So, Beatstar is a mobile rhythm game. Its not new, there have been like 40 some odd seasons of its pass which seem to last around a month or so. So, some 3+ years, at least.
Thats not important, its new to me.
I have made no secret that I enjoy music and rhythm games, and so I have been really enjoying this one. Its a bit different in feel than DDR or Fortnite Festival. There are only 3 lanes, so you can play with your thumbs. You also can’t miss a note, or you fail the song.
Its hard to take screen shots for a rhythm game in action…
I don’t super mind this, except there is a “pay to continue” mechanic that is annoying. I have managed to sprt of train myself to just “tap tap tap” down the countdown timer as soon as I fail. Its almost never worth spending gems to continue with one exception. There are these occasional events where you earn special points for prizes. You only get the points if you actually finish the song, so if you are doing well, and near the end especially, its worth paying the gems. You are basically spending nothing in gems to potentially unlock more tracks. On the scale of spending for songs, its literally the best value possible.
And the game does really try to get you to spend for songs. Its possibly going to be my downfall with this one. I like playing ot, but I am around level 10 (out of 27) and I am increasingly hitting slowdowns and roadblocks on new content.
Basically, I am going to get bored of this and playing the same songs over and over.
I have like 70 songs now, and I did spend a bit of money (one song pack and the current season pass).
You still get a lot of songs for free though just by playing. As you play you unlock cards through various means, collect enough cards in a particular genre and you unlock a song of that genre. The problem is, the more you unlock, the more cards you need. Initially it took like, 5 cards to unlock a box. Now, in some cases, it takes like 40.
The pass seems to work the same way, which is super discouraging for buying anymore passes, because I am not sure I can complete it and unlock all 10 songs. Tier 1 was like 10 Pass Points, I am currently at I think 50 needed.
Anyway, for the game itself I am pretty good, which is to be expected a bit. A lot of my common song fails seem to come from the occasional input lag, especially on swipe notes. And the songs I score low at are ones with a lot of dense notes. Hitting the notes is not the problem, but I find I start to slowly move up in temp during dense clumps, which leads to early hits which breaks the score multiplier combo.
Throne and Liberty
I started a new MMO, and its new to everyone, not just me. Someone I know was playing it. I actually have some potential posts about it written up but I am not sure I want to bother.
A lot of what has drawn me to this one is just how nice the visuals are. Its really nice looking and everything runs incredibly smoothly. It kind of reminds me a bit of Black Desert in that aspect. I have only been vaguely following the storyline, something about some sort of purple energy and an evil lady with a giant evil knight dude.
I am enjoying it so far, though having read into it a bit more it sounds like end game is a bit more PVP focused than I would care for so I am not sure I will go much beyond running through the main storyline and finishing out the base world.
Mirrors Egde
I mostly want to mention this one because its not the first time I tried to play it, and I really really WANT to like this game, but there is just something that keeps me from getting into it.
Super Mario Special
I found out about this game that I never knew existed recently, and decided to play it, via ROM hack. Apparently there was a sprt of, PC version of Super Mario Brothers put out by Hudson Soft in the 80s. It was on various platforms.
Its basically just, SMB with similar but different levels and some new enemies (well, old crab and fly enemies from Mario Bros) and power ups. Turns out the P Wing in Super Mario Brothers 3, was not the first time Mario had flying wings as a power up.
Sky: Children of the Light
I already wrote about the new season. I mostly wanted to mention that I apparently get a fair amount of search traffic related to this game and so I have started gathering some notes to maybe update some of those old guide posts I made a while back.
It’s time for a new season in Sky: Children of the Light. This is another tie in season like the Season of the Little Prince and Season of Aurora. This time around the world of Moomin and Moominvalley with the Season of Moomin.
So, in case you are like me, and in the US and (probably) a bit confused as to what a Moomin is, I figure a bit of a brief description is probably in order. I’ve only barely heard of this property at all, and only recently a few months ago when I saw an add for some sort of Moomin related toys on Instagram. Basically, it’s never really “been a thing” in the US. I mean, maybe I just somehow missed it, buy I find that unlikely. It’s pretty popular over in Europe and Japan though.
The Jansson family has kept the rights of Moomins and controlled the Moomin Boom. The artistic control is now in the hands of Lars Jansson’s daughter, Sophia Jansson-Zambra. Wanting to keep the control over Moomins, the family has turned down offers from The Walt Disney Company.
— Wikipedia
Gee, I wonder why it’s not a thing in the US. Kind of feels like the Mouse may have been keeping this one down in hopes of cashing in.
Anyway, it’s Sweedish/Finnish based children’s property created by Tove Jansson. It follows the adventures of the Moomintrolls, large white hippo looking creatures, and thier various companions. The art style overall is quite charming in my opinion. It’s got a very interesting look to it, especially the non Moomin characters.
It feels like a pretty good fit with Sky’s world and aesthetic though. I kind of like the crossovers that Sky does, but it also feels like they are hard to do because, not just anything fits. They really couldn’t do a “Transformers Crossover” really, for example. Aurora fit well, The Little Prince fit well, The Nine colored Deer fit well, the brief Cinnamaroll mini event was alright as well. I think part of the key is that the property needs to have a sort of, soft-ish aesthetic and elicit a strong emotional response.
So the Season has just started, so there isn’t a ton to mention on the season itself aside from, this really feels more like what seasons should be in this game. I started playing just before Season of Aurora, and have only skipped one season (Passage), but so far this season really feels like one of the more elaborate so far. Even Season of Aurora, which had little mini stories paced to Aurora’s Music wasn’t quite this fancy. Season of Moomin has it’s own special landing area with a little, sort of campsite. Then the event itself takes place in (presumably) Moomin Valley, and tells a little story of an Invisible Girl named Ninny.
After completing the first part, it unlocks a second little story thing where you travel around a building as an unlit Skykid. It’s not clear what this is about, but I suspect more will be revealed as the Season progresses.
You can also return to Moomin Valley to simply, explore the world. Exploring the world lets you interact with some other characters and mini stories. The season also features some pretty nice Moomin Cosmetics, though the nicer ones are locked behind real money IAPs.
On a little last side note, there seems to have been a few additional changes to some of the game as well. Old spirits in the world at large now have darkness plants enveloping them, and aren’t just sitting along hunched over in the world. I didn’t use it, but I have also seen reports that the ability to use shared memories to quickly collect wax in each zone no longer works. I’ve also noticed that the Nest size has been, adjusted,
