urbaer
2016
This was the first of the Picross e games I've played (I've played My Nintendo Picross - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and am still playing Pokémon Picross).
There's plenty of puzzles for the amount you pay but often I found myself trying to figure out what the picture was supposed to be (even after it was coloured). The Zelda and Pokemon versions seem to be a lot clearer about what the picture is supposed to be (though I suppose that's because they're pixelated images to start with).
The forced autocorrect (with penalty) was a little annoying, especially when you're trying to go for a perfect puzzle but accidently hit the wrong square, knowing that it's wrong.
Also felt that it was somewhat difficult to hit the bottom row of the largest puzzles for some reason.
But I'll probably try out the earlier ones in the series (though aware that the features will slowly strip out as I go back earlier).
There's plenty of puzzles for the amount you pay but often I found myself trying to figure out what the picture was supposed to be (even after it was coloured). The Zelda and Pokemon versions seem to be a lot clearer about what the picture is supposed to be (though I suppose that's because they're pixelated images to start with).
The forced autocorrect (with penalty) was a little annoying, especially when you're trying to go for a perfect puzzle but accidently hit the wrong square, knowing that it's wrong.
Also felt that it was somewhat difficult to hit the bottom row of the largest puzzles for some reason.
But I'll probably try out the earlier ones in the series (though aware that the features will slowly strip out as I go back earlier).
1994
It's really weird. I like Super Mario. I like Rare. But the Donkey Kong Country series I just can't do. I like how it looks, but the controls and abilities of the Kongs just doesn't gel with me for some reason.
And because of this I've never made it very far past the first two worlds. But for some reason I was determined to finish it and employed the rewind function a lot.
It does so many things that are lovely and the levels are always interesting... though some parts I feel are very cheap, especially near the end like the flickering light levels. The enemy designs are great though.
So why can't I get into it? Is it just me? It's probably just me.
And because of this I've never made it very far past the first two worlds. But for some reason I was determined to finish it and employed the rewind function a lot.
It does so many things that are lovely and the levels are always interesting... though some parts I feel are very cheap, especially near the end like the flickering light levels. The enemy designs are great though.
So why can't I get into it? Is it just me? It's probably just me.
A pretty neat IF title, it puts you in the role of an AI who they've trained by living a human life from the age of 6 months old.
The researchers have created a simulation of the US if a proposed plan goes into place and task you with recording the results 10 years into the future (and later further).
Kind of gives off a time traveller sort of vibe as you jump between the different times and see how the city degrades and what stays the same. And a nice touch is that you get to see how your family reacts to the changes in the world too.
Mostly it's just wandering around trying to find what you've been asked to record in the first act and what you think is important in the second act.
The third act shifts things up (and adds a bit of puzzliness) and the epilogue is rather touching too.
I don't think it comes off as preachy, I can't help but think something like this would today if it was a 3d adventure game.
One grief I experienced playing the game was after playing so much MUD of late I kept forgetting to type "wait" expecting that things would continue without my input. Another was the method of speaking was a bit rough and the fact that it demanded the word "at" when I'd type "look ". Like "look at newspaper" instead of "look newspaper". But minor gripes.
The researchers have created a simulation of the US if a proposed plan goes into place and task you with recording the results 10 years into the future (and later further).
Kind of gives off a time traveller sort of vibe as you jump between the different times and see how the city degrades and what stays the same. And a nice touch is that you get to see how your family reacts to the changes in the world too.
Mostly it's just wandering around trying to find what you've been asked to record in the first act and what you think is important in the second act.
The third act shifts things up (and adds a bit of puzzliness) and the epilogue is rather touching too.
I don't think it comes off as preachy, I can't help but think something like this would today if it was a 3d adventure game.
One grief I experienced playing the game was after playing so much MUD of late I kept forgetting to type "wait" expecting that things would continue without my input. Another was the method of speaking was a bit rough and the fact that it demanded the word "at" when I'd type "look ". Like "look at newspaper" instead of "look newspaper". But minor gripes.
This review contains spoilers
Played this and Episode V back to back, so I can't really tell my feelings for them apart and at this point I feel like it's kind of sloggy and picked back up again in the fifth episode. Here's it's a this is your three things to do, one of them will be a pattern puzzle again (though much better and more interesting), a puzzle that actually uses time travel and one where I just broke things and gave broken things to someone.
Once those were out of the way, Marty and Doc have an argument where Doc drops some truth bombs on Marty (at which point I was quite keen to see where it was going to go), but no... doesn't go there.
My main beef with this one's story though (which is actually a beef Episode 3 but didn't occur to me until Episode 4... I'm not clear on why Doc disappeared from the Delorean at the end of Episode 2/start of 3 when whenever Marty has gone back to the future even if that future is different but he still exists, he doesn't forget going back in time. And Doc never invented the Delorean so doesn't that cause a paradox where the Delorean itself should have faded from existence in 1931?
Probably just overthinking something which shouldn't be thought too hard about.
Once those were out of the way, Marty and Doc have an argument where Doc drops some truth bombs on Marty (at which point I was quite keen to see where it was going to go), but no... doesn't go there.
My main beef with this one's story though (which is actually a beef Episode 3 but didn't occur to me until Episode 4... I'm not clear on why Doc disappeared from the Delorean at the end of Episode 2/start of 3 when whenever Marty has gone back to the future even if that future is different but he still exists, he doesn't forget going back in time. And Doc never invented the Delorean so doesn't that cause a paradox where the Delorean itself should have faded from existence in 1931?
Probably just overthinking something which shouldn't be thought too hard about.
2017
This review contains spoilers
I liked it and there were a lot of nice nods and winks to Lucasarts games (and teasing Sierra games). The puzzles are fairly straight forward, though a times there are moments where the game assumes that you know an area is open.
without giving a cut scene or having some sort of action to say that it will open up. Or maybe I just missed whatever clue was supposed to tell me that. I admit, this just saw me wander around for longer than I should have.
There's parts of the game that just aren't accessible for the time being...not sure that this is spoilery, but will add it as such the arcade is supposed to have games in it, but because they haven't made the games the arcade is just closed until they patch the game. I didn't know this until after completing the game, so I kept going back to try and open it up, assuming that it was important to story line.
The characters were interesting, though some of the voice acting took some getting used to.
There were two point that I caved to find a hint. Both resulted in me going 'duh'.
The first was early in the game where the answer was "pick up toilet paper". Given all of the hubhub about the toilet paper on the blog and on twitter you'd think I would have picked this up
The second was very near the game. I was trying to use the panel with every inventory item I had. I didn't think to use the verb "open" with the panel. It was pretty late at night....
The end does feel rushed and you could argue that this is due to the story that they're trying to tell. Or it may just be that it feels rushed and the story is that way to justify the rushed feeling. But the pacing felt a little awkward throughout. Some of the chapters were super quick, while others went for quite a while. Often I think this was to indicate a shift in something happening in the town, but yeah.
I'll probably play it again on casual to see how it's different and to get the achievement (and to take a look at more of the books and dial more phone numbers). And like most adventure games I'll probably end up playing it again once I've forgotten most of it
without giving a cut scene or having some sort of action to say that it will open up. Or maybe I just missed whatever clue was supposed to tell me that. I admit, this just saw me wander around for longer than I should have.
There's parts of the game that just aren't accessible for the time being...not sure that this is spoilery, but will add it as such the arcade is supposed to have games in it, but because they haven't made the games the arcade is just closed until they patch the game. I didn't know this until after completing the game, so I kept going back to try and open it up, assuming that it was important to story line.
The characters were interesting, though some of the voice acting took some getting used to.
There were two point that I caved to find a hint. Both resulted in me going 'duh'.
The first was early in the game where the answer was "pick up toilet paper". Given all of the hubhub about the toilet paper on the blog and on twitter you'd think I would have picked this up
The second was very near the game. I was trying to use the panel with every inventory item I had. I didn't think to use the verb "open" with the panel. It was pretty late at night....
The end does feel rushed and you could argue that this is due to the story that they're trying to tell. Or it may just be that it feels rushed and the story is that way to justify the rushed feeling. But the pacing felt a little awkward throughout. Some of the chapters were super quick, while others went for quite a while. Often I think this was to indicate a shift in something happening in the town, but yeah.
I'll probably play it again on casual to see how it's different and to get the achievement (and to take a look at more of the books and dial more phone numbers). And like most adventure games I'll probably end up playing it again once I've forgotten most of it
2018
Wandersong is very good and you should go out and play it. A lot of it is about what it is to be a hero and saving the world without hacking and slashing.
It has many great characters in it (having given up coffee, I especially liked the pirates). The music is delightful and the story line zips along nicely.
And you think it's shown you all that it can do mechanically and it comes up with something new.
There were some boss fights that I felt could be shorter and one or two points that I got a bit waylaid, but overall it's good.
And being able to do goofy dances and sing at inappropriate times was lovely.
I enjoyed this more than the hour or so I spent with Bard's Tale. Best barding game I've played to date (though maybe I should go replay The Bard's Tale (2004)).
It has many great characters in it (having given up coffee, I especially liked the pirates). The music is delightful and the story line zips along nicely.
And you think it's shown you all that it can do mechanically and it comes up with something new.
There were some boss fights that I felt could be shorter and one or two points that I got a bit waylaid, but overall it's good.
And being able to do goofy dances and sing at inappropriate times was lovely.
I enjoyed this more than the hour or so I spent with Bard's Tale. Best barding game I've played to date (though maybe I should go replay The Bard's Tale (2004)).
Played through with daughter (4yo).
She solved some of the puzzles and remembered what the spy tools did when they were required. A lot simpler for her than the Freddi Fish game we started on.
She solved some of the puzzles and remembered what the spy tools did when they were required. A lot simpler for her than the Freddi Fish game we started on.
This one is a great improvement on the first and you can really see the progression that's made towards the Warioland games.
But here Wario is the adversary and that's a little sad as he doesn't get much screen time.
There's some inventive levels here. Each area is themed to a different concept and can be tackled in any order (I can't think of another Mario platformer that allows this). Each final level in each area provides one of the six golden coins you'll need to open the door and take on Wario (who stomps at the top of the castle).
And different levels contain thematically appropriate enemies that rarely show up in other areas. Some of the theming falls down though. There's Macro world where you'll become very tiny which contains ants the same size as you... though the ants reappear in non-macro levels which is odd.
And the difficulty can be fairly easy throughout the game. There's a fair number of power ups and 1Ups that the game throws at you.I feel like the rabbit hat lets you pass over a lot of some levels too easily and there's not a great deal of incentive to try and collect coins. The timer is very generous as well, which might be for exploration, but it never caused me to panic about running out of time.
All in all a good game, but still prefer the Wariolands.
But here Wario is the adversary and that's a little sad as he doesn't get much screen time.
There's some inventive levels here. Each area is themed to a different concept and can be tackled in any order (I can't think of another Mario platformer that allows this). Each final level in each area provides one of the six golden coins you'll need to open the door and take on Wario (who stomps at the top of the castle).
And different levels contain thematically appropriate enemies that rarely show up in other areas. Some of the theming falls down though. There's Macro world where you'll become very tiny which contains ants the same size as you... though the ants reappear in non-macro levels which is odd.
And the difficulty can be fairly easy throughout the game. There's a fair number of power ups and 1Ups that the game throws at you.I feel like the rabbit hat lets you pass over a lot of some levels too easily and there's not a great deal of incentive to try and collect coins. The timer is very generous as well, which might be for exploration, but it never caused me to panic about running out of time.
All in all a good game, but still prefer the Wariolands.
2024
There's not a great deal of puzzles involved here and the fact that an item can only be either a thing that can be looked at or picked up/interacted with seems to limit what they can do (I'm not sure if this was a choice that was made or a limitation of the engine).
Even with this limitation, I missed that I could pick up an item from the first room and it was quite frustrating.
It somewhat errs on the side of playing with silly names and mishearing words for comic effect, but it's a nice quick game.
They say that they're looking to expand it (More characters, dialog, puzzles & places to explore!) so will be interesting to see how that turns out.
Even with this limitation, I missed that I could pick up an item from the first room and it was quite frustrating.
It somewhat errs on the side of playing with silly names and mishearing words for comic effect, but it's a nice quick game.
They say that they're looking to expand it (More characters, dialog, puzzles & places to explore!) so will be interesting to see how that turns out.
2022
I feel like I don't actually like playing Pac-Man all that much. There's a fair bit of variation here though.
Notably it includes Pac-Man 256 and strips out all of the ads and mobileness from it which is nice.
Maybe there's some more games in there that I'll enjoy, but I'm not so sure.
Notably it includes Pac-Man 256 and strips out all of the ads and mobileness from it which is nice.
Maybe there's some more games in there that I'll enjoy, but I'm not so sure.
2015
I have the feels. Much nostalgia
1988
Completed playing all levels with Peach except one that I played with Toad.
It's strange how much of this game is subconsciously stored in my brain. I played through and knew where the warps were having not played it since I played it on the NES what feels like ages ago.
And I certainly recalled 7-1 but had no memory of 7-2... so I assume that I've never beaten the game before.
7-2 though is pretty rough to get through. So many lives lost. And it all ends with Wart dying from vegetable poisoning? Poor guy.
I'm not sure if it's the NES Classic that's the issue, but there's some hideous slow down when there's too many sprites on the screen.
But I like this game. It's kind of calming not having a timer constantly judging you and it gives you time to explore and see what you can find. I'm pretty sure I found some new short cuts that I hadn't known about before. And the soundtrack is super boppy too.
It's strange how much of this game is subconsciously stored in my brain. I played through and knew where the warps were having not played it since I played it on the NES what feels like ages ago.
And I certainly recalled 7-1 but had no memory of 7-2... so I assume that I've never beaten the game before.
7-2 though is pretty rough to get through. So many lives lost. And it all ends with Wart dying from vegetable poisoning? Poor guy.
I'm not sure if it's the NES Classic that's the issue, but there's some hideous slow down when there's too many sprites on the screen.
But I like this game. It's kind of calming not having a timer constantly judging you and it gives you time to explore and see what you can find. I'm pretty sure I found some new short cuts that I hadn't known about before. And the soundtrack is super boppy too.
I loved Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and Space Ghost Coast to Coast when they were on Cartoon Network. So when I was in the US in 2008 I picked up a copy, which was fine because I had a Free Loader.
Whelp before I got around to playing it there was an update that stopped the Free Loader from working and so I didn't get a chance to play it and I've never seen it available in Australia.
Anyway, after years of beating Phoenix Wright, I felt like it was time to take on the birdman. I finally managed to play it (admittingly through emulation) and yeah, it's good.
It takes Phoenix's gameplay and slaps it into Harvey's world, but all of the scenes are animated and the tone is more akin to Birdman's. There's little tension in the game, only presenting evidence during a trial seems to loose you any crests, which is a good thing too given that much of the fun of the game is from seeing what happens if you say something ridiculous... usually during those parts you can select another option until you get the correct one (and so the challenge is identifying the right response and picking that one last).
There are sections of the game where I had to visit each place to try and find where the next cut scene was and two times where it was a case of present everything in every room to figure out what was required (though once I felt dumb not realising what it wanted).
The story's are mmm..... like the show and there are good jokes in there.
But it's probably not worth rushing out to get.
Whelp before I got around to playing it there was an update that stopped the Free Loader from working and so I didn't get a chance to play it and I've never seen it available in Australia.
Anyway, after years of beating Phoenix Wright, I felt like it was time to take on the birdman. I finally managed to play it (admittingly through emulation) and yeah, it's good.
It takes Phoenix's gameplay and slaps it into Harvey's world, but all of the scenes are animated and the tone is more akin to Birdman's. There's little tension in the game, only presenting evidence during a trial seems to loose you any crests, which is a good thing too given that much of the fun of the game is from seeing what happens if you say something ridiculous... usually during those parts you can select another option until you get the correct one (and so the challenge is identifying the right response and picking that one last).
There are sections of the game where I had to visit each place to try and find where the next cut scene was and two times where it was a case of present everything in every room to figure out what was required (though once I felt dumb not realising what it wanted).
The story's are mmm..... like the show and there are good jokes in there.
But it's probably not worth rushing out to get.
2018
I really like the games that Wadjet develop more than the games they publish. This one sort of mixes up Blackwell with Maniac Mansion. At the start of the game you get to pick which character to play as (from a police officer, a barista and a DJ). I picked the police officer and during the game there were specific interactions which were for that character.
The game takes a lot of the spooky elements from the Blackwell series (and there are a few call backs to it), though isn't just limited to the dead this time.
Instead you end up joining the secret supernatural police (not affiliated with the police though) who have been protecting New York. I've been enjoying the Peter Grant series of books of late, so this fit nicely into that.
The game is split into episodes, each episode being dealing with a specific person or group of people but tying into an overarching story (hmmm.... also very Blackwell). And during each episode you decide which two partners will accompany you. How you solve the episode is dependent on this and some characters seem to open up about their lives depending on what's going on the episode. There seems to be at least one episode where the game seems to need three partners though and so it does a little awkward thing where one of the partners says "oh I have an appointment that I need to go to, I'll get so-and-so to come" but generally all of the episodes seem to be able to be done with any two.
The issue though is that you get to see the bits of the puzzle that can be solved with other characters and it can sometimes throw you "if only I had so-and-so, I'd be able to get past this easier". The partners you're with are in your inventory (as well as physically walking around) which is a bit strange.
Sometimes getting your partners to do things that you want isn't always obvious. Normally you select them from the inventory and click on the thing you want them to interact with. At one point I wanted one of the characters to give an item to an npc. To do so need to give the item to my partner and they just knew what I wanted.
That said there's often very few items to deal with so the puzzles aren't overly complicated. There's quite a few password/keypad puzzles. There's nothing that is going to have you pulling your hair out.
The partners also occasionally talk to each other unprompted. Annoyingly though if you change screens or interact with anything they'll stop their conversation and not pick it up again. So you're often waiting for them to finish before doing anything.
At the end of each episode your faced with a choice of how to deal with the supernatural entity. The final episode seems to rely on what choices you made, but it seems to have some flexibility if you choose wrong a couple of times. I'm not sure if you can end up not being able to finish the game though. And there's a couple of different endings depending on how you deal with the final entity. Had a few reloads on that one before I figured out the best way of dealing with it.
The story is quite good and there's a nice twist near the end.
The game takes a lot of the spooky elements from the Blackwell series (and there are a few call backs to it), though isn't just limited to the dead this time.
Instead you end up joining the secret supernatural police (not affiliated with the police though) who have been protecting New York. I've been enjoying the Peter Grant series of books of late, so this fit nicely into that.
The game is split into episodes, each episode being dealing with a specific person or group of people but tying into an overarching story (hmmm.... also very Blackwell). And during each episode you decide which two partners will accompany you. How you solve the episode is dependent on this and some characters seem to open up about their lives depending on what's going on the episode. There seems to be at least one episode where the game seems to need three partners though and so it does a little awkward thing where one of the partners says "oh I have an appointment that I need to go to, I'll get so-and-so to come" but generally all of the episodes seem to be able to be done with any two.
The issue though is that you get to see the bits of the puzzle that can be solved with other characters and it can sometimes throw you "if only I had so-and-so, I'd be able to get past this easier". The partners you're with are in your inventory (as well as physically walking around) which is a bit strange.
Sometimes getting your partners to do things that you want isn't always obvious. Normally you select them from the inventory and click on the thing you want them to interact with. At one point I wanted one of the characters to give an item to an npc. To do so need to give the item to my partner and they just knew what I wanted.
That said there's often very few items to deal with so the puzzles aren't overly complicated. There's quite a few password/keypad puzzles. There's nothing that is going to have you pulling your hair out.
The partners also occasionally talk to each other unprompted. Annoyingly though if you change screens or interact with anything they'll stop their conversation and not pick it up again. So you're often waiting for them to finish before doing anything.
At the end of each episode your faced with a choice of how to deal with the supernatural entity. The final episode seems to rely on what choices you made, but it seems to have some flexibility if you choose wrong a couple of times. I'm not sure if you can end up not being able to finish the game though. And there's a couple of different endings depending on how you deal with the final entity. Had a few reloads on that one before I figured out the best way of dealing with it.
The story is quite good and there's a nice twist near the end.
Haven't really played Minecraft, so can't really compare to that, but I enjoyed the story mode, while some of the villagers can be annoying, helping them with their problems and growing the towns was entertaining.
The boss battles were... less than stellar. From a storyline point of view, the game deals with what does it mean to be a hero and should fate always direct your life or can you build a different future to the one that has been laid out for you.
I didn't do most of the challenges (bit cruel not indicating what they are during the worlds) and I'm not sure that I'll be in a hurry to try and do them.
It'd be nice if the freeplay mode didn't have the need to eat, it might be good for the daughter. I'll probably play it just to try and build a lovely town, but not sure how much of it I'll end up playing.
The boss battles were... less than stellar. From a storyline point of view, the game deals with what does it mean to be a hero and should fate always direct your life or can you build a different future to the one that has been laid out for you.
I didn't do most of the challenges (bit cruel not indicating what they are during the worlds) and I'm not sure that I'll be in a hurry to try and do them.
It'd be nice if the freeplay mode didn't have the need to eat, it might be good for the daughter. I'll probably play it just to try and build a lovely town, but not sure how much of it I'll end up playing.