Posted May 03, 2021
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It's, you know, a 2D Castlevania game with the names changed so no one gets sued. You control Miriam and you're exploring a big castle to vanquish a great evil. The concept doesn't have the Universal Horror punch that Castlevania has always had, but in every meaningful way it's the same and if you're into that sort of thing, it's just as good, and maybe even a tad better since it's got slicker production values than the post-Symphony of the Night games that were on handheld systems.
Metal Slug. I play this somewhat regularly. As arcade games go, I find it pleasantly easygoing in that you can learn it pretty quickly and not have to worry about feeding it credits to push through more hectic sections. If I die, I feel like it's much more my fault than the developers being jerks, and even if that wasn't the case, it's a beautiful and funny game.
Demon's Forge. An early graphic adventure game by Brian Fargo (he recycled the title for Hunted: The Demon's Forge, but as near as I can tell the games have no relationship to each other beyond that). I played this as a kid and I was surprised at how much of it I remembered. It uses a text parser with relatively early Apple II-level graphics to depict the rooms you're in. A particularly fancy touch for the time is that objects you can pick up are shown on-screen, and if you drop something, it will also appear after the graphics are redrawn.
The parser is quite basic and a lot of the challenge in the game is simply trying to figure out what you can actually do with it or how to communicate your ideas in ways the game will understand. Most of the puzzles aren't actually too difficult or obscure, but there are a few that definitely tip into moon logic territory, and you can get stuck in dead-end (or just plain dead) situations, too, if you're not careful. It took me what seemed like ages to get through it as a kid, but if you know what you're doing, it will only take like a half hour to win. I have some fondness for it, but I'll admit there's probably some nostalgia involved. It's no Infocom or Sierra-level game, for certain.
Metal Slug. I play this somewhat regularly. As arcade games go, I find it pleasantly easygoing in that you can learn it pretty quickly and not have to worry about feeding it credits to push through more hectic sections. If I die, I feel like it's much more my fault than the developers being jerks, and even if that wasn't the case, it's a beautiful and funny game.
Demon's Forge. An early graphic adventure game by Brian Fargo (he recycled the title for Hunted: The Demon's Forge, but as near as I can tell the games have no relationship to each other beyond that). I played this as a kid and I was surprised at how much of it I remembered. It uses a text parser with relatively early Apple II-level graphics to depict the rooms you're in. A particularly fancy touch for the time is that objects you can pick up are shown on-screen, and if you drop something, it will also appear after the graphics are redrawn.
The parser is quite basic and a lot of the challenge in the game is simply trying to figure out what you can actually do with it or how to communicate your ideas in ways the game will understand. Most of the puzzles aren't actually too difficult or obscure, but there are a few that definitely tip into moon logic territory, and you can get stuck in dead-end (or just plain dead) situations, too, if you're not careful. It took me what seemed like ages to get through it as a kid, but if you know what you're doing, it will only take like a half hour to win. I have some fondness for it, but I'll admit there's probably some nostalgia involved. It's no Infocom or Sierra-level game, for certain.