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. 

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!

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.

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.

Mobile Friday - LEVELS II - A Simple Well Executed Gameplay Mechanic That's Difficult To Master

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out LEVELS II, from Flow inc., on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I had played Favo from Flow inc. before and i'm familiar with tile merging games so i had a rough idea of what to expect from LEVELS II, but i was more curious if and how they'd lean into the RPG aspect of the game. Games likes Three's and 2048 have a simple idea and you play until you can't make any moves and that's it. it's all a little basic. so i came into this hoping that as a sequel, LEVELS II might offer more than just a gameplay mechanic.

It doesn't. LEVELS II doesn't even have a home screen, it loads straight into a game. there's no dungeon theme either, it's a plane white screen with the game board. thankfully there is a great tutorial waiting for us and it goes over nearly every aspect of the game simply and straight forwardly. apart from the Lightning mechanic. what i took away from the tutorial and what actually happens in the game were two very different things and it really needs to be made clear that the tutorial gives you a free one to use and after that, you have to watch an advert to get another or pay for the premium version of LEVELS II.

The adverts in LEVELS II come when you finish a game and start another. there's no warning, but thankfully that was the only time when an advert would start. As i say in the video, if the button was worded to say "watch an advert and start a new game" then i would've had no issues with an advert then starting.

There's nothing wrong with the mechanic of merging tiles, LEVELS II has done it in such a way that there's great depth of strategy to it. it works well with the minimal style of the game. But with this being a sequel, i was expecting more than just gameplay refinement. this could have a fun Quest mode where you're given tasks to defeat a certain number of specific enemies. there could've been an option for a dungeon background instead of plain white or black. there are no summons, no persistent character level, and none of the money we collect carries over for us to buy stuff. we could use the coins and buy decorations to decorate the game screen. It wouldn't surprise me to see LEVELS II re-skinned in the future with a different theme, like Christmas, because there's so little to it.

I would highly recommend getting LEVELS II, it is fun and there's a lot of strategy, and maybe luck, to it's gameplay. But there's nothing else to the game.

Version 1.0.6 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Crypt Custodian On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Crypt Custodian from Kyle Thompson and publisher Top Hat Studios.

I was interested in this because i really liked the art style, but i didn't know what it was before i started playing. Starting the game is pleasant as the initial load starts with a black cat that then turns ghostly white. i didn't understand the significance until the game starts with the revelation that we have died.

It's a good first impression, the art used for the icon is the same as the art in the game. the game uses the game world to do the tutorial, not worrying about linking it to the narrative. And then we get a broom and i can't believe that i called it, that i guessed correctly how this game would get us to being the custodian as we're only using the broom to clear the way.

I won't spoil the story, but once we get going the game kinda forgets to give us a purpose. up to this point, the game had been clear about what we're doing, where we're going, and then we're dropped into a new location. we know why we're there, we know that we're a custodian, but the game doesn't give us a reason to actually be one. regardless, i set off to explore this new area and it showcases some smart design decisions that aide accessibility. 

The one i spotted quickly was that there's always a marker under our character, so when we're jumping gaps it's very clear our position in the world and it was never difficult. Another great thing is that every enemy we encountered has a "tell" as to when they're going to attack. sometimes it's the game showing us with an arrow where an archer is aiming, or a red marker showing an enemy is jumping to attack. for other enemies you can watch their movements and know that when they move their head up they're about to attack.

Couple those examples with nice environmental puzzles, and Crypt Custodian was a joy to play. But, it wasn't long before i realized that there's seemingly no way to heal outside of specific points on the map. after a couple of deaths i wasn't keen working my way to where i died to continue exploring. With no way to heal, it meant some of the trickier enemies started to become a chore and i became less keen on exploring. One thing i bought was an Objective Marker for my Map. at least i knew where i was meant to be going now.

Whilst travelling to our destination, the music was the perfect balance of BGM whilst also being interesting. the environments looked great on PS4, too. and when we got to an underground temple, the new story we learned was told very well.

But the lack of healing became frustrating again as there were only a couple of heal spots throughout the big dungeon. Thankfully there was one before the boss 'cause i died a few times and if i had to travel a long distance back to it i wouldn't have tried so many times and this would've been a shorter video. But i did try and i did succeed and then the demo does something great. it gives us the choice to end the demo OR we can take a newly learned and improved move and continue exploring the world. I chose to stop, but i appreciated being given the choice.

For me, Crypt Custodian felt like Cat Quest in many ways, but the lack of healing and some high level enemies also made it feel like it's more difficult than those 3 games in that series. But, if like me, you're a fan of the Cat Quest games and are wanting something a little more difficult, or maybe a more relatable serious story, than i do recommend Crypt Custodian. On PS4 it played great, it never felt like i was playing a worse version of the game. If you're unsure, i also highly recommend trying out the demo.