I like to think this is the... third best thread made this week
So we're kicking things off with a surprise release from last week that is a big deal in the circles that chomp at the bit for such a thing; Lair Land Story, which is in the Princess Maker vein, but also it's a visual novel in the vein of... most other visual novels. Not being a fan of either of the core components I can't speak to anything about this, but an English localization of a Chinese PSP game from 2009 is pretty novel.
Anyway, there's a girl with amnesia and you decide to make her your daughter/ward. Like Overboard, if Goldie Hawn was Kurt Russels child.
On a similar note, we have Idol Manager, a life sim game where you're given control of an Idol group, and have to take them to the BIG TIME, along with all the trials and tribulations that entails. And since the Idol industry is horrifically corrupt, that means murder and mob-debt and dealing with dangerously obsessive fans and coping with the fact that everyone in your band is moments away from a complete psychological meltdown at all times.
But it does still have cute costumes and pop-songs, so, you know... all things in balance.
Yars Recharged is the latest of the Atari 2600 remakes that make everything look Geometry Wars-y. In this case, taking the one 2600 game that I have absolutely no idea how to parse visually, every time I see it. And that is not changed for this release. I... *think* it's something like Rampart, except a shooter? Maybe Sinistar, if you played as the bad guys and also were a bee?
I don't know.
What I do know is that it's a remake of Yars Revenge!
Islets I feel much more comfortable descirbing because it's a Troid, and you know I love me a Troid. From the trailer, I get some Hollow Knight or Ori vibes, except instead of a bug or a Lilo and Stitch, you're... umm... you're...
Hmm
According to the trailer, a "mouse", but, like... a mouse designed by someone who only had one described to them, by someone who themselves never saw a mouse before and only had it described to them.
In any case, it looks great and everything has googley eyes, and it's got some pretty unconventional ideas for travesal for a troid-em-up, so it's got my vote!
And speaking of troid-em-ups, we also have HAAK! Which plays things a bit less whimsically w/r/t visuals; you've got some kind of jumpy techno-ninja in future times. The first two bullet points in describing it are "dark colour tones" and "the buttons work" so... y'know... there you have it.
SD Gundam: Battle Alliance is next and it's a 3D beat-em-up based on the Gundam sub-series that disposes of the most of the underlying metaphor of the futility and cost of an endlessly escalating forever war, and focuses instead on the Wow Cool Robot parts.
Well, arguably, at least, there's no shortage of Gundam series that do that, but this is the one with just super powered robots.
It's got co-op multi-player, which I suppose is why it's got the word "Alliance" in the title
Hack up some Zakus with a bud, why donncha?
Another anime based game is Miss Kobayashis Dragon Maid: Burst Forth: Dragon Breath, based on the series which I did not watch, but from cultural osmosis, infer to be about a maid with a dragon tail, and her friends, who have slice of life hijinks and also ample bosoms. As one would expect from the premise, this, of course, is a shooter. Oddly, not one based on Dragon Spirit, which seems like an obvious point to draw inspiration from.
Ah, life is full of surprises, is it not?
Kofi Quest is an interesting one; a combination of RTS and RPG where you're a slacker who has to begrudgingly go on an adventure; It kind of looks similar to the entirely-too-forgotten Little King Story, but with jokes instead of with subtle allusions to existential horror. And with an art style I am ambivalent to instead of charmed by.
Also, no relation to the patreon-style monetary reimbursement platform.
Like No Other is a point and clicky adventure-em-up about a treasure hunter whats got a hankerin' to track down a legendary lost book that was accidentally left behind by inattentive museum guards. It's got a japes and jokes, and kind of has some Gravity Falls-y energy to it, if Dipper was in his 60s.
And speaking of people of a certain age who feel the need to prove their worth to otherwise in supernatural environments; we have I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, where the age is "Teen" instead of "Elderly" and the environment is "Space Colony" instead of "Weird Town". And the gameplay is "Cardbased deck-building narrative adventure" instead of "Point and click adventure".
I guess "Griftlands, but without cowboys" might be a better point of comparison.
Anyway, grow up in scenic "space, Outer" and use a deck of cards to finagle your way through awkward social interactions and also fighting off space-fauna.
And let's close this week out with Pac-Man World: RePac, a gussied up remake of the original PS1 platformer, Pac-Man World. Which I did not play back in the day and thus can offer no farther insight on. If I recall correctly, our own MadHair said it was the Bees Knees (technically, those are my words and not his), and better than most Pac-Man based platformers, which tend to skew towards "Well... this kind of misses the point, doesn't it?
Okay, that's all you're getting out of me this week. Stay tuned for next week, when your wallet dies an ignoble death.
So we're kicking things off with a surprise release from last week that is a big deal in the circles that chomp at the bit for such a thing; Lair Land Story, which is in the Princess Maker vein, but also it's a visual novel in the vein of... most other visual novels. Not being a fan of either of the core components I can't speak to anything about this, but an English localization of a Chinese PSP game from 2009 is pretty novel.
Anyway, there's a girl with amnesia and you decide to make her your daughter/ward. Like Overboard, if Goldie Hawn was Kurt Russels child.
On a similar note, we have Idol Manager, a life sim game where you're given control of an Idol group, and have to take them to the BIG TIME, along with all the trials and tribulations that entails. And since the Idol industry is horrifically corrupt, that means murder and mob-debt and dealing with dangerously obsessive fans and coping with the fact that everyone in your band is moments away from a complete psychological meltdown at all times.
But it does still have cute costumes and pop-songs, so, you know... all things in balance.
Yars Recharged is the latest of the Atari 2600 remakes that make everything look Geometry Wars-y. In this case, taking the one 2600 game that I have absolutely no idea how to parse visually, every time I see it. And that is not changed for this release. I... *think* it's something like Rampart, except a shooter? Maybe Sinistar, if you played as the bad guys and also were a bee?
I don't know.
What I do know is that it's a remake of Yars Revenge!
Islets I feel much more comfortable descirbing because it's a Troid, and you know I love me a Troid. From the trailer, I get some Hollow Knight or Ori vibes, except instead of a bug or a Lilo and Stitch, you're... umm... you're...
Hmm
According to the trailer, a "mouse", but, like... a mouse designed by someone who only had one described to them, by someone who themselves never saw a mouse before and only had it described to them.
In any case, it looks great and everything has googley eyes, and it's got some pretty unconventional ideas for travesal for a troid-em-up, so it's got my vote!
And speaking of troid-em-ups, we also have HAAK! Which plays things a bit less whimsically w/r/t visuals; you've got some kind of jumpy techno-ninja in future times. The first two bullet points in describing it are "dark colour tones" and "the buttons work" so... y'know... there you have it.
SD Gundam: Battle Alliance is next and it's a 3D beat-em-up based on the Gundam sub-series that disposes of the most of the underlying metaphor of the futility and cost of an endlessly escalating forever war, and focuses instead on the Wow Cool Robot parts.
Well, arguably, at least, there's no shortage of Gundam series that do that, but this is the one with just super powered robots.
It's got co-op multi-player, which I suppose is why it's got the word "Alliance" in the title
Hack up some Zakus with a bud, why donncha?
Another anime based game is Miss Kobayashis Dragon Maid: Burst Forth: Dragon Breath, based on the series which I did not watch, but from cultural osmosis, infer to be about a maid with a dragon tail, and her friends, who have slice of life hijinks and also ample bosoms. As one would expect from the premise, this, of course, is a shooter. Oddly, not one based on Dragon Spirit, which seems like an obvious point to draw inspiration from.
Ah, life is full of surprises, is it not?
Kofi Quest is an interesting one; a combination of RTS and RPG where you're a slacker who has to begrudgingly go on an adventure; It kind of looks similar to the entirely-too-forgotten Little King Story, but with jokes instead of with subtle allusions to existential horror. And with an art style I am ambivalent to instead of charmed by.
Also, no relation to the patreon-style monetary reimbursement platform.
Like No Other is a point and clicky adventure-em-up about a treasure hunter whats got a hankerin' to track down a legendary lost book that was accidentally left behind by inattentive museum guards. It's got a japes and jokes, and kind of has some Gravity Falls-y energy to it, if Dipper was in his 60s.
And speaking of people of a certain age who feel the need to prove their worth to otherwise in supernatural environments; we have I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, where the age is "Teen" instead of "Elderly" and the environment is "Space Colony" instead of "Weird Town". And the gameplay is "Cardbased deck-building narrative adventure" instead of "Point and click adventure".
I guess "Griftlands, but without cowboys" might be a better point of comparison.
Anyway, grow up in scenic "space, Outer" and use a deck of cards to finagle your way through awkward social interactions and also fighting off space-fauna.
And let's close this week out with Pac-Man World: RePac, a gussied up remake of the original PS1 platformer, Pac-Man World. Which I did not play back in the day and thus can offer no farther insight on. If I recall correctly, our own MadHair said it was the Bees Knees (technically, those are my words and not his), and better than most Pac-Man based platformers, which tend to skew towards "Well... this kind of misses the point, doesn't it?
Okay, that's all you're getting out of me this week. Stay tuned for next week, when your wallet dies an ignoble death.
