Does some really clever stuff in juxtaposing York/Zach's increasingly close relationship to the town against a conception of death as continued existence in a state of alienation. SWERY represents the Pacific Northwest as functionally Shinto and still manages to create the most effective portrait of the United States in the medium, in which the corrosive dreams of self-transcendence and absolute unity with the other can only be countered by a kind of boddhisattva of pop culture appreciation. Where Revengeance anticipated 2016 in some odd details, Deadly Premonition's a lot more on the nose thematically.
All of this is peripheral to the sheer charisma of York which is the sustaining quality of the game. While he's obviously modeled on Kyle McLaughlin, the Twin Peaks comparisons kind of understate the influence of The Hidden on this game, ironically suggesting that SWERY and Lynch were influenced by the same source.

the bush family is playin with that voodoo bad

bogwater oil company crusader propaganda disguised as the closest to an arcade game people born after 2000 will have statistically experienced. i did try to play it with genuine video game enjoying intentions (best moment was a noobtube headshot across the river and into the house on overgrown) but that desire just went away after getting even more depressed every time i looked at my statistics on the leaderboard, friends or global, it didnt matter. pointless statistics in a scheme run by the powers that be.

in order to fight off this game's primary intent (convincing teenagers to go die for an oil company under the guise of education, in its heyday i almost succumbed to an ammosexual autism spearheaded by this very computer program) i would proceed to nearly become another statistic (victim of the opioid crisis), join a hardcore search and destroy lobby (de_ for the cstrike fiends) attach a rubber band to the right analog stick to spin around, and another rubber band to attach a shitty earbud to the 360 headset mic, load up a soundboard on a laptop and wreak havoc upon the Most Serious G*mer's, absolutely convinced there was another human on the end of that mic, as i spun around rapidly in spawn, letting the rounds drag on as i hear the degrading words degrade into sounds no longer resembling words. that was the most fun i had within the metaverse of call of duty 6 lobbies on microsoft direct-x box three hundred and sixty's Direct-X Box Live Gold Connectivity service. i wouldn't be the f[THIS USER CAN SAY IT!]got i am today without the stern encouragement of the average microsoft Direct-X Box Three Hundred And Sixty's direct-x box live gold connectivity service user.

alteriwnet was alright too

i dunno, let's keep this quick. to say it's a bit clumsy is an understatement - and there are certainly aspects of the overall narrative i struggle with - but the depths of its sincerity won me over. i have no particular attachment to yakuza 7 either, and in fact i find much of that game to be very awkward, stilted, and grating so ultimately no one's more stunned than myself here.

when it's not luxuriating in this chilled-out ocean's twelve vibe which i loved, infinite wealth is written with far more intentionality and consideration than most entries in the series; while one might accuse of it of verging on threadbare or cloying for its strict emphasis on theme, i think the game trusts its audience to take some of the emotional leaps necessary to make the storytelling work. character writing for the leads and the party members has seen a dramatic improvement across the board. ichiban as usual brings a lot of levity to the table - thankfully none of it quite as irritating in the zany sense as 7 liked to employ - but kiryu's portions of the game are comparatively sobering. collecting memoirs has a weird psychological effect at times but the series has earned the right to do this by this point given how much of the kiryu saga can feel siloed or compartmentalized - in the same vein as gaiden, the game almost damns him for this, for never taking a chance to stop and reflect, for the consequences of his interminable martyr complex

that tendency to bury the past is only contrasted further by infinite wealth being maybe the most direct sequel the series has seen yet - the events of that game are still fresh in everyone's mind and sets the stage for the overarching conflict and everyone's investment in said conflict. it's a surprisingly natural extension of a lot of 7's themes, and i found it worked better for me this time. 7 often felt more gestural than anything else - to me it balanced far too much as this metaphorical (and literal) tearing down of the old ways, handling the introduction of a new protagonist, paying lipservice to series veterans and setting up parallels to the original ryu ga gotoku. infinite wealth to me feels more fully-formed, more confident; i think the team was able to use this title's unique hook and premise to really bring the most out of 7s promise of something new, and it could only have achieved it by taking the time to reflect on the past.

to this end: they made the game a JRPG this time, that counts for something. and not just a JRPG but one that feels as close to traditional RGG action as possible. some excellent systems this time with a lot of fascinating interplay and the level curve is fantastic. not necessary to sum up all the changes, you've seen them, but they really promote a lot of dynamic decision-making with respect to positioning and once you figure out how status effects can correlate with them you feel like your third eye's opening. very fond memories here of navigating around a crowd of enemies - some of whom have been put to sleep - and figuring out how best to maximize damage without waking anyone drowsy up. lots more strategy and enjoyment to be had here than pretty much anywhere in 7.

that said, i know RGG prides themselves on the statistics relating to players completing their titles, but they could really afford to take a few more risks with enemy waves in the main campaign. i felt like my most interesting encounters were usually street bosses or main story bosses, but the main campaign's filled with trash mobs. and i'm not saying every fight has to be some tactician's exercise - in fact i think that's the opposite of what people actually would enjoy - but i really wish the game took the time to play around even more with positioning. there are some exciting scenarios in the game that are too few and far in-between. stages that split up the party, encounters with unique mechanics...would really liked to have seen more in that vein.

some extra notes - would like to dig a bit deeper into the strengths of the narrative as well as some additional hangups but i can't be assed to write more
- honolulu's great, it gets probably a little too big for its own good but it's a real breath of fresh air for most of the game
- yamai is the best new character they've introduced in years
- dondoko island feels like a classic yakuza minigame in the best possible way, might even represent the apex of this kind of design. not obscenely grindy but just something casual and comfortable with enough layers to dig into without being overwheming and enough versatility to express yourself. shame you can't really say the same for sujimon!
- kiryu's party is disarmingly charming and they have some insanely good banter
- despite what some have said, i think this is a good follow-up to gaiden. it's not explicit about it but this is still very much a reckoning with kiryu's character and his mentality; it is every bit as concerned and preoccupied with the series mythos, the core ideas and conflicts driving a lot of installments
- honestly found the pacing to be on-par for the average RGG title if not better. i can concede that the dondoko island introduction was a bit too long but that is the most ground i can afford. if we can accept y5 into our hearts we can accept infinite wealth; IW makes y5 look deranged for its intrusiveness despite both titles occupying a similar length. if any of it registers as an actual problem, i think people would benefit from revisiting yakuza 7 to find it is almost exactly the same structurally if not worse
- IW is home to maybe the best needle drop in the medium
- played in japanese, like i usually do, so no real interest in commenting on the english dub since it's not real to me but i will say that what i listened to seemed like a bit of a step back from the dub quality in previous RGG games. yongyea isn't a convincing kiryu either and while i could be a bit more of a hater here all i will say is there is a STAGGERING whiplash involved in casting a guy like that as the lead in a game with themes like this. in a grouchier mood, i think it would genuinely be a bit difficult to look past this and it does leave me feeling sour, but ultimately the dub doesn't reflect my chosen means of engaging with the title and it never will
- what is difficult to look past is the game's DLC rollout, which arbitrarily gates higher difficulties, new game +, and a postgame dungeon. i acquired these through dubious means (which i highly recommend you also do) so i feel confident in saying they're really not at all worth the money unless you had a desire to spend more time in this world, but what a colossal and egregious failure to price it in this fashion. new game + specifically has tons of bizarre issues that make me believe a revision of some kind was necessary.
- you will not regret downloading this mod that removes the doors in dungeons


long story short, ryu ga gotoku's journey began in 2005 with a simple motif: to live is to not run away. so much of infinite wealth is about taking that notion to its furthest extent. it couldn't have possibly hit at a better time for me. at times it might be a classic case of this series biting off a bit more than it can chew for a sequel, but i don't think there's anything you can reliably point to that would make me think this is one step forwards, two steps back.

also awesome to have a game that posits that hawaii is filled with the fire monks from elden ring and then you have to travel to the resident evil 4 island to beat them up

7.5/10. Version played: C64 Emulation via Vicex64sc (3.7 0046085) version 's libretro port on Linux Retroarch 1.16.0 on Steam Deck OLED Steam OS(Arch Linux Variant).

Content played: Non-Save State run: Up to stage 8 several times. Save state run: All levels.

I've been wanting to get more into retro PC games
and I thought this would be a good first entry.
Sometimes you can't have the real deal on a particular system, so someone just says fuck it, I'll make my own mario port with blackjack and hookers...In a way that doesn't break copyright law. For MS-DOS that gave us Commander Keen, and for the C64, by a german developer. Appearantly a significant amount of old PC retro games come from Germany....I guess my neighbors are doing better than the Netherlands when it comes to games.
It doesn't exactly take a genius to figure out that this game is using Super Mario Bros as a template. The fact that its giana ''sisters'' instead of mario ''brothers'', the blocks you bash your head into, enemies to jump on, the bushes, the underground levels, the powerups, them ushrooms on the...cover of questionable quality. its all quite clear.

But this isn't an authentic clone. It's its own variant, its own take on the formula that I think justifies its own existence. It's not just an inferior version of Super Mario Bros that works on the Commedore 64. Its its own neat little game. It's a fairly simple movement/momentum based 2d Sidescrolling move to the end platformer. You only have a few verbs, running with 2 digital direction degrees and jumping with different analog height degrees, and then you just..Go through the obstacle course with those tools through a scrolling stage. It's similar in that you're mostly balancing speed and direction and how that effects jump distance/height, as well as balancing your jump height and how that effects the distance and arc to quickly jump accross gaps to the end goal by reading what kind of jump you need when correctly, as well as timing and positioning based reading required for the various dynamic enemies and obstacles in your way for which you need to use prediction/act pre-emptively as your character does not respond immediately. Plus, positioning and possible paths are obviously limited by being side scrolling and requiring gravity/friction.

You read the situation, and judge when you should jump, with what jump height, and when you should keep holding forward or let go or press backwards so that you will get over the obstacle on time, and often need to do so a bit earlier than expected. Each choice then effects the next, because you inherit momentum from your last jump as it takes time to get to full speed, and that momentum effects your possible jump distance/height/arc. It is within your agency to decide whether you keep going fast, the faster you let the screen scroll, the less reaction time you have. However, going fast feels more rewarding and is more beneficial/encouraged because it takes time to gain speed and switch direction. There then is a balcance between collecting/exploratio based playstyles which is safe and can lend you more lives, vs the speed based playstyles, or the ones in between. This is all basically the same as super mario bros, the difference is in the low level stuff.
But let me review it by listing things that are different, I think that'll actually give a better idea instead.

The style of music is entirely different and has that EU Commodore 64 charm. The theming isn't entirely a rip off but I wouldn't say its as cohesive and charming as marios? I never thought I'd say it but the enemies just seem so..Random..I mean I know the manual says that this is all taking place in a floaty dream world she's trying to get out of but still. What's with those dong looking enemies? Bouncing balls? Slinkys?

The scaling and screen size is a bit different but not in a way too significant. The camera in Mario bros actually takes some time to pan to mario once he gets around the middle, while in Giana sisters it just straight up starts moving. There's also the fact that it's a PAL game and boy if you set the emulator to that it runs at PAL speed...It gives the game a relaxing vibe that requires patience which despite me being European, I'm not used to. It also kind of overstayed its welcome this way. When I set it to NTSC it was a wildly different feel that felt more like what I'm used to, despite it being the same game. I'm not sure if it breaks the game considering it's likely an EU version. I did see some visual glitches and It seemed like the timer was moving similarly despite me being faster?

The most significant difference you'll first see is the timer! I tried absolutely taking my time to break bricks and gather lives and get a feel for it aaaaand It quickly resulted in my death. I couldn't make it in time! I never really had that happen in Mario Bros. While its not the most organic way to do it, keeping this timer relatively low actually makes the game a lot more interesting. If you want to get your lives, you better get those gems quickly. If you want to increase your points by killing enemies and breaking bricks, you better not take too long, just take what you can get and move on. I'm not sure what points do outside of getting you higher on the highscore screen (in many NES games they give continues but I don't know whether this game has them), but they're sure more interesting to get in this game. I actually find it more fun to try to get all the gems in this one. You don't get lives that quickly though.

Next up, the controls are wildly different. Giana does not have a run verb and is slower overall, even in NTSC. One thing I appreciate is that you can hold the jump button before hitting the ground and like a buffer giana will jump immediately when she hits the ground (though this does de-emphasize needing the technique to time jumps well). Input wise though, the jump button is set to up. This is especially annoying if you're playing with a gamepad where they aren't separate buttons that can all be pressed simultaneously. Luckily I could just remap the keys in this emulation. Anyway, I don't have any measurments or proof, but generally, Gianas controls feel more floaty (heh, the manual wasn't kidding). Her jump feels like it takes a bit longer. Mario takes longer to go up and hangs a bit longer in the air but then falls down in like half the amount of frames, making him feel weightier and snappier, with more commitment required as you can adjust less. The easing in speed in each stage is also different, it feels more even and less intense in Giana adding to that floatiness.

I can adjust my height in similar distinct ways, but it feels like in Giana it's more divided into 5 base heights and in Mario 4, again, don't quote me on this stuff I have no measurments its just first impressions. If you tap the jump button in Mario you'll jump quite a bit higher, so you have a bit more control, so that might show what I mean. Meanwhile, Mario forces more commitment to your momentum, in Giana if you let go of the forward button mid jump she'll actually respond and she'll respond more to the back button letting you correct your movement more. On the other hand, switching direction at higher speeds seems to take a bit longer in Giana, and doesn't have that little switch animation. Speaking of animation, the one for hitting a block is absent in Giana sisters. Either of these lacks of animation make for worse game feel overall, but it still functions. Getting to full speed seems like it takes a bit shorter in Giana. I'm not sure how fast giana and marios speeds are in relation to the enemies and various timings. So overall, Giana feels less momentum and commitment based, though with pal 50hz that works in its favor.

Despite this, the fact that the timer is low, as well as the fact that there are no pipes to crawl down into as far as I know, means that Giana orients itself less to the beginner friendly exploration based gameplay and more to the rush based gameplay a more advanced player would be into. Interestingly enough though, the mid level of stopping to pick up coins and items or for dangerous unknown moments actually feels.. harder in Giana because you have to balance more things. As the scoring is a bit more interesting, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Collision in Giana was a big wonky at times, though I can't tell whether this was my emulator. When I picked the ''fast'' emulation, several times I'd clearly jump on an enemy and I would just die. I couldn't replicate this once I was using the ''accurate'' one. What didn't change however was that if you wat to squeeze between two horizontal blatforms below one another in parallel when jumping towards it from the top, holding the right button often ends in me getting on its edge, and then being thrown off. I don't really remember how Mario Bros handles it. What does seem to be the case is that these kind of details differ. I believe that in Mario Bros you can run accross small gaps with speed but I wasn't able to do that here. Collision in general is rather different too, and so I also asssume how collision influences speed/physics is different as well.

Ofcourse, there's powerup differences too! You do not change in size/hitbox when getting the mushroom equivelent. Not sure whether you get to form 1 if you get hit when having both the mushroom and the flower, it differs per mario game too. The fireflower equivelent, which seems to be a lightning bolt, behaves completely differently. You can only have 1 bolt on screen at a time (unlike 2 in mario) but when close you can use it in very quick succession, also rewarding getting close to enemies. In movement Its closer to the mario land one. It doesn't bounce it just moves diagonally in a pretty sharp angle rather quickly and then once it hits something it will do the same in the opposite direction. However...If you get TWO lightning bolts, they get a homing attack!..The behavior of this can be quite strange and unpredictable and on 1 particular enemy it sometimes gets stuck. It can also get stuck if there's a platform above and an enemy below it. This sucks because you can't then shoot again until its off screen or actually hits its target, however I think it adds an odd charm to it of trying to not let it happen.

There's no stars as far as I know, but I've had a bomb and a clock come out. These are triggered by another button. The clock stops the enemies and the bomb can instantly kill most enemies on screen. There's also a water drop and a pineapple but I have..No clue what they do. Maybe they're just point items? Not sure if there's rng on items I think its just stage dependent.
That's the player character relavent mechanics but there's also quite a few different environmental mechanics. The most major one is that you don't bounce off of enemies when you jump on them at all! You just kinda squish through them. This does actually influence how you need to time certain parts. Same goes for enemies that are walking on a platform above you, breaking a brick does NOT kill them or do anything realy, which feels less satisfying and interesting, but also means the enemies stay a threat at points. What IS different is that at a few select spots, these weird ball shaped rocks drop from the bricks that stop your movement for a bit which you can then jump on. I'm not even sure what this adds haha.
Checkpoints seem to work similarly but I don't know of a continue system.

The flagpoles at the end aren't there, instead they are replaced by tricky, often punishing final jumps with lots of gems (the stock 100=life collectible..At least I think, I haven't checked how many gets you a life). It might not be as unique but it's still relatively satisfying to get them all. At the end of the stage you'll get a bonus of 10 diomands so every 10 stages is a guaranteed life I think. There's 32 total. Giana features most of the stage themes/types from Mario Bros. The outside flatland, the more ''athlethic'' stages, the castles, the underground stages..But no underwater stages. Maybe there were technical limitations or it was too ambitious. I also don't think I've seen any ''guess the correct path that's probably the most annoying path'' castle stages.

Platform gimmicks and obstacles are different too. The main pressure and punishing platform mechanic in the game is disintegrating platforms on a timer (1 tile at a time). It's pretty barebones. There are no moving platforms. There are no bonus rooms in the clouds. There are no springs. There are no spinning ''firebars'' instead we have..Balls bouncing slightly up and down?. Spikes? Oh yeah speaking of which, again, can'' tell if an emulator or old version bug, but I could stand on the side of the spikes without getting hit. Instead of piranha plants, there's these pipes with static fire on top of them and also floating platforms with weird white looking fire. There was nothing to make up for them either. It's a bit more generic. Speaking of which, there aren't actually that many direct enemy equivelents, and the roster here is pretty barebones. Yes we have the ''Basic dumb goons that run forward forcing you to do a basic jump over them'' goomba equivelent owls. The fireballs that come out of the ground in castles are the fish. The bullet bulls are now these bees that fly from the screen. There's no real cheep cheep, there's no lakitu, no hammer bros. There are a buncha goomba variants you can't jump on that are like spinies. But the biggest omission feels like a lack of koopas and piranha plants. They feel so much more dynamic and crucial to mario yet they're missing. The fact that koopas leave shells you can kick adds so much interaction, dynamics, expression, risk reward, etc. The fact that piranhas get in and out of pipes adds to the risk reward of deciding to do the tricky pipe side jumps or waiting for the right timing while rewarding having the fireflower and fireball timing.

What IS interesting though is that it has not 1 boss with a bunch of variants, but two. The weird cockroach thing (it kinda creeps me out) kinda bounces back and forth a bit a few times and then charges at you. You can't jump on it so basically it means you predict when it charges and then jump. Or you can use a fuckton of lightning bolts (again, the closer the more rewarding, but riskier, common in these games). The other is a dragon thing that kinda flies/circles around and then charges. Either is a fine enough twist on the ''Having a boss that's basically a harder to read, dynamic, risky final jump to get past'' idea that's not very common in games outside of the first mario bros.

The level design is similar to Super Mario Bros, less gimmicks, more using the different regularized systems and existing tools together. It also does not follow arcade design where it just moves on to thing to thing like a rollercoaster. Unlike the later Mario games that focused more on a particular formula of introduce gimmick and situation, expand, vary or twist, final challenge, It's more like a series of basic jumps and reads that kinda flow into one another, where things are placed in such a way that you still have to think about your speed and height, and sometimes stop for enemies that come on too quickly as you can not stop on a dime. As you get further in the game the difficulty curves with more pressure/urgency and punishing mechanics emphasized like the disintegrating platforms and pits. Like Mario Bros, it feels very minimalistic and straight to the point in that arcady manner. While it's not like a shmup where every single second counts with tons of decisions to make (it's more relaxed), it still leaves me less impatient than a lot of modern platformers. There's just the right amount of stuff to read and inputs with nuance to consider and just the right amount of challenge thrown at you to keep you there through the one sitting game.

The game-feel is a bit lacking compared to Mario Bros. It doesn't have those fine touches and polish. Nor does it feel nearly as thematically or atmospherically charming, cohesive or interesting. The music makes up for it though, it gives the game a fun vibe. And you got to remember that there weren't like, big companies behind these games, these were the equivelent of current indie devs, and there are different hardware limitations, so even of copying is easier, It's still a nice job.

All in all, I think that Giana Sisters is a worthy sidegrade for the Commedore 64. I grew up playing a bit of the Nintendo DS game, and I know there was a modern steam game as well, so I'm curious as to what direction they took these games in to give them more of their own identity and how they hold up. For now, this has been a nice introduction to the charming, DIY Friendly system that was the commodore 64. I think it's time to venture into something a bit more unique or daunting, given that fast paced action was not what old computers excelled at. For now, this was a neat little experience I could see myself coming back to every now and then in an attempt to 1CC it.