Hidden Gems part 4

 Good news, I got the platinum on grass cutter without too many hairs pulled from my head, I thought you should know. Anyway, here's some more games from the sale that is now over, but best to know what's been missed, though people could just pay full price.

I WANT TO BE HUMAN

After a whole post without 2D platformers, both the most frequently appearing genre in budget titles and of course my favourite, they return. I want to be human is one of those intentionally super tough games like Super Meat Boy or Celeste but without the quick checkpoints, speedy game play and many more cheap deaths. You get a life bar and a gun to shoot your way through the levels. the first world is actually pretty fun and challenging (with very easy bosses, yay), but then you get to world 2 and the difficulty spike is so sharp that it might take your eye out. Suddenly there are laser beams, hidden spikes, bombs, turrets, death pits and more absolutely everywhere (plus all the enemies shooting you that seem like an unnecessary nuisance when trying to get the platforming just right) and the long checkpoints means you'll need to do a near perfect run to get through, which makes this game a hell of a grind. I have long since known and said that platformers with a weapon are never as good as pure platformers like the ones mentioned above or of course, the 2 infamous Icons of this genre, Bubsy the Bobcat and Aero the Acro-Bat. That means this is already a 'lesser than' game in my eyes even before I wanted to put my controller through the television. On the plus side though I absolutely love the art style and the music is pretty good, it's just a shame that the character has to shout 'ow' in the voice of a 5 year old girl every time you take damage, which as mentioned, is a lot. If, like me, you like challenging platformers, it may be for you, depending on the amount of gamer rage you get. Overall I paid less than £1, and the first world was fairly good, which means I'm gonna give it a 5/10. I could try and 'get gud' but I can't be bothered.

MOTHER RUSSIA BLEEDS    

We got a brawler here. This one is a classic brawler game (like Streets of Rage (there will be many comparisons coming up), walking around the screen, beating people up, you know the drill. Set in Russia, the plot obviously involves drugs, slums and governmental conspiracy, as that happens 24/7 over there. After being abducted from your slum, as one of 4 swappable characters you have to figure out the source of the drugs that have broke down your home slum. There's a few interesting mechanics here. Your life is restored by using the drug, which you refill by draining from dead enemies plus there are also other uses for the drug, the primary one being a berserk mode which lets you instantly execute enemies. There are other types of drugs to unlock in the arena mode (arenas you unlock throughout the game which is a horde mode that I didn't bother with (there's too many games to get through)) but personally I found this to be a waste of the resource that was much better used on the health benefits (like crystal meth). The game also supplies a different way to implement lives (certainly different to SOR4 anyway (or indeed, any Streets of Rage)). Instead of the traditional method of having a certain amount of lives at the start of the level whereby losing them means you have to restart the whole level, there's only 1 life but with checkpoints. It makes each fight tougher as one death means restarting from a checkpoint, but not as frustrating as having to start the whole level over again. I approve of this change. It's got one of my favourite differences too, loads of blood and gore, always fun to see. It's not perfect though, certainly the most annoying thing to me is the hitboxes, where I often found myself missing punches because I was a slight millimeter off the enemy and felt like every enemy character was living as a 2d character in a 3D plane. Guns are the other annoyance to me, sure, it's good to pick them up and wipe out all the enemies but  no so good when a character comes off screen wielding a fire arm that you have a split second to notice, let alone react to and pops a cap in yo' face a couple of times which kills you. Overall though, this is a very good brawler, with a decent story to boot, I can highly recommend this one, and if, like me, you enjoy a good retro style brawler, this is for you. I'm not sure it's quite as good as SOR4 (though that is aided by a nostalgic edge), but MRB certainly runs it close. 9/10. Oh, there's also up to 4 player local co-op, which would be good if I had any friends.

SUPER BLOOD HOCKEY

Like Golazo! before, we're back to an arcade sports game, and another pretty entertaining one. Now, as an Englishman I know very little about Ice hockey, my only real experience being from NHL 2k7, which I enjoyed quite a lot. This is nothing like that other than it's the same sport (so I guess it's kinda like that). A side on 16 bit style game that is more to do with bashing the opposing team about than actually scoring. A lot of the focus on this game is the brawls, which will leads to injuries to the brawls losing team, some temporary that they soon recover from, some disabling that take them out of the rest of the match and some fatal, meaning in certain modes that player is gone forever (also, it too has a lot of blood, another plus). Although it's a fun game to play, franchise mode is where it gets good (though it's no master league). After getting your kidney harvested to start up your franchise (I Believe that's the American term for sports team (I don't know why, they're not opening up a McDonalds) you have to build your squad from a selection of players, which you can add to over time when you get the cash, and you will need to. These players can then be improved through performances in game and training, as well as changing their diets to increase/ decrease their weight (no I can't actually tell what difference that makes) and buying illegal drugs from the dealer in the back alley. The thing really to watch is brain damage, the higher it gets, the more likely to get injuries in a game, and the more chance they get a disabling injury to leave them unavailable for a while (and you have to pay their health bill, or you can pull the plug on them and cash in oth the compensation) or indeed fatal injuries, removing them forever. You can set them to train on losing the brain damage but I find it never really keeps up with how much is received during matches, which leads to you needing a squad so you can rest your better players up to recover. This game isn't perfect though with a couple of gripes that often run amok in these arcade style sports game. Firstly, the AI team mates don't seem to know what's going on at all, I'm pretty sure I know more about Hockey than they do as they wander out of formation constantly and their positioning when your on the puck (is that the term, like one the ball?) is useless as it seems by far the best chance to get a goal is to square it across goal but frequently your team mates will come and stand right next to you, which offers no help at all. The other issue is the player swapping, it can often be infuriating trying to get control of the right player when trying to defend, leaving the team susceptible to conceded goals, this seems to be a common issue in these cheaper arcade sports games. I did like this game and might even go back and play it again (though I never did with Golazo! after thinking the same thing) and try to retain my franchise crown (and maybe turn it up from easy mode). 8/10.

SNAKEY BUS

Time to hit the streets in the fastest thing on 4 wheels, a bus! This is a cross between Crazy Taxi and Snake, and it comes together very well. As a bus you travel from stop to stop, gaining points and extra carriages as you pick up passengers. The objective, to survive as long as you can. The game is not quite as punishing as Snake, as you can hit other parts of the bus going round and round the map, but when you get stuck, or depending on the level, fall off the edge, it's all over. The bus flies around at high speeds and the bus jump high into the air, as all busses should. You have to plan your route if you want to score high so the challenge is not only in driving around but thinking both ahead of time and on the fly to keep yourself going. I really enjoyed it and the enticement of yet another platinum trophy kept me going. This time it's not an easy one, but also not the hardest, perseverance will pay off, assuming you actually gain skill at playing the game, like how all games work. Because of this shiny carrott at the end of the stick, it made me care about high scores for the first time since Geometry Wars 2. There is a lifespan on this game as there's only a handful of different areas and bus types, but it is great fun while it lasts. Certainly worth a few hours of time. 8/10

Some good games this time, which makes a nice change, maybe I've learned after all this time that the best games aren't the ones where you get a platinum trophy after less than an hour, but are actually good enough to not get fed up of them after barely any time has passed, with extras to keep you coming back. Who knew? Anyway, still more games to go, this ain't over yet. 

Hidden Gems Part 3

Uh oh, the sale ended. Well, I've purchased all these games now, so better carry on regardless.

GRASS CUTTER, MUTATED LAWNS

Finally a game about one of the more mundane chores (that said, all chores are rather mundane), mowing the lawn. I do not have Pac Man fever, don't get the big deal and that is clearly an inspiration for this game. You have to go around a garden cutting the grass, avoiding enemies and traps, though unfortunately you can't eat any ghosts. There's a variety of different lawnmowers you can unlock which have different special moves for which you get the coins to unlock them quickly so can gather up the different vehicle types quickly. The problem is that I am so bad at this, coupled with me not enjoying this genre of game anyway means I won't be amongst the 75% of players that got the platinum trophy. It seems harsh to give this a bad score as I can see how it might be enjoyable, but if, like me, you're not a fan of Pac Man (i'm sure others exist) style games, avoid this like the plague. 3/10

CONCRETE GENIE

Back to the AA games then and this was a Playstation second party exclusive released late last year to little fanfare. I wasn't interested at the time as it looked like a pretty average kind of game but there I went and bought it anyway. So, you're some street artist (but the non criminal type) called Ash (Piantem) who has to paint walls to make friendly Genies appear who help traverse the areas, unfortunately these genies neither grant wishes not perform Robin Williams impersonations. The areas are blocked by light puzzles and a group of bullies who take away your magic paintbrush and throw you in a skip. The auto setting for the game is to use motion sensitive controls (thanks a bunch Nintendo), but fortunately you can turn that garbage off and use the right stick as soon as the tutorial is over and move it to the right stick, however you can't invert the Y axis on the painting even though you can with the regular camera. What is with the bullying of the inverted users going on (mind you, people who invert the X axis are clearly evil)? After you get through 2/3 of the game, the bullies put some black stuff all over your walls, which turns the genies evil, thus starts a rescue mission to save the bullies (if it were me, I'd have just left them all to die). The game then switches to become a third person action game (who would have seen that coming from a Playstation exclusive), where you skate around and attack the evil genies to turn them good again, and save the bullies (gotta save 'em all). After about an hour of the complete shift it game, it ends, the bullies now like you because you saved them of course (they never had a friend like Ash), thus proving the only way to stop a child being bullied is to wait until they're in mortal danger, then save their lives. It's a weird game and kind of short (thankfully). At least the developers (pixelopus) tried something new but didn't really commit as it ended in more standard fair. It's an acceptable game at a reduced price. 6/10

ONE NIGHT STAND

This is one of those choose your own adventure type games. Waking up next to a girl in a bed, with a mega handover and a bad case of the forgotten evening (sounds familiar (except the waking up next to a girl part)), the objective is to figure out what happened. The game is only a few minutes long and requires multiple playthroughs to get all 9 endings, some good, some bad. It deserves multiple playthroughs too, there is plenty to learn about this mysterious girl and it's an interesting concept. Of course, if like me, and you like platinum trophies you'll end up ruining it after the game has largely played out, by then consulting a trophy guide and having to play it over again several times to get the exact required outcomes. That is my fault though, and not that of the game (that said, over half the players have the platinum so maybe it was to be expected (though I think this was a mobile game first so maybe not)). Anyway, it's a quick and interesting game as you try to get close to her, as long as you don't overstay your welcome (and she kicks you out after trying to smuggle out her panties). 7/10

CONCEPT DESTRUCTION

Do you like Micro Machines? Do you like Destruction Derby (the game, not the redneck hick passtime). Do you like cars made out of cardboard that look like they were designed by a person with no fingers, holding a pen between their stubs? If you said yes to all 3 then stop the presses right now. So, it's a quick, easily approachable racer. Like flatout 4 you drive around bashing in to other cars in races and derby events (last one standing wins the prize), so, simple really. The game is extraordinarily easy as the opposition don't put up much of a challenge and again comes with an easy platinum (if someone looked at my trophy list with all these cheap Platinum trophies they'd think I'm a total loser with no life (oh, wait...)). This game is fine for a couple of squid and indeed it's also fine for the couple of hours it lasts (it has multiplayer but good luck trying to convince anyone to play this with), I don't hate it, the price should tell you all that's needed, it's £4 at full price now the sale has ended, which is a pretty spot on price for it. Better recommendations here would be Wreckfest, Table Top Racing or indeed, Fl4tout, but, if like me, you enjoy budget games that waste a couple of hours that you didn't really have anything else to do with anyway, then this is for you. 5/10

More games yet to come, a non stop thrill ride of indie games and other budget 'gems'. Maybe I should go and cut my actual grass instead.

 

Hidden Gems part 2

Despite the fact I already purchased a dozen or so games on the sale, I've only gone and purchased another 8. I need about a months holiday from work now if I ever intend to play them all, many of them are much longer from the 1 to 2 hour experiences I went through before. Maybe I could throw myself down the stairs and break my leg? Anyway, more games on the sale coming up.

88 Heroes

2D platformer again, and one with an interesting concept. you have 88 minutes to complete the 88 levels with 88 lives. However, this isn't lives in the usual sense. There are 88 different playable characters that are selected randomly as you play, some good, some bad. Love has gone in to all the characters, each wildly, or slightly different from each other and many of them references to other games, movies and TV from Mario and the Ninja turtles to Snake (as in the mobile game, not of the solid variety). This game is hard, sometimes because I make a lot of mistakes due to the the rush of getting through levels (which is the point) to some that are unavoidable. Some levels are either impossible or extremely difficult to complete with some characters and the only way to change character is to die, then you're down a life/ hero. Additionally (and more frustratingly) is the level scrolling. The first time I played it through I didn't even know you could look around as it never tells you how, or indeed that such an option exists. On top of that the scrolling takes time, vital seconds, and as silly as it sounds you're racing against the clock and stopping to look at what is coming multiple times a level eats up way too much, personally I think the the clock should be stopped when you do this. One more problem, each character comes with a bio, which are fun but they cover up most of the screen so when there is an early danger in a level, you can't see it coming. Overall this is a very  inventive game that I would love to see a sequel of, with some of the niggles ironed out. It's close to being something really special but for now I'll have to give it 7/10.

HORROR STORIES

This is a top down survival game of sorts. In the event anyone has ever played Party hard (where you're a top down 1 screen guy who has to silently slaughter everyone on screen), it's the opposite of that. It's a one screen affair too but this time the player is the one in peril. The protagonist has to sneak around the screen, hiding from a masked killer that is somewhere between Jason Voorhees and Leatherface (and later on other classic horror villains (or so I hear)) in order to set traps to escape. It's not quite that simple, every trap involves needing to find a specific item that sets up a separate, specific trap in a different location on the screen. This frustrated me as setting the traps in one would speed the play up, they could even add more traps but without the required items and that would work better. To be honest, this is a poor game. After playing the first level you get the whole game as it repeats just on seperate maps. The enemy spotting can be very frustrating, you are often seen from a mile away, yet also frequently not spotted right buy in front of the killers face. Additionally as soon as the slasher spots you, there seems to be no way to escape no matter what wardrobe you try to play in and you must start over. This game is dull and repetitive and not as quick paced as I would like for such a simple set up. To be fair I only played this game for about 20 minutes and didn't want to carry on, but from some gameplay videos I can tell I wouldn't want to. I paid 50p and I'd quite like it back. 2/10 (it didn't crash so it is not a 1/10)

GOLAZO!

Yes! football. There has, of course, been a lot of football games down the years and I have played a whole lot of them, from Pro Evo 4 to Actua Soccer 3 (to be fair, I liked that game based on Villa park being in it and the ability to leave footprints on the snow) and it was time to add another to my vast collection. An arcade soccer game that is a cross between Red Card Soccer and Sensible soccer (ugh, 'soccer'). The view is is side on like modern day games and has little rules and no fowls (apart from in the penalty area for reasons), there's a few power ups, speed, tackling and shooting which amounts to a simple, yet enjoyable arcade football game. there are no real licensed players, obviously (though unfortunately no teams made of different names of cheeses) with only a couple of modes, exhibition, world cup and league. There is local multiplayer (shame I have no friends) but unfortunately no online. The game adds a handful of collectibles, different kits etc. to unlock, but at the rate you gather in game currency it would take weeks to collect them all. There's no platinum here, though it would seem achievable if time is put in, which i might have had there been one. This is a perfectly acceptable football game if, like me you enjoy football games. For about £2 on the sale it's worth a purchase even though it gets long in the tooth relatively quickly. Like Gravity Duck before it the rating will get a bump for the low price which means 7/10.

BOUNCY BULLETS

 

Yes! easy platinum again (btw, all these easy platinums are coming from publisher 'Ratalaika Games', who are known for releasing cheap easy platinum games, but at least they actually make an effort to make an actual game, unlike some other easy platinums out there like Energy cycle or My name is Mayo, which are not really games at all). So, a first person 3D platformer with a major flaw. Like approximately 10% of gamers I play with an inverted Y axis. It just makes sense to me. This game does not have an option to invert and thus what should be a simple game turned into a frustrating endeavour. Each level has a time trial element to get 3 stars but I ended up with 1 star on basically every level as a result of this major issue. this is an ugly game, with simple colours and ordinary platforming, with the enemies taking the form of whacky, not waving, not inflatable, armless rectangle men. Even if you could actually could control the game it's extremely forgettable (I assume) and if, like me, you play inverted then completely avoid it, I could barely get through it. 2/10

This list was much poorer than the previous round of games unfortunately, but I purposely picked these games because they were short (there is replayability in 88 heroes and Golazo! but seems unlikely). Better start actually playing some of these longer games now, so the next post will likely be more of a wait. 

Hidden Gems

 After finishing Burial at Sea, I looked around the upcoming games and realised nothing interesting was coming for a while. So then I looked around all the old ps plus games I'd picked up and never played and realised I've already played the ones I had any interest in before. So i went to the PS store and saw the hidden gems sale. Now, there are some good games on there, and then there are some other games. Not necessarily bad but when you're spending £1.50 on a game on PSN you can't expect GTA 6, or even something like Freedom planet. But, somewhere there will be something of interest, I thought to myself, staring hopefully at the terribly designed PSN store layout. So, here's some of them/

FOXYLAND

This is the exact kind of thing I would expect for the low price. It's a 2D platformer (so already in the top 10% of games ever made) that would look at home on the Sega Master system (and that other, more forgettable console from the same time). You're a fox that has to save his girlfriend (good job it's not a Bandicoot for gimmick infringement as that's the only other time I've seen that set up)., so you chase after her by jumping on stuff (y'know platforming). It's an acceptable game that, had it come out in 1988, I might have remembered fondly (albeit I would be 1 years old (yet Alex Kidd in Miracle world came out 2 years before that and I have fond memories of that (wait a minute, that game was awful)), but in this crazy world of games like Guacamele, Super Meat Boy and Super kelemania it's a very forgettable entry in to the greatest genre of gaming. There's an easy platinum trophy here to get, which I did (first since my name is Mayo (Vita edition (already had the PS4 one))) so that was something. There are certainly some cheap deaths where you can't see what you're about to fall on (surprise, it's spikes) that you could only possibly know from trial and error, which led to some frustrating moments for me. After I got the platinum about half way through the game I turned it off and deleted it from the library as I didn't have any real reason to go on or indeed ever play it again. It's far from the worst game ever made but I can't really recommend it even at that price unless like me you're a platform enthusiast. 4/10

Turns out there's a sequel *goes back to the PSN store.

FULL BLAST

Now we move on to a different 2D perspective, a top down one for a shooter. It's a classic scrolling shooter, going upwards, like my favourite ever from this genre, Mega Drive classic, Truxton. This ain't no Truxton. The setting is he very over used flying over some cities and it doesn't look great stylistically, the enemies, which I think are alien invaders (maybe) are very generic and forgettable and this is the same game that seems to have come out hundreds of times (figuratively). Much like Foxyland it's not terrible but very forgettable and doesn't need to be played unless you're a scrolling shooter enthusiast, unlike me. There's another easy platinum, which I got (first since Foxykand) that you can obtain by the end of the third level, which was of course where I again dipped out and deleted the game. What am I doing with my life (and money)? 4/10

GRAVITY DUCK

Back to 2D platformers and another easy platinum trophy. This time there's a twist. instead of jumping up and falling, you swap gravity to the opposite side and in another twist, it's pretty good. This amounts to a sort of puzzle platformer with a clear path to take on each level, requiring perfect runs as the game draws to it's conclusion. There are lots of levels over 4 worlds but they're all very short, somewhat reminding me of 10 second ninja (in the unlikely event people have heard of that game (also very good btw)). I must say it's a very well implemented use of the gimmick. A great pick up and play game, if you've got a few spare minutes you can blast through a handful of levels. Even though the game is on sale the usual price is only £3.99 and I would seriously recommend this one for yet another 2D platformer enthusiast (yes, like me again). Much like the last 2 games you can get the platinum (which I did (first since Full blast)) less than half way through the game, but unlike the other I kept playing, all the way to it's conclusion. For the price this is, 8/10 (yes, really) and I'd rather play this than many 'Triple A' games. I like 'em short and at just a couple of hours long it's the perfect length.

FLATOUT 4

Or Fl4tout: Total insanity if you want to call it by it's 'inventive' cover art. Obviously this is a full game at an A level which separates it from the other games covered here and it was over the lofty price of £4. I remember, way back when I really enjoyed the original PS2 game, yes more than Destroy all Humans, yet it's the only game in the series I played. I loved the stunt games where you launch your guy from the car window to take out skittles and score a free kick and anything else that resembles a target you can hit. There are a lot of similarities with Wreckfest, though the Flatout series came first, though Destruction derby, the original game made by the makers o f Wreckfest was on PS1, so potentially an inspiration for this series. Graphically it's pretty good and the courses are varied and interesting and has a fully licensed rock sound track so there has been a real effort put in to the games presentation. But how does it play? Turns out pretty good, a real fun time bashing cars about tracks and fighting to the finish line, but there is a serious flaw. On every race you from the back of the pack, presumably to add to the difficulty, however many times I found the number of cars and randomness of opponents flying all over the place lead to me being well out of the race withing the first 30 seconds and a whole lot of race restarts. When you can get past this chaos the game opens up and is a lot of fun, but I frequently had to restart races to get to that. As for the infamous stunt games that were fun 15 years ago, they are disappointingly exactly the same after all this time and the online is long dead (to be fair it is a 3 years old A level game so it's to be expected). Overall it's a lot of fun, depending on the game mode, albeit often frustrating. The game is usually £15.99 which is probably the right price if, unlike me are, you a racing enthusiast (though I do enjoy them from time to time). I wouldn't have made the purchase at that price but the sale dragged me in. Obviously with the size of the game it doesn't have an easy platinum, and I sure wont be getting that one. 7/10 (it's no Gravity duck, but what is?).

I've got many more to come and I'll likely have something to say due to being on holiday from work, which has become the only time I write on here now. I like exploring the lesser known games as often there's some 'Hidden gems' (as the sale title implies). I like to have a good grasp of what is going on in a world I really enjoy exploring.

 

Destroy All Humans

 The remake, obviously. It's been a while since I've posted thought I've written, or stated to on a few things about other games but didn't think I had enough to say, for example the last of us 2, I had a few opinions (mostly on the dated gameplay) but they weren't exactly fresh. A couple of other mentions as well. Firstly, I've been replaying Bioshock infinite and it's darn good, the gameplay is a lot better than I remember and the twisting story keeps it fresh, though the setting is not even close to the intrigue of Rapture. Mention for maneater too, I like a collectathon from time to time and this was a good example of one. Shout outs also to the fun romp of 'Saints Row the third remastered'.

So, speaking of remake, Destroy all Humans remastered. I played the old one 'back in the day' (although my day was more the early 90's and not the mid 00's) and it was a good PS2 game with an interesting setting in the 60's though I hardly thought it was ground breaking at the time. So why did I even play it? I've been asking myself this too as I'm not really sure, I guess I wanted a slice of the past and to remember what games were like 15 years ago. I have to mention though that although I was in to it at the time, the Ps2/ Xbox 1 (not that one) was the worst generation for me personally. Very few games stand out for me then as there wasn't much invention, SD was getting old, western RPG's hadn't yet took off and my favourite game type, 2D platformers had been dropped for a series of mediocre mascot 3D platformers, something that had seemed interesting in the generation before but had mostly remained the same or even regressed since then. (there was the GTA3 series though) What was I talking about again?

Ah yes, Destroy all humans. You're an alien invader with 'cool' alien powers like mind control, assuming forms of others, jet packs, skating (for unknown reasons) and the old reliable ray gun. The classic sci Fi tropes are endless and intentionally so as that's what this game is aiming for. The missions of this game are mostly similar throughout the game, sneak past some enemies by disguising yourself as a human, then shoot some guys on foot, then shoot some building in your saucer, the game is fully realised by the 4th or 5th mission and then just repeated multiple times over. The plot turns out to be forgettable apart from the big twist, ooh, the big bad (well, I guess good in this case) that was covered head to toe turns out to be a woman. OMG!  

It plays like a game from it's time period, passable at past, feeling a lot like one of the mascot platformers of the time, just replace the platforming with shooting. There's the option to go outside of missions and explore towns and do some side quests and shoot some of those damn dirty apes, but it's hardly Vice city or San andreas. The areas are small and samey and once you've played a hand full of missions there's nothing here that a player won't have already experienced several times over (granted this is the same for many, many games but they're usually more fun).

I may be a cynical person but this game is a relic of the past, an average game for it's time that is far from the standards of today's offerings with little to nothing more to offer than a nostalgic pop. Sadly it is not worth playing in 2020.

I've been playing (and in some cases replaying) those 'other' Sonic games, someday I'll rank them all (well, mostly all) one day, maybe. I don't want to have played Sonic dash 2 for nothing, that would make it a total waste of my time rather than simply largely a waste of my time.