Game Pass: Hypderdot

Dot dot. Still grinding through Gears Tactics, and it is beginning to be a slog now unfortunately, I do enjoy the gameplay but there are only a few mission types and it is beginning to get old now, if I was nearing the end I could accept it, but I'm still early chapter 3, so there's still a third of the game to go, which means I'll damn well finish it now no matter how tired I'm getting of it. Not really any games of note that seem particularly interesting to me coming out for a while, picked up the re release of Scott Pilgrim and to be honest it doesn't stack up to modern competition. Obviously I have been speaking about the brawler genre a lot recently, and compared to the likes of the aforementioned Streets of Rage 4 and Mother Russia Bleeds it does not hold a candle. I'm sure I told myself back 10 years ago that I really enjoyed it when I really wanted to support indie gaming, which I still do, now though, with a modern lens, I cannot recommence it.

A game I can recommend is Hyper dot. Talk about making an old idea new again. From Asteroids to passive mode in geometry wars 2, this game takes these concepts and perfects them. A simple idea, you are a tiny dot in a circular arena set out to avoid all the enemies. It's not the most exciting concept, or at least not to most, but I was immediately interested just from watching the trailer. I loved Geometry Wars 2 and spent a long time competing with my friends for the highest scores, and my area of expertise was Passive mode. The lead would constantly change, but sadly one person kept playing after the group had retired from the chase and now he holds all the high scores. Bastard.

This take on the genre happens in levels (although there is a survival mode, amongst others), always throwing in new challenges, from different arena and dot sizes, a mix of enemies, dark arenas, icy arenas, collection based levels, levels where the enemies move along with you like Super Hot, the variety available far surpassed my expectations going in. Needless to say with a game of this nature it starts to get very difficult towards the end, but there is not a story that might have forced me to keep playing beyond my wishes. With the time I spent with it, it turned out to be a fun challenge which you can play with some music or a podcast going on, whatever's your poison. 

So, it's another Game Pass rank. Another really good game available on Game Pass. Maybe I should sell my PS5 and just play on my Xbone... Actually, no. 

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Anyway, now I'm pretty much done with this, or I better be before all my hair is pulled out, I need to find another game to break up the monotony of playing Gears Tactics other than playing Rocket league over and over again, I could do that in reality, I do love it so, but I don't feel like I'm really achieving anything (yes, including achievement points/ gamescore) or indeed experiencing anything new, so a new game must be found fast whilst I force myself though 1 repetitive tactical battle a day.

Game Pass: Power Ranger Battle for the Grid

 Whoops, it's Game Pass, not Games Pass, oh well. The next game I picked up lead me down a rabbit hole of researching Power Rangers Comics, watching a Youtube documentary and the 2017 Power Rangers (not enough Green Ranger), so, that was a thing for a couple of days and indeed, another reason to delay starting Gears Tactics, though I'm getting deep in to that now, at least until I get distracted again, HyperDot is calling out to me right now (edit, it's awesome).

After going on a rant in my last post about brawlers, I failed to mention a game (well, a few really, but only one is relevant here), that being Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle, an acceptable brawler from a few years ago, and a fine sequel (in my mind) to the two Mega drive Power Rangers brawlers, The movie one being of particular interest to me at the time, as it had both the original and what I will refer to as the 'Rocky cast' (remember how bad of an actor that guy was, I was 7 and could tell he was crap) as well as multiple different Megazords, of course, being a child, having a game based on a franchise I liked at the time made it seem better to me, and though I haven't touched this game in probably 25 years, most franchise games from that era tend to be terrible retrospectively, so maybe it was, but I don't want to know. Point is, the game that came out a few years ago was heavy on presentation and nostalgic references, and pretty light on it actually being that good of a game, so i went in here expecting essentially the same thing, but in a fighting game instead.

But what a pleasant surprise, it was pretty good. Certainly no Street Fighter 2 (the 30 year old untoppleable (is that a word) pinnacle of the genre) but still fun. a 3 on 3 team fighting game, with just a few buttons, simple to use combos to learn, special moves, Zord attacks and some extremely over powered characters. Jason should be the best one anyway, he is the leader after all and if I lost him in a shopping center, I would be frantically calling after him too.

Aside from just versus mode and classic arcade mode, there is a story mode in here, which seems to be the normal now in fighting games after I first encountered it in Injustice, and just like Injustice, the story was lifted straight from Comic books. As mentioned earlier, I did some research on the modern comics, because that's where the story for this comes from (apparently they're really good, but a couple of times in my life I tried to get in to comics, but can't (books are better anyways (not that I can be bothered to read them either))), with a transdimentional Tommy Oliver, having teamed up with Rita rather than performing his classic Mighty Morphin face turn, then killed her, took her armies and conquered the universe and now he's come for the rest of 'em. It's a decent enough story in the game, but as with every other fighting game story, there's only so many characters and possible match ups that the lack of variety gets a bit tiresome. There doesn't even need to be though, even though there is a season pass you have to buy to unlock many of the characters and skins ((which is pretty shitty) though not as egregious as street fighter 5), it allows you to play as some of these charters in the story mode, but nowhere near all of them. Then, when I finished the story (which came with no achievements!!!!) I assumed something would be unlocked, Kimberley was heavily involved in the story for instance, but no. Gotta spend that cash I guess (hope there's enough left over to pay off my tab at the Juice bar).

Once that was all done with, it was morphin to online play-time (too much of a stretch?), and after 10 successive wins, knocking off considerably higher rated players than myself I knew I could go pro. Obviously after I met my first loss I gave up and never played again, thus keeping a fantastic win to loss record in the only way I know how to get one. As Farkas Bulkmeier once told me 'quit while you're ahead', then he beat me up and took my lunch money (that's a thing in America, right?).

This game gets the rating of Game Pass, another that's passed my test of a game (whatever that is). An enjoyable fighting game that doesn't require great skills to succeed, so grab your Dragon Dagger and make your excitement grow for this very good fighter.

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Still slugging through Gears Tactics, it's good but really could've done without some of the side missions. PS. I can't believe the words 'Morphin', 'Megazord' or 'Megadrive' aren't in the dictionary on this site, they're on the one in my head.

Games Pass: BattleToads

 Long time, no type. Game of the year coming up, just one more game to try first to judge its' potential challenge, and that game is Gears Tactics, which is why, despite having a PS5, I dusted off my Xbone to get games pass, which I was fully prepared to pay the full monthly cost for, but in a pleasant twist, got 3 months for £1, I'm not sure if it's £1 total or £1 per month, for three months, but at that cost I'm happy to just pay and not worry about it (until I forget to unsubscribe when the time is up, like I just did with BT (British Telecom) sport and now have to pay for another month).

So there I was, ready to sit down and crack on with Gears Tactics, but then I thought, having just finished Cyberpunk, a long game, that I needed to whet my pallet with a shorter game first, which bought me to the question of what, so I considered the PS plus games I had, or any PS5 game I could buy, until a light flicked on in my head, that I now have games pass for 3 months, and hey, there's bound to be something interesting to play here, it's not just going to be Jump Jet Rex anymore, like when I got game pass the first time around. Turns out, there's quite a few interesting games on there (hence this idea for a series on Game Pass) and the one that stood out at the time was the heavily promoted 2020 remake of Battletoads, so why not give it a whirl, I can't think of anything else bad that came out of 2020.

Firstly, I never plaid any of the Battletoads games when I was a youngster, so have no nostalgic attachment, I might have played a bit of one on Rare Replay, but If I did, I don't remember it (must've been great then). I have, however, after years of neglect, finally come round to really appreciating brawlers, I enjoyed the likes of Streets of rage, Golden axe, Alien storm (the list could go on) in my formative gaming years, but there wasn't a lot around then, and as I grew older, I started to look down on the genre, going back playing these older titles no longer appealed to me, and the likes of Castle Crashers, which took off for a while there in the late 00's (Is that nauhgties now or two thousands, I'm not sure if there is a common consensus yet, and it's been 10 years!), didn't appeal to me. Then, some time late, I played Foul Play (granted, about 5 years after it came out, but that's PS Plus for you). This game reignited my passion for this genre, helped last year by Streets of Rage 4 and Mother Russia Bleeds, which were both fantastic, which lead me to this point, downloading Battletoads and eagerly anticipating it, something I couldn't have imagined just a few years ago.

To my delight, the brawling was pretty good, not a large move set for each character, but an interesting array of enemies that could be arranged in different ways, alongside environmental challenges that made some encounters quite challenging, especially as you got towards the late game where many of the fights turned it to almost as much of a puzzle as it was about the fighting.

So, that was good, but not everything was. There were many different types of game modes involved, from platforming, to a twin stick shooter and a god awful level where you had to fix your ship with via mini games in a certain amount of time when I couldn't even tell what the order was. Asside from that individual nightmare, there was a wide variety of success or failure in the different game play segments, for instance, the platforming was far too easy compared to the rest of the game, adversely, the twin stick space shooter was way harder than anything else in the game. The most notable sections though, are the once infamous speed bike sections from the original games. These were much maligned for being almost impossible back when the original game came out (supposedly), so here they have flipped the view to behind, and play similar to the crash Bandicoot polar bear/ tiger riding sections. As the first of these kicked off, it seemed really exciting, enough of a challenge to not make it too easy, but possible to get in a good rhythm, these sections played really well, the problem is they were way too long, and I sure don't like things that go on way too long (e.g. the last of us part 2 was at least twice as long as it needed to be, if not more). Seemingly never ending sections, that started well but became so stale by the time I was half way through a level that I was hoping for death (In real life, not the game (I would have have to played a large section over again!)).

Seems like many people don't like the art direction or story as it doesn't fit with 'classic' Battletoads, but as a non BT (not British Telecom) fan, I didn't have a problem with it, and let's be honest, there aren't that many people who have a positive affinity for the original ga.mes, so what does it matter what they think anyway. The story was presented as a passable kids cartoon, it helped the story flow in a different way to most games, though the dialogue is hardly Shakespearean

Overall, the game was good, the brawling sections were certainly good, with the others a mixed bag, I don't want to do a score review, So I'll just say wether it would be worth playing if you already have game pass, and for this I would say Yes, it's a Game Pass, it has ticked the box to deserve to be played in this context, I'm not sure it would be worth paying the full price (depending on what it is), but as it's available on a pre-paid subscription then yes.

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What's next? spoiler alert, I already played yet another game before I started Gears Tactics, which I have now started, and so far so good, though honestly, unlikely to challenge for the Prestigious Andy Pearsall Game of the year.

Hidden Gems Part 5

 It's been a while since the previous post and indeed a while since I actually played these games but I'm back talking about a sale that now ended several weeks ago, still, I bought all these games on a whim and by gawd I'll talk to the ether about them, so here we go.

DEFUNCT

No, not the first person platformer Refunct (that no one has heard of), but a 3D platformer of sorts that focused on speed. A little robot fell out of his spaceship and must get back onboard after landing on the planet below. This is done by zipping through levels, in a way that somewhat reminds me of a 3D sonic game, but also not. The robot has a single wheel, think Claptrap but not as annoying, who's old and broken down, I guess you could say it's defunct... The main idea of the game is to keep up the speed, by going down hills, jumping and picking up speed boosts, it can be exhilarating (ok, calm down) when you can sustain a high speed for a long time, but often times frustrating after being slowed down and struggling to pick up speed again. The game is certainly at its best when shooting down linear paths that are designed to keep you going, again like a 3D sonic game, but less so when it opens up to send you collecting ords to repower electrical doors to let you advance. If, like me, you enjoy a short, 3D semi platformer, this might be for you at a low price, especially being so short as to not overstay its welcome. To have the most fun you gotta go fast. 6/10

HARD RESET REDUX    

From the makers of the Shadow Warrior game series comes their first game, an FPS initially released in 2011 and now updated for modern day (if it were still 2016). Much like Shadow warrior before/ after (depending if you count the remaster as after) this is a fast paced, classic style arcade shooter along the lines of Timesplitters or Goldeneye and not what Call of Duty has turned them in to. Of course Doom 2016 took this style and redefined it, but considering this game was originally released 5 years before that titles, it's a good effort. There's not much of a story, robots have taken over the planet and you must stop them, like daybreakers but with automatons rather than vampires. The story doesn't matter though as it comes together through the gameplay which stands out. If you have played Shadow Warrior (or the superior Shadow Warrior 2) it's basically the same gameplay wise, except without the powers. A run and gun game where cover doesn't matter as, like Kevin Keegan believed, a good offence is the best defence. Interestingly there are only 2 weapons, a rifle and an energy gun which offer enough variety as there are upgrades for the guns throughout the game which change them in to rocket launches, shotguns, plasma beams and so on. This is another short game, about 6 hours which is not long for a AA game of this nature, unlike something like foxyland which is cheap so the lack of longevity is expected and indeed welcome. The look here is not good though, nearly every level looks the same and the dark colour pallet gets stale after a while. The game is pretty fun and I had a good time playing it. 7/10

MIDNIGHT DELUXE

Who remembers Angry Birds? This game is slightly different in that you have to throw a single guy down a hole. Obviously there's obstacles, would be pretty pointless otherwise, and you get a few attempts, it will just affect the grade on the level. This is another easy platinum game that doesn't need to be finished in order to obtain it, which I didn't. There isn't a whole lot to say really, I've basically described everything about it here, It is fine for £1 or so (as long as you're not one of those people who feels dirty for getting a cheap platinum trophy (obviously I'm not)). This game is also on PS Vita (I have one, although it's just gathering dust) where it would be much more at home, like angry birds or any other game of that nature it would be okay to play on the bus or during a work break (what are they?) much more than playing it at home. (it's also on switch too but that doesn't have a trophy/ achievement system so forget that). 5/10

There was going to be one other game, a god game called 'Reus', but I hit a game game breaking bug during the obscenely long tutorial so gave up due to annoyance. Anyway, that's the lot now for these 'hidden gems', some worth playing and some not (though my trophy score has shot up). Got my PS5 pre order which is exciting, although the Xbox sure is tantalizing. No doubt I'll have a series X in a couple of years and inevitably change to that being my primary console as always seems to happen. Of course this means some 'end of the generation' content would be appropriate. Let's see if I actually do it or not.

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.