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75: Anime as Butts

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Kerpow! It’s Episode 75 slapping you in the ears like a slappy thing slapping things!

In this episode, deKay, Kendrick and Toby talk about Exciting Things At Gamescom, or rather, lack of them, Major Nelson Major Rumours, the PlayStation Portal (neé Q) handheld thing, YABOABH (Yet Another Bit of Atari Branded Hardware), or the Atari 2600+ and who exactly it is for, Sega buying Rovio, dad of Angry Birds (and therefore the chances of a Sonic/Angry Birds shared cinematic universe) and some other Stuff. You know, like normal. Plus some games, many of which are Quite Good, and at least one of which is Pretty Meh. Place your bets!

  • Sidney Hunter Collection
  • We Love Katamari Damacy Reroll + Royal Reverie
  • Pikmin 4
  • Super Mario 3D World
  • Quake 2
  • Vampire Survivors
  • Front Mission 1st Remake
  • Skyrim

Also, for some reason, an explanation as to how quantum space works because of Pikmin. No, really. DO IT.

(Direct link here)

Intro music credits: Katamari on the Swing from We Love Katamari.

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 @ugvmpodcast on the Twittors, and https://mas.to/@ugvmpodcast on the Mastodons.

Before I Forget (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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Before I Forget is a narrative discovery game about a scientist who is dealing with the onset of Alzheimer’s. You play as her, in her house, as she gets confused, forgets events, and tries to put together fractured memories of her past, her job and her husband.

You can probably guess from the premise that it’s not all happy and light, so it isn’t what I’d describe as “fun”, but does fit into the sort of bracket games like A Normal Lost Phone and Bury Me My Love do where the message is important and they’re not supposed to be “enjoyed” as such.

It’s short, interesting, well put together, and eye-opening though, so well worth a playthrough.

Luck Be A Landlord (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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You know what the perfect game for a super-powered handheld console that costs £350 and I had to wait for months for is? A free fruit machine game, obviously.

I’d played and completed Luck Be A Landlord a while back on the Mac, but I never really stopped playing it. There are later modes with harder goals that unlock and it’s just a fun thing to play for five minutes every so often. And by five minutes I mean an entire weekend.

Anyway, since putting it on my Steam Deck I found the version it installed on there was newer and so had some additional items and some tweaks here and there, plus I didn’t transfer my save so had to start again. Which I did. And then completed it again (with the landlord being devoured by wolves) before sinking a number of hours into endless mode once I’d done so.

A Castle Full of Cats (Switch): COMPLETED!

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A while back I played A Building Full of Cats, to which this is a follow-up. For the most part, it’s more of the same – find hidden cats in a number of cluttered rooms – only here there’s some curse or something which means that the cats are often bat-cats, mummy-cats, vampire-cats, skeleton-cats, or Cthulu-cats.

There’s also a plot, items besides cats (like keys) that you need to find to open up other areas, secret rooms, and even a boss battle against a very Castlevania inspired Vampire Cat. Cat-stlevania?

As before, it’s not especially challenging, although you do need to be very observant and frequently need to zoom in as much as possible – some cats are tiny! The new features are fun and add a bit more to the proceedings, and it was a nice little time-waster for very little money.

We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I’m a bit torn on this game. On the one hand, it’s Katamari so is automatically fantastic and fun and relaxing and nonsensical. But on the other hand, it could have been so much better.

A few years ago, the original Katamari Damacy got a Reroll remake on modern consoles, and with it they fixed some of the niggles of the original, like loading times (and mid-level loading), slowdown, and made it all smoother and higher resolution and prettier. Then they “rerolled” the sequel and you’d expect the same care and polish this time around, right? Well, no. Loading is reduced a bit (but mid-level loads are back), it doesn’t seem to be higher resolution, and the slowdown is awful – although perhaps not as bad as it was on the PS2, granted.

Then they’ve added the “Royal Reverie” extra levels, where you play as the King when he was the Prince, but they’re not really new levels, they’re just five existing levels with alterative goals.

So as I said, I’m torn. I really enjoyed it but it isn’t a patch on the polish shown in Katamari Damacy Reroll, and ends up coming out like a cheap port rather than a improved remake.