@RogerRoger yep will do! I Will give you a shout if I play any notable star wars game to be honest as I know you will have probably played it/have something to say about it!
@Rudy_Manchego Good review. I don't what's up with exploratory games not offering maps. It's one of the things that put me off Bloodborne and Dark Souls as well.
Carrion seems cool, though. I almost preordered the limited run physical version of it, until I realized that was more motivated by FOMO than any actual desire to play the game.
It'll go on sale for peanuts for some point. Or, if it's still up on GamePass whenever I eventually upgrade to Windows 10, I'll play it on there. I'm sure I'll probably enjoy it whenever I get to it. I played the demo a year or so ago, and it was quite interesting.
@Rudy_Manchego I pretty much agree with your thoughts on Carrion. It’s alright, I guess. Movement was fluid and felt good but combat always descended into chaos. It mostly felt like a puzzle game rather than a Metroidvania imo.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks. Glad you've been enjoying DOOM 64. The second campaign is really pretty decent. And surprisingly challenging, too. The entire game is just really impressive when you consider how it's not even a main DOOM game, but some sort of weird bespoke version originally designed for a Nintendo console.
Kind of excited to try out DOOM 2016 in a few weeks, too. I've been putting it off for years and years, but it really has a staggering reputation. And, more importantly, the demo I've played 10 - 20 times now is super fun every time.
@RR529@RogerRoger@ralphdibny@Trisque I appreciate the kind words, and also the contributions of everyone who has submitted their work in this thread or taken the time to read and discuss pieces submitted by others. It'll take a week or so to fully go live with direct links for all the pieces, but it'll thankfully be super simple to maintain from that point on.
@Ralizah I'm also impressed at that first post; good work! All of my efforts in the thread are on PS4 as well (my Tropico 6 thoughts had the platform as unknown).
I also thought I'd written about more games than that but clearly not! The gap for Yakuza 4 will now haunt me too.
A simple 3D platformer in which your only goal is to scale the tallest mountain on the small island the game is home to, Hawk Peak. You play as Claire, a humanoid bird, who has the ability to jump & glide, and in order to scale the peak you'll need to collect Gold & Silver Feathers scattered about the game world (Gold ones add an extra jump for every one you find, while Silver ones increase the size of your jumps & glide speed). There is no time limit & no danger, it's just a hike you take at your own speed. The platforming & gliding feels great, but there's an optional speedboat minigame I thought was a tad clunky to control.
The thing is, while there is a signposted path to take to the top (with just enough Gold Feathers along the way, you don't actually need any Silver Feathers I believe), the island is a small open world filled with people to help, secrets to find, & minigames to play, and it's best bits are often just exploring around, or making up your own path. You only need 7 Gold Feathers to reach the top, but by the end I had 11 Gold & 2 Silver (collected more Gold after the fact, which you may see in some of my screenshots).
As for the minigames, I ran across races, a variant of volleyball, fishing, & a speedboat segment, and they're all simple but fun (being good enough will often net you a Gold Feather). Completing quests for people (really relaxing & simple stuff, like picking up all the litter on a small island) will often net you Gold Feathers as well. You can also obtain optional equippable items such as a bucket to water flowers (which act as springs launching you to higher ground when bloomed), a shovel to dig up treasure, or a picaxe which you can use to open up shortcuts to various points on the island.
Audio/Visual
The game has an overhead/isometric view, and it's full of vibrant colors. Whether it be white sandy beaches, autumnal foliage, icy peaks, stormy shores, and more, this small world packs a lot of biomes, many you'll miss if you don't get out & explore.
The game has a pixelated sort of retro 3D look (think PS1 or DS), though it looks good as it's intentional. Furthermore, you can make it look cleaner & sharper in the settings if the standard look isn't doing it for you (which is what I did).
The musical tone fits the game & the areas well. It really helped set the mood in spots.
Story
You're off to summer camp and awaiting an important call, only to learn that there's no reception out here in the boonies, except that is on the island's highest point, Hawk Peak. Thus your journey begins, and who knows, maybe you'll commune with nature along the way. It's a very simple set up with very little words along the way, but man is the ending evocotive. I inexplicably teared up at the end in a way a video game has never before made me.
Some of the characters you meet along the way have tiny little narratives of their own that are tied into their minigame or quest if you take the time to get to know them (as an example, there's a character scalping Gold Feathers, selling them for over 2 times the price that the Visitor's Center does, but he's doing it because he's behind on tuition, and you can actually pay it off for him, which then ties in to another character's quest), which is a neat little touch.
Overall
A Short Hike was a joy to play. It may indeed be short (I finished it in probably under 2 hours, and if you speed through it, under 1 hour isn't undoable), but despite the speedboat clunkiness, the vplatforming controls are spot on (once you have a good number of Gold Feathers, scaling & soaring through the game's vertical world is one of the best feelings I've had playing a game. It's very Nintendo-like in the sense that getting from one place to the other is fun in and of itself), and it's brief narrative hits hard.
Gato Roboto (Switch)
Gameplay
A standard "Metroidvania" that's a clear homage to Metroid in particular, though with your playable character being a cat. If you've played one before this won't be radically different, with it playing host to 5 or 6 interconnected "zones", and by obtaining upgrades along the way you'll be able to access later areas & go back to grab collectables you missed out on earlier. The upgrades you get are pretty standard fare, such a Screw Attack like move & Missiles as examples (though your missile supply is unlimited here, there's a cooldown meter so you can't spam them).
It does differentiate itself in a couple ways though. Most notably you can exit the power suit and run around as Kiki (the cat), who is quick, can climb up walls, and fit into tight spaces (there's even a dedicated meow button!), but has no offensive capability & dies in one hit. Naturally there are times when you'll have to leave the suit behind and look for a way forward as Kiki (with one of the game's zones almost entirely revolving around that). Other times you will use other vehicles, such as a submarine, as your power suit doesn't play nice with water.
Otherwise, the game controls are mostly good, though I felt it was a tad floaty. It's a pretty breezy time mostly IMO, though bosses can be a step up in difficulty (usually took me 5-6 times to beat them, with a few exceptions). As for the collectables you have Heath Modules (increase maximum "NRG", lol), Cartridges (more on these later, but there is a character who will upgrade your basic shot if you collect enough), and Data Logs (more on these later).
Audio/Visual
It uses a minimalist black & white art style, though sprites are well animated, and I felt like it did a good job of making each of the zones feel distinct (you're not going to quit playing and wonder if you're in the Aqueduct or the Ventilation area when you come back). Plus it has a handy map.
The aforementioned Cartridges unlock different color palettes for use, such as Gameboy (pictured below) & Virtual Boy inspired looks.
The soundtrack fits the game pretty well I'd say.
Story
A space soldier (Gary, I think) recieves a distress signal from a military research facility, but on his way to investigate Kiki steps on the controls, causing the ship to crash land and Gary to be injured, thus it's up to our plucky feline friend to complete the mission.
Along the way you'll run across Data Logs (just one or two per zone, with some being along the main path, while others are more hidden), with messages left by the staff of the research facility before things went bad. They're a nice way to add some narrative to the proceedings without bogging it down with text & exposition
Overall
This was nice "Metroidvania" comfort food. Granted, the Switch is full of indie "Metroidvanias", but I think this was a good one, and don't play a ton of indies anyway so I had a good time with it.
Waifu Uncovered (Switch)
Probably the only screenshot I can post here, lol.
Gameplay
A pretty standard sh'mup in terms of gameplay, it's Arcade Mode features 7 levels of bullet hell action (while Story Mode features 8), with all the typical upgrades (wave shot, move speed, etc.) accounted for and they carry across from one level to the next, so you'll become progressively more powerful during a run. While you'll eventually play through all levels by the time you're through, you'll have the option to play an easier or harder level after you clear a level, so no two runs have to be exactly alike. I found it works pretty well for the most part, but I was never able to clear Story Mode, as it features tag team boss fights (which are way too chaotic) & you heal less health in-between rounds.
It's levels feature artwork of anime style women in the background, and for "story purposes" (more on that later) the more enemies you defeat the more uncovered they become. Once they've become suitably stripped you fight that level's boss. While it starts off in "Censored Mode" (where their most intimate bits stay covered up, mostly), the game's most prominent unlockable is an "Uncensored Mode", which as advertised features the women's breasts fully exposed when activated. It should be noted, given the title's theme, that despite the aesthetic direction of the title, it was developed by a western studio and all women are explicably said to be over 18 (with the majority being in their 20's). I figured it should be brought up since it would be the concern of some.
It features a ton of unlockables outside of the "Uncensored Mode", including various ships with different stat focuses (though I always did best with the initial all rounder), a One Finger Mode that lets you play with only one finger on the touch screen in handheld mode (I didn't try this, but I believe it features a special hot dog shaped ship, for some crude innuendo), as well as a Gallery which allows you to view the women (covered or otherwise) once you clear their level once in either Arcade or Story mode.
Audio/Visual
It's clear that the women are the focus of the game as they are presented pretty well (though your average Japanese developed visual novel has better art), while all the enemies you face look like flash animated knockoffs of emojis & memes (flying cartoon poop, asteroids with off brand "troll faces", etc.). It's clear they were just quickly thrown together to give you something to shoot at as you get to the "good stuff".
It has exactly one song, and while it's pretty peppy, you'll probably be tired of it after one run.
To it's credit, I never noticed any notable slowdown, even when the screen is absolutely cluttered.
Story
Aliens are invading & have infested the clothes of women the world over! You play as a Ninja Horse (a ninja with a horse's head) flying around in a ship to fight them & save the women. It's absolutely absurd, but I guess it kind of has to be in order to justify the goings on. Nothing more to it than that.
Overall
It's fun as a novelty just to have something so shamelessly crude & mature (immature?) on console (particularly a Nintendo one), but if I didn't get it for "free" (I got it with gold coins), I probably wouldn't have bothered.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 Nice! Lots of review material there.
-
I'm still sort of surprised Waifu Uncovered released on a console. It's VERY similar to a game on Steam called Deep Space Waifu, which a friend of mine loves. Since the Switch is becoming such a haven for risque content, it'd be nice to see something slightly higher profile like the upcoming Huniepop 2 or maybe a port of one of those PS4 Senran Kagura games release on it.
-
I've heard really good things about A Short Hike. It's always nice to see graphical styles from later consoles represented in indie games, and you're right that this looks a lot like a Nintendo DS game visually.
-
Gato Roboto seems about how I expected it'd be: passable, safe, and probably not terribly memorable, but fine for what it is. The term "comfort food" sounds very apt.
-
Great post! I like seeing some of these smaller releases get attention in here.
@Thrillho Thanks for clarifying that platform. I can usually identify keywords in the reviews that reveal the platform, but, in this case, I couldn't make a determination.
And yeah, as I combed through this thread a few times, I was amazed by how some people were far more prolific than I'd realized, and how I'd definitely not been as prolific as I'd thought I was.
@Ralizah just read through your doom 2 review (thanks to your awesome indexing skills!)
I'm about 2/3s of the way through it and it's awesome! It's like doom 1 but turned up to 11! It just chucks the high level enemies at you from near enough the get go but thankfully, as you said, halves their HP. I didn't realise these weaker versions had different names though but they do throw enough of them at you to make up for their weakness.
Oh yeah and I did encounter a standard spider with the machine gun, on the boss level of the city areas just before I got into hell. Had to fight it along with that fat rocket launching MF before being faced with the green launching demon along with the most heathenous new addition, that pyromancer. He gives me the creeps!
Ive just finished the city levels and made it into hell and I actually loved the city parts. Just seeing where the protagonist lives was awesome as well as seeing the hellish landscape it had been reduced to. I really enjoyed the aesthetic of these levels. Not sure why really, I loved the mix of hellish urban expanse mixed with grassy areas and random castles in the city (guessing these might've popped up out of the ground when hell came a knockin). I also had a random detour through another "level of hell" in the pair of Wolfenstein levels accessed from map 15 which was pretty cool. It was good to have a secret exit to that level too because map 15 is definitely one of the more confusing maps to actually finish. The secret exit was easier to find than the main exit. I did make a save on level 15 to go back and see the normal exit but I carried on from my map 32 save that warps you back to level 16 so I could keep all the guns I acquired from map 32.
Anyway, awesome game. I'm looking forward to finishing it and (maybe after a small break) moving on to Final Doom which is included in the mod/wad packs of these releases.
@RogerRoger Devolver games normally have good post release support so hoping they do patch in a map or something - I don't remember the Ooze (apart from Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the ooze - what a film) but you have piqued my interest! I expect a PS4 release within a year maybe as well.
@Ralizah I have come so close to many Limited Run games because of Fomo before I realised I am not that bothered and then I miss out on the ones I do want. The lack of a map for a 2D game like this is such a missing one - I get the aesthetic choice but I think they could have done something interesting with having an organic styled map or something.
@nessisonett Pretty much that - combat was just always chaos and I could never tell if it was skill or luck.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@ralphdibny I think the city sections would have worked better if the environments had some level of detail to them. As it stands, the demons just look like they're perched on giant monoliths. It's a cool idea, and the concept of exploring city-like environments was very ambitious for the time, but I don't think the technology was there just yet.
But I do agree that DOOM II is pretty good. Certainly better than the original. Going back to OG DOOM after playing the sequels, you really notice the lacking enemy diversity and samey maps.
I never got around to Final DOOM, unfortunately. I think I'll save it for some point in the future when I'm feeling the urge to play classic DOOM again (which probably won't be for a while, because I'm playing a LOT of DOOM this year).
And thanks. I'm hoping to have all of the links up in the next day or two. If you ever encounter a broken link, though, shoot me an @ so I can check it out. I had to fix a bunch of them just a day or two ago. I'm guessing someone who posted a couple of times in this thread was banned and had their posts removed.
@Ralizah having finished doom 2, I think I'm Gona skip and revisit final doom at a later date too... Just too much doom hahah. I think if I wasn't planning to play the master levels and the xbla episode (I forget what it is called now) then it's still not really a complete playthrough of the available megawads. So maybe I'll do the megawads/master levels after we've played DOOM for game club. Though I did play Sigil before starting Doom 2.
Also I'm quite keen to get to Doom 3+expansions but I still have Doom 64 to play first!
I think I just love that sparse retro urban environment, not sure why. I know it's limited but it just has a certain charm for me. It was really atmospheric and whereas the first game just filled me with a constant dread; this one, albeit not as profoundly, filled me with a constant despair. So I suppose early doom is doing its job. Though I still think I'm playing it wrong, my level play times regularly come in 10x longer than the par time 😅... but I like to explore and kill all the enemies!
I did notice a few of my notifications go missing a couple weeks ago but less than when Kratos left us so I thought maybe I'd just clicked on them without realising. But I checked the comics thread recently and there lots of replies to non existent posts by LN78 so I am guessing they left. Not sure why though.
@ralphdibny DOOM 64 is a total masterpiece. You're going to love it.
Oh damn, you're right, LN78 is the one who nuked his account. I don't feel great about that, since his last conversation with me in the movie thread is likely the reason it happened. I thought we'd reached an understanding, but I guess not.
@Ralizah Yeah, I was following the discussion about The Godfather, mostly because both of you had interesting and well thought out viewpoints. I thought it sounded like a amicable resolution as well with the “not bad” moniker being the only sticking point, so probably there was more to his departure than that. Hopefully he decides to return at some point to further the discussion of objective and subjective analyses of art.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Had a glance through the movies thread, honestly couldn't say if that's why they nuked their account but you seemed to leave it on good terms so I wouldn't worry about it. If I remember correctly, LN78 was always passionate about certain films and had lively discussions with other forum members in a similar vein.
I used to be a film student and unrelated to that I have to say I also love the godfather 😂. But not for any real reason, just one of those films that I never plan on watching because its so long but it always sucks me in and before I know it it's 2am and I've joined Michaels full descent into criminal enterprise. Or to quote the best line in godfather part 3 "just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in!" The books good too, it's a bit like lord of the rings, if you like the film then the book is like an extra detailed version of events.
Anyway I digress! Everyone likes different films and games, there's loads of popular stuff that doesn't gel with me beyond a passing interest. Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Inception to name a few of the big popular films from recentish years that I've just thought were ok instead of amazing. You say tomato's I say tomato's (in a godfather voice). Generally people on this forum understand we are people not sheep. Anyway I've had enough years of being mocked by my friends for loving the MCU soap opera (it's the soapy elements I love best!) to know it's ok to be different!
@Ralizah If anything, I was rattier than you towards him. You debated with him but it was perfectly amicable. With everything going on in the world, we don’t know why someone would have left and it could be for a multitude of reasons.
@Ralizah congratulations and huge thanks to completing the links! I have been catching up on reviews, and the links are such an enormous help.
Edit: I realize the original post was mainly me complaining about Death Stranding. If I ever write a review on the game (assuming I finish it) I may consider entering my complaints in that instead.
@RogerRoger I have a very vague memory of having played this as a nipper (probably rented from Blockbuster) but not getting very far.
Is that the first time the “flickies” name is mentioned as I’d never heard that term until very recently... but then again I’m sure I’d never heard the term “badnik” until recently either.
@RogerRoger, great write up! I had a PS2 Sonic collection back in the day, and this (along with Sonic 2) were the only titles I actually managed to complete on it.
Though I honestly can't say I remember much about the experience now.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Forums
Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread
Posts 701 to 720 of 2,213
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic