urbaer
2019
Started playing this before the pandemic in Feb where holding hands and having people come around unexpectedly was a great thing.
And finished it as we were going into our second lockdown and it felt a little weird and strange. Though maybe it gives some hope that after any crisis people can still find each other and bring out the best in each other.
There's not much gameplay here and like Katamari it's mostly about the joy and humour of objects.
In this one you start of as a cube (who has a top hat) and you do things in order to bring more living objects back. Each object that comes back is presented with a fanfare and a "Welcome back ". You can switch between objects as some objects have special abilities.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very laid back.
The game presents you with a final decision at the end and it's possibly the most thoughtful decision I've seen in a game in a while (which is odd, given the laid back and playful nature of the rest of the game).
I'm not sure how much of a difference the decision makes, but it's still nice that it was there.
And finished it as we were going into our second lockdown and it felt a little weird and strange. Though maybe it gives some hope that after any crisis people can still find each other and bring out the best in each other.
There's not much gameplay here and like Katamari it's mostly about the joy and humour of objects.
In this one you start of as a cube (who has a top hat) and you do things in order to bring more living objects back. Each object that comes back is presented with a fanfare and a "Welcome back ". You can switch between objects as some objects have special abilities.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very laid back.
The game presents you with a final decision at the end and it's possibly the most thoughtful decision I've seen in a game in a while (which is odd, given the laid back and playful nature of the rest of the game).
I'm not sure how much of a difference the decision makes, but it's still nice that it was there.
2019
The daughter burst into my office the other day "Daddy, the multiplayer has been released!"
"For what"
"The second goose!"
"Oh great"
"Can we play it?"
"Not today"
A day (or two?) later:
"Daddy can we play goose game together?"
"Sure"
We decided it would be the first game we streamed on Twitch (as the daughter has been commentating all her games recently anyway). Couldn't get the microphone working and the capture card was having issues with the sound, but we had fun playing it anyway.
Started with a new game and had it done in about 1.5 hours (or less). The puzzles aren't that much easier with two players as it confines you into a fairly small window and some parts can become a touch frustrating particularly the pub where it's very easy for the man to shoo one of the goose out which forces the other goose to come back close to the entrance to let the first goose back in.
But they can also help each other out by picking up heavy large items together and the final part of the game is slightly easier with the other goose running distraction.
And yet, again, you know if you want to play this game just by looking at it, I'm not sure that co-op will change your mind.
"For what"
"The second goose!"
"Oh great"
"Can we play it?"
"Not today"
A day (or two?) later:
"Daddy can we play goose game together?"
"Sure"
We decided it would be the first game we streamed on Twitch (as the daughter has been commentating all her games recently anyway). Couldn't get the microphone working and the capture card was having issues with the sound, but we had fun playing it anyway.
Started with a new game and had it done in about 1.5 hours (or less). The puzzles aren't that much easier with two players as it confines you into a fairly small window and some parts can become a touch frustrating particularly the pub where it's very easy for the man to shoo one of the goose out which forces the other goose to come back close to the entrance to let the first goose back in.
But they can also help each other out by picking up heavy large items together and the final part of the game is slightly easier with the other goose running distraction.
And yet, again, you know if you want to play this game just by looking at it, I'm not sure that co-op will change your mind.
2019
The Touryst is a 3d blocky puzzle platformer that really doesn't have too much platforming.
The game is padded out a fair bit with what would normally be side quests, little mini games and fetch quests. Which is fine, though you're required to do a certain percentage to complete the see and see the credits.
But it's got a nice atmosphere and does have a very summery feel (which is nice given that I'm in wintery cold Melbourne).
Some of the mini games though are a pain, while others are a nice distraction.
The temples tend to be interesting, implementing different mechanics. Some of the temples require you to do platforming to platforms over inky black depths, which makes life a little too tricky as it's hard to get a sense of depth.
The games not punitive though, any death just restarts you from the start of the room, but it can be frustrating all the same.
The game is padded out a fair bit with what would normally be side quests, little mini games and fetch quests. Which is fine, though you're required to do a certain percentage to complete the see and see the credits.
But it's got a nice atmosphere and does have a very summery feel (which is nice given that I'm in wintery cold Melbourne).
Some of the mini games though are a pain, while others are a nice distraction.
The temples tend to be interesting, implementing different mechanics. Some of the temples require you to do platforming to platforms over inky black depths, which makes life a little too tricky as it's hard to get a sense of depth.
The games not punitive though, any death just restarts you from the start of the room, but it can be frustrating all the same.
This review contains spoilers
Picked this up as part of the Humble Australian Fire Relief Bundle (which is doing quite well by the looks of it, but if you haven't picked it up then I encourage you to do so not only to help out the animals, but to try out some great Australian games). Played with the daughter (almost 8 year old).
Finished the second game in the series with my daughter last year.
The first game, unsurprisingly is simpler. It has one or two trade chains and the characters are very clear about what they want.
But the dialogue is very current Australian, to the point where we were saying the next line before it came up. And there are quite a few decent jokes.
There's also a point where Grace breaks in to explain how the view The Detective expressed is not her own and is in fact 100% wrong, which was a nice gag, a little like a Pratchett footnote
But very short run time here, so your mileage may vary. But if you've picked up the bundle, you're only going to waste some of your hard drive and an hour of your time at worst, so why not give it a spin?
Finished the second game in the series with my daughter last year.
The first game, unsurprisingly is simpler. It has one or two trade chains and the characters are very clear about what they want.
But the dialogue is very current Australian, to the point where we were saying the next line before it came up. And there are quite a few decent jokes.
There's also a point where Grace breaks in to explain how the view The Detective expressed is not her own and is in fact 100% wrong, which was a nice gag, a little like a Pratchett footnote
But very short run time here, so your mileage may vary. But if you've picked up the bundle, you're only going to waste some of your hard drive and an hour of your time at worst, so why not give it a spin?
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.
2014
Use potions that equal the value of a group of monsters that you select to stop them from destroying the castle.
Played this one during the school holidays with the kiddo. The game adds different elements in each of the worlds to keep the game interesting while ramping the difficulty.
While the hardest levels aren't all that challenging for an adult, adding a self imposed time limit for each turn to try to do it as fast as you can certainly makes it a little more interesting.
The kid bailed a few worlds in. I suspect she'd worked out that I had tricked her into doing maths. And but came back near the end to see how I was going without her and she helped out a bit.
Played this one during the school holidays with the kiddo. The game adds different elements in each of the worlds to keep the game interesting while ramping the difficulty.
While the hardest levels aren't all that challenging for an adult, adding a self imposed time limit for each turn to try to do it as fast as you can certainly makes it a little more interesting.
The kid bailed a few worlds in. I suspect she'd worked out that I had tricked her into doing maths. And but came back near the end to see how I was going without her and she helped out a bit.
2019
This game has a simple premise (you're a thing with legs and feet and no arms) but it finds interesting things to do with it.
The plot is funny and the characters are pretty goofy. In this way I feel like it's like the charming Wandersong, but with different ways of interacting with the world and less puzzles.
I'd recommend this one, but be aware it's a quicky.
The plot is funny and the characters are pretty goofy. In this way I feel like it's like the charming Wandersong, but with different ways of interacting with the world and less puzzles.
I'd recommend this one, but be aware it's a quicky.
2020
Murder by Numbers attempts to solve the mystery of what happens if you mix Phoenix Wright with Picross.
And yeah. It's a little rough. There's something very relaxing about Picross, at least for me. It's a thing that I do when I don't want to do a thing. And combining that with a visual novel is a little odd. It feels like you're going through a story and you get this roadblock that you have to go around before you continue, but it's a thing you do to chill... it causes a weird feeling. Like I need to do this thing that I do to relax as quickly as possible to get onto content.
There's this robot who found itself discarded in the dump with no memory. And there's this actress who plays a detective who runs into a robot who needs help. The actress loses her job on the same day her boss is killed and is obviously a suspect, so goes about solving the who dunit with the help of the robot. They then goes on to solve a bunch of others and try to help the robot get it's memory back.
It takes the form of self contained mysteries which culminate in a larger mystery that threads them together somewhat. Some of the murders are fairly straight forward where the shiftiest person did it, others less so.
Maybe I've been spoilt by Picross. The controls on this one was a bit clunky and often the puzzles wouldn't resolve into something that I could identify even when they were coloured in. And I ended up with a correct, but unintended solution which I'm not sure has happened in any of the Picross games I've played (though has happened in other nonagram games).
Most of the puzzles are fairly easy to play without assistance, though one puzzle I wimped out and used assistance. If you complete all the puzzles in a chapter without assistance you get an extra memory that you can view. Sadly, you can't go back and do individual puzzles without playing through the entire chapter again, which is a shame.
I really feel like I should have loved this game, but as it is, it's OK.
And yeah. It's a little rough. There's something very relaxing about Picross, at least for me. It's a thing that I do when I don't want to do a thing. And combining that with a visual novel is a little odd. It feels like you're going through a story and you get this roadblock that you have to go around before you continue, but it's a thing you do to chill... it causes a weird feeling. Like I need to do this thing that I do to relax as quickly as possible to get onto content.
There's this robot who found itself discarded in the dump with no memory. And there's this actress who plays a detective who runs into a robot who needs help. The actress loses her job on the same day her boss is killed and is obviously a suspect, so goes about solving the who dunit with the help of the robot. They then goes on to solve a bunch of others and try to help the robot get it's memory back.
It takes the form of self contained mysteries which culminate in a larger mystery that threads them together somewhat. Some of the murders are fairly straight forward where the shiftiest person did it, others less so.
Maybe I've been spoilt by Picross. The controls on this one was a bit clunky and often the puzzles wouldn't resolve into something that I could identify even when they were coloured in. And I ended up with a correct, but unintended solution which I'm not sure has happened in any of the Picross games I've played (though has happened in other nonagram games).
Most of the puzzles are fairly easy to play without assistance, though one puzzle I wimped out and used assistance. If you complete all the puzzles in a chapter without assistance you get an extra memory that you can view. Sadly, you can't go back and do individual puzzles without playing through the entire chapter again, which is a shame.
I really feel like I should have loved this game, but as it is, it's OK.
2019
When this originally came out I played as Gooigi in a few levels while my wife played her game of it. So some of the levels were not still fairly familiar during my play through. Near the end of this playthrough she jumped in as Gooigi, which comes in very handy for the final boss battles.
She and I play very differently and in co-op respect whose game is being played. She is very obsessed with making sure she gets every last collectable, while I'm happy to grab a collectable if it's presenting an interesting challenge or it's not going to take too long to get.
So here I fell like the collectables don't really provide much. Cash is only really spent on getting bones (which is an instant revive) and getting locators for Boos and trinkets. As you can only have 5 bones at once, most of the money you collect goes towards getting locators for collectables that don't really do anything.
That said I still ended the game with a B rank, so.
The concept of setting this one in a hotel is interesting, it allows the level design to just go hog wild while still making it feel like one single building. To get to most of the levels you'll use the elevator and you'll need to get the buttons which are usually held by the boss of each level. This makes progress very linear and that can be slightly frustrating.
And the introduction of a few new moves helps out a lot too.
Some of the levels are better than others. If you're like me and not interested in collectables, there's one level where you walk almost completely without having to battle or get around obstacles and enter directly into the boss battle. Which ends and you can then walk back to the elevator (fight a few minor ghosts) and end the level.
Generally I liked the game. I did manage to genuinely scare my wife once. I loaded up the game and the sound on our TV was a little too high and with curfew it's been really quiet at home. Luigi walked out of the elevator and as I do at the start of each level I pressed the D-Pad to get him to let out a "M-M-M-Marioooo". She was unaware that this was something that you could do and it fully freaked her out.
I probably won't play it again though, I do still need to get through the rest of 1 and 2, so probably through my focus there rather than here.
She and I play very differently and in co-op respect whose game is being played. She is very obsessed with making sure she gets every last collectable, while I'm happy to grab a collectable if it's presenting an interesting challenge or it's not going to take too long to get.
So here I fell like the collectables don't really provide much. Cash is only really spent on getting bones (which is an instant revive) and getting locators for Boos and trinkets. As you can only have 5 bones at once, most of the money you collect goes towards getting locators for collectables that don't really do anything.
That said I still ended the game with a B rank, so.
The concept of setting this one in a hotel is interesting, it allows the level design to just go hog wild while still making it feel like one single building. To get to most of the levels you'll use the elevator and you'll need to get the buttons which are usually held by the boss of each level. This makes progress very linear and that can be slightly frustrating.
And the introduction of a few new moves helps out a lot too.
Some of the levels are better than others. If you're like me and not interested in collectables, there's one level where you walk almost completely without having to battle or get around obstacles and enter directly into the boss battle. Which ends and you can then walk back to the elevator (fight a few minor ghosts) and end the level.
Generally I liked the game. I did manage to genuinely scare my wife once. I loaded up the game and the sound on our TV was a little too high and with curfew it's been really quiet at home. Luigi walked out of the elevator and as I do at the start of each level I pressed the D-Pad to get him to let out a "M-M-M-Marioooo". She was unaware that this was something that you could do and it fully freaked her out.
I probably won't play it again though, I do still need to get through the rest of 1 and 2, so probably through my focus there rather than here.
This review contains spoilers
Jenny LeClue is an experienced kid detective, she solves kid like cases but wants something more like a real detective. Her mum is a college professor that teaches forensics and what-not, so she certainly has the training. Well at least she thinks she does.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.
But Arthurton is a perfect little sleepy town where nothing interesting really happens.
So when she goes looking for her mother in the college library and instead finds the Dean dead holding her ID pass, then things get a little interesting for our pint sized hero... is she going to get in over her head trying to clear her mum's name?
The game works like a cross between Oxenfree, Night in the Woods and one of the more recent Poirot games. You're navigating a 2.5d world and are able to run and jump (when the game allows it) and interact with some objects. Often the game will flip into investigation mode where you have to find important clues on a body or area. You'll then link these together to make a deduction and only by getting the correct deduction will you be able to move on.
There are puzzles as well, but given that the game points out objects you can interact with when you walk near them, most don't require to much to solve... often you can brute force through them. Some puzzles which involve switches and buttons and so on can require a bit more logic, but you're not going to be overextended here.
There's certainly more going on in the story than you'd expect at first glance and.... erm.. ok, spoilers maybe?
So it's revealed fairly early on that you're actually playing as the writer of the Jenny LeClue novels rather than as Jenny herself. This is book 34 or something and they're not selling as well as they used to, so the publisher wants a tone shift to make the books darker. But the author is fairly resistant.
This framing devices helps make the corny nature of the game a little bit easier to swallow and allows the narration to take the authors view of how things should be happening while Jenny has a different view of proceedings at times (sort of like The Stanley Parable).
The game leans heavily into an X-Files style conspiracy and that certainly helped the story be more than a child detective attempts to solve a murder.
The graphics are delightful... though there's a large section spent in caves which are less delightful and there's a nice sense of humour here. And the voice acting is very good throughout.
But the game gives you a big choice to make as the author and then rather than explain what the impact of that choice is says "to be continued".
Which I guess I'd be fine with if I knew this was episodic at the start, but I wanted resolution. And it kind of soured the experience. I mean yes, I'll probably play the part 2 when it comes out, but I'm a bit resentful about it.
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.
2020
Good Job sees you in the role of the bosses kid. You'll start your journey at Dad's company on the bottom floor and work your way to the top. Each floor of the company has levels to complete and represents a different department, though strangely distribution is higher on the tower than accounting, which is an odd place to put it.
You're challenged to complete the jobs quickly, though it doesn't really matter how long you take and without breaking stuff, though you can destroy everything and succeed. Who's going to say the boss' kid didn't do a good job right?
So really the game is about fulfilling the task asked of you while creating as much chaos as possible in the level. And there are puzzles along the way that you might have to find a way of solving (though sometimes you can just smash through them).
It's one of those games that encourages subversion, like maybe if you slingshot the photocopier through the wall it'll knock the projector into the right place kind of thing. And on some levels it's great, you do things you really shouldn't.
But the game forgets this at times. There's a level where you hang paintings on the wall and I could not for the life of me work out an interesting way to do it. And then it really does just feel like your doing a job.
The art style is delightful and there's plenty of hidden outfits to find (which encourages the breaking of stuff) and it does feel like the developer enjoyed making the game.
There's not much replayability, though I haven't played 2 players so maybe there's some more fun to be had there.
You're challenged to complete the jobs quickly, though it doesn't really matter how long you take and without breaking stuff, though you can destroy everything and succeed. Who's going to say the boss' kid didn't do a good job right?
So really the game is about fulfilling the task asked of you while creating as much chaos as possible in the level. And there are puzzles along the way that you might have to find a way of solving (though sometimes you can just smash through them).
It's one of those games that encourages subversion, like maybe if you slingshot the photocopier through the wall it'll knock the projector into the right place kind of thing. And on some levels it's great, you do things you really shouldn't.
But the game forgets this at times. There's a level where you hang paintings on the wall and I could not for the life of me work out an interesting way to do it. And then it really does just feel like your doing a job.
The art style is delightful and there's plenty of hidden outfits to find (which encourages the breaking of stuff) and it does feel like the developer enjoyed making the game.
There's not much replayability, though I haven't played 2 players so maybe there's some more fun to be had there.
For some reason I never played this, confusing it with Beneath a Steel Sky and thinking I'd already started but never finished it.
The story is interesting, though I'm a little confused on the setting, it seems almost post apocalyptic but there are still corporations, so clearly not everything has gone to do the dogs.
I didn't feel like there were too many moon logic puzzles, but some were more frustrating than they needed to be. There were a few where I was doing the right thing at the wrong time or didn't realise a gameplay aspect.
But I think I really have two bug bears and both are about the ending where it (a) goes too quickly and (b) has fail states. It really felt like it kind of plods along and then the finale goes wooooosh.
But at the same time you've got this whole section where there are multiple things that you have to do which are mostly on a timer and it kind of felt like I was in a game of Dragon's Lair. It's nice that the game doesn't overly set you back when you fail during this section, but it was kind of frustrating to hear the same lines multiple times.
Anyway, it was a good time, though shorter than I expected and I don't think I'll be back again. Glad it was on Game Pass and it finally pushed me to play it.
The story is interesting, though I'm a little confused on the setting, it seems almost post apocalyptic but there are still corporations, so clearly not everything has gone to do the dogs.
I didn't feel like there were too many moon logic puzzles, but some were more frustrating than they needed to be. There were a few where I was doing the right thing at the wrong time or didn't realise a gameplay aspect.
But I think I really have two bug bears and both are about the ending where it (a) goes too quickly and (b) has fail states. It really felt like it kind of plods along and then the finale goes wooooosh.
But at the same time you've got this whole section where there are multiple things that you have to do which are mostly on a timer and it kind of felt like I was in a game of Dragon's Lair. It's nice that the game doesn't overly set you back when you fail during this section, but it was kind of frustrating to hear the same lines multiple times.
Anyway, it was a good time, though shorter than I expected and I don't think I'll be back again. Glad it was on Game Pass and it finally pushed me to play it.
I didn't really enjoy this one. The opening soured me from the get go. The main character doesn't feel like they have anything positive features and all his dialogue just grates. It's like if you took any of the charm of Indiana Jones you'd be left with Joe King.
When Faye and Sparky join things don't really improve. Faye is just annoyed at him constantly and Sparky is just moppy. Once in the jungle I started to find myself annoyed at the games design instead of just the story...
At one point you get a banana. This banana is at a dead end, the furthest point at the crash site. Once you use the banana it will respawn at this point. You can use the banana fairly early on by giving it to the gorilla (and I think you don't need to but they game will take it from you).
You'll need to use the banana (and hence come back to the furthest spot in the crash site multiple times.
And there are just screens that just have one object or puzzle and you'll find once picked up/solved you'll just be walking through empty screens. And he doesn't walk that fast either.
So when I wasn't annoyed by the story, I was bored by the emptiness.
And there's times when I got majorly stuck, though I did go through most dialogue trees just for the sake of doing so, so some puzzles that relied on that I was fine with.
I think my biggest beef was that it wasn't all that funny. You could tell it wanted to be funny, but it didn't land with me.
And it felt quite cobbled together like there's the point where Faye and you nemesis (I can't recall his name) rescue you from the jail. They tell you you'll need to go to the Valley of the Mists and that they need to get back before the Dr realises they're gone. Why can't they take Joe? Because he's been carrying around a rocket pack and a comic book explaining how it's used for nearly the whole game and the game really wants you to see the cut scene.
Eh, while I'm still complaining... there's a brontosorus blocking the path. It's huge! Why can't he just go between the legs!
And in the final face off with the Dr why is the Princess (who is a captive of the Dr) wielding a knife? And how did Sparky get there? Infuriating
But I get it. It was made by a bunch of guys in Queensland who loved Lucasfilm games and it shows, but it didn't gel with me sadly.
When Faye and Sparky join things don't really improve. Faye is just annoyed at him constantly and Sparky is just moppy. Once in the jungle I started to find myself annoyed at the games design instead of just the story...
At one point you get a banana. This banana is at a dead end, the furthest point at the crash site. Once you use the banana it will respawn at this point. You can use the banana fairly early on by giving it to the gorilla (and I think you don't need to but they game will take it from you).
You'll need to use the banana (and hence come back to the furthest spot in the crash site multiple times.
And there are just screens that just have one object or puzzle and you'll find once picked up/solved you'll just be walking through empty screens. And he doesn't walk that fast either.
So when I wasn't annoyed by the story, I was bored by the emptiness.
And there's times when I got majorly stuck, though I did go through most dialogue trees just for the sake of doing so, so some puzzles that relied on that I was fine with.
I think my biggest beef was that it wasn't all that funny. You could tell it wanted to be funny, but it didn't land with me.
And it felt quite cobbled together like there's the point where Faye and you nemesis (I can't recall his name) rescue you from the jail. They tell you you'll need to go to the Valley of the Mists and that they need to get back before the Dr realises they're gone. Why can't they take Joe? Because he's been carrying around a rocket pack and a comic book explaining how it's used for nearly the whole game and the game really wants you to see the cut scene.
Eh, while I'm still complaining... there's a brontosorus blocking the path. It's huge! Why can't he just go between the legs!
And in the final face off with the Dr why is the Princess (who is a captive of the Dr) wielding a knife? And how did Sparky get there? Infuriating
But I get it. It was made by a bunch of guys in Queensland who loved Lucasfilm games and it shows, but it didn't gel with me sadly.
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.