Thanks to a recent medical issue (everything’s fine now and I’m back at work), I had to work from home for about two weeks. While a bit annoying because I couldn’t go out and do stuff, it did give me more time to play video games (before and after work when I would normally be on my commute, and during my lunch hour). And I played a lot of video games.
I want to talk about them because I like talking about the things I read, watch, and play.
Some of these games I played before my two weeks of forced hermitry, but I put them in anyway for funsies. So this list encompasses about a month’s worth of video games, and here they are in (mostly) chronological order.
Mario Tennis Aces (Switch) - I haven’t played a Mario sports game since the football-themed Super Mario Strikers on the GameCube, so I was really looking forward to this, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s not a proper tennis game as it lets you do all kinds of super moves and play on courts that are clearly not regulation (also, you sometimes have to hit a bunch of piranha plants). It’s pretty fun, but I got stuck on the solo campaign because I’ve clearly not mastered some of the special moves.
Vostok Inc. (PS4) - I got this for free thanks to PS Plus last month (or the month before?) and started playing immediately because I’d heard good things. It’s... weird, but in a good way. The main aim of the game is to become as rich as possible as the head of some space mining company. There’s a lot of mechanics in this (you gotta mine, you gotta fight spaceships, you gotta manage your managers, etc.) and there’s this pretty funny running commentary throughout. Also, everyone speaks in weird sounds, and it’s great. This is a game you can just pick up and play whenever and put in some time to mine for more stuff and get more cash.
Picross S (Switch) - This is a simple, Sudoku-style puzzle game that is super fun. I pick it up and play whenever, solving a couple more puzzles each time. A sequel recently came out (or is about to come out), and I’ll probably grab that too once I finish all the puzzles in this one.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch) - Originally released for the WiiU, this is another puzzle game that lets you take control of Captain Toad and Toadette in these super awesome cube puzzles that you have flip around to unlock all the secrets. They get fiendishly harder as you progress further in the game. I’ve solved all of the original puzzles and found all the diamonds (I haven’t done all the extra quests yet, though), but I still need to do the new Super Mario Odyssey-inspired levels. Saving them for a rainy day.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) - This is basically Castlevania in everything but name. I never enjoyed the Castlevania games as a kid, but Eugene Myers recommended this game on his NES-centric YouTube channel, so I gave it a shot. It’s alright. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I liked the 16-bit art a lot, and the mechanic of being able to change between multiple characters at any given time was also pretty cool.
Hitman: Definitive Edition (PS4) - I finally got this, and I’ve been having a blast. I haven’t even gone past the Paris map (which is the first real map after the tutorial) and I’ve been having a blast. You play as an assassin and you have to kill your targets without getting caught. However, you can assassinate your targets in many different ways, which is why I’m still on the Paris map, assassinating the same two people over and over again. It’s like a puzzle that can be solved in multiple ways, each one different enough that it doesn’t feel repetitive. I will presumably make it to the other four maps in due course.
Sonic Mania Plus (PS4) - I actually did a review of this game, so you can read more of my thoughts there, but basically I loved the hell out of this game. It feels exactly like original SEGA Genesis games, and that’s awesome. At least it is for old farts like me that still remember the original SEGA Genesis games.
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars DLC (PS4) - I finished Far Cry 5 proper a couple of months back, and then enjoyed the Vietnam War-themed Hours of Darkness DLC afterwards. Lost on Mars was not as good as Hours of Darkness, I feel. It was funnier, but sometimes in a very forced way. Hurk is your constant companion, but he’s in a “Brobot” body and part of the things you have to do is find his missing body parts so that the supercomputer ANNE can put him back together. While the endgame was predictable as hell (and you may have already figured it out just from what I’ve written here), Lost on Mars had a way better ending than Far Cry 5 proper.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS4) - I lurve this series. I have every iteration going back the first one on the PS1 (except for the newest one, Infinite, and not counting the various spiritual prequels). I’m not particularly good at this game (I’m pretty sure basically everyone can kick my ass), but something about having Wolverine Berserker Barrage his way through Mega Man makes me super happy. The roster here seems smaller than what I remember in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, though. My go-to characters are Taskmaster, Chun Li, and Wolverine (though I may sometimes switch out Taskmaster for other characters for the sake of variety).
Golf Story (Switch) - This is the first of two games that I started and finished in the past month, and I did not except to love it as much as I did. For all intents and purposes, this is an RPG. A golf-themed RPG, yes, but an RPG nonetheless. Besides the requisite playing of golf (which is very easy to get the hang of, even for people that don’t generally enjoy golf in any form), it also has experience points that are used to upgrade stats, upgradable golf clubs, a fairy, zombie skeletons, and a stealth section. This is what The Legend of Zelda would have been if Miyamoto-san had decided Link needed to use the power of golf to save Hyrule instead of the power of the Triforce. It is a truly awesome game. Bonus: there is an in-game series of video games called “Galf”, and they are also amazing.
Detroit: Become Human (PS4) - This is the second of two games that I started and finished in the past month, and I also loved it, but for completely different reasons. I have enjoyed the story-driven nature of Quantic Dream games since Heavy Rain (PS3). Yes, they all have their problems (Detroit possibly more than the others), but the fact that I am basically playing through a Choose Your Own Adventure book is amazing to me. And with the addition of the flowcharts in each chapter, I can see exactly which decisions I didn’t make and how much more story I have yet to see because I didn’t choose this or that option. It was hard to try to go back and replay Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls (PS3) because I couldn’t remember which options I had previously taken. Thanks to these flowcharts, I no longer have this problem, and will definitely be replaying this game in the near future.
Detention (Switch) - So, I bought this game thinking it was a historical game about the Taiwanese “White Terror” period, in which the Taiwanese government detained and executed a bunch of suspected Communists. The girl and I started playing it together, and expected a heavy game given the subject matter. But then we came across a river of blood. “Maybe this is meant to represent the blood of the innocents?” we thought. Then we came across a dead high school student hanging upside down from the rafters in the school auditorium. “Maybe this is meant to represent the corpses of the innocents?” we thought. Then we came across a ghost that would eat us if we didn’t hold our breath. “Maybe this is meant to represent the hunger of the innocents?” we thought. Then we came across a creepy phone call and a jump scare. “Nope, this is a fucking survival horror game and we are done because we are chickens. Let’s go build some Labo stuff instead.” We will get back to this game eventually, but only when the sun is full out and not when it’s so close to sleepy times.
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 01 Variety Kit (Switch) - We got this a long, long time ago, but could not find any time to really sit down and build this stuff. But after scaring ourselves silly with Detention, we put Doctor Strange and Captain America: Civil War on in the background and built the RC Car (the easiest one to build) and the Piano (the hardest one to build) and holy crap you guys, these things are fun as hell. The Piano is an especially versatile little machine in which you can legit play proper music, from Mozart to Michael Jackson to friggin’ Zankoku na Tenshi no Tēze, the theme to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Don’t believe me? Check it out. I will soon put up a video of me playing the beginning of the Super Mario Bros. theme song. Also, we will build the rest of these fun little things as soon as humanly possible (probably this weekend).
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Beta (PS4) - I got a code to join the free public beta this past weekend, so I did. And I predictably got my ass handed to me by a bunch of people who are way better at first-person shooters than I am. But I did have some pretty good runs and helped my team win a couple of times. In one glorious run, I killed four people in a row before dying myself. Not bad for a terrible FPS player. Still, with no single-player campaign, I will not be buying this game (also, I haven’t finished BlOps 3 yet, so there’s also that).
Night in the Woods (PS4) - I started this game sometime last year and only just got back to it. I finished Chapter 2 and am about start Chapter 3, so I am smack dab in the middle of the game (there are four chapters). I love this game and the only reason I stopped playing it for so long was because other games got in the way (like Rusty Lake Hotel (PC) and Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) and Thimbleweed Park (PC) and Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) and Papers, Please! (PC) and Axiom Verge (Switch) and The Witness (PS4) and What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4) and Far Cry 5 (PS4) and.... you get the picture). But don’t take that to mean this game isn’t good, because it totally is. That said, there isn’t actually much gameplay here. You play as Mae, a college dropout who’s come back to her hometown, which is falling apart thanks to, I don’t know, take your pick. Why do small, semi-rural towns always seem to fall apart? Mae goes through her days aimlessly, hanging out with her friends who actually have jobs, arguing with her parents about why she quit college, and just overall being a not very good person (except to the baby rats she feeds by stealing pretzels). During the day, you wander through the same sections of the small town, talking to various townsfolk, and then doing something either dumb or inconsequential (or both) with your friends in the evening. Then, at night, you play through Mae’s increasingly surreal dreams. Then you do it all over again, getting increasingly annoyed at Mae for her behavior and complete lack of self-awareness. I know I’m not doing a very good job of selling this game, but I promise you, it’s excellent.
And those are the games I played in the last month. I think I might do this on a semi-regular basis, like every month or so (or every two months if I don’t play a lot in one month). I mean, I’ve already gone and created a logo, after all :P I am happy to talk at length about most of these games, so go ahead and ask questions in the comments.
Likely upcoming games: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (PS4); more Night in the Woods (PS4); more Nintendo Labo (Switch); more Detention (Switch) (probably? assuming we don’t chicken out); VA11-Hall-A (PC); the next, zombie-themed Far Cry 5 DLC (PS4) (if it comes out); Far Cry 3 (PS4) (if I get around to it); LEGO Marvel Super-Heroes 2 DLC (PS4); Kentucky Route Zero (PC); Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (PS4); more Hitman (PS4) (maybe even beyond the Paris map); and a Final Fantasy game or 4 (PS4).
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