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Stardew Valley
2016
Where Animal Crossing prescribes mindfulness and meditation to counter the stressful modern age, Stardew Valley provides you with a planner and a high dose of amphetamine salts. Stardew runs in the vein of Harvest Moon games, a series with a rich history and even a rip off series known as Story of Seasons, but also a series with which I'm mostly unfamiliar. One can certainly evaluate Stardew Valley through the lens of a hardcore Harvest Moon fan; as a plebian and an idiot I will be instead looking at how Stardew compares to Animal Crossing.
Stardew eschews a real-time day/night cycle for an in-game timer that is constantly ticking. A good player will find the best ways to leverage the hours left in the day with their remaining energy levels to make the most progress towards their goals. Days in Stardew are easily filled with planting and harvesting crops, exploring the mines, tending to animals, fishing, or speaking to villagers: all of these things consume time and energy. And as you get your farm going, even more than how you choose to spend your hours, the way you choose to spend your days matter. You need to plant crops before the season ends, get a good item before the harvest fair, romance a partner before the dance.
I played this game a fair way into year 2, and considered it complete when I finished the Community Center. I had a good time making rows of crops, watering them; raising animals and upgrading the barns/coops. Getting sprinklers on lock and the greenhouse sorted out was a really great step. I didn't care much for the romance features, or even really any NPCs in the town, which may have been a failure on my part. But I did enjoy the minute-to-minute gameplay, it's the larger picture that seems off to me.
Stardew gives the player tons of activities to occupy their time, but in doing so creates a matrix of anxieties that weigh upon and restrict them. It's easy to get lost in this game for hours because there is always something to do. You can always plant more, fish more, exore more in the mines, build upon your relationships. It doesn't really give you the experience of escaping life by going to some idyllic cabin in the woods: instead you just get a new set of stressors. Which is fun enough overall, but there's a fundamental tension or disagreement somewhere at the games core.
Stardew eschews a real-time day/night cycle for an in-game timer that is constantly ticking. A good player will find the best ways to leverage the hours left in the day with their remaining energy levels to make the most progress towards their goals. Days in Stardew are easily filled with planting and harvesting crops, exploring the mines, tending to animals, fishing, or speaking to villagers: all of these things consume time and energy. And as you get your farm going, even more than how you choose to spend your hours, the way you choose to spend your days matter. You need to plant crops before the season ends, get a good item before the harvest fair, romance a partner before the dance.
I played this game a fair way into year 2, and considered it complete when I finished the Community Center. I had a good time making rows of crops, watering them; raising animals and upgrading the barns/coops. Getting sprinklers on lock and the greenhouse sorted out was a really great step. I didn't care much for the romance features, or even really any NPCs in the town, which may have been a failure on my part. But I did enjoy the minute-to-minute gameplay, it's the larger picture that seems off to me.
Stardew gives the player tons of activities to occupy their time, but in doing so creates a matrix of anxieties that weigh upon and restrict them. It's easy to get lost in this game for hours because there is always something to do. You can always plant more, fish more, exore more in the mines, build upon your relationships. It doesn't really give you the experience of escaping life by going to some idyllic cabin in the woods: instead you just get a new set of stressors. Which is fun enough overall, but there's a fundamental tension or disagreement somewhere at the games core.
Cinco Paus
2017
This game is a perfect example of how to make discovery enjoyable. Figuring out what every rod does each run is fun and has you praying that it will help you in one way or another only for it to blow up in your face and have you almost die. Then on the next room, you use that explosion to kill 3 ghosts at once and find out it also kills the frogs instantly. Having all text in Portuguese is great because even though I don't speak Portuguese, it shares enough common roots with Spanish/French that as someone who had to take a language in high school/college, there are a few things that I can sort of understand and those clue me in on what things do. The art and sound are like nothing else and really help this game stand out. It's a ruthless strategy rogue-like that is nothing like I've ever played before. Very possibly the most unique game I've encountered, and one I see myself going back to often to try and discover more of its secrets.
This review contains spoilers
The 2nd game based on Greek God mythology released in 2020 that I gave a 10/10 to. Hmm.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
Outer Wilds
2019
This review contains spoilers
Until you finish reading this review, it is impossible for you to say how it turns out. But once you have read it, it has been observed, and it'll be locked into my meager analysis and admittedly mediocre prose style. Outer Wilds is intensely conscious of the difference between potential and actualization, and uses it as the foundational mechanic to build a wonderful gameplay loop and mysterious storyworld.
Outer Wilds wastes no time introducing you to the Groundhog's Day-esque timeloop that is central to the narrative of the game. Your character is apparently compelled to explore the universe; at the same time the player is introduced to real mysteries about the storyworld that they are free to go after. In other words the interests of the player and that of the character align. Furthermore the actual experience of the player (accidentally dropping your ship on your head, flying into the sun, falling into a blackhole and suffocating) align with the experiences of the character. The fail state of the game, as triggered by the player-characters death, is explained via in-game mechanics as just the resetting of the time loop.
One of the central mysteries of the game revolves (or, orbits) around quantum mechanics: matter that has the unique property of moving when unobserved, and being locked into place when looked at. This mechanic is used for some tricky puzzles, but it also seems to apply more broadly. The goal of the game is to obtain knowledge: once that knowledge is observed, it is seen, and it will not disappear. The whole game consists of repeated instance of observations, locking into place all the factoids and rumors into the ship's log, before finally the Eye is observed, and the [SPOILER] [SPOILER]s.
The broader concepts of the gameplay, as alluded vaguely to above, are all rock-solid. The minute to minute gameplay is as well: for the most part, planets are silent, and lonely. You can hear your breath through the space suit; caves are pitch dark and require a flashlight. When the music cuts in, you know something big is happening. Otherwise, the sound of a companions instrument can mean a brief respite from a mostly hostile environment. The controls can be a bit finnicky at times, but on the whole its great.
I don't think this game is quite perfect, however. Its often difficult to indicate to a player that a mystery exists without explaining too much. Outer Wilds successfully navigates this line for the most part, but at times it falls short. Some of the mysteries in this game require a careful and detailed search of areas that try very hard to make that impossible. This is challenge when its done right, but it can be plain annoying when, rarely, it done wrong.
I am still wrestling with the ending sequence of the game. I understand that, gathering the fellas together for a jam is a nice and meaningful way to end the game. And, apparently, the sequence of "gathering" each instrument/friend may have some greater meaning to the game. Still I don't think that the ending sequence added or changed all that much. The broader themes of the game didn't need some small, metaphorical statement at the end, they've been communicated the whole time through the player's experience. Moreover the general experience of the game is fairly lonely. Capping it off by getting the team together seems to contradict that. It's also a little odd to get a band together, despite not playing an instrument yourself (as the player-character).
Outer Wilds is a game good enough to warrant a mostly unironic review here. It activates both the "thinking" part of your brain by compelling you to, say, think about the mysteries of Dark Bramble, as well as the "doing" part of your brain, by getting you to actually fly a spaceship through it. I don't think its the most replayable game--again, I think the developers were at least semi-aware of this as it relates back to the idea that once you beat it it has been observed and is locked in a certain sense--but I certainly want to go back and explore the worlds, see if I missed anything. Good game.
Outer Wilds wastes no time introducing you to the Groundhog's Day-esque timeloop that is central to the narrative of the game. Your character is apparently compelled to explore the universe; at the same time the player is introduced to real mysteries about the storyworld that they are free to go after. In other words the interests of the player and that of the character align. Furthermore the actual experience of the player (accidentally dropping your ship on your head, flying into the sun, falling into a blackhole and suffocating) align with the experiences of the character. The fail state of the game, as triggered by the player-characters death, is explained via in-game mechanics as just the resetting of the time loop.
One of the central mysteries of the game revolves (or, orbits) around quantum mechanics: matter that has the unique property of moving when unobserved, and being locked into place when looked at. This mechanic is used for some tricky puzzles, but it also seems to apply more broadly. The goal of the game is to obtain knowledge: once that knowledge is observed, it is seen, and it will not disappear. The whole game consists of repeated instance of observations, locking into place all the factoids and rumors into the ship's log, before finally the Eye is observed, and the [SPOILER] [SPOILER]s.
The broader concepts of the gameplay, as alluded vaguely to above, are all rock-solid. The minute to minute gameplay is as well: for the most part, planets are silent, and lonely. You can hear your breath through the space suit; caves are pitch dark and require a flashlight. When the music cuts in, you know something big is happening. Otherwise, the sound of a companions instrument can mean a brief respite from a mostly hostile environment. The controls can be a bit finnicky at times, but on the whole its great.
I don't think this game is quite perfect, however. Its often difficult to indicate to a player that a mystery exists without explaining too much. Outer Wilds successfully navigates this line for the most part, but at times it falls short. Some of the mysteries in this game require a careful and detailed search of areas that try very hard to make that impossible. This is challenge when its done right, but it can be plain annoying when, rarely, it done wrong.
I am still wrestling with the ending sequence of the game. I understand that, gathering the fellas together for a jam is a nice and meaningful way to end the game. And, apparently, the sequence of "gathering" each instrument/friend may have some greater meaning to the game. Still I don't think that the ending sequence added or changed all that much. The broader themes of the game didn't need some small, metaphorical statement at the end, they've been communicated the whole time through the player's experience. Moreover the general experience of the game is fairly lonely. Capping it off by getting the team together seems to contradict that. It's also a little odd to get a band together, despite not playing an instrument yourself (as the player-character).
Outer Wilds is a game good enough to warrant a mostly unironic review here. It activates both the "thinking" part of your brain by compelling you to, say, think about the mysteries of Dark Bramble, as well as the "doing" part of your brain, by getting you to actually fly a spaceship through it. I don't think its the most replayable game--again, I think the developers were at least semi-aware of this as it relates back to the idea that once you beat it it has been observed and is locked in a certain sense--but I certainly want to go back and explore the worlds, see if I missed anything. Good game.
Outer Wilds
2019
Outer Wilds is the only game I can think of where within its first moments, I knew I was in for something very, very special without really understanding why. The title screen is already so inviting, with its gentle acoustic glow fading in over a collage of shimmering stars. The game opens, I wake up on my back, looking up into the sky to see something explode in the distant orbit of a giant, green planet deep in space, and my imagination is immediately captured. I feel an intangible warmth as I speak to my fellow Hearthians and wander our village, a sense of wonder and anticipation as I walk through our peoples' museum, learning about things that I realize I will inevitably have to face or utilize in the adventures ahead. All this before even seeing my ship, let alone blasting off with it into the far reaches of space.
The expectations and tone of Outer Wilds are set up pitch perfectly in this opening. On the whole, the game captures the innate desire we all have to learn more, to reach out for what's next, even if we have no idea what it is we are searching for or why we seek it. It's the only thing Outer Wilds relies on to lead players forward. There are no objectives or goals, no waypoints to show you where to go next; there only those which you create for yourself. What drives us forward is the need to understand the world(s) around us, or at least attempt to understand. Is there a more human desire than that?
Outer Wilds is a masterpiece for its many balances: of warmth and intimacy with the melancholic loneliness of space; a constant sense of wonder with an equally constant fear of the unknown; its charming, colorful art style with its hard, scientific approach; its reverence for the teachings of both classical and quantum physics; its personal, micro-level character stories set against the fate of the universe. The list goes on. And that's without even mentioning the game's emotional linchpin: Andrew Prahlow's incredible score, a healthy mix of folk, ambient and post-rock that is a delicate tight-wire act in and of itself, managing to capture both the vastness of space and the intimate glow of a campfire without compromise.
Whatever feelings Outer Wilds brought out of me in its opening moments were only further heightened and more deeply understood as I began unraveling the mysteries of its clockwork solar system, spiraling faster and faster towards an ending that left me in awe of everything that came before it and soon yearning for other experiences that could fill the black hole that the game's sudden absence left in place of my heart. Outer Wilds is not only a perfect game, but also one of the medium's purest expressions of its most inspiring possibilities. If only I could breathe out a sigh of relief and wake up on Timber Hearth for the first time again.
The expectations and tone of Outer Wilds are set up pitch perfectly in this opening. On the whole, the game captures the innate desire we all have to learn more, to reach out for what's next, even if we have no idea what it is we are searching for or why we seek it. It's the only thing Outer Wilds relies on to lead players forward. There are no objectives or goals, no waypoints to show you where to go next; there only those which you create for yourself. What drives us forward is the need to understand the world(s) around us, or at least attempt to understand. Is there a more human desire than that?
Outer Wilds is a masterpiece for its many balances: of warmth and intimacy with the melancholic loneliness of space; a constant sense of wonder with an equally constant fear of the unknown; its charming, colorful art style with its hard, scientific approach; its reverence for the teachings of both classical and quantum physics; its personal, micro-level character stories set against the fate of the universe. The list goes on. And that's without even mentioning the game's emotional linchpin: Andrew Prahlow's incredible score, a healthy mix of folk, ambient and post-rock that is a delicate tight-wire act in and of itself, managing to capture both the vastness of space and the intimate glow of a campfire without compromise.
Whatever feelings Outer Wilds brought out of me in its opening moments were only further heightened and more deeply understood as I began unraveling the mysteries of its clockwork solar system, spiraling faster and faster towards an ending that left me in awe of everything that came before it and soon yearning for other experiences that could fill the black hole that the game's sudden absence left in place of my heart. Outer Wilds is not only a perfect game, but also one of the medium's purest expressions of its most inspiring possibilities. If only I could breathe out a sigh of relief and wake up on Timber Hearth for the first time again.
Haven
2020
The two protagonists and the perfomances of their respective actors are amazing but the environments are dull and the combat is absolutely tedious.
In short, two amazing characters trapped in one incredibly boring game.
In short, two amazing characters trapped in one incredibly boring game.
Mahjong Soul
2019
This is some of the best whacking off material I've ever seen. Just the perfect animoo women to ingratiate myself in worship of. There's some bullshit about tiles too? Lol idk i dont look at that stuff.
Movement and combat is much more fun than the original, probably near the top of any game. The problems with the game come with those, however. There aren't any fun or challenging enemies or bosses, so the combat doesn't really get to reach its full potential. The movement is super fun and unique, but the game is pretty linear (doesn't allow for sequence breaks which would reward players who master the movement options) and lacks the challenge/spectacle of the escape sequences from the original. Still, the actual gameplay and feel improves on the original, and the story, world, and characters are all much more alive feeling than the predecessor. This is by no means a bad game, or even a mediocre one.
Chess.com
2007
Too easy, boring.
Jump Rope Challenge
2020
Due to my excellent jumping form and vibrant energy, I received an email from Nintendo stating that I had completed this game. It had everything I wanted out of a jump rope game: jumping, etc. If I had to point to one flaw it would be the lack of rope--generally considered at least half of jump roping.
ZeroRanger
2018
ZeroRanger is, more than anything else, a passion project. Two guys and a few other collaborators ground out ZeroRanger over TEN YEARS and they're still working on it. The thread for Final Boss, the original version of ZR, was started on the shmup forums in 2009. And you can really tell. An absurd amount of details, easter eggs and references, ooze from every frame of gameplay, to the point im fairly sure any random screenshot of this game probably has a few hidden details in it. The presentation is fantasitc, with excellent sprite work and great art direction, and the music is some of the best work i've heard in a genre which possesses probably the greatest concentration of god-tier game OSTs.
For a decent bit of time though, I was kinda dissapointed by ZR, because as a Shmup, it's comparatively middling in gameplay terms - Don't get me wrong, it's still fine, and somehow the 2nd best Shmup not made in Japan because no one else has a frickin clue, but it's nothing particulary special - the game is kinda indecisive about being a classic style shmup, a puzzle-focused shmup (like Ikaruga), or a modern Bullet Hell, and the Weapon system I generally find a tad unbalanced and a bit too straighfoward for engaging gameplay - the choice between which weapon to use in which situation is nearly always blatant.
Stage design is also a bit meh. Stage 2 in particular is pretty bad, and a combination of it being very long and being a quite sizeable difficulty jump, particularly with the midboss Artypo, makes it a slog in both loops.
And oh yeah, this game loops. And due to SPOILER, the game fairly explicitly doesnt treat completion of the first loop alone as a true clear - which leads to a traditional arcade run of this game taking almost an hour - 2 to 3 times as long as a typical arcade shmup, which, depsite the game's relatively low difficulty, makes it frustrating to practice and actually put a run out there, especially as the loops have significant differences. The scoring is also very forgettable.
But fuck that. This game still slaps. Not neccessarily as a shmup - but as a tribute to shmups, and as narrative shmup, like something in the vein of Darius Gaiden or Metal Black turned up a few notches in the story balance - interweaving a narrative that's legitimately fantastic and rewards the player for diving into it, with the structure of a shmup, and it's absolutely inspired at times. When everything comes together, particularly in stage 2-4, very little else matches it.
In this "Narrative/Presentational Shmup" guise, I only really have one problem with it, and that's it's usage of References. They're absolutely everywhere, and whilst a lot of the time they're somewhere between cool and very cute, particularly in the Credits and the Dream Sequence, and frankly for most of the game, they are overused a little, and to extent I do think it compromises a bit of the narrative of the game itself, and prevents it really standing on it's own at times. This only truly rears its head in sequences where there's a heavy narrative focus, especially since the game leans on imagery a decent chunk - trying to unpick the truckload of references from the game itself can undercut it a bit.
Mind, this will definetly be something where milage will vary, and I do still love the reverance this game has for the classics. I just feel at times it almost lacks a bit of confidence in itself when what it's doing is fantastic and doesnt need to make nods to those before it.
Still, as I said, it's an absolute blast, and there's nothing i've played that's really quite like it. Definetly flawed, but at it's peak, very little feels as passionate and well executed as ZR.
For a decent bit of time though, I was kinda dissapointed by ZR, because as a Shmup, it's comparatively middling in gameplay terms - Don't get me wrong, it's still fine, and somehow the 2nd best Shmup not made in Japan because no one else has a frickin clue, but it's nothing particulary special - the game is kinda indecisive about being a classic style shmup, a puzzle-focused shmup (like Ikaruga), or a modern Bullet Hell, and the Weapon system I generally find a tad unbalanced and a bit too straighfoward for engaging gameplay - the choice between which weapon to use in which situation is nearly always blatant.
Stage design is also a bit meh. Stage 2 in particular is pretty bad, and a combination of it being very long and being a quite sizeable difficulty jump, particularly with the midboss Artypo, makes it a slog in both loops.
And oh yeah, this game loops. And due to SPOILER, the game fairly explicitly doesnt treat completion of the first loop alone as a true clear - which leads to a traditional arcade run of this game taking almost an hour - 2 to 3 times as long as a typical arcade shmup, which, depsite the game's relatively low difficulty, makes it frustrating to practice and actually put a run out there, especially as the loops have significant differences. The scoring is also very forgettable.
But fuck that. This game still slaps. Not neccessarily as a shmup - but as a tribute to shmups, and as narrative shmup, like something in the vein of Darius Gaiden or Metal Black turned up a few notches in the story balance - interweaving a narrative that's legitimately fantastic and rewards the player for diving into it, with the structure of a shmup, and it's absolutely inspired at times. When everything comes together, particularly in stage 2-4, very little else matches it.
In this "Narrative/Presentational Shmup" guise, I only really have one problem with it, and that's it's usage of References. They're absolutely everywhere, and whilst a lot of the time they're somewhere between cool and very cute, particularly in the Credits and the Dream Sequence, and frankly for most of the game, they are overused a little, and to extent I do think it compromises a bit of the narrative of the game itself, and prevents it really standing on it's own at times. This only truly rears its head in sequences where there's a heavy narrative focus, especially since the game leans on imagery a decent chunk - trying to unpick the truckload of references from the game itself can undercut it a bit.
Mind, this will definetly be something where milage will vary, and I do still love the reverance this game has for the classics. I just feel at times it almost lacks a bit of confidence in itself when what it's doing is fantastic and doesnt need to make nods to those before it.
Still, as I said, it's an absolute blast, and there's nothing i've played that's really quite like it. Definetly flawed, but at it's peak, very little feels as passionate and well executed as ZR.
Astro's Playroom
2020
Fantastic tech demo game. If this is foreshadowing for how the PS5's quality will be, it's gonna be a great console.
Admittedly I kinda disliked most of the gimmick stages. Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't make you do them twice per world.
Admittedly I kinda disliked most of the gimmick stages. Wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't make you do them twice per world.
This was my first experience with Spider-Man 2018 and I'm glad I waited because 60 FPS with no loading screens is too good to pass up.
The game is a pretty cookie cutter Ubisoft open world affair - towers, enemy bases, collectibles etc. All that stuff is really trite and feels more like filling out a checklist rather than being meaningful content. The thing that keeps me from lumping this in with all the Ubisoft garbage is that it feels phenomenal to control Spider-Man.
Everything about the swinging and the parkour mechanics is incredible, something about having a good traversal mechanic just steps a game up imo. The combat, while not super deep, is pretty damn fun too - especially the suit powers like web blossom.
As for the story, it captures the essence of what Spider-Man can be when removed from the trappings of the MCU. It really fleshes out a handful of great villains alongside Peter and his friends in a way that feels really sincere. I even shed a couple of tears towards the end.
A couple of minor complaints here at the end - the new Peter face looks like it's deepfaked into every single scene and the stealth segments are really bad.
The game is a pretty cookie cutter Ubisoft open world affair - towers, enemy bases, collectibles etc. All that stuff is really trite and feels more like filling out a checklist rather than being meaningful content. The thing that keeps me from lumping this in with all the Ubisoft garbage is that it feels phenomenal to control Spider-Man.
Everything about the swinging and the parkour mechanics is incredible, something about having a good traversal mechanic just steps a game up imo. The combat, while not super deep, is pretty damn fun too - especially the suit powers like web blossom.
As for the story, it captures the essence of what Spider-Man can be when removed from the trappings of the MCU. It really fleshes out a handful of great villains alongside Peter and his friends in a way that feels really sincere. I even shed a couple of tears towards the end.
A couple of minor complaints here at the end - the new Peter face looks like it's deepfaked into every single scene and the stealth segments are really bad.
Old School RuneScape
2013
Some games don't respect your time. This game breaks your time over its knee and says "life is meaningless, your time never had value, and you were a fool to think otherwise." It's a minimum-wage job with more steps and less pay. Literally the only good this game has ever done the world is put food on the table for some savvy Venezuelans. I won't pretend to think otherwise. (https://www.polygon.com/features/2020/5/27/21265613/runescape-is-helping-venezuelans-survive)
Thebe Kgositstile (Earl Sweatshirt) once said "critics pretend they get it and bitches just dont fuck with him." This also applies to Kojima games, and in this case I'm the bitch. I don't quite get why this game exists other than as some pale ghost of a beta test of a beta test for how MGSV eventually played. MGS3 felt extraneous in a similar way, but where it has a zany James Bond lampooning, MGS4 has--well, its unclear. Some future gamer will one day look at the lukewarm reception of MGS4 and laugh, but I'm big fucking chilling in the meantime.