninja version, but the game didn’t have any ninja rangers before, so the choice makes sense. Poisandra is a delightfully silly villain even if she has no actual Dino Charge rangers to fight just yet. Rita is an excellent, long overdue addition to the lineup. She even summons Putties with some of her attacks!

I’m happy to declare that Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is a genuinely good fighting game and an absolute treat for fans of the Power Rangers franchise. The stages could use some variety – where’s the rocky beach that we see in all the shows? Still, Power Rangers fans should absolutely grab this one and the Super Edition upgrade and/or season passes. Somebody’s got to stop Drakkon from conquering the multiverse!

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Super Edition costs $49.99 on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam. The base game runs for $19.99 and is also available on Xbox Game Pass.

Our Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

Cotton is a series of cute ‘em ups (adorable shoot ‘em ups) from Japanese developer Success. Until recently, only the Turbografx Super CD port had been released in North America, with several sequels remaining exclusive to Japan. That changed this year when ININ Games released pretty much the entire series on PlayStation and Switch, including Cotton 100%.

Originally a Super Famicom game, Cotton 100% is a loose remake or expanded version of the original Cotton. The story depicts the adventures of the young witch Cotton and her fairy friend Silk as they travel across a strange and whimsical land. The cinematics in this version are sadly untranslated, making it hard for non-Japanese speakers to enjoy the story. Given that an English translation patch for the Super Famicom game recently became available, it’s extremely disappointing that ININ and port developer Ratalaika didn’t bother to fully translate the official release.

Untranslated story sequences aside, Cotton 100% is still a very charming little shmup. Cotton flies across seven large levels, battling against cutesy fantasy monsters and huge bosses along the way. At the start, players select from four different combinations of magic spells, much like the weapon selection in the Gradius series. Cotton can switch between her three spells at will. They do a ton of damage on bosses but are limited use, much like bombs in other shmups. Our heroine can level up her primary attack by collecting crystals as well as rescue fairies that will fight alongside her until she loses a life.

This release includes both Standard and Challenge modes. Challenge is the original game experience without emulation enhancements. Beating it will unlock cheats for Standard mode. In Standard, players can save and rewind gameplay. Both modes have their own sets of Trophies, adding a respectable amount of replay value. As for the visual presentation, this game lacks widescreen borders, just like ININ and Ratalaika’s recent release of Clockwork Aquario. You can’t even stretch the image (not that anybody should), but the game does include a customizable CRT and scanline filter.

Despite the lack of translated story scenes, Cotton 100% is still a very worthwhile cute ‘em up. The art style, game world, and mechanics are better than some of today’s shmups, though the music could be better. A trip through the Cotton series wouldn’t be 100 percent complete without a few playthroughs of Cotton 100%!

Cotton 100% sells for $14.99 on PlayStation and Switch.

Our Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review by: Paul Acevedo

Japanese developer Success followed the 1994 Super Famicom release of Cotton 100% with the Sega Mega Drive-exclusive sequel Panorama Cotton that same year. This installment in the long-running cute ‘em up series ditches the 2D side-scrolling viewpoint for a 3D view similar to that of Space Harrier. Now that ININ and port developer Ratalaika have brought the game to modern consoles, gamers around the world can appreciate what a technical marvel Panorama Cotton really is.

Panorama Cotton consists of five long stages, each with at least one mid-stage boss and an end-of-stage boss. The game certainly plays like Cotton, with the heroic witch Cotton and her fairy silk constantly blasting bizarre baddies and dodging obstacles as they chase after the villain who has been burning the fairy kingdom’s precious supply of willow grass.

I’ve always found Space Harrier-style games to be pretty tough since distances are difficult to judge and the player character blocks the view of oncoming threats. Playing on Easy here, I died several times on stages 3-5, but managed to finish the game without running out of credits. Completing Challenge mode unlocks cheats for Standard mode, which should make it simple to beat Standard on Hard difficulty in order to see the true ending.

As with Cotton 100%, the cinematics in the modern port of Panorama Cotton are not translated into English, so the story is difficult to understand if you don’t speak Japanese. An English translation patch for the Mega Drive ROM has existed for a couple of years now, so there’s definitely no excuse for ININ and Ratalaika not to have put forth a similar effort on this official release. Still, cinematics only occur at the beginning and end of this one, so story plays a lighter role than it did in Cotton 100%. Just check the translation guide from 2007 to get a full rundown of the narrative.

Without knowing Panorama Cotton’s reputation, I wouldn’t have expected it to be as impressive a game as it is. Moving from 2D to 3D was not usually a smooth transition in the 1990s, especially not on 16-bit hardware. Despite the odds, though, Panorama Cotton ended up being a stunning-looking game that plays pretty well and retains most of the charm of the 2D games. Sega absolutely should have released the game in English back in 1994, but at least English-speaking gamers can finally enjoy Panorama Cotton legally and without the need to import.

Panorama Cotton costs $14.99 on PlayStation and Switch.

Our Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review by: Nick Puleo

Music games have gotten their revival thanks to virtual reality, offering players to get immersed in slicing boxes, playing air guitar, or even being a DJ. While Beat Saber set the tone (and inspired the clones), one game has stood out for me in its style and execution: Ragnaröck from WanadevStudio. 

In Ragnaröck, you control a captain of a Viking ship, beating his war drums to music to keep the ship on route to various destinations. Gameplay itself is fairly simple - notes flow down four tracks and you must time the walloping of hitting your hammer to the drum when the note passes it. Tactile feedback is ever-present, really making it seem like your beating the drums.

Hit a note perfectly and you'll start to build a power meter, once enough power is accumulated you can whack a shield to overcharge your rowers and really get the boat moving. Miss a note though and you lose all charge. Your goal is to get the boat to row as far as possible on each song.

Speaking of the music, there's a great thematic mix here of Viking Metal, Celtic Punk,  or Pirate Rock all with three levels of speed and difficulty. The game also supports custom songs!

Ragnaröck is my favorite VR music game. Not only is the music great, the gameplay is satisfying and stress-relieving. Get it for $24.99 on Steam and Oculus Quest.

Our Rating: 4.5 out of 5