Archives October 2023

Fossil Games have released the prequel to their hit Camp Sunshine with Sunshine Manor but is it all sunshine?

Fossil Games have returned to the world of Camp Sunshine with the prequel Sunshine Manor. Before you play as a young kid that is trick-or-treating, you are treated to the story of our antagonist and how he came to murder so many people. Not believing the tales you and two friends go to the abandoned manor and find the door opens easily. As the group explores they quickly learn they are not alone as you see a cloaked figured abduct your friends for a ritual. As the figure attempts to steal you away he is scared away and injured by a power you didn’t know you had.

Visually you are treated to some old school goodness with 8-bit graphics that look and feel more like it was made for the 16-bit classic system Sega Genesis when it was at its best. Mechanics are quite simple, allowing you to execute your powers with a single button tap. The story is captivating but at the start does feel a little too familiar as well with the celebrity selling their soul and doing everything they can to keep their power. Overall we found the game to be engaging and quite suspenseful despite its simplicity.

Who remembers Bud Spencer or Terence Hill? The iconic duo have returned to voice their characters for Slaps and Beans 2 from Strictly Limited Games!

The iconic duo of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill have returned with their characters of Slaps and Beans for the second game of the same name. It is styled after arcade classics like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage while poking fun at themselves and the genre. You start the game adrift on a makeshift raft and arrive in Africa. Hilarity, slapping and chaos ensues as they embark on their next adventure from Strictly Limited Games.

I have always had a place in my heart for classic brawling arcade games, Streets of Rage especially. You have the ability to play solo or with a partner. Playing solo allows you to alternate between Slaps and Beans at will. I have never played a brawler that did that, closest I can remember would be one of the Lego games. This allows you to strategize based on the needs of the fight.

Graphically the game is on par with those same classics with a similar quality to Streets of Rage. What really sets this game apart is not that they use Bud and Terence’s likenesses but that they voiced it too. Controls are quite simple and intuitive, especially the ease of swapping characters. The writing for the dialogue is cheesy at best and is hilarious. Even with the sound off I was still laughing. There are even some minigames that add more character and hilarity to the gameplay. Overall I was surprised by how enjoyable I found the game considering I’ve never heard of Bud Spencer or Terence Hill. If you’re looking for a laugh and a fresh perspective on the arcade brawlers then you won’t want to miss this one.

Fans of Gangbeasts rejoice! Party Animals is a brawler that takes what works in GB and adds even more ways to play!

Recreate Games are the masterminds behind yet another version of gang beasts with Party Animals. Gang Beasts, for those of you that are unaware, is a game where players control semi-ragdoll characters and pummel the crap out of each other. The goal of most games is to simply remove the other players from the playing field. The matches are chaotic and I have cramped from laughing in more games than I have watching the late George Carlin. Recreate have taken almost identical mechanics, added play modes AND actual weapons.

There is something satisfying about smashing a partially chewed lollypop across the face of your foes. The other weapons are enjoyable to use like the shovel or the taser but the lollypop just feels best. There isn’t a story overall, you simply play an adorable animal with ragdoll physics in various game modes. Modes include fueling a train, keeping warm by the fire or fighting on the roof of a stealth fighter jet. That’s just to start! Visually the game is absolutely stunning with one of the cleanest physics engines I’ve ever seen! The controls are more advanced with additional abilities like a single button for climbing where in Gang Beasts it required both triggers working together (for Xbox).

For my son, the game puts too much emphasis on the minigames but does the brawling perfectly. Personally I loved the minigames AND the brawling. Party Animals is the new GOLD STANDARD.

Iron Danger is a fantasy based JRPG that features the ability to manipulate time by dying!

Have you ever fallen to your death and had some goddess grant you the ability to manipulate time? In Iron Danger from Action Squad Studios and Daedelic Entertainment, you do exactly that. You play as Kipuna, a teen girl who’s home is attacked by the Northern Empire. As she tries to escape she runs across what appears to be a stone altar of sorts to have the ground fall out from underneath her, causing her to fall to her death, impaled on the rocks below. A goddess points out that this is not the time of her death, rewinds time and passes the ability to Kipuna. With this power and the memory of the fall you now know to move around the marked area and are able to continue your escape. Through each encounter if you time your attacks incorrectly (like I did most of the time) you can rewind time, adjust the ability or skill you’re using and try again. With no obvious limit to how often you can manipulate time.

The world is highly detailed and the level of detail can be a little distracting at time when you need to focus more on the combat. In new areas I liked to hold time to look around, see if anything stands out as an important item before allowing time to resume. The controls are a combination of intuitive (when manipulating time and combat) and downright frustrating. The frustration comes most when there are multiple items within reach to interact with because it becomes difficult at times to interact with the item you want to most. The tutorial doesn’t do much to explain how to do this adequately either. The story is engaging and coupled with the combat mechanics make for a very well designed game. This is a must play for anyone that enjoys JRPGs or have any interest in time manipulation and the greatness of it far exceed the frustrations with the already mentioned controls.

Ratalaika Games have restored two iterations of Cyber Citizen Shockman and brought them to consoles but do they capture the essence?

Cyber Citizen Shockman has returned, with the second game in the series having not seen since 1992 and both given a new lease on life by Ratalaika games. Both games follow Tasuke and Kyapiko, two teens that have the ability to transform into Shockman. They are beset by evil robots and monsters that appear as a cross between organic creature and machine. The first boss in the sequel is a prime example of this.

The saving is a save state system that can be forced at any time. You had a couple lucky hits and dodged the attacks? Save. Know the next fight kicked your ass one too many times? Save often to make it easier and guarantee success. Doing this on the fly makes these difficult games extremely easy.

Both games look and feel like playing classic Mega-Man titles but without the ready to swap out weapons in the early game. Graphically it takes me right back, another win for the nostalgia masters at Ratalaika. The controls on the other hand are where this game falls short. To be clear I never played the original versions of the game so this could be carried over from that and may not be a failing in the games. Now with that disclaimer out of the way I felt the controls were clunky and at times downright sticky. Multiple moves required hitting the stick a couple times or holding it for a second or two before Shockman would move. This made for sloppy combat that made it more difficult to enjoy and play long term.

Rockfish Games returns to the galaxy of Everspace with the direct sequel but does it hold up to the predecessor?

The first Everspace game created one of the best space flight simulators I have ever experienced, better even than the recent Star War Squadrons. Was Rockfish Games able to do it again? With both games you play a clone of Adam Roslin who is a skilled pilot himself. The end of the first game resolved issues with the clone DNA sequence and allowed them to continue on to live their own lives. Playing one of these clones you are hired to protect a mining crew as they strip raw materials from the mine location. As expected you are beset by pirates and must eliminate them before they kill the miners. This is very similar to the introduction to the first game, I sense a formula at work.

With the predecessor it was the most detailed game based in space so my expectations were high. The level of detail far exceeded those expectations. For most of the game it even exceeds that of the latest AAA title, Starfield. Rockfish proves once again that independents can do better with less and that’s all due to the talent and passion they bring. Controls are fluid and gameplay is engaging. They took their first game, which was fantastic and evolved it into this diamond that I did not see coming.

Gastro Force is a retro first person shooter from Ratalaika Games that focuses on eliminating aliens from the inside out.

The masters of rereleases and retro style gaming at Ratalaika Games are back with another port for consoles with Gastro Force. The game was originally released on PC in 2022 and again on consoles in September of 2023. The game focuses on the last soldier set to defend the galaxy again aliens from an eldritch nebula. Basically this means that you will be facing monsters full of tentacles and some that are very bug-like.

The game looks and feels like I’m playing my memories of the original Blake Stone from the PC. Both games you run around killing a ton of aliens but with one big difference- GF gives you a map. The map makes traversing the similar hallways much easier because it not only shows the layout but shows the areas you’ve walked. That means if you get turned around it’s easy to orientate yourself again. Graphics are on par with the 90s shooters I grew up with. Controls are smooth and take little effort to master. I had a lot of fun with this one, kept telling myself I’d put it down after just one more level and eventually realized hours had passed before closing the game.

Ugly is a game about a less than attractive nobleman dealing with an existential crisis and reliving his memories.

The folks at Graffiti Games provided us with a copy of their newest title, Ugly. It follows a nobleman dealing with his past using mirror mechanics. On their own site, they refer to the game as a “psycho-dark fairy tale about a nobleman, a mirror, puzzles and huge bosses”. I don’t have the words to explain this game any better than that. Talk about truth in advertising. Holy hell did they nail it. The only thing they left out of the description is that it’s a platformer, an ingenious platformer but still a platformer.

Visually the game art is modeled after a child’s cartoon drawing of a rough life and mixed with the dark world around the character. This leaves the player using these drawings to piece together the nobleman’s life and all of the problems he had to deal with along the way. When I started the game I was shocked by how repulsive the main character was. It was obvious from the start of the game that the game’s name was not just a comment on his appearance though but more on the rough life he had to get him to this point.

What makes this game truly stand out are the controls and mechanics. The ability to make a mirror image of yourself and then switch places with the image is truly something I had never experienced in a game prior and it was done flawlessly. You move left and your image moves right. You both move up and down together but the image passes through walls and objects like they aren’t there and with the tap of a button you and the image swap places. This allows you to do things like climbing a ladder on the right of the screen and your image climb air to reach the platform you want, swap places and now you’re on the platform. You can absorb the image instantly if no longer needed. This makes for some truly unique puzzles. Add the captivating story where I wanted to know all the ways our character was hurt and you have a game that if I were to score with get a near perfect 9.5/10. I only had a single complaint- I like my achievement score to remain divisible by 5s and this game employs some 13s that left me grumbling but I enjoyed the game enough that it’s a non-issue because I intend to complete every bit of this game until I have a perfect gamerscore.

Invincible: The Dice Game, from Mantic Games, you play as an upcoming hero looking to make a name for yourself and battling villains and heroes to do so.

The Guardians are looking for a few new heroes to prove their worth, step up and join their team. His standards are high and so are the risks. Will you push yourself far enough to be invited in? Mantic Games‘ Invincible: The Dice Game gives you the chance to prove yourself. Are you game?

Player must venture into an area filled with threats, whether they be hero or villian. Who wants to live forever anyway? This is high risk for a potentially higher reward, what could go wrong? The game is meant for 2+ players, each drawing cards and rolling dice to determine the outcomes. Each step of your path gets more or more dangerous.

Overall mechanics are quite simple, draw a card, roll some dice, then evaluate the results. This game is modeled after Mantic’s Hellboy game but is meant to be played as a standalone title. As I speculated in the unboxing video, I wonder if their dice games could be combined? Technically they shouldn’t be BUT I tried it. Felt like I was reliving that anniversary issue of The Walking Dead where they brought in the art team from Invincible but it was all a fever dream of Rick’s. I loved that mini story. This took me right back to that and was fun but absolutely batshit, but in a great way.

This game is fun and chaotic but if you intentionally mix with the The Walking Dead game (even though it’s not meant to) is even more so. The art on these cards look like they are straight from the comics in full color and the overall quality is top notch. Simple and easy to learn mechanics with this art and a great time means an absolute win!

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

Recently the fine folks at Disney 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. With Part 1 we were taking a look at the live action version of Mulan. Part 2 discussed Soul and Raya and the Last Dragon. Part 3 looked at the live action story of Cruella. Part 4 discussed Luca and Part 5 talked about Jungle Cruise. Part 6 discussed Encanto and Part 7 talked about Turning Red. Part 8 covered Lightyear and Part 9 with Strange World. Part 10 talked about Mickey & Minnie 10 Classic Shorts – Volume 1 and Part 11 with The Little Mermaid and Elemental. Part 12 had Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and we have returned for another round with Part 13 and Haunted Mansion!

Haunted Mansion

The story begins with Gabbie and her son moving into the Haunted Mansion and realize they can never leave. Reaching out for help they hire a priest, a medium and a spectral photographer. The photographer feels like the real focus of the story, even though the everything puts the focus on the mansion and the family that moved into the house. The cast and story were fantastic and were only outshined by the quality of the effects. My only complaint was with Madame Leota’s costume. It just seemed goofy, pun not intended. The original Haunted Mansion film was a disappointment in terms of horror but was a fun film and this one was far superior in terms of story and quality in both horror and fun. This is the new bar for the brand and it is high indeed.

Have you had a chance to see this release from Disney Studios?