jtb1995
19 reviews liked by jtb1995
Shadows of Doubt
2023
incredibly, incredibly promising early access game. as it stands, the core gameplay loop is already incredibly solid. rummaging through files, searching through computers, scanning through cctv footage, gathering fingerprints, searching corpses, it's all stellar. the game posits itself as an "immersive-sim" (a term that has over time gradually lost all meaning if one were to look at the steam tag) and for being comprised purely of procedurally generated open worlds i think the game is already doing a stellar job of sticking to the thief/deus ex model of being filled with so many different interactable things within the environment (whether this be computers, file folders, notes, posters, photographs, etc.), the ability to tackle objectives in any way you want to, and having a large degree of freedom to how you want to interact with the various systems the game has put into place. non-player characters have schedules that they stick to allowing you to plot whether you want to break into their home to look for a murder weapon while they're at work, or barge through the door and surprise them while they are home for an arrest, or even sneak through a vent at their workplace to look through their computer while they're at home.
there's also the pinboard system of keeping track of each case you're working on, which at first can feel unwieldy but slowly reveals itself over time to be a great asset once you get the hang of actually using it. you're able to place pieces of evidence on it wherever you want, and some links between pieces will be made automatically based on what information is shared, but you're also able to add any connections you want. this allows for being able to plan you're investigation extremely effectively depending on how you want to tackle it, grouping objects together by location or individual and slowly checking every lead until you finally reach your culprit. there would be times when i didn't know what to do before realizing there was a piece on my pinboard i hadn't fully explored yet, tracking down a specific person, and finally being able to pull all the pieces together and catch the killer. you will legitimately feel yourself becoming a better detective as you play the game more, as you learn more tricks of the trade on your own and will be able to track people down based on smaller and smaller pools of evidence, and nothing will compare to agonizing over a case for hours before realizing something specific you can do and finally solve it.
i know i'm being a little vague with how exactly these systems work and what you can actually do in the game, and that's because i truly think it's best to try it for yourself and figure out what is best for you, but also because i feel that in it's current state there are modes of operating here that i feel like kind of go against the core ethos of what the game is trying to accomplish and that knowing this right off the bat will take some of the fun out of it, i just hope there will be some balancing changes coming in the future to make the game a little harder to exploit. the stealth system at the moment is kind of broken, while there's a lot of thrill to the actual sneaking aspects of the game and trying to break into places without getting caught, there's very little punishment for actually getting caught, as most fights just involve some janky hand to hand combat which can be too easy to actually win even against multiple combatants and fleeing from enemies is just exiting the building before they have no memory of what you've done.
there's also the various issues that come with this being a procedurally generated immersive sim (especially in early access). there's a distinct lack of pathos to a lot of the crimes and jobs. while there's a wealth of reading material in the game (emails, apartment leases, various sticky notes) you'll very rarely find something you haven't read before with the names swapped out which in turn makes investigating by looking for a motive completely impossible. this could be fixed in future updates by having more bespoke crime scenes, but as it stands this is game that is much more focused on systems than narrative with the player having to build that from scratch based purely on context. i also ran into a lot of generation bugs in the game: screens impossible to see due to a cabinet being placed right in front of them, rooms with way more doors than they need to have, vents being impossible to progress through due to strange geometry glitches, a building who's top half would not load at all, though i chalk this up mostly to early access and assume that most of this will be fixed as more patches roll out.
i still obviously have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this one so far, with twenty hours dropped in even in the early access state. the voxel based world is a joy to inhabit, with really strong art direction and environment design complemented well by the lighting a weather effects placed on them, and of course as i mentioned the actual main gameplay loop is incredibly addictive even if it's not yet as deep as it could be. incredibly promising and excited to see where this grows and evolves from here.
there's also the pinboard system of keeping track of each case you're working on, which at first can feel unwieldy but slowly reveals itself over time to be a great asset once you get the hang of actually using it. you're able to place pieces of evidence on it wherever you want, and some links between pieces will be made automatically based on what information is shared, but you're also able to add any connections you want. this allows for being able to plan you're investigation extremely effectively depending on how you want to tackle it, grouping objects together by location or individual and slowly checking every lead until you finally reach your culprit. there would be times when i didn't know what to do before realizing there was a piece on my pinboard i hadn't fully explored yet, tracking down a specific person, and finally being able to pull all the pieces together and catch the killer. you will legitimately feel yourself becoming a better detective as you play the game more, as you learn more tricks of the trade on your own and will be able to track people down based on smaller and smaller pools of evidence, and nothing will compare to agonizing over a case for hours before realizing something specific you can do and finally solve it.
i know i'm being a little vague with how exactly these systems work and what you can actually do in the game, and that's because i truly think it's best to try it for yourself and figure out what is best for you, but also because i feel that in it's current state there are modes of operating here that i feel like kind of go against the core ethos of what the game is trying to accomplish and that knowing this right off the bat will take some of the fun out of it, i just hope there will be some balancing changes coming in the future to make the game a little harder to exploit. the stealth system at the moment is kind of broken, while there's a lot of thrill to the actual sneaking aspects of the game and trying to break into places without getting caught, there's very little punishment for actually getting caught, as most fights just involve some janky hand to hand combat which can be too easy to actually win even against multiple combatants and fleeing from enemies is just exiting the building before they have no memory of what you've done.
there's also the various issues that come with this being a procedurally generated immersive sim (especially in early access). there's a distinct lack of pathos to a lot of the crimes and jobs. while there's a wealth of reading material in the game (emails, apartment leases, various sticky notes) you'll very rarely find something you haven't read before with the names swapped out which in turn makes investigating by looking for a motive completely impossible. this could be fixed in future updates by having more bespoke crime scenes, but as it stands this is game that is much more focused on systems than narrative with the player having to build that from scratch based purely on context. i also ran into a lot of generation bugs in the game: screens impossible to see due to a cabinet being placed right in front of them, rooms with way more doors than they need to have, vents being impossible to progress through due to strange geometry glitches, a building who's top half would not load at all, though i chalk this up mostly to early access and assume that most of this will be fixed as more patches roll out.
i still obviously have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of this one so far, with twenty hours dropped in even in the early access state. the voxel based world is a joy to inhabit, with really strong art direction and environment design complemented well by the lighting a weather effects placed on them, and of course as i mentioned the actual main gameplay loop is incredibly addictive even if it's not yet as deep as it could be. incredibly promising and excited to see where this grows and evolves from here.
Sports Story
2022
This review contains spoilers
On December 23, 2022 I wrote the following: "The day has finally come. Let's not kid ourselves. This was always going to be my GOTY 2022."
I then added: "EDIT: Had a great time with it so far, but uhhhh definitely gonna pause and wait for a patch. This cake is tasty, but it's not exactly done in the middle."
It's now July, and Sports Story has been looming over my head ever since it shadow-dropped back in December. It had been one of my most-anticipated titles ever since it was announced, but the state it launched in was pretty bleak. I told myself that I’d wait for updates and then I’d play the game once it was finished, but the devs put out 5 updates pretty quickly, and we’ve had nothing but radio silence since February 24th.
Sadly, I think this is as “finished” as we’re gonna get.
Over the past week I committed to finishing the follow-up to one of my favorite games of all time, no matter how disappointing things got. And they got pretty disappointing!
Now, a lack of polish and an abundance of bugs aren’t the only things that set Sports Story apart from its immaculate predecessor. Everything the previous game did has been reimagined, but unfortunately it’s a downgrade in every regard. The golfing mechanics were great in Golf Story, but features like curving the ball, adding spin, and altering the height of your shot arc have been completely removed. Your control over the ball has been neutered while courses have become more complicated and unpredictable. The caverns golf course is the low point, where it’s unclear which obstacles will trigger hit detection and which ones are floating above the field of play. It’s baffling that the devs felt the need to re-invent their golf controls instead of just keeping them as they were. The one interesting thing they’ve done is include different types of balls with effects like bouncing towards the pin, being unaffected by wind, or bouncing on water. I enjoyed each of these and used them when I could, but each special ball is a rare consumable item, so once you’ve used them, they’re all gone (until the final area where you can purchase them, but they’re quite pricey). The number of obtainable golf clubs is also sparse, which was such a highlight in the previous game. The concept of meaningful upgrades seems to have been an afterthought here, and that doesn’t just apply to the golf, your equipment is extremely limited for EVERY sport.
Now we’ve got to address the other titular sports contained in the game. It’s abundantly clear that the devs spread themselves too thin by trying to create compelling mechanics for too many sports. Or rather, I should probably say the “dev”, because contrary to the ragebait articles which did the rounds earlier this year, there seems to be a total of one programmer at Sidebar Games. I’m sure you’re aware of the secret dev room easter egg, where a team complains of being overworked while poor management constantly changes plans. Since the game was in such a bad state, players assumed that this was left in the game by actual miserable employees, but from everything I can find online (as well as the game’s credits), this game was made by one programmer, one composer, one lead artist, and a team of 5 additional artists. That’s it! So it’s important to realize that the narrative spun up by a handful of articles which told a tale of a large team being abused by inept leadership is nothing more than fantasy. In truth, this game is a sad tale of a single dev spreading themself too thin. Where they were able to master Golf Story’s mechanics in 2017 (there are definitely some BIG OPINIONS about Disc Golf out there, but I felt it was intuitive and I quite enjoyed it), the task of handling golf, tennis, cricket, soccer, baseball, BMX, fishing, running, volleyball, and a little bit of RC racing proved to be too daunting. I’ll address each of them briefly.
Golf: Downgrade in every way, as previously stated. Omnipresent frame stutters often occur while lining up a shot, so there were a few times where I completely missed a shot simply because the game froze for a second while I was swinging.
Tennis: This is the one that the most time is spent on (other than golf, of course). I managed to get the hang of it by the end of the tennis storyline, but it’s largely unresponsive. The ball would frequently clip right through my character while I was swinging, yet sometimes I would hit a ball that had already passed me. You’re unable to aim your shots for the most part, only hitting a ball with a maximum angle of about 10 degrees to either side. When you’re trying to whack a ball past an opponent, it would have been nice to do something other than hit it straight forward. Scoring is also glitched, because if a ball is hit out of bounds, but bounces off the back wall of the arena and ends up hitting the net on their opponent’s side of the court, the person who hit the ball OOB will still get the point. It just feels bad to play.
Cricket: I still don’t understand cricket! An entire match is never played, you'll bat and you’ll block, but that’s it. Like tennis, the hit detection is rough, with balls sometimes passing through the cricket bat unfazed.
Soccer: This one’s bad. There will be small challenges where you freely run around and kick something into a makeshift goal, and those handle just fine. But most of Sports Story's soccer activity is set up like penalty kicks, which are aimed and kicked with golf mechanics, often with a LOT of wind. They feel really bad and are the only challenges I ended up skipping.
Baseball: Funnily enough, the in-game sports corporation PureStrike apparently hates baseball, so owning a bat is illegal. There are batting cages (and a tiny bit of cheeky lawless outdoor baseball) in the game, but just like tennis and cricket, swinging and hitting a ball is neither consistent nor engaging.
BMX: It’s Excitebike for the NES. There are multiple lanes and you drive left to right across raised platforms, obstacles to jump over, and boosts. The momentum is really weird though, if you failed on your first attempt at a challenge but ran out of time while still going fast, your second attempt will start you with whatever speed you had built up at the end of your previous try. The biking as a whole is fine, but there’s one really weird problem: Your objective is to finish races before the clock runs out. If you crash, you start again from the beginning, but the clock keeps going from where it was. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to complete any of these races (with maybe one exception where there was time aplenty) after resetting this way, as there is simply not enough time left over to run the track. Definitely worse than Excitebike!
Fishing: This is done quite well! The mechanics for spotting, baiting, hooking, and reeling in fish vary for different species and you have to plan accordingly for each fish. It’s legitimately quite clever and didn’t feel like any other fishing minigame I’ve played before. This one impressed me!
Running: It’s the BMX minigame, but more baffling. As with the bike controls, you hold B to… pedal? There are running challenges in the regular levels where you just move around like normal, but suddenly when it’s a left-to-right footrace, it handles like a bike. It’s weird!
Volleyball: Another entry that’s sparsely explored. It handles fine, but it’s very bare-bones and it only happened like twice.
RC Racing: This is barely here, I’m not sure it really counts as a sport. It’s fine!
The vast diversity of activities is, in theory, a good thing! I definitely understand what they were going for, but they simply bit off more than they could chew here. Much of the game becomes filled with fetch quests, feeling quite similar to the low points of Sierra adventure games of yore. There’s a long late-game trade sequence in particular that is the worst kind of obtuse. For example, two identical NPCs are standing right next to each other and ask for vague help. It turns out they’re not conjoined twins, they’re glued together, and you need to pour oil on them to free them. Roberta & Ken Williams, eat your heart out.
But while King’s Quest games can be saved by charming dialogue, Sports Story somehow let me down hardest in this department. In my 3 playthroughs of Golf Story, I constantly laughed out loud through the whole journey. I adored every word, loved the characters, and was fully engrossed in the story. But this time? It is SO. BLAND. The last game had a fantastic rivalry with Lara, a hilarious relationship with an incredibly reluctant coach, a compelling late-game antagonist in Max Yards, a sleazy deal-with-the-devil situation with Lucky, and practically every other side character left an impression. But here? If you had told me this dialogue was written by the dev a decade before Golf Story while they were still finding their voice, that would have made complete sense to me. Any returning character is a shell of their former self, and I often couldn’t tell if the game was being legitimately serious or if the seriousness was meant to be a joke. There were maybe 5 times when the text made me smile, yet they went crazy hard on the sheer amount of dialogue this time. There are VHS tapes you can rent and TV shows you can watch which each drastically overstay their welcome with uninteresting stories, and any conversation you finish can NOT be skipped if you accidentally enter it a second time! There is a LOT of prattling on, and you’re gonna sit through it all, whether you like it or not. Though the dialogue when the houseboat was docking was legitimately great, and a good chunk of the final major area mercifully had some of that Golf Story charm, the writing as a whole isn't something you enjoy, it's something you endure.
And the GLITCHES, man. It’s hard to tell what’s an honest oversight and what just was never finished. Where you have to stand in order to press A to interact with things or people varies wildly. I got locked on a black screen while entering an area and had to reset. I made it to the other side of a crevasse (where I apparently wasn’t supposed to be) and when I spoke to a character there, the game tried to move me back across the chasm to where I was before, but my character wound up trying to walk into the abyss for a full minute before the game allowed the conversation to continue. There are a surprising amount of typos and misspellings. I accidentally blew up a button I needed to push by throwing a golf ball at it, meaning I could not complete the quest without resetting the game. (WHY WAS IT EVEN CODED TO BE BREAKABLE) Loads of purchasable items seemingly do nothing at all, including “Junk” which you can buy from popcorn machines (?!?!?) which only has “Junk it up” as a description. In Golf Story, every item has a purpose. But here you can quite easily waste all of your money on useless crap. There are entire quests which are inconsequential as well. Does anyone have a clue if something happens after you rescue all the flamingoes?? The aviary lady said she was going to be able to sell the building and all its birds now, but there’s no player reward of any kind.
And to TOP IT ALL OFF, the climax is as underwhelming as you could possibly get. The story just kind of quits, with a prominent character telling you “okay, you finished the other stuff, now there’s a big sports competition!” But unlike Golf Story’s championship at the Blue Moon Dunes, there’s barely any time spent building to this event, and you’re not directly competing against anyone. There are no clearly-defined stakes, no rivalry, no antagonist. Some mystical creatures randomly show up as you golf your way through non-golf scenarios, with seemingly arbitrary points being awarded, and then… you just win. I have no idea if there’s even a way to lose here, there was no target score or anything. I just... finished a list of uninspired tasks.
There are glimpses of something greater here. I really did want this game to be a masterpiece, but we got a rough draft of an ill-conceived idea. I’ve put in my time, and I will now refrain from ever touching this game again.
Oh, and the post-credits scene was arguably the most clever and funny part of the whole game. Shame it’s teasing a sequel that will likely never exist!
I then added: "EDIT: Had a great time with it so far, but uhhhh definitely gonna pause and wait for a patch. This cake is tasty, but it's not exactly done in the middle."
It's now July, and Sports Story has been looming over my head ever since it shadow-dropped back in December. It had been one of my most-anticipated titles ever since it was announced, but the state it launched in was pretty bleak. I told myself that I’d wait for updates and then I’d play the game once it was finished, but the devs put out 5 updates pretty quickly, and we’ve had nothing but radio silence since February 24th.
Sadly, I think this is as “finished” as we’re gonna get.
Over the past week I committed to finishing the follow-up to one of my favorite games of all time, no matter how disappointing things got. And they got pretty disappointing!
Now, a lack of polish and an abundance of bugs aren’t the only things that set Sports Story apart from its immaculate predecessor. Everything the previous game did has been reimagined, but unfortunately it’s a downgrade in every regard. The golfing mechanics were great in Golf Story, but features like curving the ball, adding spin, and altering the height of your shot arc have been completely removed. Your control over the ball has been neutered while courses have become more complicated and unpredictable. The caverns golf course is the low point, where it’s unclear which obstacles will trigger hit detection and which ones are floating above the field of play. It’s baffling that the devs felt the need to re-invent their golf controls instead of just keeping them as they were. The one interesting thing they’ve done is include different types of balls with effects like bouncing towards the pin, being unaffected by wind, or bouncing on water. I enjoyed each of these and used them when I could, but each special ball is a rare consumable item, so once you’ve used them, they’re all gone (until the final area where you can purchase them, but they’re quite pricey). The number of obtainable golf clubs is also sparse, which was such a highlight in the previous game. The concept of meaningful upgrades seems to have been an afterthought here, and that doesn’t just apply to the golf, your equipment is extremely limited for EVERY sport.
Now we’ve got to address the other titular sports contained in the game. It’s abundantly clear that the devs spread themselves too thin by trying to create compelling mechanics for too many sports. Or rather, I should probably say the “dev”, because contrary to the ragebait articles which did the rounds earlier this year, there seems to be a total of one programmer at Sidebar Games. I’m sure you’re aware of the secret dev room easter egg, where a team complains of being overworked while poor management constantly changes plans. Since the game was in such a bad state, players assumed that this was left in the game by actual miserable employees, but from everything I can find online (as well as the game’s credits), this game was made by one programmer, one composer, one lead artist, and a team of 5 additional artists. That’s it! So it’s important to realize that the narrative spun up by a handful of articles which told a tale of a large team being abused by inept leadership is nothing more than fantasy. In truth, this game is a sad tale of a single dev spreading themself too thin. Where they were able to master Golf Story’s mechanics in 2017 (there are definitely some BIG OPINIONS about Disc Golf out there, but I felt it was intuitive and I quite enjoyed it), the task of handling golf, tennis, cricket, soccer, baseball, BMX, fishing, running, volleyball, and a little bit of RC racing proved to be too daunting. I’ll address each of them briefly.
Golf: Downgrade in every way, as previously stated. Omnipresent frame stutters often occur while lining up a shot, so there were a few times where I completely missed a shot simply because the game froze for a second while I was swinging.
Tennis: This is the one that the most time is spent on (other than golf, of course). I managed to get the hang of it by the end of the tennis storyline, but it’s largely unresponsive. The ball would frequently clip right through my character while I was swinging, yet sometimes I would hit a ball that had already passed me. You’re unable to aim your shots for the most part, only hitting a ball with a maximum angle of about 10 degrees to either side. When you’re trying to whack a ball past an opponent, it would have been nice to do something other than hit it straight forward. Scoring is also glitched, because if a ball is hit out of bounds, but bounces off the back wall of the arena and ends up hitting the net on their opponent’s side of the court, the person who hit the ball OOB will still get the point. It just feels bad to play.
Cricket: I still don’t understand cricket! An entire match is never played, you'll bat and you’ll block, but that’s it. Like tennis, the hit detection is rough, with balls sometimes passing through the cricket bat unfazed.
Soccer: This one’s bad. There will be small challenges where you freely run around and kick something into a makeshift goal, and those handle just fine. But most of Sports Story's soccer activity is set up like penalty kicks, which are aimed and kicked with golf mechanics, often with a LOT of wind. They feel really bad and are the only challenges I ended up skipping.
Baseball: Funnily enough, the in-game sports corporation PureStrike apparently hates baseball, so owning a bat is illegal. There are batting cages (and a tiny bit of cheeky lawless outdoor baseball) in the game, but just like tennis and cricket, swinging and hitting a ball is neither consistent nor engaging.
BMX: It’s Excitebike for the NES. There are multiple lanes and you drive left to right across raised platforms, obstacles to jump over, and boosts. The momentum is really weird though, if you failed on your first attempt at a challenge but ran out of time while still going fast, your second attempt will start you with whatever speed you had built up at the end of your previous try. The biking as a whole is fine, but there’s one really weird problem: Your objective is to finish races before the clock runs out. If you crash, you start again from the beginning, but the clock keeps going from where it was. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to complete any of these races (with maybe one exception where there was time aplenty) after resetting this way, as there is simply not enough time left over to run the track. Definitely worse than Excitebike!
Fishing: This is done quite well! The mechanics for spotting, baiting, hooking, and reeling in fish vary for different species and you have to plan accordingly for each fish. It’s legitimately quite clever and didn’t feel like any other fishing minigame I’ve played before. This one impressed me!
Running: It’s the BMX minigame, but more baffling. As with the bike controls, you hold B to… pedal? There are running challenges in the regular levels where you just move around like normal, but suddenly when it’s a left-to-right footrace, it handles like a bike. It’s weird!
Volleyball: Another entry that’s sparsely explored. It handles fine, but it’s very bare-bones and it only happened like twice.
RC Racing: This is barely here, I’m not sure it really counts as a sport. It’s fine!
The vast diversity of activities is, in theory, a good thing! I definitely understand what they were going for, but they simply bit off more than they could chew here. Much of the game becomes filled with fetch quests, feeling quite similar to the low points of Sierra adventure games of yore. There’s a long late-game trade sequence in particular that is the worst kind of obtuse. For example, two identical NPCs are standing right next to each other and ask for vague help. It turns out they’re not conjoined twins, they’re glued together, and you need to pour oil on them to free them. Roberta & Ken Williams, eat your heart out.
But while King’s Quest games can be saved by charming dialogue, Sports Story somehow let me down hardest in this department. In my 3 playthroughs of Golf Story, I constantly laughed out loud through the whole journey. I adored every word, loved the characters, and was fully engrossed in the story. But this time? It is SO. BLAND. The last game had a fantastic rivalry with Lara, a hilarious relationship with an incredibly reluctant coach, a compelling late-game antagonist in Max Yards, a sleazy deal-with-the-devil situation with Lucky, and practically every other side character left an impression. But here? If you had told me this dialogue was written by the dev a decade before Golf Story while they were still finding their voice, that would have made complete sense to me. Any returning character is a shell of their former self, and I often couldn’t tell if the game was being legitimately serious or if the seriousness was meant to be a joke. There were maybe 5 times when the text made me smile, yet they went crazy hard on the sheer amount of dialogue this time. There are VHS tapes you can rent and TV shows you can watch which each drastically overstay their welcome with uninteresting stories, and any conversation you finish can NOT be skipped if you accidentally enter it a second time! There is a LOT of prattling on, and you’re gonna sit through it all, whether you like it or not. Though the dialogue when the houseboat was docking was legitimately great, and a good chunk of the final major area mercifully had some of that Golf Story charm, the writing as a whole isn't something you enjoy, it's something you endure.
And the GLITCHES, man. It’s hard to tell what’s an honest oversight and what just was never finished. Where you have to stand in order to press A to interact with things or people varies wildly. I got locked on a black screen while entering an area and had to reset. I made it to the other side of a crevasse (where I apparently wasn’t supposed to be) and when I spoke to a character there, the game tried to move me back across the chasm to where I was before, but my character wound up trying to walk into the abyss for a full minute before the game allowed the conversation to continue. There are a surprising amount of typos and misspellings. I accidentally blew up a button I needed to push by throwing a golf ball at it, meaning I could not complete the quest without resetting the game. (WHY WAS IT EVEN CODED TO BE BREAKABLE) Loads of purchasable items seemingly do nothing at all, including “Junk” which you can buy from popcorn machines (?!?!?) which only has “Junk it up” as a description. In Golf Story, every item has a purpose. But here you can quite easily waste all of your money on useless crap. There are entire quests which are inconsequential as well. Does anyone have a clue if something happens after you rescue all the flamingoes?? The aviary lady said she was going to be able to sell the building and all its birds now, but there’s no player reward of any kind.
And to TOP IT ALL OFF, the climax is as underwhelming as you could possibly get. The story just kind of quits, with a prominent character telling you “okay, you finished the other stuff, now there’s a big sports competition!” But unlike Golf Story’s championship at the Blue Moon Dunes, there’s barely any time spent building to this event, and you’re not directly competing against anyone. There are no clearly-defined stakes, no rivalry, no antagonist. Some mystical creatures randomly show up as you golf your way through non-golf scenarios, with seemingly arbitrary points being awarded, and then… you just win. I have no idea if there’s even a way to lose here, there was no target score or anything. I just... finished a list of uninspired tasks.
There are glimpses of something greater here. I really did want this game to be a masterpiece, but we got a rough draft of an ill-conceived idea. I’ve put in my time, and I will now refrain from ever touching this game again.
Oh, and the post-credits scene was arguably the most clever and funny part of the whole game. Shame it’s teasing a sequel that will likely never exist!
Citizen Sleeper
2022
Tried so hard to enjoy this
twice now, yet can't seem to quell
disinterest creeping in:
mechanics blast the story pacing to hell.
Beautiful design and prose
still keep me wishing I could
feel what others feel. Instead,
outside looking in through branches, forlorn woods.
twice now, yet can't seem to quell
disinterest creeping in:
mechanics blast the story pacing to hell.
Beautiful design and prose
still keep me wishing I could
feel what others feel. Instead,
outside looking in through branches, forlorn woods.
Metal: Hellsinger
2022
I should preface this review by saying that I was pretty hype for this game. After the epic reveal with big-name features and really enjoying the demo a while back, I had pretty high hopes that Hellsinger would provide banger after banger, and its soundtrack may finally be one to rival Metal Gear Rising's in terms of me listening to it casually. Unfortunately, I have to say that this was not the case :(
I'll start with the music because let's be honest, that's the selling point. Of about 15 main tracks (some of which are remixes/alt versions of the same one) I would say that only 3 are ones I really got into, with an additional maybe 2 that I enjoyed but wouldn't put on myself. This was pretty disappointing for me tbh, I don't know how much input the featured vocalists had on the songs themselves, but I was really hoping that I wouldn't almost exclusively like the tracks with singers I already like on them. But alas, the two best songs easily are the ones featuring Serj Takian and Alissa White-Gluz (imo of course) The song with Randy Blythe was pretty good too, but I'd rather just listen to Lamb of God anyway so.. yeah.
Furthermore, the game uses a pretty classic rhythm game mechanic whereby your performance affects the soundtrack. The vocals will only kick in once your multiplier is high enough, meaning if you're on a difficult stage, can't find the last enemy or are just moving between arenas, it can be really easy to lose the vocals altogether for a while. This isn't all that bad per se, but it does reveal later on that the instrumentals for some of the tracks are pretty.. standard. There's most likely a pretty good reason for this, and don't get me wrong it's still a badass backing even witout the lyrics but idk, it definitely got kinda boring on the longer/harder levels, particularly when I picked a pretty bad loadout that just didn't work for me and spent only 40% of the level with the vocal track.
My expected reason for the above ties in nicely to my biggest gripe with this game overall: Every level uses the same tempo. All of them. This is super restrictive i feel because it means even once you have all the weapons (although you can only equip 4 at a time and 2 are locked, so I just used the same ones for half the game) every level still plays almost exactly the same. On one level I kept having to stop to find the beat because it felt like the song was more befitting of a faster tempo, but the game still wanted me to use the usual one, it was odd. I wasn't expecting them to mix things up too much or anything but idk, it would have been nice to at least have it fluctuate across songs or even during certain parts of songs. The way it is now just makes the whole thing feel like a steady metronome and it loses a lot of it's badass kick. Especially when some weapons force you to skip a beat while waiting for an animation or whatever, so you end up quite literally just waiting for half a bar, every bar, every level...
This is worsened by my next complaint - The levels are way too long. I know they're only 15-30 mins each, but the songs used for them are 4-6 mins on average and it really shows. You can already tell when a track is looping for the 3rd or 4th time, even with the audio mixing being as good as it is, you can't really hide when you're hearing the same verse or chorus for the 100th time. The levels are broken up into a series of arenas you move between, and enemy respawns within those arenas just need to calm down. Even playing through a level on easy you'll kill 10 when you get there and then wait while 5 more spawn, then 8 more, then 6 more, then 8 more, then 5 more... The amount of times I'd run so many laps I just ended up waiting near the exit to spawn-kill was ridiculous. Honestly the game is so fun when it's fun but it spends half its runtime doing things to make it feel like you're waiting, it's so strange.
Similarly to this, the boss fights are awful. If you played the demo and you fought the boss at the end of that level, well I'm sorry to report that the exact same boss is used for every level bar the final one. The arenas are different and the attack patterns change, but it's always the same design. They also use the same boss music for it each time, with slight variations on each level (tho honestly I didn't even notice this until I checked the tracklist in the menu after) - and to make them even more boring, the boss just has way too much health. You can already only attack on beat, why does it need to take so long that getting perfectly timed headshots still feels like it takes forever. And we're not done yet, when the boss changes position it transforms into a non-physical form, meaning it's invulnerable and you literally just have to stand and wait for it to reappear, which in some cases took up to like 15 seconds of just doing nothing. I'm not sure whose idea this was, but it was a bad one.
Thankfully the penultimate level was really fun, the track, the arenas and enemy types all worked well together and overall I'd say that it went as hard as I was hoping the whole thing would. The final boss was also a lot better than the regular one and of course it's theme feat. Serj made for a pretty hype finale. The story in the game is pretty whatever, it seems like they set up two conflicting pieces of sequel-bait immediately after one another so fuck knows what the future plan is, but as it is this is a pretty fun time. I know I complained a lot but anyone that reads my reviews regularly knows I tend to start with a rough idea and very quickly just ramble about whatever comes to mind lol. I was disappointed I didn't love this game, but I definitely still enjoyed it, hopefully if they do another they mix up the gameplay a little more is all.
Perhaps the game is just better suited to throw on for a level every now and then rather than playing it through like a normal game, idk!
Thanks for reading, sorry it went on so long! :)
I'll start with the music because let's be honest, that's the selling point. Of about 15 main tracks (some of which are remixes/alt versions of the same one) I would say that only 3 are ones I really got into, with an additional maybe 2 that I enjoyed but wouldn't put on myself. This was pretty disappointing for me tbh, I don't know how much input the featured vocalists had on the songs themselves, but I was really hoping that I wouldn't almost exclusively like the tracks with singers I already like on them. But alas, the two best songs easily are the ones featuring Serj Takian and Alissa White-Gluz (imo of course) The song with Randy Blythe was pretty good too, but I'd rather just listen to Lamb of God anyway so.. yeah.
Furthermore, the game uses a pretty classic rhythm game mechanic whereby your performance affects the soundtrack. The vocals will only kick in once your multiplier is high enough, meaning if you're on a difficult stage, can't find the last enemy or are just moving between arenas, it can be really easy to lose the vocals altogether for a while. This isn't all that bad per se, but it does reveal later on that the instrumentals for some of the tracks are pretty.. standard. There's most likely a pretty good reason for this, and don't get me wrong it's still a badass backing even witout the lyrics but idk, it definitely got kinda boring on the longer/harder levels, particularly when I picked a pretty bad loadout that just didn't work for me and spent only 40% of the level with the vocal track.
My expected reason for the above ties in nicely to my biggest gripe with this game overall: Every level uses the same tempo. All of them. This is super restrictive i feel because it means even once you have all the weapons (although you can only equip 4 at a time and 2 are locked, so I just used the same ones for half the game) every level still plays almost exactly the same. On one level I kept having to stop to find the beat because it felt like the song was more befitting of a faster tempo, but the game still wanted me to use the usual one, it was odd. I wasn't expecting them to mix things up too much or anything but idk, it would have been nice to at least have it fluctuate across songs or even during certain parts of songs. The way it is now just makes the whole thing feel like a steady metronome and it loses a lot of it's badass kick. Especially when some weapons force you to skip a beat while waiting for an animation or whatever, so you end up quite literally just waiting for half a bar, every bar, every level...
This is worsened by my next complaint - The levels are way too long. I know they're only 15-30 mins each, but the songs used for them are 4-6 mins on average and it really shows. You can already tell when a track is looping for the 3rd or 4th time, even with the audio mixing being as good as it is, you can't really hide when you're hearing the same verse or chorus for the 100th time. The levels are broken up into a series of arenas you move between, and enemy respawns within those arenas just need to calm down. Even playing through a level on easy you'll kill 10 when you get there and then wait while 5 more spawn, then 8 more, then 6 more, then 8 more, then 5 more... The amount of times I'd run so many laps I just ended up waiting near the exit to spawn-kill was ridiculous. Honestly the game is so fun when it's fun but it spends half its runtime doing things to make it feel like you're waiting, it's so strange.
Similarly to this, the boss fights are awful. If you played the demo and you fought the boss at the end of that level, well I'm sorry to report that the exact same boss is used for every level bar the final one. The arenas are different and the attack patterns change, but it's always the same design. They also use the same boss music for it each time, with slight variations on each level (tho honestly I didn't even notice this until I checked the tracklist in the menu after) - and to make them even more boring, the boss just has way too much health. You can already only attack on beat, why does it need to take so long that getting perfectly timed headshots still feels like it takes forever. And we're not done yet, when the boss changes position it transforms into a non-physical form, meaning it's invulnerable and you literally just have to stand and wait for it to reappear, which in some cases took up to like 15 seconds of just doing nothing. I'm not sure whose idea this was, but it was a bad one.
Thankfully the penultimate level was really fun, the track, the arenas and enemy types all worked well together and overall I'd say that it went as hard as I was hoping the whole thing would. The final boss was also a lot better than the regular one and of course it's theme feat. Serj made for a pretty hype finale. The story in the game is pretty whatever, it seems like they set up two conflicting pieces of sequel-bait immediately after one another so fuck knows what the future plan is, but as it is this is a pretty fun time. I know I complained a lot but anyone that reads my reviews regularly knows I tend to start with a rough idea and very quickly just ramble about whatever comes to mind lol. I was disappointed I didn't love this game, but I definitely still enjoyed it, hopefully if they do another they mix up the gameplay a little more is all.
Perhaps the game is just better suited to throw on for a level every now and then rather than playing it through like a normal game, idk!
Thanks for reading, sorry it went on so long! :)
An absolutely solid game no doubt about that but still pales in comparison to the tour de force to its first game.
While a lot of this game is more of the same and either improves or keeps the same of most of the mechanics, a lot of its downfalls comes from some of the newer things they added + the story itself.
I'm going to bullet point my thoughts in no particular order to help make it easier:
- Combat is a lot of fun but the venom after a while almost makes the game a bit too easy once you find a combination that works for you and makes most fights/bosses a cakewalk even on higher difficulties.
- The story is still engaging and well done, but is definitely a bit weaker than the first game and also a lot shorter. It moves at quite a rapid pace and also the villains of this game just don't have really any time to be fleshed out or shine and feel more behind the scenes than at the forefront of this story.
- Swinging in this game feels REALLY good, if not slightly better than the first game. I didn't feel as I struggled through web swinging as much.
- Free Roam extras are significantly cut down and (while honestly really good and I felt the side missions were a bit more engaging than Spiderman), they were over with far too quickly and they're not spread out. I finished almost all of the free roam stuff that wasn't behind story progression within the first few hours of the game itself. Also they're a hit or miss in the long run. FNSM App missions good, Training Challenges are a weak successor to Taskmaster.
-Also for the PC version, I had this weird bug where certain cutscenes would just randomly have no sound effects but the music and voices were still there, and they would come back in gameplay like nothing happened. To be fair though, this also happened in the PC release of Spider-Man but definitely way less than here.
Despite my grievances and feeling like this is a step down from Spider-Man, it's still a really good game and to me, deserves your time, especially if you liked the first game. Just be prepared for a weaker story, less things to do, and if you can master Venom combat, a bit of an easier fight overall.
While a lot of this game is more of the same and either improves or keeps the same of most of the mechanics, a lot of its downfalls comes from some of the newer things they added + the story itself.
I'm going to bullet point my thoughts in no particular order to help make it easier:
- Combat is a lot of fun but the venom after a while almost makes the game a bit too easy once you find a combination that works for you and makes most fights/bosses a cakewalk even on higher difficulties.
- The story is still engaging and well done, but is definitely a bit weaker than the first game and also a lot shorter. It moves at quite a rapid pace and also the villains of this game just don't have really any time to be fleshed out or shine and feel more behind the scenes than at the forefront of this story.
- Swinging in this game feels REALLY good, if not slightly better than the first game. I didn't feel as I struggled through web swinging as much.
- Free Roam extras are significantly cut down and (while honestly really good and I felt the side missions were a bit more engaging than Spiderman), they were over with far too quickly and they're not spread out. I finished almost all of the free roam stuff that wasn't behind story progression within the first few hours of the game itself. Also they're a hit or miss in the long run. FNSM App missions good, Training Challenges are a weak successor to Taskmaster.
-Also for the PC version, I had this weird bug where certain cutscenes would just randomly have no sound effects but the music and voices were still there, and they would come back in gameplay like nothing happened. To be fair though, this also happened in the PC release of Spider-Man but definitely way less than here.
Despite my grievances and feeling like this is a step down from Spider-Man, it's still a really good game and to me, deserves your time, especially if you liked the first game. Just be prepared for a weaker story, less things to do, and if you can master Venom combat, a bit of an easier fight overall.
The Entropy Centre
2022
Full video review: https://youtu.be/HIOOQts-hEw
What if you took Portal and swapped the portal mechanics with time manipulation? Well, you’d end up with The Entropy Centre and I know a lot of people are going to be making that comparison, but there’s really no escaping it here. This game has similar storytelling, similar environments, and straight up takes several mechanics from that series. That said, it can stand on its own.
Gameplay
The main thing here is time manipulation. You pick up objects, move them around, and reverse them through time. The game is divided into 15 chapters and each has a sequence of puzzle chambers to complete. New mechanics are introduced throughout, starting small with simple cubes and switches to eventually jump pads, lasers, and even light bridges.
The pacing is pretty good here, giving you ample time to get used to each new mechanic before adding the next. That said, I feel like the game could have done a better job combining these mechanics. A lot of the time, a puzzle will revolve around one key element and the rest are just kind of tacked on and it isn’t until really late game that you get more than maybe four of them in a single puzzle.
Level Design
It takes a note from Portal, starting you out in simple test chambers before moving into large, expansive environments, shifting between sci-fi industrial to bright and tropical. It’s honestly really cool and the fact that these tropical areas make use of the same bright white test objects from the lab provides for a neat contrast.
Graphics
The game may not be pushing any graphical boundaries, but it looks absolutely solid for what it is and the studio has done a great job with the textures, models, animation, and really bringing the game world to life with all the little details.
PC Performance
On my 3080 Ti I played maxed out at 4k and my fps hovered around 100 for the vast majority of my playthrough. I had no crashing or other technical issues outside of getting stuck in a door once - so the overall polish is pretty good.
Puzzle Design
If you’re going into this game expecting something along the quality of Portal you will likely be disappointed. Not to say that the puzzles are bad - in fact, I would say most are good - it just lacks that depth to really elevate it beyond just being “good”. Most puzzles are very linear in their design. There’s less “thinking outside the box” and it’s more like - okay, these are the cubes and buttons I have to interact with, I just need to place this here, this here, this here, and sequence them in reverse for the time manipulation. There was hardly a moment where I was surprised by a solution because a lot of the time that solution is apparent from the start and I just needed to go through the steps.
Length
Or maybe it’s just me. I looked at other reviews for this game and they seem to be suggesting the length to be around 12-15 hours or so. I have no idea what took all these other people so long, as it took me just over five hours to clear. Maybe it’s my experience with puzzle games or something else entirely but most of the puzzles can be completed in mere minutes, even some of the ones late game.
As such, I pretty much cruised through the game. The length wasn’t even a problem for me, I just feel like it's important to note that my experience appears to be vastly different from the norm.
Story and Writing
The story kinda goes that Portal route where you wake up with no idea as to what is going on and slowly piece together the outside world through dialogue with your robot companion, the environment, and computer logs scattered about. The banter between the protagonist and the robot companion ranges from genuinely interesting to just awful, but its overall charming in its own way.
The overall plot is interesting, but it feels like the game ignores its own rules at times just to push the story further. There were instances where a major problem arises only for it to be fixed just as quickly by the time manipulation from this small weapon, yet that same weapon just doesn’t work the same elsewhere. There are plenty of holes like this, but I wouldn’t say this is a game to be played for the story anyways.
Overall
The Entropy Centre, although clearly inspired by Portal, does a pretty good job standing on its own. The puzzles are generally good, the level design is even better, and the overall aesthetic is some absolutely solid stuff for the genre. That said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the lack of depth in the puzzle design and the game could have done a better job synergizing all of its mechanics together. Still a fun one though for the five hours it took to clear and worth a look for puzzle fans.
What if you took Portal and swapped the portal mechanics with time manipulation? Well, you’d end up with The Entropy Centre and I know a lot of people are going to be making that comparison, but there’s really no escaping it here. This game has similar storytelling, similar environments, and straight up takes several mechanics from that series. That said, it can stand on its own.
Gameplay
The main thing here is time manipulation. You pick up objects, move them around, and reverse them through time. The game is divided into 15 chapters and each has a sequence of puzzle chambers to complete. New mechanics are introduced throughout, starting small with simple cubes and switches to eventually jump pads, lasers, and even light bridges.
The pacing is pretty good here, giving you ample time to get used to each new mechanic before adding the next. That said, I feel like the game could have done a better job combining these mechanics. A lot of the time, a puzzle will revolve around one key element and the rest are just kind of tacked on and it isn’t until really late game that you get more than maybe four of them in a single puzzle.
Level Design
It takes a note from Portal, starting you out in simple test chambers before moving into large, expansive environments, shifting between sci-fi industrial to bright and tropical. It’s honestly really cool and the fact that these tropical areas make use of the same bright white test objects from the lab provides for a neat contrast.
Graphics
The game may not be pushing any graphical boundaries, but it looks absolutely solid for what it is and the studio has done a great job with the textures, models, animation, and really bringing the game world to life with all the little details.
PC Performance
On my 3080 Ti I played maxed out at 4k and my fps hovered around 100 for the vast majority of my playthrough. I had no crashing or other technical issues outside of getting stuck in a door once - so the overall polish is pretty good.
Puzzle Design
If you’re going into this game expecting something along the quality of Portal you will likely be disappointed. Not to say that the puzzles are bad - in fact, I would say most are good - it just lacks that depth to really elevate it beyond just being “good”. Most puzzles are very linear in their design. There’s less “thinking outside the box” and it’s more like - okay, these are the cubes and buttons I have to interact with, I just need to place this here, this here, this here, and sequence them in reverse for the time manipulation. There was hardly a moment where I was surprised by a solution because a lot of the time that solution is apparent from the start and I just needed to go through the steps.
Length
Or maybe it’s just me. I looked at other reviews for this game and they seem to be suggesting the length to be around 12-15 hours or so. I have no idea what took all these other people so long, as it took me just over five hours to clear. Maybe it’s my experience with puzzle games or something else entirely but most of the puzzles can be completed in mere minutes, even some of the ones late game.
As such, I pretty much cruised through the game. The length wasn’t even a problem for me, I just feel like it's important to note that my experience appears to be vastly different from the norm.
Story and Writing
The story kinda goes that Portal route where you wake up with no idea as to what is going on and slowly piece together the outside world through dialogue with your robot companion, the environment, and computer logs scattered about. The banter between the protagonist and the robot companion ranges from genuinely interesting to just awful, but its overall charming in its own way.
The overall plot is interesting, but it feels like the game ignores its own rules at times just to push the story further. There were instances where a major problem arises only for it to be fixed just as quickly by the time manipulation from this small weapon, yet that same weapon just doesn’t work the same elsewhere. There are plenty of holes like this, but I wouldn’t say this is a game to be played for the story anyways.
Overall
The Entropy Centre, although clearly inspired by Portal, does a pretty good job standing on its own. The puzzles are generally good, the level design is even better, and the overall aesthetic is some absolutely solid stuff for the genre. That said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the lack of depth in the puzzle design and the game could have done a better job synergizing all of its mechanics together. Still a fun one though for the five hours it took to clear and worth a look for puzzle fans.
I played through Metroid: Samus Returns back in January 2020, and to be honest, I was not a fan. I had high hopes for the game, but when all was said and done I felt really disappointed by it. Looking back, after finishing the game a second time, I think I just wasn't in the mood for this style of game at that time.
The first thing that really grabbed me on this playthrough was the gameplay. The controls are solid, the combat is (mostly) fun, and it was just a good time being Samus. One nice addition to this game is the ability to aim freely by holding down the L Button. This gives a better feeling of control and makes the combat feel more modern than the older games in the series. Another new feature is the addition of a melee attack, which I found to be quite enjoyable once I got the hang of it. Enemies and bosses 'flash' to show that they are going to charge at you and timing melee attack correctly will temporarily stun them and make them more susceptible to damage. The system is fun to use and incredibly effective, but there is one downside: it makes the traditional gunplay the series is known for a less viable option for most encounters.
I really enjoyed the exploration in Samus Returns. The world is quite large, and it is filled with plenty of upgrades to find. As is expected with games in this genre, you will be able to access more of the hidden upgrades after you unlock more abilities. There is backtracking in the game because of this, but thankfully it is made easier thanks to a decent teleportation system and a handy map (which is always displayed on the lower screen). You can also add 'pins' to the map if you need a reminder of places you want to revisit.
While Samus Returns is a lot of fun to play it isn't without its share of issues. My biggest issue was the complete lack of enemy variety. Throughout the game you fight about 5 different enemy types. Later in the game new "tougher" versions of these enemies start appearing, but they behave the same way and really just take more damage. I also found the enemy spawn rate to be incredibly fast at times. Sometimes enemies at the start of a room would have already respawned by the time I finished exploring the rest of the room. A minor complaint, but still worth noting. Lastly, there is very little variety in boss encounters. The game contains 40 mini-boss battles, and there are only about 5 variants in these mini-bosses. That means you end up fighting the same mini-bosses several times throughout the game.
In addition to the great gameplay Samus Returns looks incredible. Samus and enemies look great and are well animated. The environments are colourful, diverse, and have a great level of detail, especially when the 3D is turned up to max. The amount of depth that the 3D adds to the world is honestly very impressive. The game's sound design is really good too and the sound effects fit the game world well and the music works quite well too. The music is mostly just redone music from other games in the series, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Overall, I am really glad I replayed Samus Returns. I had the same complaints that I had with my initial playthrough, but I found them to be less annoying this time around and honestly had a lot more fun with the game this time around. The graphics were fantastic (I loved the 3D!), the gameplay was solid, and the world was a lot of fun to explore. This is definitely one of the best games available on the 3DS.
The first thing that really grabbed me on this playthrough was the gameplay. The controls are solid, the combat is (mostly) fun, and it was just a good time being Samus. One nice addition to this game is the ability to aim freely by holding down the L Button. This gives a better feeling of control and makes the combat feel more modern than the older games in the series. Another new feature is the addition of a melee attack, which I found to be quite enjoyable once I got the hang of it. Enemies and bosses 'flash' to show that they are going to charge at you and timing melee attack correctly will temporarily stun them and make them more susceptible to damage. The system is fun to use and incredibly effective, but there is one downside: it makes the traditional gunplay the series is known for a less viable option for most encounters.
I really enjoyed the exploration in Samus Returns. The world is quite large, and it is filled with plenty of upgrades to find. As is expected with games in this genre, you will be able to access more of the hidden upgrades after you unlock more abilities. There is backtracking in the game because of this, but thankfully it is made easier thanks to a decent teleportation system and a handy map (which is always displayed on the lower screen). You can also add 'pins' to the map if you need a reminder of places you want to revisit.
While Samus Returns is a lot of fun to play it isn't without its share of issues. My biggest issue was the complete lack of enemy variety. Throughout the game you fight about 5 different enemy types. Later in the game new "tougher" versions of these enemies start appearing, but they behave the same way and really just take more damage. I also found the enemy spawn rate to be incredibly fast at times. Sometimes enemies at the start of a room would have already respawned by the time I finished exploring the rest of the room. A minor complaint, but still worth noting. Lastly, there is very little variety in boss encounters. The game contains 40 mini-boss battles, and there are only about 5 variants in these mini-bosses. That means you end up fighting the same mini-bosses several times throughout the game.
In addition to the great gameplay Samus Returns looks incredible. Samus and enemies look great and are well animated. The environments are colourful, diverse, and have a great level of detail, especially when the 3D is turned up to max. The amount of depth that the 3D adds to the world is honestly very impressive. The game's sound design is really good too and the sound effects fit the game world well and the music works quite well too. The music is mostly just redone music from other games in the series, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Overall, I am really glad I replayed Samus Returns. I had the same complaints that I had with my initial playthrough, but I found them to be less annoying this time around and honestly had a lot more fun with the game this time around. The graphics were fantastic (I loved the 3D!), the gameplay was solid, and the world was a lot of fun to explore. This is definitely one of the best games available on the 3DS.
holy shit.
The set-up of RPG Time is pretty straightforward. An elementary school kid named Kenta, your classmate, loves video games. Through his extensive doodling and crafting in his notebook, he's created a lengthy rpg based on his passion for games, and he wants to show it off to his friend. The game he's made isn't particularly deep story wise and there isn't anything to the narrative that would imply Kenta or your player insert have anything serious going on outside of this playtime. They're just two normal kids hanging out. I kept expecting some last minute swerve into "maybe the demons are a metaphor for family trouble/loneliness or something." But no: the game is just 100% sincere from beginning to end.
Part of why the game doesn't necessarily need any wider depth because its propelled by sheer charm and passion. RPG Time is fine-tuned to never waste your time or give you a second to start feeling bored. It drops mechanic after mechanic after mechanic on you, rapidly changing gameplay style based on Kenta's whim of the moment. Its often more of a Wario-Ware style point and click adventure than an RPG, but that's never a point against it. Its why this game rules. In the first hour alone, I went from an rpg battle, to a gardening minigame, to a tank based sidescroller, to a rock-em-sock-em fighting game, to a top down 2D Zelda dungeon, and then back to the rpg battle. Each segment is so polished and well-realized, always fun to play and never trying your patience. The game is never challenging but its also never boring, because all Kenta wants to do is make you smile. I was smiling every single time I died, because each death felt like a reward for experimenting in the game's world.
The thread that really pushes this game's concept from good to great is Kenta himself. Kenta acts as the sort of dungeon master, leading you on the wider journey he's crafted. Part of what makes him so endearing as the narrator is how much he WANTS you to solve his puzzles. He has so many jokes to tell you, so many drawings he wants to show off, and so much incredible passion put into entertaining his friend after school. Its through Kenta that the devs can let loose this beautiful passion for video games and game design.
That passion comes through in every single element of how the game is crafted. Special attention is paid to keep an internal consistency to this world. Your sword is a pencil, the blacksmith's shop is a pencil sharpener. The music is Kenta's iPhone, playing his favorite songs from his favorite games. When he realizes his notebook has some food stains, he instantly turns it into a clue to find the boss' weakpoint. He hand-crafts this cardboard puzzles and shops and sidequests just for the sake of it. The game never winks or overplays its hand, keeping its world firmly grounded into the playtime of children. And the final result is just a delightful, gorgeous gem of a game.
The set-up of RPG Time is pretty straightforward. An elementary school kid named Kenta, your classmate, loves video games. Through his extensive doodling and crafting in his notebook, he's created a lengthy rpg based on his passion for games, and he wants to show it off to his friend. The game he's made isn't particularly deep story wise and there isn't anything to the narrative that would imply Kenta or your player insert have anything serious going on outside of this playtime. They're just two normal kids hanging out. I kept expecting some last minute swerve into "maybe the demons are a metaphor for family trouble/loneliness or something." But no: the game is just 100% sincere from beginning to end.
Part of why the game doesn't necessarily need any wider depth because its propelled by sheer charm and passion. RPG Time is fine-tuned to never waste your time or give you a second to start feeling bored. It drops mechanic after mechanic after mechanic on you, rapidly changing gameplay style based on Kenta's whim of the moment. Its often more of a Wario-Ware style point and click adventure than an RPG, but that's never a point against it. Its why this game rules. In the first hour alone, I went from an rpg battle, to a gardening minigame, to a tank based sidescroller, to a rock-em-sock-em fighting game, to a top down 2D Zelda dungeon, and then back to the rpg battle. Each segment is so polished and well-realized, always fun to play and never trying your patience. The game is never challenging but its also never boring, because all Kenta wants to do is make you smile. I was smiling every single time I died, because each death felt like a reward for experimenting in the game's world.
The thread that really pushes this game's concept from good to great is Kenta himself. Kenta acts as the sort of dungeon master, leading you on the wider journey he's crafted. Part of what makes him so endearing as the narrator is how much he WANTS you to solve his puzzles. He has so many jokes to tell you, so many drawings he wants to show off, and so much incredible passion put into entertaining his friend after school. Its through Kenta that the devs can let loose this beautiful passion for video games and game design.
That passion comes through in every single element of how the game is crafted. Special attention is paid to keep an internal consistency to this world. Your sword is a pencil, the blacksmith's shop is a pencil sharpener. The music is Kenta's iPhone, playing his favorite songs from his favorite games. When he realizes his notebook has some food stains, he instantly turns it into a clue to find the boss' weakpoint. He hand-crafts this cardboard puzzles and shops and sidequests just for the sake of it. The game never winks or overplays its hand, keeping its world firmly grounded into the playtime of children. And the final result is just a delightful, gorgeous gem of a game.
Islets
2022
Armed with sword, bow, and a sense of adventure, Iko the Brave traverses a fragmented world in order defeat evil foes, save his friends, and re-unite the islands in harmony. However, the core of this journey roots itself in the idea of self-discovery and belonging. Iko sets off to become a great hero to make something of himself, and nearly every character that he meets along the way either shares this courageous sentiment or is on a quest of their own to find fulfillment and belonging. While the classic Metroidvania aspects of the game flex their muscles quite well, it’s the charm, wit, and wholesomeness of the world and its inhabitants that elevate Islets into a refreshing take on the genre.
Movement always plays a starring role in the success of a Metroidvania, as backtracking and exploration feature heavily, and Islets does a fantastic job of providing Iko with a quick pace and traversal upgrades, as well as offering varied environmental platforming to mix things up. Many of the platforming rooms can be crossed quickly in several different ways when backtracking to not only keep it from dragging pacing, but also it just feels satisfying to be able to pull off small little platforming tricks with the different unlockable abilities as Iko flies across rooms, launches past grappling points, and smashes through stone. The map also contains many warp checkpoints and is very accurately drawn and represented with easy-to-read landmarks which makes exploring rewarding rather than frustrating. The map functions so well that it’s easy enough to see what areas are left to explore and play through naturally, however in the main hub, a vendor will sell hints and place map markers pointing to the next goal if confusion sets in. Exploring naturally without using this vendor took about 8 hours total to discover 100% of the map.
While exploring, Iko will fight mobs and bosses with his sword and bow, powering them up and learning new techniques as he goes. Islets combat functions similarly to something like Hollow Knight in theory, though many bosses bombard Iko in a bullet-hell style, including flying sections that feel more akin to something like Cuphead. The aforementioned games are known for their intense difficulty, and while the base hard mode seems akin to Hollow Knight’s level of difficulty, Islets actually offers not only different difficulty modes, but a handful of assist features such as increasing weapon damage or infinite arrows, as well as challenge options that make enemies and bosses even more fearsome. These options, as well as the main difficulty, can be switched at any time, allowing for a customized level of challenge or ease.
If Islet’s map and level-design are the bread that provides structure, and the moment-to-moment gameplay and combat are the sticky, savory peanut butter, then the silly-yet-wholesome world and characters are the grape jelly that give the game a small sweetness – something that says “don’t stop at one bite.” The color palate and art design reverberate with charm and, while there are melancholic areas of the game, the overall world stands very much in contrast to the darker games that Islets inherits its gameplay from – while Hollow Knight, Metroid, and Castlevania have dark shadows and vicious aliens and blood-thirsty vampires, Islets has walkable clouds and gardening rabbits and suspicious frogs. The NPCs represent the best of both the game’s sense of humor as well as the emotional yearning that comes with each character’s quest to find out who they are and where they belong. While Iko’s journey in Islets is one of bravery, adventure, and vanquishing evil, it’s also a heartwarming bite of a wholesome sandwich – just like the ones mom used to make.
Movement always plays a starring role in the success of a Metroidvania, as backtracking and exploration feature heavily, and Islets does a fantastic job of providing Iko with a quick pace and traversal upgrades, as well as offering varied environmental platforming to mix things up. Many of the platforming rooms can be crossed quickly in several different ways when backtracking to not only keep it from dragging pacing, but also it just feels satisfying to be able to pull off small little platforming tricks with the different unlockable abilities as Iko flies across rooms, launches past grappling points, and smashes through stone. The map also contains many warp checkpoints and is very accurately drawn and represented with easy-to-read landmarks which makes exploring rewarding rather than frustrating. The map functions so well that it’s easy enough to see what areas are left to explore and play through naturally, however in the main hub, a vendor will sell hints and place map markers pointing to the next goal if confusion sets in. Exploring naturally without using this vendor took about 8 hours total to discover 100% of the map.
While exploring, Iko will fight mobs and bosses with his sword and bow, powering them up and learning new techniques as he goes. Islets combat functions similarly to something like Hollow Knight in theory, though many bosses bombard Iko in a bullet-hell style, including flying sections that feel more akin to something like Cuphead. The aforementioned games are known for their intense difficulty, and while the base hard mode seems akin to Hollow Knight’s level of difficulty, Islets actually offers not only different difficulty modes, but a handful of assist features such as increasing weapon damage or infinite arrows, as well as challenge options that make enemies and bosses even more fearsome. These options, as well as the main difficulty, can be switched at any time, allowing for a customized level of challenge or ease.
If Islet’s map and level-design are the bread that provides structure, and the moment-to-moment gameplay and combat are the sticky, savory peanut butter, then the silly-yet-wholesome world and characters are the grape jelly that give the game a small sweetness – something that says “don’t stop at one bite.” The color palate and art design reverberate with charm and, while there are melancholic areas of the game, the overall world stands very much in contrast to the darker games that Islets inherits its gameplay from – while Hollow Knight, Metroid, and Castlevania have dark shadows and vicious aliens and blood-thirsty vampires, Islets has walkable clouds and gardening rabbits and suspicious frogs. The NPCs represent the best of both the game’s sense of humor as well as the emotional yearning that comes with each character’s quest to find out who they are and where they belong. While Iko’s journey in Islets is one of bravery, adventure, and vanquishing evil, it’s also a heartwarming bite of a wholesome sandwich – just like the ones mom used to make.
All I heard going into this was that it is the worst game in the series and then I found out Kiddy Kong can bounce on water like he's on his way to being a mini Jesus. Automatically not the worst DKC game.