“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – November 2024
11 min read
A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Happy Turkey Month! At least, to all those celebrating in the USA. To those outside of the country, the holiday season looms ahead. That means good food, plenty of company, a plethora of sales and lots and lots of gifts. For our readers who are starting their lists, knowing what games to get for their loved ones is incredibly important. That makes sites like The Pixels very useful, since, y’know, we talk about games and only games *wink*. Speaking of, here are the games we’re talking about this month:
We start things off with Red critiquing Metal Slug Tactics, a tactical RPG centered around the long-standing run & gun series, Metal Slug. It’s an odd meshing of genres, but that combination allows it to stand out against other TRPG’s. Recommended if you’re looking for a unique, TRPG experience. Next, Maggie reviewed Trash Goblin, an early access puzzle game with a shopkeeper angle to it. You play as a goblin uncovering trinkets using a chisel and hammer. Once extricated, those trinkets can be sold. It kinda has a Moonlighter vibe to it, except you’re not running through a dangerous dungeon. It’s an interesting one to watch out for.
The next installment of the long-running Ys series, Ys X: Nordics was covered by our new writer, OctoRock_1982! Welcome aboard! After four decades, the ARPG series veers into Nordic territory. OctoRock notes that this well-balanced, action-packed experience would be compatible with fans of the Grandia or Tales series. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course joins a very elite cabal within The Pixels; near perfect scores are a rarity here, as Red mentioned in his review of the Cuphead DLC. If you loved the base game and haven’t picked up the DLC, now’s as good of a time to do so!
Rounding out this month are reviews of Elden Ring and The Plucky Squire, both by Red. Elden Ring, as you know, won GOTY two years back. It’s DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree is also up for GOTY. Elden Ring brings with it comparisons of the original Legend of Zelda and Zelda II for its reliance on exploration, uncovering secrets and challenging combat. The Plucky Squire draws comparisons to TLOZ: A Link Between Worlds with its 2D to 3D puzzle mechanics. It also contains a hopeful message about the state of creativity in an uncreative industry.
With the wrap-up wrapped up, let’s check in on our writers to see what they’ve been up to:
Hi Pixellers, it’s me! It’s been a while, but that’s because I’ve just been playing the same old games… but hey, new things are here!
Firstly, we’ve had the first official expansion for DayZ in quite a while, introducing the new Sakhal map! I’ve enjoyed the more survival-centric focus here, with sub zero temperatures forcing you to master making fires, finding warm gear and learning to hunt and fish to keep alive. It’s also snowy, and I love snow!
Secondly, I’ve had a go of Stalker 2. I love the visuals and feel of this game’s take on the Chernobyl exclusion zone (play with Ukrainian language, thank me later), and it’s frankly a miracle that the devs got it out at all considering that their country is currently at war! That said, the game currently feels a bit on the janky side, but I’m sure they’ll get it sorted soon (I mean I stayed loyal to Cyberpunk 2077 and now it’s one of my favourite games of all time, so I’m willing to wait!)
I finally started playing Balatro, thanks to a generous gift from a friend! I’m sure it’s been talked about plenty so I won’t go into details about how it works. The first couple of times I played it I got far but never could reach the end goal. Then I realized that I lacked a basic understanding of how multipliers worked on some of the jokers, and after that, I finished it on my next attempt! Since then, all my attempts have been experimenting, discovering more jokers, and seeing what combinations I can make to exponentially increase my score.
Another game I recently finished is Dragon Ball Z Sagas for the PS2. Why, you ask? Well I have such a big collection of PS2 titles that I’ve been trying to chip away at my backlog one at a time and that was the next one that was randomly picked… I don’t recommend it. It feels very loose gameplaywise and I ran into a few glitches that made it impossible to progress so I had to restart a few levels. There were moments where the fighting looked and felt pretty cool but those moments were too far and few in between.
Lastly, thanks to its inclusion on Xbox Gamepass, I’ve been diving into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. I used to be very much into the CoD franchise back in the Xbox 360 days and eventually got tired of the same formula. I did try to dive into a few of the games in the past 10 years but nothing stuck around too long. With BO6, I feel like this has finally revitalized what I loved about playing these games back in the day. They improved the movement to feel more fluid and fast-paced, making it fun to zip around the maps. The campaign mode has been pretty interesting with its mix of stealth and action. The missions have kept up a good variety of different things it asks of the player and I’ve enjoyed that so far.
Last night I beat The Legend of Zelda’s second quest and boy are my arms tired! I feel like detractors of the original Zelda are thinking of the second quest whenever they insist the game is abstruse, inaccessible, meanspirited, and way too hard. I never want to see a darknut ever again as long as I live. I resolutely believe that second quest is only beatable with a guide and liberal usage of rewind or save state features, unless of course you have the inexhaustible patience and time of a child with no other games to play. Overall, I enjoyed the experience as a riff on one of my favorite Zelda games, but I doubt I’ll ever want to attempt it again.
I also beat The Plucky Squire and Metal Slug Tactics, both of which riff on beloved franchises in interesting ways. I’m also still chugging along through the severely impressive amount of content in Unicorn Overlord! I promised myself I wouldn’t start Dragon Quest III HD-2D until finishing Overlord, so I may be able to get to DQ by next summer. Although… that didn’t stop me from playing Demon’s Souls Remake.
Happy holidays everyone! Hope everyone is staying safe and warm as the weather gets cold (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere in which case, stay cool as it heats up.)
Normally in Novembers, I’d be busy writing a novel for NaNoWriMo, but for the first time in 14 years, I passed on the event and spent it mostly playing video games. It’s been delightful.
I’ve been working on a challenge for Infinite Backlog to complete every Amanita Design game. I already had a bunch under my belt as a fan of the dev, but there were a few I didn’t know existed. I’ve picked them up as they’ve gone on sale, and finished two out of four left (out of 9 total). It’s interesting to me how Amanita has two types of point and click games. The first one I beat, Pilgrims, is a more adventure-like P&C, where you gather friends and solve puzzles. Interestingly, there’s multiple ways to solve many of them, so you end up playing three or four times to see them all. The other, Happy Game (do not let the title fool you) is more of a series of little puzzle screens connected by cutscenes. There’s no exploring or backtracking, just solve the puzzle and move on. I definitely prefer the former style, but I still get something out of the latter.
Before it left Game Pass, I also dove into While the Iron’s Hot, an interesting crafting adventure. You are the new blacksmith for an island of craftsmen who lost their legendary blacksmith some time ago. You follow in her footsteps by exploring the world, harvesting crafting materials, meeting people who give you jobs, and making the things they need in your forge. I really enjoyed all the elements, though as crafting games usually go, it gets a bit tedious near the end when you have to make things to make more things and every crafting job takes dozens of steps.
Finally, just squeaked in yesterday, I also beat (well, had my first successful run of) Balatro. Just like Kalas, it took me a bit to get a handle on it, but eventually unlocked enough good Jokers and had a fantastic combo going enough to beat Ante 8. Now I’m in the same place, just playing to have fun and see what else there is to see and go as far as I can go.
Sonic x Shadow Generations is my GOTY, hands down. Sure, I still have Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to play, but I’m not likely to play that any time soon as it’s my reward for finishing the next book of my fanfiction series. I’m only 27 out of a potential 50 or so chapters in, so… I got a while to go.
Anyway, I love how Shadow was redeemed in Shadow Generations. Once the subject of ridicule due to his over-the-top edginess, Shadow Generations allows the titular character to close the book on his past and the connections to his origins. It’s done so in such a poignant and touching way that – regardless of your feelings for him – you can’t help but root for the dark, alien hedgehog look-alike. Oh, and the level design and power set for Shadow is just top-notch. It’s strange to say, but I want more Sonic games like this. It’s not that Sonic as he is right now is boring, but when you can chain Chaos Spears to access new paths, surf around on a manta ray, freeze time with Chaos Control and fly with alien wings, well… the Blue Blur’s gotta step up his game, know what I’m saying?
In a similar, Sonical frame of mind, I picked up Freedom Planet earlier this month. It shares the DNA of a classic Sonic game, but it has its own thing going on for it. It’s definitely combat-heavy, but there’s plenty of opportunities to jet around stages.
I also started a playthrough of Super Mario RPG for the Switch, thanks to my local library. It plays exactly the same as the old game, but with some novel gameplay twists that make it feel fresh and new. Kid Espresso is also playing it and he’s doing so on Breezy Mode; something that I also appreciate with this remaster.
One last note: support your local library! After all, they do amazing work for the community, so why wouldn’t you?
My adventures on the Turbografx16 continue, and though we’re past spooky-season, my game of the month is plenty creepy. Alien Crush is a pinball game adorned with countless references to sci-fi horror. You’ll be catching glimpses of Xenomorph-inspired bumpers, The Thing-esque body horror, and in a reference so obscure I gotta give the game extra points, even the beasties from The Deadly Spawn get a nod.
Sidenote: If you’ve not seen the low-budget gem The Deadly Spawn, I heartily recommend it. Expect crazy practical creature effects, a memorable monster, and many loving homages to alien-invasion films of the 50’s. Only here injected with that 80’s mix of sass and gore. Very fun.
Anyhow, back to Alien Crush. As with any video pinball game, the physics driving your sliver lifeline are paramount to an enjoyable gameplay experience. Happy to report that Alien Crush has very tight physics, making it easy to line up shots into bonus areas. And oh, what many bonus areas there are, each containing a mini-game onslaught of extraterrestrial terrors. As a pinball game, it’s not the deepest experience in the world, but provides an enjoyably slimy pastime to battle invaders via flippers, bumpers, and rails.
Ultima adventures continue! I finished up my replay of Serpent Isle early this month and moved on to Ultima VIII: Pagan, wrapping it up just in time for Thanksgiving (and this column)! This was the first time I’d seen the game through to completion, though I’d made it pretty far in previous attempts. I’ve got somewhat mixed feelings about it – the engine used for both Ultima VII games was already a little lighter on the RPG elements than previous entries, but Pagan swerves even harder away from them, feeling much more heavily like an action-adventure game. That’s not to say it’s bad (though it is a little clunky control-wise, and the story suffers from pacing issues, both of which feel more like the product of a rushed production schedule than anything else), just a very different entry in the series; there’s a reason it’s referred to as “Super Avatar Bros.” among the Ultima fanbase. I’m still glad I’ve completed it, but Pagan probably won’t be one I’ll be as eager to replay as the rest of the series.
It wasn’t just Ultima that occupied my month, though – I make no secret of my love for Lord of the Rings Online, and November was expansion month for the game! Legacy of Morgoth took us into the deserts of Harad, which I was very eager to explore on account of being one of those weirdos that actually like desert environments in games. We’re well and far away from any familiar portions of Middle-Earth at this point, but that’s half of the fun of this era of LotRO, and I’ve had a grand time taking my time poking my nose about its far eastern reaches. The road, as they say, goes ever on, and every step I take on it provides new delights.
And so ends November. 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 @gameswithcoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
