First game of the new year is Travis Strikes Again.
Oof, hope you get on with it better than I did. I tried getting back into it over Christmas and have now consigned it to the Get Rid Of pile. It has some fun moments, but for me never reaches the heights of NMH2. The retro minigames being non-optional is a step backwards to my mind, they all outstayed their welcome.
As a result of this, I'm now back to alternating between Stikbold Deluxe and Bowser's Fury (I've already completed the latter but it's a fun world to romp around in).
One for the Metroidvania fans. I saw a game called Haak popping up in some lists of the best Metroidvanias for 2022 and I grabbed it on a whim.
It's a lovely game with gorgeous pixel art. Some great traversal mechanics and puzzle rooms, and lots of upgrades to find. Boss battles are great too (so far). I'm about 3 hours in.
I don't think it was reviewed on any of the main sites (only a few YouTube channels), so I don't think it got the recognition it deserved. It's on sale for about €15.50 (until Friday) in the eShop if you have some credit burning a hole in your account. 🙂
Posted my comments in the main Completed thread but will just copy and paste here to reply to you.
Liked it for what it was, though fighting did become a bit repetitive and annoying at times. They try to change things up each level but then it's just the same fighting.
Managed to get through the game and its DLC in about 12 hours so wasn't too long.
If you're a Shadows of the Damned fan, Travis Strikes Again
has a level dedicated to that game. Haven't played it but think maybe this continues the story of it a bit? Can just check out a walkthrough video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRtiEPmCAzA from 31:40.
Have the PS3 version on my shelf that I must play soon now.
Ocarina of time - Ship of Harkinian port.
Reverse-engineered masterpiece.
With Free Camera right-stick controls - what a massive difference that makes. A joy to play.
To boot there's 60 Fps (or more if you want), Anti-aliasing, textures, many fixes to the original game bugs and annoyances etc
The game it always could have been.
In this case it's another situation of fans do where Nintendo-nt.
Picked up "Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread" on the recommendation from here, I think via Mr Metroidvania 🤣
Good fun so far! Mucccch better controls and feel than Ghost Song, which was the last of the genre I tried. The Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic is cute as well. Nice superficial twist on the format without being anything revolutionary so far.
I'm trying to get back into Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein on Switch.
Also, dug out my physical copy of Astro Ports Shmup Collection, which is excellent. The Raiden wannabe Wolfang is my current favourite
Wind Waker. Said Id play for an hour or two and yeah, 4 hours later... such a great game
Need to finish that while the Wii U is still working !
Playing Spiritfarer on switch, still enjoying it (not fantastic but decent). I'm over halfway (I'd guess) and it's worth the few quid it goes for on sale imo, I have just been dipping in and out for an hour or so because the loop of fetching this or that, upgrading etc. does get a bit repetitive if you play it for too long.
Haven't played it, but I see it's available via Netflix gaming as well.
New Super Mario Brothers DS on a 2DS XL.
It's not really grabbing me but I've done all of the New SMB games at this stage and they are well past their sell by date.
Couple more levels and I'm done the main game. Will find the hidden areas etc some other time.
I'm playing Akka Arrh on the Switch at the moment.
It's the latest from Llamasoft and Jeff Minter, and another bananas festival of shooting, particle effects and bizarre audio samples.
It is a different kind of shooter to his more recent titles, Tempest 4k, Moose Life, Polybius and Gridrunner, and absolutely nuts, but well worth buying
Hard to believe he's still creating games.
Really?
He's been releasing games steadily over the years, actually picking up the pace over the past 7 years or so.
Tempest 4k
Moose Life
Polybius
Minotaur Project (Gridrunner/Goat-Up)
And now
Akka Arrh
I'm going to make it my business to try and get as many of these running on my arcade cab, using a PC and the Steam versions, together with the likes of Super Hexagon
I hit a roadblock with Hollow Knight a few years ago (second Hornet fight!) and stopped playing it.
I restarted it a few weeks ago and smashed through that roadblock. I'm 35 hours in and getting close to the first ending (one dreamer left). Still have the work to do for the proper ending, all the Grimm Troupe content and Godmaster content.
How can Silksong match the size of this game?
I dipped into Elderand last night for an hour and it was like moving from Hollow Knight to Pacman.
The wait has been excruciating!
Now... Should it only be played with the game cube controller... 🤔
Where did you get it? Wouldn't mind picking it up asap
Smyths delivery - they are usually day before release.
Damn. Was thinking of ordering but figured I'd just pop in over the weekend and pick it up. Not sure I'll have time to do that now though....
Finished this today; 25 hours and 99% completion - just one room's puzzle was a little too tedious versus the reward I could see. Otherwise this was a really solid, slick little gem. Going by the absence of guides and walkthroughs one that a lot of people missed, so definitely one to recommend if folks are looking for a really well crafted, by the books Metroidvania. Ends on a cliffhanger so hopefully the Devs got enough cash to make a sequel.
I have been given a copy of Metroid Prime Remastered, so that's me sorted for the next while 😁
About to start xcom 2 collection. On sale at the moment so couldn't leave it behind.
Civ 6 on sale too which has reminded me to play it again. Just one more turn......
I got a belated birthday present of Raiden III, the recent Japanese physical release, and it is as nuts as I remember.
On the Switch I have Raiden, Raiden III, IV and V, but I really want Raiden II and Dx, pretty please!
I got hooked so badly on XCom 2 ... ended up playing nothing else for around 2 months till I completed it
Bought it for peanuts too
Finished Hollow Knight (first 3 endings and most of the Grimm Troupe content).
Onto Ender Lillies again now (I think I stopped at the 4th or 5th boss the first time). Restarted from the beginning.
I preordered Pronty (out tomorrow) and Metroid Prime Remastered dropped through the letterbox this morning.
That should keep me busy for March.
After that, I like the look of Have a Nice Death (March 22nd), Curse of the Sea Rats (Apr 6th) and Afterimage (April 25th)
Started Skyward sword remaster on Switch. Bought it on release day on both Wii and Switch. Played the first dungeon on Wii and then never got around to starting the Switch version until a week or so ago.
Finished it yesterday. Definitely one of the tougher Zelda games but that could be more down to the button controls and using the right stick to swing the sword. Amount of times it didn't swing the sword for me was a bit frustrating at times.
Overall though the game had some great things and some average things.
It's very hard to go back playing something like that after having the freedom to go anywhere in BOTW. Although BOTW could've done with some more detail in the story and taken some cues from the dungeons. Some of the puzzles and bosses were excellent in the dungeons. Hopefully TOTK can implement some of those elements with a stronger story...and better end boss too of course.
Next up I'll move onto Metroid Prime on switch or maybe Wonderful 101 which I've had sitting there sealed for about a year.
Loved the DK Tropical Freeze-like Jet Kave recently so looked up some of the other titles from the Polish developer 7Levels. Picked up Castle of Heart, a 2.5d side scroller which I'd seen on the eshop for years but had dismissed as shovelware. Now it's not reinventing the wheel but it's fun, looks great , cheap as chips, and whatever issues it seems to have had on release are fixed. Would definitely recommend in between bigger titles.
Also picked up Lost Words to play with my daughter. Both loving it at the moment but there may be tears ahead... Written by Rhianna Pratchett, Terry's daughter, and the quality of the writing really shows.
Wind Waker. Didnt bother with the wallet upgrades, got all the triforce charts but now Tingle is looking for 3000 rupees to decipher them. Currently I have 200.
Started Pirates Outlaws last night. It's a deck builder like Slay The Spire, but pirate themed.
It has 6 or 7 different areas, 700 different cards, 16 playable characters (that play as differently as the 4 players in STS) and lots of relics.
It plays like STS but has different enough systems to make it worth getting.
I've done 3 or 4 runs and I'm enjoying it so far.
There is a mobile game on iOS/Android, but it has In App Purchases. The switch version contains everything for the price.
€16.99 here, but R$49 (about €10) if you have a Brazilian eshop account.
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