notes&letters&pixels

Yesterday I finished INSIDE by Playdead on my PS4.

   What…

  …the…

  …FUDGE???

  Okay, so Playdead went artsyfartsy and popular with the critically acclaimed LIMBO, a malignant, darkly jump’n’run full of death traps and obstacles. The game is completely monochrome in black and white with occasional dips in brownish tones later. It’s very much trial and error with many of the traps and the box shovin’ puzzles are far from innovative but they do the trick. Proper physics make the feeling more realistic and less jump’n’run-ney and the story twist of the little boy who escapes from the evil traps and monsters that lurk in the murky woods and industrial factory setting is actually astounding. -----------------------------------------------------

This is LIMBO, the first title of the extraordinary developer (PC, Xbox 360, PS3 etc.)

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Cut to INSIDE, the successor or let’s say the second game by the Danish indie game developer.

The gameplay is the same: you play a little boy who starts off in the woods and then enters factory buildings and has to avoid being killed, captured, harpooned and hung up, crushed, drowned and more. The puzzles are also similar to Limbo as is the graphical style. INSIDE features a wider color palette but it still is rather dark and creepy and leaves you with a foul feeling in your stomach. So here we have way more human(oid) non-player characters in the game, some of which you have to hide from because they hunt you down (black shirt and pants wearing guys), some of which obviously are mindless puppets that only react to a certain telepathic mind-control system that you can control by plugging the boy’s head into a helmet-on-a-chord. The puzzles are extended to more complex one-room situations where you see a problem and can only proceed after solving it (sometimes simply by combining the tools at hand, sometimes by ill-controls related trial and error and sometimes by unnecessary backtracking).

So far, so limboesque.

Everybody was all over this game and went completely bonkers about how weirdly fascinating this game was, which it actually is, I think, but I was a little “underwhelmed” by the similarities to LIMBO. I was probably expecting something bigger, something more… Some of the puzzles even got me contemplating if I even wanted to go on because the controls made me furious. The underwater monsters that always catch you if you are not way ahead of them always have to be lured away in order to mile them down in the underwater struggle of e.g. flipping a switch. This is not creepy anymore if you die five times and still have to simply try your luck if your guy dives in the water correctly in order to save time because you didn’t stumble into the water and lost a valuable second. I personally would have enjoyed the game more without these sequences.

BUT: the last 20 minutes of the game were… so… I can hardly describe it. The tension rose to a maximum because the Hitchcock-like method not to show what the fuss is about until you’re the center of it, drove me wild. And after what seemed like the end it still continued to get even weirder.

I won’t spoiler here, I’ll just recommend this to anybody who’s into artsy fartsy indie games, anybody who loved LIMBO and anyone who is into David Cronenberg and/or David Lynch, the latter being a reference to the vague storytelling that leaves you thinking about the game for quite some time after finishing it, not really getting a grip on what might have actually happened there.

I decided to post more. For the third time now. And to be precise: I didn’t post less. I wrote a lot about games lately. But with The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild being my only game that I really play right now I stopped writing the Zeldiary I started a month ago because it’s just too much to write about in this game! And I didn’t want so spoiler anybody. I’ll probably write some more once I finished the game (I’m about 75% through if you count all the towers, titans and Ganon as parts of the main game).  But in the meantime I watched Girlfriend’s Day with (and produced by) Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) on Netflix. I watched it with the wife last night, because, hey, Bob Odenkirk! He’s just an adorable and nice actor. Apart from his wacky comedy show with the time travels idea I like most of his stuff. Girlfriend’s Day sports Raymond (Bob Odenkirk) as a greeting cards writer in a world where greeting cards mean a LOT to the people. They have a bar for the stars of the greeting card writing business, a stage for them to perform their poetry and they actually have groupies.  Raymond gets kicked out of the business because he lost his creative spark after his wife divorced him for another card writer. The city announces the new Girlfriend’s Day and suddenly interest in him writing the perfect greeting card for this new holiday rises again.  I won’t spoiler the fast paced 70 minute feature film. But let me make clear that this movie has a twisted sense of humor, good acting, good camera angles and a story, that hasn’t been told yet. 

I highly recommend this quick watch because the story in its ficticious greeting card loving world with all its romance and crime is refreshingly new and well thought through. 

SPOILERS AHEAD!

 March 6, 2017:

 Dear Zeldiary,

 So, Breath Of The Wild continues to baffle me each day that I play it. Today I decided to check out that temple, the old man wants me to go to. I actually forgot to mention the old man. Right, sorry. Or these huge towers that spruced out of the ground after I found the first one where the voice led me… Erm… let’s rewind a bit.

So after you get out into the world one of the first things one finds is an old man sitting by a fire, sporting a hood and a thick white beard. He’s got a staff with a metal lantern on it and he says in his days he learned a lot about the lands and the history of this region. Obviously he’s your guide in the game. No Navi and no “Hey, listen” anymore. The man tells you to stop by whenever you have questions.

Ok, good. Let’s check out the first quest though. This was given to us by the voice that spoke to us in that salt bath chamber at the beginning of the game. In the end it led to a tower, kind of like a beacon that produced itself out of the ground after we found it. It’s way high and from the top you can watch over all of The Great Plateau. It was there that the old man visited us on the tower, flying to the top with a parasail. And then he explains that he’d give us the sail if we obtained a treasure from that one temple over there. All right then.

First dungeon time! Well, not so much. It’s a small temple that upgrades our Sheikah slate with a new function: magnetism. We learn how to use the slate to move magnetic objects. Wait, seriously? This already feels like a major ability that we earn right away in the first quest?

Long story short: the old chap doesn’t give us the parasail just yet after completing the first temple. “There are three other temples. And obtaining one or four treasures… what’s the difference?”, he states. Well, if each of those temples offers new functions for the Sheikah slate, I’m game!

And then he explains the map to us. Take your Sheikah slate and use it as a looking glass to spot the temples or other spots in the world you would like to remember and mark them on your map. It was ONLY THEN that I realised how big the world was: I opened the map and thought, “Well, nice. The game has a forest area, and old temple ruins…” but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Zooming out of this area we are in right now is but a mere… I don’t know… 1/60 of the whole game? It sure looks like it:

Looking forward to more. Waaaaay more.

 (picture credit: zeldauniverse.net)

 P.S.: Hey, listen! (to this)

Badbadnotgood with a nice jazzy Zelda Cover:

SPOILERS AHEAD!

March 5 2017:

 Dear diary,

After another evening at work we find ourselves back in the plains of Hyrule. Today we saw the first few Game Over screens. It’s harder than any other Zelda game, more unforgiving. But not unfairly so. If you shoot an explosive arrow at an enemy from too close a range then the explosion will take you down, too. Not exactly rocket science. But also the enemies are stronger than in the past; PLUS your weapons break so you have to pick up new ones. The weapons also have fixed stats for the first time in the series: the Bokblin club is weaker than the spiked Bokblin club. Makes sense. But already three hours in the game I found a weak sword, a lumberjack’s axe, a traveller’s bow, a Bokblin bow and shield, three different kinds of arrows, a tall tree leaf (which I haven’t found the use for yet), a torch and… all kinds of cooking ingredients. This feels like all the items of all Zelda games combined within the first two to three hours in the game! The micro-management is exciting. All items you find have a short description that teases their use. And cooking seems to be a thing here.

Whoops! There’s a fireplace and a metal bowl with logs underneath. Looks like a makeshift kitchen. Light fireplace with fire arrow. Light torch on fireplace. Set fire under the metal pot. Cook stuff! Nice.

So let’s get to the items then: eat an apple to gain hearts. Cook several apples to get a hot fruits dish that restores more health. Add a different ingredient to the dish to additionally boost your stamina or speed or stealth noise. Incredible. We spent fifteen minutes cooking all kinds of ingredients. I’m usually not the crafting person. But Nintendo just does what they do best: they take out all complicated steps of a feature and make everything user friendly, easy-to-pick-up and fun!

Also the more we played the game the more I realised that Nintendo did something, they rarely ever do: they let themselves be influenced by other games of that genre and incorporated the best features into their game. The setting and handling feels like Nier. The crafting and open world feel like Skyrim/Fallout. And the battle system feels like Bloodborne/Dark Souls. Only all of these features are stripped down to the very basics to keep it simple but still challenging and complex enough to create a feeling of evolution within the series.

Bedtime already? But I haven’t tried cooking acorns, apples and hyrule herbs yet…

SPOILERS AHEAD!

March 4 2017:

Dear diary,

Today is Saturday and I had a long shift at the café my wife and I run because somebody called in sick for the weekend. And all day long all I could think about was Breath Of The Wild wondering which one of my friends might already have a Switch where I could play it on soon.

“Two coffee and a piece of pie. That’ll be 6 rupees, please”.

“Wait, what?”

But then it hit me: I don’t even need a Switch to play the new Zelda! It’s out on WiiU as well! After quite the day the crowd cleared the place around 7:15 and I thought, “You know what? The electronics store closes at 8. You two can manage the café for half an hour without me, right? I’m going to buy Zelda for the WiiU. And I EARNED this”, and so I did.

After work the time had come:

Onto the couch with the wife and cats.

Cake leftovers from the café – Check.

Beer – Check.

The new Zelda game – Check!

“Let’s do this! … Oh, updates.”

 <Half an hour later…>

 “Okay, let’s do this!”

So, what’s this? Where is Link waking up? Some kind of cave? Looks like one of those tubs where you lie in saltwater and chill with all of them blue lights on the walls and ceiling… looking all…techy and cool… Who knows. Okay, opening up this chamber door with that device that looks an awful lot like the Nintendo Switch tablet thingy… Ah, I see. Chests. Nice. And they contain clothes. Right. Link, get dressed. You don’t wanna enter that open world out there only in swimming pants and boots.  There you go. All set. Let’s get outta there.

And then the door opens, the world welcomes Link and standing on the edge of the cliff you could see EVERYTHING! It was astounding. Beautiful. Whole.

  The next hour we spent running around, picking stuff up. Mushrooms, apples, herbs (so there’s a lot of micro-management when it comes to items; that’s new), one or two weapons, we met the first Bokblins (goblin-like enemies) learned how to fight and manage my weapons. And this is new: it’s a rather context-sensitive battle system where you have to decide which strategy and which weapon suits the situation best. Link found a bow and arrows and learned using them and we found more stuff running around the wonderful plains and woods. With an open mouth I watched the birds fly, the squirrels run up trees and the nature reacting to my behaviour.

Then we fell asleep on the couch. After all it was a long day. More of this tomorrow night…

SPOILERS AHEAD!

March 3, 2017.

Dear diary,

Today was the day the new Nintendo Switch console was released and with it the new Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. The whole day long my Instagram feed was overflowing with Switch- and Zelda related posts. At first I thought I wouldn’t care too much because I didn’t have enough money to buy a Switch anyways and apart from Zelda the starting lineup of games was rather underwhelming.

In the evening after work I decided to play some Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker on the WiiU with my wife (adorable little game that never fails to make us smile even after a long hard day at work). After we were done and wanted to go to bed I thought, “Eh, let’s check the Nintendo eShop and see if there are any new titles or bargains”. Of course Zelda owned the shop with a huge banner covering the home screen of the eShop.

“Well, might as well check out the trailer. I haven’t watched it yet but I heard about it and how people went crazy for the trailer…”.

Big mistake. At the end of the trailer I shed a tear because it was so epic, so beautiful and so intriguing.

(not necessarily from that year) Sooo, I’m a bit late when it comes to my personal gaming retrospective of 2016. BUT here goes. It has been a successful year when it comes to gaming for me. I completed a few titles that have been really fun, long overdue or just surprisingly surprising because I hadn’t heard of them ever before. I completed 16 games, which not necessarily came out in 2016 but were still on my list. So here’s what I played last year and below you’ll find detailed opinions on them. 

1.  Transformers Devastation (PS3)

First game I finished in 2016 ‘cause I got it for Christmas in 2015. First things first: I love Platinum Games, although I don’t love all their games alike. But the company itself I appreciate a lot, especially for the Bayonetta series. And they made a Transformers game that looks like the old 80s cartoon and not the dark, modern Michael Bay crap the Transformers have become these days? ‘Awesome’, I thought and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes, the level design is very repetitive and has a lot of, well not back tracking but let’s say they recycle the setting a lot: there’s a city, one part is active for one mission, then you proceed to a different part for another mission and eventually come back to the first part for the third mission. Not exactly refreshing but you still get to shoot or punch Decepticons in the face with Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Sideswipe or Wheeljack. Plus later in the game the settings vary a little more. The gameplay is classical Platinum games style: run around, beat shit up, collect stuff mainly to get stronger, proceed, repeat. Exactly what a proper Transformers videogame needs. It has the typical Bayonetta-style “witch time” effect where you evade an attack at the right moment just to enter a slow-motion mode for a few seconds where your enemies are slow and you keep on banging. All is well. It looks totally like the TV series which kiddo-me loved to death, the soundtrack is a mixture of badass metal, dubstep (ugh, I used the word) and neo-/modern metal. RAD! So: nothing to complain here. Sure, it could be more diverse and stuff, but it gave me exactly what I wanted and expected from the game. I had a hell of a time with this one. And you could even get more out of it because there is a looting and crafting concept where enemies drop parts and weapons which you then can combine into more powerful or more diverse weapons (take a strong machine gun and combine it with an ice-effect machine gun and you get a strong ice-effect MG; you get the point). It’s fun to experiment with different weapons and combine so many until you find the perfect weapon for every Autobot. So if you’re a fan of the 80s cartoon series: pick it up! Now! It’s become dirt cheap pretty quickly. No excuses. (picture credit: Steam)

2.  Yoshi’s Woolly World (WiiU)

Got this as a present, too. For my birthday in 2015 by my good friend and gaming buddy Christian.  Not much to say here, either. It’s a Nintendo game. So naturally it looks gorgeous, the gameplay will work just fine and it will be a lot of fun. To be precise: yes, it did exactly this. But in a really great way. The graphics are extremely unique and innovative. The wool&yarn setting provides so many new takes on level design, art direction and gameplay ideas that the Nintendo team could just go nuts with it. With Yoshis tongue as a tool you can for example untie parts of the level to “unravel” (sic!) hidden passages it’s just adorable how you go “Aaahh”, each time you find something. Everything looks like good ol’ grandma knitted it herself with all the love she can put into a woolly stuffed animal or pillow. Everything looks organic and handmade which sets the game into a very graspable and physical world. Plus, typical for Nintendo: it’s not only for kids. Sure, it’s cute and all but the levels are actually pretty challenging. Especially if you want to collect all the thingamabobs and collectibles you can get in each level: collect five balls of yarn in each level to unlock a new colored Yoshi you can pick to play with. So the completionist really gets something out of this. Long story short: it’s a wonderful title and not just another Nintendo game but really creative, especially in game design and level design.  (picture credit: Amazon)

3. Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture (PS4)

I heard about it shortly before I got a PS4 and I simply don’t play games on my PC or Mac that often. So I bought it right away because the idea and art style stoked me. The art style is not very, unique, since it’s basically pretty realistic. But the town they created is selling it. It’s authentic. You can visit the houses, they look as if people lived here a short time ago. Which is what actually happened.  It’s one of the slightly patronizingly named “Walking Simulators”. I don’t think that this genre specification is derogatory because it just says what it is: you walk around a setting and explore things without too much interaction. In the end the voice acting and the mystical story behind the game took me by the hand and led me through the experience and left me thinking. I love it when games make me think about what I’ve just witnessed. So here’s to a great Walking Simulator with wonderful sound, story and voice acting.  (picture credit: Polygon)

4. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of The Moon (Wii)

This was recommended to me by a friend who told me that I’d love it because he knew my preferences in videogames, which he does. Farewell Ruins of the Moon is some kind of, well, it feels like a survival horror adventure at the beginning of the survival horror genre. Think early PS2 or Dreamcast era. The battle mechanics are dusty and wodden, the item management is tedious and a little annoying, the graphics are one step behind what was standard on the Wii. But still I grew to enjoy the game because of the beautiful setting, characters and story. Your main character is kind of left in a world where there’s not much left at all. He has to find out what happened and if there are others left, too. You find a girl which then runs away. From then on you try to find her. And after accepting that it’s like playing a good PS2 game instead of a polished Wii game I started loving everything about it (apart from the things I just criticised). I played it with original japanese voice and subtitles which made me enjoy the game a helluva lot more. I love japanese culture and it made the game better! Now it felt like an early take on what later became NIER, which I totally adore. The battle system is not really similar, but in a small scope I guess does have comparisons. But setting and look feel a little bit like Caviars masterpiece on Xbox360 and PS3 NIER. Over the course of the game you meet different characters and their respective background stories, which is really similar to NIER.  All in all I recommend this game to anyone who can overlook the obvious flaws and who still enjoys PS2-era action-adventure games in an anime setting with a great story. (picture credit: Romulation.net)

5.  Until Dawn (PS4)

Well, this is interesting. I heard a (german) podcast (Insert Moin) about Until Dawn before I owned a PS4 and heard them speak about this horror game with stereotype story, stereotype characters and overall very flat features. But they still said that the looks and the execution of these uninspired basic ideas totally hooked them. So I tried it and MAN was this a good horror game. And not only because they hired so many good actors to play the parts of the characters (like Rami Malek from Mr. Robot) but because the horror just kept up with the pace of the game. Each time I thought, “All right, brace yourself for the next expectable jump-scare” - it didn’t happen. The setting was just about right, the sound, the camera angle, the tension and then… nothing. “Whoops, okay. Maybe lat— BOOM”, and there it was. Shocked me to the core. Every_flippin’_time! I love myself a good horror game. But I’ve played so many that most of the “scary effects” just don’t touch me anymore. So here’s Until Dawn which actually has an intriguing storyline that makes you want to find out what’s behind all of it, with it’s stereotypical characters who actually react pretty well to each other depending on how you decide to play each and everyone of them. It’s a little like Heavy Rain with more characters that you can all play and a more horror setting (and with less shitty controls and a less shitty ending). Any horror game or -movie fan should play this! (picture credit: Until Dawn Wikia) 6.  Uncharted 4 (PS4)

Well, it’s Uncharted. It’s like Indiana Jones but without Nazis and, well, that’s about it. I loved Uncharted 2, didn’t care for part 1 too much and haven’t played 3 because everybody said it’s boring and focused too much on the failed 3D-TV feature. But part 4 really got me again. I think it’s the best Uncharted after 2, as far as I can compare them all. Pirates, wonderful graphics, good ol’friends and foes, nice acting… A very good game.  (picture credit: Playstation.com)

7.  ABZÛ (PC)

I already posted something about this game right after I played it. Short: It’s JOURNEY underwater. But it’s not just that. It’s very beautiful, a lot of fun to just swim around and for every diving-fan a must play. The more you play it the more gorgeous it gets. Wonderful game.  A story told without words. Always totally gets me. Plus like its spiritual predecessor Journey the soundtrack was written by the amazing Austin Wintory (link in the next bit). (picture credit: abzugame.com) 8.  Journey (PS4)

There’s not much to say about JOURNEY these days. Anyone who hasn’t played it yet misses out on one of the best and most artistic approaches to videogames in the entire history of the medium. It is the first video game that was ever nominated for a Grammy for its marvellous soundtrack by amazing composer Austin Wintory (it didn’t win, but it was nominated!). It has one of the best online-multiplayer experiences ever where you meet other players along the way through the game who are in the same level as you and you then simply meet. Since there is no teamspeak, nor can you see the gamertag of that person, you have to communicate (if you want to approach the other player) through jumping, making a noise and walking and waiting if the other player follows you. Play it. Please play Journey. I finished it about 4 times now since release and in 2016 for the first time on PS4. It’s always a unique experience.  Here the story is also told without any words, spoken or written. Absolutely my joint. (picture credit: thatgamecompany.com) 

9.  Love You To Bits (iOS) 

This little 2D-puzzle adventure on iOS comes from a few artists behind Tiny Thief (which is very visible, but not in a negative way). You are are guy who’s in love with a robot girl. She gets destroyed and you have to search the whole universe to collect her bits and reassemble her. It’s incredibly detailed and shows a great deal of thought they put into the level design, little anecdotes and reminiscenses to other games. For example in one level there you go to an arcade and have to collect tokens from the arcade machines in order to exchange them for a prize that you need. These arcade machines are all teeny tiny games on their own. One Zelda-style, one Metroid-style and one other classic I just forgot about (I think it wasn’t Mario but something similar). Also it has the classic point-and-click humor to it that you want to click on a person or an item more than once because it’s just funny to watch what happens each time. There’s not only one single reaction. Each level has so many different layers of obvious beauty, deeper design of the puzzles and incredible re-defining ideas of how the level design and game design can be altered in order to keep up the playing experience. Very well done and it has a lot of levels that kept me playing for a long long time for a mobile game. Plus there are some collectibles that are actually fun to discover because they mostly are incorporated in little extra puzzles that you don’t have to solve to complete the level but if you like the challenge it’s great.  Again: story without words. I LOVE it to bits.  (picture credit: loveyoutobits.com)

10.  The Bug Butcher (PS4)

Buddies of a buddie of mine made this Super Putty-like game. It kinda looks like some sort of Super Meat Boy in space with the Super Putty game mechanics. It’s good, short fun with very well animated enemies, a good weapons and upgrades system and a nice fast paced gameplay. Definitely a recommendation for all of you old school gamers out there.  There’s really not much more to say about it. You play some sort of pest-control bug smasher and have to rid a lab from alien bugs and other creatures. Level by level you eliminate waves of bugs, trying to keep up your combo and collecting nice temporary weapon updates. It’s good fun and also a great co-op title, I suppose (haven’t played in two player mode yet). (picture credit: awfullynicestudios.com) 11.  Shovel Knight (WiiU) 

Wuahahaha, Shovel Knight is SO MUCH of everything I loved about the NES. It’s Mega Man, Castlevania, Metroid, Contra, Faxanadu and Zelda II in ONE GAME COMBINED. I love it a lot. The gameplay surely is inspired by all the aforementioned games but Yacht Games made it clear that they simply took everything they loved about these kinds of games and forged something beautiful out of it instead of just copying the good. It’s highly detailed in art style, music, game design and feel of the game that I couldn’t leave my hands off of it until I finished it. Some levels were actually too challenging so I left them out (well, the optional ones, naturally; otherwise I couldn’t have finished it) but overall it’s never too frustrating. Like in Super Meat Boy (my go-to example of perfect game design) Shovel Knight lets you know where you went wrong when you die and gives you a chance to make things right in collecting the loot that you lost dying. All in all it’s a great game for all the NES-lovers out there. Play it! No matter the system (Wii, Vita, PS4, 3DS) - it’s awesome! Oh, and check out the soundtrack by Jake Kaufman who also did some wonderful soundtracks for my beloved Shantae series, Double Dragon Neon and Mighty Switch Force. Get it here on Bandcamp for name-your-price (and please pay a buck or two for it; it’s totally worth it). (picture credit: yachtclubgames.com)

12. Pony Island

Yeah… one of the weirdest and still most intriguing games I’ve ever played, I’d say. It makes you think that the game actually f*cks with your computer. It’s fascinating how for example it tricks you into thinking that your computer does something regularly only for you to realize that it was a decoy. Overall the coding sequences, the weird jump’n’run passages and the general “genre”… it’s one of a kind. I also wrote a seperate review on this one. For that check this older post.  (picture credit: giga.de) 13.  The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) 

Yet another “walking simulator”, but with a twist. We have some strange meta-puzzles going on here, some David Lynchian shenanigans going on and overall a sad but interesting story to unravel. You’re a detective or PI of some sort who tries to find out what happened with Ethan Carter. The story is told via ghostly visualizations of past events of the former townspeople. Setting/graphics is good and the whole game is always good for a surprise. Check it out.  (picture credit: theastronauts.com)

14.  Adventure Time: Finn&Jake Investigations (PS4)

“Who wants to play videogames?” I love Adventure Time and this game feels basically like playing Adventure Time. It’s an adventure (duh!) and this genre suits the TV show very well. The dialogues are funny, the voices are real (except, I’m not sure and too lazy to google but Lumpy Space Princess didn’t sound quite right; she might have been voiced by someone else) and the graphics are beautifully detailed. Just as in the show. And you have Marceline, Ice King, Tree Trunks, Finn and Jake of course, Beamo, LSP, Cinnamon Butler, Starchy, Bubblegum Princess, Flame Princess… everyone you love. The puzzles are rather simple and overall it’s a game for kids, I’d say. Still I had a lot of fun with it.  (picture credit: Steam)

15. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (3DS)

Now here’s my discovery of the year! I actually downloaded the Game Boy Color game on my 3DS before after a buddy of mine recommended it to me. But I haven’t spent much time with it. Then Humble released a 3DS bundle, so I got Shantae and The Pirate’s Curse, too. And this is one of the best (even if it’s not the deepests but still good) Metroidvania games I have played in a long long time. The setting is utterly fresh and unique with Shantae being a half-genie who protects an island from pirates and such. The graphics are like a mixture of anime and Disney and the characters are adorable, even the bad ones. The level design is beautiful and very diverse. There’s Metroidvania-typical back tracking which is still fun because of the great level design and art style: you can remember where there was that one particular item you could only get if you are able to jump higher, if you know what I mean. The boss fights are great, the items are good, the only thing I would have wished for is more character development as in Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night. There are some permanent improvements of Shantae but some of them I didn’t use that much. But I guess that’s true also for Metroid and Castlevania.  I fell in love with the franchise, bought XSEEDs boxed version of the new “1/2 Genie Hero” for PS4 (finally HD sprites) and the older versions from Limited Run Games. I’m happy that Shantae is in my life now. :) Awesome Soundtrack by Jake Kaufman again. (picture credit: Playstation Store)

  16.  Dragon’s Crown (PS3)

And finally I completed Dragon’s Crown. I simply adore Vanilla Ware’s art style. It’s perfect. It’s manga style with a traditional japanese AND a traditional medieval touch. It’s so unique. Although the overly lascivious looks of some female characters in the game stirred up quite the discussion. I myself think that it’s beautiful and not sexist. The women characters are just as overly exaggerated as the male ones and just so they are equally strong. But it’s not just the looks of Vanilla Ware. They make astonishing games, too. The gameplay of Dragon’s Crown is basically a simple side scroll hack’n’slash like Castle Crashers or Golden Axe. There’s much more character development though, like in Diablo. With the use of Runes you can use magic, you grind for nice weapon drops and stats increase and you constantly mix up your party with the revived warriors whose bones you brought back from your battles. The story is told well without cinematics but with great slightly animated still pictures of the characters, each of which you could print and hang on your wall easily. So well made. Plus after one complete run (it took me 18 hours) there’s the new game + with new tasks, side quests, harder enemies and basically the same levels in more difficult if you want to get the most out of the game. I highly recommend this to any fan of the aforementioned games or any real time RPGs. 

(picture credit: dealspwn.com)

I'm a sucker for a good and well narrated story in video games. I think my blog description makes this very clear. So naturally I'm somewhat of an adventure aficionado. Classic point and click adventures fascinated me already on my first C64 ("Zak McKracken") or 386PC ("Monkey Island"). These days the decision-heavy adventures from Telltale are a must play for every story lover and adventure nerd, such as me. I played their "The Walking Dead" Seasons 1&2 and "The Wolf Among Us". All really good games, if a tad bit too violent, if I might say. But how they narrate the story, how well the characters and especially the dialogues are written is uncanny and outstanding for the video game business. The ending and final hard decision in TWD Season 2 made me cry, feel like an utter asshole and question myself and my moral all at the same time! Amazing. I haven't experienced such a thing ever before in games. A little annoying is their never changing engine which always features the occasional lags and sometimes slightly awkward facial mishaps. Also I'm not a big fan of quick time events, especially if the failure might kill and force you to listen to a whole bunch of dialogue over again before trying the event again. But that is just the gameplay in adventures these days, I suppose.

So here comes "Tales From The Borderlands". I picked it up for a tenner at the store for my PS4 collection shortly after I got the console and thought it can't be bad, being a Telltale Game. I even heard that it's supposed to be the best entry in their line of adventures. And I might as well agree to that.

Getting into the setting and characters takes up a little time. But once you get to know them and once you've gotten used to the setting I realised that cinematically it is the best and richest game of Telltale. The intros of each chapter alone are pieces of cinematic art. The humour in the game is remarkable and not at all forced, which it is in many cases of humorous video games. The characters grow and change with the course of the game. And they do so together. It's the story of Rhys and Vaughn who work at the corporate Hyperion on the rich and, well, corporate Helios space station. Rhys awaits a long overdue promotion but some douchebag of a co-worker, Vasquez, beats him to the punch. So Rhys decides to f*ck with Vasquez and steal his opportunity for an illegal deal for a vault key which is apparently worth a fortune in the Borderlands universe (I have to admit that I haven't really played the original titles but now after this I will do so). On planet Pandora they meet the con artists and sisters Fiona and Sascha who are involved in the deal. From here on the ride gets a little bumpy.

I don't want to spoil anything or delve too deep into the story. Play for yourself. But here's the deal: 

The characters are amazingly written and rich in personality and layers of morale. Of course you have your occasional stereotype but even the robot characters (<3 Loaderbot!) show development, emotional value and high relevance. The story is simple in its juxtaposition but creative and unpredictable in its execution. How all characters and lose ends of the story find together in the end is remarkable. Graphics wise we get the classical cel shading Telltale style. Nothing really new here but it's still very good and suits the Borderlands universe well.

Soooooo... I sat down the other day and played Pony Island. Sweet starting screen... let's check the options first. I always check the available options first. Hm. Strange choices. I don't really know what they do.”Anti-Aliasing”, ok. “In-App Purchases”, won’t use them anyways (are just a hoax, there are none in the game). But... “Fix Start Menu”? Well, let’s get back. “Start game”. “Error”? Okay. What? “Error”. If I click on “Start Game” it gives me an “Error”... Options: “Fix Start Menu”... Let’s give this a try. Is this a joke? Nope, it worked. Now the game starts. Loading screen, classic. But what’s that? Soon I found myself in the depths of the games code fiddling around with it before even playing the game.

So, what gives? Is this going to be the game? I heard it’s supposed to be super crazy and stuff. Whoops, I actually managed to ‘repair’ the code. Now I can play the game. And it’s... sort of an endless runner where I play a pony that has wings and spits deathrays to kill flying demon masks...

Who doesn’t know the situation? You’re Samuel, a rich douchebag son of an even richer robot building enterprise boss who is basically good for nothing than spending daddy’s money. Your girlfriend is fed up with that, kills you with a bottle to the head and in hell you make a deal with Death to become alive again. But he makes the rules: thus you now have to survive one day on earth without dying under Death’s conditions or the deal is off. The catch: you have to learn to live from scratch. No, not like a baby. Worse. Babys can breathe without thinking about it. Samuel doesn’t. It’s like some sort of point and click adventure where you are the permanent target of pointing and clicking. Press X to breathe in, B to breath out, press A to blink. If you don’t to that you either pass out or your eyes dry out and you cannot see anymore. So picture yourself pressing these buttons on a bisecondly basis.  Or maybe it’s just a new approach to the “Walking Simulator” genre: To walk press RT (or R2 depending on which controller you use) for the RIGHT leg, and LT/L2 for the LEFT leg. Get it? You really have to consciously use your bodily functions. Which is hard as hell the more you learn about your stupid useless body. Oh and don’t forget to press Up on the d-pad to stand upright or else your spine will just let you down and have your torso wiggle back and forth... And to make things even worse/funnier: there’s a “Bastion”-like narrator who comments on all of your moronic behaviour. I haven’t had this much laughs with a game in a long time. The game looks like “Stick it to the Man” and plays like “Mount your friends” (both amazing games, too, btw) and is a totally unique gaming experience. It’s just funny to see yourself fail at BREATHING. Can’t jump the gap? Hopped too early? Can*t defeat the boss because you lack the strategy? OK, been there. But THIS? No. Haven’t had that in a game yet.  It’s currently 7,99€ on steam (usually 9,99€) and I highly recommend it to anyone who is up for a really fresh take on game design and videogames in total.

Okay, so here’s the deal: I really want to use this blog and I kind of made up my mind about how to use it, too. It’s going to be me ranting about stuff I like, for example videogames, music and concerts, or these kinds of things. It’s going to be geeky, I guess.

Here goes: Last week I had a gaming night with my buddy Andy and we played BROFORCE and ABZÛ.  BROFORCE: It’s less of what I first expected of it. I thought it’s going to be a Contra-like run’n’gun with funny characters and nice pixel graphics but it’s more than that. Calling in for duty with several unlockable characters like Bro Hard (John McClane), Bro Dredd (Judge Dredd), Brade (Blade) and other action icons (BA, Chuck Norris as Texas Ranger, Commando Arnie etc.) it’s every 80s kid’s dream game. As a side scrolling action game with a serious strategy twist it’s more than the average shooter. The difficulty (and also the gameplay and controls) can be compared to (the superb and kind of perfect) Super Meat Boy. You die a lot but you seldomly think that it’s unfair but that you made a stupid mistake. You can destroy a lot of the environment which in the 2D setting leads to some interesting Boulder Dash-moments with crashing rocks.  We played with two players, naturally, but it features up to four bros at once. That’s probably one weird shooting spree but probably also super fun. Check it out if you want a fun night with some beers’n’bros.