Super Magbot is a challenging 2D platformer with one hell of a gimmick: no jumping.
Yes, you heard that right.
The exclusion of such a foundational feature for the platforming genre is an audacious move – to say the least. It is like imagining a shooter without any guns!
Thankfully, the absence of the jump button comes with an interesting trade-off. To navigate the world of ‘Magnetia’, Magbot – our games hero – utilises both positive and negative magnetic properties (denoted by the colours blue and red) to navigate through the very challenging platforming levels.
This design choice underpins the game’s core formula, and it is undeniably a gamble from the developers.
I guess the question is: does Super Magbot manage to successfully innovate within the platforming genre?
Play to your strengths:
The story of Super Magbot is a simple one, acting as largely background filler to provide a hook to get you from point a to point b.
Your system is under threat. There is a big bad villain. Only you, Magbot, can save the day.
Nothing particularly complex here – but the story – and simple macguffin of collecting all the fragments to save your home planet, MagTek, works because of the emphasis placed on the game’s fundamentals.
Super Magbot plays to its strengths: tough platforming, married with a progressive rise in difficulty – that peaks at brutally hard – provided the hook that kept me going ‘just one more run’ throughout my playthrough.
The simple visual design also supplements the experience: the colour scheme often corresponds nicely with each element. Furthermore, the design also acts as a helpful indicator for gameplay, such as ice meaning a more slippery surface.
Audiowise, the music was fairly forgettable. Nothing distractingly bad, but at the same time, nothing all too memorable.
A progressive, fair, challenge:
I am by no means a platforming aficionado, however even I can recognise the difficulty curve.
The initial difficulty emanates from the movement system; with the left thumbstick functioning as your run button, and the right being your aim. Coupled with the triggers – which let you choose whether to use positive or negative – there is a high level of precision to basic movement.
Then you factor in how you need to approach each magnetic force. Movements have different properties, such as sliding or jumping. Initially, this felt quite awkward, and I died – a lot. But, after enough runs, the magic of muscle memory kicked in and I found myself intuitively navigating through levels.
Incredibly satisfying (I still died a lot).
To Magbots credit, the control system itself remains simple throughout the game. Creativity comes from new interactable items that can be found as you progress levels. These items all lend themselves largely to navigation, which is important in helping you keep up with the game’s breakneck pace.
As you progress, levels become decidedly more hostile: the floor becomes lava; unforgiving blades and spikes necessitate quick-thinking and reflexes, which adds to both thrill and despair. Thankfully, unlimited lives and super-fast respawning encourages the player to keep going back.
(Many) Trials and errors:
Super Magbot offers an impressive amount of levels. Because of the forgiving respawn system, I felt encouraged to experiment with each level. When combined with the environmental challenges; different items to use and collect, each level became a playground for me to express my creativity.
On a slightly less positive note, sometimes the game attempts to use two screens or more in the levels can be seriously frustrating. Because of the game’s frenetic pace, the one screen approach is damn near essential in trying to progress.
As an overall package, Super Magbot offers a new approach to the platforming genre: one that is initially quite difficult, but through progressive challenge and a simple control scheme, quickly becomes instinctive.
The game’s nature is fast, frantic and ultimately forgiving, which encourages the player to be creative when approaching each level.
Overall, a really fun experience and addition to the platforming genre. If you’re unsure, there is a free demo on the E-shop.
In my last review, I recommended you cast aside rational thinking to judge a book by its cover. For Cris Tales, a beautiful storybook-like RPG with a time travel mechanic, however, you might want to forget that bit of advice.
With an action-packed trailer with exploding colors and animation, you’d expect Cris Tales to be just that – an action game. Not only does this description miss the mark by quite a margin, but it highlights its least interesting elements.
As an unwitting time-traveling prodigy that discovers her powers at the start of the story, it’s up to Crisbell to fulfill her prophecy and save the world. In a very Disney-like manner, she pairs up with a talking animal, approaches bad guys in castles and makes friends on her journey to end the war ravaging the world around them. Her powers are a fun little time travel mechanic that has different features for each part of the gameplay.
In the towns, you can see its past, present and future by simply walking through it giving it a layered quality not possible in most games. It’s the best interactive part of this art piece and allows a unique approach to world-building allowing you to resolve issues and complete quests in the present from a combination of the past and future. It’s a brilliant mechanic and one that I wish was expanded further with more residents and areas.
Like three camera lenses looking at three different time periods – The left side is the past, the middle the present and the right is the future
I’m sure you’ve realized this already, but this Unity-developed game is quite the stunner with a clean and simple art style and smooth animation that you can’t help being blown away by as you walk around the beautiful towns dotted around the world. What this unfortunately did for me, was produce unreasonably high expectations, only for them to slowly sink into a malaise of mediocrity, as I realized that everything else on offer was simply average in comparison.
The visuals, worthy of their own cartoon network show, are supplanted by frequent loading screens, unsatisfying battles and voice-acting so awful I felt compelled to mute it. The Unity engine is likely both thank and blame for at least the first issue as it produces that specific look at the expense of engine resources extending the loading times.
Each town is full of interesting residents looking for change from the elite ruling class
The action takes place in the form of rather standard turn-based battles but allows you to use Crisbell’s abilities which can send enemies to the past and future changing their age and strength on one hand and gives you an opportunity to infect and affect them on another. Sending enemies to the past and poisoning them, for example, before returning them to the present magnifies your attacks.
The biggest downside to the battle system though is not the disappointingly standard animation in the battles, nor the singular audio track or even the overall affair being rather bland, but it’s the fact that they appear out of nowhere far too frequently through random encounters and there is no way to avoid them.
It’s so frustrating to have the screen turn white for no obvious reason with no sound effects and no warning only for it then cut to a loading screen as if you are moving into a new area. After this happens a few times, of course, you know full well that even after you beat the bog-standard battle in front of you, another is sure to come and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Invoking the future crystal would send the enemies on the right into a future version of this field and potentially change the outcome of the battle in the good guys favour
Another interesting mechanic facilitated by Crisbell’s ability is a situation where you are forced to make a decision between helping one of two parties in the town with the decisions having their own consequences and further affecting the town. This is also true for the number of side quests that you do within each location – the more you do, the more it changes – and this fosters and brings to the fore the personality of each areas’ characters.
Despite everything pointing to Cris Tales being for a Saturday morning cartoon audience the Teen-age rating and some awkward dialogue make this choice confusing, like the presumably intentional but completely out of place moment where one of the characters calls another a ‘pr*ck’ and seems as appropriate as Winnie the Pooh whipping out a machine gun and mowing down a honey thief in a spray of sweet-scented death.
Cris Tales is undoubtedly special, but how special is in the eye of the beholder. In my opinion, the RPG battle system spoils the sky-high potential afforded by its presentation and central mechanic. I mean, why would you even bother fighting when you could just manipulate time? Furthermore, it may have been better to expand the great town-based consequence-forming gameplay loop to something more similar to the tremendous system used in Where the Heart Leads.
Overall then, if you bear the unnecessary grinding of Cris Tales, there’s potentially something special waiting for you. I, on the other hand, will be jumping into a Delorean to see if the developer makes an improved sequel. Until we meet again…
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is the latest or arguable earliest instalment of the Ace Attorney series of games acting almost as a prequel. Made up of two games The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve that were released a while back in Japan they’ve finally received the western treatment and make their debut in the UK.
You play as Ryūnosuke Naruhodō who is supposed to be an ancestor of Phoenix Wright, yes the very same Phoenix Wright. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is set in the Japanese version of the Victorian period known as the Japanese Meiji period. At the beginning you are thrown onto the legal stage and have to defend yourself. The plot of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles double adventure has you following Ryūnosuke Naruhodō, a young Japanese lawyer who has made his way from Meiji period Japan to Queen Victoria’s England to learn about the British legal system, which at that point is telling the world it is the greatest legal system on the planet. Luckily he is not along and has his legal assistant Susato Mikotoba help him attempt to defend those in need of legal help in several courtroom battles.
Although The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles explains Ryūnosuke is Phoenix Wright’s very old ancestor, there really isn’t much connecting these two games with the previous editions. The British environment gives a different taste to both the kind of cases and how they are dealt with, so even if you’re an experienced ace attorney, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles does offer something a little different. There are several colourful characters in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles who you will interact with many times, these include Baron van Dieks otherwise known as the ‘Grim Reaper of the Old Bailey’, Scotland Yard Officer Tobias Gregson and Herlock Sholmes who you may have guessed is based on Sherlock Holmes.
Compared to previous games The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles tries to change things up. Herlock Sholmes can go off sometimes so you need to help him keep his focus via a series of mini games, they’re more like deduction mini games but they are somewhat different to the usual evidence gathering you would normally do as Phoenix Wright. The courtroom antics have also changed, no longer just a judge to contend with you must convince a jury of your peers. Multi witness testimonies are also part of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, you think you would need to keep an eye on how other witnesses react to another witnesses answer but it’s pretty blatant to see.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles has an autoplay mode, so if that is selected then it will just automatically run until a decision is required similar to your standard visual novel set up. You can also choose to play Story Mode which will allow you to skip the many puzzles and decision making processes, if you play it this way then The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles doesn’t really play like a game but a televised court room drama. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles does lack what previous games have had and that’s the issue of defending friends and family, in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles it’s less involving because there are a fair few characters you won’t be particularly bothered about. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles isn’t a particular difficult game to get through, you’ll be on the receiving end of many a hint.
Graphically The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is great to look at. The cinematics as you accuse or have to prove your point are really slick. Objections are met with crescendos of orchestral music and there are plenty of slow plans to various characters as more information comes to light. Musically The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is just as good as it’s graphics. The music gets louder just as big reveals are made and the whole musical accompaniment works well in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. There’s roughly 40-50 hours worth of gaming depending on how quickly you crack the cases. Games like this are bit of a slow burner but once you’ve got past the first hour or so you’ll get fully engaged.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is an excellent and clever prequel to the Phoenix Wright series. The insight into the British legal system and changed dynamics makes The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles are noticeably different experience to it’s previous incarnations. Whilst The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles may lack that personal touch there are so many interesting and fun things to do. If you’ve enjoyed the Phoenix Wright series in the past then The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a worthy entry worth several hours of your legal time.
I have adored The Legend of Zelda since I recieved my first DS Lite and played Spirit Tracks. Since then, Link and I have accompanied one another on uncountable adventures around Hyrule. We’ve defeated Ganon hundreds of times, we’ve found more Koroks than I like to admit, and I can confidently say that we have smashed more pots than I like to admit. When looking for an adventure that will always welcome me with warm arms, The Legend of Zelda is always there for me. When Skyward Sword was released in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii – I obviously sprung into action as fast as I could. Similarly when it was announced to be re-imagined for Nintendo Switch, the little girl inside me nearly burst out to celebrate.
A time before twilight
To anyone who is new to the franchise, or anyone who is as baffled by the Zelda timeline as me, Skyward Sword takes place as the first installment of the timeline. We are transported back to a time before we really knew our hero and heroine, no matter how many Legend and Zelda games you have played. Trying to go into Skyward Sword with fresh eyes ten years later was something I thought would be impossible – but as soon as the game is booted up and I heard the Great Fairy Fountain, I felt like a kid again. Nintendo manifest something magical when it comes to transporting their players back to a childlike state of mind, and that is definitely something I adore most about the company.
My first experience with Skyward Sword was watching my brother play on the Wii. As you can imagine, two competitive siblings meant I never really got to have a go. So being able to pick it up now and experience it both again yet for the first time is honestly magical. There is so much substance to an installment in the Legend of Zelda timeline. For a franchise built up with so many games you’d expect at least one of them to seem repetitive or boring, but as a lifelong fanatic I can assure you that this just isn’t the case. Skyward Sword is a masterpiece in terms of the original release and the re-imagined version.
It’s dangerous to go alone
It wouldn’t be an installment to the franchise if you didn’t have a (somewhat annoying) companion for your adventure. From Navi, to ghost zelda, to phantoms, The Legend of Zelda really does provide it all. Within Skyward Sword you are accompanied by Fi, a spirit embedded within your sword. I found Fi rather amusing as she still continues the traits of a Zelda companion. Interrupting you when you’ve already found your way just to let you know you’re on the right track. Stopping you mid battle to let you know that there’s an 89% chance you might be in danger. As frustrating as this is, it just adds to the foundations of a Zelda game.
Link’s usual antagonist isn’t what you’d expect in Skyward Sword either. We are used to the brute force and ominous energy of Ganon, but luckily for our mute hero he is no where to be seen in this game. Instead we are given a breath of fresh air, Giriham. A perfect combination of sassy and challenging, we feel as if we have to take him head on just to knock him from his pedestal. Skyward Sword, although the first installment of the timeline, is a new experience for all Zelda fans. Even if you have played the original when it was first released. If like me you haven’t touched it in 10 years – maybe sit down to revisit Skyloft and remind yourself of the world before twilight fell.
A timeless classic
As anyone would do when their favorite game is re-released on a modern console, I assumed that it wouldn’t be as breathtaking as it was when I was younger. Nintendo have a positive track record when it comes to revisiting old classics, even with the NES Online arcade, it still feels authentic yet looks the part. Skyward Sword is definitely a supporting example for this.
Rather than keeping the blocky, outdated graphics of the original version, they have been polished and buffed to suit the Nintendo Switch. Essentially, it’s like playing the original Wii version with Nintendo Switch graphics. Everything is smooth and colourful, and as I keep mentioning it feels like playing it again for the very first time.
Even controls are kept the same. If you decide to play Skyward Sword with joycons rather than a controller, motion control settings are still in place. Even if you do play the majority of the game with a controller, I really recommend relying on motion controls for at least one hour. There’s something so fulfilling about flailing your controller around in combat, yet doing an impressive impression of swatting a fly in real life. Nintendo are so wonderfully capable of bringing childhood joy to life in exhausted adults, in every way imaginable.
Challenge after challenge
There’s something about Skyward Sword which feels far more challenging than other, more recent Zelda games. Games like Breath of the Wild require more technical skill, Skyward Sword really focuses on the puzzle aspects. Whilst combat is still challenging, puzzles are far more intense. There were several occasions where I felt genuinely frustrated at the game. But it is all part of the Zelda experience. You spend hours in one temple, half the time on one puzzle, and then realise the key was something as simple as spinning your sword in a circle. With puzzle based games like this, the only skill level comes in combat. So puzzles are significantly difficult throughout. Once again this transported me back to my younger self, watching my brother in amazement as he knew exactly what to do. I, ten years later, definitely remained as baffled.
Final thoughts
If you are looking to revisit the wonderful world of Skyloft, then I cannot reccomend this game enough. Even for first time players, this is a wonderful experience for all. The Legend of Zelda is the gift that keeps on giving. And no matter how old, young, or new to the franchise you are – you simply will not regret playing this.
As one door shuts, another one opens is a favourite saying from the optimist in your life. It means no matter what happens and no matter how bad things seem, there is always the chance to move forward. What would you do if this wasn’t the case? If you failed at your last opportunity and this prevented you from moving forward! This is the concept behind Death’s Door, a game about sombre scenes and melancholy situations.
Developed by Acid Nerve and published by Devolver Digital, this is a puzzle adventure title with a deathly twist. Using Zelda-like exploration and maze-like dungeons, you’ll lose yourself in this expansive world. You control a fledgling crow who epitomises the symbol of death. He wanders around a grey land devoid of human life, collecting souls to power the doors between realms.
Death’s door!
Death’s Door is a touching tale of failure and redemption.
You work for the Reaping Commission and your only task is to collect the souls of your vanquished foes. If you haven’t been assigned a job, you are immortal. However, the moment you walk through a door to complete a task, the ticking clock of life starts moving. The only way to stop it is to collect the giant soul that controls that realm. If you fail, or the soul escapes, your door remains open and death ebbs ever closer.
Sadly, this predicament forms the backbone of Death’s Door. While completing a simple job, a giant and aged crow steals your prized possession. You are now trapped in limbo and transported to a strange world that contains the oppressive titular door. This enormous locked barrier requires the fledgling crow to undertake three challenging adventures. You’ll adore the in-depth levels and constant back and forth as new abilities unlock new areas. Like Zelda, you’re forced to remember inaccessible locations to return to them when the time is right.
I loved the unveiling of these secret areas and though it had the potential to make the game tiresome, it rarely did. Using your newfound abilities made the gameplay refreshing and introducing mini-bosses adds a layer of complexity to the combat mechanics.
A complex story told with simple but effective mechanics.
The core concept will resonate with most gamers because of its simplicity. The wonderfully dark and charming story muddies the waters, but the murkiness is worth it for the fantastic experience. The game simply asks you to use arrows, magic and swords in each combat encounter. As you progress, they become gradually more challenging and tactical nuance is required to better your foes. Your limited health will be put to the test and a small supply of plants can stop you from dying. This was ingenious, as this extra layer made you gamble on the moment to use your seeds or to power on, regardless.
On top of the fighting were the puzzles that relied on switches, fire, and explosions. Though there was little offered that can’t be found in other titles, the blend of abilities and the use of environmental obstacles was fantastic. During the main chapters, you’ll unlock fire, bombs, and a hook. These tools are key to solving each problem and uncovering the aforementioned secret locations. You’ll enjoy unlocking each skill and discovering how much it expands the already vast world.
Don’t upset the giant frog.
Big bosses and souls well spent.
The Reaping Commission is desperate to have the souls to power their doors. But, they are generous to the crows that work hard collecting them. You’ll upgrade four stats that help to balance the monsters increased strengths in the latter stages. The fledgling quickly transforms into a super bird who is strong, nimble and full of vitality.
Magic and health boosts are also hidden around the grey oppressive world. These shrines contain pieces that must be collected to receive a much-needed boost. You’ll see the hidden locations positioned behind “impossible” to find paths. Only when you have all the abilities unlocked will you be able to gain access to them all. Until this moment you’ll make a mental note, vowing to return at a later date.
As well as increasing your stats to defeat the normal monsters, you’ll need to be as strong as possible to overcome each enormous boss. These pains in the arse beasts test your patience and gaming ability. You’re likely to face your untimely demise and this will feel unfair. Yet, you’ll keep coming back until you learn the best way to take them down for good. Destroying all three will unlock Death’s door, and from here you’ll continue to put your nightmare to bed.
Death’s Door makes the most of every environment.
Some games look fantastic, have awesome stories, and have interesting characters. Yet, they fail to make the most of their incredible environments. Fortunately, Death’s Door utilises its 3D space perfectly. You quickly adjust to life in this bizarre world, scanning the horizon for hidden paths on all plains. You’ll soak up the charming and dark imagery as the striking lines and grey palette enhance the melancholy tale.
The graphics are supported fantastically by the eerie piano music. The haunting soundtrack adds to the sense of despair, leaving you in little doubt that death is just around the corner. With excellent but predictable sound effects, you’ll love the constant blanket of noise.
The developers have complimented their wonderful story and environments with excellent imagery and audio. This is a fantastic example of an indie title finished to a high standard.
Find the horn and bring music back to the village.
Drip-fed skills and a simple UI.
Death’s Door does a great job of ensuring every aspect is easy to understand. A well laid out UI helps you quickly identify the required skill, and a basic approach to combat and using items make any situation simple to manage. Flitting between abilities is smooth and the only concern is when you run out of magic or ammo. Even this issue is simply resolved with a swing of your sword, so the developers have made this as user friendly as possible.
There are plenty of reasons to keep returning with shiny things to collect and ample hidden locations to find. Once you defeat the final boss, you’ll come back for more as you slowly tick off the mental list of secret places. You’ll invest around fifteen hours to complete it and you’ll thoroughly explore every corner of this odd world. Achievement hunters will need a keen eye for detail and a logical mind. Getting the 100% status is challenging and won’t be for every player.
Death’s Door is spectacular from start to finish.
Death’s Door is captivating from start to finish. This is a high-end indie title with its fantastic graphics, excellent and melancholy audio, and brilliant yet weird storyline. A mix of complex and straightforward mechanics will test veteran and new gamers to the genre. I adored it and recommend you to buy it here! Death is ebbing closer and your only escape is through Death’s door!
Do you thrive in fast-paced work environments? Do you love the comradery of the service industry? Are you an Overcooked veteran? Then this may be the next best title of the couch co-op party game genre. Very Very Valet takes all of the elements that work in this particular style of game, and simply changes the job. Toyful LLC and Nighthawk Interactive bring an easy to learn, yet rage-inducing personal parking experience to life. This title, much like the others of the same realm, is best played with others, so be sure to have your friends over when you boot this one up.
Those Cars Ain’t Gonna Park Themselves
Upon opening the game, the player will be greeted with very familiar sounding flute and string music. It’s heard in places such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This is a clear indication that the melodic and optimistic city tunes are used in juxtaposition with the frenetic gameplay. Hearing the elegant sounds just adds insult to injury when you fail. Select your character model, and color, and get to work! The first couple of levels serve as a nice introduction, and a sick awakening if you’re masochistic enough to play these games alone like I did for a lot of the time.
Off to a great start with angry people on the first level.
Play as the valet parking team for restaurants, clubs, bowling alleys, and more creative environments later on. Customers line up and hop out of the car for you to park, and return after some time for you to bring the car back. If a customer is waiting too long at either of the two points, then a frustration meter will fill up. If it reaches max capacity, you will get an X, thus docking one of the three stars from your level rating (yes it’s one of those three star games). Three X’s and you guessed it, failure!
Things will quickly escalate as you progress in the game. More street traffic is introduced, along with teleports, and other hazards on the road in urban settings. Seeing how the world gets more creative, and challenging is half of the fun when playing games of this genre. There’s enough to motivate the player to see what is next, which is a good incentive to keep trying. Now does this reinvent the party co-op genre? Not, not at all. However, since the formula is basically there at this point, there’s not much need to deviate from the norm.
Engine and Paint Job
Controls usually make or break a title such as Very Very Valet. While Overcooked is also a challenging playthrough, the controls never feel too stiff or loose. For the most part, all mistakes justly fall on the player as a result. In this case, there are a few different driving options to use, but they all feel kind of awkward. This is less of a knock to the button layout options, and more to the car physics. There are times where driving feels a bit too loose to break and turn. This makes some of the special levels, where you drive and knock down a series of bowling pins, a bit frustrating. With more players, the issue becomes less about perfect precision and execution, and more about not getting in each other’s way.
The presentation is nice. The graphics are clean and cartoony, and the humor is not juvenile at all. Positively, this game can be appropriate for family night, or a gathering of inebriated friends in the college dorm. There’s not much to complain about the interface either. It’s easy to navigate around and figure things out as it should be.
Choose Your Highlights
What may be Very Very Valet’s best incorporated idea is the choice of specific highlights from each level to choose to save and watch later. Some random clips will appear, for the player(s) to vote on, to save for each level. This adds a little extra fun and competition to a co-op game by creating a small popularity contest. And for single player, it’s fun to choose the silliest real and raise eyebrows to your friends about how you actually made it as far as you did solo.
Bottom Line
While not much has been reinvented, the best elements of the couch co-op party genre are represented here. Very Very Valet is a slick and easy to learn title that’s good for all ages. The minor inconveniences are nothing to write home about at all. I still view the Overcooked series as the best of the genre, but I would much rather play this game than Tools Up!or Moving Out.
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is an interactive puzzle game reminiscent of Where’s Waldo and the I Spy books.
Adapted from the children’s book series Pierre The Maze Detective, this whimsical game is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Gameplay:
In Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective, you are tasked with the challenge to find the perpetrator who has stolen the Museum’s precious maze stone! The criminal is non-other than Mr. X, and he’s turned everything into a maze! Play as Pierre as you put your detective skills to the test as you traverse through many colorful mazes to track down the notorious Mr. X!
The gameplay is pretty simple. You control Pierre with the directional buttons and use the action button to interact with the environment and characters. The mazes aren’t made of simple walls but feature many obstacles, from traffic jams to little pups chilling on the street. Many of the interactions are silly animations and conversations, which gives the player time for exploration. Making your way through the maze, you can also find collectibles and treasures.
One of the most charming points about this game is the art design. The hand-drawn art style and paperlike animations make it feel just like a picture book! It’s so bright and inviting you can’t help to want to explore and see what will happen next! For a children’s game, I think the art style is perfectly fitting and eye-catching.
However, for a puzzle game, I really wished Labyrinth City was a bit more challenging. While I don’t think every game needs to be challenging to be fun, I do feel that this game was a bit too guided – even for kids. Also, unlike its unique levels, the gameplay felt too repetitive to the point of losing interest in the game. If there were more elements to the gameplay and the mazes, I really think it would take this game to the next level.
Pros:
Simple controls
Absolutely charming design that really feels like a picture book
Cons:
Lacks challenge
Gameplay is repetitive
Conclusion:
Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is a really relaxing game that’s perfect to play with the little ones before bedtime – especially if they are fans of the series. If you’re looking for a more challenging puzzle game for yourself, I’d say that’s the only area where the game misses the mark. But if you’re looking for some relaxing wholesome fun, I totally recommend getting lost in this cute maze.
For some of us, life has no plan! We do not know what we are doing from one day to the next, and we love the random nature of our life choices. Other people, however, have their lives planned out for them by their parents. The school they will attend, the friends they associate with, and the career they will undertake. Having limited choices must be frustrating, but having everything selected for you allows you to excel in your field. You channel all of your energy into achieving your goal and if it goes well, you’ll be seen as the leader in that role. Trigger Witch uses this idea to form its old-school 16-bit inspired title.
Developed by Rainbite and published by Eastasiasoft Limited, this is a colourful and magical pixelated adventure title. With a SNES and Mega Drive aesthetic, this will tweak the nostalgia strings of retro gaming fans. Set in an open world, you are free to explore to your heart’s content while taking on many missions in this cute fantasy tale.
You control Colette, a young witch who graduated from “The Stock” to become a fully-fledged member of “The Clip”. She prefers firepower over magic spells and uses her trusty pistol and other weapons she acquires. Her graduation ceremony is ruined after a mysterious man invades her realm and her life is turned upside-down. She is the heroine in this tale and must use everything she has learned to stop this mysterious stranger before it’s too late.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr don’t freeze in the ice dungeon.
Trigger Witch uses the best mechanics from old-school games.
Many indie games come with the strapline “Inspired by retro games”. Some do well to capture the essence of that classic gaming era, but many fail and the gameplay feels hollow. Trigger Witch has taken the best mechanics and style out of many early console games to create a genuinely interesting retro title.
With many weird and wonderful characters to interact with, vast dungeons to explore, and a simple but enthralling story to work through, this captures your interest from the off. It’s a twin-stick shooter that requires quick reactions and accuracy. It will test new players to the genre but it’ll be a walk in the park for veteran gamers. Trigger Witch has an array of weapons to choose from and your arsenal increases as you find them on your journey. These basic guns can be improved with old parts that are found in chests and gems that you collect from killing monsters. The simple weapons quickly go from being pea shooters to overpowered cannons in no time at all. Arming yourself with these ridiculous tools was fantastic and you’ll be chuckling as you mow down every monster you encounter.
Something seems off about this king.
Well laid out dungeons, evil monster, and couch co-op.
An old-school adventure game wouldn’t be complete without fantastic dungeons to explore. Luckily, Trigger Witch has this covered. These labyrinthine areas are full of twists and turns and puzzles that require logical thinking, and quick shooting. You must destroy every enemy you encounter or unlock doors by hitting switches. This concept is simple and gradually increases in difficulty the further you progress. It’s sadly a little repetitive, but I never tired of the action. The monsters became more aggressive with different methods of attack, so rushing in all guns blazing isn’t always the winning solution. You must study their weaknesses, use the surrounding environment to your advantage, and clear each dungeon of monsters.
As well as the brilliant dungeons, you’ll encounter massive bosses that want to destroy you. Whether the battle takes place in a tiny arena or while riding a broom, the aim is the same. You’ll dodge their attacks, select the right weapons, and chip away at their health. The bosses offer little in the way of a challenge, but I liked the grand setting and the build-up to the fight. The battles were easy, but they were nicely intertwined with the story, so each one felt relevant and necessary.
I enjoyed many aspects of Trigger Witch, but my favourite had to be the “drop-in” multiplayer gameplay. A second player can join the action by simply connecting a controller. This was fantastic and captured the retro gaming scene perfectly. If the second gamer stopped playing it matters not, as their character leaves the world and you carry on, regardless. This seamless layer was excellent and made it much more accessible than many of its peers.
Trigger Witch captures SNES imagery perfectly.
Pixelated gaming is all the rage and I’m one gamer that loves it. Trigger Witch stands out against recent indie titles because of its vivid colours and accurate retro aesthetics. The viewpoint is reminiscent of old-school RPGs, and the cute but deadly monsters are fantastic to look at. The game uses simple imagery to create a magical world that is fun to explore and easy on the eye. I enjoyed the varied landscapes and the different enemies associated with each area. The changes sometimes were subtle, but they offered enough variety to keep things interesting.
The dynamic soundtrack and shrill sound effects were great to listen to. The deafening boom of the weapons and the twang of magic spells added to the fantasy theme. I liked how different areas had their own music and the tone and pace changed to reflect the mood. The basic audio delivers enough variety to prevent boredom and helps to create an exciting and magical adventure.
Ready…..Aim…….Fire!!!!!!
Shooting is easywhen you have a laser sight.
I’ve written about enough twin-stick shooters for people to know I suck at them. Yet, I found Trigger Witch easy to play. Is this because I’m improving at this genre? No! With a permanent laser sight for aiming, no one will miss the target. I really liked this approach, and it made the fast-paced action much more bearable. Alongside this user-friendly idea was the well-designed controller set-up that made learning the basics a walk in the park. Players from any skill set can master this in minutes, which made the multiplayer option even more appealing.
Though the game allows you to explore its open world freely, the story follows a mainly linear structure. This sadly impacts the replay value as the plot doesn’t change when you return for a second playthrough. If you are a completionist, you’ll find reasons to return as the achievement list needs patience and an eye for detail to unlock them all.
Trigger Witch is captivating, brutal, and exactly what you want from a retro game.
Trigger Witch has many interesting layers that make it a wonderful retro experience. Its story is simple but captivating and its combat mechanics are brutal. Some elements are repetitive, yet its mix of characters and interesting dungeons ensure you’ll want to keep playing. I enjoyed my magical experience and recommend you to buy it here! Grab your gun, defeat the bosses, and hunt down the mysterious stranger.
Put down your gamepad and pick up your sword, Samurai, we’ve got a castle to burn. Back from a 7-year absence the hack and slash Samurai Warriors mainline series returns with a 5th entry, with an all-new story and new character designs.
Title covers don’t often follow through with their promise of awesomeness, but Samurai Warriors 5 is the book cover you can judge – it’s as good as it looks.
Samurai Warriors 5 follows feudal lord Nobunaga Oda and his clan on their quest to unify the warring states of Japan, spanning from the end of the Ōnin War to the Honnōji incident providing a more in-depth look than previous games at the events and relationship with Mitsuhide Akechi that lead to Nobunaga’s downfall.
With an anime art style accentuated by Sumi-e Japanese painting highlights and a soundtrack containing traditional instruments paired with modern guitars, this title does everything to make the historical events as entertaining as possible while keeping the overall details accurate. There are only so many ways to tell the most told story in Japan, so there are some liberties taken especially with the over-the-top Hollywood-like ending when in real-life it was more like an anticlimactic betrayal, the motivation of which is shrouded in mystery due to Mitsuhide’s own demise not long after.
One of the many great cutscenes showing Nobunaga Oda – whose name I’ll never get tired of saying – and his plans. Nobunaga Oda. Rolls right off the tongue.
Plowing through your enemies on large castle battlefields takes place seemingly in real-time with constantly changing objectives giving the standard ‘mow down everything’ gameplay style a realistic twist with a boatload of tension and unpredictability. The size of the opposing armies gives it a great feeling of scale, and the many different mini battles dotted around the map feel like small dramatic movies happening all around you, especially as you are constantly communicated to about the shifting and updating battle from your allies.
I’m gonna knock all those guys over on my horse, because I can, and because its awesome.
Spiking your enemies in a gloriously overpowered game of human volleyball is done with two different characters – a main and a partner – to achieve the chapter objectives. It’s a great system where different fighting styles can be combined to defeat enemies while also effectively acting as fast travel across a map as you can assign your partner to attack other targets. Alternatively, you can dash across the map on horseback after receiving a desperate call from friends (presumably on their 1600s smartphones) and this allows you to see the tide of the battle change in front of your eyes. Despite you being the lynchpin in all the proceedings, it makes it feel like you are a small pawn on a very large and well-produced chessboard, and it exudes awesomeness.
Oda’s progress is detailed through cool-looking maps like the above and with a voiceover worthy of every action film trailer ever.
The action itself is loose and free-flowing but rather than being a downside, in comparison to more polished articles in Nier Automata and Devil May Cry 5 for example, it allows for the quick mowing down of small armies as you can more easily adjust your attacks. The only issue you might encounter is the camera which is entirely manual, apart from a not-so-great lock-on feature, and can lose track of the action that occasionally moves behind the camera. Some may call the action ‘rough around the edges’ with less than smooth horse riding animation, and enemies falling through walls or popping up as you approach them, but like an all you can eat action buffet that gets more delicious the more you have, you’ll likely be enjoying yourself far too much to care.
Facilitating this are 37 playable characters with skill trees, and 14 different upgradeable weapon types such as swords, spears and even a drum. While the traditional harbingers of death certainly suffice, it’s the less conventional ones that I enjoyed the most such as a tiny drum or the bow – the latter of which I’ve always wanted a video game to morph me into Legolas from The Lord of the Rings and finally I’ve found a game that makes shooting arrows feel as awesome. Nō, Nobunaga Oda’s wife, has a kick-ass bow that really lets loose with some epic combos at great speed making me feel like an Elf in a kimono and pleasing me to no end.
This scene, or any scene for that matter, with this many enemies creates a great sense of anticipation and rarely disappoints. Especially with Nō at the helm.
The upgrade system for the characters and their weapons is addictive but it’s locked behind a ‘my castle’ system that has a blacksmith, a dojo, horse stables and a shop that all need upgrading in order to further upgrade your characters. This means that you are forced to play a secondary defend the castle mode – Citadel Mode – but it doesn’t have the same allure as the story and perhaps more could have been done to differentiate it in terms of gameplay. An explorable castle showing the cool details teased in the background of the game’s maps and a more interactive way to explore the game’s relationship meters would have been nice to delve into.
Caused by a fox mask-wearing ninja rising like a phoenix engulfing enemies in a tremendous explosion of speed, fire and stupendousness. The arcade-like action here is super addictive and is a game I can see myself returning to over and over.
Normally I would say that most Japanese games don’t need a dubbed audio, but unfortunately, the lack of an English track affects the flow of your battles somewhat as you receive updates from your allies in Japanese and English subtitles, meaning that for you to understand what’s going on, you’ll need to divert your attention from the fight. It’s not always an issue as updates will sometimes come after you’ve defeated your foes in that area, but receiving them during the action is not exactly optimal. The soundtrack on the other hand salvages the audio presentation somewhat with addictive tracks peppered throughout and makes visiting the soundtrack feature in ‘the vault’ a pleasure rather than it simply making up the numbers.
Despite covering a shorter period in history – the previous games also covered the Toyotomi and Tokugawa shogun reigns – there is a lot of replay value in the story mode. Not only do completed missions allow you to replay missions with characters non-story related in a ‘Free Mode’, but it took me 16 hours to complete the 6 chapters of the main story, and I only completed 22% of the total objectives. Beyond that there are the 6 chapters of Mitsuhide Akechi’s story and a ‘What if’ section, so there is a great deal of content for those wishing to delve more into the game.
And if, after all that, the single-player experience isn’t your thing then you could always try the local co-op or online modes for more of the same full-scale warfare, but with friends.
Samurai Warriors 5 may not be winning any awards, but Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have more than done themselves justice with their basic action formula tremendous fun in short bursts and the over-the-top hack and slash battles playing out like small cinematic war dramas. The reimagining of Japan’s most famous struggle is also now more palatable to newer audiences with its revamped visual style blending perfectly with the action and representing a good time for all that give it a shot.
The first thing I did when I received a review copy of this game was to google the title, only to find myself faced with the tagline ‘You are old and angry and you’ve just been kicked out of your retirement home.’ Needless to say, I was instantly intrigued.
Further investigations revealed that Just Die Already is the most recent game from the developers of the widely popular Goat Simulator. It shares a lot of traits with its predecessor, so if you were someone who enjoyed the chaotic hircine mayhem from the last game then you’ll be sure to find something worth your time here. Of course, at the other end of the scale, if you didn’t enjoy Goat Simulator’s lack of real plot or cohesive narrative, this isn’t the game for you.
Being kicked out of your retirement home is a very literal process
The story of Just Die Already, such as it is, is that you are a pensioner who has been kicked out of your retirement home for causing too much trouble. Apparently enraged by this new development, you are then free to explore the city, causing as much chaos and destruction as you can along the way. To keep track of your exploits, you’re given an appropriately named Bucket List that provides rewards when certain objectives are achieved.
Conceptually, that’s all there really is to Just Die Already. As with Goat Simulator, the game is a sandbox with an incredibly loose physics system and a lot of destructible items. The only real guidance players have is their bucket list; otherwise they are entirely free to explore the world and discover the small self-contained scenes the developers have put together. To help add to the mayhem, the entire experience can be played in four-player co-op.
Easily this game’s best feature is its visuals. The environments are bright and beautiful, and different regions of the city have distinct visual styles that make navigation surprisingly easy considering the size of the map. The cartoony design really helps to sell the gloriously bonkers action, and there are a lot of art assets that make for great visual gags. In many ways, wandering around the city and just looking at things is the main draw the game has – unfortunately, that leads onto the core problems this game has.
Health regenerates over time, but missing limbs stay gone until you respawn
Just Die Already has two major issues, one more fixable than the other. The first is that the controls just aren’t up to what the game requires of you. Trying to grab items can often take several attempts and using melee weapons with any accuracy is impossible because of wildly inconsistent hitboxes, weapon range, and attack time. In some ways, that’s the point; your avatar acts and handles like a vaguely sentient boneless mass of flesh, and that’s part of the joke. Unfortunately, instead of being funny, it mostly serves to frustrate the player when they’re actually trying to get something done.
Which brings us neatly to the second problem Just Die Already has: the game isn’t very fun. For all that I deeply enjoyed discovering the game’s tagline at the very beginning, that sense of bizarre humour very rapidly wears off when you’re playing the game. There are certainly a lot of interesting things to discover and some of them are worth a laugh, but the paper-thin objectives aren’t enough to carry the game for more than an hour or two. Playing with friends through the co-op system can extend that, but even then the enjoyment is more coming from hanging out with people you like than from any inherent success of the game.
The bucket list book can guide you to objectives, but it does also run the risk of spoiling interesting things to discover
There are a few more minor problems to consider too. The overexaggerated physics can mean that your character gets stuck in the scenery from time to time, but there’s a quick reset button that respawns you relatively close by so it’s not a huge detriment.
More strange for me was the general lack of background music; this seems to be a game that would lend itself to a solid soundtrack as so much of the game is spent running around a city with no dialogue interruptions. Instead, aside from some sound effects, I spent a lot of my time with this game in silence. It was so weird that I’m still not entirely certain if this was intentional or simply a glitch, though from checking out some gameplay trailers and footage, it seems to be the former. If so, it was perhaps an indication that this game is meant to be played in co-op with players chatting to each other, but that’s not really an excuse not to have something in the single-player mode.
Some of the best jokes Just Die Already has are contained within small environmental details
It is important to note that Just Die Already isn’t being marketed under a triple A, £40 price tag. Going into this game expecting something that you could sink 30 hours into isn’t a realistic starting point and to criticise it for not meeting that level of content would be grossly unfair. With that said, however, I would still caution anyone buying this game that its charm wears thin incredibly quickly. If you have friends to play with then you might be able to stretch it out for a few hours, but despite the multitude of bucket list items to cross off, there is very little compulsion to keep playing for long.
If you did enjoy Goat Simulator and want more of that style of game, then go for it. Just Die Already certainly scratches the same itch, and it has a lot more polish to recommend it than its predecessor. For everyone else, though, you’re probably better off saving your money for something with a little more substance.
Every now and then I’ll have the chance of playing a game that is exactly the sort of game that I think I’d never like, and then it so happens that that game ends up being a welcoming surprise. Most recently, that was the case with The Touryst.
I first saw the game when it was announced that it would be leaving the Xbox Game Pass catalogue and, upon close inspection, I figured it was worth the try. Looking back now, I’m glad that I gave the game a chance.
The premise is pretty simple, you’re a tourist who’s visiting several islands during your vacation. So, what do you do? The Touryst might be best described as a puzzle-oriented game, but you’ll be able to do much more than solve puzzles. Participate in a surf tournament, join the local native band as a drummer, play football, get a paddle and row a canoe, explore a diamond mine, beat arcade high scores, and take lots of photographs. Those are all things that you can do in The Touryst.
Although I’m the type of person that just tends to play the main story and major side content in most games, The Touryst was an exception for me. There is no need to complete every task or collect everything to achieve the game’s ending, but I found myself so hooked on the game that I wanted to do everything. Pretty much every single task of the game is fun, unique, and cleverly thought out.
The game might appear to start slow, but it quickly opens up once you start unlocking new islands to visit. Each island is relatively small, but they all have their own theme and unique mini-games that you can play. In addition, you’ll also be solving the main mystery that’s behind all the intriguing monuments and their dungeons that you find across the islands. As for the game’s puzzles, I found them to be pretty casual and easy to figure out, even if it would take me a couple of tries.
For the overwhelming majority of the game, The Touryst is just pure fun and joy. The characters, the gorgeous and colourful world made entirely from voxels, the seemingly harmless theme of the game, and the fun mini-games, are all things that contribute to that. Everything just works together in great harmony, even though there are clearly some rough edges.
Unfortunately, The Touryst has these really odd moments that feel completely out of place when you compare them to the rest of the game. Whether it’s boss mechanics that aren’t properly conveyed to the player, or the controls not being the best when handling a platforming section, the game doesn’t seem to know if it wants to be just a casual experience or a frustrating challenge. It can really leave you scratching your head and wondering if you’re doing something terribly wrong, but you eventually realize that the game is just the way it is.
While some might argue that The Touryst ends in a big cliffhanger, I think that isn’t the case. Sure, the ending leaves a lot of thoughts in the air, but, most importantly, the adventure that the player started at the beginning of the game comes to an end. Having said that, the ending clearly indicates that a whole new and exciting adventure is about to begin, but it doesn’t give you anything more than that. Hopefully, we’ll get a sequel or some sort of content expansion that will expand the story.
At the end of the day, even though The Touryst is a fun game, it’s not the kind of game that I’d consider to be a “must play”. It’s enjoyable and that’s pretty much it. It’s far from being a bad game, but it also isn’t a game that I’d recommend to everyone, it doesn’t have that “wow” factor. Like myself, some people might be surprised by it, but it surely won’t blow you away. Furthermore, to be honest, this is exactly the kind of game that I wouldn’t buy and play on my own, but thanks to Xbox Game Pass, I got the chance of playing something that’s outside my comfort zone. Overall, The Touryst features about 6 hours worth of content that are well spent if you’re looking for a game to unwind.
In order to hit as many buzzwords as possible, Highrisers describes itself as a pixel-styled build-and-explore urban survival-RPG. It’s all true. It’s pixel-styled, sure. It has a bitty, pixel art aesthetic like your Metal Slugs and Intrusions. You build things. You explore things in a very urban manner. Survival is in there, yep. RPG, sure, go nuts. But the main thrust of the game is none of those things. It’s not even close. The game is almost entirely an inventory management simulator. But, for those of you who love a bit of inventory management, hold your horses (who am I kidding, you definitely have your horses filed away in a crate labelled ‘Equine, Misc.’) because I think you might be surprised about which part of the game isn’t very good.
In Highrisers you play simultaneously as four survivors of a zombie apocalypse, who must band together to fix the helicopter on the roof of their high-rise building (oh that’s where the name comes from…) and escape to where the grass is greener, or where the zombies are passive-er. Unless it’s a Racoon City situation, I don’t see why the zombies won’t be wherever they plan to go but they’re set on fixing this helicopter up so let’s roll with it. To fix the helicopter you’ll need materials which you’ll come across by exploring and dismantling the objects in the building. However, exploring is dangerous (zombies, remember?) so you’ll need to craft weapons to explore the lower levels of the building – the levels that are properly saturated with the undead. This leads to a vicious cycle of crafting, building and slaughtering until you can finally piece together the materials you need to fix the chopper and escape.
To control the four survivors, you use the number keys to select which generic stereotypical zombie-fiction character you want to control and the mouse to click on objects to interact with. Overall this system just about works but it’s really easy to forget who you’re controlling and absent-mindedly click for the wrong person to do the wrong thing. There’s a readout on the left-hand side of the screen that gives you information about the survivors such as their inventory, health and hunger. The majority of the game is clicking on objects around the map for your survivors to dismantle or collect the materials generated from that dismantling which you’ll then bring to a crafting table to use in recipes. Dismantling and crafting take real-world time so if you set all of your survivors doing something you might as well go away and make a cup of tea while they get on with it.
The key to this scavenging and building mechanic is, as promised in the intro, inventory management. I count myself among the fans of a good inventory management system. My main memories of Fallout 4 are fast-travelling back to Sanctuary after a mission and storing my junk (behave), upgrading weapons and armour and selling the stuff I’m never going to use. Unfortunately for such a key mechanic in Highrisers, the execution of the inventory management system leaves a lot to be desired. Your characters have a very limited inventory on them so need to regularly unload the materials that they’re not currently using but might need in future. There are shelves around to do that, great. However, the number of shelves is very limited and each set only takes around 9 materials, meaning you can barely clear out a single character’s inventory on a single set of shelves and that single set of shelves is all you’re going to get in a convenient place. What’s worse is the materials are stored as models in the world so you have to identify and click on materials when you want to collect them rather than doing it through a menu – not great when the materials look nearly indistinguishable.
The theme of clunky controls and not being sure what’s going on continues through the rest of the game. There’s a very limited tutorial that teaches you the equivalent of the amount school teaches you about how to survive in the real world, only without the benefit of having fun algebra and science experiments. A wide variety of things just don’t work and I don’t know if it’s because I’m missing a control, my characters aren’t levelled up enough to do them or if the game is just broken. The game doesn’t tell you what materials objects will drop and dismantling takes a while so you have to do a lot of slow and frustrating experimenting to get materials. There’s little clarity on what you can click on and what clicking on things does, beyond dismantling and collecting. The screen is half taken up with four character’s inventories and a map so any useful information on how to play the game that you might be blessed with is lost in that screen clutter.
Most frustratingly of all, fixing the helicopter – the one thing the game makes clear is your goal – just doesn’t seem to work. I’ve got all the materials for one of the repairs but the game won’t let me put those materials into the repair or let me carry out the fix. Do I need to unlock something to do it? Do I need to find some kind of tool? Is there a button or menu somewhere hidden away? I don’t know and the game has absolutely no interest in telling me.
I didn’t enjoy playing Highrisers. Clunky controls, poorly explained mechanics and difficult to fathom visuals all add up to make Highrisers a confusing and unenjoyable mess. The game has recently left early access and is still undergoing some fixes so maybe, with some more development, the game that the developers intended to create will start to shine through its issues. But, in its current state, I can’t bring myself to recommend Highrisers.
The history books are full of tales of misery and horrendous diseases that have decimated mankind. Each has its gruesome narrative and outcome, but I think we can all agree that the bubonic plague was horrific. It never surprises me that developers use this as the plot for their games and I’m always intrigued to see how far they will push their narrative to shock and appal their audience. A Plague Tale: Innocence uses a hearty mix of history, dark imagery, and fantasy in its heartfelt story.
Developed by Asobo Studio and published by Focus Home Interactive, this is a heartfelt story of survival filled with puzzling elements. Using the most disgusting and disturbing images from this blot on mankind’s timeline, you’ll be creeped out and left shuddering throughout. The oppressive world you explore is highly detailed but disappointingly lacks an open-world feel. The linear storyline leads from A to B with some delightful narration and simple but fulfilling puzzles to solve.
Where is that smoke coming from?
A Plague Tale: Innocence tells a tale of a ruined childhood and a dark family secret.
Set in France in the 14th century, the game takes place during the Hundred Years’ War. You control Amicia and Hugo de Rune who must escape the French Inquisition led by the black knight Lord Nicholas. The story revolves around Hugo and a mystery illness that has captured Lord Nicholas’ attention. He is a frail young boy who screams when he’s scared and relies heavily on Amicia. As you explore each of the seventeen chapters, you’ll overcome basic puzzles, using stealth as your go-to mechanic.
Amicia is both the brains and the brawn behind this young partnership. She is Hugo’s guardian angel and she’ll stop at nothing to protect him. Armed with her wits and a slingshot, they must evade the attentions of the Inquisition. The pair work together to solve the mystery surrounding their situation while moving slowly to safety.
Being chased by a bloodthirsty French army is bad enough, but how about adding plague-infected rats to the equation? These scurrying, nibbling disease spreaders burst from the ground and walls by the hundreds. The flood of vermin will make your skin crawl as they hiss and jostle to chew the meat from your bones.
Stealth, the French Inquisition, and rats make up the three key mechanics of this wonderful game. You’ll be kept on your toes throughout and will feel genuine fear and panic as you are pushed through this linear tale.
The “strong” protecting the “weak”.
Like many games of this ilk, the stronger link in the party takes the lion’s share of the work. Hugo sadly lacks strength, courage, or good health. His small stature makes him useful, and he can crawl through gaps in walls and climb through windows. Using him forms a key component of many of the puzzles and his tiny frame helps you evade capture many times. Amicia uses an array of tools to distract the guards, she’ll hit metal objects with stones or smash pots to create loud noises. You quickly learn that discretion is the greater part of valour, and staying in the shadows is your best option. Combat is usually the last resort, and until the later chapters, you’ll refrain from drawing too much attention to yourselves.
As well as the guards, you’ll want to avoid the teeth of the stinking rats. Luckily, these disease-ridden vermin are petrified of fire and daylight. Remembering this is essential, as burning paths prevent you from being killed and allow you to progress. Routes are created with lanterns, pyres that are lit with feeble twigs, and a concoction known as Ignifier. You must collect materials, plan routes, and avoid the army of rats. It’s tense, fills you with dread, and is super uncomfortable. Yet after a few chapters, you become accustomed to the horror and it fails to have the same impact.
Attack from the shadows.
Alchemy, resources, and odd boss battles.
The seventeen chapters are punctuated by strange boss battles. These events lack challenge and are devoid of the stylised mechanics used throughout the rest of the gameplay. Stealth and logic are out of the window, and dodging and brute force are the aims of the game. It was pleasant to have a change of pace from the constant cat-and-mouse action, but I would have liked something a little more in-depth. Therefore the final battle is both fantastic and disappointing in equal measures. Every element of the last encounter is phenomenal, and everything I was craving. The disappointment comes as I wish the developers had drip-fed this into the other battles to make a more fulfilling experience. A Plague Tale: Innocence isn’t tarnished by the lack of depth. I simply wanted more.
Great adventure games balance resource gathering with their difficulty curve perfectly. If the materials are plentiful it reduces the grind but also skews the challenge in the player’s favour. Sadly, A Plague Tale: Innocence hasn’t got the balance right. Equipment upgrades and the alchemy tools rely heavily on everything you gather, so when everything is at your fingertip you become wasteful. Whether it’s distracting guards or dispersing rats, you never worry that you’ll run out of the tools for the job. This undermines the fear element of the game, making it less suspenseful than intended.
A few shortcomings, but its story and characters fill it with charm.
Its lack of difficulty and almost obvious solutions will annoy some gamers, but I enjoyed going along for the ride. Its few shortcomings are shored up by an incredible story and a world of odd characters that add a macabre charm. Hiding from the guards or manipulating the rodents may not be difficult, but you’ll still get swept up in the emotion of the situation. Much of the time I knew there was nothing to fear, but my heart was still racing as I sprinted from fire to fire or bush to bush. I found the action to be captivating and I can see why a sequel is being worked on for a 2022 release.
A Plague Tale: Innocence has an array of environments and beautifully detailed graphics.
I was amazed by the variety of landscapes incorporated across the seventeen chapters. The developers have gone all out to create a game that is truthful to its era while still mixing in fantasy elements. The use of dark tones and imagery add to the oppressive nature even during the upbeat moments. The constant inclusion of rats and symbols of death pull the story back to its disease-ridden roots. Though it was unpleasant to see, I loved how the game kept returning to its core theme.
With fantastic acting, sinister music, and the horrific sound of hissing and scratching, you’ll be on edge throughout. I’m sure living when the bubonic plague was rife was horribly unpleasant and Asobo Studio has captured this perfectly. The on/off relationship between Amicia and Hugo is brilliantly acted and the additional characters in this fantasy plot play their roles brilliantly. The amount of narration and cutscenes is balanced well with the action allowing you to lose yourself in its heartfelt plot.
Use fire to hold back the horde of rats.
The well-defined UI keeps things simple.
When a game relies heavily on stealth mechanics, it’s essential that crouching, hiding, and sneaking is easy to achieve. Fortunately, the well laid out controller setup makes playing simple. The clear and well-defined UI enables you to understand the controls with little effort. When new equipment is added you are given a straightforward tutorial that explains the fundamentals with little fuss. A Plague Tale: Innocence had the potential to be complex. Fortunately, it isn’t and you’ll spend your time enjoying the story.
Because of its linear approach, the replay value is impacted. However, with fifteen hours of gameplay and an array of new mechanics, you’ll be kept interested throughout. If you lack the completionist instinct, you’ll enjoy the story, but won’t return once you finish it. If you crave achievements and the 100% status, you have plenty of collectables that offer a small amount of replay value.
A Plague Tale: Innocence is a wonderful puzzle stealth game with a heartfelt story.
With its fantastic but dark fantasy tale, and nice stealth mechanics, this is a game that’ll keep you interested from the opening chapter. A Plague Tale: Innocence combines excellent environments, great acting, and simple puzzles to create a captivating experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend you to buy it here! Gamepass subscribers can also install it for free. You must work together to stay hidden and avoid the army of rats. Accept the help of strangers and use their strengths to overcome obstacles. Can you discover the dark secret hidden in your family’s past, or will the rats consume you?
Science has experimented with genetically modified creatures and artificial intelligence for years. The dream is to make mankind stronger and our existence easier. All the mundane and dangerous tasks will be undertaken by robots and life will be a cakewalk. Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 tells a colourful tale where one piece of food has a mind of its own and runs amuck.
Developed by Playful Pasta and published by Ratalaika Games, this is a physics-based adventure title. The second instalment in the series, this sequel will have you smiling and laughing at the ridiculous nature of the plot. Using the docusoap format, you hear how the protagonist Freddy is loved, hated, and admired by his work colleagues.
It’s is time to flip around the office.
Freddy Spaghetti 2.0; bigger, better, stronger.
I played and reviewed Freddy Spaghetti back in January and couldn’t wait to jump into the sequel. Carrying on from the shenanigans of the first game, you control the second generation genetically modified length of pasta. The original tells a story of a naughty piece of pasta who wants to expand his horizons. Freddy’s creator has learned from his mistakes and after creating Freddy 2.0, he sends him to work. He hopes that a busy mind will prevent him from causing havoc….he was wrong.
Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 continues from the strong and silly foundations of the first iteration. You will fling yourself around the levels, aiming to hit the blue goal marker. Each stage matches the narration of its cutscene, but the aim is not always clear. Unlike the first game which focused on moving from A to B, this one asks you to play table tennis, foosball, swim in an aquarium, set up co-workers, and so forth. It’s absurd, but the story is hilarious and will capture your attention from the start.
It was working before Freddy turned up.
A short game, but worth every second of your time.
Comprising forty stages that are set over four seasons, Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 doesn’t take long to complete. However, I urge you not to be put off by its short game time. With six or seven levels at its core, you’ll repeat several stages as the difficulty is ramped up. The sports levels become quicker and more challenging, and navigating furniture turns into a deadly game. You’ll use your short term memory to recall how to overcome the obstacles, but this usually isn’t enough as the physics-based action can be challenging to get right. Freddy’s movement isn’t always spot on and you’ll miss your intended target by millimetres. You’ll groan with frustration, slam down your controller, and start again.
My favourite elements, however, have to be the brilliantly intertwined plot, the office atmosphere and the relationships that make you chuckle. Freddy acts as cupid, is the object of one lady’s desires, and is despised in this short story. The roller-coaster of emotions that one piece of pasta experiences is mind-blowing. By the time you’ve reached the end, you’ll be exhausted and wonder how he lives such a full life.
Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 is a basicbut colourful treat for the eyes.
Very little of Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 can be considered advanced. The basic graphics and simple backdrops won’t wow you, but they are pleasant to look at, nonetheless. I liked the vibrancy of the colours, the variety of level design and the unique characters. The bird’s-eye perspective helps you to explore each level, and the lack of detail ensured the finished product wasn’t too rough. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll know what to expect as the presentation has altered little from its predecessor.
The jovial music matched the silly action that unfolds before your eyes. Each level was accompanied by different tunes, helping to keep you interested. The acting of each character was great, and I enjoyed the deadpan delivery of their lines. The stereotypical look of the office team was matched by their voices, which added to the absurdity of the plot.
Freddy loves to stay wet.
Jump, jump, jump, and let gravity do the rest.
Though I find physics-based games infuriating, I loved how this one played out and the simplicity of its layout can’t be ignored! Moving and jumping are easy to control and you must hold down the buttons to make Freddy leap higher. Because of its straightforward approach, I could focus my energy on flinging my pasta around each stage with no need to think. You’ll admire the moments when Freddy leaps like a salmon and you’ll chuckle when it goes wrong.
Sadly, there is little replay value as all achievements are awarded on the first playthrough. Each stage is timed so gamers can return to test themselves, but this offers no fresh gameplay. Sadly, you’ll have no desire to do this and I don’t think people will want to waste their time. However, if you are a completionist, this is a dream as you’ll have it finished in around an hour.
Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 is a silly and fun experience that is worth investing in.
Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 offers little in the way of serious action. However, if you want a fun and silly storyline where you control a genetically modified piece of pasta, look no further. It’s absurd, stupid, and I loved it! I enjoyed it and recommend you to buy it here! Channel your inner pasta, take a new job, and try to work your way to the top!
