PS. Play Grim Dawn! Amazing ARPG with really good classes and customisations.

If you'd prefer something older and simpler, the same devs made Titan Quest.

I donno if this counts as patient gaming but I bought this thing on launch and it was a mess.

I've been patiently checking in to see how it's come along and with the relaunch it's actually become an RPG.

It plays better on the Steam Deck then it does on Amazon Luna.

I keep hearing news about layoffs and games failing to meet expectations in the industry. Games are so big nowadays, they need to sell a lot to be profitable. Developers are underpaid and overworked. As a solution, companies add insufferable amounts of monetization to their games, making them worse in the process, and expecting people to keep playing and paying for years.

To this, I say go back to the old ways! Considering inflation, games should be a lot more expensive! Charge 100 dollars per game, if that makes it good and not filled with microtransactions. While we're at it, charge 700 dollars per console, and then give us free multiplayer instead of this subscription crap. And give game developers 90% of the sales instead of 70%, so that they can afford to take risks with creative stuff.

Then I remember I'm from a country that has lost a lot of purchasing power compared to the US, so game prices have actually gone up here. And I'm on this forum because I like paying less than $20 for classics that were sold for three times that when they came out. And I remember I bought the cheapest console, because it was cheap.

Guess I'm a hypocrite.

Would I be different if the world was different? Would I have an unending backlog of not started games if they were $100? Would the "living room mini pc" concept be in a better state if $300 consoles didn't exist? We'll never know for sure, but I think the answer is yes to all, because I don't like taking the blame.

Add a comment if you're a hypocrite too.

I guess this should be an appropriate community, participants possibly on the older side... so, I only recently got my first gamepad. played with keyboard and mouse up until then.

so, with a couple of games I tried (tomb raiders, uncharted, NFS, etc) it's kinda going but I suck at anything that needs fast responses, like aiming and hitting moving enemies; don't think I'd have any trouble with a mouse.

so I guess my question is - any old timers around that got good at this late in their gaming career?

Borderlands 4 has been announced for 2025. For a multitude of reasons, I'm more than happy to sit idly by and wait for a discounted game of the year edition or similar that includes the entirety of their dlc collection because you know there will be paid dlc. It's borderlands.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18115420

TL;DR This is a review of both Turnip Boy indie games. The first is a sort of classic Zelda clone, the second is a rogue-lite twin stick shooter. Both are short to play and I recommend them but especially the second game.

Tax Evasion Persuasion

The last thing I ever want my veggies doing is paying unjust taxes. The good news is that Turnip Boy does not want to. The first game of these two is one that I played months back and I ended up having a really good time with it. This game is obviously based on some of the older adventure games, particularly older Zelda games, and so you should expect that coming in. It mostly consists of doing small quests for people but the game never gets too elaborate and does not have a huge map making it too complex.

What even is a joke game?

I'll bring this up again later but this game is very lighthearted and most of the mechanics here are in service to the comedy and joking nature of the game and its characters. If you've ever played a game that does this, you'll know already that this tends to polarize the game into being either way too focused on the joke to the detriment of the gameplay, or it ends up with the gameplay being passable but the joke falling flat on its face. I'm happy to report that this game does neither of those things and balanced it pretty well, though not to my full satisfaction.

If only the Triforce was cantaloupe

In totality, the first game is a nice and tidy adventure with a decent amount of fun and jokes and with just enough depth to sell the fun of the game without over complicating it or dragging it on for too long. You can beat this in just a couple of sittings and if "Classic Zelda joke game" sounds like a good time to you, go play it!

He's not done squashing yet

To move on to the second game, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, this is where I had most of my fun. The game becomes a twin stick shooter on just one map where you break into a bank, take as much cash as you can, leave, and repeat until you've found and defeated all of the bosses and done as many quests as you have desire for. Unlike other rogue-lite games, this one is very approachable and not having a procedurally generated levels means that you get to know where you're going over time. The jokes are also better though the story is lighter here. All of that exists in the shadow of the gunplay though, the weapons here are the real highlight. The first game I didn't really find much challenge at all with, the actual gameplay was almost more about questing than its bosses. Here though, you have some decent boss fights and enemies, very fun mechanics.

Theres a few donut sized holes

The main criticisms here are that despite the mechanics being deeper: There is a gun locker that is almost pointless, the upgrades don't feel balanced, the gun trade in system is not worth utilizing, and the different areas do not do money scaling very well.

A good example is that you have items that cost 10k and you're working towards upgrades that cost 25k. You could buy the upgrades, but it is pointless because the progression item at 10k unlocks and area that lets you get a trophy for 100k with almost no effort. I think that the treasures on the pedestals needed to be scaled better, they kind of undermine the whole game.

This summary is a pickle, or just a vinegar cucumber

Both of these games are worth playing for entirely separate reasons and both will take you no more than 5 hours to beat, I'd estimate 3-4 for most people. They're short but in a very good way and a nice refresher from a long RPG playthrough. As good as these games are though, they don't survive without their specific brand of humor. One is a very short and simple adventure game, the other is a short and simple rogue-lite. I really hope that the developer feels they are able to make a longer game if they feel like doing so because I'd like to see how they could make these mechanics work without just using them as a backdrop to cheeky dialog.

But that's it, I hope that you go play one or both of these games if you have time. Both of these are also simple enough that they'd be welcoming to newcomers to their genres.

People who have played these games, feel free to throw in what you like and didn't like below. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

Finally got around to playing God of War (2018) on my PC after picking it up during a summer sale.

Background:

I played a bit of 1 and 2 back in the day but never fully completed either.

Story: 9.5/10

The story of Kratos struggling to be a father to his son is told very well. Seeing Atreus grow in skill and abilities with you as you progress is great to see and especially noticeable from the first major story battle to the last.

You see Kratos struggle to bond with Atreus a few times early on, but slowly get more comfortable as the story progresses.

The story telling feels very organic with a lot being told as you’re navigating between different areas of the map. Cut scenes play an important role but don’t happen too much.

My only knock is very slight in that I did lookup the previous games stories so that I fully understood the ramifications of some scenes. You can infer most things from the story alone but it isn’t fully impactful as a standalone game just as a heads up.

Playability 9.5/10

As someone who can’t always play super consistently the journal that Atreus keeps helps catch you up to things you forget and when looking at Kratos “special” attacks it’ll demonstrate the buttons you need to hit as well as visually show you what happens with the basic form of the attack which is helpful when you come back after a short break. Key Mapping of attacks on PC is also very good.

My small complaint is it won’t show you how upgraded forms of special attack play out. Also when loading a previous save it isn’t exactly where you previously left off but ends up being the last minor “checkpoint”.

Summary:

I would have definitely paid full price for this game and enjoyed it so much I plan on buying the sequel almost immediately when it comes out in September unless there’s some major issues with the port.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16914590

What’s the rush?

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it.

Music make you lose control

This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, and it all works so so so well.

Never stop fighting, rockstar

Combat is the actual bread that makes our sandwich and this is what you spend most of the game doing. Each time you get locked in an arena, it’s intense and thrilling as you dodge enemy attacks, time your parries, and plan out elaborate combos to maximize your score.

I can’t emphasize this enough though: you can be bad at this and still have an incredible amount of fun. I’ve always stayed away from games like DMC that require you learn combos but the list here is roughly 20 moves long at most and you learn them intuitively as you experiment.

Enemies have legs or wheels or fire or..

One of the highlights of this game is the enemy design. Each enemy is distinct and it’s rare to see a game have this many types without feeling repetitive or copied. We’re talking shields, robo-bikes, owls, fire using boxer robots, samurai, fire owls?!, and many many more. Each feeling unique and requiring a different approach and more importantly, blending fantastically. The enemy variety in each arena gets really creative by the end and you really never stop adapting.

Art so good, it gave me nostalgia

That’s serious by the way, I got nostalgia for this game thinking about how amazing the art is. It feels like it’s from a past era and yet I also can’t think of anything like it. It’s so stylized but also never gets in the way of the gameplay. It will constantly add to your experience and honestly it’s just perfect, I need the merch.

Video game stories are bad, this isn’t

What you’ll notice about this story is that it’s both very simple and very effective. A good mark of storytelling is sometimes how complex a story can be while still having you follow along, this isn’t that. Instead it’s so good that the story is very simple and yet keeps you entertained and gives context and detail to everything you’re doing.

The way they seem to have achieved this is by adding a lot of depth to their characters and giving them real personality. So even though the story is very simple in essence, you enjoy seeing what characters are going to say even in highly predictable moments. You know something is a trap, but the reactions to it are what you’re there for, not the plot point. It’s great.

And the masterpiece award goes to..

I truly believe this game is a masterclass in game design in so many ways. Everything it attempts works really well and the only complaints I can even come up with is that I could’ve used just a couple more combos and the readability in combat suffers due to some of the effects and camera. Other than that this game is perfect in my eyes.

It’s rare that I mark a game down as masterpiece but you absolutely should try this game. If you don’t, you’re missing out on something amazing that doesn’t come around very often. It’s also rare that I ever plan on replaying a game in the future, but I can already imagine rediscovering this game 5 years from now and picking it up for another playthrough.

Addressing the coffin in the room

Last things last, Tango Gameworks was shut down by Microsoft in May. This game is the last thing they produced and it really is a pity. They went out on one of the best games I’ve ever played and I was baffled to hear about their closure Please go play this game in honor of the loss of the studio, maybe then you can be as angry as I am at Microsoft if you aren’t already.

That’s it for me though, I feel like I’ve really experienced something here and if you haven’t played this game, I want you to give it a shot. It’s charming, it’s fun, it’s thrilling, and a good listen always.

If you played this, drop me a comment and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear what your experience is with rhythm games in general too. What else is good in the genre?

Until next time.

Happened on this 1998 game by sheer chance and I'm really digging it! As far as I can tell it was never popular. It's a mixture of an RTS and a "god game" where one unit (your shaman) is very powerful & special (chess analogy: sort of like mixing the central role of the king & with the power of the queen).

Strong "tribal" vibes that were popular in the '90s (think Deep Forest music, the game Riven, etc). Very nostalgic for me as I was a kid at the time. I'm playing the PSX version, looks like the PC version was even better!

Has anyone ever heard of this "Populous" series? I'm curious to try other titles, and to try more in the "god game" genre (a genre I never even knew existed!). Any other "god games" worth checking out?

Just finished it on the pc having everything on high it looked so pretty. It was the perfect two weekend game about half as big as the first one introducing some more mechanics and leaning into stealth which became the most fun way for me to dispatch most the combat encounters.

It really only started falling apart at the end

The game was a great noodle game I really like Miles as a character well worth it if you want a big game feel in a small package

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16411001

Summary Time

The Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with low complexity and fun characters than has you exploring levels to build up protection to take on a boss level that is available to you right from the start with all the moves unlocked. If you like a more relaxed platformer with decent explorations and puzzles, give this one a shot. However, if you're a platforming regular you should probably just stay away from this one as it doesn't invent anything new here.

Now lets get in to it.

Putting on the Rose Tinted Glasses

I've grown up on platformers. Since I was young I've had every Crash Bandicoot game in my hands and just recently went back to 100% the first 3 games. I've also been playing them in 2D most of my life, starting out with Sonic on the GameBoy. In other words, I know what it is that makes these games work. So when I hear that this game is going to present the initial challenge to you at the start and make that the premise, I immediately assume that the difficulty will be that you need to unlock moves to progress. That isn't the premise. Instead, your basic moveset is unlocked immediately.

So upon hearing that info you might think that its obvious, the game is going to teach you how to use this limited moveset in new ways to get you further into the lair. With ~20 whole levels to choose from and 2 variants of each level, there's a whole lot of level there to learn from.

We Have Good Bones

The good news here is that graphics are really great. They're much more cohesive than the 3D platformer in the series and they have a solid artstyle now. I can say much the same of the music, it isn't anything iconic but now the themes of visuals, music, and obstacles are all working together here. They really improved to say the least. The story is still as plain as ever and I have nothing to say about it. The characters however are also better. Most only have a few lines to say to you but hey, at least its interesting or funny most of the time.

There was a mark and we missed it here

I want to be clear, this game is very average in its space and that is really hard to achieve with a platformer. So take my criticisms with that in mind. I'll start off light on the devs here but when your main character is hit in this game, the bat flies off their head and starts flying around at random until you recapture it or it flies away. This serves as a 2-hit mechanic to make the game easier but I really hate it. Go ahead and imagine you're playing through a difficult scene and you get hit. Now, your momentum is all off as you halt your progress to recollect the bat. I think I died more times doing this than to an actual challenge or obstacle. Its odd from a gameplay design perspective because it changes the goals of the player and takes their mind completely out of what they're doing.

Then lets talk about tech. For those that don't know, platformers often have a lot of "Tech" which describes how the moves given to you play into each other. They're sort've unstated combos. A typical example is Crash Bandicoot can slide before a jump to get extra distance off the ledge and height. He can also bodyslam at the top of a jump to get boxes barely beyond his reach. Mastering that tech is usually integral to skillful play of these games.

The Impossible Lair has almost no tech. You can roll off of ledges like with crash but that is the only combo I know of in the whole game. The game makes use of that feature only a small handful of times. So you won't be learning very much at all about your moves the entire way through. This makes it more approachable to new platformer players, but entirely boring for everyone else.

So Why Play the Levels?

I wish I had a good answer for this but the real answer is that each level gives you a bee to be used on the boss level to protect from a hit. So to be clear, the Impossible Lair doesn't require you learn much of anything and the sole thing preventing you from completing it at the start is that the Lair is hard. Not the fun type of hard either, the type of hard where you take no hits during the skill section but misjudge a hitbox and take a hit getting too close to a spike.

I identified that pretty early on and so it never felt like a goal for me. I just wanted to experience the levels, which I found were okay in fun, and then just slog my way through the final level. I'm not afraid of a challenge either, but this kind of game doesn't make the challenge interesting enough for me.

Should you buy it?

Again I'm going to say: if you have knowledge of other 2D platformers then this one is entirely unnecessary and will only serve to annoy you. However: This game is really perfect for a younger person. I know that games like Crash Bandicoot can get extremely hard. Its what they are known for. In my eyes though, this is a great game to teach someone how to play games without boring them to death. So it isn't for me at all. For someone who has played a lot of these, I'd say this sits around a 6/10 for me. This game does not compare well to any of the Crash games at all. However, for someone just learning this is probably one of the best games you can pick up to have them play before torturing them in It Takes Two!

As always, if you took the time to read my review, thank you. I encourage you to share your thoughts about similar games you've played, my review, or if you plan on playing this one or have played it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15468857

Summary

This game is firmly in the collectathon platformer genre of games and seeks to outright revive the soul of Banjo-Kazooie and extract it into a new body. The fresh coat of paint with all new characters and modern graphical styling is an attempt to distance itself from retro aesthetics while keeping some charming aspects. Gone are the convoluted controls and returning are the random chirping noises for dialog. But is the upgrade from collecting the jiggies to ordering the pagies enough to make this title distinct? The soul of the collectathon is here, lets find out if it was worth the cost of digging it up.

Controls

I want to get this out of the way really quick and head off my review here by saying that the controls are good. They aren't amazing but since I'm going to largely be comparing this to games that just had their 25th anniversaries, I think its fair to say that controls are a real highlight for innovation here. With a similar number of buttons to the old N64 titles, we've packed in a lot of moves here and the flow is miles better. They aren't perfect however.

My main gripe is just that they seem to have mapped controls in a retro way for nostalgia reasons and it holds the game back. Rather than triggering the moves organically through context, the left trigger is again used as a face button modifier. Jump with A, high jump with LT+A. Sonar ping with Y, Sonar explosion with LT+Y. They didn't need to do that but at least the animations are short to trigger so it isn't too painful.

Characters: What did the evil Bee ever do to you?

Lets talk about characters. This is par for the course if you're talking Banjo-Kazooie parody that the game NEEDS strong characters. So does this game have them? I'd argue it does not. It isn't even that I don't find the evil capitalist bee and his duck in a jar henchman to be unlikable, its just that they lack the personality and novelty that BK had. The evil witch in those games wasn't complicated, but the rhyming of their lines and personality really got sold in the dialog. Here you just have throwaway lines galore about money puns. I don't want to say that none of the characters have personality, but its a 7/10 effort for sure.

That carriers over throughout the various worlds and main characters themselves. Banjo-Kazooie had a way with its humor of being dumb but delightful fun and really didn't stop you to embellish stupid puns. I won't harp on how I didn't find this game funny, but man when games miss the mark on charm, they really miss it by a mile. Unfortunately that's kind of the case here so don't show up for the characters.

Gameplay: It blends right in

I'll also keep this brief like the controls section. The game is good and the levels are pretty well laid out. They struggle to feel as integrated as BK though in the sense that each pagie is in its own area with its own objects. I remember how BK would use the same large centerpiece snowman for 3 or 4 jiggies, that just isn't here though. So like I said, it ends up feeling like each level is just a bunch of puzzles adjacent to each other, not cohesive at all. The themes really don't help that either as the themes only play into the gameplay of the level half of the time.

Graphical Style: It looks like it plays, alright?

The graphics in this game are actually pretty good and the game ran really well during my time with it at 1440p. That makes it a very good game to run on a steam deck and that is how I played about 50% of this game. The colors are bright and vibrant and its just a shame that it isn't more stylized. Believe it or not, I don't think the extreme crispness of the graphics help the game here. If you're especially brave though, there is an N64 graphics mode in the game which is a nice touch and brings in some of that charm.

Wrapping this up

Normally I keep my thoughts organized here but I think this game really deserves discussion so here goes. I went into this game expecting for the developers to have really done something with the formula. Lets be honest, this genre died because of a lack of innovation and intrigue. I was very surprised to play this and find that not only had the formula not really grown since the BK days of 1997, but this game had regressed it by quite a bit and I just really had to push through to finish it.

The music isn't instantly classic like Banjo-Kazooie, instead it sounds mostly generic. The characters are much the same. BK always had a splash of absurdity but it also always had grounding in its world. Lacking that grounding here is absolutely killer and so each element of this game feels separate. The enemies in BK were always interesting. The obstacles also had personality. Banjo Kazooie had me fighting two dragons on the tops of volcanoes who both thought I was there to deliver them pizza. We never get anywhere close to those heights here sadly. You'll play through this game and without exaggerating I can say that you will wonder why there are even basic level enemies in this game at all.

So what we're left with in Yooka-Laylee is a shell of what these games used to be. That isn't to say this is a bad game. It belongs in the genre 100% and its what the genre is all about. If you love collectathons and you don't want to replay BK games or want a modern version of this, I'll recommend this to you. Most people would have an alright time with this game and especially kids I think would love this if their attention can be kept by it. Those are my thoughts though, the game is decidedly average for me and I wish I could say otherwise. I respect the developers immensely for their work here. It takes a lot of work to even put most of the soul of BK into a game like this and so even if it didn't entirely land for me, I applaud them. Hopefully I feel very differently as I move onto Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

I like it when games are short. But Edith Finch is too short, even for me. I got it for about $4, discounted. For this reason, I'm satisfied, but if I'd paid full price, I wouldn't be. It's not very replayable either.

Edith Finch is an exploration of the main character's family and the house they've lived in. As you play, you relive important fragments of the lives of these family members. Many of those memories have different gameplay mechanics or perspectives. Most are first-person "go here" missions, but there's an isometric one, another about flying a kite, etc. I don't want to say too much more to avoid spoiling too much of the game.

The whole game is very much an on rails thing. There isn't a lot of freedom to explore or to do things in different ways. Of course, this is a necessary aspect of the game. It probably wouldn't work otherwise. But it does make you wonder whether you're playing a game or watching a movie.

Comparing Edith Finch to a movie is not just criticism. It's also advice. If you're going to play this game, try to do it as you would watch a movie on the cinema. Get a 3-4 hour window of continuous free time, and play it till the end. I think you'll enjoy it more that way.

Most of what I've said is bad or neutral, but I think the game achieves what it sets out to do very well. I do recommend it.

I checked that Lemmy Explorer site and searched for "patientgamers" and this community don't show up.

Just the ones on lemmy.world and sh.itjustworks

I was just wondering how you all found this place. Are you all on lemmy.ml?

Does this community show up on any lemmy indexer?

Hey everyone,

We're coming up on a year anniversary (I think) of this community and I thought I'd do some giveaways to celebrate that.

It's semi-annoying that not all game stores have digital gift cards you can purchase so there are a few options here.

1. Amazon digital gift card: for those of you who buy physical games
2. Physical Steam gift card: the slowest option, as it requires me to leave my house and buy a stamp and mail something (the horror).
3. Gifted game directly in Steam / GOG.com

For the gifted games / gift cards it'll be capped at $30 -- after all, we're talking about old games here right? If you want a few games that total up to $30, that's cool too.

I'm going to pick two members at random from those who reply here as the winners.

Just comment with what option you prefer, and ideally tell us about what game you'd like to get (I'd prefer to limit the low-effort comments if we can. I like the discussions people have here so please do try to comment more than just "#1" ).

I'll sticky this post and will leave it open for 2 weeks (end of April is the deadline)

Thanks for keeping this community a cool place with good discussions!

UPDATE 4/30/24:

This contest is officially over!

The 2 randomly chosen winnders are:

@Klanky@sopuli.xyz

@Dymonika@beehaw.org

Congrats!

I will be messaging you both individually to get your email addresses or steam/gog usernames so I can gift you your games!

Thanks again to everyone again for keeping this place going!

Am I the only one who enjoys games that have engaging stories. Sometimes I even turn the difficulty down, so that I enjoy the story and not struggle so much.

I mean challenging games can be fun sometimes, but nowadays I just feel that my life offers me enough struggles not to want another one while playing. For me games offer an escape of reality and I like them chill and casual but still with an engaging story.

Recently I got myself a new game bundle, and in amongst the games that I actually wanted to play, was one called Tinykin. For me a game like Tinykin would just get added to my library and languish for years until I decide to play it, or remember I even had it. See my Turnip Boy post for a case in point. But I want to start doing better and give all the games in bundle I get at least a few minutes in the spotlight. So when I installed and tried out Tinykin, I wasn’t very impressed, and yet I found myself unable to put it down. Which made me want to take a closer look at it.

I feel that my intrigue with this game, comes primarily from it’s gameplay. At it’s core, Tinykin is a collect-a-thon platformer akin to Banjo Kazooie, or a Spyro the Dragon. Where you are given a giant level to explore with various paths, hubs and areas. With lots of things to do, things to collect, and activities to complete for more rewards. But unlike other platformers, where you unlock new moves as you play, slowly expanding both your abilities and the world, in Tinykin you get Pikm… cough cough. I mean Tinykin of various colours and abilities that will expand your abilities and things you can do. From interacting with object in the world, to destroying obstacles, getting to new areas that you couldn’t before and solving various puzzles.

Movement is where this game truly shines. While these worlds feel gigantic, exploring them never felt tiring. There’s this methodical rhythm that guides you through the entire game making platforming never dull. I fell this is part due to the game excellent aesthetics and music, but also because the game is jammed packed with something for you to do and to interact with.

And it’s in the interaction with this game, which initially tripped me up and made it seem a whole lot less impressive then it actually is. The game heavily relies on narrative to push you along and gets you started. But the walls of text the game expects you to read and go through, just put me off. I think there is a good narrative here, but I wasn’t able to pay attention to it. At least not until the end, when there is finally a character that is voiced.

Thankfully I was able to play the game, without deliberately talking to a single NPC, objectives can be found, and completed at my discretion and on my own time. Tinykin is an oddly relaxing and wholesome game, where there are no villains, no enemies to fight, no bosses to beat, and no twist villains. Tinykin is just a simple, plane Jane platformer, with a simple gimmick, and unique aesthetic that give this game a unique identity.

While for me I probably won’t be replaying it. I have a feeling trying to collect everything would be a chore, and the lack of voice acting doesn’t help starting the levels fresh. I do feel this is a game I want to recommend. It’s not the most impressive platformer I’ve played, but it has this calm and simple enjoyability that I don’t think I’ve seen in another platformer.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12495394

TL;DR This game is still really funny with crude humor that mostly holds up and gameplay that doesn't disappoint. Its showing some age but not enough to get in the way of the fun. If you're a fan of movies from around the year 2001, this is a must play.

Introduction

An alchoholic squirrel platformer, an absurd scenario adventure, an excessive amount of swear words, a surprising amount of poop, more movie references than you can shake a stick at, and World War 2 are all shoved into a single N64 cartridge. What could go wrong?

This is a departure for Rare into a game targeted at adult audiences after producing family friedly platformers for years. Don't let the cute and cartoonish exterior of this game fool you, you're in for a ride from the moment the game boots up.

The Necessary Background

I think my enjoyment and perspective is relevant to my thoughts about this game so let me explain my biases here. As in previous reviews, this is not an attempt to talk about the game as it was 23 years ago. I'm placing this game in a modern context, especially since I never owned an N64 and wasn't apart of that era. This game is almost as old as I am, so keep that in mind.

The other disclaimer here is that I am not big on movies and tv or pop culture from this era. I'll explain more later about references, but a lot of them flew over my head. It isn't a large problem but again keep this in mind. With that out of the way...

Does the Game Play Itself?

No it doesn't. The gameplay here is fairly minimal coming off of the backs of the two Banjo-Kazooie games. No need to memorize complicated control layouts to progress. The controls here remain nearly the same throughout and lead to a pretty enjoyable, but simple, platforming experience. Most levels are fairly linear but aren't straightforward and require knowing your environment and exploring.

That isn't saying the gameplay doesn't evolve. Most of the moves you have access to come from a pad you stand on to activate. These usually change your interactions with the environment in some way. They give you a slingshot or missile launcher or maybe a bottle of booze for a scarecrow. It takes a lot of the thinking out of the game and lets you sit back and enjoy the adventure.

Previous games from the people at Rare had this feeling of a toolkit platformer where more tools were given to you but the tools you had stayed with you throughout the game. This led to complex controls and more often just meant that moves went underutilized or were shoehorned into levels. I appreciated the restraint shown here and to make use of the tools within each level only when needed.

A Squirrel and the Princess

In regards to the story, there isn't much here beyond a vague scenario given to the player. The characters and levels do a great job of telling a narrative but the core idea of the game is that many different scenarios are stiched together. It leads to a lot of varience in the atmosphere of the game.

Further backing that up is the soundtrack which, as usual, is something Rare did an amazing job with. When you enter an area made of entirely poop in the game, the main thing selling you on the disgust of it is the farts and burps in the music. And yes, I did just say that they are IN the music. I'll let you decide how to feel about that.

Conker's Great Stand Up Routine

This is the part of the discussion that makes or breaks this game for me. Is this game funny? And if so, in what way is it funny?

To answer the first question, it will be pretty subjective to you. I'll characterize the comedy by saying that it is crude and unsophisticated humor for the most part. Most of it holds up well considering comedy from the era and theres only a few things I'd say might cross the line with modern audiences. I thought most of the game was humorous, even if it didn't leave me on the floor crying from laughing.

The absurd scenarios and chracters are refreshing compared to a lot of games that play it more safely nowadays. That said, the references for movies will play into how much you enjoy your time here. For myself, I'd say that I understood a small portion of the references though even reading about them didn't make me think I'd view them the same way today.

For instance, there are short scenes where a movie scene is recreated and similar or exact lines are repeated as a reference. I found these amusing, but not funny per se. It ages similar to parody of anything else though. To give an analogy, it'd be like looking back on an SNL skit making fun of US president George Bush. You'd crack a smile, maybe laugh once or twice, but not like you would have while he was president. That being said, if Terminator, The Matrix, and Starwars are still fresh in your head you'll find this very amusing.

Wrapping Up the Red Squirrel

There isn't too much else to say about this game. Its humorous in a simple way, it looks great and sounds great, and the gameplay is varied and interesting. The game is on the shorter side so its easy to recommend this one. For those who worry about the humor side of it, play the first hour of this one and you'll know quickly if it clicks with you or not.

As a final wrap up, let me thank everyone who has been recommending me this game because I had a good time playing it. Let me know what your experience with this game was if you played it!

Feel free to check out my previous posts for write ups on other Rare games!

Banjo Kazooie Review

Banjo Tooie Review

When I saw a new game release called Turnip Boy Robs a Bank, it piqued my curiosity. Such a contrasting tone in both the gameplay visuals and setting that I wanted to know more. Then I saw that this isn't Turnip Boy's first outing, when he committed another crime in his first debut game, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. For $5 on Steam and GOG it was tempting, but when I saw I already owned it on Epic Games, which I got during one of those Free Promotions. It's hard not to give it a try.

So what is this wholesome game? Well it's a top down action game, and I'm tempted to call it a Zelda Title. Mostly due to the various puzzles including moving blocks, bomb-able walls and a portal... planter. But it feels and controls more like a twin stick shooter, especially since there is no dungeons to explore.

The gameplay is fun, but a bit too fetch questy which usually ends with you getting, or finding a document. Like a bill, a wanted poster, or a tax document, where you will proceed to rip it up. Turnip Boy is hysterical in just how much of a jerk he can be. He doesn't want to pay his taxes and he will do everything to avoid it. I love a game were the protagonist has a personality that isn't just a blank slate.

But while there is a lot I like about this game. I will be echoing a common criticism of this game, it's length. For a byte size adventure it's fine, especially for a "free" game or a $5 game. But for the price it's asking ~$15 I would've love to see a extra "boss"/"dungeon". The post game endless train combat arena is nice, but needs more enemies and variety to not feel like the repetitive slog it turns into after the second round of fighting the same 4 bosses.

But when it's on sale, which it often is, it's definitely a fun adventure that's worth getting. And from what it sounds like when Turnip Boy robs that bank, it should be a better experience.

Super Metroid's color palette and lanky sprite were always a turn off for me. But I'm finally giving it a chance on SNES (MSU-1 version) & I'm really enjoying it!

Vibes are: Quake + the movie Alien + Nine Inch Nails' album The Downward Spiral. Pretty cool aesthetic after all!

I was in a weird mood this week and wanted to re-play a PS2 game. I haven't felt in the mood to replay Breaking Da Rules since I made a video about it 9ish years ago (according to YouTube).

For those of you who either weren't born yet when this came out, or were too old to play these kinds of license games. This is your generic Platformer with [INSERT FRANCHISE HERE] slapped on it. Akin to a Spongebob Squarepants, or DuckTales.

This time it was The Fairly OddParents, based on their first Season of episodes. Where the levels are based off of various settings shown in the episodes or at times, ripping of the plot completely. While at times the story is a bit weak, I feel most of my complaints are nick picking compared to the quality which other license games had at the time.

Especially since the graphics are, at time, some of the better ages graphics I can remember from the time. It's nothing remarkable, but aesthetically the game feels like it was ripped right from the episode. Or at least it is for small characters, larger models are PS1 Hargrid levels of bad and funny.

The gameplay has also held up well. It's not anything special, nor anything I haven't seen before. Outside of Vertical Camera controls there's a good variety and no two levels feel the same.

Now it's defiantly not worth going out to get a PS2 or a GameCube out to play this game. It's good but not that Good. However it's a fun game to emulate, especially the PS2 port in PCSX2. Wide screen is fantastic, increase in the resolution makes the games aesthetics looks even better... and the jank even more noticeable.

For a game over 20 years old, it's held up well all things considered.

Currently, I'm waiting for a sale that puts the base game and phantom liberty at around £25.
Am I being a bit silly?
Is it worth picking up the next time GOG do a sale for around £38?

Edit: I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who has responded with useful information, and opinions on the game. I think I may treat myself next time the base game is £25 (and I have a weekend to play!)

In many games there are a lot of stupid filler items that you don't know what they do and they don't matter. (i.e. crafting ingredients). They are so ubiquitous across games that there ought to be a word for them. Sort of like a "MacGuffin" (except a MacGuffin moves the plot along, and these filler items don't).

Is there a name for these filler items? If not, got any ideas?