Blog Sun, 26 Sep 2021 16:56:52 -0400 Joomla! - Open Source Content Management en-gb (Intergalactic Video Game Academy) A short vacation with Puzzle Retreat

I'd been really impressed with the atmosphere and gameplay of The Voxel Agents' gentle puzzle game, The Gardens Between, so I'd downloaded their earlier, free-to-start puzzle game called Puzzle Retreat on my phone and recently fired it up. This is going to be a short "review", because Puzzle Retreat is a very straightforward sliding tiles type of game, which are a dime a dozen (although most are actually free to play or free to start haha). I think the the most recent game I played of this type was a game called Quell Reflect (also on mobile) from a few years ago, and the two have a similar laidback vibe. In this particular game your goal is to slide blocks of ice to fill the board, and a block will slide over already-placed ice blocks until it reaches an empty space. The game is easy to pick up and understand, and the game introduces new elements pretty steadily, such as blocks that spawn multiple blocks, arrows that change the direction of a block, and blocks that act as a "stop" block that prevents other blocks from sliding over them. I played through all of the first set of puzzles and a chunk of the next set (both free), but additional sets of puzzles cost $1 each. I felt like I'd seen all I needed to see, though, so even though it was a generally genial experience, I don't expect to be returning to this one anytime soon.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Sat, 18 Sep 2021 18:56:17 -0400
Feel la beat with Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure

I enjoy a good rhythm game, and although Sega has put out quite a few over the years I don't seem to have sat down and played through very many of them. (The last one I can think of playing was the Wii-make of Samba de Amigo, which I played more than a decade ago!) I'd heard good things about their 3DS rhythm game Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure, and I've been playing it off and on. I finally finished it today, and although the game is enjoyable, there's not a whole lot to it. As many reviwers have noted, the game has a very Professor Layton-like presentation, although not as warm and compelling. The story is pretty standard fare, and although there's a decent variety in the types of rhythm games, every mechanic reappears several times so by about less than a third of the game's seven and a half hour's running time you'll have seen pretty much everything the game has to offer.

As with the aforementioned Samba de Amigo, in this game you have a meter that determines what your end rank is, and each stage is divided into three sections, and if you make just one or two mistakes in the final section you can quickly drop from an A down to a C or lower. I was able to pass every stage with at least the lowest rank with minimal effort and retries, which was fine with me, although people looking for more of a challenge would have to wait until they beat the whole game once, after which a hard mode for each stage unlocks. The game features a couple of extras, like single-card download multiplayer, and you can always go back and replay any stage to chase after a higher rank. Post game apparently there are also three bonus chapters, each with their own bonus stage. You earn each of the first two by finding all of a certain type of collectable within the game, and the last one unlocks when you get an A rank in all of the normal stages.

Overall this was an enjoyable game, particularly for fans of rhythm games. The references to previous Sega rhythm games (including Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo) were fun, and although this isn't an essential game in the 3DS's library, it does fill a particular niche and any rhythm game fans looking for something to play should enjoy it.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Sun, 12 Sep 2021 08:13:32 -0400
Scanning the skies for fresh ideas in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Although Animal Crossing: New Horizons took the world by storm last year when it released just as the world was shutting down due to COVID, I held off on getting it for a long time because I had played the 3DS game a ton, and it just didn't seem like the new iteration had that many new features. (I've also been playing the Animal Crossing mobile game daily since its release almost four years ago, although it doesn't really compare to the regular games.)

Anyway, the price of New Horizons had dropped a bit so I went ahead and picked up a copy, and after playing it for weeks now, as I suspected, to me it's essentially the same experience as the 3DS game. The main differences are that this game's progression at the beginning is much slower and important events are more spaced out, and although that made the experience feel a little different starting off, soon enough it became the usual grind of trying to 100% the museum's collections and working to earn bells to buy house and town upgrades. The other main addition to this iteration is crafting, where you collect resources in order to make special furniture. Collecting special furniture to decorate my house and town are not my main draws to playing the Animal Crossing games in general, so other than crafting essential tools when needed, I didn't spend much time with this.

I realize that although I blogged about the original Animal Crossing game on 3DS, I'd never posted any follow-up comments to its huge "Welcome amiibo" free expansion. If that expansion hadn't happened on 3DS, features that it introduced there such as missions, increased storage, and the interior decorating tools from Happy Home Designer, and that are included in the Switch game, would have made a much bigger impact (not to mention a huge bonus that wasn't included here, which was a full Animal Crossing-themed version of Panel de Pon, which could have been a standalone release). As it is, as an Animal Crossing vet there wasn't much in this Switch version that felt really fresh to me. The game launched with some features noticeably missing, some of which have been added in (such as swimming), and it's sort of obvious that there's still at least one more update waiting in the wings as Brewster's coffeehouse is conspicuous in its absence. I'll probably continue to chip away at the game bit by bit and it may be that the game reveals depths that I'm just not seeing yet, but from what I've read and seen about the game that doesn't seem likely. It would be interesting to see if Nintendo pulls another "Welcome amiibo"-like expansion that add in another big set of new features, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. We'll just have to wait and see.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:36:51 -0400
Worlds collide in Puyo Puyo Tetris

I'm a long-time fan of both the Tetris and Puyo Puyo series. Tetris is the more-familiar and easier series for me, and I've been gradually chipping away at the mountain of Tetris games out there, the hitherto most recent of which was Tetris 99 which I blogged about in April of 2019. Admittedly, I haven't played nearly as much Puyo Puyo, but I did blog about my playthrough of the Japan-only release Puyo Puyo Tsuu on Wii near the end of last year.

This brings me to Puyo Puyo Tetris, one of the Switch's launch titles, and a game that I picked up pretty early on. I had actually played through a decent chunk of the story mode while on a long flight, but then put it aside for no particular reason. I was happy enough to pick it up again and blow through the rest of the story mode, and I enjoyed how that mode forces you to work your way through all the variations of Puyo Puyo and Tetris that the developers came up with. Alex from NintendoLife disliked the story part of the story mode, but I found the over-the-top antics of the quirky cast to be entertaining and enjoyable (the highlight being the muscle fish man). It was also fun to hear a lot of familiar voices, as the game is fully voice acted and features a ton of actors who have also worked on the Fire Emblem Heroes game.

As for the game modes, you could, of course, just play Tetris or Puyo Puyo on its own, but the game introduces pretty much every permutation of the two you could think of. You can play Tetris while your opponent plays Puyo Puyo, or vice versa. You can both play head-to-head Tetris and at regular intervals the board switches to Puyo Puyo, and so forth. There's a weird fusion mode that is mostly Puyo Puyo focused, but drops huge Tetris blocks that add a layer of strategy as they can rearrange your Puyos, and as another wrinkle, you can also play either of the two game types in a "party" mode that adds in items with helpful effects. There are also miscellaneous a mode that focuses on making chains (much more worthwhile in Puyo Puyo mode than Tetris mode), and for pretty much all of these modes you can play in a solo mode (timed or marathon), vs. the CPU, vs. online, or vs. local.

Phew! Although I said I played through the story mode, that isn't quite true, as I only beat the main story, which consists of seven chapters. There are an extra three episode-like chapters that unlock at that point (I think they were originally DLC in the original Japanese release of the game), but they're not related to the main story. For every stage in the story mode there are three targets where you can aim to earn up to three stars, and although getting all three stars in the first few chapters were easy enough, it would definitely take a lot more effort to perfect every challenge. For me personally I've still been playing Tetris 99 semi-regularly whenever they introduce a new skin, so this on top of my long history with the series made the Tetris stages pretty easy for me. My PP skills, in contrast, were pretty lacking, though, and it took time for me to remember how to even do three chains consistently, ha. Anyway, overall I enjoyed my time with the game, and although I don't really consider it an essential version of either game, it's also kind of a nice two-for-one modern experience of both. I really don't see the point of a sequel, but Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 was released at the end of last year and apparently introduces character-specific skills. I can't say that I'm rushing to play that game, but I'll keep it on my radar and I'm sure I'll get to it eventually after I've caught up a little on some of the older games in both series.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Mon, 16 Aug 2021 18:29:13 -0400
Remarkable remake Metroid: Samus Returns

The bombshell announcement of Metroid Dread, the next Metroid game at this past E3 reminded me that I'd never finished the previous Metroid series release, Metroid: Samus Returns, on 3DS. Samus Returns was released four years ago (yikes!) and is a remake of Samus's second adventure, Metroid II on Game Boy. I'd enjoyed the step forward that Metroid II provided to the series, but when discussing Samus Returns you really have to compare it to Metroid: Zero Mission, the GBA remake of the very first Metroid game ever. I was really impressed with Metroid: Zero Mission, which took many of the items introduced in later installments and seamlessly retrofitted them into the original.

Samus Returns goes a step further and also incorporates four completely new abilities (called "Aeion" abilities) that are based on a separate energy reserve, as well as a melee counter. I thought the melee counter was going to be finicky and annoying, but it turned out to be easy to pick up and execute, and leads to some fun animations when used against bosses. I haven't done a side by side comparison, but it feels like Samus Returns reworks the original Metroid II maps much more extensively than the original. The original Metroid II was extremely linear and there was no reason or convenient way to go back to earlier areas. Samus Returns still has you focused on eliminating the Metroids within one area at a time, but in more modern-day Metroid fashion it gives you a lot of incentive to revisit previous areas because your ability to open previously blocked off paths grows with your increased abilities and it offers plenty of warp points as well as an indication of your percentage completed for each area.

The game is co-developed by MercurySteam, who previous to this game had produced what seems to have been a well-received Castlevania game, and they're also behind the upcoming Metroid Dread. Everything runs super smoothly and the game is pretty well paced, although the boss fights are almost all crammed towards the end and each often takes a bit longer to get through than they should. Defeating Metroids can get a little repetitive despite their different forms, but this is offset by slight differences in the rooms they appear in and your growing sense of powerfulness as your equipment improves. These are minor complaints, however, and in general the game is everything you'd expect from a Metroid game in terms of the puzzle-solving, action, design, and atmosphere. The four Aeion abilities give you a bit of flexibility in how you approach the game, and apparently the Amiibo provide some nice but pretty unnecessary perks.

It seems like every other indie game is a Metroidvania these days, so I've been quite burned out on them, but Samus Returns is a case of a remake done right and was really enjoyable, so much that I've had to add it to my list of greatest games of all time. My streak of great games has continued this year, surprisingly, although I don't have anything in particular lined up for the near future, so the rest of the year will probably be a bit less noteworthy. We'll see!

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Sat, 31 Jul 2021 20:43:31 -0400
Ascending TowerFall

Despite owning tons of games on Steam, somehow I end up playing hits that have been on Steam for years only when they arrive years later on a console such as Switch. A case in point is TowerFall, which debuted five years ago on the ill-fated Android-based console Ouya, and appeared on Steam not too long after. The Switch version came out three years ago, and I've been dipping into it occasionally when my local gaming buddy and I get together. We've been having a blast with the game, and we had finished the Dark World campaign (originally released as an expansion DLC), which features waves of enemies and some fun boss fights, but we finally were able to sit down and made our way through the other campaign, which actually preceded it and was part of the Ascension expanded version of the game.

With that history out of the way, I can say that although TowerFall was primarily designed as an arcade-y multiplayer versus experience, the co-op campaign mode is super fun and beautifully builds on the base mechanics. The game is comfortably in the vein of single, wraparound screen classics, complete with retro graphics and sound, and while the various enemies and environmental hazards aren't anything too wildly different from what we've seen before in these kinds of games, the arrow-shooting mechanics feel fresh and spot on. Everything in the game just flows and feels so smooth, and the design is top notch. Although my buddy and I failed many, many times, this is one of those games that has that addictive "just one more try" and "we'll get it the next time" hooks. To add to the replayability, both of the campaigns feature hard versions of every stage that are significantly more challenging, and they also offer the allure of a shiny gold icon if you beat them without any deaths.

Even without having spent hardly any time in the multiplayer mode, this game has continued my run of great indie games that I've played this year that have somehow made it onto my list of greatest games of all time. Developer/designer Maddy Thorson has done an amazing job on this game, and I'm reminded that I really need to go back and finish my playthrough of their follow-up game, Celeste. Looking forward to it, although I'm hoping it doesn't kick my ass too hard. ;)

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Thu, 22 Jul 2021 23:15:36 -0400
A new dimension to Picross 3D with Picross 3D Round 2

I know I just blogged about my time with Picross 3D on DS, but I was curious about its follow-up on 3DS, somewhat oddly called Picross 3D Round 2, and before I knew it I was completely sucked in. Similar to how the fantastic 3DS puzzle game Pushmo had two excellent follow-ups that extended the elegant game mechanics of the first game, Crashmo and Stretchmo, Picross 3D Round 2 adds a fantastic new twist to the core Picross 3D mechanics.

The game introduces colors to puzzles, where blocks you mark as blue represent regular cubes, whereas the blocks you color orange represent shapes that are not cubical, e.g. curved or spherical. This frees the puzzles to have much more variety in their shapes, but even though you don't have any control over what shape the orange blocks take when the puzzle is complete, the real key here is that having to determine if a block should be removed, colored blue, or colored orange add a huge amount in terms of new ways you have to apply logic to solve a puzzle. Now you have to examine the labels on the rows and columns to see if they contain only orange, only blue, or both orange and blue blocks, and on top of that you have the mechanics from the previous game to contend with where if a number has a circle around it, that means that color is split into two groupings (i.e. at least one space or block of the other color in between), and if the number is in a square it means that the color is divided into three or more groups.

The game solves the issue of the previous game where you had to do every puzzle in order, and you can jump around between sets of puzzles which unlock at a regular clip based on how many puzzles you've solved and how many medals you've earned (for solving puzzles without any mistakes and within the par time). I ended up jumping into the deep end and completely skipping over the tutorials on these new mechanics and figuring out the logic that is needed on my own, which was also satisfying, but the the tutorials and the puzzles themselves give a much smoother progression in general. The game also basically triples its content because each puzzle comes in an easy, normal, and hard difficulty level. I also skipped straight to the hard difficulty, which has many rows and columns with numbers completely missing, forcing you to apply even more logic to work around the missing information. Although it took some time getting used to them, the added challenge was definitely appreciated. As with the previous game, Picross 3D Round 2 was also developed by HAL Laboratory and is stuffed with charm. The game's vibe skews older than the previous title, and it's hard for me to imagine a kid having the patience to work through these kinds of puzzles.

There are nine unlockable Amiibo puzzles that I didn't get to try out because I was playing on an original 3DS (which doesn't have an Amiibo reader built in), and as with the previous game I still find it annoying that a single accidental slip of a button or stylus can cause a mistake and cost you a medal. Replaying stages is still fun, though. Timed stages are still a pain, though, as are the puzzles where you can't make any mistakes, but it seems like you can avoid those for the most part. Also, originally I was annoyed that this was only available as a downloadable title in North America, but its addictive nature is perfect for gaming on the go and is one of the few that would be worth downloading even if a cartridge were an option.

Despite my quibbles, Picross 3D Round 2 is a superb evolution from the previous game, and its new twists on the gameplay already push it ahead. Its better progression, ability to skip puzzles, stereoscopic 3D, and multiple difficulty levels for every puzzle just add to its greatness, and even though I haven't made much of a dent in it yet, I already know it deserves a place on my list of greatest games of all time. I love a good puzzle game, and this is definitely one of the best I've played in a long while. Highly recommended.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Mon, 12 Jul 2021 22:59:24 -0400
Don't dodge Knockout City

Despite an utterly confusing announcement trailer, I was intrigued by the cross-platform online multiplayer game Knockout City. The game has a neo/futuristic 50's vibe, which is novel, and unlike a lot of games it's actually not free to play. It's nice that you don't have to worry about buying game passes regularly, and the game is also free to try. The seasonal game pass unlocks random cosmetics, which are fun and give the game a good amount of personality.

The core gameplay of Knockout City is surprisingly fresh and robust. At its core this is 3v3 dodgeball, but the design avoids so many issues compared to a game like, say, Fortnite, that make them either overly complex or have long stretches where nothing much happens. In Knockout City matches are timed or to a certain number of wins (e.g. 2 out of 3), whichever comes first, and instead of having to avoid bullets that you can't even really see let alone react to as in typical games of this genre, the balls in Knockout City are easy to spot when they're coming towards you. As with real-life dodgeball, there's this really unique mechanic in this game where you can catch a ball being thrown at you and then hurl it back, and this boomerang type of action really makes the game feel completely unique. There are different types of throws (straight, curved to the sides, or curved vertically) and speeds depending on long you charge your throw, and each match features a different type of special ball (e.g. bombs that explode or "moon" balls that make you jump with less gravity), along with the regular balls. Managing the balls is a big part of the strategy, and in a pinch your teammate can curl up into a ball and you can throw him/her, which has its own risks but is a fun new twist. The stages are really well designed and have fun gimmicks like a train that appears occassionally and will kill anyone it touches, and they strike a really good balance of being big enough to have a number of features, while also small enough to enable you to quickly get back to the action.

In the end after our free trial was up, my friends and I decided to buy the game and keep playing it, and we've been continuing to have fun through season 1. Even though it's a crowded field, Velan Studios has absolutely succeeded in creating a new IP that's great for newcomers and casual players, and also clearly has a lot of depth for more hardcore players. I agree with the NintendoLife review that the game at launch feels slightly light on modes, but I'm sure they have a robust long-term plan to keep players engaged and Season 2 starts later this month. Happy to have this one in rotation, and I will definitely be keeping tabs on how it develops in the future.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Sat, 10 Jul 2021 21:42:10 -0400
A new dimension to Picross with Picross 3D

Last year I played through Picross DS, and as I'd expected it have very little in the way of surprises. I was really getting it out of the way with an eye on getting to its successor, Picross 3D, also for DS. I'm happy to be able to say that even though I got to it a decade after its release, Picross 3D does actually feel like a worthwhile evolution of the tried-and-true Picross formula.

The Wikipedia article on the game goes into extensive detail about its features, but basically at the core the game requires all the same kind of logic and reasoning that the 2D games do. Since the numbers are printed on a single cube on the sides, there's some shorthand (a number in a circle means the marked blocks are in two sections with one or more space between that adds up to that number, whereas a number in a square means the marked blocks are in three or more sections with one or more space between each section), but otherwise it's pretty familiar territory for Picross vets. The transition to 3D puzzles is done pretty flawlessly though. The touchscreen controls are accurate and feel great, although there's a new "slice" mechanic, where you can strip back layers of the puzzle in order to mark or remove internal blocks, that takes a bit of getting used to.

As with the other games the larger puzzles get a little more unwieldy, and it's annoying that you have to complete every single puzzle sequentially, including the seemingly endless series of tutorials, and you can't skip to the harder puzzles. This also the first Picross game made by HAL Laboratory (of Kirby fame), and the game just oozes with charm. There's a real tactile sense of chipping away the blocks to uncover the figure underneath, which is probably the closest I'll get to feeling like a sculptor, and there are little animations when you complete a puzzle. Each puzzle is categorized into "collections", and these sets get completed as your progress (although there's also this weird cubical chicken-like thing that runs you through the tutorials and is kind of creepy). The game's awards system is also kind of annoying in that you get a bonus star for completing a puzzle within the par time, and you get another star for completing it without any mistakes at all, but that's all to be expected in this kind of game and adds to the replayability. There are also "one chance only" puzzles where even one mistake makes you have to restart from the beginning, which is probably the game's worst feature, but those only pop up every once in a while.

Overall Picross 3D was a really well-executed and fun twist on the previous Picross formula. The 365+ puzzles will keep completists busy for months, and the ability to download additional official puzzles isn't really missed. Its direct sequel, Picross 3D Round 2 was only released digitally in the US on the 3DS's eShop, but it looks like it added a couple of new mechanics and I'm looking forward to seeing how the puzzles look in stereoscopic 3D.

]]> (GreilMercs) Blog Mon, 05 Jul 2021 15:06:14 -0400