La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

I love Pokémon games, Pokémon marketing and trailers can get in the bin.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles, covers the first season and the movie in a story mode, along with having a few other modes. I picked up DS as I liked the look of it when first announced for PS4/5, Xbox etc but just never got around to it, then it got a Switch port which I heard good things about in terms of the port.

I saw it on Game Collection, had £6 in points that I took a punt on DS as like I said I liked the look of what I had seen, and I used to enjoy the Naruto games on PS360 especially the two from Ubisoft (Ones even in my Top 10 Xbox 360 games).

So I was sort looking for a new one of those, as the Naruto games now as I've not watched the series I don't know what's going on, whilst Demon Slayer is from the start of the series that I could jump right in.

I thought the game was going to be cutscene from the anime, fight demon of the week (as Balla put it elsewhere), cutscene and repeat. Yet this isn't the case you do get to walk around a mansion for instance, sure you can only really do basic things like talk to NPC or in certain levels follow a trail to the Demon of the Week, so it's not as robust as the two Ubisoft Naruto games on 360 which you could run around like a proper adventure game, still it was more game than I thought DS was going to be.

And one point, which is the part covering the movie, has a bit of a tonne shift has some mini-games in it which mixes things up a bit. Also there are online VS modes and stuff to unlock like more costumes, artwork, and even during the main story you can find collectables to get clips from the show which give a bit more insight or filler stuff like a scene with some Udon.

As for the fighting itself, I don't think we will be seeing it at EVO as it comprised of basic attack & special with the other two face buttons being dodge & jump. I was only playing the story mode, which I found that fun enough, and maybe online play people have got real good and the game is deeper than it seems, just I can see someone like Balla who I don't believe too much into fighting games having a good time here due to simplicity.

Overall a fun game and if we get a game like this covering season 2/3 then I be tempted to pick it up.

We’re not having a Game Of The Year conversation here, but Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a solid enough 2022 remake of a solid enough 1999 PSone platformer. I don’t think there’s much different about them to be honest. I know that the levels are the same, I remember that much. But the graphics have been overhauled as you’d expect, the controls have been tightened up and a couple of aspects of the gameplay have been fine-tuned. That’s especially the case with the difficulty. It was a famously uneven game in it’s original incarnation, but this remake re-balances most of that unanticipated challenge. At just over five hours long, Re-Pac is quite a straightforward and undemanding time altogether.

It’s decently made and it plays fine. That said, it’s not all that unique. Even in 1999 there was not much original about Pac-Man World’s level and enemy design, collect-a-thon characteristics or with Pac-Man’s moveset. In being pretty much a straight gameplay transplant from PlayStation to Switch, there’s disappointingly little imagination on display here in Pac-Man World Re-Pac, and certainly nothing that truly impresses. It’s such a linear, primitive and predictable 3D platformer. That’s how the PlayStation version was at its heart, but you have to bear in mind that back then we weren’t that far removed from stuff like Bubsy 3D. Just making a playable 3D platformer with a functional camera was viewed as a big success. Nowadays, I think the expectation is understandably much greater, especially when you’ve got a game that’s retailing for full price.

In isolation, I say that Pac-Man World Re-Pac is perfectly all right. I enjoyed it well enough to blast through the whole thing in just a handful of play sessions. Yet it doesn’t have the ambition, scope and variety of its remastered PSone peers. One good example of that is Spyro The Dragon on the Reignited Trilogy – and I remember that there were a few regulars on here who didn’t think much of that game anyway. In my opinion, something such as the Reignited Trilogy should be the established architype for 3D platformer remakes. Pac-Man World Re-Pac compares unfavourably to the recent Spyro, Crash and Klonoa remakes. But, like I’d said at the start, it’s solid enough. 6/10.

According to Nathan Brown, ex-Edge editor and recent Back Page guest, it's important for every review to have a throughline.  This obviously isn't a proper review, but I thought I'd try that out - but I can't think of a throughline for this other than, 'comparisons to 1 and 2'.  And why not?  I think everybody bar Jim on here has tried at least one of those.  The comparisons are pretty bloody favourable too.

2 comes out slightly better than 1 here.  There are several areas where Xeno 3 loses out to its younger siblings, and they're all areas where IMO 2 rules the roost.  Chief amongst these is the combat: what with seven lads and lasses* fighting at once, fighting's always good fun in 3, but could feel one-note in a way 2 never had the chance to, and the chain attacks feel static.  Another is the world design: the series has always excelled in presenting enormous beautiful vistas to explore, yet for some reason 3 is much more vertical in its architecture.  As a result you don't get as many stunning views, and the world (which isn't set on titans) is less stunning as a result - more so as the military theme means that a lot of areas, especially early on, are a bit brown.  The music is also by a distance the worst in the series, still good but with nothing as grand as Gormott or Gaur Plains.  (Also you end up hearing far too much of the bloody pause menu and chain attack pieces.)  Again, the military theme might account for it being a bit more subdued, less triumphant.

But that theme also leads to the best story, and characters, and general writing in the series.  The grimness of war never goes away, but it never becomes overwhelming either, and it gives way to a lovely party of fellows (and Sena).  Mio and Eunie are excellent, and many of the side-characters are nicely fleshed out too - and none of them have the lechery of Pyra or even Sharla, which is a big plus.  The plot is always comprehensible as well, which isn't something I could say about 2.  These are areas where before 3, 1 held the roost, and here's the thing: I don't feel like there's anything major where 1 can claim to be the best in the series now.  Maybe customisation?  But does anyone have fond memories of gem crafting and armour mixing, really?  

Then there are the areas where 3 absolutely destroys the competition.  I'm mostly talking about side-quests here, which have historically been crap in the series but sing in this game.  This is partly in the writing, partly in the reduction of Collect X Things quests to their own fodder section, and partly just because it feels like more thought's gone into them.  That's the main one, although I mustn't overlook the tutorials: I actually understood everything in this game without having to look it up online!  And while the class system isn't quite up to others seen in other RPGs, it's still good fun in its own right.  This is definitely the best videogame with a class system in (that I've played).

It's also the best Xenoblade game.  Heck, it's the best conventional JRPG I've played.  (Second-best overall behind TTYD.)  It renders the original game almost irrelevant by comparison, and while the sequel still stands out in some areas, it's a poor second to a game you can actually understand well enough to appreciate.  It's an incredible conclusion to an incredible trilogy (pipe down X), and every RPG fan must play it.

Balladeer wrote:

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Is the best because

I was incredibly late to this particular party as I decided to replay Zero Mission, Super, Samus Returns and Fusion before this game. That was a fun experience, though it inevitably means I'll be comparing Dread to its predecessors.

Overall, I think Metroid Dread is a cracking game. Samus controls the best she ever has. She's maneuverable and agile but still feels like a strong, heavy, metal unit. Her arsenal is great and mostly simplified; beams and missiles are piled on top, there aren't multiples of each to cycle through.

The encounters were great, particularly the bosses which had a perfect balance that meant they started tough but I eventually beat them without taking a hit. I thought the EMMI encounters were excellently tense and so satisfying to finish off. The only thing that lets them down is that the EMMIs just . . . aren't scary. They're kind of cute, if anything.

The biggest letdown for me is the world design. The map being divided into areas which can only be travelled to via elevators and trains made it feels small and artificial. Plus, design-wise the zones weren't distinctive enough. There was kind of a lava area and a water area but features of each bled into one another. The fact that you start at the bottom and claw your way out was a cool concept, but the sense of place wasn't there to make it work. All the areas had the same alliance installations on top of the same Chozo ruins. I'd have preferred to start in dark rocky caves, move through a volcano then a flooded area then some ruins then a forest, y'know, like I was actually escaping a pit.

The monsters were cool, especially the unprecedented look at the Chozo. The way the story carried on from Fusion was very satisfying.

Spoiler:

I also really love Samus' design here. She's chunky without being bulky, lithe without it feelinf like an overtly sexy thing . . . she looks how Samus should look, in my opinion. Female and powerful without those two feeling like there is any reason they should be contradictory.

I had a little look at the thread. I didn't get lost as much as Andy, I didn't have Jim's issues with the controls and I liked the EMMI sections more than Balla. That said, having played through the whole modern 2D series in short order, I can't call this one the best.

10/10

1. Super Metroid
2. Metroid: Zero Mission
3. Metroid Dread
4. Metroid Fusion Note - played in Japanese this time. May swap places with SR if I had to sit through the story.
5. Metroid: Samus Returns Note - I may just dislike playing action games on a 3DS.

It's lame to be excited for ports and re-releases but. . . I'd be up for a chance to replay the Primes now as well.

I'm excited about Prime after Dread as was really my 1st Metroid I'd given a proper go.

Mate, get Super played!

I have tried it a few times, and always been well its no SOTN.

I prefer it to the Castlevanias - its a close-run thing, but I find the RPG mechanics detractive rather than additive. You've gotta play it through though, its's an all-timer and it's the originator.

Maybe I will one day but loads of games to play, be on the ink this weekend.

Super is one of my most embarrassing gaming experiences. Basically I got it on I think Wii VC, and got completely and utterly stuck on a very early boss. The big bird thing that scratches at you. I think you're meant to roll through its feet, and I kept trying to jump over it. Utter idiocy.

Anyway, I probably owe it another crack. Dread was very good though, although I can't disagree with those 'sense of place' comments. I always felt there was something missing in the environments that I could never put my finger on: maybe that was it.

masofdas wrote:

be on the ink this weekend.

Tagline plz

I know Andy has also finished LAL, and Balla has picked it up, which had led to a bit of chat around the game in its thread. If you've seen that then you'll know we've not been huge fans, Andy may want to chime in if different.

I stuck with LAL after the 1st few chapters, in which you play as a different dude that have own story and gimmick like in Imperial China you're levelling up the students by fighting them or another you learn skills when you see them.

With 8+ chapters, always going to be some a bit meh and some decent, meaning it is a bit of mixed back which is certainly a game for fans of the genre, and then I'd lots of RPGs available even if you're just on Switch.

It's still ticking along for me.  Slowly.  Being replaced in my current gaming hierarchy by basically anything else I pick up.  Speaking of:



I finished the game everybody's talking about!  Well, actually everybody's talking about Chicory in the Tinykin thread, but that's probably fitting.  Tinykin is indeed a fun game that raises a smile, and then you move onto something else.

Perhaps that's a bit harsh, especially to a game that falls squarely into one of my favourite sub-genres, the exploratory 3D platformer; and Tinykin does a lot right in that space, including nailing the two fundamentals.  The character feels good to control, and the worlds are fun to explore.  Nailed it, no?  (You've already seen the score by this point, you know the answer.)  The worlds look great too, a 90s house blown up to cosmic proportions, populated by Paper Mario-art bugs and the Pikmin-like Tinykin.  The visuals are lovely, a real triumph of art direction over power; the music's pretty nice as well.  Throw in some decent if unspectacular writing, and Tinykin does what it sets out to do right.  

Like ElecHead two pages back, it's what it doesn't do that's the problem.  Tinykin fits right into the 'Wholesome Direct' space.  It has a minimal amount of peril (for most of the game only falling will hurt, and you have a glide to ignore that), which makes the exploration a matter more of patience than entertainment.  I don't think that's a good thing for a game.  It also means that Tinykin can't really vary its pacing: there are no bosses to provide moments of triumph here, no chases to get the pulse up.  Finally, it gives way to our good friend, ludonarrative dissonance.  The second world makes a big deal of its frightening mantis folk who have no truck with outsiders, who will stand and watch as you and your Tinykin army run away with their prized possessions.

In the end, Tinykin does exactly what it sets out to do, slightly unambitious though that is: it provides a short sweet adventure that you can play without fear or many barriers to entry.  It's my fifth-favourite platformer on Switch, as well as my fifth-favourite game of 2022 so far (just behind Neon White in both categories, incidentally).  It made me smile, and now it's time to move onto something else.

“A fun game that raises a smile, and then you move onto something else” sounds like pretty much the only type of game I’d want to play. Even with a 7/10 and those words of caution, it’s gone up in my estimation…I’ll get round to it soon.

Likewise. Maybe. If I get round to it before Pikmin 4's out.

Brief review time, 'cause time is money
Horizon Forbidden West - was dreading this, as the predecessor got very repetitive. People were complaining about this, but I'd day there was much more variation this time. Also was partially playing it as a televisual experience for an older family member, who really loved it. Definitely the best acting I've seen in a video game.
Celeste - was also dreading this a bit because of the hype, and the hype about the story, but actually it was nice and not too up its own arse which was a concern, and the platform things were very clever. I will say again as I have to: if you liked Celeste, but want something less linear, play Knytt Undergorund - a very similar breed of splatforming and curious story worlding. And I found basically all of the strawberries and tapes myself so I feel like a cleverman. But didn't do level 9 or the b sides yet as I don't have time.
Eliminator Boat Duel - I assumed this was a shit NES game, and recall "relibale" TOTAL! magazine saying as such, but for essentially free, was a bit of a laugh.

Completed on Switch but originally released as free-to-play on phones, Good Pizza, Great Pizza is a pizza baking simulator where you fulfil customer’s orders while making enough money to operate your restaurant. The profits that you make let you redecorate your facilities, introduce new ingredients to your menu and stave off the competition from across the street. As well as taking the orders, you’re the one who makes the pizza – you roll the dough, spread the toppings, put it through the oven and slice the orders before handing it over to the customer across the till in good time. Sometimes, these orders are very straightforward (“I’m trying to befriend the neighbourhood goat. Basil, olive and onion, please”), but more often than not they can be riddles in themselves (“The siren scent of sauce entices pepperoni and cheese in equal slices”). You’re the one who also has to budget all the costs of your pizzeria, and pay for rent, repairs and security as well as each and every ingredient you use. Altogether, it’s a game that rewards efficiency, accuracy and your close attention. That said it can be equally stress-free as the customers are typically patient with their time, generous with their tips and kind in their online reviews.

The drawbacks of the Switch version are that that uses joypad controls as it’s default, and these work very poorly for a game that requires speed like Good Pizza, Great Pizza does. Thankfully, touchscreen controls were patched into it fairly recently, making handheld play the infinitely-more appealing and accessible way of play. As for docked play, I can’t think of anything less appetising. Furthermore, it’s disappointing that this Switch version only features the first two chapters of the mobile game. Elsewhere Good Pizza, Great Pizza is a much further developed game, with all sorts of different events, decorations and foodstuffs to use. Here on Switch, all you can unlock are two types of bread, around a dozen toppings and a few different chairs, tables, signs and tablecloths. It’s relatively flavourless stuff. The developer says that they’ve been unable to secure funding to push out Good Pizza, Great Pizza’s latest version updates for Switch, meaning that you’ve essentially got the base game as it was first presented on phones several years ago. Maybe these’ll be added yet, but I have to doubt it at this late stage, several years after it initially released.

Missing features or not, I still think that Good Pizza, Great Pizza is worth a look. It’s repetitive nature means that it doesn’t suit marathon gaming sessions, yet it’s addictive gameplay loop, jaunty accordion soundtrack and endearing characters with their cheerful dialogue help make Good Pizza, Great Pizza a thoroughly entertaining little timewaster. 8/10.

Cult of the Lamb is an unashamedly stylishly light game that's part settlement management, part rpg, and part rogue-lite. You won't find the same level of depth as a Binding of Isaac here. As you venture off into the RNG dungeons, there aren't really many opportunity costs that you will be confronted with. But what there is is a solid hack and slasher which was good enough to retain my interest during my playthrough.

What really separates this game from others in the genre is the day/night cycle and village management. As you play the game you will indoctrinate new followers into your cult, build new upgrades to your base, harness upgraded followers to increase your own powers.

That all sounds standard enough, and it is, but it's wrapped up in a cute dressing that gives you some meaningful choices. Each day you perform sermons to your flock, and once you have enough devotion stored up you can create new doctrines. These doctrines allow you to create laws and rituals. These can be holy, like ascending elderly villagers to the heavens, or more sinister - like cannibalism, or sacrificial fighting pits.

There's a satisfying loop here. You have to nanny your followers by cooking food and making sure their needs are taken care of, otherwise they'll start preaching falsehoods. You have to dungeoneer to progress the story and pillage enough bones to perform rituals. There are several non-dungeon areas that you will unlock with their own side-quests, and all of this is encompassed in a outstanding presentation and quality sound track.

I can't pretend that this game is ground breaking, or that it will absolutely blow you away. It doesn't have much depth to it, but I don't think that is a bad thing. It serves as some light entertainment that's a bit of a gateway drug to rogue-likes. I can easily give it a recommend for those interested in the genre or those looking for a light hack and slash game. It's not up there with Hades, and it's definitely a game that is quite inspired by the Binding of Isaac. In many ways it's a much simplified version of the latter when it comes to the dungeon crawling, but with some base management stuff on the side. And for me that's just fine.

There might be a few folks who are put off by the fact that you have to babysit your village a bit, but really it's not that challenging. There are no crises that a quick sermon and a timely ritual to boost morale won't fix. Besides, you can always murder problematic villagers, or have them possessed by demons.  

8/10

Yes but does your village fill up with poop too quickly?  This is the key question.

Jimbob wrote:

Celeste - was also dreading this a bit because of the hype, and the hype about the story, but actually it was nice and not too up its own arse which was a concern, and the platform things were very clever. I will say again as I have to: if you liked Celeste, but want something less linear, play Knytt Undergorund - a very similar breed of splatforming and curious story worlding. And I found basically all of the strawberries and tapes myself so I feel like a cleverman. But didn't do level 9 or the b sides yet as I don't have time.

This is the biggest and most effective pitch for Knytt Underground I've seen.


Oh and I finished the Nobody Saves the World Frozen Hearth DLC. It introduces a couple of new classes, then gives you a set of combat trials that prevent class levelling while you're doing them. You finish them, with a massive whimper rather than a bang, and that's it. It's like the DLC designers didn't understand what makes the game good in the first place. Actually really disappointed. 4/10

You only really need to build one toilet. Even then, you can just feed the followers poo.

You can what now!? That's a whole bunch of 'Don't Drink the Poo-l Aid' review subtitles that could have been but weren't.

CotL is a game I certainly want to try, just waiting for it to go on sale on something or added to a service.