Games Completed 2018

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Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Simonsloth »

The sequel doesn’t need a guide to finish and is in my opinion far superior. I would wholly recommend it!
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duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by duskvstweak »

I finally found AND finished the main story in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. It really is a strange entry in the series. Those final bosses were the easiest things I've ever encountered in a Final Fantasy game. The story is a strange one, the combat is compelling, but, once I figured out a system that worked, I rarely adjusted my Gambit systems. Still, I missed the melodrama of FF games and had a great time getting back to one of my favorite series of old.
Now, time to see what the fuss is about FFXIII...
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2018

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Chopper wrote: September 17th, 2018, 3:22 pm I could appreciate the cleverness, but the characters didn't really click with me.
Ah, I see. The characters instantly clicked with me which is probably why I was so motivated to see their adventure through to the end. But perhaps some of the anime-tropes were a bit too much for someone without any previous experience in the genre?

Anyway, one out of two is not toooo bad, right?

Chopper wrote: September 17th, 2018, 3:22 pm Unrelated, but I notice you don't say much about 'immersive sims' such as the Deus Ex or Dishonored games. Is there any reason you don't play those? I would have thought they'd be right up your alley.
Bunch of reasons!

First and foremost, and perhaps it went under the rest of my temper tantrum in the RE thread, but I'm really not a fan of the first-person perspective in the vast majority of games that use it. There are exceptions of course (Halo, Metroid Prime, DOOM + various puzzle games like Portal or The Witness), but for the most part I find it to be arbitrarily restrictive, aesthetically uninspired and that it usually comes at the cost of a memorable protagonist design.

Simulations in general aren't my thing either. I think the best use of the medium is to craft intricate systems with clear internal logic, not to try to emulate reality in a comparison that will automatically end up being to the game's detriment in the long run. Realism can work in certain genres, but in action / stealth games, it almost always means "fancy long-winded unresponsive animations with a bunch of randomized factors". Now obviously, Dishonored doesn't aim for the same realism as, say, Kerbal Space Program, but a lot of its systems are nevertheless meant to simulate the protagonist's sensory experience in a way that the systems in Mark of the Ninja aren't, which inevitably leads to tangibility and readability issues. The devil is in the details on that one.

Genre hybrids are basically my repellent these days. Deus Ex HR tries to be a shooter, a stealth game, and a branching dialogue-based RPG all at the same time. But because it spreads itself so thin, it's either a mediocre FPS or a barely above average stealth game no matter which way you choose. It simply doesn't have the mechanical polish of curated experiences such as Halo or Splinter Cell. And the branching story ends up cannibalising itself at the cost of Adam's characterization in my eyes, like I explained after playing Dr. Dekker. Plus a progression system that arbitrarily locks important upgrades behind hours of grinding... *sigh*

So yeah, first person immersive stealth games are just not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. I played a bit of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox, but I couldn't make it past the first few hours. I don't play on PC and I hear the PS2 port is trash, so I've never had the opportunity to try out the original Deus Ex. I bought Human Revolution at launch because the trailers looked so promising, and while I found enough about it to like (some of the visual design is very pretty and the social commentary is interesting enough), I had to give up on it later on due to the aforementioned reasons. Plus I was trying to play it as a pure stealth game and customized my character accordingly and hit a brick wall on one of the bosses. I hear they've rectified that in the Director's Cut, but it was too little too late for me at that point.

I tried a few hours of the first Dishonored at a friend's place, and it didn't really grab me. Everything I've since heard about the game confirms my suspicion of it simply not being my thing. My idea of a great stealth game is one that can be "ghosted", which means played through without any kills or alerts and only minimal item usage. I really need that high skill ceiling to motivate me through, even on my initial failure-prone playthrough. Hitman for example is absolutely marvelous in that regard. But Dishonored wasn't built for that. One of the panel members (Josh, I think?) on the CaR issue apparently shares my tastes and expressed great frustration at the game because of it.

Basically, I'm a very difficult customer! I love stealth games in theory, but there are very few that I consider "great" in practice. The next one on my list is Styx, because that one seems to tick most of my boxes.


PS: For the record, I think both of them are perfectly fine games with some great qualities, but nothing that gets my blood pumping.

PPS: I'm perfectly willing to step outside of my comfort zone following your recommendation, of course. :)
Spoiler: show
Uh-oh, I sense a Prey Mooncrash shill incoming! Any minute now... :lol:
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seansthomas
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by seansthomas »

February 4th - DOOM (Switch)
February 7th - Oxenfree (Switch)
February 17th - Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
February 25th - The Fall Part 2: Unbound (Switch)
February 28th - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
March 4th - Subsurface Circular (Switch)
March 28th - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
April 4th - Floor kids (Switch)
April 9th - Rime (Switch)
May 6th - Celeste (Switch)
May 7th - Nintendo Labo (RC Car / Motorbike)
May 30th - Axiom Verge (Switch)
July 17th - Wolfenstein II: The new Colossus (Switch)
July 20th - Golf Story (Switch)
July 23rd - Inside (Switch)

September 17th - Human fall flat (Switch)

Man, I'm on a frustrating roll. Games I can't quite beat and add to the list (Dead Cells), games I've bounced off of (The Sexy Brutale) and games I've put loads of time into but which don't likely count here (Rocket League, Splatoon 2).

Thought Human Fall Flat might break the bad run and provide some light relief.

OH. MY. GOD. HOW. WRONG. I. WAS.

I think, in theory, I like this game. The physics based puzzles are probably the cleverest I've played outside of a Portal game, it looks nice, the music is quirky and it has an interesting way of making you learn the controls.

But, Christ, is it maddening to control. I nearly always knew what to do, but getting the floppy little fucker to do it was like performing root canal surgery on myself in the dark. The controls are infuriating. I nearly snapped my Switch in two on multiple occasions, and I am NOT someone who gets riled by a game.

In fact I got so curious with it, I had to put it down several times and refused to go back to it. But I'm someone who needs closure once I begin a game, and I kept coming back to it to see it through.

I honestly don't know why. I don't feel good having done so. The ending wasn't life changing. I wouldn't say I'd recommend it to anyone unless you have friends to tackle it with. I just have a compulsive need to get things off my plate.

But it's over. I'm free. I no longer will need to consult a YouTube walkthrough (of someone magically beating the entire game in 7 minutes) to make sure my hunch is correct, before spending an hour attempting to whack a crate off of a high ledge and lodge it under a makeshift ramp.

Human Fall Flat, then. I'd skip it.
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Chopper »

^^^ @seansthomas this whole post is hilarious.

@simonsloth - noted!

@KSubzero1000 well, nobody can say you haven't thought it through :P

I thought the Dishonored games could be ghosted, or at least I remember the first one seemed to have a bug where the no-kill run always resulted in a single unknowable kill. I hadn't thought that the simulation meant a simulation of reality, but merely a bunch of simulated systems that you interact with via a subset of very specific tools. Anyway!
KSubzero1000 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm The next one on my list is Styx, because that one seems to tick most of my boxes.
I lasted maybe 15 minutes with Styx. Should be right up your alley :D
KSubzero1000 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm Ah, I see. The characters instantly clicked with me which is probably why I was so motivated to see their adventure through to the end. But perhaps some of the anime-tropes were a bit too much for someone without any previous experience in the genre?
Not even that, I'm not familiar enough with them to even identify what tropes were used. But there was a complete lack of characterisation at the start. Here is a woman dressed as a belly dancer. Here is a blind guy who is dressed like a prince etc. No other detail is given, nor are any of them questioned as to their background. I thought that was odd.
KSubzero1000 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm Uh-oh, I sense a Prey Mooncrash shill incoming! Any minute now... :lol:
Not at all!

*surreptitiously hides a piece of paper with 'MoOncarsh' written on it*

I thought about shilling for the game a bit in this forum, as quite a few people here played the base game, but I can't be bothered really. There is a decent video by Skill Up that I was going to post in the criticism thread but it's a little hectoring in tone, and we don't want that :)

No, will think of something better.
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Chopper
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Chopper »

Blues and Bullets Episode 1

This is a real curiosity. Here is the plot:

You play Eliot Ness, who has retired from the force to run a diner. One day you are summoned to the Hindenburg, which has been converted to a luxury hotel high above the city, accessed via cable car(!). The occupant of the penthouse suite is Al Capone, who has just been released from prison. He wants you to team up with his Titus Andronicus-reading henchman to find his missing granddaughter.

With that, and the stiff animations and weird visual trappings (it's in black and white, with splashes of blood red everywhere), I didn't have high hopes, but the episode really won me over by the end.

The downside is that the studio who made this game went belly-up, and only one more episode was released out of a planned five. So I guess tomorrow will wrap that up.
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Stanshall
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Stanshall »

SNK Heroines (Switch)

A duff purchase, and a true stinker of 2018. Yes, I must shoulder some of the blame for not researching adequately and not realising that it featured a dumbed down approximation of the typically wonderful SNK 2D fighting mechanics. I also knew it would probably appeal somewhat to the Asian Babes subscribers but I genuinely thought it'd be a 'girl power' effort with a load of OTT Japanese cultural confetti. Turns out that ninety percent of the development time went into 'does my arse look big in this monocle and cat ears?'

And yet, I have enjoyed playing it very very casually with mates a couple of times, as well as some online - though that already seems dead. It's flashy, it's silly, it's excessive and dumb but in the right mood with the right company, it can be a bit of a laugh. I couldn't recommend it to anyone, though. Genuine waste of money.


Blade Strangers (Switch)

In a similar vein, and I'm not entirely sure why I bought this, Blade Strangers nevertheless has some relative depth to the fighting mechanics. It also features some fairly pervy costumes and the roster is predominantly skimpily dressed anime girls and the like, as well as Isaac from TBOI (yeah, honestly). I don't know what the concept is, but I think it's a kind of Nicalis compilation fighter which is a weird thing in the current fighting game market. I expect it'll be a Blue Baby as soon as DBFZ comes out.

Nevertheless, it's a pretty tight, aggressive, flashy fighting game with lots of combo potential and a variety of meters and supers and ultras to contend with while your bikini clad princess swings a Dragonslayer at a robotic maid. That's the vibe. There's actually a cool range of characters with a handful to unlock and I suspect it has quite a bit of depth to it, and certainly much more than SNK Heroines. I would say hold on for DBFZ if you're keen for this kind of anime fighter, though. I'm sure the player base will last much longer.



Psyvariar Delta (Switch)

Crikey, this is one hell of a game. I've really enjoyed a range of different shmups of late, from Azure Reflections to Deathsmiles to Shikhondo and I've also loved going back to some of my absolute favourites in Mushihimesama and DOJ and Ikaruga, and I can therefore say in total confidence that Psyvariar Delta is right up there with the very best I've played. It's also one of my GOTY.

It's little more than a port of the PS2 games (one of which was in fact a revision of the first release) and from what I understand, and can see from YT superplays, it's barely been touched besides a lick of paint. The generic art direction looks at least a generation old, the music (while excellent) is firmly stuck in 2002 (even the superb, updated Delta OST) and the gameplay appears at face value to be nothing new, but with the pad in your hand, it opens up quite magnificently.

It's in the fairly small graze shooter niche, alongside the excellent Danmaku Unlimited 3 which I discussed earlier in the year, or the recent Shikhondo: Soul Eater. Where it differs, though, is that these both use grazing as a means to charging up a limited use ultra attack which boosts both damage and score for ten seconds or so. In Psyvariar, you graze and graze and graze and your basic ship will continue to "LEVEL UPPPP" and grant you ever more destructive firepower as well as changing its cosmetic appearance. This means that every single wave, no, every single bullet is an opportunity for you to exploit to boost your shots and tilt the balance in your favour. It's simple lizard brain stuff but it really pushes your buttons to see that BUZZ counter go up into the hundreds (and thousands!) as you graze and milk enemies and bullets for all they're worth, sending your level spiralling and your ship becoming hard as fuck.

This superb mechanic also goes even further in that each time you level up, you have a small window of invulnerability during which you can dive head first into the descending mass of bullets and level up faster and faster as the i-frames keep you safe while you milk bosses and swarms of enemies. It means that you feel encouraged to play on the front foot, exploiting the enemies' aggression and using it to serve your own ends. That's such an exciting feeling when you time things right and get your spacing where it needs to be to trigger one level up after another. The HD rumble on the Switch also really reinforces this pleasurable feedback loop as it buzzes excitedly with every grazed bullet. To play it with headphones on and to feel the physical response to your developing skills is one of the most exciting gaming sensations I've had all year. I feel that it's a classic of the genre and also that I've barely scratched the surface.

---

I don't really know why I've not contributed to this thread before. I've completed about fifty or sixty games this year in an effort to clear my backlog and play all the stuff I bought on the eShop last year. I've written them all up elsewhere and it's probably a bit gauche to repost a massive text dump but I'll add to this thread from now on.

If anyone is interested for whatever reason in my year in gaming completions, I will copy and paste inside spoiler tags below. There are possibly a few missing here but it's interesting (to me) to see how I went from the eye opening curiosity of Dodonpachi and Danmaku Unlimited 3 back in March to being utterly blown away and enraptured by DaiOuJou and Mushihimesama not long after to falling down the rabbit hole chasing everything on every system which sprayed a few bullets in my direction to my current habit of watching superplays in bed every night once my wife is asleep and then being unable to drop off because the patterns are dancing in my mind's eye for hours and almost all other games now seem boring and shit and I've utterly ruined myself. Plus some other stuff I played. Strap yourself in.
Spoiler: show
January



What Remains of Edith Finch


If not my favourite, then one of the best ever 'walking sims'. Beautiful, surprising, funny, tragic, meditative. I have no interest in debating whether it's 'art', define it how you like. To me, this is a tremendously affecting game with enormous heart and imagination.



Super Mario Odyssey (Darker Side ending)


I'll dip in and out of this until the next proper Mario game, and likely beyond. I feel like the 500 moons, Darker Side gauntlet and the bittersweet Cappy dialogue were the perfect resolution, though. While BotW was more consistent and broke more new ground for the medium, Odyssey had several of the highest highs I've ever felt in gaming. Endless invention and joy in the moments it created, both spectacular and small. The climax to New Donk City may be my favourite moment in any game.


February

Celeste


The greatest platformer I've played since, err, Mario Odyssey. Nevertheless, I expected something fun, maybe as good as Bleed, maybe as good as Slime-san, solid, well crafted, made with passion. It far exceeded that. A gorgeous melding of gameplay, story and concept, with some of the tightest platforming mechanics ever and a GOAT soundtrack, this is a modern classic. With the B-sides and C-sides (which I expect I'll never see before my synapses wither), there's also an insane amount of game here. No longer will indie platformers be compared to Meat Boy.



BotW: Champions' Ballad


Long time no Zelda for me. I put in about 120 hours last March and April, it absolutely rocked my world like it did to so many people, and it was my GOTY without any hesitation. And yet, I probably only got around 60 shrines, didn't go out of my way to level up loads of gear besides my go-to climbing/Barbarian gear, etc. The vast majority of my time was just wandering in the most immersive open world environment since Skyrim. I wasn't fussed about either DLC but my conscience was gnawing at me this weekend so I decided to gave this a good go. While it was nothing especially new, it sucked me right back in and I fell in love with that world and its remarkable interlocking systems. Every new shrine made me feel clever (or dumb, and then clever) and every new spot on the map felt like looking down the back of the sofa and finding a secret compartment full of shiny new coins. It wasn't especially moving, and the bosses were perhaps unnecessarily repetitive but it got under my skin all over again. Described elsewhere as the Kind of Blue of games, and I absolutely get that comparison. An accessible Zen classic, minimalist and peaceful, yet deep as the ocean and emotionally sprawling. It's a masterpiece in ambition, imagination and control.



Shock Troopers


I'd never played this before, though I'd heard it was top tier Neo Geo. The controls took a little while to get used to but it was a fun romp. It's not my favourite genre and I'd choose Contra or even Metal Slug over this top-down run and gun. Plenty of personality to it and a considerable challenge but ultimately much more enjoyable in local co-op with a couple of beers, I suspect.



The Last Blade


I've been on a real Neo kick of late, all on Switch, and after playing quite a bit of Garou: MOTW last year, I decided to look at what else is out there. KoF98 led me to Samurai Shodown II, both of which seem great and which I'll be giving more time soon, but The Last Blade has blown me away. I think it's probably the best looking 2D fighter I've ever seen. They animations and backdrops are spectacular and every fighter has so much personality, even though at least three look like similarly generic samurai dudes in stills! There's a tremendous sense of place to the various environments that SFV doesn't even came close to. The soundtrack is also beautifully moody and atmospheric, a mixture of traditional koto and shakuhachi and the like, but sometimes you just have ambient noise, footsteps, weather. It's wonderfully stark. I really wish it had online play. I haven't even talked about the wonderfully patient and destructive rhythm the combat has, the combo fluidity, the choice between Speed and Power, the Super Special moves, the furious Speed combo window, the Super Desperation Special moves which can change the whole match at the last moment. It's a masterpiece, and possibly the best game I've played so far this year.



March

 


Gorogoa (Switch)


A refined, singular mobile puzzle game. The core mechanic of focusing on and reshaping different elements within frames and independent vignettes is something I've never seen before. Within the first ten minutes, it made me laugh with surprise several times like 'that moment' in The Witness.


For those who have no idea what the game is, a typical puzzle might see one panel with a man asleep next to an extinguished lamp, one panel with a moth at a window. One panel at night sky and another an open doorway. You would put the doorway over the window to open it. Then find a bright star in the night sky, zoom in and put it over the lamp which would turn it on and wake up the man who starts thinking. The moth would fly into the lamp and burst into flame ,you put the flame over the man's thought bubble and he finds inspiration for some writing and you'd click on his newest thought bubble to go to the next scene.


I played through the first three chapters very happily the day I got it but then found it became rather obtuse, with too many variables and it seemed overly complicated so I put it down. I tried again the next morning but couldn't remember any of the elements to the panels, or where they'd originally appeared from so I stared at its icon for a couple more weeks before uninstalling. It's typical of my pile of shame in that respect. I eagerly play most open world games right up to the point that the open world is available and then I tune out. See HZD, XC2 and AC:O for recent examples. Whilst this is nothing like those games, my reaction is comparable. Pacing is so important as I get easily bored by almost all games apart from those which wholly consume me.


As part of my attempt to tackle the backlog and get some value out of all the shite I bought last year, I decided to jump back in then, restart the chapter and rely on a guide for the more obtuse moments. Yes, that's lazy and defeats the purpose but I feel this one is more about the spectacle and aesthetic and seeing the playful logic of the devs than the enormous intellectual satisfaction. I'm respecting both my wallet and the devs' efforts in seeing this one through, but also my time. In the end, once I'd got some momentum, I sailed through the second half in about an hour, only using the guide a couple of times when there were too many rotating elements and ticking off the mental flowchart became a chore.


In conclusion, it's a beautifully presented, intelligent puzzle game with a reflective tone and gorgeous ambient music. Thematically, I wasn't entirely sure what it was about besides ageing and youthful discovery and idealism, but it did capture a particular atmosphere which stayed with me and it's been nagging me for a good while. It's great to have finished it and I can imagine going back at some point for a leisurely playthrough now I know the solutions. I understand the praise and largely agree with it, even if it's not my usual genre.



Gunbarich (Switch)


I am amazed that this arcade puzzle game came out in 2001. I do remember playing it in a beaten-up arcade in China around 2004, alongside many versions of Puzzle Bobble and Tetris and Magical Drop and the like. God, I'd love to go back there now. Back then, I assumed that they were all early/mid 90s games from the presentation but perhaps my judgement was impaired by the rundown decor, strip lighting and the thick fog of Double Happiness cigarette smoke.


In any case, it's certainly a throwback. Arkanoid is the foundation but Gunbarich quickly takes that basic bat and ball mechanic and then tosses new elements into the mix more quickly and haphazardly than you can begin to process them. For a start, your 'bat' is actually made up of pinball flippers which allow you some extra control and power to send the ball rattling around the top half of the screen. Aside from that, you have power ups, some standards like wide flippers and multiball, but some which allow you to destroy the 'indestructible' blocks, shoot destructive stars and get massive hit stun combos on the bosses.


Oh, right. The bosses. The game is structured in different worlds with varied aesthetics, though it's mostly obscured by the chaos. At least, I didn't have chance to especially appreciate the backdrops. At the end of each world (of three stages), you have a boss battle against a moving target. They also shoot at you, or past you, which causes you to be stunned, but if you can bat their shots back you'll do extra damage (I think!). It's less complicated than it sounds. Regular enemies will also shoot at you, or steal the ball and teleport before firing it at double speed. The later levels become pure chaos and I do suspect whether it's possible to actually survive through skill or if luck and a pocket full of coins are the only way to see the ending. In any case, I had to turn on Infinite Continues to get past the third world. And while that does kill the challenge, it's still a really fun game for a fifteen minute playthrough. It's pure arcade fun, bold and colourful, cute characters and silly animations, an insistent soundtrack and absurd challenge. It's not up there with Puyo Puyo Tetris, although I love the charming aesthetic which sends me right back to Chinese ciggies and jaundiced strip lighting, but it is fun and I'll be replaying it happily on my next train journey or laboured stool.



Metal Slug 3 (Switch)


My first Metal Slug game outside of the arcades. I enjoyed the first couple of levels, and was pretty blown away by the animation and imagination on offer, especially with the various transformations into a zombie or block of ice or what have you. Soon enough, though, it revealed itself to be the desperate coin guzzler I had heard about.

I expect there are some folks out there who can 1cc this but my experience was that the deaths come much too quickly at my modest skill level. I probably used fifty credits, realistically, and by the end I was just brute forcing it so I could see the ending.


I hear that the first Metal Slug game is the most well balanced and I'd certainly be keen to dig deeper into the series for a slightly more forgiving approach. The basic gameplay is quite satisfying. The movement and gunplay feel robust. It looks fantastic, it's varied and it goes to some unexpected places. This entry was just too tough for me to get more excited about it.


Dodonpachi (Arcade)


At Arcade Club, to be precise. I've been getting more and more into shmups of late after a flirtation on the XB1 last year when I completed Guwange and put a few hours into Omega Five, Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. Around the same time, I first played Dodonpachi at Arcade Club and it melted my brain. I couldn't begin to process it but I enjoyed the spectacle and the fact that your standard shots made Super Nashwan Power look like blowing a kiss. I never played for long because I was pressing new credit so often that it might as well have been a fire button. When you're talking free play, you need to know when to respect the queue.


Recently, I've been working my way through the Psikyo games on the Switch and getting into Strikers 1945 II and Gunbird and Samurai Aces, as well as a bit of Neo Geo Blazing Star and Pulstar so I'm right into shmups again and starting to understand the basic idea of routes and destroying certain enemies in order and what to destroy quickly and so on to create safe zones. My movements have also improved a lot and I tend to nudge much more than I previously did where I was flying this way and that, sweeping across the screen to certain death.

Anyway, I had another day out at Arcade Club with a few mates which I'd been looking forward to for a good month or so. I was determined to give Dodonpachi another go and I'd actually watched a few 1-CC vids on YouTube to try to at least understand the principles better, even if not exactly learning routes and so on. I just wanted to figure out how not to keep dying. Part of it was simply not rushing to collect power ups and focusing on, well, not dying. And sure enough, over the course of the day, I actually started to improve. By the end of the evening, I did the first stage without dying, which I found really really satisfying and I'm still quite pumped about it, no matter how little an achievement that is to proper shmup players.


Ultimately, to finish it, I had to be cheeky and just sit there pumping the credits in because I was determined to see the end. The final boss wasp was just ludicrous and no matter how much I improved on that first stage, I still can't imagine how anyone could beat that without dying fifty times. Maybe I'll get there one day, though. I do see a tiny chink of light in that previously impenetrable nightmare fortress. I had wanted to take a photo of the ending screen as proof, but it turned out to be some anime lass in her skimpies and there were kids about. It just wouldn't have been cricket.


Dodonpachi, though, eh? What a fucking game. I pray that Cave decide to port this and more to the Switch. I think there's a whole new market which would lap them up. Well, I'd buy a copy, anyway.


Danmaku Unlimited 3 (Switch)


Having never played either of the first two games, nor heard of this until a few days ago, the timing couldn't have been much sweeter. Following my first Dodonpachi 'clear' at the weekend, Danmaku Unlimited 3 landed while I'm still right in the mood for a manic shooter. 'Danmaku', for non-shmup fans, means 'bullet curtain' and is a subgenre in its own right. The title is therefore somewhat on the nose and while it also very much follows genre conventions established by its forefathers, to my tastes, this comfortably goes toe to toe with even the best STG I've played on the system.

Unlike most shooters on the Switch, Danmaku Unlimited 3 features pristine HD graphics and the waves and spirals and splashes and spurts of bullets simply pop off the screen. Considering quite how much is happening at any one moment, I've rarely played a shmup where I feel so crystal clear about the encroaching enveloping threat and the winding paths I will need to punch through to find respite. Likewise, whether I'm using a laser blunderbuss coating half of the screen or pummeling a bullet sponge with the charge beam, my shots cut through the chaos with conspicuous venom.


The soundtrack is a monster, with plaintive synth overtures quickly stomped on by cascading riffs of Japanese hair metal. It's not my genre by any means but as with Steredenn (no doubt due an appearance in this list when I get gud),  I've found that metal and shmups go together like roast pork and mustard. I'm definitely going to pick up the OST and blast this down a country lane.

It's been a brilliant month for gaming for me and I'm delighted to conclude that this is up among the best releases of 2018 so far on the Switch. 


Gunbird / Samurai Aces / Strikers 1945 / Strikers 1945 II


The month of shmups continues, as does the clearing of the backlog. I've beaten all of these Psikyo classics on Normal at some point in the past fortnight, without having had much of note to say about the individual titles. With Samurai Aces polished off this afternoon, I can confidently group these together for a five-finish day (alongside the superior Danmaku Unlimited 3, mentioned above) because they're so similar in gameplay, the formula almost becomes part of the charm and any deviation is what defines them.


They're all vertical shmups with fairly generous power up drops, panic button smart bombs and, in the case of Gunbird and Strikers II, a slightly fiddly charge shot which I seldom used. While there are some slightly interesting variations in the player shots, depending on the individual game's aesthetic, and on the character design with Gunbird and Samurai Aces, the enemies behave very similarly across these games and, for the most part, they feel like well-made palette swaps.

In terms of strengths or distinctions, I really like the art direction of Samurai Aces. It reminds me of a more sedate Guwange with robotic Oni and a period aesthetic. It would probably be my favourite of the bunch if not for the excessive speed of enemy bullets which requires more memorisation than reflexes, on my part, at least. It is both the most fun and the most frustrating. Strikers 1945 II feels the most mobile (though this may be in my head), it was the first I finished, and the one I thought would be the 'keeper' of the bunch. It lacks personality, though, and feels quite generic. While it does build on its predecessor in terms of scale and the charge shot mechanic, both games do look a little ropey alongside their charming brethren - or sistren, depending on who you pick.


Gunbird is therefore probably the pick of the bunch, for me. Some goofy dialogue between levels, a diverse range of characters (Marion the Witch also appears in Gunbarich, which I completed this month and mention above), the silliest power ups and a paper-thin story add a little more life to the highly competent, cookie cutter level design and boss encounters with which Psikyo made their name.

Four very solid entries which have scratched an enjoyable itch, three of which I'll be happy to tick off the backlog and uninstall for now.



Samurai Shodown 2


Having completed The Last Blade a few weeks ago, I decided to give Samurai Shodown 2 a proper go this evening as I can't sleep. I've been ill all day, hence lying in bed finishing one game after another, like an invalid possessed.


While acknowledging possible gaming fatigue and the ongoing nausea, I have to say that I don't rate this anywhere near The Last Blade, or indeed Garou:MOTW. I'd heard that it's a much more patient and defensive game where mistakes leave you open to crushing counters and devastating whiff punishes. I do appreciate the principle but I feel it lacks the combo flow and flash of TLB. I seldom felt that I was going beyond the absolute basics and I ended up cheesing the irritating final boss.


Aesthetically, there is a very diverse roster but many seem to come from a totally different game. The samurai elements are rather limited. That said, I quite like the bold, cartoony characters, and they are beautifully drawn and animated. The backgrounds are also detailed and varied, ranging from fields of long grass to underground caves and burning temples. They are packed with details.

Despite an appreciation of the technical ability of the art team, I really don't like the colour palette. Most characters and backgrounds seem very saturated, and more in line with Waku Waku 7 than The Last Blade. As the characters' rage bars fill up, they also start to turn crimson. I respect the possible need for a clearer visual cue but it looks pretty terrible, to me. Overall, it's like it's been coloured with felt tips versus water colours in The Last Blade. 


As with all fighters, I expect this would improve in local multiplayer but with Garou, TLB, KoF98, USF2 and ARMS way ahead in the fighter pecking order, Samurai Shodown 2 is a 'one and done' title for me, for the moment.


Aero Fighters 2 (Switch)


Another day, another Hamster Neo Geo shmup port. I'm starting to feel I've visited most of the highest peaks by this point. Aero Fighters 2 is in the Psikyo vein of multiple incongruous characters, generous power ups, multi-phase bosses and plenty of orange bullets, but with less panache. I had a few issues with unpredictably immediate deaths in Samurai Aces but AF2 seems even worse in that respect. I also had some reservations about the generic aesthetic of Strikers 1945; AF2 is even more conservative. If it were one of the first shmups I'd played on the system, I might have been more generous but in a week where I've played Zero Gunner 2, Danmaku Unlimited 3, Gunbird and completed Dodonpachi at the arcade, I do feel that Aero Fighters 2 feels superfluous, without being wilfully offensive. Still, my £6.29 has finally been justified. Having just picked up Aero Fighters 3 this afternoon, and found it immediately more exciting and quite spectacular, I expect that I'll get considerably more enjoyment from it.



Aero Fighters 3 (Switch)


"Hey, you idiot. Make a move or you will be finished/
Show me what you g-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-t."


So goes the absurd breakbeat boss theme from Aero Fighters 3. Perhaps aware that a third game might be too far in this competent but unoriginal series, the devs decided to crank everything up to daft. This time around, the character roster is bigger, the power ups are wackier and the music is brilliantly bonkers, but it feels like something has been lost - dignity, perhaps.


Having completed about ten vertical shmups in the last fortnight, my game time now feels like a weird Sisyphan trial. Any break from genre convention seems like a positive and coupled with the flashy power ups, and my preference for Gunbird over Strikers 1945, I was really enjoying Aero Fighters 3 out of the gate. Sadly, by the time I reached the final boss - a UFO with a blinking yellow eye, surrounded by rotating dancing monkeys - I felt that it was the work of a jaded development team throwing any old shite at the wall in the hope that something would stick. The difficulty curve and level designs also seem haphazard with some bizarre spikes and lots of unfair deaths, especially on the second loop. It's a forgettable novelty.



Waku Waku 7 (Switch)


Now, this is how you do daft. Having bounced off KoF98 and with Garou and The Last Blade still firm favourites, but somewhat serious in tone, Waku Waku 7 certainly satisfies a particular fondness for larger-than-life cheerful silliness, with 30-hit hyper combos and an array of crowd-pleasing super special moves. The roster is relatively very small, only 7 playable fighters with two boss characters also available in Vs mode, but each is imbued with a great deal of personality and unique designs.


Special moves are also very interesting in that you can sometimes hold down the button and produce different effects. For example, Robot Maid Tesse will search for items hidden in her apron to throw at the enemy the longer you hold punch. These range from a plate to a sausage dog to a Bullet Bill (yes). There are also incredibly damaging unblockable harahara attack moves which flash up a massive warning on screen to give your opponent chance to evade or bash you in if they're fast enough. If the move hits, you will often take off half of their health.


Characters range from the aforementioned Maid to Totoro (yep) to Indiana Jones on roids to a gigantic bat cannonball called Fernández. The music does a great job of selling the goofy, playful tone but it's the glorious cartoony art direction which is the game's greatest advertisement. I don't know what this style is called but the relative absence of dark outlines give everything a painterly atmosphere. I've read a number of complaints that it's an ugly game but I think it's gorgeous. It also does the classic SNK crash zoom into the action which works really well, especially when you throw a character across the screen and they bounce off the wall right back into your ludicrous combo move. There's also a considerable and rather silly back story to the whole affair which only adds to the fun.


A frantic and fun 2D fighter with unique presentation, it's a perfect palate cleanser halfway through this month of arcade obsession.



Magical Drop III (Switch) 


Sticking with the Neo Geo but moving into the arcade puzzler realm, this would have taken me about fifty quid to complete on the original cabinet. As much as I enjoy the likes of Puyo Puyo and Bust-A-Move, my brain just doesn't see the set-ups to rack up combos and big scores, and so too it is with Magical Drop. I'd say it took me about an hour and a half and thirty credits to complete the Adventure Mode. It's set out like a board game with different squares producing different variations on the core puzzling.


You control a little clown at the bottom of the screen and you can gather up different coloured gems which you then push back up with Match 3-type intentions. Instead of swapping blocks, you collect and then stack to clear. There are various different blocks, as you'd expect, to give further variety and tactical challenge. Occasionally, you have a head-to-head battle against the CPU. Lord knows how I got to the end. As I went on, though, I did feel some of the planning ahead start to click but I won't get above my station - I'm bad at this game. Nevertheless, it's fun, frenetic and scratches a certain itch in my brain. It's a repetitive game but an especially great time in short bursts or head-to-head with a mate.



Vostok Inc (Switch)


A game like I've never played before. The clicker genre has always seemed a dreadful, psychologically addictive waste of time, to me, and while I enjoy a good twin-stick shooter, I wasn't initially tempted to pick up another. Enough positive word of mouth on here, a friendly and endearingly pushy dev and an eShop sale and I gave it a go. That was three days ago. My Switch has been on virtually non-stop since and I've had very little sleep. This kind of thing is simply not good for me. I'm like a moth to the flame with the rolling number ticker. It captivates me. It torments me. I uninstalled it on Sunday night in a fit of pique, irritated with myself for my level of immediate addiction. Reinstalled it yesterday as soon as I got in from work, I needed to put it to bed, draw a line, get some closure.


Finally, today, in the toilets during my lunch break, I finished it. I've seen the ending screen, uninstalled, and never ever ever will I touch this or any game like it again.



Bleed (Switch)


I'm a mechanics kinda guy when it comes to games. I can get swept along by a rollicking narrative, I can become immersed in a rich and beautiful world, I can make-believe I'm a Knight errant on a quest to save the soul of some decrepit kingdom. But it's the tactile feel of movement which keeps me coming back. Action and satisfying reaction. This is Bleed, to the core. It's part twin-stick shooter, part Celeste-style platformer.


With no offence intended the player and enemy designs are virtually on the level of clip art. There is almost no visual or thematic cohesion even within levels. The soundtrack is, well, I honestly can't remember the soundtrack. The story is knowingly a bit daft, but neither interesting nor particularly amusing. At least, or at most, it's not annoying.


It's a genuinely fantastic little game, though. It's fast, chaotic, precise, slick, tough. The bosses are well designed, challenging but also possible to master to achieve a high rank. The weapons are all distinct and viable. It's just a little belter, a very 'pure' video game. Cheers to Jon Denton and Chet Roivas for inadvertently bringing this to my attention via an old YT vid I watched at random, coincidentally a week before the Cane and Rinse episode. I'll be picking up the sequel soon.



Caladrius Blaze (PS4)

 

From Switch to PS4, the month of shmups continues. Caladrius Blaze is one I've had my eye on for a little while but I do feel I've had much better value for money elsewhere in the genre of late. It's an excellent game with tight movement, and four distinct upgradeable weapons across a range of eight possible ships. There's a lot of variety and strategy to learn about each ship and its load out, I'm sure. The levels and bosses look great, there are some quite original bullet patterns and shapes, the soundtrack is suitably energetic to complement the action but I don't think I'll ever play it again.

 

Now, I'm far from a prude but the overt sexualisation of the characters really seemed excessive and incongruous. Maybe if I spent more time with the modern shmup genre, I'd perhaps put this in some relative perspective but I just found it a bit gross - and I'm very happy to play something like Nier: Automata or Bayonetta without any shame. They're just games being daft. This felt a bit seedy and crowbarred in, though, and the idea of bosses having their clothes ripped as you deliver a 'shame break' is horribly adolescent. I suspect that much of this stuff can be turned off in the options but I'm loath to particularly recommend the game, in any case.

 

 

Metal Slug (Switch)

 

A little palate cleanser then after the above. I played through Metal Slug 3 a little while back, my first ever MS game, believe it or not. I was pretty blown away by the animation and variety and sprite art and the colossal intensity of the thing. The first level was fun and manageable but it seemed a bit greedy after that with so many unpredictable deaths. Turns out that the first Metal Slug is better in almost every way.

 

Firmly in its favour, the seemingly impossible choke points of the third game are much less frequent. It's very possible to clear screens and have a few seconds breathing space and bullets and rockets move slowly enough to either jump or duck, most of the time. It feels not only like a game you could master with memorisation and practice, but a game you could play quite well with reactions and a decent feel for the basic mechanics. Weapon upgrades are plentiful and the eponymous Metal Slug frequently makes an appearance. I played through in one sitting with a cup of tea and a Club biscuit. The tea was still lukewarm by the end; it's a running time which suits me just fine these days and I'm sure I'll run through it again a couple of times with a mate.

 

It's another beautifully animated game, with gorgeous backgrounds and bags of charm. I was surprised to find that the sci-fi/horror/absurd diversions of MS3 are nowhere to be found here. Those fabulously chunky vehicles and structures are already intact, of course, but there are no 'zombie/fat guy' secrets, as far as I am aware, and the levels remain very much in the realms of 20th century warfare. That said, they're full of character and atmosphere, and I possibly prefer them to the far-out locales of MS3. I may have been reading too much into what is a gratuitously violent and daft game in almost every respect but the destruction of a picturesque French town and Vietnamese coastal village, and the dismay of their inhabitants and nonplussed animals, really made me question the game's intent, which was only reinforced by the ending cut scenes. I'm unlikely to produce a dissertation on the topic but I'll keep an eye out on my next playthrough. I now understand why Metal Slug is considered an arcade classic.




Sengoku Blade aka Tengai (Switch)

 

Combine the mecha-feudal aesthetic of Samurai Aces with the fantastical anime cheer of Gunbird, run these elements through the Psikyo assembly line and you can more or less predict the exact outcome. So why does this game stand out so much for me?

 

Firstly, I think the move to horizontal allows Psikyo to have some real fun with both the backgrounds, standard enemies and the ever-imposing bosses. Larger enemies and mid-bosses seem to take up a lot of real estate and show plenty of detail and character in their designs. There are some, like the floating eyeball thing, the iron maiden type things from Demon's Souls, and the rapid-firing archers, which really feel like a challenge to kill and which dominate the screen, while still giving you plenty of room to manoeuvre. The giant hand which comes for you and saps your power up strength is an absolute bugger, scary for several reasons, and very satisfying to destroy for a massive bonus.

 

The bosses are even more impressive, from the kind of yokai train/tank to the giant statue whose foot you see clanking into life earlier in the stage. The final boss is straight out of Godzilla and is brilliantly over the top. They're a lot of fun to fight and while we expect a two-stage boss by now with Psikyo, Sengoku Blade still manages to surprise and subvert our expectations. My favourite fight is probably the Boss Rush near the end of the loop, which subverts things further by adding not only extra boss attacks but also a brand new one-time enemy which is scarier than almost anything else in the game. Best of all is that on the second loop, which is bloody hard, there are many new enemies thrown into the mix which also alters the tone of the game. Suddenly, we realise that there is an altogether more supernatural and fantastical element to proceedings. It's like you just killed Vacuous Rom!

 

I've also managed to complete this with every character, which I haven't done with any other Psikyo shmups before. It's because each one feels genuinely different in some way and has noticeably unique strengths. The eponymous Tengai (in the US release) has a close-range melee kanji (!) attack which decimates everything except big bosses. He also has an interesting flaming phoenix charge shot which is tricky to execute but also very powerful and satisfying when you get it right. Junis, the teenage girl type character, has a fire-breathing raccoon familiar which is a bit easier to use but her bomb attack, scattering sakura all over the screen as she pirouettes, causes her to freeze on the spot which requires a bit more careful planning. Each character is well balanced, in this way, and offers some variation in strategy. It's rare for me to sit down and complete a shmup three times on the bounce and six times in two days but that's Sengoku Blade for you. A fantastic game and my favourite horizontal shmup besides Blazing Star. It's been a hell of a month with around twenty completions and this is a great way to wrap it up. 


Oxenfree (Switch)

 

I finished this today after really dragging it out for about two hours a month since January. I think the music and sound design are absolutely fantastic, a bit of hauntology, smidgeon of Boards of Canada and a wodge of Disasterpeace. I like the art direction and palette but not so much the Lowry characters. I found the voice acting better than most but the dialogue and tone is relentlessly cynical slacker mumblecore despite my best attempts to inject some warmth and support into the various relationships. I found elements of the story quite affecting, anything involving Michael, but the characters' motivations and narrative beats were either slightly confusing or simply not affecting.

 

By far the overriding feeling, however, was that of slowly backtracking along ever so slightly confusing paths and a barely functional map. That must have made up probably half of the game time, if not more. Just walking slowly, getting slightly stuck on the edge of a path and slowly climbing a wall and having to press a button to jump off a small step and so on and so on. It's just so boring.

Perhaps it's my recent arcade obsession but I started doing some stretches and exercises rather than watching this basic animated character slowly trundling along an arbitrary line on a static background. There's simply not enough detail or exploration or interaction for the moment to moment 'gameplay' to engage. Thank goodness for the soundtrack. 

 

I do love walking simulators and 'interactive fiction' and 'art games' and what have you but I think I mostly enjoy the immersion and feeling part of the environment, and that's why the first-person games will always come out on top in the genre. I'm happy doing very little as long as I can feel I'm in a different world and soaking up the details. I felt emotionally and mechanically distant from Oxenfree. I'm pleased to have finished it but not necessarily pleased I bought it.




Sine Mora Ex (Switch)

 

One of the only 'modern' shmups to come out on the Switch so far, alongside Danmaku Unlimited 3 and Steredenn, this really impressed me when I first bought it last year, with both the gorgeous visuals and some imaginative bosses. That was well before I started to get into the genre, however, and with the likes of Dodonpachi, Blazing Star and Sengoku Blade recently under my belt, and memories of numerous environmental insta-deaths, I was a little skeptical about going back to this one to finally put it to bed.

 

Sure enough, the technicolour visuals still make an impact, with crashing waves, deep caverns and intricately detailed mecha-Metropolis backgrounds. The bosses, in particular, are dazzling and grandiose, with some imaginative designs and patterns, most notably the mechanical spider which shoots out a glowing 'web' of bullets. The soundtrack is rich and textured and complements the action in a cinematic fashion, rather than the wailing hair metal or J-pop intensity of your typical danmaku shooter. It's a tremendous presentation all round. In terms of gameplay, however, my skepticism was justified.

 

The game foregoes a health bar for a ticking timer which drops by several seconds each time you're hit. Destroying enemies, meanwhile, adds a couple of seconds to your total which encourages you to play quite offensively. On occasion, this time pressure is well balanced and creates real tension but much of the time, it means that the game is trivial. On the other hand, the game thinks almost nothing of wiping your entire timer in one hit, depending on circumstances. There's one exceptionally cheap section with an instant death runaway train where you have almost no chance of survival the first time. When you figure out what to do, and where the safe area is, the game again screws you by making this an extremely tight and fiddly spot to get in and out. It's a silly and unearned difficulty spike at odds with the game's bullet hell strengths. Unfortunately, there are several sections like this which feature pernickety environmental deaths - and it's seldom any fun.

 

Besides this, there are some fundamental issues with the core shooting action. Bullets are tiny and thin and unless you're well powered up, your shots have a very narrow range which necessitates some very precise aiming. Because the game is a horizontal shmup, with pretty small sprites, this also means that you can't easily line up your own ship and your enemy, especially on multi-part bosses with small hit boxes. It's a strange old design choice, and sometimes if you don't instantly destroy a particular part as soon as it's available, you might as well not bother carrying on. This means that bosses can feel insurmountable and then finally trivial. 

 

There's certainly a shed load of content to the game, with your usual boss rush and free play, as well as arcade mode and score attack stuff, plus some unique challenge levels. I'm unlikely to ever give this stuff a go, though, because there is a very healthy handful of Switch shmups I'd much sooner play before Sine Mora Ex. 


Neo Geo Super Sidekicks (Switch)

 

This is a real deep cut from the backlog, one I bought for when a couple of mates were coming over and I thought some arcade football would go down well with a few beers. Neo Turf Masters was the sleeper hit of the evening but Super Sidekicks was roundly mocked and soundly dismissed, and with good reason. I decided to have a crack at the single player this evening, though, to chip away at that steadily shrinking backlog. And while it is an absolute dog egg, I ended up being very happy to have played it. 

 

The vaguely anime graphics and midi synth funk are very reminiscent of Turf Masters but the similarities end there. Where that game boils down a fairly dull sport to an essential arcade approximation, Sidekicks strips the joy out of football and leaves you with shoulder barging and rebounds. The controls are terribly simple, shoot or pass, slide tackle or shoulder barge. There are some context-sensitive moves like headers, volleys and bicycle kicks but these seem to be semi-automated rather than skill-dependent.

 

As you progress through the group matches to the knockout phase, opponents get faster, stronger and more adept at tackling you to the point where both sides are constantly just shoulder barging in the midfield; it'd be comical if it weren't so boring. When you do get an inch of space, almost every goal is the same, get close, shoot, saved, hope to knock in the rebound. With FIFA 18 playing an excellent game of handheld football on the system, there is no reason to spend your money on Super Sidekicks, even for a laugh with mates.

 

There was one real highpoint to the game, however, in that it reminded me of a long-forgotten happy childhood memory playing Tecmo World Cup 90 in a cafe in Anglesey. It's amazing how gaming can put me right back into the shoes of that ten-year-old boy. Twenty-eight years is a long time but this hobby joins the dots like little else. 




Sengoku 3 (Switch)



Without any hyperbole, this is the best 'progressive brawler' I've ever played. I can say that with some confidence because I'm not much of a fan of the genre and I've been rather disappointed when revisiting Double Dragon or even the M2 3DS port of Streets of Rage 2. I just find them overly repetitive and transparently greedy credit guzzlers. It's funny, though, because I used to love this kind of thing as a kid. TMNT arcade was probably the first game that I dreamed about and which I specifically looked forward to playing on a rare trip to Rhyl or wherever. I couldn't get enough of hammering the buttons and doing the same move again and again against various palette swap bad guys. I recently completed it at Arcade Club in Bury with a couple of mates but we were bored well before the end, and I think we only saw it through out of respect for our nine-year-old selves who would once have given a couple of fingers and toes for a free play TMNT cabinet.

 

Sengoku 3, then, is only the second brawler I've ever completed but it's some distance ahead of any other I've played. While the graphics are charming and chunky and detailed and solid, and the soundtrack and effects are suitably moody and gruesome, it's the core fighting mechanics which make this rather special. I'm not kidding when I say that it reminds me of Street Fighter 4, my favourite fighting game ever. While the two-button combos only have some limited variety depending on the sequence of buttons pressed, it's the ability to juggle and - most importantly - dash to extend the combo which gives me something of the same feeling. Interrupting combo animations by double tapping the stick and linking the chain further genuinely evokes SF4's FADC (focus attack dash cancel), which is probably the most satisfying and thrilling mechanic of any game I've played. No more are you mindlessly bashing punch and kick, you're fully alert and trying to get your spacing just right to eke out that extra juggle hit to launch your opponent enough to catch the full force of your special meter-draining power attack. It feels bloody good and it's one you really must experience for yourself to understand the appeal. 

 

The story and structure and everything else are perfectly serviceable, to my eye, but the core gameplay is the hero and it's comfortably worth the price of entry alone. The only misstep the game makes is with the final boss which is simply too hard and surprisingly cheap. It unleashes a charged special move every few seconds at times, which is doubly irritating because it also grants him invulnerability and hurts you if you attack. There may well be a trick to it but my response was to brute force until the credits rolled. Despite this sour note, Sengoku 3 is an absolute blast, straight into my top five Neo Geo games and one I'll be firing up for local co-op at the earliest opportunity. For me, it's the pinnacle of the genre. 



King of Fighters 98 (Switch)

 

Another early Switch purchase and one which I'd previously consigned to the abandoned pile, KoF98 has a fantastic reputation which I don't really understand. As a compilation of sorts, it draws upon a vast range of characters across different SNK series which makes for an enormous amount of movesets and match-ups to potentially learn. Even alongside something like Ultra Street Fighter IV, KoF98's character select screen is imposing. And perhaps that's partly why I've never managed to really get into it.

 

I've played as a wide range of characters in local battles against mates but the game has never lasted especially long before we switched to something else. In contrast, once we get going on Garou or The Last Blade or even Waku Waku 7, we'll get a good half hour in, at least. The former two games certainly feel more fluid and satisfying but perhaps it's because I more quickly 'found my main'. For this completion, I played as the iconic Mai Shiranui and while I was able to get a couple of basic combos going, and I could pull off the special moves without too much fuss, I never felt particularly competent with the character. Compared to Bonne Jenet from Garou (to cite a similar style of fighter), Mai's movement and offensive options feel stilted in my hands.

 

Graphically, it's a typically beautiful SNK affair, well animated sprites with lots of personality and quite detailed, varied backgrounds, even if they don't come close to the austere feudal beauty of The Last Blade. A solid, unspectacular midi jazz-funk soundtrack evokes 90s hostess bars in downtown Kyoto, shiny grey suits, Brylcreem and Yamazaki whisky, all of which adds a little personality to what is otherwise a game without a defined identity. I appreciate that these gathered reflections barely scratch the surface of this legendary 2D fighter but with some marvellous competition on the system, KoF98 will be lucky to get a look in again.



Sol Divide (Switch)

 

Having recently 'abandoned' Last Resort, the somewhat beloved Neo Geo shmup, it might seem surprising that I slogged my way through the abysmal Sol Divide but despite its many flaws, it's also unlike any STG I've ever played and definitely one to experience.

 

There are several notable features, with the Harryhausen-inspired graphics and gigantic bosses being the most evident from screenshots. They do have a uniquely ugly charm which takes me back to the FMV days. Building on the mythological aesthetic, this is certainly no Psikyo palette swap; they really run with the fantasy setting and incorporate both magic and melee combos to this quite disorienting horizontal 'shmup'.

 

As you progress through the very short stages, you collect a variety of scrolls, as well as magic and health upgrades, plus an incremental Max Life upgrade (!) as well as your standard shot power ups. It really is a bold design. Magic ranges from the standard damage of fire and lightning blasts to a freezing effect which allows you to get serious damage in, right through to a meteor storm, self-immolation, summons (yep) and, err, 'death'. Each of these spells uses up differing quantities of your magic bar and while magic drops are fairly common, your bar never lasts for more than a couple of spells, at most. So, how do you keep it topped up?

 

Introducing the worst implemented necessary feature of any shmup I've played, it's the melee system. While a bullet clearing 'sweep' attack is nothing entirely new, the implementation in Sol Divide is more akin to Golden Axe. Enemy attacks can be interrupted with a well timed swipe and combos can be executed for massive chunks of damage (especially on a frozen or slowed down boss). Each character also has their own combo to learn (and attempt multiple times without success). In principle, this idea is very interesting and could set Sol Divide apart from the cookie cutter competition. In practice, however, it means that the game is simply not a shmup because almost every enemy is a ridiculous bullet sponge which rushes you to dish out its own melee attacks. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight.

 

This is where the game fails, therefore, because it becomes a case of pure fortune whether you get your melee attacks in first or whether you're hit by one enemy from the group which is swarming you. As soon as you are staggered, you can be sure that a larger enemy will be firing a gigantic fireball or laser from two steps behind point blank range. And yet, if you don't engage in melee, you will just die more quickly as your pew pew attack barely causes anything to flinch. While there is some skill in knowing when to engage and when to run away (as best you can) to dodge larger projectile attacks, you're largely moving the dice roll from one part of the screen to another. Death is inevitable and success is massively dependent on good fortune.

 

This brings me to the final boss. While I understand that the creators don't want players to simply brute force the game by pumping credits, and they want their carefully-considered patterns to be learned and overcome with practice, being sent right back to the start of a level during a boss fight is almost always infuriating. Sol Divide ups the stakes with gusto. The final stage involves four separate gruelling boss fights and death at any point will send you all the way back to the start.

 

The first boss is comfortably the most difficult, punishing and unfair with two bullet sponge aggressive melee enemies joining the boss - who has a couple of attacks which fill the screen and several others which do massive damage, especially if you're also being staggered by the two nobheads. It's basically Capra Demon Shmup Edition, except replace the dogs with two Capra Demons and replace Capra with Ornstein. No sooner have you breezed past that prick, you meet a slightly easier bullet sponge who tends to be less mobile and it's easier to dodge his attacks, aside from the one which shoots horizontal lasers across the screen leaving only one player-sized gap for you. It then shoots a laser four times as fat into that gap. Meanwhile, you know you have to hold onto that magic because the next boss is considerably worse.

 

The next boss is Godzilla and seems to be ripped straight out of Sengoku Blade only they made his bullets the size of golf balls (not in-universe, on my telly) and they also made them faster than you can travel so you will definitely get hit by at least a couple. Your only option is to use the Freeze magic and give him hell, and hope that you get enough combos in to nudge your magic bar up enough to chill him out again. Keep bashing melee like fuck and if RNG is your friend, you'll be transported to the final final final final boss. And he's actually quite decent. I only made it to him three times out of perhaps sixty attempts in total and I took him down on the third try. He spawns a couple of quite big ineffectual buggers who tend to drop a bit of health or magic and I just swung my stick like billy-o and unleashed a staggering flame whenever I could afford it. I eventually took him down with barely a sliver of health left and an empty magic bar and, in my victory high, for the briefest of moments I thought maybe - just maybe - the game was as perfectly balanced as Resi 4. It's definitely definitely not but, do you know, it did feel good to complete it. Sol Divide, a truly shit, badly-designed game that shmup fans actually may not want to miss.


Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
 
Having never played the first game, nor Heist, nor any Metroidvania besides Metroid Prime 3 (yep), I wasn't especially sold on this but I was eventually worn down by the positive reviews and word of mouth and ultimately, yeah, it's a good game. The Repton sequel I'd always never known whether I'd really wanted or...well, it scratched some deeply-concealed itch.
 
Like Vostok Inc, it pushes certain buttons and it's quite a compulsive little loop of getting some cash, upgrading your gear, finding a new tool, doubling back and finding a load more new treats and rinse and repeat. The art direction is much prettier than expected and each area is full of character and distinctive threats and charms. I grew to really enjoy the simple combat, the progressive movement upgrades felt great, and I never expected any of them, in fact. It's just a very satisfying process to return to a previous area with a new tool and uncover secrets. And there are secrets galore. The game's greatest strength is perhaps the design of the areas.
 
It won't be in my GOTY list but it's a well made puzzle platformer with a fantastic soundtrack, good controls and excellent area design. 


Dark Souls 3 (The Ringed City DLC)
 
Without doubt, Dark Souls is my favourite game. It means the most to me, it made me look at games in a different way, I've played hundreds and hundreds of hours across the whole series, likely thousands, and once I'd completely exhausted Bloodborne, and rinsed Scholar, I wasn't even sure whether I liked games or just Souls games. I still feel that way sometimes. I've bounced off almost all the big names over the last few years, Horizon, Yakuza, Witcher, FFXV, Far Cry 4, Tomb Raider, Persona, AC, Uncharted. I think it's the lack of intensity or tension. There's very little satisfaction or catharsis (to my dulled senses). Of course, there are exceptions and from Skyrim to MGSV, I did sink my teeth into some other stuff but the point is that very little scratches that itch like Souls games.
 
I was delighted to hear that DS3 was coming, then, and rearranged my weekend around the Network Test. I umm-ed and aah-ed over getting the Japanese version which would be inexplicably released three weeks before the EU version. In the end, inevitably, I was there for the midnight unlock and I completed it four times before it came out over here. It looked beautiful, it was consistently excellent throughout, possibly even more so than Bloodborne, even if the highs weren't as high. In terms of mechanics, level design, bosses, I would still say it's the most consistent Souls game. I was also so excited and intrigued by the various callbacks and surprises and all these item notes I couldn't understand in the slightest. I couldn't wait for the English version and the inevitable lore hunting and debates.
 
I played through another few times on release and while it's obviously too much to expect it to maintain the same level of excitement, I was surprised by how little it seemed to have to say and how quickly I felt almost nothing towards the game. The vast majority of the references were on the level of fan service and I felt, for the first time, that Miyazaki had nothing to say. It's much maligned but I adore how Dark Souls 2 had the audacity to come at Dark Souls from a completely different angle, and find its own purpose - because it had something unique to express. Dark Souls 3 seemed to lack an identity or creative purpose. As closure to the series, I suppose it has to go back to the source to some extent - and that's what I wanted, of course - but I also felt it failed to address anything meaningful and spent most of its time developing unrelated characters and other aspects of the timeline. I appreciate the hypocrisy of praising DS2 for doing exactly this but it's a matter of focus. DS3 leans heavily on the recognition factor of the original, while giving no depth or context to these references, while its narrative drive swerves the big questions in favour of various side stories which I simply don't care about. I also feel that it wilfully shat on certain aspects of DS1, most notably killing the beautiful ambiguity of Solaire's relationship to Gwyn, and all of the poetic allusion from his incandescent dialogue of sons and suns, in favour of 'nah mate it definitely this guy we never mention before - oh and prepear to die lol'. 
 
OK, I'm getting petty now. Let's bring this back. I wasn't especially looking forward to the DLC but I did get Ashes of Ariandel day one, of course. While it was pretty and had one spectacular boss fight in Sister Friede, it largely cemented my opinion that it was both leaning on former glories, with the Painted World, while having nothing especially interesting or memorable to say otherwise. I also found that it doubled down on the worst aspects of Souls, with constant mobs and dogs and enormous enemies with absurd tracking and AoE who would one-shot you. My experience devolved to simply running through most areas.

When The Ringed City came out, I felt that it was even worse. I bought it day one again but it took me a good couple of weeks to bother with it. I think I was in the thick of BotW at that point and I felt very much over Dark Souls 3. My opinion was pretty much set in stone and I had no fondness for the game. After getting lasered a handful of times by the RNG Angels, I uninstalled and carried on with the Switch. I tried again every few months but it epitomised the worst of Souls to me, zero exploration, constant aggro, random deaths from off-screen, poison swamps, fiddly paths along trees, etc. I also heard that the bosses, while well regarded, had silly health bars and ludicrous damage. For me, this is Souls gone wrong. I feel the same about the likes of Fume Knight and Defiled Amygdala and Watchdog and Blue Smelter Demon and Nameless King. There's very little satisfaction in beating them, just relief, and the moment the moment gameplay is actually boring, frustrating and repetitive. Next to Artorias or Sir Alonne or Maria or Sif, they are transparently replacing elegant design with numbers. This was my expectation and I must say it put me off ever going back.
 
I'll hold my hands up: I was wrong.
 
Encouraged by @Minion and his cheerful responses to my assorted moans about the game, and a few other whispers that The Ringed City was actually really good, I decided to go back. Perhaps part of the problem was that I had previously attempted it with my glass cannon magic build on something like NG+3 because that's where I was when the DLC came out. I looked up a decent melee build, opted for the Sellswords and decided to respec a separate NG+ character into something completely different. I decided to also run through the DLC1 to get a feel for the build and I ended up shredding Sister Friede, which had taken me maybe fifty attempts on my first and only run. A combination of sharpened two-handed fast weapons, lightning blade buffs, Pontiff's Right Eye and 60 DEX/FTH helped. I was still a glass cannon but I felt galvanised by the possibilities of going full Bloodborne through the rest of the game. No shield, besides Grass Crest on the back, and maximum aggression. Give the game a taste of its own medicine.
 
The Dreg Heap is still not a very good area from a gameplay point of view, though the view of the world folding in on itself did make me ponder the impact of a true Age of Dark. The NPC dialogue was very reminiscent of Bloodborne with talk of being able to see visions available only to the gods, except in a more literal sense, we could see it too! The cyclical nature of the world in Souls is both haunting and comforting and the game sold that to me through this imagery. It lost very little through being explicit for once, and they will double down on this later on. Revisiting the Earthen Peak seemed an odd choice of reference, given that it was one of the worst areas in Dark Souls 2, but as a massive fan of that game, I'm always happy to see it acknowledged. In any case, I suppose it makes sense given that every city and area in the world is spiralling into the same pothole. The Demon Prince boss was pretty good, albeit unsurprising with his final form almost as predictable as a Psikyo shmup!
 
Once we finally reached The Ringed City, though, the DLC really came back to life for me. The 'puzzle' element of the opening area was the first time I felt DS3 approached the original game. Difficulty itself was not the intention, only a method of encouraging creativity and contemplation. I tried and failed many many times until I found a way through and for once, I enjoyed the references to the Drake on the bridge and a spectral army of Pharises (or so it appeared to me) and given that we're at the epicentre, this clash of forgotten forces made some sense in my mind. The locust preacher NPCs and enemies were ghastly and very Bloodborne but for once, I was taken by what they had to say. They were both comforting and - probably - deceitful. The Ringed Knights were very striking in design and fearsome in battle. They were a good challenge but I faced most of them down, sometimes lost but eventually took them down. I did laugh at yet another cameo appearance from poor Ornstein, the Barry from Eastenders of Souls games, but that was also a great little fight. Perhaps best of all was the sense of really not knowing where to go in a Souls game for the first time since probably Dark Souls 2. The recent titles have become so streamlined and any well hidden areas have been largely optional or a result of deliberately obfuscated design, such as the Nightmare Frontier's ugly disorienting rock surfaces which defy perspective.
 
It took me a good couple of hours of exploration and death, hunting in every nook and cranny to make my way up to Midir and beyond the flaming bridge. In hindsight, I could have run straight there and cut out so much of the city but it speaks highly of the game that I felt drawn to various other locations around the swamp and up and over walkways and ladders before simply running round the corner to my destination! From a lore point of view, I don't know too much of what happened next, I had a fight in a chapel, a good one which I didn't know was coming, I saw some pretty views, climbed some stairs, probably skipped a covenant, and then I saw a sleeping girl holding a massive cracked egg. I saw a number of conflicting soapstone messages and decided to take the plunge. What happened next was again pleasingly literal and very effective. I endured a similar fate when I got too close to my wife's Lindt egg on Easter Sunday. The desolate atmosphere really drove home the end of everything. I don't understand the Pygmy Lord significance yet but I assume that a long line of Furtive Pygmies and/or their descendants all make their way to the Ringed City, only for their Souls to be consumed by...something/Gael/Midir and this is given to the painting girl to...paint...a new world of Dark...and then...I don't really get it, no. That said, for the first time since I played that Japanese version, I felt intrigued and moved by the game. I'm sure Vaati will help me out. Oh, and Slave Knight Gael is the best boss in the whole damn game.
 

Dodonpachi DaiOuJou (FB Alpha)


Holy shit.


Having first played Dodonpachi only a few months ago, triggering a fertile few months of gorging on every shmup I could get my hands on for the Switch, PS4 and One X, I've since found myself falling deep into a swirling maelstrom of bright pink swathes and finally got onto the MAME train. I used to listen to a podcast or audio book before bed, my wife and I would take turns and my sleep has been the best for years. Now I find myself retiring to the spare room to watch bullet hell superplays and see the patterns dancing throughout my broken dreams. I go to sleep overstimulated and wake a wreck, hungry for danmaku. Can't go back.


For all the talk of 'flow' and 'power fantasy' in games, Dodonpachi DaiOuJou is simply on another level. It's not only the sense of effortless balletic calm you feel from literally slowing time and dodging rain drops, it's the combination of that weightless 'wu wei' precision and the utterly wretched excessive destruction you mete out in response. There are few weapons in gaming as satisfying as the fully charged hyper laser. It's like sweeping away ants with a bulbous glowering stiffy.

It's my game of the year already and it's changed my life.


Batsugun (FB Alpha)
 
I really really should have got onto the emulation thing years ago. That said, I've certainly had my fun with the Psikyo Switch ports and without them, I'd perhaps not got into shmups at all and I'd never have blown my mind wide open with Dodonpachi Daioujou (above). While I keep trying to improve at DOJ and work on my routes and skills, I'm planning to learn more about what came before and see if anything else scratches the same itch along the way.
 
Even without knowing the history, Batsugun is so obviously the spiritual origin of Dodonpachi, with intense bullet herding, radial sprays, charge shots and bomb cancels already well established. That said, I didn't especially enjoy it after the opening couple of stages. The difficulty level felt not too dissimilar to Dodonpachi but my own firepower seemed slightly muted in comparison to what follows. Of course, that's probably always the nature of tracing this line backwards but I never felt that I could brute force the odds into my favour. I don't think the hit box was as small in those days, either!
 
I do think the fundamental movement and patterns and switching shots are already a lot of fun but I've likely been spoiled by the later games. I'd also say that while I enjoyed the early 90s music and sounds, for the most part, every single charged weapon would emit a very high pitched whine every couple of seconds, and on the third ship, this was especially aggravating. I was actually relieved to finish the game and tick it off because of this sound effect. A leap forward, I suspect, but I'll file it under interesting artifacts than go-to games at this point.
 
 
 
Crimzon Clover (Steam)
 
And for a glimpse at what has come in the wake of Cave's relative inactivity, I went for the highly acclaimed indie 'doujin' Crimzon Clover. It came recommended from several respected quarters. This is going straight into the serious pile and I can't wait to plough a lot more time into it and develop my techniques. To my tastes, this is an absolute masterclass in bullet hell.
 
It features an interesting lock-on mechanic, somewhere between the incredible Ketsui and the lock shot from Dangun Feveron (both to follow, no doubt) but with the added bonus that releasing fire will send a wave of destructive homing missiles towards the targets. It feels so satisfying every time and it's also simply essential to get to grips with this to reach the later stages. There's also a cool super charged Break Mode which you can trigger once you've filled up the bar in the usual fashion (shooting stuff). You can also cancel this with a second even more powerful Double Break.
 
Mechanical intricacies aside, this is also a truly spectacular game. The lighting and chaos and sheer onslaught of bullets, stars, flashing scores and staggering shot power are second to none that I've played. It's not especially beautiful or stylistically imaginative, but it's eye-melting at times and one of the few games which always makes me me talk to myself out loud, marvelling at the spectacle. Usually something articulate and profound like "FUCKIN ELL". It truly deserves to be seen in motion and if it runs this flawlessly on my crap laptop, it deserves to be played by basically anyone with any computer. A fantastic modern shmup with an eye on both past and future, it's going into heavy rotation. 


Ketsui ~Kizuna Jigoku Tachi~ (Arcade)


Another day, another Cave shooter, another visit to Arcade Club. There's nothing run-of-the-mill about Ketsui, though. It is a top top tier shooting game. I don't know the backstory particularly well but I believe it was only available in the arcades in Japan for many years before Japan-only 360/PS3 ports and an intriguing Boss Rush version released on the flipping DS! I've no idea how this game was ported to that little handheld but I'm going to try to get hold of it one way or another.


It's very reminiscent of Dodonpachi in terms of its near-future militaristic aesthetic and the choice of spread/linear shots and the charged laser when fire is held. It takes things in a slightly different direction, though, as the charged shot also results in a lock-on to the nearest enemies. This means that your linear laser will fire ahead but your spray shots will be auto-directed at the locked target. It might seem that this would trivialise the game or at least make the attacking options more simplistic but just as with Crimzon Clover (above), these minor variations in mechanics aren't there to give you an advantage, they're to be mastered simply to give you a chance.


As much as Dodonpachi is best played on the front foot, Ketsui reinforces this with the scoring system. Instead of dropping stars or coins, each defeated enemies spits out these tumbling tiles, numbered from one to five. As much as I can tell, the closer you are to the enemy you destroy, the higher the value of the tile and the faster your multiplier increases. You feel encouraged to meet every enemy with aggression, from the chunky popcorn tanks to the colossal turrets and choppers spraying swirling patterns at your ship. That aggressive edge defines the game, it's very very metal, it's why it's so damn fun. It's also what will keep me coming back on emulation...until the upcoming PS4 release!



Mushihimesama (1.5 Ultra Mode) (Steam)


This is a psychedelic masterpiece. In looking for the greatest shmups ever made, I had to try Mushihimesama. It instantly charmed me with its goofy, colourful Honey I Shrunk The Kids setting and in novice mode, for about twenty seconds, I thought that its formidable reputation might have been a little overstated, especially now I was a Real Shmup Boy. The game proceeded to crush me underfoot. I now harbour dreams of a 1cc on Novice Mode but it will likely involve months of practice, if it ever even happens.


With that defeatist approach in mind, I decided to see what it actually feels like to experience 1.5 Ultra Mode - the full extent of the jam, if you will. It largely feels like pressing continue on average every thirty seconds. It's not necessarily fun most of the time and I'm very unlikely to spend much more with Ultra ever again, unless I need another taste of a very particular pulsating terror. So why bother recording this 'completion' at all? Simply, it's a unique experience in gaming.


It's one of the most claustrophobic sensations I've ever felt in any game, it can be intense to the point of discomfort and there are many waves and patterns which are not only unforgiving but outright absurd in their cruelty. What this also means is that the fragments of 'good play' (or good luck) felt fantastic and truly euphoric, especially when I managed to string out a life for more than thirty seconds. It was all worth it for the brief flickering passages of play where I was able to manipulate the overwhelming swathes of bullets and nudge and dart into ever-dwindling gaps and somehow squeeze my hitbox into another pocket of space which appeared out of nowhere. We're talking about milliseconds of sporadic relief.


And weirdly enough, despite the difficulty becoming ever more crushing, I began to hang on for a little longer throughout the run. We're talking about an extra second or two but I could feel my 'skills' improving and tightening and I started to see patterns earlier and move my ship without looking at its immediate environs. Despite dying probably a hundred times, I finished it feeling a lot more hopeful about my potential with the game than I did at the end of the first level. I can also safely say that it has my favourite boss music of any game since the ludicrous breakbeats of Aero Fighters 3. This joins Ketsui, Crimzon Clover and Dodonpachi DaiOuJou as extraordinary examples of the genre and games I expect I'll be playing for years. 


Battle Garegga (FB Alpha)
 
As my run of force-feeding emulated credits into halcyon classics continues, I reach Battle Garegga, a game I can certainly respect but which I didn't especially enjoy. It seems to sit somewhere between Armed Police Batrider and Strikers 1945, with an occasional touch of Dodonpachi. The later stages definitely involve plenty of complex patterns and bullet herding and I felt my DaiOuJou muscles warming up but for the most part, I found that bullets - and deaths - often came quickly. Both Batrider and the Psikyo shmups have fast bullets which require precise memorisation past a certain point to avoid frustration and unfortunately, Battle Garegga often proved overly difficult for me to really enjoy.
 
Having looked up the game's complex rank up mechanics, I realised that I had given myself plenty of problems with my playstyle. Tactical suicides and subtle manipulation of what goes on behind the scenes seem to be crucial if I'm to exploit the game's systems, but I don't particularly like the idea of that. I enjoy the whole 'no miss' concept of shmups and see that as one of the inherent goals of any game within the genre. Dying deliberately as a tactic makes for some deep and interesting scoring systems, I'm sure, but it feels as antithetical to my perspective as the unavoidable low point of Seath in Dark Souls. I did love the game's music, though, and I'll certainly enjoy dipping in sporadically to see how my varying approach gives further variety and longevity. I might even start to enjoy it. 


Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition - Legend Mode (Switch)


Long time no completions, after a flurry of activity for a good few months burning up the backlog. This is partly because I settled back into some old favourites, ARMS, Splatoon 2, MK8D, games which keep on giving and with which I can sometimes have a brilliant session and feel that they're the best game on the system. It's also because I've been putting a bit more practice into some shmup favourites, trying to improve my scores and approach with DaiOuJou, Mushihimesama and Danmaku Unlimited 3. It's also partly because there was a lull in releases which particularly interested me, and I was becoming hopeful that Hyrule Warriors would be a worthwhile stopgap until Dark Souls and E3. It was with that spirit of mild optimism that I ordered it day one.


Very quickly, it became all I played. There's such a satisfying flow to its largely weightless combat that I could and did play it for hours at a time, bashing buttons, sure, but also constantly assessing and reassessing the battlefield, deciding to take on or abandon side missions all while dealing with the swarming mobs with a variety of combos and finishers and specials and items and dodge cancelling from one group to the next, watching the numbers tick. Past a certain point, I started skipping the cut scenes, I just wanted the ebb and flow of battle, and the instant gratification of turning the tide in my favour. I started to fall out my usually good sleep routine, I'd play it til 1am and wake at 5 for another hour before work. It was unsustainable and thank fuck Dark Souls Remastered came out to drag me away from it. I quickly finished off Legend Mode over the weekend and now I will keep it in rotation as I gradually chip away at the colossal Adventure Mode. Like Splatoon and ARMS and Mario Kart, this game will last me several years, I'm sure, and it'll be fun every single time. Another Nintendo classic.


Wheels of Aurelia (Switch)


I haven't completed a game in a couple of months, and I didn't intend to complete this today. I only started playing because I wanted to reassure myself that I could delete it in good faith. I picked it up on the Switch a while back because I assumed it'd be a decent bedtime game but in practice, I found it slightly fiddly on my first go and I haven't been back since.


It's a strange little thing. It's a branching story with multiple dialogue options, multiple endings and a killer soundtrack. It takes the form of a road trip in 1970s Italy with plenty of snappy repartee and pointed, political messaging. It touches on religion, women's rights, Fascism, family relationships, sexual repression, philosophy and individualism all in about twenty minutes! While this chat is going on with friends, hitchhikers, priests, 'pricks' and no doubt many more, you steer your little Fiat or something similar around the winding roads of the Italian coast, through little villages and Art Nouveau-inspired towns. It's a very odd combination!


The soundtrack is pure 70s Italian psychedelic funk and rock, and if you're into that kind of thing it'll be a joy. It's what first hooked me and I was always pleased when the next equally brilliant tune fired up after a brief pitstop in some town or other. The aesthetic is a perfect match, and despite the very simplistic graphics (which remind me of an Amiga game) it has plenty of charm and atmosphere. I will definitely keep this installed because I'd like to see at least a couple more of the fifteen (!) other endings. My dialogue choices definitely affected my playthrough, as well as some other gameplay related thing I failed to do.


On the flip side, there is very little 'game' to it. The vehicle handling is perfunctory, and reminds me of Over Top on the Neo Geo. It feels pretty rough, quite frankly. It's tricky to both concentrate on the driving and choose your dialogue option at times so I chose to focus on the dialogue and plough into walls and other vehicles. There's no apparent harm in this. It all ends rather suddenly, after you've made a few stops and spoken to a few characters. Given that I managed to complete it in one visit to the toilet, however, that might be a selling point for some. Certainly, I already look forward to my next leisurely dump to jump back into this witty and heartfelt slice of life.


The Last Blade 2 (Switch)


Having absolutely adored the first game, and heard that the sequel was superior, I have been waiting for this to appear on the eShop for quite some time. I can't say it disappoints, as such, but it's very much your Splatoon 2 sort of follow-up. That means it's still absolutely brilliant, beautiful, slick and bloody satisfying, but it doesn't feel like a gigantic leap forwards.


It's got a larger roster of diverse characters, with pretty much everyone from the first game, plus a few more, wielding assorted blades and clubs and summoning the occasional oni, when necessary! It's got some spectacularly beautiful stages, with special mention for the burning house, complete with heat haze effects, but I possibly preferred the first game's environments, if I'm honest. The stage with the tumbling auburn leaves is probably the most stunning backdrop of any fighting game I can remember and nothing here quite reaches that, but perhaps I'm nitpicking.


The animation is wonderful once again and does seem a little more fluid. The presentation between stages sets the scene with suitable gravitas and the soundtrack is as superb as ever, with a combination of traditional instruments and melodies, alongside the stark ambience of rushing rivers and howling winds. Very few games look or sound as rich as this, even twenty years on. In summary, a fantastic game but probably not essential if you own the first one. 


Neo Geo Over Top (Switch)


Having referenced this arcade driving game when discussing the shonky, simplistic handling in Wheels of Aurelia, I decided to see if it was as limited as I remembered. While there are plenty of vehicle options, each with their strengths across different terrains and changes in weather, the basic driving mechanics and feel are very very similar. Despite racing through a range of environments, from cobbled streets to bumpy mountain paths to rally conditions, again, there's very little diversity in the gameplay. It's set dressing and little more.


I can imagine that the sense of speed was impressive at the time, and I suspect the arcade cabinet would have had a wheel to aid with the immersion and novelty, but this is one of the least enjoyable driving games I've ever played. I bought it during a run of golden Neo Geo releases on the Switch eShop but I can't recommend this to anyone, besides as a curio or a brief reminder of how far driving games have come. If you are tempted, please just emulate it and save yourself a fiver.



Just Shapes and Beats (Switch)


I first saw this superb bullet hell rhythm game on a Nintendo Direct earlier this year. It stole the show for me and I was looking forward to the inevitable day one hype countdown. This never quite materialised, for whatever reason, at least in the UK. It had a staggered digital release which meant that when I picked it up on the US eShop and started sharing my excitement, the positive comments were undercut by disappointment that it wasn't yet available on the UK store. When the release slipped further, and the torrent of shovelware picked up speed, I suspect JBAS was largely dead in the water over here. This is a real shame because it's a great little game which deserves better, and I'd defy anyone to enjoy it at the price.


It's easy to describe but hard to express how much fun it is. Essentially, you're a little coloured shape and you have to avoid the bright pink elements which appear on the screen and move around in time with the music. That is such an understated description of how chaotic and outlandish the animations and patterns are but I'd rather not spoil any little surprises. Aside from using the stick to control your fine movement, you can also dash through enemy shapes to momentary safety, and much of your time will involve precisely that, bouncing from space to space trying to find respite on screen. It's very simple to play but gets properly challenging, especially on the boss fights. It's fun, immediate and intense - a perfect game to clear the cobwebs for twenty minutes.


It features a range of electro house/EDM and chiptune bangers. Lots of dubsteppy drops and distorted squelches and squeals and thick square wave bass tones. It's not the kind of thing I'd usually listen to (and I'm a big fan of house and techno) but they're catchy, energetic and suit the hyper stylised aesthetic, ie. the eponymous 'shapes'. It's a gorgeous looking 'ugly' game. Very simple shapes and blocks of bold matte colour on black backgrounds (for the most part) but the simple animations are very well done and give the game a hell of a lot of personality. Surprisingly, it even manages to be at times sad, funny and terrifying in the story mode!


Beyond the story mode, which should only take you a few hours, there are a variety of other challenges, as well as online co-op, which is great, and party mode. This is a no fail states version of the game designed primarily as a non-stop playlist mix for a party, where anyone can jump in and enjoy the gamey aspect of it without disturbing the vibe by dying, etc. That's pretty neat. Overall, a unique game in my collection and one I'd warmly recommend to fans of rhythm games.



Gunbird 2 (Switch)


Powaaahhh aaahhhppp!!!


At the time, this probably represented the ne plus ultra of Psikyo vertical shmups, but I would still say that Gunbird 2 is ultimately less interesting than I'd hoped. As crafty (or sensible) as it is for Zerodiv to have released the games in largely chronological order, not to discourage sales of the more basic earlier releases, it's also provided a more enjoyable learning curve for me, having never played any of these titles before the Switch releases. Each subsequent game has been a modest improvement on its predecessors, for the most part. If you've played one Psikyo vert, you will know what you're getting here - a minor refinement of the previous releases in every respect - which unfortunately means they shot themselves in the foot by releasing Dragon Blaze first.


Ignoring this fact for the moment, we do see a few notable additions, including the melee attack from the dreadful Sol Divide. We have the charge shot from Strikers 1945 II. The gameplay is as tight and fun and challenging as ever, albeit very predictable by now. Ultimately, though, with Dragon Blaze having built on the mechanics of Gunbird 2, this feels like a step backwards to me - because it just is. Nevertheless, everything is handled with typical Psikyo enthusiasm. The graphics are colourful, the music is chirpy and the animations have a degree of personality. It feels a touch more bullet hellish than the first game, but not quite so much as Dragon Blaze. Again, you're dealing with faster fewer shots, for the most part, and immediate, somewhat infuriating deaths.


It is an excellent vertical shmup with some new scoring mechanics and a stiff challenge and if my praise is somewhat muted, it's only because the formula has been both exhausted and superceded.



J.B. Harold's Manhattan Requiem (Switch)
 
There's a curated selection of my Switch library which I would consider 'bedtime games'. It's such an appealing idea to tuck yourself in for a bit of atmospheric escapism before sleep, and it's often in the back of my mind while I browse the eShop. I picked up I Am Setsuna for this exact reason and the plinky plonky music, gorgeous snow-covered environs and lifeless characters and story never fail to send me to sleep.
 
I bought J.B.H.'s.M.R. with cozy covers very much in mind. It reminded me of some old point and click text adventure I played in about 1990 and the charming 'photorealistic' graphics and synthesised Japanese midi jazz are incredibly evocative of the era. I wasn't surprised then to learn that it was initially released in 1986 and that the Switch release is based on a later visually upgraded remake. It turns out that it's actually considered a visual novel (so now I've unwittingly finished one of them!) and was written by Rika Suzuki, who also wrote the Hotel Dusk games on the DS. I never finished either of them but they did have a lot of character and atmosphere.
 
Having recently hammered Ikaruga, I think my brain was just ready for something less intense and I found this strangely gripping, for the most part, but the actual gameplay and execution were so poor that I really can't understand how I finished this, or how it hooked me so much. It's a murder mystery, where you play the eponymous J.B. Harold and you meet and question a whole host of suspicious characters to get to the bottom of the case. The practical reality is that your dialogue and interrogation options are extremely limited, the responses you receive are vague, abstract, sometimes plain nonsensical, and the game's feedback on your progress is even more confusing.
 
After ten hours, I concluded that when you ask a question such as 'Any other information?' or 'Murderer motive?' and the pad vibrates at the response, you've made some progress, in some way, with some character. Occasionally, the game will 'spoonfeed' you with a further cue such as, 'Information about 'The night of the 9th' is updated'. What this means is that if you backtrack to every single location and ask every character about 'The night of the 9th', which you've most likely already asked, one character will cause the pad to vibrate further with their reply. At this point, it is likely that the game will not 'insult your intelligence' by giving you any more clues about what to ask. No, instead you must start at the top of the map and ask every question again to each character, working your way down until finally there's one more sentence of exposition.
 
Now, this may well sound like I'm an idiot, incapable of piecing together the clues and engaging with the rhythm and mechanics of the game, but I just can't believe that anyone would be capable of understanding what this game expects of you from one moment to the next. Even when you find the musical score that reveals the name of the murdered father of the murdered girl and so on and so on (trust me, this is no spoiler), you can't apparently read this for yourself, nor can the family lawyer, nor the person who gave you the score, nor any other family member, nor the guy at the music store (final desperate reach for a link). You have to get a copy made at the library and fanny around asking some other questions until the game decides to tell you that the librarian was finally able to read the name of the composer which was written on the score. Presumably, it only appeared on the photocopy!
 
Add to this the broken English, abstract translations, typos, misspellings of names (hilariously so in the final cutscene), the fact that there are three separate victims with the exact same name for no good reason (genuinely, it was just a coincidence) and I am staggered that I managed to finish this. It's much more of an achievement than my S Rank on Ikaruga. And yet, in a really weird way, I will miss its goofy atmosphere, its endlessly looping 'jazz' theme, and the thrilling 0.2% of the time spent with the game when the pad would vibrate and I would feel that I was finally about to blow the whole damn case wide open.
 
RIP Sara J. Shields 1964-87.



One Strike (Switch)


It's basically Pocket Rumble with an 8-bit The Last Blade/Samurai Showdown aesthetic, and some 'heavily influenced' stage designs, and the Bushido Blade one hit kill fighting system. It's...simplistic, but it's fun. There's a good range of fighting styles and weapons and movesets despite the very basic dodge/defend/attack controls, albeit with a very small roster of six characters. Each fight feels tense and every hit feels satisfying. The best single player mode asks you to take your fighter and beat everyone without dying or repeating any fights. It's a cool little challenge. I expect it'll be best in local co-op, as ever, so I'll look forward to trying that out soon.


Bleed 2 (Switch)


I rather enjoyed the first game (see above, several months ago) and was tempted to jump straight into this sequel when it released but it looked a little too similar to pick up so soon after. I'm happy to say it's another very tight, stylish platforming shooter with air dash and a bullet time meter, but I'm also glad I waited for a sale. It is very very similar to the first game, with a couple of notable differences.


First of all, you start with the katana which you can use to deflect pink bullets back at enemies. Most of the levels and bosses are now built around this, with a combination of yellow and pink bullets to avoid or manipulate to your advantage. The other major difference, and I accept this may be a slightly false memory, but almost the entire game seems like a boss rush now. The first game seemed to have maybe two to three platforming sections to each boss. This genuinely feels like it has two to three boss fights to each platforming section.


It meant that I finished it in probably an hour...Hmm. Simple fact is that it's a better game than the first one. I think the Amiga-style graphics are probably a little more detailed and better animated. The bosses felt better balanced. The character and weapon unlocks, and score rankings, will give a fair bit of replayability. Other than that, though, it's pretty damn short and doesn't do enough to develop or build upon the first game. I'd be interested in a third Bleed game but not unless it pushed the envelope a bit more.


Butcher (Switch)


Similar to Bleed (above), this is short, sharp, arcade action. It's like a side-scrolling 16-bit pixelated Doom. It's very 'metal' and probably one of the most violent and gory things I've played, despite the blurry, blocky graphics. I wouldn't consider myself enormously squeamish but I'm certainly happy to have completed this so I can uninstall it. There's just something quite grubby about the whole thing. But it's a lot of fun!


You amass an arsenal of trusty shotgun, assault rifle, flamethrower, railgun, chainsaw and grenade launcher and you basically traverse the levels until you reach these mini arenas. The weapons have serious impact, especially the shotgun, and they feel very meaty and destructive. Taking down a guy with a jetpack waving a chainsaw is satisfyingly gruesome as the gas canister explodes and spews flame in an arc, often torching other enemies and causing a chain reaction. And to be honest, that's the game. Jumping round and blowing shit away.


There's a decent range of enemies, a few straightforward puzzles for variety and pacing and some sneaky traps but it's very much a five minute adrenaline rush of a game. I finished it in probably two or three hours over about nine months. I don't remember the story but it seemed like pretty standard stuff. It's actually well paced with quick restarts because you will probably die quite a lot but it never feels too frustrating.


I'm going to play a bit of Captain Toad to cleanse my palate but for some comically violent demon-blasting 2D Doom action, I'd recommend it.


Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Switch)
 
I picked this up a while back having never played any Fatal Fury games before (unless Garou counts) and the experience exemplifies my feelings about coming to the majority of SNK fighting games at this late stage. Despite enjoying this a good deal, without online play on the Switch I have no desire or motivation to learn the intricacies of the fighting mechanics, and so I am only getting a fairly shallow experience of what these games really offer.
 
Nevertheless, it's a fluid, attractive 2D fighter with some neat little touches which I've not seen before. First, the pre-fight camera pans and reveals are both technically impressive and excellent at setting the scene. While The Last Blade does similar on certain stages, and I like the dramatic effect it creates, RBFFS takes this to another level. The slow pan down the cramped skyline of Hong Kong was a particularfavourite. The other neat visual effect is the time of day cycle between rounds. The backgrounds already feature some gorgeous sprite work but the beach transition, for example, from blue skies and bright sunshine to an amber sunset is quite stunning. The character animations and special moves are also typically excellent and full of personality.
 
Ultimately, I have to ask myself 'is it going to replace Garou or The Last Blade 2 as my go-to Neo Geo fighters on the Switch'? And it won't. The moving between planes continues to feel weird to me as a longtime SF player. I find the effect visually unappealing and mechanically, I don't especially understand the value in it. It's a fun, good-looking game with fluid combos but it's not quite top tier within its own subset. 

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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Well, there goes the rest of my evening! :P

Do we have any idea as to when exactly Psyvariar Delta might hit our shores? You make it sound veeery enticing...


Edit: Love The Ringed City write-up. I think it might be the first time I've ever heard you have anything positive to say about DS3! I think it's the best area in the entire game as well.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by MajorGamer »

Chopper wrote: September 17th, 2018, 7:47 pm I thought the Dishonored games could be ghosted, or at least I remember the first one seemed to have a bug where the no-kill run always resulted in a single unknowable kill.
You can finish them with 0 kills but there is a common problem with games that keep track of that. Often there is something that ends up killing someone you knocked out and you end up overwriting a save before you realize it. From Dishonored, a wayward rat swarm can kill an unconscious guard and there is a kill that counts towards you. Ragdolling an enemy the wrong way is another common way to accidentally get a kill. There is another game (think it was Human Revolution) where due to how the level spawns on loads, a body may spawn before the ground so it just falls through, giving you a kill count.

Time to write up the next two games I finished.
Spoiler: show
Jan 1 - Neon Chrome (PC)
Jan 2 - Dispersio (PC)
Jan 9 - Numbus (PC)
Jan 11 - Hero Siege (PC)
Jan 14 - Castle of no Escape 2 (PC)
Jan 20 - Toy Odyssey (PC)
Jan 23 - 20XX (PC)
Jan 25 - Battle Chef Brigade (Switch)
Jan 29 - Kamiko (Switch)
Feb 1 - Guild of Dungeoneering (PC)
Feb 3 - KByte (PC)
Feb 7 - Cat Quest (Switch)
Feb 11 - DYE (PC)
Mar 7 - The End is Nigh (Switch)
Mar 10 - Shadow Warrior 2 (PC)
Mar 16 - The Keep (PC)
Mar 17 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
Mar 18 - Hue (PC)
Mar 22 - Song of the Deep (PC)
Mar 28 - Metro: 2033 Redux (PC)
Apr 4 - Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)
Apr 6 - Xeodrifter (Switch)
Apr 8 - Has-Been Heroes (Switch)
Apr 14 - Slime-san (Switch)
Apr 20 - ReThink (PC)
Apr 22 - Little King's Story (PC)
Apr 24 - Headlander (PC)
Apr 28 - Dex (PC)
Apr 30 - SUPERHOT (PC)
May 6 - Azure Striker Gunvolt (Switch)
May 7 - The Ball (PC)
May 21 - Drakensang (PC)
May 23 - Spectrum (PC)
May 25 - Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas (Switch)
May 27 - The Sexy Brutale (PC)
Jun 4 - Immortal Redneck (PC)
Jun 5 - Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (PC)
Jun 11 - Prey (PC)
Jun 14 - Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (Switch)
Jun 16 - Scrap Garden (PC)
Jun 17 - LostWinds (PC)
Jun 20 - Straimium Immortaly (PC)
Jun 25 - Dreaming Sarah (PC)
Jun 26 - Poi: Explorer Edition (Switch)
Jun 29 - Dungeon Souls (PC)
Jul 2 - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch)
Jul 6 - Bleed 2 (Switch)
Jul 11 - Risen (PC)
Jul 18 - Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (PC)
Jul 22 - Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten (PC)
Aug 8 - Styx: Master of Shadows (PC)
Aug 9 - Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
Aug 15 - Owlboy (Switch)
Aug 18 - DOOM [2016] (PC)
Aug 21 - Unbox: Newbie's Adventure (PC)
Sept 5 - Nioh (PC)
Sept 10 - Weapon Shop Fantasy (PC)

This looked like Recettear so I went for it. Gather and make items to sell while you go on adventures to get your supplies. The basic premise is there. The execution is terrible.

The items you obtain from the adventures aren't able to be sold. You must craft things from them to sell. The items you get are complete RNG. There are some items that give better odds towards certain encounters (monsters, chests, etc) but the drop pool within them is still complete RNG. There is a ton of adventuring to get the supplies to make what you need for your orders or general selling. It wouldn't be bad but adventures consist of sending your worker out to whichever place and... that's it. All you do is wait for their return or tell them to retreat if they are about to die. Craft the items, fulfill the orders to get more recipes, and repeat. You will have plenty of orders that you can't do because you don't have the recipe for that item and you just need to hope whatever order you do will give you the recipe for it.

It is incredibly boring as most of the game is sitting there doing nothing. It felt like a slightly advanced clicker game (got bored of those in about 5 minutes).

Sept 11 - Hard Reset Redux (PC)

A very straight forward FPS with a cyberpunk theme. I'd mention more of the story but the cutscenes happened during the loading screens. It loaded so fast I didn't notice this until several levels in at which point it was too late. Things were stopped, I guess.

Nothing stands out for your weapons. Standard stuff except you only have two types of ammo that gets split between your guns. All guns beyond the starters are obtained via upgrade points instead of found in the game.

Enemies are where the big problems come in. They hit you when they very clearly missed. They can charge at you, you side step, they hit the wall 5 feet away, and you take damage. Same goes if they pound the ground. There is no shockwave effect but you still take a hit from quite a distance away. Even if it isn't much damage, it is frustrating to get hit by things that shouldn't be or have no visual indication that they do. There are also invisible walls everywhere.

It starts as a fairly generic FPS brought even lower by its problems.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Stanshall »

KSubzero1000 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 10:12 pm Well, there goes the rest of my evening! :P

Do we have any idea as to when exactly Psyvariar Delta might hit our shores? You make it sound veeery enticing...


Edit: Love The Ringed City write-up. I think it might be the first time I've ever heard you have anything positive to say about DS3! I think it's the best area in the entire game as well.
Thanks, I appreciate there's a lot to wade through there with a million shmups and Neo Geo games. Glad to hear you enjoyed the TRC bit, it pretty much salvaged my memories of the whole game though it's still below original DS2 and rock bottom in my own personal ranking.

As for Psyvariar, the official website still says 2018 for the EU/US and the trailer actually says Summer 2018, so fingers crossed it'll be here very soon. I've played probably fifty shmups for the first time this year and it's comfortably top five. I'd say DOJ, Mushi, Ikaruga, Psyvariar and then I can't decide the fifth between Deathsmiles, Ketsui, Crimzon Clover, Tengai, Zero Gunner 2 and Danmaku Unlimited 3!
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Chopper »

MajorGamer wrote: September 18th, 2018, 6:07 am You can finish them with 0 kills but there is a common problem with games that keep track of that. Often there is something that ends up killing someone you knocked out and you end up overwriting a save before you realize it. From Dishonored, a wayward rat swarm can kill an unconscious guard and there is a kill that counts towards you. Ragdolling an enemy the wrong way is another common way to accidentally get a kill. There is another game (think it was Human Revolution) where due to how the level spawns on loads, a body may spawn before the ground so it just falls through, giving you a kill count.
Ah yeah, that makes sense, thanks! I did hear the same about one of the recent Deus Ex games. So keeping a close eye on your kill tally as you work through them should 'solve' that issue. :)

KSubzero1000 wrote: September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm First and foremost, and perhaps it went under the rest of my temper tantrum in the RE thread, but I'm really not a fan of the first-person perspective in the vast majority of games that use it. There are exceptions of course (Halo, Metroid Prime, DOOM + various puzzle games like Portal or The Witness), but for the most part I find it to be arbitrarily restrictive, aesthetically uninspired and that it usually comes at the cost of a memorable protagonist design.
Just to go back to this if you don't mind, and to make some big assumptions....so for example if you had a gameplay section where a character has to navigate a maze. You'd much prefer a view from above or offset from the maze, where you can see your character and part of his/her surroundings, rather than a first person view where you are looking at the walls of the maze? So the aesthetics are better, you're able to 'situate' your character better, giving a greater connection to your surroundings, and there's the added bonus of your character design being visible in this scenario? Makes sense.

Do you know why those exceptions you mentioned work better? Just examples of better game/character design all round?
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Re: Games Completed 2018

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Chopper wrote: September 18th, 2018, 7:01 am Just to go back to this if you don't mind, and to make some big assumptions....so for example if you had a gameplay section where a character has to navigate a maze. You'd much prefer a view from above or offset from the maze, where you can see your character and part of his/her surroundings, rather than a first person view where you are looking at the walls of the maze? So the aesthetics are better, you're able to 'situate' your character better, giving a greater connection to your surroundings, and there's the added bonus of your character design being visible in this scenario? Makes sense.

Do you know why those exceptions you mentioned work better? Just examples of better game/character design all round?
I don't mind whatsoever, my friend. I'll talk to anybody about anything. :)


I would probably prefer a view from above in that case, yes. With that being said, if the section had been carefully designed around the use of the first-person perspective and fine-tuned accordingly, I wouldn't necessarily mind. Some of the greatest puzzle games ever created are first-person games, after all. That's a big if, though.


Basically, my issues with the first-person camera can be summarized as:

1. Lack of character screen presence / visual design. (Aesthetics) I really appreciate strong character design even in the absence of great writing. Most first-person games completely bypass this. Example: Half -Life. Who's Gordon Freeman? No idea. Just "some dude", I guess.

2. Lack of organic body language feedback. (Mechanics) Example: Almost every FPS in the past 10 years with their blood-spatter effect that tries to emulate danger through artificial HUD elements rather than through actual in-game elements. Just compare the way Alien: Isolation communicates damage with the way Dead Space does. It's night and day.

PS: And this also negatively impacts platforming sections / any sort of athletic components, which in turns leads to shallow context-sensitive animations.

3. Readability issues. (Mechanics) The first-person camera is one of the most restrictive ones. I don't necessarily mind restrictions if they have been properly designed around, but a lot of (western) developers don't seem to understand the difference between on-screen and off-screen attacks, or how to communicate incoming danger to the player, to name but two issues. Example: Call of Duty. All I remember from playing through MW on the hardest difficulty was getting annihilated from barely visible off-screen attacks stemming from enemies that blend with the background while my screen was getting progressively more obscured (!!). Nex Machina and its constant particle effect fireworks and kaleidoscopic color palette has a readability that puts the entire CoD series to shame. Massive problem for me.

4. First-person cutscenes. (Aesthetics) It's just the most uninspired and boring creative choice imaginable. You're just standing in a virtual room watching mannequins go through their scripted routines. This method brings out the worst aspect of cutscenes (dry exposition), without their best aspects (creative cinematography and editing potential). Example: Half-Life, forever the original sinner in that regard.


I find that the first-person games I like usually find a way to circumvent most of the above issues. Just off the top of my head:

Image
Halo

Halo has third-person cutscenes that showcase the memorable character design of the protagonist(s), a fantastic readability that never leaves you puzzled as to where enemy damage comes from, and excellent audiovisual feedback with its shield mechanic. But most importantly, the numerous vehicle sections are all in third-person, and I think it speaks volumes about the aforementioned issues that those are widely regarded as some of their respective games' highlights, whereas the fist-person vehicle sections in Half-Life 2 are widely considered to be the low point of the game.

Image
Metroid Prime

It bears repeating that Metroid Prime is not a shooter. It's an adventure game centered around exploration and level traversal, with standard enemies being a mostly secondary consideration. The Scanning mechanic in particular works perfectly well in tandem with the camera. It has great audiovisual feedback as well (like how Samus' face is sometimes reflected on the internal surface of the visor), and the Morph Ball sections are all in third-person, sometimes even straight up side-scrolling.

Image
DOOM

DOOM has the same readability as Halo, not least because every single enemy attack is a projectile instead of hitscan. It's amazing how fast and frenetic the game can be at times without ever becoming overwhelming or confusing. Full props to the AI coders, visual and sound designers. The game also commits to the mysterious nature of its protagonist by elevating him to the status of a time-transcending myth, which resonates with the uninterrupted camera work.

Image
Overwatch

Again, impeccable readability. I haven't played the game in six months, and yet I have zero issue with knowing exactly what goes on in the above screenshot. Every single character in the game has his or her own animations, silhouette, voicelines, color palette, visual cues, and even footsteps. The attention to detail is simply mind-blowing. To convey so much information at any given time without ever confusing the player is something that a lot of other designers should take note of, if you ask me.

Image
Puzzle games (Portal, The Witness, Infinifactory, etc...)

Those games aren't strictly speaking dexterity based, which means that the players can take their time to solve the puzzle without becoming frustrated. And without giving too much away, at least Portal and The Witness make very creative use of the first-person camera in their perspective-based puzzles. Those games simply wouldn't work with any other kind of camera design.


Hope this clears things up! :)
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Chopper »

Yes, thanks for the comprehensive reply, much appreciated! I have no further questions m'lud :)

I completed Blues and Bullets Episode 2.

This one ends with Eliot Ness and Al Capone on the lam from some shadowy underworld figures. :D

I wish there were more episodes, I haven't played anything like it. I'd almost recommend that people check out these two episodes if they see them for pennies, but an unfinished game is a hard sell.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass
08/03 - Deus Ex: The Fall
10/03 - Bayonetta 2 (Hard)
22/03 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
28/04 - Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth
03/05 - Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
05/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Nero/Dante - Devil Hunter)
08/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Vergil - Devil Hunter)
12/05 - Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
13/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Lady/Trish - Devil Hunter)
21/05 - Omensight
26/05 - Mafia II
27/05 - God of War
31/05 - God of War: Ascension
12/06 - Unravel Two
15/06 - Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
23/06 - Vampyr
05/07 - Cat Quest
14/07 - The Legend of Korra (Extreme)
20/07 - The Vagrant
28/07 - A Hat in Time
31/07 - Way of the Samurai 4
25/08 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Knight)
25/08 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution
10/09 - Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner : MVRS
18/09 - Yakuza Kiwami 2

Much like Kiwami 1, I was a bit lukewarm on this one in comparison to the main releases, although I did enjoy this one a fair bit more. So while I would put Kiwami 1 at the bottom of how I rank these games, this one would definitely be significantly higher. The story felt like it had more energy than K1, but it still didn't really excite as much as some of the more recent entries. Ryuiji Goda was a good antagonist, but he needed more screen time than he got, and Sayama was also a good character with a strong personality, but some of the places they tried to take her relationships near the end of the story didn't really feel like it made sense. And while it did improve the combat mechanics somewhat over Yakuza 6, in the end it didn't feel like it was improved anywhere near as much as I was hoping or expecting.

The Majima side-story they add in to this version was pretty forgettable too. Didn't really add anything of note, with production qualities that felt kind of sub-par. The way you unlock it in parts spaced out throughout the main game means that you only get to play a very short bit at a time, and what little plot there is there gets forgotten between each part. There's also the fact you can't upgrade Majima's combat skills or stats. You're stuck with what you get at the beginning, which is a very limited move set, low health, and very slow movement speed. While being able to upgrade the speed of attacks helps a lot with the issues the main game has with its combat, that option is unavailable here.

Right now I think I'm feeling a little burnt out on Yakuza. While this one was a good time overall, I don't think I want to play another any time soon. This intensive release schedule has gotten a bit much, as I suspected it would. So I don't think I'll be picking up that Fist of the North Star game any time soon, and I might not even pick up the PS3 ports on release either. I was hoping for a compilation of those games anyway. Maybe they'll release one when they get around to porting Yakuza 5.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Simonsloth »

Spoiler: show
January 2018:
Bleed
Crackdown
Rez Infinite
Resident evil directors cut
Bioshock
Resident evil 2
Bioshock 2
Resident evil 3:Nemesis

Feb 2018:
Bioshock infinite
Def Jam: fight for Ny
Zone of The Enders
Resident Evil:code Veronica
Resident evil zero
Hyper light drifter
Braid
Yoshi’s Woolly World
Resident evil 4

March:
resident evil 5
resident evil 6
Lostwinds
lost winds 2
Ico 3D
Dead space
Dead space 2
Heavenly Sword

May:
Horizon Zero Dawn plus Frozen Wilds
Enslaved
Dmc
Steinsgate 0
Hellblade
Shadow of the Colossus Remake
Resident Evil 7

June:
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Bastion
Detroit
Vanquish
Battlefield 3 Singleplayer
Alice: Madness Returns

July:
Prince of Persia
The Last Guardian
Syndicate
Binary Domain
Call of Duty Classic HD

August:
Cave story 3ds
Eternal Darkness
Luigis Mansion
Mickey’s castle of illusion
Super Mario Bros
Silent Hill 2 HD Collection
999: 9 persons, 9 doors...
Shenmue

September:
Shenmue 2
Half-life
16/09
super Mario Bros 2

What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

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Simonsloth wrote: September 18th, 2018, 11:42 pm super Mario Bros 2

What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
I do love this game.

Which version did you play ??

The All-Stars one is the common one I suppose but the one I spent the most time with was the GBA Mario Advance.

The music is probably up there as my favourite Mario score with World and Odyssey.
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Scrustle »

Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass
08/03 - Deus Ex: The Fall
10/03 - Bayonetta 2 (Hard)
22/03 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
28/04 - Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth
03/05 - Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
05/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Nero/Dante - Devil Hunter)
08/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Vergil - Devil Hunter)
12/05 - Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
13/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Lady/Trish - Devil Hunter)
21/05 - Omensight
26/05 - Mafia II
27/05 - God of War
31/05 - God of War: Ascension
12/06 - Unravel Two
15/06 - Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
23/06 - Vampyr
05/07 - Cat Quest
14/07 - The Legend of Korra (Extreme)
20/07 - The Vagrant
28/07 - A Hat in Time
31/07 - Way of the Samurai 4
25/08 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Knight)
25/08 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution
10/09 - Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner : MVRS
18/09 - Yakuza Kiwami 2
19/09 - Figment

This one was a really nice little surprise. Found it to be very enjoyable and charming. Some great artwork and really inventive use of sound design, and a very nice soundtrack too. Mechanics are pretty simple, with some light puzzle solving and occasional combat, but they do some cool things with both. Being set in someone's subconscious mind, a lot of the puzzles have this really neat theme of being associated with various parts of the mind and the memories contained within. The look of the environments follow this theme, so it's full of imaginative and surreal features. Lots of puns to do with various mind-related things too, in a Psychonauts vein, which were pretty amusing. The soundtrack also dynamically changes depending on where you are in the level too, with certain features of the background decorations being themed on various instruments, having them fade in to the background music as you get close to them. The boss fights do a similar thing. The bosses are all based around various types of fears and anxieties, and when you fight them they sing a song about themselves, which has some fun lyrical writing, and their attacks are synced up to the rhythm of the music. Visually the game is pretty great too. Aside from just the imaginative environments, it has a very nice painted style that mixes 2D and 3D assets seamlessly. It's pretty impressive actually, as a few times I was surprised to find that something which I assumed was part of the 2D background was actually a 3D asset and could rotate and move, while never looking out of place. (EDIT: I just found out the game is actually all 3D after all! Fooled me, very impressive.) So yeah, a very nice little game. Not a whole lot to it, but you can tell what it does do was done with a lot of heart and inspiration.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I finished The Wonderful 101 earlier today.

My feelings on the game are mixed, but mostly positive. First and foremost, I believe it deserves full props for committing so firmly to its completely unique premise and core structure. In such a risk-adverse industry, it's amazing to see a studio develop a game that is so bold and delightfully different in so many ways. It's full of creativity and charm, and it's heartwarming to see just how much love has gone in every facet of its design. The story is also surprisingly good.

I don't think it'd be fair of me to knock points off the game itself considering the reception it has received among expert players, but I'll just say that the combat system didn't completely click with me in the way that I had hoped for. I consider myself to be at least decent at action games in general, but I'll admit to have struggled with some of the mechanics, especially in regard to the defensive options. The majority of my encounters ended with me getting a platinum medal in combo but a silver or bronze in damage and me not really knowing how I could have avoided most of it. This is probably due to me not being able to pick up and capitalise on the enemy tells, but it left a sour taste in my mouth regardless.

I'm very glad that this game exists, I'm sad that it sold so poorly despite being such a perfect fit for the hardware it was developed on, and I truly appreciate the unique twist it provides on the action genre. Unfortunately, I don't feel very motivated to revisit it and to go for the Pure Platinum medals at this point, which is usually the main appeal of this type of game for me.

Great game overall, but it doesn't trouble RE2 / Õkami for my favorite Kamiya game or Bayonetta 2 / Vanquish for my favorite Platinum game.
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Simonsloth
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Joined: November 22nd, 2017, 7:17 am
Location: London
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Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Simonsloth »

Suits wrote: September 19th, 2018, 10:26 am
Simonsloth wrote: September 18th, 2018, 11:42 pm super Mario Bros 2

What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
I do love this game.

Which version did you play ??

The All-Stars one is the common one I suppose but the one I spent the most time with was the GBA Mario Advance.

The music is probably up there as my favourite Mario score with World and Odyssey.
I played the 3DS store version. The music is pretty special I haven’t played world or Odyssey either. Aside from mario 64 (and super Mario bros 1/2 recently) I haven’t actually finished any other Mario games. A huge gap in my history which I am addressing now.
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Games Completed 2018

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

KSubzero1000 wrote: September 19th, 2018, 8:36 pm ...I'm very glad that this game exists, I'm sad that it sold so poorly despite being such a perfect fit for the hardware it was developed on, and I truly appreciate the unique twist it provides on the action genre. Unfortunately, I don't feel very motivated to revisit it and to go for the Pure Platinum medals at this point, which is usually the main appeal of this type of game for me...
I still own my Wii U (still connected up and everything), and I think this might be one of the few unique games left that I don't own for that system. I'll definitely have to make an effort to get a copy, if only to experience it.
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