I didn't know what to expect when I fired this up, but the description of a shmup-meets-Super-Mario-Galaxy-style-hopping-between-worlds is fairly accurate. And that feeling of shooting down everything, jumping to dodge a missile, hitting the boosters, and just n-a-r-r-o-w-l-y skirting the black hole is addicting as hell, and I really enjoyed looking at my final score and going, ".....I got time for one more." Graphics are simple, but everything works. Soundtrack is EXCELLENT. 5/5.
Virtuaverse is a dazzlingly pretty 2D pixel art cyberpunk adventure game that includes an astonishingly moody retrowave soundtrack by Master Boot Record, but trips up somewhat in the narrative and puzzle design departments. This game is an absolute visual treat - the pixel artistry on display here is astounding. Everywhere I went, I just wanted to see more. And the sound design backs this up, everything from the masterful MBR music, the sound effects, the details in the visuals all combined to make this world a fantastic one to explore. I wish Nathan were a likable dude. I don't want to spoil anything, so let's just say that he starts the game searching for his missing girlfriend, and before he got close to her, I started wishing he would NEVER find her, so she could be free of this stalker-ish psychopath. This game is crying out for a hint system. Most of the time, your goal is clearly defined, and some exploration and talking to people will clue you in to what you need to do to proceed. But more than a few times, I found myself scratching my head upon finding the correct solution by complete accident, and solved a couple of puzzles by rubbing every inventory item I had on every interactable object. Overall, I really liked it, despite the protagonist and puzzle problems, this was an absolutely wonderful feast for my eyes and ears, and I recommend checking it out for yourself.
The Metronomicon is a rhythm game unlike any other - you control a party of four characters, each with their own abilities, and you fight a procession of dancing monsters by hitting a sequence of notes correctly to activate said abilities. The songs are excellent and you'll find yourself looking up the songs and artists when you're not playing. The only downside I can find is that there's currently no way to buy the soundtrack, except at that lesser digital distribution site. Come on, Puuba, get on this, I WANT THESE TUNES! The writing is extremely silly, but how else could it be when the game has you fighting dancing bears at a rave? Also, the game works with a wide variety of controllers, including my USB Xbox 360 Rock Band guitar controller, and I've heard it will work with dance pad controllers - the buttons are easily customizable as well. Don't go into it expecting the deepest RPG ever - the RPG mechanics exist to keep you coming back, defeating stronger enemies and bosses, and unlocking achievements. As such, they do a splendid job. Easily one of my favorite games of the year, The Metronomicon is a wonderful surprise, and an excellent addition to any rhythm gamer's library.
While I have limitless respect for the work of Orson Scott Card, I can only guess that he was caught in the middle of a Star Wars binge when he was asked to pen the script for this game. The game tries very hard to emulate Star Wars while at the same time doing everything it can to differentiate itself. While this sounds like I'm slamming the game, this is actually praise. After all, Star Wars (the older movies, anyway....and the last one of the new films) is pure awesome. But you have to understand why I became just a little bit skeptical when the main character learned to levitate objects with his mind. The game starts as a slightly above-average third-person shooter (with a handful of slightly irritating bugs) until you unlock said ability. Then you can begin using my favorite maneuver, one that I decided to name the 'Pluck and F*#k' maneuver. Any time you are high up, on a cliff, or there's a pool of lava beneath you, you can simply use the Lift ability to pull them up into the air and either throw them or drop them to their instant death. THIS NEVER GETS OLD. All you have to do is keep an eye out for an opportunity to use the maneuver, like a window, any kind of perilous drop or nasty substance beneath you, and you're set to use the Pluck and F&%k. At one point, I was in a volcano, lava all around, and I dropped 20 enemies into the lava in a row, giggling like a madman the entire time. And there are many, many moments made out of sheer awesome in this game, like trying to stay alive while a ship disintegrates all around you, or the brilliant tactical decision at one point to abandon ship and suit up in zero-g gear to assault the enemy ship ON FOOT, leading to an awesome sequence of gunfights on the exterior of the enemy ship. Or a race through the aforementioned volcano to get out before it explodes. Now for the fun part, the game's flaws. The game has a nasty tendency to crash after completing a level, and while this would be crippling, the game saves your progress anyway, so there's no real loss there, it's just a little jarring and irritating. While the game won't hold your hand throughout, it has a few moments where you'll be completely lost as to what to do next. Bosses are notorious for this, especially the second boss, whom you face on two platforms connected by an extremely narrow walkway. I shot him until I ran out of ammo. I hit him with my jedi -- err, I mean -- MIND powers until I was blue in the face, and at no point did the game indicate that none of this was doing any good. I had to exit the game (after dying eleven or twelve times) and look up a walkthrough to find out that the power I didn't use -- the one that appeared to be absolutely useless -- was the one I was supposed to use, I just wasn't using it at the right TIME. Doors occasionally don't open when they're supposed to, requiring you to fiddle around, jumping next to them and so forth to trigger the magical spot that opens the damn thing. Now for my favorite flaw of all... <SPOILER ALERT> Don't read any further if you don't want plot aspects revealed to you! This is quite possibly the most depressing game I've played since Indigo Prophecy. It's that bad. Everybody dies - EVERYBODY! Humanity is almost completely wiped out in the second hour of gameplay. I'm sitting there going, 'my god, how much worse can this get', when all of a sudden, the main character's fiancee drowns more or less right in front of him. At that point, everyone the main character knows or cares about is dead. He cries for about thirty seconds, and in the VERY NEXT CUTSCENE, he's flirting with a woman, the only other human around, like nothing's wrong. How on earth is that even remotely realistic?! Everyone he's known has died in the last day and a half. If he's not a full-blown psychotic at this point, then he should be completely withdrawn, unable to talk, much less flirt! Instead he just blows the whole thing off, like he's been the sole survivor of an apocalypse before, and it's no big deal. Come on! All around, however, this is a pretty tight game, and in my opinion it is only the bugs that keep me from giving this a full 5/5. For six bucks, you really can't go wrong on this one, if you like shooters or space operas, pick it up.
If there's one person you can count on, it might not be Tex Murphy, but he'll certainly try. The original games in this package, while not the masterpieces later games would be, still include all of that fantastic Tex Murphy flavor. Explore, interrogate, gunfight, or even fly. It's Tex's world, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
