“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #008
10 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Mar10 Day was yesterday! If you’re looking for stories about the greatest and most recognized character of gaming, we suggest checking out the Super Mario Multiverse collaboration here on The Pixels! A lot of our current writers contributed to the collab. Speaking of which, here’s what they’ve been up to this week:
I finished up Elden Ring this week! It’s a fantastic game filled with exploration, well-tuned combat and wonders behind every corner. As someone who generally tries to avoid the gaming community at large I’m only vaguely on the periphery of the complaints about how difficult it is or how the UI is hard to work with…and, well, I can’t say I’m on board with either of those takes anyway. I wrapped the game up at 60 hours and could easily see 40 more if I felt like putting the time in.
With that done, I started up Triangle Strategy, the latest HD-2D strategy-RPG from Artdink. It’s got an interesting and enjoyable combat system…that you don’t really get to experience all that often compared to the huge amount of story and lore that the game dumps on you via cutscenes. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but if you come into this one expecting the next Final Fantasy Tactics you might be surprised at how little time you actually spend, well, Tactics-ing.
Lots and lots of Elden Ring. It’s been my obsession in lengthy gaming sessions as well as my go-to game whenever I’ve had ten or fifteen minutes to spare, and thanks to the PS5 firing up so quickly I’ve even been able to do so after coming home exhausted from work. What can I say that hasn’t already been said about it? Well, let me offer a few select highlights from my experience with it thus far:
- After many deaths, and way into the small hours of the morning, I finally managed to conquer a dragon-like boss that I’d been struggling with. After performing the most silent celebration so as not to wake anyone else, the game instantly threw a bigger, meaner and more lightning-y dragon at me. “YOU DIED” it announced as I dropped to my knees, lamenting my foolish loss of souls.. erm.. runes? Whatever they are called this time around.
- There are giant wandering Howl’s Moving Castle style mausoleums strolling around some of the more open areas of the game. In order to go inside, you have to hack away at their legs until they decide to sit down and let you climb aboard. Although before that you have to avoid the enormous legs as the entire structure leaps hundreds of feet into the air and tries to crush the player. I can imagine the conversation between the designers: “What do the kids like?” “Bouncy castles!” “Castles… that bounce? Sure!”
- I met the Turtle Pope! Tucked away in an unassuming church stands the cheerfully stoic figure of a large turtle wearing the Pope’s hat. He speaks in the most gloriously dulcet tones, and as soon as I saw him I shouted “Game of the year! at the television screen. Absolutely my favourite seemingly incidental character so far, and I would urge every Elden Ring player to find and speak to His Turtliness just once!
This week felt pretty light for me. On Sunday, I discovered to my horror that I forgot to save my progress for Sonic 3 & Knuckles last week, so I had two choices: Start all over again with Knuckles or play through with a complete file. I chose the latter and it was… OK, I guess? I felt pretty off during the entire time.
Majora’s Mask, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. I journeyed through the Stone Tower Temple and my goodness, what a level. Nintendo really hit it out of the park with this dungeon – lots of challenging, but forgiving puzzles, catchy music and a fantastic inversion mechanic that flips the temple – literally and figuratively. It honestly felt like I was in two different dungeons that occupied the same space and it was pretty neat. Now, I can finally tackle the endgame against the Mask itself.
New this week, I started a game called Tunic! Developed by Andrew Shouldice and published by Finji, it’s a title about a little fox exploring a strange, mysterious island. I should have a full write-up of this title ready by the end of next week.
Elden Ring has possessed me. I am haunted by a video game. If you took my two absolute favourite games, Breath of the Wild and Dark Souls, and had them birth a child, the result would be something like Elden Ring. Ever since the game came out a couple of weeks back, I have been having the time of my life sweeping across the seemingly never-ending Lands Between. While it does get oppressively challenging at points, it’s also simply raw fun. I pumped all my levels into Strength and Endurance, allowing me to wear hulking armour, dual-wield colossal weapons, and use a freaking hand cannon. I’d gladly play the game again so I can experience the high-level sorceries or incantations, but going straight melee is usually how I’ll start a FromSoftware game.
Every time I stumble into an entire area that I could have easily missed had I not been so careful, I am floored. This happens countless times. I love stumbling, getting lost, being confused, and making mistakes—this game (often mockingly) relishes in those feelings, but rewards you for exercising your curiosity and diligence. The sense of scale, of being the tiniest fragment in a massive, organic fantasy world, where you can go absolutely wherever you please, is unmatched. There’s a lot to say that might be better suited for a full review, but I’ll leave it at this: Elden Ring may be my favourite game of all time, even though at 70 hours of playtime, I don’t think I’m close to finished.
Still playing Elden Ring, still not talking about it… yet! Instead, I’ll talk about Stardew Valley which I very recently started playing with friends. I already knew I was going to be hopelessly hooked on it which is exactly why I took so long to play it in the first place. But since I’m only playing co-op with friends it has allowed me the freedom to enjoy other games since I have to rely on the availability of others. It’s the only way to keep my addiction in check, haha.
I also recently started jumping back into Animal Crossing after months of no activity. After getting scolded by all my villagers, I’ve decided to start tearing down many of the areas on my island to start over. I’ve made quite a mess of things and flowers are running rampant all over. If anyone would like to come over sometime and help me get rid of all the flowers I’d greatly appreciate it! I have a new vision for my island that I’d like to start working on but it will probably be a very slow process. Which is okay because there are JUST so many games coming out around this time of year, I’ll probably be talking about a different one every week.
Another week of doing whatever a spider can. Marvel’s Spider-Man has a ton of side missions. Maybe too many. Well, maybe too many that are too similar. I’ll probably do all the mission stuff, but I won’t be 100%ing this game. There’s no way I’m bothering with all the secret photo locations or getting top grades on all the challenges. At almost 90% campaign completion, I imagine I will be giving my final thoughts on this game in next week’s article.
Playing Spider-Man has also gotten me into the mood to watch some. So, this last week, I also watched Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004) for the first time since they came out. I liked them more than I expected to. They’re also funnier than I remember. Willem Dafoe is so good as Green Goblin (yes, better than Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, sorry). Not exactly looking forward to rewatching Spider-Man 3, but maybe I will also like it more than I expect. Anything is possible.
Whilst Elden Ring consumes most of my time, earning favorable comparisons to the first Legend of Zelda from me, personally, I’m left wondering how much this was meant to shock me with its legendary brutality, given FromSoft’s reputation and my lack of familiarity with Souls and Bloodborne. Instead, it’s been something that puts me in mind of retro gaming. Nothing surprising but amazing. Familiar, even derivative, but refreshing and comforting. No, I don’t think that’s overly reductive. The lack of hand-holding, the invitation to simply explore rather than chase icons on a mini-map, it’s all stuff I know I’ve played before, it’s just done here well. There’s a TON of hype for this game (remember hype and nostalgia can be two sides of the same coin), but not unfairly so. A lot of folk have asked me if they should pick it up. I say: you’ve probably already played Elden Ring before, any number of flavors of Elden Ring. You’re not really missing out. It’s traditional yet not quite derivative. BUT (and it’s a big but) you can pick something like this up that’s confident in its mechanics and battles and open-worldyness and have fun with it if you’re into this sort of thing.
In other news, I did manage to complete the Grand Cathay campaign in Total War: Warhammer 3 as much as I’d like. It felt strangely prototypical so folk interested in the series should, in my opinion, just play Warhammer 2 instead. I’ll circle back to Warhammer 3 in a year to see about new content, new factions, and the like.
I also picked up Chocobo GP on mobile but for Nintendo Switch. Jk but seriously. Both in-game and real-life currency microtransactions plus a grind-heavy RPG elements system guarantees that unlocking more characters and content could take a while. I guess that’s what my kids are for. Hey, boys! Daddy needs you to play Chocobo racing for the next four weeks, k?
I see that the theme of my entry this week is hope for additional content, whether that’s coming from the devs themselves or unlocking it myself. Thank God for retro games: complete, whether flawed or not so flawed. In that spirit, and the spirit of MAR10 Day, I played a little Super Mario Odyssey. It’s not a retro game but… it kinda feels like one? It has that timeless quality and energetic fun that I love about Super Mario. Games are for everyone.
~Red
I’m kind of in that weird phase of “I want to play something” but I don’t know exactly what. There’s an itch that demands scratching that I just can’t quite pinpoint. Mostly I just want to keep playing Vampire Survivors, but I’m all tapped out on things to do in it. Achievements done, secret characters unlocked, all the upgrades bought. For all intents and purposes, I’m done until the next update rolls around, but this game has its hooks in me but good. Being limited to a 30-minute play session per run is just so pleasantly breezy that sitting down for a longer game feels tiring.
Still, I’m getting SOME gaming in, even if the itch isn’t being scratched. I started and finished Carto, a very cute puzzle game about manipulating world maps like puzzle pieces to find and access new places. Adorable and enjoyable, but also somewhat tedious. There’s no variety in the mechanics until the last chapter, and by then, it’s too late to pull me back. Luckily it’s also a short game, only about 4 to 5 hours. I’m also playing Jenny LeClue – Detectivu on stream. It’s a simple investigation game, but it shines with its setting and characters, and as a writer, I thoroughly enjoy the story’s framing device as a disheartened novelist’s last hurrah for his failing kid’s detective series. It feels like a book being written, and it’s great. Jenny herself is absolutely awful, I adore her and her vibrant cast of friends and family. I can only hope the Whodunnit portion is satisfying. I’m sure I’ll get there in a few more weeks.
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.
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