Creaks was, at the time, the weakest of the Amanita Design games for me - I personally love their aesthetics and I did finish it but I pretty much agree with everything you’ve said here. The puzzles are their weak point (and they don’t really get much better) and I think they do their best when they’re just making a silly little playground for stuff that also eventually does things.
Of course, I’ve started Phonopolis, and that one has not inspired me enough to go back yet (I intend to finish it at some point though). The puzzles are still uninspiring and while the art is better, the attempt to add a direct story with extensive narration hurts them even more. Most of their games are just pictogram communication of story and that feels right, but this is constantly narrated by the main character and it really just doesn’t work for me.
I think the biggest problem is that they seem to be trying to make a kind of profound statement in the narrative, which I really feel undermines the whimsy of their art design and the way you actually progress, and the presumed seriousness of it constantly is undercut when, say, a puzzle involves pushing someone off a building (they’re fine). The silly and the serious just don’t fit together and it shows.
no it’s still the worst SS game and it’s shockingly, unapologetically racist and also unfunny (4 isn’t much funnier but it’s a way better game and the jokes are trying just the tiniest bit harder)
I guess my brain is broken and I really like that last level, the stupid one with an hour par time
I reached the end of Act II in The Message from Deep Space and the last set of transmissions there was definitely a cool moment with the last few terms definitely feeling like a shift towards something beyond just the math that has been dealt with so far.
I’m also through six not-robot masters in the Plague of Shadows campaign in Shovel Knight. The characters seems markedly more charming here than in the base game but I played one of the shorter side bits (think it was a red gem stage) built around a specific Plague Knight ability and it was pretty good, really makes one wish they had bothered doing so with the rest of the game rather than it all being reused stages built for a character with dramatically different movement abilities.
I saw the demo for this a few weeks ago but didn’t put together until yesterday that it is made by the person behind the amazing presentation occult puzzle platformers Tamashii and Teocida. I was unsure about trying a possibly boomer shooter by them, but it looked nutty so figured it was worth giving a shot.
It starts by you doing a quick character creation for the conventionally attractive space lady you play as, set the color of your hair and armor, set your stats and backstory, then get sent to the prison where some sort of ruckus is ongoing. You go through a few rooms one shot killing anything that pops up, see something quick running in the distance a few times, eventually find a small reptile girl crying.
Small reptile girl is setting you up as humanoid reptilian mother is the one breaking out, shoots you to death and then removes your head to trigger the warp out of there; you play as her now.
I have zero experience with this era of FPSs so I can’t say if it is mechanically solid (you do seem to have a minor bit of a lock on and infinite ammo so it is doing a bit of its own thing) but it is so charmingly odd that I didn’t really care. There’s odd floating eyeballs everywhere, if your health drops dangerously low you can choose to eat a fallen enemy a few times to heal up, your little girl is invincible so she’ll randomly lend a hand, the store video shows a clip of a random rhythm minigame (not to unlock something, it’s an actual dance scene).
I am unsure if it’ll be good but it already looks delightfully odd so I hope it turns out solid. I recommend checking out the store vid to get a better feel for its vibe as I’ve done a pretty poor job capturing it.
Playing through the many mini campaigns of Kirby Super Star. It’s a perfectly fine game. Revenge of Meta Knight is defintely the most memorable and enjoyable of the different modes. It’s comfort food which is kind of what I wanted and needed to play right now (Kinda burnt out on life and hobbies etc tbh) but it never reaches beyond being simply comfort food. Which is perfectly fine as not every game needs to be more than that.
adding to The Message from Deep Space hype the game is really freaking good i played it for several hours straight without moving. not gonna spoil it just go play it imo
