Stuff I played at my grandma's house

Well, turns out there was way more stuff to do at my grandma's house than I planned for, so I didn't get to play as many games as I had hoped.  Plus, I had a party to go to after work today, wherein I got hit in the eyes, making looking at the computer screen not quite painful enough for me to take the night off but just painful enough to make this experience very annoying for me.  So, now you have a post that's anemic and overly grumpy.  Enjoy:

Photon Bunny

Well the first thing I noticed was that this game had the courtesy to start me out in windowed mode so that I can talk to my friends or browse the internet while I play.  Of course I would play the game that does that while I was in the middle of nowhere with no internet access.  Much like the Dial-up I would have had to use to surf the web from where I was, the pace of this game is sooo sloooow.  They try to fix that with a new mechanic early on, but I'm going to talk about all the things I noticed beforehand first.

-black platforms against dark purple backgrounds.  Why, god, why.

-pixel art.  nuff said.

-useless tutorials are useless.  The game conveys instructions just fine, so the tutorials pretty much just get in the way.

-then they use a “dark room flashlight” mechanic on top of the already hard-to-see platforms. The devs are drugs.

And then we are introduced to the light dash.  It only helps the slowness of the game so much due to the cooldown time, which is just long enough to be annoying. Also, you can go through little hoops to increase the duration of your light dash, but there's no sound cue or anything.  Game feel? What’s that?

It was only after I took note of all these minor frustrations that I asked myself tyhwhen does this game get even the slightest bit hard? Nothing about the design makes you think; levels are linear yet somehow still annoyingly roundabout.

All in all, just a forgettable platformer.  Granted, I didn't play it to completion and it seemed to introduce new mechanics rather steadily, but it didn't hold my attention long enough to introduce anything too intense, so I'm going to go ahead and say give this one a miss.

Pixelcraft

this is the part where I started to get too distracted by my grandma's pool table to write anything meaningful. I could expand upon the bullet points I wrote, but I think I'll just leave you with what I wrote, and then add in a concluding statement.

-interesting premise.  Keeps tower defense not excruciatingly boring.

-decent conveyance even without how to play tutorials

-what is going on with the graphic design?

-lots of things to consider (angle, etc)

-difficulty curve is a bit steep.  I quit within 5 minutes.

This was simply not a game to play under my conditions.  It requires boredom, patience, and free time.  If you have all of these and like fast-paced strategy type tower defense games, give it a shot.  If not, hold off.

Pixi

When I played this, I had only one bullet point to myself:

-just wing it, I guess.

 Of course I'm not going to leave it at that, but the reason I didnt write anything meaningful down is because Pixi is a really unique game.  It's not fantastic, but it's interesting.  I'm just going to give a quick summary and then a very quick review:

There are Pixis in bubbles.  You click the bubble to free the Pixis.  You then click and drag the Pixis to Boxi that are trying to steal your stars.  Each Boxi has a weak point and if you miss it, you're going to lose a lot of Pixi really fast.

The game is innovative and stylish enough to warrant a play from anyone curious, but the game simply didn't feel good enough to hold my interest for very long.  Something about its playstyle just makes it seem like the game plays itself and what you do is largely meaningless.

Plight of the Penguins

from here on, I wrote nothing and played each game for about a minute before deciding to put them down.  Plight of the Penguins at least feels damn amazing with explosions going off everywhere, but I really wish there was a jump feature rather than just needing to throw a grenade at your feet.  The game is challenging and has terrific feel, but just didn't have much substance.  I think if you just look at it for what it is, a much more fun and exciting yet less intelligent alternative to Minesweeper (and by that I just mean a game to play when you're bored and want to kill a few minutes; the two games actually have nothing in common), you'll enjoy it just fine.

Pocket Park

this one, on the other hand, I don't think anyone can enjoy.  When you do finally figure out how to control the damn game, you'll find it to be a constantly frustrating puzzle game that just leaves you yelling at the computer.  Essentially, you have to flick marbles into a goal ring, but your opponent (the CPU) can knock your marbles right out of the goal ring, and they well if you hesitate for more than a millisecond.  It's like trying to play shuffleboard with an elderly person.  It just feels like an exercise in futility.  It's so frustating, in fact, that in this particular scenario, the elderly person also has a gatling gun that shoots an unlimited supply of pucks toward your own.

and that's all I was able to do in this 4-day span.  Yeah, I fell a little behind schedule, but hopefully I'll make it up soon, one way or another.  That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay productive.

PS- I totally forgot that I tried to play Pirates of Oceaneus as well, but that was one of them not real exe thingies.  

Links

Bunny: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25876

Pirates: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26013

Pixels: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26014

A Thousand Mini Navis: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26000

'Guins with Nades: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26700

Just Play Marbles: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=463

Phobia

eh...nothing much to say about this one.

I think this game's only real selling point is that it looks pretty as hell. Everything is stylized really well, but poor optimization and weird graphical glitches keep it from getting the gold star in even its strongest department.

The basic gist of the game is that you are a little night demon (which is what my Physics teacher calls his dog) whose goal it is to scare every last person in town.  In order to scare them properly, you must creep up behind them before delivering the big "boo!" You can lure people into auspicious positions by dropping candy or money, but other than that, you're just a purple bat-creature who sounds like a dying cat.

Candy is used to lure kids, whereas money is used to lure adults.  It's a cute little detail, but whether you drop candy or money is completely random, so all this adds to the game is the fact that sometimes you'll end up with no choice but to drop a stack of candies with a dollar bill on top.  Luckily, you have an unlimited supply of candy, or this would've been really frustrating.

The game as a whole is just kind of dull.  The "proper" scares that you need to accomplish in order to progress trigger cutscenes that hang around just long enough to be annoying.  In addition, the dead zones created by lampposts are not very well distinguished, meaning falling into an inescapable death trap is way too easy.

All in all, this is a cute looking game that needed a lot of polish before it was ready to be called playable, and a lot more design brainstorming before it was ready to be called fun.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay scary

Links
meow of terror: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=8727

expectations going forward

so tomorrow should be a regular blog day, but I'm spending Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at my Grandmother's house, which has a grant total of 0 internets.  Don't worry, though.  I'll still be playing and reviewing.  You just won't be able to see them until Friday, when I post all of them at once.  So yeah, expect that...

PhaseShift

Hmm...a 2D, top-down space shooter featuring two worlds to shift through...Apparently the guys at DigiPen love them some Ikaruga

Alright, well this game isn't quite the same as Ikaruga.  Instead of your ship shifting colors to suit its environment, in PhaseShift, you use wormholes to travel between two different colored dimensions.  Most of this game's problems come from a mishandling of the concept, not a mishandling of design elements.  So let me talk about design first before I activate whine mode.

The game, especially the stills used in menus and whatnot, look gorgeous.  Rachael Downing, the lead artist for the game, has some real talent; and apparently she knows it because her name appears twice on the game's description page...wait a minute, everyone's name appears twice...what?

The game feels decent enough.  When you get hit, you hear that classic electric-y burn-y noise that's just begging to be accompanied by a rumbling controller.  You do move rather slowly, but your movement speed is just quick enough to be able to dodge enemy fire efficiently, so that's not the problem.  I think the problem is that since there are 2 worlds on the screen at all times, only one of which you are in, you're always going to be limited to a very narrow area, meaning even when the game doesn't decide to earn its name as a "bullet hell," You're going to feel very confined.

Which of course brings me to this whole "swap worlds with wormholes thing."  First, let me say that I do really like this idea.  The two worlds are varied enough in design to make the game's nonexistent narrative rather interesting.  One world features mechanical enemy starships while the other features organic lifeforms. It's a joy to behold, but is it worth all the frustrations this concept brings?

First off, let's talk about the wormholes.  In games like Ikarguga, you're able to swap between polarities at any time.  in PhaseShift, you have to wait for a wormhole to come by.  I don't see the point of this; it just seems like an unnecessary invitation for frustration.

Also, there's no reward for going through a wormhole.  Each world typically has the same amount of enemies and firepower at any given time, so the only differences between the worlds are the visual style, the music playing in the background, and the firing patterns of the enemies.   The visual style's novelty wears off in like 2 seconds, and while it never stops being fun to look at, it's hardly enough to influence your decision on which world to stay in.  After all, this is a bullet hell.  You don't have time to appreciate the aesthetics and you certainly don't have time to analyze your enemies' firing patterns, especially on the screen that you're not in.  So, you're probably going to end up staying in the world with the best background music, making the entire mechanic pretty much pointless.

I'm guessing someone noticed this while this game was being playtested and that the ensuing conversation went something like this:
"Guys, we need to influence the player to switch worlds every now and again, otherwise the entire game is just a shoot 'em up that only uses half the screen."
"Alright, how about rewarding the player with points every time they use a wormhole?"
"Good start, but points are kind of arbitrary.  Why don't we give them a powerup for every three wormholes they use?"
"Excellent idea, so should I get rid of the powerups that we hid inside the enemies?"
...and it was all going perfectly well until...
"Guys, guys, what are you thinking?  Don't you know that punishment is a more powerful incentive than reward?"
"Um...well, yeah, but-"
"The player doesn't deserve more poewrups, he or she should be punished for not playing our game the way we want"
"But doesn't that seem a little-"
"Here's how we do it.  Every so often, completely at random, a big "warning" will flash in front of the screen, followed by an undodgeable insta-kill attack that the player has to use wormholes to escape."
"That doesn't sound fun at all"
"Well it's the way I want it, so either program it in or I'll upload that embarrassing video of you to Youtube."

And lo, a good game was ruined.  Luckily for me, I already have embarrassing videos on Youtube, so my shame is totally gone and I feel free to criticize this game for the misguided project that it is.  It's not a bad game by any means, but the flaws are tough to overlook.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay dichotomous

Links
Shifts Don't Phase Me: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24649

P.S- If you want to see that embarrassing video of me, you'll just have to find it on your own :P

PhaseOut

I want you all to use your imaginations for a sec:  Imagine Ikaruga as a voluptuous young woman.  Now imagine Megaman X as a spirited young man.  Imagine the two find each other at a bar one night and Megaman X takes Ikaruga back to his place for a bout of energetic young passion.  Now, imagine what comes from that about 9 months later.  The answer is PhaseOut.

Now that I've thoroughly confused and probably disgusted you with that delightful bit of imagery, let me explain.  PhaseOut is a fast paced platformer involving wall jumping (there's the Megaman X) and polarity between red and blue, making certain things intangible and others not (there's Ikaruga).

I really don't feel like running down the list and complimenting every aspect of the design, so just imagine the best case scenario given what I told you so far.  Now, imagine that with minimalist yet still charming 2.5D visual style that takes a turn for the unnecessarily confusing when the background changes from green, a color reserved only for background, to blue, a color also utilized by sometimes intangible platforms.  Other than that one very confusing design choice, there's not much to complain about in the looks department.

The biggest problem with the game isn't even a problem with the game.  It's a problem with my computer.  When I'm pressing both the up and left arrow keys, the space bar doesn't work.  The space bar is what you use to switch between red and blue.  The levels are all designed to be very challenging when you're able to switch colors mid-jump, so imagine how frustrating it gets when half of the time, you have to stop moving for a split second in order to change color at the right time.  It's kind of if like Super Meat Boy simply decided not to hold onto walls while he was facing left unless you were pressing some arbitrary button like "left crtl" or something.

Now I know what you're thinking:  Dean, if the only major issue you took with the game wasn't its fault, then you've got to give it your seal of approval, right?  Well, as much as it pains me, no.  I want to give this game my seal of approval for its brilliantly challenging yet doable (in theory) design.  I want to give it my seal of approval for having a competent level select.  I want to give it my seal of approval for its aesthetics, sound design, feel, everything...but I just can't get past that one big ol' flaw.  See, I still think the devs share some blame here.  The "WASD" keys are never used in the game...why not?!  Maybe my computer is the only one with the arrow keys problem, but I'm pretty sure it's a common problem.  I know they designed the game mostly with an Xbox controller in mind, but I don't have any of those.  Sorry guys, but for your lack of consideration for the keyboard warriors, I can't in good conscience give this game my seal of approval.  Still, though, to my audience if I have one, check this game out.  It's one of the most fun platformers on this list.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay intangible

Links
Red/Blue Shift: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=24672

Perspective

Alright, this one was interesting.  Really interesting.

You remember when you were little and you would play with action figures or dolls or whatever you want to call them?  Remember how you would make them jump around on cabinets and tables and whatnot?  Now, did you ever have one of those moments when you were really tired but you still wanted to play with your toy, so you kind of unfocused your vision and made the action figure jump around on the outlines of cabinets and tabletops in the distance?  Well, that's kind of what this game is.

In case that explanation was a bit too asinine for you, I'll try to use more technical terms.  By pressing LMB, you can switch between controlling the camera and controlling Mr. Blue Jumpy Man.  If Mr. Blue Jumpy Man, to be hitherto referred to as "MBJM," touches orange, he dies.  He can only stand on blue platforms.  Even if he dies, he can respawn infinitely in almost the same position, making this game's frustration factor almost nil.

The game gets interesting when you control the camera.  See, the platforms that MBJM can jump on aren't all immediately accessible.  You have to move around to manipulate where the blue platforms seem to reside in space.  MBJM apparently stands on the perception of an object rather than the object itself.  This gameplay mechanic is really unique and clever; it makes you think outside the box and I see this game as another successful attempt to push the boundaries of what game mechanics can do.

Of course, with a game like this, the primary determinant of quality is whether or not the central experimental mechanic works, and in this game, it's flawless.  It does exactly what it's supposed to 100% of the time.  On top of that, the game controls like butter.  This game looks fantastic, feels fantastic and sounds fantastic (even if the background track can get a little repetitive).

My only real criticism is that this game spends a little too much time exploring its one mechanic, but that's not really a bad thing.  I doubt there's some super sentimental ending that'll make me want to plow through the levels to see, so who cares if the game is too long?  Besides, it has an autosave feature, so you can put it down when you get bored.

That's all I got for now.  Until next time, stay perceptive.

Links
Now You See Me, and You Always Will: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=25930

EDIT: The autosave doesn't work, so nevermind.  No seal of approval for you.

lame excuses

heyo.  I was out all day today, and while arriving home late has never kept me from powering through a game before, the game I played today left me a little confused.  If I were to try to write up a review tonight, it would probably be the most pathetic review I've ever contrived; and given some of the content I've put out in the past, that's saying something.

Until tomorrow, friends...