You have to assume that MC Skat Cat is the Randy Quaid of the furry musician world
Now, normally I don't mention bundle-pack re-releases, but this is a special case, so we're kicking things off with a surprise release last week of Doom + Doom 2, which is, well... that. They were already released on consoles as a pair of really good re-releases that had a bevy of improvements like widescreen support and a launcher for WAD support. But then Nightdive said "Phht, amateurs" and took their own crack at it.
And yeah, turns out when the Best in the Biz of retro FPS re-releases takes a whack at what is still my favorite game in the genre they do a spectacular job of things. Besides the titular Doom 1 and 2, this also includes every single Doom expansion that Romero ever worked on in (including at least one brand new one for this re-release) addition to the Wad downloader, an excellent remixed soundtrack and oodles upon oodles of accessibility options.
I said I'd be ripping and tearing until it is done, and, buddy, there ain't no end in sight.
And since we're on the subject of fancy looking re-releases, we've also got a remaster of the third and final Telltale Sam and Max game; Sam & Max: The Devils Playhouse Remastered, in which Max inadvertantly gains supernatural powers that cause his thoughts to become reality, and Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity thing with a real zest for psychopathic violence so... suboptimal.
Anyway, it's a point and clicky jokes-em-up where you've got to solve that problem. So go do it, you.
Speaking of animals comitting crimes, we have a game where you can do crow things. Unusual crow things? No, Just Crow Things! It's one of them Animal Jackass Games, like your Untitled Goose Games, or Little Kitty Big Citys or... umm... Goat Simulator, I guess. Maybe Urban Yeti? Anyway, this time you're a crow. And you're going to make that everyone elses problem.
Fly around ten distinct biomes and ruin them.
Speaking of going where you're not invited and ruining it, we have Guayota, which is a Zeld-em-up where you're an explore-y guy in the service of the King of Spain who was told to go to the Canary Islands and look at them a bit. And presumably loot them for treasures, since it was a king and this was Columbus times. But JOKES ON YOU, it's all safely stored inside a puzzle infested trap dungeon, so you've got to do some lateral thinking if you're hankerin' to get some of that sweet sweet historical and cultural relic loot.
The trailer showed no video game being played so I don't think there's any monster whacking, despite it being a Zeldo otherwise.
But a game that looks VERY MUCH like a Zeldo and has a veritable bevy of Monster whackin' is Cast Away. And it is, more specifically, like a Links Awakening. It's the "Well, we didn't call the guy Link, so I think we're legally in the clear" kind of a Zeld-em-up. The trailer made it look real spiffy and it's inexpensive and it brags about a pretty extensive postgame to balance out a quick and breezy main game, so I elected to gamble on it.
And speaking of wandering into a magic land and putting two bullets into every cussing thing inside it, we have Arco a wordsy-style Tactics-em-up where yer a cowboy in a land that's just lousy with no good pinkertons, rustlers and Weird Magic Critters. There's no trailer, but the premise made me go "Oh, hmm", and I probably would have picked it up had it not released a week after Steamworld Heist. Ah well.
Speaking of things that remind me of games I really enjoy but didn't put enough time into yet, we have Magical Delicacy, which immediately brings Battle Chef Brigade to mind, but the focus here is more on foraging for food instead of hacking it out of monsters as they're in the midst of trying to murder you. This here is a Troid where your a gal who wants to Do Cooking and Be Witch and figures the best way to accomplish that goal is by moving to a quaint town full of eccentric weirdos and cook them a nice meal, by Troiding around to find recipes and ingredients as opposed to using a missile launcher to blow up red doors for double jump boots.
I know that not every troid can take place in a vampire castle or treacherous space planet, but I'm still going to use that as a benchmark.
And speaking of Space, it's famously a place where no one can hear you scream. But did you know it's a place where people CAN see you race? It's true, just ask Phantom Spark, a game that looked at how there was neither a new F-Zero or WipeOut game in the offing and said "That simply will not do"
It is a racing game with floating cars and a storymode and looks very much like the other hovering racing games with variable levels of story modes.
And finally, we have a board game that made the jump to Video. But it's a video game based on a board game thats based on video games so the transition is weird! It's Overboss! The follow-up to Boss Monster which I *have* played before and deemed "Pretty fun". In this instance it's a bit more Sim City or Carcasonne than... umm...
Honestly I'm not sure what the best point of comparison for Boss Monsters gameplay loop would be.
Regardless, you've got yourself a Boss Monster who wants to wield municipal governing power as opposed to evil magic empire power and have to figure out how to best zone and populate your evil kingdom to best accomplish that goal!
OKAY GO TO BED
Now, normally I don't mention bundle-pack re-releases, but this is a special case, so we're kicking things off with a surprise release last week of Doom + Doom 2, which is, well... that. They were already released on consoles as a pair of really good re-releases that had a bevy of improvements like widescreen support and a launcher for WAD support. But then Nightdive said "Phht, amateurs" and took their own crack at it.
And yeah, turns out when the Best in the Biz of retro FPS re-releases takes a whack at what is still my favorite game in the genre they do a spectacular job of things. Besides the titular Doom 1 and 2, this also includes every single Doom expansion that Romero ever worked on in (including at least one brand new one for this re-release) addition to the Wad downloader, an excellent remixed soundtrack and oodles upon oodles of accessibility options.
I said I'd be ripping and tearing until it is done, and, buddy, there ain't no end in sight.
And since we're on the subject of fancy looking re-releases, we've also got a remaster of the third and final Telltale Sam and Max game; Sam & Max: The Devils Playhouse Remastered, in which Max inadvertantly gains supernatural powers that cause his thoughts to become reality, and Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity thing with a real zest for psychopathic violence so... suboptimal.
Anyway, it's a point and clicky jokes-em-up where you've got to solve that problem. So go do it, you.
Speaking of animals comitting crimes, we have a game where you can do crow things. Unusual crow things? No, Just Crow Things! It's one of them Animal Jackass Games, like your Untitled Goose Games, or Little Kitty Big Citys or... umm... Goat Simulator, I guess. Maybe Urban Yeti? Anyway, this time you're a crow. And you're going to make that everyone elses problem.
Fly around ten distinct biomes and ruin them.
Speaking of going where you're not invited and ruining it, we have Guayota, which is a Zeld-em-up where you're an explore-y guy in the service of the King of Spain who was told to go to the Canary Islands and look at them a bit. And presumably loot them for treasures, since it was a king and this was Columbus times. But JOKES ON YOU, it's all safely stored inside a puzzle infested trap dungeon, so you've got to do some lateral thinking if you're hankerin' to get some of that sweet sweet historical and cultural relic loot.
The trailer showed no video game being played so I don't think there's any monster whacking, despite it being a Zeldo otherwise.
But a game that looks VERY MUCH like a Zeldo and has a veritable bevy of Monster whackin' is Cast Away. And it is, more specifically, like a Links Awakening. It's the "Well, we didn't call the guy Link, so I think we're legally in the clear" kind of a Zeld-em-up. The trailer made it look real spiffy and it's inexpensive and it brags about a pretty extensive postgame to balance out a quick and breezy main game, so I elected to gamble on it.
And speaking of wandering into a magic land and putting two bullets into every cussing thing inside it, we have Arco a wordsy-style Tactics-em-up where yer a cowboy in a land that's just lousy with no good pinkertons, rustlers and Weird Magic Critters. There's no trailer, but the premise made me go "Oh, hmm", and I probably would have picked it up had it not released a week after Steamworld Heist. Ah well.
Speaking of things that remind me of games I really enjoy but didn't put enough time into yet, we have Magical Delicacy, which immediately brings Battle Chef Brigade to mind, but the focus here is more on foraging for food instead of hacking it out of monsters as they're in the midst of trying to murder you. This here is a Troid where your a gal who wants to Do Cooking and Be Witch and figures the best way to accomplish that goal is by moving to a quaint town full of eccentric weirdos and cook them a nice meal, by Troiding around to find recipes and ingredients as opposed to using a missile launcher to blow up red doors for double jump boots.
I know that not every troid can take place in a vampire castle or treacherous space planet, but I'm still going to use that as a benchmark.
And speaking of Space, it's famously a place where no one can hear you scream. But did you know it's a place where people CAN see you race? It's true, just ask Phantom Spark, a game that looked at how there was neither a new F-Zero or WipeOut game in the offing and said "That simply will not do"
It is a racing game with floating cars and a storymode and looks very much like the other hovering racing games with variable levels of story modes.
And finally, we have a board game that made the jump to Video. But it's a video game based on a board game thats based on video games so the transition is weird! It's Overboss! The follow-up to Boss Monster which I *have* played before and deemed "Pretty fun". In this instance it's a bit more Sim City or Carcasonne than... umm...
Honestly I'm not sure what the best point of comparison for Boss Monsters gameplay loop would be.
Regardless, you've got yourself a Boss Monster who wants to wield municipal governing power as opposed to evil magic empire power and have to figure out how to best zone and populate your evil kingdom to best accomplish that goal!
OKAY GO TO BED
