next up on my list of games I’ve picked back up and finished this month: Hifi Rush.
I still think this is not nearly as good as it should’ve been – the traversal is too dull and repetitive for how much they make you do (at a time when very good brawler type games are unusually popular among AAA studios and flashier than ever) and the combat is a weird combination of messy and punishing (as with God of War ragnarok I finally turned it back down to normal because I wasn’t enjoying hard that much), but this is still the most original game to come out of the DMC/God Hand/Bayonetta lineage in the last decade, and the tone/writing/characters make up for the presentation being a little flat.
they introduce new mechanics and new environments at a rate that is both too slow and too fast but it comes together really well by the last ~third.
I think part of the problem is that 3D brawlers and rhythm games both only really feel good when you’re playing well, and they tried to ameliorate that by giving you lots of downtime and making the whole thing like 25% slower than it feels like it should be at times and slow rolling half your moveset. which, if not for the writers clearly having a ton of fun would feel like they kind of failed at moving the game from a prototype to a full story mode. but it is a really good prototype and almost nothing does the Saturday morning cartoon thing as well so I finished it anyway.
if they get to make a sequel it will probably be a lot better
I just don’t get you, MGS3 Enjoyers- I really don’t. What’s so fun about slowly creeping and crawling through boxy, vaguely-woodland-patterned rooms, inevitably getting spotted (because Koji & Kompany give you next-to-no guidance on what any of your kit does or how you’re meant to proceed), and having to throw your hands up and Benny Hill your way back to the nearest enemy-free area time and time again, all while calling the devs every pejorative you can think of (plus a growing list of new ones you’re making up as the proceedings wear on) at the top of your lungs?
I played the game shirtless with a machine gun and had a great time. The End had a hard time sniping me as I shotgunned him over and over. You can play the game how you want.
actually come to think of it, basically up until this game went into development c 2018, I think 3D brawlers were maybe the sole genre that no western studio had really done as well as the top ~5 Japanese games, and I think that’s stopped being true since, between god of war and jedi survivor and probably a couple others I’m forgetting. that might account for the progression in this one feeling unfortunately austere, like they didn’t realize that they were going to be outdone to this degree on the environments and enemy variety and level design. maybe. I’m just trying to think of another game that is so clearly carried by “prototype + writers,” it’s a weird combination, like they had a great starting point but the only thing they knew how to iterate on was the script
After today pretty much everything except the videos I want is going to be on my 3DS, including what few worthy playstation games run on it. The only thing I might have to figure out later is Sonic Mania, which I can’t find clear instructions for, just a decompiler.
@dylan and I finally got to play the lost PS2 Classic STREET GOLFER from D3 Publishing and Polygon Magic. You’re playing golf on the 2002 photo-real streets of Tokyo and across Japan. It fucking owns. You’ll make a full power swing that immediately hits a street lamp and bounces into a literal gutter where it is impossible to take a shot. You’ll make a beautiful drive that then collides with the 109 Building at an odd angle and you’ll just be fucked for 3 shots. We were lolling. Lady Rude was screaming “NATSUKASHII”. I was screaming “NATSUKASHII”. I was pointing out what all the buildings were and are now and how this changed.
Let me tell you seeing 2002 Akihabara was a hell of a trip. i held my breath as I turned from Showa-dori down towards the station. When it showed Tokiwamasen I screamed in celebration.
This was The Store to get new releases for cheap. It was the size of a closet. I got The Phantom Hourglass here for 500 yen a month after release. I got several PS2 SNK releases there. It broke my heart when it became a crane game shop. Then and now it’s something else. The world keeps turning. But now it’ll always be here in Street Golfer.
Points off because there is no way to pick and choose holes that I could find. Just looking around this beautiful snapshot of 2002 Japan was such a treat!
It has so much real world branding I gotta imagine they were just at the end of “this is a cheap videogame who gives a shit.” Thank you for your copyright negelience game devs…
One of the other holes is the highway that crosses Tokyo bay and boy would I be excited to see whatever the fuck UmiHotaru as a Golf Hole is.
oh yeah spiderman is on this list too. I think that seals it – Japan lost its monopoly on good 3D brawlers very late, and to 2 massive Sony budgets plus a massive EA Star Wars budget. so it’s no wonder this feels weirdly underwhelming as it goes on; its mechanical competitors all having AAA setpieces is like a one-dev-cycle phenomenon
have yet to find The Next Game groove after DSII. wasn’t feeling Northern Journey. the movement / level geometry / level design did not endear themselves…only played for about 40 - 60 min so/but I wasn’t inspired by the initial NPC journal of tasks interaction and execution and after slinging rocks to hit spiders with unpleasant hitboxes and attacking and considering there could be more than 2 minutes of this ahead I bid the game adieu. maybe I was wanting something more labyrinthine exploratory while this is more adventure game with naturalistic topography, which does look great! impressive rendering and moods. I see this clearly watching a playthrough but I also see that combat! kept thinking about how I’m going to play King’s Field III for the first time this year
anyway I ended up playing DOOM 64 for a couple of hours, what a fucking game! usually my go to quick fix is the originals or Quakes but 64 when I want to pick at some (ew I almost said “hairier locks”) more convoluted but compelling lock and key stuff. tried for many minutes to figure out how to screen cap but could not capture some of my favourite lighting tricks, those spots that change your character sprite and also enemy sprites (used to signal the safe spots to avoid the crushers in that blue zone (the colours!)) this one especially the first level got that Manhole am I dreaming or video gaming? thing (good get stoned game )
edit: will say I’ve only beat D64 once because I think about the keys you have to collect across levels to make the final boss less sadistic and my head hurts
yeah, i really wanted to like Northern Journey but it’s just obnoxious. it’s mostly about wandering back and forth until you get punished by the next janky enemy. i gave up shortly after a series of jumping puzzles in a dark cave where you have to distract a cluster of instakill tentacles. just mean spirited and not fun.
you might like it if you don’t think “what if cruelty squad is dark souls” is the recipe for the worst game imaginable.
I am playing A Link Between Worlds and it is probably the only 2D Zelda I really like. It looks gorgeous and the merge mechanic it relies upon makes dungeons more interesting/different/complex compared to former entries.
Northern journey is good because it feels like a different game every 45 minutes. It is not a game with a “core gameplay loop” so much as a smorgasbord of various ideas, some of which work and some of which don’t. I am firmly in the jank admirer camp so it is, as they say, a hole that is made for me
Dabbling with stuff again. Fired up Jedi Survivor, which I have to assume is running a lot better than it did at launch.
Once you’re past the on-rails opener, I gotta say…it’s pretty good. I remember sort of liking Fallen Order in spite of itself, but this one actually feels a lot better to play. I don’t think it’s all in my head or that I’ve gotten better at this sort of game - I actually installed Fallen Order and played it for a bit and just kinda…it’s fine, but, nah.
I like that they clearly heard everyone dunk on Cal being too boring, in design and personality, and that he’s both more likeable, but also more customizable. It was smarter for me to blow my rare currency on a health upgrade than the mullet and the handlebar mustache…but man…what could have been. Manbun and beard will have to do.
This is also the second game I’ve been dabbling in with Richard Horvitz as a bit character, and while I cannot stand Zurkie Jr. in Ratchet & Clank (full on obnoxious Zim mode), I like his shitty little frog character in this one.
This game has also convinced me that the only funny thing to come out of the prequel trilogy are the Battle Droids. I’ve actually laughed a few times at the dumb shit they say in this game.
i love jank of course but this really felt like gratuitously hateful, humourless jank and so much getttttttting dunked on made me feel bad i just stopped trusting the game’s ability to offer anything of substance
also the real reason i played the game is the incredible fruityloops flute techno in the steam trailer but i don’t think the music is in the game in that form? instead it’s much more “tasteful” loud ambience washes of death and misery boooo
)
i just stopped trusting the game’s ability to offer anything of substance