Ah Easter, of course the religious trappings are lost on me but two bank holidays can't be knocked! With the lockdown, and no hope of a BBQ, it was time to crack out some new games. I bookended it the holiday with some spare annual leave, how luxurious, which meant six whole days off. What better use of this time but with six new games for me to try and ideally beat.
I like to think of these as speed dating with Video Games! That idea is definitely not stolen from one of the following games…Some rules for myself, they had to be new to me, all different genres and hopefully something you all might be interested in. Hopefully throwing myself at enough games will lead to some profound thoughts. Or if not, some great games you might fancy trying! On to my 6 day weekend...
Thursday: The Touryst
I have been eyeing up this game for the best part of a year since it was announced. It looked a lot of fun, an adventure puzzle game set across multiple idyllic islands with a stunning pixel art design. All I knew was there was a mystery to solve on a tropical island, the ideal escape I need at the moment.
You pitch up at Touryst island and get talking to the locals. Tasks will be given to you with gold coins as rewards. They can be used to purchase upgrades and items throughout the game as well as buying maps to new islands. I was impressed with the relative freedom for an indie game, being able to hop from island to island was liberating while being confined to my living room. The islands are not huge but have their own feel, shout out to Soggy Island. Amazing rain effects!
The puzzles are a lot of fun for a man who can just run and jump. Some are tricky to solve but make you feel like a genius! I really enjoyed the retro arcade, I love games within games! Also the chin up game can go fuck itself. Otherwise the rest of the tasks are great though and thankfully there are quite a few of them. It does mean a fair bit of back and forth between islands but load times are very quick so it’s not too bad.
Overall it’s a pretty simple game, definitely a one-and-done but it does it all so well I cannot recommend this enough. If you need something to occupy you for a couple of hours may I point you towards this fun trip to the beach.
Friday: Labo VR
Fuck me Nintendo. You do get a lot wrong. Bad release schedules, poor console OS updates, how crap the Switch Joy Cons are. But when you nail it, you are the best. And bloody hell, Labo is genius. Truly it is up there with Lego for the pure joy of construction. It is so well thought out and made, I am genuinely impressed.
Ok first things first. Yes it is cardboard so pretty basic but it's amazing what they have come up with. Low res VR for only £24 (at current prices) made from some cardboard and plastic is incredible! The graphics are quite poor but being able to look round Hyrule in Breath of the Wild is brilliant. To be fair the mini games included with the card actually look pretty decent and play well.
Unboxing you have a load of perforated cardboard sheets that you pop out and start folding. First up you put the game in and follow the instructions. The instructions are great, the music is brilliant! I love to see a company putting it’s all into a product, I had a big grin all afternoon! I do wish Lego made these to go alongside their instruction books. It was a masterclass.
To actually make it you pop out the cardboard and get folding. The video can be a little slow at times as you do the same fold twice but they did include a speed up button. The console can be propped up on the kickstand and use the touch screen to manipulate the image to get a better look. Once constructed it’s very light and actually feels pretty solid.
Interestingly whilst playing I did not feel sick at all whilst playing which bodes well. But this kit cannot be tied to your head and so must be held up with your arms at all times. Which is very tiring, considering only the original Switch is compatible and that weighs a tonne...
Now a caveat, I didn’t finish the base kit and will probably go back to it once more before I am done. I knew this when I picked it up and just wanted to see what it could do. There are a bunch of mini games for me to try out and the blaster to build so there is a fair amount to do. The full VR kit with 5 additional models to build looks great value for those with kids. I’m glad i passed, I don’t need those filling up my flat…
All in all it has me tempted by VR. So let’s see what this year holds….
Saturday: Snakeybus
Have you ever wondered what would happen with a mash up of Escher and a Nokia 3210? Well Stovetop Studios have gone and done that with Snakeybus, a 3D bus driving and growing Snake game. The game is simple enough. In a city like Paris you drive around the roads and collect passengers from bus stops and when full you must hurtle to a random spot on the map. This then converts passengers into bus segments ala the former London Bendy buses.
But this is a game, you don't stop at one segment. You are aiming for hundreds! As your bus grows it becomes harder to avoid your long tail. Classic snake! Luckily you have a rocket booster that allows you to jump over yourself allowing much longer chains. Hit a dead end or yourself and it’s game over.
Why begin with the Escher name drop? Some of the levels are based on cities, stuck in the ‘real world’. The best levels dive into the abstract, allowing for much more flowing and natural road ways. It totally feels like you could be in Relativity, driving on bus friendly stairs all over the place! One startling but hilarious surprise is how the passengers get on your bus.Sucked up and stretched into awkward shapes as you power through. It certainly made me laugh.
While it’s a lot of fun, especially playing a couple of short levels every now and again I do have one or two gripes. It takes a while to get used to the controls, it's not the tightest of games but I am willing to forgive it. Can be a bit glitchy but with its mind bending physics that's fair enough. Feels like it needs a patch or two to just polish off the stellar idea they have had which I am sure they will. Now to get 12,000 points to unlock Coriolis...
Sunday: Assemble With Care
Apple Arcade has built up quite the game collection since it’s launch, most of which are exclusive to the subscription service. Due to owning an Android device it was with delight that Assemble With Care had come to Steam. This short game follows Maria, a globetrotting antiques restorer. Hugely story driven but with interesting simple puzzles of repairing items.
Of course the item that looks like a classic Game Boy drew me in. I am a sucker for that old beast! The game is made by ustwo games, who brought us the brilliant Monument Valley. Playing as Maria in a new town the story unfolds as you meet and help the townsfolk.
The 80’s setting is perfectly matched with the colour scheme, pastel pinks and greens lending it a nice vibe. Of course all the items you fix are much simpler than today's technology and this really adds to the nostalgia. I can just about remember our red rotary phone when I was a kid! It was fucking heavy. And annoying to dial with.
Anyway, the story is told with text boxes usually ending up with you fixing something. It’s like a simple version of Ikea furniture and infinitely more fun. Working out what to unscrew and take out is cool but hardly taxing. The story part actually plays out quite well with some relatively big themes. I certainly began to empathise with some of the characters. Overall it was a nice game to play, perfect for a Sunday afternoon.
Monday: Speed Dating For Ghosts
Now I was planning on playing some chilled Indie games this weekend, something that I could jump in, have some fun and then put down easily enough. But fuck me was Speed Dating for Ghosts one of the most intense games I have played in a long time! I have come away from it having been blown away by the writing. It's fantastic and an example of character development to all game designers out there.
The title gives much of the premise. You are dead and join a speed dating club. You pick a room to have the date in and get to speak to three ghosts for round one, then get another round with the three again. After this you pick one to go on a date and then the ghost will appear. The conversation is told in text boxes and you will normally have two or three options to answer what they say. I was surprised by how easily I tried to please each of them, giving them the ‘right’ answers.
Most are grotesque meaning you had to look deep into them to find out more. An apt metaphor for life! They drive the conversation but allow you to gently push it in certain directions depending on what options you are given. The three ghosts I met were Gary, Hattie and Drea. They were all very different with Drea trying to hang out with bad poltergeists but not really buying in. Hattie tried to keep her old retirement home going and Gary, well Gary was the one I chose to go out on a proper date to find out more about his death.
Fuck me. His death was ridiculous and I can’t really say much more due to spoilers. Let’s just say I definitely choose the right one. Only 15 minutes of playing and I came away utterly sidewinded to how the ‘date’ turned out. Sure this game is not big on visuals but the stories you can coax out of it are insane.
It had very strong parallels to real life dating, leaving me with a lot of what if questions as I didn’t get to see Drea or Hattie again. Then again I’m glad none of my real life dates went on a murder investigation! Anyway this is a brilliant little game. If you want something short and very very different take a punt on this.
Tuesday: When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
The bridge building constructor genre has seen a fair few entries in the last few years but here is a game that manages to mix up the formula a bit. The aim is for you to construct a ski lift to help safely get skiers from one side to the other with various challenges and bonuses to do along the way across multiple levels.
The title does the game justice and its very funny to see a snowboarder crashing into the ground from your broken design. The big change here is at various points you become the skier and have to control them! The plane of view switches you to first person with the ski slope in front of you. You have to ride down and time your jump to get through the finish point! It was very cool as it was so unexpected.
But not what I am here for! I want to build Ski Lifts and that's what I am going to do! Early levels add in new items with which you can construct with but you are not really told which ones are the best to use in which circumstances. It leads to trial and error which is fine but can be frustrating. I hope that getting past this will lead to ever more elaborate levels.
It’s basically what i thought it would be, a bridge constructor style game with added snow. It ticks a lot of boxes for me but I prefer something like Bridge Constructor Portal. The jeopardy of the whole structure collapsing while the forklift drives across is far more entertaining than a snowboarder smashing into a rock. Though that is funny. There are far more triangles in Bridge Constructor Portal and I am 100% sure Pythagoras would prefer that.
So what did I learn? Apart from that I really like very long weekends?! That this whole process helped with being stuck at home. Giving me a new task every day, ensuring my weekend was not one long blurry day but broken up by these experiences. Playing shorter games really helped particularly with getting a proper feel for each of them. Anything 50 hours plus would be hard to fit in with such an experiment. I actually beat some of them so I count that as a win!
Honestly though my big takeaway is that It’s a great way to get through a backlog of titles that you want to play but never get round to. It does mean you might not finish them but fuck it, better than leaving it unplayed forever! Typically I picked up a bunch more new games in the Spring sales, only adding to this problem. I think I am going to try and start a new game every Sunday just to see if it's my jam.
With the lockdown extended for three more weeks minimum we will need more escapism. There is comfort in playing the same old games and for the most part these will help. But in a time of repetition, adventure is what we really need right now, however we find that. Ni No Kuni I am coming for you!
Also I don’t want to date a ghost….
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