Demo Play Thursday - UNABLES On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game UNABLES, developed for consoles by Forever Entertainment.

From the eShop page, i mostly knew how this was going to work. It reminded me of puzzle games back in the PS3 era, in a good way. I wanted to play the demo as i was curious just how well it would actually control.

There are two ways to control the game, the default is via the analogue sticks and there's an optional gyroscope (motion controls) mode. i stuck with the default but there were no options to finely tune them. with motion controls, you can tune the sensitivity. but there's nothing for the default. i personally found them to be too sensitive and not offering fine controls. the first couple of stages can be a bit of a blur because of how fast the camera is moving and swinging around the stage.

I can imagine it'll get easier with time, but this demo only offered 3 stages. each one awards stars for completing tasks in each level. I'm not a fan of these sort of games, gatekeeping the game behind ability seems like a waste of game. especially when you get stuck like i did. i couldn't do the final stage of the demo. i did enjoy the other two, but if i'm getting stuck so early on i worry that i won't be able to complete the first set of levels as i wouldn't get enough stars. there doesn't seem to be a way to play the locked levels in easy mode either. so if i can't progress and i can't play them in easy mode, my guess would be i'd stop playing. Even the demo locked the second and third stages behind star requirements!

Each of the three stages looked very different from each other and what we had to do in them were very different. in the first stage, our goal was to interact with the environment in very simple ways. but in the second stage we  had to interact with our opponent and the referee. The third stage was the most difficult as we had to manipulate a victim across their crime scene. The problem i had more than once was that if the victim gets to their chalk outline, nothing else interacts with them. but i still had a tommy gun and no idea what to do with it. the level didn't finish until i told it to or until the time ran out.

But that incident highlighted that this is a tough puzzle game. there is no hint system and seemingly there is a correct order to solves the puzzles in. I enjoyed the idea behind it but i wanted to play this casually. the ramp up in puzzle difficulty was far too steep even for this demo. i appreciate the creativeness and ideas in each level, but it does feel like difficulty became even more difficult for them to manage. after playing the demo i feel like i wouldn't be able to progress and i would get frustrated that level design got in the way of the puzzle.

UNABLES is a great looking game and i did enjoy the music. i recommend people try out the demo, it does a good job of getting the puzzle ideas across and what is possible. But as for the getting the game, i could only recommend it for those who like a challenging puzzle game and play for that challenge and not for those who play puzzle games casually.

Backlog Conquering - Kamiko On Switch - Part 1 - The First Two Stages

This is part 1 of playing the Nintendo Switch version of Kamiko, from developers SKIPMORE, as part of Backlog Conquering. 

I decided to move on from Teslagrad as i just wasn't enjoying the experience. I'm glad i did as this video on Kamiko was much more enjoyable. This is a game i've had for a long time. i remember hearing about it on a podcast where they highlighted the excellent soundtrack and that it can be beaten before the battery on the Switch dies. But since then, all i remember doing is starting the game, enjoying the soundtrack, closing the game whilst i looked for the soundtrack, and i don't think i ever came back to it.

For this series, i've started a new save file rather than use the existing one. I would've preferred a bit more of a tutorial, but as it only uses two buttons it didn't take long to work it out so it's not that bad. The only other thing i would've liked is a map, but again as the stages aren't too big it wasn't much of an issue as it didn't take long to sort myself out.

It's clear that Kamiko isn't designed to be a challenge. It may stop and make you think for a bit, but often you'll be fine. It does mean that when you do get stuck, it is a little frustrating as you feel like it should be easier than you're making it look.

The music is definitely a highlight, but i also do enjoy the art style. They're using a 8/16 bit esthetic very smartly. all the enemies are distinct, the world is clear and easy to navigate, and each of the two stages i've played so far looked different from each other and yet familiar enough to feel cohesive as a game world.

I look forward to part 2 of playing Kamiko as i had a lot of fun with Part 1.

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - Part 4

Hello and welcome to Part 4 of the new series here on QTE Gamers!

The goal with Stories on Tuesday is to play games with a heavy focus on their story. this can be Visual Novel games, like today's game, or it can be something more episodic. For me, it's a style of game i've not really explored. i have several games across a few platforms that i haven't played but i bought them because i wanted to. So now the time has come for me to experience these sorts of games.

Our debut game is Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz. I have the game on PS4 via DISC but i'll be playing the PlayStation Plus version of the game that's been downloaded to my PlayStation 4.

In this part, i died! I'm as surprised as you are. the sequence that lead up to it was obviously quite perilous and i thought i was making some smart choices. But when my in-game character failed to do what i expected them to do, i genuinely didn't know what was the correct choice . This is probably the worst outcome of the game as it's the first time you can die and i died. But i will continue as this is just a flashback and in the game i'm still alive. But once we get back to the "real world", maybe i won't continue if i die! If that's where my story ends, then so be it.

If you're interested in watching the stories unfold without my commentary, head over to Ko-Fi. there, you can subscribe to the "Stories on Ko-Fi" which will let you watch all the stories. This tier will always be one week ahead of the free video on QTE Gamer's YouTube Channel. Or, of course, you can head to https://ko-fi.com/qtegamers and donate via PayPal.

Cloud Monday - Resistance: Retribution - Part 2 - The Streaming Experience Is Better Than The Game

This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of the PSP game Resistance: Retribution  via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I have this game on #PlayStationPortable but it's been a very long time since i last played it. Playing Part 1, https://youtu.be/jEs97ouESk8, felt nostalgic but it was a different experience for me as i played it on the PSP rather than on TV using the Dual Shock 3 on PSP option. The only way to make that work well was to adjust the controller speed and overall it felt more difficult and intense than you would've expected for the start of the game.

Knowing that, i did think that part 2 was easier. not just that i had adjusted the controls to make it easier to play, but also it felt like the level design got a little easier. Still, it continued to be an intense experience with game design that made me wonder if this was a PS2 game that got switched to the PS3 because of how much of a console experience it felt like not just in levels design but also with how infrequent the auto save is and how long some sequences are.

Streaming it tho continued to be a great experience. If this was just the PSP game, i wouldn't recommend it. but because it's been ported to the PS4 and got manual saves and rewinds, it's something i can recommend. in this video there was a moment where the stream quality dipped and i got the connection warning but i didn't panic as i could use the manual save and quickly did so. 

So this still comes to down the game itself. like last week, streaming it from the cloud to us is great but is the game itself worth playing. across both parts there have been more technological issues with the game than streaming issues. with the controls being as bad as they are, this basic port makes a bad first impression and i wonder if they could've done more like automatically setting the control options faster. If you're a fan of Resistance, then this is the best way and easiest way to play this game. in that case it's easy to recommend. but i wouldn't recommend this game for people if this is their first Resistance game. I probably wouldn't recommend this to causal shooter fans either. But, personally, i am glad this does exist on PS4 and hope that it'll be further fixed and improved.

Switch Funday - Mario Tennis - My First Time Playing This Super Hard Game That I Couldn't Beat

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the Game Boy Color game Mario Tennis. I've always wanted an arcadey tennis game that's more on the casual side and i initially went into this thinking it would be one of those games with popular #Mario characters, but right at the beginning i realized that Mario Tennis is not like that.

Even tho i had a Game Boy Color, i had the purple one, i never looked at the Mario sports games on them. i was more into Pokémon, racing, Loony Toons,  and platformers. I knew of them, but never bothered trying them. i kept thinking i would play these sort of games on the GameCube. So i was really surprised as to what this game actually is.

And what it is is a super hard tennis game that i couldn't beat. i couldn't even beat the tutorial practice stages! I can't believe how difficult it is. it's like the "Dark Souls" of tennis games. the tutorial practice stages offer no hints how to play and when you fail it's the same canned response. playing against other players is also a very long battle against a CPU that seems to want to win even tho it's a practice game.

Mario Tennis is a Game Boy Color game and yet it feels built around a console experience. it's surprising that a handheld game would have such a long introduction and such long tennis matches without even mentioning if there are manual saves, auto saves, or even how to do it. When i found the save function under "Start" the only thing i could do was save and quit. i couldn't seem to find a save and continue function.

the two highlights for Mario Tennis are the graphics, except for the characters as there seems to be no design language as everyone looks different, and the music. Even the minigames weren't fun and that's what i ended the video with. Mario Tennis is the Dark Souls of tennis games and not one i would recommend to anyone other than people really into tennis and Dark Souls, if such a Venn Diagram exists. 

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Feeling Sick So Here's 15 Games Of Turf War Where I Try 3 Weapons

Welcome to Online Saturday.

I'm not feeling well today and wanted to relax with some gaming. i chose Splatoon 3 as it's a favorite of mine. There won't be any commentary, other than an intro and outro, as i wasn't feeling great and wanted to just relax. But after 15 games it was time to put it down as it started to be anything but relaxing as i was getting far too into it!

I used this time to try out 3 weapons. The Recycled Brella 24 Mk 1 came out with the 7.0.0 Patch and i was eager to try it as i like using Brella weapons. i had fun with it and will probably use it a lot going forward. i just don't like the Angle Shooter and Big Bubbler it comes with. I didn't enjoy the Foil Flingza Roller as much when attacking with it, but for inking it was very impressive and i managed to get some splats with it's Suction Bomb. The Nautilus 47 is a style of weapon i rarely use outside of #SalmonRun so i used it more out of curiosity than anything else. it did allow me to be more attacking and i got more splats with it than the other two combined. it's not bad so i may look at the other Nautilus variants to see if there's one a better fit for how i like to play.

Mobile Friday - Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games - It Looks Great But The Grind Comes Too Soon

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games, also known as Lumbercat: Cute Idle Tycoon, from  @treepllainc6467 .  I Played this on my iPhone 14 Pro, but it's also out on Android.

This isn't the first game from treeplla that i've played for Mobile Friday. Last year i tried out Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4, but the grind in that game came fast and it started not being fun to play. i wanted to know if things had changed after a year in terms of their game design.

From the beginning, it's clear that their character design hasn't changed and i personally think that's a good thing as it helps their games stand out more against all the other idle games with animals as part of the story. I like how bold and bright the colors are in the background and how clear everything is. Whereas the cats themselves are a little more muted or pastel in color. they're also not as clear and sharp as the background but i think it works as it gives them more of a "fluffy" feel.

But by the 10 minute mark i was already feeling the grind. there is a lot of depth to this game and much more to unlock than what is shown in the video. but it's that initial pacing that they don't get right. Many idle games have the same problem, but i feel they tend to succeed in hiding the grind through things such as an expanded tutorial that helps the player not only through the first stage but also into the second stage, using the second stage for reminders.

Whilst i was making some progress, it was also starting to be clear that progress was slowing down to such an extent that it was like the game wanted me to put it down. the amount of money needed was just getting too much. But there's another element that didn't get enough of a tutorial and that's the mangers. I don't know if you can only get them via loot boxes or not. I'm not even sure how or when i can get loot boxes in game outside of the store. The store wasn't introduced and when i opened it there wasn't another tutorial detailing what each of the currencies were and what they did. These are things that could be delt with better that would also help cover the grind.

The only obtrusive advert i came across was from the game itself. i don't mind self promotion, but if that promotion has currencies and things we've yet to be introduced to then it's poorly timed. I do like that there are optional adverts and the game has some interesting benefits for the player when using them. i felt that these were rarely obnoxious and mostly clear. so some room for improvement but what they have is good.

Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games is a fine idle game. it's pacing makes it feel like it wants the player to play in short bursts and that would be good for people who are commuting. there is a lot left to unlock, i just worry that it'll take a long time and feel like it took a long time.

Version 1.0.13 Played.