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89: Take a Shilling

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It’s only ruddy Christmas again! That means we’ve done something a bit different to usual, deciding to not tell you what we’ve been playing!

Instead, deKay, Kendrick and Orrah will regale you with tales of Christmasseseses past interspersed with stories from other members of the EUU (Extended ugvm Universe).

We also chat a bit about the Switch 2, the Video Game Awards, and Yuletide Job Losses, just so we can tick a few other boxes.

(Direct link here)

Don’t forget, if you want to contact us with questions or comments for or about the show, you can email podcast@ugvm.org.uk or publicly shame us https://mas.to/@ugvmpodcast on the Mastodons.

Box Boy: constant adaptation

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Box Boy is a simple platform puzzle game, with a simple visual style, and simple sound design. Yet despite its appearances, at times it’s anything but simple to complete.

You play as a square. You can make a certain number of other squares come out of you, chained in any direction (although the first one can’t go straight down), and you can use these to hook onto other platforms, push yourself across gaps, or press remote buttons. You can detach yourself from the blocks you create, though if you then try to create more the prior ones disappear. If any block is resting on a surface, you can transport to that other block along the chain you have built.

It is all relatively simple for the first few levels, and indeed I was getting to the point where I couldn’t really imagine any more puzzles with this basic setup. Each level is relatively short and defined how many boxes you can grow, and there are one or two crowns to collect as you progress through the level which disappear if you create too many boxes before getting to them. I was able to collect all crowns, if not on the first time through the level, then on the second.

It isn’t a riot of colour.

But then the game starts introducing new concepts – one in each new world – and you have to learn the game all over. Switches to open doors, spikes, enemies (who helpfully activate things and disappear if you guide them to the right place), conveyor belts, and rows of blocks which disappear if you fill the gaps. Variety was very much appreciated.

I only have a few more levels to go, though I can see there are some added challenges to complete, plus lots of outfits to unlock somehow. I have a feeling the sequels may be more of a pull.

Playstation Wrap 2024

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2024 Playstation Wrap, I have played far too much Fortnite this year and glad I have finally broken free from the addiction!

 


884 hours played across 54 games (some which I abandoned or just played for an hour to see if it would bite) but gaming will always be my number one past time

 

gospvg - getting old and still playing video games

Pokémon Blue: wild ZUBAT appeared!

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The start of Pokémon Blue1 is pretty slow. After the first couple of set-pieces, where you choose a starter and fetch the pokédex, you are left to go forth into the world, with only the route numbers to guide you. The paths are winding and specifically designed to make you walk through long grass, meaning that you will encounter many wild pokémon along the way. Unfortunately for the first hour or so they are all of one of three or four types, and it gets a little dull when the fifteenth caterpie is dispatched with a single hit from Charmander. Trainers along the way offer some variety but they all have similar pokémon, again, and give very little reward. By the time you get to Pewter City, you’re desperate for just a bit of challenge.

Having chosen Charmander at the start, I got it. Brock’s gym is of ground and rock types, and Charmander’s attacks did little. Luckily I had already caught Spearow and Nidoran♀ so I had some variety, but my first attempt at Brock’s underling saw all my team of six (which also included Pidgey, Metapod and another Caterpie) being defeated. Before trying again, I went to the South of the city and wandered around in a patch of grass for around 150 hours, battling hundreds of level 3 and 4 pidgeys, caterpies, and rattatas. The time was not spent in vain, however, as Metapod evolved into Butterfree, with the confusion move, and Spearow and Charmander all jumped up several levels. Of course, this being a Generation 1 pokémon game, there was no EXP Share, so all this levelling had to be done by having Metapod in the first slot of my team and manually changing away from it as the first move.

I also caught a Pikachu, who quickly replaced Caterpie in the party, and I spent some time with him levelling up as well. Pikachu is nowhere near as cute in this first game as he later came to be; he is a little chubby.

I’m playing using the black and white option rather than grey and green, because sometimes authenticity can go too far.

With a team of level 15 pokémon, I went to Brock and beat him with health to spare; Butterfree performed admirably. And then I departed Pewter City to travel along Route 3, and on to Mt Moon. In the caves on the way to Cerulean City, I encountered approximately 32,649 zubats, with them appearing every few steps along the way. Each and every one was defeated with Pikachu’s thundershock move, as demonstrated in the header image of this post; occasionally they would get an attack in first which drained a point or two of Pikachu’s health. By the time I made it through the mountain, picking up a fossil and defeating Team Rocket on the way, Pikachu was at level 18 and other members of the party were trailing behind.

I may need to do some more grinding before I go to meet Misty.

  1. Before the 3DS store closed I bought a number of games, which I am only just getting around to playing. I have both Blue and Silver lined up, to hopefully complete for the first time. I played Yellow back when that was first released (or close to then) and I believe I got as far as the Elite Four before giving up. ↩︎

Joe & Mac Returns (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Another two player Evercade game. I’ve played Joe & Mac (Caveman Ninja) before, and the sequel, but hadn’t even heard of this. In fact, I thought it was the sequel when I started it up. As it turns out, it’s a completely different sort of platformer.

Whereas the other two Joe & Mac games were sideways scrolling platformers where you club baddies, Returns is a two player Bubble Bobble/Snowbros/Rodland type single screen “clear the baddies” type game. You still club the baddies, but they now need multiple hits before they get stuffed into a snowball bag and you push the snowball bag into other baddies to knock them out too. Defeat enough baddies with the same snowball bag and you get larger fruit meat and more points. Yes, it’s very much like those other games.

With the exception that each between-level animation has the pervy cavemen spying on, or “accidentally” undressing one of the cave women. You’d never catch Bub or Bob doing that.

We completed it, which was surprisingly easy for an arcade game, and found it enjoyable although it isn’t surprising it never hit the big time like those games it apes as it lacks the cute factor and isn’t quite as much fun. Snowballs and bubbles are more satisfying than bags, obviously.