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This has probably been the biggest surprise of the year so far for me, this game is incredible. I’ve never much been one for making levels or anything like that and the most I’ve dabbled before was way back when I was a kid in Rollercoaster Tycoon and more recently with some of the LBP and Trials series tutorials and such. So going into this the making aspect is probably what got me most excited about the game but also apprehensive as I really didn’t know if I’d bounce off it again like I have done in the past, I just don’t consider myself a very creative person and am always more likely to enjoy levels made by others than actually be any good at creating my own. There’s just so many other layers to it than that though. It feels amazing to just play other people’s levels that they’ve shared on an FB Group or forum, I can’t quite describe it but playing through a level and admiring the work of someone else approachable and ‘real’ not some pro level designer feels so uplifting and joyous. I’ve only played a little of the story mode but from what I’ve played it’s another excellent 2D Mario game. It’s clever how they implement ideas from the Maker template to inspire you and get you thinking about how you can implement little bits and pieces from their Pro courses into yours. Then you can play in co-op with others online and against them which is just fun silly nonsense really. There are frustrating moments when you may lack the coordination to get past a puzzle and eventually have to give up but it’s just such a nice change of pace and another layer of depth the game has. I think the most amazing thing about the game is how creative it’s made me feel, playing through other people’s levels, playing the story mode’s levels or tinkering about in the Maker mode just gives me so many ideas for so many new levels I can create and how I can improve my level design skills and get better. Even when I’m not playing the game I find myself thinking about ways I could do a pipe level, a runner type level, a car level and things like that. To make someone who wasn’t creative in the slightest before think creatively about level design for the very first time is damn incredible, it has been quite the revelation for me this game and awakened a side of me I didn’t really know existed before. My two courses if anyone wants to try them out: Quick video of one here:

All these years later, and I finally get to play this, after coveting the super expensive MD cart when it came out. I never played it in the arcade or on an emulator, so the Switch version is my first experience of this. Firstly, really impressed with how it runs. I've heard that this 60fps was not on the arcade original but it's bloody smooth as silk. I was expecting it to look really old but it actually looks really stylish and I could imagine someone making a new game in this style and it looking equally great. The only time it looks bad is when you change the view to cockpit view and the amount of frames of animation for turning the wheel is comically low. Only 6 quid as well. A reasonably priced port that they've done a great job with.

This is a 2D platformer, run and gun type thing, where you can do all kinds of fancy things, such as shoot at two things at the same time, bounce bullets off things, skateboard, kick things/skateboards at people, slowdown time, and dodge bullets. when you're doing the cool things it's a lot of fun. i often forget to do the cool things and just run through a level shooting everything, which is still pretty fun. especially i find the controls for dodging bullets to be tricky so forget to do it, and slowdown time i keep forgetting to do but the controls for it aren't tricky. but the controls for shooting 2 things at once work well imo - you aim one direction and lock on by holding down the left trigger then aim elsewhere and fire with the right trigger. there's some gimmicky levels that are a bit different, they probably arent really any good but i really enjoyed the 2 i've done so far because of how over the top they are and they don't last long. the levels are very short but there's a lot of them, apparently it's quite a short game, think i'm about 2 hours in. you get graded for each level, i think that's where the game will come into it's own if you get into trying to get a better score/grade - so i think it's good that the levels are short for this. i'm not sure if i'll bother replaying it like this though, don't really know how the scoring works, i'll have to look into it. paid ~£13 which seems like a fair price for it. apparently was playing it in 4k, switched to 1080p and upped the graphics settings, couldn't really tell the difference. so yeah i like it so far and at times it's brilliant, but maybe doesn't live up to how great the trailers for it are (possibly it does but i'm not good at it). also a banana tells you what to do.

Got this through yesterday. It’s brilliant. Looks and feels great, always preferred this to Mario Kart and even from my short go last night I stand by this thought even more now. Loads better than Team Sonic Racing too. Transformed is a different matter though.. Anyone who enjoyed it back in the day get on it. Just as good as I remember it being. Negatives? It hitches every now and again surprisingly (playing on a X1X). & the load times are excruciating! I’m not one to normally complain too much about long loads as long as they’re infrequent but here they are frequent and seriously bad. To the point I could see it ruining the “quick go” and “just one more race” elements causing me to play it less. We’ll see.

I seem to remember @illdog posting about playing this, but I can't find the thread where it is. I'm a big fan of the original Megadrive game and this is basically that game but looking a bit better with added enemies and friends, online multiplayer and stuff. I don't think it's a sequel, seems more of a reboot of the first game. Anyway, it's a rouge-like if you haven't played it before and it is '90's as fuck. The music has always been great with extra funky basslines, and this one is no different. I was a bit concerned when they announced it that it would end up being shit, but a few hours of play on it so far and it's been fantastic. I'm not sure what people new to it would make of it, but for fans of the original, it's great. Level 0 is still there, so they didn't fuck that up.

Finally, after years of watching videos of other people play this, bought the Switch version and had my first go of this with a couple of mates. Initially, we had the bomb defuser holding the Switch out of the dock but as there are two couches in my mate’s living room, eventually just settled on sitting on the couch not facing the TV and either using a laptop or phone for the manual. If you don’t know what it is, one person can see the bomb and has to cut wires and press buttons. The other person (or people) either download and print out the bomb manual or view it on a screen and have to guide the bomb defuser by communicating what the bomb holder is looking at. Colours of wires, how many, etc. It’s a manic affair and best if you swap over a few times, as then the bomb defuser will know what information the manual guy is really after and which information is superfluous. On the PC and PS4, it’s playable in VR which is probably the best way to play it. But we figured out we could actually play it together on Skype with only one copy. It really starts ramping up in difficulty, throwing memory puzzles at you, morse code, etc and we got as far as extra modules you had to keep an eye on that couldn’t be solved from the manual. There’s these things called “needy modules” where they’ll be like a short timer on it and before it gets to 0 and blows up the bomb, you have to hammer a button to reset it. That’s along with the modules that will actually disarm the bomb. Plus the lights will occasionally go out for a few seconds. Or the alarm clock next to the bomb will go off really loudly so you have to put the bomb down and hit snooze on the alarm. It’s fantastic but I’m glad I played with people I have good friendships with!

I got the hyrule version today, seems like it’s supposed to be a bit easier, the amount of times I’ve died on the second screen is very high, I’m not sure if I’m getting better or it just seems that way because I’ve unlocked better weapons through perserverence. Also one time I found a shop but had no money, now I have money but I’m miles away from the shop dammit. I’ll die soon so that won’t matter anyway. Not really sure what I think of it yet, never got the original because I don’t like rogue likes, but I really like rhythm games, but it looked like I’d hate it, then they add Zelda music and make it easier so I got it, initially i was right and I hated it for a bit as I died over and over again straight away, as said I’m doing better now and not hating it as much, probably because I have better weapons and more hearts. Oh yeah I started off as Zelda, which seems to make it really difficult, started again as link and the shield not running out of power helps a lot.

So I bought this (Guessing by RF’s posts 2 years ago?) and have just started playing it and this is awesome. It’s a bit rough on the technical side, but it makes up for it in real playability. I just had to really put an effort in to pulling my self away from it to get ready for Nintendo. Clearly heavily inspired by A Link to the Past then dunked in that indie game, calming soundscape driven atmosphere it’s very easy to pick up and even more difficult to put back down. The big difference between this and a regular Zelda game is the map seems to be more Dark Souls inspired then Zelda. Meaning that instead of having an overworld to zig zag across to make progress it’s more linear with each area feeling unto itself and sort of like a big puzzle box/dungeon, and then once completed it spits you out at the Firelink Shrine equivalent and then you go to a different area. At at least that seems to be the case so far. Game play is very reliant on push this, pull that and less gimmick focused than a typical Zelda game, but it feels surprisingly good and is a game that really moves which I like a lot. I think this this is a prime example of a little gem. It’s not blowing my mind in terms of newness but it has taken me by surprise because of how fun it is.

Gato Roboto is a kind of miniature monochrome Metroidvania where you play as a cat who can hop in and out of a robot (and other machines). The cat itself is powerless and defenseless but can get to places where the robot can’t. Movement is very fast and compared to other games of the genre you’ll explore large areas of the map very quickly. I’m at 15% completion after one hour. So far it’s exactly what it looks like, plays very well and seems like excellent value for money.

Steamworld Heist is a game that’s out on everything. It was initially released on 3DS in 2015, and I’ve played it for a couple of hours on Switch. It’s a fun turn-based space faring rpg with an eye-catching visual style. Battles take place inside ships and the ship layouts are randomised. Missions are selected from a node-based map. I’ve been playing on the default “Experienced” difficulty and it seems like a reasonable challenge. I’ve had a couple of characters die during missions. When a character dies they don’t receive experience for that mission but they are resurrected when the mission is over. The game has all the features that you would expect from the genre - special abilities, equipment, loot, new characters to recruit - but it’s the visual style and the ricocheting of bullets (as you can see in the picture) that makes it unique and fun.

Was the thread for this deleted? I feel like there was one... Anyway I played a good chunk of this before I went home last Christmas. I booted it up today and continued where I left off, which led to me restoring the colour yellow to the world. And then I played on a bit more after that. According to my Switch profile I’ve played it for “more than three hours” so I’m probably near the end. The selling point of the game is the beautiful art and music but I’d forgotten how enjoyable the game’s gentle puzzles are to solve. You could describe the game as being style over substance, which it probably is, but I feel like the gameplay foundations of the game are pretty solid.

So, I just started this up. I’m actually surprised Konami got off their arse to put this together. They’ve been absolute morons for years, and done literally nothing with their numerous IPs. All they did last year was Metal Gear Survive, which I don’t even need to comment on. So I genuinely wasn’t expecting them to bother with a collection like this. Contra is getting one later in the year, and I bloody love Contra, so will naturally check that out. Anyways. How does this hold up? Pretty good, really. The first game in the series i ever played was 4, due to never owning a NES back in the day. It remains one of my favourite games of all time, from the gameplay to the gorgeous soundtrack. I didn’t think we’d see this anywhere other than a Nintendo console. But I’m very glad to be replaying it. As it’s just as brilliant now, as it was then. I never played the Megadrive version, again due to not owning one at the time. So I’m looking forward to giving that a shot, as it’s generally held in high regard. As for the rest? You’ve got all 3 of the NES games, which I will get though after 4 and Bloodlines. Two gameboy games, which don’t look especially great, but I’ll play them for completions sake. And Kid Dracula, which I have no idea if it’s any good or not. As is par for the course in these kind of collections, you can quick save your game at any time. Though on the PS4 version, you access the save menu by pressing the Share button. Which of course either takes a screenshot, or video, depending on your setting. And there’s no way of changing that to say, the Options button, or touchpad. It’s weird. Maybe they’ll sort it out in a future update perhaps. There’s no way to change button configuration either. You also get access to various promotional material/ concept art of all the games, which is a nice touch.

Started this earlier on the Switch. Played the opening 20 minutes or so. The game reviewed well when it came out last year and the comparisons to Studio Ghibli were enough to convince me to buy it. The game is basically a side-scrolling adventure in a Ghibli-esque world, or something out of an Enid Blyton story. The setting seems to be a world where forgotten things go, most of the characters in the game seem to be objects and household items, things like that, but you play as a girl. There’s also an older man who is trying to develop a way to get back to the real world. From what I gathered. The game looks beautiful and the opening is very cinematic.

Time for impressions me thinks. I've decided its great. It's a futuristic racing game where the car's have big wheels and can drive upside-down. It's high speed so you can ride up walls, ceilings and generally flip around. It's very fun. The game starts off very easy - you can come last and still progress - but now I've spent some time with it I see that early parts of the game are just about learning the tracks and how your car reacts to the environments. So I will just say you may progress easily but it's important to pay attention. You'll need to because later where positions are more important you can't just fling yourself around; your flinging has got to be considered. Handling is a weird combination of twitchy and heavy. Like steering between other cars on the straights is twitchy but when the tracks start throwing sharp turns at you you need to be heavy on the breaks and the car's suddenly feel like barges. It's weird to get used to but it does make an odd sense after extended play. It has a good variety of modes. Races come in different guises: You have your basic races, there are races based on points (you get points nailing others with Mario Kart style weapons and sick jumps), an arena mode like a death match taking place in an open area and others. I think it's really cool. It's hard, and like a lot of weapons based racing games it can definitely be frustrating but then there are lots of highs, too, so it's a game you have that kind of dysfunctional relationship with, especially with all the flipping. Here, I have a clip of me racing that has a bit of GRIP drama in it (shout out to the self correction after being screwed *chefs kiss*. Boo to me being an idiot and driving into the edge of a pipe)

I don't really have a lot to say about Box Boy + Box Girl, it's another Box Boy, so if you've played one before it's more of the same. If you haven't, the game is a slow puzzle platformer. You're a box boy who can produce other blocks, you have to use this ability to get through the level. That might mean dropping 1 block so you can reach a new platform, making a row of 3 to make a bridge, or maybe building a staircase. You're limited in the number of blocks you can produce depending on the level, which is where the puzzle comes from. Getting through the level is the basic task, but there's crowns to find, plus bonus rewards depending on how few blocks you've used. You have to get quite creative if you want to get all the bonuses while getting through the level To give an example of how the levels work, I'm on a section with springs. Standing on a spring will launch box boy in the air, meaning he could then reach the next platform, but maybe there's spikes on the ceiling, in which case you're going to have to put a box on your head to stop yourself from hitting the spikes. Maybe the spring needs to be activated by a button, if so you'll need to find a way press the button while you're stood on the spring by way of a tip, one of the things I've been doing is using my blocks to move me without making them permanent in the world, meaning they don't count against my wall 2019050121520500-BF8B423169A80825B3832B694E38C6B4.mp4

I fancied some retro stuff today, and maybe even putting proper time in to something. I was toying with playing something on the Saturn or Dreamcast but instead I booted up the Mega Drive collection on Steam. The nice thing about the PC version, which has had a bit of an odd history, is that it has mod support. Sometimes that means things like playing as Knuckles in Sonic 1, sometimes it means whenever anyone dies in Streets of Rage 2 it makes the Tim Allen noise, and other times people have just added other games to the collection through the rom option. I played som Hyperstone Heist, some Maximum Carnage (a Spiderman game), Batman & Robin. What I learnt was that this is cool, people have added all sorts of stuff, but also I'm not as good at these games anymore, nor do I have the patience for them Instead I played some Landstalker. I really liked Landstalker when I was younger, I was probably a bit too young and inexperienced to make the most of it though. It's kind of Sega's Zelda (it's actually made by Climax Entertainment, who made the excellent Dark Saviour for the Saturn), but with some isometric platforming and a bizarre take on how to move in isometric games (there's a mod to change it to more traditional controls, as default it's all about diagonals) I'm not far enough in to say definitively if it still holds up, but certainly it's not terrible. The biggest problem is when you encounter enemies, if you're by a wall your attack wont come out as the sword will hit the wall. Lining up to enemies is a bit fiddly thanks to the odd controls, I almost wish it was slightly more grid like movement, so you moved a set distance with each step, it'd make lining up against enemies and things to interact with a lot easier. Aside from that it had the adventure game thing of never quite being A-B, you aren't just moving in a straight line, even in dungeons you'll have to work to find keys or to activate something. I'm hoping it doesn't get too obtuse, but I'm hoping I keep chipping away at it, I don't go back to properly old games and finish them as often as I'd like

I started playing this today. Only got through 3 levels because the battery was dying in handheld mode. Hard to really say anything about it only after 3 levels. It looks nice, controls well, nothing really surprising so far. Is what it looks like. I really did run the battery all the way down before putting it back in the dock, though, so that’s a good sign I didn’t want to put it down

This is by SWERY so you know it's bonkers as shit. I had no idea what type of game this was and i was not expecting a horror puzzle platformer. You play as Jackie (J.J Macfield) in search of her girlfriend Emily after she vanishes during your camping weekend in the mountains. Immediately noticable is the slow pace at which you move, closely followed by doughnuts and use of your mobile phone. The game also explains nothing so you have to guess what to do in all instances. So it turns out you use J.J's body to your advantage. She can dismember herself on various types of scenery, from losing an arm (which can be picked up and thrown), then a leg, then you are just a torso, finally just a head (which moves quickly and has a boss jump). You can also set yourself on fire and you can use all this pain to progress through the levels in search of your beloved. I don't wasnt to give anything else away, i just recommend you play this knowing as little about it as possible, it's truly bat shit crazy but I'm really enjoying it (apart from the crawl speed of the character movement). I will say the story/message is getting good, text messages between J.J and her friends are drip fed to you as you progress.

No one else playing this? I got it on release and I’m fucking loving it. The track design is really inventive and a step above what they’ve done before. I’ve not played enough to say how they stand to multiple plays and bettering times but they’re very promising so far. Feels as good as ever and there seems to be loads of content, I’ve been playing a few hours and unlocked loads of tracks and only just got to the medium tier, this is where it really picks up for me personally. The medium and hard tracks are where the best ones are in the previous instalments IMO. The tracks have some good challenges to encourage repeat plays apart from times as well. Like fusion where they ask to not brake or no leaning, this has similar objectives that pop up but they seem more manageable and more logically set out. Couple of small complaints. The progress for unlocking bikes seems incredibly glacial after the first one. Convenient that’s theres now a way to buy them with real money now... loot boxes, while easily ignored, still annoy. The map layout can ruin the flow sometimes, just adding a bit too much time and too many button presses between plays compared to previous instalments. By far my biggest complaint though, Ubisoft Club! It forces you to link to it to be able to access the leaderboards and have the classic ghost times show (real people not the medal ones). I think that’s really really fucking shitty hiding one of the best features - which was always front and centre and a highly regarded part of the game - behind making you sign up to their shitty club thing. Arseholes. Overall though, the game is brill. If you like Trials get it immediately. Preferably on Xbox and give me some more times to race against!

Its good. I don’t have a problem with the controls and the shooting works out ok if you have something in the circle. I had my mech knocked out and now I’m running around on foot not knowing how to revive it though. ??‍♂️ 481A11B8-81F0-488C-801D-F8AB5548DAB8.mp4

Thanks to a suicide at the next station I was handed 2 hours to play Switch this morning in the cold. Unfortunately the demo for Yoshi is only 20 minutes or so long as they’ve only given us 1 short level to explore. 20 minutes includes my 3 play throughs to 100% it. It’s beautiful and the added depth adds.. depth.. to the world. There’s almost zero challenge to the level in the demo which I think is 1-1. I’ll upload my videos and pics once home later tonight.

aka Tetris Battle Royale. 100 Tetris pieces fall out of a plane..... Actually it's 99 players and it's not quite what I expected from the trailer. What I thought it was going to be was everyone puts down a different piece, but this is 99 people all playing at once and everyone fires garbage at a different person (random, I assume) until that 99 player base gets whittled down to 1. I got 27 out of 99 on my first match, so that's an acceptable first try. Get in a lobby with the Japanese Tetris masters and you'll soon be boned though. Completely free to download for Online subs, no extra purchases as yet, just another Online sub incentive.

I haven't played a huge amount of this but someone should start a thread It's the easy comparison but Wargroove is basically Advance Wars meets Fire Emblem, but bigger. It's got the commander concept, stronger units that mean victory/failure if defeated, and who also have special abilities that can affect surrounding units (health recovery, defence boost, an extra turn), this is the titular Wargroove. Aside from that it's the familar Advance Wars tile based gameplay, with units being strong or weak against other types or units. This could be clearer, you click on them and have little icons that show the types they're strong to or weak to, but it might be better to have it spelt out a little more, maybe even showing that they're boosted as you line up an attack. There's also critical traits, things like having two pikemen next to each other means that the one that's attacking will have boosted attack. It's a key part of the gameplay but some are much easier to act out than others. For whatever reason, as much as Wargroove is Advance Wars and it is Fire Emblem, it doesn't quite feel like either of them, it's not as immediate or as compulsive. It might just be that it's be that it's not as good, the first Advance Wars rates as right up amongst the most I've enjoyed a game on first encountering it. I think part of it is the maps, they're larger than the early stages of the Nintendo games its aping, and they quite quickly start trying to trip you up in a way that those games don't in their early stages. The fog of war it introduces for example, Advance Wars would leave enemies very deliberately in place so you could breeze through learning the mechanic, Wargroove turns it in to a proper level. It also feels like some units are just not very good, it's less rock/paper/scissors and more that swordsmen are just worse than pikemen. The longer length of missions is probably not helping it either, but then, that's just in comparison to Advance Wars and the like, it's a good game, it just suffers because it wears its influences so obviously I will say though, I'm enjoying it, and the way the audio pans as you attack from one side of the screen to the other is a great touch

I'm surprised there is no thread for any of these. I got this a little while ago and just started getting around to it. I've not really played any of these games before except looking at the Vita one for a few minutes when it was on PS+ so I'm more than a little late to this party. So its a relatively simple block puzzle game with ties to music. You make up squares and they disappear... then you get points and you have to last a long time. Sorry, I'm not very good at the game yet and I don't think I understand it that well. I've played a few of the missions were it sets up certain situations and you have one move to eliminate all the blocks but I've not been strategically setting anything up yet in the main game; I just whack stuff down vaguely together hoping it will all combo together further down the line. I do try to time my dropped blocks to get the most down before the music's BPM(?) bar does a scan so I can get the most down and get combos... I think, that's how it works. I'm having fun with it, anyway. I'm a bit hot or cold with the music so far to be honest but I'm enjoying the game. I have no idea how I'm gonna get anywhere near @spatular's score.

It’s not as bad as easy allies made out with its 5.5. Eurogamer must be drunk to give it 1/5. It very much falls into the 6.5 - 7/10 ball park. I cant stress enough that depending on how much you enjoyed the previous two entries will greatly determine how invested you’d be with this newest adventure. I’ve only played and completed the first game of the in game console which is an isometric brawler. It’s better than I’d expected while also being pretty straight forward. Level design so far is very simple but I was surprised to learn I’d missed some secrets a long the way. Its only £25 Digitally without the season pass and I’d say that feels the top end of acceptable from what I’ve played and enjoyed of it so far. Also it’s obsessed with tee shirts ??‍♂️