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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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Costume Quest (PC) by dkirschner |
| I love this game. It's adorable, clever, funny, cute, innovative, and about Halloween. ------- The DLC ends on a cliffhanger! What happens next?! |
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most recent entry: Sunday 13 January, 2013
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In my final frenzy before heading back to work, I knocked out Costume Quest. I *love* this game. It's adorable, funny, clever, and all about Halloween and trick-or-treating and costumes. You play as either a male or female twin. The other one gets kidnapped by monsters, who have invaded your neighborhood to steal all the candy to bring back to the monster world to give to their big boss, who looks like a fat grim reaper. The game is an RPG, so you walk around exploring the neighborhood, trick-or-treating, fighting and completing quests. You progress through the main story by quests and trick-or-treating. You always have to trick-or-treat at all the houses/shops in each level. Sometimes a human answers the door and gives you candy and other times a monster answers and fights you. In the field, you collect candy, find costume parts to create costumes using blueprints that you find, and talk to NPCs. Candy is used to buy 'battle stamps,' which are like accessories that add combat abilities, increase defense or attack, that kind of thing. Each character can equip one. Each character also can equip one costume, and you can change costumes and battle stamps in the field whenever you want. Changing costumes for their various abilities reminded me of Stacking, accumulating dolls for their abilities. Speaking of, I found a fun Stacking easter egg in the DLC! Your main character can use the ability of the costume s/he is wearing, if it has one. The robot costume can zoom around the map with rocket boots. The knight can create a protective shield to get past obstacles. The pirate can use ziplines with his hook. And so on.
Each costume also has a different special ability in battle. Using the same examples, the robot fires a missile barrage, the knight casts a protective shield, and the pirate...well, I never fought with the pirate. Battles are very simple. You have a basic attack, a special attack which has to charge for a couple rounds, and a battle stamp ability if you have one equipped. You score criticals by successfully doing quicktime events, hitting the button that pops up or whatever. You can also defend the same way when enemies attack. Boss battles are straightforward and easy. The boss for the Grubbins on Ice DLC was the most fun and challenging of them all. The final boss for the main game was also relatively difficult, requiring me at least to run away and change costumes and battle stamps.
One complaint I have read about the game is that it is simplistic and the mechanics get stale. I think the length was just right, roughly 6 hours for the main game. Much longer and I may have gotten a bit tired of the fighting. However, the rest of the game remained fun. Each level (there are 3, plus 1 DLC) has some of the same quests (bobbing for apples, hide 'n seek, trading cards), but I don't think they got stale. They weren't time consuming or out-of-the-way or anything, and they always gave neat rewards. The level designs were great, pretty simple, never got lost, but big enough to explore and find most everything. I was a few costumes short by the end, missing a piece here and there, and I was missing only one trading card! It was probably just a random one you get in battle in level 2 that I didn't find. The trading cards are funny. They are all candy/food but with gross names and pictures that reminded me of Garbage Pail Kids. I remember Caramold with a picture of a moldy caramel bar, Cake Cod, which was a cake shaped like a cod, and Cuttin' Candy, which was cotton candy in the shape of a butcher's knife. I don't know why I remember all the C words first. There are like 50 cards and they all made me chuckle. The humor in the game is great. If you like Tim Schafer/Double Fine's brand of humor, you'll love this.
Amazing game. DLC ends on a cliffhanger. More, please. Play this!
*Edit* I played this using Steam Box. It works. It is awesome. Hooked up my laptop to the TV, plugged in my Xbox controller, and played Costume Quest on the TV like a console game. I have like 41 games with controller support. Steam knows exactly what they are doing. Now if I want to play a PC game, but I want that on-the-couch-in-front-of-a-big-TV experience, I can. Consoles the world over quiver in fear. I think the real benefit will be when modded games get controller support, if they don't already. Take Skyrim for instance. If you buy it on console, it's just the game and DLC. On PC, you have access to tons of mods. Same with Portal 2 and a ton of other games, which is why I play these on PC. But sometimes, I'm like man, I just want to play this on the couch. If I could get the mods and the couch, I would be very happy. Steam Box, makin' it happen.
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