In Fire Breathers, two players battle it out as flying dragons high above eight lifeless stages. While the dragons can fly across the edge of the screen to appear out the side of the screen, their bullets cannot. Some stages have towers and walls that impede your progress, which doesn't help you feel as if you're controlling a bad ass, high-flying dragon.
The stages have poor design, looking something like placeholders and tests rather than something someone put some consideration into. Some levels are devoid of obstacles, built entirely out of halves and quarters of tree tiles. The final stage has most of the playable field covered by impassable walls, leaving approximately 40% of the play field open to awkwardly battle in.
Something you're going to see a lot of in the Action 52 is this complete lack of understanding of what makes a game a great game. A great game gives the appearance of something that can be picked up and played, but once you are playing it, you begin to realize there's some strategy or style of game play you need to apply to increase your chances of winning. We call this "depth". There is no depth to be found in any of these games.
For example, compare Fire Breathers to Atari Combat, a game fourteen years its senior. Atari Combat is all about momentum and firing angles. The players either move very slowly (tanks) or are constantly fighting their own forward propulsion (planes). You can rebound shots off of walls or across the edge of the screen. Beginners can play haphazardly for fun, and advanced players can use strategy with the map layout and skill over the controls to their advantage. In Fire Breathers, the dragons can only move and fire in one of four directions, so you can't really fire ahead, only fire at. And because you can traverse the width of the screen very quickly, stopping and turning on a dime, most games are reduced to one player chasing the other around the screen until someone's lifebar is drained.
OK, this is probably the only serious review of an Action 52 game you will see here.
Since 2007, Gamescrap has brought you the the worst video games, game commercials, game merchandise, and gaming moments ever to grace the industry. No matter if it's a beloved classic or the next hot thing, no bad game is safe from the horrors of the Gamescrap heap.
Since 2007, Gamescrap has brought you the the worst video games, game commercials, game merchandise, and gaming moments ever to grace the industry. No matter if it's a beloved classic or the next hot thing, no bad game is safe from the horrors of the Gamescrap heap.