Lego The Incredibles (PS4): COMPLETED!

I bought this at the same time as Lego DC Super-Villains, as it was cheap to get them both together. And we started playing soon after we’d 100%ed that. Despite both being Lego superhero themed games, they’re actually pretty different. Of course, this is based on the two The Incredibles films – although you play through the second film before the first – rather than DC properties, but the hub world in particular is quite different. There’s a whole city, …

Super Mario Bros 3 (Switch): COMPLETED!

This too was the All-Stars version of the game, and like the All-Stars version of the original Super Mario Bros, it still looks fantastic today. I used some warp pipes, but did play through more levels than just the bare minimum. I got lost a lot on World 8 and seemed to go round in circles on the map, so I obviously don’t remember it as well as I thought I did. Bowser was a lot easier than I remember …

Super Mario Bros (Switch): COMPLETED!

Yes, I’ve completed Super Mario Bros yet again. But this time it was, at least, different in that I played the Super Mario All-Stars version rather than the original as it appeared on the Switch Online service this week. It’s still excellent, and the 25-year-old “new” graphics still look amazing even now. And yes, I used warps. Because why would you not when they’re part of the game, eh?

Pokémon Sword: Isle of Armour (Switch): COMPLETED!

It’s the first DLC story pack for Pokémon Sword, and it adds a whole new area with mostly level 60+ pokemanz in it. Some of these are “missing” pokémon from the main game, others are variants on existing ones, but the star is Kubfu – a little bear who performs kung fu and you’re awarded at a dojo. On the Isle of Armour, you have to perform a few tasks for the people at the dojo, such as find mushrooms, …

Lego DC Super-Villains (PS4): COMPLETED!

Yes! It’s yet another Lego game. I’ve played a lot of them now, and they’re all basically the same. The thing with this one, is you play as all the DC Comics bad guys who have to save the world from an alternate universe version of The Justice League who are bad. Which basically means smashing everything and solving the odd puzzle. It isn’t the best Lego game, but none of them are bad and this is pretty high up …

Ichidant-R (Switch): COMPLETED!

I had a copy of 2do Arukotoha Sand-R on the Sega Saturn many years ago. It was, pretty much, the same sort of game as WarioWare or Bishi Bashi although I played it before I’d even heard of them. Being all in Japanese, the mini-games that needed instructions were somewhat more difficult than they’d normally be, and I remember one, where you had to choose a fish, being completely baffling. I never managed it. Anyway, imagine my surprise when years …

A Normal Lost Phone (Mac): COMPLETED!

Yes, I’m still periodically working through the impossible task of playing the zeleventy spillion itch.io games from that bundle a while back. A Normal Lost Phone gave me a bit of deja-vu, in that the plot is virtually the same as Secret Little Haven that I played recently, and where that plays out via a faux AOL chat client on a computer, this plays out via a faux messaging system on a mobile phone. So yeah, they’re very similar. I …

Dynamite Headdy (Switch): COMPLETED!

Even though I own three copies of this, or perhaps even more, and it had great reviews at the time, AND I like Treasure’s games, it surprises me that I’ve never played it past the first level or two. It wasn’t because it was hard (it wasn’t, but… see later), or I didn’t enjoy it, so who knows. Only this time, while flicking through the Mega Drive Collection on my Switch for something to play, it caught my eye and …

Rex: Another Island (Mac): COMPLETED!

I’ve been scrolling through that ridiculous itch.io bundle a lot recently. As I expected, I’ve never heard of 99% of the games there, but sometimes something catches my eye and a quick play of Rex: Another Island drew me in. It’s a pretty plain platformer in the open-world style common in the 8bit days. There are shades of Jet Set Willy and Chuckie Egg 2 here, and it’s really very good. Of course, there are modern additions like restart points, …

Xeodrifter (Switch): COMPLETED!

I played and completed this before, but for 89p I couldn’t turn down buying it for the Switch and playing it again, especially since I enjoyed it so much first time around. This time, I don’t think I found as many secret areas so didn’t get as powered up as I did before, but I didn’t really have any problems. Like I said last time, it’s not really difficult. But it is fun. A great, short, little Metroidvania game!

Bio Menace (Mac): COMPLETED!

I have no idea why I decided to play this. I have very little interest in the Apogee same-game-slightly-different-graphics PC games of the early 90s (see also Commander Keen and Duke Nukem) and I know from experience they’ve aged badly. And yet here we are. It’s pretty boring. There’s a lot of backtracking as you often have to get to the other side of the level to get the key to open the exit which is right near the start. …

Doki Doki Literature Club (Mac): COMPLETED!

A lot of people have written a lot about this game already, and aside from the general sentiment that You Must Play It and the knowledge that Something Dark Happens And Then It All Goes Sideways, I’ve managed to avoid all spoilers and plot points. So I won’t be sharing them here. All I will say is the same as I knew going into the game: Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel about a literature appreciation club in …

Mr Driller DrillLand (Switch): COMPLETED!

I have the original of this (the Switch version is a HD remaster) on the GameCube. Back then, it was only available in Japanese and as such the plot, such that it is, made no sense at all. Now, it’s in English! It has made no difference. Some bad guy has built a drilling themed theme park under which he’s made a giant drill that he intends on using to drill to the planet’s core and destroy the world. But, …

Secret Little Haven (Mac): COMPLETED!

Secret Little Haven is a visual novel type game that plays out in the form of an AOL Messenger style chat application, a little like Emily Is Away. You’re Alex, a fan of a Japanese Sailor Moon type anime and you take part in his interactions with friends in real life, from a fan forum, and his dad. Alex isn’t happy for a number of reasons, but centrally he doesn’t identify as male, and part of the game how he, …

Decap Attack (Switch): COMPLETED!

One of my favourite platformers and a game I’ve probably mentioned on here before. We all know how this is the western version of Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure, but both games are excellent if different. Didn’t have any problems on my play through. I didn’t remember all the level layouts, but did remember the route to skip one of the bosses!