I've played the Mega Drive Sonics regularly since I was young and Lava Reef is my favourite zone of the whole series. It's also, apparently, the longest zone in the Mega Drive games. Some zones have one short and one long act but I still spend 5-6 minutes on each of its acts savouring the design and music.duskvstweak wrote: ↑August 24th, 2020, 6:47 amAlso, no surprise, I love the Ice Cap and Lava Reed Zones and accompanying music.
Anyway onto my list
- Spoiler: show
Its probably easier to watch a trailer than for me to explain the gameplay but I'll try.
It involves controlling a bike that's like two unicycles welded together at opposite angles and grinding it on rails along 2d tracks. The rails come in three colours in each level, two matching the colours of each wheel on your bike, which only the matching colour wheel is allowed to touch, and white, which either wheel can touch.
Controlling the bike feels really good, I felt a good sense of inertia when spinning the bike around and trying to keep balance. Controls are simple too, using an analogue stick and pressing a button to jump (or double jump) which can also be held to grind on the underside of rails. The game introduces new bikes throughout, each with their own quirks to keep gameplay fresh.
I liked how progression was laid out: complete the level, then complete it twice more with a different condition attached to each run e.g. don't touch yellow rails; perform 5 undergrinds etc. Then onto the next level. I died a fair few times but it was never overly challenging.
So yeah, this was a pleasant surprise and a good bit of fun. Its a shame it had to have a story, it doesn't take up too much time but I didn't like it at all.
Aug 9 - Pikuniku (PC)
Any game that makes me laugh in the first 30 seconds has a good chance with me. Its an enjoyable piece of silliness and Pikuniku (himself? herself?) is fun to control. Some nice music too.
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It's kinda a throwback to 16-bit JRPGs but not beholden to those either.
I found the combat to be the most interesting part of the game as it's quite different to games from that era. It happens on screen like Chrono Trigger. Each character has a set of skills, most of which can only be used once but you can spend a turn defending which recharges skills. Skills are varied enough to encourage experimentation and tweaking. Then there are items that can only be used once by the party per battle but recharge at the end of each battle, acting more like a skill used once per battle. Programs are like items but are tied to each character's armour. Each character also has a turn counter, when this is full that character's skills are extra powerful for that turn, encouraging planning (buffs, debuffs, ensuring you have your most powerful skills available) for those turns.
The game has a solid sci-fi setting and plot but it doesn't do anything that interesting. Overall I enjoyed it but it wouldn't be a recommendation unless you're into the genre and interested in variations on turn based battle mechanics. I completed it in less than 20 hours which meant it didn't outstay its welcome.
I also noted a few references to old games e.g the terrorist organisation have a meeting place in sector 7, the main character's name, Alyssa, is likely a reference to Phantasy Star 1 and/or 4 but my favourite is Finn's side quest.
- Spoiler: show