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Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Yes, it isn’t the best two player competitive blocks-in-wells based puzzle game (that would be Puyo Puyo), but you can’t not like Super Puzzle Fighter with it’s super-deformed Capcom fighters and just the sheer absurdity of it.

The aim I much like other similar games – match up blocks and send them over to the other player’s well to fill it up a bit and bugger up their plans. Each character has a special pattern of blocks that, when you form them, unleashes hell on the opponent. In my playthrough, I found creating these patterns were literally impossible and also, completely unnecessary. But it doesn’t matter, it was all fun anyway, although a lot easier than I remember.

And yes, I played as Ken. Obviously.

Vampire Savior (Switch): COMPLETED!

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No, not the horde-based twin stick only one stick sort of shooter. That’s Vampire Survivors, even though I keep getting the two names mixed up. No, this is the Capcom 1-on-1 fighting game from the late 90s heyday of Capcom 1-on-1 fighting games. There was a cheap bundle of bundles (a bundle^2, if you like) on the eShop recently where you could get Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Capcom Fighting Collection together for less money than either collection had ever been on sale for individually. Ah, gwan then.

Vampire Savior (the lack of a U is making me queasy), or Darkstalkers 3, depending on region, is a CPS2 based game, much like Street Fighter Alpha and X-Men: Children of the Atom, so it has big ol’ sprites and loads of animation. The fighters are generally based on monsters like a mummy, a vampire, and a Definitely Not Frankenstein’s Monster.

I played as newcomer-to-the-series Baby Bonnie Hood, who absolutely isn’t supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood, and has a machine gun and a dog. It was silly fun.

Metroid Zero Mission (Switch): COMPLETED!

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An actual Metroid Metroidvania game! Released on the Switch Game Boy Advance Online Service Thing presumably to tie in with the re-announcement (and gameplay footage) of the upcoming Metroid Prime 4, I thought, why the hell not eh?

It’s good. Oh so good. Yes, I’ve played it before, but almost 20 years ago so I remembered very little of it. In fact, I’d even forgotten about the whole “zero suit” bit where Samus loses her armour and you have to sneak around a Space Pirate ship with a weedy little gun. A bit which inspired the whole premise of Metroid Dread, I’m sure, but still – totally forgot it. And didn’t really enjoy that section too much either, truth be told, but it’s fine as it’s only about 15 minutes of the whole game.

The rest of Zero Mission is glorious ‘vania exploration and traversal and it hasn’t really aged either. Being a GBA game, it’s a shame nothing was done to make use of the Switch’s extra buttons as some of the moves are a little tricky using just ABLR. Specifically, swapping between missiles and super missiles has to be done with the Select button, which on the Switch is next to your left hand, not your right like on a GBA, so that’s a minor pain. You only really need them for Mother Brain though.

What I also hadn’t remembered, is how bloody easy the game is. I’m used to Metroid games, and the genre generally, being pretty difficult. At least, more difficult than this. I died once. On Mother Brain if you’re interested. Perhaps it’s just because I’ve played a lot of these games recently, or I was especially careful here, but I was very surprised at how easy I found it.

Metroid Zero Mission (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on Written by

An actual Metroid Metroidvania game! Released on the Switch Game Boy Advance Online Service Thing presumably to tie in with the re-announcement (and gameplay footage) of the upcoming Metroid Prime 4, I thought, why the hell not eh?

It’s good. Oh so good. Yes, I’ve played it before, but almost 20 years ago so I remembered very little of it. In fact, I’d even forgotten about the whole “zero suit” bit where Samus loses her armour and you have to sneak around a Space Pirate ship with a weedy little gun. A bit which inspired the whole premise of Metroid Dread, I’m sure, but still – totally forgot it. And didn’t really enjoy that section too much either, truth be told, but it’s fine as it’s only about 15 minutes of the whole game.

The rest of Zero Mission is glorious ‘vania exploration and traversal and it hasn’t really aged either. Being a GBA game, it’s a shame nothing was done to make use of the Switch’s extra buttons as some of the moves are a little tricky using just ABLR. Specifically, swapping between missiles and super missiles has to be done with the Select button, which on the Switch is next to your left hand, not your right like on a GBA, so that’s a minor pain. You only really need them for Mother Brain though.

What I also hadn’t remembered, is how bloody easy the game is. I’m used to Metroid games, and the genre generally, being pretty difficult. At least, more difficult than this. I died once. On Mother Brain if you’re interested. Perhaps it’s just because I’ve played a lot of these games recently, or I was especially careful here, but I was very surprised at how easy I found it.

Animal Well (PS5): COMPLETED!

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What if Jet Set Willy was a Metroidvania and it was a still all pixels but all the pixels had thousands of colours and there was amazing light and shadow effects and you got special toys that gave you new skills and it was all creepy and weird and there were ghosts and rooms in total darkness and there were puzzles and switches and you could warp around the map by climbing into the mouths of animals? Animal Well.

Well, maybe it’s not too much like Jet Set Willy but it definitely felt like the natural evolution of it had 3D gaming never existed or something.

The story in Animal Well is seemingly thus: You are a blob which hatches and then for Reasons have to find four mystic flames to light candles on four totems and then defeat some big evil. Bit of an ask for a day-old baby blob but games not have to make sense. The game plays out as mostly a platformer, where you explore a world which, in Metroidvania style, becomes larger as you gain skills that let you open pathways to new or previously unreachable areas.

These skills come in the form of toys, like a yoyo which lets you hit buttons from a distance (or round corners), a slinky that can “wall” down steps or drop through certain platforms, and a flying disc (not a Frisbee for legal reasons) that can hit switches across large gaps, but can also distract dogs that would like to eat you. You can also jump on the disc and use it to travel across chasms.

These skills make for some usual puzzles and gimmicks to navigate round the world, which is beautifully drawn with some amazing pixel art. It looks pretty good in screenshots but it’s when everything is in motion that you really get the benefit of the lighting effects. I also liked the tiny little controller rumbles and feedback you get from jumping around.

Although there are plenty of baddies in the world, including a few bosses, you can’t really damage most of them with your “weapons”. You can with some, and stun others, but most of the time you have to either avoid them, trap them, or cause environmental damage by dropping rocks on them or something. There are also quite a few benign creatures that you can coax into use as platforms, switch triggers, or blockers in various ways too.

As well as the main goal, there’s a lot of hidden stuff to find. Markings on walls, shapes, oddly lit things. Some unlock secrets, others seem just for fun. They reminded me a bit of Fez, although Animal Well isn’t quite as deep and complex as that.

There are also a load of literal Easter Eggs to collect, mostly hidden in secret places, which unlock a few extra, but optional, items. I suspect for some the real end game is to get all of them, and I got about 55 of the 64 but just couldn’t find any more and didn’t want to resort to a guide. I did have an amazing time playing Animal Well though, and love the fact it was a PS++++++++ free rental because I was this close to buying it on the Switch when I noticed it was on PSN!