Bad news for everyone who hates video games; because there's a whole bunch out this week.
Well, this week is already stuffed-to-the-gills, but I'd be remiss if I didn't shine a light on something that came out last week and I disregarded on the grounds of thinking it didn't look to be worth talking about, only to be informed that it is, in fact, super rad, and that is Shogun Showdown, not to be confused with Samurai Shodown; for one thing, the word "Showdown" is spelled correctly, and for another it's a Deck Building Roguelite (half the people reading this thread just rolled their eyes, and the other halves eyes lit up) and there's a heavy focus on positioning rather than just smacking bad guys with thematic cards representing special attacks. I've heard it compared to Into the Breach, and... that doesn't really come across in the screenshots, but heck, there's a demo so I can see for myself!
And speaking of roguelite deckbuildings games that pose as fighting games and are published by Goblinz studios (If I had a nickel...) we have Beneath Oressa, which, too, is one of them, but instead of pixel art Feudal Japan, it's set Comic Book Art General Fantasy Lands and instead of 2d, it's all fancy-pants and dynamic.
Now, what if you hate cards, but love exploring futuristic robot-gauntlets? Well, that's a weird binary you've set up for yourself, but maybe I could instead interest you in Yars Rising which... feels disingenuous to call a reboot of the Atari 2600 reverse-Sinistar that is Yars Revenge, but the title sure wants you to infer it. (There's Yars: Recharged if you want that, however, and that one is... pretty great). This, instead is a Troid-em-up where you're a HackerGrl who has decided that computers are for LOSERS and elects to spin-jump and laser-fight her way through an evil corporation whose security system goes a little beyond "guys with walkie talkies" and more to "giant deathbots" and "the laser hallway from Resident Evil" and, yes, occasionally stopping to play some recreations of Atari 2600 games, because what's a cyberpunk megacorp without a touch of whimsy.
Anyway, it's from Wayforward and they've got a *pretty good* track record for Troids in my eyes, so I'm completely on board with this.
And speaking of cyberpunk platformers with an acknowledged pedigree; we have Eden Genesis. Where, admittedly, that pedigree is "the main character has Samus' VA", but, like... that's enough for me. Anyway, it's the future, people got ro-bits in them, but it turns out that means they're also going to die of technoculosis unless you can run and jump your way through a smorgasbord of levels. And, it's the kind of cyberpunk story where the whole plot is hinged on "Hey... if you have a robot arm doesn't that mean you're less human. Wild, eh?"
Well, get hopping, cybergerms ain't gonna fix themselves!
Anyway, speaking of fast paced action platformers where you've got robot people causing a ruckus and also are one yourself, we have Elsie, which... looks a hell of a lot like 20XX and its sequel. And that means it's already near the top of the list of things I'm interested in this week, and this week is absolutely stacked, so... that's no mean feat. In any case, it's a roguelite platformer that looks and plays a hell of a lot like Mega Man and, like any half-decent Mega Man, you have to blast your way through a gauntlet of thematic levels in order to defeat the Evil Robot Masters who are causing a big mess.
At one point one of the Bad Bots yells "ACTIVATE THE PLANETARY KILL SWITCH!" which is one of those statements that just just immediately triggers my brains mental joy-zones
Speaking of things thematically similar to Capcom games... we have a bunch of Capcom games! More specifically, like... every single Marvel arcade game they published through the whole of the 1990s; the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection! Where we've got X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Superheroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and, for completion sake, the Punisher arcade game.
MvC2 *alone* justifies the price of admission, so everything else is just gravy, but my experience with most of these were the PS1 ports so I'd like to play them in a proper format finally, plus we got things like rollback netcode and the like.
Speaking of re-releases, there's... a fair bit smaller of a demanding audience of one for Lollipop Chainsaw: RePop, but it is in the nature of mankind to strive for what can be attained, and so... a Lollipop Chainsaw re-release we have. For those who have forgotten, or never played the original, it was an attempt to mush together Bayonetta with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also without really... understanding what made either of those appealing. So ultimately it wound up being a lesser Oneechanbara.
Anyway, you're a cheerleader, you have a chainsaw, and you have an army of zombies what need to be introduced to these facts.
Moving right along, we have another marrying of two genres that you wouldn't really think would fit together too well; Wild Bastards, a semi-sequel to Void Bastards. But while that was an FPS with a survival mechanic, this here a hero-shooter roguelite; where you've got a posse of outer-space wild and rowdy cowpokes and, not to cast a harsh judgment on them but, well, bastards, who are a mite bit interested in taking out their former boss, who is a mite bit of a bigger piece of work than they themselves are.
And the best way to go about facilitating this change of management is, of course, burying everyone between you and him under a whole hill of lead. And, it being a hero-shooter every single character has bespoke abilities and co-operative synergy and also they all talk in cowboy drawl and are, like, robots and weird bug creatures and stuff.
In a week with Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it's the thing I'm most excited for
Speaking of assembling an eclectic team of weirdos to go on a perilous expedition in the most dangerous of climates, we have Metro Quester Osaka, a sequel to Metro Quester which was one of the better and more immediately interesting entries in Kemcos endless parade of discount RPGs. Mainly because instead of cribbing readily from the glut of forgettable SNES RPGs, it goes back a bit farther to 80s computer RPGs, albeit with a much more involved and complicated combat system.
Explore scenic "The watery ruins underneath a post monster-apocalypse Osaka" and try to scavenge for enough supplies to keep your ever increasing team of Weirdos well fed and alive.
Speaking of riding out a monster apocalypse, but it's *steamy* this time and also you're on the monster side of things, we have Doomsday Paradise, which appears to be similar to Monster Prom and its sequels. And there's enough of an audience for those games that I'm actually kind of surprised that "multiplayer competitive dating sims for monsters" isn't more of a cottage industry in and of itself.
Anyway, busy yourself trying to find a way to get to mutually approved and reciprocated smoochereenos with all the inhuman monsters a sexy beach can hold before the end of the world begins. One of the screenshots shows a polycule playing Slay the Spire so I do not know how to reconcile these events.
Speaking of keeping things steamy amidst a broader group dynamic, we have Jackbox Naughty Pack, which really just seems to be Jackbox throwing up their arms and saying "Look... we know you just try to cram jokes about butts into all our games anyway" so they made one where you're encouraged to be rowdy.
If every time I've played a Jackbox game is any indication, nobody really needed help to go down that road, but nice to see it's been acknowledged.
And swinging as far as is humanly possible from sexually charged comedy minigame collections, we have Selfloss, which is a Zeld-em-up that is also a Sads-em-up. You're an old man with a magic staff that heals the sick and a hankerin' to use that to stop a malevolent force thats making people be dyin' and either heal their bodies or at least make them stop being so unhappy because this is a game where the words "emotional journey" get used a lot.
"An emotional adventure" is kind of the opposite of "Engage the Planetary Kill Switch" in terms of how I react to phrases.
But you know what I DO emotionally resonate with? Grappling hooks and dogs. And the wise geniuses at Super Rare games have said "Why... not both?" and so we have Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines, finally answering the question of "Why doesn't Bionic Commando star a dog?" and so here we are! Forget Rad Spencer, we have Lab Spencer!
I... umm... don't have a lot else to say here; it's a platformer with grappling hooks and it stars dogs. That sells itself.
And finally we have our weekly Old Japanese PC Game (not counting Metro Quester, which merely looks the part); Egg Console: Dragon Slayer VI: Legend of Heroes, which is the first Legend of Heroes game! And which I also think is one of those instances where the fact that the game is not translated into English is a severe liability to how easily you can play it since every screenshot of it mostly has kanji or else has no text whatsoever in a place where there really should be some.
Okay I... am going to take a nap.
Well, this week is already stuffed-to-the-gills, but I'd be remiss if I didn't shine a light on something that came out last week and I disregarded on the grounds of thinking it didn't look to be worth talking about, only to be informed that it is, in fact, super rad, and that is Shogun Showdown, not to be confused with Samurai Shodown; for one thing, the word "Showdown" is spelled correctly, and for another it's a Deck Building Roguelite (half the people reading this thread just rolled their eyes, and the other halves eyes lit up) and there's a heavy focus on positioning rather than just smacking bad guys with thematic cards representing special attacks. I've heard it compared to Into the Breach, and... that doesn't really come across in the screenshots, but heck, there's a demo so I can see for myself!
And speaking of roguelite deckbuildings games that pose as fighting games and are published by Goblinz studios (If I had a nickel...) we have Beneath Oressa, which, too, is one of them, but instead of pixel art Feudal Japan, it's set Comic Book Art General Fantasy Lands and instead of 2d, it's all fancy-pants and dynamic.
Now, what if you hate cards, but love exploring futuristic robot-gauntlets? Well, that's a weird binary you've set up for yourself, but maybe I could instead interest you in Yars Rising which... feels disingenuous to call a reboot of the Atari 2600 reverse-Sinistar that is Yars Revenge, but the title sure wants you to infer it. (There's Yars: Recharged if you want that, however, and that one is... pretty great). This, instead is a Troid-em-up where you're a HackerGrl who has decided that computers are for LOSERS and elects to spin-jump and laser-fight her way through an evil corporation whose security system goes a little beyond "guys with walkie talkies" and more to "giant deathbots" and "the laser hallway from Resident Evil" and, yes, occasionally stopping to play some recreations of Atari 2600 games, because what's a cyberpunk megacorp without a touch of whimsy.
Anyway, it's from Wayforward and they've got a *pretty good* track record for Troids in my eyes, so I'm completely on board with this.
And speaking of cyberpunk platformers with an acknowledged pedigree; we have Eden Genesis. Where, admittedly, that pedigree is "the main character has Samus' VA", but, like... that's enough for me. Anyway, it's the future, people got ro-bits in them, but it turns out that means they're also going to die of technoculosis unless you can run and jump your way through a smorgasbord of levels. And, it's the kind of cyberpunk story where the whole plot is hinged on "Hey... if you have a robot arm doesn't that mean you're less human. Wild, eh?"
Well, get hopping, cybergerms ain't gonna fix themselves!
Anyway, speaking of fast paced action platformers where you've got robot people causing a ruckus and also are one yourself, we have Elsie, which... looks a hell of a lot like 20XX and its sequel. And that means it's already near the top of the list of things I'm interested in this week, and this week is absolutely stacked, so... that's no mean feat. In any case, it's a roguelite platformer that looks and plays a hell of a lot like Mega Man and, like any half-decent Mega Man, you have to blast your way through a gauntlet of thematic levels in order to defeat the Evil Robot Masters who are causing a big mess.
At one point one of the Bad Bots yells "ACTIVATE THE PLANETARY KILL SWITCH!" which is one of those statements that just just immediately triggers my brains mental joy-zones
Speaking of things thematically similar to Capcom games... we have a bunch of Capcom games! More specifically, like... every single Marvel arcade game they published through the whole of the 1990s; the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection! Where we've got X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Superheroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and, for completion sake, the Punisher arcade game.
MvC2 *alone* justifies the price of admission, so everything else is just gravy, but my experience with most of these were the PS1 ports so I'd like to play them in a proper format finally, plus we got things like rollback netcode and the like.
Speaking of re-releases, there's... a fair bit smaller of a demanding audience of one for Lollipop Chainsaw: RePop, but it is in the nature of mankind to strive for what can be attained, and so... a Lollipop Chainsaw re-release we have. For those who have forgotten, or never played the original, it was an attempt to mush together Bayonetta with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also without really... understanding what made either of those appealing. So ultimately it wound up being a lesser Oneechanbara.
Anyway, you're a cheerleader, you have a chainsaw, and you have an army of zombies what need to be introduced to these facts.
Moving right along, we have another marrying of two genres that you wouldn't really think would fit together too well; Wild Bastards, a semi-sequel to Void Bastards. But while that was an FPS with a survival mechanic, this here a hero-shooter roguelite; where you've got a posse of outer-space wild and rowdy cowpokes and, not to cast a harsh judgment on them but, well, bastards, who are a mite bit interested in taking out their former boss, who is a mite bit of a bigger piece of work than they themselves are.
And the best way to go about facilitating this change of management is, of course, burying everyone between you and him under a whole hill of lead. And, it being a hero-shooter every single character has bespoke abilities and co-operative synergy and also they all talk in cowboy drawl and are, like, robots and weird bug creatures and stuff.
In a week with Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it's the thing I'm most excited for
Speaking of assembling an eclectic team of weirdos to go on a perilous expedition in the most dangerous of climates, we have Metro Quester Osaka, a sequel to Metro Quester which was one of the better and more immediately interesting entries in Kemcos endless parade of discount RPGs. Mainly because instead of cribbing readily from the glut of forgettable SNES RPGs, it goes back a bit farther to 80s computer RPGs, albeit with a much more involved and complicated combat system.
Explore scenic "The watery ruins underneath a post monster-apocalypse Osaka" and try to scavenge for enough supplies to keep your ever increasing team of Weirdos well fed and alive.
Speaking of riding out a monster apocalypse, but it's *steamy* this time and also you're on the monster side of things, we have Doomsday Paradise, which appears to be similar to Monster Prom and its sequels. And there's enough of an audience for those games that I'm actually kind of surprised that "multiplayer competitive dating sims for monsters" isn't more of a cottage industry in and of itself.
Anyway, busy yourself trying to find a way to get to mutually approved and reciprocated smoochereenos with all the inhuman monsters a sexy beach can hold before the end of the world begins. One of the screenshots shows a polycule playing Slay the Spire so I do not know how to reconcile these events.
Speaking of keeping things steamy amidst a broader group dynamic, we have Jackbox Naughty Pack, which really just seems to be Jackbox throwing up their arms and saying "Look... we know you just try to cram jokes about butts into all our games anyway" so they made one where you're encouraged to be rowdy.
If every time I've played a Jackbox game is any indication, nobody really needed help to go down that road, but nice to see it's been acknowledged.
And swinging as far as is humanly possible from sexually charged comedy minigame collections, we have Selfloss, which is a Zeld-em-up that is also a Sads-em-up. You're an old man with a magic staff that heals the sick and a hankerin' to use that to stop a malevolent force thats making people be dyin' and either heal their bodies or at least make them stop being so unhappy because this is a game where the words "emotional journey" get used a lot.
"An emotional adventure" is kind of the opposite of "Engage the Planetary Kill Switch" in terms of how I react to phrases.
But you know what I DO emotionally resonate with? Grappling hooks and dogs. And the wise geniuses at Super Rare games have said "Why... not both?" and so we have Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines, finally answering the question of "Why doesn't Bionic Commando star a dog?" and so here we are! Forget Rad Spencer, we have Lab Spencer!
I... umm... don't have a lot else to say here; it's a platformer with grappling hooks and it stars dogs. That sells itself.
And finally we have our weekly Old Japanese PC Game (not counting Metro Quester, which merely looks the part); Egg Console: Dragon Slayer VI: Legend of Heroes, which is the first Legend of Heroes game! And which I also think is one of those instances where the fact that the game is not translated into English is a severe liability to how easily you can play it since every screenshot of it mostly has kanji or else has no text whatsoever in a place where there really should be some.
Okay I... am going to take a nap.
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