“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” #004
11 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
February is in full swing and Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Why not give a gift to that special someone (yourself) by beating a game this month? Give the gift of fighting your backlog back.
I’ve been having a pretty wicked time with my Wii U that I bought a year back. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is my next big adventure. It’s really a fantastic game. I remember renting the GameCube version as a kid of maybe 10 years old, and I just could not beat the first dungeon… I was also terrified of the monsters, especially with that creepy battle music… So it’s been a real treat seeing the rest of the quest that I never got to experience. While I have some criticisms about it being really inefficient and inconvenient to do just about anything (even with the Swift Sail…), the whole world of Wind Waker‘s Hyrule is so full of life and charm and curiosity that it’s hard not to love.
After barely besting Super Mario World with my partner and craving more SNES co-op euphoria, I played Kirby Super Star and conquered that as well. I’ve dabbled in it before, but this time it really struck me how freaking weird this game is. Every enemy, level, and music track is spazzy and trippy. It’s a big departure from other Kirby games, in that it’s got a decent challenge to it, and the level design is a lot less linear and more “let’s confuse the heck out of players”. The boss battles are very fun, and I loooove how the 2nd player actually becomes an enemy-turned-ally.
We then grabbed Kirby’s Dream Land 3, my personal favourite entry in the franchise (though one I’ve never reached the proper end of). The whole game is positively leaking with comfort and coziness; the soft, pastel graphics are delightful, the music is so chill and warm, and the levels are great with some clever secrets to unlocking the Heart Stars, which are required to reach the final boss. The Animal Friends return from Dream Land 2 with some newcomers and are an absolute joy to play with. Discovering which ally and which Copy Ability to combine is scientifically proven to boost your serotonin levels. Looks like I’ll be digging into more Kirby games for next week, as his 30th anniversary is coming up.
So I’ve finally gotten back on track on what games I need to play so that I can finish them. I’ve continued to play Super Robot Wars 30. The missions I’ve been doing this week are really great. “The Second Coming of Zero” apparently references the Code Geass movie and the mission itself is nutty if you understand the context. It’s a bit spoiler-heavy though, so as someone who’s never watched Code Geass, it’s a bit of a shame but I accept that it’s still pretty cool. I also want to mention that Super Robot Wars is definitely pretty easy for normal mode. Sometimes it feels too easy because I rarely have units die out on me even if the enemy units outnumber mine. For a strategy RPG, I wish there were more diversity in different kinds of units which really diminishes the strategy in strategy RPG. But I’m still enjoying the game nevertheless, and I’m still slowly chopping the wood to completion. I’ll probably be talking about this game for a while here.
The other thing I’ve finally gotten back on track with is Tales of Arise. It’s a pretty awesome game so far. I’ve taken a few weeks’ break on it and just got back into progression yesterday. As far as Tales games go, I’ve only played Berseria, and Tales of Arise is much, much more difficult so far given I am a little over ten hours in. The gameplay feels pretty fleshed out in comparison too. I’m really excited as to where the story will go as I continue to defeat the rest of the lords. I also absolutely adore the character interactions, a staple of Tales games, and they’re often pretty hilarious. The world is also very interesting and you get rewarded pretty well for exploration and quests. So that’s where I’m at right now with Tales of Arise.
So it definitely feels great to be on track on beating games haha. I’ve been starting a game left and right in the past month.
I think I’m ready to talk about Nioh 2, finally! After spending over 100 hours on Nioh 1 I was very excited to jump into the sequel and it does not disappoint! Nioh 2 is a souls-like action-adventure and is among the most brutally challenging in the genre. You play as a samurai that was born as half-human, half-yokai (demon) and takes place during the 1500s in Japan. It’s a very complex game; every weapon you find (there are about a dozen) has three different stances with unique move sets each and every weapon has its own skill tree to unlock many more moves. In addition, you have access to samurai, ninja and shiftling skill trees. And don’t even get me started on imbuing guardian spirits that can be equipped with souls for additional moves. Plus weapons and armor can be purchased, forged, soul matched, tempered, refashioned, remodeled and disassembled. Do you have a headache yet?
Oh, and I played through the Last of Us DLC ‘Left Behind’. Not much to say about it, it was a very short experience that had a lot more story than gameplay. Another game I started recently is called Stretchers. It’s a co-op paramedic game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by the big dogs themselves, Nintendo. Will report back when I put more time into it but it’s a very silly and fun title so far.
Progress has been slow on the video game front. Just haven’t had the time or focus for it the last couple weeks, unfortunately. I did, however, finally, get deep into the second chapter of the still-very-enjoyable Paper Mario. From what I gather, I have recruited about half of the additional party members, and I’ve even leveled one of them up to Super. I continue to fail in the Pantheon of The Artist with the Nail Binding, in Hollow Knight, though.
What an exciting week! On the heels of an AMAZING Nintendo Direct (and I mean those CAPS), my backlog is going to grow exponentially this year, I just know it, so I’m doing my darndest to cruise through my ongoing titles: Guacamelee!, Starlink, and now Pokemon Legends Arceus. Despite being not really an action RPG (?), it’s amazing and makes Pokemon seem smoother and more modern than ever.
I also completed the Mortal Empires campaign which I’m counting as completion for Total War: Warhammer (1). Can’t wait to play the 3rd game releasing this month!
And to underscore the fact that the backlog ever grows, my friend Cory G was a real G and gifted me a sub to Game Pass! Oh crap! Ineffable generosity and an unspeakable number of games now available to me on PC… including Total War: Warhammer 3… releasing this month…! For real, though, I checked out a bit of Ori on there. Seemed an appropriate first choice.
~Red
I’m still working through Super Mario RPG on stream. Got the whole gang together. I’m running with Peach and Bowser because Bowser’s my boy and Peach has the good healing. Sorry Mallow and Geno, but you just can’t quite compare to the King and Princess. And that red guy, I guess.
You know that feeling when you’ve finished all the games you were playing and you’re just staring at your To Play list going, “Well, now what?” That’s where I am this week outside of streaming. With Pokemon Legends Arceus done and three runs of Artifact Adventure Gaiden complete, I’m just kinda…idling. I did go back and finish Superliminal, but it’s not a “dig your teeth in” game. It’s light and breezy, like a salad. Salads are delicious and good but I’m yearning for something with some meat in it. Maybe it’s time to finish Fallout: New Vegas (and by finish I mean restart for the fourth time.) Or maybe Psychonauts 2. But also I’ve been meaning to play Return of the Obra Dinn and Hypnospace Outlaw. Ugh, choices are hard.
Tale of Immortal is a cross between a bullet-hell shoot-’em-up and an RPG that’s absolutely batpoop insane. You play as a cultivator, basically a Chinese take on a wandering wizard, and you go on all sorts of crazy adventures in a randomly-generated world. You can interact with other cultivators, make friends, form relationships, get into rivalries…while everyone’s goal is immortality through enlightenment, that doesn’t mean the way there is going to be sunshine and rainbows. I think the highlight was when my character discovered a mysterious old sage with the miraculous ability to…poop out pills he’d taken so he can take them again. And, of course, my character begged to study under poopsage so he could learn to do it too. I’m not sure any other game can give you this kind of experience.
Lost Ark, meanwhile, is a somewhat more traditional RPG experience brought to you by Jeff Bezos’ people over at Amazon Games. It’s an MMORPG that’s been out for a while, but it’s only just recently seen a Western release. In terms of gameplay, Lost Ark’s got a lot in common with Diablo 3 and similar titles, but there’s something to be said for the incredibly satisfying and responsive combat. Abilities look impressive, feel good to use and sound great. There’s something to be said for a good presentation.
In eager anticipation of this weekend’s big theatrical release of the Uncharted movie, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End as part of the PS5 Legacy of Thieves collection. Whilst I remember the story beats of Uncharted 4 quite clearly, I admit that only completing one previous playthrough of it on the PS4 has left me with very little memory of the levels themselves. This can only be a good thing because it’s making this experience just like playing a whole new game! Admittedly I’d love to see Naughty Dog explore the Uncharted universe a lot more through other Lost Legacy style spin-offs, but for now, I’m basking in how beautiful A Thief’s End looks on Sony’s new hardware… even though I am still convinced that there’s something just that slight bit off about the aiming. It’s definitely not my reflexes getting slower as I hurtle into my late thirties… definitely not…
On a lighter side of gaming, I’ve dipped into Ary and the Secret of Seasons on PS4: a sweet little Ocarina of Time-esque title that takes the season-switching mechanic from the 2D Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and utilises it in quite a unique way. So far it seems a little fetch-questy, and the dungeons seem very short but the level layout seems quite intricate and even though the plot so far seems riddled with cliches, I’m interested to see in what direction it will decide to go.
I’ve also downloaded Sifu. Possibly too early to talk about it yet – potentially a job for next week – but my first impressions are quite positive. I’m loving the combat so far and the overall feel of it reminds me very much of Jackie Chan: Stuntmaster on the PS1. Really hoping it continues to entertain even as the fights get tougher and it starts introducing some timey-loopy-Roguey mechanics that I tend to dislike.
It has been a pretty long week for me as I am currently in the process of doing a lot of needle felting and crafting for future craft fairs and my Etsy shop. However, my streaming schedule remains constant, and this week I played two new indies that were quite fun. The first is a game called Antecrypt, a type of twin-stick shooter much like Robotron, but in this game, the player can not control the aiming reticle. It has a mind of its own, so the player must navigate around the arena to get the best shot on the dangerous enemies. I also played a 3rd person arena shooter called Drone Gladiator. Imagine Marble Madness, except guns and shields are strapped to the marble!
For Casualty Friday, I return back to one of my favorite shooters of all time, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil! I am playing the remastered version created by Nightdive Studios, the very same studio that acquired the rights to all of Acclaim’s old IPs after going defunct. I will play this game on stream for the next few weeks as I am attempting to complete the game organically without any cheats whatsoever, which is much easier said than done. This may take a while, however, because I am currently playing through one of the worst designed levels in the history of video games, the Lair of the Blind Ones. Wish me luck!
On this, the week COVID-19 finally caught up to me, I have played disappointingly little. What I have done is complete the first Mass Effect, which leaves me ready to sink my teeth into the far superior sequel. I was, of course, super virtuous throughout, I even saved the irritating galactic council!
My DayZ adventures also continue, my brother and I now have lots of fancy military gear and those zombies better run when they see us. Will we survive other players though? (Probably not!)
After being a guest on the latest MAGE CAST episode, I set aside Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot and started playing Octopath Traveler again. My focus was centered on tying up loose side stories, picking up the Warmaster job (long overdue!) and grinding for the super boss fight. It was nice to ease back into the swing of things. The soothing melodies and beautiful, HD-2D graphic style also put me in a relaxed and easy-going mood this whole week, and this was a week where I definitely needed that.
I picked up an Everdrive last week for my GBA and loaded a bunch of games on it to test out. The one I kept going back to the most, though, was Tetris for the Game Boy. My goodness, I never realized just how addictive that game could be, despite it being released almost 33 years ago! I also tested out some classic Metroid II, which I’ll be playing on a future stream.
Speaking of streaming, I’m still playing Majora’s Mask on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. On Tuesday, I spent my time picking up more items in preparation for the Great Bay Temple. I then tackled the temple itself on Thursday, and I’ve gotten pretty close to finishing that one-off. I still have Stray Fairies to find though.
I also obtained a copy of SEGA AGES: OutRun for the Switch to play as my first non-Sonic SEGA game on the Sunday stream. The SEGA AGES version is vastly different from the Genesis version – the version I was introduced to. It’s going to be a fun time comparing the two versions and discussing this iconic SEGA title.
Don’t forget to let us know what you’ve been playing this week!
