“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #026
7 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Woo, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been here! It’s your favourite deputy editor, Coffee, wishing you all a happy Friday and a happy Live A Live day! A big thanks to Red for handling last week’s column. He really is the best, y’know? Anyways, let’s see what our wonderful writers have been up to this week!
The Coffee family has been out of sorts this whole week: Kid Espresso fell ill on Friday and then passed it on to us soon after. Despite starting to show symptoms, I streamed some Oracle of Seasons on Sunday (to make up for the lack of streams the previous week) and finished off the Explorer’s Crypt. One more to go and then it’s time to finish the GBC Zelda collection once and for all!
Despite my being under the weather, I had enough energy to do some gaming. I finished up the early access release of Ex-Zodiac and man, what a game that was! I’m really excited to see what the finished product will look like. If you want my thoughts on the work in progress, check out the review I wrote this week.
I started Neo: The World Ends With You. For someone who’s a fan of the first game, there are SO many callbacks to that title. I’m digging the four-person party mechanic, as opposed to the frantic dual-screen partner set up in the first game. My only issue is that I’m not a fan of Rindo (the main character of Neo) like I was with Neku. He feels a bit one-dimensional so far, but I’m sure that will change once I go deeper into the story. The best part about this game is that everyone’s favourite math fanatic, Sho Minamimoto, makes a return as a playable character! I’m interested to see how he factors into the complex equations that make up this sequel.
I also dabbled here and there on a bunch of retro titles – mainly those of the Ninja Turtle variety as my quest to convert Kid Espresso into a fan continues. Aside from that, last night I finally finished the campaign mode of StarFox 2 after nearly a year of not getting to it! I really liked the direction this game went. It was interesting to see the working game element prototypes that would eventually make up the mechanics for both StarFox 64 and StarFox Command.
This was a slow week for me since this was my vacation week, so I’ve been focusing on trying to get better at the Master Mode in Super Monkey Ball Gaiden (A difficult rom-hack of Super Monkey Ball 2). Master Mode is the hardest difficulty with 10 stages, and it is something you need to beat all in one sitting. I can only get to level 3 right now. I have sat for probably 2 hours and died 80 times. Hopefully, I get to level 4 soon.
Edit: I beat it:
I’m doing what red mages do best: multitasking so mid that I can’t really get anything done. Even now, I wrote that sentence and then clicked over to another tab, checked my socials, swapped over to a project on Photoshop, replied to some emails, and responded to some DMs before coming back to this sentence. C’est la rouge.
Anyway, things are on the upswing again ’round here and you’ll get an official announcement as to why shortly. Safe to say for now that a lot of us are feeling busy and productive again. For me, that’s wonderful but it’s just a matter of figuring out what games to play and when! I’m currently juggling Graveyard Keeper, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, a smidge of a refresher for Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for the upcoming episode of MAGE CAST, and *sigh* Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town… I just can’t seem to get away from these farm sims. Probably because I don’t stop buying them.
I was asked by several folk to give an update on Dragon Quarter, so expect a Demo Disk first impressions post on that soon, as well as a review for Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. Like I said, it’s a busy time! Oh and I also bought Live A Live… rushed right out and bought it like I really have the time to come home and play it… what am I doing with my life?
I finally got around to playing Death’s Door this week, and wow what a refresher that game was! Just at the point where I was starting to feel burnt out on gaming, this gave me all the joy I usually feel from my beloved top-down Zelda games! Admittedly it isn’t perfect.. the post-game cleanup is something that I can’t see myself pushing through just to see a ‘true’ ending.. but overall I was very happy to take a journey with a lil’ reaper crow.
From a crow to a cat, I also just finished Stray. Now, this is not what I was expecting at all: I think in my mind it was going to be a platform game of some kind. In actual fact, it has more in common with modern point ‘n’ clicks like the recent Beyond a Steel Sky. In fact, wandering around the dystopian city of this game and avoiding literal headcrabs put me square in the Half-Life 2 mindset, which says volumes about the world and attention to detail. It may not be the longest game, but I had a lot of fun with it these past couple of days.
Finally, Very Very Valet has scratched the co-op gaming itch this week. It’s short, it’s relatively easy, but it’s certainly been an enjoyable diversion in the long wait for news on another Overcooked DLC!
It’s hard to beat the heat when you have to be out in it for a few hours during the day performing farm chores, but when I am able to relax and cool down, I like to have the Nintendo Switch in my hands. Still having a love for the retro titles of yesteryear, I really do enjoy playing the N64 games through the Switch Online service. Some of the few that are currently featured are new to me, and that includes Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Being one of the games I missed out on when I was younger, I have found it quite fun to play a classic game with fresh eyes. The 3D graphics blended with “straight navigation” can cause some confusion over what surface is solid and which one is not. Aside from that, the game is simple and purely Kirby, and that’s OK with me!
My kids have also picked up new game titles to try. My daughter has an affinity for farming and life simulations, so I was not surprised when she started playing The Sims 4. You might say that kids grow up too fast, but when they get a mortgage, career, start a family, and become the social queen of their community, all at the age of 11, that might be going too far.
My son is also playing a simulator, a Goat Simulator in fact! This “game,” if you want to call it that, is one of the strangest sandbox experiences I have ever witnessed. Without any real motivation or direction, you play as a goat unleashing destruction upon a large open-world cityscape. You can lick things and your tongue sticks to any object, including people and vehicles. I feel that this title is less of a “simulation” and more of a meme in the form of a video game. To each his own, I suppose, and I am glad my kids are having fun and staying cool this summer!
This week I’ve been trying the DLC for Mafia 3, specifically the one where Lincoln Clay had to take on a hokey bayou cult! It was surprisingly tense and a bit spooky, so nicely done there!
I’m also back to DayZ, where we’ve been haunting a nearby town and stealing all the good supplies, like any survivor worth their salt should be doing!
So, what were you 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.
