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

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

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

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

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

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

Switch Funday - Pulseman - My First Time

Welcome to Switch Funday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Online Saturday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

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

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

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

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

Backlog Conquering - Malicious - Part 2 - 2 Bosses Defeated

Welcome to Backlog Conquering.

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Apollo Cup! (2023/4/17 9:00～2023/4/24 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

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

This week i played against:

たくむ（まやごはん）- Lvl 59

くうたん - Lvl 59

KrisKros - 49

Lee - Lvl 60