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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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Wii Sports (Wii) by CelestialWing |
| A great game for casual play with friends. The highlight is its simplicity and accessibility, but overall it falls short in depth and longevity. It only deserves a four if played in short bursts with others, otherwise it's a three. |
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most recent entry: Thursday 21 February, 2008
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GAMEPLAY (2)
Being the type of game it is, my opinion of Wii Sports did not change much upon a few more sessions with it. Once again, playing for a short while with others was fun, but not exactly memorable. As a single player experience, it certainly did not hold my attention for long. However, a more recent experience with it made me give it some more value.
This happened to be the first time I was in the position of the introducer (for this game). The roles of the first time I played Wii Sports were reversed, only this time the other person was my oldest sister - who primarily only plays games in the vein of Tetris and Spider Solitaire. She was quite reluctant to try out Wii Sports; after all, the time when I convinced her to play Myst, a game I thought she might like, did not turn out exactly well...though it was quite interesting and amusing, but that's another story for another time.
So after much convincing that it would be fun and easy to get into, we decided to try, of course, Wii-tennis - since it was, again, the easiest to get into. Although my crazy situation was much less likely to happen with my oldest sister, I promptly informed her about the almighty importance of timing, and timing only in the game as soon as I noticed her having difficulties. I'm still not sure if she assumed some of the same stuff as me or if she was just getting used to the timing, but informing her about it quickly certainly helped. Also, the replays were surprisingly useful in telling her stuff like "You swung too soon there, see?" or "Swing just a little bit before that." etc. She soon got the hang of it.
Interestingly, the only part of the Wii-tennis that had come to me naturally the first time I played, the serving, gave my oldest sister more trouble since it was more complex. I was so used to this part of the game, and it had come to me so much easier since it was the only part that felt more like actual tennis to me, that it was a change of perspective to see my sister having the opposite reaction to it. Granted, that was because she thought underhanded serves could be done, and while explaining and watching her, I had the strange experience of consciously realizing that any two consecutive swings (properly timed of course) of the Wii-mote would work as a serve; I say "consciously" because unconsciously I already knew this must be the case, since the Wii-tennis game did not take into account swing direction in any other case. I had always used the actual overhand swing motion (up-down, much like the one done by the player's Mii) since it was natural to me; it was only now I realized the first swing sent up the ball, and the second swing, well, swung. It was funky watching my sister successfully serving with a left-right motion or, even weirder, a down-up motion.
In the end, it was fun and great to be having a close Wii-tennis match with my oldest sister after she quickly learned how to play the game. Also, she found the cartoony graphics and replays of screw-ups hilarious, and it rubbed off on me since I had always thought they were funny too. We had quite a few matches, full of cracking up at our Mii's crazy screwed-up dives and swings, as well as the always bouncing, cheering crowd which seemed happy regardless of if a ball had just hit them in the face. She was reluctant to try out another "sport" and we had limited time anyway, so we just continued playing and laughing through tennis matches...
DESIGN
As my experiences highlight, the core of Wii-Sports' design, as well as its main strength and weakness, is its accessibility and simplicity. It easy to get anyone into the games, especially the simpler ones, and have a good time. On the other hand, the lack of depth does not make it good for extended play. In other words it has a lot of the first seduction (especially because of it being packaged with the Wii, it is automatically gotten and almost "bypasses", in a loophole fashion, having to get the player to have enough interest in the game to buy it.), but not enough of the second seduction.
This is also because the single player options are meager even for a game made for multi-player (such as fighting games, racers, or party games). Game genres like these are simply better suited for multi-player, but often can cover there bases pretty well with good single player modes or options. Some games even have such-well designed single player modes that the single-player experience can arguably exceed the multi-player experience (I'm told Soul Caliber III does just that). This game only attempts that with (at least I'm told) an increasing AI difficulty to match your Mii's "skill" level.
Also, another part of some multi-player games is the semi-concealed depth some of them offer, a sort of emergent complexity that comes from becoming more experienced with the game. This is present in many fighters of course, including the Super Smash Brothers series of fighter/party game hybrids, and some racers as well, Mario Kart series included. Nintendo has proven it can do this with those two series, but perhaps it was more difficult to get that into this sort of game, because it seems to be lacking that depth as far as I can tell.
To end this not sounding like I hate the game, I'll just say again that the game is great to get into and get others into for a short, fun romp. The graphics may not be great, but at least they're cartoony and funny. Also, the Wii-mote is certainly great to play with; although other Wii-games may do it just as well (or possibly better), this is as good a game as any to introduce someone to the Wii "experience". Although some of the games (*cough*...tennis...*cough*) may not simulate the actual sport very well, they are still fun to play with the Wii-mote, while others actually sort-of feel like the real activity (like bowling). Anyways, I don't want the line to blur too much between the Wii console's strengths and this game's actual strengths. In summary, play this in short bursts with friends or newcomers to games/the Wii/whatever.
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