darkSpyro

Fryno sucks. Maybe it's just because I only got him to Level 10 and he's supposed to deal a lot more damage at Level 20 to make up for his clunkiness, but that really doesn't excuse it. That's a cheap way to balance out a character's bad controls.

His first attack is just regular punching(also, at Level 9 you unlock an upgrade: hold the attack button and you unleash a barrage of punches, it's not that powerful, doesn't last very long and has a really tiny range, not worth it). For a melee attack these punches launch too slowly, and they don't deal a ton of damage, plus they seem to miss a lot. Unless you decide to heat up, which is his second attack... Punching the ground to damage enemies around him and heat up(the move is there from the start but you don't unlock the heating-up aspect until you reach Level 3). This ground pound attack is even slower than his punching and doesn't deal much more damage,while leaving Fryno vulnerable. Also, it just has such a tiny range, unless an enemy is right nearby you probably aren't going to hit them with this. The heat-up bonus you get from it doesn't even last that long. It's best to heat up before you know there will be enemies surrounding you so that you can hit them harder when you reach them. Also, he has his motorbike here too. I think you unlock it at Level 6: sprinting will cause the motorbike to appear, you can keep charging into enemies with it, or let it go and it'll explode on them. His motorbike isn't really a great attack because of the way sprinting works in this game. If a motorbike is on the field or just expired you still need to wait a little before you can pull up another, or you'll just do the regular sprint when you try to pull one up. His motorbike is his most damaging move if you can keep hitting an enemy with it but the least reliable.

I just hate Fryno here because of how clunky he is. It also feels like they had no ideas for how to make him for the 3DS game, so he doesn't even have anything new to excite you. I mean, he unlocks his heating-up powers at Level 3, when that should have been something he had from the start. It really shows that the were spreading it out thin with his upgrades. I can imagine he'd be one of the more difficult characters to come up with something for on the 3DS version. Still, that doesn't excuse how he was badly designed. The heating-up aspect feels like it was shoehorned in, and it's done very poorly because of how hard it is to actually keep it going. I don't mean hard as in a good way and a nice challenge and something exhilarating, I mean because it's too tricky to initiate the attack that does it- and it's just not that much fun to use. The way they designed him, Fryno does not mesh well into the 3DS version.

On the other hand, Punk Shock is absolutely amazing. A fairly agile ranged character who can dish out tons of damage with her shots, allowing her to trailblaze past enemies, with the nifty ability to set up electrified puddles that damage enemies within a good range of them. I honestly think this might be my favourite character in the 3DS games now, and if she's as good on consoles then she's definitely a new favourite. I enjoyed playing her so much that I actually kept on playing with her until I reached Level 20. I don't like the 3DS version much, so that's saying something.

At the start she has her Crossbolt and water balloons. The Crossbolt just fires out your standard projectile shots. Water balloons explode when they hit something and damage nearby enemies, as well as leave a puddle on the ground. I don't remember exactly how her upgrades go, but I believe her first upgrade is that she can electrify puddles on the ground by shooting them with her Crossbolt. Electrifying them will damage enemies standing near a puddle, and if you have multiple electrified puddles, then electric links will form between them, which damage enemies! Her second upgrade is really amazing, though. Sprinting through a puddle causes it to explode and damage nearby enemies, sprinting through an electrified puddle temporarily electrifies Punk Shock- increasing her Crossbolt's rate of fire and causing her to deal a little damage if she sprints into enemies. It also causes her Crossbolt shots to PIERCE enemies, allowing you to hit multiple enemies with them. Punk Shock was already good before this upgrade but once she has it, you can easily set up electrified puddles and then sprint through them, and deal heavy damage with the Crossbolt. The rate of fire is just insane. Her last upgrade isn't terrible although it doesn't live up to the second upgrade. Hold down X and you can charge up a giant water balloon, release to let it go, it explodes across the whole screen, damages enemies and electrifies any water puddles that are on the ground. It doesn't do that much damage, only about 30, but it doesn't take too long to charge so it could be used occasionally, like if you want to set up a bunch of puddles.

I love Punk Shock. She controls smoothly, she's powerful, and her combination of water puddles and Crossbolt is fun to use. Even without becoming electrified, she's still a reasonably strong character. In conclusion, you can just mop the floor using her but she's actually fun to use because you can set up traps and just go trigger happy with the Crossbolts, but both work well, plus they didn't just recycle her arsenal from the console here.