Sunday, September 29, 2024

Switch Funday - Star Wars: Hunters - 10 Season 3 Ranked Games


This weekend is the first weekend of Season 3 in Star Wars Hunters. I've been playing the Switch version of this game. For Online Saturday i tried out the Matchup Clash game mode and played 10 games, winning 4, https://youtu.be/mM-AylzecFI. For Today i played 10 games in the ranked game mode and my team mates and i were able to win 6 of them.

Unfortunately, there were two failed multiplayer matches. i showed the first one as it happened right at the beginning of the video, but there was another before the second match. what's frustrating about it is how long it can take for the game to sort itself out and get back to the home screen. the example i included was one of the faster examples of this.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Online Saturday - Star Wars: Hunters - 10 Games From The New Season 3


For this weekend's Online Saturday video i played the recently released Season 3 in Star Wars: Hunters on Switch, from developers NaturalMotion Games and Zynga.

Mobile Friday - Power Rangers Mighty Force - It's Fine, But Lacks Charm And The Grind Hit Hard


For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Power Rangers Mighty Force, from East Side Games , on my #iPhone 14 Pro. 

I'm familiar with the recent games that East Side Games have released, i checked out Star Trek Lower Decks, https://youtu.be/5rA9Fb4SVhI, and have personally played their Doctor Who game. both of these are idle games based around an established franchise so going into Power Rangers Mighty Force i had a basic idea of how the idle part of the game would work. what got me interested is something they showed in the app store, the fighting. 

the start of the game gets across the story premise and tutorial with both being told mostly fine. i'm familiar with the early Power Rangers and i found the Rita Repulsa in this game isn't quite the Rita i remember. but other than that, in this first hour the story we get mostly works. it does feel like they're trying really hard, maybe a little too hard this early on, introducing the idle mechanic. 

Having played two of their recent releases, i was a little disappointed that East Side Games hadn't done much to differentiate this from them. It's the same idea in a new skin and the battle mechanic doesn't do enough to make this feel unique. The battle mechanic feels too bare bones and isn't explained as well as other aspects of the game. in this video i talk about how i have to remember how each character attacks as the game doesn't tell me. Plus, there are traits introduced that can help in fights and i've already got to the point where it's asking for characters with traits and i don't have them.

What also comes across as somewhat lazy is the music. apart from the odd guitar riff, it doesn't feel like any Power Rangers i've seen in the past. it's possible this music style is relevant to newer versions, then if that's the case why isn't there a large selection of musical styles for each era of Power Rangers. 

Ultimately, Power Rangers Mighty Force isn't a bad game but i would only go so far as to say that it's Fine at best. the basics are solid but there's not much more than that. it treats the Power Rangers Fine, but doesn't seem to go over and above with it. for example, as someone who's only familiar with the earlier stuff, i wanted the game to celebrate the other eras with something like a Wiki or just simply saying on the character screen which show they're from. Power Rangers Mighty Force doesn't do anything to reinvent the genre and feels a little old nowadays. but if you're a Power Rangers fan it's a fine Idle Game.

Version 1.0.0 Played.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Demo Play Thursday - Reynatis On Switch


For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game Reynatis, from the developers Natsume Atari and FuRyu.

Going in, i didn't know what to expect from Reynatis. But i know of Natsume Atari and FuRyu so i was expecting an RPG. the icon art for this game is really cool and even on Switch i was expecting something vibrant. i can say that after playing this demo, Reynatis is this and much more.

The demo itself is well designed. it's from the start of the game but it's been changed slightly because it's a demo and it lets us know this. but other than not being able to go to some areas i never really felt like i was playing something lesser. at the end of the demo, it also details that our saves will be used in the final game and unlock bonuses for us and then makes us save before it goes to the main menu. A lot of care and attention went into this demo and it showed. this is one of the better demos i've played this year.

It also highlights the start of the game and how good it is. in the hour i played, the demo introduced a lot of the gameplay mechanics, the story concepts, the main characters, possible twists in the story, and also left a few things unanswered, some hooks that'll keep us playing.

The tutorial at the start is good as well. it takes us through the basics of gameplay. what helps is how responsive the controls are in the game. i might argue that the controls are a little too responsive as a couple of times during battles i felt the camera couldn't quite keep up. the combat is in the style of Devil May Cry in how you attack and the rating you get afterwards. there are clear bonuses for getting high ratings, tho it's not always obvious what you need to do to achieve a 3 star rating. 

The only other knock against Reynatis from this first hour with it is that it felt like there were too many mechanics. aside from the mechanics for combat and the overworld using witch powers or not, which i consider to be essential to the game, there was a stress mechanic and social mechanic introduced that never really got to be used in this demo so felt unessential and superfluous. 

Overall, i had a great time with the demo for Reynatis and i feel that it does well at showing the game. Playing the demo got me interested in the story and having now played it i'm comfortable with how it plays and controls. i would recommend this demo to anyone looking for an action RPG or someone looking for some fun with combat, much like Devil May Cry. i may suggest waiting for some reviews just in-case the rest of the game falls apart of gets weighed down by the mechanics, but it's well worth wish listing.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Stories on Tuesday - Loopers - Part 2


This Stories on Tuesday game is Loopers, also known as ルーパーズ in Japan. i'm playing the Switch version of it, but there are other versions. It was developed by Key and this version was published by Prototype. I'm playing the Japanese version of the game so the audio is in Japanese but there are English Subtitles.

I was impressed when starting this part with how quickly it loaded, it was almost instant. this was a depressing part for one of the characters, their world was collapsing around them and it just kept getting worse. this was the part where the game's twist first started and thankfully one of the characters began to realize what was happening. i stopped the video just before things looked like they were going to be explained so come back for Part 3 to learn about what's happening.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Switch Funday - F-Zero X - My First Time


Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week's game is F-Zero X and this is my first time playing it. i've played some of most of the other F-Zero games across GBA, GameCube, Switch, and 3DS but never this one. I think i've played a little of the SNES game, but that's similar to the GBA release so i'm not worried about playing it. 

After playing Extreme G a few weeks ago, https://youtu.be/7Y9M26roAs0, i wondered how this game would deal with speed. in that game, it felt like at the highest speeds the only way to navigate tracks was to crash your way round. but i was pleasantly surprised that in F-Zero X i felt more in control.

the tracks were much wider than i expected and whilst that made it easier to race on them, it introduced other issues that i hadn't experienced when playing the more constrictive Extreme G. You'll see throughout this video on every track pop-in. that's when the track or elements of the track pop-in not too far in front of us. whilst it doesn't get in the way of racing as i'm able to see where to go, it's very distracting.

The music choice while fun, also felt a little off. between the music and character art style, it feels like Nintendo was aiming at a specific audience at maybe the detriment to the game. i'm not saying the music was bad, it just didn't gel with the gameplay. with no story, i just didn't get rock music vibes from the gameplay.

I think F-Zero X is fine. i don't think there's a lot of game here

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Online Saturday - Squad Busters - Trying The Transformers Crossover Event


Squad Busters got some big changes and a crossover event in the latest app update so i wanted to try them out. i haven't played a game since the June video where i played it for the first time, https://youtu.be/91HK5li0Agg.

Like that video, i played 10 games but unlike that video i only managed to win 1 game. it was clear whilst playing it that the level of players has increased, which is good to know that there is a player base still playing it enough to have developed stronger squads and tactics. some aspects of the game also felt different. in the video i commented that i thought cutting trees was faster and whilst i played it i thought that the base movement speed was slower than i remembered. 

But i was here for the Transformers crossover event. i've been a fan of Transformers since i was a kid, i even have the movie across VHS, UMD, DVD, BluRay, and Digital. But i only knew of this event from the game's update page on the App Store. going in, i hadn't seen any trailers nor had i seen any social media updates. i make it clear from the start that i'm looking for the game to tell me about this cross over and to lead the way. unfortunately, it doesn't. i spend a while at the start of this video lost, unable to work out what i need to do or where it is.

I started the app, and there's nothing. after the first game i deal with the awards and chests i've unlocked and there's still nothing about this crossover. I checked the Squad News section and it was a copy paste of a press release. it just said what it brings to the game, not where it is or how it works. it wasn't until after the third game, which was Transformers themed, that i got information about it. Maybe it was explained in trailers and on social media, but like i said that's not how i found out about this. i left it up to the game and it failed.

Then came the fourth game and there was no Unicron and i didn't know if i was still doing Transformer stuff or not. thankfully it was quickly clear that i was as i earned some Energon at the start and i understood that i can collect Energon, to help with Transformer specific unlocks like Optimus Prime, in every level and Unicron is a level modifier that can be selected randomly like all the other level modifiers. 

I hope this video makes it clear how this crossover works. once things got going i was back to having a lot of fun. when i played the game in June i said it's a Game of the Year contender and coming back and playing it cemented that. Squad Busters is a lot of fun and Supercell  have done a fantastic job at making the gameplay accessible, balanced, and competitive. i rarely felt like i never had a chance and on a couple of occasions worked my way back up near to the top. Squad Busters is a must play and this Transformers event has been tied into the game very well and is well worth checking out. it appears that what ever characters you unlock from this event are kept once the event ends!

Version 7.301.3 played

Mobile Friday - Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG - The Roguelike Needs A Little Tweaking, But It's Good


For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG, from Another Jay, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

It's a combination of a Match 4 game and a Roguelike and going in i was very curious how it would be balanced. the Match 4 gameplay style is similar to the famous mobile game 10000000, and it's later sequel You Must Build A Boat. so i was familiar with that gameplay style, but the game also does well with it's tutorial in not only explaining but also showing how it works.

With the tutorial being so strong for one aspect of the game, i was disappointed in how it stops with the other aspect of the game. Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG has been developed clearly with mobile in mind, it's playable with one hand and is welcoming to new players. so it's hard to understand why the developer decided to stop being so welcoming when it came to the Roguelike aspect of gameplay. There's no tutorial and the game doesn't even push the player to that aspect of the game. it's entirely possible to play Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG and never interact with it's Roguelike half when you first play it.

clearly, the game needs to either hold the players hand and take them directly to this section so they can spend the ability points gained from levelling up, or change the labels to make it clear that you can quit and upgrade. As for the Roguelike aspect of the game, i learned that you do not keep any in-game upgrades you obtain. Nor do you keep money. but you do gain XP and when you level up you gain Skill Points. these are permeant and you can spend these points on the home screen in the Skill Tree section. 

But i felt that this section also needs a little work. i didn't feel like i gained anything useful from the first 2 upgrades. i feel the start of this Skill Tree needs some tweaking, some rebalancing, to help make the first step a noticeable change for the player. gaining a secondary weapon did little to nothing in the first stage as my first weapon was able to kill most things in one hit anyway and was more powerful than the secondary skill i could equip. I think moving the third skill, a new Grid Power block, down to first and then having Grid Power Weapons spawn in the level, or after a boss, would be a better way of introducing the mechanic but also showing how it can make you stronger.

The music in Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is fantastic and i'm glad there are separate tunes for bosses in the levels. a little more fanfare on levelling up would've been nice, and helped draw attention to unlocked skill points, but what's there is great and i would like the soundtrack.

Even as it currently is, Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is a good and well worth downloading. It's one i'm going to play in my free time and i will keep a look out for updates to it as there's a solid base to work from. 

Version 0.3.3 Played.

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Demo Play Thursday - Epic Mickey: Rebrushed On PS4


For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed from Purple Lamp.

Even tho i had a Wii, i never actually played it before. back then, whilst the idea was very popular there were many complaints about the execution and i wasn't into Disney enough to give it a go. But with this "Rebrushed" version, i was curious if they could not only make it look modern but also feel modern.

One thing i bring up a few times throughout this video is how slow it feels whilst Mickey looks to be going so fast. it must be that the levels are big and Mickey is small, but even when running there's no great sense of speed. i would go so far as to say that the running speed is closer to what i expected the walking speed to be. The only other minor complain i have about how it feels to play it is that sometimes it was difficult to judge jumps. once or twice it was because the camera got in the way, but other times it was a mix of the lack of speed and difficult to spot shadows making it hard to judge 3D space.

there is a lot of other things that this did well. graphically, i was impressed. it doesn't feel like the Wii version but HD, it looks like they went through the game and re-did a lot, if not all, of the assets. the controls are good, the music is good, and everything is nice and clear. If this was the version that came out originally, i probably would've tried it.

But i still came away with many questions about this game. i feel like the game doesn't talk about the consequences of our actions. as i say in the video, there's a disconnect with it being a Disney game and us having the ability to destroy the world. it feels wrong, it feels like there's a morality system at work that the game doesn't reveal. i felt like i was second guessing myself, wondering if i should be creating, that in doing so i would get a better ending. the same applies to the enemies. we can destroy them or make them our friends. then the demo introduced a guardian system that gives us one use guardians, but we need to create or destroy to get a guardian of that type. It honestly felt like the game was adding too many mechanics to the game when all i was interested in was the story.

So whilst it is an effective demo, after playing it i'm not interested in getting Epic Mickey: Rebrushed. i do recommend people try it. but for me, it just didn't do enough to answer all the questions i had about the game.

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Stories on Tuesday - Loopers - Part 1


This Stories on Tuesday game is Loopers, also known as ルーパーズ in Japan. i'm playing the Switch version of it, but there are other versions. It was developed by Key and this version was published by Prototype. I'm playing the Japanese version of the game so the audio is in Japanese but there are English Subtitles.

In this Part 1, i included the developer and publisher logos at the start of the game and i also included the music video. In this part i also did nothing with the story. it's just playing out and for nearly the first hour i did nothing but watch. 

I'm not saying that's a bad thing. so far this is the fourth game in this series and the fourth different way of telling a story. but i hope in Part 2 to play more of a role. But Part 1 was good so far. i am hooked into the story and eager to see where it goes next.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Grand Festival Weekend Splatfest Tricolor Battle – 15 Battles 11 Wins!


Welcome to Switch Funday.
It's day two of The Grand Festival Splatfest so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. 

In yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/oYNfVZFVY4I, i never played against any Team Past teams so i was unsure what would happen today. So i was very happy at the end of this video that all 15 matches were up against Team Past and Team Present. it also went very well today, my team mates and I managed to win 11 of the 15 games we played.

In recent videos i had used weapons that fit a theme. today i had no theme, just weapons that i thought would do well on the new Grand Festival Stage Map. So in this video i used the #Bloblobber, Inline Tri-Stringer, and N-Zap '89.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Grand Festival Weekend Splatfest Battle – 15 Battles 4 Wins!


Welcome to Online Saturday!

This weekend is a Splatfest weekend in Splatoon 3 on Switch. the question being asked this Splatfest is "Which is the most important to you? Past, Present, or Future?"

I picked Team Future and played 15 matches for them. My team mates and I never played against any Team Past, all 15 games were against Team Present. it was a very competitive Turf War with some close games, but we only managed to win 4 of the 15 battles we did.

I was in the mood to use Blaster weapons so today i spent 5 games each with the Custom Blaster, the Custom Range Blaster, and the S-Blast '92.

Friday, September 13, 2024

Mobile Friday - The Elder Scrolls: Castles - I Can't Recommend It


For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Elder Scrolls: Castles, from #Bethesda, on my #iPhone 14 Pro. 

After spending an hour with it, i can't recommend it. i'm just as surprised as you are. the game has been in development for such a long time that it's surprising that it's launched in a somewhat broken state. when zooming in and out in a mobile game causes soo many issues, it's not good.

But it's not just that. it's design feels old, if not actually designed with mobile in mind. the best example of that is just how poor the tutorial is. more than once it would mention something and not even tell me where it is or how to do the thing it wants me to do. Tutorials in modern big mobile games tend to be a little more hand holdy, it's a smart way to slowly introduce game mechanics to the player but also it slows the player down so that the "grind", if there is any, is delayed or hidden. in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, i felt like i was grinding away fairly early on. and there are whole important aspects of the game that are never explained, like the whole day night cycle.

And talking about the design, it feels like the game was made by two teams who didn't talk to each other. one team did the mechanics whilst the other did the story beats. but in the hour i played, neither worked well together. for example, in these sort of games you need characters working to produce goods. but The Elder Scrolls: Castles would continuously bring up things it wants us to do that took characters away from making the goods the game had also told us we need. the most frustrating of these was getting a shrine we could get married at, but to do so meant removing one or two characters from making stuff. later, we got the ability to make a bed so that those characters could have a child. but again, you have to remove those characters from working. up to this point, i had only gained 2 or 3 extra characters which wasn't enough to fully populate all the jobs i need to survive. But that's not all as the game had also introduced the ability to sell stuff to earn money, which i needed to do, so i not only needed goods to survive but also goods to sell, and then there's the goods i need to help villagers around the castle. it ended up with the game wanting me to do two different things that weren't compatible with each other.

With the content being so thin that the grind started early and the game mechanics fighting each other, i'd hope that the story at least would be what saved The Elder Scrolls: Castles. But i'd argue there's little to no story. apart from our father at the start of the game, there was no significant story element for the rest of the hour. there were small interactions that helped talk about what was happening outside the castle, which we couldn't see happen, but other than that i felt like the game had no story to tell.

Even the graphical style of the game felt old. it looks fine, but it doesn't wow me. the style they've gone with doesn't look great zoomed out and has little to no character until you zoom in. The castle itself looks odd, especially the areas yet to be built on.

It feels like Bethesda tried to shoe horn The Elder Scrolls into a "Fallout Shelter" style of game and in doing so they lost what makes an Elder Scrolls game fun to play and what makes a Fallout Shelter game interesting and unpredictable. what we have here is a bad Fallout Shelter style game that's also a bad Elder Scrolls game.

Version ? Played.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Demo Play Thursday - Eden Genesis On PS4


For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the #PlayStation4 version of Eden Genesis from Aeternum Game Studios, @AeternaNoctis

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Backlog Conquering - Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - Part 6 - The Final Mission


Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN. 

In Part 5, https://youtu.be/Y9rd6TzgSv8, i attempted the final mission. we ran out of time and failed it. i thought i got close to beating it then, but after trying it again in Part 6, i was a second or two from beating it in Part 5. I did complete Mission 13 and beat the game, but it looks like i got a "bad" ending. i haven't looked up what i needed for the better ending, but the trophy hints that the outcome of Earth is important. 

This Director's Cut version of Strike Suit Zero comes with some extra missions that aim to tell stories from the war. i tried the first two. the first one was simple and over in 13 minutes. it was a scenario and whilst it told the story of an individual, it didn't really tie-in with the story i had just finished well enough. this section felt tacked on and not really fleshed out. the second mission gave us the opportunity to do better than what actually happened in the war and that felt a little weird when compared to Part 1. it almost felt like Mission 2 was from a "What If" game mode. i didn't beat it and it didn't make me want to try again so this is probably the end of the Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut.

With that in-mind, i played the credits and was shocked that it was a Kickstarter game and how long that section of the credits ran for. poor use of screen space aside, i could believe that the credits took nearly an hour and there was no reward, like an upgrade or weapon, for watching it from start to finish. I will take all 6 parts and make a Start to Finish video for next week's upload, then i'll move onto a new game for this series.

Stories on Tuesday - Star Trek: Resurgence - From Start to Finish


This is all 9 parts of the PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from Dramatic Labs .

I tried to cut out as much of the tech issues as i could. the main issue would be the game stalling like it was paused. these are easy to edit out as i can cut out when it's paused so it's mostly seamless. But the game has other issues i'm not able to cut out, the main one being the audio. unfortunately, the PlayStation 4 version seems to be a bit rough, but i think it's good enough for the most part.

Let me know how your story went, what did you do differently?

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - September's Big Run - 15 Matches!


This is a special weekend in #Splatoon3, it's the Big Run Event! our goal here is to save the stage that'll be used in the Grand Festival from the invaders. In Big Run, it's unknown what the waves will be in each match but it is known what score you need to get the three rewards. so my main goal is to get one of the three rewards and to also get this month's Salmon Run item too.

This was such a different gaming session in comparison to yesterday's video, https://youtu.be/Ewzm0wdjcZQ. In that video, we played 10 matches and my team mates and I completed all 3 waves each time. Whereas today, out of the 15 matches we played we were only able to complete all 3 waves three times! it felt like the overall difficulty was much higher today. thankfully, my main goal of improving my score was achieved. But, my recording device ran out of storage during the final wave of the final match, so i'm not able to show you the amazing wave it was. It is a bit of a shame we could only get to 120, it would've been amazing to have gotten the Silver. but honestly, i'm just happy we were able to beat yesterday's score.

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - September's Big Run - 10 Matches!


This is a special weekend in Splatoon 3, it's the Big Run Event! our goal here is to save the stage that'll be used in the Grand Festival from the invaders. In Big Run, it's unknown what the waves will be in each match but it is known what score you need to get the three rewards. so my main goal is to get one of the three rewards and to also get this month's Salmon Run item too.

What makes this Big Run interesting is that there's a second target to aim for. Globally, the players are tasked with getting 700,000,000 golden eggs. In the video i suspect this is the main reason why this Big Run felt so easy, in terms of the difficulty of the enemy and in how easy it was for us as a team to get over 100 golden eggs in a match.

Friday, September 6, 2024

Mobile Friday - Kitty Keep - Decent Tower Defense, Has Some Good Ideas, But Needs A Better Tutorial


For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Kitty Keep, from Funovus , on my iPhone 14 Pro.



Version 1.4.11 Played.

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Demo Play Thursday - BAKERU On Switch


For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch game BAKERU, from the developers Good-Feel.

There had been a lot of positive buzz about this game and i was keen to play it. it had been compared to the PS1 and N64 platformers and that's an era i grew up in, playing games like Croc. 

It's clear that this is a purpose made demo. i wouldn't be surprised if this was used by video game outlets for their preview coverage. there are 5 different things that we can do in this demo and we did them all in this video. 

I started with the video that gave the basic story and what we're going to do. it's fun, but there's no gameplay there. the second part was the "Easy" Tokushima stage. this serves as a tutorial of the game controls and some basic concepts. what caught my attention was how good it all looked. the music was fun, and not a stereotype of Japanese music, and the controls felt responsive. it's difficult to say if this is how the tutorial will work in the final game, but what we have in this demo is maybe a little too basic. many games offer small video clips of gifs to help show some concepts in action. that's not the case here.

The next stage i tried was in Osaka and this was a giant robot vs. giant robot in a city sized ring fighting stage. the combat was fun, it continued to look and play great, but the balance felt a little off. i was beating the enemy robot comfortably and then unexpectedly it got good and made it a harder fight than it had been previously. Next is a shoot'em up stage but not in the traditional side scroller style, whether that's vertical or horizontal. this time it was in the style of Space Harrier! i didn't feel that this was that successful as it was surprisingly difficult to judge where the enemy was in a 3D space. but it was still cool to play and like the rest of the game it was a great looking experience. 

The final stage i tried was the "Normal" Aichi stage. this was very different from the Tokushima stage as whilst that was in an open environment, the Aichi stage took place in a city environment. i could also feel the change in difficulty, too. i'm a little concerned that stage difficulty might be something that we ourselves can't change and that some stages will just be harder than others. in a game that felt like it was trying to be as accessible as possible, it would be a weird choice to gate keep the game's story due to the players ability. 

This demo for BAKERU is great. choosing to showcase 5 different elements of the game is smart, but it's also smart that it clearly shows that there are still others not yet seen. i would've liked a little more story, but that's not the point of this demo. after playing this demo, i can say that BAKERU is well worth wish listing. it's impressive that this late into the Switch's life cycle a new game can come along and be this good. 

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Backlog Conquering - Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - Part 5 - Missions 11, 12 and 13


Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN. 

Missions 11 and 12 were action packed. it was fun but also hectic. thankfully the fights didn't feel too long and we were moved from target to target quite effectively. Mission 13 didn't quite go to plan. i managed to call out the story, which was a pleasant surprise, but then it doubled down on it and introduced time travel. it got a little confusing as we were being told this whilst also navigating a tunnel system whilst also being time constrained. I failed Mission 13, so there will be at least 1 more video, but it was such a narrow loss. i needed just a few more seconds!

Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Stories on Tuesday - Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz - From Start to Finish


This is all 13 parts of my playthrough of Alternate Jake Hunter: Daedalus - The Awakening of Golden Jazz on PS4. i have cut out the deaths i had and at least one technical issue.

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Switch Funday - Extreme G - Nostalgic Game Play


Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week's game is a nostalgia pick for me. My sister had an #N64 and we sometimes played games together and Extreme G was one of them. i've been wanting to try out this version for a while and so with bad weather today i relaxed with Extreme G.

Going in, i remembered a fair amount of the game. i talk at the start about things like difficulty, passwords, and how it felt like you had to crash to get around the tracks. but what was the hardest at the start was working out what buttons did what! i don't have a N64 controller so for the first race it was a question of pressing all the buttons and working out what they did. LZ is accelerate, for example. once i worked out what they did, i didn't find the layout too troublesome.

As expected, the memories and feelings came flooding back whilst playing it. turns out i remembered pretty much everything except for the music. there's some wonky UI stuff and odd choices, but for the most part it holds up fairly well. the difficulty was a surprise even tho i knew it was difficult. sometimes i had huge wins, sometimes i was far behind, and yet i couldn't tell you the difference. what was nice tho was the enemy Ai. it often felt like they're out to destroy each other, so when you did catch up with them it was because they were attacking each other rather than rubber banding.

I'd recommend Extreme G if you have Nintendo Switch Online. it's not perfect and there is a learning curve, but there's also enough here to have some good times. the tracks have some alternative routes is a great way to play repeatedly without it feeling stale, as is unpredictable nature of the enemy Ai. I kinda liked how the graphics looked on a HDTV instead of the old CRT memories i had.

Online Saturday - DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi - BETA - 6 Matches, 5 Wins


For Online Saturday i went back to DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi on my iPhone for maybe the last time during it's BETA, and played 6 more games. I did 2 matches each with Vegeta, Goku, and Krillin.

DRAGON BALL PROJECT:Multi isn't well optimised for iPhone so i tried changing some settings before this video to make it better. i never really got a consistent 60fps, but it did feel smoother than the previous two videos. Plus, my phone lasted longer before the screen dimmed before it over heated. 

Version 0.8.1 Played.