Today I spent some time thinking deep thoughts about Donkey Kong. I ended up putting Donkey Kong '94 on my 3DS and playing it for the ~first time ever.~
I can see why it’s considered such a classic! It was really ahead of its time. The way it plays with expectations by sending you through the first several levels of the original arcade game and then suddenly opening up into a full puzzle platformer with sprawling stages and a world map… I can’t think of another fakeout like that on the original Gameboy.
Mario’s acrobatic moveset feels totally unnecessary, but it’s a blast to play with. The physicality of it really works for me. It’s no wonder Nintendo borrowed from this moveset when they went 3D.
I think this game is going to get me to actually bring my 3DS on public transit for once, supplanting my traditional morning Imbroglio and Hungry Cat Picross sessions.
i built up a new version of dosbox with an mt-32 emulator, so of course i had to play ultima 7 again.
for a change i swapped out the three starter dorks with the only three female party members available in the game. they all have garbage stats; like 60% total of what the starters have. it’s like playing on hard mode.
somehow, in all my dozens of playthroughs of this, i never found the dungeon Shame before. so hey! new content! surprisingly long little dungeon even if completely optional.
i have a real soft spot for this game despite being mechanically jank and basically at the design point of ‘we gave up, just save scum it constantly,’ but so many little touches in the world warm my tiny designer heart
edit: don’t mind me just carrying like 50 hams in a backpack
Oh yeah, I didn’t even have a hand in that. My allies kept rivalling me (an instant alliance break) and eventually they were the only one left of the Great Powers that had a positive opinion. The others were either adjacent wanting my land or greedy colonials wanting a piece of the spice/silk pie that I wasn’t giving them.
enemy within is really good imo, it completes enemy unknown’s design pretty well. it adds a lot more decision anxiety though with all those extra buildings and tech and shit. and also that invisible enemy that completely fucks up the game flow, i hate it so much.
i went for a classic+ironman+training roulette run recently but all my squad got wiped out in the chrysalid infestation mission, my bad for underestimating their ability to run tens of squares and instantly killing people in one turn. rip sniper with holo-targeting
i usually fret a lot over research/build/satellite priorities in this, especially since getting one too many abduction missions in the early game can screw you over from all the panic buildup. i always prioritize the squad size upgrades and satellites early, and delay actually buying stuff until there’s a mission coming, but i was always short on cash somehow. maybe i’m not good at the economy, will try again sometime probably.
there’s a lot of random cool storytelling in there!
i love the little fort in dungeon despise that has four guys with scrolls saying they’re planning on assaulting the castle and are actually prepared to do so (that is a heck of a fight for when it shows up)
The big moveset is one of the coolest parts of the game! While very little of the advanced jumping stuff is actually needed, if you get really good at it the game rewards you by bypassing large parts of levels. It’s a cool way to encourage learning the game mechanics inside and out.
That said, pretty much any time to try to do crazy aerial shit your going to be putting yourself at risk. So it doesn’t break the game by taking out all challenge just because you know triple jumping is possible.
since there was no way the girls were ever going to have even passable strength so i just opted to crank combat stat up as high as it could go (26~27 across the board at the end) and equip everyone with magic bows. in u7, and pt2 for tha tmatter, magic bows give an accuracy bonus, and then using magic arrows (easily acquired via enchant spell) gives another accuracy bonus, in addition to doing something like 16 damage on a clean hit.
so endgame loadout was everyone in full magic armor + swamp boots, 3 magic bow ladies and one avatar with magebane, mostly to make liches and spellcasters not nearly as annoyingly lethal as they normally are.
i have never seen the final battle evaporate so quickly without using Mass Death, they just shredded everyone.
one of the enemies in the final fight paniced, ran into a corner and said “i give up!”, right before jaana ran up and cold shot him in the face with an arrow point blank.
Finally have a tate setup together so I decided to play Blue Revolver on it to try it out. Going from a 13-inch laptop turned on its side to a 24-inch monitor in portrait is quite a jump.
I should probably buy more games with a tate mode.
I am currently playing Virtue’s Last Reward, the sequel to 999. While it is impossible that this game can make me laugh as much as that one did, here’s to hoping it can at least approach that level of ridiculousness.
I played that Space Hulk update and as much as I want to love that game, it’s a bad L4D clone and Vermintide 2 is right there being a good L4D clone so
