Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade - Simon's Cat: Story Time - The First 50 Minutes

This twelfth video in the new Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series is on Simon's Cat: Story Time. I Played this as part of my Mobile Friday: Apple Arcade series, i think this game is exclusive to the service.

i was curious how a "match 3" game would work in Apple Arcade as games on this service don't seem to have mechanics that you would associate with a match 3 game. these typically include a limit to how many games you can play at once, for example a life system. 

This game does not have a life system. it seems like the limit is purely down to the time the player has. there is a mechanic that uses the coins you earn in the game. when you run out of moves, you can spend some coins and gain some moves. but you're also given a choice to retry the level at no cost.

This meant i was able to sit and play for 50 minutes, except for when it crashed. the app crashed to my phone's "desktop". this was the first Apple Arcade game to do so, but it's difficult to put the blame on the game itself as i had used my phone to play other games and use other apps. Simon's Cat: Story Time was also updated the day i recorded this video so if there is an issue there's a chance it'll be fixed in a day or two. so whilst it crashed, i'm not worried about it as it could be due to any number of reasons.

the game looks amazing, the world is so much bigger than i anticipated, and it's fully of animation. the game makes good use of the phones vibration motors, too. it was easy to control with my finger or with a controller, but when i switched to the controller there were no on screen prompts as to what the buttons did. this would've been useful as it wasn't as obvious how to move the screen.

There is soo much more to this game. when we unlocked the trophy room, each one was for some part of the game i had yet to unlock. i have no idea how many hours it will take to play it all, but in the first 50 minutes i played i only managed to finish the first chapter! so let me know in the comments how big this game actually is.

Backlog Conquering - Pyre - Part 12 - Getting to the Fourth Liberation Rites

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 12, of playing Pyre on PlayStation 4.

Even tho this video ended up over an hour long, not too much actually happened. one reason why this was longer than expected was because of technical trouble i was having with my PS4 where the game would freeze for long periods of time. this video is actually the second time i tried to record this as the first time crashed my PS4 due to an issue like this.

As for the game itself, perhaps the most surprising thing was how quickly the fourth Liberation Rites started. i think i completed two rites before it was in the stars. I'm not fully sure who i want to try and send back, but i think it'll be Ti'Zo. the game is doing well at establishing relationships between characters to such a degree that it's possible to come up with reasons to not send many of them back to the commonwealth.

It's the story that's kept me playing the game. the rite aspect has been a little tedious at time and in this video i say that i would've liked easier rites so that i could've got to the story easier. but thinking back, i would've missed out on the story due to the result of the rites. it's quite possible that i was never meant to win all the rites. whilst probably possible, the game has never seemed to have punished me for losing. the one aspect i still don't understand is the reason for crashing into other team's wagons. other than annoying them, it doesn't seem to serve a purpose.

Backlog Conquering - Pyre - Part 11 - Breaking a Losing Streak

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

Today's video is part 11, of playing Pyre on PlayStation 4.

Today's video has two big highlights. firstly, i finally won a game again. in part 10, https://youtu.be/a1AfjDxkSyQ, i chose to lose a ritual but didn't win afterwards. Today's video started the same with 2 more losses before i finally managed to win in the Liberation Ritual. it was such a relief to finally win again. i can't say for sure either way if it's down to the game lowering the difficulty or my own skills improving, i'm just glad i've stopped losing.

The other big highlight is perhaps the revelation that the rituals are coming to an end. one of my concerns was that we would have to do the whole thing over and over again until we were down to a final 3. but it's been revealed that there aren't many Liberation Rituals left. tho we don't know for sure, my guess would be 2 or 3. The thing to think about is, not only are we not able to save all our team members, there maybe enemy team members we have to consider.

it could be argued the surprise return of a familiar face could also be a big surprise, but that's yet to fully play out.

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Takamimusubi 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 Pixel Takamimusubi Cup! (2023/2/20 9:00～2023/2/27 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

Even tho this video isn't too long, it doesn't tell the whole story. by looking at it you may assume that it was a decent week for me. But in reality that's not the case. the big problem this week was that i didn't grasp the gimmick this week. this meant i didn't beat or even get to the boss this week. when i was up against other players, i didn't win either. but the reason why it's a shorter video this week is because i didn't play against other people that often. i had several games against the computer AI. but even then i couldn't win each time.

I should mention that after the latest Switch firmware update, my game was not playable. i had issues with the SD Card and Switch. this meant that i had to redownload the game before i could play it. let me know in the comments if anyone else had this issue after the firmware update.

Cloud Monday - Split/Second - Using My Old Save And Playing For The First Time In Over A Decade!

Today's Cloud Monday is a little different. for today's video i wanted to try something i hadn't yet done. I've used the service to play games i hadn't played before, so i've never tried to use an old game save file. I saw Split/Second on the store and really wanted to play it again. i also knew i had a save file in the cloud. So today's video starts with me showing how to take a cloud save file and use it with the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service.

Once i got the save file copied over to the cloud and the game restarted, i was genuinely surprised that i had completed all the races. i hadn't won them all, but they were all finished. as i had shown it was working, i decided to have some fun and play it.

I never expected to win or to better any result i already had. it had been over a decade since i last played this game, but i instinctively knew how most the of the controls work and even the game mechanics.  a couple of the levels felt familiar. i tried out each of the game modes and near the end decided to try some levels that i hadn't got the win.

In one of those levels, i actually got the win! i hadn't practiced before today, it really had been over a decade since i last played. and yet, i got a win. i was so happy with myself. the final thing i tried out was the online multiplayer. there wasn't anyone online, but it looked like online races could possibly happen, it's possible that instead of the game connecting to a server my console becomes the thing that other players would connect to. But i don't know for sure, but if you do see or know of online games let us know in the comments.

Switch Funday - Gargoyle's Quest - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

I wouldn't say i was excited about Game Boy games coming to the Nintendo Switch as it's a system that i didn't have much exposure to. i did have a Game Boy Color and i have tried some of the older Game Boy games. But most of my Game Boy Color playing time was spent on the Pokémon Games, V-Rally, Bust A Move, Legend of Zelda DX, and Tetris. With the initial launch selection being small, the only game that caught my attention was Gargoyle's Quest.

It's a game i've not heard of before and i was a little surprised to see that it was from Capcom. going in, i had no idea what i was in for. i think you can tell from my commentary that i was surprised how robust it is. but it's also from 1990 so there's some frustrating elements to it, things that were fairly common at the time like the lack of lives and poor checkpointing, but also other things that were as a result of the hardware, namely the lack of a save system.

The Switch adds a rewind feature that makes things more tolerable, but as you'll see i often forgot about it until the latter third of the video. there are other settings but i chose to play the game in it's default settings. it's unclear if i would have to close the game if i wanted to change any of the settings, but i feel that's the case and it's a bit of a shame. i can imagine someone will close the game, change a setting, go back in and realise that nothing has been saved. i did save it using the Switch's Suspend Point before i closed the game.

I don't know if i'll go back to the game. the music is good, the story is interesting as your playing from the Gargoyle's perspective, which is fairly unique, and the levels are varied. But it wasn't gelling with me. i didn't have the patience to deal with some of it's poorer qualities as a kid and i certainly don't now.

Online Saturday - Star Wars Battlefront 2 - Returning After Two Years

Welcome to Online Saturday.

I was a big fan of Star Wars Battlefront 1 when it first came to PS4. it looked great, played well, and even the front page felt big and fresh. Battlefront 2 felt like it was released too soon after Battlefront 1 and at the time it was perceived that this was done as so they could have a game out with microtransactions and make more money from. So i didn't get it then. changes were made and it eventually came to PlayStation Plus and that's when i decided to give it a try. but i bounced hard off it. i don't know why but my guess would be the layout and interface is one reason. another could be that the cards and progression system was still there. the microtransactions had been, mostly, removed, but making progress wasn't as fun. playing against other players was also not great as for a new player it felt unbalanced.

the last time i played the game was early 2021 and i have no memory of it.  nor do i have much memory of playing it at all. So coming back to it today it did feel like playing it for the first time. which also meant i didn't understand a lot of the menus, couldn't find stuff, and even at one point thought i was stuck in matchmaking as there was no prompt on screen as how to back out of it. 

Playing it tho was kinda fun. at times there were moments when it felt unbalanced. in the first game i mention how it felt bad that were were camped outside the enemy spawn area and that it seemed like there was nothing they could do to win. it reminded me of the bad playing experiences i had with Overwatch 2 on PS4, https://youtu.be/-SnE9VBwpBU, and Switch, https://youtu.be/WBPiTq5yFHE. In the second game i had that experience where i was defending and it felt like i had no choice but to lose. 

I remarked at the end that i doubt there are huge numbers of people still playing it. the first game i was in didn't continue into the next round as it couldn't find enough players. but starting a second game was fine. my guess is that if you just join a quick match you're probably fine. but doing anything more specific might be more difficult due to the lack of players.

Ultimately, i don't think i'll delete the game just yet. i may play it a couple more times. but, everything but playing the game isn't a great experience and it certainly isn't toppling Splatoon 3 as my multiplayer game of choice or recommendation. If i find another game more enjoyable, that might be it for Star Wars Battlefront 2. it's a bit of a shame there aren't plans for a third one, i feel that the lessons learned from 1 and 2 could've made for a good game. but a part of me wonders if it would've been great or remained dated looking with some other gimmick getting in the way.