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I’ve been enjoying this game a lot. It’s a flower shop simulator. Not really. On the one hand, it’s a gentle puzzle game where people come to you with requests for certain flowers and you have to identify them from descriptions in a book. You also have a map of the area that you can interact with, and you are given hints about points of interest on the map that you should visit. The game seems to be set in a fictionalised version of rural England and there is a greater story and mystery going on that you learn about as you talk with your customers. So far, it’s been a very chill, well-designed game that is a nice change of pace from anything else I’ve played recently.

With my interest in PokéMon Violet at an end. As I'm in the mood to keep playing it, I decided to turn my attention on the third game on my Switch (following Violet and Metroid Dread). Considering, I have completely forgotten when I bought this. It's a little regrettable it has been sitting unplayed on here for so long. I adored the first game on the PS3. If they had released them on a console, it's likely I would have felt similar to 2 & 3. Now the main reason this game has essentially been in storage is due to it being a download. As this is the Switch, the size of this game forced me to archive all of my other Switch games. I recall being very annoyed by that and I left the console off until Metroid Dread. Fast forward to the present, I'm a little rusty but getting there. The importance of strategy in this series can't be understated. So far I'm roughly two chapters in. Basically the bit that was covered in the 2018 demo (I know this since my save data was retained) With two unlocked skirmishes, both 'A' rank. Although the story missions haven't been as successful (two B ranks), since the first (which was an 'A'). I'm getting as much enjoyment from it at the moment, as I did with the original. Waiting to see which one the cast will be the titular Super-Soldier. Not as clear cut as the first game yet.

I'm starting this thread, eh? Weird... Anyway, PokéMon Violet. There are issues. Even I, someone who doesn't take note of framerates, screen tearing etc can see it plain as day. Draw distance is a thing. Note this is apparent from the second town. Before you reach the main school. The worst part is that every single PokéDex entry causes slowdown and stuttering. This isn't great for flaws in the most basic, yet fundamental game stuff. That's the negatives out of the way for now. Stay tuned for more on that, I imagine. The results of play session one. Not bad going really.

It still feels like early days but I'm enjoying this so far. I tried streaming some but my setup seemed to add a few issues to control and framerate, I did a lot better when I wasn't having to play through my capture screen. That said, it's still a Sonic game so I have been launched to my death rather than whatever the next part of the rollercoaster was supposed to be. For all the Breath of the Wild talk it actually reminds me of Mario Odyssey more than anything else. I've no idea if the area I'm in just expands or if eventually it moves you to a new world, but you're on a land mass that's gated, you're essentially playing until you unlock the next bit. There are traditional levels, they're really short, and they're accessed via totems in the main world. You need gears to open these, you get gears from defeating meaningful enemies, I feel like I've got quite a lot now so other than really early on when the game is teaching you, they aren't hard to find. Beating the levels gets you keys, keys unlock the chaos emeralds, doing that seems to progress the story and open more map. The reason it reminds me of Mario are all the little challenges in the game world. Work out the route to a floating platform, beat a horde of enemies, solve a minor puzzle, these all get you things, usually it's the items you need to level up attributes, sometimes it's experience to unlock more skills. There's probably a few too many currencies really, but it does mean that a trip across the map means a hundred diversions because it's very densely packed

Just a quick thread post to say I played an hour after 12am unlock last night. Played quite badly, I must have dodge-offseted all my Bayonetta muscle memory from the last time I played these games. So don't have a ton much to say, the opening has a bit of a DMC5 thing going on I guess with a fairly similar setup. I will say however that technically speaking I find the game very hard to parse visually. It's not really the framerate as such, which is quite bad but tolerable for the kind of mashing that Bayo can offer. It's moreso the image quality (lack of), visual effects and resolution as well as the alpha transparency dot matrix thing that they do with enemies which are overlapping with the camera. It's unfortunately rough stuff and it all sort of turned into a soup of purple nonsense for me in the first 'proper' stage in the game. A quick thing I can say that's interesting to me is with the summons you can queue up to two actions by them (perhaps this can be upgraded), release control and go back to Bayonetta while the demon slave asynchronously resolves all the big moves you told it to do. I think there will be some interesting synergies there. Maybe, I was really only mashing the buttons tbh, it's been so long since I played a game like this (including dmc) that my fingers feel like they're made of shite and nothing feels very deliberate That said, I'm excited to really dig into it over the spooky weekend, the horrors of poorly scaled graphics notwithstanding 😱. Will need to setup the elgato to actually capture some decent clobbering from it tho, I really need that with these games not the 30 second clip that switch does edit, some gameplay of me passing a secret mission, pogface. The monster mechanic is cool, I think the way you leverage launchers from witch time wicked weaves and can chomp motherfuckers while they're up there is some really inspired stuff so far, especially compared to Bayonetta 2

Well this pretty much came out of nowhere. Like, I didn’t even realise it was out. I remember it being announced, but not much after that. The original Tales game was one of the best things Telltale came out with (Walking Dead peaked after their first season, and by the end was crap). I’m not an expert of the franchise, I’ve only finished 1 and 2, and some of the DLC. But that didn’t stop me from having a great time with Tales. So, now we have the sequel. Though it’s “episodic”, it plays out as one big game, giving you a break between episodes. I’ve just finished Episode 1. And so far, it’s off to a good start. The dialogue has been amusing enough. The story, which switches between 3 playable characters, seems solid enough. There’s zero puzzles, so you’re mostly down to making dialogue choices, and occasionally wandering around the area to trigger the next set piece. There’s a fair few Quick Time Events, but they’re easy enough. One review said that the hacking mini game is laughably easy. It is indeed, and makes you wonder what the point of them even is. It warns you “failure has repercussions”. But honestly, you’d have to put your controller on the floor, to fail them. The IGN review said the final episode is a train wreck, and almost ruins the game completely. We will see how that plays out. But so far, yeah, this seems decent enough.

I want my mummy... Spent a few hours with this through Game Pass (Xbox obviously)... think I played Innocence toward the tale end of last year and so far this feels nicely familiar. I'm up to Act 3, the first act being more or less a tutorial and the second playing pretty much how you'd expect. Things start harmlessly enough but it doesn't take long for things to fall to shit and the whole world wants Amicia dead for reasons... this time she can fight back a little more, she has a stealth attack and can knife enemies, I haven't got her Crossbow yet but like I say I'm only up to Act 3. You can also break line of sight and hide again if discovered, I can't remember if this was a thing in the first, if it was it was bloody difficult. Some of the views look stunning and so far it's played nicely... there's no performance or graphics mode so I'm not sure if it's locked to 30fps or not... think I saw somewhere that it's 40fps if your display supports 120hz (mine does so who knows) I ended up really liking the first so I'm looking forward to playing more of this.

It's hard to believe there isn't a thread for this already 🤷‍♂️ I picked it up for £6 a while ago and now I'm stuck at home with Covid (German regulations...) I thought I'd give it a go. It's great! I'm playing on Switch so I'm sure I have the worst graphical experience possible but it's really OK. I've spent around 6-7 hours with it so far and I think I'm close to the end section. I've decided not to push ahead for a while though, instead choosing to explore all the levels to see if I can build up my health a bit more. This is also partly because I hit what I find a difficult section with that I think I need to be a bit stronger for. That or just better with the controls... As it's so Metroid-y and now I have new ways of getting around, the older arears suddenly have a lot more to offer. My last session was purely exploratory and I found so much new stuff! The levels are brilliantly designed with secrets all over the place. It's also funny, if you click with the humour. The aliens are either useful or threatening, some of them seem brutal and hard to kill but with a bit of careful thinking I've managed not to get stuck so far. For the price I got it for, I would give it a clear recommendation 👍

I played this on game pass, having tried the demo during one of those Steam events and liking it. Beacon Pines is a cutesy storybook adventure with darker undertones. The big conceit is you find "charms" through talking to characters, looking at things in the environment or overhearing other characters etc. At certain points in the story you're presented with the option of choosing from 2-3 of these charms to decide what action take in that situation. The story branches off according to the choice you make, you might die a grizzly death or head off on a completely different version of the story. You can go back to any of these branches and try the other options, sometimes you'll find another charm down one branch that lets you make a different choice in an earlier decision. The branching thing is more superficial in the end than how the game initially presents it to you, you end up exploring most of the decisions on the way to getting the ending anyway, but it's fun and engaging. It's about 5 hours or so in length, which is just right. It doesn't overstay it's welcome. The presentation and art style are top notch.

I’m about an hour into this on Switch. It has the same kind of relaxing vibe as A Short Hike, although I would not say it’s as good as that game, so far. The art style reminds me of Hidden Folks. The game is literally just you running around taking pictures for people. It’s very pleasant, although for Eurogamer to call this “essential” is stretching the meaning of essential…

So I've been playing the game that is, like many aging hair metal bands, is big in Japan (that 40 year old Spinal Tap joke is how I'm starting my impressions to this genuinely cool game). The only game played there now it seems. I'm probably not going to go on about the specifics of the game because you can just check the thread for the previous game but I'll just say what I've been up to. As a Splatoon Professional I've beelined right to the cool stuff and stayed there for now. That is 'Anarchy Mode (previously 'Ranked Matches')' and 'Salmon Run'. Since I have a Splatoon 2 save I was given three golden tickets which allowed me to buy weapons freely that are usually soft locked behind a level cap, the weapons I know I like which I know fit my play style for the Anarchy Matches. You see most will play the Turf War mode (the basic whoever makes the most mess wins mode) but as a Professional that mode holds little interest to me and I like the objective based modes in Anarchy Mode. One of the is Splat Zones which is basically King of the Hill; you have to keep a certain part of the map in the middle covered in your ink for a set amount of time so in this mode the fight is more concentrated and I like to use the GAL 96, a long ranged weapon that fires slowly with an ink sprinkler as a sub-weapon... well, I used to but it hasn't been working for me this time. I've found more success with the gatling gun class so I can just hang back and provide support more efficiently but maybe I'm still fucked if I get jumped by someone with a better short ranged weapon but as long as I'm smart we win. I do find these modes make use of the alternative weapons so much more. Playing Turf War just use the weapon best at coverage and that's it. You also have Tower Control; there is a small tower on the map that moves towards the enemies side of the map when you stand on it and once it gets to the end you won. I like to use a long ranged kind-of-grenade launcher for this, I forget it's name. it just means with good positioning I can easily eliminate those trying to ride the tower, but again, it's slow firing and bad at short range. It means I do have to rely on my team a lot, I gotta hope we have like a "sweeper" who keeps flankers off my back, because man, do some people just like using the brush class and ruining my day. This is a factor if we win or lose. Take up a role if you're playing this mode. There is also Rainmaker; there is a powerful weapon (but again, bad at short range) that has to be captured and taken into various points on the enemies side of the map. I tend to play this one a bit basic and use a slightly longer range version of the Duelies, a weapon I do tend to use for Turf War if I do play that mode. OK coverage and pretty good at killing and I like the quick step you can do: it confuses the idiots, but also sometimes messes me up, but I'm getting better at it again. They were introduced in S2 and they quickly became my old faithful. Finally there is Clam Blitz; it's a mode that was introduced post release in S2 so I hve the least experience with it. I remember being okay at it but this is the mode I'm struggling with. You collect clams spread around the map, get ten and they turn into an American football(🤷‍♂️) and with that you can break a barrier over a goal on your foes side of the map, and while the barrier is gone you can throw in individual clams. I suck at it and just take my Duelies and kill the enemy and hope my teammates know what they're doing. To be honest it still feels kinda unfamiliar because while the primary weapons all feel the same they're altered the sub-weapons and you special abilities you get after covering so much ground, those especially have been completely changed from the previous games so the dynamic and strats in these modes take some adjustment., I've found at least. But there is also Salmon Run; this is the horde mode with a bunch of boss enemies that drop collectables you have to take to a point to score while adds ruin your day. The more you rank up the more intense it gets and I think I've just got to the point it's interesting to play. I think it's harder than before since I remember being maxed out before and having less problems than now but I've still got some ways to go. A little change they've made is you can throw the collectable so you can pass it up to other players and that's useful at times and they've added some scenarios where you have to do it to be optimal. There's also a thing where the more you play the mode you make a giant salmon angry so a big salmon will turn up at the end and you have to throw the collectable at it to do damage, so you're dealing with this big mf'er stomping around while loads of boss enemies come, kill them, get collectibles and throw them at the big salmon. It gets intense. I've tried it twice and not killed it yet (definitely let down by my team the second smh). I've not tried the SP, I'm not super into it from the previous games (the last boss always rules tho) but I'll try it eventually. One of you's will have to say how that is.

Tinykin is a 3D platformer collect-em-up, reminiscent of something from the N64/PS1 era (but a smoother, more modern experience, naturally). You travel around the levels amassing a bunch of different coloured pikmin-like critters which have different abilities, solve some very light puzzles to complete a bunch of tasks to earn an object and open the way to the next level. It's cute and plays well, it just keeps you going without putting obstacles in the way of your enjoyment. It's nothing earth-shattering, just a simple fun game. I played it on game pass, starting on Thursday night, and completing it the next evening. It felt like time well spent.

I'm pretty sure the venn diagram of this forum and this particular game is just two completely separate circles situated three miles from one another. However, I'm nothing if not weird in my game choices, so let's talk about it anyway. This is Animal Crossing meets Kingdom Hearts as far as I'm concerned. The Magic Kingdom has been taken over by a weird darkness (which also has the side effect of making famous Disney characters lose their memories), and it's up to you to cast out the darkness, visit different characters and restore Disney to its former glory. You do this by completing various tasks , whether that's finding Goofy's fishing rod, setting up Scrooge McDuck's store signs (more on him in a minute) or simply by planting and harvesting different crops. So. Mr McDuck. The Scottish, money-swimming capitalist. He's Tom Nook. Buying/upgrading stores or buying clothes and decorations all goes through him. And his prices are just as disgraceful as Animal Crossing's awful banker. I've paid him to make a little store for Goofy (and subsequently upgrade said store). I've paid him to build his own store, and then spent MORE money in there. And it seems he exists solely to leech from my wallet. At least he's true to character, I suppose. It seems to have a lot more focus than AC right now. While I've never played it, my understanding of AC is that you don't really have a specific goal list where you can change your tasks and set new ones. This has an actual focussed goal list. And while that might mean the end game could end up a bit pointless, Disney have almost a century's worth of content to draw from, so they should have no trouble keeping it interesting. The music is just so. Fucking. Charming. From symphonic takes on Let It Go and How Far I'll Go to the simple When You Wish Upon A Star, there's an awesome little tracklist that rotates, and it gives the game this unique personality that's incredibly sedate. Graphics are... functional. They do the job, but they definitely aren't made to impress. There's tons of character, though. Especially in the Disney character models. My biggest negative, and something that keeps niggling is that the controls feel really loose. It's almost as though your avatar is on a slight delay whenever you press buttons. There's no combat and nothing that needs a huge amount of reaction time, but it's just a little distracting when it looks and feels like you're floating slightly above the floor, rather than actually walking on it. After doing my first batch of goals, I've chosen to go to the Moana-themed level. I've stopped it there, because I started last night when Oscar was in bed and I want him to see it, but it's seemed to worm into my brain already, and I definitely want to see more of what it has to offer.

I’m about two hours into this on the Switch. I’ve been playing the main game, haven’t tried the visual novel prequel thing yet. But I’ll probably play them concurrently. The game takes a few twists and turns early on, but nothing overly dramatic. So far, typical jrpg opening (as jrpg stories go). The combat is quite unique though. Enemies have elemental types and during battles there is an elemental field, which, depending on the elemental spells used causes certain elements to get stronger and the opposite type weaker. For example blue and red (water and fire) are opposites. If you use a blue elemental spell, the blue area of the elemental field (this is shown on the screen) will grow larger, and blue spells will become stronger and red spells weaker. One interesting tactic connected to this is when fighting enemies of different element types, their spells can antagonise each other, which can affect the order in which you might want to take them down. In addition to that, when you do a normal attack, you can choose between weak, medium and strong. Weak attacks have high accuracy and strong attacks low accuracy. Every hit that connects raises the accuracy of subsequent attacks. It’s up to you how you choose to string combos together. There’s more to combat than that but those are just a couple of interesting points.

Heretics Defeated! So far, very good. Only got in an hour today (for now) but I'm enjoying everything about this. From the "Happy Tree Friends" aesthetic. To the distinctly Isaac/Gungeon feel to the combat. The cult building aspect so far is the newest gameplay to me and the most intriguing. It reminds me of both Freedom Fighters and the base building of Suikoden. I have fought one boss and indoctrinated three followers into my Cult. While grinning from ear to ear at the presentation.

I'm enjoying this so far. It's broken up in to chapter's, time periods really, with a new character in each. I presume at some point they all tie together in some way but I've not seen it yet. Some are more interesting than others and some are longer than others. The prehistoric chapter was humour filled fun, the Chinese one a more traditional story of master training student, and I really enjoyed that chapter. The Japan one I found a bit irritating initially, it can be a bit of a faff to get around, but it gets a lot more interesting towards the end. Combat wise, it's kind of traditional srpg tile based moves, so a ranged attack might only be able to hit 2 rows in front, magic can do AOE. There's affinities, with enemies being weak or resistant to certain attack type's, and status effects that go along with that. If your meter is full, you can only attack when it's full, then you can move around and potentially avoid attacks It's good so far, I think I'll actually finish it

I really liked the original Cat Quest. It's an action RPG that takes place on a pretty small map. It gates you by having huge spikes in enemy levels, so if you wander in to the level 15 area at level 6 you're going to get very fucked up. It worked though, despite retreading a lot of old ground it keeps feeding you more, keeps you on the train, and it's not long before you're wrecking previously unkillable enemies The second one is effectively more of the same. This time there's co-op, you can play as a dog too. In single player you can switch between the two with the other character being controlled by the AI. It works, the a.i. is invulnerable so it can deal damage while you back away from enemies to dodge their signposted attacks. It kind of suffers from 2 problems, the first is that it's more of the same. The combat works the same, the progression more or less works the same (I no longer have to stick to landmass). The gear system works the same too, you can find repeats of the same items that will level it up, or you can pay to level it up. This obviously can make a huge difference along with your level as to how much damage you give and take. It's not something you have to be thinking about all the time but it does help The most obvious difference between the two games, and something I'm not sure is either a problem or a benefit, the map is now significantly larger. It still works the same way, going in to certain areas is suicide, but it's more gradual now, there's more space to spend your time in during the lower levels. Equally though it can mean trecking around is a bit more of a slog, when you're hunting for side quests or ticking off the explorable caves, the end game is going to be slower Ultimately if it has a problem it's that it's more of the same. Given that it's now a much bigger and longer game that's probably magnified, but it's still good fun and I'd still recommend it, it's simple, a bit mindless, but that's kind of what I want at the minute

Fired this up yesterday and fought my way to the first map destination, and then into the introductory chapter. First things first, it looks, as usual, like a bit of a dog's dinner. I don't know what digital foundry were on about. To my eyes it's just as blurry, fuzzy and framey as any other Xenoblade game. Stick this on your big telly and it's rather disappointing, in my opinion. Not unplayable by any means, but a jarring step back from what I've become used to with the Xbox. You sort of have to 'tune in' to it. Once you've managed that, though, you can just fill your boots with the stuff Xenoblade always does well, gameplay, exploration, and a combat system that starts off basic, but has room (hopefully) to grow into the combo happy monster of the former game. Good news is I'm already thinking about the game when I've put the switch down. The characters are well done, but the narrative premise is instantly gripping. They've set up a really interesting plot, with much promise for twists and reveals, and epic heroism. If they deliver it could well be a most memorable adventure. Just a pity it's on the Switch.

This is like a fps parkour shooter type thing, like super meat boy in 3d, like cloudbuilt, or ghostrunner with more shooting. Also its like a timetrial thing where you have to beat levels asap to get gold/silver/etc medals, which you actually need to progress. You need gold or above on a certain number of levels to progress to the next set, so far anyway this hasnt been too tricky. The levels are between 10 seconds and about a minute long so far, ive done the first 20. theres a jump button, a fire button, a switch card button, and an alternate fire/ability button, all on bumpers/triggers which is good. You pick up card and that decides what fire/alternate do, it sort of works like a context sensitive button, so youll pick up a pistol just before you need to do a double jump (pistol alternate fire is a second jump). Alternate fire also throws the card away. Other cards have alternates like a boost, or a grenade launcher you can use to blast yourself up high. Its a good system as it keeps the button count low so they can all be on the triggers. I found it can confuse me at times though because the same button does loads of different things which sort of fries my brain a bit. Theres some talking/story stuff but it seems unnecessary and can be fast forwarded. its not surprising i like this as i like stuff like ghostrunner and cloudbuilt, and so far its been really good. Unclear if the confusing multi use button stuff will halt my progress later on. anyone giving it a go?

Ok, so this is awesome. i grew up with the Turtles in the ‘90s. Spent a small fortune on the arcade games. Loved Turtles In Time, which was the second SNES game I ever played. Scrolling beat em ups remain my favourite genre. So I was always going to be all over this. Thankfully, it was totally worth the wait. It looks fantastic, you can tell a lot of love has gone into this. The combat is satisfying, with each character having slightly different moves. If you play through Story mode, you gradually unlock more stuff, such as extra health and lives, and abilities. Each level has 3 challenges, ranging from do-able (kill 3 enemies with a specific move), to “not bloody likely” (don’t get hit once). There’s secrets to find, which help to level up a bit faster. The soundtrack is pretty catchy, and I love that the voice cast for the original series is more or less present and correct. I’ve played a few online sessions, and the net code seems pretty stable, even with 6 players, though that can be a bit chaotic. Fairly easy to get into an online game as well, which is good. Trophy wise, most of them are alright, though there’s a few pretty tough ones. Not sure I’ll manage the Platinum. But I’ll definitely have a fair few online sessions. It’s been scoring pretty high with reviews. And it’s totally justifiable, as it’s so much fun to play.

I'm going to get straight to it. The only way I can describe this game is by saying it's Goat Simulator on coke. The goal of the game is to create enough chaos to get the police on your case. You then defeat said police and cause more destruction until you prompt the next wave of police. You also play as a deer. With a stretchy neck. Who replaces his antlers with guns. And you can end up with 15-20 guns equipped at any time. Oh and the police are sheep. Or polar bears. Or bunnies. Or bunnies driving hippos with laser attachments. There's not much to say about it besides WTF?, but if you're looking for a quick 1000G from Game Pass, this can be knocked out in an afternoon.

Honestly surprised I couldn't find an impressions thread for this, especially considering how fantastic previous entries in the series were. Anyway, I got this (and CTR) in a racing sale on Xbox, mainly because my kid keeps going on about how much he loves playing it on Switch in his mum's, so I thought it'd be a cool way for him to show me something he likes. He bounced off it when he realised I'm better than him. I'm hooked, though. Is it as good as Transformed? God no. But is that familiar Adventure mode that combines traditional races, Grand Prix events and cool little challenges still present and correct? God yes. I'm trying to take down some of the harder achievements. Up to now I have two that less than 1% of people have earned. I don't think it's because the challenges are especially difficult (although there are one or two that I've been stuck on). I think it's probably because tons of parents would have bought this for their kids without realising there are some damn punishing things to take on. I suppose this post would be pointless without a shit sandwich, though, wouldn't it? So here's the filling. It feels so. Damn. Slow. It doesn't matter if you hit a boost plate, use a wisp (more on those in a second), or manage to powerslide into one of those cool Sonic blue boosts as you straighten out of a corner. Nothing feels as fast as it should be. To the point I got irritated and started shouting 'why the fuck are you in a car when you can run faster than this you stupid blue cunt?' Some events give you a boost start. It feels like it moves at about the speed of a geriatric in Tesco on a Tuesday afternoon. A lot of reviews from when it came out said the same thing, and I just don't understand how it can feel this sluggish. Now. The Wisps. These are the Mario Kart-style power ups that these racing games use. The only difference between them is the colours. I haven't noticed any difference in their shapes. So while you're racing it's hard to see what they do, unless you know each one already. This is a pain in the ass when you're neck and neck with that annoying crocodile dude. Final complaint. The best-named Sonic character is nowhere to be seen. Sonic Advance 2's Cream the Rabbit. The joke from Games TM has stuck with me since I read the review all those years ago. "No idea if that's a name or instruction." As the other piece of bread on this poop butty, when you get into a rhythm with each course it's really satisfying. The ring challenges especially. I really like the flow as you move from powerslide to powerslide. Will I get all of the achievements? God no. Will I keep playing until I hit the unattainable goals? God yes.

Started the demo last night. So far I’ve played two levels and there’s another to do, which is I believe a boss level of some kind. Only a small taste of the game obviously, but I’m impressed with it so far. The world is like a cartoony The Last of Us, but still manages to be really colourful and full of vibe with loads of vibrant enemies and characters popping up. The way it plays isn’t anything ground breaking, it’s a relatively of the mill 3D platformer but it’s so jolly and charming that I really didn’t mind. I will say though that it is ridiculously easy so far, a platformer like this you expect this though but I do hope the difficulty ramps up as you get towards the end of the main game. So yeah, so far so good. A lovely, jolly place to be and a really interesting, charming world to explore from my brief first impressions.

I’ve been playing in the online tests which comprises of Tennis, Chambara and Bowling. All of them online only obviously. Firstly it is awesome and controls perfectly. Interestingly there was a joy con update when I booted the game up. The first thing you have to do is place your joy cons on a flat service and that’s them calibrated. Never again do you have to do that or indeed anything else. Chambara has you press X with your weapon forward to start but I think that’s more are you ready? than where’s the stick? Neither Tennis nor bowling needed or has a recal button. Chambara This was more fun than I remembered it being on Wii Sports Resort. I think it’s knowing I just beat a human player rather than an npc. Online is really going to elevate the satisfaction for each game here. One game of this I had I won, drew, lost and then the final round a majority of the stage fell into the water. I was nervous 😅 TENNIS I won’t waste my time telling you what tennis is. It’s unchanged from the original and I’ve not really any idea as to how you’re supposed to be good at it still. BOWLING Here is where the meat of the test was for me. This isn’t just bowling. This is bowling battle royale style, because of course it is. You and many others start out in round one and the bottom so many players (I think 1/3) are eliminated. This happens again in the second round and then there is the final. This whole thing takes place in a bowling alley with with a multitude of lanes all next to each other’s where you can see others bowling in real time. You all have your turns at the same time and within a small time limit so there’s no waiting around for someone that’s popping the kettle on. Loved it.

Team based Metroidvania! This is great! The game begins with the three lead protagonists. Arias the knight, Kyuli the archer and Algus the wizard. All journey to the Tower of Serpents to save their village, wherein it's waters have been poisoned by something in the tower itself. As this is a Metroidvania I can't really quantify it by the in-game clock. But rather map completion. I'm currently around 30% and it doesn't feel like I'm even close to halfway yet. The team based nature of the game comes from the unique abilities of each lead. Kyuli, is both your ranged attacker yet also she has a walk kick to reach higher platforms. Arias is your typical knight protagonist with certain obstructions only he can cut through. There there is Algus - literally the best character in the game (so far). As the magic user, that makes him your pew-pew man. Middle ground in terms of range but, his base strength makes him a better choice in combat than Kyuli. The fact that you can't immediately switch between your characters on the fly, does add to the puzzle element of many rooms. Combat is just as you'd expect from a Metroidvania IE you can die very quickly if you aren't paying attention. Which is wherein this games gimmick comes in. You can level up in this game. The level up system however, only boots up upon death. Your first death is predetermined to introduce you to this idea. After that, you get the gist. Graphics are a lovely retro 8-Bit stylised aesthetic. The sprites, while not entirely devoid of detail. Are colour coded to make up for any deficit. There is something surreal in playing this game on my big modern TV. If you're interested in anything I've mentioned so far, I really recommend giving it a go.