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What I’ve Been Playing – Better Late than Never Edition

May 20th, 2023
by Ramen Junkie.
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So I meant to be way more regular on these things but I’ve kind of failed at that. Two reasons mostly, I suppose. One, often I decide I want to do a full write up on something instead of a brief write up in one of these posts. Two, mostly I have just been playing Fortnite.

I actually want to go on a bit of a tangent regarding Fortnite and Sky, Children of the Light, and paid seasonal passes. I posted a series of posts on Sky: CotL recently. I’d been meaning to write them all out for a while, and I did, and I posted them, and… that was just kind of it. I stopped playing. It seems like a really weird place to stop, and I can’t really say I intended it that way or even realized it had happened. The game is coming to PC soon though, so I will definitely go back.

My frustration here, is the Season Pass. And Season/Battle Passes in general. The entire concept is just, a little lame. It could BE perfectly fine, but most are not. For example, with Sky, I decided to log in and I noticed there was a new season, and while it has some really wonderful looking capes and masks, I had already decided I didn’t really care. What I realized was, i had never finished the last pass. I was literally like 99% there too. But I did not pick up the awesome manta spawning lamp. I am pretty sure, it’s never ever coming back either. That’s it. I paid for the pass, I am pretty sure I even had the candles, I just, never logged in to redeem it.

This whole exclusivity thing is kind of really annoying. It’s why I stopped playing Overwatch 2 out of the gate. It’s annoying in Fortnite as well. Like, I can never get Peely, because he was a pass skin. I can’t get Darth Vader, he was a pass skin. Lots of cool skins I come across, end up being pass skins, from before I played.

It’s annoying and Frustrating.

Fortnite

Back on track a bit though, and on Fortnite, I finally picked up Save the World, the single player hoard mode campaign. It’s… kind of a little lame. I can see why it’s not popular. It comes with a bunch of V-Bucks, and eventually I can build some experience grinding endurance run builds, but I kind of regret bothering. You can’t even get the V-Bucks included until you have played for quite a bit to unlock the daily quests. The voice acting and little story bits are fun and funny, the actual game play loop feels a lot like an annoying mobile game and it’s kind of tedious and boring.

Banko Kazooie Grunty’s Revenge (GBA)

I may do a full write up on this game, but I have never played and Banjo Kazooie games, but I really enjoy both Yooka Laylee games from the same studio (more or less). It’s really kind of weird how similar the games are. I’ve compared Yooka Laylee to Donkey Kong Country, but it’s almost a straight reskin of Banjo Kazooie’s world. Anyway, I finished it, 100%. It’s fun.

The Wizard Game That shall Not Be Named

I’ve been a bit torn on this one. I really like Harry Potter, but Rowling is actually kind of shit, and there has been a huge basically, witch hunt campaign against anyone who cares about this game. There is actually a great video that covers the whole thing pretty well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0TwTJCRf58

Don’t worry too much though, the game is decidedly pretty mid tier.

I ended up getting a free copy of this game through a raffle online, so it’s kind of awash, I guess. I get the controversy around everything, personally, the Transgender audience complaining about Rowling is legitimate. The whole “Goblin/Jews” thing, feels a little bit over blown. Goblins, orcs, trolls, etc, have basically always “looked like that”. because it’s a mechanism to make evil characters. If anything, Jewish stereotypes, were also just, designed to look like creepy goblins, less so the other way around. I don’t know, maybe I am way off base there.

I will say though, taking a random female model character, and just, giving them a male voice actor, does not a transgender character make. Maybe there is more to it as the story progresses, I have been mostly exploring the castle, and not really doing the story, so I’m hugely over leveled, but I really doubt it. I am not sure what they could have done, but it just feels, a little forced and awkward.

It should not be real surprising though, there is something weird going on with some of the voice acting in this game in general. Several characters sound like they recorded their lines in an echo chamber or something. My own character also sounds weird, maybe it’s partially my fault? When you create a character, you can adjust the pitch of the voice chosen, higher and lower, and I went on the higher end, which seemed fine in the character creation demo lines, but after going through actual dialogue, she sounds like a weird echo bumblebee. It’s grating enough I have considered seeing if there is a way to hack the save file to choose a different voice pitch.

There is also a lot of oddness to the graphics going on. Maybe this sort of thing is common, I don’t really play too many “AAA” level titles, but there is a lot of weird clipping, at times. Particularly with the cloaks everyone wears, which will randomly flop up on one side, maybe it’s supposed to be wind?

I am also disappointed by the lack of real interaction with your character and the NPC students. A lot fo my comparison here comes from GTA, which is the big daddy of “open world games”. In this game, you can’t say, randomly Leviosa another student. You can barely even bump into them. In GTA, you run through a crowd of people, they all bump around realistically and get kind of offended. In this, they just sort of, do nothing.

I also wish there was more NPC variety in the students. The game has a pretty robust cosmetics system to it, but you’re supposed to be a student, and literally every other student just wears a basic house outfit and robes. So you wearing anything else, feels super weird.

Probably the biggest issue I have had, and this may be explained better later, is your character’s place in the world. You’re like, the most Mary Sue character ever to visit Hogwarts, including the not yet born Harry Potter. You come in as a 5th year student, which feels really odd, but I kind of get that they didn’t want you to start as an 11 year old kid. It feels like Magic is something you would want to start from the beginning with though, screwing up Math by starting school as a 5th grader, isn’t going to turn anyone into a frog. There has been at least one little scene though suggesting there were other students admitted as 5th year students. All of them, including your character, also have access to this Mary Sue Magic (Ancient Magic) which is apparently uncommon. You learn all you spells pretty easily, which is just one more, “Mary Sue moment”. Basically, you are perfect at everything. I get that it’s needed for gameplay, but it feels weird from a story perspective.

Anyway, I actually have been trying to force myself to play more single player titles and just, stuff, besides Fortnite. Like, I had started Death Stranding and Final Fantasy 7R, and then stopped. I want to go back to those, but I have yet to do so. I just end up playing more Fortnite, it’s quick and easy.

Review – Blaster Master Zero (PC)

Apr 4th, 2023
by Ramen Junkie.
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Blaster Master Zero Site Banner

Growing up in the 80s, my friends and I played a lot of NES games. One of our absolute favorites was Blaster master. It had a lot of unique elements to it for the time, specifically, the back and forth exploration of areas, and the cool car, which you could eject from. Though at the time there wasn’t a term for it, it was very much in the vein of Metroidvania games. Mostly open world exploration, returning to zones with new abilities and upgrades, all very much hallmarks of that type of game.

The series seemed to, not really go anywhere though. There were a few Game Boy games, and a PlayStation title, but not a lot of entries in the series, until recently, with the Blaster Master Zero series. The first game in the series is essentially a remake of the first, original Blaster Master game, though it adds quite a lot of new elements and story to help flesh things out.

It also adds in a lot of new modernization to the game, with the ability to save your game being the big one. The original Blaster Master was a lot of fun, but it was a little brutal with what was needed to complete it. You pretty much just had your 3 lives (or whatever) and had to do everything in one go. And while the game wasn’t super difficult, accomplishing that did get tricky. I think the farthest I ever got on the original game was like zone 4 or 5. The lives issue aside, it also meant doing it all in one sitting. So having save games in the new game, is a huge improvement.

But it’s not a straight remake, as mentioned. Many of the overhead on foot zones are more fleshed out, making that part of the game play more enjoyable. It was always kind of an annoying chore before. There are also some bosses that show up in the main world now as well, so you are not just limited to the car for travel and bosses on foot. The core plot is expanded, giving some reason and motivation to the existence of Sophia-3 (the car), beyond, “Some kid fell in a hole while chasing his frog”.

The best part though is that it still FEELS like the old titles. There is a slight floatyness to the car and a bit of clunkiness to the on foot areas that aren’t bad elements at all, but they do exist and help Blaster Mater “feel” like Blaster Master, and they are both very particular to this game series. It also helps to make the two different play modes seem different. The floay car makes sense since it tends to continue rolling slightly when stopping, which contrasts well with how the on foot hero plays, since he is just a dude in a suit.

It’s definitely a fun remake of the original game. It’s honestly more fun than the original since it’s removed a lot of the tedium. It has all the right feel for game play and design, even the newer areas, which makes it feel just right as an update to the original game.

Retroid Pocket 3

Apr 3rd, 2023
by Ramen Junkie.
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So, I’ve been pretty heavy on the programming push lately, but it’s not all I’ve been up to. So, back around the start of the pandemic, I started work making a PiGrrl handheld emulator device. PiGrrl is basically a Game Boy Clone that runs with a Raspberry Pi at it’s core. I ordered a bunch of parts and a case, I already had a Pi (I have several), and then the Pandemic caused my parts to take forever to arrive. Plus I probably spent more on it than I really should have.

Then I got a little bored and it sat for a bit, but I did eventually solder everything together, and it didn’t quite work, so I did some corrections and got bored of it for a few months again, then eventually, I got it working. Sort of, some emulators work, others don’t even launch, I am sure it’s a software issue a this point.

So, after a bit more trouble shooting, I got a little bonus at work like I occasionally do, so I just ordered a Retroid Pocket 3. A nice pre built solution that’s configured and well, just works. I mostly play gaming on PC, but for consoles, most of my playing in the last 20 years has been on handhelds. I am pretty sure I actually played and finished almost every DS game I have bought (including GBA), and the completion rate for my 3DS games is also very high. The point is, my follow through rate for hand held games is staggeringly high compared to PC and traditional Consoles. I mean, I bought my PS3 and it came with The Last of Us, which I was excited for, and I still have yet to play it even once.

Anyway, the Retroid Pocket is essentially an Android device with a controller and case wrapped around it to make it look like a PSP or a Switch. I considered the Retroid Pocket 2+ but I wanted the wider screen, so I went with the Retroid Pocket 3. So far, my experience with it has been pretty excellent.

There is a bit of trickiness in tracking down the BIOS files needed but there are guides and resources out there. Anything older than say, the SNES/Genesis era plays flawlessly with ease. Which is pretty expected, since it’s all basic 2D gaming at that point. I’ve had a lot of luck running PS1 and PSP titles as well.

Nintendo 64 games are a little touchy but there are some settings that I believe I can adjust to make it work better. Right now everything has screwy transparency. There are options for some more powerful systems but I’ve not had luck yet getting things like PS2 working. I’ve played several WiiWare games but the Wii itself has the motion controls which don’t translate super well to a handheld device’s controls.

Overall, I am extremely happy with this purchase, it’s really invigorated my interest in older games and gaming again.

Review – Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)

Mar 30th, 2023
by Ramen Junkie.
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Mega Man Powered Up Site Banner

It really disappoints me that this game never came out for anything aside from the PSP. I kind of loathe the PSP. I’ve looked into getting a PSP several times over many years, but the system relies on lots of Proprietary Sony extras, like the over priced Memory Stick Duo cards, and so I just, never bothered because by the time I got one and a decent sized memory card, I was looking at enough to buy a regular console.

I had actually kind of forgotten this game even existed for a while, despite being pretty excited about the idea when it was initially released. Mega man Powered Up is a ground up remake of the original Mega Man title. The claim is that it’s also faithful in every way, despite the visual updates, though that’s not really quite the case. There are quite a few changes to how the controls handle and enemies work, so it’s actually a bit awkward to play if you’re familiar with the mechanics of the Mega Man series.

There are two ways to play this game as well, “Classic” and “Powered Up”. Classic is essentially just the original game, using the updated visual style, though there are some slight adjustments here and there.

Powered Up is much more different. The field of view is a bit tighter, and thus the stages have been slightly redesigned. They do keep the spirit of the old levels though and many of the scenes are the same as the regular game, only a bight tighter. Also, Robot Master weaknesses have been shuffled a but to account for the two NEW bosses.

Right, two brand new bosses have been added. Unlike every other game in the Mega Man series, the original only had 6 Robot Masters to fight, all of the others have 8. This game adds Time Man and Oil Man. Both add a little bit of spice to how things work, though, not really in a useful way. Time Man is essentially just a remix of Flash Man and his power is just the Flash Stopper, though you can toggle your weapon while the world is frozen in time around you. Oil Man’s power drop is these little blobs of oil that can be used to directly shoot enemies, or dropped on the ground and used as a little sliding surf attack. The problem is, this surfing attack pretty much guarantees taking damage yourself, which makes it almost completely useless.

Also, Oil man has an extremely questionable design choice that really kind of looks like a racist blackface design. In fact in the NA version of this game he is recolored to be more dark navy blue colored and less black colored for this very reason.

Aside from the new bosses, the game itself has gone through a 3D facelift. It still retains it’s 2 dimensional game play, but everything is rendered in nice super deformed style 3D models now. It’s a really neat style that still manages to capture the core style of the Mega Man design aesthetic. This also means the levels themselves are much more visually interesting as well, with more lush styling and full background designs to make things richer.

There is also a neat new mechanic where you can play as the enemy Robot Masters themselves. If an enemy is defeated using only the Mega Buster, you “save” them instead of destroying them, which unlocks the ability to start a fresh game using that character. This can really change the dynamic of how the levels work as well, since it means having access to the different special abilities only. For the boss you are playing as, the end boss gets replaced with Mega Man himself, though he is wearing Proto Man’s gear.

Throughout the stages there are several collectibles to find, primary of which are additional unlocks for the game’s added Creative Mode. If you ever wanted “Mario Maker but its Mega Man”, this is it. You have to unlock the different enemy and tile sets, but you can design and play your own levels.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun and has a lot to offer. Maybe a little too much to offer if you’re an obsessive completionist. After beating the game once, the game said I had unlocked only 3% of everything. And I had been pretty thorough in my game play. My main disappointment is that the title apparently sold poorly, so Capcom never bothered to use this engine and character style to update all of the other Mega man games to be more modern in style.

Review – Seasons After Fall (PC)

Mar 28th, 2023
by Ramen Junkie.
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Seasons After Fall Site Banner

This is one of those games I picked up on a bit of a whim. It’s appropriately tagged as a Metroidvania title, which is no doubt my favorite type of game. The promos also look quite gorgeous in their art style. Which is always a big draw. Other than that, I didn’t really quite know what to expect out of this game.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. Though there was something that surprised me a bit. Mostly that there are no enemies in this game at all. It’s entirely platform and puzzle based. You just, keep on trying to progress the game. That doesn’t keep it from being enjoyable, but I didn’t really expect that. That couple with the fantastic painting like art style really push this more into being an artsy puzzle game.

The basic premise here, you play as a Fox spirit, working to aid another spirit in restoring the powers of the four seasonal spirits and areas. There is a central hub and 4 areas that branch from it, but you also will need to revisit each branch a few times to complete the overall story.

The gimmick of the game play loop is that as you progress, you unlock the ability to toggle the seasons of the area you are in. Which chances each zone and opens up new areas. For example, turning things to spring, can cause plants to grow or water to fill in areas. Changing things to Winter can create snow balls that you can climb, allowing for the ability to reach higher areas.

The plot itself is pretty interesting and has a nice little twist to it, though I have to say I kind of saw it coming, so it’s not that twisty. The animation is very smooth and the little fox bobs around nicely and believably. The graphics are where this game really shines though. The entire game looks like a very lush hand drawn world, though everything in it moves nice and smoothly, it’s like being in the actual environment.

The puzzles are also interesting, and changing between seasons to solve them can be tricky but is enjoyable. There is a lot of fun lore going on here with a sort of whimsical folklore feel to it, revolving around the different seasons.

Overall, it’s a very enjoyable title for anyone looking for some relaxing, platform puzzler style game play.

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