hippochippies

Category: Games

  • Games of the Month – October 2017

    Games of the Month – October 2017

    I spent the last month playing every Mario game in preparation for Mario Odyssey (and an upcoming piece on the series as a whole!), and still ending up spending around 30 hours with Odyssey after its release. And I’m still going. This month was always going to be a fight for who’s in second place.

    As for the struggle for second, hey October, you put up a pretty good fight! We had a packed month with indie games and AAA both bringing out their best. As I continue to try to finish October’s… and September’s releases (and I still haven’t finished RE7, oops) let’s see what stood out among the crowd. And hey, November, feel free to slow it down a bit if you feel like it. I promise I won’t mind.

    1. Super Mario Odyssey

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    A game I still have a  handful of issues with (shallow post game, devaluing the collectibles, etc.) but also one that I haven’t been able to put down over the last couple weeks. It’s a shining example of how Nintendo still has it, and how they’re cool with taking risks on a beloved franchise. Imaginative as ever, I’m glad to see my favorite development team in the business hasn’t lost an ounce of creativity over the years. It doesn’t take too hard of a look to see Breath of the Wild’s DNA cropping up in Odyssey, but the freeform exploration and massive amount of challenges fit Mario pretty well. I wish there were more areas with tough platforming challenges and linear design like 3D World and Galaxy 2, but for what’s essentially an open world Mario game, it’s almost as good as anyone could ask for. Almost.

    2. The Evil Within 2

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    I’ve barely scratched the surface with this one, but if the opening hours are anything to go by, I’ll be loving my playthrough of this just as much as I did with the first. The open world elements don’t take away from the perfectly scripted sequences, and sometimes it even elevates them. When you’re exploring a random house and your eyes meet a body in the corner and it’s instantly dragged away… you know you’ve stumbled into more than you bargained for. I just wanted some loot, okay! Scary as ever, The Evil Within 2 is vying for my horror game of the year already.

    3. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

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    It didn’t leave as much of an impact on me as the first one did. I know, that sucks! But it’s hard to compete with one of the best first-person shooters ever made, especially when you’re the sequel in direct comparison to it. While The New Colossus is a wild ride with a perfectly satisfying story, it never hits the highs of its predecessor. The scenes with BJ’s father come close, and that final scene is rad as hell, (except for the godawful credits song…I mean, how did they let that happen?) but The New Order was an incredible surprise that’s near impossible to replicate. This one’s still very good, though.

    Honorable Mentions:

    The Norwood Suite – I liked Off-Peak more, but if you want more surreal Cosmo D exploration, this one’s still a treat.

    Universal Paperclips – The first half is one of the best clickers I’ve ever played, the second is not. Give this one 30 minutes and see it for yourself.

    The Mummy Demastered – A well-done Metroidvania from a team who has proved that they know how this genre ticks.

    The Jackbox Party Pack 4 – More Fibbage is always good, as is the new mode where you make your friends write the questions. Civic Doodle is one of my favorite drawing games they’ve done. Survive the Internet is pretty good. Bracketeering is silly and fun and I think I’m the only one who kind of likes it. Monster Seeking Monster is a cool idea and aesthetic that was somehow made into the least fun game imaginable, mainly due to its length.

  • Games of the Month – September 2017

    Games of the Month – September 2017

    So uh, wow. Right?

    This end-of-year-rush isn’t showing any signs of slowing, and it’s great! 2017 has been a wild year for games. I’m super pumped to see everybody’s end of year lists, because outside of, say, Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda, I’m not sure what’s going to fill out the average Top 10. I’m fairly certain where mine’s headed thanks to a handful of wonderful surprises, (including one of the decade’s best platformers and one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time) but this year’s been such a smorgasbord of releases it’s hard to nail anything down for certain. And there’s still plenty more on the Horizon. But… let’s wrap September up so we can truck through Wolfenstein, The Evil Within 2, Mario, Assassin’s Creed’s potentially good soft reboot, and more. Jeez, there’s a lot to do.

     

    1. Cuphead

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    Cuphead isn’t a game without issues. The platforming stages aren’t great. Too many of the bosses have cheap, unavoidable attacks leading to unnecessary trial and error. The discussion around the game has become so toxic that I feel like I need to distance myself from the worst of its fans. But still, I find myself wanting to return to its beautiful, brutal world again and again.

    Though I don’t feel difficulty balance is among its strongest suits, Cuphead does do a lot of things well. It recaptures the feeling of facing off against a foe in a game like Mega Man or Duck Tales while amping up the scale tenfold. You’re still just a tiny dude with a peashooter, but now the boss battle is against a screen filling monstrosity with four or five forms. It makes an excellent case for boss-rush platformers… and if we don’t see a half-dozen riffs on this in the next couple of years I’ll be disappointed. And I’ve only barely mentioned the art, but oh man, that art. I would pay more money than I should for another handful of boss fights just to see what these brilliant artists would draw. Watching the bosses reel from an attack and change into an entirely different beast made each fight exciting, and I could never wait to see what was going to pop from the screen next. Remember when that boss girl was a blimp, then angels, then the MOON? Yeah, that was wild.

     

    2. Gloomy Room

    Grab Google translate on your phone to translate a bit of Japanese text, and get ready for the spookiest ten minutes of your life. Though the Gloomy Room demo isn’t the most complex room escape around, thanks to some stellar sound design and clever scares, it’s one of the most terrifying.

    SPOILER: Kill some time in the first room if you escape too quickly and don’t get the hype. The part after the bathroom is pretty meh, so the first main scare is what you’re looking for here. Or just watch the first ten minutes or so of this.

     

    3. SteamWorld Dig 2

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    …I bet the first one of these was really good too! This is my first entry into the SteamWorld series and it was a good one. Half Metroidvania and half grindy Skinner box, it somehow lands right in the middle and works well. Complete with surprisingly solid platforming challenges and more skills and upgrades than you can shake your Level 5 Flaming Pickaxe at, this one’s an early contender for best indie on the Switch.

     

    Honorable Mentions:

    Danganronpa V3: I bet if I had gotten further than the first chapter by now it would be much higher on this list. But hey, that first chapter was a trip, huh?

    Golf Story: Again, a lot of stuff came out this month! My first couple of hours with Golf Story were good. I hope to have many more.

    The Tomatoes are OK: Weird, surreal, and spooky. Me likey.

    Metroid: Samus Returns: I haven’t enjoyed it as much as the hype surrounding it might have suggested, but it’s not bad by any means. The combat is satisfying, the upgrades come quick, and the pace is mostly solid. But, man, I do not enjoy killing the same boss 20 times in a row. Why did anyone think that was a cool premise?

    Destiny 2: It’s more of what the first one was but slightly different! Yeah!

  • Games of the Month – August 2017

    Games of the Month – August 2017

    We’re hitting that point in the year where it’s just games, games, and more games. It’s great! For the rest of 2017 I assume I’ll have plenty to play and write about. In just the next week or so we’ll have Cuphead and Danganronpa V3, a couple of games I’m dying to devote a ton of time to. And October? Wolfenstein, The Evil Within 2, and Mario? Jeez. This year rules. Well, for games at least.

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  • Here’s Every Game I Played in 2016

    Here’s Every Game I Played in 2016

    About 235 this year, folks. Still less than last year, and a couple hundred less than the year before. I feel like this is the first year in which I probably missed quite a few more than I wanted to, and I hope to miss significantly less in 2017. But with so many games coming out faster than ever, and more people entering the indie scene every day, it’s hard to sift through everything that’s worthwhile. Pokemon GO and Monster Hunter Generations took nearly my entire Summer of playing indies this year, so maaaaybe we won’t have another one of those time vampires anytime soon. Until Gen 2, at least. And I mean, come on, 235 isn’t that bad.

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  • 2016 Reflections and 2017 Predictions

    2016 Reflections and 2017 Predictions

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    Here’s that post where we look at my hilariously incorrect predictions for my Top 10 of 2016, and then make an equally bad prediction list for this year. It’s fun!

    My Predictions for Game of the Year 2016:

    1. Dark Souls III
    2. Zelda
    3. Persona 5
    4. Danganronpa V3
    5. The Witness
    6. Death’s Gambit
    7. Firewatch
    8. No Man’s Sky
    9. Zero Time Dilemma
    10. Mighty No. 9

     

    Hahahahahahaha.

    At least a few of those games came out last year, I guess!

    And here’s the new one…

    My Actual List for Game of the Year 2016:

    1. Pokemon GO
    2. Space Pirate Trainer
    3. The Witness
    4. SUPERHOT
    5. Monster Hunter Generations
    6. Dark Souls III
    7. Doom
    8. Hitman
    9. Hyper Light Drifter
    10. Pony Island

     

    So what happened?

    Zelda, Persona, Danganronpa V3, and Death’s Gambit didn’t come out. That’s four off the list right there. Firewatch’s ending was so disappointing that I almost don’t want to think about it anymore, No Man’s Sky was…uhh…I’m not sure, Zero Time Dilemma was by far the weakest entry in one of my favorite series of all time, and Mighty No. 9 was the most mediocre game I played in 2016. That leaves us with just two games that I predicted being in my top 10 actually ending up there…that’s probably a new record!

    Dark Souls III was disappointing, but still a pretty good Souls game. The Witness was better than I imagined, and presented environmental puzzles in a way I’ve never seen in a video game before.

    And the rest was history (and explained in my Top 10 post!).

     

    So now…………………it’s time for another bad list!

    My Predictions for Game of the Year 2017:

    1. Mario (Nintendo Switch)
    2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
    3. Persona 5
    4. Danganronpa V3
    5. Mass Effect Andromeda
    6. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
    7. Resident Evil 7
    8. Ni No Kuni 2
    9. Detroit: Become Human
    10. Death’s Gambit

     

    With the last Mario game being my favorite in the entire series, ya boy is hungry for more. Zelda looks great, but we all knew that already, and the same goes for Persona 5. I’m a little worried about both, because I’m not huge on Zelda’s open world stuff, and I’m not sure the thieving antics of Persona 5 will be as relatable as the real-world high school drama of P4. But we’ll see!

    Danganronpa will be good as long as it leaves Japan by the end of next year. Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and I reeeeaaaallllly hope Andromeda can capture even a tiny bit of that magic. The new Shovel Knight campaign looks like it might as well be a brand new game built inside the OG Shovel Knight, and that’s just fine with me. Resident Evil 7 is either going to be super cool, or suuuuper lame, and I have no idea which.

    Ni No Kuni is the prettiest and most positive game I’ve ever played, but I couldn’t get over the hump of the combat to push myself all the way through. I’m hoping there’s a bit more for me to enjoy mechanically in the sequel. Quantic Dream makes divisive, strange things, and I hope Detroit leans more towards the Heavy Rain side of things than Beyond. Death’s Gambit is a combination of my annual, predictable, Dark Souls-like and 2D platformer pick.

    And that’s it! Let’s throw 2016 in the trash and move onto bigger and better things. Do good, be kind, and have some fun. Happy New Year! You’ll hear from me soon.

  • Game of the Year 2016: Top 10

    Game of the Year 2016: Top 10

    If you’re reading this, congratulations. You survived 2016’s clutches.

    So…a lot about this year was…not great. But in between a lot of chaotic garbage, video games stayed pretty darn good…kind of. I think it’s one of the least memorable of recent years, but the few things that hit for me hit very, very hard. So let’s talk about those heavy hitters and send 2016 on its way for good.

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