Category: Xbox One

Enter The Gungeon Is Sprinting Toward the Roguelike Throne

Enter the Gungeon may have come out in 2016, but 2018 is the year that it finally became that game it was meant to be all along. I played Gungeon back during launch week and found it to be a decent Binding of Isaac riff, but one in need of several improvements if it meant to aim for the rougelike throne. While I still think Isaac is my favorite of the two, Enter the Gungeon’s path of updates over the last few years have made quite a strong argument that Isaac isn’t the only game in town anymore.

After returning to the game two years later with waaaaaaay more content than was there during the initial release, I’d be hard pressed to say that Enter the Gungeon is just an inferior copy. They’re both the current kings of the roguelike genre, and it’s pretty much just up to taste as to which you enjoy more.

If you, like me, tossed Enter the Gungeon to the side as some throwaway toy back in 2016… there really hasn’t been a better time to see why both of us were so, so, wrong.

First off, if you’re unfamiliar with the genre, it goes like this: You run around and dodge scary enemies, manage a small inventory and look for sweet items. You get more powerful the longer that you survive, but as soon as you bite it, you’re all done and have to start over again. You do make small bits of permanent progress by achieving certain tasks so you’re never totally set to square zero. However, if you’re not into mastering a difficult game again and again, this might not be the thing for you. For everyone else, let’s talk about what’s new.

With the most recent Advanced Gungeons & Draguns update, a slew of new content has been released, including a new floor, new bosses, OVER 300 SYNERGIES BETWEEN WEAPONS AND ITEMS, new enemies, new modes, and more stuff that I’m probably forgetting. If you were put off by Gungeon’s individual runs not being as varied as Isaac’s, this is the patch you’ve been waiting for.

A rough estimate I’ve thrown around is that there’s at least double the amount of stuff to find and do in Enter the Gungeon 2.0 when compared to 1.0. Even just the small tweaks to the game speed and smoothing out a few rough edges here and there make Gungeon in 2018 feel almost like a sequel to developer Dodge Roll’s freshman effort. Suffice it to say, I’ll be paying my share of attention to anything they decide to work on next.

Dodge Roll also put this update out for FREE, which is ridiculous if you’re one of the several thousand fans following this update’s development.

Long story short: if you’ve been itching to hop into the roguelike genre or just want another game to play in between Isaac runs, Enter the Gungeon should absolutely be your next stop.

.

I can’t believe I got through this whole post without making a bullet heaven joke.

Oh.

July 29, 2018
Celeste is a Tough as Nails Platformer With a Heart of Gold

It’s a difficult 2D platformer with pixel art. None of you would have ever, ever expected it on this site, would you?

Luckily, even though I’m a sucker for any of these, this one’s better than the handful of moderate-to-good indie platformers we get tossed at us every few months or so. Bringing back memories of my first playthrough of Super Meat Boy, Celeste brings the challenge that just feels so, so good to accomplish. The campaign also does way more narrative legwork than Super Meat Boy ever attempted (i.e. any), and is a surprisingly heartfelt tale of a young girl overcoming her own anxieties with the help of friends. It’s sweet, relatable, and hit me so hard at one point that I had to take a break; not from the platforming challenge, but from the challenging subject matter.

Not satisfied with just giving you a lengthy story mode with a genuinely compelling cast and story, there’s a whole extra couple of playthroughs to break your controllers in once you think you’re done. Clocking in around 20 hours now, I’ve fully completed the game’s first and second main campaigns, barely scratched the surface of the speedrunning aspects, and walked away in awe/disgust at how wild the final challenges are.

As much as I adore Celeste it isn’t without a glaring issue or two. First off, at the very end of the second campaign, a brand new mechanic is introduced. Though, “introduced” is a strong word here, and would imply the developer bothered to mention nearly anything about it before you’re expected to be an expert at using it.

It’s like you were going to have a nice hang sesh with Celeste, but they brought their friend along without telling you and also their friend lives with you now and oops Celeste is gone and now you live with a new weird friend who you don’t really know what to do with.

Uh, yeah, it’s pretty much like that.

I’m not kidding about it being strangely brought up at the end of the campaign. After a maybe 7 hourish Hard Mode, you’re in the last 20 minutes and are told to cross an obstacle you’ve never seen before. The game says “Jump – Dash (UP ARROW)” and expects you to understand what that means. Trust me, you don’t just jump, dash, and press the up arrow. That hint is pretty much worthless.

So after you give up jumping and dashing and head to this Reddit page of other confused people, you’ll figure it out. Remember that scene in Super Metroid where the small animals start jumping up a wall and you learn “Whoa, I bet I could do that too!” and you learn a brand new mechanic naturally through the game’s good design? I remember it. I don’t think the developers did.

The puzzles are also kind of hit and miss. They seem to aim for a Fez-like vibe but feel a bit out of place and too complex for their own good, especially if you’re in the animalistic mindset of “I just wanna jump over more pits.” The first puzzle you encounter with the birds is pretty rad though. Not super difficult but requires more than ten seconds of thought to solve. More like that please!

Aside from a couple of gripes that make up less than 1% of the whole game, Celeste is a beautiful work of art. Lena Raine‘s soundtrack hits every note perfectly. The art makes every area instantly identifiable and distinct. The platforming never feels mean or unfair, and always seems surmountable, even after a hundred deaths on one obstacle.

Celeste is up in the ranks with The End is Nigh and Super Meat Boy as far as indie platformers go, and I’m glad to see Matt Thorston and Noel Berry climb into the ring with the likes of Edmund Mcmillen, Tommy Refenes, and Tyler Glaiel. I’ll take all of the excellent platforming I can get.

February 16, 2018
Monster Hunter: World is the Best Game in a Great Series

Monster Hunter has been a permanent part of my gaming library since 4 Ultimate’s release on the 3DS in 2015. Though I do miss the ridiculous variety of monsters present in the last two games, Monster Hunter: World is unequivocally the best game in the series.

Trying to understand any previous entry is to essentially commit an act of violence against yourself, bashing your head against a brick wall that has no intentions of moving. World may still have that wall in place, but this time it’s made out of about half as many bricks.

It’s a series infamous for pushing people away due to obtuse systems that make no sense to anyone who hasn’t already been inundated with them, but World actually makes some leaps towards gaining a real, mainstream audience. The multiplayer has never been easier to play with friends (though it’s still not perfect!), it’s actually on a console that can somewhat deal with the complicated control schemes, and the myriad quality of life changes (you can access your inventory stock during a quest, what a concept!) go a long way in getting newcomers adjusted to Monster Hunter’s strange, complex world. It helps that the game feels more alive than ever by removing loading screens, adding an honest-to-god true ecosystem and food chain, and tossing in dozens of tiny creatures that you’re encouraged to capture and keep as pets. Hunting the monsters is pretty fun, too, I guess.

As for returning vets, there’s plenty for us, too. Some weapons have new movesets and abilities. The long-ranged weapons feel viable for the first time due to the good controls and added mobility. Maps are hiding more secrets than ever before, and just walking around and exploring fills in areas on the map, making it feel like the hunt it was always meant to be. There’s more good things about Monster Hunter: World than I could ever list here, but know this: the changes, big and small, make for one of the best games you’ll play all year.

There’s a lot to uncover as you make your way through the newest Monster Hunter game, so much so that I’m 100 hours in and was just told by a friend about a series of quests that I didn’t even know existed that I’d somehow walked right by again and again.

Long story short; get Monster Hunter. Play Monster Hunter. Live Monster Hunter.

February 16, 2018
Ittle Dew 2+ Might Be Better At Zelda Than Zelda

If the wait for the Virtual Console on the Switch is killing you slowly, maybe this can ease the pain. The Switch’s ever-expanding and, honestly, surprising library just got even better with the release of Ittle Dew 2+.

I remember playing the first Ittle Dew game several years ago and not being super impressed. It felt like a bog standard but serviceable Zelda-like with maybe a few too many block pushing puzzles. This one is different. When I think about Ittle Dew 2 in a handful of years, I know it won’t just be hazy memories of moving a block around a grid.

Ittle Dew 2 shares a bit of DNA with Breath of the Wild just as it does with its more obvious 2D inspirations, even though it predates the former by several months. You’re tossed into a huge world after a (thankfully) hasty introduction, and are told that you can go anywhere you want. Do the dungeons in any order. Discover secrets in any order. You’re permitted to explore any corner of the map you can get to, and to feel free to progress as you see fit. It’s a breath of fresh air, and one that Nintendo itself finally started to breathe in with A Link Between World’s openness.

You’ll rush your way through cavern after cavern, stumble across dungeons, find portals that take you to even secreter secrets, and more. Ittle Dew 2 never gives you a moment to get bored. You’re constantly finding new areas to explore, coming across a new mini-dungeon (very, very similar to Breath of the Wild’s shrines), or finding hint givers who nudge you towards something you might have missed. Nearly ever screen you happen upon will have at least challenge to complete, and I found myself losing hours just to find “one more cave”, which of course leads to another and another. Some puzzles you’ll blast through in seconds, others will give your brain a genuine workout to find the solution. The entire game is filled with so much variety that it’s hard to put down once you’re sucked into its delightful flow. It’s also laugh-out-loud funny at times, and has better writing than any actual Zelda game could ever hope for.

If I have anything to complain about, it’s the game’s bosses. The vast majority of them, especially the ones you’re likely to stumble across early on, are essentially just standard enemies with a bit more health. They don’t look cool, they don’t do anything particularly interesting… they just kind of stand there as you tank hits and stab them for 10 seconds. Then they die without much fanfare, you’re given your reward for finishing the dungeon, and you move on. Compare this to the fanfare and spectacle of any of A Link to the Past’s bosses, and it’s tough to gloss over. If not for that, I think this would be the essential modern 2D Zelda-like, joining the likes of 3D Dot Game Heroes and Anodyne, and even besting some of the games the developer obviously adores so much.

If you’re ready to play the second best Zelda game on the Switch (and it’s on everything else, too!), check out the game’s website here.

January 20, 2018
Game of the Year 2017 – The Top 11!

It’s here! Let’s wrap 2017 up and never think about it again. We can still remember the games… just maybe nothing else.

(more…)

January 7, 2018
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

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

…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!

October 21, 2017