It’s rare I post about a game before I’ve completed it these days, but I felt I had to write something about Metaphor: ReFantazio. I’m only about 10 hours in, with the last five of those being mostly spent in the first proper dungeon, so it’s early doors, but oh my, is this a game. To begin with, I was a little disappointed in the graphics. I’m not All About The Graphics, as regular readers would know, but it’s sometimes …
So I did go back to it! I was prompted to by a Christmas Present though – I received a (physical) copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna -The Golden Country. This is a stand-alone prequel to XC2, but also contains a code for all the additional DLC for XC2, of which there’s rather a lot. When Xenoblade 2 was originally released, there was a “season pass” type thing going on with DLC drops every so often. Sometimes it’d be in-game …
Super Mario Galaxy 3 is a real love letter to Nintendo games, especially previous Mario titles. There are so many parts lifted from or referencing bits of the earlier games, as well as other Nintendo titles. You’ve the Mario 64 Bowser boss fights and Tiny-Huge Island, Super Mario Sunshine’s FLUDD and void levels, Super Mario Galaxy’s worlds and “flying into the level” sequences, a replica of Mario Odyssey’s Lake Kingdom, and characters and enemies from across the series like Thwomp …
Since I had my Retroflag GPi out for the Mandatory Playing Of Mega-lo-Mania, I thought I’d play something else afterwards. Perusing those Mega Drive games I’d not really played before, but I remember having reasonable reviews, I came across Buster’s Hidden Treasure and gave it a punt. And you know what? It’s alright actually. The 8 and 16-bit console eras were drowning in character platformers, and yet none really touched Mario or Sonic. Even the big games like Dynamite Headdy …
Once more I was in the mood for some Mega-lo-Mania. I’ve gone into why I love the game before, but I just can’t stop playing it every so often. It is still The Best Game. This time, I chose Oberon (the camp yellow guy), and when I reached the final level not one but two other gods managed to squirrel away some people for me to fight! Which took about ten seconds as I had loads and they had very …
A game with toilets in it? Surely not. And me, here, with enough spare change in my Steam account from selling trading cards to afford to buy it? Serendipity! I went in knowing almost nothing about the game, except that it has toilets in it and you’re trapped in the toilets. And that is pretty much all there is to know. You’ve gone into the toilets of a party and then the door to the gents seems to have vanished …
This game is big, busy, and full of charm, even if it doesn’t quite hit the same epic scale as the first Xenoblade Chronicles. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll see some familiar creatures (like the adorable fluffball Nopon) and field enemies, but there’s no direct link between the two stories – at least, not initially. That said, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is prettier than the first game, with vibrant visuals and more detailed environments. It’s also much busier, with …
Another two player Evercade game. I’ve played Joe & Mac (Caveman Ninja) before, and the sequel, but hadn’t even heard of this. In fact, I thought it was the sequel when I started it up. As it turns out, it’s a completely different sort of platformer. Whereas the other two Joe & Mac games were sideways scrolling platformers where you club baddies, Returns is a two player Bubble Bobble/Snowbros/Rodland type single screen “clear the baddies” type game. You still club …
I broke out the Evercade VS for some games with my daughter, and this was one of those we played. It’s a Final Fight clone by Toaplan, and is very silly and badly translated. You’re wrestlers, I think, one of whom is Elvis Presley, and you have to fight your way through the streets and buildings to take down the bad guys, some of whom join your cause. It’s hilarious. But not (always) intentionally so. It’s just so ridiculous. Like …
Well isn’t this a slick little arcade shooter? I’ve heard of it before but never played it, and I don’t generally get excited over shoot ’em ups as they’re not really my favourite genre, but I couldn’t help be impressed with just how much is going on at any one time on this. I suppose in some ways it’s an early bullet hell shooter, in that there are so many bullets coming at you the main focus of the game …
Not part of the Dadish Collection but I felt, having completed all those, I just had to give it a go. It’s exactly what you think it is – it’s the same game again, but in 3D. Same characters, same plot, even similar level themes, but being 3D it feels different. I have to say, that the platforming doesn’t work as well here. As is often the case with 3D platformers, judging distance is hard and in Dadish 3D usually …
And.. again. Once more it’s the same only different, with a few tweaks (underwater physics) and new bosses, but otherwise – Dadish is finding his stupid kids again across tricky platforming worlds. And it’s just as good as it was before.
Almost everything I said about the first game applies here. It’s pretty much just new levels for the same game, with some added space physics for one of the worlds. It’s clearly the same engine and same graphics, but if it ain’t broke, right?
I’d seen this game get gradually cheap and cheaper on the eShop but never bit, until two sequels came out and were bundled together and then reduced. Look, cheap things come to those who wait. Dadish – a radish who is a dad, obviously – has to navigate a load of platforming challenges to save his many, many kids. You can jump, and double jump, and that’s it, but there are a good variety of levels and gimmicks with usual …
Presumably to tie in with, or advertise, the Invincible series on Amazon Prime, this part turn based strategy, part visual novel was released for free by Amazon. And it’s pretty good! It tells a similar story to the show, but mainly from the point of view of Atom Eve, with her run-ins with useless foe Killcannon as well as family drama and love life trauma. The visual novel bits allow you to choose various responses in conversations, some of which …
