Archives 2023

The Guise from Ratalaika Games is a game centered around the fall of the All Father and the rise of monsters and orphans!

The All Father has left his children to protect the world but like every story of old gods things eventually devolved to infighting and eventually allowing the world to fall in the process. Ratalaika Games are notorious for their retro-esque titles with a twist, each game looking and feeling like a game from my past. Like how Go! Go! Pogo Girl‘s world was reminiscent of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. The Guise is the first title I’ve played of their that feels entirely unique in terms of story and world. The controls are fluid and easy to learn for the most part. Some actions are not included in the controller settings list and you can’t replay the events where you learned how to do them. I’m specifically referring to the absorption ability which allows you to recover health, on Xbox you tap B repeatedly.

The story starts with a group of kids in an orphanage, the oldest leaves to run an errand, reminding the others to stay out of her room. See this opportunity to snoop in the normally locked room they ignore her wishes. You play as Ogden after he puts on a mask that the older girl had in her room. He is instantly transformed into a spike covered monster set on a quest to turn yourself back into a boy and destroy as many monsters along the way you can. The combat is quite simple where attacks are telegraphed making avoiding them quite easy. If you play like I do though that won’t matter and you’re going to die many times. The game has a world that is full of history and danger with an art style like no other I’ve seen. Overall I found the game to be intriguing and looking forward to the next time I load it up!

Renegade Game Studios take birdwatching to a new level with their game Birdwatcher where photographers try to lure birds to their tree to capture a photo of them.

The focus of Birdwatcher, from Renegade Game Studios, is to watch birds. You score points by collecting birds in different ways. For example there are birds that you get points on on an individual basis where MOST require being part of a set. If you have a set of two birds and then later get another of the same bird you can make the points from the first two invalid. Choosing which birds to photograph requires some thought if you want to win.

The images of the birds themselves are beautifully drawn and easy to differentiate between. My only complaint there is that there is only a small selection of birds to pick from. I’d have preferred a wider selection of birds, perhaps an expansion down the road will do just that. Due to the complexity the game is recommended for ages 13 and up. I feel that this entirely fair as it was way too complete complex for my seven year old to enjoy but she loved the art.

The mechanics of the game are quite simple to learn and the rulebook is well written. The examples and images in the rules make it even easier to follow and understand. One of the best things is the realism in the mechanics. Birds are constantly moving between player’s trees, possibly hindering your goals but since they’re birds they don’t care. When have you see a bird care about help a photographer get that better shot? Never. It doesn’t happen unless it’s a trained animal. Each game takes about an hour and does require patience but I feel that is intentional. The act of Birdwatching takes considerable time and patience and this game reinforces that. Overall its a great game but not my cup of tea as I prefer my games with a faster pace and more action.

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. Part 5 talked about Nomadland and Speed 4K Ultra HD. Part 6 discussed The Night House and Free Guy. Part 7 focused on The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Part 8 had The Last Duel. Part 9 discussed Ron’s Gone Wrong and Part 10 talked about The King’s Man and Summer of Soul. Part 11 discussed Nightmare Alley and West Side Story. Part 12 highlighted Death on the Nile and Part 13 talked about The Bob’s Burgers Movie. Part 14 highlighted Barbarian and See How They Run. Part 15 discussed Amsterdam and Part 16 talked about The Banshees of Inisherin and The Menu. Part 17 shared our thoughts on Empire of Light and we’ve returned for Part 18 and Avatar: The Way of Water!

Avatar: The Way of Water

The first Avatar film was an epic story about a Marine that is filling in for his dead scientist brother to move his consciousness into the body of an Avatar. Avatars are clones of their own human DNA mixed with that of the Na’vi. This is to allow them to integrate into the communities and improve relations. Jake Sully soon learns that the Na’vi are not the problem on Pandora and helps lead a revolution against his own species, driving the invaders from the planet. That brings us into the sequel. Jake and Neytiri have prospered and added their own children to the tribe but of course the good times wouldn’t last. I won’t go into specifics about the story because I’d hate to spoil it for anyone and this is a film that you should watch. The first film was visually one of the best films I’d ever seen and still holds up to this day- we still watch it regularly as a family. There was no way that The Way of Water could do better, or so I thought. Visually this film is stunning but some of the fights may be just a little too graphic for younger audiences, our seven year old enjoyed it but was freaked out by a few scenes. Overall I feel like this installment in the series far surpassed the original and even though it took what felt like forever to get this film, I still can’t wait for the finale.

Have you every played a card game full of murder that takes a classic and turns it upside down? With American Psycho A Killer Game you get to do both!

The folks at Renegade Game Studios sent us a copy of their new game American Psycho- A Killer Game to review. We are here to do just that. The game is based on the classic film of the same name staring Christian Bale. The film is based on the book and follows the story of a deranged man who is obsessed with killing and his own status. It even features an in depth analysis of business cards used by him and his peers. Who knew there were so many options with those cards? I certainly didn’t and I certainly didn’t think they mattered to anyone. The brings us to the game itself.

Each turn players play a card, similar to games of Hearts, where cards are assigned a point value. Unlike in Hearts the goal here is to get as many points as you can but there is a twist. To score most of the points you will need to complete specific goals as well like collecting points values in consecutive order (i.e. 2, 3 and 4). Like in Hearts one card reigns supreme and in this game it is the Killer Style card. You should save that for when it will make the most impact. The biggest difference though from Hearts is that you also earn points with your kills. Imagine playing a game of Hearts with Grandma where you stab a waiter and are rewarded for it! The could be a hilarious spin off game, perhaps i should make the suggestion?

The rulebook is high quality itself, using high resolution images to showcase examples and larger text to make reading easier. The art quality on the cards is right up there as well but the style isn’t for everyone. I personally liked the rough brush stroke appearance of the art where my wife did not. It made the depictions feel more chaotic and that was the right vibe for the game itself, she says I’m wrong though. Gameplay took a couple hands to get everyone on the same page but once we did it went quickly. The trick with the game though is figuring out your strategy for how you will be scoring the most points and no two games we played were ever exactly the same. This means a ton more games to be played before boredom strikes and placing the game on the shelf to collect dust.

Mad Heidi is a film about revenge from Swissploitation Films and funded entirely the fans and for the fans!

The folks at Swissploitation Films partnered with the fans to fund and release Mad Heidi. The film focuses on a town where war is being raged over cheese against those that are lactose intolerant. The Swiss President has made it his mission to enslave the world through cheese and eliminate those that can’t process it. Seeing this condition as a sign of weakness. Anyone found to be suffering from this are collected and sent to the prison. There they are tested to see if they are weak or just unwilling to partake in cheese. Some of those that are intolerant have been seen eating goat cheese as a way of hiding in plain site, this cheese sold by Goat Peter. Peter just happens to be the love interest of Heidi who also watches as he is executed in the town square for his cheese related crimes. Thus starting us on our path to revenge.

The film prides itself on it’s sploitation background as does the team behind it. So what is sploitation anyway? My understanding is that is was more about underpaying actors for roles that may be beneath their skill and typically full of racist commentary. Reading the information on the dedicated Mad Heidi site it seems to be it’s own genre where it doesn’t take itself too seriously. You can expect some nudity, you can expect some gore effects and just a tad bit of perversion. Based on that definition this is a perfect representation of a sploitation film.

Some of the cast were over the top to a hilarious degree and this made the film so much better. Overall, the acting quality wasn’t Oscar worthy but it fit the film perfectly. The stand out performances being Alice Lucy’s Heidi and Casper Van Dien’s President. Heidi’s intensity was perfect and the President was absolutely nuts but in a good way.

My biggest complaint about the film was the pacing for the first act. The build up to the action took a while but it was worth the wait. Overall I found the film to be one of those fun films that are great to make fun of and the gore effects were some of the best I’ve seen!

Inkulinati is a game about ancient art styles and drawing your troops into place to defeat the foes from Yaza Games.

Yaza Games brings a truly one of a kind experience with Inkulinati. It is a game that plays like a tower defense game but on ancient scrolls with a similar art style. This is a game six hundred years in the making, supposedly. Artistically speaking it feels like I’m playing in the animations from Monty Python’s Holy Grail! That art is one of my favorite things to come from those comedic geniuses so that alone is a major selling point for me.

The controls and quite simple but not entirely intuitive, allowing you to easily control the troops and defend your position. Some of the actions are not entirely clear on what they will do without a little trial and error. Like the taps or pushes for example. You choose an object to tap or push on and depending on what it is there are different reactions. If you tap on the oil barrel you will cause it to explode, hurting everything next to it. If you push a character next to an edge they will fall to their death, even if they are at full health. These lessons are quickly learned after one use.

While the game is simple to learn with a great art style I feel like the $24.99 price tag is a bit steep. Gameplay being as simple as it is leads to boredom after a short period, it simply is TOO simple. The game is still in early demo status so there is plenty of time before we see the final build and my opinion may change in that time.

FUSE Countdown, from Renegade Game Studios, is a standalone expansion to their game FUSE, a card game focused on defusing bombs.

In FUSE Countdown players draw cards with various requirements needed to defuse the bomb. They then roll dice to meet those requirements such as color or new icons. An added twist is that if you are unable to defuse it by dice rolls you would then have to draw and resolve a spark card. Another difference between editions is that this one adds special powers to your characters. Now, this isn’t a necessary component to the game but it does make for some interesting twists to the gameplay, keeping it fresh. The complexity is much higher though with those spark cards. They basically act like extra bombs that must be resolved if you have hopes of winning.

I never played the original game but based on conversations I’ve had with players that had this is the far superior version. Renegade Game Studios have done a fantastic job of taking a simple concept and making it unique. The original seems to play very similar to the Back to the Future Dice Through Time, which I DID play. BTTF Dice Through Time though took a good amount of time to play right but with FUSE Countdown games only take about ten minutes (according to the RGS site). That is quite accurate considering that you have a ten minute timer running during the game.

Overall we found the game to be quite simple to figure out and fast paced. We had a great time with this one, however due to several poor dice roles we lost nearly as many games as we won. If you are looking for something quick paced and easy to learn then this will be a great purchase.

Lootbox Lyfe+ is a Metroidvania title from Ratalaika Games that features a red blob that learns abilities by picking up chests called Lootboxes.

Ratalaika Games brings another title with a retro look and feel to it with Lootbox Lyfe+. When i first read the name of the game my mind immediately went to the days of Lootcrate. The game is listed as a Metroidvania title and for those that don’t understand the reference it is regarding overall gameplay and style. It means you have a side scrolling platformer that is full of danger, traps and quick action. The name comes from NEW classics Metroid and Castlevania.

Graphically the game fits the retro style that Ratalaika has become known for and offers distinct changes to the area as you transition between zones. The controls grow more and more refined as you progress in the story. Starting out you have to unlock the ability to move, later the ability to jump and so on. Many traps can be dodged and others run through if you don’t mind taking the hit on the way. This mechanic of adding abilities is an interesting twist. I laughed out loud when I realized that you had to unlock the ability to move. Overall I found the game to be challenging and much more entertaining than some of their other titles. Worth the play if you are a fan of platformers or more importantly the Metroidvania genre.

The ultimate match of Hide and Seek is upon us in Intruders: Hide and Seek from Daedalic Entertainment and Tessera Studios.

In Intruders: Hide and Seek, from Tessera Studios and Daedalic Entertainment, you play a young boy on vacation with his family and almost immediately get thrown into a tutorial about learning the mechanics behind Hide and Seek in the came. Some of these are calming your nerves, walking quietly and remaining unseen. The story picks up from there as intruders break in and kidnap your family.

The mechanics are quite intuitive and have some real depth, more than I originally expected. The graphics are interesting because you have some items with a surprising amount of detail where others are less so, like the skins for the family member. While three dimensional there wasn’t enough shading or gradients to really give their faces life so they felt flat. The version I was able to play for this review was on the Xbox One Series X. Where I think this game appears to excel is in the VR version I was unable to play, seemingly ramping up the tension even higher. Overall I found the game did a great job of blending the atmosphere to the tension with their use of lighting and audio. If you are looking for high tension game where you are trying to save your family then you will enjoy this one for sure.

The team at Odencat bring Meg’s Monster, a Junior Roleplaying Game that feels like equal parts Pokémon and Undertale.

Meg’s Monster, from Odencat, starts as you play an adult that is revisiting the site of an industrial accident. You’re there to investigate how the accident ties to the birth of a red star in the sky and to trigger memories of things that you have forgotten. After finding a transmitter with your mother’s voice on it you jump back to the accident in your memory as you fall to a junk pile and are found by two monsters. Roy, the monster that becomes your friend and protector later on, is a brute that loves to eat magical slime. His friend that meets you with him likes to eat human children. He tries to eat the younger version of yourself and makes you cry. Those tears, or something tied to them, causes a near catastrophic event that risks tearing apart the world. He plays it off as a joke and convinces Roy to help find your home while working on his own agenda.

Graphically the game looks like a much more polished version of Undertale, especially since some of the characters look almost identical to characters from that game. Combat and other controls are quite simple but some hit boxes for interacting with objects can be a bit finicky. The actual combat system itself though looks and feels like the classic Pokémon game. The parallels between Undertale and Meg’s Monster don’t end there either. Fans of Undertale will get a kick out of this but it is an entirely different game. I found that the game’s story became tedious early on and took too much time and effort to get through to return to gameplay but that overall gameplay was smooth. This game will be good in smaller doses but could easily become dull if playing a longer session.