Ultimate Body Blows is the sequel to Body Blows, which itself was a clone/repurpose of the home computer port of Street Fighter I (the awkward original by Piston Takashi and Finish Hiroshi, who then left Capcom to make Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting for SNK). It features a large roster of 22 characters and a limited selection of modes. The graphics were okay on the Amiga, less good on DOS. Most of the characters feel like reskins but their stats are all over the place. It's a quirky game with silly characters you'd only see in Tekken later (a dino and a dragon for instance, many robots and a puppet). If looks to me like they tried to copy Fighter's History Dynamite (Karnov's Revenge on Neo-Geo) for the character design and overall silliness... The graphics are mostly okay, but it's owerall weak. Well now the gameplay. Being based on the Amiga version, you have a single button and 8 directions. To use a move, you use the button with a direction. It's awkward and cumbersome. To use your super move you charge the button but very use demande you use it more to prevent spamming. It's unpractical. The whole game is sluggish and frustrating. I suppose implementing QCF+ATK or HCB+ATK would have been a bit hard for the keyboard at the time (although it's doable with a joystick), but they simply didn't. The arcade mode, in my eyes, is only enjoyable if you use the incinvibility cheat (type hardcore at the high score screen). I'd only recommend it if it's on sale and you're curious or too lazy to set up a DOSBox version yourself through abandonware, or if you really want to support Team17 by re-buying their old games... Otherwise, steer clear of this one. If you want good fighting games here, RBFF2 and SSVS have been updated to a proper version (or so I heard) and you have Pray for Death (fun Killer Instinct clone), KoF'98, '02 and XIII that are excellent. Maybe remaking the game would make it more tolerable, it COULD be fun, I'm sure of it.
I bought Escape Goat out of curiosity on the XBox Live Marketplace and found myself immersed in a smart puzzle-platformer that often asked me to use more lateral thinking than usual. Needless to say I was overjoyed to find it here as well. You're a goat, you've been accused of sorcery (gee talk about prejudices, so just 'cuz I'm a goat I'm satanic?) and locked away in an old and strange gaol... You meet a mouse who wants to escape as much as you. You then learn you need to find seven sheep with the power of opening the door to your freedom. To find them, you have to traverse seven thematical zones, each with 6 rooms, the last one containing the sheep. Each room is a single-screen puzzle. Some of them simply demand you dodge the obstacles, others contain a switch puzzle (sometimes timing-based) or a enemy-based puzzle. Your mouse companion can cling to surfaces and run along walls and ceilings, you can also set it down sleeping to hold a pressure pad. Some levels will allow you to grab a magical hat. When worn, it allows you to swap positions with the mouse, and it's vital to complete the puzzles. The mouse will also activate pressure switches by walking over them and you'll need to use this in a timely fashion to survive some of the rooms. The controls are simple but very responsive. Your goat can (double) jump, dash and the other two buttons command your interactions with the mouse (setting the mouse or using the magic hat. To lay the mouse down, hold down and press the "mouse" button). The graphics are nice, with old-school pixel art setting the baroque mood very well. The music also sets you right in the mood a complements the game perfectly. Among other niceties, when the game is over you unlock extra levels, and the game also includes a level editor right from the get-go, allowing you to make your own sets and extend your puzzle pleasure. The asking price is more than reasonable for such a good game, you'll no doubt have a blast. I know I did.
Scanner Sombre is something of an artistic experiment by Introversion. Instead of being a story-driven tactical game or a simulation, it's a game that toys around with underground LIDAR exploration. The story is extremely light and while the general mood feels creepy, there are no real hazards, just "surprises" to make you feel unsafe. In the end you just walk around trying to escape the cave while painting it with pretty colors to see your surroundings an discovering strange stuff (like giant stone totems that look quite cool I might say). The LIDAR scanner itself is very well made and an interesting mechaninc I'd like to see in more games, with an adjustable span that allows you to scan wide for general recon and then fine scan to see more"details". the mood and graphics felt great to me and I really had the feeling I was lost in a weird place I could only see through a visor and not wih my own eyes, which makes for an interesting alien feeling. It's a very short game, as everyone said, and for some reasons the game demands you allows it though your firewall at launch (you can then turn off the tracking option in the options menu). I suppose the devs wanted to learn how people approach this (like a scanning ratio or how fast people breeze through or try to light up everything) but it's slightly strange that they don't outright tell you about this. I got the game on sale for 79c so I can't really complain, but I'll agree that for the full asking price, stealth tracking and a short experience can negatively impact the experience. However I still think everyone should try it. It may be a walking simulator, but at least it doesn't veer off into a preachy one-sided story of stupid jumpscares, God forbid long, boring, unskippable spoken rambling where you just wait for the interlocutor to shut up. It's a visual trip, and I'd say you could give it a try if on sale, I think it's the upper tier of walking simulators.
Steamworld Heist is a turn-based tactical 2D shooter set in the Steamworld universe. While the Dig series focus on Gold Rush exploration, Heist is about space pirates fighting in a westernized outer space after the Earth asploded. You begin with your Cap'n and her vanguard, rescue both him and your navigator from jail and set back into saving your "skin" and recruit new members to fight against both outlaws and the space empire. Each character (out of 9 in the base game) is a specific class (Assault, Sharpshooter and so on) with specific skills and their own XP progression. Your heavy gunner can turn into a living cover for a turn, your Cap'n can buff and heal crews standing next to her. Most mission are procedurally generated, meaning that even if you grind, the map layout will stay fresh. Difficulty can be adjusted before each mission, allowing you to breeze through to advance, then challenge yourself to grind more XP. You'll get a ton of loot, ranging from accessories (sidearms, grenades, armor) to weapons to currency, which allows you to outfit your crew for optimal results. You can also get hats for fun, by shooting them off your opponents' heads. You'll take advantage of ricochets, perks, explosives and various tools to complete your missions, some straightforward, others adding extras inbetween (like an alarm sending reinforcements nonstop). Dialogues are well written and animation is pleasant. The music sets the mood in a pleasant way, although it may sound repetitive. Leveling up your characters might take a long time, given how XP works: at the end of a mission it's divided between all crew still alive after completion. This is an incentive to increase difficulty (the higher the more XP), but it might be safer to level up first, though even the grind stays fun because it allows you to refine your tactics and toy with gear. "Experienced" difficulty is quite fair, at least early on. For price it's quite a respectable buy, and a lot of fun time.
This game consists of a firreplace and stuff you buy to burn it to stay warm as eternal winter seemingly has set. You receive promotional mail and messages from your neighbor, who's seemingly gone insane, as you calcinate stuff again and again to earn enough coins and stamps to buy more. The plot is light to make room for mood and setting, which switches from a satire of consumerism to existential anguish in a very balanced way. While there is no challenge apart from figuring out the (optional) combos the gameplay is quite addictive and the general mood drags you in, letting you torn between knowing the world is (officially) a glacial mess and knowing it's all pointless, as you detonate suns with nukes within your fireplace, reducing to ash whatever you've bought along (like a fully packed bus and rocketship, weird plushies, internet clouds, tankers, and so many others). There is a kind of puzzle interaction because with enough stamps and the right combinations, not only can you fuel the fire for longer but also turn the flames some pretty colors. This is all for fun though, as the game does not provide you with a time or heat limit, it's all a self-contained experience with maybe even somme commentary on game design (oversimplified, almost like a most mobile clickers and microtransactions (stamps make deliveries immediate). While a little pricey, it's still an interesting experience. I doscivered Tomorrow Corp. with World of Goo, and the brains and style drew me in. I don't regret my purchase at all (sales purchase I'll admit). It's got more interactivity than most "walking simulators", although this is a one-trick story with extremely limited gameplay, however, if you're looking for an original experience with some brains, give it a go, I know I regret nothing.
Stacking is an adventure game with light puzzle elements. The interesting points include the matryoshka-based mechanics (where your character must stack into different-sized dolls to reach certains mechanics and the general style, parodying the late 19th/early 20th century industrial society, with aesthetics also recalling silent films. Depending on the latest doll you're controlling, differents things are available, including useless moves just for fun and each map contains several puzzles and things to scavenge for to advance the plot. Also, most characters are unique, with a name and short bio, which makes the game double as a small collect-a-thon. I'll admit I like reading character bios, because I like a well-built world, no matter the game, so it's quite a nice feature. The game is not overly long, rather a little short and quite easy, but the art style and the gameplay mechanics are pleasant and the final trial for the main story feel like a well-deserved boss fight wich fits. The additional chapter offers new things to do and a fun extra story, and I enjoyed it as well. While there isn't much incentive to replay, it's a nice ride along and a fun and relaxing game, I found myself replaying it just for the fun of it and because the art style really drew me in. All in all it's a good game I'd already bought and played (including DLC) on the X360 and that I was happy to see here and buy again, because while Double Fine may not make perfect games, they are generally good, and at least usually worth the price. I'd recommend this game if you already like Double Fine, want to try something a bit different (the stacking mechanic is quite unique), or want a relaxed puzzle game with little challenge but lots of style. Once again the game is generally good and fine, but maybe a little shallow and short in parts. Still a good purchase in my eyes.
Paper Sorcerer is inspired by Wizardry, Might & Magic, Elminage and other old-school CRPGs, with a few twists. First of all, you play the bad guy and gather a party of evil creatures, and your goal is to escape your mystic prison (a magic book) to wreak hahoc again. To do so, you'll have to climb a tower, defeating its guardians, scavenging for secrets and delve deep into catacombs to regain your former glory in order to escape. Your party of 7 (with 4 active characters) can be hand-picked from a choice of about 15 creatures, each unique and none being a bad choice, between tanks, healers, spellcasters and mixed characters, including the Puppet, a magical construct entirely customisable by isung specific parts. While in the tower enemies are marked and don't respawn, the catacomb will give you plety of opportunity for loot and XP runs to pay the trainer and generally save on buying items. Skills are plentiful, varied, level up individually and can produce some cool synergies. The turn-based fights are simple but clear and engaging. However informations might be sometimes hard to read. The B&W art style is nice and very atmospheric, making good use of Unity, I like the illustration style and the feeling you're actually inside a magical tome. Menus are a bit frustrating, like Elminage Gothic they follow an old-school, controller-based logic and nagivating doesn't flow too well since the game is Kb&M. I read many people complaining about the music, I don't see why, it reminds me of 80s/90s computer music and I like it, just some simple loops as a nod to old RPGs. I've clocked about 50 hours over 5 different parties, just to experiment with the minions and I've had a lot of fun, with different difficulties you can even choose your challenge. For such a low price, there is a lot of fun to be had, and Paper Sorcerer is definitely an game not to be missed in my eyes.
So this is an ASCII game which is based around grinding for levels and gears, with permadeath and a long slew of stuff to do (upgrade your housing, craft, quest, random events). It also has a a world that is more than a backdrop (with actual backstory) and takes the "X of Loathing" route, that is, even if combat is serious the game doesn't take itself too seriously (for instance smashing a random banana will heal you, or taking off a pissed-off guy's pants will give you an item) and the "rogue" part is limited to permadeath. There are jokes or silly things everywhere, but at the same time combat can be tense and it feels really rewarding to triumph over a dragon and stumble over treasure chests. The combat system is rich, calling for pacing and tactics, and once you get the hang of it, the grinding is a cool timesink (just like I can spend hours grinding in Elminage or Ultima I), I must admit I have a hard time resisting the "door-monster-treasure" pattern, like Dungeon Hack but with more jokes. If you like dungeon-crawling gameplay, it's right up your alley. Handcrafting is an interesting minigame and you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly, which can yield cool results, or at least more scraps for more crafting. The whole general mechanic is incremential, you start off a bit weak but very, VERY soon you'll be able to exponentially increase your power and ability, but remember that the RNG can, and will, slap you silly once in a while. However the game doesn't feel unfair to me, demanding sometimes, but nothing a few hours of grinding and scrounging can't fix. Since there are many secrets and events and a metric boatload of stuff to find and silly things to do, I think this scratches my itch for a good and rich RPG, for such a light install size and currently for less than a buck on sale, I can't see it being a bad purchase, as long as you don't mind grinding. For such a light install you'll have hours of crawling content. I like it.
Crimzon Clover is a game based on the now-proverbial bullet hell formula that made CAVE and Touhou famous, but also both GigaWing and Mars Matrix for instance. Enemies pour cascades of intricate bullet patterns you're supposed to craftily zig-zag inbetween while shooting enemies and whittling away at the bosses to milk them for every single score point. Also if you 1-credit the game you get the secret boss and true ending (good luck). Also, you have bombs to clear away the bullet mayhem and a hyper mode (which can double-down into hyper hyper mode) that destroys enemy projectiles while finely mincing bosses (engaging Double Hyper always sticks a wide green to my face, go figure), and of course, kicking Graphics are fine and animations rich, the screen is VERY busy at all times and includes sceneries such as deserts mountains with cascades, plains and even outer space. All standard fare, somewhat inspired by Raiden. Everything is extremely colourful and explosions and megalazors flash and shimmer (epileptics beware). Also, bosses are phase-based and as such, transform during the fight, so even more eye-candy. What's not to likE? Playing in "tate" mode (true arcade-style vertical screen once you've flipped you physical screen) really brings feeling of an arcade cabinet (wish I had an arcade stick for my PC). Controller support is fine and responsive, keyboard works fine, and while I mostly play on Novice mode (I'm no shmup expert, me just play for pew-pews 'n' booms), I mostly play for the fun and the catharsis. With three ships (plus an unlockable one) with different playstyle (balanced, slow-stronger, fast-weaker), there is plenty of straight arcade fun before you get hooked on doing score runs, and it's reasonably priced I'd say. A fine addition to your library if you like arcade shmups, and a very good one in its category.
