Alex79 wrote: January 2nd, 2024, 12:11 pmJAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)
APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)
APR - Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)
APR - Bioshock (Switch)
MAY - Tinykin (Switch)
MAY - Elden Ring (Xbox)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - EAFC 24: Euros 2024 Mode (PS5)
JUN - Policenauts (PS1 on Vita)
JUN - Nyghtmare: The Ninth King (Evercade)
JUN - Cocoon (Switch)
JUN - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (Switch)
JUL - Atari 50 (Switch)
JUL - U.N. Squadron (Arcade on Vita)
JUL - The Legend Of Silkroad (Arcade on Evercade)
JUL - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (Switch)
AUG - Ninja Gaiden (NES on Switch)
SEP - Balatro (Android)
Well I haven't 'completed' it obviously, but I got my first win this afternoon after about six hours of play (over the last couple of days, not all in one go!)
This is really addictive. I carried on with endless mode after the win and it's so satisfying seeing those numbers go up and up and getting 5 or 6 million with one hand. It's quite a comedown when you start a new run, scoring in the low hundreds again!
January 6th - Persona 5 Royal
January 11th - Control: Ultimate Edition
January 23rd - Alan Wake 2
February 13th - Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum
March 2nd - Cocoon
April 6th - Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
April 20th - Persona 3 Reload
May 24th - Doom (2016)
June 11th - Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
June 15th - Astro's Playroom
July 27th - Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
August 26th - Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
September 13th - Astro Bot
September 20th - Super Mario 3D Land
September 28th - The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire is styled after a children’s book - one that would cause half the kids in class to start fidgeting and staring out the window. It’s a real shame as the game is so charming, and so impressive in how it swaps between its storybook, real world toy desk, and various fun and surprising mini games. There’s a flair to it that speaks to the teams experience, and the game has such a warm, silly and charming tone that I kept coming back just to smile, laugh and be surprised by what came next.
The downside, and the part that makes it hard to recommend, is just how rigid and deathly afraid the game seems of being anything other than charming and winsome. Every encounter is simple, every puzzle can only be solved by the most obvious solution. There are some great mechanical concepts that never go beyond the basic. Outside of perhaps one or two situations at the end that might be equivalent to a room in the second dungeon in a Zelda game. And yet even then, the game is constantly holding your hand and going through so much dialogue that amounts to ‘oh no, there’s a problem! Do this to solve it’. Even by the standards of a children’s game, it’s very simple.
The story also feels like it could’ve been better. None of the characters really go through it or have any serious consequences or development. It’s all surface level, with only the occasional nod towards creativity or inspiring a ‘real person’ with your story. Most kids stories tend to have that simple core of the character learning a lesson or overcoming something, but it feels a bit empty here.
Overall I did like this game, and hopefully this doesn’t read like I’m trying to give it a kicking. It’s just tough to recommend when I think it’s lacking in the core parts of the game that could make it great.
Disappointing to hear the feedback for The Plucky Squire from pretty much all gaming websites and podcasts I follow. I downloaded it via PS+ when it came out but to be honest I've deleted it without even starting it. When there are so many other games to play I don't really want to spend even 10-12 hours on a game that sounds so distinctly average.
Don't blame you. I mostly stuck with it because it was short and pleasant as a simple after work type of game, and because I was curious to see it through. It's a shame. I'm not sure why they decided to make it so simplistic. I don't mind an easy or guided game but it really goes over board.
This was a cute little adventure game where you play as a mouse that has gained the electricity-themed powers of a guardian spirit. It has you helping out various people suffering power outages in an old French town after a thunderstorm, and doing favours for a bunch of quirky little electricity sprites so they can assist you in restoring power. It has a pretty charming tone, with the aesthetic of the setting having a slight Ghibli-esque vibe to it, and all the little sprites all have their own funny personalities.
The actual gameplay itself is very simple though. It's mostly just doing some basic navigation and hitting the interact button on things. Sometimes there's the occasional puzzle, but none of them are even remotely difficult. Exploration is pretty fun, although again not exactly challenging for the most part. It's enjoyable to see the town from the perspective of such a small creature, and climbing up the building and getting in to all the tight spaces you rarely get to see in games, even if there isn't much to it mechanically. You can't manually jump, and your limited ability set only gets one minor addition later on.
But despite its simple mechanics and small scope I still liked this game. A fun casual little experience. Maybe it would serve well as something you would give to a child to introduce them to games in general. Very easy to grasp and without any kind of threat or pressure on the player, amusing characters to interact with, and a nice little space to explore that piques curiosity while still being small enough to not be daunting.
(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.
(Apr) Little Nightmares II - Series X.
(May) Fallout 4 - PS5.
(May) The Maw - Xbox 360.
(May) Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - Series X.
(June) Alan Wake II: Night Springs dlc - Series X
(June) Castlestorm: Definitive Edition - Series X
(July) Still Wakes the Deep - Series X.
(July) The Quarry - PS5.
(July) Bright Memory Infinite - Series X.
(July) Diablo IV - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Duty: MWIII - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - Xbox 360.
(Aug) No More Heroes III - Series X.
(Aug) Trepang 2 - Series X.
(Sept) Deliver Us Mars - PS5.
(Sept) Black Myth: Wukong(True Ending) - PS5.
(Sept) Age of Mythology: Retold - Series X.
Jan 7: New Super Lucky’s Tale
Jan 7: Super Mario Land
Jan 9: Tetris Attack
Mar 2: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Mar 17: Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Apr 6: Stray
Apr 18: Pac-Man World: Re-Pac
May 1: Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shōgun Magginesu
Jun 6: Code of Princess
Jun 30: Pokemon Radical Red (ver 4.0)
July 14: Sonic Advance 2
July 26: Sonic Advance 3
Aug 2: Trials of Mana
Aug 24: Kirby Power Paintbrush
Aug 30: Final Fantasy IV Advance
Sep 11: Ape Escape 2
Sep 23: Pac-Pix
Sep 23: Tinykin
September has to have been one of my most productive months gaming wise, never had so many games finished in one month this year. Will be interesting to see if it will remain this way at the end of 2024.
Sep 29: Mail Time
This took only three sessions to finish, and I was not even trying to speed through it. It is pleasant enough I guess, and it largely succeeds in being a calm little title where you are running errands for woodland critters in a cutesy little world. But overall, I just found this to be alright. The gameplay is a little too simple for me and the dialogue sometimes sounds like the writer spends way too much time on Twitter. The art style is quite nice (especially the little bee that follows you around) with the environment looking like pieces from an arts and crafts session at school. Also enjoyed the soothing music that plays throughout and the fact that you can clip onto almost everything in the environment makes jumping from place to place quite fun. So, it was inoffensive in that there is nothing egregiously wrong with any aspect of it, but it is also inoffensive to the point it is a tad bland. It suffers a bit too much from being overly wholesome. It is just the right length as its gameplay loop is not compelling enough to justify a long playtime. Another big thing to ding it for is that there are a fair few bugs and glitches I encountered such as pop ups not disappearing when I tried to cancel out of them and my character becoming stuck. All in all, a perfectly serviceable but meh title for me.
Sep 30: Drill Dozer
This, on the other hand, was far from meh for me. A 2D platformer from Gamefreak that focuses on a young girl who leads a band of thieves in a compact mech with drills for arms. This entire game revolves around drilling in some form or another and through its playtime manages to utilise the drilling mechanic in numerous ways such as simple destruction, puzzle solving, combat and platforming. It can also be fairly challenging at times, and I needed to retry certain parts of levels and bosses a few times to get the hang of things but it feels quite satisfying when you have mastered whatever challenge the game throws at you. The drilling feels solid, especially when you have fully powered it up and just the mechanic of shifting gears to make it more powerful and last longer is fun to pull off. It looks gorgeous too with lively cutscenes used throughout the story which take advantage of how powerful the GBA is over the SNES. One other amusing way you can figure out this game is by Gamefreak is the soundtrack as the use of trumpets are identical to what they sound like in the GBA Pokemon games. The only thing I really did not care for were the flying sections but that was only confined to one level thankfully.
The GBA is known for hosting a lot of remakes of SNES titles, but it is nice to see what it can be capable of when original ideas are developed for it. Drill Dozer is an excellent example of the technical capabilities of the GBA, a nice demonstration of what Gamefreak can do outside of the Pokemon series and a damn fine game in its own right. If you like platformers and gaming on the go, this comes highly recommended.
04/10 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Hero Mode)
What is there to say about this game that hasn’t been a thousand times already? A great adventure full of character with a strong unique identity. It also has perhaps the best version of Ganondorf in the series by giving him a bit of pathos at the end. The wide open ocean is a lot of fun to explore and makes this game stand out among the series. Although with that said, this revisit to the game had me coming away rather critical of a lot of things. I still think it’s a great game overall though, but it just seems somewhat redundant to go over all the same ways it’s good yet again like it’s saying anything novel.
I did actually make a few new discoveries this time though. It turns out storing a spin attack at the end of a jump attack also works here like in Twilight Princess. Pushing the stick sideways while Z-targetting allows you to do a horizontal slash instead of a vertical one. But the most fun one was realising that if you charge a spin attack against a Darknut they will copy you and do the same thing. That’s also probably why you unlock the Hurricane Spin from collecting their Knight’s Crests as well.
But I also found there were quite a lot of little problems that ended up adding up that I couldn’t ignore. The controls are quite a bit more clunky than I remember. It’s not very responsive when equipping items, with it taking a while to bring them out in gameplay, or with the game responding to inputs in the menu screen. It lead to a significant number of mis-clicks and fumbles in the heat of combat. Z-targetting also has some pretty annoying behaviour at times too. Sometimes the game will just not target something even if the arrow is above its head, instead preferring to swing the camera around at something else at the worst moment. Sometimes it will even just unlock by itself for no clear reason.
I think these issues mostly stood out to me because I was playing this on Hero Mode, like I did with TPHD a while back. While the N64 Zeldas definitely have stiffer controls than this one, when taking damage actually matters more than usual, getting hit because of controls misbehaving is a lot less forgivable. Hero Mode was okay overall though. Like with TPHD, it’s not especially difficult past the beginning of the game before you have collected a reasonable number of extra hearts. It makes potions and the Magic Armour actually feel useful for once too. It wasn’t a huge change to the experience, but it at least did something to make it feel a little more challenging.
The visuals are another big topic when it comes to this game, and how it differs from the original. While I have always preferred the look of the GC version, I thought this one looked good too back when I first played it. But coming back to it on this run, I think my feelings on it have taken a bit more of a dip. A lot was made of the excessive use of bloom in this game, and it definitely over-does it a bit, but that’s not what I have the biggest issue with. I do like how it implies the strength of the bright sunlight to a degree as well. But my biggest problem is how it removed the cel shading from many of the different light sources in the game. It’s still there for the overall scene lighting, but any in-level dynamic lights produce pretty basic gradient shadows that just don’t look very good and drain out the visual personality of the game. This version also adds in ambient occlusion and rim lighting on the characters, and these three things together have a pretty negative impact on the aesthetic. It hurts the illusion of the game being a hand painted cartoon with a consistent style and clean separation of colours, and instead highlights the 3D models in a way that makes them feel cheap. I wouldn’t say the game overall looks ugly at all, and there’s still a lot of great visual design to the game. But having become more familiar with how it looks, I can’t really see how this is supposed to be an improvement. It just feels like throwing in more fancy effects simply because they could, regardless of how it affects the overall artistic direction.
I’ve had the intention to play through this game for a while now, and for the longest time I was intending on emulating the GC version, but with mods to add in widescreen support and the some of the quality-of-life stuff this remaster has. I know that’s possible, but it always seemed like such a hassle to set up. Since I happened to have my Wii U hooked up again, this version suddenly seemed a lot more convenient, so I went for this one instead. At this point I’m kind of wishing I did put in the time to work out the emulation stuff. It would have been a pain, but I’ve done this sort of thing before, and the aesthetic niggles ended up bothering me more than I expected this time around too.
It makes me think about the legacy of this game and its visual identity as well. When a remaster/remake for a game comes out it’s interesting to see which version ends up being what people generally take as the definitive version that is a more “true” visual representation of it. Usually that seems to be simply which one sold the most or is most available, not the one that looks best or was the original. With this game though, it’s hard to tell. This remaster probably didn’t sell very well thanks to the Wii U, and you often hear people cry out for it to be ported to a more successful console so they can finally play it. So that makes it feel like it’s more obscure. Yet whenever I see people talk about this game online along with using visual examples, it’s usually this version. Even when people are praising how supposedly great its cel shading looks, when I don’t think it’s a particularly good example of that. It almost makes me wish for this to not get ported in the future, to give this game a better and more authentic visual legacy. Ideally we would get a completely new version that keeps the QoL stuff but reverts the visual changes. I wouldn’t bet on that ever happening though.
Going back to the TPHD comparison, it’s also interesting how these remasters were received compared to each other. At the time people were disappointed with that one for not changing the game as much as WWHD. But in retrospect I think the lighter touch they took with TPHD actually served it better. It still looks like the game it’s supposed to, and doesn’t mess with the overall style like this one does. It also had less need for QoL changes, although whether those particular alterations were a good idea are more of a case-by-case thing. Being able to move while aiming is great, and TP would have benefitted from that. The endgame Triforce hunt is perhaps a bit too truncated though, and I don’t think it needed to be nerfed as much as it was. Having a section of the game where you had to get really stuck in to overworld exploration was fun.
Jan 4th - Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS5)
Jan 10th - Jusant (Xbox Series S)
Feb 6th - Resident Evil 4 (PS5)
Feb 19th - Resident Evil 4 - Hardcore (PS5)
Feb 25th - Interaction isn't explicit (PS5)
Mar 10th - The Last of Us Part II: Remastered (PS5)
Apr 16th - TLoZ: TOTK (all shrines) / Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Challenge Tombs) / Helldivers 2 (PS5) / Split Second (Xbox Series S)
May 1st - Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Xbox Series S)
May 17th - Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (PS5)
May 27th - Shadow of the Colossus (PS5)
July 23rd - Shadow of the Erdtree: Elden Ring (Xbox Series S)
July 24th - Lego Builders Journey (Switch)
July 29th - Metroid Fusion (Switch: NSOnline)
August 7th - Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5)
August 13th - Thank goodness you're here! (PS5)
September 5th - Arranger: A role-puzzling adventure (Switch)
October 3rd - Astrobot (PS5)
What a delightful game.
It just wants you to love it and to love you. Every level is gorgeous. Every level, texture or item forces your controller to feel and sound different. If there's any floating island in the game that looks like you can get there, you probably can. Whenever you have a run of similarly paced levels, a new challenge or themed world emerges.
A lot has been made of the nostalgic fan service of gamings past being the central conceit. And it is moreish, if sparingly a little odd when you are being asked to feel an emotional attachment to the sterile white hulk of a console under your TV. But every time you see a level has a bot with a little icon to it's top right, you start to wonder what game it's from. And in the same way that Smash Bros felt like witchcraft in how it negotiated all these licenses, the same goes here; sometimes beyond the superficial, and more for how they're treated tonally (the humour is wonderful, far funnier than say the tiring Lego series) or integrated via gameplay twists. Lastly, mopping up every gatcha reward, bot and puzzle piece is never a chore, more a necessity.
The Bosses also deserve a mention. I don't think I've seen them called out in many reviews, but they're a general delight. Maybe more so than some recent Mario titles. They're inventive, varied and hugely fun.
So it's perfect? Not quite.
The platforming itself is solid and gets a lot of mileage out of a limited move set, but I rarely felt like my movement was as thrilling or fun as in a Mario game. Which is perhaps an unwanted comparison, but somewhat inevitable if you're a cute glossy 3D platformer that was obviously a big fan of Mario Galaxy. If anything, I actually felt like the core gameplay platforming was more akin to a rhythm action game, with the harder levels in particular feeling like levels you had to learn. Hover, laser, punch, punch, jump, spin, spin, jump, hover...
And is it also a bit much? I never thought I'd have said that after how amazing those first 15 hours were, but by the end a few later levels started to feel like repeats. Or the challenge levels had stacked up and we're becoming a chore. And the power ups were being repeated. I also had an unfortunate last few levels to tidy up which all used the main Astrobot theme tune, which meant it was on loop for the last 3 hours I played it. Ultimately the sugary saccharine joy was maybe becoming a bit sickly, and I wonder if a few of the worlds would better have been kept back for a nice Christmas surprise drop.
But I am nit picking here. Talking about the differences of a 9/10 vs a 10/10. And either way, Astrobot is wonderful. The best platforming mascot Sony has ever created and a joyous ode to gaming from the talented team at Asobi.
Jan 7: New Super Lucky’s Tale
Jan 7: Super Mario Land
Jan 9: Tetris Attack
Mar 2: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Mar 17: Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Apr 6: Stray
Apr 18: Pac-Man World: Re-Pac
May 1: Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shōgun Magginesu
Jun 6: Code of Princess
Jun 30: Pokemon Radical Red (ver 4.0)
July 14: Sonic Advance 2
July 26: Sonic Advance 3
Aug 2: Trials of Mana
Aug 24: Kirby Power Paintbrush
Aug 30: Final Fantasy IV Advance
Sep 11: Ape Escape 2
Sep 23: Pac-Pix
Sep 23: Tinykin
Sep 29: Mail Time
Sep 30: Drill Dozer
Oct 4: The Wonderful One: After School Hero
I was browsing the PS store and saw that this was available for free. This is supposed to be DLC to the Wonderful 101 remaster which I was not aware of at all so since I greatly enjoyed that title, I gave this a whirl. Here you play as Luka, the bratty kid from the original game and you do training as a member of the CENTINEL forces. Your ability is Wonder goggles which is basically an eye laser attack. The game is a side scroller where you attack using the right analogue stick. It is extremely short with me finishing it in 3 sessions which would have been a day if I had the time to fully commit to it. This game is alright, but the enemy variety is incredibly lacking with all enemy types present from the first level onwards. Bosses do appear which switch things up but are not too common. The game is a bit visually busy at times where your playable character is hard to distinguish from the background and as a result when you are battling multiple enemies you can be sent flying all over the screen as you can not even see where your character is on the screen which can make certain sections a chaotic mess to go through. Overall, though this was nothing too special and I am glad I did not have to spend money on this. Worse out there but even if you are a fan of the original game this is far from essential.
I played PS3 Demon's Souls back in 2011, and Dark Souls back in 2014, then somehow managed to go a decade before finding time for the follow up.
A lot of people really seem to dislike DS2, though I had a great time with it. It may be more linear than the first game, but I think it's level design is better paced. Dark Souls 1 has a notably weaker back half, whereas there are stronger levels right the way to the end of DS2.
There are some parts where it feels like there are too many enemies attacking you at once, but overall the challenge was stiff, but rarely frustratingly unfair.
The lore and story were confusing and vague as I played the game, but by the end they come together really well.
I'm not sure if it's better than Dark Souls 1, but I think I might slightly prefer it. That said, it's been 10 years since I've played DS1, so maybe I should look to revisit it at some point.
Alex79 wrote: January 2nd, 2024, 12:11 pmJAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)
APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)
APR - Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)
APR - Bioshock (Switch)
MAY - Tinykin (Switch)
MAY - Elden Ring (Xbox)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - EAFC 24: Euros 2024 Mode (PS5)
JUN - Policenauts (PS1 on Vita)
JUN - Nyghtmare: The Ninth King (Evercade)
JUN - Cocoon (Switch)
JUN - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (Switch)
JUL - Atari 50 (Switch)
JUL - U.N. Squadron (Arcade on Vita)
JUL - The Legend Of Silkroad (Arcade on Evercade)
JUL - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (Switch)
AUG - Ninja Gaiden (NES on Switch)
SEP - Balatro (Android)
OCT - Balatro (again!) (Android)
Completed with every deck in the game on standard difficulty. Now to start on the higher difficulties...
(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.
(Apr) Little Nightmares II - Series X.
(May) Fallout 4 - PS5.
(May) The Maw - Xbox 360.
(May) Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - Series X.
(June) Alan Wake II: Night Springs dlc - Series X
(June) Castlestorm: Definitive Edition - Series X
(July) Still Wakes the Deep - Series X.
(July) The Quarry - PS5.
(July) Bright Memory Infinite - Series X.
(July) Diablo IV - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Duty: MWIII - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - Xbox 360.
(Aug) No More Heroes III - Series X.
(Aug) Trepang 2 - Series X.
(Sept) Deliver Us Mars - PS5.
(Sept) Black Myth: Wukong(True Ending) - PS5.
(Sept) Age of Mythology: Retold - Series X.
(Oct) Lies Of P - Series X.
This is another one that I’ve had my eye on trying for a very long time. I actually have some nostalgia for the first game, but not necessarily because it was actually good. It’s more for what it represented at the time it came out. It was the early days of the Wii, so it was exciting to see that game as showing off the new possibilities of the console. Combining shooter and sword combat with motion controls seemed like a cool idea, and the darker more mature tone showed that such a game could exist on that platform. Although even at the time, it was clear to see the game was very janky and didn’t live up to the promise. It was pretty awful to actually play and I never got very far through it.
When this sequel was first announced I initially wasn’t very keen on it. By that time the novelty of the Wii had long since worn off, and the drastic change in setting and story alienated me. At the time I wasn’t familiar with the whole samurai western trope, so it seemed weird to me. But later on I realised how foolish of a reaction that was, and by then I had heard quite a bit of positive word of mouth about this game and how it was actually delivering on what the first attempted. Having now played it I can definitely add my voice to the choir singing this game’s praises. It’s a lot of fun.
The combat mechanics that take up almost the entire focus of the game are really enjoyable and well crafted. Interestingly it has a flipped focus compared to the original, leaning far more heavily on the melee combat with shooting only being a supporting part to that. It also seamlessly blends these two styles together simultaneously rather than them each being segmented off in to encounters that only use one or the other as the first did. It makes fights feel a lot more dynamic and fun. The sword mechanics are very fleshed out and have a good amount of depth to them. You have a lot of different special moves that are triggered with specific gestures, that all have their own utility to them. Enemies are also well designed around your abilities, with them needing different methods to get past their defences. Controls are generally very responsive and work well. While they are not flawless all the time, it’s very rare for them to get an input wrong, and generally they feel very reliable. The game can be pretty demanding at times too, requiring you to think fast and also execute fairly complex inputs to deal with an encounter. When you get it down it feels great, as you swing away with real physicality and speed, but where your actions are all deliberate and purposeful.
There is some awkwardness however in having the Wiimote deal both with the aiming of your gun and your sword swing gestures. Whipping your wrist around for melee makes you lose sight of what you’re pointing the cursor at, meaning that actually trying to use your gun a lot in combat isn’t actually that practical. Your guns aren’t totally useless in a fight, but you’re not really able to switch between weapons very swiftly in the heat of the moment. Thankfully the game is designed so that isn’t really necessary. Given that ammo for guns is pretty limited, it seems like that occasional use was the intention anyway.
I also had a slight issue with some of the side objectives. Most of them are okay, albeit not particularly inspired. It’s likely a sign of the limited resources this game had for development, that these side missions are little more than exploring the compact levels for collectables or extra enemy encounters. They are fairly bland and repetitive, but mostly inoffensive. The problem comes with one particular iteration though, where you have to cut down wanted posters. They are extremely hard to see, and don’t stand out at all in the environments. There were some I simply could not find at all after scouring levels over and over. Some others I managed to cut down by accident without even being able to see them on my screen, just as I was slashing away at some crates or an enemy. An example of how important good visual conveyance is, even in a game with very simple graphics.
There’s another couple of things that stood out to me too, mostly as curiosities. In some locations the background ambient audio contains what are clearly voice clips of Toad ripped from Mario Kart 64. That was pretty funny to hear. Also weirdly this game has a single QTE sequence in the whole runtime, which occurs over what appears to be a pre-rendered cinematic too. Very odd. Maybe a remnant of a more ambitious version of the mechanic that got cut.
Generally a great time though. A tight, streamlined action game with really satisfying and unique mechanics. A novel experience that actually delivers on that fantasy of making you feel like a highly skilled warrior by translating your own movements in to the game itself in a way that doesn’t feel gimmicky or unreliable.
(Jan) Battlefield 3 - Series X.
(Jan) Hi-Fi Rush - Series X.
(Jan) Daymare 1998 - Series X.
(Jan) The Beast Inside - Series X.
(Feb) XIII - Series X.
(Feb) Close to the Sun - Series X.
(Feb) Atomic Heart - Series X.
(Feb) Return to Grace - Series X.
(Feb) MADiSON - PS5.
(Mar) TDPA: House of Ashes - PS5.
(Mar) RE Village: Shadows of Rose - PS5.
(Mar) Those Who Remain - Series X.
(Mar) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Series X.
(Mar) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - PS5.
(Mar) Control: Ultimate Edition - Series X.
(Mar) DREDGE - Series X.
(Apr) Little Nightmares - Series X.
(Apr) Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Series X.
(Apr) Robocop: Rogue City - PS5.
(Apr) Little Nightmares II - Series X.
(May) Fallout 4 - PS5.
(May) The Maw - Xbox 360.
(May) Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - Series X.
(June) Alan Wake II: Night Springs dlc - Series X
(June) Castlestorm: Definitive Edition - Series X
(July) Still Wakes the Deep - Series X.
(July) The Quarry - PS5.
(July) Bright Memory Infinite - Series X.
(July) Diablo IV - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Duty: MWIII - Series X.
(Aug) Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - Xbox 360.
(Aug) No More Heroes III - Series X.
(Aug) Trepang 2 - Series X.
(Sept) Deliver Us Mars - PS5.
(Sept) Black Myth: Wukong(True Ending) - PS5.
(Sept) Age of Mythology: Retold - Series X.
(Oct) Lies Of P - Series X.
(Oct) Alone in the Dark(2024) - PS5.
October 4: Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Dreamcast)
This was one of the many games I bought on my trip to Japan. Even though I have the Online Edition of 3rd Strike on my Xbox 360 HDD and it is playable on the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I've always wanted a standalone physical copy of the game. The Dreamcast port is based on a late revision of the arcade game and has balance changes and other tweaks, so tournament players don't like it or play it, but to me it's great for a bit of casual fun and looks and sounds amazing on my B&O CRT TV, especially when using the trick to display it in native, non upscaled resolution. You can't help but wonder about the balance changes as well. Are Chun-Li, Ken & Yun no longer top tier in this. Nobody knows and nobody seems to care to find out. I played through the arcade mode with vanilla ass Ryu and 1 credited up to Gill. Then I had to continue several times to rediscover how to cheese this resurrecting final boss. Good times, though.
October 14: Like Dreamer (NSW)
This and Cosmo Dreamer were a gift from our publishing partner EastAsiaSoft. I first played Cosmo Dreamer and nearly 1CC'd it on Casual difficulty on my first try. Then I went and did exactly that in Like Dreamer.
Like Dreamer, like Cosmo Dreamer before it, is a pastel coloured vertical bullet hell shooter that is very well made. It's also more fanservice-y than its predecessor, but that doesn't necessarily scare me away if the game is otherwise good. So as I wrote, I 1CC'd this at the beginner difficulty level on my first try, that is to say I played through all the stages in order from the stage select screen, without seeing a Game Over screen, as the game is typically played stage by stage and you can go back and redo earlier stages. It's not like a typical locked in run, you see?
Casual difficulty level is still pretty spicy in terms of bullet volumes and challenging patterns, I would say. But I was able to make my way through it without taking too many hits because of just how readable the game is and how intuitive the patterns are if you have played a decent number of bullet hells before. It's not a case of "I've seen it all before", as there is a lot of creativity in the stage design and novel ideas... it's just that everything is telegraphed super well and flows very naturally. There are also some forgiving mechanics, but I didn't need to exploit those too much.
I'll definitely try the harder difficulty modes on both and see how I fare there.
Very underwhelming. I don’t have much to say about this one to be honest. It’s an adequate surface level replication of what a Silent Hill game looks, sounds, and plays like. But there isn’t really much more to it than that. It’s far from bad, but nothing about it captures the imagination, despite it having all the expected component parts. Except for a compelling story or any deeper psychological themes that is, or the expertly wielded control over tone and atmosphere. But that’s what the core of these games always was, and this one simply lacks that. While it does have some good music, it is used poorly. It doesn’t punctuate dramatic story moments or anything of that sort, but mostly seems to play its more distinctive pieces at arbitrary points. The tone of the supernatural elements feels misjudged too, at least during the finale of the game when they show up most prominently. It takes a turn in to something that feels more like it’s out of a medieval fantasy story.
Oh well, not a huge surprise I guess. I wasn’t expecting much from this one honestly. Although I was hoping for more considering some of the talent behind this. That maybe there was some nugget of greatness here that had been overlooked before now. Unfortunately not. There’s still some hope for some of the other games left in the series though.
Persona 3 Reload - Episode Aigis: The Answer (2024)
I played the main game earlier in the year and jumped into the DLC the soon as it came out. I had played FES before but I never actually played the expansion campaign in the PS2 version as I was burnt out from the main game at the time, so this was my first time playing through it.
It's actually paced much better than the main game, you move through floors faster and the quicker pace in dungeons is much more engaging. You level up and gain new moves faster, you exhaust the current set of enemies types faster etc.
The story that is there is interesting, but it's spread thin. It's a 25-30 hour long experience with maybe 2 hours of story, and there isn't any of the social link or exploration stuff from the main game either.
If you like the dungeons in Persona 3 Reload and want more, along with some closure to the story, then it's a fun time. If you need more story and social links, then you may find it tedious. The main game has such a perfect ending, and I don't think the DLC is essential at all, but if you loved P3R, then it's certainly more of that.
Alex79 wrote: January 2nd, 2024, 12:11 pmJAN - Strider (Arcade on Evercade)
JAN - Strider (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - God Of War (PS5)
JAN - Universal Paperclips (Android)
FEB - Alwa's Awakening (Evercade)
FEB - Little Inferno (Android)
FEB - Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (Gameboy on Switch)
FEB - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Mario Golf (Gameboy on Switch)
MAR - Duke Nukem Remastered (Evercade)
APR - Castlevania Legends (Gameboy on Switch)
APR - The Combatribes (Arcade on Evercade)
APR - Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen (Switch)
APR - Bioshock (Switch)
MAY - Tinykin (Switch)
MAY - Elden Ring (Xbox)
JUN - Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade on Switch)
JUN - EAFC 24: Euros 2024 Mode (PS5)
JUN - Policenauts (PS1 on Vita)
JUN - Nyghtmare: The Ninth King (Evercade)
JUN - Cocoon (Switch)
JUN - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (Switch)
JUL - Atari 50 (Switch)
JUL - U.N. Squadron (Arcade on Vita)
JUL - The Legend Of Silkroad (Arcade on Evercade)
JUL - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty (Switch)
AUG - Ninja Gaiden (NES on Switch)
SEP - Balatro (Android)
OCT - Balatro (again!) (Android)
OCT - South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Switch)
I'm really enjoyed The Stick Of Truth, but it was an RPG-lite with South Park humour, your milage may vary. This was 100% more of the same with a slightly more interesting combat system. I'd heard it was more like Xcom than a JRPG but it really wasn't even as complicated as something like Mario + Rabbids, it was pretty much standard turn based combat with a Paper Mario flavour on a grid. The game was a lot of fun, if you liked the first then you'll absolutely enjoy this one too.
