deKay

3D Maze Walker (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 17/11/2016 Written by deKay

I’m still ticking off the games on the Sega 3D Classics Collection. Only three to go now, I think. With 3D Maze Walker, I’ve been plugging away a couple of levels at a time, and finally completed it today.

Why did it take so long? It wasn’t exactly hard, nor were there many levels. No, the main reason for taking so long was that it’s utter crap and I simply could not bear to play more than two or three tedious, boring levels in one go.

You know how I wasn’t exactly complementary about 3D Altered Beast? This is worse. Far worse. The idea is to find a key in a maze, then reach the exit. You can smack roaming baddies with a stick. You move like you’re wading through treacle. Going the wrong way is a trial because you have to play the game for longer by backtracking. It has just one redeeming feature: Excellent 3D. That’s it.

I hated every minute of Maze Walker and I’m glad it’s finished. I will never, ever, ever, play this fetid pile of dung ever again. And neither should you.

Click to view slideshow.

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Virginia (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 15/11/2016 Written by deKay

The odd thing about Virginia is that it was recommended to me the day before it was in a sale on PSN. And it has toilets in it. It must have been fate.

As a narrative discovery game, it’s hard to tell you much without spoiling the plot, but I’ll try. You play as a newly qualified FBI agent, who is assigned the task of investigating a long serving FBI agent because, well, they have unusual ideas and methods. As your “cover”, you’re assigned as her partner, and so together have to investigate the disappearance of a Virginian teen son of a vicar.

Interaction in Virginia, as is the norm for games of this genre, is minimal. You can activate objects like door handles and so on, and walk around limited areas, but it’s about furthering the story, not solving puzzles.

And what a story. A confusing one, where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s a dream, what happened and what is hallucination, and sometimes even what order everything occurs. You find out more about your partner’s past, your own past and possible futures, but even after completing it I had questions and remain somewhat confused.

Imagine something like Firewatch, mixed with the setting of The X-Files, and you’re mostly there. The art style is close to the former, but the FBI partnership and events are right out of the latter. There are also parts that feel a lot like The Stanley Parable, although without the humour. Or the narration. In fact, there’s no dialogue in the game at all, which you’d think would hamper its efforts to put across a story over everything, but no: It’s expertly “acted” and directed, and even without conversation (and not a great deal of explanatory text) everything comes across. It’s still hard to piece together some, but I don’t think talking characters would help there. It feels like a film or TV show too, with hard cuts from location to location, which was jarring at first but felt natural when you experience it like a film rather than a game.

I can certainly recommend it, and will probably pore over my recorded playthrough (which I did in a single sitting – it’s not very long) a bit to see if I missed anything. I obviously did as I have a fair few achievements missing! If you want to see my run through Virginia, you can below but be warned: It is full of spoilers.

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PaRappa the Rapper 2 (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 13/11/2016 Written by deKay

I had two issues with the original PaRappa the Rapper game. The first being I didn’t own it (until much later, and that was on the PSP), and the second being that I couldn’t play it because of the issue I have being PlayStation Controller Blind ¹.

When I saw the PS4 port of PS2 game PaRappa the Rapper 2 for just £2.99, I thought I’d try. And try. And try. Oh my did I try. Thankfully, the game is pretty easy and very forgiving, but some button combinations (mainly those that use the circle and square buttons) I simply can’t cope with. Getting through a few stages was little more than luck as I hoped I’d pressed the ones in order, trying not to actually think about it and run on autopilot.

Like the first game, the sequel is a pile of glorious nonsense. PaRappa wants to be a real man for his girlfriend, and luckily the impending conversion of everything into noodles gives him the opportunity to step up and become one. Which mainly involves a lot of rapping, as you’d probably expect.

Control issues aside, it’s great, although a lot shorter than I was expecting. Only eight stages? I thought the first game was a lot longer. Or am I mixing it up with Gitaroo Man? Hmm.

Click to view slideshow.

Notes:

I mention this a lot, but it’s basically that because the PlayStation controller doesn’t have a standard or memorable button layout, games that rely on quickly knowing their location – like rhythm games and games with QTEs – are a struggle ↩

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3D Galaxy Force II (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 13/11/2016 Written by deKay

Now you see, you look at Thunder Blade and see how it’s technically quite clever, but gameplay-wise it’s awful, and then look at Galaxy Force II and see the correct way to use the technology. It’s fast, looks incredible, has very varied levels, and there actually seems to be a point to shooting down the enemy rather than just flying past them.

You’ve an energy reading which constantly counts down, dropping in big chunks if you get hit or fly into a wall or something. You can refill it by destroying enemies, with the total “collected” added to your counter after every section of a level.

Galaxy Force II is a tricky game, too. You have to accelerate through it as much as possible so your counter doesn’t drop before the end of the game, but have to weigh up the danger that causes – especially in enclosed areas. Pelt to the end, or slow down and try to wipe out as many spaceships as you can in order to “refuel”?

The 3D adds a huge amount to the game too. With it off, the game actually looks wrong, as if it was supposed to be 3D all along. Fantastic.

Click to view slideshow.

Only a handful of games left to complete on this 3D Classics collection now!

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3D Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/11/2016 Written by deKay

I’d actually started working through the Master System version of Fantasy Zone II, which is also on the Sega 3D Classics Collection, but after pausing the game on one of the final bosses, then saving the game state so I could play it later, I found I was left in an impossible situation and the only way out is to start the game again.

So instead, I started playing the 3D port of the original arcade game! It’s superficially the same, with similar levels, enemies and bosses, but the warping around system is totally different. Whereas in the Master System version the warps exist mainly just to split the level into four or five sections, here the flip between Light and Dark versions of the level. It seems that you can get different endings if you run into the bosses on just Light or just Dark areas of each level, but I pretty much just alternated between the two.

Another difference is that in the Master System Fantasy Zone II, Opa-Opa has an energy bar (which can be extended with power-ups), but in this version one hit and you’re dead. Well, one hit and you might lose your weapon, then with the next hit you’re dead.

I really enjoyed the game. Any blue skies game is always welcoming to play, and having enjoyed the first 3D Fantasy Zone a while back (which surprised me) I was pretty sure I’d like this. Now to tackle the Master System one again, I think!

Not the game's most attractive colour scheme, it has to be said.

Return of the Spiders. From the first game, remember?

There is a plot, but I've no idea what any of it means.

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