I just beat __

[winstein]

Tembo the Badass Elephant (PC)

Also available on: PS4, XBO

This game was teased back when SEGA and Game Freak were going to collaborate on a new game, with SEGA as the publisher and Game Freak as the developer. This isn't the first game that these two cooperated on, as Pulseman was a previous game between those two. The most notable part of this game is that unlike most games after Pokemon, Tembo was never made for a Nintendo system. Given that this game was made in Unity, it was an odd decision, but I imagine the performance might be a bit difficult to balance since my PC had to use the lowest settings for the best performance, and it's a pretty recent PC (2017).

This game is directed by James Turner, and the art style of this game shows. In case you aren't aware, James Turner previously directed Harmoknight, which has a very similar artstyle to this game. Pokemon Trozei (the DS game) is another game that has his art style over it. He also designed a number of Pokemon that includes the Vanilluxe line, Guzzlord and the Golurk line, though if you ask me, the Vanilluxe line is most distinctively his style despite being redrawn by Sugimori if going by the artwork he did. So basically, game's artstyle is distinctly James Turner that it's undeniable he had his hands on this game.

The basic premise of this game is that a large-scale invasion by PHANTOM, an evil organisation, had caused them to take over a peanut-shaped island. To combat the forces of PHANTOM, the military summoned Tembo the elephant from his jungle to help demolish PHANTOM and rescue civilians, all told in stylish comic panels. In fact, the cutscenes uses sequential animated comic panels where the appearing panel will move. This game is a bit comedic because of the absurd premise. After all, this is about an elephant soldier, and the peanut symbol is found throughout the comrades, which indicates that peanut is the way of life for this island. Did I mention that Tembo flies to the island with the help of birds carrying him on strings? The game didn't quite comment about the absurdity of the whole thing, as the cutscenes and the scenarios are somewhat serious (did you know that Steam requires an age check to view the page?). I also like some of the transition screens, such as this one after you defeated the third boss with all civilians rescued (I felt that the first two are better but I didn't have the forethought of saving a screenshot):

Tembo is normally slow, but you can charge forward to make him a battering ram and to move fast. Moreover, Tembo's offensive moves (besides charging) include using his trunk to volley, ground pound, and do a dive in the air. Finally, Tembo also has the ability to spray water to douse heat or stun certain enemies. With these actions, Tembo has everything he needs to defeat PHANTOM. Speaking of controls, Tembo feels oddly unintuitive in certain areas. For one, Tembo moves quite slowly so while it's probably precise, it's still moving slower than I would have liked. Turning is also rather slow, as though Tembo has a lot of inertia doing this, which most affects anything that is aerial, in my experience. Tembo's charging is also very prone to error, because if the charge key is pressed in the air accidentally, Tembo will dive uncontrollably with no way of cancelling it, which could possibly put him in a bad spot, or worse: falling to his doom. The worst part is: the Switch Pro Controller is not compatible with this game! That's why I played this game with the keyboard throughout.

The game has 3 zones to conquer, with each having 3 regular levels, a PHANTOM base level and a boss, which makes it 5 levels per area. The regular levels and the base level each have 10 civilians to rescue, and once rescued, they will ride on Tembo without worrying about any danger like dropping off. Rescuing every civilian in a level grants a medal for the effort. There is a second medal that can be obtained for defeating every PHANTOM enemy. The bosses are more or less similar to the Donkey Kong style where there are several phases (except the first one) and they have to be defeated without dying. After the 15 levels are conquered, 3 more levels are unlocked, which includes a regular level, an enemy gauntlet level and a final boss. The final levels are pretty tough that cost me a lot of lives, so I can say that this is not as easy as it should look.

In terms of difficulty, I think this game is kind of difficult but at the same time also rather merciful. The difficult part is due to how Tembo is somewhat rigid and a big target so a wrong move makes him prone to enemies. At the same time, it's merciful because there are few sections where the player is forced to be fast. The level design is a little bit linear in that backtracking is not an option, though there are branching paths that either have civilians or something good. Despite this, I did miss out on a perfect run in some levels on the first time, so it is trickier than I let on. While the levels are a bit mellow in terms of how it plays out, there is a lot of spectacle here and there, especially when cannons are involved since a few of them allow for travelling between layers of 2D sections (kind of like Donkey Kong Country Returns).

With only like 18 levels, this game is not that long, and it's also decently challenging, but I do not know if this game is wholly recommended since it's not like Mario where the character felt good to control due to how much control Mario has, since Tembo is not that flexible. Still though, it's not a bad game that I wonder why it's not on a Nintendo system, since these type of games are more easily at home with the various colourful characters among Nintendo games.

Thank you for reading.

 

[winstein]

The Bridge (PC)

Also available on: XB360 (LA), Android, XBO, PS3, PS4, PSV, Ouya, Wii U, Switch

The game's most recognisable trait is that the level designs defy any rule on spacing, so it's basically similar in look to M.C. Escher's famous paintings where gravity function differently for everyone. Indeed, the paintings serve as this game's inspiration, due to its monochrome look and the fact that gravity can be rotated to affect the objects of the level. Like any good real-time puzzle game like Catrap, there is a rewind function which is a very handy feature because of how timing and precision is involved when solving puzzles. While there is some sort of story in this game, it's more or less subtle.

The game is split to four rooms with six levels each, though they don't seem to match a theme that many games tend to do. What they do have is introducing new elements every now and then. The amount may sound like there are few puzzles, but there are actually more. You see, after you complete the first batch, an event will occur and mirrored levels can be accessed. Yes, that means another four rooms with six levels, and while they sound like they should be the same as the regular ones due to the "mirrored" moniker, that could not be further from the truth. The levels are certainly mirrored, but they have different objects that actually makes them more difficult than the regular levels. Oh, and even during the mirrored levels, new elements could be introduced.

The most fascinating part of this game is the mirrored levels, because not only are the levels different versions of the the regular levels, the implication is also that the place is cursed. This is indicated by how the paintings between the standard and mirrored dimensions are different, with the mirrored versions being creepier. Even if not as fascinating, there are many things that are fascinating too. For one, there are balls called "Menaces" that have a creepy two-way face that meets at the mouth, and touching them is deadly.

Speaking of deadly, I find the death messages very funny. As an example, touching the balls will render the message "And my last memory... was that of pain", and falling out of bounds is "And there I plummeted, eternally...". The thing is, objects cannot fall away because the puzzles are designed in such a way that require them. The best death message is when two copies of the player character touch each other, with the message "My own mind has molded the seed of my downfall...". They might not sound funny when you just read them, but when playing the game it was funny to see the experience of the death of the player character.

As a puzzle game, the puzzles can get tricky, especially the mirrored levels. I am not ashamed to say that I resorted to a walkthrough for several of the mirror levels, because there are some tough ones. There are even collectibles that are in the shape of wisps, and most of them have obscure locations. In my normal playthrough, I only collected one. For example, one of them requires putting in the Konami code to make it appear, and another requires rewinding at the beginning of the level so that the player is in a position to reach it. It's truly for the curious, and collecting them unlocks pieces of a portrait, so it's nothing major.

This puzzle game is great and fascinating, but it's probably also very frustrating. Still, the fact that there is a guide mean that not all is lost (since the game requires a level to be completed to unlock the next one). I felt that it made great usage of the Escher influences, which makes for a memorable game. This game won many game awards back then for a reason. Before I go, I must say that this game looks very good in colour if there were colour. Just look at one of the ending moments:

Thank you for reading.

 

[winstein]

Runner3 (Switch)

Also available on: PC, PS4

Runner3 follows up on Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. Runner3, on the other hand, ignores the timeline and just have a humorous storyline featuring CommanderVideo and his escapades, essentially dropping the Bit.Trip name that encompasses a chronological journey of CommanderVideo.

Much like the first Bit.Trip Runner and Runner2, Runner3 is an auto-runner. The basic formula for the Runner games is that the player character, normally CommanderVideo, must run forward while dealing with any obstacles on the way. Some requires jumping over, some require sliding underneath and there are even those that you must attack to get past. On the way, there are gold bars that the player can collect, and they might also act as a forewarning against incoming obstacles. There is a bonus when the player collects them all, so it's a good idea to do so. There are also four special collectibles that will make the music livelier, going from Hyper to Mega to Super to Ultra to Extra. They were red plus symbols in past games, but in this game, they come in the form or boomboxes. Finally, the games have the player character run through some weird and wonderful places. You thought hills having eyes are weird in Mario, but in this game, they are weirder because they have full faces.

So what's new in Runner3? For the first time, the player doesn't just run, thanks to vehicles appearing at certain times. For example, driving in a plane allows CommanderVideo to move up or down, and the minecart is fast and has a slower descent. The normal levels are also meant to be completed more than once, as there is a regular route and the gem route (Impossible levels only have gem routes). This is faciliated by the fact that every level has forked roads that can be changed manually (the chosen route automatic sets the right path). The game also introduced a couple of moves that will make returning to past games inconvenient: one is a double-jump, and the other is a slam that can basically cancel jumps. These two moves are indispensable in the journey because not only do the levels have obstacles designed around them, they also afford the character more movement options than ever.

The Retro levels are also unlike the previous games, because it plays more like a platformer than a retro version of an auto-runner. They are more or less platforming challenges that instead have different goals: you get to the end as fast as you can, while collecting 5 coins because that's the only way the player's best time is counted. Because CommanderVideo is not always running, there is no need to worry about colliding into things. However, the game doesn't want the player lingering too long, as bats will spawn to keep the player moving.

When starting the game, there is a disclaimer that this game is the most difficult Runner game yet, and they aren't wrong on that. For one, every level is generally longer, as each are I would say about 2 to 3 minutes to complete on average (without dying), compared to the more compact levels in the first two games (save for a few levels here and there). This is faciliated by the fact that there are 100 gold bars, which is a lot compared to the past games where the gold bar count doesn't even reach that amount for most levels. To make things tough, there is one checkpoint in the early default version, and due to how long the levels are, a mistake can undo a lot of progress. The Impossible levels take on a whole new level by not only having generally long levels, but it's also littered with tricky obstacles that require precise platforming. On the other hand, the boss levels are far easier than the rest of the game as they are generally short, except for the final boss.

Fortunately, the game received an update that made it the default to have more checkpoints, making the challenges more manageable. In fact, the update of the game basically have a difficulty changer, allowing players to change the Enemy Density, Checkpoint count and Stair Assist. The former is basically to change the amount of obstacles on stage, while the latter adds platforms at stair areas so that the player can more easily navigate around steps. Making the game easier also reduces the potential score the player receives, while making things harder for the player increases the score. Essentially this allows less experienced players to go through the game since the game never penalises players for going easy. I took advantage of the Enemy Density to go through the Impossible levels, because most of them are so tough at its normal setting. Despite this, the final Impossible level is very difficult because there are level layouts that won't make it easy even if you reduce its setting.

While the first Runner game has already got a lot of weirdness, the second game really ramps up the weirdness and even employ Charles Martinet as the narrator, which I felt goes very well with the silliness of the game. Come the third game, where the weirdness is pretty much carried over from the second game, as the story is told in the style of a theatre using puppets. Every level contains one puppet to collect, and by doing so the player can watch a theatre that pertains to a story that contains outlandish situations, verses, fourth-wall breaking jokes. I found them very amusing that it's worth it to collect them to see what ridiculous story they want to tell.

There are more wacky characters introduced. The previous game has various characters that you can unlock after beating certain levels, but this game added an additional requirement by needing to encounter NPCs to start a quest of collecting 3 items of their request, then returning to them for the character. Between Runner2 and Runner3, only one unlockable character returns as a playable (Unkle Dill), while two are non-playable (Reverse Merman and Whetfart Cheeseburger), and another two are completely absent (one of them is referenced as a costume though). Take a look at the playable cast:

There are some strange characters here, but what might have caught your eye are characters from other games. Yep, this is another game where Shovel Knight is starring, so add this game to the growing list of games that Shovel Knight is playable. Eddie Riggs makes an unexpected appearance from Brütal Legend, which even surprised me. Then there's Dave which is from a different game made by the same company, which explains why Dave has costume choices while the other guest characters don't. And finally, there's the Narrator, who is very clearly a caricature version of Charles Martinet, and in my personal opinion, the best playable character after the Commander himself. The rest of the characters are original so they aren't as interesting to talk about though.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game that I finished this game, clocking at around 25 hours and collecting all that needs to be collected, except for something found in the cryptic radio tower that I am not going to crack my head on. The music is fantastic, the platforming is very enjoyable and the humour is very good.

(Fun fact: The developers of this game are making a Bubsy game that is looking to be an auto-runner in the vein of this game)

Thank you for reading.

 

[Noct]

Pokemon Let's go, Eevee! (Nintendo Switch)

Defeated the Elite Four and the Champion a little while ago, will probably do some of the post-game things since I still have another fourteen days before I can superbly smash some bros. I already caught the three legendary birds and even manage to nab Mewtwo despite him being twenty levels higher than my party, so I might finish filling up my Pokedex next. (Well... minus the Let's go, Pikachu! exclusives, Mew since I didn't get the Pokeball Plus bundle and Meltan since I don't have a phone.)

 

[MnSG]

Freedom Planet (Nintendo Switch version)

I recently completed the main story as Lilac, but it was a Casual difficulty run. Sadly, I did lose at least one life during my first playthrough.

Also, I did hear that Brevon was a huge life killer, but that apparently doesn't happen unless you go above the Casual difficulty level.

 

[winstein]

Freedom Planet (Nintendo Switch version)

I recently completed the main story as Lilac, but it was a Casual difficulty run. Sadly, I did lose at least one life during my first playthrough.

Also, I did hear that Brevon was a huge life killer, but that apparently doesn't happen unless you go above the Casual difficulty level.

I finished this game on the Wii U (thank you, Humble Nindie bundle!) on the Easy difficulty, and I can confirm that Brevon is a very tough final boss. Basically his attacks do a lot of damage and he can attack while dashing, so he certainly lives up to his reputation. Easy difficulty at least has regeneration health so it's not so bad since you can keep dodging to get up to shape for the next assault, but I shudder to think about how hard it would be at Normal difficulty. Don't remember everything about the boss that made him tough, but yes, he's very tough that cost me many lives, though fortunately not enough to get a game over, since the rest of the game is not as tough.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Noct]

I used to have the Steam version back on my old Steam account, been following the game ever since it's humble beginnings at SAGE and it's one of the very few KickStarters I backed. Thinking about maybe grabbing the Switch version soon...

I remember Brevon being pretty tough as well.

 

[MnSG]

I finished this game on the Wii U (thank you, Humble Nindie bundle!) on the Easy difficulty, and I can confirm that Brevon is a very tough final boss. Basically his attacks do a lot of damage and he can attack while dashing, so he certainly lives up to his reputation. Easy difficulty at least has regeneration health so it's not so bad since you can keep dodging to get up to shape for the next assault, but I shudder to think about how hard it would be at Normal difficulty. Don't remember everything about the boss that made him tough, but yes, he's very tough that cost me many lives, though fortunately not enough to get a game over, since the rest of the game is not as tough.

Thank you for reading.

Yeah it is fortunate that Freedom Planet has a difficulty setting, and it doesn't force you to raise the difficulty level if you want to complete the whole story. The only time that I've lost a life during my first Casual difficulty playthrough as Lilac was on stage 4, where I got blown off the ship while fighting the stage boss.

 

[winstein]

Six Sides of the World (PC)

Also available on: Wii U, Switch

For a Mario fan, this game has elements in common with Super Mario Galaxy and Captain Toad: Like Super Mario Galaxy, this game takes place in space and on occasion there are several planets (in this game they are all cubes); like Captain Toad, the player character doesn't jump and must move on the surface to get anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if the game took inspiration from both games. After all, this game has a Super Mario Bros. reference when pipes are first introduced.

The story is basically the player character thinking along the lines on why the journey is about solving puzzles on cubes, so basically there isn't really much story. The game do have holograms that unlock wordy logs, and I didn't really thoroughly read them all. From what I understand, it's a lore detailing the story of a puzzle religion, along with some of their beliefs, which to me is like good advice to follow when creating puzzles.

So what kind of puzzle is this game about? Basically the player character needs to collect a coloured crystal so that a portal will be active, and then go to the corresponding coloured portal to solve the puzzle. In some levels there are more than one exit, and it's the complex one(s) that require more effort to solve. The coloured portals indicate where the exit leads to: blue goes to the next level in the same galaxy; red goes to a branched (and usually tough) level in the same galaxy; purple goes to the next galaxy; green and yellow goes to different galaxies; and finally, orange portals just completes the level. A small number of the stages instead requires the player to press 4 switches with the numbers in order, which operates a portal. The neat thing is that they each play a segment of the "2001: A Space Odyssey" opening.

The puzzles are pretty much straightforward once the big picture is figured out. The game introduces new elements gradually, such as the introduction of different types of switches. Despite this, the puzzles never got too frustrating because everything in the level is laid out so that it's just a matter of observing the elements and how they work. It might seem like the game is hazard free, but this game in fact has hazards. The most common hazard is lasers, in which getting hit is fatal, meaning the puzzle needs to be restarted. In fact, some puzzles have lots of laser and they are usually timing-based since some of them can move. This is annoying if the puzzle takes longer than average to solve, especially the Extra Level that has moving lasers (named "Laser Tag").

This game is rather colourful in a way that neon lights are colourful: there are so many varied colours but they do not gradate between each other. This is thanks to the various teleporters and pipes, which all have identifying colours. Moreover, this game has frogs but they are very cubic, as though you only recognise them because they croak. Overall there isn't anything you can call a human, since you are controlling a ship (or somebody that looks like a ship). These certainly give the game an otherworldly feel. This is especially the case during the month of Halloween, because now there are pumpkin collectibles, and there is in fact an achievement for collecting them. Too bad I got this game too late during this event though.

The game is pretty decent because the puzzles are well done, but I imagine that going back to it is not going to be easy because some complex puzzles require examining.

Thank you for reading.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Super Mario Party (Switch)

I collected all five Star Gems: the Gem of Tenacity, the Gem of Spirit, the Gem of Courage, the Gem of Love, and the Gem of Passion. It was a pretty fun and wild ride. I had to play all four boards in both Mario Party and Partner Party, reach all five goals in River Survival, play Hard difficulty in Sound Stage, and beat Challenge Road. Challenge Road was super difficult towards the end, especially the Wario boss fight in Pull It Together. I got tons of sore neck muscles and constant hour-long breaks playing that. Also, since it was a boss fight, I didn't get the option to skip! It was so painful, but I finally beat it. As a reward for becoming the Super Star, I unlocked the Master CPU difficulty, as well as the ability to rewatch the ending cutscene as different characters. This game is easily my favorite Mario Party, and I'm looking forward to playing even more!

 

[winstein]

Super Mario Party (Switch)

I collected all five Star Gems: the Gem of Tenacity, the Gem of Spirit, the Gem of Courage, the Gem of Love, and the Gem of Passion. It was a pretty fun and wild ride. I had to play all four boards in both Mario Party and Partner Party, reach all five goals in River Survival, play Hard difficulty in Sound Stage, and beat Challenge Road. Challenge Road was super difficult towards the end, especially the Wario boss fight in Pull It Together. I got tons of sore neck muscles and constant hour-long breaks playing that. Also, since it was a boss fight, I didn't get the option to skip! It was so painful, but I finally beat it. As a reward for becoming the Super Star, I unlocked the Master CPU difficulty, as well as the ability to rewatch the ending cutscene as different characters. This game is easily my favorite Mario Party, and I'm looking forward to playing even more!

Are you looking forward to beat the more difficult versions of Challenge Road and River Survival? Challenge Road has some very strict objectives so I can imagine it's going to be tough, such as Pie Hard where you can't ever get hit. River Survival would probably be very difficult solo, but if you have somebody who could cooperate with you, it's much more doable.

Thank you for reading.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Super Mario Party (Switch)

I collected all five Star Gems: the Gem of Tenacity, the Gem of Spirit, the Gem of Courage, the Gem of Love, and the Gem of Passion. It was a pretty fun and wild ride. I had to play all four boards in both Mario Party and Partner Party, reach all five goals in River Survival, play Hard difficulty in Sound Stage, and beat Challenge Road. Challenge Road was super difficult towards the end, especially the Wario boss fight in Pull It Together. I got tons of sore neck muscles and constant hour-long breaks playing that. Also, since it was a boss fight, I didn't get the option to skip! It was so painful, but I finally beat it. As a reward for becoming the Super Star, I unlocked the Master CPU difficulty, as well as the ability to rewatch the ending cutscene as different characters. This game is easily my favorite Mario Party, and I'm looking forward to playing even more!

Are you looking forward to beat the more difficult versions of Challenge Road and River Survival? Challenge Road has some very strict objectives so I can imagine it's going to be tough, such as Pie Hard where you can't ever get hit. River Survival would probably be very difficult solo, but if you have somebody who could cooperate with you, it's much more doable.

Thank you for reading.

There's a harder version of Challenge Road? WHAT??????? Oh, please don't tell me they made Pull It Together harder! I went through so much pain and so many sore necks (that took an hour to recover, mind you) just to beat the normal challenge! I have officially died.

I tried hard River Survival with the golden oar with my brother, but we ran out of time near the end. I want to try it again sometime. It is a lot harder than standard River Survival.

I also forgot to mention that I played all 3 maps on Shell Shocked Deluxe, Mini League Baseball, and all 30 stages of Puzzle Hustle. The only minigame in the entire game I haven't played is Banana, Split, due to only owning one Switch. I also have nearly (but not completely) bought out the shop on the Party Pad.

 

[winstein]

There's a harder version of Challenge Road? WHAT??????? Oh, please don't tell me they made Pull It Together harder! I went through so much pain and so many sore necks (that took an hour to recover, mind you) just to beat the normal challenge! I have officially died.

I tried hard River Survival with the golden oar with my brother, but we ran out of time near the end. I want to try it again sometime. It is a lot harder than standard River Survival.

I also forgot to mention that I played all 3 maps on Shell Shocked Deluxe, Mini League Baseball, and all 30 stages of Puzzle Hustle. The only minigame in the entire game I haven't played is Banana, Split, due to only owning one Switch. I also have nearly (but not completely) bought out the shop on the Party Pad.

When you return to Challenge Road, if you enter any of them, you will notice that there are two circles: one is for the regular challenge and one is for the tougher challenge. The game would default to the tougher challenge if you cleared this mode. Fortunately you can enter any level you want (you cleared the regular difficulty, after all), so you can even skip the duels.

As for Pull It Together... I have some bad news for you. It is definitely tougher. You see, Team Minigames in the more challenging version puts you against CPUs without any teammates, so it's basically a 1 vs 3 without any additional advantage on your side. Now imagine this on Pull It Together, and worse: Train in Pain (the last minigame). For the minigame you mentioned, I used the Joy-Con strap trick employed in this video, which saved me a lot of pain (basically you use the round part of the strap and slide it across the button to press it faster). I apologise for mentioning this to you, in case it made you felt compulsive to complete them. It was also very tough for me.

For River Survival, my general advice to you is to grab as many balloons as you can, because Hard is less merciful since there are less opportunities to gain time (minigames are the most meaningful way to do so).

Thank you for reading.

 

[Glowsquid]

Call of Duty Finest Hour is a WWII fps released in 2004. Developed concurently with the original COD but delayed to a troubled development cycle, Finest Hour was made by Spark Unlimited, a company founded by the original producers of Medal of Honor and made up of staff that worked on MoH Frontline and Rising Sun. The Medal of Honor heritage can be seen in things like the lengthy over-the-top death animations and enemies droping health canteens when killed.

Finest Hour is a pretty competent WWII FPS that mostly succeeds at matching the cinematic feeling of its bigger brother; arguably the game's take on Stalingrad is more impressive than its PC equivalent and the game has many foward-thinking mechanics like hit confirmation and being able to deply bipod for machine guns. The game also takes some rare risks for WWII FPS in term of characters by having you play as a female russian sniper, and having one missions where you play as a black tank commander

Ultimately though, Finest Hour just doesn't feel as good to play. None of the sensitivty settings are entirely satisfactory; the default one is just a little too fast but the "slow" one, while allowing me to make more s1ck headsh0tz is so slow you're guaranteed to get gunned down before you can complete a full rotation. Levels are dark and dingy, although at least the game runs at 60 FPS. Enemies don't react convincingly to hits and their drawn-out death animations make it difficult to tell if you're wasting ammo on a dead man or not. Most problematic though, is the dearth of checkpoints, which get really problematic by the time you get to the american campaign.

But yeah, FO is decent fun times though as far as console-exclusive spin-offs of COD, Big Red One is a big improvement. More games should play behind-the-scenes video over the credits btw

 

[Teedgee]

MegaMan 11 (Nintendo Switch)

The game was really hard (duh). I used the double gear system a lot more than I should have. And that was only Casual Mode. Like, Superhero mode must be a nightmare!

Anyway, the game was really solid and fun. Even the Yellow Devil's fight, which was crazy hard, so I used Speed Gear a lot. The final boss was a little easier than I would've expected, but it was still hard. Hopefully someday, I'll be able to finish Superhero mode. Next game I'm playing is Smash Ultimate if I'm getting it today. If not, then maybe I'll play Captain Toad.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Kirby Star Allies (100% + DLC)

Today I attained the platinum crown on my save file, which means I have done the following:

-Completed Story Mode with all Rare Picture Pieces and Big Switches
-Completed Guest Star ???? at least once
-Completed Heroes in Another Dimension mode with all 120 Friend Hearts
-Ranked 3rd or higher in Star Slam Heroes at World Crisis difficulty
-Ranked 3rd or higher in Chop Champs at Chop Champion difficulty
-Completed The Ultimate Choice at both Soul Melter and Soul Melter EX difficulties

It was no easy task, especially that final requirement. I was determined to beat the standard Soul Melter with Team Return to Dream Land, and I eventually did. But I didn't hold to such restrictions when I challenged Soul Melter EX. No, I used the most powerful team I could muster. I beat it with my girl Ribbon alongside Adeleine, The Three Mage-Sisters, Marx, and Magolor. And as I learned throughout my many attempts, the Crystal Shards duo is no joke! They have a vertical attack, a ranged attack, a healing ability, a block that's basically impenetrable, and three bosses from earlier Kirby games! They do have very low defense, however, but outside of the final battle, that never posed much of a problem due to their ultimate healing abilities and impenetrable block.

All in all, I loved my ride through this game, and I can confidently say it ranks in my top ten video games of all time. This was also the first Kirby game I actually owned, and it definitely left a good impression on me. I plan to get The Crystal Shards and Return to Dream Land in a couple months, so I have some more Kirby to look forward to. And on a side note, I achieved my goal of beating Soul Melter EX before Christmas, so when I (hopefully) get Smash Ultimate tomorrow, I won't have to worry about this anymore.

On a side note, I also completed the Sound Test, finished all Celebration Pictures, and cleared Guest Star ???? with all 13 Dream Friends.

 

[winstein]

Pixel Puzzle Collection (Mobile)

Pixel Puzzle Collection is a Konami game, which is a surprising game because it's contrary to the opinion on what type of company Konami is perceived as: disinterest in the classics, preferring to do the bare minimum for the games, and their focus on generating as much money as possible from each customer. This game is unlike that in that it's celebrating the classic Konami (plus Hudson) games, delving into the classics through the puzzles and music, and it's also a free game.

So what kind of gameplay is Pixel Puzzle Collection anyway? Basically, it's Picross, so if you know how to play Picross, then you will know what's in store with this game. The game's level progression is different from the Picross games, as the game randomly selects a puzzle to be solved, so in a way, progression is linear because you can't choose. However, the game allows you to continue your progress later, with up to 3 puzzles saved. The game also has puzzles that would form a bigger picture: the 2x2 ones are called Mini-BOSS, while the 4x4 ones are called BOSS. The former are found in the regular puzzle roulette, but the latter a separate puzzle so you have to solve it before you can do the next BOSS puzzle. Moreover, the BOSS puzzles have a 3-hour cooldown before you can solve the next one, and because there are 160 of them, it took a while to complete them all.

The game's puzzles are split between 10 categories, 5 based on genre and 5 based on franchises. On the genre side, there are: Action, Shooting, Thinking, Sports and Variety. For franchises, there are: Gradius, Parodius, Bomberman, School Girls and Castlevania. In terms of franchises, Gradius, Bomberman and Castlevania are solid picks, but I thought that Parodius and School Girls (with games like Tokimeki Memorial) are odd choices for franchises to base a category on, since it's in my opinion not that popular so they're not the best franchise to represent Konami. If it were up to me to choose other categories, I would have picked Goemon and Metal Gear. Speaking of this, Metal Gear is surprisingly absent, as I have never encountered a picture from the venerable franchise. I kind of assume that the falling out between Konami and Hideo Kojima plays a factor on this.

So for how well Picross is controlled on a mobile phone, I must say that it's surprisingly difficult at parts even though the puzzles never got bigger than 15x15. The 5x5 puzzles and 10x10 puzzles are simple and intuitive enough, but it's the 15x15 ones that are the more troublesome to control. You see, the 15x15 ones have a zoom function, but I didn't really like it because it doesn't allow players to mark several pixels in a row, unlike the zoomed out grid. Therefore I play on a zoomed out grid all the time. Since this game's majority of puzzles are 15x15, I essentially played on a smaller view most of the time. On the bright side, the game automatically crosses out unfilled pixels if the filled pixels matches the numbers, which is a convenience that I would love to see in the Picross games.

Completion of the game to 100% unlocks an Expert Mode, which is the same game as before, except the function that crosses a pixel out is disabled, making it so you can use the process of elimination to make the puzzle easier. I have found out though, that the feature of unfilled pixels being crossed out still works, so in theory it could be abused. If you think that there's nothing else to do in the game except for the added challenge, the game added a few new puzzles so there is an incentive to play more. For the time being, I consider this game complete because I reached 100%, and playing any more would inflate the percentage, so it would likely go to 200% when all is said and done.

Besides, it's a competent Picross game in all but name, and it's certainly better than Pokemon Picross, another free Picross game but that one has a monetary system that incentivises paying since that game has an energy system, unlike this game. This game, on the other hand... if you like Picross, you can never go wrong with this one, unless you are in Europe, which from last I heard, is still not available (you can check if it is, as what I heard may be outdated).

Thank you for reading.

 

[Crackin355]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness

They should probably just get whoever wrote this game to write the mainline games.

Still got the post-game to go, which is like half the entire game itself.

 

[winstein]

Qbeh-1: The Atlas Cube (PC)

I wanted to finish one last game before the year 2018 is over, but it seems like I wouldn't be able to make it with Trine 2, so I picked this game out of my unfinished collection and be done with it. Unfortunately, I completed this game past midnight as I got to this game a deal later than I would have liked.

This game is a first-person puzzle platformer. The premise of this puzzle platformer is that the player can collect cubes in order to solve puzzles and progress. The cubes can't be placed just about anywhere, as they can only be placed on designated areas, to control where they can be used. There are four different cubes with different functions:
- Red cubes are simple solid blocks that are used as platforms
- Blue cubes function like red cubes, but they are also required to activate red switches (so they are basically key items)
- Purple cubes create a cubic force field that lowers gravity, allowing the player to float and jump higher
- Green cubes moves on one direction (the side that it is placed), and disappears after a set amount of time

The levels are indicated as cubes, each with six sides, so each world have six levels. The game technically have 5 worlds and 1 extra world, since the credits roll after the fifth world is completed, leaving the sixth world as an extra. The thing is, every world introduces a new element that it felt like the sixth world is the one where the level is outside the introduction phase. Each world introduces a cube type, then what did one of the worlds introduce since there are 4 cubes and 5 worlds? One level is actually dedicated to introducing fans that blow a strong wind that the player cannot resist except with an obstruction in the way. So those are the five elements.

One thing that this game have is a checkpoint system, which is inconvenient but probably intended as a way to make sure players are careful I guess. There are several ways to die in the game, with not only falling out of bounds, but also being squashed by an obstacle, falling from a great height and touching some red substance that look like blood but behaves like lava (personally this is frightening because there is a stinging sound and the screen immediately goes black). Interestingly, one checkpoint can only active at one time, so if two checkpoints are in close proximation, then they can be activated after one another to save the current game state.

This game also contains hidden collectibles that look like shining pyramids, and they are typically located at hidden locations. Some of them are not quite tough to reach since they are well-hidden, but some of them are just... I have no idea how anybody could figure out the location without a guide, since a number of them requires backtracking and are found in obscure location. The game truly rewards those that like to explore levels, to put it that way. The levels are otherwise straightforward and thus doesn't require much time to figure out, given that this game is rather linear. Even then, there are a couple of achievements that are devious: one requires that the player never touch water (which is possible), and the other requires not dying. They are very tough that I wouldn't dream of getting them, so I forget about them.

The environment is reminiscent to Q.U.B.E., which is another first-person puzzle game I played: there is a sense of loneliness in the place as there are no living characters to interact with. Unlike Q.U.B.E., the levels felt like floating dungeons so the player is essentially exploring some ruins. I suppose this is how it's like when the game is described as "atmospheric", as there's no story to speak of, so it's basically just clearing the levels. The music I felt aren't quite memorable, which is another indication of this being an atmospheric game. So yeah, the concept is neat, and the level design is solid.

Thank you for reading.

---

Games beaten in 2018:

Spoiler

January
- Tumblestone
- Lumino City

February
- Mario + Rabbids
- Oxenfree
- Runbow

March
- Golf Story
- EDGE
- Rubek
- Windosill
- Feel-a-Maze
- Antichamber
- Kamiko
- BEEP
- Splasher

April
- Puddle
- Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

May
- The Dark Eye: Memoria
- Letter Quest Remastered
- Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
- Anna's Quest
- LYNE

June
- NiGHTS into Dreams...
- Obulis
- Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
- Raining Blobs
- 2048
- 140
- Battle Chef Brigade
- Sonic Lost World
- Kairo

July
- Sonic Generations
- FOTONICA
- Adventures of Pip
- Pan-Pan
- Pid
- Super Mario Galaxy

August
- CHIP
- Nova-111
- Costume Quest
- Fractal
- Four Sided Fantasy
- Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

September
- Quell Zen
- One Way Heroics
- The Tiny Bang Story
- Toki Tori

October
- Explodemon
- Gomo
- Costume Quest 2
- Out There Somewhere
- Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows
- Splice

November
- Velocity®Ultra
- A Story About My Uncle
- Typoman Revised
- Super Mario Party
- Puzzler World

December
- Tembo the Badass Elephant
- The Bridge
- Runner3
- Six Sides of the World
- Pixel Puzzle Collection

 

[MnSG]

I've recently 100% completed the first Crash Bandicoot, from the N. Sane Trilogy. Next up is Crash Bandicoot 2.

Note: This does NOT include the extra level, Stormy Ascent, as that level does not count towards 100% completion.

 

[Kamek]

I just beat Super Mario Land 2. It's such a little gem, I really liked it. Just pure fun and wackyness.

 

[Noct]

Kirby Star Allies (Switch)

Finished the main story and will do the post game content later. Onward to Super Mario Party.

 

[winstein]

Bomb Chicken (Switch)

As of now, Bomb Chicken is on the Switch, which made it exclusive to it until a PC version is announced. Because of that, I got this game when it was on sale since it's not on Steam at that point of time.

So the gist of this game is that in a Mayan pyramid (converted into a processing plant), some blue essence has seeped into an egg, which hatched into a large (compared to the average chicken in-game) and round chicken, and the chicken is born with the ability to lay bombs that has several uses, which is a set up for a simple game that is dictated by level design.

To elaborate on Bomb Chicken's abilities, laying bombs is pretty much the only thing the chicken can do, and not much. Sure it can walk left and right, but every button that's not directional or pausing is assigned to laying down bombs. Yes that's right: Bomb Chicken cannot jump at all. So what good does it do with just laying bombs? The chicken can keep laying bombs as long as it's on the ground, which means that you can stack them to reach a higher elevation and then drop from there. Since the chicken itself is kind of floaty, this can be used to your advantage. The bombs can also be used as projectiles, as you can lay them and then push them, so that they travel all the way until it hits something. Moreover, the chicken can stomp most enemies to dispose of them. It should be noted that, just like Bomberman, Bomb Chicken can even die from its bombs' explosion.

I would describe the levels as compact yet has enough challenge, which is how I felt about the Wario Land platformers also. Given how Bomb Chicken is a bulky and floaty mover, I would say it fits Wario's way of moving too (sans jumping). In any case, the levels have a general theme that maintains a different challenge in each level. One such level has blue liquid that will generate lethal shockwaves if explosions happen there, and another level is focused on sprout enemies. The game has 29 levels, and of the 29 levels, 3 are boss levels. If that sounds like there's too little, it does. Because each level could be completed in such a short time, the 29 levels are over with in less than 4 hours, even when obtaining all the collectibles.

I do love a game with great spritework, and this game does have it. On the other hand, music is not terribly remarkable. Overall, I found the experience to be interesting, but it would be accurate to say that I wished there were more levels, since the current package is pretty lacking in length.

Thank you for reading.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)

Beat World of Light 100%, with the true ending and both bad endings, and it was so epic. One of the best final boss battles ever.

Spoiler

I got to play as Master Hand, play a platforming level somewhat like the NSMB towers, beat every boss in the game consecutively in a boss rush, and battle Galeem and Dharkon at the same time. I used the fighter team of Kirby, Dedede, and Meta Knight, with the Bandana Dee spirit as my primary. My support spirits changed a bit, but I found Elline very helpful for the boss rush and the Halberd helpful for the Galeem + Dharkon fight.

As a reward for completing the game, I unlocked the Galeem and Dharkon spirits, New Game +, and the ability to modify menu music. Time to play the Smash 4 theme on the menu!

 

[MnSG]

Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy

Recently 100% completed Crash Bandicoot 2, and have started working on Crash Bandicoot Warped.