Mobile Friday - The Get Out Kids - A Highly Recommended Great Looking Free Narrative Puzzle Game

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Get Out Kids from Frosty Pop on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've not been great at narrative puzzle games. there are times when the game's logic and my logic don't match and it can become frustrating trying to solve long winded puzzles. an example of this is when i played When the Past Was Around on Switch. some of the shorter puzzles in that game were fine, but there were times i just didn't understand what it expected me to do. Ultimately it was the story that kept me going, and you can check out that video at https://youtu.be/DAdBca0e-mI.

The Get Out Kids starts with a fairly unique characterful home screen. when i hit the Let The Adventure Begin button i was pleasantly surprised by how many chapters there were to this story. it gave me hope that The Get Out Kids was going to be more story focused than puzzle based. it starts with a prologue that tells a rather sad story with text on screen. for me, i had no issue with the size of the font, but it would've been nice to have a font size option for better accessibility as other aspects of the game allow us to zoom in to see things better but this part doesn't.

With the sad story finished, we time skip to what i assume to be the game's present and a couple of the main characters. After some story and introductions to them, we start with Molly's room and it looks great. there's a lot of character in the room, the same with Salim's room too, but it's not overwhelming. everything was nice and clear and easy to work out what's what. in this room and the next, our goals were simply find stuff and maybe do a light puzzle or two.

It's now Chapter 3 and this was a very short chapter that had a simple puzzle before we got some story from the town about a pet goat. then it's Chapter 4 and the final chapter i did for this video. in another beautifully rendered location we're tasked with making a noise and creating an escape. each puzzle happens in turn so it never felt overwhelming but what stood out the most to me here, other than the floating heads, was the text for Molly's dog Moses. the game didn't need to give the dog some character, it would've made sense by what had happened in the story for the dog to go when it was told to. but the developers wrote 3 sentences about this dog's character and temperament that weren't needed but really added to the game.

Back at the home screen, on the left side there's an icon for Computer Games and i tried out the 7 bite sized games that come free with The Get Out Kids. they're retro styled but have some modern ideas. i really liked the first one, Spaced Out, and think it could be it's own separate game in a Bit.Trip or Geometry Wars style game. the game i didn't understand was SeeSaw.

i really enjoyed my time with The Get Out Kids. one reason why i stopped playing the story when i did was because i wanted to take my time with it, maybe record the story as part of my Stories on Tuesday series because i was enjoying it. but it wasn't just the story, i enjoyed the tasks needed to progress the story. it really felt like a game crafted for a mobile experience. The Get Out Kids is a game i would recommend to anyone with an iPhone and it's seriously making a challenge as one of my Mobile Game of the Year games. if i could make a suggestion to the developers, it's that i'd like an option to turn the background music down. at present, there's only on or off but i'd like a halfway level of volume. other than that, i can't think of anything else The Get Out Kids needs.

Version 1.0.2 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Time Walker: Dark World On Switch

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.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 8 – Thirteenth and Fourteenth "Belles' Hells"

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.

We didn't get much story in this week's video, but the hells we visited were somewhat interesting. the first one had the saddest, and most confusing, story so far whilst the second saw us facing off against enemies wearing dessert themed hats or back packs, similar to how the flower themed enemies were dressed during the hay fever hell.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

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

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/eO_uzz3XnD0

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/1sfrvextYrc

Stories on Tuesday - Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi - Part 2

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS3 PSN version of Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. I've not played an Otome style game before and whilst this style of game may not be marketed or aimed at me, i'm still curious to try it out and see what the story is.

The thing that stood out the most from Part 1 were the characters that the game kept introducing. it felt like not a lot happened in my first hour with the game. in this part, time wise in the game's story, more time has passed and it felt like we got to have some character growth for ourselves and we got a better look at how the game world works. We also got to make a couple more choices for ourselves and how they were handled in the game was how i imagined the choices i made playing out.

Switch Funday - Banjo-Kazooie - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

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!

Demo Play Thursday - Angel at Dusk On Switch

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.

Backlog Conquering - Poison Control On PS4 - Part 7 – Eleventh and Twelfth "Belles' Hells"

*There's no commentary from me, my audio software crashed 3 times and i couldn't save it.

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.

The two Belle's Hells i did in this video went fairly quickly and felt mostly fine difficulty wise. what was interesting were the little bits of story that helped flesh out how hell works but also that we didn't deal with the "big bad" when going to the second circle of hell.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/zYr-gRR3IOc

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

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/zT1rBNYyQjk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/XMMKLAVubzg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/esbFvPyDyy0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/eO_uzz3XnD0