hippochippies – Page 8

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
10 Second Run RETURNS Is Fast, Frantic Fun

Every single level in 10 Second Run RETURNS (they write it in caps so don’t forget to scream it) has a time limit of 10 seconds. The first level, the final level, the four player multiplayer levels… all equally manic. Speed is quite literally the name of the game here, and they never let you forget it.

In less than an hour after downloading the game on Switch, I had blown through the single player campaign. It was fun as heck, and I never put my Switch down from start to finish. The thing is, though, that (if I’m being generous) the whole thing took about 45 minutes. I was a bit disappointed that it was already over after such a quick, albeit enjoyable, run. Luckily, once you’re finished racing through traps, fireballs, and other obstacles by yourself, it’s time for the better option.

While the single player mode’s draw is three stars to collect in each stage, the multiplayer mode doesn’t have that. What is does offer, however, is some of the most frantic yelling you’ll do with/at your friends outside of Overcooked. Two to four players each get a segment of the screen and are tossed into another set of 50 levels to sprint through. It’s just a very fun version of the platforming speedruns you see on AGDQ and the like, but all fit on one system without having to hook up four consoles for the same result.

10 Second Run RETURNS isn’t going to win any awards for it’s art. It doesn’t have the in-depth mechanics of something even as recent (and on the same system) as Celeste. But it’s a quick, fun game that’s better than the sum of its parts. And really, if you have anyone to do race mode with… you’ll probably get your money’s worth the first time you beat your friend to the finish line by .0001 seconds.

If you’d like to make three friends mad that you rule at platformers, check out the game on the Switch eShop.

This game was provided for review by the game’s developer/publisher.

February 7, 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
Predictions for 2018

there wil b good gams

That’s my bold prediction. An even bolder one? A handful of 2018’s absolute best will be upon us by the end of the month.

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January 16, 2018
Fidel Dungeon Rescue Trusts Your Instincts

Fidel Dungeon Rescue seems like a simple thing on the surface. Just from the few screenshots I saw of it last year, I had decided that it wasn’t something for me. I’m not typically into grid based strategy stuff that isn’t titled Mega Man Battle Network, and it just reminded me of a gussied up version of a bland Puzzlescript game.

Uhh… also I was wrong.

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January 8, 2018