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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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Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) by mwyattma |
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most recent entry: Thursday 6 March, 2008
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GAMEPLAY
So, I didn't talk about the bosses last time. I've beaten this game already, but showing off this one part of the game is always fun. Once you have beaten the game, you unlock the "Boss Rush" mode, which basically takes you through all of the bosses in order. You're timed while doing this and if you do it fast enough, there's a reward waiting at the end. I think that this is a VERY nice addition to the game and I'm surprised that many other games don't have it. I mean, isn't a lot of the fun of a game in the boss battles? Bosses present the hardest challenge to the player, and it's kind of a drag to have to play through the game again in order to fight the bosses again, which is especially true in Castlevania because the bosses are usually pretty difficult.
Also, when one beats the game, they unlock the "Julius" mode, where they can play as the character Julius Belmont who is more like the traditional Castlevania hero because he uses the signature whip and sub-weapons. This mode, however, is extremely limited. There's no dialog and no items -- not even healing potions! What you see is what you get! Of course, you do start out with 800 health, which never changes, but certainly gets you by. The only way to make Julius stronger is by defeating the bosses in the game.
One of the things that I like about this game is the multiple endings. There are some weird books one can find hidden away in the castle. They refer to three different powers one should use when fighting the final boss. If you don't use these three specific soul powers, or even change out of them, you spoil the ending. The story goes that there is a man, Graham, who thinks he is Dracula. He goes about the castle collecting power, and you must fight him in the end. When you defeat him, his body emits a kind of darkness that your character, Soma, is either possessed by (when you use the proper three souls) or just passes over. The "bad ending" is where you've defeated Graham, but there is very little closure as to how your character came to possess the unusual power of soul stealing (or whatever it's called). The "good ending" is where you are possessed by the power of the castle and you realize that you ARE Dracula! It was kind of obvious, what with the demonic power and all, but you still want to be surprised. This way, you unlock the final area - the chaos realm - where you fight the chaos that binds the castle together, then you get to watch the cliche scene of the castle falling apart. Altogether, it's a really cool storyline, and I consider it to be a bit better than, "you are a Belmont, a Vampire Hunter! Banish Dracula! GO!"
DESIGN
BOSSES: The bosses of this game aren't as hard as the other Castlevania games I've played, namely Circle of the Moon, but they still have their challenges. Death, in particular, was really hard. Although Graham was pretty anti-climactic, he's not exactly the last boss. There's also Julius and Chaos. Julius Belmont is a very tricky one to beat because he's so darned fast. Chaos is pretty hard to predict, but then again, it's in the things nature... But by the end of the game, you've learned your lesson and stocked up on health potions, so there's not much risk involved.
ITEMS: In this game, you can at least buy some potions so that you don't have to farm zombies like other games. They're essential to beating some bosses for the first time, as there are many attack patterns that are just painfully difficult to dodge. The best items in the game come from completing challenges and finding the secret entrance to the forbidden area, which is, yet again, much better than having to farm zombies. Also, there's a bit of pride one can take from having one of every item in the game.
COMBAT: Enemies have set health, experience, weaknesses, and resistances that you can look up once you've collected their soul. When you attack, the damage you cause is expressed by a number that rises from your enemies' feet. The only suggestion I would make here is to have some sort of health bar for enemies, but that might just muddy up the scene. Your character has the typical Strength, Constitution, and Luck attributes that go up when levels are gained. It's a pretty basic RPG, but that's what makes it so beautiful. There's nothing weird like "Charisma" or "Spirit" to deal with. Your health is represented by a bar at the top left corner of the screen as well as by a number just to the left of that. This is useful because there isn't often a variance in the damage monsters deal to you, so you know exactly what you can take. Of course, there's no such number that represents the magic meter, which is annoying when you want to cast a spell one last time and find you can't. Overall, however, this doesn't affect gameplay very much.
DIFFICULTIES: There's a hard difficulty setting, but I found it to be...easier. The items and souls (thank GOD) one collects throughout the game carry over, which actually makes beating the game a breeze. There's a ring you really need to get in order to find all the souls -- the soul eater ring -- but it costs $300,000, which isn't that hard to get once you play the game a second time around because you don't need two super duper awesome swords that cost $50,000 each. Also, the hard difficulty allows access to certain silly items, like the silver handgun and Death's Scythe. It's an okay bonus, but there's really not much of a difference. I found that once you collect all the souls, do the Boss Rush in under two minutes, and get all the items, there's no point in ever playing the game again. You've probably run the game into the ground by beating every single monster twenty times to get their soul, not to mention you've also done the Boss Rush enough times that it's easy, but that's another reason why I like this game. When you're done, you're done! The game cuts back a lot on busy work, even though you spend a good deal of time farming some really tough monsters for their souls, but it sure beats the hell out of collecting them all twice or something.
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