So uhh, kind of a drought, huh?
As I kept waiting for some surprise to pop up, at some point I realized September was just going to be a dud. But when anything’s compared to last September, (Mario Maker, Metal Gear Solid V, Undertale) it really just isn’t fair. At least we got Gunvolt 2 out of this one. (more…)
So I played Monster Hunter some more. Oops. After spending a few dozen more hours hunting down dinosaurs and sharks, I figured I should try to find some new things to play. Turns out, not a whole lot happened in August. A few neat fan games came out, some of my favorite games ever had re-releases, and there’s a new Deus Ex that I’ve barely touched. But since I probably shouldn’t make Monster Hunter the Game of the Month for a month it didn’t come out in, I guess I’ll find the next best things.
Megaman Unlimited was my first real introduction to excellent fan-games. I had typically written them off as projects by people who couldn’t come up with better ideas, but now I realize some of them are impressive tributes that rival entries in the series they so obviously admire. Pokemon Uranium is somewhere in the middle. I’ve never played a Pokemon fan-game before and now I realize I probably should have. Did you know that some people make entirely new regions of Pokemon for stuff like this? I had no idea. Yes, a few of the ones featured in Uranium look like bad Digimon, and the bugs and framerate issues that plague it don’t do the game any favors. But even with its issues, there’s a fine Pokemon game here that can ease the wait of these next few months. And sometimes you just feel like roaming around and checking out cool new monster designs, you know? Birbie rules.
Text adventures haven’t ever really been my thing, but this one sold me on checking more of them out. The House Abandon stays exciting throughout its short half-hour runtime and never becomes too frustrating or fiddly like so many others in the genre. It says what it wants to, does a lot of surprising stuff, and gets out. You should try it.
Weird, right? I had heard about these games for the past few years, and until a friend of mine mentioned this one on Twitter I’d never considered giving the series a shot. I probably should have. Project Diva X is a fast-paced rhythm game overloaded with flashy visuals, and I wish I had tried one of them sooner. It isn’t perfect, and on occasion the colors and dancing get in the way of distinguishing what buttons you’re actually supposed to hit, but the game is so positive and cheerful that it’s hard to be too upset. If you’re looking for a serious high score chasing experience this may not be your thing. But if you just want to tap out quick J-pop rhythms while cartoon characters skip around on stage, this may be up your alley.
Honorable Mentions:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Uhh, the first hour or so was cool! I just haven’t made the time for it. I dumped around 80 hours into its fantastic predecessor so I’ll get to this one at some point before year’s end.
Project AMR2 – I’d never played Metroid 2 before, but this seems like the way to do it. Though AMR2 is nearly just as speedy and well-paced as Zero Mission, the monotonous Metroid fights really turned me off.
Resident Evil 4 HD: Still the best shooter ever made? Yeah.
Mibibli’s Quest (Steam Edition) – If you didn’t play Mibibli’s Quest back a couple years ago when it snuck out, here’s your newest reminder: It’s just as good as Shovel Knight and maybe the best indie platformer ever made.
I’ve never been a huge fan of text adventures. I didn’t grow up with them, and I end up getting frustrated after I feel like all of my options are exhausted. Hell, I didn’t finish Frog Fractions (A game that I adore) for the longest time simply because I couldn’t force myself through the text section. The House Abandon is different.
Admittedly, I don’t play a ton of this kind of thing, so I’m sure something like it has done before. The House Abandon feels surprisingly modern in comparison to staring at a black and white screen inputting WEST and EAST over and over. The text adventure game itself resides on a desk inside The House Abandon, and you’re playing a game within that game. And no, the potential of this idea does not go untapped.
As an Interactive Fiction newbie, I appreciated the limited range of actions you’re forced to take throughout the adventure. The House Abandon pretty clearly lays out what you need to do so you’re not tossing a dozen things into a parser just to get a result. The flow isn’t broken after getting stuck on a puzzle for so long that you forget you’re wandering a dimly lit abode. And as a game created by an Alien Isolation designer and Co., this team knows how to keep the tension going. You’ll just need to see for yourself how they do it.
The game ends with a promise of the No Code team making more short stories like this, and that’s a promise I want to hold them to. Hopefully we’ll see another one of these around Halloween time…please?
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If you’re curious about The House Abandon, check out the game’s wonderful trailer…
…and go play it here, because there’s no way you don’t want to after watching that.
I’m over a month deep into Pokemon GO and still enjoying it quite a bit. BUT: There were actually other games that came out in July! Granted, I may not have played as many of them as usual, but when a worldwide phenomenon is going on I think I can be excused. Just this once.
Duh. I’m not sure what else I need to say about this one. I’ve met so many cool people just from playing it, and my friends and I go out several times a week to hunt down virtual creatures. The hype has died down a bit, but I still see people playing every single day. It’s great!
More of the same, but that same is still real, real neat. There’s a few quality of life changes here and there, but this is mostly more of what I loved so much about last year’s Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. This is my favorite series to zone out and watch TV shows to, which may not seem like the best compliment…but sometimes that’s exactly what I’m looking for. My only gripe is that all of the towns are unlocked from the beginning rather than being unlocked through progression like in last year’s game, but it makes sense since these are all places players of the rest of the series have seen before. And also that I’m not playing right now. (UPDATE: My internet has been out for two weeks so I’ve played so, so much more of this. I think I like it better than MH4U now. Just the added variety of environments and movesets early on have spiced this one up a lot. I’m not how to rate this up against wholly fresh experiences come GOTY time, but just know that this is one to play, even if you’re a series vet.)
I’ll be bringing this one up a lot during Game of the Year talk, I’m sure. I wrote about the free demo last month, and this is just a more polished, much more fleshed out version of that. A fast-paced, first-person speedrunning game about quickly solving a demon obstacle course? Uhhhhhh, yes please.
Kentucky Route Zero: Act IV – I kind of fell off the KRZ hype train halfway through the 3rd Act. This one’s good from what I played, but still doesn’t hit the highs that I felt as I drove through Kentucky back roads in the first couple of entries. The writing is still top notch, and those entries alone made such a huge impression on me that I’ll definitely play through the series again in time.
Furi – Seems super neat at first, but restarting long-ass fights a dozen times didn’t do a lot to keep me begging for more.
SKULL CHAINZ – THIS SHIT IS RAAAAAWWWWW.
Super Stickman Golf 3 – This game is out. It exists and I wanted you to know. It’s a sequel to the best multiplayer game of all time. Bye.
I finally broke away from Pokemon GO long enough to finish up most of my June games. Hooray!
June had a lot of stuff to get through, and I’m finally at a point where I’m pretty comfortable ranking my favorites. But when the biggest problem getting this post up is because there were too many great games, I’m typically okay with that. Oh man, and just you wait for July. 2016 feels like it’s finally getting started
I’m still digesting my thoughts on this one, and maybe Zero Time Dilemma would be the safer choice here (though I’ve yet to finish that one), but wow Inside is an experience I won’t be forgetting soon. I’ll still need another playthrough or two to see if I end up loving this one as much as Playdead’s previous hit, Limbo, but…man. There’s some cool stuff going on here. I’m not sure the last time a brand new game sent me to as many plot theory discussion forums (Undertale?) but there’s so much going on that the community will be uncovering new clues for a long time to come. If you moderately enjoyed Limbo or any 2D puzzle platformer in recent years, don’t pass over one of the most thought provoking games of 2016.
I’m still finding time to wrap this one up, but if the previous games are anything to go by, I doubt I’ll be too disappointed by the time credits roll. Utterly confused, probably, but not disappointed. I had my gripes early on about how I wished this game let more of the cast interact with each other, but keeping close-knit groups allows ZTD feel less like a retread of 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward. More questions are able to be raised, and stronger relationships are able to form when 3 people are locked together for the entirety of what I’ve played. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how one of my favorite series ends, and I can’t wait to have to watch a half-dozen YouTube videos to actually figure out how any of it made sense.
It’s the sequel to one of the most clever puzzles games ever, BOXBOY! Instead of using one set of blocks to solve puzzles, this time you get two sets! BOXBOY! Yeah! (Also the BOXBOY in-joke comics they added in this game consistently make me laugh out loud and are worth the price of admission.)
SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell: A better Mirror’s Edge than the sequel to Mirror’s Edge, and it’s just a demo. Get ready for this one to hit the Games of the Month whenever the full game is released.
Rhythm Heaven Megamix: A wonderful collection of a series of games I love, with a bunch of new characters and a lot of top notch new games. Get it, especially if you’re new to the series.
Black Gold: A very moody gathering of a couple of friends. Strikes a perfect tone.
Mighty No. 9: (Shrug emoji) [It was fine and I kind of liked it, but I also forgot I played it by the time I started writing this post.]
hippochippies 