PixeledIcarus Reviews

A blog for reviews and general video game posts and reblogs. My Favorite genres of games tend to be Adventure games and RPG's though I'll try to check out a variety, including mobile games.

[pixeledicarus]

Maize

Available On: Steam, Humble Bundle

Okay, you’re gonna have to hear me out on this one. Straight from the steam description, Maize is a first-person adventure game about what happens when two scientists misinterpret a memo from the U.S. Government and create sentient corn. Yep, that’s right, sentient corn. Maize was developed by Finish Line Games. This review will be short and to the point, since this game is mostly a point and click walking simulator with escape room elements.

Art Okay, so this is a difficult one to talk about. Everything in the game is rendered really well, and I personally love the backgrounds. That said, I am not a huge fan of the designs of the, er, talking corn. The humanoid eyes on inanimate objects thing has never really struck me as appealing, though if I’m being honest here, I’m not sure it’s supposed to be. As a result the art will definitely be hit or miss.

Sound The music in this game is hilarious and catchy as hell. Not only do you get to hear about a fictional band that exists in the world of Maize, but you get to hear their 80′s-like music as well, and it’s damn good. The voice work is also excellent as well, giving all the the corn and other unique characters their own individual personalities.

Gameplay As i said at the beginning, Maize is a puzzle based walking simulator. Most of your time will be spent reading notes written by the former lab workers and posted all over the facility. You’ll also be collecting various items and journals to make your way deeper into the building and unraveling the past that surrounds the corn. Not a lot of people are into the walking simulator genre, but I feel as though knowing that’s what a game is when going into it eases that burden a little bit.

Wrap Up Maize was an interesting experience. The writing almost reminded me of something out of a Douglas Adams novel at times, which I am perfectly okay with. The puzzles were simple enough that I never got stuck on anything. i feel like the easiness helped keep the pace going forward with the story, never stalling too long in one place. i love the silliness and how weird this game is. Despite that, I feel as though $20.00 is just a little bit too much for such a short and simple experience.

Pros-

Very detailed, nice environments

The music is amazing

Well written, silly, can really be funny

Cons-

Art style won’t please everyone

Not very long, very simple gameplay

A little expensive

Final Verdict: Recommended

[1jps]

[nintendocafe]

“NIVIDIA’s growth in gaming revenue area saw a 60 percent jump and rose by $576 million over the last quarter. I guess you could also say that Nintendo contributed a fair amount to that growth. And over the next – as you know, the Nintendo architecture and the company tends to stick with an architecture for a very long time. And so we’ve worked with them now for almost two years. Several hundred engineering years have gone into the development of this incredible game console (Nintendo Switch). I really believe when everybody sees it and enjoys it, they’re going be amazed by it. It’s really like nothing they’ve ever played with before. And of course, the brand, their franchise and their game content is incredible. And so I think this is a relationship that will likely last two decades and I’m super excited about it.” -Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO

[pixeledicarus]

GoNNER

Available On: Steam, Humble Bundle GoNNER is a rogue-lite platformer for the pc by the developer studio Art in Heart, the single member of which is a man who goes by Ditto, joined by sound designer Martin Kvale. I’m not known to enjoy rogue-lite/likes games very much. Permadeath and starting over from level one gets old for me rather quickly if there isn’t a sense of progression in some way. The only other rogue-lite I’ve ever been super into was Enter the Gungeon earlier this year, and even that came with a few problems. That said, I couldn’t resist the unique aesthetic that GoNNER was selling.

Art By far the most interesting part of GoNNER is it’s art style. The massive contrast and bright colours combined with the simple character and enemy designs join together to create a really eye catching design. I really enjoyed the way the ground forms under you as a bright blue while you walk, and under the enemies as a bright red. However, this did also create one real problem, though a bit of a minor one. More than a few times I found myself falling into a hole because I couldn’t tell whether there would be ground underneath me as I fell, and that means instant death. Then again, it could just be because I am extremely bad at the game, you can never quite rule that out.

Sound The sound design in this game is perfectly on point. from the music to the reload sound effect, everything feels weirdly stylistic in a way that relays the mood of the game perfectly.  Shooting and jumping on the enemies in GoNNER feels incredibly satisfying, and you can’t overlook the part sound effects play in that regard. Your actions really feel like they have a weight to them, making everything feel smooth and punchy.

Gameplay GoNNER revolves around one simple gameplay loop. You pick a loadout consisting of a head, a gun, and an item. Heads can affect the amount of life you have and your jumping abilities. guns, of course, affect your shooting style, giving you a range of options from a simple pea shooter type gun to a powerful shotgun spread. And lastly, your usable item. These can be used as many times as you like with a cooldown and can do anything from giving you a reload of bullets (otherwise found as drops from enemies) to blowing up everything in a radius around you. Your goal is to progress to the end of a room full of enemies and, eventually, the end of the level, where you fight a boss. If you die you can respawn on your current room at the cost of a purple currency picked up from enemies. The price of a respawn increases each time. Throughout your progress any heads, items, and guns you find are kept and can be chosen at the beginning of your next run.

Wrap Up Every action in GoNNER controls really well. Jumping is smoothe and the guns are all responsive. It’s a tough expereience for sure, but a doable one. The weapons and items you can find are really varied and interesting, they all really shake the game up. My main concern here is, while the game itself is fun and I enjoy it and its aesthetic, replaying the same thing over and over feels stale after a while. The lack of a real story (there is a bit of a tale being told, nothing worth mentioning) also bothers me, though that won’t be the same for everyone. It does have a leaderboard for those interested. Even with these complaints, GoNNER is a solid and fun title, and for only $9.99 I can’t really complain too much at all. Overall a very solid first title from Art in Heart, and I look forward to seeing where Ditto goes from here.

Pros-

Unique and interesting aesthetic

Weird theme, with equally good and strange music

Awesome sound effects

Responsive controls

Cons-

Lack of story

Gameplay gets stale

Difficulty curve isn’t for everybody

Final Verdict: Recommended

[thegamefreaks]

Four years after Journey, thatgamecompany is finally teasing their next game

Thatgamecompany, the studio behind Journey, Flower, and flOw, is teasing their next project on Twitter.

[kyecheng-deactivated20260512]

My oddish fambam 

they’re all so cuteeeeeeeee …GAH!

[nintendocafe]

Nintendo is releasing a special Mushroom Kingdom edition of the New 3DS for $100 starting on Black Friday, November 25th. 

[potionomicsgame]

Having the ability to upgrade your potion shop’s equipment has always been an important, immersive element of Potionomics’ gameplay. Sylvia first starts her adventure running the potion shop with old, worn out equipment, but will have the ability to purchase and upgrade her tools as her income increases. Making intelligent business decisions will allow you to make more money and eventually gain the very best brewing equipment available.

[inmostthegame]

Tree house

[retronator]

Some amazing art from @inmostthegame, a monochromatic metroidvania platformer in development by Alexey Testov.

The author says:

It’s a mix of “Flashback” or “Another World” gameplay combined with “Dark Souls” map, featuring open world, lots of exploring, secrets, hidden paths and strange enemies guarding new locations.

[koopmodeblog]

Steady progress on GNOG! We updated our tigsource devblog to talk a bit about where we are with the development, and how to design a cursor that feels great on a controller. Read the update here

GNOG launches next year for PS4, Steam, and iOS. Follow the development on twitter: @koopmode 

[kellygrahamart-deactivated20180]

Dudes and dudettes! Check out our announcement trailer for the new game we’ve been working on! Oxygen Not Included

[pixeledicarus]

Owlboy

Avaliable on: Steam, Humblebundle Owlboy is described as a love letter to pixel art for a new audience, a hi-bit platform exploration game with a unique mix of flight and platforming. It began development nearly 9 years ago by D-Pad Studios, and has just been released on the pc with other platforms to follow.

I first heard about Owlboy a few years ago and got excited by the beautiful pixel artwork. Pixel art isn’t for everybody, but I have to admit, I love it.  Anyone who is even remotely into the idea of pixel art in games will be very interested in Owlboy. That’s where this game shines the brightest, every area, sprite, and animation in Owlboy is outstanding. Simon Stafsnes Andersen, the art director for D-Pad Studios nailed it. I’m not a huge fan of rating games on a scale, but if I was the art here would be as close to perfect as possible.

The game’s artwork is complimented by an equally great OST. The orchestra playing in the background is catchy and exciting, fitting in with the events of the game perfectly. I even found myself listening to the soundtrack outside of the game. Again, Jonathan Geer, the composer for the music in Owlboy, was spot on here, and helped tell the story in an amazing way.

The story of Owlboy is a fairly simple, and straightforward one, told through cutscenes and dialogue with characters. If you’re looking for something incredibly deep and nuanced you won’t really find that here. What you will find is a charming story dealing with themes such as failure and self worth. For a game presented in such a lighthearted, optimistic way, I was shocked at how dark it became in places, and how the characters were shown to grow. While it may not be the Game of Thrones of video games, Owlboy’s story has enough charm and depth to make most players happy.

Now, as great as the art and sound for the game may be, the most important part of a game is, of course, the gameplay. Owlboy does fine here. Most of the time the controls are smooth and responsive. However, I did come across a few issues here and there. As an owl, your main mode of getting around in the world is flying with your authentic owl cape. In order to fly you press the jump button then push in a direction and just like that you’re in the air. Sounds good, right? Well, yeah, for the most part. That is, until you get to a point where you aren’t supposed to be flying. See, this control scheme makes it very easy to accidentally start flying even when you only meant to jump in a direction. Early on in the game, for example, there is a part where you are almost instantly killed when you fly. Inevitably my wings came out more than a few times, and little Otus became lunch. It’s avoidable, but is enough of an issue to where it did grate on me every so often.

The last thing to touch on is one I’ve been wrestling with for a while. Currently you can get Owlboy on sale on steam for $24.99 USD. A lot of people might have a huge problem with this price considering the game is roughly only an 8 hour experience. I, myself, completed the game 100% with 13 hours on my play record. The game is very short for its price, but in the end I enjoyed my time with Owlboy enough that I found it more than worth the cost of admission. Then again, I’ve never really liked judging a game based on how long it takes to finish it. I prefer to base my idea of a game’s worth on the value of the experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Owlboy.

Pros-

Great artwork

Memorable soundtrack

Charming Story

Cons-

Gameplay can be cumbersome at times

Price/Time ratio may fall short of some player’s expectations

Final Verdict: Recommended