I wanted a more permanent home for my scanlations of old video game comics, one that's more browsable and stable than them living in social media posts. So my website will now be the hub for links to all my projects but especially the home base for my translated comics. All of my comics now have sub-pages in the Scanlations area, which then link to where the images are hosted. I'll still post here when I do a new one but it will point back to the site. Huge thanks to SirCathyWise for doing so much work to put this together and make it easy for me to maintain.
Do you know who the author of the Lufia Club Nintendo comic was? I know Claude Moyse, who translated the actual game, was the editor of the magazine as well.
He was, yes. Unfortunately my scans of the Lufia Special Edition do not include a credits page. But also I was never sure even when credits are available who actually wrote the comics. For example, Moyse's credit is "Chefredakteur" and various other people are usually credited with "Redaktion" which I believe is "editorial", which seems like the closest thing to writing, but it's not broken down further by feature. My German is also not great and reliant on machine translation. So basically, I have no idea, sorry!
After playing Crafted World I figured it was a good time to finally get this off the shelf and out of my backlog, as one of the few Yoshi titles I hadn't touched. Starting life as a trade show tech demo to show off the features of the upcoming DS, apparently Nintendo were so happy with it that they turned it into a full retail release for the launch window of the console. Well, I say "full"...
As seems to be Nintendo's way on and off over the years, if you already have a story from an earlier game, then why bother writing a new one? So as various other Yoshi games do, this one returns to the fertile ground of the original Yoshi's Island. Not that it spends any time on exposition, you just see that the stork is carrying the baby brothers Mario when they are attacked by Kamek and you're off to the races. Since there are two phases to the game, I guess it depicts a partial interquel set during the YI intro? So that's something. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Touch & Go is at its core an arcade-style experience. If it released later it might have been called a roguelike, but it's really an old-school score-chasing style that they're going for. Your run starts with Baby Mario floating to the ground with a few balloons slowing his descent; if he hits a hazard he loses one, so they act as hit points. As the omniscient stylus-holder, you draw cloud paths on the touchscreen and interact with enemies to keep him safe on his way down… and collect coins, of course. This phase formed the original tech demo, and it plays out basically the same each time, aside from randomisation of the layout. Time Attack mode does change it up though by adding super stars for a faster pace. The sky gameplay makes you not only react quickly but think and plan ahead, and the three hit points are nice to have.
Your performance in the sky affects how you start the ground phase, which is the main event, but the impact isn't huge. For most of the modes scoring ranks up the colour of Yoshi that Mario ends up riding, giving you a greater egg capacity and apparently boosting your run speed (thus assigning a value judgement to their colour, which usually is not done). Yoshi then auto-runs to the right until… well, until he dies, usually, or until he reaches his goal, depending on the mode. Unlike Mario in the sky, your run is completely over if you take even a single hit, which is extremely aggravating and not exactly lore-accurate might I add. Well, OK, I guess if he has no stars at all the Toadies can grab Mario right away. Fine. Dying on the ground also does let you restart without having to redo the sky section, saving your starting conditions. It’s an odd choice especially when the ground section is often much longer than the sky section, and it breaks the arcade-inspired cycle.
On the ground Yoshi runs on the touch screen, so you’re able to interact with them more directly. You can still draw cloud paths to run along or block enemy movement, and create bubbles around things to convert them to coins and move them around, but now you can also make Yoshi jump and throw eggs. In another instance of changing the rules, Yoshi can’t eat your foes, and you have to rely on fruits to replenish your egg supply by varying amounts. Frantically keeping a barrage of baddies away from a fragile Yoshi feels so wrong, and the entirely touch interface for all these actions can get mighty fiddly.
The goal, inasmuch as the game has one, is to top the leaderboard in the two available modes, which unlocks another two. Score Attack limits your maximum distance to 1000 yards (yes, yards, even though I have the Australian cart and we’ve been using the metric system officially since 1970), challenging you to defeat enemies and collect coins as much as you can before reaching the stork. Time Attack instead has you catch up to a group of Toadies carrying Luigi, where cloud paths now speed up your run and some egg precision is required to get under target times for the leaderboard. These are the modes that have some kind of closure in terms of an end goal, but Marathon mode is where I spent most of my time.
In Marathon you just have to survive for as long as you can, moving through different environments that offer their own sets of enemies and challenges. There’s not too many so you’ll probably see them all in a few runs, but it’s nice to feel like you’re on some kind of adventure even if there’s no end to it. Conserving your egg resources is important, as well as timing when you hit a 100 coin milestone, which spawns a superstar that gives Baby Mario a huge speed boost and infinite projectiles while it lasts. I usually got these right when a Yoshi changeover was about to happen, wasting it completely. Going for a top leaderboard spot to unlock the Challenge mode makes for long runs that feel extra punishing when you inevitably fail, so despite this mode offering some much needed variety it was also the source of the most frustration for me.
Challenge mode is another timed mode where you’re fighting and getting points to add more time to your clock. When it ticks down Kamek swoops in and ends your run, although that may happen sooner since this mode floods the screen with spiky enemies. It’s overwhelming but since nothing is locked behind this mode, I treated it as more a novelty than something to be mastered.
Four modes… is that enough? It doesn’t feel like it when you can “clear” them in a few short hours, as I did. Even as a launch game this feels seriously lacking in content; the modes give you different objectives but you’re doing very similar things in each, and you’ll be seeing the same stuff again and again, and I mean the same few level chunks being reused from run to run. There’s no boss fights to break up Marathon mode, no roguelite-style unlocks, modifiers, or metaprogression… and no reason for me to play this any more than necessary. I already wasn’t getting on too well with the imprecision of the touch controls, the autoscrolling pace, the punishing one-hit deaths; so I was happy to put this down having experienced yet another low point in the Yoshi legacy.
After Skywalker Saga, I thought this could be our next spouse co-op game since we had played Yoshi's Woolly World together previously. I've actually owned it for years and lent it to people, but with the next Yoshi game coming out it was time for this to come off the shelf one way or another. Turns out Cathy didn't like it much so it was a Milo solo. Now I have a long history with the Yoshi series; Island came in a bundle with my first game console, the SNES, and I loved its constant variety, finding its secrets, engaging with its complex mechanics. Nintendo's follow-up Yoshi's Story was experimental but I think not altogether successful, but it has still been highly influential going forward. Afterwards they have lent out the franchise to Artoon/Arzest (Universal Gravitation was interesting but odd, YIDS was a cool riff/expansion on YI, and YNI tried the same but fell a bit flat) and Good-Feel (Kirby's Epic Yarn was a fun and breezy Yoshi-like that led to Woolly World which was excellent with fantastic art design, which then led to Crafted World). Is YCW a worthy successor to YWW, and does it live up to the legacy?
As with YWW, the Yoshi clan have been surgically removed from any kind of context. They simply live in a cardboard world on some island, and I guess Kamek and Baby Bowser exist off to the side. The Super Happy Tree from Story has been swapped out with a big colourful rock, and the baddies take it, scattering its gems so the Yoshis have to go get them back. That's really it. This is probably the most story-light game yet unfortunately; Kirby got a justification for the art style and a plot, but here… well, it's a Nintendo game for babies, why bother am I right!?? [irony alert]
I suppose the first thing to mention is the art style. Woolly World went with a complete yarn/fabric-based world, whereas Crafted World sidesteps into a Play School-style [it's an iconic Australian kids show, look it up] crafternoon universe. They've done a great job leaning into environments entirely handmade from repurposed household materials and craft supplies; it's nostalgic and I daresay a great inspiration if you're looking for craft activities for little ones yourself! The backgrounds are littered with fun crafted objects, and one of the ways the game extends replayability is asking you to scavenger hunt specific crafts in levels; I found this a bit tedious personally, but there's plenty of other side challenges and collectibles that kept me busy.
Compared to YWW, the bespoke style is just as inventive and charming, but loses a little something when it comes to characters and objects. Sure, there are cardboard robot NPCs all over the world map, and the bosses are put together in real time in adorable stop motion animation during their intro cutscenes, but most of the Yoshi series staples like Shy Guys and so on, plus the Yoshis and Poochies, and Kamek and Baby Bowser too, are simply on-model 3D rendered with a bit of subtle flocking texture. YWW had yarn balls for eggs, beads and patches as collectibles, but here they're reverted to your basic eggs and coins. On reflection it feels like a disconnect and a bit of a step back, when the previous game truly went all the way with its conceit.
The world map is broken up into worlds which unfold as little dioramas. Each of them is themed but with only 1-3 levels per set before swiftly moving on to the next thing. This seems truncated, but there are 40 levels overall and they're substantial, and it lets them explore a greater variety of themes. In the end I didn't feel shortchanged on content, but I found it odd that they didn't spend a little more time in each environment. I guess if you want more you can just replay the levels for scavenger hunts and such. After a linear sequence in the early game, the mid game opens up, letting you choose which worlds you advance through on the way to the next three gem doohickeys, before closing in again for the endgame series of levels. I liked the freeform structure, the dev team seemingly not bound by rigid numbers and patterns for how the game is laid out.
As for the levels themselves, they're pretty similar to Woolly World's design. Not quite as complex as the original Island perhaps but always fair and with creative use of gimmicks and such. Yoshi's Story experimented with 2.5D mechanics, moving you slightly in the Z-axis for alternate paths, but only very occasionally. Crafted World builds on this heavily, with many sections taking you on prescribed paths directed in or out of the usual 2D plane, although only ever at 90 degrees. I'm not sure how much this adds to the experience; it can get fiddly and feels a bit superfluous. Another way the game breaks the 2D plane is by having you throw eggs at objects in the background or foreground. Aiming already feels bad because it uses the Yoshi's Story method of moving the aiming cursor manually, but you then have to rely on the game snapping your focus to an object on another plane if it decides you're pointing enough at its location. On top of this there's a distractingly-heavy blur effect when aiming, meant to simulate tilt-shifting as a nod to the small scale of the supposedly handmade world. Basically, YCW is taking a big swing with this 2.5D stuff but it's not exactly hitting boundaries as consistently as it would like.
Beating a level unlocks the "flip side", where you run through in the opposite direction, with the "camera" on the other side. This gives you a sort of "behind the scenes" look at the crafted environments, with the original labels and packaging of the boxes and so on that make up the world now visible, as well as unpainted bits and the reveal of how objects and facades are nominally held together. Very cute. These flip side levels have been stripped of collectibles, but instead have you hunting the three Poochy Pups (returning from the Woolly World 3DS port) against a timer. They hide in fun spots, getting up to mischief or frolicking in the background, and when found they act as reusable eggs much like the Huffin Puffins of prior games. It's a very clever way to reuse the levels for a fresh experience.
The two-player co-op mode (local-only, of course) has some concessions for potential asymmetric play. As with KEY and YWW, you can pick up and throw your partner, but new is a kind of team-up manoeuvre where the one Yoshi rides the other. The ridee can no longer throw eggs but has a powered up stomp, while the rider cannot move but gets access to infinite eggs, very helpful for the many targets to be hit throughout the levels (especially the shooting gallery gimmick levels). Mellow Mode returns but with further boosts; not only is platforming aided by a glide that loses no height, but you take less damage and get double eggs from eating enemies. I actually kept it on for the rest of my solo run just to cut down on the backtracking to make more eggs. Although I found it engaging, the game was rarely *challenging* for me as an experienced gamer, at least until the set of three postgame levels that really push you in platforming and precise management of your resources. This isn't a bad thing at all, just know that the game is fairly gentle unless you're going for total completionism.
Sorry, I have to make one more Woolly World comparison. That game had you constantly unlocking new Yoshi designs, with all sorts of fun and creative patterns crocheted into their yarn skins. While Crafted World only has the more-or-less standard roster of eight coloured Yoshis it does retain customisation, of a sort, in the form of "costumes". These are bought from gacha machines (sigh… but each does have a limited supply that can be bought out so there's no duplicates), and they protect you from a few hits, defending your health bar. They take the form of mostly cardboard frames—sometimes with a hat component—that are held by the Yoshis as long as they last. Since they're big and chunky, I found them a bit distracting for gameplay visibility, and the aesthetics are hit and miss.
I think it is worth comparing this heavily to Good-Feel's prior work, considering it is riffing so much on the art style which informs so much of its presentation. Woolly World was a high watermark in terms of post-Island Yoshi games though, and I can't help but feel that this is a step back in many ways. It experiments with mechanics which is laudable, but doesn't stick the landing so this aspect ends up letting it down. And don't get me started on the soundtrack; the loss of Tomoya Tomita is keenly felt. YCW's sound test has a mere 21 tracks, and much of its music is the same composition repeated over and over with different instruments, a simple and patronising ditty poorly used that I feel reflects a lack of care and attention. I never liked the "new" Yoshi voice either (you know, the one they've been using for 29 years now), so aurally the game is unpleasant all around.
It's like the "children's craft" theme, which is a good idea, became too much of an influence on other aspects and it took on a flavour of "talking down to its audience" that you see in certain media for kids that aims too low. It makes me wonder if they don't want people like me playing the game, and then I feel weird about that. Am I too old for this game? Am I not supposed to assess it as a work of art? Should I even be writing this review? A friend once told me that Yoshi's Island was the first game to ever make him cry, not because it was beautiful, but because it was so painfully difficult. Now Yoshi's Crafted World is giving me an existential crisis. Is that what you wanted, Good-Feel and Nintendo? Well, joke's on them, because yes hello I'm autistic and I frickin' love playing video games and thinking about them and writing about them. So that's what I'm gonna keep doing, no matter what. Sorry, got in the weeds a bit there, but the upshot is Crafted World is a cromulent Yoshi game but not as good as Woolly World.
Since I've played three LucasArts Star Wars games in a row, I thought I'd catch up on this classic adventure game from their early point and click era, which had been recommended to me by a friend. There's a lot of big names in the credits like Steve Purcell and Ken Macklin (who I know for designing and animating Bubsy) but it's chiefly the brainchild of Brian Moriarty, who gets a lot of respect for the game these days even if it wasn't commercially successful at the time, despite being ported to half a dozen platforms.
Loom takes place in a fantasy world, in an era of decline. Society has long been strictly divided by occupational guilds, and our hero Bobbin is part of the isolationist Weavers, whose fibrecraft has evolved into a mystical and musical art which can reshape reality. Stop me if you've heard this before, but when he comes of age he finds out he has a mysterious origin and a special destiny, and when disaster befalls his homeland he must venture forth on a journey of personal growth and arcane significance to save the world from falling into chaos.
The story and worldbuilding are sketched out pretty well in the game, but the software is supported by supplementary physical materials ("feelies") as was the style at the time; the big PC box came with multiple books (manual, hint book with red-shaded decoding technology, and a nifty in-universe spell book) as well as a cassette (or CD in the later release) which fleshes out the history of this fantasy world and tells a prologue to the game's immediate events and characters in the form of an audio drama (this is also transcribed in the hint book). This bonus material really adds to the experience, and it's difficult to get the true feel of it in the digital age, but the stuff has all been archived in high quality for a simulacrum of the intended experience.
What attracted me to this game is that it deliberately eschews a lot of the insular conventions the graphic adventure genre had accrued in its lifetime: overly obtuse inventory or logic puzzles, cheap and punishing deaths, tedious backtracking. Loom instead focuses on its moody and cinematic tone, streamlining the gameplay while emphasising its innovative spell system. Bobbin gets a magic stick early on that lets him cast spells with different sequences of four notes. These are learned from various objects and phenomena in the world and are used in specific contextual situations in what's usually an intuitive way. Or if not immediately obvious, then you can consult the handy-dandy physical book that came with your game.
The so-called Book of Patterns was a highlight of my time with Loom. By paying attention, you learn new spells and write them in blank spaces in the book, so the overall game experience relies on the physical and digital parts complementing each other while putting the onus on the player to observe, record their findings, and apply them to different situations. Flipping through the book when you're stuck can clue you in to possible solutions, and discovering that you can reverse spell effects by playing the notes in reverse is a clever touch that also made me feel smart when I figured it out. Apparently the spell sequences are randomised for your playthrough, which is why it recommends writing them in pencil! Not only is the book a useful resource, it contains more spells than are used in the game, and describes them in a way that adds depth and flavour to the fictional world as well.
The story generally moves quickly and with several points of no return, especially in the latter half, but you will never get stuck and are never in danger of dying. You can save any time, but I found it easy to go with the flow. There's some alternate solutions and missable stuff, but experimentation is rewarded only with new lines of dialogue, which can be amusing. The hint book even suggests some unusual things to try! The magic system is versatile and fascinating, and it could have been pushed even further into this realm of possibility; perhaps a sequel could have iterated on this, but within Loom these mechanics and choices are just expansive enough to be interesting but tight enough not to be overwhelming. It's a good balance for the streamlined story game that it's trying to be.
That's not to say it's paced perfectly. It can sag at times like exploring the dark cave, and it's possible to leave your home island without learning and understanding everything you'll need to progress (at this point in the game it is possible to backtrack and it can be a little slow if you missed something). Each new location is a visual feast though—the green glass city and the imposing blacksmith fortress are especial highlights—and these introduce a new facet of the world and its guilds while building to the inevitable climax… only for a twist to increase the stakes to existential levels. There's moments of both shocking violence and ethereal beauty, all illustrated wonderfully within the so-called limitations of EGA display technology.
Ah yes, I should mention that I was specifically instructed to play the earliest release, the EGA version for DOS (CGA graphics are also available, but they're merely a concession to less powerful systems at the time). This is how the game was designed, with starkly beautiful backgrounds and impressive close-up character portraits. The environments are a masterclass in dithering and colour choices with a limited palette. The later VGA release may look "better" with higher detail, more colours, etc., but it overwrites some of the original artistic choices and loses some of the moodiness and soul of the EGA graphics. Also, while it adds voice acting, at the same time it cuts a lot of dialogue, shortens some cutscene sequences, loses the close-up portraits, removes some alternate solutions, and censors some appearances of blood. This is the version that is still sold on Steam, but I can now vouch for seeking out the original release as the purest and ironically most content-rich version.
Loom didn't quite make the impact that its developers hoped for; it reviewed well but sold poorly and subsequently became the butt of (mostly good-natured) jokes both in other LucasArts games like Monkey Island and in Sierra's Space Quest 4. Looking at it now though it seems ahead of its time with its focus on its unique spell mechanic, its accessibility, its accomplished cinematic flair. The short length is now a boon, and I'd be surprised if its ambitions weren't influential on many other game developers; surely the music-based magic system inspired Ocarina of Time's song mechanic? Either way, Loom is well worth experiencing in its own right. Just don't forget the feelies!
From 2005 to 2019, Traveller's Tales consistently released at least one Lego game per year, and I played almost all of them with my spouse. With a big gap between announcement and the delayed release of Skywalker Saga, stories of crunch and a negative work culture at TT, and reports of Lego parting ways with Warner Bros for its video game output, there was some trepidation about this "ultimate" Star Wars compilation title… not to mention that in gameplay terms it's a significant departure from previous Lego games. Well, we've been playing it on and off since its release four years ago and now that we've finally managed to fully complete it to 100% I can finally render a verdict... yeah, it's pretty OK.
The story... well, it's Star Wars. Lego games have gone through phases of how they adapt their source material: pantomime, repurposed dialogue clips, or even new plots for some of the superhero stuff. Skywalker Saga adapts the nine numbered Star Wars films but has actors re-enacting scenes verbatim, mostly good soundalikes but there are several reprisals from the films and shows. The way dialogue is simply recreated gave me the impression that the script was being a little too reverent to the films and missing opportunities to take the piss, but there is a decent dose of physical comedy inserted as per usual.
The Lego games have over time expanded on the hub areas between levels, but it's taken to an extreme here. Now I haven't yet caught up on The Lego Movie 2 game which apparently takes cues from Lego Worlds to shake up the structure, but Skywalker Saga surprised us with its level-to-hub ratio. There are still levels that adapt key events from the films... technically. It's just here, they're tiny little mini-levels, and additional bridging events are shifted to the hub areas. By breaking things up so much the pace suffers, and it makes replays feel extra disjointed. Levels now have additional side goals as well as the usual collectibles (albeit fewer of them) so there’s more relevance to replaying them, but the goals are sometimes buggy or tricky to figure out so we often had a guide open for free play sessions.
Every planet visited in the three trilogies (except Kijimi for some reason), plus a handful of capital ships and space stations, is now a big explorable hub stuffed with collectibles, sidequests galore, and NPCs with unique and often amusing dialogue. The map is very feature rich with waypoints and so on, but can be a bit fiddly to navigate. The bulk of our game experience was in these hub areas ticking off the many, many tasks and missions, unlocking characters from the mindboggling roster.
I loved any chance to add to our collection of Glup Shittos. With so many minor and major characters (including outfits), Skywalker Saga introduces a streamlining of abilities. Now everyone falls into broad categories that dictate the problems they can solve as well as secondary actions they can take: Jedi can lift things, bounty hunters can blow up gold things, scavengers have access to a few contraptions for traversal, etc. It makes things much simpler to pick from these subsets according to your needs, and a hot bar is prefilled with choices from each. I eventually settled on favourites, like Shaak Ti and Maul, as well as the DLC characters Sabine Wren (her rapid fire guns have great DPS) and Bo-Katan Kryze (her jetpack lets you cheese platforming sometimes).
With a shift in focus to open hub zones comes a new behind the back perspective and permanently locked split screen in co-op. Combat has been given a shot in the arm with combos, smoother weapon aiming, and character abilities coming into play. We weren’t so much fans of how frequently the game forced you into specific modes though, like locking you in QTE-heavy close combat with bosses or the clunky cover-shooting segments. At least it lets you hold buttons rather than mashing them, and you can also skip hacking sequences at the cost of some studs.
While there are a lot of sidequests, they boil down to the same style of fetch quests and combat encounters over and over. The whole game in fact can feel a bit quantity over quality, and I found myself missing things like the extra levels in the Force Awakens game; while only covering one movie that was filled out with fun curated bonus stuff, while here there is so much content that blurs together. It certainly kept us busy for a long time so I can’t fault the value…! Either way the difference from past Lego games and the difficult protracted development has me all the more curious how their upcoming Batman game will turn out. Find out in a few years maybe, if that playthrough/review takes as long as this one??
While I'm in a Star Wars mood, I checked out this LucasArts-developed FPS from 2005. Originally released on Xbox Zero and PC, I picked up the Steam version on sale… only to find that it was unchanged since its release, and had no gamepad support. The 2021 remaster by Aspyr was in fact exclusive to PS4 and Switch, so I was forced to double dip. Aspyr got their Bounty Hunter remaster out on many more platforms including Steam three years later, so it's disappointing that the PC version didn't get an update. Anyway. This isn't exactly part of the Attack of the Clones game blitz, more a bridging game that leads up to Revenge of the Sith, which would debut a couple of months after this game.
A cutscene narrated by Taun We (Rena Owen reprising her role, although sounding a bit more Kiwi) introduces the concept of clone commandos, elite Jango clones with better training and equipment who can do special ops missions. Similar ideas have been reiterated on, but this is an early example and spawned a well-regarded series of novels by Karen Traviss. Your player character is Boss (no one ever accused the clones of being creative with their names), the leader of a squad of four commandoes. Over three campaign phases, you assassinate a Separatist leader at the Battle of Geonosis, retake a Republic command ship overrun by Trandoshan mercenaries, and help the Wookiees on Kashyyyk at what I think is supposed to be just before the events seen in Episode 3.
Your proto-Bad Batch supposedly have specialisations, but in gameplay terms they're utterly interchangeable. They are very chatty, with voice lines and banter for every single little thing that happens (often overlapping with each other and with plot exposition or directives), so you soon learn that there's the gruff one, the quippy one, and the other one. This is a few years before The Clone Wars show established Dee Bradley Baker as the ubiquitous voice of the clones, with his distinctive almost-but-not-quite Kiwi accent, able to imbue countless minor inflections to give his characters individuality. Veteran Telltale VA Andrew Chaikin plays the generic "clone advisor" in a very similar way to what Baker would end up doing, but otherwise your squaddies oddly don't bother and just have American accents, even the one that's also voiced by Chaikin! It's an odd choice, especially when Boss is actually played by Jango [and later Boba] himself, Temuera Morrison, and having a grand old time he is too.
As far as characters go, that's really it, until a late cameo by Tom Kane as Yoda (Tarfful also shows up but he just makes Chewbacca noises, obviously). The game really could have used a little extra on the supporting cast (one of the novels that partially adapts the game's events replaces the "advisor" with a Jedi General, which I think is a good choice) or an actual antagonist to give the campaign a meaningful throughline. As it is, the three phases, set nearly a year apart each at different stages of the Clone Wars, are more or less unconnected events where you just fight through a bunch of mooks, and the ending is so inconclusive it almost feels like a cliffhanger. I guess it sort of functions as one for RotS, but it’s not like the droid attack on the Wookiees is an especially narratively significant event, and the fate of your MIA comrade never got followed up on, even in the novels.
So much for the story and characters. In gameplay terms I see this often compared with Halo, as if LucasArts was chasing the trend of the game-changing console FPS series (and on the same system it spawned on, no less). I think this is overstated; while there some superficial similarities Republic Commando does seem to be doing its own thing with its heavy focus on ordering your squad around, and in terms of its scope the linear corridors and bullet sponge enemies don’t compare at all to Halo’s breadth and depth.
Your default gun is an automatic blaster that is inaccurate but fine for lower tier enemies, but beefier foes (like B2 battle droids, for example) often come along to wreck your day and delete your health bar. The main gun can be reconfigured into a sniper rifle or grenade launcher via a lengthy animation, and these forms have their own limited ammo pools but are necessary; don’t sleep on the quick melee attack though which is surprisingly damaging, if risky. An array of four grenade types are also situationally useful but fiddly to swap around. Your fourth weapon slot on the d-pad is for scavenged weapons that drop from some enemy types, whether it’s the Trandoshans’ various projectile guns, rocket launchers, or the Wookiee’s bouncing bowcaster. For your other ammo types you’re reliant on boxes that are scattered around the levels, but they’re portioned out generously so you don’t often need to rely on your infinite-ammo backup pistol.
The squad does help out but they’re not very effective unless ordered into sniper or grenade mode via designated contextual cover spots. Their most useful function is to revive you if you go down, although half the time they will inevitably fall to the same enemy that took you down. This is where the MVP feature comes into play: PC-style quick save/load. It’s fast and can be done at any time… hence the name, I guess. Given that checkpoints are not frequent, this function can save you a lot of time as long as you remember the upkeep of setting new ones before each room.
These are the basics, but the gameplay flow gets tedious quickly. Although they try to vary up the level layouts, I eventually couldn’t help but feel that I was simply moving from room to room and clearing out the same enemies from a small pool over and over again. There’s also a LOT of ordering your squaddies to do busywork tasks: take positions, disarm mines, hack or blow up something (always with a countdown that must be waited through), refill their health from the many wall-mounted dispensers (you all have a shield but it runs down very quickly before your health reserve starts getting chunked), etc etc. It’s almost a hybrid of FPS and RTS but with the worst of both worlds.
If anything maybe they could have stood to poach more ideas from Halo. That game had ally characters who were semi-autonomous, but Delta Squad has to be micromanaged at every step. I felt more like an ineffective middle manager than a powerful leader, especially since Morrison doesn’t have individual voice lines for his underlings but merely says “Delta do this”, “Delta do that”, and their supposed areas of expertise don’t factor in at all. Anyone can do anything, or you can just do it yourself although you can’t trust your squad to keep droids off your back while you set charges on their Gauntlet/Minecraft-style spawner crates (pick the relevant reference for your generation).
I hear this game talked up as a highlight of the expanded universe, but I was underwhelmed by it. The various shows and other media set during this time period show that there’s a lot of potential in Clone Wars stories and the clone brothers themselves as characters, but I guess they just weren’t quite there yet with this one. The story doesn’t go anywhere, the characters are flat, and the gameplay is shallow and repetitive. The supposed grittier tone just makes things dull, especially in the visuals. I just… can’t think of much nice to say about this one… uh, the visor windscreen wiper effects were cool!
A Star Wars steam sale led to me considering this relic of the Expanded Universe. Released in 2002 for the PS2 and Gamecube, it was part of the blitz of tie-in media around Attack of the Clones. There were so many games set before, after, or around the events of the film without strictly adapting it, which is fine because that movie is pants. This one is a prequel centering around Jango Fett, and was made by LucasArts themselves. I figured it would be a good followup to playing Shadows of the Empire with its similar third-person action and use of a jetpack. It's also a good time to play it because it was remastered in 2024 so looks pretty well up to date (and released on PC for the first time).
Bounty Hunter is apparently set in the same year as The Phantom Menace, and the year that Dooku defects from the Jedi (which doesn't really fit with his character as presented in this game, but whatever). Timeline shenanigans aside, the main thrust of the story is Dooku testing Jango for his worthiness as the master clone template, by sending him on the bounty hunt of his life: tracking down his former apprentice turned dark Jedi who now leads a death cult which is brainwashing the masses with doctored death sticks. Along the way Jango does a prison break, gets involved in an inter-Hutt rivalry, and clashes with a rival rogue Mandalorian (voiced wonderfully by Clancy Brown) while murdering literally thousands of gronks and goons (the game keeps track of your kills so I know I merced 2048 souls by the end).
This is still a prequel story, and in the tradition of prequel stories in the Star Wars universe, it feels the need to depict the origins of each and every thing that you know about a character from their film appearances. Ever wondered how Jango met Zam Wessel? How he got his spaceship Slave 1? How he got his jetpack?? Well, whether you wanted to know or not, this game will tell you, and it all happened in a two-day period or whatever. At times it dodges the accusations of prequelitis by handling some things with more subtlety: Jango's origin as a Mandalorian foundling, his relationship with his mentor, his history with slavery. But actually, all these points are further prequelised and explained in detail in the tie-in comic Open Seasons which released alongside the game, and is even viewable in part if you find enough collectibles to unlock the pages. The one thing that breaks this overenthusiastic backstory examination is that Jango uses Kaminoan saberdarts before ever going to Kamino, but I guess the fact that I noticed and care about this makes me the fool in this scenario.
The story takes you to various locations both old and new as Jango tracks various lowlifes and crims to get more information about the evil cult turning people into red-eyed chimps loyal zombies. The seedy underbelly and soaring high-rises of Coruscant, the streets of Mos Espa and canyons of Tatooine make for memorable locations as do the prison asteroid, jungles of Malastare, and the decaying necropolis that forms the game's climax. The latter is particularly fun to traverse while also sobering as you listen to posthumous messages from Jango's agent(?), the Toydarian Roz, played by the venerable veteran voice actor Lucille Bliss. And by the way, Temuera Morrison does a good job reprising his role as Jango, in his low-key, deadpan way. If we're comparing it to Shadows of the Empire, Bounty Hunter does a good job making locations look and feel distinct, as well as level design that makes the jetpack feel cool to use, even if your altitude gain is quite restricted so you don't just fly over everything.
Jango has quite a few tools at his disposal; maybe too many, to the point that cycling through them gets tedious and also dangerous in the midst of a fracas. You've got fisticuffs, a restraining rope, poison darts, your trusty double pistols, a flamethrower, and a scanning visor. The latter is only used to scan enemies and NPCs to check if they have bounties posted; you'll need to do this constantly if you want to claim credits, although they only unlock concept art in the gallery, a missed opportunity for some kind of upgrade system. I liked how identifying bounties changed how you approach groups and it adds some flavour, but ultimately I got fed up of fruitlessly scanning everyone on the off chance they were special, for no tangible reward. On top of the basic loadout of gear is an array of other weapons that get handed out per level: rockets, grenades, machine gun blasters, sniper rifles, etc. that all have to be tabbed through. There's not much depth to enemy behaviour, so which ones you use is more down to level layout, and blasting through humongous blobs of mooks loses its lustre before too long.
The way Bounty Hunter adds challenge is either by having just a buttload of mobs in a room, or spawning more in behind you, or both. There's also bosses that do huge damage, snipers with unerring aim, and death pits that are just barely clearable with perfect jetpack usage. Between all this, the paltry five continues given per level are totally insufficient. Using one does keep all your progress vis a vis murdered NPCs—much like Shadows of the Empire—but I soon found myself as with that game desperately searching for a workaround. Luckily I didn't need to resort to save file editing, as a cheat code easily entered in the menu gives 99 lives in each stage. So LucasArts did learn something in the six years between these releases.
At times I can see the intent, with the little action sandboxes that you can presumably approach in different ways, but in practice it just feels a bit messy, with some options clearly duds. There's just enough complexity with the levels that there's frequently satisfying friction to figuring out the next progression step, so the level design is the real highlight more so than the systems. I've really come around on there not just being a vague resemblance to Shadows of the Empire but this being in fact a spiritual successor, with lessons learned and mechanics expanded on, albeit with the vehicle sections stripped out. In fact, I've just looked it up and they have the same lead designer in Jon Knoles! Case closed! ...I probably should have figured that out before writing the whole review.
While I had my childhood N64 hooked up, I popped in this cart that I had picked up at a local charity book fair at the same time as Shadows of the Empire. The loose cart has the previous owner's name written on the label in biro, which is part of the charm of buying second hand along with the existing save files. I had played a little of this at a friend's house back when it was new, but this was my first time playing it all the way through. Anyway, Treasure, a Japanese studio made up of ex-Konami staff, had had a history on Sega consoles but started branching out with this release. Nintendo even published it outside of Japan, and would go on to collaborate with Treasure on the excellent Sin & Punishment games and the underwhelming Wario World. Does it hold up better than the latter? Let's find out…
Mischief Makers is quick to establish the tone of a goofy action anime or the like. Each world is even framed like an episode of a TV show. Marina Liteyears (Marina Nugget in the Japanese version) is a super fighting robot slash maid, working for her creator Professor Theo. She is charmingly genre-savvy, which makes for some fun banter with the baddies. Meanwhile he takes the role of the frequently kidnapped damsel in distress figure in each world's story, although I was inclined to let him be taken, as he's introduced in the title sequence as a "wacky comedy pervert", threatening to sexually assault Marina (who he claims to think of as a daughter during the climax). Hilarious! [large-sized sarcasm, if I may quote Iseng Journal]
The two of them have been travelling in the Prof's spaceship, which looks like a small house with rocket boosters. Episodes usually start with them lounging in the tatami room before being tricked in some way. They've arrived at the planet Clancer, responding to a distress call from the populace. Many natives of the planet have been recruited by some kind of evil emperor, as well as a team of animal-themed magical armoured warriors (and their combining mechs) who act as the major boss fights of most episodes.
The basic gameplay is quite interesting. It's one of the few 2D (or 2.5D) games on the N64, and one of the very few which use the controller in "left and right prong" configuration, eschewing the centre tine entirely. This works pretty well for the control scheme they're going for, but it does make holding the pad uncomfortable; I was always either poking myself or having to hold it awkwardly flat. It does make great use of the C-buttons though: Marina is equipped with rocket boosters on her back, which are activated directionally with their quad layout, either giving her a speedier run, a repeated air dash, a boost to her jumps, and even a kind of hover, among other uses. It's very fun to play around with, and there's depth to the movement that takes some getting used to but is satisfying to master.
The way Marina interacts with the world is by grabbing, shaking, and throwing. This is a kind of expansion on the Gunstar Heroes grab mechanic, but now made the whole focus of the game. Depending on the requirements of the level it's used for combat, platforming by grabbing and rebounding off anchor points, or various interactions in the more puzzley levels. There's a lot of variety and with it iteration on what the grabbing and shaking (accompanied by the iconic "shake shake!" voice line) can do, although some ideas are introduced and discarded too quickly.
The levels themselves keep the pace very snappy for the most part, many taking less than a minute to complete. One moment you're escaping a collapsing lava cavern, then you're riding a tricycle through an obstacle course; you might be climbing a tower, exorcising ghosts, balancing on a missile, participating in a sports festival, or looking for some lost kids. Each one also has a single gold gem that’s awarded for exploration or fulfilling some kind of challenge criterion. This micro-level structure is interesting and means the game is constantly refreshing and reinventing itself as you progress. It also means you rarely lose progress, and there's no life counter either so it's not very punishing outside of some long and obtuse late-game boss fights.
The game has a very unique look—especially for the N64—with a heavy use of prerendered CG for its visuals and only occasional polygon use. In this way it's similar to Yoshi's Story, although this actually came first! There's a good use of colour and fun character designs by Tetsuhiko Kikuchi of Gunstar Heroes and other Treasure works. Although one of the more striking visual decisions is the design of the Clancer people, who all share the same face that's a kind of cross between ancient Japanese haniwa figures and Edvard Munch's The Scream. And not just the people: cats, grabbable objects, even the bricks that make up their structures share this ever-present and somewhat off-putting face. Although it gives the planet a consistent theme and plays into the comedy, not to mention would have been a shortcut for development of assets, it feels like a missed opportunity for more distinctive visual designs. For instance, the first proper boss is a big fun dragon guy who doesn't match the overriding Clancer aesthetic but looks great!
Mischief Makers is impressive, a creative and clever game that really stands out in the N64 library in particular. Now that I can recognise some of its influences moreso than when I was a dumb kid, I feel like I understand it better so I can appreciate it in a different way. I still think it makes some clumsy missteps but overall it's quite unique and worth experiencing. And now I'm all the more looking forward to the upcoming indie game DoubleShake that takes partial inspiration from it!
[Review] Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (N64/PC)
A movie tie-in without the movie.
In the 90s, Lucasfilm was pushing Star Wars for a comeback. The films were rereleased ahead of the controversial Special Editions which would follow in 1997 (and of course Phantom Menace was on the horizon). Between these two, a special project was undertaken: to create all the accompanying media and products as if for a film project but without actually making the film. Shadows of the Empire had a novel, a toyline, several comics, and even a soundtrack CD... and of course, a video game. The Nintendo 64 version was out first, followed by a PC port the following year. I have previously experienced all the narrative media associated with this little initiative, but this is my first time with the game (I played both versions), so now I finally have the full story!
There's a gap of one year between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and that's where SotE takes place. Of course, Han Solo spends that whole time as an icy pole, so what shall we do without our dashing rogue archetype? [Well, our *white* dashing rogue anyway... Lando is right there!] Why, just drop in a carbon copy (pardon the pun)! Dash Rendar is the replacement mercenary with a heart of gold working with the Rebels, in his ship that's vaguely similar to the Millennium Falcon. The other media follow different character groups: the movies' heroes feature in the novel, and one of the comics centres on Boba Fett, while Dash takes up the lead role in the game. He basically goes on various adventures on the periphery of the novel's events, occasionally meeting familiar characters and blasting lots of fools along the way.
The game really does feel like a movie tie-in, not too dissimilar to the Phantom Menace game or other contemporaries. You kind of get whisked from place to place to explore a 3D gauntlet, fight a boss, do a vehicle section, etc. with some brief connecting tissue of cutscenes. In this case, it's not adapting a pre-existing film script but it is portraying an askance perspective on the novel's events, which I get the impression was the "main" piece that the other stuff revolves around. It's the way that it focuses on specific setpieces and swiftly papers over the plot movements that reminds me of licensed games; trying to retell a story through action sequences and doing a lackadaisical job with it.
When playing it I was reminded of Dark Forces, a Star Wars game from the year before in the form of a Doom clone (and not just because the cartridge label is almost identical to that game's box art, with simply a Stormtrooper fronting on you). It seems to revel in its complex 3D environments, whether as a technology showcase or to cater to more of a hardcore gamer crowd. By contrast, SotE is in third person and feels a bit more straightforward and accessible… at least, if you're playing on Easy mode (which I highly recommend). I appreciated that you never lost any progress to mission objectives if you died, and any enemies defeated stayed down. Dash has infinite ammo in his gun (a clone of Han Solo's, much like Dash himself) and later gets a jetpack which is really fun to play around with, when he's not shooting TIE fighters from his ship's turret or driving through Mos Eisley in a speeder bike. The game also begins with the tried and true Hoth battle against Imperial Walkers, which seems tailor-made for video game fodder.
The levels are fun to traverse, and you're rewarded for exploring and finding secret areas with health refills and new ammo types (which just come out of your standard pistol because why not). Also hidden around are challenge points, shiny silver tokens that reward you with extra lives when you complete the level, and cheat codes if you somehow manage to get every single one in the game, by which point you wouldn't need the codes… silly but a typical video game design choice. I just found it fun to find and collect the shiny things, a little dopamine prize for exploring dangerous spots.
The N64 version works quite well, the many functions of Dash Rendar mapped fairly intuitively to the world's worst controller. It doesn't hold up so well technically though; it runs slow, and the large environments are heavily fog-ridden, while I was constantly squinting at the tiny vague blurs that were my enemies. Altering the colour of the fog at least gave some visual variety to the levels, which at their best portray the stark blues and whites of Hoth or vast red canyons, but mainly stick to very grey or brown facilities, space stations, and sewers.
On PC it's a different story. Having access to higher resolutions makes everything crisp and sharp, with much longer draw distances fitting the big levels far better (on startup I ticked the box to render fog, but it just didn't...?). It seemed to run overly fast, perhaps not expecting the speed of modern computing, and the controls were twitchy. Also, nobody had USB gamepads back then, so it uses a plethora of keyboard inputs that were difficult to map to my Steam Deck's buttons (the extra paddles and such helped immensely, but required some setup).
Another benefit of the PC version is full CG FMV cutscenes. The 2D art on N64 is quite nice, but the full animation sets the scenes better, and voice acting helps even though the characters are paper-thin. I recognised Star Wars spinoff veteran Tom Kane as Dash's droid companion Leebo, although here he's a mere exposition machine and not the wisecracking comedian droid he was in his brief appearances in the novel. Dash himself I feel never really establishes himself as a charismatic lead or an effective replacement for the inimitable Harrison Ford, even on PC; the most distinctive thing about him is his shoulder pads.
Playing on Easy in the N64 version made for a nice, breezy time through the story. You get to ride a train, fight IG-88 and some other droid bosses, shoot down Boba Fett who immediately is fine and gets away because he has to be in other parts of the story, and fly around a surprisingly complicated sewer with a jetpack. It's fun! At the end you blow up Prince Xizor's space station (he's the antagonist, sort of, but you only see him in a couple of cutscenes because all his important stuff happens in the novel) and Dash is presumed dead. But what really happened? Play on Medium difficulty to find out!
This cop-out ending prompted me to play the PC version to compare, although with its twitchiness and the brutal difficulty of (checks notes) Medium, the second of four settings, I only got up to level 2 before repeatedly getting game over to an AT-ST boss at the very end of the stage. At my wit's end, I found some Steam guides and discussions that describe how to open your save file in a hex editor and alter your life count. With a stout 256 lives at my disposal (which the game reduced to 99 in the next stage) I did manage to brute force my way through, losing tens of lives per stage to remarkably accurate Stormtroopers, gravity, alien monsters, and the like. By the end I was down to the single digits, so it was a close thing! But you can redo the editing process at any point to top up your starting count. Highly recommended.
While it's a decent game and its potent "tie-in game" energy gave it a nostalgic feel for me, Shadows of the Empire (the game) can't help but feel like… well, a shadow. A lesser strand of a larger project. I suppose it was meant to be taken and consumed as a whole, but the game itself doesn't tell an incredibly compelling story on its own. It still feels like the novel is the main event and the other stuff is merely propping it up. Lucasfilm/Arts tried a similar thing with The Force Unleashed which I felt was more successful, at least from a gamer perspective, because the game was the main driving force of that; it had higher production values and a more complete story. But this experimental project is an interesting idea in its own right, the game just needed a little more juice… and a better protagonist… and better difficulty balance. Oh well, maybe next time.
After playing the three dolphin/ocean conservation-themed games that French studio Magic Pockets made for the DS, I was primed and ready for this modern adventure freed from the shackles of Ubisoft and their Petz branding. It turns out this isn't really much of a successor to those games, apart from sharing environmentalist themes and the goal of saving animals from pollution and such. In practice it actually takes a lot more after Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, a sweet little game from three years prior by British dev Ustwo Games.
Your player avatar is Pava (F) / Avi (M), a kid visiting their grandparent on a remote island for the summer holidays. While there they end up working with the residents to clean up the environment and help out animals. This premise is the same as Alba, but here the focus is more on the ocean and a dash of mysticism, rather than the community aspect of Alba. Also, rather than a Spanish locale the setting of Maupiroa is a tiny Polynesian island, apparently the last remaining vestige of the lost civilisation of Mu.
The only people on Maupiroa are the members of a scientific research organisation; the game outlines that other houses belong to people who only come here on holiday, although that doesn't explain why some have washing on the line in their yards, or who is running the general store which has fresh produce stocked on its shelves. I did find the lack of minor NPCs made the island feel a little lonely. But to look at it another way, it keeps the cast tight on a few charmingly designed folks with their own quirks but who all care for the environment and are working to protect it. Your grandfather is keen to pass on the secrets of the island; you come to find that there are spirits who can work through you as a member of an ancient guardian clan, which give you new abilities (being able to run is the most important, but others can help you bypass barriers to explore further in the underwater sections).
With your burgeoning spirit bond comes a cute dolphin companion; Keanu helps you out by identifying tasks for you to carry out, and eventually gives you a faster swim option by pulling you along. Unlike most animals in the game, Keanu has a slightly more cartoony appearance, and even manifests glowy markings. In the diving sections there's plenty of ambient wildlife but having this constant companion is very nice, since diving in games is often a solitary experience.
Both while running around the island or out on a dive at one of the four ocean locations, your goals are generally to help animals affected by pollution, caught in nets, etc., to stop hazards like leaking oil pipes, to pick up rubbish littered around, and to document animal species by taking photos. Unlike on the DS there's no little minigames; if you have the right object like the toolbox or first aid kit, it's just done with the simple press of a button. So it can feel a little like busywork, and the only actual gameplay comes from navigating the 3D underwater spaces and pointing the camera at moving animals. Still, this means the experience is quite chill and I appreciated the breeziness and relaxed pace.
Documenting animals lets you learn a little about them in the encyclopedia, and they look better than ever (the animal modelling was always a strength of Magic Pockets, and with more advanced technology and resolution they shine within the slightly stylised art direction… except for birds' wings being folded weirdly when they're walking around). Your notebook also contains educational snippets about sustainable fishing, how to handle injured animals, etc., among plot-related notes about the island's fictional history and such.
This is all in all a very gentle game. The diving controls are easy to grasp, there's no antagonist and little intrigue between the association members, and no personal peril or failstates to worry about. It's just about having a nice time and doing what you can to help the environment, although in your player character's case that does include mystical powers. The environments especially underwater are nice, with some charming low-poly rendering on rock formations, and a decent variety of landmarks to discover, from shipwrecks to ancient ruins to crystal caverns. I think Alba had a slightly more involved story, but if you're after something similar or with an integrated diving component, this is a lovely addition to the genre.
Despite the names flip-flopping around, this is the third in a trilogy of marine-life-care games on the DS by French studio Magic Pockets. They did explore similar themes and concepts in games such as Tigerz: Circus Life and Imagine: Zookeeper, but these three have consistent characters and specifically aquatic animals. In North America this one was branded as Petz: Dolphin Encounter, but you aren't only encountering dolphins, nor are you bound to one island this time around.
Mila and Greg are once again on holiday when they are hit by a surprise recruitment to be eco-warriors, this time without any covert agencies involved. Tevaï from the last game (although they call her Teva now) brings you aboard a high-tech ship which becomes your mobile base of operations as you travel the globe, rescuing animals in distress and putting a stop to the plans of another Captain Planet villain who's out to loot and pollute.
Since you're taking to the seas to find animals in situ, there's much more of a focus on scuba diving, making this feel closer to an Endless Ocean game or the like. You get whisked along to new coastal locations, stopping briefly to catalogue animals, before a crisis suddenly but inevitably crops up. The boat merely serves as a hub to check on your animaldex, upgrade medicines, and change location, while you'll spend most of your time swimming around in first person via the touchscreen; the optional "swim in the enclosures" mode from the second game serving as a kind of prototype for the main gameplay this time around.
I was enjoying exploring these little mini underwater maps—they're well-modelled with interesting landmarks—but the emergencies insist on keeping the pace up and pulling you away. You don't get to freely explore at your own speed until the postgame… although it won't take long to get there. The story is very short in this one compared to the other games, plus it doesn't really end conclusively with the villain getting his comeuppance, so the whole thing feels a bit rushed. I think I prefer this to the sometimes plodding routine we had before, though.
Rescuing animals usually involves a streamlined version of the medical minigame introduced in Ocean Patrol (doing various touchscreen tasks to administer first aid to different kinds of wounds and afflictions), which can be expedited further by finding algae in the exploration phase to mix custom medicines. Other events added to the mix include sawing through a net to release a trapped animal, pulling a plastic bag out of a hungry mouth, removing illicit tracking devices, or sealing up leaking oil containers. These are all timed, and reward points for fast and efficient completion, but the points aren't redeemed for anything this time, they just level you up (this might advance the plot on milestones, not sure).
Since you no longer have to take in individual animals, naming them and giving them consistent care, the creatures you encounter can feel a bit disposable. Underwater Adventures makes up for this by letting you swim among them in their home environments, from jellies and some fish species up to even very large animals like whales and whale sharks. To enter them in your log requires only a very simple scanning task, which tells you their species name and endangered status. You can then take photos of them, although these aren't saved anywhere, which is odd because this has DSi support to take a photo of you for your virtual ID, so could it not have saved photos to your console's album? Finally with all tasks complete you can give them a pat in classic Nintendogs fashion. It's all quite simple and low-demand, which balances with the time pressure of the emergency events.
While exploring there's also a mechanic of uncovering buried treasures, ranging from relics of ancient civilisations to fossils to evidence of more recent organisms that can teach you something about the environment and our impact on it, like a leftover squid beak, a bleached coral, or an aquatic weed. The archaeology minigame is a bit more on the puzzley side as you use your tools to reveal tiles, but there's only a handful of these in total and most are optional.
It's interesting to compare the three games (Dolphin Island, Ocean Patrol, Underwater Adventures) to see how much they shift focus from instalment to instalment. This one feels like a lateral move, spinning off rather than evolving the formula, but the parts they chose to focus on make for a relatively tight and fun adventure. I particularly liked the variety in the undersea environments and exploring them, but it came at the cost of simulation satisfaction. Not to mention the greatly reduced focus on the cast of characters and your interactions with them; there's still a few of them, looking as fun and expressive as ever, but this aspect has been minimised which is a shame. Oh, and there's no great mythological animal at the climax either. But now that I'm finished with the trilogy, I'm looking forward to playing Magic Pockets' modern game which is potentially a spiritual successor (maybe?), Dolphin Spirit: Ocean Mission. See you then!
After wiping their feet all over Bungie's work for the Halo CE Anniversary Edition, the newly minted internal Microsoft studio to manage the Halo franchise, 343 Industries, set their sights on the future of the franchise. This shaky start seems to have rightly set the tone for what Halo would be going forward...
John "Master" Chief has been in cryosleep for I guess five years, drifting in a wrecked ship towards another mysterious Forerunner structure, this time a hollow planet similar to that seen in Halo Wars. This is Requiem, and the Covenant want it bad. Wait, the Covenant? The one that was dissolved in the wake of the Great Schism? I guess this is a different one, and the game spends zero lines of dialogue justifying their existence. I suppose they want me to read a novel to understand what's happening in this game. Anyway, a big ol' human ship called the Infinity arrives, and through some blundering an ancient evil awakens an old Forerunner dude gets the unfrozen caveman lawyer treatment, and wastes no time taking control of the situation, finding an ancient superweapon (no, not the Halo array), and almost doing... something... to Earth. Who can stop him? Who do you think???
I don't know where to begin with this… the game seems to want you to have already read a bunch of extended universe material to get the new setting, because it does a really poor job explaining itself. There's an opening cutscene but it's utterly irrelevant to the events of the game, instead framing Catherine Halsey as a villain (deserved). It could have established the status quo of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant splinter group, introduced the Spartan-IVs, given a refresher on the Forerunners who come to the forefront in this game's events. Nope. Maybe there's something to be said for throwing the player into the deep end of the situation the same way that John is, except that Halo 4 never once takes the time to catch you up at any point. Instead it's all angst about Cortana breaking down, the unfrozen caveman Didact pontificating, the Infinity's jerkass captain growling at you. Just rush off to the next scenario and shoot some stuff, oh except now here's a flashback to what really happened 100,000 years ago.
One of the big lore retcons in 343's tenure is that no actually humans aren't the descendants of Forerunners, they coexisted until the Didact had a war with them and blasted us back to the Stone Age. This is told in a massive pace-halting exposition dump by another Forerunner character called the Librarian who secretly and posthumously has been helping humanity in some way, culminating in John Halo himself being super duper extra special (ugh). She appears as I guess a digitised conciousness, which is weird because I'm not sure how that's different to the Composer that we're trying to stop (maybe the least-threateningly-named superweapon ever). There's even more lore dumps in easy-to-miss terminals, but we didn't find many and when we did, get this, only the co-op player who interacts with it actually sees the cutscene while the other sits around twiddling their thumbs, and then the terminal becomes inoperative. Woof.
Anyway, the Covenant join up with the Didact and he also has an undefined array of superpowers like telekinesis and the ability to take control of the Prometheans, a new faction of Forerunner constructs. No, I don't know why they are named after a human mythological figure. He also refers to himself and his race as Forerunners, which was a human-coined borderline-placeholder term for the mysterious ancient builders of the galaxy, but whatever. These are ultimately nitpicks but they're the kind of thing you can gloss over if you're actually enjoying the story... so yeah, these things bothered me. I don't think demystifying and overexplaining the Forerunners and their relationship with prehistoric humans (with a boatload of retcons along the way) makes them more interesting, or at least not the way it’s done in this game.
So, uh… in this game you shoot aliens. Yes. The Covenant have an established variety of classes and weapons that make for fun encounters, and they're almost untouched here, save for swapping out a weapon or two. They are a bit lacking in variety (no Brutes, Drones, or Engineers so it's back to the CE basics) but I must admit I liked facing off with Elites again, even though there's zero acknowledgement of their species' treaty with humanity. Filling the gaps I guess are the Prometheans, robotic figures who come in a mere three flavours: dog-type, bird-type, and knight-type. Each one takes about a million shots to kill and they have a lot of mobility, whether it's crawling up walls, flying erratically, or teleporting, respectively. And just when you've taken down one of the top-heavy bullet-sponge knights, the birds have the power to revive them so it's like everything you did was totally pointless! These new additions to the formula always felt intrusive, in an annoying way. I'm glad 343 tried something new but these guys leave a lot to be desired.
Supposedly the Prometheans are the result of the Composer, human(?) [or Forerunner?? who knows] souls trapped in robot shells, some of which have screaming skulls because it looks cool. The danger they represent could give stakes to the Didact using the Composer further, except that when he activates it (twice) later in the story the affected humans simply turn to piles of dust. He even successfully points it at Earth and the result is just one town's population getting dusted! If anything it feels *less* threatening than any regular space laser, let alone a Covenant glassing.
The Prometheans bring with them a whole new set of guns to learn… only, each and every one seems to simply mimic an existing human gun in function. They have a pistol, an assault rifle, a battle rifle, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, a rocket launcher… they all take ammunition and are reloaded like human weapons. The cleverness of the Covenant's weapons are that they behave differently, giving variety to the shooting game and an alien-ness that helps the story. Sure the new guns are all glowy and orange, but when I realised they were nothing more than cheap reskins I felt quite let down. The Prometheans also have no vehicles at all; there are still vehicle sections that as always are highlights (particularly the memorable mission escorting the big truck, but not the slow and clunky mech sections or the clunky Pelican flying) but the Prometheans are never involved in this action, making them feel even more underbaked as a faction. And by the way, you know those other Forerunner constructs, the Sentinels? You see them a couple of times, but wouldn't it have been cool if they fought against you, or even alongside you, distinct from the Didact's Prometheans? Oh well.
The Prometheans also lack charisma, silent as they are. Can the Covenant be relied on to take up the slack? No! They no longer speak English, so there's no comedy from panicking Grunts, no battle information communicated to the player, no drama from hearing their perspective in or out of cutscenes. You aren't even told why they joined forces with the Didact! I thought he was mind controlling them the whole game! Arghhh! Further to the "no comedy" point, there's no relief from an overall dour tone. The jerkass captain is always yelling at you. Cortana is always moping, and there's an attempt at humanising Chief through her anxiety about her condition but as he continues to repeat "don't worry, we'll fix you" it just feels like he's in denial about the whole thing. The human supporting cast are merely no-nonsense exposition machines who barely acknowledge that Chief, saviour of the galaxy, has returned from death. There's no wisecracking Sergeant Johnson or smarmy Guilty Spark, and the snarky Cortana is seldom seen.
If what you thought the tight gunplay and expansive level design of Halo was missing was quick time events, well you should rethink your life choices. But also, there's only two in the game: one in the intro level, and the other in the final boss confrontation. (And by the way, in co-op, only one player gets to do them while the other watches.) After a decent autoscrolling spaceship rail shooter section, there's a bunch of combat arena fights. Then in a cutscene you finally confront the big bad who telekinetically pushes you off a bridge. But wait! Cortana split herself into multiple Cortanas or something which distracts him, then—still in a cutscene—you do literally two inputs in five seconds and then he is the one who is falling off the bridge. It's anticlimactic, it's unintentionally hilarious, it's flipping pathetic is what it is. This wet fart really caps off what is on the whole an uneven experience.
I basically had a decent time with my brother goofing around in this game and blasting baddies. We both wanted to give it a chance more or less, and maybe we shouldn't have played it on Legendary difficulty, but it left us cold. At least we had a laugh at the game's expense from time to time. I had a lot of issues with Bungie's latter entries in the series, but this one didn't seem like a bold new statement except in the area of the lore and setting. It's basically competent but so riddled with missteps and awkward choices… the other thing is it occupies an odd spot in the Master Chief Collection. Since its launch, the addition of the non-Chief games ODST and Reach renders the name redundant, at which point 4 is the odd one out: it's become the Bungie Halo Collection Plus Halo 4. It feels out of place, Microsoft staking an unwarranted claim; much like their whole stewardship of the franchise, confidence that hasn't been backed up. This also marks the end of our journey through the games, as Guardians still somehow has no PC port, and I don't feel like paying Microsoft as it exists now with its war crimes and extreme mass layoffs for the overpriced Infinite. So there it is.
Addendum. Halo 4 originally had an episodic DLC expansion which is now bundled into the collection. Cameron played a few levels with me but got bored, and I slogged through the rest of the extensive campaign on my own. Spartan Ops is the gameplay campaign that replaces the arcadey Firefight mode from previous games, accompanied by a CG webseries called Halo: Infinity. Taking place after the events of the main game, you control a creator-character Spartan-IV, unnamed and voiceless. It's intended you do this in a co-op squad, but I was a lone supersoldier I guess, fighting through four players' worth of enemies in areas recycled (and re-recycled) from the main story and I assume some multiplayer maps. These cheaply-made levels have you tracking and backtracking, pushing buttons, and being required to kill each and every enemy. It got old long before the story wrapped up, and the story wasn't much to write home about either.
The Infinity cutscenes are sometimes loosely tied in to the things you're doing, but centre around a different group of characters, most of them white men with American accents who I had trouble telling apart (this applies to Spartan Ops and the base game as well). The leader of the Covenant faction is finally introduced although he suffers from "Star Trek Discovery Klingon" syndrome, growling in a subtitled nonsense language; compare this with Keith David's gravitas as the Arbiter. No contest. Halsey is there to instil some slight intrigue, and Spartan Palmer is a commanding officer figure (seen very briefly in the main game) who like everyone is dour and serious, although I found her particularly unlikeable as she frequently refers to the Covenant in general as "freaks" and the Sangheili in particular with the slur "hingeheads". The war is over! These are people! Some of them are our allies! The main game also used a very real human ethnic slur with a complicated history in one of its military group names, which just shows a carelessness with the writing through and through.
Anyway, all the characters bored me, except the guy who was portrayed by Ethan Peck and that's only because I like Spock in Strange New Worlds. The levels bored me, with their quantity over quality approach. It's still basically Halo fights in the Halo engine so again a baseline level of decent gameplay, but the low budget really shone through and playing it alone made it feel unbalanced and slow. Wait, why are the Prometheans still hostile after the Didact fell off a space bridge? Was Jul 'Mdama around the whole time in the base game? Where is Chief during all this? Oh no, I'm thinking about the plot again… time to wrap up before I start moaning again. Sorry for the rants, and thanks for reading.
After playing Dolphin Island, I booted up Dolphin Island 2, made for the A Game By Its Cover game jam, where real games are made based on mockup game cartridges in the My Famicase art exhibit. This one uses Ko Takeuchi's entry from 2008 and its accompanying blurb as the jumping off point to create a stylish action platformer. It has potential but during the jam the creators Jan and James were only able to implement a few small areas and two bosses… wait a minute, this isn't a sequel to the dolphin park management game at all!
Setting aside the gag, Magic Pockets' successor to Dolphin Island is Planet Rescue: Ocean Patrol (known in North America as Petz Rescue: Ocean Patrol, part of a small subset within the Petz series of Petz Rescue animal care simulation games on DS and Wii). This time the setting is more upfront a marine wildlife sanctuary, rather than a retrofitted amusement park, and thankfully gone is the element of training dolphins to perform in shows while being kept in tiny pools. You do still play games with dolphins, orcas, and now pinnipeds [seals and sea lions] as well, but it's framed as enrichment while they recuperate.
Mila and Greg, plus some other returning characters from Dolphin Island, have been kidnapped and dumped on a tropical island in the same fictional Hawai'i-esque archipelago. The culprit is WAZAPS, the shadowy organisation out to protect the environment and punish those who cause harm to animals (they were in the last game as well). They've set up an animal sanctuary there, where creatures who have been injured in the wild can recover. Much of the harm is coming from a particular Captain Planet-style villain whose fishing trawler is causing problems with its pollution and unsustainable fishing practices, so you have to deal with him while unravelling more secrets of local mythology with the help of the other quirky staff.
This time the more outright altruistic nature of the setting is welcome, and to support it there's more of a focus on medically treating animals and then—importantly—returning them to the wild after they've healed. Dolphins, orcas, and pinnipeds get the close-in attention where a wide variety of tools are used in touchscreen minigames to treat specific ailments and injuries, done over a series of sessions to heal them over time. These three categories of creature also now have unique minigames to play with the animals, and a more involved feeding mechanic. Other animals fill the island's pools and enclosed lagoons, all again modelled well, including a few additions to the roster like polar bears and whale sharks. You can now go for a swim to get up close to them, but they don't require much attention unlike the very needy busywork in the first game.
Instead of micromanaging every individual creature daily, this is a more chill experience, where their needs tick down slowly and you only have to do a couple of required tasks per day. There's more interaction with the other characters on the island (again, all with fun cartoony designs), managing your inventory of tools, food, and medical supplies, and digging up goodies from the sands and waters. Another big focus is the boat minigame, which is how you get new animal residents. Almost every day you can optionally sail out to rescue an animal in distress, while avoiding rocks with touchscreen controls.
I enjoyed the more relaxed pace and expanded activities of this sequel, as well as the change in premise (forced conscription of staff notwithstanding). Again it looks good for a DS game, with lovingly rendered animals; this one even lets them have babies, with some very cute cutscenes to introduce them. I did struggle with progression at a certain point, so if you're stuck in chapter 20, my hot tip is to switch detectors to the snorkelling mask and fish in the ocean until you have enough shells! As for me, I'm off to check out the third instalment in this little trilogy, toodles!
My previous review of DS dolphin games touched on a couple with a waterpark setting. French studio Magic Pockets' first of three dolphin-themed DS games has a similar premise, at first. But I stuck with it and was pleased by the direction the game took. In North America this game was released under Ubisoft's long-running "Petz" series of animal care simulators, as "Petz: Wild Animals: Dolphinz", but many of its other language releases use the Dolphin Island/Adventure title. Despite the Petz branding, this isn't really a virtual pet game, but presents itself more as a park management sim.
Mila and Greg are siblings dropped off for the summer at their uncle's aquatic animal amusement park in a fictional Hawai'i-esque location. These 16-year olds are then made to work, essentially doing everybody's jobs at once, while dealing with the eccentric staff, greedy industrialists, nosy archaeologists, and the park's transition to an animal sanctuary, eventually discovering the truth behind the local myth of a dinosaur-like spirit.
I was ready to write this game off at first because they frontload the "dolphin show" theme, but knowing that the series develops over time and the charming designs of the colourful characters kept me going just long enough to get to an early twist: the park's employees urge the owner to only take in injured and endangered animals to rehabilitate them. After this point the story goes through a lot of environmentalist messages about pollution and human destruction of animal habitats, which results in more animals being added to your roster to care for. Through it all you do still put on dolphin shows, getting them to do stunts in their tiny pool, which felt uncomfortable, but it was offset for me by the other ecological messaging.
The basic loop is that each day starts with a briefing from one of the many characters about a situation to deal with. Maybe there's a new animal coming in, or a storm has blown rubbish into the pools, or the evil land developer has deliberately infected all your animals with a deadly virus so he can take over the island and build a resort. You know, normal stuff. You have to respond to each new scenario while maintaining the health and wellbeing of all the creatures in your many pools. The bulk of the gameplay then is doing three little touchscreen minigames: feeding via a memory challenge, delivering medicine by a quick-tapping reaction challenge, or removing trash with a more careful net-dragging challenge. If any of these factors go too long without attention, the authorities (via two MIBs in life jackets) shut down your park, ie. you have to start the day again. Late in the game when your pools are more full of many creatures requiring attention, it can feel like you're just racing around putting out proverbial fires, instead of having time to appreciate the well-modelled little polygonal critters.
The interface doesn't help, as this entirely touch-driven game requires you to drag around the park to manually check in on various status bars and alert icons. There's no lists or button shortcuts to expedite the process and only the player to solve all the problems (co-op play is apparently available, which would help you stay on top of things, but I wouldn't want to ask anyone to play tedious touchscreen minigames with me all day).
The dolphin and orca pens require a bit more attention, as you're required to treat their injuries in another unique tap-a-thon (the touch detection on the "guiding them to the edge of the pool" phase was the most finicky part of the game). They also have the shows and accompanying training sessions, which involve quickly and accurately drawing patterns; not very difficult, but these sections drag on for a long time.
Filling up the park was satisfying, although each new animal means more work to do. It does feel like a job at certain points, but the story with its wacky goofballs (and again, fun character designs) kept me going over the 40 or so days that events play out. As far as "tycoon" style games go, the focus here is squarely on caring for the resident animals rather than managing ticket prices and logistics, and there's a decent variety of predetermined species with fact sheets and model viewers unlocked as you progress in the story. What I most enjoyed was the intentional pivot to environmentalism that happens in the story; I really hope some kids got radicalised to be animal rights activists by this game back in the day! And I'm keen to see what Magic Pockets do next.
A pleasant surprise in a sea of dolphin-training rubbish.
I have an interest in dolphins, and there's several dolphin games on the DS. I'm already familiar with Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures, a competent Ecco the Dolphin clone starring one iteration of Seaworld's mascot in a fantastical side-scrolling adventure, but there's more out there. Being laid up in bed with a cold and having a new DS pico flashcart to test, I fired up a few.
Dolphin Trainer by Sanuk Games and published by Bigben Interactive is one among a trend of games with an unfortunate setting, albeit one that would provide many people with cetacean contact: using them as entertainment in shows at amusement parks. I see this genre of games—where you train a captive dolphin to do tricks—as propaganda for exploitative and cruel practices inflicted on intelligent creatures, and they leave a sour taste in my mouth. When I realised this was the premise, I soon dipped; there's more dolphin games to investigate!
My Pet Dolphin (published in PAL territories by 505 Games) has much the same premise. Known as I Love Dolphin in the original Japanese (if you really loved them you'd set them free!!), it was developed by Starfish, who I know for their joyous DSiWare action game Roller Angels, and their DS instalment in the Devilish series of fantasy block-breakers. The pace is slow and I didn't stick with it long, but it does have a small library of fun facts about dolphins and whales so there's at least some educational element. Starfish seem to have made a Japan-exclusive followup of sorts to this on DSiWare called 愛してイルカ, which is the same title but actually in Japanese this time; I didn't test this one.
My Pet Dolphin 2 is where I landed on something more pleasant. Starfish also developed this, but it doesn't have the same direct connection that 505 Games implies by their localised title. Originally it was called "Long Vacation: Dolphin and Me", and it got a North American release this time with Discovery Kids branding as Dolphin Discovery. Rather than exploiting a dolphin, this time you're essentially playing as one on a gentle little adventure.
There's a tropical island hut that your offscreen human character is holidaying in which houses small collections of things you find, but the actual gameplay gives you direct control of a baby dolphin (named by you and with four colours to choose from). I suppose it could be implied that "you" are swimming alongside it, but you only ever see the dolphin doing stuff. From what I could tell, there's three courses to swim through: 3D underwater environments to be explored in which you help out other animals, find salvage, and do minigames.
This makes the experience sound like a full-fledged adventure game, but in practice it's very clunky and cut-down. Even something as simple as moving your dolphin character around the bends and nooks of the maps is overly laborious: you can move forward easily enough, but turning to either side (in 45 degree increments) necessitates an animation of the dolphin swimming offscreen and back that takes at least four seconds, then you can move in a straight line on your new heading. The underwater setting is effectively a flat plane in gameplay terms, so this slow-paced movement feels extra unnecessary. Swimming and turning is also laggy, even though the DS can handle 3D fairly well in other games. You're able to surface to interact with islands and floating bottles, and turning up there is much quicker, but transitioning between planes also takes a long animation and fade-out.
While navigating the undersea mazes like an antique submarine, you come across animals blocking your way. You need to explore more to find other animals (like a baby turtle's mother) or contextual items (like a rope to tug a stuck molamola out of the way). This is nice, the dolphin helping out their aquatic buddies, but again the interaction is very basic. Treasures and animals you find can populate various menus back on the island, like creatures the dolphin likes to eat, other animals' photographs (I guess the unseen human must be taking these), music tracks (the game has very few of these overall), and seeds that will grow over time in a windowsill garden. The back of the PAL box mentions exploring shipwrecks, but I couldn't find evidence of that, although I didn't fully scour every map.
Sometimes you find crowns that lead to minigames. There's no reward beyond high scores, but one in each map blocks progress to the next map; the only one that offers a failstate is a race against a beluga, but others will have your dolphin jumping out to collect coconuts or clear rocks, or see you blowing into the microphone so the dolphin will blow bubble rings at jellies and sharks in scrolling shmup stages. These too are a little clunky but at least have a flow and goal more so than the open-ended exploration sections.
My Pet Dolphin 2 is technically a 3D underwater dolphin adventure, which is lovely to see on the DS, but the terribly stiff navigation really kills it for me. I don't mind the simplicity, especially if it's a concession to the intended very young audience, but kids aren't stupid. Have a little more ambition! The game does have a charming mix of 2D and 3D graphics, which made finding other creatures under the sea a little more fun, but overall its scope is quite small unless you're looking to fill out the album completely. I'm just so glad it broke the streak of animal cruelty simulators!
Part 3 of my Playdate adventures goes through the third quarter of Season 1!
Questy Chess
A quirky chess-themed tactical RPG adventure of sorts. With the framing that you’re playing as a lone pawn resisting a software upgrade in an old computer (complete with vector-like graphics and fake disk access noises), you have to navigate grid maps using chess movement rules, unlocking new pieces to access their abilities, capturing enemy pieces and opening paths forward. There’s a lot of powerups to help you on your way: shields, clones, warps, screen-clearing bombs, and other things that would be unusual in chess. Clearing a level scores you on moves, pieces taken, remaining health, etc.; trying for a good score is a goal you could aim for, since just getting through levels isn’t difficult, unless you make a wrong move and get stuck from progressing the level. It’s short and has just enough cool ideas to sustain it.
Executive Golf DX
A cute golf sidescroller. Over a handful of levels, you hit your golfing ball artillery-style over a procedurally generated array of obstacles and up through the levels of an office building from the basement through accounting to the swanky executive suite… and then down through a neighbouring building (which is much easier thanks to gravity), ending in a subterranean cavern, whereupon your competitor’s tower blasts off like a rocket into a volcano. Pretty cool. Along the way you pick up powerups that can change the trajectory of your next swing, granting it low gravity, stickiness, super bounce, etc. The theme is fun, the graphics well done, and although it can be troublesome to surmount the furniture in your way, the experience overall doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Saturday Edition
A compelling adventure game, with a detective story involving alien abductions. The game establishes upfront that the protagonist visited an alien world and returned to his normal life, which colours a lot of the events as they unfold; John will occasionally reflect on his experience and his knowledge of the race that took him away, comparing it to the disappearances and sightings that he finds himself encountering. It's a fascinating angle for a slow-burn story that gradually ramps up the intrigue until the breathtaking finale. With only a few mundane actions to choose between each day, and items or clues discarded when they have served their purpose in the story, it never gets overwhelming like some adventure games can (and if you get stuck the official walkthrough linked on the game’s catalogue page can point you in the right direction), and the impeccable pixel art and subtle soundscape build a very moody atmosphere. This one's a real gem in the season.
Star Sled
The first game in Season One made within Panic, this is similar to Hyper Meteor in giving you crank control of a space ship. It's a bit more ambitious though, with scrolling arenas, a level-based structure, and use of the B button which changes over the campaign, from a speed boost to a warp to a ramming attack. In each level you use the trail behind your ship to lasso gewgaws like it's Nights' paraloop, while avoiding enemy ships and other obstacles. It's fun, and I particularly liked the missions where you infiltrate huge abstract battleships, plus the vector-like art style is eye-catching. There's even hidden bonus stages to find!
Spellcorked
A newly minted witch has started an online potion shop. Each day in game has you checking your magical email for new orders, consulting the grimoire, and preparing ingredients to the correct specifications via crank-powered minigames. The art is meticulously lovely and figuring out the quirks of the ingredient system is engaging, although it requires some trial and error unless you really squint at the grimoire’s minuscule text hints. The unique dialogue and story emails dry up too quickly so getting to max rank in your customers’ reviews gets grindy, and even the requests and their accompanying flavour text and review text is randomly collated from pre-set phrases so they’re nonsensical and repetitive where they could have told stories about your customers and their habits. I also encountered a lot of buggy and/or laggy animations in this one, but I still had a nice time with the chill vibes and juggling remembering the details of orders with the mechanical demands of preparing them.
Inventory Hero
A frantic action game with the trappings of a goofy RPG. Your adventurer character does their thing idle-style, fighting monsters and such. Your job is to manage their inventory, quickly equipping, consuming, or discarding items that drop into the five slots. It’s constantly easy come, easy go, as your armour degrades and you find gear pieces that make your number go up while guzzling food and potions. Boss fights play with the systems by dropping items at a much higher rate but relying on specific bomb items to progress. While it feels like an adventure, it’s really a simple run-based score game with your level acting as a high score; on my first run I got to the glitch world which endlessly repeats. Lots of fun though.
