There is a Maximus Cup this weekend in Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. The 41st Maximus Cup is for the Switch game F-ZERO 99. By getting 100 points, you can unlock a F-ZERO 99 theme which includes sounds and a background.
The side quest, as ever, is to try and win. unfortunately, i didn't manage to make it to the top 10 at all during this cup. in the first couple of games i managed to get into the top 20, with the first game being especially difficult. but other than that, i wasn't able to score too highly.
For this week's Online Saturday video i'm back on the Switch with Splatoon 3. It's my birthday and i wanted to play something fun and relaxing so here are 15 matches of Turf War, of which my team mates and I managed to win 10 of them.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Window Garden - Lo-fi Idle Game, from developers CLOVER-FI Games and Camilla Santiago. i played this on my iPhone 14 pro.
Many recent idle games i've played have had a lot of action and/or story. so seeing Window Garden - Lo-fi Idle Game and what it's app store page said got me curious about a different style of idle game. so going in i knew it was more casual, more laid back, and had a lo-fi feel to it.
And yet, i don't think it does great at expressing that to the player itself. if someone decided to play this game because of the lo-fi element, they maybe expecting a modern idle game. Window Garden - Lo-fi Idle Game starts with a brief introduction from another character and this would've been the perfect place for that character to say we can come back once or twice a day, that plants are hardy and will be ok, and that the game has a vacation mode. the game is a bit too keen to start.
But when it does it's good to see that it asks us if we want a tutorial. as Window Garden - Lo-fi Idle Game is out on other platforms, it's possible that we might've played it else where. it's not clear if the cloud save is just from this device or if we have a personal account. i wanted to see the tutorial so i don't know if the game asks to link to an account and get our save or start anew.
The tutorial looks great, until it abruptly stops right as we get to the main menu. i wanted a tutorial, i asked for it, so like modern mobile games i expected some, if not all, of the icons to be explained or at least pointed to. thankfully it's not difficult to work out what these buttons do when you press them.
I liked the pixel art and the art in general. but some elements of it weren't designed for my phone. my phone's screen has rounded corners, so the big text box at the bottom looks weird as the bottom corners are missing. the same with the pause button and frenzy bar. the Dynamic Island never got in the way but it was a little strange we could put items over it. i feel like something more bespoke for the phone would've worked better. maybe taking the icons and putting them to the side with the Dynamic Island and leaving the rest of the screen for the game.
Something like that might've helped with the mini games. the game with a bucket was the most awkward to play as it uses the full length of the screen. but none of my fingers could cover the entire bottom of the screen so i had to try and switch thumbs as i played. but so much is coming down so quickly, i was not effective at playing it. if the screen was smaller, like my example above or if we played on a fake handheld, so we would see the front of the handheld and played on that screen, it would've been easier. (I've tried to think of a fun name for such a portable but can't do better than "Skylight" or "Wardian")
It is good to have some mini games, but the controls just hold them back. the flower idea is good, too. but i was surprised that the game doesn't lean into it more. they do look good on the window, taking care of them is also simple enough. But that's kinda it. we have a book showing which flowers we have, but this just shows the same information. i genuinely thought we were going to get like a wikipedia article about the flowers (or a copy of the Simple English page) but there's nothing extra. i thought there was going to be a zoomed in pixel art of each flower, but again it's the same image we already see.
The lo-fi aspect of the game also has the same limitations. it's good that it says what each song is when it starts, but then it disappears. surely we could choose to have the current song permanently displayed or not. and then there's the record player, there's no play or pause of stop option. The game does have a sleep mode that i don't think i fully understood how to work or why it's there in the first place. if the lo-fi music is so important it's in the name, why not give us a music player mode. i called it a commute mode where the game fades into the background and we get to enjoy the music. maybe our plants could be on screen as a screen saver.
There's nothing wrong with Window Garden - Lo-fi Idle Game, but on the other hand there's nothing great. it's good at a lot of things but also doesn't excel at anything. I would still recommend it tho. there is a lot to like and a lot of potential with this idea. it's being regularly updated so it's also a game i'd recommend keeping on your phone and checking out what each update brings. but as it is, it's fine to check in once or twice a day, maybe before and after work on the commute home, and spend a relaxing time with it with the sound on.
There's no commentary with this video as my computer locked up during recording and i lost it all. Frogun Encore itself also crashed on PlayStation 4 and i kept that in the video. i've had demos be buggy, but this demo was the first one to actually crash and take me back to the PS4 XMB. Thankfully it was saving my progress, tho i don't remember the game actually telling me it was, so i could continue the demo and finish it.
I haven't played the original Frogun game from Molegato, but it's one i knew off and did want to try. going into Frogun Encore i wasn't sure whether it was a sequel to the original or a re-release of it. I think it's a sequel from what was said in-game. but this demo itself does little to promote itself. there's no link to the PSN from the home screen, no trailer or screenshots when you finish it.
Even tho things were going wrong whilst playing it, i actually had a good time with Frogun Encore. i feel like the initial level and tutorial aren't a great match. the tutorial is great, but the start of the level is a little full on whereas we've not had time to adjust to the jumping or getting around the level not just by walking but by our frog's tongue.
But it doesn't take long to get up to speed. thankfully the game isn't too demanding when it comes to lives. we get 6 hits on us and if we do die, we're sent back to the checkpoint quickly with little to no punishment for it. it felt like #Tearaway #Unfolded, as i've been playing that as part of Backlog Conquering, in that the levels had little puzzles that were easy to understand and complete. the levels weren't expansive, but are well designed. and the overall design is full of charm and it very clear what it what.
One surprise was the soundtrack! just from this demo i know it's one i wouldn't mind owning. i hope they make it easy to get or at the very least stream. This demo is one i would recommend as it's just a fun platformer. since i played the demo, i've gone on to #Wishlist the game and i think for some people, they could just go ahead and do that 'cause it's just that good and fun.
We finished Part 7, https://youtu.be/-XtICrIrFek, in The Caverns and that's where we spend most of our time in this video. Visually, The Caverns was kinda cool, but the gameplay wasn't as inspired as other sections of the game.
there were no new gimmicks and the new uses of the controller were quite short lived. the Minecart section was fun and it was interesting pressing buttons to move the track, but it was far too short. it was used once and not again.
There didn't seem to be much progression in the story. the only highlight being when we finally reunited with our companion. but this to was short lived as the freed Wendigo either looked after it as a pet or maybe it's a baby Wendigo. unfortunately, we won't know happens to them because we finished Part 8 reaching the Liar of the Scraps and they couldn't follow me.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS2 version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
In Part 1, https://youtu.be/tphGJ4lCw88, the charm of the game was very evident. it was also nice how each section we had to clear was nice and short and different from each other. that continued in this section with the boss also being different and unique but importantly only needing 4 hits to be defeated. The level design is mostly solid as well. the gameplay doesn't feel like a chore, nor does it feel like it's dragging on.
But it's really hampered by the controls and camera. the controls are just too sluggish. i don't think that this is a result of the game being streamed to me via PlayStation Plus either. I wonder if it's because PS2 games used a cable to connect to the console and had a different polling rate than Bluetooth controllers. basically, does the game check on what's being inputted fast enough. it's a frustrating experience pressing a button and often not seeing it happen on screen fast enough and then occasionally seeing it happen on time. it makes the jumping difficult.
An example of this is the boss at the end of the video. for a while i couldn't jump up and down and press the button fast enough to start the next up jump before i was hit. the boss was moving faster than i could. so i had to try and start a little ahead of the boss so by the time he had caught up with me he got tired and i could hit him. i doubt this was the actual strategy, tho if it was please say so in the comments, and instead it's a result of the weird controller lag.
I'm not saying it's impossible for it to be caused from streaming the game. but i've played enough of these games to know that it's only ever been an issue in one other game.
The camera was also another frustration. i felt like i was fighting it too often and it kept getting caught in the level. I had to make some jumps based on guess work. what really didn't help was that i couldn't change the camera to inverted. back in the day, it was a somewhat normal camera scheme, but nowadays inverted is the norm.
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus very much feels like the first game. it has great ideas and some not so great. what i'm curous about, and may check out in the next video, is whether the PS3 HD version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus controls any differently. if it does, would i prefer to have better controls and camera or the ability to save and rewind. i'm very curious to try the PlayStation 3 version.
Back in April i tried out The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, https://youtu.be/vaZbeMvjHr0, and i had hoped to try out The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons soon afterwards but i never got round to it until now.
So even tho it's my first time playing this game, i have a basic understanding of how it might work because of Oracle of Ages. but what i really didn't know was the story and i quite liked this story. it's simple, but i think it was effective but most importantly it was clear what we needed to do.
The graphics are great, the music is great, which meant i was the only downside as it took far to long for me to realise what i needed to do with the bombs. Perhaps the game could've given a hint, but this is from a time when game manuals would also be the tutorials and give hints. in the end i did work it out so it's not all bad.
Both games are good and with the emulation software, being able to rewind and save anywhere is fantastic. it's a shame i can't play either from the Switch Online App as i think the games and emulation software would be great as a phone game.
*Apologies for the microphone issues. i'd understand if you don't want to listen to me in this video. So i have uploaded another video which is just the racing and no commentary. you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/-JWYdT-rPlg.
For Online Saturday i played the PS4 version of Rocket Racing from developers Psyonix. it's an online racing game built on Fortnite tech. It was my first time playing it. i was surprised that the install for it was over 60GB! it must've downloaded the whole Fortnite game. however, i don't know for sure as there's a lack of information on the PSN Store page.
This lack of information from the game to me was frustrating throughout this video. it's a shame because the actual gameplay was fun and the tutorial was great. but there's no tutorial outside of the game. and for me, who's never played this before and never used this lobby before, it just wasn't intuitive enough. this happened early when i ended up doing the tutorial twice as i thought pressing up meant doing the tutorial instead of it meaning choosing game mode.
I also had an issue with my first try of the Metalica stage as there was no audio and no sound effects! i quit the game to change settings on my PlayStation 4 so i don't know if it was quitting the game that fixed it or the settings. but this, combined with no tutorial for the lobby screen just gave a bad first impression.
There were also issues when trying to play some levels made by other people. none of them would load and i don't know why. i could only get the Metallica stage and the Ranked Mode stages to load. Again, Ranked mode wasn't really explained. i don't know what stages are on it, i doubt i played against real people in a couple of stages, and progression wasn't explained nor do i know where any of that stuff is.
Gameplay is good, tho i would have liked the game to explain how to do boost starts, is just that everything else about Rocket Racing was a frustrating mess and just not welcoming to new players. all it needed to do was, when the game takes me back to the lobby after the tutorial, ask if i wanted a lobby tutorial or not. it's hard to recommend Rocket Racing for new players. but if you have time to figure it all out, the gameplay is fun. but there aren't many people playing it so waits could be long.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Tokyo Debunker, from developers ZigZaGame. i played this on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Tokyo Debunker is a game that hasn't really topped the mobile charts, but it has stuck around since it was released. it's one of those games who's App Store page doesn't really reveal what the game actually is. So i was very curious about it and was excited to give it a go.
In the hour i played of Tokyo Debunker, it comes across as a story focused game. but it's told in a manga/comic book style. the characters 3D on a 2D background, or that's how it seems because they have a subtle black outline to them that adds depth to them. I haven't met that many characters, but each i have met were very different from each other. what really helps is that each of them is fully voiced, too.
There is gameplay here, but in the hour i played there wasn't much. from the first hour it's a little difficult to work out how the story and the gameplay segments fit. i can speculate that we're going to go to areas and in the story there'll be enemies which we'll then have to defeat via gameplay before we're able to continue the story.
as well as fighting, we also tried out a rhythm based mode and a school building mode. i didn't do well with the rhythm mode, but thankfully we're able to replay them and get the rewards we missed. the school building mode is fairly typical for a idle game. you spend money to build a classroom. you add a character to the room and now it earns money. you can upgrade the classroom and earn more money. whilst it seems separate, it does tie into the fighting. you need items to upgrade characters and these are eared from the classrooms.
Another highlight is that this game didn't install extra game data when i started it. nor did it force the shop upon as at the earliest opportunity. the tutorial is decent, too. overall, Tokyo Debunker's first hour makes a great first impression. if you're looking for a story focused game, i'd recommend giving it a go.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Morkull Ragast's Rage, from Disaster Games and SelectaPlay.
Unfortunately, i can't recommend this version of the demo. as you'll see in this video, it has a few bugs that affect gameplay, some iffy English, visual and maybe audio issues, and ultimately i wasn't even able to even end the demo.
Even from the start of the demo, there's nothing on the screen saying it's a demo nor is there a link to the #eShop. i assume that this is from the start of the game, but there's no mention if there's a save. so it's possible that you'll have to do the start in the demo and then again when it's released.
It's a shame that little effort has been put into the demo. as the game isn't out, it's our first introduction to it and it's a bad first impression. i say it's a shame because the art is great, when there's music it's good, and i quite liked the humour and 4th wall breaking. but after playing the demo, i personally wouldn't pre-order the game. i'd wait and see if the released version is just as buggy.
We continue Part 7 at The Lab. In Part 6, https://youtu.be/afEhpxT5Eag, we had ended it at The Lab leaving Part 7 for us to explore it, and we do for most of this Part.
What i'm excited for when playing Tearaway: Unfolded is that in each part we're introduced into some new mechanics. It's very interesting to see what they will come up with next. what's equally as impressive is how well it works with the game. and in Part 7, it doesn't disappoint.
But instead of a new ability, we get a weapon! it really shakes up the game. we loose the ability to control the wind, but we gain a weapon that's amazing for battling the Scraps and for solving the puzzles. whilst we have it, it's a lot of fun. But by the end of this part, we seemingly loose it!
This Part ends with us falling into caves that look fantastic and i'm excited to explore in the next part.
Hello and welcome to Stories on Tuesday. It's part 4, the final part, of playing When the Past Was Around from developers Mojiken Studio.
After getting stuck in Part 3, https://youtu.be/61wtpGQNsHQ, i looked online before playing this part to find the solution to opening the safe. turns out, what i assumed to be instructions on the blanket was kinda true but what i actually had to do was count each of them in that scene.
From then on, things went quite smooth. i still had my notes from the week before so i was able to quickly solve some puzzles that required the music notes and the shapes. i found the end of the game and the start of the game to be a more pleasant experience than the middle. the puzzle difficulty really swung from easy to hard. i would argue that this did have an impact on the story. At the end, when things were getting serious, it did feel thematically weird that we were having to do puzzles when all i wanted to do was progress the story.
I don't think the story is bad, i just feel like the choice of puzzles weren't always the best, or that the game didn't do well enough to telegraph what it expected of the player. But in a game with nothing to read and nothing is spoken, there's always an element of doubt as to whether or not the story i took away from this was the intended story. Either way, i am satisfied with the story, but because the puzzles in the middle were frustrating the overall experience could've been better.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS2 version of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
PlayStation 2 games have recently come to the service as games you can download or stream from the cloud. so far, whilst the emulation software has been a good match-up for the service allowing us to save when ever we want, perfect for a service that only gives us a 20 second warning before disconnection, one of the main issues has been whether or not the gameplay is worth it.
Resistance: Retribution, https://youtu.be/jEs97ouESk8, was interesting as it's the only game i've played that had in-game tweaks to the analogue sticks. for G-Police, https://youtu.be/P9QIJwNAhGs, not being able to tweak them made the game near impossible to play. so i was very curious how a more recent title would handle.
There are two things i noticed right away, the camera and the jumping. both took time to adjust to. there were no in-game options to change how the camera works. but i've played games like this so it go easier. the jumping and character movement in general took a little more time. it felt like, and i tried to show in-game this, that there was a little lag between what i pressed on the controller and what happened in-game.
This is such a rare thing with games being played from the cloud that i can't say for sure if it is a cloud streaming issue, or if it's an issue with the original PS2 game or an issue with the emulation software. it wasn't game breaking, but it did take me a few minutes before i was able to jump out of the initial starting area. it can't be denied that when i tried to test the lag, i could press the button and there was a short delay before Sly jumped.
There was only a second or two of video artefacts during this, so like many of the PS1 and PSP games emulated they seem to stream well as video. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus looks great upscaled to 1080p on PS4. the one thing i thought that didn't upscale as well was the audio. out of everything i played, it came across as the weakest part of this release.
For this weekend's Online Saturday video i wanted to continue playing the recently released StarWars: Hunters on Switch, from developers NaturalMotion Games and Zynga Network , as at the end of the previous video, https://youtu.be/648VolmhSuA, we started actually playing against real people.
In this video i start with a couple of Casual Games, but once Ranked Games were unlocked i played 3 of them, even tho i said i played 5 in the video!. before having a break with another Casual Game and ending by checking out the Matchup Mixup Game Mode than i unlocked. i intially thought that was going to be similar to Killzone Zone 2/3 in that the game modes would switch during gameplay. ultimately it meant that we played a random game mode with a random character for a single match, there were no changes during gameplay.
Waiting times between games weren't a problem and it continued to run smoothly. the only issues that emerged were AFK players and in the Matchup Mixup Trophy Chase games the respawns seemed to always be in the same place and the teams all seemed to do the same play, hide in the corner and defend. so that mode wasn't that fun.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Scars of Mars, from Acquire Games.
At the time of recording, this demo had recently come out on the Switch and the game itself is coming out next week, June 20th on the UK eShop. before seeing the game on the eShop, i had never heard of or seen this game before. but i was interested after reading that it's a real time RPG.
Unfortunately, other than having a small "Demo" logo, there's nothing else highlighting the fact. so, for example, even tho it appears to have an auto save whilst i was playing i never got a message saying if that save will carry over to the final game. there's no link to the eShop either. When there's this little effort put into the demo, it's difficult to know if this demo is from the final game, an earlier version of the game, or if it's bespoke.
Which is a shame because i don't think it's a good demo and i have to assume it's representative of gameplay, meaning i don't think it's a good game. other than the music, there was very little praise-worthy from my time with the demo.
The tutorial is more bare bones than some mobile phone games i play, with wasted space, and no call back to anything previously mentioned. i had a lot of trouble making sense of the upgrade menus. then we had the game changing the rules on inventory out of the blue. did this mean the tutorial was wrong?
So with the tutorial being as bad as it was, it meant my first introduction to actual gameplay was a nightmare. it's a real time RPG, this meant there's little to no time to think before either an enemy attacks you or the timer at the top of the screen counts down. this was at Normal difficulty and it was overwhelming. One of the stranger control decisions was that "B" wasn't cancel. i had to press "A" to select and then "A" again to deselect.
But the controls are compounded by the fact every interaction i do in combat is slow. i couldn't move my cursor fast enough to manage my team mates and keep them out of harms way or to get them to attack. as soon as we got 2 or more enemies on screen, i couldn't keep on top of it until i was down to one or two characters and with the slow speed i was able to barely manage the situation.
There's more i could say, but ultimately this demo paints such a negative picture of this game that i get the feeling it's nothing more than shovelware. I also suspect that there's been a heavy use of A.I throughout as the English was a little off, the pictures were a little off, and the backgrounds very repetitive. I don't think you should play this demo, nor do i think from this experience that you should buy Scars of Mars.
At the end of Part 5, https://youtu.be/_GQCkMCw7Ug, we had arrived at Coggage Cove so for the beginning of this video we explore the town a little before heading to the Tavern to continue the quest of looking for our companion friend.
Things got interesting once we left the town as the area between the town and where we needed to get to was full of Wendigos. This section was fun as it combine several controller gameplay mechanics with the action on screen in a way that felt natural as we had already done many of the techniques separately else where in the game. we were never on the attack so it was a mix of different styles of platforming and running away.
This part ends at The Lab and before we meet with The Head Scientist.
Hello and welcome to Stories on Tuesday. It's part 3 of playing When the Past Was Around from developers Mojiken Studio.
After getting stuck in Part 2, https://youtu.be/BV3uaGfp1M8, i looked online before playing this part to find the solution to making the Pinwheel. i'm a little salty about it, it felt like a jump up in difficulty and that the game did a poor job of signalling what we were meant to do.
One question i had was where would the auto save put me. turns out, right at the start of the whole section. so i spent the first 10 minutes re-doing everything and then i got to solve the Pinwheel puzzle. i managed to get to the next story section and once again i have gotten stuck. so for Part 4, i will have looked up the solution. i can only hope i don't have to redo everything in that section again.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the #PS1 version of G-Police on #PS4 via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model #PlayStation4.
After Part 1, https://youtu.be/P9QIJwNAhGs, it was clear that the controls were terrible. in the week since playing the game, no update came to fix them. so going into today, it was always just a case of doing my best with what i've got.
It feels like the emulation software being used needs the ability to adjust analogue stick stuff. i played Resistance: Retribution, https://youtu.be/jEs97ouESk8, and the game itself had options to change the sticks, but so far it's the only one of these emulated games i've come across that has such options. it needs to be a fundamental part of the software, like being able to save at any point by pressing "Options" is. i wonder if it's something like the polling rate on the PS1 controller was different to the PS4 controller.
As for today's gameplay, i managed to beat the stage i got stuck on at the end of Part 1. Stage 3 was tricky as i had to tail someone, defend the police, and defeat enemy craft. it was a lot to do and there was a moment i kept failing towards the end of the mission. But overall, it's hard to say i actually enjoyed playing G-Police today. from a nostalgia point of view, sure it was nice. but i didn't get much enjoyment from the experience.
These emulated games on PS4 and PS5 are great games to stream from the cloud. but i don't recommend G-Police for anyone whilst it's controls are as bad as they are.
This is a special weekend in Splatoon 3, it's the Big Big Run event. Unlike previous Big Run events which took place on one Turf War map, all maps could be played on and weapons are randomised. The goal is to get as many golden eggs as possible, with Bronze Rewards starting at 82 collected. However, there's a second twist. instead of the possibility of fighting against one King Salmonid, you could face off against three of them fighting together as a Triumvirate.
I got very competitive trying to get a high score in Big Big Run, hence why this video is much longer than my typical Splatoon 3 videos. my high score was 72, 10 shy of getting the bronze reward. but my team mates and I also had a poor win record. only 7 times, out of 20, did we manage to defeat all 3 waves. we typically failed at the Griller wave of the Fireflies. they're both waves where enemies have a singular goal of attacking and defeating you.
For this weekend's Online Saturday video i wanted to try out the recently released Star Wars: Hunters on #Switch from developers NaturalMotion Games and Zynga.
It's a game i've been interested in since it was announced. But i was always a bit unsure about it. with it having a foot in mobile games, there's a concern that it's just been ported over from mobile, or that it's going to push the shop at us, or that it'll be very grindy. i don't have answers to all these after my first hour with the Nintendo Switch version, but i can say it was a very good first hour and i'm much less concerned.
But the home screen wasn't fully explained and there were icons we weren't taught about. The game could've also done a better job at pointing us to go to the shop and get the free stuff, or showing us how to customise our avatar, or even just saying which is the options. so yes, the gameplay is well taught but outside of gameplay is a little patchy in places. Whilst i appreciate that i was ready for proper online gaming, the game could've told me what was happening as i was always second guessing if my opponents were real or not.
The in-game combat is where Star Wars: Hunters shines. the controls are simple and effective. i immediately found the controls to be as responsive as expected. I didn't use all the characters available to me as i was having a good time with Imara Vex. i really enjoyed her rocket attack and blaster ultimate moves. her grapple ability not only gave me traversal options but also added a way for her to escape when up against multiple enemies. it's easy to see why she's the first character we use and train with.
We have to unlock game modes types by playing, hence why there's a point in the video where it switches to the Capture game mode as i had to unlock it first. this also applies to the Ranked mode. personally, i don't mind this approach. when i first realized what was happening, there's the worry that it'll be a grind. but thankfully that wasn't the case. it felt like a natural progression towards each game mode.
It'll take a few more games to get a greater sense of Star Wars: Hunters, but after my first hour with it i'm comfortable recommending it not only to Star Wars fans but to many others. there's depth and strategy to it's gameplay, but it's also accessible. when Ranked mode gets unlocked, i feel that's were more "hardcore" players may play leaving the other modes more accessible to more "casual" players. it's not clear if there's crossplay, unlock Trackmania which has an icon showing where each player is playing from, but the waits today were very short. I hope it can come to more platforms as i think Zynga may have a hit with Star Wars: Hunters.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out EigenGauge, from developers BLASTODISK LABS. i played this on my iPhone 14 pro.
I haven't done many racing games as part of this playlist as quite frankly i haven't come across many new ones. there are several popular games in this genre, but most are many years old. so it was refreshing when the app store recommended this game to me. when you start EigenGauge, there are no extra downloads or things you need to sign up to. it takes you straight to the game.
I do appreciate that it get straight to the game, what was a little surprising, especially in comparison to many games we play in this playlist, is there is no tutorial outside of telling you to touch the screen to steer. i would've liked a little bit of information about the two buttons on the right. the orange button, when pressed, is clearly a short turbo. but i thought the blue button was going to be some sort of energy projectile attack as the logo is similar to such an attack in Wipeout games.
There's a lack of information throughout this game. one that i couldn't work out was how the levels are scored. another is that none of the abilities have a description to say what they do. But i will argue that in a game designed like EigenGauge is, it's not a big issue. it's an arcade style racer with some aspects feeling play a PlayStation or N64 game. there are unlockables and you need crystals to unlock them. so playing the game, trying out the weapons, learning what it all means doesn't stop you progressing as you'll be picking up the crystals from the racers.
Graphically i really enjoyed it. at first look, F-Zero is the logical comparison. but there's more going on. the crystals, for example, seem to be 2D but then they rotate and have a 3D look to them. the vehicles in the game look simple and yet they also look unique and impressive from each other. it's what f-zero on GameCube could've looked like if the SNES style graphics were kept but adapted to 3D.
I really liked the music they've paired with it. there weren't many tracks in this video, but i enjoyed what i heard. each planet has a soundtrack, as do the menu options. it felt cohesive and i hope they'll make it purchasable somehow maybe on Bandcamp. it's a soundtrack where i want to know how the other planets sound and adds to the drive to progress through the game.
Overall, EigenGauge maybe a basic arcade racer but it's done well. i feel the controls may need a little work as i think i noticed moments when they weren't responding as i'd like, but the game wasn't going so fast that this became a problem. it's not a checkpoint racer. there is time to worry about but it's generous. it's the same with health. there's just enough challenge so it's satisfying when you finish. i easily recommend EigenGauge to anyone looking for a arcade racer on their phone.
For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, from developers Nihon Falcom. This is the most recent update of the DEMO. i don't know when it was updated, but it did update before i played it.
I have a couple of "The Legends Of..." games in my backlog that i haven't played and i know that the series has been going for a long time. So when a new game comes out, there's always the question if the new game can stand alone like a Final Fantasy game or if some knowledge is needed of previous entries.
I came away from this demo for The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak not any clearer. the is nothing saying it's a demo, nothing saying how long it is or if any changes were made, nor does it say at any point in this video if our save data will carry over. on the #PlayStation Store page it does say that save data will carry over to the final game, but i couldn't find a pre-order page for it or any release date for it on the page. There is a possibility that at the end of the demo we'll get this information, but i don't understand why it's not available from the start of the demo.
It felt like this really was the start of The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. it's an interesting start that's full of story. it's about 18 minutes before we take control of a character. But after the hour i had with the demo, i don't feel like the story has done enough to get it's hooks in me. so far, most of the focus has been on a stolen item.
What i did find interesting about The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak was it's combat mechanics. tho it was poorly introduced to us via a dense sheet on the screen, at a basic level it's manageable. The tutorials in the game are lazy and suck. there characters have phones and one of them has a school background. there were much better ways to teach the combat, but instead we get a memo on screen and that's it. there are a few things about this demo that feel cheap or that it's not a big budget title, the most glaring was that the voices don't match the lip movements or that it's not fully voiced.
It's possible the combat is something the series has done and not new. but for me i found it interesting. we're introduced to two different styles. the first style is the most complicated but also the most familiar to RPG players. there's a time line and actions we can do to attack enemies. some of them can be hit physically, whilst others need "magic" esque attacks. The second style is more akin to Devil May Cry or God of War in that you can just attack enemies on the map. this attack style is best suited for weaker enemies as whilst it's faster, it deals less damage. but what was truly interesting was how you can combine them both. a simple example i did was taking out the weaker enemies with the second style and then going into the first style to defeat the more dangerous ones. but there's another the game introduces us to where you can stun enemies in the second style, activate the first style and that'll do damage to them but as they're stunned you also get first attack.
so the demo for The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak is good and bad. i would still recommend checking it out, but with it's slow pace i'd suggest playing longer than an hour and maybe up to the end of the demo before deciding if it's something you want to continue when the game comes out.
We continue Part 5 in a whole new area. it's bleaker than anywhere we've been to so far but that's fine as it feels distinct and it's own place. as we progress things brighten up a little and we even gain a companion. but the enemy seem keen on taking it from us and we spent a lot of time trying to keep it safe. But we do fail.
One cool addition is that we learn to fly in this video, or rather we learn how to make a paper airplane and ride it. the video ends in a harbour town stricken by random shaking of the ground and dangerous storms and rough seas.
Hello and welcome to Stories on Tuesday. It's part 2 of playing When the Past Was Around from developers Mojiken Studio.
Unfortunately, not much progress is made in this video. in Part 1, https://youtu.be/BAntYXUdGY0, we had a couple of instances where i was stuck for a little while, but here in Part 2 i got stuck for maybe 20-30 minutes! I got stuck on the Pinwheel puzzle so this video is mostly me trying to work it out and failing.
This week's Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS1 version of G-Police on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.
I have played and own G-Police on PlayStation 1 but i never completed it. back then, i found it quite tough. not just what i was being asked to do, but also controlling the game. But i didn't hate the game. i actually quite liked it. so seeing this on PS Plus was exciting and i was keen to play the game again after such a long time, i haven't played any PS1 DISC game since the early years of the PS3.
A huge advantage of playing PS1 games on PS4 and #PS5 is the emulation software. you're able to rewind, great if you've made a mistake, but more importantly you're able to manually save anywhere by pressing the "Option" button on the controller. if there's a connection issue, PlayStation Plus Premium Cloud Streaming Service will only give a 20 second warning before disconnecting you, so being able to save so easily and so quickly is a huge advantage and a great reason to play any of the PS1 games on PS4 and PS5 via the cloud.
There are aspects of G-Police that are dated. the control scheme is a little strange and i kept making mistakes. the story introduction feels more at home on PC than a console game, and there's no tutorial incorporated into the story and it's separate instead. in fairness, it could be argued that the story does provide enough of a reason for this, that we're an experienced soldier so we already know everything. I don't think that any of this is an issue as it's an older game.
The biggest issue by far is the controls. it is an analogue control game, but for some reason in this version of the game the controls are far too sensitive. i say in the video that it felt like i would make a movement and then have to instantly adjust to counter that movement. it's so bad i have to recommend that everyone start with training before diving into gameplay. it was so difficult to move the analogue stick so slight whilst also trying to play the game.
It's hard to recommend the game as it is. i'll come back for part 2, but either the game needs a patch for the controls or the emulation software being used needs a way to adjust stick sensitivity.
This month's Splatoon 3 Salmon Run item is the Cooler Jacket. The goal for this video was to get 1,00 points. that way i get the item twice and have a go at defeating a King Salmonoid.
This #Salmonrun wasn't much better than last month's, https://youtu.be/d9T2BU-ru-A, as that took 11 games to get to the 1,000 points and here i did it in 9. i can admit that in one or two of the games i made a mistake that either lead to us loosing or that we lost because of me. but on the whole, there weren't many games were i felt that there was a lot of team work. simple things like passing the eggs up or communicating just weren't happening. What helped make this Salmon Run OK was the weapon choice. the weapons were Splattershot, Splattershot JR, Rapid Blaster, and one random weapon.
This Saturday i tried out a new Mobile multiplayer game called Squad Busters. It's from Supercell and is a cross over with their other games. This means, characters from those games are in Squad Busters and can be on your team. I've never played a Supercell game before so i don't have much context as to who the characters are or what game they're from. It didn't matter. i honestly think this is something that fans can enjoy but also those, like me, can enjoy too.
Squad Busters is a PVP game where 10 teams face off against each other. the aim is to get the most emeralds. to do so you start with one character and have to defeat monsters to earn coins. earning coins means you can open chests and get more characters. once you get 3 of the same character, they fuse into one larger character meaning you can get more. every time you open a chest and get a new character, the price increases. Eventually you start attacking the larger monsters or other players to get money and emeralds. once one of your characters has no health, your team gets smaller but chests drop in price so you have a chance to rebuild your squad. each round is 4 minutes long and you're slowly pushed towards the center of the map. along the edges, prickly vines appear whilst in the center is a huge emerald mine. if you loose all your characters, you're out. if you survive until the end, the team with the most emeralds wins.
If that sounds a little complicated, don't worry. Squad Busters has a fantastic tutorial that'll introduce most of these concepts to you as you play. i'd argue the game is deceptively simple at first as it can need a lot of strategy. the players you can use in a level are limited to those you've collected, either via post game chests or from the shop. So if you don't have Gregg, you're unable to cut down the coin trees. There are characters that can heal your squad, characters that can summon monsters for your squad, characters that can attack at range, and characters who attack close up. which ones of these you get pick from the in-game chests as you build your team can have a big impact on your results.
As a mobile game, it was great that there was no additional download when the game started and there were no ads being forced upon us. the screen layout looked well designed for the #iPhone14pro screen with it's rounded corners and #DynamicIsland not being an issue at all. what's probably more impressive is how easy the controls are. when you move, you don't attack. when you don't move, you attack. it's nice and simple but more importantly it's effective and makes the game very accessible.
Squad Busters not only is a Free To Play Mobile Game of the Year Contender, it's also a Multiplayer Game of the Year Contender on any platform. Supercell have crafted a game that that's equally simple and strategic, accessible and deep, and i lamented in the video that it's only out on mobile as it would be a lot of fun on a pocketable portable or #Switch.
For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Dragon BUURRP!, from developers Wemade Max.
The name grabbed my attention but it wasn't the reason why i chose to play it. the screenshots from the iOS store looked really cool. i used to play Monster Strike and this looked like something similar. so those two things together made me excited to give this a try.
It starts with a little story that was enough for me, tho it's strange we have to progress the story ourselves instead of it doing it manually. then we're straight into the game. it was a little much as on screen it's trying to tell us how to play as well as trying to tell us what each of the enemies do. all it needed was to separate them. thankfully the controls are simple and so is the premise, so it was easy to get into.
The tutorial goes silent until after the game. It's a shame as we're playing the full game so we're suddenly faced with the choice of three and it takes a second to understand what's happening. thankfully, this first level of the game is easy so i imagine it's harder to loose than win so what ever we pick is probably fine. I didn't know how long this first section was and it kept on going. the game could do better with this first time playing.
the tutorial is one of the bigger problems with Dragon BUURRP!. the tutorial is basic and does the bare minimum. thankfully, the game is still very accessible and there doesn't seem to be any penalty for failing as it all goes towards earning money that can be spent to improve your character. after each run, the only thing kept is the money you earn. so when you do another run your character has the improved stats from levelling up but all the moves are back to zero.
as we played we unlocked the ability to play as other dragons, challenge mode, and the tutorial introduced us to equipment. But after an hour it felt like there was still a lot left to be explained. it's possible the tutorial will address it later. the biggest example of this is at the end of the video where i looked at the main menu and all the notifications.
Even tho Dragon BUURRP! has these shortcomings, the basic gameplay is great. i had a lot of fun playing this. the graphics are good and the enemy design and introductions are clear standouts. the music is fine but i would've liked more variety. in the video i say i wanted something more epic for the boss battles, but what there is is fine.
With a little work, the game as a whole could make a top 5 game of the year list easy. as it stands, just from the basic gameplay alone, it's top 10. but as i was playing it i kept thinking of ways the game could grow. i feel that there's a lot of potential with Dragon BUURRP!, it's a question of how well the developers will support the game. there have been a few patches already since release so i hope this will continue. i recommend it as it is, but it's also small enough that it's a game i can recommend you keep on your phone and come back to over and over again.
