For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Dog Man: Mission Impawsible, from Mindscape.
Dog Man: Mission Impawsible looks like a licensed game from something aimed at kids, and i mean that in a positive way. the art style in the game matches the box art!
The demo starts well with a fun story sequence that sets up the game's story. once we start gameplay, it also starts with a basic tutorial that has good level design built around it so that by the end of the level we're good at the controls. unfortunately, i did find the tutorial to be a bit lacking. for example, i only knew of one button to change character when there was a second.
We only get two stages to play. the first sets up the story and is a solid tutorial level. i assume that the second stage we get to play is maybe the third in the game. it had some nice simple puzzles but i think i got soft locked and had to restart the level again. there appears to be no way to restart from a checkpoint so i retried the level. i still kept the item i had made, but i had to collect the icons once again.
Overall, i don't think Dog Man: Mission Impawsible is great for a young kids first platformer. the jumping in the game doesn't have much room for error and isn't too satisfying. but for older kids i think it would be a good time. for someone older, it's more difficult to say as the two levels we played were quite repetitive and i worry that we may do the same things over and over again. this demo was a bit too short to get a sense of what the final game would be like, but i think it's decent enough to judge how well someone younger may cope with it's platforming.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Crystal Breaker, from Terarin Games, but it's also coming out on Steam.
Regulars to the site will know that i'm not good at #shmup style games, but i am keen to try them to see if i can find one for me. What made Crystal Breaker interesting was how zoomed in it looked and how focused on close range attacking it was.
I don't know how common this is in the genre, of Shoot 'em ups, but for me i haven't played one quite like Crystal Breaker. the Demo starts with one of two cool pixel art start screens and it clearly says that it's a demo. it's a bit of a shame there's no link here, or elsewhere, to the game's eShop page. there's also no music and i wonder if that'll be true when it comes out. the main menu also has no music, but if you go into options there are sound options. when you pick one, it plays so you can hear when you raise or lower volumes. i recommend keeping voice under 50%, you'll be hearing it a lot but it sounds like an emotionless Ai.
But other than the annoying Ai voice, the music in the game is good. But it's weirdly unbalanced. each of the two stages i played have their own music and i enjoyed them. but in Crystal Breaker you're continuously powering up your weapons and when you reach full power you get the same song continuously playing. so even tho the stage songs are nice, i didn't really get to hear them often.
Crystal Breaker doesn't have a tutorial, it has a digital instruction manual that you can access via the main menu. unfortunately, this manual didn't have any moving pictures but there are pictures and i found the English clear enough to understand what's happening. i highly recommend checking this out first before trying to play the game if you're unfamiliar with this type of game.
Crystal Breaker doesn't complicate the gameplay with various mechanics. whilst this may make the game seem simple, for me i quite liked this approach and found Crystal Breaker somewhat good for newcomers. hitting/crashing into enemies doesn't damage you but their bullets will. This is fantastic and what's more Crystal Breaker isn't a Bullet Hell shmup, so it's not too difficult to dodge enemy attacks. our ship even has a booster option that can help us avoid incoming fire.
The goal of Crystal Breaker seems to be to get the highest score. to help the player achieve this there are plenty of power ups, plenty of things to shoot to help prolong and/or increase a combo, and there are crystals to pick up that some ships and things drop when hit. There are also various stage bonuses to find, targets a certain color to hit, and hidden targets that offer big points. simply put, Crystal Breaker encourages players to destroy as much as possible and gives players high scores for doing so. But there doesn't seem to be online leaderboards to compare scores with friends. in this demo it all seems local, or there's no obvious easy way to check what scores your friends got.
For me, what i found to be lacking in Crystal Breaker was a sense of story. i wanted more from my time with this DEMO, i wanted to be grabbed by a story but there isn't one here and i don't think there's one in the final game either. i don't know who the characters are, i don't know why we're doing this, and i don't know why there are crystals. I wanted some answers to this and didn't get any. So for me, i won't be getting Crystal Breaker, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game, nor does it mean this is a bad demo. it's a simple arcade Shmup that's designed to be a score chase and i guess i'm looking for more than that on a console. if Crystal Breaker came out on a pocketable portable like PSP, then i might be more interested in the pick up and quick play style of this game.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Time Walker: Dark World, from the developers Heartfun and publisher 2P Games.
I had seen this game on the eShop and i was curious how it all worked. the screenshots looked busy and i couldn't understand from them what type of game it was. i was really curious how the game would teach us, the player, how to manage such busy screens.
The demo's home screen doesn't mention that it's a demo and by the end of the video we also learn that out of the 5 options we have on screen, only Start and Settings work. for some reason the developers chose to keep the other 3 options highlighted even tho they don't do anything.
when i started, i was at a screen with four characters. i knew from the eShop page that the game had classes, but what i didn't understand...even now...is whether i started playing the game with 4 regular people who gained their class when i found it in the level or if they kept their class and i had to remember which of the same looking characters was which and give them the correct class.
Time Walker: Dark World, before i had started playing the game, hadn't given me enough information to understand what was happening and then when i started playing it dumped me straight into a combat situation with no tutorial. i had to pause and look around the screen for some hints as to what was happening but all it really said was press Y to fight.
once the fight was finished we're greeted by one of the worst tutorial screens i have ever seen, a screen that used the term "ability" when the only other term we had seen is class, and offered just 3 short sentences, one of which was "Then Fight". Needless to say i had no idea what was happening and my short time with Time Walker: Dark World was mostly one of confusion and frustration.
Atrocious tutorial aside, Time Walker: Dark World does have nice graphics and i was enjoying the music. but it's not enough to make up for the poor user experience i had playing this demo. i finished it, earned some purple stuff the game never told me about, unlocked stuff i seemingly couldn't access, and was given 3 choices. "Talent", "Play Again", and "Back to Start". i guessed Talent might have something to do with abilities or class, but wasn't sure as it wasn't explained. i thought play again would restart the game at the first dungeon and back to start would take me back to the home menu. i was wrong, Play Again took me back to the home menu and i was done with Time Walker: Dark World.
The demo told me little about the game and i might even argue the demo was a waste of time. i would've got just as much from watching a video on the game than playing the demo they released for it. i don't recommend people try the demo, and if this is a representation of the final game i don't recommend people get that either.
This week's game is Banjo-Kazooie and this is my first time playing it! I've heard people talk about this game for a long time and most often they've spoke highly of it, putting it up as one of the best on the N64. I've always been curious about it, but i never got it when it came out on Xbox 360. With it's sequel, Banjo-Tooie, being released i was reminded that Banjo-Kazooie was already out Nintendo Switch.
having tried out other N64 games, i knew that the controls might be the most annoying part of playing this but thankfully they weren't too bad. it wasn't great but it was manageable enough. that's not to say that Banjo-Kazooie doesn't have it's own quirks, i found it's momentum to be frustrating when it came to doing big jumps and trying it's roll attacks. but by the time i was finishing this video i was starting to get to grips with that aspect of the game.
Having heard people talk about this game for so long, things like the puzzle pieces or music notes weren't a surprise to me. But there were still things, even after all this time, that surprised me. you'll hear after i finish the first level how surprised i am that Grunty's Castle isn't linear, that it's full of secrets and small puzzles. i was also kinda surprised by how small the first stage was. i was worried that with all the collectables the stages would be massive and it'd be a pain to find everything. but i fond that first stage to be the right size and it's puzzles not too difficult. things could change with the later stages, but for this first hour or so it was very pleasant.
Banjo-Kazooie really makes a great first impression with it's introduction "movie", the tutorial area, and the first area we visit in the castle. i enjoyed the quips between each character, too. for me, i had such a great time with Banjo-Kazooie that i do want to play more. i'd prefer to play more with modern controls, but with the XBLA closed and Rare Replay not on a console i own, i may have to learn to tolerate the controls on the Switch Pro Controller...but i think it might be worth it!
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Angel at Dusk, from the developers Akiragoya and publisher Sanuk.
I'm not good at shmups so when i saw a demo for this one on the eShop i was interested in trying it as i hoped that the demo would give me a good idea on how it's difficulty is. but honestly, i wasn't expecting it to be as approachable as it was.
Angel at Dusk has a great tutorial that i would recommend to anyone interested in shumps. the game makes the point that this tutorial isn't just for this game, it's designed to teach players the basics of the genre. Angel at Dusk does have it's own game mechanics and not only does the tutorial tell us how to use it, it gives suggestions on how best to use it against enemies in game.
The demo consists of the tutorial, which is about 20-25 minutes, and the first two stages from the game's story mode. unfortunately, i can't really comment much on the story as it passes really quickly. there are text boxes, but as i'm not good at shumps my focus was on the action rather than the story as the game doesn't pause to tell it.
after trying out the demo, i would recommend Angel at Dusk to anyone curious about the shump genre and who are looking for a game to try. the demo is worth trying, but i'd recommend wishlisting the game and when it's at a price that's good for you i think it'd be worth getting. it has a fantastic tutorial, the options are cool as well as let you customise colors for many things, and whilst the game has it's own mechanics they never felt overwhelming. they were simple but effective, and due to the tutorial i was confident on how it all worked.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Amedama, from the developers IzanagiGames and Acquire Corp.
The first thing that struck me when playing Amedama is it's visual style. throughout the video i try to say what it reminds me off, but i never succeed in doing so. in some respects, Amedama looks so familiar, but it also looks unique. the real question is does it actually look good, does it work visually. that i'm less sure off. i'll be honest and say that i didn't mind the character artwork and i thought that the backgrounds looked good. but i didn't like the character art, tho i do appreciate that for the most part people were visually distinct.
The trouble is, there's not enough variety. early on i started to notice that character art was being reused over and over again but it kinda got in the way of story telling. for gang members one type of artwork would be used, and then it would be used again for someone working with the samurai. it started to take me out of the world and the story telling and by the end of this video, it was starting to feel cheap or not finished because it just kept on happening.
By the end of this video, i don't think i understood the game. in the hour i played, i was following the story, but the game itself never presented itself as anything more than a brawler with a unique character control mechanic. the day system did hint that something was up with the game but i never got to the end in this video. there was one kinda bug near the end during the final fight i had where the boss character was able to hit me up and seemingly into the rafters. i would be stuck up off screen and unable to attack until i moved and fell to the floor.
Ultimately, i would recommend people try out this demo but they'd have to play more than me to get a better sense of what it is. the idea of controlling over people's body's isn't new, but i did enjoy how they used it in this game. But Amedama isn't for me. it feels cheap/unfinished to such an extent that it started to get in the way of the story telling and the world they were trying to build.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Botworld Odyssey, from the developers Featherweight Games.
I didn't read too much about this game on the eShop before downloading the demo, it was the screenshots that drew me in. the game looks colorful with a wide range of localities. the fighting looked exciting and the robot aspect interested me as i wondered how close to a "Pokémon" style game would they go or would it be more of a "Metabots" game.
the first screen we're greeted with not only makes it clear that we're playing a demo but also provides a way to pre-order/but the game from the Switch eShop. it's always surprising when a game doesn't have a way to pre-order it or buy it from a store. there could've been a message saying this is a short demo, maybe saying outright or giving a hint as to what we can do, either on the first screen or before the next Character Creation screen. very few games do something like this but here it might've helped as i was surprised when the demo finished as abruptly as it did.
the character creation is limited but what we can make looks like it's part of the world. Out of the Buffalo, Rat, Cat, Dog, and Lizard options, i chose to create a cat character and i was satisfied with what was made. then we're thrown straight into the game and the beginning tutorial section. for the most part i found the tutorial section to be good. but it did feel like they were missing out on incorporating the family more into it. and then the tutorial seems to suddenly end right when new things are opening up. the big example in this video is how the game works with 4 robots. i didn't realize that only 3 can be on the field at a time, so it was confusing why we now had a fourth that did nothing.
The fighting aspect of the game is a real highlight. it's simple enough that the games tutorial covered it well enough that i knew what to do, but there's also depth in what we can do. by the end of the demo i was already thinking about how to strategically place my robots to work around the enemy robots. it's too early to tell how this part of the game will grow and change, for example it would've been nice to see how we could swap out a robot for another one in a way to change our strategy. a nice touch was how we, the player character, to interact with the fights and attack.
But i don't think i ever understood how to change my own loadout. i either missed it in the tutorial or there wasn't one for it. the game also failed to have a tutorial for upgrading our robots. it did introduce upgrading them with material we found. but i don't remember it ever telling us to upgrade their Ai or how that system worked.
The demo for Botworld Odyssey is good and after playing it i would be happy to continue playing the game. i just feel that it's disappointing that the tutorial works so well until it doesn't. it's very noticeable when something new happens in the early tutorial part of the game, but there's no tutorial for it. But it's not a big complaint when compared to how good the rest of my experience with the demo was. i'd recommend people check out the demo for sure.
This week's game is Blast Corps and this isn't my first time playing this N64 game. back when it came out, my sister either rented or borrowed this game and we played it a little. the problem was, we only played it a little because we got stuck. my hope about revising Blast Corps is to try and make progress but also to understand why i probably got stuck as a kid.
As ever, some of the journey with N64 games on Nintendo Switch is working out what the controls are, how they've been brought over to the Pro Controller. unfortunately, i think that even after my time with the game, i still didn't fully understand all the controls. i understood enough, but for example i couldn't work out how to do the dump truck drift.
The controls throughout were always a little weird, not just in how they've been brought over to the Pro Controller, but in how responsive they are in game. at times, i was impressed with how responsive and accurate it was. then there were times where i kept getting stuck on buildings as the controls didn't quite work as expected.
out of the different modes i played, i enjoyed the timed destruction ones the most. having a set level, a time limit, and a target was nice and was like a puzzle. it did feel like there was only one answer to this puzzle, but it was mostly fun and a nice way to try out each of the machines you can control. Racing had potential, but i think the course design didn't match well enough with the vehicles and the short cutting mechanic. the second race i did came close. but other than that, i didn't really enjoy the other game modes.
I came away from Blast Corps with the feeling that this was an XBLA game before such a thing existed. for me, there's not enough here for a full game release. not just in terms of gameplay, but also with the menus, music, and basic lack of any information.
Last week i checked out the free to play game The New Denpa Men, https://youtu.be/8VjQxmvSxrY, but after my first hour with it i wasn't sure the game had showed me enough of what it is. The New Denpa Men is a slow game and it's mechanics and design feel old so i came back for a second hour thinking this would be enough time for the game to fully show me what it is.
My second hour with The New Denpa Men added little, if anything, to the overall game. it continues to not detail how to do things, i guess how to do the fishing after some annoying tries, and the big new addition of decorating felt poor, more so when you compare it to other games that came out on the 3DS. I tried out a couple of special events towards the end of the video and whilst it was nice to have something different to do, i got jewel pieces and there's meant to be someone on my island to give them to, but there wasn't.
Whether it's the jewel pieces or the fishing, it's frustrating that the game hasn't cornered off these aspects of gameplay until it's ready for us to deal with it. Many games will curate the start of the game in such a way that it feels random but in fact it's been designed so we're introduced to each gameplay mechanic. in The New Denpa Men, it feels like the start of the game hasn't been curated, it feels like it's been left as open as possible for all players to engage with. so i've been put into a scenario where there's a fishing mechanic that's not been explained and i have items to give someone on my island, but they're not on my island.
It was nice to get access to more Denpa Men in my party and i felt that it made the combat a little more easier. but it's still frustrating that the game doesn't specify what each of their abilities until they're used in combat. You can only do combat whilst on a mission. so if there's someone in your party that's not needed, you have to either finish the mission or quit.
The New Denpa Men continues to not be very accessible to new players and this second hour reinforces my statement that this is perhaps designed more for fans of the series rather than new ones. It's design feels like it was initially made for phones and was ported to the Switch, maybe Nintendo changed their mind. when starting the game i had to download additional game data which updated the game and it restarted. i had, earlier in the week, updated the game from the Switch home menu. this behaviour of downloading data to update itself is again something more common on mobile games than consoles and not a pleasant experience.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Card-en-Ciel, from the developers Inti Creates.
Reading the eShop listing for the game, i was interested in the game. i thought the story idea was different and i was curious how the card mechanics would work. this demo seems to be from the start of the game and i think it's a great start. the tutorial, the story, the mechanics are all introduced smartly and in a way that feels right for the universe.
After playing an hour, the only thing that felt off was that the text on screen didn't auto scroll and that there didn't seem to be an option to turn it on. This is an older demo but it felt quite polished, which leads me to think that perhaps the Japanese release of the game has already happened.
One great feature of this demo is how it does the tutorials. it doesn't just put up a block of text, there's a video showing it in action. the text could have multiple pages, each with their own video. but what i thought was really cool and something i don't remember seeing else where was how the videos could be made full screen. i've played plenty of games where the picture/gif/video used in the tutorial is small, but here, the ability to make it full screen really felt modern and something that other developers should be looking at implementing.
This first hour is basically the tutorial for the game and each point seems to add a new mechanic to the game. each one isn't huge, but by the end it did feel like there were quite a few things to think about each turn. i don't know if it's a case of too much too soon or just too much in general. i enjoyed the simple mechanics at the start where each card could either do an action or move your character. i thought this was an interesting twist but then the game adds cards which, for example, can be used to avoid an enemies attack and counter them.
After my hour with Card-en-Ciel, i'm genuinely impressed with it. this demo is the start of the game and it shows that Card-en-Ciel is an approachable game that has a good first hour. i would recommend people trying out the demo first. this is a game that ties together a few different genres like card battling, visual novels, and rpgs. fans of each of those may like Card-en-Ciel and this demo is a great place to start.
This week i checked out the free to play game The New Denpa Men, from Genius Sonority. The Denpa Men series is something i'm vaguely aware of from the 3DS but i've never played any of the games. going into this Nintendo Switch version i didn't know what to expect so i was surprised when it revealed itself as a free to play game.
After playing it i looked it up and my thoughts whilst playing the game make sense. something i say a few times is how the game feels old. graphically it's fine, but for a free to play game the tutorial is surprisingly light and very little of what the game is is explained to us. the way the game works and why is not explained to us in a way that makes me think it's a console game and part of a series, whilst the free to play mechanics and microtransactions make it feel like a mobile game.
It's also slow, with an introduction that does little to get across what the world is. all i know is that there is legendary loot, which appears to be from the earlier games, and we're after it so we won't be bullied any more.
The gameplay aspect is more similar to a dungeon crawler. the two locations we've been to so far are varied and give the game a more casual feel. But the game makes it very clear, repeatedly, that if you are wiped out in the dungeon you loose all the loot. if you teleport out of the dungeon you can keep your loot but as you haven't finished it you can't continue the story.
Combat is not explained, but thankfully it's not too difficult except that resources at the start are scarce. so i immediately ran into issues of health and AP (magic abilities). this is kinda compounded by the choice of Denpa Men in my party, but seeing as it wasn't explained to me who i should bring with, let alone which ones i should catch, i imagine this is a situation that many may find themselves in. most modern mobile games rarely leave the start of the game to such luck
After an hour, i've come away feeling like i've not really even started the game. so i may come back next week to see if things improve with an extra hour of play time. but if i was to judge the game after this hour, i wouldn't recommend The New Denpa Men. it doesn't bring anything new whilst also feeling old and unwelcoming, designed for those who played the 3DS games. The Denpa Men's celebrations, or lack there off, when winning a battle sums up my feelings after playing this.
For this weekend's Online Saturday video i played the recently released Season 3 in Star Wars: Hunters on Switch, from developers NaturalMotion Games and Zynga.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Reynatis, from the developers Natsume Atari and FuRyu.
Going in, i didn't know what to expect from Reynatis. But i know of Natsume Atari and FuRyu so i was expecting an RPG. the icon art for this game is really cool and even on Switch i was expecting something vibrant. i can say that after playing this demo, Reynatis is this and much more.
The demo itself is well designed. it's from the start of the game but it's been changed slightly because it's a demo and it lets us know this. but other than not being able to go to some areas i never really felt like i was playing something lesser. at the end of the demo, it also details that our saves will be used in the final game and unlock bonuses for us and then makes us save before it goes to the main menu. A lot of care and attention went into this demo and it showed. this is one of the better demos i've played this year.
It also highlights the start of the game and how good it is. in the hour i played, the demo introduced a lot of the gameplay mechanics, the story concepts, the main characters, possible twists in the story, and also left a few things unanswered, some hooks that'll keep us playing.
The tutorial at the start is good as well. it takes us through the basics of gameplay. what helps is how responsive the controls are in the game. i might argue that the controls are a little too responsive as a couple of times during battles i felt the camera couldn't quite keep up. the combat is in the style of Devil May Cry in how you attack and the rating you get afterwards. there are clear bonuses for getting high ratings, tho it's not always obvious what you need to do to achieve a 3 star rating.
The only other knock against Reynatis from this first hour with it is that it felt like there were too many mechanics. aside from the mechanics for combat and the overworld using witch powers or not, which i consider to be essential to the game, there was a stress mechanic and social mechanic introduced that never really got to be used in this demo so felt unessential and superfluous.
Overall, i had a great time with the demo for Reynatis and i feel that it does well at showing the game. Playing the demo got me interested in the story and having now played it i'm comfortable with how it plays and controls. i would recommend this demo to anyone looking for an action RPG or someone looking for some fun with combat, much like Devil May Cry. i may suggest waiting for some reviews just in-case the rest of the game falls apart of gets weighed down by the mechanics, but it's well worth wish listing.
This week's game is F-Zero X and this is my first time playing it. i've played some of most of the other F-Zero games across GBA, GameCube, Switch, and 3DS but never this one. I think i've played a little of the SNES game, but that's similar to the GBA release so i'm not worried about playing it.
After playing Extreme G a few weeks ago, https://youtu.be/7Y9M26roAs0, i wondered how this game would deal with speed. in that game, it felt like at the highest speeds the only way to navigate tracks was to crash your way round. but i was pleasantly surprised that in F-Zero X i felt more in control.
the tracks were much wider than i expected and whilst that made it easier to race on them, it introduced other issues that i hadn't experienced when playing the more constrictive Extreme G. You'll see throughout this video on every track pop-in. that's when the track or elements of the track pop-in not too far in front of us. whilst it doesn't get in the way of racing as i'm able to see where to go, it's very distracting.
The music choice while fun, also felt a little off. between the music and character art style, it feels like Nintendo was aiming at a specific audience at maybe the detriment to the game. i'm not saying the music was bad, it just didn't gel with the gameplay. with no story, i just didn't get rock music vibes from the gameplay.
I think F-Zero X is fine. i don't think there's a lot of game here
This Stories on Tuesday game is Loopers, also known as ルーパーズ in Japan. i'm playing the Switch version of it, but there are other versions. It was developed by Key and this version was published by Prototype. I'm playing the Japanese version of the game so the audio is in Japanese but there are English Subtitles.
In this Part 1, i included the developer and publisher logos at the start of the game and i also included the music video. In this part i also did nothing with the story. it's just playing out and for nearly the first hour i did nothing but watch.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. so far this is the fourth game in this series and the fourth different way of telling a story. but i hope in Part 2 to play more of a role. But Part 1 was good so far. i am hooked into the story and eager to see where it goes next.
This is a special weekend in #Splatoon3, it's the Big Run Event! our goal here is to save the stage that'll be used in the Grand Festival from the invaders. In Big Run, it's unknown what the waves will be in each match but it is known what score you need to get the three rewards. so my main goal is to get one of the three rewards and to also get this month's Salmon Run item too.
This was such a different gaming session in comparison to yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/Ewzm0wdjcZQ. In that video, we played 10 matches and my team mates and I completed all 3 waves each time. Whereas today, out of the 15 matches we played we were only able to complete all 3 waves three times! it felt like the overall difficulty was much higher today. thankfully, my main goal of improving my score was achieved. But, my recording device ran out of storage during the final wave of the final match, so i'm not able to show you the amazing wave it was. It is a bit of a shame we could only get to 120, it would've been amazing to have gotten the Silver. but honestly, i'm just happy we were able to beat yesterday's score.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game BAKERU, from the developers Good-Feel.
There had been a lot of positive buzz about this game and i was keen to play it. it had been compared to the PS1 and N64 platformers and that's an era i grew up in, playing games like Croc.
It's clear that this is a purpose made demo. i wouldn't be surprised if this was used by video game outlets for their preview coverage. there are 5 different things that we can do in this demo and we did them all in this video.
I started with the video that gave the basic story and what we're going to do. it's fun, but there's no gameplay there. the second part was the "Easy" Tokushima stage. this serves as a tutorial of the game controls and some basic concepts. what caught my attention was how good it all looked. the music was fun, and not a stereotype of Japanese music, and the controls felt responsive. it's difficult to say if this is how the tutorial will work in the final game, but what we have in this demo is maybe a little too basic. many games offer small video clips of gifs to help show some concepts in action. that's not the case here.
The next stage i tried was in Osaka and this was a giant robot vs. giant robot in a city sized ring fighting stage. the combat was fun, it continued to look and play great, but the balance felt a little off. i was beating the enemy robot comfortably and then unexpectedly it got good and made it a harder fight than it had been previously. Next is a shoot'em up stage but not in the traditional side scroller style, whether that's vertical or horizontal. this time it was in the style of Space Harrier! i didn't feel that this was that successful as it was surprisingly difficult to judge where the enemy was in a 3D space. but it was still cool to play and like the rest of the game it was a great looking experience.
The final stage i tried was the "Normal" Aichi stage. this was very different from the Tokushima stage as whilst that was in an open environment, the Aichi stage took place in a city environment. i could also feel the change in difficulty, too. i'm a little concerned that stage difficulty might be something that we ourselves can't change and that some stages will just be harder than others. in a game that felt like it was trying to be as accessible as possible, it would be a weird choice to gate keep the game's story due to the players ability.
This demo for BAKERU is great. choosing to showcase 5 different elements of the game is smart, but it's also smart that it clearly shows that there are still others not yet seen. i would've liked a little more story, but that's not the point of this demo. after playing this demo, i can say that BAKERU is well worth wish listing. it's impressive that this late into the Switch's life cycle a new game can come along and be this good.
This week's game is a nostalgia pick for me. My sister had an #N64 and we sometimes played games together and Extreme G was one of them. i've been wanting to try out this version for a while and so with bad weather today i relaxed with Extreme G.
Going in, i remembered a fair amount of the game. i talk at the start about things like difficulty, passwords, and how it felt like you had to crash to get around the tracks. but what was the hardest at the start was working out what buttons did what! i don't have a N64 controller so for the first race it was a question of pressing all the buttons and working out what they did. LZ is accelerate, for example. once i worked out what they did, i didn't find the layout too troublesome.
As expected, the memories and feelings came flooding back whilst playing it. turns out i remembered pretty much everything except for the music. there's some wonky UI stuff and odd choices, but for the most part it holds up fairly well. the difficulty was a surprise even tho i knew it was difficult. sometimes i had huge wins, sometimes i was far behind, and yet i couldn't tell you the difference. what was nice tho was the enemy Ai. it often felt like they're out to destroy each other, so when you did catch up with them it was because they were attacking each other rather than rubber banding.
I'd recommend Extreme G if you have Nintendo Switch Online. it's not perfect and there is a learning curve, but there's also enough here to have some good times. the tracks have some alternative routes is a great way to play repeatedly without it feeling stale, as is unpredictable nature of the enemy Ai. I kinda liked how the graphics looked on a HDTV instead of the old CRT memories i had.
This week, 4 full games were free to play for Switch Online Members; Tetris Effect: Connected, PowerWash Simulator, Enter the Gungeon and Cassette Beasts. of those, the only one i hadn't played before was Cassette Beasts and i remembered that it got a lot of attention when it came out. In the video, i mistakenly say that the game came out this year when in fact it came out last year, 2023, across many platforms.
I didn't know much going in and i tried to not have many assumptions about the Cassette aspect of the game. i was curious if the developers would lean into the "retro" aspect, maybe give the game an 80's influence, or more into the modern revival of cassettes. after the first hour, it's much more a modern interpretation of cassettes. there was no mention of different materials, there was no 80's aesthetics.
It's always interesting playing a "monster collecting" type game when Pokémon is such an established type, and one i have a lot of experience playing. i need the game to tell me what it is, to describe it's systems, to show me how it differs from such a known playstyle. i feel that Cassette Beasts didn't quite nail it. they went hard with the story, but left too much unknown and talking to other people didn't provide the extra information i was looking for. There were plenty of battles and i feel that their tutorials were fine, but then they mention types and failed to actually explain it in any detail. i did like that when it came to the "why" of cassettes, the answer was we don't know but it works.
This Switch port also had some issues. the obvious one was the pop-in of in-game elements. with a world as sparse as this, it was very obvious when something, like a tree, would pop-in. unfortunately, it happens quite often throughout this video. another issue i noticed at the beginning was that the background didn't seem to scroll smoothly, there was a stutter. Loading was frequent but thankfully not too long, and then near the end there was an instance where the game seemed to freeze for 2-3 seconds. this is a case where i feel like i'm playing an inferior version of a game. i wouldn't say it's very inferior, this Switch port of Cassette Beasts is playable. but it's noticeable enough where i feel that a Xbox Series version would be a smoother experience.
Cassette Beasts does have some interesting ideas. i liked the idea of Fusion but it felt like it took a long time for that to power up and i only got to use it once. having a shared pool of monsters was also an interesting decision, but without knowing types and what's effective against what it wasn't too useful. there's also a feature where you can "Rewind" a cassette to bring a monster back to full health, but there's no way to know what the health is of any of the monsters from that screen. The whole Monster Catching mechanic was interesting, too. but i don't think it was explained as well as i could've been. unlike Pokémon, when you go to catch a monster it can take several turns and when you do it's more like you saved a copy of the monster to tape and the original monster is still there on screen for you to defeat.
After my first hour with Cassette Beasts on Switch, i'm not too sure i want to buy the game and continue. i don't think that it's a great hour. the game does tease at the game's story and other activities like trying to become a Ranger, but the technical issues and little things like the writing don't give me enthusiasm to continue.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team has just been added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. On GBA i played the "mainline" Pokémon games on Game Boy Advance but i never tried the Mystery Dungeon games. they were something my cousins had so i thought of them as games for younger children and never tried them.
Going into it, i new that there would be a personality test that would determine the Pokémon you'd start as, tho i didn't know what possible Pokémon i could be, but other than that this was all new to me. even the style of game, a descending dungeon explore, is fairly new and something i haven't got much experience with.
If i'm honest, i was expecting more from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team than what i got. the Pokémon look good, the graphics are good, and the music is somewhat good. but i found the gameplay to be slow, repetitive, and confusing. i was expecting a tutorial that just never came, tho there's a chance this was in the game manual, and there were terms and ideas i just never understood. Like the whole hunger thing, why did it only apply to me?
I also think i had controller issues as i was pressing buttons only for nothing to happen on screen. i can't believe that this was the actual game's fault and think it's the emulator being used to play it. But the game did have it's own issues, like the missing newspaper in the mailbox, poor UI, and too many menus.
I strongly recommend using the services suspend point option and save frequently. the difficulty spiked so fast i was completely unprepared for it. i feel like the game does a poor job at explaining how to prepare for missions as by the #Diglett mission i was ill-prepared and saving every floor. the difficulty is also hard to manage as Pokémon just keep respawning. it's easy to get into a poor matchup, and with the controls as slow as they were i was often missing or miss clicking.
As a part of Pokémon history, it's worth trying. but don't force yourself. it's a poor example of a Pokémon game and a poor example of a dungeon explorer. By the time i finished the Diglett mission, i wasn't having fun and i won't be coming back to it. i would be interested in trying out the remake, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, or a later title, like Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, as i'd hope they would be better in every respect than Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team.
