Qix Adventure (Game Boy Colour)

I'm sure most people reading this blog have played Qix, or some clone of it. If not, the idea is that you claim territory in a big box by drawing smaller boxes inside it, while avoiding the things that already live in there. Most clones build on the original Qix's framework by having pictures be revealed in your claimed territory, and by adding power ups. Qix Adventure has these things, as well as a Pokemon bandwagon-jumping

collectathon element (the late 90s kids anime style the game's visuals have are further evidence of this), as

well as some faux-RPG trappings.
Playing as some kid named Speedy, you arrive on an island full of strange creatures that will, before each stage, engage Speedy in poorly-translated conversation. These creatures also appear in the stages themselves, though not as enemies that need to be avoided. The enemies are the traditional Qix and Sparks. There's also a treasure chest in each stage, though it's locked at the start of the stage, which is where the strange creatures come into things: capture them into your territory and the treasure chest opens. Obviously, capture the chest into your territory to claim the goods it contains. Said goods are the aforementioned collectathon element of the game, as the menu between stages will let you look at the treasures you've collected, along with a short description, also poorly translated. None of the treasures I've found seem to have any in-game use, though there is a screen in the menu for equipping items, and you are given money as well as points at the end of each stage, so presumably, there is equipment to buy later in the game? I've played through a few

areas, and hadn't encountered a shop yet, though. The way the game gives the player money is fairly interesting, too: the amount of money received at the end of a stage is a percentage of the points scored in the stage (starting at 2% and increasing gradually as the player progresses through the game).
Qix Adventure also has on the cartridge a port of the original Qix, selectable from the main menu, which is nice, I guess. If you like Qix and Qix-like games, Adventure is definitely one of the better ones I've played, so it's worth having a look at, though I'm not sure I'd want to pay the £10-ish it tends to go for on ebay.
Shamefully, I forgot to take a screenshot of the title screen while playing, and was too lazy to go back to my other computer to take one, so please make do with this google image searched replacement. I took all the other screenshots, though.

Raging Blades (PS2)

Raging Blades is a beat em up that, though it never saw an arcade release really feels like it should have had one (there is the possibility that is was made from the remains of a cancelled arcade game, but this is purely speculation).
In it, you pick one of four generic fantasy characters (Gray the Knight, Bud the Warrior, Raybrandt the Wizard, and Tina the Monk), go to various generic fantasy locations, including the much loved RPG staple, the "ancient lost civilisation with guard robots and big glowing crystals" and fight lots of generic fantasy

monsters. There's also two secret characters, Iria the Valkyrie and Alicia the Fallen Angel, who have to be unloacked with a cheat, though it you save after doing the cheat, they stay unlocked permanently. They're both a lot stronger than all the other characters. Alicia can't be selected in Story Mode, though Iria can.
Doing said cheat also unlocks an extra mode, called "Full Attack", which allows players to change characters when they continue, and more importantly, removes the boring story narration between stages.
As for how the game actually plays, it's pretty good. Like the setting, the mechanics won't win any prizes for originality, but it's fun enough, and the stages, though cliched, do have a lot of atmosphere to them. You don't get any lives in the game, just  single health bar, though continues are limited, so if you wanted, you could treat them as a stock of lives, without letting it weigh too heavily upon

your conscience.
You progress through stages in the traditional beat em up manner: walk along, stop to fight a group of enemies, carry on walking until you get to the next area. The stages themsleves are easy (other than the last stage), but the miserly distribution of healing items means you often won't have a lot of health left by the time you reach the bosses, and the bosses are significantly harder than the stages.
There's also a Duel Mode, which unfortunately isn't a reprise of the Duel Mode found in the first two Mega Drive Goolden Axe games, but rather a versus mode, in which up to four players (which means it's not really a duel then, surely?) pick either one of the main cast or one of the enemies and fight each other. I think it has all the enemies in the game, I didn't actually check. Sorry!
Like I've said throughout the review, there's definitely nothing original about Raging Blades, but it's fun and

it's atmospheric and it looks nice, so it wouldn't be a totally terrible idea to get it. Especially since it doesn't fetch particularly high prices online: my copy (like a lot of the non-import PS2 games I write about here) only cost me a penny plus postage from amazon. There are definitely better PS2 beat em ups you should get first, though. Like God Hand. You should definitely have God Hand.
This game is also known as Raging Bless