This might replace Wildfrost as my "deck building rogue-like" comfort game. To be fair, Wildfrost doesn't have much narrative/storytelling, so I'm mostly play the run-of-the-day... and this game (I'm twelve runs in, many being fails, only 4 wins!, but I've moved "up" to try to win on hard - and it's been close a few times) always seems to have some new thing that gets added or presented. By that I don't mean typical rogue-like elements like new charms or whatever, but rather some new story tid-bit or a different story interaction with some game character. The "run" structure of the game is built into the narrative since it's a time-loop story that we're trying to break out of, but can't yet(?), and we often run into alternate versions of the crew from different timelines who seem to know more about what's going on. It's fun, interesting, the runs are a wee bit longer than I'd like but...
- As you play you can unlock new crew members, and they each have their own unique mini deck of cards, so there's nice variability going in to a run.
- There are at least 5 different ships to play with (I've only unlocked 2, so I have three to choose from). They also significantly change how to approach the game tactically (and strategically), so this adds greater variability going in.
Once you're in a run - the game's key "gimmick" is the sideways movement of your ship - you know what enemies will do, draw a hand of cards and try to hit the enemy and not take damage in return. So, it adds sideways movement to what Slay the Spire did in that sense.
It's a match 3! And there are so many variants on the gameplay, BUT Panel de Pon is - if I recall, one of the earlier match-3 games, though originally it would have been considered a Tetris variant of sorts?
Hmm. I'll have to think about it some more. So, the first game was (according to Wikipedia) a SNES game called Panel de Pon (in Japan) but Tetris Attack everywhere else. Again, according to Wikipedia, Nintendo just slapped the name on it because they could (according to the terms of their licensing deal for Tetris at the time) , presumably to get some market recognition and drive greater sales. The game play is of similar (but also different) (and here I'm referring to Panel de Pon DS, which is the one I played):
LIKE modern match-3s, when you match three (or more) symbols of the same kind, they disappear.
LIKE modern match-3s, the core gameplay is swapping two tiles. However, here the swap is only horizontal AND, you can swap with an empty space. You can also swap without making a match. The swapping with an empty space I found really interesting, since you can "drop" tiles in a tall column by swapping with the empty space alongside. Oh, you can also swap quickly to create chains while an earlier match is still "resolving".
LIKE Tetris, you lose when tiles reach the top of the screen. The screen starts with some tiles, rather than being empty. Unlike Tetris, where pieces drop from the top, here a new row of random pieces scrolls in from the bottom (you can also speed it up, if you're just waiting to make a match)
LIKE Tetris, the longer you play the faster things move/go.
I'm sure there's more stuff - and, since I'm playing the Japanese version - and there's lots of menus and I wasn't that patient, I only tried out a few modes...so who knows what sorts of other nonsense I missed out on? (there's a puzzle mode where your goal is to clear the screen entirely, an "endless mode" (I wasn't able to play endlessly, but that's what it seemed the mode was) and more...
It's kind of strange for me to say that the Sonic levels of this game are the least interesting or fun for me, and that the ship-levels were more interesting. To be fair I'm only 3 (4?) islands in - with two regular Sonic levels on each (not including the 1st island - which is where you start) followed by a boss.
My issues with the first 4 sonic levels or so is that, they're fast, mostly play themselves and then you hit an obstacle, lose the rings, and so on. So, I didn't feel like I was actually navigating the world. Sonic's always been fast - but rarely so fast you couldn't follow along...maybe it's just me getting old here? So, lots of zippy parts, loops, speed boosters, the pipes that shoot you along, and more - but, very little to do as a player (mostly). Sonic can now do tricks in the air (for extra points) but it all felt a bit meh to me. Clearly I'm not doing something right because I haven't gotten better than a "C" on any level - but I don't know if that's because I'm taking too long, not doing enough tricks, or simply because I generally lose rings once - near the end, and then clear the level without a lot of rings.
The ship levels are different though!
The premise is you're on an island and need to sail to the next ones. I have no idea what the actual story is because I've skipped it all... There are four different ships (maybe more?) and to build them you need resources (you get from completing a level - with my "C" finishes I only get one resource, perhaps you get more than one with a higher rating?), and a character then builds a ship. I only have two - and I've only built one - but they play differently! The first one is like a jetski - you mostly face away from the screen, use the touchscreen to move left/right to collect rings and avoid hazards. Also you can go up ramps and then do a "swipe" trick. It's fun, not too complicated, and there's also a boost to balst through obstacles and increase your speed (I used it in a race that netted my first chaos emerald). The 2nd ship is more of a boat - it has cannons and stuff - and the level had me shooting rings, enemies, and more. There are 3 weapons - which have cool downs and you want to switch between them because they do different damage (cannons, flamethrower, machine gun), reload at different speeds and so on. You can pretty much shoot anything (including little islands) with was neat.
Why are you sailing from island to (undiscovered) island? I have no idea - it sort of made me think that this was SEGA's take on Zelda's Phantom Hourglass for the DS (itself a sort of take on Wind Waker)? Different games, for sure, but similar vibes in the island hopping and sailing? Here you draw a line on the screen from one island to the next and then play a boat level... and I required the boat (jetski no longer good enough) to get to the further island.
Of all the crime solving DS games I've played "recently" (last year or so?) this one is easily one of the better ones in that the game's interface does not get in the way of the crime solving and figuring out culprits and what not. There's some solid design here and I really liked how the crimes are structured in a way that scaffolds the experience (to help minimize the "what do I do next?") in a way that makes sense.
In this game it's your partner who sort of moves things along - you explore a crime scene and then they bring up a question/issue that needs resolving or answering - and then you point to the clues that answer that question. It's really good at making the experience not overwhelming while also being naturalistic - here's your senior partner (you're the rookie) sort of guiding you along - e.g. we need to know who was sitting where at the table in order to eliminate a suspect, and then you answer and a suspect is eliminated. There's some moving around a 3D environment (really simple ones, which is nice) finding clues and stuff... There's even a "lets go give our supervisor a report" in which you explain where things are at in the case ("we know it was a murder and not a suicide"), answer some questions (how do you know this?) and are then ordered back to the scene to continue working the case (now find me the murderer!).
I've done the tutorial and two cases - bot pretty simple with only two hiccups - one was a safe I needed to open, I understood the clue but the actual solution was less direct than what I thought the clue said. You had to rotate the safe dial a certain number of times, while I though you had to move the dial in a particular direction based on the clues such that it was in a certain position. I almost bailed here - thanks to a gamefaq everything was clarified. The next point of friction was a bunch of fruit I needed to examine - I missed something and was caught up on what seemed to be a mistake on a receipt (bananas x 1) when there were 4 bananas! This seemed odd to me but I could signal "the bananas are suspicious!" - eventually I realized that one of the apples had something MORE suspicious and from there it was case closed pretty much.
The back of the box says there are "5 exciting action games" - I haven't seen any yet, so I'm curious...
