Once upon a time, in a different era, this game was a viral hit on the Xbox Live Arcade Indie Games service. It was that platform within a platform that let pretty much anyone publish games for the Xbox 360 and sell them for peanuts. Well, I recently discovered it still exists – for free on Steam! And here we are, after I’ve completed it. In some way, IMAGWZII is a precursor to the modern phenomenon of “survivors” games. It …
Many years ago, so long ago that my Gaming Diary didn’t even exist, I played Golden Sun on my Game Boy Advance. It was great. At least, I remember it being great, but I remember very little about the actual events in the game. I recall the catastrophe at the start, and the village you’re in, and that your friend goes missing and it turns out later on he’s working with (under duress) the bad guys. I remember there was …
This game is both a game, and not a game. And also, but mainly, an exploration of games and game mechanics. In some ways, it’s a bit like a serious version of something like The Beginner’s Guide, presented in the form of a third person action game through the lens of a university project about video game interactivity. The goal is just to get to the end, but the purpose is to explain to the player how there are different …
It’s been a long time coming, what with the original game coming in at the end of the Nintendo 3DS’ viable life, and it now being the twilight hours of the Nintendo Switch, but finally it was released and, having given it to my daughter to play first, the time eventually came for me to finish the story that cliffhangered on the previous game. Now, I may be misremembering the first game, but I’m pretty sure this one is somewhat …
It’s another one of those “why did it take me so long to get round to it” games. Well, to answer that, just take a look around the rest of my site. But here I am, having eventually played and completed it. There was much kerfuffle about the change in graphic style between this and the original (and the remasters of those, and the Telltale Games ones) as if the pixels of the first two games were sacred and should …
In a post-apocalypse world, the seas have dried up and you, the only living creature in the entire game, have a land-boat thing with big wheels which you have to take from the left side of the world to the right side of the world. You have an engine you need to keep fuelled, you get a sail you can raise when there’s wind, things break and catch fire and you have to fix them, and often there are places …
In some ways, this is the reverse game to Splatoon. Instead of painting everything you have to clean everything. And that’s all you do. Clean everything. With a power washer. There are filthy buildings, and objects, and vehicles. Different materials are easier or harder to clean, and you can buy special soaps to assist. Things will be out of reach, so you have to buy longer attachments for your washer. Eventually you need to buy whole new, more efficient and …
Unlike 99.99% of Splatoon players, the game has always been about the single player game to me. My understanding is that most players aren’t even aware there is a single player mode. I don’t dislike the online multiplayer, and sure, I supplemented my solo play through Splatoon 3 with a few online games, but it’s not where all the fun for me is. At the end of Splatoon 2 (as in, the single player game there), it’s teased that some …
Back in the 90s, Channel 4 in the UK would sometimes show strange animated short films from abroad. I think they were part of some animation festival or something. This game immediately put be in mind of one of those. It’s a weird, nonsensical, abstract cartoon but it’s also a point and click adventure game. There’s no (recognisable) speech. Little in the way of explicit instruction, no narration, and certainly no explanation to the events. But it works! Assembling the …
And the first completed game of 2024 is… A Tiny Sticker Tale! Which you already knew because that’s the title of this post. Free on Amazon or Epic or something (it’s hard to track these days), A Tiny Sticker Tale was on my Switch eShop wishlist following John Walker’s enthusing on his blog. But since it was free elsewhere, and Steam Deck-able, I moved there instead. It’s not often I have to rush to complete a game. With this one, …
I really enjoyed West of Loathing, so I’m not sure why I took so long to get round to the sequel (actually, I do – All The Games). And what a game it is. Well, it’s the same as the previous game. Of course, it isn’t, but everything that was great about that is still great here. Time has moved on a bit, so instead of being set in the Old West, Shadows Over Loathing is set in The Big …
Sometimes I have a poke around on the Japanese eShop to see if there’s anything interesting which isn’t on the UK or US one. In the past it has given me the likes of Kamiko, Plantera and Handy Mahjongg, all before they came to the west. I’ve also played a few of the train sim demos, had a go on Phantasy Star Online, and so on. And picked up Sonic the Hedgehog from there as it came out a day …
I always thought that Castlevania Legends was actually the same game as either of the Game Boy Castlevania Adventure games, just named differently in a other regions. So imagine my surprise when I discovered it wasn’t, and not only that, it’s better than either of them. How have I not played this before? OK, I should clarify that it still isn’t great. It’s pretty short, has a really restrictive time limit on each level which pretty much guarantees at least …
There’s a whole series of games set in the “Mara” universe, by Chibig, most of which I’ve played and completed and enjoyed. They’re not the same, although most are of the “chop chop, dig dig” genre. A couple of years ago I played Summer in Mara, which was that and also a boating, exploration game with missions and stuff. This game, takes Koa – the main character from Summer in Mara – and puts her in the same world but …
I do love the SteamWorld series of games. And the world they’re all set in. Of course I was going to get this, although my interest was slightly tempered by the fact it’s the first SteamWorld game not made by the core staff of the previous ones. Would that be OK? I’m pleased to reveal, that yes. The style, humour and world have all come out unscathed. The references to other events in the series – particularly SteamWorld Dig 2 …
