I feel that, if I were ever invited to be the special guest on a very special episode of an ABC TGIF sitcom, I would learn a very important lesson. Or else I would teach one.
No time for flouncing around like Buster Brown, returned from the grave; this is a big week chock full of video games so we're kicking things off with Galuga. "But Octo, surely you mean Gal*a*ga, Namcos seminal hit about the importance of shooting butterflies, the dreaded demons of death themselves." And I would kick you in the side and say "NOT WHAT I MEANT!", for it is, in truth, Contra: Operation Galuga, the first Contra *that we deem worth speaking of* since... erm... either Contra Rebirth on the Wii or Contra 4 on the DS; I forget which came out later.
Well... not counting the Anniversary Collection, I guess. Or Blazing Chrome, that was basically Contra.
Anyway, it's a new Contra, and based on what I've played of the demo, it's largely a remake of the original but with simply oodles of new stuff and playing the demo made me go "Oooh, I rather like this, eh?".
Attack the fiendish RED FALCON organization from a position that is not described as "passively".
Death of a Wish is the sequel to Lucah: Born of a Dream, and, like that game it's an action RPG with a really cool art style where everything looks like a chalk-drawing and you're a guy what says "Hey, this theocratic autocracy kingdom kind of sucks... I think I should ATTACK AND DETHRONE THE GODS THEMSELVES!" And because it's a video game with a levelling up mechanic, that's pretty easy to accomplish if you've got the gumption for it.
Have some gumption for poor Christian and his desire to stop an oppressive regime of evil priests, why don't you?
The Jeff Minter Story: Llamasoft is a collection of... like... every game that Jeff Minter ever produced. You may remember him as the Tempest guy, and you'd be shortchanging him for that since there's 42 games spread alongside 8 platforms here ranging from the Sinclair ZX81 to the Atari Jaguar.
Which I admit isn't an amazing legacy when written like that, but this is a hella-comprehensive library of one of the great influencers of the medium so shaddup with that kind of talk. It's also got a fancy spruced up remake of Gridrunner!
Explode your way through several Rush albums worth of laser-light shows as you blast away cybertrash nasties who vary between being Weird Geometric Space Enemies and Camels.
Speaking of games where I can earnestly use a term like "Cybertrash", we have Cybertrash Statyx, a 2d shooter that looks very much like one of those games that only seemed to exist at Gas Station game rental stores, like B.O.B. Its described as "a tactical 2D shooter" but the only real evidence of that seems to be that there's some experience points to allocate.
The trailer didn't "wow" me, but you can't earnestly expect to release a video game called "Cybertrash Statyx" and not expect me to give it a respectful nod.
Next is Star Wars: Battlefront Collection, the latest Star Wars re-release from the peeps over at Aspyr. And while I'm still cheesed that the Rogue Squadron trilogy is missing from that lineup, I'm not that upset, since Battlefront is what you'd call a close silver place finalist. The premise is simple enough; taking Battlefield and slapping into into Star Wars instead of World Wars. The second one puts in an actual story mode from the perspective of the heaps and heaps of disposable background guys whose lasting legacy is offering a wilhelm scream before asploding *and* has one of my favorite implementations of Fighting Between Two Big Spaceships.
War a Star today, why don't you?
Dungeon Drafters is next and it's the game I'm most full of jazz-a-ma-tazz this week (Sorry Tomm, no shame in a silver medal) it's a Deck Building RPG, which alone is enough to make me go "Hmm?", BUT it's also a Deckbuilding RPG with a focus on weirding up environmental traits of things (which makes me go "oooh!") and it's a Deckbuilding RPG where your cards are all different ways in which to change the properties and physics of the objects in the enviroment in order to battle enemies (which makes me to "Stop digging, you've already found the treasure!".
And also the main character looks like Lina Inverse, at which point I pre-purchased the game and now simply have to wait for it to be released.
Now what if you like card tricks, and murder, but you wish those desires to be separated ethically. Well, that's a weird specificity you're applying but we got you covered regardless. Death Trick: Double Blind is next and it's a point and clicky adventure game where a stage magician dun got sliced up by a no good stinkin' murder-man and its up to you, either a private detective or else a fellow magician to interrogate suspects and find clues to figure out whycome be they so dead and tell the Murderer "Hey... you're a jerk."
Speaking of adventure games with murderous peril, we also have Gylt, which appears to be more of a Spooky Style one where you're a kid locked in a haunted MURDER HOUSE chock full of ghosts and a moderate-high desire to not be killed in that stressful situation. And because small children aren't as adept at handling firearms as, say trained Raccoon City Police Officers, that usually means trying to figure out some way to sneak around or distract the monsters.
Highwater is an SRPG set in a Post Waterworld world of Water where you've got a bunch of jokers on a boat who would LOVE to find some dry land to live on, but there's just too gosh darn many roving bands of pirates all out there being pesky. There was another SRPG on the Switch that had a similar premise, but it was on roads instead of the sea that I could use for a comparison, but I am utterly blanking on the name of it and it's driving me nuts...
But speaking of games that sound like things I've already played and which make me say "Oh, cool!" we have Rebel Transmute, which looks and sounds a lot like Axiom Verge. Or I guess Metroid, but Axiom Verge is where my mind went, so I'm sticking with my guns on this. It's a Troid, as I said, and it looks like a Troid, and it plays like a Troid, so... you know...
Troid yourself to something nice.
And we've got two weeks since the last Egg Console release, so why not mention that next; Egg Console: Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter, to be specific. And I gotta call shenanigans because its title is all kinds of wrong; this is the game where you find the Ancient Kingdom of Ys, and there's been at least 8 Ys games to follow it, not counting remakes.
Nice try, you rascals, but you can't trick a trickster.
Anyway, Adol is in this game so he's going to make a Goddess fall in love with him and he's also going to blow a Satan to smithereens.
And finally, we've got an update to the NSO Gameboy lineup, just in time for... two days after Mario Day, we have Dr. Mario (superlative colour matching Tetris gameplay, now without any colours) and on the GBC, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf (Which are... as they claim to be on the package. And which are highly regarded for also being pretty solid Sports RPGs from the same peeps as what made Shining Force, weirdly enough)
OKAY LEAVE!
No time for flouncing around like Buster Brown, returned from the grave; this is a big week chock full of video games so we're kicking things off with Galuga. "But Octo, surely you mean Gal*a*ga, Namcos seminal hit about the importance of shooting butterflies, the dreaded demons of death themselves." And I would kick you in the side and say "NOT WHAT I MEANT!", for it is, in truth, Contra: Operation Galuga, the first Contra *that we deem worth speaking of* since... erm... either Contra Rebirth on the Wii or Contra 4 on the DS; I forget which came out later.
Well... not counting the Anniversary Collection, I guess. Or Blazing Chrome, that was basically Contra.
Anyway, it's a new Contra, and based on what I've played of the demo, it's largely a remake of the original but with simply oodles of new stuff and playing the demo made me go "Oooh, I rather like this, eh?".
Attack the fiendish RED FALCON organization from a position that is not described as "passively".
Death of a Wish is the sequel to Lucah: Born of a Dream, and, like that game it's an action RPG with a really cool art style where everything looks like a chalk-drawing and you're a guy what says "Hey, this theocratic autocracy kingdom kind of sucks... I think I should ATTACK AND DETHRONE THE GODS THEMSELVES!" And because it's a video game with a levelling up mechanic, that's pretty easy to accomplish if you've got the gumption for it.
Have some gumption for poor Christian and his desire to stop an oppressive regime of evil priests, why don't you?
The Jeff Minter Story: Llamasoft is a collection of... like... every game that Jeff Minter ever produced. You may remember him as the Tempest guy, and you'd be shortchanging him for that since there's 42 games spread alongside 8 platforms here ranging from the Sinclair ZX81 to the Atari Jaguar.
Which I admit isn't an amazing legacy when written like that, but this is a hella-comprehensive library of one of the great influencers of the medium so shaddup with that kind of talk. It's also got a fancy spruced up remake of Gridrunner!
Explode your way through several Rush albums worth of laser-light shows as you blast away cybertrash nasties who vary between being Weird Geometric Space Enemies and Camels.
Speaking of games where I can earnestly use a term like "Cybertrash", we have Cybertrash Statyx, a 2d shooter that looks very much like one of those games that only seemed to exist at Gas Station game rental stores, like B.O.B. Its described as "a tactical 2D shooter" but the only real evidence of that seems to be that there's some experience points to allocate.
The trailer didn't "wow" me, but you can't earnestly expect to release a video game called "Cybertrash Statyx" and not expect me to give it a respectful nod.
Next is Star Wars: Battlefront Collection, the latest Star Wars re-release from the peeps over at Aspyr. And while I'm still cheesed that the Rogue Squadron trilogy is missing from that lineup, I'm not that upset, since Battlefront is what you'd call a close silver place finalist. The premise is simple enough; taking Battlefield and slapping into into Star Wars instead of World Wars. The second one puts in an actual story mode from the perspective of the heaps and heaps of disposable background guys whose lasting legacy is offering a wilhelm scream before asploding *and* has one of my favorite implementations of Fighting Between Two Big Spaceships.
War a Star today, why don't you?
Dungeon Drafters is next and it's the game I'm most full of jazz-a-ma-tazz this week (Sorry Tomm, no shame in a silver medal) it's a Deck Building RPG, which alone is enough to make me go "Hmm?", BUT it's also a Deckbuilding RPG with a focus on weirding up environmental traits of things (which makes me go "oooh!") and it's a Deckbuilding RPG where your cards are all different ways in which to change the properties and physics of the objects in the enviroment in order to battle enemies (which makes me to "Stop digging, you've already found the treasure!".
And also the main character looks like Lina Inverse, at which point I pre-purchased the game and now simply have to wait for it to be released.
Now what if you like card tricks, and murder, but you wish those desires to be separated ethically. Well, that's a weird specificity you're applying but we got you covered regardless. Death Trick: Double Blind is next and it's a point and clicky adventure game where a stage magician dun got sliced up by a no good stinkin' murder-man and its up to you, either a private detective or else a fellow magician to interrogate suspects and find clues to figure out whycome be they so dead and tell the Murderer "Hey... you're a jerk."
Speaking of adventure games with murderous peril, we also have Gylt, which appears to be more of a Spooky Style one where you're a kid locked in a haunted MURDER HOUSE chock full of ghosts and a moderate-high desire to not be killed in that stressful situation. And because small children aren't as adept at handling firearms as, say trained Raccoon City Police Officers, that usually means trying to figure out some way to sneak around or distract the monsters.
Highwater is an SRPG set in a Post Waterworld world of Water where you've got a bunch of jokers on a boat who would LOVE to find some dry land to live on, but there's just too gosh darn many roving bands of pirates all out there being pesky. There was another SRPG on the Switch that had a similar premise, but it was on roads instead of the sea that I could use for a comparison, but I am utterly blanking on the name of it and it's driving me nuts...
But speaking of games that sound like things I've already played and which make me say "Oh, cool!" we have Rebel Transmute, which looks and sounds a lot like Axiom Verge. Or I guess Metroid, but Axiom Verge is where my mind went, so I'm sticking with my guns on this. It's a Troid, as I said, and it looks like a Troid, and it plays like a Troid, so... you know...
Troid yourself to something nice.
And we've got two weeks since the last Egg Console release, so why not mention that next; Egg Console: Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished: The Final Chapter, to be specific. And I gotta call shenanigans because its title is all kinds of wrong; this is the game where you find the Ancient Kingdom of Ys, and there's been at least 8 Ys games to follow it, not counting remakes.
Nice try, you rascals, but you can't trick a trickster.
Anyway, Adol is in this game so he's going to make a Goddess fall in love with him and he's also going to blow a Satan to smithereens.
OKAY LEAVE!
