Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS3 game Zack Zero on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.
This wasn't the game i had planned to play. i had planned to play LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. it was a game i couldn't get to work when the service was PlayStation Now. but this video, https://youtu.be/2jHnCIfBhDw, shows that i couldn't get it to work. Zack Zero was chosen because it was a game i could quickly get to to test to see if it worked or not.
And it did work! and i played it for over an hour, too! it was totally unexpected so i really went in knowing nothing about the game or what it was. a lot of the game pleasantly surprised me. it was a little rough in places and somewhat repetitive with, annoyingly, respawning enemies. but i kept on playing as i was, for the most part, enjoying playing it.
Whilst the game had it's own issues, streaming it was mostly fine. i would guess that there was maybe a 5 minute window where there were some streaming issues. they were noticeable, but they never got in the way of playing the game itself. there were some stream tearing and some macro blocking, but i'd argue that the game's own issues were far more of a distraction than the comparatively brief period of streaming issues.
This week i decided to try out the Super Nintendo App that's part of the Nintendo Switch Online. i had a Mega Drive growing up so i didn't get to play the SNES beyond Super Mario World that my cousins had. on the Game Boy Advance App, i have been playing Maro Kart Super Circuit for fun in my spare time so i was curious what the original game would be like.
i am familiar with the original game, in that i've seen videos of it and heard people talking about it. but i haven't sat down and played it myself before. so in a way i broadly knew what to expect. in some ways i was surprised, i played the game using Pixel Perfect mode and i was impressed as to how well the graphics hold up. certain characters look strange, Yoshi being the prime example, but the bold simple designs of the tracks and backgrounds were great.
it did take time to get used to how it played. modem Mario Kart games use a drift mechanic that also gives you boost as you charge it up. however in this game, and the GBA version, the drift isn't quite the same. the main use seems to be jumping, with a little drift and no boost. another difference is how the weapons work. you can't hold weapons behind you nor can you fire the green shell behind as it's just placed on the track. it also seems that each character has their own unique weapon(s) rather than how it is now where there are no unique weapons as each character can use all of them.
Today i'm playing Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. This weekend it's a special event where you can earn a Fire Emblem: Engage theme buy earning 100 points.
it's a short video this week as it didn't take too long to get 100 points needed for the theme. most games i played, i was in the top 50. i didn't make it to top 10 tho. i found the competition this weekend really tough. i also had a few moments where the controller seemed to not do what i wanted it to do.
It's a nice theme. Let me know how the cup went for you. did you get a win?
This sixteenth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Redout: Space Assault. I Played this as part of my Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series, but the game has been out for a few years on Apple Arcade and is now out across other platforms.
When i chose to play this game, it didn't cross my mind that this game would be from the team who made the Redout racing games. I only found that out later. i also didn't go in knowing that the game was going to be as on rails as it was.
But that didn't detract from the game. in a way, it being on rails let me focus on the enemies and story. the same applies to the game taking over shooting controls. when my ship had a target locked, it would shoot. when there wasn't a ship there it wouldn't. this meant i had to control my ships movement along the path and the missile power-up. later, when i had switched to a controller, i would gain the ability to barrel roll dodge manually.
controlling the game with my fingers wasn't that bad. it was pretty responsive and accurate. the controls were also located to the side of where the main action took place so it didn't get in the way. when i switched to the bluetooth controller, initially there wasn't any change to the screen. but not long after i started trying out the buttons, on screen prompts appeared saying what some buttons did. this continued into the game and with new tutorials, too. i felt that the game did control better with a controller, i think you'll notice that i died less with a controller in comparison to not using one.
The game did have some issues. the biggest one is that the game crashed to my phone's home screen after completing the first mission. thankfully, the game had saved so when i restarted the game it was ready for me to start the second stage. i also noticed some slow down and minor stutters. they didn't get in the way of what was happening but they were noticeable. The Dynamic Island also got in the way now and then. the biggest issue was that on the right side there were often labelled character portraits. the Dynamic Island got in the way of most of the picture and the character names.
Redout: Space Assault is a good game to show off Apple Arcade. Even tho it's an older title, it still looks great. the music is good, too. what's cool about this game is that whilst on a TV, iPad, or older iPhone it'll look better than on a newer iPhone 14 Pro due to the Dynamic Island getting in the way, it's still a great match for the phone because of how short the levels are. most i did were under 5 minutes long. Also, because the game helps with the controls, holding the phone is also easy and stable. The only downside to playing on the phone, and something i forgot to mention at the end of the review, is that my phone got hot. most games in this series get my phone to varying levels of warm. but for this game i would say my phone got hot to touch. not too hot, but still hot.
Today's video is part 4 of playing Papo & Yo on PlayStation 3.
Part 3 was a long video where i managed to complete puzzle after puzzle. i had a good time doing so and it felt great to work out some of the more tricky ones. But today, i couldn't complete this puzzle.
This video is nearly 40 minutes of me trying to complete a single puzzle. i feel like i had the right idea, but i couldn't get it to work. please offer some tips in the comments. i'll check out a guide or two before Part 5.
Today's video is part 3 of playing Papo & Yo on PlayStation 3.
Part 3 turned out to be much longer than expected. This game doesn't have many breaks as it mostly flows from puzzle to puzzle, story to story. the previous two parts ended after the game switched to a real world event. but i didn't get to the next one in this video.
i found this part to be a little more difficult than the other two videos. i needed more time to solve the puzzles, especially the house stacking puzzle. But i was pleased how i solved the soccer pitch puzzle. this game handles puzzles really well, everything is there.
Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!
I play and earn all the achievements from The Pixel Nevan Cup! (2023/3/20 9:00～2023/3/27 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.
As there were no objections in the previous video, i once again have edited this one a little to make it shorter. but as you can see it's still a long one.
This week's cup didn't go well. i did get a win, but it was surprising how difficult it was. i thought i understood what the gimmick was this week but it didn't seem to be that powerful. Many of the other human opponents i was up against also got low scores or scores close to mine so it seems like it was a fairly common problem. maybe if i played more i would've worked it out, but the point of this series is to go out and get all the achievements.
But the time it took shows i got some real low positions. let me know how it went for you, maybe you can see what my strategy was and offer some tips as to what i needed to do differently.
