Switch Funday - Omega Strikers - 3 Wins From 7 Games For Team RubberRoss

Welcome to Switch Funday!

In yesterday's first look at Omega Strikers on Nintendo Switch, https://youtu.be/6HeCdaJLbMo, the focus was more on checking it out and seeing what was on offer. For Switch Funday the goal was to play it. In less than an hour i managed to get 7 games in, and it could've been as much as 8 or 9 if i had tried. it's a great example of how quick the games are but also how quick it is to find a match.

many of the small complaints from yesterday carry over into today, things like a lack of a sense of speed, a lack of player character clarity, and a general feeling that the gear and awakenings add nothing to the experience. But i don't think they impact the game enough where it becomes not a fun experience. I've certainly had a worse time with bigger games, namely when i played Overwatch 2 on PS4 and Switch.

But a problem the game has it that it's on the Switch, a console that has perhaps the most popular online games of recent years. Omega Strikers is fun, but i can't honestly say it's more fun than Splatoon 3. i haven't tried out Fortnite on switch but i do know more people who play it there than on PlayStation. It will be interesting to see what the support is like for the game post launch and what it can do to grab attention. for example, i won't play it for this upcoming weekend's videos because of the Splatoon 3 Zelda Splatfest. 

Online Saturday - Omega Strikers - The First Hour

Welcome to Online Saturday!

Today i'm playing Omega Strikers on Nintendo Switch. the game came out a day or two ago so this is my first hour with the game during it's debut weekend.

Going in, i didn't know too much about it other than what the Nintendo e-shop store page said about it. but one of the most surprising things about it was how slow it felt. one of the first comments i make about the game during the training is just how slow it is. It's something i'll say about the game a few times whilst playing and thinking back it's probably the biggest negative i have with it.

There are a few other minor negative feelings i have about the game, but it's mostly UI stuff. but in terms of core gameplay it's mostly fine. but the the game never felt fast enough, in nearly every game i was left wanting more speed or a sprint button at the very least. the only other thing about playing it that i feel is worth mentioning is that quite a few times i lost track of my own character on the pitch. the game is designed so that the whole pitch is on screen. this means, even on tv, the camera is somewhat zoomed out. there's something about this camera and the character design that makes it really hard to keep track of what's happening at times. it's also somewhat hard to work out what the other players are doing as the animations, whilst happening,  are also small. at the very least i'd like an option for a zoom camera, kinda like something you'd have in a Pinball game, or a lock on that keeps your character in the center.

For it being it's debut weekend, i found the game to have solid online. not once did a game drop and the waiting times were as low as Splatoon 3! it's free to play and i had fun in the first hour i played with it. Omega Strikers manages that first hour very well. the tutorial is a little heavy but goes over the basic gameplay loop using in-game examples, which is greatly appreciated. the Missions are also designed in such a way that it encourages you to explore the menus and customisation options. as you progress through the missions, you unlock other features such as the shop. that's something i'm a fan of, and one of the bigger complaints i have with mobile games is how quick they are to open the shop whilst explaining nothing about it. 

Omega Strikers is a free to play game and one that i recommend trying out. it's one i will be keeping on my Switch, but won't replace Splatoon 3 as my go to online multiplayer game. but it's one i will keep coming back to. if there are online events, i may pop in every month to take part. for example, this month is a Creators Vs. event. you can select to represent a Creator and as you win you earn points for them. in this video, i chose to fight for  @RubberRoss  . whilst i was only able to get a single win for his team. it was fun. (also, check out his YouTube Channel. i do enjoy not only the art but how much fun he has with his friends) 

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 5 - Beating my Final Boss, But Not Malicious

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 5 of playing Malicious on PS3.

I finally did it, i beat the boss. well, i defeated my final boss. this game uses a Mega Man style where you can fight any of the boss characters in any order you want. the main difference is that in Malicious, not only do you get a new ability but your opponents also get tougher. this can be seen in this video, and the last one, where there were enemies everywhere! 

But i didn't manage to beat the game. the goal of the first part of the game is to defeat the bosses who have kept some of the power for themselves. our character was created/summoned for the sole purpose of beating Malice, but before that we have to defeat 5 bosses. now i have defeated all five, i'm powered up and ready to fight Malice.

The fight against Malice is NUTS! and i couldn't beat it.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 4 - Failing to Beat The Final Boss

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 4 of playing Malicious on PS3.

The title gives it away, this video is me failing over and over again trying to beat the final boss of the game. it's the same boss i failed to beat in the first and second videos, too. what's heartening is that i am making progress. i got closer than ever to beating the boss and i feel like i'm learning more and more. But, as you can imagine, at the time it's incredibly frustrating.

I will do a part 5, i really want to defeat the boss and see the ending, unless there's more of course. i just hope it comes easier and quicker than this video. this is probably the closest i've come to getting proper angry whilst playing a game for QTE Gamers since i restarted things.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Michael Cup - Achievement Run

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 Michael Cup! (2023/4/24 9:00～2023/5/1 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This wasn't a great cup for me. the actual recording took over an hour! i didn't win nor did i get to the final boss character. i was often stymied by the second round of enemies! if i could beat them i would get stuck against another monster. it was strange how that seemed to happen to me more than other players, tho some did get some low scores like myself.

This week i played against:

まるまん - Rank 64

TheGolden - Rank 77

UANI - Rank 58 (Vani?)

いーあるふぁんくらぶ - Rank 62

☆あや☆ - Rank 64

キラ - Rank 71

なつき - Rank 64

まさとし - Rank 70

☆REI☆ - Rank69

Cloud Monday - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - Part 1 - A Few Issues Throughout

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS4 game Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

This is a game that i've been interested in for a long time. it's art style has always interested me and now it's on the PlayStation Plus Premium service i took this opportunity to play it. i also thought that it's bright bold clear art style would highlight the highs and lows of streaming the game. and it did.

First things first, i'm fairly sure we saw a new issue in this video, Zebra Striping! i don't know the technical name for it, but this seems the most apt. there were a few occasions where instead of the bright colorful art, it was replaced with stripes of black and white (or maybe a greyish color). it kinda felt a bit like stream tearing so maybe the information was just missing. it didn't happen often,  but as the title hints at, but that was the case with many other things in this video.

There wasn't just one issue in this video. each of the usual suspects, macroblocking, stream tearing, resolution dips, etc, cropped up at some point. it was often just one thing at a time and not for very long. it's like the video is peppered with occasional blips of issues but no one big thing. the issue is, even tho it didn't get in the way of gameplay it was very noticeable because of the games bright clear art style. each time it happened, even if it was brief, it stuck out like a sore thumb.

So on one hand it was fine to play, on the other it was distracting and took me out of the experience of playing the game. i'll do part 2 next week at a different time and day so we can see if it's something that persists.

Switch Funday - Pulseman - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week the Mega Drive App, that's part of the Nintendo Switch Online, was updated with new games. i had heard of all but one of the games so i went with Pulseman for this video. It's a game that didn't come out in the UK and it wasn't one i had heard of. well, seeing the game and hearing it's from Game Freak did trigger some sort of memory but nothing i could fully remember.

It was fun playing it tho. it felt very much of it's time and as i grew up playing the Mega Drive, and Master System, it was kinda nostalgic playing it. the level design, the character style, the music all worked well together. those backgrounds tho ... i said it in the video ... they're bananas! 

it's both impressive and pointless at the same time. the backgrounds look technologically impressive, doing things i've not really seen outside of a Sonic special stage. but they didn't seem to really add much to the game either. But, and i said this in the video, the backgrounds could stand out more in Pixel Perfect mode on a modern TV than they did back on a CRT. 

I did have fun playing it. it was a little tough but that could be a mix of it being my first time with the game and the time it's been since i've played such a platformer on the Mega Drive. i'm glad that there was a rewind feature but the game isn't too stringent with health. there are three hearts and each hit doesn't mean you loose all of one. in a way, that helped make the game feel more approachable. the only real downside was the levels. they're big and there seems to be more than one way to get from A to B. but it's never clear if the exit you reached is the real one, nor is there any clear indication if there's a TV in every level or if there's a need to go in them always.

If you have the Mega Drive as part of Nintendo Switch Online, i do recommend that you give it a go. but use the rewind feature.

Online Saturday - Tetris 99 - Getting Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe Edition Theme

Welcome to Online Saturday!

Today i'm playing Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. This weekend it's a special event where you can earn a Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe theme by earning 100 points.

this video ended up being a little longer than i expected. i had treid to do an extra video at the end with a little commentary about how it had gone. but i hadn't started recording my audio so in the end there are 3 extra matches of Tetris 99 after i got the theme.

Getting the theme wasn't too bad. apart from 1 game, i think i got into the top 50 each time. of course my goal is top try and win one as i've never managed to do that in all the games of Tetris 99 i've played. some of the games in this video were especially challenging as it felt like i was always on the defensive. i was being attacked so much that all i could do is clear what they had sent my way meaning i didn't have a chance to send much to them. a couple of matches also felt like there were taking a long time, like we were all hanging in for a long time.

It's a nice theme. Let me know how the cup went for you. did you get a win?

Mobile Friday - Tomb Raider Reloaded - A Different Take on a Tomb Raider Game

Mobile Friday this week is Tomb Raider Reloaded, a recently released game that's out across iOS and Android stores from developers Emerald City Games and publishers CDE Entertainment.

I'll admit that this is the most of a Tomb Raider game i've played since the first one came out on PS1! it's a series that i've never really played, and i won't say which it is but it's not the biggest series i've never played/played much of. So going in, i didn't particularly care about how they treated the serie's past.

I think you'll see throughout the video that the game never really grabs me. for the most part, in the 50 minutes i played, the gameplay was mostly solid. i say mostly because controlling it still felt a little off. i thought that maybe there was some lag or some issue with where you were controlling the game on screen. for example, on screen you can see where i initially touched to move. but my finger would be much further away from that spot by the end. the game also did the thing of saying we could buy something for it with no context as to what any of it meant. i don't mind free to play games advertising their own items/bundles/deals/etc... But what i do mind is when they offer something that the game itself hasn't explained/tutorialized or even been shown in the game.

It's a great looking game. i don't mind the art direction they went with for Lara's design. the music is fairly minimum and didn't grab me that much, but i did like the voice acting. it's just that i was getting bored by the end. we played through soo many stages in this video and they were mostly the same premise. we also did a couple of boss battles and they felt like bullet sponges. the game feels slow. in one way that makes our character feel more human whilst those around maybe a tad faster. but it also slows down the pace of the game that kinda goes agains the games own design. the stages are small, they feel like they should be completed fast. but Lara moves a little slow, the enemies take more bullets than you think they'd need, and the lack of rumble disconnects the player from the action in an unexciting way.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 3 - 2 More Bosses Defeated

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 3 of playing Malicious on PS3.

With part 2, https://youtu.be/pps7CfcmAow, being such a success i came into part 3 with some confidence. i didn't try that stage that has bested me across two videos so far, so that meant i would be trying two new stages. and like part 2, i managed to defeat those bosses!

It was interesting facing off against them as they were strangely similar. the first boss could fly and was fairly fast. the second boss could climb and jump and was even faster. and yet, the boss fight was completely different between them. the key difference was the stage itself. one stage was very open, the other was narrow and vertical. this meant it felt like the stages were just as much as part of the boss as the boss was itself.

This means, going into part 4, there is just one boss left. the same boss i've not yet managed to defeat. and whilst i've been getting stronger after each boss and getting new moves and abilities, the game keeps telling me that my opponents have also gotten stronger. so i go into part 4 not completely sure i'll be able to defeat the final boss at my first attempt.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 2 - 2 Bosses Defeated

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 2 of playing Malicious on PS3.

The first part of playing Malicious, https://youtu.be/ButMJkFE_P4, didn't go well. i played for nearly an hour but i was unable to beat the one boss i tried. I began to think that today would be the same, especially as i couldn't remember what some of the controls were, more specifically the power attacks and healing.

But with a bit of luck in randomly pressing buttons to find out what they did, i found i could change weapons. i never discovered this in part 1 and finding this in part 2 changed everything. couple this discovery with myself getting into the groove on how to play this game, part 2 became a lot more fun than part 1.

The game continues to look great and we got to see two new locations. the controls are still a little off, and we ended up needing to use more buttons too! but now there was hope and a drive to go forward. so there will be a part 3 and i will try out some other locations.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Apollo Cup - Achievement Run

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 Apollo Cup! (2023/4/17 9:00～2023/4/24 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This was a better week. i got a lot of top 3 finishes. but yet again i was unable to beat the boss. the gimmick was clear, get a big combo. but that also meant that it felt like this cup was done to luck more than skill. only once or twice did it look like my opponents beat the boss and often they scored similar to me. So whilst it felt easy, it also feels like i didn't quite get it right.

This week i played against:

たくむ（まやごはん）- Lvl 59

くうたん - Lvl 59

KrisKros - 49

Lee - Lvl 60

Cloud Monday - Dragon Quest Heroes - Part 2 - A Much Better 45 Minutes, But Not Perfect

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS4 game Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

throughout most of part 1, https://youtu.be/F6vjq33ZTf8, the streaming experience from PlayStation Plus Premium wasn't great. thankfully in this series i do each game twice so we can get a better sense of what to expect. This game is a great example of that because today's video shows how much better it can be streaming the game. to help, i will now include the PS4 Internet Speed Test at the end of the video, taken immediately after the game, so we can see how good or bad my wired connection is.

The title does say, however, that it wasn't a perfect experience and it wasn't. the main thing that happened when playing it the second time was stream tearing. a few times, briefly, grey tears would appear on the screen where there was no data to be displayed. as they were brief and covered a much smaller area of the screen than in part 1, they didn't impact playing the game. Yes, they were a distraction and mostly fairly obvious.

So after two videos, playing Dragon Quest Heroes isn't the smoothest experience. but, the games design, art direction, and game style do help to mitigate the issues in such a way that the game is playable. even when things were bad in part 1, i was mostly able to play it like normal. that's not to say these things are distracting when they happen, they are. but in making the best of what we have, it's certainly more playable that what happened with Assassin's Creed Origins.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting April's Salmon Run Item

Welcome to Switch Funday.

Today i went and got April's Salmon Run item, the Deep Sinker Helm. 

it took nearly an hour and it was mostly fun. i didn't enjoy using a sniper weapon and there were plenty of occasions where my teammates were not using the message function (on the bottom left of the screen) but overall it wasn't that bad. thankfully my ranking didn't go down and it actually went up by the end of the hour. a couple of times we had stages where the Goldie would appear so we got lots of golden eggs and lots of points.

But this was another Salmon Run day where my team couldn't beat the King Salmonid. often, including today, my teammates and i can get it below half health. but it's been a long time since i''ve been on a team that's beaten one. there were a couple of big losses, too. i couldn't try out this weekends Eggstra Work so let me know how it went and how it differs from Salmon Run.

Online Saturday - Kartrider: Drift - A Fun First Hour

Welcome to Online Saturday.

Today's video is on a relatively new kart racer by Nexon. i played this game on my PS4 but it is out across many other platforms including Xbox, PC, iOS, and Android.

Going in i expected two things, kart racing and a drift racing style. needless to say this game delivers on them both and delivers a lot more. This game is not just an online game but has single player modes and options to change opponents from other racers to Ai racers. but it's not immediately clear this is the case. i didn't know that the game is set to Ai and Humans as a default until it asked me whether i wanted to switch to human only players. This isn't something i've seen before and it's very welcomed.

The game has many other accessibility features which make it very approachable for gamers of many different skills. right at the beginning it checks what controls you want to use, and whilst this may seem a strange choice it's because it leads from the next cutscenes straight into the tutorial. but these can all be changed in the settings menu. other accessibility features can be added and controls can be also be changed where individual buttons can be mapped. it would be worth checking these out so you can play the game how you want to play it.

As for playing it, it's a lot of fun. the art style is distinctive and looks really crisp. as with any racing game, it takes a couple of races to adjust to the handling but this game is mostly fine from the beginning as the circuits you start with are made to be easy. the Lobby screen looks great but is fairly simple. it gets the job done i suppose and follows a design language similar to Gundam Evolution, of which there are videos in this Online Saturday Playlist. When you go into the mode select, a surprising amount of modes appear. so much that it's surprising the game doesn't promote them more. it defaults to a Mario Kart style racer with item boxes. but in the option mode there are soo many more to chose from. there's a Gran Turismo style license mode that unlocks more difficult tracks as you progress. there's a speed mode that focus more on racing skill. there's a grand prix mode that's unlocked when you get the B1 License. there's a fun Factory Run mode that pits your team against robot's, each lap the last 8 racers are eliminated and the winning team is who ever gets first. there are two more modes, that i didn't try out this video, with a classic Time Attack and a Custom Race.

Overall, i do recommend people trying this game out. it's a free to play game that has a lot to offer, more than what i got to see in the hour i played it. It looks great and other than an issue with my first Factory Run race, ran near perfectly. i had a lot of fun and i won't be deleting this game.

Mobile Friday - MementoMori - A Well Crafted, Beautiful, First 55 Minutes

Mobile Friday this week is MementoMori: AFK RPG, a game that's out across iOS and Android app stores and PC by Bank of Innovation.

I've had this game on my phone for a while now. on the iOS app store, i thought it had a really interesting art style and the combination of an RPG and an idle game was really interesting. But i don't really remember ever seeing this game topping the game charts. it's possible it did when it first came out, but not recently.

This game has possibly the most impressive opening hour, or so, that i have experienced since i started this Mobile Friday series. it is seriously impressive, some games don't even come close to pulling off what MementoMori has achieved. This game managed to have a good tutorial, tell a strong back story, introduce characters, integrate game mechanics in to it's game world, all whilst being able to progress the story and add new stuff along the way.

It's also clever in that it blocks off parts of the game. instead of everything being available from the beginning, it blocks parts off until you progress and then it explains each new feature as you use it. For some it could feel a little too hand holdy, but i do feel it's the right thing to do as it helps to focus on what's important, the story.

This is a game i won't be deleting, i hope to play it on and off for a while yet. i'm genuinely impressed how well the opening hour or so has been managed so that it delivers one of the best first impressions a mobile game has ever made.

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 1 - Making Little to No Progress in an Hour!

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 1 of playing Malicious on PS3.

I decided to move on from Outland as i wasn't enjoying it too much. Malicious is a game i've had, i think, since it came out but not really played. i enjoyed leaving it's game preview on the XMB and having it as BGM, and that will be coming to the PS3 XMB Game Preview series at some point in the future.

This is the final patched version of the game and i don't really know what that means. it was a big patch, but it didn't change the XMB game preview nor the main screen, other than changing the year to 2012 i think. so it's possible what you see me playing could be a little different. i wondered if it was updated to the 1080p 60fps or if it got a 3D patch.

The title of this video says it all. i played for over an hour but didn't progress the story at all. i did learn a little about how it plays and what moves i have, but i simply couldn't beat the boss i tried. the game's story is explained fairly quickly and it's a little light on details but offers enough. we know we're playing as a vessel, there's an upcoming threat we've been created to destroy. but we're not powerful enough because of those who came before who have not returned the power. so we have to go to them, defeat them, get the power back so we can defeat the incoming Malicious.

That sounds simple enough, but i tried one map twice and couldn't do it. after the first time, i went back and talked to our guide who revealed special moves. it's a shame that the game couldn't find a way to do that in a tutorial or in the real world as it feels like i wasted my time. the levels also have a time limit, too!

the game looks great, it sounds great, and it has some really cool touches like how it loads from the hub world to the world i played in. but it feels like it's a little short on detail and that might've been a choice made to get the game out on PSN quickly. i'll do some research before part 2 and hope that goes better.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Academy Cup 2 - Achievement Run

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 Academy Cup 2! (2023/4/10 9:00～2023/4/17 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This was a bad week. i didn't win a single game, nor did i get to the boss. i wasn't the only player having a bad week, a few i was up against also did poorly which meant i got into the top 3 a few times. i thought i understood the gimmick, that a space on the grid would rotate the color of a piece and i would need to make combos and getting a cross would be more points. but the fact that a piece would change color meant it took too much time waiting. it added an element of randomness and time wasting that i didn't enjoy. so not only was it a bad week, it wasn't a particularly fun week. a highlight is the amount of other players i played against, there were soo many!

This week i played against:

さい - Lvl 86

あいすのけしん - Lvl 65

チャッビー - Lvl 73

れ！いんいん＿TN＿ - Lvl 65

shun - Lvl 69

konimana - Lvl 62

HIROKUN - Lvl 74

ころん - Lvl 70

＾-＾ - Lvl 54

いもようかん - Lvl 66

マロン - Lvl 66

さいまる - Lvl 68

しらす - 52

shirasu - Lvl 70

FiIL - Lvl 52

ヤシ - Lvl 65

Cloud Monday - Dragon Quest Heroes - Part 1 - 45 Minutes Blighted By Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 1 of playing the PS4 game Dragon Quest Heroes on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

I wanted to try out a "musou" style game as part of Cloud Monday as i thought it would be an interesting challenge for a streaming service. often these games have many enemies on the screen at once with many FX and particles, basically many things that can make it difficult even for YouTube.

However, what i got in the 45 minutes and even a bit before i started recording was far worse than i expected. it has been many weeks since i had a PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming experience as bad as this, it was Assassin’s Creed: Origins last year, part 1 https://youtu.be/X5e1b-JPh70 and part 2 https://youtu.be/ZCjvWJLaZ-Q. there wasn't one specific issue, this video has all the issues. Stream tearing, macroblocking, resolution dips, to the point that a couple of times i got the warning message.

But, even tho there were streaming issues, playing the game wasn't too bad. the game's art style is simple, clear, and colorful which meant even when things got bad it was still mostly possible to work out what was happening. plus, the control scheme for this game means you can smash the buttons and often attack something. the streaming issues were a negative.

But, in this series we always play each game twice so come back for part two and we'll see if it's just as bad the second time. it'll be on a different day at a different time. for Assassin’s Creed: Origins, it didn't help. but for the other games i've played, it usually does help.

Switch Funday - Mario Kart 64 - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

I have been using the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack's Virtual Consoles to catch up with some games i've never played before. today, i chose to play Mario Kart 64. I recently tried out Mario Kart on the SNES, https://youtu.be/ytuZQssV_7Y, and this was the final Mario Kart i hadn't played before. i learned a lot about that game from user  @SuperNickid  , i recommend reading what they wrote if you're unfamiliar with that game.

i didn't quite know what this game would be. would it lean closer to the SNES version or would it lean closer to the GBA and GameCube versions. thankfully, it feels more arcadey, more balanced, and generally more fun to play. The reason this video is so long is because i tried every map!

there were a couple of things that still annoyed me about this version of the game. the main one is that you must finish in the top 4 to progress. that's more similar to the SNES original than later games. another was the lack of characters. i played as Kooper in the SNES game but that character was not in this one. thankfully the character's looked much better, much closer to how you imagined they look. a great example is how much better Yoshi looks.

Another big improvement were the weapons. in the SNES original, i learned how the weapons work as whilst playing it i couldn't understand what was happening. characters have their own weapons and they have endless amounts of them. here, it was much more familiar and it felt much more fair. if i have a complaint it's that the red shell Ai was really quite bad at times. i would say the drift mechanic was also much improved and it felt a more vital part of the gameplay. in the SNES version it's more a jump, but on the N64 it's more a drift that also can give you boost.

I had much more fun with this game. it feels more like the first game in the series than the original does. it also feels more fair and better balanced. even tho i lost some races, it didn't feel like it was the computer cheating. It's well worth trying and it still looks good, too!

Online Saturday - Meet Your Maker - A Difficult Introduction

Welcome to Online Saturday.

Today's video is on the newly released Meet Your Maker. i was playing this on PS4, a launch model, as part of PlayStation Plus.

Going in i knew very little about this game. but from some descriptions and the game's own policies and warnings i knew there was some sort of online component. i had assumed it was raiding as a group, kinda like Destiny, but for this video at least i was wrong.

i learned quickly that, again for this video and this early on in the game, the goal is to raid other user made bases. turns out it was simpler said than done. other than the two very basic tutorial bases, i failed to complete a raid in any of the other bases i tried.

The problem is this game is too new. users try bases, they score bases, and bases are assigned levels. but the two i tried were clearly far too advanced for someone just starting the game. especially the second level i tried. the main weapon i have only has two bullets that i have to get back if i want more. but with flying enemies, who knows where the bullets end up and that's what happened. in the last try, i couldn't find the bullets and had to try running. i do have a second weapon, a sword, but it's useless against flying enemies.

The second level i tried is also annoying because it lets you climb to the top of it with some ease, and there's nothing there. the two levels i tried feel like they were built without the grappling hook in mind. the problem the game has is that the grappling hook is soo good, it almost needs to be it's own category because once players understand how to use it i imagine level design is going to ramp up in difficult. there is a guide that seems to follow a path to the goal, but as i was unable to build my own level due to a lack of resources, i don't know how it actually works.

There are positives from the game tho. it handles amazing, almost retro. the same goes for the graphic style as it feels like a Quake/Unreal Tournament era game. i'm playing on a launch base PS4 and even tho the style looks simple, it did look good. the downside of playing on a launch PS4 tho is the long loading times. we're talking minutes, especially for the second level. one difficult the game has is getting the information from the internet, then building the level. it's the same issues games like Mod Nation Racers/LittleBigPlanet Karting suffered from back on the PS3.

i will go back to the game in maybe a month or two once the levels have been better sorted by other uses. hopefully there'll be a patch to address the loading. i'd also like a chance to play with the options before the game starts, seeing as we're already going through privacy notices and what not.

Mobile Friday - Cat Snack Bar - A Grinding 35 Minutes

Mobile Friday this week is Cat Snack Bar, a game that's out across iOS and Android app stores by treeplla.

This is a game that had been advertised to me in a few games and i was curious if it was actually as cute and fun looking as those videos showed. i had an idea that it might be an idle game, but no idea how it would go about doing that.

Starting it for the first time, it became quite clear how it was going to work. there is an option to buy red crystal/ruby gem things, but the game's main push is for you to watch adverts. whilst it's nice that it's not recommending/pushing purchases, what's not great is how little reward there seems to be to watch an advert. for example, when you watch an advert you get 5 minutes of double earnings. in other games i play that is 4 hours of double earnings. 

another thing that becomes clear quickly is that the game gets grindy quicker than other idle games i've played. a while ago i checked out Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive, https://youtu.be/5rA9Fb4SVhI, and that video is much longer than this one. that game didn't start to feel grindy until near the end of the hour. Plus, that game is also telling a story so it was nice to stop and read the story. in Cat Snack Bar, i started feeling the grind by the third stage of the first area. the first two were done in around 10 minutes, but after 20 the third stage was maybe half way there. the first area had a further 4 stages.

It does look good and cute, the colors are bold and the designs work. for picking up and playing for a few minutes it's fine. but the game's poor music, loud sound effects, and immediate grind do work against it. i feel like the first area needs rebalancing to get players to the main goal, to the thing that was highlighted in adverts and in treeplla's own videos, they need to get players to the first big shop where we, the player, can see and watch the cats in action all at once. but until then, the grind is the main thing holding back the game for now.

Backlog Conquering - Outland - Part 3 - The Second Boss And Maybe The Final Video

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 3 of playing Outland on PS3.

This is a longer video as the difficult ramped up. the difficulty increase was a combination of more difficult platforming and more difficult game mechanics. the gameplay "gimmick" of this game revolves around colored energy. it has mostly taken shape in that you have to be the opposite color to an enemy to attack it and the same color as the energy balls to not be damaged by them.

But even by the second video, https://youtu.be/hovQECR-WGs, some of this was getting repetitive. with the enemies it's been mostly fair, just hit them more or watch out for when they attack. but the colored energy balls has been getting more difficult and frustrating. you can see, especially in this video, that dealing with it really slowed down the pace of the game and by the end i was becoming frustrated with the controls combined with the platforming and timing that i rather took the hit than deal with it.

After three parts with the game, there was little driving me forward. there still was little to no story, and now with the difficulty increase i lost my drive to progress in the game. There's no denying that the game looks great. but there's also little else pushing me forward in it. after 3 parts, the mechanics and gimmicks were getting repetitive and in a couple of cases i'd go so far as to say they were unfair. the second boss is an example where the game requires a lot of platforming, but there's an argument that the game's platforming is one of it's weakest parts, which means the boss felt a little unfair as it wasn't just my skill letting me down but the game's own platforming too.

Backlog Conquering - Outland - Part 2 - A Boss and Another 45 Minutes

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is the first video with a new PS3 game. for the video i played through the first 45 minutes, or so, of Outland. It's a game from Ubisoft and Housemarque. 

I've had this game for a long time. i speculated early in the video that i probably got it as a PlayStation Plus game. i didn't really think about it until i used it in my PS3 XMB Game Preview Series, https://youtu.be/WIh3ZkDSCLY. Going in, i didn't really know anything about it other than it's a Housemarque game.

This was an interesting first 45 minutes. the first thing i noticed was how gorgeous it looked. My capture device said it was 720p, but it looked so crisp, vibrant, and detailed that it could easily have been 1080p. technologically speaking, it's also run really smooth and i haven't noticed any issues with it, unlike Papo & Yo which i just finished as that game had all sorts of issues like screen tearing and framerate dips.

But it's story hasn't grabbed me. so much else of this game has, but the story we've had so far is very brief. there's not really been a great answer to "Why?" and the world we're playing in sure looks great, but again there's no reason why it looks the way it does. there'll be a part two and i look forward to seeing where it goes.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Academy Cup 1 - Achievement Run

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 Academy Cup 1! (2023/4/3 9:00～2023/4/10 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

This week wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great. i managed to get a couple of wins but i never managed to beat the boss. i feel like i didn't fully understand the gimmick as once or twice i seemed to get stuck and not get that far. Some of the other players i played against also seemed to be in the same situation whilst others seemed to excel. If you can see what i did wrong, please let me know.

This week i played against:

イツや - Lvl 49

まるまん - Lvl 64

マサヒコ - Lvl 61

TERUHIKO - Lvl 71

ヨッシー Lvl 71

II - Lvl 64

MITSURU - Lvl 67

ユルティム - Lvl 70

Cloud Monday - Zack Zero - Part 2 - An Hour With No Cloud Streaming Issues

Today's Cloud Monday is part 2 of playing the PS3 game Zack Zero on the PlayStation Plus Streaming Service.

Last week's Part 1, https://youtu.be/mhPphtnB2To, was over an hour where i experienced maybe a 5 minute period of poor streaming quality over the PlayStation Plus Premium service. in today's video, i had no issues streaming the game. 

The playing experience did have some rough moments, but they were from the game itself rather than from streaming the game from the cloud. the most common issue i experienced was screen tearing. this mostly happened at the, or near the, top of the screen. there were some stutters and what felt like framerate dips. a couple of times the game's own mechanics got in the way, namely that the game has control over the camera but twice i got ahead of it and it caused me to lose some health.

Aside from the game's own issues, it's not a bad experience. if you're looking for something to play on PlayStation Plus Premium, it does offer something unique. i can't think of many games that are sidescrollers that play quite like this. most games tend to follow a Mega-Man style. but this game has a more dynamic camera and plays with perspective more. it can be difficult in places and in this video i felt things weren't as clear as they should, but it should be fine content wise for younger people to play.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - April's Splatfest - An Hour Of Tricolor - 12 Matches But Only 3 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

As it's a Splatfest weekend, today i wanted to focus on the Sunday exclusive game mode called Tricolor. In the previous Chocolate Splatfest, https://youtu.be/f_IoorNHNJE, the Sunday Tricolor day was the first time the mode had worked perfectly since the game launched. It was mostly fine today, i got to play 12 games, but there were some disconnections, some games took a minute or more to match, and there were a couple of instances where no games could be found.

Yesterday, https://youtu.be/3u3lbMkhguM, i was able to play 12 matches but in all of them i was never up against the BIgfoot Team. between my Aliens teams and Nessie Teams, it was tied at 6 wins and 6 losses. However, today my Alien teams could only manage 3 wins! Tricolor is always difficult, but today felt far more competitive.

I was trying out a couple of new weapons i bought after yesterday's hour. i enjoyed the N-Zap '89 but found the Splatana Stamper more difficult. it'd be great if you could recommend a weapon i should try out. I'm normally a fan of the umbrellas, but i went more attacking this weekend and it was fun.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - April's Splatfest - 1 Hour, 12 Matches, 6 Wins, But No Bigfoot Teams!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

As it's a Splatfest this weekend, today's Online Saturday focuses on Splatoon 3. this Splatfest is a fight between those who believe Nessie is real, that Aliens are real, or that Bigfoot is real. Myself, i chose the Aliens team as i really do believe that aliens are real.

It was one of me better Saturdays, too. i played 12 games and won half of them. the strange thing from today is that all 12 games were against Nessie teams. it could be that here in Japan/Asia, Nessie and Aliens were the top two and that Bigfoot has a bigger representation across America and Europe.

The sneak peak results had Aliens narrowly leading Nessie with Bigfoot a little bit behind. after today's games, it's hard to say who'll win the Splatfest out of Aliens or Nessie. there were some real close games and there were some really big losses. If you play against a Bigfoot team, let me know how good or bad they are.