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Smashing Bottles (PC) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:16:28) |
Heard about this one recently and got stuck playing the demo on itch (though it's also available on Steam) for a few hours until I got to the final (demo) ending!
It's an incremental game with some interesting things going on - you have a bat and smash bottles, but you have a limited time to do so (in seconds, like max 25 or so after all the upgrades?). When time runs out you can go again or go to the shop to buy upgrades. As expected you want to get more money from smashing bottles and there's ways to do that - spawn golden bottles, champagne bottles (when they smash the corks fly out and can smash other things), and even molotov cocktails (that explode, smashing other things).
There's a few things I thought where nice/clever:
a. The game has two distinct phases (once you unlock molotovs, everything changes, really) - the "you smash" and the "maximize money in the time allowed". In the latter, the game mostly plays itself as the molotovs keep everything getting smashed.
b. The "you smash" has rotating bottles, and since the smashing can take a few hits, there's some interest in smashing champagne such that the cork flies in a certain direction for more damage.
c. The champagne corks are pretty clever - since it gives you a reason to, in the short time you have to smash, choose what to smash a little more carefully. Go for golden or champagne hoping for a productive chain reaction?
Of course there's also a prestige/reset mechanic - from which you can lock a separate bat that smashes.
I'm curious how far things will go once the full game is out - and what the nature of the upgrades will be. I'm really hoping for more variety in the experience beyond the simple "number go up" - in that sense the molotovs seem like they're capping the experience in a detrimental way (even as they were super fun to smash when I first unlocked them.
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Donkey Kong Bananza (NSW2) by jp (May 30th, 2026 at 18:07:32) |
Still playing!
It has an interesting structure in terms of its levels and such - the core metaphor is that you're going deeper into the planet with each level, and they're both thematic and numbered. I got to a point where there's a bifurcation - go right into what I thought was "jungle land" or left into "snow land". I went right did a few more levels, cleared the boss (it was plant/poison land) and in order to continue going deeper I was then told to go back to "snow land"! There's a fast travel/teleport system involving giant worms that can move your around, so it was easy enough to do this, but I was surprised to learn that the fork was just a "choose what order to do these" situation... and also, the entire "fork" makes little sense thematically so I'm curious to see how it's explained and communicated in the interface - will it look like a fork in the "hole" going into the planet's core?
The titular ability (bananza mode!) was a bit underwhelming - you turn into a bigger DK and can now punch things you couldn't before - it lasts a limited amount of time. But, I've since unlocked a new one - DK-bird - where you can glide around (and after paying to unlock) and drop an egg on enemies. The gilding around was important/necessary in the plant/poison levels, and I'm expecting it to be similarly required in the snowy ones. We'll see!
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Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC) by dkirschner (May 13th, 2026 at 14:58:07) |
Kicking myself for not writing an entry when I was playing this 6 months ago. I am cleaning up my wishlist, backlog, and etc., and the FEELING I get when I see Silksong "in progress" is anxiety. I had jotted a few notes in December, as follows:
"It’s true, Silksong is hard. Like, really, frustratingly hard. Like punishingly difficult. I hit a wall at the end of Act 1 trying to beat the Last Judge. The game likes to place benches far away from boss fights, such that retrying boss fights involves slogging back through tough platforming and other sections of the map."
I did kill the Last Judge and complete Act 1. I remember that took a very long time, and that after the Last Judge, I died a few more times and, probably, with shaking hands and rapid heartbeat, said, "I can't do this anymore." Actually, it may have been in one of those rooms with waves of enemies. This innovation is new and unwelcome to Silksong, rooms that lock upon entering and spill several waves of challenging enemies at you. Yeah, I think that is what got me, just being pummeled over and over in one of those rooms, getting tired of exploring the maze-like map, tired of dying, tired of corpse runs, just exhausted. The game became a chore.
Besides that, I loved it, haha. I was definitely into it for a while. It was sublime until it wasn't.
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Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (PC) by dkirschner (May 12th, 2026 at 17:20:35) |
I meant to quickly beat this back in April so I could have a "completion" for the month, but I got really busy after spending barely an hour one afternoon with Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, a bizarre little twin-stick shooter about a turnip...who robs a bank. The game builds off previous games in the series, which I have never played, in which Turnip Boy commits tax evasion and, according to this game at least, seems to have started a war. Work has slowed down for the first time in nearly two months, and while I wait for my next contract to begin, I figured I'd knock this out.
The whole game is silly. The world is populated by sentient fruits and vegetables. You are employed by a pickle / mafia gang leader to rob a bank of a garlic bulb / bad guy / killed your dad. You have a base, where you can get new weapon loadouts by bringing weapons from the bank (always try to return with something new or high-powered!), purchase progression items from the "dark web," and upgrade stuff at another vendor. You go on "runs" to the bank, which are timed (starts at 2 or 3 minutes, goes up to 5 or 6 with upgrades). Runs are over when you die or when you exit the bank. Die and you lose half the cash you accumulated in the run. Survive and you are handsomely rewarded. Upgrade stuff. Go back to the bank. It's a roguelite too.
The bank has a specific layout of rooms, but you'll encounter some randomized areas too, and enemies and treasure are somewhat randomized. Throughout the bank are tons of NPCs with little fetch quests that usually reward you with pictures (fun/ny to look at) or hats (fun/ny to equip). A blueberry might want you to find its wedding ring, a lime wants you to get divorce papers from her lemon husband, a scientist pineapple wants you to find a philosopher mango and ask it an ethical question about experimenting on fruits, etc. I had some good laughs.
In each corner of the bank is a boss. Boss fights were fun, but the most challenging were early on. Once you start upgrading stats, the game becomes easy. It definitely ends up being an "upgrade everything and go nuts on all the enemies!" type game, experience being overpowered.
I haven't played a twin-stick shooter in a while, and while this wasn't revolutionary or anything, it was fun and scratched the itch. I gotta get back to Divinity: Original Sin 2. I might have some extra time till my next gig, so maybe I can boot it up, remember what I was doing, and make some progress this week.
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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) by jp (Apr 27th, 2026 at 22:04:52) |
I got to that point where I hit a monster/boss that just wasn't that much fun, and then I got a bit lost in terms of where to continue making progress, and the backtracking started to get a bit tiresome...as I explored and searched for different paths. So, time to bail!
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Niche: A Genetics Survival Game (PC) by jp |
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most recent entry: Tuesday 2 May, 2023
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This game was a bit of a wildcard when I picked it for the Fall23 critical game design seminar. It seemed turn-based but it was not a "typical" game in the provenance, style, etc. It seemed like a "we ma de a serious game" game made by educators and scientists...
It's a weird wonky game in a good way. And, I'm not sure my ~6 hours of gameplay here is enough to get a good sense. That was a single (largely successful) run - I only ended up losing because I started to play much less conservatively halfway through because I wanted to see what else the game had to offer. This resulted in my getting to a point where none of my creatures had the basic "gather" ability (I'm blanking on the name - but it's one that I think everyone starts with) and so everyone starved and that was the end... it was a relatively easy thing to prevent from happening, but I stopped paying too much attention. To be fair, it never occurred to me that I'd lose THAT ability - though I was enjoying learning about all the other different abilities in the game. Things that surprised me/I enjoyed include:
a. I was really surprised when a random wild creature appeared and just "raped" some of my creatures (got them pregnant too!). I mean, it's totally a thing that happens in the wild - I'm not even sure it would be called rape - not idea about the consent thing and so on. It's in contrast to what happens within your group of creatures - here you decide when procreation happens. AND, it's an important part of the game's core loop since you're selectively breeding them for certain traits and so on. So, when a random "wild" creature shows up and copulates with many of the female creatures in the group I was controlling...it was a surprise and definitely mixes things up! (yay for increased genetic diversity, but uh oh another mouth to feed?)
b. There's an ability that lets you attack birds! I'd seen birds flying around and I assumed they were just "decorative" - but then I noticed one of my creatures suddenly had an action to attack bird (and that quickly disappeared as the birds flew around)
c. I randomly got a really derpy looking creature - I laughed out loud when I saw it. The trait is "ugly" I think. AND it has a game effect! (harder to find a mate but also less likely to get attacked)
d. My creatures dying of old age always surprised me - like they'd be fine and then "where it go?" and there would be a pile of bones! I sort of wish the game telegraphed that better? (this creature will die at the end of this turn)
I think that exploring all the different genetic possibilities the game's system offers for your creatures is probably the most fun aspect of the game. New traits appearing and you're always wondering what else there is on offer. However the game suffers a bit from not having a clear goal to aim for - e.g. survive X amount of time or visit Y number of islands. So, after a while it started to feel a bit tedious because I was essentially always doing the same "loop" - scout an island, scavenge for as much food as possible, have a few new critters, scarper off to the next island. I was able to make it work for quite a while until I decided to just play carelessly...Also, as far as I can tell, the game generally requires that you leave from one island to the next (food sources run out on your island eventually - I think?) which is (I think) not usually how things work in nature... the local population will adjust to the resources available..
Still, it's an interesting game and I'm glad I played it!
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