Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7884I think there's a weird moment in time when everyone thought that point-and-click style adventure games were dead, but they were not. And, I think this game is an example of a game that was under the radar of "mainstream" games press at the time? Or at least under the radar of the average consumer of videogames... This particular game is also a strange little time capsule - it's a port of what I think was a PC game...also at a time when people where porting all kinds of things to the DS. And, it works! Well, from a UI perspective at least. And it works pretty well. At least compared to another adventure game I played recently on the DS whose name I'm blanking on as I write this. I bounced on that one because it had some character/3D interactions that were awkward and unintuitive. Here, they were much smarter about it (I'm assuming they made UI "concessions" because it's on the DS). So, while you have a 3D character that navigates a static space - you don't actually have to move the character around directly in order to interact with objects/places in each scene. Press one button and all the interactive spots highlight, and you can just tap on them directly. I LOVE this solution - especially because I was never a fun of the "hunt for the pixel" approach that many games had (on PC) - and I'm super glad it didn't come across into this DS version (for all I know, the "here's all the highlights" was also possible on PC). But, the UI triumph aside, I still kind of bounced off this. I got stuck on a puzzle (how typical!) - and what I had to do was leave a location to visit another location and then continued...this seemed really "unfair" to me - as in, unintuitive - mostly because I had assumed I could not leave the locatio in the first place. It wasn't entirely unintuitive - but it was the sort of puzzle where I was sure I should be able to (in this case) get the key out of the aquarium - but it turns out that no, I had to leave the place, do some other stuff, and then come back. At this point I was well into the tried-and-true "try all the things with all the things", except that I did not know I could leave the location I was at. Sigh. So, from glancing at my list of DS games I still need to play...well, I wasn't THAT interested in the story so far and the puzzles didn't feel particularly interesting either..so, it was an easy game to put on the shelf.Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:16:25 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7884&iddiary=13380https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7878I picked this up a while ago because it was cheap. It also had a few games I was curious to try - and while I could (probably) easily boot up MAME and load some roms...why not just try them here. So, this game collects Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug II, Xevious, The Tower of Druaga, Mappy, Galaxian, and Pac-Man VS. I was familiar (have played) most of these so I only really spent time with the ones I was most interested in...The Tower of Druaga, Mappy...and out of curiosity I tried Dig Dug... a. I thought it was Dig Dug, but it's Dig Dug II which I had never played! This was a nice surprise...especially because the game has no digging...which seems really weird. It has a sort of top-down view and you can inflate enemies as per Dig Dug...they die you get points. I actually thought this was pretty lame. But I also noticed the map had these brown lines (that seemed to have no meaning) and these little squares (that also seemed to have no meaning). From reading the menu stuff - pretty impressive actually because it has all kinds of options (you can set dip switches and the like, so good effort here from Bandai Namco!), I realized there was another button in the game! So you can pump/inflate and also "drill". And you have to drill on the square points, this creates a fracture line and portions of the map sink into the sea. So, it's a top down island! Weirdly, my first game I did none of this and got pretty far just on pumping...but the drilling is where the points are! I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Dig Dug II didn't do so well commercially, and perhaps there's actual digging later on? b. The Tower of Druaga - this game looks like a sparse version of Gauntlet meets Pac-Man. It's a maze, you need to get the key and leave for the next level. You're also a warrior with a sword and a shield. Sounds good! Except that I never really got/understood the timing for the attacks and the blocks and ended up dying all the time in ways that felt super unfair. c. Mappy is sort of Elevator Action meets Hard Hat Mack? You need to pick up objects and avoid animals chasing you. You can drop on to trampolines that then let you land on different levels of the building/house you're in. This is fun and fine except that it's super easy to get caught in situations you can't get out of. Like, enemies coming from left and right and you can't escape. I think there might be something I'm missing here - either in terms of strategy or gameplay, because otherwise the game feels too unfair?Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:11:20 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7878&iddiary=13378https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5900Oh wait, I did post! lol. Ok, so here's what I recall from the first time I played - over ten years ago now. I remembered it was fun and interesting and not too difficult and that I started to get overwhelmed with secret stuff and not knowing where I was in the game. It's the sort of game that, now that I started it over again (and I'm 5 hours in, and about 85% complete according to the menu), doesn't go down well if you stop playing for too long. This is mostly because it's not easy to move around the different areas of the game - even with the map - so you have to kind of remember everything... Right now I'm trying to get to 32 cubes - I've picked up a few blue ones (I think it's nice that these also count towards the number you need) - and once I get them, I go through a special door and that should be the end. The game does "hold up" really well - it still feels fun and reasonably fresh. It doesn't help much that I finished Tunic not too long ago, and both games rely a lot on secrets and discovery. Here the secrets feel a bit more awkward - especially the "do this input on the controller" ones...not a big fan of those, and while Tunic and Fez both have them, they seem better in Tunic than here... Now that I'm on the "get the last cubes I need" run - and stuck on an annoying rising-lava level - I'm starting to get more annoyed with the navigation across the world. The map does help - once you figure out how to navigate it, but it's annoying to have to figure out (again) which doors go to where so chart a path back to the beginning. It's not quite "metroidvania backtracking" but worse in many ways...because there's puzzling involved...Sun, 23 Feb 2025 18:22:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5900&iddiary=13375https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5900Huh. So, I knew I had played Fez for maybe an hour or so. I must have created the GameLog but never actually wrote anything. And here I am today, 2 PS generations later playing it on PS5 and NOT bouncing off the game as I did before.Sun, 23 Feb 2025 18:15:47 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=5900&iddiary=13374https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7871I've decided to bounce off this game - which is a weird thing to say. I haven't played it in a few weeks and I'm worried that I'll have forgotten everything about it. So, I'm sort of admitting to a bit of laziness. I don't feel up to remembering, learning, figuring things out in this game when, from the few hours I played, I wasn't terribly engaged or interested. It was pretty overwhelming and...fiddly. Like, I didn't understand what the point of a lot of it was. To be fair, I did not play Persona 5, and I'm guessing for people who are old hands at this series...they probably either slipped right in or bemoaned how much tutorializing there was and how annoying and so on. So, the game's creators are both damned if they do and damned if they don't... The game also seemed very overwhelming in action - I'm supposed to assign orders to teammates, see what they're doing, plan my own attacks and combos...and I felt like button mashing just seemed more efficient (and effective). Which isn't really a good sign, no? As in, it really deflates any interest in figuring out systems and attacks and all the rest.Tue, 18 Feb 2025 11:58:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7871&iddiary=13373https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7872This is probably one of the longest game titles I've seen, and it doesn't even have a hyphen! I have no idea what the real story behind this game is, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn it started as an off-hand comment or joke made by someone in a bar, to a friend, after everyone has had a few too many drinks. Either that, or it was a game jam game that started as a joke. This game is basically a collection of many levels of different puzzle games. But, the puzzle games are all games on the mini-puzzles used by some f2p mobile game developers to market their games. Typically, the games being marketed bear no relation (thematically or gameplay-wise) to the puzzle shown in the ad. Sometimes the ad is playable - othertimes you just watch it play automatically - and often frustratingly because the playback is less efficient than you would be or it makes mistakes. (pin pulling puzzles are perhaps the most notorious?) So, is it fun? Fun enough - there's lots of levels, some are trickier than others, and the game's production values are...low. This is fine by me except when it takes too long to reload and stuff like that.Sat, 15 Feb 2025 18:42:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7872&iddiary=13371https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7871You'd think I'd know better by now. But, this game has a LOT of reading to do. At least a lot of reading for me. I was expecting the game to be much more action-based, which I guess it is - but it's only action-based when you get to the action bits. And in between, at least as far as I've gotten...there's way more reading than action. I think I've only played a lot of Persona 4 Golden Somethingorother - the music game that was a spin-off? I'm not sure, it's late right now and I'm a bit tired. But, I think I did not play Persona 5, nor any other mainline entry. Isn't that weird? It's like I'm dancing around the series and just going for the spinoffs because I don't want to commit the time to really taking a bit out of the "big" titles. Anyways, this one is as stylish and slick in its presentation as I expected (I do read a fair amount, so I'm familiar with Persona 5 in at least the visuals!)...and obviously I don't know who the characters are or what's happened to them before and so on. There's lots of things implied and suggested that a regular series fan would know what was what. BUT, it does make sense enough for me to play and move along. The game takes place in Tokyo - at least the "daytime/real world" parts. And it's kind of neat because I vacationed there the year before last and so there's places I recognize! As for the gameplay bits - I'm not entirely convinced it all works - so far it seems super chaotic, there's lots to keep track of, but I'm mostly button-mashing and hoping for the best. That has resulted in times where I've TPKed...and not realized I was even in danger of that. I'm still unclear on whether this is a me problem or a game problem. More likely a me problem, but I might not be interested in learning what to pay attention to and so on... ...and yes, there's also a lot of reading, and moving around in 3rd person 3D environments that's really janky and awkard and...kind of disappointing! We'll see how much longer I play. I do think it was interesting that you can bail on missions - re-up/heal/etc. and then just go back in. This isn't a cheeze - because the game itself suggest/recommends/points it out as a thing you can and perhaps should do!Wed, 12 Feb 2025 23:08:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7871&iddiary=13369https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7868Whoops. I've been playing this for a little over a month now. It's good. Really good. I'm not surprised it won some game of the year award. Really well deserved. I think the easiest way to describe it is to say - imagine a modern Mario game (3D) but not made by Nintendo and with much better haptic feedback/game feel and excellent use of the controller speaker. It's a joy to hold the controller for this game - everything feels different - crunch floors, bumping things, etc. And yes, the game is all nostalgia - all the little astro bots from Playstation games and more.. I was surprised to see some Capcom fighters, even MORE surprised to see Ulala from Space Channel 5! And nice to see Vib Ribbon, Parappa, the "thingies" from Patapon, Loco Roco!, so many characters and so many games...all the way back to Playstation! (I can't write "1" after that, ok?). There lots of worlds, wildly inventive and fun - the boss fights are a real joy - even the harder ones that took me a while, and the after-boss fight areas are thematic to older playstation games - and ALSO super fun and inventive. I was trying to think which was my favorite (cleared the game already, but not 100% - there's some secret levels that are SUPER HARD) - there's God of War (snowy), Uncharted (fun shooty!), Loco Roco, and I can't remember what else. I really want to get all the trophies - but the secret levels are really hard for me!Sat, 08 Feb 2025 21:06:05 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7868&iddiary=13367https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820Finished! First I got the bad ending - I had to fight and then I took the place of the previous fox, trapped in the org or whatever. But, I was informed that I was only missing two pages and did I want to, sort of, try it again. So I went "yes", easily found a page that was right there (and only now available to me due to the dash/teleport ability). One page missing! I assumed it was behind the gigantic door...and, knowing that it would involve a puzzle similar to the ones for finding the fairies (basically doing a long sequence on the d-pad) I opted for just looking up the solution, and yes, it was REALLY long, and there was the last page! I was not looking forward to the final fight again, but - suprise! Instead of a fight little fox just handed over the manual...stuff happens and you get the good ending where the cycle is broken and the end cut-scene credits have both foxes hanging out together. Now, there's a lot more to do still - if I wanted to - like finding the other fairies and there's some secret treasures... but, to be honest, I'm done. I did really enjoy the sense of wonder and discovery this game has, I don't want it to devolve into obscure puzzle solving nonsense...what I liked most about the discovery is that it felt natural and reward of curiosity (I wonder if..oh there is a door! sort of moments).Thu, 02 Jan 2025 13:08:10 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7820&iddiary=13352https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7846Played this co-op, on regular difficulty, and wow. This is SUPER hard. Lol. As in, I would have spent A LOT Of money to get to the end had I played it in an arcade. But, it is fun, and there's some neat crazy enemy designs and stuff going on... but, the game felt a bit too shallow? Like, it's just hard - and the character art is neat and all..but what else? I mean, we finished it maybe an hour and...there didn't seem to be much else in the game. So, I was feeling a bit disappointed. Also, we only unlocked a single trophy which felt strange. So, I looked at the trophy list - and there were a bunch of them, one for each character, related to some sort of special move - and I thought, what special move? So, into the controls screen I go...and whoah - there's a special move. Each character has a different one, and I can't say I know how they all work because some seemed useless - but there's a few that now make more sense in terms of the game's difficulty. One of the characters can grab soldiers and just fling them (this kills them) - and you can do this regardless of how tough they are (so, shield guys, guys with heavy weapons, etc.). Another character has a "defuse enemy attack" which includes bombs and grenades and things (not sure about lasers). So, this makes the characters a lot more interesting and the game (a bit) easier in that you have more at your hands to succeed - but, the special isn't the best answer and while it's not hard to do (it's a press three buttons at the same time combo), it's a bit awkward. So, I'm feeling a bit better about the game...and I'm still looking at the trophy list and I see one for rescuing all the POWs in a mission. Easy enough I think! So I open up mission 1 and...I only get to 50%! What? Then, on a 2nd run, I fall down into a hole by mistake and it turns out it was NOT a hole...but an alternate route...with a few more POWs! Huh! But, I'm only getting to 78%...where are all the other POWs? It turns out there's secret hidden POWs as well...and thanks to a guide I was able to get them out.. So, I spent a few hours playing around with the characters, trying out the special move, and playing the same mission over and over. Fun? Yes. Not sure if I'll play more though...Thu, 02 Jan 2025 12:18:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=7846&iddiary=13351