A very solid month for me in September, with nine games beaten, including some real gems (play
Tinykin, people!). I don't think that I'm going to hit 100 games this year, but let's see how close I can get!
Main post here
62.
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince | 2 September 2022 | 8/10
Completed with 100% item collection and upgrades.
Blossom Tales II is very deliberately following the template of classic 2D
Zelda games, especially so
A Link to the Past. In its gameplay mechanics there's very little here that's original - usable items range from a standard sword and shield, to bombs and a bow, and even bottles for potions; there's an overworld and several more puzzle-focused self-contained 'dungeons'; upgrades come from quarter hearts and energy fragments; and plenty more! All this aside, the game does a really excellent job of capturing that classic
Zelda feel, with meticulous level design and balance, a wide range of (simple) quests and a fun story (albeit lacking the 'epic' feel that
Zelda games typically evoke). That really sums up the experience here, and
Blossom Tales II is just wonderfully *fun* to play despite being nearly entirely unoriginal - and sometimes, that's all that really counts!
63.
Kiwi 64 (Switch) | 3 September 2022 | 6/10
Complete playthrough.
Kiwi 64 is a very short, single level 3D platformer, very clearly inspired by
Banjo-Kazooie. For a solo project, it's quite impressive, and it does a good job of replicating to basics of classic 'collectathon' 3D platforming gameplay, but with only basic jump and attack abilities, there's little depth here. Clearly lacking polish in both controls and presentation, nonetheless there's some enjoyment to be had here and it'll be interesting to see how the follow-up
Super Kiwi 64, with a much greater scope, turns out.
64.
Hell Pie (Xbox One) | 4 September 2022 | 8/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G), all collectibles obtained.
Hell Pie is 3D platformer that generally succeeds despite an entirely repugnant aesthetic. The premise here sees the player taking control of the demon of bad taste, seeking out ingredients for the titular pie from four distinct environments. The core gameplay is excellent, with tight controls, well-built levels with a generally well-judged level of challenge and range of collectibles, and a solid suite of upgradable abilities with which to navigate those levels. Of particular note is the grappling ability, a central part of the moveset which allows you to start swinging pretty much on demand (from a flying cherub chained to the player character) - this brings a wonderful sense of dynamism and freedom to navigating the environments, with extra swings available from the upgrade tree, and at its core is just *fun* to use.
The levels are mechanically well-built and while there are "only" four main areas, each of these are really quite expansive, as well as acting as a hub from which several smaller sub-levels can be accessed. While the hub levels offer more of an exploratory feel, the sub-levels are more focused on linear platforming challenge, making for a nice range of approach. However, I can't close this out without coming back to the game's theme, which takes every opportunity to be 'gross' and disgusting, with blood, guts, faeces and similar seen throughout - and in so doing is a *massive* turn-off. I realise that some people seem to find this amusing, but that's not a view that I understand or can empathise with in the least. It's tribute to the quality of the gameplay that I still enjoyed the game on the whole despite this - but it would be *so* much better with a different theme.
65.
Haven Park (Switch) | 7 September 2022 | 7/10
All quests completed, all campsites fully developed. The immediate point of comparison to
Haven Park is the excellent
A Short Hike, with both games putting the player in control of an anthropomorphic bird, exploring an island from an overhead perspective. However, beyond that there are significant differences, with
Haven Park having a less well-defined overall goal, based primarily around restoring a somewhat dilapidated nature park and developing a number of campsites scattered around the area with a 'lite'
Animal Crossing like approach, attracting (permanent) 'visitors' of whom a handful will set you a basic quest. Movement abilities are simple running and jumping, without any flight ability; a simple set of skill upgrades are split between those with an exploration focus and camp-building.
With no real element of danger (the worst that you might encounter is falling from a height and having to climb back up) and a charming, cheerful approach to the scenario,
Haven Park is an enjoyable, relaxing time to play through. It lacks the degree of polish and satisfying self-containedness of
A Short Hike, but not meeting that high bar isn't an overly strong detractor.
66.
Tinykin (Xbox One) | 11 September 2022 | 9/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G), all collectibles obtained.
Tinykin was an excellent, unexpected surprise, combining a 'collectathon' 3D platformer with
Pikmin-esque puzzle-solving. The premise sees our protagonist Milo returning to Earth from Space, to find himself shrunk to the size of an insect and needing to explore cities within a now-giant house to recover parts to build a machine to get him home. The game revolves around gathering up tiny creatures (the titular 'tinykin') any using their abilities to traverse and manipulate the environment, with five distinct colours of pikmin each having their own ability - climbing, carrying and event exploding.
The puzzles are all pretty simple and there's little in the way of danger as Milo explores each environment, comprising six main rooms, each themed around different rooms of the house - living room, bathroom, etc. Despite this they're wonderfully satisfying to solve. While the graphics are fairly simple, each level's design is meticulously detailed, with a high degree of verticality and being packed with hidden secrets - but often signposted by the game's most common collectible, small pollen motes. This is where the 'collectathon' aspects of
Tinykin come to the fore, with most levels having over 1,000 pollen to collect. That may seem intimidating, but moreso these are spread in a way that rewards exploration - and it's perfectly possible to find everything without a guide, provided that you take your time to explore thoroughly, which also allows you to take in the impressive level design that I mentioned earlier.
Tinykin is a fairly short game, probably a little over 10 hours or so in total if you explore thoroughly - and that's a well-judged length. Besides the five different types of tinykin, there's a limit to the extent of different mechanics employed in each level, so this length ensures that the game doesn't overstay its welcome. That said, I can't deny that I'm left wanting to see more in this style before *too* long - and some DLC a little way down the line would be very welcome!
67.
Dandy & Randy DX (Xbox One) | 19 September 2022 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G).
Dandy & Randy DX is a short but enjoyable puzzle game, with optional co-op, very much styled after the SNES classic
Goof Troop. Each level sees players navigating a small map, comprising a number of linked fixed screen areas, collecting a key usable item to help with traversal and puzzle-solving and four keys to allow progression, before eventually facing off against a boss. Puzzles are all pretty simple, based mainly around block manipulation and pressure plates, with just the very occasional scenario that might take a minute to work out (e.g., due to hidden switches). Following the game's retro inspiration, graphics take a pixelart style, but are attractive and quite detailed nonetheless. Some modern design choices are nice to see nonetheless, such as item collection being remembered even after death and level restart - even if the way that these work in the final level can lead to a softlock.
68.
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC - Steam) | 24 September 2022 | 8/10
Complete playthrough.
The Secret of Monkey Island may be old, but its status as a classic of the genre is absolutely justified, and this fully-voiced remaster brings it presentation nicely up-to-date. The puzzle design is generally clever, though does get a bit too far-fetched in its logic at times; thankfully an integrated hint system helps to offset this to some extent. Where the game (and the whole series, really) really shines, though, is in its fantastic writing, laced throughout with well-judged comedic themes. The enhanced rendition of the signature soundtrack rounds out a great package, an enjoyable way to recap on the series' roots in advance of moving on to the newly-released
Return to Monkey Island.
69.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD (Switch) | 25 September 2022 | 8/10
Completed with all heart containers and key collectibles. In
Skyward Sword HD, we have technically-impressive remaster of a somewhat controversial entry in the
The Legend of Zelda franchise, but one that I still love. Lying right at the start of the timeline of the series, the game adds meaningfully to the lore of the world, set here with an overworld in the sky and three distinct ground-based regions. The scale of each of these environments is impressively large, much more extensive than they originally feel that they might be, with interesting level and puzzle design throughout - and particularly so in the varied range of 'dungeons' that act as the highlight to each area, several of which are arguably among the franchise's best. There's even a "water temple" that's fairly roundly praised!
Originally released on the Wii, that brought with it
Skyward Sword most divisive element - motion controls.
Skyward Sword HD also offers these, in a more refined form given improvements in motion tracking that we've now seen, but also with the option of a control scheme that completely eschews motion controls, which I used pretty much exclusively. There are definitely still some flaws to the approach, but on the whole it works fairly well, still allowing the innovations in combat and some puzzles that came with the introduction of motion. There are also plenty of quality-of-life improvements introduced here to round out the package (the frequent interruptions from companion character Fi become largely optional), very much the definitive way to experience an underappreciated gem.
70.
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (PC - Steam) | 26 September 2022 | 8/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. The original
Secret of Monkey Island still remains a great game, but its sequel,
LeChuck's Revenge, easily manages to match its quality, with a significantly larger, more detailed set of locations to explore, and humourous writing that's frequently also a step up from its predecessor. The integrated hint system is, however, arguably all the more necessary here, as while the puzzle solutions are pretty much always fun to see playing out - when you know what's needed - they frequently become very obscure, and the larger number of environments means that it can be harder to know where to go to progress. On the aesthetics, once again the special edition provides a nice lick of paint over the experience, and the interface also sees some notable usability improvements.
