Earthbound and Dune 30.01.17

Bird Week, despite its breezy artwork its actually a harsh and unforgiving

game.

I continued to brave a cold shed for the greater good of playing through some old games this week. Starting off with Bird Week (NES/Famicom) a fairly low key import title in which the goal is to collect butterflies to feed to your chicks so they can get big and strong and fly the nest. In the way are bigger birds, who presumably want to take me (the smaller bird) to feed to they're chicks. The game doesn't get much more varied than that, once the first set of chicks have fledged the nest it moves onto a new season, my tree is a vibrant pink blossom but the world no less brutal. New enemies are thrown into the mix, strange hopping creatures, like rabbits without ears. Anyway they want to eat me too, again presumably to feed they're young. It's a pretty nasty game, with the playable character sitting slap bang in the middle of the food chain. At its harshest I found myself dying after killing a butterfly and leaving my own young to starve with my corpse at the base of the tree they nest in. Gameplay wise its well ahead of its time, Flappy Bird owes a lot to this title, the controls are strikingly similar, if only that titular bird had a family to fend for I may have been more invested in that title. Graphics and sound aren't really much to write home about, especially as to play this import title i'm forced to play it on a 7" screen. The music is catchy though.

I then moved onto Shadows of the Empire (N64) challenging myself to start after its impressive Battle of Hoth opening (and probably the only bit of the game most people remember. What comes after this level is some FPS platforming, which isn't as bad as I recalled, It can be quite brutal with its failed jumps leading to falling into a foggy abyss but with a bit of switching of the camera it works. It's an odd choice not to have a gun on the screen with a FPS, gunfire instead reduced to a big red line emitting from around where my hand is. It makes some of the boss fights a bit harder than they should be. The boss fights themselves range from pretty cool iconic Star Wars baddies to the more obscure, a fight against a "loader droid" who's only power is to flail his long arms about felt almost cruel. Sections of the game fell completely flat, the battle in the gun turret early on was almost impossible to see anything and the speeder bike chase was as bad to look at as it was to control. On top of this it went on for an eternity of me bashing into walls chasing after countless bounty hunters who were thankfully going about there buisness about as quickly as I was. I did play a lot more of the game than I intended though. A mixture of nostagia from when I bought the game (it was the game I got with my N64 around its launch) and trying to convince myself it was a good game and it actually not being that bad, its ambitious with a lot of its scope, the music is especially strong. It falls flat on a few things that because of its early release it may well have done better but on the whole the game it more than not that bad, its quite good. 

Earthbound and Dune 24.01.17

I've spent a few months investing and foraging screens, machines and games and now find myself in the blissful state where I have a space at the end of my garden where I can play old games whenever life allows me. The cold winter hasn't made this the most inviting prospect lately but this week I popped down there to play a couple of old N64 titles. First up was Doom 64, at the time of its release this title seemed dated, it still used sprites,had fixed aiming and lacked any form of multiplayer. Now though this title strangely has held up a lot better than the Turoks or even dare I say Goldeneyes of the era. By sticking with sprites it still looks pretty decent and has all the grim sounds you'd expect from a Doom game. I got through four levels, which are typical Doom fare, secrets and red and blue keys and a range of demons to shoot. Its also pretty tricky in places, it all came to a head when I basically couldn't be bothered to think out the solution to a puzzle and got crushed by falling celling's. 

I moved onto Rogue Squadron, and spent more time with this game than I thought I would. With the bit more power the expansion pack offers the N64 it looks alright, the controls still feel a touch more sensitive than other flight games on the N64. Dogfights are a bit more chance than skill, with the dreaded fogging the console seems to excel in making Tie Fighters pop up out of nowhere. Apart from these small issues its more fun than I remembered, the levels are brisk with simple enough tasks. Sometimes they rely a bit too much on dubious AI as most of the early levels involve protecting something. All the levels played avoided space combat, rather taking place on some generic looking terrain I guess this helps with making it a more linear experience but hopefully at some point it delivers on the promised "star wars". Beyond all this is cool to play an N64 title with a lot of dialogue and voice acting.

Finally I played the Star Cup in Mario Kart 64. In my opinion the perfect selection of Mario Kart courses, opening with the epic Wario Stadium a lengthy course which weaves and bumps and has the bastard jump near the end which a well timed lightening bolt can ruin everything. Then Sherbet Land, with its abundance of penguins. One in particular with cabin fever, just walking in circles on an iceberg. Besides penguins its got corners that can be cut with well timed jumps adding a risk/reward as if and when I mess up i'm sent into the icy ocean. Then onto Royal Raceway, a proper racers race, lush green fields and a few corners which can lead into falling into a lake, near the end theres a massive jump which can be used (albeit rarely) to cut off a massive section of the race. It all comes to a head with Bowsers Castle, which thwomps still cause mayhem and a few looping sections near the end complemented by some tricky jumps and staircases. Mario Kart has progressed massively, the courses have got bigger and look amazing these days but I don't think the balance of these four has been matched. 

Earthbound and Dune 14.01.17

I'm almost at the end of my time with Pokemon Moon (3DS) I've finished up the main story, it certainly goes places, then conquered the elite four. Some cutscenes are way too long for a portable game (one in particular lasted the duration of my commute) and at times it confused me a bit, I'm taking challenges to become a trainer while at the same time theres a bunch of punk kids making mischief and a creepy corporation pretending to be conversing Pokemon. Its a long way from the first generation of the game, most of the time this departure from its previous iterations is a blessing though, in fact its not until the last part of the main story that I encountered a traditional cave, Zubats and all. The final "boss" of the game (at least before I face the Elite four) was a pretty breezy affair, in fact I didn't switch from my Toucannon to defeat it but I was pleased to find at the end the story was tied up as best it could be. The more traditional fight against the elite four and the trainer which appears after is much more tricky, once again there is not healing between fighting each trainer so I went into it with a lot of preparation, two pages of notes in fact. I bought a ton of revives and max potions and finally utilised all my rare candy i'd been squirrelling away. I'm pretty sure as I've found this conclusion to previous games such a ball-ache that I'd been overly cautious throughout this game mindful that this final fight is way harder than anything I'd experience in the game. I got through it though in one attempt, my planning certainly helped, utilising tactics such as my Klefki opening my battle, sucking up a few turns and dropping spikes to mess with the changeover of my opponents Pokemon, once this odd bunch of keys had taken a beating I'd then send in my heavy hitters, like the wonderfully named Crabominable (a mixture of a Yeti and a crab). I'd always fall back on my notes which detailed how this expanded game of rock, paper, scissors would go down. It all concluded with my opponents Bearware throwing an almost fatal punch at my Mudsadle, which in turn caused a devastating earthquake which then triggered victory and a cutscene which even for this game seemed overly long.

There seems to be a lot more post game things to do this time round, I'm now going around visiting spots which the story didn't take me and levelling up some of the monsters that stood of the periphery of my top six. The game itself was a shorter affair than I was expecting, coming in at around 30 hours and weirdly thats enticing me to maybe one day start again, trying it out with a different selection of beasts. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, its all nonsense. In its construction though, from the design of the creatures, the music and most importantly gameplay, there is more to Pokemon games than I was expecting. They're not just prolonged adverts for soft toys and keychains. The message which is sometimes not so subtly forced into this games story about raising and nurturing (told through the perspective of a pretty awful mother) was something I wasn't expecting and the "Gotta Catch 'Em All" attitude seemed to be replaced with "Gotta Care for 'Em All" and thats no bad thing.

The Last Guardian (PS4) is not a leisurely experience at all. I'm pretty sure I'm near the end of the game and while I'm really happy that i've played it I don't think I'd ever play it again. My frustration was at it peak when doing a particular platforming section ascending one of the many towers, simple jumps were made harder with a really twitchy camera and my character deciding that now was the time to stop reaching out for ledges. What was most frustrating about this ordeal was that it was coming off the back of one of the games many spectacular setpeices, one moment i'm dashing up a crumbling building with my trusty monster, him plucking me out of the air when I make a mistake then seconds later it all comes sputtering to a halt. Thats been the story of this flawed game for me, every time that I'm really enjoying it it throws a control or camera shaped spanner in the works. Had this game had the tight platforming of Uncharted 4 for example it would be an absolutely amazing experience but too often it falls short. Theres a bit more to the story now, which I wasn't expecting and while its not completely unexpected I like the way it ties back to the start of the game. 

Earthbound and Dune 02.01.17

The festive break always cuts back what i'm playing quite a bit, but I sunk a bit of time into Active Soccer 2 DX (PS4) Its a top down football game. Its got an impressive slate of teams with slight modifications on names to get round licensing, yep its pretty much a modern Sensible World of Soccer which isn't a bad thing. Its relatively simple, beyond short and long passes, shooting, tackling and dashing there isn't much else, players are quite squirrelly to control and shots can be hard to aim but that makes it a slightly deeper game. I've enjoyed playing what I have of it, especially the transfer system, building up a team and slowly getting better at it. The one issue it seems to have is quite an irritating bug, since one transfer of a player I now constantly have a goalkeeper playing on the wing and a midfielder in goal with no option of switching them out. At first this was understandably frustrating but in a weird way its added a new challenge to the game, keeping clean sheets with a Syrian international midfielder in goal is pretty tricky but he's pretty strong at goal kicks. The Ivory Coast goalkeeper is slow and can't shoot for toffee but he's chalking up a lot of assists. Its okay and fun to whittle away a bit of time. 

Whats not proving fun but at the same time keeping me coming back for more is The Last Guardian (PS4). I can't state enough how annoying the controls and camera can be, especially in tight spaces, which there are a lot of. On top of this there are a number of occasion's where puzzles revolve around throwing barrels around and there is little aiming control so its in the hands of the gods (for me anyway). Despite the glaring issues I have with the game I still really, really like it. Trico (the beast companion which has followed me throughout) continues to build his personality as we wander through the world. The world itself is a sprawling labyrinth which twists and turns, opening up into spectacular vistas and then almost impossibly returns to places I've already visited from new angles. Puzzles which revolve around scaling the heights of the world are some of the most fun I've had with a game in a long time and when the game gets the set-pieces right, Trico hoisting me out of the air before a perilous drop for example, its is amazing. Problem is when it misses these marks and it becomes a clumsy drop into the abyss. Hopefully I'll be done with soon, as the story is an massive factor in why I keep coming back!

Earthbound and Dune 22.12.16

Beasts of Balance (iOs/Physical) I kickstarted this game a while back and was really pleased when it firstly met its goal and secondly turned out to be such a lovely object. The object of the game is to stack physical objects onto a base and the bigger your tower the higher your score on an app attached to a phone or ipad. The objects are really nice looking creatures. This menagerie includes a bear, toucan, octopus amongst others and with each comes quirks to how they stack depending on the height, appendages and balance of them. Along with the animals there are other blocks to add to your tower which can increase your score, be it crossing species or adding elemental pieces to match the creatures placed in the tower (water for the shark for example) this all marries up to the app on the phone with a little world populating with beasts, becoming more fantastical as they get crossed in more bizarre ways. I've not paid that much attention to the app as the actual practice of stacking these objects is mesmerising, my first intention was to get my three year old daughter involved but I soon politely moved her to one side so I could optimise how my tower was constructed, I'm sure its a lot of fun as a multiplayer experience but I'm loving it on my own, methodically comparing how things will stack. I've got a very modest high score, back to the app when it all comes tumbling down it tally's up how your world has fared, if you gave enough earth to the boar for example. This is a nice way to make me want to keep returning to the game and i'm really appreciating how the app doesn't take too much attention away from my building. Everything is packaged and designed beautifully, the objects themselves I'd happily have on a shelf to look at, the fact they are part of such a lovely and addictive game is a bonus.

Mario Run (iOs) came out this week also and its a really strange thing. After being used to Mario in his guise of a portly Italian plumber who moves in a very specific way for so long this game is a bit of shock, he looks the same (its almost exactly as I expect the New Super Mario games to look) but it feels very different. Its this contrast that I'm struggling to get to grips with, instead of holding down the run button to get more distance I'm now expected to hold my thumb down for longer in order to get more height on my jump thats the biggest one so far. He's always running, thats another one, but I appreciate that they've made it feel more optimised for an iPhone. He's not always running though, he pauses at specific blocks for a breather and changes direction when making contact with other blocks. The levels are fairly quick to get through and for the most part fun enough, I really disliked the ghost houses though. Something about trying to work out the fairly basic puzzles when the biggest issue is that I'm constantly moving just irritated me. The game goes a long way to redemption though with the addition of the Rally mode, here you compete against other players on courses to get an audience of toads on side. Through collecting coins, beating enemies and doing simple tricks a little crowd of toads cheer you on, the winner is the person who gets the higher number of toads supporting them, and this mode i've found addictive and a lot of fun. 

Earthbound and Dune 11.12.16 My Games of 2016

On top of the below five games, I played a bit (around 3 hours) of The Last Guardian (PS4) this week, and I'm really into what I've played so far. Its a very strange game, absolutely beautiful, both the characters and the world its set in, sort of like Mysterious Cities of Gold if it was a bit more muddy. The gameplay is really squirrelly, its nailed the feeling of darting about as a child, platforming feels more luck that skill. The main task in the game is guiding around the giant cat-bird-dog Trico, which despite my reservations is adorable and it guiding it around it acts as both a weapon and a platform for navigating the environment. Its a lot less frustrating that I expected, the beast does have a mind of its own, but i've found that quite endearing and twice its got so bored of my botched attempts of working out puzzles that its pretty much picked me up and moved me onto the next section. I'm not too sure how much of the game I can take, i'm playing it in very small chunks and can't see much variety in what i'm doing, hopefully it will go places and I'm liking a lot about it. 

Anyway below is my top five games of 2016:

05.Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) Such an unusual game, constructed of so many ill fitting parts that it really shouldn't work. Somehow an RPG where you spend your time on horseback playing solitaire is the most addictive game i've played this year. Theres a sense of ownership of the horses through breeding and naming them, it all looks impossibly cute and has a great sense of humour. I'm sure I'll be playing it well into next year.

04.Pokemon Moon (3DS) the sharp hooks of Pokemon games were firmly in my back by the point this game came out. For the first time though I am playing a Pokemon game without forgiving it its flaws. Its a lot of fun and I struggle to convey how great it looks. The game has developed way beyond the simple task of taking a gym leader on to a more interesting set of tasks to complete before inevitably fighting an equivalent gym leader or strong Pokemon and theres also a world dotted with NPCs offering rewards for side quests which also show a nice variety. The basic premise of rock, paper, scissors in these games is helped by a varied cast so I no longer have to put a grass Pokemon in my party to get through a section, theres plenty of Pokemon to catch so I'm finding ones that are atheistically pleasing. At the end of everything a game which has me wander about islands with a dolled up seal, horse with dreadlocks, stuffed bear, boxing crab, magnet and an Easter Island head is pretty cool in my book. 

03.DOOM (PS4) I've a fondness for the Doom franchise which is higher than any other first person shooter and this game certainly didn't disappoint. Moving away from the horror aspects of Doom 3 and toward the big guy with a big gun shoots bad monsters. At times it felt like a remake of the original Doom, some of the action sequences felt pleasingly similar and the return to hell in the middle section was as happy an event as a return to hell could be. The nods toward older games continue with some more interesting takes on the iconic demons than in Doom 3 and some inventive use of the coloured key cards. There is some drastic changes to gameplay, which feel a lot more natural than I feared, clearing sections before moving forward, severely limiting chainsaw fuel and brutal finishing moves on monsters never gets boring or repetitive. The end of the game introduced further monsters that were familiar and it's open ended nature left me really excited to see where it goes next.

02.Uncharted 4 (PS4) I was dubious about playing this game, I'd not played any of the previous games in the series and more than anything was worried I needed some context. Luckily I played in anyway as it was an absolute blast throughout. Everything I was expecting from what I'd heard was there, great dialogue and acting, amazing action sequences and some great toys to play with throughout the game. It peaked about two thirds of the way through, but thats not to say that the rest of a game was a slog.  The only, thing I disliked about the game is quite a big thing, I hated the final boss fight in the game, had that been better I'd have struggled to find any faults in what is a game I still really, really liked.

01.Inside (PS4) I don't think I can say a bad thing about this game. It looks amazing, is so intricately designed that every moment feels right and is spot on with its duration. The only thing I am wary of saying about this game is too much, as the most delightful thing about the game was discovering and trying to decipher what is occurring in this game. Like all great puzzle games it made me feel cleaver when I found the solution to what I was doing and as the tasks become more ingenious it continued to impress me. On top of all of this nothing is overused and it's the perfect duration. An absolutely wonderful game.

Earthbound and Dune 05.12.16 My Games of 2016

While my passion for games this year have dwindled at points and I don't think there have been as many games I've enjoyed, I still think 2016 has been a really solid year. As ever there are games I not enjoyed because of my own incompetence like Hitman, really wanted to like others but really disappointed with, I'm looking at you Starfox Zero! and other games which in my heart of hearts knew I wouldn't get so didn't invest in them, like Titanfall 2 and The Witness. Also a few games which came close to making my list like Pony Island, Streetfighter V, Worms WMD, No Mans Sky (which for all its flaws I really liked my time with), Pacman CE 2 and Paper Mario Color Splash (which I really wanted to get into but was too much of a time investment).

Honorable Mention

This year has me change my opinion on adventure games and also Pokemon games. I finally played Pokemon Yellow (3DS) and it led me down a dark path of the franchise. I must have spent a good chunk of my summer commute playing this lovable little RPG familiarizing myself with the original 151 Pokemon, getting frustrated with legendary Pokemon and killing them rather than catching them, looking up what TMs and HMs are and working out the best combination of Pokemon types to take into battle and realizing the selection I'd chosen was useless. There are games on my list that came out earlier than 2016 but this game seemed like it would be a stretch to add to my list and also other Pokemon games have forced there way into my life this year too.

10. Abzu (PS4) Sharing a lot of the same DNA as Journey it looks gorgeous and was a joy to play. It took no time at all to drift through the ambiguous story but it was broken up by stopping every once in a while to admire the look of the game and the spectacular eco system that the game contains. It doesn't really build on mechanics, at the end of the game I was doing the same thing as the start but it's worth it just for the few spectacular set pieces in its short duration, the encounter with a pod of whales in particular was awesome.

09.100ft Robot Golf (PS4) I liked this game quite a bit, easily the best story mode in any golf game I've played and it was refreshing how each character in the game took a different approach to swinging a golf club. A different approach is the best way to describe this game, instead of taking turns most modes is a race of destruction toward getting the ball in the hole. Not everything about the game worked, but when all the chaos hit the right spot it was a lot of fun.

08.Life is Strange (PS4) bit of a technicality this one as it was released last year, but I got the complete collection early in the year, like a good TV show this is how I'd rather consume games, knowing that all the pieces are there to complete it rather than waiting around for the next instalment. I took a big break between a section of the game and i've no idea why as once I returned to it it was moving,gripping and one of the best storylines in a game I've played. The choices and character interactions all felt meaningful the only thing, sadly this is quite a big thing, that let the game down was when it decided it wanted to be a video game and forced elements like stealth into the game and that didn't work most of the time. Still its a wonderful thing all the way to its powerful conclusion.

07.Firewatch (PS4). There are a couple of games on my list this year that I'd rather watch than actually play the game, in a good way. The story of this game was so strong and unusual for a video game that it had me gripped from start to finish. I loved the feeling of ownership I had to the main character I had through the early decisions I made and it instantly got me hooked on the game. What transpires is unexpected because its an understated game which goes in directions which I genuinely didn't see coming. It's choice of a cartoony look contrasts with what is a very adult story, dealing with grief, responsibility and depression. Its good fun though. Honest.

06.Pokemon Go (iOs) For time spent with a video game this year or miles walked with a game this would be hands down number one. Stripping back to the series core concept of "Catch 'Em All" theres a battling/gym thing going on but I couldn't care less. For me its about the 82 miles that I walked to evolve a Charizard or when I happened upon a Primeape while walking home. Steady updates have reeled me back into playing it every time I thought I was out and the most unusual thing is its a free to play game with little incentive for me to put money into it. A real guilty pleasure of mine.