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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)
for that game. Call it a weblog of game playing activity if you will.
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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: Saturday 26 January, 2008
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Gamelog # 2 – part 2 (Super Mario 64)
Gameplay:
I’ve played Super Mario 64 two times now and I find that the more I play it the more I want to play it. At first I just figured I would play a few levels and then return the game to the library because I really don’t have enough time to play it, but I just can’t bring myself to return it. There is just something about the gameplay that makes Mario games so addictive and I don’t really know why, but I can hold testament to it. I would speculate that it definitely has something to do with collecting stars and achieving goal that are not too far out of reach. It seems similar to the satisfying feeling one gets when crossing something out on a to-do list. Of course there is also the atmosphere and the gameplay that are very important. Anyway, I’ll try to talk more about that later.
This time around I entered a couple more worlds and played the first level for a second time. I was surprised at how much harder the second world was because I thought that I had gotten a handle of the controls. Something about the new enemies and obstacles made Mario want to run off the side of the cliff about ten times. I also enjoyed how each world had a distinct feel to it. I liked the ice world just because for some reason I like the idea of snowy places and because I was fun to slide down the hill (at least it was fun when I intended to slide down the hills).
Playing through the fist world a couple more times I realized that the world changed a little bit and I realized that some task were much more difficult then others. It’s was interesting to see how many different task there were to do in the world and things that seemed to have no purpose in the first run through were suddenly keys to unlocking stars. I thought that this added a lot to the replay value of the game and I could see myself trying to get all the stars on each stage.
As far as general gameplay goes I did have some more experiences. For one thing it seemed like the enemies became more of a challenge. Another cool thing was that I learned that I could dive and snatch up small enemies, it didn’t mean much but it was fun. Also I found that if I paused the game I could get a good zoomed out view of the surrounding area.
I did have some not so exciting experiences the second time around. For example, I constantly found myself accidentally sliding and not being able to get out of it and my joystick had sensitivity issued because it is old and worn down. Also I still found the bosses and most of to be fairly easy to beat
Design:
Most gamers would agree that Super Mario 64 has excellent game design but it is hard to pin point exactly what makes it so good. I would argue that the key elements to the games success are its atmosphere and its gameplay.
One of the game strongest attributes is its ability to set up and maintain a powerful atmosphere or tone which ensnares the player. One of the ways the game does this is with its graphical and audio style. For example the game immediately starts off with a positive tone by showering you with color and familiar upbeat music. In addition, through having slightly less detailed and unrealistic art the game gives off the feeling of a surrealism and fantasy. Believe me when Mario is drawn in full detail it is really creepy and so by not including creepy details the game designers are able to make Mario’s world feel light hearted and charming. The style of the artwork generally stays the same throughout the levels, but through exaggerated colors and shapes each level is able to pull of its own unique atmosphere. For example, the ice world is showered in blue and has very steep inclines and sudden drops which can’t help but give you the feeling of being high on top a mountain; even though a real mountain would look nothing like that.
The music is just as important if not more important than the graphics. The music can make you feel happy go lucky like it usually does, but it can also give you a feeling of urgency and importance, like it often does in boss fights. The sound effects are also very good as conveying atmosphere and emotion, whether it is the diabolical sound of Bowser laughing, the simple sound of you sliding down a slope, or the pleasant sounds related to getting a star, all the sounds put you deeper into the world.
Other key parts of the atmosphere are the story and the characters. The story is one part of the atmosphere that his mixed results. On the one hand its simplicity allows for it to be understood and followed by a large audience. On the other hand you could argue that the story is to simple and subsequently not very engaging. I feel that one way the game could improve on this would be to put some more story based cut scene into the game and to at least make the text bubbles more readable by using a bolder font and a solid background, if not spicing up the contents of the text. Of course just because the story is not very engaging it does not mean that the characters are not, in fact the characters are very engaging. The characters are able to show a great range of emotion through facial expression, body language, and sound effects. All of these aspects add up to create very realistic characters which have personalities other their own. Ultimately this game makes great use of graphical, audio, and character design to create an engaging atmosphere.
But of course if atmosphere was all Super Mario 64 had it would just be a movie. What make Super Mario 64 a game is its superb gameplay. One of the best aspects of Mario’s gameplay is that it has very simple control mechanics in that it only uses a few buttons, but when you combine the buttons you are able to create many different outcomes. The simplicity makes the game accessible to people who are not very apt at gameplay and the possibility for complexity gives experienced players more to learn from the game and more options for play style. Another factor that leads to a wide audience is that many of the obstacles require both mental and gameplay skills to overcome.
Along with the gameplay comes the gameworld design. The gameworld often feels free and wide open because of the 3D graphics and the seemingly extra areas of land, but when you examine the game closely you realize that there is really one route to progress through the game. However more freedom can be seen within the path in that the player can get past obstacles in more than one way. This gameworld approach has multiple benefits because it gives the player a feeling of freedom and choice, but the game designer still maintains most of the control on the overall gameplay experience.
In particular the levels of the game maintain the same core gameworld foundations and gameplay, but somehow every level seems fresh and varied. Part of this is due to the different atmospheres of the levels, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that in every level there are new obstacles and enemies introduced that challenge the player and require them to learn more about the game. The levels also do a good job of pacing the difficulty, each level seems to get harder at a steady rate and there are no huge jumps in difficulty. The only problem I did have with difficulty was that the bosses seemed a little too easy, and therefore more of an afterthought than an actual challenge. Another good aspect of the level design is that each level has multiple goals that have to be accomplished this is definitely a good economic use of the levels and adds to the replay value of the game. Also when you see how many different things there are to accomplish in a world it makes the world seem very large.
The game also has an excellent reward system which makes you feel good when you succeed and reinforces you with consistent victory animation and sound. The reward system also keeps you hooked because you want to keep getting stars and unlocking new stages. Also you get smaller rewards such as coins for smaller task such as defeating an enemy which makes it seem like almost nothing you do in the game is unproductive.
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