Well, look who the cat dragged in!
So I skipped last week by merit of there being only one game worth commenting on (and then a couple of stealth releases after the fact), but this week doesn’t have that issue so I can mention it now! And it is Frogun! Which is to say “A Gun That is a Frog” and not “A Samurai warlord who is a frog”. What we have here is a 3D puzzlatformer what looks all PS1-y AND ALSO looks a lot like Captain Toads Treasure Tracker. But, unlike THAT game, you actually are captaining a toad, since you solve puzzles with a gun that is a frog.
Frogs are toads. I will fight you on this.
Next up is a SURPRISE secret release that made me fall out of my chair when it happened; the Neo Geo Pocket Color release of Mega Man Power Battles & Power Fighters! Which was… pretty high on the list of game re-releases I was least expecting to ever get re-released. WELL JOKES ON ME, because here it is, defying me and Gosh. It’s a scaled back port of the arcade games of the same name, except that the graphics are much more NES-y, which fits nicely with the basic Gameplay loop of being a Boss Rush Mega Man game. Almost all the in-game text is in Japanese, but the manual is translated, so it ain’t hard to work things out. It does mean that some of the exclusive content in the NGPC version is basically useless if you can’t read the language, unfortunately, but the main bulk of the game is still a heck of a lot of fun.
And speaking of genuinely unexpected 8 bit re-releases, we have Thunderbolt Collection, which is more surprising from a litigious standpoint, because these ports were NOT actually ever supposed to be released And apparently were unlicensed ports of other games with the title changed.
Piko is gonna Piko.
Anyway, it’s two shmups, and they both look like Star Soldier. And I believe Hudson thinks so too.
Cleo: A Pirates Tale is next and it’s a pixelly adventure game! But one that kind of looks like Zelda as opposed to looking like Monkey Island. That being said, it DOES still look like Monkey Island, and if you were disappointed at the art direction the new game is using then… well… here’s this.
Being a goofy pirate-themed adventure game, all geared up for some good ol’ timber shiverin’.
And if that’s not enough fo a charming goofy adventure game content for you, how’s bout you check the cellar and see if you can’t find Lost in Play somewhere in the back of the pantry! Because that’s the next game I’m commenting on.
It’s true, I’m doing it RIGHT NOW!
Where was I…?
It’s an adventure game About two kids what be using their imagination to pretend they’re adventurin’. And it kind of has some Over the Garden Walls-y vibes to it.
Just… vastly in a different direction from everything else this week, we have Cult of the Lamb, which is a Zeld-em-up town build game, like Soul Blazer. And it’s a game where you’re the emissary of your God, like Soul Blazer.
And also you’re starting a murderous apocalypse cult in the name of Your God, a vast nightmarish configuration of bone and tentacle with a bloody red eye.
Which is… the bad guy in Soul Blazer, so it still counts.
Anyway… it looks pretty friggin’ slick so this went right into the wishlist.
Arcade Paradise is… kind of brilliant just from a Beeps and Boops perspective; as it’s both a Small Business Sim (in this case; managing an arcade in the late 80s/early 90s), AND ALSO it’s a full collection of old times arcade games since everything you stock is also fully playable. Like that Xbox Arcade thing from a decade ago, except the aesthetic is there for a reason instead of making everything obtuse for obtuseness sake.
And finally, we have Super Bullet Break, which I would have paid money was a port of a mobile gacha game, but apparently not. Well, it’s definitely a gacha game, but it did not originate on mobile. It’s more of a deck-builder, where all the cards are buxom anime girls, which you then fling at monsters (also buxom anime women) like Mario huckin’ turnips.
If the turnips were Women.
OKAY BYE!
So I skipped last week by merit of there being only one game worth commenting on (and then a couple of stealth releases after the fact), but this week doesn’t have that issue so I can mention it now! And it is Frogun! Which is to say “A Gun That is a Frog” and not “A Samurai warlord who is a frog”. What we have here is a 3D puzzlatformer what looks all PS1-y AND ALSO looks a lot like Captain Toads Treasure Tracker. But, unlike THAT game, you actually are captaining a toad, since you solve puzzles with a gun that is a frog.
Frogs are toads. I will fight you on this.
Next up is a SURPRISE secret release that made me fall out of my chair when it happened; the Neo Geo Pocket Color release of Mega Man Power Battles & Power Fighters! Which was… pretty high on the list of game re-releases I was least expecting to ever get re-released. WELL JOKES ON ME, because here it is, defying me and Gosh. It’s a scaled back port of the arcade games of the same name, except that the graphics are much more NES-y, which fits nicely with the basic Gameplay loop of being a Boss Rush Mega Man game. Almost all the in-game text is in Japanese, but the manual is translated, so it ain’t hard to work things out. It does mean that some of the exclusive content in the NGPC version is basically useless if you can’t read the language, unfortunately, but the main bulk of the game is still a heck of a lot of fun.
And speaking of genuinely unexpected 8 bit re-releases, we have Thunderbolt Collection, which is more surprising from a litigious standpoint, because these ports were NOT actually ever supposed to be released And apparently were unlicensed ports of other games with the title changed.
Piko is gonna Piko.
Anyway, it’s two shmups, and they both look like Star Soldier. And I believe Hudson thinks so too.
Cleo: A Pirates Tale is next and it’s a pixelly adventure game! But one that kind of looks like Zelda as opposed to looking like Monkey Island. That being said, it DOES still look like Monkey Island, and if you were disappointed at the art direction the new game is using then… well… here’s this.
Being a goofy pirate-themed adventure game, all geared up for some good ol’ timber shiverin’.
And if that’s not enough fo a charming goofy adventure game content for you, how’s bout you check the cellar and see if you can’t find Lost in Play somewhere in the back of the pantry! Because that’s the next game I’m commenting on.
It’s true, I’m doing it RIGHT NOW!
Where was I…?
It’s an adventure game About two kids what be using their imagination to pretend they’re adventurin’. And it kind of has some Over the Garden Walls-y vibes to it.
Just… vastly in a different direction from everything else this week, we have Cult of the Lamb, which is a Zeld-em-up town build game, like Soul Blazer. And it’s a game where you’re the emissary of your God, like Soul Blazer.
And also you’re starting a murderous apocalypse cult in the name of Your God, a vast nightmarish configuration of bone and tentacle with a bloody red eye.
Which is… the bad guy in Soul Blazer, so it still counts.
Anyway… it looks pretty friggin’ slick so this went right into the wishlist.
Arcade Paradise is… kind of brilliant just from a Beeps and Boops perspective; as it’s both a Small Business Sim (in this case; managing an arcade in the late 80s/early 90s), AND ALSO it’s a full collection of old times arcade games since everything you stock is also fully playable. Like that Xbox Arcade thing from a decade ago, except the aesthetic is there for a reason instead of making everything obtuse for obtuseness sake.
And finally, we have Super Bullet Break, which I would have paid money was a port of a mobile gacha game, but apparently not. Well, it’s definitely a gacha game, but it did not originate on mobile. It’s more of a deck-builder, where all the cards are buxom anime girls, which you then fling at monsters (also buxom anime women) like Mario huckin’ turnips.
If the turnips were Women.
OKAY BYE!
