“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – January 2023
19 min read
A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Hey! Coffee here, and I’m back to resume my role as column overlord deputy editor of the “Whatcha Playin, Pixels” column! It’s so good to be back doing this. I’ve missed putting this together, it’s always been a highlight of my week! Erm, I mean, a month now, haha!
2023 is said to be a year full of hope. And by hope, I mean “I hope I can plow through my backlog this year, because OH MY GOSH, 2023 is chock-full of highly anticipated, way past cool games!” With that said, let’s see how our esteemed writers closed out the first month of the year. Have they made a dent in their backlogs? Let’s find out!
Woohoo, we’re back baby!
So, what have I been playing lately, I hear you ask (maybe eagerly?) Well, despite swearing off the franchise after the last few titles grew boring for me I have picked up Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in the Xbox sale! Why do you ask? Because it’s a fascinating period of history and I can see my (ancestor’s) house from here, that’s why! Overall it’s pretty good to be fair, though I disagree with the overly RPG elements these days and would prefer some classic Creed!
Also, I’ve tried out High On Life after a workmate recommended it and if you want a Rick & Morty game then this is definitely the next best thing! Funny and has some good classic shooter action too!
November 22, 2022, marked the release of Fan Translators International’s translation of EX Troopers, a bizarre spinoff of the Lost Planet series that was one of the Holy Grails of 3DS gaming back in the day. It was in such demand that Capcom had to explicitly state that it wasn’t going to localize the game, explaining that translating the many cutscenes would take as much work as recreating them all. Our fan-translating pals point out that this isn’t necessarily the case and, with the original source files, localization could have been done by simply editing the speech bubbles used throughout, but this was also a decade ago so we’ll try not to hold it against our pals at Capcom.
As for the game, it’s a fantastic blend of third-person shooters and Monster Hunter-style progression games. You’ve got guns, a dash and a super attack, each of which can be customized and enhanced to your liking, and you’ll go on a variety of bite-sized missions to put them to work with snappy controls and enough bombast to keep things interesting. Mix all this with an absolutely bizarre rethinking of the Lost Planet series – which, in this game, has gone from a gritty sci-fi survival shooter to a Yu-Gi-Oh style shonen anime with plenty of hot-blooded yelling – and you’ve got a unique title that’s worth a look.
I also put a fair amount of time into Fire Emblem Engage. I’m a big fan of the modern take on the series, having started playing with Awakening, and I’m pleased to say that Engage has been continuing the trend of high-quality strategy-RPG action so far. The ability to transform your characters mid-battle to enhance their strength or broaden their skill sets adds a great deal of variety to Engage’s gameplay. Naturally, Fire Emblem’s heavy character focus is also present and accounted for, with plenty of new faces and old friends alike showing up. You’re guaranteed to weep when your favorites taste the sting of Fire Emblem permadeath. Enjoy!
Happy New Year! Goodness, I missed editing this column!
So, between December 2022 and January 2023, I’ve been absolutely slammed. The bulk of December was split between getting back to work routines and setting up new family routines at home. Couple that with a busy Christmas season and everyone in the Coffee household getting sick (including a scary hospital scenario for Lil’ Macchiato – don’t worry, she’s fine now), and you’ll see that I’m over the holidays for a good long while. What I’m not over with, thankfully, are games!
Collection of Mana was my main focus for December. I finished Final Fantasy Adventure and I’ve partially completed Secret of Mana. Still have to go back to that one. I also played a bit of CrossCode to capture extra images for my critique of the game – the very first long-form critique of 2023! In terms of pickups, I got Crisis Core Reunion because Zack is my boi and I haven’t played OG Crisis Core in ages. Also picked up the TMNT: Cowabunga Collection, but I only started playing it after the new year. The NES TMNT game ended up being the first title I beat for 2023! I also rocked TMNT II: The Arcade Game, one of my favourite beat-em-ups of all time.
Over the holidays, I managed to fit in some God of War: Ragnarok. I am, so far, blown away by it! There are so many improvements from the 2018 game, from combat to movement and so much more! Now that the little one’s sleeping in her own room, I now can fire up my blades and sharpen that axe. Sadly, the only complaint I have is the distinct lack of “Boy.” It’s understandable, given that Atreus is now grown up and respected by his father.
At the same time, I fired up Crisis Core Reunion on my Switch. Though the visuals and voice acting is different, the game plays exactly like the original. Well, ok, not exactly like the original, since they updated the battle mechanics. The new mechanics feel fresh and fun when compared to the PSP version. Thinking ahead, I may start playing Hollow Knight as my next title after Crisis Core.
Recently, a fan translation of Monster Hunter G on the PS2 was released to the world, thanks to a fellow named amaillo. It is an expansion of the first Monster Hunter, much like Iceborne to World or Sunbreak to Rise. I’ve never played MH1 before, but it has been an extraordinary experience getting intimate with what the original vision for the series was. It is unforgiving in its design and difficulty, notable especially that this predates Souls games, at a time in the industry when games were leaning toward easier and more on-rails experiences.
There is a terse moodiness that pervades the world (I can’t help but compare it to Shadow of the Colossus), surely a remnant of the grim reality of being under the shadow of giants that can raze villages without a thought. The atmosphere was not something I was expecting, but here, it is thick: the distant herds of grazing dinosaurs, the way light beams in against a forested pond, the rumble of a towering waterfall—all of it serves to immerse me in a way no other Monster Hunter has done. Not only does this new translation make the game finally playable to westerners, but there are also private servers that preserve large swathes of the game which might have been lost to time.
And it is made even better by my experience of having played the more recent iterations of Monster Hunter first. It is with this perspective that I can most enjoy the early mundanity of this foundational title. I can both better appreciate the direction Monster Hunter games headed afterward, and at the same time mourn the loss of the initial vision for the series. I now understand why so many people rant about MH’s new direction, how there will never again be games like Monster Hunter 1 or 2 or 3—because there won’t.
Happy new year! It’s been a hell of a month but I’ve been able to get back into some things recently. I’m continuing my playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (finally), and it’s been a blast. I’ve been appreciating the gameplay differences this entry has compared to the others, as well as the areas. I’ve enjoyed my time doing the hero quests and some of the other side stuff. As expected the music is stellar. I’m interested in where the story is going, which might be something I can talk about more next month.
I’ve also gotten back into my playthrough of VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. It’s been so entertaining to read and play through this game. The game does a really good job of defining its lore and what is happening in Glitch City even though it is mostly contained in the bar and that’s a perspective I’m really enjoying. Planning to beat this game in the coming week.
Lastly, I played some WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain on PS2 as per the recommendation of a friend. I’ve found this game to be something that I can pick up and play pretty easily (kind of like Tony Hawk and Monkey Ball is). It’s been fun to stream this game while my friend is teaching me inputs.
All in all, I haven’t been too active game-wise this month so I haven’t really beaten any games. I’m really looking forward to what games I plan to play throughout 2023. I’ll be recording them in Whatcha Playin’ Pixels all year long once a month!
I’ve been all over the place recently, sporadically playing different games and starting new ones. So this time around I will only talk about the first two games I’ve completed this year so far. The first one is Escape Academy, an escape room puzzle game that I played co-op with a partner. We both enjoy doing puzzles and having the ability to do so together was very enticing. The game opens up with very simple puzzles but quickly ramps up in difficulty as we progressed. The puzzles were entertaining to figure out and solve together, but everything else about the game was a drawback. The story was uninteresting, some of the room setups were too convoluted, and the game itself experienced some glitches and crashing. By the time we finished, we enjoyed what we played but were also glad it was over.
The most recent game I finished is called Melatonin, a rhythm game in the style of Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven. I’m a huge fan of rhythm games in general and Rhythm Heaven is one of my favorites. When I discovered that Melatonin is a wildly similarly styled game I wasted no time in purchasing it when it was released earlier this month. The game did not disappoint! The music is snappy and catchy, the gameplay is simple but challenging, and the monochromatic art style is delightful. The rhythm games get quite a bit more complex in the later levels requiring multiple button presses and more complex patterns, but the songs are so short and fun that I didn’t mind retrying for higher scores. Every level includes a hard mode which I appreciated as it adds a fun challenge after you think you’ve gotten used to the pattern of each song. I cannot recommend Melatonin enough if you’re also a Rhythm Heaven fan or just enjoy rhythm games in general.
A new year is upon us and with it a new attempt to conquer the backlog! The first game I beat this year was Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, which I wound up enjoying a lot more than I imagined. That’s thanks in no small part to the better story beats towards the end of the game, such as a certain plot twist, which I shall not utter here. Overall, it was a bit of a drag to play with tons of encounters and nothing but towers and caves for dungeons, but it was charming, traditional, familiar, and nostalgic while being entirely new to me, and its ending sold me on its characters. Glad I played it and that means on to Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals.
I’m not having as victorious of a January as I did last year when it comes to game completion, but I did multitask writhing in bed sick and playing Game Boy! That meant beating Super Mario Land, a short adventure that I appreciate the brevity of a little more as an adult. The last time I’d played it was as a kid and back then, I recall feeling a mite disappointed because it was so short. These days, I’ll take a brief experience with everything I’ve got going on. Plus it’s a Super Mario shmup and what an acid trip that world is with exploding koopas and moai statues everywhere.
This year, I’m doing my best to stay focused and conquer my list of SNES RPGs!
Happy new year, everyone! Hope your December and January have been good, not too busy, not too sick. This time of year is always kinda nuts for me. My husband’s family has a bunch of birthdays clustered together right after Christmas. Still, I’ve managed to find time to work some games in, especially over the Christmas break. So, let’s see, what have I gotten through these last two months? Well, the big one was Pokemon Violet. I was going to wait until Christmas, but all my friends were playing it on launch, so I gave in and ended up beating the game before them in a rush to catch up and not knowing where they were. Whoops. I also picked up Dragon Quest Treasures which I am far from done with but working through one or two runs at a time. For a collectathon nut, it’s a bad habit I’m probably not gonna drop for a long time. I’ve put hours into it and barely touched the main quest, or any quests, just for running out and finding treasures. It’s an addiction.
For the smallest of the bigger games I’ve played in the last two months, we’ve got The Spirit and the Mouse, a super cute puzzle platformer about a little mouse that gains the power of electricity and uses it to help a French village. I’m kind of torn on it because, on one hand, it feels like the perfect size as is, but I can’t help but want more as well. Just one or two more mission sets. Still, I loved it and highly recommend it.
Due to the nature of being a game reviewer for a certain site (hint: you are here), I also ended up with three games for review at the end of November/early December, because sometimes everything comes in all at once. One of those reviews, Wavetale, is out. The second, Lil Gator Game, just came out, and the third, The Knight Witch, well, I just put the finishing touches on the gameplay on Monday, so expect that review to come soon! (Editor: It’s out, too!)
Me being me, I took advantage of the Steam winter sale and grabbed a bunch of small, cheap, quick indie games, mostly puzzles and hidden object games. I won’t name them all, seeing as I finished eight of them between then and now, but if you keep an eye on the IndieGameADay Twitter, you’ve seen some of them, and the rest will surely come up in time. If I had to pick one to feature, I’d say my favorite was Glass Masquerade, a gorgeous jigsaw puzzle game featuring stained glass clocks from around the world. It’s perfectly challenging, stunningly beautiful, and wonderfully peaceful.
All in all, I finished 2022 with a grand total of 63 completed games. Far fewer than I wanted, considering I had 87 in 2021 and wanted to end 2022 with more, but it was a busy year all around. So far, at the end of January, I’m sitting at 3. Maybe February will be better?
Happy new year to one and all! Well, my 2023 began with a double-whammy of games I got for Christmas but had to delay playing until that lovely God of War: Ragnarok platinum was mine! First up, Do Not Open on PS5 was a suitably intriguing escape-room experience. I’ve only done a couple of horror-themed escape rooms in real life and in each case found myself wasting precious minutes unable to progress… because it was dark… and there were scaries ahead. When it comes to games like Do Not Open, the creatures leaping out are more of an inconvenience than a jumpscare. Shame really, because the puzzles were really quite clever. I did, however, get a lovely “Ha! Suckerrr!” moment when the monster chasing me glitched into itself and couldn’t move. A win’s a win, right?
After this, I went straight for Evil West, also on PS5. Now here’s a game that I imagine will have flown under a few radars. Honestly, this game should really have been named after its general conceit of “Cowboys vs Vampires!!” and I probably would’ve played it sooner. Imagine a linear, level-based God of War and you’re pretty much there in gameplay. (Heck, the protagonist Jesse Rentier even opens treasure chests by punching them like Kratos!) Mix that in with some slightly recognisable aspects of the same studio’s Shadow Warrior reboots, and the general tone of the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and you’ve got yourself a whole lotta fun here!
Wow! The last two months have been nothing short of a rollercoaster in a hurricane! Not only did I start a new position as a counselor at a child welfare agency, but I also stopped streaming to take some time to be with my family and clean up the farm. Despite not having much snow, it’s been quite cold this winter, and that means extra hours out in the elements to ensure all my animals are safe and warm. Of course, we all need to rest from time to time, and for me, I rest through creating art and playing games.
With all of that said, I’ve played a few games over the last couple of months that have certainly provided some great time-killing. Appropriately enough, “killing” is the theme of a new obsession that came from, of all places, my cell phone. It’s called Diablo Immortal, and it is, quite frankly, the best Diablo game on the market today. As a fan of the franchise, I enjoy the maximum hack n’ slash chaos that is iconic of all the games, but this title adds an MMO element to the world of Sanctuary that other titles have failed to implement successfully. You can slay with friends or strangers, and with regular events and content additions, there is no limit to endgame play.
Of course, my indie-loving side must also find nourishment, so that is where Moonscars comes in. This indie title, which is available on Xbox Gamepass, is a pixelated, side-scrolling Metroidvania that places you in the body of a golem that must navigate a mysterious palace to find meaning in her existence. This game has heavy souls-like mechanics, and its macabre setting appears to come right out of Bloodborne. Between the vicious one-shots and reflex-shattering parries, this game will hook any fan that is looking for a challenge beyond Castlevania and Hollow Knight.
Instead of talking about AAA experiences or big story-filled games I want to talk about a few Free to Play experiences I’ve had over the past couple of weeks!
Handshakes was a surprisingly fun and well-made puzzle game. Your goal is to have the two characters on opposite sides of a puzzle meet in the middle with a handshake. These dudes have bendy and stretchable arms that can go a limited number of spaces. I would compare it to the concept of Unravel where you have a limited amount of yarn for each area. You control each character with two different inputs: AWSD for one and the arrow keys for the other. This makes it so you can control each character freely on their own. You cannot grab anything with your hands but you can move stuff like boxes, press buttons, and even push the other character. A core part of the game is detaching your hand to keep a button pressed, a bit morbid but it all works out in the end! I really enjoyed what the game had to offer and the final puzzle left me wanting more! It was a fantastic and short experience that I would definitely recommend.
I also dived into the comical The Looker which is a parody of The Witness. The main difference between the two games is in how you solve the puzzles. In The Looker, you use your mouse as a pen and draw lines from the start to the end. This goes into some weird and wacky scenarios like firing a cannon at pirate ships or drawing outside the lines to get to the end. There are also a few different genres that show up. A Doom-like first-person shooter segment, an intense walk through dark corridors channeling Resident Evil, and literally playing Snake come to mind. If you are looking for a goofy but still entertaining game then check out The Looker.
The final free-to-play game I want to talk about is I Commissioned Some Bees. This series has seen about 10 entries; this is the first free-to-play version. I Commissioned Some Bees is a simple concept. You simply search for bees inside digital artwork all commissioned by well-known artists. I Commissioned Some Bees 0 has fewer pictures to search through but it gives you a good idea of what the series has to offer. It’s a calming and relaxing game that channels the whimsical childhood series I, Spy. Honestly, if you’ve played one of the games in this series…you’ve played them all. It’s still a stress-free couple of hours where you can sit back, relax, and click on bees.
After computer issues from hell, I’m back online. Word of advice: never, ever buy computers from Advanced Battlestations, which is a Newegg subsidiary. Absolute garbage parts from beginning to end. I honestly thought Newegg was still the go-to for parts. Guess they never learned their lesson from the Gamers Nexus kerfuffle (I bought my machine before that came to light, in Newegg’s defense).
I caught COVID late last year and when I get sick I stay sick. Having earned more than my share of arguments for saying Elden Ring didn’t deserve GOTY, I gave it a fresh playthrough. There was an overabundance of coughing, but the perspective was fresh.
Like Coffee, I picked up God of War: Ragnarok. I’m that annoying person that says a quality narrative wins, as long as the rest of the dev team showed up and played ball. I’m 100 %ing this run, so I’m still early on.
This past week will be the last in a while where I play El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. The title has a warm place in my heart, despite the incredibly awkward and unintuitive jumping. There’s so much to learn about making a game from a title like El Shaddai; non-linear storytelling works when you do it right. I think this game was too esoteric and didn’t have a sober person in the room with Level Design to veto some of the more avant-garde choices.
Finally, three games I play because I hate to love them: Hollow Knight, DotA 2, and Mega Man 8. 7 and 8 were the only two of the in-house Capcom Mega Man mainline titles I never beat. I’ll get over the PTSD I learned from the snowboarding mechanic and the atrocious voice acting; I’m getting it done.
I joined a small team of bug-hunters for Hollow Knight speedrunning. Knowing my luck I’ll either help people shave 20s off of overall runs (in a No Major Glitches category) or I’ll find something truly broken ala Ocarina of Time.
DotA. Oh, Dota. I thought only retail could teach me how to hate other people. Instead, Dota has taught me to hate Sniper-mid mains (“Dagon 5 Sniper is a real build, guys, I swear!” they say). I’m really no one to talk to: I go Techies Off-Lane. Yes, you can hate me now, I deserve it (but I’m also 798-135 on Techies, and that’s with insta-ragers).
As mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been playing through the numbered Resident Evil games I’ve missed over the last decade. Around Christmas, I finished Resident Evil Village and loved it. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve rekindled my affection for the series. I’m playing around with Resident Evil 4 again from time to time, and I can’t wait for the remake later this year!
I played Assassin’s Creed: Rogue recently and found it to be comfort food gaming through and through. In preparation for Armored Core 6, I tried out Metal Wolf Chaos XD, whose ridiculous concept, terrible dialogue, and impossibly bad voice acting are right up my alley. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a tough sell in 2023. Like Yemmy, I also played The Looker. It’s a genuinely funny parody game that succeeds at being better than the self-serious game that inspired it, and I can’t recommend it enough–especially if you found yourself rolling your eyes at The Witness.
I’m pretty busy right now, so I’m limiting myself to games that I can easily pop in and out of. I’m loving every minute of Sonic Frontiers (except for the considerable number of minutes it takes to upgrade at the Elder Koco), and I’ve fallen back down the Hades hole after having put it aside for a couple of years. I have my share of problems with the game, but when it works, it positively sings! Finally, Vampire Survivors is pure joy, and it’s a must-play for anyone who appreciates pure joy.
What have you been playing recently? Finish any games in January? Gotta cut loose with the juice now, but 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.
