I'm hopping back and forth between playing on Switch and on PC (something I never used to do), and today, I have an interesting game to talk about. BACKGROUND:
I love both Portal games, as they provided both unique and challenging puzzle gameplay plus surprisingly hilarious writing along with a mysterious setting. Given Valve's tendency to not make a third game in any series, I was quite startled to notice this game on the Steam store one day. Turns out, this is a fan-made mod; nevertheless, I'm in the mood for more Portal. PLOT: This game is set in a secluded Aperture Science facility, separating it from the actual Portal series. You play as Subject 4509, one of many human test subjects within the facility awakened to partake in a series of special tests. It's the classic Portal story; unwitting prisoner is subjected to weird tests, and you try to find a way to escape. An AI voice guides you throughout your journey with their deadpan commentary, and while it's hard to be as iconic as GLaDOS, they still get a few humorous lines here and there. In terms of lore, there's barely anything explored in this game, certainly not to the level of Portal 2. PRESENTATION: Portal Reloaded nails the aesthetic of the originals quite well with its level designs. The rooms easily pass for actual Portal levels, and the more derelict areas remind me of certain areas of Portal 2. There's not too many locales apart from the test chambers, however. In terms of actual graphics, this mod doesn't boast the highest visual fidelity. I personally don't care, but it will likely be quite noticeable to others who are particular about this sort of thing. GAMEPLAY: Portal Reloaded is a mod of Portal 2, so it follows that its gameplay is akin to that of the original. The basic premise is exactly the same: use your portal gun to lay down blue and orange portals to solve various puzzles. Many of the level mechanics are also straight out of the originals, like using cubes, laser-activated switches, faith plates, excursion tunnels, and more. If you've played Portal 2, none of this should be new to you. If you are new, this mod does do enough to teach you how these mechanics work, but it would probably be better if you played the original first, as this game expects you to be experienced. What makes this mod special is the addition of a third portal: the time portal. Yes, there's time travel in this game.... sort of. You can place this portal in certain spots, and walking through it lets you go between present day and 20 years into the future. As you may expect, things don't quite stay the same in the future, with areas going into ruin and certain mechanics no longer working. I was quite intrigued by this mechanic at the start, but I found that its execution leaves something to be desired. For one, the most you use it for is to retrieve a copy of a cube from the future that you need for a switch in the present. The few neat uses of the time portal outside of that (like creating duplicates of other mechanics like light bridges, or carrying momentum across timelines) are few and far between, and the game doesn't really teach you that such things are possible, either. I wish they could have been more creative with it, but I do appreciate the effort they did end up putting in. For another, the rules of time travel in this universe feel pretty inconsistent. The only real thing you can manipulate across both timelines is a cube, as moving it in the present influences its position in the future. No other objects behave like this, despite the internal logic dictating that it should (although this can occasionally be explained by the decay of the test facilities, causing devices to break down). It would have been neat if I could mess with more objects across time like you do with the cube. For the few objects that you can manipulate across time (mainly cubes), the rules are as follows: you can control the future copy of the cube freely and bring it back to the present, but once the position of its original in the present is changed, it resets to where the original is in the future. Also, you can't bring the present cube to the future (even though you, a person from the present, can travel freely). In some instances, these rules are applied for some cool puzzle solutions (like moving the present cube to make the future copy disappear in order to deactivate a switch), but in others, the solutions seem rather janky. Some levels even straight up break the rules, with a couple of rooms allowing you to take a future cube despite the present cube being in motion. While I liked this idea conceptually, I wish the rules were actually followed to a tee, because I got real stuck in the puzzles where they actively defy the established laws. I will say that you can do something slightly similar with your normal portals, as you can place the ones in the future freely without affecting their positions in the present. This isn't used as often, unfortunately, and it's usually not obvious that you need to take advantage of this when it's actually part of the solution. Overall, I found the level designs to be hit or miss. Some of the puzzles are genuinely clever, but others are either unintuitive (e.g. important portal surfaces aren't immediately visible), break the established rules (as mentioned), require way too long to set up (fucking up in levels like this feels like a chore), or involve unusually quick portal placement (stuff like this does exist in normal Portal, but it feels not as good here because messing up can set you back a while). All that said, I did appreciate what the not-too-polished puzzles were going for, but their actual design didn't exactly lead to a sense of satisfaction once I finally figured out what to do. The future versions of levels themselves don't feel all too different from the present apart from the more dilapidated look. Some areas do take advantage of this by disabling mechanics in the future (e.g. faith plates are covered in rubble, lasers are broken), but that's about it. I'm not really sure what else they could have done outside of that, so I won't hold this against the game, but if you were looking for a more dramatic change between timelines, it's unfortunately not as substantial as you may want. VERDICT: Although Portal Reloaded falters a bit with its execution, I still thought its core gimmick of the time portal was an interesting concept. I appreciate all the effort they went through with the puzzle designs and combining existing Portal mechanics with the time portal, and I think they could build on the foundation of this mod to create a more polished experience. This is a completely free mod that you can download. The only requirement is that you own Portal 2 beforehand (and if you don't, I highly recommend that you check it out if you like puzzle games). Portal Reloaded on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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I got a million things going on right now, but there's no way I'm not taking the time to get into Monster Hunter's latest update. Spoiler warning: I talk a bit about one particular monster here that's best left as a surprise. Read no further if you don't want to be spoiled. BACKGROUND:
After thoroughly enjoying the 2.0 update's various additions, I was extremely excited for this new update. I was itching for new monsters to fight, and 3.0 was sure to bring at least a few to the game. Other than that, I didn't really have any other expectations. WHAT'S NEW: New Monsters As expected, this update brings a few new monsters that you can hunt. Here they are:
Compared to 2.0's four new monsters (plus two Apexes), this update pales in comparison, but I was personally more than satisfied with Valstrax alone. Like everyone else, I naturally would have wanted more monsters to have been added, but I don't really have complaints with what we did get. New Weapons and Armor You naturally get new weapons and armor (for both you and your buddies) with new monsters, but seeing as there's technically only one new monster in this update (Valstrax), there's only one new armor set and one new weapon tree for each weapon. Thankfully, the Valstrax stuff looks awesome, and both the weapons and the armor set have an interesting synergy to them thanks to the new Dragonheart armor skill and the new Valstrax Soul weapon skill. What we did get more of are upgrades to existing weapon trees that haven't reached their final upgrades yet. Stuff like the Diablos and Mizutsune weapons have additional upgrades now, and most significantly, the Elder Dragon weapons introduced in the last update can be upgraded as well. I was pretty happy about this, because I have been using mostly 2.0 weapons as of late, like the Chameleos long sword, the Teostra dual blades, and the Kushala Daora hammer. Interestingly, the Ibushi and Narwa armor sets can be upgraded in a different way compared to other sets. Spending Allmother material on the armor grants the skill Stormsoul, which greatly improves the admittedly mediocre skills both armor sets already had. Again, there's not a lot here, but my only real criticism revolves around the Apex monster drops. These drops are only ever really used for the Rampage weapons and a few decorations, and it seems to be a consensus among fans that it was a missed opportunity to make some unique Apex armor sets or weapons. Hell, using the drops in the same way as the Allmother materials to give existing armor sets unique upgrades would be neat. I hope this is a thing they could address in a future update, because as much as I find the Apex hunts challenging, there's little reason to take them on apart from said challenge. New Quests There are a bunch of new Hub quests, with the highlights obviously being the ones featuring the new monsters. We also get regular quests for both Apex Rathalos and Apex Diablos, who were Rampage-exclusive prior to this. On that note, Apex Zinogre has a Rampage quest, but you can unlock its normal quest after beating that once. We also get a handful of Advanced Hub quests, but these mostly feature existing monsters, so there isn't a lot to say here. The most significant of these is the terrifying-looking quest that has you hunt not one, not two, but three Apex monsters in one go. Although they feature shit you've already seen, the Advanced Quests provide an entirely new level of challenge, beefing up the monsters further than what they were in High Rank. I did all of them solo, and it certainly wasn't a walk in the park. Other Things Along with the Narwa the Allmother quest, we get the game's definitive ending. It's pretty basic stuff, but the ending cutscene is pretty heartwarming. We get the usual round of cosmetic DLC, which doesn't really interest me. But hey, they're there if you wanna pay for them. Interestingly, that triple Apex quest (and one other Advanced quest) I mentioned takes place in a new area. I don't think this new area is seen anywhere else, so I hope it sees use in future quests. Unfortunately, it's more akin to a small arena as opposed to a full zone, so there's no opportunity for exploration here. Layered Weapons exist now, but here's the catch: only the Rampage weapons have access to them. I suppose it makes sense given they're the only ones that can be customized cosmetically, but it would have been neat to have this feature outside of them (mostly because I don't use Rampage weapons). That said, having the feature at all is appreciated, and it got me to really experiment with the Rampage sets a bit more. VERDICT: Admittedly, Monster Hunter 3.0's addition pales in comparison to 2.0, but Valstrax alone was enough to tide me over personally. I understand that people wanted more (who doesn't), but I feel like the complaints I've seen online go a touch too far considering this game's development was already hindered by the pandemic (which is why we got both 2.0 and 3.0 post-launch). The roadmap the devs show don't really assuage any concerns over more robust updates (it appears to be mostly Event Quests and cosmetic DLC), but who knows, they might piecemeal it and add new monsters incrementally. Regardless, I'll still be playing this game, because I got a lot out of it even before the updates. There's always more stuff to farm, I still have a ton of weapons I wanna learn, and I have friends to play this game with. So even if this update in particular wasn't as meaty as people would have liked, I'm personally still content. - end - ![]() With this last game, I'm finally caught up with all the NES and SNES games that came out in the three months I didn't have my Switch. I'm glad I was able to get this done when I did, as when I started writing this post, Nintendo announced new additions to the Switch Online emulators. By the time you see this published, I'm already playing through those games. BACKGROUND:
Per usual, I didn't know what this game was, but when I first saw the announcement trailer for the update that this was a part of, I found the snippet of gameplay oddly familiar-looking. I looked the game up, and sure enough, this game is apparently a prequel to Solomon's Key, another NES puzzle platformer I really enjoyed. As such, this was one of the games I was very excited to play when I got my Switch back. SUMMARY: Like Solomon's Key, Fire 'n Ice is a puzzle platformer, but its gameplay is quite different. As I said before, this is a prequel to the original, and it sees the wizard Dana on one of his earliest adventures to save Coolmint Island from the wizard Druidle. Basic stuff, but I did appreciate that they tried to build on Dana's story a little bit. The basic idea of each level in this game is to extinguish all the fires. In order to do that, you must utilize Dana's ice magic, which allows him to place or destroy ice blocks diagonally down in front of him. This is about the only similarity this game has with Solomon's Key, as the original's main mechanic also revolves around placing blocks down. In order to put out the fires, you either have to push a single ice block in their direction, or drop one down directly from above. Dana's movement is quite limited, as he can't jump, but can climb up tiles one block tall. The game's various level layouts make navigation a lot harder than it looks, and you must use your ice magic to help you move around on top of using it to clear out fires. The levels get increasingly tough, because you have to start thinking many steps ahead to set up the blocks you need to use to extinguish the fires while also making sure you don't accidentally lock yourself out of a portion of the level by laying down a path. This game has a ton of levels, with ten worlds each containing ten levels. The difficulty increases at a comfortable pace, and the tougher levels are a genuine challenge. Little things like a quick reset button help make more difficult levels less stressful, and I also liked the addition of a stopwatch if you want to speedrun levels. What's awesome about this game is that it apparently has a full level editor that allows you to make custom levels. I found the editor a bit confusing to use at first, but once I figured it out, it was fun to experiment with all the game assets to make my own shit. Puzzle games that let players make their own levels are always worthwhile to me, and while this game obviously lacks the online capabilities of modern titles, the mere act of creating levels is still a fun exercise in creativity. Whereas Solomon's Key had an art style that's reminiscent of more serious fantasy outings, Fire 'n Ice feels more cartoony. The music is similarly cheery, but I must admit that I have a special attachment to Solomon's Key's signature theme. VERDICT: Fire 'n Ice scratched my puzzle platformer itch with a ton of levels that play around with the game's simple mechanics in many ways. It has a lot of what enjoyed out of Solomon's Key, but with slightly less hectic levels and neat additions like a quick reset. And while the level editor won't see much use outside of local play, I'm impressed that this game has it at all. I absolutely enjoyed this game in nearly every respect, and contrary to what most people online think, this is an indication that not every addition to the Switch Online emulators are obscure duds. If you're as enthusiastic about puzzle games (or puzzle platformers in particular) as I am, this is a game well worth trying. While you're at it, go play Solomon's Key too if you haven't already. - end - ![]() Now that I'm done with the SNES portion of the Switch Online updates, I'm gonna catch up with the NES additions. There were only two NES games added during my three-month absence, so this won't take long. BACKGROUND:
As expected, I have no idea what this game is. SUMMARY: Nightshade is a point-and-click adventure game where you play as the titular character, who's a vigilante out to stop the Ancient Egypt-themed villain Sutekh from bringing Metro City into ruin. The story sounds pretty serious at the start (you get a whole monologue from Nightshade about how Metro City became a cesspool of crime and how it needs a hero), but instead of feeling like the gritty Dark Knight Trilogy, the game leans more towards the 1966 Batman TV show and is decidedly more light-hearted. Sutekh is just your usual mustache-twirling villain with weird and esoteric plans of conquest, the game has a ton of humorous dialogue (including snarky meta humor and pop culture references from the early '90s), and the seemingly edgy Nightshade is the butt of many a joke. Although the narrative leans more towards the campy side (which I enjoyed), some of the backstory actually is a bit dark. You don't see too many threads that piece together what happened before the events of the game, but the few you do encounter paint an intriguing tale. I wouldn't call it particularly innovative, but I did find some elements of the backstory neat. This game has all the usual ingredients for a typical point-and-click: a context-sensitive control scheme that allows you to interact with various objects in different ways (e.g. examine, use, pick up, etc.), puzzles that involve using said system on your surroundings, looking for items that help with solving puzzles or acquiring more crucial items, and plenty of text-based interaction. Overall, the puzzles are straightforward (i.e. nothing I haven't seen before in other point-and-clicks), but there are a few clever ones sprinkled in there, and the various items you acquire see use in areas far from where you found them. As long as you're diligent in inspecting your environment, I don't think most people will have any trouble solving most of the puzzles in this game. I will point out that I found this game's control scheme quite cumbersome to navigate. Naturally, I can't fault a game that came out on a console for not being able to perfectly replicate a point-and-click experience with a mouse, but I feel like they could have done better than what the game has. Typically in point-and-clicks, interacting with an object will bring up a menu of possible actions that you can perform (e.g. inspect, use, pick up, etc.). Nightshade makes you open up such a menu first and then select the object, which I found a bit of a pain to adjust to. It also doesn't help that actual menu navigation and cursor movement feel painfully slow. Item management is also annoying, as you often have to manually move the cursor down to the item menu to select items. Metro City is a decently sized open area that you can explore, and not only is there a lot to check out, the game is actually quite open-ended. I made serious progress just exploring whatever I felt like, and I ended up finding clues meant for the early game that I no longer needed because I'd already stumbled upon what I needed. This aspect, to me, helped offset the relatively easy difficulty of most puzzles, as I still got a sense of satisfaction from the fact that my random exploration led to significant progress. An interesting mechanic this game has is the Popularity Meter. Performing tasks such as defeating enemies and helping citizens with side quests raises your popularity. Some areas can only be accessed if you have a high popularity, which means it's imperative that you raise your popularity if you want to progress. The game doesn't really communicate that part well, but seeing the meter go up as you do completely optional stuff for the NPCs is quite satisfying, so I suppose that's something. Speaking of defeating enemies, there is combat in this game. It's initiated like a typical RPG random encounter when you run into enemy sprites while exploring. The combat itself plays like a fighting game, but it's pretty simple and honestly kind of aggravating. You can really only do a couple of moves (all of which have terrible range), your only mobility outside of your slow-ass walk is a jump, and pretty much every enemy has something about them that gives them an irritating advantage over you (like better mobility, higher priority attacks, projectiles, jump-ins, specific vulnerable states, and all sorts of other bullshit). I liked this concept on paper (it's not everyday you see combat in a point-and-click, let alone one styled like a fighting game), but the execution led to a fair share of frustrating moments. Another unique thing this game does is instead of straight up giving you a game over when you lose all your HP, the villain puts you in one of various death traps that you can attempt to escape. These death traps require some quick thinking to solve, but if you succeed, you can continue playing from where you left off. If you fail to escape, that's when the game gives you the proper game over and puts you back at the start. I thought this was such a cool idea; not only were the death traps themselves neat mini-puzzles, but the idea that you can avoid a game over by solving a puzzle really stood out to me as a one-of-a-kind concept. Plus, it works within the game's setting. VERDICT: I have my fair share of issues with Nightshade, and while those issues led to a number of frustrating moments, I still think this game was a good effort overall. I liked the more "open world" take on the standard point-and-click adventure, there were some novel ideas like the fighting game-style combat and the death traps, and I found amusement in the mostly light-hearted story and occasional humor. The odds that other players will find the points of frustration I highlighted annoying seem likely in my view, so if those issues seem like deal-breakers to you, I won't begrudge you not trying this game. That said, I think there's still merit in trying it out, because I think it does do some fun things with its gameplay. - end - This is the last of my Super Nintendo backlog! Time for me to move onto the NES additions to Switch Online. BACKGROUND:
*shrugs* I got nothing. SUMMARY: Psycho Dream is a side-scrolling action platformer. You have the choice to play as one of two characters: Ryo or Maria, and while they have slightly different properties, the basics are the same: they can jump, they can dash, and they have a basic melee attack. They also have access to a limited supply of screen-clearing attacks. Interestingly, this is a Super Famicom game that was never released outside of Japan, so the little text it has is still in Japanese. As such, I don't really know what the story is, but from what I can glean from the game itself, it seems to be about Ryo and Maria traversing through a distorted version of reality to rescue a girl that's trapped deep within. I'm probably far off, so if you want to know what the story actually is, you're better off looking it up elsewhere. While I didn't understand much of the story to get really into it, the visuals of the levels had me a little intrigued. There are six stages in total (called "tracks" in-game), most of which are typical linear platforming levels (with the occasional auto-scroller, vertical section, and survival room). Nothing really stood out to me mechanics-wise, and the difficulty isn't that remarkable (there's tricky enemy placement on occasion, but no precise/execution-heavy platforming). I will say that the aesthetic is somewhat memorable, as the otherwise normal-looking metropolis slowly being warped and transformed into something bizarre-looking captured my imagination. As you play and kill enemies, you'll eventually spot colored gems that you can pick up. These gems power you up, and the effect differs depending on the color. Yellow, for example, enhances your basic attack (like extending its range), and green gives you temporary invulnerability. You can also acquire a ranged attack, which levels up with a different color power-up. The enhanced melee is pretty good, as the added range or attack speed can deal with troublesome enemy placement with well-positioned attacks. The enhanced ranged attack, however, is comically busted, and completely trivializes most of the game, as both fully powered-up versions shoot out attacks in six directions. Maria's version of the enhanced ranged attack is especially broken, as hers is a series of homing shots. Even the bosses (of which there are six, one for each stage) go down like punk bitches if you have the max ranged attack, and while some of them have annoying patterns, I didn't think they were that difficult normally. VERDICT: Psycho Dream's distinct level designs caught my eye throughout my time with the game, but the gameplay being pretty easy and my lack of context regarding the plot kept it from being a particularly remarkable experience for me personally. The platforming wasn't anything I haven't seen before, and while I thought the power-up system was interesting, maxing out my shit made the game too much of a breeze. Overall, I thought it was OK, but it just didn't really hold my attention for long (mostly because I beat it way too quickly). I still think this game is worth checking out if you find the name "Psycho Dream" all mysterious and captivating, but I don't think you'll get anything unique out of it gameplay-wise apart from the broken weapon upgrades. That said, it's a good choice if you just want to kill an hour or so with an easy platformer. Also, if you can understand Japanese, you may actually be able to get a better sense of the story than I did (and it's possible that doing so will lead to a better appreciation of the game). - end - Apart from the Marvel shows, I've been mostly negligent on catching up on TV shows and such since the beginning of the pandemic, but I'm slowly working my way to getting them back on my schedule. Today, I'm talking about the final season of an animated series I've enjoyed for the past few years. S4 starts off not long after the end of S3 (which felt like a weird cliffhanger in some ways), and there are multiple mini-plots to follow. Firstly, Trevor and Sypha continue their increasingly futile effort to thwart attempts at the resurrection of Dracula. After six exhausting weeks of fighting, the duo finally find themselves in Targoviste, the site of Lisa's (Dracula's wife) execution, AKA where it all began.
Meanwhile, Alucard continues with his lonely and miserable existence alone in his castle, until a nearby village requests his aid in repelling a night creature attack. In answering the call, Alucard finds a sense of purpose again, and even met an interesting person on the way. Isaac's mission of conquest finally pays off after ending in an odd place in S3, and he finally mounts his assault on Styria. Though his initial motivations of revenge are still present, one can tell that his outlook and cynicism towards humanity has gradually changed, and while his mission remains the same, the reasons why have evolved. Carmilla is finally ready to enact her master plan to control a large portion of the world, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that her ambitions are becoming too big to handle. Her vampire sisters are slowly beginning to question Carmilla, with lovers Morana and Striga doubting the long term viability of the plan (and showing concern over not being able to see each other again), and Lenore personally witnessing Carmilla's meltdown (while also dealing with her own personal feelings of uselessness). Also here is Hector, who is still under the employ of the sisters, and while he's hard at work building an army for them, it's clear that he has plans of his own. After a whole season with these mini-plots completely separate from one another, some lines finally intersect in S4. Seeing Isaac finally get to where he was going initially after so long is great, but his payoff comes at the cost of Carmilla's master plan, which has been brewing for multiple seasons but never really felt like it was going anywhere. That said, every vampire sister got pretty solid endings, even if everything they've been working towards doesn't exactly go to plan. Hector and Isaac's respective endings are left rather open, though it's made clear that both Forgemasters are ready to finally move forward with their lives. The attempts to resurrect Dracula actually build to a fever pitch, as a character that was presumed dead in a previous season makes a return to set the pieces in motion. This plot causes Trevor and Sypha's journey to once again cross paths with Alucard's story, and while it feels like the former were unceremoniously dragged into the latter's path, it was still awesome to see the trio back together. The reveal of the true mastermind of the conspiracy was also spectacular, and as someone who's played a fair share of classic Castlevania, the reveal got me absolutely hyped (even if it feels a bit shoehorned). Unfortunately, the Carmilla angle and the story of the main characters never really converge, which I thought was a bit of a missed opportunity. That said, those two plotlines being separate doesn't really ruin the overall show for me. For the most part, many characters got a satisfying ending, and there are a surprising amount of happy endings at that. I was most surprised with Trevor getting a happy ending, as events during the final stretch of the show hinted otherwise. One of the season's biggest surprises also saw two particular characters get an unexpectedly happy ending, which I didn't see coming at all. However, I will say that a number of characters felt like they got to their respective endings a little too quickly, in the sense that the show didn't really give the arcs time to grow. Alucard's arc in particular felt super weird; a lot of what happened in S3 felt completely pointless after this season. The show's trademark brutal gore and violence is on full display again this season, with a lot of blood and guts flying around in all the fights. Speaking of the fights, they were all fantastically animated, and everyone got to look like complete badasses. The big battle during the climax of the season in particular felt epic. One thing I was super excited about was the show finally introducing something that references one of my favorite things about the old Castlevania game. Without giving it away, I'm so glad they found a way to adapt that thing and make it such an awesome element of the action. Overall, I loved Castlevania's final season, and I'm glad that it got to end on its own terms (and in a satisfying way, too). I've heard rumors that a spinoff series is in the works, and it has the unenviable task of having to follow up this spectacular show. Regardless, I hope that future spinoffs explore other Belmonts from different time periods, like Simon or Richter. If you've never played Castlevania before, don't worry, as you don't require knowledge of the games to enjoy the show's story. If you're at all curious about this series, give it a shot! It's a relatively short binge, too, as the seasons don't go past ten episodes and no episodes go past 30 minutes. Of course, I need to put a massive warning for the squeamish: it is a goddamn gore-fest. Also, Konami needs to get off their asses and make some new Castlevania games, because this show has gotten me in the mood for more Castlevania. - end - Got a couple more Super Nintendo games to go until I'm all caught up with the emulator updates. BACKGROUND:
Surprise, surprise: I don't know what this game is. SUMMARY: The first thing I thought of upon looking at Prehistorik Man was that it's almost exactly like Joe & Mac: it's a side-scrolling platformer set in anachronistic caveman times. However, the game does do a number of things that set it apart from Joe & Mac. The story is about as silly as I expected from a game set in the pseudo-Stone Age. A bunch of dinosaurs stole all the food from a village, and the chief assigns a dude named Sam to help collect food before winter comes. For some reason, this task requires him to collect bones from the Dinosaur Graveyard, which, if I recall, will be used to... buy the food they need? I thought these folks were hunter-gatherers? Control-wise, this is a pretty standard platformer. Sam can run, jump, dash (allowing for farther jumps), and he has a melee attack with his club. The most unique thing Sam can do is a shout, which is a powerful screen-clearing attack that has a lengthy cooldown after using it. In terms of level mechanics, there isn't a lot I haven't already seen in other games, but the overall design does present a slightly decent challenge. While most of the game's 23 levels require you to simply reach the end, there's a bit more room to explore and find secrets. You mostly want to do this if you want to get 100% on each level, as that requires you to collect a specific amount of gems and food strewn about the level. You can also find a shop (which takes collectible bones as currency), various power-ups (like alternate weapons with limited ammo), the letters for the word "bonus" (completing the letters takes you to a bonus level with more collectibles in it), and even permanent upgrades. A few of the levels straight up change the formula from typical linear platforming to something more exploration-based, with a couple of stages requiring you to find a specific item before you can move on to the next level. Others feel more like collect-a-thons, and they usually involve you controlling a gimmicky vehicle of sorts. I enjoyed these levels as much as the more straightforward linear ones, though I did find slight difficulty finding the required items or controlling the slightly janky vehicles. There are also a few boss fights in the game, and they're pretty simple for the most part. Combat overall isn't too complex here, as all you have to do is wail on an enemy until it dies. This game has a lot of charm to it, with its delightfully goofy (and vibrant) sprites, upbeat music, occasionally silly dialogue (this aspect is a little more hit-or-miss), and hilarious sound effects and animations (for example; Sam's shout attack sounds almost exactly like Tom from Tom & Jerry's scream, which has been making me laugh since I was a kid). VERDICT: It's not really the most revolutionary platformer out there, but I had good fun with Prehistorik Man's side-scrolling action. I liked that it mixed things up with some nonlinear levels, and I enjoyed the emphasis on collecting stuff. While it doesn't mean a great deal other than a satisfying 100% counter at the end, I still liked collecting for the sake of it. Some of the mechanics were also neat, and I certainly chuckled at some of the game's silliness (I can still hear Sam's shout in my head and it still makes me laugh). If you're in the mood for a simple platformer with a good deal of charm, you may like this game. It's pretty short and there's not a lot to completion apart from the collect-a-thon aspect, however, so if you want a bit more meat in your platformers, this may not be for you. - end - Squares are fun and all, but sometimes, rectangles are where it's at. DIFFICULTY: Apart from the one pleat you have to do to form the body (which itself takes only a few tries to get right), most of the construction of this model consists of basic folds. Shouldn't be a problem for novices. INSTRUCTION SOURCE: This butterfly is credited to one Beth Johnson. As to where I got the instructions, I don't remember the exact place I came across it (my guess is it was a lucky find in Google Images), but I was at least able to save the link. Head over here to view the diagrams. OTHER THINGS: This is the first model in this series that starts off using paper with the size ratio 1:2. When I was first starting out in origami, models that instruct me to start off with paper of this size stressed me out, as I figured I had to manually measure out and cut the paper I need (I'm used to preparing squares by hand and not giving a shit about exact measurements). I eventually figured out that there's an easy way to prepare 1:2 paper: just cut a square in half orthogonally. Like the butterfly in Chapter 39, this is one of those models that has well-defined wings with some depth to them. I enjoy the 3D aspect a lot, and the fact that this model is quite easy to make is the cherry on top. THE WALL'S PROGRESS: - end -
It's been about a week (as I write this) since the first title update came out for Monster Hunter Rise, and after sinking around 30 more hours into the game, I think I'm ready to talk about what's new. BACKGROUND:
Some of the stuff in this update has already been announced prior to the game's release, so I had a vague idea of what was going to be added. Around the end of April, we got a presentation that showcased a lot of the new stuff, and just like that, I was excited to play more of the game. I've heard some people say that Rise is an "incomplete" game at launch, and it does appear that Capcom pushed back some content meant to be in the base game to be released post-launch. This is the first Monster Hunter game I've actually taken the time to learn, so I don't really know what constitutes a "complete" game for this franchise, but I'm not sure I agree with the notion that it was a rushed game. The base release has a respectable amount of content with lots of monsters to fight, 14 weapons that accommodate various play styles, and the story, while weirdly handled, does have something vaguely resembling an ending. Would I have preferred more monsters at launch? Naturally. But I don't think that necessarily means that Rise is incomplete as a release. Regardless, I'm just glad there's more stuff to do. This is the sort of game that would benefit from a periodic free update model, so that players like me have something to look forward to even if I end up completing all the new stuff. WHAT'S NEW: New Monsters, Weapons, and Armor Of course, we're all here for one thing: more shit to kill and turn into armor. Overall, this update adds four new monsters, plus two new Apex variants of existing monsters. I've fought every single one of them at least twice, and I'd like to share some brief thoughts on each monster.
As with every new monster, we get new weapons and armor sets to play around with. The new armor sets are pretty powerful (the Teostra set in particular seems excellent for crit-focused builds), and they look neat to boot. As I have only learned a handful of weapons, I only got to play around with a few of the new ones, but the ones I've made so far are no joke. The Teostra dual blades, for instance, deal both Blast and Ice damage, which is a ton of fun to use. I also love the look of some of the new weapons, like the Chameleos long sword (which has a blade that fluctuates from invisible to visible, as the mosnter does). Your Palicoes and Palamutes get new armor and weapons as well, which is great. My favorite is the Kushala Daora Palamute armor, which makes your dog look like goddamn Anubis. Layered Armor Building armor to fit your play style in this game often means wearing pieces that don't mesh together well at all, but the addition of layered armor does away with that. Now, you can create a separate set of armor that's purely cosmetic, without affecting your regular armor (which has all the stats and skills you need). Though layered armor is not a new mechanic to Monster Hunter, it is one a new player like me can appreciate. Now I can dress up my character however I want without having to worry about losing skills I need for my current weapon. You do still have to get material drops and such to craft these armor pieces, but the requirements are a bit more lenient, and if you're playing this game regularly anyhow, you can quickly get all the materials you need in a few hunts. New Quests Though a lot of the new quests have to do with the new monsters, there are also a bunch of new quests added to the Hub and Arena that fall outside of that. The ones I want to highlight are the regular Apex hunts, which allow you to fight Apex Arzuros, Apex Rathian, and Apex Mizutsune in a normal hunt environment. I really liked this addition, as previously, you could only fight these variants in Rampage mode, which is a pretty time-consuming mode. This way, I can easily grab the Apex drops whenever I need them, and if I ever feel like taking on a challenging fight, I don't have to do a Rampage just to get to it. I hope the Apexes having a regular hunt sets a precedent moving forward, because I'd like to fight Apex Rathalos and Apex Diablos normally. I also hope this means that we'll get a regular hunt quest for Wind Serpent Ibushi and Thunder Serpent Narwa (her quest is already sort of normal, but I prefer a less gimmicky fight). Event Quests are also a thing now, as you can download special quests via the Internet whenever they come up. As of this writing, only one Event Quest has come out, and it's just a hunt for an existing monster, but I am excited for the potential of this feature. The rewards themselves just seem to be cosmetic stuff like emotes and such, which I'm indifferent about. There's even a new Village Quest that you can play if you've 100% Village beforehand, and it'll let you craft a brand new armor piece once you beat it. Other Things One of the major changes to the game is the unlocking of the Hunter Rank cap. In the base game, HR 7 was the highest rank, but now that has been removed such that the maximum is level 999 (or some absurd number like that). The rank doesn't matter past HR 40 (as the last of the new stuff is unlocked at that rank), so I guess it's just neat to see the number go up. I personally don't care about this; in fact, I think the HR cap being unlocked would just out me as someone who plays this game a lot. Some changes have been made to existing quests, with different monsters now showing up in certain areas. This is most notable in the Rampage quests, as Magnamalo can now show up to wreck your shit. It is... terrifying, to say the least, but not unbeatable. More level caps have been raised, like Palico and Palamute max level (from 35 to 50), as well as the max armor upgrade level cap (so you can strengthen armor even more). The latter is more significant to me, as the ability to jack up my defense even higher is important in the tougher hunts. New weapons have also been added outside of the ones tied to the new monsters, with many of the existing weapon trees being expanded. The Rathalos weapons, for example, have a new upgrade tier that you can access. A couple of new Petalaces and a bunch of new Decorations have also been added, further expanding your options for your builds. The latter is quite significant as well, as some skills that didn't have Decorations in the base game (Weakness Exploit, Handicraft, Paralysis Attack, among others) now have them, so some armor pieces can now be swapped out. Some new cosmetic DLC has also been added, which I don't really care about. The one thing I will comment on is the Character Edit Voucher, which allows you to edit your character with the character creator you get at the start of the game. I don't understand why such a feature is something you have to pay for; nothing about adjusting your avatar's look merits an additional purchase. VERDICT: Monster Hunter Rise's update had a good amount to offer, with a handful of new monsters to beat the shit out of, new armor sets, weapons, and decorations to work towards, the addition of layered armor to add style to hunts, and a few neat changes or additions like Apex monster quests. Quantity-wise, it doesn't seem like much (especially going by the number of new monsters), but the new content gave me a lot of reasons to keep playing, from practicing the Elder Dragon fights, to farming materials for those new weapons, and teaming up with my friends on the Rampage quests. I'm content with what they added here, although I suppose that's because I don't grind this game out as much as more dedicated players do (and I end up not blasting through all the content as quickly). In any case, the next update is due for the end of May, so that's another thing to look forward to. Hopefully they add just as much stuff, if not more. - end - If you look to your right on the blog's sidebar, you'll notice something new amongst all the links: a search bar! Obviously, it's a feature that should have been there years ago, but how it works unfortunately kept me from adding it for the longest time.
The search bar element available on Weebly's site editor is just a freeform search engine: all it does is find instances of a keyword in every possible page, meaning it'll capture everything from blog titles to offhand mentions of a word. While there is certainly utility in that, it usually means that the search results page will be inundated with entries that are only tangentially related to what's being searched for. I wanted something a bit more streamlined, so I spent some time looking for alternatives or ways to customize the code. I didn't really find any worthwhile alternatives, however, and I found the notion of creating a custom search engine from scratch way too time-consuming given I have actual stuff to code these days. After mulling it over for some time, I decided to simply bite the bullet and use the default search bar. Given how many blog entries I've written over the years, I deemed it better to have a rudimentary search feature than to have none at all. Hopefully it will prove useful if you're looking for something I talked about in 2018, or are curious if I've ever discussed something you're interested in. Along with the search bar, I also added dedicated buttons that link to my social media stuff. Twitter and Instagram are standard stuff, but I've also added a mail button that allows you to email me. I created a new account specifically for this, and I would appreciate if you could direct any blog-related emails to that account. - end - With this one, I learned the Dutch word for "butterfly" (vlinder), and that marks my eighth non-native language in which I can say "butterfly". DIFFICULTY: Most of the folds are pretty basic, though there are a few tricky petal folds and squash folds I had to deal with. The real challenge is more on keeping everything symmetrical, as I found out during my practice attempts at this model. INSTRUCTION SOURCE: This model is credited to one Rikki Donachie, and I retrieved the instructions from their website. The bad news is said website has been inaccessible for a long while now, but the good news is Wayback Machine has an archive of the site that you can check out. Here's the link to the instructions for this butterfly (warning: it's a direct download link, which means clicking it will download the PDF file of the diagrams). OTHER THINGS: This model starts out with normal rectangular paper as opposed to the traditional square paper. While that may seem strange given how many butterflies I've folded that start out as squares, origami models that start out with rectangular paper are pretty common. On that note, the creator recommends using paper that's size A5 or smaller. I've tried making this with standard A4 paper, and the final product comes out pretty big, so keep that in mind. You can also experiment with rectangular paper that has a different ratio to A series paper to create slight variations in size or proportion (like US legal size or something). I'm sure it's noticeable in the photo that I used paper with printing for the final model. In this case, I used an extra instruction pamphlet for a Lego set that I own. If, for whatever reason, you're interested in that particular set, here's the instructions directly from Lego's website. THE WALL'S PROGRESS: - end -
It'll be a while until the next MCU thing comes out, so in the meantime, I'll tackle a few comics in my backlog. BACKGROUND:
I've already read a bunch of Black Panther comics from Ta-Nehisi Coates's renowned run, but I have a lot more from that series of books to read (with this being one of them). I actually have read the first issue of this series as well, but this is my first opportunity to read it in full. As for why I chose this book in particular for this week, people who have watched Falcon and the Winter Soldier will make the connection. Other than that, I won't give anything away (although perhaps me even pointing this out is a spoiler in itself). THE WRITING: World of Wakanda focuses on characters outside of Black Panther and Shuri. For the first five issues, it focuses on the Dora Milaje, the women warriors of Wakanda. The main characters here are Ayo and Aneka; the former is a new recruit, and the latter is the Dora Milaje captain. Throughout the story, the Dora Milaje are caught in the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, which saw Namor attack Wakanda and T'Challa be absent during a lot of the aftermath (which saw civilians perish). As a result, the Dora Milaje find themselves questioning their king, and as the story goes along, many among their ranks resolve to serve the Wakandan people over the interests of the royal family. It's an alternative take on the classic "blind service vs. defying authority for the greater good" conflict, with the added wrinkle of the authority being Black Panther himself. You get to see the other side of this in the main Black Panther comic series, which sees T'Challa deal with his citizens losing faith in his leadership. Alongside this, we get to see Ayo and Aneka's relationship blossom. They start out as a teacher and student at odds with one another, but their dynamic eventually shifts to that of secret lovers. There's quite a bit of conflict between them throughout, as Aneka in particular finds herself confused as to what to do with her feelings (since she feels like she has a duty to uphold), while Ayo is more in tune with what she wants (though she regularly defies authority to get the point across). It's cool to see their relationship change along with the overall shift of the Dora Milaje's mission, as they eventually become the Midnight Angels, who fight for the Wakandan citizens whose problems the Black Panther has overlooked. Other characters are given a minor focus, with the most notable for me being Folami, a wayward Dora Milaje recruit whose judgment gets clouded throughout the series, eventually positioning her in an antagonist role. Apart from that, most other characters don't really get much. Issue #5 also has a separate short story focusing on the beginnings of Zenzi, one of the main antagonists in Vol. 1 of Coates's Black Panther series, before she leads a group of Wakandans against T'Challa with her emotion manipulation powers. The sixth issue is kind of its own thing, as it's a story completely unrelated to the Dora Milaje story of the first five. It focuses on Kevin "Kasper" Cole, one of a number of characters to go by the name of White Tiger, as he does a favor for T'Challa and helps him deal with a villain who's stolen some vibranium. I liked the first standalone story as it further fleshed out Zenzi, but it's the second one that has me intrigued. Cole's version of White Tiger hasn't really been around for quite a while, and we see him here as basically retired and back as being a police officer. By the end, it's set up that he's going back into being a hero, but I don't know if it went anywhere (I don't recall having seen his character pop up in any comic from 2016 onwards). THE ART: The artists for #1-5 and #6 are different. The art for the first five issues has neat, consistent lines and is relatively simple in terms of level of detail, and the shading varies from soft and understated to striking and dramatic. The art for Zenzi's short story is also different, as it has more distinct line work, some panels have a painterly feel to them, and there are more distinct textures (like in the hair). As for #6, the shading style is different (there's a lot more hatching here), and there's more detail to character faces and their musculature. Interestingly, White Tiger himself is drawn quite simply, with little detail to define his body or his costume. VERDICT: I thought World of Wakanda is a great supplement series that helps flesh out Wakanda in a number of ways. It shows an important facet of its culture (the Dora Milaje) deal with the extraordinary events of Avengers vs. X-Men and question their duty as the royal family's elite task force, as well as showing the blossoming romance of Ayo and Aneka along with their transformation as the Midnight Angels. Plus, we also got an intriguing story involving White Tiger and a bit of backstory on Zenzi, which enhances Black Panther Vol. 1's antagonists. I've been a big fan of the Wakandan corner of the Marvel Universe for a long time, and I appreciated stories like this that further expands on aspects of its lore outside of the Black Panther. If you're a fan of Wakanda (especially one who became a fan because of the movie), or you think the Dora Milaje are cool (who doesn't?), I think you'll get a lot out of reading this comic. You get to see the powerful nation from a different angle, as well as explore other characters outside of Black Panther, and if those are things that interest you, you may like this book. Purchase Black Panther: World of Wakanda on Comixology: Black Panther: World of Wakanda - Comics by comiXology - end - Now, I'm onto the three Super Nintendo games added to the Switch Online emulator last February. Let's keep playing. BACKGROUND:
Can't say I've heard of this game, either. SUMMARY: Doomsday Warrior is another 2D fighting game, and much like most fighting games that came out in the early '90s, it was likely capitalizing off of the popularity of Street Fighter II. What makes it different? This game's control scheme is a bit odd. There are only two attack buttons (punch and kick), and there are dedicated buttons for jump and block. I found it quite jarring at first, but I quickly adjusted after receiving a modest ass-beating. Overall, the combat is simple, with very little in terms of unique normals (there's only up, down, and neutral inputs for both punch and kick), there are very few special moves (most of which are easy charge inputs and don't require any complex motions), and there are barely any combos. You won't get any complex mechanics here, unfortunately. The health bar is a little strange as well, as it's split into four sections. You can also regenerate some health if you back off long enough, but you can only heal up to the top of the bar that isn't completely drained yet. Not really a fan of this mechanic, as it's the kind that encourages stalling and zoning. There are seven playable characters, and they mostly look and feel distinct from one another. However, this game doesn't really do much to build them as characters, which is a bit of a shame since some of them seem pretty interesting. The game doesn't do much to explain its story, but the gist is that the character you choose in the story mode is rebelling against an evil group, and you're fighting against your former comrades (AKA the other playable characters), as well as Main (the big bad in charge) and his lieutenants. Nothing special, but I did like how they made the idea of fighting the other characters in the roster make sense within the context of the story. You can play the story mode on either Easy or Normal, but regardless, the mode has a neat RPG mechanic that you can take advantage of. Every time you win, you can spend some points to increase your stats, like enhancing punch or kick attacks, or reducing your damage taken. It's a cool idea, though I couldn't really tell how significant the boosts are. Apart from the final three boss characters (which are your standard best-of-three rounds), most of the story mode is a best of one bout. It's a little odd, so I thought I'd point it out. Of course, no fighting game is complete without a two-player versus mode, and Doomsday Warrior has one. These follow the standard best-of-three format if you're concerned about that. VERDICT: Doomsday Warrior did some things that I thought was neat or different, but it didn't really blow me away overall. I did enjoy my brief time running through the story mode spamming throws on the CPU, so I suppose that's something. Again, if you want to check out '90s fighting games, you have more exciting options available, but if you want to mess around with a super simple one, you might enjoy a couple of rounds of this. - end - This is the last of the SNES games of the December 2020 update. I got three more games from the February 2021 update after this. BACKGROUND:
Never heard of the Valis series prior to seeing this game in the Switch Online emulator's library. Go figure. SUMMARY: Super Valis IV is 2D platformer in the style of Castlevania: fight your way to the end of a level, fight a boss, repeat. It's standard linear platforming action for the most part, but it does do a few things to set itself apart. The story itself is nothing revolutionary, either: Gallagher, the ruler of the Dark World, is here to fuck shit up, and the only one who can end the terror is a young woman named Lena. Lena is the only one who can wield the legendary Valis Sword, so it falls upon her to save the world. Nothing about the plot really did anything for me, but I didn't mind that much. In terms of the gameplay, the basics are straightforward. Lena has a basic attack with her sword, she can jump, and she can dash (which allows you to jump farther). The level design isn't particularly demanding in terms of precise movement, but it's made up for with some occasionally challenging enemy placement. This game has a similar mechanic to Castlevania where you can pick up sub-weapons, which can be used by pressing up-attack. By default, you have a standard fireball that you can use freely, but you can also pick up other weapons with limited uses, like a homing shot or an upwards projectile. You can also pick up an item that allows you to heal, as well as armor that negates damage for a couple of hits. While the power-ups themselves aren't anything new, I do like how you have a sort of inventory that allows you to keep a stock of six sub-weapons, and you can activate them on command. It's a different approach to other games, which usually have you commit to one power-up, and picking up another one replaces what you already have. Regular enemies mostly serve to make traversing the levels a little bit tricky with their placement or their projectiles, so don't expect any compelling combat out of them. If you're looking for a fight, you'll get them when you reach the boss at the end of each level. I didn't find most of the bosses particularly tough, as they only really had a handful of attack patterns, but some of them do take a while to defeat, and they often are immune to a lot of your sub-weapons. Perhaps the game's most interesting mechanic involves a bit of speedrunning. The boss at the end of each level actually gets stronger the longer you take to get to them, so there's incentive to blaze through a level. In my experience, I only encountered a few sections where I felt like I was slowed down significantly, so you may have to actively stall to get the harder boss fights. Visually, the game has some nice-looking pixel art, with the art that serves as the "cutscenes" looking the most impressive. I like some of the level music as well. VERDICT: It's not the most revolutionary 2D platformer out there, but I enjoyed my brief time with Super Valis IV. I liked the alternative take on the sub-weapon mechanic, and I thought the idea that boss strength being tied to how quickly you reached the end of the level was interesting. Other than that, I found it to be a standard experience. I think this game is worth trying out once if you like platformers, but you might not find it as engaging if you've played more iconic games from this era, or are more accustomed to modern platformers with a lot of neat mechanics. - end - |
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