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Phantom Abyss (PC) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 19:14:27) |
I'd heard of the game's hook (or gimmick if you will) as, everyday it's a different 1st person platforming game/run, and if you die - that's it. Play a different run later.
I'm guessing stuff changed along the way, though the concept is still here - it's a reasonably challenging rogue-like 1st person platforming game. I've had fun, you have a whip to help you climb and each level has different modifiers (the whip has an ability) and you can pick up boons in your run (if you have enough coins to afford them) and hopefully make it to the end. BUT, you see a bunch of ghosts for everyone else who played this level - if someone died, you can collect their spirit or something for a small heal! During each run you collect keys you can use to buy permanent upgrades, and so you go up the progression ladder of many roguelites...
Someone described this as first person temple run, which is close enough? I mean, the levels themselves are a lot more interesting than the "mere" reaction times that temple run goes for, here you can side-step/etc. stuff - and there are different paths, and in all you can be a bit creative for how you approach stuff...I've had fun so far - unlocked all the green levels and I've started on the blue ones!
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Cuphead (Switch) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:37:03) |
I only get to play this when my son comes around - and we play together and I realized, yeah - I need to either start practicing seriously or just give up. And, I enjoy playing it co-op, so there's not much sense in practicing, so I decided to give up.
We did make it to the 2nd island(?), and played some of the levels there - but I was clearly starting to see a steeper path to success. As in, it too us (mostly my fault) more and more tries to make less progress. He's already played it, beat it too? So, not much point for him really.
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Sonic Rush (DS) by jp (Apr 6th, 2025 at 13:34:08) |
I started playing this from the saved game - with new(?) character Blaze on "area 2" (I don't remember the exact name). And, I just could not beat the level - it was set in the casino world, and everything was moving super fast and on "automatic" - so, you just press move and the character zips along, bounces, etc.
It's actually quite boring! Because you just do this, at some point you hit an enemy (very few enemies in the game!), lose your rings, and then carry on. But, I'd lose because I'd fall into a bottomless pit, lose three lives and then out.
I'd say it wasn't so much frustrating as it was a disappointment. Yes, the point of Sonic is that it's "fast" - that's it's thing. But I find that there's little interaction to the game for most of the levels - you just "go along with the direction". It's neat when sometimes you get bounced around automatically, but for the most part I like to control the character.
So, I deleted the save file and started a new one, this time with Sonic in the equivalent of green hill zone. This level has two areas and then a boss. So, it's like 3 levels make up a level.
And, the experience was pretty similar - run on automatic for a while, lose rings suddenly or die, repeat with a bit more caution...etc. I did make it all the way to the boss fight - which I almost beat one too many times, and I just realized - ok, this is dumb - at least the boss fights have more gameplay ( you dodge, make an attack when the weak spot is open, etc.) - but it's still a pretty boring/uninteresting platforming experience.
So, off to the shelf it goes!
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Secret Files: Tunguska (DS) by jp (Apr 4th, 2025 at 19:16:25) |
I 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.
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Shogun Showdown (PC) by dkirschner (Apr 4th, 2025 at 18:33:00) |
Clever little tactics roguelite. It reminds me of Into the Breach and other tactics games where you are given clear information about what enemies will do each turn. It's also reminiscent of Into the Breach because of the small play space. Basically, the game takes place on a 2d plane that is divided into like 8 or 9 spaces. Any given character occupies 1 space and can move left or right. You build a "deck" of "tiles" that include attacks and other special abilities, many of which involve movement (e.g., a forward dash that moves to the nearest frontal enemy and deals 1 damage). Your goal is to build up your tiles and progress stage by stage until you kill the Shogun.
During each run, you can purchase and upgrade tiles, mostly increasing their damage or decreasing their cooldowns, purchase passive abilities, use items, and other standard roguelite stuff--make yourself stronger by strategically handling whatever random things you get.
Most every action you do takes a turn, and all characters take turns at the same time. So, you move right (1 turn) and all the enemies do a thing (one might move left toward you, one might queue up an attack). Then you queue up an attack, and those two enemies might queue up an attack and attack, respectively. Actually, it also reminds me of Crypt of the Necrodancer, which works like this, where all characters act simultaneously. In that game, when you move, everything else moves. Shogun Showdown is like that. When you do something, the enemies do something.
I beat the Shogun for the first time this evening, which was maybe my fifth run or so. I had what felt like extremely overpowered weapons, a sword that I'd leveled up to deal 5 damage with only a 2-turn cooldown. I also had a bow-and-arrow with 4 damage and a 3-turn cooldown. The kicker though was a curse that doubled the next damage on an enemy. So, I'd just queue the curse, the sword, and the arrow. That took literally half the Shogun's health bar. Did it again, dead and into phase 2. No problem. Did it two more times. Dead. Easy. When you beat the Shogun, you unlock "day 2", which is the next difficulty level. You can also unlock additional characters with different skills, and you can keep unlocking new tiles and stuff. I consider it beat after taking out the Shogun once. It's a fun game, really tight, and makes you think ahead. It doesn't do much that you haven't seen before though.
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GameLog hopes to be a site where gamers such as yourself keep track of the games that
they are currently playing. A GameLog is basically a record of a game you started playing. If it's open,
you still consider yourself to be playing the game. If it's closed, you finished playing the game. (it doesn't matter
if you got bored, frustrated,etc.) You can also attach short comments to each of your games or even maintain a diary (with more detailed entries)
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2285 registered gamers and 3255 games. 7787 GameLogs with 13264 journal entries. 5110 games are currently being played.
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most recent entry: Sunday 9 February, 2014
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Game Summary:
This is a Milton Bradley board game for 2-6 players ages 6 and up. The object of the game is to get all of your marbles around the board back to home before the other players can. You can all play nice or play dirty. If you land on another player's marble you get to send it back to base. The game ends whenever the first player gets all 4 marbles home and that player wins.
Game Pieces:
Game board with holes to hold the marbles
5 Marbles of 6 colors (Only 4 marbles of each color are used in the game)
One six-sided dice
Terminology:
Base – These are the 4 starter locations for your marbles.
Home – These are the 4 locations you need to get your marbles to win.
Aggravation – When a player lands on another players marble and sends it back home.
Star Hole Shortcut – Around the center of the board are 6 holes that if you land in them you can get around the board more quickly.
Center Hole Shortcut – This is a special shortcut in the center of the board. If you roll an exact number you can land here and skip to any star hole if you exit it. To leave the center you must roll a 1.
Gameplay:
Each player starts with their four marbles in their base. Each player rolls to see who goes first. High roll wins and play goes clockwise. To get out of the base you must roll either a 1 or 6 and your marble goes to the start position. If you roll a 6 you can roll again. Your marbles can jump over or land on top of enemy marbles but you cannot go jump passed your own marbles. You also cannot get another marble out of the base if another one of your marbles is in the start spot. If you land on top of an enemy marble you will send them back to their base. To get into the Star Hole Shortcut or Center Hole Shortcut you have to roll an exact number to move into those spots. If you are in the Star Hole Shortcut you can go around to the different stars until you get back to your row. If you don't land on one of the shortcuts exactly you have to go around the home of each of the opponents bases. To exit the Center Hole Shortcut you must roll a 1 but you can go to any of the Star Holes. Once your marbles get close to being Home you have to roll exact numbers to fill up the home slots. If you roll a higher number than moves available then you are blocked and have to pass the turn. Once a player has all their marbles into Home they win the game.
In House Rule:
If you roll 3 6's in a row you have to send a ball back home. This is just a rule we've always had in case someone gets “too lucky”.
Affordances:
You have the Star Circle in the middle which you can use as a shortcut.
You can use your power to send another player's marbles back home.
You get a free roll if you roll a 6.
Limitations:
You cannot jump over your own marbles.
You cannot leave your base without a roll of a 1 or 6.
First Play Session:
I was playing with 3 family members who all had played before but it had just been a long time since we played. It was my mother, aunt, step-dad and myself. We decided we were going to play two games. One that we would play nice and one more dirty. This game is very luck based with the dice. It took a couple turns for anyone to get out and the other three players including me were stuck. The first player to get out was my step-dad. He nearly had a marble home before I got out. My step-dad got a marble into the center star. My aunt was stuck for a long time with bad rolls and couldn't get started. We all had several opportunities to send each other's marbles back but noone wanted to do it this game unless we had no other option. This game was not that close because my step-dad got most of his marbles home before others could get out. The game can be very luck dependent but players can choose to team up to intentionally take out the leader's marbles to bring him back down. My step-dad did get stuck for a while trying to get his last ball home. He needed to roll a 1 and took several turns to get it. Another observation is that it is usually best to land in the normal Star Hole Shortcut because you don't have to rely on rolling a 1 to get out. Many times someone would get stuck in the center shortcut and took a long time to get out.
Second Play Session:
The second game started much like the first. My mother got out first and got to a big lead before anyone else could get a marble out of the base. This game we played more aggressive. My aunt got her first ball stuck in the center and couldn't roll a 1 or a 6 and was stuck there for a long time. We sent my step-dad back to base several times trying to make sure he didn't win twice in a row. There were two times in this game where I rolled 6's three times in a row and by our rule I had to return a ball back to base. The finish to the game ended up very close. Every player had 3 of the 4 balls back in the base and were looking for specific rolls to get home and win. My mother needed a 4 to get in for several turns. She got a couple 1's and then finally a 2 to win the game.
Thoughts About the Game:
The game generally works well but it does hurt the fun for some players when they get stuck and have trouble even getting out of their base. The game is very simple to learn and is very easy to explain for the first time. It is fun to have the choice of playing nice or dirty and sending the other players' marbles back to base. With the way the game is setup, no 2 games will be alike. If there was one thing I'd like to change would be that maybe each player could start with a ball in the start position instead so they have something to do in the early game. Overall it was a fun experience for all the players and we'd like to play more games like this one.
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