“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #006
10 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
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Now, if you need a just few minutes respite to recharge or stave off anxiousness, here’s what our writers were up to this week!
Emotions are terribly unreliable, aren’t they? It was an off week for me, for whatever reason, but I managed to get back into the swing of things with Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster on Wednesday night for giveaway streams. I’ll be starting the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster on Friday night! I can’t wait to revisit FFVI after having an excellent conversation with Philip Hartshorn about it for MAGE CAST.
To keep me even warmer, I’m also picking up Elden Ring. No, it’s not because of the raving reviews it’s received. No, it’s not because git gud. It’s because I know people playing it and sharing games together is one of the best things about this kind of entertainment. I’m glad to do it, not having seen much about the game, not having followed it closely, not being over-hyped but simply anticipating it with warm satisfaction. I have no major expectations and that’s a position I am tremendously glad to be in. It’s a luxury I can’t always afford!
Finally, there’s Pokemon Legends Arceus. Few things are as delightful as encountering a shiny so I’m working up toward a shiny charm accessory to boost my chances by completing my Pokedex. I’ve really been enjoying playing the game and simply being in the game. Don’t miss my guest appearance on Popzara podcast talking about it.
~Red
Put the finishing touches on Return of the Obra Dinn. What a good game. What a good, good game. I’m not usually great at puzzles. I enjoy them, but I’m bad at them once they force a bit more roundabout thinking and more steps. Obra Dinn, though, whenever I got stuck, I could look around a little harder, examine the stage, the text, the pictures, and find my way out of what I was stuck on. There were a few minor gameplay things that I did wish had been explained, would have saved me some time if I’d realized it sooner (like the X on the text noting the speaker was the death I was investigating), but I DID realize them on my own and get through it without once having to go to a guide. It was ultimately satisfying in ways I rarely feel in puzzle games, and the story is going to stick with me for a long time. I completely get what people see in it.
Relatedly, I wasn’t sure what people were seeing in Vampire Survivors, an arcade-style bullet hell rogue-like in Early Access, but a lot of my friends were playing it all of a sudden and singing its praises. It turned out to be a case of the trailers and images making it seem a lot more intimidating than it actually is. Watching someone play from the start was an instant sell. Being only $3, it seemed worth it. Can confirm, it definitely is. It’s well-balanced and well-paced, with diverse weapon choices (and lots of Castlevania callbacks/references). Patches and updates seem to be coming fairly frequently, so though I usually avoid early access, this seemed like a worthy jump to take. Even if the dev dropped it tomorrow, there’s plenty of good gameplay to get out of it for the current price.
I’ve spent a huge amount of time recently with Horizon: Forbidden West. It’s the definition of a great sequel – all the best parts of the original but more so. Precision-heavy combat? Still got it. Tons of stuff to do? Yup. As for the plot, Aloy’s adventures in a post-apocalyptic land ruled by machines are just the right kind of sci-fi shlock. Meanwhile, from a gameplay perspective, there’s a much greater focus on exploring unique setpieces rather than the gradually-samey settings of the original. All in all, it’s a great time that definitely merits some attention, especially if you’ve got a PS5 to get the best possible experience.
I’ve been playing Chicken Police: Paint It Red on the PS4: a noir murder mystery where all of the characters just happen to be anthropomorphic farmyard creatures who look so… so wrong! Everything about the game is really stylish: the plot so far is well-thought-out, the dialogue is suitably snappy, the voice-acting is absolutely incredible… but there’s just no getting away from how disturbing the characters themselves actually look! It’s a real case of “I actually can’t look away” whenever a new character is introduced. The lead character, Sonny, for instance, is a rooster. He has the bodily proportions of an adult male, with a big ol’ photo-realistic rooster head grotesquely photoshopped on. In scenes where Sonny is thinking aloud, his rooster face appears huge on the screen as the dialogue plays and he ponders the case: each line of dialogue taking itself 95% seriously with the odd “clucking” pun thrown in to offset the balance in such a peculiar way. So far the whole thing is disturbing, utter nightmare-fuel… and I absolutely adore it!
I’ve also, unsurprisingly, been spending a lot of time with Aloy in Horizon: Forbidden West. So far it’s everything I was expecting from a sequel to the fantastic Zero Dawn: the world is an absolute joy to explore and the storyline is engaging enough, even though I have a feeling I’m not far enough into it and that it hasn’t yet shifted up a gear, so to speak. It’s definitely scratching that Assassin’s Creed itch for me, of exploring the open world and finding all the question-marks on the map, before realising I don’t yet have the upgrade required to do anything there. My only gripes so far are that the game does a relatively poor job of reminding me what happened in the first game (luckily there are plenty of plot catch-up videos online) and the combat can have its moments where it just decides it hates me and that none of my attacks – ranged or melee – will connect, but overall it’s a hugely entertaining game and one that I have been struggling to put down.
It’s a last-minute post from me this week (because what a week, eh?) I have continued my run into Cyberpunk 2077 now it’s been patched up and yeah, it’s good! The ray-tracing mode on the Series X does struggle though!
I’m also still tackling Mass Effect 2, we now have recruited Jack and are on our way to Grunt, hurrah!
I also had a play on the GBA version of Final Fantasy VI, as MAGE CAST got me feeling nostalgic for it!
I didn’t play too much over the weekend, as I was on vacation. However, there was an arcade right next to the hotel I stayed at. This place had a game called Galaga Assault, among other retro-inspired prize ticket games. I spent probably an hour and a half and upwards of $20 in quarters on that machine alone. And, since no one younger than 30 would bother playing this one, I didn’t have to worry about hogging the game. Never was there a game that I felt so prepared to consistently win! I was gunning for an Amy Rose plush as a prize, but I didn’t have enough tickets to win it. I settled for getting some small prizes for Kid Espresso instead, which he was stoked about!
Sunday night, I took to the streets in Streets of Rage 2. This wasn’t the first time I played this title, but it was the first time I beat it! I’m really happy that I was able to scratch this one off of the backlog. Plus too, these SEGA-focused Sunday streams have (so far) given me a lot of appreciation for the Genesis’ library of games.
I finally scored one of my Holy Grail collectibles this week thanks to a dear friend of mine: the NES Classic! I had to refrain so hard from just skipping work that day to test it out. I did get to play around with it later that night and I’m amazed at the library this system had. I know there have been gripes about certain omissions, but still, it has a fantastic lineup! By far, the game I’m most anticipated to play is Bubble Bobble; my best friend and I played that one endlessly as kids. I showed it to him and he’s already making plans to stop by my place to play it!
Meanwhile, I’m still chipping away at Majora’s Mask on my Retro Adventure Morning streams (Tues/Thurs @ 6:00 am EST). Tuesday, I gathered a few more masks, explored Ikana Valley and began the lengthy Couple’s Mask sidequest. However, on Thursday, I screwed up the sidequest and now I have to start from scratch… All good though, it gives me more of an opportunity to gather Heart Pieces and other things leading up to the end. Plus, I’m one step closer to obtaining the fearsome Fierce Deity Mask!
Finally, I played a bit of Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance. Strategy is a genre that’s way outside of my wheelhouse, but I’m debating whether or not to pick up the Switch remaster. So far, it has great visuals, hilarious dialogue and a gentle, easy-going learning curve. I can see why it was so popular when the GBA came out.
This week I’ve been a bit more active than usual. I’ve finally spent some time playing Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut. I had been checking this game out while I was visiting a friend of mine and ended up liking it enough to just go ahead and buy it. It’s such a gorgeous game and the combat is really fun and quite gory. I’m just really excited to unlock all the different outfits I can get for Jin because I hear there’s quite a lot. I’ve put in about 4 hours on my save and I’m quite enjoying it so far, as well as the photo mode.
I’m still making progress in Tales of Arise as well. I don’t have much new to say about it other than I’m still really appreciating the atmosphere and the depth of combat for a Tales game. Though I’ve only played Tales of Berseria, so that may be a given. It’s also notably difficult as well. I’m really excited to learn more about some characters that just got introduced since I had stopped playing. For context, I am in the middle of the third realm, pretty early on as well.
While I was visiting my friend, I’ve gotten a chance to play Sackboy: A Big Adventure. This was my first impression of the series, and I played between an hour or two on it. It’s fun, I really think there’s a lot of noticeable nostalgia here for 3D platformers and the music is good. I probably won’t be looking to pick it up but this is something I’d love as a kid.
I played through a lot of cups in Sonic and Sega’s All-Stars Racing out of seeking nostalgia and boredom. As a kid, I played the DS version of the game, and I haven’t played it in a pretty long time. This time I was playing it via Steam port. Playing it now, I really feel like this game needs more, as it feels very simple, and a little loose in controls. The fact that there isn’t a mini-map in this game is pretty bad especially since one item is a drone that you can deactivate as it is going through the map. This isn’t a game I will come back to often, but it was at the very least fun to play through the maps again.
And finally, we’re playing Terraria Master Mode with my friend group. We haven’t really played as much lately due to conflicting schedules, but I’m really enjoying hard mode. Even then, we haven’t gotten everybody together, so we’ve spent time grinding and crafting better equipment. Right now I have the Sergeant United Shield (Captain America’s shield) which is a hard mode boomerang that has been crazy for me so far due to it being able to home in on enemies.
My journey with Paper Mario is nearly at its end. After saving the seventh, and last, Star Spirit, I am finally ready to take on Bowser, Kammy Koopa, and the Star Rod. I will almost definitely write up a full critique of the game, so I don’t want to give away too many thoughts, but it’s definitely worth playing. So, if you have the NSO + Expansion, I would definitely check it out. If you want to wait and read why, then give me a week or two. In the meantime, I am wrapping up my latest critique, as well as the newest Pixel Playlist!
Don’t forget to let us know what you’ve been playing this week!
Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Twitter as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
