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Rez Infinite, a game that debuted on PS4 with PSVR support, is now on Steam with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive support! (But can be played normally on a monitor or TV, of course!)
Infinite is enhanced over the original Rez (that was on the Dreamcast and PS2) and Rez HD (on the Xbox 360), with new levels to explore and VR support.
If you’re a fan of TRON, you owe it to yourself to check out this game! My buddy Parallax Abstraction did a great video review of Rez Infinite, that you can check out above.
(Just a brief warning: Rez has a lot of flashing lights and fast action going on. So in case that’s a concern, then you might want to avoid watching.)
I thought it would be fun to try my hand at a gameplay compilation video! These are all Xbox 360 games out of my collection, and I challenged myself to not include more than one game per series.
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I'm hoping 2017 is the year that the things really get going here on Super Famigos. Top ten lists are a good way to wrap up one year and get started on the next, so here's the games I really got into over the past year, some of which came out in 2016, and some of which did not. Please enjoy!
Pokémon Picross
Okay, gotta get this one out of the way first. By my estimates (supported by the records on my 3DS play log), I spent more time playing Pokémon Picross this year than any other game. This still kinda mystifies me. I'm not sure why I like Picross so much. I'm generally not that interested in stuff like sudoku or crossword puzzles. But I downloaded Pokémon Picross for fun before spring break, hearing that it was a free download, and somehow spent more time over the break playing it than anything else, a pattern that continued through the whole year.
I guess part of this has to do with the way I'm playing it. Being a free-to-play, the game has a once-daily challenge to earn the in-game currency that you would usually spend real money on. This "daily training" is actually my favorite part of the game. It challenges you to complete bite-sized Picross puzzles faster and faster, and each challenge is about 5 minutes or less. Since I haven't yet paid for the game, I need to grind for a while to earn enough money to progress; and since I don't have a ton of time to play games these days, playing 5 minutes of Picross is a quick way to get a quick video game session in. This slow, daily play means that I've been engaged for a lot longer than I would have been otherwise.
And generally, I guess it's a relaxing, mentally stimulating activity that scratches an itch that sudoku and other brainteasers haven't been able to. It helps that the game has a fun Pokémon theme, and that the special Pokémon abilities allow me to get some help on the larger puzzles that I don't enjoy as much. Right now, I'm on Area 24 of 30, but I haven't yet paid to unlock Mega Evolution puzzles or a "dark world" feature that was teased early on in the game. So it's likely that I'll continue enjoying Pokémon Picross well into 2017.
Rez Infinite/Rez HD
At this year's Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Texas (an excellent and eclectic indie gaming event I hope to attend again), I had the opportunity to try out the new PlayStation VR version of Rez before its wide release. I have to tell you: it felt great. I've tried the latest generation of VR a few times before (the first of which was Playthings: VR Music Vacation, a truly magical experience), but thus far, I don't think any other game I've played has felt as good in VR. The wire-frame, cyberpunky hacker's world of Rez is a perfect fit for virtual reality: it may not be a hyper-realistic simulation of the real world, but it feels like what you might imagine VR to look like if, like me, you grew up watching Tron and playing video games. With the headset filling your field of vision, headphones filling your ears with driving, electronic rhythms, and your controller vibrating, you get more and more immersed in Rez's signature synesthesia.
After my VR demo, I got inspired to finally go back and finish Rez. I got a free download of the earlier Xbox 360 remaster, Rez HD, as a perk for working at Microsoft a few years ago, but never actually finished it. Somehow it never gripped me before; maybe I didn't have the sound up loud enough, or maybe it was that the first level isn't as exciting as some of the later ones. But this time, I saw what all the fuss was about. Even without the VR, Rez really got my pulse pounding between the excellent music (and synchronized sound effects) and the tough gameplay (especially in the later levels). And I was intrigued by the story elements in the last area.
I'm certainly glad I finally got back to Rez this year, and hope I get to play the full VR version someday (and check out the new Area X!)
Nuclear Throne
Nuclear Throne is one of those games that I really sank my teeth into last year, and one that sank its teeth into me in turn. Like Super Crate Box, Spelunky, and FTL, it's one of those games that's good enough and quick enough that I can load up and just play incessantly, almost to the point that I started spending more time on it than I should. To be sure, I'm not part of the camp that thinks "addictive" is a praiseworthy attribute for a game (remember kids, Friends Don't Let Friends Get Addicted to Anything, Let Alone a Game), but I do appreciate how you could beat the whole game in 20-30 minutes - IF you're good enough. Again, it's a game that's easy to fit into my Busy Modern Lifestyle™.
Aside from that, I think what I like about Nuclear Throne is its tension. Even when I have awesome weapons, good mutations, and lots of HP, I never really feel safe. Part of that is the game's difficulty and good old roguelike permadeath, but part of it is the thematic spookiness. Honestly, I have a low tolerance when it comes to horror in games and other media (especially when lots of gore is involved), but I'm still kind of curious about it. (I'm the kind of guy who wants to watch X-Files but is a little scared of the monster episodes, and who watched and enjoyed Stranger Things but had his hands over his eyes for a non-trivial portion of the viewing time.) Nuclear Throne's spookiness and violence are just at the edge of my tolerance, and it packs a lot of secrets and lore that I'm intrigued by. Oh, and I'm all about that screenshake.
Pokémon X/Pokémon Moon
Until just recently, I hadn't been able to get into the Pokémon main series games since Generation 1 or 2. I love Pokémon as a concept, but I get turned off sometimes by all the knowledge and time commitment involved to really understand it, and I worry that not grinding for the right nature or forgetting the wrong move or something will hurt me later in the game. So even when I was given a free copy of Pokémon X a couple years ago (received through an awesome Club Nintendo promo, rest in peace), my excitement to try a new Pokémon only got past the first gym. But my friends (and the whole gaming world) seemed so excited about Sun and Moon, and the trailers were looking great to me too.
So, in preparation for Sun/Moon, I decided to pick up my old game of X and see how I felt about it. As motivation to keep on going, I decided to write a log of my adventure, written in game continuity, that I could share regularly with friends to show them what I was up to, hopefully gather excitement from them, and channel that back into my gameplay. To my surprise, this plan went even better than I expected, and I really got invested in my invented story and the personalities of my X-Mons.
Then release day hit, I grabbed Pokémon Moon so I could play with my friends… and watched them quickly outstrip me in the story since I didn't have much time to play. (Don't worry, I'm not bitter ;) ) After the semester ended, I've really been getting into the new game. The new region is colorful and fun, the story is different and interesting, and I like the characters and the new Pokémon. It's quite a bit tougher than X/Y thus far (at least for me), and that's motivated me to get into the game more and try to learn about stats and other nuances from my friends. To my surprise, learning about these details is actually increasing my enjoyment of the game, rather than the other way around.
Strangely though, I just don't feel the same motivation to work on logs of Pokémon Moon the same way I was doing for Pokémon X. (Sorry to break it to you, dedicated readers: the Pokémon Moon logs will mostly likely remain dormant. There's a chance that the X logs might make their way out though…) Maybe it's the fact that the Pokémon X story leaves more room for embellishment, or maybe it's that my X logs were uncomplete when I moved to Moon. The big question for early 2017 is: do I continue Moon, pick X back up, or switch between both?
The Senpai
Question 1: Do you like Seinfeld? (If yes, proceed to question 2.)
Question 2: Do you like anime? If not, do you at least have a passing familiarity with anime?
If you answered yes to both questions above, you should play The Senpai, a web-based visual novel that plays like an episode of Seinfeld ported to a CD-ROM adventure game. I don't want to spoil you on any details, since I went into the game pretty clueless, but I thought it was pretty hilarious. Check it out: it only takes about as long as an episode of Seinfeld to play.
Pokken Tournament
As I mentioned above, I sometimes struggle with mainline Pokémon games, but love the idea of Pokémon itself. Since I really dig fighting games, I was excited for Pokken as a Pokémon game with gameplay I was more interested in. The good news is that I ended up liking Pokken quite a bit. The gameplay is kinda unique as compared to other fighters, with an unusual sidescrolling/3D plane-switching mechanic, but it feels good once you get into it. My Famigo/bro Oli and I got super hype about Pokken finals at EVO 2016 (Go Braixen Boys!). And the supporting elements are good too: it's awesome to see Pokémon in HD, the music is pretty good, and the avatar customization is kinda hilarious. The bad news is that I just didn't end up playing it that much. Like I said before, time was short for me last year, and for whatever reason it didn't hold my interest as much as other things. But I'd certainly recommend it for someone who has a Wii U and likes Pokémon, Tekken, and/or Street Fighter (or even someone who's curious about those games).
Affordable Space Adventures
I was quite happy to pick this up in the latest Humble Indie Bundle for Nintendo platforms, since I'd been eyeing it for quite a while. It's kind of a smaller indie game exclusive to Wii U, so I'm not sure how much exposure it really got. It's definitely worth checking out though, since it's a great local multiplayer experience, and one of the best uses of the second-screen Wii U GamePad that I've seen outside of Nintendo first-party games. Affordable Space Adventures tasks you with piloting a small tourist spaceship with your friends (or alone, but that's not as fun). One player pilots the ship, one player aims the lights and other tools, and one player, as the engineer, controls various functions of the spacecraft from an instrument panel on the GamePad. Later levels require some pretty quite a bit of finesse from the engineer, meaning that a lot of teamwork and communication is needed so that each officer can focus on their particular job (and screen). The default narrative in the games media is that no one ever really took advantage of the Wii U GamePad; prove 'em wrong and check out this great indie effort. Here's hoping other developers can find a way to create cool asymmetrical experiences on other platforms once we move on from the Wii U.
Overcooked
To be honest, I only played this one time for about half an hour at a friend's house shortly before the end of the year. But I left that play session wondering how I'd never heard of Overcooked, and how I could play it again soon. Overcooked feels sort of like a minigame from Mario Party or Pokémon Stadium, and I mean that in the best way possible. Maneuvering around the kitchen trying to jump between tasks is frenetic but fun. I'm hoping that this gets a Mac release, or at least that my less beefy Windows alt-machine can run it okay.
Hyper Light Drifter
Hyper Light Drifter is one of the few games on this list that I actually completed. I backed this game on Kickstarter and I'm very pleased at how it turned out. The graphical style is gorgeous (honestly, that sold me on the Kickstarter more than anything), the music is brooding and beautiful, the gameplay is tight and satisfying, and the story is compelling. More so than most action games I've played, Hyper Light Drifter has real emotion to it: loneliness, beauty, pain, awe, empathy. I'd like to talk about this game more on the site, so I'll just say I really liked this one.
VIDEOBALL
Man, I dig VIDEOBALL, and I wish it had reached more of an audience. I got super hyped about VIDEOBALL after happening upon a few of Tim Rogers' trailers shortly before release. His humor is exactly my jam, and I was immediately entranced by the smooth, silky, colorful graphics. I could tell even in the trailer that a ton of polish and care had gone into the look of the game. I bought the game on release day, had a bunch of fun playing it with friends… and quickly realized that the game wasn't taking off like Rocket League did. The Mac/Linux port never happened, which meant that I wasn't able to play it on my primary machine. I still love to talk it up and play locally with friends when I can, but I didn't really get into online play. But all that business talk aside: VIDEOBALL has excellent music, beautiful graphics, and deep gameplay, and it's worth your time and money to pick it up and bring it to a party (or two (or more)).
This is a game about musical synaesthesia where the music and gameplay barely talk to one another. There are no rhythmic elements to the gameplay, so mute the throbbing soundtrack and it reduces to a shrewdly constructed and visually interesting Panzer Dragoon-style on-rails shooting game. There are no interactive soundtrack gimmicks beyond a gradual build in the score with each stage, so take away the gameplay and the music could stand alone. Where is the big idea?
Rez's magic trick happens in the player's mind, where the music and gameplay overlap. Blissful melodies invite you to survey psychadelic computer landscapes, sweeping synthesisers glide through convoys of strange polygonal creatures, and pounding beats reinforce tense, focus-draining boss battles. The audio and visual feedback from attacks tie together and harmonise with the backing track, so although the player is separate from the music, they move along with it. Alone, gameplay and soundtrack are good, but in combination, a kind of alchemy happens, and each elevates the other.
This is the essential purpose of music in all games, but Rez strips back extraneous visual complexity and increases the correlation between its audio and visuals to emphasise this power. It doesn't need a clever gameplay gimmick to tie music and gameplay together because human beings do this innately; what it does is make the player pay attention to the fact. As a consequence what might be a well-paced and challenging shooter becomes an absorbing audio-visual experience and a tribute to the skill of the game composer.
Now well into its second decade, Rez's crisp, clean visuals give it a timeless quality that's immediately apparent in the HD ports. The upcoming "Infinite" port for virtual reality is both a testament to the game's stubborn refusal to age and an invitation to spend hundreds of pounds on daft headgear.
A lesson in game music that deserves to be handed down, as well as a damn good shooter.
