A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
‘Tis the end of August! Eight months down and four more to go before we can wave 2024 goodbye. It’s been fairly quiet on the frontlines here at The Pixels, given all that craziness that happened in July. Our indie expert, Maggie, put out a pair of reviews. First, she cozied up to the fireside in Fireside, a neat, little indie title with roguelike elements. Secondly, she took the role of an adorable kitty cursed to be the afterlife’s janitor in Crypt Custodian, a solidly put together Metroidvania. And that’s about it. Yeah, super quiet month, this month.
With the summer days winding down and the school season gearing up (with some folks already back in class!), let’s see what our writers have been up to recently:
How does one recover from burnout? It’s not as easy as just trying to shut things off and mindlessly play comfort games. Sure, it takes some self-reflection and plenty of rest away from the daunting tasks that loom over like a foreboding shadow. But most importantly, it requires one to answer some hard questions. Mid-way through August, and after a conversation or two, I felt that I was able to answer them. With renewed vigour, I’m proud to announce that I’ve finished writing the critique for Final Fantasy VII Remake. Look for it in September!
Meanwhile, my PS4 has been getting a lot of use lately as I’ve been cranking away at The Disney Afternoon Collection. All that’s left to finish is Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2 to finally cross that off of the backlog. The summer of Final Fantasy continues with Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, which I started this month. It’s still as good as it ever was. Interestingly enough, the remaster made tweaks to certain characters to make them more easy to use. Some prime examples include Sabin’s Blitz technique inputs being shown on the battle screen and Cyan no longer requiring a charging meter to use his Bushido techs. Definite quality of life stuff. Oh, and that SOUNDTRACK! I didn’t think the music in this game could sound any better than it already did, but the remaster nailed it on the head!
Before you all ask, yes, I saw the Sonic 3 trailer. And yes, I am beyond excited.
I was gifted a PlayStation 5! So of course the very first thing I rushed to play on it was Galaga. You can’t go wrong with the classics, which will probably become a theme of my use of PS5 this gen. I mean I plan to pick up Space Marine II and all that but uh, Ape Escape, Dragon’s Crown Pro, friggin Terraria for the billionth time? I did use it to play some Dave the Diver which is excellently palatable and nostalgic.
Castlevania: Dominus Collection also came my way and I don’t have a ton of experience with the series beyond the NES through PS1 entries, but this… oh ho THIS. I quite enjoyed Order of Ecclesia. Shanoa is my new favorite girlboss. Will I be jumping into the next one in the collection? I’m a bit disappointed that she won’t be the lead in it, but yes. Yes, I will. Next question.
Happy August everyone! Can’t believe we’re already so close to the end of the year. The weeks go by too fast these days. I didn’t get a whole lot done this month in gaming, but what I did get to was some high-quality stuff. Game number one was Chants of Sennaar, which I knew nothing about but had only heard positive things. I will add to the only positive things: what a great game. I’ve never played something that plays with language quite like it, and I was hooked hard.
I also had the pleasure of trying out Crypt Custodian for a review. Having been itching to play a Metroidvania for a while (I may have played too many non-violent games and I needed to fight something), it hit the urge just right. I’ve played a lot of games this year large and small (mostly small), and I would put both of these within the top five best I’ve done this year. Highly recommend, if either of these genres tickle your fancy, make sure not to miss them.
Are you sure it’s the end of August? I call time shenanigans!!
In any case, this month I had something of a hankering for something card-game-y, which coincided with the occasional urge to pick up a Pokemon game, so I combined the two and spent a decent portion of my gaming time this month with the Pokemon Trading Card Game adaptation for the Game Boy. I spent a lot of time with it back in high school, and it was nice to revisit it after a long absence – the nostalgia factor was high indeed.
I also ended up going back to Pokemon Legends: Arceus as well toward the end of the month – I’ve played through the story before, but started a new file I decided to take my time with. I really appreciate its approach to filling out the Pokedex, it’s not just a catch-it one-and-done: instead you need to catch several, use specific moves, evolve them, defeat them, etc., etc. It feels more involved, and I like that aspect of Arceus a lot in the way it encourages trying out new team members, and keep a player from getting stuck in a rut. We’ll see if I catch ‘em all this go around!
It’s been a pretty chill month for video gaming, for yours truly. That said, I have still been chipping away at a couple…
My third playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 reaches its climax, with my katana/cyberninja character proving to be a great one to play as… there’s something really satisfying about clearing an arena full of goons by turning them into chop suey… in slow motion!
I’ve also been keeping my dad company on Snowrunner a couple of nights a week, which mainly consists of driving across difficult terrain to put things on the back of your truck, and then taking those things across difficult terrain to a drop off point! It’s pretty entertaining as a team game, and the maps still look beautiful on the Series X!
Keep on truckin’ everyone!
A ton of Crusader Kings. Risk of Rain 2 DLC just came out so I gotta get all those Bots unlocked. Also starting Bloodborne. I’ve had it since 2018, never played it. Or I should say I’ve played it for an hour went back to playing Dark Souls 3. It’s not that I didn’t like it, because I definitely did. I just liked Dark Souls 3 more. Tetris Effect always makes a nice little appearance. And as always Darkest Dungeon 2 as my go to steam deck game.
What a month. To kick off August my son and I played through Jeanne D’arc and, well to say we were disappointed would be an understatement. There’s a lot of positive word of mouth for this game and we really felt it showed its age. There’s some really good things there, but I think with all the SRPG’s that came before it some of the issues really dragged it down.
From there we returned to our Final Fantasy series playthrough and dove into FFV. This is one I’ve dabbled in but never beaten and man do I regret that now. The light hearted tone of this game is such a pallet cleanser after Jeanne D’arc and SMTV-Vengeance. Bartz is becoming one of my son’s favorite characters and we’re really loving the job system.
Recently we attended a small convention and had the pleasure of playing some unreleased indie games like Alterium Shift, Emery and Dungeons and Ducklings. All three grabbed our attention. One, a pixel art jrpg that feels like fantastic love letter to Chrono Trigger. Emery, a Mario-esque platformer where you design your robot. But my kid’s favorite was Dungeons and Ducklings. A fantastically charming rougelike hodgepodge of Pac-Man, light RPG mechanics and ducks. As a mother duck your ducklings have been taken by the darkness, you grab your sword, and a fedora and head off into the dungeon to rescue them. Yes it is every bit as weird and wonderfully silly as it sounds.
And so ends August. 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.
