20! And so, in time honoured tradition we start a new post.
#1-20
21. Balloon Kid (Gameboy) - 27/03/20 - ~4 hours (All Achievements [RA])
This was a really pleasant surprise. Didn't own it as a kid. Never played Balloon Fight on the NES as I didn't have that platform at all.
Balloon Kid is a brisk, auto scroller that sees you balancing hovering flight (facilitated by balloons strapped to your character) and slippy platforming (when your balloons are popped or released). The mix of movement mechanics makes the game feel instantly unique, and your ability to switch on the fly adds a bit of strategy to areas of individual stages.
The game is only 8 stages long, but a real challenge in the back half. It took me maybe five plays to actually get through the game legitimately without using continues. My end strategy was to learn what I could to minimise deaths, but essentially just stockpile lives in stages 1-4 to cushion to blow later on.
Art is great, music is world class. A great Gameboy platformer.
22. Dúshlán (NES) - 02/04/20 - ~2 hours (Normal Mode Beaten)
To help me stay sane during this lockdown, I've started making a YouTube series on
weird Tetris games. This led me to come across some titles I was not aware of, including the 2016 homebrew release, Dúshlán.
It's good! Over ten stages, the 8-bit Tetris formula is subverted with the addition of oddly shapes pieces, upside down wells, spawning garbage blocks, shifting floors, as well as mixtures of all of these obstacles to progress.
RNG can mean that some runs are scuppered pretty early, but overall, the game is fair. It takes around 15-20 minutes to see out a full play, but the game took a couple of hours to perfect, as well as capture adequate footage for the show.
Check it out, maybe?
23. Rez Infinite (PSVR) - 09/04/20 - ~25 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
The best VR game I've played. I wrote more extensively on it
here back at Infinite's launch, but years on its still an exciting, vibrant game, largely unmatched by anything else in the VR sphere.
From my article at the time:
"The jump from widescreen visuals, to a full 360 degree virtual space when played using PSVR makes the play space feel liberatingly free despite still being based around linear, rail led paths. No-one could play using Sony's headset and then argue that the original 'flat' release is better. No contest. No competition. This is the best version of what was already one of the best games. The sense of depth, speed, being and organic belonging in what should feel utterly alien and divorced from reality is unparalleled in gaming, VR or otherwise.
If Rez always had the ability to get under your skin, Infinite is something else entirely. Once you enter the synesthetic world, both mentally, and physically by lowering the headset over your eyes, there can be no more separation. VR and Infinite are a perfect combination, a marriage of ideas separated all these years by technology rather than vision."
24. Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa (Switch) - 17/04/20 - ~15 hours (All Endings)
First visual novel of the year. And a pretty average one to boot.
I was initially drawn in by this one because of the inclusion of a match-3 puzzle mode that is interspersed between the story. It's slightly risqué puzzle premise made me think the game might have been closer to HuniePop (a guilty pleasure) than it was in execution. It's a high school, slice of life type thing, with students of the 'Occult Research Club' investigating mysteries around campus.
The story goes from being very dry and dull, to very weird and silly over the course of a few play throughs. In total I think I beat the game 4 or 5 times to view all the endings, and was tempted to try and round out the last few bits I had yet to unlock (a few CGs and bits of dialogue), but the match-3 game that I was initially drawn to is actually really off-putting later on when the difficulty ramps up, ESPECIALLY if you've forgotten to save manually before hand.
Totally fine. Very little to write home about.
EDIT - 18/0/4/20 -
~20 hours (100%) I woke up this morning with a burning desire to properly finish Kotodama. I don't know why. I thought 'there isn't that much left to do, an hour or so and I'll be wrapped up'. 5 hours and another 4 full play throughs later, it's done, but by god was that frustrating. Visual Novels should have flow charts as standard, or saves should be automatic at the start of each chapter to save players having to redo hours of progress because they may have forgotten to click one button in a sequence. Either way, I've now unlocked all endings, all CG, all voices, all words, and all tips. There is nothing left to do in this game. Back on the shelf it goes.
25. Heavy Fire: Red Shadow (PS4 /PSVR) - 24/04/20 - ~10 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
I don't believe anyone sets out to make a bad game. But there are bad games.
Heavy Fire is not a bad game in the 'this barely works' category, instead its bad by way of how empty and vapid it is.
When it released it attracted practically zero fanfare. It later got a PSVR patch that similarly excited no one. You sit in a turret and shoot enemies that approach in waves. If I had just picked up a VR headset for the first time, I'd say this could be a fun introduction to the presence afforded to you by VR. As a reasonable VR veteran, this offers nothing special at all.
The campaign mode is set across four locales, each in a day and night version. It takes less than two hours all in. Where the majority of my playtime came from, is instead the endless mode: choose a location, last as long as you can. The final trophy needed you to slaughter 30,000 enemies. This meant playing endless mode for another 8 or so hours. It wasn't fun. After about hour five, I got a sort of VR fatigue over its bland, low resolution visuals and switched to the 'flat' version. Wowee. The game looks SIGNIFICANTLY better when not in VR. The VR mode looks like a early-era PS2 game, the flat package looks closer to a launch window PS4 game. After that, I just spent an hour here and there to mop up the remaining trophies.
The cost on PSN for this game is still absurd, but I picked up the retail copy for about a fiver. Do not dive in for anything higher than this, seriously.
26. Push! (EasyRPG) - 28/04/20 - ~5 hours (100%)
I've started exploring old RPGMaker games due to the EasyRPG interpreter making its way to Vita (as homebrew, naturally). There are loads of epic stories told in these 2D games, but I've been more interested in looking at projects from developers who subvert the framework of an RPGMaker game in some way.
Push! is a Picross game. Yup, somehow the developer took the tools available and made a fully fledged Picross game. The only limitation that I can see that makes you realise it isn't actually a ground-up nonogram game is the fact that you can't hold down the mark button and drag across multiple squares of the grid, each box must be dealt with using its own button press.
The later end of the game gets really tough, and some of the side modes didn't seem to function quite as I expected, but otherwise this was a full Picross game, with 60-odd puzzles included. Quite incredible stuff.
27. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - 29/04/20 - ~80 hours (Credits)
Of course I'm not done playing Animal Crossing. Of course I'm not. But, when thinking about a game that I'm likely to play on and off over the entire year, racking up hundreds of cumulative hours, there has to be
some point where it becomes list eligible, right?
KK Slider, ol' eyebrows himself visits your island after certain goals have been met. For me this came after a about a month and a half's work of playing a few hours each day. When he perfoms, the credits roll over the top of his sultry voice. That's good enough for me.
It's a game that improves on New Leaf in every conceivable way. An almost perfect game. I spoke about it at length on a podcast I do with two of my closest friends
here for anyone who is interested. I love it.
28. Gravity Duck (Vita) - 29/04/20 - ~90mins (100%)
Every year I end up playing at least a few games which have been ported to the Vita or Switch by Ratalaika. Every time I find myself going 'it's a decent game, but one that is totally devalued by the way that Rat stuff it with easy trophies, chuck out the Platinum after 30 minutes play, and actively put many off from finishing the entirety of the game.
Gravity Duck is another one of those. I played it much earlier in the year, got the platinum, and then put it down. For some reason I picked it up again today, started right from the beginning without the serotonin inducing trophy messages, and actually beat the whole thing legitimately in one sitting.
It's decent! Simple, but decent. Around 120 or so stages, none of which take longer than 15-20 seconds to beat once you've solved the route. In each one you avoid hazards, enemies, and manipulate gravity by hitting little glowing switches. It's fun, if over a little too quickly. It's honestly a crying shame though that the trophy list didn't even require you to beat more than a quarter of the game. So many people are picking up games like Gravity Duck and immediately discounting the work of the original developer, all because Ratalaika were gunning hard for the trophy chasers rather than legitimate players.
29. League of Evil (Vita) - 02/05/20 - ~4 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
Another Ratalaika port of a short stage platformer. The difference here is that this released a long time before Rat had build their reputation as the 'quick trophy guys', and the game actually needs to be played, and
almost beaten (!!), before you're given your Platinum trophy.
A pretty good game, with tight controls, enjoyable movement and mostly decent level design. There are a few odd difficulty spikes here and there, but overall, I had a good time with this one. Another game that I can now jettison from my Vita's storage as well. Hooray!
30. Football Game (Vita) - 02/05/20 - 60mins (All Trophies [PSN])
A point and click game. The ambient soundtrack, and use of almost Beach House style music from UK duo Jupiter-C is great, but the writing and gameplay are pretty so so. Some puzzles are as simple as clicking on the only other item in the scene, some are back and forwards fetch quests with little guidance. The game's twist (can you call it a twist?) delivers no pay off whatsoever. The story I'd written in my head wasn't where the story went, but in actuality it was somehow even less exciting than the cliché I thought it would deliver.
Would love to get hold of one of the limited release cassette soundtracks though!
31. Wurroom (Vita) - 03/05/20 - 20mins (All Trophies [PSN])
A surreal, point and click art experience. It's.. ok? The problem here is that budget limitations mean the mix of claymation FMV, and interactive objects doesn't quite gel, the mandated trophies on the Vita break immersion somewhat, performance is sluggish, with no real feedback when you click on objects meaning even the simple puzzles can occasionally take slightly longer than they should, and worst, it doesn't go anywhere.
I'm an art teacher. Surrealism is, at its core, about merging recognisable objects together into something new. These new configurations may then get the viewer to ask questions or to apply their altered or broken function back to reality. Wurroom doesn't seem to do this at all. It's more a drug-induced haze with no satisfying payoff outside of 'well that was weird'.
Maybe that's the intention the developers were going for. Maybe not. Who knows. It didn't leave me fulfilled though.
32. Debtor (Switch) - 06/05/20 - 45
mins (100%)
30 pretty simple Sokoban inspired platform stages. Push the blocks into holes to allow you to collect all coins and then get to the exit without getting stuck. It was on sale for less than a quid, and honestly, anything more than this and it wouldn't have been worth it at all. Got stuck on maybe 2 of the 30 stages, meaning they took up maybe 15 minutes of the whole run time. It's an incredibly short little game though. Inoffensive, but nothing worth writing home, or anywhere else for that matter, about.
33. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch) - 07/05/20 - 5 hours (Story Mode Solo + Co-Op - Normal)
I was one of those commentators who wasn't sold on Ben Fiquet's reimagining of the look of Streets of Rage for this fourth entry, but by lord I should have had faith. This game is an absolute triumph. A fitting sequel to the SoR franchise, a proper evolution of its mechanics, and easily the best side scrolling beat 'em up I've played in fucking years. The last that came close was probably Castle Crashers?
This is an even better modern sequel than Mania was to classic Sonic. It feels immediately like a Streets of Rage game, but iterates on all core mechanics to feel slicker, and more polished. The scoring system is great. The combo system is great. The more fluid fighting system is great. The unlockables are great. It's also a proper challenge - normal mode was no cakewalk at all in single player, and still a nice challenge in co-op.
I immediately started a hard playthrough after the credits rolled and have every intention of trying to unlock the remainder of the retro characters I'm missing. For now though, it's on the list. Mainly as a way of getting at least a few more people to stand up and say 'oh, I'll give it a try!'.
So, so sick.
34. Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet (Vita) - 08/05/20 - 3 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
An intentionally brief visual novel. Playthroughs never last more than around 30 minutes. Its storyline is based around cold hearted characters 'opening up' and embracing the help of others. Ten endings, 6 of which I found legitimately before using a guide to mop up the remainder.
Perfectly fine.
35. Milo's Quest (Vita) - 09/05/20 - 3 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
Ratalaika strikes again with a port of a decent game, sold short by their insistence that a platinum should take no longer than 30 minutes to earn. By the end of my playtime, I had hit 102% on the stats page (a nod to Rare or a glitch?), yet had unlocked the platinum trophy a couple hours earlier on beating the second boss. Is anyone really that obsessed with trophies that they can't be bothered to beat a game 2 or so hours in length?
Milo's Quest is a top down action adventure game. In each 'room' you must either defeat all enemies, collect enough bones to unlock a gate, or solve a sliding block puzzle. It's simple stuff, but the map is large enough to feel gently challenging when you're trying to recall a gate you passed by, and the gameplay is varied enough that I never felt bored in the 3 hours I was playing. There is a gentle metroidvania layer added by the inclusion of items that allow you to push blocks / attack / open certain gates. It's not taxing, but its enjoyable.
36. Hex Tunnel Touch (PS4) - 09/05/20 - 45mins (All Trophies [PSN])
Awful game. I played the VR version to completion a few years back and though the head tracking movement things was stupid. The 'flat' version is somehow even worse. R2 and L2 to go up and down respectively, and a slide of the touch pad to move left and right. Idiocy.
Each level has you navigating a elemental themed tunnel, avoiding one hit kills hazards. It's not hard, just frustrating when your brain can't process which awkward command to input to avoid a badly textured block. It's a true 'my first 3D game' project - outstanding its mediocrity.
37. Awesome Pea (Vita) - 10/05/20 - 3 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
I've clearly got a thing for simple, stage-based, one hit kills platformers at the moment. After League of Evil and Gravity Duck, Awesome Pea is another game I had started on my Vita, and then dropped early doors for being a bit too frustrating. In lockdown I thought 'fuck it!" and played through it properly to 100%.
It's ok! Jumping is occasionally sluggish, a cardinal sin for twitch based platformers, and there are some maddening difficulty spikes. Why, for example, did a mid-game stage take about 40 attempts, when each level in the final world can be beaten in one go?
In other strange news, it uses a green presentation obviously meant to put you in mind of the Gameboy, buuuuuut, also includes a TV curve and CRT filter. Why?
38. Battle Rockets (Vita) - 11/05/20 - 45mins (All Trophies [PSN])
Awful.
A one of one fighting type game that is meant to be played using a single handheld, split Micro Machines style. i.e. the left analogue moves the left player, and the left d-pad is assigned to four attacks, with the right player using the right analogue and face buttons.
This would just about work in 2 player, but in single player there is no reason why you are still forced to use this control scheme and look at the play field from the side. Trophies are for beating each stage, most of which have garbage, obfuscated objectives. Why say 'lower the other players health whilst only using attack x and y' when you could waffle on about the spread of their bullets and trying not to alert them using heavy projectiles? Could be a lost in translation thing, but it just makes the game feel shittier than it is. Probably the worst thing I've beaten this year.
39. AdVenture Capitalist (PS4) - 20/05/20 - 10 hours (All Trophies [PSN])
An idle game I played actively for about 6 months for 10 minutes every day back in 2015/16, and then left dormant when I realised that under regular play it would take about 60 years to hit the final trophy requirements.
Fast forward to 2020, the year of the unnecessary video meeting, and I spent a good 5 solid hours maxing my stats, reseting my game, ticking the PlayStation system clock forwards by a few years, and then repeating. There was something surprisingly fun about the grind of it all, and I have to credit the developers for adding about as much character to the game as they could given that it is, in essence, just a self-incrementing calculator.
40. Tiny Dangerous Dungeons (iOS) - 21/05/20 - 60mins (All Collectibles)
I've been searching for games that use a Gameboy aesthetic since I beat Awesome Pea a week or so back. Searching Steam for generic queries like 'gameboy' turned up a few results including TDD. I opted to play it on the iPad for portability, though I imagine the final achievements that I didn't bother attempting (beat the game in under 15 minutes, and beat the game without taking damage) would be quite a challenge on the touchscreen.
A basic metroidvania that can be beaten pretty speedily. Some issues with platform detection and collision detection with enemies, but hey, it's 49p, what can you do.
#41+
NOW PLAYING
Tetris 99 (Switch)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)
LoZ: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
Ni No Kuni Remastered (PS4)
