“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #037
9 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
The Super Mario Bros. movie trailer dropped this week, have you seen it yet? In my opinion, we’re living in a golden age of video game-inspired movies. The film looks fantastic and Mario doesn’t sound all that terrible, so it may have a good chance of being successful. That is unless I’ve jinxed it, which in that case I apologize for!
ANYWAYS, games! Let’s see what adventures our intrepid writers have been on this week, shall we?
This week we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest by beating the game right on the date! It was my first time actually finishing the game (finally). It’s famously (infamously?) a game meant for beginners and newcomers to the JRPG scene, so playing it through for the first time as an adult, I could feel the incompatibility at work. That said, I’m glad it’s done.
On my adventure to play through every single RPG on the Super Nintendo, Mystic Quest was the second game defeated after Illusion of Gaia. Up next, The 7th Saga! I’ve not played much of this one at all but so far I’m really impressed by its visuals, enemy sprites, and battle transitions. Mode 7 ftw! I decided to roll with Lux Tizer, the Tetujin, some kind of robotic character from the selection of characters available at the start. It’s a whole new world and I’m ready for it… while being fully aware that I may have just gone from the easiest SNES RPG to the hardest.
Total number of holes in the wall post: Wunderling – zero. I was concerned because of several reviews that mentioned rage quitting and frustrating stages, but throughout the main game, I never once encountered that feeling myself. Each stage was well-breadcrumbed, and the only collectable that you needed for the story was relatively easy to get due to only needing to grab them once in multiple runs. I felt like the later levels were challenging, but nothing insurmountable, and I continued to make progress even in small steps. I never once encountered a place where I felt “I don’t know what to do here” after too long. Ultimately it probably ranks as one of the best puzzle platformers I’ve played. It’s an excellent game that I will highly recommend to fans of the genre.
Aside from Wunderling, well, it’s Next Fest time again, so I’ve been trying demos. What I’m seeing this time is a lot of games trying to get on the Vampire Survivors hype train. It’s interesting to see the style evolve and how each game tries to be different. The top games I’ve tried so far:
- Meg’s Monster, an escort quest RPG with Undertale story vibes. A little girl falls into a monster-filled underworld, and you play the brutish, overpowered monster who she latched onto. Your health bar isn’t much of a concern for you, but if Meg cries, the world might end (literally), and she really hates to see you get hurt…
- Dredge, a fishing game with horror tones. Explore the seas and improve your boat, but beware the fall of night. Store your catches in a Tetris-like hold and try not to bash on too many rocks if you go fishing in the dark.
- Kaiju Catastrophe isn’t the best Vampire Survivors-like I tried, but it’s probably my favorite. As a massive Godzilla fan, any game that gives me the opportunity to stomp around on cities and wreck up armies is one I will gladly add to my to-play list.
- Storyteller is a simple but clever puzzle game where you’re given a plot element and only a few stickers for characters and scenery, and you have to determine the order that things happen to achieve the plot element’s goal within a limited number of panels. The stickers you use change in the scene depending on what you’ve already made happen (ex: if you already killed the hero, he’ll appear as a ghost in later panels), giving you clues you need to determine the proper order of operations.
- The Knight Witch, a bullet hell shmup Metroidvania. I did not expect to connect with this one as well as I did, but it’s got a great story, excellent characters, great graphics, and surprisingly enjoyable gameplay. The bullet hell isn’t too bullet-hell-y for people inexperienced or generally not good at them. Probably one of my favorite demos of the batch.
All told, I added thirteen games to my wishlist. Considering I started with 36 demos, though, I’d say I did pretty good at limiting myself this time around.
Hoo boy! What a last couple of weeks I’ve had! After spending a great deal of time harvesting crops, preparing for church services, attending my children’s extra-curricular activities, and presenting in art shows, one would think that I would have no time to play games. Well, think again! To slightly modify a quote by Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, “Games will find a way.” So, here is a breakdown of what I have played since we last touched base.
The last thing you heard from me was that I was ripping and tearing through the Eight Hells in Metal Hellsinger. I have continued my demon domination and actually beat the game…on easy mode. Yes, I know, I can do better than that. While I would like to continue my heavy metal-killing spree, a much more ancient, and retro evil beckoned me to vanquish it.
Browsing through the vast Nintendo Switch physical and digital library, I noticed a major gap in my title selection. There were far too few Castlevania games for me to play, and some had to be done about that lickity-split! I quickly hopped onto the way-too-convenient Nintendo E-shop and purchased the Castlevania Advance Collection! Getting four games for a quarter of the original price of one is a pretty sweet deal, I think.
I first played through Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, because I had never played it before. Without being too much of a completionist, I was able to blast through the game in no less than three days, and even though it was a fun ride, I have to say that I was quite underwhelmed. The magic and item system seemed a little contrived and was frustrating to use, especially since all the spells are based on what sub-weapon you have in your inventory at the time. The original soundtrack was also very stale, and I can only surmise that the legendary composer of the series, Michiru Yamane, was just having an off day when she wrote the music for it.
Well, if she was having an off day on that one, she was certainly on target for the next title I am currently working on, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. This was originally a launch title on the Game Boy Advance that I still own a physical copy of, and it honestly holds up better than most games on that system. The music slaps, the levels are impeccably designed, and the Duel Card magic system is both incredibly nuanced and very easy to use. Having played through it multiple times already, I am enjoying the journey and challenge, because as most people who have played this will attest, this is a hard Castlevania game. I plan on acing this one with %100, and I’ll let you know how it is going in another week!
What a season of life I’m living right now. Kid Espresso was sick once again with a fever and an ear infection, which then revealed that he has cement-like wax buildup. It’s likely the cause of his current discomfort. So, that’s been neat to deal with. I miss streaming, I hope to get back into it soon.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens has been an incredibly welcome distraction during this time. I love Shantae. She’s a dancin’ gal with a heart of gold, a never-give-up attitude and a passionate spirit that I can’t help but adore. Someone, please stop me from naming my soon-to-be secondborn after her haha. As for the game, I finished it the previous night and, while having way too much fun with it, I’m doing another run. The Switch version that I picked up added a lot of different gameplay modes. For the next run, I’m trying out Rule Breaker Mode, which allows me to equip every monster card without restriction. I’ve also upped the challenge by enabling the Hula Costume, which doubles my magic but doubles damage taken. Fun times are ahead with my Half-Genie girl and her monster whipper. After I finish my next set of critiques, including The World Ends With You, its sequel and CrossCode, I intend to tear down and analyze this title and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.
Finally, I got around to playing the Shadow of the Colossus 2018 remake. A one-of-kind, artful experience throughout, the original is something I cherish as being one of the first instances I was impacted by a game on a profound level and was possibly the catalyst for my writing on games. The way it is so open to interpretation, and leaves almost every window open—not too little to be frustratingly vague, and not too wide to be pretentious—is something few, if any, have captured to the same effect. On every level, it is compelling: story, atmosphere, tone, the bombast of the colossus battles, and the regretful silence after each one falls. The remake simply elevates the original’s vision without being invasive. But now I am left with a void. Where does one go after a masterpiece?
I beat Ys II Chronicles this week. I appreciate the story of Ys I & II, especially for its time. The game’s highlight has been the story events, as there really isn’t much strategy behind the combat outside of bosses. I really look forward to playing Ys Origins and learning the background story.
I’m happy to announce that I have finally completed The Last of Us Part II! It has been what feels like a very long journey, especially since I played it so slowly, but my adventure has come to an end and I am left with mixed feelings. In terms of gameplay, I really enjoyed my experience with the stealth mechanics that are improved over the first game. I once again played it on Hard which provided a good balance for me in terms of difficulty and scarce resources for my level of skill. I died plenty of times but felt like each death taught me something new that helped me out the next try.
In terms of story, this is where my mixed feelings come in. On one hand, I found the story very interesting and I was invested in a lot of the characters. The characters were all well-acted and felt like they all had real emotions in each given situation. However, certain characters had questionable motivations that I just couldn’t get behind at the end of it all. The story overall is also very dark and depressing, which I understand is what the writers were going for. The tense situations that the two main characters get involved in create confrontations that culminate in a powerfully emotional ending. In the end, there are a few things that I wish were different but I can’t deny the fact that the story and characters will stick with me for a long time.
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.
