Been playing a few things recently.
Firstly I finished and very very much enjoyed
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
The multiply endings, secret routes, item combinations and background scenery monster hunts make this feel like so much more than just another Castlevania game.
The cryptic paper clues scattered about the castle and available in the shops, hinted at by the odd background scenery creatures let you in on the fact that there may well be more to meets the eye.
I also believe that this is another fantastic experience made better by the form and function of the console it was designed for – The DS.
I’ve done my best to try and compare it to SotN, a game that I’ve not played for probably ten years and I can at very least say I enjoyed it just as much as that, maybe more due to the benefits I believe of playing it on a Dual Screen handheld.
Top, top game this. (It took a lot longer than 14 hours to beat - that must be combined time).
I also picked up
Elite Beat Agents, a few weeks before this sudden resurgence on Twitter from Liam Robertson’s piece on it.
I saw it in my mates retro game shop and thought, yeah, now is the time.
It’s wonderful. I enjoyed a bottle of red wine the other evening, with a proper set of headphones and a place squished on our sofa.
I enjoyed it’s humour and art style, although it’s song choice I wasn’t so much a fan of. Just Dance by Bowie is an all time favourite tune of mine but the others I found I could take or leave – I think I prefer the more original eclectic style of the Rhythm Heaven/Paradise games but it’s still very much welcome, I’m just splitting hairs.
I’m not a fan of the input controls however, to a degree.
I found that on the more complex songs, the final space song for instance, I was often masking what the next input was with my hand holding the stylus. Which in turn made it feel a bit rushed and scatty as oppose to the more clear button prompt games.
That said, very enjoyable hugely recommended and a delight to play on the DS again.
Like many others I’ve also been playing
Cadence of Hyrule on the Switch.
Very good, great art, excellent music with some seriously stand out tracks and remixes from the Zelda Universe.
I’d not played Crypt of the Necrodancer (that this game is based upon, with a Zelda twist) and jumped into this. I also, unknowingly to me, started as Zelda, which starts you in a different part of the map surrounded by more advanced enemies sets and complex environments.
It's not that different but there are differences which can make it a lot steeper of a learning cure than starting as Link in his house.
I was tempted to start over but gave it one more go and then suddenly, all of a sudden something just clicked and it all fell into place.
The rhythm, the weapons, the movement and it became a lot easier to handle.
So, the first maybe two hours were a real slog but since then it’s been pure enjoyment and Zelda exploration fun.
I have one more instrument to find, Death Mountain – then I don’t know, lets see what happens…..