Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I had not heard of this but it looks very fun, wishlisted.
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“I Just Think They're Neat.” Like What You are Playing
- Thread starter Becksworth
- Start date
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
You may remember Explosionade as one of those rare Xbox Indie Games that was actually worth buying, alongside other titles from Mommy's Best Games such as Shoot 1UP and Weapon of Choice. Well, it's back, in Switch form! It's a hybrid of platformer, puzzler, and shooter, with the blend of genres keeping any one style of game play from eclipsing the others. The platforming doesn't demand exact precision, the puzzles aren't that difficult to solve, and the shooting is relaxed enough that you don't feel overwhelmed by a storm of incoming bullets. Plus there's a fair bit of technique, with grenades bouncing as long as you hold down the button, dual stick firing for picking off enemies at weird angles, and a shield that not only protects you but bounces you upward if you switch it on just as you're about to touch the ground.
I started the game, expecting to play two or three stages, only to finish over thirty before reluctantly calling it quits. It's an entertaining way to burn through a spare half-hour. The humor is dumb, but it's easily ignored (or maybe you're low brow enough to enjoy it. Imagine Starship Troopers meets Gomer Pyle USMC with more poop jokes, and that's pretty much the gist of it).
I started the game, expecting to play two or three stages, only to finish over thirty before reluctantly calling it quits. It's an entertaining way to burn through a spare half-hour. The humor is dumb, but it's easily ignored (or maybe you're low brow enough to enjoy it. Imagine Starship Troopers meets Gomer Pyle USMC with more poop jokes, and that's pretty much the gist of it).
Balrog
(He/Him)
I came here to post the same thing. It's great. It's like a long lost GBA platformer and the soundtrack is bangin'.
Speaking of things that make you go “Woah, where did this come from?”, there’s Kharons Crypt, which is a ZElda Game, except with way more skeletons and also you’re a ghost and can possess other enemies, like long forgotten GB platformer Avenging Spirit.
I… love this
I… love this
I'm slowly working my way through my Etrian Odyssey backlog, and I just got to the bonus stratum of EO4, and it is legit upsetting. It's claustrophobic and oppressively dark, and there's the suggestion of blood on the walls and spooky music (maze and battle music respectively embedded below). I feel like this final stratum may as well be called "haunted house". It's a weird departure for the series (to the best of my recollection, anyway), and I think I like it!
Update: I got to the 2nd floor, opened a door covered in blood, and now it's pitch black. This rules.
More first-person dungeon crawlers should be horror themed. The closest I can think of is Dark Spire, and that game from a couple of years ago that had a Grimrock-y engine and had you fighting Asian folklore ghosts.
More first-person dungeon crawlers should be horror themed. The closest I can think of is Dark Spire, and that game from a couple of years ago that had a Grimrock-y engine and had you fighting Asian folklore ghosts.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
With the news of the eShop closing next year I got out my 3DS and started up Miitopia again. It's so fun! I had completely forgotten there's a big postgame area and that there are daily traveler challenges so there's a lot more to do after beating the game.
I'd forgotten just how many Miis I had on this thing, we'd transferred so many all the way back to the Wii. Still sucks that it was so hard to batch transfer Miis to the Switch.
I'd forgotten just how many Miis I had on this thing, we'd transferred so many all the way back to the Wii. Still sucks that it was so hard to batch transfer Miis to the Switch.
Dark Deity is Fire Emblem in ways that the last couple of Fire Emblems were not. As I was in the mood for a Fire aemblem-ass Fire Emblem, this is welcome and delightful.
It’s easier to list the ways in which it separates itself from Fire Emblem, and even then those differences are still pretty Fire Emblem.
First, no weapon durability; instead each unit has four weapons that can up upgraded with resources filched off dead enemies, and each of them has sliiightly different stat distribution. This is basically how Fates worked and I liked that about Fates.
Second is that it has a different take on the weapons triangle that’s going to take some getting used to (seems that each unit has variable effectiveness against different classes, like Advance Wars) but helpfully whichever unit you’re commanding gets an overlay that shows which enemy their Weapons work best against so it’s not like memorization is a factor.
Give or take some real minor control quibbles this is exactly what I was hangry for.
It’s easier to list the ways in which it separates itself from Fire Emblem, and even then those differences are still pretty Fire Emblem.
First, no weapon durability; instead each unit has four weapons that can up upgraded with resources filched off dead enemies, and each of them has sliiightly different stat distribution. This is basically how Fates worked and I liked that about Fates.
Second is that it has a different take on the weapons triangle that’s going to take some getting used to (seems that each unit has variable effectiveness against different classes, like Advance Wars) but helpfully whichever unit you’re commanding gets an overlay that shows which enemy their Weapons work best against so it’s not like memorization is a factor.
Give or take some real minor control quibbles this is exactly what I was hangry for.
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
I finally got a PS5 and played Astro's Playroom. Holy crap, it's just incredible. My favourite Sony game ever, and it's not even close. Just pure fun and perfect gameplay with huge amounts of charm and perfectly judged nostalgia. To the point that it worked on me, and despite having owned every PlayStation console I've never felt particularly for the brand.
The kids were blown away by it, and they aren't easily impressed, they've seen so many games by now.
Of course all of this PlayStation nostalgia makes me want to bang old PS games into the console and that's not going to work
The kids were blown away by it, and they aren't easily impressed, they've seen so many games by now.
Of course all of this PlayStation nostalgia makes me want to bang old PS games into the console and that's not going to work
It’s really good!
Phantoon
I cuss you bad
It's a short 3D platformer, very reminiscent of Mario Galaxy, in that it has linear stages and Astro handles in a very Mario style fashion. It has four worlds, each one based around a previous Playstation console, and in each world you collect coins and gold boxes which contain peripherals for the console in question, like Pocketstations and Eyetoys. The coins you spend in a gashapon machine for even more obscure Playstation stuff and robot dioramas.
Each stage has robots acting out games from the console in question, so there's sly Resident Evil references and random Robbit cameos. There's lots of different mechanics like ball rolling and spring suits which use the new controller in inventive ways, basically doing the Nintendo job of showing the controller's potential, like the Switch style rumble and the force feedback triggers. It glorifies the past while bigging up the future.
It's just pure joy. Play it.
Each stage has robots acting out games from the console in question, so there's sly Resident Evil references and random Robbit cameos. There's lots of different mechanics like ball rolling and spring suits which use the new controller in inventive ways, basically doing the Nintendo job of showing the controller's potential, like the Switch style rumble and the force feedback triggers. It glorifies the past while bigging up the future.
It's just pure joy. Play it.
It also has some very catchy tunes.
The "I'm your GPU" song was stuck in my head for days after finishing the game.
Super Cyborg is, in fact, a real good Contra game. I might give it a slight nod over Blazing Chrome, even
Roguebook takes one of my biggest issues with Slay the Spire (the navigation) and replaces it with something fun and engaging. For the moment, I'm in love, but we'll see how it handles my other issue with Slay the Spire (getting the difficulty high enough to be engaging is an unreasonable grind). Here's hoping!
It's not nearly as tedious as Slay the Spire because you're leveling ascension once instead of once per character, but it won't let you exceed your current epilogue level, which is annoying as you're trying to unlock all the modifiers.
In any case, I wore off on it much faster than StS/MT, but I thought it did some interesting things with that design space. I think the exploration is actually what wore on me after a while, so maybe it'll be a better fit for you.
In any case, I wore off on it much faster than StS/MT, but I thought it did some interesting things with that design space. I think the exploration is actually what wore on me after a while, so maybe it'll be a better fit for you.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
In my continued efforts to chip away at my backlog we started playing Moon Hunters, a co-op RPG. It bills itself as a "personality test RPG" but that's not really accurate. Your actions affect your stats, and each playthrough unlocks more characters, locations, et cetera. I doubt it would be much fun to play alone but as co-op it's intriguing. Our first run took about an hour and I assume the following ones will be comparable?
We've only tried couch co-op so far but plan to try online too.
We've only tried couch co-op so far but plan to try online too.
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
Evil Zone for the Playstation was scorned by players for its simplicity, getting average ratings from critics as well. However, the simplicity is part of its charm. You only get two buttons, one for attack and the other for block, but Yuke's (yes, that Yuke's) manages to do a whole lot with that very simple control scheme. Attack is used in conjunction with different directions to perform different moves, be they projectiles, melee attacks, overhead strikes, or "traps" which punish turtling players. Moves never get more complex than quarter circles on the D-pad followed by attack- and that's for the super moves!- but this translates into lightning fast gameplay, with quick thinking and reactions required to survive battles. The game is also heavily anime-influenced, with each fight introduction and conclusion framed as episodes of an obscure Japanese cartoon. Danzaiver is especially great, with the character strongly patterned after the hero of Space Sheriff Shaider/VR Troopers, with dialog to match. And he's voiced by Jon St. John of Duke Nukem fame! It's ridiculous, but it revels in its absurdity.
Now I understand why the game was rejected by players back in the 1990s... when you pay sixty dollars for a fighting game, you want value for your money, which is why the home versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 were utterly gargantuan compared to the original arcade release. Evil Zone is not nearly as generous as Capcom fighters released in the late 1990s and at the turn of the century, but there's an economy to the design that's easier to appreciate twenty five years later. It's simple, but with purpose... compact, you might call it. Yuke's knew exactly what it was doing when it created Evil Zone, but the lean design went right over the heads of most gamers.
Now I understand why the game was rejected by players back in the 1990s... when you pay sixty dollars for a fighting game, you want value for your money, which is why the home versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 were utterly gargantuan compared to the original arcade release. Evil Zone is not nearly as generous as Capcom fighters released in the late 1990s and at the turn of the century, but there's an economy to the design that's easier to appreciate twenty five years later. It's simple, but with purpose... compact, you might call it. Yuke's knew exactly what it was doing when it created Evil Zone, but the lean design went right over the heads of most gamers.
Started playing Order of Ecclesia for the first time recently (much like EO, they just churned these out too quickly for me on DS, so I have a backlog), and man, what a good whip-em-up. It's right up there with my favourite CV games. Anyway, I'm nearing the end, and I've really been vibing with it. I can see why some folks bounced off it, as it's a much more tactical and considered experience than most Castlevania games, or even most platformers, but I'm loving it. I'm switching loadouts more in 5 minutes than I would in several hours in most Igavanias.
And some of the bosses have been real stand-outs, from the tower crab to the asshole shadow monster to a two-story tall demon centaur that I think may be the most involved Castlevania boss I've ever faced. What a good fight. It has, like, four distinct phases that all logically connect, 5 distinct weak points that all function differently, and it lasts like 10 minutes. I didn't get the medal, but beating the boss requires you to learn all his patterns and tells anyway, so I'm sure I could if I felt like toughing it out. I had to use all 3 of my glyph loadouts and switch between them throughout the fight. Just Immensely satisfying to figure out what was required and then pull it off.
The game also has some fun puzzles with multiple solutions, including, relevantly to the last point, a couple of fun puzzle bosses. Also, I discovered on the 2nd boss that there's a reward with no mechanical benefit (I think?) for no-hitting bosses, and it's been fun to get those when it feels plausible to do so without a lot of headache (I've got them for maybe 3/4 of the bosses or so). There's been a handful of fun transformation powers too, from a cat that makes other enemy cats allies and can talk to housecats to a slow weak robot that can trundle through spikes.
Oh, and the fake-out bad ending is much better integrated both narratively and mechanically here than in the game that inspired it. I love only finding out the significance of the events of the bad ending after moving past it, and it's a very good final area reveal-- the real Dark Souls starts here.
One final point: I didn't figure out until embarrassingly deep in that I could interrupt enemy spells by absorbing their glyphs, and I love that. Nothing makes me happier than when a game leaves me to figure things out on my own.
Anyway, a good GOAT, would Magnes again.
And some of the bosses have been real stand-outs, from the tower crab to the asshole shadow monster to a two-story tall demon centaur that I think may be the most involved Castlevania boss I've ever faced. What a good fight. It has, like, four distinct phases that all logically connect, 5 distinct weak points that all function differently, and it lasts like 10 minutes. I didn't get the medal, but beating the boss requires you to learn all his patterns and tells anyway, so I'm sure I could if I felt like toughing it out. I had to use all 3 of my glyph loadouts and switch between them throughout the fight. Just Immensely satisfying to figure out what was required and then pull it off.
The game also has some fun puzzles with multiple solutions, including, relevantly to the last point, a couple of fun puzzle bosses. Also, I discovered on the 2nd boss that there's a reward with no mechanical benefit (I think?) for no-hitting bosses, and it's been fun to get those when it feels plausible to do so without a lot of headache (I've got them for maybe 3/4 of the bosses or so). There's been a handful of fun transformation powers too, from a cat that makes other enemy cats allies and can talk to housecats to a slow weak robot that can trundle through spikes.
Oh, and the fake-out bad ending is much better integrated both narratively and mechanically here than in the game that inspired it. I love only finding out the significance of the events of the bad ending after moving past it, and it's a very good final area reveal-- the real Dark Souls starts here.
One final point: I didn't figure out until embarrassingly deep in that I could interrupt enemy spells by absorbing their glyphs, and I love that. Nothing makes me happier than when a game leaves me to figure things out on my own.
Anyway, a good GOAT, would Magnes again.
muteKi
Geno Cidecity
Yes. As I recall I would play through that mode using the slowmo item, a couple items that maxed out attack at the expense of all the other stats, and the axe+laser glyph to destroy basically every boss that wasn't the crab. The only ones that really gave me trouble were Blackmore (since he could get off a few hits quickly and you don't have a ton of space to work in) and Eligor (just due to the fact that there are so many points of failure before you get to really hammer down on the weak spot)
Roguelords just dropped, and I had one run with it so far and I flippin' love this game already. It's structured similar to Star Renegades (one of my favorite roguelites ever), except with a horror-theme, as the devil has commanded some of the worst monsters in history (your party) to rise and bring terror to the world; which means you've got a party of Draculas, and Headsless Horsemen and Bloody Maries and the like to rampage and pillage your way through quaint hamlets. Exploration is a *scootch* more involved than Slay the Spire, as you're locked onto a branching path, but there are sometimes side missions you can go on before advancing the actual progression through the levels, but nothing extensive.
One of the more neat things is that, since you're playing as the devil commanding these monsters, is that you're free to cheat to your hearts content; you can consume his Hell power to do things like tweak your or your enemies stats or pilfer or redirect status effects. You can't use too much though as that's also the only resource that doesn't get replenished after combat, it gets damaged once your creatures start to suffer critical health loss and once it's used up, you die.
I've only had one run outside of the tutorial but I fell in love with it real quickly.
One of the more neat things is that, since you're playing as the devil commanding these monsters, is that you're free to cheat to your hearts content; you can consume his Hell power to do things like tweak your or your enemies stats or pilfer or redirect status effects. You can't use too much though as that's also the only resource that doesn't get replenished after combat, it gets damaged once your creatures start to suffer critical health loss and once it's used up, you die.
I've only had one run outside of the tutorial but I fell in love with it real quickly.
One of us!
OOE features my favorite movement tech of all time (the reward from the Training Hall); unfortunately, you get it around the same time you get something strictly better, so there's no reason to use it except that it's fun and the best.
I think you may be mixed up? I just completed that area and don't recall getting any movement tech? The glyph statue at the end gave me a sword boomerang that seemed fine. I haven't done the cave that opened up at the same time yet, though. I recently picked up the Gotta Go Fast, which I've been using extensively.
ArugulaZ
Fearful asymmetry
I was gonna say this earlier, but it's worth mentioning now. The Xbox 360 is still one hell of a game console. I fired it up after purchasing a copy of Soul Calibur IV at a pawn shop, and I was having all kinds of fun with the game's various modes. (Not arcade mode. Don't play that; it's absurdly hard, especially the Star Wars insert character who's cheap as hell.) Is it better than the more recent Soul Calibur VI? Yeah, I would say so. The stages are more interesting and load times are reasonable, unlike in VI where they just seem to go on and on forever. You've got two throws instead of that weird, unwanted clash move, characters have armor that can be slowly chipped away, there's a "Critical Finish" for each character that's hard as hell to execute but amusing to watch... it's just really fun to play, and the graphics are dazzling even now, fourteen years and two sequels later. It's like the PSP Soul Calibur game, Broken Destiny, on steroids.