70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X On PS4 - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X, from developers Bliss Brain.

Although i wasn't sure at the start of playing this demo, 70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X is a #PS1 game that was only released in Japan that aimed to play like a 70's robot anime. there are opening credits, advert breaks, end credits, music, as well as a side scrolling shooter where we control a robot that's formed by combining 3 piloted machines together. 

This new release of the game seems to be a lite remaster of the original that seems to upscale the original videos to HD, add some new content, and the ability to rewind gameplay. it seems like a decent package. But as this game never came out in the west, a demo like this is a great way to see if this style of sidescrolling shooter is for you.

Unfortunately, i don't think this is for me. one of my issues are the controls. they don't feel responsive enough. you'll hear me complain throughout this video that my robot doesn't turn fast enough. it seems possible that the gameplay hasn't been changed from the original release. There was an odd audio glitch where it seemed to peak and cut out for barely a second before returning.

One of my bigger issues with side scrolling shooters is how the game can feel unfair, like we're meant to take damage. i played this demo on normal and felt like it was on hard. some of the basic enemies came across as bullet sponges and the main boss enemies weren't much better. these bosses are much bigger and fill the screen more, but when they jump around and move i wasn't really able to avoid them as there was no where to go. 

Outside of gameplay, i also found the music and sound effects to be grating after a while. initially it was all rather cute and charming. the original #PlayStation1 team did a great job with what they set out to do. but that charm faded fairly fast and i found myself skipping the stuff that was repeating.

70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X isn't for me. i do like what it did and can say they did a great job. but it feels like the gameplay took a hit and didn't get the same amount of love. This remaster doesn't seem to address those gameplay issues and focuses more on adding English and upscaling the gameplay and videos.

Tavern Tale - Nice Story And Tutorial, Looks Great, Easy Roguelike RPG - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Tavern Tale, from chillyroom, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I was curious about Tavern Tale because even though the art style looked "cute" the app's description made the game sound more darker. i was curious how they would achieve this balance between the art style and game world. after an hour with it, i can say that the developers have done a great job.

There's nothing, so far at least, about Tavern Tale that's complicated. the way the developers made the game world and art style feel cohesive was via the game's story. there's an opening story segment that makes it all work together. but what's even better is that during gameplay there are reminders that we're playing a game when the evil queen's hand appears to move her game pieces.

The tutorial is thorough and i felt ready for the battles when it came. it explained not just what buttons do what, but also most of the game mechanics and more importantly some of the UI too. 

After an hour of playing Tavern Tale i hadn't finished the second tutorial segment. i was going the introduction quests. i think it could take maybe another hour to reach the end of it. but it never felt slow, the game's pace feels right. when that's finished, there are many characters we would then be able to interact with.

The roguelike element to the game is simple but it does have it's own risk reward. you're able to deposit money and that money will come with you after a run. but, you also need money during a run to upgrade weapons, get potions, and what not. so there's a balance between saving for the world and saving for the run.

I think Tavern Tale would work well as an introduction to roguelikes for players less familiar with the concept but also it'd be nice for gamers who know about the genre because of it's art style and story. i'd recommend checking out Tavern Tale.

Version 1.1.2 Played

HYPERWIRED On PS4 - Demo Play Thursday

This week's DEMO is the PlayStation 4 version of HYPERWIRED, from developers SIDRALGAMES and publishers Selecta Play and Entalto Publishing.

The main gameplay element to HYPERWIRED is it's plug mechanic. your ship does not have infinite resources, so it has to plug into satellites to refill. once each satellite has been visited, you're then able to move onto the next stage. it feels like each stage is procedurally generated.

On the start screen there is an option to do the tutorial so i start this video doing that. but i wouldn't say it's that great of a tutorial. it goes over some basic controls but i feel like it fails to explain how the game works. more could be done to highlight aspects of the UI, too. HYPERWIRED is another example of a game that shows an aspect of the game's mechanics that wasn't covered in the tutorial quite soon after said tutorial is completed.

This demo doesn't have a link to the PSN store, nor does it have any trailers or screenshots showcasing other aspects of the game. from this demo, HYPERWIRED comes across as a run based game where we go as far as we can until we're stopped. what's not clear from this demo is what happens next. there were no upgrades for me to buy and nothing i collected seem to carry over. so, from the demo, i'm left with wondering if we're waiting for good luck to find a run that'll take us further than before or if there's other aspects to the gameplay that the demo didn't highlight.

I did enjoy the music and overall aesthetic of the game, but i came away from this demo having not really enjoy it. i had questions it wouldn't answer, and as it never really explained what we're doing in game it quite quickly got boring doing the same thing over and over.

Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG - Simple But Works Well With A Decent Tutorial - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG, from Pomenest Studio, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

It starts with a great tutorial. it may feel a little hand holdy but it's great for more casual players or people new to the genre. the problem is that when the tutorial is over, we're very quickly greeted with a choice that wasn't covered in the tutorial. it's a mistake i see happen quite frequently, but it stands out here because of how well the tutorial was doing up to this point. there are moments later where we unlock new things and the expected tutorial doesn't arrive to show it to us, but when we access them ourselves the game does then provide information.

For as much as Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG gets right, there are quite a few things missing from the experience. the game is basic in many ways and for the most part it works out well. but here's a frustrating example when it comes to combat. you don't know what your enemy is going to use, there are no hints until the fight starts. But even when we do know, at the match screen there's no way to change your team. you have to back out back to the home screen, go into a different menu to change your team, to then go all the way back and start the fight. we also don't know how strong the enemy is nor what moves they are going to use. instead of strategy, it felt like we were winning the fights by luck or brute force.

Some of the art looks low resolution, some of it looks nice. some of it fills the screen whilst others leave the top and bottom empty. the home screen is sparsely filled with art that's completely different from the game's style, and there was a moment when one of the characters we've been introduced to, and have seen with wings, appears with no wings. it does feel like this game used AI, which might account for some of the strangeness.

Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG does have adverts. i didn't know that until it started happening. unfortunately, it's not handled well with the adverts just randomly appearing during loading after battles. the adverts themselves are also frustrating, and i know that's not in the hands of the developer, but when the advert just randomly appears and then is annoying, it's not a great experience.

Coin Summoner: Coin Pusher RPG is a fine game. the basic mechanics are done right. but there's not much else to it. this means it's deficiencies stand out more. it's the same problem the tutorial has. it's great until it's not. it's fine to play, but it needs more work, more content, and more cohesiveness. 

Version 1.0.3 Played

Rhythm Heaven Groove DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Rhythm Heaven Groove.

I came away from this demo disappointed. the music and art style are still great, but this felt like a game designed for fans rather than something for newer or more casual players. Basic things like auto playing the computer talking wasn't here and i felt that the game did very little to help the player get good or just even better. 

this demo only has 4 unique stages and a 5th which is a remix of all 4 together. But before all that, there's a calibration with the game and the TV it's being played on. but even here i wasn't completely sure i was doing it right, clicking the button on the sound rather than the video, and no feedback was provided.

There's a lack of feedback in Rhythm Heaven Groove. there were stages i could see i wasn't performing well on, but the game offers no solutions on how to improve or even goes into much detail just how bad i was. i don't know if i was pressing buttons early or late. the game just offers a simple word appraisal at the end.

So with poor onboarding for new players and a lack of feedback overall, i came away from this demo not wanting to get the game nor even Wishlist it. but as a demo i do think it works well as it seems to give a fair impression of the game, and it's one i don't want to play.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 5 - Backlog Conquering

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

Another new Act and another new location, this time a Wild West kinda place. In previous parts i was getting a little frustrated with the platforming in the game as it's not quite great. there was less of that here as we were introduced to some new powers, some new mechanics with those powers, and a particularly fun top down racing sequence that took me longer than i'm proud of to fully grasp how to play. the style of boss fight in this part was similar to that in Part 4, but the final boss fight and QTE finish was interesting.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Part 4 - Act 3 - https://youtu.be/HFUUYC04mV0

Gitaroo Man - Part 2 - Can't Recommend Playing It In The Cloud - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Gitaroo Man via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1 of playing Gitaroo Man it became clear that this was going to be tough to play in the Cloud and in Part 2 i was unable to make more progress. i did get better with more practice, but it still wasn't enough to complete the level and move on to the next one. with no training and no option to practice, all i could do in this part was try and try again to beat it. there were a couple of times where i got close, but the game's mechanics meant i would have to play long stretches without making a single mistake, even if the enemy seemingly had no health. it's a combination, with the lag in the controls seen in Part 1, that just make it too difficult to play in the Cloud. 

There is a chance with practice that you could get better, but then there are other problems with playing this game in the cloud. for example, we saw across two parts of Gitaroo Man and Runner 2 that there are occasional stutters on top of controller lag. but this often presented itself in the audio or video not being clear so i would miss the button prompt completely. 

Unfortunately, there's another issue which is related to the game's aspect ratio. it's a 4:3 designed game that, when it comes to the button prompts, doesn't take full use of it. with Runner 2, as it's a 16:9 Widescreen game, you can see the enemies, gold, and platforming sections coming so even if there is a stutter of visual issue like macro blocking, there's time to react. but with Gitaroo Man, the action happens in a small area in the middle so there's much less time to react to the prompts without the issues mentioned above.

As much fun as the art and music was, i wouldn't recommend playing this game in the cloud. i can only recommend downloading Gitaroo Man. 

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/LPGqrZAxDbs

Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker - Wave Based Auto Ball Shooter With Roguelike Elements - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker, from #cookapps, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

The game's App Store page listed it as a Roguelite Pinball Defense game, but from the screenshots i wasn't so sure as it reminded me more of Monster Strike. either way, i did like the art style and i was curious about it so i decided to give it a go.

Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker isn't a pinball game, but i can understand why the developers might have picked that as it's hard to describe what genre of game this is. there are elements of Puzzle Bobble, for example, too. it's an auto shooter where our character could just as easily be a turret. waves of enemies are approaching us and we have to fight back with balls.

we start with normal balls. when we defeat an enemy we get experience and after a certain amount we level up. this grants us access to a power-up which is either an active skill like different balls to attack with or something passive. there is a limit of to each at first but there are other upgrades which enable us to fuse balls together into something new, but critically that free's up a space for a new ball to be used. 

It's easy to play and i did most of this video with one hand. the only tricky part is that the game expects you to touch where you want the ball to go. but there's also the ability to touch and drag for more accurate aiming. but that initial press on the screen could be wildly off if you're not careful.

the rogue element of Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker is very generous. in a run we collect money and ball scrolls. with enough of each you can upgrade your balls. by the end of the video i was approaching the point where i would need to grind a little to get the resources needed to level up, so i could make progress.

With the simple mechanics, controls, and a fairly decent tutorial, Bounce Defense: Brick Breaker is a very approachable mobile game. the graphics are nice, the music is a bit repetitive, but overall i enjoyed it and will be keeping it on my phone.

Version 1.0.10 Played

Unrailed 2: Back on Track DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Unrailed 2: Back on Track, from developer Indoor Astronaut.

This game looked easy from the screenshots, but after reading the #eShop page it was clear that this was more than just a track laying game. the tutorial is helpful until it isn't. it tells us the controls and some of the basics, but in this demo you'll see that i fail a couple of times because i kept being blocked. i also found that the tutorial didn't quite cover the ai of my companion that great and i mostly found out by trying.

By the end of this video, i got a basic understanding of how to play Unrailed 2: Back on Track, how to manage access, and how to progress through a level. But by this point i wasn't having too much fun. it felt like i had solved a problem and was waiting for the next thing that didn't quite come.

There are rogue elements to the game where if you fail you carry over some progress into the next attempt. for example, you no longer have to start right at the beginning if you accessed a new biome and some of the currency you obtained can be spent before your next run.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 4 - Backlog Conquering

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

The location in this part was fun and unique. playing on a ship has been done before, but not quite like this. the same with inside a whale, under the sea, and on an island. the bosses in this part were different to what has come before, too. instead of one and done, they were a persistent threat throughout. the only thing holding back the game is how the platforming isn't quite as good as i'd want. but so far it's been a lot of fun.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Part 3 - Act 2 - https://youtu.be/AyXafK0G4KQ

Gitaroo Man - Part 1 - Missing The Beat - Cloud Monday

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Gitaroo Man via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Gitaroo Man is a different style of rhythm game to Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, that i previously checked out for Cloud Monday. Runner 2 lets you finish the level as long as you cross the finish line. but with Gitaroo Man, it's more of a "traditional" rhythm game where you finish when you beat set conditions. In this game that means beating an enemy.

I found Gitaroo Man to be a lot harder than expected. one of the disadvantages of the game is that there is nothing else to do but replay levels you have completed. but because it's soo tough to get the timing right, i could only replay the tutorial and first boss.

the timing of button presses in Gitaroo Man is very tight. i'd go so far as to say that it's tighter than in  #Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, a game i've lived streamed on this site. there is no easy mode to increase it, there's no calibration mode in the options to help with the timing. Gitaroo Man feels old in how bare bones it is.

If it was easier and that i could make progress and see more of the characters and story, it wouldn't be much of an issue. but streaming it from the cloud, in this part at least but we'll see in Part 2 for sure, seems to be introducing additional delay/lag in the controls which means i can't rely on when the the prompts are on target. i have to judge it slightly earlier. Gitaroo Man is one of the very few games where i've not only noticed the lag in the controls from playing the game in the cloud but couldn't compensate for it. if the game had a practice mode where i could do levels over and over i feel like i could get close.

But there's another downside that did hit Runner 2 and that's the odd stuttering. every now and then, the game would stutter and i'd completely loose any rhythm i had. you can see at the end that i had a great internet connection, but of course i'm unable to check for bandwidth.

Pokémon Champions - An OK Battle System With A Poor Story And A Poor Tutorial - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Pokémon Champions, from The Pokémon Works, on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I had downloaded this on Switch but i haven't played it yet because my favorite Pokémon wasn't in the game. But now it's out on phones, i decided to give it a try, even if Jumpluff still isn't in the game. Honestly, i do think that is a negative for Pokémon Champions. there are over 1,000 thousand Pokémon now, so there are over 1,000 possible favorites. it's an unenviable task to try and get all of them in the game from the start. so they're always going to make someone unhappy with their choices.

I had heard a little of this game from PokéYouTubers but i was surprised to discover that this game tries to do a story. it's something i had heard nothing about and after trying it i can understand why. logically, even in a Pokémon world, it makes no sense. you could pretty much cut it out of the game and the game would continue as normal.

It could be argued that the story is there as an introduction for newcomers to Pokémon, unfortunately the game's tutorial makes it clear that this game isn't for them. very early on the tutorial says my Pokémon is faster than the opposition. but there's nothing in-game for me to see that information. the tutorial kinda makes it clear that to play this game you need an extra device with Pokémon stats on because this game won't provide them.

The tutorial also feels old, it's more that it tells us what to do rather than telling and showing before letting us try. having a wall of text with still pictures is something not done much nowadays, something that even console games have started moving away from, so it felt kinda old getting it in Pokémon Champions' tutorial.

This is a menu based game, though the language used in the story did make me think that i would be navigating a 3D world, going from place to place to do each thing. so when we get a menu, that's the end of the main tutorial and nothing about that screen is explained. i also found it odd that the game's language doesn't quite match that of the mainline Pokémon games. for example, i don't think i ever saw an attack be supper effective, mostly likely being extremely effective, and yet the text on the move said it was super effective.

The battles themselves are fine. the stage is fairly lifeless and the Pokémon models aren't too detailed, but some of the moves did look cool. but to get to the information you need, you have to go into menus and all of this happens within a timer. it feels like they're not taking full advantage of the screen and should give us more customisation options. Oh, i couldn't find any accessibility options for this game. not even an auto play on the story.

The start to Pokémon Champions just isn't very welcoming to new players or more experienced players. there's a lot of fluff around the main fighting and i don't know who it's for. it feels tact on and not fully realized. 

Version 1.1.2 Played

Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker, from developer Gentle Troll.

the only other one of these style of games i've played before is Coffee Talk, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyEBkNKW1vypuMv71F7pUPRIiSjqdAmDV, and whilst that was an interesting experience there were aspects of it's gameplay i wasn't fond off. having a demo for Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker is useful for me because i get a chance to see how it's gameplay compares with what i've experienced before. 

Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker starts off by saying that this is a demo, but at no point during it is there any mention as to whether or not the save file, if there is one, will carry over to the retail game. but the start and end of the demo does make it clear that this is a demo and it does have a somewhat personalised touch that was nice. but that extra information at the start or even a trailer at the end would've been nice.

i enjoyed playing Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker. it seems to be a demo of the first day. we have an optional tutorial for the 2 main gameplay mechanics we came across. the first one shows how the drinks are made. in Coffee Talk i kept on forgetting how to make the drinks, but in Tavern Talk Stories: Dreamwalker you're able to not only bring up the list of drinks you know, you also have an assistant that'll let you know what you've made or if it's correct. if you make a mistake it's fine to discard it and start again. this calm approach to the drink making was greatly appreciated. But there was a point where i misunderstood what i was required to do and the game didn't seem to notice what i was doing so offered no reminders or additional help.

The second tutorial we got is for a game mechanic that sets this apart from Coffee Talk, but it's also one i never really got to fully experience. when we chat with customers we hear rumours. at the end of the day we're able to combine related rumours into a quest. but as the day ending ended the demo, i never saw how this worked out. but it seems like customers would be able to take on these quests. only the correct rumours would combine into a quest and for the rumours we didn't use we can still keep, as i imagine they might combine with others later on.

the only aspect of gameplay that wasn't explained was our HUD. for me, it was quite obvious what does what. but seeing as the two other mechanics had optional tutorials, it felt a little strange that this aspect of the game had nothing. i tried the pause menu and could see any save options so i don't know if or when the save system works. my guess is that it saves at the end of the day, but i don't know if there's an auto save as we go. that, too, wasn't explained at all.

This first day was nice. we were introduced to several characters. they seemed well written and even the final two who came across as a bit of a stereotype were nicely written that it was still fun. i don't know what the overall story is for this game, though i did have a guess in the video. but so far it's all quite pleasant and i wishlisted the game when i was done with it.

Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 3 - Backlog Conquering

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

the first two parts cover the first act of the game. in this part i decided to see how long a video would be if i did the whole of an act so this is Act 2. as ever, it was just fun to watch the story unfold. i did find some of the platforming a little awkward. it's not quite as satisfying as i would like. thankfully, the combat and puzzle element to the game is good. the boss fights here are all very different from each other and just as fun. they're not overly complicated but still quite epic to be part of.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/Ti2e3_u6Hxc

Cloud Monday - Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien - Part 2 - Too Stuttery!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I lost the original Part 2 recording, so i had to do another recording. that's why more progress has been made since part 1. this was the first Cloud Monday video to be recorded via my replacement laptop so hopefully things like volume will become more consistent now.

In Part 1, the experience was good when conditions were perfect but on the whole it wasn't a great streaming experience. things were better in this Part but it seemed to highlight a different problem. i don't actually own the game to do the comparison, but i thought that the game seemed to suffer from stutters more in this part. this meant that my timing was off more than i would like but also that the audio wasn't as good as it could've been. this means that, across both parts, it's difficult to recommend streaming Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien for those who have a PS3 as you can buy the game from the PSN store. But if you'd rather not pay or don't have a PS3, streaming it is perhaps fine at best and not really worth it  if your streaming conditions aren't great. the game is built around timing and audio, and when things are perfect it feels amazing to pull it off. but when things begin to stutter or when the audio isn't quite as good, it does eat into the overall experience. Runner 3 isn't available to stream, but if it's available to download, i'd recommend doing that more than this.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/Rr3kOz--e1Q

Cosmic Royale - A Bad First Impression, No Human Players, And Poor Kart Handling - iPhone Friday

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried Cosmic Royale from Eden Games on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

My search for another good racing game on iOS continues, with EigenGauge https://youtu.be/AeqoQvM7STs still probably the best i've played, as Cosmic Royale has little about it worth recommending. It's a Fall Guys style game but in karts, so it's not even a true racing game.

The only tutorial the game has are skippable pictures that barely cover the controls and what to expect from the game. each stage, as you enter, gives a basic hint as to what will happen, but ultimately the game fails to tell us how to play the game and expects us to find out as we play. but playing the game wasn't that great.

with no tutorial at the start, we're dumped on the home screen where nothing is explained. i went to start hoping that a tutorial will be there but instead i ended up on an empty track with another countdown starting and then i was whisked away to another track, this time with other riders on it, and expected to race.

Once the track was finished i noticed something strange. as soon as i crossed the finish line, the game immediately stopped the race and moved onto the next one. the top 16 would progress to the next round but i didn't finish 16th so i began to think that it stopped because i was the only human player to in the race. this was confirmed later when i tried Rank mode and did 1 race. the points i got for it were enough to take me top of the leaderboard...of one...just me.

The game hasn't been updated in 4 months and with my experience i'm guessing that the player count has dropped significantly or is non existent. I'd like to say i found a hidden gem, but the only positive i could think of were the tracks themselves. i was surprised by how bland the karts and characters were. it started to feel like that maybe they were ai designed because of how generic and simple they looked. I didn't enjoy how the karts controlled either. i tried changing the controls in the options, but the handling characteristics of the karts just didn't work for me. i found them too twitchy and hard to control, and when you pair this with track hazards that move quite quickly, it started to become easier to just bang the kart against the wall and wait for it to go rather than try to dodge it.

I can't recommend Cosmic Royale and i can say for sure that it won't be replacing Squad Busters, a game that's not longer being supported by it's developers, as the Friday live stream game on #iPhone.

Version 1.0.1 Played

Judero DEMO On Switch - Demo Play Thursday

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Judero, from developer Talha and Jack.

one of the most striking things about Judero when you first see it is the art style. everything in game was originally hand made and animated using stop motion. this was then put into the game and used as assets. so it certainly has a unique feel about it, when compared to the vast majority of games released. the thing that didn't quite work for me were how the characters looked. the enemies being as they are was fine, but for most of the characters we saw it just didn't work for me.

Whilst i'm talking about things that didn't work, i found that a lot of the conversations we had were people felt needlessly wordy. i genuinely questioned in this demo whether we were getting story stuff, philosophy stuff, or just crazy stuff. Even though i'm from England, some of the English used wasn't too familiar so i would've appreciated somewhere there being a quest list to help me better keep track of what's what. in the town i visited in the demo i was chatting with one guy and i'm not sure if they gave me a quest to do or if it's banter. again, even if it's an optional thing, i would've liked something telling me if it's a quest or not just to help me keep better track of things.

One thing Judero did well was the tutorial. when we start the demo we have a companion and because of how it's written it feels like we've been together for a while. our companion helps out as our tutorial guide and for the most part they're good. but when the tutorial is over, the game uses the in-game world and a bit of story telling to make this change feel natural in a way i greatly appreciated.

Combat was mostly fine and it felt quite fluid. but every now and then i'd get caught up in trees and it became less clear what was happening, or it was difficult to spot the spawning bugs in dark areas. the boss fights were a little challenging at first but i managed to defeat all of them in the demo in a satisfying way.

For me, the demo could be better as i don't have an idea what the overall story is, if there is one. for a game being based on folk tales, i didn't learn if this is a game where i deal with individual stories with no overarching story or if this has one overarching story and the folk tales are used to tell it. so whilst the combat was fun and the enemies were cool, because i don't know how long it is or what the story is i come away from this demo with it being on a wishlist rather than an immediate buy for me.

Backlog Conquering - Puppeteer On PS3 - Part 2

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 3 game Puppeteer. this game came out in 2013 and was developed internally by Studio Japan. this game can be played in 3D and with PlayStation Move controllers, but for this series i'm playing with the DualShock 3.

In this part i finished the first act. it seems like each act is broken into 3 parts. in Part 1 i finished the first part of the act so in this part is completed the Act. Puppeteer is very watchable. it's so easy to watch, the characters are easy to hear, i'm really having a great time with the story. we got a lot more of the story in this video revealing that maybe one of our goals is to save 4 individuals.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/oHrOaXSuSsY

Cloud Monday - Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien - Part 1 - Disconnected!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Bit.Trip Presents... Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation4.

This was recorded whilst i didn't have a computer. This was made on my iPhone 14 Pro using it’s microphone, iMovie, and the video I recorded on to SD Card.

This is a game i have previously played before when the service was PlayStation Now. personally, i really enjoyed playing this before so i was happy to show it off in this, and part 2. this rhythm game doesn't have you repeat a beat or press on a beat, instead the music is created by how well you're doing in the game. the levels are not long and typically can be completed in a couple of minutes. there is a checkpoint around half way which you'll restart to once you cross it, you'll restart at the beginning until you do. all this happens without any loading.

But there's no manual saving whilst playing these levels. the game auto saves when you leave a level, so in the best case scenario that's every few minutes. As the video quality degraded, it did get more difficult to play. whilst our character is big, and so are the enemies, as this is a platformer of sorts it's judging our jumps or blocks or attacks that becomes the biggest issues. But even tho this wasn't the best showcase of the game, i would still recommend checking it out.

iPhone Friday - MONGIL: STAR DIVE - Nice Fluid Combat, Fun Characters, And Not Overwhelming

For this week's iPhone Friday i tried MONGIL: STAR DIVE from NetEase on my iPhone 14 Pro. 

I would've played this game sooner if it wasn't for my previous laptop breaking. i had always been curious about how the game would combine character summons with monster collecting and using. Whilst there is an additional data download at the start, there's little to complain about with the opening to MONGIL: STAR DIVE.

The tutorial is perhaps where things could be improved, but even here i thought that it went at a good pace and the initial tutorial about moving characters was tied very well into the story and world. as things unlocked through this playthrough, there were additional tutorials for each new thing including showing us an on screen button that previously had a red dot on it but i hadn't checked out as yet. combined with the relaxing, but not slow, pace of the game i would say the opening to MONGIL: STAR DIVE is very approachable as even though it's a big game it never felt overwhelming. as i played, it was easy to keep going.

I was genuinely surprised by how funny i found this game. i'm not say it's like watching a comedian, but the way the characters interacted with each other when the spoke was funny, some of their facial expressions matched perfectly the tone of the voice acting, and for the two main characters i started with it really came across that these are people who have been working together for a while.

In some respects, i feel that the game's combat has been undersold on the app store page and even with the in-game tutorial. the combat is fluid without feeling too fast, there's spectacle and restraint in some of the larger attacks, but what i really enjoyed was the teamwork on display. switching character to character didn't mean only 1 character on screen at a time, it meant that initial character i picked could continue for a little bit whilst this new one jumped in and attacked or i could bring in the healer to heal the first character i was before that character jumped away. i never noticed the combat stuttering because it was too much for my phone.

The overall performance of MONGIL: STAR DIVE was great. i was surprised by how fast the loading was at times. it really made it pleasant to play and keep on playing. the game has struck a good balance between visuals and performance. i've played some games that focused on great looking characters or great look world with a compromise on either the other or performance. with MONGIL: STAR DIVE, i never felt wowed by anything looking stunning, but everything looked like it had the same level of detail and the world felt cohesive.

I had a great time with MONGIL: STAR DIVE and i would highly recommend it.  

Version 1.01.10 Played