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Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 09/06/2019 Written by deKay

I was 100% certain I’d played the original game before. I can clearly remember some parts of the game, some of the puzzles and characters, some of the events from when I originally had it on my Amiga. So imagine my surprise that I actually recognised very little of the game at all, and it turns out there never was an Amiga version. So why did I have the bowl, Bart?

Even more confusing, is how now that I’ve established I haven’t played it before, I remembered the solutions to some of the puzzles and part of the ended. Which is even more baffling as I know I’ve definitely never completed it.

Anyway. In a sort of reverse comparison, I’m going to mention The Secret of Woolley Mountain here as I’d compared that to Day of the Tentacle erroneously so it only seems fair to do the reverse now. In it’s favour, DOTT has much higher production values, but then you’d expect that as it also had way more staff and money. The graphics in particular have moved away from the functional style of the original Maniac Mansion to some really very good cartoon characters and backdrops. Sure, some of this is down to it all being HD and not pixelated like the non-remastered DOTT, but it’s still a world away. The voice acting is pretty good too.

However, as I mentioned in my Woolley Mountain post, the puzzles in these older point and click games are often a bit obscure. They’re not as bad in Day of the Tentacle as they are in Maniac Mansion or something like Grim Fandango, but some are obtuse. Take the use of “Booboo B Gone”, which is suggested by the name it’s some sort of cream or ointment for cuts and bruises rather than actually being Tippex. How you use it on a cat is then also a bit of a reach even knowing that.

That said, it’s well put together, hasn’t aged at all, and was a lot of fun. And very funny, of course.

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Sparkle 2 (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 06/06/2019 Written by deKay

Sparkle 2, or “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Zuma” was a free PS+ rental that I’ve been playing off and on for a few months. It’s not taxing, it’s not hard, but it is fun in the same way Zuma was. It’s just 91 levels of shooting balls at other balls, but it does it well enough and I enjoyed it. Not sure what else there is to say about it, really.

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The Way Remastered (Switch): COMPLETED

Posted on 02/06/2019 Written by deKay

I’m not sure what exactly is “remastered” about this game, having no experience of the original. An original which is only a few years old itself, actually. I’m also not sure what sort of game it’s trying to be.

To look at the screenshots, it’s probably trying to channel Flashback or Blackthorne, or both. When you play it, however, it isn’t. There’s a bit of the Mega Drive Alien 3 game in there. Sure, there’s some Flashback. Some Gunpoint. Some Another World. As you move from Earth to another planet, then explore that planet, not only do the locations change graphically, byt the gameplay does too. You’re no longer a sneaky hacker – you’re a man with a gun. Only then you don’t have a gun, but you can teleport and move things with your mind instead. And then! To end it all, it’s a bullet hell shooter only you can’t shoot.

You have to stop each piston in turn so they move in a particular pattern. What is this pattern? Well, that’s why this bit was hard.

There’s platforming and puzzles. Reaction tests and timing tests. Infuriating “remember the sequence or fry” sections. Buttons to push, spikes to avoid, hoverbikes to pilot, monsters to run from, and lots more. It’s varied for sure, but that also causes a problem – it masters none of these.

Some of the puzzles are just too obscure with no clues. Some of the platforming is hit and miss as to whether you’ll grab a ledge or drop on some spikes (or sometimes, grab a ledge then drop off onto the spikes anyway because bugs). I found your shield power that you have use of for some of the game regularly failed to “initialise” so didn’t reflect enemy fire as it should, killing me. Collision detection isn’t great, so combined with wonky jumping inertia also led to many avoidable deaths. Thankfully, checkpoints are frequent so little progress is lost when you do die.

Sometimes Tincan (your tigerdog) responds to and follows you. Sometimes, he does not. Twice, he vanished completely when I needed him to progress.

The plot of the game is mostly fine – guy’s wife dies, so he goes off to find the Pyramid of Eternal Life or something to revive her, which fortuitously happens to be on the very planet his job sent him to to research. The stuff that happens along the way (aha!) is nonsense though. Magically from nowhere a bounty hunter stumbles across you? A tribe who tried to kill you start worshipping your dead wife because… well, I’m not really sure why. They also welcome your new “pet” – a massive tigerdogbeast whose parent previously terrorised them.

Issues aside, there’s an important point to make in this game’s favour: it was 89p. And for 89p there’s a lot of game here. A lot of good ideas, if a bit poorly executed. It’s definitely worth 89p. Knowing what I do now, however (and I’d gone in pretty blind), I’m glad I didn’t pay full price and I can’t recommend you do either.

Pretty sure that’s LeChuck, and it’s SUPPOSED to be LeChuck. There’s a Day of the Tentacle tentacle in this bit too. Who knows why this is.

One final question: Why is The Way Remastered rated a PEGI 16? There was nothing in there I’d consider more than a PEGI 7, so even a PEGI 12 would be overkill. Did I miss something?

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Gato Roboto (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/05/2019 Written by deKay

Imagine if Downwell’s graphics were applied to Super Metroid, only you were a cat? That’s Gato Roboto. How could I not buy it then complete it in one afternoon given that description?

Turns out it’s really very good too. There’s absolutely more than a few nods to Metroid (there’s one area which even has a similar layout to part of that game), but it’s a lot shorter, a lot easier, a lot weirder (cats in mech suits are just the start), and it’s all in black and white.

It also turns out that being all in black and white isn’t the limitation you might think it would be. Even in the lava filled area, the lava looks hot and dangerous even though its, well, not lava coloured.

There’s a nice array of bosses, some great Metroid-y ability upgrades (like a double jump) and a map with lots of squares to fill in as you find them. OK, so they don’t get filled in blue but that’s not really an issue. Jumping around feels perfect, and there’s a few areas where you have to chain moves together and it all feels just right, as it should.

It took me just shy of three hours to finish, but the end screen says I’ve only found 66% of stuff so there’s still more to go. Wonder if there’s a different ending for the full 100%?

Your cat can get out of the mech (and has to for some bits), but sometimes there are alternative vehicles to use.

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Yono and the Celestial Elephants (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/05/2019 Written by deKay

I’ve had my eye on this for a while what with the cute elephant and the lovely looking world. Got round to it yesterday and completed it today, and it’s very nice indeed.

I won’t go into it too much, but it’s short and sweet, with some mostly simple puzzles and very simple combat, but sometimes you just want something low impact like that with really nice graphics and an unusual world to run round in for a bit.

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