Mr. President... have you ever heard of a *Super* Mario?
So it took a couple of weeks for the post-Squishmas release list to get enough steam to warrant making a thread, so we're kicking things off by mentioning the last couple of weeks worth of the cream of the crop that I didn't feel warranted a whole thread otherwise, and that means, first off, the lastest Pixel Game Maker Series title; Pearl vs. Grey. Which, as is traditional for that series, looks a hell of a lot like an existing Gameboy game, but not litigiously so. In this case, it appears to be somewhere between Donkey Kong '94 and... umm... I guess The Demon Crystal (which wasn't on the Gameboy, admittedly). You're a little Indiana Jonesman tasked with stealing treasure before your hated rival, Some Lady Named Pearl, can steal it first. This translates to puzzle-platforming your way through 100 stages, and sometimes fighting boss monsters. Like most PGM titles, it looks... pretty solid, honestly. Ain't never played none, but... they look worth the asking price.
A completely unrelated 2D throwback of a game, but one that hearkens to SNES instead of Gameboy, is Shield Maiden, a platformer about a gal with a laser shield, a missing sister and a whole cities worth of killer robots to Captain America/Mega Man X her way through. I went from "Oh what's this?" to "Oh hell I'm buying this immediately" before the trailer could finish playing.
And speaking of games that struck my particular MENTAL FUN ZONE wheelhouse but hard, we have Scrap Riders. Which is a beat-em-up. HOWEVER, it's also a point and click adventure game; much like my beloved Nightshade. It's the year DISASTER, and you're a member of a post-apocalyptic biker gang who has to contend with both rival gangs out in a Mad Max-y desert wasteland, and a Shadowrunny futuristic technocity. The trailer showed a lot more Punchin' Dudes than Jabberin', but the eShop assures me there's plenty of both.
Anyway, it, too, is a video game I already bought so HERE'S HOPING my emotional needs are met by it.
Speaking of emotions, "Creeped out" is one such example of one. And so that end; we have Children of Silentown. It, too, is a point and clicker, set in a Quiet SPooky Town With a Dark Secret, and you've got to figure out whycome every kid ain't around no more. And it the character design looks like if someone put Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez into opposite ends of a super-collider.
Next up is The Breakers Collection, a collection of not one, not three, but TWO games of the Breakers series! Two games which originated on Neo-Geo and which I am *completely* unfamiliar with. From the screenshots, I am aware there's a stretchy mummy-lookin' guy in one of them, but that's about all I could tell ya; and that flies in the face of the eShop description "with a roster of many playable characters, all known by fans from around the world".
Anyway, I didn't foresee Breakers getting re-released with Rollback netcode, so good on it, and fans of Breakers.
And Breakers Revenge, featuring 10 playable characters.
Yet another 16 bit throwback this week is Vengeful Guardian: Moon Rider, from the same peeps as what brought us Blazing Chrome, Odallus and Oniken. But UNLIKE THOSE... this one is clearly inspired by Hagane.
Well... I guess Oniken was basically Shinobi or Shatterhand, so... not that big of a flex, really.
Anyway; it's the year TECHNOLOGY, and you're a cyber-ninja with a bug in your craw about all the BAD BOTZ who have enslaved humanity, and a real strong desire to CHOP THEM TO PIECES
And that's enough games that hearken to the 16 bit era, how about one that hearkens to the Apple ][ era? That means Dusk '82, and it looks... well... like a terrible ancient PC game; the kind from after they invented graphics, but before they invented good graphics. You're some kind of a hat man in a monsterous puzzle-maze where you've got to 'splode all the monsters before they can kill you. Like Sokobon or Chips Challenge, if you had a rocket-launcher as well as strong box-shoving arms.
And maybe the Apple ][ is slightly TOO far back for a retro throwback video game; maybe you want something with EIGHT bits and from, say... 1988 or thereabouts. WELLGOOD NEWS, FOLKS, because this weeks final game is NEScape; an escape room game that looks like an NES game. HEY... that's why it's called that! Anyway, it's four seperate escape rooms of escalating difficulty, and it's $13 Canadian dollars so... that's cheaper than if you'd actually gone to a real Escape room 4 times.
Four good ones at least.
So it took a couple of weeks for the post-Squishmas release list to get enough steam to warrant making a thread, so we're kicking things off by mentioning the last couple of weeks worth of the cream of the crop that I didn't feel warranted a whole thread otherwise, and that means, first off, the lastest Pixel Game Maker Series title; Pearl vs. Grey. Which, as is traditional for that series, looks a hell of a lot like an existing Gameboy game, but not litigiously so. In this case, it appears to be somewhere between Donkey Kong '94 and... umm... I guess The Demon Crystal (which wasn't on the Gameboy, admittedly). You're a little Indiana Jonesman tasked with stealing treasure before your hated rival, Some Lady Named Pearl, can steal it first. This translates to puzzle-platforming your way through 100 stages, and sometimes fighting boss monsters. Like most PGM titles, it looks... pretty solid, honestly. Ain't never played none, but... they look worth the asking price.
A completely unrelated 2D throwback of a game, but one that hearkens to SNES instead of Gameboy, is Shield Maiden, a platformer about a gal with a laser shield, a missing sister and a whole cities worth of killer robots to Captain America/Mega Man X her way through. I went from "Oh what's this?" to "Oh hell I'm buying this immediately" before the trailer could finish playing.
And speaking of games that struck my particular MENTAL FUN ZONE wheelhouse but hard, we have Scrap Riders. Which is a beat-em-up. HOWEVER, it's also a point and click adventure game; much like my beloved Nightshade. It's the year DISASTER, and you're a member of a post-apocalyptic biker gang who has to contend with both rival gangs out in a Mad Max-y desert wasteland, and a Shadowrunny futuristic technocity. The trailer showed a lot more Punchin' Dudes than Jabberin', but the eShop assures me there's plenty of both.
Anyway, it, too, is a video game I already bought so HERE'S HOPING my emotional needs are met by it.
Speaking of emotions, "Creeped out" is one such example of one. And so that end; we have Children of Silentown. It, too, is a point and clicker, set in a Quiet SPooky Town With a Dark Secret, and you've got to figure out whycome every kid ain't around no more. And it the character design looks like if someone put Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez into opposite ends of a super-collider.
Next up is The Breakers Collection, a collection of not one, not three, but TWO games of the Breakers series! Two games which originated on Neo-Geo and which I am *completely* unfamiliar with. From the screenshots, I am aware there's a stretchy mummy-lookin' guy in one of them, but that's about all I could tell ya; and that flies in the face of the eShop description "with a roster of many playable characters, all known by fans from around the world".
Anyway, I didn't foresee Breakers getting re-released with Rollback netcode, so good on it, and fans of Breakers.
And Breakers Revenge, featuring 10 playable characters.
Yet another 16 bit throwback this week is Vengeful Guardian: Moon Rider, from the same peeps as what brought us Blazing Chrome, Odallus and Oniken. But UNLIKE THOSE... this one is clearly inspired by Hagane.
Well... I guess Oniken was basically Shinobi or Shatterhand, so... not that big of a flex, really.
Anyway; it's the year TECHNOLOGY, and you're a cyber-ninja with a bug in your craw about all the BAD BOTZ who have enslaved humanity, and a real strong desire to CHOP THEM TO PIECES
And that's enough games that hearken to the 16 bit era, how about one that hearkens to the Apple ][ era? That means Dusk '82, and it looks... well... like a terrible ancient PC game; the kind from after they invented graphics, but before they invented good graphics. You're some kind of a hat man in a monsterous puzzle-maze where you've got to 'splode all the monsters before they can kill you. Like Sokobon or Chips Challenge, if you had a rocket-launcher as well as strong box-shoving arms.
And maybe the Apple ][ is slightly TOO far back for a retro throwback video game; maybe you want something with EIGHT bits and from, say... 1988 or thereabouts. WELLGOOD NEWS, FOLKS, because this weeks final game is NEScape; an escape room game that looks like an NES game. HEY... that's why it's called that! Anyway, it's four seperate escape rooms of escalating difficulty, and it's $13 Canadian dollars so... that's cheaper than if you'd actually gone to a real Escape room 4 times.
Four good ones at least.
