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3D Outrun (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/03/2015 Written by deKay

Long awaited by many, 3D Outrun finally found its way onto the European eShop today, and I had to buy it instantly. It’s a superb conversion, actually improving on the original arcade game by making it widescreen and 60fps (not that I can tell it’s not 30fps any more – I’m fps-blind) and most importantly, 3D.

It’s hard to express just how fantastic the 3D effect is. It was great in 3D Afterburner II and 3D Space Harrier, but in 3D Outrun it is truly astounding, especially on stages with road furniture on both sides and bridging over the road. You really feel like you’re in a tunnel. It’s incredible, and adds to the feeling of speed too.

This version also adds two extra music tracks. Neither are as good as Magical Sound Shower, but then, that’s a near impossible task. They’re at least as good as Splash Wave and Passing Breeze though, and it’s hard to think they were not originally in the arcade version they sound so well suited.

As the title of the post suggests, yes, I’ve completed it already. It isn’t a long game, and it’s a bit easier than I recall the arcade version being, but it is still so much fun to play. I ran through it five times (plus a few more where I ran out of time) reaching each of the five goals. Each one unlocks a “car tune-up”, such as better cornering or a higher top speed, and using these changes the colour of your car. It does feel a little odd to be driving a yellow or purple not-Ferarri (actually, the car seems to be an Armani now – no, really, look at the logo), it has to be said.

Excellent game and impossible to play without a massive grin. Especially if you pick Magical Sound Shower on the radio.

Proteus (Vita): COMPLETED!

Posted on 09/03/2015 Written by deKay

Through various deals and sales, I managed to pick this up for just £1.44 today. I’ll buy any old crap at that sort of price, but a few people warned me against it, saying it wasn’t even worth it for free.

Pff to them, I thought. I can decide myself. But what the hell did I just buy? A walking around a pixelated island in some sort of dream simulator? I don’t know.

I started off in the see just off the coast of an island, in lovely sunshine. I slowly walked (swam?) towards the shore, and found some trees dropping big pixelly blossom all over the place. Some flowers from an Atari 2600 game gently swished in the breeze, and large monoliths formed a line which I proceeded to follow.

Some bouncing things caught my eye, but they ran away as I neared. I was close to a mountain so I climbed it, finding six… things in a circle on top. One of them looked a bit like a silhouette of a cowboy. Nothing happened.

I proceeded over the mountain, and on my way down I disturbed a group of what were possibly chickens, so again I chased them. One went into the sea and presumably drowned. The others escaped.

By now it was getting dark, and fireflies, or pixels representing fireflies, floated around the trees. I noticed some flickering lights in the distance, and headed towards them. As I neared, I realised they were inside a stone circle, and were collecting and swirling. As I watched, they sped up, becoming a small ring, which I stepped inside. Time suddenly sped up, with the sun and the moon flying across the sky and days passing quickly. It reminded me of the film of The Time Machine.

Everything faded to white, then came back. Were the trees now greener? It seemed that way.

tumblr_nkyrbuklma1svmpf2o1_1280 I found a path, so followed it. A dead end. I retraced back to a fork in the road and found another road. After walking along it for a while, more pixels which may or may not have been dragonflies flew around, and possibly-grasshoppers hopped. In the grass. Like they do. Somehow, once night again fell, I found myself back at the stone circle with the lights, and again I entered it.

Now I’d realised the circle advances the seasons, as the trees were red and brown, with pixel-leaves strewn around and mushrooms (some of which sang and vanished as I drew near) grew in clumps here and there. Autumn.

I came back to the beach, and followed it until I’d completed a lap of the island. A large rectangular hollowed out tree served as my start and end point marker, and an achievement trophy popped as I passed the finish line.

The rectangular tree was peculiar, in that walking up to it caused the sky to become patterned like it was part of a castle wall, and by accident I walked into and through the tree, which popped another trophy and teleported me to another part of the island.

Once more night fell, and, again attracted to lights in the distance I came across the stone circle for the final time. Autumn became Winter, and the island was covered with snow.

Walking became even slower, and the clouds seemed to draw closer, until somehow I’d walked not only through them, but up into the sky. The mountains below were gradually covered in cloud until everywhere was white…

…and then the game ended. What.

Kick & Fennick (Vita): COMPLETED!

Posted on 08/03/2015 Written by deKay

This was a surprise. It looked a bit rubbish, and some of the reviews suggested it was average at best, but it’s actually a really good fun platformer, with a novel jump mechanic.

You have a gun which you can use to both shoot baddies and switches, but also use the recoil to jump and boost. The levels have walls to blast through, electricity beams to avoid (and slip through when they turn off temporarily), bounce plates, portals, conveyors, and all sorts of other gimmicks and hazards. Some of these add puzzles to the levels, others require dexterity or timing. Or both.

At the end of each chapter there’s a boss battle against a giant robot. You can’t actually harm it directly, so have to use the environment to do that instead – which is also puzzling on a couple of them.

There’s nothing in particular that the game does amazingly well, but it’s solidly put together, the controls and the recoil feel perfectly suited, and although some levels frustrate, it never gets too hard for its own good. It’s a little short, and some good ideas aren’t used enough (like the red “extra powerful” recoil), but I suppose they need to hold something back for a sequel. Maybe.

Papo & Yo (PS3): COMPLETED!

Posted on 07/03/2015 Written by deKay

I renewed my PS+ subscription and upgraded my (full) PS3 hard drive, so picked this up for a rental. Thought I’d give it a try as I’d heard good things, but had no idea what it was about or the type of game it was.

As it turned out, it was a sort of platform puzzler where the events of the game are actually some sort of dream (or something) metaphor, where the main character has what appears to be an alcoholic father who has killed someone by running them over. Or something. That’s what it seemed to me, anyway.

It’s set in what appears to be a deserted Rio de Janeiro shanty town, with chalk cogs, keys and other items that you can activate to open areas, move buildings and make other absurd things happen. Your dad is seen as a lazy, but benign monster, who you convince to move around by tempting him with coconuts, and using his fat belly as a trampoline when he falls asleep.

Sometimes, the puzzles will involve giant frogs, which you can pick up and throw against walls to get rid of them. Or let the monster eat them which will cause him to turn into a flaming demon who hunts you down and flings you round like a ragdoll. The frogs are obviously a metaphor for drink, you see.

None of the puzzles were especially difficult, but some were a bit frustrating due to the difficulty of making some of the platforming jumps. Could I not quite make the jump because I was doing it wrong, or was it that I shouldn’t be able to make the jump and I need to find a different route? It wasn’t always clear. Some platforms which appear to be reachable are actually behind an invisible wall, and twice I fell down between two walls and was unable to escape. There was a puzzle early on which stumped me, because somehow not enough coconuts had spawned, so the monster wouldn’t go to sleep. Reloading fixed it though.

Papo & Yo was a short game, clocking in at under three hours, but was interesting and arty. In many ways, it reminded me of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It’s definitely worth a play, but you need to ignore some of the roughness and dodgy collision detection. Thankfully they don’t detract too much from the experience. Might want to bring some tissues with you, though.

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (360): COMPLETED!

Posted on 05/03/2015 Written by deKay

Oh 360. It’s been a while. Certainly since I completed anything on you, anyway. How unloved you are these days. But, since Ubisoft failed to release Rogue on the Wii U, I was left with little choice.

And it’s a shame, because much as I hate the recent boating bits in recent Assassin’s Creed games, they’re made much more bearable (especially in the ludicrous “boat stealth” sections) by being able to use the Wii U gamepad’s massive map. In fact, on Black Flag, I would usually steer the boat entirely by looking at the map. It made it much easier and – most importantly – made the boat bits shorter as a result. Anyway.

In the latter half of the game, Shay starts to wonder if his turncoatedness was actually wise, as he started systematically wiping out his former chums (and chumette) in the Brotherhood. As a result, it was pretty obvious how things were going to turn out, but the trip to get there was enjoyable enough.

Although, in terms of the story at least, Rogue was definitely the shortest “main” Assassin’s Creed game. There’s plenty of optional filler, of course, but the end of the plot seemed to come around rather too quickly. I like what Ubi did to tie it in with Unity though, bumping off Arno’s dad (after briefly meeting Arno himself, as a child) in the final epilogue mission.

It has faults, like all Assassin’s Creed games, and it has bugs (again, like all Assassin’s Creed games), but Rogue is the best one since at least Revelations. I do really want to play Unity now. Only I’ve nothing to play it on. Hmm.