deKay

Titan Attacks! (Vita): COMPLETED!

Posted on 21/12/2014 Written by deKay

Perhaps I was a little hard on this. I gave it another go, and found I really started to enjoy it. Yes, it’s still a Super Space Invaders clone, but the levels are more varied and the power-ups you can collect add something to the game. In fact, I not only completed Titan Attacks!, I looped the entire game twice, picking up all the trophies in the process.

Which makes it my first Playstation title where I’ve got all the trophies. Or even tried for all the trophies. It wasn’t difficult, and only took a few hours to blast through the 100 stages three times, but it was fun. First impressions can be wrong, it seems!

Things I’ve been playing recently

Posted on 12/12/2014 Written by deKay

Roundup time!

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

Chain_Chomp_GET_ With over 80 hours racked up now, this became my most played Wii U title some time ago. No matter how repetitive it seems to be, even playing exactly the same mission over and over with the same character, it never gets boring. I have now at least started the Master Quest from the first set of DLC, albeit to just play about four missions to see what they were like. Since then, there’s been another set of DLC which included another new character and a slightly smaller Adventure Mode map (which I’ve barely even looked at), but no Legend Mode additions, sadly.

I’ve still not finished Adventure Mode. In fact, I’ve still not even cleared the full map, let alone collected all the weapons, hearts and skulltulas littering the place. I have made some headway in ticking the lot off, but I estimate at least another 30 hours before I’ve done the whole thing. I have at least picked up some decent weapons for most of the characters now, although the likes of Wizzro and Midna are still woefully underpowered through lack of use. Link’s Lv3 Power Gauntlets, complete with Chain Chomp wrecking ball are a sight to behold though, and his apparently naked giant Great Fairy is ludicrous. In all: Best Game.

Persona 4 Golden (Vita)

Everyone seems to rate this as one of the best games ever. It’s one of the few games I wanted a Vita for, so when it was reduced to a silly price (on the same day as Akiba’s Trip) I snapped it up.

Even though I’d heard a lot of good things about it, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, aside from “an unusual RPG”. I thought this meant something along the lines of Contact or Earthbound, and as I’d been cautioned to avoid anything describing the actual game or plot as it’s apparently best to dive in blind, I wasn’t prepared for what I got.

The fantastic yellow submarine/katamari hybrid opening sequence segued into Shenmue before becoming something somewhere between Phoenix Wright and Eternal Sonata, via a Japanese dating sim and The Ring. Confusing and compelling, although (so far) mostly non-interactive, I’m just past the second murder (yes, it’s a bit grim in places) and, from what I’ve been told, have only about 78 hours left before I complete it. Erm.

Luftrausers (Vita)

Or Love Trousers, obviously. I have the PC version, but I don’t play PC games. This is a free-for-a-few-weeks PS+ rental, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m terrible at it, but it has some addictive progression and that ever important “just one more go” factor. It’s like Time Pilot, only distanced from that title in a similar way to how, say, Pac-Man CE is from Pac-Man. And in sepia.

Mega Man 6 (Wii U)

I finished Mega Man 5, so started Mega Man 6. It’s just more of the same, which isn’t really a complaint, but even when they add new stuff to the formula it still doesn’t actually change the basic game. As the last NES Mega Man it’s a little sad to be nearing the end of the series, but I do have the SNES Mega Man 7 and Mega Man X2 lined up for the future, so it’s not really close to being over.

Instant Hero (iOS)

What’s that? An iOS game that isn’t Slay? Well, the team behind this asked for beta testers, so I volunteered. And I’m pleased to say, that they’ve really responded to feedback from myself and the other testers, and quickly moved this from a far too simple, slightly rough and seemingly pointless title to a polished, perfect for mobile play game. It plays a little like Peggle but with Super Kick Off style aftertouch. And your little man is the ball. And he can only beat the baddies (uh, like the pegs in peggle) if he (or she) runs into two of the smaller sized baddies first. Or you die. And there are bosses.

Look, I can’t explain it. It’s out soon, and is free with IAPs to buy continues (and remove ads) and it’s definitely worth a look. Not least to see me in the credits.

Titan Attacks (Vita)

Another PS+ rental. It’s OK, but really it’s just a relatively normal Space Invaders game with a few bells and whistles. Not that there’s anything really wrong with that, but come on – we’ve have Space Invaders games for years now, and some (like Space Invaders Extreme) are far better than this. Still, it was free.

Need For Speed Most Wanted (Vita)

EA game this away for free. And it’s not even “PS+ Free” either – it’s actually really free. It’s also the same game, albeit smaller, lower resolution, and not quite as nice generally, as the Wii U version I’ve already played to death. It is still pretty and fun and everything, but I don’t know if I can be bothered to complete it again.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric Demo (Wii U)

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No.

Mega Man 5 (Wii U): COMPLETED!

Posted on 07/12/2014 Written by deKay

Yes, this did take a while longer than previous Mega Mans (Men?). Not in terms of actual play time, as this came in at a little over 4 hours, so slightly shorter than Mega Man 4 (bucking the trend of Mega Man games getting longer in sequence!), but in terms of number of weeks over which I played it.

My excuse is HYRULE WARRIORS, which has eaten most of any game time I have. I’ll turn the Wii U on, intending to play Mega Man or UnEpic or Mario Kart 8, but ending up with Hyrule Warriors instead. Occasionally, sometimes, eventually, my finger has managed to successfully prod Mega Man 5 and I’ll play for a few levels.

This game’s “new thing”, as each game has so far added something, is Beat. A semi intelligent homing attack bird robot. Obviously. So pointless is Beat, that I didn’t even consider using it until the final boss battle.

As for the rest of the game, it was more of the same. You can see they were really struggling with robot bosses and powers at this point, as many were retreads of previous ones. One of the levels tried to be a bit different with a sort of jetski section, but it was frustratingly hard and, ultimately, crap. Still, at least there was nothing as rubbish as Top Man’s awful flying spin-kick power, although the Charge Kick neared it. The final boss was similar to a previous boss (in Mega Man 3, I think – at this point they’re all starting to blur into one), but somehow even easier. Especially with Beat. Disappointing, in a way.

Overall I’d have to say it wasn’t as good as Mega Man 4, but better than 3, even though this breaks my until-now perfect run of sequentially better Mega Man titles. 4>5>3>2>1. I suppose it also breaks the run of getting bigger each time too, since it’s slightly shorter than 4. 6 next? Aye, go on then.

Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed (Vita): COMPLETED!

Posted on 04/12/2014 Written by deKay

What? Two Vita games completed? What will the neighbours say? I mainly bought this game as a bit of a joke. I didn’t think I’d get drawn in and certainly didn’t expect to complete it. I just thought it was a silly game with a silly premise and wouldn’t really be very good.

I was wrong.

For the first few hours, I had issues with the controls and the camera. I wasn’t enjoying the combat, and there was a massive difficulty spike with the first “boss”, who took many attempts to beat. Then I realised that different weapons attacked in different ways, much like in games like Monster Hunter. Then I figured out the clothing and weapon modifying options, improving my attack and defence. Finally, I realised you could press R to centre the camera. Suddenly, most of my complaints disappeared, and although still a silly, sexy game, I was really enjoying it. The combat clicked, and I actively went picking fights to collect more items to improve my kit.

As the story progressed, I realised I was actually really rather close to the final battle, and sort of fell into the last hour of the game and completed it rather sooner than expected. I was slightly disappointed it wasn’t longer, but there’s a New Game + mode and a million untouched side missions should I want to return.

At its original price of £32.99 on PSN (I don’t think the western version even got a physical release), I’d struggle to recommend Akiba’s Trip, but it is surprisingly deep, fun, and has the sort of Japanese quirkiness and game in-jokes I like. At under a tenner, it’s definitely worth a shot. Just try to see past the, er, stripping.

Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed (Vita)

Posted on 30/11/2014 Written by deKay

Let me tell you all about this game and I will tell you all about this game now:

You’re a boy who goes for a job interview then wakes up strapped to a table before being told he’s going to be a vampire or something then a girl in a negligee carrying a parasol rescues you and you fight and flee but are mortally injured and all that can save you is this girl’s blood so she bites her lip and you drink her blood by kissing her and then you become a different sort of vampire and take this girl back to a bar where your friends hang out and your tumblr_nfv3b7xudm1svmpf2o1_1280 sister lives for no readily apparent reason and all your friends are members of an underground vigilante group and they’re looking into strange goings on in Akihabara like people going missing and stuff so you go out on patrol and find more people who are sorts of vampires and you fight them and beat them by ripping all their clothes off and exposing them to the sun so they melt or explode only sometimes the people you fight aren’t vampires but you strip them naked anyway and they run off and after you’ve beaten someone they drop equipment and clothes which you can equip (even their underpants) or sell or get your little sister to combine to improve other equipment and as all this is going on you have access to an in-game version of Twitter which is hilarious and there’s also a cosplay competition going on into which the female members of your gang are entered and the whole game feels just like Yakuza only with stripping teenagers instead of Yakuza and more boobs.