“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – February 2023
12 min read
A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
The month allocated to love has come and gone and we at The Pixels want to share the love. Well, the love of our video games, of course. Here’s what our illustrious writers have been clearing up this time around:
Short month? Puh-lease. It felt like a long one thanks to everyone being sick, week after week. In fact, I have a cold right now. It sucks, but whatcha gonna do, eh? Ok, that was a rhetorical question: Play video games of course!
First up, I finished the story of God of War: Ragnarok. The ending hit my feelings hard. The morning after I finished, I gave my son the biggest hug. Ragnarok’s story is powerful – Kratos watches his son grow into a competent and compassionate warrior and I felt that I could relate to that. All we as parents want to do is raise our kids to do good in this world. And while we’re not perfect, everything usually works out so long as we keep trying to do our best. That’s what I took away from this game. And just the other day, I collected 100% of all items and got the platinum trophy – only my fourth or fifth total! I’m not one to 100% things or go trophy hunting, but this game was one of those rare ones where I needed to get that platinum.
Simultaneously, I’m playing through Crisis Core Reunion. At this time of writing, I’m near the end of the game and I’m now tackling all the available missions. So far, I’m about halfway finished.
I spent so much of the past month watching Super Mario Bros. Super Show with my son that I got a hankering to play some Mario games. Back in November/December time, I did a full playthrough of Super Mario Bros. 3. This time around, I decided to play Super Mario World on my SNES Classic. I just rolled credits on it this week, but I’m missing one exit! It’s infuriating!
And finally, after much hunting, I scored a physical copy of Metroid Prime Remastered! I cannot wait to get back on Tallon IV and bust up some Space Pirates!
This past month hasn’t been the busiest but I’ve been trudging my way through Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I am really enjoying the combat system so far and I find myself enjoying each new mechanic. I don’t have too many comments about the story but I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of my questions answered.
Also working my way through -ATRI- My Dearest Moments, a visual novel developed by Frontwing and Makura. It is a really interesting premise so far, but I’m not sure how I feel about the characters. There are themes of loss in a futuristic world that is in peril of flooding. It’ll be interesting to see how this game turns out.
I’m on my way through Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals and it has become instantly endearing to me, at least to play. I’ve got some qualms with the story (Tia did not deserve that treatment!) and nothing narratively has really resonated with me yet, but the gameplay… it’s like another 16-bit Zelda: Link to the Past I never knew existed! There’s even a hookshot! The puzzles are stimulating. The graphics and music are great. This is an excellent late-gen puzzle-RPG for the Super Nintendo.
In the meanwhiles, I also finally laid Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen to rest, after a playtime of oh TWO MONTHS. What a doozy of a game. The start of the Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre franchise, a kind of spiritual ancestor to Final Fantasy Tactics and therefore Ivalice, and a technological SRPG marvel on the SNES. I enjoyed it but it’s so huge, massive, and unwieldy I’m not sure I’ll ever make it through it again, despite the fact that it has multiple endings. Is there an evil alignment run in my cards someday?
It’s been a pretty busy month for me, so to be honest, I haven’t really played anything since I finished Dragon Quest Treasures, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Mostly, I’ve been reading, but I did find time to feed my demo addiction in the newest Next Fest. However, there weren’t as many that jumped out at me this time, and even a few that I ended up removing from my wishlist due to failure to mesh with them. Still, though, there were a few standouts.
- Ogu and the Secret Forest, a super cute top-down adventure similar to classic Zeldas with adorable art and wonderful charm.
- Super 56, a Warioware-like that puts you as an exchange student in Hell, living with a pair of demons and helping them beat their rivals at video games. The goofy premise and setup had me grinning like an idiot during the intro.
- Cornucopia, a 2.5D Stardew Valley. The simple addition of being 2.5D gives it a visual boost over other farming/life sims, and the minigames and mechanics are all rather new and refreshing. Plants grow better with certain nutrient setups, for example. Fishing is done in a pachinko-style minigame. There’s scratchcards! And you can bring your loyal chicken to help you fight in the mines. There’s a lot of familiar elements, all given a unique twist that I loved.
I can’t say those are all of the games I ended up with an eye on from this Next Fest, but they’re definitely the standouts. Now just to wait for them to come out…
What if your choices mattered for a moment and then, all of a sudden, reset to sum zero? Would those choices be worth making? Are lives worth saving? Relationships mended, even though you know full well, in three days, either the world will end or time will get reset, rendering your work null and void. Would you even bother?
That’s what I got to spend over a month exploring in Majora’s Mask. After decades of avoiding the game, I finally dove into my Zelda series and was blown away. In spite of N64 control jank, insane minigames, and a three-day time loop that’s – well – a time loop, the collection of playable short stories left a mark on me that won’t be scrubbed away any time soon.
A game full of people dealing with their impending doom in their own special way in a world upended by a lonely boy with too much power at his fingertips, Majora’s Mask is the brave next evolution for a franchise often content to live in the same old formula. So glad my podcast series inspired me to play a game that’s been loathed and loved all at the same time.
Shadow Complex has given me such an enormous dose of nostalgia that I almost felt like a kid again whilst playing through it this month!
The map is just as expansive as it needs to be, there are tons of collectibles waiting to be found and it’s always so enticing with the next area to explore or secret to discover.
The combat is an absolute joy, and made me look forward to encounters just as equally as I took great enjoyment in sneaking up behind the baddies to get that oh-so-satisfying one-hit kill!
I know the author who created the universe the game is based in has some rather unpopular views, and in 2023 it can be difficult to see past that. However, if you can appreciate the game on its own merits, there is a lot of fun to be had here, and quite frankly why would anyone want to miss out on that?
Sure, it has been a short month, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get some game-related business done. First off, I’ve been reorganizing my Twitch stream after taking about 6 months off from it. It will be a new approach to the content that I love, which is indies and retro games, and I am looking forward to showing it off soon.
It seems like this month was the month of wonder shadow drops, and that includes the fantastic rhythm-based action title, Hi-Fi Rush. At first, I thought that it was just a small-time indie that happened to make it onto Xbox Game Pass, but it is actually an amazing AAA title with an endearing cast of characters and killer aesthetics. It’s like playing a PS2 game and a Saturday Morning cartoon all at the same time!
If shadow-dropping beautiful games were a thing for February, then Nintendo got it right with Metroid Prime Remastered. The original Prime is my favourite game of all time, and the remastered version just accentuates that love. The haunting atmosphere of Talon IV, combined with the new duel stick controls gives this game a new depth that I did not think I would see. There are other games I would like to see receive the “remastered” look, but this game gave me everything I was looking for in a title that is over 20 years old!
I have been waiting all month long for the PlayStation VR2 to come out and it’s finally here! In my own two hands, incredible! I knew I was going to pick the VR headset up from the moment it was announced during the State of Play. I really enjoyed the original PSVR; it had a fair amount of support for quite some time and featured some really fun experiences. The big downfall of the system was setting it up, with several HDMI cables and a hub along with the PlayStation Camera it was quite a hassle.
Fast forward to the PSVR2 and it’s really easy to set up, has higher quality and requires less equipment to run. For starters, it only uses one USB-C cable to connect to your PS5. A simple plug-and-play technique that is user-friendly. Second, it requires no camera or HDMI hub. The PSVR2 uses cameras built into the headset to determine where the player is, just turn on a couple of lights. Finally, it comes with two new controllers. They feature the adaptive triggers, HD rumble, and basic finger tracking that you might see in a Valve or Oculus headset. The headset itself also has a rumble feature which I initially thought would be ‘stupid’ but turns out…it’s actually pretty cool. It’s been utilized in all the games I’ve played so far and it makes me smile every time it goes off. The new passthrough feature allows you to see your surroundings with a single button press, which is great for if you have kids, lots of furniture, or pets to keep track of where everything is at. It’s more comfortable than the original model and features more adjustments than before.
Alright enough about the specs, GET TO THE GAMES! First on my list to play was the bundled in-game Horizon: Call of the Mountain. It takes place between the first and second Horizon games. You play as Ryas and are tasked with figuring out what has called the mechanical beasts to the mountain range and to find your brother. You even meet Aloy along the way. So far the game has been a lot of climbing with minimal combat. It feels more like a tech demo than a game at first but opens up in the later chapters. There are multiple paths to go on, targets to shoot with your bow, and you can play the instruments that are laying around. The environments, machines, and objects all look great. Call of the Mountain certainly shows off the capabilities of the PSVR2. All in all, a good start and an excellent first-party offering from PlayStation.
I also played a few rhythm games that I was interested in and they didn’t disappoint. Drums Rock may have a silly name but it’s a blast to play. You sit in front of a drum set, grab your sticks, and play along to different songs. Instead of notes coming towards you like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, demons fly at you. They are colored to which drum you should hit once they are in the strike zone. Orange, purple, green, blue, red, and yellow all fly toward you and represent a different drum or cymbal. Most of the songs on the track list are cover bands but they do a decent job with tracks like I Love Rock n’ Roll, Bring Me To Life, and Black Betty. It’s been a really fun time so far and I’m already number 1 on the leaderboards for the Alestorm song featured in the game.
The other rhythm game I tried out was Unplugged. The frontman from Steel Panther, Satchel, teaches you the basics of playing air guitar. This game features plenty of great tracks from bands like Tenacious D, The Hive, Jet, and many more. The main aspect of the game is moving one hand along the neck of the guitar while the other strums. I probably look really dumb while playing but it’s quite fun. Since the PSVR2 has basic finger tracking that’s how you form notes instead of the 5-button layout you might see on Guitar Hero. The note highway follows the neck of your guitar, so you’ll never lose track of what notes to hit next. It’s getting more complicated as I keep playing and I’m excited to try and master it!
The final VR2 experience I want to talk about is Resident Evil Village VR, a free download for owners of the original game. Since RE Village is already in first person (just like Resident Evil 7 which was a VR launch title too), I knew it would get the VR treatment. The VR mode doesn’t change the entire experience like Resident Evil 4 VR on the Oculus but it’s still a blast going through the familiar halls of Castle Dimitrescu from a new perspective. Having Lady Dimitrescu follow you around in VR makes things a bit more intense. I wouldn’t say the game is scarier in VR but there is a feeling of unease and tension that I didn’t experience when playing in its original form. The game still looks, feels, and plays great. I’m very happy with my purchase and once I’m done writing this I’ll be running back to my PS5 to play some more!
While I’ve been playing the Final Fantasy VII Echo-S voice-acted mod on stream (it’s wonderful, and you should check out my impressions from last week!), in my personal time, I’ve been playing through Hogwarts Legacy. In a few weeks, I’ll have a full critique of the game. I’ve never been a die-hard fan of Harry Potter (not compared to other family members), but I must say the game is fun, the open-world is fascinating, and the combat is enjoyable (it’s what I think Forspoken wanted to feel like). I just got my first mount (if a broom counts as a mount), and man I’m having a great time.
Beyond that, at the request of a class I teach, looks like I’ll be restarting/resuming stream-lectures on biblical kingship and Final Fantasy XV soon, so if that’s interesting to you, stay tuned!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed returning to the tactical RPG world with the recently-released Fire Emblem: Engage, and it’s hit all the notes that I’ve come to know and love as a fan of the franchise. (Review/critique incoming; watch this space!) After finishing that game with over 100 hours of playtime, I’ve felt the “post-completion void” that tends to come around after I play through a game in which I’m so invested, especially one that I streamed. So, in my personal time, I’ve been playing the campaign of GoldenEye 007 on Xbox GamePass, and it’s been wonderfully enjoyable and just as janky as ever. I’ve also spent a fair bit of time climbing the Constructed ladder in Magic: the Gathering Arena, which is (usually) a good time!
What have you been playing recently? Finish any games in February? We’ll see you all again next month!
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.
That is a Fine selection of games, I’d be more than happy to play nearly any of them.