FMTownsParty
New Horizons is undoubtedly the biggest shock that the AC formula has ever been given, and while most of the changes were deliberate attempts at strengthening the long-term promise of Animal Crossing, the expense comes in the form of vibrancy, especially from the start.
The lack of a Main Street/City, or any attempt at filling in for it, makes this game feel barren when comparing it to New Leaf. Many mainstay NPCs (Shrunk, Harriet, Leif) have been essentially outsourced for things that either you can do from the start or things that other NPCs can double-up on. The game's progression is also languidly paced, leaving your island untouched for days on end while you're tasked with chopping wood and smacking rocks. There is an irony in how lonely it can get in a game about building a place for people to live. If I hadn't had friends playing this alongside me, I would've torn my hair out a week earlier.
And while all of these early-game problems pale in comparison to the time you can spend building out, I simply don't think New Horizons has the foundation to support this way of playing as it stands. It could gain something with time, as I'm sure Nintendo will give it the Splatoon/Smash treatment, but aside from the occasional QoL change, this game is currently a framework at best.
Despite being with the series since the Gamecube, I'm left feeling like this game was made for a completely different "kind" of Animal Crossing fan. If you're the type to uproot your towns and redecorate it from top to bottom, then this game is the 2nd Coming. Personally, I think I might begin "forgetting" to do my daily chores a little quicker than usual.
The lack of a Main Street/City, or any attempt at filling in for it, makes this game feel barren when comparing it to New Leaf. Many mainstay NPCs (Shrunk, Harriet, Leif) have been essentially outsourced for things that either you can do from the start or things that other NPCs can double-up on. The game's progression is also languidly paced, leaving your island untouched for days on end while you're tasked with chopping wood and smacking rocks. There is an irony in how lonely it can get in a game about building a place for people to live. If I hadn't had friends playing this alongside me, I would've torn my hair out a week earlier.
And while all of these early-game problems pale in comparison to the time you can spend building out, I simply don't think New Horizons has the foundation to support this way of playing as it stands. It could gain something with time, as I'm sure Nintendo will give it the Splatoon/Smash treatment, but aside from the occasional QoL change, this game is currently a framework at best.
Despite being with the series since the Gamecube, I'm left feeling like this game was made for a completely different "kind" of Animal Crossing fan. If you're the type to uproot your towns and redecorate it from top to bottom, then this game is the 2nd Coming. Personally, I think I might begin "forgetting" to do my daily chores a little quicker than usual.
Were the Chaingunners and Archviles worth bigger levels? More at 11.
While it's not surprising that Vic Tokai made an underground/underrated/underproduced gem, what is surprising is that this game has them, if only for a moment, stand with fan-favorite Treasure in their ability to innovate on staple genre mechanics. SHMUPs would do well to consider some of these ideas going forward.
And if you like girls with guns or the YM2612... boy, do I have good news. There's a translation out there, but without it you'd only be missing out on some quirky dialogue between the two protags.
And if you like girls with guns or the YM2612... boy, do I have good news. There's a translation out there, but without it you'd only be missing out on some quirky dialogue between the two protags.
2019
I like humming the theme of this game because it's catchy and reminds me of good times.
A game whose legacy is, and will continue to be, defined by its triumphs and failures in equal measure.
FUCK. OOOOOOFF.
2008
Us
And them
Over and over again
And them
Over and over again
2019
We've been up to our necks in Hotline Miami's brood since 2012, so the "post-violence neo-wave tactic-action" game rarely hits like it used to. With this in mind, Katana ZERO might actually be the best game of its ilk. I mean, I played Hotline Miami 2, so it's just short of a miracle I'm buying into one of these things again.
It is lively, well-paced, creative, and thoughtful. Barring my deadened enthusiasm, it sums up to be a fun time.
It is lively, well-paced, creative, and thoughtful. Barring my deadened enthusiasm, it sums up to be a fun time.
2020
I played this game with 3 other friends and juggled a single enemy 200 times.
Four stars.
Four stars.
Oh yeah! I played this with a friend for the first time!
I completely forgot to catalog this months ago, which is nuts because it's maybe the only time I'll be on this site and can say I played an MGS game differently enough to claim it was a new experience.
It borders on tragic that this game reveals co-op stealth as something this series probably could've done successfully since MGS3 (editor's note: I don't care about MGO). Not that Peace Walker's a bad game, but the switch to tactical stealth - the kind where decisions matter as much as your execution - lets brainstorming and being vocal about your plans carry so much more weight than if it was all an internal dialog. Like, bad-cop-show levels of "you keep watch, I'm gonna check the other side" cliches were fired off between me and my friend and it fucking ruled. I wish it wasn't contained in this single game, even if it is the Content Abyss of the series.
Like I said, it's not a bad game, and while I find the stealth to be a little toothless, the encounters served lovely little puzzles to us that we usually had to think a little about. It's a shame that we couldn't get an extra two people to use that dumb fucking slingshot on a boss.
I completely forgot to catalog this months ago, which is nuts because it's maybe the only time I'll be on this site and can say I played an MGS game differently enough to claim it was a new experience.
It borders on tragic that this game reveals co-op stealth as something this series probably could've done successfully since MGS3 (editor's note: I don't care about MGO). Not that Peace Walker's a bad game, but the switch to tactical stealth - the kind where decisions matter as much as your execution - lets brainstorming and being vocal about your plans carry so much more weight than if it was all an internal dialog. Like, bad-cop-show levels of "you keep watch, I'm gonna check the other side" cliches were fired off between me and my friend and it fucking ruled. I wish it wasn't contained in this single game, even if it is the Content Abyss of the series.
Like I said, it's not a bad game, and while I find the stealth to be a little toothless, the encounters served lovely little puzzles to us that we usually had to think a little about. It's a shame that we couldn't get an extra two people to use that dumb fucking slingshot on a boss.
Incredible in many ways, and I mean that sincerely despite my rating. A bit fuckin' befuddling that a game released in '93 existed that was anywhere near this level of focused and austere (there's only a single-digit list of games I can think of off the top of my head to call seniors of this). The cacophonous polyrhythms of the industrial soundtrack mixed with the mind-puttying repetition and paranoiac structure to be genuinely as sharp as things that'd arrive Years afterwards (I'm insufferable so Grasshopper's work came to mind. But there's other things, too!!)
However, I didn't find myself engaged in the substance beyond that, unfortunately. There's a through-line of religious allusions, child apparitions, and increasingly bizarre spaces that don't really meld into anything coherently (or incoherently, for that matter) interesting. At the risk of sounding like a philistine, I'm not sure that I even think this game is really trying to be "about" anything in the traditional narrative sense? It's a clever adventure game inversion released in an era that lends it an UBER-evocativeness... sort of perfectly uncanny the whole way down. But, man, it's a bit too slight and unlasting to really be more than a virtual tchotchke. A very, very well crafted one - but one nonetheless.
However, I didn't find myself engaged in the substance beyond that, unfortunately. There's a through-line of religious allusions, child apparitions, and increasingly bizarre spaces that don't really meld into anything coherently (or incoherently, for that matter) interesting. At the risk of sounding like a philistine, I'm not sure that I even think this game is really trying to be "about" anything in the traditional narrative sense? It's a clever adventure game inversion released in an era that lends it an UBER-evocativeness... sort of perfectly uncanny the whole way down. But, man, it's a bit too slight and unlasting to really be more than a virtual tchotchke. A very, very well crafted one - but one nonetheless.
1982
A petty demonstration created by a developer to taunt the encroaching accusation of white-collar criminality.
The game was slotted into trivia-horny gamers' rolodexes when it was put on Xbox 360's Game Room, which would only be surprising if you weren't familiar with how awful that platform was. The idea that someone business-minded thought people would pay for this is honestly hilarious, but really it's the quartercocked attempt at games preservation on display that pisses in the water of its otherwise interesting history.
With a name as euphonic as "Venetian Blinds," you'd be forgiven for mistaking this as some underground standard of cyber-beauty, maybe adopted by the vaporwave movement as a peek into a future aborted before conception - but as one glance suggests, the choices of color alongside the sunbled pixel sky are as gaudy as a console released in the 70s would have you assume. As an anecdote in the history of games it holds a skosh of interest, but as a symbol of anything it's shockingly incapable. You'd think a 2600 game accidentally being an ancient case of anti-gaming defiance would land it some credence, but for me it only highlights the incapability and cyclical rot of the industry. Atari Inc. deserved to die as it turns out, but a still-thriving Activision pulling the trigger leaves a lot to be desired.
I was led to believe we hit the reset button soon after this, but the cadence has yet to die down nearly 40 years later, and all we're left with is an ugly window to open and close. It's a nice view, though.
Anyway, happy E3 week, everyone!
The game was slotted into trivia-horny gamers' rolodexes when it was put on Xbox 360's Game Room, which would only be surprising if you weren't familiar with how awful that platform was. The idea that someone business-minded thought people would pay for this is honestly hilarious, but really it's the quartercocked attempt at games preservation on display that pisses in the water of its otherwise interesting history.
With a name as euphonic as "Venetian Blinds," you'd be forgiven for mistaking this as some underground standard of cyber-beauty, maybe adopted by the vaporwave movement as a peek into a future aborted before conception - but as one glance suggests, the choices of color alongside the sunbled pixel sky are as gaudy as a console released in the 70s would have you assume. As an anecdote in the history of games it holds a skosh of interest, but as a symbol of anything it's shockingly incapable. You'd think a 2600 game accidentally being an ancient case of anti-gaming defiance would land it some credence, but for me it only highlights the incapability and cyclical rot of the industry. Atari Inc. deserved to die as it turns out, but a still-thriving Activision pulling the trigger leaves a lot to be desired.
I was led to believe we hit the reset button soon after this, but the cadence has yet to die down nearly 40 years later, and all we're left with is an ugly window to open and close. It's a nice view, though.
Anyway, happy E3 week, everyone!
A childhood favorite, but even rose-tinted glasses can't hide that most of the design choices rooted in the PS2 era work against the otherwise juicy fan-service. It's rare that a licensed game treats its source material with a level of detail like this, but these copy-paste missions with GTA police chasing you suck as much as they should in 2020.
Note: this didn't stop me from 100%ing it.
Note: this didn't stop me from 100%ing it.
2020
This review contains spoilers
If you could try a bugsnax, would you? I mean, they eventually leave your system is all I'm saying. That's pretty generous for a parasite.
I'm quite critical of games that attempt to appropriate the bullet hell aesthetic to other genres, but this one ends up holding its end of the bargain by justifying the mechanical ornamentations with a great scoring system. It pulls you between head-up-ass chaos and deliberate enemy pathing, stimulating in that way run-based games only can. Also, character variety is through the ROOF here. I wanna see someone beat ass with Aubergine, she's nutty.
I do really wish that there was a better way to interface with the upgrades, though. Having to wait for it to cycle thru to the one you need in a moment is obnoxious. Maybe shooting the upgrade with your gun accelerates the time it takes to change or something? I dunno, I'm no expert. I didn't even know why "Cactus" was in the title of the game until earlier today (it's the main character's name! She's a cop :/).
I do really wish that there was a better way to interface with the upgrades, though. Having to wait for it to cycle thru to the one you need in a moment is obnoxious. Maybe shooting the upgrade with your gun accelerates the time it takes to change or something? I dunno, I'm no expert. I didn't even know why "Cactus" was in the title of the game until earlier today (it's the main character's name! She's a cop :/).