Archives May 2021

Aerial_Knight and Headup Games brings us the endless running action game Never Yield and it is crazy addicting!

Most endless runner games throw random obstacles at you that you use one of a couple methods to avoid and will literally go on, forever. With Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield the formula is changed, it actually has an end. Simply put it just looks and feels like an endless runner. The bulk of the story is told through quick glimpses of action but no dialogue, no trailing prologue like in a Star Wars film, everything is centered around the action. 

The stylized characters look like something you would expect to see in Back to the Future’s version of the future but full of weapon-wielding drones and vehicles looking to run you over. Without quick reflexes expect to die, often, but with each death you see a continue screen where you’re given the choice between “Never Yield” or giving up, along with a death counter for the particular run. With enough skill you can complete the story in a single sitting within a couple hours tops, my reactive skills were not on point and it took me about five total hours to complete the story. I found the game to be fun, despite the frequent deaths and well worth playing through more than once.

Cyanide & Happiness has brought the first installment in their new trilogy Freakpocalypse on Switch and Steam!

In Freakpocalypse you play as Coop, an orphan that must help save the school and more importantly survive in it. The problem is EVERYONE needs help and not a single one of them even likes you! The game starts with a battle between a heroic version of yourself against the sinister Dr Dropout and his army of Droogs. Of course to no-one’s surprise this turns out to be only Coop’s daydream amid doodles in his notebook.

Videos are skippable in the story but I advise not to as some of your tasks make little to no sense without them. Life like the story of this game can be an adventure but seem completely random and pointless at times. Visually it is the quality you’ve come to expect from the art and videos from C&H. The controls however leave much to be desired, it looks and feels like a traditional point and click adventure but on the Switch feels overly complicated. If you are a fan of C&H’s style of crude humor and storytelling you will enjoy this game, as long as you can tolerate the convoluted controls.

Check out the trailer from Cyanide & Happiness:

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me codes to some of their movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. Part 2 ‘twas massive and discussed V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. We’ve returned with Part 3 to talk about Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah!

Wonder Woman 1984

Gal Gadot returns for the sequel to perhaps the best movie in the current DC Cinematic Universe. Diana is a museum curator in 1984, their staff procures a mystical artifact that makes your deepest wish comes true. The pacing of the film was much slower than expected or compared to the original film. The acting and effects were top notch and this film was quite good despite the pacing.

The Little Things

Washington plays a former homicide detective that joins an up and coming detective (Malek) on the hunt of an emerging serial killer. This killer targets young women, it’s been done before, and after a false lead the two picks up on Leto’s trail. For a murder mystery it feels like too many answers are given without having to really search for them resulting in a slow film that is missing the incentives to keep watching despite a fantastic cast.

Judas and the Black Messiah

This film follows the rise of a former car thief through the ranks of the Black Panthers in Chicago to become the bodyguard of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter and founder of the Rainbow Coalition. As the name of the film implies Fred is the Messiah and the car their, William O’Neil, the Judas of the story and eventual informant for the FBI. Both of these leading actors deliver a commanding performance as I expected and delivered an enjoyable film that gives us a fresh look at the organization of the Black Panthers.

SO WHICH WARNER BROS FILMS DID YOU SEE? WHICH DID YOU ENJOY?

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios- their home page is here) had sent me codes to several of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. Part 1 was all about Underwater and Part 2 focused on The New Mutants. Part 3 we talked about The Personal History of David Copperfield. Part 4 discussed The Empty Man. We’ve returned with Part 5 to talk about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD!

Nomadland

Francis McDormand plays as Fern, a member of a mobile community. They travel from area to area in search of temporary work. Her performance of Fern was fantastic and the film felt more like a real documentary instead of a film. The story though left much to be desired. It was slow with no real story other than just the unpredictable nature of life on the road, the trailer shows as much as you really need to see if this film.

Speed 4K Ultra Hd

This is Keanu’s classic action film from the 90s. Jack and his partner Harry thwart a bombing to only to have Jack work to do it again on a runaway bus. Keanu’s acting was always what you’d expect from the 90’s and at the time seemed less classic but having watched it again it is still just as fun and the improved visuals make it stand out from the DVD copy we watched it on recently.

WHICH OF THESE FILMS FROM 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS HAVE YOU SEEN? WHICH WAS YOUR FAVORITE?

Orbit Studio brings us Retro Machina, a game about finding beauty in a world where you are expected to conform.

Retro Machina begins with a your robot working on the assembly line as a butterfly flies in through the window. Distracted, your robot stops working and sets off alarms. With your newfound sense of adventure you seek an escape from the factory and soon begin your search for a machine to repair you entirely. This JRPG, or Junior Role Playing Game, takes you through a world where only robots and plant life remain.

The visuals are colorful and highly detailed but even when things are dire they give you a feeling of cheerful hope. Controls are simple to pick up but keep in mind that you can only hold onto one health item at a time so use them when you see another. Life and death is not a huge concern with this game as every time you you lose all your health you respawn at the point you entered the section of the same map section. Overall the game is quite a lot of fun, especially using the ability to hijack control of other robots and using them to destroy the others. The world is huge and I can’t wait to keep exploring it and not just to find all of the hidden references like the Tardis or Back to the Future’s Delorian!

Merge Games takes the ‘build a city’ game type to a new perspective- that of the buildings themselves with Buildings Have Feelings Too!

In Buildings Have Feelings Too players take control of a building who walks and talks along with other buildings. The intro to the game you see as several buildings discuss how they are falling apart, some due to negligence and your building decides to move to a new town. Upon arrival you meet two buildings that want to improve their own wellbeing and suggest you build a new structure and as you bring it to life determine that it will be a factory which upsets your new friends.

The rest of the game you must play a balancing act between improving certain stats by managing which buildings are near each other and what products they offer. What makes this easier is you can move the buildings back and forth without much consequence like moving the residences to be near the factory that is a giant smoke stack. This makes the residence upset but as soon as you use the move to upgrade the factory you can then immediately move one or the other immediately after, restoring the happiness of each building.

Controls are simple to master and the graphics are solid in this cute family friendly game about micromanagement and construction. The game itself was bit on the dull side but it takes a new look at building a city.

El Hijo is a stealth game about a young boy named, wait for it, El Hijo. He must escape the monks who are raising him and find his mother.

El Hijo and his mother live on a farm that is raised to the ground by bandits. Prior to the arrival of the bandits his mother teaches him how to sneak around and avoid detection, setting up a slowly paced tutorial that will serve you through each stage of the game. After the bandits have destroyed his farm, his mother leaves him with a group of monks in order to save him from the bandits.

Very quickly he decides to escape the monastery and begin his magical adventure through mythical land meant to resemble the American Mid-West. In the end all that matters for our little hero is that he find his mother.

Honig Studios created hybrid stealth adventure with about as many puzzles as as a Lara Croft game. Graphics are a little on the simple side but stop short of just the going for the retro 8 bit. The stealth aspect of the game is handled superbly. Each piece of the environment can help you if you time patrols right and use them to your advantage. Overall I found the game to be quite enjoyable with more challenge than I expected.

In Sir Lovelot your goal is to woo the girl by bringing her gifts and climbing through her window, seems a bit pervy to me.

The above is a rather simplistic summary of the Sir Lovelot and his overall concept but it’s not entirely wrong either. Each level you must find a list of items to give to your princess and by the time you start the next level your Knight leaves another princess broken hearted.  Pixel Games crafted a platformer that I can honestly say is unlike any other I have ever played before.

Be prepared to die a lot. Most platformers allow you to get injured and recover your health but with Sir Lovelot each time you touch an enemy or an obstacle it is instant death. The good news here is that you respawn and any collectibles picked up or enemies defeat remain in the same state. Each stage feels very much like Splosion Man in that it is a fast paced platformer that has some similar jumping mechanics but missing the meat explosion when you dispose of your foes. This knight is also armed with was equates to a gun.

Conceptually this is an odd title as you are using mechanics that don’t fit with your typical knight in shining armor, but the game style is fast paced and quite enjoyable. What makes it stand out though is the womanizing nature of our protagonist but done in a family friendly way. Very perplexing but still enjoyable as a whole.