Finally managed to get past all of the waterfall section, and then it was all easy for a while. Made it into the West Idol place, where the puzzles to get the reflector working were much easier than in the East Idol place, and then there was a short section before returning back to the main gates. Yorda opened them, but sadly, our rush for freedom was cut short by the shadow queen woman, and I ended up losing Yorda, …
Gnngh! Although it looks amazing, and the puzzles are great, some of it is far too frustrating to be fun. For example, today I reached a waterfall, and there’s a door which is locked. Ico can scale a wall and climb over, but Yorda can’t, so Ico has to find a way to open the door. So I left Yorda, wandered round looking for a switch, and got so far from her she got nabbed by shadow thingies and Game …
Having to redo the last bit no less than SEVEN times because I was one millimetre too high or low on the chain I had to jump from didn’t really help endear this game to me any further. However, I will persevere more. After all, it can’t be as bad as Kameo, and I completed that. Thankfully, the next section was much more enjoyable. I came across a tower with a reflector behind it, and had to solve some puzzles …
I’ve lit all the fires near the gate, and that lets me now light bombs to blow up a blocked path to a cemetery. There, I had to fight a million more shadow things (which I hate having to do). Afterwards, I entered a room where I couldn’t reach the door, but finding another route led me to a chain I could jump onto and pull down, which raised the floor. Raised it too high, I might add. So I …
Sssssh! Don’t tell anyone, but I played it some more this morning. I mean, if it’s really this amazing classic, I can’t go giving up after the first hour, can I? Well, it hasn’t really gotten any better, as such. I’m getting used to the controls, which is helping, but yanking Yorda (as he name has been revealed to be) around isn’t fun and killing the shadowy things is just plain rubbish. However, the puzzles are pretty ace, even if …
About 5 years ago, Ico was the most amazing game ever. Well, it was if you read the right reviews, anyway. Lots of people have told me that I can’t be a proper gamer if I’ve never played it. Almost everyone seems to say it is fantastic, a real experience, and one of the best games ever made. So today, I played it for the first time ever. You know, in all the time I’d read about Ico, I never …
Aha! I’m not as crap at this. Played for a good 20 minutes or so, and only stopped as I had something else I needed to do instead. Like Pac-Land from earlier, the controls are a bit wonky – down is rotate, and A is drop. Bizarre.
Another NTSC console gets an outing – my NeoFami. And which game to play first? Go! Hurrah. I’m crap. And that’s all I have to say.
For clarity, the specific game called “Subsurface” that I’m talking about is the cute little Metroidvania for the Pico-8 fantasy console. It’s a fun, short, platformer/shooter with a few upgrades (like being able to swim, or glide) that allow you to access previously inaccessible areas. Er, like any other Metroidvania. This one, being on the Pico-8, has tiny pixel graphics but the main character is clearly a miniature Samus Aran clone with that colour scheme! Not a difficult game by …
No, I’m serious. I really did play and complete Paw Patrol on a Roll. For Science? You see, one of the ugvm people bought a charity bundle of games and one of those was Paw Patrol on a Roll. As they were clearly above playing it (or even claiming the code) themselves, it was offered up and naturally I took it. Beholden to play it, I did. It’s a bad game. I don’t think anyone was expecting anything else, what …
This is a very simple platformer concept: explore, collect icons that allow you one additional air jump, then reach the area you can only get to once you’ve collected them all. But, it’s the way it is presented that is absolutely beautiful. The area you explore is blank, but as you move around you sort of slosh watercolour paint everywhere to colour it in. Like, if de Blob and The Unfinished Swan had a 2D platformer baby. You can wall …
Seems that “cosy” is an actual genre these days, and Time on Frog Island pretty much fits in that box – there’s no chance of death, no real time limits (a couple of A-B time trials aside), and seemingly no way to fail. The story follows you, a sailor who, having lost his wife (her having turned into a plant or something?) has shipwrecked on Frog Island. So called, because of all the frogs wot live there. And a toad. …
Many, many moons ago, I bought the original version of this on my iPhone. It was great. In fact, I still have it and my development company (Ubisocks) is still going and is on year 300 or something. Recently, a modified version was released on Apple Arcade as Game Dev Story+. I’m not sure what is actually modified, aside from a different coloured icon, but it doesn’t matter because it meant I could restart the game without losing my more-than-a-decade-long …
If you’re a long time reader of this diary, or you follow me online generally, you probably know I don’t play games online very often, and I never play MMORPGs at all. Well, not since a brief dabble into Anarchy Online some 17 years ago, anyway. Why, you might ask, am I playing Star Trek Online then? And I would answer you with, I Really Don’t Know. As a free to play game, I did a bit of research first. …
This is a strange little thing. It’s a 4th wall breaking point and click game where you interact with things like the status bars and icons as if they’re normal objects. So, for example, there’s a bit where you need to dig a hole, but you’ve nothing to dig with. You keep getting pop-up adverts for cereal, and you can grab the spoon in the advert and use that to dig the hole. There’s a section where you come across …
