The end of January means that it's time for my first update of the year and I'm up to 10 games, a very decent start! Very nearly 11, but I didn't have enough time last night to make as much progress with The Gunk as I'd hoped. That'll be number 11, my first for February...
Master post here.
1.
Kirby Star Allies (Switch) | 1 January 2022 | 6/10
100% complete on all modes, except for "Soul Melter" difficulty boss rush. A thoroughly pleasant and charming experience,
Kirby Star ALlies is a decent instalment in the franchise, though with a heavily multiplayer-focused main mechanic - the "star allies" of the title refers to Kirby's ability to befriend many of the game's enemies, then able to take advantage of their varied abilities. There's some great creativity with some of the abilities on offer, in particular with the potential for many of these to combine in interesting ways - from more predictable elemental imbuement of weapons through to a rock becoming a curling stone, and much more.
Beside these abilities, the game's story mode doesn't do anything particularly new and is fairly short at around five hours, but some increased longevity comes from supplementary modes that each vary the experience somewhat. Even for a
Kirby game, the overall difficulty is very much on the easy side - other than the highest levels of the boss rush mode, which take the difficulty to the other extreme!
2.
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust (PC - Steam) | 2 January 2022 | 6/10
Good ending, 100% of achievements unlocked. Deeply weird in its thematic premise,
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust is clearly a personal labour of love for the developers, following up on the original
Anodyne with significant divergence in gameplay. Where the first game was a fairly simple 2D
Zelda-style experience, this sequel takes place with an explorable 3D overworld, though individual 2D 'dungeons' are much more in keeping with the prequel.
Anodyne 2 sees the player taking control of a 'nano cleaner', a being birthed with the purpose of cleaning 'dust' from the minds of various NPCs via an ability to shrink down to microscopic size - and the overall setting's surreal themes are very much in keeping with this unusual premise.
There's not really much here in the way of mechanical challenge and it takes until the final 'dungeon' before the puzzle elements move beyond fairly simple concepts, and the game would benefit from some greater variety of abilities, but what's here is decently enjoyable to play and exploration is rewarded with various collectibles - including several which offer 'behind the scenes' areas and commentary which speak to the investment that Analgesic Productions evidently has in their creation.
3.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC - Steam) | 3 January 2022 | 7/10
100% in-game completion, 100% of achievements unlocked.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a cute, fairly short 2D
Zelda style action adventure, focused around completing various straightforward 'quests' for the anthropomorphised vegetables that inhabit a town, exploring 'dungeon'-like levels in so doing. There's some very light combat and puzzle-solving here, but nothing that's ever particularly taxing, beyond perhaps one or two of the dungeon-ending boss encounters. The light-hearted and humourous vibe that pervades the game makes it a fun experience while it lasts - and while that's not overly long and I'd struggle to justify buying the game at full price, but bought at a discount, I'd recommend that game as a good way to spend a few hours.
4.
Lake (Xbox One) | 10 January 2022 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). A nicely relaxing experience,
Lake won't be for everyone but certainly has its charms. The game follows lead character Meredith, taking a break from a big city career to spend two weeks as a mail delivery worker in her childhood village. There's a certain satisfaction from driving around checking off locations from a delivery list each day, and perhaps the highlight comes from parcel deliveries each day. These offer the opportunity for dialogue with each recipient, building or rekindling relationships from many years ago. There are some interesting stories that play out through these interactions, several of which develop further through further meetings arranged between each day, finishing up with a party of sorts that draws things to a satisfying conclusion. If you're looking for excitement, you'll find little of that here, but
Lake is a decent way to wind down between more action-packed experiences.
5.
Axiom Verge 2 (Switch) | 14 January 2022 | 8/10
Completed with 100% map exploration and item collection. A very solid 2D
Metroid-like,
Axiom Verge 2 builds impressively on the success of the first game with some really interesting new mechanics, used to good effect. As examples, perhaps the most widely trailed of these have been the secondary game world - "The Breach" - accessible via portals throughout the world and navigable by a player-controlled drone, and subverting enemies via hacking, providing various forms of assistance - in traversal, combat or otherwise. Both of these work very successfully throughout, providing an impressive level of depth - as do most of the other abilities, which I won't spoil here! The plot is also a strong point, developing in intiguing and unexpected ways, supported by a fairly large amount of background lore, through collectible notes and elsewhere in the environment.
I'd have preferred to see somewhat more variety in environments, which mostly centre around an Arctic setting in the main overworld and the alien-feeling Breach - but these are by no means a deal-breaker and are well-realised in detailed pixelart - and once again stunning is the soundtrack throughout. To think that the whole game was pretty much created by Tom Happ as a sole developer is frankly incredible - and once again I look forward to seeing where he goes in future.
6.
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1 - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (PC - Steam) | 14 January 2022 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. After having a good time with their take on another LucasArts property in the
Sam & Max series, it seemed a good opportunity to get properly stuck into Telltale Games' refresh of
The Secret of Monkey Island - a franchise for which I have a long-held affection. This introductory episode does good job of capturing LucasArts' trademark sense of humour and sets up the rest of the the series well with an interesting premise and well-written characters, if not quite to Tim Schafer's level of excellence.
These earlier games from Telltale's catalogue take the more traditional puzzle-focused approach to the point-and-click genre and the solutions here are always fun to see playing out. However, finding those solutions in some cases takes a less positive feature from some classics of the genre, where the logic involved is less than obvious, to say the least... perhaps playing with a guide will be best if you want to avoid too much frustration!
7.
The Pedestrian (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 19 January 2022 | 7/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G), all secrets (hats) located. A lovely, creative puzzle game,
The Pedestrian's unique gimmick is that it (almost) entirely takes place through navigating a stylised person through levels built out of informational signs. With new mechanics introduced at a well-judged pace, the game does a good job of maintaining interest and challenge, while rarely becoming frustrating; perhaps the most interesting comes from a central mechanic of rearranging a set of signs and assigning links between doors to open/close various paths, combining nicely with other elements such as locks/keys, crates, and more unusually, electrical circuits, among others. There's little in the way of explicit instruction on how each puzzle element works, but each tends to be introduced gently, with simple puzzles easily solved through experimentation to tease out functionality. It's all over within a handful of hours, but there's little in the way of filler throughout that short length - making for an overall good time.
8.
Island Farmer - Jigsaw Puzzle (PC - Steam) | 23 January 2022 | 6/10
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked. The clue to the gameplay style here is in the "jigsaw puzzle" subtitle, though
Island Farmer isn't quite what you'd expect from a typical jigsaw. The game takes the player through a series of (currently) 26 islands built from square tiles, first showing the intended arrangement of those tiles, then mixing them up - the challenge being to swap the tiles to recreate the original arrangement. With the ability to view that arrangement at any time with a toggle, any difficulty to the game will come from players challenging themselves through limiting the use of that toggle and it's ultimately fairly mindless. However, with simple, attractive graphics and relaxing music,
Island Farmer can be a pleasant distraction to while away a few minutes. Notably, it's nice to see the developer having supported the game post-release, with an original set of 20 islands now expanded to 26.
9.
Blue Fire (PS4) | 29 January 2022 | 8/10
Completed on "recommended" difficulty, with all collectibles aside from the hardest voids. The debut release from indie studio Robi Games,
Blue Fire overall impresses in many ways. Clearly borrowing its dark aesthetic from the superb
Hollow Knight, here the core gameplay combines 3D platforming - albeit often at a much significantly difficulty than many games in the genre (once again, the
Hollow Knight comparison is apt) with
The Legend of Zelda-style exploration and puzzle-solving. The game world fits convincingly together, housing several
Zelda-style 'dungeon' self-contained environments and a range of more exploration-based side-quests to add some variety.
While the platforming starts off fairly basic, throughout the game the protagonist acquires new abilities - some core and some coming from equipable 'spirits' (once again, think
Hollow Knight here!) - to make moving through the qorld highly satisfying, particularly so after success at some of the more challenging platforming scenarios, which really are the core of the gameplay. While there is some puzzle-solving and combat throughout, these elements are fairly shallow - the puzzles don't really extend beyond flipping switches (which may then lead to some timed platforming) - and the combat moves are only limited.
Also throughout the game are 'voids', self-contained pure platforming sections similar to those of
Super Mario Sunshine. These are entirely optional, but highly beneficial, awarding additional health but more importantly, extra spirit slots that allow for improved platforming abilities (wall running, a triple jump, greater range, etc.) - and start off fairly simple but become very challenging later in the game (I didn't manage to beat the last handful), catering for a range of skill. Checkpoints in the 'easy' difficulty setting bring some greater accessibility here, though that difficulty choice is locked from the start of the game.
Overall,
Blue Fire is a really well-realised combination of genres that, while not quite achieving its full potential in all areas, was a *fun* experience that I'd congratulate the developers for. Additional free DLC and a currently in-development free level editor (via Steam) are additional feathers in its cap!
10.
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2 - The Siege of Spinner Cay (PC - Steam) | 29 January 2022 | 7/10
Complete playthrough. This second episode of
Tales of Monkey Island picks up nicely from the first, with a well-realised city of mer-people being the setting this time as Guybrush finds himself re-united with Elaine... and LeChuck! I have to say that I wasn't particularly keen on the characterisation of the mer-people, but aside from that the writing and humour are again on-point, and the non-linearity of the puzzle-solving makes for a satisfying non-linearity, reducing the potential for frustration when a particular puzzle solution proves elusive.
