“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #030
10 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Welcome to Whatcha Playin’, Pixels! The column where our writers earn points for each game they complete on their impressive backlogs. Unfortunately, like in Whose Line Is It Anyway, the points don’t matter (even though they really should, y’know?). Jokes aside, not only have our illustrious writers made headway on their games of choice (and there are some way past excellent choices here), but they’ve also made progress on upcoming content for the site! Which is exciting! Please look forward to it.
Now, here’s what our team’s been up to this week:
This week I was able to kick back and try a few new titles that piqued my interest. The first is a game whose developer I was able to have a wonderful chat with not long ago. It is called Bot Gaiden, and it is a speedy action/platformer that rewards you for flying through the stages quickly. Though the graphics are hand drawn and not pixelated, this title does a great job of emulating the style and intensity of the original NES Ninja Gaiden games. Everything from the way the bot runs to the enemies he fights is an homage to OG! I will say, though, that the Contra-style two-player mode is a definite plus.
Along with “Being the Ninja,” I officially started my first playthrough of the French JRPG (yeah, you read that right), Edge of Eternity. I won’t say too much about this game, because I haven’t gotten far into it, but it is obviously a love letter to the turn-based RPGs that Square refuses to make anymore. Grid-based combat combined with strategic battle choices makes this an RPG one can really get into. Plus, all the dialogue is fully voiced, but I will leave that up to you whether it is a good thing or not.
I have been obsessively playing Cult of the Lamb this past week and honestly, it is a Game of the Year contender for me. It seamlessly combines a roguelike formula with management systems. Keeping your cult in check while going out and defeating monsters adds more decision-making than your average roguelike game. The art style is phenomenal too, the cute animals and cartoony world clash with the Lovecraftian imagery to make a unique world to explore. I compare it to the animated show Happy Tree Friends, where cute animals are brutally slain in various ways with tons of gore. Cult of the Lamb has less gore but it has plenty of intense ritualistic and supernatural imagery.
The gameplay consists of hack n’ slash combat with randomly selected weapons, you’ll only be in combat during crusades. You’ll go out into the world to defeat enemies, find new followers, get materials, and find new blueprints for decorations to place in your hub area. I’m not usually a fan of management systems in games but Cult of the Lamb does it really well. It’s basic enough that a player will not get confused but has enough going on that you can create a base that is lucrative for your cult. I’m almost finished with the main story and I will be playing until I have all the achievements. Safe to say, I’m a great cult leader….but don’t quote me on that!
I started playing Rollerdrome the other day and I’m having a great time. The game is a 3rd person shooter that centers around a battle arena. You play as a rollerskating character who wields two pistols and must kill enemies in order to advance to the next round. The skating is very similar to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series with the controls being a bit more basic but retaining the arcade feel. Doing tricks while in the air and grinding on rails will give you more ammo. The combination of combat and the trick system feels great. It’s easy to get into a groove and I kept losing myself in the flow of gameplay. It’s a really cool concept and would suggest anyone who wants a bit of a different action game to try it out!
On stream I completed SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and hopefully, I won’t have to say the title again during this segment. I am very torn with this game because I enjoyed the 3D platforming but found the level design, physics, and overall quality to be lacking. I, unfortunately, had a glitch where a cutscene didn’t play after a boss fight which blocked me from getting one of the collectibles. I’m not sure how many of my criticisms are from the original game design but I didn’t have a lot of fun while playing. I am still interested in playing SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake which is an original game coming from THQ Nordic but I will not be returning to Battle for Bikini Bottom any time soon.
What? August is almost over already!? Jeez Louise, time flies fast, doesn’t it? I feel that it flies even faster when you have a sick kid at home that keeps you on your toes all day, every day. Yep, Kid Espresso is once again home this week due to illness and naturally, we all caught what he caught. Fun.
Speaking of fun, Mario Kart! I finally got around to playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with the little guy and I have never been more thankful for the assisted steering and driving options available in the game. Kid Espresso had a wonderful time with the game – sure, he came in last like all the time, but he had fun and that’s the most important part of all.
Streaming-wise, I’ve grown to accept that my schedule can and will be thrown out of the window during the summer months. Going from an average of 3-4 streams per week to one or two a week seemed bad in June, but has become par for the course in August. I managed a stream of Phantasy Star IV on Monday. I focused on finishing up the last few sidequests the game has to offer.
Off-stream, I’m still hacking away at Neo: The World Ends With You, gathering the Secret Reports and preparing for the post-game fights. There are three, huge challenges offered at the end of the game: a difficult, high-level boss fight, a boss rush mode and a 10-chain fight in which the Noise (enemies in the game) have buffs that affect how the fight goes. Some drain HP as long as they’re alive, some have increased attack strength and some are three times their normal size, which makes knocking them around or interrupting their attacks extremely difficult. It’s also worth mentioning that each fight in the chain increases how hard enemies hit, which combined with the buffs, makes things super-difficult.
I beat a game this week! I completed the Live A Live remake last night. The ending sequences are some of the best moments in the game. My second favorite part of the game involves giant robots by the way. I’ll go much more in-depth with this game in a future review so stay tuned.
I’m really excited to begin playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Xenoblade has been my favorite series for half my life. I’ll be tackling it very soon.
Over the past few months I’ve been playing the Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on stream, but with one big self-hindrance: I had to play through the entire game with only 3 hearts! This week I finally completed the challenge and it was a thrill! I’ve enjoyed doing the 3-heart challenge for other Zelda titles but was never able to do it for the original Gameboy version of Link’s Awakening as they forced you to pick up the heart in boss rooms in order to open the door to exit. The original Link’s Awakening is actually not only my favorite Zelda title but my favorite game of all time, so I was excited when I found out I could finally do the challenge!
I’ve played through the original game many times throughout my life, so I was able to make it through the remake relatively quickly, minus a few places where I didn’t quite remember exactly what to do next. It was also my first time playing through this remake so it was a very interesting experience; everything felt familiar and nostalgic yet new and distinct. I loved what they did with the toy-like graphical style and the quality-of-life improvements are very appreciated. However, I do have some problems with it, such as how some of the music feels like a step back from the original (why does the boss theme sound like a circus theme?). Also, certain moments like when you first pick up the sword from the beach feel less impactful than how they did in the original, at least to me. It’s difficult to explain, but overall I really enjoyed my time with the game but still prefer the original.
My son and I are continuing our journey through Super Mario RPG, which I first played when I was his age. It’s been an extremely cathartic and vicarious experience. I feel more nostalgic than ever revisiting this game with not just my eyes, but his, seeing his surprise at that nasty croc stealing coins, winning the Yoshi races against Boshi, watching Geno come to life. If you’ve got kids, this is something you’ve absolutely got to try.
I also spent some time with Warhammer II this week, specifically playing with differences between the vanilla version and SFO, a special, more lore-accurate mod for the game and its mechanics. So far, SFO is actually pretty tough, even when playing as a fairly safe faction with Alarielle the Ever-Queen.
Finally, I’m not allowed to give out much more than a teaser but I got my hands on Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, which launches at the end of this month. You’ll have to wait for my review, but needless to say, I’ve always thought the PS1 was a rich feeding ground for JRPGs and I’ve always wanted to play Rhapsody!
Just a little dabbling this week in gaming. A new Vampire Survivors update dropped, likely one of the last ones before the game is “completed,” so all my friends and I have jumped on that like hyenas that haven’t been fed in a week. I also gave a little free RPG Maker game called Grimm’s Hollow a try. It wasn’t a perfect game gameplay-wise, but for what it is, it’s enjoyable, and it’s under two hours to beat. It feels like a practice game, and I hope the developer moves into bigger projects.
Finally, I’ve just started Psychonauts 2. A friend has been replaying the first one, and I got the itch. Since I beat the first one a little less than a year ago, and the sequel has had plenty of time for patches and upgrades in the year it’s been out, I think it’s finally time. So far, it’s been great. No regrets waiting a little for it.
Everyone seems to have been in a very Xenoblade Chronicles mood on social media this week, so I figured it was about time I went back and tried to fill that gap in my gaming knowledge. I’ve tried to play it before on Wii, Wii U, and even the 3DS, but each time something has happened to stop me from playing. This time with the Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on Switch, I’ve stuck with it and really enjoyed it!
I’m about three-quarters of the way through, as I understand it, and so far I think my only criticism is a very slight one: the areas are so massive and awe-inspiring but that means the characters walk so very veeeery slowly. I’m hoping that the sequels have rectified this – having not played either, I don’t know yet – but I really feel the endless backtracking through fetchy side-quests could’ve been improved if they gave Shulk a skateboard.
I’ve also come into possession of a Steam Deck so I’m looking for recommendations of what to play on that. So far I’ve been most impressed by Bright Memory: Infinite, which I understand is on modern consoles as well, but to see such a glorious-looking FPS running so smoothly on this thing is nothing short of wondrous.
So, what were you playing this week?
Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Twitter as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
