“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – March 2024
8 min read
A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Spring has arrived and with it, a spring in both your steps and your hearts at all the wonderful goodies cooked up here at The Pixels. First up, a review of Ultros by none other than ItsATM, followed by Berserk Boy by 7 of. Red’s even dropped a few words about the Top Racer Collection, and our EIC, Linguistic Dragon, delved deep into a World of Doom in Akalabeth – World of Doom for the Apple II. We also got a review on Pepper Grinder, also by ItsATM.
We as writers paid tribute to Akira Toriyama after his untimely passing at the beginning of the month. The world will never be the same without him around.
And last but not least, more Gamelogica! This month, we begin exploring the Mana series and its roots in Polynesian/Hawaiian culture.
In between all of that, our writers have been hard at work doing what they do best – gaming! Let’s see what they were playing this month.
March sees another entry in my “Games I’ve Never Heard Of” collection. For those unaware, I’ll occasionally walk into a game store with the following rules in mind: 1. Find a title I’m completely unfamiliar with. No clue of genre, gameplay, graphics, etc. It’s actually fairly difficult in today’s internet age, and thus refreshing to locate one of these oddballs. 2. Spend no more than $5-10. The mission is to find those hidden gems that got lost to time. And thus, the discount bin. The game might not be very good, or it might have simply been overlooked. All part of the adventure.
This time, I came across Volleyfire for the classic Game Boy. Judging by the cover art, I assumed a basic space-shooter in the vein of Solar Striker. Was I correct? Kinda.
Volleyfire is actually a 1-vs-1 dueling space shooter. Rather than flying geometry or insectoid fleets, your adversary is a lone starship out for blood. Think Space Invaders, but rather than a horde of aliens, the foe is your own mirror image. Stages vary up on obstacles, style of opponent, and even number of opponents. You’re stationary for the most part, though some stages see you fly through maze-like corridors, forcing you (and your opponent) to dodge walls as they scroll past.
The game’s not terribly deep. Unsurprising, for an early Game Boy title, but well-suited to 10-15 minute sessions. From what I can tell, it was only released in Japan, but what little in-game text exists is all in English, so you’ll have no translational issues. While I doubt Volleyfire will drop any jaws, it’s unique approach to space-shooters warrants praise. It’s another example of an unfamiliar game taking me by surprise. Check it out, and if you’re feeling bold, give your own “Games I’ve Never Heard Of” experiment a shot. At the very least, it’ll make for an interesting story.
March was largely a continuation of my Ultima replay adventures – it’s not just a whim anymore, now it’s research! I started the month picking up where I left off, with a run of my personal favorite, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar – and after who knows how many runs in the past twenty-five-ish years since I first played it, I still find myself with new angles I can approach it from. Did a tinker run this time around, as I don’t think I’ve ever done a full play with the class, and ended up with the highest-level party I think I’ve ever had in the process. Good times all around.
From there it was on to Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny. From a technical standpoint, it’s a definite improvement over IV, and there are aspects of it I love, but there’s points of it that feel like a bit of a grind to me, namely the endgame. Regardless, I still enjoyed my time with it, using party members I haven’t before in my previous runs and getting a feel for the game all over again.
Between the games and grinding sessions within them, I dabbled a bit with Dragon Quest XI. I don’t intend on sticking with it, as it’s much bigger and longer than I’m looking for at the moment, but like many after Akira Toriyama’s passing, I wanted to play around with something in his style, and having gone through Chrono Trigger earlier this year, something Dragon Quest-y seemed like a logical choice. I’ve played a bit of DQXI before and quite enjoyed it, so running around its world again was just the thing. I’ve also been poking around with Princess Peach: Showtime!, and while it’s nothing particularly groundbreaking, I have to admit, it’s definitely appealing to the theater-adjacent kid in me.
It’s been a slow month for me gaming-wise, but I’ve at least got back to Resident Evil 4, which I put on the back burner for real, important reasons, not at all because I’m scared of it, okay? I’m currently trying to take on Ramon Salazar, but wow is he a nasty customer!
I’m still playing World of Tanks with my dad and brother, fighting through stacks and stacks of invasive freemium content to mine into the game underneath.
This is the first time in months I haven’t been playing Cyberpunk 2077, so at least I’m weaning myself off that anyway!
Overall, March wasn’t a good month for me. I’ve been battling through some personal demons this month – lots of self-doubt, some impostor syndrome, etc. It’s hurt my writing as well as my gaming, specifically on the Final Fantasy VII Remake critique. I won’t be finishing that until mid-April at the earliest. It is what it is, I suppose.
I started and finished Forspoken this month. It’s not at all a bad game. I quite enjoyed it and am still enjoying it. I’m currently exploring the rest of the lands and reading up on all of the interesting lore. Still playing Final Fantasy Tactics. I’m almost at the part where I jumped off the last time – the Wiergraf fight near the end of Chapter 3. THIS time, for sure, I’m taking him down!
I’ve also started a playthrough of Chrono Trigger as a way to pay tribute to Akira Toriyama’s passing. I love that I can play this game on auto-pilot – no need to think too hard, just go through those familiar motions. Currently bumming through my first trip in 12,000 BC. Am I a bowling ball dreaming that I’m a plate of sashimi? Who knows at this point?
Stardew Valley 1.6 is here and I’m right back where I belong, re-re-re-re-re-re-exploring Pelican Town and the surrounding environs, now with more to do than before. This is such a guilty pleasure game for me, and I reconcile that fact with the realization that Stardew is probably the best farm sim (and has been for a while) out there right now. It’s incredible how much is still added to it, for free, all these years later.
If you need me, I’ll be out picking turnips, wooing the same old bachelorette, and probably toying around with a few mods. Always wanted a tractor!
I also started Trials of Mana with Duran, Angela, and the dragoon girl. Should be a good time.
Despite a lot of Real Life happening, I managed to find time for a handful of games this month. I picked up a classic game on a friend’s recommendation: For the Frog the Bell Tolls, an old Game Boy game that never got an official English translation. With a fan patch, though, it turned out to be a game I highly recommend to fans of Link’s Awakening. An adorable top-down RPG on the overworld with 2D platformer style dungeons, it’s filled with ol’ fashioned GB charm.
Speaking of charm, I also played a super cute puzzle/challenge platformer called Dadish. You are a radish who is also a dad, and your radish kids have gone missing. You have to navigate short but challenging levels to find where your kids are hiding at the end and bring them home. It’s kinda of like a simpler, cleaner Super Meatboy, with dad jokes. Exactly the kind of thing I like.
March has been another incredible month, mostly busy with FFVII Rebirth and Persona 3 Reload! I’ve also picked back up where I left off in my first playthrough of Metroid Prime Remastered and while I can appreciate its impact, there are some truly grating elements to the experience. Aside from that, a couple of my best friends convinced me to pick Elden Ring back up from the halfway point that I dropped it at last time, and we’re going through the rest of it completely co-op to prepare for the DLC in June. Something about the lack of character development and any small amount of story being mainly shown through item descriptions has made it difficult to be motivated for a lot of the experience so far. Until further notice, Lies of P holds the crown for personal favorite Souls game!
And so ends March. What have you been playing recently? What did you finish? And what’s next on your backlog? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you all again next month! Same Pixel Time! Same Pixel Channel!
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 Bluesky as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
