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Viewfinder: completed!

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World four turned out to be quite long and complex, and the overall tone of the game turned much darker. Many of the level foundations became purple and grey, which could not be destroyed by laying photographs or photographed themselves. What seemed to be a restriction actually quickly became another puzzle, where (for example) a photo of a battery inside a purple cage could be placed as just the battery. Where walls were made of standard material but floors were made of purple, the walls could be vanished with the application of a photo of the sky, leaving a clear path through. I struggled a fair bit with a couple of the levels, before I suddenly realised an obvious solution.

And then onto World 5, where the story became more ominous and the mood ever darker. Cait the cat didn’t want me to find the weather device. Bits of building and objects just hung in the air, with gravity seemingly forgotten. Levels became ever more complex and foreboding. At one point I went back to the first World to explore a bit and find the collectible ducks, just for a break.

One of the more freaky things about the last World is the timed camera, which allows you to run around and take a photo of yourself. Remember in Portal, at the start of the game, when you place a portal and then can see yourself running into it, through the other portal? Imagine that, but instead of seeing a human character you see a mess of interference lines which vaguely take the shape of a person. Placing that photo instantly teleports you to the location of your silhouette, and you need to make sure you have multiple copies if you need to teleport out again.

Even with the rewind function, floating stuff gives me vertigo and a fear of falling off the edge

And then the final level, which suddenly introduced a time limit and required all the different skills that had been present throughout the game. In the end the time limit was more than enough to complete tasks, but working out how to do them was more of a challenge. I think it took me five attempts, before I finally found the science experiment and departed from the simulation.

Really fun as a game, and it certainly didn’t overstay its time; as with all the best games, it introduced new mechanics regularly and only used them a few times before assuming they were now just part of the repertoire.

Lunistice (Switch): COMPLETED!

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A while back, I played the demo of this and enjoyed it enough to stick it on my wishlist until it went on sale. Eventually, it did!

While it might not look like anything special, and there are a million late-90s style 3D platformers around, what this has that most of the others don’t is a properly controllable character. As in, the jumping and “steering” physics and controls feel right. You know how on the Super NES, Mario in Super Mario World feels right, but Bubsy the Bobcat is a horrible slidey imprecise mess? Now see how most 3D platformers from the Mario 64 era (and those that ape it) are more like nasty Gex 3D and not Banjo Kazooie in the same way. Well, Lunistice isn’t and clicked immediately with me.

It isn’t a huge game, with only a handful of worlds with most only having two acts, but it is inventive, varied and fun. There’s bits like Sonic Adventure, and bits like Mario 64, and bits like Crash Bandicoot (only good), but it still manages to be its own thing. Nice music, new-retro 32bit console aesthetic graphics, and a draw distance the PS1 couldn’t even dream about.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (Switch 2): COMPLETED!

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This is great and it is so obviously using Hades as a template it’s not even fair to suggest it’s anything but a clone. But a really good clone. It even mentions about the powers you obtain as being “boons” at one point, which is what they’re called in Hades.

So, in case you don’t know how Hades plays, I can explain for Turtles. You start in the sewers, and face room after room of similar but random layouts and baddies. Beat the baddies, and you get to choose from a selection of random powerups, including buffs, money – which is scrap metal here – or health. Every so often you’ll reach a shop where you can spend the scrap you’ve picked up on more things. Some powers can be upgraded, you can sometimes get combo powers when you’ve chosen two that work together, and you can extend your life bar and so on. You do more rooms, then a boss, and move on to the next chapter in a new location. Die, and it’s all over and you start again from the Turtle Lair.

All of your powers and buffs from the previous run are lost. However, as you play you also obtain other currencies, which you keep after dying and can spend them in your lair for permanent bonuses, like more heath, greater damage, or increasing the likelihood of top tier powerups appearing.

Just like Hades, it’s stupidly addictive. It’s not quite as polished as Hades, and whereas Hades had so much lore and backstory and Greek myths, legends and gods to involve yourself in, here you’ve just got the Turtles and their acquaintances which isn’t quite on the same level. There’s not as much depth to the combat either, and although you can build your Turtle somewhat differently each run depending on the items you choose, it’s nowhere near the same level of difference you can get in Hades.

What it does have that Hades doesn’t, though, aside from Mikey, is that it has a 2, 3 or 4-player co-op mode. I’ve been playing it with my daughter (she’s generally been Donnie, if you’re curious), and it is loads of fun.

We played it a few times before the Switch 2 upgrade pack came out, and since downloading that I’ve noticed almost no difference at all. Maybe slightly faster load times? Although they were pretty quick anyway. It supposedly pegs the game at 60 frames per second and 4K over the 720p and 30 frames of the Switch version but I can’t tell the difference in all honesty. I think maybe lighting and fire effects look a bit better but it was fine before.

Turns out we actually completed the game a few days ago, but there was a tease after 10 or so successful runs (the game says you need this many) that there was more story to unlock so we played a while longer. I’ve since looked it up and actually, that’s it. Presumably the tease is for a sequel or DLC or something because there’s no more story and we didn’t get to find out exactly what Baxter was up to or who the shadowy baddie who kidnapped Splinter is (and no, it wasn’t Shredder).

Party House (Switch): COMPLETED!

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And here it is! Party House is one of the games on UFO 50. The idea is, on each level, you are hosting a house party and every time you open the door a random guest from a pool of guests turns up. Each guest has a different effect on the party, however, and that’s where it gets hard.

So to start with, your house can only hold 5 guests. Some guests increase the popularity of the party (which, each round, adds up and can be “spent” on inviting other guests to the pool). Some guests bring in some money (which you can use to increase the capacity of your party). Others actually cost you money, and some increase the chances of the police turning up and shutting you down (which requires you to blame one party attendee who is then barred for a round).

Then you’ve other guests who can reduce the police chance, or automatically bring a +1 (which may cause the party to overspill – causing another shutdown), or act as a popularity multiplier. There are dogs who can preview who the next guest will be, bouncers who can kick someone out, and guests who can invite a specific additional guest from your pool.

It all feels a bit like a more complex version of a sort of solitaire poker, or something akin to Balatro. Even though it’s mostly random, there’s strategy as you try to gain enough popularity across each of the 20 or so rounds to eventually be able to “buy” all the required attendees needed to call the party a success and win.

Each of the five levels has a different set of available guests, so they play out differently. It’s very addictive, meaning the extra “random party” mode can give unlimited replayability.