6 Likes
Iāve been playing a lot of Remnant II (billed as a soulslike with guns). Very entertaining, and extremely breezy multiplayer experience compared to Fromsoft games.
People should check it out. A much better way to describe this game is āRE4 with dodgeroll,ā though. It does feel a lot like a soulslike, though.
4 Likes
Final Fantasy 9 - I was really bummed out about how cold and boring FF16 was to me but I still wanted some Final Fantasy so I booted up FF9, which I havenāt played since it was originally released. Right out of the gate this game is extremely charming and propulsive in a way that hooked me within minutes. Also the game is kind of difficult at the beginning and you donāt really get any heal spells for the first bit so you have to use items for healing. I died a lot until I got over my weird hangups about using items in a Final Fantasy game.
StarCraft single-player campaign- I come back to this every couple of years because sometimes I just want to build 100 marines as fast as I can and attack-move them to the opposite end of the map and then just watch as my little green dots move across the minimap, consuming all other colored dots until only my green dots remain.
12 Likes
My Steam review of Dysmantle is that they turned Ultima 8ās hackmover cheat into a game.
1 Like
I have now played a bit of Celeste, tunic, a short hike, and chicory (whew) back to back. Indie games babyā¦
Celeste - nope
A short hike - I beat it and didnāt like it so double nope for making me finish you, game
Chicory - I just wanted to play this on gamepass as a little demo before buying the switch version, which has touch controls. And it seemed pretty good so thatās what I did. Now it goes at the very bottom of the backlog
Tunic - I tried it on gamepass a while back and actually installed it on my base Xbox one. Now Iām playing the Xbox series version in the cloud and it seems almost unrecognizable? Maybe my memoryās bad but last time I thought the graphics were like cute and kind of interesting. Now they are like transcendent? Lordly? I feel like Iām playing a mid grade arcade top down action-adventure game like from somebody like namco, where all they cared about was the luxurious presentation. I mean I know this game supposedly turns into more than just zelda+vibes but Iām pleased that it can manage just that. I had very low expectations when people talked about the in-game manual, but it is some pretty nice graphic design, honestly a reward in itself just to look at it.
9 Likes
we need your opinions on rainworld and hollow knight to complete the matrix
4 Likes
i just finished playing rain world for the 10000th time on the recently released xbox port
1 Like
Hollow knight is another game pass game that I tried a while back and am due to try again but I gotta be in the mood first. Last time I just walked everywhere I could but was unable to make any actual progress. Not a big fan of search action games but it seemed ok.
Rain world i purchased as soon as I got my switch a month or two ago but Iāve been using it a lot in handheld and I find rain world difficult to see so I gotta make the effort to put the switch in the dock first.
2 Likes
Destiny 2 (PS5) - i canāt do it! i cannae fucken do it and i give the fuck up. this game causes me existential dread even when iām not playing it and as much as i want to find the āgood partā in this very expensive and extensive video game product, itās way the fuck too deep in there and the game wonāt give an inch. deleting this 100+GB monstrosity off my console. get get that that dirt off yr shoulder
Spelunker HD Deluxe (PS4) - 5 buxx on sale on PSN, got it on Bachelorās recommendation. i hope that was not an ironic recommendation! ā¦but even if it was, this game slaps. i died twice in the first 5 seconds - spelunker approved. who wants to play online w me. donāt be shy
G-Darius HD (PS4) - first time iāve had the pleasure of playing an M2 ShotTriggers joint. love the comprehensive nature of this. the package, in typical M2 fashion, has generous bonus versions:
G-Darius
G-Darius v.2
G-Darius (PS1)
alongside the marquee HD ports of vanilla and v.2
this game is phenomenal and mara was right; the PS1 version is kinda anemic compared to the utterly glorious arcade original. valiant effort, but having this more faithful arcade version with all the beautiful gadgets in the sidebarā¦ itās gorgeous.
luxe feel to this game. need to try more of these shottriggers things.
Ghosts 'n Goblins: Resurrection (PS4) - came in to this pretty skeptical. the art in the previews looked a bit garish. i am a huge makaimura fan, thereās hardly a game or port in the series i donāt have at least some fondness for.
this new one doesnāt disappoint. i started on the ālegendā difficulty as thatās what the game seemed to want (you get prompts to lower the difficulty after dying repeatedly, so it makes sense). i love the ability to pick which direction you want to go, and i donāt hate the upgrade tree - you can swap out magic between attempts and use residual earnings to buy more. not exactly very makaimura-esque, but itās an acceptable way to console-ify things without overdoing it.
need to play more, but quite impressed thus far
13 Likes
im laying down in the middle with my limbs stretched out doing snow angels over all of them
5 Likes
Iāve been snacking on Famicom and Famicom Disk System games for weeks now. Iām not going to do a thread about it. These are just snacks. Besides, Iām not finished with the PC Engine yet. Anyways, Iāve tried almost all the games from the beginning to the end of 1986. I like how cheap these games feel. They were made fast with small teams. Even when theyāre mediocre, theyāve got a great amateur artist quality. I was surprised the Gundam and Dragon Ball games were so ambitious, albeit not great.
One game I did more than snack on was Super Mario Bros. 2. This was my first time playing through the whole thing and you can believe I did it just like Soulja Boy. I used to think of it just as a novelty, but Iāve come to appreciate it a lot more. Some of these levels are so weird! And I love how different Luigi moves. When you beat the game, you get to play a bizarre, neon-lit underwater world. You only get one life to explore that world.
I really love the ending
I made this little list for anyone curious. I deliberately tried to limit how many platformers I put on it.
My top 20
AkumajÅ Dracula
Binary Land
Crazy Climber
Dig Dug II
Dragon Quest
Excitebike
Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri DÅchÅ«
Kage no Densetsu
Metroid
Moero Twinbee: Cinnamon Hakase wo Sukue!
Nazo no Murasame JÅ
Penguin-Kun Wars
Solomon no Kagi
Sqoon
Star Soldier
Super Mario Bros. 2
Takeshi no ChÅsenjÅ
The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu
The Portopia Serial Murder Case
Zanac
18 Likes
played the first area of metal dungeon and a little bit of panzer dragoon orta to test out xemu. xbox emulation seems a bit rough on my pc. things run at 60 but orta has some stuttering in places and metal dungeon goes slideshow for a few seconds at the start of a fight
metal dungeon though, lol. this game really tickles me! very into this developer Panther Software who primarily made msx games making an xbox dungeon crawler. apparently the last thing they were working on was a cancelled port of some eroge vn, also to xbox.
10 Likes
been messing with Such Art quite a bit. Itās a paintingā¦simulatorā¦type thing, itās honestly very straightforward. Iām just going to paste my steam review here verbatim:
Itās close to perfect, and I recommend it, but itās not everything I would hope for.
The pros: This game focuses almost entirely on the physicality of making art, which I appreciate. This is exemplified by the spoon - use it to launch paint at a canvas and watch it drip down. But you can put paint on anything and just chuck it at a canvas. I made some nice splatters just throwing a brush at it.
The paint is also way more than just pixels. It shows brush strokes, shines then turns more matte as it dries, it can be given a wet effect, covered in glitter, burned or scraped off, etc. Itās much closer to painting with ārealā paint than anything Iāve experienced before.
Itās also really nice to get prompts-as-commissions. Itās very lightly gamified, and I appreciate that as someone who often lacks direction.
The cons: I wish it was easier to share art from this game. For one, the gallery you can make is local only. This should definitely be shareable, even if I was manually sending files around or something. Still pictures of the art donāt do them justice, especially given the number of effects you can apply that only really show during movement.
But even if still pictures worked, itās impossible to take good ones. You can only take HUD-free pictures using Steamās built-in screenshot tool, and it crushes them down to slightly nasty JPGs. Iād really like to be able to export a canvas as a PNG at least, OR give me an option to turn off the HUD so I can use my own screenshotting tools. Steamās screenshots donāt cut it.
Still, I really enjoyed this game and recommend it to anyone who wants a slightly-guided and low-stress creative outlet.
12 Likes
My son is too scared to play through Ravenholm so Iāll have to do it while he watches over my shoulder. Alyx really sold it
15 Likes
Last night I played:
Super Kiwi 64 ($2.99, steam)
Its like if N64 ran at 60 fps and had a really good camera. Fun movement. Jump, glade, boost, nose stab (into a wall). The game is however woefully short. I played through the main part in one sitting. There are runes on some walls and some missing doodads I need to unlock a sewer grate that maybe has some post game stuff in it. The game also has no way to quit. You gotta tab out. Weird. Young kids would prolly like this the most. Its extremely easy. Id love like 100 more levels.
Pseudoregalia: It looks great and feels good but there is a wall break / enemy death effect that crashes the game. It gives me a warning about my un-updateable graphics driverās version on start up so its prolly that. Maybe dont play it on a 5 year old office pc.
Frog Gun: It is what it looks like. sort of a Captain Toad feeling game with a jump and a grapple gun. Its cute. The danger level isnt super engaging so far. I wish it had live as the checkpoint system just make every death a very minor inconvenience. The 45 degree lock aiming and camera modes are rubbery and shitty feeling but the free aim feels like its never where Im pointing. I dont know why exactly. I really wish the 45 degree mode would snap when I tap the stick instead of making me hold the stick for a set amount of time then glorping into position. Ive started using the D pad a lot for fine movement and aiming.
6 Likes
Raindrop by Shuhei Miyazawa
Free download: Raindrop by Shuhei Miyazawa
Play in browser: raindrop [html5] by Shuhei Miyazawa
Thanks @Dracko for mentioning it. : )
Raindrop came out on itch from 2020 to 2021. In 2023, it came to Switch (Japan only?), not for free, under the name āRaindrop Sprintersāāwith an illustration of a white cat. And they say they āare currently preparing an English version and Steam version as well.ā (Will THOSE cost money too? Well just download the free itch one now in case. ; )
(It looks like the Switch āRaindrop Sprintersā has a couple additional modes; Google Translate of Raindrop Sprintersā Switch store page https://store--jp-nintendo-com.translate.goog/list/software/70010000061230.html?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp says
"The game offers 4 game modes.
ć»āStandardā where you simply dodge the rain
ć»āCustomizeā where you can freely choose items and obstacles
ć»āOnrushā where you can use a lot of slow motion
ć»āMaverickā where you keep catching rain")
The free itch version only has kind of two modes: the standard thing and then āCats and dogs modeā (hold up on title screen) which is kind of just instant super-hard mode.
Thereās a lot to think about with the gameplay. Some things:
- You get a bonus each time you cross the āaisleā
- Raindrops increase constantly; one hit = game over
- Thereās a max number of stars you can get per crossing, these multiply bonus
- Your score goes up for each raindrop that lands while youāre in the rain
- There are a limited number of crossings to make before the game ends (29 or 34 or something around there, I think)
If you go fast to minimize how thick the rain is getting, itās hard to dodge raindropsāas it is if you give the rain time to thicken up by slowing down to maximize points.
And there are seven ābadgesā to earn by reaching various goals during play; each badge gives a performance boost of some sort. For instance, crossing the aisle four times without stopping during a gameāconsecutive or notāearns the āSPEED RUNā badge, doubling your speed while using the limited āESPā slow-motion gauge.
The raindrop sounds are slightly shrill, while the other sounds of getting points in various ways are quite charming in their low-bit-ish way.
Itās a 7:9 vertical ratio screenāthe two other games I know of that Iāve played at that ratio are the itch games Lady Pac and RandomPac.
I love the sort of old arcade-style graphicsādown to some of the fonts and colors and symbols, except not horrible like a lot of old arcade games.
Very āone more go.ā
Controls from the itch page:
ā[arrow keys] : move [z] : Use ESP [ESC] : Quit game On the title screen, press and hold [q] to reset the rankings. press and hold [up] to cats and dogs mode. [a] or [s] to change sound volume. You can also play with a gamepad.ā
The itch download version didnāt seem to recognize my arcade stick so I just used Joy2Key. Seemed to find it easier to keep headās up on raindrops while controlling with the stick vs the keyboard.
8 Likes
Super Kiwi 64 is a delight! So are that developers other short games. My favorite of the 64-based genre.
5 Likes
given up on sonic colours ultimate. the ds sonic colours was so good, but this is just awful
3 Likes