Popped around on some miscellaneous Wii games tonight. I was familiar with the name Shikigami no Shiro since the second one includes Kiki Kaikai‘s Sayo as a playable character, but I never played any of them. Imagine my surprise when I load up the third game, see that it was published by ArcSys, and also that it omega rules absurdly hard. It’s not doing anything new at all, but it obviously thought very consciously and considerately about what features are included in shoot-em-ups, why they‘re included, and what can be done to make them as engaging as possible. It’s not a perfect game, but certainly a thoughtful one – likely the best shoot-em-up on the Wii? Competition isn't exactly fierce.
I also played _Smiley World Island Challenge_. [img]https://i.imgur.com/6luUqT5.jpg[/img]
@“deepspacefine”#p119516 that does seem a bit interesting, it‘s a shame they didn’t implement some nose growing mechanic sort of similar to the horn in Metal Gear Solid 5. Maybe you‘ll unlock some ’big nose mode‘ for new game plus if to the ending involves some sort of ’ultimate lie'.
i‘ve been enjoying golden idol on switch, except it doesn’t control very well with either game pad or touch controls. inputting elements in the “thinking” screen feels so much designed for mouse and keyboard. last night i accidentally touched the “erase all progress” button on the start menu - why the hell does that not have an “are you sure” prompt - and, although i got back to the level i was previously on fairly quickly, i've lost all my gathered info/evidence in that level. very frustrating!
I beat Severed Steel on Switch last night and while it is clearly a running on absolute lowest settings port, it still does the job of making you feel like a bad ass as you free fall in slow motion shooting enemies and then changing direction mid air to bust through a window grab an enemies gun from their hands and shoot them with it. It has an option to always be in bullet time when you are jumping and sliding and I have no idea why it isn't turned on by default.
We Love Katamari Reroll is excellent. The original is probably the best Katamari game and this is just a a great re-release. The new Royal Reverie stuff they added is pretty good. You probably already know what you‘re getting here and it’s a wonderful version of that game!
This year I decided to branch out and try different types of games than I usually do. So I'm plinking through my first (non-Pokémon) JRPGS: _Shin Megami Tensei V_ and _Dragon Quest XI_. I like 'em both a lot; I find the SMT battles really interesting and DQ is indeed the perfect post-bath bedtime game. Plus it looks great on the PS5. My one qualm is the lack of auto- or quicksave in SMT, which I can tolerate for the most part but occasionally drives me nuts.
I finally bit the bullet last week and got into emulation. I've downloaded a number of games / emus but the one that's got its hooks in me at the moment is _Link Between Worlds_. I definitely started it when it came out, but I always had trouble with the DS Zeldas when I was younger because I could never remember what I was supposed to do next. Now I'm having a blast! I'm also playing _Yoshi's Island_ on my GBA SP.
Looming over all these games is TOTK. I ate up every last morsel BOTW had to offer, played that game into the ground, but I found myself not enjoying the new one as much. Weirdly I think it's because I've mostly been playing it handheld with the sound off (on the train every day). I dug up a spare pair of wired earbuds so I could hear the game and listen to a podcast at the same time and that seems to have done the trick. It's a significantly better experience with the sound on!
the main game i‘ve been plugging away at is pandora's tower. i sort of think this is a perfect game? a few episodes ago, i remember a discussion on the pod about relationship-building in games; i had a thought that i’d love a game to use dungeon exploration as a way to express the growth of a relationship. pandora's tower does exactly that, with extra layers of disease and body horror and loss of identity on top. from a narrative and thematic perspective i think it is, so far, airtight.
gameplay-wise it's maybe a little less airtight, but i wouldn't want it to sacrifice any of its idiosyncrasies either. i love the fixed camera angles even if they sometimes make combat irritating; they feel perfectly archaic and build to gorgeous and dramatic setpieces. i love the urgency provided by the timer even if it makes the game stressful; it emphasizes the contrast between dungeon crawling and chilling at home with your girlfriend. i love the chain mechanic even if it sometimes feels a little slow and clumsy; the slight powerlessness in the face of the lovecraftian and grotesque feels appropriate. moreover, i love how laser-focused it is as an experience, how everything feeds back into itself. it's a beautifully constructed game.
been nibbling on other games when i don't feel like subjecting myself to stress. _lil gator game_ is off-brand _a short hike_, with some of that magic in it, but it's not nearly as good. _lunistice_ is cool. _mothman 1966_ seems interesting but i don't like the sound design. _totk_ is staring at me accusingly from my switch homescreen but i will not start it until i finish _pandora's tower_.
I just want to recommend Akka Arrh. My game of the year at the moment and a title it haven‘t recieved much attention. It’s the last Jeff Minter‘s game, based on a Atari arcade cabinet never released. Beyond its premise, it’s a beautifull game and a pleasure to play. Visually looks like it would be a hard techno-shooter but, in fact, it‘s a relaxing experience in it’s pace and musicality. Every enemy has it's tune, everithing you shoot makes a sound and golbaly comform a interactive melody as you play. I love it and I wish more people play it.
[Here is the trailer. ](https://youtu.be/03PDtTYx8yI) **CW: flashing lights**
@“TracyDMcGrath”#p108574 Way behind on things but forgive my ignorance - what‘s the easy way to play this in 2023? I have never installed a doom wad and I don’t have doom on my computer, and etc.
And dragging the myhouse.pk3 file onto the gzdoom executable. In order to run a Doom2 mod, GZDoom firstchecks to see if you have purchased Doom2 before itll run, for me it checked the default download location of Doom 2 after I downloaded it from Steam, but if you have it from Gog or elsewhere I'm sure there's a way to repoint it in the settings somewhere.
Also worth making sure hardware acceleration is on, and that you're using the .pk3 and not the .wad, as it needs the extra juice for some of the eyecandy.
@“TracyDMcGrath”#p120215 thank you!! I will have to buy it on steam because, being myself, I only have doom on 100 different consoles but not on a computer
I played Sayonara Wild Hearts for the first time last night. It‘s the bonus stages from Sonic 2, it’s Frequency/Amplitude, it‘s Elite Beat Agents, it’s Rez, it's a shot of pure, joyful, score-attack adrenaline straight to my heart.
@“leah”#p120146 Pandora‘s Tower!!! Loved that game when it came out. Throughout my life I’ve had brief moments of meat-aversion and that game certainly caused one of em (and years later Rain World caused another that converted me into a full time vegetarian). More importantly I‘m fairly certain there’s a glitch in Pandora‘s Tower that makes progression really irritating towards the end of the game if you’re playing it via Wii Mode on Wii U. If I recall correctly, entering a specific level would cause the game to freeze and the only way to fix it is to copy your save file to a different slot, which you have to do every time you re-enter that zone. Somethin like that I‘m pretty sure. But again that’s only a thing if you play it on the Wii U's Wii Mode (or so the internet told me back in 2013). Anyway enjoy the rest of the game!
@“deadbeat”#p120300 yeah this game makes eating meat seem like the most disgusting thing in the world. moreover, >!i‘ve fed elena enough that she’s starting to enjoy it!< - which is equally gross and distressing. i love it!
thanks for the heads up re: the glitch - i saw on some old gamefaqs discussions that it was present in the original wii release, but i couldn't find a straight answer about the wii u port, which is indeed what i'm playing. that's kind of a bummer. it'll probably never get another port (or a remake) but a version with that fixed might be the best game of all time.
