“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – January 2024
13 min read
A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Ah, the beginning of a new year always brings the promise of new hopes, new dreams and fresh starts. Which is exactly what has happened here at The Pixels! Please give a warm welcome to our new Content Overlord Editor in Chief, Jordan A.K.A Lingustic Dragon! You can read all about him here. He’s a good egg, that one.
The air is electric with anticipation as release dates to the hottest titles draw near. We’ve even compiled a post about what we, as writers, are looking forward to this year in our Most Anticipated Game of 2024 collab! But the big question remains: what have we been up to this month? Have we cleared up our backlogs? Started new adventures? Or revisited old ones? Only one way to find out. Let’s dig in!
In the grand yet clichéd tradition of “New year, new me!” I spent a lot of time this month (11 hours, to be exact) with Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star on the Nintendo Switch. Sure, it’s what you’d expect from one of the Fitness Boxing titles, but the big draw that keeps me coming back is the appearance of Kenshiro and other characters from the classic anime. Put simply, it’s a keep-fit rhythm game: you throw punches in time with icons hitting the correct areas on two tracks – left hand and right hand respectively. There’s a Daily Workout where you get a personalised programme each day.. and even a story mode where you get to do the famous “ATATATATA!” thingy against bosses. So far I’ve lost roughly five pounds on this post-apocalyptic fitness journey.. I’ll keep you posted as the year progresses!
The rest of my gaming time this month has been with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which I can happily report is my favourite Metroid since Dread! The combat took a while to get used to, particularly the timing on the parrying – there are still some bads who manage to one-shot me if I’m not careful – but the traversal is ridiculously fun and the map looks to be absolutely huge! I think I’m around 60% of the way through and my next quest-markers appear to be a loooong way away from where I’ve already explored! Either way, this is a fantastic game that has this Metroidvania fan eager to play more each day… after Kenshiro has kicked my butt into shape!
January was an incredible month! Started the year by finishing five games: Chrono Trigger, Baldur’s Gate 3, Mighty DOOM, Persona 4 Golden, and Lies of P. The start of the year is all about planning and scheduling for myself, and I’m looking forward to the insanely stacked calendar ahead of us. I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to get excited for some of the new releases incoming! Persona 3 Reload, FFVII, Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Unicorn Overlord, and the Paper Mario TTYD Remake are just a few of the more notable titles we know about. As far as indies are concerned, we can look forward to near future releases for Eiyuden Chronicle, Ultros, The Plucky Squire, PlateUp!, Tales of Kenzera, Rift of the Necrodancer, Penny’s Big Breakaway, and No Rest For The Wicked.
Winter lends itself well to RPG’s. Be it the low temperatures or dreary conditions, there’s something special about hunkering down indoors, equipped with cocoa, comfy chair, and a new adventure in hand. Similar to cozying up with a good book. This month, I settled in with Ys III: Wanders from Ys for the SNES. Although the third in what’s become a long-running series, this was my introduction to the franchise. And I knew scant little going in. I was aware that Ys III was a side-scrolling action-RPG, eschewing the collide-style combat of its predecessors. Some of my favorite games of all time are realtime-combat action RPG’s, so I was excited to give this title a spin. I envisioned a quest similar to that of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link or Battle of Olympus, an underrated NES adventure game.
Did I get that experience? Kind of.
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys is less sprawling journey, more singular mission. The game’s sole town acts as a central hub, with the overworld “map” broken into what are essentially levels. Progression is linear, with a clear story and level-up system unfolding as you make your way from area to area. The combat system took a while to get used to, but even more frustrating, a great deal of grinding was needed to survive past even the most basic monster. Your sword swings at light-speed, but enemy hit boxes extend precariously close to your own. It takes a while to adjust your swing. You’ll need to position yourself so that only the very tip of your sword makes contact with the enemy, or you risk taking collision damage yourself. There aren’t a ton of Sword and Armor upgrades, so level-ups make up for it by dramatically increasing health and power. Bosses that initially caused me to pull my hair out often required only a single level increase to defeat. Quirky as controls may be, I applaud the game for its interesting Ring system, a variety of power-ups that remain active so long as you’ve rings to feed them with. You’ll accumulate rings with enemies slain, and once a power-up is active, it’ll start eating away at your supply. Rather than a temporary buff, you can activate these power-ups at any time for added strength, defense, healing, and even invulnerability (though that eats rings like popcorn). Management of these power-ups and their fuel-source became an essential component for taking down tough bosses or surviving devastating attacks. Even at high levels, direct contact with certain beasts can obliterate your health bar, making these abilities incredibly helpful.
Although rough to start, once you get the hang of the game’s unique personality, things smooth out. While I wouldn’t call Ys III a top-tier SNES RPG (and granted, that’s some insane competition to go against), I still had a decent time with this offbeat adventure.
Ahhhh, January! A month for fresh beginnings and new adventures – a fitting time to step into a new role as Editor-in-Chief here, but that hasn’t been the only exciting development for me on the games front!
I decided that this year, I wanted to focus some effort on the games and series that I’ve found enjoyable but never yet seen through to completion – if last years’ journey through the Trails series taught me anything, it’s that I can make my way through a very long-spanning series in reasonable fashion, so long as I don’t try to do too much of it back-to-back and burn myself out entirely. And I chose to start with a very well-loved game (especially around here!) that I’ve attempted several times over, but never finished: Chrono Trigger.
Something about it never really clicked with me before, though I’m still not quite sure what it was. I suspect it’s in part due to my playing it before I really knew much about JRPGs at all, and hadn’t quite learned the “language” of its tropes and mechanics just yet. But whatever it was, that stumbling block is bona-fide gone now, as I took to it like a fish to water! I saw much to love about it even from that first attempt, but the stars finally aligned to really play it on its own terms, enough that I was hungry for more of it even once I hit credits. It’s so satisfying to have finally finished it after a good decade or so and at least four attempts, and it’s all the sweeter that it’s endeared itself to me so much in the process. I’ve known it was well deserving of its status as a classic gem for a long time, but it’s all the more personal to me now – I’ll definitely be returning to it again.
I had a similar experience with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time as well, another game that I’ve attempted a few times and seen much to like, but never quite meshed with until now. Previous attempts fell apart from frustrations with controls and camera angles, but having grown a bit more used to them – both with the game itself and the idiosyncrasies of similarly-styled games – I was soon parkour-ing with the best of them! (Well, okay, judging by how often I misjudged things, it was probably closer to the mediocre-est of them.) I’ve enjoyed other, more recent games in the genre, including the Prince of Persia 2008 reboot, so it’s nice to have one of the older entries on the metaphorical books, a better glimpse into how it’s developed and been refined over time. Warrior Within will definitely be on my February docket!
I closed out January with Another Code: Recollection. I never had the opportunity to play Trace Memory, though I remembered being intrigued by it, so once a remake hit the Switch I knew I had to give it a shot. And it was… well, okay. I liked the stories well enough, once they got going, but the game suffered a little from overly-repetitive dialogue, and the gameplay didn’t feel particularly… substantive, I suppose is the word I’d give it. The exploratory/puzzle segments don’t feel tacked on, exactly, but I’m not sure I feel like it properly added anything, either. It’s the sort of game that makes me wonder whether I’d have enjoyed it more if it tried to tell its story in a different medium – had this been an anime, I don’t think I’d have found its pacing as much of an aggravation, for example. I’m still glad I played it, there were some great moments in it, but I think it’s one I’ll only feel the need to play once.
2 words for you. 2 words and a number… Baldur’s Gate 3. Oh boy, what a game that is! My drow sorcerer is off on a great adventure, trying to get a tadpole out of her head and rolling D20s aplenty! Seriously, this is one amazing game!
I’m also still enjoying Cyberpunk 2077 of course, having started my third playthrough as a katana wielding ninja… so far it’s great fun!
Finally, I’m still playing World of Tanks with my dad and brother. Imagine my pleasant surprise when they lowered the costs of everything (in a freemium game no less) so now I can actually enjoy the Cold War era section of the game without spending obscene amounts of real world moolah! Miracles can happen, folks!
Oh man what a start to the year it’s been. 3 weeks sick with Bronchitis really starts to wear on you, but at the very least I had Palworld to lean on during that time to help as a distraction. Though I think the real star of the show this month for me has been the new start of the new seasonal content for one of my favorite games, Gunfire Reborn, which always proves trusty for me to go back to. There’s also been plenty of demos popping up on Steam for indie games I’ve been excited for and following for ages, so getting to try those over the last couple days has been a huge help for my mentality while I’ve been sick.
This month I didn’t find myself playing nearly as many games as I’d like, seeing as my world has decided to get a bit busy. That said, I put in my customary time with Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker as usual, but also played a few other games on a whim. I revisited Kirby’s Adventure for the NES and dabbled a bit with some old Game Boy favorites in Donkey Kong ’94 and Kirby’s Dreamland 2. I also experienced the first Wario Land for the first time ever and enjoyed it quite a bit. I’d like to focus on more as I find time, because there’s a lot to look forward to in February.
It’s Backlog Busting Time! That’s right, your favourite caffeine addict is tackling the backlog beast for 2024. I have 133 games across 18 systems that I want to whittle down to the low double digits. Despite some sicknesses going around, I’m proud to say that I’ve made some progress on that front.
The first game I tackled this year was Double Dragon II: The Revenge for the NES. Being more familiar with the first title, I was taken aback by the updated control scheme. Nevertheless, I persevered and conquered this legendary beat-em-up! I completed Light Crusader for the Sega Genesis next. Made by Treasure of Gunstar Heroes fame, this was a fairly straight-forward ARPG with light puzzle and platforming mechanics. It had a bit of a learning curve to it, but once that hill was surmounted, the rest of the game was smooth sailing. Interestingly enough, the final build for this game was only 30% complete when it was released! Crazy, huh?
Speaking of crazy, I am just enamoured with Final Fantasy VII Remake. That is a sentence I thought I would never write, but eyyyyyyyyy it’s 2024, baby! Hard Mode is so much fun, despite the restrictions imposed on the player. Without items, I had to be creative with both my Materia loadout (Passive Independent and Command Materia become your best friends here) and my strategy in battle. And the battle system is just *chef’s kiss* perfection. I remember sharing complaints about being interrupted and knocked down when performing commands, but then I realized you just have to pay attention to the lulls in combat. Once I nailed that down, everything just clicked for me. On the subject of clicks, I’ve also had a blast with Photo Mode!
Next on the backlog will be Kid Icarus for the NES and Wonder Boy for the Genesis. Oh yeah, I also finished the original Double Dragon via the NES Nintendo Switch Online service at the eleventh hour, just before January ended. Haven’t beaten that one properly yet, so at least I got it out of the way. Three games down and 130 to go!
Slow beginning of the year for me so I’ll keep this short. American Truck Simulator has been fun. Me and some friends started doing some convoys and it’s been pretty great group time. It’s still the usual drive and stack paper, but it’s a relaxing game.
I played a little bit of Stella Glow, it’s really interesting so far. I haven’t really made it far enough into the game to have concrete feelings on it, but I like the premise and the combat system. The use of affinity and it adding to overall battle mechanics is appealing. I’ll try to get more on this in February.
I did not start the year playing Chrono Trigger. In between all that writhing I did on my time away from the internet, I managed to squeeze in some game time. I picked up the broken shards of my previous Final Fantasy XIV playthrough and I swear I am going to make it through A Realm Reborn even if it kills me! It’s slow going but I’ve sped things up by skipping dialogue. That’s right, no more overly verbose NPCs for me, at least until I hit some story beats that actually mean more than a fetch quest or tapping the next guy on the shoulder. As long as that journey has been, I embarked on a quick jaunt, as well: I beat Pocky & Rocky Reshrined. It was a delightful little top-down fantasy shooter, very arcadey, and despite never having played any version of it before, it felt like going home.
The bulk of my gaming time this month was spent with Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. Yeah and oldie, but it’s been a great way for my kid brother and I to stay in touch across the vast stretches of the Pacific. I even overcame my fetish for character creation; made just one avatar and stuck with it. Pele, Woman of Fire, has been enjoying doing some heavy bowgunning. With the Valor stance, it’s just been too much fun. This is a long haul type of game but I’m in no rush. If anything, this year has already taught me what it can be like to not be chronically online (and not addicted to video games), so taking my sweet time with this behemoth is just the right speed.
Happy January everyone! Hope your year’s been going well so far. As is usual for me, I’ve been mostly working on small games. 2024 has been about half little free games and half pickups from December, with one new release I’d been super excited for. Look forward to a review of Turnip Boy Robs a Bank soon! The other top game of January for me would probably be Fresh Start Cleaning Simulator, a cleaning game akin to Viscera Cleanup Detail and Powerwash Simulator. It’s a nice casual game about cleaning up ecosystems and restoring nature, a pleasantly chill experience.
As well as the new stuff, I also finally caved and signed up with Retroachievements. Watching friends play things like Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 gave me the itch, and I wanted to do something different than just a casual playthrough. Retroachievements has the interesting side effect of making me try things I haven’t done before. I’ve only done Mario 64 so far, but there were a lot of challenges to get stars with different methods than the expected way, usually involving some difficult acrobatics. It gave a new life to a game I’d felt I’d mostly memorized. Can’t wait to try more!
And so ends January. What have you been playing recently? What did you finish? And what’s next on your backlog? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you all again next month! Same Pixel Time! Same Pixel Channel!
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 Bluesky as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
