Alright games industry, let’s pace ourselves okay? I mean, I’m not going to complain about this many great games coming out rapid-fire seemingly every single week…but I would also be okay with spacing these out a bit more. Persona 5 comes out next month and I’m not halfway through Zelda! Jeez guys.
Author: Zach Davis
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Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Nintendo’s Modern Masterpiece
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seems like the game Nintendo always intended The Wind Waker to be. In many regards, Wind Waker is my favorite Zelda game to date. The aesthetics were more on-point than anything else in the series, the world felt wide enough that anything could exist in it, and the dungeons were just side attractions to what the game was really about: Exploring. I don’t know that anything outside of the Souls series has ever matched the feeling of sailing to a brand new island for the first time and discovering what secrets it had in store. A lot of the time…there wasn’t much, but the feeling of wonder and excitement about just the possibility of new things to see was enough to keep me sailing through that incarnation of Hyrule for the past two decades.
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Symphony of the Hollow Knight
I had better titles for the post, but it’s a Metroidvania with excellent music. Admit it, I could have done worse.
From just the first couple of hours, unless something goes horribly wrong, this is on par with Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight. [That was a surprisingly well done Metroidvania from 2016 that you should totally go play after you check this out.] Good bosses, plenty of areas to explore, powerups to uncover, and Dark Souls influence? Uhh…I’m not sure how I missed this the day it came out. Team Cherry’s Kickstarter success may have passed me right by, but now you don’t have that excuse.
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Talos Descent – Get Low, Score High
This is gonna be a quick one, but it’s worth it.
Remember that helicopter game we all played in middle school? The one where you keep tapping to keep the helicopter going to see how long you can keep it from touching the edges or any obstacles? This is like that, but vertical.
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Games of the Month – January 2017
We’re back in this thing, huh?
While January was an epic garbage pile for a handful of reasons, the games weren’t one of them. A huuuge surprise came in the form of this month’s #1, and second place wasn’t too far behind. I wish I liked the Gravity Rush games but am glad that apparently a lot of other people do. In terms of indies…I don’t know! A few decent ones here and there but no early Pony Island like last year. AAA’s have my attention for the first time in a while this year, so I hope there are enough great indies to keep up.
#1. Yakuza 0
So whose job was it to let me know Yakuza was 100% my jam? It’s all I’ve been able to talk about this month. If you’re as new to the series as me, it’s tough to explain what exactly what this is. So let’s hit the questions:
Is Yakuza a serious crime drama? Yes, much of the game’s main story is focused around typical crime story scenes of family betrayal, honor, and that kind of stuff. It’s pretty good. Once a jumped through a window and punched a man into a toilet.
Is it a comedy? Yeah, it’s that too. Once you’re outside of the “main story” missions, the open world allows you to roam around and take on side quests. Hilarious side quests. Without spoiling anything, Yakuza 0 stands up as one of the most genuinely funny video games I’ve ever played.
Open world? Side quests? …Is Yakuza an RPG? Huh, I guess it kind of is. Yakuza 0 blends so many different things together that it’s hard to pin it down and give it a label. There are random encounters, multiple skill trees, side quests with branching dialogue options…so yeah, I guess. Yeah it is.
Is there good punching? Yes, the punching is very good. Sometimes you can punch someone while holding a bicycle. That is also very good.
I like punching, but what if I get tired of punching? Go sing one of the many songs and play the rhythm based karaoke mini games. Or the disco one in the dance hall. Or go win prizes in a crane game. Or go to an arcade and literally just play some other games made by Sega. Or go to the bowling alley or the Shogi with the old people.
Is there any reason not to play Yakuza 0? If you refuse to do anything other than the main story and you also hate melodramatic crime fiction. Otherwise, no. Not at all.
#2. Resident Evil 7
Attempting to play Resident Evil 7 in Virtual Reality with headphones on is the scariest video game experience I’ve ever had. You tiptoe through a claustrophobic house fully aware that awful things are going to happen to you, and when they do it’s not any less terrifying. If you’ve yet to try horror in VR, this is the end-all be-all of the genre so far. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the first hour after playing for nearly a month. It’s that rough. I swear I’ll see more of it by the end of the year…but man, it’s something you’ve gotta see for yourself to believe.
Honorable Mentions:
I didn’t like anything else enough this month to have a solid #3… but here are the good ones that are still worth your time!
Hidden My Game By Mom 2: A sequel to an original puzzler that has me hoping for a third one sooner rather than later.
It’s 2:51A.M. Can You Fall Asleep?: A return to form for ClickHole. This gives me hope that 2017 will have a good set of top tier adventures from some of the funniest people writing games.
ARACHNAFOE: A pretty simple dual stick shooter about wrecking shop on some spiders. They deserve it.
Ninja Spinki Challenges!!: Flappy Bird creator, Dong Nguyen, is back at it again with a mini game collection. Not quite WarioWare, but it’s a set of fast-paced challenges that kept me coming back all month long.
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A Question From ClickHole: Can You Fall Asleep?
The last few months of ClickHole’s signature ClickVentures haven’t been doing it for me. Between being too on the nose and trying way too hard I feel like many of 2016’s ClickVentures got away from what I liked about the early ones.The best adventures ClickHole provides are the ones with a simple concept that spiral out of control very quickly. This one gets back to basics: It’s 2:51A.M. Can You Fall Asleep?
This one starts innocuously enough. You stayed up way too late and you have to be up at 6:00A.M. to give a presentation on salad at work. We’ve all been there. Where I, personally, haven’t been, is setting my couch on fire as one step in my sleep process. Don’t worry, it’ll make sense when you see it (or not).
You’ll learn about F.I.R.E., unlock dream achievements, and steal milk from poor people. One of the running jokes ends with maybe the most satisfying payoff ClickHole has ever done. My only knock against this one is that I think it needs a couple more branches to feel as good as some of the OG ClickVentures. Once you make a choice in Can You Go Fall Asleep?, you’re pretty much funneled down a linear path regardless of what you choose. Other than that, though, this is a good way for ClickHole to start off the new year.
If you’re ready to feel the pressure of falling asleep, head to ClickHole and give it a shot.
hippochippies 