Look, some of these games, and indeed the thread title, would have been better served if I made this thread either on or before Valentines day, but I can't be held accountable that the calender is wrong. That's on Hallmark, not me.
Kicking things off with sneaky stuff what existed last week, and that means a long over-due release on S/NESflix; Earthbound, and it's almost released NES prequel Earthbound Beginnings. The former is one of those games I love so damn much it's completely impossible for me to be objective about it at all. The other is an interesting piece of preserved gaming history, and something I've always been curious about, but consider to be just south of Too Clunky to fully appreciate.
Regardless, wander through JRPG Middle America, pulverize local wildlife and rude people and unite your heart with the rest of the world to annihilate pure evil.
Also, GOAT soundtrack; can't overstate how much I love this games music.
And speaking of greatly appreciated examples of Old Game Preservation, for a title never released in English originally; we also have River City Girls Zero, which is a port of Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka on the Super Famicom, finally getting an English localization. AND ALSO it's got a special, more thorough and robust localization, with added cutscenes and new soundtrack added into it that retroactively makes it tie in to River City Girls more directly (hence the name). So regardless of whether you like retcons or authenticity, your good pals down in River City have got what you need!
Furthermore, if you're enrolled in highschool there, they also have what you deserve; a calamitous breaking apart of your entire skeleton.
And H*ck, why stop talking about old video games now? Well, one good reason is that this is actually one of those new old video games is why. Infernax is out now, and it's a Metroidvania that leans much harder on the "Vania" side of that portmanteau. And furthermore, it's also just PREPOSTEROUSLY violent. Like *wow* violent. But it's also all NES-y looking, so you have some degree of disambiguation. I'm really looking forward to it, and our own Mr. Madhair gave it a ringing endorsement and I'd have had some first hand experience playing it already, but I didn't get around to it yet. I WILL SOON THOUGH, I PROMISE!
And speaking of things that I intended to play last night but didn't, that applies to the prequel to the next game, Monster Camp XXL, which is the sequel to the already extant Monster Prom. It's a video game where you try to convince m-m-m-m-monsters to smooch you. ANd also the writing is pretty dang funny. And furthermore, it's a competitive multiplayer game, JUST LIKE REAL ROMANCE.
Smooch a ghost! Kiss a bug! Tell a murder man you are/n't into murders! All in a Summer Camp! Where the principal probably doesn't work!
Also up, and under the category of "I haven't finished the first one yet" is Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden, the (amazingly quickly produced) sequel to the excellent RPG Voice of Cards: The Island Dragon Roars. This time there's a maiden who needs forsaking. Or who has too much forsook and needs it expelled. Either way; you can expect more of A Well Written JRPG Low Budget with a Playing Card Motif.
And I DO want more of that!
And another thing that came out last week, and which slipped my attention is Grapple Dog, a platformer where a dog has a grappling hook! I don't know what else to say there, but I like dogs and also I like grappling-hook based movement, so hey... this is both of those things! I'm told it's "rather good".
Assassins Creed: The Ezio Collection is a collection of the three Ezio-focused Assassins Creed games, which mark where the series went from "A cool idea, I guess" to "genuinely fun". But far less so than "But There Are Pirates" or "Except Greece" a few years later. This one lets you beat up the pope in the Vaticans secret underground UFO hanger. Not many other games let you do that.
And finally, my pick for "game nobody but me is excited for" this week is Gem Wizard Tactics; it's an asymmetrical SRPG where you've got three wildly different armies of Little SRPG peeps (like bugs and robots and Wizards) who all got some dander in their craw about the wizard gems they don't have, and they decide to throw a war about it until someone is the one to have them all. It's inexpensive, and brags about how darn replayable it is, and HEY, I'm here for all that!
Kicking things off with sneaky stuff what existed last week, and that means a long over-due release on S/NESflix; Earthbound, and it's almost released NES prequel Earthbound Beginnings. The former is one of those games I love so damn much it's completely impossible for me to be objective about it at all. The other is an interesting piece of preserved gaming history, and something I've always been curious about, but consider to be just south of Too Clunky to fully appreciate.
Regardless, wander through JRPG Middle America, pulverize local wildlife and rude people and unite your heart with the rest of the world to annihilate pure evil.
Also, GOAT soundtrack; can't overstate how much I love this games music.
And speaking of greatly appreciated examples of Old Game Preservation, for a title never released in English originally; we also have River City Girls Zero, which is a port of Shin Nekketsu Koha: Kunio-tachi no Banka on the Super Famicom, finally getting an English localization. AND ALSO it's got a special, more thorough and robust localization, with added cutscenes and new soundtrack added into it that retroactively makes it tie in to River City Girls more directly (hence the name). So regardless of whether you like retcons or authenticity, your good pals down in River City have got what you need!
Furthermore, if you're enrolled in highschool there, they also have what you deserve; a calamitous breaking apart of your entire skeleton.
And H*ck, why stop talking about old video games now? Well, one good reason is that this is actually one of those new old video games is why. Infernax is out now, and it's a Metroidvania that leans much harder on the "Vania" side of that portmanteau. And furthermore, it's also just PREPOSTEROUSLY violent. Like *wow* violent. But it's also all NES-y looking, so you have some degree of disambiguation. I'm really looking forward to it, and our own Mr. Madhair gave it a ringing endorsement and I'd have had some first hand experience playing it already, but I didn't get around to it yet. I WILL SOON THOUGH, I PROMISE!
And speaking of things that I intended to play last night but didn't, that applies to the prequel to the next game, Monster Camp XXL, which is the sequel to the already extant Monster Prom. It's a video game where you try to convince m-m-m-m-monsters to smooch you. ANd also the writing is pretty dang funny. And furthermore, it's a competitive multiplayer game, JUST LIKE REAL ROMANCE.
Smooch a ghost! Kiss a bug! Tell a murder man you are/n't into murders! All in a Summer Camp! Where the principal probably doesn't work!
Also up, and under the category of "I haven't finished the first one yet" is Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden, the (amazingly quickly produced) sequel to the excellent RPG Voice of Cards: The Island Dragon Roars. This time there's a maiden who needs forsaking. Or who has too much forsook and needs it expelled. Either way; you can expect more of A Well Written JRPG Low Budget with a Playing Card Motif.
And I DO want more of that!
And another thing that came out last week, and which slipped my attention is Grapple Dog, a platformer where a dog has a grappling hook! I don't know what else to say there, but I like dogs and also I like grappling-hook based movement, so hey... this is both of those things! I'm told it's "rather good".
Assassins Creed: The Ezio Collection is a collection of the three Ezio-focused Assassins Creed games, which mark where the series went from "A cool idea, I guess" to "genuinely fun". But far less so than "But There Are Pirates" or "Except Greece" a few years later. This one lets you beat up the pope in the Vaticans secret underground UFO hanger. Not many other games let you do that.
And finally, my pick for "game nobody but me is excited for" this week is Gem Wizard Tactics; it's an asymmetrical SRPG where you've got three wildly different armies of Little SRPG peeps (like bugs and robots and Wizards) who all got some dander in their craw about the wizard gems they don't have, and they decide to throw a war about it until someone is the one to have them all. It's inexpensive, and brags about how darn replayable it is, and HEY, I'm here for all that!
