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Messages - lolmonade

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1
TalkBack / WB Retiring Adult Swim Games
« on: March 13, 2024, 01:10:58 PM »

WB is getting a track record for cancelling properties

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/66596/wb-retiring-adult-swim-games

An update to the March 8th Nintendo World Report Article:https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/66517/warner-brothers-closing-adult-swim-games-brand-likely-delisting-games

Last week other news outlets started reporting that Warner Bros. Discovery is set to remove Adult Swim Games from digital storefronts, potentially putting twenty-six games at risk of erasure within the next 60 days as of May 6th.  We first heard of this news from Matt Kain, developer of Fist Puncher.  In a follow-up statement on 2Bit’s situation, Matt Lewandowski provided the following:

“A director of production from WB Discovery reached out on Monday March 4th and informed us that they will be retiring Fist Puncher due to "internal business changes." Retirement is scheduled within the next 60 days (no date set yet). We requested that they transfer Fist Puncher back to our studio (we have a developer account on Steam where we publish other games so they could simply use the Steam transfer tool to transfer the game back to us). Their response was that they "cannot transfer the game" due to the fact that they "made the decision not to transfer ownership due to logistical and resource constraints." It sounds like they are choosing not to transfer games back to any of the studios that created them.

We're still hoping that WB Discovery chooses to give Fist Puncher back to us. It's been out for 11 years and we built a community around it through Steam. We also had an incredible experience working with Adult Swim over the years. The original team that helped us get Fist Puncher on Steam was passionate about elevating interesting and unique games from small studios. That said, if we do not get the current release of Fist Puncher transferred over to us, then we will likely re-release it under our own account. We still own the game and the IP so a re-release is certainly possible. And as someone who is passionate about preserving game history, I hate to see any game get lost to corporate red tape..”

Since then, we have reached out to individual developers who worked with Adult Swim Games to learn how this has affected their work. Some titles (Glittermitten Grove, Battle Chef Brigade and Rain World) have been spared thanks to retaining the rights to their works prior to the incident.  In one extraordinary case, Owen Reedy, Developer of Small Radios Big Televisions, released the Windows PC version of the game free to download on his personal website.  

For others, the future of their games are still murky, and Warner Bros’ recent history of shelving films like Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme doesn’t inspire confidence in preserving the games’ availability.  Further statements from developers impacted are below.  We will update this story as more details are available.  

“I haven't retained a lawyer to interpret this situation, but to the best of my understanding Glittermitten Grove is safe. Twinbeard got the publishing rights back in 2020.”

Jim Stormdancer, Twinbeard Games (Glittermitten Grove)

“Fortunately we were able to regain the Rain World publishing rights from Adult Swim Games a few years back (after a 1 year+ legal battle), and afterward we were able to sign a very reasonable publishing deal with Akupara Games. So no, Rain World will not be de-listed.

We had the tremendous advantage of being successful and having funds and a legal team at our disposal. We were very lucky but I'm sure few of the other ASG devs will have the resources to fight this.

These are small independent developers, often solo devs, who signed seemly straight forward publishing deals only to get sucked into a world of sketchy corporate shenanigans. The situation absolutely sucks and I hate it.

Our hearts go out to all our peers who are affected.”

James Thereien, Videocult (Rain World)

“Thankfully, our lawyers had a clause added to the ASG contract that enabled us to get the publishing rights back over a year ago. Even so, it felt like we were lucky to terminate the contract then because so few people were left who knew how to use the Nintendo and Steam backends to complete the publishing control transfer.

We haven't received any communication, presumably because we got all the rights back well before this recent decision.

I think it's extremely unfortunate that it sounds like the games will be delisted instead of someone doing a relatively small amount of paperwork or selling the rights to an indie publisher who could then help out. At the least, this is a harsh reminder of how important it is to take care when signing publisher contracts. Dev teams are often very close to running out of money when signing with a publisher, which puts them in a vulnerable position.

At the least, WB should terminate the agreements with the devs so that they can re-publish the games. That won't fix the damage that will be done by delisting, but players and fans shouldn't lose the opportunity to play so many great games.

Thankfully, our upcoming, unannounced title won't be in danger of this sort of disaster. I hope indie publishers improve their contracts to put dev teams and long-term access first.”

Tom Eastman, President of Trinket Studios. (Battle Chef Brigade)

“We are aware of the situation and I can guess it's a matter of time that WB sends us the ill fated official email, but as of today nothing yet.”

Enrique Corts, Super Mega Team (Rise & Shine)


2
Goodbye Volcano High is a lovely visual novel with a coming of age tale juxtaposed against a giant meteor coming for you.  Characters are well developed and feel genuine.  The personal struggles shown are relatable, if maybe a bit squeaky clean. 

Gameplay is threadbare - dialogue options that give the impression of agency/affecting the outcome.  A music rhythm minigame that has button inputs that feel unique.  There's three separate tracks (left, right, vertical) that I had to point in that direction as notes fly through.  There's also button inputs with a radial that closes in on it before timing it perfectly to the beat.  It's not complex but mixes up the rhythm just enough to avoid boredom.

If you like "one of those" games, it's worth a look.

3
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch is so popular people don't even post
« on: January 03, 2024, 09:11:41 AM »
The Switch has been by far my most used console since launching.  Even with how dry it was to start, Breath of the Wild provided plenty to do on it.  Graphical fidelity is nice, but performance is much more important to me now, so as long as the system can keep outputting good games that run decently I'm fine. 

132.2 million?

Back in the Gamecube days the consoles was doing so abysmally poor and everyone was up on here talking all the time.

Didn't find myself here until the later Wii years, and had been active during the Wii U era.  I do miss the more active community here, but suspect the discord has pulled some people away.

4
My youngest & I rolled credits on Untitled Goose Game over the past weekend.  It shines as a co-op game.  We were able to have a lot of fun causing chaos together, and having an extra goose also helped get through some later areas that would have been tougher solo. 

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?
« on: November 30, 2023, 09:53:46 AM »
Jusant is a lovely game about mountain climbing.  It's quiet with environmental storytelling and a charming artstyle.  Also fairly brief & on Gamepass.  Highly recommend.

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I am still available.

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TalkBack / Terror of Hemasaurus (Switch) Review
« on: November 28, 2023, 05:34:20 AM »

A retro inspired city destruction love letter to Rampage

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/65643/terror-of-hemasaurus-switch-review

One of my formative gaming experiences was with the Rampage series.  Starting out with a copy on my family’s old Amiga 500, much to my parents' chagrin, I was glued to the computer desk chomping on civilians, climbing skyscrapers, and punching my way through each town to wreak destruction. Through the years the series evolved incrementally, with Rampage: World Tour adding more speed to an aging format. Terror of Hemasaurus is the first attempt I've seen at recreating that magical havoc, and I was eager to dive in.

Terror of Hemasaurus’ actual gameplay should be familiar to anyone with knowledge of Rampage. You are a giant monster who goes through a series of cities where your main objective is to cause wanton destruction–destroying buildings, eating people, breaking down vehicles, and fighting off the military and police like any good kaiju would.  Even more fun, you have a guttural scream that will plow through everything in your wake. The cities themselves sprawl a lot farther in size than Rampage, which made me feel like I was exploring a city center more than just a city block, with buildings ranging from gas stations to skyscrapers.  

Those who remember Rampage know that the buildings were one structure that goes down all at once when it’s been punched with enough holes.  Here they’re structured more like building blocks - if you punch a space, you’ll eventually crack that block, and eventually if you break the structural integrity enough it’ll tumble under its own weight and sway depending on how you’ve chipped away at it.  Cars can be punted across the screen, tearing through whatever goes through their path.  Police cars, military tanks, and aircraft start circling overtime which felt more like extra toys to play with than a sincere challenge.  The joy I felt was palpable when I could chip away at a corner of a skyscraper until it tumbled into the next two buildings, kicking a car into the havoc, making my monster scream, and pulling down a blimp within 20 seconds.

That’s not to say the game isn’t without its faults.  There’s a story mode which includes some flavor text outlining a very thin premise and the occasional boss battles.  It doesn’t feel distinct enough to matter, and I found myself just wanting to go back to the arcade mode where I could skip the story dialogue.  The levels, while large and expansive, do stay a bit samey throughout, which is like its predecessors but unfortunate given how much Terror of Hemasaurus has done to flesh out that skeletal gameplay.  The most disappointing thing is the multiplayer.  Up to four people can play at once, with different monsters to choose from.  But the game doesn’t scale out to accommodate four people at once.  You’re stuck with the same screen real estate and it doesn’t naturally zoom in and out based on context, so everyone’s stuck within a small space.  It doesn’t take too much action on screen to bring framerate to a crawl, and when things get really messy it turns into a de facto slideshow.  It can be a funny novelty but really cuts into the experience.

Terror of Hemasaurus is a great “remember when?” kind of game.  The way most good indies do, it takes that foundational experience of an underserved genre and tries to flesh out the experience to make it more substantive while retaining the good feelings from playing its inspiration.  But with limited gameplay options and a game which can’t handle more than one person on screen, this’ll be relegated to the “fun if you like this kind of game” category.


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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?
« on: November 16, 2023, 10:52:55 AM »
My current game is Jusant.  it's a quiet game of a person mountain climbing.  Long periods of moving hands to pull yourself up and finding the right path to climb up, with a cryptic story told through notes left behind.  Love it, highly recommend for those wanting just a quiet, chill adventure.

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?
« on: November 16, 2023, 10:51:28 AM »
Thirsty Suitors is the latest on my beat list.  The story follows Jala, a first generation daughter of immigrants returning to her hometown and confronted with a gaggle of jilted exes, an icy relationship with her mother, and a sister whose getting married that won't speak to you.  On top of that, you find the youths being indoctrinated by a cult led by a person in a big bear costume.

The gameplay is split between several different game types.  The world is segmented out on an overworld map with points of interest like your home, a wilderness area where the cult resides, and the town center with lots of different shops and a diner.  Jala explores these areas on a skateboard, and the spaces are littered with different platforms where you engage with the skateboarding mechanic.  Skateboarding is a chore - the general movement is sluggish, so to get across spaces efficiently you'll need to grind across the map.  But grinding doesn't feel good good either.  You'll zip through the map but the game has trouble figuring out which rail you're jumping from next, and I ended up getting bogged down in endless grinding loops rather than getting to master the system.

The combat is the most mature system in the game.  It plays out as a lite RPG with lots of quick time events.  Other than the basic attack, all moves require a set of inputs (pressing A at the right time, pushing a left stick direction at the right time, tapping the X button repeatedly, Holding the B button until a meter fills), and the quicker you complete the task, the more attack power you gain.  The same rules apply for defense, with better inputs blunting damage.  The real meat is the weakness system.  You can choose taunts ranging from rage, heartbreak, thirst, and shock.  If your opponent has a weakness to that type, it'll stun them and allow you to use more potent skills that deal greater damage.  There are battles you can engage in via map icons, but I didn't find leveing up necessary, as I jumped from Ex to Ex boss battles.  Those boss battles were diverse enough to be interesting if uncomplicated, and through them Jala reconciles her past with them. 

There's also a cooking mechanic.  It's a process which involves completing a set number of quick time events in the premise of following step-by-step instructions that are then played out in exaggerated, fantastical actions like leaps, spins, and mandalas when you execute well.  There's a heat system as well, where basic actions build up a pepper meter that can then be consumed by powering up one of your actions or buttering up your mom for a better score.  What you cook can then be used as a consumable in battle that'll do things like heal, increase your MP, and offer other buffs to your character.  The problem is it's just as tedious to do constant QTEs here as it is in battle.

The story and characters flatness is probably what disappoints the most.  The intent is clearly meant to be a story about a woman coming back to her old haunt and make amends with those left in her wake, as well as reconciling her modernity against the traditionalism of her mother.  But Jala is unlikeable to a fault, and makes it hard to root for her cause.  She has an internal second personality that looks like her sister and acts like a Tyler Durden trying to prod more "hard truths" to people.  It makes conversations a little messy, because you'll choose a dialogue option (that often doesn't feel like the prompt properly translates to the kind of comment you want to make), she'll intervene with a snappy comment either deriding you for being a coward or egging-on more aggression, and then it'll have an exterior conversation with a character that feels like no one's true voice.  The broader characters feel like a cardboard cut-out archetype of different personalities, races, and sexuality.  In a game with better writing i'd say I wish they'd take some time fleshing out the people, but I don't know that they have it in them to do so with any care.


For a game like this, it's almost like they started with a story they wanted to tell and then backed-up to build a game around it.  I've seen a lot of glowing comments in reviews writ large, but it's a underdeveloped story with underdeveloped characters and underdeveloped gameplay.  If they take another crack at this type of game, I hope at least they work on streamlining the gameplay down to a few mechanics fleshed out deeply, step away from the quick-time-event Kool-aid, and work on building a more fleshed out world & characters.

I'd give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. 

10
General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter
« on: October 19, 2023, 10:34:16 AM »
Gonna do my regular recommending of Haunting: Starring Poulterguy.  You'd have to emulate or buy a genesis copy used at this point, but it's a really unique game where you haunt a family by posessing items around the house and chasing them down.  Very funny too.

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TalkBack / Robo Dunk (Switch) Review
« on: October 17, 2023, 05:46:30 AM »

Dunk is the meaning of life.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/65242/robo-dunk-switch-review

Robo Dunk is a fascinating specimen. A blending of robot combat, NBA Jam, and roguelike on paper sounds like it came from a random game generator. In practice, the mish-mash of genres blend into a coherently fun party game that should excite anyone looking for 2v2 sports-adjacent combat.

Fundamentally, Robo Dunk is a 2v2 slam fest on a basketball-like court. You get different robo players to choose from with different attributes, including optionally being able to select specific perks for each such as longer jumps and reduced damage. The controls include passing/switching bot, shoot/jump, a knockdown dash, a weapon (like a gun or bomb) unique to each player, and an alley-oop. Level hazards, featuring the likes of laser beams and explosives, also add to the chaos. It’s a neat twist, but in practice some courts have too much chaos for my taste.  

The gameplay itself is much slower than something like NBA Jjam, to the degree where it’s almost sluggish, and as suggested in the title, the robots can only slam dunk.  Because of this, it opens up the middle space as a free-for-all combat zone that feels like a war of attrition.  It’s still manic fun, but would love a means to get a longer-range dunk in, even if just as a one-time power up.  It makes it so that if you’re on the opposing team’s side of the court at the end of a match where you’re down in points, there isn’t even a glimmer of hope to win.  This leans the matches towards a slow, defensive focused, low- scoring affair where you get small windows to dunk before getting swarmed and knocked down.  It took a bit of time to get acclimated, but after getting the rhythm down the ongoing, slow pressure gave more time to think through my next action.

The bulk of content comes in the way of campaign mode. No overarching story seems present, but loading screens often come with flavor text giving details and attributes about the different robot teams and the world of dunk.  The roguelike elements come about with currency gained by winning games that can be allocated for permanent attributes and unlocking new robotic characters.  A neat tidbit is that each mech has a biography.  The summary text is fine, but they showcase each as an action figure with the names of people who helped develop the design.  It’s nice to see people being attributed for the contributions they provided.  

Robo Dunk is uncomplicated in its controls but messy in its chaos, which is pretty fun as long as you’re not expecting something akin to legitimate basketball. The slower paced gameplay won me over as I learned to use that limited toolset to outright embarrass the other teams.  The rogue like campaign, as threadbare as it is, does give the game a sense of longevity that’s sorely needed.  You’ll be in for a fun time, if not for a long time.


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TalkBack / Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) Hands-on Preview
« on: October 06, 2023, 09:43:05 AM »

We've played through the kiosk demo available nationwide, but is it Wonder-ful?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/65108/super-mario-bros-wonder-switch-hands-on-preview

Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Nintendo’s return to the 2D platformer series that started it all, was announced on the heels of the wildly successful Illumination film back in June.  In the nearly 11 year gap since the initial release of New Super Mario Bros U, Nintendo has given players New Super Luigi U’s challenging retread of the game, keys to the castle with Super Mario Maker 1 & 2, and New Super Mario Bros U. Deluxe so that a much wider audience could experience the last of the “New” series.  In the brief stint I had to try it, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is going to feel like a breath of fresh air, blending the 2D Mario foundation with creative and clever game design.

The demo takes place in Pipe Rock Plateau, the first world, with the first two levels that up to four players can take on.  The character select screen has never been so extensive, with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Nabbit, Toads, Toadette, and Yoshis of various colors splayed out.  My partner and I chose Mario and Luigi, opting for the traditional, if boring, choices.  Afterward, we were given the most basic written introduction to the game, with no dialogue or cutscenes.  I’d imagine this is for the sake of the demo only to allow players the opportunity to experience it at home for the first time.  The actual gameplay will be natural to pick-up, but one big change is that characters no longer interact with each other.  No more running into each other; no more jumping on top of each other’s heads.  

The first level, “Welcome to Flower Kingdom,” acts as an introduction to what you can expect from the experience without feeling like an outright tutorial.  The game quickly tosses the elephant power-up featured in the announcement trailer, with lots of goombas to flick with the trunk and pipes to draw water from for the super-soaker shot.  While the elephant body’s size increase makes you a bigger target, the characters did not lose the sense of speed or momentum that the base forms had, which was a pleasant surprise.  The little flowers littering the stage make little comments as you pass them by, but they are brief enough and quiet enough to not be obtrusive, and some of them even give tiny hints of where to go.  Rather than tell you directly what to do, one of them might say “what’s that?” as if trying to draw your attention to a power-up or side path.  It’s a smart way to give the player direction without feeling like a lesson.

The second level, “Scram Skedaddlers,” is thematically very similar to the first stage, but adds some extra fun with a scaredy-cat chipmunk that spits acorns and some fun music blocks that don’t have the same kind of spring you’d expect but hit music tones with each bounce.  The chipmunks will book it away from you, so much of the level turns into chasing after them.  We also came across a wonder flower, which when activated changed the environment from day to night and featured a longer chase against the rodent with characters lighting up like you’d just picked up a star.  At the end of each level is the expected flag with fanfare, but the game also takes a brief snapshot of your characters in action with a timestamp.  It’s a fun cherry on top that almost feels like Nintendo wants you to make memories with the photographs.

Those with New Super Mario Bros. fatigue are in for a pleasant awakening.  The levels have so much more depth to them, with several layers of hills, mountaintops, and plains.  The color palette also follows suit, and those same landmarks have detail I haven’t seen in a Mario game before, with vibrant flora that shimmers and crags that have different shades depending on how light hits them.  When power-ups are selected, small animations pop-up around you like a splash of color you’d expect from a comic book.  The characters have never looked so expressive.  Even that squirrel from the second level looks absolutely terrified when you give chase.  Mario and his pals have several looks of joy, surprise, shock, and even almost a smug satisfaction depending on what’s happening around them on screen.  If that wasn’t enough, players now have a radial button of emojis to select from.  In the demo, it included a smiley face, question mark, and exclamation point.  It’s something that could have risked being too hokey, but somehow it feels natural to the game’s sensibilities.

Every mainline Super Mario Bros. is not just a game; it’s an event for the entire industry.  Nintendo is in a position between the success of Nintendo Switch and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe’s sales figures that they could have taken an iterative step and still enjoyed another hit.  If the demo is any indication, though, Wonder may be not just a new entry in the series. It is shaping up to also be one of the most imaginative Mario titles yet.


13
My friend introduced me to Mount Your Friends years ago because he follows Giant Bomb and compelled him to subject us to it.  It's an interesting idea, but boy does my 10 year old photo juxtaposed onto those characters not look great.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter
« on: October 05, 2023, 10:55:23 AM »
Does Subnautica count?  Between running out of air, getting mauled by deep sea creatures, and just the quiet dread of the depths, man is it stressful.

Actual horror-wise? 

My podcast is going to do a retrospective on Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 1, so that'll be fun. 

Signalis is on my radar, so I might pick that up and give it a go.

I've got the original Dead Space in my backlog, maybe will revert to that.


So i've got more ideas than time, but that's my shortlist.


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TalkBack / Fae Farm (Switch) Review
« on: September 20, 2023, 12:50:05 PM »

A lighthearted and simple farm sim marred by performance blemishes.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/64936/fae-farm-switch-review

It’s no secret that the farming sim genre has blown out and expanded in recent years.  Following the success of Stardew Valley, Fae Farm is the latest high-profile release in the genre, boasting a whimsical land, charming characters, and a wealth of things to do through the four seasons.  My time living in the world of Astoria was a pleasant adventure, despite some cracks in the foundation.  

Your villager chooses to start their new life with a plot of land in Astoria, a close-knit island community full of fun characters that are abundantly friendly and eager to guide you toward different game features through simple side quests.  Some examples include purchasing and using fertilizer, or purchasing and registering Chickoo & Cottontail animals (this world’s version of chickens and a bunny/sheep hybrid).  The breadcrumbs of teaching the player about the features of farm life, home building & decor, resource gathering, and crafting are meted out consistently enough to guide the player without feeling cumbersome or frivolous.  Fae Farm wants to teach you to fish through all its systems rather than giving you one, so to speak.  

Chores will feel familiar to those initiated to the genre, if not with a few twists.  Different soil beds need to be constructed depending on the type of plant you’re looking to grow, so flowers would need to have a different type of bedding than turnips.  Plants grow in different seasons and require a number of days to germinate.  Your farm also starts littered with trees, rocks, logs, and brush to clear away, requiring tools that need upgrading over time to cut through more formidable obstacles.  Once those tools are upgraded enough, you gain the ability to perform a magic spell that’ll affect an area of nine tiles, which is a nice touch and quickly equips you with efficient tools that keep the pace moving.  Over time you can get a produce stand to sell crops or other materials on-site, but there are additional spaces in town where your wares can also be sold.  

The crafting and decorative features in Fae Farm are tremendous.  You start with a pretty basic list of items that expands over time as you gain the ability to make specialized crafting tables to cook food, cut lumber, and polish stones into jewels, decorating tables to make windows and other wall mounts, and looms to manufacture your own clothing.  The number of new items and crafting options that come about is almost daunting, with an exhaustive almanac that notifies you of every entry.  Generally I appreciate when the player is presented with more options, but I would like an option to mark all notifications as complete in the menu so I don’t have an unread exclamation mark looming over me.

A very cool wrinkle of home decor and design in what you choose has a direct impact over the battle/dungeon crawling aspect of the game.  Furniture and the like have attributes tied to them that affect your combat effectiveness, such as adding health, mana, attack, or defense attributes.  As someone who doesn’t devote much time to home design in sim games, this is a really neat feature that incentivized me to dive into building and placing furniture as a way to optimize my build out rather than worry about getting a high score in cute points.  Dungeon crawling and combat isn’t as robust as other activities in Astoria.  Your wand has a basic swing, and magic abilities are gained as you delve deeper into dungeons.  But it’s ways in which other pieces of gameplay feed into the combat that keep it from becoming rote.  

Though the map space is somewhat limited, the world of Astoria is meant to be explored.  Guided roads will lead you to different points of interest easily enough, but you are not constrained to them and can even hop over ledges or jump into the ocean and swim across it to different shores.  If you do, you’ll be rewarded with scrolls littered all over the place that hold recipes to make different home fixtures.  Walking from end to end of the map won’t take a long time, but fast travel waypoints can be unlocked to move you instantaneously and make hopping around painless.  If you get lost or are looking for a specific townsperson, a marker tool will let you select one and pops open an arrow on screen pointing to their direction, which is a really welcome feature that streamlined my walking direction.  

Stylistically, the game leans all-in on a cute and playful tone.  All the characters are more on the short and stubby end with simple but expressive faces and reactions to conversations.  Additionally, your character has a healthy set of emotes and responses to things like arid heat or cool days.  The world is colorful and has great thematic organization that has each patch of Astoria feeling tonally consistent.  The soundtrack is a calming mixture of wind instruments, stringed instruments, piano, chimes, and quiet nature sounds, which is pleasant but doesn’t quite stand out as extraordinary.

Where Fae Farm struggles is in performance.  Loading screens are a real problem.  It takes a full fifty seconds to load from the title screen to the game.  Once there, the load screens are infrequent enough to mostly overlook, but how long it takes to see action is jarring.  Ongoing performance stutters and hitches are consistent, and they stretch beyond the hustle and bustle of more populated town areas.  It is fortunate that the combat isn’t too complex, because otherwise there’d have been a handful of times those stutters could have really damaged me.  

Fae Farm is a game where the developers have successfully streamlined the more tedious pieces of farming, chores, dungeon crawling, quest completion, and exploration so the player can quickly dive into the features and figure out their sim life rhythm.  The sheer number of things to do keeps the experience fresh and for the most part limits the tedium that this genre can be guilty of.  Beyond the glaring technical issues, Fae Farm has a lot to offer for both new and experienced players of the farm sim if you can forgive it.


16
General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition
« on: August 12, 2023, 11:22:11 AM »

Well, without broodwars it looks like it is up to me to include some Sony greatness in this here event.


I have plenty of Sony games on my backlog, I just doubt i'll have the time this month to accomplish them.  I'll add the one i've had meaningful time in for a stretch goal.  :)

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition
« on: August 06, 2023, 11:18:36 AM »
I can mark Road 96 off the list, which is a first-person adventure where you play as a series of teenagers who are trying to flee the country and cross the northern border in the midst of societal revolt.  The set-up for each round is a Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson style show which spends most of their time carrying water for a conservative politician during an election year, and ends with the host expressing concern over a "kidnapping crisis".  You select one of three characters with characteristics like age, distance from border, energy, and cash on hand. 

Each teenager's journey is a series of locations across the journey.  Each location will usually include one of 6 characters in the story from one walk of life or another, including a police officer whose trying to keep order, a truck driver secretly planning a revolt from revolutionaries, a teenage prodigy, a couple of robbers, a serial killer, and the tv host.  So in one case, I had stopped at a gas station and needed to create a distraction so the kid can escape the police.  It includes setting up the chain of events to cause a distraction by searching the area and picking-up the right items to do so.  In addition to this, trying to scrounge up food or money is extremely important, as losing all your energy ends in death and having no money makes your options limited.  In leaving each area, you'll have options like hitchhike, paying for a taxi, paying for a bus, or stealing a car if you find keys lying around, which seems to change not only distance but which story characters you might have to interact with.  The characters are well defined and dialogue options do seem to offer meaningfully different dialogue responses.

If I have an issue with the game, it's that the world and characters are presented as very surface level.  The broader world has a three-pronged alignment system - Revolutionaries, Conservative candidate, and liberal candidate.  Understanding there'll be limitations when talking about an independent game, that broader story doesn't feel nuanced in any way.  The characters have more shades of personality, but it goes back to having that very basic alignment in those stories as well.  I enjoyed the characters plenty, but the world feels very strictly defined in a way that doesn't benefit a more touchy subject they're navigating in the storytelling.

That said, I did enjoy the experience.  I caught it on sale so it was the right price for me. 

7/10.

18
General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2023! (Forums Aren't Dead Yet?) Edition
« on: August 01, 2023, 04:05:52 PM »
Neat idea folks, happy to join in.  Some of them aren't backlog so much as recent games I don't want to let linger, but in my rotation right now is:

Moons of Darsalon (PC)
Fall of Porcupine (Switch)

And some genuine backlogs:

Disco Elysium (PC)
Subnautica (PC)
Ghosts of Tsushima (PS5)
Astro's Playroom (PS5)
Final Fantasy 1 Pixel Remaster (Switch)
Transistor (Switch)
Divinity: Original Sin 2 (PC)
Wildermyth (PC)
Jack Move (PC)
Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)
Road 96 (PC)

I'll add more if I can think of em.  In the age of social media implosions and fracturing, perfect time to revitalize the NWR forums.

19
TalkBack / Teslagrad Remastered (Switch) Review
« on: August 01, 2023, 12:01:24 PM »

Clever classic indie 2D Puzzle platformer with a fresh coat of paint.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/64438/teslagrad-remastered-switch-review

In this April’s Indie World Showcase we received a one-two punch same day release of Teslagrad Remastered and Teslagrad 2.  Teslagrad Remastered, a re-release of the lauded 2D puzzle platformer with a graphical overhaul, seems like a smart way to give those who missed the original 2013 release an easy point of entry for those who are curious but needed a less dated look.  Rain Games’ releasing Teslagrad Remastered is a laudable decision, as it breathes new life into a quality indie classic that some (like myself) missed the first time around.

Teslagrad follows the story of a young boy who finds himself lost in Elektropia, a kingdom run by a tyrant who is in a struggle with wizards using electromagnetic power to keep him at bay.  The boy is chased by the king’s guards into the tower where the wizards reside, forcing him to explore and find the way out while using magnetic abilities to navigate and fend off traps and enemies along the way.  The game deftly interlaces a wordless story with occasional vignettes told via small stage plays with old-fashioned string puppets.  It’s an effective storytelling device that retains the quiet, lonely tone the world is going for.

The new visual overhaul wonderfully retains the original’s artistic sensibilities while converting it to a look that pops.  More specifically, the remaster’s lighting is much more dynamic - the bright shining lights illuminate rooms that aren’t quite as striking in the original.  Explosions seem more expressive and genuinely punctuate the dramatic scenes.  Everything has a more clearly defined outline, helping to clean out some muddiness of the original.  The changes are meaningful, and my eyes appreciated them immensely.  

Teslagrad Remastered’s shining achievement still has to be its gameplay and puzzle solving.  The core function is utilizing the color-coded electromagnetic powers of the wizards to navigate the world.  Each acts as one pole from a magnet as matching colors will repel and opposite colors will attract.  Starting out, I used them to open simple doors and switches.  Diving deeper, added layers on the mechanics created longer sequences of having to use the poles with dash abilities and an electro wand to navigate sequences of jumping, dashing through grates, using oppositional polarity to grapple along a pit, using same polarity to launch across a chasm, and hitting a switch to launch over an empty space.  It’s that balance of challenging but approachable that limits frustration but makes clearing each room feel rewarding.  Bosses also fit that mold, although some of them have a looseness in the waves that didn’t always feel like the kill was skillful.  For example, the first one you’ll encounter is a T-Rex looking trash compactor that needs polarized boxes to reach his mouth to deal damage.  With the way the poles worked and the limited tools available in your kit, the experience felt unwieldy and scattershot in a way that doesn’t fit the rest of the experience.

The main character also has a healthy sense of gravity - his jumps don’t have any float, but I didn’t feel weighed down.  Compared to something like Limbo, Teslagrad’s protagonist jumps might slightly higher.  His walking speed feels just right, fitting the surrounding space and preventing exploration from feeling plodding.  The animation deserves a lot of credit here, making his movements fluid and natural in a way that gives a feeling of momentum.  His abilities to use magnetization have this great whiplash feeling when matching the same polarity that’s a bit cumbersome but exciting to work with.  

Teslagrad Remastered is an accomplished 2D platformer with a unique magnetic-based ability that shines while traversing the tower and being a puzzle-solving tool.  Though the boss battles sometimes feel a little less tight an experience, that’s a small blemish on an otherwise fantastic gameplay experience.  With a fresh coat of paint and sharing the same price point as the original, this is an easy recommendation for those who enjoy older feeling indie platforms or as a primer to Teslagrad 2.


20
Podcast Discussion / Episode 373: A Festival of One or More Games
« on: June 30, 2023, 09:51:11 AM »

And the premier of Playstation 5 coverage on Connectivity

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/connectivity/64158/episode-373-a-festival-of-one-or-more-games

NWR's Summer Game(s) Fest team of Alex Orona and Joel DeWitte join John to discuss our first in-person experience with not E3. But before that we hear Joel's thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom and Alex's expiriences with Final Fantasy XVI on something called a Playstation 5.

This episode is brought to you in part by Wongo Puzzles.Use our special link https://zen.ai/nwrconnectivity to save 10% at wongopuzzles.com. The discount will be applied at checkout!


21
TalkBack / Summer Game Fest Preview: Little Kitty, Big City
« on: June 29, 2023, 07:26:16 AM »

The indie cat sim sandbox features a city littered with things to do.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/63976/summer-game-fest-preview-little-kitty-big-city

Little Kitty, Big City by Double Dagger was featured in a recent announcement in a Nintendo Indie World event, and we had the opportunity to sit down and get a hands-on preview of the feline-focused platformer.  You are a house cat who was dozing too close to an open window ledge and tumbles onto the ground, needing to find their way back home.  The introduction had some great expressive moments backed by a jazz piano piece reminiscent of the sounds you’d expect over the New York City skyline.

The cat has a move set that has the function and means to cause trouble.  Swiping can do things like knocking over pots or cans as well as tapping a person.  The kitty can also pick up things with its mouth, crouch, run, and jump.  The jump button can be held down to create an arc which gives a view of where the jump should land.  Double Door knows what makes a cat feel like a cat in terms of how its body can curve, claw its way up a wall, and run along narrow walkways.  

Tying that fun cat feel with the open city is where the magic happens.  The city acts as a big sandbox, with little direction given beyond the starting tutorials.  Littered around town are small missions to tackle, among them activities like “knock down 10 plants” or collect 25 shinies” (shinies in this case being coins, nuts, bolts, etc.).  These missions encourage a lot of exploration, which inevitably leads to new discoveries that distract you from the objectives, like following someone’s path, finding a new animal character to talk to, or pouncing on birds.

All of the pieces meld together really well, and the experience is very low-key and lighthearted.  The toy-filled playground of a city seems like a lot of fun to play in, with the potential for a special experience if everything comes together.  Little Kitty, Big City by Double Dagger Studios will release on the Nintendo Switch next year.


22
TalkBack / Re: A Warriors Warrior Warriors for Warriors' Warriors.
« on: June 26, 2023, 04:15:08 PM »
You can't make F-Zero fans angry if they're already defeated.

23
TalkBack / Summer Game Fest Preview: Fae Farm
« on: June 26, 2023, 11:59:21 AM »

The cute pixie life sim is a breezy entry point to the world of farming, exploring, dungeon crawling, and more.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/63977/summer-game-fest-preview-fae-farm

Phoenix Labs shared with us a playable demo of Fae Farm during Summer Games Fest.  The life sim looks to toe a line between farm management, relationship building, and dungeon crawling with a cutesy art style that suits the whimsical nature of the game.

In some ways, the word “farm” in the title is a bit of a misnomer.  In our time playing the demo, very little farming was done, and it seemed mostly in service of other things.  The crops were in square grids, and tending them required a spell that shot water in an area-of-effect spread.  Doing your chores yields experience points.  

The three dungeons are lighthearted affairs with enemies called Jumbles that, within the playtest session, were not difficult to handle.  Dungeons have many, many floors with not only Jumbles but also minerals and other resources that can be collected.  Some smart features include auto selecting the right tool needed for the action you’re trying to perform.  For example, no scrolling between items is necessary, and it’ll change over to the pickaxe if mining a resource or the magic staff if fending off Jumbles. This feature keeps players from having to pause the action, which can interrupt the flow of dungeon crawling.  Each floor also has a signpost displaying the resources you can find and the likelihood of them dropping.  Most of the systems at play do serve the dungeon-crawling aspect of the experience, but fans of farming, home customization, and exploration will find something to do.

Another big piece of the experience is customizing and decorating your homes.  Players can have up to three abodes to fashion with decorations and furniture.  Each piece of furniture has several sections which can be individually color coded.  This also serves the dungeon crawling, as the decorations each have a stat boost attached to them.  For your primary house, a limited number of slots can be filled to affix those boosts.  You can also find recipes along the way for furniture to decorate your home with or consumable items that can assist in combat.  For example, you can make an invisibility potion that grants stealth if fighting isn’t your cup of tea.

Like any good farm sim, there’s a hefty bit of relationship building and romance options.  You can also date and marry any of the folks in town.  Small missions like finding certain items are scattered through a larger map, encouraging exploration.  Fast travel locations cut down the time it takes to get across the map, and you can pin NPCs if, for instance, you’re wanting to know where the quest giver is.

Fae Farm is focused on easing in the player to the life sim genre in a way that is approachable to just about anyone, and seems to have the systems revolve largely around fashion design and dungeon crawling.  This cozy game sprouts up on Nintendo Switch on September 8.


24
TalkBack / Summer Game Fest Preview: Mortal Kombat 1
« on: June 20, 2023, 08:56:00 AM »

The brutal fighting franchise reboots again with a re-imagined roster and a set of Kameos.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/63975/summer-game-fest-preview-mortal-kombat-1

Disclaimer: Mortal Kombat 1 was previewed on a Playstation 5 build.

Mortal Kombat’s newest entry turns the mayhem into a party with a new partner system called Kameos, a tag-in assist characters system that has legacy Mortal Kombat characters jump in to throw out some of their patented special moves. The playable demo at Summer Game Fest featured Kano, Sonya Blade, and Jax Kameo characters, each dressed in their MK 1 & 2 attire.  The moves vary with directional inputs and allow for anti-air attacks, projectiles or regular attacks. When used mid combo, they can prove to be incredibly deadly and visually stunning.

Anyone who's played Mortal Kombat 11 will know largely what they’re getting otherwise.  The fighter still feels heavy, but is a sliver more quick feeling than MK11.  The rest of the toolkit returns, including the match-ending fatal blow special moves, and the incredibly gruesome fatalities.  Everyone gets drenched in blood each match, and the fatalities continue to feel like an ongoing escalation of violence that defies logic in the best way possible.

The new slate of characters in the playtest were (the now God of Fire) Liu Kang, razor sharp fan wielding Kitana, the perennial iceman Sub Zero, and blind telekinetic swordsman Kenshi. Their new physical outfits are true to their characters roots but have minor adjustments that feel fresh.  The levels have depth and little details that you can get a glimpse of through the matches.  The bit of audio we heard in the hands-off portion of the demo was well designed, matching every impact with a kind of booming thud that is part of what gives the game its heft.  The voice acting is well done, with writing that’s largely serious in tone but carries just a bit of humor to keep the scenes from feeling campy.

While we did not have access to the Switch version, representatives confirmed it will release day-and-date with the other platforms on September 19 and targets performance on-par with them.  The new Kameo system promises to add a new wrinkle to the series, but it remains to be seen how cleanly you can see Kano blowing a snot rocket out his nose on Switch.


25
TalkBack / Summer Game Fest Preview: Sonic Superstars
« on: June 16, 2023, 06:56:54 AM »

The newly announced 2D platformer takes an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/preview/63974/summer-game-fest-preview-sonic-superstars

Disclaimer: This preview of Sonic Superstars was run on a PlayStation 5 build.

In Sonic Superstars, you can choose from four playable characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy.  The story of each character starts with them split apart, with Sonic & Tails humming along in the air on the iconic aero plane and Amy & Knuckles seeing them from ground level and following suit.

The four protagonists have distinct powers: Sonic goes fast, Knuckles can glide and climb, Amy can double jump, and Tails can fly for a limited time, with a sliver of mid-air control. In addition there are new powers granted with the chaos emeralds collected. The ones on display were a water power that allows the player to swim up waterfalls, and an avatar power that floods the screen with clones of your character all attacking forward at once. These allow for alternate paths in the stages and expand your options on how to approach different obstacles.  

The two zones displayed were absolutely littered with things to do, often to their own detriment.  There are segments of half pipe along the way which characters run along from the side.  It’s an interesting looking hook and a neat idea, but the speed gets throttled back the moment you hit the obstacle. All the neat new touches or ways to traverse the levels, generally seemed built to kill your momentum. This is something hopefully worked out before launch.

Several different side levels include ones that play like Sonic the Hedgehog 1’s emerald levels with a collectible medal at the end goal.  The gameplay feels right, but the music has been changed from a kind of dreamy soundscape to something akin to elevator music.  Another special bonus level is simply being glided along a vertical space and floating to catch rings for mere seconds.  The emerald collection levels found at checkpoints consist of using a web-swinging motion system to propel Sonic toward a slow-moving emerald.  Given how integral the powers tied to them are, I don’t expect the quest for seven Chaos Emeralds to be a challenging one.

Sega did themselves no favors with the start of their announcement trailer.  The split screen view of sonic running back and forth both between classic era and Superstars made this game appear both slower than the original games and like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in comparison.  It’s unfortunate because in action the movement doesn’t feel so slow, and Sonic and his friends actually have been translated to this style adorably.  Everything is polished and smoothly shaped, with little details like tails having furry outlines when spinning into a ball, or Amy swinging with a hammer in hand when jumping.  These details are different but not necessarily bad.  

That said, Sonic Superstars seems to be a plethora of ideas spit out all at once as if the development team had a hard time letting go of all the concepts they had, which in practice doesn’t always land.  Being on the cusp of its fall 2023 release window, fans of the series will soon be able to determine whether this new shift is for the better.


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